In the Realm of Shattered Earth.
Unusual spatial fluctuations suddenly came from the large-scale teleportation portal on the bottom floor of the towering palace.
In the next moment, a figure wreathed in chilly moonlight appeared in the portal.
It was Xin Qing, one of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s twelve elders.
As soon as she stepped out of the s.p.a.cious hall, she spread her soul awareness to every corner of the Realm of Shattered Earth.
SHEW!
In a flash, she flew to the wood power region and found Nie Tian.
Nie Tian was surprised to see her. “Elder Xin Qing! What are you doing here?”
Brow knitted, Xin Qing sensed something with rapt attention, and suddenly asked, “Where’s the Heaven-equal Vine?”
“It has left,” Nie Tian answered. “Its agreement with our sectmaster has expired. Since he hasn’t shown up or contacted it in any way, it decided to leave the Realm of Shattered Earth.”
Xin Qing’s eyes were clouded by a haze as she said, “Oh... I see. It’s because of the sectmaster again. No matter what we do, we can’t get in touch with him either. I wonder what happened to him...”
Nie Tian realized that she was upset about something. “What happened?”
Xin Qing took a deep breath to calm herself. “There’s terrible news. Our battle against the Demons in the Dead Star Sea ended in our total defeat.”
Nie Tian was taken aback. “Total defeat?!”
“Fang Zhe, the second Son of the Stars, was killed, along with almost all of his Saint domain subordinates,” Xin Qing said with a grim face.
Nie Tian gasped with astonishment. “Another Son of the Stars died?! Two Sons of the Stars have died at the hands of the Demons within such a short span of time?”
After Mou Luo’s death, the sect had arranged for large, powerful forces to march into the Dead Star Sea to attack the Demons’ defensive line.
They had hoped to salvage the sect’s prestige by dealing the Demons a heavy blow.
However, not only had they failed to do that, but they had even lost another Son of the Stars?
Fang Zhe had been at the middle Saint domain, his subordinates even stronger than Mou Luo’s, yet he had perished in the Dead Star Sea all the same.
What on earth had gone wrong?
“Not just Fang Zhe, we also lost two elders to the Demons,” Xin Qing said, looking away, as if to avoid Nie Tian’s eyes. “And both of our vice sectmasters suffered severe injuries. At this point, all of our surviving forces have backed out of the Dead Star Sea.”
Another exclamation escaped Nie Tian’s mouth. “What?! We lost two elders, and our two middle G.o.d domain vice sectmasters sustained injuries?”
With a bitter expression, Xin Qing said, “All four Demon grand monarchs joined the battle. Their high chieftain, Grand Monarch Primal Demon, who’s at the late tenth grade, Grand Monarch Bloodl.u.s.t, who’s at the middle tenth grade, and Grand Monarch Remote Demon and Grand Monarch Blood Axe, who are both at the early tenth grade. With all four of them appearing in the Dead Star Sea at the same time, we simply couldn’t match their strength.
“If the sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society hadn’t sensed the anomaly and traveled through s.p.a.ce to our aid, even our two vice sectmasters might have died at the Demons’ hands.”
Nie Tian was flabbergasted. “All of the Demon grand monarchs showed up at the same time?”
“That’s right,” Xin Qing said in a low, distressed voice. “Grand Monarch Primal Demon even claimed that our sectmaster ran into big trouble when exploring the depths of the starry river, and that it’s unknown whether he’ll be able to return alive. Even if he does, it’ll be many years from now. We wonder if what he said is true.
“If they weren’t convinced that our sectmaster wouldn’t be able to join the battle, I doubt that the four Demon grand monarchs would all have come out, leaving their nest empty! (idiom: turn out in full strength)
“But of course, another reason why they did that was they were enraged by the fact that you and your subordinates had wiped out almost all of the Demon clans in three of their major realms.
“They yearned for payback, cruel, ruthless payback.”
Nie Tian fell silent after hearing these words.
He had never expected that his sect would suffer such a heavy blow in the Dead Star Sea.
Only after a long while did he recover from his daze and ask, “What happened to the grand elder?”
“He was still recovering from the injuries he sustained during his fight against Grand Monarch Dark Nether in the Domain of Nether Heaven,” Xin Qing explained. “So he didn’t join our battle in the Dead Star Sea.”
Looking frustrated, Nie Tian asked, “So why are you here?”
Bitterness filled Xin Qing’s face as she said, “I’m only here to inform you that it’s no longer necessary for you to gather strength and march into the Dead Star Sea. It seems that we won’t be able to fight the Demons in the Dead Star Sea again in the near future, especially not before our sectmaster returns.
“However, now that the Demons have won the battle, I’m afraid they’ll think of every possible way to invade the Domain of the Falling Stars.
“I don’t want them to catch you off-guard and start a ma.s.sive ma.s.sacre in the Domain of the Falling Stars, so I came to warn you against what may come.”
Nie Tian sighed. “I see.”
“Powerful experts from the Heaven Span Pavilion, the Void Spirit Society, and the Five Elements Sect are still holding their defensive lines in the Dead Star Sea, so it doesn’t seem that the Demons will be able to march through the Dead Star Sea into our heaven and earth,” Xin Qing said. “However, there are still hidden teleportation portals in our heaven and earth that they left long ago.
“Perhaps the Demons will follow their recent victory with invasions of our sect’s subordinate domains.
“Any subordinate domain of our sectmaster, vice sectmasters, elders, and Sons of the Stars may become their target.
“And your Domain of the Falling Stars will most likely become the focus of their retaliation.
“So inform the sect if you discover any anomalies. Even though we might not be strong enough to contend against the Demons at this moment, our sect will pay heavy prices for the Void Spirit Society, the Five Elements Sect, and the Heaven Span Pavilion to help you.”
With these distressing words, Xin Qing left in a hurry, as if she still had other important business to attend to.
After she left, Nie Tian simply sat there in silence, his face extremely grim.
Shortly afterwards, Nie Donghai and Nie Qian came over.
“A woman seemed to fly here earlier, Little Tian,” Nie Donghai said with a concerned expression. “Who was she? What did she want?”
After a moment of hesitation, Nie Tian sighed and said, “Something terrible happened. Grandfather, aunt, tell the juniors here to pack their things. I may have to arrange for you to go live somewhere else for a while. I’ll get you back after the incident pa.s.ses.”
“What happened?” Nie Donghai asked, eyes wide with surprise.
“My sect suffered a terrible defeat in the Dead Star Sea. Many important members died at the Demons’ hands...” Nie Tian went on and gave a brief explanation.
His words stirred huge waves in Nie Donghai and Nie Qian’s heart.
Even though they might not be scared of death, many juniors of the Nie Clan still depended on them...
The two of them soon compromised.
After serious consideration, Nie Tian decided to arrange for them and the Nie Clan juniors to go live in one of Huang Jinnan’s realms.
Given the Five Elements Sect’s formidable strength and the fact that the Demons’ operations would mainly target the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, they would most likely be safe with the Five Elements Sect.
Thanks to his close relations.h.i.+p with Huang Jinnan, Huang Jinnan soon granted his request, and sent people to pick up Nie Donghai, Nie Qian, and the Nie Clan juniors.
Afterwards, Nie Tian explained the latest situation to Jing Feiyang, Yue Yanxi, and the other experts, and instructed all of his subordinate forces to raise their guard and inform him at the first possible moment if they found any anomalies.
Afterwards, Nie Tian went to the Void Illusion Mountain Range and found Pei Qiqi, who was still searching spatial rift after spatial rift for an answer to the Void Palace Sect’s sudden disappearance.
There were simply too many spatial rifts in the Void Illusion Mountain Range. Even with the help of that Heaven Nourished grade spatial treasure, she couldn’t go through all of the spatial rifts within a short time.
So far, she hadn’t found any useful information about the Void Palace Sect.
After Nie Tian explained the reason for his visit, Pei Qiqi was also surprised, and found the fact that the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had suffered such a heavy blow hard to believe.
Pei Qiqi pondered briefly before saying, “Years ago, when the Domain of Heaven Python was invaded by outsiders, I suspected that there were hidden teleportation portals. With the help of my unique treasure, I found and destroyed two of them. I don’t know if there are still others left there.
“As for the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, I’ve never been there, so I don’t know.
“However, there shouldn’t be any hidden teleportation portals in the Domain of the Falling Stars anymore. Those three spatial rifts should have been it, but I destroyed them all.
“I bet there are hidden teleportation portals in the Domain of Forbidden Heaven,” Nie Tian said. “I encountered outsiders and Demon ancient stars.h.i.+ps there before. And just recently, a handful of Demons were found dead in the area where the Domain of the Falling Stars borders the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.”
The Domain of Forbidden Heaven and the Domain of the Falling Stars were neighbor domains. Wei Lai had said that he had detected wisps of faint Demon qi along the border of the Domain of the Falling Stars.
The reason why he had come to see Pei Qiqi was because he hoped that she would help him locate and destroy all of the hidden teleportation portals in and around his territory, lest the Demons swarm into his domains effortlessly.
“The Domain of Forbidden Heaven...” Pei Qiqi slowly rose to her feet and nodded. “Alright, I’ll go look around. If there are any hidden teleportation portals there, my unique treasure should be able to detect them.”
“I’m sorry for interrupting your search for the Void Palace Sect,” Nie Tian apologized.
“It’s fine,” Pei Qiqi said in a soft voice.