As wisps of rich flesh power were drained from the floating ball of outsider corpses, it shriveled rapidly, like a deflating balloon.
The reason why Nie Tian had given up chasing after the outsiders was that he knew that the outstandingly rich flesh power within the dead outsiders would be of great help for him to refine his body.
Most of the outsiders he had killed were Blackscales, Stonemen, and Demons. Every single one of their corpses contained flesh power even richer than that of fourth grade spirit beasts.
Even though some of them had been cut in half by his Flame Star, while others were now just mangled body parts, they still contained considerable flesh power.
He could feel wisps of concentrated essence of flesh and blood entering his body, turning into small crimson spots, and flowing to every muscle and bone in his body.
A very intense and fierce aura gradually built up inside of him.
Still clad in the Flame Dragon Armor, he started to communicate with it at a spiritual level.
Ever since his Wood Thriving Formation had been broken, he had killed outsiders by relying on the mighty flame power from the Flame Dragon Armor’s Blood Core.
The raging flame power he had drawn from the Blood Core had helped him defend against the outsiders’ attacks and strengthened the might of his Flame Star, making him almost invincible.
However, he knew that it was almost impossible for him to replenish the Blood Core’s flame power.
He had only used it for a short time, yet he could tell that the Blood Core had already lost quite a bit of flame power.
If he tried to replenish the Flame Dragon Armor’s flame power with regular fire-attributed materials, the effect would be none other than trying to put out a burning cart of firewood with a cup of water. Only precious treasures like earthflame essence and earthflame crystal strings would contain enough flame power to make a difference.
Another reason why he didn’t chase after the fleeing outsiders was that he had consumed a significant amount of all of his powers during this extended battle.
If he continued to kill more outsiders, he would inevitably draw more flame power from the Blood Core.
After the Blood Core lost a certain amount of flame power, the Flame Dragon Armor would once again fall dormant.
This strange dimension was full of danger, and he hadn’t encountered any powerful outsider experts yet. If he did encounter fifth grade outsiders in the future, he might be able to contend against them on the condition that the Flame Dragon Armor was still functional. But without the Flame Dragon Armor, that would become wishful thinking.
For that reason, he tried to save this secret weapon for crucial moments.
While he was absorbing flesh power from the ball of outsider corpses, the shape of a woman suddenly flashed into appearance.
He had failed to sense the slightest fluctuation of life in the vicinity before the flas.h.i.+ng figure caught his eyes.
His expression flickered drastically as he became very vigilant, but as he saw the figure’s face, he let out a sigh of relief and said with a smile, “Nice to see you again, Senior Martial Sister Pei.”
Pei Qiqi, however, showed up with her usual straight face. Like a snow lotus that grew alone on top of a snow-covered mountain peak, she looked frosty and proud.
“Actually, I’ve been here for some time.” With these words, Pei Qiqi walked to him, fine spatial blades looming in the depths of her eyes, which looked like two icy crystals. “You lured those outsiders to this place, didn’t you?”
Nie Tian smiled heartily, and said in a casual manner, “I did. Soon after I came to this island, I overheard a conversation between some Demons and Phantasms, and learned that they had been searching for you. So I killed a few outsiders to draw them away. Soon, all of the outsiders made me their target and came at me together.
“I’m lucky that these outsiders... aren’t very powerful.”
“It’s not that they’re weak, but rather that you’ve become stronger.” With these words, Pei Qiqi gave him a meaningful look. “Anyhow, I’ve got to thank you for distracting them. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have recovered so quickly. I encountered those Demons and Phantasms as soon as I descended on this island. Clashes broke out instantly. I had to face their joint attacks, and thus sustained injuries after several exchanges. Afterwards, I had no choice but to hole up somewhere.
“The truth is that I’d have been in trouble if you hadn’t shown up.”
At this moment, Nie Tian finished draining the floating ball of outsider corpses of its flesh power.
He withdrew his hands and turned to face Pei Qiqi directly. With a concerned expression, he asked, “Do you need me to heal your injuries for you, Senior Martial Sister Pei?”
As he did, the ball of outsider corpses fell to the ground and collapsed.
“Not now.” Pei Qiqi shook her head. “I can see that you’ve consumed a substantial amount of strength yourself, and you need to spend some time to recover your own strength. We’ll talk when you’re fully recovered.”
In order to heal Pei Qiqi’s injuries, he would have to use Heavenly Wood Heal, which would require a significant amount of wood power.
However, at this moment, he had a very limited amount of wood power left in his spiritual sea after contending against the outsiders single-handedly for so long.
Furthermore, since every tree and plant in this area had all been drained of wood power, he wouldn’t be able to use the Wood Thriving Formation here. After a brief moment of pondering, he nodded slightly and said, smiling, “Alright. The outsiders are evacuating from this island anyways. We’ll have plenty of time when they’re gone. I’ll find a place where the plants and vegetation are exuberant to recover. Then, once I’ve got my strength back, I’ll help you heal your injuries.”
“Okay, but I don’t want to see the others,” Pei Qiqi said, frowning.
By ‘others’ she meant anyone other than Nie Tian.
“Why?” Nie Tian asked curiously.
“I just don’t want to.” Pei Qiqi seemed reluctant to provide an actual answer. She suddenly held out her hand towards Nie Tian and said, “You must have looted storage rings from some of the outsiders you killed. Give them to me. I’ll break the seals for you.
“The outsiders’ storage rings are basically the same thing as our rings of holding, just named differently.
“However, the way they forge their storage rings varies from how we forge our rings of holding, so I doubt that you’ll be able to break the seals on them.”
Only at that moment did Nie Tian notice the few sparkling items in the collapsed ball of outsider corpses on the ground.
They were none other than storage rings that had belonged to some of the more powerful outsiders he had killed.
Nie Tian crouched down, gathered them one by one, and handed them to Pei Qiqi.
Pei Qiqi received them with her splayed hand. As bright spatial auras flew out of her fingertips and into the oddly-shaped rings, their seals were instantly removed.
Afterwards, Pei Qiqi returned the rings to Nie Tian and said, “I’ve checked them for you. They mostly contain the spirit plants and herbs they gathered from this island, and spirit beast hearts they had prepared for recovery, along with some items that are unique to their races. You can check them out later when you have the time.”
After storing all of the storage rings in the cloth pouch on his waist, Nie Tian expressed his grat.i.tude with a bright smile.
However, something suddenly occurred to him as he asked curiously, “Right, senior martial sister, how did you end up on this island when everyone else arrived on that other island?”
“Umm...” After hesitating for a while, instead of giving an answer, she said, “There’s something you need to know, Nie Tian, that you’d better stay on this island or that other island you first came to. Only Greater Heaven stage human Qi warriors and fourth grade outsiders are allowed on these two islands.
“You’ll be rejected if you try to enter other territories.
“Similarly, fifth and sixth grade outsider experts won’t be able to enter these two islands either.
“Don’t forget about this!”
Just as Nie Tian was about to ask her the reason behind it, Pei Qiqi dashed lightly into the distance. Lingering in the air were the words, “I’ll stay on this island, and come find you later.”
Soon after she left, Nie Tian noticed that Qin Yan from the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce had returned, her head sagging low in frustration.
That was when Nie Tian realized that Pei Qiqi must have sensed Qin Yan’s return, and thus left in a hurry.
Clearly, Qin Yan was among the people she didn’t want to see.
“d.a.m.n those outsiders! They’re all too fast to catch!” she muttered in frustration. By the time she caught sight of Nie Tian, she said with a complicated expression, “You... you’re truly a freak! I saw that you’d killed so many outsiders by yourself, so I figured they must not be very hard to kill. Who would have known...”
Just now, she had chased after a handful of Blackscale survivors with other members of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce. Who would have known that one of the Blackscales had suddenly become enraged, and pounced on one of them, tearing the man to shreds within seconds.
That was when she had realized that, unlike what she had pictured in her mind, none of the outsiders on this island were easy to deal with.
The fact that Nie Tian had single-handedly taken out such a large number of outsiders just proved Nie Tian’s freakish strength, not the weakness of the outsiders.
It wasn’t very long before Feng Ying returned with the other members of the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce. Judging from the terrified look on her face, she had not yet recovered from what she had just witnessed.
She took a deep look at Nie Tian, whose pupils seemed to be filled with mysterious tiny stars, and said with nothing but admiration on her face, “Big Brother Nie, I finally understand how powerful you are... If you hadn’t killed those outsiders, I’m afraid we would have been killed the moment we set foot on this island.”
Qin Yan nodded slightly. “Li is such a lucky girl.”