Many Soul realm experts that were close to Nie Tian found a secret room in Desolate City, where they gathered around him and asked about his talk with Yue Yanxi.
After they learned from Nie Tian that the Divine Flame Sect would keep the teleportation portals that connected their sect to the Domain of the Falling Stars, it occurred to many of them that they could take advantage of such a tie to start trading spiritual materials with the Divine Flame Sect.
The Domain of the Falling Stars was only a remote corner of the boundless starry river, where limited sorts of spiritual materials were produced. However, Qi warriors would need a variety of spiritual materials to achieve advancement in their cultivation, forge spiritual tools, and refine medicinal pills.
They all hoped to trade their spiritual materials with the Divine Flame Sect for precious materials that were hard to find in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
It would require a large amount of rare spiritual materials for them to make a breakthrough into the Void domain. It was almost impossible for them to gather all the required materials within the Domain of the Falling Stars.
The patriarch of the Heaven Palace Sect had only dared to make this attempt to break through into the Void domain after his secret deal with the outsiders.
Nie Tian was well-aware that the Heaven Palace Sect had made a secret deal with the Demons when the three spatial rifts had opened. Thanks to that deal, the patriarch of the Heaven Palace Sect had obtained the necessary rare materials to make a breakthrough into the Void domain.
Hua Mu, Zong Zheng, Dong w.a.n.gling, and many other experts were at the middle Soul realm. Once they entered the late Soul realm, they would face the same problem of finding a large amount of rare materials necessary to facilitate their breakthroughs into the Void domain.
This step was of paramount importance to them.
Over the past millennia, quite a few Qi warriors in the Domain of the Falling Stars had entered the late Soul realm.
However, because the Domain of the Falling Stars lacked cultivation materials, many had spent hundreds of years searching for the necessary materials for their breakthroughs into the Void domain, before eventually running out of their lifespan.
Back when they had won the battle of the Realm of a Hundred Battles, as Nie Tian had expressed that he would have the ability to take people out of the Domain of the Falling Stars, Zong Zheng and the other experts had given all of the seventh grade outsider corpses to him without the slightest hesitation.
What they had desired the most was to leave the Domain of the Falling Stars for more advanced domains, where they could find rare spiritual materials.
Even though they had felt insecure and fearful after the Lei Clan had descended and showed off their strength, they had actually had some expectations.
They had thought if they remained obedient to the Lei Clan and the Divine Flame Sect, they might be able to get the materials they needed to break through into the Void domain.
“To enter the Void domain, cultivators have to build their own domains. To do that, they’ll have to use all sorts of precious materials that agree with their cultivation attribute...” After Hua Mu, Zong Zheng, and the others finished explaining, Nie Tian fell silent, gradually starting to understand their concerns.
Only after a long time did he finally open his mouth. “Seniors, it’s still not an option to establish frequent communications between the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Divine Flame Sect. The Divine Flame Sect has informed me that if the Domain of the Falling Stars is exposed, it’d be very problematic for us. The reason why the Divine Flame Sect ordered the people from the Lei Clan to stay here is partially because they’re worried that they would leak information about the Domain of the Falling Stars if they returned.
“The grand elder told me that he can only arrange for me to visit the Divine Flame Sect for the time being.
“How about this: after you enter the late Soul realm, I’ll talk to the Divine Flame Sect about trading for the spiritual materials you’ll need to enter the Void domain.”
Hua Mu nodded slowly. “The Divine Flame Sect made such arrangements for a good reason. We’re being too eager.”
Zong Zheng also calmed himself and said, “Yeah, there’ll still be some time before we enter the late Soul realm, not to mention the Void domain. Alright, we can put the matter of visiting the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries aside for now.”
While they talked, Qian Qiong from the Ice Pavilion Sect said in a low voice right outside the room, “Nie Tian, Zhao Luofeng has come to see you.”
“Zhao Luofeng?” Nie Tian was taken aback. “Why is he here?”
Dong w.a.n.gling curled his lips and said with a sarcastic tone, “It seems that he’s seen the trend. Times have changed, and now he wants to make friends with you.”
“Would you tell him that I’m busy and can’t see him now?” Nie Tian asked.
“Sure,” Qian Qiong replied.
Afterwards, they resumed talking. Many experts suggested that Nie Tian should advance to the Worldly realm as soon as possible before their meeting finally came to an end.
In the following days, Nie Tian stayed in Desolate City and caught up with his grandfather, his aunt, Wu Ji, and Dong Li.
During this time, he got word to Lei Tianqi, the clanmaster of the Lei Clan, through Lei Zhenyu that he wanted the Lei Clan to return the Realm of Unbounded Desolation to the Tool Sect.
The Lei Clan agreed without asking any questions and instantly started to make preparations to move.
The Lei Clan had taken the Realm of Unbounded Desolation not because of their own needs, but because they had thought it would be an ideal place for the Divine Flame Sect to set up a branch.
However, since Yue Yanxi had expressed that the Divine Flame Sect had no intentions of controlling any part of the Domain of the Falling Stars, Lei Tianqi had known what to do.
The majority of the Lei Clan members practiced thunder power. The mountain range in the Realm of Earth Sieve, where the Thunder Mountain Sect sat, would be the ideal location for them to set up a base.
Also, since Yue Yanxi had ordered them to take orders from Nie Tian, Lei Tianqi agreed and started to arrange their move without hesitation.
A few days pa.s.sed...
The inter-realm teleportation portal at the center of Desolate City was fully functional again, free of any restrictions.
At the same time, Nie Tian received word from the Lei Clan that they, together with the Thunder Mountain Sect and the Heaven Expanse Sect, had cleansed the Spirit G.o.d Sect, the Poison Sect, and the Flame G.o.d Sect’s headquarters. With almost all of their powerful members killed or captured, the Spirit G.o.d Sect and the Poison Sect had basically been wiped out from the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Only the disciples of the Flame G.o.d Sect had holed up in some arcane realm, and thus escaped doom.
This was because, after Xia Yi had stolen the Heaven Flame Beast’s eye, he had feared that the other sects would seek revenge, so he had sent most of his sect members into an arcane realm.
Later, after the Lei Clan had descended upon the Domain of the Falling Stars, Xia Yi had been uncertain about their att.i.tude, and thus had ordered most of his sect members to remain in that arcane realm.
Even though the majority of the Flame G.o.d Sect disciples had survived the Lei Clan’s cleansing operation, the Lei Clan hadn’t given up on searching for the arcane realm where they were hiding.
“The Flame G.o.d Sect...” Soon after receiving the news, Nie Tian’s expression flickered as an idea occurred to him.
The Flame Dragon Armor had shown an extremely strong desire for earthflame essence, which contained a copious amount of flame power.
Not only would the acc.u.mulation of flame power allow the Flame Dragon Armor to fully display its might, but it would also have a fantastic effect.
Enough flame power would allow the Flame Dragon Armor to send him into the mysterious land where t.i.tans were half-buried.
The rage punch, chaotic magnetic field, and spiritual energy ball techniques, which he had picked up there, had all turned out to be mighty and useful on many occasions.
During these years, whenever he had time to himself, he would try to revisit that mysterious land to learn more secret magics from those t.i.tan’s sky-reaching arms, yet he had never succeeded due to a lack of flame power.
After all, every time he used the Flame Dragon Armor, it would require a very large amount of flame power.
It would be next to nothing if he were to replenish its flame power with regular fire-attributed materials. Only earthflame essence or earthflame crystal strings would achieve some noticeable results.
Originally, the Realm of Unbounded Desolation had been an ideal place for the Flame Dragon Armor to absorb flame power.
However, after Xia Yi and Zhao Shanling’s previous joint operation, they had drained almost every active volcano of their earthflame essence. Thanks to this, Xia Yi had advanced to the late Soul realm shortly afterwards.
Now, the only volcano that still contained a copious amount of earthflame essence was the one where the Tool Sect’s headquarters were located.
The Tool Sect’s livelihood depended on that earthflame essence. Once they lost it, they wouldn’t be able to forge equipment anymore.
Other than the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, the Flame G.o.d Sect was the only other place where the Flame Dragon Armor could replenish its flame power throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars.
If it were before, Nie Tian would never have the audacity to go to the Flame G.o.d Sect.
If he had, Xia Yi would have been overjoyed, as he would have been able to kill him and take the Flame Dragon Armor without much effort.
However, times had changed. Xia Yi had died, and Nie Tian could be considered the monarch of the entire Domain of the Falling Stars.
After he expressed his intention of going to the Flame G.o.d Sect to absorb earthflame essence, the Lei Clan didn’t even ask a question before offering to have Lei Tianhong go with him.
However, Nie Tian was worried that Lei Tianhong would discover the Flame Dragon Armor’s secrets, and thus declined their offer. Instead, he asked Zhen Huilan, who also practiced fire-attributed incantations, to go with him.
Zhen Huilan gladly agreed, and then teleported directly to the Realm of Dark Underworld with Nie Tian, Pei Qiqi, and Li Ye through the inter-realm teleportation portal in Desolate City.
As they flew to the Flame G.o.d Sect’s headquarters on Zhen Huilan’s Lightning Shuttle, Nie Tian glanced down from the air and saw Qi warriors from the Thunder Mountain Sect and the Heaven Expanse Sect evacuating from the Flame G.o.d Sect’s headquarters.
Clearly, they had only received the order to leave recently.
Lei Ze, who was Lei Zhenyu’s grandson and Yu Wei’s fiancee, was among them.
He didn’t even dare to meet Nie Tian’s eyes as he shrank into a lightning-wreathed air-transportation spiritual tool and urged his friends to drive away.
Nie Tian saw him from afar, but didn’t try to stop him from leaving.