Three months later, Nie Tian, Mu Biqiong, and Yin Yannan arrived at the spatial rift that led to the Realm of Maelstrom on their wooden air-transportation spiritual tool.
Wind filled the sky with sand, while numerous spatial rifts interwove above them. The spatial rift that led to the Realm of Maelstrom was still open, but very congested.
Gazing up at it, Yin Yanan spent some time examining it with her soul awareness, and then said, “That spatial rift hasn’t stabilized yet.
“It’s been about three years since we first entered the Shatter Battlefield. According to the Divine Seal Sect, this spatial rift should be accessible three years after our entrance, but it’s hard to say when exactly.”
From the look of it, Nie Tian and the girls might be the first ones to have returned to this place.
None of the powerful experts from the Domain of Heaven Python, the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, and the Domain of the Falling Stars seemed to have returned yet.
“Do we just wait here and go back to the Realm of Maelstrom after the spatial rift stabilizes?” Mu Biqiong asked.
Nie Tian took a glance at her and asked, “Do you have a better idea?”
“No,” Mu Biqiong answered with a cold face.
“Then that’s what we’ll do,” Nie Tian said.
After months of devoted cultivation, Nie Tian had refined all of his spiritual vortexes to their limits with the help of that piece of Scarlet Turtle’s sh.e.l.l and the Nine Stars Flower.
His spiritual core had also been refined to the point where it was almost ready for his next breakthrough in cultivation.
Even the refinement of his true soul had progressed significantly, thanks to the soul crystals he had gained.
He was well-aware that he was close to making that step from the late Worldly realm to the early Profound realm.
Looking back, his trip to the Shatter Battlefield had turned out to be rather productive, with the Silicon Silver, the berries that contained life power, the three magical tree leaves, and the cl.u.s.ter of pale flames...
His bloodline had also advanced to the sixth grade in the Shatter Battlefield, allowing him to awaken two new bloodline talents: Life Strengthening and Blood Essence Seething.
The Spirit Pearl had absorbed a large number of evil spirits, and produced five exceptionally powerful evil spirits.
All of these things he had acquired in the Shatter Battlefield helped improve his battle prowess considerably.
Even though he was still at the late Worldly realm, he wouldn’t cower in the slightest facing any Profound realm Qi warrior. Even if he were to fight a late Profound realm expert, he would have the confidence to win.
However, it was a pity that he had failed to find Pei Qiqi in the Shatter Battlefield.
He hadn’t asked about Pei Qiqi before he had slain Xing Bo because he had seen an ice phoenix taking her away.
However, that ice phoenix must have gone to the depths of the Shatter Battlefield.
Given his current cultivation base and strength, he was still too weak to march into the depths of the Shatter Battlefield and fight human experts that were at the Void domain or the Saint domain, or outsiders at the eighth or ninth grade, even though he had the Bone Blood Demon and other powerful resources.
He sighed in frustration. “I just hope senior martial sister is still fine. I guess I avenged Senior Zhen by killing that traitor Xing Bo.”
Since the spatial rift was still unaccessible, the three of them waited in silence under the interweaving spatial rifts.
Nie Tian resumed his cultivation.
A month later, he had refined his spiritual core to its limit.
That done, both his spiritual sea and sea of awareness, the two main focuses of a cultivator’s cultivation, were ready for his next breakthrough.
Now, a new breakthrough was just around the corner.
On this day, Yin Yanan’s eyes snapped open while she was in the middle of her cultivation.
The Frost Blood Python also slithered quietly out of her uncovered abdomen. It gazed off into the distance, hissing nonstop.
Both Nie Tian and Mu Biqiong sensed its unusual behavior and awoke from their cultivation.
“What’s wrong?” Nie Tian asked curiously.
Eyes narrowed, Yin Yanan communicated with the eighth grade Frost Blood Python. Afterwards, she said, “It has sensed unusual frost power fluctuations in that direction.”
“Unusual frost power fluctuations?” Nie Tian asked with a puzzled expression. “Can it be someone who practices frost power coming at us?”
Yin Yanan nodded. “That’s quite likely.”
Nie Tian then formed his Heaven Eyes without delay, and spread them out to scan his surroundings.
Wind filled the sky with sand. Through his Heaven Eyes, Nie Tian looked in every direction from where they were, but failed to see anything unusual.
Neither did his bloodline power catch any sign of life.
“Whoever that is, he or she must be still very far from us,” He muttered.
As he did, snow fell out of the sky onto their arms and shoulders.
Given the severe heat in this place, it should have been impossible for snow to fall.
But now, as sparkling and crystal-clear snowflakes fell out of the air, the sweltering heat was rapidly drowned by frigid cold.
In a few seconds, a frosty figure appeared out of nowhere in the falling snow.
“Senior Zong Zheng!” Nie Tian exclaimed as the person fell out of the air.
It turned out to be Zong Zheng from the Ice Pavilion Sect.
He had been at the middle Soul realm when he had first entered the Shatter Battlefield, but now he seemed to have entered the late Soul realm.
However, he now looked bedraggled in ripped garments, with blood coming out of exposed wounds.
From the look of it, he had consumed a significant amount of frost power to activate some profound escape magic, which had allowed him to travel through s.p.a.ce and arrive in front of them.
Normally speaking, any short-range escape magic would inflict a strong backlash on the caster.
Therefore, no one would want to use them unless it was a matter of life or death.
Zong Zheng’s eyes lit up as soon as he saw Nie Tian. “Nie Tian! I didn’t expect you to be back so early.”
“Who forced you to use an escape magic, Senior Zong?” Nie Tian asked. “Where are the others?”
Fragmented frosty light flew out of him as he took a deep breath to say, “They’re trapped! Hua Mu, Qi Bailu, and I were pursued by enemies. I cast an escape magic, hoping to find other powerful experts from the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries here, so we can rush back to help them.
“But who would have thought that only the three of you are here...”
Disappointment flashed across Zong Zheng’s eyes.
Clearly, he believed that Nie Tian, Yin Yanan, and Mu Biqiong wouldn’t be able to help save the others.
Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “Even Uncle Hua too? Were they outsiders?”
Zong Zheng smiled bitterly. “No, human cultivators.”
Nie Tian grew anxious. “What the h.e.l.l?! What about my master? Was he with you?”
“No, Hua Mu, Qi Bailu, and I traveled together, while your master explored the depths of the Shatter Battlefield by himself. I suppose he went to the place where they said the river of time appeared. We lost contact with him long ago.”
Zong Zheng panted nonstop as he stuffed a handful of medicinal pills down his throat and continued, “The three of us had several incredible encounters in the depths of the Shatter Battlefield, thanks to which we all entered the late Soul realm.
“But while we were exploring a peculiar place in the depths of the Shatter Battlefield, Hua Mu suffered a backlash, and was temporarily possessed by the Heavenly Demonsbane inside of him. At that moment, a group of human cultivators happened to find us, and then attacked us, using the excuse that Hua Mu was possessed by a demonic plant.
“But I knew they were actually after the fortune we had gained from that place.
“Hua Mu went berserk and killed some of them.
“We beat them at first, but then they went off and summoned more of their friends from other places. The pressure on us increased.
“Eventually, the three of us were forced to leave. We ran, and they pursued, until we ran back here.”
With these words, Zong Zheng pointed in a direction. “About fifteen kilometers down that way. Qi Bailu and Hua Mu were surrounded by seven Soul realm experts when I barely escaped.”
Nie TIan’s expression flickered. “Seven Soul realm experts... Are you sure they’re only at the Soul realm?”
“Yeah, all seven of them are at the Soul realm. Four of them were at the late Soul realm, and the other three are at the middle Soul realm.” After a short pause, Zong Zheng asked, “Do you mean... you want to go help them?”
Nie Tian answered him with action.
He summoned the Star Boat without hesitation, jumped on board, and then fixed Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong with calm, inquiring gazes.
Now that they had left the b.l.o.o.d.y Grave Mountain Range, Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong no longer needed to worry about attracting tainted energies by summoning their Frost Blood Python and coexisting flowers.
The eighth grade Frost Blood Python and mysterious coexisting flowers all possessed mighty strength. It wouldn’t be a hard thing for them to defeat Soul realm experts in battle.
Therefore, the real problem was whether they were willing to fight for his seniors from the Domain of the Falling Stars.
“How do we dare to refuse to give you face?” Yin Yanan asked rhetorically before jumping onto the Star Boat.
Mu Biqiong didn’t say a word, but also jumped onto the Star Boat.
“You just stay here and recover, Senior Zong,” Nie Tian said, looking very bold and confident. “I’ll bring Uncle Hua and Senior Qi here safely.”