Chapter 697: All is Quiet

In the Realm of Split Void...

A fiery spark suddenly appeared out of thin air in the forbidden region.

The spark rapidly expanded, giving rise to increasingly intense spatial fluctuations. Immediately afterwards, numerous fine spatial rifts appeared around it.

One of the spatial rifts slowly split wider and wider before the fiery spark suddenly merged with it, turning it into a blazing spatial rift.

SHEW!

Nie Tian flew out of it. Standing on the ground, he raised his hand and made a grabbing motion, and the blazing spatial rift shrank into the Blood Core before disappearing into his ring of holding.

Smiling, Nie Tian unleashed his soul awareness, which quickly morphed into nine Heaven Eyes, in an attempt to scan his surroundings.

He then discovered a streak of fiery light in the distant sky, which was slowly bending its track towards him, as if it were attracted to something in this forbidden region.

Nie Tian was wreathed in misty starlight as his soul awareness instantly locked onto the streak of fiery light in the sky.

It turned out to be a gigantic plummeting meteor.

For thousands of years, countless meteors had been attracted by some mysterious force when they had flown past the Realm of Split Void. As a result, they had bent their tracks and eventually crashed in this forbidden region. The reason for this phenomenon had always remained a mystery.

“Starfall!” 

As a thought entered his mind, he unleashed the secret magic he had learned from the first fragmentary star mark.

As he rapidly lost his star power, wisps of soul awareness fused with power from the fragmentary stars in his soul. Then, like metal wires, they locked onto the plummeting meteor.

At this moment, he felt as if he had wrapped numerous invisible strings around the gigantic meteor, and could manipulate it to crash in whichever location he preferred.

“Fall!”

Following his order, the burning meteor suddenly changed direction and crashed into a location not far from him, giving rise to heaven-shaking, earth-moving rumbles.

An enormous hole was created at that location, while bits of flames could be seen around and within it.

“Such terrifying force! If I commanded it to fall on someone…” Nie Tian’s expression flickered, as he assumed that even the Heaven Palace Sect’s former magnificent palace would be severely damaged if he commanded a meteor to fall on it, not to mention a Qi warrior.

He had mastered Starfall for some time now, but before, his cultivation base had been rather low, he had possessed limited star power, and his psychic power hadn’t transformed into soul power.

For such reasons, even though he had mastered the secret magic, he hadn’t been able to display its true might.

Now that he had entered the Worldly realm, formed his spiritual core, and gained his true soul, he felt much more skilled as he effortlessly launched Starfall.

Like God’s eyes, his nine Heaven Eyes gazed down at the earth, closely examining the region where the meteor had just crashed.

“Hmm?!”

He suddenly caught sight of Li Langfeng through one of his Heaven Eyes.

Thick, poisonous smoke was rising from him as he held the Fiend expert’s heart with both hands, breathing and refining the poisonous smoke the heart was releasing.

The Heaven Eye that was the closest to him descended from the heavens.

As it approached Li Langfeng, he seemed to sense its presence. He instantly stopped his cultivation and looked up in its direction.

With a deep icy look in his eyes, he blurted, “Who’s there?”

Strong killing intent appeared on his face as he unleashed his soul awareness.

WHOOSH!

A dark-green poisonous mist flew towards Nie Tian’s invisible Heaven Eye in attempt to engulf it.

A weak chuckle escaped Nie Tian’s mouth as he quickly pulled his Heaven Eyes back and sped in Li Langfeng’s location.

At the same time, Li Langfeng let out a cold harrumph. Wreathed in numerous green auras, he bolted into the air and chased after the Heaven Eye at full speed.

In about a quarter hour, the two of them met in the middle.

The icy look in Li Langfeng’s eyes faded away as soon as he caught sight of Nie Tian, a surprised and delightful look taking its place. “Nie Tian!” he exclaimed.

Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian watched Li Langfeng withdraw his auras and slowly descend from the air. With a hearty smile, he said, “I can’t believe that you’ve broken through into the Profound realm already.”

Even though he didn’t know what changes a Qi warrior would go through by advancing from the Worldly realm to the Profound realm, he knew that only Qi warriors at the Profound realm or higher would be able to travel in the air without air-transportation spiritual tools.

The fact that Li Langfeng had sped through the sky to this place showed that he had entered the Profound realm.

After landing in front of Nie Tian, Li Langfeng said respectfully, “This is all thanks to you.” 

As soon as he uttered these words, his eyes grew wide as he stared blankly at Nie Tian. Then, a smile appeared on his face as he said, “Congratulations, Nie Tian.”

Obviously, he noticed that Nie Tian had entered the Worldly realm.

“How come you’re here?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

“I had nowhere to be. I learned from senior Zhen that you had come to this region, so I came here to wait for you.” Li Langfeng’s face grew grim as he added, “Before, the only meaning of my life was to avenge my family. But now, as the Spirit God Sect and the Poison Sect were eliminated, all of my enemies have died.

“Now that they’re dead, I’ve had my revenge in a sense, but I don’t feel like it, since I didn’t get to slay them myself.”

Nie Tian let out a sigh, not knowing how to comfort him.

Li Langfeng practiced poisonous incantations at the price of his lifespan. All he had wanted was to avenge his family.

However, just as he was about to gain the ability to do so, the Lei Clan had eliminated the Spirit God Sect, the Poison Sect, and the Flame God Sect from their realms.

It appeared that the Lei Clan had done Li Langfeng a favor, but they actually made his lifetime effort seem meaningless.

“What do you intend to do from now on?” Nie Tian asked.

“My life is yours. I’ll do whatever you want me to until the day I die,” Li Langfeng said with a sincere expression. “If it weren’t for you, I wouldn’t be standing here today. In fact, I made a decision six months ago in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation that if you get killed by the Lei Clan, I would make avenging you and looking after the Nie Clan my lifetime goals.

“However...” He smiled embarrassedly. “It turned out that I was too pessimistic. Heaven helps the worthy. Who would have thought that the Divine Flame Sect’s grand elder would actually show you such respect, and tell the Lei Clan to take orders from you?”

Upon hearing his words, Nie Tian felt touched, yet with a surprised expression, he asked, “It’s been six months already?”

“Yeah, it’s been six months since you came here and disappeared,” Li Langfeng explained. “I searched every inch of this region for you, but failed to find you. Later, Master Zhen, Hua Mu, and a few others came here one after another, hoping to find you. Yet none of them succeeded.

“I only stayed here because Miss Dong told me that you’d appear in the same place you vanished from.

“She told me to wait for you here.”

“So it was her,” Nie Tian said, nodding.

Back when they had gone on an exploration trip together in the Realm of Dark Underworld, Dong Li had witnessed the Flame Dragon Armor forming a spatial tunnel and sucking Nie Tian into it.

After his disappearance, Dong Li had waited for him in that exact location until he had finally returned.

Dong Li was the only person who knew about this special feature of the Flame Dragon Armor.

Li Langfeng went on to explain, “During the past six months, Miss Dong came back to this place every once in a while, but since this isn’t an ideal place for her to cultivate, she would only stay for a few days before leaving again.

“She reminded me that I should inform her about your return, or tell you to see her once you return.”

“Oh, right,” Nie Tian said. “What’s the situation in the Domain of the Falling Stars during the past six months? Did anything major happen?”

“No, everything’s been quiet,” Li Langfeng replied. “The Lei Clan has already withdrawn from the Realm of Unbounded Desolation and moved to the Thunder Mountain Sect’s headquarters in the Realm of Earth Sieve. They have been spending most of their time in their quarters and rarely visited any places. They also told the Thunder Mountain Sect and the Heaven Expanse Sect to behave themselves. After the elimination of the Poison Sect, the Flame God Sect, and the Spirit God Sect, the Realm of Black Marsh and the Realm of Dark Underworld have remained unclaimed.

“Many major sects have showed a strong interest in those two realms, but none have dared to act on their own to set up bases in them. The Lei Clan sent word that they would need to wait for you to decide how to deal with those realms. Because of this, Hua Mu, Dong Wangling, and many other experts have been searching for you everywhere. Yet none of them succeeded.

“Chang Sen from the Realm of Flame Heaven entered the Soul realm while you were gone. He’s now the first Soul realm Qi warrior the Realm of Flame Heaven has ever seen.

“The Yang Sect and the Yin Sect have also been looking for you. They seem to hope that you’ll go to the Realm of a Thousand Devastations and help them secure something.”

Rubbing his chin, Nie Tian looked down at the ground he was standing on. “The Yang Sect and the Yin Sect...” 

He knew perfectly well what Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue wanted, and he had promised to help them secure those things.

The two of them had treated him well. During the time when the Heaven Palace Sect had demanded they give him up, they had sheltered him at the price of their relationships with the Heaven Palace Sect.

Later, when conflicts had burst out between him and the Heaven Palace Sect’s alliance, the Yin Set and the Yang Sect had stood by him the whole time.

“I’ll see if I can pry into the secrets underneath this region first. Afterwards, I’ll head to the Realm of a Thousand Devastations and secure those two scrolls for the Yin Sect and the Yang Sect.” After making up his mind, Nie Tian sat down on the ground and closed his eyes, preparing to uncover the secrets that had been hidden in the depths of the earth.

He had failed to pry into the underground restrictive spell before because his cultivation base had been too low, and his psychic power hadn’t yet transformed into soul power.

Now, he had formed his true soul, and his psychic power had transformed into soul power. He believed that it was about time he uncovered the secrets left by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

With a thought, his soul awareness instantly plunged into the ground he was standing on and rapidly descended towards the depths of the earth.