Chapter 1096: One Step Too Late

The news of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace suffering a sound defeat from the Demons in the Dead Star Sea got around fast.

Many sects and clans in the subordinate domains of the Sons of the Stars and elders felt so insecure that they would be startled by the moan of the wind, or the cry of the cranes.

It was the same case in Nie Tian’s subordinate domains.

Word of Nie Tian leading his subordinates into the Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Demon Realms, slaying countless Demons and plundering abundant resources had also spread far and wide.

Now, many knew that the Demons’ wrath and all four of their grand monarchs joining the battle in the Dead Star Sea had a great deal to do with Nie Tian’s deed.

It was only natural that his domains would become the focus of the Demons’ retaliation.

As soon as Nie Tian arrived at the Divine Flame Sect in the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, he summoned Jing Feiyang and the other experts.

Jing Feiyang, Quan Zixuan, and Qu Mingde had received Nie Tian’s instruction to stand by, so none of them had dared to enter secluded cultivation.

Now, they came as soon as they received his summons.

“To the Realm of Pure Origin.” Nie Tian cut to the chase.

Zhongli Jian from the Divine Flame Sect hesitated briefly before saying, “Even though the Realm of Pure Origin isn’t the Pure Heaven Sect’s main realm, it's one of the large ones. Since the Pure Heaven Sect still hasn’t declared their allegiance to you, we pretty much haven’t had any contact with them these years.”

Nie Tian frowned. “Are you saying that we’ll have trouble going to the Realm of Pure Origin?”

“Well, the large-scale teleportation portal in the Realm of Pure Origin isn’t connected to ours,” Zhongli Jian explained. “We only have a connection to the large-scale teleportation portal in the Realm of Pure Heaven. However, since we haven’t been exactly friendly to the Pure Heaven Sect and haven’t visited them for many years, I don’t know if the connection still stands.”

Pei Qiqi jumped in and asked, “But you do have a map of the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, right?” 

Zhongli Jian nodded. “We do.”

Pei Qiqi reached out with one hand and demanded, “Let me take a look.” 

Zhongli Jian handed her the map without hesitation.

The map was carved on a large piece of spirit beast skin, with all of the major realms of the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries marked out with great clarity.

Light flashed across Pei Qiqi’s eyes as she looked at the map attentively.

Only after a while did she nod and say, “Alright, I got it.”

With these words, she started weaving her hands in the air. Numerous spatial blades then flew out of her fingertips to interweave in midair.

Soon, a slender spatial rift appeared.

“Let’s go.” Pei Qiqi signaled for everyone to get in.

“No wonder the sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society went back on his word to take her as his fourth legacy disciple...” Jing Feiyang muttered to himself.

Normally, only Saint domain spatial power experts could master such a wondrous ability to travel between domains without relying on teleportation portals.

Pei Qiqi was merely at the late Soul realm, yet she was able to use Void Travel freely within the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries.

One figure after another flew into the spatial rift and vanished.

Before long, all of the Saint domain experts gathered in the Divine Flame Sect arrived at the starry river outside the Realm of Pure Origin.

Everyone except Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi activated their respective domains upon flying out of the spatial rift in order to ward off the impurities in the starry river.

Jing Feiyang, Quan Zixuan, and Qu Mingde were currently at the middle Saint domain. Zhongli Jian and Dong Qisong were at the early Saint domain.

The five of them were Nie Tian’s most powerful subordinates.

Clearly, Nie Tian had brought out his best cards in order to find this outsider teleportation portal that the mysterious person from the Heavenly Corpse Sect had told him about.

Floating in the vast starry river, Nie Tian looked around, and immediately saw that the Realm of Pure Origin was not far away.

Pei Qiqi was the last to fly out of the spatial rift. As soon as she did, she summoned that irregularly shaped crystal of hers, which spun in her palm. Its many facets reflected everything in its surroundings, capturing any unusual spatial fluctuations.

Moments later, Pei Qiqi shook her head. “There’s nothing here.”

With the help of the crystal’s power, she suddenly vanished into thin air, leaving Nie Tian and the others.

However, Nie Tian understood that even her wondrous spatial treasure must have its detection range.

Pei Qiqi must have left to conduct a thorough scan of the area the mysterious powerful expert from the Heavenly Corpse Sect had referred to.

Therefore, Nie Tian just waited with the others.

Dong Qisong from the Beast-controlling Sect let out a cold harrumph and said, “Till this day, Patriarch Pure Heaven still thinks so highly of himself that he refuses to join us. However, many of their elders have long since envied us, and wanted to join your cause.”

Nie Tian, however, seemed to have an open mind on the issue as he said, “They’re just one sect. It doesn’t matter whether they join me anymore. As long as they continue to live by the rules and cause no trouble in the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, they can do whatever they want. Besides, didn’t Patriarch Pure Heaven say himself that he’ll acknowledge allegiance to me if I can defeat him with no help from anyone else?

“Trust me. That day is coming.”

Nie Tian’s confidence relaxed everyone.

With a smile, Qu Mingde said, “They might as well stay the way they are. During the past decades, we fought battles with you across the starry river, and gained a tremendous fortune. Not only have we ourselves made breakthroughs in cultivation, but our sect elders have made rapid advances thanks to the precious materials they gained. If they join us, then we’d have to share our gains with them.”

All of the sects who had joined the expedition to the three Demon realms had returned with abundant loot.

The acquisition of Dementing Demonic Grass had allowed them to make Barrier Breaking Pills, which would greatly improve their odds of successfully breaking through into the Void or Saint domain.

For reasons like this, Qu Mingde and the others all believed following Nie Tian was a wise decision.

A quarter hour later...

Pei Qiqi returned. Under everyone’s inquiring gazes, she shook her head and said, “I found no signs of a teleportation portal.”

Nie Tian frowned. “So does this mean that person from the Heavenly Corpse Sect fed us false information? This isn’t a trap, is it?”

“His information is not necessarily false,” Pei Qiqi said. “It’s possible that the Demons have already arrived, and transferred their teleportation portal to another location through some special means. How about we go take a look in the Realm of Pure Origin?”

“Okay, let’s go.” Nie Tian agreed.

Pei Qiqi then split open another spatial rift.

SHEW!

Nie Tian and the other experts entered the Realm of Pure Origin in the next moment.

However, Nie Tian’s expression flickered drastically as soon as he flew out of the other end of the spatial rift. 

A shudder ran through Dong Qisong as he exclaimed, “Damn it! The Pure Heaven Sect’s quarters have been destroyed!”

On the vast plain in front of them, stone pavilions and palaces were now in ruins. Dead Qi warriors in the Pure Heaven Sect’s garments were scattered everywhere.

Strong Demon qi could be sensed dissipating in the air. This meant that powerful Demon experts had been here.

“The Demons did this.” With these words, Zhongli Jian took a deep breath, then flew off to scan other parts of the realm.

Quan Zixuan and Qu Mingde also shot skywards, where they spread their immense soul awareness.

Only Jing Feiyang remained by Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi’s side to protect them from potential dangers.

Soon, Quan Zixuan returned and reported loudly, “All Qi warriors in this realm that are at the Soul realm or higher have been killed by the Demons! It was Hazlitt, the Flame Maniac, who did it!”

Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “Hazlitt!” 

“What he did here is the same as what we did in those three Demon realms,” Quan Zixuan said with a grim face. “Other than the Pure Heaven Sect’s branch, there are also two of their subordinate clans in this realm. All of their powerful experts have been killed, along with the experts the Pure Heaven Sect had positioned here.

“All that’s left is a small number Qi warriors that are at the Profound realm or lower, who were lucky enough to escape to remote areas.”

After a while, Qu Mingde and the other experts returned.

The four Saint domain experts had spread out and finished scanning the entire Realm of Pure Origin. From some of the survivors, they learned that Hazlitt, the Flame Maniac, had swept across this realm with a dozen eighth grade Demons.

“Nie Tian, it seems that the information that mysterious expert from the Heavenly Corpse Sect gave us was true,” Pei Qiqi said. “It’s just that we got here too late. From the look of it, a large number of Demons have already arrived through that teleportation portal. And the reason why I failed to find the portal is because they have already moved it to another place.”

“Would you take us to the nearby realms so we can check their situation?” Nie Tian asked, looking anxious.

Without saying a word, Pei Qiqi immediately split open new spatial rifts.

What they saw in the Realm of Gray Moon and the Realm of Heavenly Light was exactly the same as what they had seen in the Realm of Pure Origin.

All of the clans in those realms had been wiped out.

From the survivors, they learned that other than Hazlitt, Feimos the Controller had also played a part in this.

Both of them were ninth grade grand patriarchs.

“Let’s go to the Realm of Pure Heaven where the Pure Heaven Sect is based!” Nie Tian had an ominous feeling that it might have also been sacked by the Demons.

“I’m afraid the Pure Heaven Sect has already...” Zhongli Jian muttered with mixed feelings.

On the one hand, he felt sorry for what might have happened to the Pure Heaven Sect. On the other, he felt lucky that the Demons’ teleportation portal hadn’t been in the Divine Flame Sect’s territory.

SHEW!

As soon as Nie Tian and the others set foot in the Realm of Pure Heaven, they saw a distant region enveloped in blackish-violet Demon qi.