Chapter 1136: An Unforeseen Encounter

During the Primal Era, the Star Behemoths’ strength had been unmatched. They had preyed on all sorts of powerful beings, and even realms.

They had been the sole overlords of this starry river in that period of time.

Nie Tian hadn’t expected that the Star Behemoth bone he owned could even channel power from the dashing lights in a space disruption zone like this one.

After all, those colorful dashing lights were extremely deadly.

Everyone, including Zhao Shanling, had been rather apprehensive about them. Pei Qiqi, who held that Heaven Nourished grade spatial treasure, was the only one who felt at ease in such a peculiar environment.

For this reason, Nie Tian and the others had remained vigilant and avoided the dashing lights the whole time.

FIZZ! FIZZ!

But now, many of the glorious lights that shot by them were either absorbed by the Star Behemoth bone or fused into the dark stone Dong Li had just brought out.

However, as Nie Tian observed with rapt attention, he soon realized that not all of the dashing lights were channeled by the bone or the dark stone.

Some of them shot past the bone and the dark stone and vanished into the distance in the blink of an eye.

Dong Li’s eyes glittered with amazement as she looked unblinkingly at the dark stone. Then, she exclaimed from a distant place, “What on earth are these lights in space disruption zones? I have a feeling that these ones absorbed by the dark stone are very helpful to it.”

Nie Tian smiled bitterly. “To tell you the truth, I don’t know what they are either. Those who can answer that question for us are currently out of touch.”

Even so, he didn’t seem worried gazing at the flickering portal. His instincts told him that Pei Qiqi was still alive.

“Let’s not fixate on what these dashing lights are for now,” Nie Tian added. “Whatever they are, they don’t seem to be harmful in any way to your dark stone or my bone.”

Dong Li nodded in agreement.

The two of them then floated in the starry river and watched the bone and the dark stone capture the glorious lights that streaked by, while recovering their power with all sorts of spiritual materials they took out from within their rings of holding.

This showed how strangely special space disruption zones were.

Being here, human Qi warriors would rapidly lose their spiritual power, whatever their attribute, even if they didn’t do anything.

The higher their cultivation bases were, the faster they would lose their spiritual power.

Meanwhile, there didn’t seem to be any spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth or other refinable power here. Even Nie Tian’s Nine Stars Flower, Godspirit Tree, and flame spark couldn’t gather power here as they could elsewhere.

He could only rely on the spiritual materials in his rings of holding.

An unknown period of time passed.

Ancient corpses started floating out from the depths of the curious clouds.

Nie Tian’s eyes snapped open. With a puzzled expression, he looked closely at the ancient corpses, while examining them with his bloodline power.

Soon, he put his heart at ease. “There isn’t a single shred of flesh power within these corpses. They don’t even carry any corpse auras. This means they’re completely useless. And most of them belong to humans, with only a few outsider ones.”

This wasn’t the first trip he had taken to a space disruption zone.

Last time, when he had come here with Zhao Shanling, they had seen a similar scene.

He knew that this was the fate of those who stumbled into a space disruption zone and people like Yuan Jiuchuan, who were banished to a space disruption zone, if they failed to find a way out before running out of their spirit stones and spiritual materials.

These corpses were bereft of any value. A mere touch would reduce them to ashes.

Not just humans, even outsiders would lose all of their residual flesh power shortly after their deaths in a space disruption zone like this.

BZZZ!

Nie Tian lifted his hand, and a beam of blood-colored light shot out of his fingertip.

The shriveled corpses of a few elegantly-dressed Qi warriors scattered like ashes in the wind as soon as the beam of blood-colored light shot through them.

FIZZ! FIZZ!

Several Phantasm and Bonebrute corpses also crumbled upon contact with the beam of blood-colored light.

At this moment, Dong Li also awoke from her cultivation. 

“These aren’t corpses from the Heavenly Corpse Sect, are they?” she asked curiously.

“No, they’re nothing like the corpses the Heavenly Corpse Sect uses to make corpse slaves,” Nie Tian explained. “The corpses they use must carry residual flesh power, which they turn into corpse power with their secret refining method before fusing it back into the corpses, causing the corpses to go through changes and eventually turning them into Humanly Corpses, Earthly Corpses, or Heavenly Corpses.

“However, the floating corpses in space disruption zones don’t carry even the least bit of power, so they can’t be used to refine corpse slaves.”

Dong Li nodded, and then asked, “So why are these old corpses floating out from within the strange clouds?”

Nie Tian frowned and said, “Who knows?” 

As they spoke, more and more corpses drifted out from within the clouds, as if a mysterious force was pushing them out in waves.

Gradually, more outsider corpses entered their sight, including ones that belonged to minor races such as Birdmen and Stonemen.

After observing for a while, Dong Li’s face grew grim as she said in a soft voice, “A fierce battle must have broken out in the depths of those clouds. Both the humans and outsiders must have suffered heavy casualties from it. The dead were left unattended, and eventually descended to such a state after countless years of corrosion in the space disruption zone.”

Nie Tian nodded in agreement. “That seems to be the case.” 

Eyes narrowed, Dong Li asked, “Do you know why such a large-scale battle would break out in there? There has to be a reason, right? I suspect that something in there sparked a strong desire on both sides, and eventually caused them to resort to violence. Or there might be another reason. Anyways, I bet the depths of those clouds held a great secret.”

With these words, she turned to look at the portal that Pei Qiqi and Zhao Shanling had entered successively, an anxious expression appearing on her face.

More time passed.

As more corpses continued to float out from the depths of the clouds, a man wreathed in countless lightning bolts suddenly flew out with them, giving rise to loud rumbles.

As he overtook the floating corpses, the lightning bolts wreathing him turned many of them into flying ashes.

The man had his eyes on the portal Pei Qiqi and Zhao Shanling had entered as he approached.

Immediately afterwards, he noticed Nie Tian. His expression flickered with surprise as he exclaimed, “It’s you? Why are you here?”

Nie Tian was taken aback as well. “Han Sen?!”

He had met him once in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range in the Shatter Battlefield. He had been with Huang Jinnan at first. However, due to conflicts, they had eventually broken up and gone their separate ways.

Nie Tian still remembered that when Han Sen had parted ways with them, he had left in pursuit of a lightning bolt that had developed its own awareness.

Now, many years had passed, and he had never expected that he would actually run into this man, who he had had an unpleasant experience with, in a place like this.

Even to this day, he didn’t know much about him. All he knew was that he practiced lightning power, and that Huang Jinnan had detested and guarded against him.

“Hmm?! Wait!” Nie Tian fixed Han Sen with a deep look as he sensed him with rapt attention. His expression flickered with astonishment. “You’re a hybrid too?!”

“Hahaha!” Han Sen laughed. “I can’t believe you saw that. That’s right. I carry a lightning bloodline which matches my cultivation attribute. It’s just that when we met in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range, I hadn’t awakened my bloodline yet.

“In fact, it was the self-aware lightning bolt I found there that awakened and merged with my bloodline.”

Nie Tian went blank for a moment before raising his guard to the highest level and asking aloud, “Did you come from there?”

He pointed at the secret portal Pei Qiqi and Zhao Shanling had entered.

Han Sen grinned. “I can’t tell you that. However, I did come here to enter that place this time.” 

Then, he took a deep look at Nie Tian and shook his head. “How come you’re still at the early Soul realm? So many years have passed since the last time we met. I’m now at the late Soul realm, only one step away from entering the Void domain.

“To be honest, I’m going there so that I can make breakthroughs in both my bloodline and cultivation base.”

With these words, Han Sen’s expression suddenly changed. “I almost forgot. How did you find your way here? Do you have connections with anyone in there? Or did you actually come from there yourself? It doesn’t seem right though, because I’d never heard your name before.”

Nie Tian had more questions than him. After a moment of silence, he said, “I have lots of questions for you. You’ll answer them for me before I let you go in there.”

Han Sen sneered. “Let me? Are you going to stop me or something?” 

Nie Tian nodded. “That’s right. Tell me what I want to know, and I’ll think about letting you through.” 

Instead of being angered, Han Sen laughed. “Do you know who you’re talking to?” 

“I’m talking to you, Han Sen.”