Chapter 1197: Cooperation?

BOOM!

A huge greenish-black thunderball bombarded Nie Tian’s head.

Wisps of greenish-black lightning rapidly drilled into his mind through the top of his head.

Yuan Jiuchuan, who was quietly watching him, widened his eyes. He was clearly surprised by this.

“Mind... sea of awareness...” he muttered in a low voice. “His fleshly body might be able to withstand the lightning bombardment, but what about his sea of awareness? If he allows such lightning power to enter his sea of awareness, even his true soul may perish. Given Zheng Yi’s command of lightning power, it should be easy for his lightning power to eliminate his true soul, right?”

As an expert well-versed in lightning power, Yuan Jiuchuan was well-aware of lightning’s subduing effect on souls and spirits.

What experts like him, who practiced lightning incantations, feared the least were outsiders like Phantasms that had mighty souls, or Qi warriors like Nether Spirit Society disciples that commanded evil spirits.

In fact, after he had joined that secret force with Zheng Yi and Han Sen, all of the Nether Spirit Society disciples they had met had shown them respect.

That was because those who were skilled in lightning incantations happened to be the Nether Spirit Society disciples’ bane.

Even though he found the fact that Nie Tian could withstand the bombardment of the lightning bolts and even temper his body with them shocking, it wasn’t so unacceptable.

After all, living beings with truly mighty bodies were known to be able to strengthen their bodies with lightning power.

However, souls...

FIZZ!

As wisps of lightning power poured in through the top of Nie Tian’s head, his mind seemed to be illuminated by multiple suns.

Lightning power that had a strong subduing effect on souls attempted to rip through his soul defenses and flood his sea of awareness in a breath’s time.

Nie Tian finally sensed danger at this moment.

As a thought entered his mind, his nine star souls lit up at the same time. Streams of soul power mixed with the power from his star souls and formed Starchains at an alarming speed in the depths of his mind.

As a soul magic, Starchains were originally meant for imprisoning souls and spirits.

At this moment, however, they linked together and formed a mysterious protective spell formation.

BANG! BANG!

As the fragmentary lightning bolts slammed into it, the Starchains that had interwoven into a profound soul spell neutralized all of them.

Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “It seems that the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s soul incantations are quite handy in dealing with attacks that target souls.”

Then, as he circulated his flesh aura, a faint crimson ward came to form at the back of his head.

It was a ward of condensed flesh aura that was designed to protect his sea of awareness from future lightning attacks.

“He has his mind covered...” Taken aback, Yuan Jiuchuan went blank for a moment before his lighting-wreathed body suddenly vanished.

He flung his arms in an irritated manner as he avoided the lightning bolts that carried Zheng Yi’s soul aura and pursued him relentlessly.

At the same time, he thought to himself, “Zheng Yi is the head of the lightning element sect. The incantations he practices must be much more profound than Mo Qianfan’s. The lightning element sect used to be a major branch of the Five Elements Sect back in the day, and they had produced God domain experts. Many of their secret incantations have long histories and were highly-spoken of across the human domains.

“Zheng Yi has only failed to enter God domain till now because of his mediocre cultivation talent and poor temperament. Even if he gets to refine these thunder pools gathered by the tenth grade Thunder-devouring Whale, along with this heaven and earth transformed from its flesh aura, he might not necessarily be able to enter the God domain.

“However, if he wants to deal with me, Nie Tian, and those with him, he still has a good chance at succeeding...”

Yuan Jiuchuan’s expression changed from time to time as he pondered the matter.

Yuan Jiuchuan suddenly grew excited. “What if I can kill Zheng Yi and use my special incantations to absorb his lightning domain, along with everything here...!”

He was convinced that his cultivation talent and potential were superior to Zheng Yi’s.

Even though his incantations, which allowed him to absorb other living beings’ lightning power, were considered extreme, he was certain that they could get him to the God domain.

WHOOSH!

Yuan Jiuchuan, who was hiding in the dark, suddenly appeared right in front of Nie Tian.

Nie Tian, who was purging himself and strengthening his meridians and flesh with lightning power, snapped his eyes open. With an icy look in his eyes, he exclaimed, “Yuan Jiuchuan!”

Yuan Jiuchuan still didn’t dare to activate his lightning domain. He shifted about from time to time to avoid the lightning bolts as he explained to Nie Tian with a wry smile, “As you can see, the thunder vortex we’re in mostly contains imprisoning power at first. However, as time passes and the spell formation changes, it’ll release increasingly strong lightning power.

“It’s not a spell formation that’ll annihilate us right away. Instead, it’ll slowly wear us out and eventually refine us.

“Not to mention that Zheng Yi’s lightning power will become more and more torrential as he refines those thunder pools one after another.”

Yuan Jiuchuan revealed the secrets of Zheng Yi’s spell formation.

A strange expression appeared on Nie Tian’s face. “Aren’t you with him? Why are you trapped in here as well?”

Yuan Jiuchuan grinned. “My incantations allow me to devour living beings that carry lightning power, outsiders, spirit beasts, and humans alike. For this reason, Mo Qianfan and many others from the Domain of Endless Thunder that practice lightning power set me up in order to kill me.

“That Zheng Yi still hasn’t entered the God domain. Perhaps he thinks that if I make another breakthrough in my cultivation, I’ll be at the same level as him, and then I might make him my next target.”

Nie Tian went blank for a moment before asking, “If you had the power to do that, you would, wouldn’t you?”

“Perhaps.” Yuan Jiuchuan didn’t deny it. “However, I’ll deal with Mo Qianfan and those bastards who set me up first.”

Nie Tian frowned and asked, “So what do you want from me?” 

As he spoke, lightning bolts continued to strike down, along with greenish-black thunderballs.

Nie Tian could tell that the might of the lightning bolts and thunderballs was increasing.

He started to feel pain now as he was struck by the lightning bolts.

Eyes narrowed, Yuan Jiuchuan said, “We can work together, you and I. I’m skilled in lightning power. However, since the attribute of my incantations is the same as Zheng Yi’s, and my cultivation base is lower than his, it’s gonna be a bit troublesome for me to fight him. But you’re different. I know how special you are. I’m sure that with my instructions, you’ll be able to break the restrictive spell and get us out of here.

“At this moment, Zheng Yi is bent on killing us all. But if we work together, not only can we leave this heaven and earth safely, but we can even each get what we want!”

Yuan Jiuchuan spoke with a sincere face.

Nie Tian was taken aback. “Work together… If I work with you and get us out of this heaven and earth, what will you get?”

Yuan Jiuchuan smiled cunningly. “Zheng Yi’s death. That’ll be enough for me. After he dies, I’ll be able to cast a special spell to absorb his domain. His lightning power will allow me to make another breakthrough in my cultivation.”

“Sure, we can work together, but I still have one thing to ask,” Nie Tian said with determination.

A puzzled look appeared on Yuan Jiuchuan’s face. “What is it?” 

With a cold face, Nie Tian asked, “What happened to my sect’s grand elder, Mo Heng, in the Domain of Endless Thunder? Why did he disappear all of a sudden? What were you after by sneaking into the Domain of Endless Thunder and attacking the Heavenly Thunder Sect? Was it you or the man behind you that was the reason for our grand elder’s mysterious disappearance?”

An awkward expression appeared on Yuan Jiuchuan’s face. “About this...” 

He didn’t feel torn about selling out and killing Zheng Yi.

However, he knew that he would be in serious trouble if he leaked information about that secret force.

He couldn’t decide.

“If you can’t give me the details, at least you can tell me if our grand elder is still alive,” Nie Tian said. “Is he in danger? Can he get out by himself?”

Yuan Jiuchuan took a deep breath and said, “We only attacked the Heavenly Thunder Sect to draw Mo Heng to the Domain of Endless Thunder. I actually don’t know much about it. However, I do know one thing. Someone wanted to meet Mo Heng in the Domain of Endless Thunder and persuade him to join us.

“If Mo Heng agreed, he’d become one of us. If he didn’t, he’d be confined to a certain place.

“However, whether he agreed or not, he’d disappear for a short period of time.”

Nie Tian’s expression flickered violently. “Did he agree or not?”

Yuan Jiuchuan smiled bitterly. “I honestly don’t know. All I know is that he met that person. As for whether he was persuaded, my cultivation base is too low for me to know that.”

Nie Tian was taken aback. “Your cultivation base is too low?” 

Yuan Jiuchuan sighed. “Only God domain experts are qualified to meet that person.”