Chapter 1027: Battle Begins

The first drop of transcendent Blood Essence finally came to form in Nie Tian’s heart.

Sparkling and gorgeous like a crimson diamond, it seemed to be engraved with a complicated pattern that carried the miracles of life.

The drop of Blood Essence was filled with an extremely pure and rich life aura.

However, the birth of this drop of Blood Essence was based on Nie Tian’s ten drops of old Blood Essence and the remaining flesh power in that Goldskin Beast skull.

To condense a second drop of Blood Essence, he would need the corpse of an eighth grade outsider or Ancientbeast. However, Nie Tian had already run out of such luxuries. The spirit beast meat he had was only enough to meet his daily consumption.

Only after condensing all fifty drops of Blood Essence would he have a chance at entering the origin of his bloodline to obtain bloodline magics.

Nie Tian sighed with mixed emotions. “The path of bloodline upgrades is a long one. Now, my bloodline is at the seventh grade. Who knows how much flesh power and how many years it’ll take for my bloodline to upgrade in the future...”

Without more Ancientbeast or outsider corpses, he couldn’t condense more Blood Essence, strengthen his body, or satisfy the green aura’s appetite.

This meant that even though his bloodline had successfully entered the seventh grade, he wouldn’t be able to achieve much with his upgraded bloodline within a short period of time.

Therefore, he had no choice but to further the refinement of his spiritual sea.

Time flew. Soon, two days passed.

During this time, Pei Qiqi had never approached him or asked him about his bloodline upgrade. Instead, she had focused on her own cultivation, and only took a glance at him every once in a while.

WHOOSH!

Pei Qiqi suddenly let out a deep breath and rose to her feet.

Nie Tian opened his eyes and looked at her.

“That Bonebrute ancient starship is going to arrive at the dead realm where Sikong Cuo and his men are hiding soon,” Pei Qiqi said. “A battle could break out at any moment.”

Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he asked, “So that elder of your sect...”

“Elder Fan will be able to cast Void Travel, but she won’t be able to keep the spatial rift open longer than a few seconds,” Pei Qiqi said, looking slightly worried. “Elder Fan is at the early Saint domain and well-versed in all sorts of spatial magics. If she didn’t have to cast Void Travel, she would be more than capable of keeping herself safe by shifting about in that realm.”

“If that’s the case, tell her to find an excuse to not cast Void Travel, and prompt Sikong Cuo to fight the Bonebrutes,” Nie Tian suggested.

Pei Qiqi had a headache over the situation. “Even though that’s doable... I’m afraid that Sikong Cuo will hold my sect accountable for her actions after this operation. It’s her duty to transfer Sikong Cuo and his subordinates from place to place with Void Travel. If she can cast Void Travel but refuses to do so, then it’ll be a dereliction of duty.”

Nie Tian pondered briefly, then said, “Perhaps Sikong Cuo won’t want to leave right away. He may choose to stay and fight. There’s only Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher, Pergson, and a band of other Bonebrutes at different grades on that ancient starship. As for Sikong Cuo, he has three Saint domain experts on his team, and one of them is at the late Saint domain. It’s not like it’s a battle they can’t win.”

Eyes narrowed, Pei Qiqi hesitated for a few seconds before casting a secret spell of the Void Spirit Society to initiate secret communications with Fan Wen.

...

In an unidentified dead realm.

The late Saint domain Zou Qing was alerted as soon as the Bonebrute ancient starship entered the broken realm barrier.

His expression flickered as he exclaimed, “Master! A Bonebrute starship is here!”

Sikong Cuo gasped with astonishment. “The Bonebrutes?! Try and see if you can sense their grades. If it’s a battle we can’t win, we need to tell Fan Wen to get us out of here as soon as possible. If the Bonebrutes on that starship aren’t as strong as us, we’ll stay and kill them.”

Zou Qing nodded.

A network of fine lightning bolts suddenly appeared in the air.

They rapidly spread towards the edge of the dead realm, along with Zou QIng’s soul awareness.

“A late ninth grade Bonebrute grand patriarch! Judging from his aura…” Zou Qing said in a low voice as he sensed with rapt attention. “It must be Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher!”

“Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher?!” Sikong Cuo immediately felt an urge to leave. “Among all the Bonebrutes, Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher’s battle prowess is second only to the three grand monarchs. He’s going to be very difficult to handle.”

Face grim, Zou Qing nodded slightly. “Exactly. Even I don’t have confidence that I’ll be able to defeat him in battle. I believe I’d have much better odds if it were some Phantasm grand patriarch, instead of Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher. After all, I practice lightning power, which has a strong subduing effect on Phantasms. But Bonebrutes...”

A bitter expression appeared on his face.

Zou Qing continued to sense with rapt attention. “Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher seems to be the only grand patriarch on that starship. All the rest are a bunch of eighth grade Bonebrute soldiers. I assume the odds will be against me if I were to fight Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher myself. But if can get someone to help me...” He went on with his calculation.

Before he could finish, Sikong Cuo called out, “Elder Fan!” 

SHEW!

Fan Wen arrived in a flash.

“Can you cast Void Travel and get us out of this realm now?” Sikong Cuo asked with a grim face.

“I can cast Void Travel. That won’t be a problem. But I won’t be able to keep the spatial rift open longer than a few seconds.” Fan Wen said, looking a bit awkward. “Besides, I’ve also sensed the aura of a Bonebrute grand patriarch. If he somehow interrupts me when I’m casting Void Travel, the spatial rift will become unstable. The result will be unpredictable.”

Face even grimmer, Sikong Cuo asked, “So what are you saying?”

“What I’m saying is I can cast Void Travel, but I can only get about half of your people out of here,” Fan Wen answered, looking self-possessed. “Also, you’ll have to make sure that Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher doesn’t interrupt me in any way.”

Anger instantly filled Sikong Cuo’s heart as he asked coldly, “Are you sure that there isn’t a way for all of us to leave this realm?”

“I’m afraid so,” Fan Wen answered. “But the way I see it, the incoming Bonebrutes aren’t that formidable. Staying and fighting might not be a bad choice. Also, if I have a few more days to recover my strength, then I’ll definitely be able to get all of you out of here with Void Travel.”

“How do I know that more outsiders aren’t on their way here?” Sikong Cuo blurted testily.

“The choice is yours.” Fan Wen didn’t want to waste her breath. “If you want me to cast Void Travel now, I’ll do it. But I can’t promise how many of you will be able to leave through it.”

Sikong Cuo pondered for a long while before fixing Zou Qing with a deep look. “Do we have a chance at winning this battle?”

“I think we do,” Zou Qing answered.

“Alright then. Now that we don’t really have a choice, let’s prepare for battle!” Sikong Cuo made his stance clear.

...

Not just Sikong Cuo, but Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher, who was standing on the incoming bone starship, also found the situation undesirable.

He ordered the starship to be berthed.

At this point, he had also sensed the auras of Zou Qing and the other Saint domain experts.

He had thought that he was finally going to catch Pei Qiqi, Nie Tian, and Huang Jinnan this time. Who would have thought that he would find a group of powerful humans instead?

Three Saint domain experts, and more than a dozen Void domain experts. Even he didn’t have confidence in crushing them in battle.

“What should we do now, grand patriarch?” Pergson asked.

“There’s a Son of the Stars down there, but we seem to have lost track of the three we’ve been chasing.” After a moment of hesitation, Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher added, “Try to get in contact with the others, as well as the Phantasms and people from the Nether Spirit Society and the Death Curse Sect. See if any of them are in this area. If they are, tell them to find the closest teleportation portal or spatial rift, and come to us as soon as possible.”

Pergson nodded and asked, “Do we fight them now?” 

“Of course!” Even though Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher also had worries, his fighting spirit was much higher than Sikong Cuo’s. “You stay here. The rest of you are going down there with me! We don’t have to win the battle within a short time. We just need to stall them long enough for our reinforcements to arrive. Then, the final victory will be ours!”

As soon as he said these words, one eighth grade Bonebrute after another appeared on the deck of the starship made of bones.

“Kill as many of them as you can! Don’t hold back!” Exclaiming these words, Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher leapt off the starship and plummeted towards the earth like a mountain of translucent, sparkling bones.

The eighth grade Bonebrutes jumped off after him. Each and every one of them emanated a strong aura of death as they dove out of the sky.

Face cold, Pei Qiqi gazed off into the distance at a dead realm that was only the size of a fist. “The battle has started.” 

Even though she couldn’t see the Bonebrute ancient starship from such a long distance, she had learned from Fan Wen that Grand Patriarch Bone Crusher had made a move.

“Dammit. Why do they have to be Bonebrutes, but not people of any other race?” Nie Tian complained.

“What difference does that make?” Pei Qiqi asked, looking puzzled.

With a pitiful face, Nie Tian explained, “If they were outsiders of other races, like Demons, Phantasms, Birdmen, or Blackscales, I’d be able to harvest their corpses after the battle and make significant use of them. Even though dead Bonebrutes will also contain residual flesh power, since it’ll be mixed with death power, it won’t be of much help to me.”