Chapter 268: Another Turn of Events

Battles and conflicts broke out year-round in every realm of the Domain of the Falling Stars.

In the other nine realms, since there were Qi warrior sects, some young and weak cultivators were respected by others because of their parents’ or grandparents’ lofty status in the sect.

This wasn’t the case in the Realm of Split Void.

Outlaws and bandits from the other nine realms came together and formed forces in the Realm of Split Void, which made it an even more inhospitable environment for cultivators.

In here, bloody battles took place all the time. People only worshipped the strong and fierce.

Even Cai Yuan, the son of the Blood Skull’s head, had to win recognition and respect from the Blood Skull elders through countless battles and years of tempering in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, let alone common members of the Blood Skull.

In Cai Yue’s eyes, now that her brother had given Nie Tian a guest elder’s identity medallion, he should possess strength and power that matched such status.

She took it for granted that Nie Tian, who had just obtained their guest elder’s identity, would have put forth a good performance in this operation by killing as many Dark Moon members as possible to prove himself to all the Blood Skull members, including her brother.

If Nie Tian failed to prove his strength to everyone, they would question her brother’s judgment.

However, Nie Tian had been nothing but a onlooker. She wasn’t sure if he was afraid of fighting Dark Moon enemies or if he had other intentions.

Nevertheless, from her point of view, Nie Tian’s negative actions jeopardized her brother’s prestige and authority. Therefore, she didn’t even try to mask her discontent with him.

Nie Tian smiled and turned a blind eye on her accusations.

He also noticed the way Shi Qing was looking at him, knowing that Shi Qing also questioned his competence.

Cai Yue let out a cold snort and said with an imposing manner, “What? Is that admitting that you were afraid? If you’re afraid, just turn in the guest elder’s identity medallion. Don’t you taint our reputation, let people look down on the Blood Skull, and assume that we take in whoever wishes to join us!”

At that moment, Pei Qiqi, who had been engrossed in using spatial magics to analyze the formation of the teleportation portal, said with a cold tone without even turning her head, “Senior Shi, I need to concentrate to crack the spell formation of this teleportation portal. Would you please tell her to keep quiet?”

Cai Yue immediately grew angry after hearing Pei Qiqi’s words. “It’s you who needs to keep quiet!”

She held her hands akimbo as she turned around to target Pei Qiqi like an small, yet aggressive, gamecock.

Actually, the fact that she was angry with Nie Tian had a great deal to do with Pei Qiqi.

She knew that Nie Tian was with Pei Qiqi and Li Ye.

Cai Yuan had repeatedly put himself in danger for Pei Qiqi, so Cai Yue had long since made Pei Qiqi her number one enemy. Accordingly, she wouldn’t be kind to whoever was related to Pei Qiqi.

Just as she was about to lash out, Shi Qing cleared his throat and said, “Alright, alright, you can settle your issues later. Miss Pei needs to focus on the portal now. If Miss Pei can’t crack the teleportation portal, we’ll probably have to deal with a flood of Dark Moon experts. Let’s look at the bigger picture, shall we?”

Actually, Shi Qing was also somewhat confused.

He was fairly familiar with Pei Qiqi, Li Ye, and their master.

He was aware that the three of them were highly regarded in Shatter City. Even the head of the Blood Skull treated them with respect.

Both Pei Qiqi and Li Ye had numerous Qi warriors working for them, but it seemed that they never attached even the slightest importance to any of them.

He had already realized that Nie Tian was unusually close to Li Ye, for not only had Li Ye taken Nie Tian to the Blood Skull’s headquarters, but he had asked for favors to arrange a cultivation room for Nie Tian.

Pei Qiqi had been known for her unparalleled arrogance and loftiness. She normally wouldn’t attach much importance to anyone.

Obviously, part of the reason that Pei Qiqi told Cai Yue to keep quiet was to stick up for Nie Tian. This was very uncommon, and went against Pei Qiqi’s personality.

“Who exactly is this Hua Tian person?” Shi Qing couldn’t help but wonder, eyes glittering.

After being berated by Shi Qi, Cai Yue pierced even more holes into the dead body, making it a bloody mess, to vent her discontent.

Even though she still mumbled something as she wielded her sword, her voice grew fainter and fainter.

After all, she also understood what it would mean for the Blood Skull if Pei Qiqi could successfully crack and dismantle the Dark Moon’s teleportation portal.

Without it, the Dark Moon’s base would lose its meaning, and thus they wouldn’t be able to lead expeditions in the Void Illusion Mountain Range in the near future.

All the Dark Moon experts who were still wandering in the mountain range would fall prey to the Blood Skull and Wild Fire, and the Dark Moon would be dealt a significant blow because of it.

Therefore, even though she held serious grudges against Pei Qiqi, she knew that she’d better put them aside for the time being.

With her quieting down, Nie Tian was relieved as he once again watched Pei Qiqi work on the teleportation portal.

There wasn’t any sign of Gu Yu, Cai Yuan, or the other Blood Skull members returning, since it was clear to them that the fleeing Dark Moon members were hoping to join forces with Ma Jiu and his band.

If they did, it would be much more difficult to destroy them.

Hence, they exerted all their power to chase down and kill them before they could.

A short while passed…

Strong spatial fluctuations rippled out from Pei Qiqi. Eyes shining with a sharp light, she suddenly pressed her jade-like hand against a corner of the portal.

CRUNCH!

The originally tightly incorporated spell formation cracked open, and a component fell off of it.

Without any hesitation, Pei Qiqi rapidly put that component away.

Afterwards, her hands continuously moved about as she dismantled the teleportation portal and stored all the components in her ring of holding.

The teleportation portal, which the Dark Moon had spent an enormous amount of resources and effort to build, vanished after a short while.

“Alright!” Pei Qiqi seemed rather exhausted as she sat down on the ground. Right before she began to recover her strength with medicinal pills and spirit stones, she turned to Shi Qing and said, “You can inform Senior Gu that they can take their time chasing after the Dark Moon members, as no reinforcements from the Land of the Abandoned are coming any time soon.”

Shi Qing’s spirits were greatly lifted. “Nice work! Thank you, Miss Pei!”

Pei Qiqi’s success had put an end to their worries of being attacked from behind. Not only did they not need to withdraw from here, but they could even go on and hunt down Ma Jiu and his band.

“No need to thank me.” Pei Qiqi’s tone was quite frigid. She slowly closed her eyes and said, “Oh, right, since I cracked this teleportation portal, it should belong to me, right?”

“Of course, it’s only fair.” Although Shi Qing also desired it, he could only nod along.

After all, he knew how valuable a teleportation portal was.

Even all the valuables looted from the Dark Moon Qi warriors in the valley added together wouldn’t match the value of that teleportation portal.

In order for forces like the Blood Skull to persist in the Realm of Split Void, those teleportation portals were what they needed and simultaneously lacked the most.

If they could bring it back to Shatter City and give it to Cai Lan, Cai Lan would undoubtedly be ecstatic, and reward them with numerous cultivation materials that agreed with them.

Both Gu Yu’s and his status would rise significantly due to their great contribution.

However, he was aware that Pei Qiqi had played the most crucial part in this operation. If it weren’t for her, the Blood Skull wouldn’t have made up their minds to launch the raid.

If she hadn’t cracked and dismantled the teleportation portal, they would have faced great potential danger for being in the mountain valley.

Even though she hadn’t fought per se, her contribution determined the course of the battle, so she deserved to keep the teleportation portal.

Even Cai Yue, who detested her very much, didn’t say anything to protest this matter.

Immediately afterwards, Shi Qing used his Sound Stone to inform Gu Yu and Cai Yuan of the situation, and told them that they could go all-out to chase after the deserters, and didn’t need to worry about powerful Dark Moon experts descending upon them.

Deep into the night…

Pei Qiqi was recuperating, and Shi Qing was sitting next to Cai Yue, adjusting his breathing with his eyes closed.

At that moment, none of the Blood Skull had returned since they hadn’t finished hunting down their enemies.

Without anything better to do, Nie Tian was also sitting on the ground, refining his spiritual sea.

Before the operation, every last wisp of flesh power generated from the Golden Stone Rhino’s meat had been torn to shreds and devoured by the domineering green aura residing in his heart.

However, considering that Shi Qing and Cai Yue were around, he reckoned it was better if he stayed on the safe side and didn’t eat the Golden Stone Rhino’s meat.

Even still, as he refined his spiritual sea, he spared some of his attention to keep an eye on the green aura.

The green aura was slithering in his heart restlessly, as if it was longing very eagerly for more flesh essence.

“Abyssal indeed…” Nie Tian couldn’t help but marvel at it.

He couldn’t be sure how much flesh power he had accumulated throughout the years before he had finally awakened his bloodline talent, Life Transfer.

The fact that the green aura had been acting so strangely made him wonder if perhaps there was a possibility that it could upgrade again soon.

However, its demand for flesh power was so great that he had a headache over the situation.

It was as if the small green aura was a dried-up riverbank; it would require an immeasurably large amount of flesh power to fill it to the brim.

Only when it was full and satisfied would it settle down, lie dormant, and get ready for its next spectacular change.

At the first light of dawn…

Keh! Keh!

Soft coughs suddenly echoed out from afar.

Soon, a pale, sickly, skinny Qi warrior appeared in the mountain valley.

At first, Shi Qing assumed that it was a member of the Blood Skull who had gotten separated and thus returned.

However, when the Qi warrior stepped closer and stared at him with a strange smile on his ghastly face, a shiver ran through Shi Qing as his face instantly dropped.

Pei Qiqi, who was still recovering her strength with spirit stones, also sprang to her feet, as if they were facing a great enemy.

Nie Tian and Cai Yue didn’t know what was happening, and thus shot confused glances towards the man.

Shi Qing took a deep breath and said louly to the man, with an extremely grim expression, “Li Langfeng! I didn’t expect that you’d show up in the Void Illusion Mountain Range!”

“Yeah, I’ve explored it for a few days, and I was on my way back to the Land of the Abandoned.” After uttering a few words, Li Langfeng coughed violently twice, his face filled with a gruesome, diseased-beyond-cure paleness. “I can’t believe you managed to take the Dark Moon’s base and tear down their teleportation portal. I have to say, I’m impressed.”

With those words, he shook his head and said with a helpless expression, “After all, I’m a guest elder of the Dark Moon, and take shelter in the Land of the Abandoned. Plus, I traveled here via their teleportation portal. Now that you’ve stolen it, how am I supposed to return to the Land of the Abandoned?”

Shi Qing’s face was as sullen as lake water as he said, “What do you want?”

Li Langfeng didn’t respond immediately. Rather, he took his time to glance over the few people in the valley, then said with a sigh, “I’m not an official member of the Dark Moon, so I’m not obligated to kill Pei Qiqi and offend her master just for them. I can’t kill Cai Lan’s only daughter either. If I did, he’d definitely go mad, and I’m afraid I won’t be be able to make a living in the Realm of Split Void.

“But on the other hand, as a guest elder of the Dark Moon, I have to do something.

“Shi Qing, if I kill you, I can show the Dark Moon that I’ve honored my identity, and at the same time, I don’t need to worry that Cai Lan will exert all measures to come after me. So, this has to be done, sorry.”

While Shi Qing had a grim look in his eyes, Li Langfeng turned to take a look at Nie Tian and asked, “Who are you?”

Before Nie Tian could respond, he went on and said, “At the Heaven stage and not wearing Blood Skull garments. It seems that it doesn’t matter who you are. Well, it’s your bad luck that you’re here. I’ll just take you as a tagalong. I’ll turn in your head along with Shi Qing’s and get whatever I can from the Dark Moon.”

“He’s one of ours!” Pei Qiqi said coldly.

Li Langfeng’s face remained still as he said, “Your master only has two disciples, you and Li Ye. As long as I don’t kill you, your master won’t make a big fuss about it. I don’t believe your master will hunt me down for this kid.”

“Oh, right, hand over the teleportation portal you’ve taken from the Dark Moon, and then you can leave.”