Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong didn’t show any response after hearing Nie Tian’s words, their faces expressionless.
It seemed as if the deaths of those Qi warriors didn’t cause even the slightest wave in their hearts.
Nie Tian snorted a laugh and said, “Aren’t you two broad-minded.”
He didn’t say anything else. A cold look appeared in his eyes as he kept a close watch on the three lurkers’ movements, wondering what they were planning to do.
All of the Qi warriors who had left this place had been at the Worldly realm.
Nie Tian realized that he couldn’t sense their flesh auras anymore and thus was convinced that they had died. At the same time, the originally faint death Qi in the air grew considerably denser.
The fact that they heard nothing when those Worldly realm Qi warriors had been killed proved that their killers must have extraordinary means.
As intense demon Qi and phantasm Qi continued to pour into the mountain valley, the mountain peak, which the Qi warriors referred to as the Dao Enlightenment Rock, was gradually submerged in thick demon and phantasm Qi.
Nie Tian looked up, and the starlit sky was already blocked from view.
“Something is wrong.” The early Profound realm Qi warrior who Yin Yanan had talked to earlier sensed the unfavorable situation.
With a deep frown, he took out a Sound Stone from within his cuff, and whispered a few words into it.
From the look of it, he was friends with some of the Qi warriors who had left, and now he was hoping to talk to them through his Sound Stone.
His face grew grimmer as he held the Sound Stone to his ear, waiting for a response.
He took a deep breath and called out, “I can’t get in touch with Qiao Fei!”
The other Qi warriors who were gathered around the Dao Enlightenment Rock all stopped what they were doing and gazed at him from afar with furrowed eyebrows.
Two others also took out their Sound Stones and whispered something into them.
Moments later, their faces turned very grim as they said, “Nothing.”
At this moment, all of them connected this to the increasingly rich phantasm Qi and demon Qi, and sensed imminent danger.
“We need to get out of here now!” They exchanged a glance and instantly gathered to one point, where they prepared to leave the Dao Enlightenment Rock.
The thick demon Qi, phantasm Qi, and death Qi that was slowly building up would put humans at a disadvantage in battle. Therefore, whether danger was lurking around them or not, it was wise to leave as soon as possible.
With puzzled expressions, they cast their gazes towards Yin Yanan. “Aren’t you leaving?”
Not only did the three of them not move at all, but they didn’t even have the slightest fear on their faces.
“No,” Yin Yanan said coldly.
The man nodded and said, “Suit yourselves.”
Then, he picked a direction where the phantasm Qi and demon Qi was less thick, and dashed off at full speed with the other Profound realm Qi warriors.
As they did, a few air-transportation spiritual tools rose up and joined them in fleeing at full speed.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
However, they only flew several hundred meters before they suddenly fell off their air-transportation spiritual tools.
However, the inertia carried their air-transportation spiritual tools forward.
Those who fell from their air-transportation spiritual tools gasped with shock and shouted, “It’s the Phantasms’ Dark Soul Ward!”
Nie Tian slowly rose to his feet. Gazing at them from afar, he muttered in a low voice, “Dark Soul Ward…”
He had fought a powerful Phantasm named Armes, which made him rather familiar with this particular Phantasm bloodline magic.
Phantasms could use Dark Soul Ward to confine souls. When he had attempted to escape the Dark Soul Ward during his battle against Armes, he had suffered the agony of his soul being separated from his body, and thus had been forced to stay.
Those Profound realm Qi warriors might be able to separate their souls from their bodies, but once they abandoned their bodies, it would mean the end of their path of cultivation.
Besides, after being stripped of their bodies, their souls would suffer more miserable fates if the Phantasm were to unleash soul magics on them.
WHOOSH!
An enormous skull flew over.
Sitting on the skull was none other than the Phantasm youngster who Nie Tian and the girls had met once.
As the youngster’s face split into a grin, the skull, which was formed by countless discarnate souls, opened its huge mouth.
Two Profound realm Qi warriors instantly had their true souls ripped out of their seas of awareness.
In the next moment, their true souls disappeared into the skull’s unfathomable mouth.
After losing their true souls, the two Profound realm Qi warriors collapsed to the ground, bereft of any life force.
The few other Profound realm Qi warriors’ faces turn pale with fright as they subconsciously stepped backwards.
The skull went on to channel their true souls. However, they either practiced profound incantations or possessed powerful spiritual tools, so they all managed to pin their true souls in their seas of awareness, and escaped death.
Like bolts of lightning, they shot back to the Dao Enlightenment Rock.
The Phantasm youngster had a hearty smile on his face as he controlled the enormous skull that he sat on to fly over in an unhurried fashion.
Instead of the five Profound realm Qi warriors, the Phantasm youngster looked at Nie Tian and the girls and said, “Long time no see. I suppose you’ve taken the Silicon Silver from the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect’s hands, right?”
Yin Yanan let out a cold harrumph. “Yeah, so?”
With a smile, the youngster said, “Good. You know Silicon Silver is not only of great value to you humans, but to us too. Originally, I assumed that a fierce battle would break out between you and those Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples, but I only found the corpse of one of them after I arrived.”
Yin Yanan didn’t chime in. Instead, she placed her hand on the Frost Blood Python’s head and sent it a message.
In the next moment, her expression flickered.
The Frost Blood Python’s soul awareness was still examining the Dao Enlightenment Rock and deriving enlightenment from those complicated lines. It didn’t even respond to her call.
If the Frost Blood Python’s soul awareness didn’t return, it meant she no longer had her strongest backing.
The Phantasm youngster’s gruesome skull made even the eighth grade Frost Blood Python apprehensive. Therefore, she was no longer confident now that she had lost the Frost Blood Python’s backing for the time being.
“There’s a problem, Nie Tian,” She whispered.
Nie Tian had already noticed the anomaly, but he remained calm as he asked the Phantasm youngster, “Where are your friends? Let me guess. One of them is a Demon, and the other is a Bonebrute. Am I right?”
The man who had talked to Yin Yanan earlier burst into a flaming rage. “You knew that outsiders have been lurking in the dark?!”
“Yeah, I knew,” Nie Tian answered with understatement.
The Phantasm youngster held out his thumb towards Nie Tian. “Impressive. I can’t believe you actually sensed our presence. You three are what we came for. The others are only add-ons.”
Then, his eyes suddenly narrowed. “You seem to have something that shouldn’t belong to you.”
“What are you talking about?” Nie Tian asked.
The Phantasm youngster’s eyes shone with the light of excitement. “A Spirit Pearl.”
With these words, the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows suddenly burst forth with bright light.
Fine cyan lightning bolts then appeared and interwove within the prismatic crystal, as if they were manipulating the Dark Soul Ward.
Like a huge net, the Dark Soul Ward started to shrink at an alarming speed, the space inside of it becoming smaller and smaller.
CRACK!
All of a sudden, the ground where everyone was standing cracked, and a translucent bony hand thrust out.
Standing on the crack was a middle Profound realm Qi warrior. The bony hand caught him by his ankle and dragged him into the earth.
The man’s bloodcurdling scream came from under the ground, but stopped abruptly in the next moment.
The remaining four Qi warriors gasped with shock as they hastily jumped away. “That’s a Bonebrute!”
Blood spilled from the crack in the earth, which indicated the man’s instant death.
Then, a short Bonebrute slowly climbed out of the bloody crack.
However, he didn’t have a single shred of blood on his translucent and sparkling bones after he came out. Misty light could be seen flowing within his jade-like skeleton.
An aura that could wither all things gradually rose from his small bony body, and pervaded the entire area.
All of the Qi warriors in his surroundings gasped with astonishment as they hastily infused their wards with more spiritual power to stop the aura of death from infiltrating them.
“Bonebrute…” With a surprised expression, Nie Tian examined the Bonebrute. After a moment of pondering, he asked, “Do you know Xing Bo from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect? He’s from the Domain of Heaven Python.”
After Xing Bo’s collusion with the Bonebrutes had been brought to light, he had escaped the pursuit of the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s experts, along with a Void domain elder. With the Bonebrutes’ help, they had fled to a Bonebrute realm.
Before he had left, he had claimed that he would enter the Shatter Battlefield, and people were welcome to come and settle accounts with him.
Xing Bo had killed Zhen Huilan and captured Pei Qiqi. Nie Tian had long since put him on his must-kill list.
That was why he thought of Xing Bo as soon as he saw a Bonebrute.
“Xing Bo… the Domain of Heaven Python…” the Bonebrute youngster muttered in fluent human language. “He sounds familiar, but I can’t be sure. I suppose he has connections with another branch of our race, and has also come to the Shatter Battlefield through our spatial tunnel.”
Nie Tian’s eyes lit up. “Do you know where he is?”
The Bonebrute youngster ran his round eyes up and down Nie Tian. With a puzzled expression, he said, “You’re going to die soon. Why do you still care about that?”
With these words, he summoned a bone saber that was only half a meter long.
However, as soon as he did, the death Qi in the air seemed to suddenly seethe.
With a quick motion, he swung the bone saber towards the four Profound realm Qi warriors.
Numerous sparkling and crystal-clear spots flew out of the bone saber as an overwhelming aura of death instantly engulfed the four.
The bone saber seemed to be vested with unlimited power by Death.
Deeply panicked, they screamed within the thick aura of death, as if they had recognized the Bonebrute youngster, “That’s that legendary bone saber!”
CRACK! CRACK!
Their spiritual tools and spiritual armor were all as fragile as paper before the bone saber. They shattered along with their owners.
As the Bonebrute made a few slashing motions with the bone saber, the four Qi warriors were cut to pieces. Then, their death aura was channeled away from their mangled bodies and absorbed by the bone saber, which made the bright spots on the bone saber even brighter.
The most powerful of the four Qi warriors was at the late Profound realm.
However, none of them were able to even hold on for a few seconds facing the bone saber.
At this point, the foreign Qi warriors who had been gathered around the Dao Enlightenment Rock had all been wiped out.
Not the slightest change could be seen in the Bonebrute youngster’s eyes after he slaughtered the four Qi warriors. He turned to the Phantasm youngster and demanded, “I want half of the Silicon Silver.”
At this moment, a thunderous voice came from the distance. “I want that eighth grade python!”
In the next moment, a tall youngster dressed in black garments and a violet-gold belt strode into everyone’s view.
Judging from his purple hair and pupils, he was clearly a high-tier Demon. However, the ferocious look in his eyes made him look like a frenzied beast from Demon realms, not a creature with remarkable intelligence.
Raging flesh auras wreathed him as he arrived in the blink of an eye.
A vicious smile appeared on the Phantasm youngster’s face as he laid his eyes on Nie Tian and the girls and said, “Alright, I’ll take the other half of the Silicon Silver and that Spirit Pearl.”
The three outsiders rapidly reached a mutual understanding.
“The Spirit Pearl…” Nie Tian sent a wisp of soul awareness into his ring of holding. In the next moment, the Spirit Pearl flew out and landed in his palm.
“You do have a Spirit Pearl!” The Phantasm youngster exclaimed, looking overjoyed.
“Come on out!” As Nie Tian shouted these words, the Bone Blood Demon also flew out of his ring of holding and landed with a loud crash.
The sight of the Bone Blood Demon put burning fury in the Bonebrute youngster’s eyes. “A senior of our race! I can’t believe you actually turned him into a puppet!”
Pointing at Nie Tian, he shouted, “He’s mine!”
