In Fragmentary Star City, subordinates of the other six Sons of the Stars complained aloud in their respective lofty stone pavilions.
“What?! The Vast Heaven Pavilion hasn’t been assigned to anyone for so many years, but now they gave it to him?!”
“He was given a hundred thousand initial contribution points?!”
“Our sect talked to the Void Spirit Society and put the Domain of the Falling Stars, the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, and the Domain of Heaven Python in his name?!”
“What’s the result of his assessment anyways? Why does the grand elder favor him so much?”
“How come our master wasn’t rewarded so generously when he became a Son of the Stars?!”
Most of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace disciples hadn’t received word of Nie Tian passing the assessment and being bestowed a Star Medallion, the Vast Heaven Pavilion, a hundred thousand contribution points, the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, and the Domain of Heaven Python.
However, the subordinates of the six Sons of the Stars had already gained those pieces of shocking information through their respective secret means.
After moments of astonishment and venting their discontent, they left through the teleportation portals in the stone pavilions that had been assigned to the Sons of the Stars to report this matter to their masters.
“We’ve got to inform our master of this now!”
“The seventh Son of the Stars will probably become our master’s strong opponent in the future!”
“Our sect is attaching too much importance to him.”
…
The Vast Heaven Pavilion was more than a hundred meters high, with a large-scale inter-domain teleportation portal in the middle of its ground floor hall.
The teleportation portal hadn’t been used in many years. There weren’t even any spatial power materials left at its bottom.
At this moment, a Qi warrior of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace who was well-versed in spatial magics was standing inside the portal, adjusting its spell formation and branding it with the coordinates for the Realm of Shattered Earth and the Domain of the Falling Stars.
New details were being added to the spatial spell formation. After the adjustment was complete, Nie Tian would be able to teleport to the Realm of Shattered Earth and the Domain of the Falling Stars directly through it.
The old man continued to comb through the veins of the spell formation standing in the middle of the portal.
Nie Tian, however, walked from room to room with Huang Jinnan alongside him.
The Vast Heaven Pavilion had twelve floors, each of which consisted of many empty stone rooms.
In the future, Nie Tian would be able to turn them into residences for his subordinates and family, cultivation rooms, storage rooms for spiritual materials, and equipment forging rooms.
The structure of the Vast Heaven Pavilion’s ceiling was very similar to that of the secret palaces in the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Realm of Shattered Earth.
Star power could be channeled through its ceiling from the boundless starry river, and turned into falling bits of starlight.
Aside from that, the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Vast Heaven Pavilion was much richer than in other places in Fragmentary Star City.
“It’s hard to believe that they actually gave you the Vast Heaven Pavilion,” Huang Jinnan marveled as he strolled the floors of the Vast Heaven Pavilion with Nie Tian.
“Even I have heard something about this pavilion. It seems to have been unoccupied since before I became a Divine Son of the Five Elements Sect. Over the years, many Sons of the Stars and elders of your sect, who had made significant contributions and gained millions of contribution points, asked for it, but were refused.
“But you… You’ve just become a Son of the Stars, and yet they gave the Vast Heaven Pavilion to you. People will definitely be jealous.”
With these words, Huang Jinnan paused briefly. His eyes shone with golden light as he asked, “What on earth was the result of your assessment? Why did that old eccentric Mo Heng attach such importance to you?”
With a confused look on his face, Nie Tian answered, “All I did was give them a drop of my Blood Essence and wait outside the hall. It didn’t take very long before Wei Lai and the other elders walked out. After that, they gave me the Star Medallion, and told me that I’d been given the Vast Heaven Pavilion and a hundred thousand initial contribution points. Also, no one will touch the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries from now on, and I’ll be allowed to include them in my map through my own means.”
Huang Jinnan sighed with mixed emotions. “You’re such a lucky guy.”
While the two of them spoke in low voices, the late Void domain spatial power expert on the ground floor cleared his throat and called out, “The spell formation has been readjusted. You’ll be able to teleport to the Realm of Shattered Earth and the Domain of the Falling Stars through it from now on.”
Standing on the top floor, Nie Tian gazed down the raise in the middle and expressed his gratitude.
“You’re a Son of the Stars. Your Star Medallion holds enough contribution points for me to connect this teleportation portal to the inter-domain teleportation portals in the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries.” The man sounded neither humble nor arrogant. “It’ll cost fifty thousand contribution points to establish each connection. You can take some time to think about it.”
Nie Tian was taken aback. “It’ll take fifty thousand contribution points to connect one domain to the Vast Heaven Pavilion alone?!”
The old man nodded, smiling.
“If you need my services, come find me. My name is Kan Zhisheng.” With these words, he turned around and left.
Huang Jinnan smiled. “Fifty thousand contribution points to establish a connection to another domain is actually a fair charge. After all, it’s not easy to find people who can do this kind of work, and they’ll have to gather all of the necessary materials themselves and spend time working on it.”
Nie Tian frowned, not saying a word.
At this point, he had already learned the importance of his contribution points.
Even though he was a Son of the Stars, he would have to rely on his contribution points to trade for spiritual tools, spiritual materials, and medicinal pills from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
Aside from the records in the Records Pavilion, he would have to earn all of his other resources himself.
With a hundred thousand contribution points, he would be able to obtain two Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools from the Tools Pavilion, or three if the spiritual tools weren’t in optimal condition.
With the same amount of contribution points, he would be able to obtain a large number of medicinal pills that would help with his cultivation from the Pills Pavilion.
The Materials Pavilion was stocked with all kinds of spiritual materials, including high grade spirit beast meat. A hundred thousand contribution points would get him a whole lot of them.
He pondered for a brief moment, and then decided not to spend his contribution points on connecting this place to the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries.
After all, he could still turn to Zhao Shanling for that.
“It won’t be long before the news of you becoming the seventh Son of the Stars spreads across the entire starry river,” Huang Jinnan said. “By that time, not only will the Qi warriors from the powerful human domains learn your name, but the outsiders will too.
“You’ll receive attention from all over the starry river.”
Then, he smiled. “Alright, I’m going back to my sect now, but I’m planning to explore another domain. Are you interested?”
Nie Tian was surprised. “You want me to explore it with you?”
“Yeah, my people found an unclaimed domain where they detected living beings,” Huang Jinnan answered. “Even though we haven’t built a teleportation portal there yet, we’re certain that domain is rich in cultivation resources. I’m sure they’ll be of great help if you want to build up your own force.”
Nie Tian pondered briefly before saying, “I’ve got to return to the Domain of the Falling Stars and check on the situation in the Domain of Heaven Python first.”
Huang Jinnan nodded. “I see. Take your time. I also need time to get certain things done anyways.”
Afterwards, Huang Jinnan left and returned to the guest residence the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had assigned to him. There, he reconvened with his subordinates and returned to the Five Elements Sect.
After he left, Nie Tian thought he would take a trip back to the Domain of the Falling Stars first, and then to the Domain of Heaven Python to see if the outsider invasion had been properly taken care of.
The Vast Heaven Pavilion belonged to him now, and that large-scale inter-domain teleportation portal had been readjusted, enabling him to teleport back to the palace in the Domain of the Falling Stars without any transits.
Soon, the spell formation was activated. Moments later, he appeared in the palace in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
To his surprise, the gate to the palace, which could only be opened by him, was wide open.
Standing in the middle of the hall, he could see Qi Bailu and the other experts, who were gathered by the teleportation portal in front of the palace.
Alarmed by the spatial fluctuations emanating from the teleportation portal, Dong Li walked out of one of the stone rooms.
At her heels was a pitch-black turtle.
It seemed to be rather happy to see him, and ran excitedly towards him.
WHOOSH!
Intense dark power and flesh aura came pouring out as the turtle skipped towards him.
BOOM!
Hit by the turtle, Nie Tian couldn’t help but tumble a few steps backwards.
After assuming a firm foothold again, he discovered that the turtle was rubbing itself against his ankle in a very loving way.
Nie Tian felt a sense of closeness as well as he looked down at the turtle, as if they were somehow related.
At the same time, he was astonished that such a small turtle was actually so heavy and solid that it almost knocked him over.
“This little thing is what was in that black egg,” Dong Li said with a bright smile on her face. “It’s a black tortoise, and it was born at the seventh grade.”
“The seventh grade?!” Nie Tian exclaimed, disbelief filling his face.
He still remembered the vermilion bird he had encountered at the Fortune Wells in the Shatter Battlefield. As powerful Ancientbeasts, vermilion birds were only born at the sixth grade.
If this black tortoise was born to be at the seventh grade, then it either belonged to an Ancientbeast species that was even more powerful than the vermilion bird, or it was a hybrid.
“Hahaha, yeah.” Dong Li smiled like a blossoming flower. “But it still has yet to stabilize itself. It’ll need to consume a great amount of spirit beast meat to stabilize at the seventh grade. Small as it is, it already eats several hundred kilos of meat every day.
“And all of the meat I gave it was taken from fifth or sixth grade spirit beasts. I don’t even know how it can eat so much.”
A smile of mixed emotions appeared on Dong Li’s face.
