A small boat sailed at a high speed in the dim starry river.
The boat was called a ‘Voidheaven Boat’. The sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society had given it to Pei Qiqi after taking her in as his legacy disciple.
Like the Star Boats of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, Voidheaven Boats were also well-known and hard to make. Only the sectmaster, his legacy disciples, and several elders had them.
The Voidheaven Boat wasn’t nearly as large as an ancient starship, as it could only fit five people. Technically, it was an air-transportation spiritual tool.
However, like an ancient starship, it could ward off the dangerous impurities in the starry river and travel through realm barriers.
At this moment, Nie Tian, Pei Qiqi, and Huang Jinnan were sitting on the Voidheaven Boat as they sailed towards remote areas where they might find dead realms.
Nie Tian gazed in every direction, and felt that everything around him had become dark and lifeless. “I can’t see any stars flickering anymore.”
When they had first set out, he still had been able to see flickering stars in their surroundings, but now, there wasn’t a single flickering star in sight.
Huang Jinnan shook his head repeatedly and sighed with a grim face. “The grand monarch’s flesh aura must have enveloped the entire Domain of Nether Heaven and masked all of the stars that give off light now. Who would have thought that our punitive expedition into the Domain of Nether Heaven would end up like this?”
Pei Qiqi shot him a sideways glance and said coldly, “Both your spiritual core and true soul are badly injured. You’d better spend more time recovering.”
“Don’t you have the same problem?” Huang Jinnan asked with a rhetorical tone.
Sitting on the prow of the Voidheaven Boat by herself, Pei Qiqi replied, “I’m in a better condition than you are. If the three of us can get our strength back soon, we actually have a good chance at surviving this tribulation in the Domain of Nether Heaven, given that we don’t run into any outsider grand patriarchs.
“Of course I need to recover as well. If I get my strength back, I’ll be able to use Void Travel again. Even if we can’t get out of the Domain of Nether Heaven, we’ll be able to travel back and forth between different realms.”
As she spoke, wisps of spatial power rose continuously from the stones that she had paved the bottom of the Voidheaven Boat with, and flew into her.
After a moment of hesitation, Nie Tian said, “Both of you have sustained serious fleshly wounds. How about this: I’ll help you two heal those wounds first. Brother Huang, compared to her, you’re easier to heal. Let me start with you.”
With these words, he walked to Huang Jinnan’s back, not giving him time to speak.
After placing his hands on Huang Jinnan’s lower back, he activated Heavenly Wood Heal. Then, streams of wood power that contained vigorous life force started streaming into Huang Jinnan’s body.
Huang Jinnan wasn’t a hybrid. All of his fleshly wounds had been caused by the dashing lights in the spatial tunnel when they had escaped realm number nine.
If he relied on medicinal pills and himself to heal his wounds, the healing process would be fairly long.
However, with the help of Nie Tian’s wondrous Heavenly Wood Heal and nourishing wood power, all of his deep cuts rapidly stopped bleeding.
Wisps of rich wood power flew back and forth like a needle and threads in his open wounds. It wasn’t very long before his scary-looking wounds were mostly healed.
“This is as easy as I thought it would be,” Nie Tian muttered to himself as he withdrew his hands.
He didn’t even have to use his flesh power this time. After all, Huang Jinnan was only human, and his fleshly wounds were fairly easy to heal.
His real trouble was his damaged metal power core and depleted true soul.
Both of these had been the result of him forcibly channeling power from his master’s dharma idol.
Huang Jinnan grinned, looking more spirited than before. “Thanks. I’ll take it from here.”
With these words, he took out a few pills that emanated a rich medicinal aroma and stuffed them into his mouth. After that, he took out several stones that shone with golden light and started channeling power from them.
Seeing this, Nie Tian walked over to Pei Qiqi.
Pei Qiqi suddenly lifted her hand, and a glowing stripe appeared across the floor in the middle of the Voidheaven Boat.
Immediately afterwards, a ward went up like a pearl curtain, separating Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi from Huang Jinnan, who was cultivating wholeheartedly.
The mysterious light in the ward was murky, and thrummed with strong spatial power.
Even though they were only a few steps from each other, Nie Tian couldn’t see Huang Jinnan or even sense his aura.
Nie Tian fixed Pei Qiqi with a bewildered look.
“I don’t want other people to learn my secrets,” Pei Qiqi said plainly.
Nie Tian smiled and walked to her back, where he slowly placed his hand on her chilly back and examined her with his flesh aura.
Nie Tian frowned and said, “Your injuries are much heavier than Huang Jinnan’s. Many of your meridians are now congested.”
Eyes narrowed, he examined her even more carefully.
Soon, an astonished look appeared in his eyes.
Human bodies were covered in numerous meridians and acupoints. However, as his flesh aura flowed around inside Pei Qiqi, he discovered that some of her acupoints were like independent rooms that were filled with countless spatial blades.
Nie Tian was aware that very few among humans were skilled at refining their bodies and knew how to develop their acupoints.
Usually, developed acupoints could be used to hold flesh power.
As for Pei Qiqi, even though she had only developed a small portion of her acupoints, each of her developed acupoints was like an independent heaven and earth that contained numerous spatial blades and turbulent spatial power.
“This is probably caused by her unique bloodline.” With this thought, Nie Tian ran a deeper examination, and discovered that her most serious injuries lay within those developed acupoints.
All of those independent spaces were now covered in cracks, which seemed to have undermined those acupoints and caused the spatial blades within them to fly disorderly.
After pondering for a short while, he decided to try healing them with wood power.
However, as his wood power flew out of his spiritual sea into the acupoints that were riddled with cracks, it didn’t seem to be welcome at all, as the spatial blades swarmed in and ripped it to shreds.
“Let me try another approach.”
He withdrew his wood power, and started to infuse her with his flesh power that carried the profound truths of life.
Nie Tian’s flesh power resided in his internal organs, bones, meridians, flesh, and blood, instead of his dantian region.
This time, as wisps of his flesh power entered those damaged acupoints, Pei Qiqi’s spatial blades within them seemed unprecedentedly calm and quiet.
As more and more flesh power fused into them, the life power within it started to take effect in a subtle way.
Soon, changes happened to one of Pei Qiqi’s damaged acupoints. As its cracks and fissures were gradually fixed, the spatial blades that had been surging about uncontrollably within it also settled down and moved orderly again.
Pei Qiqi let out a soothed deep breath, a hint of delight appeared on her face. “Perhaps your bloodline power isn’t as destructive as mine, but it’s every bit as wondrous as mine.”
Nie Tian withdrew his hand from her back.
Pei Qiqi looked over her shoulder, as if to signal him to keep going.
Nie Tian smiled bitterly. “I need some time to recover as well. I almost drained my flesh power protecting Huang Jinnan earlier. And I used some of my remaining flesh power to heal myself. I can’t heal all of your injured acupoints in one go, even if I want to.”
Pei Qiqi nodded gently and said in a low voice, “I see. Sorry that you have to do this for me again.”
She suddenly remembered the time when they had visited that floating continent together. Back then, she had forcibly taken in a wisp of flesh aura that contained an expert’s profound understanding of spatial power. After that, she had fought a series of battles. This had contributed to her suffering a severe backlash.
That time, Nie Tian had healed her by relying on his wondrous bloodline power, just as he was doing now.
Her ice-cold hearted seemed to suddenly be warmed. Even the look in her eyes grew unprecedentedly gentle.
“I’m always happy to heal your injuries for you. Don’t worry about it.” With these words, Nie Tian sat down behind her and closed his eyes. As a thought entered his mind, a few outsider corpses flew out from within his ring of holding.
Then, after numerous scarlet blood strings pierced into them, he activated Life Drain to drain the corpses of their residual flesh power.
Whenever he had used Life Drain before, he would cautiously find a secluded place to do it, so that others wouldn’t find out about this shocking bloodline talent of his.
Only when facing Dong Li and Pei Qiqi did he felt that his secrets were safe.
Nie Tian’s mind drifted away. “Deep down, do I attach as much importance to Senior Martial Sister Pei as Dong Li? Senior Martial Sister Pei was the second person to know about my special bloodline, only after my master. Even Dong Li didn’t know about it until later.
“Senior Martial Sister Pei…” As these thoughts entered his mind, strange looks appeared on his face without him knowing it.
However, Pei Qiqi, who had turned around to face him, fixed her bright eyes on him.
Looking at his handsome, determined face, she couldn’t help but recall the day she had met him for the first time.
Standing next to Hua Mu in front of the gate to her master’s courtyard, he had been young and inexperienced. “No, he’s not that teenager anymore. He’s already become a man.”
