Zhang Qiling from the Heavenly Spirit Sect shook his head slightly and said in a low voice, “This is very unwise. The sectmaster of the Shadow Society gave him great face by asking the Void Spirit Society to mediate.”
With a pitiful expression, Li Wanfa chimed in. “Given the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s situation, it’s actually not a bad choice for Nie Tian to become independent at this moment.”
Many observers from the other domains were also baffled after seeing Nie Tian refusing Hong Minghui’s proposal without hesitation.
They all reckoned that it would be wise for Nie Tian to accept it.
“Great! I wasn’t wrong about you!” Yu Suying from the Profound Purity Palace exclaimed. The corners of her mouth rose as her bright eyes shone in high spirits.
Hong Minghui burst into a flaming rage. “Nie Tian! How dare you defy our sect?! How dare you refuse to give our sect face, given the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s current situation?!”
At the same time, the Saint domain experts behind him spread out, wreathed in strong killing intent.
Nie Tian broke into laughter again and said, “Will you stop covering yourself with gold leaf, Hong Minghui? (Idiom: brag/prettify) Was I not clear enough? Neither you nor Xuan Guangyu can represent the Void Spirit Society! Only your master, Qu Yi, can!”
Hong Minghui let out a sharp cry and prepared to say something.
However, Nie Tian ran out of patience. “I said screw off!”
Under the control of the Primal Chaos, the glowing sphere with countless glorious layers started flying forward. “I won’t spare anyone who dares to stand in my way at this moment. Don’t blame me for it!”
A terrifying raging, twisting, and ripping aura instantly filled the violent magnetic field. Any Saint domain expert behind Hong Minghui who dared to touch it with their soul awareness let out a muffled groan upon doing so.
FZZZ!
A few fine lightning wisps flickered in the outer layers only for a brief moment before they were snuffed out.
Those wisps were the soul awarenesses Hong Minghui’s subordinates had secretly released.
Qi Lianshan’s expression flickered slightly. He hastily backed away and said with a wry smile, “Nie Tian, I only came here to mediate by order of our vice sectmaster. I mean no harm.”
It was Xuan Guangyu from the Void Spirit Society who had ordered him to join this trip.
Xuan Guangyu knew he was fairly close to Nie Tian, and had thus ordered him to take this trip with Hong Minghui while Qu Yi was unavailable.
Of course he didn’t want to sour his relationship with Nie Tian.
Nie Tian nodded. “Just stay out of my way then.”
Immediately afterwards, he turned to Hong Minghui and his men, and thundered, “Get out of my way! Now!”
“Let’s go!” No matter how furiously Hong Minghui screamed, his Saint domain subordinates grabbed him and dragged him into the spatial rift.
“Nie Tian! You’ll pay for this!” Hong Minghui’s loud threat echoed out from the gradually healing spatial rift.
Without even the slightest obstacle in front of him anymore, Nie Tian controlled the violent magnetic field to march on the Jade Heaven Sect under everyone’s gazes as they had planned.
As the glorious violent magnetic field dashed into the distance, a loud clamor burst through the berthed starships and gathered Void and Saint domain cultivators.
“Even Hong Minghui from the Void Spirit Society was forced to back out?”
“What choice did he have? How could he and his subordinates have stopped Nie Tian? Perhaps only Xuan Guangyu himself could.”
“This star of calamities is daring indeed. He simply doesn’t give anyone face!”
“This is like a slap across Xuan Guangyu’s face.”
…
In the starry river south of the Domain of Jade Heaven.
A blazing sun was emanating fierce light and heat. A man could be vaguely seen floating in the deepest part of the sun’s halo, where he seemed to be channeling the sun’s aura into himself as he grew taller bit by bit.
In a place not far from the sun, an ancient starship was bound by numerous heavy chains.
Each and every chain had been carved with countless talismans that were as small as flies. The talismans wandered along the chains, as if to capture and devour the dispersed wisps of soul awareness in their surroundings.
Xin Qing, Han Wanrong, and some disciples of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace were sitting quietly on the starship.
From their point of view, they could see that the starship was actually enveloped in more than a dozen different spell formations, and that they were surrounded by countless hovering talismans that could annihilate their souls, and flames that would scald them upon contact.
All of them had their eyes fixed on the blazing sun, anticipation filling their faces.
“Zu Guangyao…” Han Wanrong let out a soft sigh. “Adversity can always bring out people’s potential. Otherwise, how could he come to brand new understandings about his incantations as we passed through this area, allowing him to break out of the shackles and fly to that sun to start his breakthrough into the God domain?”
“But it’s a rushed attempt,” Xin Qing said, looking deeply worried. “He didn’t dare to make an attempt to break through into the God domain for three thousand years. That’s because he didn’t think the time was right, and he wasn’t confident enough. The only reason why he decided to make this hurried attempt is because we’re under a lot of pressure from Song Chequan, and he was eager to break free from his control. It wasn’t something he wanted to do.”
“Our sect is at its most perilous moment. He didn’t have a choice,” Han Wanrong chimed in.
Song Chequan and many powerful experts from the Jade Heaven Sect had ambushed them on their way back from the Domain of Frigid Depths.
After the battle, Song Chequan had first sealed their starship with numerous powerful spell formations, and then towed it towards the Jade Heaven Sect’s headquarters for a thorough interrogation.
Song Chequan had only refrained from killing them because he hoped to learn the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s special cultivation techniques and secrets from them.
However, when they had passed by that blazing sun, Zu Guangyao, who had been sitting in silence, suddenly derived brand new enlightenment.
He had broken free and charged into that blazing sun, where he had immediately initiated an attempt to break through into the God domain, putting his own life at risk so that he might earn a chance to fight Song Chequan.
Song Chequan then had to rely on his God domain might to frustrate his attempt to break through into the God domain.
At first, Song Chequan had been surrounded by a large number of Saint domain disciples of the Jade Heaven Sect.
However, those Saint domain experts had later received some messages, and had left in a hurry.
The starship that was subject to multiple restrictive spells had been left here for Song Chequan to take care of after he finished Zu Guangyao off, or Zu Guangyao’s breakthrough ended in failure, costing his life.
SHEW!
Song Chequan’s dharma idol morphed into a sparkling milky way that attempted to stifle the divine light of the sun.
“Heaven-refining Burning Sun!”
As Zu Guangyao’s furious roar came from the blazing sun, endless true sunflame whizzed out to clash with Song Chequan’s dharma idol.
This was the new magic he had derived with the help of the blazing sun. Coupled with his half-achieved God domain, he was barely able to neutralize Song Chequan’s effort to sabotage his breakthrough.
However, he knew perfectly well that if he continued to be distracted by Song Chequan like this, his breakthrough was bound to end in failure.
Even so, he didn’t have a solution.
…
In the Jade Heaven Sect’s headquarters.
A sunset glow filled the sky over a silent jade sea with little waves. Verdant islands dotted the sea like emeralds. A warm breeze brushed the twenty-four islands that constituted the Jade Heaven Sect’s headquarters, where many elders conversed in frustration.
“That star of calamities, Nie Tian, refused Hong Minghui’s proposal. He didn’t even give the Void Spirit Society face!”
“What should we do? He’s getting closer and closer to our headquarters!”
“How come our sectmaster still isn’t finished with Zu Guangyao?”
Originally, each of the islands had had a Heaven-sweeping Jade Sea Cannon set up on it. However, all twenty-four Heaven-sweeping Jade Sea Cannons had been lost in the Domain of Dark Marsh.
Looking at their sacred headquarters that was now devoid of the Heaven-sweeping Jade Sea Cannons and thinking about Nie Tian’s imminent arrival, every elder of the Jade Heaven Sect became restless like ants on a heated pan.
“How about we ask for the Shadow Society’s help?”
“Can the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect come to our aid?”
“Let’s report to the sectmaster first!”
Everyone seemed to be at their wits’ end.
WHOOSH!
In the silent boundless starry river, the violent glowing sphere continued to dash forward under Nie Tian’s control, crushing every meteor it came across and gathering a wide array of impurities as it did. In a dominating manner, it marched on the Jade Heaven Sect’s home realm, the Realm of Jade Billows!
“The Realm of Jade Billows is right ahead!” Yu Suying from the Profound Purity Palace couldn’t mask her excitement as she overtook Nie Tian to face the realm that was wreathed in currents of spiritual Qi.
At the heart of the Primal Chaos, Nie Tian’s eyes snapped open.
“The Realm of Jade Billows, the Jade Heaven Sect’s base!”
“Are we finally there?”
Countless stars shone in the depths of his pupils, which seemed to allow him to see through every secret this starry river held, giving him an unfathomable, incomparably mysterious look.
“Star Eyes!”
Activating a secret magic, he observed with rapt attention, and noticed that the Realm of Jade Billows was surrounded by hovering spiritual Qi currents, which seemed to carry profound laws of magic and be vested with numerous shrunken spell formations, so that they could protect the realm from dashing meteors and strikes from starships.
Normally speaking, every realm that had God domain experts or had seen God domain experts in their history would have such a protective grand spell formation.
That was because only God domain experts in dharma idol form could fuse their secret spell formations and profound understandings of power into the realm barriers in order to protect those realms.
“Nie Tian from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace has traveled from afar to see Sectmaster Song of the Jade Heaven Sect!” A heaven-shaking, earth-moving voice rumbled through the starry river outside the Realm of Jade Billows.
“Nie Tian!” Three Saint domain elders of the Jade Heaven Sect looked confounded as they activated their domains and rushed out of the Realm of Jade Billows to see Nie Tian.
After coming to a stop, the man at the front said with a firm tone, “Our sectmaster isn’t in the Realm of Jade Billows. Please come another time.”
Another wild, hot-tempered elder of the Jade Heaven Sect couldn’t help but point at Nie Tian and rave, “Nie Tian! You wiped out the Song Clan and killed the clanmaster of the Feng Clan in the Domain of Spirit Sea and the Domain of Dark Marsh. How dare you come to our sect after committing such monstrous crimes?”
Nie Tian’s face dropped. “Song Chequan isn’t here? Three days. I’ll give him three days. No matter where he is, he has to come back here to see me! Not just that, but Elder Zu Guangyao, Xin Qing, and Han Wanrong of my sect have to be secure. If anything happens to any of them, the entire Jade Heaven Sect will have to die to atone for it!”
All those who heard these words gasped with astonishment.
“He demands that Song Chequan come see him? Song Chequan is at the God domain, for god’s sake! How long ago did he make his name?”
“Who else aside from the few God domain experts from the four great sects, the Shadow Society, and the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect have the audacity to not bow before Song Chequan?”
“Nie Tian is a bit too arrogant, isn’t he?”
The crowd clamored on in shock.
“H-how dare you demand that our sectmaster come see you?!” The hot-tempered elder of the Jade Heaven Sect thundered.
“Some people just don’t shed tears until they see their coffin.” (idiom: refuse to be convinced until one’s faced with grim reality) With a nasty grin, Nie Tian wove his hands in the air.
Channeled by him, one streak of multicolored light after another shot out of the outer layers of the sphere towards the Realm of Jade Billows.
WHOOSH!
The violent sphere followed, and pressed towards the Realm of Jade Billows bit by bit.
