The huge arched gate was slowly pushed open under the five evil gods’ joint efforts.
The moment the gate opened, a figure that was large enough to prop up heaven and earth entered Nie Tian’s view.
It seemed to be the dharma idol of an expert who was fighting swarm after swarm of evil spirits, with its broad back against the arched gate.
Millions of evil spirits and vicious souls madly threw themselves at him.
With his back against the gate, he cast an exquisite spell, condensing the purest spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into a glowing blade that could shatter heaven and earth. With a casual swing of his arm, he sent it out, reducing thousands of evil spirits to scattering ashes and dissipating smoke.
However, there seemed to be an endless stream of evil spirits that came at him, as if he would never be able to kill them all.
The expert guarding the gate seemed to have sensed movement behind him, and thus jerked his head around to take a look at the huge arched gate.
As soon as he did, he and Nie Tian were both dumbstruck.
“Nie Tian!”
“Grand Elder!”
Mo Heng, who was on the other side of the gate, and Nie Tian, who was in the depths of the Seven-star Blue Sea, exclaimed at the same time.
However, their voices were trapped within their own worlds, failing to spread through the arched gate to the other side.
Even so, this didn’t stop the two of them from seeing each other’s faces and the shapes of their mouths.
HOWL!
After pushing the huge gate open, the five evil gods seemed extremely excited, and couldn’t wait to charge into it.
On the other side of the gate, Mo Heng’s expression flickered violently.
He glowered at the five evil gods as wisps of pure spiritual power wove into a mysterious seal in front of his chest. In the shape of a stone plate, the seal emanated dazzling light, along with an aura that suppressed evil spirits.
Since Nie Tian had reestablished his soul connection with the five evil gods, he was able to sense the insecurity and uneasiness they were feeling now.
But even so, the five of them seemed to be eager to risk their lives by charging into the heaven and earth beyond the opened gate to fight Mo Heng.
“They opened this gate to fight the grand elder?” Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he shouted fiercely, “Get back here!”
Regardless of the Spirit Pearl’s willingness, he pulled it out of his ring of holding where it was hiding, held it up towards the five evil gods, and commanded with his bloodline and soul, “Get in here!”
The five evil gods growled at the same time.
Their growls were filled with anger, discontent, and rebellion.
From when the five evil gods had been born to when they had developed fleshly bodies after consuming his Blood Essence, the bond between them and Nie Tian had become closer and closer.
Not once had they disobeyed him.
This was the first time!
Ignoring their discontent, Nie Tian focused his soul awareness and summoned his bloodline power to let out powerful calls. “Come back here! Now!”
Each and every call exploded in the five evil gods’ minds like thunderclaps, and bent their will bit by bit with what seemed like soul-binding force.
Gradually, their natural desire to charge to the other side of the arched gate was neutralized by his calls.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The five evil gods flew uncontrollably into the Spirit Pearl one by one, as if they were ripped away from their innate desires.
Nie Tian hastily threw the Spirit Pearl back into his ring of holding, and ordered its soul to keep an eye on the strangely-behaving evil gods, which had even dared to disobey him.
HOWL! ROAR! ROAR!
On the other side of the gate.
Surrounded by countless evil spirits, a few exceptionally large spirit-form beings let out deafening howls and sharp screeches.
If Nie Tian were able to see them, he would have found that they had a lot in common with the five evil gods he had just sent back into the Spirit Pearl by force, including their sizes and appearances.
The only difference was that these enormous spirit-form beings didn’t have fleshly bodies.
They were very similar to what the five evil gods had been like before Nie Tian had vested them with his Blood Essence and helped them develop fleshly bodies.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Upon hearing their howls and screeches, the innumerable evil souls attacking Mo Heng seemed to have their spirit ignited, as they charged towards him in different soul spell formations and cast soul magics that were similar to those of the Phantasms.
Mo Heng fought back by condensing dazzling light into a stream of mighty power.
Numerous soul spell formations exploded, with evil spirits reduced to wisps of smoke that scattered into the void.
Standing in front of the red bronze gate, Nie Tian, who had expended great effort to drag the five evil gods back into the Spirit Pearl, gazed blankly at Grand Elder Mo Heng, who had disappeared for a long time, as he fought countless evil spirits in the dim starry river beyond the arched gate.
“Is that the Phantasms’ ancestral land, the Nether Realm, that this arched gate connects to?
“Perhaps that’s the only place where there may be so many evil spirits, and I bet it takes a very long time for them to reach such a great number.
“Wait, there isn’t a realm barrier in sight. It looks more like somewhere in the starry river.
“This is strange. Why is the grand elder guarding this gate?
“Don’t tell me that all these years he’s been missing, he’s been guarding this gate for humanity in another part of the starry river, so that those countless evil spirits controlled by Phantasms won’t charge into our world.”
With this thought, Nie Tian took a deep breath and slowly stepped towards the huge arched gate.
On the other side of it, Mo Heng was being attacked by innumerable evil spirits, with his back facing him.
All of a sudden, Mo Heng jerked his head around to warn him against crossing the gate with a stern look.
Then, he shouted. By the shape of his mouth, he was ordering him to shut the gate right away!
Nie Tian was taken aback. “Shut the gate?”
While he hesitated, Mo Heng jerked his head back to refocus on his fierce battle against the evil spirits.
FZZZ!
At this moment, Nie Tian looked up and saw Mo Qianfan, who had morphed into a bolt of lightning, and Yu Suying, who had morphed into a streak of silver light. The two of them were engaged in a bitter battle against Vice Sectmaster Luo Wanxiang as they sank together.
While they were fighting, the three of them cast glances downwards from time to time, confused looks appearing on their faces.
It seemed as if they couldn’t see Nie Tian standing in front of the huge arched gate.
As they sank deeper and deeper, Luo Wanxiang gradually withdrew from his battle against Mo Qianfan and Yu Suying.
Apparently, the deeper they sank, the more Mo Qianfan and Yu Suying struggled, even if they didn’t fight.
Luo Wanxiang, however, still appeared to be able to handle the pressure from the Seven-star Blue Sea.
“Luo Wanxiang is so bent on opening this gate, and he even knows to use the five evil gods’ help,” Nie Tian thought to himself. “His collusion with the Phantasms must be very deep. I have the Spirit Pearl, but even so, I didn’t know that such a wondrous gate existed in the depths of the Seven-star Blue Sea that the five evil gods could push it open…”
He pondered the situation, but didn’t dare to let the evil gods out again.
He was afraid that they would not only ignore his command for them to close the gate, but even join the evil spirits on the other side in fighting Mo Heng.
“It wouldn’t take too long if I just take a short trip to the heaven and earth beyond the gate, right?
“Perhaps only if I go talk to the grand elder will I be able to learn what’s actually going on.”
He made up his mind.
WHOOSH!
Like a streak of light, he shot into the open arched gate while Mo Heng wasn’t looking. His mind rumbled, and he felt like he was shuttling for a while in a torrent of dazzling light.
Soon, he found himself on the other side of the gate, behind grand elder Mo Heng.
Standing towering behind him in the dim starry river was a huge arched gate that connected to the one in the Seven-star Blue Sea.
The arched gate was like a lofty mountain peak, whose peak was hard to see!
Like locusts, a sea of evil spirits stretched as far as the eye could see. Those that were close to the huge arched gate were attacking Mo Heng in waves.
In a distant location, a few exceptionally huge spirit-form beings were howling and waving their arms to give orders.
With a single glance at them, Nie Tian gasped. “They… They look just like the five evil gods. Don’t tell me that they belong to the same species. However, according to the Spirit Pearl’s soul, the statues of the five evil gods appeared with the Nether River when it flowed into the Phantasms’ ancestral land, the Nether Realm.
“And the five evil gods don’t belong to the Phantasms. In fact, the Phantasms have worshiped them as their gods for generations.”
Nie Tian felt baffled.
Mo Heng sensed the anomaly. Without even turning around, he shouted, “What are you doing here, Nie Tian?! This is no place for you to be! Go back now! After you do, do everything in your power to close that gate! Should you fail to do that, find someone who can! In a word, that gate has to be closed!”
“Where is this place, Grand Elder? And why are you here?” Nie Tian aired his questions. “I’ll go back, but you have to give me an answer, right? Since I probably can’t stay here for very long, please make it short.
“Also, Vice Sectmaster Luo was behind me. He tried to force me to open the gate for him from the other side.” Nie Tian sounded urgently.
“Luo Wanxiang!” Mo Heng roared. “It’s him again!”
