Tianming hurried toward Yi Xingyin and grabbed his body before flying back rapidly. In front of him, Xue Yi managed to catch up to the Photondragon. All that happened in a fraction of a second.
"Xian Xian!" Tianming's order caused branches to sprout out from his chest and pierce into Yi Xingyin's heart. Within moments, they extracted ten heartscourge worms from it, which was fully within Tianming's expectations.
Now that they were gone, Yi Xingyin regained his consciousness. The moment he took in the situation, he warned, "Be careful!"
The weird thing was that Xue Yi was still waving the Photondragon about from far away. What kind of danger was Tianming in? Yi Xingyin hurriedly pushed him away, then the shadow on his body turned into a human figure. The transaction was never going to be simple from the get-go. There was another trap apart from the heartscourge worms.
If Tianming wasn't mistaken, the shadow, or, Ying Zi's true identity was likely to be the eighth ghoul king, You Ying!
A fight broke out almost immediately. Tianming couldn't predict his enemy's move, so he immediately blocked with the Prime Tower, enlarging it to its largest configuration with its door facing him and charging inside. That was a trick he hadn't shown them so far. However, Tianming had in fact practiced it countless times. The instant he entered Prime Tower, he saw the shadow continue charging toward him and wrap the tower up with the same black net. Had Tianming not escaped into the tower in time, he would be the one wrapped up. It happened far too quickly. If it weren’t for Yi Xingyin's warning, he would've never been able to avoid it.
"That was close!" The net seemed like it was formed from countless intertwining venomous snakes that seemed to have minds of their own. They wriggled tightly against the Prime Tower, and even attempted to invade it. If Tianming were the one who had ended up wrapped up by the net, it would no doubt have pierced through his flesh and wrapped its grip around his organs. From then on, there would be nothing but endless torture for him. Fortunately, he was able to react fast enough to survive a close brush with death—but that didn't make him any less anxious.
"Enlarge!" The tower continued growing in size. There was no way the net would be able to pierce the tower, and the sudden increase in size even snapped it and shook it off. It seemed like it wasn't infinitely extendible.
Xue Yi was completely flabbergasted at the turn of events. How could his surefire plan be ruined by the tower all of a sudden? "What kind of tower is that?!"
As they watched with their teeth clenched, the Prime Tower broke out of the net. While the black net hadn’t been completely destroyed, it could no longer keep Tianming trapped.
"Break!" Xue Yi came charging and struck Prime Tower with Photondragon, yet it caused not a single scratch. "Yet another divine artifact?!"
The result of that clash, however, was more than welcome to Tianming. The toughness of the Prime Tower was as he expected. He also noticed that the starlight on Photondragon seemed to be dimming down. The strike Xue Yi had unleashed didn't contain even a fraction of its true power. It was nothing but a normal tribulation artifact in Xue Yi's hands.
"My guess was right after all. He's not a successor of the founding ancestor, so he isn’t a worthy wielder." The trident didn't so much as squeak in Xue Yi's hands.
"That means that while you've weakened, he didn't get stronger. If we can get it back, it'd be even better," Ying Huo said.
"There’s too many of them, and getting it back will be monumentally difficult. It'll already be a miracle if we could escape with the palace lord," Tianming said.
Yi Xingyin couldn't enter the Prime Tower, so he wasn't safe yet. Once Xue Yi and the rest realized that they weren't able to breach the tower, they would definitely turn their attention to him. Tianming’s group wasn’t out of their predicament yet. Yi Xingyin, as he was now, wasn't a force to be reckoned with, not to mention that he was also affected by the sealing formation as well. Tianming had no choice but to come out of the tower. He used Archfiend to pull Yi Xingyin to him by the waist.
"Surround them!" Xue Yi roared, having realized that he wasn't able to utilize the full power of the Photondragon. But at the very least, he managed to deprive Tianming of this ungodly power. "Yi Xingyin wasn't completely useless after all. Kill that cur!"
Xue Yi had Changsun Shenqiong and Ghoul King You Ying by his side now, yet Tianming was still trying to protect Yi Xingyin despite being weaker than he had been moments ago. Now, the tribulation elders weren't that far away. Despite having seen well over eight thousand of their own killed, they seemed to have regained their courage after seeing Tianming without the Photondragon and decided to bear down on him with a renewed and fiercer passion!
"Li Tianming, it's time for our payback!"
They all started chasing him down, each one of them not just another simple minion, but rather experienced beastmasters. Tianming had no choice but to continue hiding in the fiery star with Yi Xingyin. "Oh well. If I can't leave, I'll just hide here. When Palace Lord Yi gets better, we'll try breaking out again."
He had given up on escaping for the moment. There were up to ten thousand people chasing him within the fiery star and there was a very good chance he would meet his end here. Even so, he didn't regret his decision. At the very least, Yi Xingyin wouldn't have to continue suffering that cruel treatment.
"Palace Lord," Tianming said, feeling hurt just at the sight of Yi Xingyin.
"I'm fine. I heard you got the treasures…. We have to bring them out if we ever get the chance. You shouldn't have traded the Kilostar Photondragon for my life…"
"Artifacts are dead, people are alive. We'll definitely be able to leave here alive!"
"Alright!"
If they were going to die, they would at least take down as many of their enemies with them as they could. At least, it wasn't impossible to survive in the magma-filled star, since they couldn't really be surrounded in there.
Right as Xue Yi was preparing to act, the whole star shook and the lava around Tianming seemed to recede. It was as if a giant had wrapped its hand around the star and gave it a shake.
"What in the world?" they said in unison.
Countless cries of terror came from above, accompanied by turbulent waves of flaming 'water'. Right as Xue Yi and the rest reached the star's surface, they immediately turned back. Looking up, they saw a bloody light coming from the very center of the Kilostar Domain, washing over them in waves.
"It appeared!" Xue Yi's already wide mouth opened even wider with an expression of shock and joy. In fact, he almost seemed blissful.
"It's the blood dragon!" You Ying echoed with a similarly joyous tone.
"Who could’ve found it? We weren't able to locate it despite our efforts!" Xue Yi said.
"I don't know."
"Could it be…." Changsun Shenqiong seemed completely taken aback. None of the tribulation elders from Nonahall seemed to know what they were talking about either.
Then, the fiery star shook once more as columns of lava came shooting out, making the star look a little like a sea urchin.
"Xue Yi, should we continue hunting Tianming down or head to where the blood dragon is?" You Ying hurriedly asked.
