The eighth grade Phantasm was caught up in a fierce fight against Yue Yanxi, and didn’t even realize that Nie Tian’s move had killed that eighth grade Fiend.
His sea of flesh aura was mixed with wisps of discarnate souls, which were now whizzing about, clashing with flames that shot out of Yue Yanxi’s fire domain.
The intangible discarnate souls seemed to be immune to fire, as they gained ground on Yue Yanxi’s domain bit by bit.
He noticed Nie Tian arriving on the Star Boat, but chose to ignore him.
“This one is only at the Profound realm…” The eighth grade Phantasm muttered, not believing that Nie Tian’s arrival would have any influence on his battle against Yue Yanxi.
Only at the moment the Star Behemoth bone made contact with his flesh aura sea did he gasp with astonishment.
An immense, ancient bloodline aura that was far stronger than his was unleashed from within the bone.
The thousands of discarnate souls in his sea of flesh aura instinctively trembled with fear.
A memory that was branded in the depths of his bloodline was suddenly awakened.
Fear overtook him.
Such fear wasn’t inspired by Nie Tian, but the bone!
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Numerous discarnate souls in his sea of flesh aura, which he had refined with his Blood Essence, exploded and scattered like smoke.
Only the aura released by the bone alone caused numerous discarnate souls to die in a flash.
He hastily turned around to escape at the fastest speed possible.
However, now that the bone with an unknown origin had locked onto him, no matter how he changed direction, he couldn’t lose it.
He looked back from time to time, and the bone became larger and larger in his sight.
Soon, he had a feeling that the entire world was filled up by the bone, and he had no place to hide.
He wailed in despair.
POOPH!
The bone went through his heart, causing his sea of flesh aura to scatter and vanish.
As that happened, the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows suddenly lit up. It tore his flesh open and separated itself from his brow in an attempt to escape.
At this moment, the Spirit Pearl whizzed over.
His distinct soul shadow appeared in the prismatic crystal for a brief moment before suddenly growing distorted.
CRACK!
The crystal shattered, exposing the painfully-twisting discarnate soul inside.
As the Spirit Pearl swooped over, the Phantasm’s soul vanished into it, leaving no trace behind.
Then, the Star Boat flew over. As Nie Tian grabbed the Star Behemoth bone with his empty hand, the ring of holding on his finger lit up, taking the Phantasm’s corpse in.
Nie Tian grinned. “Great, a late eighth grade outsider corpse…”
Then, he turned to Yue Yanxi with a relaxed expression. “Alright, you may go help the others. Leave all of the eighth grade ones to me.”
Looking rather embarrassed, Yue Yanxi said, “The battle between us lasted quite a while. Then, you showed up and killed him in a second… I’ve never seen a Profound realm cultivator kill eighth grade Phantasms with such ease.”
Mixed emotions rose in his heart.
He remembered back when he had first learned through the Lei Clan that Nie Tian had passed the Heaven Gate trial and gained the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s legacies. He couldn’t help but congratulate himself for the wise decision he had made.
“Fortunately, I didn’t let my ambitions get the best of me after learning that he had gained the legacies. If I hadn’t done everything within my power to cultivate my relationship with him back then, the Divine Flame Sect and all of the other sects in the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries wouldn’t have seen the prosperity there is today. It’s only been a couple decades, and he can already kill outsiders I have trouble killing?
“If he’s given time to grow…”
With these thoughts, he smiled and flew off towards Jing Feiyang, who was fighting Phantasms in a place not far away.
Meanwhile, Nie Tian changed directions to fly towards Jiang Feng.
Moments later, Jiang Feng’s opponent, who was also an eighth grade Phantasm, was pierced through and killed by the Star Behemoth bone as well, relieving Jiang Feng from his battle.
At this moment, Nie Tian’s existence finally caught the attention of the ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarchs.
An early ninth grade grand patriarch was at an advantage in his battle against an early Saint domain subordinate of Hou Chulan.
He quietly observed Nie Tian for a while before his face grew grim, and he saw Nie Tian approaching another eighth grade member of his group. “He’s already killed two of our eighth grade members without much effort. That bone of his seems to be quite sharp. From the look of it, none of the other eighth grade members will be able to stop him either.”
“Young monarch!” He exclaimed softly.
Froste was still in the middle of a heated battle against Hou Chulan, and didn’t have the energy to observe Nie Tian’s actions.
Hou Chulan, however, had been paying close attention to every move Nie Tian made.
Upon hearing his clan member’s call, Froste immediately communicated with him through soul messages.
In the next moment, he suddenly extracted himself from his battle against Hou Chulan.
Even though the discarnate souls from his split skull were still attacking Hou Chulan’s wood domain, he flew towards Nie Tian himself, clad in a suit of heavy battle armor.
Hou Chulan laughed coldly. “Wanna escape?”
“You’re fighting me now,” The early ninth grade Phantasm said, enveloping his current opponent and Hou Chulan in his sea of flesh aura simultaneously. Only then did Hou Chulan realize that Froste had left to deal with Nie Tian.
Eye narrowed, she watched him fly away, and muttered to herself, “You’re a descendant of Grand Monarch Nether River, but so what? Nie Tian killed those eighth grade Phantasms with a single strike. You think you’ll be able to cause him trouble?”
She shook her head with a disapproving expression.
Afterwards, she focused her attention on her new opponent.
“Nie Tian!”
Froste exclaimed as mysterious veins that looked like meridians appeared on his peculiar battle armor one after another.
As this happened, intense Phantasm Qi burst forth from within the battle armor, immediately enhancing Froste’s flesh aura several times over.
The rolling Phantasm Qi gradually condensed into a vast river, which was as illusory as the contents of Void domain human cultivators’ domains. Millions of souls of all sorts of beings could be seen floating within it.
Nie Tian, who was just about to find his next victim, suddenly saw Froste dashing towards him.
Shock filled his eyes as he saw the peculiar river transformed from Phantasm Qi. Soon, he started to feel light-headed.
“Is that the Nether River…?” His expression flickered as he held out the Spirit Pearl and attempted to use its power to defend against the Nether River’s soul-infiltrating influence.
The Spirit Pearl was a unique treasure of the Phantasms, which had manifested a strong suppressing effect on Froste during their last encounter.
However, it didn’t seem to be able to negate any of the Nether River’s influence this time. A mere glance at the Nether River made him feel very uncomfortable.
As Froste approached him, the suffocating soul-piercing influence grew stronger and stronger.
“Froste is a descendant of Grand Monarch Nether River, and carries his mighty bloodline. He formed that river by activating his bloodline power. Even though it’s not the real Nether River, it carries its profound wonders. I suppose the Nether River is the most profound wonder of Grand Monarch Nether River’s bloodline. Even the Spirit Pearl can’t suppress it.
“At least, not yet.”
After a brief communication with the Spirit Pearl, Nie Tian realized that both it and the five evil spirits inside of it were rather fearful and nervous, even though that Nether River was merely an illusory river.
The Spirit Pearl’s soul had been refined from the discarnate soul of a ninth grade Phantasm. Nie Tian had reforged it and branded it with a wisp of his soul essence.
However, it still had an innate reverence towards the Nether River, which represented the Chief of the Phantasm race. That reverence had been branded in the deepest part of its soul, and couldn’t be eliminated.
“It seems that I can’t count on this Phantasm tool this time.”
Nie Tian took a deep breath, and started to go through the soul magics recorded in the second fragmentary star mark, preparing to go all-out in the upcoming battle.
