Catie looked around in an attempt to locate the source of her fear.
However, even though she strained her sight, she couldn’t see anything unusual. All she could see was the silent starry river, nothing more.
However, her sense of danger grew stronger and stronger.
After a moment of hesitation, she hastily called out in the Demons’ language, ordering her three-headed python to cast an escape magic.
Her expression flickered again, as that was when she noticed that the three-headed python was also trembling with fear.
It was so scared that its enormous body stiffened, as if even moving had become a very difficult task.
Catie completely panicked. She yelled at the top of her lungs, forcing the three-headed python to take her away immediately.
At that moment, a streak of blood-colored light suddenly entered her sight and flew towards her from the other side the Realm of a Hundred Battles.
Like a bloody meteor, it traveled through the starry river towards her at a shockingly high speed.
“What’s that?” Catie looked over with rapt attention, and discovered that it was merely a long bone with a small shadow within it.
BOOOOM!
Catie stimulated her sea of flesh aura with all her power. Every drop of her Blood Essence was ignited and fused into her sea of flesh aura.
The three-headed python bellowed, its enormous body still trembling.
In the next moment, the bone arrived.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
Numerous mysterious patterns that were branded within the Star Behemoth bone suddenly came to life and left the bone.
They morphed and interwove into an enormous scarlet grid.
The grid pressed towards Catie’s sea of flesh aura, causing the unique bloodline imprints within it to gradually dissipate, like heated iron vaporizing water.
The parts of her flesh aura sea that made contact the mysterious grid were rapidly pressed in.
FIZZ!
As that happened, the dashing Star Behemoth bone easily pierced through the the three-headed python that seemed to have been frozen in the starry river, in the place where its three heads joined.
Immediately afterwards, the blood-colored grid cut through the three-headed python’s body as if it were made of countless sharp blades.
Huge chunks of flesh slowly scattered in the starry river, spilling a tremendous amount of blood.
The python let out a miserable cry and died without even putting up a fight.
Catie gave a panicked shriek and left the python immediately, desperate to escape from this place of horror.
However, just as she was about to cast a bloodline magic, she discovered that her sea of flesh aura seemed to be completely frozen by the power of the bone.
It was as if her sea of flesh aura was being overpowered by a vast mountain, and she couldn’t move in the slightest.
Outsiders’ flesh aura seas and humans’ domains had similarities.
Most outsiders relied on their flesh aura seas to travel through the starry river and protect themselves. If they lost them, even powerful outsiders would find it difficult to survive in the starry river.
Not to mention that their flesh aura seas were the condensation of their flesh power.
Giving them up would be a price they couldn’t afford, just as humans couldn’t bear to lose their domains.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
As she wrestled with the dilemma, her flesh aura sea was reduced to a bloody mist and gnawed away at an alarming rate.
In just about ten seconds, she lost more than half of her flesh aura sea.
This meant that Catie was rapidly losing her profound flesh aura.
WHOOSH!
At the same time, drop after drop of Nie Tian’s Blood Essence seethed within his heart.
His flesh power was being channeled by that bone to enhance its terrifying might.
More and more glowing, blood-colored patterns flew out of the bone. A cluster of them suddenly shot towards Catie’s chest.
Her armor immediately unleashed a dark purple aura, but failed to even slow it down.
Like some ancient talisman, the cluster of flickering blood-colored patterns fused into Catie’s chest.
Heart-wrenching pain rapidly spread to every inch of her body. She started to lose consciousness, and felt as if she could hear the sounds of her own heart being chewed away.
Floating in the starry river, Catie couldn’t even move a finger.
At the same time, Nie Tian’s Blood Essence continued to seethe within his heart, pouring more flesh power into the bone.
CRUNCH! CRUNCH!
Thrilling bone crushing sounds came from within Catie.
Nie Tian observed with rapt attention, and noticed that her body was gradually shriveling, as if her internal organs and bones were being gnawed away, causing her exterior to shrink and shrivel.
Glowing blood-colored patterns became more and more conspicuous under her purple skin as they soon spread to every corner of her body.
A peculiar idea struck Nie Tian. “Is that cluster of blood-colored patterns a mouth, with which the bone eats?
“It looks as if that ‘mouth’ is eating Catie from within. First, it’s her internal organs and bones, then it’s her flesh and skin.”
FIZZ!
A spatial rift appeared out of thin air.
Pei Qiqi was the first to fly out of it. Then came Yan Zhan, Xie Qian, and Jing Feiyang, three Saint domain experts.
Upon arriving, Yan Zhan saw the large pieces of the three-headed python, which had clearly suffered a violent death. “What… What happened?”
Meanwhile, Catie from the Bispo Clan floated motionlessly in the starry river, her eyes lifeless. Her body was rapidly shriveling, as if she was losing her flesh power.
Xie Qian and Jing Feiyang opened their mouths wide, rendered speechless by what was happening before their eyes.
Pei Qiqi was the only one that remained fairly calm. However, her eyes also shone with the light of astonishment as she asked, “Nie Tian, you… killed this Demon grand patriarch?”
She and the others had been searching the vicinity when Yan Zhan had sensed unusual flesh power fluctuations. After he had shown her the direction, she had brought them here without delay.
During the recent days, she felt as if Catie had been playing hide-and-seek with her in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Every time Catie had sensed her aura, she would immediately get away with the help of her three-headed python.
After a few jumps back and forth, she had eventually lost track of her.
While she had felt frustrated, who would have thought that Catie had circled back to the Realm of a Hundred Battles in an attempt to sneak the dark stone away?
The most surprising of all, who would have thought this sneaky, unrelenting Demon grand patriarch would die at Nie Tian’s hands?
“The early Soul realm… He’s only at the early Soul realm! And he killed a Demon grand patriarch!” Yan Zhan marveled inwardly. “Sure, she was only at the early ninth grade, but she was still a grand patriarch. And she had a demonic python that was well-versed in spatial manipulation magics. Even so, she failed to escape from the seventh Son of the Stars!”
All Sons of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had the ability to challenge experts with higher cultivation bases or bloodline grades. For instance, Sikong Cuo was at the Void domain, but he would be able to briefly contend against an early ninth grade Demon grand patriarch with his powerful tools and exquisite incantations.
However, it would be almost impossible for him to defeat a Demon grand patriarch, much less slay one.
Yan Zhan fixed Nie Tian with a deep, complicated look, and soon made a decision.
“The seventh Son of the Stars must have a more promising future than Sikong Cuo! He’s the one who’ll most likely become the next Lord of the Stars!”
Elders of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace would usually place their bets on a Son of the Stars for a better future.
Before, Yan Zhan had been unable to make up his mind. After all, many Sons of the Stars had shown the potential to be the future Lord of the Stars. Perhaps Sikong Cuo had a slight edge over the others.
But on this day, after witnessing Nie Tian, who was only at the Soul realm, killing a Demon grand patriarch with means he couldn’t fathom, he finally made his decision: Nie Tian was the one.
“I’ll take that python head,” Pei Qiqi said.
The irregularly shaped crystal suddenly flew out of her palm, sending out numerous spatial blades that morphed into a glowing long blade.
WHOOSH!
It severed the middle head and brought it back to her.
The head she took was the one that had carried a special bloodline, and had a high mastery of spatial manipulation magics.
Her unique bloodline would allow her to refine it in order to prepare herself for her next bloodline upgrade.
Glowing strings flew out of the crystal and pierced into the python head.
A few seconds later, Pei Qiqi’s eyes lit up as she exclaimed softly, “I think I know where the teleportation portal we’ve been looking for is.”
