WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The five evil gods flew out from the Spirit Pearl as rolling Phantasm Qi gathered and turned into five swirls.
The evil gods floated with parts of their bodies immersed in the swirls, which seemed to connect to the Phantasms’ ancestral land: the Nether Realm, from where they channeled the purest Phantasm Qi.
Having been infused with Nie Tian’s Blood Essence and all of the discarnate souls obtained from Kleist’s Spirit Pearl, the five evil gods, which had transformed from evil spirits, had experienced new changes.
Not only had they become larger than before, but they had also become more like beings with flesh and blood. They didn’t seem illusory at all now.
With the appearances of sinister monsters, they exuded intense Phantasm Qi that carried ultimate negative emotions, including hatred, fear, despair, rage, and bloodlust. Chu Rui and the others’ expressions flickered as soon as they sensed them even though they were under the protection of the Nine Star Heavens.
By merely looking at the five evil gods, they felt their innermost negative emotions being stirred.
“Powerful! A mere look at them can twist people’s thoughts and make them lose their minds!”
Yan Zhan’s face turned pale with fright as he hastily shifted his gaze from the five evil gods, and forced himself to fix his eyes on Nie Tian.
Finally, his negative emotions got under control.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The evil gods swooped down towards the Illusory Ancient Talisman one after another. They thrust their sharp claws into it to touch the highly concentrated toxic miasma released by Gupi.
FZZZ!
Upon contact, dark green smoke rose from the evil gods’ claws, as if they were corroded by strong acid.
However, the damage didn’t seem to be fundamental. The evil gods seemed to find it bearable.
It was just that their clawing didn’t seem to cause any damage to the toxic miasma within the Illusory Ancient Talisman.
“This isn’t working.”
After observing for a few seconds, Nie Tian realized that the power of the Spirit Pearl and the five evil gods didn’t have any impact on Gupi’s miasma, much less refining it.
“Come.”
With a thought, he commanded the five evil gods to return to the Spirit Pearl.
Earlier, when he had pondered powers that might work, he had discovered that Gupi’s toxic miasma had become extremely concentrated after being absorbed by the Illusory Ancient Talisman, so much so that it had liquidized.
Now, the toxic miasma looked very much like water!
No tearing, chopping, or slamming would have any impact on it.
“It doesn’t seem any similar attacks will work. I guess I can only try to confine or refine it.” With this thought, he took out the Star Behemoth bone. He attempted to refine the toxins in the Illusory Ancient Talisman with its power, but failed.
After that, the Flame Dragon Armor was taken out and given a try.
Moments later, looking at the Illusory Ancient Talisman that was commanded by his soul will to float in front of him, he shook his head in frustration and said, “No, none of my spiritual tools or powers work. Nothing other than this talisman can confine Gupi’s toxic miasma, much less refine it.”
Chu Rui sighed softly. “That’s what I figured.”
BANG! BANG! BANG!
Everyone gazed off into the distant starry river, and saw Jiang Yuanchi’s dark gray shadow domain flying around the Realm of Fragmentary Star to take more lives.
Ji Yuanquan’s loud cries echoed out from time to time.
Apparently, he was using secret spatial spells to create spatial rift after spatial rift, so that the Void and Saint domain visitors could quickly evacuate from this part of the starry river.
Not only was he exerting himself to rescue those from the Void Spirit Society, the Five Elements Sect, and the Heaven Span Pavilion, but members of the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect and the Shadow Society as well.
Illusory or solid, domains were being smashed by Gupi’s tentacles or melted away by its toxic miasma everywhere.
A large number of Void and Saint domain cultivators were injured or killed.
Since it was the shadow domain of Jiang Yuanchi, a middle God domain expert, that was carrying the Gupi around, none of them could outrun it.
“Time to evacuate from this part of the starry river, everyone! It doesn’t seem we can find an answer to Gupi problem at this moment, so we need to get as far away from it as we can!”
Ji Yuanquan and Ye Wenhan cried aloud in a background of cries from You Qimiao and numerous others.
Soon, all of the surviving Qi warriors realized the truth: none of them stood a chance at fighting Gupi.
Running was their only option!
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The surviving cultivators either dashed away like streaks of light, sailed away on their ancient starships, or left through spatial rifts created by Ji Yuanquan. All of them stopped observing and evacuated from the Realm of Fragmentary Star with the fastest speed possible.
Even Shangguan Zhi from the Shadow Society realized that Jiang Yuanchi would most likely become a common enemy to the entire human race. The Shadow Society would also become a target of public condemnation.
Therefore, he ordered all members of the Shadow Society to forget about their sectmaster, Jiang Yuanchi, and return to the Realm of Dark Shadow right away.
Floating by the realm barrier of the Realm of Fragmentary Star, Nie Tian came to his wits’ end with the Illusory Ancient Talisman. Watching the powerful experts that had traveled great distances to this place flee in panic like stray curs, he wasn’t happy at all.
After all of them left, Gupi would eventually target the Realm of Fragmentary Star again. What should he do?
FIZZ!
Ji Yuanquan from the Void Spirit Society flew out of a spatial rift that appeared out of nowhere to stand by Nie Tian’s side.
“A laughable battle with a pathetic ending,” Ji Yuanquan said with a grim expression. “Not only did the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect, the Shadow Society, and the Jade Heaven Sect suffer tremendous casualties, but a large number of Void and Saint domain observers from various domains also lost their lives.”
He only dared to stay because he was an expert in spatial manipulation magics.
Even though there was nothing he could do to stop Gupi, since his knowledge about spatial power allowed him to create spatial rifts and leave whenever he wanted, he didn’t have to be afraid of it either.
Ji Yuanquan let out a deep sigh. “Once Gupi loses new targets, it’ll turn around to attack the Realm of Fragmentary Star again.
“I hope the Realm of Fragmentary Star will stand. If it falls, other realms and sects will become its targets. Then, it’ll plunge one human realm after another into endless suffering.”
As he spoke, Gupi, which had flown away from the Realm of Fragmentary Star to pursue Void and Saint domain cultivators and smash ancient starships, returned as he had expected.
It seemed to know that the Realm of Fragmentary Star wasn’t going anywhere. Therefore, it took its time flying back, as if it wasn’t in a hurry.
GULP! GULP!
As strange sounds echoed out of the thick miasma, the dark gray shadow domain gradually dissipated.
Multicolored miasma gathered and gradually morphed into an enormous vague shape.
At first glance, it seemed to be Jiang Yuanchi’s dharma idol.
However, upon closer look, it was actually a giant shapeless thing that had grown out of Jiang Yuanchi’s dharma idol, and was absorbing his power to strengthen itself.
WHOOSH!
The enormous shape experienced a sudden change.
Jiang Yuanchi’s dharma idol rapidly shrank into his true form.
As it came closer and closer to the Realm of Fragmentary Star, Gupi, who had been hiding behind rolling toxic miasma the whole time, gradually became visible.
Like the concentrated toxic miasma Nie Tian had sealed away in the Illusory Ancient Talisman, the Gupi was actually a multicolored liquid life form.
With tiny sparkling tentacles that were as fine as hairs, it remained connected to Jiang Yuanchi. Most of them had pierced into his nostrils, ears, and eyes.
Jiang Yuanchi’s eyes were open, looking directly at Nie Tian and the others. However, not even the slightest human emotion could be seen in his eyes, only numbness, hollowness, and indifference.
Jiang Yuanchi looked at them like he was looking at air.
“It’s Gupi,” Ji Yuanquan said in a low voice.
“Can it communicate with us through Jiang Yuanchi?” Nie Tian asked.
“It can communicate with us even without him, but that’d be communication on a soul level,” Ji Yuanquan explained. “Through Jiang Yuanchi, it can converse with us in the human language.”
Nie Tian frowned. “I wonder what it wants.”
“Why don’t you return to the protection of the Nine Star Heavens and let me talk to it so I can find out what it wants?” Ji Yuanquan asked.
“Alright.”
