In the dim, boundless starry river.
A huge fish was flying at a high speed, wreathed in gold and silver flames.
Even though they were both flames, the golden flames were hot enough to burn the heavens and destroy the earth, while the silver flames exuded a frigid aura that could seal all things in ice.
The huge fish emanated two opposite auras, one frigid cold and the other blazing hot.
Through the flames, one could see that the huge fish’s scales were also two different colors, gold and silver.
Each and every scale shone with divine light.
The fish was close to ten thousand meters long, even longer than the ancient starships of the four great sects.
Standing on the back of the fish was a thin figure.
“You Qimiao!” Some Qi warriors who were observing the battle between Pei Qiqi, Dong Li, and Song Chequan in the starry river gasped upon seeing the huge fish swimming in their direction with an unstoppable momentum.
They hastily spread out to clear its path, fearing that they would be targeted.
The huge fish transformed from the Yin Yang Chaos Mirror could cover a large area of the starry river with just a wag of its tail, which was much faster than even the fastest ancient starship.
You Qimiao’s pupils, one golden and the other silver, reflected everything that was happening inside the Realm of Looming Shadow.
He had rushed here wielding his Yin Yang Chaos Mirror upon learning that Pei Qiqi had suppressed the spatial fluctuations in the Realm of Looming Shadow with her Space Boundaries Crystal.
“Nie Tian!” His lips only moved slightly, yet his heaven-shaking, earth-shattering voice rumbled through the Realm of Looming Shadow.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Because of his call, spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth rose from the ruins of the Shadow Palace and morphed into a huge blurry face that everyone within a thousand-kilometer radius could see.
It was the face of You Qimiao, who still had yet to arrive.
Gou Junhao from the Heavenly Changes Pavilion took a deep look at the giant forming face and marveled, “With a wisp of his soul will, he can actually condense the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into a reflection of himself! No wonder the late God domain represents the peak of human cultivation!”
The face condensed with the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth was misty gray and thousands of meters tall, and floated before Nie Tian at roughly the same height as him.
It opened its mouth and said, “Nie Tian! Seeing as we’ve fought the Netherspirits together in the Void World to loot the Soul-cleansing Origin Elixir, I’m asking you to let Duan Hongwen live. I assure you that he won’t seek trouble with you or enter your domains ever again.”
“Sectmaster!” Duan Hongwen screamed.
“Shut up!” The illusory and blurry face of You Qimiao berated.
Duan Hongwen trembled and sealed his lips.
“What?!” Many experts that were observing from afar stood aghast upon hearing You Qimiao’s words.
Who was You Qimiao for heaven’s sake?
He was currently the strongest expert in the human world. Now, he was actually asking Nie Tian nicely instead of pressuring him with force?
He was the crazy one who had provoked the Ripper Behemoth to destroy the vast main realm of the Heaven Span Pavilion, one of the four great sects!
What did Nie Tian have that made him ask nicely?
From the look of it, You Qimiao was asking Nie Tian to give him face and let Duan Hongwen live.
Many onlookers found You Qimiao’s approach confusing, and contradictory to his status as the strongest expert throughout the human world.
This was also not how he had always done things!
“Go!”
As soon as Nie Tian exclaimed, the five evil gods suddenly charged out of the Realm of Looming Shadow towards You Qimiao’s true form.
At the same time, in his enlarged form, he swung the Star Behemoth bone and pierced it towards the huge face of You Qimiao condensed from the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth. “We’ll talk after I kill Duan Hongwen!”
Hundreds of thousands of rays of blood-colored light flew out of the bone to gnaw at You Qimiao’s reflection.
With a loud boom, the blurry face exploded and perished.
As this happened, dazzling stars shone in the depths of Nie Tian’s pupils.
WHOOSH!
The huge bone morphed into a streak of crimson lightning that shot towards Duan Hongwen, who then ran for his life.
“Starchains!”
As numerous chains of sparkling starlight filled the vast sky like rivers of stars, the depths of Nie Tian’s pupils reflected Duan Hongwen, which showed the crimson divine spear its target with precision.
At the same time, his other hand reached towards Duan Hongwen like a blood-colored dome.
Locked down by the bone and Nie Tian’s enormous hand, Duan Hongwen had nowhere to run.
POOPH!
Like a red flash, the bone pierced through Duan Hongwen’s earth power defensive shield. The moment the shield exploded, Nie Tian’s huge hand arrived and descended on him like a heaven-reaching mountain peak.
Duan Hongwen looked up, and discovered that blood-colored light filled his view, and that every wisp of his life force seemed to be channeled away from him.
All of a sudden, he realized that his heart had stopped beating, which meant his body had died.
Then, he attempted to separate his soul from his sea of awareness to secure a smidgen of hope of rebirth.
WHOOSH!
Duan Hongwen’s soul flew out successfully. Overjoyed, he prepared to fly to the depths of the earth, where he assumed that he would be able to escape Nie Tian’s murderous hand.
The incantations he had practiced his whole life were all earth power-related.
His grayish-yellow soul carried an earth attribute, which allowed it to travel without obstacles in the depths of the earth.
“As long as I can secure my soul, I’m not dead in the real sense! After the sectmaster gets here and annihilates Nie Tian, he’ll definitely find an opportunity to bring me back to life!”
However, while he was indulging in his smug calculations, another hand flew out of the palm of Nie Tian’s enormous blood-colored descending hand!
That hand seemed to be made of nothing but Nie Tian’s refined soul power. The aura it exuded made Duan Hongwen’s soul tremble with fear. “That… That’s the Phantasms’ evil soul magic!”
Nie Tian sneered and said, “That’s right. This is the soul magic the Phantasms usually use: Soul-capturing Hand. It proves to be effective on discarnate souls that have left their bodies, like you.”
The strange-looking hand grabbed Duan Hongwen’s soul with a swift move.
Grasped by the neck, he couldn’t break free no matter how hard he struggled.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
As his soul was rapidly reduced to wisps of smoke under the effect of the Soul-capturing Hand, his soul imprints quickly vanished.
Nie Tian looked down and watched the misty gray soul in his hand scatter like smoke. “My Soul-capturing Hand isn’t quite the same as that of the Phantasms, as I derived mine directly from the Nether River, which was transformed from Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit’s sea of awareness. With your soul burned out and memories dissipated, the only slightly useful thing that remains of you is your pure soul power.”
As soon as the Spirit Pearl flew out, the wisps of scattering smoke from Duan Hongwen’s incinerated soul flew into the pearl.
Soon, there was nothing left of his soul.
One figure after another flew out of the Realm of Looming Shadow into the starry river.
“He killed Duan Hongwen and refined his soul so that he has no chance to be reborn!”
“He didn’t give even You Qimiao face!”
“This is bad. Now that Duan Hongwen’s been killed, You Qimiao, as the sectmaster of the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect, definitely won’t let this go easily! I bet You Qimiao will annihilate those five monsters as Nie Tian annihilated Duan Hongwen.”
They all wondered what violent means You Qimiao would use to deal with Nie Tian after finding out that Duan Hongwen had been eliminated, body and soul, after his reflection had been scattered by Nie Tian.
At this moment, Song Chequan’s desperate wail echoed out. “Help me, Sectmaster You!”
