In the Blood Skull’s base in the Void Illusion Mountain Range…
After Pei Qiqi had recovered from her injuries, she hadn’t spent any time looking for a suitable location to set up the teleportation portal. Instead, she went straight to the Blood Skull’s base in the mountain range.
The reason why she had decided to leave as soon as possible was that, after the tempering she had received from her battles against Ma Jiu and Li Langfeng, she had a feeling that she was about to break through from the late Heaven stage into the Greater Heaven stage.
The advancement of her cultivation base was so crucial that she dared not do it in the perilous Void Illusion Mountain Range.
She planned to use the Blood Skull’s teleportation portal to get back to Shatter City first, and then return to the mountain range to find a suitable location for her newly-acquired teleportation portal after entering the Greater Heaven stage.
After Nie Tian had left the secret stronghold, she didn’t try to use the advanced communication spell formation to contact the Blood Skull because she was aware that the location of the secret stronghold under the creek was only supposed to be revealed to senior Blood Skull members.
Cai Yuan had broken their rules by revealing such important information to her. She didn’t want to get him in trouble.
When she showed up in the Blood Skull’s base, it caused a stir among the Blood Skull members. Cai Yuan and Shi Qing soon heard about her return and rushed back to their base without any delay.
Seeing that she was in a good state, Cai Yuan smiled as his scrunched eyebrows finally relaxed. “It’s nice to see that you’re okay, Qiqi!”
During the past few weeks, Cai Yuan had organized a search team and gone to every corner of the mountain range to search for her. He had been worried sick that something bad might happen to her.
The feelings he had for Pei Qiqi were real.
“As soon as I learned that you escaped from Li Langfeng’s pursuit, I knew that you would be fine,” Shi Qing said with a smile. “Where’s Hua Tian? Didn’t he come back with you?”
At that moment, the Blood Skull’s highest commander in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, Gu Yu, walked out from one of the wooden cottages and said, “According to our scouts, Li Langfeng is still searching for Hua Tian everywhere. I thought he was with you. Now you’re here, where’s Hua Tian?”
Back when the Blood Skull, Wild Fire, and Dark Moon had tangled with one another, Shi Qing had sent Cai Yue back to Shatter City the first chance he had.
Afterwards, Shi Qing had explained the breathtaking battle between the three of them and Li Langfeng to Gu Yu in great detail.
After hearing Shi Qing’s narration, Gu Yu, who had also thought it was a bit rash to offer a guest elder’s identity medallion to an early Heaven stage young man, finally acknowledged Nie Tian’s battle prowess.
He couldn’t help but come to hold a high opinion of Nie Tian after hearing that the Heaven stage young man had fought Li Langfeng head-on and changed the course of the battle.
Later, he began to marvel at Nie Tian’s strength when he heard from Cai Yuan that it was Nie Tian who had killed more than a dozen Dark Moon experts and rescued him and Pei Qiqi from Ma Jiu’s siege.
As of that moment, both Shi Qing and Gu Yu realized that the Blood Skull was very fortunate to have made Nie Tian their guest elder.
The fact that Li Langfeng had been killing people to get Nie Tian’s whereabouts also proved Nie Tian’s outstanding ability.
After all, no ordinary person could offend and then survive that mad man.
“Hua Tian didn’t come back with me,” Pei Qiqi said with an expressionless face. “We lost Li Langfeng and found a secure location to recover our strength. Then we parted ways.”
Shi Qing seemed rather concerned as he asked, “Where did he go?”
Pei Qiqi frowned slightly as she recalled the determined expression on Nie Tian’s face when he had left her. “He went back to Shatter City on foot.”
“What?!” Gu Yu was greatly surprised. “He went back by himself? Didn’t he want to use our teleportation portal here? As a guest elder of the Blood Skull, he’s entitled to use our teleportation portals. He just needed to pay a few spirit stones. Why would he chose trouble over convenience and put himself in danger?!”
Cai Yuan’s expression also flickered. “He said he wanted to temper himself?!”
Pei Qiqi gently nodded towards him.
Standing in awe, Cai Yuan marveled, “I finally understand why Hua Tian is so powerful and resourceful! Even though he’s only at the Heaven stage, he voluntarily chose the most dangerous way to return to Shatter City. Hua Tian is indeed beyond ordinary!”
Cai Yuan seemed to approve of Nie Tian’s choice the most.
As Cai Lan’s only son, he wouldn’t just stay in Shatter City and be surrounded by wealth. Instead, he chose to venture in the Void Illusion Mountain Range year-round, and repeatedly put himself in desperate situations. By doing that, he tempered himself and won respect from all the Blood Skull members instead of relying only on his lofty identity.
“I’m tired and I need to recuperate,” Pei Qiqi said, looking at the wooden cottage where the Blood Skull’s teleportation portal was.
“No problem. I’ll send you back.” With these words, Cai Yuan led the way as the two of them walked into the cottage, where he arranged the teleportation for her.
Gu Yu and Shi Qing stood where they were.
The two Greater Heaven stage experts exchanged a glance and sighed.
“This Hua Tian kid is indeed beyond ordinary.” Shi Qing said. “It’s hard to imagine how powerful he will become after entering the Greater Heaven stage. Our young lord is truly visionary to have offered him a guest elder’s identity medallion in advance.”
Gu Yu nodded slightly before he suddenly frowned and said, “But the returning path he chose is full of danger. As you know, a new Hunter organization has appeared in recent years, and they roam the area between the Void Illusion Mountain Range and Shatter City. That organization seems to have appeared out of nowhere, and doesn’t seem to belong to the Realm of Split Void.”
Shi Qing’s eyebrows furrowed. “Are you talking about the Fang?”
Eyes narrowed, Gu Yu answered, “Yeah, exactly. I heard that their leader is a woman whose cultivation base seems to be unimpressive. However, she has a large number of Greater Heaven stage experts working for her. Our men encountered some Fang members in the Void Illusion Mountain Range before. Their strength was by no means weaker than our formal members’.”
“Really?!” Shi Qing’s face was filled with disbelief. “All the other Hunter organizations are not comparable to us, both in their battle prowess and spiritual tools. Why is this organization so special?”
“I’ve got a theory, but I can’t prove it yet, so…” After a moment of pondering, Gu Yu continued, “It’s probably safer for Hua Tian if he goes to Ash City or the Land of the Abandoned, instead of Shatter City. After all, if he goes back to Shatter City, it’s very likely that he’ll run into members of the Fang. I fear that he may not survive that encounter.”
“You’re right,” Shi Qing said. “Although, I hope he can. If he can survive the Fang’s ambush and pursuit and make it back to Shatter City alive, the kid will definitely grow into one of the biggest names in the Realm of Split Void!”
“That’s my hope too.” Gu Yu let out a sigh as he seemed to doubt that Nie Tian would succeed.
…
“The Fang!” At the same time, Nie Tian was mulling over the same name in a different corner of the mountain range.
He had long since left the dense forest and had already reached the outer edge of the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
It had been several days since he left Song Li that last message. During this time, he had met several withdrawing exploration teams, from whom he had learned about this Hunter organization.
Each and every exploration team had decided to abort their plan as soon as they had heard that the Hunter organization roaming in the depths of the forest was the Fang, even though many of them had Greater Heaven stage experts on their teams.
Through those teams, Nie Tian learned that the Fang was a Hunter organization that had just appeared in the Realm of Split Void, and they were very different from the other Hunter organizations.
They were extremely cruel and brutal; there would never be any survivors if they targeted an exploration team.
Not only that, but unlike other Hunter organizations, they wouldn’t take in new members. Even though they captured powerful opponents who wished to join them, they would refuse their requests and kill them all the same.
Furthermore, they never communicated with other Hunter organizations.
No one knew anything about any of their members. It seemed as if the whole organization had appeared out of nowhere.
In addition, they were a highly structured organization. The few of their members who had been captured had refused to reveal any information about their organization even when facing death.
Up to this day, the only thing people knew about this mysterious organization was that their leader was a young woman.
…
The Fang had been the most discussed name among all the withdrawing exploration teams Nie Tian had encountered on his way back to Shatter City.
Every single one of them had prayed not to run into the Fang on their way back and hoped that the Fang wouldn’t target their team.
It was as if they would never be able to make their way back to Shatter City once they were targeted.
Rubbing his chin, Nie Tian smiled bitterly. “Talk about luck… The first and only Hunter organization I became enemies with turns out to be the Fang… I suppose Song Li is their leader then. From the look of it, if I want to return to Shatter City, my road ahead will be full of danger.”
With these thoughts in mind, he picked up his pace, using his seven Heaven Eyes to keep a close watch on everything in the vicinity.
Two days passed, and Nie Tian finally walked out of the Void Illusion Mountain Range…
As soon as he set foot on the hilly land, one of his Heaven Eyes caught sight of a bloody battle.
