Chapter 400: Standoff
With a delighted expression on her face, Dong Li circled around the area where the three groups of explorers were battling the people from the Realm of Black Marsh, and slowly approached Nie Tian’s location.
As she did, she would hold her jade-like wrist to her red lips and whisper orders into her bracelet every now and then.
After joining up, the three groups of explorers had the advantage in both numbers and strength.
Since they recognized Dong Li and knew she was the daughter of the Dong Clan’s clanmaster, when they had been asked to deal with the Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh, they could only do as they were bid.
After all, they all understood very well what would happen to them if they dared to disobey her in the Dong Clan’s territory.
Furthermore, they had recently heard about the intolerable deeds of those Qi warriors from the Realm of Black Marsh.
Even though Dong Li had played a trick and gotten seven of the people from the Realm of Black Marsh killed, none of the three groups of explorers would have the strength to contend against the rest of them alone.
If Dong Li hadn’t called upon them, it wouldn’t have occurred to them to unite against those murderers.
But now that they had come together upon hearing Dong Li’s call, and their collective strength exceeded that of the people from the Realm of Black Marsh, they weren’t afraid of them anymore.
Not to mention that they also had the Dong Clan backing them.
Dong Li sneered. “A bunch of fools.”
The reason why she hadn’t been so eager to summon members of the Dong Clan to this place was that she knew she could use these outsiders to wear down or annihilate those from the Realm of Black Marsh.
In her eyes, no matter whether it was the people from the Realm of Black Marsh or the explorers that had come upon her summons, they were all chess pieces, subject to her manipulation.
She didn’t care about their lives, not in the least.
What she really wanted was to see Nie Tian suffer and sustain injuries, so that she could find a vent for her anger towards him.
BANG! BANG!
As countless claw-shaped shadows continued to rain on Nie Tian, blood flowed out of the corner of his mouth, and his face turned pale.
Upon seeing Nie Tian’s condition, Guan Yue, who had infused every one of those claw-shaped shadows with his own spiritual power, smiled brutally.
“You killed my little brother. No matter who you are, you will have to die here today!” With these words, he wove his metal claws in the air and once again channeled the power within the floating, claw-shaped shadows.
In the next moment, torrential spiritual power fluctuations burst forth from within each and every claw-shaped shadow and spread towards Nie Tian.
Experiencing soreness all over, Nie Tian took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down.
Wood power suddenly rushed out of the vortex of wood power in his spiritual sea, and with a strong nourishing aura, it poured into his meridians, muscles, and internal organs.
Wherever his wood power flowed, the intense soreness disappeared, making him so comfortable that he felt as if he was having a bath in a hot spring.
Instantly, his meridians and muscles recovered their vigor.
As a thought appeared in Nie Tian’s mind, the green aura that was coiled in his heart also unleashed a surge of life energy, which morphed into a streak of green light that rushed into his internal organs.
The streak of green light seemed to suddenly stimulate the flesh power within Nie Tian’s internal organs and tap into his potential.
In the next moment, Nie Tian discovered that his badly-injured body had suddenly recovered to its peak state.
He threw his head back and let loose a long roar.
As he did, spiritual power of various attributes, flesh power, and psychic power, as well as soul power from the seven fragmentary star in his soul, rapidly rushed out and formed a chaotic magnetic field around him.
Distorting and chaotic fluctuations spread out into the space around Nie Tian, causing the claw-shaped shadows that fell into it to shake violently.
Not only that, but the spiritual power that Guan Yue had vested them with was instantly distorted.
Many of the invisible strings that connected the floating claw-shaped shadows with Guan Yue suddenly snapped.
Immediately afterwards, the claw-shaped shadows that had fallen into Nie Tian’s chaotic magnetic field started to explode one after another.
The suffocating spiritual power fluctuations that weighed down on Nie Tian like mountains vanished along with them.
At that moment, eyes narrowed, Nie Tian began to swing the Flame Star in his hand.
Blade blasts sent out by the Flame Star snapped the remaining intact strings with great precision.
Guan Yue’s face turned pale with fright. Dark-green smoke rose from the bottom of his feet as he swiftly jumped backwards.
Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph as he fixed his frigid gaze on him.
Guan Yue met Nie Tian’s gaze and felt very uneasy, as if he knew something bad was about to happen.
In the next moment, he found that Nie Tian, who was staring at him holding his Flame Star, suddenly became blurry.
WHOOSH!
Sensing a booming life aura in the tall bush behind his back, he turned around as quickly as he could.
A two-meter-long blade blast, mixed with flames and starlight, had already been launched at him.
At the same time, he was enveloped by the strange magnetic field.
As he attempted to draw on his spiritual power, he discovered that it had become unprecedentedly difficult. Even his originally peaceful soul, which was like an undisturbed lake, experienced enormous amounts of turbulence, as well as a stabbing pain.
With great difficulty, he raised his metal claws to defend himself.
RUUUUUMBLE!
A surge of extremely explosive power, which shouldn’t have belonged to a Heaven stage cultivator, slammed into the claws.
Guan Yue’s arms were instantly mangled, blood spraying out of them. His body was also sent flying back by the terrifying impact.
His body made a perfect arc in the air and crashed heavily onto the ground. Guan Yue grimaced and gasped for air as he rapidly examined himself.
He discovered that spiritual power of different attributes was following his meridians up his arms as they continued to damage his arms.
Lucky for him, the strike had knocked him out of the chaotic magnetic field, and he no longer felt the terrifying feeling of his soul being twisted and ripped apart.
“Is this brat really at the Heaven stage?!” Guan Yue gnashed his teeth with frustration as he watched Nie Tian, who seemed as calm as ever, pace towards him.
Only then did he realize that his younger brother’s death hadn’t been a lucky attempt.
Although this unknown Heavens stage young man cultivated spiritual power with many different attributes, every single one of them was outstandingly pure and rich.
Furthermore, when he had taken repeated bombardment from his claw-shaped shadows, not only had he not lost his will to battle, but he even seemed to have been provoked. The strength he had later exhibited almost suffocated him.
After a brief search in his mind, he came around and realized that Nie Tian had been preserving his strength before.
Trembling with fear, Guan Yue hastily turned to look at his companions in an attempt to ask for help.
However, what he saw made his expression grow even grimmer.
Dozens of Qi warriors had already surrounded his companions. At this moment, they were madly attacking them on Dong Li’s demand.
His companions were obviously in an unfavorable situation. Even their leader’s eyes started to flicker, as he was apparently considering retreat.
After a brief pondering, Guan Yue made out the situation he was in, and was determined to escape.
However, just as he was trying to get ahold of his bearings, a cyan awl approached without making a sound.
Guan Yue sensed the danger.
With a panicked expression, he jerked his head to his left, and discovered that the devilishly beautiful woman from the Dong Clan had already appeared from behind a tall bush.
Before he could react, the cyan awl shot into his ribs like a flash of lightning.
An intense, sore numbness, along with agonizing pain, came from the side of his ribcage. Then, that side of his body began to grow stiff and numb.
“The awl is poisonous!” Lips trembling, Guan Yue attempted to stop the spread of the toxin with his secret magics.
However, Dong Li didn’t give him the chance to do that.
Dong Li lunged forward as sharp bones stuck out of the edge of her bone shield. In the next moment, Dong Li buried them all in Guan Yue’s body.
Guan Yue’s body gradually turned cold and dropped to the ground.
Nie Tian came to a stop in a location about ten meters in front of Dong Li. Gripping the Flame Star, he said to her with furrowed eyebrows, “That was completely unnecessary. I didn’t need your help.”
“His cultivation base is much higher than yours, yet he failed to leave a noticeable wound on you,” Dong Li said with a disgusted expression. “Such a good-for-nothing is an eyesore for me.”
Nie Tian looked at her, not uttering a word.
The Dong Li he was looking at now was just as cunning and vicious as the Song Li he had dealt with in the Realm of Split Void.
The only thing that was different was her appearance.
Having resumed her actual appearance, Dong Li looked like a blossoming flower. Together with her well-built, long legs and curvaceous upper body, they made her an absolutely rare beauty.
However, he knew perfectly well that this blossoming rose was covered in sharp thorns.
Any man who dared to pick it might end up with a bloody hand.
“Hua Tian, Nie Tian, hahaha.” Dong Li chuckled as she took her time retracting her cyan awl from Guan Yue’s cold body and putting it away, along with her bone shield.
Nie Tian let out a loud harrumph.
Apparently, Dong Li had long since learned about his real identity from Dong Baijie.
Considering Dong Li’s resourcefulness, she might have already obtained a thorough knowledge of him and his relationship with the Cloudsoaring Sect.
This meant that the threat she had made before had been well-based.
“What do you want?” asked Nie Tian.
