The ancient starship berthed in the middle of a city without walls.
As soon as Nie Tian and the experts walked out of the starship cabin, Li Muyang gazed skywards and exclaimed, “Three suns!”
Three blazing suns were scorching the ground like three enormous fireballs, making this realm unusually hot.
The incantations Li Muyang practiced had historical connections with the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. They allowed him to channel the sun’s power into his spiritual sea and use it to refine his spiritual core over and over.
He could channel much more power from here than from the sun in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Therefore, Li Muyang grew excited upon seeing three suns hanging in the sky. “If I could build a spell formation here to gather power from the three suns, I have confidence that I’d be able to break through into the late Soul realm in three to five years!”
He hadn’t expected Duan Shihu’s private territory to be so special.
The fact that he saw three blazing suns the moment he stepped out of the starship cabin made him see an opportunity to make another breakthrough in cultivation after being stuck at the middle Soul realm for many decades.
Qi Bailu from the Tool Sect took a deep breath. Looking thrilled, he said, “There are a large number of volcanoes here too! This realm is actually quite similar to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation. The only difference is that the volcanoes here contain flame power even richer than those in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation! This place agrees with my cultivation too. It’s such a blessed land.”
Duan Shihu grinned and said, “This realm is called the Realm of Withering Flame. During the day, three suns will hang in the sky, making the whole realm unbearably hot, but things will change after nightfall.
“During the night, five moons will appear in the sky, enveloping the entire realm in their chilly moonlight.”
Upon hearing these words, Xing Huanyue from the Yin Sect shuddered. “What?! Five moons will appear in the sky after nightfall?!”
Nie Tian was surprised too.
He was well-aware that the incantations Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue practiced were rather special, as they practiced cultivation by channeling power from the sun and the moon.
It was hard to find spiritual materials that contained sun and moon power in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Perhaps for this reason, the two of them hadn’t progressed as fast as Fan Kai from the Heaven Palace Sect or the Flame God, Xia Yi.
If the Yin Sect and the Yang Sect weren’t based in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, but in the Realm of Withering Flame, their cultivation bases would have most likely been much higher than they were now.
Both of them had spell formations and spiritual tools that could gather sun power and moon power in their headquarters.
It was just that they were limited by the Domain of the Falling Stars. The rate at which they accumulated the essence of the sun and the moon wasn’t high enough for them to make breakthroughs at a fast rate.
But here, not only were there three suns in the sky during the daytime and five moons during the nighttime, but each of those suns and moons emanated more power than the ones in the Domain of the Falling Stars.
If they had spell formations to help them gather power too, the two of them might very well break through into the next realm within a short period of time in the Realm of Withering Flame.
Especially now that Nie Tian had gotten those two scrolls out of the bellies of those two lofty mountain peaks for them, all they lacked to make breakthroughs in their cultivation was accumulation and refinement of power.
Duan Shihu smiled. “Indeed, there are a lot of volcanoes in the Realm of Withering Flame. Many of the volcanoes even have fire-attributed spiritual materials in them. Those fire-attributed spiritual materials are my main source of income. The hunters who used to roam this realm and prey on weak cultivators all pledged their loyalty to me, and mine those spiritual materials for me now.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he asked, “Senior martial brother, are there earthflame essence or earthflame crystal strings in those volcanoes?”
Duan Shihu nodded. “Of course there are. It’s just that it’s very difficult to collect them. Only Qi warriors who practice fire incantations will be able to extricate them from the hearts of the volcanoes fairly easily. None of the hunters who practice fire incantations are powerful enough, so I haven’t really been able to collect them.”
“If you don’t mind, may I collect some of the earthflame essence and earthflame crystal strings?” Nie Tian asked somewhat bashfully.
The Flame Dragon Armor had consumed far too much flame power to refine and purge the soul of that Phantasm grand patriarch. Now, it desperately needed to recover.
Nie Tian was well-aware that the Flame Dragon Armor relied on earthflame essence and earthflame crystal strings to recover strength, and thus he asked this question.
“Of course,” Duan Shihu answered without the slightest hesitation.
“Nie Tian,” Jing Rou said. “I just learned that not only is that Pei Qiqi girl still alive, but Xing Bo seems to attach great importance to her.”
During this time, she had been communicating with the informants the Divine Seal Sect had planted in the Thousandsword Mountain Sect, and had gained a full understanding of the situation.
“Apparently, Xing Bo intends to erase her memories and then marry her.
“Not everyone can erase her memories of her past, but keep her memories of her spatial manipulation magics at the same time.
“So to be safe, Xing Bo is going to take her back to the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s headquarters and have their powerful experts finish the procedure there.”
Nie Tian’s face instantly grew bleak. “He wants to erase senior martial sister’s memories and then marry her?”
For some reason, Nie Tian found it very difficult to suppress his fury after hearing that Xing Bo was planning to marry Pei Qiqi. He struggled to fight his urge to find Xing Bo’s ancient starship immediately to slay him and rescue Pei Qiqi.
Hua Mu and the other experts’ faces also grew cold and fierce.
Jing Rou saw that anger was building up in them, and thus hastily said, “Don’t worry. We still have plenty of time to stop him. Xing Bo will have to take a long journey if he wants to return to the Thousandsword Mountain Sect from where he is, much longer than us. Besides, we have insiders around him. I’ll keep a close watch on him. He’ll never get what he wants.”
Her assurance calmed Nie Tian to some extent.
Nie Tian sounded somewhat eager as he said, “I’m off to collect earthflame essence first, senior martial brother. Would you point me in a direction where you don’t have people working already?”
Duan Shihu pointed in a direction. “Over there. The volcanoes in that area haven’t been explored yet. I’ll tell my men to avoid that area too.”
Nie Tian nodded, then turned to Jing Rou and asked, “Would you please let me know when you receive new information?”
“Of course,” Jing Rou said.
Nie Tian then summoned his Star Boat and flew off into the distance like a shooting star.
Meanwhile, Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue gained Duan Shihu’s permission and started building their own spell formations in a courtyard in the city, with which they hoped to gather sun power and moon power, and break through into the late Soul realm as soon as possible.
Hua Mu and Qi Bailu were curious about this city, and thus decided to take a walk inside the city.
Zhao Shanling seemed to have gone somewhere by himself.
The Star Boat suddenly came to a stop over an area that was packed with volcanoes.
Nie Tian summoned the Flame Dragon Armor.
As soon as the Flame Dragon Armor flew out of his ring of holding, Nie Tian sensed cheers from its soul, and realized that he had come to the right place.
“Go gather flame power and recover as quickly as you can,” Nie Tian ordered.
The Flame Dragon Armor then morphed into a streak of flames that shot directly down the mouth of an active volcano, piercing into its heart.
A strong sense of urgency had risen in his heart since he had learned that Xing Bo planned to erase Pei Qiqi’s memories and marry her.
He hoped to return his battle prowess to its peak state as soon as possible, and the Flame Dragon Armor was the most powerful tool at his disposal.
The reason why he hadn’t let the Flame Dragon Armor absorb flame power from that other continent was because he understood the profound connections between the Ultimates Reverse Grand Spell Formation and the five regions of different elemental powers.
He had worried that by channeling too much power from the fire-attributed region, the Flame Dragon Armor would break the balance of the spell formation, and thus had kept it from doing so.
However, there wasn’t a similar superb spell formation here, covering the entire Realm of Withering Flame. Also, it seemed that his senior martial brother wouldn’t mind losing some of the earthflame essence here.
Therefore, he let the Flame Dragon Armor do what it had to do.
Normally speaking, it would be rather difficult to gather earthflame essence and earthflame crystal strings. The reason why the Flame God Sect had been able to gather a large number of earthflame crystal strings in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation had been because of Xia Yi’s profound strength.
However, even though it was a difficult task for most people, it wasn’t a problem for the Flame Dragon Armor.
As soon as the Flame Dragon Armor sank into the heart of the volcano, Nie Tian shrewdly discovered that the raging flame power fluctuations within that volcano rapidly quieted down.
Therefore, he knew that the Flame Dragon Armor was madly absorbing earthflame essence from the depths of the earth.
Three days passed…
The six active volcanoes in the vicinity all became extinct after being depleted of all of their earthflame essence and earthflame crystal strings.
The Flame Dragon Armor flew out of the last one, wreathed in a flame aura so fierce that it even made Nie Tian somewhat uncomfortable. Then, it sent Nie Tian a soul message, “Would you grant me some of your Blood Essence, master? It will be very helpful for my growth!”
The Flame Dragon Armor had long since expressed its strong desire for Nie Tian’s Blood Essence, but for many reasons, he hadn’t bestowed any upon it.
Now, after accumulating a copious amount of flame power, the Flame Dragon Armor once again made this demand.
At this moment, Nie Tian’s bloodline aura happened to be in dormancy, preparing for its next awakening cycle.
He would be able to regenerate ten drops of Blood Essence with his remaining flesh power. Therefore, after a moment of hesitation, he granted the Flame Dragon Armor’s demand.
One drop of Blood Essence after another then flew out of his heart. As translucent and sparkling as red agate, they disappeared into the Blood Core.
Great changes instantly occurred in the Blood Core.
