Huang Jinnan’s expression flickered as soon as Nie Tian’s nine Heaven Eyes came to form.
After going blank briefly, he smiled and said, “The Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s Star Eyes!
“They allow you to detect even the faintest soul fluctuations, which is something even my Golden Eye can’t do. My Golden Eye only allows me to see even the smallest physical things, and what materials things are made from.”
He seemed to know a great deal about the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s secret magics.
Nie Tian’s Heaven Eyes were a condensation of pure soul power, which meant they could only be detected by souls, yet he was able to shrewdly discover them the moment Nie Tian released them.
“So what I call Heaven Eyes are actually referred to as Star Eyes?” he thought to himself.
Bits of starlight shone in the depths of Nie Tian’s eyes as his nine Heaven Eyes covered the perimeter of the square, conducting a thorough scan.
Thanks to his Heaven Eyes, the numerous evil spirits sealed within the eighteen stone columns became very distinctive.
Each and every stone column seemed to be imprisoning hundreds of evil spirits, which were roaring soundlessly, yet failing to break out of their confinement.
WHOOSH!
All of a sudden, an evil spirit suddenly entered his sight, and flew closer and closer towards the square.
As it approached one of the stone columns, it started squirming and struggling in the air.
Even so, seconds later, it was sucked into that stone column and become one of its several hundred prisoners.
“Hmm?!” Nie Tian exclaimed as he instantly realized that the evil spirits within those eighteen stone columns had probably been trapped and imprisoned in the same manner.
Then, he focused on the ghouls.
Soon, he discovered that all of the ghouls in the square were wandering around the stone columns mechanically.
None of them seemed to be able to leave the spacious square.
The square seemed like a giant prison that attracted the evil spirits and ghouls in the vicinity, yet as soon as they entered it, they wouldn’t be able to leave.
Even though a large number of ghouls walked senselessly around the stone columns, none of them approached the ancient altar in the middle.
Countless corpses were piled up around and even on the altar. They hadn’t turned into ghouls after dying who knew how many years ago.
Through his Heaven Eyes, Nie Tian saw the evil spirits and the ghouls.
However, he didn’t capture any soul fluctuations other than the evil spirits’.
With the help of his bloodline power, he only sensed the ghouls’ flesh auras. There didn’t seem to be any other kinds of flesh auras in this place.
If there were actually living beings here, his Heaven Eyes and bloodline power would have been able to detect their soul fluctuations and flesh auras.
WHOOSH!
One of his Heaven Eyes attempted to fly to the center of the square after roaming the perimeter for some time.
As it did, it suddenly morphed into a cluster of bright starlight, turning from invisible to visible.
Something seemed to have shone on and revealed it.
In the next moment, the star soul’s power Nie Tian had vested in that Heaven Eye scattered. The cluster of starlight rapidly shrank to the size of a grain of rice before vanishing completely.
Nie Tian’s expression flickered with astonishment as he experienced a stabbing pain in his mind.
Since the connection between him and that Heaven Eye was gone, he realized that he had lost it, along with the soul power and the star soul’s power he had used to made it.
Seeing this, he didn’t dare to send any of his other eight Heaven Eyes into the square. With a grim face, he warned the others, “A mysterious force exists in the square. If you use your soul power rashly in there, you’ll probably suffer strong backlashes. So don’t send out soul power. Once your soul power flies out of you, it’ll be eliminated immediately.”
Before he could finish, Huang Jinnan let out a muffled groan as he hastily withdrew his Golden Eye.
He took a deep breath and said, “Nie Tian is right. Our soul power will be destroyed if we send it into the square.”
Not daring to enter the square rashly, he pondered safe ways to enter, standing where he was.
“I wonder whether the imprisoned evil spirits can fly out of those stone columns,” he thought out loud. “Those eighteen stone columns are holding a tremendous number of evil spirits. If they actually fly out after we enter, we’ll be in serious trouble.
“Besides, the ghouls are also there in great numbers, and they’re more powerful than the ones we ran into before.
“They may not be able to swamp us as soon as we enter the square, but they’ll definitely be drawn to our flesh auras and madly pursue us.
“I can’t see what’s hidden in the square for now, but I’m certain that we’ll face serious threats from both ghouls and evil spirits as soon as we enter to search for treasures.
“This is a bit tricky now.”
Huang Jinnan’s expression grew unprecedentedly serious and grim as he raised his hand, signaling the chosen ones from the various domains to stand down.
RUMBLE!
Heaven-shaking, earth-toppling rumbles once again echoed in their ears after traveling an extremely long distance.
All of a sudden, the ancient altar in the middle of the square started to shake.
BOOM! BOOM!
The violent shaking even sent the piled corpses flying off the altar and falling to the side.
After the dust settled, the entire stone altar was finally fully shown, revealing a handful of peculiar holes in the thick, solid stone.
Something shining with divine golden light suddenly rose from one of them.
Upon a closer look, it seemed to be a piece of divine metal covered in countless complicated golden engravings.
Staring unblinkingly at the piece of golden metal, Huang Jinnan suddenly exclaimed, “Primal metal! That’s a piece of naturally-formed primal metal, which is branded with the profound mysteries of metal power!”
A shocked expression spread across Nie Tian’s face. “Primal metal?”
“Yeah, it’s an extremely precious metal-attribute treasure!” Huang Jinnan said excitedly. “It forms in the depths of metal mines after absorbing metal power for hundreds of thousands of years! As a seventh level Earth Cultivated grade treasure, it already has its own awareness, vague though it may be. If I can obtain it, I’ll be able to turn it into a main material after minimal refinement, which I’ll be able to use to forge my domain in the future!”
“Not just that, but it can also be used to forge metal-attributed Spirit Channeling grade treasures! Since it has developed its own soul, it won’t have compatibility issues, unlike treasures that are given souls. Such Spirit Channeling grade treasures will have great potential to upgrade to the Immortal grade!”
Huang Jinnan had never been so excited.
At this moment, a few fresh green tree leaves rose from another hole in the stone altar.
Like invaluable emeralds, they emanated dazzling light.
As this happened, the coexisting flower images once again appeared uncontrollably in the depths of Mu Biqiong’s pupils.
“Those tree leaves…” She felt the coexisting flowers’ extremely strong desire for the tree leaves, as if they were precious wood-attributed treasures which would be of immeasurable help to their growth.
At the same time, Nie Tian realized that his vortex of wood power also accelerated as soon as the tree leaves emanated glorious light.
Even his bloodline aura grew restless, as if it wanted to seize them at the first possible moment.
At that moment, a streak of bright lightning rose from a third hole in the stone altar. Like a spiritual snake, it flew over the altar, as if it had its own awareness.
Even though the streak of lightning was only as thick as a man’s finger, it started gathering lightning power from its surroundings as soon as it appeared, giving rise to thunderous rumbles.
As that happened, a cluster of bleak, pale flames rose from a fourth hole in the stone altar.
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
Wisps of corpse auras flew uncontrollably out of the ghouls in the vicinity, infusing into the cluster of bleak, pale flames.
Then, after the primal metal, the tree leaves, the lightning bolt, and pale flames, a grayish-brown ball the size of a fist flew out of the stone altar, which seemed to be a crystallization of earth power. As it flew out, a strong vibration spread out from under the altar deep into the earth.
After rising out of the altar, the five spiritual materials of different attributes all flew about restlessly, as if they were eager to leave the altar.
They seemed to have sensed some kind of danger.
They kept dashing back and forth over the altar, but were stopped by invisible walls every time.
Gazing at them from afar, Huang Jinnan took a deep breath and said, “All five of them are Earth Cultivated grade treasures. Like the corpses around the altar, they must also be sacrificial offerings the Stone Golems used to hold some mysterious ceremony. The fact that they suddenly burst out, hoping to leave the altar, is probably because they sensed Stone Golems approaching.”
“Stone Golems?!” one of the Qi warriors behind him exclaimed.
Then, even Huang Jinnan grew somewhat insecure and uneasy as he said, “I guess Nie Tian was right. Some Stone Golem survivors are indeed coming to this place. Since the offerings are still here, it must mean that their sacrificial ceremony was somehow interrupted, and wasn’t completed. The Stone Golems are probably coming here to finish the unfinished sacrificial ceremony.
“Those Earth Cultivated spiritual materials already possess their own awareness. They know what will happen to them, and thus are doing everything they can to escape.
“We can’t wait anymore. We can forget about those treasures if we don’t collect them before those powerful Stone Golems get here!
“Let’s do this, Nie Tian! You deal with the evil spirits if they fly out of those stone columns! I’ll take care of the ghouls!
“We have to collect all five sacrificial offerings before the Stone Golems get here!”
With these words, he flew directly towards the center of the square before Nie Tian could even give him a response.
CRACK! CRACK!
Cracks suddenly appeared in the stone columns that stood in the square.
The evil spirits that had been imprisoned for who knew how many years flew out. Like a sea of gray clouds, they swarmed towards Huang Jinnan from different directions.
“Nie Tian!” he shouted.
“Coming!”
