The Star Boat came to a stop in midair.
Seeing this, the Saint and Void domain experts also stopped.
Looking at the black phoenix beast spirit that hovered over Dong Li, Nie Tian asked with a confused expression, “You fused this black phoenix beast spirit into your soul before you left the Domain of the Falling Stars, right?”
Instead of answering his question, Dong Li asked, “Do you remember when we found the corpse of an eighth grade black phoenix the first time we came to this continent?”
Nie Tian nodded.
“My black phoenix beast spirit absorbed its residual power,” Dong Li explained. “And its residual power was branded with fragments of its memories. Some of those memories have already merged with my black phoenix beast spirit and become a part of it.”
Nie Tian instantly realized something. “You mean that dead eighth grade black phoenix we found used to live in this area?”
Dong Li smiled. “That’s right.”
WHOOSH!
All of a sudden, the huge black phoenix beast spirit flew out, gliding cheerfully in the frigid wind.
“Let’s follow it and see if we can find out what’s attracting it.” With these words, Nie Tian readjusted the Star Boat’s direction and flew off in the direction the black phoenix beast spirit was heading.
The others took orders from him, and thus could only follow along.
It wasn’t long before the black phoenix, which was in pure soul form, flew to a short mountain of ice.
It swooped directly into it.
Its illusory body fused into the mountain like water into a lake.
Cracks started to appear on the mountain of ice, with large pieces of sparkling ice rolling down to the ground.
The mountain of ice gradually grew semi-transparent.
A winged shape could be vaguely seen inside of it. Even though they couldn’t get a clear view of it, they could tell it was very large.
“That’s an ice phoenix!” Jing Feiyang exclaimed, his expression flickering with astonishment. “It must have died and been sealed in this mountain of ice. Ice phoenixes are Ancientbeasts. We met one in the Realm of Maelstrom not long ago.”
“This is strange…” Nie Tian muttered in a low voice. Normally speaking, his unique bloodline would allow him to detect anything that contained even the slightest flesh power, dead or alive.
However, this ice phoenix was right in front of him, yet he failed to capture its aura.
“Could it be the mountain of ice it’s sealed in? Or something special with this place?”
While he searched his mind for an answer, the black phoenix beast spirit flew out of the mountain of ice and let out a sad cry that only Dong Li could hear.
CRACK! CRACK!
As Quan Zixuan swung his hand, one spiritual sword after another flew out to carve into the mountain of ice like numerous carving knives. Giant blocks of ice fell off, giving rise to loud rumbles.
Moments later, the mountain of ice was completely gone, revealing the ice phoenix inside of it.
The ice phoenix’s wings that were dozens of meters long spread out in a graceful manner, as if it were going to soar into the heavens.
However, a long gash could be seen in its neck, which was so deep that it almost severed the ice phoenix’s head from its body.
Nie Tian sighed softly. “It was probably killed by outsiders. A deadly war broke out between the top and bottom continents countless years ago. Back then, enormous Ancientbeasts like ice phoenixes lived on the bottom continent, while Demons, Phantasms, and other powerful outsiders lived on the top continent. Even though the outsiders lost that war eventually, the Ancientbeasts suffered heavy casualties as well.
“This ice phoenix was only one of them.”
Now that the ice mountain was gone, revealing the dead ice phoenix inside of it, Nie Tian was able to sense its residual flesh power.
He instantly realized that it was the mountain of ice that had stopped him from sensing the dead ice phoenix’s aura earlier.
At the same time, Dong Li communicated with her black phoenix beast spirit in her unique way.
Eyes narrowed, she explained to everyone. “It says that this area was the phoenixes’ ancestral land. After the ultimate war, many dead phoenixes were brought back and buried here.”
Jing Feiyang’s expression flickered with astonishment. “So does that mean there are other dead phoenixes sealed away in these ice mountains?”
Dong Li nodded. “Yes, there are.”
Quan Zixuan’s eyes lit up. “If that’s the case, there must be outsiders searching for them in this area! Ancientbeast corpses are considered very precious materials, which can be used to forge all kinds of Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools. Meanwhile, outsiders can channel flesh power from dead Ancientbeasts to speed up their bloodline upgrades.
“Phoenixes are categorized into black phoenixes, ice phoenixes, and flame phoenixes. Different types of phoenixes carry bloodline power of different attributes. If they could find dead phoenixes that shared their attributes, they would be able to use them to accelerate their bloodline upgrades.
“The only thing I don’t understand is that even the outsiders have found their way back to this abandoned continent many years after the great war, but why haven’t the Ancientbeasts returned?”
Qu Mingde shook his head. “It is a bit strange.”
Nie Tian was also puzzled. He turned to Dong Li and asked, “Do you know why?”
Dong Li smiled bitterly. “Beats me. My black phoenix beast spirit only gained a small amount of residual power from that eighth grade black phoenix’s corpse. The amount of bloodline imprints it gained was very limited. There’s no way that it could learn something that happened on this continent so long ago.”
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
Frigid currents suddenly changed directions, and converged on the dead ice phoenix. Soon, a thick layer of ice formed over its body again.
As soon as that happened, Nie Tian lost his sense of its aura again, no matter how he strained his bloodline perception.
“What the…” Nie Tian muttered, with shock written across his face. “The frigid aura in this place can actually converge on the ice phoenix corpse on its own for the purpose of concealing it.”
“Do we take this eighth grade ice phoenix with us, Nie Tian?” Jing Feiyang asked for his opinion.
The corpse of an eighth grade ice phoenix was of great value, especially to cultivators who practiced ice incantations. It could be used to forge Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools, or refined and added into medicinal pills that would boost people’s cultivation.
However, Nie Tian pondered for a short while, then shook his head. “No. Our mission is to get rid of those outsiders, not collect valuable materials.”
As he said these words, the black phoenix beast spirit sprinted off again. Everyone flew after it.
In the next few days, they flew around in this frigid heaven and earth and found many more phoenix corpses that were sealed away in ice mountains. There were ice phoenixes, black phoenixes, and flame phoenixes.
Every single one of them was at the eighth grade, and thus didn’t have the ability to revive themselves.
Even though all of them had suffered fatal attacks and died, their hearts were all intact.
For eighth grade Ancientbeasts, as long as their hearts weren’t destroyed, their ninth or tenth grade seniors would have a chance at bringing them back to life by fusing them with their own Blood Essence and triggering it with secret bloodline magics.
“If there are no mishaps, all of these dead phoenixes still have a chance at rebirth!” Jing Feiyang exclaimed.
“I bet the reason why the phoenixes sealed their dead clan members, whose hearts were still intact, in this place is because they planned to bring them back to life when the time was right!” Nie Tian chimed in. “The question is: why have they not returned to this place to after so long?”
No one present was able to answer this question for him.
“The ultimate war was between outsiders and Ancientbeasts. Now, the outsiders have returned to this continent, while the Ancientbeasts haven’t. As the side that lost the war and had their homeland destroyed, the outsiders definitely won’t leave these dead Ancientbeasts alone as we have.” With these words, Dong Li gazed off into the distance. “Perhaps as we speak, outsiders are carving dead phoenixes out of the ice mountains and collecting them.”
“To the seventh spatial tunnel!” Nie Tian exclaimed.
He didn’t have positive feelings toward the outsiders or the Ancientbeasts.
However, since Demons and Phantasms had invaded the Domain of the Falling Stars repeatedly over the recent decades, he had developed a deep enmity towards Demons and other outsiders.
Meanwhile, no Ancientbeasts had ever offended him.
Two weeks later, the seventh spatial tunnel entered Jing Feiyang’s detection range. He informed Nie Tian that there were only two eighth grade outsiders guarding it, a Demon and a Phantasm. All of the rest were at the sixth or seventh grade.
Furthermore, he didn’t detect any human slaves in the vicinity. Apparently, they had been taken to mine spiritual materials in other locations instead of here.
“This place is far too cold for most human slaves,” Dong Li said. “That’s probably why we didn’t see a single human on our way here.”
Jing Feiyang nodded with an approving expression. “I think you’re right.”
“We won’t be getting any external assistance this time,” Nie Tian said. “We’ll have to rely on ourselves to take them out.”
“A considerable number of low-grade outsiders seem to be wandering in areas close to that spatial tunnel. Why don’t we take them out first?” Qu Mingde suggested.
“The three of us will suffice,” Quan Zixuan chimed in.
In the next moment, the three Saint domain experts left the main group. They spread out to take care of the outsiders that were gathering phoenix corpses in different locations.
An hour passed…
Meng Li received a message, and told Nie Tian that the three Saint domain experts had taken out a few dozen sixth and seventh grade outsiders soundlessly.
