Chapter 159: The Floating City
BAM!
At that moment, Shi Xuan landed heavily on the surface of the meteor.
However, the sky over his head was still filled with cold light and fragmented lightning, which seemed dazzling and splendid.
Shi Xuan fell hard onto the ground five meters in front of Nie Tian. Muddleheaded, he painstakingly opened his eyes and looked toward Nie Tian, confusion filling his face.
Then he looked over at Du Huang, who was lying on the ground right in front of Nie Tian, and saw that a sword had pierced into his forehead.
With another look at Nie Tian, he noticed that there were already seven light dots on the back of Nie Tian’s hand.
Only then was he finally convinced that it was Nie Tian who had killed Du Huang.
“Wu Ji’s disciple…” Shi Xuan stared blankly at Nie Tian. “Admittedly Wu Ji is a good mentor, but this kid is only in the Lesser Heaven stage. How on earth did he manage to kill Du Huang at the last moment?” He couldn’t figure out how Nie Tian had done it.
At that moment, Yu Tong, who originally wanted to use the Earth Web to bind Du Huang, also came to a stop.
SHEW!
Feng Luo landed softly next to Nie Tian. Looking at the seven light spots on the back of Nie Tian’s hand, he said, “Good job, kid!”
His compliment was sincere.
When it was a moment of life and death, he didn’t think of Yu Tong or Zheng Bin. He subconsciously called out Nie Tian’s name, hoping he could save Shi Xuan’s life.
This meant that deep down, Feng Luo had already acknowledged Nie Tian’s strength and believed that he was stronger than Yu Tong and Zheng Bin.
As a result, Nie Tian didn’t let him down. First of all, he had used the Ice Blast Pearl to relieve Shi Xuan’s crisis. Then, when Du Huang fell into the chaotic magnetic field after taking a slash in his back, Nie Tian had killed him with a clean, fast move.
“I didn’t do much.” Nie Tian gave a smile. “It was only because you severely injured him that I found an opportunity. If it weren’t for your deadly attack, Du Huang wouldn’t have lost control of himself, and therefore wouldn’t have fallen uncontrollably into my chaotic magnetic field.”
Feng Luo let out a broad laugh and said, “Well, thanks to your Ice Blast Pearl, his spiritual incantation lost effect. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have suffered from the backlash and I wouldn’t have had the chance to sneak up on him from behind. You deserve the six Heaven Gate keys from Du Huang. Not only that, it’s only fair that you get the majority of the loot within his bracelet of holding.”
Only then did the idea of dividing the loot hit Nie Tian. He yanked the bracelet of holding off of Du Huang’s wrist, in an attempt to divide the treasures within right away.
Feng Luo waved his hand, stopping Nie Tian. “There’s no rush. You keep it for the time being. We still have unfinished business ahead of us.”
He looked towards the dilapidated city.
“I see.” Nie Tian didn’t say anything else. He put Du Huang’s bracelet of holding on his wrist and also gazed towards the dilapidated city that was on the meteor right next to theirs.
From time to time, multicolored light shot out into the dark sky from within the enormous city, making the city seem increasingly mysterious.
“How are you doing, Shi Xuan?” Feng Luo asked, his voice almost a growl.
Face filled with bitterness, Shi Xuan shook his head and said, “I’m afraid I won’t be able to recover in a short time. And if I were to encounter any other hostile trial taker, I could only wait to be killed. I think it’s better that I stay away from that city.”
“Okay.” Feng Luo didn’t try to persuade him. Rather, he took out a small bottle of medicinal pills and tossed it to Shi Xuan. “These are some medicinal pills from our sect. Take them. When you get enough strength to move about, get out of this place. If my speculations are correct, I’m afraid there is more than one powerful foreign expert in that city. It’s not safe for you to stay here for too long.”
“I understand.” Shi Xuan nodded as he assumed the lotus position. Without any hesitation, he opened the bottle, swallowed the medicinal pills within, and started circulating his spiritual power to stimulate the efficacy of the pill.
“Take care of yourself,” Feng Luo said. With a glance at the other three, he turned around and marched toward the dilapidated city.
It appeared that he was bent to go by himself, and didn’t want the three of them to go with him.
After all, in his eyes, there might be good fortune hidden within the city. However, one might have to pay an unbearable price to obtain that fortune.
He wasn’t certain in the slightest that approaching the dilapidated city would be a good idea.
Therefore, he had no intention of asking any of them to go with him.
WHOOSH!
Without the least hesitation, Nie Tian, who had just obtained six red dots, walked up to Feng Luo.
Yu Tong seemed torn with indecision. After a moment of pondering, she said, “Uncle Shi, I’ll stay here with you.”
She decided to give up the chance.
“That’s good…” Shi Xuan let out a sigh and said, “The way I see it, you made the right decision. There are surely many other opportunities in the Heaven Gate trial. You don’t have to go to that dilapidated city. As long as you stay alive, I bet you will come across other opportunities.”
Yu Tong gently nodded her head. “Yeah, I guess you’re right.”
Zheng Bin’s expression seemed quite embarrassed as he said, “Well… I’ll stay too. That way we can keep each other company.”
Apparently, he had been frightened by the brutality and fierceness of the battles, and thus gave up the idea of pursuing the truth. He decided that staying alive was his number one priority.
From the look of it, Du Huang was the only one between them and the city.
Feng Luo and Nie Tian marched towards the city and saw no one along their way.
After passing a long stone bridge, the two of them finally reached the exceptionally gigantic meteor where the city was located. With a single glance, they saw numerous figures flashing about in front of the city.
“Uncle Li! Uncle Liu!” Upon a closer look, Nie Tian realized that Li Fan and Liu Yan were among the numerous figures who were fighting tooth and nail outside of the city.
Although the city looked dilapidated from afar, when multicolored lights were unleashed from within the city, it made the place seem magnificent and solemn.
Only at that moment did Nie Tian finally discover that the seemingly shaking and swaying city was actually not sitting on the meteor surface, but rather floating in midair.
The city was floating approximately ten meters above the meteor surface, as if it was completely unaffected by gravity.
It seemed to be constantly swaying, but in actuality, it was rapidly shifting its position.
Numerous, densely-packed, strange magical symbols that Nie Tian had never seen were engraved on the antiquated city wall; some of them resembled the sun, the moon, and the stars, some resembled tree patterns, while others looked like the claws and fangs of ancient beasts. They all looked intriguing in their own way. It was hard to tell if they were from the language of a certain species or drawings of everything in the universe.
Terrifying energy fluctuations kept rippling out of the city.
From the look of it, the strange energy fluctuations weren’t hurting anyone. All the Qi warriors who had absorbed them didn’t seem to experience any anomaly in them. On the contrary, enjoyment could be seen in their eyes.
It was as if they were able to gain some kind of enlightenment from the energy fluctuations that were emanating out of the city.
Four powerful experts from the other realms were rounded up by cultivators from the Realm of Flame Heaven in four separate spots in front of the city. However, not a single trace of fear could be seen on their faces as they dealt with their opponents with ease.
While Nie Tian was observing the battlefield, a Qi warrior from the seven sects was killed by one of the foreign cultivators. The Heaven Gate pattern on his hand instantly vanished, turning into a red light dot that flew into the killer’s hand.
Nie Tian was certain that he had seen the face of every one of those foreign cultivators before entering the Heaven Gate.
One of the foreign cultivators had a sword that kept emanating green flames in his hand. He was none other than the man who had killed a disciple from the Mystic Mist sect right before entering the Heaven Gate, not giving any face to the Hell sect.
Nie Tian sensed that the man was probably a powerful expert with a late Greater Heaven stage cultivation base.
The other three seemed just as powerful. Each of them had about ten red spots on the backs of their hands, which signified their feats.
One light spot meant one kill.
Numerous corpses were scattered not far from the city, most of which were cultivators with late Heaven or early Greater Heaven stage cultivation bases.
Liu Yan was fighting the foreign cultivator with the sword that emanated green flames. His expression flickered when he accidentally caught sight of Nie Tian. “Nie… Nie Tian?!”
At first, he was surprised that Nie Tian was able to get to this place.
After all, every one of those who managed to get to this place had gone through countless bloody battles, and many were brutally murdered on their way. Only about ten of them were lucky enough to make it this far.
After the initial surprise, Liu Yan grew worried for Nie Tian, thinking Nie Tian was out of his mind by putting himself in such great danger while he only had a Lesser Heaven cultivation base.
“You shouldn’t be here!” Liu Yan shouted. “Get out of here now!”
SHEW!
A faint, green sword-light flashed across Liu Yan’s chest while he spared the attention to talk to Nie Tian.
With a muffled sound, a narrow wound was cut open on his chest. Immediately afterwards, pus flowed out of it, as if the wound had already begun festering and rotting.
After hearing Liu Yan’s words, Li Fan turned around and saw that it was really Nie Tian standing not far away from them. He hurriedly said, “Kid! Get as far away as you can from this place if you don’t want to die!”
Since it was too urgent, Li Fan had no time to address Nie Tian with the regular courtesy by calling him little martial uncle.
“Where are Jiang Lingzhu and the others?” Nie Tian asked in a loud voice.
“Lingzhu is too weak for a fierce battle like this. We’ve arranged for her to stay in a safe place.” Then, a pained look could be seen from within Li Fan’s eyes as he continued, “But most of the others are dead.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he took another glance at the dead bodies scattered in the vicinity. Surely, a few of them were disciples of the Cloudsoaring sect.
FIZZ!
At that moment, a small cluster of green flames splashed onto Li Fan’s shoulder.
In a split second, his shoulder started to fester, as if it was contaminated by some extremely toxic liquid.
Rapidly and decisively, he used his sharp blade to cut away the skin and flesh that had been infected, as if it was the only way to stop the fester from spreading.
“Get out of here! Now!!!” Li Fan let out an thundering shout.