Chapter 1650: A Narrow Escape
In a corner of the Void World.
Countless corpses were drifting in the starry river like dead flies.
Those corpses belonged to a wide array of species, such as humans, spirit beasts, Demons, Phantasms, dragons, and species that didn’t belong to the Mortal World or the Spirit World.
If Bonedrude or Bonebrute grand monarchs were here, they would easily sense the wisps of death power those floating corpses were emanating.
All of a sudden, a tiny spot of light appeared in the midst of the floating corpses, and rapidly expanded.
In a few seconds, it expanded into a glorious spatial tunnel that spit out bloody figures like beans pouring out of a can.
The last one that flew out was Pei Qiqi, who could barely hold on to her Space Boundaries Crystal, her azure robes also covered in blood.
“Miss Pei!” Feng Beiluo, who was barely injured, hurried to her side.
Meanwhile, Yuan Jiuchuan, the Thunder Devil, hesitated for a bit, and then decided to stay with Nie Tian and watch the enormous evil gods crush hundreds of floating corpses in their surroundings.
All five evil gods were covered in bone-deep gashes. Their souls were withering, with a few sparks of fire burning in their pupils.
The sparks of fire in their eyes suggested that Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s Soul-burning Blood Spell still hadn’t worn off.
The Rampage Behemoth’s bone, which had followed Nie Tian through the spatial rift, floated lifelessly behind Nie Tian’s head.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Cyan wisps kept sputtering from Nie Tian’s head as he lay unconsciously in the void, facing up.
Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s Soul-capturing Hand seemed to have transformed into a unique tattoo that manifested on Nie Tian’s forehead between his eyebrows. It was like an insidious face of Grand Monarch Soul Capturer that was laughing at everyone present.
“Young master!” the Thunder Devil called softly.
However, Nie Tian didn’t seem to be able to hear him. His eyelids flickered nonstop, as if he were contending against Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power in his sea of awareness.
After a moment of hesitation, Yuan Jiuchuan said in a grim voice, “Sorry, but I have to do this.”
He pressed his finger on Nie Tian’s forehead with tremendous force.
BOOM!
Raging lightning power instantly slammed into the Soul-capturing Hand tattoo between Nie Tian’s eyebrows.
The thirty-six profound laws of lightning and thunder that the Thunder Devil had derived in his lifetime morphed into bolts of lightning that engaged in a frenzied fight against Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power.
Yuan Jiuchuan’s face turned grim, as if he was facing a formidable foe.
As he dealt heavy blows to the ghostly hand with lightning power, he vaguely heard Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s furious bellows.
At the same time, Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power transformed into evil spirits and vicious souls of several dozen kinds that tore at the magical laws of lightning and thunder with their fangs and claws.
With every magical law they snapped, the Thunder Devil would let out a moan of pain, and his face would grow slightly paler.
Not far away from them, Pei Qiqi subconsciously covered her lips with her jade-like hand, but blood slipped through her light cyan fingers.
Like tiny azure meteors, wisps of her blood floated ethereally into the starry river around her, and spontaneously activated a bloodline talent.
Then, in a peculiar way, they vanished.
Feng Beiluo from the Heavenly Corpse Sect was floating next to her. He was just about to help her when he suddenly saw the wisps of blood magically vanish. Confusion filled his face.
After a long while, Pei Qiqi opened her eyes.
After spending a second on Feng Beiluo, her gaze quickly wandered about in search of Nie Tian. “Where’s Nie Tian? Is... he okay?”
As she finally saw Nie Tian lying not far from her, and that Yuan Jiuchuan was pressing his forehead with a finger, she shook violently and flared at him, “Thunder Devil! If you dare to hurt him while he’s vulnerable, I’ll hunt you down and kill you no matter where you hide!”
She didn’t notice the beads of sweat rolling down Yuan Jiuchuan’s face, or the fact that thunderballs were perishing one by one at the tip of his fingers like tiny lightning domains.
Feng Beiluo hurried to explain, “You’ve misunderstood. He’d never have the audacity to harm the young master. In fact, he has had nothing but heartfelt admiration for the young master since he returned from the Seven Stars Realm Sea.”
Hearing this, Pei Qiqi calmed down and realized that Yuan Jiuchuan was indeed helping Nie Tian.
“Your blood...” Feng Beiluo said curiously.
A complicated look appeared in Pei Qiqi’s eyes as she said, “It left for the space disruption zone, the Voidspirits’ ancestral land. They should be able to receive word of our encounters in the Void World and the fact that we’re badly injured soon. We’re in the Void World, the home of the three powerful races, and I’ve over-consumed my bloodline power...
“I’m afraid I can no longer get you to safety.
“I only sent word to the Voidspirits because I want to see if they’ll do something to atone for their wrongdoing after learning about the situation.”
Feng Beiluo was taken aback. “What wrongdoing?”
Pei Qiqi fell silent.
HOWL!
A begrudging howl suddenly rumbled through everyone’s minds.
It was a howl from the Rampage Behemoth.
Yuan Jiuchuan’s finger was shaking violently. He was just about to be defeated by Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power when streams of rich, crimson flesh aura poured out of the Rampage Behemoth’s bone and into Nie Tian.
That begrudging howl had been from one of these streams of flesh aura.
With every mad howl that echoed out, the Soul-capturing Hand mark on Nie Tian’s forehead grew slightly fainter, along with Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power in Nie Tian’s sea of awareness.
It wasn’t long before the mark completely vanished.
Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s residual power was finally purged by the Rampage Behemoth’s flesh aura, Yuan Jiuchuan’s lightning power, and Nie Tian’s own resistance.
That was also when Nie Tian weakly opened his eyes.
The Thunder Devil withdrew his finger with a hearty smile. “You’re finally awake, young master.”
With these words, he suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood. Numerous fine lightning wisps could be seen flying out of him, but perishing immediately after leaving his body.
Those lightning wisps somehow contained Grand Monarch Soul Capturer’s aura.
Staring at them, the Thunder Devil said with a grim expression, “That Netherspirit grand monarch put his sigil on every one of us. I suppose he’s already learned our position. It won’t be long before members of the three major races find their way here.”
“Where are the others?” Nie Tian asked.
“See for yourself,” Yuan Jiuchuan said with a bitter smile before turning sideways to let him see Pei Qiqi, Feng Beiluo, and the evil gods, who were covered in blood and floating motionlessly among the drifting corpses. “Everyone other than Lord Feng and I are in poor condition, especially you and Miss Pei.”
“I’m fine. I just don’t have power to use for the time being.” Pei Qiqi said. “I’m afraid that I can’t use Void Travel anytime soon.”
“The most important thing is that you’re still alive.” With these words, Nie Tian sat up straight.
Wisp after wisp of his flesh aura flitted through his every internal organ, bone, and muscle, meticulously examining the heavy injuries his body had sustained.
His meridians were severed. His bones were shattered. His muscles were torn.
There wasn’t a single place on him that didn’t hurt.
Furthermore, most of the injuries were internal, and couldn’t be made out from the outside.
After long-term refinement, he was convinced that his fleshly body was already tougher than that of a late tenth grade Devil grand monarch. He hadn’t suffered such heavy blows to his body since he had mastered Heavenly Wood Heal.
Not only was his body suffering, but his soul was in distress as well.
While his sub-souls were in a relatively good condition, his true soul, which had derived profound truths from the Nether Rivers, had shrunk significantly, and become blurry and less condensed.
He even had a feeling that it would soon dissipate if it were to leave his body.
This was a sign of soul power over-consumption and soul injury.
Given enough flesh power, his fleshly injuries would be fairly easy to heal. However, it would be much more time-consuming to recover from his soul injuries, especially now that he had lost the Spirit Scepter.
A strong sense of failure had been eating him alive from the moment he had opened his eyes. It had opened his eyes to the truth, that he still had a long way to go before he could contend against the peak experts of the Void World.
After killing Grand Monarch Ash Bone with the evil gods’ help and slaying the three middle tenth grade Devil grand monarchs in the Forbidden Land of Devil Refinement, his confidence had skyrocketed, putting him under the impression that he was invincible.
This had made him arrogant, and he thought that the so-called top ten grand monarchs of the Void World weren’t to be feared.
His battle against Grand Monarch Soul Capturer was like a pot of cold water that had been dumped on him.
It was a lesson that had made him realize how shallow he still was.
Grand Monarch Soul Capturer was only the second strongest expert of the Void World, who was weaker than Grand Monarch Heaven Devil of the Devils. However, the power he had manifested with the Nether River had been beyond his imagination. He could easily inflict severe damage upon him and even destroy him.
Now that Grand Monarch Soul Capturer had obtained the Spirit Scepter, his battle prowess might have risen even higher.
Even that Chaos Behemoth, which had smashed its way into the Realm of Dark Souls, might not be able to match him in battle. Once it was surrounded by the Netherspirit experts, it might not be able to escape.
After a long while, he let out a sigh of frustration and said, “It’s my fault. I thought too much of myself. After I entered the God domain and battled Grand Monarch Ash Bone and Grand Monarch Eternal Purgatory in the Spirit World, I falsely believed that so-called late tenth grade grand monarchs were nothing to be afraid of. That made me think that I could do whatever I wanted in the Void World. Then, I rashly entered the Netherspirits’ ancestral land and learned my lesson the hard way.”
At that moment, Feng Beiluo, who had relaxed after seeing Nie Tian coming to, glanced around and suddenly exclaimed in shock, “Miss Pei, is this place...?!”