Chapter 254: Shattering Shackles
With a swing of her hand, a bronze mirror shot out from Hu Han’s palm.
The mirror emanated precious light under the night sky, and in only three breaths of time, it surpassed Nie Tian and stopped in front of him.
Floating facing Nie Tian, the bronze mirror suddenly began to shine with a dazzlingly bright light, before the light spread out and formed a large, transparent wall, blocking Nie Tian’s path of escape.
BOOM!
The moment Nie Tian’s five-meter radius chaotic magnetic field made contact with the mirror-like light wall, the perfectly smooth surface of the light wall immediately grew twisted.
As one ripple after another was created on the surface of the light wall, Nie Tian’s reflection appeared within the bronze mirror.
It was at that moment that a strong restrictive force was born within the mirror, binding Nie Tian’s reflection.
However, it seemed that what had happened within the mirror was also happening to Nie Tian himself. He felt as if he had been frozen, and every movement of his limbs became extremely difficult.
An alarmed expression could be seen on his face as his dashing momentum was stopped.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Numerous bright sparks were created from the area where the magnetic field met the spiritual energy wall, while subtle fissures could already be seen on the light wall.
Hu Han gradually approached Nie Tian and said with a soft voice, “I hope you don’t blame me, Hua Tian. I’ve no other choice. The Dark Moon has my brother. I have to do things I despise for them to trade for his freedom. Since you mean a great deal to Li Ye, I assume they might just use you to get some information from Li Ye. I don’t think they’re going to kill you.”
Hu Han seemed to be explaining her difficult situation to Nie Tian, but she was actually trying to convince herself so that she didn’t have to live with a guilty conscience.
She was well-aware that Ma Jiu was cruel and merciless. If he couldn’t get what he wanted from Li Ye, he would definitely kill Nie Tian without blinking.
However, this was already not her concern, after seeing her brother’s severed finger.
Not to mention Nie Tian, she was even willing to sacrifice her own life to save her brother.
As Hu Han stepped closer to Nie Tian, one of her eyebrows rose and surprise appeared in her eyes.
“What?!”
She noticed that the spiritual power wall her bronze mirror had created was being compromised by the mysterious magnetic field that surrounded Nie Tian.
Parts of the energy wall had already broken, and the magnetic field was spreading towards the floating bronze mirror.
Nie Tian’s reflection in the mirror was grave, yet calm.
Upon seeing this, Hu Han secretly took a dark-red, fist-sized ball from within her bracelet of holding. Raging flames could be seen at the core of the ball, where there seemed to lie endless flame power.
Hu Han was both an equipment forger and a cultivator, and fire was her main cultivation attribute.
She was controlling the bronze mirror with her spiritual power, along with a secret psychic magic.
Upon seeing that her bronze mirror was failing, she hastily resorted to her fire incantations in the hopes of capturing Nie Tian before any new complications came up.
Standing surrounded by his magnetic field, Nie Tian stared straight into the bronze mirror.
He had a strong feeling that there was a mysterious connection between his reflection in the mirror and himself.
It seemed that the moment his figure had appeared within the mirror, the mirror had began to influence his soul and lock down his body in some mysterious way.
More to his surprise, his chaotic magnetic field completely failed to stop the process.
“Psychic lockdown!” Nie Tian took a deep breath and forced himself to calm down, and then focused his mind on the seven fragmentary stars in his soul, each and every one of which was shining brightly and gloriously.
It was the middle of the night. A large number of bright stars lit up the dark sky.
While Nie Tian was about to stimulate the power of the fragmentary stars, he suddenly noticed that he was actually covered in a fine network of extremely fine strings that were almost invisible.
Nie Tian pondered for a moment, and soon reached a shocking conclusion: Hu Han had stealthily planted those strings long ago, perhaps when he had deactivated his magnetic field after finishing fighting off Cai Yuan’s enemies, or perhaps even earlier.
Nie Tian gritted his teeth. “The woman bore these thoughts from the start!”
Hu Han must have known that since there was a significant gap between their cultivation bases, she wouldn’t be discovered if she only acted when Nie Tian was distracted.
Enraged by this new realization, Nie Tian sent out a thought, and countless rays of starlight shot out of the seven fragmentary stars.
As soon as the rays of starlight that were as sharp as blades made contact with some of the fine strings, they were severed.
Hu Han, who was stepping towards Nie Tian, instantly sensed the anomaly. Her pupils shrunk as a pained expression appeared on her average-looking face.
“He actually destroyed my psychic shackles with his Lesser Heaven stage strength?!”
While Hu Han was astounded, Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph and madly summoned flame power from his spiritual sea.
As his entire body became wreathed in a flaming aura, the invisible strings over his body were scorched and became fragile.
At that moment, Nie Tian thrashed his body.
BAM! BAM!
Sounds inaudible to the naked ear came from his arms and legs as every string that Hu Han had planted on him broke into shreds.
It was also at that moment that Nie Tian’s reflection in the bronze mirror began to grow blurry, which meant that he had already broken free from Hu Han’s restrictive spell.
WHOOSH!
No longer bound to his position, Nie Tian gathered his power in his fist as he lunged towards the bronze mirror.
When the mirror was within his arm’s reach, he bombarded it with his fist that was now like a fiercely burning hammer!
CRUNCH!
Noticeable fissures appeared on the surface of the bronze mirror, and it could no longer reflect anything or anyone.
“Go!” At that moment, Hu Han unleashed the ball from her palm. Like a burning lightning bolt, it charged towards Nie Tian.
The area it covered was turned into a sea of flames.
It rapidly reached Nie Tian from behind, and its burning tail gathered into a huge cloud of fire high above Nie Tian’s head.
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
One after another, numerous flames fell out of the blazing cloud and rained on Nie Tian and his chaotic magnetic field.
When they entered Nie Tian’s magnetic field, the field served as a meat grinder, grinding the shooting flames into tiny fire dots.
However, as more and more flames plummeted from the heavens, the ten meter-radius area Nie Tian was in was turned into sea of fire.
FIZZ! FIZZ!
Within the magnetic field, numerous types of power were struggling to fight against the enormous amount of flames.
At that moment, the dark-red pearl began to descend from straight above Nie Tian’s head.
BOOM!
Nie Tian felt like a huge mountain had been dropped on his shoulders. It crushed him with so much force that blood began flowing out of the corner of his mouth.
Meanwhile, the raging flames were still trying their best to overcome the resistance of the magnetic field to burn Nie Tian up.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
At that very moment, Nie Tian’s heart began to race, and the green aura coiled up at the bottom of his heart grew active, along with the numerous crystal-like chains within it and the countless life marks within them.
An unearthly power that originated from his bloodline suddenly broke out with momentum that could shatter mountains and split the earth.
Without thinking for a second, Nie Tian summoned the various types of power within him, and focused to strike the pearl floating right above him with his Rage Punch.
BANG!!!
Upon impact, the dark-red pearl cracked and was sent flying into the heavens.
At the same time, Hu Han gave a muffled groan and came to a stop on her way towards Nie Tian, as if she had taken a heavy blow.
A disbelieving look appeared in Hu Han’s wide eyes as she stared closely at Nie Tian from behind.
As for Nie Tian, after he bombarded the dark-red pearl with full force, not only did he hear a cracking sound from the pearl, but also a cracking sound from within himself.
He didn’t seem to sustain any injuries from it, but rather had a mysterious sense of relief afterwards, as if a heavy burden on his mind had been lifted.
He briefly examined himself with his psychic awareness, and immediately threw his head back and laughed, his face filled with ecstasy.
He was certain that his Rage Punch had just pushed him through the bottleneck and into the next stage!
At that moment, he was overwhelmed by a miraculous feeling of breaking through an intangible barrier, which was the unique feeling that a cultivator could only experience after making a breakthrough.
Perhaps the fact that he had drained himself with the mighty punch had contributed to his successful breakthrough. Although he felt depleted, he didn’t feel completely powerless like when he had used the technique before.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Nie Tian’s heart was still pounding rapidly, and the green aura was still slithering untiringly within his heart.
Apparently, after the recent tempering using the Golden Stone Rhino’s blood, his body had become stronger and better at handling such a consuming technique.
While Hu Han was shocked, Nie Tian turned around and charged towards her, enveloped by his gradually shrinking magnetic field.
“Is this guy really at the Lesser Heaven stage?” Hu Han couldn’t remove her shocked gaze from Nie Tian as she suddenly began to hesitate.
The bronze mirror and dark-red pearl were her best and favorite spiritual tools. As a matter of fact, she had never suffered a single defeat using them to fight Qi warriors at the Heaven stage or lower.
However, not only did she fail to defeat Nie Tian with them, but both spiritual tools had sustained serious damage when she used them on Nie Tian. This made Hu Han feel extremely frustrated.
She couldn’t help but wonder: Nie Tian already possessed such formidable battle prowess at the Lesser Heaven stage; what kind of existence he would become after entering the Heaven stage and Greater Heaven stage?
She somewhat regretted using force on Nie Tian. After all, if she couldn’t capture him today and let him escape, he would become a sword hanging over her head for the rest of her life.
However, the thought of her brother, who might be suffering at this very moment, strengthened her determination. “I cannot let him escape!”
She walked forward and picked up her bronze mirror and pearl.
She had always had strong spiritual connections with those two spiritual tools. However, when she picked them up from the ground this time, she could sense that the connections were weak and flickering.
A distressed look appeared in her eyes as she realized that both the spiritual tools had been greatly damaged, and it was beyond her skills to repair them.
Li Ye might be able to fix them, but after today, she doubted that she would ever speak to Li Ye again.
Both Li Ye and his senior martial sister, Pei Qiqi, would undoubtedly consider her to be their enemy from now on.
The mere thought of Pei Qiqi made Hu Han shudder.
That was when she realized that, deep down, Pei Qiqi was actually the one who she really feared.
“I can never return to Shatter City again, not after this. I can only join and seek refuge with the Dark Moon now. Hua Tian and that small teleportation portal will be my first gift to them.”
Hu Han took a deep breath and, with a determined look in her eyes, wreathed herself with a raging flame aura. Like a ball of flames, she chased after Nie Tian.
However, since she had hesitated for a short while, Nie Tian was already quite a distance ahead of her. At that moment, Nie Tian shouted at the top of his lungs, “Hey, brothers of the Blood Skull! I want to do some more business with you!”