Chapter 308: Turn Back
Nie Tian sat silently in the metal war chariot, activating the medicinal efficacy of the pills Li Ye had given him with rapt attention while Cai Yuan and Li Ye indulged in smalltalk.
Eyes closed, Xue Long also sat in silence.
Before long, Nie Tian sensed numerous wisps of energy flowing out of the pills. There were two kinds of energy. One was flesh power, which flowed to his wounds and stabilized his injuries alongside the wood power that had flowed out of his spiritual sea.
The other was pure, rich spiritual power, which rapidly flowed towards and filled his spiritual sea.
Since the medicinal efficacy of Li Ye’s pills was very strong, the spiritual power Nie Tian had consumed earlier on was quickly being replenished.
However, his vortexes of flame power, wood power, and star power didn’t undergo any noticeable changes.
Two hours later…
Cai Yuan held his Sound Stone to his ear and received a message, before he turned to Li Ye and said, “Our men are almost here.”
The tipsy Li Ye let out a snort and said, “Those damn Hunters only have the balls to snipe individuals who come to the Void Illusion Mountain Range. The moment they saw you, they scattered and ran for their lives. Rats like them should have been extinguished long ago. I can’t believe they actually dared to join together and hunt down Hua Tian. Stupid morons.”
“Actually, the Fang summoned them,” Cai Yuan said with a frown.
“The Fang?!” Li Ye went blank for a moment before asking, “What do you know about them? Have you ever seen their female leader in person?”
Cai Yuan shook his head. “No, actually I haven’t. This Fang is very different from the other Hunter organizations. We’ve been investigating their origin. I think we’ll learn the truth soon.”
With a surprised expression on his face, Li Ye asked, “They’re not from here?”
“Em.” Cai Yuan nodded. “They’re definitely not from the Realm of Split Void. None of their members are familiar to us. I just don’t know which realm of the Domain of the Falling Stars they came from, and who is backing them.”
Moments later…
Numerous Blood Skull members appeared from the direction where Cai Yuan and the others had come from. Under the leadership of a Greater Heaven stage expert, they rapidly arrived by the war chariot.
As soon as they did, Cai Yuan rose in high spirits, leapt out of the metal war chariot, and went to talk with the Greater Heaven stage expert.
At that moment, Nie Tian slowly opened his eyes, smiled towards Li Ye, who was sitting next to him, and said, “The efficacy of the medicinal pills you gave me is quite amazing.”
After such a short time, his injuries had been stabilized, and he had restored thirty percent of his spiritual power.
At this very moment, those pills were still providing him with rich flesh power, which joined the wood power from his vortex of wood power in gradually healing the trauma to his flesh and bones.
Even though he hadn’t restored any flame power or star power, at least he was capable of handling another battle now.
Li Ye rolled his eyes at Nie Tian and said, as if he was aching over his valuable medicinal pills, “Of course! Those pills are of premium quality. Don’t you compare them to the medicinal pills you looted from the Hunters you killed. You’ve gained quite a fortune during this trip of yours. Remember to pay me back after we return to Shatter City.”
Nie Tian laughed heartily and said, “No problem. Also, when we return, I would like you to forge a spiritual tool that suits me.”
“Sure, forging spiritual tools is what I do.” Li Ye raised his chin slightly. “However, as the saying goes, money matters should be settled even among brothers. You should know that my rate is famously high. If you want me to forge a spiritual tool for you, I won’t settle for less just because it’s you.”
Nie Tian nodded. “Of course! That’s only fair.”
“Alright then. I’ll forge you a spiritual tool that agrees with your cultivation after we return to Shatter City.” Li Ye rubbed his chin and muttered, “You freak… You’re already so powerful when you don’t even have a suitable spiritual tool. God knows how powerful you’ll become when you have a customized spiritual tool I made for you.”
At that moment, Xue Long, who had been cultivating the whole time, suddenly opened his mouth. “It won’t be easy to forge a spiritual tool that suits him.”
He briefly scanned Nie Tian using his deep, profound eyes, as if he was seeing through him.
Li Ye let out a snort and said, “When it comes to equipment forging, I’m only second to my master throughout the entire Shatter City! If I can’t forge a suitable spiritual tool for him, then I don’t know who has the ability to do it, considering my master hasn’t returned yet.”
Xue Long didn’t make any comments to Li Ye’s words. His eyes were still fixed on Nie Tian as he said with a calm tone, “It’s not wise to bite off more than you can chew. Cultivating multiple-attribute spiritual incantations at the same time could very likely result in a lack of energy and effort you put into each of them. Because of that, you’ll have to spend more time to make advancements in your cultivation base. I just hope you can live long enough to achieve those advancements.”
“Thank you for your advice,” Nie Tian said respectfully.
“Multiple attributes…” Li Ye seemed absorbed in his thoughts.
Xue Long nodded. He rose to his feet and looked into the distance, saying, “Let’s go and see how the Fang and Li Langfeng are doing.”
As soon as he said those words, Nie Tian sensed that the aura he was wreathed in suddenly changed.
It was as if Xue Long had turned into a sharp sword, and the fierce aura it unleashed into its surroundings could even be used to cut the air.
Standing next to him, Li Ye and Nie Tian both had a feeling that their skin was being stabbed by the fierce aura he emanated.
The late Heaven stage Li Ye felt very uncomfortable, and subconsciously stepped backwards to put a sizable distance between Xue Long and himself.
However, Nie Tian, who hadn’t fully recovered from his injuries, stood unwavering like a mountain. He even closed his eyes and used his psychic awareness to examine the fierce aura Xue Long had unleashed.
After closing his eyes, he could see with great clarity that countless wisps of aura, as fine as hairs, had reached out of Xue Long’s pores all over his body, and were fluttering nonstop.
He looked like a human-shaped hedgehog. Every wisp of aura that stuck out of his pores looked like a tiny, yet sharp sword.
WHOOSH!
Cai Yuan jumped back into the war chariot. Without uttering a word, he took out a substantial amount of spirit stones and laid them at the bottom of the war chariot, driving it forward.
The war chariot once again whizzed through the boundless wasteland.
Some of the Blood Skull members followed the war chariot, while the others spread out and went after Shi Qing and Liu Kang. They communicated via their Sound Stones and cooperated to trap and kill the Hunter organization leaders.
As the war chariot traveled at a high speed, they came across badly mangled corpses from time to time.
Some of the corpses seemed to have been heavily corroded by the toxic spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth. Their flesh had already melted away, and bones were all that were left.
Some other corpses remained intact, but they were wreathed in green or black smoke. Their faces were dark-green, making it obvious that they had died from poisoning.
After seeing the numerous corpses that seemed to have died unnatural deaths, Xue Long frowned as he turned to Nie Tian and asked,“You killed all these people?”
Nie Tian explained, “Yeah, but they only look like this because they were later corroded by the toxic spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.”
Xue Long’s eyes glittered as he said, “I don’t know what exactly happened, but from the way these corpses look, I’m certain that just the toxic spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth alone couldn’t have done this to them in such a short period of time. According to my observation, you don’t practice the art of poison, so you must have a secret magic that allows you to refine and concentrate the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.”
After a moment of hesitation, Nie Tian nodded softly.
Xue Long advised, “Now I have a pretty good idea why Li Langfeng has attached such great importance to you. However, you’ve got to remember: don’t follow Li Langfeng’s footsteps! He’s only adopted such an extreme cultivation method because he has special reasons. Even though he’s very strong right now, and he might actually remain powerful for a long time, the price he pays for his strength will go beyond your imagination.”
“Yeah, I understand,” Nie Tian said.
He had long since realized that Li Langfeng had absorbed far too much filth and toxins by cultivating his special incantation, and he was suffering from a backlash already.
Via his Heaven Eyes, he had learned that the aura of flesh and blood inside Li Langfeng was actually very unstable. Who knew when he would lose control of it and die.
Pei Qiqi had long since told him that Li Langfeng had a sworn enemy. In order to kill him with his own hands, he was willing to improve his battle prowess so relentlessly and at the cost of achieving greatness. It was possible that he would plunge to his death when he was shining most brightly.
Along their way, the four people on the war chariot didn’t encounter another living Hunter.
The leaders of the Hunter organizations had secretly informed their members the moment they had seen the Blood Skull’s banner. Therefore, all the Hunters that had chased after Nie Tian earlier had long since vacated the area.
Considering they didn’t even bury their dead members properly, they were clearly frightened by the Blood Skull.
After traveling at full speed for some time, the war chariot finally closed in on the area where Li Langfeng and the Fang were still fighting.
From a very distant location, everyone could see precious light forming a crisscross network in the area ahead of them. Numerous spiritual tools were flashing across the sky, while lightning flashed and fires burned. The scene was spectacular.
Li Langfeng was shaking his magical bell, and the sounds of it ringing were as powerful as drumbeats and created terrifyingly strong impacts on the chests of the Fang members around him.
“They’re not finished yet?” Xue Long raised his hand into the air and signaled for Cai Yuan to stop the war chariot.
After they came to a stop, he narrowed his eyes and looked into the distance with rapt attention.
“Is the woman in short, rose-red garments the leader of the Fang?” He asked.
Since they were in a location very far from the battlefield, neither Li Ye nor Cai Yuan had a clear view of the situation, much less how Song Li was dressed.
Nie Tian, however, nodded and said, “Yeah, that’s her. Her name is Song Li.”
Xue Long shook his head, saying, “Song Li.” Multiple expressions flashed across his face.
Moments later, he said, “You stay here. I’ll go meet Li Langfeng.”
With these words, he swiftly jumped off the war chariot. After a few shifts, his figure rapidly disappeared from Cai Yuan and Li Ye’s view.
Soon after he left, the other Blood Skull members arrived and gathered around the war chariot, as if they were protecting Cai Yuan.
Meanwhile, Nie Tian used one of his Heaven Eyes to observe the battle between Li Langfeng and the Fang members. He could see the corpses of nine Fang members scattered by Li Langfeng’s feet.
Song Li, Han Mu, four other Greater Heaven stage experts, and a dozen Heaven stage Fang members had formed a circle around Li Langfeng, and were attacking him together.
Under the multiple powerful experts’ joint attack, Li Langfeng was already covered in bloody wounds.
However, he was still as fierce as ever, shaking his bell and coughing nonstop.
WHOOSH!
Xue Long whizzed through the battlefield and arrived in front of everyone in a flash.
As soon as Song Li saw him, a shocked expression appeared on her coquettish face. She exclaimed, “It’s you!”