Even after chasing that red streak for a long time, Shi Hui and the others still failed to come to any findings.
After recovering the Flame Dragon Armor, with the help of his seven Heaven Eyes and the Starshift escape magic, Nie Tian left the place that was rife with trouble at his fastest possible speed.
Unwilling to give up, Shi Hui and the others asked the Wild Fire to send out people to help them search for the Flame Dragon Armor, but after quite some time, their joint search turned out to be fruitless as well.
Even though they felt very frustrated, they didn’t plan to give up just like that.
During the following days, all Shi Hui and the others thought about was how to get that fire-attributed Spirit Channeling grade treasure, so much so that their eyes turned red with greed.
Even Fu Heng, the Wild Fire’s highest commander in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, had his enthusiasm aroused after learning about this Spirit Channeling treasure.
Similarly, it wasn’t long before the news found its way to the Dark Moon and the Blood Skull.
Even explorers who had come to the Void Illusion Mountain Range for their own reasons joined the search for this Spirit Channeling treasure after learning about its appearance.
Nie Tian, however, had long since left the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
Two weeks passed…
Under the fierce, burning sun, Nie Tian arrived at the region Pei Qiqi had pointed out for him.
As Pei Qiqi had warned him, along the way, he had encountered a few groups of Hunters who roamed this region by Ash City.
With the help of his Heaven Eyes, he maneuvered around them and kept moving forward. After that, until he set foot in this region where all living forms were forbidden, he hadn’t come across a single person.
It was a vast desert to the east of Ash City where countless craters could be seen almost everywhere.
Some of the craters were as small as the mouths of wells, while others were as enormous as dried-up lakes.
Many of the craters had meteors in them, each of which was strange in shape and color, and embedded deep into the earth.
Every now and then, Nie Tian could see piles of pale-gray bones, which had obviously belonged to humans.
Evidently, no matter how deadly a place was, as long as there was fortune waiting to be unearthed, people would risk their lives and set foot in it. This desert was no exception.
When meteors plummeted to the earth from the unknown outer space and exploded, Star Stones would fall out of them.
Other than those, there might also be extremely rare spiritual materials within the meteors.
Both the spiritual materials and Star Stones were of extremely high value. People would be able to gain significant amounts of spirit stones if they obtained and traded them in Ash City, the Land of the Abandoned, or Shatter City.
Under the fierce sunlight, Nie Tian slowly walked deeper into the desert filled with enormous craters.
His seven Heaven Eyes hung high in the sky like invisible lanterns, keeping a close watch on everything in their vicinity.
As he walked further, Nie Tian discovered that the green light shield around him, created by his jade bracelet. began to give off fizzing sounds.
With furrowed eyebrows, he came to a stop and examined his surroundings with rapt attention.
Immediately afterwards, he found that not only was the density of the toxic spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the crater much higher than in other parts of the Void Illusion Mountain Range, but there seemed to be other special features of the Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in this desert.
Even spiritual tools like the green jade bracelet that could protect their owners from the toxic Spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in other parts of the Realm of Split Void seemed to have a hard time withstanding the strong corrosion here.
After walking for another two hours in the endless desert, when Nie Tian sensed that his jade bracelet was on the verge of breaking, he rapidly put it away.
At the same time, he quietly enveloped himself with a two-meter range chaotic magnetic field.
Soon night fell, and the moon rose in the sky…
In distinct contrast to the hotness of the day, during the night, the desert was shrouded in frigid coldness. Even inside of his chaotic magnetic field, Nie Tian could feel the bone-piercing coldness.
Standing by the edge of an enormous crater, Nie Tian muttered to himself with a frown, “The tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in this place much denser than in other parts of the Void Illusion Mountain Range. Even normal protective spiritual tools couldn’t resist the dreadful corrosion. This feature alone would stop explorers with insignificant cultivation bases from entering this deadly desert.
“Not to mention the fact that meteors could plummet from the heavens at any moment in this region where the day is scorchingly hot and the night is frigidly cold.”
Instead of continuing to wander around, he slowly sat down on the ground and looked up into the mysterious night sky.
Like gorgeous gems, countless bright stars lit up and decorated the unfathomable heavens.
He calmed himself and removed all distracting thoughts from his mind as he began to go over and contemplate the profundity of Starfall.
According to Pei Qiqi, meteors would occasionally fall from the heavens and plummet to the earth in this region. Yet, no one knew why they would fall at this part of the Realm of Split Void over all others.
Two days later…
At sundown, a dark-red streak of light suddenly appeared in the distant sky and shot towards Nie Tian’s direction. Like a dark-red river of fire, it sailed through the wine-red evening glow.
Having waited for days, Nie Tian’s eyes suddenly lit up as he hastily concentrated his psychic awareness and attempted to attract that streak of dark-red light.
BOOM!
Before he could establish a psychic connection with the streak of dark-red light, the light flashed passed him and crashed into the earth in a location several dozen kilometers away.
Accompanied by a loud rumble, a terrifyingly violent quake spread out across the earth, and caused Nie Tian, who was sitting on the ground, to tremble unceasingly.
Failing to channel the streak of dark-red light with his psychic awareness, Nie Tian sprung to his feet, his face filled with frustration.
With a fast speed, he ran towards the location where the dark-red light had landed.
Two hours later, when darkness descended upon the earth, he finally arrived at the landing site.
As soon as he did, a huge crater with a diameter of more than forty meters entered his sight, inside of which dying-out flames and sparks could be seen everywhere.
A pitch-black meteor was sitting at the bottom of the crater; sparks were still sputtering out of it every now and then.
Instead of rushing into the crater to explore its mysteries, Nie Tian stood by the edge of the crater and pondered with furrowed eyebrows. “Interesting…”
He thought about the meteors that had fallen to the Realm of Flame Heaven preceding the appearance of the Heaven Gate.
Right before the Heaven Gate had appeared near the Hell Sect, numerous meteors like this one had plummeted to every part of the Realm of Flame Heaven, and each of those meteors had carried a Heaven Gate pattern.
Those patterns had been the keys to the Heaven Gate. Only those who had obtained a key would be granted access to the Heaven Gate trial.
The Yun Clan of Black Cloud City had been hit and reduced to shambles by a giant meteor like this one. Just like that, the entire Yun Clan had been eliminated, not a single member surviving the calamity.
“Starfall is about channeling meteors that fall from outer space, changing their paths and redirecting them to bombard enemies.
“It’s also a magic from the Fragmentary Star Incantation, which is a legacy from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace and the ultimate secret within the Heaven Gate. Meteors like this one fell in every corner of the Realm of Flame Heaven right before the Heaven Gate appeared.”
Nie Tian racked his brains for an answer to why the meteors would plummet to this part of the Realm of Split Void instead of other parts, as he had a feeling that there must be secrets behind such phenomenon.
All of a sudden, he sensed scorching heat from the two fragmentary star marks on his chest.
Since this was the first time that the fragmentary star marks had undergone any change after shifting to his chest, a shocked expression appeared on Nie Tian’s face.
At the same time, one of the Heaven Eyes he had deployed in the vicinity captured two human figures approaching him with lightning speed.
One of them had a plain look. Yet, for some reason, Nie Tian felt a strong sense of familiarity towards him.
As the two of them rapidly rushed towards his location, Nie Tian didn’t think too much before casting three short-range Starshifts in a row to leave the crater and thus avoid contact with them.
Meanwhile, he summoned three of his Heaven Eyes from the vicinity and commanded them to float right above the meteor, so that they could keep a close watch on everything happening in the crater.
Moments later, the two men arrived at the edge of the crater, where they stood and looked towards the meteor at the bottom of the crater with furrowed eyebrows.
After a moment of silence, one of them said, “Do you feel anything, Lord Ning?”
The man who Nie Tian felt familiar with opened the lapels of his garment, revealing the fragmentary star mark on his chest. Seconds later, he said, “Nothing special.”
The moment Nie Tian caught sight of the fragmentary star mark, he was convinced that the man was Ning Yang from the Heaven Palace Sect.
Even so, he found it hard to believe that Ning Yang had actually assumed a different appearance and showed up in this place!
The other man sighed and said, “Lord Ning, if you can’t solve the profound mysteries within that fragmentary star mark in this place and make it a part of you, I’m afraid you won’t be able to return to the sect without losing it.”
Great determination could be heard in Ning Yang’s voice as he blurted, “If returning to the sect means I’ll have to give up my fragmentary star mark, I’d rather be a wandering rogue cultivator like you, Senior Martial Brother, and never return to the Heaven Palace Sect! I went to great lengths to win it from others in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. Why on earth would I give it away to others!?
“Not to mention that Nie Tian isn’t even a disciple of the Heaven Palace Sect!”
“We’re different.” A bitter smile spread out across the other man’s face. “I only concealed my true identity and became a guest elder of the Wild Fire because I couldn’t go back. All I’m doing is dragging out my feeble existence in this remote corner of the world. However, you’ve got a promising future. Even if you lose this fragmentary star mark, you’ll still have great opportunities in the future.”
“Say no more, Senior Martial Brother,” Ning Yang said with a cold tone. “I’ve made up my mind.”
“Well, alright then.” The man nodded. “I wish you can receive some enlightenment from your fragmentary star mark here. Before, meteors only fell from the heavens and crashed into this area once every few months. However, recently, meteors fall once every few days. I think it’s safe to say that there’s some reason behind it.
“If you can’t dig out the reason and somehow refine your fragmentary star mark here, I don’t think there will be another way to achieve that.”
Ning Yang said, “Thank you, Senior Martial Brother. I’ll forever remember your kindness.”