Chapter 518: The End of the Segment
After bidding farewell to Qian Xin, Nie Tian headed directly towards the end of the segment of the band that swirled downwards unceasingly.
On his way, he noticed a number of battles between Qi warriors from the Realm of a Hundred Battles and members of the Spirit God Sect and Flame God Sect.
Since the people from the Realm of a Hundred Battles were superior in numbers, they had the advantage in all of those battles.
A quarter hour later, he bounced off a floating boulder high into the air, and landed in the colorful area that marked the end of the segment.
As he examined his surroundings with rapt attention, he discovered that the floating landmasses and boulders were gradually disappearing after drifting into the colorful band.
The strip of colorful band seemed to be stopping every living being with flesh and blood, since none of the Greater Heaven stage Qi warriors were able to pass it.
However, all of the lifeless objects, including floating boulders, landmasses, remains of ancient starships, and dead outsiders, seemed completely unaffected as they drifted into the colorful strip and disappeared.
He also discovered that people could stand on the colorful strip, which seemed soft and resilient, like a large cluster of clouds.
Near the center of the colorful area, Dong Baijie and Dong Li had already summoned their gray wolf and black phoenix, and they were fighting Yang Kan together.
Not far from them, two disciples of the Flame God Sect were attacking Qin Yan from two sides.
While Nie Tian stood still and observed the situation, Feng Ying arrived. Upon seeing that Qin Yan was surrounded, she instantly rushed over, shouting, “Big Sister Qin Yan!”
Nie Tian, however, wasn’t in a hurry to join the battle. He went on to obtain a thorough understanding of the situation in this area with the help of his Heaven Eyes.
Through one of them, he saw a person sitting quietly in a corner of the colorful strip.
It was a man from the Spirit God Sect who had a skinny face. His eyes shone with vicious light as he manipulated his Soul Banners.
Both Dong Baijie and Dong Li were at the middle Greater Heaven stage, and possessed high battle prowesses which cultivators at their level shouldn’t have. Even so, the two of them still weren’t able to subdue Yang Kan together.
Other than Yang Kan’s formidable battle prowess, part of the credit went to that Qi warrior from the Spirit God Sect.
The man manipulated his Soul Banners to hover around Dong Baijie and Dong Li, and constantly unleashed screaming discarnate souls on Dong Baijie and Dong Li’s beast spirits.
The Dong Clan’s Beast Spirit Incantation allowed their members to enhance their battle prowess with their beast spirits.
However, at this moment, Dong Baijie and Dong Li’s gray wolf and black phoenix were being constantly harassed by numerous discarnate souls. It was like they were wearing shackles, and couldn’t display their true might.
That was when Nie Tian realized that killing that sneaking Qi warrior from the Spirit God Sect was the key to helping Dong Baijie and Dong Li.
Just as Nie Tian started moving towards the Spirit God Sect Qi warrior, the man suddenly called out to Yang Kan, “Big Brother Yang! If we drag our battle on too long, more men from the Realm of a Hundred Battles will arrive. We won’t have enough men to fight them.”
Upon hearing these words, Yang Kan, whose every move sent out raging flames into his surroundings, laughed wildly and said, “Why so nervous, Lu Jian? These few losers aren’t even enough for me to kill!”
The other two disciples of the Flame God Sect both seemed incomparably calm, as if they were very confident in Yang Kan’s battle prowess.
“That guy is on to me,” Lu Jian shouted, staring at Nie Tian. “Once I get into a fight with him, I won’t be able to keep those beast spirits busy for you anymore.”
“The kid is only at the early Greater Heaven stage! What kind of great pressure can he give you?!” Yang Kan made fun of Lu Jian.
Lu Jian rolled his eyes and fell silent.
He had long since noticed Nie Tian, and that his gaze had swept across the battlefield before finally landing on him.
At first, he hadn’t paid much attention to him. However, as Nie Tian’s burning gaze landed on him, he felt very uneasy, which didn’t make sense, because his cultivation base was at the middle Greater Heaven stage, higher than Nie Tian’s.
Even so, he had a feeling that a battle with Nie Tian wouldn’t be an easy one, and that once the battle started, he wouldn’t have the energy to distract Dong Li and Dong Baijie’s beast spirits with his Soul Banners anymore.
That was why he had urged Yang Kan to bring out his most powerful means and end the battle as quickly as possible.
However, Yang Kan was known to be an arrogant man, and had completely ignored his reminder.
“Mu Han! Come here! Big sister Qin Yan and I need you help!”
Feng Ying felt the strong pressure from the two Flame God Sect disciples after she rushed over to Qin Yan’s aid, and thus hastily called for help.
However, Nie Tian just took a glance at Qin Yan and Feng Ying before turning his eyes away, not showing any desire to help them.
As he once again laid his eyes on Lu Jian from the Spirit God Sect, he said expressionlessly, “Oh, right. I killed Chang Yuan on my way here.”
Lu Jian stood aghast. “You killed senior martial brother Chang Yuan?!”
Nie Tian grinned slowly. “And you’re next.”
The moment he formed a chaotic magnetic field around him, he flashed right before Lu Jian with a short-range Starshift.
“Hmm?!" Yang Kan, who was dealing with Dong Li and Dong Baijie at the same time, gasped slightly upon noticing Nie Tian’s strange movement skill.
“Big Brother Yang!” Lu Jian exclaimed as he jumped backwards subconsciously. “This guy is by no means insignificant!”
Nie Tian launched another short-range Starshift and appeared behind Lu Jian.
He once again took out a tree branch from within his ring of holding.
As soon as he infused his wood power into the green branch, it turned translucent and sparkling, and all of the mysterious tree patterns that were branded inside of it started glittering.
The wood power was enhanced as it flowed through the branch, and burst forth from the tip of the branch.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
One Soul Banner after another rushed over towards Nie Tian upon Lu Jian’s summons.
Discarnate souls floated within the Soul Banners and started letting out sharp screeches, which were filled with grudges and a thirst for blood.
Ignoring the discarnate souls’ attacks, Nie Tian thrust the branch into Lu Jian’s back.
PUFF!
To his surprise, the branch failed to pierce into Lu Jian’s flesh.
Lu Jian’s garments burst open, and his spiritual armor revealed itself.
It was a sparkling, silver suit of armor. After Lu Jian infused it with his spiritual power, a frosty aura flowed over its surface.
Even so, Nie Tian’s tree branch made a shallow hole in the precious armor. With another thrust, it might penetrate the armor into Lu Jian’s back.
Lu Jian’s face instantly turned ghastly. “My Premium grade spiritual armor!”
Before Nie Tian could make another move, he brought his back in and bounced forward.
At the same time, he manipulated his banners to pierce into Nie Tian’s shoulders with their sharp poles.
In the next moment, all of the discarnate souls in them swarmed out and engulfed Nie Tian.
Unlike Chang Yuan, even though Lu Jian didn’t have an impressive cultivation base, his grandfather was one of the Spirit God Sect’s elders. Therefore, he possessed quite a few life-saving treasures.
The spiritual armor he was wearing was forged with seven different types of metal. Heavy but tough, it was a third level Premium grade spiritual tool.
However, it was almost pierced through by the tree branch.
If he hadn’t escaped in time, Nie Tian might have already driven the branch into his back, and the Heavenly Wood Thorns might have already killed him.
PUFF! PUFF! PUFF!
Nie Tian stood unwavering as the Soul Banners pierced into his shoulders.
Thanks to his body that was as tough as a rock, the poles of the banners only pierced a few millimeters into his flesh before they were stopped.
He didn’t even bleed. With a slight shake of his shoulders, the banners fell to the ground one after another.
As for the discarnate souls, just as they were about to swarm into Nie Tian’s soul and devour it, Nie Tian summoned the mysterious soul power from within the fragmentary stars in his soul and forged it into a number of soul blades.
Invisible to the naked eye, the soul blades hovered around his head and slashed a few times.
Just like that, all of the discarnate souls that had madly pounced on him were cut to pieces like tofu, and dissipated into thin air.
After the narrow escape, Lu Jian shouted at the top of his lungs, not daring to fight Nie Tian anymore, “Big Brother Yang! Help me, Big Brother Yang! I’m no match for this guy!”
Barely scratched, Nie Tian was speechless as he stared at the cowering Lu Jian, who only dared to attack others from the dark.
Yang Kan shot a contemptuous look at him, but just as he was about to spare some of his power to get rid of Nie Tian, he suddenly noticed a man appearing on a distant boulder.
It was the late Greater Heaven stage Dong Kang from the Dong Clan. Behind him were Cao Qiushui and Gu Haofeng.
Eyebrows furrowed, Yang Kan let out a cold harrumph and finally summoned his spiritual tool.
One large, crimson stone column after another flew out of his ring of holding and stood before the newcomers, stopping them from enter the colorful strip.
There were a total of six crimson stone columns. Two were engraved with qilins, two were engraved with flame dragons, and the other two were engraved with flame phoenixes.
Qilins, flame dragons, and flame phoenixes were all fire made flesh. They were endowed with the ability to channel all kinds of flames in the world.
Even though the magical beasts were only engravings on the crimson stone columns, sparkling, fiery light could be seen in every one of them.
Nie Tian looked over with rapt attention, and discovered that the sparkling, red lights in the crimson stone columns were actually earthflame crystal strings!
Earthflame crystal strings were crystalized earthflame essence, which carried the profound truths of flame power. They were extremely precious, and had many uses.
Because of the existence of the earthflame crystal strings, the magical beasts engraved on the six stone columns seemed as if they had come to life.
As soon as the crimson stone columns lined up by the edge the colorful area, blazing flames burst forth from them.
Within a very short time, the flames and the six stone columns formed a impenetrable wall of flames.
Dong Kang had noticed the unfavorable situation Dong Baijie and Dong Li were in, and thus dashed over at full speed. However, he was stopped by the wall of raging flames.
Shortly thereafter, Gu Haofeng, Cao Qiushui, and a few other Greater Heaven stage Qi warriors from the Realm of a Hundred Battles arrived one by one.
However, the wall of flames kept all of them out of the colorful area. No matter what kind of secret magic or spiritual tool they used, they failed to break it.
“This is all Mu Han’s fault!” Gu Haofeng thundered angrily. “If he hadn’t pulled that sneaky trick on me, I wouldn’t have been delayed, and I would have been in there already!”
Dong Kang was surprised. “Mu Han? He pulled a trick on you?”
“Yeah!” Gu Haofeng said, gnashing his teeth. “He intentionally stomped on and broke the boulder I was going to support myself with. I almost fell into the gray mist because of it!”
Cao Qiushui sighed inwardly as he listened to Cao Qiushui make up stories, but he didn’t say anything.
Qian Xin from the Pill Pavilion Sect landed on a floating dead tree beside him, and said with a slight frown, “That doesn’t seem right. He helped me kill Chang Yuan from the Spirit God Sect just now. If it weren’t for him, I wouldn’t have killed him so easily just by myself. Are you sure he did that intentionally, Haofeng?”
Cao Qiushui wanted to smooth things over and thus chimed in, “Mu Han probably didn’t do it on purpose. It might just have been an accident.”
Dong Kang nodded and said with a grim expression, “Enough about that already! We need to focus on finding a way to get through this wall of flames now!”