Chapter 567: One vs Many
Sitting in the Wood Thriving Formation, Nie Tian finally opened his eyes.
After a brief examination, he discovered that he had already replenished about fifty percent of the star power he had consumed during his recent battles.
Meanwhile, even though he hadn’t recovered much of his flame power and wood power, the injuries Sylon had inflicted on him with his poisonous mist and Eye of Wither had healed completely.
This was, to a great extent, thanks to the fact that he had absorbed copious amounts of flesh power when he had killed the Blackscales and Stonemen earlier. That concentrated essence of flesh filled his every bone and internal organ. He even had a significant amount left after his injuries were rapidly and fully healed.
Now, he was ready to fight again.
Seeing that the Wood Thriving Formation was having great difficulty powering the ward by absorbing wood power from further areas, he sprang to his feet.
Upon seeing Nie Tian’s sudden move, Armes’ expression flickered. Without much thought, he once again launched his bloodline soul magic, enveloping heaven and earth where Nie Tian was standing. “Bloodline magic! Dark Soul Ward!”
Armes did this because he knew that Nie Tian would be able to escape with the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s Starshift if he didn’t.
Should Nie Tian escape from this area, he might very well establish the Wood Thriving Formation again in another location that was surrounded by lush plants and vegetation.
He also knew that it wouldn’t take a large amount of energy for him to reestablish the Wood Thriving Formation.
Once it was established, it would automatically absorb wood power from its surroundings to power itself.
If Nie Tian managed to do that, it meant they would need to spend hours, or even days, to break the spell formation all over again.
With his Dark Soul Ward, Armes could prevent Nie Tian from leaving the area with Starshifts, since Nie Tian couldn’t separate his soul from his body yet.
BOOM! BOOM!
The outsiders’ raging attacks continued to storm down on the dark green ward around Nie Tian, filling the air with lightning bolts, blood-colored light, and rolling thunder.
Bereft of replenishing wood power, the dark green ward finally shattered.
The moment it did, Nie Tian’s hand wove a few times in the air, and the translucent sparkling tree branches flew back into his ring of holding like swallows returning to their nest.
At the same time, he let out an explosive roar. “Let’s play!”
The Flame Dragon Armor, which had lain dormant for a long time, flew out of his ring of holding like a flood dragon whooshing out of an unfathomable lake.
In a split second, Nie Tian was clad in the majestic Flame Dragon Armor.
Since it was almost as heavy as a mountain, every time he had worn it before, he had experienced great difficulty moving about. However, he felt that its weight was rather bearable this time.
After a moment of pondering, he quickly realized that, after he had refined his body with Heavenly Wood Heal, crystallizing his bones, his body had already become much stronger than before.
In the next moment, he sensed wisps of his fierce flesh power seeping out of his pores and flying into the Flame Dragon Armor, bonding him and the Flame Dragon Armor in an unprecedentedly close way.
Furthermore, the flesh power the Flame Dragon Armor channeled from him was mixed with flame power, as it seemed that this armor with a mysterious origin could only be infused with flame power and flesh power together.
Numerous detailed and beautiful flame patterns could be seen on the armor, as if they were clusters of blazing flames.
Immediately afterwards, crackling and burning sounds filled the air around Nie Tian, as incomparably fierce flames that could burn the heavens and destroy the earth burst forth from within him.
With a vicious grin, he suddenly shot up into the sky.
All of the outsiders roared as they fixed their gazes on Nie Tian, their eyes brimming with endless killing intent. “He’s come out of the ward!”
“Kill him! We can’t let this Son of the Stars escape!”
“That’s right! If he survives this incident, after he returns to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace and makes advancements in his cultivation, he’ll definitely come to wipe out our clans!”
Nie Tian, however, morphed into a streak of blazing flames and, in the time it takes a spark to fly off of a piece of flint, flew to the Eye of Wither that was suspended in midair.
The Flame Star slashed down with full force.
He could sense with great clarity that streams of flames flew out of the Blood Core embedded in the chest of the Flame Dragon Armor.
As the streams of flames poured madly into the Flame Star, the fiery spell formations engraved within it shook as they seemed to reach their maximum volume.
The Flame Star sent out a blade light that was a mixture of the Flame Dragon Armor’s fierce flame power and Nie Tian’s flame power and flesh power. In midair, it rapidly morphed into a flame dragon that was capable of destroying heaven and earth.
Roaring furiously, the blade light that looked like a flame dragon instantly engulfed the Eye of Wither, which Sylon had formed with his bloodline power, with its devastating flames.
ROOOAARRRR!!
As powerful as Sylon was, he let out agonized screams, standing among the other Fiends.
His eyes stuck out as blood spilled from the corners of his eyes. His body, which contained deadly toxins, was also instantly covered in countless fine wounds.
Blood flowed out of the weaving wounds that looked like cuts as he wobbled a few steps and fell to the ground.
“Lord Sylon!”
“Lord Sylon has suffered a serious backlash from his bloodline magic!”
“How did that guy become so powerful all of a sudden?”
The other Fiends all gasped with fright as they hastily dragged Sylon away from Nie Tian, hoping to get him out of Nie Tian’s sight.
CRACKLE! CRACKLE!
The blazing blade light morphed into a sea of flames that engulfed and tore the Eye of Wither to shreds, burning away every last drop of the poison that had formed it.
Gone with it was Sylon’s copious amount of soul power that he had infused into the tens of thousands of drops of poison.
This was the reason why Sylon had suffered such a strong backlash.
After unleashing the strike, Nie Tian crashed heavily into the ground again.
The Flame Dragon Armor continued to unleash fierce, crimson flames. Bathed in raging flames, he looked like a man made of fire. No god or demon would want to get anywhere near him.
A clamor burst through the outsiders as a hint of fear could be seen in all of their eyes.
“A Spirit Channeling grade treasure!”
“That suit of armor is at least at the Spirit Channeling grade. It seems to possess power that could shatter mountains and drain seas!”
“That must have been bestowed upon him by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace! Only they would give a Spirit Channeling grade treasure to a successor that’s still green!”
As far as they knew, the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace was the most ancient and powerful human Qi warrior sect there was. As one of the few sects that were revered by all races, they dominated a vast area in the depths of the starry river.
It was a natural thing that such a strong sect would bestow Spirit Channeling grade treasures upon their Sons of the Stars.
While all the outsiders were shocked and awed, Nie Tian secretly communicated with the Flame Dragon Armor and learned that, nourished by the large amounts of earthflame crystal strings and earthflame essence, it had not only recovered its full strength, but also gone through some changes and become even more powerful.
After destroying Sylon’s Eye of Wither with a single strike, he examined the Flame Dragon Armor, and discovered that its Blood Core was still brimming with endless flame power.
That meant that not only could he use the Flame Dragon Armor to protect himself, but he could also draw on its flame power on top of his own. Now, with every move he made, he emanated the mighty flame power of an ancient flame dragon.
After coming to this realization, Nie Tian laughed wildly as he cast Starshifts repeatedly, flashing among the outsiders that had scattered in a large circle around him.
Every time he appeared, he would bear the attacks of one or two outsiders. However, the ward of flames created by the Flame Dragon Armor would ward them off with ease.
However, as he swung his Flame Star, the devastating flame power he drew from the Blood Core of the Flame Dragon Armor wasn’t something those outsiders could resist.
With every Starshift, he would slaughter one or two outsiders with his Flame Star.
The defensive effect of the ward of flames was far inferior to that of the Wood Thriving Formation, and there was no way that it could ward off the joint attacks of dozens of outsiders. However, the Wood Thriving Formation was stationary, while the ward of flames created by the Flame Dragon Armor could follow him wherever he shifted.
Since the outsiders couldn’t lock him down and attack him at the same time, after many attempts, they still couldn’t shatter his ward of flames.
Therefore, in the same manner, he shifted about among the outsiders like a shadow, summoning flame power from the Blood Core and cutting outsiders down one after another.
While one outsider after another was engulfed by the mighty flame power of an ancient flame dragon, Nie Tian managed to ward off most of the outsiders’ attacks with the ward of flames, which made him seem like an invincible god of slaughter.
While he slew the outsiders without meeting any effective resistance, Dong Li’s voice echoed out from the distance, “Nie Tian is over there!”
“Finally.” A smile appeared on Nie Tian’s face, as he felt even more assured of his victory.
Glancing around at the outsider corpses, he realized that, with Dong Li and the others coming, his extended battle against the outsiders was finally going to end.