Chapter 601: Grand Return
Outside Shatter City...
Nie Tian waited for an hour, but no other Profound realm experts dared to come for him.
Apparently, the Worldly realm rogue cultivators, who had witnessed the Bone Blood Demon cutting the five Profound realm experts down like melons, had already spread the word.
Even joined up, the five Profound realm experts had failed to take a thing from Nie Tian. Not only that, but they had all been slain by the Bone Blood Demon. Who would still dare to come after that?
“No one else is coming,” Dong Li said, smiling and holding five rings of holding in her hand. “Let’s go back. Inside these rings of holding are the fortunes those Profound realm experts spent their whole lives gathering. I’ve scanned their contents briefly. The total value can’t be less than ten million spirit stones.”
Ye Qin smiled and chimed in, “Nie Tian, I believe no one with a cultivation base lower than the Soul realm will ever dare to seek trouble with you again!”
After a brief hesitation, she took a sideways glance at the Bone Blood Demon, which Nie Tian was still sitting on. Slightly frightened, she said, “Even an early Soul realm expert won’t have complete confidence that they will be able to get through it and kill you.
“How many middle and late Soul realm experts are there throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars?
“Not to mention that we’re now facing a great threat from the outsiders. They’ll never do anything to you at such a crucial time.”
The other juniors also spoke up, telling Nie Tian that there was no need for him to continue to wait there.
No matter how long he waited, no one would have the audacity to come at him anymore.
Nie Tian thought they made good sense, and thus nodded and said to Dong Li, “Would you trade the contents of those Profound realm cultivators’ rings of holding for me? You know what I need. As for grade, the higher the better.”
Dong Li went blank briefly before asking, “What I got for you wasn’t enough?”
She was aware that Nie Tian had an incredibly large demand for spirit beast meat. However, she had already secretly traded his spiritual materials that hadn’t been fit to be brought to the trading fair for a significant amount of fourth grade spirit beast meat through the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce.
She had doubted that Nie Tian would be able to consume that much spirit beast meat in five years.
She had never expected that Nie Tian would ask her to trade the lifelong collections of those Profound realm cultivators for more spirit beast meat.
Why would Nie Tian need so much spirit beast meat?!
Nie Tian, however, was well-aware that, if he were to consume it the regular way, it would take him years to finish the spirit beast meat Dong Li had traded for him.
However, since he had awakened his Life Drain bloodline talent, he was now able to absorb the flesh power of the spirit beast meat much more efficiently.
Because of this, even the spirit beast meat that could be piled into mountains didn’t seem like much.
Meanwhile, he was aware that the reason why he didn’t feel an urgent need for flesh power was because the green aura in his heart was still dormant, waiting to awaken its next bloodline talent.
However, once it awakened a brand new bloodline talent, it would once again show its endless desire for flesh power.
After the awakening of his previous bloodline talents, he now had a feeling that as he continued to awaken new bloodline talents, he would need more and more flesh power.
The spirit beast meat Dong Li had purchased for him might not be enough for its next bloodline talent awakening cycle.
Furthermore, in order to further the refinement of his body, he would need copious amount of wood power, as well as rich flesh power.
Therefore, his demand for flesh power was much greater than Dong Li had expected.
“Not enough,” Nie Tian answered softly. “I need much more.”
Dong Li nodded slightly and said with a confused expression, “I see.”
The others didn’t understand what the two of them were talking about.
Nie Tian didn’t explain either. Seeing that everyone had been consuming spiritual power to ward off the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, he finally decided to return to the city.
As soon as the thought entered his mind, the Bone Blood Demon started charging towards Shatter City at an alarming speed.
With a Soul realm expert’s battle prowess, the Bone Blood Demon could actually sail through the sky. Nie Tian could very well use it as an air-transportation spiritual tool.
However, he knew that the Bone Blood Demon ran on the life force he had given him, which was basically the essence of flesh power.
If he commanded it to fly instead, it would consume its precious life force much more rapidly. In contrast, running would be much more economical.
However, even by running, the Bone Blood Demon was almost as fast as Dong Baijie’s Rainbow Lightning.
By relying on the profound connection between Nie Tian and the blood he had given to the Bone Blood Demon, he could tell that the life force he had infused it with was only enough to last for a day.
Afterwards, the Bone Blood Demon would fall into a deep slumber again.
Since he wanted to hold people in awe, he didn’t get down and store the Bone Blood Demon in his ring of holding. Instead, he sat up broadly on the Bone Blood Demon’s shoulder. With a calm expression on his face, they rapidly approached Shatter City.
Moments later, the gate to Shatter City entered his view.
To his surprise, he could see from afar that the normally closed city gate was now wide open.
Standing atop the gate were Cai Lan, Shi Qing, and many other Blood Skull members, all of whom were sticking their necks out and gazing in his direction.
Hu Rong from the Spirit Condor and Gao Fu, the treasure appraiser, were also among the crowd.
Besides them, a number of Worldly realm Qi warriors with unknown identities were crowding the city gate as well, fixing him with flabbergasted gazes from afar.
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
One air-transportation spiritual tool after another flew through the city gate, where Dong Baijie and the other chosen ones got off.
Shortly afterwards, the Bone Blood Demon stopped its dashing momentum in front of the city gate with Nie Tian sitting on its shoulder. Cai Lan took a deep breath and said with an apologetic tone, “Nie Tian, I hope you understand that it’s not like I didn’t want to go help you... It’s just that I’m only at the late Profound realm. Even if I went to your aid, there would be very little I could have done. After all, there were five of them, and three of them were at the same realm as me.
“The only thing I could do was inform the Profound realm experts who care a great deal about you of your plight.
“However...” Cai Lan didn’t finish, since he didn’t know why Qian Qiong and the other experts still hadn’t showed up.
At that moment, Xuan Ke said with a cold tone, “Senior Qian Qiong from my sect and many seniors of the other sects were going to return to Shatter City through the teleportation portal that was closest to them as soon as they received word of what had happened. However, that teleportation portal happened to be guarded by people from the Poison Sect and Heaven Expanse Sect, and the portal somehow broke down.
“They were told that it would take an hour to fix it. But before they could head toward a different portal, Nie Tian finished those five Profound realm rogue cultivators off with his puppet, and we informed them of the situation at the first possible moment.
“After learning that Nie Tian was no longer in danger, they no longer felt the need to rush back.”
His explanation instantly enlightened Cai Lan, who then said, “So that’s how it is.”
Nie Tian knew that Hou Qingsen and Ji Qingyun were behind the premeditated actions of those five Profound realm cultivators.
However, since the Bone Blood Demon had slaughtered all five of them, there was no one left to testify against Hou Qingsen or Ji Qingyun.
Furthermore, he didn’t have any proof. It would be difficult to determine that they were responsible for this.
However, he wasn’t in a hurry to have his revenge. He decided to bury this incident in his heart for the time being, and settle it with them in the future. “Don’t blame yourself, Lord Cai. I only left the city because I had utter confidence in my safety.”
Then, he took a glance at the large crowd of onlookers gathered by the city gate before taking out the guest elder identity medallion the Blood Skull had given him.
He held it high in the air, and with a smile, he said, “I had this identity medallion on me this whole time. After all that has happened, I still consider myself a guest elder of the Blood Skull. I just don’t know if you still...”
Upon seeing this, Cai Lan shuddered.
Before Nie Tian could finish, he hastily said, “As long as you still acknowledge that identity, you’ll always be the Blood Skull’s most distinguished guest elder!”
He was well-aware that the Blood Skull had long since lost actual control of Shatter City. The powerful experts and fierce rogue cultivators from foreign realms didn’t consult Cai Lan with what they did at all.
In name, the Blood Skull was still the ruler of Shatter City, but they actually seemed more like a butler caught in an awkward place.
By reasserting his identity as a guest elder of the Blood Skull, Nie Tian had offered the Blood Skull charcoal in snowy weather. (Idiom: offer very timely help)
At this moment, Nie Tian, who now had a puppet with early Soul realm battle prowess at his disposal, had become Cai Lan’s strong supporter.
He believed that, as word of this spread in Shatter City, the Worldly realm and Profound realm Qi warriors would have to think twice before they did something reckless.
From now on, Nie Tian and his Bone Blood Demon would be the Blood Skull’s backer.
“The Blood Skull has treated me with respect, and I’m friends with Cai Yuan,” Nie Tian said with a serious expression. “Besides, Uncle Shi provided me with assistance on many occasions. For this, I’ll carry this guest elder identity medallion with me wherever I go.”
Standing next to Cai Lan, Shi Qing became very emotional as he said hastily, “It’s my great honor to receive your acknowledgment!”
“My humble son is also lucky to be your friend!” With these words, Cai Lan hurried down from the city wall and ushered Nie Tian inside personally.
The crowd of Qi warriors gathered at the city gate all examined the mountain-like Bone Blood Demon curiously. Within the grayish green beads of its eyes, they saw an endless aura of death.
They all shuddered upon meeting its gaze. “They’re right! This puppet must possess Soul realm battle prowess! Otherwise, I wouldn’t have felt as if I were looking at Death when it looked back at me!”