Deeply shaken, Nie Tian marveled, “Ancientspirits!”
He had never known that ancient beasts, dragons, and titans actually belonged to one race.
“So their time is the so-called ancient time?” Nie Tian asked.
“Sorry, master,” the soul answered. “I lost pretty much all of my memories when I was refined into this suit of armor and became its soul. If I were still a flame dragon, and possessed all of my old memories, I might have been able to tell you more.”
As the two of them communicated, Nie Tian examined the Flame Dragon Armor with rapt attention and discovered that, like a streak of flames, a miniature flame dragon that was a thousand times smaller than a regular one was swimming within the Blood Core.
He immediately realized that it was the embodiment of the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul.
“So tell me something you do remember,” Nie Tian said.
“There were three eras before this one,” the soul said. “I don’t have any memory of the first era, or perhaps I never knew anything about it to begin with.
“The second era is called the Desolate Antiquity Era, which was the era that belonged to us Ancientspirits.
“Back then, we were the masters of this boundless starry river. Enormous ancient beasts, dragons, and titans were all born with divine abilities. They could travel across the starry river even when they were very young.
“The third era was called the Remote Antiquity Era. During that era, Demons, Phantasms, Bonebrutes, and many other powerful races rose to prominence. They gained control of parts of the starry river and stood up to us Ancientspirits as equals.
“Now we’re in the fourth era, which is called Near Antiquity Era. This is the time when humans finally rose to prominence and gained the ability to stand up to the other races.
“However, us Ancientspirits and the other races didn’t enter a decline as humans grew stronger.
“Right now, different races are thriving in different parts of the starry river and ruling their own domains. It’s an era of diversity.”
Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian looked blankly at the floating Flame Dragon Armor. “So there are a total of four eras, and the first one is so remote that you can’t even remember anything about it...”
“Yeah. Of the other three eras, I can also only remember their names. I don’t know what major events happened during those eras. Perhaps I knew them once, but now that I’ve become the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul, almost all of my memories are gone.” The soul sounded somewhat emotional.
“So do you know who turned you into the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul, and how many masters you had before me?” Nie Tian asked.
“I’ve had two masters before you, but I have no idea who turned me into the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul,” The soul explained. “Like I said, I’ve lost pretty much all of my memories before the point where I became the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul. The person who turned me into the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul gave me to my first owner, whose seemed to be called the Daughter of Flames.”
Surprised, Nie Tian asked, frowning, “You can’t be certain of it?”
“No, I can’t,” the soul answered honestly. “My old memories are fragmentary. I can only vaguely remember her name.”
“You can’t even remember your first master’s name?” Nie Tian started to question the truthfulness of the soul’s words.
“That’s because my second master refined me again after getting me. He erased all of my memories of my first master so that I’d take him as my only master.” After a long pause, the soul added, “I even have a feeling that my second master killed my first master. He might have erased my memories of my first master because he was worried that I would despise him or revolt against him.”
“So who was your second master?” Nie Tian asked, his eyebrows rising. “Was he the son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster?”
“No, not him. I was already very powerful when the son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster got me. His cultivation base wasn’t high enough to control me. So he hoped to bring me back to the Divine Flame Sect, where he could have powerful experts from his sect refine me again, but he ended up being killed by a group of people.
“Since he never truly owned me or received my acknowledgment, he was never my master.
The more Nie Tian listened, the more intrigued he became. “Alright, so who was your second master?”
“His name was Pang Chicheng. According to my memories of him, he was only my master for ten years. During this time, all he did was fight in battles with my help. Since he considered me as nothing but a piece of equipment, he barely communicated with me, and I didn’t know much about him. During the tenth year since he had owned me, he took me to a place called the Shatter Battlefield, where he was surrounded and killed.
“Oh, wait, perhaps he didn’t die. His personal realm carried his soul out of the battlefield. In order to do that, he stimulated all of my potential and exhausted all of the flame power I had accumulated over the years. I fell into a deep slumber at that point.
“When I awoke again, I was already in the hands of the son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster. I have no memories of what happened before that. The son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster helped me get a large portion of my strength back, allowing me to awaken bit by bit. However, he seemed to be fleeing from many people when he first gained me. Even his ancient starship was destroyed by his pursuers.
“I thought he was going to become my third master, but unfortunately, he died before he could take me back to the Divine Flame Sect. He only had me for around six months.
“Afterwards, I drifted in the starry river, relying on my remaining power before, for some reason, I ended up in your hands.”
The soul explained its sad experience to Nie Tian in detail, yet Nie Tian gained very limited information from its words.
However, it seemed to him that this Flame Dragon Armor was an ominous thing.
Its first master, the Daughter of Flames, had been killed by Pang Chicheng.
After Pang Chicheng seized it and refined it again, it lost all its memories of the Daughter of Flames, and Pang Chicheng became its second master. However, this only lasted ten years before Pang Chicheng was surrounded and probably killed by others.
In order to escape, Pang Chicheng had stimulated all of its potential at the risk of totaling it.
After that, it had fallen into a slumber. When it had awoken, it had found itself in the hands of the son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster. However, he had been killed by Xia Yi and his friends before he could become its third master.
Now, he had become its third master...
As his train of thought came to this point, Nie Tian couldn’t help but smile bitterly while shaking his head.
After a brief moment of silence, Nie Tian asked, “Oh right, what’s with the heaven and earth where titans and flame dragons are buried?”
The way he saw it, that mysterious dimension was what was truly valuable about the Flame Dragon Armor, since the Flame Dragon Armor was the key to that dimension. Without it, no one could enter that dimension.
“That’s one of the Ancientspirits’ graveyards. The person who found it is probably the one who turned me into the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul, and that’s probably why he made me the key to it. I’m guessing he gave me to my first master, hoping she could derive some profound enlightenment from that dimension.
“Pang Chicheng exerted every method at his disposal to enter that dimension after getting me, yet he never succeeded.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he asked, “What was his cultivation base?”
“The late Void domain,” the soul answered.
“Why couldn’t he enter that dimension?”
“I’ve got to have enough flame power to activate the portal. However, there’s another precondition.”
“What precondition?”
“My master must possess a very rich flesh aura. Plus, such flesh aura must be from my master. If they acquire it from some powerful being, they won’t be able to infuse it into the Blood Core either. Pang Chicheng learned about this, but he couldn’t meet such a precondition no matter what he did.
“Even though he was a powerful Qi warrior, he was still a human, so he didn’t have a vigorous flesh aura. The reason why he went to the Shatter Battlefield was because he hoped to find a way to build up his flesh aura there, yet he failed.”
Nie Tian went blank for a short while before suddenly realizing that, if the Flame Dragon Armor’s first master had been able to visit that strange dimension, she must have been an outsider, or carried some unique bloodline, like him.
“But how did you acknowledge me as your third master so easily?” Nie Tian asked. “According to what you just said, Pang Chicheng refined you again and erased your memories of your first master. Only by doing that did he become your second master. Later, the son of the Divine Flame Sect’s sectmaster had you for six months, and he still didn’t win your favor.
“What made me so special that I gained your acknowledgment without refining you whatsoever?”
The soul remained silent for some time before giving an explanation. “You kept me on you since you had me. Back then, I hadn’t fully awoken, and my consciousness was clouded. However, I kept absorbing your flesh aura. Even though I didn’t recognize the origin of your flesh aura, it felt unique.
“Even though I hadn’t fully awoken back then, I could tell that your flesh aura caused extremely strong reactions after it was channeled into my Blood Core, which had never happened before.
“That was when it occurred to me that perhaps you might even be able to help me recover my old memories.
“Because of that, I determined that you’d become my third master even before I fully awoke.”
Nie Tian’s expression flickered as he thought to himself, “It’s my special bloodline again!”
It was his Blood Essence that had regenerated Bloodline Crystal Chains and restored life to the Bone Blood Demon’s withered heart, allowing it to awaken its bloodline talents.
Nie Tian went on and asked a few more questions, but all of the answers the soul gave contained very little information. Therefore, he didn’t get to learn much about the Flame Dragon Armor or the Ancientspirits’ graveyard.
After a long moment of contemplation, he left the secret underground room and left with Zhen Huilan, Pei Qiqi, and Li Ye.
They headed towards the forbidden region in the Realm of Split Void. From there, he hoped to revisit the mysterious heaven and earth and uncover its secrets.
He only needed an opportunity to break through into the Worldly realm. He was convinced that the Ancientspirits’ graveyard was where he would find it.
A few days later, he showed up alone in the forbidden region where meteors constantly fell from the heavens. He found a random huge crater, where he instructed the Flame Dragon Armor to open the spatial tunnel.