After reaching an agreement with Li Langfeng and Xue Long, Nie Tian bid farewell to Cai Yuan and Gu Yu, and left the Blood Skull’s group.
Both Xue Long and Nie Tian were only guest elders of the Blood Skull, not formal members. Therefore, the Blood Skull didn’t have much control over the actions of either of them.
They weren’t obligated to travel with the Blood Skull and work for them just because of their strong desire to find the Spirit Channeling grade treasure in this region.
Before they left, Pei Qiqi was slightly worried that Nie Tian might get in trouble, but after learning that he was leaving with Xue Long, she set her mind at ease.
She knew how powerful Xue Long was.
She assumed that as long as Nie Tian traveled with Xue Long, even if they encountered Shi Hui, who had switched sides and joined the Wild Fire, he would still be safe.
After parting ways with Pei Qiqi and the Blood Skull’s group, Nie Tian followed Xue Long and Li Langfeng out of the Wild Fire’s territory in the Void Illusion Mountain Range and into the desert again.
The forbidden region where Ning Yang was currently in belonged to a part of the desert which sat to the east of Ash City.
However, the three of them didn’t rush over to the region where no plants or spirit beasts could survive.
Instead, they found an untraversed region in the desert, where Nie Tian started helping Li Langfeng with his cultivation.
Deep into the night, frigid-cold wind whizzed by as Xue Long sat in a location 100 meters away from Nie Tian and Li Langfeng.
He was rather sensible by doing this.
He understood that no matter whether it was Nie Tian or Li Langfeng, neither of them would want to reveal their secrets to others while they practiced cultivation.
No one was willing to expose their secrets to others, especially when it came to cultivation methods.
“Come on! Bombard me with your spiritual energy balls like you did last time!” A sickly yearning expression appeared on Li Langfeng’s face, as if he couldn’t wait to be mistreated.
However, Nie Tian didn’t form spiritual energy balls instantly, but rather he looked at him with a frown and asked, “If you don’t mind, can I examine your body briefly before we do this?”
Li Langfeng was taken aback. “What?”
“Just don’t raise your guard, and let me check your physical body,” Nie Tian said. “If I do that, I might be able to help you better.”
Li Langfeng seemed a bit hesitant. He pondered silently for a while before saying, “Alright.”
He would never agree to such a demand if it were someone else. However, he needed Nie Tian to help him improve his cultivation base as quickly as possible, and he understood that Nie Tian had mastered some mysterious skills and techniques that no one else knew.
Back when he had failed to find Nie Tian in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, he had gone to the wasteland and learned from a few Hunters that Nie Tian possessed bizarre escape magics that had allowed him to escape from the Hunters’ blockades repeatedly.
Many factors made Li Langfeng realize that Nie Tian was by no means an ordinary young man.
Then, Nie Tian unleashed one Heaven Eye and manipulated it to run an examination of Li Langfeng’s flesh and blood from a close distance, since he didn’t dare to command the Heaven Eye to enter Li Langfeng’s body.
With the Heaven Eye moving across his body so close to his skin, Li Langfeng had a feeling that he was being scanned by something.
However, since he hadn’t entered the Worldly realm, he wasn’t able to discover the Heaven Eye. The only thing he could be sure of was that the strange feeling was caused by Nie Tian.
While he was caught up in the strange sensation, Nie Tian had already obtained a thorough understanding of Li Langfeng’s condition.
He could sense a certain, extremely toxic deposit in Li Langfeng’s sickly body, which resided in his blood, bones, and meridians.
It was the deposit of the mysterious green energy within the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in this realm.
Even though the deposit carried deadly toxins, it could inflict damage that was just as dreadful when Li Langfeng used it to attack his enemies.
Therefore, it was a double-edged sword. On the one hand, it boosted Li Langfeng’s strength; on the other, it continued to corrode his body from the inside.
The fact that Li Langfeng never stopped coughing and looked as if he was afflicted with an incurable disease was because he had the extremely toxic deposit inside his body all the time.
Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian said with a soft voice, “You have an extremely toxic deposit inside your body.
“The deadly toxins are damaging your physical body continuously. I know you have a method to heal the damage to your body and resist the corrosion of the toxins. However, the speed at which you heal yourself isn’t always as fast as the speed at which the toxins corrode your body…
“As your cultivation base advances, more toxins will accumulate inside your body, and your body will be under increasingly heavy pressure.
“Sooner or later, your body will be overwhelmed, and the deadly toxins will eventually nibble away every last bit of your life force and kill you.”
After hearing Nie Tian’s analysis, Li Langfeng’s face remained expressionless, as he didn’t seem to be moved at all.
After looking deeply at him for a moment, Nie Tian added, “I don’t think bombarding you with my spiritual energy balls is a good idea. As you probably know, the explosion of spiritual energy balls will send out concentrated energy. Other than the green toxic energy, you’ll be allowing many other types of energy that don’t get along with each other inside your body.
“Furthermore, after absorbing them all into your body, you’ll have to drive the unwanted energy out of your body by puking blood.
“This will put your body under an even heavier burden.”
With these words, Nie Tian raised his hands as he cast the spell he had learned from the mysterious land. Shortly afterwards, a football-sized spiritual energy ball came to form between his palms.
Even though the spiritual energy ball looked gray and misty from the outside, it was actually filled with multicolored light.
The various types of spiritual energy from unknown origins grew increasingly violent and restless after being concentrated and constrained into such a small space.
After holding it for about 10 seconds, Nie Tian unleashed it.
BOOM!
The spiritual energy ball exploded behind Li Langfeng. The explosion created a rather sizable hole in the desert ground and sent multicolored light sputtering in every direction.
Xue Long, who was cultivating with his eyes closed in a distant location, turned his head to check the situation upon hearing the explosion, before rapidly turning his head back.
Meanwhile, Li Langfeng’s eyes lit up as he instantly shot towards the area which was now covered in multicolored light. While the light was still lingering in the air, he stood where the ball had exploded and used his secret magic to channel the green mist into himself, hoping to use the toxins within it to build up his strength and boost his cultivation.
During this process, the lingering light of other colors fell on him from time to time.
The green light shield around him kept giving out fizzing sounds as it shielded him from most of the corrosive energy and prevented him from receiving much damage.
Back when he and Nie Tian had fought in the mountain valley, all the spiritual energy balls Nie Tian had cast towards him had exploded close to him.
The impact of the explosions was so mighty that his spiritual power shield had shattered almost immediately, exposing his skinny body to the corrosion of various types of foreign energy.
At that time, copious amount of energy beyond his refining ability had forcibly entered his body.
That was why he had had to drive those types of invading impurities out of his body by coughing up many mouthfuls of blood, lest his body fail due to the excessive burden.
However, now that the spiritual energy ball had exploded in another location, the formidable explosive impact would wear out and become bearable by his protective shield. Since his protective shield didn’t burst, when he went over to absorb the lingering green energy, he wouldn’t have to bear the corrosion of other types of energy, and thus he would be able to focus on channeling the green energy.
“Thanks.” Enveloped by his green light shield, Li Langfeng nodded briefly towards Nie Tian as he channeled the useful energy into his body.
Nie Tian didn’t say anything, as he was contemplating with a frown.
He took note that the explosive impact of his spiritual energy ball was very powerful.
However, after the explosion, as the blast impact dissipated, the various kinds of highly concentrated energy were also rapidly scattered over a large area.
The energy Li Langfeng was absorbing now was actually diluted, which meant that by doing this, he had significantly undermined Li Langfeng’s cultivation efficiency.
However, if the spiritual energy ball didn’t explode at all, and Li Langfeng could extract the highly concentrated green energy directly from within the intact spiritual energy ball, Li Langfeng’s cultivation efficiency would improve by a great margin.
That was when it occurred to Nie Tian that if he could suppress the violent clash between the different types of energy and stabilize his spiritual energy balls, it would work out for him as well.
Before, when he had fought the Dark Moon experts and pursuing Hunters, he actually hadn’t displayed the full might of his spiritual energy balls because the excessively violent clash and turbulence had rapidly grown out of control, causing his spiritual energy balls to explode prematurely.
Some of them had even exploded by themselves when they were still meters away from their target.
The damage the spiritual energy balls inflicted on the enemy varied greatly between scenarios where the explosion happened close to the enemy and in a location several meters from the enemy.
He had long since known that the closer to the center of the explosion, the mightier the explosive impact and destructive force would be.
Since he hadn’t been able to control his spiritual energy balls, the attack range of his spiritual energy balls had been rather limited.
If he was standing too far from his enemy, it would be very likely that his spiritual energy balls would explode prematurely midway, rendering his attacks meaningless.
That was why he had had no choice but to approach his targets when he had fought those Dark Moon experts and pursuing Hunters.
If his target was too far away, he wouldn’t be able to inflict much damage to it. Even if his target was close enough, he wouldn’t be able to hit it precisely with his spiritual energy balls.
The ultimate reason for all this was rooted in the unceasing violent clash between the different types of energy within his spiritual energy balls.
“Come again!” Li Langfeng shouted.
With furrowed eyebrows, Nie Tian formed another spiritual energy ball. He examined it carefully, and found that it was just as unstable as the last one, and it could explode at any moment.
BOOM!
The spiritual energy ball exploded in a location to Li Langfeng’s left. Without any hesitation, Li Langfeng rushed over and started absorbing energy.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The following three spiritual energy balls also exploded soon after leaving Nie Tian’s hands, and Li Langfeng also rushed over to absorb the sputtering energy.
After some time, Li Langfeng called a timeout, as it seemed that he needed some time to recover.
After returning to Nie Tian’s side, he slowly channeled the green energy into his spiritual sea with his eyes narrowed. In the meantime, he grimaced as if he was experiencing excruciating pain all over his body while he tried his best to resist the corrosion of the toxins.
“What exactly does the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth in the Realm of Split Void consist of?” Nie Tian asked. “Also, where are those elements from? Other than the mutant spirit beasts, are you the only one in the world who is capable of making use of the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth?”
“Of course not,” Li Langfeng answered, shaking his head. “Let me put it this way: as you know, the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth filling every corner of the Realm of Split Void is deadly to us. However, it is a necessity to many outsider races. They can use it to strengthen their bloodlines and enhance their power.
“As a matter of fact, we shouldn’t call it deadly. It’s just not designed for us humans. That’s all.
“For example, we can’t practice cultivation with the demon Qi. Forcibly channeling it into our bodies would only achieve adverse effects.
“However, for outsiders, the demon Qi is just as indispensable to them as water and air.
“The same goes for the green energy I cultivate with. Even though I’m a master of toxins, I will still be corroded by this extremely toxic energy.
“However, I know there is an outsider race whose people rely on this kind of energy to strengthen themselves. Not only will they not suffer from any sort of backlash after absorbing this kind of energy, but the energy will greatly increase their physical strength and improve their bloodline power.”