Chapter 363: Fall
Standing atop another extremely high mountain peak, Pei Qiqi looked down towards the central valley. She couldn’t help but exclaim, “Nie Tian just went down!”
She had been observing and trying to derive enlightenment from the spatial rift and the grand spell formation, so she rapidly noticed that Huang Fan had taken Nie Tian and plunged towards the central valley.
With a calm tone, Hua Mu said, “He wants to prompt Huang Fan to probe into the Demon hiding within that spatial rift.”
Pei Qiqi seemed to have realized something and thus asked, “Did you somehow inform him about that Demon?”
Hua Mu nodded and said, “My identity is a bit tricky. It’s better that I stay out of this. Of all the experts, Huang Fan and Chang Sen are the only ones who are capable of teaching that Demon a lesson and stopping it from issuing commands in the dark.
“Even though the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s grand spell formation is preventing Demons from entering the Realm of Flame Heaven, it has no effect on humans.
“If Huang Fan has the audacity to seek that Demon out in the spatial rift and fight it, it might solve the problem at the source.”
With a shocked expression on her face, Pei Qiqi asked, “Do you mean that Demons won’t be able to enter the Realm of Flame Heaven, but we will be able to enter that spatial rift?”
“Exactly, but not only that, even if the spatial rift is fully sealed by the grand spell formation left by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, the sealing will only be one-way,” Hua Mu explained in a slow and calm fashion. “The spell formation won’t allow Demons to set foot in the Realm of Flame Heaven. But human Qi warriors won’t be bound by it at all, so we’ll be able to enter that spatial rift, or even follow it into the Demons’ realms.
“That’s why the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace only sealed that spatial rift, but didn’t destroy it, and also what’s truly fascinating about this grand spell formation.
“It will allow us to go into the Demons’ realms, but it won’t allow Demons to set foot in the Domain of the Falling Stars.”
After a moment of silent pondering, Pei Qiqi seemed enlightened and thus said, “The reason why the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace made such arrangements was that they hoped, one day, human Qi warriors in the Domain of the Falling Stars would be powerful and courageous enough to go on punitive expeditions to the Demons’ realms. They did it to leave us a tunnel, through which our armies would be able to march into the Demons’ realms, right?”
“That’s right!” Hua Mu confirmed strongly. Then, his tone weakened as he said with a sigh, “However, until this day, powerful experts from the major sects in the Domain of the Falling Stars haven’t accumulated enough strength and courage to march into those three spatial rifts and wage war on Demons’ realms. On the contrary, it has always been Demons or other outsider races that repeatedly attempted to swarm into the Domain of the Falling Stars.”
“Will Huang Fan have the courage to enter and explore that spatial rift?” Pei Qiqi asked.
“I don’t know,” Hua Mu said, his eyes glittering with a concerned light.
At that moment, Nie Tian and Huang Fan were already standing by the edge of the huge, unfathomable black hole.
The black hole looked like the opened mouth of an enormous, man-eating Demon that kept unleashing blackish-violet demon Qi.
Covering the black hole was a network of rivers of starlight, which flowed continuously and formed numerous detailed and exquisite patterns.
An ancient, remote aura suddenly blew out of the black hole into Nie Tian’s face, which, to his surprise, made him feel secure.
ROOOAARRRR!!
Another heaven-shaking, earth-shattering roar rang out. It seemed to have come from all directions, and it was so powerful that Nie Tian’s eardrums hurt.
Huang Fan’s eyes lit up as he saw strong turbulences spread out on the network of countless rivers of starlight when the fierce roar echoed out.
Even standing by the edge of the spatial rift, he still couldn’t be sure that the demonsound was coming from within the spatial rift.
However, one thing he could be sure of: the impact he experience standing here was much stronger than when he had stood atop the mountain peak.
Therefore, he assumed that Nie Tian was right, that what he had thought to be a formidable mutant spirit beast was actually a Demon that was hiding inside the spatial rift.
With a complicated expression on his face, he looked down at the mysterious, bottomless spatial rift and frowned in hesitation.
As a senior member of the Heaven Palace Sect, he knew the special mechanism of the spatial rift every bit as well as Hua Mu.
Pointing down at the spatial rift, Nie Tian said with a soft voice, “That Demon is in there right now, held off by the spell formation left by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, so it can’t enter our world. But the spell formation can’t stop its demonsounds from spreading through the spatial rift. After all, the spell formation hasn’t been fully activated, and the sealing process isn’t complete.”
Huang Fan nodded. “I see.”
He was still hesitant to step into the spatial rift, since he didn’t know what he would face once he entered.
Perhaps more formidable Demons were waiting for him inside the spatial rift.
The more he thought about it, the more worried he became, making him increasingly indecisive.
After watching Huang Fan hesitate for a long time, Hua Mu shook his head and said, “He doesn’t have the courage after all…
“Then again, it would be easier to find a phoenix feather or a qilin horn than to find truly courageous men would daringly march into the Demons’ realms, knowing it would mean their certain deaths...” Reminiscence filled Hua Mu’s eyes.
Pei Qiqi’s heart was shaken. “Mr. Hua, have you ever been to Demons’ realms?”
A sad smile appeared on Hua Mu’s face. “Yeah, I have. But almost everyone who went with me died there.”
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
Dazzling starlight was still pouring down from the heavens towards the spatial rift.
Seeing that Huang Fan had stood still for quite some time and still hadn’t made up his mind, Nie Tian lost his patience and said, “Senior Huang, now that you know where that Demon is, do you have any idea how we might be able to kill it?”
“If it doesn’t come out of there, my hands are tied.” Huang Fan cleared his throat and commanded some of his banners to fly into the spatial rift, saying, “I’ll try my best to search for it inside the spatial rift, and see if I can determine its exact location.”
He infused each of those banners with a wisp of his soul power and sent them into the spatial rift.
Just as Nie Tian was about to say something, another thunderous roar rang out.
At the same time, he glanced around and noticed that numerous scattered mutant spirit beasts had started to converge on him.
Then, it suddenly became clear to him that the Demon in the spatial rift had locked onto him and had summoned mutant spirit beasts to kill him.
“More low-grade beasts are being sent to their doom.” Huang Fan snorted coldly as he formed exquisite hand seals to command the remaining banners to shoot towards the incoming mutant spirit beasts.
The banners seemed to turn into life-reaping scythes.
As they flew and rotated in the air, one spirit beast after another was slashed into pieces.
ROOOAARRRR!!
Another demonsound suddenly burst forth, causing the stone Nie Tian was standing on to shatter.
Mad and with no regard for their own lives, a few mutant spirit beasts charged through the defensive line formed by Huang Fan’s banners. As Nie Tian leapt into the air, one of them rammed into him and knocked him into the spatial rift.
Nie Tian felt as if he was suddenly pulled by a strong gravitational force, and he rapidly fell into the unfathomable darkness.
“Damn!"
Huang Fan and Hua Mu’s expressions flickered simultaneously.