Chapter 386: At Wits End
In the Realm of Mystic Heaven...
Zhao Luofeng, Ling Dong, and about ten powerful experts from the Heaven Palace Sect were gathered in the mountain valley where the spatial rift was. They all sat in silence, as if they were waiting for something.
The time they had set with Auden hadn’t come yet.
Apparently, they were waiting for Auden to gather all the items they had demanded from him from the Fourth Demon Realm.
When the time came, they would march through the spatial rift into the mysterious spatial tunnel and finish the transaction with Auden.
All of a sudden, the Golden Chariot flew over at an extremely fast speed and stopped in front of them with Huang Fan standing in it.
In the dead-silent mountain valley, Zhao Luofeng and the others, who hadn’t said a word in days, raised their chins and looked at Huang Fan with narrowed eyes.
Ling Dong frowned and asked, a displeased expression filling his face, “What are you doing here, Huang Fan? Why did you come back by yourself? Where’s Nie Tian?”
Zhao Luofeng also seemed displeased as he said, “You shouldn’t have returned by yourself.”
Huang Fan stepped forward, bowed towards Zhao Luofeng and Ling Dong, and said, “Nie Tian refused to come back with me.”
Ling Dong burst into a flaming rage and shouted, “What good are you then? Your only job was to bring him back to us!”
Huang Fan forced a bitter smile. “Sorry for my incompetence.”
Zhao Luofeng waved his hand, beckoning for Ling Dong to keep calm, before he said, “What happened exactly? Did the Realm of a Thousand Devastations fall? Even though the Demons from the Fifth Demon Realm are by no means weak, they are no match for Auden and the Demons from the Fourth Demon Realm.
“I’m familiar with Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue’s strength. If they were willing to join hands and summon the other few sects in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, they should have been able to hold for some time.”
With these words, the tips of Zhao Luofeng’s eyebrows rose as he asked, “Did something happen to Nie Tian?”
“No.” A frustrated expression spread across Huang Fan’s face. “Nie Tian successfully sealed the spatial rift in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations before I left. The Demons from the Fifth Demon Realm suffered great casualties and retreated.”
He went on and explained the whole story to Zhao Luofeng and Ling Dong in great detail, not leaving out anything.
“What?!” Ling Dong let out a cold harrumph. “Nie Tian simply didn’t want to return to the Realm of Mystic Heaven with you?! What the hell was the kid thinking? As the most powerful sect in the Domain of the Falling Stars, we’ve already agreed to help him with everything once he joins us. What else could he possibly want?”
Suspicions clouding his mind, Zhao Luofeng asked, “Did you make yourself clear that, as long as he agrees to join us, we’ll spare no effort or resource to cultivate him?”
“I did. I said everything I was supposed to say.” Huang Fan sighed. “But he simply refused to join the Heaven Palace Sect. On the other hand, Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue were surprisingly unified on supporting Nie Tian. Since I didn’t think I would be able to forcibly take Nie Tian from them and bring him back to the Realm of Mystic Heaven, I could only come back by myself.”
Ling Dong grew furious as he said, “That kid witnessed our secret deal with the Fourth Demon Realm! It’s not exactly honorable. Once he reveals it, the entire Heaven Palace Sect will lose face! No matter what, we need to take him back and make him join our sect! Also, one of his three fragmentary star marks belonged to Ning Yang and the Heaven Palace Sect.
“Even though Ning Yang is dead now, we’ve got to take it back now that the three major spatial rifts are sealed!”
“But Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue took a very tough stance on the matter,” Huang Fan said in a soft voice.
Ling Dong snorted coldly as he inwardly marked the two of them as his enemies. “The Yin Sect and the Yang Sect! I can’t believe that they would actually dare to oppose us because of Nie Tian! Ungrateful bastards! If we didn’t arrange for Nie Tian to go to the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, their people would have been living in misery and suffering right now!”
Zhao Luofeng remained silent for a while before turning to Ling Dong and saying, “Don’t get so worked up yet. Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue aren’t that easy to deal with, especially if they’ve teamed up.”
After taking a moment to calm himself, Ling Dong said, with strong killing intent in his eyes, “We can wait until we finish our transaction and get those crucial spiritual materials from the Demons from the Fourth Demon Realm. After that person in our sect finishes building his inner domain with those spiritual materials and enters the Void domain, I seriously doubt that Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue will still dare to shelter Nie Tian!”
Zhao Luofeng nodded. “That’s exactly what I’m thinking.”
“Let them have their moment for now,” Ling Dong said with a cold snort.
...
In the mountain valley of the spatial rift in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations.
An incomparably large formation of starlight was shining brightly, fully covering the mouth of the spatial rift.
At this moment, rivers of starlight had already stopped pouring down from the heavens.
Thanks to Nie Tian, the spatial rift which had ripped open because of the appearance of the Heaven Gate was finally completely sealed.
The Demons from the Fifth Demon Realm were no longer able to go through it and descend upon the Realm of a Thousand Devastations.
The Qi warriors from the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, on the other hand, would have no problem going through it into the Demons’ realm, as long as they were confident in their strength.
However, the truth was, for thousands of years, only a handful of Qi warriors had dared to challenge the formidable Demons in their realms.
Most of those who had gone died miserable deaths there. Those who had come back alive were as rare as phoenix feathers or qilin horns. Furthermore, they all kept their mouths shut about what they had encountered in the Demon realms.
Nie Tian sat silently in the lotus position atop one of the extremely high mountain peaks. Due to the complete activation of the grand spell formation, his substantialized seven Heaven Eyes had once again become intangible.
The miraculous feeling of his perception improved by dozens of times was also gone. Like before, his seven Heaven Eyes recovered their original features.
With a thought, Nie Tian commanded them to fly towards the bellies of the lofty mountain peaks.
Meanwhile...
As Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue condensed their pure and refined soul power, two vague shadows flew out from the top of their heads.
These shadows were the embodiment of their soul consciousness, which seemed to have fascinating uses.
The shadows flew towards the two mountain peaks where the scrolls were hidden.
However, as soon as they made contact with the mountain peaks, a shudder ran through Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue’s true forms.
As they went deeper inside, they could feel with great clarity that there were incomparably exquisite restrictive spells in the bellies of the mountain peaks.
Even though they were powerful middle Soul realm Qi warriors, their soul shadows couldn’t penetrate the profound restrictive spells powered by star power.
The two of them made repeated attempts and exhausted all sorts of exquisite soul magics.
However, the restrictive spells within those mountain peaks continued to hold. No matter how hard they tried, they still couldn’t send their soul shadows into the bellies of the mountain peaks.
After a long time, Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue exchanged a glance as they reluctantly retracted their soul shadows.
“Whoever set up this grand spell formation must have been formidable, with a cultivation base among the three domains.” Li Muyang sighed with a frustrated expression on his face. “Considering our current cultivation bases, I’m afraid we won’t be able to break those restrictive spells.”
Xing Huanyue nodded silently.
At that moment, they noticed that Nie Tian’s seven Heaven Eyes had also reached the mountain peaks.
Even though the Heaven Eyes were invisible to the naked eye, they were able to capture them with great clarity with their soul power.
They felt that Nie Tian’s seven Heaven Eyes didn’t seem to encounter any obstruction from the restrictive spells as they scattered and flew into the bellies of the three lofty mountain peaks.
Nie Tian’s expression was as calm and peaceful as ever, as he didn’t seem to experience any difficulty.
Li Muyang smiled bitterly. “From the look of it, only those who receive the legacies of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace will be able to probe into the bellies of those mountain peaks. Even though he is far from entering the Worldly realm, and his psychic power hasn’t transcended into soul power, his awareness has no problem going into and out of the bellies of those mountain peaks.”
XIng Huanyue didn’t utter a word and let him mutter to himself.
Inside the bellies of those mountain peaks, Nie Tian’s seven Heaven Eyes floated about like intangible oil lamps.
Through them, Nie Tian saw that the pagodas in the middle had already stopped glittering due to the fact that the spatial rift had already been fully sealed.
Only the innumerable complicated patterns carved into the internal walls would flicker with starlight every once in a while.
The boat-shaped air-transportation spiritual tool was still parked where he had found it, and the two crystals with two scrolls inside of them were still floating in their original places.
Nie Tian’s Heaven Eyes hovered around the air-transportation spiritual tool and the two crystals, yet he didn’t know where to even begin.
Via his Heaven Eyes, Nie Tian thoroughly examined the spacious insides of the mountain peaks, and discovered that they were tightly sealed, and he couldn’t find a single rift that would allow any tangible items to go through.
That meant his Heaven Eyes could go in and out freely, but not the air-transportation spiritual tool, or the crystals, which were physical objects.
If he wanted to get them out of the bellies of the mountain peaks, he would have to either break the internal walls and create a tunnel that led to the outside world, or set up a teleportation portal within the bellies of the mountain peaks.
As for breaking the internal walls, he didn’t have the ability to do that. Plus, he knew perfectly well that the insides of the mountain peaks were critical to keeping the spatial rift sealed. Once they were broken, there would be a possibility that the spatial rift would open again. Therefore, he would never do that.
As for setting up a teleportation portal, he didn’t know anything about spatial energy and magics. Even if he were an expert in that area, there weren’t any materials available in the bellies of the mountain peaks.
Just like that, his seven Heaven Eyes roamed about as Nie Tian wracked his brains for an answer. However, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t come up with a method to get those three items out of the bellies of the mountain peaks.