Chapter 531: An Old Acquaintance
All his life, Nie Tian hadn’t truly acknowledged many people.
Even though Ning Yang had been his enemy, his heart would be filled with respect whenever he recalled his formidable strength.
Ning Yang’s death had been the result of the joint efforts of Li Langfeng, Xue Long, and even a Phantasm.
As a madman who pursued ultimate power at the cost of his own life, Li Langfeng was also an outstanding fighter. Even still, he had been dwarfed by Ning Yang’s power.
In fact, right up until Ning Yang’s death, he had been considered the brightest star and potential future sectmaster of the Heaven Palace Sect.
He had outshone all the other Heaven Palace Sect disciples at his cultivation stage.
In Nie Tian’s eyes, only those with strength like him deserved to be called chosen ones.
Compared to Ning Yang, Hong He and Huang Hu were nothing but a couple of clowns, completely unpresentable.
SHEW!
Dong Li landed beside Nie Tian like a feather, her gaze switching back and forth between Nie Tian, who was covered in blood, and Huang Hu’s mangled corpse.
“Ahh!” She exclaimed, deeply shocked. “You killed him within such a short time?!”
Even though she had believed that Nie Tian would eventually prevail, she hadn’t expected that he would have killed him so quickly.
Nie Tian casually dabbed at the blood on his neck with the corner of his garment. “Compared to Ning Yang, he’s far too weak. You go ahead and take his ring of holding. I’ll go look around and see if I can catch that Su Lin as well.”
Since Su Lin had already gone beyond the detection range of his Heaven Eyes, Nie Tian couldn’t determine her current location.
Su Lin still had the Earthshatter Beast’s eye, the most precious part of the beast, and she had also taken part in threatening Dong Li to give it up. He naturally wouldn’t just let this go.
After a moment of hesitation, Dong Li said, “Be careful. There must be other Heaven Palace Sect disciples that have come to this continent. Since Su Lin and these two have appeared in this area, it’s hard to say if there are other Heaven Palace Sect disciples in the vicinity. If you find out that Su Lin has already joined the others, you need to come back as quickly as possible.
“It’s true that the Earthshatter Beast’s eye is very important, but you... you’re more important to me. I don’t want anything to happen to you.”
With these words, Dong Li bowed her head slightly, a rare bashful look appearing on her face.
Nie Tian smiled as he felt warmth in his heart, then he nodded and said, “Don’t worry. Nothing will happen to me as long as I don’t encounter a true chosen one as powerful as Ning Yang. Even if I run into Yang Kan from the Flame God Sect, I have confidence in beating him in a battle now.”
“But no one is as powerful as Ning Yang,” Dong Li said.
Nie Tian laughed wildly. “My point exactly.”
Without even cleaning the blood on him, Nie Tian disappeared with a short-range Starshift.
As soon as he disappeared, his nine Heaven Eyes fanned out and flew towards the direction Su Lin had left in at full speed.
One scene after another was reflected in Nie Tian’s heart, yet Su Lin wasn’t in any of them.
He forgot all about the precious materials that might be lying around, but focused on finding Su Lin, getting the Earthshatter Beast’s eye back, and slaying her.
He had fought her during the Heaven Gate trial. Back then, he had beaten her and obtained the first fragmentary star mark.
Now, a few years later, even though she had achieved rapid growth in her cultivation with the help of the Heaven Palace Sect, she was still currently at the early Greater Heaven stage.
He had defeated her when they had been at the same stage, not to mention his confidence in defeating her now.
However, what surprised him was that none of his Heaven Eyes were able to identity any trace of her.
It had only been about a quarter hour since Su Lin and her men had left from the location where the Earthshatter Beast’s corpse was. It was very unlikely that she had gone this far within such a short time. The only explanation would be that, instead of searching in the vicinity, she had marched toward some place at full speed right after splitting up with Hong He and Huang Hu.
It wasn’t long before Nie Tian walked out of the dense forest and approached the foot of the mountain peak with unmatched height.
It was the flat-topped mountain peak which he and Dong Li had seen right after setting foot on this vast continent.
It reached so high into the clouds that it seemed to be able to reach the continent above this one. However, it had somehow been severed with a clean, smooth cut.
Giant boulders were scattered at the foot of the mountain peak, which was a fairly open area.
From the look of it, the boulders had rolled down the mountain peak when the mountain peak had been damaged. Their sizes varied from the size of hills to the size of fists.
All of a sudden, he discovered four Qi warriors who were dressed in white robes and wreathed in ice-cold aura.
To his surprise, one of them was Feng Ke, who he had met once in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
Back then, Feng Ke had been at the Lesser Heaven stage as well. However, a few years later, he was now a late Greater Heaven stage Qi warrior, who exuded a frosty and gruesome aura from head to foot.
He and the other three with him, two females and one male, seemed to be from the Ice Pavilion Sect in the Realm of Endless Ice.
As Nie Tian bounced high into the sky off a large boulder to move forward, Feng Ke and the others instantly caught sight of him.
However, Nie Tian, whose mind was set on finding Su Lin, kept bouncing off large boulders as he quickly moved in the direction Su Lin had left in.
Wang Rong, a female disciple of the Ice Pavilion Sect, exclaimed upon seeing Nie Tian, who was covered in blood from head to toe, “Who is that?! He has such strong killing intent!”
Eyes narrowed, Zhao Le, a male disciple of the Ice Pavilion Sect, sensed attentively, and rapidly determined Nie Tian’s cultivation base. With an unimpressed expression, he said, “Middle Greater Heaven stage... He doesn’t seem to have any kind of sigil on him, so we can’t know which force he’s with.”
After a brief pause, Zhao Le looked at Xuan Ke and added, “But that guy is wreathed in a strong killing intent. Someone must have somehow angered him. The way I see it, we might as well go kill him and take whatever precious materials he has found.”
In recent days, these people from the Ice Pavilion Sect had been doing the same despicable things the Heaven Palace Sect had.
Once they encountered groups of weak cultivators, or cultivators who traveled alone, they would kill them and take the precious spiritual materials they had gathered.
By doing that, they had gained quite a fortune recently. That was the reason why Zhao Le instantly came up with the evil idea as soon as he determined that Nie Tian’s cultivation base was mediocre and that he wasn’t one of the chosen ones from the other powerful sects.
Upon hearing his suggestion, Wang Rong’s spirits soared as she chimed in, “Anyone who’s come to this place must have, more or less, gathered some valuable spiritual materials. After all, there are Premium grade materials everywhere. That man must have gathered some as well. Let’s go get him, Senior Martial Brother Xuan Ke, just like we did the other ones!”
Luo Xue, the other female disciple, rolled up her sleeves for battle.
However, as the team leader, Xuan Ke gazed at Nie Tian, who was covered in blood and whose eyes were brimming with a strong thirst for blood, and then fell silent.
“What do you say, Senior Martial Brother Xuan Ke!?” Wang Rong asked with an urgent tone. “He’s getter farther and farther away. If we don’t act now, he’ll soon be gone.”
“Leave him alone,” Xuan Ke said coldly.
Upon hearing these words, all of the other three were deeply confused.
They knew very well that Xuan Ke wasn’t against killing and plundering the weak and alone.
Not only that, he had made his stance clear since the moment they had set foot on this continent, that they should pounce on those who traveled alone at first sight, not sparing a single one.
That person was only at the middle Greater Heaven stage, and he was by himself. Why on earth would Xuan Ke choose to stand down?
Eyebrows furrowed, Zhao Le chimed in, “Senior martial brother, considering the strength of us four, killing him will be a piece of cake. Don’t you think? He’s no Ning Yang. What do we have to be afraid of?”
Xuan Ke let out a cold harrumph. “That guy is more dangerous than you think! We’ll follow him and see who he’s looking for, but don’t try to attack him. Remember, keep a safe distance from him so that he doesn’t discover us.”
The other three didn’t quite approve of Xuan He’s decision inwardly. They thought he had become too meticulous, and was acting a bit unlike himself.
No matter which aspect they analyzed, they strongly believed that the four of them would be able to kill Nie Tian and take his valuables without breaking a sweat.
“Just do as I say!” Xuan Ke exclaimed with a cold tone.
The other three said no more, and under Xuan Ke’s leadership, they sped off in the direction that Nie Tian was moving in.
While dashing at a fast speed, Xuan Ke kept his eyes on Nie Tian, who was already quite distant from them, a unsettling sense of danger gradually rising in his heart. Soon, the distance between them and Nie Tian grew longer, and Nie Tian disappeared from their sight.
“Who is he exactly? Why do I feel such a sense of familiarity?”