Chapter 579: A Dilapidated Starship
It was two days before the agreed time between Nie Tian and that ancient awareness. Nie Tian had thought that he would be able to ride out these two days peacefully. Never had he thought that another unforeseen event would come.
All of the young Qi warriors stopped chatting and gazed up into the sky.
An enormous object had suddenly appeared, floating over the island. It was so large that it looked like one of the floating lands they had seen on the top continent.
However, it seemed to be made of pure metal, since it emanated an ice-cold, metallic luster throughout its body.
It was one of the Phantasms’ ancient starships.
It looked very similar to the one Nie Tian, Dong Li, and the others had seen in the Realm of Dark Underworld. The only difference was that this one looked more dilapidated.
Many structures on the ancient starship were broken. Deep gashes could be seen in many places. It was in such a poor state that it looked as if it would explode at any moment.
“That’s one of the Phantasms’ ancient starships!” Cao Qiushui exclaimed, fear filling his eyes. “High-tier Phantasms have come for us! What do we do?”
Everyone looked very grim, as they all felt that they were facing certain death.
Nie Tian also ended his cultivation and gazed up at the dilapidated, ancient starship that was now parked high in the sky, a worried expression appearing on his face.
Even so, he tried to comfort the others by saying, “Don’t panic everyone. This island will prevent all air-transportation spiritual tools from descending on it. Our air-transportation spiritual tools were subject to its restrictions, so the Phantasms’ ancient starships should be subject to it as well. So even if there are high-tier outsiders on that starship, they probably won’t be able to get to us on this island.”
“Is that true, Big Brother Nie?” Feng Ying asked, her lips trembling with fear.
In fact, Nie Tian wasn’t sure of it himself, but he forced himself to say, “Of course!”
Now that the Phantasms’ ancient starship was here, it went without saying that it was carrying very powerful Phantasm experts.
His previous conversation with the ancient awareness had been rather brief, and he actually hadn’t acquired much information about this place from it.
Therefore, he wasn’t sure if the restrictions of this island would be able to stop the Phantasms’ ancient starship and their most powerful experts from entering.
If they somehow passed through the restrictions and arrived on the island, then none of Nie Tian or the others would be able to escape.
The group of chosen ones from the Domain of the Falling Stars stared blankly at the ancient starship in the heavens, not having the faintest idea as to what to do.
None of them said a word, but they all asked themselves questions inwardly.
“Are the restrictions of this island really going to hold when that ancient starship or high-tier outsiders try to enter?”
“Even if Nie Tian is right, the spatial rift that leads to the Domain of the Falling Stars won’t appear for two more days. Will we be able to live out these two days?”
“It seems that all of us are going to die here...”
Nothing but despair and fear could be seen in their eyes.
They could sense the uncertainty in Nie Tian’s words, and thus prepared to fight to the death.
High in the sky.
By the edge of the ancient starship stood a number of outsiders, including Armes, Abreu, Sylon, Tago, and Stonemountain. Standing in front of them was a middle-aged Phantasm who had a solemn expression on his handsome face.
“Lord Basto, that newborn Son of the Stars is right under there, on that island,” Armes said with great respect.
As powerful as he was, he seemed to be in fear and trepidation as he talked to that middle-aged Phantasm. It was completely different from the arrogant and domineering way he had previously spoken.
This middle-aged Phantasm was the very Phantasm lord who Dialo had contacted back when he had lost the Soul Pearl to Nie Tian.
The prismatic crystal between Basto’s eyebrows suddenly blossomed with blinding cyan light that filled the entire heavens. At the same time, an immense soul awareness was unleashed and rapidly spread out in the sky.
Not only Armes, Sylon, Tago, and Stonemountain, but also the few fifth and sixth grade Phantasm experts gasped in astonishment upon seeing this.
As Basto unleashed his soul magic, they all had a terrifying feeling that their souls were going to be torn from their bodies.
It was as if it would only take a thought from Basto to annihilate all of their souls instantly.
The ink-black sea water around the island began to churn, giving rise to huge surging waves.
However, a hemispherical, pitch-black ward slowly rose and enveloped the entire island. Even the wind couldn’t seem to penetrate the ward.
The moment Basto’s cyan light shone on the black ward, his expression flickered.
In three breaths’ time, Basto canceled his soul magic with a shocked look in his eyes.
“This island is under his protection,” Basto muttered, a hint of fear appearing on his face. “He’s probably still asleep, but if I go all-out to break the restrictions he has set up, it’ll definitely wake him from his slumber. Once he’s awoken...”
After a moment of pondering, Basto said, “Armes, you and your fourth grade friends will go to that island again to kill that newborn Son of the Stars.”
“But Lord Basto, that Son of the Stars is quite hard to deal with.” Armes said, looking awkward. “He has a Spirit Channeling grade treasure in his possession, and there are quite a few human Qi warriors on that island too. They forced us to evacuate the island before. I don’t think we’ll be able to kill that Son of the Stars if we go back again.”
“Can’t you enter by force, Lord Basto?” Abreu asked in a low voice.
Basto let out a cold harrumph. “You juniors have no idea what this place is. The reason why our attempt to invade the bottom continent failed and we were forced to move to other realms was because none of us knew that an ancient being had been sleeping in the depths of the bottom continent.
“It awoke and crushed our joint armies of various races. Many monarchs fell under his wrath.
“If it weren’t for the fact that he’s asleep most of the time, we wouldn’t have had the audacity to come here.
“Now that this place is under his protection, we’d better not challenge his authority by breaking the restrictions he set up.”
Upon hearing these words, the junior Fiends, Stonemen, Demons, and other junior outsiders all gasped with shock, as if this were the first time they had heard about the reason why their ancestors had lost the war and moved out of their ancestral land.
Even some of the fifth and sixth grade Phantasm experts frowned, as if they were also new to this story.
“That was a huge humiliation to all of our races. It’s natural that your seniors haven’t told you about it.” With a grim expression, Basto took out a long saber, and handed it solemnly to Armes, saying, “Take this Nethersoul Saber and kill that Son of the Stars with it. Considering the grade of your bloodline power, you’ll have to gather all of your soul power and bloodline power to cast just one strike with it.
“Even if that Son of the Stars possesses a Spirit Channeling grade treasure, I doubt that he’ll be able to survive it.
“You go kill that Son of the Stars, while the others finish off the other human insects. Don’t take too long. We still need to head to the Domain of the Falling Stars.”
Very excited, Armes held the Nethersoul Saber with both hands and said, “I won’t disappoint you, Lord Basto! I’ll definitely come back with his head! If he didn’t have that Spirit Channeling grade treasure to protect him last time, I would have killed him already!”
“Good! Go!" Basto said, waving his hand.
Immediately afterwards, one prismatic war chariot after another shot out of the ancient starship. They rapidly flew down from the heavens and landed on the edge of the island. Numerous fourth grade outsiders went ashore, gathered together, and then marched towards Nie Tian’s location at full speed.
“They’re coming!” Dong Baijie exclaimed upon seeing the war chariots that came whooshing down from the sky.
With an ice-cold expression, Xuan Ke said, “It seems that Nie Tian’s right. Those are all fourth grade outsiders, and they seem to be the same group that we drove away. There’s nothing to be afraid of if it’s just them.”
Dong Li shook her head, looking very grim. “I don’t think so. They suffered a defeat last time, but they still dare to come back again. They must have brought something powerful with them this time!”
“They’re here for me.” Nie Tian said. From his previous conversation with Armes, he had learned that, as a Son of the Stars, he was even more valuable to the outsiders than the entire Domain of the Falling Stars.
The fact that Armes and the other dared to return meant that they must have gained some sort of assurance.
After a moment of silent pondering, Nie Tian said in a loud voice, “Those with lower cultivation bases stay close to me. Once you feel that you aren’t be able to carry on with the fight anymore, just run to where I’m standing now.”
He removed one of the tree branches to deactivate the Wood Thriving Formation, and then stepped out of the spell formation.
Afterwards, he summoned the Flame Dragon Armor without hesitation. Clad in the magnificent armor, he strode to a place in front of everyone and declared, “We just need to hold them off for two days. Once the spatial rift opens, we’ll be able to get out of this hellhole! Let’s do this!”
Half a day passed, and Armes arrived with the other outsiders.
“Leave Nie Tian to me. You go take care of the other humans!” Then, with an explosive roar, Armes held out the Nethersoul Saber with two hands and infused his soul power and bloodline power into the peerless weapon.