Nie Tian was aware that neither Armes nor himself had gone all-out to kill each other over the past few days.
During those battles, he hadn't used his Flame Star, Flame Dragon Armor, Heavenly Wood Thorns, or other exquisite spiritual incantations.
Similarly, Armes hadn't unleashed the Phantasm's most powerful soul magics and bloodline talents.
They had fought with nothing but their flesh power, trying to finish each other off in the most brutal and violent way.
Armes always had great confidence in himself, and believed that he would be able to overtake Nie Tian simply by relying on his tough body and profound flesh power.
However, now that Nie Tian had crystallized his bones with Heavenly Wood Heal, Armes finally realized that he would have to bring out more powerful means in order to overtake him.
Thus, he abandoned the most primitive means of battle, and instead resorted to the Phantasm's bloodline power, which had allowed their race to rise to prominence and overshadow numerous other races.
A fine suit of armor gradually come to form over Armes, as if it had appeared out of thin air. Countless detailed patterns could be seen branded on the armor, which seemed to be somehow connected to Armes' meridians.
The moment the armor appeared, Armes' aura of flesh and blood instantly skyrocketed.
At the same time, his eyes and the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows started to shine with intimidating cyan light.
All of a sudden, three clusters of light that were only the size of thumbs flew out of each of his eyes and the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows.
Armes slapped his own chest and spit out a mouthful of blood, which instantly split into three strings and infused into the three beans of cyan light.
Immediately afterwards, the three clusters of light started to burn with ghostly cyan flames.
Wreathed in gruesome and frosty auras, they floated towards Nie Tian.
"Have a taste of my bloodline power!" Armes roared.
Like demons' eyes, the three clusters of ghostly flames floated in completely unpredictable paths towards Nie Tian.
Watch them floating closer and closer, Nie Tian felt a strong sense of danger. Expression flickering, he attempted to examine them with his psychic awareness.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
His psychic awareness was set on fire as soon as it made contact with the three clusters of strange flames.
Experiencing a stabbing pain in his mind, Nie Tian quickly discovered that his psychic awareness had been eliminated like a couple of snowflakes that had been vaporized by blazing flames.
A disdainful expression appeared on Armes' face as Nie Tian's reflection appeared in each of his eyes and the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows. "You haven't even entered the Worldly realm and developed soul power! With what do you plan to resist my Soul Burning Seals?!"
At this moment, Nie Tian was hit by a feeling that, no matter where he went, as long as he remained in Armes' sight, he would have no way of escaping the pursuit of those three clusters of ghostly flames.
With a grim expression, he summoned the Flame Star and formed a chaotic magnetic field around him.
With a few vigorous swings of the Flame Star, he sent out blade lights, along with thunderous sounds that seemed as if they could split heaven and earth.
However, the blade lights shot right through the incoming ghostly flames like cutting through air. The clusters of cyan flames seemed completely unaffected as they continued to float towards him, burning as strongly as ever. "Our bloodline magics perfectly match the use of our soul power. You can't neutralize them unless you possess soul power or practice lighting-attributed incantations."
With a sinister smile on his face, Armes looked coldly at Nie Tian, waiting for his cyan flames to hit Nie Tian, as if he could see Nie Tian's soul being breached by his Soul Burning Seals and reduced to to a sea of blazing flames until all of his memories, thoughts, and awareness were burned away.
"Damn Phantasms!" Having failed to affect the three clusters of ghostly flames in the slightest with the blade lights that were infused with his various powers, Nie Tian finally realized how powerful Armes' Soul Burning Seals were.
They were the product of the perfect fusion of Armes' soul power and unique bloodline talents, making them completely different from the soul attacks he had seen before. This was what soul magics should be like.
Unlike humans, Phantasms didn't have to wait till they rose to certain grade to develop the ability to practice soul power.
They were born with incomparably strong souls. As they grew and cultivated, they would gradually awaken their bloodline talents, and thus acquire the ability to channel soul power and cast powerful soul magics.
This was what the Phantasms had relied on to stand out from among so many outsider races.
"Only with lightning magics or similarly profound soul magics will I be able to resist his soul attacks..." As his train of thought came to this point, Nie Tian realized that he would have to resort to his soul power.
Eyes fixed on the blazing ghostly flames that were floating closer and closer, he concentrated his awareness on the nine fragmentary stars in his soul.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The three Soul Burning Seals finally entered his chaotic magnetic field.
They flickered and swayed slightly at first, but rapidly stabilized again.
"Soul blade!" Nie Tian suddenly closed his eyes and, with a thought, he forged a glowing blade with the soul power he summoned from the nine fragmentary stars.
In the eyes of a normal person, nothing was happening at all. Only those who possessed soul power would be able to see the glowing blade forming over Nie Tian's head.
It was the same soul blade he had used to kill Spirit God Sect disciples and annihilate numerous discarnate souls from their Soul Banners back when he had encountered them in the swirling band.
The slender soul blade slashed vigorously down from the air and hit the three clusters of cyan flames one after another.
Upon contact, beams of dazzlingly bright light burst forth from the hearts of the three Soul Burning Seals, while the nine fragmentary stars in Nie Tian's soul suddenly blossomed with blinding light.
Immediately afterwards, the three clusters of cyan flames exploded as Nie Tian's soul blade shattered inch by inch from tip to hilt.
Nie Tian and Armes almost simultaneously let out muffled groans, their faces turning pale.
After a brief examination of himself, Nie Tian noticed that the nine fragmentary stars in his soul had become somewhat dimmer and smaller.
This indicated a major consumption of his soul power.
"You're a successor of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace!" Armes exclaimed, blood flowing out of the corners of his eyes, giving him a scary look.
He suddenly recalled that he had once heard the senior members of his clan talking about the three major spatial rifts in the Domain of the Falling Stars being sealed by some human.
From the word they had received from the Demons, someone in the Domain of the Falling Stars had indeed obtained the legacies of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
He had even heard that the fact that one of their Spirit Pearls had gone missing had something to do with that successor of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.
However, according to his seniors, the successor was still very weak and young.
Their plan was that, once they had marched through the spatial rifts into the Void Illusion Mountain Range, their powerful experts would track him down by relying on their connection with the Spirit Pearl and kill him while he was still weak.
He had never expected that, not only had the successor so daringly come through those spatial rifts into this dimension, but he was looking at him right now.
Heedless of the blood rolling down his cheeks, Armes stared at Nie Tian. "I can't believe that you're the one who has obtained the legacies of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace! No wonder you are able to resist my Soul Burning Seals!"
With these words, he instantly took out his conch shell and sent a whispered soul message into it.
As he did, Nie Tian suddenly discovered that the nine fragmentary stars hadn't gone dim after the exchange.
Mountains of corpses and seas of blood somehow appeared in his mind, along with countless vicious ghosts and sinister devils.
That was when he realized that sparks of the Soul Burning Seals' residual power must have found their way to his soul, and thus caused these illusions.
However, as the bright light from the nine fragmentary stars shone upon them, the illusions soon unraveled, and all of the Soul Burning Seals' residual influence washed away.
At that moment, he noticed that Armes had already finished sending his message via his conch shell.
He channeled his Heaven Eyes in the vicinity and quickly realized that numerous outsiders had started converging on them from different directions.
"Didn't you say you'd beat me in a fair battle?" Nie Tian asked with a cold smile. "Why are you calling for help now? Lost your confidence, have you?"
A hint of respect could be seen in Armes' eyes as he said, "I admit that you're a worthy opponent. But since you've received the profound legacies of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, it means that they've chosen you to be one of the Sons of the Stars. I bet you don't even know what that means.
"That means the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace will choose one of you that will become the Lord of Stars!
"We need to go all-out to kill every Son of the Stars we come across, no matter the cost!
"You're very stupid, Nie Tian! Considering you're only at the Greater Heaven stage, I bet you haven't even refined all of your fragmentary star marks, and have no idea what kind of responsibility you're shouldering, and how much hope the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace has placed in you! Otherwise, you wouldn't have come to this place!
"To the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, you are far more important than the Domain of the Falling Stars!
"Since you're a Son of the Stars chosen by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, I can't afford to let you escape.
"Abreu, gather the others and get the hell over here now!"