Hu Han didn't have a single piece of cloth to cover herself as she knelt before Nie Tian. The curves of her back and bottom were very tempting.
She bowed her head and didn't dare to meet Nie Tian's gaze. She was barely able to cover her breasts with her crossed, slightly trembling arms. Even so, a large proportion of her milky white breasts were shown.
Cheeks flushed, she looked like a beautiful flower waiting to be picked.
Nie Tian, however, gazed coldly at her as he walked up to her. He stopped before her and didn't utter a word.
Hu Han's appearance was only slightly above average. Even Ye Qin and Qin Yan were more beautiful than her, not to mention Dong Li or Pei Qiqi, who possessed city-felling beauty.
Nie Tian knew that she had betrayed him to save her younger brother. However, Ma Jiu had cut off her brother's fingers anyways.
Seeing that Nie Tian wasn't talking, Hu Han felt increasingly nervous. She couldn't help looking up at Nie Tian, but all she could see in Nie Tian's eyes was coldness. Not a shred of desire could be seen.
With a sorrowful sigh, she said, "I know that, considering your status, you must have met many beautiful, young women. Clearly, I can't compete with them, but I... I've preserved myself all these years. In order to save my younger brother, I sold out many others, and did many terrible things, but I never sold myself."
After a short pause, she added, "I'm still... clean."
Nie Tian frowned slightly.
He had expected that Hu Han must have abandoned all her principles to save her brother, and had thus been with many men over the years. He had never expected that she actually had a line that she wouldn't cross.
"If you've already saved yourself this long, why would you spoil your chastity now?" Nie Tian asked curiously.
"Because I've run out of things I can offer," Hu Han said bitterly. "Back when I was with the Dark Moon, I was at the middle Greater Heaven stage, and I knew something about equipment forging, so I had my value. Later, they arranged for me to be their spy by Li Ye's side.
"Even though you managed to escape from the Void Illusion Mountain Range, my capability was acknowledged, since I managed to trick you into the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
"Soon after that incident, I entered the late Greater Heaven stage, and started to work for the Wild Fire in secret. With their help, I finally rescued my younger brother from the Dark Moon.
"Afterwards, I became a guest elder of the Wild Fire, and because of that, my brother and I established a foothold in Ash City."
With these words, she sighed again. "I was somewhat useful to the Dark Moon or the Wild Fire, but to you... I really don't know how I can prove myself to be useful..."
She knew that Nie Tian didn't have his own gang, and thus wasn't in need of a subordinate.
The little equipment forging knowledge she had could be considered useful by the Wild Fire or the Dark Moon, but Nie Tian had Li Ye and Master Zhen. How would he value her shallow equipment forging skills?
Furthermore, she was only at the late Greater Heaven stage. With the Bone Blood Demon and Li Langfeng by his side, Nie Tian didn't have any reason to value her battle prowess.
She wracked her mind, and came to the conclusion that her undefiled body was the only valuable thing she had.
Considering the perilous environment of the Realm of Split Void, even if they didn't encounter any outsiders or mutant spirit beasts, they might not be able to hold on for a long time.
Since she had almost gotten Nie Tian killed before, she could only try to buy her younger brother's life with her body.
Eyebrows furrowed, Nie Tian said slowly, "Put your clothes back on."
Hu Han looked up at him, confused.
"It would be easy for me to kill you, but I doubt that killing you would make me feel any better. As for your offer, keep it. I don't want it like this."
Hu Han's eyes lit up as she swiftly gathered her garments from the ground and put them on. Then, she stood respectfully before Nie Tian and said, "I'm still yours to take whenever you like. I'm willing to do anything else as well, to repay your kindness."
With a snort, Nie Tian asked, "What can you do for me?"
"I... I..." Hu Han didn't know what to say.
"You may leave now. I don't need you to do things for me." Nie Tian waved his hand, signalling for her to leave.
"My brother..." Hu Han wanted to say something, but stopped on second thought.
"He's your brother. Keep him safe if you can." Nie Tian sounded somewhat impatient.
Then, he called out to Li Langfeng, "Tell Fu Heng to come and see me."
"Sure," Li Langfeng answered from afar.
Shortly afterwards, Li Langfeng brought Fu Heng to Nie Tian. A strange look appeared in Fu Heng's eyes as he saw Hu Han.
However, he quickly withdrew his gaze and greeted Nie Tian. With a imploring tone, he said, "Please let us stay with you, Nie Tian."
"I'm not a member of the Wild Fire, so I don't have a duty to keep you safe," Nie Tian said indifferently.
He didn't seem to care that Hu Han still hadn't left as he asked, "You have a Sound Stone that you can use to contact other survivors, right?"
Fu Heng nodded. "Yes, I do."
"Do you know if there are any teleportation portals that people can still use to leave the Realm of Split Void?" Nie Tian asked.
Fu Heng shook his head. "If there were any, we wouldn't have lost so many people seeking shelter in Graydusk Forest."
"Are you saying that experts from the other realms have already destroyed every inter-realm teleportation portal before they left?" Nie Tian asked in a deep voice.
"It appears so," Fu Heng said with a sigh. "Neither us nor the Dark Moon were given a choice. Experts from the major sects destroyed our teleportation portal before we could go with them. But the Blood Skull was lucky. I heard that the Ice Pavilion Sect and a few other sects allowed them to evacuate before they destroyed their teleportation portal."
"Does that mean the Blood Skull have evacuated safely?" Nie Tian asked.
"Yeah, I guess." Fu Heng sounded frustrated. "We were originally adversaries with the Blood Skull. Even though we started to communicate much more after learning about the outsiders' invasion plan, we were far from considering each other close friends. According what we learned, those sects did give them the opportunity to evacuate, but who knows how they chose."
"So where are the other Wild Fire members now?" Nie Tian asked.
Fu Heng's face turned increasingly grim as he answered, "Holing up in the most remote corners of the Realm of Split Void like us. We've never explored these areas before. Who would have known there were so many mutant spirit beasts in these areas? We split into several groups, and like us, every group has encountered powerful mutant spirit beasts.
"We've even lost contact with some of them. They are probably in worse condition than us. They might have died out, for all we know."
After a moment of silence, Nie Tian went on to ask, "Do you have any idea how the outsiders are deploying forces in the Realm of Split Void?"
"That I don't know," Fu Heng said. "Cultivators have long since evacuated from the Void Illusion Mountain Range, Shatter City, Ash City, and the Land of the Abandoned. Everyone ran for their lives. No one dared to remain in those places."
Eyebrows knitted, Nie Tian pondered for a while before waving at him, showing that he might leave now.
"Nie Tian, I..." Fu Heng wanted to implore again.
However, Nie Tian interrupted him by saying, "Unlike you, I'm not planning to stay here forever. I only have one suggestion for you. That is, don't go any deeper into Graydusk Forest. If my speculations are correct, there are even more powerful mutant spirit beasts in there. Considering your strength, there's no way that you'll survive them."
Fu Heng sighed. "I know."
Then, after a moment of hesitation, Nie Tian summoned a number of spirit stones from within his ring of holding, piled them up before him, and said, "These spirit stones are for you and your group. I hope they'll help you survive a bit longer."
He knew that they would have to rely on spirit stones to continue to ward off the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth.
From Nie Tian's point of view, by giving them some spirit stones and letting them live and die on their own, he was already doing everything humanity and duty called for.
It wasn't his duty to stay here and provide these people with shelter, especially when he knew that the outsiders had their own means of traveling to other realms.
Seeing that Fu Heng still wanted to implore him to stay, Nie Tian signaled Li Langfeng with a nod, and the two of them jumped onto the Bone Blood Demon's shoulders.
In the next moment, under Fu Heng and Hu Han's desperate gazes, the Bone Blood Demon shot up into the heavens.
Fu Heng was taken aback. "That direction… Don't tell me he's going to the Void Illusion Mountain Range!?"
Hu Han went blank shortly before muttering, "Powerful outsiders must be garrisoned in the Void Illusion Mountain Range. I'm afraid even his puppet won't be able to keep him safe there. Isn't it a better choice to stay in Graydusk Forest? Even though there are mutant spirit beasts here, at least the outsiders haven't come looking in these areas yet. He'll be safe here for the time being."
Fu Heng pondered briefly, then suddenly said, "I see! He must have people he wants to protect, probably someone from the Realm of Flame Heaven. Since all of the inter-realm teleportation portals have been destroyed, he can only try to return to the Realm of Flame Heaven through the unstable spatial rifts in the depths of the Void Illusion Mountain Range."
"But he doesn't practice spatial magics," Hu Han said." It'd be very unlikely that he'd find a spatial rift that leads to the Realm of Flame Heaven."
Fu Heng sighed. "Common sense doesn't apply to that man."
Hu Han's eyes were filled with desperation as she asked, "Now that he's gone, what should we do?"
Looking at the spirit stones Nie Tian had left for them, Fu Heng said, "Compared to those major sects, he was already very kind to us. These spirit stones can help us through a fairly long time. Let's hope the situation in the Realm of Split Void has turned around by that time."
Sitting on the Bone Blood Demon, Li Langfeng seemed uneasy. "Where are we heading, Nie Tian?" he asked. "We haven't seen any outsiders in Graydusk Forest so far. It seems to be safe to stay there for some time. Are we going to the Void Illusion Mountain Range?"
"We don't necessarily have to go to the Void Illusion Mountain Range, but we do need to find an outsider. It's the only way we can get some useful information." It seems that Nie Tian has long since had a plan. "Fu Heng and his group are like scared rats. Escaping from the outsiders was all they knew. Only from an outsider will we be able to get a thorough understanding of the situation.
"Then, we'll know if there are still ways to leave the Realm of Split Void."
Eyebrows furrowed, Li Langfeng said, "If the outsiders know how to leave the Realm of Split Void, then there isn't a single realm in the Domain of the Falling Stars that's safe anymore. If that's the case, it's not a bad choice to stay in Graydusk Forest."
The faces of Nie Donghai, Nie Qian, and Wu Ji flashed across Nie Tian's mind as he said, "I have to leave. I have my own reasons."
All of them were in the Realm of Flame Heaven, and there wasn't a single Soul realm expert or a grand spell formation that was strong enough to resist the attacks of seventh grade outsiders and protect the Realm of Flame Heaven.
What would those he cared about do if the outsiders swarmed into the Realm of Flame Heaven?
"I see," Li Langfeng said softly.
Now, he was more convinced that Nie Tian was different from the others he had met in his life.
Even though he knew perfectly well that the road ahead was full of dangers, he was still determined to go. Seeing the determined look on his face, Li Langfeng decided not to say another word.
It wasn't very long before the Bone Blood Demon left Graydusk Forest. However, Nie Tian didn't discover a single outsider through his Heaven Eyes. While he felt puzzled, a person suddenly entered the detection range of his Heaven Eyes.
"I can't believe he's here!" Nie Tian exclaimed.