After traveling in the space disruption zone for an unknown amount of time, Zhao Shanling came to a stop and said, "We're here."
However, gazing into the distance, his face sudden grew grim. "Something is wrong..."
Nie Tian looked over with rapt attention and discovered that there were a few human corpses floating in the direction Zhao Shanling was looking.
In the middle of the floating corpses was a huge cluster of black light, as if it was a black sun, although it emanated an icy aura instead of heat.
The cluster of black light was also on the move, floating slowly in the void.
Meanwhile, it swelled and shrank from time to time, as if it was ever-changing.
As they approached the cluster of black light, Nie Tian examined the few floating corpses with his awareness, and discovered that they still had faint amounts of flesh power.
Unlike outsiders, humans usually had very limited flesh power, which would vanish completely shortly after their deaths.
In this place, even powerful outsiders would lose all of their flesh power soon after their death.
The fact that there was still faint traces of flesh power within those corpses could only mean that they had died very recently.
"These people died very recently," Zhao Shanling said with a grim expression. Then, he laid his eyes on the cluster of black light and added, "I'm afraid others have discovered this place. Some must have entered already. These people must have engaged in battle and got killed when they were about to enter.
"Of the six of them, three were at the Profound realm, two were at the Worldly realm, and one was at the Greater Heaven stage.
"But that Greater Heaven stage junior's corpse now contains the richest flesh power, which means he must have focused on the refinement of his fleshly body, unlike most Qi warriors.
"I wonder where these people came from, and how they managed to find this place."
Nie Tian heard his muttering and quickly painted a picture in his mind about what had happened in this place.
Judging from their garments, these six Qi warriors seemed to belong to the same side. They must have had conflicts with another group, and been annihilated before entering the cluster of black light.
At this moment, the winners were probably exploring the realm that cluster of black light led to.
"Where does this cluster of black light lead to, Senior Zhao?" Nie Tian asked.
"It leads to the place where a powerful spatial power patriarch was buried. That expert's cultivation base and strength was much more profound than mine. I need to secure something that'll help me with my breakthrough into the Void domain.
"He was only able to create an isolated realm in a space disruption zone because of his unmatched attainments in space manipulation magics, so that heaven and earth is very mysterious.
"Once we enter it, the speed at which we lose our spiritual power will multiply ten times!
"Back when I was here the first time, I only spent a few minutes in there, but I lost all of my spiritual power and had to get out of there.
"Even if you do nothing but recover spiritual power with spirit stones in there, you'll still end up losing your spiritual power at an alarming rate. The higher your cultivation base, the faster you'll lose your spiritual power."
As he explained this, Zhao Shanling glanced over at the few floating corpses, a hint of hesitation appearing in his eyes.
Perhaps he would have taken Nie Tian and entered without any hesitation if no one else had beaten them to this place.
However, now that he knew others were already in there, their situation unknown, he started to have some doubts.
After a brief pause, he jerked his head towards Nie Tian and continued, "As long as those who went in there are Qi warriors, regardless of their cultivation bases, they'll lose all of their spiritual power and become no different from commoners. Only those who possess extremely tough fleshly bodies will be at an advantage in there."
Nie Tian's eyes lit up as he asked, "If that's the case, what are we still waiting for?!"
Zhao Shanling frowned and asked, "Haven't you noticed that dead junior? Judging from the rich flesh aura on him, he must have practiced special incantations that emphasized body refinement. The other five must have expected to rely on him after entering that realm. Otherwise, they wouldn't have brought him in the first place."
With a composed expression, Nie Tian said, "Well, not many in this world can contend with my Bone Blood Demon. I believe that even if we're to encounter powerful enemies in there, the Bone Blood Demon will be able to keep us safe."
Zhao Shanling pondered briefly, then nodded. "I guess you're right. After all, that puppet of yours possesses the battle prowess of a late Soul realm cultivator now."
With these words, he reached out and grabbed Nie Tian's arm. "Let's go."
As the cluster of black light expanded again, they flew into it.
In a flash, they appeared in a whole other heaven and earth.
Unlike in the void, they were now standing on solid ground.
The two of them had drifted in the space disruption zone for an unknown amount of time, yet they hadn't seen a single piece of land, or even a rock.
Lights that flashed past every once in a while and bright spots that led to unknown realms were all there were.
Apparently, this heaven and earth was isolated from the space disruption zone.
After assuming a firm foothold, Nie Tian quickly turned around and found that the cluster of black light behind him and Zhao Shanling was still there, as if it was the one and only gate to this mysterious realm.
Also at that moment, he sensed with great clarity that his different types of power were rapidly disappearing from his spiritual sea.
In less than a minute, he lost more than half of them.
He looked up, and discovered that the sky was multicolored and ever-changing, like a sea of paint.
It was as if different energies were coming in continuously from unknown origins, endlessly filling this sky with new vigor.
The ground under his feet was pitch-black. He gazed off into the distance, and there was nothing besides barren, black land in his view; no trees, no plants, no mountains, or lakes.
He made an attempt to jump into the air, and he instantly shot up into the sky. He then realized that even though there was gravity in his special realm, it was almost negligible.
"Come back!" Zhao Shanling's expression flickered as he pulled Nie Tian back to the ground, using his rapidly disappearing spiritual power.
Face extremely grim, Zhao Shanling blurted after pulling Nie Tian down, "Don't ever let the flowing light in the sky touch you! It'll kill you instantly! Even I might get killed if I touch the light. Don't do it again."
Nie Tian nodded, curling his lips slightly. "Alright."
Afterwards, Zhao Shanling led him forward across the black land.
Soon, they came across two dead Qi warriors, both of whom had their foreheads pierced through by sharp blades.
They were wearing the same garments as the six dead people they had come across right before entering this realm. They all had the same pattern on their chests: three hanging swords.
Apparently, these two and those six were from the same sect.
Zhao Shanling searched hard in his memory, but couldn't think of any sect in the Domain of the Falling Stars that wore such a sigil. "They seem to be Qi warriors from another domain. From the look of it, someone from their sect still got in, but these two got killed shortly afterwards."
At this moment, Nie Tian frowned and said, "Now I've lost all of my spiritual power."
All of his nine vortexes of spiritual power were drained, along with his vortexes of flame power, star power, and wood power.
There wasn't a single shred of spiritual power left in him now. If he wanted to use spiritual power again, he would have to leave this mysterious realm and recover with spirit stones in the space disruption zone.
If he did it in here, he wouldn't get to keep any of the spiritual power he channeled from spirit stones, because he would lose it even faster.
However, even though he didn't have any spiritual power left now, he was still full of flesh power, which made him fairly confident.
Zhao Shanling sighed and said, "I'm running out of spiritual power too. If we come across any danger in the future, we'll have to rely on you and your puppet. I'll become no different from a commoner before very long..."
"Don't worry. You can count on me." Nie Tian was quite confident in his fleshly body, which he had refined repeatedly with Heavenly Wood Heal.
After the two of them walked onward for some time, laughter came from the distance.
Zhao Shanling's expression flickered. "As I expected, there are people here! Summon your puppet and prepare for battle!"
"Alright!" With a thought, Nie Tian summoned the Bone Blood Demon from within his ring of holding.
As soon as the enormous Bone Blood Demon landed heavily on the ground, voices came from the distance, "It seems that more from the Trisword Sect have come to their grave!"
SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!
As soon as the Bone Blood Demon landed, numerous streaks of multicolored light shot down from the sky like multicolored lightning bolts, all of which targeted the Bone Blood Demon.
Zhao Shanling's expression flickered drastically as he exclaimed hastily, "Summon it back!"
Nie Tian's face also turn pale with fright. In a hurry, he summoned the Bone Blood Demon back into his ring of holding.
The moment the Bone Blood Demon disappeared, the dashing lights changed their direction and returned to the sky.
"Dammit! I can't believe the puppet will trigger some kind of restrictive spell!" With these words, Zhao Shanling jerked his head towards Nie Tian and shouted decisively, "We need to get out of this damned place now! Take the route we took to get here!"