Terry was dashing through the atmosphere of unstable flesh auras, bitterness filling his unearthly handsome face.
CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!
Crisp sounds kept coming from his joints all over, even though he had already activated the Demons' Indestructible Form to stop the flesh auras from infiltrating his body.
Those flesh auras belonged to Ancientspirits.
Lights kept dying out around him as his eyebrows knitted deeper and deeper.
Most of the flesh auras that had wreathed the hemispherical continent for an unknown amount of years were branded with the profound truths of bloodline powers.
As soon as he entered, many flesh auras that belonged to ancient spirit beasts started attacking him frantically, as if they had finally found a vent for their fury.
It was as if the war between the Ancientspirits and the outsider races had restarted after his entrance.
He had become the common target of all the ancient spirit beasts' flesh auras.
Humans hadn't taken part in that war.
Perhaps because of that, Yue Yanxi and the other Void domain experts hadn't encountered such strong resistance from the Ancientspirits' flesh auras when they had gone through the atmosphere of mixed auras.
He, however, carried the Demons' bloodline, which was shrewdly discovered by the ancient spirit beasts' flesh auras. Therefore, they converged endlessly on him from all directions.
In Terry's senses, many of the flesh auras belonged to ninth grade ancient spirit beasts.
Ninth grade ancient spirit beasts were as powerful as their grand patriarchs, so even he had great difficulty contending against their flesh auras.
That was when he suddenly discovered a distinct awareness among the countless flesh auras. Such a discovery made him even more nervous than Nie Tian.
That was why the message he sent to Nie Tian sounded so meticulous.
Not only did he stop dashing forward, but he even secretly cringed backwards, thinking that he would back out of the atmosphere of chaotic auras the moment things went south.
Standing in front of the palace gate, Nie Tian went blank briefly after receiving the soul message. "Terry, the Demons..."
Instead of answering Terry right away, he sent his Heaven Eyes to search for Terry's fleshly body.
In the atmosphere of chaotic energies and auras, Nie Tian's nine Heaven Eyes shone as brightly as the stars in the sky, completely unaffected by the flesh auras. Soon, they locked onto Terry.
The image of a slender-built Demon whose face was even prettier than a woman's rapidly entered Nie Tian's mind.
At that moment, Terry sensed the anomaly. "These, these are..."
After a brief hesitation, he hastily flew out of the atmosphere of mixed auras and returned to the Demons' ancient starship.
"What did you find, Terry?" Yuna, the Phantasm expert, asked with a confused expression.
Looking deeply shaken, Terry said in a loud voice, "I saw nine sparks that shone as brightly as stars, and they seemed to be formed by soul power. However, they contained a very distinct soul awareness, which was completely different from the residual awarenesses within the deceased flesh auras that wreathe this continent. Could it be that this place has something to do with the humans' Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace?"
Yuna's expression instantly flickered. "The Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace?!"
The Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace's name inspired awe throughout the starry river. To many outsiders, the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace was a colossus they would never dare to offend.
After taking a moment to calm himself, Terry continued, "This place is not easy for us to enter. The layer of chaotic energies and auras contains flesh auras that belonged to Ancientspirits, which are still very hostile towards us. As soon as I entered, countless flesh auras of ancient spirit beasts that were originally scattered around started converging on me and attacking me madly.
"Even though they're only flesh auras now, since many of them belonged to ninth grade ancient spirit beasts, they still carry their profound bloodline power.
"Therefore, even I had great difficulty neutralizing those powerful flesh auras' attacks."
After hearing these words, many of the outsider experts that were gathered here grew hesitant.
After a moment of silent pondering, Yuna said, "According to the information we've obtained, many humans have already entered this floating continent. How powerful do you think the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace expert who sent those soul power stars to examine you is?"
Terry shook his head. "I can't tell for sure. In my senses, those stars of pure soul power seemed to be a part of this continent. They gave me an ethereal, boundless feeling."
Yuna's expression flickered upon hearing these words. "We'd better not enter it again before figuring out who that expert is and what cultivation level he's at."
Terry couldn't agree more.
WHOOSH!
The nine Heaven Eyes searched within the atmosphere of chaotic auras, but didn't find Terry again.
After returning to his mind, Nie Tian turned to Yue Yanxi, who was standing behind him, and said in a low voice, "A voice told me that he's a Demon, whose name is Terry. He entered the layer of foreign auras, but what surprised me was that the difficulty he encountered turned out to be much greater than what we had encountered. Since I didn't give any response, he backed out hastily, looking very nervous and insecure."
"Terry!?" Yue Yanxi exclaimed.
Taken aback, Nie Tian asked, "Do you know him?"
Yue Yanxi nodded. "Terry is from the Barten Clan in the Fifth Demon Realm. As their current clan chief, he's currently at the eighth grade. It's very likely that he'll advance to the ninth grade and become a grand patriarch in the near future. Together, there are seven Demon realms, which are filled with numerous powerful clans. The Barten Clan is in the Fifth Demon Realm, which is fairly weak among the Demon realms.
"As far as I know, the Demon clans in the First Demon Realm and Second Demon Realm all have or had tenth grade grand monarchs.
"Demon clans in the Third Demon Realm and Fourth Demon Realm have or had ninth grade grand patriarchs.
"The Demon clans in the Fifth Demon Realm, the Sixth Demon Realm, and the Seventh Demon Realm are only some small clans.
"Demons attach great importance to hierarchy. For example, Terry's Barten Clan will only be able to move from the Fifth Demon Realm to the Fourth Demon Realm or the Third Demon Realm after Terry breaks through into the ninth grade and becomes a grand patriarch.
"The higher a Demon realm ranks, the richer Demon Qi there will be in that realm, and the more suitable it will be for Demons to upgrade their bloodlines and improve their battle prowess.
"That Terry is a very ambitious man. He has been working extremely hard all these years, hoping to enter the ninth grade as soon as possible, so that the Barten Clan can join the noble clans in the Third Demon Realm or Fourth Demon Realm."
Yue Yanxi's face grew grimmer as he continued, "He's currently at the peak of the eighth grade, which means his battle prowess is equal to that of a late Void domain human expert. If he enters this continent, even if Jian Gao and Guan Fu had fully recovered their spiritual power, they wouldn't be able to match him in a battle. Besides, you said that there's another eighth grade outsider with him..."
Nie Tian's expression flickered slightly. "But what if we have the five experts from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect join us?"
"Even then it may not be enough, but at least we can give the outsiders a fight," Yue Yanxi said. After a moment of hesitation, he added, "Of course, we'll have to confirm the actual strength of that other eighth grade outsider. If that one is as powerful as Terry, then we'll be in trouble."
Nie Tian had a headache over the difficult situation.
All of a sudden, Yue Yanxi asked, "The teleportation portal here in this palace can take us to the Domain of the Falling Stars, right?"
Nie Tian nodded. "That's right."
Yue Yanxi's furrowed eyebrows slowly relaxed as he said, "If that's the case, we don't have to worry too much. It's very efficient to travel through teleportation portals. If I have a disciple teleport to the Domain of the Falling Stars to find Lei Tianqi, and then return to our headquarters in the Domain of Heaven's Boundaries through the teleportation portals the Lei Clan has set up, to inform our sect of the situation, then our sectmaster will most certainly come here himself!
"Meanwhile, as powerful as the outsiders may be, it's not very likely that they'll sack this palace within a short time.
"By the time our sectmaster leads our elite force here, we won't need to fear Terry and his force anymore."
Nie Tian pondered the matter briefly before saying, "This is a solid plan, but let's not rush into action yet. I want to know whether those outsiders will even be able to enter this continent or not."
He left three of his Heaven Eyes in the atmosphere of mixed energies, and had the other six fly out of there, with which he kept a secret watch on Jiang Feng, Ke Jinpeng, and the others.
Just as he was about to change the Ultimates Reverse Grand Spell Formation to deactivate the Vitality-returning Celestial Stone, he saw countless mysterious veins of spell formations in the depths of the mountains and the earth with the help of his Heaven Eyes.
He examined them with his Heaven Eyes and tried to resolve their mysteries with his soul. Then, he felt his understanding of star magics rising to a new level.
That was when Starfall, a star magic he had learned years ago, entered his mind.
"Starfall!"