“Fang Yingying, the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect...” Face expressionless, Nie examined the young woman with rapt attention as she approached.
The young woman, who referred to herself as Fang Yingying, had a gorgeous appearance. She was wearing a long, purple dress with a white belt, which greatly highlighted her extremely thin waist and ample bosom.
She was at the middle Profound realm, which was higher than all three of them.
However, in Nie Tian’s senses, she was also much older than Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong.
The air-transportation spiritual tool she was standing on also looked rather strange. It seemed to have been forged from the remains of a large centipede and plenty of metal.
At first glance, it looked as if she was riding a centipede that was about eight meters long. However, after examining it with his life aura, Nie Tian discovered that the centipede didn’t contain the slightest flesh aura. Instead, a spell formation that ran on spirit stones was providing it with power.
“We’re from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries,” Yin Yanan said somewhat arrogantly.
Disdain flashed across Fang Yingying’s eyes as she said, “The Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries...”
She had heard of the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, and knew that it was only an elementary-grade domain. Even their most powerful sect, the Pure Heaven Sect, had failed to produce a Saint domain expert.
In her eyes, any sect from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries was nothing compared to the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect.
Eyes narrowed, she ran her eyes up and down Nie Tian and the girls, not saying anything.
Nie Tian, Yin Yanan, and Mu Biqiong could all sense a wisp of her soul awareness running all over them like an invisible tentacle.
“One early Profound realm and two Worldly realm, that’s all...” Muttering these words, Fang Yingying laid her eyes on the Frost Blood Python by Yin Yanan’s charming legs.
The Frost Blood Python had been very long and thick, but after advancing to the eighth grade, not only had it not grown larger, but it had even shrunk significantly.
At this moment, it was coiled up, looking rather unimpressive.
The Frost Blood Python was a hybrid of a Frost Python and a Blood Stripe Python. Judging only by its appearance, it looked a more like a Frost Python than a Blood Stripe Python.
Normally speaking, Frost Pythons would be at the second grade when they were born. Their grades would rise as they grew and cultivated.
However, not every human Qi warrior was as sensitive to spirit beasts’ flesh auras as Nie Tian. Therefore, it was hard for most people to make an accurate judgment of the Frost Blood Python’s grade at the first moment.
Clearly, Fang Yingying fell into this category.
She examined the Frost Blood Python briefly with her eyes, and judging by its size, she soon came to the conclusion that it was at the fourth or fifth grade.
The strength of a fifth grade spirit beast was only equal to that of Worldly realm human Qi warrior.
However, even though Fang Yingying had grown very contemptuous inwardly, she tried her best to mask it. After a moment of silence, she broke the ice by saying, “We’re capturing Silver Beetles here. There are a total of four Silver Beetle nests here. Are you interested?”
Yin Yanan’s gaze went beyond Fang Yingying and landed on the four silver mountain peaks.
The battle between Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples and Silver Beetles was still ongoing. A large number of Silver Beetles were either being killed or captured alive. From the look of it, the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect was at a dominating advantage.
The Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples were all at the Worldly realm and Profound realm. Not a single one of them was at the Soul realm.
Eyebrows furrowed, Yin Yanan wondered whether the Phantasm youngster had been referring to these Silver Beetles when he had talked about spiritual materials that they would need.
The incantations the Beast-controlling Sect practiced had a great deal to do with spirit beasts, but not spirit insects.
Perhaps these Silver Beetles were treasures in the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples’ eyes, but not to her.
She didn’t think either of them would be able to enhance their battle prowess or cultivation bases with the help of the Silver Beetles.
With these thought, she shook her head and said, “We’re not interested in Silver Beetles.”
Immediately afterwards, she started her air-transportation spiritual tool in an attempt to leave.
“Not interested...” Fang Yingying extended her voice intentionally. Then, her bright eyes glittered as she laughed and added, “There’s some good stuff in those Silver Beetle nests, you know.”
Yin Yanan shot her a sideways glance while driving her air-transportation spiritual tool away. “What good stuff?”
Clearly, she didn’t think there would be any precious treasures that would provoke her interest in those Silver Beetle nests.
“Silicon Silver, have you heard of it?” Fang Yingying asked in a calm and composed manner.
Yin Yanan suddenly stopped her air-transportation spiritual tool and turned around to ask, looking deeply surprised, “Is there really Silicon Silver in those Silver Beetle nests?”
Fang Yingying nodded, smiling. “Normally speaking, Silver Beetles don’t need Silicon Silver. As an ancient species with strong vitality, they can survive on nothing but dried plants and rotted flesh. Since the dried plants and fallen leaves here in the Shatter Battlefield contain spiritual power, they can survive even without flesh from living creatures.
“But if they want to upgrade their bloodlines and become high-grade Silver Beetles, they’ll have to consume Silicon Silver.
“The reason why the Silver Beetles chose these four mountain peaks to build their nests was because these mountain peaks contain Silicon Silver.”
A puzzled look appeared on Nie Tian’s face. “Silicon Silver?”
Mu Biqiong, the Holy Daughter of the Bliss Mountain Sect, ended her usual silence by explaining to him, “Silicon Silver is a very rare spiritual material that can be used to forge high-grade spiritual armor. Unlike outsiders, we humans actually don’t have considerable physical strength. The reason why we don’t have requirements regarding the weight of our weapons is because we’ll be able to wield heavy tools as long as we infuse our hands with spiritual power.
“However, we wear spiritual armor all the time. If it’s heavy, then we’ll be under too much pressure.
“Silicon Silver is not only as solid as divine iron, but also incomparably light.
“By forging spiritual armor with Silicon Silver, we can not only increase the spiritual armor’s solidity, but also decrease the spiritual armor’s weight a few dozen times over.
“So Silicon Silver is an essential material for humans to forge high-grade spiritual armor.
“Since we don’t have any Silicon Silver throughout the entire Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, experts from our sects will have to think up every possible method to obtain some from other domains if they want to forge high-grade spiritual armor. Only two pieces of Silicon Silver the size of fists are needed to forge a suit of spiritual armor. With the spiritual armor’s weight lightened by dozens of times, we’ll be able to wear them all the time.
“For this reason, Silicon Silver is extremely valuable. Pound for pound, it’s ten times the price of spirit crystals, and more often than not, you can’t find anyone who sells it.”
After hearing her explanation, Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he finally understood why Silicon Silver was so precious.
Not everyone was like him or Yin Yanan, who had vigorous flesh power and could lift extremely heavy objects.
Furthermore, unlike spiritual weapons, it was rather inconvenient and unsafe to attempt to don spiritual armor in battle.
Therefore, people usually wore their spiritual armor all the time.
Since Qi warriors couldn’t summon spiritual power to shoulder heavy spiritual armor all the time, the weight of spiritual armor became a major issue.
Considering Silicon Silver could greatly reduce a suit of spiritual armor’s weight, it became incredibly valuable for Qi warriors with feeble bodies.
One small piece of Silicon Silver could easily be sold for a thousand spirit jades, which was equivalent to a hundred thousand spirit stones.
Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong had only been able to enter the Shatter Battlefield because each of them had paid the Divine Seal Sect ten thousand spirit jades.
As long as each of them could obtain ten pieces of Silicon Silver from within those mountain peaks, they would get their entrance fee back.
“What do you want by telling us about the Silicon Silver in those mountain peaks?” Yin Yanan asked with a vigilant expression.
With a bright smile, Fang Yingying said, “There are a total of four Silver Beetle nests, which is a lot to handle, and it’s a bit unreasonable if we’re going to to take them all. So we’ll be happy to give one of the Silver Beetle nests to you. You can kill the Silver Beetles and take the Silicon Silver inside. What do you think?
“Besides, it’s a rule that people should share their discoveries in the Shatter Battlefield.”
Yin Yanan’s eyebrows flickered as she turned to look at Nie Tian.
Nie Tian spread out his hands, signaling to her that he was fine with whatever decision she made.
“Alright, we’ll take that Silver Beetle nest.” With these words, Yin Yanan smiled inwardly, eager to see what this young woman was up to.
Of course she didn’t believe that she had offered this out of kindness.
Meanwhile, even though the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples had the numbers, she didn’t find any of them powerful enough to make her apprehensive.
“Come with me. I’ll go make some arrangements.” Smiling, Fang Yingying flew back to the four mountain peaks on her air-transportation spiritual tool that looked like a large centipede.
Yin Yanan, however, didn’t fly after her right away. Instead, she waited for her to fly away to whisper, “She definitely doesn’t have good intentions.”
Both Nie Tian and Mu Biqiong nodded in silence.
A hint of disdain appeared at the corner of Yin Yanan’s mouth. “I suppose she misjudged my Frost Blood Python’s grade, and took us for easy targets. For the sake of that Silicon Silver, let’s go and see what game these Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples are playing.”
As they flew to the four silver mountain peaks, the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples indeed withdrew from one of them.
That silver mountain peak was wreathed by silver rings that were formed by flying Silver Beetles.
Nie Tian took a quick glance at the other three mountain peaks, and discovered that the Silver Beetles wreathing this mountain peak were not only at higher grades, but also in greater numbers than the ones wreathing the other three mountain peaks.
Clearly, the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect had given the most troublesome Silver Beetle nest to them.
Over at the Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciples’ location, a thin Profound realm Heavenly Witchcraft Sect disciple with a sickly, waxen face frowned and asked, “Why are you doing this, senior martial sister? We’re more than capable of taking these four Silver Beetle nests ourselves. We don’t need their help.”
The man was sitting at the foot of one of the mountain peaks, stuffing medicinal pills down his throat from time to time, as if to recover strength.
Fang Yingying’s smile only grew heartier as she answered him. “Junior Martial Brother Luo, I only gave that Silver Beetle nest to those three from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries so that they could explore it for us. As you know, the mother beetle is in that nest.”
With a disdainful expression, the young man said, “What can they do? I don’t think they can even handle the low-grade Silver Beetles on the outside, much less enter the nest to see the mother beetle.”
Fang Yingying’s lips pursed into a smile. “They’re no threat to us anyways. Let’s just see. Even if they can’t kill the mother beetle for us, it’ll be in our favor if they take out some of the low-grade Silver Beetles on the outside. The people from elementary grade domains are always used as cannon fodder in the Shatter Battlefield anyways, right?”
“Alright, you’re the boss...” the young man named Luo Hui said.