Mu Biqiong’s eyes were filled with fear as she stared up at the green shield.
Even her elegant body was trembling slightly, with wisps of blood coming out of her nose and the corner of her mouth.
“It’s not working,” she said in frustration.
Huang Jinnan was also rather disappointed. “Even powerful outsider plants like the coexisting flowers can’t penetrate that shield. This is a bit troublesome now. I don’t think those outsiders will give up so easily. They may come back here after gathering enough forces. There are a large number of outsider explorers in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range. It won’t be difficult for them to gather more.
“So we need to collect these berries as soon as possible.”
Upon seeing Mu Biqiong’s failure and hearing Huang Jinnan’s words, the other Qi warriors went into action again.
Streaks of flame power, lightning power, water power, and power of other attributes shot up towards the green shield, along with all kinds of spiritual tools.
Nie Tian secretly examined them, and discovered that many of them were Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools.
There were very few Spirit Channeling grade treasures throughout the Domain of the Falling Stars. Only a handful of Soul realm luminaries possessed one or two.
However, all of these Qi warriors were at the Worldly realm or Profound realm, and rather young.
Not just that, but they also practiced exquisite incantations of different attributes. However, their effort to break the green shield all turned out to be in vain.
Soon, everyone stopped trying, Huang Jinnan being the only one who didn’t make any attempts.
The green shield was still intact, but two of the berries that contained rich life power had vanished.
Now, there were only thirty-three left.
Those two berries’ power seemed to be channeled into the green shield, making it resilient enough to ward off the people’s waves of attacks.
“No more idle attempts,” Huang Jinnan said with furrowed eyebrows. “If we keep doing this, even if we can break the shield, there won’t be any berries left for us to collect. Our goal is to gain those berries. What good is breaking the shield if we’re going to lose all of them?”
Everyone sighed in frustruation.
After swallowing a medicinal pill, Mu Biqiong fixed her deep eyes on Nie Tian and asked, “Why don’t you give it a shot? Perhaps you’ll be able to go through the shield without hurting those berries.”
Yin Yanan nodded in agreement.
Both of them were well-aware that Nie Tian practiced unique wood power incantations.
The fact that both their Frost Blood Python and coexisting flowers had shown a strong desire for him proved that there must be something special in Nie Tian that had a strong appeal to them.
Furthermore, they also knew that Nie Tian’s Wood Thriving Formation, which he had used before, had profound connections to the Floragrims.
Upon hearing her words, Huang Jinnan gave Nie Tian a surprised sideways glance.
Fragmentary golden symbols could be seen swimming like fishes in the depths of his pupils, which seemed to be painted gold with some magical paint.
“You...” he said. “You practice flame power and wood power incantations too? Besides star power incantations? You’re indeed full of surprises. Oh right, you’re no ordinary human. You carry an outsider bloodline, which will allow you to live much longer than ordinary humans.
“That’s why you dare to practice three types of incantations at the same time, right?”
Before Nie Tian could answer him, he went on and said to himself, “It’s just that are your wood power incantations very different from others’? Some of these guys also practice wood power incantations, but they still failed to get through that green shield and get those berries.”
Nie Tian smiled, looking completely unworried. “Let me give it a try.”
With these words, a dark-green spiritual aura built up on the tip of his finger.
It was power that originated in his vortex of wood power, which carried vigorous life force.
Like a streak of dark-green light that was only as thick as a chopstick, it shot up and infused into the green shield.
BOOM!
As soon as it made contact with the green shield, it exploded and vanished.
An immense force of expulsion instantly stormed into his extended finger.
Instead of spiritual power, the force of expulsion was a wisp of strong flesh aura.
It followed Nie Tian’s arm into his whole body, causing peculiar changes.
Nie Tian felt as if it was roaming around to plunder his life force.
“Life Drain!” Nie Tian snorted inwardly as he activated his bloodline talent to summon wisps of his flesh power from every corner of his body to bind up the foreign flesh aura.
SHEW!
The flesh aura seemed to go through some changes and flew voluntarily towards his heart, as if it were attracted by something.
Nie Tian examined it closely with his soul awareness, and saw that the flesh aura originating from that green shield flew directly into the green aura within his heart like a river fusing into the sea, and soon vanished.
Immediately afterwards, the green aura in his heart grew restless, like a greedy snake yearning for more.
At this moment, everyone’s expressions flickered with astonishment, their eyes fixed on him.
They had all attempted to break the green shield, and suffered backlashes as soon as they made contact with it.
Strong flesh auras had forcibly entered their bodies and sucked away their life force.
They had struggled to contend against them. Some had sustained serious injuries, while others had managed to drive them out with great effort.
Therefore, when the green shield had sent a backlash aura into Nie Tian’s body, they had all assumed that he would experience the same thing as they had, dealing with his internal riot in a muddled fashion.
However, Nie Tian’s reaction surprised them.
The backlash aura was neutralized as soon as a wave of mysterious, subtle fluctuations appeared within him.
At the same time, Nie Tian seemed as calm as ever, as if he wasn’t affected at all.
Huang Jinnan’s eyes lit up. “Hmm?!”
Looking very intrigued, he said, “Even though your wood power incantations also caused a backlash from the green shield, your bloodline power... seemed to have helped you neutralize it. Why don’t you try to use your bloodline power instead?”
Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian didn’t say anything.
After absorbing that wisp of flesh aura from the shield above, the green aura in his heart, which carried the profound truths of his bloodline power, grew increasingly active.
Thanks to the keen perception of his bloodline power, he realized that the life power within that green shield was ten times richer than the life power within all of the berries combined.
He was also convinced that as long as he activated Life Drain, he would be able to easily drain the green shield of all of its life power, perhaps even along with the life power within all of the berries.
However, if he actually did that, he would have all of the fortune to himself, and everyone else, including Huang Jinnan, would have to return empty-handed, which would definitely be a problem.
He pondered in silence for a few seconds before deciding not to do such a thing, but instead go through that green shield and collect the berries for distribution.
WHOOSH!
Stamping the floor with great force, he shot upwards like a large bird.
Just as he was about to make contact with the green shield, his bloodline power was instantly activated, wreathing him in thick flesh aura.
Then, he shot through the green shield like a sword.
Everyone present exclaimed in shock.
“He did it!”
“He went through the shield so easily, as if he didn’t meet any obstruction at all!”
“Can it be that his bloodline aura agrees with the titan’s flesh aura that forms that shield?”
“Don’t tell me that he actually carries the titans’ bloodline! But even among titans, their bloodlines vary. Is it possible that he happens to carry the same bloodline as this dead titan?”
Standing on the green shield he had just went through, Nie Tian realized that, even without activating Life Drain, the life power within the shield was slowly fusing into him.
Sensing this, the green aura within his heart was ecstatic.
The green shield was originally rather thick and resilient, but as Nie Tian stood on it, it began growing thinner at a slow rate.
It was just that the change was still too faint for the others to notice.
However, Nie Tian was convinced that if he continued to stand on the shield, it wouldn’t take very long before it grew thinner and thinner, and eventually vanish completely.
In order not to cause trouble, Nie Tian rapidly summoned a Medium grade dagger from within his ring of holding and flashed back and forth to severe the vines and harvest the berries.
In about ten seconds, he collected all thirty-three remaining berries.
Then, without any delay, he flew through the green shield again to land on the cave floor.
He fixed his eyes on Huang Jinnan. “All thirty-three of them. How do you think we should split them?”
Eyes shining with the light of excitement, Huang Jinnan pondered briefly before saying, “Why don’t you take thirteen of them? They’ll be the battle trophy for you and your three friends. You earned them. I’ll split the remaining twenty among the rest of us. What do you think?”
With a hearty smile, Nie Tian said, “Great.”
Then, he handed twenty berries over to Huang Jinnan.
At this moment, Han Sen jumped in and exclaimed, “Brother Huang! What gave them the right to take thirteen of them, leaving the lot of us to split the remaining twenty?”
Holding the twenty berries, Huang Jinnan shot a detesting gaze at Han Sen and berated, “Because he’s useful and you’re not. He killed the most outsiders and found a way to secure these berries. Of the twenty, I’ll take eight. Han Sen, you’ll get one. The others will split the rest.”
Han Sen was clearly unhappy with such an arrangement.
However, Huang Jinnan ignored his attitude completely. He tossed him a berry and went to hand the remaining berries to a few others, who appeared to be small leaders.
None of them opposed to Huang Jinnan’s distribution plan. Instead, they all thanked him with smiling faces after receiving the berries.
Nie Tian ran his gaze over the Qi warriors, and discovered that some of them were wearing the same garments, as if they were from the same sect.
Huang Jinnan must have saved himself the trouble of giving berries to every one of them. Not to mention that the berries wouldn’t be enough if he were to split them among everyone present.
Since his distribution plan was mostly fair and they all revered him, no one stood out to oppose him.
Nie Tian walked to the girls and handed two berries to each of them, keeping seven to himself. “Here. You don’t have a problem with my split, do you?”
All three of them were surprised, and nodded repeatedly as they put the berries away.
Yin Yanan smiled heartily. “It was indeed the right decision to travel with you.”
Xie Wanting bowed slightly, her eyes smiling in the shape of crescent moons. “Many thanks. The best decision I’ve made on this trip is to come to the Bloody Grave Mountain Range with you.”
She was the weakest among those who traveled with Nie Tian, and she didn’t make any considerable contributions, but she still gained two berries. How could she not be happy about it?
Looking at the crowd, Huang Jinnan said, “Alright, it’s not safe to stay here for too long. Let’s get out of here now.”
Then, he turned to Nie Tian and said, “You’re welcome to travel with us. We’re going to explore another wondrous place in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range. Do you want to come?”
“Well,” Nie Tian said, “if you don’t mind, can you wait for me outside? It’ll be quick.”
Huang Jinnan went blank briefly before looking up at the green shield that was still there. He seemed to realize something as he said, “Alright, we’ll go out through that tunnel, and wait for you outside. If you want to join us in exploring that other place, come and meet us in an hour.”
Then, his face grew cold as he turned to Han Sen and said, “You’re not going with us. Take your berry and get out of my sight.”
Flames of anger burned in Han Sen’s eyes, yet he didn’t dare to say anything, and thus left by himself.
“Do you also not like that person, Brother Huang?” Nie Tian asked curiously.
“He has a bad name to start with,” Huang Jinnan said. “And I learned that he set up and killed two groups of cultivators in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range, and these are only what I know about. If he didn’t happen to come in time for this fight against the outsiders, I wouldn’t have allowed him to join us.
“You’d better be careful with him. For all I know, he may circle back and try to take your berries.”
With these reminders, Huang Jinnan left with the others through the tunnel he had pointed out for Nie Tian.
Yin Yanan and the girls decided to stay and wait for Nie Tian.