With Nie Tian and the others on its back, the Thunder Beast flapped its enormous wings, and slowly disappeared from Feng Luo and Yu Tong’s sight, heading out of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
By that time, all the powerful experts who had the capability to fly out of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range had long since left the disastrous location.
Those who couldn’t leave, but managed to survive the calamity, were all scattered on various mountain peaks or in caves, waiting for the lava to seep back into the ground.
Standing on top of a short stone mountain, Han Xin of the Mystic Mist sect pointed at the unusual beast in the distant sky. “That’s… a Thunder Beast!”
Seeing that it was flying towards her, she waved her their hands at it in excitement.
As it got closer, she caught sight of Nie Tian and his group, who were sitting on its back.
Zheng Bing rose to his feet and looked up at the Thunder Beast, his eyes filled with astonishment. He said with surprise in his voice, “They all made it!”
Han Xin and him had been rather lucky. They did not encounter any trouble after parting ways with An Shiyi and the party. They had attempted to get out of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range as soon as possible and then march straight towards the direction of the Mystic Mist sect.
At first, their plan went well. They were secretly glad that they did not stay behind and wait for Nie Tian along with An Shiyi and the others.
But later, great changes occurred in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. Raging lava had spouted out from the earth core. Running out of options, they too, like Nie Tian and the party, had chosen to take refuge on top of a stone peak.
Very quickly after that, boiling lava flooded the entire mountain range and numerous mountain peaks were separated from one another. Fortunately, they survived.
For the past two days, they had been racking their brains, trying to think of ways to leave the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, but none of their ideas ended up being feasible.
Just as they were at their wits’ end, the Thunder Beast soared through the sky, towards the mountain peak they were on. Having spotted Nie Tian and the others, Han Xin eagerly waved her hands in elation, hoping that Nie Tian and the others could see her and Zheng Bin.
“Take us with you, please!” Han Xin called out loudly.
Face full of unquenchable excitement, she was practically bouncing with joy, as if she had finally seen a silver lining after waiting for so long.
Zheng Bin, however, stayed silent and did not say a thing.
Pan Tao lowered his chin as he saw Zheng Bin and Han Xin, who were standing on their toes on a mountain peak. He frowned and said, “It’s them… What do you guys think we should do?”
A few days ago, Nie Tian had sensed the Flame Dragon Armor’s unusual changes while he was in the middle of his recuperation. After Zheng Bin and Han Xin realized that he had dashed off down into the tunnel, they had inwardly despised his recklessness, and thus chose to part ways with the group.
To Pan Tao’s surprise, they saw the two of them again when they could finally leave the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range.
Sitting in the forefront, Nie Tian said with a plain expression, “It’s too crowded here. We can’t make enough room for two more people. Plus, the Thunder Beast may also not be able to take the weight.
“Furthermore, you have all seen that the Thunder Beast wasn’t willing to take orders from me. As a matter of fact, it doesn’t listen to me at all.”
Sitting closely behind him, An Shiyi put both of her hands around his waist, but barely touching him. She turned her face to one side, and glanced at Zheng Bin and Han Xin out of the corner of her eyes. She said with a blank tone, “I have no more Green Lightning gems.”
“I think it’s too crowded, too,” said Pan Tao.
Ye Gumo said coldly, “If the Thunder Beast carries too many people, I fear that it may not be able to stand the weight. What if it falls from the sky? We would all die together, wouldn’t we?”
Jiang Lingzhu snorted and kicked the Thunder Beast’s waist with her foot. She urged, “Fly faster!”
Although no one said it outright, they had all clearly expressed their stance on this matter, which was: No one wanted for the Thunder Beast to stop.
Thereupon, despite Han Xin’s excited shouts, the Thunder Beast whizzed by right over the peak where she and Zheng Bin were, without the slightest intention of stopping.
“They… They left…” Han Xin stood there flabbergasted. Moments later, she suddenly gave out an ear-piercingly sharp scream, “They actually abandoned us and left! Aren’t the four sects supposed to be allies? How could they leave us like this?”
Zheng Bin did not say anything, but rather heaved a sigh and bowed his head in silence.
At that moment, a strong sense of regret filled his heart. He regretted the decision that he had made days ago.
When Nie Tian had acted on his own account and the others had no idea where he was, he and Han Xin had chosen to abandon them and march on by themselves for their own safety.
Similarly today, when the Thunder Beast had found Nie Tian and carried the others away from the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, they abandoned the two of them.
Zheng Bin understood that they were reaping what they had sown.
After the brief interlude with Zheng Bin and Han Xin, the crowd on the back of the Thunder Beast all fell into silence, no one starting a conversation.
Nie Tian also did not utter a word.
After a while, when the Thunder Beast was flying over a deep lava lake, Nie Tian once again sensed the aura of the Flame Dragon Armor.
He was high up in the sky, while the Flame Dragon Armor was deep under the bottom of the lava lake. He could not see the Flame Dragon Armor with his eyes and could only faintly sense it with his psychic awareness.
“This place is too dangerous, I am leaving.” He tried to convey his thoughts with his psychic power.
Moments later, he received the Flame Dragon Armor’s response in his soul sea.
The Flame Dragon Armor’s response did not have any specific words, but instead, it was only a wisp of a miraculous soul fluctuation, which was already understandable to Nie Tian.
The Flame Dragon Armor wanted him to leave, but also expressed that it would go and look for him in the future.
“It will come look for me in the future…”
Feeling relieved, Nie Tian’s expression immediately loosened up, knowing that it wouldn’t take long for the Flame Dragon Armor to gather all the Earthflame Crystal Strings in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range and then return to his side.
Pan Tao and the others didn’t feel a thing when Nie Tian communicated with the Flame Dragon Armor. Only An Shiyi, who was sitting closely behind him, turned her glittering eyes, and secretly looked down towards the deep lava lake.
She moved closer towards Nie Tian’s ear and asked softly with a voice that only the both of them could hear, “The Spirit Channeling grade treasure…… is under the lava lake below us, isn’t it?”
Her warm and soft voice, coupled with her plump breasts that were now pressed against his back, caused Nie Tian to feel a wave of numbing sensations throughout his body. His mind suddenly went blank along with it.
Only after a while did Nie Tian slowly awake from his reverie. He responded, “Yes.” His voice sounded heavy and rough.
“Just now, I sensed that a wisp of your psychic awareness, as fine as a thread, suddenly connect with another thread of soul awareness.” Looking at his somewhat embarrassed face, An Shiyi chuckled softly and said, ”You… can communicate with it on a soul level, can’t you?”
“Umm… it seems so,” Nie Tian mumbled.
At that moment, An Shiyi had wrapped her arms around his lower waist. Her curvy physique was now closely pressed up against his back, while she whispered into his ear with a low and soft voice. This caused his blood to surge, making him feel confused and disorientated.
It was the first time he had experienced something like this.
An Shiyi made conversation with him along the way. Not knowing if she was doing it intentionally or if there was too little space on the back of the Thunder Beast, her ample breasts had been pressed against his back ever since they started talking.
Nie Tian, who had never encountered anything like this, started to become muddle-headed, and almost couldn’t make sense when answering An Shiyi’s questions.
By this point, Nie Tian’s head had already been taken up by the image of An Shiyi’s plump chest, their deformed outline as they were squeezed against his back, together with the raptured, wonderful sensation coming from his back.
It wasn’t long before he fell into a state where he no longer knew what An Shiyi was asking and what he was answering.
A long time later, he felt An Shiyi gradually loosen her lily-white hands that were previously tightly wrapped around his waist. Furthermore, she slightly shifted backwards to put some distance between them, no longer pressing her body against him.
Only at that moment did he gradually became clear-headed, and recover from the strange, bewildered state.
“Hey little punk, remove your hand from my leg…” An Shiyi whispered softly.
Nie Tian was startled before he quickly realized in the next moment that his right hand had unknowingly stretched backwards and landed on An Shiyi’s milky-white, slender leg.
Despite being separated by a light layer of muslin, he could still feel the perfect curve and tightness of her beautiful leg.
“Hurry up and remove your hand.” An Shiyi warned him again with a gentle voice.
Nie Tian subconsciously turned his head to look at the part he was touching. Then he saw that An Shiyi’s loose right sleeve was swaying softly like a curtain, covering her right thigh, and preventing An Ying, who was sitting behind her, from seeing what was happening.
Nie Tian sensed that An Shiyi was quite nervous at the moment. She seemed to be afraid that An Ying would notice, misunderstood, and frown upon her sister.
“Well…” Nie Tian, who had come to his senses, understood her worries. He responded with a low voice and quickly retracted his hand.
After that, Nie Tian didn’t know why, but he actually put his hand under his nose and sniffed.
“You little jerk!” An Shiyi’s gorgeous face was suddenly filled with a red glow. Seized by embarrassment, she bit her bottom lip, and scolded Nie Tian in a low voice.
“It smells so good.” Nie Tian laughed quietly and foolishly.
WHOOSH!
Also at that moment, the Thunder Beast had finally flown out of the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, speeding away in the direction of the Cloudsoaring sect.
On the following day, at noon…
When the Thunder Beast flew into Black Cloud City, it gradually slowed down and seemingly refused to go any further.
It slowly descended in front of the main gate of Black Cloud City.
Clueless, Jiang Lingzhu asked, “Isn’t the Cloudsoaring Mountain supposed to be our destination?”
Black Cloud City was already quite close to Cloudsoaring Mountain. Considering the Thunder Beast’s speed, given another fifteen minutes, they would have reached Cloudsoaring Mountain.
However, the Thunder Beast chose to stop at this place.
“I think…” An Shiyi was the first one to jump off the Thunder Beast. Looking at the vague outline of Cloudsoaring Mountain, she said, “Maybe the Cloudsoaring sect is not safe.”
“What?!” Jiang Lingzhu’s face turned pale.
After a moment of pondering, An Shiyi stated her assessment, “The Hell sect, Blood sect, and Ghost sect are all on the same side. However, only the Ghost sect and Blood sect invaded the Spiritual Treasure sect. The Cloudsoaring sect is relatively close to our sect. I believe that experts from the Hell sect are in laying ambush around the perimeter of Cloudsoaring Mountain to prevent the Cloudsoaring sect from coming to our aid.”
Upon hearing her words, everyone came to realize the discouraging turn of events. Seeing that the Thunder Beast had no intent to set out again, they all jumped down one by one.
Wu Tao from the Nie clan was standing on top of the city gate. Waving his hand, he shouted, “Nie Tian! The Cloudsoaring sect is not safe. The sectmaster has ordered everyone to stay in Black Cloud City, and none shall go to the Cloudsoaring sect.”
Hearing his words, everyone instantly realized that An Shiyi’s speculations were correct.
The Hell sect, the strongest among the three sects, had probably already assembled a large number of their powerful experts around Cloudsoaring Mountain, and even had completely sealed off the Cloudsoaring sect, so that no one would be able to get in or out.