Chapter Twenty-Three: Not Leaving a Single Trace
As the man dressed in blue walked towards Nie Tian, he slowly lifted his hand. “Resign yourself to your fate, brat!”
CRACKLE!
Tremendous frost spiritual power suddenly gathered, seemingly freezing his hand.
Bone-biting coldness emanated out, making Nie Tian, who was three meters away from him, feel as if he had fallen into an ice cellar.
WHOOSH!
From a distance, he pointed his hand towards Nie Tian, and cold, white streams of mist slithered towards Nie Tian, like long, slender snakes.
Due to the powerful gravitational force affecting him, Nie Tian was in an increasingly dangerous situation as the cold mist struck.
Not far away, the sound of clanking metal echoed out, along with a cold guffaw from the man with the scar.
Nie Tian had no need to look over to understand that Nie Qian’s situation was just as precarious as his.
“Power!” Nie Tian cried in his heart. “I need power!”
Apparently, some invisible force from another world heard his cry. First, he felt the animal bone in his hand grow burning hot.
In the next moment, the scorching heat emitting from the animal bone spread from his palm to the rest of his body.
He clearly felt the heat waves, as staggeringly hot as magma, suddenly fly along his meridians to his feet.
He was suddenly overwhelmed by a strange sensation, as if he now existed inside of a monstrous flame.
ROAR!
A growl erupted in his mind, the source being none other than the drop of blood within the animal bone.
Suddenly, the terrifying gravity from the depths of the earth seemed to be rendered completely powerless.
Moments ago, he had been pinned in place, but now, he took two steps back.
The man in blue clothes was stretching his frozen hand out toward Nie Tian’s chest. When he suddenly found that Nie Tian could move freely, he couldn’t help but murmur, “What?!”
But then, streams of white mist flowed around his fingers and roared towards Nie Tian.
To Nie Tian, those streams resembled dozens of white frost snakes eager to devour him.
As the white frost snakes slithered through the air, the extremely cold spiritual power filled the area around Nie Tian, making it a world of ice and frost.
FIZZ!
Yet, a moment later, the icy cold seemed to be consumed by a ball of heat, transforming it into more white fog.
“Oh…” Nie Tian suddenly whispered, subconsciously glancing down at the animal bone.
The animal bone became as hot as a burning piece of iron, making it impossible to hold onto any longer.
The drop of blood hovered in the animal bone as if it were a small sun spouting raging flames.
ROAR!
The roar from the drop of blood was only audible to him, and seemed to be filled with impatience and irritability.
However, Nie Tian seemed to be able to understand the meaning behind the roar.
Hoping for the best, he flung the animal bone mercilessly towards his opponent.
As soon as the animal bone left his hand, it transformed into a long trail of crimson flames, in the vague shape of a dragon, which whizzed rapidly towards the man in blue.
FIZZ!
The white frost snakes strangely dissipated into white fog when they collided with the crimson flames created by the animal bone.
Seeing the icy snakes dissipating one after another, the man in blue couldn’t prevent his expression from flickering.
However, the flames created by the animal bone left him no time to make any defensive moves, and were in front of him before he could even react.
With his eyes fixed on the man, Nie Tian couldn’t help but notice that large amounts of water vapor had begun to emanate out from him.
Nie Tian also clearly noted the fear and despair in the man’s eyes.
BANG!
The animal bone slammed directly into his chest, sending sparks flashing out, which instantly transformed into another cluster of crimson flames, flames which seemed to be alive and conscious as they rampaged through his whole body.
The man even did not even have time to utter a heart-rending cry before he was devoured. His body instantly melted down like a piece of ice thrown into a stove, and he dissipated without leaving a single drop of blood behind.
The man had seemed completely ferocious only a few seconds ago, but now he had vanished completely.
The place where he stood was devoid of any trace of him whatsoever; both his bones and blood had completely disappeared as if he had never even existed.
The only thing remaining behind was a red, buring animal bone.
The crimson flames that were scattered everywhere returned to the animal bone as if they had a consciousness.
At the same time, the area surrounding the animal bone, which had possessed a gravitational force five times that of normal, seemed to have been forcibly normalized.
Nie Tian gazed at the terrifying animal bone and subconsciously licked his lips.
A Qi warrior who excelled in using the frost power of the middle-stage of Lesser Heaven had been burned alive by the flames from the animal bone until not even a single hair was left. The ferocity demonstrated by the animal bone made him unable to believe what he had seen.
He had been sure that the animal bone was very unique, and that affirmation grew particularly intense when he realized that the drop of blood inside of it could not be congealed until all the flamecloud gems in the mountain had been absorbed.
However, it wasn’t until this moment that he realized that he had underestimated the terrifying power of the animal bone.
PUFF!
Even as Nie Tian stood there in a daze, not far away, Nie Qian coughed up a mouthful of fresh blood. Her spirits were rapidly dropping.
The man with the scar smiled as he approached her with his shield held out in front of him.
Nie Qian had backed up into a tree, and was holding a silver bracelet in each hand. Despite the danger she was in, she couldn’t help but turn her head to look toward Nie Tian.
“Little, Little Tian…” she murmured, fearful he might already be dead.
When she saw that he had somehow survived while the man hunting him had vanished somehow, relief filled her heart.
Seeing her strange expression, her opponent also looked curiously at Nie Tian.
Stunned, he raved, “Second brother, I told to you to hurry up, so where the hell are you?”
He had previously been focused on dealing with Nie Qian and spared little attention for Nie Tian. As far as he was concerned, Nie Tian was locked in place by the fivefold gravity, and should have fallen prey to instant slaughter. It was impossible for something to go wrong, so there was nothing interesting to see anyway.
The man who cultivated frost spiritual power had been burned up in a few seconds after being hit by the animal bone, without a drop of blood being left behind.
Therefore, when his brother looked over but failed to spot him, he simply assumed that his brother had walked away.
After a moment of shock, Nie Qian quickly regained her composure and once again cried out. “Little Tian! Run while you have the chance! Get to the Cloudsoaring sect immediatley!”
She had no idea what had happened either. But from her point of view, the sudden disappearance of that man was the only chance for Nie Tian to escape.
With a gloomy face, the man in the leading position looked around and grew impatient. “Second brother, where the fuck are you?”
“He had a stomacheache and went off to take a crap,” snapped Nie Tian. Walking over to the animal bone, he reached down slowly to pick it up. It was now dark-brown in color.
As he picked up the bone, he meticulously avoided the sparks, which he knew could devour him.
The horrifying scene of the previous man’s death cast a cloud over his heart, making him fearful of the recurring changes of the animal bone.
Fortunately, the restored animal bone showed no sign of such changes.
Once the animal bone returned to his hand, a strong confidence suddenly arose inside of him somehow.
He suddenly had the feeling that he was capable of controlling the animal bone!
“Hurry and run!” Nie Qian cried.
In her eyes, Nie Tian’s act was reckless and blind. Since the assailant was absent, Nie Tian ought to hurry up and escape. Every second he wasted, his chance of survival would be diminished.
But instead of running away, he decided to have a war of words with the leading assailant. She was so anxious that she wanted to drive him to his senses by slapping him in the face.
“I won’t run.” Clutching the animal bone, Nie Tian walked towards her step by step, a surprisingly calm expression on his face.
The man with the scar at the corner of his eye finally realized that Nie Tian was free from the restriction of the gravitational field and had begun to advance in his direction. “Where is my second brother, brat?”
He was not stupid. Nie Tian’s calmness and unusual escape from the gravitational field drove him to the realization that something completely inexplicable must have occurred.
If that was not the case, his second brother would never have disappeared for no reason.
“Like I said, Uncle,” Nie Tian answered seriously, “he ran off into the bushes because he had the squirts.”
“You bastard! Cut the crap!” The man’s face darkened. Shifting his complete attention from Nie Qian to Nie Tian, he said, “No matter what parlor tricks you played, I’ll smash your bones into pieces once I get ahold of you. Then I’ll find out exactly what just happened!
“Tenfold gravity!”