First thing in the morning, Li Ye came to Nie Tian’s room and took him to the courtyard.
A short while later, Pei Qiqi arrived in a long, ocean-blue dress.
Seeing her again after two weeks, Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he was once again captivated by her stunning beauty.
He even had to draw power from the seven fragmentary stars in his soul to calm his pounding heart.
“Hua Tian?” Pei Qiqi walked closer in a graceful fashion. After a glance at Nie Tian, she turned to Li Ye and asked, “What’s he doing here?”
“Senior Martial Sister, I have discovered that although his cultivation base is low, his physical strength is rather impressive,” Li Ye hastily explained. “He can sever a Blackbound Wood log without using his spiritual power. As you know, the place we’re going to is very special. The more we use our spiritual power, the more fluctuations we’ll trigger.
“If we bring him with us, he can help us carry more stuff back without putting us in danger.”
Pei Qiqi hesitated for a moment before saying, “His cultivation base is way too low. I’m afraid that he won’t be able to resist the tainted spiritual Qi, and it will corrupt his mind before we even get to our destination. We’re going on a mission. I don’t want to take a burden with us.”
“Rest assured, Senior Martial Sister. I’ll take care of him if it comes to that. You won’t have to do anything.” Li Ye gave his word.
“A burden?” Nie Tian rubbed his nose, an unpleasant expression filling his face.
Ever since he had left the Nie clan, he had never been proven to be a burden, not during the Green Illusion dimension trial, nor the turmoil in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, or the Heaven Gate trial.
He found it laughable that he had become a burden in Pei Qiqi’s eyes.
“You want to protect him all the way there? You think he’s worth it?” Pei Qiqi asked again.
Li Ye nodded. “Yeah.”
“Okay.” Pei Qiqi didn’t say another word, but rather headed out towards the teleportation portal in the city square.
Nie Tian and Li Ye followed her.
This was the first time that Nie Tian had the opportunity to walk out of his residence after he had come to Shatter City. He kept glancing around as they walked.
Complicated banners hung high up from numerous stone pavilions on both sides of the wide streets.
All sorts of advertisements were written on the banners; some said spiritual materials, some said spiritual tools, some said unexplored dimensions, some said latest information on the Void Illusion Mountain Range, while others said quest recruitment. People could find almost everything they needed in those shops.
Among the numerous Qi warriors that walked in the early morning streets, most had rather high cultivation bases.
Nie Tian used his Heaven Eye to examine a few of them, and found that the Qi warriors that were going into or coming out of those pavilions were all powerful Heaven or Greater Heaven stage experts.
He even discovered two Worldly realm Qi warriors.
Although none of those Qi warriors summoned their spiritual power, Nie Tian managed to detect intense killing intent from every one of them.
Apparently, as Hua Mu had warned him, no one in Shatter City was innocent. They all had blood on their hands and had risen from piles of dead enemies.
To Nie Tian’s surprise, many of those powerful experts in the street recognized Pei Qiqi, and greeted her with smiles filling their faces.
“Greetings, Miss Pei.”
“Long time no see, Miss Pei.”
“Please tell your master that I send my regards.”
Pei Qiqi, on the other hand, only nodded to a few of them, neglecting most of the greeters. The only verbal response she gave was to a Worldly realm Qi warrior, who asked her to give his regards to her master, and the response was: “Sure”.
What made Nie Tian even more surprised and confused was that, not only did none of them seem to be irritated by her indifference, but not a single one of them dared to show even the slightest lust in their eyes.
After all, Pei Qiqi was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen in his life. He had even momentarily got lost in a daze the first time he had met her.
It appeared to Nie Tian that all the powerful experts in Shatter City lived their lives on the edge. From their imposing manner when they talked to others, he could tell that none of them were gentlemen.
Even still, they were all very well-behaved when they greeted Pei Qiqi. Their words were proper and their eyes didn’t wander, which Nie Tian found very odd.
Harboring suspicion in mind, he observed increasingly closely, and that was when he saw fear in some greeters’ eyes.
It was as if, in those people’s eyes, the unearthly beautiful Pei Qiqi was some wild beast that could go mad and eat them alive at any moment.
This made Nie Tian look at her differently, and subconsciously keep a sizable distance between her and himself.
Pei Qiqi’s face remained cold and expressionless the entire time, and she didn’t smile back at anyone.
Eventually, the three of them arrived by a teleportation portal in the central square.
The moment they arrived, a few black-robed men with Blood Skulls embroidered on their chests approached Pei Qiqi, smiling.
Compared to the fierceness and coldness they had exhibited toward Nie Tian the day he and Hua Mu had arrived, they were now like completely different people.
Facing Pei Qiqi, not only did they put away their domineering manners, but they even seemed a bit flattering.
One of them took the initiative to bow and ask respectfully, “Do you wish to use the teleportation portal, Miss Pei?”
“Yes.” Pei Qiqi answered. With a subtle movement of her eyes, she beckoned for Li Ye to handle it.
Without any hesitation, Li Ye stepped over to that person and said, “Uncle Liu Kang, we want to go on a brief trip to the Void Illusion Mountain Range, and these are for your trouble.” With these words, he took out fifty spirit stones and handed them to the black-robed man.
The Blood Skull Li Ye referred to as Liu Kang grabbed the spirit stones and turned around to put in coordinates and set up the teleportation portal.
From the way Liu Kang skillfully entered the coordinates, Nie Tian could tell that Pei Qiqi and Li Ye had used the portal to go to the Void Illusion Mountain Range more than once.
A short while later, Liu Kang turned to Pei Qiqi and said, “It’s all set, Miss Pei.”
Pei Qiqi nodded and stepped into the portal, and then Li Ye followed her in.
Just as Nie Tian was about to enter, Liu Kang stopped him with his hand and said with a cold face, “Who are you?”
Nie Tian could remember clearly that Liu Kang had been on duty the day he and Hua Mu had arrived, but obviously, Liu Kang didn’t remember his face at all.
“He comes with us.” Li Ye beckoned for Nie Tian to enter the portal.
Only then did Liu Kang raise his arm and let Nie Tian through while measuring him up with a suspecting gaze, wondering at his status.
Nie Tian trotted to Li Ye and whispered in his ear, “The Blood Skulls have great respect for you, don’t they? The first time I was here, they acted as if they wanted to eat me alive.”
“Hahaha, of course they did!” Li Ye let out a soft laugh and said proudly, “You should know that my master helped them build this very teleportation portal. If it weren’t for my master, it would never have been established.”
“Oh, that’s how it is.” Everything suddenly made sense to Nie Tian.
“Alright, I’ll start the portal now.” That said, Liu Kang, who was standing beside the portal, pressed his hand against a strange pattern.
In the next moment, Nie Tian, Pei Qiqi, and Li Ye were engulfed by a blindingly bright light and disappeared from Shatter City.
In the Void Illusion Mountain Range…
Numerous crevices could be seen on a mountain peak that was approximately a thousand meters high. All of a sudden, a bright ball of light shone within one of the crevices.
When the light faded away, three people appeared.
Nie Tian looked down and discovered that the three of them were standing in a teleportation portal significantly smaller than the one in Shatter City.
Not only that, but it also it looked very simple and crude, as if the builder hadn’t used many precious materials to build it.
According to the limited knowledge regarding inter-spatial teleportation he had received from Wu Ji, Nie Tian had a feeling that the portal they were standing on didn’t have the capacity to carry out inter-realm teleportation.
That meant that the range of this teleportation portal was limited to the Realm of Split Void, unlike the grand inter-spatial teleportation portal in Shatter City, which could even teleport people to realms outside of the Domain of the Falling Stars.
Removing his gaze from the small teleportation portal, Nie Tian glanced around and discovered that they were in a stone cave within one of the crevices.
There was nothing other than the teleportation portal in the cave, and the mouth of the cave was sealed by a faint shield of spiritual power.
The purpose of the light shield was probably to prevent the polluted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth from entering the cave so that those who teleported to the cave wouldn’t be caught off guard and inhale it.
With rapt attention, he looked through the translucent, misty shield, and saw a handful of spatial rifts wiggling non-stop in midair.
Nie Tian couldn’t help but wonder where those spatial rifts led to.
Every now and then, terrifying electric arcs would sputter out of them, along with clusters of green fire.
Even though he was still separated from them by a spiritual power shield, Nie Tian had a feeling that the mere act of touching those electric arcs or green flames would instantly get him killed!
“Li Ye, Hua Tian is your responsibility now.” Upon saying these words, Pei Qiqi stepped through the light shield without looking at either one of them.
Nie Tian’s eyes suddenly lit up.
The moment Pei Qiqi walked out of the safe zone, he keenly detected strange spatial fluctuations coming from within her.
It was as if she had used an invisible spatial energy shield to seal herself away from the outside world.
Without any delay, Nie Tian closed his eyes and sent out his psychic awareness to examine her.
He was shocked to find that the aura of Pei Qiqi’s flesh and blood had completely disappeared from the area.
However, she had just stepped out of the stone cave and was standing only several meters away from him.
“Spatial magic! This girl actually practices and mastered the profound spatial energy!” At that moment, Nie Tian took a deep breath as he finally discovered one of the numerous secrets that Pei Qiqi seemed to have.
Only until then did he understand why she had the audacity to bring Li Ye to such a dangerous place, where a wrong turn would kill all of them.
It was known that the Void Illusion Mountain Range was a place where spatial energy was the most unstable, and space disruption zones appeared the most throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars.
Perhaps, only people who had mastered spatial magics would dare to set foot in this place at such a young age.