Nie Tian agreed with Shi Qing’s take on the matter, as he also thought Pei Qiqi had every reason to leave.
He and Pei Qiqi weren’t close enough for her to stay and fight to the death, much less Shi Qing.
Furthermore, Li Langfeng had even allowed her to leave with the teleportation portal.
“Alright, you two take care.” Eyes glittering, Pei Qiqi took Shi Qing’s advice and made what seemed to be the wisest decision.
With these words, she indeed turned around and left.
“Smart choice,” Li Langfeng said softly.
As Pei Qiqi stepped away, a thought appeared in Li Langfeng’s mind, and the dark-green water wall that had blocked her path of escape seeped back into the depths of the earth, giving way to her.
Pei Qiqi blurred into action and shot out of the valley like a flash of lightning.
After seeing her leave, Nie Tian took a deep breath as he summoned more strength and expanded his chaotic magnetic field to a ten-meter radius.
Then, he commanded his seven Heaven Eyes to spread out and observe Li Langfeng from every direction.
At the same time, he secretly sent a wisp of psychic awareness into his bracelet of holding.
Pei Qiqi leaving made him face a tough decision.
He was prepared to use the Flame Dragon Armor when it was a moment of life or death.
Before he had set foot in the Realm of Split Void, Hua Mu had warned him that he shouldn’t use the Flame Dragon Armor unless he was in a life-threatening situation.
The Flame Dragon Armor was a Spirit Channeling grade treasure widely known throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars. Once it appeared, Nie Tian’s identity would be exposed.
At that time, not only would the Flame God Sect from the Realm of Dark Underworld come for it, but the Heaven Palace Sect would also descend upon the Realm of Split Void to strip him of the two fragmentary star marks on his chest.
There was only one way to use the Flame Dragon Armor and make sure the fact that it was in his possession didn’t leak out, which was to kill everyone who saw the Flame Dragon Armor.
With Pei Qiqi gone, Shi Qing, Li Langfeng, and Nie Tian were the only ones in the mountain valley.
If both of them died in the valley, his identity would remain concealed, and it would still be safe for him to stay in the Realm of Split Void.
As Nie Tian received a wisp of vague consciousness from the Flame Dragon Armor in his bracelet of holding, he understood that it had come from the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul.
From that response, he learned that if he wished to, he could summon the Flame Dragon Armor to fight for him when the crucial moment came. This made him feel a bit more spirited and secure.
As much as he disliked the idea, Nie Tian decided to kill Li Langfeng with the Flame Dragon Armor after Li Langfeng had killed Shi Qing.
Even though Shi Qing was devoted and loyal to the Blood Skull, he had never thought for Nie Tian’s safety. He had urged Pei Qiqi to leave because he feared that her master might vent her anger on the Blood Skull after learning that she had died in a Blood Skull operation.
Considering that, Nie Tian didn’t have any mental barrier to Li Langfeng killing Shi Qing and him killing Li Langfeng to save himself.
With a plan in his mind, Nie Tian seemed rather calm and composed.
After shooting a glance at Nie Tian out of the corner of his eyes, Li Langfeng turned around and walked towards Shi Qing. “If you behave, it doesn’t need to be painful. Your head will demonstrate that I’ve done my part as a guest elder of the Dark Moon’s after I return to the Land of the Abandoned, and they will reward me handsomely for killing you for them. Now that Cai Yue and Pei Qiqi are both safe and gone, you may go in peace.”
CHING!
As Li Langfeng shook the bell in his hand, a wave of dreadful psychic shock pierced into Shi Qing’s mind.
Nie Tian, however, didn’t feel any turbulence in his soul sea. That was when he realized that Li Langfeng had intentionally spared Nie Tian. From the look of it, he was truly determined to capture Nie Tian alive.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
As soon as the bell rang, the countless threads of green light that had been wiggling in Li Langfeng’s ripped-open wounds shot out towards Shi Qing.
Shining with bright, green light, they almost instantly penetrated Shi Qing’s protective light shield.
BOOM!
The moment Shi Qing’s protective light shield exploded, he couldn’t help but trudge backwards.
At the same time, the solid ground underneath him began to crack, and fragmented rocks and earth began to rise up into the air.
In a brief moment, numerous rocks filled the space between Shi Qing and Li Langfeng.
“Earth power!” Observing from the side, the instant Nie Tian saw the rocks rise up, he realized that Shi Qing’s cultivation attribute was earth.
RUUUUMBLE!
More rocks in the vicinity seemed to be answering Shi Qing’s summoning as they also rose up into the air and hovered around Li Langfeng.
In the next moment, close to a hundred giant rocks shot towards Li Langfeng at the same time. The scene was rather spectacular.
However, like a ghost, the skinny Li Langfeng swiftly shifted his position through the spaces between the rocks without running into any trouble.
“Gravity upheaval!” Shi Qing let out an explosive shout.
Immediately afterward, all the huge rocks plummeted to the earth like meteors, creating loud crashes.
Li Langfeng, who was shifting in midair, was also instantly dragged down towards the earth as the gravitational field around him changed violently.
“It won’t change anything.” Li Langfeng shook his head, and in the next moment, numerous dark-green beams of light shot out from within his flat sleeve.
BANG! BANG! BANG!
One huge rock after another exploded into tiny pieces after the dark-green light beams shone on them.
Then, Li Langfeng gently shook his bell once again.
Already struggling to maintain control of his gravitational field, Shi Qing let out a muffled groan, and blood continued to flow out of the corner of his mouth.
Due to the violent strike to his soul, the gravitational field he had summoned at full strength also soon vanished.
At that moment, Li Langfeng pointed at Shi Qing with his non-bell-bearing hand from afar.
A curtain of dark-green water immediately shot out from the ground behind Shi Qing like a reverse waterfall, and rapidly moved towards him with the momentum to engulf him.
Simultaneously, wisps of green, toxic smoke were continuously rising from under Shi Qing’s feet, forcing Shi Qing to face attacks on two fronts.
“Even Gu Yu wouldn’t be able to match my strength, much less you,” Li Langfeng said with a poised face. “I’ve spent quite a few years at the late Greater Heaven stage, and I’m only one step away from entering the Worldly realm. No Qi warrior under the Worldly realm could truly pose a threat to me.”
FIZZ! FIZZ!
While he spoke, the dark-green water curtain and poisonous smoke surrounded Shi Qing from above his head and under his feet.
CHING!
Li Langfeng didn’t stop shaking his bell. With every gentle move of his wrist, Shi Qing coughed up a mouthful of blood.
Since his soul was under attack, Shi Qing couldn’t focus and summon the strength to ward off the poisonous water and smoke.
Not only did they contain the power that Li Langfeng had infused them with, but they also contained deadly toxins. With only a few breaths of the smoke, Shi Qing felt light-headed.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
As Shi Qing’s garments rotted away, a set of grayish-yellow spiritual armor was revealed from under them. Detailed and elegant patterns were carved on the armor; spiritual auras flowed in it like a man’s meridians.
The stones that had scattered all over the place seemed to be drawn in by his spiritual armor, and madly converged on Shi Qing.
In less than ten seconds, a thick layer of rock formed over Shi Qing’s entire body.
At first glance, Shi Qing seemed to have been petrified and turned into a human-shaped rock.
It appeared that Shi Qing was using this special method to ward off the poisonous water and smoke.
However, even though his spiritual armor had miraculously stopped the harm, there was a major flaw to this method, which was that he couldn’t move at all.
This special magic came with the spiritual armor, and it was only meant for desperate situations when the enemy launched a full-force attack.
Afterwards, its owner could deactivate the petrified state and continue fighting.
However, that wasn’t an option for Shi Qing. As soon as he called off the petrified state, he would be once again exposed to the corrosive water and smoke.
It was this desperate situation that had forced him to resort to this special spell.
“You’ve petrified yourself to resist the corrosion, so what?” Li Langfeng shook his head as he paced towards Shi Qing, “It’s not going to change the result. You’ll die anyways. It’s just a matter of time.”
FIZZ! FIZZ!
At that moment, Nie Tian suddenly heard buzzing sounds coming from behind him.
He turned around to look, and found that a few spatial rifts were gathering and moving towards the valley from the distant horizon.
Puzzled, he commanded one of his Heaven Eyes to fly towards the spatial rifts.
Soon, he discovered that Pei Qiqi was stand amongst a dozen slithering spatial rifts, controlling them as she stepped closer towards the valley.
“Pei Qiqi!” Upon seeing her return, a shudder ran through Nie Tian’s body; mixed emotions rose in his heart.
Pei Qiqi shouldn’t have returned. Yet, she did.
Earlier, when Cai Yue had left, Pei Qiqi had grabbed him and sped away at the first possible moment, never even taking Shi Qing’s life or death into consideration.
It showed that Shi Qing wasn’t important to Pei Qiqi at all. Hence, there was only one explanation for her return: she had come back for Nie Tian!
It was as if Pei Qiqi knew that Nie Tian would be able to hear her, even from such a long distance away. She shouted into the sky as she marched towards the valley, “Let’s go kill that sicko!”
Upon hearing Pei Qiqi’s words via his Heaven Eye, a vicious expression appeared on Nie Tian’s resolute face as he charged towards Li Langfeng, enveloped by his chaotic magnetic field.
