Pei Qiqi was sobbing softly.
Nie Tian suddenly became refreshed as he stared blankly at her and listened to the words she was mumbling.
“Mom, dad…” As vague as it was, Nie Tian could hear that Pei Qiqi was calling to her parents like a little girl seeing off her parents who were going on a long journey, begging for them to stay.
At this moment, the usual coldness and fierceness had disappeared from her delicate face. Heart-broken vulnerability was all there was.
Teardrops rolled down her cheeks like a unstrung pearl necklace, adding to her sad beauty.
However, the sobbing didn’t last long, and she soon awoke from her dreams.
When she opened her eyes, she immediately noticed Nie Tian’s gaze, and immediately hid the helpless sadness on her face.
In the next moment, her expression became as cold as a steel knife again.
However, she couldn’t stop her tears from flowing out of the corners of her eyes and rolling down her cheeks.
She took out a handkerchief and rolled her eyes to the side as she silently brushed away her tears.
Apparently, the images were still lingering in her mind and she still needed some time to come out of her dreams.
She could only constantly brush away her tears and try to calm herself.
For some reason, Nie Tian felt heartache watching her like this.
“Your parents… What happened to them?” Nie Qian asked in a soft voice.
“It’s none of your business!” Pei Qiqi answered coldly.
Nie Tian fell silent for a short while before letting out a sigh and saying with a bitter expression, “I’ve never seen my parents.”
As soon as he uttered those words, a sense of sadness immediately filled his heart.
His whole life unfurled in front of his eyes.
Pei Qiqi, who had turned her head to the side to avert Nie Tian’s eyes, turned back to look at him after hearing his words. Nose flaring and eyelashes trembling, she asked with a tone that was ten times softer than usual, “You’re also…?”
“My mother died soon after I was born.” Nie Tian said with a chilly tone. “As for my father, I don’t even know who he is.”
At this moment, Nie Tian was also drowned in sorrow and bitterness.
Pei Qiqi watched Nie Tian quietly, and only after a long time did she say, “Life is always full of misfortunes. As life goes on, there are fewer and fewer people you can share your experiences with. The world is brutal, and the path of seeking strength is endless. If you want to gain something, you will have to be willing to give up some other things.
“For my parents, they chose to give up familial love.”
With these words, she closed her eyes and didn’t seem to wish to continue.
“Familial love…” Nie Tian mulled over Pei Qiqi’s words. Then he nodded and said, his heart filled with bitterness, “Perhaps you’re right. What we cherish the most might be the very thing they had to give up.”
Nie Tian couldn’t help but think of his father, who he had never met and knew nothing of, and wondered why he had left his mother and disappeared.
From the moment his bloodline had awakened, he had realized that his father must not be an ordinary man.
No one in the Nie clan family history had been known to possess the mysterious bloodline power.
The fact that bloodline power ran through Nie Tian’s veins meant that he must have inherited it from his father.
A man who possessed such powerful bloodline power should be beyond ordinary, and have the ability to guard his own wife and child.
However, he had never showed up in Nie Tian’s life.
Because of that, Nie Tian had been shunned and treated differently by other Nie Clan members his whole life.
No one had taken him as a true member of the Nie Clan, except his grandfather and aunt.
The reason why he had repeatedly fought Nie Hong, Nie Yuan, and other children his age was because he longed for a sense of existence and recognition, and he was eager to prove his worth to the other Nie Clan members
“If I ever find him one day, I’ll demand a clear answer from him!” Nie Tian said to himself with great determination.
Even though he had never said it to anyone, he always knew that he harbored hatred towards his father.
Part of the reason he had pursued his own strength so unrelentingly over the years was that he want to be strong enough when he had the chance to question his own father.
As an orphan himself, Nie Tian shared Pei Qiqi’s feelings.
At this moment, Pei Qiqi’s weeping made his hatred towards his father even clearer and more heartfelt.
Only after a long time was he able to calm himself and stop himself from thinking about the fact that his father had abandoned and betrayed him and his mother.
Too upset to concentrate on cultivation, Nie Tian took out another huge chunk of Golden Stone Rhino’s meat, roasted it, and vented his frustration by violently tearing up and chewing on the meat.
A few days passed…
Soon after Nie Tian wolfed down another chunk of Golden Stone Rhino’s meat, wisps of faint smoke rose from his body and bits of a gooey substance flowed out of his open pores.
Every time he ate, he consumed almost fifty kilos of meat, quickly emptying his stock of Golden Stone Rhino meat.
As he consumed and absorbed the flesh power of the last piece of Golden Stone Rhino meat, the injuries caused by Li Langfeng were finally fully healed.
The ruptured meridians were now reconnected and even more resilient than before. The formerly cracked bones were now without the slightest fissure and tougher than they ever were.
As Nie Tian circulated the power within his spiritual sea, spiritual power of different attributes ran through his meridians without any obstructions.
That was when he suddenly realized that not only were his injuries completely healed, but he had even become stronger than ever.
Meanwhile, the green aura in his heart hadn’t received any flesh power replenishment. It hadn’t recovered the energy it had consumed to fix Nie Tian’s fractured bones, much less accumulate enough flesh power to advance to the next level.
He knew that only more spirit beast meat would provide him with more copious amounts of flesh essence, and numerous spirit beasts were roaming in the Void Illusion Mountain Range.
If he wanted his bloodline to advance and develop a new bloodline talent, he would have to go on a hunt for more spirit beasts.
Aside from that, if he wanted to refine his vortex of star power and condense more stardew, he would have to remain in the Void Illusion Mountain Range to achieve that goal, instead of Shatter City.
Soon, he made his decision.
After cooking a piece of spirit beast meat for Pei Qiqi, Nie Tian handed it to her and asked, “How are you doing?”
“I’ve already fully recovered my spiritual power, but I might still need some time to heal my physical injuries,” Pei Qiqi answered with a plain tone.
Ever since Nie Tian had seen her weep in her dreams and opened up to her about his own misfortune, it seemed that the relationship between the two of them had become much tighter.
During the past few days, whenever Nie Tian cooked meat for Pei Qiqi and Pei Qiqi ate in a graceful fashion, she would voluntarily chat with Nie Tian for a bit.
She had explained the special features of the Realm of Split Void, the complicated terrain in the Void Illusion Mountain Range, and the strife between the three major forces to Nie Tian in detail.
“I’m leaving,” Nie Qian said in a soft voice.
“What?” Apparently, Nie Tian’s words took Pei Qiqi by surprise. “Where are you going?”
“I’m going to hunt for spirit beasts,” Nie Tian answered. “Besides, I need to practice cultivation in the Void Illusion Mountain Range. This place suits me better than Shatter City, so I plan to spend some time here.”
“This is very unwise,” Pei Qiqi said with a frown.
“I know,” Nie Tian said.
Pei Qiqi looked deeply into Nie Tian’s eyes and pondered in silence for quite a while. Then, she handed him a detailed map and pointed out a location for him, saying, “I’ve explored this area myself. There are a lot of low grade spirit beasts there, most of which are under the fourth grade. I think you’ll get what you are looking for there.”
Then, she showed Nie Tian the location of the Blood Skull’s base on the map, saying, “Now that you’re a guest elder of the Blood Skull, as long as you have enough spirit stones to pay them, they’ll let you use their portal to return to Shatter City.”
Nie Tian shook his head and said, “Thanks, but I don’t plan to use their portal to return to Shatter City.”
Confused, Pei Qiqi said, “Once I’m fully recovered, I’ll find a suitable location in the Void Illusion Mountain Range to lay my teleportation portal. You’re welcome to use it and return to Shatter City with me. I won’t charge you anything.”
Nie Tian shook his head again and said, “It won’t be necessary. When I’ve hunted enough spirit beasts, I’ll travel through the mountain range, cross the wasteland roamed by lurkers, and then find my way back to Shatter City.”
Pei Qiqi’s expression flickered slightly as she asked, “Are you sure you want to do this?”
“Yes, I am.”
“The route you just described is full of terrors. Your cultivation base is by no means high enough to allow you to do that. If you insist on doing that, it’s very likely that you won’t make it back to Shatter City alive.”
“If I can’t make it back alive, then I’ll just die out here.”
Pei Qiqi stood, aghast.
She looked Nie Tian up and down with a measuring gaze, and after a short while, she nodded gently and said, “I wish you good luck.”
Afterwards, she took out a medallion from within her ring of holding and open the sealing ward for Nie Tian.
“You take care.” With these words, Nie Tian leaped into the air and burst through the waterproof ward.
Seeing him charge through the ward, Pei Qiqi whispered to herself, “This guy is just as crazy as Li Langfeng, if not crazier.”
She still couldn’t understand why Nie Tian would choose the most dangerous way back when he could return safely via her teleportation portal.
When Nie Tian left, the determined and unyielding look in his eyes was carved deeply into Pei Qiqi’s mind.
“Another unfortunate soul,” she sighed.
She believed that, just like Li Langfeng, Nie Tian must be also motivated by some great misfortune.
The path Nie Tian had chosen was no different from Li Langfeng’s by nature.
Li Langfeng cultivated with the tainted spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth, while Nie Tian consumed tainted spirit beast meat. They both acquired strength at the cost of their own lifespan. Only their methods varied.
She had already predicted that Nie Tian would die in his prime, like a shooting star plummeting to its extinction after a moment of glory.
For some reason, when she thought that the day would soon come for Nie Tian, a sense of sadness and sympathy rose in her heart.