Currently, there were far too many people around Tianming. The only thing he could count on was that he could widen his distance from them, as he could clearly see them. Thanks to the surrounding darkness, they wouldn't be able to see him unless they were within a few hundred meters of him, giving him more room to act on this layer than the previous one. However, it would be difficult to repeat what he had done to the Biritual disciples, due to the sheer number of enemies and how soon they had noticed it.
"Die!"
Tianming did his best to kill a few more as they gathered, causing the number of Heptastar disciples to fall to the twenties. This was his limit. Right as he was about to continue, Meow Meow unleashed Misty Hellthunder from afar, forcing the pursuers back. It appeared that Jiang Wuxin had posed a threat to it.
"Meow Meow might be in danger!"
He had no choice but to give up on the hunt and hurry toward it. Beastmasters and their lifebound beasts had a telepathic connection, so he could easily locate it in the darkness. The Heptastar and Biritual disciples had gathered together, leaving only Jiang Wuxin chasing Meow Meow down. He was easy to spot, thanks to the light, so Tianming hurried toward it.
To avoid Jiang Wuxin's pursuit, Meow Meow undid its Regal Chaosfiend form and became much faster in its smaller form. The Misty Hellthunder it unleashed held Jiang Wuxin back while also allowing traces of Soulchasing Hellthunder to enter his body. The moment the energy contained within exploded, Jiang Wuxin felt numb all over and slowed down considerably.
As he approached Meow Meow, Tianming flicked Archfiend with blinding speed, stretching it out to a thousand meters to wrap it around Meow Meow and pull it over. It had happened so quickly that it even managed to catch up to it as it was avoiding Jiang Wuxin's sword ki. Tianming quickly took the cat back into his lifebound space.
Now that Jiang Wuxin no longer had Meow Meow in sight, he continued charging forward, unable to spot Tianming at all, allowing him to easily leave. He turned around and saw another thirty lights in the darkness layer. Since Quadform was all wiped out and there were only two left from Hexapath, fourteen from Biritual and twenty-one from Heptastar remained. That meant Tianming had managed to kill so many from Nonahall that only thirty or so remained in total.
"Did he kill over a hundred of them?"
Only around forty disciples from the Archaion Sect were killed in the Skyorigin Battlefield. It was plain to see who had gotten the worse end of the deal. While not all of the hundred were killed by Tianming himself, he was the one who had orchestrated the whole thing. Not to mention, he had claimed a disproportionate number of lives in the last two massacres. By the time he left the dark layer and continued upward, everyone watching all across the Flameyellow Continent fell absolutely silent.
......
Feiling, Fang Qingli, and a few other tribulation elders from the Xuanyuan house intently watched the events from Soulburn Hall.
"Your Eminence, Tianming does indeed live up to our hopes. He is worthy of our admiration," Fang Qingli said.
"He is doing fine, but it's not over yet. Let's keep watching," Feiling said. Nobody had told her what the other divine realms were planning, but there was no doubt she understood her own predicament. Tianming had told her to act as calm as she could so that she could trick others into thinking she had been expecting this outcome.
......
In the Dimensional Battlefield, it was now Heptastar's turn to fume with rage. However, it was the quiet kind of fuming, compared to the viewers from the previous two sects.
"Looks like Xiaoqi has much training to do. She won’t fall for the same trick next time," Qing Fengyang said, even though his head was lowered the whole time.
"That's right. She was lured into the chase and caused her fellow disciples to die. That’s a crime worthy of death," Li Caiwei said with a smile.
"Sect Master, please don't. Xiaoqi's future is bright. Please give her a chance to make up for her foolishness," said an elder accompanied by a few others behind her.
"If she can kill the goddess' disciple, I’ll consider her crime atoned for."
Even though Qin Fengyang was also there, the only sect master anyone took seriously was the Lunar Master.
"This trick worked well twice, but it won't have any effect before true power."
Even now, they had more people if they included the Nonahall disciples in the count.
"It will all come to an end after the battle."
......
The Nether Battlefield's second layer was scorching white. It was the complete opposite of the dark third layer, a place where strong, blinding light beams shot all over. It was hard for Tianming to even keep his eyes open. The light was so scorching it would even char one's skin. Thankfully, his Ancient Deepstar Godbody wasn't affected much.
This was the turf of the Nonahall Ghost Sect, so he would start with finding their hell tree. "As long as I can destroy the tree, they'll be completely exposed."
That was the only thing he could do for now. It was thanks to Xian Xian that he had managed to take the initiative so often, but even then, this was his limit. If he managed to destroy the Nonahall hell tree like the previous ones, chances were they would gather together.
Soon, he managed to locate it, but there were around fifty Nonahall disciples guarding it. While the bright illumination on this layer made it easier to hide the hell tree's barrier formation, it presented some difficulty for Tianming in moving discreetly, so he wasn't able to approach it.
It was plain to see that Jiang Wuxin, Chu Xiaoqi and Changsun Xingyue were also heading for the tree. Tianming hid nearby and eavesdropped on their conversation, getting a few pieces of information for his trouble. First, there were another twenty plus Nonahall disciples on the metalstar layer of the Nether Battlefield looking for the Octagram Heart Sect's hell tree. Second, they had already spotted the Biritual and Heptastar disciples heading their way. The moment they joined up, they would have around ninety people. Coupled with the twenty that would soon head back from the first layer, their number totaled up to more than a hundred and ten, with around eighty of them being Nonahall disciples. They already knew about the heavy losses the other four sects had suffered at Tianming's hands. Though they had initially intended to deal with Octagram before going down to the ninth swamp layer together, they had no choice but to speed things up.
"We were about to find their hell tree, but they really know how to hide. They created quite a few diversions."
"Eleven Octagram disciples died, leaving them with only twenty remaining. I don't know why they're still trying, hehe."
"I bet their seniors are about to submit to us after seeing how ruthless we are."
"Forget it, let's deal with the Monorigin Sect first."
"How did the other sects even lose their hell trees?"
Based on their discussion, Tianming felt a little more confident about the current status quo. "I wonder how we can hold against all of them at the swamp layer...."
He wanted to cut that number down by another thirty, but even then, that would still be too many for the Archaion disciples. "Nonahall is too powerful."
He looked at the fifty-odd Nonahall disciples, coupled with Jiang Wuxin and the rest. There were already ninety plus of them there, so destroying their hell tree would prove impossible. There wasn't anything he could do to delay them, either; that Meow Meow's trick had managed to work twice was thanks to a miracle. A third attempt definitely wouldn't succeed.
"I doubt I’ll have the time to go to the first layer. I should go back down to the windblade layer and look for Pentaphase while they're still waiting for the rest instead!" He didn't have much time, so he rushed down to the fourth layer where he had massacred the Biritual disciples. That was where the Pentaphase disciples were.
"Quick, Xian Xian!" He only needed to find their hell tree to locate them. This time around, Xian Xian spotted it much faster as it had grown more and more used to the search. The tree was at the center of a windstorm, next to which twenty disciples stood guard.
"I believe thirty-three of them entered the Nether Battlefield...." He took a deep breath and dove into the eye of the storm.
"Who goes there?!" The Pentaphase disciples were all anxious at having their hell tree discovered. It could be fatal for them.
"It's me, Li Tianming from the Archaion Sect," he introduced himself, much to their relief. They seemed really anxious and depressed.
"What’re you doing here? Several of our disciples died because of your goddess! If not for her, they wouldn't have caused trouble for our sect!" said a green-clad girl with a fierce glare.
"Qingqing, that's enough," reprimanded a youth dressed in gold. He had a tall nose and lots of charisma. It was only natural to assume that he was their leader. He was Zhao Tianxing, the top disciple of Pentaphase, and was about as strong as Xuanyuan Yucheng. The girl who had spoken before was Jiang Qingqing, the daughter of the sect master.