Right after the gate-shaped pattern appeared on the back of Nie Tian’s left hand, the same pattern that had been engraved on the meteor disappeared without leaving a single trace.
Then the burning hot meteor rapidly turned ice-cold.
Under the night sky, Nie Tian’s eyebrows were knitted together. He looked at the pattern on the back of his hand and muttered, “This is a key to the Heaven Gate…?”
Hua Mu had only told him that the Heaven Gate was about to appear in the Realm of Flame Heaven, but never explained to him that it would require a key to enter.
Nonetheless, when the gate-shaped pattern shifted from the meteor to the back of his hand in the form of a tattoo, he realized that the gate-shaped pattern was precisely the special pass needed for cultivators to step into the Heaven Gate.
He sent out a wisp of his psychic awareness to examine the gate-shaped pattern, but it was pushed back by a gentle yet formidable force.
Therefore, he failed to pry into the profound mysteries that lay within.
“Every Heaven Gate only allows one hundred participants to enter,” he thought to himself. “Does everyone have to obtain a key like this to enter?”
There could have been as many as a thousand meteors that had fallen from the sky and landed in different parts of the Realm of Flame Heaven.
However, there should only be a hundred keys, which meant that among the thousand meteors, only ten percent of them carried keys.
If someone wanted to step into the Heaven Gate, they would need to find a meteor that carried a key and absorb the key into their own body just like he did.
He thought it through and had a plan for their next move.
“Nie Tian!” At that moment, upon seeing him unscathed after hopping onto the meteor, everyone slowly gathered towards him, under the leadership of Nie Donghai and An Shiyi.
All they had seen was that Nie Tian had crouched down at the place where the fiery sparks were gathered for a while before all of them suddenly disappeared.
None of them knew what had happened.
“This meteor is from outside of the realm, and it carried a key to the Heaven Gate.” Nie Tian did not hold anything back. He showed the mysterious gate-shaped pattern on the back of his hand to everyone. After that, he said with a serious expression on his face, “I’m positive that when the Heaven Gate opens, only people who have similar patterns on their hands will be able to participate in the trial.
“Whoever wants to enter the Heaven Gate will need to find a key from one of the falling meteors and absorb it onto their hand!”
Upon hearing these words, everyone present was deeply moved, each and every one of their eyes glittering with unusual light.
At the same time, all of them cast their gaze towards the direction of the Cloudsoaring sect.
They saw that a large number of the meteors had fallen towards Cloudsoaring Mountain and its adjacent areas. Thus, it obviously contained the most meteors in the area.
“Don’t even think about it,” Nie Tian shook his head and said, “Experts from both the Hell sect and the Cloudsoaring sect are gathered there, so it’s impossible for you to obtain keys from the meteors over there.
“I saw that some meteors had fallen into the ice-cold wasteland near Black Cloud City. That is the place where your hope resides.”
“He’s right,” Pan Tao nodded his head as he said decisively, “Time is of the essence here! Presumably, others haven’t figured out about the secret that lies in the outer-realm meteors yet, and therefore don’t know that they carry the keys to the Heaven Gate! We need to hurry and rush to the ice-cold wasteland as soon as possible and hope that we are lucky enough to find keys to absorb.”
Right after uttering these words, he hurriedly thanked Nie Tian and left.
After a brief hesitation, the An sisters, Ye Gumo, and Jiang Lingzhu also followed Pan Tao out of Black Cloud City at the fastest speed possible.
They all harbored the strong desire to gain the eligibility to enter the Heaven Gate!
Having obtained the eligibility himself, Nie Tian stood on top of the meteor, which was no longer unusual, and looked off towards the distant Cloudsoaring Mountain. He said, “I’m afraid that intense battles may have already broken out over there.”
Prior to the descent of the meteors, the Hell sect had only surrounded Cloudsoaring Mountain, preventing experts of the Cloudsoaring Sect from rushing to the Spiritual Treasure sect’s aid.
Hence, both sides had been in a stalemate. No battles had broken out.
However, the meteors that had fallen from the sky would very likely immediately trigger large-scale, bloody battles in that area.
It wouldn’t matter whether they were Qi warriors from the Cloudsoaring sect or the Hell sect. As long as they were in the three Heaven stages, they would fight tooth and nail over the meteors that carried the keys, in an attempt to acquire the eligibility to step into the Heaven Gate.
…
Meanwhile, on Cloudsoaring Mountain…
With an ashen face, Jiang Zhisu looked at the grand Streamcloud Sky Soaring spell formation, which was now riddled with gaping wounds.
The Streamcloud Sky Soaring spell formation had been formed by a sea of clouds. When the meteors fell from outer realm (a similar concept to outer space), they had penetrated the formation, leaving quite a few holes in it.
In the river valley within Cloudsoaring Mountain, there lay about ten huge craters that went deep into the earth. The blast caused by the huge collisions shattered the nearby rocks into pieces.
Originally, the Cloudsoaring sect had relied on the grand Streamcloud Sky Soaring spell formation to hold off the experts from the Hell sect.
Now that the enormous spell formation that had been protecting the sect had been punctured by the meteors, the Hell sect experts who had been besieging the Cloudsoaring sect were able to swarm in.
Jiang Zhisu saw that numerous Hell sect experts had already stepped into the Cloudsoaring sect through the openings.
However, they didn’t immediately start a war after entering.
On the contrary, as their first act, all of the Hell sect experts rushed to the meteors that were still flickering with tiny bits of flame in the river valley. It seemed as if they were collecting something with their faces filled with excitement.
“Get down there and take a look!” Jiang Zhisu ordered.
Immediately after, many of the Qi warriors from the Cloudsoaring sect whizzed down from the mountaintop.
The experts from Hell sect clearly knew about the opening of the Heaven Gate. When the meteors had descended from outside of the realm, and they saw the sparks of fire flickering on the meteors, they were able to make an informed guess regarding the secrets that lay within.
“They must carry keys to the Heaven Gate! I didn’t expect the way to enter the Heaven Gate this time to be so much different from before! According to that senior from the Realm of Earth Sieve, throughout the history, there has only been one time where eligibility was needed to enter.”
“Only those who had obtained the key would be allowed into the Heaven Gate!”
“I can’t believe that the Heaven Gate that will appear in the Realm of Flame Heaven this time is so special!”
“Hurry! Let’s snatch the keys before those from the Cloudsoaring sect realize what’s going on!”
As soon as they saw that the Cloudsoaring sect’s grand Streamcloud Sky Soaring spell formation was punctured, they didn’t waste a second before swarming in to search for the keys which would allow them to step into the Heaven Gate.
“Zhao Haifeng! Duan Yuan! Hu Qingwen!” A Hell sect expert shouted, pointing at three disciples from the Hell sect. He ordered, “The three of you go to Black Cloud City and the wasteland to the north of Black Cloud City immediately. I noticed that some meteors fell in that direction! You three aren’t strong enough to fight for keys in this place. You might as well rush over there and look for opportunities!”
They were three teenagers, who only seemed to be around fifteen-years-old, but had strong, murderous auras wreathing their body. Upon hearing that man’s order, they prepared to leave.
At the same time, the master of the Hell sect, Jiao Yang, who was as tall and sturdy as a mountain, suddenly made a harsh expression with his stone-cold face.
Jiao Yang’s cultivation base had already reached the great circle of the late Worldly realm, and he was only one step away from advancing into the Profound realm.
There was an unwritten rule among every sect in the Realm of Flame Heaven. Once the masters of each of the sects had advanced into the Profound realm, they would give up on their position as master and step away from the earthly affairs to focus solely on their cultivation.
Under the management of Jiao Yang, who was known as the strongest person in the Realm of Flame Heaven, the Hell sect had entered an age of prosperity and thus was deemed as the number one sect in the Realm of Flame Heaven.
Jiao Yang was aggressive and relentless, and was deeply respected by his subordinates and clansmen. Even the two Profound realm experts from the Ghost sect and Blood sect also thought highly of him, and believed that he would be able to advance to the Profound realm within the next ten years. By that time, the Hell sect would have another peak expert.
Among the seven major sects in the Realm of Flame Heaven, the Hell sect was the only sect that had two Profound realm experts. If they were to add in Jiao Yang as another Profound realm expert, the strength of Hell sect would only continue to rise above all of the other sects.
By that time, with five Profound realm experts on their side, the Blood sect, the Ghost sect, and the Hell sect would surely overtake the alliance formed by the Spiritual Treasure sect, the Cloudsoaring Sect, the Grayvale sect, and the Mystic Mist sect.
“The Mystic Mist sect and the Grayvale sect have joined hands and invaded our sect!?” Jiao Yang, who had just received the news, looked at the disciples that were rushing towards the meteors and shouted, “Get the keys to the Heaven Gate as quickly as possible, and then we’ll head back to our sect immediately!
“Zhao Haifeng! You three must hurry too! You must also return to the sect immediately after getting the keys from Black Cloud City and the wasteland!
“We won’t wait for you. If you waste too much time out there and get surrounded by powerful experts from the Cloudsoaring sect, don’t count on us to come rescue you.”
The three teenagers from Hell sect, who were about to rush towards Black Cloud City, responded loudly, “Understood!”
Then, at a incredibly fast speed, they dashed away.
Also at that moment, an expert from the Cloudsoaring sect, who had descended from the mountain, shouted loudly to Jiang Zhisu, “Sectmaster! The disciples from the Hell sect are collecting the fiery sparks on the meteors! Those fiery sparks seemed to have formed gate-shaped patterns on the back of their hands!” “
“Gate-shaped patterns?” Jiang Zhisu went blank for a while, and then suddenly said, “Snatch those patterns!”
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
In a split second, thread after thread of blurry shadows shot down from Cloudsoaring Mountain. Like shooting stars, they all rushed towards the meteors that had sparks of fire on them.
After a standoff of several days, Qi warriors from both the Cloudsoaring sect and the Hell sect instantly began fighting at close quarters over the keys to the Heaven Gate.
…
In Black Cloud City, the gate that led to Cloudsoaring Mountain had already been shattered into pieces by the strong blasts caused by the huge impacts of the meteors.
Considering a catastrophe had killed many of the loved ones of the guards, it was no surprise that they had long since left.
Upon seeing the meteor falling onto the Yun clan’s property, the few guards from the Yun clan had rushed over.
Only the Nie clan guest elder Wu Tao, and two others from the An clan remained on top of the city gate.
Instead of checking on the situation out of the city gate, the three of them turned around and sighed as they looked at the wailing-filled Black Cloud City.
FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!
Three pale-gray bone spears sped through the air. Before the three of them could react, they already pierced into their backs.
The other two had lower cultivation bases, and therefore died instantly.
Only Wu Tao sensed that something was wrong and protected the rear part of his heart with his spiritual power. Because of that, he was only severely injured, not killed.
Wu Tao’s face seemed extremely pale as he turned around to look at Zhao Haifeng and the other two. “W-who are you?!”
Zhao Haifeng slightly frowned. “I can’t believe you actually survived the first strike…”
With a wave of his left hand, the two bone spears, which had taken the lives of the two from the An clan, pierced towards Wu Tao’s abdomen and side.
Wu Tao, who didn’t have the strength to resist any more attacks, was instantly pierced through by the bone spears. He took his last breath, and died.
Like a wind, Zhao Haifeng dashed forward. “Our sectmaster has ordered us to not waste our time here. Kill whoever dares to stand in our way.”
The three bone spears that had pierced Wu Tao retracted from his body and flew after Zhao Haifeng.
With nothing but indifference in their eyes, Duan Yuan and Hu Qingwen, who were also from Hell sect, followed Zhao Haifeng.