CLANK!
The double-headed battle axe that had been pursuing Nie Donghai suddenly dropped to the ground, and its brilliant golden light faded away.
CRUNCH!
Duan Yuan was kneeling on the ground with one knee. When he attempted to stand up, the sharp, clear sound of snapping bones rang out from his chest.
A big mouthful of blood once again spurted out of Duan Yuan’s mouth. Before he could stand upright, he staggered and dropped back to the ground.
Duan Yuan looked at Nie Tian with his eyes filled with fear and disbelief.
Nie Tian was only in the early Lesser Heaven stage. Moments before, he had managed to cast out such a terrifying power that was like an unstoppable flood, and instantly inflicted serious damage on him, by only using some kind of strange spiritual technique and without any help from a spiritual tool.
He examined himself with his psychic awareness and realized that Nie Tian’s fist strike had fractured his bones in four places.
Not only that, a surge of raging flame energy that hadn’t faded yet, was still wandering in his body, causing constant, stabbing pain in both his muscles and meridians.
After taking that one strike, Duan Yuan had even lost the strength to control the double-headed battle-axe, and thus was no longer able to hurt Nie Donghai.
“That’s…”
Both Hu Qingwen, who was about to shoot out another arrow, and Zhao Haifeng, who was manipulating his bone spears, had strange expressions on their faces.
Eyes filled with disbelief, they all cast their gaze towards Nie Tian.
Never had they imagined that Nie Tian, who was one whole stage inferior to Duan Yuan, could have injured him.
This didn’t make sense!
With a fierce look on his face, Nie Tian grinned and said, “You said yourself that the cultivation base is not the only factor to measure one’s strength, didn’t you? Profound spiritual incantations and exquisite spiritual techniques can make up for one’s deficiency in cultivation. The reason why I was able to hurt you is because I have exquisite spiritual techniques at my disposal.”
Zhao Haifeng was aghast. “Are the spiritual techniques that Eccentric Wu taught him really… really that awesome?”
“Return!” With a wave of his hand, the bone spears that were constantly hovering around An Rong blurred into three streaks of ice-cold light and flew away from An Rong’s surroundings.
After drawing her bow to the fullest, Hu Qingwen also stopped. She was still aiming An He but didn’t shoot any arrows.
An Rong and An He both heaved a sigh of relief and looked towards Nie Tian.
“How are you doing, Duan Yuan?” Zhao Haifeng said with a frown.
Sitting on the ground, Duan Yuan’s chest area was already covered in blood that he had coughed up.
Duan Yuan only put on a bitter smile while sitting cross-legged, focusing all his energy on obliterating the force that was wandering within him and continuously damaging his flesh and bones.
He couldn’t even spare a breath to talk.
“I can’t believe he injured him so badly…” Zhao Haifeng was increasingly astonished.
After throwing the punch, Nie Tian was also barely able to remain standing in place, holding on to the last of his strength.
His state wasn’t necessarily better than Duan Yuan’s.
The rage fist had practically drained all of his spiritual power and the power within his flesh.
At the moment, he had no battle prowess left other than his only remaining psychic power.
He acted as if nothing had happened, but couldn’t stop worrying inwardly. He knew that from now on, not only was he unable to help his grandfather and An Rong, he would even become a burden to them.
All Zhao Haifeng had to do was lay a hand on him and the tough front that he had put on would collapse in an instant.
He had been aware that by using the rage fist, it would put him in this kind of situation, but he had no other choice.
After all, Duan Yuan was too strong, with a cultivation base that was one whole stage superior. He couldn’t think of another way to seriously injure Duan Yuan besides using the raging fist, which he picked up from the mysterious land.
“Alright,” Zhao Haifeng said. “Since he is the disciple of Eccentric Wu, even given the fact that his cultivation base is low, he still should be considered to be a man worth killing.”
FIZZ! FIZZ!
The three pale-white bone spears that had been floating in the air suddenly emanated countless beams of ice-cold light, within which lay a formidable frost power.
Apparently, Zhao Haifeng was ready to strike.
“Watch out!” Seeing that Zhao Haifeng had targeted Nie Tian, both Nie Donghai and An Rong gathered towards Nie Tian without even thinking about it.
Bitterness could be seen in Nie Tian’s eyes as he stared at the bone spears thrumming with frost power without any way out.
BOM BOM BOM!
All of a sudden, the completely depleted Nie Tian felt his heart start beating madly.
At the same time, a wisp of soul will, only detectable to him, came through from afar and descended in Black Cloud City.
“Flame Dragon Armor…” Only moments passed before Nie Tian recognized it. Elation filled his glittering eyes.
After finishing collecting all the Earthflame Crystal Strings from the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range, the Flame Dragon Armor had finally tracked Nie Tian down and followed his aura to Black Cloud City.
It seemed to have sensed that he had fallen into a terrible situation. Therefore, it had begun to speed toward him even more quickly than before.
The arriving of the Flame Dragon Armor reignited the hope within Nie Tian’s heart, as he believed that Zhao Haifeng and his party wouldn’t get to touch him again.
Zhao Haifeng, who was about to channel the frost power within him and use it to send the three bone spears to attack Nie Tian, seemed to have been startled.
Due to the fact that he mainly practiced frost or ice spiritual incantations, he was very sensitive to cold and hot auras.
Even before the Flame Dragon Armor showed itself, he had already sensed that the temperature within Black Cloud City had begun to rise.
The way that the temperature rose was obviously not natural. He felt an inexplicably oppressive feeling weighing down on him, which made him extremely uncomfortable.
Zhao Haifeng had always been known as a decisive person in the Hell sect. After a brief scang, he rapidly turned to Hu Qingwen and said, “Take Duan Yuan. We’re leaving.”
“What!?” Hu Qingwen didn’t understand.
Duan Yuan also snapped open his eyes and looked towards him confusedly.
“Let’s get out of here.” Zhao Haifeng slightly frowned and said, “It’s not our day today. As for the Heaven Gate keys, we can get them through other methods.”
Even though Hu Qingwen and Duan Yuan were still full of questions, they believed that Zhao Haifeng must have his reasons.
He had never made a move without a purpose.
“Okay!” Obviously, Hu Qingwen placed a lot of trust in him. She put away her bow and arrow and hefted Duan Yuan onto her back.
“Let’s go!” Zhao Haifeng told her to leave first as he cast a cold glance towards Nie Tian and said, “Now that you’ve got a key to the Heaven Gate, I guess I know where we’ll meet again.”
With these words, he left with Hu Qingwen under the disbelieving gazes of Nie Donghai, An Rong, and An He.
“What happened just now?” Their actions left An Rong completely confused.
Nie Donghai also shook his head in confusion. “I don’t know what happened to that kid. Considering his strength, if he kept fighting, we probably wouldn’t have been able to hold on for long.”
“Those Hell sect disciples are truly terrifyingly strong.” An He shared a similar opinion.
It never occurred to any of them to pursue Zhao Haifeng and his party, as they all deemed that if they enraged Zhao Haifeng by chasing after his group, they would be the ones that would end up with more injuries.
“That guy sensed the crisis brought upon by the Flame Dragon Armor?” Nie Tian’s eyes glittered with a strange light.
Only because there was a mysterious link between the Flame Dragon Armor’s soul and his own, was he able to sense its approach.
Everyone else didn’t feel a thing, even An Rong, whose cultivation base was the highest among the crowd.
Zhao Haifeng was clearly going to make a move. However, he changed his idea at the last moment while looking around with an alerted face. He must have sensed the fluctuations in the air and noticed something from the change in the temperature.
He probably had suspected that a powerful expert, skilled at fire-attributed incantations, was approaching Black Cloud City, and decisively retreated to avoid him.
This person knew when to yield and when to not, and also had surprisingly good observation skills. As soon as he sensed danger, he immediately dropped everything and firmly withdrew from the situation.
Without a doubt, Zhao Haifeng was the most intelligent among all the opponents at his age that Nie Tian had ever encountered.
Compared to him, Mo Xi from the Ghost sect and Yu Tong from the Blood sect were clearly weaker by a large extent.
“Do you feel the rise in the temperature?” An He suddenly asked.
An Rong let out a sigh and said, “It’s because that brat from the Hell sect left. He excelled at ice and frost magics, and his spiritual weapon was also extremely out of the ordinary. With him being here, it felt as if the area where were in had been cloaked with a layer of frost. We are only feeling the temperature in Black Cloud City going back to normal now that he’s gone. That kid gave me the chills.The Hell sect’s foundation truly is astonishing to be able to nurture young disciples like him.”
“No,” An He said, “I don’t think it’s because of that kid. Black Cloud City wasn’t even this hot and stuffy before the three of them came.”
Nie Tian was puzzled. “Then what is it?”
At this moment, Nie Tian looked up towards the gray night sky.
The curtain of night was lifting. Daybreak was at hand.
A thread of fiery light in the shape of a dragon was shooting in their direction in the gray sky.
“No way! Here comes another meteor?!” An Rong cried out.
The faces of Nie Donghai and An He turned pale with terror, not knowing what to do.
Hours ago, a meteor from outer realm had turned the entire Yun clan into ruins. How big of a disaster would it be if another one descended upon Black Cloud City?
In the streets, numerous civilians of Black Cloud City started to run about aimlessly while letting out miserable wails.
“They’re coming again!”
“Oh my god!”
“Run everybody! Run!”
SHEW!
With an incredible speed, the shooting light closed in on the Yun clan.
“It’s coming for the Yun clan again?!” Nie Donghai exclaimed with a ghastly face.
“No.” Finally, Nie Tian said, “It’s coming for me.”