WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
One after another, more powerful experts from the other realms appeared in seven-colored bubbles, in the vast palace hall.
Most of them had Heaven and Greater Heaven stage cultivation bases, and thus appeared in the other two areas.
After some brief observation, Nie Tian found that there were six people in the area for Heaven stage cultivators, and eight people, including Miao Chen and Tang Yang, in the area for Greater Heaven stage cultivators.
Each and every one of them had about ten Heaven Sparks on the backs of their hands.
Apparently, they had all gone through bloody battles to get where they were. Their success was made from numerous corpses.
The truth was that Nie Tian was the only Qi warrior from the Realm of Flame Heaven that had made it to the ancient palace.
The others must have failed to get through the gate of the dilapidated city.
Nie Tian frowned deeply. “I’m the only one from the Realm of Flame Heaven…”
A while had passed and no one new appeared in the three areas of the palace hall.
Separated from Nie Tian by the Heaven stage area, Tang Yang still shot glances at him from time to time, like a tiger that was constantly checking its prey.
However, it seemed that he was aware that it would be impossible for him to cross those seven-colored light rivers.
Therefore, he didn’t even bother to try. However, he wasn’t any less torn with regret that he didn’t go all-out and kill Nie Tian before entering.
In the area for Lesser Heaven stage cultivators, Nie Tian and the other three were in the four corners of the squared floor.
Nie Tian’s gaze shifted between the other three, and he noticed that they were all quietly adjusting their breathing and auras, as if they were preparing for something.
It seemed they all knew what would happen in the ancient palace.
And Nie Tian was the only one who knew nothing of it.
However, none of them showed any interest in explaining it to Nie Tian as they each sat in their own corner, silently taking in the extremely rich spiritual energy in the air.
Upon seeing this, Nie Tian immediately started channeling the spiritual energy with the Qi Refining Incantation.
As soon as he started, the rich and pure spiritual energy in his vicinity started to madly converge on him.
The energy was so pure that it didn’t even need to be refined. The moment it flowed into his spiritual sea, it merged with the spiritual power that had already been there.
The vortex of spiritual power in his spiritual sea started to revolve at an astonishing speed as it rapidly expanded, as if it had become a tornado.
Meanwhile, the vortex of flame power and vortex of wood power quietly revolved.
Since the spiritual energy that Nie Tian had taken in was very pure and untainted with power of any attribute, those two vortexes didn’t undergo much change.
“The spiritual energy is so pure and refined here!”
After a brief moment of cultivation, Nie Tian felt enlivened and relaxed. He even discovered signs that his spiritual sea was experiencing another expansion and upgrade.
Ever since he had stepped into the Lesser Heaven stage, the size of his spiritual sea hadn’t changed at all.
When he was in the early Lesser Heaven stage, all he had done was refine the spiritual energy in his spiritual sea over and over again, in order to make the faint spiritual energy within it pure and condensed.
He had always thought that was all there was to the cultivation in the Lesser Heaven stage.
However, as soon as the pure spiritual energy in the palace entered his vortex of spiritual power, he knew he was wrong.
His spiritual sea, which had undergone countless rounds of refinement, once again started to develop and expand.
Furthermore, it expanded unprecedentedly fast this time!
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
Under his channeling, the spiritual energy in the air near Nie Tian madly converged onto the seven-colored light shield that he was in.
Like a sponge, he rapidly absorbed the spiritual energy and directed it into his spiritual sea in order for it to continue expanding.
“Yee!?” The black-robed young man seemed to have detected an anomaly and snapped his eyes open.
He stared closely at Nie Tian and observed his slightly strange way of absorbing spiritual energy, before he smiled and said, “Only a cultivator who just broke through and opened up a new piece of dry land in their spiritual sea would be able to absorb the spiritual energy in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace so rapidly. This means that this guy only entered the middle Lesser Heaven stage recently. Interesting!”
He managed to see through Nie Tian’s situation by no more than observing the strange energy flow that had been created by him while cultivating.
He was right. Nie Tian had only reached the point where he naturally entered the middle Lesser Heaven stage when he was in the gate of the floating city.
Whenever a breakthrough was made, the spiritual sea was always very eager to fill the void with new-found energy. Therefore, when he started to use the Qi Refining Incantation to cultivate, the speed that he channeled spiritual energy to his spiritual sea was faster than the other three.
And there was another reason to it: the three of them already had their spiritual seas brimming with spiritual energy.
They would have to spend more time and strength to upgrade their spiritual seas in order for them to contain more spiritual energy.
On the other hand, there was an area in Nie Tian’s spiritual sea that was completely empty and ready for new spiritual energy.
HUFF! HUFF! HUFF!
White, misty spiritual energy flooded into Nie Tian’s spiritual sea, swelling it like a shriveled balloon.
After an unknown period of time, his spiritual sea expanded by fifty percent from its original size.
Suddenly, the spiritual energy that he had recently allowed into his spiritual sea started to fly about in a violent and disorderly fashion. It slowly condensed and evolved, before eventually taking the form of another vortex of spiritual power.
By that time, other than the vortex of flame power and vortex of wood power, there were two vortexes of spiritual power within Nie Tian’s spiritual sea.
As soon as it was fully formed, the speed at which he absorbed the spiritual energy doubled.
Even more spiritual energy rushed madly into and further enlarged his spiritual sea.
Nie Tian’s spirits were greatly lifted. His heart brimmed with joy as he realized that he had progressed at a tremendous pace while cultivating in the mysterious, ancient palace.
Even the spiritual energy in the mystical land where the Flame Dragon Armor had taken him wasn’t as pure and rich as the energy in here.
Nie Tian was aware that if he didn’t make good use of the opportunity and temper himself, he would regret it for the rest of his life.
By that time, he had already cast the trial and the Heaven Sparks on his hand out of his mind. He solely focused on cultivation and taking in as much as spiritual energy as possible, hoping that he could finish upgrading his spiritual sea before something else happened.
Time passed by quickly without him realizing it. It could have been a day since he started cultivating for all he knew.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The countless, bright stars in the ceiling of the palace all suddenly shot out dazzling starlight at the same time.
The starlight seemed to have traveled across endless space to pour down from the river of stars.
After the starlight shone on them, all the detailed patterns on the palace walls also became bright and dazzling, enabling everyone to have clear views of them.
It was at that moment that Nie Tian snapped out of his cultivation. He looked up at the starlight that had lit up every corner of the palace hall, not knowing what it meant.
However, it was only a moment before he realized that the fifteen Heaven Sparks on the back of his hand had become incomparably hot.
By this point, his spiritual sea had already doubled in size. The amount of spiritual power that he could store in his spiritual sea seemed to have reached its limit in such a short time.
He had the feeling that if he had cultivated in other places instead of here, even if he had an endless supply of spirit stones, he would have needed a year and a half to make the same achievement.
SHEW!
A beam of extremely bright starlight shone on a spot on the palace wall, and the complicated pattern in that area instantly became clear and vivid.
Nie Tian looked over and soon sensed the speedy lost of his psychic power. However, he had the strange feeling that a mysterious connection was created between him and the pattern.
Subconsciously, his psychic power morphed into an invisible hand and pressed on the detailed pattern.
At that moment, a strong attraction force was born from within the fifteen Heaven Sparks on his hand.
In the next moment, he saw the pattern gradually separate itself from the wall and fly towards him.
He wasn’t the only one. The other three young cultivators also narrowed their eyes, searching for their own targets.
Three pieces of delicate patterns grew bright and dazzling after being illuminated by three beams of starlight. One after another they separated themselves from the solid wall and flew towards the three youngsters.
In the other two areas, Heaven and Greater Heaven stage experts were also using the same method to pull the delicate patterns towards them.
Under the channeling of Nie Tian’s psychic power, the pattern seemed to be drawn by a mysterious force, and eventually flew into the Heaven Sparks on Nie Tian’s hand.
As soon as it entered, Nie Tian’s psychic power entered those Heaven Sparks with it. A chain of ancient, mysterious writing flew into his mind.
“Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace Legacy, first part of the Fragmentary Star Incantation.”