Huang Jinnan and the chosen ones from the various domains were scattered around the stone pavilion.
Everyone kept their eyes on Nie Tian and Xing Bo.
Strong interest filled Huang Jinnan’s eyes, as he wanted to know how Nie Tian, a Son of the Stars, would finish his sworn enemy.
However, he had no doubt that Nie Tian would succeed.
After all, Nie Tian had passed the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s intense Heaven Gate trial and become the seventh Son of the Stars.
He had heard how cruel Heaven Gate trials were.
At the same time, all of the other chosen ones were also very curious as to what was so special about Nie Tian that had allowed the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace to choose him to be the seventh Son of the Stars.
Eyebrows furrowed, Yin Yanan grew somewhat worried. “Nie Tian doesn’t have his Star Boat with him, and he can’t summon that armor of his.”
Mu Biqiong gave a weak snort and said, “He just has to parade his battle prowess, doesn’t he?”
Gentle and caring, Xie Wanting chimed in, “He’s at the late Worldly realm, while his opponent is at the middle Profound realm. His cultivation base is weaker by two minor levels... Will he actually be able to win?”
Holding one spiritual sword in his hand, Xing Bo sent the other eleven spiritual swords flying out in different directions.
Each of them unleashed blade lights that were both sharp and resilient as they rapidly interwove into a net of swords.
Seconds later, a net of glowing swords came to form around Xing Bo.
“Spirit Infuse!” As Xing Bo called out these words, wisps of soul power flew out of the Spirit Channeling grade sword in his hand and infused into the net of swords.
As soon as that happened, the net of blade lights seemed to be vested with life.
As Xing Bo leapt towards Nie Tian clutching his Spirit Channeling grade sword, the spiritual swords hovered around him like some kind of meat grinder.
Nie Tian grinned, recognizing the sword incantation at first sight. “Sword Condensing Incantation.”
“You have a cousin whose name is Xing Beichen, don’t you?” Nie Tian asked, smiling.
“What if I do?” Xing Bo said, looking surprised.
“Nothing, other than that he died at my hands!” Smiling broadly, Nie Tian raised his hands high in the air, as if he were holding up an invisible cauldron.
“Spirit condensation!” As he shouted these words inwardly, tainted energies suddenly started converging on his raised hands from all directions.
A large glowing sphere rapidly formed and continued to expand between his palms. Soon, it became as large as a table.
Back when he had been in the Realm of Split Void, he had used this secret magic he had learned from the titans on many occasions.
Since he had been able to condense the tainted energies in the Realm of Split Void into spiritual energy balls, he had assumed that he would be able to use it in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range as well.
As he had expected, an enormous spiritual energy ball formed between his palms within seconds.
The tainted energies here were easily ten times more intense than the ones in the Realm of Split Void. Therefore, the spiritual energy ball he formed here was not only larger in size, but also contained stronger mixed energies.
A variety of auras and impurities of different colors could be seen clashing with one another within the huge glowing ball, as if they were breeding an unstoppable storm.
“Go!” The spiritual energy ball was suddenly cast towards the net of spiritual swords.
At the same time, the mixed energies that were already clashing with one another seemed to be instantly ignited, causing a violent explosion.
The explosion sent out countless streaks of multicolored light that carried fierce auras.
The net of swords Xing Bo had formed with the Sword Condensing Incantation failed to even hold on for a second before being blown to shreds that soon scattered and vanished into the air.
“Bloodline magic: Life Strengthening!”
Nie Tian’s robust body started to expand. His muscles bulged as a scaly layer formed over his entire body. Mysterious gold and silver patterns could be seen on the armor-like layer, as if it now carried the Metal-devouring Bug and Silver Beetle’s profound bloodline power as well. The luster it gave off was ice-cold and resilient.
WHOOSH!
The explosion of his flesh power caused the tainted energies in his surroundings to converge madly on him.
But not only did Nie Tian not seem scared, he even laughed broadly, and cast the spirit condensation technique again.
A spiritual energy ball that was even larger than the last one rapidly formed, and then floated towards Xing Bo.
Face pale, Xing Bo hastily shifted away like a flash of light.
BOOOM!
The moment after he flew away, the spacious roof of the stone pavilion blew up.
The explosion sent shattered stones and bits of concentrated impurities flying in all directions, filling the air with the lingering sound of the explosion.
Nie Tian let out a wild laugh.
As starlight flashed, Nie Tian suddenly vanished from where he was standing. In the next moment, he appeared in front of Xing Bo and drove an emerald green tree branch towards him.
Xing Bo hastily swung his Spirit Channeling grade sword in the air, unleashing seven blade lights that flew towards Nie Tian like spiritual snakes. “Sword Incantation: Seven Banes!”
At the same time, a large amount of fragmented light shot towards Nie Tian like a rain of swords.
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!
The fragmented light rained on Nie Tian’s ‘spiritual armor’, creating tiny gold and silver blossoms.
Even so, Nie Tian only felt very mild pain from them.
However, the seven blade lights then flew towards Nie Tian’s eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, which his scaly layer failed to cover, as if they had their own awareness.
Before the blade lights even reached him, Nie Tian experienced stabbing pain in his face, long, thin cuts appearing on his face.
The sword intent was incomparably fierce.
“Primal Chaos!” Nie Tian roared inwardly as different kinds of power surged madly around him.
As soon as the seven blade lights entered the Primal Chaos, they zigzagged out of their set tracks and diverted from their original targets.
At the same time, the translucent and sparkling tree branch shot out of Nie Tian’s hand like a streak of light, splitting space and piercing directly at Xing Bo’s chest.
A streak of frosty light shot out of the tip of Xing Bo’s Spirit Channeling grade spiritual sword.
BOOM!
The translucent and sparkling tree branch was knocked flying back to Nie Tian before disappearing into his cuff.
Nie Tian didn’t seem rattled in the slightest as he cast another Starshift and appeared behind Xing Bo like a ghost.
His Primal Chaos instantly enveloped Xing Bo.
Countless tiny stars seemed to appear in Nie Tian’s palms, forming two spell formations, shining with starlight.
Nie Tian then pressed them towards Xing Bo’s back like two seals of stars.
Xing Bo’s face instantly turned pale with fright. However, as he hastily turned around, the star formations had already arrived.
Not having the time to defend with his spiritual swords, he could only resist with his spiritual power ward, which he used to keep the tainted energies away. Numerous sword projections appeared in the ward like swimming fish.
The star formations were pressed into the ward. Two miniature seas of starlight exploded at the contact points, sending out glorious, dazzling starlight.
The sword projections in Xing Bo’s protective ward vanished immediately like melted snowflakes.
Then, Nie Tian, who was now like a small mountain of muscles after his expansion, rammed into Xing Bo like a cannonball.
Blood sprayed out of Xing Bo’s mouth as he was knocked flying backwards.
A drop of Blood Essence then started to burn within Nie Tian’s heart.
Thump! Thump! Thump!
Even more tainted energies converged on him as his aura soared. Like a human-shaped beast, he exploded towards Xing Bo.
Eleven spiritual swords shot out of Xing Bo’s hand one after another in an attempt to stop Nie Tian.
Nie Tian clenched his fists tight and threw punches at the incoming spiritual swords.
Hit by Nie Tian’s fists, one sword after another bent out of shape and dropped to the ground like regular metal.
“Is this the strength of a middle Profound realm cultivator?”
With his last fist strike, Nie Tian summoned every kind of power he had and blew them out in the form of Titan’s Wrath.
As he did, even the tainted energies around him seemed to be scattered. Faint titans’ roars could be vaguely heard from within his fist. Even though no one else seemed to be able to hear them, they almost shattered Xing Bo’s mind.
Xing Bo did everything he could to thrust his spiritual sword towards Nie Tian’s incoming fist.
However, even the soul of this Spirit Channeling grade sword seemed to be terrified by the titans’ roars, and trembled in fear.
With torrential rage and a titan’s unyielding determination, Nie Tian’s fist bombarded the spiritual sword.
BOOM!
Upon contact, the spiritual sword was knocked flying away. Then, as Xing Bo’s protective ward shattered, Nie Tian’s fist bore down on his chest.
Xing Bo was instantly reduced to flying chunks of flesh and a mist of blood that filled the air.
Gathered around Huang Jinnan, all of the chosen ones from the various domains exclaimed in low voices. Disbelief filled their eyes as they stared at Nie Tian as if he were some monster or freak.
“It seems so easy to him!”
“No wonder he passed the Heaven Gate trial and became the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace!”
“Such incredible power!”
“I can’t believe he’s only at the Worldly realm!”
A teasing laugh escaped Huang Jinnan’s mouth as he shook his head. “You had a great advantage in your fight against him. Your bloodline, which I find fascinating, seems to be at the sixth grade. That means you’d have been able to fight him with your bloodline power alone. But aside from your bloodline power, you also used your spiritual power and exquisite incantations. There was no way he could have won.”
“Would I insist on killing him myself if I didn’t know for sure that I’d win?” Nie Tian asked, smiling.
Huang Jinnan also smiled. “Good point.”