Eyes fixed on the crystal in front of her, Jing Rou said with a worried expression, “Father, Nie Tian will be fine, right? He’s a Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. Should something happen to him, we’ll be in trouble too.”

Eyes narrowed, Jing Feiyang said with a composed expression, “He should be fine. If Old Shadow Eccentric really wanted to kill him, he wouldn’t have said so much and demanded that you hand him over. The way I see it, he’s only being paid by someone to bring Nie Tian back alive, so he won’t dare to kill him. Whoever is behind this probably has their apprehensions as well.”

Despite what he said, to be on the safe side, Jing Feiyang unleashed a number of divine seals.

They flew out of the ancient starship and approached the shadow like a throng of butterflies.

“I didn’t vest those divine seals with my soul aura, so Old Shadow Eccentric will only assume that you two unleashed them.” Jing Feiyang sounded very confident. “But if he dares to make any dangerous moves, those seals alone will be powerful enough to kill him!”

Duan Shihu and Jing Rou seemed somewhat relieved after hearing his words.

They both understood how terrifyingly powerful Jing Feiyang was as a Saint domain expert. His divine seals could even shatter domains, not to mention Old Shadow Eccentric, who was only at the early Void domain.

“In fact, as long as I provide Nie Tian with secret assistance, he probably won’t lose,” Jing Feiyang added. “His special bloodline seems to have formed a profound connection between him and that puppet of his, raising its battle prowess to a whole new level!

“As a Son of the Stars, even though he’s only at the early Profound realm, his skills and techniques are surprisingly extraordinary!”

Apparently, Jing Feiyang admired Nie Tian.

Now that he had witnessed Nie Tian’s strength for the first time, he started to realize that he might have made the right decision to attach the Divine Seal Sect to him, this rising star.

Only seconds later, Jing Feiyang gasped softly, a concerned look appearing on his face. “Hmm?!”

With the help of the divine seals he had unleashed, he had detected a handful of faint auras behind the vast shadow. Clearly, they belonged to people who were lurking in the dark and paying close attention to the battle between Nie Tian and Old Shadow Eccentric.

“There are a few other Hunters, who aren’t as strong as Old Shadow Eccentric, hiding in the dark. Someone must be paying them to do this...”

...

In the depths of the shadow.

After activating Life Blend, Nie Tian infused his own qi and blood into the Bone Blood Demon’s heart.

The enormous Bone Blood Demon swung its huge bone arms as it flew at full speed, splitting the shadow.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

An intense, pale-gray death aura poured out of its bony body, diluting the shadow.

Death power that could blight all living beings rapidly formed a unique field that took up a large area inside the shadow.

A vague figure soon grew clear, taking the form of a shriveled old man with a hooked nose and a cold face.

All of a sudden, the old man’s scrawny figure expanded several times over with Nie Tian’s image in the depths of his wide eyes. “Shadow Imprisonment!” 

The old man’s hands wove in front of his chest like flying butterflies, forming hand seals that were complicated and exquisite. Numerous gray lines then appeared in his eyes, rapidly wrapping around Nie Tian’s image like countless ropes.

In an incomparably peculiar way, Nie Tian’s body, which had been embedded in the Bone Blood Demon’s chest, suddenly grew stiff, as if many invisible hands were holding him down.

The profound flesh power connection between him and the Bone Blood Demon was instantly cut off, therefore breaking Life Blend.

At the same time, mysterious soul power infiltrated his sea of awareness, as if it was going to imprison his soul as well.

“Come on out, evil spirits!” Nie Tian exclaimed inwardly as he channeled the Spirit Pearl with his true soul.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Five sinister spirits that carried intense auras of hate, fear, despair, rage, and bloodthirst soon floated over Nie Tian’s head like five vicious ghosts.

Like evil gods, the five of them started to unleash heaven-shaking, earth-shattering negative emotions.

Like tangible hands, the negative emotions ripped apart the binding forces Old Shadow Eccentric had afflicted him with using his secret magics.

The shadowy soul power he had used to invade his sea of awareness was instantly expelled as well.

Thousands of meters away at the heart of the shadow, the scrawny old man let out a muffled groan.

BOOOOM!

Nie Tian lifted his arm and threw a punch towards Old Shadow Eccentric.

Like a marionette, the Bone Blood Demon also lifted its huge arm and threw a punch in the air, completely copying his move.

A pillar of pale-gray light suddenly shot out of the Bone Blood Demon’s translucent and sparkling fist, and pierced directly towards Old Shadow Eccentric’s chest.

As this happened, the shadow, which was Old Shadow Eccentric’s personal domain, gradually fell apart, as if it were being ravaged by a devastating storm.

The pale-gray light that carried the profound truths of death power rapidly engulfed Old Shadow Eccentric’s shriveled body, causing him to let out agonized whines in the pillar of pale-gray light.

Pieces of flesh were peeled from his body and tossed into the depths of the ice-cold starry river.

Like ripped cloth, pieces of broken shadow gathered from all directions before fusing into him.

Old Shadow Eccentric sounded flustered and exasperated as his voice came from within the heart of the broken shadow. “Dammit! How come this kid’s so powerful? It’s almost impossible to capture him alive!”

Pieces of broken shadow flew in different directions and retrieved pieces of his lost flesh.

After they flew back to him, he looked like a monster that had been cut to pieces and then sewn back together. A single glance at him made Nie Tian’s scalp go numb.

However, as this happened, his life force became even stronger than before.

“This is a losing deal! I have to raise my charges!” As he exclaimed, his body of spliced flesh suddenly flew backwards, enveloped in his broken shadow.

Just like that, he withdrew after a single exchange, before even bringing out his full force.

In the blink of an eye, his shadow disappeared into the distance of the dark, ice-cold starry river.

Nie Tian, who had temporarily merged with the Bone Blood Demon, was dumbfounded.

He scanned his surroundings with his soul awareness, but failed to capture a shred of Old Shadow Eccentric’s aura. He felt as if the detection range of his soul awareness seemed to be affected by the harsh environment in the starry river.

In the next moment, he realized that he was consuming a tremendous amount of flesh power by keeping Life Blend activated.

Then, after he was convinced that Old Shadow Eccentric had left, he deactivated Life Blend.

SHEW!

The Bone Blood Demon flew back to the berthed ancient starship, and he leapt back into the shield made of magical symbols.

“It seems that my flesh power isn’t very compatible with the Bone Blood Demon. There’s clearly a conflict between my bloodline power and the Bone Blood Demon’s death power that prevents me from displaying the true might of Life Blend.” As he mulled over the matter, the Bone Blood Demon disappeared into his ring of holding, and he returned to his cabin.

At the same time...

Wreathed in a broken shadow, Old Shadow Eccentric withdrew to a dead star that had been charred by the Divine Flame.

Several Qi warriors, who were wearing long white robes and white masks, walked out of a pitch-black hole in the earth. 

“You didn’t keep your word!” One of them said with a berating tone.

“Keep my word?!” Old Shadow Eccentric thundered. “When you asked me to help you, you told me that he was at the early Profound realm and he would be easily captured! That’s a load of crap, and you knew it! That kid is stranger than anyone I’ve ever met. That puppet of his actually unleashed the Bonebrute’s bloodline talents and inflicted serious damage on me!

“I’ll have to pay a heavy price myself if I want to defeat him in battle!

“Now, if you don’t pay me more, I’m not going back there to capture him for you at such great risk!”

Old Shadow Eccentric seemed infuriated by the fact that he had suffered injuries from a job he had been told would be a piece of cake.

“I’ve got to report to my master about your demand.”

“Sure. Let me know after you figure that out. You’d better be quick though. I’m not making another move against him after they enter the Domain of Endless Snow!”

“Okay, I’ll let you know.”

...

In the place where Nie Tian and Old Shadow Eccentric had fought.

After the berthed ancient starship started off and disappeared into the distance, numerous fiery sparks appeared out of nowhere.

Like spirits of fire, they roamed about, as if to gather the faint flesh power from Nie Tian that hadn’t completely dissipated.

Moments later, the numerous sparks converged and morphed into a cluster of glorious flames.

It floated alone in the dark, bleak starry river, flickering like a lamp that was both mysterious and intelligent.

After a short while, as a meteor streaked past, the cluster of flames suddenly fused into it.

The dashing meteor seemed to be suddenly vested with a soul. Like a streak of ethereal fire, it flew in the direction Nie Tian’s ancient starship had left in.

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