It was as hot as a steamer in the boundless desert.

Nie Tian finally appeared on his Star Boat, along with all of the Saint and Void domain experts.

As soon as they did, everyone’s soul awareness spread out in all directions like sea waves in attempts to capture even the most subtle soul fluctuations in this heaven and earth. However, none of them sensed anything noteworthy.

This continent was rather strange. They hadn’t come across any forms of life on their way to this scorching desert, not even a bug.

It was as if the war that had taken place hundreds of thousands of years ago had eliminated every single living being on this continent.

“There’s only one spatial tunnel left. Destroy it, and our mission will come to a perfect end.” Nie Tian said as he adjusted directions from time to time according to the map that had been engraved in his mind. “I hope nothing goes wrong.”

“Did anyone from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace ever tell you the exact grade of that outsider grand patriarch?” Jing Feiyang asked.

Outsiders had to be at the ninth grade to be referred to as grand patriarchs.

However, there were significant differences between the strengths of individual grand patriarchs.

As humans did, outsiders and Ancientbeasts also subdivided their grades into early, middle, late, and peak sub-grades.

Given Jing Feiyang and the other two Saint domain experts’ strength, it would be easy for them to kill an early ninth grade grand patriarch. If it was at the middle ninth grade, they might be able to win as well.

However, if the grand patriarch was at the late ninth grade, they would be facing a lot of trouble.

After a moment of pondering, Nie Tian answered, “That grand patriarch must be at the early or middle ninth grade. It can’t be at the late ninth grade. The seniors from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace have a good understanding of my overall strength. The three of you must have been taken into their calculation. Since they sent me on this mission, they must be certain that that grand patriarch wasn’t something I can’t handle.”

Jing Feiyang nodded slightly. “Good.” 

Then, he smiled and said with a light tone, “I’ll go into secluded cultivation after this trip, and try to break through into the middle Saint domain. At that time, I might need some special materials that we don’t have in the Domain of Heaven Python. So I’m hoping...”

Quan Zixuan and Qu Mingde’s eyes suddenly lit up upon hearing these words.

“Brother Jing, are you...?” Qu Mingde said, his eyes wide.

Jing Feiyang smiled again. “Nie Tian gave me some very valuable information before we returned from our trip to the Domain of Endless Snow. I learned a lot from it, and came to brand new understandings of the development of stars and life. Now, after being stuck for many years, I can finally feel my cultivation barrier. I want to break it as soon as possible.”

“Congratulations!” Quan Zixuan said.

“Make a list of the special materials you need after we finish this mission,” Nie Tian said. “I’ll purchase them for you from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace with my contribution points.”

Jing Feiyang clapped his hands. “Sorry for the trouble.” 

“That’s something I should do,” Nie Tian said, smiling. “I don’t even know how I’m supposed to spend the contribution points I’ve earned anyways. If they can help you get the spiritual materials you need and help you break through into the middle Saint domain, then they’re put to proper use.”

Every Son of the Stars should do their best to improve their subordinates’ cultivation bases.

The stronger their subordinates were, the higher status and prestige they would have in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. To compete for the position of the Lord of the Stars, both their own strength and the strength of their subordinates would be considered evaluation indicators.

People congratulated Jing Feiyang as they continued to fly through the desert at a high speed.

Two weeks later, they were deep into the desert. However, there were still no signs of any outsiders. All they could see were sand dunes.

With furrowed brows, Qu Mingde said, “This is strange. We should be close to the eighth spatial tunnel now. And since the outsiders came here, they must be after something, but why aren’t there low-grade outsiders looking around?”

“That’s strange indeed,” Quan Zixuan chimed in.

They had come across outsiders on their way to each of the other seven spatial tunnels, and sometimes human slaves as well.

Even though the truly powerful outsiders would remain by the spatial tunnel, the weaker ones would be arranged to explore and gather materials such as phoenix corpses.

But now, they were already very close to the eighth spatial tunnel, yet they hadn’t discovered a single outsider.

Furthermore, they hadn’t seen any signs of exploration on their way over.

All of a sudden, Nie Tian received a soul message from the Flame Dragon Armor, which came from within his ring of holding.

His expression flickered as he immediately released it.

The crimson suit of armor floated in midair after flying out of his ring of holding.

SHEW!

In the next moment, it morphed into a streak of flames that shot into the distance.

Seeing this, everyone went blank, unsure of what had just happened.

Without saying a word, Nie Tian flew after the Flame Dragon Armor on his Star Boat.

The others sped off after him.

Moments later, the Flame Dragon Armor came to a stop, before suddenly drilling into a sand dune.

The sand dune then exploded, sending a mixture of sand and flames flying in all directions. In the next moment, an enormous pit that was the shape of a dragon was revealed.

There was nothing in the pit that had been previously covered in sand.

Jing Feiyang’s expression flickered as he stared at the strangely shaped pit. “It appears that a dragon was buried here! Someone must have dug it out and taken it away. After that, the wind carried sand over, flattening the hole and forming a sand dune over it. Not a single trail was left.”

“There’s a faint dragon aura in this area! A flame dragon was buried here!” Nie Tian exclaimed.

Even he couldn’t capture dragon auras. However, since the Flame Dragon Armor had been forged from the remains of a flame dragon, its Blood Core had sensed the aura with which it shared the same origin.

It was the residual aura of a dragon that had stirred the Flame Dragon Armor and caused it to demand to fly to this place.

SHEW!

The Flame Dragon Armor flew off again.

Moments later, another sand dune was found by the Flame Dragon Armor. Underneath it was a dragon-shaped pit that was exactly the same as the first one.

Quan Zixuan realized what was going on. “Just like the dead phoenixes buried in that freezing cold area, a number of dead dragons used to be buried here. And I suppose they were all eighth grade dragons, which could be brought back to life! But the dead dragons were taken away. If my speculation is correct, this was the outsiders’ doing!”

As he spoke, the Flame Dragon Armor flew off once again.

The Flame Dragon Armor found a total of seven pits in seven different locations that were close to the eighth spatial tunnel. All of them were places where dead dragons had been buried, but were now empty.

The strong wind had covered them with sand, making it seem as if nothing had changed.

As they came closer and closer to the eighth spatial tunnel, Jing Feiyang warned Nie Tian against doing anything rash with a grim face.

After all, ninth grade grand patriarchs were far stronger than eighth grade outsiders.

If they got too close to the spatial tunnel, that ninth grade grand patriarch might capture their flesh or soul auras before Jing Feiyang could capture its aura.

Therefore, they stopped to plan their next move. While Nie Tian pondered whether he should have the black tortoise release Evernight again, a heaven-shaking, earth-shattering howl echoed out.

“It’s a dragon howl!” Jing Feiyang’s expression flickered drastically, gazing into the distant sky, where an enormous figure was flying towards the eighth spatial tunnel at a very fast speed.

Even though it was rather far away, the Saint domain experts strained their sight, and were able to tell that it was a dragon, one that was close to a thousand meters long!

Qu Mingde sucked in a breath of cold air. (Expression: A reaction caused by shock or surprise) “That’s a ninth grade dragon! Why is there a living Ancientbeast on this continent?! And it’s a ninth grade dragon?!”

“Wait!” Jing Feiyang exclaimed. “It’s being followed by an ice phoenix! We’re only not seeing it because it's even farther away!

“That ice phoenix is also at the ninth grade. What’s happening?”

At the same time, the Flame Dragon Armor seemed to sense the aura of its own kind as well, and thus grew restless, as if it wanted to leave Nie Tian and dash towards the ninth grade dragon.

“I can sense the ninth grade grand patriarch’s aura by the eighth spatial tunnel now!” Jing Feiyang exclaimed.

Due to the long distance, he hadn’t been able to sense it before the grand patriarch activated its bloodline power.

Now, alarmed by the sudden appearance of the ninth grade dragon and ice phoenix, its bloodline power burst forth with an unstoppable momentum, like floodwaters rushing down mountains. Even the sky seemed to be filled with its terrifying aura.

“Demon! The ninth grade grand patriarch is a Demon!”

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