The starry river was filled with a mixture of countless auras and energies.

Standing on the Star Boat, Nie Tian voluntarily canceled its protective shield to expose himself to the harmful environment.

He sensed his surroundings with rapt attention, and discovered that small amounts of star power, flame power, and wood power in the starry river were converging on him from all directions, as if they were being channeled by the Nine Stars Flower, the flame spark, and the Godspirit Tree sapling inside of him.

But at the same time, a wide array of other energies and auras that didn’t agree with his cultivation needs infiltrated his body as well.

They included faint Demon qi, Phantasm Qi, various impurities, and hundreds of other types of power that corroded his flesh.

Even though those auras weren’t being channeled, they were gradually infiltrating and corroding his body with the protective shield down.

He needed to activate his bloodline power to refine the unwelcome energies and auras bit by bit.

“After entering the Void domain, cultivators will be able to keep those harmful auras away with their domains and travel freely in the starry river.” 

Nie Tian pondered. 

“Since I haven’t built my own domain yet, I haven’t acquired such an ability. However, outsiders will gain the ability to form a ward of flesh aura after they reach certain grades, which will achieve a similar protective effect as a domain.”

“Bloodline talent: Life Strengthening!” As he suddenly activated his bloodline talent, the flesh power that was scattered in every corner of his body was instantly ignited.

His body started to change at a visible speed. Scaly armor that carried silver and gold patterns rapidly spread to cover every inch of his body.

At the same time, his heart started to race, while his muscles and bones expanded considerably.

He looked incredibly large and robust in this Life Strengthening form.

Then, he examined himself again, and discovered that the numerous harmful energies and auras were now being shielded off by the vigorous flesh aura he exuded.

Most of them couldn’t infiltrate through his pores anymore.

Only a small portion of them managed to pass through his sealing flesh aura into his body. However, not only did those energies not harm him, but they even turned out to be slightly helpful for his body refinement and strengthening.

Invigorated by his new discovery, he started floating around in the desolate starry river without his Star Boat, and sensing his changes with rapt attention.

Soon, he realized that even in his Life Strengthening state, the flame spark, the Nine Stars Flower, and the Godspirit Tree sapling in his spiritual sea were still channeling flame power, star power, and wood power from his surroundings, while shielding off the energies that were harmful or didn’t suit his cultivation needs.

It was as if all of the energies that were allowed into his body were carefully screened by his bloodline, and could help strengthen his body.

His eyes shone with the light of excitement.

This meant that even though he hadn’t entered the Void domain yet, he no longer had to rely on the Star Boat or other powerful experts to travel or battle in the starry river.

“This must be another perk of my bloodline advancing to the seventh grade!”

He immediately realized that this wondrous change was brought by his recent bloodline upgrade, and the fact that he had spent a large amount of flesh power to strengthen his body.

From now on, not only would he be able to travel through the starry river, but he would be able to fight enemies and practice cultivation in the starry river as well.

The flame spark, the Nine Stars Flower, and the Godspirit Tree would help him gather the three types of power he needed from the starry river.

After he activated Life Strengthening, his body would automatically shield off the harmful energies and take only the helpful ones in, which was very conducive to his body refinement.

“Now, I’m at the late Profound realm. All of my spiritual cores have been refined to their limit. All that’s left to do is refine my true soul.”

With these thoughts, he communicated with the Spirit Pearl’s soul and demanded pure soul power from it.

Floating in the vast starry river, he started refining his true soul with the pure, refined soul power provided by the Spirit Pearl.

Time flew...

On this day, his true soul was also refined to the point where it was ready for his next breakthrough.

At that moment, he finally felt the existence of his cultivation base barrier, and had a fantastic feeling that he was finally going to leave the Profound realm and enter the Soul realm.

“Entering the Soul realm will be a major leap forward in my cultivation!”

Thrilled, he took out his Star Boat again to wander around in the desolate, silent starry river, focusing on deriving enlightenments.

However, despite his prolonged attempts, he failed to shatter his cultivation base barrier and enter the Soul realm.

“I can’t seem to make the breakthrough yet. There must be something I lack. Perhaps it’s my understanding of my different types of power...”

After pondering for a while, he made a few more attempts, but all of them failed as well. This made him give up on the idea of making more attempts in the starry river, since this seemed to be a waste of time.

“Grand Elder Mo Heng has given me helpful advice before. Perhaps he can help with this too.”

He had a feeling that, as the grand elder of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, Mo Heng would probably be able to pinpoint his problem and show him a way out of the mist he was currently in.

He decided to return to Fragmentary Star City and seek help from Mo Heng right away.

As he returned to the palace in the Realm of Split Void that was connected to the Vast Heaven Pavilion, he saw Dong Li waiting for him.

Dong Li seemed somewhat worried. “Nie Tian, envoys of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace showed up in the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries to investigate the local sects one by one. They said they need to find out whether there are sects that practice evil incantations like the Nether Spirit Society and the Death Curse Sect in your domains.”

Nie Tian’s face grew grim. “When did they arrive?”

“Just a few days ago,” Dong Li said, frowning with concern. “According to them, not just you, but all of the Sons of the Stars need to receive such investigations recently. I also heard that similar investigations are taking place in many other human domains as well. Many sects and clans that had connections with crooked sects, no matter how remote, have been dealt with.”

“What do you mean by ‘dealt with’?”

“Many of them have been wiped out,” Dong Li said. “Cultivators that have connections with crooked sects or practice evil incantations have either been killed or imprisoned for further investigation.”

Face grim, Nie Tian said, “You need to go to the Realm of Flame Heaven, gather all of the Blood Sect disciples, and send them to a place that the envoys of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace can’t find. And remember: this must be conducted in secret. No one else can know about it. Those Lizardman realms and the forbidden region between the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries are both good choices.”

Dong Li’s expression flickered with astonishment. “Does the Blood Sect have a problematic history?”

Nie Tian nodded slightly. “The Blood Sect actually came from a sect that’s called the Blood Spirit Sect. That sect had been determined to be a crooked sect and annihilated by experts from the Heaven Span Pavilion. It’s very necessary for the Blood Sect to hide out at this sensitive time. Also, get Li Langfeng to go hide with the Blood Sect disciples too.”

Dong Li was taken aback. “Li Langfeng too?” 

“The incantations he practices involve corpse toxins, which could be a problem,” Nie Tian explained.

Dong Li pondered for a brief moment before saying, “Okay, I know what to do now.”

With these words, she left to find a suitable place for Li Langfeng and the Blood Sect disciples to lie low until this joint operation of the four great sects blew over.

Meanwhile, Nie Tian returned to the Realm of Fragmentary Star to find Wei Lai.

Upon seeing him, Wei Lai said with a hesitant look on his face, “We’ve finished accounting your contribution points for your previous operation. It’s five hundred thousand.”

Nie Tian nodded. “Five hundred thousand. That’s not bad.” 

“Fang Yuan received three hundred thousand contribution points, and Sikong Cuo received eight hundred thousand,” Wei Lai added.

Nie Tian’s expression flickered with surprise. “Sikong Cuo got eight hundred thousand contribution points? Perhaps he killed more outsiders than I did. But I helped Pei Qiqi get Huang Jinnan, Lou Hongyan, and the others out of Grand Monarch Blood Axe’s sea of flesh aura, and spread word of the upheaval in the Domain of Nether Heaven. Wasn’t that taken into account?”

“Well...” Wei Lai seemed uncomfortable. “Vice Sectmaster Luo said that Pei Qiqi from the Void Spirit Society got the credit for getting those people to safety and informing the sects. You didn’t have much to do with it.”

Nie Tian let out a loud harrumph. “Vice Sectmaster Luo said that? Where’s the grand elder?”

Wei Lai smiled bitterly. “He sustained some serious injuries from his battle against Grand Monarch Withered Bones. He’s been healing himself in secluded cultivation. Meanwhile, our other vice sectmaster is leading our forces in the Dead Star Sea, and couldn’t be distracted by these internal affairs. As for our sectmaster, he spends most of his time exploring unknown areas of the starry river. We’ve been failing to get into contact with him lately.”

Nie Tian spent a moment pondering in silence, then he said, “Vice Sectmaster Luo thinks highly of Sikong Cuo, doesn’t he?”

Wei Lai clearly his throat and said with an embarrassed expression. “The sixth Son of the Stars is a fast-rising star. It’s understandable that he’s highly regarded.”

“But among his subordinates, there’s someone named Master Bloody Despair, who’s a residual evil of the Blood Spirit Sect. What do you say about that?” Nie Tian confronted him.

Wei Lai seemed to have a headache over the matter as he said, “It’s said that Master Bloody Despair distanced himself from the Blood Spirit Sect long before it was wiped out by the Heaven Span Pavilion. And it was with his help that the Heaven Span Pavilion successfully uprooted the Blood Spirit Sect. That was why he was spared punishment.”

“Those are Vice Sectmaster Luo’s words and decision, right?” Nie Tian asked with an unpleasant expression.

Wei Lai nodded with a forced smile.

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