The fierce battle between the Soul realm experts and seventh grade outsiders broke off due to Hua Mu’s unexpected change.

However, in areas close to the Heaven Palace Sect’s magnificent palace, many Qi warriors and outsiders had yet to learn of what had happened, and thus were still engaged in fierce battle. 

At this moment, every Soul realm expert’s gaze landed on Hua Mu.

Ridicule filled the corner of Zhao Shanling’s mouth as he said with narrowed eyes, “I’m afraid that Lu Minhuang is seeking death this time. He probably thinks that he’ll be able to take Hua Mu, judging from their previous fight in the Spirit God Sect.”

Zhao Shanling shook his head. “But he’s wrong. The current Hua Mu isn’t someone he can deal with.”

Lu Minhuang was the sectmaster of the Spirit God Sect. Zhao Luofeng, Zong Zheng, and the other Soul realm experts looked rather disgruntled after seeing that he had charged directly towards Hua Mu when even the outsiders hadn’t gone after Hua Mu yet.

Since Basto didn’t fully understand what was going on with Hua Mu, he backed off a bit to keep a safe distance from him.

“Interesting!” Basto laughed as he took his time flying backwards with the Nethersoul Saber in his hand. Floating in a place several thousand meters away from him, he said to the Demon expert while watching Lu Minhuang charge towards Hua Mu, “Why would a Heavenly Demonsbane take root inside of him?”

“I don’t know,” The Demon expert who had activated Ancestral Awakening said in the outsiders’ language. “But I know that once a Heavenly Demonsbane grows out of someone, there’s no getting rid of it again.”

“They either end up possessing the Heavenly Demonsbane, or the Heavenly Demonsbane ends up possessing them. If they let the Heavenly Demonsbane possess their body, the Heavenly Demonsbane will eat them up from the inside, and they will end up being a part of the plant.”

Smiling, Basto nodded slightly. “Let’s see how things turn out.”

SHEW!

As the sectmaster of the Spirit God Sect sped through the sky, he cast a bronze coin out of his cuff.

The few characters on the coin didn’t seem to be in the human language or any outsider language. None of the observers seemed to know what they meant.

However, as the bronze coin traveled through the air, it expanded rapidly, and a terrifying soul storm brooded in the hole at the center of the coin.

The few strange characters on the coin then suddenly rose and morphed into evil spirits that joined up in channeling the soul storm in the hole in the coin.

A bizarre aura that seemed to be able to tear all beings to bits rapidly built up in the hole. Then, as the expanding hole locked onto Hua Mu, a strong gravitational force was born in it.

“Nether-bridging Ghostly Coin!” One of the Soul realm experts recognized the bronze coin Lu Minhuang had just cast out. 

Even Basto’s expression flickered in astonishment as he muttered, “It’s hard to believe that a human Qi warrior can actually learn my people’s secret magic and display such might.”

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The soul storm continued to build up within the hole in the expanding coin, giving rise to an irresistible gravitational force.

At that moment, the vine pattern between Hua Mu’s eyebrows suddenly blossomed with a mysterious light.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

In a split second, thousands of sharp, pitch-black vines exploded out of Hua Mu’s forehead into the heavens.

Dried-up corpses could be seen hanging on the tips of some of the vines as they thrashed vigorously at the gigantic Nether-bridging Ghostly Coin.

Lu Minghuang’s Spirit Channeling grade treasure shook violently as it was beaten by the vines.

No matter how fiercely the evil spirits on the coin screamed, they didn’t seem to be a match for the pitch-black vines.

The vine pattern between Hua Mu’s eyebrows seemed to have long since become a part of him. It didn’t seem affected at all by Grand Soul Grinder.

WHOOSH!

Eventually, the Nether-bridging Ghostly Coin could no longer bear the vigorous whipping from the killer vines. It ignored Lu Minhuang’s commands and flew directly into the distance.

Lu Minhuang let out a muffled groan as blood spilled from his eyes and rolled down his face, giving him a broken-down look.

Hua Mu, however, didn’t seemed to notice any of that. Like dragons, thick vines swooped down from the heavens and started preying on the outsiders and humans on the ground.

Soon, many outsiders were pierced through their hearts, falling victims to the killer vines.

“A Heavenly Demonsbane is drawn by rich flesh power,” The seventh grade Demon said with a grim face. “Human bodies are fragile and don’t contain much flesh power, so they’ll never become its first choice. This Heavenly Demonsbane isn’t easy to deal with, Lord Basto.”

Meanwhile, after seeing Lu Minhuang be injured, the sectmaster of the Poison Sect was shocked and instantly gave up on the idea of joining him in attacking Hua Mu.

Immediately afterwards, all of the Soul realm experts called out or contacted their subordinates via Sound Stones, telling them to end their battles and retreat to the Five Elements Fortune Formation as quickly as possible.

That was when Nie Tian realized that Hua Mu’s changes had changed the course of this interracial battle.

The Demons were always the first choice of the killer vines that flew out of Hua Mu. After the Demons were the Phantasms and the Fiends, who also possessed rich flesh power, and then the Birdmen. Humans were their last choice.

The vines didn’t seem to care very much as the humans retreated towards the Five Elements Fortune Formation. Instead, they flew to areas where outsiders were gathered.

As powerful as Basto was, he decided to pause his actions and assess the mad vines that had burst forth from within Hua Mu first.

Zhao Shanling rubbed his chin and said with an impressed expression, “Nie Tian, it seems that your puppet won’t be of much help anymore. If the outsiders can’t figure out a way to deal with Hua Mu, they probably won’t be able to further their invasion of the Domain of the Falling Stars. The war, which would have swept across the nine realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars, will probably end in their failure.”

“But if no one can stop Uncle Hua and return him to normal, isn’t he going to become another disaster?” Nie Tian asked.

“Not necessarily. If no one can solve his problem, people can just evacuate from the Realm of Mystic Heaven and let him roam about in this realm.” Zhao Shanling sounded surprisingly casual. “You don’t like the Heaven Palace Sect anyways. Hua Mu can destroy whatever he likes once the humans have evacuated. Then, the patriarch of the Heaven Palace Sect can worry about how to deal with him after he enters the Void domain.

“If even he isn’t able to stop Hua Mu, then it’ll be simple. Humans will just need to abandon the Realm of Mystic Heaven and never return.”

Nie Tian’s face turned very grim. “That’s a solution indeed, and I couldn’t care less if the Heaven Palace Sect was destroyed. But it’s just that if Uncle Hua can’t get out of this state, I...”

“That’s something no one but himself will be able to fix,” Zhao Shanling said with an expressionless face. “Only when his soul recovers will he be able to suppress the monstrous plant and regain control of himself.”

...

“What should we do, Lord Basto?” The seventh grade Demon asked.

Looking composed, Basto said, “Be patient. Tell everyone to get away from that man for the time being. We just need to wait until our weapon of massive destruction arrives. At that time, that Heavenly Demonsbane will be easily annihilated. After all, that Heavenly Demonsbane is far from being fully grown.”

“What weapon, Lord Basto?”

“You’ll know soon enough.”

After their conversation ended, every seventh grade outsider issued orders to their people, telling them to pull back.

It didn’t matter which race they were. Upon receiving the orders, those that were close to Hua Mu rapidly scattered and fled from his sight, fearing that the vines might catch a whiff of their flesh aura and start hunting them.

The outsiders’ actions made the Soul realm experts realize that even the outsiders didn’t know how to deal with Hua Mu.

However, since they hadn’t evacuated from the Realm of Mystic Heaven, they seemed to be waiting for a turn of events.

Nie Tian grew increasingly anxious as he watched Hua Mu, who had lost his senses, searching about for lives like some monster.

He pondered hard for a way to restore Hua Mu to his senses and help him retake his body from that demonic plant.

While Nie Tian wracked his mind for an answer, the Spirit Pearl within his ring of holding suddenly grew restless.

He went blank for a split second before sending a wisp of awareness into the Spirit Pearl.

After collecting a large amount of discarnate souls, the star map within it had become incomparably bright and clear. The only difference was that an image now entered his mind as his awareness swam in it.

A colossal, ancient starship was whooshing through the depths of the dark, cold void like a falling meteor.

In his senses, it wouldn’t be long before the ancient starship arrived in the Realm of Mystic Heaven.

A shudder ran through Nie Tian as he exclaimed, “Dammit! The ancient starship the Phantasms previously recovered from the Realm of Dark Underworld is on its way here! It won’t be long before it descends upon the Realm of Mystic Heaven!”

Zhao Shanling was taken aback. “What? How do you know?” 

“I have something that used to be part of that ancient starship. Now it’s getting more and more active due to the shortening distance between them.” Nie Tian spoke the truth.

Zhao Shanling’s expression flickered noticeably for the first time as he said, “That ancient starship will allow them to travel back and forth among the nine realms, even if I sealed all of the spatial rifts. Once that ancient starship arrives, humans won’t be able to escape death wherever they flee to.

“Even the isolated arcane realms will no longer be completely safe to hide in.”

Nie Tian was flabbergasted upon hearing this.

Frowning deeply, Zhao Shanling continued, “It seems that the reason why Basto didn’t grow anxious after Hua Mu’s turn is that he has been waiting for their ancient starship. Once that ancient starship arrives, even Hua Mu, who’s now possessed by the demonic plant, will no longer be a problem.”

“Does that mean the Domain of the Falling Stars is a lost cause?” Nie Tian asked, desperation rising in his heart.

Zhao Shanling recovered his composure as he said, “Once Hua Mu is bombarded to death by that ancient starship, the other Soul realm Qi warriors will have a much slimmer chance of evacuating from this realm. I’m afraid the Realm of Mystic Heaven is a lost cause, and it’ll only be a matter of time before the other realms fall as well. You’d better start making preparations. I’ll take you and leave the moment things go south.”

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