Dong Li’s pleasant scent filled Nie Tian’s nose.

Before Nie Tian realized what was happening, the tip of Dong Li’s tongue had already found its way into his mouth, like a slippery spirit snake.

Nie Tian then knew what to do. However, just as he held Dong Li tightly in his arms and kissed her vigorously, Dong Li put her hands on Nie Tian’s chest and separated herself from him.

Dong Li hammered her fist on Nie Tian’s chest and gave him a flirtatious look. “You’re so bad!”

Nie Tian’s hand still couldn’t stop sliding over her back and bottom. He gave her a taunting smile, and said, “What’s with the sudden passion?”

The stone rooms in this palace seemed to be soundproof. No one would be able to hear anything they said once the door was shut.

Even so, the Soul realm experts, as well as juniors like Dong Baijie, Qin Yan, and Xuan Ke, were just outside, examining the great hall for anything noteworthy.

The fact that Dong Li had pulled him into one of the stone rooms and thrown herself at him gave him a strong stimulation.

He almost lost himself in Dong Li’s sweet kisses and the warmth of her body. There was no way that he could stop voluntarily.

It was Dong Li who put a stop to it and put sense back in his head. She pointed outside and said in a low voice, “There are people outside.”

With a flirtatious grin, Nie Tian said, “What are you so afraid of? They won’t be able to see or hear anything.”  

“They’ll know if we spend too long in here.” Dong Li eyed him somewhat angrily. “The patriarch of my clan and my older brother are both out there. I don’t want them to find out and make fun of me.”

Nie Tian laughed. “Are you kidding? They want me to seal the deal with you.” 

Dong Li suddenly grew serious. “Nie Tian, my clan and I have been treating you well, right?” 

“Yeah.” Nie Tian said, while running his hands across Dong Li’s curvy back and full bottom. “You want something, don’t you? Just tell me what is it.”

“I want you to keep my clan’s interests at heart,” Dong Li said without any hesitation. “Now that the Poison Sect, the Spirit God Sect, and the Flame God Sect are gone, the Realm of Black Marsh and the Realm of Dark Underworld are currently unclaimed. Both those realms are vast and rich in cultivation resources. Many sects are drooling over them.”

Upon hearing these words, Nie Tian realized what she was thinking, and thus asked, “So your clan is thinking about moving to one of those realms?”

“Who isn’t?” Dong Li responded with a question.

Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian asked, “What exactly do you want?”

“As you know, there are five powers in the Realm of a Hundred Battles: My clan, the Gu Clan, the Cao Clan, the Pill Pavilion Sect, and the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce. Even though the Realm of a Hundred Battles is a vast realm, many regions are still roamed by very powerful spirit beasts. The five powers only control a small part of the Realm of a Hundred Battles.

“However, my clan has to share such a small part with the other four powers. We have long since thought about moving, but never had the opportunity...”

Nie Tian suddenly felt a headache.

Many powers, including the Dong Clan, the Spirit Condor, the Ice Pavilion Sect, the Yin Sect, the Yang Sect, and the sects from the Realm of Flame Heaven, had especially close relationships with him.

All of them had provided him help or shelter as he grew to become the man he was today.

He wondered what he should do if they all reached out to him and demanded a part of those two unclaimed realms.

After all, he had never encountered similar problems before.

Every sect and clan in the Domain of the Falling Stars had seen one truth: he was now the owner of the Domain of the Falling Stars since the arrival of Yue Yanxi from the Divine Flame Sect.

All of a sudden, he was put in a position so lofty that he could determine the ownership of the realms in the Domain of the Falling Stars, but then problems came along.

Nie Tian pondered in silence for a while before saying slowly, “Considering our relationship, I definitely won’t forget about your clan. If it weren’t for our relationship, I wouldn’t have given a piece of the broken Heaven-shattering Crystal Cannon to your clan. It’s just that the other sects may also make similar demands, which will put me in a difficult position.”

Dong Li sighed and said, “My clan has studied that Heaven-shattering Crystal Cannon with the Spirit Condor and the Tool Sect for more than six months now, and they still haven’t figured out a way to fix it. I know your dilemma. I’ll try not to put too much pressure on you, as long as you remember me and my clan.”

Nie Tian nodded. “That’s for sure.”

With the matter settled, Nie Tian intended to resume his unfinished business with Dong Li. However, Dong Li’s face blushed as she pushed him off and said, “We can’t stay here for too long. They’ll know. We’ll have plenty of time for this in the future.”

With these words, she pushed the door open.

Walking out, she said, “Come to think of it, it’s rather strange that I failed to push the main gate open, but I have no problem opening doors inside.”  

Nie Tian followed her out of the room, saying, “You were invited in. It’s only natural that you won’t encounter any more restrictions in here.”  

People were scattered in different parts of the spacious hall, examining this curious palace.

Hua Mu and Zhen Huilan were gathered by the large-scale teleportation portal and marveling at its profundity.

Zong Zheng and Dong Wangling were going from one stone room to another, hoping to find something that the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had left behind.

Qin Yan, Cao Qiushui, and the other juniors were standing in the middle of the great hall, gazing up through the transparent dome into the boundless starry river.

As they noticed that Nie Tian and Dong Li had come out of the stone room, they all laid their eyes on them, meaningful smiles filling their faces.

Dong Li avoided their gazes, while Nie Tian glanced around with a calm, confident expression.

At this moment, Li Langfeng’s voice echoed out from outside the palace. “Nie Tian, people from the Lei Clan are here, and they’re asking to see you.”

The whole palace was completely sealed. No one could see or hear anything from the outside, nor could their soul awareness penetrate these walls.

However, people inside had no problem sensing sounds or movements from the outside. Even juniors like Nie Tian could hear everything with great clarity, not to mention the Soul realm experts.

Li Langfeng’s exclamation caught everyone’s attention.

“The Lei Clan,” Hua Mu muttered, his eyebrows furrowed. “I wonder what they want.”

“Nie Tian, you’d better go meet them and see why they’re here.”

“Okay.” With this word, Nie Tian walked towards the closed stone gate. He pushed it open and walked through it.

As soon as he did, he saw Lei Tianqi standing next to Li Langfeng, along with a few Lei Clan members.

At this moment, Lei Tianqi was examining the magnificent palace with a disbelieving expression. Apparently, he was deeply shocked by it.

Upon seeing Nie Tian, he hastily took a step forward and said in an excited voice, “This... This palace was left here by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, wasn’t it?”

Nie Tian smiled. “That’s right.”

Lei Tianqi looked up at the grand palace again. “No wonder...” 

Then, he took a deep breath to calm himself before asking in a deep voice, “What’s inside, Nie Tian?”

Nie Tian smiled, but didn’t say anything.

Lei Tianqi instantly realized something. He smiled somewhat embarrassedly and said, “Sorry. I’m being rude. I’m just very curious.”

“What do you want me for?” Nie Tian asked.

“Umm, grand elder sent word to us that they’ve discovered something in the region he told you about,” Lei Tianqi said. “And their discoveries have something to do with the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. Grand elder wants me to ask you and see if you want to go there and take a look.” 

Nie Tian’s eyes lit up. “Have something to do with the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace? Do you know what discoveries exactly?”

“Well, grand elder didn’t tell me the details,” Lei Tianqi said, looking embarrassed. “As you know, our clan is only one of the Divine Flame Sect’s subordinate forces. They don’t tell us many things.”

Nie Tian nodded. “Will I be able to go there any time I want?”

“Yeah, you can.” Lei Tianqi answered. “All you need to do is to use our teleportation portal in the Thunder Mountain Sect’s headquarters. You’ll get there after a few transits. However, grand elder has already asked me about your decision a few times, so it seems rather urgent. We’ve been looking for you everywhere, but didn’t have any clue about your whereabouts. It seems that it took you a long time to make your breakthrough.”

Considering Lei Tianqi’s cultivation base, it was only natural that he could see that Nie Tian had already entered the Worldly realm.

Therefore, he suspected that Nie Tian had conducted secluded cultivation somewhere during the time he had been missing.

“Alright,” Nie Tian said. “I’ll head to the Thunder Mountain Sect’s headquarters and go meet the grand elder as soon as possible.” 

“That’s good to hear!” Lei Tianqi said, secretly giving a sigh of relief.

Yue Yanxi had sent word to him three times already during the past two weeks, instructing him to ask Nie Tian to go meet him. Therefore, he had been under great pressure.

Now that Nie Tian had appeared, he could finally give Yue Yanxi a satisfactory reply.

“You may return to the Heavenly Thunder Mountain Range now, Clanmaster Lei,” Nie Tian said. “I’ll be there soon.” 

Lei Tianqi took another glance at the magnificent palace. In fact, he had hoped to stay and examine it. Yet now that Nie Tian had told him to leave, he could only do as he was bid.

He was well-aware that Nie Tian still hadn’t completely forgiven his clan for what they had done.

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