There were more than a dozen evil spirits this time.

Each and every one of them was quite large, and carried strong grudges, making them fiercer than the ones Nie Tian had seen before.

Obviously, the evil spirits’ original target had been the young man.

He had probably drawn them here intentionally in order to have them kill Nie Tian and the others.

However, now that the young man had left, the evil spirits would only go after living beings with strong flesh auras.

Nie Tian and the three girls thus became their new targets.

“There’s so many of them!” Gazing in the direction the young man had left in, Yin Yanan called out angrily, “Nie Tian! I don’t have enough thunderballs left on me. Why don’t you try to deal with these evil spirits?”

Mu Biqiong, who was standing off to the side, was surprised to see that she had directly given the tough task to Nie Tian.

Mu Biqiong’s eyes lit up as she suddenly realized something. Then, she turned to Nie Tian and said, “Nie Tian, you can handle them.”

She had suddenly remembered the cyan pearl Nie Tian had used to deal with Pergson the Bonebrute, Froste the Phantasm, and Gutas the Demon.

That pearl of his had somehow overtaken Froste’s enormous skull made of discarnate souls, which seemed to be a very powerful treasure of the Phantasms.

These evil spirits were also transformed from discarnate souls. If that pearl had been able to overtake that magical treasure forged by Phantasm experts, it would probably have the same effect on these evil spirits.

“Let me see. I suppose it won’t be very hard.” With these words, Nie Tian took out the Spirit Pearl and flew back into Xie Wanting’s air-transportation spiritual tool.

With loud whooshes, the evil spirits flew directly towards them. However, as they approached Nie Tian, they seemed to sense something, and hastily circled back.

At this moment, the Spirit Pearl was emanating a mysterious cyan light. If they looked closely, they could see thousands of shadows swirling inside of it.

Nie Tian sent a wisp of his soul awareness to communicate with the Spirit Pearl’s soul.

The soul floated in the middle of the Spirit Pearl with numerous discarnate souls gathered around it. At this moment, it seemed to be summoning power and manipulating the discarnate souls to swirl up in order to activate a profound Phantasm magic, Grand Soul Grinder, which could strangle all forms of souls and spirits.

All of a sudden, a strong attractive force was born within the Spirit Pearl.

The evil spirits instantly sensed danger, and flew away from Nie Tian with panicked shrieks.

In the blink of an eye, all of the evil spirits fled and vanished into the distant sky.

Astonished, Xie Wanting gazed unblinkingly at the pearl in Nie Tian’s hand and asked, “Is that some soul treasure?”

Nie Tian nodded. “I got it from some Phantasms.”

“But... how are you able to use a treasure forged by Phantasms?” Xie Wanting asked, looked confused.

“I don’t know either,” Nie Tian said, smiling.

Since the Spirit Pearl didn’t contain any flesh power, it didn’t trigger any changes in the tainted energies around Nie Tian. Holding it in his hand, he glanced around to make sure that all of the evil spirits had left. Only then did he put his mind at ease and say, “It seems that I’ll be able to handle evil spirits with the help of this thing in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range from now on.”

“Alright,” Yin Yanan said. “You just handle the evil spirits. Leave the ghouls to us.”

With slightly furrowed eyebrows, Mu Biqiong asked, “I wonder why that young man killed all of his companions, and what he was after by asking to join us.”

“From the look of it, he has no problem handling evil spirits with that powerful treasure of his,” Nie Tian said with a thoughtful expression. “Only if he ran into ghouls would he face some real threat.  I suppose the reason why he wanted to join us was because he was after our valuables, but who knows? Perhaps we’ll see him again and find out.”

“The man’s not easy to deal with,” Xie Wanting said with a worried face.

If it weren’t for Nie Tian and the girls, she wouldn’t have dared to come to the Bloody Grave Mountain Range by herself, given her battle prowess.

Then, they took some time to recuperate, and marched out again.

The Bloody Grave Mountain Range covered a vast region. Since they didn’t have a specific destination, they just traveled aimlessly.

As they did, Nie Tian unleashed his Heaven Eyes to scan their surroundings.

However, even his Heaven Eyes were greatly affected by the tainted energies that were everywhere in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range.

Multicolored tainted energies soon infiltrated his Heaven Eyes.

They were only able to scout for them for a short while before the soul power that formed their exteriors were poisoned, forcing Nie Tian to retract them.

Meanwhile, the three girls had an even more difficult time scanning their surroundings with their soul awareness.

Their detective range was so limited that they felt as if they had become blind in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range.

However, Nie Tian could sense the subtle movements of living beings’ flesh auras as he unleashed his bloodline power from time to time.

They ran into a few groups of evil spirits along the way.

All of them screeched and swooped towards Nie Tian and the girls the moment they saw them, but hastily fled after Nie Tian took out his Spirit Pearl.

Like Nie Tian had expected, this unique treasure he had gained from the Phantasms was indeed very effective on evil spirits.

“As soon as I summon the Flame Dragon Armor, dozens of times more tainted energies will converge on me, putting the Flame Dragon Armor and me under great pressure, since we’ll have to consume flame power and flesh power to ward them off. However, no matter what the Spirit Pearl does, it won’t trigger any changes in the tainted energies around it. Most importantly, it has a clear subduing effect on evil spirits...”

With these thoughts in mind, Nie Tian realized that the Spirit Pearl would be an item of great importance while he explored the Bloody Grave Mountain Range.

Then, he sent a wisp of his soul awareness into it.

To his surprise, he discovered that the star map on which the Realm of Shattered Earth was marked out seemed to have become much smaller and fainter.

Instead, countless discarnate souls were now gathered in another place, forming a new star map.

However, the map was still rather small, and seemed incomplete. Nie Tian couldn’t pick up much information from it yet.

Therefore, he attempted to communicate with the Spirit Pearl’s soul.

Soon, it gave him a response, telling him that this second star map was of the Shatter Battlefield! 

The Spirit Pearl’s soul had been a ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch. After twists and turns, it had been refined into the Spirit Pearl, and became its soul.

Since it had been vested with Nie Tian’s soul imprints, it felt a sense of belonging towards him.

According to it, the star map of the Shatter Battlefield had only appeared because part of its memories from its former life had been awakened by the increased amount of discarnate souls within the Spirit Pearl. It was the discarnate souls that had helped draw the map bit by bit.

Nie Tian then realized that the ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch must have visited the Shatter Battlefield as well.

Not just that, but the some of the spirits and souls the Spirit Pearl had absorbed also had memories of the Shatter Battlefield, as if they had also come to explore the Shatter Battlefield at certain points.

Dot after dot, the discarnate souls connected into an increasingly complete star map in the depths of the Spirit Pearl.

Since the map was still vague and incomplete, Nie Tian couldn’t locate the Bloody Grave Mountain Range on it yet.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul then told him that if all of the evil spirits that roamed the Bloody Grave Mountain Range were refined into it, their memories would help draw the Bloody Grave Mountain Range part of the star map.

The more evil spirits it absorbed, the more complete and distinct it would be.

Nie Tian then asked the Spirit Pearl’s soul with what method would it be able to absorb evil spirits without provoking them.

“You’ll need to wait until the evil spirits are very close to you before taking me out. That’s because when they’re close enough, they won’t be able to resist my attractive force, and they’ll be dragged inside.

“Meanwhile, as I gather more and more souls and spirits, I’ll become more powerful.

“After I grow to certain points, I’ll be able to activate more wondrous uses, and the more destructive I’ll become to spirits and souls of various forms.”

Through his communication with the Spirit Pearl, Nie Tian gradually understood its two main incredible uses.

First, it could create a magnetic field around itself to channel all spirits and souls that entered it.

If the spirits or souls were separated from their flesh, like evil spirits, it would be able to absorb them much more easily.

On the other hand, it would be very difficult to channel souls from living humans or outsiders.

Second, it would gain control of all of the spirits and souls that it absorbed, and use them to draw star maps and mark out locations for Nie Tian according to their memories of their former lives.

The Spirit Pearl had previously been a crucial part of an ancient starship of the Phantasms. The Phantasms had sent armies to conquer foreign domains and realms. Through killing living beings and absorbing their souls, they had drawn maps that covered large areas of this boundless starry river, providing their starships with guidance at all times.

According to the Spirit Pearl’s soul, there were only three Spirit Pearls with such incredible and powerful uses among the Phantasm race.

As their air-transportation spiritual tool flew to a greenish-black mountain peak, Xie Wanting caught sight of a large cave halfway up it. “Nie Tian! There’s a huge cave in that mountain peak, and a lot of corpses can be seen around it.”

Intense tainted energies were gathered at the mouth of the cave, where piles of corpses could be seen.

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