Both the Bone Blood Demon and the Frost Blood Python followed Nie Tian and Yin Yanan’s command to stay in place.

Since, unlike outsiders, the two dead Soul realm Qi warriors didn’t have much residual flesh power in them, the Frost Blood Python and the Bone Blood Demon didn’t show any interest in their corpses.

However, the five powerful evil spirits swooped by and absorbed their discarnate souls before they vanished into heaven and earth.

“Their rings of holding are yours to take,” Nie Tian said plainly. “I don’t want you to work without getting paid.”

“That’s more like it.” Yin Yanan pursed her lips into a smile and flew off the Star Boat without standing on ceremony.

Delight appeared in Mu Biqiong’s eyes as she flew off after her.

Soul realm experts usually had all kinds of treasures in their possession. They most likely had their own Spirit Channeling grade spiritual tools. Adding in some spirit jades, medicinal pills, and spiritual materials, the two of them would be more than satisfied.

Standing on the Star Boat, both Hua Mu and Qi Bailu had sustained injuries to different degrees, and almost used up all of their power after numerous encounters.

Hua Mu smiled bitterly as he sat down, took out a handful of medicinal pills, and stuffed them down his throat. “Nie Tian… I didn’t expect that we’d end up needing your help in the Shatter Battlefield.”

With a complicated look in his eyes, Qi Bailu chimed in. “You demonstrated your extraordinary talent back when you were still in the Domain of the Falling Stars. Who would have thought that you’d shine even brighter after coming to the Shatter Battlefield?”

“Uncle Hua, your Heavenly Demonsbane...” Nie Tian wanted to say something, but stopped on second thought.

He sensed that the Heavenly Demonsbane hidden between Hua Mu’s eyebrows was showing signs of withering.

Thanks to his special bloodline, he had a keen perception of life power, especially in special beings like the Heavenly Demonsbane and the coexisting flowers.

Now that his bloodline had advanced to the sixth grade and awakened new bloodline talents, his perception had grown keener as well.

Hua Mu sighed. “The Heavenly Demonsbane has also sustained heavy injuries. If it weren’t for it, just the two of us wouldn’t have been able to last this long. I guess we owe it a thank you. It’s a pity that it has drained the power it has accumulated over all these years. I’m afraid it won’t be easy for it to recover its lost power again.

“But of course, that’s not a terrible thing for me.”

“What do you mean?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

“It being weak means even if I sustain serious injuries in the future, it won’t be strong enough to possess me.” With these words, Hua Mu looked somewhat downcast. “However, if it becomes too weak, it’ll start to channel my soul power, which will affect my future cultivation.”

Nie Tian fell silent. After a moment of pondering, he took his remaining berries from within his ring of holding and handed them all to Hua Mu. “I believe these things will help your Heavenly Demonsbane recover its strength. Even though I don’t know how helpful they’ll be, I’m certain the Heavenly Demonsbane will recover much faster with their help than without.”

Hua Mu received the berries and asked with a confused expression, “What are they?” 

Nie Tian then explained, “I don’t know for sure. We found them from a mountain cave in the Bloody Grave Mountain Range. That entire mountain seemed to be the remains of a titan. The titan’s residual life power gave birth to these berries, and allowed them to contain life power as well.”

Hua Mu’s eyes suddenly lit up. “Life power?! If that’s true, they’ll definitely be of great help to the Heavenly Demonsbane’s recovery! The Fruit of Life you gave me years ago not only prolonged my lifespan, but also helped the Heavenly Demonsbane grow at a much faster speed. The reason why it was able to possess me during the battle of the Realm of Mystic Heaven was partly because that Fruit of Life made it much stronger than before.”

With these words, he swallowed the berries one after another.

As soon as they reached his abdomen, the Heavenly Demonsbane between his eyebrows seemed to notice the changes.

The pattern that was originally too faint to make out suddenly grew distinctive.

Wisps of life power rapidly filled his stomach before the Heavenly Demonsbane captured and channeled them to between Hua Mu’s eyebrows.

The Heavenly Demonsbane’s growth depended on Hua Mu’s soul and flesh power.

However, since Hua Mu was a human, he was born with feeble flesh power. This had greatly limited the Heavenly Demonsbane’s growth.

The life power the berries contained was even more mysteriously powerful than flesh power.

Only a few of them provided enough life power for the Heavenly Demonsbane to reappear vividly between Hua Mu’s eyebrows.

Hua Mu closed his eyes to examine the changes taking place inside of him. Then, he reopened his eyes and said to Nie Tian, “These berries not only contained life power, but also the residual flesh power of a titan. Because of this, they’ll probably give me another twenty to thirty years of life. With this additional time, I’m confident that I’ll be able to enter the Void domain before my lifespan runs out.”

Once a human cultivator entered the Void domain, their lifespan would go from three thousand years straight up to ten thousand years.

With the added seven thousand years, Hua Mu would have plenty of time to head towards higher levels.

The Fruit of Life had already extended his lifespan by a hundred years. Now, with another twenty to thirty years, he was now much more confident.

Not to mention that he had gained a considerable fortune from this trip to the depths of the Shatter Battlefield. The precious materials he had gathered here would get him the materials he would need to build his personal domain.

He closed his eyes with a smile on his face.

Off to the side, envy filled Qi Bailu’s face as he watched Nie Tian generously give the berries that contained life power to Hua Mu and heard their conversation.

From their conversation, he learned that Hua Mu had already received a Fruit of Life from Nie Tian.

He was well-aware where he had found it: the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.

“Nie Tian and Dong Li must have discovered the legendary place in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation where a Tree of Life grows. With a Fruit of Life, Dong Li stabilized her status in the Dong Clan. Nie Tian gave his two Fruits of Life to Hua Mu and his master, Wu Ji.

“The kid is indeed quite a figure. Fragmentary star marks, Fruits of Life...”

While Qi Bailu marveled inwardly, he suddenly came to realize that whoever was close to Nie Tian seemed to have benefited from their relationship with him.

“What happened exactly, Senior Qi?” Nie Tian asked. “Do you know where my master is? Have you seen Zhao Shanling? And where are the others?”

Snapping out of his thoughts, Qi Bailu took a moment to gather his thoughts before explaining what had happened to them after their parting with Nie Tian.

From him, Nie Tian learned that Zhao Shanling had left the main group soon after entering the Shatter Battlefield.

Fan Kai from the Heaven Palace Sect had also led a small group of Qi warriors who were close to the Heaven Palace Sect away to explore by themselves.

Qi Bailu, Hua Mu, Wu Ji, and Zhong Zheng went to explore the depths of the Shatter Battlefield.

On their way, Wu Ji had learned the rough location of the river of time from a foreign Qi warrior, and thus left for it by himself.

Before he had left, he had told the others that if he was lucky enough to find the river of time, then he wouldn’t return to the Realm of Maelstrom any time soon, regardless of when the spatial rift leading to it might vanish.

He appeared to have been ready to stay at the river of time for as long as was needed. Only when he couldn’t derive any more enlightenment from it would he consider leaving the Shatter Battlefield.

After he had left, Qi Bailu, Hua Mu, and Zong Zheng had discovered a graveyard where fierce fights between experts of various races had taken place.

There lie the remains of numerous outsiders and Ancientbeasts, along with the broken pieces of human experts’ personal domains. Some of the experts even seemed to have been at the Saint domain.

Each of them had gained significant fortunes from their trip.

Just as they had been ready to leave the graveyard with content hearts, they had encountered foreign Qi warriors.

At that time, Hua Mu’s Heavenly Demonsbane had somehow gotten out of control and possessed him.

Because of that, Hua Mu had gone berserk, and killed a few foreign Qi warriors.

Knowing they must have gained a considerable fortune, the foreign Qi warriors used this as an excuse to go after Hua Mu and the others.

As Hua Mu had run with the others, he had killed quite a few pursuers with the Heavenly Demonsbane’s help.

However, soon after he killed them, more pursuers were summoned from other places.

Later, when the Heavenly Demonsbane had overly consumed its power, they had grown afraid. But according to their estimation, that had been at about the time the spatial rift that led to the Realm of Maelstrom should have stabilized. Therefore, they had come towards it.

“I see.” As Nie Tian learned these things from Qi Bailu, Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong returned to his side as well.

After withdrawing the five powerful evil spirits and the Bone Blood Demon, Nie Tian said, “Let’s go meet senior Zong first. Then we can wait for the spatial rift to stabilize to return to the Realm of Maelstrom.”

Qi Bailu nodded in assent.

The Star Boat then headed out at lightning speed. It didn’t take long for them to return to Zong Zheng’s location, where numerous spatial rifts interwove in the sky.

However, Nie Tian was surprised to see a familiar person beside Zong Zheng.

Yin Yanan stood aghast. “Yuan Jiuchuan!” 

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