Outside the first Lizardman realm.

Eleven enormous Lizardman corpses were floating in the dark, cold void. All of them had been dragged to this place by Yang Fan and Lou Hongyan.

Because of this, they had taken twice as long to return to this realm as they had when they left.

All eleven of them had been at the eighth grade. Five had been killed by Nie Tian with that mysterious bone.

Nie Tian had completely drained four of them of their flesh power using Life Drain, which was why they were dried up and shriveled.

There was another one that had been at the peak of the eighth grade. He had only drained half of its profound flesh power, so even though it had also shrunk noticeably, there was still a considerable amount of flesh power left within it.

Lou Hongyan’s plan was to bring all these corpses back to the Lizardman capital to awe the remaining Lizardmen, so that they would obey.

“Let’s wait here for the others,” Lou Hongyan said. “They’ll come here to meet us after they’re finished with the fleeing Lizardmen.”

Neither Nie Tian nor Huang Jinnan had a different opinion.

Lightning flashed from time to time in the depths of Yang Fan’s lightning domain, accompanied by loud rolls of thunder.

Every once in a while, blood-colored light would also flash across his domain, but would rapidly vanish.

Yang Fan was still trying his best to find out what species that mysterious bone belonged to, and what secrets it held.

Nie Tian, however, didn’t seem worried at all.

Since he was the seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, and he had branded it with his own Blood Essence, he had already taken the Lizardman patriarch’s place and become its new master. He didn’t believe Yang Fan would dare to take away something that was his.

In fact, he wanted to see if Yang Fan was able to figure out the origin of that mysterious bone.

To this day, he didn’t know anything about the origin of his own bloodline. If Yang Fan could see something from the bone, perhaps he would be able to figure out who his father was as well.

The few of them waited as time passed.

Soon, Lou Hongyan told Nie Tian that she would need to refine her flame domain with rare materials from within her ring of holding.

After suffering that devastating blow from the mysterious bone, many of the illusory volcanoes, seas of flames, and rivers of flames had vanished.

Right now, she needed to fix her badly damaged domain.

“Come here to me.” Huang Jinnan beckoned him, summoning his golden chariot from within his ring of holding.

A golden shield rose to envelop the chariot, protecting it and those on it from the impurities in the starry river.

After Nie Tian flew on board, Huang Jinnan said with a smile, “Even though this chariot of mine isn’t as fast your Star Boat, its defensive function is outstanding. It allows me to remain in the starry river for a fairly long time. As far as grade is concerned, its grade might be lower than your Star Boat, but it’s not like there’s a big gap.”

“It’s already impressive enough,” Nie Tian said.

At this moment, the five evil spirits had already returned to the Spirit Pearl. After devouring the eighth grade Lizardmen’s souls, they also needed time to digest them and grow.

Meanwhile, Nie Tian had recovered his ten drops of Blood Essence.

The puncture wound in his abdomen had also healed completely. There was no sign of such a serious wound ever occurring.

Floating around him were the enormous corpses of the eighth grade Lizardmen, all of which were treasures in his eyes, since he could either use them to start the Flesh Tempering step of Heavenly Wood Heal, or stockpile them and use them to replenish his flesh power in the future.

“It’s a pity that we didn’t kill any ninth grade Lizardmen,” Huang Jinnan said, looking somewhat frustrated. “But come to think of it, other than that patriarch, none of the other ninth grade Lizardmen had mastered profound bloodline magics or techniques to temper their bones and flesh like the Demons, Phantasms, and other higher races do.

“For this reason, their flesh power isn’t refined enough, and would soon scatter and vanish into heaven and earth.

“If they were eighth grade Ancientbeasts, Demons, or Bonebrutes, since they spend tens of thousands of years refining their bodies, they would lose their flesh power at a much slower rate after death, which makes their remains perfect materials for certain tools.

“But as for the remains of these Lizardmen, I doubt that they can be used to forge Spirit Channeling grade tools.”

As Huang Jinnan spoke, one river of flames after another flew out of Lou Hongyan’s ring of holding and sewed up the damaged parts of her flame domain like needles and thread.

Bit by bit, the volcanoes, rivers of flames, and seas of flames that had vanished earlier appeared in her domain again.

“Can I have those dead Lizardmen?” Nie Tian suddenly asked.

Huang Jinnan went blank. “What do want to do with them?”

“They’ll be very useful to me,” Nie Tian answered without hiding the truth. “As you know, I’m a hybrid. The residual flesh power in them will help my bloodline grow.”

“Okay, no problem.” Huang Jinnan agreed without even asking for Lou Hongyan’s opinion. “If it weren’t for you, our exploration of this domain might have become a complete failure. We might not even have had a chance to return to our sect alive. By seizing that bone, you weakened that Lizardman patriarch to a great extent. You turned the situation around.

“You made the most significant contribution to our victory. It’s only right that you receive the most rewards.”

With these words, Huang Jinnan shot an envious gaze at Yang Fan’s lightning domain. “But the way I see it, your gain from this trip is already significant enough. That mysterious bone alone is probably more valuable than the three Lizardman realms combined. I suppose by taking it back to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace to having it examined by specialists, you’ll gain a considerable amount of contribution points.”

Brow furrowed, Nie Tian asked, “Do you mean turn it in?” 

With a broad laugh, Huang Jinnan said, “Of course not. Just have your specialized experts examine it, so that they’ll be able to keep records of it for future educational purposes. They’re not thieves. How can they take away something that you obtained by risking your life?”

Nie Tian felt relieved. “I’ll be fine with it if they’re just going to examine it.” 

After some time, Huang Jinnan and Lou Hongyan’s subordinates returned successively.

Some of them brought huge Lizardman bodies with them, while others came back empty-handed.

A few hours later, all of those who had gone on pursuits reconvened in this place.

Zhao Heng and the other Saint domain experts shook their heads in frustration, and said that all of the ninth grade Lizardmen had escaped, including the Lizardman patriarch.

What baffled them was that the Lizardmen seemed to have some special escape magic that had allowed them to vanish as soon as they had left their sight and detection range.

They had picked up speed and searched carefully, but failed to find any trace of them.

Together, they had only chased down and killed five eighth grade Lizardmen.

Zhao Heng pondered in silence for quite a while before saying with a grim expression, “There must be other special spatial joints in this area of the starry river that we don’t know about. But those Lizardmen must know them well enough to escape through them. Spatial joints are very mysterious. Only those who are well-versed in spatial power can sense the existence of hidden spatial joints.

“Sadly, we don’t have such an expert on our team. If we had disciples of the Void Spirit Society with us, we might have been able to ferret out the lost Lizardmen and kill them all.”

At that moment, Lou Hongyan’s voice echoed out from within her flame domain. “There’s no need to fixate on them. We’re here to gather cultivation resources from the three realms. These realms aren’t wreathed in rich spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth. They’re not fit for us to live and cultivate in. We’ll leave as soon as we have what we came for.”

Zhao Heng smiled somewhat embarrassedly. “That’s right. I almost forgot that we were here for cultivation resources, not to set up quarters.”

“Uncle Yang!” Lou Hongyan called out.

Yang Fan’s lightning domain instantly settled down.

He emerged from all the lightning and returned the mysterious bone to Nie Tian, looking slightly reluctant. 

“I’ve done a thorough examination of this bone. It doesn’t belong to any race we know of,” he said. “But it seems to be vested with that unidentified being’s lifetime flesh power accumulation. It’s even branded with its Bloodline Crystal Chains.

“I don’t have what it takes to carve spell formations into it.

“However, if you take it back to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace and put it in the hands of an Immortal grade equipment forger, they may be able to carve different spell formations in it. Then, you’ll be able to infuse it with the powers you practice!

“And I’ve checked. It’s compatible with flame power, wood power, and star power.

“It’s especially sensitive to star power. So my guess is that it can automatically gather power from the starry river to replenish its consumption or strengthen itself.

“Such a unique trait suits your needs perfectly. Perhaps you can even forge an Immortal grade weapon!”

Yang Fan’s voice was powerful and resonating.

“An Immortal grade artifact weapon!” A clamor burst out among everyone.

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