BOOM!

Meng Qing was thrown to the ground and collapsed. It had only been a few minutes since he had fled, yet he looked like he was now suffering from a fatal disease.

Under Zhen Huilan and Zhu Bin’s longing gazes, Wu Langxie, who was floating in midair, slowly shook his head and said, “I ran through his memories of the past year with my soul transmitting technique, but I didn’t find any connection between him and Zhao Shanling.”

Eyebrows furrowed, Zhu Bin sighed and said, “Then it seems that he was telling the truth… But the situation over on the sectmaster’s front doesn’t look good. If we can’t find Zhao Shanling soon, I’m afraid...”

The burly, mountain-like Wu Langxie gazed off towards the cluster of volcanoes where powerful experts from the Flame God Sect were bustling, and said in a low voice, “If there’s no other way, I’ll go and challenge the Flame God, Xia Yi.”

“Don’t!” Zhu Bin said hastily. “I know you’re very powerful, Mr. Wu. However, you’re only at the early Soul realm, which is inferior to Xia Yi’s cultivation base. I believe that you would have a fair chance at beating him if you were at the same cultivation level as him. But the thing is... you’re not.”

Zhen Huilan chimed in by saying, “He’s right. Only when my eldest martial brother has finished with the Death Reign will he be able to go over there and deal with Xia Yi. Langxie, you’re not far from entering the middle Soul realm. If you insist on fighting Xia Yi now, you’ll probably suffer heavy injuries and a setback in your cultivation. You’d better wait till you enter the middle Soul realm to fight him.”

Wu Langxie frowned. “If we sit back and let Xia Yi collect the earthflame essence he needs, he might soon make another breakthrough and enter the late Soul realm. Once he does, perhaps no one in the Domain of the Falling Stars will be able to contend against him. Even though the patriarch of the Heaven Palace Sect is also at the late Soul realm, their current sectmaster Zhao Luofeng...”

With these words, he grew silent.

As soon as the Heaven Palace Sect’s sectmaster was mentioned, both Zhu Bin and Zhen Huilan frowned deeply.

After a moment of pondering, Zhen Huilan turned to look at the weak Meng Qing and his Profound realm friend, who was as silent as a cicada in cold weather. With a wave of her hand, she said, “Nothing here concerns you anymore. You can go now.”

After being carried back to this location, Meng Qing had discovered that his Bone Giant was gone, along with Li Jing and Shen Xiu, which frustrated him greatly.

However, he hadn’t dared to say a word, but rather hung his head silently.

At this moment, upon hearing Zhen Huilan’s words, he felt as if he were pardoned from a death sentence, and thus planned to leave this place of trouble as quickly as possible.

“Don’t you try to mess with the Blood Sect again.” Zhen Huilan said with a cold snort. “Otherwise, I won’t let you off as easily.”

The Profound realm cultivator who practiced metal power hastily said, “We’ll leave the Realm of Unbounded Desolation as quickly as possible.”

Bitterness filled Meng Qing’s face as he said, “We wouldn’t be able to even if we wanted to.”

Having lost his Bone Giant and having had his soul badly injured by Wu Langxie with his soul transmitting technique, his battle prowess had dropped to only forty percent of his peak state.

If he were to encounter Li Jing in such a poor condition, he would turn around and leave without any hesitation. It seemed that Zhen Huilan also knew that Meng Qing would no longer be a threat to Li Jing. Hence, she ordered impatiently, “Get as far away from here as possible.”

Hearing these words, Meng Qing and the other man nodded and hastily fled in the opposite direction that Li Jing had left in.

After they were gone, Zhu Bin resumed their previous topic by saying, “I sent word to the Heaven Palace Sect soon after Zhao Shanling appeared. Zhao Luofeng only replied with one sentence.”

“What did he say?” Zhen Huilan asked.

Zhu Bin smiled bitterly. “He said, ‘Are you really considering killing my little brother?’ Back when Zhao Shanling brought misery and suffering to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation many years ago, all Zhao Luofeng did was stay out of it. After all, Zhao Shanling is his younger brother. It’s not realistic to expect the Heaven Palace Sect to help us.”

“From the look of it, finding that traitor is the only way,” Zhen Huilan said with a sigh.

“It seems that we’ve come to a dead end here. I’ll go search in other regions.” With these words, Zhu Bin sped away through the air, frustration filling his face.

“I’ll set off too,” Wu Langxie said.

Zhen Huilan nodded gently, but just as he was about to fly away, she said, “Wait, Langxie...”

Wu Langxie turn his head back. “What?”

Even though Zhen Huilan looked somewhat embarrassed, she decided to speak her mind after a brief hesitation. “I know little Wu Ling lost his left hand because of Nie Tian during the Heaven Gate trial. But Nie Tian is one of my juniors, so I hope you can go easy on him if you run into him in the future.”

After a moment of silence, Wu Langxie said with a serious face, “I’ll let the juniors settle their feuds themselves. Let me put it this way: even if you weren’t related to Nie Tian, I wouldn’t lower myself to kill a junior. My theory of education is to let them solve their own problems, like I did when I was growing up. I’ll never allow them to develop the habit of depending on their seniors.”

“Sorry, Langxie. I shouldn’t have underestimated your integrity.” Zhen Huilan expressed her apologies.

She knew Wu Langxie very well, and had heard about how he had raised and taught Wu Ling, but she simply wanted a straightforward answer from him to make sure.

“It’s okay,” Wu Langxie said with a unconstrained laugh. “On the other hand, even though that Nie Tian kid has so fortunately obtained the legacies of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, he may not necessarily be able to beat Wu Ling every time. If Wu Ling were to run into him some day and kill him in fair combat, I hope you can find peace with that as well.”

With these words, he sped away like a bolt of lightning.

Smiling bitterly, Zhen Huilan muttered, “I hope they don’t ever meet again.”

She could sense that, even though Wu Langxie was too proud and just to kill a junior himself, he still held a grudge towards Nie Tian.

After all, Wu Ling had severed his hand because of Nie Tian.

This explained why he had kept Wu Ling by his side and taught him himself ever since Wu Ling had returned from the Heaven Gate trial.

After Zhu Bin and Wu Langxie both left, she cast those distracting thoughts out of her mind and started searching for Zhao Shanling’s aura with her secret magic in the Bone Sect’s ruins.

…

Meanwhile...

Nie Tian learned that the Master Zhen Li Jing referred to was none other than Li Ye and Pei Qiqi’s master, and realized why Li Jing and Shen Xiu were able to extricate themselves from their difficult situation.

Without giving Nie Tian, Li Jing, and the others the time to catch up, Dong Li urged everyone somewhat anxiously, “We’d better get away from here as soon as possible. Nie Tian, you can’t expose your true identity. Otherwise, it will cause us lots of trouble.”

“Why?” Nie Tian asked. “Now that Senior Zhen is right ahead of us in the Bone Sect’s ruins, I figured I might pay her a visit.”

“You can’t do that!” Dong Li blurted in shock. “Do you know who that Mr. Wu is, the one Sectmaster Li talked about?”

Intrigued, Nie Tian asked, “No, who is he?”

“That’s Wu Ling’s father!” Dong Li exclaimed while having a headache over Nie Tian’s ignorance. “Wu Ling is the son of Wu Langxie and an elder of the Tool Sect, Bai Yu. Wu Langxie is a famous formidable figure in the Domain of the Falling Stars. He started as an independent cultivator, but he advanced surprisingly rapidly in his cultivation through practicing devotedly and killing countless opponents. Therefore, almost every sect wanted to take him in.

“Eventually, he married Bai Yu, a Spirit Channeling grade equipment forger from the Tool Sect, thus coming into a deep relationship with the Tool Sect. He can be considered as half a Tool Sect disciple now.

“He has more than once killed opponents with higher cultivation bases when he was young. Now that he has entered the early Soul realm and received the Tool Sect’s full support, people believe he has a good chance of becoming the most powerful man in the Domain of the Falling Stars in the future.”

Even though Li Jing didn’t know the history between Nie Tian and Wu Ling, she was well-aware of what kind of person Wu Langxie was, and therefore added, “Rumors about that man are known to people everywhere in the Domain of the Falling Stars. He has long since possessed all that he needs to establish his own sect, but he seems to think that’s not worth doing.

“That person is far beyond ordinary, and not one to mess with.”

Nie Tian was deeply shocked after hearing Dong Li and Li Jing’s description, finally realizing what kind of formidable background Wu Ling possessed.

Without hearing what Nie Tian had to say, Li Jing parked her Blood Lotus at the center of the crowd and urged everyone to get on board. “Alright, let’s get out of here.”

Dong Li dragged Nie Tian with her as they jumped onto the Blood Lotus together. At the same time, she said in a low voice, “Sure, Wu Langxie is a scary person, but I don’t think you’re anything less. The way I see it, if you step into the Soul realm one day, it’ll be hard to say who will triumph in a fair fight, you or him.”

Off to the side, Li Jing nodded in approval and chimed in, “That day will come. I don’t think anyone at the same cultivation stage as you can beat you in combat, Nie Tian.”

Feng Luo, Shen Xiu, and even Yu Tong nodded quietly, agreeing with Li Jing.

Under their approving gazes, Nie Tian smiled brightly and said, “I hope that day comes soon.”