Five Earth Cultivated grade spiritual materials were floating over the ancient altar, as if they were within Huang Jinnan’s reach.

Strong desire filled his eyes as he stared unblinkingly at the piece of primal metal.

However, the shield sealing the altar was so resilient that even the Golden Crystal Cannon on his chariot failed to blow it open.

All of the five Earth Cultivated grade spiritual materials had their own independent awareness. They knew that they had to burst through the shield and escape in order not to become sacrificial offerings.

Huang Jinnan’s golden chariot was wreathed in golden flames as he brandished his long spear, cutting down the ghouls that pounced on him in wave after wave.

The few Phantasm evil spirits suddenly flew onto his chariot.

The golden lotus floating over Huang Jinnan’s head shone increasingly brightly and dazzlingly.

Bathed in the golden light, Huang Jinnan looked as if he were painted gold with some divine paint.

One touch of the golden light, and the wisps of soul power that were unleashed by the evil spirits were reduced to rising smoke.

Therefore, Huang Jinnan was unscathed, wreathed in the golden light.

Meanwhile, Nie Tian failed to scare these evil spirits off with the Spirit Pearl. Their negative emotions easily went through his protective ward, with which he had been defending against the tainted energies.

Numerous wisps of evil ideas flew into his mouth, nose, and ears, hoping to eventually infiltrate his sea of awareness.

Having had a similar experience before, Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph, and unleashed Starchains again.

One Starchain after another spread out from the depths of his sea of awareness like lightning bolts.

They struck the evil spirits’ negative ideas and emotions, causing them to vanish like smoke and disperse like clouds. (Idiom: vanish completely)

Losing their soul power, the few Phantasm evil spirits rapidly grew smaller.

However, they didn’t give up, but instead sent in even more negative emotions and ideas to consume Nie Tian’s soul power and his star souls’ precious power.

Soon, the nine star souls that shone brightly over his sea of awareness grew somewhat dimmer and smaller.

Even so, Nie Tian eventually neutralized all of the evil spirits’ soul attacks.

After he was finished, not a single evil spirit dared to come anywhere close to Nie Tian and Huang Jinnan anymore.

The evil spirits floated in distant places like gray clouds, and eyed Nie Tian and Huang Jinnan like frustrated tigers, as if they were waiting for the Spirit Pearl to vanish to swamp the two.

Nie Tian didn’t have to worry about the ghouls. Huang Jinnan took care of them all.

At this moment, Han Sen noticed Nie Tian’s Star Boat, which was berthed outside the square. “That’s one of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s Star Boats!”

With a low chuckle, he morphed into a streak of lightning that shot directly onto the Star Boat.

Yin Yanan, who was busy killing ghouls, noticed his action, and thus called out, “Nie Tian!”

Nie Tian jerked his head around, and discovered that Han Sen was poking around his Star Boat, looking fascinated.

A smile spread across Han Sen’s face as he muttered, “This is a rare treasure forged by the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. If I can get it out of the Shatter Battlefield, I’ll probably be able to sell it for a good price.”

He also gloated as he gazed at the center of the square from time to time.

Nie Tian’s face grew ice-cold as he looked back at him from the ancient altar.

The Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had left the Star Boat for him especially. Not only was it as fast as lightning, but it was also a mighty weapon.

It would be unacceptable to him if Han Sen were to damage it or take it for his own.

“What are you doing not calling your Star Boat in, Nie Tian?!” With a vigorous swing of his long spear, Huang Jinnan split another three ghouls that pounced on the chariot they were standing on, pieces of their mangled bodies falling to the ground.

A surprised expression appeared on Nie Tian’s face. “Call it in?”

Huang Jinnan fixed him with a confused look. “Star formations are carved into every Star Boat of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace. As long as you call to it with your star souls, the spell formations will change accordingly. Don’t tell me that you don’t even know that?”

“Well... No one ever taught me...” Nie Tian said, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Huang Jinnan went blank briefly before suddenly remembering that Nie Tian hadn’t finished his ‘path of stars’ and returned to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace yet.

Therefore, he hadn’t learned many things about the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, even including some things that were known to everyone.

Huang Jinnan then quickly informed him of the method to call the Star Boat in.

It was actually rather simple. All he needed to do was activate his star souls and use them to communicate with the spell formations within the Star Boat. Then, the Star Boat would answer his summons and fly to his side on its own.

After memorizing the method, Nie Tian jerked his head towards the Star Boat.

Nine spots of starlight came to shine in the depths of his pupils as he fixed his eyes on the Star Boat. As soon as the Star Boat’s image was reflected in his eyes, a subtle connection seemed to be established between them.

All of a sudden, the mysterious spell formations that had been carved into the Star Boat changed. The glowing lines that formed them started moving in a profound manner.

The spell formations were instantly activated.

SHEW!

The Star Boat located Nie Tian’s star souls, and flew directly towards the center of the square.

Han Sen was still trying to figure out how the Star Boat worked when this happened. His face turned pale with fright as he hastily jumped off.

Like a falling star that streaked across the sky, the Star Boat flew to the center of the square where Huang Jinnan’s golden chariot was berthed in less than ten seconds.

Nie Tian’s face split into a smile. “Oh, so that’s how it’s done.”

Then, he blurred into action, shifting from Huang Jinnan’s golden chariot to his own Star Boat.

Since the Star Boat didn’t carry any flesh or soul auras, and its power originated from the numerous complicated spell formations that had been carved into it, it didn’t attract the attention of the ghouls and evil spirits.

It was also because of that it didn’t meet any obstacles flying to the center of the square.

In high spirits, Huang Jinnan shouted, “Let’s try to bombard the shield together! Your Star Boat has a strong penetrating force. Besides, the more star power it receives, the mightier it’ll become. Prepare to drain all of your Star Stones in one go, and perhaps we’ll be able to go through the ward together!”

“Sure!” The two of them quickly reached a mutual understanding.

Starlight rapidly built up at the prow of the Star Boat, forming a sea of starlight within seconds.

Shiny spots could be seen in the sea of starlight, which exuded an ancient and unfathomable aura.

At the same time, Huang Jinnan once again activated the Golden Crystal Cannon on his golden chariot.

The Golden Crystal Cannon shot clusters of golden flames towards the altar first.

Then, a beam of dazzling starlight shot out, following the same track as the clusters of golden flames.

BOOM! RUMBLE!

The invisible shield enveloping the ancient altar showed itself with unprecedented clarity.

The shield was actually gray, as if it were some kind of special stone ground into powder and then infused with power.

As soon as it was bombarded by the golden flames, gray powder flew out from the contact point.

A small, finger-sized hole appeared in the shield.

However, the golden flames quickly ran out of power and died out.

The small hole started to shrink rapidly, like a fleshly wound that healed at lightning speed. From the look of it, it would heal completely in the next moment.

At this very moment, the beam of dazzling starlight coming out of the Star Boat shot directly into the shrinking hole.

The hole was ripped open, expanding from the size of a finger to the size of a table.

Starlight poured through the expanded hole, bombarding the rubble-covered altar and sending stone chips flying.

Then, the hole started shrinking again, as if it would heal completely, given a short period of time.

However, the five Earth Cultivated grade spiritual materials saw their opportunity, and flew out through the shrinking hole one after another.

The first one to do so was the piece of primal metal, which Huang Jinnan had set his mind on long ago.

Huang Jinnan let out an exclamation of excitement as soon as the primal metal flew out. Golden light shone in the depths of his eyes as the golden lotus that had been floating over his head and protecting him from the evil spirits blossomed widely, before suddenly closing up and catching the piece of primal metal.

Though locked by the golden lotus’ petals, the piece of primal metal struggled forcefully. Huang Jinnan laughed excitedly as he formed a series of complicated hand seals and pressed onto the golden lotus.

Weighed down by the hand seals, the piece of primal metal seemed to finally accept its fate, and stopped charging about.

After the primal metal, three tree leaves that were extremely fresh and green flew through the hold in the shield.

“They’re yours, Nie Tian!” Huang Jinnan shouted.

Light as feathers and wreathed in pleasant green auras, the tree leaves tried to flee as soon as they broke free.

However, Nie Tian’s bloodline power exploded inside of him, allowing him to extend his arm at lightning speed and catch all three tree leaves in one go.

But to his surprise, the tree leaves somehow vanished the moment he grabbed them.

Nie Tian went blank, failing to tell where the tree leaves had gone.

However, he soon recovered and realized that they must have merged with him.

As that happened, the cluster of pale flames shot through the shrinking hole in the shield.

Possessing primal awareness, it seemed to be the essence of corpse toxins. The moment it flew out, countless wisps of power poured out of the ghouls that were converging on Huang Jinnan.