Wu Xu was killed in a split second.

The other four sensed the danger, and thus fled without even the slightest hesitation.

However, of all choices, they chose to fled in Nie Tian and the others’ direction.

Clearly, the four of them intended to lead Yuan Jiuchuan to Nie Tian’s group to create trouble for them.

At the spatial rift, Wu Xu’s corpse fell out of the sea of lightning and crashed to the ground with a loud crash.

There wasn’t a shred of lightning power left in his ice-cold body, his spiritual sea completely dry and ring of holding taken away by Yuan Jiuchuan.

Floating in the middle of the sea of lightning, Yuan Jiuchuan seemed like a god of lightning as he gazed coldly in the direction the four Qi warriors had fled in.

WHOOSH!

Lightning flashed, thunder rolled, and dark clouds surged within the sea of lightning that covered an area that was more than ten thousand kilometers.

Seven exceptionally large thunderballs floated over Yuan Jiuchuan’s head, each of which had a beast spirit roaring within it, as if they were answering his commands.

Yuan Jiuchuan smiled as he manipulated the sea of lightning to pursue the fleeing Qi warriors. “Compared to Nie Tian and those with him, these clowns are much easier to handle.”

Earlier, when he had a pleasant conversation with Zong Zheng by the spatial rift, he had actually been waiting for the return of Nie Tian and the others.

That was because he had learned from Zong Zheng that seven Soul realm Qi warriors had been pursuing Qi Bailu and Hua Mu, and that Nie Tian and the girls had gone to rescue them.

His original plan had been to wait for Nie Tian and the others to return to kill them all at once.

However, by the time Nie Tian had returned on his Star Boat with Mu Biqiong, Yin Yanan, Qi Bailu, and Hua Mu, he had realized that they were the extraordinary youngsters he had met at the Fortune Wells.

Yuan Jiuchuan had witnessed Nie Tian summon the Bone Blood Demon and activate the Floragrims’ Wood Thriving Formation. He had seen Yuan Jiuchuan summon her eighth grade Frost Blood Python, and Mu Biqiong use her coexisting flowers.

All three of them had unearthly powerful assistance at their disposal.

As strong as Yuan Jiuchuan was, he had believed that killing Nie Tian and the girls would be a difficult thing to do.

After all, he had a feeling that those three things combined seemed to have the battle prowess of a Void domain expert.

Not to mention that they also had Qi Bailu, Hua Mu, and Zong Zheng, three late Soul realm experts, with them.

However, what had surprised Yuan Jiuchuan the most was that Star Boat.

The fact that Nie Tian had a Star Boat in his possession meant that he enjoyed an unusually high position in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

No matter how powerful Yuan Jiuchuan was, he had to reconsider his actions if he might anger the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

After all, it was possible that killing Nie Tian would draw the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s wrath on him, and make them pursue him through the various domains.

Perhaps he wouldn’t care too much about that if he had returned to the middle Saint domain.

However, he was now at an awkward stage where he hadn’t yet returned to his peak cultivation base after his rebirth.

Currently, he had to avoid his enemies from his previous life. If he were to anger the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace at such a time, he would have to spend a lot of energy avoiding and handling his enemies, which would greatly affect his cultivation.

For these reasons, he hadn’t attacked Nie Tian and the others with him.

Wu Xu and this men, however, were nothing but a bunch of rogue cultivators from the Domain of Heaven Python, and they didn’t have formidable help like the Bone Blood Demon, the Frost Blood Python, and the coexisting flowers. Therefore, of course he could do whatever he wanted with them.

WHOOSH!

The sea of lightning traveled at an alarming speed, and caught up to the four fleeing Qi warriors in the blink of an eye.

The four of them already saw Nie Tian in the distance.

With a grim face, Nie Tian summoned his Star Boat again and said to the others in a low voice, “Let’s do our best to avoid that Yuan Jiuchuan. If he actually makes a move against us, then we’ll leave on my Star Boat. I believe it’ll be fast enough to lose him.”

Yin Yanan and Mu Biqiong leapt onto the Star Boat without saying a word.

After a moment of hesitation, Hua Mu, Qi Bailu, and Zong Zheng also flew onto the Star Boat, where they gazed coldly at the incoming four Qi warriors.

“You bastards!” The man who had mocked Nie Tian earlier cursed furiously. “You knew that guy at the spatial rift was a cold-blooded killer, but you didn’t warn us!”

Nie Tian smiled coldy. “Are we friends? Why would we do that?”

Just as the man was about to speak, he looked over his shoulder and saw something that scared him soulless.

Within such a short time, the sea of lightning that was chasing after them had expanded several times over to take up a large part of the unfathomable starry sky.

At the same time, Yuan Jiuchuan seemed to have merged with the sea of lightning, body and soul.

Dark clouds surged within the sea of lightning as lightning bolts that looked like slithering dragons shot out of it, and reached the fleeing Qi warriors as if they had their own awareness.

The Qi warriors hastily summoned their spiritual tools and created spiritual power wards around themselves. However, their protective wards gave fizzing sounds after being struck the lightning bolts, and soon shattered.

Then the sea, surging with lightning and dark clouds, descended upon them like a unique dimension that was filled with lightning.

Staring unblinkingly at the sea of lightning and thunder, Qi Bailu muttered with a bitter expression, “That’s the power of a domain... He’s only at the early Soul realm, but can actually wield the power of a domain... I guess only reborn cultivators who have recovered broken pieces of their domains from their previous lives are able to wield such power.”

Zong Zheng sighed and chimed in, “Compared to the power cultivators can wield at the Soul realm, the power of a domain is at a whole other level.”

As the sea of lightning came closer and closer to the four fleeing Qi warriors, they were suddenly sucked into it, as if they had fallen victim to some ancient imprisonment spell.

As soon as they were engulfed, they discovered that Yuan Jiuchuan’s aura actually filled every corner of the sea of lightning.

This sea of lightning was Yuan Jiuchuan, and Yuan Jiuchuan was this sea of lightning.

The frenzied roars of Thunder Beasts echoed out from the depths of the sea of lightning, which took up an increasingly large area of the sky.

RUMBLE! RUMBLE!

Heaven-destroying, earth-shattering rolls of thunder spread out from the four Qi warriors.

In the deafening rumbles, the four of them split up, filling the air with their broken bodies and spraying blood.

Their discarnate souls scattered and vanished into the air like smoke immediately after emerging in the sea of lightning.

Face cold, Zong Zheng said, “It’s almost impossible for true souls to escape from someone with Yuan Jiuchuan’s mastery of lightning power in an attempt to be reborn. Lightning magics work exceptionally well on all forms of souls and spirits. If a man’s true soul hasn’t left his fleshly body, then he’ll still be able to protect himself from lighting magics with his fleshly body. However, once he loses his fleshly body, his true soul will die beyond the shadow of a doubt after encountering such powerful lightning magics.”

At this moment, even Nie Tian had withdrawn his Heaven Eyes out of fear of the sea of lightning.

He didn’t need to see it to know that the four Qi warriors’ true souls were annihilated completely the moment they abandoned their fleshly bodies.

This meant they had truly and utterly died. They weren’t even given the opportunity to secure their true souls and be reborn.

Moments later, their charred, mangled bodies fell out of the sea of lightning.

Floating in the middle of the sea of lightning, Yuan Jiuchuan clutched four rings of holding in his hand as he gazed Nie Tian and the others from afar.

Nie Tian and the others’ expressions grew grim, as if they were facing a formidable foe.

However, to their surprise, instead of attacking them, Yuan Jiuchuan laughed and said, “Thank you for delivering these five to my side.”

With these words, he floated back to the spatial rift, surrounded by the sea of lightning.

Zong Zheng grew cold with fear as he said in a low voice, “He seems to have heard what we said.”

Hua Mu’s expression flickered slightly as he said, “I can’t believe he can actually overhear our conversation from such a great distance.”

“It seems we’re still too close to him.” After a moment of pondering, Nie Tian started his Star Boat and flew further in the opposite direction from Yuan Jiuchuan’s location, lest he learn every move they would make.

Looking deeply confused, Mu Biqiong said, “He killed those five Soul realm experts with such ease, and he’s become even stronger after absorbing the lightning power of that late Soul realm expert. But why didn’t he attack us?”

“I don’t know.” Nie Tian also couldn’t think of an answer.

The Star Boat traveled at full speed. This time, they flew to a location that was dozens of kilometers from their previous foothold.

Nie Tian was confident that, no matter how powerful Yuan Jiuchuan was, he wouldn’t be able to overhear them now that they were separated from him by such a significant distance.

During the following two months, Nie Tian would occasionally see Qi warriors return from different directions and head in the direction of the spatial rift, where Yuan Jiuchuan was waiting.

Due to the significant distance, Nie Tian couldn’t see exactly what happened there with his Heaven Eyes.

However, he could see signs of battles taking place in that direction from time to time. Sometimes, he could even vaguely see the sea of lightning in the distant sky.

On this day, Fan Kai from the Heaven Palace Sect returned with Zhao Luofeng, Lei Zhenyu, and a few others from the Thunder Mountain Sect.

Fan Kai’s eyebrows rose as he saw Nie Tian. He hurriedly came over to see him with the others.

He bowed respectfully and said, “Nie Tian, I knew that you’d be unharmed traveling in the Shatter Battlefield.”

Zhao Luofeng, Lei Zhenyu, and the others also descended from the sky to greet Nie Tian.

After taking a glance at Lei Zhenyu, Nie Tian smiled and said, “You’re quite lucky to have run into us. Don’t approach that spatial rift any time soon.”

If Lei Zhenyu and the others hadn’t passed by Nie Tian’s location, they would have definitely interested Yuan Jiuchuan, considering they all practiced lightning power.

Lei Zhenyu was only at the Soul realm. He would die beyond the shadow of a doubt if they were to fight Yuan Jiuchuan.

Even though Fan Kai from the Heaven Palace Sect was now at the Void domain, it was hard to say whether he would be able to save Lei Zhenyu from Yuan Jiuchuan’s hands.