WHOOSH!

Standing on an eighth grade Goldskin Beast, Dong Qisong from the Beast-controlling Sect plummeted towards the dead star like a streak of golden light before landing with a loud crash.

He seemed to be so exhausted that even breathing had become laborious.

Sparks of spiritual power fell from him like snowflakes.

He was drenched in sweat.

Dong Li removed her gaze from the black iron box to fix him with a confused look. “What the hell happened to you, Patriarch? Why does it look like someone just fished you out of a river?”

Dong Qisong panted heavily as he gradually calmed himself.

“Kid, did you see someone?” Dong Qisong asked with a grim expression. “Just now, a few strands of aura suddenly descended on this dead star. They suppressed even my soul awareness.”

FIZZ!

Yue Yanxi from the Divine Flame Sect, who had advanced to the early Saint domain as Dong Qisong had, arrived like a streak of flames. Upon arriving, he asked aloud, “Who were they?”

Dong Qisong and Yue Yanxi were the two Saint domain experts that had been charged with protecting Dong Li and Nie Tian at the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

All of Nie Tian’s other followers, whether they were at the God domain or the Saint domain, had been summoned by the four great sects to join the battle against the outsiders and Ancientspirits in the distant Domain of Heaven Span.

“That’s right. Two people were here.” Dong Li said, looking somewhat puzzled. “One was Feng Beiluo from the Heavenly Corpse Sect. The other was a mysterious woman with a veil covering her face. That woman even said that I’m a good girl, and gave me this.”

With these words, she pointed at the black iron box in her hand.

“According to what I sensed, it couldn’t have been just Feng Beiluo and that woman,” Dong Qisong said with great certainty. “There were at least three God domain experts! Feng Beiluo was only one of them! Not only that, but I also sensed three strands of unusually mighty flesh auras!”

“That’s right. I believe three outsider grand monarchs were here too.” Yue Yanxi said with decisiveness that could sever nails and chop iron.

Dong Li’s expression flickered with astonishment. “That’s impossible! I only saw Feng Beiluo and that woman I don’t know. Even though Feng Beiluo treated that woman with great respect and caution, she didn’t seem very powerful to me.”

Dong Qisong smiled bitterly and said, “Feng Beiluo was only the one you were able to see. The others probably hid in the dark after escorting that woman and Feng Beiluo here. But there were three God domain experts and three outsider grand monarchs! They represent the peak strength of both humans and outsiders. What made them get along?”

Dong Li went silent for a while before suddenly saying, “If you’re right, then I’m afraid it was the secret strong force behind Feng Beiluo that wanders between worlds. I learned from Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi that that secret force not only takes in the so-called crooked humans, but outsider rebels as well.”

With a grim expression, Yue Yanxi said, “So that woman gave you that black iron box in your hand? You’ve got to be careful with it!”

Dong Qisong also seemed worried. “That secret force might be up to something. Don’t fall into their trap!”

“I don’t think they mean harm.” Dong Li looked down at the black iron box, and found the exquisite engravings on it somewhat similar to the dark magical patterns that had naturally formed on the black tortoise’s shell. “But this box does seem a bit peculiar.”

Despite what Dong Qisong and Yue Yanxi had said, she reached out to touch the box with a finger.

However, the black tortoise suddenly let out a soul cry.

Surprise filled Dong Li’s face as she asked, “You want to do it?”

The black tortoise nodded repeatedly. Then, under Dong Li’s nervous gaze, it held one of its gigantic feet towards the black iron box.

In its true form, the black tortoise looked like a black mountain peak, which put both Dong Qisong and Yue Yanxi under great pressure.

As soon as that huge foot touched the black iron box, the unearthly fine engravings on the box morphed into bolts of black lightning that fused into its foot.

The black tortoise then let out a comfortable moan as gorgeous dark magical patterns were added to its mountain-like shell one after another.

FZZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!

Fine black lightning bolts that only Dong Li could sense flew into the black tortoise’s heart, stimulating its bloodline and generating brand new Bloodline Crystal Chains.

Dong Li was suddenly enlightened. “So it’s the engravings on this black iron box that you know are helpful to you.”

The lid of the box was quietly lifted by a wisp of the black tortoise’s flesh aura.

Extreme darkness then poured out of the box. Dong Qisong and Yue Yanxi, who were at the Saint domain, gasped with shock upon seeing this. They didn’t even warn each other before fleeing from the dead star with their fastest possible speed.

Within seconds, this dead star, one of the seven that surrounded the Seven-star Blue Sea, was engulfed in complete darkness.

However, the darkness didn’t stop spreading.

In merely a few minutes, this entire area of the starry river over the Seven-star Blue Sea, including all of the seven surrounding stars, were engulfed in utter darkness.

Dong Qisong, Yue Yanxi, Li Langfeng, and several Void domain experts from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries all retreated to areas that were far from the Seven-star Blue Sea.

Disbelief and confusion filled their faces as they looked at the vast expanse of darkness and the azure sea underneath it.

“Sectmaster Dong, Sectmaster Yue, what’s up with that darkness?” A Qi warrior from the Bliss Mountain Sect asked with a puzzled expression. “Is Miss Dong practicing some forbidden dark incantation with that dark stone? Even if she is, she doesn’t have to create such a stir, right?”

“This is scary indeed,” someone chimed in.

Yue Yanxi and Dong Qisong exchanged a glance, and saw puzzlement and a hint of worry in each other’s eyes.

Neither of them had seen what was in the box that the black tortoise had opened with a wisp of its flesh aura. All they knew was that when the intense darkness had poured out, their instincts had made them flee in fear.

...

In the headquarters of the Void Spirit Society.

Cheers suddenly came from the palace where Pei Qiqi had been practicing secluded cultivation.

“Miss Pei’s domain has finished the transformation from illusory to solid!”

“Miss Pei has successfully broken through into the Saint domain!”

“Saint domain! Pei Qiqi has entered the Saint domain!”

Upon hearing the news, many elders that were close to and had high opinions of Pei Qiqi, such as Fan Wen and Qi Lianshan, gathered at the palace where Pei Qiqi practiced cultivation.

A stone gate that had been closed for quite a while slowly opened, and Pei Qiqi walked out with an unearthly and proud demeanor.

She glanced around. All she saw were people fixing her with feverish gazes.

Many elders and disciples of the Void Spirit Society were truly happy, and cheered for her.

The speed at which she had progressed in cultivation after joining the Void Spirit Society had been unprecedented. Not a single disciple or even sectmaster in the Void Spirit Society’s history had made such fast advances in their cultivation.

“I’m off to join the battle in the Domain of Heaven Span.” With these words, she split open a spatial rift that connected to the Domain of Heaven Span with a casual move of her hand. She didn’t even need to use the Space Boundaries Crystal.

She flew into it.

Over the following days, word about her continued to come from the Heaven Span Pavilion.

“Miss Pei killed three Demon grand patriarchs in the Domain of Heaven Span. All three of them were at the late ninth grade!”

“Miss Pei added two Fiend grand patriarchs to her list!”

“Miss Pei defeated Grand Monarch Remote Demon of the Demons! She even severed one of his arms with her spatial blades!”

“Miss Pei has just entered the early Saint domain, yet she managed to single-handedly defeat a tenth grade Demon grand monarch!”

The entire Void Spirit Society cheered as messages arrived from the Heaven Span Pavilion. All of the disciples that had been required to stay in the sect started viewing Pei Qiqi as their idol.

Even Mo Heng had only challenged Grand Monarch Primal Demon of the Demons, who was a minor level higher than him, to a duel, which he had lost.

Now, Pei Qiqi had just entered the early Saint domain. Even though she had only severed Grand Monarch Remote Demon’s arm with the help of the Space Boundaries Crystal instead of killing him in battle, it still came as astounding news to all of humanity.

After all, this was something that had never been achieved by anyone.

The five Divine Sons and Daughters of the Five Elements Sect, He Lianxiong from the Heaven Span Pavilion, and the Sons of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace were all dwarfed by her brilliance.

It was even more so with Hong Minghui, who used to be the hope of the Void Spirit Society.

That was because he had been badly injured by a powerful Fiend expert with deadly toxins when Pei Qiqi had entered the Domain of Heaven Span, and hadn’t recovered yet.

As for that Fiend expert, he was only at the middle ninth grade.

Both of them were Qu Yi’s disciples. However, Hong Minghui, who had joined the sect much earlier than Pei Qiqi, was only at the late Void domain, and had been bested by a middle ninth grade Fiend grand patriarch.

In the eyes of many, Pei Qiqi, who was rising strongly, had long since defeated her competition.

Many, both from within the Void Spirit Society and without, deemed that she and Nie Tian were bound to become the future leaders of humanity, one as the sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society, and the other as the sectmaster of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

While Pei Qiqi displayed her brilliance in the battle against the Ancientspirits and outsiders in the Domain of Heaven Span, Dong Li continued to grow stronger at a shocking speed at the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

The mysterious darkness continued to pervade that entire area of the starry river, devouring all light with its reach.

It also continued to slowly spread into its surroundings.

Many of Nie Tian’s Saint domain subordinates, and even Mo Qianfan and Yu Suying, had come back to check on her.

However, even their God domain soul awareness hadn’t allowed them to detect what Dong Li was doing within the darkness.

The only thing they were certain of was that Dong Li was alive and unharmed.

That was because her aura was in every inch of that extreme darkness.