Fixing Zhao Shanling with a baffled look, Nie Tian said, “I was going to ask you the same thing.”

Immediately after that, he added, looking even more baffled and surprised, “What? How come you’ve made such rapid advances in your cultivation? Last time I saw you, you were still at the early Saint domain. Now, you’re well into the middle Saint domain, and only a step away from entering the late Saint domain!”

Unlike him and Pei Qiqi, Zhao Shanling wasn’t a hybrid.

And unlike Dong Li, he hadn’t encountered heavenly fortunes like the dark stone and the Dark Aureole.

No matter how hard Nie Tian tried, he couldn’t figure out how Zhao Shanling had been able to make a series of breakthroughs in cultivation within such a short time, given the cultivation resources he had access to.

Even the Son of the Stars and Divine Sons and Daughters of the four great sects couldn’t make such rapid advances in their cultivation.

Furthermore, what was this place?

This was the Spirit World, for heaven’s sake.

It was true that there were a large number of portals and spatial tunnels that connected the Spirit World and the Mortal World. However, most of those portals and spatial tunnels had been built by Ancientspirit and outsider grand monarchs. They were the fruits of their millennia of painstaking labor.

Only Ancientspirits and outsiders with strong fleshly bodies could survive the unusual spatial pressure and access them safely.

The only spatial tunnels humans could access were the three large-scale spatial tunnels in the Realm of Flame Heaven, the Realm of Mystic Heaven, and the Realm of a Thousand Devastations that connected the Domain of the Falling Stars to the Demon realms.

That was why Nie Tian was so surprised to see Zhao Shanling here.

“Do you remember the spatial patterns you, Pei Qiqi, and I found in the ruins of the Bone Sect in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation?” Zhao Shanling asked, fixing the Spirit Scepter with a strange look. “I told you that those spatial patterns seemed to constitute a spell formation that connected to another heaven and earth.”

Nie Tian shuddered and exclaimed, “So this is the place where that spell formation connects to?”

Zhao Shanling nodded. “Exactly!”

Shocked to his very core, Nie Tian said, “Tell me everything!”

“I didn’t have much to do after I broke through to the Saint domain, so I spent most of my time deriving enlightenment from those spatial patterns in the ruins of the Bone Sect in the Realm of Unbounded Desolation,” Zhao Shanling explained. “Every time I discovered some wonders in them, my understanding of spatial power grew deeper. That was the reason why I was able to make remarkable progress in my cultivation.

“After I entered the middle Saint domain by deriving enlightenment from those spatial wonders, I finally couldn’t resist the temptation, and decided to come and explore this place.

“Upon arriving, I found that this desolate realm was surprisingly similar to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation. Now, I’ve explored it for a few days, but haven’t found anything noteworthy yet.

“And I haven’t figured out where this place is either.

“What about you? Why are you here? What happened to your true form? Don’t tell me that someone destroyed it, and you escaped with your true soul. I didn’t think I heard that the outsiders from the Spirit World and the Void World had started large-scale battles in the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, or am I wrong?”

Zhao Shanling was full of questions as well.

“You still don’t know where you are now?” Nie Tian found this surprising. “You’ve left the Mortal World and entered a whole other part of the starry river, the Spirit World. This realm we’re in is called the Realm of Middle Continent. It’s the very place where humanity originated, the ancestral land of all human beings!”

Nie Tian’s soul voice shook heaven and earth like a storm.

Zhao Shanling’s eyes spewed light like white torches. “The Realm of Middle Continent?! The place where humanity originated?!”

WHOOSH!

The Voidspirit Pagoda suddenly flew out and expanded at an alarming rate.

Moments later, it became thousands of meters high.

Covered in complicated spatial patterns, the magnificent mountain-like pagoda seemed to hold countless glowing spatial blades.

While it floated quietly over Zhao Shanling, wreathed in dazzling divine light, he would cast an exquisite spell from time to time, causing it to rotate.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Tens of thousands of spatial blades suddenly swam out of the pagoda. Like silver fish, they either flew off towards distant areas of the realm, down towards the depths of the earth, or up towards the starry river outside the realm.

Each and every one of them carried a wisp of Zhao Shanling’s soul awareness.

Zhao Shanling, however, stood in place with a thoughtful expression. Every once in a while, spatial blades would emerge and interweave in his eyes, as if he were trying to sense something.

Nie Tian’s true soul simply stood on the Spirit Scepter and watched him cast spells.

Apparently, Zhao Shanling, who was at the middle Saint domain and practiced spatial incantations, was searching for something within the Realm of Middle Continent and the starry river near it in his unique way.

“I suppose the Domain of the Falling Stars witnessed a brilliant spatial power expert back in the day,” Zhao Shanling said in a low voice. “He probably didn’t have anything to do with the Void Spirit Society, nor was he a hybrid like Pei Qiqi. And he was the one who created those spatial patterns and that spell formation in the Bone Sect.

“Either he built that spell formation that led him to the Realm of Middle Continent in the Spirit World, or he built a spell formation in the Realm of Middle Continent that led him to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation in our domain.”

Nie Tian went blank for a moment before saying, “I don’t think that’s it.”

Zhao Shanling nodded slightly. “You may be right. I’ve also heard something about our fellow humans in the Spirit World. If they actually had someone so well-versed in spatial power that he could establish a secret teleportation portal to connect the Realm of Middle Continent and the Realm of Unbounded Desolation, then he would probably have led the humans in the Realm of Middle Continent to freedom long ago.”

“So what are you looking for?” Nie Tian asked.

“Evidence,” Zhao Shanling answered. “I want to see if there are teleportation portals that connect to the Realm of Unbounded Desolation other than the one through which I came here.”

Nie Tian was curious. “What exactly are you trying to prove?”

A strange expression appeared on Zhao Shanling’s face as he said, “For some reason, I have a feeling that you, your father, Dong Li, Pei Qiqi, and all of us from the Domain of the Falling Stars may find our roots here, in the Realm of Middle Continent.”

Nie Tian was flabbergasted. “What?!”

“Of course, the humans in the other human domains might have migrated from the Spirit World originally as well,” Zhao Shanling said. “But their ancestors probably came from other areas of the Spirit World. I have a feeling that the ancestors of the humans in the Domain of the Falling Stars came from the Realm of Middle Continent. I even think...”

He pondered and hesitated. “That they didn’t migrate to the Domain of the Falling Stars until later.”

Nie Tian’s expression flickered with astonishment again. “What do you mean?”

“I mean they didn’t migrate to the Domain of the Falling Stars until the humans rose to prominence, expelled the outsiders and Ancientspirits, and became the masters of the Mortal World,” Zhao Shanling answered. “As you know, the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Forbidden Heaven were controlled by the outsiders at first. There weren’t any humans there until much later.”

“That’s not what the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace said,” Nie Tian said, looking confused. “According to them, Ji Cang, the current Lord of the Stars, took the Domain of Forbidden Heaven from the outsiders long ago. Even though they didn’t say much about the Domain of the Falling Stars, the existence of that palace in the Realm of Split Void suggests that people from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace did go there.”

“Alright, let’s see if we can find some answers here,” Zhao Shanling said.