There were many ways for a cultivator with a higher cultivation base to gain control of the soul of a cultivator with a lower cultivation base. It wouldn’t be a hard thing to do.

For example, if Master Blood Spirit were to attempt to control Nie Tian’s true soul, and Nie Tian cooperated, it would be easily achieved.

However, it would be much more tricky if it was the other way around.

He was only at the early Soul realm, while Master Blood Spirit was at the middle Saint domain. He was worried that whatever soul sealing magic he used on Master Blood Spirit would be easily overridden.

He went through all of his soul sealing magics in his mind, and felt that none of them were safe to use.

Eventually, he summoned the Spirit Pearl and communicated with it at a soul level.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul was refined from the discarnate soul of a ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch, whose understanding of souls and spirits exceeded most races.

He expressed the task at hand.

The Spirit Pearl’s soul thought for a while, and then told Nie Tian that it had a solution.

However, the precondition was that Master Blood Spirit must cooperate completely.

Only if Master Blood Spirit opened up his sea of awareness and let the Spirit Pearl’s soul in would it be able to leave a unique restrictive spell there.

Once the restrictive spell took effect, the Spirit Pearl’s soul would be able to sense if Master Blood Spirit dared to break his promise. Then, by changing the restrictive spell, it would be able to destroy his soul.

“Open your sea of awareness,” Nie Tian instructed.

Master Blood Spirit did as he was told by canceling every bit of soul power that was shielding his sea of awareness.

WHOOSH!

The Spirit Pearl’s soul flew out and into his sea of awareness from between his eyebrows.

At the same time, the Spirit Pearl shone with cyan light as the five evil spirits whizzed out. They hovered around Master Blood Spirit in case he went against his word and started to resist.

Even Master Blood Spirit, who was at the middle Saint domain, was shocked by the evil spirits’ formidable auras. “Such strong evil spirits!”

However, he was well-aware that the soul that had quietly entered his sea of awareness was actually the strongest one.

The reason why he didn’t sense any danger from it was because its purpose was to leave a restrictive spell in his sea of awareness, but not destroy it.

Soon, he sensed the soul getting to work.

As it swam around, soul strings that were as fine as silk appeared, as if it were drawing a sealing spell with them in a particular pattern.

The moment the spell was completed, he was struck by a wave of strong discomfort.

It was a powerless feeling that someone had grasped his soul. Once the spell was activated, he wouldn’t be able to shake it off no matter how hard he tried. Instead, he could only accept his fate of elimination, even losing the hope of reincarnation.

WHOOSH!

The soul flew out from between his eyebrows and back into the Spirit Pearl.

“It’s done,” It communicated with Nie Tian at a soul level. “He didn’t resist, but worked with me to establish the soul-sealing spell. He won’t be able to break it now, even if he becomes a God domain expert.”

Eyes filled with amazement, Nie Tian responded, “That seemed easy.”

“It was only easy because he was cooperative,” The soul said. “If he hadn’t let go of his soul and let me cast the spell, I wouldn’t have been strong enough to seal the soul of a Saint domain expert.”

As Nie Tian communicated with the Spirit Pearl’s soul, Master Blood Spirit unleashed his domain that was filled with the flesh auras of all kinds of spirit beasts and outsiders

He switched between different spiritual and soul incantations, and discovered that the soul-sealing spell didn’t seem to be stopping him from fighting in a battle. Then, he stopped and canceled his blood domain.

Face filled with anticipation, he looked at Nie Tian, waiting for him to make good on his promise.

Putting the Spirit Pearl away, Nie Tian said, “I’ll extend your lifespan by a century this time. You may come find me again if you fail to break through into the late Saint domain in a century.”

Master Blood Spirit got excited. “A century?! A century should be more than enough for me to break through into the late Saint domain, but after that...”

He was confident that he would be able to advance to the late Saint domain in a hundred years. Once he did, he would gain additional years.

However, it would be hard to say whether he would be able to enter the God domain within that time.

Nie Tian twitched his mouth and said, “That’ll be a problem for another day.”

With these words, ten drops of Blood Essence flew out of his heart, spinning nonstop.

Each and every drop was glittering like a crimson diamond, wreathed in rich life power.

“Bloodline talent: Life Grant!” As Nie Tian exclaimed inwardly, the ten drops of translucent, sparkling Blood Essence flew into Master Blood Spirit’s heart.

He, who had great expertise in the Blood Refining Incantation, had a keen perception of flesh aura. The immense flesh aura and mysterious life power within the Blood Essence flabbergasted him.

In the next moment, Nie Tian’s Blood Essence filled his heart with vigorous life force.

He, who was weighed down with age, instantly felt the changes, as if his old and clumsy body was filled with vigor again!

As the Blood Essence dispersed one drop after another, he sensed with great clarity that the limit of his lifespan was being pushed back bit by bit!

“I, I can’t believe such mysterious power actually exists!” Trembling, Master Blood Spirit finally believed Nie Tian, and that there was indeed a special power in heaven and earth that could do such a heaven-defying thing as extending others’ lifespans.

“Are you feeling the changes?” Nie Tian asked aloud.

Master Blood Spirit nodded repeatedly. “I am! My body is full of vigor again! And I can actually feel my lifespan being extended!”

Nie Tian let out a deep breath, a faint smile appearing on his face. “So this is actually viable.”

As a matter of fact, he hadn’t been completely certain that Life Grant would actually work before this experiment with Master Blood Spirit.

After all, this was such a shocking, heaven-defying bloodline talent.

“Alright, your lifespan has been extended by a century. Try to make good use of it.” With these words, Nie Tian bid Master Blood Spirit farewell, and left on his Star Boat.

After moving to another location in the Graydusk Forest, he took out fresh Demon corpses from within his ring of holding, including the corpse of that grand patriarch. With the rich flesh power within them, he regenerated the Blood Essence he had lost.

Two weeks passed...

After consuming half of the Demon corpses that had been looted from the three Demon realms, he regained ten drops of Blood Essence.

That was when he realized that he still had yet to finish Flesh Tempering, the fourth stage of Heavenly Wood Heal.

However, the trees and grass had already withered in most areas of the Graydusk Forest, which made it hard for him to proceed.

It was at that moment that Ruan Qingliu, Hou Chulan’s most powerful subordinate, arrived in the Realm of Split Void.

Upon finding Nie Tian, she stated the purpose of her visit, which was to ask him to go help Hou Chulan break through into the Saint domain in the Five Elements Sect. This was what he had agreed to previously.

Without much discussion, he set out with Ruan Qingliu for the Five Elements Sect.

In the Realm of Wood Spirit, where the wood element sect was based.

As soon as Nie Tian stepped out of an inter-domain teleportation portal with Ruan Qingliu, he sensed extremely rich wood power in the air.

The wood power here was about ten times richer than that in the Graydusk Forest!

The Realm of Wood Spirit was one of the Five Elements Sect’s main realms, among the Realm of Gold Spirit, the Realm of Fire Spirit, the Realm of Earth Spirit, and the Realm of Water Spirit.

As the bases of the metal element sect, fire element sect, earth element sect, water element sect, and wood element sect, the five main realms weren’t very far apart.

To Nie Tian’s surprise, he saw Huang Jinnan and Lou Hongyan upon arriving.

With a hearty laugh, Huang Jinnan gave Nie Tian a bear hug. “We heard that you’re going to help Senior Martial Sister Hou advance to the Saint domain, so we came to observe and learn. But do you know that you might be in big trouble?”

“What big trouble?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

“I received word that you discovered that three spatial rifts in the Domain of the Falling Stars connected to three different Demon realms. You and your subordinates snuck into them, wiped out the local Demon clans, and looted a large number of spiritual materials and demonic grass.

“And you destroyed those those spatial rifts after your return. Is that right?”

Nie Tian nodded. “What about it?”

Lou Hongyan gave him a hard look and said, “Don’t you know how much those spatial rifts meant to us? If Saint and God domain experts from the four great sects had entered those spatial rifts instead of you, they might have already wiped out the entire Demon race, ridding us of a mortal malady.”

Nie Tian let out a snort. “The Domain of the Falling Stars is my homeland. I’ll only do things that’ll benefit it. If the four great sects had found out about those spatial rifts, powerful human experts would have poured into the Domain of the Falling Stars, which would have become a stronghold on the front line that Demons and other outsiders might attack repeatedly.”

Lou Hongyan sighed. “You’re being too selfish and ignoring the bigger picture. Do you know that your sect isn’t getting any advantage in their unprecedentedly-fierce battle against the Demons in the Dead Star Sea?”

Nie Tian shook his head.

“Your sect is already investigating this matter,” Huang Jinnan said with a concerned expression. “I’m afraid that they’ll hold you accountable for it.”

With an icy face, Nie Tian said, “I wiped out numerous Demon clans and laid waste to three important Demons. What will they hold me accountable for? You two didn’t come here just to accuse me of this, did you?”

“Of course not,” Huang Jinnan hastily said. “We were only concerned and wanted to warn you about what might happen.”

Lou Hongyan chimed in. “What happened, happened. There really isn’t much to say about it. I just hope that you’ll be more careful from now on.”

Standing off to the side, Ruan Qingliu reminded Nie Tian, “The Divine Daughter awaits.”

Nie Tian nodded. “Show me the way please.”

“She’s waiting for you over there,” Ruan Qingliu said, pointing at the green mountains in the distance. “She has high hopes in you, and believes that your being there will help her bridge the chasm and enter the Saint domain safely. And I believe that too.”

Puzzled looks filled Lou Hongyan and Huang Jinnan’s faces, as if they were wondering why Hou Chulan would seek help from Nie Tian, of all people.