“What’s going on out there? Why have those Demons and Phantasms stopped searching for me?” Holed up in the hollow tree, Pei Qiqi slowly opened her eyes, fine spatial blades glowing in the depths of her eyes, as if her mere gaze carried a force that could pierce through a person’s heart.

After spending the recent period time recuperating, not only had she stabilized her injuries, but her understanding of spatial power had also risen to a new level.

None of this would have been possible if Nie Tian hadn’t showed up and drawn the Demons and Phantasms away, and she still had to consume spatial power to keep her wards up in order to hide from them.

Now, with every outsider on this entire island making Nie Tian, the Son of the Stars, their primary target, she was in a much better place.

Her battle prowess had even benefited significantly from her recent enlightenment regarding the profundity of spatial power.

PHEW! PHEW!

As a few spatial blades flashed by, a hole was cut open in the trunk of the ancient tree, and she jumped out of it.

After a brief scan with her psychic awareness, she became even more convinced that something had happened.

“Something must have happened. Otherwise, I wouldn’t be sensing no outsiders at all in this area.”

“What happened exactly?”

With these thoughts in mind, she swiftly flashed about in the dense forest like a bolt of lightning, searching for signs of outsiders. She hoped that she could capture an outsider or two, and find out about the situation through them.

...

Meanwhile, the people from the small alliance that had formed around Nie Tian crossed the black sea and arrived on this island.

As soon as they flew to the coastal area, their air-transportation spiritual tools started to shake violently, and lost their power.

Therefore, the Qi warriors from the Domain of the Falling Stars had to land on the coast, put away their air-transportation spiritual tools, and start marching on foot.

“Nie Tian gave me directions,” Dong Li said. “Follow me, and I’ll take you to him.”

During the past few days, she had kept in contact with Nie Tian via her Sound Stone. Thus, she was already had a rather thorough understanding of this island and the paths Nie Tian had taken.

According to Nie Tian’s descriptions, she had drawn up a map in her mind. Even though she hadn’t been here before, she had no problem getting her bearings.

Xuan Ke, Chen Hao, and Ye Qin nodded back at her and turned around to tell their clansmen to raise their guard.

Knowing what they were getting into, everyone looked rather grim, as if they were marching towards formidable foes.

“Is it really worth it to risk our lives just to save that Nie Tian person?” A member of the Gu Clan asked Gu Haofeng in a low voice, his face filled with reluctance.

Gu Haofeng also looked somewhat reluctant as he said, “Well...”

However, Dong Baijie, who was marching not far from him, overheard them, and said to the Gu Clan member, “Gu Lang, we’re all in Nie Tian’s debt, since he volunteered to come to scout out this island. None of us would have had the faintest idea of the situation here if he hadn’t come.”

“Didn’t he demand valuables in return?” Gu Lang muttered in a low voice.

Smiling, Dong Baijie said, “You’re right. He did. But did he demand anything from your clan?”

“Umm, no...” Gu Lang’s voice dropped even lower.

“There you go.” With these words, Dong Baijie turned to glance over the crowd. “In fact, none of us here gave him anything for his service. So what right do we have to sit back and do nothing when we know that his life is in danger?”

Gu Lang knew that he was in the wrong, and thus fell silent.

However, Dong Li wasn’t good-tempered like his older brother. She gave a cold snort and said with an irritated expression, “If you don’t want to go, just leave! It’s not like you’ll make a difference!”

She was consumed with the thought of rushing to Nie Tian’s aid, especially after learning that he was surrounded by outsiders.

Gu Lang making such an inappropriate comment at this moment instantly got on her strained nerves, causing her to lash out at him.

“Alright, alright.” Cao Qiushui tried to smooth things over. “We’re all from the Realm of a Hundred Battles. We should unite as one. Let’s not ruin that over some unwanted comments. Also, they way I see it, Nie Tian might not actually be in serious trouble. Common sense doesn’t apply to that guy.”

Qian Xin from the Pill Pavilion Sect chimed in, “The fact that Nie Tian was able to kill more than a dozen outsiders by himself is enough evidence of his exceptional strength. We should all hope that he’s fine, because only when he’s alive will those outsiders be apprehensive. If something happens to him, I doubt that we’ll be able to last very long, even if we held fast to our defenses on that other island.”

“Well, all I know is that I have to come and help Li save her little lover,” Qin Yan said, smiling.

Dong Li gave her a hard look, and was the first to speed off into the distance.

Upon seeing this, the others followed along almost without hesitation.

Only the few Gu Clan members remained in place, and fixed Gu Haofeng with inquiring gazes.

“What do you say, young lord?” Gu Lang asked.

Glancing over the few survivors of his clan, Gu Haofeng let out a long sigh and said, “In fact, It’s not necessarily a wise thing to go back to that other island and wait for the outsiders to initiate the attack with those from the Heaven Palace Sect, the Flame God Sect, and the Spirit God Sect.”

“So... are you saying that we should go with Dong Li?” Gu Lang asked.

“As much as I detest Nie Tian, given the current situation, I hope he’s alive.” It seemed that Gu Haofeng was still able to think straight. “He’s already killed a large number of outsiders. As long as he’s alive, the outsiders will consider him their primary target. This will take a lot of weight off our shoulders.”

The other Gu Clan members pondered his words for a brief moment before coming to realize what they should do.

𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

Immediately afterwards, they sped off after Dong Li and the others.

...

Numerous outsiders continued to bombard the dark-green ward with their most powerful bloodline magics and spiritual tools. However, a clamorous discussion now burst through them.

“There isn’t a shred of wood power left within a five kilometer radius now!”

“But the Wood Thriving Formation is absorbing wood power from the trees and plants in further areas to resist our attacks!”

“How is this possible?! Even if the Wood Thriving Formation was operated by a fourth grade Floragrim with their matching bloodline talent, five kilometers should have been the limit of its range!”

“What’s going on!? How is he doing this?!”

“There shouldn’t be any connection between the Floragrims and the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace! Even though he’s a Son of the Stars, it’s very unlikely that he can bring out a better effect from the Wood Thriving Formation than a Floragrim!”

At this moment, Sylon was further activating his bloodline talent to strengthen the Eye of Wither, with which he continued to consume the wood power that the Wood Thriving Formation was channelling from its surroundings.

They had expected that the spell formation would have exhausted its power and collapsed after the vegetation within a five kilometer radius had withered away. Therefore, they had been sparing no effort to bombard the ward.

At this point, they could see Nie Tian recovering his star power with one Star Stone after another, sitting behind the ward with his eyes closed.

Looking at Nie Tian and the seemingly impregnable ward over him, they felt rather frustrated and exhausted, yet there wasn’t much they could do.

Armes saw the frustration and weariness in everyone’s eyes, and thus thundered, “Don’t stop! Keep bombarding that ward! There isn’t a ward in this world that’s impregnable! Given enough force and patience, any ward can be shattered! It’s true that he can do better than channeling wood power from just five kilometers around him, but I don’t believe that he’ll be able to channel wood power from the trees and plants that are fifty kilometers away!

“As long as we keep working together and give it a little more time, that spell formation is going to give eventually!”

With these words, he once again held out his hand towards Abreu and demanded another fourth grade spirit beast’s heart. He grabbed it with a violent move and stuffed it down his throat. “We can take turns to recover strength while bombarding the Wood Thriving Formation!”

Inspired by Armes’ suggestion, Sylon said, his fighting spirit provoked, “That’s right! It doesn’t hurt to prolong the process a little bit. On the contrary, if we take turns to recover our strength, we’ll be able to keep our battle prowess at a relatively high level at all times!”

Afterwards, the outsiders did as Armes suggested. The Birdmen, Blackscales and Fiends continued to attack the spell formation, while the other outsiders recovered their strength with spirit beast hearts, spirit medicine, and magical blood.

Two hours passed...

The Wood Thriving Formation finally started to flicker, as if it had finally drained every tree and plant within its range of their wood power.

“The spell formation is going to break!” Armes shouted excitedly.

“Son of the Stars or not, this man is destined to fall in this place!” Sylon exclaimed, his eyes brimming with excitement. “Just one more push everyone!”