BANG!

Nie Tian landed heavily onto the ground as the burning rage in his eyes faded away.

With a cold face, he glared at Yu Tong, who stood ten meters away from him, while adjusting his breathing and secretly assessing his current condition.

“Oh, no..." After a brief examination, Nie Tian gave a bitter, inward laugh as he realized that the situation was anything but good.

Just as he had expected, the raging fist strike had completely drained the spiritual power in his spiritual sea.

By this point, there was not even a smidgen left for him to use!

Not only that, but the single, full-strength punch that he had unleashed had also consumed a considerable amount of his mental fortitude, leaving him in an extremely terrible mental state.

He stretched his arm, and quickly found that it had become immeasurably heavy. That one punch just now seemed to have exhausted all of his physical strength, which was completely different from the last time he used that style of punching!

Last time he struck with it, only his spiritual energy had been drained, accompanied by minor discomfort, but his psychic power had remained plentiful.

However, after throwing the punch this time, his body seemed to be completely drained of power of all sorts, leaving practically nothing behind.

Now, even the simple act of walking was incomparably difficult for him.

He knew perfectly well that he currently had zero power to engage in battle; in such a poor state, even an ordinary person who didn’t understand a thing about cultivation could hurt him right now.

He should have immediately sat down cross-legged to recover his strength with the help of the spirit stones in his pouch.

However, he didn’t.

After all, Yu Tong, who had just taken a hit from him, was still standing right there in front of him.

He knew that she must have sustained injuries, but was unsure about her condition. If she were to discover his poor state, as long as she still had some residual strength, she would definitely take the opportunity to kill him.

Yu Tong must not find out about his true condition and that he was actually weaker than ever!

“How does it feel, bitch?” he said, laughing loudly as he stepped toward Yu Tong.

He was absolutely sure that as long as he put on a show of being strong and domineering, Yu Tong wouldn’t dare to act rashly!

The ten meter distance between them felt unbelievably vast. When he finally arrived in front of Yu Tong, all he wanted to do was to drop to the ground and rest.

However, he chose not to. Instead, he stood in front of Yu Tong, looking down upon her despite the exhaustion and discomfort which gripped him.

His eyes were filled with a cold, fierce look.

Weak and limp, Yu Tong lay on the ground, her face pale, and the bloody glow fading away from her eyes. The corner of her scarlet lips still had specks of blood on them.

They were the size of grains of rice, like tiny flower petals glistening with dew as they stretched from her lips down her pure white neck. Overall, they made her look completely pitiful and helpless.

Yu Tong clenched her lips and calmly looked Nie Tian in the eye, not saying a single word.

Lying on the ground, a faint blood-colored aura surrounded her, seemingly protecting her from any further harm.

The truth was that her current state wasn’t any better than Nie Tian’s.

The huge, mysterious shadow that resulted when Nie Tian abruptly struck her frightened her all the way down into her heart and soul.

Even though she hastily condensed a blood shield, it failed to stop Nie Tian’s attack. His fist went through the blood shield, and finally smashed violently onto her chest.

The mighty fist strike inflicted serious damage on her fleshy body. Even her psychic awareness, which enabled her to detect that huge, mysterious shadow, had taken a huge blow and then dispersed.

The blood shield had been forged with her spiritual power and blood. Therefore, when it shattered, her spiritual power and blood also sustained serious injuries. Under such desperate circumstances, she could only cast another of the Blood sect’s secret magics: the Blood Cocoon Incantation.

It could not only stabilize the disturbed Qi and blood in her body, enabling her to slowly recover, but it could also protect her to a certain extent.

However, while using it to recuperate, she was incapable of moving or talking. The only thing she could do was look Nie Tian in the eye.

She did her utmost to appear calm, not revealing a hint of fear, hoping that Nie Tian couldn’t see through her act, that he wouldn’t discover the urgent sense of concern buried in her heart.

With a cold and fierce gaze, Nie Tian looked down at her and laughed. “How come you’re not talking? I heard that you wanted to drain me and refine my blood? Now that I’m here, come and take it.”

Waves of fury began to surge out from Yu Tong’s eyes, yet she still didn’t speak.

Nie Tian’s eyebrows furrowed slightly as he secretly sized Yu Tong up. After a moment, his gaze left her face and swept over the rest of her body.

The blood aura that covered her delicate and curvaceous frame seemed like a thin, crimson colored layer, which protected her from any further harm.

However, considering Nie Tian’s current condition, even if she didn’t have that blood aura to protect her, it would still be almost impossible for him to kill her.

He knew perfectly well that even if he recovered a bit of spiritual power, it would still be impossible for him to break through that layer of protection and kill Yu Tong.

After silently examining her for a while, Nie Tian rubbed his chin in thought, and said, “Is it that you don’t want to talk? Or that you can’t? You haven’t even moved your finger once. Does it mean that… you’re injured so badly that you can’t move at all? Well, if that’s the case, I can do whatever I want with you. Am I right?”

With these words, Nie Tian finally saw fear in Yu Tong’s bright eyes.

“Ha ha!” Relieved, he grinned and slowly crouched down next to her.

Looking her in the eyes, he reached out his right index finger towards her elegant chin.

Panic and indignation filled Yu Tong’s eyes.

As his finger carefully approached her chin, the first thing that he touched was actually that thin layer of blood aura, which felt like a layer of soft skin.

Nie Tian, who was secretly on guard, realized that nothing strange had happened to it, nor did it burn his finger.

He didn’t know that the blood aura that had been formed by the Blood Cocoon Incantation would only generate a counterforce when it detected fluctuations of spiritual power.

At this moment, Nie Tian had already drained his spiritual power. The finger he used to touch Yu Tong’s chin didn’t carry a smidgen of spiritual energy, and thus didn’t cause the blood cocoon to fight back.

“Wow, interesting.”

Laughing, Nie Tian pressed his finger harder downward. As his finger went downward, the thin layer of blood aura gradually gave in and he finally made contact with Yu Tong’s chin.

Even though she was isolated by the layer of blood aura, his finger had actually landed on Yu Tong’s chin.

When he realized that it wasn’t harmful, he gently pressed his palm onto her face.

Sneering broadly he looked into her eyes and gently stroked her cheek with his palm.

Yu Tong’s eyes emanated a light of bone-piercing hatred. She was so angry that she was on the verge of going mad. If she weren’t in the cocoon, she would tear Nie Tian into pieces at all costs.

Nie Tian put away his smile, and put on a grim face. “What? Are you angry? Yuan Feng told me that those trial takers from the Cloudsoaring sect and Spiritual Treasure sect all died by your hand. Amongst them were good friends of mine and also possibly… my clansman.

“You killed them. Yet, I am only touching your face. What right do you have to be angry?”

With these words, his hand that had stroked Yu Tong’s cheek suddenly trailed along Yu Tong’s slender, long neck and moved downwards.

Yu Tong’s wide eyes were now filled with shock and terror. Lying on the sandy ground, her alluring body seemed to be trembling with terror.

Nie Tian gazed into her eyes as his hand slowly roamed onto her firm breasts, then he squeezed them vigorously a few times.

Yu Tong finally could no longer bear the humiliation, and snapped her eyes shut.

A devilish yet beautiful blood-colored flush gradually appeared on her snow-white cheeks.

However, Nie Tian, who was inches away from her, suddenly felt somewhat uneasy when he discovered that Yu Tong was going through a change that he didn’t understand.

Therefore, he suddenly removed his hand from Yu Tong’s breasts, and moved downwards before ripping a leather pouch away from her waist.

He opened it and saw several kilograms of dried meat, along with a bottle of drinking water.

“Thank you.”

With a final look at Yu Tong, he took out the dried meat and started gulping down huge mouthfuls of it, along with the water.

Knowing that the blood aura ensured that it was impossible to actually kill Yu Tong, he simply humiliated her to the fullest extent and then left, leaving her with nothing more than the wave of a hand.

Four hours after Nie Tian left, the blood aura that had been covering Yu Tong suddenly exploded.

Yu Tong’s hysterical scream resounded throughout the desert, as if the burning hatred it contained could fill up the entire universe.

“Nie Tian!”