As the plant turned into flying dust, Nie Tian opened his mouth and laughed loudly. “Good, it feels good.”

That plant had developed from a leaf that contained pure wood power.

And apparently, the wood power was only a branch of life power.

Not only did the unusual heartbeat cause Nie Tian to restore the life energy that he had lost to the plant, but it even channeled the wood power that was stored in the leaf into his body as well.

As soon as the wood power dispersed into his flesh and blood, it made his vital energy become even more vigorous.

He felt that his energies and spirits had reached a state of fullness that had never been achieved before.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

At this moment, his heart was still beating unusually strongly and still had no sign of settling down.

A thirst that originated from his heart seemed to be urging him to absorb even more wood energy and obtain even more vital energy to strengthen his flesh and blood.

He abruptly looked towards Kan Xingming and saw the panic and cluelessness on his face.

Besieged by three Qi warriors, Kan Xingming distracted himself by observing Nie Tian from time to time. His movement in controlling the vines had even started to become a bit stiff.

“There are even more leaves on that man’s spiritual armor that contain rich wood power…” Muttering to himself, Nie Tian probed into his own heart, and slowly came to the realization that the abnormality of his heartbeat seemed to have developed from its strong thirst for wood power.

He subconsciously stepped towards Kan Xingming.

WHOOSH!

Kan Xingming, who was fighting near the dilapidated city wall, dropped from the sky. He snorted and once again shot two fresh, green leaves out from the chest area of his spiritual armor.

The two leaves continuously evolved and released an odor that could twist all living things as they floated towards Nie Tian.

However, Nie Tian’s expression didn’t even change in the slightest. He continued to step closer despite the fact that the two leaves were coming his way.

It was because at this moment, he felt that the thirst in his heart had become unprecedentedly raging and fierce!

He even had a feeling that even though the two leaves were unearthly items refined by the Greater Heaven stage Kan Xingming, they would absolutely not hurt him!

His confidence originated from the thirst and the excitement in his heart!

BANG BANG BANG!

His heartbeat was still growing faster. An extremely complicated life fluctuation suddenly exploded from within his heart and spread out into his surroundings, with him being the center.

The eye-catching veins on the two leaves seemed to be instantly affected.

Nie Tian looked at them with rapt attention. He realized that the two leaves, which were traveling at a high speed towards him, had evolved. They had developed into two slender, flexible vines, and like spiritual snakes, they intended to bind around Nie Tian’s neck.

BANG!

Along with the vigorous beating of Nie Tian’s heart, both of the green vines seemed to be suddenly taken over by a mysterious force.

The green vines that resembled vipers suddenly broke free of Kan Xingming’s control. The psychic communication between him and the green vines was forcefully cut off by a mysterious and advanced power.

Kan Xingming’s expression changed drastically. The sudden elimination of the psychic power that he had attached to the green vines had inflicted a minor injury on him.

In Kan Xingming’s eyes, the two green vines were supposed to drop down to the ground due to the effect of gravity, since they had already escaped his control.

However, they stopped right before Nie Tian’s chest and floated there.

Shocked, he watched as Nie Tian slowly reached out his hand to touch one of the green vines, without even a smidgen of hesitation in his eyes.

The moment Nie Tian’s finger touched it, the green vine instantly released pure wood power!

The wood power that Kan Xingming had spent many years collecting and refining turned into dark-green, drifting light as it swiftly flew into Nie Tian’s finger.

A layer of faint, dim-green aura flourished within Nie Tian’s body, causing him to seem rather mysterious.

It wasn’t long before all of the wood power in the green vine was completely drained by Nie Tian.

WHOOSH!

Having lost all of its wood power, the green vine disintegrated and turned into flying ash.

Fear stretched across Kan Xingming’s face.

BOOM!

A fierce evil spirit, summoned by an expert from the Ghost sect, ruthlessly rammed into Kan Xingming’s back.

Kan Xingming was sent staggering.

Meanwhile, the spirits of the two Qi warriors from the Grayvale sect were lifted. They both manipulated their spiritual tools to madly attack him as he stumbled back.

On the other hand, Nie Tian didn’t bother to check Kan Xingming’s situation, but rather once again extended his hand with a concentrated look in his eyes, and reached towards the other green vine.

Upon contact, the green vine was also quickly drained of all wood power and turned into flying dust just like the last one.

Eyes narrowed, Nie Tian remained calm and collected as he silently used his psychic awareness to pry into the abnormality of his heart.

It could be because his cultivation base was too low and his psychic power hadn’t congealed into soul power, that he failed to enter his heart to conduct a thorough investigation and unveil the mysteries within.

He could only faintly feel the wood power that he had taken in seemed to have already merged with his own blood.

His blood carried the pure wood power as it slowly flowed towards his throbbing heart .

His heart was being nurtured as it continued to take in wood power, as if it were in a state where it was gradually awakening.

His eyes were wide and his face was filled with disbelief. “Bloodline!”

He didn’t know why, but he was very certain that bloodline power was now flowing within his body. Or to be more precise, his heart!

His master Wu Ji had once told him that bloodline power would often exist in the outsider races who had incomparably valiant bodies.

Numerous years ago, the formidable outsider tribes, whose power had been unmatched across the entire river of stars, were only able to be known as the mighty masters of the universe because of their bloodline power, their innate valiant bodies, as well as their lifespans that were much longer than humans’.

Only an extremely small number of human Qi warriors could awake their bloodline power, the reason being that they had outsiders among their ancestors.

Those people might be born with bloodline power. It was also possible that they could awaken their bloodline power at some point as they grew up and built up their strength.

It seemed that he belonged to the latter.

His whole life, he thought that there had been something unusual about his heart, but never did it occur to him that a formidable bloodline power was hiding inside of it.

Only after he had taken in enough wood power to nourish his heart, did the bloodline power that was hidden deep inside finally show a sign of awakening.

“Could it be that… my father isn’t human?” Overwhelmed by the thought, Nie Tian wondered.

He was one hundred percent certain that his mother was a member of the Nie clan, and there weren’t any records of their clan members having relationships with anyone from an outsider tribe in the history of the Nie clan.

The Nie clan was a human clan that couldn’t be more ordinary. None of their members were born with unearthly power. All of them were born with bodies that were no different from that of commoners’.

Since his bloodline power didn’t come from the Nie clan, then naturally… it must have come from his father, who he knew nothing about and had mysteriously disappeared.

“My father is either an outsider himself, or a hybrid who has outsider blood running in his veins.” Having realized his unusual birth for the first time, Nie Tian felt muddleheaded. Even still, he struggled to sort through the things that had happened to him in order to find the truth.

He had temporarily forgotten about where he was, along with the cruel Heaven Gate trial that he was in, and the floating city in front of him.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Just as he was contemplating these matters, multi-colored light beams once again shot out from within the city.

Simultaneously, the unusual energy fluctuations that had disappeared once again spread out from within the dilapidated city and rapidly rippled into the surroundings.

This time, Nie Tian, who was already very close to the floating city, was the first one to experience the unusual feeling.

In the moment the energy fluctuations dispersed into the surroundings, the seven scarlet light spots on the back of his hand instantly turned red-hot and started to shine with brilliant light.

The seven scarlet light spots were like seven bright stars as they continued to slowly swim around in the Heaven Gate pattern.

Without Nie Tian realizing it, numerous mysterious symbols were secretly taken into the seven glittering light spots.

POOH!

Also at this moment, Kan Xingming, who had three of his leaves forcefully taken by Nie Tian, seemed to have fallen into Qi deviation, and suddenly coughed up a mouthful of blood.

Face filled with hate and rage, he shot towards Nie Tian.

“It’s good that you’re coming!” With a chuckle, Nie Tian placed his palms opposite to each other and immediately started to form the chaotic magnetic field.

All he needed was for Kan Xingming to enter it!

It's the Double Ninth Festival today, one of the few festivals where drinking is required. Lol.

Gotta go out to dinner with my parents later and drink some chrysanthemum liquor, which is very good for my cultivation. :)

Here's a video and a text introduction to the festival:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VtfLOBVbxDE

The Double Ninth Festival (Chung Yeung Festival in Hong Kong), observed on the ninth day of the ninth month in the Chinese calendar, is a traditional Chinese holiday, mentioned in writing since before the East Han period (before AD 25). The day is also known as the Chrysanthemum Festival (菊の節句) in Japan.

According to the I Ching, nine is a yang number; the ninth day of the ninth lunar month (or double nine) has too much yang (a traditional Chinese spiritual concept) and is thus a potentially dangerous date. Hence, the day is also called "Double Yang Festival" (重陽節). To protect against danger, it is customary to climb a high mountain, drink chrysanthemum liquor, and wear the zhuyu (茱萸) plant, Cornus officinalis. (Both chrysanthemum and zhuyu are considered to have cleansing qualities and are used on other occasions to air out houses and cure illnesses.)

On this holiday some Chinese also visit the graves of their ancestors to pay their respects. In Hong Kong, whole extended families head to ancestral graves to clean them and repaint inscriptions, and to lay out food offerings such as roast suckling pig and fruit, which are then eaten (after the spirits have consumed the spiritual element of the food). Chongyang Cake is also popular. Incense sticks are burned. Cemeteries get crowded, and each year grass fires are inadvertently started by the burning incense sticks...