“Why not?” Li Jing finally turned her head back and looked at Li Fan with a meaningful look in her eyes. She pursed her lips into a smile and said softly, “I didn’t even see the least bit of the Cloudsoaring sect in Nie Tian. I bet Eccentric Wu didn’t pass any Cloudsoaring sect incantations to him.”

After a brief pause, she continued with a smile, “On the contrary, I sensed a hint of our sect’s aura on him. I can say for sure that he has some kind of connection with our sect.”

During the Green Illusion dimension trial, Yu Tong had used the Earth Web incantation to pierce countless blood strings into Nie Tian’s flesh.

However, Nie Tian had somehow managed to pull all the blood strings into his body and refine them into his own blood.

As the sectmaster of the Blood sect, no one had a better mastery of all the Blood sect’s forbidden techniques, therefore she keenly sensed that Nie Tian had the Blood sect’s aura on him.

She was certain that the reason why Nie Tian had been able to awaken the Bone Blood Demon must have had something to do with the Blood sect’s aura flowing in his veins, aside from the life power he had passed onto it.

The smile on Li Fan’s face was a bit unnatural as he said, “Nie Tian has already officially made my martial granduncle his master. Everyone knows that.”

“So what?” Li Jing blurted in an indifferent fashion, “It won’t be a problem as long as Eccentric Wu lets him go. He has already proven his teaching ability with his two other disciples. Plus, now that his lifespan is limited, I’m afraid he won’t have much time left to guide Nie Tian anyways. However, the Blood sect and I can give Nie Tian what he can’t!”

Before Li Fan could say anything back, Li Jing let out a cold harrumph and continued, “Furthermore, the Blood sect has poured endless time and resources into that Bone Blood Demon. You have witnessed its strength yourself, and now it only takes orders from Nie Tian. Do you think I’ll let it go back to the Cloudsoaring sect with him?”

Li Fan’s face grew serious. “But it was Nie Tian who lifted the siege of the Blood sect!”

“That’s not enough!” Li Jing said with a domineering tone. “If you think I’ll let the person who controls the Bone Blood Demon leave, you might as well stop dreaming! Either he leaves the Cloudsoaring sect and joins the Blood sect, or I kill him and free the Bone Blood Demon from his control.

“Say no more, Li Fan. Go tell Eccentric Wu that I’ll have Nie Tian, one way or another!”

With a wave of her hand, a cluster of bloody aura flew over. It enveloped Li Fan, who was just about to say something, and flew away, not giving him the chance to protest.

After Li Fan disappeared in the distant sky, she once again looked at Nie Tian, her eyes glittering with bright light.

“Eccentric Wu is indeed a good judge of talent.” She thought to herself. “This kid is perfect for practicing our sect’s secret magics. Now that you’ve awakened the Bone Blood Demon, you and our sect are connected by destiny. Sorry, Eccentric Wu...”

She was bent on making Nie Tian a disciple of the Blood sect.

At that moment, Nie Tian was sitting on the ground, recuperating with spirit stones.

The rage punch had almost drained all the power in his dantian’s spiritual sea. What he needed the most at this point was to recover his strength at the fastest speed possible, so as to cope with the complicated, ever-changing situation in the Realm of Flame Heaven.

As he absorbed spiritual power from the spirit stones, starlight continued to fall through the dissipating demon Qi and converge on him.

He examined his spiritual sea and saw that the starlight he was taking in was gradually flowing into the vortex of starlight.

At that moment, he had a faint feeling that a mysterious connection between him and a dimension very far away had been established and was strengthening.

It was through that connection that the starlight, which was pure and carried the miraculous power of purging the demon Qi, had fallen from the heavens and converged on him.

As the starlight continued to fall, not only the demon Qi in Nie Tian’s surrounding areas, but even the demon Qi in further areas gradually dissipated.

Of course, since the high-tier outsiders had evacuated the place and the low-tier outsiders had fled the area, the density of the demon Qi was already on the decline.

It was the starlight that had sped up the process.

Moments later, a large area with Nie Tian at the center became completely demon Qi-free and the previously blocked sky could be seen again.

Everyone in the area looked up and saw the starlit sky. Among all the stars, one seemed to shine especially brilliantly.

Now that the demon Qi in the central square had dissipated, the weaker Blood sect disciples, who had been hiding behind the scarlet light shield, walked out into the clean air with sighs of relief.

The gigantic blood shadow also shrunk under Li Jing’s soul’s command.

SHEW!

The blood shadow suddenly turned into a flash of blood-colored light before disappearing into the ring on Li Jing’s finger.

A while passed and all the demon Qi that had gathered in the Blood sect dissipated, and the Blood sect was once again showered with silver moonlight.

Numerous Blood sect disciples with low cultivation bases looked up at the starlit sky, which seemed now brighter than ever, sighing over their survival.

“It was so close.”

“It’s finally over.”

“I didn’t expect that we’d see the sky again.”

“We’ve lived through this calamity and we’re safe for now. But I wonder when the wars in the Realm of Flame Heaven will end...”

BOOM!

The Bone Blood Demon, who had been standing by Nie Tian’s side like a guardian, suddenly collapsed to the ground.

Upon the loud crash, purple-colored blood spilled all over the place.

The sound had attracted almost every Blood sect disciples’ attention while Li Jing, who was standing right next to Nie Tian, was the first to make a move.

In the next moment, Li Jing was already standing on top of the Bone Blood Demon’s ribcage.

She slowly crouched down and placed her ring-bearing left hand on the Bone Blood Demon’s huge heart. Upon contact, numerous wisps of blood-colored light instantly flew out of her slender fingers and into the heart.

With a secret magic of the Blood sect, she carefully examined it.

A moment later, she said with a slight frown, “It has run out of life power. Without a power source, it can only fall into a deep slumber again. Only by infusing it with more life power will we be able to bring it back to life again...”

Her gaze shifted from the Bone Blood Demon to Nie Tian, a complicated expression on her face.

She knew perfectly well that she would have to rely on Nie Tian to revive the Bone Blood Demon. Nothing she did would make a difference.

Nie Tian was the only one who could awaken the Bone Blood Demon and put it to use.

She sensed that even though the Bone Blood Demon was now in a slumber, the outsider blood it had absorbed using the Blood Refining Incantation was still running through its veins.

The aura of flesh and blood that it kept exuding was also significantly intenser than before.

It seemed that all the spirit beast blood they had used on it was nowhere near as helpful as the outsider blood it had absorbed on its own.

Perhaps only Blood Demons created from powerful, alien races would be able to enhance themselves via such methods.

“Perhaps, it still has room to grow. As long as it can keep absorbing power from flesh and blood, it may even awaken its Bone Giant bloodline power some day.

“It’s safe to say that the Blood sect has never seen a Blood Demon like this since its founding day.

“Not to mention in the Realm of Flame Heaven, even in the other more powerful realms, a fully awakened Blood Demon with a level eight bloodline power would be considered as an ultimate weapon!

“We can’t lose such a formidable weapon to the Cloudsoaring sect! We must have it!”

Li Jing secretly made up her mind. She was bent on keeping Nie Tian in the Blood sect, even though it meant that she would make Wu Ji her enemy and disrupt the current alliance between the seven sects.

Time passed quickly.

All the Blood sect disciples who had chased after the fleeing low-tier outsiders, returned in triumph.

Only a couple of them returned in low spirits as they didn’t get to kill any low-tier outsiders.

Among the crowd, Li Jing even saw Yu Tong, Jiang Lingzhu, An Shiyi, and Zheng Bin. Apparently, they had rushed to this place after seeing that the demon Qi had lifted, and met the returning Blood sect disciples on their way.

At first glance, Jiang Lingzhu and An Shiyi caught sight of Nie Tian, who was now recuperating with his eyes closed.

Without any hesitation, they rushed towards him. However, as they approached, they saw sectmaster Li Jing, and came to a stop.

“Senior Li...” Timidness filled their eyes as the two of them bowed to Li Jing from afar, wondering why she was standing beside Nie Tian.

Actually, neither of them had met Li Jing in person before, but the suffocating aura she unleashed made them certain that the elegant, well-dressed women in front of them was none other than the famous, fierce woman from the Blood sect.

Since they had both heard terrifying rumors about her, they behaved very cautiously, fearing that they might unwittingly offend her.

Li Jing examined the two of them with her fierce eyes before saying with a plain tone, “Who are you to him?”

“Umm, he’s my martial uncle. My father is Jiang Zhisu.” Jiang Lingzhu sounded intimidated.

“I’m his sworn sister,” said An Shiyi.

“Jiang Zhisu’s precious daughter...” Li Jing shot Jiang Lingzhu another glance before she nodded and said, “From now on, Nie Tian is no longer your martial uncle. He’s a member of the Blood sect. You can tell your father that I’ve demanded him from the Cloudsoaring sect when you get back.”

She didn’t even bother to talk to An Shiyi. Instead, she walked away from Nie Tian.

“He’s recuperating. You can stay by his side and watch him, but don’t try to wake him.” Her voice echoed out from the distance while she was already nowhere to be seen.

Jiang Lingzhu’s expression flickered. “A member of the Blood sect?!” Her gaze shifted between Nie Tian, who was cultivating with his eyes closed, and the direction where Li Jing’s voice had come from, confused about what had happened in this place.

An Shiyi’s face was also filled with confusion as she stared blankly at Nie Tian.

Yu Tong, who was standing in a respectful fashion beside Shen Xiu, apologized, “I’m sorry, sectmaster. I failed to arrive in time to help defend the sect.”

“You did well,” Li Jing said casually, as it seemed that she also knew the things that had happened between Nie Tian and her. “From today on, Nie Tian is your junior martial brother, and I need you to forget about all your enmity towards him.”

“What?!” Yu Tong was flabbergasted.