With a grim expression, Dong Mingxuan turned to remind the crowd in a loud voice, “Be extra careful, everyone! If there are no mishaps, it’s almost certain that we’ll encounter Phantasms. We’ve all heard about Phantasms, but none of us have ever had direct contact with one, including me. It’s widely established that Phantasms are oddly powerful, so we need to prepare ourselves for the upcoming encounters.”

The echoing sound of the man’s agonized scream died out.

Realizing the dangerous situation they were in, Shen Zhong from the Pill Pavilion Sect couldn’t help but step forward and remind the crowd of youngsters, “It seems that we’ll need to pass those Specters before we worry about encountering Phantasms. I believe that many of you don’t have experience dealing with Specters. I’ve got some tips for you. Specters are in an absolute soul form. Some specific attributes work especially well on them. Flame power and lightning power attacks have been proven to be the most effective.

“If you practice these sorts of incantations or possess these sorts of spiritual tools, make sure you cast your attacks where the Specters are most closely packed.

“Attacks of other attributes won’t have much effect on them. Bear this in mind.”

Nie Tian’s expression flickered. “Flame power attacks!”

“Stay close and be careful. Let’s move out!” Shen Zhong called out.

“Also, the bottom of the valley is filled with phantasm Qi. Remember to surround yourselves with spiritual power shields.” Dong Mingxuan reminded the crowd.

Originally, these Worldly realm experts didn’t plan to take any significant part in this trial for the juniors. However, the appearance of the Specters and signs of Phantasms made even them feel insecure and uneasy. Therefore, they felt the need to remind the juniors so that they wouldn’t walk into danger unwittingly and suffer great losses.

Upon hearing Shen Zhong and Dong Mingxuan’s words, everyone felt as if they were facing formidable foes. Immediately after they finished speaking, Nie Tian saw spiritual power shields of various colors spread out from the people from the Realm of a Hundred Battles.

He glanced around and discovered that everyone was summoning their spiritual power to form protective wards around themselves.

Without the slightest hesitation, he summoned some flame power from his vortex of flame power, mixed it with some spiritual power, and formed a fiery light shield around him.

“Follow me everyone.”

Dong Mingxuan said to Dong Li and the other Dong Clan members, telling them to hold their horses and not to march past him.

With these words, he marched into the valley along with Shen Zhong and Qiu Liang from the Pill Pavilion Sect, the old lady Zhou Ruyun from the Water Moon Chamber of Commerce, and Gu Han from the Gu Clan. They led the juniors into the mountain valley.

Walking beside Han Mu, Nie Tian observed his surroundings with rapt attention, and noticed that the Specters that floated about in the vicinity had clearly sensed their existence, yet none of them came at them.

It seemed as if they were restrained by the special environment in the valley, and thus were only able to wander within the valley.

However, the moment Shen Zhong and the other powerful experts set foot in the valley, the Specters that were wandering within the faint phantasm Qi swooped towards them like fierce beasts that had smelled blood.

Qiu Liang from the Pill Pavilion Sect let out a cold harrumph. With a swing of his arm, a red pill shot forward.

The pill was the size of his thumb, with detailed, fiery patterns on its surface. As soon as it flew out, it burst into blazing flames.

The size of the pill gradually shrunk, though the flames it unleashed grew increasingly fierce, and covered an increasingly large area.

Like a special sort of fuel, the blazing pill gradually formed a elliptical ring of flames as it shot directly towards the Specters.

FIZZ! FIZZ!

As the Specters with distorted faces made contact with the fiery ring, one after another, they rapidly scattered in all directions, as if they had been burned by the blazing flames.

“Let me clear a path for you.” As Qiu Liang, who practiced flame incantations, marched in the forefront and cast out crimson pills continuously, a hint of arrogance could be seen in his eyes.

Immediately after leaving his hands, the pills formed numerous fiery rings, which almost entirely filled the area ahead of the team, causing the temperature to soar in the cold, gruesome mountain valley.

The few dozen Specters that had pounced on them let out sharp shrieks as soon as they were touched by those fiery rings, as if the flames were beyond bearable to them. The weaker ones even caught fire. Like misty, gray clouds, they shrunk down and eventually dissipated.

Even though the stronger ones were able to escape after being touched by the flames, they no longer dared to get anywhere close to those spinning, fiery rings. They could only let out ear-piercing screams from a safe distance.

Seeing that Qiu Liang, who was an expert in flame incantations, had already warded off the incoming Specters with the Blaze Pills he had made himself, Dong Mingxuan and the other powerful experts didn’t join the action.

Driven by Qiu Liang’s exquisite incantation, the fiery rings spread out and formed a large, rotating circle around the entire team.

As the Blaze Pills gradually consumed their energy and grew smaller, they continued to spin and ward off the Specters’ attacks.

With Qiu Liang forming a protective circle around them, the juniors almost didn’t need to do anything. As long as they stayed within the circle, they would be safe from the Specters’ attacks.

Nie Tian followed the team deeper into the mountain valley.

The moment he set foot in the bottom of the valley, he noticed that the seven stars that hung above his soul sea started to shine with dazzling light.

Up till this point, he hadn’t used the power with those fragmentary stars to form Heaven Eyes, yet as soon as they started to shine in his soul, both his perception and senses heightened noticeably.

Eyes narrowed, he examined the environment with his increasingly keen perception.

Thanks to the mysterious power from the seven fragmentary stars in his soul, he sensed that the bottom of the valley seemed to be wreathed in a special magnetic field, which had some sort of profound effect on people’s souls.

It was because he had entered it that the normally-quiet fragmentary stars in his soul began to shine brilliantly.

It seemed as if the fragmentary stars had sensed danger, and took the initiative to guard Nie Tian’s soul against potential attacks.

After realizing this, he quietly approached Dong Li and whispered in her ear, “Tell your men to gather their strength and guard their souls. I suspect that unusual things might happen to us in this valley. Someone or something might target our souls.”

Dong Li’s watery eyes lit up. “Are you sure?”

After entering the valley, she had also grown suspicious of the special environment. However, she couldn’t perceive the anomaly like Nie Tian. All she could do was raise her guard.

Meanwhile, it seemed that none of the Worldly realm experts, who had transformed their psychic power into soul power, were affected by the strange magnetic field in the valley, or experienced any sort of discomfort.

Nie Tian seemed to be the only one who had sensed the anomaly the moment he stepped into the valley.

Then, as soon as the seven fragmentary stars in his soul lit up, he no longer felt insecure and uneasy, as if the fragmentary stars could protect him from any harm from the strange magnetic field.

“I’m not completely sure bad things will happen, but it doesn’t hurt to be more careful,” Nie Tian said in a low voice.

Since Shen Zhong, Dong Mingxuan, and the other Worldly realm experts didn’t seem to notice any anomalies after entering the valley, he slightly doubted his own judgment. Thus, he didn’t guarantee Dong Li that he would be right.

At this moment, Dong Mingxuan and the other Worldly realm experts were marching in the front and focused on the Specters around them. Therefore, none of them overheard his conversation with Dong Li.

Dong Li pondered briefly, then chose to trust Nie Tian’s judgment. She summoned Han Mu to her side and instructed him to inform the other Dong Clan members.

Afterwards, Han Mu rapidly moved about among the Dong Clan Qi warriors, delivering Dong Li’s instructions.

Even though they didn’t understand the reason behind it, they followed Dong Li’s instructions and warded their souls with psychic power.

Since Nie Tian said himself that he wasn’t sure about this, Dong Li only gave instructions to her men. She was afraid that nothing would really happen and the others would laugh at her for being overly suspicious.

Changes came without any warning.

A bloodcurdling screech suddenly echoed out from the depths of the valley.

At the same time, a layer of cyan energy spread out and rapidly covered the pale-gray, sparsely vegetated walls of the mountain peaks on both sides of the valley.

As soon as the cyan energy ripples appeared, the might of the screech seemed to be greatly enhanced.

All of a sudden, every Qi warrior from the Realm of a Hundred Battles felt as if their soul had been pierced by thousands of sharp arrows.

Under Han Mu’s urging, the Qi warriors from the Dong Clan had already gathered their psychic power and formed protective shields around their souls.

Like a storm of sharp arrows, countless psychic blasts shot into their protective shields, causing them to let out muffled groans and struggle to maintain their foothold.

However, the strong blow didn’t inflict too much damage on their souls. Most of them came out fine.

In Nie Tian’s soul, the seven fragmentary stars continued to emanate dazzling starlight, neutralizing the fierce psychic attack quietly and effortlessly.

Standing unwavering like Mount Tai, he didn’t stagger in the slightest.