Dong Li curled her lips and said disdainfully, “Look at that arrogant shmuck.

“He just happened to have practiced the type of incantations that turned out to be the most effective on Specters. What else does he have? Considering his cultivation base and strength, if he were facing opponents who weren’t so afraid of thunder or lightning, he would have suffered a great loss already.”

Expressionless, Nie Tian didn’t say a word.

However, it seemed that Dong Li didn’t really care what Nie Tian’s take on this matter was, and thus she continued to mutter to herself, “This guy’s probably going to get the largest share of the loot after our exploration is over. Every time we went on exploration trips together before, we divided the loot according to everyone’s contribution, instead of evenly.

“The person who made the most contributions would get to choose first when the time came to split up the loot.

“Now, since this guy has killed so many Specters by relying on his thunder incantations and thunderballs, he’s already way ahead of us, contribution-wise. If there are no mishaps, he’ll get the most valuables after we finish exploring the Phantasm relic.”

With these words, Dong Li grew angry again. She shot a dirty look at Nie Tian before saying, “If I had known that what you said was really going to happen, I would have warned everyone, and it would have been considered a major contribution on my part. By the time the exploration trip was over, the seniors would probably have kept that meritorious service in mind, and given me a larger share of the loot. This is all because you didn’t make yourself clear!”

Nie Tian rolled his eyes at her and said coldly, “You’re crazy!”

“You!!!” Glaring at him, Dong Li was just about to lash out when she realized that Qin Yan was looking at them. She hastily held her tongue and said with a low voice, “Wu Tian! You’d better behave yourself from now on. If you perform well enough and win me extra loot, I’ll make sure you get your share after this whole is finished!”

“Sure...” Nie Tian sounded rather indifferent.

Dong Li’s slender eyebrows furrowed slightly.

Seeing that her attempt to provoke Nie Tian had failed, she felt increasingly angry. However, she couldn’t think of a better method.

Han Mu was right about her and Dong Baijie; the two of them would only attach importance to those who could beat them or make them suffer losses.

Back in the Realm of Split Void, Nie Tian had destroyed her operation in the forest, which she had spent a long time planning. When she had called upon numerous other Hunter organizations to capture him together, she had failed again.

Even not long ago, she had been very confident that she would easily overtake Nie Tian with her black phoenix’s fully-developed strength, yet she had once again failed.

After being repeatedly bested by Nie Tian, she had actually grown somewhat respectful towards him.

She had a feeling that Nie Tian would be able to help her gain a sizable fortune during this exploration trip. It was this indescribable feeling that had driven her to scheme and coerce Nie Tian into joining the exploration team.

However, she was fully aware that, even if Nie Tian refused to contribute, she wouldn’t be able to do anything to him, since her instincts told her that Dong Baijie had secretly met with him.

She suspected that her older brother had said something to Nie Tian. Therefore, it probably wouldn’t work if she threatened him with the safety of his family and friends from the Cloudsoaring Sect.

Nie Tian had killed a large number of Dark Moon Qi warriors and Hunters in the Realm of Split Void, and looted quite a fortune from them.

Meanwhile, since the Yin Sect and the Yang Sect from the Realm of a Thousand Devastations seemed to attach great importance to Nie Tian, and his current cultivation base wasn’t very profound, he didn’t seem to worry about needing spiritual materials.

Not being able to lure him in with spiritual materials, she could only try something else.

After a brief pondering, she suddenly pursed her lips into a smile, and stepped closer to Nie Tian. Her flattering eyes narrowed as she said to him with an extremely gentle and low voice, “That girl Pei Qiqi has always been cold like a rock to you. Don’t you find her boring? If you help me with everything within your power, I’ll let you get intimate with me when this trip ends. How’s that?”

Shock spread across Nie Tian’s face as he turned to look her in the eyes.

Not wearing a mask, Dong Li, who was smiling broadly, looked as beautiful as a blossoming flower. Adding in her inviting stance, she looked like every man’s dream.

If he didn’t know how cunning and vicious she was, he might actually have been aroused.

However, as Nie Tian looked at her smiling face now, he saw a deadly scorpion. While raising his guard, he stepped backwards to put some distance between them and said, “As far as I know, all those who have attempted to get intimate with you are all piles of dried bones now. I still want to hold onto my life for a little longer, so thank you for the invitation, but I’ll pass.”

Dong Li burst into a flaming rage. “Unappreciative asshole!”

Her plan to seduce Nie Tian hadn’t worked. However, her actions had caught Gu Haofeng’s attention, who was marching at the front.

Seeing her talk to Nie Tian so flirtatiously, he instantly grew furious. With a violent swing of his hand, he cast out a number of thunderballs, bombarding the Specters hovering in front of him, leaving nothing but cyan fumes and miserable screams in the air.

Thanks to his effort, the remaining Specters that had been blocking the long mountain valley finally scattered.

Gu Haofeng was the first to pass through the valley, and stood in an open area. Upon getting a glimpse of the vast terrain before his eyes, he gasped and exclaimed, “My god!”

Upon hearing his exclamation, the Worldly realm experts also rushed out of the valley.

Dong Li also sensed the anomaly. She stopped bickering with Nie Tian and also ran out of the valley.

Nie Tian went after her.

There was a lake not far from where they were standing, which was wreathed in misty, cyan phantasm Qi.

Thousands of Specters were hovering within the phantasm Qi, which was far denser than the phantasm Qi in the valley. Meanwhile, the sounds of battle kept echoing out from the areas around the lake, where large numbers of huge, oddly-shaped rocks could be seen.

It seemed that other Qi warriors had beaten them to this place. However, since the huge rocks blocked their sight, they couldn’t see what they were fighting.

Numerous human corpses were scattered around the lake shore, each of which had bulging eyes and blood coming out of their eyes. Apparently, they had died from having their souls taken away.

A large number of Specters were screeching as they hovered in the rich phantasm Qi over the lake, which hurt Nie Tian’s eardrums and shook his soul.

A few vague figures could be seen among the Specters, as if they were controlling them.

From the look of it, those vague figures were the so-called Phantasms. They blended in with the Specters around them. They would appear every once in a while, though they couldn’t be located most of the time.

Staring at the bizarre scene above the lake, Cao Qiushui muttered, flabbergasted, “W-what happened here?”

The Phantasm relic is in the depths of that lake. But now that so many Specters and Phantasms are hovering above the lake, what should we do?”

BOOM!

At that moment, a loud sound rang out from the mountain valley behind them.

Nie Tian jerked his head back to see what was happening.

He saw that a wall of faint, cyan light had suddenly appeared at the mouth of the valley, cutting them off from the path they had taken to get here.

Three of Dong Li’s subordinates hadn’t come out of the valley when the wall of cyan light appeared, and thus they were separated from the group.

With Gu Haofeng and the Worldly realm experts out of the valley, the Specters regrouped and madly attacked the people who were now trapped in the valley.

Surrounded by numerous Specters, one trapped Qi warrior after another went down.

By the time Dong Mingxuan, Shen Zhong, and the others realized what was going on and rushed back to their rescue, they found that they couldn’t go through the wall of cyan light.

Gu Haofeng bombarded the ward repeatedly with his thunderballs, yet the cyan ward didn’t change a bit.

Then, they watched their friends from the Realm of a Hundred Battles become swamped by a large number of Specters, while there was nothing they could do.

With ghastly faces, everyone wracked their minds for a way to save their companions.

However, even Shen Zhong and Dong Mingxuan couldn’t break the strange ward, which was apparently created by the powerful Phantasms after exhausting all of their power.

It wasn’t long before everyone stopped making attempts one after another.

The reason was that all those who hadn’t passed through the valley in time were killed by the Specters.

Cao Qiushui’s face turned pale as he watched discarnate souls rising from the cold corpses of the Cao Clan members, who used to be his friends, absorbing phantasm Qi, and transforming into Specters. “There’s no going back now...”

Nie Tian’s heart also grew incomparably heavy.