Nie Tian temporarily stayed in the stone pavilion where Li Ye and Pei Qiqi lived in Desolate City.

Hua Mu had messaged him a few times through the Sound Stone he had given him over the past few days. After learning that he was staying with Li Ye and Pei Qiqi, Hua Mu was relieved, and told him to keep waiting there.

Sitting quietly in the rough stone room, Nie Tian took out a piece of fourth grade spirit beast meat.

He felt that his appetite had gone through a strong boost since the green aura in his heart had finished its latest transcendence and awakened its new bloodline talent - Life Drain.

Before, he would need to consume a few dozen kilos of spirit beast meat to keep himself energetic.

However, after the latest transcendence of his bloodline aura, his daily consumption of spirit beast meat had at least tripled.

“Life Drain...” Looking at the piece of spirit beast meat that weighed about ten kilos, he suddenly came up with an idea. “Can I use Life Drain to absorb flesh power directly from the spirit beast meat?”

According to his master, all living creatures carried flesh power in their flesh and blood.

However, humans were born with feeble bodies, and therefore were greatly disadvantaged in this aspect. For this reason, they had developed the cultivation system of channeling the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth into their spiritual seas and focusing on the refinement of those spiritual seas.

Spirit beasts and many powerful outsider races also channeled energy from heaven and earth, but afterwards, they stored the energy in their flesh, blood, and bones.

This was the reason why spirit beasts and many outsiders possessed flesh power much more formidable than humans.

Some of the spirit beasts’ flesh power would dissipate after they died, but the majority would still exist in their flesh, blood, and bones.

But Nie Tian could only consume the spirit beasts’ flesh and blood, not their bones.

However, many humans forged powerful spiritual tools with spirit beast bones, for they had been nourished and refined by the spirit beasts’ flesh power. Not only were they incomparably tough, but they also contained copious amounts of energy.

“Will I be able to absorb flesh power from a spirit beast’s flesh and even bones with Life Drain?” With this thought, he placed his left hand on the large piece of spirit beast meat and inwardly activated his Life Drain bloodline talent.

As soon as he did, the green aura in his heart grew restless, and the crystal-like chains within it started to flicker brightly.

In the next moment, wisps of flesh aura, which normally stayed hidden in his blood, seemed to be suddenly awoken by the green aura.

Under the guidance of his mind, they rapidly gathered to his arm and poured into that piece of spirit beast meat.

The moment his flesh aura infiltrated the spirit beast meat, the flickering green spots within the crystal-like chains in the green aura started to swim about.

Then, he could sense wisps of pure flesh power being gradually extracted from the piece of spirit beast meat and merging with his own flesh aura.

Afterwards, carried by his own flesh aura, the wisps of mixed power gradually followed his arm back to his heart, where they were devoured by the green aura.

In merely a few seconds, the piece of spirit beast meat was drained of every bit of flesh power.

Afterwards, the piece of meat looked dry and shriveled. After Nie Tian cooked it on a fire and consumed it, it didn’t produce anymore flesh power.

After a moment of silent pondering, he took out more spirit beast meat and drained the flesh power from it with the same method.

Within a very short period of time, every bit of flesh power absorbed from the spirit beast meat was devoured by the green aura.

Meanwhile, the processed meat failed to produce anymore flesh power even as Nie Tian ate it afterwards.

Nie Tian’s eyes lit up as he muttered in a low voice, “Life Drain allows me to drain the spirit beast meat of every bit of its flesh power! And the efficiency is much higher than me eating the meat! I can probably drain the flesh power of hundreds of kilos of spirit beast meat within no more than a quarter hour!”

A shudder ran through Nie Tian as he thought about what he could do with his new finding. The next time he killed a powerful spirit beast, he would be able to channel all of its flesh power into himself shortly after its death, before it lost too much of its flesh power.

“If I can somehow use this bloodline talent on a spirit beast during battle, then its battle prowess will be greatly weakened due to its rapid loss of flesh power.

“It will be the same with outsiders. If I can use Life Drain on outsiders, and if they don’t have a way to resist it or they were caught off guard, they’d also rapidly lose their ability to fight.

“However, I’ll be able to strengthen myself and improve my battle prowess with the flesh power I take from them.”

With these thoughts in mind, Nie Tian’s eyes shone with the light of excitement. As his understanding of this newly-acquired bloodline talent deepened, he gradually realized that it would have a destructive effect on spirit beasts and outsiders.

However, since humans were physically weak, and their power was mostly spiritual power that resided in their spiritual seas, Life Drain probably wouldn’t work very well on them.

Human Qi warriors’ strength mostly lay with their spiritual power. Even if they were drained of their insignificant flesh power, they would still be able to summon spiritual power and fight with their spiritual tools.

The effect of Life Drain would only be maximized when it was used on powerful beings that focused on the cultivation of their physical bodies.

“What’s going on with the broken will of the titan I gathered from that magical place?” Nie Tian sent a wisp of his awareness into his spiritual sea to examine his spinning vortex of wood power.

The broken will of the guardian titan of the Tree of Life contained some unfathomable knowledge regarding wood power.

However, the will was broken into countless pieces that were rotating along with the vortex of wood power.

It seemed they were slowly regathering, yet Nie Tian knew it would still take some time for all of the pieces to recombine and become one again.

DING!

A crisp sound rang out from his Sound Stone. Nie Tian examined it with a wisp of his psychic awareness, and received a clear message from Hua Mu.

Hua Mu told him to stay with Li Ye, and that Zhen Huilan was coming back soon. Also, Hua Mu had talked to Zhen Huilan, and arrangements had been made. All he needed to do was listen to Zhen Huilan.

Since Hua Mu needed to refine that Fruit of Life and extend his lifespan as quickly as possible, he wouldn’t come back to him any time soon.

After a brief conversation with Hua Mu, Nie Tian took the initiative to end the connection.

In the following days, Nie Tian spent all day absorbing flesh power from spirit beast meat with Life Drain in Li Ye and Pei Qiqi’s temporary residence, making preparations for the green aura’s next transcendence.

Thanks to the awakening of his Life Drain talent, the efficiency with which he could absorb flesh power rose to a whole new level.

Later, he even discovered that what his exceptionally vigorous body needed from the spirit beast meat was actually just its flesh power.

Ever since he had started absorbing flesh power with the Life Drain, he had never felt hungry again.

From now on, he no longer needed to consume copious amount of spirit beast meat just to maintain the normal functions of his physical body. Apparently, after the awakening of Life Drain, that primitive way of taking in flesh power became unnecessary and obsolete.

That meant, from now on, even if he didn’t eat anything at all, as long as he absorbed flesh power from spirit beast meat with Life Drain, he would be fine.

At that moment, Dong Li’s voice suddenly rang out from outside. “Little Tian!”

Nie Tian went blank briefly before he opened his window. He looked down and saw Dong Li standing in the lonesome street.

Immediately afterwards, he went downstairs and out into the street where Dong Li was standing. Surprised by her arrival, he asked, “How come you’re here?”

After the incident with Zhao Shanling, a large number of Desolate City residents had fled the city. Some others had gone to visit the mountain valley where the battle between Qi Bailu and Zhao Shanling had taken place. Therefore, the current Desolate City was sparsely populated.

No one could be seen anywhere around Nie Tian and Dong Li. The gates of the nearby stone pavilions were also shut.

“When did you return?” Dong Li asked in a soft voice.

“About ten days ago,” Nie Tian answered.

Dong Li grew angry. “I arrived in Desolate City shortly after Li Ye and Pei Qiqi. Why did you only stay here with them, but not come to visit me? I waited and waited, hoping that you’d come to find me, yet you’ve already forgotten about me! You ungrateful bastard!”

She had only come here because she needed to leave soon and couldn’t wait for him any longer.

Since she wasn’t fond of Pei Qiqi, she hadn’t show any intention of going into the residence in the first place. Instead, she had only shouted in the street to see if Nie Tian was there. Who knew that Nie Tian had been back for ten days. She was very upset about the fact that he had been here all along, yet he hadn’t gone to visit her.

“Our trip together has come to an end, so...” Nie Tian said with a confused expression.

Dong Li gave him a hard look. “What end? I helped you so much. You still owe me favors. Don’t you remember?”

A stumped expression appeared on Nie Tian’s face. “Umm...”

Dong Li suddenly lowered her voice and said, “I’m going to the Realm of Split Void. You need to come with me! The situation over there is complicated. I could use your help!”

KREEEN! A window on the second floor was pushed open. It was Pei Qiqi.

Since Dong Li had spoken those last sentences in an extremely low voice, she didn’t hear what she had just said. She just leaned against the window and looked down coldly at the two of them.

Upon noticing her, Dong Li’s lips pursed into a smile as she immediately stopped bickering. Instead, she dragged Nie Tian away from the stone pavilion.