Accidents always happen unexpectedly.

Through Jing Rou’s prism, Nie Tian saw with great clarity that Pei Qiqi was inside that ice crystal.

However, after recovering its original form, the eighth grade ice phoenix disappeared into a spatial rift with the ice crystal and Pei Qiqi.

Duan Shihu and Jing Rou were also dumbstruck, not knowing what to say.

They had made a thorough plan to rescue Pei Qiqi before coming here, including persuading Meng Li to help them and mobilizing the Divine Seal Sect’s chess pieces that they had planted inside the Thousandsword Mountain Sect.

Who would have thought that ice phoenix would somehow sense the existence of that ice crystal that was more than ten thousand years old, and take it away, along with Pei Qiqi?

“Doesn’t the Thousandsword Mountain Sect have some spell formation to stop that ice phoenix from taking that ice crystal?!” Nie Tian called out.

Meng Li let out a weak sigh and said, “Of course they do. It’s just that that ice crystal flew out of Xing Bo’s ancient starship, which wasn’t enveloped by the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s spell formation due to its overly large size. Also, that ice phoenix was at the peak of the eighth grade. Now, she has recovered a significant amount of soul power after gaining those soul crystals from you. It’s indeed unexpected that she would discover that ice crystal and channel it away with her bloodline magic.”

At this moment, Nie Tian saw in the prism that powerful experts from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect were roaring with anger.

They had all seen which spatial rift the eighth grade ice phoenix had disappeared into, but none of them dared to enter it.

With a bitter expression, Jing Rou said, “That spatial rift probably leads to some realm that belongs to the Ancientbeasts. In all this time, very few Ancientbeasts have come to the Realm of Maelstrom, and we know very little about them. The same goes for the Thousandsword Mountain Sect.

“Since they don’t know what kind of power lies within the realm that spatial rift leads to, it’s only natural that they don’t dare to enter it so rashly.”

“What do you think will happen to Senior Martial Sister Pei now that that eighth grade ice phoenix has her?” Nie Tian asked in a grim voice.

After a moment of pondering, Jing Rou said in a comforting voice, “The way I see it, she’ll probably be in a better place in her hands than in Xing Bo’s. Your senior martial sister is an accident to that eighth grade ice phoenix. I doubt that it knew your senior martial sister was in that ice crystal when she channeled it to her.

“Plus, she doesn’t have any feuds with your senior martial sister. It’s not likely that she’ll do terrible things to her.

“At least she won’t erase your senior martial sister’s memories and marry her, right?”

Nie Tian gradually calmed down after hearing these words. He pondered the matter a bit more, and realized that as long as Pei Qiqi didn’t die, she would indeed be in a better place than in Xing Bo’s hands.

The only problem was would that eighth grade ice phoenix let Pei Qiqi live?

“Can we get in touch with the Ancientbeasts?” Nie Tian asked.

Eyebrows furrowed, Jing Rou said, “I’ll try and see if we can get some information about that eighth grade ice phoenix.”

Now that the ice phoenix had taken Pei Qiqi away, the plan she had made with Duan Shihu to rescue Pei Qiqi came to nothing.

Even though Nie Tian was very frustrated, there was very little he could do about it. Eventually, he said, “I’ll go to the Shatter Battlefield if we can’t get in touch with the Ancientbeasts. She said just before leaving that she would return to the Shatter Battlefield soon, right? I’ll probably be able to find her there!

“I still have quite a few soul crystals. As long as I can find her, I’ll definitely be able to trade them for Senior Martial Sister Pei!”

Everyone’s expressions flickered upon hearing that he planned to go to the Shatter Battlefield.

...

High in the air in the Realm of Maelstrom.

Standing in an air-transportation spiritual tool with Gao Han and a few other experts from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect, Xing Bo stomped with fury as he stared at the spatial rift the ice phoenix had disappeared in.

A figure suddenly flew to them from the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s area.

Doing his utmost to suppress his fury, Xing Bo said, “Elder Du Zheng, an eighth grade ice phoenix just stole my ice crystal, which is more than ten thousand years old, along with a person I imprisoned in it.”

Du Zheng was at the middle Void domain. Like Meng Li, he was the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s overseer in the Realm of Maelstrom.

However, he had been away when this incident had happened. He had just received word of it and rushed over here.

This was because Jing Rou and Duan Shihu’s plan to rescue Pei Qiqi had already been carried out.

The first step had been to get Du Zheng out of the Realm of Maelstrom.

The reason why Du Zheng hadn’t been here earlier was because Jing Rou had created some thorny matters in his clan, which had held him off.

After learning what had happened here, he had put those matters on hold and rushed back here at the first possible moment.

After landing in the air-transportation spiritual tool where Xing Bo and Gao Han were standing, he followed their gazes and took a deep look at the spatial rift the ice phoenix had disappeared into. After pondering in silence for a while, he said, “We’d better let go of this matter.”

Xing Bo’s expression grew discontent.

With a grim expression, Du Zheng explained, “That ice phoenix is at the peak of the eighth grade, only one step away from entering the ninth grade. It’s not worth it to fight her over an ice crystal. And we don’t know much about Ancientbeasts, or what lies beyond that spatial rift.

“Just that ice phoenix alone will be very difficult for us to deal with once it enters the ninth grade.

“Let alone the fact that there may be many other powerful Ancientbeasts in that realm she went to.”

“But that woman is very important to me!” Xing Bo finally couldn’t help but bellow.

Du Zheng shot him a cold glance. “No matter how important you think she is, she’s nothing in the face of the safety of our sect! You’ve always been smart and understood the big picture. What’s gotten into you this time?”

Xing Bo sagged his head slightly.

Du Zheng let out a snort. Waving his hand, he said, “Alright, all disciples of the Thousandsword Mountain Sect are prohibited from entering that spatial rift to settle accounts with that ice phoenix. Now go back. This ends here!”

Upon hearing his order, the Thousandsword Mountain Sect disciples reluctantly flew back to their trading area, their heads sagging in frustration.

...

Nie Tian also looked rather edgy after watching the ice phoenix take Pei Qiqi away, yet he didn’t have a solution to the matter.

Even though he had lost Pei Qiqi again, he still needed to make Xing Bo pay for killing Zhen Huilan.

Nie Tian expressed his intentions, and Jing Rou told him to be patient, and that the Divine Seal Sect already had people looking into it.

As long as they could prove Xing Bo’s collusion with the Bonebrutes, even the Thousandsword Mountain Sect wouldn’t be able to protect him. He would lose his standing and receive a harsh punishment.

Nie Tian thus stayed in the Realm of Maelstrom for the time being.

Shortly afterwards, Xing Bo left the Realm of Maelstrom on his ancient starship and returned to the Thousandsword Mountain Sect’s headquarters.

Jing Rou soon learned that even the Thousandsword Mountain Sect seemed to be unaware of Xing Bo’s connections to the Bonebrutes.

Jing Rou thought they should wait for Xing Bo to meet up with the Bonebrutes and catch him red-handed. Then, Xing Bo would get the punishment he deserved.

During this time, she told Nie Tian that she had secretly contacted Zhong Shishu from the Golden Vast Sect, and guaranteed that the Qi warriors from the Domain of the Falling Stars had nothing to do with those burial grounds of the Bonebrutes’.

The Golden Vast Sect had said that they would stop pursuing Zhao Shanling and the others from the Domain of the Falling Stars for now, and even keep an eye out for evidence of Xing Bo’s connections with the Bonebrutes.

Meanwhile, Nie Tian remained in the Realm of Maelstrom, where he practiced cultivation and learned more about this interesting realm.

He would often see outsiders openly make transactions with human Qi warriors in the Realm of Maelstrom.

The unique features of the Realm of Maelstrom shook Nie Tian greatly. He asked Duan Shihu to bring Zhao Shanling and the other experts to the Realm of Maelstrom too, so that they could also appreciate its uniqueness.

He assumed that Zhao Shanling and the others would be able to exchange valuables with outsiders here, and perhaps even get the spiritual materials they would need to build their inner domains.

Besides, there were many profound mysteries regarding spatial power in the Realm of Maelstrom, which he assumed would help with Zhao Shanling’s breakthrough in cultivation.

Therefore, Zhao Shanling, Qi Bailu, and Hua Mu left the Realm of Withering Flame through the Divine Seal Sect’s large-scale teleportation portal.

Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue, however, found the environment of the Realm of Withering Flame to be very agreeable, and were already making efforts to break through into the late Soul realm. Therefore, they didn’t come along.

Immediately after arriving in the Realm of Maelstrom, Zhao Shanling summoned his Voidspirit Pagoda and sent out his soul awareness to examine this wondrous realm, along with its numerous spatial rifts.

Days passed before Zhao Shanling suddenly came to find Nie Tian. He said, “This realm is very special. I think I’ll be able to build a teleportation portal here using the Voidspirit Pagoda as the heart of the spell formation, and connect the teleportation portal to a large-scale teleportation portal I set up in the Realm of Split Void.”

A shudder ran through Nie Tian. “What!?”

This whole time, he had had a headache over how to establish a connection between the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of the Falling Stars.

He hadn’t expected that Zhao Shanling would come to him with such a good news after only a few days of deriving enlightenment in the Realm of Maelstrom.

Hua Mu also found this hard to believe. “This place is separated from the Realm of Split Void by the boundless starry river. Are you sure that you’ll be able to connect the two with teleportation portals?”

To connect the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Divine Flame Sect’s headquarters in the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, the Divine Flame Sect had established seven teleportation portals.

The distance between the Domain of the Falling Stars and Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries was fairly short, and yet they had still needed seven teleportation portals to connect them.

The distance between the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of the Falling Stars was much greater, yet Zhao Shanling said he would be able to connect the two with a few teleportation portals. This was indeed hard to believe.

With an arrogant expression, Zhao Shanling said, “I’m sure. Like the Realm of Split Void, the Realm of Maelstrom is also an ideal place to build teleportation portals that connect realms. Besides, I have the help of my Voidspirit Pagoda, which is a very powerful space manipulating tool. I’m certain that this will work.”

“Alright,” Nie Tian said, looking very excited. “I’ll talk to the Divine Seal Sect. You do whatever you need to do!”