In the Realm of Maelstrom...

A shiny golden ancient starship was berthed high in the sky close to the watery curtain that looked like an enormous swirl over the entire realm.

The entire Domain of Heaven Python had been shaken when that starship had first sailed through one of the spatial rifts in the watery curtain.

Only after Huang Jinnan had stated his identity and intent had the Divine Seal Sect, the Golden Vast Sect, and the Thousandsword Mountain Sect let out sighs of relief.

Nie Tian teleported to the Realm of Maelstrom from the Realm of Split Void.

As he arrived in the Divine Seal Sect’s stronghold, Huang Jinnan was waiting by himself, without any subordinates by his side.

Upon seeing him, Nie Tian called out, “Brother Huang! What brought you here?”

Meng Li, Du Zheng, and Wu Yun, who were the realm-overseers appointed by the Divine Seal Sect, the Golden Vast Sect, and the Thousandsword Mountain Sect, were also gathered there.

Now that these three sects had all become Nie Tian’s subordinate sects, the three of them took orders from him as well.

Huang Jinnan laughed heartily. “Congratulations, Nie Tian. I didn’t expect that you’d be able to silence the different voices within the Domain of Heaven Python and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries so fast.”

“Don’t make fun of me, Brother Huang,” Nie Tian said. “The Pure Heaven Sect from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries hasn’t pledged their allegiance to me yet.”

“It’ll only be a matter of time,” Huang Jinnan said, looking very sure of himself. “Even the Divine Seal Sect, the Thousandsword Mountain Sect, and the Golden Vast Sect have chosen to follow you. All of them are stronger than the Pure Heaven Sect.”

Nie Tian didn’t seem to agree with him as he said, “Patriarch Pure Heaven is different. He might actually cause me some trouble after coming out of his secluded cultivation.”

However, Huang Jinnan seemed to have strong confidence in him as he said, “Whatever. I’m sure that you’ll be able to take care of it.”

Then, with a meaningful smile, he changed the subject. “You’re quite a low-key guy, aren’t you? I’ve been the Divine Son of the metal element sect of the Five Elements Sect for years, and I still haven’t summoned a God domain expert to my side. Who would have thought that you’ve just become a Son of the Stars, and you already have a God domain flame power expert at your back.”

Thanks to Patriarch Snowy Peak, almost everyone knew about this now.

Nie Tian didn’t give him an explanation. He only smiled and asked, “Are you here because of the matter you mentioned to me before?”

Huang Jinnan didn’t pursue the subject of the God domain expert. Instead, he nodded somewhat excitedly and said, “Exactly. I’ve already had a teleportation portal established in that domain we discovered. Now, we’ll be able to teleport there without effort through the teleportation portal in that ancient starship of mine.”

“How did you get your ancient starship here?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

“Through one of the spatial rifts up there,” Huang Jinnan answered truthfully. “The head of the fire element sect visited the Domain of Heaven Python many years ago. Back then, he found a spatial rift that connected our domain to the Realm of Maelstrom, and came here under a disguise.

“Even very few members from my sect know about this.”

Nie Tian was taken aback. “The head of the fire element sect...”

According to Jing Feiyang, the head of the fire element sect had gone to the Domain of Flame’s End to search for that cluster of Divine Flame, but returned empty-handed.

No one knew how he had come or gone.

Now, after hearing Huang Jinnan’s explanation, Nie Tian finally realized how he had traveled all the way to the Realm of Maelstrom and back.

Huang Jinnan must have learned about that special spatial rift from him, which had allowed him to travel so efficiently.

Nie Tian nodded. “I see. So when do we leave? And what preparations do I need to make?”

“You don’t need to prepare anything. Let’s go there and get an overall understanding of that domain first.” Huang Jinnan seemed to have planned the exploration already. “You can assemble your subordinate forces and march them there after we figure out the strength of the indigenous forces of that domain. I’ll berth my ancient starship here in the Realm of Maelstrom during this time, so you’ll be able to travel back and forth conveniently.”

“Alright, as you say,” Nie Tian said.

Meng Li, Du Zheng, and Wu Yun all showed strong interest as they listened to Nie Tian and Huang Jinnan.

“Exploring a brand new domain?”

“A Divine Son of the Five Elements Sect will lead the exploration team?”

“If things work out, this trip will be very rewarding!”

They all knew that it could be very dangerous to explore brand new domains. Many ancient starships had sailed out of the Domain of Heaven Python on exploration trips and never returned.

There were also explorers who had discovered unclaimed domains and harvested precious materials that the Domain of Heaven Python didn’t produce, giving a strong boost to their sects’ strength.

However, those who had succeeded only took up a small part, while most of the inter-domain explorers had returned empty-handed, or never returned at all.

But if a Divine Son of the Five Elements Sect was going to lead this exploration of a new domain, it would be much safer.

For that reason, the three overseers were all thrilled, and even started to fantasize about how many precious materials they would gather from that domain, and how much their sects would benefit from it.

“Gentlemen, please go inform the related parties of this exploration operation, so that they can start making preparations,” Nie Tian said. “I’ll go there first with brother Huang. If things work out, perhaps I’ll be able to arrange for you to enter that brand new domain in batches to search for valuables soon.”

Meng Li and the others nodded repeatedly, affirming that they would take care of it right away.

Huang Jinnan then took Nie Tian back to his golden ancient starship, which was larger and more magnificent than any ancient starship in the Domain of Heaven Python.

It had the Five Elements Sect’s banner fluttering over it.

A few Void domain experts bowed towards Huang Jinnan upon seeing him return.

“Divine Son.”

“Divine Son.”

Nie Tian realized that he had seen some of them in Fragmentary Star City before, as they bowed slightly towards Nie Tian as well to show their respect.

Nie Tian could tell that they were more respectful and sincere this time.

Back when they had first met him in Fragmentary Star City, even though they had also been respectful on the outside, deep down, they had deemed Nie Tian, who had just become a Son of the Stars, as unworthy of being offered the opportunity to explore that new domain with their master.

However, they had recently learned that Nie Tian had saved his subordinates from the Heavenly Ice Sect, that he had a God domain expert at his back, and that he had rapidly silenced the different voices within the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries and the Domain of Heaven Python. Only after that had they felt that Nie Tian was qualified to go explore the new domain they had discovered with their master.

“Uncle Huang Yan, would you stay here and watch over things?” Huang Jinnan asked. “The others will leave with me.”

The man who he referred to as Huang Yan seemed to be a senior member of his clan who he trusted deeply. He was at the late Void domain.

Huang Yan nodded. “Of course, young lord.”

With these words, Huang Jinnan led Nie Tian and the others to the main cabin, where an inter-domain teleportation portal stood.

As the spell formation was activated, everyone’s heads started to spin. Only after quite a while did Nie Tian flash through the teleportation portal into the unknown domain.

In this domain, the sky was grayish-green, and stars could be seen flickering weakly from time to time.

Bleak cold filled heaven and earth. There wasn’t a shred of spiritual Qi in the air. As Nie Tian breathed air into his lungs, he felt that something was numbing his senses and making him very uncomfortable.

However, as soon as he circulated a bit of his bloodline power, he refined the air, and was no longer influenced.

The inter-realm teleportation portal stood on an emerald green marshland, where a number of powerful experts were already waiting for Huang Jinnan.

Nie Tian had met three of them in Fragmentary Star City, all of whom were at the Saint domain.

They seemed to be the first ones to have come here.

Several odd-looking corpses were scattered at the three Saint domain experts’ feet. Each of them was more than ten meters long, and looked like a giant lizard with grayish-brown skin and a long tail.

Even though they looked like lizards at first glance, upon a closer look, they had heads that were similar to humans, with eyes, noses, and ears on their faces.

Pointing at the corpses, Huang Jinnan explained to Nie Tian, “These are the inhabitants of this domain. We think we can call them Lizardmen. There aren’t any records of them in our sect. And unlike the domains we are familiar with, there don’t seem to be any signs of humans ever coming to this domain.

“However, it seems that Demons set foot on this land a very long time ago. It’s just that those Demons seemed to be rather weak, so they ended up being killed by the Lizardmen. We learned all this by peeling memories from the souls of these dead Lizardmen.

“Also, don’t underestimate them. From their memories, we learned that their most powerful warriors seem to be strong enough to contend against Saint domain human experts. And there seem to be seven or eight of them.”

Nie Tian’s expression flickered slightly. “There are seven or eight of them?!”

If that was true, then it meant this domain was even stronger than the Domain of Heaven Python.

He couldn’t help but imagine that if he had come here with Jing Feiyang, instead of Huang Jinnan and his people, they might have been killed as soon as they encountered those powerful Lizardmen warriors.