Moments later.

Ling You from the Void Spirit Society suddenly frowned and said, “They’re here.”

Immediately after he said these words, the Star Eyes Nie Tian had released sensed changes.

Tens of thousands of souls floated towards them from all directions. Some of them carried strong auras. Some of them seemed rather weak.

Nie Tian grinned. “Discarnate souls… I thought the Nether Spirit Society had some profound means, but this is it?”

Back when he had obtained the Spirit Pearl in the Realm of Dark Underworld, he had witnessed countless flying discarnate souls that filled the sky.

Later, when he had gone to the Bloody Grave Mountain Range, he had seen even more wandering discarnate souls and evil spirits.

The Spirit Pearl he had in his possession was a unique treasure forged by the Phantasms, which had a strong subduing effect on all kinds of spirits and souls.

“The Nether Spirit Society calls them nether spirits, which are refined from the souls of the dead,” Ling You explained in a low voice. “Some of the secret incantations the Nether Spirit Society practices have close connections to the Phantasms. They allow them to capture and raise evil spirits and turn them into nether spirits. All of the Nether Spirit Society’s disciples have the ability to command nether spirits.

“Don’t underestimate those nether spirits. Unlike the discarnate souls we’re familiar with, they have the ability to grow stronger.

“A small portion of them have even developed intelligence, and the ability to cast secret magics which they had learned in their previous lives.”

Poised as always, Nie Tian said, “It doesn’t really matter what kind of souls or spirits they are. I can deal with them all the same.”

Ling You was taken aback by his words. Even though he had doubts, he didn’t give word to them.

Hundreds of thousands of nether spirits that had been summoned by Nether Spirit Society disciples finally entered their sight.

Nie Tian looked at them with rapt attention, and discovered that these nether spirits were indeed different from the evil spirits and discarnate souls he had dealt with before.

Those he had seen and dealt with before were usually clusters of incomplete, blurry soul bodies. Sometimes, he couldn’t even make out their shapes.

However, that wasn’t the case with these nether spirits.

At first sight, these incoming nether spirits were very much like human true souls that had separated themselves from their fleshly bodies.

Even though some of them were rather blurry, one could still see that they had the same shape and size as humans.

Some of them were almost identical to the true souls of powerful human experts in whichever aspect. Even their faces were incredibly distinctive.

Tens of thousands of them let out bloodcurdling screeches as they continued to converge on Nie Tian and the others like swarms of locusts.

Their sharp screeches pierced directly into the depths of people’s souls, shaking and stirring them, as if they were going to infect their minds and plunge them into madness.

A few vague figures loomed among the sea of nether spirits. They were none other than the Nether Spirit Society disciples who had summoned these nether spirits.

“Form bridges!” A resonant voice suddenly spread out from the depths of the sea of nether spirits.

In the next moment, the nether spirits swarmed together. A total of eight peculiar bridges soon came to form.

Standing on each of them was a disciple of the Nether Spirit Society. Three of them were at the Saint domain, while the other five were at the Void domain.

Their leader was at the late Saint domain. The nether power he practiced gave people a gruesome feeling that he was more like a ghost than a living person.

“He’s not the one who cast the Heaven Freezing Spell,” Pei Qiqi said in a low voice. “He’s the one protecting the last teleportation portal with his domain.”

“With him here, can you destroy that teleportation portal now?” Nie Tian asked.

Pei Qiqi shook her head. “I doubt it. They’ve already found out about us. Whoever sealed this realm with the Heaven Freezing Spell can use its power to stop me from destroying that teleportation portal. The fact that these ones dare to come here instead of guarding that teleportation portal proves that they know that we can’t threaten that portal.”

“How did we find Elder Xiao and the others’ bodies?” Nie Tian asked.

“They were floating in the starry river right outside the realms in the Domain of Nether Heaven. Clearly, the Nether Spirit Society disciples put them there.” Pei Qiqi explained. “I suppose they refined the souls of our seniors who had fought to the death in the Domain of Nether Heaven. However, humans’ fleshly bodies don’t have much value, no matter how high their cultivation bases had been when they were alive.

“It seems that they tossed them into the starry river to mock and provoke us.”

Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph. “The Nether Spirit Society really is looking forward to battles, isn’t it?”

Human corpses were of little value individually. The reason why the Nether Spirit Society had tossed Xiao Xihe and the others’ bodies into the starry river was probably because they had wanted the great sects to find them. This was a bold act of provocation.

Standing on one of the eight gruesome bridges, the leader of the Nether Spirit Society disciples called out, “You lot are quite daring for coming to the very realm where Xiao Xihe died.

“Now that you’re trapped here by the Heaven Freezing Spell, don’t imagine you can get out again. Every single one of you will die here before your help gets here and breaks the Heaven Freezing Spell. Then, your discarnate souls will become a new source of our power, and help our sect grow stronger.

“The day will come when our sect replaces yours and becomes the most powerful human sect!”

“Now, time to die!”

The eight bridges forged by countless nether spirits suddenly extended through the sky towards Nie Tian and the others.

The swarming nether spirits once again let out sharp, soul-tearing screeches. Many of the Void domain experts’ expressions flickered as they hastily cast secret magics to seal their seas of awareness, lest the screeches infiltrate their minds.

Nie Tian’s head buzzed intensely as he felt his thirst for blood gradually grow.

It was as if everyone in his sight had suddenly become his enemy, and he was overtaken by a strong desire to kill each and every one of them.

That was when he realized that his sea of awareness had been influenced by the Nether Spirit Society’s evil soul magics before he knew it. If he couldn’t get rid of such influence, he would soon lose his mind.

“The Nether Spirit Society’s secret soul magics...” As he muttered, the star souls hanging over his sea of awareness suddenly shone with dazzling light.

Starlight poured down, melting the bewitching magics away. Moments later, he was completely uninfluenced.

At that moment, Zhao Heng took the first action.

One sparkling, crystal-clear bubble after another floated out of his water domain towards the incoming nether spirits.

As soon as the nether spirits flew into the bubbles, they were trapped within them, no matter how they struggled.

Ling You, however, stood unwavering beside Pei Qiqi, protecting her from any unpredictable danger that might threaten her.

As far as he was concerned, Pei Qiqi’s safety was more important than anything else, even his own.

It didn’t really matter to him whether they would be able to wipe out the Nether Spirit Society’s surviving forces. He had been charged with one simple task: make sure Pei Qiqi returned safely.

Therefore, he most likely wouldn’t make any moves unless she was in danger.

Huang Jinnan raised his arms and shouted, “Rise!”

One shiny, golden pillar after another then rose from the cracked ground, each of them engraved with complicated, mysterious patterns

Soon, hundreds of pillars of different heights formed the Five Elements Sect’s Golden Light Tribulation Formation.

As soon as the spell formation came to form, countless rays of blinding golden light shot out of the pillars and wove into a huge net in midair, which looked like a net of golden lightning bolts. Upon contact with it, the incoming nether spirits squeaked and dissipated.

At the same time, Huang Jinnan summoned his golden lotus. Sitting on it, he manipulated the spell formation in high spirits.

The leader of the Nether Spirit Society disciples let out a cunning laugh. “I can’t believe even the Divine Son of the metal element sect of the Five Elements Sect is here. It seems that you do attach great importance to us. But what a pity though. You’ve already destroyed our sect once. We won’t let it happen again.

“I bet you don’t know how deadly the Domain of Nether Heaven has become.”