After activating Life Strengthening, Nie Tian contended against the impurities in the starry river with his vigorous flesh power and exceptionally tough body.

Only a very small portion of the impurities seemed to be acknowledged by his body, and entered through his pores. Not only did they not harm him, but they even turned out to be beneficial to his body refinement.

Floating over Hou Chulan’s air-transportation spiritual tool, he didn’t have even the slightest pain on his expressionless face.

Obviously, the mixed energies in the starry river that could poison human flesh and cause them to die quick deaths weren’t harming him at all.

Hou Chulan look up at him. Astonishment filled her eyes.

It was known that Nie Tian was a hybrid. However, even pure outsiders famous for their tough bodies like Demons and Bonebrutes couldn’t expose themselves directly to the starry river before their bloodlines reached a certain grade.

Outsiders and humans were similar in many ways.

Eighth grade outsiders had rich flesh auras that carried profound wonders running inside of them, which allowed them to envelop themselves in a layer of flesh aura to achieve a similar effect to that of human experts’ domains: keep the impurities in the starry river away.

Even though Hou Chulan couldn’t determine the grade of Nie Tian’s bloodline, she was convinced that it must have not reached the eighth grade yet, however wondrous it might be.

This meant that he couldn’t form a shield yet. However, the fact that he floated in the starry river without being harmed by the impurities in the slightest shocked her once again.

Seeing this, she realized that when He Lianxiong had mocked Nie Tian earlier for having to be protected by a woman, it had actually been his shallow misunderstanding.

Nie Tian had been more than capable of traveling through the starry river without relying on any external help. It was just that he hadn’t felt the need to prove himself to him.

Ruan Qingliu and the other Saint domain subordinates of Hou Chulan all gasped with astonishment as well.

“He’s only at the Profound realm, and still has yet to forge his domain. This is simply unbelievable...”

WHOOSH!

Nie Tian blurred into action. He swiftly avoided clusters of fiercely-burning Domain-corroding Flames before arriving at the area where Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng, who were only at the Void domain, were.

Both Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng’s eyes lit up as soon as they saw their savior.

“Star Boat!” Nie Tian summoned his Star Boat, which was exclusively owned by the Sons of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

The moment it appeared, a shield of dazzling starlight formed around it under Nie Tian’s stimulation.

“Come to me!” Nie Tian called out to Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng.

Overjoyed, the two of them descended towards the Star Boat, withdrawing their domains as they did.

Both of their domains were now filled with clusters of dark-green flames and showing signs of unraveling.

Of all the experts, the two of them had the lowest cultivation bases, which was the Void domain.

Because of this, their domains were melting the fastest under the influence of the Domain-corroding Flames.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Their figures flew onto the Star Boat, canceling their domains at the same time.

Immediately afterwards, they sat down in the Star Boat.

FIZZ! FIZZ!

Clusters of Domain-corroding Flames that were chasing after their domains rapidly gathered around the Star Boat, making contact with its starlight shield.

Nie Tian’s expression flickered.

Even the energy shield the Star Boat had formed by stimulating Star Stones caught the Domain-corroding Flames, and started to burn.

He hastily activated the Star Boat in an attempt to get away from the flames.

What surprised him even more was that the clusters of the Domain-corroding Flames didn’t fuse into Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng’s bodies with their domains as they entered the Star Boat and withdrew their domains.

Instead, they remained in the starry river and flew ethereally towards the other experts’ domains.

“Such bizarre flames can actually seek domains to attack on their own!”

At that moment, Nie Tian finally understood firsthand why Hou Chulan and the other experts were so terrified of the Domain-corroding Flames.

Aside from their destructiveness, they could also track the unique auras of human experts’ domains, attack them, and switch targets if needed.

For this reason, immediately after the Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng broke free, the Domain-corroding Flames that were originally attacking their domains gathered towards Hou Chulan’s Saint domain subordinates.

Seeing that the flames had made him their new target, a Saint domain Qi warrior instantly grew extremely grim.

Nie Tian beckoned for him to come join them on the Star Boat. “Alright, don’t be so grim-faced. You can come too.”

Even though the Star Boat wasn’t large, there was enough space left for a few more people.

Ecstatic, the man, like a bolt of lightning, shot towards the Star Boat without saying a word..

The moment he went through the shield of starlight, he canceled his domain.

As soon as his domain vanished, the clusters of Domain-corroding Flames poisoning his domain wandered off, seeking their next target.

The man instantly stopped panicking. Greatly relieved, he clasped his hands towards Nie Tian and said, “Many thanks!”

Generally speaking, cultivators would abandon their air-transportation spiritual tools after entering the Void domain.

That was because air-transportation spiritual tools weren’t even as fast as they could fly most of the time.

Only top-level air-transportation spiritual tools from the four great sects might be able to match the speed at which they flew while enveloped in their domains.

Besides, ordinary air-transportation spiritual tools didn’t have the function to form protective shields around them to protect those onboard from the harmful impurities in the starry river.

For this reason, the experts suffering from the Domain-corroding Flames either didn’t have any air-transportation spiritual tools with them, or the air-transportation spiritual tools they had couldn’t shield off the impurities.

Therefore, none of them had summoned any.

As the Star Boat flew towards Jing Feiyang, Nie Tian beckoned for Hou Chulan’s subordinates to join him on the Star Boat as he came across them. “You, and you. Come on. I’ll take as many of you in as possible.”

Meanwhile...

Hou Chulan was enlightened upon seeing Nie Tian rescue her subordinates with his Star Boat.

She copied him and flew around in her wooden air-transportation spiritual tool to pick up her subordinates.

The shields of the two air-transportation spiritual tools only covered very limited areas. Like two fish, they threaded through the large amount of Domain-corroding Flames to pick up struggling experts.

Soon, Jing Feiyang entered the Star Boat as well.

At that moment, Nie Tian’s Star Boat was already rather crowded.

Luckily, Hou Chulan took some pressure off his shoulders, so that he didn’t have to pick up everyone with his Star Boat.

Before they could pick up all of the Saint domain experts, Nie Tian’s expression suddenly flickered with astonishment. His bloodline power detected immense flesh auras which made his heart race. “They’re finally here!”

He had known that powerful outsiders must be coming, since their plan with the exploding starship had worked.

Standing beside Hou Chulan, Ruan Qingliu also sensed wisp after wisp of disturbing soul auras approaching at a high speed. “Divine Daughter! We can’t engage in battle here! There are a large amount of Domain-corroding Flames in this area. Once a battle breaks out, we’ll have a hard time maintaining our domains, and our battle prowess will be compromised. That way, we can’t possible win a battle against an outsider grand patriarch.”

Hou Chulan had long since seen through the outsiders’ plan. Unleashing the Domain-corroding Flames was only step one.

If they survived this first tribulation, the outsiders would show up to fight them while the Domain-corroding Flames greatly limited their battle prowess.

If they didn’t unleash their domains, these human Qi warriors wouldn’t be able to cast many of their mighty spells and incantations. They could only launch attacks hiding on the two crowded air-transportation spiritual tools.

Furthermore, once the Star Boat and the wooden air-transportation spiritual tool were wrecked, the outsiders wouldn’t have to do anything but wait for the human experts to be killed by the impurities in the starry river.

Deeply worried, Hou Chulan hastily picked up the rest of her subordinates.

“Nie Tian! We need to get out of here now!” She yelled. “We’ll only have a chance at winning a battle against them in an area where there aren’t any Domain-corroding Flames!”

“Got it!” One Star Stone after another flew out of Nie Tian’s hand to the floor of the Star Stone.

Numerous Star Stones were instantly drained of their power and reduced to dust.

Like a bolt of lightning, the Star Boat whizzed through the gaps between clusters of Domain-corroding Flames in an attempt to escape this perilous place at the fastest speed possible.

WHOOSH!

A Fiend suddenly showed up in front of them.

“Bloodline power...” He said in a uniquely rhythmical voice in the Fiends’ language.

As soon as he showed up, the clusters of Domain-corroding Flames that filled the entire area seemed to be given a new task. Instead of looking for domains, they started chasing after the Star Boat and Hou Chulan’s wooden air-transportation spiritual tool.

Like numerous floating green lanterns, clusters of Domain-corroding Flames divided into two groups to blockade and trap them.

In Nie Tian’s senses, the Domain-corroding Flames were like a sea of flames that were going to engulf them in the next moment.

It went without saying that the flames’ primary target was the Star Boat’s protective shield. If they melted the shield away, all of the Void and Saint domain experts would immediately be exposed to the deadly impurities in the starry river.

If they activated their domains, the Domain-corroding Flames would continue to burn and melt them.

The situation had just taken a turn for the better, yet the arrival of the Fiend plunged them back into a perilous situation.