Guan Cong gasped with astonishment.

Under Xie Qian and Master Blood Spirit’s leadership, Saint domain experts spread around the three starships.

As Master Blood Spirit trapped the starships with a huge net of blood-colored light, Xie Qian drew power from his domain and surrounded them with countless drops of sparkling water.

Each and every drop weighed tons, as they were unique drops of heavy water that Xie Qian had refined from lakes on a foreign heaven and earth.

Guan Cong knew that first of all, it was unknown whether they would be able to rip the bloody net apart if they forcibly started the starships. Secondly, even if they could rip through the bloody net, they would still meet strong obstruction when they slammed into the countless drops of water.

If the two late Saint domain experts went all-out to stop them, it would be impossible for their starships to leave in one piece.

Not to mention that several early and middle Saint domain experts, along with Nie Tian and Pei Qiqi, were eyeing them like tigers from a farther location.

Only after a while did Guan Cong submit to reality and say bitterly, “The vice sectmaster will preside over justice for us!”

The Qi warriors behind him, who were also Luo Wanxiang’s subordinates, secretly let out sighs of relief.

“Okay, I’ll wait for Vice Sectmaster Luo right here. I believe he’ll soon receive word of what’s happened here and come without delay.” With these words, Nie Tian gave Master Blood Spirit and the others a meaningful look, and then flew to the vast floating meteor.

As they left, Guan Cong snorted disdainfully. “I can’t wait to see how you’re going to explain the fact that you harbor the Blood Spirit Sect’s residual evil!”

Hearing this, Master Blood Spirit jerked his head towards him, scarlet light shooting out of his blood-colored pupils.

Even though they were both at the late Saint domain, Master Blood Spirit’s glare made Guan Cong tremble with fear, and realize that he had better be quiet.

He could only place all of his hope on Luo Wanxiang.

...

Inside a grand hall in the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace’s headquarters.

Wei Lai’s expression flickered with astonishment as he said to Yan Zhan, who had a worried look on his face, “What?! Nie Tian has returned from the Shatter Battlefield? And he made Guan Cong prisoner instead upon his return? Didn’t he know that he’s Vice Sectmaster Luo’s subordinate?”

Yan Zhan smiled bitterly. “How could he not know?”

Wei Lai also had a headache over the situation as he said, “Master Blood Spirit is indeed a residual evil of the Blood Spirit Sect, and he’s different from Master Bloody Despair. Master Bloody Despair chose to leave the Blood Spirit Sect, and made significant contributions in its elimination. For this reason, he was pardoned by the major sects, and allowed to have his place in our world.

“Master Blood Spirit, however, had always been cultivated as the future sectmaster of the Blood Spirit Sect. His title alone represents the head of the Blood Spirit Sect.

“As for that Li Langfeng, it seems that he practices peculiar incantations that involve corpse toxins. However, it’s not necessarily right to say that he has connections with the Heavenly Corpse Sect. Despite this, it’s safe to say that the incantations he practices are crooked.

“To stay out of trouble, all Nie Tian had to do was to deny that he had anything to do with Master Blood Spirit and Li Langfeng.

“However, instead of doing that, he chose to resort to force upon his return, which has made things much more complicated.”

Yan Zhan sighed. “Most importantly, the grand elder isn’t here. Do we go there too, so that we can keep things from getting out of hand?”

“Of course! We have to go!” Wei Lai said with certainty.

...

In a secluded location in the starry river, Chu Rui, who was also a vice sectmaster, was also astonished by the news. “Nie Tian returned and imprisoned Luo Wanxiang’s subordinates?”

However, after pondering in silence for a few seconds, he chuckled softly. “This is actually interesting. It seems I’ll have to go there myself.”

With these words, he turned to a man next to him and instructed, “Tell Wang Meijia to go too. Since Mo Heng is still missing, I wonder what gave Nie Tian the courage to confront Luo Wanxiang face-to-face. If he’s just going to argue, he doesn’t seem to have much to argue with...”

After muttering for a while, Chu Rui, who was rather chubby, headed towards a large-scale teleportation portal.

Similar conversations took place between many elders and Saint domain members of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

It wasn’t long before most of the senior members of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace learned about this direct conflict between Nie Tian and Luo Wanxiang.

One of them was a vice sectmaster, who was a high-ranking official, while the other was a rising Son of the Stars, who had recently showed his extraordinary talents and outshone even Sikong Cuo.

The upcoming dialogue between them attracted the attention of all those who were of significance to the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

Some of them secretly traveled to the Domain of Forbidden Heaven, a place that had been forgotten for ages, while others paid close attention to everything that happened there through various means, even though they didn’t go there in person.

...

In the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.

Xie Qian, Master Blood Spirit, and the others had spread around Nie Tian in a protective formation.

Pei Qiqi, however, sat quietly on a large stone about ten meters from them, also waiting.

In a farther location, Li Jing, Li Langfeng, Yu Tong, and a few others from the Blood Sect were gazing in their direction with anxious looks on their faces.

All of them were worried and wondered how Nie Tian would confront Luo Wanxiang after he arrived.

If Luo Wanxiang were to use force, would Nie Tian and his subordinates be able to handle the wrath of a God domain expert?

No matter from which point of view they considered the matter, they had a feeling that it was unwise to confront Luo Wanxiang head-on when Grand Elder Mo Heng was missing.

SHEW!

Nie Tian summoned the Star Behemoth bone from within his ring of holding.

As soon as it flew out, it started to gradually absorb and refine the mixed energies in the starry river, even though the soul within it was still in a dormant state.

Nie Tian found that he still couldn’t communicate with the bone, or make full use of its might.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Elder Wei Lai and Yan Zhan arrived and quickly flew to Nie Tian’s side.

“Nie Tian, you...” As Wei Lai spoke, he suddenly noticed Master Blood Spirit’s raging bloody aura. His expression flickered slightly as he felt a strong sense of danger from him, even though he seemed to have only entered the late Saint domain recently.

Even when he had faced the former sectmaster of the Blood Spirit Sect, he hadn’t had such a feeling.

“Don’t tell me that his cultivation talent and potential are even higher than his master’s! If that’s true, doesn’t it mean that he’ll have a great chance at entering the God domain?!” Such a thought shocked Wei Lai. “If Nie Tian has a God domain expert by his side at all times, he’ll have even better odds in his competition against the other Sons of the Stars!”

All of a sudden, he understood why Nie Tian was so bent on protecting Master Blood Spirit.

Yan Zhan stepped forward and asked in a low voice, “Nie Tian, why do you have to choose such a time to have direct conflicts with Vice Sectmaster Luo? This is totally unnecessary. It’s not like there’s no way to ease the tension on this matter with Master Blood Spirit. After all, Master Bloody Despair has become Sikong Cuo’s subordinate. However, now that you’ve imprisoned Guan Cong and made the vice sectmaster lose face, things have become much more complicated.”

“All I know is that he owes me things, and it’s about time I collected,” Nie Tian said.

As he spoke, all of the other elders of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace arrived successively.

Chu Rui also arrived with Wang Meijia.

Soon, more influential members of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace arrived through various means. They all shared one purpose: learn the result of this conflict between Nie Tian and Luo Wanxiang at the first moment.

However, a long time had passed, and there were still no signs of Luo Wanxiang or Sikong Cuo.