Every breakthrough in Nie Tian’s bloodline was accompanied by a strengthening of his body.

As long as he had a steady flow of flesh power, even if he didn’t cast Heavenly Wood Heal now, his flesh power would slowly strengthen his internal organs, along with the other parts of his body.

Once his body was fully refined, the flesh power that continued to flow into him would naturally fuse into the green aura to prepare his bloodline for its advance to the ninth grade.

Every time he made a breakthrough in his bloodline, the first thing that happened would be the awakening of new bloodline talents. After that, he would condense Blood Essence with flesh power. Once the amount of his Blood Essence reached the limit, he would move on to body refinement. Eventually, after body refinement was finished, flesh power accumulation began for the next bloodline upgrade.

This was the pattern.

However, things seemed different this time.

“Blood Condensing!”

After activating his domain, he floated over the vegetated illusory land in the vast starry river of the Domain of Forbidden Heaven.

The Godspirit Tree and the seventy-two tree branches worked together to channel pure wood power from the starry river.

Upon entering his domain, wisps of wood power morphed into emerald green streaks.

Then, they were absorbed by Nie Tian like water being absorbed by a sponge.

At the same time, wisps of flesh power also fused into his body.

“Hmm!”

Flesh power from numerous high-grade spirit beast and outsider corpses morphed into crimson lightning wisps that ran through his veins.

His blood seemed to be ignited, as it instantly started seething!

Veins in every part of his body started emanating blood-colored light.

All of a sudden, he experienced pain beyond description!

SHEW!

At this moment, channeled by the Godspirit Tree and the seventy-two tree branches, wisps of wood power poured into his veins to mix with his seething blood.

FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!

His blood seemed to condense into thick crimson lightning bolts that flashed through his veins, exploding with even richer and purer flesh power.

The pain worsened ten times over.

With the soul awareness he had sent to his every vein, Nie Tian kept a close watch on the changes in his blood.

He noticed that his blood sputtered unceasingly with fragmentary lightning sparks as it ran through his veins, as if every drop of his blood was being purged and smelted.

Together, the wood power and flesh power seemed to be infusing his blood with a brand new life force, nourishing his body and allowing his ruptured flesh and cracked bones to heal even faster.

As new blood ran through every part of his body, it seemed to be reforging his body and further improving the resilience and self-healing ability of his meridians and bones.

After seeing this, Nie Tian continued to channel flesh power from outsider and spirit beast corpses and wood power from his domain, and fuse them into his blood, while bearing excruciating pain.

He immersed himself in the fifth phase of Heavenly Wood Heal.

WHOOSH!

A curvaceous figure enveloped in a black aura flashed into view in the teleportation portal on a nearby meteor.

Stepping out of the dark aura, Dong Li looked at Nie Tian, who was floating in the distant starry river with hundreds of enormous corpses scattered around him.

Some had already been sucked dry, while others were having their flesh power drained by Nie Tian using Life Drain.

Some of the drained corpses were reduced to ashes as soon as any wind blew past. However, some of the corpses remained solid even after being drained of their flesh power, and could endure for a while in the harsh environment of the starry river.

After observing for a moment, Dong Li cast a number of newly-obtained rings of holding towards Nie Tian without saying a word.

Each and every one of them contained a few dozen spirit beast and outsider corpses, which Dong Li had traded for using the rare ore mined from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, the Domain of Heaven Python, and the Domain of the Falling Stars.

Since outsiders raided the human domains from time to time, battles broke out against them fairly frequently, yielding a large amount of dead outsiders.

Meanwhile, many human realms were populated by high-grade spirit beasts, which were targets cultivators would kill as part of their trials.

Thanks to Zhao Shanling’s efforts, the inter-domain teleportation portal in the Realm of Maelstrom now connected to many other domains.

Furthermore, word of what had happened at the Realm of Fragmentary Star had spread far and wide.

Many now believed that Nie Tian had a divine ability to help Saint domain experts enter the God domain.

Because of that, numerous sects and clans from various human domains expressed their desire to establish friendly relationships and teleportation connections with the Realm of Maelstrom.

They also knew that Jiang Yuanchi being possessed by Gupi had resulted in the failure of the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect, the Shadow Society, and the Jade Heaven Sect’s joint operation against the Realm of Fragmentary Star.

With Jiang Yuanchi gone, what could their so-called alliance do now?

Not to mention that Chu Rui was still around, Zu Guangyao had entered the God domain, and Luo Wanxiang still might come around...

Most importantly, powerful experts, including Yu Suying, Yin Xingtian, and Mo Qianfan, were now gathered around Nie Tian.

There was also a rumor that Nie Tian’s master, Wu Ji, was the only one who might be able to seal Gupi with time power.

Due to all of these factors, no one wanted to set themselves against Nie Tian anymore.

Even the Shadow Society, the Remote Beginning Heavenly Sect, and the Jade Heaven Sect, which had suffered tremendous losses, didn’t dare to make any moves against Nie Tian’s subordinate domains at this moment.

Looking at the rings of holding, Dong Li muttered, “I wonder how many spirit beast and outsider corpses you still need...”

Then, she flew to a place close to Nie Tian, wreathed in dark power.

Nie Tian didn’t even open his eyes as he made a grabbing motion in the air, and the rings of holding flew into his palm.

Immediately afterwards, the rings of holding lit up.

Corpses of eighth grade spirit beasts, Phantasms, Demons, Blackscales, and Birdmen appeared, filling Nie Tian’s surroundings.

SHEW!

Dozens of blood strings flew out of Nie Tian’s chest to pierce into the corpses like needles and thread.

Afterwards, Dong Li saw flesh power being transferred into Nie Tian.

THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!

Even from a considerable distance, she could hear his thumping heart.

His heart beat like clapping thunder, hurting Dong Li’s eardrums.

Dong Li was taken aback. “What secret magic is this bastard practicing now? Why is his flesh aura so intense and vigorous that even I feel influenced?”

Instead of leaving, Dong Li sat down in the lotus position as well.

Beast bones that contained dark power were taken out, along with ink-black spirit stones. With them, she established a simple power-gathering spell formation around her.

Sitting in the middle of the spell formation, she channeled dark power and derived enlightenment from the dark stone obtained from the Demons, which had now become a part of her spiritual core.

The black tortoise crouched lazily at her feet, as if it had already fallen asleep.

Time flew. Months passed before they knew it.

WHOOSH!

Hua Mu suddenly arrived through the teleportation portal.

Upon arriving, he took a deep look at Dong Li and exclaimed, “I can’t believe you’ve entered the late Soul realm already, kid! How come that dark stone provided you with such great help? I suppose it won’t be long before you enter the Void domain.”

Dong Li slowly opened his eyes and said, “That’s because the dark stone agrees with my cultivation attribute perfectly.”

Hua Mu nodded and gazed off at Nie Tian. Frowning, he asked, “It’s been six months. Has he still not finished cultivating?”

“Did something happen out there?” Dong Li asked.

Hua Mu sighed. “Gupi’s stirring up trouble again. You haven’t shown up recently either. Of course you don’t know that Gupi has been to many human domains. Wherever it goes, realms are engulfed in toxic miasma, and not a single living being survives.”

Dong Li smiled bitterly and said, “It seems to be probing.”

“Yeah, perhaps it’ll soon learn the fact that Wu Ji never went to the Realm of Fragmentary Star,” Hua Mu said, looking deeply worried. “I’m afraid it’ll find its way here sooner or later.”

Dong Li’s expression flickered with astonishment. “You think it wants to kill Nie Tian?”

“Wu Ji hasn’t shown himself. That leaves Nie Tian, who’s getting stronger by the day, as the only threat to it.” Hua Mu explained. “I think it's probing here and there with caution now. Once it’s convinced that Wu Ji isn’t available, it might lose all scruples. If that happens...”

“What about the four great sects? “Dong Li asked. “They didn’t do anything when Gupi devastated those realms?”

Hua Mu sighed. “The Void Spirit Society, the Five Elements Sect, and the Heaven Span Pavilion all tried to stop it. The Heaven Span Pavilion even brought out their divine spell formation. However, none of that worked. Those three sects have all sent people to ask about Nie Tian. They hope he’ll either make a breakthrough in his cultivation soon, or want him to try and find his master, Wu Ji.”

Dong Li’s heart grew heavy. “Gupi finally terrorizes all the human forces once again.”