Everyone’s expressions flickered drastically. The teleportation portal was the only means through which Li Langfeng could leave to get Yu Suying and Mo Qianfan to this place within a short time.

Its destruction meant that they wouldn’t be able to get any assistance even if they were in a difficult position.

“Who is it?” Master Blood Spirit bellowed. At the same time, thick blood spread from his blood domain towards the depths of the starry river.

Blood-colored lightning bolts mixed with his soul awareness to examine every inch of the void.

However, he failed to capture any sign of an interloper after an extensive search.

Despite this, the black tortoise and the Spirit Pearl’s unusual behavior and the sudden explosion of the teleportation portal had sent them a clear message: enemies had arrived.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

The five evil gods swooped out of the Spirit Pearl and glanced around with vicious expressions.

Dong Li continued to communicate with the black tortoise through wisps of obscure soul messages.

Seconds later, Dong Li’s expression suddenly flickered, her obsidian-like bright eyes fixing on a distant location. “A Phantasm?!”

The five evil gods let out excited screeches towards the same area of dim starry river.

A slender male figure clad in a suit of battle armor that had been engraved with exquisite, complicated patterns gradually revealed himself in the void.

A prismatic crystal could be seen between his eyebrows.

It emanated bright cyan light as he fixed his eyes on the Spirit Pearl.

SHEW! SHEW! SHEW!

Nine streaks of cyan light shot out of the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows one after another.

The dazzling streaks of cyan light seemed to be interconnected through a mysterious bloodline magic.

Emanating vast, devilish, and stern auras, they shot towards the five evil gods and the Spirit Pearl, giving rise to fizzing sounds.

Master Blood Spirit, whose cultivation base was the highest among those present, couldn’t help but exclaim upon seeing the newcomer’s face, “Grand Monarch Dark Nether!”

At the time he exclaimed, the nine streaks of cyan light had already come very close to the Spirit Pearl and the five evil gods.

HOWL!

After devouring a large amount of Nie Tian’s Blood Essence over the years, the five evil gods had already completed the transformation from illusory life forms to beings with flesh and blood.

They howled with mysterious tunes in their voice.

It was the Spirit Pearl’s unique secret magic: Evil Spirit Chant!

Fluctuations that could only be sensed with souls spread like waves on the sea.

The magical evil power within the waves turned out to be even stronger than that in the nine streaks of cyan released by Grand Monarch Dark Nether!

BOOM!

All nine streaks of cyan light were blasted into countless pieces before they could reach the Spirit Pearl or the evil gods!

They were reduced to bits of sparkling cyan light that fell like rain.

Grand Monarch Dark Nether’s pupils shrank sharply as he exclaimed something in an ancient language, disbelief filling his face.

He stared unblinkingly at the Spirit Pearl and the five evil gods.

“Grand Monarch Dark Nether!” Master Blood Spirit bellowed like a frenzied beast as his blood domain spread towards him like a vast sea of blood.

“Hmm?!” Grand Monarch Dark Nether finally moved his gaze away from the five evil gods to take a glance at Master Blood Spirit.

Master Blood Spirit was at the late Saint domain. His expanding domain contained blood power he had gathered from a wide array of beings. Therefore, even Grand Monarch Dark Nether had to attach importance to it.

“Nurkic!” Grand Monarch Dark Nether exclaimed in a deep voice.

Another ethereal figure suddenly flew out from a dark area behind him.

It was a ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch, who ranked only after the late Grand Patriarch Evil Phantom, Kleist.

As soon as he appeared, he engulfed himself in his flesh aura sea and engaged in a fierce battle against Master Blood Spirit.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Three more figures revealed themselves from the dark area behind Grand Monarch Dark Nether.

All three of them were ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarchs.

As Grand Monarch Dark Nether opened his mouth, perfect human language came out, without any accent or strange word-use. This proved that he had profound knowledge about human culture, language, and habits. “I’m here to retake our precious treasure and punish the one who’s responsible for the death of Grand Patriarch Evil Phantom, Kleist.”

“This is bad!” Hua Mu slowly moved to Dong Li’s side and whispered, “Grand Monarch Dark Nether is at the early tenth grade. The last time he showed up in the human world, he joined hands with Grand Monarch Withered Bones and killed Lu Jiefeng from the Five Elements Sect in the Domain of Nether Heaven. They nearly annihilated his soul too. Nie Tian was in the domain of Nether Heaven when that happened.

“Who would have thought a Phantasm grand monarch like him would come for Nie Tian this time?”

Face grim, Dong Li continued to communicate with the black tortoise, anxiously seeking a solution.

Yu Suying and Mo Qianfan, who were at the early God domain, were strong enough to fight Grand Monarch Dark Nether. However, neither of them were available now.

Xie Qian and Jing Feiyang and the other late Saint domain experts were also in the Realm of Maelstrom at this moment.

Master Blood Spirit, who was the strongest among them, was now caught up in a fierce battle against a Phantasm grand patriarch. She, Li Langfeng, and Hua Mu were all there was left. None of them were strong enough to handle a Phantasm grand patriarch, not to mention Grand Monarch Dark Nether, whose name had been whispered in every corner of the human world for tens of thousands of years.

Seeing that no one wanted to respond to him, Grand Monarch Dark Nether went on and said, as if he were passing a death sentence, “The seventh Son of the Stars of the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace, Nie Tian, is responsible for Kleist’s death and the destruction of the Spirit Pearl in his possession. Not just that, but he also jeopardized our grand plan in the Domain of Frigid Depths and made us lose face in the Dead Star Sea. He should have been punished with death long ago.”

With these words, a drop of emerald green Blood Essence that looked like a crystal with many facets appeared in his left palm.

Mysterious talismans merged with his soul will within the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows before flying out to fuse into the drop of Blood Essence.

The drop of crystallized Blood Essence that looked like a cyan gem instantly started burning.

“Bloodline: Soul-burning Blood Spell!”

The drop of Blood Essence suddenly morphed into a cluster of ghostly fire that floated ethereally towards Nie Tian.

Grand Monarch Dark Nether’s handsome face suddenly grew twisted and sinister.

He had noticed that Nie Tian was surrounded by numerous Ancientbeast and outsider corpses, most of which had been drained of their residual flesh power, and were rapidly decaying.

Among the Phantasm corpses, he spotted a few that belonged to those whom he had fought battles with!

All of them had been killed by powerful experts from the Five Elements Sect, the Void Spirit Society, and the Heaven Span Pavilion in battles that had taken place in the Dead Star Sea or human realms tens of thousands of years ago.

One of them was a member of Grand Monarch Dark Nether’s clan. If he were to trace the origin of his bloodline, he was his cousin!

His clansmen, including his cousin, had had their hearts carved out and sealed elsewhere, and their bodies placed around Nie Tian for him to drain their residual flesh power with some peculiar magic...

AHHH!!

Grand Monarch Dark Nether let out a sharp cry that was filled with fury, violence, and frenzy, forcing Dong Li and Li Langfeng to cover their ears.

FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!

Hua Mu’s eyes also dimmed. However, upon seeing faint wisps rising from Dong Li, he hastily reminded her. “Don’t ever let that cyan ghostly fire touch your soul!”

The Soul-burning Blood Spell was one of the Phantasms’ most famous and powerful bloodline magics. It could easily burn any living being’s soul away.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

Seeing the cluster of ghostly fire flying towards Nie Tian, carrying a soul-burning spell, the five evil gods swooped on it simultaneously.

Under the evil gods’ fierce attacks with their blade-sharp claws, the cluster of ghostly fire was ripped into tiny bits of sparkling light.

Grand Monarch Dark Nether, who was deeply grieved and furious, couldn’t wait to torture Nie Tian to death to have his revenge. However, he froze at this moment.

He was dumbstruck as the soul-burning talisman he had condensed with his Blood Essence was shredded by the five evil gods under his gaze, as if he found this unreal.

“The Soul-burning Blood Spell can burn any souls or spirits. The evil spirits that live inside the Spirit Pearl fall into that category, but why...?” Grand Monarch Dark Nether muttered in the Phantasm language, looking deeply confused.

A ninth grade Phantasm grand patriarch behind him reminded him with an incomparably grim tone, “Grand Monarch! Those five flying from the Spirit Pearl don’t seem to be illusory! As you must have sensed yourself, they have flesh and blood, and aren’t pure spirit form beings anymore!

“Our Soul-burning Blood Spell is designed to annihilate souls. Once spirit form beings develop fleshly bodies, the Soul-burning Blood Spell’s effect on them will drop significantly. Also, by looking at those five, do you feel like you’ve seen them somewhere?”

After hearing his reminders, Grand Monarch Dark Nether examined the five evil gods with rapt attention. In the next moment, his expression flickered.