At the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

Utter darkness enveloped the area above the sea.

The surface of the sea was lowering bit by bit, like a pond in the fierce sun that would dry up one day.

Tens of thousands of kilometers away.

A few ancient starships were berthed, where local Saint domain experts from around the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, including Patriarch Pure Heaven, were quietly observing the vast darkness-enveloped area.

The black tortoise’s horrifying cry would echo out from it every once in a while.

Each and every cry was filled with the excitement of new progress.

However, to the Saint domain cultivators, its cries might be powerful enough to shatter their seas of awareness if they were too close to it.

Therefore, none of them dared to go into the darkness.

Because of that, not a single expert from the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries could look down into the Seven Stars Realm Sea from above to see what Nie Tian was doing at the moment.

Instead, these Void and Saint domain subordinates of Nie Tian sighed with amazement.

“The two of them are truly... astonishing.”

“Let’s not forget Pei Qiqi, who’s currently slaying outsiders in the Domain of Heaven Span. Miss Pei is bound to become the next sectmaster of the Void Spirit Society. She’s just entered the early Saint domain, yet she managed to defeat Grand Monarch Remote Demon and sever one of his arms.”

“Yes, but judging from this major stir Dong Li has created, she’s every bit as amazing as Miss Pei.”

“They’re equally amazing.”

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

All of a sudden, huge waves rose on the sea that the local Qi warriors of the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries now referred to as the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

However, the surface of the sea soon calmed again.

That was when Nie Tian appeared in the observers’ sight, rising from the sea’s surface in his enlarged form.

This time, he gave them the feeling of a slightly smaller titan, which was still larger than a Demon or a Bonebrute in their Ancestral Awakening form.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Numerous wisps of crimson lightning slithered all over his enormous body like blazing dragons.

A suffocatingly mighty flesh aura sea that could defeat heaven and earth burst forth, spreading into his surroundings and inspiring fear in many of his observing subordinates.

“Such devastating flesh power!”

“Even though its immensity still can’t match that of a grand monarch, it should be at the same level as that of grand patriarch.”

“So has Nie Tian’s unique bloodline advanced to the ninth grade?”

Many muttered and wondered if Nie Tian had made a breakthrough in his bloodline.

“This feels awesome!” As Nie Tian threw his head back and shouted, the endless view-blocking darkness caught his eyes. “What the...? And there’s Dong Li and the black tortoise’s auras in the darkness. Both the black tortoise and Dong Li are gathering dark power and building up their strength. What’s going on?”

At this moment, his bloodline was still at the eighth grade.

However, he had already gathered enough flesh power to make the advance to the ninth grade from the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

Now, it had been nearly a year after his return from the Void World.

During this time, he had absorbed flesh power from the shattered flesh aura seas of Ancientspirits and outsiders that the Seven Stars Realm Sea had gathered over the past hundreds of thousands of years. After absorbing it through Life Drain, he had refined it into Blood Essence, used it to heal himself, and provide it to his bloodline aura.

Just now, the green aura that had been thirsty for flesh power for a long time had finally fallen dormant again.

This meant that his unique life bloodline had finally accumulated enough power. Now, it was slowly digesting the power and making its transformation. When it awoke again, he would finish his breakthrough from the eighth to the ninth grade.

Nie Tian looked down at his enlarged body and muttered to himself, “I don’t have to enter a Life Blend state with the Star Behemoth bone to activate this enlarged form anymore. All I need to do is activate Heavenly Wood Heal. This special form is the product of many sessions of body refinement and the last stage of Heavenly Wood Heal. What should I call it?”

As he contemplated, he suddenly noticed that the Seven Stars Realm Sea seemed to have shrunk by a quarter.

A somewhat vague soul message then came through from the Star Behemoth bone, causing a surprised look to appear in his eyes.

The Star Behemoth bone, which had fought alongside him for many years, was asking for his Blood Essence.

“Sure.”

Drop after drop of translucent and sparkling Blood Essence that contained rich life power was separated from his heart and fused into the bone.

As soon as a drop of Blood Essence touched the bone, it was absorbed with a fizzing sound, like water being absorbed by a dry sponge.

A long time passed.

The Blood Essence sent him a soul message, telling him that it didn’t need any more of his Blood Essence.

While Nie Tian was surprised by this, the Star Behemoth bone took it upon itself to dive into the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

It dove all the way to the bottom of the sea where the portal stood.

Blood-colored patterns then lit up on the bone, emanating a devilishly beautiful light that shocked even Nie Tian.

Immediately afterwards, he sensed that power of a variety of attributes started quietly gathering towards the bone from every corner of the sea.

Nie Tian gasped. “What?!”

He hadn’t expected the bone to start doing exactly what he had done, which was absorb power from the Seven Stars Realm Sea.

Almost at the same time, the black tortoise let out a sharp cry from the depths of the utter darkness.

Its enormous, mountain-like body charged out of the vast darkness and plunged into the Seven Stars Realm Sea as well, giving rise to a loud crash. Then, it started absorbing power from the sea as the Star Behemoth bone did, like two tigers going after the same prey.

It was just that the Star Behemoth bone was absorbing a vast variety of powers, while the black tortoise was only taking in flesh power from the dissipated flesh aura seas of Ancientspirits and outsiders.

“Judging from the power of the black tortoise’s flesh aura, it’s reaching the peak of the ninth grade.” Nie Tian shrewdly discovered that the black tortoise, which had hatched with the help of his Blood Essence and been nurtured by Dong Li’s dark power, was rising towards the tenth grade at an unbelievable speed.

The tenth grade was the level of grand monarchs!

How many years had it been since the black tortoise had been born?

There probably hadn’t been a single Ancientspirit or outsider in their histories that had been able to rise to the height of a grand monarch within such a short time.

“Both that bone and the black tortoise have received a considerable amount of my Blood Essence.” Nie Tian thought to himself. “Is it possible that their being able to absorb the powers they need from the Seven Stars Realm Sea has something to do with the Blood Essence they received from me?

“Star Behemoths, as the overlords of the Primal Era, devoured realms, and preyed on titans and Ancientbeasts. They could refine and make use of all sorts of power.

“But the black tortoise only needs two types of power: dark power and flesh power.

“It seems to have absorbed enough dark power from the utter darkness above. Does it only need flesh power for its breakthrough into the tenth grade now...?”

While he was absorbed in thought, he noticed that the Seven Stars Realm Sea was shrinking bit by bit.

His expression flickered slightly as he thought of a problem. “Will the two of them drain the Seven Stars Realm Sea completely? If the sea runs dry, then the portal will be exposed. The mixed energies in the Seven Stars Realm Sea are what maintain and power the portal.”

“If the Seven Stars Realm Sea disappears, will it be much more difficult to activate the portal, even though it remains intact?

“Plus, I still need more soul power to refine my true soul and more spiritual power to refine my void domain. If I want to advance to the Saint domain, I also need to obtain power from the Seven Stars Realm Sea!”

After a moment of hesitation, he, who had just finished gathering the flesh power he needed for his bloodline to advance to the ninth grade, resumed his true form, unleashed his void domain, and dove into the sea.

The Nine Stars Flower, the Godspirit Tree, and the seventy-two tree branches manifested one after another, and started working their wonders.

In the depths of the Seven Stars Realm Sea, he did his best to absorb wood, star, and flame power, as well as soul power, in an attempt to finish the solidification of his void domain and enter the Saint domain before the sea ran dry.

He, the Star Behemoth bone, and the black tortoise all did what they could to obtain power from the Seven Stars Realm Sea.