Chapter 998: Exposure in the Starry River (1/2)

Countless blood-colored veins interwove inside the bone.

Like tiny snakes, they started slithering slowly.

As Nie Tian examined them with rapt attention, he discovered that they were splitting into even finer veins.

This seemed to be caused by the recent massive infusion of his Blood Essence.

Bloodline Crystal Chains that were dozens of times thinner than hairs could be seen within the glowing veins, as if some long-lost bloodline talent had suddenly been awakened.

At this moment, a strange gravitational force was born within the bone, as if it was hoping to attract something.

However, the entire floating continent was enveloped in a layer of gray clouds, which had sealed it away from the starry river.

The gravitational force didn’t seem to be able to find the nourishment it was looking for on this floating continent.

“Don’t tell me that the change the Star Behemoth told me about is actually happening?!” Nie Tian’s eyes widened with astonishment.

Since the first time he had entered the floating continent, he had learned that the explosion of the top continent had formed a thick layer of mixed energies, which was now known as the gray clouds that filled the entire sky.

There was a mysterious tearing force in the depths of the clouds.

That immense force could shatter heaven and earth, destroying even an entire realm. Come to think of it, it might have something to do with the Star Behemoth, which was hiding in the unfathomable sea.

It was the existence of the gray clouds that had prevented Nie Tian from sensing the cores of stars or channeling star power from the depths of the starry river.

The Star Behemoth’s advice was to leave the bone on a dead star that was preferably far from any inhabited realms after its first change.

On a dead star that wasn’t enveloped in separative clouds, the bone would be able to attract energies that were helpful to it from the starry river, and use them to strengthen itself.

“It seems that it’s about time I ended this trip to the floating continent.”

Nie Tian pondered in silence for a few seconds before putting the bone back into his ring of holding and walking over to the palace, where he woke Dong Li from her cultivation and left through a teleportation portal.

Days passed...

Nie Tian appeared by himself in the starry river between the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries.

He found himself standing inside a teleportation portal that the Lei Clan had set up on a dead star.

Years ago, he had teleported through portals that were identical to this one to the forbidden area, where he had discovered the Realm of Shattered Earth.

There were seven of these teleportation portals, through which people could teleport between the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries.

This was the second teleportation portal.

Gazing off into the distance, he saw nothing but dim, lifeless meteors, which were pieces of shattered realms. Beyond them were a number of dead stars.

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, there had been a vast domain between the Domain of the Falling Stars and the Domain of Heaven’s Boundaries, where outsiders had set up homes.

Later, human experts from the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace had arrived and started a war against the outsiders that lived there. As a result, they had expelled the outsiders, and the war had turned many realms to dead realms.

After that, the entire region was gradually forsaken and forgotten.

WHOOSH!

Nie Tian summoned the bone from within his ring of holding and cast it into the dark starry river.

As he did, the numerous blood-colored veins within it seemed to have caught a whiff of something, as they suddenly started to flicker.

A gravitational force was then born within the bone.

Dross, impurities, and many strange energies that Nie Tian didn’t even recognize seemed to be channeled by the bone, as they started to converge on the bone from all directions.

Countless wisps of energies that humans couldn’t even bear, much less cultivate with, slowly fused into the bone.

The main reason why human Qi warriors couldn’t travel through the starry river on their own before reaching the Void domain was because they wouldn’t be able to protect themselves from the various harmful energies that filled every corner of the starry river after losing the protection of realm shields.

Their spiritual power shields couldn’t ward off those deadly energies over the long term. Once the energies got through, they would rapidly rot their flesh away.