Chapter 1053: Reputation (1/2)

Shortly after Hou Chulan’s air-transportation spiritual tool flew off the Martial Spirit Sect’s ancient starship, Hou Chulan said, “He Lianxiong is like that. Don’t mind him.”

She pointed a finger at her own head. “There might be something wrong with him in here.”

Nie Tian laughed and said, “Yeah, it certainly seems so.”

Hou Chulan nodded. “The man is overconfident. He’s badgered me for years, and shows up wherever I go. Many men around me have been driven away by him. And he tells people everywhere that I’ll eventually accept him. What a nutcase.”

“How did he come to know you in the first place, Martial Sister Hou?” Nie Tian asked curiously.

He was well-aware that there was nothing wrong with He Lianxiong’s head. Otherwise, the sectmaster of the Heaven Span Pavilion would never have taken him as his stepson.

Perhaps he was only mental and impulsive when facing Hou Chulan. He must not be like this when facing others.

After all, love usually made people lose their minds.

“My sect and his sect once explored a brand new domain together,” Hou Chulan said, “which turned out to be a trip full of danger. He Lianxiong and I were attacked by a swarm of unidentified outsiders. He sustained heavy injuries, and nearly died.

“Since I practice wood power, I spent some time healing him, just the two of us.

“He’s clung to me ever since. Wherever I go, he goes.

“Because of this, many in my sect laugh at me all the time, which is very annoying.”

Nie Tian laughed heartily. “It sounds to me that you shouldn’t have helped him.”

“I agree,” Hou Chulan said bitterly. “If I knew this would happen, I would have left him there to fend for himself.”

While the two of them spoke, the other Saint and Void domain experts spread out in their surroundings, fending off the harmful impurities with their respective domains.

Yue Yanxi and Jiang Feng flew behind the air-transportation spiritual tool, matching its speed to keep a certain distance.

Saint domain experts like Ruan Qingliu flew in farther areas, where their immense soul awareness knit into a huge net, covering and scanning a large area for Phantasm soul auras.

However, they found nothing after flying for a long time.

Since Hou Chulan’s air-transportation spiritual tool warded off the mixed energies in the starry river, Nie Tian didn’t have to make an effort to do that. He just sat back and relaxed.

Failing to find anything noteworthy, Hou Chulan had to try another way of thinking. She turned to Nie Tian and asked, “Can you use that Phantasm tool to contact and locate the Phantasms?”

“No,” Nie Tian gave a clear-cut answer. “Everyone’s soul aura is unique. If I reached out to the Phantasms using Qiu Hanshan’s tool, the Phantasms will instantly know that I’m not him, and become alarmed.”

Looking frustrated, Hou Chulan said, “Unfortunately, we didn’t get a God domain expert to join our operation. If we had a God domain expert on our team, we wouldn’t have to annihilate Qiu Hanshan’s discarnate soul so quickly. Instead, we’d be able to strip memories from it.”

But to do that, the spell caster’s cultivation base usually had to be a major level higher than the spell receiver.

While Qiu Hanshan had been at the Saint domain, the strongest expert on their team was Ruan Qingliu, who was also at the Saint domain. It would have been far too dangerous for her to attempt to strip memories from his discarnate soul.

Qiu Hanshan would have been able to ignite his discarnate soul to inflict a heavy backlash on her.

For that reason, Ruan Qingliu had adopted a more straightforward method, which was to annihilate his discarnate soul without giving him a chance to escape.

Failing to find another way, everyone could only continue the painstaking search.

“In fact, there was something I could have done before Qiu Hanshan’s discarnate soul was eliminated,” Nie Tian said somewhat pitifully.

Hou Chulan was taken aback. “What do you mean?”

Nie Tian summoned the Spirit Pearl once again. “This pearl is a unique treasure forged by the Phantasms. As far as I know, the Phantasms have only made three of them. I’ve refined and given this one a soul. This allows it to devour the discarnate soul of any living being and screen fragmentary memories from them.”

“Then why didn’t you just do that?” Hou Chulan was confused.