Lord of All Realms

In the Netherspirits' Realm of Dark Souls in the Void World.

A long Nether River wound around the entire realm from the starry river, like a colossal snake with its mouth and tail connected.

Souls of the dead that belonged to various species could be seen drifting in its murky water.

Numerous soul symbols lit up and went dim intermittently like mysterious stars.

Whenever the Netherspirits within the Realm of Dark Souls looked up, they could see the cyan rainbow-like river there, eternally gorgeous.

Any Netherspirit could send their soul awareness or their true souls into the Nether River to derive enlightenment from it after their bloodlines reached a certain grade.

Those who were lucky could obtain all sorts of exquisite soul magics from it, without having to enter their Blood Realm.

However, this Nether River hadn't been here since the beginning of time.

All Netherspirits knew that it had only manifested after Grand Monarch Heavenly Spirit's demise, surrounding the Realm of Dark Souls and allowing all qualified Netherspirits to derive the profound truths of souls from it.

Before that, only during bloodline upgrades could lucky Netherspirits send their souls into their Blood Realm to seek for new soul magics.

The Nether River, however, allowed any Netherspirit to enter it at any time to derive exquisite soul magics as long as they had reached a certain grade.

It was like a Blood Realm that was open all the time.

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

On this day, wisps of soul awareness and soul shadows suddenly flew out of the Nether River one after another.

Like gray raindrops, they fell out of the heavens to different areas of the realm.

Before long, Netherspirits rose into the sky from those areas.

Some were wearing ancient, complicated robes. Some were clad in suits of battle armor, while others were wielding exquisite soul tools. Either way, they all looked very grim.

"The Nether River expelled my soul awareness!"

"I can't believe my soul awareness was expulsed by the Nether River! I've derived soul magics from the Nether River since I was a kid. How many years has it been? Why would it suddenly exclude me today?"

"The same thing happened to me! I was tossed out of the Nether River while I was trying to derive a new soul magic!"

A large number of Netherspirits looked up at the Nether River and experienced a feeling of unfamiliarity and unease.

They sensed that something was off. Otherwise, such unusual changes wouldn't have happened to this Nether River that had surrounded the Realm of Dark Souls for so long.

One of Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits' doppelgängers suddenly manifested out of thin air in the dark sky.

"Thousand Spirits!" Some old Netherspirits exclaimed in an unpleasant manner, even though their bloodline grades weren't as high as his. "What the hell did you do? Why is the Nether River rejecting us now?"

"Yeah, did you anger the Nether River with your battles in the Doomed Star Sea, the Spirit World, and the Mortal World?"

"You'd better give us an explanation, Thousand Spirits!"

The bunch of old Netherspirits, who had lived for hundreds of thousands of years, stared at and interrogated Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits. All of them had high seniority, and had made significant contributions to his rise to the position of high chieftain back in the day.

Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits let out a sigh. "Ladies and gentlemen, I'm afraid that I have bad news. As you know, the Nether River doesn't just exist in our world. There are branches in the Spirit World, the Mortal World, and the Silent Star Sea.

"All of them are interconnected, and interact in mysterious ways.

"However, now that many eras have passed, the Nether River branches in the Mortal World, the Spirit World, and the Silent Star Sea have been gradually tainted by beings of other races.

"Just days ago, the Nether Realm branch in the Spirit World was tainted by some kind of power and vanished.

"Now, the problems that the Nether River branches in the Mortal World, the Spirit World, and the Silent Star Sea have experienced seem to be taking a toll on this main stream of the Nether River as well. But don't worry. We're trying to find solutions. We believe that once we conquer the Mortal World and the Spirit World, everything will be back to normal."

While this doppelgänger of Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits' gave an eloquent speech to put the old Netherspirits' hearts at ease, another doppelgänger of his said to the grand monarchs from the Spirit World and the Void World at the Seven Stars Realm Sea, "Barbara, who we sent to the Nether Realm, has died. And Nie Tian has already killed seven grand patriarchs in the Spirit World. His true form appears to be seeking his breakthrough to the God domain in the Floragrims' main realm."

Grand Monarch Bloodlust's expression flickered with astonishment. "What? Nie Tian has already displayed unbelievably high battle prowess at the Saint domain. If we let him break through to the God domain..."

All of the outsider experts who had witnessed Nie Tian's battle prowess felt nervous and anxious after hearing this.

"Let's go and kill him in the Spirit World!"

"We need to stop him from entering the God domain!"

"Nie Tian will be a great threat to us if we don't get rid of him now!"

The outsider experts from the Void World and the Spirit World quickly reached a mutual understanding.

They even decided to put their invasion of the Mortal World on hold, and canceled their plan to march into the Domain of Forbidden Heaven because of Nie Tian.

Gradually, they had realized that Nie Tian had become a more formidable enemy than You Qimiao and all the other human experts.

A Bonedrude grand monarch calmed himself and suggested, "It's said that the Tree of Life is in the Floragrims' main realm. We all know what level of existence it is. I think it's unwise to make a move against Nie Tian in the Floragrims' main realm."

"You got it wrong," Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits said. "Nie Tian's true soul has left the Floragrims' main realm. It's traveling among different domains of the Spirit World now."

The Bonedrude grand monarch's eyes lit up. "If that's the case, then it'll be a much easier job. So, where is his true soul now? Do you know that?"

"It appears he's in the place where humanity originated, a realm called the Realm of Middle Continent," Grand Monarch Thousand Spirits answered.

Grand Monarch Bloodlust of the Demons and Grand Monarch Nether Channeler of the Fiends gasped upon hearing this, complicated looks appearing in their eyes.

"The Realm of Middle Continent!"

"I can't believe he went to the Realm of Middle Continent."

...

Dim, yellow earth and jagged mountains stretched as far as the eye could see. However, not a single blade of grass was in sight.

Deserts and wastelands took up most of the realm, along with clusters of extinct volcanoes. All of the rivers and lakes were dry. Everything seemed lifeless.

This was what Nie Tian saw upon arriving at the Realm of Middle Continent, standing on the Spirit Scepter.

What he saw here reminded him a great deal of the Realm of Unbounded Desolation.

With the help of the Spirit Scepter, his profound soul power spread out, covering heaven and earth.

As vast as the Realm of Middle Continent was, not only did he not sense the existence of any vegetation, but there didn't seem to be any insects in it either.

"Hmm?!"

Spatial fluctuations suddenly emerged in a remote corner of the realm.

It was as if someone was conducting short-range space travels, which made their aura and soul awareness hard to capture.

SHEW!

Nie Tian's true soul flew over on the Spirit Scepter in the blink of an eye.

FIZZ!

A spatial rift suddenly split open above a vast wasteland.

Immediately after a scrawny figure flashed out of it, he summoned spatial power, as if to move on to another location.

Nie Tian's true soul let out a weird, sharp cry. "Zhao Shanling!"

Zhao Shanling, who had been shuttling among different areas of the Realm of Middle Continent, fell out of the air and landed on the desolate ground. Bewildered, he glanced around, "Strange. I thought I heard that kid Nie Tian calling me. I must have been traveling alone for too long, and I've started to experience illusions."

"No illusions." Nie Tian's true soul and the Spirit Scepter manifested out of thin air.

Zhao Shanling stood aghast, as if he were looking at a ghost. "How come you're here?"