Lord of All Realms

The prismatic crystal could be considered the only interesting item Nie Tian had obtained by himself in this strange dimension.

Back when he had been recovering in the colorful band, the corpse of a Phantasm had floated by. After what could be thousands of years, it had already become very fragile. A mere touch had reduced it to flying dust.

The prismatic crystal between the eyebrows of the Phantasm was the only thing that had remained intact.

As soon as he took it out of his ring of holding, the tiny cyan spots that the Nethersoul Saber had somehow sent into his body seemed to be suddenly channeled by it, and started converging on it from every corner of his body like swallows returning to their nest.

Like they were drawn by a magnet, the countless tiny, cyan spots rapidly flew out of him and disappeared into the prismatic crystal.

After receiving the cyan spots, the originally plain-looking crystal suddenly started to emanate misty, cyan light.

Nie Tian had long since realized that the prismatic crystal between the eyebrows of a Phantasm was their most vital body part, perhaps even more vital than their heart.

No matter whether it was Armes, Abreu, or other Phantasms, they all needed to cast their race's unique magics with the help of the prismatic crystals between their eyebrows.

The fact that the ages had only failed to corrupt the prismatic crystal between its eyes also proved how special it was to a Phantasm.

After all of the tiny, cyan spots left Nie Tian's body and disappeared into the prismatic crystal, an idea suddenly occurred to Nie Tian as he took out the skull he had acquired from a Spirit God Sect disciple after saving Qian Xin from him.

A Phantasm's soul was still trapped within the skull.

The moment he took it out, he could sense with great clarity that the soul had become very excited, as it repeatedly threw itself into the restrictive ward within the skull in an attempt to break free.

Nie Tian was fascinated.

The Phantasm's soul had seemed similarly restless when he had first obtained the prismatic crystal.

However, after he had strengthened the restrictive ward within the skull with his soul power, it had soon realized that the soul power in the ward could easily annihilate it, and thus had stopped trying to escape.

But why did it suddenly become so restless again? Could it be because something had changed after the prismatic crystal had absorbed all those cyan spots?

He pondered and examined the crystal for a while, and after failing to figure out an answer, he stored the skull and the prismatic crystal back in his ring of holding again.

Then, he refocused on healing himself with Heavenly Wood Heal and the Wood Thriving Formation.

A day passed before he knew it.

During this time, he reattached his severed meridians and fixed his damaged muscles. Everything looked as good as new.

He had a feeling that, given more time, he would be able to finish the next stage of his body refinement with Heavenly Wood Heal in this unique environment filled with extremely rich wood power.

He wondered what the next stage was after bone-crystallizing.

He felt that the series of strong blows he had taken, his meridians being severed, and his flesh bursting, had stimulated Heavenly Wood Heal and readied him for the next stage of body refinement.

"Today is the day!" Chen Hao exclaimed softly.

Apparently, the time measuring instrument in his hand allowed him to tell time accurately, even in places where there were no suns, moons, or stars.

"It's finally time to return to the Domain of the Falling Stars," Ye Qin chimed in.

Nie Tian awoke from his cultivation and glanced over the others. He could see that, after going through so much and losing so many friends and seniors in this strange dimension, they had long since grown tired of this damned place, and didn't want to stay a moment more than necessary.

With outsiders lurking in this heaven and earth, they knew that they would never be safe here.

They were also well-aware that if they missed this chance to return to the Domain of the Falling Stars, they would probably eventually die at the hands of the outsiders when the outsiders recovered and came back for them.

"Eh..." Pei Qiqi, who had slept for a whole day, finally woke up and slowly sat upright.

Nie Tian instantly fixed her with a concerned gaze and said softly, "Are you alright, Senior Martial Sister Pei?"

The others also turned to look at her.

Pei Qiqi didn't pay any attention to the others. Instead, she only answered Nie Tian, "I'm fine. You?"

"I'm okay. I just need to recover the spiritual power I've consumed after returning to the Domain of the Falling Stars after I get some more spirit stones." With a bright smile, Nie Tian asked, "How are you feeling?"

"Let's talk after returning to the Domain of the Falling Stars." With these words, Pei Qiqi closed her eyes, completely ignoring the others' gazes.

Qin Yan, who had intended to express her apologies in person, saw her attitude and gave up on the idea, looking somewhat embarrassed.

Dong Li, however, gave Nie Tian a nasty look, as if she were blaming him for using a tone that was too caring when talking to Pei Qiqi.

"Nie Tian, things will happen as you said they would, right?" Dong Baijie's voice was filled with concern.

"They will. Don't worry." Nie Tian said, smiling. "All we need to do is wait."

Thus, everyone waited, hoping that Nie Tian was right.

Half a day passed...

Ripples once again appeared on the silent surface of the vast, black lake, and the colorful mist over the lake started to surge out like a sea of mist.

The mist gradually spread and descended from the air, until it almost touched and covered the surface of the entire lake.

At that moment, Pei Qiqi's eyes suddenly snapped open. Eyes wide, she gazed into the depths of the colorful mist, as if she had noticed something very strange.

She had sensed that a brand new spatial rift had suddenly appeared out of nowhere, and was stabilizing at a very impressive speed.

Deeply shocked, she jerked her head towards Nie Tian and said, "A spatial rift has indeed formed!"

Upon hearing these words, everyone present cheered loudly, since they all assumed that now that Pei Qiqi, who was an expert in spatial power, had confirmed Nie Tian's prediction, it wouldn't be a mistake.

It was just that Nie Tian hadn't received any directions from the immense awareness, and thus didn't feel very assured. He turned to Pei Qiqi and asked, "Is it okay if we go through that spatial rift now, Senior Martial Sister Pei?"

Pei Qiqi nodded. "Sure, it's already stable enough for us to go through."

After getting her positive answer, Nie Tian gave an order without hesitation, "We'll be able to tread on the colorful mist now. You can just follow Senior Martial Sister Pei to the spatial rift that has just formed, and return to the Domain of the Falling Stars through it."

"What about you?" Dong Li asked, looking very concerned.

"I'll go in once you're all in," Nie Tian said.

Pei Qiqi was the first to rise to her feet. With a swift leap, she landed on the colorful mist close to the lakeshore. Looking as if she were standing on clouds, she said, "Hurry up. I'm not sure how long this spatial rift will remain stable."

Upon hearing these words, the crowd of people no longer dared to delay. One after another, they rapidly jumped onto the colorful mist and ran towards the heart of the mist under Pei Qiqi's leadership.

Nie Tian followed them onto the colorful mist, and watched them find the spatial rift and jump into it one by one under Pei Qiqi's directions.

It wasn't long before everyone, including Pei Qiqi, had disappeared into the spatial rift, and he was the only one still standing before it.

Only at this moment, he sent a cluster of his soul power down into the depths of the black lake underneath, where he once again sensed the presence of that ancient and immense awareness.

"Newborn Son of the Stars, I hope to see you here again in a hundred years.

"I bet you can't imagine the immensity of the agreement between me and the Ancient Fragmentary Star Palace.

"Let me give you a glimpse of what this place really looks like.

"Perhaps, your cultivation will allow you to meet me in person in a hundred years. I'll look forward to talking to you."

BOOM!

A full image instantly appeared in Nie Tian's mind. He felt as if he had suddenly turned into an ancient soul that shot straight up into the highest heavens and glanced down from there.

To his surprise, he found that the island he was on was like a grain in a sea.

There were dozens of other islands that were similar to this one in the black sea.

However, even the black sea was only like a small pond in the heaven and earth he was seeing now.

Beyond the black sea, he could see mountains that towered into the clouds, boundless forests of ancient trees, deserts that were hot and dry, and lands that were covered in snow and ice.

Meanwhile, many pieces of land, which seemed to have come from the top continent, had been plunged deeply into these areas, and had already become part of this enormous continent.

Looking at them, Nie Tian suddenly realized that the ancient beings from the bottom continent must have won the final war between them and the numerous outsider races from the top continent.

This was what the whole bottom continent should look like.

This ancient realm seemed to be even larger than the nine realms of the Domain of the Falling Stars combined!

Before Nie Tian could get a closer look at the different areas, he felt a sudden force that pulled him back to the place where he stood beside that spatial rift that led to the Domain of the Falling Stars.

The curious feeling of his soul leaving his body and glancing down at all things was gone.

Then, he was pushed into the spatial rift, and left this boundless continent.