Upon hearing that Nie Tian and Luo Xin were from the Cloudsoaring Sect, the man’s att.i.tude turned even friendlier. “The Cloudsoaring Sect... That Nie Tian is a disciple of your sect, right?”

Luo Xin went blank for a moment before she turned to shoot Nie Tian a glance, then nodded at the man. “You’re right, Nie Tian is a disciple of our sect.”

“Hahaha.” Nie Tian laughed broadly.

For some reason, the gazes of the few Qi warriors standing by the man’s side also grew significantly warmer.

The man seemed increasingly relaxed as he said, “My name is Xu Shan, and I’m from the Realm of a Thousand Devastations. The situation in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations was terrible when we left for the Realm of a Hundred Battles. Many of us have families in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, and we’ve been worried about their safety since the day we left.

“Only recently did we learn from other explorers who had come here to hunt spirit beasts that, thanks to Nie Tian, the spatial rift in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations has been sealed.

“By doing that, Nie Tian has saved our family and friends in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations from destruction.

“Even though we haven’t had a chance to return to the Realm of a Thousand Devastations and meet him in person, we’re all very grateful to him inwardly. This was why when we met those from the Cloudsoaring Sect not long ago, we got along very well. We even helped them.”

As Xu Shan spoke, Luo Xin constantly turned her eyes to look at Nie Tian with a faint smile at the corner of her mouth.

Nie Tian also inwardly marveled at the coincidence, but he quickly changed the subject by asking, “Where did you meet them? And when?”

Xu Shan did the math in his mind before saying, “About seven or eight days ago, I’d say. When we discovered them, they were engaged in a fierce fight with spirit beasts. The situation wasn’t in their favor. Originally, we didn’t want to get into trouble ourselves. Only when we overheard that they were from the Cloudsoaring Sect did we rush to their aid.”

Upon hearing these words, both Nie Tian and Luo Xin secretly let out a sigh of relief.

According to the information from the brothers they had encountered earlier, something must have happened to Jiang Lingzhu, Nie Donghai, and the others in this forest of stone needles.

At first, they had thought the whole team might have died.

After hearing Xu Shan’s words, they realized that even though someone on the team might have died, their casualties shouldn’t have been that great.

“Was there an old man on the team? In the Greater Heaven stage...?” Nie Tian tried his best to describe Nie Donghai.

Xu Shan nodded saying, “Yeah, there was. He left me a deep impression. I’m sure he was there.”

Realizing that Nie Donghai was still alive, Nie Tian put his heart at ease.

Then, Luo Xin asked him some more questions, and found out where Nie Donghai, Jiang Lingzhu and the others had last been seen.

Afterwards, she asked, “So, are you going back to your realm?”

Xu Shan answered with a smile, “Yeah, we’ve spent too much time in the Realm of a Hundred Battles. Although we’ve lost people, we’ve also gained a lot in many aspects. But now that the Realm of a Thousand Devastations is safe again, we’re ready to go back.”

“Thank you for giving a hand to our friends from the Cloudsoaring Sect, and for telling us so much.” Luo Xin expressed her sincere grat.i.tude.

Xu Shan waved his hand repeatedly as he said, “Don’t mention it. We only did what we were supposed to do. If you see Nie Tian in your sect later, please thank him for us. He was the reason why the crisis that loomed over the Realm of a Thousand Devastations was finally relieved. Our friends and family are alive because of him. We’re very grateful to him.”

“I will!” Luo Xin said solemnly.

“Alright, good luck finding your friends. We’ve got to get back to this spirit beast.” Xu Shan said with a smile.

“See you!” Luo Xin said, waving her hand.

After they were a sizable distance away from Xu Shan and his team, Luo Xin turned to Nie Tian and said with a hearty smile, “Good is always rewarded with good. If you hadn’t saved the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, Xu Shan and his team probably wouldn’t have lent Lingzhu and the others a hand when they were attacked by spirit beasts.”

Nie Tian nodded. “I admit it, the sects in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations aren’t bad. They were grateful for what I’ve done, and left me with a good impression.”

The images of Li Muyang, Xing Huanyue, and the members of the Yin Sect and the Yang Sect defending him against the low-tier Demons with their own lives were still fresh in Nie Tian’s memory.

The other sects had also come to thank him properly before withdrawing from the spatial rift.

Li Muyang and Xing Huanyue had even stood up against the Heaven Palace Sect for him.

All those things had given him a good impression of the Qi warriors in the Realm of a Thousand Devastations.

Now, Xu Shan and his team, who were also from the Realm of a Thousand Devastations, had reached out to Jiang Lingzhu, Nie Donghai, and the others after learning that they were from the Cloudsoaring Sect.

This made him sigh over how devoted and loyal the people from the Realm of a Thousand Devastations were.

“Who was the leader of the team?” Nie Tian asked.

“Li Fan’s junior martial brother, Zhan Yuan, who is at the middle Greater Heaven stage,” Luo Xin said without holding anything back. “In the Cloudsoaring Sect, elder Feng He, elder Zhao Tong, elder Chen Musheng, and their respective disciples were the ones who weren’t very happy about your grandfather.

“As you know, my second senior martial brother, s.h.i.+ Yi, was killed by people from the Ghost Sect during the upheaval in the Scarlet Flame Mountain Range. Actually, back then, my master’s att.i.tude towards you had already changed, and he had already untied the knot in his heart about your mother’s death.

“Shortly after that, my eldest martial brother, Liu Yan, was killed by Tang Yang from the Flame G.o.d Sect during the Heaven Gate trial...”

Luo Xin’s expression became saddened. “Now, I’m his only living disciple. He has long since stopped blaming the Nie Clan and your grandfather for what happened to your mother. Your grandfather will tell you about it after we find them.”

Nie Tian nodded briefly.

Luo Xin’s master was Wu Xing, who had also been his mother’s master. He had learned about it from Nie Donghai and Liu Yan, who had been very kind to him since he had been little.

The thought of Liu Yan and s.h.i.+ Yi’s deaths, and that Luo Xin was Wu Xing’s only living disciple now, saddened Nie Tian as well.

However, Liu Yan’s death saddened him the most. It had been Liu Yan who had brought that dragon bone to the Nie Clan, which had later completed the Flame Dragon Armor and saved his life over and over again.

“When I’m strong enough, no matter where Tang Yang hides, I’ll hunt him down and kill him myself!” He vowed in a low voice.

Luo Xin nodded. “I believe that day will come. Zhan Yuan is one of our sectmaster’s disciples, so she naturally went with him on this exploration trip. Disciples of elder Feng He, elder Zhao Tong, and elder Chen Musheng went to the Gu Clan, the Cao Clan, and the Pill Pavilion Sect respectively. Their mission was to find an ideal location for our sect to rebuild.

“They also had people killed by spirit beasts. Some of them have returned to Water Moon City after learning that the spatial rift in the Realm of Flame Heaven was sealed. Some haven’t.

“The Realm of a Hundred Battles is a paradise for spirit beasts. Everyone understands what they will face on missions here.

“I believe your grandfather is fine. All we need to do is to find him as soon as possible and inform him of the current situation, and then we’ll return to the Realm of Flame Heaven together.”

Luo Xin tried to stop him from worrying too much as she pointed out the directions and Nie Tian led the way.

As they marched deeper into the wild, Nie Tian noticed more and more encounters between spirit beasts and Qi warriors via his Heaven Eyes.

He found that humans only won an average of four out of ten encounters at the most.

Most of the time, humans would suffer miserable losses. Facing herds of powerful spirit beasts, many human exploration teams would scatter and flee.

Many of them had come for spiritual materials, while others had come for spirit beasts. However, a large number of them ended up in the spirit beasts’ bellies.

Nie Tian didn’t interfere with any of their battles, regardless of which side was winning. He chose to steer clear of them in order to focus all of his time and energy on finding his grandfather and aunt.

The strong preyed on the weak. He had already grown used to it. Compared to these battles, the ones in the Realm of Split Void had been far crueler and nastier, yet he had managed to pull through.

...

One night, right before they were about to arrive at the location given by Xu Shan, Nie Tian noticed via one of his Heaven Eyes that three spirit beasts were attacking a handful of humans.

The humans all practiced the same sword incantation, and the strongest of them was only at the early Greater Heaven stage.

Originally, Nie Tian planned to stay out of it. However, he suddenly noticed that the sword incantation they practiced was very similar to Xue Long’s.

“Hmm?!” After observing for a little longer, he was convinced that the sword incantation they practiced was identical to Xue Long’s.

Therefore, he led Luo Xin to the location where the battle was taking place, and joined the battle without any hesitation.

With their help, the humans soon slaughtered the two third grade Gold Horn Beasts and one fourth grade Golden Stone Rhino.

“Thank you very much.” The early Greater Heaven stage man expressed his grat.i.tude immediately after the battle ended. “You can have the fourth grade Golden Stone Rhino. We’ll just take these two Gold Horn Beasts.”

Nie Tian shook his head. “That won’t be necessary… What’s your relations.h.i.+p with Xue Long?”