A fourth grade Birdman spread his wings and swooped towards Nie Tian.

“Bloodline magic! Wind Blade!”

With a few vigorous flaps of his wings, he sent numerous gray wind blades that were as sharp as knives towards Nie Tian.

However, each and every wind blade bounced right off the Flame Dragon Armor, not leaving a single scratch on its surface.

Nie Tian let out a cold harrumph and flashed behind the Birdman with a short-range Stars.h.i.+ft. Then, he formed a hand blade his empty hand and thrust it into the Birdman’s back.

PUFF!

Without much effort, his hand pierced through the fourth grade Birdman’s back and stuck out of his chest.

“What...?!” Nie Tian muttered as he bounced back onto his Golden Chariot.

Only then did the fourth grade Birdman stop struggling and fall to the ground.

Li Langfeng also seemed very surprised as he asked, “Nie Tian, why are these outsiders even more fragile than us?”

It was known that any outsider race had tougher fleshly bodies than humans. However, Nie Tian’s hand had gone through that Birdman’s back as easily as a metal awl through a piece of tofu.

“It’s not that their bodies are more fragile than ours, it’s that...” Before Nie Tian could finish, a fifth grade Birdman flew towards him in rage.

“Leave this one to me!” Li Langfeng snorted coldly, and streams of ghostly, green aura shot out of his fingertips.

Simultaneously, his whole body was instantly wreathed in deadly toxic energy, and his eyes suddenly turned green, as if he had turned into an evil spirit from the underworld.

PHEW! PHEW!

The streams of green aura rapidly found their way into the Birdman’s spread wings, as if they had their own awareness.

Then, under Nie Tian’s gaze, feathers started to rot and fall off the Birdman’s large wings.

The fifth grade Birdman let out miserable wails, as he obviously hadn’t expected that the unimpressive human could actually launch poisonous incantations that were as deadly as the Fiends.

In a brief moment, the fifth grade Birdman’s wings melted away entirely.

Then, Li Langfeng bolted out of the Golden Chariot. As he flashed past the struggling Birdman, the Birdman became bereft of any sign of life, then fell uncontrollably towards the ground.

The other Birdmen that rushed over after those two were shocked by the formidable battle prowess Nie Tian and Li Langfeng had displayed.

“Watch out! That human has mastered the Fiends’ poisonous incantations!”

“Don’t let his aura get anywhere near you!”

At that moment, a high-tier Demon with a handsome appearance flew over on a giant, bat-like beast, roaring, “Get the h.e.l.l down!”

Before Nie Tian had the time to react, a dozen pale-gray bone spears pierced through the Golden Chariot he had demanded from Su Lin, riddling the Golden Chariot with holes.

With the spell formation built within the Golden Chariot destroyed, it started cras.h.i.+ng towards the ground.

Watching the expensive Golden Chariot being destroyed, Nie Tian felt a heartache. “Dammit!”

At that moment, Li Langfeng’s cry caught his ears. “Nie Tian! Watch out for that sixth grade outsider!” 

He jerked his head down, and saw that a Phantasm expert was already waiting in the place where the Golden Chariot was going to crash.

That Phantasm expert had originally been overpowering Ghost Eye in a battle.

Facing the Phantasm expert, who was well-versed in all sorts of soul magics, Ghost Eye’s secret magic that he used to filled the sky with evil spirits seemed much inferior.

If Nie Tian hadn’t shown up, and that sixth grade Phantasm expert hadn’t ended his battle against Ghost Eye, he might have been killed already.

At this moment, Ghost Eye was suffering from a severe backlash. The light in his eyes was dim, and blood was coming out of his nostrils and ears. He couldn’t help Nie Tian even if he wanted to.

Nie Tian’s expression grew grim. “A sixth grade Phantasm that’s skilled at soul magics!” 

He knew that Phantasms were very good at launching soul attacks. His memory of his battle against Armes was still fresh.

A sixth grade outsider was as powerful as a Profound realm human expert. Therefore, if he unleashed his profound soul magics on him, he probably wouldn’t be able to defend against them, even though he was wearing the Flame Dragon Armor.

While he had a headache over the perilous situation, he suddenly noticed that increasingly fierce cyan light was gathering in the prismatic crystal between the Phantasm expert’s eyebrows.

He instantly realized that he was going to attack him with the Phantasms’ most powerful soul magic.

“c.r.a.p!" Li Langfeng also noticed the unfavorable situation they were in.

In the next moment, the Golden Chariot that was falling from the sky like a streak of golden lightning suddenly came to a stop.

“What?!” The vortexes inside Nie Tian’s spiritual sea all suddenly froze.

Even his heart seemed to have stopped beating.

His connection with his Heaven Eyes was also lost instantly.

He was completely confused, wondering what was happening.

However, it wasn’t only him. Every living being and plant, the river and even the air seemed to be suddenly frozen.

Not a single sound could be heard.

The sixth grade Phantasm that was waiting for Nie Tian on the ground also seemed completely frozen. The light in the prismatic crystal between his eyebrows had stopped growing stronger.

WHOOs.h.!.+

High in the sky, a spatial rift had just been opened. Zhao Shanling was halfway into the spatial rift, his eyes filled with astonishment.

As powerful as he was, he was frozen before he could escape the potential danger through that spatial rift. Even his mind stopped.

However, countless bright spots that looked like time nodes gradually floated in the depths of his eyes as he let out an explosive roar. Then, he finally struggled free from the strange sensation.

But as he looked down, his expression flickered drastically. “Time... Time Freeze...”

Everything and everyone in his view had become completely still, as if time had stopped.

Even the two seventh grade outsiders that were fighting Wu Ji had frozen in the motion of attacking Wu Ji.

At this moment, only two people in this entire heaven and earth were able to move freely.

One was Zhao Shanling, and the other was Wu Ji.

Wu Ji was now sitting in his silver boat. Sands of time seemed to scatter through his fingers as he formed various hand seals.

FIZZ! FIZZ! FIZZ!

Tens of thousands of silver lights shot out of the small, silver boat. Some of them pierced the two seventh grade Phatasms through their hearts and the crystals between their eyebrows.

The crystals between their eyebrows were the vessels for their souls, while their hearts were where their bloodline lay.

As the silver lights pierced through those places like sharp strings, the two outsider experts remained completely still. Just like that, they were slaughtered without much effort, not even having a chance to struggle.

Then, thousands more silver lights spread out in all directions. Like slender blades that were thirsty for outsider blood, they rapidly pierced through numerous other outsiders, through their hearts and the places between their eyebrows.

Not a single outsider that was on Cloudsoaring Mountain and in the valley nearby was spared.

“One, two, three!” Zhao Shanling counted inwardly. Three seconds later, he saw all of those outsiders collapse to the ground.

At the same time, all of the human Qi warriors those outsiders had been fighting regained the ability to move freely.

Most of them were still in the stance of fighting their outsider opponents as they found out that the outsiders that were like evil monsters from h.e.l.l had all died for some reason.

Deeply puzzled, Ghost Eye muttered, “What happened? What killed all these outsiders?” 

BOOM!

Nie Tian’s Golden Chariot finally crashed heavily into the ground. Panic-stricken, Nie Tian and Li Langfeng jumped out right before the crash.

As soon as Nie Tian a.s.sumed a firm foothold on the ground, he caught sight of the Phantasm that had planned to kill him with his most powerful soul magic. The prismatic crystal between his eyebrows had been shattered, and blood was spilling from a small hole in his chest.

Nie Tian was also unaware of what had just happened.

“Nie Tian, all of the outsider invaders are dead!” Li Langfeng’s voice was trembling slightly. “What the h.e.l.l happened?! All of them were killed in the blink of an eye, without warning! The strangest thing is that none of us saw what killed them! Even Zhao Shanling isn’t capable of doing something like this, is he?”

Nie Tian glanced around, and saw that Chang Sen, Ghost Eye, Li Jing, and the other experts looked just as confused.

It seemed that no one had the faintest clue as to what had just happened, and what had killed all of the outsiders.

While they clamored about the strange happening, Zhao Shanling, who was floating high in the sky, still hadn’t recovered from the shock. His face twitched subtly.

Other than Wu Ji, he was the only one who knew what had just happened.

Zhao Shanling’s face had never been this pale as he thought to himself, “Time Freeze! Even though it only lasted three seconds, it was more than enough for Wu Ji to finish off all of the outsiders! Even I was only able to break away from it after half a second. But if it’s a battle between powerful experts, a split second is all it takes to determine the result of the battle. Half a second would be more than enough for Wu Ji to kill me, unless I could predict his moves.”

With these thoughts, Zhao Shanling enveloped himself with multiple layers of spatial energy.

As soon as he was, he seemed to be in a completely different s.p.a.ce. Under such circ.u.mstances, anyone who wanted to kill him would have to break his spatial barriers and find which s.p.a.ce he was hiding in before they could make an attempt on his life.

If he could unleash this magic before Wu Ji unleashed his Time Freeze, he had confidence that Wu Ji wouldn’t be able to find and kill him within just half a second.

“This man is only at the late Profound realm now. The stronger his opponents are, the less effective Time Freeze will be when he uses it on them. Those whose cultivation bases are higher than his will be able to break away from the influence within a short time. For example, he can only affect me for half a second so far. It’s not too bad if I can prepare myself.

“But once he enters the Soul realm...”

The look in Zhao Shanling’s eyes flickered as his train of thought reached that point. “Once he enters the Soul realm, I’ll be subject to the influence of his Time Freeze for a longer time. Then, even by hiding in another s.p.a.ce, I may not survive!”

For the first time in his life, Zhao Shanling was apprehensive of another cultivator.

He had traveled the Domain of the Falling Stars without fearing anyone ever since he had entered the Soul realm. He hadn’t even truly feared the late Soul realm patriarch of the Heaven Palace Sect.

That was because he was confident that even if he couldn’t match him in battle, he would be able to split s.p.a.ce and escape whenever he wanted.

However, if Wu Ji was at the same realm as him, once he was affected by his Time Freeze, he wouldn’t even have the chance to create a spatial rift. Therefore, the unique spatial magic that he relied on to travel freely through heaven and earth would become completely useless.

Throughout the entire Domain of the Falling Stars, Wu Ji might someday become the only person who could kill him.

Killing intent suddenly appeared in Zhao Shanling’s eyes as he thought to himself, “Do I take care of this potential trouble now? He probably won’t be able to use Time Freeze again so soon. I still can kill him now that he’s at the late Profound realm, but once he enters the Soul realm, I’m afraid there’ll be nothing I can do.”

With these thoughts, he suddenly dashed down towards the back of Cloudsoaring Mountain, wreathed in fluctuating spatial energy.

The Time Realm was already gone. With a grim face, he looked deeply at Wu Ji, who was sitting in his silver boat with his eyes closed.

“Zhao Shanling?” Wu Ji opened his eyes and asked in a soft voice. “Are you here to kill me?”

“To be honest, you’re the only one so far who can make me feel insecure and uneasy,” Zhao Shanling said. “I didn’t know that there was a person like you in the Realm of Flame Heaven. How ill-informed am I?”

Wu Ji closed his eyes again and said, “You may try and see if you can kill me. But as soon as you make a move, the two of us will die simultaneously. Even if I can’t defeat you, I’m rather certain that I’ll be able to take you down with me.”

Zhao Shanling’s expression flickered once again.