Chapter 53

"Nie Tian!"

"Are you all right?"

At this moment, Guo Qi, Tong Hao, and the others, who had been lagging behind, finally arrived, drenched in sweat.

"Where are Tao Ge and the others?" Guo Qi asked.

"They went to chase the Blood Sect members," Nie Tian replied casually. Then he took out a large piece of spirit beast meat from his back and handed it to Jiang Miao, saying, "Please help me cook it."

Recently, they hadn't encountered any spirit beasts in the ice region, so the spirit beast meat Nie Tian carried was almost depleted.

Now, he only had a few dozen pounds of spirit beast meat left, which was barely enough for him to enjoy alone.

However, when he handed the piece of spirit beast meat to Jiang Miao, he suddenly felt a stirring in his heart.

He had his eyes on the spirit beasts from the desert that were killed by the Lingyun Sect, especially... the ground lizard!

The ground lizard was a second-tier spirit beast that had fled to the desert after being injured. It was eventually found by Jiang Lingzhu and others, and after a fierce battle, they managed to slay it.

The head of the ground lizard had been cut off by Jiang Lingzhu, but its body was still by the lake.

A second-tier spirit beast was much stronger than a first-tier one, and the energy contained in its flesh was significantly higher.

Nie Tian, who had just used the Anger Fist and drained all his spiritual energy, urgently needed to recover.

The meat from the ground lizard was undoubtedly the best supplement for him.

After a brief hesitation, he looked at Jiang Lingzhu and suddenly asked, "I don't want the head of the ground lizard. Can I have some of its meat? I'm a bit hungry."

"Ha, not to mention the meat of the ground lizard, even its head, I can give you if you want it," Jiang Lingzhu said with a bright smile, then immediately instructed Ye Gumo, "Brother Ye, Nie Tian is hungry and wants to eat some ground lizard meat."

"Of course, no problem, I'll cook it for him personally!" Ye Gumo said cheerfully.

With that, Ye Gumo gave Nie Tian a thumbs up, winked, and went to cut the meat from the ground lizard and cook it for him.

At this moment, Jiang Lingzhu and Nie Xian, who were familiar with Nie Tian, came to his side.

"Are you okay?" Jiang Lingzhu asked with concern.

Nie Tian shook his head, "I just used too much strength. I feel weak all over and need to rest for a while."

"Nie Tian, what cultivation level are you at now?" Nie Xian asked curiously.

Earlier, Nie Tian had shattered the blood shadow formed by the demoness Yu Tong with just one punch, and also caused the shield made of her own blood to explode instantly.

Yu Tong was injured by Nie Tian's attack and, seeing that Pan Tao and the others were about to arrive, had no choice but to retreat.

The power of that punch made Nie Xian almost disbelieve his eyes, leaving a deep impression on him.

He remembered that before he left the Nie family and was led to the Lingyun Sect by Li Fan, Nie Tian was only at the fourth level of the Qi Condensation stage.

At that time, Nie Tian was just physically strong and had nothing particularly outstanding about him.

He couldn't imagine that in just one year, Nie Tian could scare Yu Tong away with just one punch.

"Actually, I just broke through to the seventh level of the Qi Condensation stage a few days ago," Nie Tian replied.

"From the fourth level to the seventh level in about a year..." Nie Xian muttered, looking at him as if he were a monster.

Jiang Lingzhu also opened her mouth wide in surprise, staring at him, "You're too amazing, right?"

In Heiyun City, she had seen Nie Tian fight Yun Song, and she was sure that at that time, Nie Tian was indeed at the fourth level of the Qi Condensation stage.

To leap from the fourth level to the seventh level in just one year was astonishing, even to her, who had seen many things in the Lingyun Sect.

"I just had good luck," Nie Tian chuckled.

While they were talking, An Ying, Pan Tao, and Zheng Rui returned dejectedly.

"The Blood Sect members escaped as fast as the Ghost Sect," An Ying said, standing beside Jiang Lingzhu and sighing, "We thought that after coming to the desert, we could use your strength to kill the Ghost Sect disciples. We didn't expect that the Blood Sect members also entered the Qinghuan Realm."

"What?"

The Lingyun Sect trial participants all changed color when they heard this.

"Did you encounter the Ghost Sect disciples?" Jiang Lingzhu asked sharply.

"We're still okay," Pan Tao said with a bitter smile, "But it's terrible in the Ash Valley. We saw five people from the Ash Valley killed by the Ghost Sect, and the way they died... was unbearable to see."

"We also lost a companion to the Ghost Sect," Zheng Rui said softly.

"Blood Sect, Ghost Sect..." Jiang Lingzhu frowned deeply, her clean little face suddenly clouded with gloom, "I don't know what the situation is with the Xuanwu Palace. I hope they haven't been as unlucky. From now on, we should not separate, and we need to find the people from the Xuanwu Palace and the Ash Valley as soon as possible. Only by uniting can we possibly stand up to the Blood Sect and the Ghost Sect."

"We came to the desert to find you so we could go to the ice region and kill the Ghost Sect disciples," An Ying explained.

"Once the Blood Sect and the Ghost Sect realize we have joined forces and won't separate, they... will also unite," Pan Tao said.

"The trial in the Qinghuan Realm is ten times more dangerous than we thought," Jiang Lingzhu thought for a moment and said, "We need to quickly recover our strength to prepare for any battles that may come. We'll talk more later."

"Everyone, quickly use the spirit stones in your hands to recover!"

Except for Ye Gumo, the surviving Lingyun Sect trial participants stopped talking and sat down silently.

Each of them had a serious expression and no longer dared to relax.

They had thought that after joining forces with the Spirit Treasure Pavilion, the five Blood Sect disciples led by Yu Tong would no longer be a threat to them.

They didn't expect the Spirit Treasure Pavilion to enter the desert to seek their help to deal with the Ghost Sect.

Knowing that the Ghost Sect was also in the Qinghuan Realm made them all feel the difficulty of their journey ahead. With the bodies of two companions lying beside them, they didn't want to become corpses themselves, so they had to remain constantly on edge.

An Ying and her group also lost interest in talking and were equally troubled.

"Here, the ground lizard meat you wanted."

At this moment, Ye Gumo came to Nie Tian with a piece of cooked meat weighing about ten pounds and handed it to him.

After Nie Tian took it, Ye Gumo sat down beside Jiang Lingzhu and Nie Xian and also took out a spirit stone to absorb spiritual energy and recover.

"That amount of meat is far from enough for him," Pan Tao muttered, then suddenly said, "Recently, we've been busy crossing the ice region and haven't had time to eat properly. There are plenty of spirit beasts here. We didn't participate in the battle just now, so we don't need to recover immediately. Let's enjoy a good meal."

He strode towards the ground lizard.

Ye Gumo didn't know Nie Tian's appetite and thought that ten pounds of cooked meat would be enough to make Nie Tian full.

Pan Tao, who had been with Nie Tian for so long, naturally knew that Nie Tian needed at least five times the amount of beast meat to be full, so he was actually arranging for Nie Tian.

"Nie Tian, this is the spirit beast meat you asked me to cook," Jiang Miao came over, holding a large branch with a piece of cooked meat weighing about ten pounds, and handed it to him.

After Nie Tian took it, he said thank you.

Jiang Miao didn't leave immediately but looked at him with anticipation.

When she noticed that Nie Tian first ate the cooked meat she had prepared, rather than the ground lizard meat, she smiled sweetly and said happily, "I'll go and cook some more for you." Then she skipped away.

After eating the ten pounds of first-tier spirit beast meat, Nie Tian immediately closed his eyes.

In just a short while, he felt a warm current rising from his abdomen. When he circulated the Qi Condensation technique, the warm energy flowed into his spirit sea at a faster rate than usual.

After half an hour, his depleted spirit sea was filled with about one-tenth of its spiritual energy.

His abdomen no longer produced a warm current, as if all the energy from the beast meat had been absorbed in a short time.

Opening his eyes, he saw several large branches with skewered beast meat stuck in the sand beside him.

Looking around, he found that An Ying, Pan Tao, and the others were gathered together, eating and drinking while discussing loudly.

They seemed to know that he needed a long time to eat, so they didn't disturb him. However, the large branches with skewered meat were the work of Jiang Miao and Pan Tao.

He identified the piece of ground lizard meat that Ye Gumo had cooked first and picked it up.

He immediately started eating with great relish.

Soon, the ten pounds of ground lizard meat were completely consumed.

A scorching warm current gradually rose from his abdomen, and the energy, several times stronger than before, spread through his flesh and bones.

His eyes suddenly lit up, and he quickly performed the Qi Condensation technique to guide the abundant energy.

The energy flowed like a warm stream through his meridians, surging into his spirit sea.

In just a short fifteen minutes, he found that the spiritual energy in his spirit sea had recovered to nearly forty percent!

And at this moment, his abdomen was still releasing energy!

The ground lizard meat, being digested in his intestines, still had plenty of energy left!

His body trembled slightly, and he focused his mind, fully absorbing the energy in his body and channeling it into his spirit sea.

After an unknown amount of time, when he no longer felt a warm current rising from his abdomen, he found that the spiritual energy in his spirit sea had recovered to about eighty percent!

"Seven times!" He was secretly amazed.

The same amount of spirit beast meat, when consumed by him, produced seven times more energy from the ground lizard meat compared to a first-tier spirit beast!

Just one large piece of ground lizard meat had almost fully restored the spiritual energy he had consumed with the Anger Fist!

"Second-tier spirit beast!"

Staring at the several hundred pounds of the ground lizard's corpse from over a hundred meters away, Nie Tian's eyes suddenly gleamed with greed.

...