Meanwhile, back in the Nie clan…
During the ten days in which Nie Tian had been missing, Nie Donghai had forced Nie Beichuan to go to the Yun clan with him and to demand them to release Nie Tian.
On the other hand, the Yun clan insisted that Nie Tian's disappearance had nothing to do with them.
In the past, the Cloudsoaring sect seldom showed interest in Nie Donghai's matters, due to their resentment towards him.
However, for unknown reasons, this time the Cloudsoaring sect unexpectedly arranged for Li Fan to assist Nie Donghai the moment Nie Donghai informed them of Nie Tian's situation.
Li Fan led Nie Donghai to the Yun clan, turning it upside down in a search for Nie Tian. They didn't give even the slightest face to the Yun clan.
Unfortunately, they found nothing.
Yet, Li Fan didn't stop there. He went to the Yuan clan in Frost Stone City and made another thorough search in their territory.
However, that search was also in vain.
Ten days later, Li Fan continued to stay in the Nie clan and search for Nie Tian's whereabouts in other nearby cities, using the Cloudsoaring sect's power.
Obviously, the Cloudsoaring sect was truly concerned with Nie Tian's disappearance this time, leaving no stone unturned in their efforts to find him.
As the current clanmaster, Nie Beichuan secretly gloated at the sight of the Cloudsoaring sect going through all that trouble to search for Nie Tian, and yet he still provided full cooperation.
It was early at dawn when Nie Qian and Nie Donghai came to Li Fan's guest room, asking whether the Cloudsoaring sect had news about Nie Tian.
Upon seeing Li Fan shake his head, Nie Qian said with weak voice, "Mr. Li, Little Tian is our last remaining emotional support. He… is all we have. Please, you must find him."
"Please make extra efforts, Mr. Li!" Nie Donghai pleaded with bloodshot eyes.
In the past ten days, he hadn't slept well for even a single night, and was looking more frail than ever.
Nie Tian's disappearance almost crushed him. Like a person plagued by sickness, he had softly called for Nie Tian in the night, hoping Nie Tian might hear his calling and suddenly return.
"I've asked a large number of friends within a 50 kilometers radius to look for information of Nie Tian's whereabouts. Once he shows up, I will be informed." Li Fan frowned, looking a bit puzzled. "Frankly, it may be true that… neither the Yun clan nor the Yuan clan have anything to do with it. We have people in their clans that have close ties with our sect, and I've collected information from them. It seems they truly have no knowledge of Nie Tian's disappearance."
Nie Qian was on the verge of breaking down. "If it wasn't the Yun Family or the Yuan Family, then who could it be?"
The significance the Cloudsoaring sect had attached to this incident had deeply touched Nie Donghai and Nie Qian. They knew the Cloudsoaring sect had tried their best.
If the Cloudsoaring sect had failed to find Nie Tian after spending so much effort and pulling so many strings, it would be almost impossible for the Nie clan to find him.
"Please rest assured. As long as Nie Tian is alive, there will be a way." Li Fan tried to comfort them.
The next moment, Li Fan's expression suddenly flickered. After a quiet expression of surprise, he dashed out of the room.
Nie Donghai and Nie Qian also followed him out.
The moment Li Fan stepped out of the room, he pointed in certain a direction, and said with a serious look on his face, "Over there! The fluctuations of space over there are totally abnormal! A spatial rift is forming!"
Nie Donghai and Nie Qian looked into the direction that Li Fan had pointed, and the three of them heard a loud noise coming from the air above Nie Tian's room.
"It's Little Tian's room!"
Nie Qian and Nie Donghai dashed over as fast as they could, panting heavily.
As Li Fan realized it was the room that Nie Tian had disappeared in, he instantly got very excited and great interest appeared on his face.
SHEW!
Li Fan flashed into action and beat Nie Qian and Nie Donghai to the scene.
When Nie Qian and Nie Donghai arrived moments later, Li Fan called out in a deep voice, "Don't step any closer!"
Members of the Nie clan had also perceived the anomaly and were arriving from every direction.
Before long, more than a dozen Nie clan members had gathered around Nie Tian's room.
CRACKLE!
Under the crowd's gaze, Nie Tian's small stone residence suddenly filled with rifts.
One by one, bright rifts appeared, forming a crisscross network above the stone house, as if the space was being slit open by a knife.
Strange light surged out of the rifts, like meteors, and flashed across the unknown space inside the rifts.
The space in the surrounding area became extremely unstable and the magnetic field became disordered, all while colorful sparks kept splashing out of the spatial rifts.
The moment those sparks touched solid objects, they immediately exploded, creating violent shock waves.
BOOM!
Nie Tian's stone house finally exploded into fragments, and at the same time, those spatial rifts twisted and became more and more unstable.
"Everyone back off!"
Li Fan was overwhelmed by the scene. With a loud shout, he warned the members of the Nie clan to immediately leave the vicinity of the site.
"Stay away! Everyone keep their distance!"
Nie Beichuan, who had just rushed to the site, also lost his composure and loudly warned the crowd.
Feeling the danger, the members of the Nie clan all vacated the vicinity upon Li Fan and Nie Beichuan's orders.
When they were about a hundred meters away, they felt somewhat safe, and thus turned around to refocus on the spatial disorder.
Several observant members of the Nie clan shouted out, their voices full of excitement and disbelief.
"Nie Tian!"
"It's Nie Tian!"
"Nie Tian is in the rubble!"
By that point, Nie Donghai and Nie Qian had also noticed that a figure of a child was rising to their feet within the pile of rubble.
Shockingly, that figure was Nie Tian!
Nie Tian stood up straight up in the debris of the house, his face full of bewilderment. It seemed he was still confused and disoriented, unsure of what was happening.
He raised his head, looking up at the twisting, wiggling spatial rifts above his head, then he subconsciously crouched down, fearing that he come into contact with those spatial rifts.
"Nobody move!" Li Fan warned in a loud voice as he stared at Nie Tian with burning eyes. "Nie Tian! You too. Stay where you are and don't move!"
"Okay," Nie Tian said with the nod of a head.
Li Fan took a deep breath before he took out a jade plaque and spoke excitedly into it, "Master! A spatial disruption zone has formed in the Nie clan!"
A dignified and awe-inspiring voice came from within the jade plaque. "Stay put! Don't do anything and I'll be there soon!"
Upon hearing the voice, everyone including Nie Donghai and Nie Beichuan was shocked.
They could distinctly tell the speaker was the master of the Cloudsoaring sect, Jiang Zhisu.
The Nie clan was merely one of the mortal clans that served the Cloudsoaring sect, and thus Jiang Zhisu had never visited.
Even as clanmasters, neither Nie Donghai nor Nie Beichuan had ever had the privilege to see Jiang Zhisu in person on the occasions during which they had visited the Cloudsoaring sect.
This time, Jiang Zhisu was actually going to come to the Nie clan personally. This news shocked every member of the clan.
"Everyone leave, except the clanmaster!" After pondering for a moment, Li Fan pointed to Nie Donghai. "You stay too. Everyone else leave! And keep your mouth shut about this! Don't you let out a word about the spatial disruption zone appearing in the Nie clan!"
"What are you waiting for?!" Nie Beichuan yelled. "Didn't you hear Mr. Li? Leave! Now!"
Upon his order, the crowd of Nie clan members who had gathered around the place left the scene, even though they still had many questions and doubts in their hearts.
Even Nie Qian, who had been worrying so much about Nie Tian, dragged her feet and left reluctantly upon Nie Donghai's urging.
After the crowd had all left, Li Fan spoke, his expression very serious. "This is a matter of great importance. My master is going to arrive soon. We'll wait for him here."
"I understand." Nie Donghai and Nie Beichuan didn't know what to do, but nodded their heads to indicate they understood.
However, just as they were waiting and preparing themselves to greet Jiang Zhisu, the mysterious spatial rifts that had appeared out of nowhere, gradually began to close up for no apparent reason.
"This is…" Nie Beichuan was shocked to his core.
In a very short period of time, all the spatial rifts had disappeared into thin air.
In addition, the distorted magnetic field slowly returned to normal, and the odd scenery in the sky also disappeared without leaving a trace.
"How could this be possible?" Li Fan was at a loss of words.
But seeing the spatial rifts vanish, Nie Donghai put on a joyful look.
Because he knew that meant Nie Tian were safe.
Cringing in the pile of rubble, Nie Tian couldn't stop thinking about how all the anomalies had been caused by the animal bone in his hand. "Spatial disruption zone, ripped-open space…"
He bowed his head low and wondered how he was going to explain all this, while his eyes glittered with a strange light. "The secrets of the animal bone must not be known! The mysteries of that mystical land must be gradually dug up by me and me alone!"
Soon, he made up his mind and came up with an explanation in his head.