Zheng Rui and Pan Tao were no ordinary disciples of the Spiritual Treasure sect. Their parents and grandparents were high ranking officials of the sect.
Being mere disciples in that sect was enough for them to show off their strength amongst the trial takers, let alone the fact that they had powerful seniors supporting them.
On the other hand, Nie Tian was an outsider, not even from the clans that were affiliated with the Spiritual Treasure sect.
Both Zheng Rui and Pan Tao were too powerful and lofty to spare Nie Tian a second glance.
Therefore, they had no qualms about berating and ordering him about.
Having acted compliently up to this point, Nie Tian finally showed his true colors.
"Talk if you want," he said from his position about three meters behind An Ying, "but keep your hands and feet to yourselves!"
With that, he lifted his foot in a flash.
BANG! BANG!
Nie Tian's foot met Zheng Rui's and Pan Tao's feet in quick succession, causing muffled booms to ring out.
Zheng Rui and Pan Tao immediately felt a tremendous force spreading up their legs.
THUMP! THUMP! THUMP!
To their surprise, both of them were sent back several steps, causing them to stagger into a crowd of spirit beasts.
In distinct contrast, Nie Tian only shuddered slightly before standing there as still as a rock.
However, Zheng Rui and Pan Tao were disoriented as they were suddenly thrown into the fray, and had to immediately deal with the two spirit beasts that had jumped onto them. After they forced the two spirit beasts into retreat, they immediately glowered at Nie Tian with bloodshot eyes.
Zheng Rui's eyes and face were immediately filled with surging fury. Looking almost as if he intended to eat Nie Tian alive, he shouted, "How dare you fight back!"
After fighting off his enemy, Pan Tao also glared at Nie Tian with an expression of disbelief. "You freaking dare to get physical with us?"
The rest of the trial takers also diverted part of their attention, continuing to fight the spirit beasts, yet looking over to see what was going on between the three of them.
When they saw Nie Tian responding strongly to Zheng Rui and Pan Tao's provocative actions, all of them were shocked and looked at Nie Tian as if they were looking at a freak.
Even they, members of the Spiritual Treasure sect's subordinate clans, dared not disobey the orders of Zheng Rui and Pan Tao. All of them had served the two cautiously so far, fearing that the slightest fault could cause trouble.
As for Nie Tian, he was nothing but a member of the Nie clan from Black Cloud City, which according to the rumors… had really gone downhill in the recent years.
Even these trial takers from other clans didn't take Nie Tian seriously, and had been trying to find an opportunity to make fun of him.
They didn't believe that Nie Tian would dare to rebel against them, much less have the audacity to insult Pan Tao and Zheng Rui. Despite the inherent danger of the situation, he even responded to them with direct brute force.
"So what if I feel like fighting back?" Nie Tian said, glancing at the two of them out of the corner of his eye. Without the slightest bit of respect, he continued, "It's all thanks to sister An's help that I'm here in the Green Illusion dimension. She's the only one I owe anything to. When Miss An Ying said unpleasant things to me, I didn't bicker with her out of respect for her sister."
"Who the hell are you two? Why do I have to give you face?"
With these words, Nie Tian waved his hands, and recklessly continued, "I came to the Green Illusion dimension to broaden my view. I don't care a bit about the spirit beasts and the Heaven Comprehending Pill. Come on. If you want to resolve things, just bring it on then! So what if you're in the ninth level of Qi Refining? I actually do want to see for myself how good you are!"
This wouldn't be his first time fighting with those who had a superior cultivation base.
As a matter of fact, he had fought opponents with superior cultivation bases his whole life!
Nie Hong and Nie Yuan from the Nie clan, and Yun Song from the Yun clan, all of them were eventually beaten soundly by Nie Tian.
Nowadays, after having been baptized by the dense spiritual energy of the flamecloud mine, he had already entered the sixth level of Qi Refining, and had always firmly believed in his physical strength.
Moreover, he had come to understand that unique raging fist strike from the mysterious land, which made him confident enough to face an opponent in the ninth level of Qi Refining.
Therefore, he felt no fear of Zheng Rui and Pan Tao!
All the surrounding trial takers couldn't help but clamor.
"How arrogant of him!"
"Is this guy really from the Nie clan?"
"He dares to provoke a fight with Zheng Rui and Pan Tao from the Spiritual Treasure sect. Does he want to die?"
Every one of them, thanks to their precious spiritual tools, had significant advantages when fighting the spirit beasts, and because of that, they were able to divert part of their attention to watch the quarrel between Nie Tian, Zheng Rui, and Pan Tao, and even make comments. As if it weren't chaotic enough.
As teenagers, not only did they do nothing to stop the conflict, they actually hoped the scene would grow bigger.
The main reason was that the spirit beasts were too weak to threaten their safety.
As the leader, An Ying had long since noticed the conflict between the three, but didn't say anything.
She had originally assumed that the pressure from Zheng Rui and Pan Tao would have convinced Nie Tian to fight the spirit beasts with the rest of the group.
Never did she expect that Nie Tian would not only rebel, but fight back violently.
"I don't think that either Zheng Rui or Pan Tao used their inner spiritual power. I'm only not sure about Nie Tian, though. If he didn't either…" She glanced over at Nie Tian, wondering about his true strength and what was about to happen next.
She didn't consider any of the low-grade spirit beasts around her as worthy opponents; in her view, even without the group of three, the rest of the trial takers were capable of killing all the spirit beasts.
Having such confidence, as the commander, she didn't stop them, but rather let the situation continue to develop.
Zheng Rui let out a bellow, and backed off from his fight with the spirit beast. "Brother Tao, go ahead and help them kill off these annoying spirit beasts. I've had enough with this punk!" Step by step, he walked slowly towards Nie Tian.
As of this moment, An Ying could tell that Zheng Rui had become truly mad, and thus warned him, "There are rules in the Green Illusion dimension. One cannot take another's life."
However, although her words seemed like a warning, they actually served as an incitement.
"Of course, I know the rules!" Zheng Rui said, grinning. "Relax, I won't kill him! But mark my words. His trial in the Green Illusion dimension has come to an end!"
Apparently, Zheng Rui intended to seriously injure Nie Tian.
"That depends on how good you are!" said Nie Tian with a composed smile.
He truly doubted that Zheng Rui was strong enough to hurt him.
At this very moment, the ground beneath the feet of the young man with the dark-green metal ball suddenly rose up into the air!
As soon as the ground started trembling beneath him, he subconsciously looked down at the ground, and then immediately let out a sharp shriek.
A giant, grayish-brown lizard suddenly scuttled out from the ground under his feet!
Before the young man could launch any lightning attacks with the metal ball, the lizard had already swallowed his legs with its huge mouth.
CRUNCH!
An extremely loud and cracking sound echoed out from his legs.
Even as a wail of pain escaped his mouth, the lizard's bit upwards at his waist.
Instantly, blood spurted out of his waist and abdominal area, and the light in his eyes began to fade.
The dark-green metal ball fell to the icy ground beside him, as his grip weakened and finally grew completely slack.
The surrounding teenagers' eyes went wide, and they howled madly, waving spiritual tools as they attempted to bombard the lizard.
"Qin Shun!"
Shockingly, after killing the young man with its deadly bite, the lizard shrunk down and disappeared into the ground again.
As the commander, An Ying's eyes suddenly turned bright red. With a mad hack of her saber, she split apart the nearest first grade spirit beast and yelled, "The Lurker Lizard! That was the second grade Lurker Lizard! Why did it show up here?"
She knew very well that there were only four second grade spirit beasts left in the entire Green Illusion dimension, and that the Lurker Lizard was one of them!
However, the glacier area where they were standing had always been the Frost Python's turf, whereas the Lurker Lizard's territory was normally the desert beyond the glacier area.
Their original plan was to slaughter the Frost Python in the glacier area, and after a few days of rest and reorganization, they would then proceed to the desert to hunt down the Lurker Lizard.
An Ying definitely wasn't prepared to confront the Lurker Lizard in the glacier area.
"Zheng Rui! Pan Tao!" she called out anxiously. "Put your personal grudges aside for the moment and help me kill the Lurker Lizard!"
She was afraid that the Frost Python, another second grade spirit beast, was also in the vicinity.
The four second grade spirit beasts in the Green Illusion dimension had formidable strength that was comparable to Qi warriors at the early stage of Lesser Heaven. If there were only one of them, she had the confidence to kill it with Zheng Rui and Pan Tao's help.
However, if they had to deal with the Frost Python and the Lurker Lizard at the same time, she had no idea what might happen.
By this point, she could no longer afford to let Zheng Rui test Nie Tian's secret. All she wanted was to finish off the Lurker Lizard as quickly as possible, in case the Frost Python appeared.
Unfortunately, it was at this point that her worst fears came true.
HISSS!
The python's call came from behind a strangely-shaped, translucent, ice-covered tree.
The python was more than ten meters long, as thick as a man's waist, and silvery-white in color. Almost as soon as its hiss echoed out, it appeared in front of everyone
"Oh, no!" An Ying's expression changed drastically.