Upon hearing Zhao Haifeng's words, Duan Yuan and Hu Qingwen immediately dashed towards Nie Donghai and An He.
WHOOSH!
Duan Yuan gestured towards his bracelet of holding, and in the next moment, a double-headed battle-axe that glittered with golden light flew out.
The double-headed battle-axe was golden in color and emanated frighteningly strong spiritual power fluctuations under the dark sky, together with a shiny, golden aura.
Uder Duan Yuan's manipulation, the incomparably sharp battle-axe slashed towards Nie Donghai.
Nie Donghai's expression flickered and he hastily dodged the attack.
Before his spiritual sea had been shattered, his cultivation base had been in the great circle of the Heaven stage, only one step away from Greater Heaven.
However, since over the years he hadn't been able to gather the scattered spiritual power within his spiritual sea and couldn't stop his spiritual power from seeping away, his cultivation base had already dropped from the great circle of Heaven stage to the middle Heaven stage.
Furthermore, he had been low-spirited regarding his future and focused only on raising Nie Tian. Hence, he even secretly traded in the spiritual tool that he had used for years.
Without a spiritual tool to use, coupled with the fact that he had just rebuilt his spiritual sea, he didn't have the confidence to win the fight against Duan Yuan, who was only in the early Heaven stage. He chose to defend himself for the moment.
The other Hell sect junior, Hu Qingwen, was also in the early Heaven stage. "Come out!" She sent out a wisp of will power, and in the next moment, a green, curved bow flew out of her bracelet of holding and fell into her hand.
Holding the bow in one hand, she extended her other hand to draw an arrow that glittered with bright light, and then placed it on the bow string.
An He was her target. As she pulled the bow taut, the arrow started to absorb the spiritual Qi of Heaven and Earth from the surroundings.
A large amount of intense spiritual power converged onto the sharp arrowhead, like a deadly snake that was flicking its tongue.
SHEW!
The arrow shot out like a shooting star, plummeting toward An He's chest.
An He's expression flickered and he hastily used a bronze shield to defend.
CLANG!
Blinding sparks splashed out from the surface of the shield. With a muffled groan, An He was sent back several steps. Experiencing numbness from the web between his thumb and forefinger, his face became extremely grim.
CLANK!
The arrow dropped to the ground. With a frown, Hu Qingwen pulled out another arrow and once again aimed at An He.
"No matter whether it's spiritual incantations or spiritual tools, yours are far inferior to ours." Zhao Haifeng wasn't in a hurry to attack. He looked at the fuming An Rong and said, "I'll let you know how big the difference is between the strength of a man from a subordinate clan and a core disciple from the Hell sect.
"You'll see… the cultivation base is not the only factor in measuring one's strength.
"Profound incantations, delicate techniques, and high-ranked spiritual tools also play a crucial part in one's battle prowess!"
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
As soon as he uttered these words, the three bone spears that had been floating in the air formed a vertical triangle in the air, before shooting towards An Rong.
Unlike how he used them to kill Wu Tao and other civilians of Black Cloud City, this time the bone spears seemed to have morphed into three icicles the moment they whizzed out.
The pale-gray bone spears seemed to be covered in a layer of impenetrable ice, releasing a terrifying, bone-piercing coldness.
The moment they shot out, Nie Tian felt that the temperature in the area had suddenly plunged, turning the hot summer night into a freezing winter night in a flash.
"Frost power!" These words escaped from Nie Tian's mouth.
Obviously, Zhao Haifeng's cultivation attribute was frost, and he had a strong frost power within him. Moreover, the incantation he just used must be an exquisite frost-attributed incantation.
Even the three bone spears had been customized to his need, which all carried a terrifying ice-cold aura.
After he used the frost power within himself to fill the bone spears, they were finally able to display their real might. Even with the coldness they gave out alone, they could freeze a man's blood.
"The late Heaven stage!" With a strange expression on his face, An He let out an exclamation; he couldn't believe the teenager in front of him could actually reach the late Heaven stage at such a young age.
He, on the other hand, was already sixty years old, but only had a cultivation base that was in the early Greater Heaven stage.
Zhao Haifeng was just one step away from entering the Greater Heaven and reaching his level.
An Rong was secretly shocked. "This kid might be able to step into the Greater Heaven stage before the age of twenty! This is unbelievable! This is monstrous! Is everyone from the Hell sect as frightening as him?!"
Knowing that the frost-aura-wreathed bone spears that had shot in his direction were nothing ordinary, he didn't have the audacity to fight them head-on, even though his cultivation base was one stage higher than Zhao Haifeng's.
Just like Nie Donghai, he also chose to dodge the attacks, wishing to strike Zhao Haifeng when the power of the bone spear wore out.
Unfortunately, the three bone spears that contained raging frost power didn't show even the slightest signs of exhaustion.
An Rong didn't know that those three bone spears had been floating in the air ever since Zhao Haifeng had appeared in Black Cloud City, as if they weren't affected by gravity.
WHOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!
The three bone spears radiated white, freezing auras as they circled back and dashed towards An Rong again.
Standing in his original place, Zhao Haifeng hadn't move a muscle; however, his pupils had shed their black color and taken on a pale-gray color, which was the same with his bone spears.
The ground under his feet gradually froze, and the air around him even became filled with a frosty, white mist, as if the area he was in had turned into an icy tundra, constantly unleashing surges of bone-piercing coldness.
Nie Tian sensed with his psychic awareness, and found that wisps of white, frosty mist that were invisible to the naked eye, were secretly floating out of Zhao Haifeng's body and converging towards his three piercing bone spears.
"With one in the late Heaven stage, and two in the early Heaven stage, this is how formidable the strength of the Hell sect is!"
Zhao Haifeng and his two partners seemed only four or five years older than Mo Xi from the Ghost sect and Yu Tong from the Blood sect.
However, both Mo Xi and Yu Tong only had the cultivation bases of the ninth level of Qi Refining when they were in the Green Illusion dimension.
As of today, the two of them had only reached the early Lesser Heaven stage, the same stage Nie Tian was in.
Furthermore, they had been both viewed as elite disciples and regarded highly by their respective sects.
The Hell sect, on the other hand, had sent three of their common juniors, and they all turned out to have Heaven stage cultivation bases!
The leader of the three, Zhao Haifeng, had even reached the late Heaven stage, and was only one step away from advancing into the Greater Heaven stage.
"The Hell sect is so much stronger than the Ghost sect and the Blood sect…"
He realized that the fact that the Hell sect could become the leader of their alliance was not only because they had two Profound realm experts, but also because their deep-seated strength far surpassed the Ghost sect and the Blood sect.
Therefore, it made sense that the Hell sect had been the party that gave orders, and the other two sects had acknowledged its leadership, obediently taking their orders.
"The Hell sect is too powerful! No wonder people from the other realms only informed the Hell sect that the Heaven Gate would appear in their territory and asked them for some spots to enter, but didn't dare to come and take them forcefully.
"Even those foreign Qi warriors feared the Hell sect's strength, so they chose cooperation over war."
By that time, he finally understood why the small group of three dared to act so recklessly in Black Cloud City, completely ignoring the authority of the An clan, Yun clan, and Nie clan.
Their contempt towards others was based on their formidable strength. Every disciple of the Hell sect believed that their sect was the strongest sect in the Realm of Flame Heaven and its one and only true owner.
PUFF!
The double-headed battle-axe suddenly shot out beams of blinding, golden light in every direction. Unable to avoid them in time, several bloody wounds were cut open on Nie Donghai's left arm.
"Grandfather!"
Although he knew perfectly well that his own cultivation base was inferior to Duan Yuan's by a whole stage, Nie Tian still bolted towards Nie Donghai with an angry roar.
"Nie Tian! Don't come near me! There's no way you can beat him!" Nie Donghai shouted in an attempt to stop Nie Tian from coming to his aid.
Hearing Nie Donghai's shout, Zhao Haifeng, Duan Yuan, and Hu Qingwen all cast their gazes towards Nie Tian.
"Nie Tian? That name sounds quite familiar," Zhao Haifeng muttered to himself.
"He's the disciple that Eccentric Wu has recently taken in." Standing beside him, Duan Yuan reminded him.
"Wu Ji's disciple!" Zhao Haifeng gave Nie Tian a serious glance for the first time.
After looking Nie Tian up and down, he shook his head and said, "How come he's only in the early Lesser Heaven stage? Even those two seniors of our sect hold Wu Ji in high esteem and praise him to be one of the most miraculous people in the Realm of Flame Heaven.
"His disciple shouldn't be this weak…
"That Nie Tian was only admitted as his disciple six months ago," said Hu Qingwen.
With a nod, Zhao Haifeng said, "Oh, so that's how it is. Since he's Wu Ji's disciple, we'll spare his life. Capture him alive. He may be of great use to us in the future." He gave the order to Duan Yuan.
"Got it." Duan Yuan immediately replied.
PUFF!
At that time, Nie Tian had already reached Nie Donghai's side. Hit in the chest by a beam of golden light, blood instantly sprayed out, painting his shirt red.
He had only been hit by the golden light that had been emanated by the double-headed battle-axe, but it felt as if he had been gashed by a sharp blade, leaving a long, bleeding wound in his chest.
Nie Tian's face turned especially grim as he realized that Duan Yuan was the strongest opponent he had ever encountered by far.