Chapter 1022: Joining Forces

Due to the suppression and rejection from the World’s Will, with the exception of Shang Xia, Kou Chongxue and Lu Wuzi were able to fight Yuan Cangming by drawing on the power they had, but they couldn’t replenish the energy they used easily.

With no choice, the 2 of them could only take turns to leave the heavenly screen to replenish their energy with the high-grade essence crystals they brought with them before returning to the Eastern Nuanyuan Continent to continue the drawn-out battle.

The person who went out to recover would be in charge of maintaining communications with the experts back in the Spirit Luxuriant World. They would be able to grasp the situation back in their world and gather whatever news they heard about Star Origin City.

Shang Xia was also feeling a little helpless. Back in the Five Element Realm, he was able to disguise his Five Element Origin and maintain his full combat capabilities. However, his Five Element Origin transformed into the Six Direction Origin after his advancement and it might have something to do with how he left a soul imprint in the Spirit Luxuriant World, but he was unable to perfectly hide himself from the Azure Flame World’s Will.

Even though he wasn’t feeling a strong sense of rejection, the World’s Will seemed to maintain a sense of wariness of him. Fortunately, he was still able to replenish his energy with the world origin of the Azure Flame World and was able to maintain his combat abilities when fighting Yuan Cangming.

That was also why they were able to continue suppressing Yuan Cangming even though Kou Chongxue and Lu Wuzi had to take turns leaving the world to restore their energy.

From how things were looking, Shang Xia was confident he would be able to completely wear Yuan Cangming and the Cangming Elysium down in a month.

Who would have thought that the Spirit Luxuriant World would send news recommending them to hold off on their offensive and drag it out for 3 more months? Of course, that wasn’t for fun either. The True Immortals back in the Spirit Luxuriant World noted their new course of action after all the attention they were getting and are no longer planning to send in batches of experts. Instead, they would send everyone at once and end the battle in one go.

They needed time to gather the experts from the various factions, and more importantly, they needed to construct spatial tunnels that would allow the various flying ships to be sent over!

“Star Origin City definitely knows that we have our eyes on the Azure Flame World. Many people have eyes on Yang Taihe and the rest… Otherwise, they wouldn’t change the plan and make it so extreme!” Kou Chongxue muttered while shattering a layer of restrictions with his sword qi domain.

Taking the chance where the light screen made from the restrictions had yet to recover, he destroyed a formation node, causing the formation covering thousands of feet to be completely destroyed.

He also relayed everything he concluded to Lu Wuzi who was standing at the side.

“Three months?! How can they be sure nothing will happen before then? If the Star Origin City discovers the Azure Flame World before the time is up, what then?! No… It’s too risky. The longer we drag this on, the more uncertainties there will be.” Lu Wuzi grumbled.

Shang Xia muttered softly, “But… We can’t possibly send enough experts to suppress the entire Azure Flame World if they move now…”

“Why can’t we kill Yuan Cangming first? The moment he dies, can’t the 3 of us suppress the entire Azure Flame World?” Lu Wuzi yelled.

To that, Kou Chongxue only sighed. “True Immortal Lu, is there a need to bring this up again? We’ve reached a conclusion before. The moment Yuan Cangming dies, we have to prevent the Elysium from collapsing with the loss of his Void Origin. We won’t have time to care about anything else.”

Shang Xia added at the side, “The moment the Elysium crumbles, its foundations would return to the world and would most likely cause great damage to the world. Since it’s the only Elysium, its destruction might cause the world to crumble immediately. Even if it doesn't, the World Origin Source would suffer great damage and we’ll lose a lot even if we manage to conquer the Azure Flame World in the end.”

“I understand… We can’t massacre lower-level cultivators either. It’s a rule set in stone by the various worlds… I’m just reluctant to give up like this!” Lu Wuzi mumbled softly.

Actually, there was something else he didn’t say. Of course, it was because he didn’t dare to say it with Kou Chongxue and Shang Xia both present while he was alone. Compared to the 4 Elysiums back in the Spirit Luxuriant World, the Tongyou Institution would stand to gain the most if the Cangming Elysium doesn’t collapse. They were the ones who hoped the Elysium would suffer the least damage.

Shang Xia thought for a second and continued, “If we have no choice, let’s tell them to prepare for the expedition in 2 months. When the time comes, I’ll take on a portion of the burden and maintain the spatial tunnels from outside the Azure Flame World. They would be able to spare more energy to send more experts over in that case.

“Let’s do a month and a half. Let’s not forget that the Azure Flame World also started constructing flying ships. As long as we manage to take over their fleet, we can save a good deal of time building more on our side. If all else fails, we can give up the Northern Chihuang Continent!” Kou Chongxue interjected suddenly.

Lu Wuzi’s expression changed suddenly. “To be in such a rush… Do you really think that the various powers would be able to locate the Azure Flame World so quickly?”

Kou Chongxue could only sigh in response. “I just thought of a possibility… What if the Stargazer from the Star Origin City decides to work with other Stargazers from the other worlds? It’s highly possible for something like that to happen. I’m sure you won’t be naive enough to think that the other worlds don’t have Stargazers of their own, right?”

…

The construction of a large-scale flying ship that could withstand the pressure of twisted space when carrying out long-range Spatial Transfers took around 3 months to build.

When Yang Taihe initially proposed a timeline of half a month, he took into account the time needed to build several batches of flying ships.

3 months was barely enough to build them, and it was highly likely they would have to continue some finishing touches along the way.

In just a few days, Kou Chongxue requested for them to start the operation in one and a half months. There wasn’t a need to mention the cultivators in charge of building those ships, those Formation Masters, Blacksmiths, or Talisman Masters. Even Yang Taihe and the others felt that Kou Chongxue was making things difficult on purpose.

Li Jidao couldn’t help but yell discontentedly, “He’s mad! He’s crazy!”

However, after seeing the reasons Kou Chongxue and the others listed, the True Immortals of the Spirit Luxuriant World fell into deep contemplation. In the end, they decided to follow Kou Chongxue’s proposed timeline.

This time, they stopped producing new flying ships altogether. They deployed everyone to already completed flying ships to carry out heavy modifications in order to form a complete fleet as soon as possible.

Their sudden abandonment of different projects caused massive waste, and they poured resources into completing their current fleet, wasting even more resources. However, no one could care less at that point.

…

“The Three Unity Island of the Spirit Luxuriant World isn’t stable at the moment and the stability of the spatial tunnel connected to the Star Origin City is affected. We have temporarily shut off contact with them and we cannot be sure when we will be able to restore communications.”

“Our experts are unable to gather in-depth intelligence. We can only use what we know from the last batch of information we obtained.

“The Spirit Luxuriant World didn’t hasten the production of their flying ships by too much from what we observed. We suspect that they’re trying to avoid suspicion and they have another secret stronghold for building ships.”

“The Spirit Luxuriant World allows people to enter the heavenly screen but not leave. We are unable to accurately estimate when they will set off for the Azure Flame World.”

“...”

Looking at the reports pouring in, the True Immortals and Camp Commanders of the Star Origin Guards seem to be getting impatient.

“Isn’t the Spirit Luxuriant World a newly ascended Spirit World?! Why the hell do they seem so experienced when it comes to invading other worlds and their counterintelligence work?!” Liu Jiuzhen asked. His question was precisely what everyone else wanted to know!

“Since they connected the spatial tunnel to the Star Relay, it won’t be possible for them to keep it closed for long. As such, the Spirit Luxuriant World is definitely going to move against the Azure Flame World soon. It’s just that… To carry out an expedition to a foreign world, they might need half a year to prepare even if they rush things. If they disregard everything else, they might be able to gather a force in 3 months…” He Yingrui hesitated for a moment before muttering.

Tian Moran, who was the loudest and most hot-blooded among the rest turned to Xing Xingtian and pressed, “Camp Commander Xing, didn’t you already find traces of where the flying ships came from?! How much longer do you need to accurately determine the coordinates of the Azure Flame World?”

Tian Moran might be a True Immortal, but Xing Xingtian was a Camp Commander regardless. His expression sank after being spoken down to. “Captain Tian, if you think that I’m too slow, you can go ahead and try becoming a Stargazer. Moreover, with your position as a captain, the gates of the Star Observatory will definitely be open for you. Why don’t you try and deduce the location of the Azure Flame World then? Won’t you be able to save us a lot of time?”

He heavily emphasized the fact that Tian Moran was just a captain.

Ordinarily, cultivation was everything. Even though Tian Moran was a captain, his cultivation and qualifications put him far ahead of the Seventh Camp Commander, Xing Xingtian. Moreover, from the arrangement of their discussion, it wasn’t hard to see that Captain Tian Moran and Liu Jiuzhen’s authority was only below Zhuge Xiang and He Yingrui.

Too bad for him, Xing Xingtian might be a Martial Dipper Realm Camp Commander, but he was also a Stargazer.

The importance of a Stargazer in the Star Origin Guards couldn’t be greater. It was also why he had the guts to retort against Tian Moran.

With their most important goal being locating the Azure Flame World, Zhuge Xiang wouldn’t sit by and let Tian Moran piss Xing Xingtian off anyway.

“You… Preposterous!” Tian Moran could clearly hear the mockery in Xing Xingtian’s way of addressing him. Jumping to his feet, he wanted to release his aura to suppress Xing Xingtian but he quickly realized where he was. His sense of reasoning worked well as he quickly suppressed his aura.

“Enough!”

Indeed. Zhuge Xiang spoke up to stop Tian Moran immediately. However, he quickly threw out another question that shocked Xing Xingtian. “If you work with the Stargazers of the Spirit Abundance World and Spirit Mammoth World to look for clues to locate the Azure Flame World together, how long would you need?”

Xing Xingtian understood that Zhuge Xiang was also getting a little discontented with his speed and he didn’t dare to disrespect the Guards Commander like he did Tian Moran. He thought for a second before replying truthfully, “We should be able to get results in 2 or so months!”

“Good.” Zhuge Xiang nodded with an expressionless face before he continued, “Prepare yourself. You should find the Stargazers of the Spirit Mammoth World and Spirit Abundance World familiar.”

Cupping his fists, Xing Xingtian started to gather his thoughts.

Hesitating slightly, Liu Jiuzhen asked, “If we do this… Won’t we be going against what we stand for? Weren’t we not allowed to interfere with the disputes between the various worlds?”

Falling silent for a moment, Zhuge Xiang eventually spoke up again. He left no room for questioning as he stated resolutely, “All we care about is the Heaven Observation Elysium. If the Spirit Luxuriant World is willing to concede that to us, everything else is negotiable!”