Chapter 1678: Talking His Way Out Of It

The massive holes in the Spirit Luxuriant World’s heavenly screen showed no signs of recovery.

That was because the shockwaves of the battle, along with the aura of the Sages who had been fighting, stopped its self recovery process. The remnant energy of Sages was extremely damaging to the heavenly screen.

Much like centuries ago, when Sage Jin’s strike cut away of the Spirit Abundance World’s heavenly screen and sliced off a continent, leaving a massive hole in the northern region, the Spirit Abundance World was never able to return to a state of perfection.

However, it wasn’t all bad for the Spirit Luxuriant World. Because of the holes, the world was able to completely absorb the energy scattered in the void from Sage Jin’s clone’s death.

With the deaths of 2 clones, the World Origin Source of the Spirit Luxuriant World was greatly replenished. However, if they thought that was enough, they couldn’t be further off from the truth. Was it enough for them to ascend to become an Essence World?

The fact that Shang Xia was still relentlessly pursuing Zhuo Gudao gave the answer.

On the edges of the void before encountering the chaotic streams, rapid expansion started along with the accelerated pace of the world ascension.

In the past, Pei Lu led the True Immortals of the Star Origin Dao Field to set up a formation around the edge of the Spirit Luxuriant World’s void. With it, they managed to open a spatial tunnel, allowing Zhuo Gudao’s true body to descend. However, the site had long since moveed due to the expansion.

As for Pei Lu and the other True Immortals of the Star Origin Dao Field, they had been slowly trailing behind Zhuo Gudao, hoping to profit from the downfall of the Spirit Luxuriant World during the battle.

However, when Shang Xia successfully broken through and crushed the Star Origin Lord’s clone, Pei Lu and the others sensed danger and began to retreat.

Zhuo Gudao himself was not so fortunate.

Even though he managed to run by using Sage Jin’s clone as distraction, Shang Xia anticipated what he wanted to do. He caused massive disturbance in the void, preventing Zhuo Gudao from creating a spatial tunnel to flee.

Since he could only fly around, he was quickly discovered by Shang Xia.

Even thought Shang Xia was in hot pursuit, he knew that he wouldn’t be able to catch up if Zhuo Gudao reached the chaotic streams. Once he entered, he would be able to flee without any problems.

Moreover, even if Shang Xia could catch up, Zhuo Gudao wasn't necessarily afraid of him; it was merely because of the internal situation in the Heaven Observation Field that Zhuo Gudao didn’t wish to engage in a fight to the death with Shang Xia.

As Zhuo Gudao was about to reach the edge of the void, he stopped abruptly. He turned around as if waiting for Shang Xia to catch up.

Before long, Shang Xia's presence was felt. Shang Xia also noticed Zhuo Gudao stationary in the void and after hesitating slightly, Shang Xia slowed down before approaching.

"You're not running away?" Shang Xia's figure hadn't appeared in Zhuo Gudao's sight yet, but his voice clearly reached Zhuo Gudao's mind even though they were tens of thousands of miles away.

"As long as I wish, I can leave any time. Why would I need to run?!" Zhuo Gudao's voice was smooth and indifferent and it was filled with great confidence.

However, Shang Xia let out a cold laugh as he mocked, “You didn’t seem so confident outside my heavenly screen earlier!”

Clearly, a few mocking words couldn’t goad Zhuo Gudao into action. He replied calmly, "All I wanted to to prevent outsiders from interfering with matters related to the Heaven Observation Field. No matter what, we are Sages of the Heaven Observation Field and our interests should be aligned with regards to some matters.”

By then, Shang Xia had further closed the distance between them. He could already see the distortion of space caused by his domain being isolated from the surrounding void.

If anyone who wasn’t a Sage tried to look at Zhuo Gudao, they would only see a vague and distorted halo of light, and at most, a blurred figure.

Shang Xia chuckled, "So, should my Spirit Luxuriant World be thanking you for your mercy? Or should we be grateful for your bestowment of those clones?”

"Heh, No need to be polite!" Zhuo Gudao could clearly hear the sarcasm in Shang Xia's tone. However , he continued seriously, "If I really wanted to destroy you, how could you have killed those clones so easily?”

Shang Xia's smile faded, but his words remained sharp, "Such lofty words, but that's not how you 3 acted when you first appeared.”

Zhuo Gudao snorted, as though everything that happened before wasn’t his fault. “Of course, it’s different! Back then, you hadn’t become a Sage. Don’t you understand the principle of the survival of the fittest? Your world naturally had to bear the consequences of your ambitions. But since you crossed the bottleneck at the critical moment, you deserve a position that matches your strength.”

Shang Xia could understand that Zhuo Gudao's words were not entirely false. From the Star Origin Lord’s clone to Sage Jin’s clone... If Zhuo Gudao had any intentions of saving them, he likely would have succeeded.

But Shang Xia did not believe that Zhuo Gudao was kind enough to deliberately offer favors to help his Spirit Luxuriant World’s ascension. The real reason was probably that those Sages had been scheming against each other to begin with, leading to their current plight.

Shang Xia also knew that it would not be easy to keep Zhuo Gudao there any longer.

Seeing that he was no longer speaking, Zhuo Gudao seemed to guess that Shang Xia did not truly want to fight him, so he continued, "You've been fighting back-to-back battles. How long can you maintain your combat strength? You haven’t even solidified your foundation, right? Now that you’re so far from your world, you won’t be able to gain much assistance anyway.”

Zhuo Gudao felt he might have found Shang Xia's weakness and followed up with a smile. "Since we cannot do anything to each other anyway, why not take a step back? If we really go all out and fight, we might end up severely injured. There are still many outside the Star Curtain ready to pounce. If we fight, won’t we just be helping them?”