Chapter 1861: Strange Consciousness Awakening

"The energy here is strange! It’s harmful for cultivation!" Shang Xia silently halted the internal circulation of his Seven Star Seven World Spiritual Stabilization Art and revealed a helpless look.

He was deep within the Nebula Forbidden Region, and the ambient energy that permeated the void was incredibly dense.

Yet nearly every wisp of it was tainted and contaminated. Each time Shang Xia absorbed and refined it into his inner qi, a trace of the foreign contamination would infiltrate his body alongside the energy he absorbed.

Although Shang Xia was capable of forcibly purging it during refinement, the inner qi he would consume in the process was nearly equivalent to what he gained, and that didn’t even account for the mental strain involved. The effort was simply not worth it.

Even though it was easy for Shang Xia to purge it from his body, the penetrative might it possessed and the ability to contaminate one’s inner qi were terrifying.

Given how vast the Nebula Forbidden Region was, and how boundless the energy it contained, the fact that every strand was polluted by the strange mutated origin energy hinted at something deeply ominous.

The real question was... What was the source of the mutated origin energy?

If someone could somehow gather and condense the tainted energy across the Nebula Forbidden Region, how scary would it be?

Such thoughts circled in Shang Xia’s mind briefly before he forcibly cast them aside. At the very least, his priority for the moment was to restore his depleted inner qi and regain his ability to defend himself in the forbidden region.

However, that also meant that restoring his strength through the absorption of energy from his surroundings was no longer viable.

Fortunately, he still carried a sizable number of high-grade and top-grade essence crystals, which could be used to replenish his reserves for the time being.

Even more importantly, the Crimson Soul Tablet still contained a reserve of high quality world origin that originated from a world that surpassed an Essence World. He absorbed it before meeting up with the rest and if the situation really called for it, he would be able to draw from it.

Of course, the Crimson Soul Tablet likely wouldn’t be happy about it...

Judging from its past eagerness when absorbing the rare world origin, it clearly valued it highly. After all... It had only acted on its own accord when absorbing world origin. It would only do so to world origin of exceptional quality.

The only pity was how Shang Xia wasn’t connected to the seven stars, making him unable to draw upon their power to replenish himself.

Just as he used a few top-grade essence crystals to begin replenishing his inner qi, he was abruptly interrupted by a sudden void turbulence.

After narrowly avoiding it, Shang Xia realized he had drifted even farther from the edge of the ruins of the Essence Wilderness World.

When he tried to turn back, he discovered danger approaching again. After maneuvering through the void and barely escaping, he was dismayed to discover that he had completely lost his sense of direction.

Worse yet, the energy he had expended in avoiding danger was even greater than what he had spent earlier when confronting Qin Ming.

With no other choice, Shang Xia sought out a relatively stable area of void, deployed his Star Ship once again, and started circulating his Seven Star Seven World Spiritual Stabilization Art while using essence crystals to replenish his inner qi.

But even with a decent supply of essence crystals, he knew that if he remained stranded in the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region, they would eventually run out.

Though he could turn to the Crimson Soul Tablet for help, he understood that the root of the problem lay in the mutated energy. How was he supposed to refine the energy around him while filtering out the contamination?

As he pondered over what to do, it suddenly occurred to him that the reason behind the source of the mutated energy might be why Qin Ming and Jin Quan were trying to force them into the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region!

As soon as the thought formed, Shang Xia started to connect the dots.

When Sage Jin entered the Nebula Forbidden Region, he was already a mid-level Sage. Qin Ming had held exclusive control over the relatively safe path in and out through the ruins of the Essence Wilderness World for centuries, and was also a peak fifth star Sage.

It stood to reason that both had already ventured into the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region and therefore must have known about the existence of the mutated energy.

Shang Xia was certain Qin Ming knew of the source of the mutation.

For them to deliberately send Shang Xia and Zhuo Gudao deeper into the forbidden region... Other than the dangers lurking within, they were probably also hoping their inner qi would be contaminated by the mutated energy!

Moreover... It wouldn’t be easy for them to detect that their inner qi had been corrupted. Had it not been for Shang Xia’s extraordinary sensitivity and the uniqueness of his Big Dipper Star Origin, he might never have noticed it.

What would happen if either he or Zhuo Gudao remained in the Nebula Forbidden Region too long, allowing the mutated energy to accumulate in their bodies?

After thinking about it, Shang Xia almost felt an impulse to deliberately gather and condense the mutated energy to see what would happen.

Thankfully, the idea quickly passed and he didn’t let his intrusive thoughts win. After all, he wasn’t foolish enough to experiment on himself when he already suspected the energy to be dangerous.

Still... If he wasn’t going to do it himself, he could experiment another way!

It was a shame he didn’t have a way to locate Zhuo Gudao. Otherwise, he could simply observe Zhuo Gudao and see what the outcome was.

Given Zhuo’s cultivation at the third star... He probably hadn’t discovered his inner qi was contaminated.

“In that case...” Shang Xia’s figure blurred as he split off a clone.

The clone he created didn’t have the ability to circulate his Seven Star Seven World Spiritual Stabilization Art. However, with Shang Xia’s direct control, he would be able to absorb the energy in the surroundings and send it into his clone to give him an idea of what would happen.

Though it meant Shang Xia’s recovery was delayed, and the split cost him even more of his inner qi, it minimized the risk to his true body.

To quickly recover the inner qi from splitting off a clone, Shang Xia turned to the Crimson Soul Tablet, hoping to draw more of the highly pure world origin it had stored.

This time, perhaps because of the tablet’s evolved spirituality, communication with it was smoother, and a stream of pristine energy emerged, quickly merging into his dantian.

After a brief refinement, it replenished part of his depleted dantian.

Meanwhile, Shang Xia continued absorbing ambient energy, separating the mutated energy, and injecting it into his clone.

Roughly ten days passed like this. The mutated energy stored in the clone had reached a certain threshold.

That was when Shang Xia noticed something troubling. The connection between his true body and his clone started to rapidly deteriorate.

At the same time, due to their proximity, his divine soul caught a chilling detail. A foreign consciousness was slowly awakening in his clone, rapidly devouring the portion of his soul contained within and taking over his body.