Chapter 1862: The Descent Of The Will Outside The Star Field

About 100 miles away from his clone, Shang Xia clearly sensed that their connection was weakening rapidly. At the same time, a foreign divine consciousness seemed to be awakening within the clone’s body.

Shang Xia instantly thought of one thing. His clone was being taken over!

But he quickly realized it wasn’t a true case of possession, because the awakening consciousness was not particularly strong. At least by his estimates, he could easily destroy it.

Had the foreign consciousness awakened inside his body, it wouldn’t have posed any threat either. His powerful divine soul could have instantly annihilated it.

"In that case..." Shang Xia thought to himself. "Perhaps it poses no immediate danger. Why not let it exist for now?"

With that, he refrained from destroying his clone and instead continued concealing himself 100 miles away, quietly observing.

But soon, another thought struck him. If Qin Ming was aware that the mutated energy deep within the Nebula Forbidden Region had been corrupted, then had he too experienced a similar awakening of a foreign consciousness due to the excessive absorption of energy?

Shang Xia instinctively suspected it may have already happened to Qin Ming or someone close to him.

Just then, the foreign consciousness that had awakened within his clone immediately tried to take full control of the host body.

Because Shang Xia had deliberately concealed his presence, the foreign consciousness quickly gained complete control of his clone’s body. It acted without hesitation, immediately beginning to move.

Shang Xia followed curiously. He noticed that the figure lacked any aura fluctuations, moved stiffly, and showed no signs of being alive. In fact, it looked nothing more than a soulless puppet.

Yet despite its puppet-like nature, the body navigated the treacherous void of the Nebula Forbidden Region with purposeful direction.

More surprisingly, the clone encountered no dangers during nearly half an hour of travel.

Of course, it wasn’t sheer luck.

On the contrary, it passed close to several hazardous regions, but each time, the clone circled them with uncanny foresight, sometimes even evading danger that Shang Xia himself only recognized after the fact.

Shang Xia was shocked as he suspected that the foreign consciousness was only pretending to be mindless.

He repeatedly tested the clone in secret through various means, but all evidence showed it had no autonomous awareness or judgment. It merely moved forward, blindly pursuing something.

Another half hour passed, and by now Shang Xia had lost all sense where he was. He only knew that they were venturing deeper into the Nebula Forbidden Region.

During this journey, the origin energy around them grew increasingly rich and so did the strange mutated energy.

But what was even more shocking was that Shang Xia occasionally detected traces of familiar qi lingering in the surroundings.

His eyes narrowed in shock. When he compared it with the pure world origin stored within the Crimson Soul Tablet, he confirmed that they shared the same origin.

However, the ambient origin energy was far less refined and far more diluted.

Still, Shang Xia gained a faint idea of the foreign consciousness’s ultimate objective.

Sure enough, as the clone advanced, the origin energy lingering in the dense void grew stronger, enough to even pique the interest of the Crimson Soul Tablet.

At the same time, the danger around them escalated. Some of the danger zones they passed made even Shang Xia’s heart race in fear.

Were it not for his decision to strictly follow the clone’s path without deviation, he would likely have fallen victim to some hidden traps.

Shang Xia started to hesitate and seriously considered if he should continue to follow his clone.

Thankfully, Shang Xia didn’t have to think for long as they soon left the danger zone. What appeared ahead immediately seized Shang Xia’s attention. It was a floating island that was ragged and broken, hovering in the void.

What truly intrigued him was the faint haze of chaotic energy surrounding it. It was just like the piece of dirt where the Hollow Heaven Stones had been embedded.

The floating island appeared to be made entirely of the yellow dirt. Despite the chaotic aura around it, traces of pure origin energy still seeped out.

The foreign consciousness who had taken over Shang Xia’s clone landed directly on the floating island and under Shang Xia’s watchful gaze, the chaotic mist began to converge around him. The landmass started to compress, like a sponge being wrung.

From within, streams of origin energy were extracted and absorbed by the clone.

The clone’s aura surged rapidly, breaking into the second star of the Seven Star Realm. Simultaneously, the foreign consciousness within it grew livelier, drawing in ambient spiritual energy from the surrounding void.

Watching it happen, Shang Xia understood he couldn’t wait any longer. Even though the connection between his true body and the clone had been severed, the clone was still formed from his inner qi that came from the Big Dipper Star Origin.

From a hundred miles away, Shang Xia extended his hand, shattering the clone.

All the energy he infused into his clone collapsed, and the bodiless foreign consciousness tried to desperately reassemble its host using the scattered origin energy, but with little success.

Even so, Shang Xia wouldn’t allow the slightest hope that the foreign consciousness would survive.

He appeared directly above the compressed floating island and fired a strand of Star Fire from his fingertip, obliterating the foreign consciousness. A second burst ensured everything around it was completely destroyed.

The dissipating origin energy was then drawn into the projection of the Crimson Soul Tablet he summoned, and they were absorbed so quickly that they were like birds returning to their nest.

With the danger gone, Shang Xia turned his gaze to the remnant of the compressed land, a block of yellow earth about 200 to 300 feet in size.

He saw the same honeycomb-like texture he’d observed before. It could be seen on the entire surface.

He tried probing it with his divine soul, but as before, it yielded nothing.

Thinking for a moment, he tapped the Cloud Rune Stone Mysterious World at his waist and removed the restrictions he placed on it.

"Have you seen this before?" he asked.

A divine soul extended from within and circled the island. After a pause, a voice came, "Junior has not. May I ask what it is?"

Shang Xia didn’t answer. He shoved the entire island into the Cloud Rune Mysterious World.

“Hollow Heaven Stones?!” The astonished voice of Su Chi suddenly echoed from within the Mysterious World.

Shang Xia had intended to re-seal the Mysterious World and cut off Su Chi’s connection, but that exclamation caught his attention.

He probed inside with his divine soul and saw that the island had split open. Embedded along the fracture were six or seven irregular crystals. They were, without a doubt, Hollow Heaven Stones.

The two largest were no bigger than the smallest of the four Hollow Heaven Stones Shang Xia had found earlier. The rest were even smaller and of of lesser quality.

It appeared that the floating landmass had been heavily damaged before compression. Although some parts retained their honeycomb structure, the rest was fragile. When moved into the Mysterious World, it broke apart.

After collecting the Hollow Heaven Stones, Shang Xia casually split the block into four more pieces, but found no additional Hollow Heaven Stones.

Well... Can’t be too greedy...

He ignored Su Chi’s reaction to the presence of Hollow Heaven Stones. His divine soul withdrew from the Mysterious World before he placed more restrictions on it.

But reflecting on everything that had just occurred, Shang Xia realized that while his gains were substantial, the confusion he felt had only been multiplied.

What was that strange consciousness that had awakened in his clone?

How did it move so freely through the Nebula Forbidden Region?

How did it find the floating island containing mutated energy?

Why was it absorbing that energy?

And how were those questions connected to Qin Ming and Sage Jin’s scheme to drive him into this place?

Lingering in the dangerous void, Shang Xia used a bit of the Crimson Soul Tablet’s stored energy to recover. Then, without looking back, he set off to retrace his steps.

Unfortunately... Before he could return to where he had split off his clone, his path was blocked by a sudden turbulent surge.

Helpless, he waited for it to pass. Yet by the time the chaos faded, the way back had vanished, and the void around him had transformed.

Once again... Shang Xia was lost in the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region.