Chapter 1863: Closing In On The Truth

In the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region, there was no way to distinguish any direction. His divine soul was constantly distorted, and there was always a risk of being swallowed and annihilated by sudden void fissures. Threats capable of endangering Sages lurked everywhere.

Even someone like Shang Xia, whose cultivation had reached the mid-level of the Seven Star Realm, had to travel with extreme caution. Every step felt like walking on thin ice. If he made one wrong move, he could find himself in a life-threatening situation.

Shang Xia was lost in an unfamiliar part of the void as he explored aimlessly.

Had he not obtained assistance from the Crimson Soul Tablet to replenish the energy he used from severing a clone to discover the presence of the foreign consciousness, who located a floating island and absorbed the strange mutated energy to strengthen itself, he might have already run out of essence crystal to replenish his lost inner qi.

When he was first forced into the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region, Shang Xia could still roughly estimate the passage of time. But after several brushes with danger and narrow escapes, he had lost all sense of direction, and even his awareness of time was completely blurred.

By then, it seemed that the only way Shang Xia might find an exit was through sheer luck.

That said, he understood there was still another option. He could sever another clone, absorb the energy in the void, wait for another foreign consciousness to awaken, then attempt to uncover its ultimate purpose.

Or perhaps he could stop filtering out the mutated energy altogether and simply allow it to accumulate in his body to see what would happen.

But compared to either of those options, Shang Xia clearly preferred to keep wandering through the Nebula Forbidden Region and rely on his luck.

Still, he knew the only reason he had survived so long and could continue doing so was because he had the Crimson Soul Tablet and his powerful divine soul.

Any other Sage trapped for an extended period would eventually be forced to absorb the mutated energy to survive, and whatever came after that was anyone’s guess.

Everything only served to make Shang Xia even more curious. What exactly did Qin Ming and Sage Jin want to achieve with the foreign consciousness that had previously awakened inside his clone?

Shang Xia was almost certain that the scheme they had cooked up was directly related to the revival of those foreign consciousnesses.

It might even have something to do with that fragment of land the foreign consciousness had guided his clone to, or more precisely, to the mutated energy extracted from that compressed landmass, which seemed to originate from a world beyond an Essence World.

But if their ultimate goal was to locate more of the mutated energy through Shang Xia and Zhuo Gudao, then how would Qin Ming and Sage Jin track them through the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region?

Could they really rely only on controlling the ruins of the Essence Wilderness World and guarding the relatively safe void corridor leading into the Nebula Forbidden Region?

Shang Xia suspected they still had methods he had not yet uncovered, which made him all the more cautious.

Just then, as he was circling around a visibly distorted space, the void ahead of him suddenly shifted, and a figure abruptly appeared in his vision. However, he discovered he couldn’t detect the presence with his divine soul.

Shang Xia paused in surprise, and the figure across from him also seemed startled by his sudden appearance. It turned and fled the next moment.

Though Shang Xia didn’t recognize the person, as the figure turned to flee, Shang Xia discovered the burst of aura comparable to a high-level True Immortal. Despite any signs of life, similar to the soulless puppet his clone had become earlier, the figure seemed strangely familiar.

Seeing the figure about to vanish into the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region, Shang Xia raised his hand and summoned a giant palm that grabbed at it.

What happened next took Shang Xia completely by surprise.

The figure abruptly turned, revealing a rigid, emotionless face. It formed a hand seal, and the entire surrounding void resonated in response. The resonating energy canceled out most of the power contained in the palm summoned by Shang Xia, and the remaining transparent projection of the palm was easily shattered by the figure.

The figure then turned again without hesitation and disappeared into the twisting space, vanishing completely from Shang Xia’s field of vision.

It was the first time Shang Xia had been outmaneuvered by someone of a lower cultivation.

The unique conditions of the Nebula Forbidden Region played a part, but the bigger reason was likely the person wasn’t a normal cultivator, but a body taken over by a foreign consciousness, just like the clone Shang Xia had previously used for experimentation.

As for the original consciousness of the host body... It had likely been extinguished the moment the foreign consciousness awakened.

Shang Xia pursued the fleeing figure, but soon encountered a tangled zone filled with overlapping void fragments that blocked his path.

Passing through it would require not just supreme control and perception, but also an intimate understanding of the surrounding spatial structure.

After a brief hesitation, Shang Xia chose not to follow further.

He returned to the area where the figure had briefly stopped and, after a careful inspection, quickly discovered that this space was unusually stable, far more stable than anything that should have existed in the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region. It was more akin to something found in the void around an Essence World.

With growing suspicion, he investigated further and determined that the space had not formed naturally. Instead, it had been artificially reinforced.

And during that reinforcement process, it likely involved the use of Hollow Heaven Stones and materials similar to the honeycomb-structured dirt formed after the compression of that fractured floating island.

And undoubtedly, it had also involved the use of that mysterious mutated energy that should come from a world beyond an Essence World!

Recalling how the foreign consciousness had behaved after taking over his clone, Shang Xia had every reason to believe the clone had been intended to do something similar. He had simply destroyed it before it could begin.

So what, exactly, was the purpose of the artificially reinforced and stabilized void?

And what were these foreign consciousnesses that could awaken inside someone else’s body after absorbing enough of the strange mutated energy? Where did they come from?

And most importantly... What kind of force was orchestrating all of this from the shadows?