Chapter 1864: Zhuo Gudao Who Fell Into Madness

To have personally experienced his clone seized by a foreign consciousness once, and to have witnessed a high-level True Immortal being possessed and constructing a stable space in the forbidden region afterward, these two events gave Shang Xia a much clearer idea of what Qin Ming and Sage Jin might truly be plotting.

But despite everything, Shang Xia still had not found a way out of the deeper reaches of the Nebula Forbidden Region. Or rather, his movements through the chaotic void still depended entirely on luck.

Fortunately, although he had encountered several life-threatening dangers, it had not been entirely fruitless.

Just as Shang Xia was seriously contemplating whether to create another clone and lure out another foreign consciousness to study, a sudden fluctuation rippled through the distant depths of the void and immediately caught his attention.

At first, Shang Xia thought it was a sign of impending danger and instinctively fled in the opposite direction.

However, he soon noticed that no matter where he went, the fluctuations never disappeared. They were always a set distance from him, even if he deliberately changed direction.

There was no doubt about it. Shang Xia knew that he was being tracked.

"If this is due to my previous encounters with those foreign consciousness..." He thought grimly, "Then it proves these seemingly rigid, emotionless, and mindless consciousnesses may actually be capable of communicating with one another!"

With the realization, Shang Xia no longer attempted to flee. Instead, he stopped and waited for the ripple to draw near.

Since he could not find a way out of the Nebula Forbidden Region, perhaps confronting the approaching threat was the only option to find another way to change the situation.

Yet when the immense tidal wave of void energy finally surged into view, riding at its crest was a figure that left Shang Xia stunned. It was Zhuo Gudao!

But Zhuo Gudao’s expression was blank and emotionless. It was eerily similar to Shang Xia’s clone that had been previously seized by the foreign consciousness and the strange high-level True Immortal.

A chill rushed through Shang Xia, but he had no time to hesitate. He raised his Seven Star Mace and unleashed the first form of his rank seven martial arts, Shattered Starry Skies, to destroy the wavefront.

"Zhuo Gudao? Sage Zhuo? Do you know who I am?!”

Seizing the moment of stillness created by his attack, Shang Xia launched a mental assault using his divine soul, hoping to jolt Zhuo Gudao’s original consciousness awake.

Although Zhuo Gudao appeared entirely controlled by the foreign consciousness, Shang Xia refused to believe his soul had been obliterated. He could not accept that a Sage’s soul would be so easily erased!

His instincts were soon validated. As his roar pierced the warped void and struck like a thunderclap, Zhuo Gudao’s head jerked back violently. Blood spurted from his nostrils, and traces of blood seeped from his ears.

His once dull eyes began to stir, gradually showing signs of awareness.

Zhuo Gudao shook his head violently, as if trying to fling something out of his mind. Moments later, he began smacking his head.

Observing what was going on, Shang Xia’s expression only grew heavier.

He soon realized that whether it was the foreign consciousness acting deliberately, or Zhuo Gudao’s own instincts in the face of danger, Zhuo Gudao’s martial arts was circulating at full force. Vast amounts of energy rushed into his body, forming a vortex that warped the surrounding space.

Shang Xia, already aware that the void energy was filled with mutated energy, immediately recognized the danger. Such an influx would only further empower the foreign consciousness.

Without hesitation, he struck again, dispersing the energy gathered around Zhuo Gudao. He also launched a second attack on Zhuo Gudao’s soul.

This time, the reaction was explosive.

"ROAAAAAR!" Zhuo Gudao let out a twisted roar and lunged directly at Shang Xia, face contorted with madness.

There was no guard, no defense. Had Shang Xia chosen to kill him, he could have done so effortlessly.

A trace of hesitation flashed across Shang Xia’s face as he chose to dodge.

When Zhuo Gudao flew past him, Shang Xia wanted to try capturing him alive, hoping he could suppress the foreign consciousness.

Yet just as Shang Xia was about to make his move, Zhuo Gudao turned his head and revealed a sinister grin. A sudden punch came through the void.

Shang Xia, still wary, twisted his weapon and unleashed Guided Dipper, countering Zhuo Gudao’s attack with precision. Zhuo Gudao was sent flying back while vomiting a mouthful of blood.

Instead of relief that he had stopped Zhuo Gudao, Shang Xia’s frown grew deeper.

That single exchange told him everything. Zhuo Gudao’s current combat strength had crossed the threshold into the fourth star of the Martial Emptiness Realm!

It made no sense. The Nebula Forbidden Region was far from ideal for breakthroughs, and Zhuo Gudao had lost both the Essence Observation World and the Star Origin Dao Field. With no roots or foundation, he should’ve struggled just to maintain his level.

The only explanation was that the surge of power came from the foreign consciousness in his body.

"The energy around us is contaminated! Stop circulating it!" Shang Xia roared, trying again to awaken Zhuo Gudao’s soul.

Perhaps the attack had worked, but as Zhuo Gudao reeled backward, his staggering movements seemed to struggle for control. Through bloodied lips, he rasped, "You're... Too late."

Shang Xia couldn’t tell if the voice came from Zhuo Gudao or the foreign consciousness. He immediately snapped, "Who are you?!"

Zhuo Gudao’s face twisted again, and he let out a disturbing laugh. All around him, the energy Shang Xia had dispersed earlier surged back like a flood.

Shang Xia cursed and moved to scatter the energy again, but the moment he acted, a chain reaction triggered in the void as an invisible wave surged toward him.

Instead of dodging, Shang Xia struck it with his rank six martial intent, Six Harmony Supporting the Heavens. He blasted open a stable corridor through the void stream and closed the distance to Zhuo Gudao.

Zhuo Gudao, clearly startled, was caught off guard. The next second, their palms clashed in the void as reddish-gold lightning filled the space around them.

Shang Xia actually unleashed his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, his first martial intent!

Even though Shang Xia had only exchanged several blows with the possessed Zhuo Gudao, he discovered that even though the foreign consciousness could drive the inner qi in Zhuo Gudao’s body, he wasn’t able to properly unleash all of Zhuo Gudao’s techniques.

Shang Xia, who was familiar with Zhuo Gudao’s fighting style after so many battles, quickly discovered the problem. He deliberately forced a close-range battle to exploit the weakness.

Sure enough, the possessed Zhuo Gudao faltered under pressure.

Though the foreign consciousness was strong and could rely on brute force and the energy in the surroundings to strengthen himself, he could only take on Shang Xia’s attacks forcefully.

However... Shang Xia was planning to overwhelm the possessed Zhuo Gudao by taking advantage of the foreign consciousness’ inability to react quickly.

Infusing his inner qi into the Seven Star Mace in his hand, all seven runes along the segments of the mace lit up as they transformed into falling meteors that rained down on Zhuo Gudao.

That was the second form of his Seven Star Mace Technique, Falling Dipper!

Zhuo Gudao, unable to dodge, took the barrage head-on. He absorbed the damage by constantly drawing on the surrounding energy, trying to outlast Shang Xia. After all... To the foreign consciousness who had taken over Zhuo Gudao, Shang Xia wasn’t able to replenish his energy from his surroundings and he had the absolute geographical advantage.

From how crazily Shang Xia was attacking... The foreign consciousness felt that there was no way Shang Xia would be able to keep up.

Unfortunately... What the foreign consciousness didn’t know was how deep Shang Xia’s reserves actually were. He could last for much longer than expected!

Anyway, Shang Xia made his next move.

With both hands forming a seal, two five colored rings emerged from his body and appeared above and below Zhuo Gudao in an instant. The Five Element Annihilation Yin Yang Ring instantly locked him in place.

To Shang Xia’s surprise, the interlocked rings not only sealed Zhuo Gudao’s movements but also dulled the impurities in the energy around them. Though they couldn’t purge the corruption entirely, they filtered it down to nearly harmless levels.

Seeing an opportunity, Shang Xia activated two rank six Spirit Sealing Talismans. One to them fell on Zhuo Gudao’s forehead while the other landed on his dantian.

Those were usually used to suppress the spiritualities of Divine Artifacts and Holy Artifacts, but Shang Xia was betting it would be able to seal off the foreign consciousness. That would give Zhuop Gudao a chance to reclaim his body.

Shang Xia didn’t expect to fully expel the foreign consciousness either. He only hoped to suppress it for a moment to give Zhuo Gudao a chance.

At the same time, he created another clone that started to absorb the energy around Zhuo Gudao, preventing more mutated energy from strengthening the foreign consciousness that had taken over his body.

As expected, Zhuo Gudao’s aura weakened and he didn’t struggle as much.

But before Shang Xia could relax, three more figures burst out from the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region. All of them radiated dense killing intent, and one of them was the high-level True Immortal who escaped from Shang Xia earlier.

With a frown on his face, Shang Xia glanced at Zhuo Gudao, who was struggling less. He made the decision for his clone to stop absorbing the energy around them and to intercept the approaching possessed True Immortals.

Shockingly enough, Shang Xia’s clone didn’t react the way he expected.

Raising his head abruptly, Shang Xia saw a twisted smile on his clone’s face.

A jolt of alarm raced through him as he raised his hand to sever the connection with his clone. However, a foreign consciousness had already tried to use the link to invade his true body.

As he sliced off the connection, the clone didn’t push further as it simply turned around to send a palm strike on the ring above Zhuo Gudao’s head.

Obviously, Shang Xia’s martial intent wasn’t so fragile it would break the moment it was attacked from the outside, but more than 70 percent of the energy it contained was weakened by the sudden strike.

Even though the ring appeared intact, it was unable to maintain itself with 30 percent of its original power.

Shang Xia might have destroyed the clone he created the next moment, but the damage had already been done and the Five Element Annihilation Yin Yang Ring lost its effect.

The possessed Zhuo Gudao, whose aura had been weakened due to the lack of support of mutated energy around him, snapped his eyes open. The talismans on his forehead and dantian turned to ash instantly.

Shang Xia, who had just lost a clone and just stopped the foreign consciousness from invading his mind, was forced into a state of weakness. The possessed high-level True Immortals also attacked from all directions at that moment, forcing Shang Xia to divide his focus even more.

At the same time, Shang Xia was also planning to leave from the pressure of the possessed high-level True Immortals who had the support of the mutated energy in their surroundings.

It was also at that moment that an unexpected change occurred. Zhuo Gudao, who had been fleeing, froze in the void. His movements turned sluggish, and his body started to twist awkwardly. His limbs also seemed like it no longer listened to him.

"Help me!" The voice was hoarse and eerie, but it unmistakably belonged to Zhuo Gudao.

Having just restored part of his inner qi with the help of the Crimson Soul Tablet, Shang Xia instantly understood that Zhuo Gudao’s soul was still wrestling for control with the foreign consciousness. As such, he leaped forward to help once again.

Just as he made his move, a resplendent golden sword tore through the void, aiming to sever Shang Xia’s path to Zhuo Gudao.

"Sage Jin!" Shang Xia shouted and narrowly dodged, but the sword strike created a fracture that instantly separated him from Zhuo Gudao by a thousand miles.

With the appearance of Sage Jin, Shang Xia could no longer care about Zhuo Gudao. He had to prepare to face another big threat.

That was because with the appearance of Sage Jin, Qin Ming had also arrived. To prove him right, both of them appeared in his field of vision one after another.

With that, a question formed in his mind. They were in the depths of the Nebula Forbidden Region, far from the ruins of the Essence Wilderness World... How could they have located him so accurately?

"Sage Shang, it’s been months. I’m glad to see you’re doing well." Sage Jin spoke while cupping his hands in Shang Xia’s direction.

Had Sage Jin’s sword light not just targeted him, the words might have sounded like a friendly greeting.

But Shang Xia’s gaze wasn’t on Sage Jin, it remained fixed on Qin Ming, who casually approached the weakened Zhuo Gudao and layered several seals upon him, completely subduing him.

"So this was your plan, capturing Sage Zhuo? Or rather, the foreign consciousness inside him?" His tone cold and mocking, Shang Xia added, "I suppose I was part of your plan too, wasn’t I?"

Sage Jin withdrew his sword qi after seeing Qin Ming control Zhuo Gudao. He casually ignored Shang Xia’s jab.

Qin Ming, however, chuckled, "Sage Shang, you exceeded all our expectations. But after months wandering the Nebula Forbidden Region, isolated from your world and exhausted by battle, how much longer can you really hold out?"