Chapter 2203: He’s Not Shang Xia!

Shang Xia’s sudden appearance seemed as if he had seized upon the brief instant when a high-level Sage from the Illusory Sea of Stars expert froze, but in truth, there were other experts lying in ambush at the entrance of the void passage.

Even if Shang Xia’s abrupt arrival looked like he had claimed the initiative, the other experts acting in quick succession were more than enough to cancel out that small advantage. They even succeeded in completing a full encirclement and launching a coordinated assault on him.

The stunned high-level Sage recovered quickly as well and joined the siege.

Besides the solid, direct attacks of the seven Illusory Sea of Stars experts, the illusions they maintained interfered with Shang Xia’s divine soul, suppressed his martial will, and pressured him from all directions.

Faced with three high-level Sages and four mid-level Sages, Shang Xia soon fell into disadvantage. The overlapping illusions blurred the boundary between what was real and what wasn’t, causing him to lose awareness of his surroundings. He was quickly forced into a passive beating, several defensive talismans activating one after another, only to be shattered the next moment.

Yet at that moment, the two mid-level Sages who had earlier fled from the Chaotic Sea of Stars, terrified by Shang Xia, found themselves growing increasingly uneasy as they watched his disheveled state.

“There’s something wrong about him!”

“He is not Shang Xia!”

The two spoke almost in unison, warning the others. They immediately halted their attacks and instinctively layered the strongest defenses upon themselves.

“What are you saying? His strength is at the grand completion stage of the Martial Emptiness Realm! The fact that he has lasted this long under our siege...”

“How could such strange inner qi possibly...”

Before the others could finish speaking, the Shang Xia surrounded by them suddenly swelled. Before anyone could react, a horrifying radiance blossomed across his body, and the next moment, seven different attacks, each containing the might of martial intents, burst out toward the seven experts of the Illusory Sea of Stars.

“He’s a clone!”

The mid-level Sage bearing instantly recognized the truth the moment the attacks arrived. It was Shang Xia’s External Avatar, the one possessing combat strength of a high-level Sage.

But when had he summoned it?

He was certain that the man who had ambushed them earlier in the Chaotic Sea of Stars, the one who shattered their outpost, had absolutely been Shang Xia’s true body.

𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

And based on Shang Xia’s practices, his External Avatar should have been left behind guarding Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field.

Yet during the brief crossing of the void passage...

His thoughts moved fast, but before Sage Yao could piece everything together, an even grander and more overwhelming aura suddenly appeared behind him. He felt like he was standing beside a blazing sun!

Behind him was precisely where the entrance of the void passage lay.

I have to run!

That was the only thought that exploded in Sage Yao’s mind.

No one present understood Shang Xia’s true strength more than he did.

He unleashed every ounce of strength he had stored in his entire life. He even spat a mouthful of blood essence, activating his Blood Essence Escape, a secret art he thought he would never use again, just to increase his fleeing speed by a little more.

Even Shang Xia had not expected that the moment his true body stepped out of the void passage, an expert who seemed only a step away from a high-level Sage, would flee like a startled bird, burning his own blood essence to escape.

Shang Xia was surprised, but his response was not slow.

They were in the Illusory Sea of Stars, a foreign Star Field. Even though he used his inner qi to weaken the suppression against him, his strength would still be somewhat affected, and reinforcements could arrive at any moment.

Thus, he needed to cut through the mess swiftly.

So, after deliberately allowing his External Avatar to take heavy damage to draw out and occupy the experts of the Illusory Sea of Stars, Shang Xia erupted with full power the moment he arrived. Gripping the long mace formed from the Crimson Soul Tablet, he unleashed his martial intent, Star Shifting Constellation Transformation!

The void twisted and the Shang Xia surrounded by the experts of the Illusory Sea of Stars vanished instantly.

The attacks they had launched were redirected toward their companions.

“What are you doing?!”

“What’s happening?!”

“What is this?!”

“Not good, be careful!”

“...”

In the ensuing chaos, the experts of the Illusory Sea of Stars scrambled to block the sudden attacks from their own allies, instantly falling into isolated battles. They had no attention left to spare for Shang Xia’s External Avatar, who was already on the brink of collapse under their siege.

His External Avatar seized the opening and escaped the encirclement in a battered state.

By then, the remaining experts had realized the situation had turned dire. Once they nullified the mistaken attacks, they quickly attempted to regroup and form a unified defense.

But it was only then they noticed, no matter what escape arts or movement techniques they used, both they and the illusions surrounding them were circling endlessly within the same patch of void.

No, more precisely, they were repeating the exact movements of their first attempt to escape, over and over.

“A martial intent that contains the power of space and time!”

The high-level Sage realized it first. He burned his inner qi, determined to break the eerie loop.

But he was also the strongest among them, and naturally the first target Shang Xia chose to eliminate.

A crimson mace burst out from a fissure in the void. It was as if the man actively threw himself into the descending strike.

Crack!

The illusion around him shattered, and so did his domain. His dantian exploded, and his soul scattered.

A seventh star Sage, a step away from the grand completion stage, was killed in a single blow! He couldn’t even put up the slightest resistance!

Was that normal?

No fucking way!

Even a mid-level Sage would survive a few exchanges against a Sage at the grand completion stage. Yet the seventh star Sage, one of the Illusory Sea of Stars’ absolute elites, couldn’t take a single strike.

It was even so when Shang Xia was fighting six opponents at once, with his power divided.

It was no wonder Sage Yao fled instantly without the slightest hesitation.

At that moment, the remaining five experts all turned and fled in different directions. Their last shred of will to resist vanished completely. They hated that they were not as perceptive as Sage Yao. All they could do now was pray that Shang Xia would not give chase, or at least would choose another target.

But what they didn’t know was that after killing the seventh star Sage, Shang Xia had no intention of pursuing any of them.

He simply remained where he was, as though sensing something carefully.

Around him, the void distortions left behind by the fallen expert slowly dissipated, and surging qi flowed around Shang Xia, most of it rushing into the void passage before gradually spilling into the Chaotic Sea of Stars.

“Are you letting them go?” His External Avatar who was battered, torn, and heavily wounded, rummaged through the fallen Illusory Sea of Stars expert’s belongings for anything useful. He walked to Shang Xia’s side without raising his head as he continued to loot the fallen expert.

Shang Xia smiled. “Killing a few more won’t make any difference. Besides, I didn’t come to the Illusory Sea of Stars just to kill people.”

His External Avatar didn’t really care about the reason. He just nodded. “If that’s the case, I won’t stay here. The suppression is too strong for me, and I need to return to our Heavenly Field to recover.”

Shang Xia nodded. “I owe you one for this. Without you, breaking into the Illusory Sea of Stars would’ve been troublesome. But this trip really was the right choice, I’ve sensed the Star Origin Lord’s aura.”