"Trying to leave?" Emperor Sheng's figure flashed forward. "You won't get away. You impersonated me, put me in danger, and now you think you can just walk away? It's not that easy."
As he spoke, Emperor Sheng formed a hand seal, slashed his hand, and a beam of light flashed, as if a blade of light had sliced through space.
The entire space split into two halves!
Spatial manipulation!
Fortunately, as he made the cut, Mo Qi and Sun Qian both lowered their heads, allowing the spatial tear to pass over their heads. Otherwise, they would have been sliced in two.
But Emperor Sheng followed up with more attacks, making continuous cuts at will. One moment it was a vertical slice, the next a horizontal one, then a diagonal cut, a relentless barrage.
Sometimes he would send chunks of the divided space towards Mo Qi, and other times he would compress the space, attempting to suffocate Mo Qi within it.
Mo Qi had no choice but to use his teleportation technique, darting between the fractured spaces. At the same time, he closed in on Emperor Sheng, seizing opportunities to strike with his axe, annihilating both space and man.
But Emperor Sheng was no easy opponent. While continuously employing his spatial techniques, his figure flickered like lightning, appearing left then right, making him elusive and preventing Mo Qi from pinning him down.
Indeed, a starved camel is still larger than a horse.
Furthermore, he was incredibly despicable. Seeing that he couldn't harm Mo Qi, he abruptly changed his attack direction, sending a massive chunk of space hurtling towards Sun Qian.
Mo Qi had to fly to her rescue, raising his Sky-Opening Axe and cleaving down. With a clatter, the entire piece of space instantly collapsed, its fragments scattering like snowflakes. Sun Qian seized this chance to dodge to the side.
Emperor Sheng took advantage of the moment to switch from defense to offense, relentlessly pursuing Mo Qi. One spatial attack flew towards Mo Qi, which Mo Qi split with his axe, but then the ground beneath him vanished.
He plummeted rapidly, as if falling into an abyss, unable to hover.
It was as if the space beneath his feet had ceased to exist!
Spatial magic was truly formidable!
Fortunately, Mo Qi still had his teleportation and the Sky-Opening Axe. He instantly teleported into another space.
At this moment, all the spaces began to flow and rotate, twisting left, right, up, and down. Simultaneously, chunks of space the size of bricks were hurled at him, disorienting Mo Qi and making him dizzy.
He was struck repeatedly, and in a short while, he was covered in wounds.
Sun Qian's situation was equally perilous, tossed about by the spatial shifts, leaving her in a sorry state.
"Hahaha… you dare to fight me? Don't you even know your own worth," Emperor Sheng roared with laughter. "You ants all deserve to die. Do you think anyone can step on me? Die!"
He unleashed his fury, flipping his hand. The space containing Mo Qi immediately inverted, like an opened box with nothing below, and Mo Qi fell out, into another space.
Emperor Sheng then clasped his hands together. The space Mo Qi had entered began to fold rapidly, and Mo Qi, trapped within, was also being folded in half.
With just a crisp snap, Mo Qi would be finished.
Emperor Sheng's face displayed a triumphant smile.
However, at this moment, Mo Qi's body vanished into thin air.
Emperor Sheng's smile froze. He immediately formed a hand seal and made several slashes in front of himself, creating a space and sealing himself within, effectively forming a sturdy shield around him that no attack could penetrate.
But he had forgotten that Mo Qi's Sky-Opening Axe could cleave through any space. With a "shing" sound, the entire space was severed in the middle, falling to either side.
As the space fractured, Emperor Sheng instinctively dodged, narrowly avoiding a fatal blow. Mo Qi then followed up with countless more strikes, horizontal, vertical, and diagonal, a continuous onslaught.
Emperor Sheng was instantly enveloped by a dense layer of axe shadows.
He had no choice but to use his teleportation, dodging left and right, falling into a passive and extremely dangerous situation.
Then, a voice echoed in his ear: "The great tribulation approaches, Emperor Sheng, change targets!"
Emperor Sheng was instantly surrounded by a sea of blood. He was greatly alarmed, not knowing the nature of the attack. He had to slash open space, creating a rift, and forcefully shoved himself into it, escaping!
The small blood figure poked its head in, almost getting severed. Just as the rift was about to close, it swiftly retracted its head, thus avoiding decapitation.
As it emerged, it held a piece of flesh in its mouth, as if it had bitten Emperor Sheng's backside.
Emperor Sheng fled, and the entire space instantly returned to calm. The space that had been shattered was now reassembled into a perfect world.
Sun Qian lay on the ground, covered in injuries. Mo Qi walked over and gave her a healing pill. Without a word, she swallowed it and immediately stood up.
Gu Hong was still standing there, dazed. "I… where is my Emperor Sheng?"
Mo Qi chuckled. "Your Emperor Sheng has abandoned you. When disaster strikes, everyone flees for themselves. He has already flown away."
Sun Qian tugged at him. "Let her be. She's already pitiful enough. Don't add insult to injury."
Unexpectedly, Gu Hong glared at her. "You're the pitiful one. My Emperor Sheng brother must be waiting for me ahead. He wouldn't abandon me."
With that, she took off, heading forward.
Mo Qi glanced at Sun Qian. "She's beyond saving. Don't try to rescue her anymore; it's useless!"
Sun Qian watched Gu Hong's retreating back and sighed.
Then, she looked at Mo Qi, a faint smile appearing. "I chose correctly after all."
Mo Qi raised an eyebrow. "Naturally."
"Let's hurry. Otherwise, they'll snatch all the resources," Sun Qian urged.
She suddenly became concerned about resources, and Mo Qi couldn't fathom why.
Perhaps Gu Hong's provocation had, after all, stirred a spark of her inner wildness and competitive spirit.
She still wanted to see who had made the right choice in the end.
She still wanted to see who would laugh last.
So, Mo Qi and Sun Qian sped off, heading forward.
The path was littered with the remains of beasts. It seemed Emperor Sheng was indeed ahead.
"What resources are in here?" Mo Qi couldn't help but ask.
"Spiritual energy from the Star World!" Sun Qian replied.
In his previous life, Mo Qi had heard of this matter. Almost every tribe and dynasty was connected to a Star World, like a stem connecting to a leaf. Spiritual energy from the Star World would be transmitted through the stem to these dynasties and tribes. However, he had never investigated how this spiritual energy was formed.
"How is this spiritual energy formed?"
"Cultivators in the Star Worlds die. After death, their spiritual power converges in the heavens and earth, flowing into this world." Sun Qian explained.
Mo Qi's heart stirred. Was this a form of plunder?
"If that spiritual power didn't flow to this world, but circulated within the Star World, would that be better?" Mo Qi asked, frowning.
"Unless those stems are severed!" Sun Qian said. "But if they are severed, the Star World will circulate within the greater world, and the collisions could have unimaginable consequences."
This question seemed to be the same as the problem of cutting down Mount Buzhou.
"The spiritual energy in our world is the same. When we die, our spiritual power flows along the tree roots to the River World," Sun Qian said.
"This tree is a man-eating tree," Mo Qi lamented.
"But this tree also nourishes us. Water is transmitted to the Star World through the roots and stems. Also, our weapons and spirit stones flow to the Star World, providing them with sources for magical artifacts."
"Alright, I'll have to properly manage this tree in the future."
"You're thinking too far ahead. Let's first figure out how to get out of here. I'm worried you won't even be able to leave this tribe."
As they spoke, the two arrived at a mountain ridge.
Sun Qian looked around as she walked, eventually reaching a vertical cave, or rather, a well.
"This is it. Let's go down," Sun Qian said.
With that, she jumped down first, and Mo Qi followed.
The well opening was small, but below it was a vast space.
There was a river below, its water dark and turbulent, flowing endlessly. It gave Mo Qi an illusion, as if he had arrived in the southern continent's underground passage.
But this place was clearly not a passage, but rather another world, vast and boundless.
The two walked along the river's course.
Gradually, a colossal mountain wall loomed before them, soaring into the clouds, its edges and peak invisible.
The river reached the mountain and disappeared underground, as if flowing into the mountain.
On both banks of the river before the mountain stood two trees.
Beneath the tree on the left bank stood two people: Emperor Sheng and Gu Hong.
Emperor Sheng had his hand on the tree trunk, searching for something.
Mo Qi wanted to go over and kill him.
Sun Qian said, "Those two trees are the Spirit Gathering Trees that condense spiritual energy from the Star Worlds. They occupy the left tree, so we'll draw from the right tree."
With that, she rapidly flew towards the tree on the right bank. Mo Qi had no choice but to follow.
Sun Qian placed her hand on the tree trunk first. "Try this. Channel your spiritual power and absorb the spiritual energy."
Mo Qi placed his hand on the tree trunk and channeled his spiritual power.
Sun Qian, however, removed her hand.
Mo Qi found it strange. "Why did you let go?"
Sun Qian said, "You absorb more. That way, you'll have a chance to survive."
Mo Qi was touched and quickened his actions.
However, after absorbing for a long time, he felt no spiritual energy.
There was no flow of spiritual energy!
At this moment, he thought of a problem. "Is the Star World connected by this river my own world? A world frozen by ice, how could it possibly emit spiritual energy? Not necessarily. Qian Mei mentioned before that besides that Earth Star World, several other worlds were also sealed by ice, so this could be from other worlds."
"There isn't!" Mo Qi withdrew his hand.
"There isn't? How is that possible?" Sun Qian didn't believe it. She placed her hand on the tree trunk and channeled her magic. After a moment, her brow furrowed. "There really isn't. What's going on?"
They then turned to look at the opposite bank. The two people there also wore confused expressions, as if they had encountered something inexplicable.
The hands of the two on the opposite bank had also been withdrawn from the tree trunks.
Emperor Sheng was very disappointed, staring intently at Gu Hong. "Did you lie to me? You said there would be resources here, spiritual energy, but where are the resources? Where is the spiritual energy?"
Gu Hong looked wronged. "I don't know either. There used to be."
Emperor Sheng became somewhat agitated. "What do we do now? You tricked me into coming here, didn't get any resources, and now I have to face their blame when we go out. You, you're simply… you've killed me."