Chapter 2299 - 2297: Dissolution

In the following period, Lu Ye searched everywhere for traces of enemies, with his original self and Talent Tree Avatar—one hidden and one exposed. He deliberately let his avatar appear wretched, keeping a look of just having fought a battle and being heavily injured.

By using this method, he managed to lure out quite a few hidden enemies, repeatedly achieving success.

On this day, using this method again, he fished out two more. With both his real self and avatar joining the battle, he easily dealt with one of them. As the situation turned desperate, the surviving female Dao Fusion cried out in panic: "Fellow Daoist, wait! I have a secret I can tell you, just spare my life!"

Lu Ye was almost about to slash her down, but his actions halted at her words. The Boulder Mountain Saber rested on her slender neck, immediately slicing a cut on her delicate skin, oozing crimson Blood Water.

"What secret?" Lu Ye looked at her.

It wasn't that Lu Ye had a strong curiosity; it's just that at this critical moment, the secret she mentioned was very likely related to the current contest.

Feeling the pain at the back of her neck and hearing Lu Ye's question, the female Dao Fusion exhaled a breath of relief, knowing she wouldn't die for the moment, weakly turning her head, casting a sidelong glance at Lu Ye's silhouette with a pitiful look: "Fellow Daoist, if I tell you, will you spare me?"

"That depends on whether your secret is useful or not."

"It's useful! It's about the current contest; Fellow Daoist surely wants to know."

"Speak!"

Yet, she didn't comply with Lu Ye's wishes, merely forcing a smile: "However... how can I believe Fellow Daoist will spare me, don't mind, can you..."

The Boulder Mountain Saber exerted a slight force, Lu Ye's voice cold: "Either speak or die!"

The female Dao Fusion shivered, understanding she couldn't leverage this condition on Lu Ye, thought slightly, and had to say: "Fellow Daoist, do you know that the stellar space fragment we're on is dissolving?"

"Dissolving? What do you mean?"

"It's literal; the stellar space fragment is continuously dissolving and shrinking."

"How do you know?" Lu Ye frowned.

"I saw it with my own eyes!" The female Dao Fusion sighed bitterly, "Fellow Daoist don't you think this stellar space fragment is a bit too large? Even with over fifty thousand Dao Fusion contesting, people continue to die, and the ones left alive become fewer, and harder to encounter each other. If it goes on like this, when can the Star Abyss Heir be determined? So the stellar space fragment is dissolving and shrinking, which makes our range of activity smaller and smaller, so that no matter how the numbers decrease, one cannot avoid encounters."

Lu Ye did have thoughts about this issue, because from his observations over this period, the stellar space fragment is indeed large. As the female Dao Fusion mentioned, with fewer and fewer survivors, in such vastness, once the numbers dwindle to a certain point, encountering someone would be hard; those lacking in strength could simply keep hiding.

But if the stellar space fragment were dissolving, such situations wouldn't occur. No matter how they hide, eventually, the final two teams will face each other one day!

"Where did you see it?" Lu Ye asked, since the female Dao Fusion could see it, he also wanted to take a look. Hearing is false; seeing is believing.

"In that direction, Fellow Daoist just fly straight ahead to see it." She raised her hand, pointing in a direction.

Lu Ye put away the Boulder Mountain Saber and dashed toward that direction.

Leaving the female Dao Fusion with a face full of disbelief, she didn't expect Lu Ye to actually spare her; she was prepared for the possibility that Lu Ye might not keep his word.

In just a moment of hesitation, the female Dao Fusion exerted herself, rushing after Lu Ye, while her Mental Consciousness surged for audio transmission: "Fellow Daoist, shall we travel together?"

Her companion was just killed by Lu Ye, and she eventually needed to find another one. Lu Ye was strong enough, and from his willingness to keep the promise, his character seemed flawless, making him undoubtedly a good travel companion.

She naturally didn't want to miss out.

Unfortunately, Lu Ye didn't respond to her intentions at all. After chasing for a while, she lost sight of Lu Ye's silhouette in the distance, and the female Dao Fusion finally stood disappointedly in place.

Suddenly feeling a bit restless, she pondered her next move.

In fact, over ninety percent of the fifty thousand Dao Fusion felt lost and adrift. The odds for them in this contest were extremely low, almost non-existent. According to the rules of the contest, they were waiting for death as soon as they entered here; it's just a matter of dying early or late.

This left many Dao Fusion feeling frustrated and uneasy, but this whole affair was dominated by the Will of the Star Abyss. Once here, rebellion was impossible unless they spent a thousand Star Abyss coins to redeem the qualification to exit the contest.

Yet, obtaining a thousand Star Abyss coins was almost impossible for these Dao Fusion.

Star Abyss coin, it's only obtained by killing enemies; there's no other way.

Even seizing others' Star Abyss coins was unrealistic because once a cultivator died, the corpse and everything on it disappeared without a trace.

Lu Ye even tried robbing others of their Star Abyss coins during this period, making them hand over Star Abyss coins, storage ring, and Dao soldiers before killing them.

But it didn't work; anyone with such intentions felt an extremely intense malicious presence descend.

The bewildered female Dao Fusion didn't even notice an ominous shadow silently approaching from behind. And from the shadow, a massive mouth spanning several dozen yards opened; its fangs criss-crossed, swallowing her whole in an instant.

The entire process left the female Dao Fusion with no time to react.

Lu Ye was unaware that the enemy he had just spared met such a fate. Following the directions, he flew forward along the path.

A few days later, he finally confirmed the secret that the female Dao Fusion spoke of.

Because he saw with his own eyes the stellar space fragment dissolving...

Ahead lay a mass of Chaos Fog, giving off the same feeling as the fog outside Baiyu Platform before; anyone who fell into it would meet a bad end.

The Chaos Fog stretched endlessly, and from where Lu Ye stood, there was no end in sight, with it surrounding him from all directions. Even more unsettling, this Chaos Fog was advancing toward where he stood at a fixed speed, swallowing everything in its path!

The situation was indeed as the female Dao Fusion said; the stellar space fragment was dissolving, thus the space for activity was constantly shrinking. In this way, even though the number of cultivators competing for supremacy might decrease, a victor would eventually be decided.

Lu Ye frowned deeply, many thoughts filling his mind.

Just from the fact that the stellar space fragment was dissolving, it was evident that all the cultivators participating in this battle of supremacy were not fully aware of the rules!

Back then, Qi only announced two rules at Baiyu Platform, but clearly, there were more hidden rules that went unmentioned.

The dissolution of the stellar space fragment was just one of them; could there be others?

Indeed, the matter of the Star Abyss coin was not mentioned by Qi either.

Thus, this battle was not only about the cultivators' strength but also about the understanding and exploitation of various rules.

Lu Ye did not linger here much longer. Now that he knew about the dissolution of the stellar space fragment, he had to exercise caution and keep his distance; otherwise, if he was caught by the advancing Chaos Fog while in seclusion or recuperating, it would be a senseless death.

Shortly after moving, Lu Ye suddenly sensed something and turned to look in a direction.

In that direction, a point of light was shining, and it was at a considerable distance. Normally, even with Lu Ye's Ocular Power, he wouldn't be able to see what was happening there.

However, this light was clearly peculiar, as its radiance ignored spatial barriers, allowing him to see it easily.

Unaware of what it was, Lu Ye decided to head in that direction.

Since he could see it, more cultivators nearby certainly could as well. Driven by curiosity, it would likely attract a crowd.

This was a scenario that a strong individual like Lu Ye desired because it eliminated the need to painstakingly search for targets to hunt.

He moved swiftly like the wind.

By the time Lu Ye arrived, it was already half a day later. He quietly concealed himself nearby, gradually approaching the source of the light.

But he soon realized that he had been overly cautious.

Because near the light, a brawl was already in progress.

Numerous cultivators were paired off, fighting in combat, staying near but not fully committing, wary of something.

In this way, anyone daring enough to approach the light would face a full-force assault from others!

Utilizing his full Ocular Power, Lu Ye gazed at the light. Although it appeared dazzling from afar, up close it was merely a vague glow, not dazzling at all, extremely peculiar.

Within the vague glow, there was a bottle encased—a small, archaic-looking bottle.

Lu Ye immediately understood what it was.

An exotic treasure!

Qing Rou had previously mentioned to him that exotic treasures occasionally appeared during the battles of the Star Abyss Heir, inevitably becoming the target of all cultivators.

Due to the vastness of the stellar space fragment, although Lu Ye had defeated many enemies, he hadn't encountered any exotic treasures—until now!

This bottle was undoubtedly an exotic treasure. Its function was unknown to Lu Ye, but treasures surely attracted everyone.

This was the reason why so many cultivators had gathered here to fight.

Arriving late, Lu Ye found a significant number of cultivators gathered, some actively contending, others observing either openly or in secret. The stalemate was ongoing because no one was confident enough to escape safely after seizing the exotic treasure.

Under such circumstances, even Lu Ye dared not act rashly. With a dozen or so teams gathered, nearly thirty Dao Fusions present, he couldn't withstand a concentrated attack.

Exterminating everyone else was also unrealistic. Their current stalemate indicated that any strong individual revealing themselves would invite collective assault.

But delaying was also unwise because the longer they waited, the more cultivators would converge.

How could he devise a strategy to seize this treasure? Lu Ye fell into deep thought.