Chapter 2900: Two Choices

Zhifei had never imagined her journey to Star Abyss would be so perilous. Even with Xueyuan's death serving as a warning, that incident was primarily due to Xuejiu's betrayal; Xueyuan might not have died had he been more careful.

Seeing Lu Ye and Fu Wei approach with such ferocity, she knew her plan for the day was unlikely to succeed and immediately thought of retreating.

Since she couldn't conquer Scarlet Flame City, and Moduo and Mingfeng were already entangled, remaining would be pointless and risky. It was best to leave first.

With her mind made up, she didn't hesitate. As she activated her dao power, each white feather on her wings glowed with a hazy luminescence, revealing extremely profound patterns under its light.

Instantly, her entire aura became incredibly ethereal.

"She's going to run!" Fu Wei exclaimed. Although he didn't know what profound secret art Zhifei had activated, he instinctively made an accurate judgment.

Coincidentally, Lu Ye had the same thought at the same time.

Almost the next moment, both he and Zhifei moved simultaneously.

Within his Origin Spirit Aperture, the power of the spatial Dao Seed was unleashed to its maximum, instantly solidifying the surrounding space.

Meanwhile, Zhifei transformed into a ball of mysterious light, as if enveloped by a translucent feather, attempting to escape.

This was the Feather Tribe's Feather Travel Art, an escape technique Zhifei had created herself after achieving the Hedao realm. In terms of suddenness, this technique was not particularly remarkable; at least, when used by cultivators of equal cultivation, it was inferior to the Blood Tribe's Blood Escape Art.

However, the advantage of this secret art lay in its cumulative speed; in other words, the longer the Feather Travel Art was maintained, the faster her escape speed became. If sustained long enough, her speed would reach an unimaginable level.

Employing it now was undoubtedly the best choice because she wouldn't be in mortal danger for a short period. Given this, if she could hold out for ten breaths against the combined efforts of Lu Ye and Fu Wei, she could calmly escape.

However, the very next moment, her expression drastically changed.

The solidified space around her slowed her movements to a crawl. With Lu Ye and Fu Wei closing in, radiating killing intent, how could she possibly last ten breaths in such a situation?

If Lu Ye landed a few more strikes, she would likely perish there.

Daring not to delay, she once again unleashed the divine might of the Heaven-Weaving Needle, tearing open a path through the solidified space, finally regaining her freedom of movement.

Now, Lu Ye could no longer hope to stop her.

As she was thinking this, she suddenly felt an unusual aura emanating from behind her—the aura of a supreme treasure!

Almost instinctively, she turned her head to see Lu Ye, his expression indifferent, raise a hand towards her, then gently bring it down, uttering, "Fall!"

From the ethereal void, something seemed to descend from the sky. Immediately, fine lines appeared out of nowhere, crisscrossing in all directions, dividing the entire space into numerous grids.

Zhifei found herself in one of these grids, and a strange, ominous black light shimmered around her body.

The Feather Tribe's half-saint, still activating her Feather Travel Art, crashed into the edge of the grid as if hitting an invisible wall, instantly bouncing back.

Simultaneously, some information inexplicably appeared in her mind.

Zhifei's face turned pale; she finally realized what method Lu Ye had employed.

It was none other than a supreme treasure called the Starry Chessboard. Now that a piece had been placed and the game begun, she would have to break the chess game to escape.

But at this moment, she had neither the time nor the inclination to play chess with Lu Ye. Watching Lu Ye unreasonably cross one grid after another that should have been impassable, steadily closing in on her, Zhifei, in her panic, could only activate the Heaven-Weaving Needle once more.

She placed all her hope in the supreme treasure in her hand, only wishing to open a path to survival with it.

It had an effect; the Heaven-Weaving Needle's divine power was unparalleled. With a single strike, it continuously broke through the blockade of over a dozen grids, allowing her to dart forward a short distance. However, there were not just a dozen grids blocking her way, but potentially hundreds, meaning she would have to activate the Heaven-Weaving Needle four or five more times consecutively.

This would undoubtedly place an immense burden on her, making it nearly impossible to achieve.

The last time Lu Ye used the Starry Chessboard was against Xuan Wuzong.

However, that time, the effect was poor. Although the chess game formed, Xuan Wuzong shattered it with a single sword stroke to escape. The fundamental reason was the disparity in their strengths.

At that time, Lu Ye's strength was inferior to Xuan Wuzong's. Moreover, the Nine Heavens Thunder Marsh Sword in Xuan Wuzong's hand was also a supreme treasure, and as a sword cultivator with the strongest destructive power, he naturally possessed the ability to escape.

But the current situation was different.

In terms of foundation of strength, Lu Ye now held the advantage. While Zhifei's Heaven-Weaving Needle was indeed formidable, it would be difficult for her to completely break the chess game. As long as she couldn't break it in one go like Xuan Wuzong had, she wouldn't be able to escape.

As one pursued and the other fled, the distance between them rapidly closed.

Zhifei's expression was fraught with panic. In this situation, she had only two choices: continue to activate the Heaven-Weaving Needle to break the chess game and open an escape route, or use it to obstruct Lu Ye.

However, with Fu Wei assisting Lu Ye, any obstruction would be futile. Therefore, she could only continue fleeing forward.

Unknown to her, Fu Wei was already at the end of his tether. By himself, he could at most block two more attacks from the Heaven-Weaving Needle before his strength would be depleted.

But could the panicked Zhifei possibly realize this?

In a daze, another astonishing killing intent swept towards her. Stealing a glance back, she saw Lu Ye deliver an aerial slash.

Blade of Proximity!

The ends of the earth became a smooth path.

Zhifei instantly shrieked. She could no longer spare the effort to activate the Heaven-Weaving Needle and focused all her might on protecting herself. Yet, her body still reeled from the impact of the slash. Fortunately, there was no direct contact, and the sharp sensation she had felt earlier was gone.

This brief delay further narrowed the distance.

Zhifei finally couldn't bear it any longer and cried out, "Mingfeng, save me!"

She could only appeal to Mingfeng for help at this moment because, of the other two battlefields, Mingfeng held the advantage, while Moduo was suppressed and could barely defend himself, making any call for help useless there.

As her voice carried, Moduo, who was struggling against Si Shengya's relentless assault, instantly changed his expression.

He hadn't actually paid attention to the specific situations on the other two battlefields because simply dealing with Si Shengya consumed all his focus, leaving no room to notice anything else.

He only vaguely knew that Zhifei was being held up by someone.

Therefore, Zhifei's cry for help at this moment sounded incredibly abrupt to him. Why, out of nowhere, had it come to needing rescue? Stealing a quick glance, his heart sank immediately.

Zhifei's situation genuinely seemed grim, and this anomaly made him somewhat flustered. Already at a disadvantage, his position instantly became even more precarious.

On the other side, Mingfeng, who was currently suppressing Xuejiu and holding the absolute upper hand, had a grim expression.

As an Insectoid half-saint, he moved like the wind, swift and agile, effectively being Xuejiu's bane. This was because various profound blood arts feared opponents with such extreme speed.

The main reason was that he was incredibly difficult to pinpoint.

Xuejiu had activated his Blood Sea Art, hoping to create a geographical advantage, but Mingfeng easily shattered it, causing Xuejiu to suffer considerable backlash.

Now, hearing Zhifei's cry for help, before Mingfeng could react, Xuejiu suddenly chuckled. While swinging his sword wildly, he slowly uttered, "Want to go save her?"

How could Mingfeng not want to? Xueyuan was dead, and Xuejiu had betrayed them. Of the five half-saints, only three remained, and they could not afford any more mishaps.

However, his natural wariness prevented him from acting immediately, as he had a persistent feeling that Xuejiu was up to no good.

Seeing Mingfeng's suspicious expression, Xuejiu's smile widened. "Go ahead and save her if you wish. I can't stop you."

This was true; being inferior in strength, it would be wishful thinking for Xuejiu to try and stop him.

"However..." Xuejiu suddenly changed his tone, a playful expression on his face. "If you go to save her, I'll go assist Si Shengya. Moduo's situation doesn't seem too good right now. With me added, I wonder if we could kill him?"

Although Xuejiu spoke to Mingfeng, his words, amplified by dao power, were clearly heard by everyone within a wide range, including Yuan Xi and others observing the battle from Scarlet Flame City.

As soon as these words were uttered, the expressions of the three half-saints from the Origin World changed simultaneously.

Moduo couldn't help but ponder the scenario Xuejiu described, feeling a chill run through him. He was already struggling against Si Shengya; with Xuejiu added to the mix, how could he survive?

Zhifei's face was also pale. Her cry for help to Mingfeng was naturally meant to elicit a response, but if Xuejiu's words made Mingfeng hesitate, even a slight delay would be more than she could bear.

Just then, Xuejiu spoke again, still with that smiling expression: "Or you could choose to assist Moduo, and then I'll help Lu Ye kill Zhifei!"

With that, he suddenly pulled back, holding the Thunder Marsh Sword, his posture arrogant and excited. "Well, it's a choice between two. Which one will you pick?"

No matter which option was chosen, he would suffer no loss; he didn't care either way.

Mingfeng's face instantly turned as black as the bottom of a pot. At this point, how could he not understand Xuejiu's intent? He was deliberately speaking this way to disgust Mingfeng because, in such a critical moment, any choice made would be wrong, and someone would inevitably be abandoned.

Mingfeng felt his stomach churn. "You're truly disgusting!"

He had never seen a half-saint as despicable and shameless as Xuejiu. It seemed Xuejiu was enjoying this moment of manipulating people's minds.

Xuejiu remained silent, simply gazing at Mingfeng with a smile. To show his sincerity in not interfering, he even deliberately took a few steps back.

These few steps were only a few zhang, negligible in distance, but they constituted a clear statement.

The implication was unmistakable: a choice needed to be made quickly, or it might be too late.

From Mingfeng's perspective, given the current situation on the field, whether he wanted to or not, he ultimately had to make a decision quickly.

Because if he delayed, it would truly be too late.

So, without any hesitation, he flashed towards Zhifei, shouting aloud, "Zhifei, don't panic! I'm coming to help you!"

Zhifei wasn't panicked, but she was in disarray because Lu Ye's successive aerial Blade of Proximity slashes had left her no time to activate the Heaven-Weaving Needle to carve out a path to survival. The distance between them was rapidly closing, on the verge of close-quarters combat.

Hearing Mingfeng's voice at that moment was like hearing heavenly music, and she was so moved she nearly cried.