Zhao Xuan's expression was far from pleasant.
His face was dark and heavy.
With the big golden mouse's extraordinary sense of smell, the plan to surround and kill him was practically impossible to carry out successfully.
Before their encirclement could even take shape, Zhao Xuan could easily slip away first.
But—
That wasn't the real problem.
The real issue was this:
Three days later, when the gates of Life City reopened—
If Neps and the others truly united twenty or thirty people and blocked the city gates, things would become disastrous.
Zhao Xuan was very strong.
Extremely strong.
It could be said that even without using the One-Second Secret Art, even without entering the so-called "one-second true man" state, he could still clash head-on with any foreign Awakened in the relic who had activated an extreme secret technique.
But—
As the saying goes, two fists cannot overcome four hands.
Zhao Xuan did not believe that, with his current strength, he could break through a blockade of twenty to thirty people and escape Life City safely.
Thinking of this—
His brows immediately furrowed.
"Do I really have to trouble Fei Ruxue and the others in the end?"
"No—no, no, no, no. Absolutely not."
Zhao Xuan shook his head forcefully.
"They clearly entered Life City on a special mission—one that concerns the safety of a Ninth-Rank Emperor of Kyushu."
"I can't let my personal troubles affect them."
Admittedly—
Zhao Xuan was not a generous person.
He was petty.
Narrow-minded.
Vindictive.
And even afraid of death—so afraid that, to prevent others from plotting against him, he preferred to strike first and eliminate all potential threats.
Aside from being a little handsome, he was not a good person at all.
From his temper, to his personality, to his way of doing things—
None of it fit the description of a "good man."
But—
Despite all that—
He was someone with a strong sense of the bigger picture.
The importance of a Ninth-Rank Emperor to Kyushu went without saying.
Why was Kyushu able to dominate the Endless Sea, suppressing all other nations and occupying so many high-grade relics?
It was precisely because of the existence of those Ninth-Rank Emperors.
The fall of even a single Ninth-Rank Emperor would have a massive impact on the balance of power across the Endless Sea.
After all—
Although Kyushu was powerful—undeniably the world's number one nation, far ahead of second and third place—
As the saying goes, the tallest tree catches the most wind.
Because Kyushu was so strong, if its Emperors were to suffer any mishap, the other nations would inevitably seize the chance to take a bite out of Kyushu.
That was unavoidable.
"Unless I'm truly driven into a corner, I absolutely cannot disturb Fei Ruxue and the others."
Zhao Xuan clenched his fist, muttering to himself.
He then quickly counted the Life Stones he currently possessed.
High-grade Life Stones: three—equivalent to one hundred eighty ordinary Life Stones.
Ordinary Life Stones: six hundred sixty-seven.
In total—
Eight hundred forty-seven Life Stones.
"Not enough. Not enough. Not enough—far from enough!"
"Even if I include that entire divine medicinal stone bamboo shoot, it's only worth about 135 billion worth of life-energy resources."
"That's still nowhere near the 750 billion needed to break through to the Seventh-Rank Venerable realm!"
As for the spatial relic cores he had taken from Hawkins and the others—
While those relic cores were extremely valuable—
Their value only mattered if Zhao Xuan could leave Life City alive.
If he couldn't get out—
Those relic cores were completely useless to him.
"Six thousand one hundred fifty…"
Zhao Xuan silently calculated the number, his brow deeply furrowed and his fist clenched.
"If I want to use life energy to break through to the Seventh Rank, I need to obtain 6,150 ordinary Life Stones within the next two and a half days."
"That's not a small number."
"If I hunted Gold Guards, it might be possible…"
"But!"
"I absolutely can't hunt Gold Guards anymore."
"With my strength, even if I go all out, killing a Gold Guard would still take at least six or seven minutes."
"And six or seven minutes is more than enough time for Neps and his people to surround me completely."
"Damn it!"
At that thought—
Zhao Xuan's brow creased even tighter.
The alley fell silent.
Complete silence.
Time passed quietly in that stillness.
Tick. Tick. Tick.
Seconds slipped away.
No one knew how long had passed—
Until suddenly—
Zhao Xuan's eyes lit up.
"Right!"
"Right, right, right!"
An intense surge of excitement appeared on his face.
"Although my current life-energy reserves are nowhere near enough to refine my skull and break through to the Seventh Rank…"
"I can use them to re-refine my limbs!"
"Compared to my organs, which were refined with life energy, my limbs—refined only with spiritual power—are clearly much weaker!"
"But to re-refine my limbs with life energy, I'd have to start over from the beginning."
"I'd have to forcibly fall back to the Fourth Rank."
"And after re-refining my limbs and advancing back to the Fifth Rank, I'd then have to spend another 50 billion worth of life energy to re-refine my organs and advance to the Sixth Rank again!"
"That would be an enormous waste…"
There was no avoiding it.
After all—
Refining the limbs before refining the organs was a fundamental cultivation rule of this world.
It was like rebuilding a house's foundation.
If you wanted to rebuild the foundation, you had to demolish the house and start over.
Without tearing it down, rebuilding the foundation was impossible.
Of course—
You could forcefully rebuild the foundation without demolishing the house.
But the cost would be—
Massive resource consumption, and a structure that would be unstable and prone to collapse.
…
In the silence—
Zhao Xuan suddenly clenched his fist.
"Do it."
"So what if I have to start over?"
"So what if I waste some life energy?"
"Without destruction, there can be no rebirth!"
"As for the life energy I waste—"
"Hmph!"
"Once I refine both my limbs and organs entirely with life energy and re-enter the Sixth-Rank Grandmaster realm…"
"I'll take it all back from you—double!"
With that—
Zhao Xuan willed it.
He opened the relic space where he had once broken through to the Sixth Rank.
After stepping inside, he immediately sealed the entrance.
Next—
A long, deep breath.
Zhao Xuan inhaled deeply again and again, steadying himself.
Only after a long while did he finally make his ultimate decision.
Break first—then rise.
Immediately—
He began to disperse his cultivation.
And started over from scratch.
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