Chapter 540

Chapter 540: At All Costs

"It seems you really desire to bring trouble upon yourself!"

Seeing that Mares remained unmoved, Morris’s patience completely ran out.

The higher the expectations, the greater the disappointment.

Mares was furious at being deceived.

His anger was equally intense.

After successfully tricking Mares into signing the contract, he eagerly awaited Mares’s arrival in the star cluster, hoping he would quickly use the tracking and searching techniques to find Yi Chen and the Shadow King.

He wanted to complete the task and leave the star cluster as soon as possible.

After waiting two months, he finally saw Mares arrive.

But what he got was the realization that Mares already knew he had been tricked and was deliberately stalling for time.

That was one thing.

Morris felt guilty, so he gritted his teeth and bore it, hoping that after two more months, Mares would understand the consequences.

He knew that delaying would also cause him significant losses.

But he was disappointed once again.

Mares still refused to swallow his pride and continued to delay.

Even after Morris repeatedly raised the stakes, Mares still refused to compromise.

The intense disappointment made Morris feel like he was going to explode.

Branches extended from Morris’s body, shooting toward Mares.

The powerful energy fluctuations caused the entire star to tremble slightly.

Mares showed no hesitation and quickly fled into the distance.

The Shadow King also smoothly took Yi Chen and moved away to avoid the strong energy fluctuations that could affect their hiding state.

"Your Majesty, what should we do?"

After retreating tens of thousands of kilometers, the Shadow King continued to observe, using his Perception Ability to transmit the images outside to Yi Chen while asking for a strategy.

“Let’s assess the situation first! Mares should have come prepared,” Yi Chen replied, feeling somewhat helpless.

From his perspective, he undoubtedly hoped Mares could keep delaying the time.

However, Morris, desperate to reclaim the Space Stone and complete the task, had become shameless and turned against Mares after only two months of stalling.

If Mares couldn’t win and was captured by Morris, things would definitely get tricky.

No matter how angry he was, Yi Chen estimated that Mares would not risk his life just to prevent Morris from completing his task.

Surely, he would choose to compromise to save his life.

If that were the case, Yi Chen could only find a way to kill Mares.

He might even have to risk the Shadow King to assassinate Mares in front of Morris.

Even if he succeeded, Morris, in despair, might find himself desperate enough to ask the foreign affairs department to abandon the task or to send powerful beings from there.

At that point, the foreign affairs department would likely discover that he had never signed the contract at all.

That would lead to serious trouble.

If he really attracted an army from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe, the star cluster was too small, and the Great Flame Empire could not keep it hidden.

With his current strength realm, even with the help of the Shadow Clan, he still couldn’t withstand the army from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe sent by the foreign affairs department.

Before Mares arrived, Yi Chen’s original plan was to drain Mares’s luck and let him die in the star cluster.

But after learning about Mares’s attitude, he now hoped nothing would happen to Mares and wanted to use him to buy more time.

At the very least, he wanted to delay until he could lead the Shadow Clan to eliminate the army of the Tree-Dwelling Tribe.

It didn’t matter if he couldn’t defeat the powerful beings from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe for now; he could keep killing their soldiers while retreating safely, which would still resolve the threat from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe.

The Tree Star Cluster was far too distant from the star cluster.

The Tree-Dwelling Tribe had difficulty mobilizing their troops and could not send too many forces at once.

Moreover, the threat he posed to the Tree-Dwelling Tribe wasn’t great enough for them to spare no expense in sending a massive force to kill him.

Thus, even if he fell out with the Tree-Dwelling Tribe, the Great Flame Empire could still develop and expand steadily in the star cluster.

With his talent, he would be able to grow strong enough to kill the powerful beings from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe without any fear while they had not yet recovered.

Morris’s sudden change of attitude and attempt to force Mares to compromise completely disrupted Yi Chen’s plans.

Fortunately, the worst outcome had not yet arrived.

Mares clearly knew he had been deceived before he came.

He possessed treasures that could lock onto luck.

It was very likely that he was already prepared for Morris’s use of force.

Yi Chen could only wait and see how things would unfold.

…

Boom!

The gap between their strength realms was vast.

Mares’s reaction and speed could not match Morris’s attack speed.

Just as Mares rushed out from the star, a massive branch shot forward and struck hard against Mares.

With a loud bang, to Morris’s surprise, a golden light erupted from Mares’s body.

This golden light seemed like an incredibly flexible sponge, dissipating the force of his attack.

When the massive branch hit Mares, its power was almost completely gone.

Although it looked impressive, it was easily blocked by the shield around Mares.

The attack barely even broke Mares’s shield, let alone harmed him.

This brief delay not only failed to interrupt Mares’s escape, but instead allowed him to create more distance.

What frustrated Morris even more was that while fleeing, Mares took out a tri-colored flower from the Space Stone and unhesitatingly stuffed it into his mouth.

Morris recognized the tri-colored flower.

It was a type of mid-grade immortal material.

After consuming it, beings at the Strong Fighter Level could boost their speed several times and maintain it for a long duration.

With the speed boost from the tri-colored flower, Mares could easily shake off Morris’s pursuit, even though he was at a lower strength realm.

“Damn it, you’re forcing me!”

Morris’s eyes flashed with angry red light.

Although the tri-colored flower was merely a mid-grade immortal material, it was the top-quality among them.

Many powerful beings from the Tree-Dwelling Tribe regarded it as a lifesaving trump card.

At least ten billion mid-grade immortal stones would be needed to buy one.

Ten billion mid-grade immortal stones were consumed in a single swallow to escape his pursuit.

It was clear that Mares had suffered a huge loss and would not easily let it go; the chances of him compromising were almost zero.

In Morris’s eyes, this action was akin to forcing him to his death.

After spending years in the star cluster with nothing but bad luck, he gained nothing and lost all his possessions.

His territory’s subordinates were nearly all dead or injured.

Now, he desperately wanted to complete the task and recover his losses to leave the star cluster.

Mares’s reckless actions to destroy his hopes made his hatred for Mares suddenly exceed even his feelings toward the Shadow King, who tried to snatch his Space Stone.

“This is you forcing me!”

Morris’s eyes burned red.

A burst of green liquid sprayed out from his body.

He decisively used secret techniques, sacrificing his own wellbeing to forcibly increase his speed.

In an instant, while Morris’s speed did not increase to the same degree as Mares’s, it rose by nearly half.

The distance between them, which had been widening, began to close again.