Chapter 543

Chapter 543: A Last-Ditch Effort

As Mares broke through the blockade, the distance between the two sides began to gradually widen again.

“Run away! Let’s see how long you can escape!”

This time Morris was not anxious.

The longer it took, the more small space battleships would arrive in the surrounding area.

In addition, the human federation’s extensive surveillance network spanned the entire galaxy.

Even if they lost track of Mares, as long as he did not have treasures that blocked the scanner, they would surely be able to discover his whereabouts again.

In fact, things unfolded just as he anticipated.

In less than twenty minutes of back-and-forth chasing, before Morris completely lost track of Mares, the Federation Military had already begun to provide approximate locations of Mares based on the clues picked up by their scanners.

This made it much easier for Morris to chase him.

On Mares’s side, although he guessed that Morris could reappear in front of him by predicting his path and using the human federation’s Space Jump System to arrive early, he decided to avoid the same straight escape as before.

Instead, he constantly changed his escape direction.

However, as a result of not running in a straight line, the distance between them still could not be completely widened.

The branch that seemed to have fused with his body gradually lost its shine, became wilted again, and even turned to dust and vanished.

Despite the tri-colored flower allowing him to maintain a speed faster than Morris, it was not truly his own speed and would eventually decrease as the effect of the pill wore off.

Seeing that he could not escape Morris’s pursuit, Mares understood very well that if this entanglement continued, he would surely be caught and defeated by Morris sooner or later.

He could only go all in!

Morris sighed inwardly.

He could not understand why, despite possessing a treasure that could lock onto fate, he had experienced continuous misfortune since coming to this star cluster outside our main region, even if it should affect the Tree-Dwelling Tribe’s fate.

In contrast, the current situation clearly showed that he was suffering greater losses.

The tri-colored flower, the injury-induced acceleration, and the treasure refined from the branch of the strong were all significant costs.

Even so, he still could not shake off Morris’s pursuit.

In comparison, Morris had only suffered some internal injuries from using a secret method to accelerate and incurred no other losses.

Yet he was still close on Mares’s heels and had not been shaken off.

Clearly, it seemed that Mares was the one who was more unfortunate.

Mares stopped fleeing.

He took out a greenish fruit from the Space Stone.

There was some struggle and hesitation.

This fruit was a powerful weapon he had obtained at a great cost.

After consuming it, his strength would increase dramatically for a short time, giving him a good chance of victory even against an opponent from a much higher major realm.

To use it recklessly now would be almost like wasting a future life-saving trump card for when he faced a strong enemy.

The reason was that the current situation was not life-threatening.

After all, if he was willing to compromise and took out the fruit, Morris would certainly choose to sign a contract that promised mutual non-aggression as long as he fulfilled his conditions.

This way, he could keep the fruit.

However, doing so would mean he could not exhaust Morris or allow him to achieve his desires and complete his task to return to the Tree-Dwelling Tribe quickly.

“Even if I fight you to a draw, you won’t get your way!”

A flash of resentment crossed Mares’s eyes.

He no longer hesitated and stuffed the fruit into his mouth.

Letting Morris get his wish would preserve this life-saving trump card, but it wouldn’t clear his mind.

In the future, he would always carry this grudge, which could affect his temperament and cultivation.

He had no choice.

He had to unleash this anger.

He had to exhaust Morris!

The fruit slid down into his stomach, quickly reaching his root system.

Then it transformed into endless energy and warmth, which was absorbed by the roots.

The immense energy flowed steadily through the roots and into his whole body.

Mares could clearly sense his strength rapidly increasing.

That powerful feeling intoxicated and exhilarated him.

“What are you doing?”

Morris arrived close, his expression grim.

His Perception Ability sensed that Mares’s aura was rising steadily.

Clearly, this guy had consumed some superior immortal materials to boost his strength again.

This filled him with ultimate envy and jealousy.

Comparing himself to others was infuriating.

Even if he hadn’t lost all his possessions to the Shadow King, he could not summon superior treasures and materials like Mares did so frequently.

Normally, he was in a higher major realm than Mares.

With all the resources and treasures he possessed, he should have more than Mares.

But in reality, despite being comparatively wealthy among Tree-Dwelling Tribe beings at his level due to his stingy accumulation, he was still far behind Mares, who had methods to track and earn a lot of valuable resources swiftly.

“Die!”

Mares refused to waste time and launched an attack at Morris.

Countless branches, like innumerable tentacles, entangled and jabbed at Morris.

“Pushing up your strength realm forcibly, even if it is higher, is still an illusion. No matter how much you elevate it, your understanding of the principles of heaven and earth and your application of the power of the laws cannot improve.”

Morris was also filled with fury; he did not retreat but charged into Mares’s attack.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The fierce collisions created astonishing energy fluctuations.

Those energy fluctuations spread outwards like cosmic storms, instantly destroying the meteors within hundreds of thousands of kilometers.

Even the space began to show invisible cracks that could not be discerned by the naked eye.

Some cosmic energy spilled out from these cracks, intertwining and colliding with surrounding cosmic energy, forming tiny black hole prototypes.

Thanks to the extremely powerful shield he carried, Mares focused solely on attacking Morris wildly.

Morris, unable to dodge due to his lower speed compared to Mares under the effect of the tri-colored flower, could only fend off with all his strength, hoping to outlast the effect of the immortal materials Mares had consumed.

Their battle grew increasingly intense.

Especially when Morris’s shield was broken, he began to show varying degrees of injury.

The powerful defensive treasure Mares possessed couldn’t hold out for long either, as a furious Morris broke through.

Both of their injuries increased at a visible rate.

It became obvious that neither side would back down until they were both exhausted, and the fight would lead to mutual destruction.

Finally, when both were bruised and battered, and still unable to determine a victor, a change occurred.

Surprisingly, it was Morris who could not hold on first.