"Shi Chun, Shi Chun, you can only blame yourself for liking the spotlight too much, don't blame me!"

Gong Shixi, who had been silent for a long time, suddenly let out a cold snicker as a fierce look flashed across his face.

The principle was simple: what he couldn't have, he wouldn't let Shi Chun have either.

The same principle could also be applied to the Three Sects of the Demon Path; if his own sect couldn't obtain the 'Desolate Blade', he certainly wouldn't allow the other two to have it.

It had been secretly conveyed that whichever sect held the 'Desolate Blade' in their hands might have the opportunity to command the entire Demon Path.

The rest was left for him to interpret.

He turned and flew back to the Qianyan Sect's search party, issued an order for everyone to gather, and paused the search for Divine Fire.

The main task at the moment was one thing: to spread the news that Shi Chun and Shudao Mountain could find plenty of Divine Fire quickly and widely, starting with the spies planted in various sects, whether fueled by jealousy or competition, essentially using the sects' influence to further spread the rumors.

Gong Shixi's objective was singular: to make sure Shi Chun also failed to win!

The Three Veins Alliance had its constraints; he couldn't openly fight Shi Chun to the death, so he had to use others to enact his sabotage!

He also wouldn't regret not collaborating with Shi Chun, as such a partnership was impossible between them— sharing Divine Fire, what a joke! Given our background relations, how could we possibly share it evenly?

A collaboration meant that eventually it would be a life-or-death struggle. Shi Chun might not be afraid, but what about me?

The calmer Shi Chun seemed about collaborating, the more frightened Gong Shixi became. He preferred to keep a distance.

Why had his Demon Path identity been exposed to the other without his knowledge, and the other even willingly designed a perfect diversion for him to use, combined with the top reputation from the Sky Rain Meteor Conference— of course, that was unsettling.

However, Shi Chun was ignorant of the true significance of the 'Desolate Blade' to the Three Sects, hence his attempt to seek a collaboration with the other two sects—regrettably, those who knew couldn't tell him.

A similar situation had also occurred on the Gravel Wastelands, where recently, masked individuals had approached Wu Shanshan of Forget Love Valley.

Indeed, led by Wu Shanshan, those from Forget Love Valley were still trapped in the wastelands, digging and digging.

Like the Qianyan Sect, they were kept in place by Shi Chun's cunning, while elsewhere efforts were intensely made to help Shi Chun find Divine Fire.

In fact, the Four Cauldron Sect experienced the same fate, stuck in the Iron Forest, searching incessantly; if not for a traitor emerging from Shudao Mountain resulting in Wu Jinliang's involvement, they might have stayed stuck in the Iron Forest until the end of the conference.

Having learned about the situation with the Refining Heaven Sect, Wu Shanshan quickly assembled her troops and also paused the current search for Divine Fire.

However, unlike the Qianyan Sect, since she wasn't aware of Shi Chun's Demon Path identity, there was no reason for her to adopt the 'if I can't have it, neither can you' strategy. She aimed to lead her people to go all out in searching for Shi Chun's whereabouts, seeking a shortcut to victory.

The Three Sects of the Demon Path were stuck because of Shi Chun, and could only move on because of him; many things were beyond Shi Chun's anticipation, symbolizing how both his success and downfall were of his own making—a karmic cycle, an inescapably bitter fate.

Over at the Four Cauldron Sect, Xu Anzhang had also met a masked individual, similarly informed of the upheaval within the Refining Heaven Sect.

However, unlike the other two, he didn't react and continued to hide away as advised by Wu Jinliang.

As such, he soon understood what Wu Jinliang meant by there being a traitor within, and grew curious about how much Divine Fire Shi Chun's team had found to warrant the Refining Heaven Sect completely changing their direction of pursue.

While awaiting further news, Shi Chun proactively approached him.

On Shi Chun's side, having lost the previous channel of information about Divine Fire, the impact on Mingshan Sect and the Shudao Mountain gang was significant. Relying on blindly scouring around, how could they possibly match the efficiency of before— it was essentially frenzied fumbling.

Even with superpower in his right eye, it was of no avail; the world was vast, even vigorous vitality couldn't sustain aimless power drainage.

Holding a certain level of achievement, Shi Chun no longer possessed much motivation, as Gu Lianni and the others had stated, given Tong Mingshan's current amount of absorbed Divine Fire, securing first place was hardly an issue.

Tong Mingshan also suspected he might have already possessed enough strength to clinch victory.

Lack of strong motivation didn't mean he'd just lie down; to be safe, he'd still seek out Divine Fire, but there was no need for overly risky antics anymore.

For this, Shi Chun specifically went to meet the troops of the Four Cauldron Sect; since the Four Cauldron Sect still had a few information channels useful, and the contact methods outward had been cut, he had to re-establish them. In the latter half of the time, acquiring a few more strands of Divine Fire would suffice, and there was no need to be too greedy.

The Four Cauldron Sect folks were hiding in a dimly lit cave.

Upon Shi Chun's arrival, Xu Anzhang and You Mu immediately pulled him outside to talk; there was no way around it, the matters Wu Jinliang had left unclear previously, they needed to clarify what exactly had happened this time.

Shi Chun flatly refused their inquiries, "That, you don't need to worry about. I'm officially taking over the search for Divine Fire, you just focus on cooperation."

Hearing this, Xu and You were taken aback.

Xu Anzhang raised an eyebrow and said, "Shi Chun, make it clear, you were supposed to coordinate with us!"

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