Currently, the Sage Sovereign was looking very relaxed and not in a hurry at all, whereas Lan Muzi was clearly very restricted.

The Sage Sovereign's lizard head had turned a peculiar dark blue color, and there was faint light shimmering over its surface. With each of the Nine Palace Grids that shattered, patches of colorful scales would appear on his face.

His style of battle was quite strange, and it consisted of constantly traversing through the limited space of the grid, which was only 100 square meters in area.

Whenever Lan Muzi unleashed an attack with his Yang Wood Saber, the Sage Sovereign's body would release a flash of light, and he would disappear to evade the attack. Lan Muzi could clearly sense that with each attack he was unleashing, his soul power was quickly dwindling and was constantly being weakened.

Meanwhile, the Sage Sovereign continued to traverse through the grid, seemingly in no hurry to end this battle.

What was very alarming to Lan Muzi was that in this grid, his soul power was only being expended, but there was no way to recover it. As a Hyper Douluo, his soul core was able to generate energy to recover some of his lost soul power, and the rest would be replenished by natural energies.

However, this grid seemed to be affected by a special type of power of laws, rendering him unable to recover his soul power.

Thus, after unleashing close to 20 attacks, a significant chunk of his soul power had been expended, and he could only cease in his attacks.

If he were to continue in this fashion, he would soon run out of soul power before his opponent had even attacked him. This was the first time he had encountered such a peculiar situation, and in this grid, he was unable to even use his battle armor domain.

The Sage Sovereign smirked, and said, "So you're not attacking anymore? You think that'll solve all your problems?"

He raised his right hand as he spoke, and a staff immediately appeared in his grasp. At this point, Yali and Ghost Emperor's battle had only just concluded, and a hint of color had returned to the scales on the Sage Sovereign's face. The colorful scales immediately flew into the staff in his hand, which began to glow with colorful light as it was pointed in Lan Fuozi's direction.

Lan Muzi was immediately struck by a burst of immense force that sent his body flying. This burst of force virtually took up the entire grid, making it impossible for him to evade. Furthermore, not only was the power extremely enormous, it was also quite familiar to him; it was power that was very similar to his soul power!

He raised his Yang Wood Saber and unleashed his Threefold Yanghancement, and the Sage Sovereign immediately vanished before appearing in another corner.

At the same time, a series of projections were released from his staff, and Lan Muzi was immediately struck by a sense of sluggishness, as if he had fallen into a swamp.

This was different from a normal control system soul skill in that it made him feel as if his body was being drawn in all directions by tremendous suction force, and as a result, he didn't know how he was supposed to struggle against this.

Streaks of green light were unleashed by his Yang Wood Saber as he tried to weaken this restriction, but it proved to be entirely futile.

Meanwhile, the Sage Sovereign merely continued to hover in mid-air in a completely still manner.

"There's no need to struggle; it won't do you any good. My control is absolute, so there's no way you'll be able to struggle free unless you're a god. Also, I can tell you that as I'm controlling you, I'm also unable to escape from this grid. However, here in this grid, your power will constantly be devoured, and it will flow directly to me, so I'm not in a hurry at all; the power released by your struggles will only benefit me."

The Sage Sovereign's mocking voice rang out beside Lan Muzi's ears, and if an easily agitated character had been in Lan Muzi's place, they would most likely already be struggling to keep their cool.

Lan Muzi was already very calm and steadfast, but battling against the Sage Sovereign was still an extremely painful experience for him.

All he could do now was try and focus as much as he could.

He had witnessed Yali's death, and he was also prepared to sacrifice himself, but even if he were to do that, he had to find the right opportunity first. Unfortunately, his opponent clearly wasn't going to give him such an opportunity.

What was rather perplexing to Lan Muzi was that according to how the current situation was progressing, there was still a very good chance that the human camp would secure the victory in this match. Even if the Sage Sovereign were to defeat him, the abyssal camp didn't have much of an upper hand in any of the other battles. After all, Ghost Emperor was already dead, and the human camp still had many Limit Douluos left.

However, judging from what the Sage Sovereign was saying, it seemed that he wasn't feeling any urgency at all, as if it weren't an issue for so many abyssal emperors to perish.

He didn't know what the Sage Sovereign's status in the abyssal plane was, but it was clear that he was an extremely important figure, even more so than Infernal Emperor and Ghost Emperor, which meant that he had to be ranked very favorably even among the 10 abyssal sovereigns.

The fact that he was still so calm and collected indicated that there was clearly some sinister plot bubbling under the surface.

"You're bound to fail. Even if you kill me, it won't change anything for you," Lan Muzi suddenly said as he ceased in his struggles.

The suction force was still pulling his body in all directions, but he was able to maintain his balance and stability.

The Sage Sovereign cocked his head to the side in an intrigued manner. "You must be wondering why I'm not worried at all, so you're trying to see if there's an underlying plot, right?"

Lan Muzi's heart jolted slightly upon seeing this, while the Sage Sovereign bared his fangs in what seemed to be a smile, but no matter what expression he put on, it always looked very sinister on his hideous lizard head.

"It's no use. Firstly, the grid that we're situated in is the core of the Nine Palace Grids, so it's essentially my domain, and I can prevent all sound from traveling out of this grid at will. Your death is inevitable, so even if you find out something, you won't be able to tell anyone. Just wait patiently for your death and don't make any unnecessary struggles."

Lan Muzi asked, "Then why haven't you killed me yet? I can tell that it's not because you lack the capability."

The Sage Sovereign replied, "Your senses are very sharp. Indeed, it's a simple task for me to kill you, but doing so would require a relatively large amount of energy expenditure. I can't afford to have that happen as I still have more important things to do. Hence, I'm not in a hurry; I'll kill you once all of the other battles are over. If you stay nice and still, I'll intentionally create a scenario where it looks like you took me down with you."

Lan Muzi's brows furrowed slightly upon hearing this. "Does that mean you have a way to escape?"

The Sage Sovereign replied, "Of course. Not only that, but I'll allow that human to devour some of my abyssal energy, and I'll even simulate the collapse of my own abyssal level. Rest assured, I'll make sure no one discovers anything amiss. It's inevitable that you'll win this match, but we never wanted to win this bet in the first place; none of this is important in the slightest."

Lan Muzi's heart jolted upon hearing this. "Then what IS important? Seeing as no sound can escape from this grid anyway, why don't you tell me? At least I'll be able to die an enlightened man then."

The Sage Sovereign shrugged in response. "I'm not opposed to that, but even if I tell you everything, you probably won't understand anyway."

Lan Muzi countered in a cold voice, "How will you know whether I'll understand or not if you don't tell me?"

The Sage Sovereign chuckled, "Fine then. In reality, all of this, including this bet, is just an act; do you understand?"

"An act?" Lan Muzi was stunned to hear this.

"You've sacrificed so many abyssal rulers and abyssal levels just for an act?"