Splitting the Heave

The protection formation around the Tongyou Peak was starting to recover, and the repair works were already underway. However, they wouldn’t be able to restore it to the peak in a short amount of time!  

The Martial Extermination Realm cultivators on the Tongyou Peak seemed to have reached a silent agreement with the rank four beasts in the beast tide. Both sides wouldn’t interfere with the battle.

Of course, that only stopped the higher ups from taking part in the battle. The Tongyou Peak wasn’t going to let the beast tide surround the mountain without doing anything. In their eyes, the beast tide was a walking treasury! 

Every so often, they would open up the formation to let a bunch of beasts enter. They could also use the chance to temper the students of the institution!

The beasts that entered would usually be below rank three. They had close to no intelligence, and after the beast tide, they might not even return to the control of the rank four beasts. 

Rank four beasts hiding in the tide were waiting for the bulk of the lower ranked creatures to calm down before leaving.

In order to prevent anything from going wrong, there were Martial Intent Realm cultivators guarding the entrance ready to strike. The Martial Extermination Realm experts on standby were paying attention, but they wouldn’t take action unless something went really wrong.

Martial Intent Realm cultivators like Gu Yi would join in the battle eventually to train themselves.

…

After the beasts advanced to the third rank, they would be comparable to Martial Intent Realm cultivators and they would be classified as Rare Beasts. Their intelligence would start to develop.

Of course, that didn’t mean that they were comparable to old monsters like Yuan Zhen at the Martial Intent Realm. At the best, their intelligence was comparable to young kids.

…

Naturally, the rank four beasts noticed the Tongyou Peak’s actions. The disciples of the Tongyou Peak would hunt only within the protection formation of Tongyou Peak, and they would kill several dozen ordinary low-leveled beasts at best. The rank four beasts couldn’t be bothered with them in the least.

When Shang Xia finally arrived, he noticed several familiar faces among them.

“Shang Xia, why don’t we compete on how many beasts we kill?” Ju Hang called out to Shang Xia the moment he appeared.

Shang Xia waved his hand casually and snorted, “There’s no point!”

“Are you afraid?” Another voice came from the side and Shang Xia noticed Zhang Jianfei standing nearby. 

The two of them were once his greatest opponents in the outer division, and they managed to comprehend their respective martial intents.

If there wasn’t an existence as perverted as Shang Xia, the two of them would have been the shining stars of their batch!

Of course, the two of them were still held in high regard by the institution. However, no one liked to be overshadowed by their peer. Because of the attention the institution placed on Shang Xia, the two of them were extremely displeased.

How mature were teens who were barely eighteen?! It was natural for them to compete with each other for glory and recognition.

Shang Xia snorted in contempt. “Are the two of you stupid or something? The difference between our cultivation is huge! What’s there to compete? Are you telling me to bully you guys? I couldn’t tell in the past, but the two of you have really weird preferences!” 

Ju Hang sneered softly, “Hah… You definitely won us in terms of cultivation and combat strength. However, you might not be able to kill the beasts as quickly and efficiently as us!” 

Zhang Jianfei added, “We’ll make it fair for the both of us! We’ll team up to compete with you. It’ll be a two against one. We can also change the targets… You can hunt rank two beasts and we’ll kill rank one ones! Let’s see which side does better in an hour!” 

Shang Xia stared at Zhang Jianfei and laughed, “Joining forces with someone again? Did you forget how you were betrayed in the past?”

The smile on Zhang Jianfei’s face froze but Ju Hang interrupted the two. “Just tell us if you dare to compete! What are you going on about?”

Shang Xia sighed in response, “Alright, alright, since the two of you are so adamant, I’ll play with you. You can choose however you want the competition to be. Since this is now a competition, there has to be a prize…” 

Ju Hang saw the look in Zhang Jianfei’s eyes and he realized that there was no way they could join forces anymore… “Fine! We won’t team up… We’ll hunt rank one beasts and you can kill rank two ones. As for the prize…” 

“Hold up. There’s no need to take out anything that will embarrass yourself. Bring out the good stuff!” Shang Xia stopped him mid-sentence.

The sides of Ju Hang’s lips twitched, and he turned to look at Zheng Jianfei. “You can start…” 

Tossing a cloth bag from his sleeves, Zhang Jianfei snapped, “I don't have any good stuff. Let’s just use fifty silver essence as the bet.” 

The cloth bag burst open all of a sudden, and a dazzling light threatened to blind the other disciples present.

“You…” Ju Hang didn’t expect Zhang Jianfei to toss out a bag of silver essence. He could only smile helplessly.

A single piece of silver essence was obviously not good enough to be taken seriously by Shang Xia. However, the amount he took out was definitely substantial!

Fifty silver essence could buy half the ingredients required for a cultivator at the Martial Realm to break through. It was half of Zhang Jianfei’s annual salary!

If he were to live on that alone without using it to purchase ingredients to create medicine, he could live for close to three years!

Shang Xia glanced at Ju Hang from the corner of his eye and laughed, “Are you planning to bring out fifty silver essence too?” 

Ju Hang shook his head and tossed over a scroll that seemed to be made out of beast skin. He said softly, “This is a blank talisman scroll I obtained after killing a cultivator of the Four Spiritual Peak. It’s made from some sort of beast hide…” 

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

Pausing for a second, he continued, “This is a scroll capable of inscribing rank three talismans!” 

Like the talismans he obtained from Shang Xi and Shang Ke, the scroll had the ability to contain the divine sense of a cultivator of their level!

Just the scroll itself was definitely worth fifty pieces of silver essence.

Narrowing his eyes slightly, Shang Xia wanted to raise an eyebrow in suspicion. Was it really a coincidence that Ju Hang brought out a scroll capable of withstanding divine sense? 

Since he was practicing the art of talismans, he didn’t even have enough raw materials to create rank two talismans. There was no way the institution or the Shang Clan would give him rank three ingredients to play with.

Was it truly a coincidence? 

Seeing the hesitation on Shang Xia’s face, Ju Hang snorted softly, “With everyone as our witness, these will be our stake! Senior Brother Shang, please.”

Shang Xia gave Ju Hang a deep stare before making a piece of feather appear in his hands.

“A feather from the Lightning Bird!” 

Gasps of shock came from the crowd around them. Many people felt their breaths getting heavier when they saw the silvery feather in his hand.

To be absolutely fair, the feather of a Lightning Bird was merely a rank one ingredient.

However, it was nearly impossible for cultivators below the Martial Intent Realm to obtain a feather from the Lightning Bird as it flew extremely quickly!

The price of the feather would easily reach a hundred pieces of silver essence, and one might not be able to buy it due to its scarcity!

Naturally, that only applied to people other than Shang Xia. Everyone knew that he could control a flock of Mutated Rain Swallows now, and their leader, the Lightning Bird, was somewhat obedient towards Shang Xia!

It wasn’t too difficult for him to obtain one of its feathers.

He didn’t even have to pluck the feathers off its body! He could just use those that fell naturally.

“If you win, you can split this among yourselves.” Shang Xia yawned.

Ju Hang and Zhang Jianfei looked at each other and noticed the fire of desire burning in each other’s eyes. No matter what, they had to obtain the feather! 

They cried out in unison, “Deal!” 

“The protection formation is about to open…” Someone in the crowd said, and everyone’s attention turned to the barrier.

Before long, a portion of the barrier started to tremble as a hole appeared in it. One of the cultivators had long since placed a bucket of fresh blood near the entrance, and the stench quickly drifted into the nose of the wild beasts waiting outside.

As howls filled the air, the ground under their feet started to rumble. 

“The beasts are about to come! Everyone, prepare yourselves!” 

Other than Shang Xi and Gu Yi, there were two other Martial Intent Realm cultivators standing behind the disciples. One of them was Wu TInghai of the Protection Division, and the other had a foreign face. He should be a lone cultivator of the Azure Origin World and Shang Xia didn’t really have an impression of the man.

There were close to twenty disciples on the frontline ready to battle, not counting the Martial Intent Realm experts.

No one knew how many beasts would charge in, or if the twenty-odd disciples would be enough to hold them back.

A loud cry filled the skies as a black figure was the first to rush through the gap in the barrier. In the blink of an eye, it arrived.

Shang Xia frowned. “Wolf Eagle… Heh, looks like it’s destined for enemies to cross paths!” 

Just as he was about to leap into action, a frosty light flashed above his head and the bird released a wretched cry before falling to the ground.

Shang Xia saw a flying dagger stuck in the body of the Wolf Eagle, and he raised an eyebrow in shock.

“Hehe, your wager might be interesting, but looks like I’m going to be taking the first kill of the battle!” 

Shang Xia turned to look at the person who spoke and a strange light flashed in his eyes.

He had some impression of the person who moved, and it was Tang Youqian! His cultivation had reached the large completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm.

Shang Xia heard Shang Quan mention him before. Tang Youqian was a pretty interesting cultivator. He seemed to be able to see things other cultivators couldn’t!