Splitting the Heave

“This damn bird… Where did it go now?” Shang XIa cursed. Since he didn’t wish to disturb Sun Haiwei who was recovering in seclusion, he decided to head out before calling for the Lightning Bird.

Despite calling out several times, he failed to receive a reply. The sense of unease in his heart grew stronger. 

After it bathed in the heavenly lightning back then, Shang Xia believed that the Lightning Bird had already entered the third rank!

With its speed, not even Martial Extermination Realm cultivators had the ability to threaten its life.

“Well… It’s not likely that it ran into trouble… Did it discover something interesting?” Guesses formed in his mind. “I wonder when that damn bird left… I was too careless… I should have thought of it when the Lightning Bird didn’t come to our assistance when we faced the rank three undead corpse. With its help, the battle would be much easier. Senior Sister Sun’s injuries wouldn’t be so serious either…” 

Shang Xia thought about what might have happened to the Lightning Bird while concealing himself in his surroundings to look for clues.

Without the Lightning Bird to warn him of any dangers he might be in, he could only rely on himself and proceed cautiously.

With the essence qi stone mine in the center, Shang Xia first secured the area around them. It seemed that the battlefield between two worlds became a lot calmer after the beast tide that passed.

That also allowed Shang Xia to relax slightly. He stared all around, but he noticed the Coral Forest not too far away.

Shang Xia’s heart trembled slightly. Could the Lightning Bird have entered the forbidden region?

According to what Sun Haiwei said, the Coral Forest was a giant maze made from natural formations. If the Lightning Bird really went in, there was no way for it to hear Shang Xia’s cries anymore.

The only question in Shang Xia’s mind was if the Lightning Bird entered the Coral Forest on its own…

Moreover, it was said that nothing could fly in the Coral Forest. Not even Martial Extermination Realm cultivation were able to do so. 

If that was really the case, the Lightning Bird shouldn’t be drawn to the Coral Forest. Unless, the restriction only stopped creatures who used their cultivation to soar through the air. It was possible that birds and other beasts that had the ability to fly weren’t affected.

The disappearance of the Lightning Bird wasn’t the only thing troubling him. He also wanted to find out how the rank three undead corpse entered the mine.

Even though they were pretty close to the Coral Forest, it didn’t make sense for a rank three undead corpse to appear!

For a very long time, there hadn’t been an appearance of an undead corpse in the Coral Forest. Why did one appear at such a weird time? That was also one of the reasons Deputy Patriarch Liu had the ability to deploy so many people from the Tongyou Peak to join his mission. After all, the number of casualties would be much lower without the interference of undead corpses!

Shang Xia turned to look in the direction of the Coral Forest once again. There was no doubt that the corpse belonged to someone of the Zhu Family. With the changes that were going on, he knew that the situation in the Coral Forest had changed.

It was too bad he wasn’t strong enough to enter the Coral Forest alone to look for clues.

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Sun Haiwei was recovering slowly in the mine, and he could only wait for her before they set off.

Even though he walked around the mine to ensure its safety, it seemed as though he returned with a belly full of questions instead.

When he finally returned to the entrance of the mine, the look in his eyes changed as panic threatened to take over his mind. The water that existed at the bottom of the mine when they first arrived was gone! In its place was a pile of sludge, and the water was nowhere to be seen! Shang Xia examined the place again but failed to notice anything wrong. Rushing down to where Sun Haiwei was in seclusion, he noticed that the entrance to the cave he made for her hadn’t been touched.

Pausing for a second outside her cultivation cave, he only heaved a sigh of relief when he felt that the heaven and earth qi in the surroundings was moving normally.

As the two of them were attacked the moment they arrived at the essence qi stone mine, they didn’t have time to think too much about things that happened.

There was something off about the mine!

If it was used to mine essence qi stones, why would there be water in the mine? Even if it’s a pool of accumulated rain water, there shouldn’t be so much!

If the explanation was that the mine shifted locations in the battlefield between two worlds and that a vein of water just happened to be in the mine, how could he explain the disappearance of the water?!

With question marks filling his mind, he started his investigation without caring about the sludge in his way.

When he finally arrived at the center of the crater where the water used to be, he discovered that it was where the location formation laid down by the institution was. 

They estimated that something went wrong with the location formation due to the beast tide, but now, it didn’t seem so.

Shang Xia kicked away the sludge around his feet and revealed several broken stones filled with endless markings of some sort of runes. The essence qi stones that lined the stones were completely dim.

Shang Xia’s gaze followed the largest crack on the stone slab and after some careful examination, he discovered a small hole enough for a human to pass through.

That's it!

Sighing in his heart, Shang Xia could tell that although the walls of the hole had eroded a little, it hadn’t been long since it appeared! The only creature or person that could have dug out a hole like that was the rank three undead corpse!

That begged the next question. Where did the hole lead?

A trace of hesitation flashed across Shang Xia’s face. Turning back to glance at Sun Haiwei’s cultivation cave for a split second, he decided to scout it out. Without another word, he jumped in.

The rank three undead corpse was obviously extraordinarily strong. Not only was it able to carve out a hole into the essence qi mine, but it also disguised the hole as an ordinary well in the eyes of outsiders!

After he entered the opening, he appeared in a tunnel that stretched on for as long as the eye could see. From the looks of it, the tunnel seemed incomplete and the reason behind the undead corpse’s appearance in the mine was because its path was blocked by a sturdy stone wall.

Initially, Shang Xia thought that the tunnel was created due to the presence of an underground river. However, that didn’t seem to be the case. Touching the sides of the walls, Shang Xia understood that no matter how strong the undead corpse was, it didn’t possess the ability to dig out such a massive tunnel while maintaining its structural integrity. The tunnel was obviously a massive project that had existed for god knew how long!

The rank three undead corpse probably created the opening to the mine after realizing that there was nowhere else to go after reaching the end of the tunnel.

Without hesitation, Shang Xia drew his Delicate Jade River Sword. He started his exploration carefully.

He realized that he had severely underestimated the length of the tunnel. He walked close to five miles in a single go, but he was nowhere near the end.

Even though the tunnel consisted of some twists and turns, causing Shang Xia to not know his current location, there was one thing he was sure of. If he continued down the tunnel, he would end up in the Coral Forest.

A trace of suspicion filled his heart. Was it really possible to enter the Coral Forest from under the ground?!

There was no way he was the first person to think of it. Other people would definitely be able to come up with the same idea!

There had to be something off!

As he cursed in his heart, he discovered some flickering dots of light ahead. Carefully approaching, he discovered that it was a screen of multi-colored light blinking somewhere in front of him.