Splitting the Heave

“Who?!” The other cultivator yelled. It was obvious they didn’t expect anything to appear from behind them. 

As Shang Xia didn’t know how strong they were, he went all out immediately.

One had to know that their leader had barely left earlier. If Shang Xia used his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm, the disturbance would be too large! He might alarm the one who left. In order to ensure the kill as silently as possible, Shang Xia chose to use his Cloud Drizzle Sword Art.

“Be careful!” The cultivator at the side wanted to rush over to help, but it was too late. No matter how hard his companion tried to struggle, he was swallowed by the torrent of sword lights. His blood painted the air a dull red.

The figure that wanted to help realized his mistake, and he jerked his body back as soon as possible. He ran towards the disciple of the Tongyou Institution who was lying on the ground.

“Too late.” Shang Xia’s voice rang in Ouyang Fengxuan’s ear.

The tip of his sword appeared in front of Ouyang Fengxuan all of a sudden and it started to tremble violently. There was no way for him to guess where Shang Xia’s sword would strike. 

Circulating his inner qi desperately, a wall of ice started to form around his body. That was the first time he managed to achieve such great control over his inner qi to create a barrier so quickly.

A smirk appeared on his face. Not even experts who were at the Martial Extremity Realm who had reached the grand completion stage in their cultivation of qi would be able to kill him through the barrier!

As long as he could stall the opponent for a single second… “Yu Wen…” 

As he yelled, a needle appeared between his fingers as he got ready to counterattack.

It was too bad Shang Xia’s sword pierced through his wall of ice directly. It stabbed straight towards the space between his eyebrows. 

Ouyang Fengxuan panicked and the words became stuck in his throat. He couldn’t believe that his defenses were broken apart so easily!

The other party was clearly only at the Martial Extremity Realm. Moreover, his cultivation was a little lacking compared to his own!

How?!

Even though he knew that there was no avoiding death, the needle in his hand shot towards his target. 

Shang Xia’s Delicate Jade River Sword tapped lightning in the air as a trace of softness and strength qi pierced into Ouyang Fengxuan’s mind. 

With his eyes widening in shock, the spot between his glabella started to enlarge, slowly swallowing his head.

The needle he released flew through the hole pierced in his wall of ice, towards the set of eyes that appeared on the other side.

It was too bad Shang Xia’s sword curved at the very last moment, blocking off the approaching needle.

“Clang!” As the needle struck his sword, it was deflected away.

Ouyang Fengxuan’s eyes slowly lost their color as he fell to the ground.

Before he completely lost consciousness, he managed to force himself to utter the words, “Weird…” 

Without his support, the wall of ice started to crumble and it splashed all over the floor.

Shang Xia retrieved his blade and ran over to the disciple who was struggling to get up.

“Shang… Xia?!” Shang Xia quickly assisted the struggling disciple and he asked, “Do you recognize me?” 

“I didn’t think that you also entered…” From the disciple’s robes, Shang Xia could tell that he was an inner disciple of the institution.

“Brother, you can rest assured that the experts of the institution are coming to back us up. Hold on! You can’t give up now!” Shang Xia tried to reassure the disciple while examining his injuries. From the looks of it, the disciple suffered serious injuries. There was nearly no chance of survival. 

A flash of light crossed the disciple’s eyes, but it dimmed as quickly as it came. “Don’t worry… I know that I won’t be able to make it out of here… Leave quickly! This place isn’t safe!” 

Shang Xia continued, “Where are the rest? Where’s Deputy Patriarch Liu?” 

As soon as the name of the deputy patriarch left his lips, a flash of hatred appeared on the disciple’s face. “He… He gave up on us! All disciples in the Martial Realm have been sent out as cannon fodder to waste their time!” 

Shang Xia’s expression sank and he continued to ask, “Where are they now?” 

The disciple’s eyes dimmed even more and he muttered softly, “Deep in the willows… Zhu Family Manor… Enter… Vermillion… Plaque…” 

“What is your name? Is there anything I can do for you?” Shang Xia hurried.

“Guan… Guan Shangyue… Kill… Help me take revenge…” As soon as the last word left his lips, his head tilted to the side powerlessly. 

Shang Xia slowly placed Guan Shangyue’s body on the ground before declaring softly, “Fellow Brother Guan, rest assured. I’ll take revenge for you!” 

Turning around, he examined his surroundings once again. Even though he took care of the two of them in a split second, the other experts of the Rose Party might rush over after hearing the commotion.

There was no way he could remain in the area!

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He quickly dragged the corpses of the two disciples of the Rose Party back into the stone chamber he came from and tossed them into the pool of water.

Next, he brought the corpse of Guan Shangyue over. He looted the bodies of the members of the Rose Party, but he kept the items on his fellow martial brother intact. He wasn’t going to rob the corpse of someone who came from the Tongyou Institution.

Finding the mechanism to close the entrance to the stone chamber on the other side where the battle took place, Shang Xia activated it immediately.

As the mechanisms consisted of several rocks, no one would glance at them a second time unless they knew that it activated the entrance to a secret chamber. Shang Xia decided to leave them as they were.

Next, he released a wave of energy that melted the ice shards on the ground. He cleaned up the battlefield as immaculately as he could as there was no way he could allow anyone else to discover his presence. When he was done, he left hastily.

Only then did he manage to calm himself down and observe the situation around him.

The first thing he discovered was the density of heaven and earth qi around him. It was even denser than on the Tongyou Peak!

Next was the bottomless reservoir beneath him. There were countless huge mountainous rock-like structures on the surface of the water, and countless stone formations under the surface. 

Shang Xia stood on one of the massive stone structures, but he didn’t know where it came from nor where it led to.

Luckily for him, his only objective now was to leave the area. 

Spying another interesting rock formation beside him, Shang Xia’s jerked to a stop. He discovered two pieces of rocks placed in a weird location, and he thought about how he activated the entrance to the hidden room earlier. 

Carefully pressing down on the rock formation, it started to sink slowly. Shang Xia gasped in his heart. 

Holy crap I’m actually right! 

Shang Xia leaped to the side quickly as a hidden entrance appeared in front of him. A gust of moist and turbid wind hit him in the face. After ensuring that the room was safe, he quickly entered. A soft rumbling behind him signaled that the entrance had shut.

The chamber he entered had the same size and layout as the one before. The fluorescent stones on the wall allowed him to see everything clearly.

However, he noticed that there wasn’t a pool of water in the middle of the room unlike the one previously. There were also no stairs to the hidden underground tunnel.

Disappointed, he could only look for other things. He soon noticed that there were many other things contained in the chamber.

On one of the wall faces, there were tiny little shelves in the wall that contained various items.

Walking over, Shang Xia opened one of the scrolls. 

The scroll was obviously something special to be able to survive for such a long time. When he opened it, he discovered that the scroll was merely damp and the color had faded a little.

“Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram?” Shang Xia’s eyes lit up slightly before dimming again. It was possible that he was standing in an area contained in the great formation, but it was too bad the formation wasn’t working any longer. The Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram was a powerful formation. However, without anyone to activate and maintain the formation, it stopped working a long time ago. 

The Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram wasn’t merely an introduction to the great Mountain and Sea formation! It was its core!

In the event that the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram was reactivated, Shang Xia would have complete control over it!

What a waste… 

Even though he couldn’t use it now, he still kept it in his sleeves after rolling it up carefully.

Before Shang Xia could reach for the second item, he heard voices coming from outside. Walking towards the hidden entrance, Shang Xia strained his ears to hear what they were saying. 

“Brother Murong, did you find anything?” The voice was extremely familiar. It seemed as though it was the person who commanded the two he killed earlier.

“Nope. There’s nothing here at all. Brother Changtian, are you sure Dongfang Mingrui and Ouyang Fengxuan ran into trouble?” 

Yuwen Changtian sighed, “They might have run into some enemies… Didn’t they say that the outer regions of the Coral Forest only had abandoned cultivators of the Tongyou Institution? Who would have thought that they would leave an expert behind?”

“Could it be an undead corpse? Brother Changtian, don’t forget how we discovered this place…” 

As the voice grew louder and louder, Shang Xia could tell that they were approaching his location.

Yuwen Changtian’s voice rang through the air. “Are you referring to the rank three undead corpse that has the Vermillion Plaque on him? It’s not possible.” 

“Why not?” 

“That’s because an undead corpse wouldn’t know how to hide its tracks after the battle!” 

Bang!

After he spoke, Yuwen Changtian slammed his fist angrily into the wall beside him.