Splitting the Heave

Murong Danran was no fool. Other than the fact that he didn’t know when to shut up, his understanding of the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World far surpassed the other two. 

His excuse of comprehension was fake. It was yet another layer of lie to cover his true motive from the other two.

The Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World contains much more mysteries than what they can see. None of the Martial Extermination Realm elders in the Rose Party believed that Murong Danran could see through the mysteries, allowing him to enter as he wished. Now, the chance of a lifetime landed directly on his lap.

Even though everyone in the Rose Party seemed to have underestimated him, he wasn’t willing to work so hard just to let the Rose Party reap the gains. Initially, he could have accomplished everything without anyone noticing. Who would have thought that things would change so suddenly?

…

Shang Xia was originally shocked that the scroll would open up on its own. However, that didn’t mean that he wasn’t prepared for it.

When the scroll lit up and unrolled itself, he felt that a chance had arrived!

He saw a figure diving into the water before rapidly approaching the scroll.

An idea formed in his mind. Using the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram as cover, he hid right under it. 

As Shang Xia poured his qi into the scroll earlier, he could still gain a faint idea of what it was doing despite it resonating with the pearl.

Once Sima Like entered the water, she dove straight for the scroll.

She wasn’t brainless either. There was no way a scroll would appear tens of feet under the water. She knew that the glow of the scroll covered too large an area. She had to locate the actual item in the light.

The closer she got, the clearer her vision became. She quickly noticed the scroll and swam desperately towards it. 

As she approached, joy filled her heart and she swam faster and faster. She threw caution to the wind as the item she was looking for was right in front of her!

The instant she reached out to grab the scroll, brilliant rays of sword light filled her vision and swallowed her whole.

Ever since Shang Xia learned the Cloud Drizzle Sword Art, he became more and more adept at using it. If he were to evaluate it based on strength, the sword art might not be better than the Vigorous Sword Art and the Formless Sword Art. There was obviously no need to mention the Flexible Sword Art that was stronger than both of those! However, there was one property the Cloud Drizzle Sword Art possessed, and that was to drain his opponent’s blood!

Each individual sword strike didn’t possess too much power, but who would care about it if they attacked multiple times? If one strike doesn’t work, I’ll use two! If two isn’t enough, four should do the trick. Still not enough? Just increase the number of attacks till you kill the opponent!

No matter what, his opponent wouldn’t be able to block all of them! After all, they had close to the same cultivation level… 

The moment a single ray of sword light made a wound on his opponent’s body, a weird strand of qi would prevent the wound from closing up, causing the blood to flow constantly.

Of course, the requirement to use the technique was harsh too. The user would need to exhaust a great deal of inner qi.

Shang Xia was able to withstand the usage of inner qi due to his extraordinarily large dantian. The amount of inner qi he had was much higher than cultivators of the same level!

Even though Sima Like was at the large completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm, facing so many sword lights, she panicked and nearly forgot to defend herself.

Well… By the time she realized she was being ambushed, no amount of defense from someone at her level would be enough.

The sword light flashed past her body, giving her close to thirty new wounds.

At the very last second, she managed to shatter her protective bracelet to protect her heart from being pierced through.

Her pretty little body was mutilated in a split second. As blood gushed out of her body, she tried screaming. It was too bad all she released was a giant water bubble.

She wanted to struggle to the surface, but her movements only caused more blood to escape her body. Her face turned as white as a sheet due to the loss of blood and her inability to breathe.

All of a sudden, the water in her surroundings was blown away and she managed to suck in that sweet gasp of air. As relief washed over her body after she took in her first breath of air, her body froze all of a sudden. After that… Well, there was no after that for her anymore.

…

As the bloodied water sprayed up into the air, something looked like it was about to burst out of the surface.

“Be careful! It’s about to appear!” Yuwen Changtian yelled.

Murong Danran who had been floating in the air gasped in fright, “That… Young Lady Like, she…?”

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Yuwen Changtian’s gaze was fixed on the surface of the water, and he growled at Murong Danran without turning his head. “You should take care of yourself. Can you leave with the pearl?”

Murong Danran’s expression sank. “I’m afraid not. Now that the Fantasy Spiritual Pearl is calling out to the core diagram, the moment I cut off the connection, I’ll waste all my effort. The loss of my inner qi isn’t the problem here. The moment I sever the connection, the pearl will disappear!” 

“...” 

With a loud grunt, three short sticks appeared from behind Yuwen Changtian. He grabbed them in his hand before joining them to form one long silvery white staff.

His body started to turn illusory in mid air, and it was clear he didn’t choose to give up. He tore up a talisman in his hand and a flame soared through the air. “I notified my martial uncle! He should be here soon!” 

After he spoke, he added a piece of news to stop Yuwen Changtian from interrupting him, “Anyway, I have news on the Exquisite Grass!” 

Yuwen Changtian’s body trembled and he raised his head in shock. He forgot about the commotion happening underwater. 

Murong Danran heaved a sigh of relief when he noticed Yuwen Changtian’s response. “Brother Changtian, you already reached the peak of your current realm. Your clan might have prepared all sorts of medicine for you, but rank three herbs are incredibly difficult to find. Your Yuwen Clan might be strong, but they won’t be able to gather all the required herbs! I’m sure Brother Changtian has been looking for the Exquisite Grass for some time now.” 

Yuwen Changtian growled in response. “Looks like you know quite a lot…” The feeling of having one’s secrets known to others wasn’t nice.

Forcing a smile, Murong Danran explained, “Haha… Our families are greatly interconnected. It’s normal for us to exchange information for the things we need. Even though our inheritances are strictly confidential, we won’t hide other things from each other. I learned a lot just by paying attention…” Pausing for a second, he continued, “So… Brother Changtian, do you agree with my plan?” 

“I’ll agree on one condition. As long as my life isn’t threatened, I’ll do my best to stop the person under the water until Senior Yuntian arrives. However, you need to tell me the news of the Exquisite Grass now.” 

“Looks like Brother Changtian’s information sources aren’t bad either. You already knew that Martial Uncle Yuntian will be the one to come…” 

Murong Danran continued to talk about random things and he started to drag the time out. It was evident he was having second thoughts about revealing the news. The Exquisite Grass was really something special. It was rarely seen, and it was said that the herb was used even in rank four medicine! If not for the fact that they were in such a critical situation, he would never have chosen to share the news.

“Senior Yuntian remained as a spy in the Tongyou Institution for so long… His actions are worthy of our respect. However, you best remember who brought him back from the Tongyou Peak!” Yuwen Changtian growled as he continued to look below. Noticing the abnormal fluctuations below the surface, he warned, “You better hurry up. The person should be coming up now.” 

An explosion seemed to occur underwater as a black figure charged up at them. 

“It’s on a cultivator at the Martial Extremity Realm of the Tongyou Institution!” Murong Danran continued in a haste. “In the Dual Season Lands, I saw him retrieving a stalk of Exquisite Grass with my very own eyes! However, there were Martial Intent Realm cultivators by his side and I didn’t dare to fight him for it!”

“Martial Intent Realm bodyguards… Who is he? Is he Kou Chongxue’s illegitimate son?” 

Yuwen Changtian spun his staff around, storing up his energy.

“It’s possible that he has a Vermillion Plaque on him!” Afraid that Yuwen Changtian would think that he was lying, he continued, “I told you everything I know! I swear on my family that everything I said is true! Brother Changtian, you have to believe me!”

Yuwen Changtrian might be dissatisfied, but he could only swallow his grievances. 

“Crash!” 

As water sprayed into the air, a figure broke through the surface of the water. 

“Die!” Yuwen Changtian roared and his staff came crashing downwards. The powerful strike caused a huge crater to form on the water surface.

“Be careful! That’s Young Lady Sima!” Murong Danran yelled in midair.

Yuwen Changtian harrumphed as he pulled his staff back immediately. He made a graceful leap through the air as though he had been expecting it. He displayed his amazing movement art in that instant.

At the same time, another figure emerged from another side.

“I’ve been waiting for you for a long time!” Yuwen Changtian grunted as a ray of silver light shot out from his staff towards the figure who just appeared. 

The dao of length! He could extend and shorten his staff at will!

In that instant, he displayed his full strength.

“Bang!”

The figure that appeared was blown apart in an instant!