Splitting the Heave

Staring at the case, Shang Xia felt his eyeballs popping out of their sockets.   

He might not have his own Embroidered Cloud Case, but his aunt, Shang Xi, had one! He had the experience of using one!

Shang Xia couldn’t be more familiar with what possessing an Embroidered Cloud Case represented!

If he managed to get his hands on Shang Xi’s Embroidered Cloud Case, he would be able to store a lot more items on him! Today, his dream finally came true!

Shang Xia found too much good stuff in the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World. It was so much he didn’t know how to bring it out, and he even thought of hiding a portion of them in the hidden chamber so that he could return for them in the future.

Now, there was no need for all that trouble!

Shang Xia picked the Embroidered Cloud Case up from the ground carefully and he started pouring in his inner qi.

Shang Xi might not have given him her Embroidered Cloud Case, but she taught him all its uses a long time ago! He had to leave his own spiritual imprint on it before he could open the case!

If anyone stole the treasure, he would be able to follow the trail to search for it!

Even if the thief left his detection range and tried to open the Embroidered Cloud Case forcefully, the original owner’s spiritual imprint would go berserk and destroy the case! The items inside would definitely be destroyed, and the thief would be injured by the spatial fluctuations.

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Murong Yuntian’s spiritual imprint might be strong, but he was dead! Without anyone to supplement it with energy, Shang Xia’s Yin Yang Essence Qi quickly eroded it. Next, Shang Xia placed his own spiritual imprint on the case.

Once he did, he opened it impatiently. His qi entered the case and retrieved the first thing it came into contact with.

Before Shang Xia entered the Martial Intent Realm, he would have to use his inner qi to take out the items. Only when he developed his divine sense would he be able to take out anything with a single thought.

First things first, he looked at the space the case could contain.

It could actually contain two cubic feet! That meant that the Embroidered Cloud Case was at the mid grade!

The smile on Shang Xia’s face didn’t fade even after a long time. He was even thinking about how he would celebrate in front of Shang Xi’s face.

However, his attention eventually turned to the item he brought out. The shit-eating grin on his face only grew wider.

He wasn’t unfamiliar with the jade board he took out. He had seen jade boards like that used to pass down inheritances in the Scripture Depository of the Tongyou Peak.

Of course, inheritances varied greatly. It might be something good, or it might be absolute garbage. 

Looking at the Twisting Twin Blades, Shang Xia raised an eyebrow in surprise. 

After reading through the technique, a strange look appeared on his face. Wasn’t it a technique for the high-grade scissors he used back on the Tongyou Peak? 

Shang Xia had seen the power the Golden Devouring Scissors contained! Even though the thick chains connecting the bridges on the Tongyou Peak were protected by restrictions, Murong Yuntian was still able to sever them with the weapon!

A frown appeared on Shang Xia’s face. Was he supposed to go look for a pair of giant scissors before he was qualified to learn the technique? 

Reading through it a second time, a lightbulb lit up in his mind. What a fool he was for thinking that he could only learn the technique when he used scissors?! It was clearly a set of techniques for dual wielders of the sword! 

Using two swords was the basis of the manual. Murong Yuntian only used it as inspiration to use his Golden Devouring Scissors! 

The key point was that the technique was suitable for cultivators who cultivated the dao of fire and ice!

Cultivators who hadn’t comprehended their martial intent were also eligible to learn the technique, and at the highest level, one could comprehend the martial intent ‘Severing Ice and Fire’.

Shang Xia didn’t know why Murong Yuntian carried around the jade board with him, but he had his guesses. It might be difficult for Murong Yuntian to meet up with the members of the Rose Party when he was acting as a spy in the Tongyou Institution! However, it could also be because Murong Yuntian was overconfident!

As Shang Xia was lacking a technique for his cultivation in the dao of ice and fire, Murong Yuntian’s death came extremely timely! 

A trace of fulfillment entered Shang Xia’s heart. He managed to obtain two great treasures so far from Murong Yuntian! The Embroidered Cloud Case was definitely the best thing he could have gotten, and the sword manual came a close second.

Of course, there were much more items in the Embroidered Cloud Case. He took everything out, and he discovered that there were several different medicines along with some talismans.

He couldn’t recognize most of it, and he didn’t dare to try any of them.

The last item that caught his attention was a lacquered wooden box.

There were three jade bottles in the box, and one of them was empty! It was evident that Murong Yuntian had used up one of its contents.

“This… This is the Meridian Replenishing Powder?!” Shang Xia gasped in shock.

The Meridian Replenishing Powder could allow a cultivator to recover a little bit of their fighting strength in a short amount of time, and in order to prevent themselves from growing resistant to the medicinal effects, one would only use a set of Meridian Replenishing Powder after a long time.

“Two bottles of Meridian Replenishing Powder! Hahaha! These should be the medicine they prepared for him to recover! Perfect! I probably need one set to advance, and the last set…” Shang Xia didn’t hesitate and poured them into his mouth. 

A warm current washed over his body, and he felt his inner qi churning rapidly. It started to recover all the hidden injuries he suffered when he used the final move of the Flexible Sword Art when he fused both types of qi together. He also managed to recover slightly.

“... I’ll keep the last set for when I cultivate the Yin Yang Sword Formation! I’ll use it with the Tempering Meridian Powder, and the effects will be great!” 

Shang Xia also discovered a half-written report inside an exquisite wooden box that he placed on the ground earlier.

He could tell that the contents were probably written by Murong Yuntian, and it contained all his experience as a spy in the Tongyou Institution. 

There were secrets of many higher-ups of the institution, and there was a clear description of everyone’s relationship with each other. He also wrote about some happenings among the four great clans.

As Shang Xia read through the entire thing, a sentence caught his eye. “... On the fifteenth day of the sixth month, Kou Chongxue returned to the institution. He entered seclusion due to his injuries, and Shang Bo broke through to the Fourth Layer Martial Extermination Realm after some time! Kou Chongxue’s injury might have something to do with Shang Bo’s breakthrough!”

Other than that, Murong Yuntian had more reports on the institution. He analyzed many things regarding cultivators in the Azure Origin World.

Shang Xia might not understand a huge portion of what Murong Yuntian wrote, but he knew that it contained the secrets of many important people. However, the report similarly contained many secrets of the Rose Party!

“Lucky for us, this sneaky freak is dead and I got my hands on this report. I can’t let this land into the hands of the Rose Party! There are too many secrets contained in this report! Hmm… I shouldn’t keep it either. I should hand it over to the institution to maximize my gains! I might even be rewarded heavily again for this!” 

Since he obtained the Embroidered Cloud Case, other than several items that he used often, everything else was thrown into the spatial artifact!

“This feels much lighter!” Shang Xia exclaimed while sweeping his gaze across the various corpses again. Sighing softly, he dove down into the hidden passage towards the sunken staircase. 

Alas, his Water Repulsion Pearl had been destroyed by Murong Yuntian earlier! He couldn’t keep himself dry underwater anymore.

If he thought about it earlier, he would have gone to look for the third hidden chamber by land! There was no need to get his clothes wet for nothing!

Since he had the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Diagram, he didn’t have to worry about getting lost! The only thing he was afraid of was that Murong Yuntian’s death might have alerted a Martial Extermination Realm expert of the Rose Party.

Also, he didn’t know when the protection screen would open again since it had already recovered from Murong Yuntian’s strike.

Shang Xia sighed helplessly, “It’s not that I didn’t want to bring you guys in! You can only blame it on your luck…” Naturally, he was referring to the experts on the Tongyou Peak.

“Oh right. The sudden flooding after the protection screen was broken might have alarmed Senior Sister Sun… I wonder how she’s doing…” 

As his thoughts ran wild, he quickly navigated towards the third hidden chamber. His speed was much slower than before since he didn’t have the Water Repulsion Pearl.

After some time, he approached the location marked by the third red dot on the diagram.

 Luckily for him, the third room was similar to the first. There was an underwater passage leading into it and he didn’t need to look for hidden mechanisms outside.

Shang Xia emerged from the pool in the middle of the third stone chamber and he quickly looked at everything around him.

He could see faint glows on the wall that resonated with the pulsing light from the Fantasy Spiritual Pearl. In fact, the stone chamber seemed like a slumbering beast.

Each of the four hidden chambers contained a part of the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Grand Formation, and the part contained in the third hidden chamber was called the Mountain and Sea Qi Convergence Formation. The Zhu Family would reward disciples with a chance to cultivate in the room and the effects were similar to the Polarity Essence Gathering Pool on the Tongyou Peak!