Splitting the Heave

Seeing the two corpses that were falling from the skies, Shang Xia gasped in fright. 

He had his guesses on what happened to their corpses after he arrived. They could either be hidden somewhere by Zhu Ying, or they would have been turned to dust by the rank five undead corpse. Of course, Shang Xia couldn’t shake the disgusting idea that their corpses had been eaten by the rank five undead corpse. 

From what he knew, the two of them were the ones who gained the most during their trip to the Coral Forest.

Zhu Ying might seem extremely familiar with the place, but with his meager cultivation, he could only receive scraps Liu Jitang didn’t want. Who would have thought that the two of them would be sent into some random pocket of space by Zhu Tong when he escaped? 

Looking at the pouches on their bodies, Shang Xia’s heated gaze was quickly quelled by his rational thinking. Since things had progressed to that point, their treasures would no longer belong to him. 

It wasn’t because of the two Martial Extermination Realm experts present, and neither was it because he wasn’t the first to locate their corpses. Even if he managed to find them before Shang Bo and the others arrived, he wouldn’t be able to open their spatial pouches regardless!

A spatial pouch was different from an Embroidered Cloud Case. As long as one had enough inner qi, one would be able to open an Embroidered Cloud Case regardless of its level.

However, a spatial pouch was on a whole new level. There were many layers of restrictions protecting it from outside forces, and if one failed to use a proper method to open it, even Ji Wenlong and the others wouldn’t be able to force it open in a short amount of time.

Shang Bo reached out casually and dragged the two spatial pouches to himself.

Glancing at Shang Lubing, Shang Bo sighed, “Looks like we’ll have to hand this over to the patriarch after we return. All of us will have to work together to open this…”

“Alright!” Shang Lubing replied happily.

However, Shang Xia had to interrupt him at that moment. “Grandpa, did Zhu Tong send them into that pocket of space intentionally? Is a rank five undead corpse actually smart enough to do it? Does that also mean that it awakened its memories before he died?” 

Shang Lubing stared at Shang Bo with a serious expression too, waiting for an answer.

“It’s likely… However, even if it did remember what happened before, it’s no longer the Zhu Tong of before.” Shang Bo muttered.

Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief and he wanted to continue asking. Before he could say anything, Shang Bo waved his hand and summoned a screen to look at the situation in the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World.

Ripples formed on the screen and Shang Bo drew a line in the space before him with the Vermillion Plaque. Ji Wenlong’s arm reached out from the broken space.

“Wha…” The moment the newcomer appeared, a look of shock could be seen on her face. “Is this the forbidden ground in the Zhu Family Manor used to control the four spiritual lands? Chief Shang, is that the Coral Command?”

The person who appeared was surprisingly Chu Jia who specialized in formations. Another figure appeared behind her, and his face turned as pale as a sheet when he saw Murong Tianlan’s corpse lying not too far away.

He was Bai Luming who had been convinced by Chu Jia to join their side, but seeing the corpse of his former leader was pretty disheartening.

Shang Bo chuckled in response, “Little lass, you’re pretty smart. I’m afraid that your instinct in the way of formations is better than Old Ma…”

Shang Bo didn’t take long to continue. “Initially, we should have handed this place over to your or Old Ma… However, the situation was too dire and I had no choice but to refine the Coral Command myself.”

It didn’t take a genius to realize that the higher-ups of the Tongyou Institution had high hopes for Chu Jia after hearing what he said. 

A giggle escaped Chu Jia’s lips in response. “Chief Shang, there’s no need for explanations. Even though controlling the grand formation here requires some insights in the way of formations, strength is most important. Without a suitable cultivation base, one will be unable to control the grand formation.”

After she replied Shang Bo, she turned to greet Shang Lubing. Her gaze quickly traveled to Shang Xia and she waved happily before bringing Bai Luming to go inspect the formation lining the ground.

Even though Shang Bo had already refined the Coral Command once, he only gained the most primitive way to control the Coral Forest. He would have to repeat the process several times before he could control the Coral Forest better.

The formation drawn on the ground was extensive and there were many intricacies that could only be discovered by powerful formation masters.

Shang Lubing spoke up suddenly, “Should I head over to the core region of the Willow Forest to get Ma Mingzheng?” 

Since the grand formation lost effectiveness a long time ago, Martial Extermination Realm experts could fly and they were able to somewhat manipulate space in the Coral Forest. 

Due to the battle with the rank five undead corpse, Ji Wenlong received quite a few injuries. He took a trip over to the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World and used up quite a bit of inner qi.

Even though Shang Lubing’s cultivation wasn’t as high as Ji Wenlong, he was in a much better condition than the deputy patriarch. He felt that he should take Ji Wenlong’s place in dealing with some matters.

However, his suggestion was quickly rejected by both Shang Bo and Ji Wenlong.

Looking at Shang Lubing’s shocked expression, Shang Bo explained, “Brother Shang, please don’t misunderstand. The reason we can travel freely through the Coral Forest is because Chief Ji and I both have Vermillion Plaques. Otherwise, you won’t be able to arrive at your desired destination and might drop yourself in some hot mess.” 

“Since that’s the case, Chief Ji can lend me his Vermillion Plaque for the time being. Are you afraid that I’ll plot against our Tongyou Institution?” Shang Lubing frowned and looked at Ji Wenelong. A trace of hurt could be seen on his face.

Shang Lubing chuckled slightly to mask his feelings, but everyone realized that his voice was getting a little hoarse.

“Of course not. Brother Shang, even if you get the Vermillion Plaque, you won’t be able to use it effectively. This isn’t just a matter of cultivation. Chief Ji and I cultivated techniques similar to those in the Zhu Family Inheritance. The Vermillion Plaque is much more useful to us. Do you understand? If we wish to start sending others through the Coral Forest, we will have to reactivate the grand formation and go from there.” Shang Bo continued his explanation.

“So that’s the case…” Shang Lubing nodded in realization.

Shang Bo smiled before turned to ask Ji Wenlong, “Chief Ji, did you manage to locate Ran Biluo in the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World?”

“Nope… I was planning to use the formation to catch her off guard. Even if she doesn’t die, she’ll be seriously injured. However, she seemed to have smelled that danger was coming and left before I could arrive.” Ji Wenlong sighed.

“Yeah, she was probably too scared to remain. The kid told me that he went around to spread the news of the rank five undead corpse’s appearance around the Coral Forest. She might have heard it and ran.” Shang Bo nodded.

Shang Xia looked at the three Martial Extermination Realm experts and he realized that he was of no use there and he decided to return to the stone chamber behind those bronze gates. He wanted to look at the spoils of war after killing Zhu Ying.

As he made his way over, Shang Xia heard Ji Wenlong’s voice coming from behind. “Luckily for us, Liu Zhiyuan managed to refine an extermination origin in the Willow Forest and enter the Martial Extermination Realm. Jitang’s legacy wouldn’t be lost after his death… Otherwise, only three great clans would be left…” 

Chu Jia’s laughter filled the air after she heard what he said. “Oh? Did Liu Zhiyuan also enter the Martial Extermination Realm? Senior Shang Ke also managed to refine an extermination origin to enter the Martial Extermination Realm…”

Shang Xia chuckled silently as he knew that chaos was about to break out outside with the revelation of Shang Ke’s breakthrough. However, he quickly returned to his task and focused on the items he gained from Zhu Ying.

Like what Mu Qingyu said earlier, there was practically no herb lower than the second rank in Zhu Ying’s Embroidered Cloud Case.

Shang Xia scanned through every inch of it, but he discovered that the amount of things inside wasn’t as much as he had thought.

When Zhu Ying cleared this inventory of all the herbs below the second rank in the chamber, he was probably making room for new treasures he was about to find. Too bad his plans were messed up by Shang Xia’s sudden appearance.

Theft is never good, try looking at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

He had to break through to the Martial Intent Realm as quickly as possible, wasting yet another batch of resources. As such, the amount left on him was somewhat pitiful.

Whatever the case, they were worth a tidy sum to Shang Xia.

The items that caught Shang Xia’s eye were three rank three talismans. They were placed in special cases, but they seemed to be losing their effect with the passage of time. There were also several other empty cases and Shang Xia knew that those were the talismans Zhu Ying tossed out earlier when they fought.

Even though those talismans were rare, Shang Xia didn’t understand why they had to be kept in their individual cases. However, he quickly realized the problem.

“All these talismans used to contain divine sense… However, they slowly dissipated after so many years. They became ordinary rank three talismans, and there were even some that were less effective than rank three talismans! It was no wonder they were easily destroyed…

A trace of fear lingered in Shang Xia’s heart after he realized the problem. If those talismans were at their full power, he would have died several times over!

Tossing out the empty cases, Shang Xia kept the remaining talismans even though they might not be of great use to him.

Looking at another book contained in Zhu Ying’s Embroidered Cloud Case, Shang Xia immediately recognized the words, ‘Zhu Family Talisman Scripture’. There were 23 types of rank one talisman recorded within, 14 types of rank two talismans, and 6 types of rank three talismans. There were even 3 rank four talismans recorded! 

Detailed instructions to create each talisman was contained in the scripture, along with their uses. 

It went without saying that the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture was an inheritance treasure that contained the life work of countless talisman masters of the Zhu Family! The amount of knowledge contained within was too valuable! No matter what treasure Shang Xia could find in the institution or his Shang Clan, there was no way of comparing it to the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture!