Splitting the Heave

Shang Xia returned to the Talisman Hall a day before the agreed time as he wanted to ensure everything was in place. Also, he wanted to look through the inheritance of other rank three talismans the institution possessed.

Of the various talismans they had in their records, Shang Xia was actually the most interested in the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman.

The talisman that could allow him to open a low-grade spatial artifact without destroying its contents was something Shang Xia wanted to get his hands on for a long time now.

However, there was one more pressing matter at hand. Shang Xia had to look for Ren Huan to get a few rank tree talisman papers before anything else.

When he finally arrived back at the Talisman Hall, he was quickly noticed by someone. This time, the look on their faces was filled with a lot more respect than before.

He emerged from his secret chamber 4 days ago and took out 3 complete Formation Talismans. A 50 percent success rate for a young Talisman Master like him was considered a terrifying statistic, and it was truly a frightening achievement!

For those who thought that he had cheated, the talismans Shang Xia crafted were verified by Gong Hang, Fan Yuanhui, and even the Martial Extermination Realm Zhang Haogu! There was no way for anyone to doubt him.

Members in the talisman hall would ordinarily be ranked according to their abilities. As Shang Xia was a rank three Talisman Master, he was a respected expert in the Talisman Hall. 

However, no one could deny that he was a little too young at the moment. He was an Upper Division disciple at the end of the day and almost everyone in the Talisman Hall could be considered his senior. As such, the respect they were showing was filled with a sense of awkwardness. 

Shang Xia wouldn’t bother with the way they thought about him. He responded to all the greetings he received pretty casually.

As he walked across the Talisman Hall, he discovered that his desire to look for Ren Huan couldn’t be fulfilled at the moment.

“Huh? He was summoned by the Formation Hall?” Shang Xia looked at another rank three craftsman, Craftsman Qiao, in shock.

Craftsman Qiao had a deep foundation in the Talisman Hall as his skill of crafting talisman papers was really impressive. At the moment, he was in charge of all the talisman paper craftsmen and Shang Xia naturally went to him in order to find Ren Huan.

“Mister Qiao, do you know why they’re looking for Brother Ren Huan?” Shang Xia asked politely.

A bitter smile appeared on Craftsman Qiao’s face and he replied, “Talisman Master Shang, I truly have no idea. The members of the Formation Hall wouldn’t tell me something like that!” 

“Who else knows about this? Did they go through Teacher Gong Hang or Teacher Fan when they summoned him?” Shang Xia continued asking.

“We even disturbed Teacher Gong and Teacher Fan who were in the process of crafting talismans to head over. That’s not all. Head Zhang went over to the Formation Hall too.” Craftsman Qiao replied. 

A despondent look appeared on Shang Xia’s face and he muttered, “Alright. I will have to trouble Craftsman Qiao to send some items into my secret chamber if there isn’t anything else. I plan to start crafting another batch of talismans tomorrow.” 

Craftsman Qiao chuckled in response, “Of course. It’s my duty to do so. Talisman Master Shang, rest assured that everything you need will be there.” 

Before Shang Xia could take his leave, he thought of something else and asked, “Oh right, I need to ask you another question so please enlighten me.” 

“Of course. Ask me anything, I’ll help you to the best of my abilities.” 

Shang Xia chuckled in response. “Mister Qiao, do you know of a Deacon called Ge Qingzhu?” 

Craftsman Qiao smiled when he heard the question. “Talisman Master Shang, are you also aiming for the lotus Deacon Ge obtained?”

Shang Xia raised his eyebrows in shock. “Oh! Looks like there are a lot of people looking for him…” 

Craftsman Qiao chuckled in amusement, “Of course there are. It even caused Deacon Ge to hide from everyone he knew. No one is able to find him.” 

…

After Craftsman Qiao took his leave, Shang Xia decided to look for the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman inheritance from the institution alone. However, he eventually decided against it with Zhang Haogu, Gong Hang, and Fan Yuanhui being too busy to help him with it. He could only return to his secret chamber like an obedient talisman master ready to start his craft.

Craftsman Qiao worked extremely quickly too. Not too long after Shang Xia entered his secret chamber, a group of disciples arrived with a huge batch of ingredients.

Shang Xia understood that normally, rank three Talisman Masters would only attempt three talismans in a month. Only when time was of the essence would they increase the number of attempts by one. However, they wouldn’t be able to keep it up for multiple months as that might adversely affect their divine sense. After the increased production, the rank three Talisman Master would also take a longer break in order to restore himself to his peak.

As times were desperate at the moment, Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui were crafting talismans with all they had. As soon as they restored their divine sense, they would start crafting the next talisman.

The two of them might be familiar with crafting rank three Formation Talismans and the difficulty of those talismans was lower than other rank three talismans, but Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui were definitely going to suffer some hidden injuries due to their rapid pace of production.

Under such circumstances, the two of them would start to make use of certain medicines or herbs to help recover quicker.

When Shang Xia completed his bet with them and allowed them to see the error in their ways, it wasn’t all bad for them. The burden they had was greatly alleviated with Shang Xia’s addition to the rank three Formation Talisman crafting gang.

After the disciples left, Shang Xia looked through everything they brought. He quickly discovered a round-shaped jade case that contained some sort of recovery medicine.

That was a rank two medicine provided by the Talisman Hall to the rank three Talisman Masters and it was called the Thousand Mechanisms Spirit Recovery Powder. Not only could it hasten the recovery of divine sense, it could also strengthen it slightly.

A quick look at tinyurl.com/2p9emv8w will leave you more fulfilled.

Even though the medicine was merely of the second rank, the effects it had on divine sense made it extremely precious.

Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui were only able to keep up their monstrous pace of crafting talismans because of the Thousand Mechanisms Spirit Recovery Powder provided by the Talisman Hall.

After Shang Xia adjusted his condition to his peak state, he activated the restrictions around the secret chamber and started his second batch of Formation Talismans.

…

When Shang Xia had seclusion, Shang Ke finally arrived on the Taihang Mountain range and was greeted by Shang Pei who had hastily made her way back from the southern border with the Si Continent.

“How are things? Did you run into any danger on the way here?” Shang Ke couldn’t help but ask anxiously when he saw the dust-covered Shang Pei who seemed like she just tore herself out of trouble. 

“Heh, it’s just a bunch of dumbass lower bandits. There’s no need to care about it.” Shang Pei waved her hands casually before handing him a sealed wooden box. “Luckily, I managed to get it. Here. A stalk of Glass Daisy Chrysanthemum harvested in the Autumn.” 

Shang Ke knew that the dangers she ran into were far from what she was letting on, but since she wasn’t willing to say much about them and managed to return safely, Shang Ke didn’t think to press into the matter. He smiled in response, “Alright! We managed to gather another herb Little Xia needs to break through! Everything else can only be obtained in the winter. Let’s just hope that we manage to find a Dragon Headed Wintersweet then…”

Shang Pei muttered, “Dragon Headed Wintersweet usually grows in the Yang and Jing Continents. Even though I heard of traces of them appearing in the Xu and Yan continents, they’re pretty rare. It won’t be easy to find them.” 

Shang Ke nodded slightly before sighing softly, “Luckily for us, we still have nearly three months before winter falls. Let’s head over to the Jing and Yang Continent separately and see what we can find.” 

…

The Formation Hall wasn’t too far away from the Talisman Hall, and because the grand formation of the Observation Peak had to be laid down as soon as possible, the Formation Hall was even more bustling than the Talisman Hall.

In one of the newly built halls in the central region of the Formation Hall, several people were crowded around a sand table placed in the middle. A miniature version of the Observation Peak could be seen with countless markings everywhere.

“Head Zhang, why are you requesting for us to add the properties of wind and lightning into the formation all of a sudden? Aren’t you making things difficult for us?” Ma Mingzheng was the person who spoke, and he seemed to be the person in charge of the Formation Hall for the time being. He was also a rank three Formation Master, and he was responsible for the grand formation on the Tongyou Peak previously.

Zhang Haogu sighed helplessly, “I’m more anxious than any one of you here to finish the grand formation! However, we’re strapped for time and it won’t be easy for us to finish so many Formation Talismans. Luckily, Mister Ren over here has a bunch of Stormy Lightning Leaves we can use. If we turn these leaves into rank three talisman paper, they can boost the properties of both wind and lightning. If we can imbue the properties into our grand formation, we won’t have to waste the resource!” 

“If we really try to incorporate the power of wind and lightning into the grand formation, all our past preparations will need to undergo large scale changes! Even the completed formation core will have to be modified. It’s too troublesome!” Ma Mingzheng explained.

The words barely left his lips when Gong Hang added glumly at the side, “If you’re unwilling to modify the formation, we won’t have enough talisman paper to complete our task. The deployment of the grand formation around our Observation Peak will be delayed accordingly. However, if you work a little harder and add the properties of wind and lightning into our grand formation, we would be able to finish our task alongside yours. Our grand formation would be a lot stronger than before. I believe you understand the reasoning behind our request.” 

Widening his eyes in shock, Ma Mingzheng rebutted, “Mister Gong, the way you’re putting it…” 

“Alright, relax, relax!” Zhang Haogu quickly interrupted to prevent a huge argument from breaking out. He then turned to Ma Mingzheng to ask, “Brother Ma, is there no other way about this?” 

Ma Mingzheng and Zhang Haogu were from the same generation anyway, and so was Gong Hang. However, Zhang Haogu entered the Martial Extermination Realm and became the head of the Scripture Depository. He was also the head of the Talisman Hall at the moment and his status was far from the other two. 

Even so, he didn’t wish to put on airs in front of the two of them and he didn’t adopt a superior tone when talking to the both of them.

Luckily, both Gong Hang and Ma Mingzheng wouldn’t ignore Zhang Haogu’s authority just because he was talking to them nicely. 

When Ma Mingzheng was still thinking about how he should reply,. Another voice came from the side. “It’s not impossible to add the properties of wind and lightning into the grand formation. However, I need to see how much power of wind and lightning is contained in the Stormy Lightning Leaf before we do anything. If it’s strong enough, we can definitely justify modifying the formation. Anyway, you lot from the Talisman Hall won’t be able to finish the talismans any time soon. We won’t be wasting any time even if we did some work on the formation. However, if the power of wind and lightning isn’t strong enough, it won’t be worth it for us to change the formation.”

Turning to look at the source of the voice, Zhang Haogu saw Chu Jia staring at the sand table with a deep frown on her face. Ma Mingzheng nodded after hearing what she said and he seemed to agree.

Shooting a glance at Ren Huan, Zhang Haogu signaled for him to hand a piece of completed rank three talisman paper over. 

As the three rank three Formation Masters of the Tongyou Institution examined the talisman paper, Zhang Haogu fell deep into thought. He heard that Ma Mingzheng’s position was about to be taken over, and from what he had just seen, things were likely as he had heard.