Splitting the Heave

“I don’t care how you do it. In 2 months, you need to finish 7 of those talismans. Otherwise, the grand formation will not be able to be deployed on schedule. If that happens, you’ll be responsible for everything instead of our Formation Hall!” Chu Jia turned to leave as soon as she spoke. She didn’t even bother looking at Shang Xia again as she left the Talisman Hall.

“7 rank three talismans in 2 months?! Hey, are you serious?!” Shang Xia frowned when he looked at Chu Jia’s graceful figure sauntering away.

“Heh, you can tell everyone that you are unable to do it. No one is forcing you to finish those talismans!” Chu Jia’s voice rang through the air as she continued to take her leave. “I sure hope that you can’t do it. That will save me a lot of trouble since I won’t have to change the formation any more.”

Not too long after Chu Jia had left, Shang Xia’s divine sense discovered several people approaching.

He could easily identify Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui, but the third presence was a little hazy. Even so, it failed to avoid his detection and it should probably be Zhang Haogu who advanced not too long ago.

Even though he managed to detect the three of them, Shang Xia had a feeling that he was missing something. A trace of curiosity couldn’t help but form in his heart. Increasing the strength of his divine sense, he tried to look for the thing that was eluding him but failed nonetheless.

With the three of them getting closer and closer, the feeling of something else being there became all the more intense. With no other choice, Shang Xia could only wait for them to arrive before looking for the thing he was looking for.

Just as he got out to look at who was coming, he saw four people walking towards him. Other than the three he detected, he discovered what he was missing. The other was his Grandpa Bo.

Gasping in fright, he was met with a smile that wasn’t really a smile from his grandfather. Turning to look at Zhang Haogu, he saw the old instructor looking at him with a regretful gaze. It seemed as though the two of them had noticed the interaction between himself and the grandaunt from the Formation Hall earlier. Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui were approaching without too many weird expressions on their faces.

“Grandpa! Instructor Zhang, Teachers…” Shang Xia greeted immediately.

Find the original at bit.ly/3iBfjkV.

As the four of them arrived one after another, Shang Bo and Zhang Haogu casually glanced at the same region before finding a seat and acting like nothing happened.

When everyone was present, Zhang Haogu broke the silence. “Did someone come over here to make your life difficult earlier?” 

A bitter smile appeared on Shang Xia’s face and said everything he experienced earlier. At the same time, he realized that the four of them had probably waited for her to leave before coming to look for him.

“Oh? Talisman Master Shang, you actually know how to craft a rank three talisman that contains the element of wind and lightning?” 

“Wait, you need to craft 7 of them in 2 months? Is Formation Master Chu crazy?! Even if she wants an ordinary talisman, crafting 7 of them in 2 months is crazy!” 

Shang Xia barely finished his recount when Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui revealed gasps of shock. 

Zhang Haogu shot a curious gaze at Shang Xia and silenced the rest before telling him what happened during their negotiations in the Formation Hall. When he was done recalling what happened, he asked, “What is the name of the talisman you want to craft anyway?” 

“It’s the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman.” Shang Xia replied.

“How difficult is it to create?” Zhang Haogu asked again. 

Pausing for a second, Shang Xia replied, “It’s extremely difficult. I know the theory behind it, but I haven’t tried crafting it for myself.” 

The look of disappointment that filled Zhang Haogu’s face in the next second couldn’t be concealed. Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui shook their heads and sighed collectively.

Zhang Haogu soon continued, “However, from what I understand from Instructor Chu’s personality, she probably requested seven of them because she's too lazy to modify the formation. In order to not let everyone think that she's the one who refuses to make the modifications, she threw out an impossible task. At the very least, she can let us back off ourselves.” Pausing for a moment, he fell into deliberation before he added, “If that is truly the case, we probably don’t need 7 Gale Thunderbolt Talismans. You probably only need 5 of them to fulfill her request. Even if you don’t finish 5 of them, 3 or 4 of them might be enough for the time being.” 

With his eyes widening in shock, Shang Xia gasped, “Can she even do that?!” 

Zhang Haogu could only chuckle bitterly in response. 

With Chu Jia’s talent for cultivation and formation building, the Tongyou Institution was expecting for her to become a rank four Formation Master in the future. That was why they had been more than accommodating to her laziness and attitude. 

That was also why Ma Mingzheng had been given the task to nag at her all day long despite being her senior.

Gong Hang chimed in from the side, “Even if it’s just 3 to 5 pieces, it’s not something Talisman Master Shang can come up with in 2 short months! He hasn’t even tried it before. How much time would he need to come up with the first successful talisman? That’s not even considering the success rate of crafting a new talisman altogether. It’s difficult to even hit the minimum of 3 pieces we need…” 

Fan Yuanhui added, “The Gale Thunderbolt Talisman contains the power of wind and lightning. The difficulty far surpasses other rank three talismans! It’s impossible for him to complete it in 2 months! It would be an amazing feat if Talisman Master Shang manages to complete a talisman in a month. Hmph, we’ll tell the Formation Hall to wait for 3 months if they wish to obtain any of these talismans!” 

As the words left his lips, a wave of heaven and earth qi emerged from his feet. Soon after, a ball of light that was the size of a palm appeared before them.

“What’s going on?!” Fan Yuanhui leaped backward in shock as he glared at the location where the ball of light originated from.

Fan Yuanhui might be surprised, but Shang Xia quickly realized what was going on. His taut nerves quickly relaxed and he saw that Shang Bo and Zhang Haogu didn’t seem surprised at all. They seem to have already expected something like that to happen.

Chu Jia, who had left a long time ago, was nowhere to be seen. However, her voice emerged from the ball of light. “Hmph, I’m obviously capable of turning 3 pieces of that Gale Thunderbolt Talisman into something that can change the grand formation, but using 5 and 7 pieces will be much better and allow me to increase the power in the formation. Also, if your Talisman Hall dares to drag it out for an extra month, I won’t do it anymore!” 

The ball of light scattered the moment the final words came out of her mouth. It turned into a butterfly that fluttered over to Shang Xia’s ears. When it arrived, her whisper entered his ears. “This time, this grandaunt here isn’t messing around with you! You heard me!” 

When the butterfly scattered, everyone present fell silent. 

Everyone seemed to be thinking of ways to solve the problem, but Shang Xia was thinking about how she managed to lay down a formation without him noticing anything. The formation she laid down was extremely small, and it seemed to assimilate itself with the restrictions all around. He didn’t even notice it initially.

After a short period of silence, Shang Bo, who had remained silent all that while, finally spoke up. “3 Gale Thunderbolt Talismans in 2 months… Are you confident of doing it?” 

Shang Xia sighed helplessly, “I haven’t tried making it before. How can I be confident of doing it?” 

Actually, there was another way about it and it had already crossed the minds of those present. It was just that no one was willing to bring it up. That was to buy 3 Gale Thunderbolt Talismans from somewhere else. 

Getting a single piece was possible, but getting their hands on 3 of them was a problem. Moreover, looking for it from outside sources will definitely raise some eyebrows. They might be able to guess what the Tongyou Institution was up to and that might allow their opponents to come up with ways to break the formation.

“Alright. You can give it a shot. If you are really unable to do so, I’ll just have to head to the Beyond Heavens Pavilion and buy it from other powers…” Shang Bo got to his feet and looked at those present. “Do you have anything else to bring up?”

Zhang Haogu got to his feet next. “This old man still needs to go speak to the Formation Hall about some matters. Teacher Gong and Teacher Fan still have to continue crafting talismans. Anyway, I’ll take my leave first.”

Gong Hang and Fan Yuanhui bade their farewells and left quickly.

When the three of them were gone, Shang Bo finally chuckled happily, “Damn kid, you really caused a lot of trouble in the past few days. Because of you, your Grandpa Ke harassed nearly every single Martial Extermination Realm expert in the battlefield between the two worlds.” 

Shang Xia couldn’t help but roar with laughter. He also followed it up with a question. “Didn’t Grandpa Ke already leave the battlefield between the two worlds?” 

Turning a little more serious, Shang Bo grunted softly, “Yeah.” 

A look of embarrassment appeared on Shang Xia’s face. “Is he… Is he still running around to look for herbs I need?” 

“Not really. He’s just looking for them while doing something else…” Shang Bo chuckled.

Seeing as his grandfather was unwilling to go into more details, Shang Xia cleverly decided to stop asking about it. 

“Oh right. Just try your best to complete the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman. There’s no need to feel too pressured to do it.” Shang Bo continued, “Actually after Ji Wenlong entered the Martial Dipper Realm, our Tongyou Institution… No. Our You Continent will be more or less capable of holding our own even after the spatial barrier disappears.” 

Thinking about it for a second, Shang Xia asked, “This… Our Observation Peak is trying to lay down a grand formation because our worlds are about to complete the fusion process?” 

“Yeah. It’s good for you to know about it now.” Shang Bo nodded.

While he spoke, Shang Bo took out a jade case that had several layers of restrictions on it and handed it over to Shang Xia. “There should be several treasures here you can use to craft your advancement medicine. Your Martial Uncle, Patriarch Kou, gave you the Flower Spirit. Oh, I mean, the Spirit of Spring. There’s a piece of Jade Peach Blossom in there too. Also, there’s an ancient tree bark in there that came from the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. It should be the Spirit of Winter you’re looking for.” 

“Spirit of Winter? Where did you get that?” Shang Xia was truly surprised by the gift.

Originally, he asked Shang Ke to look for Kou Chongxue to get his hands on the Spirit of Spring. He was surprised that Kou Chongxue was willing to part with it. Who would have thought that Shang Bo would also get his hands on the Spirit of Winter?

With the Spirit of Autumn he already had, the Spirit of the Four Seasons that Shang Xia felt would be extremely difficult to get was nearly complete!

Shang Bo laughed when he heard the question. “Your grandpa has been in the Martial Extermination Realm for tens of years now. Wouldn’t I have collected some precious treasures along the way? I also know several important figures…”

Shang Xia understood that in order to get the Spirit of Winter, his Grandpa Bo definitely relied heavily on his connections and even paid quite a huge price to do so. Gratefulness filled his heart as he thanked his Grandpa Bo sincerely, “Grandpa, thank you!”