Splitting the Heave

“Deacon Ge, do you have any Nine Leaf Lotus harvested in the Summer?” Shang Xia asked casually.

Pausing for a second, Ge Qingzhu seemed slightly surprised by his question as he shook his head slightly before taking his leave.

Shang Xia stared at Ge Qingzhu’s leaving figure and unknown thoughts filled his mind.

He might not have obtained the Crimson Crystal Valley Brewer's Yeast, but Shang Xia felt that it was a blessing to be able to obtain the last Spirit of the Four Season he required. At the very least, it wasn’t a wasted trip.

When Shang Xia left the central platform, the gathering continued as per usual.

It might be due to the appearance of 2 rank four treasures since the start of the gathering, but the atmosphere became even more heated than before.

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The gathering was far from over, but regardless if it was Shang Xia, Shang Jian, Shang Xi, or the other organizers, all of them could say that the gathering was a resounding success.

Without anything to worry about, Shang Jian and the others eventually went up to the central platform to trade for things they would need and made some interesting gains there.

As more and more interesting items appeared during the gathering, Shang Xia feasted his eyes on those treasures. Rank four treasures started popping out one by one, and they didn’t seem as rare anymore. There were even times when Shang Xia couldn’t help but make trades with those who were up there. He eventually ended up with three more items.

One of them was the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman he had been pining for a long time now!

Even though the institution had the inheritance and method to craft the talismans, and Shang Xia went over to look for it the moment he entered the Talisman Hall, he had yet to get his hands on it. When he first entered the Talisman Hall, he was immediately bogged down by the task of crafting Formation Talismans. 

In the two or so months that passed, there wasn’t a need to mention crafting the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman. Shang Xia hadn’t even found the inheritance!

In the near future, Shang Xia would have to devote himself to crafting the Gale Thunderbolt Talismans. He knew that there was almost no chance for him to start looking into the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman regardless and since someone was trading one during the gathering, he decided to get his hands on it.

After all, there were still several spatial artifacts in his possession that he had yet to open.

In order to obtain the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman, Shang Xia not only used his last Spiritual Yin Knife Talisman. He also had to bring out his final piece of rank three Lightning Fire Jujube before he could get his hands on it.

Both the Spiritual Yin Knife Talisman and Lightning Fire Jujue were treasures that could kill other members of the Martial Intent Realm if used properly. The Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman could only be used to open up one spatial artifact, but even so, Shang Xia decided to make the trade. The only problem he had was deciding which spatial artifact to open.

Other than the talisman, Shang Xia also managed to obtain 5 pieces of rank three talisman jade.

Due to the fact that talisman jade was made from essence jade, they were much higher in quality than talisman paper of the same level. They could also preserve the rank three talisman contained in them for a longer time compared to talisman paper. Of course, the difficulty of crafting a talisman with talisman jade was proportionally more difficult.

…

When it came to the grand formation around the Observation Peak, any cultivators who paid a little more attention would know what the Tongyou Institution was doing. It was no secret they were trying to lay down a grand formation.

There were even some perceptive experts who knew that the Tongyou Institution wouldn’t be able to come up with all the resources in a short period of time. They felt that the institution would definitely be trying to obtain resources through their gathering. Those smarter cultivators were trying to offer resources required by the institution and raising the prices to obtain a little more than they would otherwise,

In actuality, there were people who brought out rank three talisman paper for trade and the institution did indeed make a move. In the end, they paid a little more than the market price to obtain the talisman papers.

Naturally, Shang Xia wouldn’t be stupid enough to join in the bidding to raise the price. In the end, the Tongyou Institution successfully obtained the batch of rank three talisman paper.

It was a pity the scattered cultivators trying to profit off the institution had no idea what the institution truly needed. When talisman jades appeared, the experts who were bidding on behalf of the institution pretended not to see them as that would be a massive waste of resources if they used it for the grand formation. 

Shang Xia saw an opportunity and bid for those talisman jades with a fair price and managed to obtain them eventually.

…

The third item Shang Xia obtained was close to the end of the gathering. 

Seeing as the gathering was about to come to an end, Shang Xia felt that there wouldn’t be anything else that caught his eye and decided to bid his farewell. He wanted to take the time before people started to leave to head over to the Yuxi Peak to start a deeper investigation.

Who would have thought that before he could leave the venue, he would see someone rushing up to the central platform to open a sealed case.

“Three hundred years old Violet Ningpo Wigfort. I don’t have a treasure in mind I wish to trade this for but I’ll accept anything of use to me.”

Shang Xia stopped dead in his tracks and turned to stare at the person. The person who brought out the herb seemed to be trying his luck. Props to him as he might come across some surprising gains. 

After all, it wasn’t every day so many Martial Intent Realm experts who had completed their third divine sense transformation or higher were gathered together. No one present lacked treasures, but they might not possess treasures they could personally use. There would definitely be people looking to obtain precious herbs no matter what.

Shang Xia needed a piece of hundred year old Violet Ningpo Wigfort, and the one up for trade was three hundred years old!

There was no way Shang Xia could miss out on something like that.

However, it seemed as though there were many cultivators who were also interested in it and were starting to send the person secret voice transmissions.

Thinking for a second, Shang Xia took out a piece of rank one talisman paper and wrote something casually on it. He turned it into a paper crane that wobbled over to the center platform.

It didn’t take long for it to return and when he opened it, there were only two words written on it. ‘Too little’.

Instead of being disappointed, Shang Xia’s gaze lit up.

The other party didn’t reject him directly which meant that he was actually interested in Shang Xia’s offer. He was merely trying to get a higher price for his herb.

Thinking for a short moment, Shang Xia added a few more words onto the talisman paper before sending it back to the platform.

When the talisman paper returned, there was only a single word left. 

‘Deal’.

When he obtained the herb, he was relieved of 2 pieces of essence jade and 3 rank two Lightning Fire Jujubes.

After leaving the venue, Shang Xia looked around him and when he was satisfied that there was no one observing him in secret, he started running. Making a huge detour around the gathering venue, he ran towards the foot of the Yuxi Peak.

The closer he got, the stronger the thumping he felt between his eyebrows.

Looking into his sea of consciousness, Shang Xia noticed a cloud of red mist surrounding the Crimson Soul Tablet. It was trembling non-stop as though it wanted to leap out of Shang Xia’s body.

Luckily, he was prepared this time. He was able to forcefully suppress the Crimson Soul Tablet with his divine sense.

When he finally arrived at the foot of the Yuxi Peak, he saw a screen of multicolored gas ten feet away from him. Who would have thought that the Crimson Soul Tablet that was trembling violently earlier would regain its calm and stop moving completely?

According to what he learned from Shang Xi and the others, Shang Xia knew that the Yuxi Peak didn’t stop anyone from entering. The problem came when they were trying to leave. After all, no one managed to step out of the Yuxi Peak after going in.

In his sea of consciousness, Shang Xia was observing the Crimson Soul Tablet closely. He discovered that the tablet was behaving as though it had met its old friend when it tried interacting with the multicolored mist surrounding the peak. That being said, they seemed to be carefully observing each other from whatever distance they were at.

Carefully taking a step forward, Shang Xia realized he fucked up. The Crimson Soul Tablet and the multicolored mist seemed to recognize each other as they tried to embrace each other.

The calm screen of multicolored mist seemed to lose all control as it rushed towards Shang Xia in an unstoppable wave.

Noticing the change, the Crimson Soul Tablet thumped violently as though a terrifying enemy was approaching.

That was its warning!

There wasn’t a need to think about it as Shang Xia retreated as quickly as he could. He tried his best to open up the distance between himself and the mist.

The Yuxi Peak that was clouded in mysteries at the moment seemed to be a beast that had awakened as the multicolored mist started to emit a dense glow. Resplendent light shot out from every part of the mountain as it filled the space around it.

Shang Xia pushed himself to his limit as he escaped as quickly as he could. Before he finally turned around to run, he noticed a shocking change to the Yuxi Peak. The multicolored mist seemed to split itself into layers and the mountain became surrounded by layers of different colors - Dark Green, jet black, dirty yellow, ash-white…

At a certain distance from the Yuxi Peak, the mist that was racing after him finally started to dissipate. The Yuxi Peak seemed to return to its dormant state as the multicolored mist remade itself.

Feeling the sense of danger disappearing, Shang Xia finally stopped to look behind him. 

His heart was still racing, but he seemed to discover several new colors in the multicolored mist that surrounded the Yuxi Peak.

Realizing that trouble was probably coming, he quickly concealed his aura to hide himself. He might be standing in his original position, but he seemed to resemble a motionless rock that was void of any vitality.

The sudden change to the Yuxi Peak would definitely alert every single Martial Extermination Realm expert who was keeping an eye on the area. The disturbance to the Yuxi Peak might have lasted for a few moments, but Shang Xia was sure that the Martial Extermination Realm experts were on their way.