Splitting the Heave

At the border of the Yan Continent on the Azure Origin World, a ray of extermination origin tore through the skies as Shang Ke’s body tumbled through the air. He landed on a mountain and tried to steady himself. He looked extremely haggard and he looked around him before sucking in a long breath.

Suppressing the energy fluctuations around him, he yelled, “Fellow cultivators, you’ve been chasing me from the border of the Xu Continent! Are you really planning to leave me with no path of retreat?” 

Two figures appeared ten thousand feet or so away and the taller and fatter one among them spoke up. “We don’t wish to kill you. As long as you hand over the Dragon Headed Wintersweet, we’ll leave you alone!” 

Shang Ke rejected it resolutely. “Impossible! I obtained the Dragon Headed Wintersweet from the Lushan Paradise in the Yang Continent. If you need it, why don’t you go ask them for one?” 

The other Martial Extermination Realm cultivator who was clad in robes that had clouds embroidered on it sneered, “If not for the fact that we came a little later, the Dragon Headed Wintersweet wouldn’t have fallen into your hands.” 

Shang Ke raised his eyebrows in shock. “Looks like you two had your eyes on me for a while now. However, the person from the Lushan Paradise promised to keep this a secret. How did you learn about this and my whereabouts?” 

The taller and fatter cultivator mocked Shang Ke ruthlessly seeing as victory was at hand. “As a northerner, your entry to the Yang Continent is eye-catching enough, much less when you’re a Martial Extermination Realm cultivator. The Lushan Paradise doesn't need to reveal your whereabouts. There has been tons of eyes on you the moment he appeared. Luckily, we came the earliest and the others were too afraid to interfere.” 

“So it looks like the two of you aren’t nameless experts. I wonder if I can learn your names?” 

The cloud robed cultivator snorted in response, “What’s the matter? Are you planning on taking revenge on us brothers after today?” 

The words had just left his lips when the taller and fatter cultivator made a seal with his hand. Two giant palms made from heaven and earth qi appeared on either side of the mountain Shang Ke was standing on and they closed in rapidly in an attempt to turn Shang Ke into a human pancake.

“Hmph, you will have to be able to leave alive before thinking about revenge!” 

When one of them made his move, the other soared higher into the air as a long banner appeared behind him. It started to store power while waiting for Shang Ke to reveal his weakness.

“Hehe, you’re an arrow at the end of your flight. How much strength do you even have to fight against us?” The cloud robed cultivator sneered. He discovered that Shang Ke was merely a first layer Martial Extermination Realm expert and after being chased for thousands and thousands of miles, he had probably exhausted himself. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have stopped in the middle of nowhere to start talking reason with them.

In his eyes, Shang Ke made a stupid decision. If he gave up the Dragon Headed Wintersweet initially, they might have allowed him to get away. However, letting him live was out of the question now that they wasted so much effort on him.

With victory at hand, the cloud robed cultivator stared at Shang Ke like he was looking at a dead man. However, a two colored light appeared from the mountain when the heaven and earth qi palms slammed shut.

“You… You’re at the second layer of the Martial Extermination Realm! You actually hid your cultivation!” The cloud robed cultivator yelled in shock as he swung his banner down at Shang Ke. Countless blades that were made from green wind-attributed qi emerged and shot downwards.

However, a long spear tore through the void at that instant and turned the skies above Shang Ke into mush. A huge portion of the wind blades that were falling were destroyed.

“You actually have an accomplice!” The cloud robed cultivator roared in fright as he retreated in terror. He didn’t forget to remind his brother to stop getting tangled up with Shang Ke now that an unknown expert had arrived.

Ripples formed in the air above Shang Ke and a middle-aged female cultivator who held a long spear in her hand emerged from the void.

It didn’t come as a surprise that the person who arrived was Shang Pei who went to the Jing Continent after their last meeting.

The cloud robed cultivator shifted his gaze from Shang Ke to Shang Pei several times in succession before grunting in defeat, “We’re leaving!” 

It seemed as though he understood that they wouldn't be killing Shang Ke to take away his treasures now that his backup had arrived. As such, he made a resolute call to retreat.

Seeing the two Martial Extermination Realm experts who hadn’t revealed their identities take their leave, Shang Ke finally heaved a sigh of relief. 

With the immediate threat gone, he was finally able to catch his breath. Feeling a wave of weakness filling his body, he became a lot more pale than before.

Regardless if he was hiding his strength of not, being chased for thousands of miles tired him out. 

While he was catching his breath, Shang Pei’s voice came from the side. “Fifth Uncle, when did you manage to refine your second extermination origin?” 

…

Shang Xia’s first attempt at crafting Gale Thunderbolt Talismans could be considered a resounding success. He used 14 pieces of rank three talisman paper to make 8 Gale Thunderbolt Talismans. If he released the news of his success rate, the entire grade of rank three Talisman Masters might be thrown into an uproar.

Not to mention the fact that the Gale Thunderbolt Talismans was one of the most difficult rank three talismans to craft.

Shang Xia might not plan to spread the news himself, but one couldn’t forget that Ren Huan was the one who delivered the talisman papers to Shang Xia. He gave Shang Xia 17 pieces of rank three talisman paper in total, and even if they used that as a benchmark to calculate Shang Xia’s rate of success, it was still a shocking amount.

The outside world might know that Shang Xia had an extremely high success rate, but only Shang Xia himself knew the true reason behind it. One was his unique crafting method, but there were also many micro factors that allowed him to do so.

Of the other reasons, one of the most important ones was because of Ren Huan’s talisman paper.

Due to the properties of the Stormy Lightning Leaf, the talisman paper Ren Huan made contained the properties of wind and lightning even before the crafting process started. It greatly reduced Shang Xia’s burden of having to introduce them during the crafting process.

Of course, Shang Xia’s cultivation also played a pretty big role. One couldn’t forget about how he cultivated lightning attributed martial arts with a trace of heavenly lightning contained in his body. 

The rest of the reasons didn’t matter too much as luck pretty much made up the rest of his success.

Those were the true breakdown of Shang Xia’s success, but no one could deny that his actions raised a huge commotion in the Tongyou Institution.

The Talisman Hall also managed to enjoy some benefits as a result of his actions. Their workload was greatly decreased due to the changes the Formation Hall had to make and some of them were truly grateful.

Obviously, the same couldn’t be said for those in the Formation Hall. In order to incorporate the Gale Thunderbolt Talismans into the formation, all of them had started to work on overdrive. It was even said that the lazy but talented Chu Jia had even given up on her naps in order to work tirelessly on the reformation.

Everyone in the Talisman Hall sucked in a cold breath when they heard what was happening.

When the entire Observation Peak was bustling with activities, Shang Xia, who stunned the world with his feat, managed to free up half a month for himself. He spent the whole time in his secret chamber and finally managed to recover from the fatigue he felt.

The only reason he managed to recover so quickly was because of his strong divine sense. He had the Man and Heaven Synergy Chapter to assist him, greatly increasing his recovery rate.

If any other rank three Talisman Master was in his position, they might not be able to touch their brush for the next three months after pulling what Shang Xia did.

Emerging from his secret chamber, the fuss over his success rate that happened when he delivered the talismans had already blown over. Shang Xia went to look for Zhang Haogu quietly in order to obtain the inheritance for the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman.

In the following half a month, Shang Xia immersed himself in his study of how to craft the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman.

When he was clear about the principles behind the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman, he changed directions suddenly and started to research his unique way of talisman crafting.

Just like that, another half a month passed before Shang Xia was ready to craft the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman. Comparing it to the Gale Thunderbolt Talisman, Shang Xia estimated that the difference in difficulty of crafting both talismans was pretty wide. The Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman was much easier to create.

As Shang Xia planned to use the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman for himself, he couldn’t rely on the Talisman Hall for resources. 

Luckily, he saved a piece of talisman paper from his first batch of Formation Talismans. Along with the talisman jades he obtained during the gathering, he was able to try his hand at crafting some Bamboo Void Breaking Talismans. 

The only thing that was worth mentioning was the rank three talisman paper made from the Stormy Lightning Leaves the Talisman Hall provided. Because of his success, the Talisman Hall would naturally not bother him about them. Moreover, they wouldn’t know if those talisman papers were destroyed during the crafting process. Those talisman papers, along with several auxiliary resources, went into Shang Xia’s pockets just like that.

During his recovery period, Ren Huan also delivered the rest of the talisman paper that belonged to Shang Xia. There was a total of 18 rank three talisman paper made from the Stormy Lightning Leaves, bringing Shang Xia’s total possession of rank three talisman paper made from those leaves up to 21.

For obvious reasons, Shang Xia didn’t plan on using those talisman paper to craft Bamboo Void Breaking Talismans. 

When Shang Xia prepared himself to start crafting talismans again, 1.5 months had already passed since he handed in those talismans. The modifications of the grand formation was going smoothly, but they only managed to complete half of it.

With nothing else to stop him, Shang Xia sealed his secret chamber and started his first attempt to craft a Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman. It came as no surprise when the first piece of talisman paper exploded in his face. Luckily, that was the low-grade rank three talisman paper he used to craft Formation Talismans. 

Using his talisman jades, he finally completed a Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman after wasting one of them. With his success, the number of rank three talismans he could create increased to 6!

When he was done with his first piece of Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman, taking a break was the furthest thing on his mind. He couldn’t wait to open Sima Zhangxing’s spatial case.

He made up his mind when he was choosing between the cases the first time. After Senior Brother Zhou’s case, he would open Sima Zhanxing’s case before finally progressing to Chu Chen’s spatial artifact.

This novel is available on "pawread dot com".

With a burst of light, the restrictions around Sima Zhanxing’s spatial case shattered.

The items contained within scattered to the ground before him and Shang Xia’s gaze immediately landed on a pebble that was emitting a soft red glow. 

“Hah? Is that a piece of Yang Fire Stone?!”