Splitting the Heave

When he was done dealing with everything on the Observation Peak, Shang Xia finally returned to the Yuxi Peak. He discovered that he regained the ability to continue refining his extermination origins, although the speed at which he was able to was as slow as a snail crawling a tree. 

Even so, Shang Xia felt a lot more reassured now that he was able to continue the refinement process. After all, he couldn’t refine a single bit of his extermination origins back on the Observation Peak.

He wasn’t afraid that his cultivation would progress slowly. He was only afraid that he couldn’t improve anymore. 

As the refinement process of his extermination origins continued, Shang Xia discovered that he was able to consolidate his foundations a lot quicker than before. Quickly getting into the rhythm of cultivation, Shang Xia’s life on the Yuxi Peak became a lot more structured than before.

Other than using a set period of time to cultivate and refine his extermination origins, Shang Xia poured a huge portion of his energy into understanding the crafting process of a rank four talisman.

Like the difference between a Martial Extermination Realm and a Martial Intent Realm, a rank four talisman was countless times harder to craft than a rank three talisman.

Even with Shang Xia’s unique way of talisman crafting, he would need to use a lot of effort to deduce each action and energy contained in each stroke. It would take a massive toll on his concentration and his inner qi as he ran through all the steps in his mind.

Way before Shang Xia started his breakthrough, the Tongyou Institution had already declared the Yuxi Peak to be a forbidden region. They forbade anyone from entering the mountain, but without the threat of the multicolored qi, there were people who started to try their luck. Fortunately, Ge Qingzhu was stationed on the Yuxi Peak, and during Shang Xia’s half-month absence, he personally dealt with several cultivators who refused to listen to the institution’s instructions to not approach the peak. Only then did people start to take the institution’s instructions seriously again.

That was also the reason behind Shang Xia’s peaceful days on the Yuxi Peak. 

During one of his cultivation sessions, Shang Xia finally cleared his mind to think about his cultivation path in the Four Constellation Realm. 

After a cultivator entered the Martial Extermination Realm, they would run into different opportunities and thus experience very different rates of refinement of their extermination origin. Every step forward was a challenge unless they were following a guide from someone who had done it before.

Shang Xia decided that the best way forward wasn’t actually charging blindly. Planning out his cultivation path was secondary. The most pressing thing at hand was to inspect the changes in his dantian after his breakthrough.

Other than his stronger-than-usual divine perception, Shang Xia discovered that he could vaguely feel the presence of world origin through the extermination origin he controlled.

That seemed to be something other Martial Extermination Realm experts could also do, but the difference between himself and the others was that he could feel the resonance between his extermination origins and world origin to a much clearer degree.

Also, that brought about another point. After entering the Martial Extermination Realm, cultivators would be able to refine world origin directly through the void. World origin came from the source of the world and from a certain standpoint, one could say that extermination origins were merely manifestations of world origin.

In order to refine their extermination origin, Martial Extermination Realm cultivators would have to draw in world origin to smoothen the process.

Looking at it from another angle, Shang Xia understood that in order to increase one’s cultivation at their current cultivation stage, they would have to absorb and refine world origin in their dantian while completing the transformation of their inner qi! From his experience in previous realms, he would have to obtain a corresponding secret art suitable for Martial Extermination Realm experts in order to do so. Only then would he be able to convert his Origin True Qi into Four Constellation Qi to enter the large completion stage of his current cultivation realm.

Cultivators in the Azure Origin World faced a huge problem when it came to training secret arts in the Martial Extermination Realm in order to convert their inner qi as most of them had refined different extermination origins. There wasn’t a method that could be used by everyone and unless one used a similar advancement medicine and refined a similar extermination origin to seniors who had broken through in the past, they wouldn’t be able to follow in their exact footsteps.

A fantastic example would be Shang Ke. When Shang Ke entered the Martial Extermination Realm back then, he used the same advancement medicine as Shang Bo. The extermination origin he refined was also similar to what Shang Bo used. As such, he was able to follow in Shang Bo’s footsteps and cultivate the same way.

It explained how Shang Ke managed to enter the second layer of the Martial Extermination Realm so quickly. With Shang Bo’s experience as a guide, Shang Ke didn’t have to carry out his own experiments to improve. The problem finally appeared when Shang Ke entered the second layer of the Martial Extermination Realm. The Lingkong Formless Extermination Origin was extremely suited for him, but now that he refined it, his cultivation speed was bound to take a huge hit. He was still able to learn from Shang Bo, but his progress would be a lot slower than before.

In the future when Shang Ke refined his third and fourth extermination origins, the difference between himself and Shang Bo would only grow wider. His speed of cultivation using Shang Bo’s guide would definitely stagnate. It might even affect his chances of breaking through to the Martial Dipper Realm in the future.

With that being said, Shang Ke didn’t possess much hope of entering the Martial Dipper Realm in the first place. He understood that he was almost at his limit after entering the Martial Extermination Realm.

With Shang Ke’s example, Shang Xia understood that Martial Extermination Realm experts would usually develop their own secret art to ensure maximum compatibility.

Turning his attention back to himself, he realized that the difficulty of coming up with his unique way of training would be a lot higher than others.

Others might have a way of referencing seniors to gain a stroke of inspiration, but Shang Xia was practically going in blind.

There might have been people who thought of refining four extermination origins at once to enter the Martial Extermination Realm, but they didn’t seem to succeed. Not a single record of them could be found, much less secret arts they created.

Shang Xia’s return to the Yuxi Peak was driven by his need to refine his extermination origins, but at the same time, he wanted to ponder over the problem of his secret art in a quiet location.

Other than a secret art to hasten the transformation of his inner qi, he wouldn’t be able to receive an inheritance like the Providence Spear Art this time. Rank four martial arts were practically developed by cultivators according to their fighting style.

After reminding himself of the problems he faced in the Four Constellation Realm, Shang Xia decided that there was no point hastening the refinement of his extermination origins. Focusing on the development of his secret art and martial arts was something he had to work on too.

Making a decision for one of his many problems, Shang Xia didn’t stop there. Cultivation and talisman crafting weren’t the only things he was focused on. Most of the time he had left was spent on comprehending his Man and Heaven Synergy Chapter that he had mostly forgotten back in the Martial Intent Realm. 

After entering the Four Constellation Realm, his divine sense transformed into divine perception. Shang Xia’s understanding of how his divine perception interacted with the world deepened and he discovered that there was more to learn. 

Shang Xia had a feeling that a greater understanding of the Man and Heaven Synergy Chapter was a key in creating his own secret art and martial arts.

…

In the blink of an eye, Shang Xia spent more than a month on the Yuxi Peak.

He had solidified his foundations in the Four Constellation Realm and after a lot of research and thinking, he felt as though he knew how to proceed further in his path of cultivation. 

Knowing how to proceed was one thing, actually reaching the end of that path was another. Shang Xia knew that he had a long way to go before he could come up with suitable secret and martial arts for himself.

That wasn’t all. He also understood the crux of crafting several rank four talismans, and it could be said that Shang Xia’s time on the Yuxi Peak was extremely fruitful.

It seemed as though the talismans he had been running through in his mind had something similar about all of them. It was precisely the similarity that allowed Shang Xia to save a bunch of time and energy. 

Making up his mind to craft his first rank four talisman, a transmission talisman shot through the air from the direction of the Observation Peak. Scanning through its content, Shang Xia realized that he would no longer be able to cultivate peacefully on the Yuxi Peak.

Sighing helplessly to himself, Shang Xia could only notify Ge Qingzhu about his departure and request for him as a replacement.

…

Shang Xia didn’t expect Ge Qingzhu to send a bunch of Formation Masters over in his stead. They started to survey the Yuxi Peak and it didn’t take long for a message from Ge Qingzhu to arrive.

He learned that the institution was planning to lay down another formation around the Yuxi Peak to secure it. The plan had been in the works for some time now and they barely managed to complete their preparations when Shang Xia requested to leave.

With the arrival of the disciples from the Formation Hall and the peace treaty between the Tongyou Institution and the experts of the Azure Spiritual World in the battlefield between the two worlds, Ge Qingzhu didn’t feel the need to personally return to the Yuxi Peak.

Seeing as it was safe to leave the Yuxi Peak in the hands of the Formation Hall, Shang Xia turned into a streak of light that tore through the air as he headed straight for the Observation Peak.

By the time he returned to the Shang Clan’s territory on the Observation Peak, he discovered that Shang Quan and Shang Tai had been waiting for him for quite some time.

“What’s going on?” Shang Xia suppressed his voice and asked cautiously.

“The clan sent a secret transmission over to us requesting for you to return to the Tongyou City at the quickest speed possible after receiving the report.” Shang Quan explained.

While speaking, he handed over a scroll. 

It can be hard to make great work when its stolen from "pawread dot com".

Reading over its contents, he turned it into dust after he was done.

“Who else knows about this?” Shang Xia asked.

Shang Quan’s expression turned grave and he replied, “Shang Tai and myself are the only ones who know about this on the Observation Peak.” 

Nodding slightly, Shang Xia muttered, “I’ll head back as quickly as I can. Uncle Quan, Uncle Tai, please tell everyone that I have entered seclusion and will not be disturbed by anyone.” 

After speaking, he flicked his wrist to reveal close to 20 pieces of rank three talismans. He stacked them on the table before him and those were the talismans he had promised to make before leaving for the Yuxi Peak.

Since he entered the Four Constellation Realm, Shang Xia’s divine perception became much stronger than the divine sense he had in the Martial Intent Realm. He was able to craft talismans at a much quicker pace and his success rate reached a terrifying level. In order to draw inspiration from his unique talisman crafting method, Shang Xia made those talismans while thinking of the way to craft rank four talismans.

At his current level, he had crafted all 6 types of rank three talismans recorded in the Zhu Family Talisman Scripture at least once. There were 3 other talismans he learned about from the records of the Talisman Hall and he succeeded in crafting them too.

“Other than those I promised to make, you can keep the rest for yourselves.” Shang Xia smiled.

A wide smile appeared on Shang Quan and Shang Tai’s faces when they looked at the talismans laid out before them. The rank three talismans he made seemed to contain a terrifying power. Anyone below the Martial Extermination Realm would be hard pressed to take the full blow of the energy contained within.

Bidding his uncles farewell, Shang Xia separately notified Zhang Haogu and Ge Qingzhu that he would be leaving for some time before rushing towards the spatial tunnel.

Throughout the process, he didn’t alert anyone. As soon as he returned to the Tongyou Institution, he turned into a streak of light that flew back into the Shang Clan Manor. 

As Shang Ke had stated that he would be in seclusion, the responsibility of taking care of the clan landed on Shang Xi. Unfortunately, she entered seclusion not long after and Shang Jian had to take her place. 

“Second Uncle, what’s the matter? Why did you summon me back urgently?” Shang Xia looked for Shang Jian directly without alarming any members of the Shang Clan the moment he returned.

Shang Jian was clearly shocked by Shang Xia’s sudden appearance, but he quickly regained his cool. “Your Third Aunt sent an urgent message back from the Taihang Mountains. She said that you need to head there as soon as possible. She also said that it has something to do with what she told you previously.”