Splitting the Heave

… 

In one of the rocky fields in the Cloud Water Gorge, Feng Chenyi, the female expert with the Hexagonal Lantern raised it high in the air. 

An orange flame flickered in the lantern as the dense clouds that covered the rocky field were forced dozens of feet away.

Duan Liufeng and Yu Hanglong, the two experts beside her, stood at her side as they surveyed the surroundings cautiously.

“Youyan Master, what’s the point of hiding now that things have progressed to this point? You can only hide your tracks temporarily with your Tranquil Cape. You can’t hide forever.” Feng Chengyi yelled and her voice rang through the air. It definitely passed through the dense clouds, but she didn’t remain where she was. She signaled for the others to advance slowly.

The clouds parted whenever the three of them moved in a certain direction, but the orange flame in the Hexagonal Lantern all of a sudden. Feng Chenyi’s gaze turned sharp and it landed on a strange rock not too far away from them.

The shape of the rock seemed a little odd and under the illumination of the Hexagonal Lantern, the texture of a cloth-like cape was revealed.

“There!” Feng Chenyi pointed at the rock while Yu Hanglong chopped down without hesitation.

The cape fluttered in the wind as a figure leaped out from it. Even though the figure was several feet away from the trio, a spear emerged from the void above Feng Chenyi’s head and stabbed straight for the lantern.

It seemed as though her Hexagonal Lantern didn’t just force the clouds away. It was also able to see through the Tranquil Cape’s disguise.

Of course, Shang Pei knew that too and her main goal was to break the lantern as soon as possible.

Feng Chenyi didn’t even need to move when a whip emerged from Duan Liufeng’s waist. Two strands of extermination origin swirled around it as the phantom of a branch extended out of the void to protect Feng Chenyi and her lantern.

Even though Shang Pei’s spear tore through Duan Liufeng’s protection, it was directed away from Feng Chenyi and her Hexagonal Lantern.

Failing to kill Feng Chenyi or dealing with the Hexagonal Lantern even with the help of the Tranquil Cape, Shang Pei also had to defend herself from Yu Hanglong’s attack now that her position was revealed. It seemed as though she had fallen into their trap.

Shang Pei hadn’t entered the Martial Extermination Realm for long, but she had a lot of experience in fights. After all, she was a member of the Eighteen Horsemen of the You Continent who managed to walk sideways in the Ji Continent. She had plenty of life and death experience and she made a forward roll now that she was in danger. The Tranquil Cape extended behind her like a long snake as she ran for her life. It didn’t take long for her to disappear into the dense clouds.

“Shit! We let her escape again…” Duan Liufeng snapped his whip while cursing.

Of the three of them, his territory, the Jingxiu Peak, was the only one that had fallen. He wanted nothing more than to kill his enemy and return to salvage whatever remained.

“Master Duan, it won’t be that easy for us to kill a Martial Extermination Realm anyway.” Feng Chenyi tried to calm him down. 

Yu Hanglong came back with some pleasant news all of a sudden. “I slashed through her Tranquil Cape earlier. Even without Heroine Feng’s lantern, she won’t be able to hide her tracks from us!” 

Duan Liufeng’s expression lightened up a lot after hearing what he said. “So… We’re the ones holding all the advantage then?” 

Feng Chenyi glanced at him and seemed to guess his intentions. “Are you thinking of splitting up to search for her tracks?” 

“It’s not exactly a bad idea. Without the Tranquil Cape, all of us are equally as blind in the strange clouds here. We’re the ones with a numerical advantage…” Yu Hanglong muttered.

Feng Chenyi didn’t reject the suggestion. Instead, she turned to shout at the dense clouds around her. “Youyan Master, if you still don’t show yourself, we will have no choice but to start hunting down your subordinates.” 

Duan Liufeng and Yu Hanglong widened their eyes in shock after hearing what she said. Slapping his forehead, Duan Liufeng cried, “Why didn’t we think of this earlier?!” 

Feng Chenyi glanced at him without saying a word.

To their surprise, a cry came from the dense mist around in front of them. “You’re despicable!” 

As soon as her voice appeared, Yu Hanglong transformed into a streak of light that flew in the direction of her voice.

The sound of metal scraping rang through the air and the other two quickly caught up with him. Unfortunately, by the time they arrived, all they saw was Yu Hanglong standing there alone with a scene of destruction all around him.

The corners of Yu Hanglong’s lips curled upwards and he chuckled happily, “She’s not going to be able to escape now…” 

…

Shang Xia left the Jingxiu Peak under the cautious gazes of the 5 Martial Extermination Realm experts from the Sixth Pass. He flew at a casual pace when he left for the Cloud Water Gorge, as though he wasn’t really concerned for the life and death of the Youyan Master.

Actually, Shang Xia’s heart was burning with anxiety. He had to force himself to slow down in order to not reveal his true feelings to the bunch of cultivators from the Sixth Pass.

Back when he broke a hole in the protection barrier of the Jingxiu Peak, he used up two thirds of his inner qi.

He couldn’t reveal the slightest weakness in front of the 5 of them! If they were to join forces to attack him, he would be in deep shit! He only managed to fool them earlier by relying on his extraordinarily strong divine perception. During the face-off earlier, he was desperately trying to restore his inner qi.

Luckily, the heaven and earth qi around the Jingxiu Peak was sufficiently dense. He managed to hasten the rate of his recovery back then.

Even though he managed to restore some of his inner qi, he had less than half his reserves when he left earlier.

Now that he had left the Jingxiu Peak, he finally processed what had happened. Excitement and fear filled his heart in equal parts after he realized what he had done. Regardless, he continued to recover his inner qi the best he could. In the best-case scenario, he would be able to recover to his peak state before arriving in the Cloud Water Gorge.

It might seem like he made a loss selling whatever was left on the Jingxiu Peak to the 5 of them for an extermination origin and a talisman brush, but Shang Xia had no choice. Saving Shang Pei was a priority and he couldn’t waste his time negotiating with them.

Luckily, he obtained some treasures when he looked through the place earlier. His main intention when attacking the Jingxiu Peak wasn’t for valuables either, and getting the extermination origin and brush at the end was just a little bonus.

The extermination origin he obtained was called the Smoky Earthen Fire Extermination Origin and it was something Yin Wanxiang obtained from a dangerous region that contained a lot of volcanoes.

Yin Wanxiang lived up to his strength as a third layer Martial Extermination Realm expert. He didn’t fuss around and paid Shang Xia the extermination origin immediately. It seemed as though he was a lot richer than Shang Xia had thought.

According to Yin Wanxiang’s introduction, one had to talk down the path of controlling fire and poison in order to refine the Smoky Earthen Fire Extermination Origin. Otherwise, the properties of the extermination origin would cause a huge backlash to the person who absorbed it.

Of course, after refinement, the cultivator would be able to control an additional earthen attribute. Their ability to control fire and poison would also greatly increase.

Shang Xia was also pleasantly surprised to obtain the White Bone Brush from Zhonggu.

The brush was originally a high-grade treasure, but because of some damage, the shaft of the brush cracked and some essence leaked out causing it to regress to a mid-grade treasure.

Even so, a mid-grade talisman brush was pretty valuable.

There was also a reason Zhonggu managed to get his hands on the brush. Because of its regression, the Talisman Master who used the brush no longer wanted it. Eventually, it ended up with the skinny old man.

Naturally, Shang Xia intended to restore the brush to its peak state now that he obtained it.

He had another mid-grade brush, but it belonged to the Tongyou Institution at the end of the day. As a rank four Talisman Master, it was a little embarrassing to not possess his own equipment. That was also one of the major reasons he picked the White Bone Brush out of everything they offered.

800 miles wasn’t too far for a Martial Extermination Realm, especially Shang Xia whose speed was faster than normal. It didn’t take long for him to approach a region covered in dense clouds.

Now that he arrived, Shang Xia didn’t rush to enter the Cloud Water Gorge. He flew around it and scouted the area in order to learn more about the strange clouds that surrounded the gorge.

The Cloud Water Gorge could be considered a special region in the Sixth Pass.

Cultivators who entered wouldn’t be able to see 3 feet away from themselves and their divine sense would be greatly restricted. Even Martial Extermination Realm experts wouldn’t be able to feel more than 500 feet away from themselves with their divine perception.

That was why Shang Pei attacked only after she was discovered by the Hexagonal Lantern. She couldn’t detect her enemies before that!

Yu Hanglong discerning Shang Pei’s location from her voice earlier was another matter altogether. 

Looking at the Cloud Water Gorge, Shang Xia noticed that the clouds that filled the region weren’t exactly stuck in place. It seemed to pulsate slightly, but the extent of its expansion and retraction was limited.

Experts in the Sixth Pass had speculated the reason behind the changes in the Cloud Water Gorge, but an actual reason had never been established.

When Shang Xia observed the Cloud Water Gorge from the outside, he realized that there were several people who had their eyes on the region too.

A bad feeling appeared in Shang Xia’s heart and he quickly grabbed one of those who were watching the Cloud Water Gorge to understand their intentions. As it turned out, those people had been deployed to deal with members of the Youyan Stronghold who tried to escape.

Questioning the person he caught even further, Shang Xia discovered that he hadn’t received news from their leaders that the leader of the Youyan Stronghold was surrounded. 

Since those who went into the Cloud Water Gorge to attack Shang Pei hadn't emerged, it could only mean that she was still holding out well. It seemed as though Shang Xia wasn’t too late.

Shang Xia didn’t take long to find out the names of the Martial Extermination Realm experts who went into the Cloud Water Gorge to surround Shang Pei. One of them was a female cultivator called Feng Chenyi whose background was unknown. From what he learned, she seemed to be an expert from a faction outside the Taihang Mountains. 

The other was Duan Liufeng, and Shang Xia didn’t really need an introduction to the guy.

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

Finally, the last cultivator who went in was a Martial Extermination Realm called Yu Hanglong. Yu Hanglong sounded a little familiar to him and if Shang Xia wasn’t mistaken, he was an asshole who came over during the War of the Tongyou Mysterious World to take advantage of the situation. 

Chuckling softly, Shang Xia ended the life of the cultivator he captured. Since they were there to deal with the Youyan Stronghold, there was no need to let them live.

With his inner qi basically recovered, Shang Xia no longer felt the need to wait. He quickly rushed into the dense clouds that surrounded the Cloud Water Gorge.