Splitting the Heave

Shang Xia’s divine perception might be able to cover a radius of 1000 feet in the Cloud Water Gorge, but he knew that it would twist along with space. 

Even though he felt someone’s aura within the radius of his divine perception, he didn’t know if they were actually 1000 feet away from him. However, that was the first clue he had gotten since entering the Cloud Water Gorge. He wasn’t willing to give up any chances of finding Shang Pei and he started to move towards the person he felt. 

As he ran in the direction of the person he felt, he no longer bothered if he was going to run off a cliff. All he wanted to do was to locate the person in the dense clouds.

After running for some time, Shang Xia realized that the feeling had disappeared. Despite unleashing his Irregular Steps with his Four Constellation Qi, he failed to discover any traces of the person he felt earlier.

Not willing to give up, Shang Xia forged onwards only to be disappointed by his lack of findings.

Wait… Distortion of divine perception? 

The thought barely flashed through his mind when an idea formed in his head. He ran back to where he detected the presence. Naturally, due to the shifting of space in the Cloud Water Gorge, his surroundings changed slightly. He might not be at the exact location where he discovered the foreign aura earlier, but he was close enough.

Shang Xia felt that if he wasn’t imagining things earlier, the person should be moving quickly through the Cloud Water Gorge. Since they were probably both Martial Extermination Realm experts, Shang Xia decided to retrace his steps to look for that person.

“I won’t go towards where I felt it earlier. I’ll try going to the left!” To be fair, Shang Xia’s way of thinking wasn’t logical at all. However, he wasn’t planning to be. He had thrown everything to luck and he hoped that the person he detected wouldn’t be moving too quickly.

After estimating the distance traveled by Martial Extermination Realm experts, Shang Xia ran 200 feet to the left from his original position before stopping. It came as no surprise that there was no one there.

Going back to his original position, Shang Xia went 300 feet to the right.

“Boom!” A massive shockwave tore through the air and it was quickly dissipated by the thick fog. However, Shang Xia was sure he wasn’t hallucinating and he knew that there were people fighting nearby.

With his vigor invigorated, he started running in that direction. He didn’t even bother hiding his aura as he ran as he wanted nothing more than to look at what was going on.

As he approached the battle, Shang Xia could hear the manly yells and beastly growls. 

By the time he recognized the sounds, he had already entered the range of their battle. 

Since he wasn’t hiding his aura, he was discovered immediately. Since neither party knew if Shang Xia was part of their group, they attacked him indiscriminately. 

Sweeping his divine sense over them, Shang Xia discovered that they weren’t Shang Pei at all. With the frustration and annoyance of being unable to locate his aunt festering deep in his heart, he discovered two streams of attack flying towards him. Venting all his emotions at once, he released two separate Chaos Essence Lightning Palms in response.

A huge explosion ensued and reddish-gold lightning bolts filled the space before him. A young man who didn’t look 30 and a withered tail was sent flying from the impact.

“Chaos Essence Lightning Palm!” The young man yelled as a trace of joy could be heard in his voice.

“It’s you?” Shang Xia finally recognized the young man and a smile slowly made its way onto his face. “Give me a moment while I deal with that creature…”

Even though he hit the young man with his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm earlier, Shang Xia knew that he wouldn’t die so easily. Turning around, he attacked the giant alligator who was fighting the young man earlier.

The giant alligator might seem pretty large, but it was a rank three beast at the end of the day. It knew it couldn’t put up the slightest resistance against Shang Xia.

However, the beast was a crafty one. Realizing that it wasn’t a match for the Martial Extermination Realm expert, it dived into the stream behind it. It was truly unfortunate that Shang Xia injured its tail earlier. Without its tail, it couldn’t swim as quickly as before. 

Shang Xia leaped into the air and skimmed the top of the water as he ran after the alligator.

“Wait, don’t go into the water!” A soft voice came from behind, but the warning came a little too late.

Shang Xia slapped the surface of the stream, causing a jade-colored light to flash across the water. The water that was rushing happily within the stream turned into a block of ice and the giant alligator was no exception. Shang Xia finally unleashed his Winter Extermination Origin, the Freezing Soul Extermination Origin!

Flicking his wrist to reveal the Jade River Sword, Shang Xia sent a ray of sword light into the head of the frozen alligator. His Seven Laceration Sword Intent immediately turned the brains of the creature to mush.

Before anyone could react, he had already returned to shore.

The frozen stream didn’t remain that way for long. By the time Shang Xia landed back on shore, the ice shattered into countless pieces. The body of the alligator also became food for whatever creature that lived under the water.

Turning behind him, he reminded Ninth Brother Huang to avoid the stream in case he was attacked by the creatures beneath again.

Walking back to collect Ninth Brother Huang, Shang Xia went to look for a safe region to settle him down. After finding a place, Shang Xia placed the injured Ninth Brother Huang down only to see him staring at Shang Xia with a strange gaze.

“You can still fly in the Cloud Water Gorge?” 

Shang Xia didn't bother replying as he stared at the heavily injured Ninth Brother Huang.

“You… You actually entered the Martial Extermination Realm… Oh, are Hai Min and Yuanyuan doing alright?” Ninth Brother Huang threw out another question that seemed a little questionable but served nicely to confuse Shang Xia. 

Not knowing how to reply, Shang Xia could only change the topic forcefully. “You’re not bad yourself. You managed to develop your divine sense and enter the Martial Intent Realm. If you hadn’t, you would have long since succumbed to your wounds… Where’s the rest? Where’s my aunt?” 

After the events that happened in the Changfeng City during the War of the Tongyou Mysterious World, Shang Pei’s identity as a member of the Eighteen Horsemen of the You Continent was no longer a secret. After the battle, members who didn’t betray the institution were actually given the choice to return to the You Continent and even the institution. 

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However, all of them made the same choice after hearing about Shang Pei’s plan to establish herself in the Taihang Mountains.

Evidently, Ninth Brother Huang wasn’t doing too well from his internal injuries. However, he couldn’t help but chuckle bitterly in response to Shang Xia’s question. “All of us chose to scatter throughout the Cloud Water Gorge… We don’t know how many of us will be able to live and your aunt’s situation isn’t looking too good. We abandoned our hideout and left because she didn’t return at our appointed time.” 

“What do you mean?” Shang Xia turned serious.

With a bitter expression on his face, Ninth Brother Huang continued, “We’ve been running around the Ji Continent in the past under the banner of the Eighteen Horsemen. We know that every cultivator’s weakness is their companions or people they care about.” 

“Is that why all of you chose to run away individually? Are you afraid of being taken hostage and being used to threaten my aunt?” Shang Xia asked. No one could tell his true emotions from the way he spoke.

Because of his injuries, Ninth Brother Huang was finding it a little taxing to speak. However, he still gathered whatever energy he had left to reply, “The Cloud Water Gorge is an extremely strange place. Even if we left together, we will definitely be separated eventually. As long as those hunting down Chief Shang don’t find us, we’ll be alright!” 

The confusion Shang Xia was feeling only grew stronger after hearing what Ninth Brother Huang said. “Since you’ll be separated in the Cloud Water Gorge, how did you guys gather together from the start? Also, what’s the principle behind your meetings at a specific place and time? That’s not possible with whatever you’re saying… I heard that you guys formed the Youyan Stronghold in the Cloud Water Gorge. Is establishing a stronghold a way to stop the strange spatial shifts in this place?” 

Thinking for a second, Ninth Brother Huang eventually explained, “Chief Shang has a special treasure that resembles a seal. None of us knows how she got it but that’s how she managed to overcome the strangeness of this place. Of course, the treasure also restricted the area of our movements. We need to obtain a talisman stamped with her seal if we wish to venture further away and it would only remain effective for some time.”

“So… All of you were able to gather together because of that seal… Is that why you guys scattered eventually?” Shang Xia kind of understood what was going on with his explanation.

Nodding slightly, Ninth Brother Huang continued, “Something like that. However, we didn’t fully exhaust the power of our seals. As bandits who experienced tons of dangerous situations back in our time, all of us felt that something was wrong and decided to leave early.” 

The words ‘seal talisman’ caused Shang Xia’s heart to tremble slightly, but it clearly wasn’t the time to think about talismans.

“So that’s what happened…” Shang Xia nodded slightly. He quickly continued, “How should I go around looking for her then?” 

“You can use this.” Ninth Brother Huang handed over a special talisman that had another special seal stamped on it.

A frown formed on his face as he inspected the talisman. “Didn’t you say that the power contained within it was exhausted?

“After the power in the talisman is exhausted, we won’t be able to prevent the space around us from shifting. However, the seal talisman has some sort of connection to the main seal with Chief Shang. It will react and point you in her direction once you get close enough.” Ninth Brother Huang explained.

Shang Xia gasped in shock. “Is this why you guys dared to venture off into the Cloud Water Gorge yourselves?” 

Ninth Brother Huang nodded and sighed, “However, it’s a little difficult for our seal talismans to detect Chief Shang’s main seal. It would be easier for her to look for us…” 

“I have one last question.” Shang Xia asked.

“What is it?” Ninth Brother Huang was slightly taken aback by his abrupt question.

“How long can you last in the Cloud Water Gorge in your current state?” 

“Huh?” Ninth Brother Huang raised both eyebrows in shock. 

“What else do you think we’ve been having such a long conversation? I’m trying to give you more time to restore your inner qi here. Are you hoping that I’ll bring you along while trying to locate Shang Pei? Don’t you know that you’ll just be a liability in a battle of that scale?”