Chapter 1122: Impossible to Unravel, Gloomy Situation

After being in seclusion for such a long time in the Tongyou Elysium, Shang Xia felt himself growing muddle-headed.

In order to prevent his Six Direction Origin from being assimilated into the Elysium, Shang Xia had been gathering heaven and earth qi from outside, which also allowed him to extend his divine soul out to observe the changes in the You Continent. The most obvious change was that the density of heaven and earth qi outside had grown.

After the You Continent extended past 10,000 miles, the world origin it contained wasn’t the only thing that experienced a transformation. Shang Xia’s origin soul that was branded into the world seemed to undergo some sort of strange transformation to freedom as the doors to a higher realm were slowly opened up.

Of course, even though it was open, he had to rely on his accumulations and foundations to step through it.

After a month of seclusion, he managed to restore his exhausted inner qi.

He remained there as the World’s Will blessing arrived with the complete assimilation of the continents of the Spirit Faith World. He couldn’t leave his state of seclusion easily.

The 13th year of the Spirit Luxuriant Calendar had already rolled about, and Spring was in full bloom.

With the blessing of the World’s Will, Shang Xia’s Six Direction Origin grew even stronger. With the You Continent’s expansion, he also reached the peak of the second tier.

He was a step away from becoming a rank three True Immortal, and he even had a good understanding of how he should reach the level of External Fusion. However, he failed to pierce through the paper-thin layer no matter how hard he tried.

He couldn’t understand why no matter how hard he tried to think about it.

One fine day, Kou Chongxue, who had been roaming about because Shang Xia took on the role of staying in the Tongyou Elysium, returned. He looked for Shang Xia who was thinking hard about his problem.

The moment the patriarch arrived, Shang Xia discovered the change in his aura. He actually reached the level of External Fusion and became the third tier True Immortal of the Spirit Luxuriant World!

Also, he was third because not too long after the descent of the World’s Will blessing, Zhang Xuansheng, who had been at the peak of the second tier for a long time, also took the final step.

Tongue-tied, Shang Xia pouted, “How… How did you already enter the third tier?! How long has it been since you became a second tier True Immortal?”

Kou Chongxue was slightly taken aback by the sudden questioning, but he quickly raged after returning to his senses. “You little shit! Don’t you feel bad when questioning me about matters like this?! How long has it been since YOU became a second tier True Immortal? You’re already at the peak of your current level and would be able to step through the gates with a little push. Where did you find the balls to ask me this question?”

Shang Xia wasn’t daring enough to start bickering with the patriarch of the Tongyou Institution yet and he immediately folded. He mumbled indignantly, “I ran into an obstacle and have no idea how I should reach the level of External Fusion… I gained nothing in my last month of seclusion…”

“Heh! Why didn’t you focus on your rank six secret art then?” Kou Chongxue sneered.

Shang Xia created his own path, and Kou Chongxue knew about it. Also, Kou Chongxue knew how he named his cultivation realm after the path he was taking. It made it easy to understand.

The Four Constellation Realm corresponded to the Martial Extermination Realm, and the Five Element Realm was equivalent to the Martial Dipper Realm. The Six Direction Realm naturally referred to the Martial Void Realm.

Kou Chongxue’s sudden reminder cleared the fog in front of Shang Xia and he grasped the crux of the problem. He finally understood what was stopping him from reaching the third tier.

Shang Xia’s enlightenment was obviously noticed by Kou Chongxue and the patriarch snorted coldly, “Do you finally get it?!”

Scratching his head, Shang Xia chuckled softly, “I might have my direction. But I need some time to see if I can succeed…”

Kou Chongxue nodded and replied, “Alright, stay here in seclusion. I guess I’ll head out.”

“Hey!” Shang Xia stopped him before he left. “Patriarch, who was it who attacked us back then?”

“No clue. The Stargazers of the Heavenly Star Palace managed to track the attack over to a region of space, but nothing was left.” Kou Chongxue shook his head and sighed.

With a deep frown on his face, Shang Xia mumbled, “Are there no other clues?”

Thinking for a second, Kou Chongxue eventually continued, “Back then, the strike was so powerful that even the Star Origin City was alarmed. Before we could go and ask them for more information, they came knocking to ask about what happened.”

“That would mean that they also learned about us obtaining the continents of the Spirit Faith World. Since Star Origin City knew, the other Spirit Worlds and Azure Worlds would also know what we did.” Shang Xia grumbled softly.

In response, Kou Chongxue burst out laughing. “It’s impossible to hide something like that anyway.”

“Who did Star Origin City send? What did they ask?” Shang Xia followed up.

Kou Chongxue replied, “It’s someone we know. They sent the second tier True Immortal, Liu Jiuzhen. According to what he says, from what the Star Observatory of the Star Origin City discovered, the expert who made the move back then definitely surpasses the level of a fifth tier True Immortal. They might have even reached the level of Extreme Harmonization! As for who it was, they thought we were the ones who went out to offend someone of that level and they have no idea either.”

Even though they suspected that the strike came from an expert in the fifth tier of the Martial Void Realm, after obtaining a more accurate analysis from the Star Origin City, Shang Xia couldn’t help but feel a trace of lingering fear.

“A mighty fifth tier True Immortal, or even a sixth tier True Immortal… Why would they make things difficult for us, a Spirit World who barely reached our level for a little more than ten years? If they are really targeting us, why did they stop after sending out a single attack? From the looks of it, they’re just sending a warning after our growth. More importantly, the other side was able to accurately grasp the time the landmass emerged from the spatial tunnel to achieve their goal.” Shang Xia threw out every question he had.

Kou Chongxue also didn’t have the answers to his question. After all, the strike back then was completely unprovoked and they had no idea what was happening! From the looks of it, it was going to remain a mystery.

What they couldn’t deny was that all of them already developed a slight fear of what happened that day.

All of them knew that the chances of them being fully prepared like before to take on a similar strike was only probably not going to happen again.

Also, if the strike was aimed at any one of them… Their existence would have been wiped and their souls exterminated.

Actually, for some time after the incident, the True Immortals of the Spirit Luxuriant World used the excuse of integrating the continents and the people who remained on them to not appear above the heavenly screen. There wasn’t even a need to mention running into the void…

What was even more embarrassing was that if not for Liu Jiuzhen coming to the Spirit Luxuriant World, the True Immortals of the Spirit Luxuriant World might not even have left their world!

Shang Xia seemed to have thought of something and he asked, “Oh right. Where did the Star Origin City track the attack? Is it the same place as the Heavenly Star Palace?”

“We can’t hide the existence of the Star Observatory in the Jiao Continent, and Liu Jiuzhen also seems to have the intention of probing our Stargazers. However, our Stargazers are still pretty new and their method of reverse tracking is a lot more crude than the Star Origin City. If we use our discovery and their results, we would be able to slightly narrow down the source.”

Shang Xia thought to himself for a moment and he continued, “With how powerful that strike was, Star Origin City shouldn’t be the only one alarmed. The other worlds would also have learned of what happened. Did we receive any news from them?”

Kou Chongxue laughed, “At the moment, most of the other worlds are still taking joy in our misfortune. After all, we grabbed 4 continents from another Spirit World. It’s impossible for them not to be jealous. Also, the Spirit Mammoth, Spirit Thistle, and Spirit Tinkle Worlds have been trying to secretly contact us hoping that we can join hands to launch an expedition against the foreign world. They also wish to obtain the location of the Spirit Faith World by paying us off.”

Shang Xia snorted in amusement and sneered, “They have great schemes indeed…”

“They’re not the only ones. Even Star Origin City hopes that we can reveal the position of the Spirit Faith World. They wish to establish contact with them and integrate them into their system.” Kou Chongxue continued.

A little curious, Shang Xia asked, “Patriarch, what do you think the Star Origin City is up to? Could they really just be trying to remain a neutral ground to encourage the communication between different worlds?”

Kou Chongxue sighed, “Only the higher-ups of Star Origin City would know. However, from the news we received from Feng Ziying, there is something strange going on with the Star Origin Guards at the moment. It’s said that Zhuge Xiang hasn’t appeared in a long time.”

Shang Xia was slightly taken aback by the revelation. “How long has it been?”

“Feng Ziying can’t be sure either. After all, he’s just a regular Star Origin Guard. The last time Zhuge Xiang showed his face was when Fourth Camp Commander Feng Ziyuan emerged from seclusion and became a True Immortal. They held a celebration then.”

Shang Xia thought of something else and asked suddenly, “Has there been news about Tong Yutang?”

Kou Chongxue long expected Shang Xia to ask about it. He didn’t even need to think about it and replied, “He has always been a mysterious one. Moreover, he’s also a True Immortal and if you suspect he’s a fourth tier expert, how are we supposed to be able to find him?”

“However… From how you crafted talismans for him and deduced that he would need other rank six Talisman Grandmasters to craft more talismans, we sent many people to ask around in the city about the other rank six Talisman Grandmasters and managed to find that they have been in close contact with the Starry Pavilion.”

Shaking his head, Shang Xia sighed, “But this isn’t conclusive evidence. After all, the Starry Pavilion is the best place to get high-level material.”

Kou Chongxue agreed with Shang Xia. “Our foundations in Star Origin City aren’t strong enough and as of now, we can only touch the surface. We don’t know too much about other powers there and we need time to grow our influence.”

Soon, both True Immortals fell silent.

Eventually, Shang Xia raised an eyebrow in realization and asked, “Right. Did you come back just to tell me all of this?”

“Actually, I was planning to tell you to leave seclusion and head over to the ruined world I discovered back then to take a closer look. I didn’t expect you to touch on the level of External Fusion and I don’t plan on hindering your cultivation for now.” Kou Chongxue sighed.

“The ruined world?” Shang Xia thought back to what Kou Chongxue said before. “Are you planning to sneakily observe the secret art that person is using to enter the level of Dao Harmony?”