Chapter 1131: You Owe Me!

No matter what, the Tongyou Institution was one of the 5 great Elysiums of the Spirit Luxuriant World. However… Other than Chu Jia, they only had 2 other rank four Formation Grandmasters. The institution was counting on them to lay down the rank six formation with Chu Jia, and it was clear how much pressure Chu Jia was facing with the amount of help she could receive.

It was no wonder she was so excited after hearing that they found another rank four Formation Grandmaster. Even if Gu Qing’s identity couldn’t be easily revealed, she couldn’t be bothered with small matters like that.

In the Tongyou Elysium, Shang Xia and Kou Chongxue joined hands to create a special space and placed the remnants of the formation platform and the tools they brought back there. It was also where they stationed Gu Qing.

Also… Within the Tongyou Elysium, the suppression of the World’s Will would be reduced greatly such that Gu Qing wouldn’t feel uncomfortable.

After he introduced Gu Qing to Chu Jia, he received a sudden transmission. Shocked, he quickly found an excuse to bid them farewell before leaving the Tongyou Elysium.

Shang Xia first ran to meet Kou Chongxue and saw the serious expression on his face. Kou Chongxue didn’t beat about the bush either. He spoke the moment Shang Xia arrived. “The Heavenly Star Palace sent news… With the help of the Star Observatory, their Stargazers managed to deduce the accurate position the powerful strike originated from!”

They quickly rose above the heavenly screen to meet with the other True Immortals of the Spirit Luxuriant World. After all, they seemed to have reached an agreement that the spot would serve as their gathering point.

Along the way, Shang Xia wondered, “What are their views on the matter?”

Kou Chongxue sneered, “What else can they do? They’re pondering whether they should go, and who they should send over. Heh, This damn matter is definitely going to land on our heads anyway. Do you really think those old men will send their clones over? Or do you think Lu Wuzi and Yi Jingxu would agree to head over even though they are only at the first tier?”

Huang Jinghan was similarly a first tier True Immortal, but he had the task of protecting the Star Beast Nest and couldn’t return.

Shang Xia thought about him suddenly and asked, “Wait… After we devoured 4 continents from the Spirit Faith World, did no one breakthrough other than you, Zhang Xuansheng, and I? Huang Jinghan should have received a good portion of the benefits. He took part in the battle of the Spirit Faith World…”

Kou Chongxue thought for a moment before he mumbled, “Huang Jinghan should be close to reaching the level of Inner Fusion. Unfortunately, he might have reached a bottleneck… Without devouring the continents of another world, he might need tens of years of accumulations in order to break through.”

“As for Lu Wuzi… Never mind, let’s not talk about his cultivation. Anyway, he’s been focused on his sect at the moment and the Ice Essence Sect has been rising rapidly under his leadership.”

“As for the others… Li Jidao should have reached the peak of the second tier. It would be more difficult for him to break through the bottleneck and enter the third tier compared to Huang Jinghan’s obstacle of entering the second tier… As for Yang Taihe and Liu Jingsheng, they definitely made some progress in their cultivation, but they are far from reaching the next level. Zhang Jianzi has been keeping an extremely low profile in Zhang Xuansheng’s shadow and it might be because he’s the other Elysium True Immortal of the Northern Sea Mystic Sect and is facing some suppression from Zhang Xuansheng’s overwhelmingly powerful Void Origin. Yi Jingxu just entered the Martial Void Realm not too long ago and he would only be able to stabilize his foundations after receiving the blessing of the World’s Will this time around.” Kou Chongxue concluded.

After a short moment of contemplation, Shang Xia asked, “Do the other sects have strong candidates they are nurturing to enter the Martial Void Realm?”

…

Shang Xia knew that the Tongyou Institution had chosen to focus on a few Martial Dipper Realm members. They were Ge Qingzhu, Sun Haiwei, Tian Mengzi, Yan Ming, Dou Zhong, and Chu Jia. Other than Ge Qingzhu, the others could be said to be a second generation disciple of the Tongyou Institution, the others could be considered third generation disciples of the institution just like Shang Xia.

Strictly speaking, Chu Jia would actually be considered a second generation disciple of the institution. However, due to how close she was with a certain someone and the way she was acting… Everyone decided to lump her in with Sun Haiwei and the others.

Among the 6 of them, Ge Qingzhu and Sun Haiwei had the highest cultivation level. Even though Shang Xia was more optimistic about Sun Haiwei, but from a certain perspective, Ge Qingzhu was the only source of pride for the members of the second generation and Kou Chongxue’s support for either of them wouldn’t differ by too much.

As for the deputy patriarchs of the institution who made up the first generation members…

Yun Jing had already exhausted all her potential after entering the Martial Dipper Realm and her cultivation didn’t improve much in recent years.

Ji Wenlong might have refined his second fate dipper, but he relied on the Holy Land back then to reach his current level and his potential was limited. Actually, if not for the fact that the Tongyou Institution was lacking high-level combatants back then, he wouldn’t have risked his life to refine his second fate dipper.

As for Shang Bo… He was the most talented out of them, but his cultivation stagnated after he reached the third element of the Martial Dipper Realm.

The few deputy patriarchs knew their conditions well. In recent years, along with the expansion and strengthening of the Tongyou Institution, all of them slowly diverted their attention to the management of their faction. That allowed Kou Chongxue and Shang Xia to focus more on external matters.

As for Liu Zhiyuan, the last deputy patriarch… It didn’t matter whether they mentioned him or not.

…

After hearing Shang Xia’s question, Kou Chongxue arranged his thoughts before replying, “Those with the greatest potential to nurture another Martial Void Realm True Immortal would be the Northern Sea Mystic Sect, Eternal Palace, and the Divine Capital Sect. Their foundations are solid and they have a lot of resources. They have at least 2 members in the fourth element of the Martial Dipper Realm or higher. Also, all 3 of them are desperately hoping to produce a Free True Immortal.”

After all, they were the factions that existed for the longest time and had the strongest foundations. At the same time, they were also the strongest powers present in the Spirit Luxuriant World.

Unfortunately, they failed to produce another Free True Immortal even with the growth of the Spirit Luxuriant World. They were quickly overtaken by the Tongyou Institution and even the Yuanchen Sect that rose to power after them.

Shang Xia couldn’t help but sigh, “Everyone is trying to improve… Looks like we can’t be complacent and lag behind…”

As soon as the words left his lips, Kou Chongxue shot him a strange gaze.

“What’s with that look on your face?” Shang Xia raised an eyebrow and grumbled when he saw the way Kou Chongxue was staring at him.

Slowly looking away, Kou Chongxue mumbled slowly, “It’s nothing… Why don’t you repeat that later to the others? It’s a shame I was the only one who heard it… You should tell that to Zhang Xuansheng, Yang Taihe, Li Jidao, and the others!”

Shang Xia quickly wussed out and waved modestly, “There’s no need for that at all!”

Kou Chongxue really wanted to roll his eyes at Shang Xia, who kept pretending to be a harmless junior in front of the other True Immortals. However, after thinking about how he would be lowering his status to bicker with the youngster, he forced himself to hold it in.

Fortunately, their gathering point wasn’t too far away and they soon arrived. Kou Chongxue could also see that some others had already arrived.

It was Shang Xia’s first meeting with the others after he became a third tier True Immortal. Everyone stared at him with strange looks, and it made him feel extremely uncomfortable.

However, all of them clearly didn’t dare to look Shang Xia in the eyes. They turned their gazes away when he tried to look at them.

“So… What’s going on?” Kou Chongxue asked.

Unlike the other Elysium True Immortals, Shang Xia and Kou Chongxue had been running around outside. They weren’t too involved with matters within the Spirit Luxuriant World.

Yi Jingxu explained, “Our Stargazer managed to determine the exact location the attack was launched…”

Looking at the others, Kou Chongxue frowned and continued to ask, “Didn’t we already find it a long time ago?”

“We only knew its approximate location back then and the sea of stars is vast. Looking around in that area would take a long time, but now, we finally narrowed it down to the exact coordinates.” Yi Jingxu explained.

Kou Chongxue didn’t quite understand the implications. “So what? The person who launched that attack left a long time ago. Even if he remains in place, will anyone here dare to go investigate the matter after seeing how powerful that strike was?”

“Ahem… No matter what, we need to look for the truth behind the strike back then. That person is hiding in the shadows and we can’t possibly allow such a terrifying figure to be observing us in the dark while we remain completely clueless about their identity.” Yang Taihe muttered.

Kou Chongxue snorted casually, “Alright, then we’ll send someone to go take a look. Just gather a few Martial Dipper Realm and Martial Extermination Realm juniors and we’ll open a spatial gate near the coordinates we discovered. If that’s not enough, we’ll put them on a Star Ship and send that over to investigate. For the culprit to hide himself so well even when launching the attack… With their terrifying cultivation realm, they wouldn’t make things difficult for those juniors even if they ran into each other.”

Shang Xia nearly burst out laughing at his suggestion.

The other True Immortals stared at each other helplessly. Eventually, Yang Taihe sighed softly, “It’s still a little dangerous to send juniors into the depths of space. We’re afraid that we will have to trouble either you or True Immortal Little Shang to head over…”

“Hehe…” Kou Chongxue laughed dryly and didn’t say more.

Li Jidao continued, “After all, this concerns the safety of our world. You guys are the best choice we have.”

A look of disdain appeared on Kou Chongxue’s face as he snorted lightly twice.

Zhang Xuansheng added, “In recent years, my Northern Sea Mystic Sect has been a little too isolated and we apologize for not socializing more. I heard that the Tongyou Institution’s Talisman Hall is a holy land for knowledge related to the dao of talismans in our Spirit Luxuriant World and we are willing to share our thousand years of inheritance with you.”

Li Jidao’s expression wasn’t too nice either, but he forced the words out his lips, “My Divine Capital Sect will no longer contest for the Bing Continent.”

Yang Taihe’s tone was the best so far and he said amicably, “My Eternal Palace has some achievements in the dao of formations. We are also pretty good at making Formation Artifacts. We will increase our support to the You Continent.”

It was then that Liu Jingsheng burst out laughing. “My Yuanchen Sect already had great relations with your Tongyou Institution. I heard that you were planning to expand into the arts of beast taming. I believe my Yuanchen Sect can assist you in that.”

Hearing how the great powers had given the Tongyou Institution some concession or agreed to provide direct compensation, Yi Jingxu couldn’t help but mutter with embarrassment, “My Heavenly Star Palace isn’t as rich or knowledgeable as the great factions and all we have is our Stargazer inheritance. I will pass down the order to reserve a spot for the Stargazers of the Tongyou Institution in the Star Observatory so that you can use it anytime you wish.”

Other than Lu Wuzi, everyone promised to provide the Tongyou Institution with some benefits. Kou Chongxue didn’t seem like he was making things difficult for Lu Wuzi either. Before Lu Wuzi could say anything, Kou Chongxue chuckled under his breath and muttered, “How can I possibly accept?! Well, since you insist, I don’t mind. Many thanks, fellow True Immortals!”

The other True Immortals pretended not to see the shit-eating grin on Kou Chongxue’s face and they simply stared at the shameless duo from the Tongyou Institution placidly. They awaited their response.

Helpless, Shang Xia shook his head and took a step forward. “Seniors, rest assured. I’ll head over and take a look at the situation.”