Chapter 1284: One Big Step

After Shang Xia secretly returned to the Spirit Luxuriant World, he avoided being detected by any of the True Immortals of the Spirit Luxuriant World before learning of the path they had discovered to the Ruined World. His journey there was smooth, and he arrived without any problems.

The second he saw the Ruined World, he discovered that Chu Jia and the rest had already deployed a formation to hide their resources and presence while they hurried about modifying the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation.

Seeing that Shang Xia had come, Chu Jia quickly arranged for the rest to take over her responsibilities before dragging him into a secluded location.

He could feel the strange looks thrown his way by the rest of the Formation Masters and Formation Grandmasters of the Formation Hall, and even as a True Immortal, he felt a wave of discomfort.

Chu Jia didn’t seem to care though. After bringing him away, she looked at him sneakily and asked, “Hurry up and tell me... When did our Tongyou Institution produce another True Immortal?! Who is he?!”

Shang Xia wasn’t surprised by her question. After all, he expected Feng Ziying to not tell them anything anyway. He simply laughed in response to her questions, “Did he already leave? Patriarch Kou arranged for all of this and you should ask if you wish to get the answers to your question...”

“Hmph, hmph.” Chu Jia pouted softly, “He left the moment we arrived. Also, you better not think I don’t know you’re pushing the question to Patriarch Kou while pretending you don’t know who he is. You definitely know his identity!”

Shang Xia laughed and quickly changed the topic, “How long more do you guys need to complete the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation?”

Rolling her eyes, Chu Jia grumbled, ‘When Patriarch Kou found this place, he had already made his preparations. Even though we had been studying the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation back then, we were able to have quite a good idea of it and could determine the general outline. That was why Patriarch Kou could use what we made before, saving us a lot of time. From our current progress, we should be able to complete the modification in slightly more than a month. We would be able to start testing after another half a month and if everything goes well, you would be able to utilize the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation 2 months from now.”

𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

“That’s fast...” Shang Xia gasped.

Chu Jia raised an eyebrow and muttered casually, “Really? Actually, most of the time taken to deploy a formation is in its preparation phase. The moment the general outline of the formation is done, all we need to do is to deploy it. How long do you think it will take?”

The reason the rank six grand formation around the Tongyou Institution took so long to be completed was that Chu Jia was only a rank five Talisman Grandmaster back then. She had to feel her way around deploying the formation while modifying any parts that were lacking. That was why it took longer than expected.”

The successful deployment of the rank six grand formation around the Tongyou Institution laid the foundation for her as a rank six Formation Grandmaster!

Hearing that it would be done so quickly, Shang Xia quickly praised, “It’s no wonder you’re our mighty rank six Formation Grandmaster...”

“Don’t give me that.” Chu Jia’s tone softened, but she continued pouting, “Actually, we were in a rush and we simply covered the core portion of the Ruined World and nothing else. If you give me a little more time, I would be able to widen the area even more and it will be much more beneficial for your cultivation!”

Shang Xia chuckled in a hoarse voice, “It’s enough. We should know when to stop in case we waste all our efforts in a moment of greed...”

After he spoke, he continued to warn her, “No matter what, this isn’t our territory. The Spirit Faith World might be far, but the moment we activate the formation, the commotion will be massive. The longer we use to deploy the formation, the greater our risk of being discovered...”

Chu Jia glanced at him and mumbled, “Do you think I don’t know that? Why the hell are you becoming like the patriarch, nagging at me all the time? Relax... Stop doubting everyone.”

Shang Xia was stunned by her sudden evaluation and he didn’t know how to respond. However, she left before he could think of a better comeback.

...

A Formation Divine Artifact’s importance to a Formation Grandmaster far surpassed the use of a Divine Weapon to a True Immortal.

Shang Xia knew as much when the various worlds invaded the Azure Oddity World back then.

With Chu Jia becoming a rank six Formation Grandmaster as an example, she managed to transform the Five Element Ring into a Formation Divine Artifact, allowing her to display the true achievements in her dao of formations.

A month or so passed and a dozen or so Formation Masters above the third rank who were sent to the Ruined World and even more members sent to assist them completed the modification of the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation.

One had to say that along with the growth of the Tongyou Institution, many of the divisions experienced rapid progress. For example, the Formation Hall could already send out more than 10 rank three Talisman Masters or higher. Their strength and foundations could be said to have risen to the top spot in the institution, surpassing even the Talisman Hall!

During the time that passed, Shang Xia maintained his condition at its peak state while patrolling the region around the Ruined World to prevent anyone else from seeing what they were doing there.

Fortunately, the Tongyou Institution seemed to have lucked out as he didn’t discover any anomalies even after the formation had been properly modified.

When he was summoned back to the core region of the Ruined World, he discovered that a giant Five Element Ring was floating high in the air.

Naturally, he knew that wasn’t the actual artifact and it was a ring made from the Five Element Qi it had drawn from its surroundings.

Shang Xia had once been in the Five Element Realm and absorbing the power of the Five Element would prove to be of no difficulty.

“Hey, you seem to have transformed this formation into something new entirely! I recall the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation shouldn’t be like this when activated...” Shang Xia couldn’t help but ask Chu Jia, and he seemed a little apprehensive of it.

Rolling her eyes at him, Chu Jia snapped, “Don’t ask strange questions if you don’t know much about formations. You know nothing about my achievements in the dao of formations, hmph...”

“Alright, alright... I’ll listen to your arrangements...” Shang Xia could only admit defeat.

“Go over to the giant ring. I replaced the foundation of the formation with the Five Element Ring and it can greatly increase the efficiency of your cultivation!” Chu Jia instructed.

The Five Element Ring wasn’t designed for Chu Jia in the first place. She was its main user, but the other person who had full control over it was the man himself, Shang Xia.

Arriving at the core of the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation, Shang Xia looked at the giant ring hovering above him and noticed the strand of world origin that had been extracted from the Ruined World.

He didn’t know the difference between the world origin refined by the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation and the world origin of other worlds. However... He had a lot of world origin from the Spirit Tinkle World left in his Crimson Soul Tablet after stealing so much from the Star Origin Dao Field.

Even though he could use them to cultivate, the efficiency was extremely low. At his current level, it wasn’t great.

That was also why Shang Xia decided to give Ge Qingzhu and Sun Haiwei a portion to revitalize the Hai Continent.

As Shang Xia stood under the massive ring of energy, Chu Jia activated the formation and gathered all the energy extracted by the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation into him. He quickly understood why the formation was able to assist in his cultivation.

That was because of the strength of the World’s Will contained in it!

Even though the Spirit Tinkle World was heavily damaged, it was a powerful Spirit World that had existed for hundreds of years. The loss of several continents wouldn’t cause its World’s Will to collapse, and even in the world origin obtained, the Spirit Tinkle World’s Will that it contained was strong.

If Shang Xia wanted to cultivate with that world origin, he not only had to slowly grind away at the Spirit Tinkle World’s Will it contained, but he also needed to infuse his inner qi to transform it into something he could use. That was why it was nearly useless at his current level, as it took more effort for him to make use of the world origin.

Of course, when Shang Xia used the world origin from the Spirit Tinkle World to revitalize the Hai Continent, it clashed with the Spirit Luxuriant World’s Will.

However, getting rid of some remnant World’s Will was nothing to the Spirit Luxuriant World’s Will operating at full strength!

The Spirit Emptiness World where the Ruined World once stood had been destroyed a long time ago, and the World’s Will had dissipated. Even if there were some remnants, they were refined by the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation such that only pure energy was left for him to absorb and strengthen his cultivation.

The other use of the Essence Refining Void Returning Formation was to help cultivators break through to the bottleneck to enter the next tier.

To be able to do something like that, the formation had to be aligned to the user’s cultivation when deployed!

In other words... Every Essence Refining Void Returning Formation would have to be customized to the user’s unique characteristics.

When Chu Jia had been laying down the formation, she actually referenced Shang Xia’s Six Harmony Flawless Rod Technique...