Chapter 1811: Lotus Avatar

Gao Qin’s identity was considered highly unusual, not just within the Tongyou Institution but even across the Essence Luxuriant World.

It wasn’t just because she was a fifth tier True Immortal, which placed her just below the 2 Sages of the Essence Luxuriant World, Shang Xia and Kou Chongxue. Rather, she originated from the Essence Ming World. More critically, she defected from the Essence Ming Heavenly Field, but her soul resided in their World Origin Source. That meant that it could be extinguished at any time, posing a constant threat to her life.

Ever since she was captured by Shang Xia, Gao Qin initially worked for the Tongyou Institution under the forceful control of a soul-binding restriction. To a certain extent, the institution’s and even the world’s high-tier combat strength had been made up by her presence.

Yet, for reasons unknown, even though the Essence Ming World and Gu Yi had long known of her defection, they had never acted to extinguish her soul hidden deep in the World Origin Source. Still, this lingering threat had always been a potential danger hanging over her.

If Gao Qin had originally worked for the institution and the Essence Luxuriant World out of obligation, over the years she had steadily aligned herself with them. Throughout multiple strengthening of the world and during the establishment of the Heavenly Field, she made significant contributions. As a result, the World’s Will’s resistance and suppression toward her presence had diminished to nearly nothing.

Among the foreign True Immortals working under Shang Xia, her status within the Essence Luxuriant World was second only to Song Zhen’s. It was even higher than Zhu Nang. She could even cultivate normally in the Essence Luxuriant World.

Although no one knew for certain what would happen if her soul in the Essence Ming World were to be destroyed, all of them felt that while she might survive, her cultivation would regress drastically. Her foundations would be severely damaged, and further advancement would become impossible.

Therefore, for both Shang Xia and the institution, with Gao Qin gradually becoming more loyal, it was only natural to consider eliminating, or at least weakening, the threat of her soul being held hostage in the Essence Ming World. Gao Qin had indeed proven herself worthy of such efforts.

Given the Essence Ming Heavenly Field’s millennia of fortification and Gu Yi’s formidable cultivation in the mid-level of the Martial Emptiness Realm, launching a direct assault to retrieve her soul was clearly unrealistic.

Especially after they had previously launched a joint attack on the Essence Du Heavenly Field and were held back by a second star Sage... They were even less likely to repeat such a risky move.

Since brute force was out of the question, perhaps the Essence Luxuriant World paying a certain price was a viable alternative.

The problem, however, was that the Essence Luxuriant World and the Essence Ming World were basically enemies. Gu Yi had tried more than once to take over the Essence Luxuriant World and failed. There was no basis for even the most basic trust between their worlds, let alone the prospect of negotiation.

Under such circumstances, preparing a complete set of rank six Talisman Seed for Gao Qin appeared to be a feasible alternative.

Kou Chongxue clearly didn’t care about the Talisman Seed’s ability to grant her another martial intent. What mattered was whether the seed could act as a substitute for her soul, to make up for the ever-present danger of it being extinguished.

Shang Xia didn’t have complete confidence in the plan, but it was worth trying. Naturally, he did not refuse, and they would surely have more discussions to refine the talismans to match Gao Qin’s cultivation more precisely.

Surprisingly, the second True Immortal selected by Ren Huan was none other than Ge Qingzhu.

In fact, aside from Gao Qin, Shang Xia hadn’t expected any other True Immortal in the institution to pay much attention to the Talisman Seed.

To put it plainly, most of Tongyou Institution’s True Immortals were newly promoted. Their potential was far from being exhausted and many were still progressing rapidly in their cultivation.

Under such conditions, they were not only confident in comprehending their martial intent to reach the grand completion stage, but also harbored hope of eventually peeking into the Martial Emptiness Realm. How could they be so easily tempted or distracted by Talisman Seeds?

Shang Xia had even assumed that he would be crafting a Talisman Seed for his grandfather, Shang Bo!

He never expected it to be Ge Qingzhu, and from the looks of it, Ge Qingzhu had even requested it himself, insisting strongly for an opportunity.

His insistence piqued Shang Xia’s curiosity. Though an Elysium True Immortal, Ge Qingzhu had great potential. His progress in cultivation consistently ranked among the top tiers of the institution. One only had to look at his current cultivation at the level of External Unity, placing him in the same tier as Sun Haiwei, second only to Kou Chongxue and Shang Xia in terms of direct connection to the Tongyou Institution, to understand his standing.

What’s more, his soul was anchored in the Tongyou Elysium, which might one day be elevated into a Dao Field. If that happened, even if Ge Qingzhu hit a bottleneck, there was still a chance for him to cross into the Martial Emptiness Realm by leveraging the birth of the Dao Field.

To put it bluntly, if Kou Chongxue and Shang Xia decided to upgrade the Tongyou Elysium to the Tongyou Dao Field, Ge Qingzhu’s chances of reaching the Martial Emptiness Realm would rank first among all the institution’s True Immortals.

As such... Shang Xia summoned Ge Qingzhu to the Talisman Pagoda. It wasn’t just to craft talismans suitable for him, but also to inquire about his motivation.

Unexpectedly, Ge Qingzhu smiled and replied, “As you know, everything I’ve achieved today began with a fateful encounter during the war in Battlefield Between the Two Worlds. It was where I obtained the pond of spirit lotus.”

Seeing Shang Xia nod, Ge Qingzhu continued with a laugh, “Now that I’ve become an Elysium True Immortal, I’m confined to this place. But I drew inspiration from the External Avatar technique you created. I want to use that lotus pool to refine a Lotus Avatar, one that can take my place and journey beyond this realm to view the stars. The Talisman Seed is the trump card I’ve prepared for my External Avatar.”

...

After Ge Qingzhu left, Shang Xia immediately began preparing the necessary talismans for the 4 Martial Dipper Realm cultivators.

For Shang Xia, it posed practically no challenge. Had it not been for the time spent selecting and refining talismans to align perfectly with their cultivation, he could have done it even faster.

As soon as the Martial Dipper Realm experts received their talismans, they immediately entered seclusion to nurture them into full-fledged Talisman Seeds with the help of the World Origin Source.

To further increase the success rate and promptly detect and address any problems during the process, all 4 Talisman Seeds were placed in the World Origin Source connected to the You Continent, under constant surveillance by Shang Xia’s soul.

Compared to crafting rank five Talisman Seeds, producing the talismans required for rank six Talisman Seeds demanded more caution on Shang Xia’s part.

Before Shang Xia could finish selecting and tuning the talismans for Gao Qin’s Talisman Seed, he was forced to halt the process due to a sudden transmission from his Origin Star Avatar that left the Heavenly Field. The transmission came from the space around the Spirit Abundance World!