Chapter 1821: Kou Chongxue, Second Star!

After becoming a True Immortal, Chu Jia had clearly become more relaxed and lax in her cultivation.

The Essence Luxuriant Calendar had quietly arrived in the 7th year, yet Chu Jia had shown almost no progress in her cultivation. Any increase in her strength came passively from the blessing of the World’s Will during the successful establishment of the Heavenly Field.

In truth, the phenomenon wasn’t unique to Chu Jia. It was widespread among many newly advanced True Immortals across the Essence Luxuriant World. For many such cultivators, simply reaching the Martial Void Realm and being addressed as a True Immortal seemed to fulfill their lifelong martial aspirations.

Of course, some of them were simply self-aware. They knew that their advancement had only been made possible by the world ascension. After that boost, their years of accumulated foundation and latent potential had been exhausted, leaving them no realistic hope of reaching another level. As such, they let go of their drive and settled into mediocrity.

Chu Jia was likely one such person. Though she had deep accumulations in the Martial DIpper Realm and ultimately found a unique path by integrating the dao of formations into her cultivation to reach the Martial Void Realm, it was essentially a last resort after failing to advance through conventional means.

To be fair, with her current attainments in both the dao of formations and martial cultivation, she already stood above 99 percent of cultivators in the Essence Luxuriant World. Even with how lazy she was, she was still among the elite. But Shang Xia had no intention of leaving her as she was.

When Shang Xia said, “Too late,” Chu Jia suddenly felt the space around her shift. When her figure stabilized, she found herself standing in an unfamiliar and unstable secret region.

With a single glance, Chu Jia started yelling, “Hey?! Did you throw me into a space opened by your World Establishing Art?!”

Shang Xia’s voice echoed from somewhere unknown. “Exactly. The inner qi I poured into this place can barely keep this space stable for an hour. Its collapse will probably begin in half an hour. Good luck.”

Chu Jia continued to yell, “What do you want me to do?!”

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Shang Xia replied, “Simple. Stabilize the space. The longer you maintain it, the better. If you can stabilize it completely, all the better.”

Unconvinced, Chu Jia mumbled, “What if I do nothing? You can’t kill me, can you?”

There was no reply. Shang Xia clearly didn’t feel the need to answer.

Chu Jia knew full well that Shang Xia’s goal was to force her, through her affinity with formations, to confront the collapse of the separate space, thereby advancing her cultivation.

But even a unique training method required sufficient energy in the surroundings. What could there possibly be in a hastily created region of space?

Fuming, Chu Jia pulled a formation flag from the pouch at her waist and threw it into a corner. To her surprise, it immediately stirred waves of energy ripples.

“Huh? The spiritual energy here is incredibly dense... Don’t tell me you created this place with world origin from the World Origin Source?”

...

Shang Xia had placed Chu Jia into the region of separate space not only to prevent her cultivation from stagnating but also to compel her to discover ways to stabilize the region. It was knowledge that would be useful for building Dao Fields in the future.

To support her efforts and ensure she wouldn’t fall behind in cultivation, he had even converted a portion of the world origin stored in the Crimson Soul Tablet.

Afterward, Shang Xia summoned Ge Qingzhu, who had been waiting patiently.

With a smile on his face, he stated simply, “I’ve figured out which talisman should be the last in your Talisman Seed.”

Though Ge Qingzhu had already suspected what Shang Xia wanted to tell him when summoned, hearing it for himself still brought clear joy to his face.

Shang Xia continued, “This talisman isn’t part of any rank six ones I had mastered previously. It’s derived from a compound talisman used in the Myriad Tinted Cloud Talisman. It’s relatively simple in function, but it's definitely a rank six talisman. It is perfect for your Lotus Avatar.”

Ge Qingzhu said eagerly, “I trust you completely. Please, do it.”

Forging the talisman wasn’t especially difficult. The real challenge lay in integrating it with the previous talismans to complete the Talisman Seed and nurturing it in the World Origin Source before merging it with Ge Qingzhu’s Lotus Avatar.

The process ultimately took Shang Xia another three months to complete.

Thankfully, compared to the custom Talisman Seed for Ge Qingzhu, the Talisman Seed for Gao Qin was much easier. Though Shang Xia deliberately selected several powerful and complex rank six talismans, the difficulty posed no issue to him.

The only concern was whether, if Gao Qin’s original soul strand that was still anchored in the Essence Hong World Origin Source, was erased, the Talisman Seed could stabilize her cultivation and sever her ties to them once and for all.

Even Shang Xia wasn’t entirely sure.

Before he could finish sorting out the talismans for Gao Qin, a sudden fluctuation of world origin erupted from the direction of Jiao Continent. The resulting ripple disturbed the World Origin Source and even stirred the World’s Will, forcing Shang Xia to set aside his work temporarily.

In a flash, he left the Talisman Pagoda and appeared above the Jiao Continent in the blink of an eye.

Though the Five Pillars City’s defensive formations had already been activated and Kou Chongxue was trying to suppress his aura after breaking through, Shang Xia instantly sensed that Kou Chongxue had ascended to the second star of the Martial Emptiness Realm. What the Heaven Observation Sect dubbed the level of Starlight.

Seeing that Kou Chongxue’s aura was still surging, Shang Xia immediately moved to seal off the surrounding void, isolating the region until Kou Chongxue’s cultivation stabilized.

Several days later, Kou Chongxue’s figure appeared above the heavenly screen. Though his aura was under control, an occasional wisp of sword qi appeared, slashing through the surrounding void.

“Congratulations, Patriarch Kou,” Shang Xia said with a grin, offering a cupped fist. “You’ve broken through again. By the Heaven Observation Sect’s standard, you finally reached the level of Starlight.”

Kou Chongxue waved it off. “I’d been stuck at the threshold for some time. Turns out the issue was with my secret art. Not long ago, I had a flash of insight and as soon as I completed the revision, I crossed into the second star effortlessly. Everything flowed as smoothly as water.”

Shang Xia smiled. “Now that you’ve stepped into the second star, I can rest easy. It’s time for me to take a trip out of our Heavenly Field."