Chapter 2151: Effortless

Even Shang Xia himself had not expected that upon entering the Essence World Ruins this time, he would run into such fortune. Out of sheer curiosity, he had only wanted to watch the commotion, yet by accident, after being caught in the combined assault of two mid-level Sages, he stumbled into a special space that contained a floating island.

What astonished him even more was that upon this floating island, he discovered a small yet intact portion of the World Origin Source which even had faint traces of the World’s Will!

When Shang Xia first sensed the faint World’s Will, he even thought it was just an illusion.

The Essence World Ruins had existed in the Crowned Star Region for hundreds, perhaps even thousands of years. Ever since the moment it was destroyed, it had been constantly explored and scavenged by high-level cultivators from various Heavenly Fields. How could there possibly still be remnants of its World’s Will left?

Yet after repeated confirmation, Shang Xia became certain that within the World Origin Source of the floating island, there truly existed a lingering trace of the World’s Will.

Such a discovery could not help but stir deep curiosity within him. The floating island might have appeared vast, but compared to a continent of an Essence World, it was insignificant, perhaps even smaller than a single continent from an Azure World.

Ordinarily, such a floating island would not even qualify to nurture a World Origin Source, much less one belonging to an Essence World, and certainly not one that could still preserve the World’s Will.

The greater his curiosity grew, the stronger Shang Xia’s desire to uncover the truth became. He even considered extracting the world origin and the World’s Will contained within for research.

𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎

But before that, Shang Xia expanded his divine soul across the island, carefully probing every inch of its surface, and soon made another discovery.

“Interesting.”

In a flash, his figure appeared above a pond on one side of the island.

Below him, nearly two-thirds of the surface of the water was covered by broad lotus leaves.

Amidst the lush green pond, 22 lotus flowers were either in full bloom, budding, or just forming tender buds.

Even the smallest of buds radiated with thick, rich life force, clearly marking them as high-grade spiritual lotuses that had yet to mature.

The sight of the pond immediately brought to Shang Xia’s mind a memory from many years ago, when a similar lotus pond in the Battlefield Between the Two Worlds was discovered.

At that time, Ge Qingzhu had gained immense benefits from it, which allowed him to become one of the pillars of the Tongyou Institution during its rise.

Later, the institution had invested substantial resources to sustain that pond of spiritual lotuses, but even though the later blooms still aided in strengthening foundations, none could ever match the grade of the original lotus Ge Qingzhu had taken.

However, the 22 spiritual lotuses before Shang Xia, some in bloom, some budding, some just forming, were not lower in grade than what Ge Qingzhu had obtained.

He only had one problem now... How was he supposed to take the pond with him?

His current expedition was done in secret, and he did it alone. All he carried with him was a specially made miniature starship for travel. It was impossible to move the entire pond.

Moreover, the existence of the lotus pond was undoubtedly tied to the special environment it resided in. It could not simply be uprooted and relocated.

“And this lotus pond even has an owner?”

After circling the pond once, Shang Xia realized that while the lotuses might have first grown naturally, they had certainly been discovered by someone later, who had tried to claim them.

Around and beneath the pond, intricate formations had been laid. Should anyone trespass into the waters or attempt to pluck the lotuses, the formation would immediately retaliate, lightly injuring the intruder at best, or at worst, collapsing the pond, ensuring everything was destroyed.

Of course, while those hidden formations were indeed subtle, they were still inferior to those arranged by Chu Jia.

Though he could not completely get rid of the formations, he was confident he could breach them without harming the lotuses. He might not be able to move the whole pond, but taking the seven lotuses already in full bloom would not be difficult.

Transforming his inner qi, streams of five colored light started to fall, temporarily disabling the formations across the pond’s surface.

Pulling out seven Spirit Sealing Cases from his sleeve, all seven lotuses that had bloomed fell neatly into one each.

“With these seven spiritual lotuses, we can cultivate seven Martial Extermination Realm cultivators with strong foundations. They will have no problems advancing to the Martial Dipper Realm, and even reaching the Martial Void Realm will be within reach.”

After speaking, Shang Xia glanced wistfully at the pond once more.

This pond far surpassed the one Ge Qingzhu had once transplanted into the Tongyou Dao Field, yet it was a pity he could not take it with him.

However, he could at least record the island’s position for future use. Later, he could send disciples there to seek fortune on their own.

With that thought, Shang Xia produced a Ward Sword Talisman and tossed it into the pond. The original formation within remained undisturbed.

With the Guardian Ward Sword Talismans crafted by Shang Xia himself, the experts of the Tongyou Institution would be able to locate the floating island in the Essence World Ruins.

After leaving the pond, Shang Xia soon appeared on the opposite end of the island.

There lay a deep ravine whose bottom connected to fragmented layers of spatial fissures.

Looking down from the edge, he observed that the fissures at the base were held together in a delicate and fragile equilibrium.

Any external disturbance might immediately shatter that balance, triggering a torrent of spatial fractures that could destroy most of the floating island.

Yet perhaps it was precisely the peculiar environment that caused traces of Dipper Essence. Different types of energies seeped into the island from those cracks, and those different types of Dipper Essences tangled together, condensing upon the cliff walls of the ravine into multicolored crystals filled with Dipper Essences.

Picking a few of the largest and most condensed, Shang Xia found that the essence contained in them could be cleanly extracted and refined, yielding pure Dipper Essences.