Chapter 2221: Shitstirrer Xia In Action Again

When Shang Xia returned once more to the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field, Kou Chongxue was still deep in seclusion within the Tongyou Dao Field.

One of Shang Xia’s clones merely lingered outside the Dao Field, sensing briefly before withdrawing so as not to disturb him. He even instructed the cultivators guarding the area on several points of caution and added several new layers of restriction in case of emergencies.

At present, Shang Xia’s true body could, in fact, enter the Essence Luxuriant World directly, but to minimize risk, he typically sent only a clone. After all, that was enough to deal with most matters.

After leaving the Dao Field, Shang Xia’s clone turned into a streak of starlight that plunged deep underground, reappearing moments later within a peculiar space.

That space was almost entirely submerged beneath an ocean formed purely of condensed world origin. It was the World Origin Source connected to the You Continent!

The You Continent, being the largest continent in the Essence Luxuriant World and possessing the deepest foundation, naturally housed the most vast and refined World Origin Source of all.

Yet Shang Xia’s clone did not come to draw upon the ocean of world origin, but rather to awaken Shang Xia’s External Avatar that had been resting and slowly recovering within it.

During the rescue of Kou Chongxue’s returning starship fleet, Shang Xia’s External Avatar had been gravely wounded in battle against one of the Star Origin Lord’s clones. Its body had been pierced through and parts of it shattered into fragments.

Since Kou Chongxue had neither the time nor sufficient spiritual treasures to repair it, he had sealed it in the World Origin Source to recuperate by absorbing world origin, a process painfully slow but steady.

Now, however, Shang Xia needed his External Avatar restored as soon as possible, ensuring that even if he were to leave the Heavenly Field again, there would still be a high-level Sage powerhouse stationed within it.

With Shang Xia personally overseeing the matter, the institution... Or rather, the entirety of the Heavenly FIeld mobilized quickly.

According to the list he provided, they began requisitioning and gathering rare items. Yet even after more than a month, they had managed to collect only two-thirds of what was required. Most of what was missing were rank seven spiritual materials.

Shang Xia was not surprised. He ordered them to stop the search and turned his gaze toward his External Avatar, which he had forcibly awakened.

"With what we’ve gathered so far..." Shang Xia asked, "How much of your strength can you recover?"

The sight of his External Avatar was ghastly. A gaping hole pierced the upper abdomen, exposing his internal organs. The chest had caved in by three inches. Two fingers on the left hand were missing, and his flesh from the shoulder down to the forearm had been blasted away. His right arm was broken cleanly at the elbow, and his left shoulder was crushed. The left half of the face was stripped to bare bone, and his right eye socket was hollow. Three cracks split open across the skull, and his left foot had been severed entirely at the ankle. Only his right leg remained intact.

His External Avatar lifted his still-functioning left arm, sorting through the collected materials before replying, "These should be enough to restore most of the body. I’ll barely regain the combat strength of an initial-level Sage. But to regain strength at the mid to high-level, I’ll still need the missing rank seven materials."

Shang Xia pondered briefly, then reached into his sleeve under his External Avatar’s startled gaze, taking out a folded cloth shimmering with starlight and the power of space and time.

"This... this is the Starlight Curtain?"

Smiling faintly, Shang Xia handed it over. "More precisely, it’s a sail, from an Eternal Golden Boat. It’s still fairly intact. You might be able to cut it into something suitable, perhaps clothing that fits your form."

The External Avatar examined the Starlight Curtain carefully, his voice tinged with satisfaction. "Just this alone can allow me to restore the strength of a mid-level Sage. Wait, this... Did you inscribe an Origin Star Talisman on it? If so, I might even be able to wield a fraction of the strength of a high-level Sage."

Shang Xia nodded. "There are also some materials inside the damaged Eternal Golden Boat I brought back. Many were collected from the Star River itself, some even scavenged from other Eternal Golden Boats and Star River Stowaways. You can look through them. They might help you recover more than 90 percent of your strength."

Shang Xia’s External Avatar hesitated. "You’re letting me use those materials? You’re not saving them to repair the Eternal Golden Boat?"

Shang Xia waved dismissively. "Restoring it isn’t something that can be done overnight. What matters now is for you to regain your strength, and ideally be able to use your martial intent, rivaling a grand completion stage Sage. Once you can pilot the Eternal Golden Ark, even if it’s damaged, its power combined with the Heavenly Field can surpass that of an ordinary Star River Stowaway."

Shang Xia’s External Avatar frowned slightly. "You’re planning to go out again, aren’t you? The eight foreign Star Fields should be nearly done merging into the Chaotic Sea of Stars, ready to form a new Grand Star Field, right?"

"Indeed." Shang Xia smiled. "But I intend to make it happen even faster."

He did not wait for his External Avatar to fully recover. Once his strength had risen to roughly a mid-level Sage, he left behind a stack of newly crafted rank seven talismans and quietly departed the Essence Luxuriant Heavenly Field without a sound or trace.

After leaving, Shang Xia did not immediately exit the Heaven Observation Star Region. Instead, he turned his senses inward to his dantian, where eight distinct streams of refined origin qi, each from a different Star Field, were already circulating.

Using them, he began locating and aligning the approximate positions and void coordinates of the other eight Star Fields.

His original plan had been to use the guidance of those origin qi to locate the Star Fields, personally open and expand new void passages between them, and thereby accelerate their integration into the Chaotic Sea of Stars.

But as soon as his origin qi and divine soul made contact with those eight different strands of origin qi, something extraordinary occurred.

Shang Xia suddenly sensed, across an unfathomable distance, eight vast, faintly sentient wills. All of them were extremely powerful, yet lacked some sort of awareness.

In an instant, he realized these massive consciousnesses belonged to the eight foreign Star Fields currently merging into the Chaotic Sea of Stars.

Then, as if guided by instinct, Shang Xia raised the Crimson Soul Tablet and pointed slowly in one direction, following the resonance of one particular origin qi.

In that moment, it was as though his mace had pierced through an invisible barrier. A deep, muted vibration rippled through the void, and from the faint rift that appeared, a thin but pure stream of origin qi began to seep forth. It was identical in nature to one of the types of energy resonating with a star within his dantian.

When he drew the mace back, a narrow void passage had formed before him. The surge of energy from within immediately intensified, and judging by the resonance of the matching origin qi, Shang Xia concluded that the passage’s other end led directly to the Gathered Sea of Stars.