Chapter 308: Reeling In The Net

…

As the Tongyou Institution continued its fusion with the Mysterious Coral World, it resembled a giant tank of water that took in an astronomical amount of energy from the Origin Tide that had erupted above the Tongyou City.

As the Origin Tide started to die down, the energy fluctuations eventually stopped. It regained its original calm as it started to stabilize the new Mysterious World that was created.

Out of the four spiritual lands in the Mysterious Coral World, the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World was in the best shape. The Willow Forest came next. They recovered at a much quicker pace compared to the Unstable Region and the Dual Season Lands.

Other than that, the Tongyou Institution itself was a complete spiritual land on its own. When the fusion was complete, they would definitely become stronger than the original Mysterious Coral World.

In the skies around the Tongyou Institution.

Many Martial Extermination Realm experts who were there to witness the transformation of the Tongyou Institution and protect it stared at the newly formed Mysterious World in awe. They were standing in positions allocated to them by the institution.

All of them played a key role in the smooth completion of the transformation. Naturally, they could use the chance to make use of the remnant energy left behind by the fusion to cultivate. It was beneficial for them in a way.

After entering the Martial Extermination Realm, one would reach a new height in cultivation.

Absorbing heaven and earth qi ordinarily wouldn’t prove as effective as when they were in the lower realms, but things were different if they could absorb the energy that emerged from the eruption of the Origin Tide.

Even though the energy contained in the Origin Tide was chaotic, all they had to do was to refine it several more times after absorption. Moreover, now that the Origin Tide had died down and the energy was absorbed by the newly forming Mysterious World, it was more than suitable for them to absorb! How good would it be if all of them could absorb the heaven and earth qi that had filled the newly formed Mysterious World to the brim?

The thought filled everyone’s mind. They couldn’t help but think about Ji Wenlong who was currently at the core of the newly forming Mysterious World. Could he really be planning to barge into the Martial Dipper Realm with the help of the energy contained in the Origin Tide? Perhaps he was trying to replicate what Kou Chongxue did. That might be the true reason behind the Tongyou Institution’s plan of dragging the Mysterious Coral World back from the battlefield between the two worlds.

They might be trying to force a Martial Dipper Realm expert to appear in their ranks to fill in the space after Kou Chongxue’s disappearance.

Everyone’s thoughts ran wild and complicated expressions filled the faces of those present.

Chang Huaiwu broke the silence all of a sudden. “The Tongyou Mysterious World isn’t complete even after absorbing so much energy from the Origin Tide! This really makes me envious. Hahaha, I’m not afraid of embarrassing myself but I’m feeling a little impatient!”

Wei Zhongwen’s roared with laughter right after he spoke. “Brother Chang, can’t you see? The Tongyou Institution has already achieved their goal! They stabilized their foundations and can be considered to have stepped through to the ranks of a holy land!”

“What?!” An Baimei grunted once. He frowned and stared at Liu Qinglan who was nearby. “Instructor Liu, was this the plan all along? Is the Tongyou Institution trying to become a holy land?”

Before Liu Qinglan could say anything, Han Chongwei’s voice came from the side. “You can’t do that! If the Tongyou Institution forces itself to upgrade, it will eat up a huge portion of energy from the battlefield between the two worlds! The battlefield will shrink again, and the spatial barrier separating our worlds will weaken. Our worlds will fuse much earlier than expected.”

A trace of rage emerged on Chang Huaiwu’s face. He roared in anger, “Liu Qinglan, what’s the meaning of this?!”

…

As he followed Yan Ni’er into the mountain range, Shang Xia quickly approached the river that emitted weird mist.

A trace of suspicion appeared in Shang Xia’s heart, but he soon heard voices coming from the other side.

He went closer and listened in on their conversation. “... The flow of the river seems slightly off!”

“How can the river perfectly follow the flow underground? This is a mountain range for fuck’s sake!”

Shang Xia heard his heart thumping in his chest. He didn’t know if they found the region because of the disturbance the other day. He also wondered if there were any Martial Extermination Realm experts among them. After double checking that he hid his aura so that no one noticed him, he raised his guard once again.

Shang Xia experienced too many close calls in the recent days and he was getting a little bit nervous about running into another Martial Extermination Realm expert.

One had to know that it was difficult to find a single Martial Extermination Realm expert ordinarily. In the Tongyou City, Shang Xia was hardly able to see a Martial Extermination Realm expert even though his grandfather was one.

Now, Martial Extermination Realm experts were like cabbages that were popping up everywhere. Shang Xia basically saw one to two of them every day. There were times when he saw three or four of them a day!

Approaching cautiously, their conversation became even clearer.

“Senior Brother Li, you said that Elder Gao told us to look for the leak. What’s the point of that?”

“Hehe, junior brothers and sisters, all we have to do is to listen to Elder Gao’s instructions. There’s no need to dig deeper into the matter unnecessarily. Once we complete our task, Elder Gao will definitely reward us. There might even be a huge opportunity hidden here!!”

From the voice, Shang Xia could tell that the speaker was someone he had met in the past.

𝙛𝓻𝒆𝒆𝒘𝙚𝓫𝙣𝙤𝒗𝙚𝓵.𝙘𝙤𝙢

“Opportunity?” Another voice came from the side, attracting the attention of those present.

The familiar voice continued, “There’s no need to be anxious. All we need to do is to focus on the task Elder Gao gave us. The opportunity can wait.”

“Senior Brother Li is right!”

“Of course!”

“We have to thank Brother Li for this great chance to carry out Elder Gao’s orders. Even if we run into some sort of fortune here, Senior Brother Li should receive most of the benefits!”

A series of cheers broke out among the group.

From their words, they mentioned ‘Elder Gao’ and ‘Senior Brother Li’ a whole lot. Shang Xia’s thoughts immediately turned to Li Tianshou who was present at the gathering with Chen Sanyang and the three young masters of the Ji Continent the other day.

“Alright, alright, I am grateful for your goodwill. However, we need to make full use of our time. We should arrive at the source of the river soon. I managed to avoid Yang Zhenbiao when I left the city earlier, but we cannot drag this out for long. They will definitely get suspicious if I don’t return soon.”

“Right. Let’s focus on the task.”

“Luckily, Yang Hu left the city!”

Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief. From their conversation, Li Tianshou seemed to be their leader. Since he was in command, there should be no Martial Extermination Realm expert among them!

Suddenly, the mist above the river became thicker.

It barely took two days, but the extermination qi in the air seemed to have thinned a lot.

“I found it! The source of the leak should be right under this pile of rocks!” Li Tianshou’s excited voice rang through the air.

Shang Xia couldn’t hold back any longer. He couldn’t allow them to discover the yellow gourd he had hidden. If they obtained it, it would be too late for him to make his move.

He peeked out from behind a giant rock and released his fully drawn bowstring.

The bow was a low-grade weapon, but it could only unleash its full strength with a suitable bow technique. Even though Shang Xia fully drew the bowstring, the power contained in the arrow was barely half of what it was capable of. That was even after Shang Xia poured his Origin True Qi into the arrow to supplement its strength.

Of course, one couldn’t say that Shang Xia’s archery didn’t improve. He was a lot better than before.

The arrow he shot wasn’t aimed at Li Tianshou. Instead, it flew straight for another cultivator from the White Deer Paradise not too far away.

Shang Xia experienced Li Tianshou’s strength when he was spying on them previously. He knew that Li Tianshou had not only completed his third divine sense transformation, but he possessed frightening abilities. There was no way his half-baked arrow could injure Li Tianshou. Moreover, Shang Xia was sure his actions would be discovered the moment he acted. As such, there was no point shooting Li Tianshou. He had to take out someone with absolute certainty.

“Be careful!”

Shang Xia was right. Li Tianshou noticed his actions the moment he released the bowstring. However, Li Tianshou clearly didn’t expect that the sneak attack wasn’t aimed at him, the leader of the operation.

“Ah…” A howl came from Shang Xia’s target by the time the warning left Li Tianshou’s lips.

After shooting the arrow, Shang Xia kept the bow in his Embroidered Cloud Case. Rushing at Li Tianshou and the others, the Scarlet Star Spear was grasped firmly in his hands.

A solemn expression could be seen on Shang Xia’s face. The arrow he shot earlier didn’t even manage to seriously injure his target, much less kill the man.

Blood might be flowing from the wound, but the wound was on the cultivator’s lower belly. It couldn’t be considered a serious wound, and it wouldn’t affect the cultivator’s combat abilities in the short term!

It seemed as though the group of experts from the White Deer Paradise wouldn’t be easy targets!

A sharp chirp came from the skies above when Shang Xia was preparing for battle, and he realized that Yan Ni’er was giving him a stern warning. It was a trap!

However, it was too late for him to retreat now.