Chapter 329: The Shift

Youshang thought that they would be able to disrupt the plan once Shang Xia located the spirit cave. As long as he drew Gao Yun, who was in charge of protecting it away, he felt that Shang Xia wouldn’t have a problem disrupting the plans of the White Deer Paradise.

Things had indeed progressed as he planned. Gao Yun was drawn away, and Shang Xia seemed to have located the spirit cave.

The only thing Youshang didn’t count on was that the protection formation around the spirit cave would be powerful enough to maintain its operation without Gao Yun’s presence!

“Looks like you’re truly clueless when it comes to formations!” Gao Yun threw a mocking sneer at Youshang and continued, “You might have thought that you could attack the spirit cave as long as there was no Martial Extermination Realm expert to hold the formation. You might also have thought that most of the power of my formation was channeled into something else!”

Youshang was forcing himself to maintain his composure as Gao Yun continued in glee, “You definitely didn’t expect that Ancestor Yun Lu would be able to send the world origin back from the Tongyou Mysterious World! Even though a huge portion of it is being sent back to the Ji Continent, a portion of it remains here to power the formation! Even without me, the power contained in the barrier around the spirit cave won’t decrease! In fact, it will become even stronger! Look at the barrier around me. It’s powered by the same formation! It’s growing stronger due to the influx of world origin! It’s even… Huh?!”

Gao Yun stopped abruptly. Youshang saw the protection barrier around him popping like a bubble after it trembled violently.

“Hah!” Roaring with laughter, Youshang sent out a spear light that caused Gao Yun to tumble through the air.

As Gao Yun flew through the air, he roared, “Do you really think that you have won?! I told you, you don’t know anything about how formations work!”

…

Shang Xia was about to give up and he decided to give it one last shot. He released everything he had and decided to leave by riding the current back to where he came from. He might even be able to avoid a huge calamity when the Martial Dipper Realm ancestor returns.

Never in his wildest imagination would he expect the spiritual deer who emerged from his Spirit Extermination Gourd to pass through the barrier around the spirit cave.

When it pranced around and approached the deep pool below, Shang Xia stared at it with an incredulous look on his face.

He only snapped back to reality when the little deer started absorbing the extermination qi out from the deep pool.

A thought flashed across his mind. The deer had to possess extremely similar qualities to the formless barrier! It made sense as the deer and Gao Yun both came from the White Deer Paradise.

That might be the reason why the barrier didn’t stop the deer from passing! Well, that was the best explanation Shang Xia could come up with anyway.

What he didn’t know was that the spiritual deer was a spirit animal used specifically by the direct disciples of the White Deer Paradise to collect extermination qi.

Anywhere that could produce extermination qi was somewhere that held a ton of dangers. The spiritual deer possessed special abilities to break through formations and restrictions in case the direct disciples ran into any trouble.

That was the true reason behind the spiritual deer’s ability to cross Gao Yun’s barrier.

Once it did, the spiritual deer would naturally lean towards its original purpose and that was to absorb as much extermination qi as possible.

The moment it stuck its head into the deep pool and absorbed a huge amount of extermination qi, the protection formation weakened significantly. Shang Xia slashed horizontally with his spear, tearing a huge gash through the formless barrier before entering the spirit cave.

Entering the spirit cave, Shang Xia watched as the little deer grew larger at a visible pace as it sucked up the spirit qi in its surroundings. It quickly grew over three feet tall.

That wasn’t all. The aura surrounding the spiritual deer started to increase once again. Shang Xia might have severely injured it previously and caused it to weaken significantly, but it was rapidly growing stronger. Even though it didn’t become as strong as Shang Xia, its strength couldn’t be ignored.

Due to the properties of the extermination qi it absorbed, traces of inky green could be seen on the spiritual deer’s body.

Shang Xia retrieved the Spirit Extermination Gourd and pointed the opening at the spiritual deer suddenly. The little deer that was still in the midst of sucking up the extermination qi was pulled in the direction of the gourd.

It was clearly reluctant to return to the gourd as it struggled violently. At the same time, it desperately tried to suck up the energy in its surroundings.

Pouring his Origin True Qi into the Spirit Extermination Gourd, the suction force became too strong for the spiritual deer to handle. It flew backwards and returned to the gourd.

A chilly qi emerged from the Spirit Extermination Gourd after the spiritual deer was retrieved and he couldn’t help but shiver slightly.

Covering his palms with his Origin True Qi, he eventually managed to block off the icy qi coming from within.

The image of the spiritual deer returned to the body of the gourd, but Shang Xia could tell that it was struggling desperately to get out. The image was squirming about, and Shang Xia could tell that if he no longer sent his inner qi into the Spirit Extermination Gourd, the spiritual deer would break free immediately.

The moment it did, the gourd would probably be destroyed!

Shang Xia was naturally unwilling to allow something like that to happen. He half expected as much when the deer started absorbing extermination qi crazily, and that was the reason behind his actions earlier.

When the spiritual deer entered the Spirit Extermination Gourd after being weakened by Shang Xia previously, it was on the verge of collapse! It needed to remain in the Spirit Extermination Gourd in order to recover its lost energy. Now that it managed to absorb a huge amount of extermination qi from the deep pool contained in the spirit cave, it was naturally unwilling to remain trapped in the gourd.

Unfortunately, Shang Xia was in possession of the gourd. He wouldn’t allow the spiritual deer to run free, and he quickly suppressed it with his control of the gourd. He activated the gourd’s ability to absorb and refine extermination qi as a portion of energy absorbed by the deer was forcefully sucked out by the gourd. At the same time, he brought it closer to the pool of water in order to take in even more extermination qi.

As the gourd absorbed more and more energy, it eventually reached an equilibrium with the spiritual deer again. The deer no longer had the strength to break out of the gourd, and a satisfied smile returned to Shang Xia’s face.

The more energy the gourd absorbed, the greater the fusion between itself and the spiritual deer that was trapped within. While energy from the deep pool in the spirit cave poured into it, it started to fuse with the spiritual deer trapped within.

Eventually, the gourd and spiritual deer completed their fusion and turned into a usable artifact. With the process completed, Shang Xia could finally control the spiritual deer.

With a single thought, the deer emerged from the gourd. With Shang Xia’s command, it approached the deep pool as it continued to absorb the extermination qi within.

Since the spiritual deer had become one with the Spirit Extermination Gourd, it was able to recover much quicker. The gourd had the ability to devour extermination qi, and so did the spiritual deer. The energy in the gourd was usable by the deer, and with two sources of extermination qi, the spiritual deer quickly recovered to its peak state.

By the time Shang Xia completed the absorption of the spiritual qi in the deep pool, the protection formation around the Changfeng City laid down by Gao Yun stopped working.

Those streams of water that contained the world essence Ancestor Yun Lu was stealing from the Tongyou Mysterious World also experienced a drastic change. They were no longer connected to the underground river that led to the Ji Continent!

Even though the river was raging on as per usual, not a trace of extermination qi was contained in it.

With no outlet, the heaven and earth qi that was produced from the world origin started to gather in the spirit cave. World origin was pouring in from the rose-colored bridge, and it was so dense around Shang Xia that he started to feel suffocated.

Turning around to leave, Shang Xia discovered that another formless barrier had formed around the spirit cave! He was no longer able to move about as he wished! Even though he destroyed the formless barrier created by Gao Yun’s formation, it seemed as though another stronger barrier had formed due to the massive influx of world origin!

He might have shattered the protection formation Gao Yun laid down, but he was still trapped in the spirit cave!

With world origin pouring in at a terrifying rate, it became so concentrated that they started to condense. Droplets of heaven and earth origin started forming in the air before him.

No matter how much he didn’t wish to cultivate, Shang Xia discovered that he didn’t have a choice! The dense heaven and earth origin seeped into his body whether he liked it or not. With the amount of energy that was pouring into him, Shang Xia felt that it was possible to enter the large completion stage of the Martial Intent Realm directly! After all, that was the next step after the three divine sense transformations.

That might be a good thing for others, but that was exactly what Shang Xia didn’t want! He wanted to continue comprehending the Providence Spear Art and unleash its full potential to experience a step-by-step increase in his cultivation!

No… I have to get out of there! If I can’t get out, I’ll have to destroy the entire region!

Shang Xia raised his head and discovered a shocking fact. He looked at the eighteen holes in the ceiling staring right back at him, and through every hole he could see the reflection of a waning moon!

He realized that those eighteen holes were actually wells that led to the Changfeng City. It was also where the world origin Ancestor Yun Lu was stealing was pouring in from!