Chapter 370: OPEN SESAME

On the eighth of the ninth month, students of the institution and experts of the four great clans were gathered around the main entrance of the Tongyou Institution where the spatial tunnel lay.

They were split into two groups, and the group that had already stepped through the entrance and was waiting for the spatial tunnel to open was made up of cultivators who were at the very least Martial Intent Realm experts. There were custodians, instructors, deacons, and heads of the various divisions. There were more than thirty of them who hailed from the Tongyou Institution. They were also joined by experts of the four great clans. Surprisingly, there were several chosen cultivators from several other factions in the city among them. Without exception, all of them were in the Martial Intent Realm.

They totaled around sixty people and multiple Martial Extermination Realm experts stood above their heads. Everyone watched the spatial tunnel quietly.

That group would be the first to charge into the battlefield between the two worlds the moment the tunnel opened. They would also be responsible for killing as many people as they could.

The second group remained within the confines of the institution and they were led by a tiny group of Martial Intent Realm experts from the institution. The rest was made up of Martial Extremity Realm cultivators from the institution and some select factions in the city. There were hundreds of people who made up that group.

After the vanguard killed their way in and secured a landing point, the second group would pour into the battlefield between the two worlds and reinforce the region as their base of operations. At the same time, they would slowly expand the radius of their territory.

Shang Xia had strategically placed himself among the first group of people, and he was ready to slay anything or anyone that stood in his way the moment the spatial tunnel opened. He didn’t choose to join the members of the Shang Clan. Instead, he stood close to the others from the institution. Right beside him were familiar faces like Sun Haiwei and Tian Mengzi.

When the Tongyou Institution mentioned that the spatial tunnel was about to reopen, Shang Xia, Shang Xi, and Shang Jian went over to look for Shang Ke to request permission to take part in the war.

Shang Ke didn’t reject their request. Instead, he gathered all the Martial Intent Realm experts who could be deployed from the clan and their vassals and personally brought them to the institution to join the war.

He left Shang Yang back in the clan to take charge of matters there, and he was the only Shang Clan descendant of direct bloodline.

Shang Xia wasn’t the only one who wasn’t stuck with the members of the Shang Clan. Shang Ke wasn’t there either as he hovered in mid air while discussing something with the rest of the Martial Extermination Realm experts there.

In total. He brought over eight members of the Shang Clan who were in the Martial Intent Realm to join in the war, and they were headed by Shang Jian. They stood close to the experts of the institution while waiting for the tunnel to reopen.

No one knew how long had passed, but a ray of light soon emerged from the dense fog that covered the battlefield between the two worlds, painting a strangely beautiful scene on the lands.

At that moment, one of the Martial Extermination Realm experts in the air took a step forward. Standing in front of the spatial tunnel, his voice soon resounded in the minds of everyone. “Open the tunnel!”

His voice was too recognizable and everyone turned to stare at him. He was none other than the other mighty deputy patriarch of the Tongyou Institution who established his prestige not too long ago, Shang Bo!

Amidst the loud warcries of those in the first group, a weird spatial vortex emerged from the mysterious world above their heads. A pillar of light emerged from the depths of the vortex and slammed directly into the spatial barrier separating the institution from the battlefield between the two worlds.

“Heh, are they going to use the strength of the mysterious world to forcefully tear a hole into the battlefield between the two worlds?” Tian Mengzi was the most adept with formations out of them all and he seemed to be able to read into the institution’s actions.

However, he quickly continued. “It’s no wonder there’s no formation master among us. All of them probably hid in the mysterious world to get ready for this!”

Shang Bo’s voice boomed through the air suddenly. “Everyone in the Martial Extermination Realm, please lend us your strength to create the tunnel!”

As soon as he spoke, he released his extermination origins. Since he reached the large completion stage back then and reached the state of fusing his extermination origins back to one, a dull orangey-yellow light emerged and entered the light pillar that came from the vortex. It slammed directly into the spatial barrier.

Those standing behind him also started to make their moves. Their extermination origins started to gather towards the light pillar and crashed heavily into the spatial barrier.

𝗳𝗿𝐞𝕖𝘄𝗲𝕓𝗻𝚘𝚟𝕖𝐥.𝚌𝕠𝕞

With the power of the mysterious world, a hole that was close to sixty feet deep formed. With the assistance of the various Martial Extermination Realm experts, the depth of the hole increased to a hundred feet.

Strange light emerged from the spatial barrier and it tried to forcefully close the giant hole that formed, but Shang Bo’s command came again.

“Those in the Martial Extermination Realm, follow me into the tunnel to stabilize it!” With him leading the way, Yun Jing, Liu Qinglan, Kang Ci, Shang Lubing, Liu Zhiyuan, Shang Ke, Ji Yu, and Yun Yichen flew into the barrier there was another foreign-looking Martial Extermination Realm expert among them who also entered the tunnel.

The mist that was slowly starting to enter the spatial tunnel was forcefully dispersed by the impressive lineup of Martial Extermination Realm experts.

Not too long after they entered, the Tongyou Mysterious World sent out another pillar of light that caused the tunnel to grow by another sixty feet.

As the light started to dim, Shang Bo’s loud grunt came from within the tunnel as a multitude of lights lit up the space before them. The tunnel seemed to grow even deeper and the space around it became more solid.

As the process repeated several more times, the tunnel continued to grow and the movements from the Martial Extermination Realm experts were no longer observable from the outside.

Standing before the spatial tunnel and watching the space turn more and more solid, the wisps of gray qi that could be seen along the edges of the tunnel disappeared.

A look of disappointment appeared on Shang Xia’s face.

He learned from cultivators at the Martial Extermination Realm that chaotic world essence was contained in the spatial barrier. Those gray wisps that escaped were essentially muddied world origin.

Even though they weren’t extremely pure, Shang Xia could feel that they would be effective in restoring the Crimson Soul Tablet.

It was a shame there was too little of it that escaped. It wasn’t possible for him to make good use of it. Of course, not daring to enter the unstable tunnel at that point was also a reason behind his inaction. If he was like those Martial Extermination Realm brutes, he would have gone in with them to absorb those world origin. At the end of the day, he was at the Martial Intent Realm. His physical body wasn’t strong enough to withstand the spatial storms that came from the unsteady tunnel.