Chapter 396: Contemplation and Meeting

Four Constellation Realm Advancement Medicine

Advancement Medicine: Four Seasons Samsara Wine

Advancement Criteria: Grand Completion Stage of the Martial Intent Realm

Main Ingredient: Spirit of the Four Seasons

Supplementary Ingredients: 1x Jade Peach Blossom harvested in the Spring, 1x Nine Leaf Lotus harvested in the Summer, 1x Glass Daisy Chrysanthemum harvested in the Autumn, 1x Dragon Headed Wintersweet harvested in the Winter

Assistive Treasure: A Pot of Hundred Year Old Inexhaustible Spring Water, 1x Hundred Year Old Violet Ningpo Wigfort, 1x Hundred Year Old Windchime Grass, 1x Hundred Year Old Yang Fire Stone.

Assistive Ingredient: Crimson Crystal Valley Brewer’s Yeast

Remarks: One can only use the medicine in a location that experiences all four seasons at once. At the same time, one can use the opportunity to carry out a joint refinement of the Four Seasons Extermination Origin.

Success Rate: ??

Compatibility Rate: ??

That was the final result that was displayed on the Crimson Soul Tablet after Shang Xia risked it all to complete most of the restoration of the incomplete medicine’s recipe.

Even without the final rates calculated by the Crimson Soul Tablet, Shang Xia was able to start his preparations.

Other than locating the ingredients and herbs required to craft his advancement medicine, Shang Xia also had to locate more world origin to restore his Crimson Soul Tablet.

After weaseling his way out of the hole he was hiding in, Shang Xia observed the area around him. He could see the marsh far in the distance that was covered in a thin fog of poison miasma and he couldn’t help but gasp in shock. As it turned out, he managed to run more than ten miles after leaving the marsh before diving into the trunk of a tree and losing consciousness.

Looking around, he realized that he had lost all sense of direction after he lost consciousness. He had no idea what direction he should be traveling in at the moment and he also didn’t know how long he had been out for. Naturally, he had no idea about the progress of the war between the cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World and the Tongyou Institution.

Taking stock of all the treasures he had, Shang Xia realized that he only had one Golden Spear Talisman and one Spiritual Yin Knife Talisman left. Those were the only rank three ones left but he still had several rank two ones left. After all, in the battles he had taken part in, rank two talismans were pretty useless.

He had a total of 8 Lightning Fire Jujubes left and of them, 5 were of the second rank, 2 were of the third rank and he only had a single rank four Lightning Fire Jujube left.

The Spirit Extermination Gourd was also a treasure he could no longer rely on. Ever since he used it to deal with the giant rat and the Martial Extermination Realm expert from the Changbai Holy Land, Kou Chongxue’s sword qi was on the verge of disappearing.

He didn’t know the exact way to restore it, but he had a vague idea of how he should go about doing it. When he plucked the final fruit from the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree, the sword qi gave a slight indication that he could suck up the strand of extermination qi that returned to the earth but Shang Xia chose not to do so.

He knew that the moment he absorbed the strand of extermination qi to restore the sword qi, the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree that was born in that location would never appear again!

At the moment, there were two strands of extermination origins in the gourd. He obtained them from the giant rat, but he had no idea what they were. He would have struck the jackpot if they had anything to do with the seasons.

He truly wondered if he was lucky enough for that to happen.

Seeing as there were no other threats to his life, Shang Xia thought back to the situation in the marsh and felt that it was a pity that the Poison Miasma Frog got a free strand of extermination origin from the swamp lizard king.

He wondered how strong the Poison Misama Frog would become after devouring the swamp lizard king and the swamp lizards, but he was sure that it would receive a huge boost to its strength.

When he thought about the corpses of the swamp lizards and their corpses, he found it a pity that he wouldn’t be able to harvest ingredients to craft rank three talisman paper. After all, the skin of those swamp lizards was great material to make rank three talisman papers.

Speaking of talisman materials, Shang Xia wasn’t exactly going off empty handed. The skin of the rank four giant rat in the past was a great ingredient! If he ran into a great craftsman, he might be able to turn the skin into rank four talisman paper!

The more he thought about talismans, the greater the urge for him to craft talismans nearly overwhelmed him.

He might be a rank three talisman master that was rarely seen in the You Continent, but other than his ability to craft talismans, everything else seemed to be restricted. He never seemed to have enough resources as his talisman paper, talisman ink, and even talisman. Even his ability to do battle seemed to be held back by the lack of proper resources.

High-leveled talisman masters seemed glorious on the surface as they were able to create powerful talismans. However, their situation was also really pitiful. They never had enough resources to make full use of their abilities!

As for Shang Xia’s battle prowess, it was also limited by his weapon. His Scarlet Star Spear had been heavily damaged due to the various battles and trials he had been through and even though his Jade River Sword was still usable, his sword techniques were more suitable for group combat. In a one on one fight, his Providence Nine Spears came in much more handy.

Those two weapons were those that could withstand his inner qi at the moment. He still had low-grade weapons, but those wouldn’t allow him to bring out his full strength.

Speaking of graded weapons, Shang Xia actually had another mid-grade weapon. It was the metal ruler he gained after killing Senior Brother Zhou of the Changbai Holy Land. Unfortunately, it was damaged after he struck it with his Scarlet Star Spear. Even if it wasn’t damaged, Shang Xia didn’t really know how to use it and it could basically be disregarded.

When he was done lamenting his sad fate with resources and weapons, Shang Xia’s attention returned to the five spatial artifacts he obtained after killing a whole lot of his enemies. Those weren’t weaklings in the slightest and their spatial artifacts should contain some precious treasures. One of them came from the Martial Extermination Realm Sima Zhanxing, and two of the five came from direct disciples of the Changbai Holy Land. One was from Chu Chen and the other came from Senior Brother Zhou. The final two spatial artifacts came from Senior Brother Yue and Junior Brother Xiang who he killed before Senior Brother Zhou while allowing Junior Brother Qi to escape.

He was clearly unwilling to break them open forcefully as more than half the items in them would be completely destroyed. He didn’t wish to waste a single piece of treasure contained in those spatial artifacts! There wasn’t a need to mention if there were precious treasures in Sima Zhanxing’s spatial artifact. He might have been stranded in the Azure Spiritual World the whole time, but Shang Xia believed that he still had some treasures on him. As for Chu Chen and Senior Brother Zhou, they were direct disciples of the Changbai Holy Land and from the looks of it, they had a mission to scour for treasures in the battlefield between the two worlds! They definitely had some good stuff on them.

If Shang Xia wanted to open those spatial artifacts without damaging their contents, he knew that there were only two ways about it. One was to use a rank three talisman called the Bamboo Void Breaking Talisman, and the other was to gain primary control of space which could be achieved by Martial Extermination Realm experts. Martial Extermination Realm experts could break through simple artifacts like Embroidered Cloud Cases and stuff like what Sima Zhanxing and the others had. Only when it came to Spatial Pouches were they somewhat helpless.

Looking at all the artifacts he had, Shang Xia didn’t want to head back to deal with the artifacts. Only when he was back in the safety of the Tongyou Institution would he be able to break through the spatial artifacts in peace. He still wished to look for opportunities in the battlefield between the two worlds. After all, that was the best time for him to find any remnant world origin.

The moment the battle between the Azure Spiritual World and the Tongyou Institution ended, the remaining Martial Extermination Realm experts would definitely turn their focus to the rank four beasts and world origin that remained in the battlefield between the two worlds. A Martial Intent Realm cultivator like him wouldn’t be left with dregs.

Making up his mind, Shang Xia decided to continue his journey. Skirting a huge round away from the marsh where the Poison Miasma Frog nearly killed him, he became even more careful with his actions.

He didn’t get too far this time when he heard a clear cry ringing through the skies.

With his eyes widening in shock, a look of joy appeared on his face when he heard a second cry in the distance.

Facing the source of the cries in the skies, Shang Xia charged over as quickly as he could.

…

When that was happening, a fat youth was running away at a speed extremely disproportionate to the size of his body.

A golden streak tore through the air as a bird that was close to eight inches, long after extending its wings, appeared above him.

Following a sharp cry, the bird descended as a streak of silver light.

The fat youth screamed in terror while tossing a shield above his head.

The shield shattered the moment the silver streak came into contact with it, but the silver streak showed no signs of slowing down. It struck heavily into the fat cultivator, causing his body to tremble violently and his movements to stop.

Another clear chirp came from the skies all of a sudden, and the fat cultivator’s expression turned into one of despair.

Indeed… Following the second chirp, the skies started to turn noisy as a multitude of chirps came from another direction. They seem to be answering the cry of the first bird.

With a look of dismay filling his eyes, the fat cultivator saw hundreds of Mutated Rain Swallows filling the skies. In the span of a few seconds, they formed a huge blanket in the air that surrounded the larger bird that attacked him in the first place.

When the third cry rang loudly in his ears, the rest of the birds descended at a terrifying speed. Closing his eyes, the fat cultivator seemed to have accepted his fate.

Who would have thought that a long whistle would tear through the skies in that instant? The whistle covered the noisy and messy chirps and seemed to suppress them completely.

A newfound light flashed through the fat cultivator’s eyes when he heard the whistle and felt no birds pecking on him. He was silently praising the strength of the person who whistled, but he was also thanking the heavens that he was saved. Opening his eyes slightly, he saw that only a dozen birds were still charging at him with their wings open to slash his flesh open. Their talons which were tougher than essence steel were reaching out to tear him to sheds.

Seeing as there were only a few of them left, a newfound strength filled his body. Roaring softly, his fat body glowed a deep bronze. He seemed to have turned into a statue of bronze as the dozens or so birds left descended on him.

After those dozens or so Mutated Rain Swallows completed their first wave of attacks, they retreated and the next wave of attack failed to arrive.

Squatting down, the fat cultivator saw several shallow cuts on his body and heaved a sigh of relief. Luckily for him, those scratches were the most serious injury he suffered.

After checking out his injuries, he finally discovered that something was off. The noisy chirps had stopped and the regions seemed to have returned to an unprecedented calm state. Raising his head carefully, his gaze landed on a young cultivator who had appeared on the other side of the desert he was running through.

Getting to his feet, the bronze color on his body faded and his skin went back to its original state. The rotund fatty had skin as pale as snow.

He noticed that the leader of the birds that had been hunting him down was perched on the shoulder of the young cultivator who had just appeared and the damn bird was looking at him with disdain.

The flock of Mutated Rain Swallows that had been circling in the air nonstop soundlessly changed their motion to fly around the head of the young cultivator.

“I am Shang Xia of the Tongyou Institution. I don’t think this is our first meeting. I wonder how I should address you?” The young cultivator with the bird on his shoulder smiled and cupped his fists towards the fat cultivator.

Chuckling softly, the fat cultivator scratched his head slowly and muttered, “I… I am Ren Huan. I don’t seem to have seen you before?”

Laughing softly, Shang Xia brought out his Golden Spear Talisman that was made from a piece of metallic sheet.

“Hey! That… That’s a piece of talisman paper I made!” Ren Huan seemed to have thought of something and he pointed at Shang Xia while stuttering, “You… You… I know! You’re the person who sold me that spiritual deer!”

Shang Xia nodded and seemed extremely content that he managed to run into the fatty again. After all, from what he said earlier, the fatty was able to craft rank three talisman paper!