Chapter 52: Second Extremity?

In the Shang Pavilion, Shang Quan was speaking to a well-built man with a bearded face.

There was a look of excitement on the bearded man’s face, and his actions were extremely animated. It was as though he was on the verge of breaking out into a dance.

Shang Quan nodded lightly at the side as he tried to calm the bearded man down.

Finally realizing that he was a little over the top, the bearded man calmed himself as his face flushed with embarrassment.

When he thought about the four weapons that Shang Quan was handing over to him to fix and customize, he soon lost control of his emotions again.

After estimating the resources he would require from the Shang Clan to carry out the specifications, he requested for another batch of herbs from Shang Quan.

Finally appeasing the craftsman of the Shang Clan, Shang Quan arranged for someone to send them tea. However, he felt a sudden fluctuation of energy coming from the room above.

Shang Quan wasn’t the only one who felt it. The bearded man raised an eyebrow suspiciously and looked upwards.

Soon, their expressions changed. The heaven and earth qi in the surroundings started to move as they charged straight for the room at the very top! There seemed to be some sort of black hole up there sucking up all the heaven and earth qi.

Now that the heaven and earth qi in the surrounding were absorbed by something at the top of the tower, more heaven and earth qi started to move to replenish it. They were lucky they were on the Tongyou Peak. The protection formation had the ability to regulate heaven and earth qi and it directed a whole lot of it towards the Shang Pavilion the moment an abnormality was detected. If they were in the wilderness, the sudden disappearance of so much heaven and earth qi would cause the surrounding to turn into a wasteland.

“What’s going on?” The bearded man asked as he got ready for battle.

Suppressing the fright in his heart, Shang Quan forced a chuckled, “It’s nothing special, this is just an accident.”

Before the bearded man could continue his line of questioning, Shang Quan interrupted him. “I’ll hand over the items you need as soon as possible. After you repair the knives and fan, grind away the insignia of the Hundred Profession Pavilion, I’ll personally head over and beg my little sister to allow you to use the full accumulation of our treasury to create a graded weapon!”

Shang Quan paused slightly, and he turned serious. “It’s time for our Shang Clan to nurture a master craftsman who can create graded weapons!”

The bearded man’s expression turned a lot more solemn when he heard what Shang Quan said.

After sending the bearded man away, Shang Quan headed up to the highest floor of the Shang Pavilion. When he noticed Shang Xia still deep in seclusion, he left quietly.

…

In his cultivation room, Shang Xia gasped in fright. He didn’t expect to create such a huge commotion when he circulated the Triple Mystery Polarity Art for the first time.

“I was too careless… I didn’t think that it would transform so much after I fused the secret art with the Yin Yang Diagram! Looks like my cultivation method will be completely different from what I imagined…” Shang Xia thought to himself.

Ordinary cultivators would slowly work their way up with their newfound techniques, starting from scratch. When they started cultivating after entering the Martial Extremity Realm, they would start with a single element before going to the next one. In fact, they would try to reach a certain level of control over a single element before progressing. That could be considered to be at the small completion stage of a cultivator at the Martial Extremity Realm. When that was done, they would focus on the second element.

When they finally controlled the second element as well as the first, they would achieve a new sense of balance. They would reach the large completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm.

Only then would a cultivator be able to touch on the entrance towards the Third Order of the Primary Realm, the Martial Intent Realm!

Throughout the process, if one wanted to make their foundations a little more stable to increase their chances of breaking through, they would comprehend a martial intent. Supplementing their understanding over the elements they controlled, they would be able to reach the grand completion stage of controlling their elements.

When cultivating, one could choose not to focus on one element. If they trained in both elements at the same time, they would need to ensure that their control over both elements was at the same level. The moment one element got out of control they would experience cultivation deviation instantly.

As such, training in both elements was not feasible for a majority of cultivators! After all, one would meet special situations like the phenomenon with the dual suns in the sky. That would instantly cause one element to overpower the other!

Moveover, if a cultivator had to focus on keeping both elements in check, they wouldn’t be able to do anything else!

As such, training one element at a time would be the way to go.

There were even some of them who sealed off the other element in order not to receive any distractions when cultivating.

Shang Xia’s way of training was completely different from theirs. The Yin Yang Diagram in his dantian ensured that the elements were balanced at all times. Regardless of which element he trained in, the equilibrium wouldn’t be broken.

Or so to say, the training methods in the Azure Origin World weren't suited for Shang Xia at all! There was no point in classifying him at different levels in the Martial Extremity Realm. Shang Xia could train however he liked!

After circulating the Triple Mystery Polarity Art, the Yin Yang Diagram in his dantian seemed to experience a transformation and he started to suck in heaven and earth qi frantically.

During his cultivation session, he tried to transform the Yin Yang Essence Qi in his dantian into the fire and water element respectively. When he was done with one circulation, the fire and water qi returned back to the Yin Yang Essence Qi it had once been. Shang Xia rejoiced in his heart. With the method recorded in the manual, he started to change the form of the Yin Yang Essence Qi to the qi of strength and softness as recorded in the second part of the manual.

In the Triple Mystery Polarity Art, the author mentioned that the second level would be much harder than the first. One would be putting their life on the line, and they needed to exercise extreme caution when doing so. However, Shang Xia was training in it recklessly!

The initial stage of the Triple Mystery Polarity Art indicated the element of fire and ice. The second extremity was the difference of softness and strength. The final level was to harness the power of the void and reality.

Fire and water, softness and strength, void and reality… Those were the three mysteries!

In the Scripture Depository of the Tongyou Peak, Shang Xia only managed to obtain the first volume of the Triple Mystery Polarity Art. He needed to return to the institution to obtain the second part. The second part volume would contain the transformation process to the void and reality.

“But… Do ?I really need the method?” Shang Xia sneered when he noticed the inner qi in his body already had the properties of softness and strength. A third transformation process began immediately.

As the Yin Yang Diagram in his dantian started to turn blurry, half of it seemed as though it would disappear entirely.

The other half slowly started to turn solid and it became so real that Shang Xia felt he could touch it.

That was the third level of the Triple Mystery Polarity Art.

From everything that happened, Shang Xia seemed to have fused the secret art into his own technique!

Shang Xia could transform his qi however he wanted!

He could even increase the types of qi he controlled after doing a little more research and understanding the different types of qi…

Feeling the change in his body, a sudden thought crossed Shang Xia’s mind.

The Second Order of the Primary Realm was called the Martial Extremity Realm now, but in the past, it used to be called the Extremity Realm! That seemed to be a more appropriate name for his cultivation level!

Even though Shang Xia was young, his knowledge on the history of cultivation couldn’t be doubted.

Before the calamity happened, the martial world had so many classifications of cultivation levels that it was getting messy.

Cultivators from different regions would have to exchange pointers in order to understand how strong the other party’s cultivation actually was.

There were too many hot headed cultivators in the past, and the contest could actually turn into an all out battle. Many lives were lost in the process.

When the battlefield between two worlds appeared, the seniors of the Azure Origin World came together and fixed the terms of cultivation due to the pressure coming from the Azure Spiritual World. Only then did a unified term come about.

From the Martial Realm, Martial Extremity Realm, Martial Intent Realm, the term of every cultivation realm was created twenty years ago.

“If they used the term Extremity Realm to classify this level, they won’t be able to properly show off their strength…” Even though he was currently in a cultivation world, there wasn’t anything they could brag about.

As a person who transmigrated, Shang Xia would definitely compare the achievements of his own world to the one he was currently in…

“‘Martial Extremity Realm’, ‘Extremity Realm’... None of their cultivation terms make sense!”

Shang Xia ended his first training session just like that and before he left the room, he muttered to himself, “Should I give my own realm a term of its own? I can probably call it ‘Yin Yang Realm’... Wait a minute, they probably wouldn’t know what it means…”

“Maybe the term ‘Heaven and Earth Realm’ would be better…”