Chapter 550: Distraction?!

After the death of a Martial Extermination Realm expert, their inner qi would return to the world. That was the cause of the world phenomenon that resulted after their death.

In the central region of the heaven and earth qi vortex where the pillar of light once stood, a region of calm could be seen as the chaos that happened all around seemed to not affect the area in the slightest. Within a thousand mile radius, tranquility pervaded the lands.

Of course, the heaven and earth qi there was so dense that it was suffocating. It even showed signs of condensing to form a thick heaven and earth qi mist.

A ray of light emerged from the collapsed land below but was quickly surrounded by the revolving heaven and earth qi in the surroundings. As the heaven and earth qi wrapped itself around the ray of light, it seemed to provide some sort of protection.

As it turned out, that was the pillar of light that was there before. After Shang Xia absorbed a third of its energy, it condensed and shrank tens of times to become a thin ray of light. However, in its current form, it became somewhat corporeal and turned into something physical.

If Shang Xia was able to enter the region that very second, he would be able to tell that even though the ray of light seemed thin, it contained a frightening amount of world origin! In fact, it might even contain more world origin than when it first appeared!

As it turned out, the world origin the ray of light contained wasn’t all natural. In fact, there were several reasons why it managed to regain the world origin Shang Xia had absorbed earlier and a little more. As heaven and earth qi was sucked into the heaven and earth qi vortex relentlessly and purified by the celestial phenomenon, there was a massive formation acting rapidly to transform the pure heaven and earth qi into something resembling world origin that supplemented the pillar of light.

The heaven and earth qi vortex perfectly covered the formation that was prepared below, and the massive operation had to be carried out by at least 3 high-leveled Martial Extermination Realm experts.

That wasn’t all. In 3 different points of the formation lay 3 corpses, and they were the bodies of the high-leveled Martial Extermination Realm experts who barged into the protection dual formation earlier.

If Shang Xia was present, he would recognize one of the corpses to be Xue Cangling who ignored him after he was freed and charged into the inner formation that contained the protection dual formation without warning.

The other 2 were experts who were drawn over by the pillar of light and were killed by Cen Yu and the others.

…

“This formation goes against the normal operation of the world. We can only use it in the Manyu Continent that’s about to be destroyed.” Cen Yu, the strongest expert among those powering the formation, explained.

“Hehe…” A cultivator clad in black from head to toe chuckled in a hoarse voice. “It’s not that we can’t use this formation in our world… We just have to kill a Martial Dipper Realm expert or two to get enough energy!”

As soon as the words left his lips, the other cultivator beside him whose inner qi wasn’t flowing too smoothly due to some injuries he sustained sneered, “Mister Black makes it seem extremely easy. With the restriction of our World’s Will, even if we manage to offer Martial Dipper Realm experts as sacrifices, it might not suffice. After all, the formation to transform heaven and earth qi already goes against the natural laws. We’re sucking thousands of miles of land of their life essence and even if we manage to survive the backlash of the World’s Will, we’ll definitely become public enemy number 1 for causing such widespread destruction. Ahem… Cough, cough…”

The person who spoke was Lou Yi, and he was clearly injured. From the way he spoke, he was clearly disgusted by the black robed man. He didn’t mince his words and his tone was really unfriendly.

“Brother Lou, your injuries are serious. You should use the fate dipper fragments we obtain to quickly recover.” Cen Yu said and shattered the tension between the two immediately. He stopped the argument that was about to break out. He also managed to get on Lou Yi’s good side by offering him a fate dipper fragment, getting a lot of thanks in return.

With their petty squabble settled, Cen Yu spoke again. “Actually, the two of you missed a crucial point to the successful deployment of our Reversal Formation. Because the Manyu Continent was originally a part of our world, the disturbance caused by our special Reversal Formation hasn't caused the entire continent to shatter.”

Everyone agreed with him but he didn’t stop there. Cen Yu continued, “The Manyu Continent was a part of our world initially, but now that it has exhausted its world origin and has reached the end of its lifespan, there is no point trying to reincorporate it into our world. If only it wasn't, we might be able to raise the strength of our world…”

The black robed man chuckled sinisterly, “If the Manyu Continent wasn’t on the verge of destruction, why would we gather fate dipper fragments from it?”

Cen Yu tacitly decided to change the topic. “I hope that the others will be able to last a little longer. Unfortunately, Su Jinyuan died a wrongful death. No one knows how he died even now… Wang Guan and Xiong Lei were also slain by our enemies. Otherwise, our chances of success will be much higher than before.”

The black robed man piped up yet again. “Well, there’s nothing much to be said about Lin Chai. Huang Yu’s strength is impressive too. As for Lin Yu… Hehe…”

“A fragment has emerged!” Lou Yi yelled all of a sudden.

Cen Yu and the black robed man quickly cut their conversation short as they turned to stare at the ray of light in the middle of the heaven and earth qi vortex.

…

The crater that was created after the collapse of the Snowy Peaks Mountain Range continued to grow deeper as it expanded slowly.

A violent quake, along with the expansion of the spider web-like cracks all around it, followed by even more destruction caused the heaven and earth qi to be squeezed out from the ground below. They gathered in the heaven and earth qi vortex and strengthened the storm even more.

Shang Xia, who had the experience of sapping the vitality off an entire mountain, noticed what was going on. He could tell that the entire region would turn into a dead zone after all its life force was sucked by the heaven and earth qi vortex.

Unfortunately, he couldn’t do a thing about it. The Manyu Continent was on the brink of destruction anyway. Everything that was happening there merely hastened the process.

Despite the chaotic streams and foggy air around him, Shang Xia was unperturbed. He made his way over to the core of the heaven and earth qi vortex. With the Misty Palace Lantern in his hand, he was like a tiny boat that was unaffected by the huge waves and storms as he sailed to his destination.

The closer he got, the clearer the feedback from the Crimson Soul Tablet. It could clearly feel the presence of world origin within.

Despite the twisting space and the dense fog around him, Shang Xia could clearly feel the traces of a huge battle taking place.

Obviously, there were several experts who had the same idea as Shang Xia. Unfortunately for them, they made their move a little earlier and were intercepted by the experts who caused everything.

Shang Xia was really interested in who would be coming to stop him. He was truly hoping for Huang Yu to appear as his understanding of the situation was truly not up to par. He wanted to learn what was going on from someone on his side.

Since the world didn’t revolve around Shang Xia, he didn’t get his wish. Moreover, his luck was pretty bad as he seemed to have gotten a pretty strong opponent.

Under the storm of heaven and earth qi, a trade of danger slowly approached. Moreover, Shang Xia couldn’t pinpoint its exact location.

His divine perception covered the area under the control of his Misty Palace Lantern, but the moment it tried extending outwards, it would be twisted mercilessly by the storm of heaven and earth qi. It was so bad that the space he could feel with his divine perception wouldn’t align with his sense of sight.

Luckily, the twisted space didn’t affect the Crimson Soul Tablet’s resonance with world origin. That was what allowed Shang Xia to not get lost in the first place.

As the Crimson Soul Tablet’s resonance with world origin grew stronger the closer Shang Xia approached the heaven and earth qi vortex, so did the feeling of danger. Shang Xia couldn’t help but suspect that those experts from the mysterious third party had some way to ignore the twisted space and lock on to other experts in the area.

Shang Xia was never one to underestimate his opponent. Leaving the Misty Palace Lantern to float above his head, his Hundred Gold Sword appeared in his left hand and he immediately released seven pairs of sword qi. He deployed his Yin Yang Sword Formation and kept it around himself.

𝐟𝕣𝕖𝐞𝐰𝕖𝚋𝐧𝗼𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝗰𝐨𝐦

Because of his battle with Lou Yi, Shang Xia discovered that the combination of his Yin Yang Sword Formation and his Twenty Four Solar Terms were extremely compatible. When he used both of them at the same time, his combat capabilities would reach a whole new level.

Ignoring the consumption of his Four Constellation Qi by maintaining the seven pairs of sword qi around him, Shang Xia knew that he was in no position to be stingy with his inner qi in his current situation.

He was ready to defend himself at any time.

The person hiding in the mist might not understand what exactly Shang Xia was doing, but he could tell that Shang Xia was ready for a big fight. He could sense danger coming from Shang Xia and he didn’t dare to make any reckless moves.

Perhaps they were probing each other, or maybe both sides had their own considerations, the situation immediately entered into a stalemate. ?One of them was moving slowly towards the heaven and earth qi vortex while the other was hiding in the mist, ready to strike.

Even though he was using his Four Constellation Qi to maintain the sword formation around him, his expressionless face didn’t give anything away.

No one knew how long had passed, but Shang Xia felt the storm outside the range of his Misty Palace Lantern growing stronger. The heaven and earth qi vortex was spinning counterclockwise, and the area cleared out by the lantern was starting to get suppressed.

Shang Xia didn’t care about the consumption of his inner qi as he inserted even more of it into the lantern, causing it to glow brilliantly. It quickly resisted the suppression from the heaven and earth qi storm and the cleared area returned to its original size.

At that moment, the expert hidden in the mist finally made his move.

Hundreds of Essence Shattering Needles shot at Shang Xia from unexpected angles, and each one of those needles was a treasure.

They weren’t exactly crafted from a special type of mineral, but it was created with one’s extermination qi. After gathering heaven and earth qi in the surroundings, the user would turn them into tony needles using some sort of secret art. It was specially used to break their opponent’s extermination origin protection barrier.

Unfortunately, every single needle was pressed down by a formless pressure the moment they entered the range Shang Xia’s Misty Palace Lantern covered.

That wasn’t all. Every inch they progressed, the pressure on them increased onefold. They were also forced to slow down even more.

Secret attacks like that that made use of hidden weapons to break one’s extermination origin protection barrier would usually be used to catch someone off guard. They would also travel at a frightening speed.

Too bad for the mystery man, his sneak attack was obstructed by Shang Xia’s Misty Palace Lantern, giving him enough time to react.

Shang Xia strengthened the protection barrier around him before sending the flickering light in the Misty Palace Lantern out. It turned into a long fire whip that incinerated the needles.

When Shang Xia’s attention was placed on stopping the sneak attack, a pale lady suddenly barged into the area covered by the lantern and sent a golden hairpin flying straight at Shang Xia’s eyes.