Chapter 555: Acting Again

Even though the heaven and earth qi storm outside could distort one’s senses, causing them to be unable to differentiate the direction they were moving in, Shang Xia was a special case.

Because of the twisted sense of direction, other cultivators would hardly be able to locate the vortex. Unlike them, the members of the Spirit Abundance World could communicate with each other with some sort of secret art. They could even accurately pinpoint the locations of the foreign experts who were trying to break into the heaven and earth qi vortex! Due to the limited divine perception range, sneak attacks were particularly effective.

As such, the experts of the Spirit Abundance World held an absolute advantage.

Huang Yu wanted to bring Shang Xia in the correct direction as he knew that Shang Xia’s goal was also the fate dipper fragments. However, Shang Xia had the Crimson Soul Tablet. It pointed him in the direction of the pillar of light, and locating the pillar of light was equivalent to arriving at the heaven and earth qi vortex.

Unfortunately, that was as far as Shang Xia could go. He could tell where the central region of the vortex was after he arrived, but he wouldn’t know where the 3 of them were. That was where he needed Huang Yu’s help.

…

The moment he tore through the vortex to enter, he felt as though he had fallen into a paradise of cultivation. The heaven and earth qi surrounding him was really dense.

What shocked him wasn’t the density of heaven and earth qi. Instead, it was the purity of the qi.

Due to the presence of the vortex, the heaven and earth qi contained within seemed to have passed through countless filters and had been refined to the absolute purest it could be. Shang Xia could even directly absorb the heaven and earth qi to replenish his depleted reserves.

He felt the pores of his body expanding as it tried to suck in the dense heaven and earth qi around him. The speed at which his inner qi circulated actually increased by close to 30 percent! All the energy he used earlier was starting to recover at a terrifying pace…

Well, that wasn’t the time to be thinking about all that.

…

Shang Xia’s sudden appearance and attack shocked everyone present, but they weren’t exactly caught completely off guard.

When Lou Yi pressed himself to the ground and scurried away, Cen Yu and Hei Lian reacted. As they moved in unison, the formation under their feet started to transform. A formless wave appeared to block Shang Xia while wearing down his extermination origin protection barrier.

Even though the self-preservation function of the formation they had laid down wasn’t strong, it had the ability to absorb energy and convert it into something else. It could gradually grind down a cultivator’s energy without them noticing it.

Luckily, Shang Xia’s senses were sharp. The control he had over his extermination origins and inner qi far outranked cultivators of the same level. The moment he stepped into the vortex, he already discovered his inner qi draining from his dantian.

Everything happened in a split second, but recalling what Huang Yu told him outside the vortex, the Abyssal Blade came crashing down once again.

“Outrageous!”

“Stop!”

Cen Yu and Hei Lian yelled at the same time, but their next action differed slightly.

Cen Yu left his position and rushed at Shang Xia directly.

After getting over his initial shock, he recognized Shang Xia and how strong he was. He also knew that Shang Xia had a secret art that would allow him to quickly devour world origin. That wasn’t all. With his estimation of Shang Xia’s strength, he understood that the injured Lou Yi wouldn’t be the youngster’s opponent. As such, Lou Yi wouldn’t be able to stop him from approaching the pillar of light.

Another reason he left his position to stop Shang Xia was because after harvesting his fragments earlier, he knew that the world origin was nearly exhausted. It wasn’t possible for them to go for another round and since he already obtained his benefits, he didn’t care about the stability of the formation.

Hei Lian acted completely differently. He had been taking the last fragment produced every round and he wasn’t willing to give up the slightest chance of obtaining the last fragment. Fate dipper fragments were extremely rare treasures to him, and he would give it his all to obtain another piece.

Seeing that Shang Xia was threatening the stability of the formation by giving up on his opportunity to heavily injure Lou Yi, Hei Lian poured his inner qi crazily into it as he forcefully sustained the formation even with Cen Yu’s departure.

A layer of light emerged from the ground below to meet Shang Xia’s blade light and they were slowly ground away by the terrifying amount of energy contained in the attack.

He might have resisted Shang Xia’s blade light, but the violent shaking that was created from the clash affected the operation of the formation to some extent. Lou Yi, who arrived in front of the pillar of light, failed to locate a fragment even after feeling around for some time.

Hei Lian, who was maintaining the formation alone, spat out a mouthful of blood.

With the other 2 absent and Shang Xia’s blade light pressing against the formation, he suffered a severe backlash and received heavy internal injuries.

After Shang Xia’s failed attempt to destroy the formation failed due to Hei Lian’s efforts, Cen Yu arrived in front of him.

Shang Xia’s head started to hurt when he saw Cen Yu again. That fellow had already comprehended his martial intent and was a step away from entering the Martial Dipper Realm. His weapon, the Phoenix Wing Halberd, was a pseudo divine weapon and Shang Xia knew that he wasn’t an opponent for the old expert.

Fortunately, Huang Yu and Shang Xia ran through several scenarios before he entered and this was one of them.

Shang Xia, who had the experience of unleashing different techniques with both his hands after his life threatening battle earlier, had been storing up energy in his left hand the whole time. When Cen Yu appeared with the halberd in hand, Shang Xia released a powerful Four Constellation Palm in his face.

The dense heaven and earth qi in the air rippled and the space between Shang Xia and Cen Yu bent heavily. His Four Constellation Palm appeared in front of Cen Yu who was still a thousand or so feet away in an instant.

Shang Xia’s palm was infinitely close to a rank four martial intent and it was one of Shang Xia’s strongest trump cards.

Although the raw power contained in the palm strike was enough, it hadn’t undergone the fundamental transformation to truly become a rank four martial intent. What was more, there were differences in levels even among rank four martial intents.

Cen Yu was stopped by the sudden appearance of Shang Xia’s Four Constellation Palm, and he grunted loudly while waving his Phoenix Wing Halberd. A pair of scarlet wings bloomed in the void and tore Shang Xia’s Four Constellation Palm to shreds.

It didn’t matter to Shang Xia. After all, his main purpose of releasing his Four Constellation Palm was to buy some time.

His true goal was the pillar of light in front of him and Lou Yi, who had an unresigned expression as he continued to dig for the fate dipper fragment.

Shang Xia’s Abyssal Blade changed direction and slashed out once again, releasing a blade qi that contained the will to destroy everything in its path.

He unleashed Pure Brightness, a move in the series of his Twenty Four Solar Terms.

“Be careful!”

Right after shattering Shang Xia’s Four Constellation Palm, Cen Yu witnessed the terrifying blade light traveling towards Lou Yi and he couldn’t help but roar after understanding the intricacies behind Shang Xia’s techniques.

With Lou Yi’s current condition, Cen Yu knew that if the blade light found its target accurately, Lou Yi was going to take a trip down to the netherworld.

At the crucial moment, Lou Yi raised his metal ruler in an attempt to protect himself as he tried to resist Shang Xia’s Pure Brightness.

A loud snap was heard as his high-grade metal ruler was broken in half by the blade light.

Spitting out another mouthful of blood, Lou Yi felt a tyrannical energy invading his body. He retreated hundreds of feet thanks to the impact of the collision between his weapon and the blade light and avoided the deadly blow.

The blade light that struck his weapon earlier scattered and Lou Yi felt the weight on his right arm disappear. Sparkling cubes scattered into the air above him.

“Oh no!” Lou Yi panicked and he couldn’t care less about the injuries he suffered as the fate dipper fragments he collected earlier flew into the skies.

He tried to grab the 2 closest to him. Cen Yu rushed to grab another one that flew close to him and the last one ended up in Shang Xia’s hands as he continued to make his way to the pillar of light.

Staring at the piece in Shang Xia’s hand, Lou Yi’s eyes widened in shock. If he wasn’t mistaken, that was the fragment he obtained during the first harvest.

Not only was it the first piece he obtained, but it was also the first fragment that was produced by the light pillar! Of the fate dipper fragments they obtained, that was the piece with the highest quality!

That wasn’t all. When Shang Xia grabbed the fate dipper fragment earlier, the remnant energy of his blade light destroyed the already dim pillar of light!

The moment it was shattered, the fate dipper fragment Lou Yi had been desperately trying to find earlier fully formed. It started to fall to the ground below and Shang Xia reached out instinctively to grab it. Since he was already headed in the same direction to begin with, it wasn’t a surprise he managed to get his hands on it. Of course, the piece he grabbed was of extremely low quality. There were cracks on its surface and it didn’t look too great.

“Sacrifice him and continue the harvest!” Hei Lian roared as he left his position. He approached from another direction and tried to surround Shang Xia.

Seeing how Shang Xia shattered the light pillar that was supposed to produce the last fragment, Hei Lian felt all his hard work going down the drain. He burst into rage and he wanted nothing more than to cut Shang Xia up into a million pieces.

Even though Shang Xia’s blade light crashed into the pillar of light, it didn’t actually cause any destruction. When the blade light came into contact with the pillar of light, all the world origin was absorbed into Shang Xia’s Crimson Soul Tablet.

After obtaining 2 fragments out of nowhere, Shang Xia discovered that he couldn’t shove them into any of his spatial artifacts.

It was no wonder they would fly out from Lou Yi’s sleeves.

Shang Xia could only shove them into his sleeves helplessly before rushing back in Lou Yi’s direction.

With the current situation he was stuck in, Shang Xia seemed to have reached the conclusion that his action of charging into the heaven and earth qi vortex was a little reckless.

He wouldn’t be a match if he ran into Cen Yu alone. With an additional Hei Lian at the side, his chances of escaping weren't too high.

However, he didn’t choose to run immediately. Instead, he continued to rush at Lou Yi. That was because he could already feel the killing intent coming from Cen Yu and Hei Lian and he knew that escaping wasn’t really possible at the moment.

Luckily, there was still an injured fellow who just lost his weapon and suffered even heavier injuries. He could capture one of them before deciding on his next course of action!

“You scoundrel! How dare you act so brazenly?”

“Brother Lou Yi, run!”

Cen Yu and Hei Lian approached Shang Xia from both directions. Even though they seemed to be yelling to remind Lou Yi to be careful, neither of them actually cared about his life or death.

Right before Lou Yi, someone with a pretty impressive background from the Spirit Abundance World could be taken hostage by Shang Xia, the heaven and earth qi vortex tore open and a sorry figure rushed in.

“Brother Lou Yi, don’t panic, I, Huang Yu, am here!”

As soon as the words rang in their ears, a spear that was lacking a spearhead shot straight for Shang Xia.

At the same time, Huang Yu took out a weird short sword in his hand that he clearly wasn’t used to in his hands. He brandished it menacingly, but it was clear to all of them he was an amateur at swordplay, as he inserted himself between Lou Yi and Shang Xia.

Shang Xia was caught off guard by the sudden appearance of the new enemy and he gasped in fright before stopping abruptly. The Abyssal Blade in his hand changed its trajectory and it smacked the headless spear towards Cen Yu, who was the closest to him.

Seeing as he was surrounded by his enemies, Shang Xia stabbed his sword into the ground below in a state of desperation as he poured his inner qi into it crazily.

With a low explosion, the formation shattered and the ground below collapsed. That wasn’t all. When the formation broke down, the heaven and earth qi vortex that formed a wall around them started to disappear at a frightening speed.