Chapter 559: Caught in the Act

A fate dipper fragment could transform into a complete fate dipper after absorbing a fate dipper essence, and if the experts of the Spirit Abundance World were so determined to get their hands on them, they would most likely possess a way to create fate dippers!

If that was really true, how many Martial Dipper Realm experts would the Spirit Abundance World possess?!

The faces of Shang Xia and the others immediately turned unsightly as they thought of the same problem.

From the situation on the Manyu Continent, the Spirit Abundance World didn’t seem too friendly to the Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World.

With the sights of a behemoth like the Spirit Abundance World set on them, they felt a heavy weight pressing down on their hearts.

Yun Jing forced a laugh eventually. “We shouldn’t be so pessimistic… It’s true that the Spirit Abundance World is much stronger than us. However, obtaining fate dipper essence shouldn’t be something they can do easily. They definitely need to use some sort of secret art to obtain it and even if they’re stronger than us, fate dipper essence shouldn’t be cabbages that grow by the side of the road…”

“I also managed to learn something about these fragments. The secret art of harvesting these fragments is forbidden in the Spirit Abundance World. It’s been jointly banned by all the superpowers there. The reason those experts came to the Manyu Continent in the first place was because it was about to be destroyed. That is why they had the guts to use the forbidden art to exhaust the vitality of the world to harvest the fate dipper fragments.” Shang Xia mentioned. Staring at the 3 of them who were looking at him strangely, he continued, “Also, fate dipper fragments are split into different grades. From Senior Huang Yu, I learned that only the fragments produced during the first harvest would be of the highest quality. The purity of the fragments produced subsequently will drop and there would be impurities residing in them causing complicated lines to appear on their surface. Cracks might even be present for those of extremely low quality. Those low-quality fragments cannot be used to produce fate dippers. Even if they infuse a strand of fate dipper essence into those, it would be wasted.”

Liu Qinglan’s expression became a little better, but she sighed softly, “Let’s hope that is the case. I didn’t think about it before, but it seems like the disappearance of many Martial Extermination Realm experts and the epidemic that killed countless people had something to do with them. It might have something to do with their secret art…”

Silence quickly descended after she spoke.

Feeling the suffocating air around, Shang Xia finally spoke up. “Oh right, I once heard Patriarch Kou talk about something regarding the collisions of our worlds. The Azure Spiritual World smashed into our world back then as some people were trying to bring our world to the next level. I also heard that our Azure Origin World is considered an Azure World and the Spirit World is considered a Spirit World. Spirit Worlds are ranked above an Azure World but there’s one thing I don’t quite understand. What exactly splits the world into different ranks? The fusion of our Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World is basically set in stone by now, but will we become a Spirit World after the fusion is complete?”

Shang Xia looked at the 3 of them with a questioning gaze after he was done speaking.

𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

After a short moment, Shang Bo coughed lightly and muttered, “I’ll be the one to talk about this. From what we know, the universal sea of stars is limitless. No one knows how many worlds exist, but from what we know, we are able to split the worlds into 3 different ranks. Or more specifically, 4 different ranks.”

Shang Bo took a deep breath and arranged his thoughts before he continued, “The Manyu Continent can be considered a world, but it is walking towards destruction and it can be considered the most elementary of the 4. We can call them Barbaric Worlds. One level higher would be the Azure Worlds. That is where our Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World would be classified. Spirit Worlds rank higher than that. As for worlds that rank above Spirit Worlds… We guess that they exist! However, none of us understand what type of existence they are and we are unable to make any estimates.”

“As for the classification of these worlds…” Shang Bo coughed and his voice lowered slightly. “... Every world can be ranked based on the amount of world origin they can nurture. If we look a little deeper into it, we can link that to their sizes. We can also look at it by the number of continents a world contains. The number of experts in the world also seems to be related. Especially the batch of high-level cultivators of the world as they might have the ability to directly affect the Origin Will of the world.”

Shang Xia fell silent for some time before asking another question, “There are 13 continents on our Azure Origin World but all of them are of different sizes. The Azure Spiritual World has 14 continents… The Manyu Continent has 9 land masses in total…”

“Let’s make a guess here…” Yun Jing chirped all of a sudden. She seemed to have reached a new level of understanding after their conversation and she explained, “Now that we look at it this way, a world can be considered a Barbaric World if it contains 9 continents. A world probably needs to hold 12 continents to be considered an Azure World. To be classified as a Spirit World, one might need 18 or even 24 continents! I’m afraid we’ll only know after Huang Yu sends some information back.”

“Our Azure Origin World might be classified as an Azure World, but before the collision of our worlds, our 5 border continents had yet to establish a holy land. We can’t consider these 5 continents as part of our world’s true strength without the presence of a holy land and that should be the same for the Azure Spiritual World. Half of their strength is concentrated in the 7 or 8 Southern Continents and the Northern region is basically a wasteland. They’re covered in ice and snow all year round and life rarely exists…” A bitter smile appeared on Yun Jing’s face after she spoke. “Actually, like what Kou… Like what Patriarch Kou said would happen if the collisions of our worlds didn’t take place, after at most 300 years, our Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World would no longer be able to produce enough world origin to sustain the world. When that happens, we might be reduced to a Barbaric World…”

Shang Bo’s lips twitched slightly but he chose not to say anything.

Shang Xia didn’t notice his grandfather’s reaction as he was thinking about everything Yun Jing said. Everything she spoke about earlier revealed a lot of information and he needed some time to digest it properly. At the same time, many questions appeared in his mind.

“Deputy Patriarch Yun, you said that the 5 border continents cannot be considered a part of our world’s true strength earlier as we hadn’t established our holy lands. Does this concern the ascension of our world?” Shang Xia asked.

Yun Jing explained patiently, “It’s not that the five border continents hadn’t established our holy lands. We didn’t possess the foundation and ability to do so. To put it simply using our You Continent as an example, the continent itself does not produce enough world origin for us to transform into a holy land.”

There was one thing Shang Xia was sure of at that point. The Tongyou Institution was doing all they could to upgrade to a holy land, to become the Tongyou Paradise!

If the You Continent didn’t possess the foundations to support the birth of a holy land… Where would Kou Chongxue and the others find world origin?!

Shang Xia’s eyes widened slightly as he felt that he had understood what their plan was.

Also, Shang Xia knew that Yun Jing and the others wouldn’t tell him anything more about the topic if he continued to ask and he decided to shift his focus to something else. “After the destruction of the Manyu Continent, what would happen to the mortal population after the Azure Spiritual World and our Azure Origin World split up the continents? Is doomsday really about to fall on them?”

Without Yun Jing and Shang Bo saying anything, Liu Qinglan laughed and replied Shang Xia’s question. “What’s the matter? Haven’t you seen all the celestial bodies that existed when Patriarch Kou sent you to the Manyu Continent?”

Seeing how Shang Xia was getting a little tongue-tied, Liu Qinglan continued, “The Manyu Continent will definitely suffer a huge disturbance when the time comes. Many mortals will also lose their lives in the process, but that’s something we cannot stop. However, a huge portion of them should still be able to live. As the Manyu Continent breaks down, the land masses that remain after everything else has been taken away will gather around a fixed star and live on. However, they will no longer be able to cultivate due to the disappearance of heaven and earth qi. Those mortals there will never be able to step onto the path of cultivation and they will forever remain a world full of mortals.”

After recovering from his shock, Shang Xia decided not to dig deeper into the topic. He muttered to himself, “That would be for the best… That’s good…”

Seeing how his grandson seemed a little distracted, Shang Bo was a little curious. However, he didn’t think too much about it. Instead, he decided to end the conversation right there. “Alright. Brat, if there’s nothing else, you should head out and focus on your cultivation. The next thing you know, we should be back on the Azure Origin World.”

With a multitude of questions in his heart, He got ready to leave. As he stepped out of the entrance, he seemed to have thought of something and he turned around again. “Oh yes, Senior Huang Yu instructed me with another matter…”

After he was done, he immediately threw the shameless asshole under the bus. He spoke about how Huang Yu, or Youshang, got Wei Qiongyi pregnant and the lady’s background. He also mentioned how she ended up in the Azure Spiritual World. After the lengthy explanation, he finally got to the main point. “Disciple thinks that Senior Huang Yu has been sent undercover for so many years and he has been toeing the line between life and death… He should be rewarded for his hard work and now, he’s even taking the risk to infiltrate the Spirit Abundance World. We should take care of his family however we can and I agreed to help him when he brought the matter up. Seniors, please give me the permission to bring her back at once…”

What Shang Xia didn’t realize was that the expressions of the 3 became extremely colorful when he spoke of the matter. By the time he said that he wanted to head out to bring her back and turned to stare at them, he discovered the strange looks in their eyes.

Without receiving any confirmation from any of them, Shang Xia started to panic. He hoped that the institution wouldn’t be so cold blooded…

Clearing her throat aggressively, Liu Qinglan spoke on the others’ behalf. “This… Since you already agreed, there’s no need for us to make another decision. Hehe… Hehe.. Ahem!”

Shang Xia could feel that there was something strange about Liu Qinglan’s reaction, but seeing as Shang Bo and Yun Jing had no reaction, he didn’t say anymore. Turning around he wanted to leave. However, he thought of something yet again and he turned back to ask, “Oh yeah, I recall that Yan Su’er of the Wind Swallow Race and her granddaughter are also in our Tongyou Stronghold… I wonder how they’re doing? Is the institution…”

“Is this something you should be asking?!” Shang Bo’s calm attitude was gone and he seemed wholly annoyed by something at that point. Irritated, he immediately cut off Shang Xia and yelled, “Leave! Go away! Scram! Why are you worried about them? With us here, nothing can go wrong!”

The moment Shang Xia left, Yun Jing couldn’t hold back her laughter anymore. She even stared at Shang Bo with a look of schadenfreude.

Shang Bo clenched his fists and furrowed his brows, but all that was left on his face was a resigned expression.

Staring at the 2 of them, Liu Qinglan smiled at Shang Bo, “That little brat is really something else. He even came up with an idea to get the kid to preach that story to us. Hehe, I don’t even know whether to laugh or cry at that point. Are we supposed to ignore the matter?”

Yun Jing tried to suppress the wide smile on her face as she continued, “Can’t you tell? That little brat is doing it on purpose. Oh yeah, Shang Bo, aren’t you going to consider Elder Yan Su’er’s suggestion? Why don’t you agree to the marriage and link your families…”

Shang Bo turned to stare at her and anyone could see the fire burning deep in his eyes by that point. Yun Jing immediately followed up, “... Pretend I didn’t say anything… Hey… My inner qi is getting a little restless and my extermination origins seem unstable. I better enter seclusion for a period of time…”