Chapter 616: Chase Through the Stars

In order to prevent any sudden attack by the experts of the Spirit Abundance World, Shang Bo maintained his state of vigilance and he didn’t help the experts on the Tongyou Island who were gathering land fragments earlier.

However, he seems more than content to use up his inner qi to assist Shang Xia in gathering Star Essence.

To that, no one could say a thing about it. After all, Shang Xia was Shang Bo’s grandson.

After some time, Shang Bo seemed to have thought of something and he asked, “Oh right, Why are you collecting Star Essence anyway?”

Shang Xia told him what he learned from Kou Chongxue, which included the method he could use to repair his Abyssal Blade with Star Essence.

He also spoke about everything he experienced after the Manyu Continent crumbled. The story of how he obtained the Imperial Star Fate Dipper and 2 strands of fate dipper essence was also mentioned.

After hearing everything, Shang Bo finally noticed the changes in Shang Xia’s cultivation. Complex emotions filled his head and he sighed, “You actually entered the grand completion stage of the Martial Extermination Realm! You should be preparing to break through to the Martial Dipper Realm soon… Do you have any idea how you should do it?”

Shang Bo knew that Shang Xia had some sort of secret inheritance on him that was influencing his cultivation. After all, even he wasn’t too sure about how Shang Xia refined 4 extermination origins simultaneously to enter the Martial Extermination Realm back then.

Despite their confusion, Kou Chongxue, Ji Wenlong, Shang Bo, Yun Jing, and the others chose to overlook the matter entirely. Since Shang Xia seemed to know what he was doing, they wouldn’t probe into it.

They probably understood that Shang Xia’s secret method of cultivation only suited the kid himself. As such, there was no use in spreading it to the masses.

“I have no idea at the moment.” Shang Xia shook his head in response.

Noting his reaction, Shang Bo merely nodded once. He didn’t plan to continue asking about the matter.

However, Shang Xia bombed him with another question the next second. “Grandpa, which Origin Dipper did you use to enter the Martial Dipper Realm?”

The corners of Shang Bo’s lips curled upwards. It was as though he had expected the question from Shang Xia.

Raising his hand, a silvery-gray fate dipper appeared on his fingertip. “This is called the Grand Silk Silver Sand Fate Dipper. It’s only slightly inferior when compared to the Primal Yang Copper Fate Dipper Patriarch Kou has. Even so, it’s considered really rare even among first-rate fate dippers.”

Shang Xia gasped to express his surprise and acknowledgment before asking again, “So is your fate dipper the same as the Primal Yang Copper Fate Dipper? Was it also nurtured in precious treasures like the Origin Yang Mysterious Copper?”

Feeling that Shang Xia was asking for fun, Shang Bo chuckled and explained, “Grand Silk Silver Sand is a spiritual object nurtured by the world, but it’s far from comparable to the Origin Yang Mysterious Copper. Origin Yang Mysterious Copper is a rank six treasure while Grand Silk Silver Sand is a high-grade rank five treasure.”

Shang Xia seemed disappointed by the answer, but thinking about how the Grand Silk Silver Sand corresponded to the metal element, he felt that it wasn’t too bad either.

Tossing the matter to the back of his mind after reaching his conclusion, a crafty smile appeared on his face. “Grandpa, do you still have any Grand Silk Silver Sand? You might be able to upgrade your Champion’s Spear to the level of Patriarch Kou’s Hidden Frost Sword…”

Shang Bo shook his head while chuckling bitterly, “It’s not that easy to do that. Even if I have more Grand Silk Silver Sand, upgrading the Champion’s Spear to a divine weapon is a near-impossible task. Every divine weapon is created differently and the process cannot be replicated. However…”

A segment of a golden shuttle appeared in his hand suddenly and he smiled, “... I managed to find this. With it, I should be able to strengthen my spear.”

Shang Xia immediately recognized the golden shuttle. It was the treasure that the expert from the Spirit Abundance World used and it ripped a hole through the barrier to strike him earlier. When he released Kou Chongxue’s sword qi, the golden shuttle was damaged and the segment in Shang Bo’s hand should be a part of it.

Shang Xia wanted to continue asking when he was interrupted by a yell by Chu Jia. “Quick, look over there!”

Everyone turned to where she indicated and noticed another island traveling through a separate spatial tunnel.

However, the island looked to be in an extremely sorry state. They looked worse than the Tongyou Island.

Even though the Tongyou Island lost 700 miles of its outer sector, most of it had been done through careful planning. Their island looked relatively intact.

The island they were looking at was irregularly shaped and there was a huge chunk missing from its eastern side. The western part of the island had a massive area that was torn off and it resembled a giant biscuit that could crumble at any time.

“Prepare for battle!” Yun Jing gave the order despite not knowing which faction the other island belonged to. She might not know which faction they were, but she could tell that they were cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World with a single glance.

“Relax.” Shang Bo’s voice rang in the ears of the experts on the Tongyou Island, calming them down. “They look close to us, but they’re actually thousands of miles away. We managed to see them because of the path we’re taking through our tunnel.”

“In that case, they should be able to see us too, right?” Chu Jia asked.

“They might. However, we can confirm that the island is trying to return to the Azure Spiritual World. As we get closer to our world, the distance between the various islands will definitely decrease. The chances of running into another island will increase.” Shang Bo explained.

“There’s another one!” Yan Su’er mentioned. This time, she pointed to a region somewhere under the Tongyou Island. The island she mentioned was pretty far behind.

At that moment, Liu Qinglan asked, “I wonder if they ran into an attack by the Martial Dipper Realm experts of the Spirit Abundance World. How did they manage to get away? Could they also have Martial Dipper Realm experts on their islands?”

Liu Qinglan’s question caused everyone to tense up. Even Shang Bo’s expression turned slightly serious.

Ren Bainian, who had been tallying up all the cultivation resources they obtained from the ruins of the destroyed island, ran over in a hurry. He cupped his fists and bowed respectfully towards Shang Bo before he spoke. “There’s something odd about the regions that had been struck by those light cords from the Spirit Abundance World earlier!”

…

The resources were treasures meant for experts under the Martial Extermination Realm, and thus, most people on the island wouldn’t spare it a second glance. However, those treasures were extremely precious to Ren Bainian.

Back when Yun Jing and the others were gathering up land fragments from the broken island that belonged to the Jiao Continent, Ren Bainian was the only one earnestly going about the corpses to search for treasures.

Shang Bo, Yun Jing, Shang Xia, and the others could understand his actions as they witnessed the state of cultivators in the Manyu Continent. They even told him that after all the resources had been gathered, either from the corpses or the remaining chunks of land, the Tongyou Institution would only keep 70 percent of it. The Ren Clan would be able to obtain 20 percent of everything they gathered, and the rest would be given to the 200 odd cultivators from the Manyu Continent they saved when they were passing through the belt of fragmented land.

He might only have gotten a small portion of it, but Ren Bainian couldn’t be more thankful to the institution.

…

After hearing what he said, Shang Bo immediately disappeared. Shang Xia and the others ran after him and it didn’t take long for them to arrive at a region of land 700 miles away from the core region.

The Spirit Abundance World was aiming for the core region of the Tongyou Institution back then, but the light cords were blown away by Shang Bo’s aura and landed in 3 different spots in the middle sector of the island.

After the light cords were severed by Yan Su’er and Shang Xia, the Tongyou Island managed to escape. They were focused on running after that and no one remembered how the light drilled deep into the ground back then.

Now that they had Ren Bainian’s reminder, the memories came flooding back. They recalled that there might be some hidden threat buried by the Spirit Abundance World on their island.

𝒻𝘳ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝒷𝘯ℴ𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝑐ℴ𝑚

They felt the strange fluctuations coming from underground that seemed exceptionally weak. It might be weak, but they were sent out constantly. The protection barrier around the island couldn’t stop the ripples from escaping, and neither could the spatial tunnel contain it. They continued on and entered the vast sea of stars with no one on the island knowing where they went.

“Did the Martial Dipper Realm expert locate and infiltrate our spatial tunnel because of this?” Yun Jing gasped.

Liu Qinglan added, “There are 3 spots like this on our island. If we don’t deal with it properly, wouldn’t that mean…”

The deeper Shang Xia tried to push his divine perception into the ground below, the more difficult it became. Even so, he ignored his consumption of energy and kept going. An ugly expression hung on his face and he muttered, “Those light rays exploded after going deep into the ground. It fused with everything 10 miles around it. It’s going to be troublesome if we want to clean this up completely.”

Yan Su’er growled coldly, “We have to clean this up no matter how troublesome it is. Otherwise, they’ll be able to follow these ripples and discover the location of the Azure Origin World once we return. That’s when the real trouble will begin.”

Everyone nodded in agreement even though they were frustrated with the fact that it was going to be really annoying.

Turning around suddenly, Shang Bo stared at the back of the Tongyou Island and muttered, “Trouble is already here…”

Everyone raised their heads to take a look, but they couldn’t see anything.

When they were still stuck in a state of confusion, a spot of light appeared in the depths of the sea of stars and it started to grow larger by the second. It split into countless light cords that quickly extended in the direction of the Tongyou Island.

“Quickly, look!” Shang Xia pointed in a certain direction behind the Tongyou Island and one of the light cords was starting to reach over.

The others were sent in different directions, and there were some that quickly flew past the Tongyou Island.

From the looks of it, the Tongyou Island seemed pretty lucky as none of the light cords were flying at them.

Even so, no one would dare to relax.

Tapping his feet on the ground, Shang Bo muttered, “No matter how difficult or troublesome it is, locate every fragment of light in the ground below. We cannot let a single piece remain on our island!”

Everyone nodded in unison as Shang Bo flipped his wrist. A ray of silvery-gray fate dipper qi emerged from his palm and went into the ground from different directions. It created a massive cage that sealed off the entire area.

They felt the ground trembling slightly and all of them quickly took several steps back. The entire chunk of land that was ten or so miles across was dug up with Shang Bo’s fate dipper qi.

A crater that was ten or so miles wide and 30 miles deep was formed. He tossed it out of the protection formation and into the spatial tunnel. At the same time, he blasted it into dust that spread through the space above.

“You guys deal with the rest!” Shang Bo left behind his final statement before heading over to the other regions.

Even though his method was a little crude, time was of the essence. The faster he dealt with it, the better!

Shang Xia, Yun Jing, and the others glanced at each other before jumping into the giant crater to look for any light particles that could have been left behind.