Chapter 677: Exhausted

Because of their achievement, the high-level experts of the institution had already looked into the Fifth Class’ situation. They knew that they only had 9 students in the Martial Extremity Realm, and the history behind each of them.

They had long since learned that Mu Songfang had only recovered from her injuries close to a month ago, and she entered the large completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm 20 days prior. However, she comprehended her martial intent in front of everyone present and stepped into the grand completion stage during the competition!

How long has it been?!

Despite what she did, no one thought that she was a genius. Everyone basically attributed her continuous breakthrough to the Extremity Yin Yang Formation!

If one had to mention her talent, that would be her ability to understand the principles behind the Extremity Yin Yang Formation before the others.

After all, her performance before learning the Extremity Yin Yang Formation was slightly above average at best. She wasn’t exactly the most outstanding student in the Inner Division.

It was because of that that her experience of entering the grand competition stage of the Martial Extremity Realm received even more focus from the experts of the Tongyou Institution.

Well, their attention wasn’t exactly all on her. A greater portion of it was related to the principles and meaning behind the Extremity Yin Yang Formation.

There were 4 students of the Fifth Class left on stage and one was slightly injured. However, Mu Songfang still managed to gather 7 different types of extremity qi to unleash a powerful sword strike.

It was as though the 3 students who had been eliminated before didn’t affect the power of the Extremity Yin Yang Formation at all!

Of course, there was also another possibility where Mu Songfang had already controlled 3 different types of extremity qi herself.

Whatever the case, the sword strike she released was terrifying. The array flags that had been placed down by the Formation Master of the Warehouse Division snapped.

The team from the Warehouse Division also had a disciple in the grand completion stage of the Martial Extremity Realm, but there were differences in martial intent. They were no match for Mu Songfang, especially since she was using her martial intent in conjunction with the battle formation!

The terrifying sword qi tore through the members of the Warehouse Division and greatly weakened them. It didn’t take long for the students of the Fifth Class to kick them off the platform.

The lower-level cultivators of the institution who were observing the battle were flabbergasted by the sudden change.

They might be frozen in shock, but cheers quickly filled the skies. The high-level experts of the institution broke out into praise after observing the battle.

“That’s not enough…” Shang Xia muttered softly with a smile on his face. “Even though she could control the different types of extremity qi, she hasn’t reached the level where she could unleash the formation alone. She failed to merge the different extremity qi in her final strike and could only use them one by one…”

Chu Jia raised an eyebrow mischievously and stared at Shang Xia. “Hah! That’s why your martial intent back then was called the Seven Laceration Sword, right?”

Ju hang witnessed Shang Xia’s sword qi back then and he couldn’t help but mumble to himself, “Why would you stop at 7 though?”

Sun Haiwei interrupted before he could respond. “They might have won this battle, but it’s going to be difficult for them to achieve victory against their next opponent…”

Everyone turned to look at the platform where the remaining members of the Fifth Class stumbled off while supporting each other.

Regardless if it was the Inner Division or the Upper Division, they didn’t have too many Martial Extremity Realm disciples to substitute each other. They could only hold out all the way with whoever they had.

The institution might have tried to solve their problem by giving them several days to recover, but it wasn’t enough for the heavily injured members to recover to their peak state.

From the start of the competition, the students of the Fifth Class suffered multiple injuries. They were like an arrow at the end of their flight after holding out for so long.

“Looks like we can pretty much conclude what we need to know about their battle formation…” Sun Haiwei seemed to be muttering to herself, but her voice rang in the midst of every expert in the Tongyou Institution.

As the Fifth Class managed to charge their way into the semi-finals, they became the greatest black horse of the competition.

Everyone might know that they had been relying on their special battle formation, but it couldn’t be denied that none of their battles were easy. They had many strong opponents, and the battle tactics used against them went slightly overboard.

No one would question their qualifications to take a spot in the semi-finals.

The battle on the other side concluded and the final 4 teams were determined. The final team to enter the semi-finals came from the Contribution Division.

It didn’t take long for the battles to be arranged and the Fifth Class would be going up against the elite squad from the Contribution Division next. The Outreach Division and Protection Division would also be going head to head to determine their spot in the finals.

“You guys not only exceeded my expectations by making it this far. I’m afraid a great portion of experts in the institution have set their eyes on you.” Shang Xia looked at the students of the Fifth Class and asked in a cordial tone, “What do you guys plan to do next? Are you going to continue fighting? Or will you choose to give up?”

Ju Hang wanted to say something, but the words didn’t make it out of his mouth. He fell silent at the side as he waited for their response.

If they had to be honest, the Fifth Class was only able to reach their current state by giving it their all. The only ones who had any sort of combat capabilities left were Mu Songfang, Yan Weihai, and Shi Huai. The others had exhausted their inner qi and were barely holding out in their last battle. Even Wang Chenglin who took an arrow to his arm in the previous battle had used up the last of his reserves.

Even if they forced themselves to continue, they wouldn’t be in their best condition to fight.

Wang Chenglin had always been the liveliest and outspoken on the team, but the injury to his arm was just too significant to ignore. He couldn’t move his left arm for the time being and despite his desire to continue fighting, he understood that he would only drag the rest down. A reluctant look could be seen in his eyes, but he remained silent as he waited for Mu Songfang and the rest to make the decision.

Surprisingly, the person who spoke first wasn’t Mu Songfang, the strongest of them all. It wasn’t Shi Huai either, who was the most mature of them all. It was Yan Weihai whose position as the chief disciple of the Fifth Class had been falling since Mu Songfang recovered.

“We have to fight! Even if we lose, we have to lose with glory. Even though giving up will allow us to maintain some sort of reputation, we won’t be able to accept the loss if we do! In the future, when we think back to our choice today, we won’t regret our decision to stand and fight!”

Yan Weihai didn’t seem to be extremely agitated when he spoke, and it was clear he had been thinking about it for a long time.

Shang Xia nodded and the smile on his face didn’t fade. He didn’t say anything else.

Ju Hang was also feeling really gratified as he stood beside them. A trace of anticipation burned in his eyes.

The institution gave everyone 2 more days of time to recover and the Central Plaza underwent another round of construction. Of the 8 platforms that were initially built, only 1 remained.

Shang Xia didn’t plan to watch the next battle. It didn’t matter if they won or lost. After all, he had already achieved his goal.

He believed that he wasn’t the only one thinking that way. Many experts of the institution should have already observed what they wished to see.

After the competition, it was evident that the Extremity Yin Yang Formation would become a core part of the institution’s teachings. That would mean that Shang Xia’s plan to establish his foundation where he could teach his way of cultivation had succeeded.

Naturally, the battle formation wasn’t restricted to those in the Martial Extremity Realm. It could be used by experts in the Martial Intent Realm, or even the Martial Extermination Realm!

The number of people who could take part in the formation wasn’t fixed either. 2 people could use the battle formation, and so could 9. In fact, if they were strong enough, they could even use it when they were alone.

Temporarily leaving his post as a teacher in the Inner Division, Shang Xia’s attention returned to talisman crafting. In particular, he was planning to thoroughly research carving better talisman seals.

Back on the Three Unity Island, Shang Xia managed to create rank one and two talisman seals without much difficulty. However, he managed to estimate the difficulty of crafting a rank three talisman seal after some practice. After trying it for himself, he discovered that he was still underestimating the difficulty of making one!

When he returned from the Three Unity Island, he spent all his time outside of the public talisman crafting session in the Talisman Hall and teaching the students of the Fifth Class researching the production of rank three talisman seals.

Actually, it wasn’t as though he had anything else to do, His cultivation had reached a bottleneck and before he gathered everything he needed to craft his advancement medicine, he could only make minor adjustments and refine his control over his extermination origins. He couldn’t actually grow a lot stronger.

…

With a loud snap, a massive crack appeared on the piece of rock he was carving. It spread rapidly across the surface and the entire piece crumbled to dust in his hands.

“Where am I going wrong?!” Shang Xia thought back to his every action but failed to discover anything. No matter how hard he tried, he always failed when he was nearly two-thirds done with crafting a rank three talisman seal.

That was the sixth piece of rock he wasted.

When he first started, Shang Xia used pieces of rock that were close to 2 inches wide. However, they would all crumble because of the conflicting qi during the carving process.

With no other option, Shang Xia decided to increase the size of the rock he used. It was 3 inches wide and he was able to carve nearly two-thirds of it before it shattered. He failed to progress any further.

He could tell further progress had nothing to do with the size of the rock he used. Instead, he seemed to be missing something during the crafting process.

When Shang Xia was still deep in contemplation, the competition drew to a close.

As he expected, the Fifth Class lost to the elite team of the Contribution Division. Despite that, the Contribution Division didn’t seem to win as gloriously as the others had thought.

That was because they dragged out the battle as long as they could while harassing the members of the Fifth Class. Eventually, the students of the Fifth Class exhausted their inner qi and were no longer able to fight.

The Contribution Division didn’t actually need to use a method like that to win. After all, the students of the Fifth Class were already exhausted after their previous battles. They were barely holding on. They could easily overpower those students.

However, they were hell-bent on destroying the battle formation like the previous teams. They wanted to use some method to defeat the battle formation and eventually, they discovered a method to do so. They didn’t close in on the formation and continually sent out long-range attacks. Eventually, the exhausted students were no longer able to hold on and lost the battle.

Just like that, the disciples of the Contribution Division seemed to have found a way to break the battle formation.