Chapter 747: 3 Years

The 855th year of the Divine Martial Calendar rolled around and the war that happened 30000 miles away from the Beyond Heavens Pavilion happened 3 years ago.

In order to stop the invasion of the Spirit Abundance World, they suffered serious losses. Including those who self-detonated during the battle, close to 30 Martial Dipper Realm experts had lost their lives.

One had to know that there were only 45 experts who went to the sealed space back then. With the addition of those who couldn’t leave their territory or those not affiliated with any Holy Lands, the number of Martial Dipper Realm experts in the Azure Ascension World couldn’t number more than 70.

That would mean that a good portion of experts at that level were lost and if they had to add in those who lost Fate Dipper Clones, the damage they suffered was huge.

They might have stopped the Spirit Abundance World in the end and retrieved a batch of Origin Dippers and fate dipper essences, there were a lot more fate dipper essences than Origin Dippers. Moreover, what they obtained was only a small portion of whatever was left in the region of sealed space.

In the 3 years that passed, a strange sense of calm filled the Azure Ascension World. The various Holy Lands were licking their wounds and trying to restore the losses they suffered.

Also, because of the battle that passed, the experts of the Azure Ascension World had a new understanding of the Spirit Abundance World.

That was precisely the case as to why no one was celebrating their hard-fought victory.

The Spirit Abundance World wasn’t able to prepare much when they started the invasion back then. As such, they failed to unleash their true might.

Not only did the failure not dispel their desire to attack the Azure Ascension World, but it also brought them endless shame and humiliation. In the future, they would attack with renewed vigor. They would be much more well-prepared and they would unleash an even stronger force to take over the Azure Ascension World.

In the years that passed, the experts of the Holy Lands who survived managed to restore their strength to a level before the battle. Many new Martial Dipper Realm experts were born, but the overall strength of the Azure Ascension World was still far from what it was 3 years ago.

In order to maintain the ability to threaten other factions, no one hid the birth of new Martial Dipper Realm experts. Instead, they seemed to be announcing their increased combat capabilities to the rest of the world.

The disturbance created with each ascension to the Martial Dipper Realm was huge. The spiritual qi fluctuation would probably cover an entire continent. However, that didn’t mean that only those in the vicinity would learn about their breakthrough. Every time a new Martial Dipper Realm expert was produced, they would be able to communicate with the World’s Will. Every existence in the Martial Dipper Realm or higher who was paying attention would discover their advancement.

If not for the fact that the massive battle against the Spirit Abundance World was made known to cultivators in the Martial Extermination Realm or higher, everyone would think that a new flourishing age of cultivation had arrived.

Naturally, not everyone who tried to break through to the Martial Dipper Realm succeeded. Most of the experts who were produced belonged to the great Holy Lands and they went through strict evaluation before they could attempt the advancement. Even so, not all of them stepped through the gates to become a Martial Dipper Realm expert.

In the 3 years that passed, 13 new Martial Dipper Realm experts were born. However, there were close to 8 or 9 of them who failed. Of those who succeeded, none of them would be able to make up for the lost fighting strength as they were merely in the first element of the Martial Dipper Realm.

As for the Tongyou Institution, they seemed to have exhausted their reserves. Not a single new Martial Dipper Realm expert was born. However, that didn’t mean that their overall combat strength didn’t grow. Ji Wenlong and Shang Bo both refined a second fate dipper and experienced a huge increase in strength.

Shang Bo’s second fate dipper was called the Triple Rushing River Fate Dipper and it was something Shang Xia picked out specifically for hom. It was of the Gui Water Element and it really complemented his Grand Silk Silver Sand Fate Dipper.

The problem came when picking out Ji Wenlong’s second fate dipper.

Ji Wenlong used the Earth Essence Fate Dipper when entering the Martial Dipper Realm and it was of the Wu Earth Element. According to what Shang Xia knew, he suggested Ji Wenlong to refine a Metal Element Fate Dipper.

The best choice was Kou Chongxue’s Primal Yang Copper Fate Dipper, but the amount of fate dipper essence collected over the years was far from enough. It was even less possible for him to refine the Grand Silk Silver Sand Fate Dipper as Shang Bo hadn’t even gotten about refining fate dipper essences.

In the end, Ji Wenlong obtained a Metal Element Clear Essence Fate Dipper and refined it for 3 years. He would have to spend a lot of time to strengthen his control over it in the future.

It was getting clearer that Ji Wenlong’s cultivation wouldn’t be improving for quite some time.

Shang Xia’s suggestion had nothing to do with it. His suggestion wasn’t bad, but Ji Wenlong’s potential was nearly used up.

Kou Chongxue and Shang Bo understood what was going on, and even Ji Wenlong himself might have long since expected the day to come.

In actuality, if the Tongyou Institution hadn’t laid down such a strong foundation for the Tongyou Paradise during its ascension to strengthen Ji Wenlong’s cultivation base, he wouldn’t have been able to refine his second fate dipper.

As for the third Martial Dipper Realm expert, Kou Chongxue, he didn’t spend much time cultivating at all. Using his words, in his current state of cultivation, entering seclusion wasn’t a way he could improve his cultivation.

His current cultivation level had already touched upon the ceiling of what was possible in the Azure Ascension World. Unless there was huge progress in the path of cultivation in the Azure Ascension World, he wouldn’t be able to do much unless he followed in the footsteps of the 4 Elysiums and upgraded the Tongyou Paradise.

Coming back to the final Martial Dipper Realm expert of the Tongyou Institution, Shang Xia seemed to have improved the most during the period of time.

Because of his special cultivation path, no one could evaluate him like how they would other experts in the Martial Dipper Realm.

After Shang Xia entered the Five Elements Realm, he had been trying to refine fate dippers of the 10 different alignments.

Before he completed the creation of his rank five arts, he could only refine the same fate dipper essences and that left him in a very passive state.

Now that he had created his rank five arts, despite it being extremely crude and elementary, he was able to refine any fate dipper essence as long as it corresponded to the Yin and Yang Alignment of the 5 elements.

With a lot more choices, the difficulty of improving his cultivation dropped by a whole bunch.

In the 3 years that passed, he had been cultivating with his newly developed rank five arts. He managed to gather 20 fate dipper essences from what they gathered back then after the battle. He also managed to completely refine them.

If 10 fate dipper essences were equivalent to a single Origin Dipper, Shang Xia would have refined 2 Origin Dippers in 3 short years!

At the moment, Shang Xia managed to refine at least 3 fate dipper essences per elemental alignment. For someone who was at the elementary level of the Martial Dipper Realm during the battle, his cultivation took a huge leap forward!

Unfortunately, because he was restrained by his unique cultivation method, Shang Xia’s aura was comparable to someone at the first element of the Martial Dipper Realm.

Despite his frightening improvement, Shang Xia still felt that it wasn’t enough. Of course, his ‘regret’ could only be hidden in the depths of his heart so as not to trigger other experts at the same level.

After the battle back then, Shang Xia comprehended many new theories and managed to shorten the time of his inner qi circulation to 6 hours or so. With the 3 more years that passed, he managed to refine his rank five arts even further while refining his fate dipper essences. He was getting closer and closer to his target of completing a complete cycle in 4 hours.

No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t break past that specific mark of 4 hours.

According to his estimations, his rank five arts would undergo a round of transformation the moment he crossed that mark.

The most direct impact of the transformation would allow him to refine any sort of fate dipper essences. He would no longer be limited to that of the elemental alignments and all he had to do was to find fate dipper essences of the 5 elements.

That would also mean that cultivation would become even easier for him. He would be able to transform the yin yang alignment of the 5 elements however he wished.

To give an example in simpler terms, the Primal Yang Copper Fate Dipper Essence was of the Geng Metal Element and the Grand Silk Silver Sand Fate Dipper Essence was of the Shu Metal Element. After the fundamental transformation of his rank five arts, no matter which fate dipper essence he refined, he would be able to transform them into that of the Metal Element and change their yin yang alignment as he wished.

However, that wasn’t his end goal. According to Shang Xia, after his rank five arts reached the perfect stage, he wouldn't even have to care about the type of element the fate dipper essence belonged to. As long as it was one of the 5 elements, he should be able to transform it according to the principles behind the propagation and cycle of the 5 elements.