Chapter 776: Test Drive, Guest from Afar

“Three pieces?” Shang Xia revealed a face full of joy. “Brother Ren, did you improve again?”

“It’s not that amazing. It’s just that I got used to crafting talisman paper from beast skin.” Ren Huan replied.

Shang Xia chuckled in response, “That’s already amazing enough.”

“About the spiritual beasts in the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range...” Ren Huan seemed to have thought of something.

Shaking his head slightly, Shang Xia mumbled, “The time isn’t ripe yet. Even though a majority of the beasts from the battlefield between the two worlds managed to establish themselves in the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range, there are too few creatures in the massive mountain range.”

Ren Huan added, “But... If we let them roam around freely and slowly grow their population, a disaster might happen in the future!”

Shang Xia laughed mirthlessly, “Spiritual beasts aren’t like ferocious beasts. They have their intelligence and know how to avoid danger. They wouldn’t dare to leave the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range.”

Ren Huan still didn’t seem too convinced. “Even if that’s the case, what about the Ji and Bing Continents? What if their cultivators enter the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range and start hunting beasts before us?”

Shang Xia thought about it for a second before deciding to reveal something to Ren Huan. “The Ji Continent is filled with undercurrents at the moment as the White Deer Paradise and the three great families there are plotting against each other. The powers in the Ji Continent can’t even take care of themselves, much less set their sights on the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range. The strength of the Bing Continent isn’t comparable to us at the moment. With Deputy Patriarch Ji stationed at the border of the continents, they wouldn’t dare to mess around.”

Staring at Shang Xia for a long time, Ren Huan finally sighed, “Brother Shang, are you planning to use the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range to rear spiritual beasts?”

“We have too little manpower at our disposal at the moment. We are unable to fully control the different beast hordes in the mountain range and we can only rely on the Mutated Rain Swallows to assist us. However, I can tell you one thing. In a few years, the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range might see the birth of a rank five spiritual beast!” Shang Xia didn’t respond to Ren Huan’s question directly. Instead, he spoke about something else.

“What...” Ren Huan’s eyes widened in surprise. He took some time to digest the news before staring at Shang Xia with a complicated gaze. He sighed after some time. “What about heading out to sea to hunt sea beasts?”

“We need to work on the matter. Even though the institution reached some sort of initial understanding with the Tianya Pavilion and we’re building up some trust between us, there is no harm in also forming a connection with the Muhai Sect. Let’s see if we can reach them.” Shang Xia muttered in response.

When he thought about the Muhai Sect, Shang Xia couldn’t help but think about the envoy the other day who had the ability to control rank five sea beasts even though he was only in the Martial Extermination Realm.

According to Yu Yu, the cultivators of the Muhai Sect are adept at controlling spiritual and ferocious beasts. As such, they would also be out in the great ocean searching for those creatures...”

After entering the Martial Dipper Realm, Shang Xia might not have been promoted to a deputy patriarch, and neither was he able to point out the direction where the institution should develop, he realized that he was able to direct many things related to the institution’s operation just through the Talisman Hall alone.

Of course, Shang Xia had his limits. Everything he pushed to happen couldn’t clash with the direction of their growth.

When Ren Huan finally left, Shang Xia started to craft talismans again.

With only 3 pieces of rank five talisman paper, Shang Xia needed to be extremely careful as he wasn’t confident in his skills to craft rank five talismans yet.

He was stumped by the type of talisman he wanted to craft and he fell into contemplation.

The number of talisman papers he had was limited and he could only choose to attempt a single type of rank five talisman. He only knew how to craft 3 different types at the moment, but he still had to think it through.

A rank five Abyssal Emptiness Talisman was basically useless to Shang Xia at his current level.

Even though it could assist him to a certain extent when it came to traveling through the void or breaking restrictions, Shang Xia’s Five Element Dipper Qi could also do the same. In fact, it was much better when it came to doing both those things.

Of course, the talisman would still be extremely useful to other experts.

As for the Substitution Talisman, Shang Xia already had 1 on him. However, life-saving methods like those would be extremely useful for him before he could create Fate Dipper Clones.

Naturally, the Substitution Talisman would also be important even if he could create clones. One could never be too careful. After all, no one wished to pay the price of a Fate Dipper Clone in desperate situations.

After thinking about what he should do, Shang Xia decided to craft a rank five Teleportation Talisman.

It was because he was still thinking about the stable teleportation formation he planned to create and crafting a rank five Teleportation Talisman would give him a lot more insights and understanding of the runes required.

Another reason was also because when Shang Xia worked together with Chu Jia to create the Five Element Formation on the moving island, she showed him their ultimate technique, Empty Mountain.

During their expedition to the Manyu Continent, it allowed the Tongyou Island to enter a separate, stable space.

Be it Chu Jia or Shang Xia, both felt that they could learn a lot from the ultimate technique.

Now that he was making another rank five Teleportation Talisman, Shang Xia was a lot more familiar with it than before. The only factor making it not perfect was the fact that Shang Xia didn’t have rank five talisman ink. He could only use rank four talisman ink during the process despite it affecting the success rate and the effect of the complete talisman.

Fortunately for him, Shang Xia managed to craft a rank five Teleportation Talisman with the talisman papers and gained another life-saving trump card.

...

The Tongyou Institution prepared to send 50 Martial Intent Realm cultivators and 30 Martial Extremity Realm disciples to the Three Unity Island for the trade fair that was about to take place for the year.

Due to the fact that it was the first time they were using the island to shift their members over, the Tongyou Institution didn’t go about promoting their plan. They chose 40 members from the institution and 40 scattered cultivators from the You Continent and brought them to the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. They only took 2 essence crystals as the fee to bring them up there.

As the 80 cultivators entered the Beyond Heavens Pavilion through a specially created spatial tunnel in the Tongyou Paradise, they were led to the floating island by 4 Martial Extermination Realm experts. Among them was Chu Jia.

If everything went according to Chu Jia and Shang Xia’s plan, 3 Martial Extermination Realm experts would be more than enough to direct the island over. 2 of them would have to pour their inner qi to maintain the operation of the Five Element Formation while the other would be there to prevent any mishap.

Whatever it was, it was their first official trip. Their Formation Grandmaster, Chu Jia, didn’t just personally take charge of matters to prevent any accidents from happening. Shang Xia was also monitoring things in secret.

As Ge Qingzhu activated the Five Element Formation, the grand formation also seemed to come to life. A formless barrier shrouded the island and it started to leave the Beyond Heavens Pavilion while slowly increasing its speed.

A separate space was carved out in the center of the island, and it was heavily reinforced. It was where the core of the formation lay.

Ge Qingzhu was currently sitting in the eye of the formation. The 5 connection points were all around him and they used 20 elemental essence crystals at each connection point. As the island increased its speed, those crystals lit up one after another.

After 10 of them were glowing with rays of resplendent light, the speed of the island seemed to reach its peak. The other crystals were there just in case.

Outside the Five Element Formation, Chu Jia asked, “Brother Ge, how do you feel?”

Ge Qingzhu slowly brought his attention back after hearing the question and he chuckled in response, “The formation is operating smoothly and it’s not difficult to maintain the circulation of energy. After the initial phase, the formation seems to be operating on its own and I won’t have to place too much attention on it. I feel that I would be able to control the island alone.”

Chu Jia heaved a sigh of relief and she laughed, “It’s better to station 2 people here in case anything goes wrong. After all, there is a long way to go before arriving at the Three Unity Island.”

Ge Qingzhu smiled and no longer spoke. He nodded slightly at Chu Jia before turning his attention to the formation he was controlling.

Even though everything seemed to be going smoothly, it was their first time using the island. They wanted to be really careful.

Seeing as there was nothing for her to care about at the moment, she strolled out of the secret chamber that contained the eye of the formation.

The 80 low-level cultivators were completely captivated by the sights around them. They gathered in groups as they stared deep into space.

The island might have only started moving not too long ago, but they looked extremely excited.

In actuality, other than meteors that would fly past from time to time and stars in the distance, space contained nothing but desolation and loneliness. There was nothing much for them to see.

However, to those cultivators who were leaving the Azure Ascension World for the first time, everything was new and fresh.

Fang Kewei, another Martial Extermination Realm expert on the island, approached all of a sudden and reminded, “We’re really eye-catching by the way.”

“Huh?” Only then did Chu Jia realize that the island was glowing in 5 different colors.

As the island flew through space, it left behind a long trail of magnificent light.

Fang Kewei couldn’t help but ask after seeing the look of shock on Chu Jia’s face, “What’s the matter? Are we unable to get rid of the light trail?”

Chu Jia chuckled helplessly, “We will, but we will slow down a lot. Forget it. We’ll adjust the formation after the trade fair.”

In the depths of space, Shang Xia, who had been following the island from behind, stared at the light trail while shaking his head in disbelief. All of them forgot about the most fundamental problem when coming up with the moving island! Obviously, the magnificent light trail was completely out of line with the Tongyou Institution’s usual practice of keeping themselves low-key.

In one of the meteorite belts outside the Azure Ascension World, space trembled slightly and a figure tumbled out before smashing into the nearest meteorite and becoming one with it.