Chapter 779: Asteroid Belt

Shang Xia couldn’t help but feel a little regretful when he looked at those around him.

In the 4 years that passed, Shang Xia tried his hardest to lower the difficulty of cultivation by improving his rank five arts. He racked his brains to gather fate dipper essences of the 5 elements in order to grow as strong as possible.

However, he had yet to completely refine his fourth set of fate dipper essences.

His cultivation improved nonetheless, and it was a pretty satisfactory increase if he had to evaluate it himself.

When he arrived, he discovered that even though he grew stronger, so did the others! In fact, some of them grew even quicker than himself! The arrogance that had built up within him was immediately shattered.

Pang Jingyun, Shen Baisong, Yi Jingzi, and Gong Xinlan had already refined their second fate dipper and entered the second element of the Martial Dipper Realm!

If Shang Xia ignored the first 3 due to their affiliations with powerful factions, Gong Xinlan came from the Jiao Continent and she could be considered a scattered cultivator! Even she managed to advance.

Of course, their improvement was because of the great battle against the Spirit Abundance World back then and after many Martial Dipper Realm experts fell, their fate dippers were left behind. An opportunity came for everyone to grow stronger.

However, it wasn’t that easy to refine an Origin Dipper.

All 4 of them managed to gain proper control of their first fate dipper before refining their second fate dipper in 4 short years. That in itself was an amazing feat.

When Shang Xia was shocked by their improvement, they were equally as surprised.

After they gathered earlier, all of them concealed their true cultivation in some way or form. After all, they still had to be careful.

That was why none of them asked about each other’s cultivation after meeting. As such, none of them knew how strong each other had become.

Who would have thought that Shang Xia would point out their cultivation now that he arrived? What mattered even more wasn’t the fact that Shang Xia was right. It was the fact that they couldn’t properly tell his cultivation level.

That didn’t seem fair...

The atmosphere between them started to turn a little awkward, but Pang Jingyun eventually laughed softly and tried to alleviate the situation. He teased slightly, “Brother Shang, this doesn’t seem fair! You noticed our cultivation level but you seem to have hidden yours well!”

Shang Xia got rid of the protection barrier around him and laughed, “Actually, all of you should have seen through my cultivation a long time ago!”

“First element of the Martial Dipper Realm? How is that possible? Haven’t you been able to refine your second fate dipper?” Pang Jingyun gasped.

Shen Baisong also continued, “That’s not possible. Why does it seem like you haven’t even completed the refinement of your first fate dipper?”

Shang Xia extended his arms helplessly and sighed, “That’s precisely the case.”

“Don’t tell us you have some strange and special secret art that allows you to conceal your true cultivation level. Your cultivation level doesn’t seem to have improved much in the last 4 years! It’s a little too fake...” Gong Xinlan muttered.

Shang Xia remained serious and swore, “I swear, everything you are seeing is real!”

Even though Shang Xia had been doubling down time and time again, Yi Jingzi couldn’t help but say, “There has to be something we don’t understand.”

The others nodded in unison and they clearly didn’t believe that Shang Xia hadn’t refined his first fate dipper.

A thought filled Shen Baisong’s mind all of a sudden. “Brother Shang, I heard that when you entered the Martial Extermination Realm, you refined 4 extermination origins simultaneously. Even though it’s something never done before, could you have chosen to refine 5 fate dippers at one go?”

Yi Jingzi added, “I heard that the Tongyou Institution has been gathering a large amount of fate dipper essences...”

“That’s right! Originally, fate dipper essences were considerably cheap. However, it’s getting more expensive during the trade fairs in recent years and the Tongyou Institution is the cause of that...” Pang Jingyun laughed.

Shang Xia wasn’t surprised that they could guess that he was walking down that path from the actions of the institution. It wasn’t likely for him to be able to hide it either. Unless he hid in the Tongyou Institution and never showed himself, otherwise, others would definitely pick up on what he was doing.

He could only laugh in response. “Our institution’s inheritance isn’t really complete and it didn’t really seem suitable for me. I could only choose to walk down my own path. Luckily, I succeeded.”

Gong Xinlan gasped in shock. “Are you really doing it?! How did you manage to accomplish something like that?”

Obviously, the question wasn’t exactly appropriate. It touched on Shang Xia’s secrets but Gong Xinlan was always one to speak before thinking. As such, Shang Xia wasn’t too offended.

He didn’t really refine all 5 fate dippers at once anyway but he didn’t have to prove them all wrong if that was what they thought.

Yi Jingzi nodded slightly and sighed, “It really is related to the fate dipper essences...”

Pang Jingyun sighed at the side, “Brother Shang, looks like you started a new path of cultivation!”

Shen Baisong’s expression was complicated as he mumbled, “I truly admire you!”

...

After interacting with each other for some time, they understood a little more about each other.

Under Pang Jingyun’s lead, the 5 of them arrived at a location in space 80000 miles away from the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. It was where an asteroid belt lay and even though it wasn’t exactly dense, it stretched thousands upon thousands of miles.

Along their way, they practiced their battle formation multiple times.

Pang Jingyun might not have worked with any of them in the past, but he was still a genius of the later generation in the Yuanchen Sect. After getting over the shock he felt when he noticed Shang Xia’s exquisite way of controlling and fusing their dipper qi, he quickly immersed himself into the battle formation.

By the time they arrived, they could work extremely well with each other.

During their practice, Shang Xia learned that Pang Jingyun also refined a Water Element Fate Dipper.

There might not be any concept of the 5 elements in the Azure Ascension World, but since Pang Jingyun could lead the team and replace Yu Yu in their battle formation, those people who sent him there naturally had some sort of understanding about Yu Yu’s fate dippers.

Thinking back to what they said back then, Shang Xia even suspected that they had some sort of understanding towards the way he cultivated.

As they arrived, Pang Jingyun turned and introduced the situation. “The 4 Sixth Order Ancestors of our Azure Ascension World can somewhat control what happens 50000 to 60000 miles away from the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. They are able to vaguely sense what is happening out here, but they won’t be able to interfere directly.”

Shang Xia and the others became serious once they heard that the Sixth Order existences were involved.

“In the space 60000 to 100000 miles away from the Beyond Heavens Pavilion, there are 3 special regions. The asteroid belt in front of us is one of them. During the battle 4 years ago, many of the experts of the Spirit Abundance World hid in these 3 special regions without returning to their world. The Spirit Abundance World has also been secretly sending their members to these regions in order to keep an eye on our world. Our mission is to clear out this area of experts from the Spirit Abundance World and stop them from spying on us!