Chapter 970: The Island and the Power of an Elysium

Shang Xia always felt something was wrong when he followed Lou Yi and the others deeper into the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake. However, he couldn’t quite put his finger on what it was. Only when Lou Yi requested for him to reveal the Heavenly Lake Elysium did he realize what happened. He noticed that every reflection in the lake was inverted when he approached it earlier.

He had a guess in his mind, but he continued to break the illusion anyway. He warned Huang Yu secretly about what was going to happen next and to stick beside Lou Yi as soon as anything went wrong.

Shang Xia had been observing Lou Yi for some time now. That included both times when he used his brass bracelet. From the first time they met, Shang Xia felt that there was a shroud over Lou Yi’s body masking his aura, and he found it difficult to fully see through the man.

That was precisely why Shang Xia determined that Lou Yi definitely had other trump cards prepared by True Immortal Chong Shan!

Shang Xia was extremely confident in his own abilities. For him not to be able to see through Marital Dipper Realm experts meant that they definitely had treasures from a Martial Void Realm True Immortal. He refused to believe that other than treasures that contained a True Immortal’s Void Qi, any Martial Dipper Qi realm expert would be able to conceal their secrets from him.

What happened next went exactly as he expected. The ‘Heavenly Lake’ they saw was indeed a trap. When Shang Xia’s dipper qi disturbed the peace of the lake, the entire lake flipped over and trapped them at the very bottom!

The experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake weren’t fools. The trap they set was most likely used to deal with experts in the Martial Dipper Realm. Unfortunately, against Lou Yi who had an unknown number of treasures from a True Immortal, and Shang Xia who carved out his own path to the grand completion stage of the Five Element Realm, their methods were laughable at best. They weren’t facing experts with a reasonable amount of power!

Shang Xia also had a horrifying ability. When the water appeared, he had already discovered the true location of the Heavenly Lake Elysium.

When the water crashed down against them earlier, Lou Yi and the rest were too occupied with the disturbance and couldn’t care about anything else. They didn’t realize that when the region was filled with water from the Heavenly Lake, Shang Xia unleashed his Water Element Movement Art and entered the Elysium before anyone else.

When Shang Xia comprehended his martial intent, his level of mastery over his Five Element Movement Art also reached a new level.

His rank five Water Element Movement Art was fully unleashed and Shang Xia’s fusion with the water from the Heavenly Lake surpassed the compatibility of the Heavenly Lake Elysium and the water from the lake.

It was a shame the Heavenly Lake Elysium was located in a Secret Region. It was protected by a spatial barrier and Shang Xia was unable to sneak his way in easily.

He understood that he wouldn’t be able to remain in the water for long even when using his movement art. Otherwise, he would be able to completely integrate himself with the water and become a part of the Heavenly Lake.

The experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake reacted next. They understood that the water wouldn’t be able to kill the experts who trespassed, and would be able to restrain their movements at best. As such, they raced out of the Heavenly Lake Elysium to rush at Lou Yi and Huang Yu. They wanted to kill the intruders, but they failed to detect Shang Xia’s presence in the water. When they rushed out of the Elysium earlier, Shang Xia managed to use the gap to enter without anyone noticing him.

As the Elysium was managed by a True Immortal for hundreds, or even thousands of years, even if Shang Xia managed to enter the Heavenly Lake Elysium, it was hard not to be obstructed by some sort of high-level restriction or methods they left behind. Fortunately for him, they no longer had a True Immortal to support those methods or restrictions. In fact, they didn’t even have too many high-level Martial Dipper Realm experts to hold the fort. It wasn’t an exaggeration to say that they were in an extremely weakened state at the moment and no one could stop Shang Xia’s infiltration.

The layer of restriction that managed to obstruct him was quickly corroded by his Five Element Qi.

The only thing that shocked Shang Xia when he entered was the fact that the Elysium was actually an underwater world!

Before he had the chance to appreciate the views, the dense world origin in the Heavenly Lake Elysium caused the Crimson Soul Tablet in his sea of consciousness to react.

The Spirit Abundance World might be a Spirit World like the Spirit Luxuriant World, but the Spirit Abundance World clearly had much stronger foundations. At the same time, the Crimson Soul Tablet that developed an exquisite taste for world origin noticed something new. As the pure world origin bubbles drifted around him, Shang Xia discovered that those bubbles weren’t actually rising to the surface of the lake. Instead, they started to drift in Shang Xia’s direction.

The pure bubbles of world origin disappeared the moment they came into contact with him and they were devoured by the Crimson Soul Tablet in a second.

Because he used the Crimson Soul Tablet to come up with his rank five martial intent back then and his rank six advancement formula, it suffered quite a bit of damage. Now that it started to absorb world origin from the Spirit Abundance World, it started to restore itself.

However, Shang Xia realized that he wasn’t in the best of situations at the moment.

As he got rid of the restrictions in his way, his presence was revealed to the world and he was immediately noticed by several experts who remained in the Heavenly Lake Elysium.

Shang Xia used a second to adjust his condition and familiarize himself with the world origin when he was surrounded by 2 powers of extreme chill. A layer of frost started to make his way towards him.

The most direct way of countering the power of frost would be to use his Fire Element Dipper Qi, but currently, he was underwater and using Fire Element Dipper Qi was really disadvantageous. However, even if he was unable to use Fire Element Dipper Qi, he wasn’t exactly taking any of them seriously.

Five colored light flashed across the bottom of the lake and restored the water that had been frozen to its original state. By the time the experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake reacted, the person was no longer there.

The 2 of them arrived in different directions and they saw the shock in each other’s eyes. Neither of them had any idea how the expert disappeared before their eyes!

A bad premonition filled their hearts...

However, the next second, another opening was torn open and a strange wooden boat that was surrounded by a bronze-colored ring barged into the Heavenly Lake Elysium. By the time they noticed it, the wooden boat seemed to have reached its limit.

The experts who tried to stop Shang Xia earlier exchanged a gaze and sent a powerful wave of energy over. A massive tide swept through the underwater world and flipped the wooden boat, tossing the other 2 intruders who entered into the water.

The 2 of them seemed to have forgotten all about the person who disappeared earlier as they focused on dealing with the intruders before them.

Behind the intruders were experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake who were starting to return. The intruders were pincered from both the front and the back.

Shang Xia, who managed to get rid of the 2 of them earlier, was swimming about in the Heavenly Lake Elysium. He eventually arrived at the surface of the lake after swimming for some time and he saw that other than a massive island that sat at the center of the lake, there was no other land presence. The skies and the rest of the lake were the only things that were left.

Intense spatial fluctuations came from the entrance of the Heavenly Lake Elysium where he disappeared from earlier and Shang Xia chuckled softly to himself. He rushed out from the surface of the lake and concealed his presence before flying towards the island.

When he was thousands of feet away from the island, Shang Xia noticed something strange with the space around him.

Cursing silently, he didn’t have time to think what went wrong with his concealment as he tore open the void before him. His figure flashed thrice and he appeared in 3 different spots above the lake and he quickly retreated from the island.

As soon as he left, a giant palm made from the water in the lake rose into the skies and grabbed the spot he was standing on. The next moment, the giant palm froze over and shattered, sending countless knives and swords made from ice at Shang Xia’s first position after he retreated. Of course, they failed to hit anything.

However, those swords and knives made from ice seemed to receive some massive boost as they gathered together again after falling into the lake and formed a giant ice spear. It flew at the second spot he appeared.

Shang Xia seemed prepared as he moved thrice earlier, successfully avoiding the ice spear.

The power that was targeting Shang Xia seemed a little reluctant to accept things as they were and the ice spear started to crumble. It gathered all the energy it had left to maintain the form of an ice arrow before shooting forward with a sharp whistle. Surprisingly, the ice arrow shot into the void and disappeared.

Shang Xia basically retreated to the spot he emerged from the water earlier and after avoiding several attempts on his life, he pretty much recognized what was targeting him.

It wasn’t the power of a formation, and neither was it experts of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake. It wasn’t a type of formation or divine weapon either. Instead, it seemed to be the world origin of the Elysium!

More accurately, it was the power of the Heavenly Lake Elysium!

Shang Xia was a little afraid when he discovered what was happening. After all, he had only seen Martial Void Realm experts controlling the power of an Elysium back in the Spirit Luxuriant World and he understood that the power of the Elysium was an extremely abstract type of energy.

Could an expert of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lake have already stepped into the Martial Void Realm?!

Shang Xia sank into contemplation. He had experienced the exchange between True Immortals many times, and he had also seen how they roused the power of their Elysiums. He discovered that the power targeting him was extremely weak, and no matter how hard he tried to connect it to the skills of a Martial Void Realm expert, it just didn’t make sense! It was far from the power of a Martial Void Realm True Immortal!

The thing that was targeting him was very likely not a True Immortal himself. It should be some sort of hidden mechanism left behind by the seniors of the Solitary Peak Heavenly Lak! It was most likely some method that allowed an expert who hadn’t reached the Martial Void Realm to borrow the power of the Elysium by using some sort of external help!

The source of the energy and whatever was drawing the power of the Elysium was most likely located on the island!

After clearing everything up, Shang Xia didn’t avoid the ice arrow that was flying at him through the void. Instead, a powerful ray of light emerged from his body and struck the ice arrow. From the tip, it started to disintegrate and eventually, several clear droplets of water fell back into the lake below.