Chapter 632: Burden
As he had thrown himself into the process of talisman crafting, a lot of time had passed. The 849th year of the Divine Martial Calendar was already coming to an end by the time he emerged.
When he approached the pavilion where Kou Chongxue used to be in the Beyond Heavens Pavilion, he discovered that the Void Abyss looked a lot shallower than it used to be. Kou Chongxue was also no longer sitting in the pavilion.
In its vicinity, several people looked like they had been waiting for some time now. Their gazes turned to Shang Xia the moment he arrived.
Shang Xia looked at the familiar faces and greeted, “Elders, are you also going to the trade fair on the Three Unity Island?”
Liu Qinglan, who seemed to be the person in charge of the others, growled in annoyance, “Everyone came here a long time ago. We were all waiting for you.”
As Shang Xia had been crafting talismans the entire time, he didn’t know what happened outside the Tongyou Mysterious World. He didn’t bother with Liu Qinglan’s tone as he smiled, “Are we going together?”
Ji Yu forced a chuckle. “You’re holding the only invitation our Tongyou Institution received… Since you aren't here yet, we can only wait…”
“Oh! Sorry, my apologies. I just left seclusion and I troubled all of you to wait for me…” Shang Xia gasped in realization and revealed an apologetic expression.
Liu Zhidao chuckled in response, “It’s alright. After all, we knew that you went into seclusion to craft talismans. Luckily, we can still make it in time.”
Shang Xia also seemed to recall what happened a while ago and he looked at a few of those present to express his thanks. “I haven’t thanked Uncle Yu and Uncle Zhidao for those gifts back then. Because of those treasures, I will be able to save a great deal of effort! Many thanks!”
The smile on Ji Yu’s face grew wider and he said casually, “That’s great!”
Liu Zhidao also nodded while speaking. “Actually, we were just delivery personnel… Giving you the treasures was the intention of our patriarchs. After all, our clans have always been working in close cooperation and we should help each other whenever we can.”
Shang Xia looked at Yun Yichen who had been silent the entire time and asked, “How is Patriarch Yun?”
Yun Yichen shook his head and chuckled, “Elder Yun hasn’t been back to the Yun Clan at all! Even I have no idea where she hid to enter seclusion. I received the news of the trade fair a few days ago that the patriarch wants me to head over to the Three Unity Island with everyone else to expand my horizons.”
Liu Qinglan interrupted all of them suddenly. “Alright, now that all of you exchanged your pleasantries, let’s discuss how we’re going to head over to the Three Unity Island. Since our Martial Dipper Realm Ancestors haven't shown up, it looks like we have to rely on ourselves to make our way over.”
Awkward expressions could be seen all around. Even though everyone present was in the Martial Extermination Realm, Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan were the only ones who had experience flying in space.
Chu Jia also came with Liu Qinglan. Back during the journey of the Tongyou Island, she had been controlling the grand formation and she was protected by everyone else. She didn’t take a single step out and thus, she had no experience flying through space personally.
Yun Yichen, Ji Yu, and Liu Zhidao were all experts in the first layer of the Martial Extermination Realm.
Unless the Three Unity Island was close to the Beyond Heavens Pavilion, otherwise, there was no need to mention the 3 of them. Even Chu Jia, with her cultivation at the second layer of the Martial Extermination Realm, would be facing huge risks when traveling through space.
Shang Xia didn’t know if everything was a coincidence, or if the Martial Dipper Realm Ancestors of the institution had made the proper arrangement. The people who were planning to head over to the Three Unity Island seemed to represent one of the powers in the city. Also, unless some of them decided to give up their chance of traveling to the Three Unity Island, the 6 of them might lose their way and exhaust themselves in space before finding the island.
Shang Xia knew better than to think that the entire journey would be smooth just because he had the invitation. Seeing as how the super factions chose to hold the trade fair on their island in space, he knew that they were planning to weed out those they deemed unworthy of attending.
Of the 6 people heading to the Three Unity Island, Liu Qinglan and Chu Jia naturally represented the institution. The others represented their clans.
“Are we able to determine the location of the Three Unity Island?” Chu Jia turned to Shang Xia and asked.
Looking at everyone present, all of them were supposed to be the head, or one of the most important individuals in their own factions. Chu Jia was the only exception and she made a request to head over with them to expand her horizons.
As the only Formation Grandmaster of the Tongyou Institution, one could say that she was as famous as Shang Xia, the only Talisman Grandmaster.
Moreover, when Chu Jia made the request, Kou Chongxue was the one who personally allowed her to head over.
If anyone had to leave because they brought too many people, Chu Jia would probably be the first one to be kicked out of the party…
Naturally, Shang Xia understood that. He also knew that if they managed to locate the Three Unity Island before heading out, the difficulty of their journey would be greatly reduced. However… Handing over the invitation, Shang Xia sighed. “It’s going to be difficult to locate it. Here, take a look.”
Chu Jia accepted the invitation and studied it carefully before shaking her head to return the invitation. “Their method of crafting is really intricate and amazing. It can only be used to lead us in the correct direction. We can’t locate the island with it.”
A soft chuckle left Yun Yichen’s lips. “Looks like we can only risk it and try our luck. I was sent to the Tongyou Island back then to protect it. However, Patriarch Kou sent me over directly and I have no experience traveling through space alone…”
Yun Yichen wasn’t the only one. Ji Yu and Liu Zhidao were also feeling slightly worried.
At the end of the day, Yun Yichen, Ji Yu, Liu Zhidao, and Chu Jia understood that the only people who could decide if they were going to be part of the group heading over to the Three Unity Island were Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan. In fact… It was possible Shang Xia was the only person who could make the decision!
If Shang Xia was unwilling to give his assistance, with the exception of Liu Qinglan who could travel through space for some time, all of them would have to pack up and go home.
Various considerations were running through his mind at the moment as he thought of what to do.
It was actually not really a tall task if he had to bring everyone over. He would probably just have to give everyone other than Liu Qinglan an Abyssal Void Shattering Talisman each.
With the assistance of the talisman, Shang Xia would be 80 percent sure they would be able to arrive on the Three Unity Island smoothly.
The only problem was that he only had 6 pieces of Abyssal Void Shattering Talismans left. They were extremely important treasures he was going to auction off on the Three Unity Island. If he used 4 of them at once, he would experience a massive heartache.
Chu Jia suddenly interrupted his train of thought. “Why don’t we head up to our island before thinking of another plan?”
Everyone’s eyes lit up. They seemed to have forgotten about that.
Shang Xia also laughed. “We might not know the exact location of the Three Unity Island, but we do know where our Tongyou Island is located in space. Let’s head over for a little while before deciding what to do next. We might even be able to shorten the distance to the Three Unity Island. We can also get used to the feeling of flying through space.”
After a short moment of preparation, everyone rushed out of the protection of the Beyond Heavens Pavilion with Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan’s protection.
When they looked around in space, they saw the state of the Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World. It was a lot closer than they had imagined and they looked like a bun that had been cut in 2 while steaming to perfection.
A strange feeling also filled their hearts. After looking at the Azure Origin World from space, they discovered that it didn’t seem as large as they had thought.
“It’s not that the worlds are small… The space around them had been distorted. The moment we left the Beyond Heavens Pavilion, it’s as though we traveled hundreds of thousands of miles away from our worlds.” Liu Qinglan explained to Yun Yichen, Ji Yu, and Liu Zhidao..
After experiencing and getting over their state of initial panic, they started to slowly fly through space with the assistance of Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan. Eventually, they got used to it.
However, they also discovered that as they flew through space, they were unable to draw upon any heaven and earth spiritual qi to replenish their depleting reserves. Moreover, there seemed to be many holes poked into their body and they were like a human sieve that was leaking inner qi.
When everything was happening, they also had to maintain their extermination origins to maintain flight.
If things kept up, they would be exhausted after a short time.
Now that they had left the protection of the Beyond Heavens Pavilion, they could only grit their teeth and try to make it to the Tongyou Island.
Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan exchanged a glance before flying to the sides to provide some assistance.
Not too long after Shang Xia and the others left, Shang Bo appeared in the pavilion back in the Beyond Heavens Pavilion.
He chuckled to himself while watching them disappear into space. Turning around, he disappeared.
Shang Xia and the others most likely didn’t know that their actions had been seen by the Martial Dipper Realm Ancestors of the institution.
Flying at the side, Shang Xia explained to the others, “... That is why only after refining your third extermination origin and becoming a high-level Martial Extermination Realm expert would your physical bodies be strong enough to fly through space. Your control of your extermination origins would be much greater than before and with your sharpened senses, you would be able to lower the risk when traveling through space.”
Shang Xia paused suddenly. He seemed to have thought of something before he continued, “That is why only experts in the high-level Martial Extermination Realm dared to fight the experts of the Spirit Abundance World in space, outside the confines of our island. Everyone else remained in the safety of the barrier.”
…
With Shang Xia and Liu Qinglan protecting them, everyone eventually managed to arrive safely on the Tongyou Island.
As per usual, the Tongyou Island had 2 Martial Extermination Realm experts stationed there. Song You was one of them, and Ge Qingzhu was sent to replace Yun Yichen earlier.
Now that Shang Xia was meeting Ge Qingzhu again, he discovered that the lucky expert who ran into a huge opportunity back then had already entered the second layer of the Martial Extermination Realm.
When everyone recovered their inner qi, Shang Xia went over to talk to Ge Qingzhu. He asked about matters regarding the battlefield between the two worlds at the moment.
The Tongyou Institution had its attention set on the Tongyou Island for the past years, and Ge Qingzhu was the only one stationed in the battlefield between the two worlds.
He was only deployed back after the huge group of Martial Extermination Realm experts returned recently. He was personally called back by Kou Chongxue so that he could take a good rest and consolidate everything he learned.
When Chu Jia and the others finally adjusted their condition, Liu Qinglan started to urge them to quickly proceed to their destination while calling out to Shang Xia.
Even though they had the experience of traveling through space earlier, they still felt a trace of fear.
Emerging from the hall he was chatting with Ge Qingzhu, he tossed over an item and muttered, “All of you, use this. I’ll lead the way with Instructor Liu Qinglan!”
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