Chapter 728: Rising of Five Elements
Shang Xia was still thinking about the reason he found her familiar when Shen Baisong started introducing the other lady in the group.
“This is Yi Jingzhi from the Heavenly Star Palace in the Yi Continent. She’s a good friend of mine.”
Yi Continent… That was a continent that belonged to the Azure Spiritual World before the fusion. Now, the Yi Continent was connected to the Liang Continent of the Azure Origin World of the past and the Heavenly Star Palace was the Holy Land that reigned supreme in the Yi Continent.
Shang Xia greeted her politely but Gong Xinlan’s sneer came from beside them. “Good friend of yours? Are you sure you’re just friends?!”
Yi Jingzhi chuckled softly in response, “Lady Xinlan, please don’t tease me.”
“HAH!” Gong Xinlan snorted out once. “Lady of the Yi Family, I wasn’t directing that at you.”
Shen Baisong coughed unnaturally before introducing the final beauty of the group to Shang Xia. “Brother Shang, this is Lady Yu from the Tianya Pavilion that exists Across the Ocean.”
As it turned out, she came from Across the Ocean!
Shang Xia’s heart trembled slightly and he chuckled, “I have always wanted to meet the experts from Across the Ocean. It’s great meeting Lady Yu today and I wonder if you can introduce the situation Across the Ocean when the situation allows?”
Lady Yu covered her lips and giggled softly, “Young Master Shang, there’s no need for such formality. The land Across the Ocean is extremely barren and my knowledge is pretty limited. I will try my best to tell you what you wish to know.”
Gong Xinlan had long since lost her patience. Now that Shen Baisong was finally done with the introductions, she interjected immediately, “Enough! Since all of us know each other now, let’s not waste any more time. We should start practicing the battle formation to familiarize ourselves with it right away! Even though we’re at the edge of the battlefield, I believe that all of you don’t wish to fight alone when the experts of the Spirit Abundance World arrive, right?”
After getting to know one another and their abilities better, they got in formation and started to do some mock battles.
The battle formation might have come from the 3 Elysiums, but no one knew where it truly came from.
The battle formation wasn’t complicated at all. After Shang Xia received their explanation, he quickly grasped its core principles and the only thing left to do was to work with the others to bring out its full ability.
Under such circumstances, none of them had the luxury of going deep into the workings of the battle formation. All they could do was to learn how to work with each other to maximize its effect.
After practicing for some time, they became a lot more comfortable with fighting in a group. Of course, their true test lay ahead when they actually used it in battle.
From the looks of it, the battle formation’s might came in 3 different parts. The first was the synchronization between the members, the second was a transformation in strength. Finally, their abilities would be amplified.
Compared to Shang Xia’s Yin Yang Extremity Formation, the battle formation they learned relied mainly on the cooperation between the users. It wasn’t exactly the most flexible of battle formations, and the principles it held weren't as exquisite as Shang XIa’s Yin Yang Extremity Formation.
Well… As for the amplification factor of their abilities, Shang Xia felt that it was too insignificant to matter.
Shang Xia didn’t think highly of the battle formation at all. In fact, he was slightly reluctant to use it. Unfortunately, everyone else seemed really into it and he had no choice but to meet their level of enthusiasm. After all, that was what they would be using for the upcoming battle.
After patiently running through several rounds of practice, Shang Xia thought of something while working together with Gong Xinlan to resist a round of imaginary attacks. The sudden epiphany appeared in his mind and he tapped the air before him to release a strand of Jia Wood and Yi Wood dipper qi.
Gong Xinlan barely used 30 percent of her strength in her attack and managed to destroy the target they had set.
That was because a strange dipper qi entered her body without any warning and fused together with her fist intent. The strength it possessed nearly doubled and it didn’t just allow her to shatter the space before her. A tyrannical fist intent ripped through space and stopped it from recovering immediately.
The sudden change caused everyone to stop whatever they were doing immediately.
Gong Xinlan turned to look at Shang Xia who was barely a few thousand feet away and gasped, “How did you do that?!”
Everything happened in the blink of an eye and even though the others were pretty far away, they could see what had happened. They stared at Shang Xia with strange looks as they waited expectantly for him to explain what had happened.
Shang Xia naturally wouldn’t reveal the secret behind his cultivation to others. He chuckled softly and quickly came up with something. “My rank five martial arts is pretty special. I haven’t fully grasped it, but it has the ability to amplify other people’s attacks. I was testing it out earlier and managed to strengthen Young Lady Gong’s fist intent, but the key to everything came from her explosive power in the first place.”
Obviously, no one would try to dig deeper into the secrets of his cultivation after what he said. However, they couldn’t help but think of other implications after hearing his explanation.
After some consideration, Gong Xinlan grumbled, “Your way of cultivation is strange indeed. If you’re able to amplify other people’s skills, wouldn’t that mean that your combat abilities would be compromised? The moment the experts of the Spirit Abundance World arrived, our battle formation wouldn’t be able to last forever. You will have to rely on yourself eventually…”
Even though her words were slightly jarring to the ears, she seemed to be really sincere in giving Shang Xia a reminder that he would be on his own when shit hit the fan.
Shang Xia had no intention to pick on her tone and he smiled in response, “Many thanks to Young Lady Gong’s reminder. I will take care of myself when the time comes.”
Shen Baisong who had been listening for some time spoke up, “Brother Shang Xia, dare I ask, is your amplification only effective for Young Lady Gong? Will you be able to do the same for the rest? Also, are you limited by the distance between us?”
Shen Baisong’s question was right on the money. It was something everyone else wished to know.
Since Shang Xia was willing to reveal his abilities, he already came up with an explanation. “Of course it’s limited to a certain distance. Also, my dipper qi isn’t so freakishly amazing that I can amplify every single person.”
Watching everyone nod slightly with an expression that they had expected as much, Shang Xia grinned and changed his tone slightly. “However, from what I can tell, my abilities should work on all of you guys.”
“Oh?” Shen Baisong was slightly taken aback by the revelation. “What a coincidence!”
Gong Xinlan lost her patience once again and she snapped at the side, “If that’s the case, we have to make some arrangements to our battle formation. Let’s hurry up and use the time we have left to practice a little bit more. This grandaunt here felt his inner qi earlier and it gave me a pretty large boost to my abilities. If he provides support, the 4 of us will be able to display much stronger combat capabilities than our joint 5 man formation earlier.”
No one objected to what she said and they immediately started to make their adjustments. Once they were done, they practiced a little bit more.
Shang Xia couldn’t be happier with the outcome. With his role as the support of the group determined, the others would protect him the moment the battle started. He wouldn’t have to engage with the enemy unless he was forced to. The upcoming battle would become a lot safer for him!
More importantly, Shang Xia didn’t reveal his ability just so that he could receive the protection of others. He discovered the more he used his inner qi to amplify other people’s skills, the more he could understand the principles of mutual restraint between the 5 elements. It would greatly assist in his development of his rank five arts.
There was also an undeniable luck factor when it came to Gong Xinlan and the others. Shang Xia wasn’t bullshitting when he said he couldn’t amplify the skills of every single cultivator out there, but the 4 of them trained in one of the 5 primary elements!
Gong Xinlan’s fist intent was extremely fiery, and the fate dipper she refined was probably related to the Fire Element.
Shang Baisong held a long Wooden Ruler in his hand, and from the energy fluctuations around him, Shang Xia could determine he had a Wood Element Fate Dipper of the Yin alignment.
As for Yu Jingzi of the Heavenly Star Palace, she wielded a short golden knife. Her movements were nimble and every slash she made through space resembled a shooting star. Her fate dipper was clearly of the Metal Element.
The last person was Lady Yu who came from the land Across the Ocean. Her abilities flowed smoothly with no breaks between them. They were like massive waves that would batter against her enemies and it was pretty obvious her fate dipper was of the Water Element.
The 4 of them possessed the elements of Metal, Wood, Water, and Fire. The only thing missing was the Earth Element. Shang Xia was more than confident that with his amazing control of his inner qi, he would definitely be able to fill in for that position. He would complete the cycle of mutual restriction and amplification!
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