Since Shang Xia carried out his sneak attack, Junior Brother Qi had been watching coldly from the side.
That might be the case, but Shang Xia never lowered his guard against the disciple of the Changbai Holy Land.
Only after Senior Brother Zhou’s death and the storm of heaven and earth qi dissipated did Shang Xia turn his attention to Junior Brother Qi.
“Who… Who exactly are you?” Shang Xia hesitated for a moment before asking the question. He even suspected that Junior Brother Qi was a spy the institution placed in the Changbai Holy Land from his actions.
“I’m obviously a cultivator from the Azure Spiritual World.” With a trace of mockery in his eyes, he sneered at Shang Xia. “I know what you’re thinking. I’m no spy for your Tongyou Institution.”
Shang Xia wanted to ask him for the reason behind his actions, but Junior Brother Qi was clearly unwilling to give him the chance to do so. Twisting his palm slightly, a strange hook-like weapon appeared in Junior Brother Qi’s hands.
“Well… I won’t feel good if I don’t exchange some pointers with you…” Looking at the weapon in his hand, Junior Brother Qi muttered softly.
Before Shang Xia could say anything, Junior Brother Qi lowered his voice and growled, “If you manage to take on my blow, the Lightning Fire Jujube fruits can be yours. If you can’t… Don’t blame me for taking advantage of your weakened state after defeating Senior Brother Zhou!”
Shang Xia found his words a little strange, but Junior Brother Qi was already leaping at him.
“Oh? Large completion stage of the Martial Intent Realm?” Shang Xia was slightly taken aback when Junior Brother Qi’s aura rose abruptly. He discovered the other party was hiding his strength and even though he wasn’t at the grand competition stage, he was close!
The only thing that made Shang Xia take him a little more seriously was that Junior Brother Qi was merely a smidge weaker than Senior Brother Zhou when the latter unleashed his martial intent, Measuring the Heavens!
From the looks of it, Junior Brother Qi hadn’t even started comprehending his martial intent!
Facing such an attack, Shang Xia didn’t plan on receiving it passively. Instead, he took the initiative and sent out an attack of his own. Starlight fell from the void and streamed towards the long hook.
He didn’t dare to be careless as he unleashed his seventh move, Celestial Disruption!
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Tiny explosions rang through the skies as the starlight fell on Junior Brother Qi’s hooks. His offensive was seriously weakened as he approached. However, Junior Brother Qi didn’t seem surprised in the slightest. He twisted his hooks in mid air and he redirected the massive spear that had formed. The spear was forced off its trajectory.
The sudden change truly shocked Shang Xia.
Unfortunately, that was the extent of Shang Xia’s feelings. He wasn’t flustered at all and he concentrated his divine sense on the giant spear that was directed away from Junior Brother Qi.
Junior Brother Qi seemed to have underestimated Shang Xia’s control over his spear. He failed to withdraw his hooks and the giant spear trembled slightly, forcing Junior Brother Qi to lose his balance.
Reacting quickly, Junior Brother Qi regained his footing and redirected his hooks with the suction force coming from the spear and slashed it at Shang Xia’s neck.
One had to say that Junior Brother Qi was truly an exceptional talent. His skills were top notch and the power contained in his strikes was comparable to weaker martial intents comprehended by those in the Martial Intent Realm.
Too bad for him, he was up against Shang Xia. The monster of a man wouldn’t allow Junior Brother Qi to do as he wished!
Shang Xia also reacted quickly and the Scarlet Star Spear in his hand trembled. Without any warning, he unleashed his eighth strike, Startling Moon!
The void started to tremble and the hook that was closing in on Shang Xia’s neck was affected by the twisted space as it completely missed its target.
Shang Xia’s Startling Moon didn’t stop there. Even after nullifying Junior Brother Qi’s attack, it shifted its focus on defense and struck out mercilessly. The spear arrived before Junior Brother Qi before he could detect it.
Even though Junior Brother had no idea how Shang Xia’s spear worked, he was able to feel a trace of danger rapidly closing in on him. That alone was admirable!
No longer bothering with attacking, Junior Brother Qi didn’t even bother defending himself with his weapons. He turned around to escape immediately!
Naturally, he wouldn’t leave himself defenseless. He threw out a rank three talisman and it transformed into two streaks of blood-red light that covered his legs. His speed instantly increased by one-fold and Shang Xia could only stare at him, dumbfounded by the sudden change.
Looking at the direction he left, a ray of light flashed through Shang Xia’s eyes. It was no wonder Junior Brother Qi had the guts to pick a fight with him. Other than the fact that his cultivation wasn’t simple, he was also confident in his ability to run away. Junior Brother Qi was probably planning to use Shang Xia to hone himself in order to reach the next stage of cultivation! In actuality, Junior Brother Qi already touched on the edges of his martial intent. All he lacked was a way to comprehend it for real. With the experience he gained from fighting Shang Xia, it was a matter of time before he comprehended it.
Now that Junior Brother Qi had escaped, Shang Xia knew that it wouldn’t take long before Junior Brother Qi comprehended his martial intent and became a direct disciple of the Changbai Holy Land. Only one question remained.
The dude’s identity seemed a little questionable…
Shang Xia shook his head silently and sighed. Seeing as there was no way to hunt down Junior Brother Qi, he turned to look at Senior Brother Zhou’s corpse.
Luckily for him, Senior Brother Zhou didn’t keep the map in his spatial artifact. After some searching, Shang Xia pulled it out from the corpse’s lapel.
Opening the map, Shang Xia looked at the various annotations on it and quickly found where he was. From the looks of it, he wasn’t far from the treasure.
Lightning Fire Jujubes could be considered a precious treasure that was born from the world.
If one were to pluck the jujube fruit from the tree, one would be able to use it as a weapon. As long as one infused enough inner qi into the fruit before tossing it at their opponents, they would be able to summon a huge amount of lightning and fire qi. The power contained in it was comparable to a talisman!
A mature Lightning Fire Jujube tree could bear 36 fruits in total, and the quality of the fruits was usually split into 4 levels.
The lowest-graded fruits could release power equivalent to a rank one talisman and those fruits made up half of the 36.
A slightly better fruit could release power equivalent to a rank two talisman and there were probably 9 of them in total.
By extension, the rank three fruits were comparable to a rank three talisman, and 6 of them would appear among the 36.
The final 3 fruits were considered rank four Lightning Fire Jujubes and they could be compared to a rank four talisman!
One had to know that Shang Xia used many months of effort to create 9 rank three talismans back at the Shang Clan Manor.
Even if he added all of them up, the power contained within couldn’t match up to a rank four Lightning Fire Jujube!
With 3 fruits like that, Shang Xia would finally possess a little more means to threaten a Martial Extermination Realm expert.
Retrieving Senior Brother Zhou’s spatial artifact, Shang Xia found nothing else of value in the others and he quickly cremated the corpses. He followed the map and started looking all around him.
Looking at the map, Shang Xia knew that it definitely came from the four great races of the Liao Continent. Could those treasure maps be the reason behind the Changbai Holy Land’s willingness to join the battle?
That revealed another problem. If the four great races of the Liao Continent had a map to the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree, why would they not save it for themselves? Could it be because the region around the tree was filled with danger? Perhaps only those who were capable had the ability to harvest the fruits.
It seemed as though the closer he got to the tree, the more danger he would be in. Since Junior Brother Qi managed to escape, Shang Xia knew that he would also have to be extremely careful during the entire process. He had to hide his tracks the best he could.
No matter what identity Junior Brother Qi had, the fact that Shang Xia killed three disciples of the Changbai Holy Land. With one of them being a direct disciple, Junior Brother Qi would definitely be questioned the moment he surfaced. Only by revealing Shang Xia’s presence would he be able to escape suspicion.
From what he heard earlier, the Changbai Holy Land had a way for them to communicate in the battlefield between the two worlds and it wouldn’t take long before a Martial Extermination Realm expert came looking for him.
Whatever the case, Shang Xia ventured deeper and deeper into a strange mountain range indicated on the map not too far away from the Bearded Eye Grass.
Due to the efforts of those who surveyed the battlefield between the two worlds, almost everyone knew that the central region was mostly flat while the border regions were filled with mountainous regions. Of course, that didn’t mean that there were no mountains to be found in the central region. They were just few and far between.
In the past, the Tongyou Institution and the Four Spiritual Peak were both located in the central region and from the information they gathered, spiritual beasts and mutated beasts lived in those mountain ranges lining the border. The various powers also concluded that without being fully prepared, none of them would disturb the powerful beasts living in those mountain ranges.
In close to twenty years, there had almost been little to no stories of Martial Extermination Realm experts slaying those strong beasts. Every time there was news of that happening, reports of a beast tide would usually follow, causing the strength of both the humans and the beasts to fall considerably.
At that moment, Shang Xia was closing in on a sea of pebbles. According to the indication on the map, that was the landmark closest to the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree.
In other words, he should be extremely close to it!
Taking a closer look all around him, Shang Xia discovered that his surroundings were a little too quiet. Expanding his divine sense to the best of his abilities, he turned around to stare at a patch of space behind him.
“Hehe. Looks like you still managed to discover my tracks. I was planning to deal with you after you located the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree. Who would have thought that you could discover me with your divine sense? Impressive…”
A hoarse voice came from the void as an aged figure emerged.
Shang Xia remained relatively calm when he looked at the newcomer. He muttered in a low voice, “Are you an elder of the Changbai Holy Land?”
“You’re Shang Bo’s grandson indeed. The rumors of your strength should be true… Chief of the Upper Division, Shang Xia. This old man is called Huang Yunxiang and I’m an Inner Sect Elder.” The aged figure nodded slightly and he even seemed to admire Shang Xia slightly.
Even though the structure of the Tongyou Institution was different from the rest, people like Huang Yunxiang were naturally familiar with how the institution classified their disciples.
A strange look appeared on Shang Xia’s face and he asked suddenly, “Inner Sect Elder? In that case, do you know someone called Liang Shuangren?”
Huang Yunxiang nodded slowly and sighed. “Looks like the Tongyou Institution really had something to do with his death. Liang Shuangren was an honorary elder of our Changbai Holy Land… Hmm, you can consider him an Outer Sect Elder.”
“Oh… I understand now.” Shang Xia nodded in all seriousness and continued. “He’s just a strong fighting dog your Changbai Holy Land uses to carry out your operations.”
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