Splitting the Heave

“Brat, you did good this time!” Ji Wenlong’s gaze was full of appreciation when he looked at Shang Xia.

Shang Xia nodded humbly after receiving his praise from Ji Wenlong. “If not for Deputy Patriarch Ji’s assistance earlier, I would have lost my life.” 

Ji Wenlong nodded and turned to the Coral Command that Shang Bo had already refined. “Brother Shang, what’s the plan?”

“We’re going on a killing spree… I mean, we’re gonna kill them with a borrowed blade…” Shang Bo didn’t hesitate to speak.

Ji Wenlong wasn’t surprised by his plan either. Instead, he nodded approvingly, “That’s exactly what I thought. What do you think the four spiritual lands look like now?” 

“I entered the Dual Season Land and  it’s a complete mess now…” Shang Bo replied.

“How so?” Ji Wenlong raised an eyebrow in surprise.

“I found Yan Su’er and she worked solely on destroying the place…” 

Ji Wenlong sniggered under his breath, “Yeah… I met Lang Xiaoyun earlier. If not for the sudden appearance of the rank four undead corpses and Zhu Tong, he would have been going on a rampage to destroy anything he could find. Looks like the Four Spiritual Peak has their own plan for the Coral Forest…” 

Shang Bo chuckled in response, “Of course they do. Even if they manage to occupy the Coral Forest, they won’t be able to do a thing with it. However, things will be different if we manage to obtain it. They would rather destroy it than allow us to benefit.” 

“What about the other regions?” Ji Wenlong asked again.

Shang Xia replied before Shang Bo could say anything. “Our side controls the core region of the Mountain and Sea Fantasy Spiritual World. However, Ran Biluo is going crazy inside it and she should be trashing the place as we speak. As for the Unstable Region, the core region seems pretty intact. Shang Lubing and a Martial Extermination Realm expert of the Rose Party started fighting in there. As for the Willow Forest…” 

“... We managed to control the core region of the Willow Forest and Liu Zhiyuan entered the Martial Extermination Realm. Oh, right, where’s Jitang? Why isn’t he here?” 

Shang Bo was slightly taken aback. When Shang Xia brought him over earlier, he only managed to gain a rough understanding of the situation. Due to the existence of the rank five undead corpse, he decided to drag Ji Wenlong over before doing anything else. As such, he forgot about Liu Jitang completely.

Now that Ji Wenlong brought him up, Shang Bo realized that something wasn’t right. Since things had progressed up to that point, it didn’t make sense for Liu Jitang to remain hidden. 

Shang Bo turned to look at Shang Xia after thinking about it.

After all, the little kid was the first person to arrive.

When Ji Wenlong saw Shang Bo’s gaze, he seemed to have reached a conclusion too. He turned to look at Shang Xia with a strange gaze in his eyes.

Even though Shang Xia knew that he wasn’t in any danger, his heart thumped wildly after attracting the attention of two Martial Extermination Realm monsters. He explained quickly, “Deputy Patriarch Liu and another expert of the Rose Party were trying to stop Zhu Tong from breaking out from behind those bronze gates… Now that Zhu Tong has emerged…” 

Shang Xia didn’t dare to continue. However, the two old men pretty much guessed what happened. Their expressions sank instantly.

Ji Wenlong swept his gaze across the bronze gate and he saw the imprints on the surface and his eyelids twitched slightly. His voice became several notches lower and he growled, “Did you see it yourself? Why isn’t his corpse here?”

Shang Bo frowned too, but he didn’t say anything.

Shang Xia shook his head and sighed, “When I got here, I didn’t see either body. They might have been eaten by Zhu Tong when he escaped or something.” 

There were many holes in Shang Xia’s words but Ji Wenlong chose not to dive deeper into his questioning.

“The person with Brother Liu should be Murong Tianlan…” Ji Wenlong explained. 

Shang Bo nodded. It was clear he agreed with Ji Wenlong. “If that’s the case, we lost Liu Jitang and the Rose Party sacrificed Murong Tianlan… That old freak isn’t one whit weaker than you…”

The two Martial Extermination Realm experts fell silent for a moment. 

In the past twenty years, the two of them had experienced a lot of things. They were no strangers to death, but Liu Jitang’s demise definitely affected them. After all, the three had been through many battles together and formed a good sense of comradery.

Now that Liu Jitang had died, one of the five strongest experts of the Tongyou Institution had left the world forever. It was a feeling they would need time to get used to.

All of a sudden, Shang Bo’s body trembled slightly and the Coral Command emitted dense rays of light.

“You started to refine the Coral Command?” Ji Wenlong asked.

Nodding slowly, Shang Bo drew over some heaven and earth qi to create another screen. “It might get a little dangerous over at Shang Lubing’s side. I’m preparing to drag him over here forcefully. You can get ready to get rid of his opponents!” 

“Now that we managed to get our hands on the Coral Command, we can take the initiative in dealing with the other parties. Now, we need to use Zhu Tong to get rid of those from the Four Spiritual Peak and the Rose Party. At the same time, we need to reduce the amount of damage dealt to the Coral Forest.” Ji Wenlong agreed.

Shang Bo added, “No matter what, we need to be careful. We don’t know what the rank five undead corpse is capable of…” 

When the two of them started to come up with their plan, Shang Xia knew that he was no longer needed and he chose to stroll about aimlessly in the area.

The entire area had clearly been swept clean by Liu Jitang, Murong Tianlan, and Zhu Ying. Shang Xia failed to locate anything after combing through the place twice, and his gaze landed on the stone chamber inside those bronze gates.

Arriving several feet away from the gate, Shang Xia felt a wave of cold air blasting against him and he shivered controllably.

He circulated his inner qi to dispel the frost encroaching on his bones. When he was done, he stepped closer towards the bronze gate. Reaching out to touch them, he was shocked to discover that the massive gate contained quite a huge amount of Furnace Core Copper.

Furnace Core Copper was a rank four material, and it was used to create high-grade weapons!

It was no wonder the bronze gate could hold the rank five undead corpse back! 

From the looks of it, Furnace Core Copper made up the bulk of the material used to create the doors. If Shang Xia was able to extract them, god knew how many high-grade weapons he would be able to make…

It was even possible for the Shang Clan to craft a high-grade spear for Shang Bo! After all, Shang Bo was using a lance at the moment. The Nine Firefly Lance was a high-grade weapon, but it wasn’t the most suited for Shang Bo’s martial arts! What made it worse was that the Nine Firefly Lance belonged to the institution anyway!

If Shang Xia managed to extract the Furnace Core Copper and create a high-grade spear, Shang Bo’s cultivation and strength would take a huge leap forward!

As a multitude of thoughts ran through Shang Xia’s mind, he stepped into the stone chamber behind those doors.

The square chamber was thirty feet in length, and twenty feet tall. In the center of the room was a giant stone coffin that had its lid popped open.

Shang Xia could imagine what happened when Liu Jitang and Murong Tianlan arrived initially. They opened the coffin in a state of excitement when they arrived, hoping to get their hands on some supreme treasure owned by the Zhu Family. By doing so, they caused Zhu Tong to regain consciousness.

Realizing that they messed up, they ran out of the chamber before using everything they had to stop the rank five undead corpse from charging its way out.

They might have thought that they would be able to hold out until other experts came, and they chose to work together. 

Who would have thought that their greed would come back to bite them in the ass? They ran in too deep, too quickly. No one was able to catch up to them after they entered the Zhu Family Manor!

Recalling how the rank four advancement formula he saw previously was engraved onto the walls of the stone chamber, Shang Xia looked around him hastily. However, he failed to see a thing.

Twenty years had passed since the destruction of the Zhu Family, and Zhu Tong was currently an undead corpse! He might be at the fifth rank, but who knew if he managed to make his breakthrough when he was still alive? The advancement formula Shang Xia saw previously might not be fully safe, but regardless, it allowed Zhu Tong to reach the next level!

There had to be an advancement formula created by the Zhu Family! However, it was almost certain that it was on the body of the undead corpse.

That was the Martial Dipper Realm they were talking about! Unless Kou Chongxue personally arrived in the battlefield between two worlds, no one else would dare to try retrieving the rank five advancement formula from Zhu Tong’s body!

Of course, there was a tiny chance the advancement formula would be inscribed on the walls where Zhu Tong’s body was held.

Question marks started appearing in Shang Xia’s mind. He wondered if Zhu Tong already knew that he would die when he tried advancing to the Martial Dipper Realm, and he prepared the stone coffin for himself.

Could he have expected himself to transform into an undead corpse?!

One final guess flashed through Shang Xia’s mind suddenly. Was the coffin a part of the requirements to step into the Martial Dipper Realm?!

Approaching the stone coffin slowly, Shang Xia pressed down on its surface. A dense wave of heaven and earth qi containing some sort of antiquity swallowed him. 

Shang Xia leaped backward hastily, and he gasped desperately for air while suspiciously staring at the coffin.

At that moment, a soft yellow glow enveloped the entire coffin.

The yellow light started to flicker, and rows of words started to appear on the surface of the coffin. Every single world seemed to contain boundless power.

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“Could this be… Could this be an advancement formula for the fifth rank?!” 

Shang Xia’s heartbeat accelerated in an instant. Gathering all his attention, he tried memorizing the formula, only to realize that he forgot it the next moment. 

Every time he read through the words on the surface of the coffin, he would forget what he read the very next instant!