Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 402: Essence Jade Cave

Shang Xia could tell that the three of them standing before him were comparable to Junior Brother Qi who escaped after stealing some Lightning Fire Jujubes. To be exact, the leader of the three had cultivation similar to Junior Brother Qi and the other two were a notch weaker.

However, the three of them were able to deploy a powerful sword formation as they worked together flawlessly. Even Shang Xia couldn’t break their offensive in a short period of time.

Moreover, the three of them were focusing on drawing the battle out anyway. They needed to hold Shang Xia down until their elder arrived and they didn’t make any risky moves that would allow Shang Xia to take advantage of any gaps in their cooperation. Neither side could defeat the other in a short period of time.

Luckily, Shang Xia noticed their intentions early into the battle. The three of them made their intention too obvious and since he uncovered their plan, he wasn’t going to wait for their Martial Extermination Realm elder to arrive as he wore himself down fighting the three of them. Retreating wasn’t an option either. Shang Xia wasn’t willing to run away without seeing the contents of the cave. After all, the Crimson Soul Tablet’s reaction told him that there would definitely be precious treasures contained within.

Since that was the case, Shang Xia didn’t hesitate to reveal his precious treasures in exchange for a chance to enter the cave. Naturally, it was a ruse to force them away as he didn’t plan on activating any of his treasures. It didn’t make sense to waste such a huge amount of resources on the three of them. As such, Shang Xia pretended to release his treasures with the intention of killing them. His bluff worked as the three of them escaped the instant he tossed them out.

However, the situation didn’t change too much. Their elder was still rushing over and the three of them could guard the entrance of the cave. They weren’t afraid that Shang Xia would be able to pull any miracle out of thin air.

Moreover, the item contained in the cave wasn’t something he could bring away in a short amount of time…

They couldn’t be more glad that Shang Xia had entered the cave instead of running away. He would be boxed in the moment their elder arrived.

As Shang Xia entered the cave, the three of them didn’t forget to regroup and redeploy their sword formation. As Shang Xia was rushing in, he couldn’t exploit their weakness in time and could only allow them to do as they wished.

After gathering together, the three of them didn’t attempt to approach Shang Xia. Seeing as they weren’t going to do anything, Shang Xia boldly entered the cave before him. As soon as he entered, the three of them left and decided to leave everything to the Martial Extermination Realm elder after he arrived.

He moved extremely quickly as he ran deeper into the cave. He might not know if they were lying when they said that they had called an elder over, but he wouldn’t dare to call their bluff. He could only treat it as though his time was limited.

With the Crimson Soul Tablet trembling slightly, Shang Xia knew that it was possible for there to be world origin contained in the cave. If he could also uncover whatever treasure those disciples of the Changbai Holy Land were so concerned about, he would have struck gold.

The initial portion of the cave was pretty narrow and it slowly expanded as he got deeper. After traveling tens of feet in, he discovered that he had entered a large cavern. Even though the cavern had some sort of aesthetic lull to it, Shang Xia had no time to admire the view as he probed the reaction of the Crimson Soul Tablet again. Feeling the trembling grow a little stronger, Shang Xia knew that he was moving in the correct direction.

However, he quickly realized that the amount of world origin contained in the cave was far from comparable to the amount he obtained in the marsh. He took many turns and followed different roads along many forked paths in the cave and finally entered a pretty desolate cavern in the depths of the cave.

When he arrived, he could tell that the cavern was formed naturally countless years ago. He could feel that it used to contain dense heaven and earth qi. However, the heaven and earth qi that used to fill the cavern seemed to be slightly dissipated and there were signs of excavation on one of the walls. Weird light could be seen on the unnatural surface too.

Understanding that he had located whatever the Crimson Soul Tablet was reacting to, he also knew that the members of the Changbai Holy Land were a step ahead of him.

Stepping into an uneven crevice, Shang Xia quickly discovered the faint traces of world origin contained in the cavern.

With a single thought, the world origin started to move in his direction. This time, it was slightly different from the time in the marsh. It might be because the world origin was a little too lacking in quantity, the Crimson Soul Tablet was in no rush to absorb it.

Ordinarily, cultivators wouldn’t be able to locate world origin so easily. If not for the Crimson Soul Tablet that acted like a GPS finder, Shang Xia wouldn’t be able to run accurately through the cave either.

Even though the speed of absorption was slow, it was relative to the speed at which the Crimson Soul Tablet absorbed world origin in the marsh. It didn’t take long for him to complete the absorption.

Throughout the process, Shang Xia had been observing the wall of the cavern where the disciples of the Changbai Holy Land had been excavating.

The three of them didn’t seem to have noticed the remnants of the world origin. Instead, they seemed to be looking for some sort of treasure in the cavern. It was probably because of the dense heaven and earth qi in there.

From the strange light that was peeking out from the unnatural cave face, Shang Xia could tell that it came from something extraordinary. It seemed as though the wall was hiding some sort of treasure.

That was indeed the case. The rocks that were supposed to exist behind the wall seemed to have experienced some sort of transformation. The rocks seemed to emit a milky glow that was obstructed by random debris.

“Huh?” The strange light that originated from the milky glow couldn’t escape Shang Xia’s eye. When he extended his divine sense to inspect it, he could feel a familiar feeling.

Waving his hand to push away the small rocks that had fallen, a round piece of jade that was the size of a pigeon’s egg fell out and rolled to his feet.

“This… This is essence jade!” Shang Xia inspected the item between his fingers and he felt the pure heaven and earth qi contained within. From the looks of it, the cavern might be the start of an essence jade mine!

Even though essence jade was created naturally in the world, no one truly knew how it was done.

No one would have expected for heaven and earth qi to be so concentrated in the cavern deep in the cave. After an extremely long period of time, the heaven and earth qi seeped into the rocks around which resulted in the density of it decreasing. However, that seemed to have led to the formation of essence jade in the walls of the cavern!

Essence jade themselves might not seem to be extremely precious treasures, but they were pretty rarely seen. It was used in a variety of applications too. They might be used in rank two or rank three advancement medicines, or they might also be used to craft graded weapons. Formations might use essence jade as their base and there were many other applications. That resulted in the worth of essence jade being pretty high.

Casually playing with the essence jade in his hand, Shang Xia clearly knew the worth of an essence jade mine.

From the looks of the wall around, the rocks were starting to transform and the cavern could be turned into a mine at any time.

“Looks like this cavern can actually turn into an essence jade mine… I have to report this to the institution immediately! However, reclaiming it back from the Changbai Holy Land might be a little challenging…” ?Shang Xia muttered softly.

Obtaining the world origin contained in the cavern and obtaining a piece of essence jade along the way, Shang Xia was content with his gains this time round. He knew that staying in the area wasn’t the smartest choice and he hid his aura to run out of the cave.

Not too long after he left, a ray of light tore through the skies and a Martial Extermination Realm expert from the Changbai Holy Land appeared at the entrance of the cave.

…

When the elder arrived, Shang Xia had already entered a dense forest twenty miles away. He was hiding his aura as he observed the changes to the Crimson Soul Tablet.

Because of the presence of the essence jade mine, Shang Xia chose to name the cave he had just been in as the ‘Essence Jade Cave’.

The amount of world origin he obtained earlier was just a tiny sliver, but the three disciples of the Changbai Holy Land didn’t notice it even though they had excavated the area around it. After all, they didn’t possess the Crimson Soul Tablet to point it out.

Using the world origin in the cave to repair the cracks on the Crimson Soul Tablet, Shang Xia discovered that it barely managed to seal off a tiny part of the crack.

He finally realized how much danger he was in. Three faces of the Crimson Soul Tablet had cracked and the fourth face was barely holding on. It was as though the tablet would shatter at any time. The moment it did, Shang Xia’s soul would go along with it.

That was why Shang Xia had been looking for world origin so urgently. No matter how little he could obtain, he hoped that it could help restore his Crimson Soul Tablet even slightly.

After his adventure this time and his discovery of the essence jade mine, he managed to seal a quarter of the crack on the fourth face of the tablet.

He also realized that the amount of world origin required when deducting and completing the formula of his advancement formula was extremely disproportionate when compared with the amount of world origin required to restore it!

It required a lot more world essence to repair the broken Crimson Soul Tablet and that worried Shang Xia greatly.

From the experience of completing his rank four advancement formula, he felt that he needed to restore the tablet such that there would be two uncracked faces before he even attempted to break through to the Martial Dipper Realm!

It seemed as though his task of locating world origin to repair his Crimson Soul Tablet was far from over.

Releasing a long sigh, Shang Xia retrieved a specially crafted secret transmission talisman from his Embroidered Cloud Case.

It was an item the institution handed out in case anyone needed to call for help. However, the institution didn’t give them out to anyone who wanted one. Only disciples who had recently graduated from the institution or those who were currently enrolled were provided with one!

Even though Shang Xia ran into Sima Zhanxing and Huang Yunxiang in the past, he didn’t use the talisman.

That wasn’t because he was confident in his abilities to fight the two of them. By the time he ran into them, he was in no state to use the transmission talisman. He couldn’t afford to shift his focus for even a fraction of a second when up against Martial Extermination Realm experts.

Of course, everything worked out in the end because Shang Xia had enough trump cards to keep him alive.

When he discovered the Windchime Grass and the ancient tree, Shang Xia didn’t choose to inform the institution with the talisman. After all, Ren Huan was the only other person who discovered the location with him and the fatty was on their side. The Lightning Bird had also made his new nest there and Shang Xia was in no rush to make the report.

The situation with the Essence Jade Cave was different. The members of the Changbai Holy Land had already discovered it but they hadn’t set up too many defenses around the area. It was the best time for the institution to take over the region.

Sending some inner qi into the talisman, Shang Xia made a simple introduction of the cave and its location. However, he thought about it for a second and decided to give the institution the location of the Lightning Bird’s nest and the treasures around it while he was at it. Since he was telling them most of the important things he learned throughout his journey, Shang Xia threw in some knowledge of the marsh where he met the Poison Miasma Frog. Of course, he left out everything about him obtaining world origin. When he was done, he released the talisman and it turned into a streak of light that tore through the skies.

Heaving a sigh of relief, Shang Xia knew that he did all he could. Taking a short rest, he was contemplating between going out to search for more world origin and returning to the institution’s territory when he was distracted by a ray of light coming from another direction.

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