CH 388

To be fair, Kou Chongxue told Shang Xia that the sword qi he left behind couldn’t be easily blocked by anyone under the Martial Dipper Realm. However, it was Shang Xia’s first time using it. He didn’t know what he should expect but since he was unleashing it against two heavily injured Martial Extermination Realm experts, he felt that it shouldn’t be much of a problem to deal with them.

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Now that he used it, all of his worries were blown away.

For Kou Chongxue to say that his sword qi was practically invincible under the Martial Dipper Realm, it was no mere exaggeration. Huang Yunxiang and the giant rat were no match for it. They were slain the moment it emerged!

As the little sword danced in mid air, the three strands of extermination origin that surrounded Huang Yunxiang were easily shattered as his body was sliced in two. 

Helpless, he fell powerlessly from the skies.

Even though his body was in a crippled state and he was almost completely fucked, he wasn’t truly dead yet. The life force of a Martial Extermination Realm expert was truly boundless. Even if he lost a few limbs and half his body, he would be able to live for quite some time.

The little sword flashed in the air again and only his head was left. Heaven and earth qi fluctuations filled the skies and Huang Yunxiang’s head fell weakly to the ground below. With the last of his energy, he roared, “Hurry up and run!” 

A figure leaped out from the pit that contained the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree and fled without so much as turning back.

One had to admit that Junior Brother Qi acted really decisively.

While he made his escape, a loud explosion came from behind as a storm of heaven and earth qi tore through the lands. Huang Yunxiang’s items scattered everywhere.

Even at the brink of death, Huang Yunxiang didn’t forget to detonate his spatial artifact. It was a pity Shang Xia wouldn’t be able to obtain everything he owned. One had to know that his spatial artifact contained the wealth of an elder of the Changbai Holy Land!

With the destruction of his spatial artifact, the last of his life force drained away from his body. All the inner qi he stored turned into wisps of energy that returned to the battlefield between the two worlds.

Looking at the scattered items reluctantly, Shang Xia chose to take a closer look at them before heading over to the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree. He couldn’t be bothered with how many fruits Junior Brother Qi stole before getting away as he ran over to where the items fell.

When he arrived, he discovered that the giant rat was still breathing. The life force it possessed was much stronger than Huang Yunxiang, and even after the little sword severed its body, it was still able to maintain its life! At the final moment before the sword made contact with its body, the formless extermination origin it possessed allowed it to twist slightly, avoiding a hit on its critical regions.

Shang Xia noticed that it was trying to dig into the ground to make its escape, but it was a shame Huang Yunxiang severed its claws earlier. It was unable to make its escape before Shang Xia arrived.

With the threat approaching, several spikes emerged from the ground below and shot at Shang Xia.

The Jade River Sword danced in his hand as sword qi rained down on those spikes, shattering it to pieces. The giant rat was evidently not in the best shape after taking on Kou Chongxue’s sword qi. 

Realizing how weak it was, Shang Xia leaped into the skies and sent his Seven Laceration Sword deep into the creature’s back.

The sword qi wreaked havoc in the rat’s body and it didn’t take long before all its innards were turned to mush. His sword qi didn’t stop there. They ate away at the rat’s life force before destroying it completely.

Even after noticing how the rat flopped powerlessly to the ground, Shang Xia didn’t dare to let his guard down. He carefully observed the creature while keeping his sword. At the same time, he brought out the gourd to retrieve Kou Chongxue’s sword qi.

Due to the expenditure, the sword was no longer as solid as it was before. It flickered unsteadily and its body became a lot more translucent than before.

Trembling once, the sword turned to point at the giant rat.

After a Martial Extermination Realm expert was slain, the energy contained in their body would normally scatter and return to the world. That wasn’t the case for rank four spiritual beasts. It was possible to retrieve its extermination origins for other uses. Moreover, the corpse of the beast wouldn’t disappear in the storm of heaven and earth qi that ensued.

When Kou Chongxue modified the gourd in the past, he didn’t just leave the sword qi in there for Shang Xia. Instead, he gave the gourd the ability to store extermination origins. 

The giant rat might be dead, but its extermination origins were still stored safely in its body. The strand of sword qi in the gourd locked firmly onto their positions.

Circulating his inner qi again, Shang Xia pointed the gourd in the direction of the creature as a suction force started to emerge from its opening.

Soon after, two strands of light rose from the corpse. One of them was a deep yellow in color while the other seemed weirdly formless. Shang Xia barely noticed the other strand of light.

As the extermination origins slowly entered the gourd, Shang Xia could feel it getting significantly heavier.

When they were fully extracted, Shang Xia felt as though the gourd in his hands weighed a thousand tons. The unique aura that was possessed by a rank four spiritual beast no longer lingered on the giant rat’s body, but the stench of blood in the air became a lot stronger than before.

“Well, the meat on the body of a beast should be pretty nutritious… However, is anyone going to really eat the body of a rat?” Shang Xia thought to himself while examining the corpse. Even if he wanted to keep the corpse into his Embroidered Cloud Case, it wouldn’t fit. Waving his hand slowly, he created a pit before burying the corpse of the giant rat.

Walking over to where Huang Yunxiang’s items had fallen, he swept his gaze across everything while sighing. There was nothing too precious left like what he expected.

Experts like Huang Yunxiang who came from a huge power like the Changbai Holy Land weren't like those wandering cultivators out there. He wouldn’t bring his personal inheritance around with him wherever he went. Moreover, some of his treasures would be kept back in his faction. If he fell, his belongings would be left for the various juniors and fellow cultivators back there.

After dealing with the mess, Shang Xia turned to look at the giant pit where the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree was. Deciding not to head in there immediately, he chose to look for his spear before doing anything else. It didn’t take long for him to find it, but since it took Huang Yunxiang’s attack head-on, Shang Xia discovered that he wasn’t able to send his inner qi into the spear as smoothly as he did before.

Clearly, the spear that he barely used for a year had suffered serious damage. Even if he brought it back to the institution, he might not be able to fully restore it back to its original state.

Helpless, Shang Xia could only pour as much Origin True Qi into the Scarlet Star Spear as he could in order to get rid of whatever inner qi Huang Yunxiang left behind.

That was the simplest way to slightly restore the usability of his weapon, but the effects were similarly elementary. Moreover, he would have to do it for a long time for there to be any visible improvements.

Returning to the pit that contained the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree while pouring his inner qi into his spear, Shang Xia noticed that more than half the fruits were gone.

Luckily, the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree possessed a weird and unique property. It would only produce 33 fruits initially, and only after all 33 were plucked would it bear the final 3 fruits. The final 3 fruits were of the fourth rank, and it went without saying that they were the most powerful fruits that could be produced by the tree.

Also, it wasn’t easy to retrieve the Lightning Fire Jujubes. One had to be very careful in plucking the fruits. One had to remove all the first rank fruits before moving on to the second rank ones. Finally, they would remove the third ranked Lightning Fire Jujubes. If one made a mistake by retrieving the fruits in the wrong order, the final 3 rank four Lightning Fire Jujubes might not fully form. Even if it did, not all 3 fruits would be available.

If one was extremely unlucky, retrieving the fruits in the wrong order might also cost them their lives! The fruit might explode if plucked in the wrong order, and when that happened, it would cause a chain reaction for every fruit on the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree to explode simultaneously, swallowing the entire region in a sea of lightning and flames.

The probability of that happening might be low, but it was definitely possible. That was also the reason why Junior Brother Qi didn’t dare to risk it and try destroying the tree before escaping. After all, if the fruits exploded together, he would be dead for sure!

By the time Shang Xia approached the tree, he discovered that there were only 11 Lightning Fire Jujubes left. That would mean that Junior Brother Qi managed to obtain 22 Lightning Fire Jujubes before running away!

Examining the tree a little more closely, all 6 rank three Lightning Fire Jujubes were still present. Not a single rank one fruit was left. It seemed as though Junior Brother Qi was quite meticulous when it came to retrieving the fruits.

Even though he didn’t know if his powerful divine sense had anything to do with it, but Shang Xia could clearly feel the difference between the fruits that remained on the tree. He could tell the rank two ones from the rank three ones and it didn’t take long for him to completely clear out the rest of the rank two jujubes.

When he was done, he carefully retrieved the 6 rank three Lightning Fire Jujubes in preparation for the birth of the rank four fruits.

The moment the last rank three Lightning Fire Jujube was plucked, the tree that was almost ten feet tall started to shrink.

At the same time, the essence of the tree started to gather in the main branches as three deep green jujube fruits emerged from the tallest branch. The fruits matured quickly as they grew visibly in size as the color changed from deep green to a brilliant red.

The tree didn’t stop shrinking as it became smaller and smaller. Finally, when it became a mere feet tall, it started to tremble violently. The three Lightning Fire Jujubes that were the size of an egg turned completely red as faint markings appeared on its surface.

The rank four Lightning Fire Jujubes were finally fully mature, and Shang Xia carefully retrieved them. He kept them properly in a special case made for retaining the heaven and earth qi of an item while watching the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree continue to shrink. 

Transforming into a wisp of jade-green qi, the Lightning Fire Tree disappeared completely. The strand of qi shot into the ground below and Shang Xia understood that that was the true source of the Lightning Fire Jujube Tree.

Now that all the fruits were gone, the strand of qi would return to the earth to nurture the next Lightning Fire Jujube Tree. As for when the next tree would be born, no one knew when that would happen.