CH 391

Entering the marsh, Shang Xia discovered that that light couldn’t easily pierce through the thicket. The stench of something rotting quickly assaulted him and dense mist quickly clouded his vision. 

“Poison miasma?” Shang Xia frowned. Even though it couldn’t affect him at his current level, he knew that he would have to be ever more careful when venturing deeper into the marsh.

Well, the poison miasma was a form of heaven and earth qi anyway. Gathering enough of it would probably allow them to condense to form a complete strand of extermination origin, but there was no point trying to gather it. One would need to use a lot of time in order to gather the miasma and even more effort to refine the poison within. Only after a lengthy process of purification would they be able to obtain a strand of extermination origin.

There was no way Shang Xia would have the time to refine the poison from the miasma. Moreover, it didn’t seem as though the gourd would be able to do so.

The Spirit Extermination Gourd was able to store extermination qi and collect extermination origins, but it didn’t possess the capability of purification.

When he returned, he would probably report the presence of the marsh to the institution anyway. The institution would send several cultivators over to collect and refine the miasma to produce an extermination origin. The only problem was how long it would take.

From the amount of miasma in the air, Shang Xia knew that it was truly an undiscovered region. Since that was the case, it was possible for there to be precious treasures that haven't been plundered from the land. If he was lucky, there would be no need to care about the poison extermination origin that he could obtain from the miasma. There might just be several strands of stray extermination origins laying around.

Thinking up to that point, Shang Xia wanted to extend his divine sense out and use the assistance of the Crimson Soul Tablet to look for those treasures. However, he quickly discovered that his divine sense was facing a strong suppression in the marsh. It was even being corroded by the poison miasma in the air.

Retracting his divine sense, Shang Xia felt a trace of unease wash over him. He knew that his combat abilities and his ability to sense danger would be greatly reduced since he couldn’t use his divine sense as he wished. That would open him up to a lot more dangerous sneak attacks. 

Naturally, Shang Xia wasn’t one to give up. He decided to push his way deeper into the marsh. Opening the cap of the Spirit Extermination Gourd once again, the small sword qi appeared and pointed in a certain direction.

No longer hesitating, Shang Xia started to move in that exact direction. Treading carefully, he didn’t wish to step into any sort of trap. Unfortunately, he hadn’t advanced for more than a hundred feet when the ground below him started to bulge.

A powerful aura came from below and Shang Xia immediately determined that it was a rank three spiritual beast.

His Scarlet Star Spear trembled slightly and he pointed it towards the mound that had formed. Right before he could stab it deep into the ground, his instincts told him that something was wrong.

Ignoring the corrosion of his divine sense, Shang Xia released it quickly to observe the situation around him.

In that short second that he released his divine sense, he discovered no less than four auras of rank three beasts that were starting to surround him.

Indeed… It was a trap! Shang Xia discovered that in the undiscovered marsh, he had turned into the prey of its original inhabitants. 

During his short hesitation when he released his divine sense, the creature that was underground attacked. A poison water arrow emerged from the ground and it shot towards Shang Xia’s face. Feeling the power contained in the poison arrow, Shang Xia didn't dare to take it head on. Pushing his divine sense a little more, he increased his concealment and disappeared from his assailant’s detection. His figure flickered slightly as he avoided the poison arrow from touching his body. At the same time, the Scarlet Star Spear in his hand trembled. It created a massive spear phantom in the air that shot accurately towards the ground below.

A guttural roar rang in his ears as the mound of earth exploded. The body of the beast hiding under the earth that was close to fifty feet in length burst forth and a long tail swept at the spear phantom that was created, shattering it. At the same time, a rotting stench filled the air and the odor of blood followed.

Even though the creature managed to shatter the spear phantom, it was clearly hurt while doing so.

The creature might have just emerged from the ground and was covered in layers of mud, but Shang Xia still managed to identify it. It was a massive swamp lizard!

One had to remember that the lizard wasn’t the only threat against Shang Xia at the moment. When the other creatures discovered the commotion, they moved in unison. As it turned out, the other auras also belonged to fellow swamp lizards! They quickly moved to the source of the commotion, and their speed could be said to be much quicker than the first lizard!

In the blink of an eye, the four swamp lizards appeared before Shang Xia and their tails swept at him.

Leaping into the air, Shang Xia knew that he might have hidden his presence, but the creatures were still able to see him! He jumped back tens of feet to avoid their attacks, and he circulated his inner qi at the same time to drift through the air to fully leave their range. 

Who would have thought that five different poison water arrows would shoot towards him as he flew through the air? They sealed off any routes of retreat he had. 

Shang Xia was shocked to discover that not only were those swamp lizards able to lay a trap for him, but they were also able to work together flawlessly to prevent him from escaping!

Unfortunately for them, they seemed to have messed with the wrong person. Shang Xia wasn’t just some prey that they could turn into lizard feed! 

Seeing as there was no way to escape, Shang Xia knew he could only break through with brute force. His hands trembled slightly and the Scarlet Star Spear shook dangerously. The heaven and earth qi in the air was drained quickly as a massive spear formed. The poison water arrows that were sent out by the swamp lizards lost their power and the heaven and earth qi contained in them was sapped away to make Shang Xia’s spear even stronger. 

Gathering enough heaven and earth qi in the air, Shang Xia released his sixth spear strike, Flow Recompensation!

The key behind his sixth move was to incorporate offensive and defensive might and it was the perfect move to use when stuck in a sticky situation. In his hands, the Scarlet Star Spear became capable of attacking and defending at the same time!

Grunting softly, the huge spear in the air separated into five different parts that stabbed at the swamp lizards below.

Waving their tails, those lizards quickly swatted his attack away. It seemed as though the power contained in his spear wasn’t enough to deal with the lizards after he split it up.

Whatever the case, he managed to achieve his goal by sending out that spear strike. All he wanted to do was to distract the swamp lizards so that he could regain the initiative of the battle. 

That was right, even though he was facing five swamp lizards with each one of them comparable to a martial intent realm expert, Shang Xia wasn’t thinking of running away! He wanted to counter attack and kill all five of them!

When the lizards were still distracted, Shang Xia released his Void Evasion Spear and aimed it at the first swamp lizard. When Shang Xia caught on to their trap earlier, he managed to injure it slightly. It made sense for him to take out the weakest link immediately.

Void Evasion wasn’t a strike that could be defended against easily by other cultivators. The swamp lizard wasn’t a human cultivator, and facing a tricky strike like that, it was at a loss of what to do! Eventually, it was pinned into the ground by a spear light that emerged from the tip of the Scarlet Star Spear.

The five swamp lizards laid a trap for Shang Xia, but in their short exchange, not only were they unable to scratch Shang Xia, one of them was even killed in exchange!

Despite Shang Xia’s strong offensive, the four swamp lizards weren’t deterred in the slightest. Instead, they seemed to attack even more frantically.

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By the time Shang Xia landed on the ground below, the four swamp lizards had already approached. At the same time, they caused a huge wave of mud to rush in Shang Xia’s direction to prevent him from escaping from the opening caused by the death of one of their companions.

That wasn’t all. Shang Xia felt that the poison miasma in the air was getting thicker the more they fought. His divine sense was being corroded at an even faster rate.

Were the swamp lizards able to manipulate the poison miasma in the air?

The thought flashed in Shang Xia’s mind for a moment but he realized it wasn’t time to think about such matters.

By the time everything had happened, the four swamp lizards had already closed in on him. They seemed to want to fight him in close combat in an attempt to kill the human who intruded on their territory.

For how smart they were, Shang Xia had a hard time believing they were merely rank three spiritual beasts!

No matter what, Shang Xia wasn’t planning to let them do as they wished. As he got ready to deal with them even more questions ran through his mind. Ordinarily, spiritual beasts would only develop intelligence after entering the fourth rank. Unless they underwent some sort of mutation like the Mutated Rain Swallows, otherwise, they wouldn’t be able to possess such abilities!

An even more dangerous thought appeared in his mind the next moment. If those swamp lizards hadn’t undergone mutation, there could only be one possibility left! They were following the orders of an even stronger swamp lizard of the fourth rank that was lying in wait somewhere!

However, the more he thought about it, the more confused he became. If there truly was a rank four swamp lizard hiding somewhere, why did it send out rank three lizards instead of making a move itself?

The thoughts might be running through Shang Xia’s mind, but his hands weren’t idle. Seeing as the four beasts had entered his attack range, Shang Xia slung his Scarlet Star Spear behind him before bringing out his Jade River Sword. Ever since entering the Martial Intent Realm, he rarely used the sword but he felt that it was time to unleash his sword skills once again.

In mid air, Shang Xia didn’t release his Seven Laceration Sword on a single target. Instead, he laid down the Seven Laceration Sword Formation! 

Even though he changed the name of his martial intent to the Seven Laceration Sword in the past, it was built on the Yin Yang Sword Formation he comprehended through the Crimson Soul Tablet. He managed to perfectly fuse all seven pairs of sword qi into one to create a powerful attack. 

Now, he had separated them when releasing his Seven Laceration Sword Formation and sword qi filled the region around him. Opposing pairs of sword qi rained down on the land as they formed a massive sword formation. 

With the sword formation active, multiple pairs of qi would smash into the bodies of the swamp lizards at the same time. One had to know that the power contained in a single pair of sword qi was terrifying enough. With several different pairs striking the bodies of the swamp lizards, the might contained in them increased exponentially as many different combinations of qi could be used at the same time!

No matter how tough the bodies of those swamp lizards were, they suffered multiple injuries and were beaten into a sorry state.

With the seemingly endless amount of sword qi raining down on their bodies, the four swamp lizards couldn’t care less about locating where Shang Xia was. They were like blind flies that were desperate to run away from whatever hell they were trapped within!

Not going to give up the amazing opportunity he had in front of him, Shang Xia released his grip on his sword and poured his inner qi into the Scarlet Star Spear hanging behind him. With a beautiful twist of his body, he grabbed his spear with both hands before releasing Celestial Disruption! 

As starlight filled the skies, they turned into spears that shot into the bodies of those swamp lizards who were still being tortured by the multitude of sword qi. One of the swamp lizards was turned into a lizard-sieve and without it standing in his way, Shang Xia quickly leaped out of their encirclement.