CH 394

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In a single breath, Shang Xia tossed out 4 rank three Lightning Fire Jujubes and destroyed the wave of mud and sludge behind him. He managed to buy even more time for him to escape with his actions.

Behind him, the Poison Miasma Frog noticed that Shang Xia was at the edge of the marsh, and with a final leap, it landed heavily in the marsh while sending out hundreds of arrows created with the muddy water below towards Shang Xia.

Realizing what had happened, Shang Xia turned around helplessly and unleashed Celestial Disruption with whatever power could be mustered in his Scarlet Star Spear. Spears created with starlight shot at the approaching mud arrows.

With soft clattering sounds ringing through the air behind him, Shang Xia felt his arms hurting from the backlash that came from the power contained in those arrows. By the time he had blocked all of them, he felt his arms going numb and he had a feeling his Scarlet Star Spear had reached its limit.

In the time he took to block the mud arrows, the Poison Miasma Frog seemed to have discovered an opportunity to make its move. It made another quick leap to close the distance even more.

Puff… With its divine sense locked onto Shang Xia, its tongue shot out at Shang Xia with terrifying speed. It was comparable to a huge spear that flew straight for Shang Xia’s chest.

In a state of panic, Shang Xia retrieved a talisman and tossed it towards the approaching tongue. With a formless dagger forming in the air, it paused for a second before landing accurately on Poison Miasma Frog’s tongue.

The Spiritual Yin Knife Talisman was one of the three types of talismans Shang Xia made back in the Shang Clan Manor. It was the talisman with the strangest attacking ability and it was the hardest to defend against.

Despite being a rank four spiritual beast who had sturdy defenses, Shang Xia’s sudden attack struck accurately on its tongue, a part that had lower defense compared to the rest of its body! With pain shooting up to its mind, the frog quickly retracted its tongue.

With his life at stake, Shang Xia couldn’t be bothered with the price he had to pay. He brought out another Lightning Fire Jujube that was deep red and filled with golden lines. Without a second thought, he tossed it directly at the Poison Miasma Frog.

With a ferocious cry filled with pain and anger resounding through the air behind him, Shang Xia finally made his way out of the marsh. By the time he emerged, he had nearly exhausted his inner qi and he was looking extremely disheveled. 

He might have left the marsh, but he didn’t know if the Poison Miasma Frog would be crazy enough to chase him outside of its territory. Forcefully holding back the intense lethargy he was feeling, he continued to run towards the dense forestry that covered the mountain range before him.

As Shang Xia made his escape, the Poison Miasma Frog croaked angrily in the direction where Shang Xia had left. With burn marks all over its slimy skin, the frog didn’t look to be in such a good state either.

However, the Poison Miasma Frog seemed to be unwilling to take a single step out of the marsh. No matter how loudly it croaked, it could only watch as Shang Xia’s figure disappeared into the distance.

Finally entering the forest he was aiming for without the pursuit of the Poison Miasma Frog, Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief. With fatigue overwhelming him, his body swayed slightly and he felt his vision starting to turn dark. 

No… This doesn’t seem right!

Shang Xia held on to the last bit of consciousness he had and realized that something was off. The fatigue he was feeling didn’t seem to come from the battle from before! After all, he had been in more intense battles for a far longer period of time! At his current level, he wouldn’t lose consciousness simply because of a short getaway like that! Thinking back to the Crimson Soul Tablet and the world origin it devoured earlier, Shang Xia felt that it was possible for the tablet to be undergoing some sort of transformation.

Forcing himself to stay away, he stumbled through the forest and finally located a large tree with a hole in the trunk. Forcing his way into the hole, he was finally satisfied that the location was hidden away from plain sight and allowed himself to fall asleep.

The moment his vision turned dark, his consciousness returned to his sea of consciousness. Every single bit of his attention was placed on the changes that were occurring to the Crimson Soul Tablet.

Shang Xia’s guess was right. Due to the intense change happening to the Crimson Soul Tablet, he was forced into a deep sleep.

Other than the changes to the words on the surface of the Crimson Soul Tablet, the cracks were repairing themselves. However, the cracks would reopen from time to time. A new crack seemed to be forming as the words on the surface of the tablet continued to change, but it didn’t take long for it to be sealed up.

Luckily for Shang Xia, he didn’t forcefully use the tablet to produce the recipe for his rank four advancement medicine back in the Changfeng City. He stopped right after comprehending his third martial intent, preventing the tablet from being severely damaged. 

Now that the Crimson Soul Tablet had absorbed a huge amount of world origin and was starting to repair itself, Shang Xia finally had the confidence to use it to produce his rank four advancement medicine. The incomplete medicine he obtained from the Scripture Depository was finally put into use!

As the Crimson Soul Tablet studied the medicine and made its changes, the words on its surface changed at a terrifying rate. It was comparable to the speed at which thoughts flew in one’s mind. 

Throughout the process of the deduction to create a complete formula from whatever Shang Xia provided, the Crimson Soul Tablet would use up a huge amount of energy. That was the reason behind the additional crack that formed, but with the injection of word origin, it quickly restored itself. 

Shang Xia noticed the changes happening to the Crimson Soul Tablet and felt that the amount of world origin he obtained from under the noses of the two rank four spiritual beasts earlier wasn’t truly enough. 

It might be barely enough for the world origin to repair the crack that was forming, but it would be far from enough to repair the two earlier cracks.

That didn’t stop Shang Xia from completing the deduction of his rank four advancement formula. Since there was enough world origin to complete it, there was no use in delaying it any further.

With a single thought, the words on the tablet started to become visible. 

Looking at the words on the tablet that were no longer changing, Shang Xia observed the crack that had formed to ensure that the tablet wasn’t going to shatter any time soon. After all, the moment it did, his consciousness would go with it. When that happened, there was no doubt about it as his life would also come to an end.

To his surprise, his little experiment seemed to have worked! As long as he willed it, the tablet would stop its deduction process and so would the destruction to it. The world origin that hadn’t been used fully would also be stored in his body, waiting for him to use it eventually. As such, Shang Xia finally discovered a way to control the speed of destruction of the tablet!

Following which, he turned to look at the words that had appeared.

Advancement Medicine: Four Seasons Samsara Wine

Advancement Criteria: Grand Completion Stage of the Martial Intent Realm

Main Ingredient: Spirit of the Four Seasons

Supplementary Ingredients: 1x Jade Peach Blossom harvested in the Spring, 1x Nine Leaf Lotus harvested in the Summer, 1x Glass Daisy Chrysanthemum harvested in the Autumn, 1x Dragon Headed Wintersweet harvested in the Winter

Shang Xia’s heart sank the moment he saw the ingredients required. He knew that the rank four advancement medicine wouldn't be easy to create!

Thinking back to the incomplete medicine he brought out of the Scripture Depository, he wondered what the hell he had gotten himself into. One had to know that the Crimson Soul Tablet was usually only able to modify and optimize formulas that were complete. Now that he was using an incomplete medicine as the base, Shang Xia didn’t know how the tablet would react.

The main reason he was using the bottle of incomplete medicine was because of the high compatibility he had with it. Of course, he was also confident that the tablet would be able to restore the complete recipe of the advancement medicine, but he didn’t know if there were any other side effects. 

Now that the recipe had been slightly restored, Shang Xia stared at the recipe with his jaws agape. What in the world had the four seasons had to do with the Martial Extermination Realm? At the very most, the Martial Extermination Realm should be connected with the four divisions of the twenty-eight constellations! Namely, the Azure Dragon, White Tiger, Vermillion Bird, and Black Tortoise… Could the four seasons be actually connected to them?

With his brain bogged down by a sea of thoughts, he eventually decided to just go with whatever the tablet said. After all, there shouldn’t be anything wrong with it.

Luckily, the ingredients required were only connected to the four seasons. If the Crimson Soul Tablet really required him to look for the four mythical beasts or to obtain their blood essence or something like that, Shang Xia would actually smash his head into a wall. Even if they existed, where was he supposed to start looking?

Even so, his head was already starting to hurt when he saw the main ingredient recorded. ‘Spirit of the Four Seasons’... 

That would mean that he would have to capture the essence of the four seasons experienced throughout the world. There were many ways the essence of each season could appear and trying to capture it was frighteningly tough!

The Spirit of the Four Seasons could appear as a simple spring breeze or it might be contained in a droplet of rainwater that fell during a short summer rain. It could even be a fruit that appeared on a certain tree in the autumn and it might just be contained in a random rock that was blown around in a winter storm. Moreover, those would only be the spirit of one season! Obtaining four of them 

Even though the Spirit of the Four Seasons might not be something that only appears once in a blue moon, it was extremely elusive. If one wasn’t prepared for it to appear, it would be extremely difficult to grab a hold of it.

What made it worse was the storage aspect. Even if one managed to obtain it, it was a near impossible task of keeping it safe.

Shang Xia might not have completed the full recipe of his rank four advancement medicine, but from what he could already see, it wouldn’t be easy for him to enter the Martial Extermination Realm. After all, the problem of obtaining the Spirit of the Four Seasons was already causing him a massive headache. He still had no idea how he was supposed to collect all four and mix them together or whatever it was.