CH 446

One of the nights when Shang Xia was crafting the Golden Sun Inferno Talisman… 

Stars twinkled in the night sky, but a raging ball of fire appeared in the air at an unknown time. Scorching heat filled the lands.

Luckily, the City Lord Manor made preparations for something like that to happen. Utilizing the protection formation around the city, the ball of flame was trapped in a separate space so as to avoid causing serious damage to the city.

Even so, the giant ball of fire roused the curiosity of many. There were a lot of curious souls and there were even some who were captivated by its power.

Fortunately, the appearance of the giant fireball didn’t last for long. After burning intensely for some time, it disappeared abruptly like it was never there. The night returned to normal.

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Bu Jingshuang stood above the City Lord Manor with his hands clasped behind his back. He directed his gaze over to the north of the city as though he could see through Shang Xia’s courtyard.

“Rank four talisman master… Hehe, he actually succeeded so quickly…” Bu Jingshuang muttered to himself. A complicated light flashed in his eyes. He was slightly surprised, but he also seemed delighted at Shang Xia’s progress.

…

Shang Xia placed down the mid-grade brush in his hand as a wave of lethargy washed over him.

“The Flying Goose Brush isn’t good enough to craft rank four talismans. The Falling Rose Brush provided by the institution is barely capable of withstanding the burden of a rank four talisman.” Shang Xia thought to himself as his gaze landed on the rank four talisman on the table. It was 7 by 4 inches long, and it was emitting a dazzling golden glow.

There was still a good portion of talisman ink left after he completed the Golden Sun Inferno Talisman. Shang Xia estimated that he would be able to make two more attempts with the ink he had left.

“I’m afraid it won’t be easy to craft another rank four talisman…” Shang Xia frowned as he looked at the equipment laid out before him. He felt a headache coming after realizing the equipment he had was barely withstanding the strain of crafting one Golden Sun Inferno Talisman.

Moreover, he used up quite a bit of resources trying to craft the talisman. Even though a large portion of it came from the Talisman Hall, Shang Xia knew that collecting more would pose a serious challenge.

The reason a rank four talisman was more difficult to craft than rank three talismans was because of the ingredients required. Collecting enough resources for a rank four talisman was an arduous process.

Naturally, the strain on the Talisman Master’s body was another huge factor. Shang Xia received assistance from many factors, but he exhausted a huge amount of energy on a single Golden Sun Inferno Talisman.

Fortunately, his divine perception was stronger than cultivators of the same level. He didn’t need to exhaust his extermination origin during the crafting process either as he had quite a bit of extermination qi stored in his Spirit Extermination Gourd.

The exhaustion he felt would recover in a short period of time and wouldn’t affect his foundations at all. 

Initially, he didn’t intend to craft the Golden Sun Inferno Talisman during his time in the Changfeng City. He wanted to head off for the Taihang Mountains after paying Hai Min and Yuanyuan a short visit, but because of the sudden stroke of inspiration, he exhausted himself quite a bit. He had no choice but to stay in the city to recover.

On the second day after he crafted the Golden Sun Inferno Talisman, someone came over to pay him a visit. 

The newcomer was called Shang Liao, and he was Shang Quan’s son. Shang Liao and Shang Xia could be said to be members of the same generation.

During Shang Xia’s stint as the Temporary Changfeng City Lord, Shang Quan came over once to make some dealings for the Shang Clan. He left Shang Liao in his place after he left and Shang Xia placed him to use. When Shang Xia left the city, Shang Liao became the manager of the Shang Clan’s operations there.

The reason behind his visit was to give Shang Xia a detailed report of the Shang Clan’s activity.

The two of them spent 2 whole hours in Shang Xia’s study before Shang Liao took his leave. When he was gone, Shang Xia went to talk to Hai Min and Yuanyuan for some time before leaving for the City Lord Manor.

…

“The institution finally has its own rank four Talisman Master!” Bu Jingshuang laughed the moment Shang Xia arrived. “However, the disturbance you caused this time was massive! I’m afraid the news of your advancement will spread through the lands before long.” 

Shang Xia shook his head helplessly. “I had to do it. It’s not every day I can enter that miraculous state. I still have to thank you for your assistance that day.” 

He didn’t finish his preparations that day and he failed to lay down enough protection before starting his crafting process. If not for Bu Jingshuang’s activation of the city’s grand formation, he might have turned half the street into ash.

Bu Jingshuang nodded in understanding before replying, “It’s alright. Anyway, you need to be careful now that you are a rank four Talisman Master. With your achievements, you might turn into a target other powers wish to eliminate before you grow too strong.” 

Shang Xia felt a chill running through his heart, but he understood that Bu Jingshuang wasn’t trying to scare him. He nodded gratefully.

Every single Martial Extermination Realm posed a huge threat to opposing powers. It was especially so for someone as talented as Shang Xia. Now that his identity as a rank four Talisman Master was revealed to the world, there would definitely be factions hostile to the institution trying to kill Shang Xia before he grew into an even bigger threat.

With Bu Jingshuang’s reminder, Shang Xia knew that he would have to start taking things more seriously.

Bu Jingshuang was also gratified that Shang Xia was planning to heed his warning. Regardless, he could tell that Shang Xia had something on his mind. “Is something up? Why are you looking for me again?” 

Shang Xia hesitated for a moment before deciding to get to the point. “Mister Bu, you’ve experienced a lot. Do you know anyone who has the ability to craft Spatial Pouches?” 

An unnatural expression could be seen on Bu Jingshuang’s face the moment Shang Xia asked the question. He muttered, “Why do you think I would know someone like that?” 

“I was asking randomly… I had close to 6 taels of Swallow Fur with me and I wish to craft a Spatial Pouch. However, I failed to find anyone who had the ability to do so. I was trying my luck…” Shang Xia added quickly.

Bu Jingshuang revealed a deep gaze and he paused for a second before finally speaking, “If you trust me, you can leave the Swallow Fur behind. You might get a Spatial Pouch after a year and a half or so…” 

Shang Xia didn’t hesitate to hand a case filled with Swallow Fur over to Bu Jingshuanng. When he was done, he bid the man farewell.

…

Shang Xia’s men were unable to keep tabs on Bu Jingshuang himself, but they kept an eye on the City Lord’s Manor. They could tell that even though Bu Jingshuang’s identity had been revealed, he was still keeping in contact with the Evil Remnants of the Rose Party.

Of course, Shang Xia wouldn’t suspect that Bu Jingshuang was a traitor just because of that. After all, things were never as they seemed. He was merely shocked that the Rose Party would still be in contact with him.

The four great races of the Liao Continent had been in conflict with the institution for the past 20 odd years, but didn’t they place down their grudge all of a sudden to form an alliance?

As such, Shang Xia didn’t really think it was wrong for him to remain in contact with the Rose Party.

Also, Shang Xia wasn’t too optimistic about the chances of crafting a Spatial Pouch. He was trying his luck by handing the resources over to Bu Jingshuang. However, he heard rumors from Bai Luming that the Rose Party managed to get their hands on a way to craft Spatial Pouches. They might even have a grandmaster craftsman among them. As such, Shang Xia felt that it was truly possible for his gamble to pay off.

Anyway, Shang Xia returned to his courtyard after leaving the City Lord’s Manor. He took a two day break and during that time, he recorded everything he could remember of his experience when breaking through to the Martial Realm and the way he trained at that cultivation level. He also took charge of Yuanyuan’s training now that he was back.

He might have recorded his experience, but he wasn’t able to pass down his Chaos Essence Palm or Lightning Palm to the little kid. Without the institution’s approval, Shang Xia wouldn’t pass down those techniques easily. 

Other than restoring his inner qi and teaching Yuanyuan, Shang Xia was also starting to ponder over how he should proceed with the development of his personalized martial arts.

After leaving the battlefield between the two worlds for the Tongyou Institution, Shang Xia discovered that he was only able to refine his Falling Leaf Extermination Origin. No matter how hard he tried, none of the other 3 extermination origins would react.

The sudden change shocked Shang Xia. However, he quickly came to a bold conclusion. Other than on the Yuxi Peak which experienced all four seasons in one spot, the You Continent was experiencing Autumn at the moment. He had a feeling he would only be able to refine the extermination origin corresponding to the current season he was experiencing.

If that was actually the case, Shang Xia felt that he would need to develop a different martial art for each extermination origin in his body.

That was his guess, but he decided that it was too early to think so deeply into the matter. After all, it was some time before the Winter season would arrive for him to verify his guess. 

Since he couldn’t be sure of it, he decided to put off their creation. Of course, without it, Shang Xia could only refine his Falling Leaf Extermination Origin bit by bit. 

Progressing slightly in his path of cultivation, Shang Xia discovered another problem. If he refined his Falling Leaf Extermination Origin at the moment, he might lose balance of his extermination origins and experience cultivation deviation. 

At the end of the day, balance was key. Shang Xia knew he couldn’t rush the creation of his martial art just to hasten the refinement of one extermination origin.

Whatever the case, Shang Xia didn’t have the luxury of time to be trapped in the dilemma. Time passed quickly and after bidding farewell to Hai Min and Yuanyuan on the day he had decided to leave, he turned into a streak of light that flew in the direction of the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range. He headed straight for the border of the Ji Continent.

As Shang Pei didn’t know if Shang Xia had entered the Martial Extermination Realm, she decided to estimate his speed based on his cultivation at the Martial Intent Realm. 

Now that he had broken through successfully, his prolonged stay in the Changfeng City wasn’t a problem.

After entering the border of the Ji Continent, Shang Xia decided to keep a low profile. The Tongyou Institution had a massive grudge against the White Deer Paradise and Shang Xia didn’t wish to be hunted down by them. There was also the matter of the various great families of the Ji Continent. Slowing down his speed considerably, Shang Xia hid his presence by suppressing the light emitted from his extermination origins. He also chose to travel through the more deserted regions.

Since he wasn’t traveling with speed as his priority, he was able to place his attention on his control over his extermination origins and how he could use them nimbly in flight.