Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 859: The Picky Crimson Soul Tablet

After Kou Chongxue refined the Stellar Cauldron, it belonged to him exclusively.

However, from the moment Shang Xia came in contact with the Stellar Cauldron, Kou Chongxue understood that he was even more suited to control the Origin Holy Artifact.

The only problem was that the Origin Holy Artifact was already refined by him and the treasure concerned the foundations of the Tongyou Institution. He couldn’t easily hand the artifact over to Shang Xia due to the massive scheme he already came up with.

Under their current circumstances, the experts of the Azure Ascension World required a large amount of world origin from the Azure Flame World and they needed to modify the Holy Land the best they could in order to prepare for the great battle that would break out soon. Peak-tier experts like Kou Chongxue would have to take part in the battle no matter what, and Shang Xia had to take over his position and control the Origin Holy Artifact.

Because he already had experience controlling the treasure, along with Kou Chongxue giving him full control over the Stellar Cauldron, he didn’t have much difficulty controlling it.

Now that he had taken over the control of the cauldron, Kou Chongxue tossed several strands of fate dipper essence of the five elements at him. “I obtained these from the Yanlin Holy Land. After splitting up the treasures among the various factions, these belong to you.”

After he spoke, Kou Chongxue flicked his sleeves and smiled. “Oh course, I also have complete Origin Dippers. However, I need to leave them for your grandfather and Wenlong. Oh yeah, Young Lady Gong also got 1. After all, she’s an expert in the Martial Dipper Realm. It’s a waste not to make use of it.”

Shang Xia was slightly taken aback, but he nodded slightly.

Gong Xinlan used to be a second element Martial Dipper Realm expert. Now that the members of the Tongyou Institution saved her life and helped her to restore her cultivation, Kou Chongxue planned to take her under their wing to become a part of the institution.

When Kou Chongxue was drawing world origin from the Azure Flame World earlier, he already replenished the energy he lost during the battle. He reached his peak state once again, and it was also the reason he summoned Shang Xia to take over his place in controlling the Stellar Cauldron.

Of course, there was another reason. Kou Chongxue could clearly feel that he was extremely close to comprehending his martial intent. He was separated from the grand completion stage of the Martial Dipper Realm by a paper thin screen and the battle that would break out in a little while would be the key for him to poke an opening in the thin screen.

After gaining control over the cauldron, Shang Xia could feel the massive World Origin Source of the Azure Flame World.

During the ascension of the Tongyou Mysterious World to the Tongyou Paradise in the past, Shang Xia had the experience of coming into contact with the World Origin Source which was a massive sea of world origin. However, the feeling he got from the World Origin Source of the Azure Flame World was slightly different from back then.

When he felt the vast sea of world origin in the Azure Ascension World, the worlds were fusing and there was a portion of world origin from the Manyu Continent. Back then, the feeling he received was extremely chaotic and it felt extremely hidden and profound. Even when he tried to strengthen the connection with the World Origin Source, he would feel a sense of suppression.

The World Origin Source in the Azure Flame World was vastly different. When Shang Xia connected with it through the Origin Holy Artifact, he found that it was extremely peaceful. The sea of world origin was clear, but it gave off a profound sense of power. Even though he didn’t feel pressured by it, there was a strange sense of attraction to it.

The world origin in the Azure Ascension World was clearly a lot more powerful, and the reserves were much deeper. The world origin of the Azure Flame World was much calmer and it was much more mild.

It seemed as though the patriarch chose a great place to plunder! Oh... wait a second... He didn’t choose the Azure Flame World because he had a choice...

With Shang Xia’s Five Element Arts closing in on the grand completion stage, his control over world origin had also reached an unprecedented level.

Using his Five Element Arts as the base, he borrowed the power of the Origin Holy Artifact to swallow the world origin from the Azure Flame World. It gave off a deep hum, and it started to absorb world origin at a rate that far surpassed the time when Kou Chongxue controlled the cauldron earlier. It transformed the world origin within the cauldron before emitting it for experts from the Azure Ascension World to absorb. Of course, he stored a portion in the cauldron and only released half of the world origin he absorbed.

In the area thousands of feet around the cauldron, the experts of the Azure Ascension World could feel the spatial ripples caused by the sudden increase in world origin.

The experts who were cultivating close to the cauldron were rudely awakened by the sudden change, and they stared at the Stellar Cauldron in shock. To be more accurate, they were staring at the young figure who was floating at the top of the cauldron.

“This youngster’s control of world origin actually surpassed Kou Chongxue!”

“Is there anything weird about it? Don’t forget that he was the person who activated the Origin Holy Artifact to send us all to this world...”

“...” contemporary romance

Voice transmissions flew around, but eventually, everything turned quiet.

Shang Xia’s control over world origin might have surpassed everyone’s expectations, but under the circumstances, his ability to draw on more world origin only benefited the members of the Azure Ascension World. It was a great opportunity for them to recover.

Shang Xia’s divine will was extremely sharp, and he caught most of the voice transmissions going around. However, he didn’t really care too much about their conversation as he placed all his attention in the depths of his sea of consciousness.

That was because the moment he made the connection, the Crimson Soul Tablet, that was acting like a problem child the entire time before, finally showed some reaction!

Even though the feeling wasn’t extremely intense, and it felt like the tablet merely opened its eyes from its slumber, whatever it was, it was the first reaction it had in a long time.

Shang Xia was able to reach his current level not just due to his efforts. He had been through countless life-and-death experiences and overcame most of them alone, but when his cultivation was stuck at a bottleneck, the Crimson Soul Tablet would always point him in the right direction.

When Shang Xia entered the Five Element Realm, the recovery of the Crimson Soul Tablet stopped. It entered a deep slumber, and no matter how many times Shang Xia tried to activate it, it wouldn’t answer. It also lost all interest in world origin.

Shang Xia’s cultivation was still rising in the Five Element Realm, but he wasn’t as confident as before since he knew that the Crimson Soul Tablet might not be there for him.

Even though he already created a path to comprehend his martial intent and had a certain level of insight to his advancement to the Sixth Order of the Primary Realm, he wasn’t able to verify it without the Crimson Soul Tablet!

The tablet had always been the greatest secret he held. Other than himself, no one knew of its existence. It was also why he had been secretly trying to look for a way to restore it without letting anyone else know.

He actually had a conjecture as to why the tablet went into deep sleep. One of the possibilities might be because world origin alone might not be enough to restore the rest of the tablet.

He had been looking for a way to repair the tablet for a long time or to just activate the tablet again. However, nothing worked.

Now that the tablet was ‘awakening’, Shang Xia’s consciousness was immediately drawn to it. He placed most of his attention on it.

Soon after, he discovered the change. It was finally devouring world origin again, even though it was at an extremely slow pace. Whatever the case, it was finally absorbing world origin again! What Shang XIa discovered next was a nearly imperceptible restoration.

Even though the scale of it was so small that it was insignificant, Shang Xia felt a sense of excitement boiling in him.

It meant that the Crimson Soul Tablet didn’t lose all interest in world origin! It was also able to continue restoring itself!

Of course, if he were to compare the speed of which the Crimson Soul Tablet devoured world origin in the past, the current Crimson Soul Tablet was like a picky eater who was choosing and picking everything it absorbed. Actually, it seemed to only be picking out a small amount of world origin that interested it.

Shang Xia also noticed that the absorption of world origin didn’t go through the Origin Holy Artifact. Instead, it was directly sucking world origin from the Azure Flame World!

From how ‘picky’ it was acting, Shang Xia concluded that even though the Azure Flame World’s world origin seemed to interest it, it was merely having a taste. It was no longer in a state of desperation where it would absorb any world origin to remain intact!

Things were truly getting interesting now. The core of the tablet was still greatly damaged, and there was a long way to go before it could restore itself! How could it possibly give up a chance to recover?

Unless... The usefulness of world origin from the Azure Flame World is limited when it comes to its restoration!

A second guess soon appeared in Shang Xia’s mind. Could the quality of world origin be limited by the grade of the world?!

In other words, the Azure Ascension World was already standing at the peak of all Azure Worlds. The world origin it produced was one step away from what a Spirit World could produce. That might explain the reason behind the Crimson Soul Tablet being so reluctant to absorb world origin from other Azure Worlds.

Was he supposed to wait for the Azure Ascension World to ascend?

During the ascension process, the world origin contained in the World Origin Source will definitely transform. When that happened, Shang Xia wondered if the crimson Soul Tablet would absorb it like it used it.

Even though everything was a guess, Shang Xia felt that the possibility of it being true was very high!

After realizing what was going on, Shang Xia’s speed of drawing world origin from the Azure Flame World and transforming it with the Stellar Cauldron increased by 30 percent.

The Origin Holy Artifact’s main function was to absorb and convert world origin in the first place. With Shang Xia’s control, the world origin and heaven and earth spiritual qi in the Yanlin Holy Land started to transform at a rapid pace.

That wasn’t all. Along with the successful transformation, waves upon waves of heaven and earth spiritual qi emerged and filled the city.

The Yanlin Holy Land wasn’t the only region that experienced the change. The experts in the Yanlin City started to feel the sense of rejection of the World’s Will fading slightly.

After the modifications to the grand formation, it actually had the style and strength of what was commonly seen in the Azure Ascension World. With the change in heaven and earth spiritual qi and world origin, it became a lot more powerful.

What the experts from the Azure Ascension World didn’t know was that the moment Shang Xia took over Kou Chongxue’s position to absorb world origin, the high-level experts of the Azure Flame World felt another violent tremor. This time, the feeling of sorrow wasn’t the only thing they felt. A sense of fear was instilled in them as a sense of unease set in.