Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 929: Scared Land of Talismans

Chapter 929: Scared Land of Talismans

The Crimson Soul Tablet actually pointed out the fact that he had a Starry Fruit.

Shang Xia couldn’t help but feel a little taken aback. It was as though the Crimson Soul Tablet knew he had one in the first place.

“What if I chose not to use it?” Shang Xia wondered to himself. It wasn’t as though he didn’t think of something like that before. He played around with advancement formulas in the past and watched as the success rate changed.

The moment he took it out, the success rate dropped sharply to 75 percent!

One had to know that when Shang Xia first saw the Starry Tree, he heard from Kou Chongxue that a mature Starry Fruit could increase the success rate of entering the Martial Void Realm by 30 percent! From the Crimson Soul Tablet’s evaluation, it seemed as though the Starry Fruit wasn’t as effective for him to enter the Six Direction Realm as it was for ordinary cultivators to enter the Martial Void Realm.

Of course, it was also possible that the Crimson Soul Tablet’s deduction of his advancement formula was so perfect that the fruit wasn’t as useful as legends had it. If a cultivator only had 30 percent chance of entering the Martial Void Realm, the Starry Fruit might allow them to raise that percentage close to 60 percent. However, if one was already 70 percent sure of entering the Martial Void Realm, the Starry Fruit might not be as effective for them.

Whatever it was, it was an undeniable fact that the Starry Fruit was an important treasure one needed to enter the Martial Void Realm.

About the Starry Fruit Shang Xia had... Naturally, it came from the Starry Tree they salvaged from the Star Observatory.

As the tree wasn’t fully mature, the fruit he obtained wasn’t exactly of the best quality. During the battle back then, Dugu Yuanshan destroyed the Star Observatory and attempted to crush everything in his way. As a high-level spiritual tree, it had a powerful consciousness and in its state of desperation, it decided to pour everything into its fruit to hasten its growth so that a new Starry Tree could be produced in the event it was actually destroyed.

According to some random records Kou Chongxue placed in the Tongyou Institution, after the Starry Tree reached the sixth rank, it would be able to bear 3 Starry Fruits each time.

Unfortunately, the situation was too dire back then and the tree only managed to produce a single fruit during the battle.

Along with the destruction of the Star Observatory, only the main body of the tree that was protected with countless layers of restrictions, and the Starry Fruit survived. Most of its roots and branches were turned to nothingness by the shockwaves of the battle. It was extremely fortunate that Kou Chongxue managed to shave away most of Dugu Yuanshan’s strength before it struck the Star Observatory. Otherwise, the tree would have been completely destroyed.

Transplanting the Starry Tree into the Stellar Cauldron, the world origin of the new Spirit Luxuriant World continued to nurture the tree and allowed it to continue living. New branches finally started to form and a new Starry Tree started to grow. Unfortunately, it regressed back to a rank three spiritual tree from its initial stage. Even with the horrifying amount of world origin in the Stellar Cauldron, it barely restored itself to a rank four spiritual tree.

No one knows how long it would take before it became a rank five spiritual tree again, and as for the sixth rank... God knew how long it would take.

Whatever it was, Shang Xia had a mature rank six Starry Fruit in hand.

With the complete deduction of the Six Direction Heaven Restoration, Shang Xia heaved a sigh of relief before inspecting the Crimson Soul Tablet once again.

With Kou Chongxue’s jade slip that contained the semi-complete rank six advancement formula, the Crimson Soul Tablet wasn’t worn out as much as if it were to come up with something from scratch. Even so, there were many new cracks on its surface.

More importantly, it used up all the void origin it sucked up from Dugu Yuanshan when Shang Xia was exterminating the old expert’s soul.

In the future, restoring the tablet would only prove to be more difficult. That was because Shang Xia could feel that even though the Crimson Soul Tablet was absorbing world origin after the Spirit Luxuriant World formed, it wasn’t absorbing as it was.

The world origin produced by the Spirit Luxuriant World seemed like something the Crimson Soul Tablet was absorbing because it had no choice.

The only time Shang Xia noticed the Crimson Soul Tablet reacting a little stronger was when it absorbed Dugu Yuanshan’s void origin.

After sensing that, Shang Xia’s resolve to head over to the Land of Star Origin strengthened. He wanted to interact with other worlds in the vast sea of stars to observe other martial inheritances out there and to see if he could find a way to fully restore the Crimson Soul Tablet. At the same time, he hoped that he would be able to dig out its secrets.

With the advancement formula complete, Shang Xia remained in his secret chamber for 2 more days before emerging to deal with matters in the Talisman Hall.

Lou Zizhang, who was in charge of matters regarding the Talisman Hall, immediately informed the other rank four Talisman Grandmasters and the other deacons. They quickly arrived to give Shang Xia a report on everything that happened in the past few years.

When the deacons finally left, the rank four Talisman Grandmasters started to ask Shang Xia for pointers regarding the dao of Talismans. He didn’t brush them off as he replied every one of their questions to the best of his abilities. Even if he didn’t know how to solve them immediately, he was able to give several good suggestions.

After some discussion, half a day passed. Eventually, the rank four Talisman Grandmasters got up and bid their farewells. Not too long after they left, Ren Huan, the best talisman paper craftsman of the Talisman Hall arrived to meet Shang Xia.

Shang Xia seemed to already know that he would come and a pot of superior tea was steeping as he awaited the fatty.

“Hehe! I managed to make rank five talisman paper! Now, I can truly consider myself an important figure in the Talisman Hall!” Ren Huan roared with laughter the moment he met Shang Xia. The look of satisfaction on his face couldn’t be hidden.

Waving his sleeve, 22 exquisitely carved cases appeared on the table between them. “There’s a rank five talisman paper in every case!” Ren Huan exclaimed and pushed them closer to Shang Xia. “For high-grade talisman paper like these, even if you haven’t made them into talismans, you should store them properly in spirit sealing cases. You can have them all. When you turn these talisman papers into rank five talismans, you can keep them back in the same case!”

“22 sheets of rank five talisman paper?!” Shang Xia stared at the cases on the table and gasped. “How do you have many of them?!”

Ren Huan chuckled with glee and waved his hands casually. “These aren’t even all of them! Among these, 9 of them came from the Azure Flame World. During the invasion of the Spirit Abundance World, we managed to get 6 more from the remains of those who died. In the past few years, I made 7 more... However, we managed to find a lot more treasures used to make rank five talisman paper from the experts who were slain. If all of the resources were given to me, I should be able to make 20 more attempts to craft rank five talisman paper. With my success rate, I should be able to craft 10 to 12 sheets of rank five talisman paper... Of course, it will take some time. I will probably need 2 to 3 years in order to produce them...”

Shang Xia chuckled in response, “That’s good enough. Compared to the time when I couldn’t even gather more than a few pieces of rank five talisman paper... The situation is much better now.”

Ren Huan thought back to the time and felt a sense of nostalgia washing over him. “That’s true... Now that we have so many more high-level resources, it will be a lot easier to craft what we need... Moreover, gathering resources is only going to get easier in the future...”

“Oh? What do you mean?” Shang Xia asked.

Glancing at Shang Xia from the corner of his eye, Ren Huan muttered, “Well... We are a Spirit World now...”

Slapping his forehead, Shang Xia chuckled in amusement, “Oh! Haha!”

“Alright, putting aside matters regarding rank five talisman paper, we managed to craft a bunch of rank four and rank three talisman paper. Even though a portion was used by the Talisman Masters and Talisman Grandmasters of the Talisman Hall, we still have some leftovers. We have a lot more resources prepared to craft more, and we can definitely satisfy the needs of the Talisman Hall. It’s just...” Ren Huan continued.

Seeing the look of hesitation on Ren Huan’s face, Shang Xia sniggered, “What?”

Staring at Shang Xia, Ren Huan remained silent for some time before mumbling helplessly, “It’s just that... If the Talisman Hall continues to expand, we’re going to run out of resources no matter how much we have! We look like we have a lot of extra right now, but if we disregard what we obtained because of the world ascension, most of it came from the loot brought back from the Azure Flame World and the battle against experts from the Spirit Abundance World. The moment we use up this batch of resources, we can only gather more from our world. I’m afraid when that happens, we won’t be able to keep up with our needs!”

Shang Xia raised an eyebrow in response. “Do we have so many Talisman Masters right now? I believe our standards of recruitment are pretty high and there aren’t many people who possess the talent or qualifications to join us...”

“Oh? What if everyone came over to test their talent and attempt to join us?” Ren Huan sighed.

Shang Xia didn’t need to ask him what he meant by that. Ren Huan immediately added, “Our Talisman Hall possesses an extremely high status in the Tongyou Institution because of you, and we receive an astronomical amount of resources from the institution each year. We aren’t just exhausting resources either. We generate a lot of income by producing talismans. As such, Talisman Masters in the Tongyou Institution received great treatment. You also provided many complete inheritances for high-level Talisman Masters to reference. Right now, our Talisman Hall isn’t just well-regarded in the institution. Even in the You Continent... No, even in our Spirit Luxuriant World, we can be considered the number one sacred land of the dao of Talismans!”

Shang Xia’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Aren’t you exaggerating a little?!”

Ren Huan growled in a low voice after seeing the doubt in Shang Xia’s eyes. “How many rank five Talisman Grandmasters do you think are in our Spirit Luxuriant World?! How many Talisman Grandmasters do you think exist in those great powers out there?!”