Taking everything he needed in his Spatial Pouch, Shang Xia entered seclusion for a short while in order to restore himself to his peak state. When he was done, he approached the Void Abyss to look for Ji Wenlong after obtaining Kou Chongxue’s permission.

Along the way, he played with the Spirit Extermination Gourd in his hand.

A quick look at bit.ly/3iBfjkV will leave you more fulfilled.

In the past, Kou Chongxue modified the gourd once and stored a jade green sword qi within. It contained enough power to rival one of Kou Chongxue’s strikes, but because of how Shang Xia used it previously, it became extremely blurry as though it was about to disappear.

After Shang Xia became stronger, he tried to restore the jade sword but to no avail.

Seeing as Shang Xia had volunteered to enter the foreign continent, he took the chance to pester Kou Chongxue to restore the jade sword. It once again regained the might of a full powered strike of a Martial Dipper Realm expert.

Of course, Kou Chongxue gave him a serious warning to not use the sword qi unless he was in trouble. Unless it was a matter of life and death, he wasn’t to release the full power of the sword qi. The moment he did, the entire continent would shatter.

With some pointers from the patriarch, Shang Xia learned how to separate the sword qi into two. He could release them separately, and every one of them would be comparable to a full powered strike from a fourth layer Martial Extermination Realm expert.

Obviously, splitting the sword qi would greatly reduce its strength. After all, a huge amount of energy would be wasted during the splitting process. Two strikes from a fourth layer Martial Extermination Realm expert were far from an attack from a Martial Dipper Realm expert.

Of course, with no other Martial Dipper Realm expert in play, those sword qis could be said to be Shang Xia’s strongest trump cards on the foreign continent.

When Ji Wenlong noticed Shang Xia, he sighed softly, “Kid, have you thought it through?” 

It was clear he knew that Shang Xia was coming.

“Senior Ji, rest assured I know what I’m doing.” 

“Alright.” Ji Wenlong didn’t try to dissuade Shang Xia. However, he handed the 12 talismans he crafted back to him along with several Embroidered Cloud Cases that were filled with resources. “Since you’re heading over, you can bring these to them.” 

Accepting the items, Shang Xia couldn’t help but feel a little curious. “I heard the patriarch say that exposing our bodies to the space beyond the heavens poses great risks. How did you and Patriarch Kou open a path to the foreign continent then? Wouldn’t they have to pass through the space beyond the heavens?”

Without turning around to look at him, Ji Wenlong replied, “Do you know how those holy lands and secret regions were established?” 

Shang Xia heard Kou Chongxue bringing it up before and he replied, “Disciple heard that they were situated at the weak spots in the spatial barrier around the world. After they take their positions, they would be able to absorb world origin from the world. At the same time, they will act as fortresses to protect those weak spots in the spatial barrier.” 

Grunting with approval, Ji Wenlong continued, “Martial Dipper Realm experts might not be able to carve out the spatial tunnel through the space beyond the heavens with our own power, but we are able to do so with the assistance of the world origin from our holy land…” 

Widening his eyes slightly, Shang Xia felt that he learned another secret. “Our Tongyou Mysterious World hasn’t upgraded to the Tongyou Paradise. Our foundations aren’t as deep as them. Is that why we chose to work with the Changbai Holy Land?” 

Shang Xia might be forcing himself to remain calm, but his voice was a little harsh.

At the end of the day, the Tongyou Institution had been at war with the cultivators of the Azure Spiritual World for the past 20ish years. The number of lives both sides lost couldn’t be counted and the lives that were lost when the worlds collided were countless times more.

Shang Xia understood that the fusion of their worlds was inevitable and the culprit behind everything wasn’t the Azure Spiritual World from what Kou Chongxue was saying. He even learned about Kou Chongxue’s plan from the patriarch himself. However, it was a little difficult to get over his mental barrier that everyone from the Azure Spiritual World was an enemy.

Actually, Kou Chongxue and Ji Wenlong were both extremely surprised Shang Xia could still keep his cool after learning what he did.

Evidently, Kou Chongxue, Ji Wenlong, even Shang Bo and Yun Jing who established the Tongyou Institution might have learned of the matter not too long ago. That was why Kou Chongxue kept everything under wraps as best he could and he was unwilling to leak too much information on the matter to let more people join their cause.

Now that Kou Chongxue had personally revealed what was going on to Shang Xia, it meant that Shang Xia had formally stepped into the core of the Tongyou Institution.

Shaking his head slowly, Ji Wenlong replied to Shang Xia’s previous question. “That’s actually not true.” 

Ji Wenlong saw the confusion in his eyes after turning around and his gaze shifted to the Void Abyss. A strange circular entrance to the void appeared.

Shang Xia’s spiritual perception wasn’t weak and he felt it the moment the entrance appeared. He could also tell that it was absorbing energy from the Void Abyss.

The world origin that came from the Void Abyss was much denser than anything Shang Xia felt in the Beyond Heavens Pavilion. It also contained a foreign energy that Shang Xia had never felt before.

If he wasn’t mistaken, the strange energy was world origin from the Azure Spiritual World. Which was to say, the spatial tunnel was sustained from the world origin of both worlds!

“The longer I keep this open, the larger the disturbance. The consumption of energy is extremely high and I can’t keep it open for long.” Ji Wenlong explained while gesturing for Shang Xia to enter the tunnel.

Taking a deep breath, Shang Xia leaped into the circular shaped entrance immediately.

In that instant, a huge amount of world origin poured into his body. The space around him twisted unnaturally.

After he entered, Ji Wenlong waved his hand to shatter the connection that kept the entrance open and everything returned to normal.

At the same time the connection was cut off, Ji Wenlong felt a strange fluctuation nearby and a short cultivator appeared on the opposite side of the Void Abyss.

“Did you just open the spatial door?” Xu Bailing stared at Ji Wenlong with an expressionless face.

“Old Friend Xu, do you have any pointers for me?” Ji Wenlong didn’t deny it at all.

“If I’m not mistaken, didn’t you just open the spatial door half a year ago? Why did you open it again? It takes up a lot of world origin from the Void Abyss and aren’t you afraid that someone will detect the fluctuations here and disrupt what we’re doing?” 

Ji Wenlong chuckled in response, “You’re thinking too much. I have my limits. Moreover, the patriarch’s true body is sitting right here. There won’t be any accidents!” 

Xu Bailing nodded slowly and muttered, “Looks like Senior Brother Luo is right. The situation in the foreign continent isn’t too good. No wonder you have to send reinforcements so soon…” 

Ji Wenlong’s expression didn’t change as he replied, “I believe you guys should be more concerned about yourselves. I heard that you guys are having an internal problem at the moment and it’s affecting the stability of your holy land. Wasn’t that why you guys agreed to work with us in the first place to open the spatial tunnel?” 

Xu Bailing finally snapped and he snorted, “When did Martial Dipper Realm Ancestors start to spread rumors around? I heard that there was a Martial Dipper Realm Ancestor from your Azure Origin World who lowered himself like an animal to make a move on a junior. He’s truly a disgrace to all Martial Dipper Realm Ancestors. I believe you will agree with me, right?” 

Just like that, the two of them probed each other with the sharpest words they could use before parting ways on bad terms.

Ji Wenlong’s figure appeared on Kou Chongxue’s platform not too long after. 

“As the degree of fusion increases, all of us will know more about each other’s world… Isn’t that the case?” Kou Chongxue smiled at Ji Wenlong.

Clearly, he had seen everything that happened when Ji Wenlong opened the spatial tunnel earlier.

“The two of them seem to have realized something…” Ji Wenlong’s clone looked for a random place on the platform to sit down as he spoke to Kou Chongxue.

Completely unaffected, Kou Chongxue muttered, “So what?” 

“Everyone else other than members of the institution is our enemy! They might have chosen to work with us, but they can’t wait to break the agreement we have. The moment something happens in the foreign continent, they’ll probably be the first to betray us!” Ji Wenlong growled.

The smile on Kou Chongxue’s face faded and it was replaced with a serious expression. “There’s no doubt about it. Those assholes won’t keep to our agreement. Neither party will allow the other to easily grasp their weakness. We can only see whose scheme is better when the time comes.”