Shang Xia had always expected that the reason behind the sneak attack by the experts of the Manyu Continent was because news of Shang Bo trying to break through to the Martial Dipper Realm was leaked to the outside world. He thought that the experts of the Manyu Continent attacked them in a last-ditch effort to prevent their world from being destroyed by Shang Bo’s breakthrough.

That was also the reason Shang Xia sympathized with the experts of the Manyu Continent even though they were enemies.

After learning that the original residents of the Manyu Continent weren't going to be exterminated along with the destruction of the Manyu Continent, his feeling of guilt lessened slightly.

Now that Ren Bainian revealed even more information, Shang Xia started to get curious again. The cultivators of the Manyu Continent knew that their fates were sealed. Why would they waste their strength to eliminate the Tongyou Institution by launching a joint attack?

The members of the Tongyou Institution used to think that the mastermind behind their actions were from the Azure Origin World and Azure Spiritual World. They thought that those who wanted to get rid of the Tongyou Institution were from the various holy lands in the 2 worlds, but from what Ren Bainian was saying and the intelligence gathered by the Tongyou Institution, those holy lands were busy controlling their territory and accepting powers of the Manyu Continent under their banner.

The situation seemed to be in complete contrast to what the Tongyou Institution was doing. The territory controlled by the Tongyou Institution was barren!

It seemed as though the Tongyou Institution truly entered the Manyu Continent a lot later than others and was not privy to the secret behind the destruction of the Manyu Continent. That didn’t seem to be the case for the other powers…

Moreover, from the time the factions of the Azure Origin World and Azure Spiritual World stepped into the Manyu Continent, they didn’t face any resistance! That should be because the high-level cultivators of the Manyu Continent probably knew what would happen in the future. Their aversion to clashing with the various powers was proof of that!

The destruction of the Manyu Continent signified the destruction of the land mass alone. It didn’t mean that all life would be eliminated!

Since that was the case, there was absolutely no reason for them to work together to attack the Tongyou Institution!

Unless… Unless there was an even deeper conspiracy behind their actions…

Now that Ren Bainian had chosen to give up and surrender to the Tongyou Institution to bring them the piece of news, he managed to uncover a little bit of the mystery that was going on.

There was another power in the Manyu Continent!

“Have you seen them before? Do you know how deep their foundations run?” Liu Qinglan asked.

Ren Bainian nodded slightly before shaking his head violently. 

With a trace of displeasure in his heart, Shang Xia snapped, “Why are you nodding and shaking your head? What do you actually mean?!” 

Ren Bainian was like a meek cat in front of Shang Xia after being beaten. A look of confusion could be seen on his face as he started to speak. “I don’t know what method they used, but they were able to disguise themselves to look exactly like us. Their cultivation, dressing, and items they carried became exactly like ours. I wasn’t able to accurately see through their veil of deception.”

Liu Qinglan looked at Bi Jingshuang and saw the solemn look in each other’s eyes.

Shang Xia continued to ask, “Then how are you able to be certain they’re from a different power and come from outside the Manyu Continent?” 

“As long as a Martial Extermination Realm cultivator doesn’t fall in battle, they would be able to live for 200 years or so easily. In the past 100 years, there have been fewer Martial Extermination Realm experts appearing from our Manyu Continent. In the past 50 years, there were less than 10 experts who broke through to the Martial Extermination Realm among cultivators of our Manyu Continent. In the previous 10 years, when outsiders like yourself started to arrive, not a single Martial Extermination Realm expert was born.” A look of despair appeared on Ren Bainian’s face out of the blue. Even though he knew that the Manyu Continent was going to be destroyed, talking about it still made him feel bad. Shang Xia and the others fell silent after hearing what had happened to the Manyu Continent.

Such a massive continent was comparable to several continents of the Azure Origin World. For no one to enter the Martial Extermination Realm for 10 years made things seem truly desperate.

One had to know that because the Manyu Continent was about to face destruction, it underwent its final radiance and emitted a huge amount of heaven and earth qi in the past few years. The density of heaven and earth qi in the entire continent rose significantly and it should promote the growth and break through of many cultivators. It didn’t make sense that there were no Martial Extermination Realm experts born.

Ren Bainian sighed softly. Adjusting his mental state, he continued, “That is why in the years that passed, all of us Martial Extermination Realm cultivators became familiar with each other. However, those strange cultivators with similar features to us appeared out of nowhere!” 

Ren Bainian glanced at Shang Xia from the corner of his eye as an indescribable feeling flashed through his eyes. “A huge portion of them looked really young and no matter how I look at it, they should have stepped into the Martial Extermination Realm in the past 20 to 30 years. Actually, their age is pretty similar to the foreign cultivators who entered our Manyu Continent. Since they looked almost like us and seemed to be members of the Manyu Continent, things started to get suspicious. If they really are members of the Manyu Continent, there’s no way we wouldn’t recognize them. Moreover, they couldn’t have hidden from all of us for so many years. After all, there haven't been many breakthroughs to the Martial Extermination Realm in so many years…” 

A thought flashed through Shang Xia’s mind and he asked, “Could there be a hidden holy land thriving in a Mysterious World somewhere in your Manyu Continent?” 

Ren Bainian shook his head and chuckled bitterly, “That’s not possible. A holy land is sustained as they absorb world origin endlessly. Our Manyu Continent is on the brink of destruction and if a holy land in a Mysterious World still exists, the Manyu Continent would have devoured it.” 

That was the first time Shang Xia heard of anything like that. Thinking again, he felt that whatever Ren Bainian said was extremely possible.

As the saying goes, without the skin, there’s nowhere for the hair to grow. Like the Azure Origin World, holy lands relied on world origin to sustain its Mysterious World. The Manyu Continent was about to be destroyed and there was no way a Mysterious World could still exist.

Looking at Liu Qinglan and Bu Jingshuang, Shang Xia realized that they weren’t surprised by the news. Clearly, they knew about the theories behind the destruction of worlds.

Since they accepted Ren Bainian under their banner, he quickly gathered the members of his race to enter the area close to the core region of the Tongyou Institution. During the process, the Tongyou Institution sent several Martial Extermination Realm experts to escort the clan over.

According to the Tongyou Institution’s original plan, they wanted to share in some of the profits during the destruction of the Manyu Continent. They didn’t plan to interfere with the lives of the aboriginals at all.

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That was also one of the main reasons they chose such a secluded region. It was basically void of any human presence. There were several villages in the surroundings, but to the experts of the Tongyou Institution, it was a matter of swatting their sleeves to chase those villagers away.

The reason they chose to do that was because they only gained intelligence of the Manyu Continent not too long ago. They didn’t know the true secret behind the destruction of a world and they were also afraid that they would become an open target for the other powers in the Manyu Continent. They wanted to avoid conflict as much as possible. It didn’t matter if they counted themselves as the power of the You Continent or just the Tongyou Institution. Nothing would change the fact that they had shallow foundations. It wasn’t easy for them to support the war effort in the Manyu Continent with what they could produce back in the Azure Origin World. If they had to accept the aboriginal cultivators under their banner, they would have to give up a portion of their already scarce resources. Even if they disregarded that, assimilating the cultivators of the Manyu Continent back into the Azure Origin World would be a tall task and there might be several issues along the way.

However, the situation had changed. Because of the massive war that took place back then, 4 experts of the Tongyou Institution fell. It seriously affected their overall strength.

Kou Chongxue might have gathered 4 more experts on short notice, but the damage was done. The addition of a native Martial Extermination Realm expert who was at the third layer was going to be an extremely precious power boost to the institution. 

There was also another reason Liu Qinglan accepted Ren Bainian’s surrender other than the oath he swore on the martial dao. During their ambush on the Tongyou Institution, he had been working together with several others to try to suppress Yun Jing. He didn’t actually injure anyone else from the Tongyou Institution. If he did, the other experts of the institution would probably rise up to refuse Liu Qingland and Bu Jingshuang’s decision.

As for Ren Bainian’s clan members, they numbered less than 300. They wouldn’t be able to cause great waves even if they entered the You Continent. 

Ren Bainian’s actions might be selfish as he wanted to save his clansmen, but his intentions allowed him to gain Shang Xia’s respect.

…

It went without saying that a massive clan with a Martial Extermination Realm expert like Ren Bainian at its helm would be a famous existence in the Manyu Continent. There was no way his clan only consisted of 300 people or less. For a superpower like that, it wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say that their clan manor could be comparable to a palace, and the number of servants they had was too numerous to count. To them, luxury was nothing!

Despite all that, almost 300 of them dropped everything and followed Ren Bainian to the Tongyou Institution’s territory without a word of complaint. They even started building their houses in the area.

That point alone made the Ren Clan respectable in the eyes of the members of the Tongyou Institution.

…

During the time the Ren Clan was settling down, Shang Xia completed his inspection of the formations around the core region.

The other Martial Extermination Realm experts of the Tongyou Institution were also progressively sent out to maintain the territory containing their formations. They managed to progressively deepen their control over those regions and they were starting to discuss expanding a little more.

During the process, Liu Qinglan had also sent several experts out to infiltrate the Manyu Continent. They started to interact with experts there to gain a better understanding of the world they were in. Ren Bainian became an integral part of their operation as they went to assimilate themselves with the Manyu Continent.

When 2 months had passed, Yun Jing finally emerged from seclusion. 

The moment they received the news, Liu Qinglan, Chu Jia, and Shang Xia rushed over to look for her. Liu Qinglan gave her a report of what happened in the time she spent in seclusion. She especially emphasized how Ren Bainian submitted to the Tongyou Institution and the information he brought with him. After hearing everything, Yun Jing nodded to express her approval.

When they spoke about their guess that a third faction was behind the attack on the Tongyou Institution, Yun Jing listened quietly without revealing too much shock.

Shang Xia was still too young if he wanted to catch an abnormal reaction from old foxes like Yun Jing. 

“Looks like we were too conservative. We wanted to gain some benefits from the Manyu Continent without interacting too much with the other factions. However, it seems like those people won’t let us off easily.” Yun Jing said with indifference but Shang Xia didn’t know if he was mistaken, but he heard a trace of killing intent in her voice.

“Should we inform the rest about the mysterious third faction?” Liu Qinglan asked.

Glancing at her casually, Yun Jing muttered, “If our Tongyou Institution managed to gain information about the third faction, what makes you think the others won’t find out? They might even have guessed as much.” 

“This…” Liu Qinglan hesitated slightly but decided not to comment any further.

Yun Jing turned to look at Chu Jia and asked, “You can continue to enlarge the scale of the formations, but focus on what we already have. Strengthen the connection between our existing formations. Our You Continent doesn’t have much land to begin with and it will be a little difficult to find a place to integrate the land mass we bring back. No matter what, our true goal lies in fighting for world origin when the Manyu Continent is destroyed.” 

Chu Jia pressed her lips together and looked slightly uncomfortable as she replied, “We will need a lot more resources for that. I’m afraid we have already emptied out the Tongyou Institution’s accumulations in recent years.” 

Yun Jing didn’t seem to care and she spoke casually. “That guy already sent Yuan Zhen and Qian Sitong over. They barely entered the Martial Extermination Realm and he’s obviously planning to risk it all. Do you think he will feel the pinch from the resources you require?” 

Chu Jia hesitated slightly. “But… But… If we make even the slightest mistake during the shifting process, we’ll lose everything!” 

Yun Jing didn’t address her concerns immediately. Instead, she sighed, “After this is done, our Azure Origin World and the Azure Spiritual World will probably complete its fusion. I wonder what would happen when our world origins fuse. Will there be one that suppresses the other? Will the rest of our You Continent reappear and will we be able to pry into the secrets of the worlds?” 

She might be thinking out loud, but her words caused waves to ruse in Shang Xia’s heart. 

Before he could say anything, Yun Jing’s gaze landed on him. “I need you to go look for someone…” 

…

After several days, Shang Xia arrived at the location Yun Jing pointed out. He flew thousands of miles through the Manyu Continent before arriving on a snowy peak to look for the person Yun Jing instructed him to find.

When they finally met, Shang Xia stared at the person in shock. “Senior Youshang?! Why are you here?”