“I’m afraid I need you to guard a 50 mile radius of this place for some time.” Youshang ordered before he took his leave. 1

Shang Xia guessed that something like that might happen, but he had to ask, “Senior, is my grandfather cultivating in seclusion here?” 0

Youshang shook his head and sighed, “Even though I wish to give you a confirmation, I truly have no idea. All I received was a transmission from Yun Jing to guard the area. She didn’t tell me who I was protecting and I didn’t ask further.” 0

Shang Xia could only nod and laugh, “From the looks of it, Senior hasn’t been disturbed by anyone during your time here.” 0

“That’s not actually true. Everyone is just very wary of each other. They would leave after probing me slightly. The Snowy Peaks Mountain Range is large and even though some areas might be better than others, it’s not worth fighting to the death for. The only reason we killed Su Jinyuan wasn’t to steal his territory. It was just that his death would aid in our mission.” Youshang explained.0

Shang Xia asked another question, “Senior, if you leave now, are you going to change your name and appearance again? How should the Deputy Patriarchs of the institution and I contact you?” 0

Youshang chuckled mysteriously in response. “We’ll play everything by ear. It’s too early to contact each other anytime soon. In the future, I’ll take the initiative to get in touch with all of you if anything comes up. There would be no need for you guys to look for me anyway.” 0

After he spoke, Youshang turned to leave. He didn’t hesitate at all.0

Staring at Youshang’s figure that was getting further away at a frightening speed, Shang Xia muttered softly, “Take care!” 0

Even though Youshang indicated for Shang Xia to protect a certain region before he left, Shang Xia noticed that the region was close to 50 miles in diameter. The boundary that contained the region he had to defend wasn’t exact, and Shang Xia decided to make a physical trip around the area.0

Because of his increase in cultivation, the area his divine perception could cover became larger proportionally. He could easily examine a 50 mile radius around himself and he didn’t need to run around the mountain every day in order to make his inspections. As such, he could free up a lot of time for cultivation.0

Because it was his first time flying about the region to look for any anomalies, he also expanded his divine perception to his limit to try to look for traces of his grandfather.0

He might not know if Shang Bo laid down countless restrictions to prevent his aura from leaking out, or if he found a truly secret place to train, but he failed to discover anything.0

To be truly honest, if Shang Xia really wanted to find anyone in the Snowy Peaks Mountain Range, he could do what Youshang did when they first located Su Jinyuan. He just needed to slam a Four Seasons Palm into the ground below and disturb the entire region. Anyone in seclusion wouldn’t be able to withstand the fluctuation even if they were protected by several layers of restrictions.0

Of course, there was no reason for Shang Xia to do that.0

Not too long after Youshang left, Shang Xia sent a secret transmission from the Tongyou Stronghold.1

In his report, he recorded in detail everything that happened after he met Youshang. He also told Yun Jing that he had taken over the protection of the region. At the same time, he asked if that was where his grandfather was.0

It didn’t take long for him to receive a reply. It was sent personally by Yun Jing, and after opening it, Shang Xia saw that she was ordering him to do whatever Youshang said. She also reminded him to not forget about his cultivation during his time there. However, she didn’t send any cultivation resources or anything.0

There was also news about the Manyu Continent in her reply. Ever since Ren Bainian brought them news of the mysterious third party, the Tongyou Stronghold changed their approach. They started to interact with the natives with the help of Ren Bainian, a local Martial Extermination Realm expert! Because of that, the Tongyou Institution managed to gain an initial understanding of the situation.0

No matter how long the report he received of the situation on the Manyu Continent, he could summarize it in one word, ‘Chaotic’.0

After the Manyu Continent’s assault on the Tongyou Institution, the thin balance that existed on the Manyu Continent was completely shattered.0

The experts of the Manyu Continent clashed with the various foreign factions and experts were dying left and right. However, the various foreign factions were like the Tongyou Institution and only sent Martial Extermination Realm experts over. As such, the ones who were at a disadvantage were the aboriginals of the Manyu Continent! They were the ones who suffered the greatest loss.0

With doomsday hanging over their heads like a blade ready to descend at any moment, rumors were spreading like wildfire. The low-leveled aboriginals of the Manyu Continent developed a hatred for foreign powers like never before.0

The locals who had already submitted to the foreign powers were also part of those who reacted to the rumors. Betrayal, suspicion, testing, revolts, crazed retaliations… Those were what happened on a daily basis. Before the Manyu Continent faced destruction, it was as though doomsday had already arrived.0

Behind the veil of chaos, the situation seemed to become a lot more confusing than they had thought.0

Yun Jing could only vaguely put her conjecture in words and Shang Xia couldn't gain any insights from what she said. He could only use them to update himself on the current situation.0

In her reply, she also told Shang Xia to report everything that happened in the region under his charge from time to time. She would also inform Shang Xia of the changes in the Manyu Continent when he was there.0

After reading her reply several times over and not obtaining any other information, Shang Xia tossed it to the side and no longer bothered with it.0

He was planning to use Youshang’s cave as a place for cultivation but after inspecting the area, he discovered a better place to cultivate.0

Heading towards a tall mountain peak in the distance, Shang Xia could tell that the density of heaven and earth qi wasn’t exactly much greater than the other spots. It was also located near the border region of the Snowy Peaks Mountain Range and the extermination qi he could gather was relatively thin. Those were obviously not the reasons Shang Xia found the place a good place to train. Instead, the vegetation and climate that spanned from the base to the top of the mountain seemed to resemble the changes in the seasons.0

It was a place he had found unintentionally when making his way around the region and he immediately thought of the Yuxi Peak back in the battlefield between the two worlds when he saw it.0

The Yuxi Peak might be taller than a lot of mountains out there, but it was far from comparable to the one he had chosen.0

The changes in the seasons on the Yuxi Peak could be attributed to the presence of the Four Seasons Extermination Origins it held, but the mountain Shang Xia chose was different. It truly experienced the difference in seasons due to its sheer size. Because of the elevation of the mountain, different parts experienced different climates.0

When Shang Xia arrived at the peak of the mountain, he extended his divine perception to cover the entire structure. Next, he sent his extermination origins to the respective areas that suited them and he felt himself becoming one with the mountain the next instant.0

Circulating his Four Seasons Samsara Art, he felt as though he was experiencing the changes in seasons at the same time. The way he refined his extermination origins, absorbed heaven and earth qi, and swallowed world origin was as though he was the mountain itself.0

In other words, his speed of cultivation would far surpass what he could do ordinarily.0

Even in such an environment where there was thin heaven and earth qi and world origin, Shang Xia felt that it was theoretically possible to increase his cultivation speed to four times its original level.0

Of course, that was only in theory. Reality was a bitch and there was no way Shang Xia could increase his cultivation speed to the maximum.0

Even so, Shang Xia could tell that he would be growing a lot stronger in the near future.0

…1

Scanning the surrounding dozens of miles with his divine sense, Shang Xia finally received another transmission from Yun Jing after several days.0

This time, she sent him 2 different pieces of important news. The first stated that the Manyu Continent was experiencing an epidemic, causing massive amounts of death in the general mortal population. From the looks of it, the epidemic was also spreading extremely quickly.0

The other was the situation of the Manyu Continent after the huge unrest among the cultivators. A huge portion of aboriginal cultivators came into contact with the Azure Origin World and Azure Spiritual World as they wanted to seek refuge after the Manyu Continent was destroyed.0

None of them could do a thing about the first piece of information. There was no need to mention Shang Xia as even the strength of the Tongyou Stronghold wouldn’t be able to assist the Manyu Continent in stopping a major pandemic that had already spread across a huge portion of the continent. 0

The second matter didn’t actually affect the Tongyou Stronghold much either.0

The reason was simple. Because of the joint assault on the Tongyou Stronghold, more than 10 Martial Extermination Realm experts of the Manyu Continent were killed. The aboriginals held a massive grudge against the institution and not many would try to seek refuge with them.0

Also, the Tongyou Stronghold was established in a secluded part of the continent. The aboriginals were no fools. They managed to obtain information about the Tongyou Institution through various means and discovered that the Tongyou Institution was considered a weak faction among everyone who came. As such, they weren’t willing to throw in their lot with the Tongyou Institution of the You Continent!0

Of course, the Tongyou Institution’s strict attitude when it came to interacting with the local powers was also a huge factor in why they didn’t accept a lot of people. Even with Ren Bainian’s clan who had successfully submitted to the institution, Yun Jing and Liu Qinglan didn’t go around promoting the Tongyou Institution to every power out there. They even ensured that Ren Bainian acted cautiously when engaging with his fellow local cultivators so that he wouldn’t divulge too much information about the Tongyou Stronghold.0

Shang Xia agreed with their approach entirely. 0

Regardless if it was the You Continent, the Tongyou City, or the Tongyou Institution, they were truly too damn small. Their accumulations were also too shallow. It wasn’t possible for them to accept so many experts anyway. 0

After understanding the recent happenings in the Manyu Continent, Shang Xia went to the top of the mountain he was currently on and whipped his Auspicious Cloud Cape behind him. It turned into a massive cloud that shrouded the top of the mountain.0

Shang Xia returned to his cultivation as he became one with the mountain again as the different seasons experienced on different parts of the mountain became even more obvious.0

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The longer Shang Xia cultivated on the mountain, the further the cloud from the Auspicious Cloud Cape spread. Eventually, half the mountain was covered in dense clouds.0