Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 1174: Going All Out

The rejection of the World’s Will placed extreme suppression onto foreign cultivators of the Essence Ping World.

Through his personal experience, Shang Xia found it difficult for him to maintain even the abilities of Martial Dipper Realm experts when he arrived.

If not for the fact that the Crimson Soul Tablet absorbed the power of frost and the power of the stars, greatly reducing the suppression he felt, he might be unable to fight those creatures earlier!

Shang Xia might be confident in his abilities while never underestimating his opponents, but he knew that if he felt that way, it would be no different for other experts.

That would mean that Hua Jianlou, who was also a third tier True Immortal like himself, used some sort of secret art in order to maintain his current combat strength.

... What Shang Xia didn’t know was that Hua Jianlou, who always wore a confident expression, was feeling endless shock after entering the Essence Ping World.

The Spirit Abundance World wasn’t completely clueless about the Essence Ping World. It could even be said that the reason the Frost Wave existed in the Spirit Abundance World for hundreds of years was because the higher-ups of the Spirit Abundance World had been preparing to make their entry.

Hua Jianlou was able to gain the opportunity to enter the Essence Ping World before the rest, but he never would have thought that the preparations they made were barely enough for him to resist a portion of the suppression he was feeling.

How... How is he able to maintain his combat abilities?!

The Spirit Luxuriant World he came from barely ascended for more than 10 years... The time they have been in existence can’t even be compared to the time we had been scheming against the Spirit Abundance World.

There has to be something weird about that guy...

Hua Jianlou knew what secret techniques that could allow one to be less restricted by the World’s Will of a foreign world meant, and during their short conversation, he had already been thinking of ways to kill Shang Xia.

Shang Xia barely replied when he felt something changed in Hua Jianlou’s eyes.

His expression also changed slightly as he leaped into the air.

The second his feet left the ground, sharp ice spikes burst out from the ground below.

What was even more scary was that with the arrival of the power of frost, Shang Xia realized that Hua Jianlou already had the ability to use one of the energies contained in the Essence Ping World.

Since Hua Jianlou decided to make his move, it made no sense to stop when he barely sent out an attack.

As Shang Xia rose into the air, Hua Jianlou grabbed the sword hovering around him. A sword light quickly emerged as he slashed through the air as the resplendent ray of light transformed into a sword domain before descending on Shang Xia.

Shang Xia had seen how Hua Jianlou suppressed Kou Chongxue and Huang Jinghan even when they worked together, and he knew that he couldn’t allow Hua Jianlou to do as he wished.

Ignoring the consumption of energy, Shang Xia poured his inner qi into his Stone Rod before unleashing the first move of his Six Harmony Rod Technique, Harmonizing Continent.

Knowing that his opponent had been a third tier True Immortal for a long time and that he might have even touched on the gates to the fourth tier, Shang Xia understood that Hua Jianlou’s sword art had definitely reached an incredible level. There was no point in comparing techniques.

As such, he didn’t care about his consumption as he dealt with his opponent’s domain with brute force! He also summoned his domain to contend directly against Hua Jianlou’s sword domain.

He might have been at a disadvantage, but using such a method to fight was basically a form of mutually assured destruction. However, for someone like him who was inherently at a disadvantage, he was able to reduce his losses to the least while making his opponent more cautious.

Hua Jianlou didn’t think that Shang Xia would go all out so quickly. They hadn’t even been probing each other out when Shang Xia pulled out his strongest attack strength-wise against his domain. He didn’t even have time to avoid the collision.

As soon as both domains slammed into each other, the void above the icy wasteland started to contort. Countless ice hills disappeared the next second as flurries of snow rose into the air. Everything 10 miles around them was covered in a layer of white.

The next instant, a patch of snow was forcefully torn open as a ray of sword qi emerged. The space around it was torn to shreds and the snow around it was devoured instantly.

With things progressing up to that point, there was no way for anyone to remain hidden or conceal themselves to run away. However...

Hua Jianlou’s expression changed slightly when he discovered that he could no longer feel Shang Xia with his divine soul.

Pulling his sword back to his chest, Hua Jianlou slashed in all directions.

If anyone could observe Hua Jianlou at that moment, they would discover that his domain was filled with sword qi like a porcupine, but they were in a dormant state and didn’t explode immediately.

Shang Xia’s figure fell out from the void several thousand feet behind Hua Jianlou the next moment. Earlier, he used his Five Element Movement Art which he hadn’t perfected since stepping into the Six Direction Realm.

Before he could react, the sword qi in Hua Jianlou’s domain was released.

Shang Xia didn’t expect Hua Jianlou to react so quickly. Since he wasn’t ready to fight back, he could only retreat to open up the distance between them. However, Hua Jianlou didn’t stop there. Even though the sword qi he created earlier had already flown at Shang Xia, he turned around and chopped down without mercy.

Shang Xia wasn’t willing to compete with Hua Jianlou in terms of technique anymore, and he simply tossed out a True Space Restriction Palm Talisman in an attempt to restrain his opponent for a moment.

One had to know that even as they fought, they were still being suppressed by the World’s Will. With the sudden appearance of the True Space Restriction Palm Talisman, Shang Xia would be able to weaken his attack such that it became weaker than what a True Immortal was capable of!

Of course, even though the suppression worked on the abilities they could use, it was only possible as they sent their attacks out over a large distance. With their respective secret arts and treasures, they were able to get rid of the suppression on themselves to a certain degree. Their defenses were maintained at their original level.

If an attack at the level of someone who had just broken through to the Martial Void Realm might not be able to injure them, the moment it was weakened further to the point it fell below the capability of what a True Immortal could unleash, there was no way it could break their defenses.

With the True Space palm, the sword light that came with Hua Jianlou’s sudden strike was greatly weakened. Even though it could still tear through space, Shang Xia stopped it with a single tap after it came close.

The power of the talisman wasn’t exactly infinite. It was exhausted after it weakened that single strike. The remnant energy it contained was scattered by Hua Jianlou with a single wave.

With Hua Jianlou’s offensive failing time and time again, Shang Xia finally managed to find an opening.

His Stone Rod swept through the air as half the space before him seemed to be flipped upside down. Shang Xia displayed the true extent of the power he could muster.

What was even more impressive was that the Holy Artifact fully displayed its power at that very moment.

Hua Jianlou’s sword might be extraordinary as it was a weapon that was comparable to Kou Chongxue’s Hidden Frost Sword, but facing the horrifyingly powerful Stone Rod which was of an even higher grade, he didn’t dare to face it head-on.

A frown appeared on Hua Jianlou’s face as he reluctantly moved to the side to avoid the attack.

Naturally, he understood that during a battle between experts at their level, the moment he was forced to retreat, the other side wouldn’t let up. They would quickly follow up with a flurry of strikes, not giving him a chance to catch his breath.

As such, even though he was retreating, he disregarded his disadvantage and summoned another sword qi and sent it at Shang Xia not too far away.

Who would have thought that the moment the sword qi flew out, a reddish-gold lightning bolt arrived right above his head?

If Hua Jianlou could realize that Shang Xia would press the attack after gaining momentum of battle, how could Shang Xia not know that Hua Jianlou would try to stop him?

As such, he released his first martial intent, the Chaos Essence Lightning Palm the moment Hua Jianlou moved.

He successfully predicted Hua Jianlou’s reaction and managed to gain a firm advantage of the initiative of battle.

A martial intent would be able to grow along with a cultivator’s rising cultivation realm, but at his current level, Shang Xia was only able to use his Chaos Essence Lightning Palm as an ordinary attack.

The reason he used it was because it was extremely fast, and it was extremely suited to catch his opponents by surprise.

Hua Jianlou’s sword qi that barely left his body was scattered by the lightning bolt when Shang Xia’s Stone Rod tore through the void again and pierced into his domain.

The third move of his Six Harmony Rod Technique was unleashed, Void Emptiness!

That was Shang Xia’s actual killing move. Even though it had been greatly weakened due to the interference of the Essence Ping World, if Hua Jianlou was struck by it, even if he didn’t die immediately, he would probably have to back out from the Essence Ping World. Nothing there would have anything to do with him any longer.

At the critical moment, Hua Jianlou unleashed the true ability of the top swordsman of the Spirit Abundance World.

Facing Shang Xia’s powerful strike, Hua Jianlou slashed out 12 times and each stroke landed accurately at the tip of the Stone Rod.

Clang, clang, clang, clang...

Explosions peppered the air and it caused another flurry of snow. The entire region dozens of miles around them were blown to bits.

He managed to stop Void Emptiness, but Hua Jianlou was forced to take 3 steps back in retreat as the blood drained from his face.

Even though their combat abilities had been suppressed to become comparable to a first tier True Immortal, the consumption of their inner qi was terrifyingly high.

It didn’t help that Hua Jianlou was only at the third tier of the Martial Void Realm. Even if he had broken through and become a high-level True Immortal, his inner qi wouldn’t be able to keep up with his usage.

Naturally, Hua Jianlou wasn’t the only one feeling the strain. Shang Xia was also feeling the pressure and he found that it wasn’t really worth it to continue fighting.

After all, neither of them was the only threat to each other in the Essence Ping World.

Since their short exchange ended, both of them realized that it wouldn’t be possible to defeat the other party quickly. As such, they started to think about how they should stop fighting.

Shang Xia might have had the advantage, but Hua Jianlou was the first to speak. “Let’s stop for now. If we continue to fight, I’m afraid all the benefits would have been taken away by others. What’s more, the high-level experts of the Essence Hong World and Essence Ming World have entered. Both of us come from subordinate worlds of the Star Origin Dao Field... Why don’t we work together?”

With a cold expression, Shang Xia muttered in a low voice, “Why should I trust you now?”