Splitting the Heavens

“How would the treasures containing the Spirituality of the Six Directions be ranked?!” Shang Xia wondered to himself.

However, he had the experience of looking for the Four Extremity Spirituality back then and he could use it as a reference for how he would go about obtaining the Spirituality of the Six Directions.

It was the first month of the lunar year, and the You Continent was experiencing the end of Winter. Nothing stopped Shang Xia from deploying a portion of disciples of the Tongyou Institution to scour the You Continent for spiritual treasures related to the Spirit of the Moon.

That was the benefit of belonging to a great power. The Tongyou Institution could be said to be the fifth strongest power in the Spirit Abundance World, and they were only second to the Elysiums. Not only did they secure their control over the You Continent, they were starting to expand their influence outwards.

The number of disciples in the Outer, Inner, and Upper Divisions of the institution reached a terrifying number. Adding those who already graduated and had taken up positions in the institution, hundreds of disciples responded to Shang Xia’s order to look for treasures.

Because he gave the order to look for treasures, he had no choice but to head back to the Talisman Hall to craft a bunch of lower-leveled rank three and four talismans to act as rewards for them.

Even though he had to give out rank three and rank four talismans, everything was worth it.

In less than half a month, resources poured in from all corners of the institution as their disciples returned after making great gains. Spiritual treasures of all grades gathered in the city, and 4 massive warehouses belonging to the Talisman Hall were stocked full of resources.

Ren Huan, who had been promoted to the manager of the resources of the Talisman Hall, stared at the piles of resources that returned and he felt his head hurt. Moreover, there were more coming by the day.

As the amount of resources brought back by their disciples concerned their rewards, Ren Huan had to record everything they brought back and where it came from along with their individual details.

Moreover, he had no idea what Shang Xia was looking for among the piles upon piles of resources.

Helpless, he could only invite Shang Xia over to sort out the resources in the warehouse.

“You’re only looking for a single treasure, but there are thousands upon thousands of herbs, branches, leaves, flowers, rocks, jade… and a lot more nonsense. The number is growing by the day! How long will you need to filter the treasure you need from these?! Haven’t you thought of narrowing the scope of your search for the Spirit of the Moon?!” Ren Huan threw open the doors of one of the warehouses and grumbled.

Shang Xia shook his head and chuckled bitterly. He walked into the warehouse before releasing his divine will to allow the Crimson Soul Tablet to do its thing.

The next second, Shang Xia’s figure trembled slightly as a formless wave filled the warehouse.

“No way… Don’t tell me you found it already… Are you really that lucky?!” Ren Huan gasped at the side when he saw how strange Shang Xia was acting. After he spoke, he looked at a dried-up vine in Shang Xia’s hand.

Casually tossing the vine in his hand that was probably a rank one treasure away, Shang Xia snorted, “Of course not! Do you really think I’m that lucky?! It’s just… I thought of a way to narrow the scope of the search!”

Ren Huan nearly jumped in joy. “What idea did you think of?! Hurry up and tell us! At least we won’t have to run around like aimless flies to look for treasures… Can’t you see that our Talisman Hall can’t hold any more treasures?”

Shang Xia turned around and muttered, “I can’t say much about those who are looking for treasures outside, but I’ll have to look at the treasures in here before making a decision.”

Ren Huan stared at the warehouse before running after Shang Xia. “Hey! Aren’t you going to inspect the treasures in this warehouse?!”

“Nah. There’s nothing in here I need…” Shang Xia muttered without turning back.

Seeing how Shang Xia was headed for the next warehouse, Ren Huan ran after him and yelled, “So what idea did you think of?! Weren’t there thousands of treasures in there?! How did you already browse them all?!”

Shang Xia naturally wouldn’t say anything about the Crimson Soul Tablet. Instead, he chuckled and explained to Ren Huan, “I have a secret method to find the presence of the Spirit of the Moon among the treasures as long as they’re gathered together.”

Ren Huan continued to pester Shang Xia. “Can’t you use your secret method to narrow the type of treasures we need to look for or the general position of the Spirit of the Moon?! We can save a lot of effort running around the You Continent that way! Also… You’re looking for the Spirit of the Moon for the entire year, and it will only appear once a month…”

Shang Xia passed the second warehouse and approached the third when he turned around to gesture towards the warehouse while chuckling softly, “I can’t help it. Brother Ren, I can only trouble you to look out for it. Anyway, it will only be for a year.”

Ren Huan was surprised that Shang Xia stopped suddenly. “Are you… Are you sure the Spirit of the Moon you’re looking for is in this warehouse?!”

Shang Xia nodded slightly. “If I’m not mistaken…”

Entering the third warehouse, Shang Xia looked through the thousands of treasures that had piled up before finding a willow branch that looked slightly out of place due to its fresh appearance in a pile of withered leaves.

“Is that it?” Ren Huan looked at the willow leaf that was barely 3 inches and explained, “That’s the branch of the Spring Beginning Willow. The entire tree can be considered a rank three treasure, but the branch is probably a rank two treasure. Are you sure that’s the Spirit of the Moon?”

Shang Xia looked at the treasure in his hand and replied with a smile, “That’s exactly what I’m looking for. To be exact, I’m not looking for a branch. The treasure giving it life is the true Spirit of the Moon, allowing it to stand out from the rest of the withered branches and leaves…”

Ren Huan couldn’t help but look at the pile of branches Shang Xia retrieved the treasure from and made the comparison.

Following Ren Huan’s glance, Shang Xia laughed, “This is the only special treasure among them. The others are normal branches from the Spring Beginning Willow.”

Ren Huan couldn’t help but sigh. However, he understood that something Shang Xia was finding couldn’t be something that easy to find. There wouldn’t be a bunch of them lying around.

“So… What’s next?”

“You can get them to stop for the time being. All the treasures they send back can be exchanged for essence crystals or talismans of corresponding value. The disciple who located this branch can obtain another rank four talisman or essence crystals equivalent to a rank four talisman.” Shang Xia knew that he would only be able to motivate the disciples of the institution to continue looking for the treasures he needed by giving them enough benefits.

Even though it seemed like a lot, Shang Xia felt that it was worth it.

He might be deploying the disciples of the institution and making use of the institution’s influence, but everything was worth it if they could produce another True Immortal.

Not to mention the fact that the entire operation wasn’t worthless. The Talisman Hall might not be able to use a lot of treasures their disciples obtained, but a portion of those treasures had been picked out by the Artifacts Hall, Formation Hall, and even the Medicine Hall. As for those that were completely useless… They could just take it as a chance for them to widen their disciples’ horizons.

With the experience of locating the first Spirit of the Moon, the disciples of the institution moved quickly the moment the second month started. Batches of spiritual treasures started to gather back in the institution.

Ren Huan, who was prepared, quickly arranged for disciples of the Talisman Hall to sort out the treasures as soon as they arrived.

Shang Xia tried to use the Crimson Soul Tablet to look for the Spirit of the Moon during the second month, but he quickly gave up on it.

The Crimson Soul Tablet could only tell when the treasure was within a certain range. It wasn’t as effective as locating the Four Extremity Spirituality.

Because of that, Shang Xia’s efficiency in finding the Spirit of the Moon would never match up to batches of disciples combing through the You Continent.

That also proved that the Spirituality of the Six Directions wasn’t as valuable as the Four Extremity Spirituality.

Actually… The Spirit of the Moon wasn’t exactly the Spirituality of the Six Directions. Shang Xia needed to combine them properly after getting his hands on all 12. Perhaps then, they would be comparable to the Four Extremity Spirituality in value.

Half the month passed when Shang Xia located a gourd of spiritual liquid among the treasures that had been sent back. The Spirit of the Moon of the second month was located in a single drop of spiritual liquid it continued.

The Spirit of the Moon of the third month wasn’t as easy to find. After more than 20 days after the start of the third month, the Talisman Hall failed to locate it. Only on the twenty-second day did Shang Xia suddenly discover its presence when he was messing around in the Thousand Leaf Mountain Range. Surprisingly, it was located on the feather on a random swallow that was flying north…

Finally entering the fourth month, the Tongyou Institution’s actions of gathering all sorts of treasures caught the attention of the other powers. All of them started to guess the Tongyou Institution’s true intentions. However… They knew jack shit by observing the low to mid-level disciples of the Tongyou Institution running all over the continent grabbing treasures. They had no system, and there was no pattern they could learn. Also… The various powers didn’t try to interfere with whatever the institution was doing.

The Spirit of the Moon of the fourth month was found a lot more smoothly than the others. After a massive storm that happened at the start of the month, a disciple who ventured out of the institution discovered a rock that had shattered from a lightning bolt. He felt that it contained a trace of lightning energy and decided to send all the pieces he gathered to the Talisman Hall.

Shang Xia was talking to Ren Huan about crafting high-level talisman paper when the rock arrived, and he felt a reaction from the Crimson Soul Tablet. He simply threw the rank three talisman seal he crafted over to the inner disciple who discovered the rock.

Ren Huan was extremely displeased with how Shang Xia rewarded the disciple who brought back the rock. Watching the disciple leave happily with the talisman seal, he held off till the disciple was out of sight before grumbling, “A rank three talisman seal is too valuable! It’s way more important than a rank four talisman! Can you give out something like that so easily?”

Shang Xia chuckled in amusement before handing the shattered rock to Ren Huan. “Take a closer look.”

Grabbing the bag of shattered rocks, Ren Huan inspected it with his divine perception. Eventually, he gasped, “Is that… A Lightning Extermination Origin?”

“Exactly! Not only was the rock shattered by a lightning bolt, but it contained a Lightning Extermination Origin. It should be considered a peak-grade treasure of the fourth rank. Not to mention it also contains the Spirit of the Moon of the fourth month!” Shang Xia explained.

A sigh escaped Ren Huan’s lips. “It’s a shame the kid is only at the Martial Extremity Realm. Otherwise, we could help him to extract the Lightning Extermination Origin and create another Martial Extermination Realm expert for the institution…”

Shang Xia chuckled softly, “Anyway, with the fourth Spirit of the Moon, I came up with a bold guess about how we should go about finding them in the future…”

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