Splitting the Heavens

Chapter 1413: A Massive Scheme

“Instructor Dou...” An injured member of the Tongyou Institution that looked a little haggard called out to him, but Dou Zhong reached out his hand to stop him.

“I’m not too much older than you... Why the hell are you addressing me that way?” Dou Zhong chuckled while he joked.

The person who spoke also laughed. However, he didn’t stop for long as he quickly reported, “Senior Dou, we’re pretty much the ones who stopped their Sixth Order attack first. The others are still fighting, but they are in an advantageous position and it should only be a matter of time before they are done.”

Dou Zhong nodded slowly. “We don’t have the most people, and we don’t have the highest cultivation realm among everyone present. However, we were the ones who stopped the Sixth Order-level counterattack first.”

“Indeed... This is because of our Extremity Yin Yang Formation. The battle formation can be the foundation of any faction, but True Immortal Shang didn’t hesitate to hand the inheritance over to the institution back then.”

The Extremity Yin Yang Battle Formation was special because it could operate regardless of the number of experts they had. As long as an expert of the Tongyou Institution was in trouble, it didn’t matter where they were or how strong those around him were... As long as there were other members of the Tongyou Institution nearby, they could deploy the battle formation to fight back.

The strength of any battle formation was key, and only the results mattered. From how Dou Zhong and the members of the institution were the first to stop the Sixth Order attack from the Yuhai Sect, the strength of their battle formation was clear for all to see.

The smile on Dou Zhong’s face froze when he heard the name. After some time, he forced a chuckle, “It’s because all of us worked well together in the battle formation. It’s also because all of us grew stronger in recent years. After all, our cultivation realm plays a direct role in how strong the battle formation is...”

After he spoke, the Martial Dipper Realm cultivator speaking to him became even more excited. “Yeah! Senior Brother Dou, you’re right. Speaking of which, all of us have to thank True Immortal Shang for his trip to the foreign lands outside the Star Curtain. Otherwise, we wouldn’t have been able to refine additional fate dippers. He definitely underwent extremely dangerous experiences, but fortune and danger came hand in hand. He also managed to expand the You Continent even more, greatly benefiting all of us.”

Dou Zhong’s smile thawed a little when the other expert started talking, but his expression turned stiff at the end.

Seeing the look of envy and excitement on the other party’s face, Dou Zhong couldn’t help but cough dryly, “Yeah... You’re right. You guys were on the Spirit Ark that went out to retrieve the world fragment, right?”

“Yeah... There were others with us, but True Immortal Song picked out a few of them and left. You should know where they went...” The other expert revealed a look of regret while mumbling.

Dou Zhong’s eyelids started to jump and he continued, “If I wasn’t mistaken, you should be ranked pretty highly among that batch of experts. Why didn’t True Immortal Song bring you away?”

An embarrassed chuckle left his lips. “True Immortal Song had his reasons for choosing them. He didn’t choose us based on our cultivation realm and among the 7 people he chose to lead, only Senior Sister Yan is special due to her status as a Stargazer. Of the other 6, 3 of them are in the Martial Extermination Realm...”

“Oh...” Dou Zhong sighed softly, “The world outside the Star Curtain is really dangerous though.”

The other expert followed up without gestation, “Yeah, but the opportunities there are also endless.” After he spoke, he scratched his head slowly and mumbled, “That’s what True Immortal Shang said!”

“Yeah...” Dou Zhong grunted with his jaws tightly clenched, and he barely managed to maintain a smile on his face after hearing the name so many times. “Alright, let’s go. Gather everyone.”

A light flashed through the eyes of the other cultivator. “Are we entering the Holy Land ruins of the Yuhai Sect to take a look now?”

Dou Zhong glanced at him and said slowly, “The various factions joined hands to eliminate the Yuhai Sect. If we enter now, do you think anyone will believe us if we tell them that we only went in to take a look without touching anything?”

A look of confusion appeared on the face of the other cultivator of the Tongyou Institution. “What do we do now then?”

“Of course we’re going to help!” Dou Zhong finally lost his patience. “Even though the cultivators of the Yuhai Sect turned themselves into disgusting beings that don’t resemble humans and while being strangely beast-like, their combat strength is real. The other factions are able to gain a slight advantage with their battle formations, but it won’t be easy to defeat their opponents. We have to help them!”

“Oh!” The other cultivator of the Tongyou Institution seemed to have thought of something and asked, “Right, do the members of the Yuhai Sect use something called the “Man and Beast as One?”

As he spoke, he took out several jade scrolls and other objects from his spatial artifact. He eventually continued, “Senior brother instructed us to retrieve the treasures tossed out by the expert of the Yuhai Sect before he was killed. Most of his treasures were taken by others, other than these...”

“Man and Beast as One?” Dou Zhong received the jade scroll and scanned through its contents. His expression changed instantly and he gasped, “Did you look at the information recorded within?”

The cultivator of the Tongyou Institution who could be considered Dou Zhong’s junior brother revealed a look of shock and he quickly mumbled, “I only saw the general outline! I didn’t read it through...”

Dou Zhong turned serious and he asked in a low voice, “Did you say that other people also managed to get their hands on these treasures?”

Realizing something was wrong, the junior brother hesitated to respond, but he eventually mumbled, “Yeah... Most of them were obtained by wandering cultivators and those from smaller factions. After those jade scrolls were thrown out, a bunch of people fled after grabbing them and we couldn’t stop them if we tried.”

After speaking, he noticed the ugly expression on Dou Zhong’s face and he asked carefully, “Senior brother, what's the matter? Is something wrong?”

Dou Zhong sighed while glancing at the other cultivator. In the end, he shook his head slowly. “Don’t blame yourself... The other party planned so far ahead that he caught us by surprise. Hmm... Those crafty bastards...”

After he spoke, he thought of something and instructed, “Quick, tell the other factions that the other members of the Yuhai Sect will definitely carry around these jade scrolls. They have to prevent the scrolls from falling into the hands of random cultivators!”

Even though the secret art wasn’t a rank six inheritance, it could allow peak-tier Martial Dipper Realm experts to control a spiritual beast of the same level to gain Sixth Order fighting abilities.

If one managed to properly learn the technique of Man and Beast as One, they would be able to fully fuse with the spiritual beast, leveraging on its lifespan and they would then be comparable to True Immortals.

If that was the case, the cultivator who fused with the beast would eventually lose their humanity. They would become something between a man and a beast.

With the Yuhai Sect intentionally spreading the secret art, Dou Zhong and the other members of the Tongyou Institution found it hard to stop them. They could only hope that the True Immortals standing by would do something.

What he didn’t know was that when everything was happening, Ge Qingzhu and the rest were also caught up in trouble and had no ability to interfere with the matter with the scroll.