**Originally translated by Incarneous, with edits
Various voices could be heard as Yan Zhaoge walked along the road.
“I pay my respects to senior apprentice-brother Yan.”
“Greetings, senior apprentice-brother Yan.”
These were the voices of various male disciples as they paid their respects while passing by.
“Junior apprentice-nephew Yan’s martial cultivation has advanced again. Wonderful! As expected from a leading figure of the younger generation, a genius among geniuses.”
“Elder Yan has a qualified successor. Truly, a tiger father will not have a useless dog of a son!”
These were the voices of various martial practitioners as they continuously sung his praise.
“Senior apprentice-brother Yan’s aura is becoming more imposing and powerful by the day, and yet he somehow looks gentle without a doubt…”
“Oiya, I feel the same way too. So it’s not just me huh?”
“But… but… the more he’s like this, the more I…”
“Right? Right?”
“He he, right what right? Shameless little girl.”
“Senior apprentice-sister! You… you… aren’t you the same!”
Okay. And those were the sounds of various female disciples experiencing their first awakening of love.
Yan Zhaoge flashed a brilliant smile at those female disciples, at the same time continuously repeating to himself within his mind, “Stay reserved. Keep cool.”
The burly man beside him released an extremely hearty laugh, “Young Master…”
Yan Zhaoge who was already used to his usual antics looked at him sideways, “Is there something else?”
The large man was his devoted personal attendant whose loyalty was beyond a doubt and was tasked to follow him everywhere.
Logically, as someone who crossed over, Yan Zhaoge should avoid the close associates of the body’s original owner in order to avoid being exposed.
However, that kind of action was originally a double-edged sword. Conversely, staying close to those associates would assist him in blending into the present world more quickly.
Fortunately, Yan Zhaoge received more than just a body from its previous owner. He also received that person’s memories.
Otherwise, even speaking the local language itself would be an insurmountable challenge.
“Young Master, I have already investigated that Ye Jing person. Even though he is suddenly showing massive improvement, he’s still not someone worth noting. But, the grudge he has against you; why don’t we…”
Yan Zhaoge could not resist quickly rolling his eyes. His speed ensured nobody noticed his odd behavior. “Yeah, without a doubt, it’s this pattern as expected.”
The attendant and entourage would act first to incite conflict. Once the underlings were defeated, the malicious young master would act personally because he felt his pride had been stung. The young master would be beaten till not even his mother would recognize his face, which would first incite his father’s and next his entire family’s involvement. In the end, the entire group would be annihilated.
Sounds like a perfectly plotted out script, right?
“Perfect my ass!” Forced to become villainous cannon fodder, Yan Zhaoge simply could not feel a single speck of positive emotion towards the role he had been assigned.
He had apparently gone from free and leisurely second generation genius who never even needed to work hard to a background cannon fodder who was destined to serve as a stepping stone on the ordained son of Heaven’s road to the top.
The thoughts appearing in Yan Zhaoge’s mind at this time were rather silly and nonsensical.
Even the more fortunate enemies of the ordained son of heaven would seldom receive a good end. They would act as the rival figure, the type that was as resilient and undying as a cockroach. They never died after each defeat; the next time they showed up, their strength would have improved. In reality, these rival figures were simply reusable products that helped the main character gather experience and equipment.
As for those less fortunate enemies, it’s doubtful whether they could survive even a couple of chapters before dying or worse.
And in normal cases, someone like Yan Zhaoge who had the right background to summon forth an even mightier father was simply the mini-boss who came before the big boss. Mini-bosses were not likely to live for more than a handful of chapters before going down the route of cannon fodder.
Also, the idea of he who strikes first gaining the upper hand did not apply. In accordance to the rules that governed these ordained sons of Heaven, any main character who suffered such a fate would simply be suppressed for a while before rising up once more with even greater momentum than before. That was often equivalent to gifting them a fortituous encounter, allowing them to grow stronger at an even faster rate.
In the end, those main characters would emerge unscathed, instead having grown stronger at an unthinkable rate. At this point, they would then hurry back and aim for the villainous young master’s face.
The Main Character halo was just that tyrannical and unreasonable. If it wanted to flatten the cannon fodder, the cannon fodder would just be flattened. The flattening could even be done in a hundred and eighty unique and original ways.
“As for this main character Ye, what will his magical plot device turn out to be? A super secret manual from before the Great Calamity? Or perhaps an unparalleled divine tool? Or even a portable wise old grandpa? Or maybe he’s someone’s reincarnation?”
Yan Zhaoge’s smile was slightly unnatural. He gave a hand wave, “There is no need to be concerned about him.”
The big man scratched his head, “As you say, Young Master.”
“Even though there seems to be a problem with the script, I, your elder brother, also have a magical plot device.”
The Great Calamity had created a new era. This was because there were differences in the worlds of before and after the Great Calamity, the route of martial cultivation having more or less changed. Even the physiology of people’s bodies was not exactly the same. Thus, Yan Zhaoge needed to adjust the various secret martial manuals within his mind to suit the current era. Were it not for this point, his cultivation would currently be soaring at an even greater rate.
After his arrival, besides carefully adapting to the new world and his new identity, most of Yan Zhaoge’s efforts had been focused on corroborating the knowledge stored within his mind.
And now, his efforts had borne fruit. It was time to soar.
So far, Yan Zhaoge had only worked on knowledge applicable to the cultivation levels of his current self and his past self. He had only ever attained certain cultivation realms; it wasn’t possible to convert his knowledge into practical application broadly across the entire cultivation spectrum.
Food needed to be eaten one mouthful at a time and journeys needed to be taken one step at a time.
Regardless, as his cultivation progressively increased and theories were proven to correspond with reality, a broader world had already appeared before Yan Zhaoge.
Not only did he possess expertise in the martial path, his knowledge in other fields such as artifact refinement and medicinal pill alchemy was also sufficient to create large waves in this era.
The investigation of the seed of Li Flame True Fire carried out by his subordinates just happened to be related to this.
If his experiment were successful, he would undoubtedly receive immense benefits.
Yan Zhaoge twitched his lips, “Dragon against dragon, a face-off between kings, let us see who the true dragon is. Perhaps this Ye Jing isn’t actually some main character propped up by destiny. Maybe I’m just being oversensitive and over imaginative. Let’s observe the situation a bit more first.”
Rather, Yan Zhaoge was more troubled by the tricky matter of how he should face the girl who had been ‘eaten’ by the former owner of his body.
To the current him, his first priority was to improve both his personal strength and his position within the sect.
As for beautiful women, he did not have time to waste on pursuing them, though he would also not reject those who openly came knocking on his doorstep.
The problem left behind by the original owner of his body was truly a pain in the ass.
Despite cursing and moaning on the surface, in truth, Yan Zhaoge did not actually take this problem to heart. He shook his head and appropriately dealt with the tasks at hand before leaving to recuperate at his own residence, where he sat in meditation and refined his aura-qi, waiting for the next day to arrive. Soon after, he left for the clan’s Assignment Hall.
Yan Zhaoge’s arrival immediately attracted everyone’s interest. Their eyes all focused on him.
Yet Yan Zhaoge’s expression remained natural. Taking a quick glance around, he saw an incomparably gorgeous young girl with a slender figure walking towards him.
This girl looked to be sixteen or seventeen years of age. Her features were already world class, even superior to that of the Lin girl. She seemed like a heavenly fairy, a creature which did not consume the food of mortals. Her only flaw lay in a pair of eyes that were a rare icy blue, which granted her entire person a cold and detached air.
This Sikong Qing was another outstanding latecomer from the younger generation. Although she was rather young, her fame had long since spread. Her martial talent was extraordinary, only inferior to Yan Zhaoge himself. She had been acclaimed as another Heaven’s favoured child of Broad Creed Mountain, receiving the attention of many Elders at an early age.
When Yan Zhaoge saw her, he once again had the urge to roll his eyes.
From what he knew, after having been discarded by the Lin girl, Ye Jing had somehow encountered Sikong Qing, and this was even before he had joined Broad Creed Mountain. Due to some type of fateful encounter, there was even a pretty good relationship between the two.
At the moment, their relationship remained at the level of pure friendship. But according to a certain script, she was a girl from a good background, her talent was good, her beauty was overflowing and she was a true ice lady without any feminine emotion, yet she happened to look favourably upon a seemingly average person.
Under the influence of Ye Jing’s main character aura, in time, this beauty who exceeded Miss Lin in every category would very likely become the empress to Ye Jing’s emperor.
And beside Sikong Qing, there happened to be a scrimpy youth who was currently staring at Yan Zhaoge with all his might.
This scrimpy youth was naturally Ye Jing.
Yan Zhaoge could distinctly detect flames that had been suppressed for a long time being emanated from Ye Jing’s gaze, flames that seemed as though they could explode forth at any moment.