HSSB98: A great harvest
As that palm landed, it was as though strange scenes departing from the ordinary had appeared before Yan Zhaoge's eyes.
It was as though the qi flow of the heavens and the earth could be seen, all coming together to give their support to Ye Jing.
When the times, the heavens and the earth give power together, the luck of the heavens and the earth do converge.
And with that one palm of his, the qi flow of the heavens and the earth gradually dissipated, turning illusory alongside the surging of the clouds and the rising of the wind.
"When the times, the heavens and the earth give power together, which lucky hero doth not possess freedom?"
Yan Zhaoge let out a carefree laugh as he gently blew towards that ethereal scene.
The winds surged along with the remnant clouds, as that illusory luck of the heavens and the earth was blown away and scattered as easily as simple smoke.
The deep crater before Yan Zhaoge's eyes was still continuing to collapse. Ye Jing having been turned into dust by that palm of his, only that mottled dark red ring still remained, which fell downwards towards the underground river.
"Disappearing just like this; who knows when it will recover its vitality, seeing the sky and the sun once more, taking the form of a fortuitous encounter for yet another hot-blooded youth, giving it a chance to soar up once again, a golden finger that defies the heavens wherever it points, achieving yet another legend and myth…"
Yan Zhaoge curled the corner of his mouth, "…As if."
Making a grabbing motion with his palm, he sucked the dark red ring from mid-air into it with the help of his aura-qi.
Stepping into the air, exerting a little bit of strength with his foot, Yan Zhaoge's figure rose from the bottom of the deep crater, flying outside of it.
Ah Hu came up to meet him, "Young Master."
Yan Zhaoge nodded, "Collect Yan Xu's body well, and also his belongings."
Ah Hu gave a simple and honest laugh, "Hehe, Young Master, you don't have to tell me that. His belongings-I took them all the moment I could."
Yan Zhaoge curled his lips, "En, I have always trusted you on that."
Ah Hu said, "Young Master, I've glanced through, and there really are quite a few good things inside!"
"What a pity that most of them, like that mid-grade spirit artifact of his, are damaged; that must have been caused by that attack of Elder Shi's."
Yan Zhaoge sighed, "That's only to be expected; otherwise, we also wouldn't have been able to take care of him that easily."
"However, at the very least, there should still be some rewards," Yan Zhaoge perked himself up.
As a Principal Elder of a territory, Yan Xu's private stash was rather abundant.
He would not carry many of these belongings along with him, rather keeping them safe within his own private residences.
The things that he had on him were either something that he had urgent need of recently, or something that could help him increase his current combat ability.
While there was a shortage of artifacts as well as spirit artifacts, as the Principal Elder of Broad Creed Mountain, one of the few Sacred Grounds of this world, the powerful weapons that were suited for someone of Yan Xu's cultivation would naturally not be lacking.
Besides that mid-grade spirit artifact, the Hidden Clear Sunlight Sword, Yan Xu also had two accompanying low-grade spirit artifacts.
Although neither of them was as powerful as the Hidden Clear Sunlight Sword, they both still had their own subtle uses.
A protective light armour-while unlike Ah Hu's Black Nightmare Armour, it did not possess dual functions in being able to both attack and defend, it was not inferior in terms of defensive ability.
A green belt-specifically made to coordinate with the Wind Calamity of Broad Creed Mountain's Wind Fire Calamities, causing martial practitioners to be like tigers given wings when executing the Wind Calamity movement techniques.
These two low-grade spirit artifacts having fallen into Yan Xu's hands, unleashing their true power under normal circumstances, their use would definitely be extremely great.
A pity that whether it was Yan Xu or them, they were completely not on the same level of power as Shi Tie at all.
Earlier, when Yan Xu had wanted to escape, he had directly activated the power of the green belt to withstand Shi Tie's blow, whereas the light armour had automatically moved to protect him.
As a result, the two low-grade spirit artifacts had suffered the same fate as their owner and been damaged.
Looking at them now, they were riddled with cracks, from which spiritual qi was leaking out unceasingly. Let alone not being able to use them, they were about to be completely destroyed.
The extent of their damage was even more severe than it was for the Hidden Clear Sunlight Sword.
Especially that light armour; while it had been unable to perform its function when Ah Hu had attacked Yan Xu with the Sun Rain earlier, it had still suffered a portion of the damage from that attack.
A little pained, Ah Hu said, "But it's a spirit artifact."
Having followed by Yan Di's side since young, his vision was far broader than that of others. However, seeing a spirit artifact damaged to this extent, he still felt that it was a pity.
Yan Zhaoge scrutinised the artifacts for a moment, then, not saying a word, rummaged through Yan Xu's belongings, from which he retrieved a few crystalline rocks in the form of ice.
Ah Hu looked, "Young Master, these seem to be the Suppressive Ice Rocks which martial practitioners use to temporarily suppress and treat their injuries."
"Get me some Caltrop Flower Grass," Yan Zhaoge said as he crushed the Suppressive Ice Rocks.
Ah Hu was somewhat puzzled, his entire brain full of question marks.
He did have Caltrop Flower Grass on him, but such spirit grass primarily only served as a guiding drug for the medicinal properties of a few unique medicines.
Whether it was the Caltrop Flower Grass or the Suppressive Ice Rocks, both were only used by the living. Neither could help in the refining of artifacts.
However, he still did as was asked of him, giving Yan Zhaoge some Caltrop Flower Grass.
Receiving the Caltrop Flower Grass, Yan Zhaoge clapped out with his palms. The spirit grass dried up, and he crushed their leaves to dust, adding it to the fine powder that was left of the Suppressive Ice Rocks.
As the two met, a green smoke was gradually emitted from their mix as they actually began burning up on their own.
Yan Zhaoge waved his hands, and the blazing flames landed on those spirit artifacts of Yan Xu's.
While they still remained weak, the outflow of spiritual qi gradually stopped as it ceased to leak out.
Yan Zhaoge nodded, "Some emergency treatment will have to do for now. Afterwards, put them back in the Internal Crystal Furnace and refine them once more, and they will have a chance of recovering. Now, at the very least, we can be assured they won't be completely destroyed."
Ah Hu stared till his eyes saw stars, "Young Master, this…this…"
Yan Zhaoge appeared as though there was totally nothing out of the ordinary at all, "In this boundless world, countless wonders abound. In our daily lives, we should try to gather up all those various minor bits of general knowledge as well as little methods of doing things that we encounter. Who knows, they might come in useful sometime."
Ah Hu opened his mouth wide for quite a few moments before finally closing it again, as he now exclaimed with a fawning look on his face, "Young Master, you're really a genius!"
Yan Zhaoge rolled his eyes, "Your expression is too fake."
Ah Hu chortled happily.
Yan Zhaoge shook his head, his attention falling on yet another of Yan Xu's belongings.
As opposed to his spirit artifacts which were currently damaged and unable to be used, this thing actually drew Yan Zhaoge's attention even more.
"Oh, how rare; Yan Xu actually has one of these things?" Yan Zhaoge's eyes shone as he beheld a red orb within his palm that was bright red as blood, clear as crystal.
Within the bloodred orb, it was as though there was a liquid substance constantly flowing about.
The orb faintly emanated a bit of yin qi as well as baleful qi.
Ah Hu's large head squeezed over, looking at it from quite some time before he asked hesitantly, "Young Master, isn't this thingy a Blood Refining Orb?"
Yan Zhaoge nodded, "That's right, it is precisely a Blood Refining Orb."
The Blood Refining Orb was a rare, unique treasure. It only had a slight possibility of being found in battlefields which were like hell on earth, where blood flowed into rivers.
This was one of the favourites of martial practitioners who trained in the demonic arts. However, the Blood Refining Orb itself was actually not bloody and brutal, only being a crystallisation of the purest of yin qi and blood qi.
Demonic martial practitioners could use it to cultivate, whereas normal martial practitioners, when heavily injured, could also use it to replenish their qi and blood.
It was only that absorbing the Blood Refining Orb required one to be seated in the meditative position for a rather long period of time. Having been murderously pursued by Yan Zhaoge so closely, Yan Xu had not had the time to do so.
"This thing's greatest function is actually that it can be used to refine a Blood Devil Plate; just that I'm not sure whether in this time and age, there is still anyone who knows that this can be done."
"Unexpected gains; what a great harvest, what a great harvest."
Smiling, Yan Zhaoge happily kept the Blood Refining Orb well.
He checked over the other valuable items as well as precious medicines that Yan Xu had on him, collecting all of them.
Next, Yan Zhaoge took out the dark red ring that he had obtained from Ye Jing.
HSSB99: The fire seed within his dantian
Yan Zhaoge rubbed the ring that was riddled with cracks.
This ring had been in the form of light earlier, even having merged into Ye Jing's body. Now, it had regained its true form once more.
It was only that the ring which had originally been dazzling and eye-catching like flames was currently dim and completely without light as it appeared filled with dust, as well as extremely mottled.
Numerous cracks riddled the exterior of the ring, resembling spiderwebs as the ring looked as though it could shatter at any moment.
However, holding the ring within his hand, Yan Zhaoge could still vaguely feel the blazing heat contained inside of it.
Yan Zhaoge narrowed his eyes, focusing his mind to gradually sink within the ring.
The scene before his eyes instantly changed.
First was pitch darkness. Next, in that darkness where one would be unable to see even their own outstretched hand, a glow suddenly lit up.
The glow was actually extremely weak, only a faint line of light. However, because the surrounding environment was completely dark, even that one line of light appeared extremely dazzling and eye-catching.
Looking over carefully, it seemed to be but a mere spark of fire, flickering with a crimson red glow.
The spark slowly grew bigger and bigger, the light of the fire correspondingly blazing brighter and brighter as it gradually expanded into a small ember.
The flame blazed stronger and stronger, its strength increasing more and more, from a small ember, turning into a large, dominating fire that surged high into the skies, till eventually, it had formed an infinite sea of flames.
At the end, the darkness had completely vanished, the glow of fire illuminating the heavens and the earth as all before them was completely a world of flame.
All other objects no longer existed, only leaving behind a burning flame blazing through the heavens.
Yan Zhaoge calmed himself down, slowly proceeding through the sea of flames, feeling the concept from which their strength stemmed.
All around him was blazing fire, but observing the area carefully, he could feel that although the flames were all around, they were not chaotic and unordered.
Like the tides of seawater, the flames too possessed their own pulse and natural direction of flow.
Scrutinising and pondering on it carefully, Yan Zhaoge gradually came to an understanding.
The surrounding flames engulfing this world which had originally appeared chaotic, now seemed to take form before Yan Zhaoge's eyes.
The flames seemed to have solidified into strange characters, lining up and arranging themselves into innumerable rows of words before intersecting and moving past one another, flowing non-stop within the air, layer and layer stacked upon one another.
As Yan Zhaoge looked at these words, the corners of his mouth gradually curved upwards, "Words from before the Great Calamity, created by the Flame Devil Emperor."
"Although I have not specifically done any research into it before, I am still familiar with some general laws about this. Half-guessing and half attempting blindly, I can also come to understand these contents."
"As expected, it is indeed the legacy of the Flame Devil Emperor."
Yan Zhaoge didn't know whether he should laugh or he should cry, "As a person of the Eight Extremities World, having come into possession of such a legacy, I now really don't know if I should say that Ye Jing was lucky or unlucky."
Carefully scanning over these strange characters, also comprehending the concept behind their power, Yan Zhaoge gradually achieved some understanding within his heart.
"As expected, it is very different from the current cultivation methods of the Flame Devil tribe. As an expert from before the Great Calamity, part of the Flame Devil Emperor's legacy also included the 'One Dao Birthing Many' technique."
"Borrowing the one dao of fire, and from it birthing numerous concepts."
Yan Zhaoge thought, "It was only that accompanied by the changes in Ye Jing's mental state, his cultivation methods began leaning towards that of the current Flame Devil tribe more and more."
The flames coiled up, gradually forming a massive sealed door.
Feeling it, Yan Zhaoge unconsciously retreated from the world of flames, returning to reality.
He activated the spiritual energy of the seed of Li Yan True Fire, leading it to enter the ring as the ring which was riddled with cracks, as though being nourished, flickered slightly with a faint red light.
Yan Zhaoge's consciousness descended into it once more. Now, he saw that the sealed door had already opened.
Within the door, the sky was completely dark red in colour, lava erupting forth from within the earth and spraying about in all directions.
The scene of the end of the world which he had seen previously, once again appeared before Yan Zhaoge's eyes.
The all-encompassing flames slowly solidified within the air, gradually forming the illusory image of a massive divinity of flame, ancient and powerful.
An air of great calamities, great destruction, great suffering emanated from him, desolate and ancient, completely different from the style of the Eight Extremities World today.
It was only that because it had been damaged first by Shi Tie and then again by Yan Zhaoge, the ring was currently abnormally weak.
Whether it was the dark red sky or the lava-filled earth, this world of flame was riddled with numerous pitch-black cracks, the very space seeming as though it might collapse at any moment.
While the aura of that massive divinity of flame still spoke of the strength of its origins as well as background, looking at it now, it also seemed much more mistlike and illusory than before.
Yan Zhaoge met the gaze of that massive divinity of flame. Within its gaze, it was as though real emotions had surfaced.
The powerful lifeform seemed like it was a true existence of this world, rather than just a sliver of aura, a mere shadow of its former self.
Meeting its gaze, Yan Zhaoge felt as though his emotions were slightly thrown into turmoil.
He became very temperamental and unstable, an irritable feeling welling up within its heart as he only wanted to destroy and vent.
Yan Zhaoge's gaze flickered as he stabilised his mind. Those violent negative emotions were instantly quelled.
The all-encompassing flames once again took the form of numerous strange, ancient characters, lining themselves up before Yan Zhaoge's eyes.
Staring at these characters, Yan Zhaoge slowly deciphered, "Sacred Heavenly Fire Scripture…is it?"
As he continued deciphering them, these lines of characters transformed into numerous streaks of flame, flowing within Yan Zhaoge's body.
Yan Zhaoge could only feel that the meridians of his entire body had become scorching hot as a result, as the remnant qi of the Li Yan True Fire that still resided within all his orifices grew more and more restless.
It was as though countless heaps of firewood had come into contact with a spark, wanting to blaze up together all at once.
Yan Zhaoge's expression was calm as within his dantian's qi ocean, the chaotic mass of qi that was concealed beneath layers and layers of clear qi abruptly rotated in reverse.
The scorching hot feeling permeating throughout his entire body instantly found a goal, as like a hundred rivers entering an ocean, it converged in the direction of the chaotic mass of qi within Yan Zhaoge's dantian all at once.
The streams of heat finally condensed into a fire seed within the chaotic mass of qi that flickered with the dim glow of fire.
The clear qi produced through the Clear Qi Profound Art converged slowly, as that chaotic mass of qi came to be concealed once more.
Yan Zhaoge smiled. Of the supreme secret scriptures that had been stored within the Divine Palace, he had chosen to cultivate in the Peerless Heavenly Scripture. Other than how powerful it was, one of the major reasons for this was a special, major characteristic that it possessed.
Chaos is peerless. It has no beginning and no end, being able to tolerate all things, birth all things, exterminate all things.
The strongest point of the Peerless Heavenly Scripture was its extreme tolerance, being able to store, accumulate and in effect assimilate other martial scriptures into itself while not revealing any traces of this whatsoever, moreover even being able to emulate as well as switch between said possessed arts after the assimilation was complete.
Like Broad Creed Mountain's direct lineage Clear Qi Profound Art.
Like this Sacred Heavenly Fire Scripture.
In cultivating in it, he naturally wouldn't become like Ye Jing.
Yan Zhaoge nodded slightly. The Sacred Heavenly Fire Scripture indeed had its unique areas.
It just so happened that it would also be useful in his upcoming experiments.
As he returned to the world of reality, Ah Hu was currently standing by the side, gazing into the distance.
Yan Zhaoge kept the ring, himself also gazing into the distance.
There, an inverted massive dark, black hemisphere engulfed the boundless heavens and the earth. It was precisely the unique Twilight Dark Moon domain of the Sacred Sun Clan's Twilight Lord.
Within the hemisphere, a glazed golden light was flashing interminably.
As time passed, the glazed golden light had been getting brighter and brighter. Now, it began penetrating out from the hemisphere.
Finally, cracks appeared on the top of the hemisphere as it began to shatter, a golden light rising to the heavens!
A faint figure could be seen at its centre, seemingly rising slowly into the air!
"Eldest apprentice-uncle really is eldest apprentice-uncle," Yan Zhaoge praised as the Ah Hu beside him nodded repeatedly in agreement.
Still, Ah Hu's expression soon changed as he turned to look elsewhere into the distance.
From there, there seemed to be a powerful domed aura currently approaching, obscuring the heavens and covering the earth!
From the fist intent it contained, it was evidently someone from the Sacred Sun Clan.
The newcomer's cultivation, was even higher than the Twilight Lord's!
Ah Hu said in a low tone, "I'm afraid that, it's that grandfather of Xiao Shen's."
Yan Zhaoge similarly looked towards it, a distant look on his face.
HSSB100: Things get more and more major!
Teaser:
A terrifying and powerful aura, resembling the boundless sky and the boundless sea, slowly appeared in the distance.
In the distant horizon, a dazzling golden light shone, resembling the sun rising from the east at dawn.
Touched by that glow, the domain of black night caused by the Twilight Dark Moon of the Twilight Lord which had originally already begun shattering appeared even more fragile than before.
The black night finally passed, the sun rising into the sky as all was bright once more.
Yan Zhaoge looked into the distance, murmuring, "The legacy of the Sacred Sun Clan; the cultivation of a Transcending Mortality Martial Grandmaster."
The fourth and final stage of the Martial Grandmaster realm was known as the Transcending Mortality stage.
Transcending Mortality, Entering Sainthood.
Having stepped into this realm meant that a martial practitioner could officially begin preparing for their breakthrough into the Martial Saint realm.
Generally speaking, like martial practitioners at the peak of the Martial Scholar realm, the Heavenly Connection stage, most Transcending Mortality Martial Grandmasters would go into secluded cultivation to prepare for their breakthrough.
Transcending Mortality experts were seldom active within the world, most of them holing up somewhere to cultivate, hoping to step past that final boundary of the mortal realm, instantly achieving Sainthood!
Achieving Sainthood did not only entail a great leap in power; a martial practitioner's longevity would also increase greatly as a result.
Therefore, Transcending Mortality Martial Grandmasters were seldom active.
But at this very moment, right before Yan Zhaoge's eyes, it seemed like a Transcending Mortality Martial Grandmaster had actually descended!
…
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