From Yan Zhaoge’s perspective, he actually felt that it was perfectly natural for these first and second-rate powers to harbor such feelings.
Martial practitioners, even more than ordinary people, would have strong feelings of pride and arrogance. Martial practitioners like the original shameless and cowardly Liu Shengfeng were a far smaller minority.
For martial practitioners who attained a certain degree of success, how many would be willing to settle for a life of mediocrity?
When their own strength became insufficient, and they recognized the reality of things, those who were willing to swear allegiance to another power for a lifetime were in the minority.
The difficulty of pressing on with only their own ability meant that seeking the help of external forces was also perfectly understandable.
However, the external force they turned to had to be scrutinized.
For example, turning to existences like the Nine Underworlds or the Flame Devils would be absolutely taboo.
The majority of cultivators, regardless of their scheming and planning to rise, would reject the Nine Underworlds and the Flame Devils.
After all, these were foreign powers that ate humans, drank human blood, and hoped to wipe out the human race. The devils also completely deviated from the human race, in addition to being the sworn public enemies of all humanity. Throwing in with their lot was something most people would reject.
However, there would always be a small number of people who would be able to ignore this and give in to the temptation. A large portion of the Decimating Abyss Organization members were like this.
Compared to the violent and bloodthirsty Flame Devils, the Nine Underworlds Evil Devils were far more deceptive and also harder to guard against.
Even though Yan Zhaoge and Elder Jun were just chatting, they still had to discuss this subject.
Knowing that the remnants of Black Nightmare Mountain had thrown in their lot with the Decimating Abyss Organization and that they mostly existed in the Wind Domain, it was clear that there were storm clouds on the horizon.
“Uncle Jun still doesn’t intend to assume the mantle of Chief?” Before Elder Jun left, Yan Zhaoge spoke in a calm and collected manner. “Now that the situation is becoming chaotic, a strong leader at the helm will do much to protect the sect in the upcoming stormy waters.”
Hearing what was said, Jun Zhiyuan lightly frowned as he pondered the other’s words.
He had no desire to engage in a power struggle, but with regards to his Howling Wind Sword Sect, he felt great affection and concern.
As he was seeing Jun Zhiyuan off, Yan Zhaoge clasped his hands behind his back and looked off into the distance. Jun Zhiyuan hesitated a moment as he rethought his previous decision, giving Yan Zhaoge peace of mind.
Rather, if Jun Zhiyuan had steadfastly persisted in his original decision, then Yan Zhaoge would truly be worried.
In fact, it could be said that if Jun Zhiyuan changed his mind and competed for the position of Chief, causing Elder Hong and Elder Bai to be worried, it would not upset Yan Zhaoge in the slightest.
Apart from receiving Elder Jun, Yan Zhaoge refused to admit any other visitors.
Besides Yan Zhaoge, Xu Fei and the other experts from Broad Creed Mountain seemed to be peacefully relaxing. In reality, they were closely monitoring every dip of the sandbank, every gust of wind, and every movement of the grass.
Bidding farewell to Elder Jun, Yan Zhaoge went into secluded cultivation again.
His goal in this time’s seclusion was to break through from the late stage Xiantian realm into Heavenly Connection realm.
Refining the body to the fullest, communicating with the heavens, and transcending mortality.
These three stages were respectively the pinnacles of the Body Refinement realm, Martial Scholar realm, and Martial Grandmaster realm.
These were the peaks, and also the boundaries of each realm. This also meant that most martial practitioners would begin to make extensive preparations in order to prepare to cross over the incomparable gulf that separated the different realms.
Yan Zhaoge was now about to step onto the first peak and experience even greater sceneries.
Time flowed like water as the hustle and bustle outside filtered into the quiet of the room.
One night, Yan Zhaoge sat as usual with his eyes closed, almost as if he was going to sleep.
An illusory light rose from the top of his head and suddenly solidified into reality.
As Yan Zhaoge opened his eyes, the dark and silent room suddenly lit up as if it was daytime.
At this moment, Yan Zhaoge successfully stepped into the Heavenly Connection stage.
Showing a faint smile, Yan Zhaoge stood up and pushed open the door.
Coincidentally, Ah Hu just so happened to step into the courtyard at this time. Looking at Yan Zhaoge, Ah Hu froze a moment before cracking an enormous grin and laughing. “Young Master, double happiness indeed.”
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 248: Double happiness
Yan Zhaoge did not hide the spiritual light above his head. With just a single look, Ah Hu could tell that the spiritual light connecting to the heavens and the earth had already turned from illusory to real, signifying that Yan Zhaoge had officially stepped into the tenth and final stage of the Martial Scholar realm, the Heavenly Connection stage.
“Double happiness?” Yan Zhaoge looked at Ah Hu, knowing that one of these referred to his stepping into the Heavenly Connection stage, not knowing what the other referred to.
Ah Hu smiled happily, “Young Master, news has come over from Broad Creed Mountain that the Family Head has already finished concocting the Heaven Returning Divine Pill that you discovered.”
Hearing his words, Yan Zhaoge also felt pleasantly surprised, “Oh, that was fast.”
Concocting the Heaven Returning Divine Pill was rather difficult. The pill had to be returned to the furnace nine times, and every single refinement took quite a lot of time.
With even a single mistake, the medicinal ingredients would all be rendered useless, and one would have to start all over.
While Yan Zhaoge had confidence in Yan Di’s cultivation base as well as attainments in alchemy, he had been prepared for it to take longer.
With good news having come over so quickly, it was also somewhat out of his expectations.
After silently calculating the time that had elapsed, Yan Zhaoge laughed, “Good fella; father succeeded with it in a single go.”
Ah Hu gave a simple and honest laugh, “I’m not too sure of that, but Family Head has indeed sent over the good news, saying that you can rest half your heart now.”
Yan Zhaoge raised his head slightly, murmuring to himself as he looked into the dark night sky, “Right, I can indeed rest half my heart.”
With the Heaven Returning Divine Pill having been successfully concocted, Yan Zhaoge was at least ninety percent confident that his Grand Master Yuan Zhengfeng would be able to recover from the old injuries that had been plaguing him all these years.
This way, with Yuan Zhengfeng’s solid foundation and outstanding talent, for him to take that final half-step that he had been stuck at for so long, Transcending Mortality and entering Sainthood, stepping into the Martial Saint realm, was really a sure thing.
Yuan Zhengfeng had already been waiting for this day for so many years.
While there were no absolutes in this world, with the strength and potential that Yuan Zhengfeng displayed, if not for his old injuries holding him back, he should have long ago achieved Sainthood.
If Yuan Zhengfeng successfully achieved Sainthood, Broad Creed Mountain which originally already possessed the Sacred Artifact, the Clear Qi Robe, would see its power directly skyrocket.
Even if the Sacred Sun Clan’s East Rising Martial Saint Huang Guanglie also improved further, this would at most return things to their current equilibrium. While there would still be pressure on Broad Creed Mountain, the situation wouldn’t get any wors
e.
Because Yan Zhaoge had pulled Infinite Boundless Mountain into their tripartite alliance, the situation would be even better than it had been a few years ago.
For it to be said that Yan Zhaoge could currently only rest half his heart, with the other half still tense, it was because there still existed some potential for change in the future.
If Yuan Zhengfeng really recovered from his old injuries with the help of the Heaven Returning Divine Pill, while he could assault the bottleneck heading into the Martial Saint realm, there was still a process that had to be gone through, with some time needed before he could truly achieve Sainthood.
This time when Yuan Zhengfeng remained in secluded cultivation would be a great trial for Broad Creed Mountain.
As long as nothing changed dramatically it would be fine. At most, Broad Creed Mountain would just temporarily shrink its defence perimeter and focus fully on defence.
But if during this time that Yuan Zhengfeng was in secluded cultivation, the Sacred Sun Clan’s Huang Guanglie just happened to leave seclusion, the situation would be very disadvantageous for Broad Creed Mountain.
Especially if Huang Guanglie successfully improved a step further as he emerged from seclusion, in which case disadvantageous would be insufficient to describe the situation with regard to Broad Creed Mountain.
Within this, risk still existed alongside opportunity.
However, having successfully concocted the Heaven Returning Divine Pill, it would give Broad Creed Mountain and Yuan Zhengfeng a higher chance of succeeding.
Thinking of this, Yan Zhaoge gave a mental thumbs up to his father.
With the Heaven Returning Divine Pill having successfully been concocted in a single attempt, much time had been saved. This was also equivalent to allowing Yuan Zhengfeng more time to prepare before attempting his breakthrough.
The time saved undeniably held great significance in terms of war potential, not simply being only a matter of the pill concoction itself.
Yan Zhaoge nodded repeatedly, “Not bad, not bad. Indeed double happiness, and compared to it, this happiness of my own doesn’t even count as much anymore.”
Now, Yan Zhaoge looked at Ah Hu, “By the way, how’s Pan-Pan?
Ah Hu gave a simple and honest laugh, “That guy’s been raised chubby and healthy by you, and is about to level up again very soon. If he can successfully deploy the power of fire and water, I believe that his improvements will be great.”
Yan Zhaoge nodded satisfiedly, “Pay more attention to him. Whatever’s good about this fat mound, there are two problems with him. Other than loving to eat, it’s his laziness. If you don’t press him, he’ll definitely slack.”
While he was somewhat different from the giant pandas of Yan Zhaoge’s memories, as long as Pan-Pan could sit, he wouldn’t stand, and as long as he could lie down, he wouldn’t sit; his laziness had truly reached a realm of its own.
Giant pandas usually seemed lazy, not loving to move. However, that was because they mainly ate bamboo. With their nutrient intake being very low, they did not like to move in order to preserve their stamina.
As for Pan-Pan, while he also loved eating bamboo, that was because he liked its taste. In truth, most of the things he ate were metals that were rich in spiritual qi.
Therefore, with him being such a lazy beast, despite the fact that he had no lack of good food, Yan Zhaoge felt very speechless at him.
Not mentioning Pan-Pan, after successfully stepping into the Heavenly Connection stage, Yan Zhaoge did not relax in his efforts, and instead began to move towards even higher heights.
Finding the Life Illuminating Immortal Stone earlier had been in preparation for his breakthrough into the Martial Grandmaster realm after having stepped into the Heavenly Connection stage.
However, before finally taking that step, Yan Zhaoge still required some amount of accumulation, solidifying his foundation further.
Those of the outside world only saw Yan Zhaoge progressing rapidly, his cultivation speed extremely shocking, yet most overlooked the fact that each of Yan Zhaoge’s steps were actually taken very stably and not lightly at all.
A minute on the stage, ten years behind the scenes.
Behind the scenes of the countless times that he shone dazzlingly before others, Yan Zhaoge’s diligence in cultivation exceeded most others.
Of those whom Yan Zhaoge often saw, even training maniacs like Shi Tie and Feng Yunsheng might not be as hardcore as him.
As Yan Zhaoge cultivated, time was also gradually passing by.
One day, Xu Fei suddenly appeared at Yan Zhaoge’s dwelling.
Yan Zhaoge opened the door in greeting, seeing Xu Fei standing calmly there. The first thing Xu Fei said upon seeing him was, “The Decimating Abyss is moving.”
“Where?” Yan Zhaoge didn’t waste his words, cutting to the chase.
Not wasting any time, the two set off shoulder to shoulder, Xu Fei saying as they walked, “Yunwu, the Wang Family.”
Yan Zhaoge nodded, and sighed.
His initial worries had not been unfounded.
The Wang Family of Yunwu in the Sand Region was a longtime Family of the Wind Domain, its history even longer than that of the Howling Wind Sword Sect.
Like the Howling Wind Sword Sect, Yunwu’s Wang family was a first-rate power within the Sand Region. They controlled a great amount of territory there and had quite a number of second-rate powers and some even smaller families and clans affiliated with it.
While the Wang Family was also subordinate to Broad Creed Mountain, from the looks of it now, a considerable number of those of the Wang Family were dissatisfied with the current situation.
Having the six great Sacred Grounds above them greatly limited the space for first-rate powers like the Wang Family to continue rising upwards.
No one was actually truly at fault in this matter. Everyone strived for higher and better, but the peak was of limited size. If the people below wanted to go up, the only way to do so was to knock someone else down.
It was this rule of the world that had given the Decimating Abyss and the Nine Underworlds some chances to strike.
This day, clouds surged and gales howled in Yunwu County of the Wind Domain’s Sand Region.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 249: As a father
HSSB249: As a father
Yunwu County was the ancestral ground of the Wang Family. Other than the Yunwu County, the Wang Family controlled a vast amount of surrounding territory.
The regions governed by the Wang Family neighboured those governed by the Howling Wind Sword Sect. Both were also bordered by the Great Western Desert, putting them rather close to Suzhou City.
Sending Yan Zhaoge, Feng Yunsheng and Ah Hu to the city gates of Suzhou City, Xu Fei said, “As the current Acting Elder of Suzhou City, possessing responsibilities here, I cannot accompany you this time. Be careful and stay safe.”
Yan Zhaoge lightly punched Xu Fei’s shoulder, “Rest easy, senior apprentice-brother Xu. We will pay attention; you just stay here and keep wary. The enemy may be outwardly targeting one place but actually aiming for another.”
Leaving Suzhou City, they rushed to the regions governed by the Wang Family.
Feng Yunsheng had specifically come to temper her blade as also sitting on Pan-Pan, she asked Yan Zhaoge, “If fallen practitioners appear, nothing naturally needs to be said, but what about those who harbour devilish intent but have yet to fall to the dark side?”
Ah Hu instantly also looked at Yan Zhaoge, whose figure bobbed slightly alongside Pan-Pan’s hurrying.
Yan Zhaoge said mildly, “Wanting to cause chaos, the Decimating Abyss will mostly likely be aiming for the same thing as that time at Clear Concealed Lake, setting up a Devilish Domain Grand Formation and inducing the descent of the Nine Underworlds.”
“Whether or not they have completely fallen, as long as they are opening the path for the Nine Underworlds, kill them. If our letting people off instead leads to the open
ing of the Nine Underworlds, the Evil Devils definitely won’t show us the same kindness. ”
Yan Zhaoge gazed into the distance, “The power of the Nine Underworlds and the Decimating Abyss to corrupt human hearts is too strong. If someone who is proficient in concealing his or her emotions does not fall, it would be very hard to tell. This precisely corroborates an old adage-you can know people’s faces, but you can never know their hearts.”
“Although we’ve been unceasingly investigating and cleaning up recently, with it having been effective to some extent, no one can guarantee that we have completely removed all the spies, especially those higher echelon experts.”
Yan Zhaoge knits his brows, his gaze rather gloomy, “While it is not nice to say, it must be noted that the higher the cultivation base of a martial practitioner, the more undetectable it would be should devilish intents arise within that martial practitioner’s heart, because they are generally much better at controlling themselves, with it very hard for bystanders to tell their authenticity.”
“Such people have firm wills, and would normally not fall to the dark side easily, but so long as devilish intent is born within their hearts, the more deeply rooted as well as stubborn they would be.”
Ah Hu and Feng Yunsheng both nodded, the latter saying softly, “The worst case scenario would be like that time at Clear Concealed Lake, with the enemy already fully aware of our preparations and arrangements. The Wang Family may just be an illusory lance or a trap.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “That’s right. Therefore, we have to raise our vigilance and promptly adapt and deal with the situation at hand as soon as we discover that something is wrong.”
Ah Hu shook his head from side to side, “The Nine Underworlds and the Decimating Abyss are really too troublesome in that regard.”
Yan Zhaoge said mildly, “There’s no ways about it. We can’t just grab every eyebrow and beard and suspect and maintain surveillance on every single person. That would not just keep everyone tense and afraid, it might very possibly also lead to countless false reports surfacing, with people being framed. At that time, the Decimating Abyss would the happy ones.”
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