An ancient, metallic seal appeared in his hands that was long and had the shape of a rectangular prism, resembling a short sword though it possessed no blade.
The tip of the sword was blunt with a seal inscribed with patterns that were simple yet abstruse.
It was precisely the high-grade Sacred Artifact that he had obtained from Shen Lingzi, the Light Yin Sword Seal.
An ancient, desolate aura emanated from the ancient seal in the form of a sword, seemingly traversing millennia as it extended to the present.
Yan Zhaoge smiled.
With the Peerless Heavenly Scripture, the incomplete version of the Aeon Light Heavenly Scripture he had previously obtained and this Light Yin Sword Seal, he was highly confident that he would be able to project and reproduce the entire Aeon Light Heavenly Scripture.
While some of the personal interpretations of the Primordial Heavenly Emperor and Shen Lingzi would definitely be integrated within, not being purely the original version, this was already sufficient.
In the midst of cultivating, Yan Zhaoge would be able to use the Peerless Heavenly Scripture to slowly adjust it as necessary.
Still, the Light Yin Sword Seal was still a high-grade Sacred Artifact at the end of the day as it still contained the remnant sword-intent of Shen Lingzi, formerly of the mid Immortal Bridge stage.
Some time and effort would still be needed for him to tame and refine it before obtaining the concept within.
Still, Yan Zhaoge was not in a rush.
After keeping the Light Yin Sword Seal, his gaze fell upon that shrivelled leaf of the Ginseng Tree once more, “A pity, its life force is extinguished…”
The Ginseng Tree was a spiritual seed of the heavens and the earth, the spiritual force contained within being top-tier even amongst the various treasured heavenly trees.
Conversely, though, if its lifeforce had been extinguished, even a deity would be hard pressed to save it.
This leaf that Yan Zhaoge was holding was already shrivelled. While he possessed the Life Creation Heavenly Scripture, he was unable to think of anything at the present moment.
He simply kept the leaf before continuing to check on his other spoils of war.
Very unexpectedly, Guan Lide, a late Immortal Bridge Martial Saint, was actually exceptionally poor.
Yan Zhaoge’s spirits inevitably fell somewhat at this.
With Guan Lide’s cultivation base and status, having been in the World beyond Worlds for so many years, even the things he travelled around with should logically be very abundant.
From the looks of it now, however, he was even poorer than Gu Zhang and He Dongcheng of the early Immortal Bridge stage.
Aside from his high-grade Sacred Artifact, the Dawn Star Prime Sun Crown, as well as a few other accompanying mid-grade Sacred Artifacts, he did not possess anything else of value, causing Yan Zhaoge to be greatly disappointed.
“It is said that while Guan Lide usually moves and acts alone, he has personal disciples as well.”
Yan Zhaoge pondered, “In coming to the Royal Reed Sea, he has always acted personally without any disciples or followers with him. It looks like they must be handling something for him, like helping to guard over a pill furnace, set up a formation, forge an artifact or whatnot.”
It was indeed possible that Guan Lide could have been preparing to forge a major treasure.
Perhaps his earlier accumulation had mostly been invested into forging this thing.
Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips. With how Guan Lide had staged a robbery amidst a fire and brought additional danger to Broad Creed Mountain, he felt that he should not stop with just killing him. He should really reciprocate and go invading Guan Lide’s residence in return.
Still, with Guan Lide himself having already died now, the Southeastern Exalt would most likely want to protect his descendants.
The dead were already dead. However dissatisfied the Southeastern Exalt was with Guan Lide, it was all already over. At a time like this, the past ties between them would instead serve more of a use.
Being able to understand this, Yan Zhaoge just shrugged, thinking about other matters instead.
“Shen Lingzi, Daoist Shi and King Xuancheng should have left the Royal Reed Sea back then because the Primordial Heavenly Emperor had a new task assigned to them. What could it be?” Yan Zhaoge pondered, “This Emperor has many plans indeed.”
While many thoughts circulated in Yan Zhaoge’s mind as well, they were not just about sorting out his many new spoils of war.
He was picking out some of the various treasures he had obtained this time so as to pave the way towards a conception of his.
That conception was how to completely bring about the collapse of a wound of the sky.
This was no joke. Yan Zhaoge was truly considering this problem very seriously.
As if proving the importance of this problem Yan Zhaoge was considering, a piece of news was quickly transmitted over from the border.
While they had not fallen to a clear disadvantage in that battle, the attacks of those of the southern Blazing Heaven Territory had instead eased.
Their attacks had only eased. It was not that they had retreated.
On the contrary, after their attacks had eased, they had displayed an intention of advancing deeper into the flanks.
It was as if they were opening up the central battlefield for some entity whilst also preparing for a large scale invasion of the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory.
Yan Zhaoge’s first thought upon hearing the news was that the Southern Exalt, Zhuang Shen, was about to personally take to the field.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 888: Tenth level of the Martial Saint realm, body of a Human Immortal
HSSB888: Tenth level of the Martial Saint realm, body of a Human Immortal
The battle between the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory and the southern Blazing Heaven Territory this time would ultimately be decided between the Southern Exalt Cao Jie and the Southern Exalt Zhuang Shen.
However, many signs from before indicated that the Primordial Heaven Emperor who stood behind the Grand Xuan Dynasty was likely going to intervene in this matter.
It was because of that that the Southern Exalt Zhuang Shen and the southern Blazing Heaven Territory had acted so domineeringly, stirring the flames of war between the two sides.
And if the Southern Exalt Cao Jie was locked down by the Primordial Heaven Emperor and hindered from participating in the battle, there was no one in the entire southeastern Yang Heaven Territory who would be able to stand in the way of the Southern Exalt Zhuang Shen.
Viewing the overall situation, things were actually not much advantageous for the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory as well as Yan Zhaoge and Broad Creed Mountain in the Royal Reed Sea.
This had not stopped Yan Zhaoge and Broad Creed Mountain from retaliating when the Grand Xuan Dynasty had attacked them.
Still, after having resolved the problem that was the Grand Xuan Dynasty, Yan Zhaoge had to consider how to deal with this potential threat.
Analysing how to destroy wounds of the sky was just one aspect of it.
Destroying a wound of the sky would not prevent martial practitioners from the corresponding lower world from ascending into the World beyond Worlds.
It would just stop these lower world martial practitioners who were beneath the fourth level of the Martial Saint realm from travelling to the World beyond Worlds with the help of external treasures.
At the same time, it would also prevent experts of the World beyond Worlds from descending directly into that lower world.
This was a problem that could arise in the short term. If the southern Blazing Heaven Territory won and occupied the Royal Reed Sea, when Broad Creed Mountain in the World beyond Worlds moved away from this place, the wound of the sky in the Spirit Inheritance Region would be a problem then.
The wound of the sky that led from the Phoenix Bearing Region to the Vast Ocean World was still fine. After all
, the Vast Ocean World was not directly connected to the Eight Extremities World.
However, the wound of the sky in the Spirit Inheritance Region led directly to the Eight Extremities World.
If Broad Creed Mountain in the World beyond Worlds had to move, they could not leave this place to their enemies.
Of course, Yan Zhaoge was working on two different types of preparations. Apart from analysing a way to completely seal the wound of the sky, he was also collecting materials to quickly produce a treasure similar to Heaven Connecting Jade.
It was just that these treasures were rare and in great demand at the end of the day, thus being rather hard to acquire.
Since Yuan Zhengfeng had gone to the border and Broad Creed Mountain was also paying great attention to the battle situation there, the news was sent back in a very timely manner.
Still, right after Yan Zhaoge received this news, the scenes of the heavens and earth up ahead suddenly began vaguely changing.
The spiritual qi circulation of the heavens and earth had clearly changed, vaguely becoming disorderly and chaotic.
Yan Zhaoge exited the room that he had been in, standing atop Broad Creed Mountain as he gazed westward where the southern Blazing Heaven Territory and the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory intersected.
The sky in the west had shockingly turned fiery red.
Roiling waves of heat unceasingly shot over.
Beside him, Ah Hu had a solemn expression on his face, “Young Master, the Southern Exalt has come killing over so quickly?”
Yan Zhaoge gazed towards the west, “Not yet. He has just arrived at the border. Still, the Southern Exalt Zhuang Shen has indeed moved personally this time.”
Ah Hu was wide-eyed and tongue-tied, “Although we are not far away from the border, there are still the Desert Mountain Region and the Clear Scenic Region between us, at least. He stirred up a disturbance at the border, and we are able to see it even here?”
“What else did you expect?” Yan Zhaoge casually answered, “Tenth level of the Martial Saint realm, a Human Exalt. That is not any simple existence but one truly at the peak of the human realm, right between the human and Immortal realms as just surpassing that bottleneck would bring them into the Immortal realm.”
“Why else would he be called an Exalt?”
Ah Hu touched his head, unconsciously shrinking back his neck.
Seeing this, Yan Zhaoge laughed, “Before the time of the Great Calamity, experts of the tenth level of the Martial Saint realm were commonly called Human Immortals or Pseudo Immortals, meaning that they were just a single step away from becoming an actual Immortal.”
“When we martial practitioners cultivate, having broken through space to see true Divinity, refining our acupoints to achieve Divinity, the more of our acupoints that achieve Divinity and resonate with the stars of the actual universe, the more powerful we will be and the higher our cultivation bases.”
“Having attained certain heights, reaching the seventh level of the Martial Saint realm, we would be able to see the shadow of the door of Immortality, treading upon the bridge leading to the Immortal realm. That is why it is called the Immortal Bridge stage.”
Yan Zhaoge pointed towards the fiery red sky in the west, “Meanwhile, the tenth level of the Martial Saint realm is the true stage of grand completion. It refers to when all the acupoints of the martial practitioner have achieved true Divinity, resonating with the actual stars of the universe. Having succeeded, the universe within their body would virtually be no different from the actual universe.”
Experts of the tenth level of the Martial Saint realm could be considered as standing at the end of the Immortal Bridge with the door to Immortality standing before them.
If they were able to push open this door, the word ‘human’ could then be dropped from the term ‘Human Immortal’.
Looking as Ah Hu who had come to gradually understand things, Yan Zhaoge said, “All the acupoints having achieved Divinity together, resonating with the actual stars of the sky, one’s inner universe would virtually be completely real then as it would bring about a rebirth-like transformation in a martial practitioner. This is actually also preparation for pushing open the door to Immortality.”
If there was even one acupoint that had still yet to be refined, achieving Divinity with the rest, there would be an intrinsic, qualitative difference. Hence, the distance between the ninth and tenth levels of the Martial Saint realm was great indeed.
It far exceeded the difference between the ninth and tenth levels of the Martial Scholar and Martial Grandmaster realms.
Those above were Immortals, those below were humans. Thus, they were called Human Immortals.
This was the origin of the term Human Exalt.
Yan Zhaoge said, “There are many obscure acupoints in the human body that are extremely difficult to get to resonate with the stars in the sky. Therefore, it gets harder to cultivate the higher up one goes. Some experts of the late Immortal Bridge stage just have a few acupoints which have yet to be refined. However, just these few acupoints are generally like the distance between the far reaches of the earth as refining them is as hard as ascending to the heavens.”
Ah Hu asked nervously, “Young Master, might anything happen to the old Chief then?”
Yan Zhaoge set off for the sect’s main hall at Heaven Rising Peak, saying as they walked, “That should not happen. The Shadow Mountain Sword King and the other experts of the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory should retreat decisively. As long as Grand Master leaves in a timely manner along with the rest, there shouldn’t be a problem then.”
Ah Hu’s expression relaxed somewhat, “Young Master, is there anything special here?”
Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips, “The Southeastern Exalt Zhuang Shen cultivates in the Phoenix True Form Scripture which is powerful indeed. Still, there are also many restrictions to it.”
“Wutong Slope does not have any techniques for cultivating in the dawn mist of moral virtue. That can be ignored.”
“I am not clear on whether the Southern Exalt is proficient in the rippling water of holy virtue. If he is, he will have to restrict himself from doing things like bullying the weak as the strong as much as possible.”
“As he cultivates in the white qi of nether virtue, his life force is constantly washed with the killing tribulation. Still, on the contrary, he needs to live some breathing room for people as he cannot do anything like chasing people down mercilessly and relentlessly.”
Here, Yan Zhaoge curled his lips, “Of course, it is not that he really cannot do it. It is just that it would be of no benefit to his cultivation. If done more, it could even be detrimental, delaying the progress of his cultivation or even causing it to regress altogether. It could even hinder his future cultivation.”
“As for whether or not he can do anything contrary to the five virtues and how much of this he can do, the martial practitioner himself will have to weigh and decide this.”
Hearing this, Ah Hu nodded, “If the Shadow Mountain Sword King, the old Chief and the rest do not defend to the death, forcibly resisting the Southern Exalt, there should be no need for the Southern Exalt to act ruthlessly.”
Yan Zhaoge arrived at the main hall of the Heaven Rising Peak, looking towards the west.
The western horizon had already turned completely fiery red as it was even extending over in this direction.
Yan Zhaoge raised his brows, “Towards me, he would definitely act.”
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 889: Southern Exalt
HSSB889: Southern Exalt
Inside the great hall, Yan Di was currently viewing at a light projection that depicted illusory scenes of the west.
Looking at that fiery crimson light that swept across the horizon, Yan Di asked, “The Southern Exalt, Zhuang Shen, has personally moved?”
Yan Zhaoge said, “There is no one aside from him in the Southern Blazing Territory who can create such a domineering scene.”
> He crossed his arms, “Similarly, if Cao Jie is unable to act on the side of our southeastern Yang Heaven Territory, no one here will be able to stop him.”
“The Royal Reed Sea will fall, and the defensive lines of the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory would have to be continually pulled back.”
Yan Zhaoge lightly rubbed his temples, “Still, he will definitely capitalise on his momentum and advance deeper in, pursuing and attacking till they successfully force Golden Court Mountain to hand over Tang Yonghao.
The ultimate, foremost goal of the southern Blazing Heaven Territory was Tang Yonghao and that phoenix bone which contained the dawn mist of moral virtue. Everything else was less important compared to that.
“Yes, and they might ask to hand me over too,” Yan Zhaoge paused for a moment before continuing.
Yan Di asked, “You said earlier that you want to collapse the wound of the sky here in the Spirit Inheritance Region?”
Yan Zhaoge answered, “Time is tight and I am not greatly confident of success. If we cannot succeed, I will suppress my cultivation base and descend to the Eight Extremities World to guard the entrance to the wound of the sky.”
If everyone’s cultivation bases were suppressed as they descended to the lower worlds, Yan Zhaoge would not mind it even in the Southern Exalt personally chased him all the way there.
Yan Di did not speak as he quietly looked at the western sky in the light projection which was all red.
The scene of light suddenly shook as if having been affected by an external force.
Then, the light projection soon distorted before it finally fell apart.
Yan Zhaoge said in a heavy tone, “He’s here.”
All-encompassing fiery light quickly swept through the border of the two territories before entering the southeastern Yang Heaven Territory through the westernmost region of the Royal Reed Sea, the Clear Scenic Region that directly bordered the southern Blazing Heaven Territory.
The Endless Magnetic Storms in the seas of the Clear Scenic Region were currently at their mightiest.
History's Strongest Senior Brother c1-1474 Page 488
