HSSB1167: The battle that shook the World beyond Worlds
“I will be making a trip to Kunlun Mountain next to return the Origin Opening Sword,” Yan Zhaoge smiled, “I must also settle some affairs at the Heavenly Mysteries Pavilion. When I see Xiao Ai and mention this to her later on, she will definitely gallop over here at once without a second thought.”
Xue Chuqing smiled too, “That child…”
“Right, mother, do you want to meet junior apprentice-sister Sikong?” Yan Zhaoge asked, “Right, and some people who are similar to her too. I inadvertently found them and brought them back to Broad Creed Mountain.”
Xue Chuqing shook her head, “Frankly speaking, I have done them wrong. It was I who changed their lives.”
Yan Zhaoge suddenly thought of something as he asked, “Mother, did you scatter those fragments of the Heavenly Essence Stone around totally randomly or was there a certain pattern to it?”
“If there was, were they split evenly amongst the worlds or according to population size?”
“From things back then, it seems that the larger a world’s population, the more of such people there should be,” Xue Chuqing was rather taken aback, “I definitely would have preferred spreading it evenly across the worlds. Otherwise, the number of them in the World beyond Worlds would probably surpass the sum total in all the lower worlds, being overly conspicuous. Sadly, this was out of my control.”
She acutely detected something, “In order to avoid anyone realising anything and finding them because of me, I have always avoided meeting with any such people. How do they look like?”
Yan Zhaoge and Yan Di exchanged looks. Yan Di raised a palm, an image of light appearing.
On seeing the completely identical facial features of Sikong Qing, He Ying, Yue Baoqi and the rest, Xue Chuqing was rendered at a loss for words.
“Their looks are all so exquisite and outstanding…”
Yan Zhaoge and Yan Di both looked like they knew not whether to laugh or to cy.
“Not only are their appearances outstanding, their martial talents are extraordinary too. Still, this only manifests after they have refined their qi into aura-qi and attained the Martial Scholar realm,” Yan Di said.
Xue Chuqing had a despondent look on her face, “…Only today do I realise what a dumb thing I did.”
People like Sikong Qing who all had such outstanding appearances and were all talented in the martial dao yet all looked the same-it would really be difficult for people not to notice then.
Even if many of them never developed their talents, with their quantity being great, it was still possible that someone looking would notice something.
It would still be fine if they had ordinary faces and were more on the average side.
They were so outstanding, and generally the first to be noticed in a group of people-how might it be possible to keep this under wraps?
Especially in the World beyond Worlds, where there were probably hundreds, even thousands of such people considering its population base.
“From what you were saying earlier, it seems that they are rare in the World beyond Worlds?” Xue Chuqing now asked.
“It is much fewer than I expected, at least. I have only seen two so far,” Yan Zhaoge said solemnly, “If it is really as you say and there are even more of these people who resemble junior apprentice-sister Sikong in the World beyond Worlds than the sum total in the various lower worlds, someone should have noticed this long ago.”
Thereby leading to a mass, large scale search for people like Sikong Qing in the various lower worlds.
Things would not still be calm and peaceful as they were now.
“Either my initial judgment was wrong and it was not spilt evenly according to population but evenly amongst the various worlds,” Xue Chuqing’s expression turned extremely serious, “The possibility of this is very low, though. I should not have seen wrongly back then.”
“Or, someone long since discovered this and has been capturing these people who resemble junior apprentice-niece Sikong in secret. Also, this person has found many, only not having broadcast this,” Yan Di finished.
“This is something we should pay some real attention to,” Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips.
Yan Di and Xue Chuqing nodded in agreement.
The three discussed this for a while longer before splitting up as per their original plan.
Yan Zhaoge took his leave of Yan Di and Xue Chuqing, next returning to the Heavenly Mysteries Pavilion.
Due to his earlier battle with the black-clothed Brocade Emperor, the ongoing auction over at the Heavenly Mysteries Pavilion had been stopped midway.
Those who had been attending it and the local inhabitants of Yuanzhou City had retreated from the city together to avoid being affected by the aftershocks of the battle.
After Yan Zhaoge and the black-clothed Brocade Emperor had left, they had still not returned to Yuanzhou City as they had simply stayed where they were and waited in silence.
No one knew how the battle would end or whether the two might return to Yuanzhou City in continuation of that earlier conflict.
Before things were conclusively settled for good, it was really better to be safe than sorry.
If they died from the aftershocks of an Immortal-level battle, they could only suck it up.
Still, those scenes from before the combatants had left Yuanzhou City had already broadened everyone’s horizons.
Despite only being at the ninth level of the Martial Saint realm, Yan Zhaoge had actually suppressed the black-clothed Brocade Emperor head-on!
This was unprecedented and also totally unheard of for anyone at all.
Even if Yan Zhaoge did not obtain victory in the end, how he had continuously beat the black-clothed Brocade Emperor into retreat as they departed from Yuanzhou City was itself already sufficient to be recorded in the historical annals of the World beyond Worlds, becoming an undying legend.
Everyone yearned desperately to know the conclusion of that battle.
The news that was intermittently transmitted back afterwards, both brief and detailed, revised their worldviews time and time again.
Not only had Yan Zhaoge unexpectedly risen from the eighth to the ninth level of the Martial Saint realm within a short amount of time, Yan Di had also risen from the ninth to the tenth level of the Martial Saint realm, accomplishing the Human Exalt stage!
There were numerous hidden and obscure acupoints within the human body as it was extremely difficult to get them to resonate with the starry sky. Thus, cultivation was a progressively harder thing as some late Immortal Bridge Martial Saints would only have a few acupoints still yet to be refined but faced a challenge as difficult as ascending to the heavens despite this paper-thin difference.
In the World beyond Worlds where there were as many experts as there were clouds, while the number of ninth level Martial Saints was not high, it still amounted to quite a bit.
Some of them, like the Southeastern Swordsmistress Zhang Yunying, the Star Plucking Practitioner Guan Lide and the Grand Plainness Origin Lady Tao Yu etcetera were longtime experts who had been stuck in the ninth level of the Martial Saint realm for many years.
Yet, they could just never succeed in this final step. The difficulty of attaining the Human Exalt stage could be seen therein.
After many years of development, numerous geniuses had appeared in the World beyond Worlds, successfully converting their potential to strength.
Many had surpassed their predecessors as the Human Exalt stage was within sight for they who were lower in seniority.
Yet, all these years, there was only Nie Jingsheng who had successfully managed to achieve it.
Everyone else, considering those with more potential like Qilin Cliff’s Li Junxin and Ingenious Flying Peak’s He Xixing while ignoring the deceased Qing Shuzi, were still late Immortal Bridge Martial Saints.
And now, following Nie Jingshen, yet another newly arisen Human Exalt had manifested.
This person was Yan Di who had still been unheard of over a decade ago, only having risen to prominence in recent years!
Li Junxin, He Xixing and the others had surpassed many predecessors as their fame overshadowed those of earlier generations like Tao Yu.
Having arisen like a shooting star, having once been noted as not having any Immortal Bridge Martial Saints just some years back, Broad Creed Mountain had now already produced an Exalt!
The news that arrived next left them even more amazed.
“Just having attained the Human Exalt stage, Broad Creed Mountain’s Chief Yan successively defeated both the Upper and Lower Exalts?!” Everyone who heard it was left dumbfounded, “Immortal Artifact in hand, the Earth Exalt was still defeated?”