HSSB214: Stepping into the late Xiantian stage!
Yan Zhaoge’s aura-qi that resembled dragons surged, fire and ice intermingling, yin and yang in harmony.
His abundant aura-qi gradually changed, no longer blazing hot or icy cold, slowly becoming indistinct like that chaotic qi mass in Yan Zhaoge’s dantian.
It seemed like it could tolerate all things, birth all things, exterminate all things.
Looking within his body, a hint of a smile appeared at the corners of Yan Zhaoge’s lips.
As per his thoughts, the chaotic aura-qi within Yan Zhaoge’s body abruptly shuddered, seeming to condense into a single drop.
The aura-qi moved through Yan Zhaoge’s body as he willed it, moving smoothly and ceaselessly, in complete synchrony with his mind and thoughts.
At this moment, Yan Zhaoge’s aura-qi was like an extension of his fleshly body, controlled by him like a finger on his arm, agglomerating and dispersing it as he liked.
Like the deep sea in its passivity, like thunderbolts in its activity.
Having refined the aura-qi to this stage, it was precisely the mark of a mid Xiantian Martial Scholar having broken through into the late Xiantian Martial Scholar realm!
As he willed it, that chaotic aura-qi instantly changed form, rapidly becoming an existence like blazing fire, burning plains and incinerating the heavens.
The next moment, his aura-qi had already turned icy cold, the scene of a land of ice and snow playing out.
The icy cold aura-qi split into two portions, one remaining unchanged, the other taking up the form of blazing fire once more.
Then, the two aura-qis circulated together, becoming vast clear qi, vast as the heavens, vast and boundless. It was precisely the force of Broad Creed Mountain’s direct lineage Clear Qi Profound Art.
The numerous streams of clear qi were majestic and abundant, yet very quickly, one of them suddenly turned turbid, then sank downwards.
The turbid qi circulated within Yan Zhaoge’s meridians, not showing any signs of roughness at all, instead seeming heavy as the great earth, in opposition to the clear qi above it.
Yan Zhaoge slowly nodded, “My earlier theories were correct.”
As he pondered, the two aura-qis, one clear, one turbid, recombined as one, chaos re-emerging.
Yan Zhaoge stood up, letting out a long breath, his entire body’s acupoints shuddering in unison as though there were innumerable powerful existences roaring together within.
“The Black Nightmare Storm has already weakened-it is time to head to the Great Western Desert.”
As Yan Zhaoge pondered, he left his lodgings, where he saw Ah Hu standing there facing the sun with his hands behind his back.
As it would normally appear, Ah Hu seemed to be just leisurely sunbathing.
However, with Yan Zhaoge’s vision, he could see that Ah Hu’s head was raising slightly with a very acute change in angles at a virtually indiscernible speed.
He remained like this, his brows facing the sun directly, as though they were connected by a formless line to the sun in the sky, directly piercing into the brain.
With the sun overhead, the horizon moved, its position changing every single second, every single moment, just that at any moment in time, it would seem not to be moving, due to the changes being extremely small.
But Ah Hu could acutely and accurately grasp the differences and changes within, adjusting the angle of his raised head to match.
Seeing Yan Zhaoge emerge, Ah Hu lowered his head, a simple and honest smile appearing on his face, “Young Master, you only went into seclusion for a few days this time.”
Yan Zhaoge smiled, “Results have already been achieved. Staying any longer would be a waste of time.”
Ah Hu’s eyes lit up, “Young Master, you have stepped into the late Xiantian Martial Scholar realm?”
Yan Zhaoge nodded whilst smiling, Ah Hu repeatedly sighing in praise, “It is really very fast ah; compared to Young Master, all of us are sluggish oxen and wooden horses.”
“Young Master, while you may not be in time to break Family Head’s record of the youngest Martial Grandmaster, in the Martial Scholar realm, your cultivation speed may very possibly surpass his.”
Yan Zhaoge smiled slightly, “While I am also very satisfied with my progress this time, everything has to wait until I truly have reached the Martial Grandmaster realm.”
He looked at Ah Hu, “What of you-are you confident of your breakthrough?”
Ah Hu scratched his head, “It feels, like there is just still something lacking.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “It’s fine. After all, it has only been a year since you stepped into the Heavenly Connection stage. With your talent and potential, it should be the point of just being that last step away. Having broken through the bottleneck before you, it will be a whole new heaven and earth.”
Ah Hu laughed, “I feel the same; I should be able to catch up with Brother Fei and them very quickly.”
The young geniuses who had participated in the Heavenly Connection Meet had all gained much from the experience, the Nine Underworlds catastrophe afterwards also having served as a form of tempering for them.
After the Heavenly Connection Meet, in this less than half year where Yan Zhaoge had been cultivating in seclusion, the others had all also been cultivating diligently.
Xu Fei, Tang Yonghao and Song Chao, the trio having already long been Heavenly Connection Martial Scholars, had broken through their respective bottlenecks, stepping into the Martial Grandmaster realm.
Stepping from the Heavenly Connection stage into the Martial Grandmaster realm, those elites would naturally find numerous Martial Grandmaster experts before them.
At this level, as strong as they were, they had all become inexperienced younglings.
However, overcoming the massive gulf between the two realms, the eyes with which they were looked at by the public would also gradually change, no longer the gazes directed at disciples of the younger generation.
Moreover, in accordance to their ages as well as their talent and strength displayed at the same cultivation level, it could be foreseen that Xu Fei and the others still had a long, grand road ahead of them.
Having become Martial Grandmasters was but a new beginning for them, their futures incomparably bright.
It was like how a massive gulf also existed between the Body Refinement and Martial Scholar realms, depleting the lives of innumerable people.
From the Martial Scholar to the Martial Grandmaster realm also was a massive gulf, with many Martial Scholar experts having halted at the late Xiantian stage or Heavenly Connection stage, finding it hard to advance a single inch, the rest of their lives just passing on listlessly like this.
As the elites of the direct lineages of the various Sacred Grounds, Xu Fei and the others would naturally not be reduced to such a stage. However, able to become Martial Grandmasters just having passed thirty was still a rare thing. As long as no major unforeseen circumstances cropped up, their futures were destined to be limitless.
Yan Zhaoge patted Ah Hu’s shoulder, “Come, let us proceed to the Wind Domain. The various disasters of the Great Western Desert are currently in a comparatively weakened state.”
After reporting to his father Yan Di and his Grand Master Yuan Zhengfeng, Yan Zhaoge left the Mountain with Ah Hu and his other retainers.
Other than then, because of the Cold Marrow Needles, Feng Yunsheng also travelled alongside him. After all, even Yan Zhaoge himself was not certain how long he would be away for this time.
Although the clan’s Elders were rather worried of the off chance that something might happen to Feng Yunsheng, the cultivation of Maidens of Extreme Yin was similarly not something that could be accomplished through just staying in the depths of the Mountain and cultivating painstakingly alone. Finally, they had still allowed Feng Yunsheng to accompany him on his journey.
As for Yan Zhaoge, the clan’s higher echelon experts now all had extreme faith in him.
Moreover, along their journey’s route, other than in the Great Western Desert itself, it would all be on Broad Creed Mountain’s territory, which had Broad Creed Mountain’s experts sitting over it.
Leaving the Mountain, heading west from the Central Heaven Region to the West Heaven Region of the Heaven Domain’s five regions, they continued westwards, leaving the territory of the Heaven Domain, arriving at the Sand Region of the Wind Domain’s four Regions.
The Sand Region was currently also controlled by Broad Creed Mountain, specifically presided over by a First Seat Elder dispatched there.
Of the Wind Domain’s four Regions, in terms of geography, they drew a line from north to south, simultaneously bordered to the Great Western Desert, together constituting the vast territory of the Wind Domain.
The Great Western Desert was virtually off limits for the living. Including Black Nightmare Mountain, the Wind Domain’s Sacred Ground of the past, no one had been able to completely control it.
It was rumoured that it was a remnant of the force of the Great Calamity, therefore being filled with disasters and tribulations, even possessing destructive capabilities of extermination.
In their conquests, Broad Creed Mountain, the Sacred Sun Clan and Infinite Boundless Mountain mainly targeted the Wind Domain’s Four Regions, keeping a respectful distance away from the Great Western Desert.
Yan Zhaoge, however, was rather interested in this place.