HSSB246: The pyramid of the Eight Extremities World
Fingering that beastskin scroll, Yan Zhaoge pondered for a moment, before pocketing it once more.
Afterwards, he began examining the various medicinal plants.
These medicinal plants had all been planted by Loose Practitioner He in the medicinal field behind the thatched hut in his foreign dimension. Over so many years, not having been tended to, some of these medicinal plants had also withered and died.
However, the ones which still remained even now were all precious spirit plants and medicines which had existed for a long time, also possessing powerful medicinal effects.
However, what made Yan Zhaoge the happiest was that many of these medicinal ingredients were ones that were already extinct in the Eight Extremities World following the descent of the Great Calamity.
Yan Zhaoge often sighed emotionally. It seemed that a skilled housewife is indeed hard pressed to cook a meal without rice. Currently, having obtained so many precious spirit medicines from Loose Practitioner He’s old residence, he instantly felt like he had much more room to work with.
Carefully thinking back and considering, many thoughts of his that had originally been unfeasible now had the possibility of being implemented in reality.
This especially caused Yan Zhaoge great joy.
After having settled the various spirit plants and medicines, Yan Zhaoge stretched himself lazily, finding himself in a rather good mood.
However, very quickly, the smile on Yan Zhaoge’s face gradually faded, as his expression became a little stern.
He took out a black metal piece. Looking at it, his gaze gradually grew deep and distant.
This arched metal piece vaguely seemed to align with the lines on a person’s face.
It was precisely that broken piece of mask that he had severed from that masked Martial Grandmaster with a single sword back in the foreign dimension previously!
Looking at that fragment of mask, Yan Zhaoge’s expression was a little complicated as the scenes of that time played back ceaselessly within his mind.
At that time, he had only felt it to be familiar. Now, however, that person’s features gradually came to match with that of a face from Yan Zhaoge’s memories.
“How I hope I’ve recognised wrong…” Yan Zhaoge sighed, keeping the mask fragment once more.
After sitting silently in meditation for a time, Yan Zhaoge opened his eyes.
Ah Hu reported from outside, “Young Master, the Howling Wind Sword Sect’s Elder Jun is here.”
“Oh? Invite him in,” Yan Zhaoge stood up, pushing open the door and exiting.
A middle-aged man currently sat within the hall. Behind him were a few young men and women, with Jun Luo at their head.
Yan Zhaoge went up and bowed towards that middle-aged man, “Uncle Jun, you’ve returned to the Sand Region? I also just happen to be back from a journey, not knowing that you had come. Otherwise, it should definitely have been me going to pay you a visit.”
The middle-aged man before him was precisely Jun Luo’s father and a good friend of Yan Zhaoge’s father Yan Di, the Elder of the Howling Wind Sword Sect Jun Zhiyuan.
Like the King of the Eastern Tang Kingdom Zhao Shicheng, Jun Zhiyuan was also a longtime friend of Yan Di’s, with the Yan Family and the Jun Family on extremely good terms.
What caused Yan Zhaoge some interest was that his father’s old friends all seemed to be older than him.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge had many older uncles, but no younger uncles at all.
Jun Zhiyuan smiled slightly, “I have come to thank Zhaoge for taking care of the little girl of my family. If not for you, Zhaoge, I fear that I would no longer be able to see her.”
Standing behind Jun Zhiyuan, Jun Luo was looking down at the floor, behaving extremely meekly and obediently, appearing completely different from how she was like in private.
Yan Zhaoge said, “Uncle Jun overstates things. The matter of that youth of the Lian Family Fortress Lian Ying stemmed from remnants of Black Nightmare Mountain wanting to use him as a chess piece in order to enhance their assassination plan.”
“Luo Luo is completely innocent, yet was swept into it. Naturally, I had to do my utmost to ensure her safety.”
“While no danger ultimately befell her, I still feel very uneasy about it.”
Hearing his words, Jun Zhiyuan shook his head, saying, “That was also you saving this child’s life. Moreover, if not for you and those others of Broad Creed Mountain lending a helping hand, trapped within a Black Nightmare Storm, the three of them would most likely have perished.”
Yan Zhaoge smiled, “Even ignoring the relationship between our two families, the Howling Wind Sword Sect is affiliated to my Broad Creed Mountain. Passing by and seeing them in crisis, lending a helping hand was only natural.”
While this was true, Jun Zhiyuan still got Jun Luo to go forward and solemnly thank Yan Zhaoge once more. Yan Zhaoge hurriedly stopped them.
Looking at those others behind Jun Zhiyuan and beside Jun Luo, Yan Zhaoge asked, “These are all Uncle Jun’s disciples?”
Jun Zhiyuan said, “That’s right; I brought them along with me this time to gain experience. Not having returned to the sect, I heard of Luo Luo’s incident, therefore brought them along with us.”
These young people all bowed towards Yan Zhaoge in unison.
While by seniority, they were of the same generation, with Yan Zhaoge taking Jun Zhiyuan as a senior and Jun Luo also behaving like a little sister before Yan Zhaoge, they couldn’t be careless.
While they all called him ‘Senior Brother Yan’, their forms of respects were all that of juniors.
Jun Zhiyuan had on an attitude like this was only natural.
If not for the relationship between the two families, he too would have to treat Yan Zhaoge like an equal, as did Elder Hong and Elder Bai of the Howling Wind Sword Sect.
Even while Yan Zhaoge was currently only around twenty years of age; even while Yan Zhaoge was still a Martial Scholar while they were all Martial Grandmasters.
Looking at the youths before him, Yan Zhaoge also felt momentarily emotional.
Actually, truly calculating age, these youths were already sixteen or seventeen. While they could not be considered similarly aged to him, they were definitely still of the same generation.
However, in terms of cultivation base, looking at them was sufficient to clearly distinguish the distance between a Sacred Ground-level power like Broad Creed Mountain and other powers.
The Howling Wind Sword Sect was already a first-rate power, also possessing a long history. Even when Black Nightmare Mountain had still ruled the Wind Domain, the Howling Wind Sword Sect had already been founded in the Sand Region, surviving all the way up till now.
As the one of the Howling Wind Sword Sect with the highest cultivation base apart from its old Chief, Jun Zhiyuan was renowned for his teaching of his disciples.
His disciples, his daughter Luo Luo included, were basically the elite of the Howling Wind Sword Sect’s younger generation, all of them outstanding figures of the younger generation of the entire Sand Region’s first-rate powers.
However, comparing them with similarly aged disciples of Sacred Grounds like Broad Creed Mountain and the Sacred Sun Clan, they were clearly inferior in terms of strength.
When placed in Broad Creed Mountain, the most brilliant disciples of the Howling Wind Sword Sect’s younger generation would immediately seem completely unremarkable amongst the similarly aged disciples there, their genius haloes completely gone, and they would likely find it very hard not to be at the bottom.
Of course, this was also due to Broad Creed Mountain absorbing brilliant geniuses in its various lands in great numbers. Being under Broad Creed Mountain’s rule, the Sand Region’s seedlings with the most potential would definitely be taken in by Broad Creed Mountain, who was given the foremost priority in doing so.
Powers like the Howling Wind Sword Sect were left to pick out generals from the shorties.
It was not like Broad Creed Mountain would completely net all of them, but people climbed to where power lay as water flowed to low-lying areas. The most brilliant geniuses would definitely yearn to join Broad Creed Mountain.
There were only those occasional geniuses who lacked knowledge and had not heard of Broad Creed Mountain’s great name, having been overlooked by Broad Creed Mountain, who would be obtained by first rate-powers like the Howling Wind Sword Sect. That would be like having picked up a treasure.
Very naturally, the pick order started from the strongest and ended with the weakest. Broad Creed Mountain would have the first pick, first-rate powers like the Howling Wind Sword Sect followed and then came second-rate powers like the Lian Family Fortress and the Yellow Wind Mountain Manor.
While the martial civilisation was currently still in the midst of redevelopment, the pyramid of the Eight Extremities World had already taken form.