HSSB350: Unexpected gains
Shining with purple light, the dark green bamboo branch in Yan Zhaoge’s hand, raised casually, then descended.
However, the flickering dark green shadow caused Zheng Shuo to see stars.
If Yan Zhaoge had suddenly taken out a high-grade spirit artifact, Zheng Shuo would still not be as hard pressed to cope with the situation as this.
But however one looked at it, other than a faint layer of purple light on its exterior, there was nothing special about that dark green bamboo branch at all.
When it had revealed a grand, mighty power and repelled his Baleful Black Sabre as well as broken that low-grade spirit artifact of his, it had still remained completely ordinary and innocuous, with him unable to feel any shocking power from it at all.
It was as though Yan Zhaoge had just randomly pulled down an ordinary bamboo branch from somewhere.
However, as Zheng Shuo retracted his sabre and blocked with great difficulty, the dark green bamboo branch beat down on the Baleful Black Sabre once more.
Yet another crack appeared on the blade of the mid-grade spirit artifact.
Yan Zhaoge ignored the escaping Lin Zhou, glancing at the affected Time Connection Spring which was beginning to ripple intensely before looking back at Zheng Shuo before him.
The dark green bamboo branch descended once more, leaving Zheng Shuo only able to barely raise his sabre to parry it.
Greatly stifled, Zheng Shuo wanted to go all out without abandon, attacking Yan Zhaoge, yet was blocked by the Earth Devouring Burner within Yan Zhaoge’s left hand.
The bamboo branch within Yan Zhaoge’s hand descended like wild winds and a tempestuous storm.
After a while, Zheng Shuo suddenly felt the Baleful Black Sabre within his hands shake intensely. The next moment, having already been riddled with cracks, finally unable to bear the burden, its blade broke apart!
This mid-grade spirit artifact, shockingly, was also shattered by Yan Zhaoge’s dark green bamboo branch!
Seeing this scene, Zheng Shuo’s expression remained wooden, yet clearly a woodenness caused by already being shocked to the point of numbness.
What he minded was that already being heavily injured, also having lost the Baleful Black Sabre, he was already no longer Yan Zhaoge’s match.
Indeed, Yan Zhaoge struck out with the dark green bamboo branch, directly sending Zheng Shuo toppling backwards, landing right in the spring waters of the Time Connection Spring below.
Ah Hu was prepared to block him upon seeing this, but seeing the signal from Yan Zhaoge’s eyes, remained seated in the air above the golden lamps of light.
Yan Zhaoge chased all the way downwards, a majestic sword-light appearing, directly penetrating through the spring water and piercing straight through Zheng Shuo’s body.
The Essence Spirit Martial Grandmaster was slain by Yan Zhaoge within this Time Connection Spring.
Amidst Zheng Shuo’s death, in that moment when he died, the rite that had been performed by Yan Zhaoge within the Time Connection Spring circulated to the maximum, turning the great amount of death qi into life force.
This life force was not used on Zheng Shuo, instead being supplied to the bodies of Shi Jun and Ying Yuzhen in an unending stream as guided by the ceremony.
Zheng Shuo’s eyes bulged, unaccepting of his death, staring at Yan Zhaoge who was currently similarly within the spring water.
Yan Zhaoge’s attention was already no longer placed on him as he instead focused his mind completely on controlling the ceremony, at the same time also paying close attention to Shi Jun and Ying Yuzhen.
Zheng Shuo’s fresh blood flowed into the spring, containing the incomparably strong qi and blood of an Essence Spirit Martial Grandmaster.
Waves already having risen before, the waters of the spring seemed to surge at this moment.
Zheng Shuo’s fresh blood vanished within the Time Connection Spring before blue light appeared once more, very quickly being converted to a bloodred glow.
The power of life was sent into the bodies of Shi Jun and his mother in an unending stream.
While the two remained unconscious, seemingly slumbering, the paleness on their faces gradually faded as the colour returned to their cheeks.
Shi Jun’s condition was better, the air of deterioration about him having completely vanished, his skin smooth and jadelike, as though really only having entered a state of slumber.
The condition of his mother, Ying Yuzhen, was not as good as his, but had already taken a great turn for the better.
When Yan Zhaoge had seen her lying within the ice coffin for the first time, it had truly been hard to call her a living person.
To a certain degree, it was like she had only possessed just half a breath more than the already dead.
Now, however, it was certain that Ying Yuzhen had finally struggled back from the boundary between life and death.
While she was still some distance away from fully recovering and awakening, a great deal of time being required, with even Yan Zhaoge unable to say for sure when or even whether she might awaken, there at least now newly existed hope.
Looking at Shi Jun and Ying Yuzhen, Yan Zhaoge revealed a smile from the very depths of his heart.
He let out a long breath, his tense spirits only finally relaxing at this time.
When the blood colour within the spring’s waters had gradually grown lighter to the point of it finally completely dispersing, the lamps on the two poles were extinguished alongside it.
Yan Zhaoge reached out and kept the two poles before using his aura-qi to sweep up Shi Jun and Ying Yuzhen within the water, rising out of the waters of the spring together.
Lowering his head, the spring water already no longer emanated heat, its temperature also having gone down.
The spiritual qi of this Time Connection Spring had already been completely spent.
Yan Zhaoge carefully checked up on the condition of the mother and son. Little Shi Jun’s condition was extremely good as he appeared as though he might wake up at any moment.
The condition of his mother, Ying Yuzhen, was a little worse, but at the very least, Yan Zhaoge no longer had to worry about her passing away at any moment.
This way, they could slowly look for other methods to treat her with.
Looking at these two somewhat familiar whilst also somewhat foreign faces, Yan Zhaoge sighed softly before opening the two ice coffins once more, placing the bodies of the two respectively within.
The ice coffins not only possessed the effect of sealing, at the same time also being able to nourish the qi and blood.
Placing Ying Yuzhen’s body within, her body would continue to be nourished, to be followed up with later on.
Meanwhile, there would also not be a problem with Shi Jun’s body being placed within the ice coffin, because when Shi Jun woke up, as the one carrying around the ice coffins, Yan Zhaoge would be able to detect it.
Before that, while Shi Jun himself remained unconscious, he would also receive the nourishing effects of the ice coffin.
Closing up the covers of the ice coffins, Yan Zhaoge stroked one’s surface, smacking his lips, “It actually succeeded, being even better than I had thought.”
Originally, due to the insufficient spiritual qi of the spring water, in his predictions, he would only have been able to save a single person.
When Zheng Shuo and Lin Zhou had suddenly launched an attack on them, a strange, miraculous thought had suddenly arisen within Yan Zhaoge’s mind.
In the end, he had achieved both things at once and saved both the mother and son at the same time, this being an unexpected, surprising gain for him.
Looking at Zheng Shuo within the spring below, already having perished, Yan Zhaoge shook his head slightly, stomping downwards, the soil and stone above the spring collapsing together, burying it up into concealment once more.
On the other side, Ah Hu had already gone far away, retrieving Yan Zhaoge’s Jade Dragon Sword.
Properly keeping the two ice coffins, Yan Zhaoge came to Ah Hu’s side, taking back his Jade Dragon Sword before gazing at the area of the snowy plains that lay before him.
There, the purple light of thunder rampaged. While it had already weakened greatly from before, it was still extremely fierce and violent.
A purple bow lay on the ground. It was precisely the high-grade spirit artifact, Heaven Shocker.
The current two most supreme known bows of the Eight Extremities World were the Sacred Sun Clan’s Sun Shooter and the Heavenly Thunder Hall’s Heaven Shocker.
Before the battle of Broad Creed Mountain, Yan Zhaoge had even asked Ah Hu to find him a good bow, having been greatly desiring of the Sun Shooter and the Heaven Shocker, yet sadly not having the ability to obtain them.
Today, however, the Heaven Shocker lay just right ahead of him.
Yan Zhaoge stroked his lower chin, “This gain can be considered even more of a surprise.”
Ah Hu imitated him, also stroking his lower chin, “Young Master, this really is an unexpected gain. Still, a high-grade spirit artifact-how can we collect it?”