HSSB467: The conflicted East Rising Lord
Fang Zhun sent back news from the Earth Domain that the baleful qi there was growing increasingly dense, especially having been intensifying in recent days.
After receiving this news, Yan Zhaoge and Yuan Zhengfeng began preparing to move out, heading over to the Earth Domain.
Yan Di had still not left seclusion, with it also being unknown when he might be able to do so. However, the situation would wait for no one. Yan Zhaoge and Yuan Zhengfeng could only sigh at this.
“Master, with junior apprentice-brother Yan in seclusion and you leaving as well, maybe you should dispatch second apprentice-brother back to the clan to oversee matters here.”
Leaving the Mountain as well, Fu Enshu said thus as she travelled alongside Yan Zhaoge and Yuan Zhengfeng.
Yuan Zhengfeng nodded slightly, “We will decide on this after looking at the specific situation in the Earth Domain. Fang Zhun is naturally very outstanding in handling matters.”
He swivelled his head to look at Feng Yunsheng and Yin Liuhua behind Fu Enshu, “While there have been no major movements with the Flame Devils on the East Sea, you still have to be careful.”
Fu Enshu said, “As Maidens of Extreme Yin, it is best that they clash with Flame Devils as much as possible. It will be of great help to them.”
Yuan Zhengfeng said, “It is not just the Flame Devils. You must beware of other dangers as well.”
Fu Enshu understood the meaning in Yuan Zhengfeng’s words, “I understand.”
Travelling alongside Yuan Zhengfeng, as he walked beside Fu Enshu, Yan Zhaoge sent her a sound transmission, “Senior apprentice-aunt Fu, why don’t you reconsider the matter I previously mentioned to you. I just feel that you are being a little too hasty with junior apprentice-sister Yin.”
Some darkness flashed within Fu Enshu’s gaze, “I can tolerate any faults in my disciples, just not them being lazy and not putting in effort.”
“Even Master has advised me not to ask of everyone the standards of Yunsheng, Sikong or myself. Fine, I decreased my expectations then,” Fu Enshu appeared slightly furious at this, “I do not ask for Liuhua what I ask of Yunsheng, but I am very clear where her limits lie.”
“Always slacking off and continually decreasing what she asks of herself, how can there ever be a day when she breaks through her own limits? Instead, she is continually decreasing her upper limits, wasting her talents just like that!”
Fu Enshu sent Yan Zhaoge a look, “This is not merely related to her cultivation as a Maiden of Extreme Yin. It concerns her very progress as a martial practitioner!”
Yan Zhaoge spread his palms apart, “Perhaps junior apprentice-sister Yin just wants to live a little more relaxedly? Why don’t you consider my earlier suggestion and lower your expectations of her a little. That would be good for everyone.”
Fu Enshu replied dissatisfiedly, “Now, I already hold no hopes of her being able to catch up to or surpass Yunsheng. Still, her rival should never have been Yunsheng. With how she is now, how is she to compete with the Maidens of Extreme Yin of the other Sacred Grounds?”
“Lower my expectations a little? How can they be any lower?”
She looked at Yan Zhaoge, “If you put in high effort, you get medium rewards. If you put in medium effort, you get low rewards. If you put in low effort, you get nothing at all. It can’t be that you don’t understand this principle, right?”
Hearing her words, Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips, “At the end of the day, it is you who are her Master. It is not my business to interfere in it.”
He paused for a moment before saying softly, “Still, while it is naturally good to be able to forge a piece of good steel, if it really isn’t cut out for it and is hammered too hard, it could very possibly be twisted into a useless piece of scrap metal instead.”
Fu Enshu fell silent, looking at Yin Liuhua behind her from the corner of her eye.
The two having conversed via sound transmission, Yin Liuhua naturally did not know that they had been discussing her.
Currently, she was thinking about how she would be returning to the East Sea as countless emotions filled her mind.
Fu Enshu sighed, “I will give her some more time and chances.”
Yan Zhaoge nodded, “In going to the East Sea this time, it is best to remain highly cautious. While the Flame Devils retreated in defeat last time, their vitality still remains. With the incident in the Earth Domain, it is possible that they might come to stir up trouble as well.”
Fu Enshu said, “Yes, things might also become abnormal on the East Sea. Old Man Mo and Jade Sea City’s City Lord Song are both guarding against it. Instead, you guys should be careful as you proceed to the Earth Domain.”
“As you say, the situation this time, in comparison to that with the Decimating Abyss, might be even more perilous.”
Yan Zhaoge gazed towards the distant Earth Domain, “The problem with the Decimating Abyss was that they were hard to see through, with the identity of our enemies unknown and danger concealed in unknowable places near us, resembling navigating a boat amidst a fog.”
“This time, the identity of the danger is much more clear-cut, but possibly even more fearsome and unstoppable, resembling a raging flood storming over towards us.”
Having seen off Fu Enshu and the others, Yan Zhaoge, Yuan Zhengfeng and the others arrived in the Earth Domain. Just having arrived at the outskirts, they could already feel the baleful qi within that surged to the heavens.
Proceeding further within, the deeper they went, the denser the baleful qi was.
This was already true Hell in all meaning of the word.
There had once been some strange demonic beasts having adapted to the local environment that had lived here.
However, right now, even such lifeforms had either perished to the baleful qi or, for the comparatively stronger ones, begun fleeing elsewhere.
An escaping beast tide temporarily occurred in the border areas of the Earth Domain as the beasts fled for greener pastures.
Fortunately, whether it was Broad Creed Mountain or the other Sacred Grounds, all of them had been prepared for this as they had long since set up a perimeter around the Earth Domain, obstructing the beast tide and preventing them from causing any major incident.
As Yan Zhaoge, Yuan Zhengfeng and the others walked, they suddenly saw golden radiance shining in the distance, resembling a sun having arisen amidst the boundless darkness.
“It’s the Sacred Sun Clan,” Their expressions did not change as they saw that bright golden radiance arrive before them.
From within the light that resembled the actual sun slowly emerged a white-clothed old man. It was precisely the Grand Elder of the Sacred Sun Clan, the East Coming Martial Saint Huang Guanglie.
Behind him followed a group of people, all experts of the Sacred Sun Clan as well.
The Sunset Lord and the East Rising Lord, following closely behind Huang Guanglie, looked expressionlessly at the group from Broad Creed Mountain.
Yuan Zhengfeng asked mildly, “What say you, East Coming Huang?”
Huang Guanglie said, “Let’s go down together for a look.”
Yuan Zhengfeng immediately descended, “My intentions exactly.”
The others descended as well. Feeling gazes on him, as Yan Zhaoge swivelled his head and looked, he saw that most of the remaining Sacred Sun Clan martial practitioners aside from Huang Guanglie were looking at him.
Especially the East Rising Lord, whose gaze that was on him contained some complex sentiments.
He could be considered the first of the Sacred Sun Clan’s higher echelons to have had dealings with Yan Zhaoge, even though they had not been direct dealings.
Back then, whilst in the Eastern Tang Kingdom, he had actually already been of a mind to kill Yan Zhaoge.
However, he had been unable to do so due to Broad Creed Mountain’s East Elder and the King of the Eastern Tang Kingdom, Zhao Shicheng.
However, when thinking back on this incident now, the East Rising Lord sometimes could not help but wonder-had he risked it all back then in trying to obtain Yan Zhaoge’s life even at risk of his own, if he had been successful, would everything thereafter have been different?
While this thought was gone in a flash, it could not be suppressed.
Back then, even while Yan Zhaoge was the son of Yan Di, if someone had proposed to exchange the life of the East Rising Lord of the Seven Reigning Suns, a mighty Essence Talisman Martial Grandmaster, for Yan Zhaoge, merely an outer aura Martial Scholar at the time, everyone would have thought that that person was nuts.
Now, even the East Rising Lord himself would occasionally guess on the chances of success for such, even though he wished that that Essence Talisman Martial Grandmaster would be someone else.
The unpredictability of the world’s events came no stronger than this.