HSSB699: Losing without battling, winning without battling
Everyone’s gazes fell on Yan Zhaoge.
Scanning his surroundings, Yan Zhaoge smiled, taking a Shadow Shrinking Pouch from Ah Hu behind him.
After it had been opened, a corpse appeared before all of them. It was precisely the old man of the Shenling Nine Swords who had been in charge of covertly escorting the Heaven Bearing Ceremonial Fragrance and the other treasures back then.
He being a Martial Saint, while he had been dead for a long time, his qi and blood having already deteriorated, his body had still yet to decompose.
Aside from his skin that was greenish without blood visible on its surface, there was not much difference from when he had been alive.
After seeing this old man’s features, the gaze of someone present narrowed slightly, “Liao Zheng, a major figure of the Shenling Nine Swords.”
Yan Zhaoge said, “I coincidentally met this person, killing him and unexpectedly gaining the Heaven Bearing Ceremonial Fragrance, Earth Ocean Lung Crystals, Prime Chaos Soil and other treasures that he had been carrying.”
“These treasures are all used to set up the Heaven Bearing Efficate Formation, which this Yan just happens to know about. Therefore, I saw through their hidden scheme.”
The corners of Yan Zhaoge’s lips curved lightly, “Afterwards, when I met descendants of the Southeastern Exalt’s lineage, I casually mentioned it to them.”
Seeing the corpse before them, everyone fell silent.
The Chief of Copper Men Island, Gongsun Wu, swivelled his head to look at a longtime Elder of his beside him, asking via sound transmission, “I hear that this Yan Zhaoge bears a Heaven Spying Orb?”
The other party answered, “That’s right.”
Gongsun Wu indiscernibly nodded, exchanging looks with Gu Hong, Zhou Haosheng and Luo Zhiyuan.
The bigwigs of the great sects were all silent as well now.
Luo Zhiyuan’s gaze remained focused intently on Yan Zhaoge, growing increasingly deeper.
Yan Zhaoge laughed inwardly. Luo Zhiyuan and Gu Hong’s previous words had revealed that they already knew about the matter of Nong Yuxuan stealing his credit.
It seemed like in the great battle at the Heavenly Inheritance Region and the Suffering River Region previously, Qi Wei and Madame Kang had indeed been primarily targeting him, Yan Zhaoge, instead ignoring the likes of Zhang Chao, Elder Qi and Yue Baoqi.
All the people of the various sects who had been present then were still alive. With the Radiant Light Sect unable to conceal the news, who had broken the Heavenly Fire Tribulation Thunder Formation no longer remained a secret.
Having heard Elder Qi and the others report the events of back then, Gu Hong and the other bigwigs had come to know that Yan Zhaoge possessed a Heaven Spying Orb.
Therefore, even those of the Radiant Light Sect were not wasting their energy on continuing to question Yan Zhaoge now.
Actually, in truth…Yan Zhaoge had not used the Heaven Spying Orb to record the scenes of what had gone on in the valley where the Heaven Bearing Efficate Formation had been erected.
Firstly, Kang Ping was too powerful, his methods strange and domineering. Sensing with his aura and diffusing his true essence, he would have been able to obstruct the spying of the Heaven Spying Orb.
Secondly, in order to guard against Kang Ping, Zheng Ming’s group had circulated the defences of the Riding Wind Heavenly Vessel to the maximum.
Beneath the dense multi-coloured light, all had been bright as it would have been impossible for the Heaven Spying Orb to record anything.
Just placing an orb outside, Kang Ping would have been able to detect it instantly, directly shattering it from far away amidst space.
It was just that Yan Zhaoge naturally wouldn’t explain all this to Gongsun Wu and the others.
They could just guess whatever they wanted to guess. It was more beneficial to him this way.
Anyway, Zheng Ming and the others were still in the Royal Reed Sea. It was not like Yan Zhaoge really had no way of proving this.
Gu Hong was silent for a moment before he looked at Yan Zhaoge, solemnly cupping his hands towards him, “Speaking of it, my North Sea Sword Pavilion already owes Little Friend Yan for the matter of the Heavenly Fire Tribulation Thunder Formation back then.”
“Now, Little Friend Yan has even discovered a hidden secret of the Grand Xuan Dynasty, causing the Southeastern Exalt’s lineage to make a move and inflicting a great blow on the Grand Xuan Dynasty’s arrogance. This Gu first thanks you here.”
Before this, the Grand Xuan Dynasty had unquestionably been the more powerful side in the overall battle, also having been at the upper hand as they possessed the initiative as well.
The anti-Xuan coalition had been forced to just deal with whatever was thrown at them.
The Grand Xuan Dynasty having changed its target to the Radiant Light Sect’s headquarters instead, this had inevitably left the anti-Xuan coalition in a bind, caught between a rock and a hard place.
Gu Hong, Luo Zhiyuan and the others had only been able to barely cope with it. It should be said that bar any major occurrences, the goal they had been striving towards was merely the lowering of their losses to the greatest possible extent.
They would most likely suffer a loss. It was just-how great a loss would it ultimately turn out to be?
Now, however, Yan Zhaoge had caused a major occurrence for them and the Grand Xuan Dynasty.
It was not just that. The Southeastern Exalt’s lineage having been drawn into the fray as well, the battle situation in the entire Royal Reed Sea was about to be reversed completely.
The anti-Xuan forces had virtually won without battling, the Grand Xuan Dynasty virtually losing without battling.
This even caused Gu Hong, Luo Zhiyuan and the others to feel somewhat at a loss, as if they had been defeated somehow.
The one who had caused all this was precisely the youth before them who had just stepped into the Martial Saint realm not long ago.
The Radiant Light Sect felt especially awkward, because had the Grand Xuan Dynasty not retreated, it was most likely that their headquarters would eventually have been destroyed by them as a result.
Yet, the gazes of Luo Zhiyuan and the others that were currently on Yan Zhaoge definitely couldn’t be called friendly at all.
They definitely wouldn’t believe that Yan Zhaoge had been trying to get on their good side with this, repairing the relationship between them.
Scanning the surroundings, let alone the North Sea Sword Pavilion and the Dim Darkness Sect, even those of Copper Men Island currently had faces full of admiration as they looked at Yan Zhaoge now.
Luo Zhiyuan and the other Radiant Light Sect experts vaguely felt a sense of crisis arise within their hearts.
The Chief of the Dim Darkness Sect, Zhou Haosheng, now sighed, “Little Friend Yan was truly remarkable in having mightily overturned the raging tides. It is just a pity that while we have received the news, it is still a bit too late at the end of the day.”
“The earlier skirmish caused us to lose the chance to pursue and attack the Grand Xuan Dynasty. Now, it is already too late for that.”
Yan Zhaoge instead smiled, “Maybe there is still a chance.”
Hearing his words, everyone’s gazes simultaneously fell on him.
Yan Zhaoge said, “When observing the Grand Xuan Dynasty launching their offensive before eventually retreating from a distance away earlier, there was a problem which I discovered.”
“Of the experts of the Grand Xuan Dynasty who attacked the Dim Darkness Sect’s main altar earlier and attacked the Grinding Hut Region’s sword domain, clashing with you guys here afterwards, from what I know, there are basically three peak experts amongst them.”
“There are two of the Shenling Nine Swords, both being early Immortal Bridge Martial Saints. One of them even possesses the high-grade Sacred Artifact, the Cloud Circulating Heavenly Light Sword. The other is the current leader of the Grand Xuan Dynasty, King Xuanmu. While he himself is only at the late Seeing Divinity stage, he possesses the high-grade Sacred Artifact, the King Xuan Spear, as well.”
Yan Zhaoge’s gaze flickered, “There seemed to have been just two of them participating in the battle earlier. As for the one who was missing, it would have been fine if he was acting as support from the backlines, but if he wasn’t, instead already having left before this, wherever could he have gone to?”
Before his words had landed, the eyes of Gu Hong, Luo Zhiyuan, Zhou Haosheng and Gongsun Wu all erupted with a shocking light.
Zhou Haosheng said slowly, “Hypothetically, if the descendants of the Southeastern Exalt’s lineage had not discovered the matter of the Heaven Bearing Efficate Formation, the Grand Xuan Dynasty dealing with us as per usual, what would they had done?”
Gu Hong said, “There would ultimately come an end to the endless clashes. After we had pursued them to a certain position, while it would be tough on everyone from the Radiant Light Sect, there would still have been a need to stop eventually, retreating to the Grinding Hut Region. Otherwise, our losses would only be greater. Our strength being inferior to theirs, retaining our troops whilst losing our land with our essential vitality being preserved would be a comparatively good result.”
Luo Zhiyuan was silent, Gongsun Wu glancing at him before saying as well, “But the Grand Xuan Dynasty might not be happy seeing that. They would still hope to take down our main force in a single enfeebling blow or even exterminate us all.”
Zhou Haosheng uttered, halting with every single word, “The other Immortal Bridge Martial Saint would likely have attempted to manoeuvre around us, cutting off our path of retreat from behind!”