HSSB859: The swindling Yan Zhaoge
Due to his foundation being the Peerless Heavenly Scripture, Yan Zhaoge’s path of simultaneously cultivating in the Three Purities had more or less still leaned towards the Jade Clear lineage of the Lord of Primordial Beginning somewhat.
At the very least, this was how things had been up till now.
Fortunately, the Three Purities were all connected at some innate level, the arts within originally being linked somewhat.
However, the supreme martial arts of the Lord of the Dao and Virtue of the Grand Clear lineage and the Lord of Numinous Treasure of the Prime Clear lineage were still necessary.
This was especially so for Yan Zhaoge as he currently stood at the peak of the Merging Avatar stage.
Following this, he would have to surpass a major bottleneck, breaking through space and seeing true Divinity as he accomplished the Seeing Divinity Martial Saint realm.
For such major bottlenecks, if one pursued the peak of perfection, it was best if Yan Zhaoge had a supreme direct lineage martial art from each of the three Clear lineages to peruse.
Of the Jade Clear lineage, apart from the Peerless Heavenly Scripture, Yan Zhaoge had originally already cultivated in the Cyclic Heavenly Scripture as well as the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture.
He had recently begun looking into the Life Creation Heavenly Scripture as well, and apart from those, he also possessed the complete Myriad Phenomena Heavenly Scripture and a fragmented version of the Aeon Light Heavenly Scripture.
For some unknown reason, the Prime Clear lineage had just sent over the Immortal Trapping Sword Manual and instantly fulfilled Yan Zhaoge’s need.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge currently had a final trial that he needed to conquer, that being a supreme martial art of the Grand Clear lineage.
The legacy of the Grand Clear lineage was different from that of the Jade Clear and Prime Clear lineages.
While there were also the Five Cosmos Grand Manifestations and other direct lineage martial arts of the Grand Clear lineage as recorded in the Daodejing, at the root of things, ninety percent of Daoist martial arts currently widespread beneath the heavens ultimately originated from the Daodejing.
Therefore, when Yan Zhaoge had Transcended Mortality and achieved Sainthood, he had been able to rely on numerous martial arts to project the virtue and merit from the Lord of the Dao and Virtue having spread the great dao, thus simultaneously walking the path of the Three Purities as Sainthood instantly descended.
In theory, he could still use a similar method now.
It was just that he would have to merge many more martial arts to reverse the flow and make such a projection.
This would not be difficult for he who had been inside the Martial Repository of the Heavenly Court’s Divine Palace in pre-Great Calamity times.
However, such a method would not be perfect enough, leaving an unstable foundation which would render Yan Zhaoge’s martial path increasingly difficult to traverse in the future.
Ever since ancient times, it had not just been Yan Zhaoge who desired to simultaneously cultivate in the Three Purities, achieving boundless supremacy.
There had been many heaven-defying geniuses and bigwigs amongst them, but there had ultimately been none who had succeeded.
It was fine using such a subtle method during his first trial as he Transcended Mortality and entered Sainthood.
Still, now that he was attempting to surpass his second bottleneck, refining his acupoints to achieve Divinity, it would be best for him to avoid using such a method again as much as possible.
While direct lineage martial arts of the Grand Clear lineage were hard to obtain, Yan Zhaoge was not completely helpless in truth.
There were two backup methods that he could try.
The first lay with the Southeastern Exalt, Cao Jie.
Golden Court Mountain’s lineage originated from the Purple Tenuity Emperor, their Numerous Heavens Orthodox Arts precisely being from the Daodejing and the Grand Clear direct lineage.
His current relationship with Golden Court Mountain was not bad. If he went over requesting tutelage, the Southeastern Exalt would likely not reject him straight out.
Of course, he would probably just give him some simple pointers at most.
If Yan Zhaoge did not enter Golden Court Mountain’s lineage as his disciple, it would really be impossible for him to receive his legacy for real just like this.
Still, Yan Zhaoge naturally had a way around this.
Apart from his skill in the sword dao, the Southeastern Exalt Cao Jie was similarly renowned in the World beyond Worlds for his attainments in alchemy.
Even the Eastern Exalt who cultivated in the Longevity Martial Scripture of the legacy of the Southern Extermity Longevity Emperor and was renowned throughout the heavens for his skill in alchemy dared not claim for sure that he was definitely superior in alchemy to Cao Jie who primarily cultivated in the sword.
That Cao Jie was enamoured with pill concoction was something known by the entire world.
Yan Zhaoge dared say that he possessed some remnant pill formulas from pre-Great Calamity times that Cao Jie would be interested in.
Numerous wondrous pill formulas had already been lost in the current era. Any single one of them would be sufficient for Yan Zhaoge to use as a bargaining chip.
For the second method, Yan Zhaoge’s target was the lineage of the Brocade Emperor, located at Kunlun Mountain’s Ingenious Flying Peak’s Red Lotus Cliff.
Strictly speaking, the Brocade Emperor was of the more orthodox direct lineage of the Grand Clear lineage than Cao Jie whose lineage descended from the legacy of the Purple Tenuity Emperor.
While he had competed with Fu Ting over the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace previously, their relationship had still been relatively harmonious.
As long as they did not find out that the Profound Sky Purple Gold Furnace had actually ultimately fallen into his hands, many things would then be considerable for negotiation.
Wanting to get a free supreme martial art from Fu Ting would clearly be impossible. Yan Zhaoge needed some sort of bargaining chip in exchange for this.
This could be the pill formula of some efficacious pill or a martial art that Yan Zhaoge grasped.
While the Brocade Emperor’s lineage cultivated in the direct lineage martial arts of the Grand Clear lineage which was already a peak legacy of Daoism, they might still hope for other supreme martial arts of a similar level.
Yan Zhaoge could try both these paths. However, he was not fully confident of success for both of them. Also, this would leave behind some hidden worries for him, especially in the second method.
At the same time, whichever method Yan Zhaoge chose, he would also have to pay a price for it.
There is no free meal in this world. This was a very natural thing.
Still, as someone whose zodiac was the Pixiu as he was insatiably greedy and would only accept things coming in and not out, Yan Zhaoge would certainly prefer swindling the stuff out for free.
Without outside assistance, he could still have abundant clothes, sufficient meals.
Therefore, Yan Zhaoge was currently working hard in this area.
He grasped yin and yang in his hands and circulated his aura, gradually manifesting the phenomenon of Taiji, the Grand Ultimate.
Within Yan Zhaoge’s mind unceasingly flickered the appearance of the Taiji Yin Yang Palm as executed by Fu Ting when he had been clashing with her.
Back then, Yan Zhaoge had relied on his miraculous cultivation base of the merged three Purities, using his foundation of the Peerless Heavenly Scripture and the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture and successfully imitating a similar Taiji Yin Yang palm as he had completely owned Fu Ting who had been trying to probe out his foundations.
While he had managed to swindle Fu Ting and the other Ingenious Flying Peak martial practitioners, Yan Zhaoge himself was well aware of the fact that that had not been the true Taiji Yin Yang Palm.
Still, this experience had provided Yan Zhaoge with an opportunity.
He was thus able to try to project the Taiji Yin Yang Palm on his own.
Logically speaking, this was actually very inconceivable even for Yan Zhaoge who possessed a foundation of the merged three Purities.
At the end of the day, the Taiji Yin Yang Palm was a most orthodox supreme martial art of the Grand Clear lineage as recorded in the Daodejing. How could it even be so easily discerned and reproduced by outsiders?
Though Yan Zhaoge had the Peerless Heavenly Scripture and a fragmented version of the Aeon Light Heavenly Scripture, it would be hard indeed if he wanted to project and wholly reproduce the latter.
During his recent cultivation sessions, however, Yan Zhaoge had gradually come to discover a unique aspect about himself.
He had an exceptionally acute intuition towards supreme martial arts of the Grand Clear lineage.
Whether in the Eight Extremities World, World beyond Worlds or elsewhere previously, having never directly faced off against martial arts of the Grand Clear direct lineage, he had not had a chance to discover this.
Yet, after clashing with Fu Ting, Yan Zhaoge had gradually come to realise this abnormal feature.
He had still yet to properly get his head around this.
While he possessed doubts regarding this, at the current moment, this ability that seemed like a special innate talent was inevitably like a godsend for him.
Of course, even with that, analysing the Taiji Yin Yang Palm was still an extremely difficult task.
Even if he succeeded, it would not be the true direct lineage Taiji Yin Yang Palm like Fu Ting’s.
Instead, it would be Yan Zhaoge’s very own Taiji Yin Yang Palm which would be lacking somewhat in terms of foundation as compared to the actual, real Five Cosmos Grand Manifestations.
Still, it was already enough for the current Yan Zhaoge as he sought to break through this bottleneck.
Yan Zhaoge’e expression was calm as he gradually pushed his hands horizontally forward, the Taiji diagram between his palms rotating at an increasingly slower pace as the power contained within instead became increasingly stronger.