HSSB984: Peerless genius
Yan Zhaoge could not care less what Zhang Shuren was thinking.
As he viciously chopped down with his axe, that towering Wutong tree was nearly directly toppled!
Zhang Shuren was almost enraged to the point of vomiting blood. Still, he could only grit his teeth now.
He exerted his strength which temporarily erupted, jolting away the Extreme Yang Seal.
Then, he intercrossed his palms, changing his techniques as he no longer attacked, instead devoting everything to defence.
The treasured Wutong tree which towered into the sky turned more tangible now, a treasured light shooting into the heavens.
At this moment, this late Immortal Bridge Martial Saint seemed to have transformed fully into a huge, towering tree.
The thick earth of meritorious virtue appeared beneath his feet, encompassing the entire Vast Spirit Mountain was it was connected to the great earth, bearing all things.
The water ripples of holy virtue flowed endlessly about the foot of the tree, seeming eternal.
The purple light of fortuitous virtue flickered on the branches and leaves of the tree, indistinct slivers of white qi of nether virtue drifting about its dense greenery.
Zhang Shuren raised his defensive power to the maximum at this moment.
Giving up on using his Wutong Divine Palm to attack as he was devoted fully to defence, this was the number one defensive supreme martial art of Phoenix Ritual Mountain’s Wutong Slope.
Currently bolstered by the four Virtues, herein was manifested the greatest heights achievable in terms of defensive power for a ninth level Martial Saint expert of Wutong Slope’s direct lineage.
As Yan Zhaoge’s axe hacked over, the treasured Wutong tree remained standing, unaffected!
“Extraordinary indeed,” Yan Zhaoge’s eyes shone as he simply kept the Heaven Earth Reversing Axe, an existence that resembled a seal whilst also a short sword appearing in his hand.
Seeing this, Zhang Shuren was angered to the point of smiling, “Another high-grade Sacred Artifact?”
It was precisely the Light Yin Sword Seal.
Yan Zhaoge wielded the Light Yin Sword Seal as a sword, striking out towards Zhang Shuren with yet another Slaying Azure Dragon.
As the sword seal landed on the treasured Wutong tree which Zhang Shuren had transformed into, the brutal sword-glow flickered as the huge towering tree instantly trembled.
Sighs of withering shockingly appeared on the surface of the tree trunk which flickered with light.
The thick earth of meritorious virtue surfaced down below, seemingly providing endless nutrients with the signs of withering on the tree trunk now gradually replaced by surging vitality once more.
Yet, soon afterwards, the tree trunk turned withered again beneath the attacks of the sword-light.
Both sides entered a see-saw like contest.
Yan Zhaoge was not flustered at all. Instead, Zhang Shuren’s heart grew heavy.
The Extreme Yang Seal which he had barely managed to jolt away earlier smashed downwards once more!
The great golden sun descended, targeting none other than the treasured Wutong tree that towered high into the clouds.
All in the world knew that the phoenix perched atop the Wutong tree.
At this moment, however, there seemed to be a Great Sun Golden Crow which descended from the heavens, seeking to land on that Wutong tree.
Whether the phoenix was happy about it or not, whether the Wutong tree was happy about it or not, this simply did not matter.
Even though the entire treasured tree was wreathed with flames, it did not fear blazing fire as it could even birth flames itself.
Yet, beneath the barbecuing of the great blazing sun, even the branches of the Wutong tree that surged with vitality vaguely showed signs of drying up and withering now!
Yuan Xiancheng was finally unable to stay a spectator as he transformed into a fiery phoenix and arrived at the peak of the Wutong tree.
The phoenix now began trying to expel the golden crow that wished to take over its nest as these two sides clashed unrelentingly.
Yuan Xiancheng flung his Five Phoenix Fan which landed amidst the branches and leaves, lending that high-grade Sacred Artifact temporarily to Zhang Shuren.
Zhang Shuren did not use it, however. He could only go all out in defending himself now. If he were to wield the Five Phoenix Fan, it would only pointlessly suffer the fate of being beaten down by Yan Zhaoge’s dark green bamboo cane.
This longtime Elder of Wutong Slope calmed himself at this moment, observing Yan Zhaoge carefully even as he focused on defending against his attacks.
Having experienced a great battle against Daoist East Spring, Zhao Zhen and Yuan Xiancheng, he was now battling with him, Zhang Shuren.
Even many other late Immortal Bridge Martial Saints would be depleted greatly by now even if they had not run out of steam.
Yan Zhaoge’s expression was as per usual, his breathing heavier and more prominent than before.
The black and white qis of yin and yang were unceasingly inhaled and exhaled by him.
Still, even as he battled a late Immortal Bridge Martial Saint bigwig like Zhang Shuren, Yan Zhaoge’s breathing was not harried or messed up in the least as it eternally maintained a calm, stable rhythm.
Five colours, crimson, white, green, red and black flickered about his chest, circulating unceasingly.
A Taiji diagram was visible at times whilst unseen at others on his forehead, rotating non-stop.
Seeing this, Zhang Shuren was even more shocked, “No wonder he is so powerful! Exactly just how many supreme martial arts are this youth proficient in?”
“Senior apprentice-uncle Zhang, this Yan Zhaoge is proficient in at least the Cyclic Heavenly Scripture of the Earlier Heaven Three Scriptures and the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture and Life Creation Heavenly Scripture of the Later Heaven Three Scriptures of the Jade Clear direct lineage,” Yuan Xiancheng hurriedly reminded on seeing that his senior apprentice-uncle wished to try to fight a protracted battle with Yan Zhaoge.
Zhang Shuren said, “This old man is aware of that. Besides those, there is likely the Aeon Light Heavenly Scripture too. Also, whether or not this is related to Ingenious Flying Peak, he is even proficient in the Taiji Yin Yang Palm of the Grand Clear lineage’s Grand Cosmos Five Manifestations!”
“And how old is he this year, exactly?” Zhang Shuren sucked in a breath of cold air.
In order to cultivate supreme martial arts, the greater the profundities contained within, the more time and effort martial practitioners would have to devote to attaining certain heights with them.
For supreme martial arts like the Cyclic Heavenly Scripture, the Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture and the Taiji Yin Yang Palm, any single one of them would require entire lifetimes of study for most people if they were to cultivate in them.
Of course, if sufficient time and effort was spent, a peak expert would correspondingly be created.
Being proficient in so many martial arts, it seemed not so far fetched that the youth before them possessed such terrifying strength.
It was just that this was sound in theory but hard in practice.
How had he managed to achieve this?
This felt even more difficult to believe.
First not mentioning that Zhang Shuren had reigned for many years in the World beyond Worlds, even Yuan Xiancheng had also accomplished his fame many years ago despite being very young amongst martial practitioners of the same cultivation level, going by normal standards of time.
Despite having seen countless geniuses of all kinds, this Yan Zhaoge still vaguely caused their worldviews to be overturned somewhat.
Why was it that even the opposing southeastern Yang Heaven Territory was rather in admiration of Yuan Xiancheng’s strength?
This was because whatever the case, he was still the sole descendant of Phoenix Ritual Mountain’s Wutong Slope who already bore four Virtues despite having yet to attain the late Immortal Bridge stage.
This had paved a flat path for Yuan Xiancheng to reach the late Immortal Bridge stage. As long as his accumulation was sufficiently abundant, it was virtually set in stone that he would be able to achieve this successfully.
It was also very possible indeed that he would be able to attain the Human Exalt stage like his Master, Zhuang Shen.
Did the other martial practitioners of Wutong Slope not wish to be like this?
Of course they did. Still, they could not do so.
Before they could learn to run, they were only able to stably walk forward step by step.
Yuan Xiancheng was indeed supremely talented. Still, it was only because of fortuitous encounters that he had managed to surpass common sense and reach his current heights.
Still, comparing him to Yan Zhaoge, the gap was great to the point that the martial practitioners of Wutong Slope would be left totally dumbstruck and confounded.
Let alone the fact that Yan Zhaoge was much younger than Yuan Xiancheng, even if the two were of a similar age, this gap was still much too great.
“The Cyclic Heavenly Scripture, he actually has the Cyclic Heavenly Scripture of the Jade Clear lineage’s Earlier Heaven Three Scriptures. With that, the abundance of his true essence would already have far surpassed that of normal Seeing Divinity Martial Saints,” Zhang Shuren felt all disturbed within, “Yin Yang Heavenly Scripture and Taiji Ying Yang Palm- so he simultaneously cultivates in the supreme martial arts of the Jade Clear and Grand Clear lineages? In that case, returning his qi would be even easier for him than for this old man.”
“If he also cultivates in the Life Creation Heavenly Scripture, that will enhance his accumulation of true essence and its recovery rate yet further.”
The Elder of Wutong Slope looked at Yan Zhaoge like he was looking at a monster.
If things went on like this, perhaps it might even be him who was totally depleted first.