HSSB128: Jingle
Not only Yan Zhaoge, even Zhao Ming and Jing Yunzhi felt curious about this, paying attention to the battle situation over at Sikong Qing’s side while in the meantime also pricking up their ears.
Feng Yunsheng said, “First, I must warn you that it isn’t all that nice to hear.”
Yan Zhaoge and the two smiled. The six great Sacred Grounds presided high over those first and second-rate powers, weighing down upon them with great pressure that resembled mountains.
If there was anything good, it would definitely be split amongst the six great Sacred Grounds first. Other people grumbling and griping about it a little, was actually only natural.
Feng Yunsheng also didn’t beat around the bush, moving straight to announcing the answer.
“Broad Creed wily, Sacred Sun wild. Rushing to reincarnate the Heavenly Thunder Hall, smelly and hard that Infinite Boundless Mountain. Slick to the extreme Turbid Wave Pavilion, most venomous naught but Jade Sea City.”
Hearing this, the trio all had strange expressions on their faces, before simultaneously beginning to snigger a few moments later.
“Everything else aside, the comparison really is somewhat accurate,” Zhao Ming smiled as he shook his head, as the Jing Yunzhi beside him also could not help but laugh.
Of the six great Sacred Grounds, Broad Creed Mountain was the most erudite and all-rounded, possessing all the various styles of martial arts that were. Just from style and type alone, it was very hard to find an existence that completely countered the Broad Creed martial arts.
Whilst facing off against others, Broad Creed Mountain martial practitioners also saw the greatest change in their combat styles. As someone once said, “Countering Broad Creed is hard, Broad Creed countering is easy.”
Wanting to counter Broad Creed Mountain’s martial arts through style was very difficult, as if the Broad Creed Mountain martial practitioners had cultivated extensively and deeply enough, they could actually vary their styles to counter their opponent.
Thus, in the eyes of others, Broad Creed Mountain martial practitioners and their martial arts had become the definition of crafty, being extremely wily as they specifically looked for the weak points of their opponents to make their moves on, in effect themselves creating the situation of bullying the strong with the weak.
Facing their opponents’ strengths head-on like Yan Zhaoge just now and Sikong Qing now was conversely something that rarely happened.
The Sacred Sun Clan’s martial arts concentrated highly on momentum rather than stances, wild and unrestrained, not following common logic, making it hard for others to predict.
There were others who had said in the dark that these were obviously the supreme martial arts of a Sacred Ground, but why did they so much seem like a wild path, unenlightened yet putting on the airs of superiority.
The Heavenly Thunder Hall had fierce attacks, its style being even more domineering and swift than the Sacred Sun Clan, resembling the flashing of lightning and the rumbling of thunder. Of the six great Sacred Grounds, the Heavenly Thunder Hall focused the most on speed.
And of the Sacred Grounds, Heavenly Thunder Hall’s martial arts also walked the most extreme path.
If one said that the Sacred Sun Clan that was domineering as fire greatly prioritised offence over defence, Heavenly Thunder Hall could virtually be said as only knowing offence and not defence.
‘Smelly and hard that Infinite Boundless Mountain’ was used to slander Infinite Boundless Mountain martial practitioners as being as smelly and hard as the stones in the latrine pits, also describing how their martial arts were comparatively heavy and stagnant, not being as flexible as those of the other Sacred Grounds.
For the legacies of the six great Sacred Grounds, Infinite Boundless Mountain was publicly recognised as the most proficient in tough, head-on fights, but also the least proficient in terms of speed of movement.
‘Slick to the extreme Turbid Wave Pavilion’ referred to the style of Turbid Wave Pavilion’s martial arts, proficient in countering toughness with softness.
Turbid Wave Pavilion’s dissipating force with force techniques could practically be hailed as standing at the top of the current Eight Extremities World.
Their defensive ability along Infinite Boundless Mountain’s strength, one soft, one tough, were named side by side in this world, while their movement techniques also specialised in moving over short distances, being nimble to the extreme.
As for that final ‘Most venomous naught but Jade Sea City’, it referred to Jade Sea City’s martial arts, proficient in wielding secret and unseen forces, resembling a sea that appeared calm on the surface yet surged with unseen turbulent tides beneath, formlessly harming others without them knowing.
One of Jade Sea City’s most famed supreme martial arts, the Jade Sea Formless Sword, was even more so a formless and shapeless sword. When its sword intent fanned out, enemies were as though plunged into the sea.
The sword-qi that was formless yet all-pervading and omnipresent, once entering someone’s body, was like a maggot that had invaded their bones, being hard to dispel, thus handing Jade Sea City the outside reputation of ‘venomous’.
Zhao Ming laughed, “This Jade Sea Formless Sword is not just something that those first and second-rate forces are scolding; even the other five Sacred Grounds, our clan included, also hate it bitterly.”
Holding Han Long’er’s hand, Yan Zhaoge smiled, “Of the six great Sacred Grounds, which doesn’t have a supreme art that everyone also hates bitterly?”
Feng Yunsheng nodded, “It is precisely so.”
Glancing at Jing Yunzhi, Yan Zhaoge sighed silently, before handing Han Long’er over to Feng Yunsheng’s care.
Jing Yunzhi had lent a helping hand, yet caused her own Scarlet Rainbow Sect’s medicinal field that they had painstakingly cultivated to be implicated instead, with some of their martial practitioners even perishing.
While this fellow disciple of his was a reasonable person, asking her to help take care of this child now would inevitably feel a little uncaring.
While Feng Yunsheng was a little quizzical at Yan Zhaoge’s actions, she did not ask any questions, all smiles as she took hold of Han Long’er’s hand.
Han Long’er was dazed as his vision was still focused on the corpses of his parents.
“Daddy…mommy…why are you not waking up?”
Feng Yunsheng sighed within her heart, her gaze becoming gentler and gentler.
And on the other side, the battle between Sikong Qing and Hou Xiang was also gradually being decided.
Sikong Qing displayed Broad Creed Mountain’s direct lineage martial arts, the Great Heaven Earth Sword of the Eight Extreme Arts, fighting strength with strength, accumulating her advantage bit by bit.
The Great Heaven Earth Sword held offense and defence in one. While it seemed simple and clumsy, it was actually intricate to the extreme, encompassing everything under the heavens, grand and majestic as it contained the essence of Broad Creed Mountain’s attainments in the dao of the sword.
The Big Dipper Sword appeared extremely complicated but actually contained extreme simplicity, while the Great Heaven Earth Sword appeared simple but had many complexities hidden within.
At this moment, Sikong Qing displayed the flair of the Great Heaven Earth Sword as best she could, her advantage increasing unceasingly till the point that she was like a rolling snowball, her momentum growing greater and greater as Hou Xiang completely couldn’t find a chance to turn the tables at all.
Zhao Ming glanced at the Yan Zhaoge beside him.
Similarly in a head-on clash, Yan Zhaoge’s way had been to end the fight speedily, swift as wind speeding and lightning flashing, deciding the victory in but an instant.
Whereas Sikong Qing’s way had been even more direct and overboard, while not as shocking and dazzling to the eyes, being steady as Mount Tai.
Such a young girl, against an opponent of Infinite Boundless Mountain, was even more stable and sound than him, firmly grasping the advantage in her own hands.
Although Hou Xiang was still barely holding on, looking at him now, he gave off the feeling that his defeat was only a matter of time, with virtually no one feeling that he would be able to turn the tables around.
However, as opposed to Sikong Qing, Yan Zhaoge gave off a bottomless feeling, rendering others completely unable to see through him, to discern where exactly his limit truly was.
“While junior apprentice-sister Sikong appears to be fighting based on stability, her sword-intent is constantly pushing forward, not showing any signs of passivity whatsoever,” Yan Zhaoge smiled lightly, before his focus turned elsewhere.
There, yet another group of Infinite Boundless Mountain martial practitioners had appeared.
One of them, rather resembled the Zhao Ming currently standing beside Yan Zhaoge.
He was obviously the Zhao Hao who had totally vanished following the war of the Eastern Tang!
Yan Zhaoge appraised Zhao Hao all over, “Eh? Not having to specifically breathe, there are streams of qi flowing slowly about the outside of his body. This is the appearance of already having opened up his orifices, such that they will automatically take in qi themselves?”
“He has become a Martial Scholar, and has also already reached the peak of the early inner aura Martial Scholar realm, about to completely open up all his orifices and step into the mid inner aura Martial Scholar realm.”
“That’s quite a fast speed,” Yan Zhaoge wasn’t much surprised, because while half a year ago, Zhao Hao had only just broken through from the eighth level of the Body Refinement realm, the mid qi-directing stage, to the ninth level, the late qi-directing stage, following that reaching the peak of the Body Refinement realm and breaking though to become a Martial Scholar, jumping up three levels within a short period of time in what was an extremely world-shocking feat, he knew Zhao Hao’s background.
With his experience from his previous lifetime, having been reborn now, it was completely logical that he would start off with an extremely high speed.
Only that part of martial cultivation which required slow grinding over a period of time meant time which Zhao Hao could not avoid spending.
Other than that, as long as it was a bottleneck that required insights, to him who had gone through the process before, it was basically like walking on flat land.
To Zhao Hao, those problems that those around him were stuck on for long periods having to analyse and ponder on, were completely nothing.
Although it was reincarnation, as long as he always had a grasp of his body’s situation, there existed for him no barriers in the form of knowledge and experience.
Therefore, Zhao Hao’s unworldly speed in the Body Refinement and Martial Scholar realms had completely been within Yan Zhaoge’s predictions.
That Zhao Hao had previously accompanied the Infinite Boundless Mountain martial practitioners in leaving the Eastern Tang, Yan Zhaoge had also been aware of.
However, he had not predicted that Zhao Hao would appear at this Cloud Portent Mountain.
“What’s he here for?” Yan Zhaoge raised his brows slightly, “Is it also for the Giant Spirit Magnetite vein?”