HSSB31: The New and Old Hegemons
Ma Yue smirked as he looked over Lan Wenyan and the others. “If you don’t want to stand under the waterfall, we can always find something else to play. It’s fine if we take a short break; we can just wait a couple more days before resuming our playtime.”
He cast a glance at junior apprentice-brother Fei. Upon seeing his lowered head, Ma Yue laughed and looked back at Sikong Qing and Lan Wenyan: “You lot can go back to the clan and report me, but what are you going to say? That I was too fervent in urging a junior apprentice-brother to train?”
Lan Wenyan glared at him, his eyes practically shooting out flames.
Ma Yue didn’t even look at Lan Wenyan, as he stared Sikong Qing straight in the face. “Whatcha gonna do, hit me?” he taunted.
“They can’t beat me in a fight, and your cultivation is higher than mine. Without any provocation from me, you’ll be the one breaking sect rules if you attack me.”
Ma Yue maintained his frivolous expression as he backed up: “You see, junior apprentice-sister Sikong, I definitely don’t dare to provoke you. Whatever you say is however it’ll be. If junior apprentice-brother Fei doesn’t want to come to the waterfall with me, I definitely won’t force him to… after all, I’ll do whatever you say.”
“Not just today, but whenever you’re here – I’ll definitely listen to you.”
“As for when you leave, heh…”
As Ma Yue kept backing up, he suddenly bumped into someone behind him.
He started and whirled around, only to immediately be frightened out of his wits.
The person who appeared in front of him was none other than Xu Chuan!
Xu Chuan’s demeanor was calm as he looked at Ma Yue, his face betraying not the slightest hint of rage, though that only served to increase Ma Yue’s terror.
“After junior apprentice-niece Sikong leaves, then what?”
Ma Yue rallied his spirits: “Xu… Elder Xu, when did you get here…”
Xu Chuan replied, “Everything that I should have heard, I heard.”
Ma Yue immediately felt his vision turn dark.
His legs went soft, practically bringing him to his knees.
Xu Chuan shook his head and waved his hand. From behind him, two of his attendants supported Ma Yue as they brought him away.
“Elder Xu, my grandfather…” Ma Yue wanted to speak, yet found that his entire body was controlled, rendering him unable to make a sound.
He was left with only one resounding thought: “…it’s over!”
“Henceforth, he will no longer appear in Overlooking Abyss City, nor will he be able to use my name to intimidate others.” Xu Chuan gave Sikong Qing and the others a slight nod, then turned around to leave.
None of them knew, but this person who held the position of Acting Elder in both Overlooking Abyss City and Spirit Wind Canyon, Elder Xu, felt his back dripping with cold sweat. “Thank goodness for junior apprentice-nephew Yan’s warning; otherwise, there would have been a huge disaster in the near future!”
Lan Wenyan and the rest of the group looked at one another, remaining at a loss for words.
“…Perhaps it was senior apprentice-brother Yan.” Sikong Qing looked at Xu Chuan’s swiftly departing shadow, and quietly spoke.
They instantly understood. Looking around everywhere, only now did they discover Yan Zhaoge some distance away.
The party hurriedly walked over to give their thanks.
Seeing the group’s expectant yet uncertain expressions, Yan Zhaoge laughed and shook his head. Looking at the youth surnamed Fei, he said: “In the future, he will no longer be troubling you.”
“However, devote yourself to your training and always resist giving up. If you often press yourself, the greatest beneficiary will always be yourself. “
“For example, if you had junior apprentice-sister Sikong’s cultivation and position, then even without anyone else making an appearance, he still wouldn’t dare to trouble you.”
Junior Brother Fei bit his lower lip as he faced Yan Zhaoge with reverence: “Yes, I will keep Senior Brother Yan’s teachings close to my heart.”
Wanting to express his thanks, but not quite knowing what to say, his emotions were quite agitated. Lan Wenyan tugged on his sleeve, then quietly said: “It’s good if you can remember it. Senior Brother Yan even had the patience to deal with this lowly Ma Yue to help people as unimportant as us.”
“Yes.” Junior apprentice-brother Fei immediately nodded his head. When he met Yan Zhaoge’s gaze, he felt a rush of gratitude and respect.
Lan Wenyan and the others also felt the same way.
Yan Zhaoge didn’t bring up the other party’s matter again, simply letting out a small laugh before he asked: “From your outfits, it looks like you’re setting off a journey. Where are you headed?”
Sikong Qing calmly responded: “I was going to bring our junior apprentice brothers and sisters to the Luliao mountain range.”
Yan Zhaoge said indifferently: “En, you have experience entering the mountains. Be careful and assist them.”
Sikong Qing responded: “I understand.”
Since Yan Zhaoge had made his move, the others naturally were no longer afraid of Elder Xu preaching one thing and acting the other. The worry that they had had over Ma Yue’s affair just now was instantly dispelled, as the mood became more relaxed.
Another disciple was suddenly curious and he asked Yan Zhaoge: “Brother Yan, those story tellers and puppeteers always mention a “Mr Dong”. Is he some heaven-shaking ancestor of our sect?”
Due to Overlooking Abyss City’s proximity to the Sealing Dragon Abyss, there were a great number of martial practitioners in the city, and fewer regular people. Still, there were some people who braved the dangers and came here to make a living.
Because of the marketplace, the city was unexpectedly bustling with noise and activity.
Right now, at the roadside, there was a big crowd of children engrossed by a puppet show.
The puppeteer was controlling two large puppets which were currently fighting back and forth on the stage. He himself was hidden behind the stage, sending spittle flying as he shouted out: “With one stupendous blow by Mr Dong, the heavens and earth were instantly shattered, the sea was split in half, and he beheaded the great flame demon king!”
“That flame demon king dared to trespass in the Eight Extremities World, wreaking havoc wherever he went. Yet, when he met Mr Dong, he learnt that while having come here successfully, he wouldn’t be able to leave!”
In the street show, the two puppets looked quite old fashioned, but their handiwork was quite refined.
One puppet was a middle aged man holding a long saber with an extremely tyrannical expression.
Meanwhile, the other puppet was a blazing red. Despite resembling a human, it looked extremely ferocious and looked more like a devil or monster. What’s more, the hair on top of its head was fashioned to look like a flame.
Under the control of the puppeteer, the puppet of the middle aged man brought his blade to the neck of the fire devil, causing the fire devil puppet to suddenly fly backwards.
Not only were the children in great spirits, the surrounding spectators all whooped and let out a cheer.
Yan Zhaoge looked at the play and spoke: “That’s correct, that ‘Mr Dong’ is our sect’s Ancestor Dongge.”
The exalted Hantian or heaven shaker, Zhan Dongge, was Broad Creed Mountain’s strongest expert. The period during which he was in control of the clan was known as the Golden Age of Broad Creed Mountain.
The peak martial artist Zhan Dongge was the strongest expert in the entire Eight Extremities World during his era, someone who could look down on all the outstanding heroes. Likewise, his Broad Creed Mountain was also undisputedly the number one Sacred Ground that looked down on the rest of the world.
Unfortunately, when Zhan Dongge and Broad Creed Mountain were at their pinnacle, the world underwent a shocking change.
Over the endless eastern sea of the Eight Extremities World, a crack suddenly appeared in the heavens themselves.
Between another flame devil world and the Eight Extremities World, a passageway had formed.
The pinnacle existence in that flame devil world wasn’t the human race. Rather, it was the race of flame devils, who had inborn great strength and possessed a brutal and tyrannical temperament.
The flame devils invaded. Under Zhan Dongge, Broad Creed Mountain rallied the outstanding heroes of the world to resist the invasion.
The flame devils possessed more experts, and the battles were disadvantageous for those of the Eight Extremities World. Finally, it was Zhan Dongge going one against five and managing to singlehandedly kill the flame devils’ strongest expert, along with two of the other demon kings, while also grievously wounding the other two demon kings, that caused the tides to finally shift.
The last group of flame devils was finally forced back into the flame devil world, but the losses sustained by the forces of the Eight Extremities World were also disastrous.
The mighty elder Zhan Dongge was akin to a one man army, glorious in battle, but the final wound he had sustained had dried up his last reserves of energy. The greater part of the experts of Broad Creed
Mountain had also perished in the war.
After that, even though the other Sacred Grounds had also sustained grievous losses, they saw the opportunity to overtake the most grievously damaged Broad Creed Mountain. It was during this time that the Sacred Sun Clan gradually distinguished itself, eventually becoming the new number one Sacred Ground.
In recent years, Broad Creed Mountain had not had a good relationship with the Sacred Sun Clan, with the primary reason being that each felt the status of the old and new hegemons to be distasteful.
The passageway between the two worlds still existed, meaning that even though the flame devils had been forced back into their own world, the threat still existed. In the past couple of years, there had been
nonstop fighting between the two worlds.
It was also because of the fight with the flame devils that the checks and balances between the sacred grounds could be maintained. Within the Eight Extremities World, the situation could be described as peaceful, thanks in large part to this state of affairs.
Storytellers and puppeteers were afraid to directly use the name of their savior, Zhan Dongge. Due to this reason, the name ‘Mr Dong’ came about. Of course, most people had only limited knowledge of the events of that year, causing them to infer all sorts of bizarre things like gods and demons.
Of course, for normal people, Zhan Dongge had truly become a mythological figure to them, much like the rest of the events from that time.
Because it also served the purpose of raising the renown, the present day Broad Creed Mountain had not forbidden the telling of such stories, instead choosing to turn a blind eye to it.
The group of Broad Creed Mountain disciples recalled the teachings that they had read in the sect, as well as the recounts from their seniors. Imagining that past time, they felt like crying for a brief
period: “That year, our sect… ah!”
Standing at Yan Zhaoge’s side, Ah Hu suddenly showed a slight change in expression as he looked in the other direction.
Yan Zhaoge followed his gaze to see a fully-bearded youth dressed in white appear.
The youth cast a glance first at the puppet show, then at the group of Broad Creed Mountain disciples, before shaking his head: “Only being able to live in the past and deceive themselves…pitiful creatures.”