History's Strongest Senior Brother c1-1474
Page 20
Only, in the eyes of other people, they quickly let out cries of alarm as they witnessed Ye Jing fall downwards into the darkness of the Sealing Dragon Abyss!
With the cultivation of someone like Ye Jing, he would have little chance of returning alive.
Even though he had managed to escape death at the hands of the Five Spirit Flags elder, Ye Jing would be hard put to escape the same grisly outcome in the end.
A mountain road has twists and turns*, but in the end, the outcome was still unable to be changed. The disciples, regardless of their previous relationship with Ye Jing, felt some grief at this time.
TL Note: Idiom that means that any situation/life in general will have ups/downs or many different parts
Of course, Yan Zhaoge knew better than that.
In fact, at this moment he had an extreme desire to yawn.
The sudden appearance of that old monster Han gave Yan Zhaoge ample belief that this Ye Jing was thoroughly enshrouded by the bullshit MC’s halo.
In that case, falling off a cliff—it’s pretty relaxed, no?
Not only surviving the fall, if Ye Jing didn’t happen upon some fortuitous encounter, that sort of basic cheat, then he would find a way to rise a couple of levels in a small realm. Upon Ye Jing’s return, Yan Zhaoge would so embarrassed that it would be hard to even greet him.
Yan Zhaoge was almost dancing with joy as he saw Ye Jing freefalling into the abyss. An anomaly—this brother has already seen through your cheats!
Yet, just at this time, the black mist covering the deeper parts of the abyss suddenly erupted with extreme splendor.
Streams of brilliant light interwove with the black mist, releasing a heaving-shaking explosion. An enormous tide erupted outwards.
“That is… my internal crystal furnace. Earlier, it fell into the abyss… and it exploded?”, Yan Zhaoge muttered in a daze.
In an instant, the enormous tide caused by the explosion of the crystal furnace met the free-falling Ye Jing in midair and lifted him upwards!
Under the berserk energy of the tidal wave, Ye Jing, who was already seriously hurt and was riddled with wounds, had his body terrifically smashed!
Observing this sight, Yan Zhaoge also felt a faint despondency: “… Is this life of yours lucky or unlucky?”
Ye Jing’s eyes were wide open, yet he could only look on in horror as his own body shattered. His body already had lost all sensation, and he could not even feel pain from the intense buffeting of his body.
“YAN—ZHAO—GE!!”
Seeing the explosion of the inner crystal furnace, seeing himself be swallowed up by the raging current, Ye Jing let out a mad howl filled with resentment and unwillingness to concede that reverberated in the abyss.
The pale red ring on his right finger, at this moment, suddenly released an unprecedented brilliance!
For that one split second, under the reflection of that pale red ring, the violent astral qi flame tempest released by the Five Spirit Flags elder’s previous attack seemed to lose its color, then faded away into nothingness.
Yan Zhaoge’s pupils shrank. For a brief moment, under the reflection of the ring, he had been able to detect a faintly projected image around Ye Jing’s body.
In that projection, he could see that blurry outlines of a world made of fire!
Under the crimson sky, lava endlessly erupted in enormous geysers, while magma poured out of the earth. It looked as if the world itself had ended.
An enormous disaster, bringing the heavens themselves to ruin! An odor of suffering seemed to emanate from within—though all that was visible was endless lava. This was a world of molten rock, a fiery hell!
Myriad streams of liquid fire intertwined in the air, condensing into an enormous god of fire!
In the presence of this fire god, all beings would have the involuntarily urge prostrate themselves in fear and worship.
Compared to the fire god, the auras of the Eastern Tang Elder, old monster Han, and the Five Spirit Flags elder were nothing.
Even though it was only for that split second, even though it was only an illusory projection, even though it was only the remnants of its aura, it made every person feel as if they were facing an unprecedented disaster.
Many of the others had their vision obstructed by the black mist and were unable to observe what had actually happened, but they were unable to control themselves as their spirits shook uncontrollably.
Yan Zhaoge, after seeing the illusory projection, had some guesses.
However, what was more pressing to him at this moment was Ye Jing’s ultimate fate.
Ye Jing’s body, under the violent swell of the eruption from the Sealing Dragon Abyss, was already thoroughly smashed to pieces, and had become a bloody mist. Apparently, his life had already come to an end.
Yet, the sudden appearance of the previous projection… was it to signal the main character plot armor once again kicking into action?
As the red light from the ring enveloped Ye Jing’s shattered flesh and blood, and out of nowhere, a perfect copy of Ye Jing’s body was reassembled. Though it perfectly resembled him, it had a dull gaze which made it seem entirely lifeless.
“Soul…”
Yan Zhaoge paused for a moment as he processed what was going on. As he began to understand, Ye Jing’s soul seemed to be sheltered by the ring’s light, and flew into the ring itself.
If the fleshly body was shattered, it could be considered to be inevitable that the person had already died. However, this ring defied all logic and was able to preserve the soul even after the body was destroyed, saving Ye Jing’s chance to make a comeback.
Seeing that ring sink down within the abyss, Yan Zhaoge stroked his chin: “Ahhh, interesting.”
Even though he wasn’t too sure what Ye Jing’s ultimate outcome would be, he figured that there would ultimately be a good show to come after Ye Jing’s miraculous return from the dead.
For example, reconstructing the body, leading to a big cultivation breakthrough… wow! Or maybe instead, having some benefit from an ill wind… a fortuitous meeting would occur, like having no body but being able to cultivate some sort of awesome skill inside the ring….
Anyways, wouldn’t there always be some way?
Still, for today’s developments, even Yan Zhaoge hadn’t been able to imagine them happening.
Ye Jing really had been thrown around quite a bit. If one were to ask him what the meaning of it all was, he would probably have ten thousand grievances.
He was on the verge of being totally ruined.
“If the main character halo really is consumable, Ye Jing must’ve used up quite a lot of it today.” Saying this, Yan Zhaoge immediately started coming up with a bunch of weird and random ideas.
Ye Jing unresigned howl of resentment, on the other hand, was still echoing.
“What are you doing, shouting so loudly? It’s not like I threw away my internal crystal furnace down to smash you. My heart is still hurting from losing my internal crystal furnace, let alone…”
Yan Zhaoge stuck a finger in his ear, letting his smiling expression gradually turn cold: “…I didn’t respond to you, yet you still take the initiative to provoke me? In the future, if you never appeared in front of me again then I’ll leave it at that… otherwise, regarding the issue of the li true flame fire seed—we still need to settle that account. “
“Main character halo? So what? This boss here will make your turn from a wuxia protagonist into a existentialist* novel’s protagonist.
TL note: This sentence is kind of hard to translate… he says he’ll make Ye Jing transform from to a . Even though it can be loosely translated as “genre” ie. Wuxia, it really is kind of referring to what kind of feeling the novel gives the reader. ‘shuang wen’ makes the reader feel ‘shuang’ which is basically like cool, boss. (ie. Wrecking noobs, having sex, being op, having a lot of money, etc.) while ‘nue wen’ is basically just like a story which is just the MC suffering. This concept is a little bi
t harder because it seems to not really appear much in English literature, but is kind of a classical Chinese concept where the main character of a work just suffers. I translated this to existentialism cause it’s kind of similar, though that’s more like life is pointless rather than MC just having a life of pure suffering.
Inside the Sealing Dragon Abyss, the tide of qi was a torrential rush. The intertwined black mist and water continued to shoot up, as a spot of blue light and a spot of white light flew up with it out of the Sealing Dragon Abyss, landing in front of Yan Zhaoge.
The Li true fire flame seed was gently suspended in the air, as that spot of white light gently resumed its normal form. It turned out to actually be a small metal tablet, which landed gently among the dust and rubble on the ground.
Yan Zhaoge quietly claimed the Li fire seed and the metal tablet: “Even though my efforts were constantly being foiled, this can finally count as having obtained the item.”
Yan Zhaoge walked through the violent tempest, picking up the struggling Broad Creed Sect disciples as he went.
Turning around and looking down at the abyss, Yan Zhaoge suddenly thought of something: “That’s right… wasn’t this metal tablet something that belonged to Ye Jing?”
TL NOTE: ayyyy done with the chapter… hope you enjoy! I’ll try to get another one out this weekend… but might not be able to til after my exam on Mon. pls bear with me
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 20: The odd metal tablet
Having the same fate as Ye Jing’s fleshly body, Ye Jing’s belongings were entirely relegated to scrap.
Even the low-grade artifacts on his body were also swallowed up into the abyss. The only things had had managed to escape destruction were the abnormal red ring, and the strange metal plate that had fallen into the hands of Yan Zhaoge.
Massaging the metal plate, Yan Zhaoge thought to himself: “This item is definitely not simple.”
Also, the seed of Li Flame True Fire had finally fallen into his hands, a fact that in and of itself made the trip to the Sealing Dragon Abyss worthwhile.
While protecting the crowd of disciples and convening with his black-clothed bodyguards, Yan Zhaoge and his men faced towards the roiling Sealing Dragon Abyss and mustered all there energy to shield the cliff face.
After what seemed like an interminable wait, the violent storm of energy gradually began to die down.
The disciples who were being shielded were able to come out, involuntarily let out sighs of relief. The chaotic streams of baleful qi upending space, even though they was not in the very depths of the abyss, was still able to completely transform heaven and earth.
Yan Zhaoge spoke out: “After these unexpected events, you disciples are not suited to stay in the Sealing Dragon Abyss. This time’s mission; the part pertaining to you can be considered complete. Let us depart from this place.”
The other disciples immediately nodded their heads in affirmation.
Everything that happened before was sudden and unexpected, making most people feel like they were unable to regain their bearings. Even now, many of them felt muddleheaded from all the things that happened.
Even though within the Broad Creed Mountain there was no shortage of Martial Grandmaster level experts, this crowd of young disciples had never been so closely involved with a struggle between two Martial Grandmasters.
After experiencing an event that had expanded the scope of their worldview so much, many of them still had lingering fears.
Ye Jing’s unfortunate demise had also left a shadow of grief on the whole affair.
Yan Zhaoge cast a glance at them: “Junior apprentice-brother Ye this time unfortunately encountered a big disaster. His fate is unknown, but I have great faith that he is not someone to die prematurely. I trust that he may be able to turn this disaster into good fortune.”
On hearing these words, the others were slightly startled. They had only seen Ye Jing fall into the abyss as a result of the Crimson Spirit Flags elder’s attack, but later, were unable to see anything clearly due to the black mist and were only able to faintly hear some sounds.
Yan Zhaoge faintly nodded his head: “Speaking of brother Ye’s life or death at this time is still too early.”
The surrounding disciples all let out a breath of air. Though normally, most of Ye Jing’s relationships with them could be said to be mediocre at most, at this time, no one held their past relationships against him.
However, that feeling of being helpless and waiting for death that they had felt before a Martial Grandmaster’s attack had caused all of them to become closer in the face of the great calamity.
At this moment, almost all of them had put their trust in Yan Zhaoge. On hearing him say that Ye Jing might yet return from the dead, all of them felt relieved.
Yan Zhaoge continued: “However, when that Martial Grandmaster suddenly appeared and declared himself to be sworn brothers with junior apprentice-brother Ye, it was quite unanticipated.”
The crowd of disciples took this moment to think back on the matter. Examining their memories, they too felt that this matter was almost inconceivable.
Sikong Qing’s gaze wavered slightly for an instant, but it was instantly caught by Yan Zhaoge: “Junior apprentice-sister Sikong seems to know something?”
“That person, surnamed Han, has a grievance with the Eastern Tang Principal Elder Yan. His temper is irascible and violent, while his martial skills seem to be demonic and tyrannical in nature. That Martial Grandmaster, if I haven’t remembered incorrectly, should be the “Ghost Hatchet Elder”, Han Sheng.
Yan Zhaoge spoke: “The Elder you spoke of has already been missing for many years, and also had great enmity with Elder Yan. That he would suddenly appear in the vicinity of the Eastern Tang is a matter of great import.”
Sikong Qing stayed silent for a moment, then responded: “I previously came to the Eastern Tang in my travels, and visited the neighboring Sealing Dragon Abyss. While in the mountain range around the abyss, I suddenly lost consciousness.”
“Afterwards, it was Ye Jing, who had yet to the join the sect,who saved me. However, regarding the matter of the Ghost Hatchet Elder, I really don’t know anything else.”
“However, that time’s foe was an expert at the boundary of the martial scholar realm. With his strength, it would have been impossible for junior apprentice-brother Ye to save me, leaving me to wonder how we escaped. I was always puzzled as that this matter, but it was difficult for me to probe further, so I just ascribed it to be the will of heaven.”
Yan Zhaoge inclined his head, and did not continue his questioning: “Junior apprentice-sister Sikong’s words; I can trust them. Seeing as you are also in the dark on this matter, then we’ll have to wait until we find junior apprentice-brother Ye until we can shed light on this issue. However, these matters will have to be accurately reported back to the sect, meaning that this issue is no longer just a private one between the two of you.”
Sikong Qing responded: “I understand.”
The party finally emerged with great difficulty from the Sealing Dragon Abyss. The young disciples, upon seeing the light of the sky again, burst into cheers.
Yan Zhaoge slapped a sound transmission tablet and rendezvoused with a middle-aged black clothed man. Together, they sent out a multitude of communications while the crowd of disciples waited at their current location.
Very quickly, Ah Hu was the first to hurry over. After him, a number of other cultivators also rushed over. Among them, there were the Broad Creed Mountain cultivators dispatched to guard the Eastern Tang, as well as member of the Eastern Tang army.
On seeing him, Ah Hu practically flung himself towards Yan Zhaoge, only stopping himself at the last moment in consideration of all the other people who were present. Instead, he hugged Yan Zhaoge’s leg while weeping bitter tears: “Ah, Young Master, it is the heavens’ joy that you are uninjured!”
Yan Zhaoge responded: “If I had a problem, then you could follow your desires
and stuff you face until bloated into a yeasty bun, and it still wouldn’t concern me.”
Ah Hu scratched his head and gave a foolish smile: “I wouldn’t dare, wouldn’t dare.”
Yan Zhaoge asked: “Elder Yan, Han Sheng, and that Crimson Spirit Flag Master?”
Ah Hu straightforwardly responded: “Elder Yan and the Ghost Hatchet Elder were fighting on and off, an have headed off towards the east. The Crimson Spirit Flag Master immediately fled after making his move, but we have some people chasing after him. The most recent news from that front hasn’t made its way back yet.”
Yan Zhaoge nodded, waited for the other disciples to organize. Clarifying the correct path to take, they headed away from the Sealing Dragon Abyss.
The direction they were headed was towards a city called the Overlooking Abyss City. There, they planned to rest for a short while as they made arrangements for the longer journey back to the sect. The Eastern Tang was the part of the East Heaven region that was farthest east, and the Overlooking Abyss City was the easternmost frontier in the Eastern Tang.
This city was the Eastern Tang’s first line of defense against the Sealing Dragon Abyss, meaning that it was very rough and unrefined.
However, because of the treasures that could be found in the Sealing Dragon Abyss, a large number of adventurous martial artists would pass through the town. As such, a portion of the business transactions would occur within the town, eventually causing a fairly large marketplace to form.
Of course, the experts that dared to enter the Sealing Dragon Abyss either possessed an unordinary cultivation base or were bloodthirsty individuals who lived by their blades. As such, the area within the city was quite disorderly.
Not only did the Eastern Tang Kingdom guard the city, Broad Creed Mountain also had a specialized garrison manning the city. These troops simultaneously protected the city from dangers originating from the abyss, while also ensuring public order within the city and protecting the earnings of the marketplace.
As the rest of the disciples settled down for the night, Yan Zhaoge was carefully examining the odd metal plate he had obtained.