As for the paralyzed Liu Shengfeng on the ground, he was even more dumbstruck. Having seen what had happened to Zhao Hao, he was even more frightened than he had been before.
In fact, from the moment that Yan Zhaoge had revealed himself till now, only a short time had passed.
Saving people, shattering the formation, and slaying the enemy.
Everything had been accomplished in only a few breaths of time.
The state of affairs had been completely reversed in the blink of an eye.
At one moment, it seemed as if the descent of the Nine Underworlds was imminent, and in the next moment, Yan Zhaoge was brazenly slaying Zhao Hao and shattering the devilish formation.
Watching Yan Zhaoge standing there, the minds of Ye Zhongzhou, Zhang Yao, and the others momentarily blanked.
Yan Zhaoge watched serenely as the all-encompassing devilish qi gradually dispersed.
The oppressive aura from the Nine Underworlds gradually subsided as the illusory door on the ground also vanished completely.
As the portal closed, an extremely unresigned will seemed to pass through infinite time and space, roaring in Yan Zhaoge’s ear.
Yan Zhaoge didn’t change his expression. He sheathed his sword and gazed into the distance as the dissipating devilish qi transformed into numerous rampaging chains across the sky.
Elder Mo and the other fallen practitioners, to whatever extent, all suffered a backlash from the formation, the devilish qi surging in reverse, flowing into their bodies.
The higher the cultivation base, the more serious the backlash.
Without the boost of the devilish qi, instead even being harmed by it, the lines of the Decimating Abyss experts instantly collapsed, their loss destined.
In the sky, the red mountain paused for a moment. Yan Zhaoge could feel the gaze of Shan Shiweng on him.
“Pity that he isn’t a disciple of my Infinite Boundless Mountain…” Shan Shiweng let out a regretful, whilst also praise-filled sigh, before instantly speeding off into the distance to help hunt down the remaining Decimating Abyss Organization experts.
Yan Zhaoge watched as Shan Shiweng travelled into the distance. At the same time, without betraying any emotion, he emitted a suction force with his palm to pick up the little black incense burner beside Zhao Hao’s corpse.
Compared to Zhao Hao, he was instead more interested in this little incense burner.
The sword strike he had used to kill Zhao Hao as well as the one with which he had defeated Zhao Hao’s Starlight Fire Trailing Sky earlier were both martial arts he had comprehended and created himself.
For Yan Zhaoge, whose cultivation was continually increasing, he had been continually working on improving his martial arts. At this point, he was already on the way to mastering them and forming a system of his own.
Finger Flicking Shocking Thunder, was just a beginning.
The principles within this martial art just executed by him was the more deep and profound.
Although it was still in its embryonic form, not yet matured as compared to Finger Flicking Shocking Thunder, its power was already not to be underestimated.
Yan Zhaoge had executed this martial art through the Jade Dragon Sword in a bid to kill, yet had been unable to leave behind even a single mark on the surface of this little black incense burner.
This showed that this ordinary looking incense burner actually had an extraordinary origin.
As a result, Yan Zhaoge was extremely interested in the mysteries of this incense burner, but was also equally cautious.
He sat down and meditated to recover his exhausted strength while simultaneously examining the incense burner.
At first, Yan Zhaoge couldn’t feel anything, but fully focusing his mind on the incense burner, his mind suddenly wavered as it felt as though his spirit wanted to leave his body and enter the black incense burner of its own accord.
Yan Zhaoge warily kept his mind in place.
He slowly reached out and began infusing aura-qi within, surging unceasingly.
The aura-qi that was sent into the incense burner quickly vanished without a trace or any feedback whatsoever. For Yan Zhaoge, who was the original owner of this aura-qi, his connection with the aura-qi was completely terminated.
Continuously infusing aura-qi into the incense burner, fully concentrating on it, his mind suddenly wavered once more.
This time, he was long prepared for it. While keeping a firm guard up on his own mind, he began to probe the incense burner with his consciousness.
His consciousness entered into a world that was entirely pitch-black, quiet and deep, an infinite dimension of darkness.
“Hmmm?” Yan Zhaoge wrinkled his brows. He suddenly felt that there was a strange force affecting his mind that wanted to stop him from leaving this dark world, wanting to make him sink deeper and deeper within.
The world didn’t possess a single bit of light and was pure darkness. Any light that he tried to project into the world was absorbed by it, leaving behind only the deepest darkness.
While there was only a boundless expanse of darkness, Yan Zhaoge seemed to experience a vast and limitless temptation, attempting to draw his consciousness completely within.
Even though Yan Zhaoge could feel that this dark world was without malicious intent, he was also one hundred percent sure that if he was unable to defend his mind and was subsumed by the darkness, his soul would be eternally imprisoned in this dark world, his fleshly body reduced to an empty shell.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 195: Gains one after another
HSSB195: Gains one after another
Yan Zhaoge was calm, seemingly not flustered in the least.
Progressing forward in this darkness was undoubtedly yet another tempering of his mind and will.
If he showed any form of weakness or complacency, laziness or instability, the darkness would also make use of the chance to invade. As he resisted the bewitchment of the darkness, Yan Zhaoge’s will received another upgrade as the impurities within his mind were removed.
Finally, while located within the infinite, boundless darkness, Yan Zhaoge was leisurely and contented, relaxed and at ease. While the darkness might be able to pull others into the deep abyss, it no longer had any effect on him whatsoever.
At this moment, Yan Zhaoge had some thoughts within his heart. Smiling, he raised his head, a pair of jet-black eyes appearing in the darkness above him, watching him silently.
Within the silent darkness, Yan Zhaoge did not say anything, and those black pupils also did not emit any sound, but a strange communication was formed between them.
The black pupils knew no sorrow and knew no joy, yet seemed to have acknowledged Yan Zhaoge’s existence, now gradually closing and no longer appearing, as though they had never ever been there.
Yan Zhaoge smiled slightly. At this moment, he easily retreated from the world of darkness by his own will.
Seeing the light of day once more, Yan Zhaoge flipped his hand as he played with the black incense burner within it somewhat interestedly.
Flipping it over, he saw that at its bottom were inscribed two ancient characters.
Earth Devouring.
Yan Zhaoge remembered that during his clash with Zhao Hao earlier, the latter had also once yelled out these two words.
“Earth Devouring Burner, is it?” Yan Zhaoge pondered within his heart.
This was no ordinary treasure, not being a spirit artifact, yet seemingly possessing its own spirituality and will.
That pair of black eyes were not from a portion of will that had been left within by someone, instead having manifested of the Earth Devouring Burner itself after having developed spirituality.
Yan Zhaoge murmured to himself, “Interesting; If I want to truly grasp this treasure, and not use it clumsily like Zhao Hao did, it looks like I’ll have to spend quite some effort.”
Keeping the incense burner, Yan Zhaoge stood where he was, continuing to silently moderate his conditio
n.
Earlier, the battle had taken an extremely huge toll about him. Not saying that he was like a lamp about to run out of oil, this battle had been the most taxing for his strength in his entire life here.
Clashing with Liu Shengfeng, Zhao Hao and the others would still be fine; the crux of the matter was that his essence, qi and mind had merged with that of Eye of the Thunder Emperor fragment to activate An Instant’s Thunder, blazing all the power of the Sacred Artifact fragment in an instantaneous, single use.
Although Yan Zhaoge himself had not been like at the point now as he kept the Eye of the Thunder Emperor fragment, his qi completely dried up, with the feeling of a thief going to steal from an empty building, it would not be hard for him to recover.
In the qi ocean within his dantian, the chaotic qi mass shuddered as it split into numerous flows of ice and fire, yin and yang coexisting as they rapidly nourished his nearly dried up vital qi.
In comparison, the Eye of the Thunder Emperor fragment was much more troublesome.
The Sacred Artifact fragment in the form of a purple orb was currently dim and lustreless, resembling a sooty stone orb as no lustre whatsoever could be seen on it at all.
Communicating with it with his mind, Yan Zhaoge could only feel a spirituality that was minute to the extreme, with it seemingly having fallen into a deep slumber reminiscent to a fake death.
It was temporarily impossible for it to transform into thunder light and merge within his right eye once more.
As he moderated his condition, Yan Zhaoge thought, “After all, it’s only a fragment, and not the true Sacred Artifact the Eye of the Thunder Emperor of legend.”
“It is rumoured that the Eye of the Thunder Emperor at its peak then, with An Instant’s Thunder, could split the sky and cleave the earth, and in the next instant, its power would have completely recovered to its original state.”
“Just like how we breathe, exhaling would be a barrage of divine thunder that shatters space itself, and inhaling would be the essence of the surrounding heaven and earth replenishing it completely.”
“And now, with its power having been depleted, wanting to accumulate it again, I fear that a long time will be needed, and the next time I use it, it’d be fine if I didn’t activate An Instant’s Thunder, but if I did, it would turn out like this, using up everything in a single go.”
Yan Zhaoge let out a long breath, his condition having recovered greatly, “Luckily, earlier, I had established a close connection with the Eye of the Thunder Emperor. Otherwise, this time would be much more troublesome ah.”
“Cough, after returning this time, I must definitely work harder in studying formations,” Yan Zhaoge shook his head, turning to look to the other side.
There, Ye Zhongzhou, Zhang Yao and the others were supporting one another, wrapping up their wounds and moderating their condition, soothing their injuries.
Seeing Yan Zhaoge look over, Ye Zhongzhou sighed emotionally, “Junior Brother Yan, it’s all thanks to you this time. Otherwise, the few of us would be dead.”
“Not only would we have died at Liu Shengfeng’s hands, more important would be the Great Nine Underworlds Door opening, the effects of which would be catastrophic beyond compare.”
Yan Zhaoge walked over, “Senior Brother Ye is too polite. At times like this, those with ability should naturally contribute a bit, naturally not standing by the side doing nothing.”
“It was only that in order to crack the formation earlier, I required some time for preparations, thus having let you suffer.”
Zhang Yao shook her head repeatedly, “Senior Brother Yan, quickly stop saying that, it’s you who saved us.”
Li Jingwan said, “If Senior Brother Yan had not stopped the Great Nine Underworlds Door from opening in time, we would ultimately still end up dying, still having the possibility of ending up in Liu Shengfeng’s hands, enduring more things, suffering more torture.”
As she said that, she turned to look to the other side. There, Liu Shengfeng lay limply and half-dead on the ground. The corpses of the other two fallen practitioners who had been slain by Yan Zhaoge had already vanished.
Currently, having wrapped up his wounds, his face pale and his expression weak, Ruan Ping stood by the collapsed Liu Shengfeng, looking down on him with a cold gaze.
Liu Shengfeng barely managed to force out a fawning smile that was filled with fear, “Senior Brother Ruan…be magnanimous and do not hold it on someone like me…ah!”
The latter part of his words was caught in his throat, replaced by a tragic cry.
With his foot, Ruan Ping stomped down on Liu Shengfeng.
His chest long since a hazy blur of flesh and blood, currently being stomped on by Ruan Ping at this moment, Liu Shengfeng instantly felt pain beyond this world.
Moving his foot with much effort, Ruan Ping then stomped on the wound at Liu Shengfeng’s severed wrist.
Liu Shengfeng shivered out a breath of cold air, not even having the breath to cry out now.
As Yan Zhaoge came beside Ruan Ping, looking at him, Ruan Ping was silent for a moment before he said, “Many thanks for saving my life.”
“You are too polite,” Yan Zhaoge nodded, with Ruan Ping hesitating slightly, “You want to stop me?”
Yan Zhaoge waved his hands, “Why do you say that; I left his life specifically to let you guys deal with him.”
While saying so, Yan Zhaoge made a grabbing motion with his palm, tiny streams of black light being sucked out from the wound of Liu Shengfeng’s severed arm, coming into Yan Zhaoge’s palm, “I’m just a little interested in the technique with which he reconstructed his severed arm on the spot; that’s all.”
Keeping the black light, Yan Zhaoge turned to leave, “Do as you like, don’t care about me.”
Ruan Ping nodded, once against gazing down on Liu Shengfeng below him, in whose eyes despair instantly flashed.
Looking at the tragically screaming Liu Shengfeng, Ye Zhongzhou frowned slightly, then sighed, not saying a word as Li Jingwan and Zhang Yao twisted their heads to look elsewhere.
Liu Shengfeng’s fellow disciple, Xiao Yu, currently seemed rather dazed, as though he was thinking about something.
Yan Zhaoge turned to look to where the golden tower had stood earlier.
It had already been wrecked beyond recognition, but within its ruins, it seemed as though there existed something.
History's Strongest Senior Brother Chapter 196: Expressing admiration
HSSB196: Expressing admiration
Within the ruins of the tower there seemed to be something hidden, as a faint, dark light could be seen faintly glowing from within.
After observing the ruins for a moment, Yan Zhaoge extended his palm, his aura-qi surging as he blew the shattered stones away.
A black crystal appeared before him.
After staring at the black crystal for a moment, carefully feeling the pulsing aura within, Yan Zhaoge then reached out with his fingers, gently tapping the crystal’s exterior, infusing his aura-qi within.
Yan Zhaoge’s aura-qi entered the black crystal, circulating a full cycle before returning within Yan Zhaoge’s body.
What accompanied it were wisps of pure, refined qi previously contained within the black crystal that had been drawn out.
Looking internally, Yan Zhaoge could see that along with the returning flow of his aura-qi, an existence like a black line flowed from his fingertips into his body, arriving at the qi ocean within his dantian alongside his aura-qi.
That flawless, refined qi that resembled a black line was pure and concentrated as it evoked a sense of coldness.
However, feeling that coldness, his heart seemed restless and about to surge up in unrest as it felt as though it was being drawn in by something.
With Yan Zhaoge’s mind, a figure seemed to appear. While that figure was blurry, its features and appearance actually seemed identical to Yan Zhaoge’s.
It was only that meeting Yan Zhaoge’s gaze, that figure’s ga
ze seemed somewhat wrong as it revealed a devilish qi that could not be concealed.
Looking calmly at this scene, Yan Zhaoge laughed lightly, “A crystallisation following the formation’s reversal?”
In his dantian’s qi ocean, the clear qi spread to the sides, revealing the chaotic qi mass within.
The chaos surged, integrating that pure, refined qi that resembled a black line within, wisps of white smoke instantly coiling up from within as the black line entered!
Within Yan Zhaoge’s mind, that figure carrying devilish qi immediately began to slowly dissipate.
Accompanied by Yan Zhaoge increasing his infusion of aura-qi into the black crystal, the pure, refined qi drawn out from within also became denser and denser, till finally, a stream of black light seemed to move through Yan Zhaoge’s fingertip, following his meridians all the way to his dantian.
As more and more black light was integrated within, the chaotic qi mass gradually expanded.
After a long time, a cracking sound suddenly resonated from the black crystal, before cracks appeared on its exterior, following which it completely shattered.
The fragments of the shattered black crystal quickly turned to sand, before finally dissipating away with the wind, turning into dust.
After expanding, the chaotic qi mass within Yan Zhaoge’s dantian’s qi ocean quickly shrunk once more, resuming its original size, as though nothing had ever happened.
However, Yan Zhaoge could feel that his aura-qi was more vigorous and well-connected than before. At the same time, it possessed even more spirituality as it gradually seemed able to move as he liked, with him having progressed a step closer to the late Xiantian stage.
As the chaotic qi mass calmed, the clear qi surfaced to surround and conceal it once more.
Ending his cultivation, Yan Zhaoge scanned the surroundings, as he saw that the surrounding devilish qi had already gradually dissipated, revealing that he was currently located on the mud at the bottom of Clear Concealed Lake, the lake water in the vicinity having completely dried up as this place currently seemed like the bottom of a massive basin.
The devilish qi dissipated and the devilish domain collapsed, no longer influenced by the devilish qi, the lake water that had been kept cut off further away made to fill up the empty space once more as it began surging over.
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