HSSB77: I’m happy, what do you care?
Faced with Zhao Hao, the leading Eastern Tang martial pract.i.tioner did not shrink back.
“Sixteenth Prince, if this lowly subject does not remember wrongly, Your Majesty has ordered that you remain guarding Jingyang City. If no royal decree is given, you are not to leave.”
“Now, however, why have you appeared here?”
Hearing his words, Zhao Hao was not angered, as he just said mildly, “Naturally, it’s because I was worried about Royal Father’s condition.”
“I am proficient in medicine and alchemy; you should be aware of this as well.”
That Eastern Tang Kingdom faced him head-on, “So you dared to risk universal condemnation and leave behind medicinal powder on His Majesty’s body in order to track him?”
His hands behind his back, Zhao Hao’s expression did not change, “Do not speak nonsense; I only recognised the smell of the Hundred Spirit Ghost Gra.s.s pollen, and do not know how it came to appear on Royal Father’s body.”
“However, now does not seem to be the time to be quibbling over such inconsequential matters.”
He glanced at Yan Zhaoge and Zhao s.h.i.+cheng, “Saving Royal Father’s life is the most important thing, as you should well know. It cannot be delayed.”
The Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioner beside him said in a deep tone, “We will be offending you.”
Saying thus, the group of Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners rushed up towards the group from the Eastern Tang.
Infinite Boundless Mountain had strength in its numerical advantage, and its martial pract.i.tioners were also superior whilst at the same cultivation level.
Even with the formation guarding them, the Eastern Tang’s side felt extremely pressured.
With Zhao s.h.i.+cheng unconscious, chaos having erupted back in Jingyang City and the black fog invading outside the Sealing Dragon Abyss, the formation guarding them had already become somewhat weak.
The two Infinite Boundless Mountain Xiantian Martial Scholars went on ahead to keep the formation at bay, while the other Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners began jostling into the formation.
The Xiantian Martial Scholar of the Eastern Tang had originally been a.s.sisting Yan Zhaoge in treating Zhao s.h.i.+cheng.
As this moment, seeing the situation, he could only stop temporarily, getting ready to stand up and face the enemy.
But before he could move, two sounds of ‘Peng’, ‘Peng’ landed by his ear.
A large man stood in front of the group, directly flinging two Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners, one in each hand, away from them.
Ah Hu stood there, looking as though nothing had happened.
He looked at the other side’s people, grinning, “With my Young Master here, your presence is not required. Please return.”
Seeing Ah Hu make his move, an Infinite Boundless Mountain Xiantian Martial Scholar’s gaze turned severe.
He strode forward, pus.h.i.+ng out with his palm. Where his aura-qi touched, its density weighed down heavily like an entire mountain range.
With that, it was as though the scenery before everyone’s eyes had completely changed.
They were no longer in the Sealing Dragon Abyss, but within a mountain range of lofty, majestic peaks.
As though they were being pushed by someone, the surrounding mountains began pressuring down towards them simultaneously.
Aura-qi attaining life–it had not simply materialised as a weapon’s fearsome edge, but, rather, transformed into an illusory heaven and earth to suppress the enemy.
It was a skill only possessed by those of the mid Xiantian Martial Scholar realm or higher.
Ah Hu[1] grinned, his usually simple and honest smile now seeming ferocious and savage beyond compare.
A long howl resounded, causing the surrounding area to rumble, as though a ma.s.sive prehistoric beast, brutal and ferocious, had just awoken from its slumber.
Dazed for a moment, the Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners now saw a ma.s.sive black tiger appear right before their very eyes.
The howl of the tiger caused the winds to surge, a violent hurricane spreading out in all directions.
The illusory heaven and earth and its towering mountains that the aura-qi of that Infinite Boundless Mountain Xiantian Martial Scholar had transformed into was a.s.saulted by the terrifying storm. The land quaked and the mountains shook, the surrounding rocks breaking apart.
Faced with a black nightmare of a hurricane, the mountain range of lofty, majestic peaks, collapsed.
The Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioner’s face instantly turned black as a pot’s bottom, as he cursed loudly, “Xiantian Martial Scholar!”
“You, a Xiantian Martial Scholar, being someone’s servant and follower-are you not ashamed?”
Even the martial pract.i.tioners of the Eastern Tang stared at Ah Hu in shock, finding it extremely hard to get their minds around it.
The Martial Scholar realm consisted of the following stages: Inner aura, Outer aura, Xiantian, and finally, Heavenly Connection.
With Heavenly Connection Martial Scholars generally focused on making preparations for breaking through into the Martial Grandmaster realm, seldom making worldly appearances, Xiantian Martial Scholars could be considered to be at the peak of Martial Scholars.
In the Eastern Tang and the entire East Heaven Region, Xiantian Martial Scholars were forces that could not be taken lightly.
In Sacred Grounds like Broad Creed Mountain and the Sacred Sun Clan, their a.s.signment Hall Elders at most only had the cultivation base of Xiantian Martial Scholars, with most of them being in the outer aura Martial Scholar realm.
Within the lands of the Eastern Tang, the leaders of many medium and small sects as well as familial powers were but Xiantian Martial Scholars at the very most, with even more of them unable to reach that level.
In the Eastern Tang royal palace, a Xiantian Martial Scholar could already be granted the position of an honorary minister.
But right before their very eyes, there was a Xiantian Martial Scholar expert, one who was already at least in the mid Xiantian stage, following after Yan Zhaoge and serving him diligently all day long.
Not as an elite bodyguard, but as a follower who was often sent running around like an errand boy.
But it was just-they could not reconcile this fierce-looking large man before them with the image within their minds of the slick fellow with the big build who had always seemed so simple and honest before this as he followed behind Yan Zhaoge wherever he went.
The Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioner stared at Ah Hu, his face livid, “It would still be acceptable if you had become the servant of Yan Wudi himself. But even though he is Yan Wudi’s son, how can you bend your head and serve him so willingly?”
“Where is your dignity; where is your pride?”
Ah Hu pulled at his ears, extending his hands in mockery as he grinned, “I’m happy, what do you care?”
Infinite Boundless Mountain’s other leading Xiantian Martial Scholar, his face similarly sunken, now said, “I remember now.”
“There was a rumour in the past that Yan Di once went all out and spared no expense in rescuing an old servant of his, even offending the Heavenly Thunder Hall of the Thunder Domain in the process.”
“But it seemed like that old servant still died later on, and all Yan Di brought back was a child.”
Ah Hu stopped smiling, his expression turning solemn, “That was my grandfather; I, Huang Huting, was that very child.”
Zhao Hao said coldly, “Your grandfather was a servant, and to repay your debt of grat.i.tude, you too became the Yan Family’s lifetime servant.”
“What a base, spineless person. You are not fit to call yourself a martial pract.i.tioner.”
Ah Hu chuckled, “A small fry like you still talking about being fit or unfit; I can clap you dead with a single hand.”
“If you ask me, you aren’t fit to talk to my Young Master; you aren’t even fit to talk to me.”
Zhao Hao stared, a cold light flas.h.i.+ng within his eyes, but was faced with Ah Hu’s sudden wild howl.
Under the impact of that violent aura-qi, Zhao Hao instantly saw stars, blood trickling down from his mouth and nostrils.
However excellent his knowledge and however high his cultivation had been in the past, however strong the atmosphere he had within him and his unrivalled ability at his cultivation level, it could also not make up for the huge gulf in cultivation between them as he was directly suppressed by the difference in realms.
It was virtually ‘a scholar encountering a soldier, possessing logic but unable to get it across’.
It wasn’t just Zhao Hao; the other Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners were also all rendered dizzy and dazed, the world spinning before their eyes.
The two Infinite Boundless Mountain Xiantian Martial Scholars shouted loudly in unison, before finally managing to make Ah Hu’s howl sound less intense.
Their faces livid, no longer in the mood for words, they shot into the sky, attacking towards Ah Hu in unison.
Ah Hu chuckled coldly. Resembling a beast which swallowed all it saw without reservation, he separated his palms, preparing to withstand the two with his own power, with no intention of backing off in the slightest.
The Eastern Tang Kingdom martial pract.i.tioners wanted to go forward to help, but found that Ah Hu alone was more than enough, as he dealt with his opponents with relative ease.
“His opponents are not your typical martial pract.i.tioner; they are from Infinite Boundless Mountain, the Sacred Ground of the Mountain Domain ah.”
The Eastern Tang Kingdom martial pract.i.tioners were all wide-eyed and slack-jawed in shock, unconsciously swallowing their saliva as they found it a little difficult to accept the sight before their eyes.
It was even worse for those of Infinite Boundless Mountain, who were angered to the point of vomiting blood, “This is a servant for the Yan Family?!”
Just at this time, a terrifying atmosphere suddenly a.s.sailed.
Ah Hu’s expression turned grave, while the Infinite Boundless Mountain martial pract.i.tioners were all filled with joy, “Elder He has arrived!”
A Martial Grandmaster’s terrifying atmosphere that could not be falsified descended and engulfed the entire area in an instant.
[1] Reminder: Hu means tiger