HSSB89: The Iron Lion King
As far back when abnormalities had surfaced in the Sealing Dragon Abyss, when Elder Qin, Zhao Shicheng, the East Rising Lord and others had been preparing to enter the Sealing Dragon Abyss, Yan Zhaoge had already asked Ah Hu to send a message back to the clan.
The reason was naturally something else. Still, what had originally been meant for Yan Xu had now just happened to counter the Sacred Sun Clan’s plan instead.
As compared to the experts of the Sacred Sun Clan who had long since arrived here stealthily and lay in wait poised to strike, Shi Tie had not arrived in the Eastern Tang that much later than them.
Yan Zhaoge looked towards the sky.
He saw Shi Tie, that large dark-skinned bloke, whilst also suppressing and trapping the Ghost Hatchet Elder Han Sheng, directly reach out with his hand, grabbing towards that Elder of the Sacred Sun Clan!
Seeing this, the one-eyed Elder roared in anger, “Shi Tie, you dare?!”
Shi Tie’s face was expressionless, resembling an unchanging rock forever unweathered by the ravages of time, “What is there not to dare?”
“Your Sacred Sun Clan causing trouble in my Heaven Domain-you must pay the price for that.”
The one-eyed Elder raged angrily, “Your Broad Creed Mountain harbours a disciple who betrayed my Sacred Sun Clan; not just that, your Broad Creed Mountain disciple Yan Zhaoge even killed my Sacred Sun Clan’s core direct disciple Xiao Shen.”
“Do you think, that we will let it go that easily?”
Shi Tie said coldly, “Immorally lascivious, frivolous and dissolute, intending to forcefully defile a fellow member of his clan; your Sacred Sun Clan standing biasedly by the side of such goods, you should logically receive the same kind of end as him.”
Between his words, Shi Tie reached out with his right hand, his palm like glass as it shone with a brilliant light from within, resembling Vajra.
The surrounding clouds and wind once again surged, the golden clouds transforming into a massive palm that blocked off the entire sky, grabbing towards that one-eyed Elder.
“Good! Shi Tie! If you have the ability, spout that nonsense before my Sacred Sun Clan’s Chief as well!” The one-eyed Elder called out hatefully, before he abruptly turned and executed the Leap of the Rising Sun, escaping hurriedly towards the distance.
The Han Sheng whose level of cultivation was not that much inferior to his, had been captured alive by Shi Tie in a single round.
Even the East Rising Lord was not Shi Tie’s match, much less the one-eyed Elder. He himself definitely didn’t believe that he would be able to hold off Shi Tie.
Now, he only hoped that he would be able to escape.
The Sacred Sun Clan’s Leap of the Rising Sun, its fame resounding throughout the entire world.
In terms of the speed of his movement technique, the one-eyed Elder was much, much faster than the Ghost Hatchet Elder Han Sheng.
“Let alone Huang Xu, even if Huang Guanglie were here, this Shi would also say the same thing. This Shi has been soft in whatever areas in his life, just not in his backbone. Even if you break all the bones in my body, I would also say the same thing.”
Shi Tie’s tone was calm and mild, yet emitting an indomitable will.
That massive golden hand formed of the clouds seemed infinitely large as it stretched directly into the horizon.
However swift that Sacred Sun Clan Elder’s Leap of the Rising Sun, however much its momentum could not be blocked, at the end of the day, it also couldn’t escape from beneath Shi Tie’s palm!
The massive hand descended, instantly crushing down on the one-eyed Elder!
This one-eyed Elder and the Ghost Hatchet Elder Han Sheng of before both activated their spirit artifacts, one-mid grade, one-low grade, struggling frenetically.
But the cage formed of the golden clouds had them firmly entrapped within, with completely no chance of escape.
Yan Zhaoge looked at Shi Tie’s palm that had regained its original form, clicking his tongue as he sighed in praise, “Only cultivating in a single martial art throughout your entire life, eldest apprentice-uncle really has displayed devoting yourself wholeheartedly and exclusively to a single thing and excelling in everything based off it to the extreme.”
Hearing this from the side, Ah Hu, Xu Chuan and the others all nodded in agreement.
A Martial Scholar of Broad Creed Mountain like Yan Zhaoge had already cultivated in two of the Eight Extreme Arts, the Big Dipper Sword as well as the Tushita Palm.
Broad Creed Mountain’s Martial Grandmasters like Yan Xu, Elder Qin and Elder Kong, even more so, concurrently cultivated in many of Broad Creed Mountain’s peak martial arts, and maybe even some martial arts not of Broad Creed Mountain.
It was just that amongst all of these, only one or two were their main martial arts, the ones that they were the most proficient in. The rest were all supplementary and dabbled in for reference.
Not only would this increase a martial practitioner’s overall level of power; at the same time, it also helped in concurrently increasing and accumulating their own understanding of the martial dao.
At their level, how to grasp that balance and allocate their time appropriately was something that most of them had a good idea of within their hearts.
It was like this for all the Martial Grandmasters of Broad Creed Mountain, with Shi Tie as the sole exception.
When he was young and his cultivation low, he had devoted his foundation to a single martial art.
When his cultivation was higher, he still only cultivated in the Vajra Body of the Eight Extreme Arts.
He had cultivated in it for over a hundred years!
Through all the storms that he had experienced, from a young disciple of Broad Creed Mountain to one of the clan’s bigwigs as he was now, he had only cultivated in this one martial art.
In terms of strength, Yan Zhaoge’s father, Yan Di, was superior to his senior apprentice-brother Shi Tie.
He was familiar with all of the Eight Extreme Arts, one of the only four of the current Broad Creed Mountain who had achieved this.
However, in terms of attainment in the Vajra Body, against Shi Tie, Yan Di could only sigh and admit his inferiority.
In terms of his attainment in this martial art, Shi Tie had long since surpassed the entire past generations of Broad Creed Mountain, the undisputed first person from ancient times till now.
Under his unflagging efforts, constantly experimenting as he removed its impurities while preserving its vital essence, discarding the old for the new, the Vajra body had been constantly improving, surpassing how it had been in the past.
In the past, the Eight Extreme Arts had stood side by side together.
Now, it was Eight Extreme Arts, Vajra Number One.
This reputation, had been single-handedly brought about by Shi Tie.
His face expressionless, after having captured Han Sheng and that one-eyed Elder, Shi Tie descended from the sky, coming to land before Yan Zhaoge and the others.
Yan Zhaoge smiled, “I have troubled eldest apprentice-uncle.”
Shi Tie nodded, “It was only made possible by your courage, though. Zhaoge, very well done indeed.”
Yan Zhaoge smiled, his expression calm, as Xu Chuan silently bit his tongue in astonishment from the side.
Shi Tie’s reputation had long spread as someone who seldom gave out words of praise. Being able to receive an evaluation of ‘not bad’ from him was already extremely rare. This ‘well done’ that he had just bestowed upon Yan Zhaoge would then be as hard to come by as phoenix feathers or the horn of a unicorn.
“Let’s leave this place first. The news that I’ve reached the Eastern Tang cannot be leaked,” Shi Tie said.
Yan Zhaoge nodded, “This is only natural.”
Shi Tie swivelled his head to look at the emaciated Elder of Broad Creed Mountain, “I will be troubling Elder Yin to watch over the other disciples of our clan as well as the group led by the Eastern Tang’s First Prince.”
The surprised expression already gone from his face, the emaciated Elder did not ask any questions as he nodded his assent, “Just leave it to this old man.”
They immediately left.
Shi Tie and Yan Zhaoge, however, did not immediately set off. Shi Tie’s gaze was fixed on a spot far off into the distance, “Yan Xu, what do you have to say for yourself?”
The horizon suddenly lit up with a glazed golden light, as something like a barrier appeared all around that completely cut off the outside world from the inside.
Yan Zhaoge and Ah Hu were carried along by Shi Tie as with a few strides, they arrived at the periphery of the barrier.
This barrier was formed of an application of Shi Tie’s powerful Vajra Body martial art. Before, it had been kept completely formless, preventing others from noticing it.
While blocking experts of the same cultivation level was not possible, having enveloped the entire surrounding area, even if the Ghost Hatchet Elder Han Sheng as well as the one-eyed Sacred Sun Clan Elder had managed to break free, they would then have collided with this barrier head-on and have their paths obstructed.
Currently, there was someone being obstructed by this barrier, only able to awkwardly stand where he was, neither able to move forward or retreat.
That person was precisely Yan Xu.
Earlier, he had not neared, only observing the disturbance here from a long distance away.
If Yan Zhaoge’s group had died at the hands of Han Sheng and that expert of the Sacred Sun Clan, it would have been the best case scenario for him.
If Yan Zhaoge, blessed with great luck, had somehow managed to break free, he might have been forced to make a move himself.
But seeing Shi Tie enter the fray, Yan Xu’s heart had instantly sunk greatly.
As compared to in his predictions, Shi Tie had arrived much too early!
Seeing that things were not good, Yan Xu had immediately turned to run.
Only to realise that Shi Tie’s fist intent had long since enveloped the entire area, restricting the heavens and the earth. It wasn’t just Han Sheng and that Sacred Sun Clan Elder, even the Yan Xu who had not shown himself earlier had long since been trapped like a turtle within a jar.
He was suppressed and rendered immobile by Shi Tie’s fist intent, wanting to escape but unable to do so, wanting to reveal himself on his own to try to cover up what he had done yet unable to do even that.
His entire person frozen there, it was awkward to the extreme.
