Shi Songtao had treated people warmly and with sincerity, being an extremely popular person. Every year, many old acquaintances of his arrived to pay their respects to him, just that by a tacit understanding, they all avoided the dawn.

Other than Shi Tie himself, only a direct disciple would accompany him to visit Shi Songtao"s grave.

Yan Zhaoge thoughtfully coming here, Shi Tie naturally wouldn"t refuse him.

After they offered up sticks of incense to Shi Songtao"s family, Shi Tie said, “I appreciate your sentiments; you should go back to rest.”

Yan Zhaoge and Xu Fei exchanged glances, before leaving with Ah Hu in tow.

On their way back, as Yan Zhaoge turned to look back, he saw Shi Tie still standing there silently.

Beside him, Xu Fei sighed, “Master still blames himself.”

Yan Zhaoge also sighed along with him. As one of the few in the know, he understood the meaning in Xu Fei"s words.

That year, when Shi Songtao"s family of three had met danger, Shi Tie had actually had a chance to reinforce them. However, it just so happened that the situation had been critical at that time, with Broad Creed Mountain"s interests being greatly at risk, and of everyone present, only Shi Tie had the ability to stop it.

Faced with this situation where he was pressured by both sides, Shi Tie finally still chose to protect the clan"s interests. However, like this, he was unable to save his descendants in time, eventually having to send them off as their elder.

This was Shi Tie"s greatest regret. The him whose conscience was always clear to the heavens and the earth, only felt guilt towards his own kin.

Up till now, while graves of clothes had been erected, Shi Tie had actually still not given up hope. Whenever there was a chance, he would travel to the place of that year to investigate, hoping against hope that Shi Songtao"s family would still be amongst the living. After all, up till now, he had not seen their remains.

Sadly, five years had pa.s.sed without any findings whatsoever, his last hope also being extinguished little by little.

Xu Fei murmured, “If he could redo things, would Master make the same choice?”

He was speaking to himself, and not expecting Yan Zhaoge to answer. Yan Zhaoge walked silently by his side.

Xu Fei sighed, continuing, “Despite his grief, despite his self-blame, despite his feelings of guilt, it is possible that he would still make the same choice, isn"t it. Master, he…”

Yan Zhaoge asked softly, “If it were you, senior apprentice-brother Xu, bearing that responsibility, between you and your kin, who would you choose?”

Xu Fei was silent for a long time before he answered, “I don"t know; perhaps I would only be able to give an answer to this when truly facing such a situation.”

Yan Zhaoge nodded, the two no longer speaking as they walked side by side. Reaching a split in the road, they cupped their fists towards each other, taking their leaves as they returned to their individual lodgings.

There, Yan Zhaoge sat in the meditative position, closing his eyes and calming his heart as he wallowed in his thoughts.

After a while, Yan Zhaoge reopened his eyes, taking out a golden talisman.

This golden talisman had been obtained by Yan Zhaoge at Clear Concealed Lake after killing the fallen Xie Ziyi within the devilish domain.

Looking at the profound, complicated patterns on the golden talisman, Yan Zhaoge considered earnestly, “It seems to be a somewhat strange, uncommon kind of writing. It should be something that only appeared after the Great Calamity.”

Yan Zhaoge laughed bitterly. Like the relics left behind by the Glacial Dragon Martial Saint, these things that had only appeared following the Great Calamity yet could still be considered ancient caused him to feel the most helpless, just happening to be where the weakest point of his knowledge was.

However, Yan Zhaoge was also working on bolstering his deficiencies in this area. Currently looking at the golden talisman, it was not like he was completely struck off-kilter.

“It looks a little like the writing of the extreme north, only used by a small amount of people who resided there?”

After a.n.a.lysing it for a moment, Yan Zhaoge instructed his followers, “Appropriate some books regarding the old texts of the north of the Jin Region for me. Take as many as you can, the older the better.”

Of the Thunder Domain"s six regions, the northernmost that was directly bordered to the Extreme North Ice Sea was the Jin Region.

Very quickly, black-clothed martial pract.i.tioners sent over the things Yan Zhaoge wanted.

After poring through the books for a while, Yan Zhaoge gradually formed an idea within his heart. Lightly tapping on that golden talisman with his finger, his fingertips cut out several marks, adding to the patterns on it.

Those marks remained on the surface of the golden talisman, not dissipating in a long time.

Yan Zhaoge retracted his finger, scrutinising the almost complete patterns on the golden talisman a final time before clapping down on it with a single palm.

The golden talisman suddenly erupted with a dazzling light, actually transforming into specks of fluorescent light as it vanished without a trace.

Seeing this, Yan Zhaoge instead revealed a satisfied smile. Next, he saw those specks of golden light drift about, condensed rather than dissipating as they transformed into a mistlike state, hovering within the air.

Sucking in a deep breath, resembling a great whale sucking in water, all that mist was instantly inhaled by him.

For that one moment, Yan Zhaoge"s lungs felt like they were blazing with smoke and fire.

With Yan Zhaoge"s current cultivation realm, his internal organs had all experienced countless tempering by his aurqi.

The uncomfortable feeling lasted but a moment, fading very quickly.

Looking within his body, Yan Zhaoge saw those specks of golden light drift about unceasingly, applying themselves uniformly to the surface of all his blood vessels, seemingly applying a golden l.u.s.tre over each and every one of them.

Even the smallest, tiniest blood vessel was no exception.

Yan Zhaoge calmly inhaled and exhaled, circulating his qi and blood, the flowing of his blood resembling the roiling of scalding lava as heavy roars resounded.

After circulating his aurqi through thirty-six cycles, Yan Zhaoge halted his cultivation, the faint golden light on the surface of his skin disappearing in a flash.

Standing up, Yan Zhaoge stroked his lower chin, “Some things, seem like they can be brought forward.”

Thinking thus, Yan Zhaoge waved his hands, several lights flickering into existence as they hovered within the air. They were the low-grade spirit artifacts he possessed.

Lofty Mountain Armour, Incinerating Light Sword, Vapour Sealing Sword, Radiant Sun Wheel, Purple Gold Thunder Sword, Flying Thunder Sabre.

Aside from the mid-grade spirit artifact, the Hidden Clear Sunlight Sabre, as well as the Jade Dragon Sword which had always been Yan Zhaoge"s accompanying spirit artifact, the low-grade sprit artifacts which Yan Zhaoge possessed were basically all here.

Speaking of it, they were all the signature weapons of core, direct disciples of the other Sacred Grounds.

Their original owners were Liu Shengfeng, Zhao Hao, Xie Ziyi, Xiao Shen, Yan Shan and Lin Zhou respectively.

Just looking at this namelist and these spirit artifacts, it would already be enough to let martial pract.i.tioners of the same generation sigh in great admiration.

If Yan Zhaoge decided to hold an exhibition for his spoils of war, there would probably be many who would be angered to the point of spitting out blood.

With Yan Zhaoge"s current cultivation, he could actually only wield a single low-grade spirit artifact at once. The extras could either be switched out to use, used as hidden weapons as their connection were broken off for a moment"s explosive power, or used to entangle an opponent"s spirit artifact.

Having many spirit artifacts, directly slamming the opponent into death-this was not simply a joke.

When Yan Zhaoge ascended into the Martial Grandmaster realm, these spirit artifacts could then be wielded by him simultaneously.

However, Yan Zhaoge had other thoughts, though with his cultivation speed, he was not far from the Martial Grandmaster realm.

After considering for a moment more, Yan Zhaoge lightly tapped out with his fingers, keeping the Lofty Mountain Armour, the Radiant Sun Wheel and the Flying Thunder Sabre, only leaving behind those three swords, the Incinerating Light Sword, the Vapour Sealing Sword and the Purple Gold Thunder Sword.

After that, he flipped his palm, a bamboo branch appearing within it.

A dark green bamboo branch that flickered faintly with a purple light.

Opening the Internal Crystal Furnace, Yan Zhaoge placed that bamboo branch and the three low-grade spirit artifacts within.