Yan Zhaoge did not hide the spiritual light above his head. With just a single look, Ah Hu could tell that the spiritual light connecting to the heavens and the earth had already turned from illusory to real, signifying that Yan Zhaoge had officially stepped into the tenth and final stage of the Martial Scholar realm, the Heavenly Connection stage.

“Double happiness?” Yan Zhaoge looked at Ah Hu, knowing that one of these referred to his stepping into the Heavenly Connection stage, not knowing what the other referred to.

Ah Hu smiled happily, “Young Master, news has come over from Broad Creed Mountain that the Family Head has already finished concocting the Heaven Returning Divine Pill that you discovered.”

Hearing his words, Yan Zhaoge also felt pleasantly surprised, “Oh, that was fast.”

Concocting the Heaven Returning Divine Pill was rather difficult. The pill had to be returned to the furnace nine times, and every single refinement took quite a lot of time.

With even a single mistake, the medicinal ingredients would all be rendered useless, and one would have to start all over.

While Yan Zhaoge had confidence in Yan Di's cultivation base as well as attainments in alchemy, he had been prepared for it to take longer.

With good news having come over so quickly, it was also somewhat out of his expectations.

After silently calculating the time that had elapsed, Yan Zhaoge laughed, “Good fella; father succeeded with it in a single go.”

Ah Hu gave a simple and honest laugh, “I'm not too sure of that, but Family Head has indeed sent over the good news, saying that you can rest half your heart now.”

Yan Zhaoge raised his head slightly, murmuring to himself as he looked into the dark night sky, “Right, I can indeed rest half my heart.”

With the Heaven Returning Divine Pill having been successfully concocted, Yan Zhaoge was at least ninety percent confident that his Grand Master Yuan Zhengfeng would be able to recover from the old injuries that had been plaguing him all these years.

This way, with Yuan Zhengfeng's solid foundation and outstanding talent, for him to take that final half-step that he had been stuck at for so long, Transcending Mortality and entering Sainthood, stepping into the Martial Saint realm, was really a sure thing.

Yuan Zhengfeng had already been waiting for this day for so many years.

While there were no absolutes in this world, with the strength and potential that Yuan Zhengfeng displayed, if not for his old injuries holding him back, he should have long ago achieved Sainthood.

If Yuan Zhengfeng successfully achieved Sainthood, Broad Creed Mountain which originally already possessed the Sacred Artifact, the Clear Qi Robe, would see its power directly skyrocket.

Even if the Sacred Sun Clan's East Rising Martial Saint Huang Guanglie also improved further, this would at most return things to their current equilibrium. While there would still be pressure on Broad Creed Mountain, the situation wouldn't get any worse.

Because Yan Zhaoge had pulled Infinite Boundless Mountain into their tripart.i.te alliance, the situation would be even better than it had been a few years ago.

For it to be said that Yan Zhaoge could currently only rest half his heart, with the other half still tense, it was because there still existed some potential for change in the future.

If Yuan Zhengfeng really recovered from his old injuries with the help of the Heaven Returning Divine Pill, while he could a.s.sault the bottleneck heading into the Martial Saint realm, there was still a process that had to be gone through, with some time needed before he could truly achieve Sainthood.

This time when Yuan Zhengfeng remained in secluded cultivation would be a great trial for Broad Creed Mountain.

As long as nothing changed dramatically it would be fine. At most, Broad Creed Mountain would just temporarily shrink its defence perimeter and focus fully on defence.

But if during this time that Yuan Zhengfeng was in secluded cultivation, the Sacred Sun Clan's Huang Guanglie just happened to leave seclusion, the situation would be very disadvantageous for Broad Creed Mountain.

Especially if Huang Guanglie successfully improved a step further as he emerged from seclusion, in which case disadvantageous would be insufficient to describe the situation with regard to Broad Creed Mountain.

Within this, risk still existed alongside opportunity.

However, having successfully concocted the Heaven Returning Divine Pill, it would give Broad Creed Mountain and Yuan Zhengfeng a higher chance of succeeding.

Thinking of this, Yan Zhaoge gave a mental thumbs up to his father.

With the Heaven Returning Divine Pill having successfully been concocted in a single attempt, much time had been saved. This was also equivalent to allowing Yuan Zhengfeng more time to prepare before attempting his breakthrough.

The time saved undeniably held great significance in terms of war potential, not simply being only a matter of the pill concoction itself.

Yan Zhaoge nodded repeatedly, “Not bad, not bad. Indeed double happiness, and compared to it, this happiness of my own doesn't even count as much anymore.”

Now, Yan Zhaoge looked at Ah Hu, “By the way, how's Pan-Pan?

Ah Hu gave a simple and honest laugh, “That guy's been raised chubby and healthy by you, and is about to level up again very soon. If he can successfully deploy the power of fire and water, I believe that his improvements will be great.”

Yan Zhaoge nodded satisfiedly, “Pay more attention to him. Whatever's good about this fat mound, there are two problems with him. Other than loving to eat, it's his laziness. If you don't press him, he'll definitely slack.”

While he was somewhat different from the giant pandas of Yan Zhaoge's memories, as long as Pan-Pan could sit, he wouldn't stand, and as long as he could lie down, he wouldn't sit; his laziness had truly reached a realm of its own.

Giant pandas usually seemed lazy, not loving to move. However, that was because they mainly ate bamboo. With their nutrient intake being very low, they did not like to move in order to preserve their stamina.

As for Pan-Pan, while he also loved eating bamboo, that was because he liked its taste. In truth, most of the things he ate were metals that were rich in spiritual qi.

Therefore, with him being such a lazy beast, despite the fact that he had no lack of good food, Yan Zhaoge felt very speechless at him.

Not mentioning Pan-Pan, after successfully stepping into the Heavenly Connection stage, Yan Zhaoge did not relax in his efforts, and instead began to move towards even higher heights.

Finding the Life Illuminating Immortal Stone earlier had been in preparation for his breakthrough into the Martial Grandmaster realm after having stepped into the Heavenly Connection stage.

However, before finally taking that step, Yan Zhaoge still required some amount of acc.u.mulation, solidifying his foundation further.

Those of the outside world only saw Yan Zhaoge progressing rapidly, his cultivation speed extremely shocking, yet most overlooked the fact that each of Yan Zhaoge's steps were actually taken very stably and not lightly at all.

A minute on the stage, ten years behind the scenes.

Behind the scenes of the countless times that he shone dazzlingly before others, Yan Zhaoge's diligence in cultivation exceeded most others.

Of those whom Yan Zhaoge often saw, even training maniacs like s.h.i.+ Tie and Feng Yunsheng might not be as hardcore as him.

As Yan Zhaoge cultivated, time was also gradually pa.s.sing by.

One day, Xu Fei suddenly appeared at Yan Zhaoge's dwelling.

Yan Zhaoge opened the door in greeting, seeing Xu Fei standing calmly there. The first thing Xu Fei said upon seeing him was, “The Decimating Abyss is moving.”

“Where?” Yan Zhaoge didn't waste his words, cutting to the chase.

Not wasting any time, the two set off shoulder to shoulder, Xu Fei saying as they walked, “Yunwu, the w.a.n.g Family.”

Yan Zhaoge nodded, and sighed.

His initial worries had not been unfounded.

The w.a.n.g Family of Yunwu in the Sand Region was a longtime Family of the Wind Domain, its history even longer than that of the Howling Wind Sword Sect.

Like the Howling Wind Sword Sect, Yunwu's w.a.n.g family was a first-rate power within the Sand Region. They controlled a great amount of territory there and had quite a number of second-rate powers and some even smaller families and clans affiliated with it.

While the w.a.n.g Family was also subordinate to Broad Creed Mountain, from the looks of it now, a considerable number of those of the w.a.n.g Family were dissatisfied with the current situation.

Having the six great Sacred Grounds above them greatly limited the s.p.a.ce for first-rate powers like the w.a.n.g Family to continue rising upwards.

No one was actually truly at fault in this matter. Everyone strived for higher and better, but the peak was of limited size. If the people below wanted to go up, the only way to do so was to knock someone else down.

It was this rule of the world that had given the Decimating Abyss and the Nine Underworlds some chances to strike.

This day, clouds surged and gales howled in Yunwu County of the Wind Domain's Sand Region.