History's Strongest Senior Brother

HSSB420: Great awkwardness

“His movement speed is very high, but there doesn’t seem to be any powerful aura-qi fluctuations,” Ah Hu listened, then said uncomprehendingly, “Could it be some special sort of movement technique? How strange.”

Xu Fei said, “That’s very possible. The martial legacies here must be dissimilar to those within our Eight Extremities World somewhat.”

Yan Zhaoge listened to the movements of the newcomer as well, “It’s not surprising. After all, they’re two different worlds. Rather than the difference in martial arts, I’m actually more concerned about how different the language here is from that in our world.”

“After all, even in our Eight Extremities World, there are many different dialects used in different places that differ greatly. If not for a standardised, common one that we all use as a whole, it would be very hard for those originating from different places to understand what the other side is saying.”

Yan Zhaoge smacked his lips, “Wanting to find someone through whom to understand the situation of this world, if we cannot communicate, that would be awkward indeed.”

Ah Hu asked, “Young Master, why don’t you conceal yourselves first. I’ll stay and interact with this person.”

“The other party’s strength is currently completely unknown to us, being very hard to determine as well. He might even possess some strange secret arts that we do not know of.”

Having always followed by Yan Zhaoge’s side, other than being his follower, Ah Hu had also assumed the role of his bodyguard for a long time.

While Yan Zhaoge’s cultivation base was currently higher than his, Ah Hu’s mindset was still to keep Yan Zhaoge’s safety as the first and utmost priority.

While he usually appeared lazy, when he got serious, this big guy was extremely reliable in carrying out his duties.

Being in a completely new and unknown world, everything was foreign, maybe even dangerous.

Currently, Ah Hu’s heart as a follower of Yan Zhaoge was already strung up completely tightly.

Yan Zhaoge waved his hands, “If even so many of us are unable to cope with this danger, you alone going would be no different from suicide.”

“Relax a bit. While we are currently unable to determine the cultivation base of this newcomer, it shouldn’t be too high as well.”

“One art connects, all arts connect. In the great overarching dao of this world, all arts converge as one at their base. While there are differences amongst them, the higher up one goes, the more similarities there are to be found,” Yan Zhaoge gazed into the distance, “It’s just like us and the Flame Devils. The feeling when a Martial Saint or a Flame Devil King is standing in front of you is completely different from the feeling given off by a Martial Grandmaster or a Great Flame Devil.”

“This is unless the other party conceals it intentionally or you instead identify an Essence Talisman Martial Grandmaster as an Essence Spirit Martial Grandmaster or vice versa, but it is absolutely always possible to distinguish whether it is a Martial Saint or a Martial Grandmaster.”

Yan Zhaoge and the others temporarily concealed themselves within the dense forest. Very quickly, a figure flashed, appearing before them.

It was a tall middle-aged man, the colour of his skin like bronze, his eyes circular with a head like a leopard’s and rough features.

His body seemed to contain a flourishing, explosive power, his eyesight appearing exceptionally acute as light shot out in all directions.

Yan Zhaoge nodded to himself, “At least he has a human appearance, not being much different from us like some mutant species.”

As he observed the big man, he saw the man’s gaze suddenly flicker as he then promptly looked over in the direction of Ying Longtu.

The people dispersed within the dense forest all frowned.

While Ying Longtu’s cultivation base was the lowest of them all, he possessed the Big Dipper physique, able to freely control his qi and blood as he liked as he also had a mind that was clear and without flaw. If he intentionally hid himself, it should be very difficult for others to detect his presence.

Yan Zhaoge stroked his lower chin, “Is it that this person, deeply concealed, is stronger than I thought, or is it that due to some special reason, his sensory abilities are extremely high?”

After scanning the location at which Ying Longtu was concealed, the big man now turned to look at where Feng Yunsheng was.

Yan Zhaoge coughed lightly, showing himself.

Seeing Yan Zhaoge, that man’s face was filled with caution and wariness. No longer looking in the directions of Feng Yunsheng and Ying Longtu, he instead stared fixatedly at Yan Zhaoge.

Yan Zhaoge spread his hands apart, first asking, “How do I address you?”

He first used the standardised common language of the Eight Extremities World.

This was not a shot in the dark. Instead, the common language of the Eight Extremities World had propagated from words left behind from before the time of the Great Calamity, most forming a system, also being the closest to the civilisation of before the Great Calamity.

In terms of intonation, he also tried to go as close to that of olden times as he could.

While if it were Yan Zhaoge appraising it, there was still quite the difference, it was not through luck or coincidence that this language and its written characters were mainstream in the current Eight Extremities World.

If this world before him was also descended from the civilisation of before the Great Calamity, they should share some commonalities.

In the end, having heard him speak, the big man showed no reaction. Instead, he appeared uncomprehending as he came to look even more wary.

It was clearly the look of not having understood anything at all.

Yan Zhaoge frowned, considering for a moment before asking once more, “How do I address you?”

This time, Feng Yunsheng, Ah Hu and the others all found his words foreign, seeming weird and hard to grasp in some places as they were not easy to understand.

This time, Yan Zhaoge had directly gone on to use the common language of before the Great Calamity.

To make an analogy, as compared to the language of the current Eight Extremities World, this was like the difference between modern language and that of olden times. Some words had similar meanings, but if one had not learnt them before in a systemic manner, it would be very difficult to understand their complete meaning.

In other words, it was like that of all the characters being individually recognisable yet not making any sense when stringed together.

By Yan Zhaoge’s conjecture, the martial arts his mother cultivated in were a comparatively complete martial legacy of before the Great Calamity. Therefore, the language and written characters employed back then had probably not been lost as well.

This time, the big man seemed to react a little, looking somewhat baffled at the same time that he remained wary.

Yan Zhaoge felt rather helpless under that gaze, which seemed to be asking:

Can this guy just speak properly?

Observing carefully, Yan Zhaoge felt that the reaction of this person when hearing the pre-Great Calamity spoken language resembled that of Xu Fei, Feng Yunsheng and the others.

“In that case, it is most probable that the language and written characters here, like that of the Eight Extremities World, also originate from the pre-Great Calamity civilisation, but have undergone their own unique development as they are now completely different from that currently employed in the Eight Extremities World.”

Yan Zhaoge gradually came to an understanding.

However, despite this, he felt a bit of a headache coming on.

With them being unable to successfully communicate through language, great awkwardness was felt by him.

“Anyway, since it’s definitely developed from the pre-Great Calamity language, as he says a few words and I make a few guesses, I might be able to understand the general gist of it,” Yan Zhaoge sighed, “If it really isn’t possible, I suppose I’d have to employ something like hand signals, even though that would be rather embarrassing.”

Thinking such, Yan Zhaoge said a few more words using the olden language of before the Great Calamity.

That big man looked uncomprehendingly and warily at him once more.

In order to understand the current civilisation of the Eight Extremities World back then, Yan Zhaoge had perused many books, come to understand many languages and systems of characters.

Now, Yan Zhaoge drew on his knowledge on languages to the maximum possible level. Not just languages from olden times, he even included languages currently still used in the Eight Extremities World, those dialects which were different from the standardised common language yet had been born from those olden time languages as he threw them all onto the table.

Every time he spoke, he would note the reaction of that big man.

Feng Yunsheng and the others could only feel as though their knowledge of Yan Zhaoge had been completely overturned once more as their mouths hung open and their eyes stared wide at this scene.

Ah Hu swallowed his saliva, sending over a sound transmission via aura-qi, “Young Master, you’re so awesome…”

Yan Zhaoge sent back, “Do you think I want things to be so troublesome? If we cannot communicate through language, even if I capture him and want to interrogate him, it would also not work. Firstly, it has to be determined what language he speaks, thereby allowing us to understand each other’s words.”

That big man, still appearing uncomprehending and wary, had been growing increasingly irritable.

As Yan Zhaoge was preparing to switch to another form of dialect, that big man lost his patience, letting out a low roar as he lunged over!

“This isn’t good, you know…” Yan Zhaoge rolled his eyes.