Route 449, Part 2

"That's enough." Di Jiang grabbed Zhang Rongfang's arm and lifted him up.

He carefully examined Ostandin's shoulders.

The flesh there seemed to have aged, lost its luster and vitality, as if it had died.

With lightning speed, he completely removed that small piece of flesh.

"Restore," he said to Ostandin.

". good."

The latter's shoulder wound healed and regenerated rapidly.

But the flesh and blood there remained unchanged, lifeless and stagnant, like withered flowers that could never be restored to their original state. "This feeling is like some kind of plague! A plague specifically targeting Worship God!!" A hint of shock flashed in Di Jiang's eyes.

He looked at Zhang Rongfang again, the shock clearly visible in his eyes.

This person was born to deal with the Worship God and Gods and Buddhas!

He could imagine the terrifying things that would happen if those Worship God discovered Zhang Ying's talent! They would hunt him down relentlessly until he died! Countless thoughts collided and swirled in Di Jiang's mind.

Soon, it seemed he had made an important decision.

"From today onwards, you will stay here and are not allowed to go anywhere."

These words were spoken to Zhang Rongfang.

"!? Senior, what's going on?!" Zhang Rongfang's heart skipped a beat, not knowing what the other party meant. "If you can protect yourself from his Final Form attack within a month, and withstand fifty moves from my normal attack, I will let you go," Di Jiang replied calmly.

"And you." He abruptly turned to look at Ostandin. "Help him with all your might. If he can't do it by the time he's done it, I'll kill you."

Ostandin's heart skipped a beat, and he forced a smile.

Despite the various curses and rants raging in his mind, at this moment, all he could do was smile.

"Oh, by the way, you can try Divine Descent. After all, my sword hasn't had anything to eat in a long time. Divine Descent can refresh its taste." Di Jiang's words completely shattered Ostandin's last hope.

This guy just doesn't want the hassle, so he found someone else to teach people instead of him!

After seeing the root of the problem, Ostandin felt much better.

At least there's still hope for survival.

Although he was confident that he could Divine Descent after making all the preparations and not be inferior to Di Jiang, at this moment, he was unwilling to fight him to the point of mutual destruction.

As for those who say he's weak, let them say it.

You can't just talk your way out of things.

He was simply weighing the pros and cons and decided that fighting wasn't worth it.

With this in mind, Ostandin felt the Final Form stabilize again.

Everyone says that Extreme Realm is insane, but now it seems, what's the use of being so strong?

Isn't he just as rational and clear-headed as I am? Thinking of this, a hint of pity crept into his eyes as he looked at Di Jiang.

'Why bother arguing so much with someone who's mentally unstable? I'm a normal, able-bodied person; giving way to a disabled person isn't a big deal.'

"Alright, that's settled then," Di Jiang finally decided.

"Now, you tell him what the biggest difference is between a Grandmaster and Great Grandmaster. Make him understand where his weaknesses lie."

He pointed at Ostandin, then yawned, got up, and left with his hands behind his back.

Not long after, Di Jiang disappeared and jumped off the cliff, his whereabouts unknown.

Only Zhang Rongfang and Ostandin remained, looking at each other in bewilderment.

Ostandin forced a smile.

"Since you have made such a sincere request, I will reluctantly give it a try."

"..." Zhang Rongfang glanced at the other person with pity. This self-consolation to this extent was truly bizarre. "Actually, when a Grandmaster advances to the Great Grandmaster, they don't lack anything in terms of temperament. The key lies in their martial arts realm," Ostandin explained.

"Martial arts realm?"

"Exactly."

Ostandin organized his thoughts and explained in detail, "The so-called martial arts realm can generally be divided into several stages."

"At the beginning, you followed the martial arts moves and won by using pre-designed routines and special moves."

"After that, you gradually understand the principles of combat techniques, eliminate the various moves that are not suitable for you, and form your own system. You develop your own routines and signature moves."

"After that, you no longer adhere to routines. Many moves are in harmony with your body, and you can naturally use powerful moves to deliver a fatal blow."

"Then comes the Grandmaster. You begin to understand the impact of spirit, will, emotions, and state of mind on victory or defeat."

Once you've honed your physical abilities and techniques to their limits, further progress becomes extremely difficult. At this point, we turn our attention to the study of willpower and emotions.

"All things in the world flow and change like clouds, with ever-changing phenomena. With change comes strength and weakness. To use one's own strength to attack the enemy's weakness is the way of war. It is also the way of spiritual combat that we masters use."

"To use your strength to attack the enemy's weakness, you need to do many things. That's why grandmasters cultivate an invincible will, keeping their will always at its strongest and peak."

"This is how you keep yourself in a strong position. But because of this, every grandmaster has a fatal weakness."

That is, once the state of consciousness is broken, the strength will drop sharply instantly.

Everything in the world is balanced and follows a certain principle; every gain comes with a price.

The destruction of an ordinary person's consciousness might cause them to feel depressed for a while, but the impact of a grandmaster's consciousness being destroyed is far too great.

As long as he wasn't from the opposing faction, Ostandin's explanations at this moment had a scholarly air about him.

His speech was delivered in a style that combined Eastern and Western elements.

"Then how do we find the enemy's weakness?" Zhang Rongfang asked in a deep voice.

"In response to this," Ostandin continued, "Therefore, two approaches were initially proposed."

He extended his index finger.

"The first theory: Everything in the world is unpredictable, and no one knows everything. Therefore, the only thing we can control is ourselves. Extending from this theory is the Absolute Defense Circle!"

"First, ensure your own performance is good, then wait for the opponent to make a mistake and reveal their own weaknesses. This is the fundamental principle behind the existence of Absolute Defense Circle."

"The second view is that everything is in flux and changing, and nothing is absolutely stable. As long as something is unstable, there must be gaps between strengths and weaknesses, and absolute weaknesses."

Therefore, they believe that the reason we cannot find weaknesses is simply because we have not observed carefully enough.

Thus, the opportunity to Enemy Anticipation was gained.

"So, the reason I couldn't beat you before was because Enemy Anticipation?" Zhang Rongfang instantly understood.

"Yes. Your martial arts, everything about you, Central Capital. Enemy Anticipation is a terrifying skill."

Even between Grandmasters Great Grandmaster, the difference in their Enemy Anticipation can be extremely significant, resulting in a vast disparity in overall strength.

Ostandin remarked.

"This is a difference in the level of consciousness; some people see the world differently than others."

"Just like you Di Jiang?" Zhang Rongfang asked in a deep voice.

"You don't understand. At this level, the difference in the Enemy Anticipation is so great that you can never hit the opponent while they are awake."

You can't even touch the other person; you'll only keep exposing your weaknesses. The final result is predictable. Ostandin's expression turned awkward for a moment, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Senior Di Jiang is truly amazing," Zhang Rongfang exclaimed.

"Yes, most Great Grandmaster at the Extreme Realm are incredibly formidable in their Enemy Anticipation." Ostandin nodded. "Moreover, Di Jiang is one of the top experts among them."

"In fact, the paths of the Great Grandmaster of the Extreme Realm and Worship God can be broadly summarized into two approaches."

He sighed and summarized.

"The Extreme Realm believes that the best defense is offense. While they dodge, they may also strike a fatal blow at any time."

The Worship God advocates that the best offense is defense. We advocate using a strong physique and recovery ability to withstand a powerful enemy, waiting for the opponent to make a mistake, and then seizing the opportunity to strike and kill the enemy.

Both sides possess extremely powerful individuals, and both are terrifying.

Zhang Rongfang immediately had a general idea of what was going on.

Indeed, those in the Extreme Realm seek maximum destructive power, often defeating their enemies in a single, decisive blow. Demon Weapon and the like are simply a way to compensate for insufficient damage against Spirit General.

But Worship God is a more conventional approach.

"And what about you?" Zhang Rongfang had benefited greatly from this and immediately felt a greater sense of respect for him.

"What level do you belong to? Why do I feel that you also have an element of Enemy Anticipation?"

"Me?" Ostandin smiled slightly, his handsome face radiating a gentle and refined air in the sunlight.

"I want to walk two paths at the same time; back then, my ambitions were sky-high." He pointed to the sky and then touched his heart.

"Back then, I thought I was the most talented person in the Number One Under Heaven, but unfortunately, reality gave me a cruel blow. After reaching a dead end, I finally gave up and chose to Worship God."

Why?

"Because Worship God is safe, one can live longer. However, there are also rumors that the top-ranked beings in the extreme Extreme Realm have experienced being illuminated by Heavenly Light, which greatly increased their lifespan."

"Of course, this is just a legend. Just listen to it." Ostandin's expression was gentle.

In fact, most of the time, he prefers to study things he likes rather than fighting and killing.

Unfortunately, this era and this world did not allow him to live that way.

"Alright, enough talk, let's try it out. Since the master has given the instructions, my role is to help you improve your martial arts skills rapidly."

Standing up, Ostandin, though he didn't think a month would make much of a difference.

After all, judging from Zhang Ying's previous performance, he hadn't even condensed the self-improvement spirit of a Grandmaster, let alone reached the high-level Enemy Anticipation advantage of Great Grandmaster.

However, the opponent's strange and powerful abilities could greatly restrain the Worship God. Moreover, his physique was extremely terrifying, comparable to Worship God Grandmaster.

No. He is even much stronger than a typical Worship God Grandmaster. Therefore, "Be careful. With such a huge difference in the Enemy Anticipation, even between Great Grandmaster, the outcome can be decided in an instant. Victory or defeat, life or death, often hinges on a mere moment, a single step."

"Please give me your guidance." Zhang Rongfang clasped his hands in a respectful gesture.

In fact, from the very beginning, after he learned that he had been framed and that his ability to Blood Flesh Completion had been exposed as a way to suppress the worship of Worship God, this was the first thing he thought of.

Those in the Extreme Realm are people who are unwilling to Worship God.

They are human beings.

They were unwilling to be subordinate to Gods and Buddhas.

Therefore, Extreme Realm are mostly opposed to Worship God.

His ability to restrain his Worship God is most likely to gain support from this group of people! Because no warrior Worship God would allow such a huge threat as him to exist in the world.

Therefore, he originally planned to rely on his powerful and terrifying life force to wear down Ostandin to death.

But then the thought suddenly occurred to him, so he turned and left.

Instead of going to Shangguan Feihe or Jade Void Palace, they came to the Linghua Mountain.

And now, it seems he made the right bet.

Di Jiang's gaze towards him was different from before; this was the art of military strategy—to adapt to circumstances and turn waste into treasure.

Since it's already been exposed, I might as well use Ostandin's injury to show off my special restraint.

Gaining attention in the Extreme Realm.

Given that conflicts with gods and Gods and Buddhas are inevitable in the future, this is a possible way out.