Chapter 494 – Noble Clans’ Tree (6)

When he had set out on his jianghu journey to Hangzhou.

After slaying the Three Arts Grand Seats of Taimo Mountain Castle, changing the organization of the Divine Sword Group along with the Administration’s Office, and engaging in a war of nerves with King Qiong-ming for two days, he had crossed from Xiangyang to Hangzhou.

All of that had not taken even seven days and nights. This was because he had repeatedly mounted Remaining Thunder and flown at full power, then engaged in energy regulation and breath control.

Even such a grand journey had been sufficient in three days, so from the eastern village of World Tree to the very center today could only be a brief moment.

Thud.

Jeong Yeon-shin landed lightly on the ground.

Snow-white Remaining Thunder flew over by itself, struck the handle of the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword with a tap, and smoothly sheathed itself in the scabbard.

A sheathing accompanied by somewhat unnecessary movements. It had become a recent source of concern.

If such errors occurred even during fierce battles where a single sword trajectory determined life and death, it wouldn’t end with ordinary consequences.

‘There’s no problem with the Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique though…’

It was when he was fondling Remaining Thunder’s handle a couple of times.

“A stranger…? Where did you come from?”

A surprised voice rang out.

It was ahead.

From the direction of the tall trees that blocked the front like endlessly high fences. About ten or so swordsmen who seemed to be the city’s gate guards were each standing upright on tree branches, looking down at Jeong Yeon-shin.

Like any noble clan members, they all possessed human-like features, with eyes that sparkled with deep blue light standing out.

It was an appearance he would see countless times going forward.

“I am Lightning Genius from Desolate Fortress. I represent our fortress with purple rank status.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke calmly. It was an extremely confident attitude.

There was nothing to be cautious about from the beginning. He had absolutely no intention of sneaking into the place said to contain World Tree’s main body.

After learning the truth, he needed to have proper conversations with the masters of this place. He simply needed to know the shortcut.

—I’m not a gentleman, so why should I be climbing over walls?

Words his uncle Ma Jin had once said.

It was when he had intruded upon the Mount Hua Agreement martial contest.

Even Jeong Yeon-shin, who usually worried about his and his maternal grandfather’s temperaments, had inwardly applauded those words. There were times when Ma Jin, who bore the epithet Harbinger of Death, said the right things.

“It’s not a lie. Lightning Genius… Does anyone know him?”

“I’ll go ask the merchants who came from outside and come back. Wait here.”

“Saying he came from Desolate Fortress doesn’t make sense… It’s not time for a visit yet. Is there something the city lacks?”

“No. We need nothing.”

“He doesn’t look hungry either, so what about driving him away? No, how did he get in in the first place?”

“He seems quite skilled but I don’t sense anything. Is he concealing his energy while traveling? Something’s strange…”

“He’s purple rank. Just like the Divine Sword Group Leader.”

“Come to think of it, he’s wearing the same clothes as Ma the Nightmare. This isn’t ordinary. Quickly report to the Council of Elders!”

The noble clan swordsmen standing on the trees didn’t particularly lower their voices. Perhaps because they all possessed tremendous accumulated energy, dense internal energy was carried in the voices they spoke without concealment.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t feel any particular hostility from them.

‘That’s just…’

Like lying in one’s familiar inner room for hundreds of years while receiving guests. Whether they spoke of driving him away right before Jeong Yeon-shin or evaluated his entire body, it wasn’t particularly intentional rudeness.

The words “Ma the Nightmare” that seemed to refer to his maternal grandfather also came across naturally.

At the same time, he thought:

‘Strong.’

The density of their energy waves was thick.

Even though several had disappeared behind the trees, the feeling that touched his skin like silk threads was sharp.

Each had reached a master’s realm through formless sword energy cultivated over long years combining with massive accumulated energy. Even though they were the first ones encountered at the city’s entrance.

A peerless guard unit.

Just as he had heard from village elder Zhong Yuan.

Not only World Tree’s four great protectors who were each close to absolute masters, but even the warriors guarding the central city were masters.

Naturally, Jeong Yeon-shin’s doubts could only grow larger.

Why.

How could they be so leisurely?

From Immortal Tree Spirit Squad’s Cheon So-sowho rushed about to protect earth energy, to Wish-fulfilling Spring Squad’s Beigong Ya who sought death herself, to the other military units of the Divine Sword Group who coordinated the precarious order of the jianghu’s forest of blades.

Not one place had leisure.

While it was natural for those who protected World Tree to be strong, if one included even the protectors whom Jeong Yeon-shin would find difficult to look down upon, wouldn’t their strength be excessive?

What had these people been doing while the warriors of the Divine Sword Group were dying?

‘Damn crazy.’

The moment Jeong Yeon-shin’s expression hardened.

The noble clan masters, who had developed inner eyes from birth, immediately reacted to that change.

Each twisted their feet that had been standing on tree branches, then instantly disappeared from their positions and appeared surrounding Jeong Yeon-shin. It was movement technique close to Form Shifting Void.

Boom! Whooooosh!

The reverse wind from the movement techniques of ten people turned the vicinity into a wasteland. Just their movements scattered broken earth and rock fragments in all directions, blocking Jeong Yeon-shin’s vision.

Beyond that.

The three remaining on the tree watchtowers were already nocking arrows to great bows they had drawn from behind their backs. Even at a glance, faint streams of light flowed along bowstrings as tough as steel reinforcement.

Heavy vibrating sounds extended from those power waves.

A realm of applying the mysteries of imbuing qi to sword to bows, just as famous swordsmen covered naked blades with deep internal energy. If they went out to the jianghu, they could gain great fame.

Wuuuuuung—!

With such strength that put the Thirteen Evil Sects’ Dark Night Palace Leader to shame, along with extremely sharp vigilance like Heaven-Reaching Bow Spirit.

“If you would send word to the leader of this city from here.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slightly twisted his lips.

“I won’t necessarily make a move.”

He concluded with a low voice. But it was among those who had reacted greatly even to small changes in expression.

There would be few masters in this place who would take the purple of Desolate Fortress’s advice at face value. Jeong Yeon-shin had already expected as much.

Right or wrong.

It was the phrase most befitting jianghu people.

Would noble clans be different?

Whoosh!

First, four rushed in treading soundless advance steps. With footwork that closed distance in an instant, natural footwork techniques followed, and though the angles of drawing swords were all different, a consistent method could be felt.

The series of movements was spotlessly clean while being uniformly elegant. Anyone could see it was supreme swordsmanship.

‘Wood-Under Linked Steel Divine Sword.’

Just as he had heard from elder Zhong Yuan. Four swords coming from all directions, seeping into the wind… Martial arts that thoroughly concealed the presence of invisible sword energy and pushed the speed of sword strikes from drawing to the extreme.

Crash crash crash crash—!

As soon as they reached Jeong Yeon-shin, they broke into three pieces each with thunderous sounds.

Being reduced to half-sections in the instant of collision came first, and the rebound force that surged upward like a tidal wave from that point split the rising sword fragments in half once more.

It was natural that the noble clan swordsmen were swept away flying along the path they had come in that storm-like aftermath.

Those who rolled around spitting blood.

Heavy vibrating sounds shook all directions. Like running at full power without thought and crashing into an iron wall. Those who had lived leisurely their entire lives couldn’t possibly match the calluses of the Tang siblings.

Step.

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had somehow wrapped his entire body in gentle light clusters, moved his steps. Though the swordsmen who had become owners of half-swords lay at his feet, none were worthy of his gaze.

Suddenly, crack— three streaks of light extended diagonally from the air. The archery masters standing on distant tree branches had released their bowstrings.

It was truly exquisite timing. The three arrowheads were already enlarged like bowls by the time they entered his vision, so fast that the surroundings rippled like summer air, showing they weren’t ordinary strong bows.

At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin spun twice quickly like a dance with his long sleeves.

In the first rotation, he caught two arrows with both hands and threw them back as they were, and with time still remaining, he grasped another arrow in his palm while overlaying Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique. It was literally an instant.

Whooooosh—!

First, the two arrows that had returned pierced through the sides of their original owners along with their protective energy, and the archery masters who received that straight-line striking force to their bones flew toward the city beyond the wooden barrier with their mouths wide open.

By then, the last arrow had already disappeared from Jeong Yeon-shin’s grasp.

The remaining archery master hurriedly drew his bowstring but was struck back with a bang— and disappeared, and the Qi-Controlled Sword arrow that returned to Jeong Yeon-shin drawing a zigzag pattern overlapped its body like a light beam along the encirclement formed by noble clan swordsmen.

Naturally, it had to be accompanied by multiple collisions.

Crash crash crash crash crash!

The sound of protective energies exploding.

While thread-like trajectories became distorted as afterimages, the noble clan swordsmen each collapsed having extended their swords only halfway. Jeong Yeon-shin’s purple sleeve hem fluttered long through their gaps.

Thud!

The Energy-Controlled arrow embedded at his feet. The neatly made fletching trembled, but that vibration was buried by Jeong Yeon-shin’s step.

One move per person.

“Someone like you… why, why go this far…?”

One remained conscious. A swordsman with jet-black hair hanging down to the ground, revealing long ears. Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at her and slowly moved his steps. Toward the city.

“Is this land generous even to those who attack first? In the outside world, it would be something to risk one’s life over.”

He posed the question without bothering to make eye contact.

The swordsman couldn’t answer. Jeong Yeon-shin’s head nodded slowly.

“I won’t rationalize it differently.”

“……”

“This is indeed my arrogance.”

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t stop walking.

Elder Zhong Yuan had said that even just the city’s gate guards were notably powerful ones in World Tree.

Basically due to the principle that those who guard gates must be strong above all. Though they fell short compared to absolute protectors, their martial arts were certainly deep.

‘All strong.’

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t relax his tension.

He had become greatly humbled through the Heaven Conquering Sect Leader and the Hangzhou Great Upheaval. He had accepted the inferiority complex he had been avoiding deep inside, thanks to facing the broken mirror-like Invincible multiple times.

Now he didn’t think of monkeys.

Because the world was entirely filled with those possessing heavenly mandates superior to himself and Invincible. Even Shin So-bin, who would become Future Great Sage, would live long years like the Monkey King compared to those two.

Step.

The low groans of the noble clan swordsmen were crushed by Jeong Yeon-shin’s footsteps.

* * *

It was a tranquil city.

Green particles floated gently like fireflies.

On one side, thatched houses with large leaves serving as roofs were lined up, while snow-white streamlined tile houses also spread in all directions forming a huge circle.

People wearing all sorts of palace robes came and went above them like immortals.

The stronghold of the World Tree clans.

Naturally, news had to travel fast. The intrusion of Desolate Fortress’s purple was immediately known. Even the Council of Elders hall located deep in the city was filled with crystalline voices.

“The main gate collapsed?”

A voice filled with great surprise.

It was the soliloquy of a figure who emerged pushing aside long, dense curtains. With no light present, only the body’s outline was revealed, but unlike the smooth curved muscles, both cheeks were very gaunt.

The depths of the Council of Elders.

World Tree’s main body existed inside the curtains. It was truly the most important place in all the world.

A subordinate kneeling on one knee before her opened his mouth.

“It took only moments for the gate guards to be defeated. Though he never used his hands more than twice, they were helpless… He’ll reach the city center soon. I believe the Council Head should take shelter until the four great protectors arrive.”

“Leave our Root Wood?”

“No matter how much he’s the grandson of Ma Yeon-jeok, he won’t be able to approach World Tree. Heaven-Reaching Bow Spirit said he has an impetuous nature but is clear about public and private matters.”

“That’s too generous to say. Even warriors heading to battle first make the enemy understand their reasons for raising swords, yet without stating any justification, how could he commit such atrocities…?”

The figure’s soliloquy seeped low into the darkness.

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly the room became extremely bright with golden lightning that flashed.

A young youth wearing robes of lightning had entered. World Tree’s Golden Thunder. The face of the subordinate who had been prostrating brightened.

“Mm, well… Someone of purple rank might get angry. Since he wouldn’t know anything. If he grew up under Ma Yeon-jeok, he wouldn’t have the eloquence for declarations of war or such.”

Golden Thunder continued slowly.

“Still, this is his master’s hometown, right? He won’t be able to rashly violate this place. I’ll go reason with him and come back.”

His words and actions had no particular protocol. Formal and informal speech were ambiguously mixed, and even his tone couldn’t be distinguished between sanity and dreamlike state.

But the modest atmosphere in the hall was maintained.

It could also be called deep stability.

That’s when it happened.

—While the world is dark.

Some youth’s words spread through Six Harmonies Voice.

It was a voice that not only filled the city but even touched the depths of the Council of Elders. Instantly, the words of the three people including Golden Thunder stopped.

“……”

—As the nation’s sword, seeing this place.

Playing joyfully with nature.

Yet there are no companions to converse with within…

The youth calmly continued the poem-like verses, then concluded with an eerie voice at the last stanza.

—Facing my sword, I question the world.