Chapter 582 – Fierce Fire (6)

Something rapidly approaching, causing the ground to tremble faintly. It was a presence reminiscent of a martial army. It was a cluster whose number was impossible to estimate.

A smile deepened in the eyes of Lazy Flame Dragon.

He felt a great presence.

It was not the presence of an absolute master, but it was approaching while embedding a tremendous pressure in the northern land.

He could guess what it was.

‘Divine Sword Group Seventeen Squads.’

To be welcomed by the Desolate Fortress. Lazy Flame Dragon, born as the eldest son of the Hwangbo family, never thought a day like this would come.

This too was a pleasure earned by engraving the character “Desolate” on his shoulder. Life was this interesting.

Of course, the Divine Sword Group was still far away.

One had to concentrate on the sense beneath his feet to barely feel the echo. Even if their overall strength was stronger than that of the peerless masters, they could not move as fast.

Therefore, at this moment, the closest to Lazy Flame Dragon was someone else.

At a distance close enough to hear breathing.

He met eyes with the Northern Greatest who had bent his waist crookedly.

‘Why are his eyes like that?’

A chilling shiver ran down Lazy Flame Dragon’s spine. His eyes were completely black, staring at him. Abyss, deep abyss. It was a feeling that matched any thought.

Lazy Flame Dragon smiled faintly and said.

“Can you move your face?”

Then the Southern Emperor asked.

“Are you enjoying this?”

“No, honestly, I’m scared. You’re really damn tall.”

At the same time, Lazy Flame Dragon took a step to the side.

It was a move to avoid a surprise attack. The Southern Emperor’s Heaven Silk Steel Armor was rolling like black mist as it approached him.

‘Hmm…?’

But the face of the Southern Emperor reflected in his eyes was the same. The direction of his gaze, the angle, and even the posture of his bent waist were identical.

Although Lazy Flame Dragon had clearly taken a step to the side.

The Southern Emperor had moved exactly the same way like a ghost.

A peerless master whose realm was hard to measure. Yet a protective instinct that fanatically allowed no gaps. Lazy Flame Dragon was very rarely chilled.

This was the fourth time in the life of the lazy genius.

The previous three were the Desolate Fortress Leader, Divine Sword Group Leader Yong Hye-myeong, and Jeong Yeon-shin’s maternal grandfather. Each had scratched his spine with lightning-like shivers with completely different temperaments.

Unable to resist.

“……”

The silence of the frost-covered earth deepened.

Only the occasional cracking sound was heard nearby. It was the sound of the ground thawing from the previously frozen ice arts.

“Think.”

The Southern Emperor’s order was low.

He was forcing the traitor to betray again.

To turn his back on the Hwangbo family he was born into, leave the Desolate Fortress that accepted him, leave his wife the Ice Palace Master again, and come to him.

In return, he spoke of the remaining life.

He meant to fix the damned Scorching Divine Meridian. Lazy Flame Dragon was feeling his remaining life was about one year and three or four months.

The Southern Emperor said.

“I know how you kill pain and prolong life.”

“Hmm?”

“The mysterious Cold Ice Energy of the Ice Emperor must have suited you well. You must have reduced the pain by harmonizing yin and yang.”

“You’re really a ghost. You know everything.”

Lazy Flame Dragon responded appropriately. His purpose was to buy time from the start. But the Southern Emperor’s slow words took away his composure.

“I will help you bring your wife’s martial arts achievement. The lower energy center of the northern Ice Emperor is a completed Ice Crystal. If it is the Fighting God’s cultivation technique, it can change your constitution with that.”

He meant to let him take the crystallized Cold Ice Energy formed in his wife’s energy center.

Like the relics that come out of the body of a monk who has undergone repeated enlightenment, the energy center of a transcendent who has refined the austere Cold Ice Energy to the extreme throughout his life is said to have ice crystals.

But the lower energy center of a peerless master is a cluster of energy that far surpasses even lightning bombs.

To take the core of the internal energy technique from it is like taking the life of the Northern Sea Ice Palace Master who has the ice crystals. It was not possible to conveniently withdraw and deposit like a mechanical formation.

Lazy Flame Dragon’s head tilted loosely to the side.

“You want to kill my wife…? Was it not persuasion but provocation?”

“Just as my great cause is in this land, the great cause of a traitor like you must be in your own self-preservation. It is better to think coldly. This is the last.”

“You there! This is impossible to resist, so retreat! You can look for my wife.”

Lazy Flame Dragon, who had driven away the Ice Palace warriors who came as reinforcements, raised his head again.

The Southern Emperor was looking down at him like a huge statue without moving. Did it mean the rest were insignificant? Not a single thing about his behavior or temperament was human.

“…Anyway, well. Your idea is so dirty that I can’t decide quickly…”

It was when Lazy Flame Dragon deliberately dragged out the end of his sentence cleverly.

Above his head.

The Southern Emperor’s hand blade flickered darkly and then struck down. There was no other word. At that moment, Lazy Flame Dragon instinctively knew. It was a strike that was fundamentally impossible to evade.

It was not a technique. It was providence.

It fell naturally like darkness descending at midnight, and he did not think it could be blocked by any protective energy or defensive technique.

It was the manifestation of Natural Form. A realm he had heard of as if it brushed past his wife.

‘When did a peerless master always fight at full power?’

All of them were showing off.

At that moment, Lazy Flame Dragon’s upper energy center was heated fiercely like lava. The burning pain in his head crossed the line in an instant. It was a method of stimulating the spirit among essence, energy, and spirit with power.

Hoo—

The Southern Emperor’s hand blade wrapped in black clouds like ebony slowly moved through Lazy Flame Dragon’s perception.

It was an extremely subtle difference, but it gave him enough room to slightly turn his shoulder.

When the body is in extreme pain, time also slows down.

The realm of solitary enlightenment, Six Energies Like Three Autumns.

After hearing the rumor that Jeong Yeon-shin was killed by the Dark Heaven Emperor and Heaven Conquering Sect Leader in Hangzhou, he had been pondering for several tens of days and nights and finally realized this technique.

The Southern Emperor’s hand blade slowly brushed Lazy Flame Dragon’s shoulder in the time that had stuck like candle wax.

Crack!

The protective energy, flesh, and the joint at the end of the shoulder and upper arm burst all at once.

If he had relied only on his energy reserves and pushed his head forward, his head would have exploded. It was impossible to counterattack from the start. But Lazy Flame Dragon smiled faintly and took ten steps back at once.

His left arm was covered in blood and dangling, but this level of pain did not greatly exceed the burning pain that had always permeated his body.

Then the Southern Emperor spoke.

“That sensation.”

“What else?”

“The country you will govern is absurdly vast. It is an essential quality.”

“You talk about unfiliality to such a person?”

No answer came. At that moment, the Southern Emperor’s gaze was directed at Lazy Flame Dragon, but it seemed to be looking at something far beyond.

For a moment, several words passed through Lazy Flame Dragon’s intuition and disappeared.

The world. The emperor.

The opponent did not look like a martial artist but something else. A monstrous being who would rule a country. Or someone who would be hard to call a single person as the ruler of a nation.

‘It feels like a completely different vessel, and yet he is the leader of the enemy…’

Lazy Flame Dragon savored the feeling of death approaching. At the same time, he spoke softly.

“…It seems two of your Six Star Lords have already retreated, but as far as I know, both had clearly deployed life-saving ultimate techniques. Naturally, their energy must have dropped considerably by now… If I were you, I would pray earnestly that those guys don’t encounter a strong opponent with all limbs intact.”

Honestly, he thought it was a deathbed message.

The Southern Emperor’s attention was no longer fully focused on Lazy Flame Dragon.

At that moment, the Northern Greatest was spreading his energy waves widely and building some formation with the fragments of the dead bodies.

Thud, thud—

The sound of rolling corpses.

It was obvious. It was a technique that would make the Northern Greatest even stronger.

The Southern Emperor seemed to be waiting for Lazy Flame Dragon’s answer only until that was completed.

Screech!

Meanwhile, Lazy Flame Dragon burned his shoulder to stop the bleeding. It was better than dispersing his strength with poorly distributed internal energy in his blood vessels.

‘I’m going to die soon anyway. Only the young ones like the Acting Group Leader can stop bleeding with acupoint pressure.’

The Literary Star Army that had originally fought Lazy Flame Dragon had long since started forming protective formations.

They had formed a large circular barrier of man-horse. Perhaps because they fed on the innate energy of corpses instead of horse feed, the battle horses of the northern martial army were so huge like monsters that the outside was not visible.

Meanwhile, the Ice Palace’s masters had disappeared like a lie. They had gone to find Lazy Flame Dragon’s wife.

For them, the Ice Emperor who had not appeared for a long time was more important.

There was even the Northern Blade known as the Six Star Lords among the enemies. A man silently watching the battlefield from atop the largest warhorse. The atmosphere was distorted under his very large bamboo hat.

Another monstrous being.

[Reinforcements from Bright Wind Spirit are coming. At this speed, they will arrive before the southern reinforcements. Lastly, as you know, there is another from the direction of Ice Breathing Mountain…]

“Wait.”

The Southern Emperor interrupted the Northern Blade’s words.

At that moment, a book was sucked into the Southern Emperor’s hand from among the fragments of corpses scattered here and there by void absorption.

A bundle of paper torn in half like the corpses on the battlefield.

‘A Dharma treasure…?’

It was torn in half like it had been clawed. It felt like a piece of spirituality that could not be restored by anything. It seemed to have been naturally mixed in the chaotic battlefield.

Due to the energy waves, the sound of weapons, and the bloody smell of the bursting corpses, it had not been noticed earlier.

Lazy Flame Dragon felt a strange impulse as soon as he saw it. A feeling that he must bring it. It was an intuition from his upper energy center.

Step.

As soon as he took a slight step forward, all eyes were on him.

The gaze of the Southern Emperor and Northern Blade. Just being looked at made his head feel squeezed. Like a steep cliff in the north was pressing down.

“……”

It seemed to be saying to Lazy Flame Dragon, who had a chunk of flesh missing from one shoulder, that it was too early for him.

Then the Southern Emperor turned his head to the book again.

“I must find the other half.”

[That is with me.]

A Six Harmonies Battle Voice rang out from afar.

It was not the Northern Blade’s intention. Rather, it was a voice familiar to the ears of the Divine Sword Group’s poppy addict.

At that moment, a strange sight flashed through Lazy Flame Dragon’s eyes as he turned his head like lightning. The black mist surrounding the Southern Emperor’s mouth fluttered thinly. It was clearly a smile.

It seemed as if the reason for building the formation and sparing Lazy Flame Dragon was for this moment.

‘That guy?’

What kind of trap had he set?

In an instant, Lazy Flame Dragon slammed his foot down without looking ahead or behind.

Hoo!

The Northern Blade’s momentum that had been standing to one side caught him in midair. It was an impossible phenomenon.

It was not void absorption but energy waves alone that blocked the Hwangbo family’s Graceful Heaven King Scripture’s lightness skill sprint.

[You will not be numbered.]

The Northern monster said.

Kwahhhhh!

At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was already crossing the plain like a beam of light.

He was truly wrapped in a faint white light. Behind him, the Desolate Fortress warriors chasing him could be seen.

White waves were faintly connecting the masters with the “Desolate” character engraved on their shoulders and the Divine Sword Group Leader.

It was an instant.

Jeong Yeon-shin pierced through the Literary Star Army’s cavalry barrier entirely and appeared. The five pairs of man-horse in that straight path swayed and exploded.

“…!”

He then extended Divine Sword Remaining Thunder toward the Northern Blade.

The piercing sword strike of the Thunder-Annihilation Sword technique called Heavenly Vault. White snow rose like waves on both sides of the sword strike that ran through a completely different time axis, and the Northern Blade and Southern Emperor darkened in the shadow created.

[Southern Face Capable Emperor.]

The Southern Emperor’s words fell on the plain.

Screech!

The wave of explosive force that had been connecting Jeong Yeon-shin and the Desolate Fortress warriors was immediately unraveled.

The sword force that had been gathered with tremendous power in the sword strike also scattered completely. Along with the frost that crumbled down futilely.

It was obviously Transcendent Martial Art.

The absolute domain created by the Northern Greatest.

The principle was clear. It was a space that did not permit any explosive force like an abyss. The next moment, Lazy Flame Dragon realized that Jeong Yeon-shin was already exhausted.

Step.

Jeong Yeon-shin naturally sheathed his sword and faced the Southern Emperor and Northern Blade under heaven.

He had been caught by sudden Transcendent Martial Art.

The battle of peerless masters was such a meticulous game of moves. The Southern Emperor’s insight and scheming were extraordinary, almost transcendent.

“……”

Blood dripped slowly from the end of Jeong Yeon-shin’s purple robe.

At this point, his body had no even the slightest energy wave, yet the presence of the northern Divine Sword Group Leader was slowly encompassing the plain.

Jeong Yeon-shin was such a man now.

Even in a situation with no clear answer, his existence supported the battlefield. Lazy Flame Dragon smiled and then spat out.

“Why did you come? I was just about to betray you.”

“Incompetent.”

Jeong Yeon-shin could no longer even utter Six Harmonies Battle Voice. Yet his voice flowed out very clearly.

The Southern Emperor who had been looking at him said.

“I once considered you your maternal grandfather.”

Instead of answering, Jeong Yeon-shin quietly asked back.

“Did you kill the Nether Stream Squad Leader of the main fortress?”

“Lightning Genius Jeong Yeon-shin. It was fortunate to experience you as the spirit. Desolate Fortress Ma Yeon-jeok… I almost made a useless strategy based on that rusted sword’s rejuvenation.”

“She must have been wrapped in bandages all over her body. Did you really do it? Where is the corpse?”

“Lightning Genius.”

While they were each saying only what they wanted to say, the Southern Emperor cut off the conversation and slowly asked.

“Is Divine Thief dead?”

For a moment, Jeong Yeon-shin closed his mouth.

Then he answered.

“She died by my hand.”

[Haha!]

The Northern Blade laughed from one side.

The northern land filled with blood wind was very pleased. Lazy Flame Dragon secretly cursed him as a madman.

“…I see.”

The Southern Emperor nodded.

“Your subordinate did die by my hand. I crushed her head and left no spirituality.”

“……”

“Divine Theif under heaven and the Desolate Fortress Nether Stream Squad Leader… the balance doesn’t match. If we consider gains and losses, killing you here would be somewhat advantageous to us. Before that, I ask.”

The Southern Emperor slowly spoke.

“What is your ultimate purpose, and with what confidence have you stepped into my territory?”

Shaa—

The Southern Emperor and Northern Blade.

The northern wind that brushed past the two monsters simultaneously was pulling at Jeong Yeon-shin’s purple robe. Because of this, the Divine Sword Group Leader’s robe hem fluttered wildly without cease. Like the turbulent jianghu where incidents never subside.

“I intend to build another Desolate Fortress here.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said.

His eyes were sharp and black.

The great cause of a youth who had fought countless battles since childhood. Literally a great intention. His obsidian-like eyes were no longer shaken by petty anger.

“I saw common people being devoured by the same clan. The towers of corpses were being accepted as familiar. Now I need a fortress to quickly strike you Northern Kings and protect the common people here.”

“You intend to build another stronghold in this demon realm?”

Interest appeared in the Southern Emperor’s voice, but it was not a look of great concern. He said.

“You must have heard through Bright Wind Spirit. The clan comrades are gathering. Your reinforcements will be offset by them.”

“……”

“I wonder how you plan to handle me and the Northern Blade. You have killed Divine Thief, but we have not fought anyone yet and are in perfect condition.”

Then the Southern Emperor ordered the Literary Star Army. Slaughter the Ice Emperor’s husband.

That was when it happened.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand slowly went to his chest. It was the gesture of the Divine Sword Group Leader who had pondered for a long time and made a very important decision.

His sleeve edge brushed his chest, and the purple and purple robe edges overlapped to look endlessly red.

The Southern Emperor and Northern Blade did not act rashly.

They did not know what might come out of the hands of a peerless master like Jeong Yeon-shin. A being who could not be underestimated until the end. That is what a master who has mastered Transcendent Martial Art is.

His depleted energy had been confirmed.

There was no reason to rush into close combat.

Rustle—

Between Jeong Yeon-shin’s long fingers that reappeared, two yellowed papers were inserted.

The pair of strange yellow papers cast long shadows like the twilight at sunset. Like the shadows of two tall people.

“The one facing you.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly continued.

“Is not me.”

Following the light that filled the horizon at sunset, two human shadows flickered to the left and right of the contemporary Divine Sword Group Leader.

Before the Northern Greatest monsters.

The sunset deepened.