Chapter 606 – Intoxicated by the Starry Night (8)

Two mountains.

A terrain that bisected one of the most fertile valleys in the demon realm.

Each mountain consisted of a dozen peaks, and the left mountain was split in a straight line from top to bottom.

It was due to a sword-blue flame that had suddenly blazed up about half a period earlier.

While grayish stone dust rose like mist and gradually settled.

At this moment, another massive sword strike occurred.

Unlike the previous flame that had vertically split the mountain, this time it was a single sword that horizontally cleaved one of the peaks within.

For an instant, a blade like compressed starlight flashed once and disappeared.

Uhahahaha…!

It was literally great laughter.

The owner of the sword strike didn’t hide his mood. Pleasure oozed from his laughter.

“Hey, Blood King! Are you alive? Or did you die as a guest in your own territory?”

A man wearing a fur hat.

A swordsman with a tall, lean frame sat on some fine horse. It was a warhorse with fur mixed with distant gold and white.

The horse’s hooves were treading on air.

While stepping on the void, it continuously spat out thunderous sounds. A divine feat possible only for an extremely few mounted warriors even in the demon realm. It was the mounted divine art of Void Treading.

He laughed.

“For a blood demon, you’re one with few karmic debts, so this is very strange. Even lightning from a clear sky has its limits.”

It was a rough muttering.

But his unusually long and sharp eyes like large needles held no laughter. Black pupils with colorless eye-light glistening.

In a state where the divine art secret technique Sharp Plow Divine Light was activated – the eye technique of the extremely few Yuan Dynasty warriors who held high status.

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord was carefully looking down at the interior of the mountain peak he had cleaved.

The interior of a mountain cave where air writhed like an abyss, revealing its black flesh from the edges.

“Lord! Can you see anything?”

An intense shout rose from below.

It was one of the mounted warriors who had been surrounding the horizontally bisected peak.

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord glanced at her.

Like him, she was a woman wearing a fur hat with the top protruding, riding the same Ferghana horse. The only difference was that her mounted martial arts hadn’t reached the level of Void Treading.

She was called adjutant by the Vast Wind Curtain Lord.

But the demon realm people nearby called her the ‘Great Bandit Warrior’ or Vice Curtain Lord. It literally meant the second-in-command of Vast Wind Curtain.

“Yes.”

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord opened his mouth.

“This time I can truly see it. The future of the Crimson Blood King Family.”

“Damn…”

“What did you say?”

“I heard Flame Heat Divine King died, have you heard? If rumors reached this remote mountain valley without even Bright Wind Spirit, quite some time must have passed!”

The Vice Curtain Lord’s voice rising loudly from below the peak.

At the same time, a roar arose from the ground swept by the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s sword strike. After quite some time since the upper part of the peak was cut in a diagonal straight line, it had finally lost its balance.

Kurrung…

The scouting battle between Vast Wind Curtain and the Crimson Blood King Family had lasted easily over ten years.

Though there was a vast valley in the center between the mountains where each had their main bases, the layers of accumulated years had narrowed even such vastness of Grudge Blood Valley.

Now it was easy to guess the location of the enemy’s safe house.

Yuan Dynasty martial lineage.

Skilled at thoroughly surveying distant places.

In large-scale battles, they unconditionally held the upper hand. Even more so if that battle was war.

‘I can see it. Bat b*st*rds, holed up in a dark room.’

With the divine art Sharp Plow Divine Light, they could be considered invincible in scouting battles.

From the beginning, even the Desolate Fortress Lord’s Moon Spirit Divine Technique was a technique she had created to neutralize the eye technique of the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty.

“If only the Northern Blade hadn’t cooperated with the Fighting God…”

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s soliloquy scattered in the void.

Suddenly a black shadow left blood-red eye-light vertically as it soared up to the Ferghana horse’s head.

The scene of two streams of reddish afterimages connecting from the peak to right before the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s eyes.

An existence that had leaped directly from the dark chamber inside the exposed cave. Transcendentally fast void-treading steps.

Kung!

Below, circular shock waves belatedly burst out, bouncing stone piles in all directions.

“Did you think it was an opportunity?”

The Blood King, who had thus met the Vast Wind Curtain Lord at eye level, asked quietly. At this moment, he was treading on air like the Ferghana horse the Vast Wind Curtain Lord was riding.

The rough skin of the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s lips curved up in an arc.

He said.

“I came because I was curious what had happened to my neighbor. For the mountain next door to suddenly split – where else could such a calamity be found?”

“You saw that sword strike?”

“Of course. What Northern King would miss such a moment? At a glance, it was far from your signature techniques.”

“Then what confidence brought you here? Your forces are just a bandit gang and a man-eating Vice Curtain Lord.”

The Blood King’s question was desolate, but the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s smile remained as deep as a pit dug in the grassland.

“You’ll find out soon.”

The moment his large hand touched the horse’s mane.

Supreme Righteousness Eternal Art

Divine Horse Three Examples

First Example, Honoring

The Ferghana horse raised its front legs high.

Kugugugugugugung!

The shock waves continuously bursting from the horse’s hooves rose to the Blood King’s face.

The scene of hazy ripples forming a line. Space shook semi-transparently along that trajectory.

It was a technique of unity between man and horse.

The next moment, the Blood King tore apart all the shock waves by sweeping his right fingernails, but the Vast Wind Curtain Lord had already descended dozens of zhang in height, going straight to the ground.

Heavy landing followed simultaneously.

Bang!

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s laughter flowed from the thickly rising dust. It was a voice that seemed to scrape the ground all around.

“It’s too early to taste your hand. I haven’t fully grasped what the situation is yet.”

One who becomes the head of a sect must combine boldness with caution. Now was the same.

The strike that had earlier cut the mountain.

He had to assess whether the Crimson Blood King Family had been attacked as it appeared, or if the Blood King had gained new insight, or if like Vast Wind Curtain, they had taken in another peerless master as a guest.

Of course, he had to strike before the blood demons could recover from the damage.

If he dawdled, the two Northern King forces might face off again over the fertile land without end.

“Father King!”

Some woman’s cry.

It echoed from inside the severed peak.

A voice that no jianghu person of Grudge Blood Valley could mistake. The Blood King’s successor, the next Northern King, was inevitably a person of interest famous for both talent and bloodline.

Dawn Blood Demon Spirit Red Dawn.

She was an overwhelming genius.

Starting with operating blood arts as strong and upright as orthodox martial arts.

The talent to extend the essential nature of power according to one’s body. Even the word prodigy was insufficient.

Thus, though she had just reached the age of twenty, she was truly a great warrior of the Northern King.

She didn’t even reveal the madness unique to blood demons, so she inevitably had to place her name at the top of Vast Wind Curtain’s assassination list.

She had personally filled the void left by her younger sister famous for her True Blood Body. There had been all sorts of incidents.

There had to be many who aimed for her neck.

“Father King! This is a report from below!”

Red Dawn soaring from inside the peak whose upper part had been cut off. It was void-treading steps.

Power waves shook her black bob at her nape, and her pure white silk clothes fluttered like a bat’s wingbeat.

“Vast Wind Curtain has taken in a new guest…!”

That’s when it happened.

In an instant, she was kicked by the hind legs of some warhorse that had followed her flanks, sending her body flying with a bang. She was driven down to below the peak with a tearing sound.

Vast Wind Curtain Supreme Righteousness Eternal Art, Divine Horse Soaring to Heaven.

Kugugugugung…!

Dozens of furrows were created, shaking even the mountainside. Yellowish clouds naturally rose in lines from the ground.

It was horsemanship that had reached divine skill.

Just as first-rate swordsmen don’t distinguish between sword and hand, the realm where a horse’s rider operates the warhorse’s entire body meridians like their own body.

“You play with me!”

The Vast Wind Curtain’s Vice Curtain Lord cheerfully shouted while following Red Dawn with her Ferghana horse. She was lying as if stuck to the horse’s wide saddle.

Woong!

The long narrow blade in her hand rippled with gentle clusters of light like stars – it was the precursor to ‘Sword Shield.’

She had surpassed the level in mounted martial arts where heavy weapons like crescent blades were needed.

She had overlaid extremely robustly materialized internal power onto the blade.

Since that energy could change form like clouds, it created advantages in close combat. Because the length and form of weapons became meaningless.

The old Yuan Dynasty’s Shield Energy Martial Arts.

It was the study most suited to their free horsemanship, and at this moment the starlight that arose around the Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord’s narrow blade in sword form was also a sword shield.

As soon as she reached her landing point, she lashed down the sword shield like a whip.

Clang!

Red Dawn, who had been getting up from the dirt path, kicked that sword surface. Precisely striking the side of the sword shield and creating irregularly distorted energy waves.

Reddish air currents scattered from her toes. It was the explosive waves of blood art footwork.

“Hmm!”

The Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord, whose wrist had nearly been broken while on horseback, narrowed her brow. While opening her eyes, always curved like crescents, even thinner.

In an instant, a power struggle occurred.

Red Dawn had tried to not just deflect the sword shield with her long legs but completely shatter it.

Kiiiiing…!

At the same time, the Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord prevented the crack by changing the structure of true energy overlaid on the narrow blade sixteen times.

While sitting on the saddle of the precious Ferghana horse and smiling wickedly.

For a moment, dust that rose from underground hazily colored all directions. The scene of dry shrubs naturally jerking back their heads.

They were close to the same age. They newly trembled at each other’s talents.

Step.

Around that time, the dust they had created was pierced from front and back. The two Northern Kings had approached. With signs of immediately striking each other’s successors, while closely examining each other.

“You raised your successor well.”

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord on his massive Ferghana horse spoke first.

“When the True Blood Body was stolen by the Blood Flame Cult Leader, you looked like you’d commit suicide any moment.”

“What are your true intentions?”

The Blood King, whose whites had also turned red, asked quietly.

But the Vast Wind Curtain Lord only waved his hand toward the distant ridge.

There existed a blind man wearing an old bamboo hat, walking with his only arm using a sword as a cane.

“Hey, over here!”

“Hm?”

Suddenly a questioning exclamation rang from beside the Vast Wind Curtain Lord. The blind man in the bamboo hat had crossed the hill in an instant.

He tapped the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s Ferghana horse with his sword hilt.

“I have no particular interest in your battle.”

The massive Ferghana horse, hit unnecessarily on the back, only rolled its mad eyes.

The sight of late winter breath pouring white from the horse’s snout. It didn’t befit a warhorse said to be the most violent in Grudge Blood Valley after the two Northern Kings.

Instantly, the Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord and Red Dawn withdrew from their positions. They showed restraint even though the blind man hadn’t displayed any particular martial prowess.

They were clever.

They had guessed the opponent was a peerless swordsman and instantly recalled how eccentric and sensitive such transcendents were.

Peerless master.

The incarnation of feinting east and striking west.

If they put their mind to it, they wouldn’t be caught by anyone, exercising that freedom like absolute authority. Beings who would never die unless they personally fulfilled their heavenly mandate.

‘Monster…!’

Anyone could have read the thoughts crystallized in Red Dawn’s red pupils.

“Not your sword shield that split the peak.”

The blind man spoke while adjusting the brim of his bamboo hat.

“The sword strike that split this mountain earlier. Where did that come from?”

“I was just about to find out.”

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord answered.

And he asked the Blood King across from him.

“But who is that fellow? Our Curtain has long grasped everything about the Crimson Blood King Family, but I’ve never heard of such a person.”

Behind the Blood King father and daughter.

At some point, a youth with dark red hair flowing down to his shoulder blades was standing blankly.

An appearance with bright red hair mixed throughout black hair like buried abyss. It was attire like a Blood Swordmaster just before reaching the level of a Blood Flame Cult apostle.

With somewhat forlorn downcast eyes and a particularly prominent nose bridge like a Westerner. Along with fine texture but scarred skin in places.

He showed signs of using face-changing arts, yet his original features still showed through.

At a glance, he was fittingly called fatal as a blood demon. An extremely beautiful handsome man.

Down to his bright red eyes that looked like blood beads.

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord asked bluntly.

“Are you qualified to interfere in this situation? Who are you?”

“……”

The youth couldn’t answer immediately.

It was natural if natural. The one who spoke to him was a Northern King under heaven, and the blood art energy waves the youth was emitting were inferior to Red Dawn’s.

Separate from how she, right beside him, wore a bewildered expression for some reason.

“You couldn’t control your subordinate?”

The Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord mocked Red Dawn with a very pitiful face. It was frequent between them.

But the Blood King seemed to have no intention of considering such circumstances.

The situation of facing a peerless swordsman in a bamboo hat who could move anywhere at any moment as the enemy’s guest. Literally a life-or-death crisis.

At this moment, it was understandable to show a face that was beyond absurd to annoyed toward the red-eyed youth.

“What are you trying to do now?”

Such disturbance from the Blood King father and daughter was a trivial matter to the Vast Wind Curtain Lord and Vast Wind Vice Curtain Lord.

They were rather busy worrying about the blind man they had recently taken in as a guest. He would have to move for Grudge Blood Valley’s long battle to end.

A monster of strength and strange powers of the sword who had entrusted his body because he was interested in the Vast Wind Curtain Lord’s swordwork and shield energy studies.

For a moment, the youth’s image slightly enlarged in the white-filmed pupils of the blind swordsman.

He had advanced extremely slightly – hard to even call it one step, but no one was paying attention to that now.

An approach so small it would crush even a peerless master’s transcendent sensitivity.

The Vast Wind Curtain Lord smiled at the Blood King.

“He looks like someone whose martial bone formation was interrupted… but for such a thing, his energy waves are quite powerful, so you, Blood King, still give me much wariness. Where did you pick up such pure blood?”

“…I am.”

The red-eyed beautiful youth slowly opened his mouth.

“A member of this household.”

A voice cracked as if modulated by power. It seemed roughly glossed over.