Chapter 352 – Rushing

Along the edge of the formation that continued to rotate in a large circular shape, whitish light streamed out in threads.

It was energy waves with substance. It possessed the power to block outside intervention.

The swallow circling in the sky ultimately couldn’t descend.

Not only was it difficult to gauge the power of the spell formation, but also because extremely dangerous beings surrounded their master on the ground.

Peep—

The winged spirit beast blinked its small, pitch-black eyes as it looked down at its master.

Having finally found the presence it hadn’t felt for a long time, it saw that its master, innately impetuous in temperament, was once again involved in something that made it difficult to approach.

Desolate Fortress’s mystical swallow instinctively sensed.

If it carelessly approached the formation, it might never be able to deliver the wooden piece tied to its leg.

The spirit beast’s tiny eyes alternately glanced at its master, its master’s shadow, the Golden Wing Sect Leader and Ten Perfections Sect Leader standing nearby, and the untouchable presence rushing toward them at tremendous speed from afar.

“Net.”

At that moment, the Golden Wing Sect Leader opened her mouth.

Within the faint white light of the spell formation, Sichuan’s most beautiful small, snow-white face, which had been keeping her eyes closed, displayed the transcendent quality characteristic of an absolute being the moment she opened her eyes toward Jeong Yeon-shin.

The sunlight pouring over her distinctly carved features blended with the formation’s light clusters, creating a dreamlike impression.

“Before meeting the rain dragon, it would be better for you to reconsider your Myriad Heavens Flower Rain.”

Net.

This was what the Golden Wing Sect Leader called Jeong Yeon-shin.

It wasn’t a friendly expression or an exaggerated title. She truly showed no interest in Jeong Yeon-shin’s real identity or background.

She thoroughly treated him like an object, as if he were a thing that couldn’t exert utility on its own.

“Only now?”

Jeong Yeon-shin briefly asked in return. This was because he hadn’t heard a word from her during the three days of sharing meals with the Golden Wing Sect Leader.

Her light brown eyes, with slightly lowered eyelashes, took on a faint hue. She was like an ascetic recalling enlightenment.

“Timing isn’t important. Awakening is like thunder on a clear day.”

“Explain in detail.”

Jeong Yeon-shin encouraged her to continue in a calm tone, vaguely guessing what she meant.

‘Has she seen through it?’

The only flaw he had in terms of martial arts.

“Insolent fellow. Despite repeated instructions, this youngster still has such behavior…”

“Focus, Right Guardian.”

Though Right Guardian Wan Yang looked at Jeong Yeon-shin with disapproval, apart from one warrior who appeared to be Wan Yang’s loyal subordinate, no one in the Golden Wing Sect seemed to pay any attention to him.

Jeong Yeon-shin was faithful to his identity as a talent who had cultivated the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain after the Tang Clan Leader.

A collateral branch of the Tang family that the Golden Wing Sect had nearly destroyed, the core of the dragon hunt, outstanding talent. He had to abandon the etiquette and propriety ingrained in him. It wasn’t easy.

Even if Jeong Yeon-shin showed a somewhat disrespectful attitude, the Golden Wing Sect members just accepted it.

Rather, it was the Ten Perfections Sect masters, each carrying various weapons, who were watching Wan Yang, famous for his Dragon Spirit Divine Fist.

From their whispers, it seemed that their force’s leader, Moonlight Extreme Blade Yue Zhu-xia, had been completely defeated by Wan Yang at some point.

“Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. I’ve seen it several times before it was lost.”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader fluttered her golden-red sleeve elegantly within the formation.

“Yours is merely technique. You precisely operate the incantations of absorption and emission to imitate the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain from stories. It’s like imitating a mind-controlled sword with powerful void absorption.”

“So?”

“You wield that skill too easily, so your martial arts lack complete dedication. You won’t be able to hold the rain dragon for long.”

“Complete dedication?”

“The Myriad Heavens Flower Rain is a form where a Tang family master unfolds all the poison techniques and assassination techniques cultivated throughout their lifetime like the Milky Way at once. It’s a martial art of years. A talent who accomplishes everything easily would find it hard to understand.”

Her characteristically informal and dry voice irritated Jeong Yeon-shin.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader seemed to ask with her eyes: Have you never poured your complete dedication into martial arts?

Golden-winged bird.

She was one who had taken the name of the legendary bird that devours dragons as her sect’s name. The eyes of Sichuan’s strongest master had fully penetrated some of Jeong Yeon-shin’s qualities despite his concealed energy waves and identity.

If his unity of essence, energy, and spirit hadn’t been close to completion, she might have even seen through his lifespan.

The young man slowly parted his lips.

“…Isn’t this meaningless talk? With the undertaking right before us.”

“Because occasionally there emerges a being who crosses in an instant the years they should rightfully tread. Like the Ming Cult child.”

Meaning it was advice close to a whim, relying on insignificant possibility. She turned her head back toward the spell formation.

“……”

Suddenly, Jeong Yeon-shin recalled rumors that the Golden Wing Sect Leader might be older than the Ming Dynasty.

While the great sects that formed the Nine Great Sects, Eight Great Clans, and Thirteen Heavens changed with time, the Dragon Slaying Alliance, predecessor of the Golden Wing Sect, was said to have always been a major faction like Shaolin and Wudang.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader must have seen many Tang Clan Leaders who had led the Tang family. And their Myriad Heavens Flower Rain as well.

“Why didn’t you cooperate with the Tang family ancestors who cultivated the orthodox Myriad Heavens Flower Rain?”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader, who had now completely fixed her light brown eyes on the formation, responded only with her lips.

“I did, once.”

“Once?”

“The rest didn’t align in timing. That rain dragon’s formation never stays still.”

“Why proceed with this if my Myriad Heavens Flower Rain wasn’t satisfactory?”

“Because I’ve become more powerful than I was then. You just need to hold it occasionally.”

“……”

“Don’t approach the rain dragon too closely. Your body… there’s no trace of a usable protective energy. You’ll be torn by its breath.”

A command to deploy martial arts from as far away as possible. It was also the provocation he had received from the Ming Cult’s Young Sect Leader earlier.

‘Both that person and this one.’

Age alone makes them arrogant.

It was unfamiliar advice to Jeong Yeon-shin, who had mainly cultivated close-combat martial arts like fist techniques and sword techniques.

As an unfamiliar heat subtly rose in his chest, the Ten Perfections Sect Leader, who had been standing with folded arms on one side, approached with hearty laughter.

“The successor of the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain!”

“Ten Perfections Sect Leader.”

“Younger than I expected. How strange the world is, for the Tang family to produce a hidden dragon.”

“Young?”… “They say Invincible Yelü, Flower Shadow King, Blood Demon Seventh Apostle, along with two youngsters from the righteous path, have begun to be called the Five Marvels of Resplendent Brilliance, but now I see it’s six. At least the Peng family’s heir must surely be inferior to you.”

A peerless master proficient in all eighteen types of weapons, with a military background.

The preconception that he would always be taciturn was shattered. He even looked innocent as he counted on his fingers.

He seemed to have a personality that enjoyed talking, contrary to his first impression.

Without particular interest in Jeong Yeon-shin’s response, he continued with words like “But it’s not yet your era—”

“They say the breath of a rain dragon with a long body can destroy even a nation. It might be one of the evil spirits that drove the clans who descended when the sky opened from their homeland, so it’s not an occasion for youngsters to actively intervene.”

He appeared extremely massive due to the pure white armor he wore like ceremonial attire.

His eye level was almost equal to Jeong Yeon-shin’s, and facing him up close, he exuded an overwhelming presence like a living fortress.

In terms of size, the missing Forest-Treading Squad Leader Xiahou Wei-jin would be larger.

But the Ten Perfections Sect Leader was wrapped in the transcendence characteristic of peerless masters that he didn’t possess. An overwhelming atmosphere that gave the impression anything was possible.

“Be content with supporting from behind. Even so, you’ll leave your name in the history of the martial world, and further, in the history of the world.”

His archaic speech and conduct, like a military general, suited him well. Not because of his martial arts that had reached the peerless realm, but because of his inherent temperament.

Despite the rumors of severe aftereffects from his encounter with the Blood Flame Cult Leader, his eyes, which examined Jeong Yeon-shin with interest, shone with a bright gleam.

“In the world…?”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked as if to himself. The Ten Perfections Sect Leader with folded arms nodded slowly.

“The Golden Wing Sect has held an unprecedented event. They’ve opened the main gate beneath the signboard wide and welcomed guests, so the entire martial world must be stirring. Even the Beggar Sect’s youngster came, which says it all.”

The Senior Beggar who had fallen unconscious after being directly hit by the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t bother to recall his face and silently looked at the Ten Perfections Sect Leader.

“You, youngster, wouldn’t know. How the feat of hunting the rain dragon will be received by the imperial court and all the mystical clans.”

“Quiet.”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader restrained the Ten Perfections Sect Leader with a small eye gesture.

Brightness surrounded them.

White light that flowed endlessly like threads from the formation, gradually becoming denser.

The flow of spell martial arts seemed to have reached its peak. Jeong Yeon-shin swept through all the energy waves flowing from the formation with his consciousness, sensing the precursor to the spell’s manifestation.

The great undertaking that the Golden Wing Sect had prepared for hundreds of years since the founding of the country was about to be realized.

“We don’t know where we’ll fall. If you die, accept it as heaven’s mandate.”

Rustle.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader’s golden-red sleeve brushed both sides of her waist and settled.

The Golden Wing Sect and Ten Perfections Sect disciples standing on the formation gripped their weapons with clattering sounds.

In various places, masters surrounded their entire bodies with colorless protective energy along with the sound of energy vibrations.

The elite masters of the Thirteen Evil Sects’ major factions preparing with expressions full of exhilaration. A sight difficult to see anywhere outside Desolate Fortress.

“Dragon Spirit Divine Fist, don’t be too disappointed. Aren’t you the assault general who should take the vanguard? You bear many lives.”

“The Ten Perfections Sect Leader is maintaining my face.”

Woooooong—!

The light enveloping all directions rapidly intensified. A resonant sound like a dragon’s cry filled the open space, seemingly beyond human creation at a glance.

“It’s starting! It’s starting!”

“Are we really going to the immortal realm where the rain dragon lives?”

“How could humans artificially ascend to immortality…! And not just one or two people!”

Hundreds.

Those who had been hiding along the massive walls of the Golden Wing Sect began to reveal their presence one by one.

Martial world figures unrelated to the two major factions at this place. The distance was too great for them to affect the formation’s activation.

Most were those who had heard rumors and come to witness in astonishment. Some immediately turned back to send messenger pigeons or scattered with lightness skill.

It was exactly as the Ten Perfections Sect Leader had said—the attention of the entire martial world would be focused here.

“So you’re saying two Thirteen Evil Sects leaders are gathered in one place?”

“That’s not all. It seems they intend to completely empty their sects, as even the Golden Wing Sect’s two great guardians are there!”

“Insane… they’re really going to do it.”

Soon.

Something was about to happen.

By then, Jeong Yeon-shin had finished analyzing the spell formation.

The sensation intricately interlocked in his mind like a mechanism formation was thoroughly grasping the formation’s function and selectively picking out only the necessary parts consciously.

The Luminous Wheel residing in his heart rotated.

‘Mind Sword.’

Invisible streams of internal energy extended from Jeong Yeon-shin’s entire body.

Dozens of energy streams. He wove his body into the flow of energy constituting the spell formation strand by strand, silently taking control of the spell martial art from the Golden Wing Sect Leader.

‘The Tang siblings are already drawn in as sacrifices for the formation. It’s impossible to separate them.’

His thoughts converged like a ray of light into a single stream.

—Draw the Tang siblings to his side, and absolutely exclude the two Thirteen Evil Sects leaders.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind immediately became the mental imagery controlling martial arts and flowed into the spell formation. In that moment, the ancient characters inscribed on the ground in a circle violently vibrated.

“…?”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader, who had been keeping her eyelashes neatly lowered, suddenly opened her eyes. She immediately noticed the anomaly.

She couldn’t help but notice. The calculation formula that had been a core component of the spell formation was being scattered and replaced with a different spell formula.

However, Jeong Yeon-shin had acted on the assumption that peerless masters’ strikes occur simultaneously with their perception.

Woooong—!

The formation had already activated.

Dozens of threads of light extended from the circular edge and undulated in all directions, and the cool late winter breeze brushing through the void gradually faded, concealing all presences.

Everything became hazy.

“You…!”

Along with the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s single word, revealing emotion for the first time as she raised her eyes toward Jeong Yeon-shin.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

An instant passed. It was truly just a moment.

But the scenery surrounding Jeong Yeon-shin was not the same. It had completely changed… Tall ancient trees stretching endlessly upward, an extremely dense scent of grass, dozens of iron clan members in strange attire surrounding them and murmuring, who were originally extremely rare in the world.

A marvel. Could there be such a thing elsewhere in the world?

At this moment, only the Tang siblings and Right Guardian Wan Yang beside Jeong Yeon-shin remained the same as before.

They couldn’t hide their astonishment. More precisely, only the Poison Dragon and Poison Phoenix siblings were like that. Wan Yang seemed to feel a strange exhilaration along with his bewilderment.

Woong—

“This power… yes, we’ve arrived properly…!”

The colorless energy waves surrounding his entire body.

It was incredibly powerful. Enough to make the surrounding air ripple.

His internal energy was incomparably stronger than before, as if it had found its home.

Wan Yang laughed.

“Even the Sect Leader makes mistakes. I must interrogate those lowly creatures and report back.”

While the unfamiliar iron clan members surrounding them flinched.

“Hey.”

Wan Yang turned his head slightly toward Jeong Yeon-shin, his bearing dignified. Despite having been pushed back by Jeong Yeon-shin once during the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain incident.

“Make sure you never disobey orders. I’ll deal with you severely.”

It was a commanding tone.

The reason was understandable.

At this moment, even Jeong Yeon-shin, who had sunk into introspection, felt a strange exhilaration.

‘The rain dragon’s formation? This place, what is it…?’

The core of his internal energy. The ring of light residing in his heart.

Another wheel made of light momentarily appeared and disappeared outside the original Luminous Wheel. Leaving a resonance that momentarily made his entire body tremble.

An unimaginable possibility.

A second ring.