Chapter 519 – Sunset (10)

Both sides of the river.

The Radiant Demon Wing warriors taking in both groups at a glance.

“Northern jianghu… they said the Great Wall was breached.”

The first to speak was a man with reddish blood light hazily gathered like mist in both his eyes. Shura Demon Soul Na Il-cheon, who had originated from Blood Guardian Squad and had long since been incorporated into Radiant Demon Wing.

He too had achieved great mastery of Radiant Art Bond as one of the Lightning Genius martial lineage, and by now had become a blue-rank master serving as a member of Radiant Second Unit in place of Radiant First Unit, handling scouting and preemptive strikes.

“I suggest to the Wing Leader.”

He pointed with his pale fingers toward the warships of Myriad Upper Road Stronghold. It was the opposite side from the crowd of men and horses gently swaying on the water surface along with the river water.

“Let us turn our steps while those water bandits are dying.”

“Let’s watch for now.”

Cheong Myeong nodded without particularly dragging out time.

At this moment, the group occupying the right upstream.

The thirty-odd warships all had an imposing appearance and solemnity reminiscent of overwhelming naval forces.

The scene of nearby transparent water surface rippling chaotically. Energy waves of mental transmission going back and forth violently over the yellowish decks. They only revealed an outwardly calm spirit along with clear water sounds.

—Monsters…!

—Put Radiant Demon Wing as second priority!

—Load! Load the cannons! Close the distance!

The wooden planks forming the ships’ bodies had extremely smooth oil flowing as if they hadn’t considered fire arrows at all, and due to the crew composed entirely of internal energy masters, concentric circles characteristic of energy wave fluctuations were being drawn endlessly below the ship rails.

From the row of gun ports lined up with darkish iron heads protruding to the side, acrid smells spread.

Even the ghosts of the Yangtze, the hundreds of water technique masters of Myriad Upper Road Stronghold standing filling the ship rails above the sunlight that the river water wrapped like mist.

It was truly an overwhelming martial force.

“Why are those water bandits acting like that…?”

Shin So-bin trailed off her words. While grayish energy waves of Radiant Art Bond flowed like smoke through her jet-black hair.

Only a few masters of Myriad Upper Road Stronghold who had boarded the warship decks reacted to her words.

“Knows nothing at all.”

“Blood Radiance Successor, shut up! How dare a lapdog of the imperial family call us water bandits!”

[Next is your turn.]

Even Six Harmonies Voice filled with deep internal energy shook the riverbed finely.

From the beginning, Radiant Demon Wing had stood in this place prepared for mutual destruction.

This was because deadly interference kept coming every time they searched for Radiant Sword Wing, whose whereabouts had become mysterious after a great battle near the Yangtze River—their main fortress comrades.

By the fire projectiles and blades made of waves from the water technique masters aboard the warships.

Fast news, and even faster movement.

Myriad Upper Road Stronghold was such an incomprehensible group. Despite suddenly appearing in the vast Yangtze River basin at some point, they were worthy of becoming one seat among the Thirteen Evil Sects.

Meanwhile, the hundred pairs of men and horses standing opposite them showed no particular movement while only stepping on the river water, but as soon as Myriad Upper Road Stronghold’s warships closed the distance, each moved their horse hooves one step.

Movement likewise accomplished on the river water.

With just that, the pieces of flesh, blood, and organ fragments that had been draped over their bodies like garment edges flowed down.

The moment the front hooves of the hundred pairs of warhorses stepped on the water surface.

Thud—

A drumbeat-like vibration arose in one layer.

There were no other omens.

From the moment the human shadow occupying the lead of the men and horses raised a crescent blade, the water surge split greatly left and right like a tsunami.

To the sight of mounted forces scattering like a whirlwind in an instant and crossing the waterway in a straight line.

That charge appeared and disappeared in segments like a moth’s wingbeats several times, then reached the prows of the warship group in an instant.

Swooooooosh!

In a moment, the gap between both camps was erased.

Before Myriad Upper Road Stronghold could even close their charging distance.

Hundreds of horse hooves burst murky foam, and the axe blades and crescent blade edges each held to the side left long colorless trajectories.

The atmosphere rippled semi-transparently from the vibrations that explosively spread from those lines, but only briefly.

Peoeoeoeoeoeoek—!

The mounted forces that had struck the waterway in unison after their charge completely passed through the thirty-odd warships.

Instantly, tremendous shock waves shot up in all directions, but the crowd of men and horses had squeezed out even through that moment.

While revealing that all the ships that had been spread out vastly had been trampled by horse hooves.

Patter patter.

White foam splashed up belatedly in countless numbers.

Wood chips of what had been warships until just before and the weapons of Myriad Upper Road Stronghold masters were scattered in pieces.

Yellowish and reddish flesh, fragments of metal that had been crushed beyond recognition and burst out painted the water surface in murky gray. Along with the sound of waves rising weakly with plops.

Soon the movement of river water that had been surging ceaselessly subsided like a mirror surface. Jianghu. According to its original state of having been the corpse of seawater from the beginning.

“……”

Thirteen Evil Sects’ Myriad Upper Road Stronghold.

It was damage equivalent to sect annihilation.

At that moment, the Radiant Demon Wing masters fell unusually silent.

It was because they had carefully gauged the mysteries of mounted charge. That unified movement and speed, and even the irresistible power. It was as if two or three peerless masters had joined hands on the spot and extended their techniques.

“From when the horse hooves first touched the water…”

Radiant Demon Wing Leader Cheong Myeong continued speaking while keeping his one eye on the mounted masters.

“…until reaching maximum speed, how long did it take?”

“There was no such thing.”

The one who immediately spoke in response to his question was Wi Ye-ling, who bore the epithet Killing Moon Bow.

Faint moisture was beaded along the trapezius muscle below her neck, trained as an archery master. They were cold sweat drops.

“They only kept getting faster continuously until right before collision. That wasn’t the end.”

She spoke clearly.

Cheong Myeong’s head slowly nodded.

“Should we consider that there’s an internal energy operation method that uses fine horses as yet another weapon? Like how our clan boosts fighting spirit and raises spirit creatures.”

“Yes, Wing Leader.”

“The northern jianghu has finally come down. Hmm… if we die here, the main fortress will be in trouble.”

Cheong Myeong spoke dryly.

There was no one who didn’t understand what he meant. It was a story about their former Wing Leader.

Something Desolate Fortress always experienced.

If Radiant Demon Wing were annihilated here, the jianghu of the dead would end there… But Lightning Genius Jeong Yeon-shin’s world would continue in suffering. Even though he had experienced much loss up to now, it would be the same.

The Radiant Demon Wing masters know the feelings of those left behind. Among them, the only greenhorn is Shin So-bin.

The majority had experienced the deaths of comrades more than Jeong Yeon-shin. At this moment, each had the leisure to speak a word.

“I wish our Master Jeong had been with us.”

“Then there would have been no dying from the beginning. The main fortress purple is not our nursemaid.”

Blood Demon Ghost Pung-ran from Blood Guardian Squad originally moved her red lips, and Wu Yue-xiang, who had lost one arm in Sichuan’s City of Renowned Craftsmen but recovered blue-rank martial prowess, clenched and unclenched her wrinkled hands.

The other Radiant Demon Wing masters were the same as them.

That’s when it happened.

Splash.

One pair of man and horse stepped forward through the mounted masters while stepping on water. The head of the warhorse with steel scales hanging like a mane was fixed precisely in Radiant Demon Wing’s direction.

Na Il-cheon’s pale five fingers slightly distorted the atmosphere.

“I wonder if he’d be formidable even after dismounting that horse.”

Na Il-cheon muttered coolly.

While the space that had already been wrapped in Radiant Art Bond’s white currents was rippling here and there with the energy formulas of the Radiant Demon Wing masters.

One pair of man and horse was approaching them without hesitation. Each time the horse hooves struck the water surface with splashes, the atmosphere became layer by layer heavier.

While the dirt ground filling the riverside was actually being pressed down in layers, Radiant Demon Wing’s Shin So-bin endured that pressure with both shoulders and stared at the opponent.

‘…I can’t see his face.’

Because the air in various parts of his body was distorted as if wrapped in the mirage of great desert.

At this moment, the energy waves pressing down on Shin So-bin’s garment edges were extremely solid. It was fighting spirit reminiscent of siege cannons that might be seen on northern battlefields.

The mounted master stopped his horse ten paces in front of Radiant Demon Wing. And threw something down.

Shin So-bin quickly caught and lifted it up.

“Corpse Mountain King…”

The head of a middle-aged woman whose eyes were wide with shock. As if she had circulated powerful energy even in the moment of death, heat haze from internal energy still rippled at the roots of her abundantly short-cut hair.

It was the face of Corpse Mountain King among Myriad Upper Road Stronghold’s Dragon Flow Twin Kings.

“Do you want praise?”

Cheong Myeong grinned from one side. While narrowing his one blue eye thinly.

“Of course you killed well, but isn’t it our turn next?”

In Shin So-bin’s view, that was stalling for time. In reality, a white warrior at the rear of Radiant Demon Wing’s side was drawing blood from his finger to write a letter.

The Radiant Demon Wing blue masters naturally had the skill to listen to and organize Cheong Myeong’s mental transmissions with one ear. That communication would soon be caught by the blue swallow given to the new Radiant Demon Wing Leader and fly away.

—As soon as we signal, everyone scatter. It’s a chaotic battle. There’s no law that says Radiant Art Bond must only be used for charges. It’s also difficult to gauge our chances.

“Ah, do you know who we are? We should each know our affiliations. That way we can express condolences to whichever side’s sect dies.”

Cheong Myeong’s voice rang out overlapping in two streams. Mental transmission to Radiant Demon Wing and verbal speech to the mounted master respectively.

Shin So-bin raised her whole body’s energy to its peak while casually adding words from the side.

“He might not understand our language…”

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly the mounted master’s lower face was faintly revealed. It was a man whose jawline was so thick it was chipped away like rock in various places.

Diagonally twisted lip line.

Whether it was originally like that or a mocking expression was hard to gauge. Only his voice, like rubbing stone fragments against rough rock, was clear.

“Deso… late… For… tress…?”

He asked distinctly.

Instantly, Shin So-bin felt as if her mind was being ground by a millstone. It was extremely desolate.

‘Peerless master…?!’

The northern jianghu that had been positioned on completely different land had come to find them. Along with the sunset light that had begun to seep into the river water.

* * *

Earlier, before Jeong Yeon-shin followed Shin Cheon-hwa’s Form Shifting Void, Yue Shou-lin had said it was possible to defend the main fortress like an Acting Divine Sword Group Leader for a brief time.

But Jeong Yeon-shin thought beyond that.

The weapons of Desolate Divine Spear are flags symbolizing the main fortress on the front lines, and their owner, Yue Shou-lin, was a strong person who could guard Desolate Fortress’s main gate all day long.

Moreover, it was a situation where the leader-class figures among the enemies from major factions had all been dealt with earlier.

Sima unorthodox path capable of handling the strong person who had been the foremost black rank before Seventh Apostle would at least not exist in Hubei Province.

‘Now…’

Jeong Yeon-shin’s limbs had grown hot from mixing hands with the previous Divine Sword Group Leaders, but conversely his heart had settled calmly.

He had stored the heads of Nether Stream Squad Leader and Burning Abyss Squad Leader deep in his heart.

Thanks to this, he could observe both the Group Leader’s reaction to facing those two people’s deaths and his maternal grandfather’s reaction to hearing about the last moments of Wudang’s Taoist High Sword.

“Carved quite well.”

Yong Hye-myeong finally completed a stone grand master’s chair complete with a large backrest.

His appearance of praising the chair he had made himself in a dry and tasteless manner wasn’t so different from Jeong Yeon-shin. It was just that his ingrained conduct was witty and possessed subtle dignity.

“……”

Conversely, maternal grandfather Ma Yeon-jeok remained silent for a while before announcing the end of his closed-door cultivation. Along with words that it was now time to go.

“See just two more things before you go.”

“Two things…?”

“The life-saving methods of this old man and that Yong family fellow.”

Ma Yeon-jeok pointed to Shin Cheon-hwa on one side before Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes could even fully widen.

“That ghost won’t have the energy to deploy Transcendent Martial Art. So two is correct.”

[Hmm.]

The purple woman shrugged her shoulders.

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin had much to say. The first was that he wasn’t confident he could extract techniques useful for the Transcendent Martial Arts of previous and current generations right away.

His qualities absorbed the mysteries of all sorts of martial arts as if they were his own. But he couldn’t treat even others’ lives like mere skills.

That was only possible when the opponent had lived extremely shallow years.

Unlike when he had once analyzed Rebel Peng Family Head Peng Yeo-ran’s Transcendent Martial Art, Divine Monk Beomheo’s ‘Hell Unfinished, My Body in Nirvana’ was still an incomprehensible mystery.

There was also much study that needed refining.

Simply pouring it all out was not the answer.

‘Above all…’

He felt as if those who had shown him Transcendent Martial Art would disappear forever beyond the gates. Whatever premonition it was would be correct.

“Yeon-shin, you must see.”

But his maternal grandfather was not a gentleman unlike his grandson. In matters he thought were right, he thoroughly excluded Jeong Yeon-shin’s eye light.

“The Divine Sword Group Leaders.” Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok said.

Swish.

Meanwhile, Yong Hye-myeong was rising from the stone chair behind him.

* * *

That day.

Jeong Yeon-shin saw two sights.

And bowed to the previous Group Leaders with eyes whose focus had blurred.

A cupped hand salute with purple sleeve edges somewhat disheveled. But no one seemed to particularly care.

“We kept you too long. Go now. Take care of yourself.”

“See you soon.”

The moment Ma Yeon-jeok and Yong Hye-myeong saw him off.

“……”

Even while his mind was dreamlike and hazy, Jeong Yeon-shin began to consider himself the Divine Sword Group Leader.

At this moment, a swordsman gripping the divine sword Remaining Thunder like the Enter the Divine Sword stood stepping on the twilight.