Chapter 622 – Red Sky (3)

This was the demon realm’s final battle.

A place where three Divine Sword Group Leaders had to stake their lives.

A location where three Six Star Lords and old monsters like Northern Kings Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor and Dharma King revealed masterful divine prowess.

With the assembly’s lineup at this level, even a transcendent of tyrannical martial arts like Ma Yeon-jeok couldn’t end the fight quickly.

Short decisive battle impossible.

Not one person present lacked great cause. Since they were all entangled with substantial lives, it would be right to consider prolonged warfare where day and night repeatedly changed.

Like when Jeong Yeon-shin, once fallen into obsessive martial disorder, had exchanged moves with Wudang’s Immortal Hyeon Gong for several days.

However, even so.

The half-destroyed palace had become momentarily silent.

Heaven Steel Light Armor.

The shield the Fighting God had bestowed upon this land.

Even a peerless realm’s internal energy barrier had been stolen by Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand.

Even the Fighting God’s exclusive protective energy, Northern Force Mixed Origin Wasteland, might no longer be “absolute defense.”

“……”

This was why great shock enveloped the hall. Among the Northern Kings whose will naturally transformed into momentum, enormous agitation that anyone could feel on their skin was sprouting.

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin met gazes with Dharma King below his eyes.

A warrior monk who draped elegant orange robes down to his feet. Unlike various Yao tribe jianghu people, one of the few in the hall whose eye level was lower than the Divine Sword Group Leaders.

A person who had retreated half a step as soon as Heaven Steel Light Armor was stripped away.

He had even straightened his back completely. Befitting a peerless master, one might say. Nevertheless, his colorless eye-light filled both eyes while shaking.

It was great shock.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly spoke to Dharma King.

“This is just my view, but Transcendent Martial Art is ultimately a matter of thinking.”

“……”

“While someone’s life might be limited to one martial art, another master’s life might be studded with countless experiences and even more techniques. But neither side’s Transcendent Martial Art is ever disparaged. Whatever it is has high caliber and is precious. So…”

He continued calmly.

“Similarly, if it’s technique that contains all the mysteries of some martial art, couldn’t it handle Transcendent Martial Arts of dignified ones like you?”

Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin clenched the light clusters that had been drawn up into his hand.

“Like this.”

Thump!

A suppressed explosion.

Fragments of Heaven Steel Light Armor that had loosened due to losing their master fell onto Jeong Yeon-shin’s similarly old and worn leather shoes.

Its aftermath spread throughout the palace simultaneously. It was a brief yet tremendous vibration. Enough for ashen dust to rise from the floor with a whoosh.

When the blue taiji that had somehow been carved on Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand slowly disappeared.

Dharma King opened his mouth.

“…Tathagata must examine the exchange of that bout just now. I unfolded a bold merchant’s life with this hand, but you are a bandit from the south. A pitiful monk’s Transcendent Martial Art has been replaced by the Northern Emperor’s qualities.”

He regulated his internal energy breathing in clumsy Chinese. Of course, semi-transparent waves had begun forming on his body in that brief moment. It was Heaven Steel Light Armor.

Very cunning.

During that time, Jeong Yeon-shin silently rotated his heart’s luminous wheels.

His opponent was a peerless old monk with tremendous internal energy depth.

Since the Transcendent Martial Art’s palm force had been cut off before it could be released, if Dharma King engaged in battle with the momentum of mutual destruction, he might be able to unleash the life-saving ultimate technique called “Vengeful Destruction of Ming” once more.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

‘There’s no non-threatening Transcendent Martial Art.’

This was why a proper series of attacks was needed at this moment.

Even if the opponent began wrapping himself in Heaven Steel Light Armor again, a certain killing technique had to connect.

‘Then.’

How about leg techniques deployed with the fastest under heaven’s footwork?

The instant Jeong Yeon-shin lifted one leg, overwhelmingly dense propulsive shock waves extended from the Bubbling Spring acupoint on his sole and shattered the ground with a bang.

His toes naturally soared toward Dharma King’s abdomen as if distorting spacetime.

Claaaaaang!

Shock waves that scattered stone dust that had surged like a storm following that movement without a trace.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s instep, which had somehow become bare, was colliding with some hand.

Due to transcendent frictional heat, sparks burst like lightning with crackling sounds, but the palm wrapped in darkish mist didn’t move at all. Only the surrounding atmosphere rippled violently as if hit by waves.

[Space Curvature.]

It was the Southern Emperor who had timely switched positions with Dharma King. He had returned to his original place.

This is what happened when the formation covering the demon realm’s capital was placed under the Northern Region’s greatest’s control. Jeong Yeon-shin’s opponent wasn’t a person but a nation, and the Southern Emperor manipulated space at will like Emperor Qian-ling’s Transcendent Martial Art.

Ultimately, what Jeong Yeon-shin had to overcome was the emperor’s domain. Today he would have to surpass even the epithet Northern Emperor.

The Southern Emperor opened his mouth. While completely absorbing Jeong Yeon-shin’s explosive force with his own Heaven Steel Light Armor Deception.

[You’ve become too dangerous.]

Six Harmonies Battle Voice surging with overwhelming power.

It felt like it would crush the entire body of whoever heard it. Was it because he had concentrated the formation’s abilities spread across the vast capital on himself?

But Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice was equally clear.

“My turn.”

He slowly lowered his leg.

Tap.

The palace floor cracked like a spider web briefly supported his foot, then crumpled like mud and sank the foundation another layer down.

Natural objects couldn’t withstand the power of the ‘Three Luminous Wheels.’

The Southern Emperor silently watched this, then suddenly disappeared for a moment and appeared striking down with a hand blade from Jeong Yeon-shin’s side. Ghostly natural movement.

It was then that the hand blade pierced Jeong Yeon-shin’s foot extended vertically to the left. Leg technique shock waves that shot up like light rays and palm force wrapped in darkish Heaven Steel Light Armor collided like lightning and exploded.

Crash!

All walls surrounding the hall burst out completely. The aftermath of explosive force that even the Northern Region’s greatest’s Heaven Steel Light Armor couldn’t fully absorb.

The palace’s other secret chambers were nakedly revealed front, back, and both sides, and among them, golden dragon robe hems flew up torn from the secret chamber storing the emperor’s ceremonial clothes.

Simultaneously.

Jeong Yeon-shin had to see that scene over Upright Star’s shoulder rather than the Southern Emperor’s.

Another of the Southern Emperor’s techniques. The two Six Star Lords had switched positions like a lie. Before Jeong Yeon-shin could even lower his leg.

[The emperor’s domain.]

Was she preparing Transcendent Martial Art?

The will of Upright Star who had swung her red shaft horizontally as soon as she appeared. For Jeong Yeon-shin, it was breathless combat.

In time’s snare where golden dragon robes fluttering in all directions seemed frozen, it seemed like they were only circling among themselves.

Bang!

A roar that cut short from Jeong Yeon-shin’s grip as he thrust his arm sideways. His hand was already crystallized with sword-blue flames, and Upright Star’s strike contained overwhelming precision.

After briefly feeling like facing a military grand general, Jeong Yeon-shin was bounced away as is.

Whoooosh!

In an instant, powerful wind pressure received the side of his body and pressed down like an iron wall. It was momentum to be shot out beyond the palace.

A natural result.

Because he had met a Six Star Lord’s ultimate technique with unstable posture and worst breathing.

But Upright Star seemed greatly surprised even while following Jeong Yeon-shin with one leap. It would be because he had reacted to the space curvature switching divine art secret technique.

[Have you achieved natural body?]

“Is it necessary?”

Jeong Yeon-shin briefly asked back while airborne.

He had long since accelerated his entire body’s reaction speed to the limit with Brilliant River, Ultimate Thunder. When he had once shared true energy with Sword Star under the night sky, even his sensory paths had been permeated.

Even Black Return’s sensory paths were laughable.

Flash!

It wasn’t difficult to slow his speed by driving the formless sword Starry Night into the ground.

When he spread the true energy blade wide, deep furrows were carved with cracking sounds. It was simultaneous with Upright Star charging above Jeong Yeon-shin’s head after he stopped his body.

She who had raised her red shaft high suddenly switched to Dharma King with a whoosh.

Crash!

Pressure like several typhoons combined burst from the head seat where the stone chair had been far away. Upright Star, who had moved positions like a dream again, had delivered an ultimate technique to Yong Hye-myeong.

Beside that, the Southern Emperor was approaching Yong Hye-myeong with both feet floating.

—Not easy. It gets more and more amazing. Just now I nearly had my arm torn off by that black bipedal emperor. He dominates space as he pleases. These guys are engaging in wheel warfare while rotating like cart wheels.

Sound transmission from the ruined sword, rushing quickly into Jeong Yeon-shin’s ears like a dragon’s body swimming through light. It was as swift as to remind one of Shaolin Master Beom-heo’s Wisdom Light Mind Word.

—Lightning Genius, do you know what’s most important in this battle? It’s that my body doesn’t get wounded. It’s not just because your direct senior is precious. The blood I shed is extremely mystical, so if spilled on such a formation, who knows what might happen.

Finally, Yong Hye-myeong asked.

—Isn’t there anything big enough to change the war situation at once? To unleash my Transcendent Martial Art now would be like revealing my hand to those guys first.

Then Jeong Yeon-shin was facing Dharma King’s bewildered eyes. It was right after diagonally lowering the sword-blue Starry Night’s blade.

“…!”

Wasn’t it coordinated movement?

The Western Region’s peerless monk who had come to charge before his face at this moment seemed to recall the Southern Emperor’s parents. His upper energy center spirit seemed to have been elevated to the extreme again.

[Esoteric Great Mudra! Five Thunder Divine Palm…!]

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had briefly stared at that scene in time stretched sluggishly like a swamp, suddenly rotated once while gripping dark blue sword-shaped flames.

Woong—

Starry Night cried out.

* * *

About two hundred jianghu people were racing across a ridge. A mountainside where a darkish great city could be seen beyond the distant wilderness.

It wasn’t an official road for people.

Nevertheless, a rough path had been made because the one-armed blind swordsman and Northern Emperor had swept through earlier.

Two people conversed at the head of the group.

“Why did you suddenly become so fast? You who were being dragged along reluctantly.”

A handsome man with brilliant white hair streaming behind him.

“I smell those Bright Wind Spirit bastards. Haven’t their acts of looking down on us as if only they were noble been disgusting for more than a day or two? Now that I’ve actually reached the capital, my hands are itchy.”

A swordsman in a fur hat riding a large warhorse.

The Blood King and Vast Wind Curtain Leader respectively.

They raced quickly regardless of whether the boy in armor at the rear of the group was watching, then stopped around the end of the high slope.

Thump!

The backwind of collective lightness skill swept all directions.

It was a position with a good view. Because an absurdly vast great city could be seen below beyond the dust.

The Blood King slowly opened his mouth.

“…What a thing to see in a long life. To voluntarily set foot in that Demon-Subduing Hall…”

His red gaze headed toward the city. To land that suppressed human souls just by looking.

A place where darkish pavilion complexes’ roofs rose sharply like sword points. The capital Black Capital spread below the slope.

A great city where the Fighting God and Six Star Lords had poured their souls.

Into the cradle of martial arts that had never permitted any force’s footsteps, even if they invaded to the distant Great Wall’s base.

The Blood King Family and Vast Wind Curtain of the demon realm’s northern edge had arrived. Pushed by self-will and others’ will, prepared fate and old grudges.

It was also a scene proving the world was moving.

Woooong!

Suddenly, dense wind sounds rang as if northern winds had overlapped in dozens of streams. It was the sound of gentle starlight gathering into the sword of Vast Wind Curtain Leader who had somehow gripped a sword hilt. It was sword energy.

Vast Wind Curtain Leader opened his mouth again.

“There are many flies.”

The battle unfolding below had far surpassed the level of individual jianghu sword fights.

A battle that would greatly influence the world’s great situation in the future. Naturally, many eyes were watching.

It was even after rumors that the Southern Emperor had created the Fighting God’s return formation had secretly spread. All sorts of groups had no choice but to flock.

Other ruling forces of the demon realm, espionage organizations under the Ming Dynasty’s Eastern Bureau, great clans south of the Great Wall and some prestigious great sects, Russian tribal warlords disguised as merchant groups, wanderers from the eastern scholarly style with yellowish horn bows on their backs…

Various figures each stood sparsely like flower buds blooming on ridges. The gazes pouring on the Blood King Family and Vast Wind Curtain at this moment were also theirs.

Most were indigenous jianghu people who had wandered the demon realm since ancient times, and Vast Wind Curtain Leader openly frowned at their gazes.

That’s when it happened.

“Hmm?”

The Blood King’s voice as he directed his gaze toward the gates.

“The sight is bothersome.”

When Vast Wind Curtain Leader, who had drawn sword energy long like a heavenly god’s whip, devastated the nearby dozen zhang with one sword.

The scene reflected in the Blood King’s bright red pupils.

A blood demon with pure white hair completely severed a section of ‘giant Literary Star’s’ temple with a crack, then was immediately caught and lifted by giant hands.

Inside those gates, Great King Vajra wrapped in streams of blue lightning clashed with three black ranks while still managing to turn her back on Black Capital.

When martial army forces including several great warriors were clashing with Desolate Fortress Divine Sword Group at the boundary of Black Capital Old Palace’s barren garden.

From Black Capital Old Palace where the roof was wide open so monster-like human figures were visible as they were.

Whoosh!

Dark and bluish light rotated horizontally. A dreamlike scene. A range encompassing all of Black Capital.

Not only the densely packed pavilion complexes but along the fortress walls extending endlessly on both sides, an untimely horizon seemed to have been carved.

“……”

Instantly, all noise in the wilderness was swept away by that trajectory. It seemed like sword-blue night had briefly flickered over the city.

The sword energy that had been rumbling beside the Blood King disappeared.

“Formless, sword…?”

Vast Wind Curtain Leader’s expression changed blankly.

The entire city exploded with indescribable roars and was divided into upper and lower halves.