Chapter 624 – Red Sky (5)

The atmosphere rippled semi-transparently.

Even the smoke that had spread hazily like a ghost’s bedding was slowly disappearing.

It seemed as if a tsunami had occurred in the air. Until the vibrations of power that had been as hot as if hell had briefly manifested dyed the hall and disappeared.

“……”

Nothing moved in the remaining space. Only hazy northern winds still circled the vicinity without ceasing.

As the smoke cleared, the alien space also vanished like a lie.

The groves, caves, and small figures that had been moving ceaselessly disappeared without a trace as if they had been someone’s dream.

Whoosh!

It was revealed in the northern wind that had suddenly thickened.

Land that had been a nation’s imperial palace until just a few hours ago.

On one side of it, a pit whose end was hard to fathom opened its maw like a dragon’s throat. A scene darkly carved inward despite bright sunlight pouring down. It was completely a black cave.

Six Star Lord Upright Star had vanished.

The transcendent temperament of the Transcendent Martial Art ‘Towering Pillar Great Genesis’ that she had unleashed could no longer be felt. Not only her power waves but also her presence had departed.

She had been swallowed by the sword wind and driven down to a place beyond the reach of Transcendent Martial Art’s domain.

Her life and death were unknown.

She would not return. Even a transcendent who had been compared as equal to the Five Swords Under Heaven of the Ming Dynasty.

It was certainly amazing, but it also felt natural. Dragon Sword Gazing Homeward. Because it had poured out transcendent explosive force with pressure that even any flexible strength could hardly deflect.

‘Transcendent Martial Art that cannot be countered…’

Few would want to contend with such a thing.

Jeong Yeon-shin calmly touched the sword hilt embedded in his side. A very cool sensation wrapped around his grip.

It felt not merely like metal but like a bamboo mat for embracing on summer nights.

Then some figure pierced through the hazy mist and landed from the void.

Step—

“Phew, I’m dying.”

It was beyond the ivory altar. Yong Hye-myeong wiped the sweat that had formed on his temple with the back of his hand.

It was the first sight Jeong Yeon-shin had seen, but if he had driven a member of the Five Swords Under Heaven to a state of combat incapacity, it was also an absurdly leisurely appearance.

Monstrous stamina.

But the former Enter The Divine Sword Master made sounds of feigned suffering.

“I’m done. This is completely my limit.”

It didn’t seem like an exaggeration. His words about having done his part were also correct. In this earth-shaking battlefield, he had tied up three peerless masters including a Six Star Lord, then even defeated Upright Star.

Upright Star.

One who mixed the transcendent innate earth energy unique to peerless masters with even Yao tribe vitality. He had extinguished the presence of such a being impossible to kill like a candle flame.

It was something only Yong Hye-myeong could have done.

Jeong Yeon-shin quickly assessed the state of his senior who seemed about to wash his hands in golden basin.

‘The recoil from deploying life-saving ultimate techniques…’

Weakening of technique precision, dulling of combat senses, slowing of upper energy center spirit reaction speed, loss of divine art secret techniques that required massive spirituality to permeate.

Mainly the upper energy center crown chakra was the problem.

But because it was also Yong Hye-myeong, he wouldn’t completely fall.

A monster who might compete with Poppy Addict for first place in the Desolate Fortress in energy accumulation. He even possessed a body more robust than Last Flame Dragon despite not having greatly learned moving cultivation.

That is, his energy and essence were tremendous.

Enough that Jeong Yeon-shin had no choice but to request combat assistance.

—Now I’ll be in front, senior in back.

—You’re trying to gnaw me to the backbone. How did you know my bones were efficacious?

It was when calm sound transmission passed between the Divine Sword Group Leaders.

Whoosh!

A transcendently powerful presence arose from beneath Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet. It wasn’t Dharma King whom he was stepping on. The suction force that seemed to absorb everything, it was precisely the power of the Southern Emperor’s Heaven Steel Light Armor Deception.

Saaaa—

Black mist swept down the floor in a tangle, and the Southern Emperor’s body, having switched positions with Dharma King, rose like a stone pagoda. The series of movements was inhuman.

Jeong Yeon-shin tried to stomp down on his feet as they were, but the Southern Emperor suddenly slid ghostlike to the right. He had shifted Deception’s suction force laterally.

[Divine Sword Group Leader.]

The Southern Emperor, standing tall in place, looked down at Jeong Yeon-shin and spoke. Simultaneously, hazy light arose from Dharma King’s shoulder blade that had been moved to the rear.

The spot where Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor was somehow holding Dharma King’s severed arm against him.

[Great remnants of a backward age.]

It was the Southern Emperor’s will.

In an instant, the presence of meridians, muscle channels, and bones meshing entered with crackling sounds. It was simultaneous with Dharma King spitting out screams as if he had risen from scorching hell.

“Hyaaaaa!”

It was technique Jeong Yeon-shin had seen in Hangzhou. Spell martial arts with regenerative abilities. The caster was clearly the Southern Emperor, the same as when Dark Heaven Emperor had once healed the Heaven Conquering Sect Leader’s external wounds.

He was indeed the Northern Region’s greatest.

The reason Dharma King had repeatedly been a shield while claiming to regard subordinates as comrades. If the Southern Emperor remained intact, Black Capital could rise again at any time. The battle would never end.

‘That cannot be allowed.’

He took one step.

He had not completely permitted the Heaven Conquering Sect Leader’s regeneration in Hangzhou either. The blind swordsman in a bamboo hat had faced Jeong Yeon-shin and Lady Lu Xian while bearing traces of Taoist High Sword’s Ten Silk Brocade.

Swish.

The single step infinitely close to the fastest under heaven lifted his leather shoe briefly, and Jeong Yeon-shin was somehow already standing before Dharma King’s arm after passing the Southern Emperor in a curve.

“…!”

The fist extended in tremendous wind pressure burst the arm that was just about to recover as is. It seemed like exploding a mud clump in a swamp.

Kurrrrring!

The time that had been stuck returned to normal, and blood and bone fragments swirled above Dharma King’s eyes that had grown large enough to tear.

Pure white sunlight and blood-stained flesh fragments became entangled here and there on the old palace site.

Simultaneously, Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor’s feather overlaid with grayish starlight like a blade struck as if to sever Jeong Yeon-shin’s side.

Claaaaaang!

He landed straight beyond the ivory altar near Yong Hye-myeong. Of course, hazy sword energy waves rippled like Mongolian steppe ridges following the bounced trajectory.

Befitting the last emperor of the ruined Yuan Dynasty.

It was truly a powerful sword strike. Enough that light-clustered robe hems were roughly rippling at Jeong Yeon-shin’s side at this moment.

Swish.

Yong Hye-myeong drew the divine sword from Jeong Yeon-shin’s waist and asked casually.

“What’s it like living wearing such protective energy? It’s as if you have a spare life.”

“Ask those fellows.”

Jeong Yeon-shin answered while repairing his side’s internal energy barrier with Luminous Wheel Energy. For a moment, force pressing his organs churned in his abdomen. Even internal weight techniques had been carried in that brief sword strike.

[Troublesome footwork.]

The Southern Emperor’s will rang out.

He was somehow standing between Dharma King and Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor, so the formation had been divided into three Northern Kings and two Divine Sword Group Leaders.

[When I failed to make that beggar my people and let him fall, it was very regrettable. Stealing the legs of the greatest obstacle to great enterprise wasn’t sufficient.]

“Fall? He’s still vigorous.”

Jeong Yeon-shin calmly replied.

Though less than half a day had passed since battle began, it somehow felt like he had been fighting for a long time.

Nevertheless, the enemies who had been supporting a nation had decreased one by one to reach this point. The Southern Emperor’s words now spoken as true words of spell martial arts would be the end of a long story.

[This land does not support those who have lost their legs. Stragglers only return as fertilizer. Just as that beggar fulfilled his purpose by teaching you secret techniques.]

Woooooong—!

[Let us finish this. My forces will arrive soon.]

The more his words continued, the more the nearby atmosphere tightened with increasing intensity.

Pressure that blocked all directions. The floor burst out in layers. Simultaneously, the cave Yong Hye-myeong had created also resonated with rumbling resonant sounds.

At that instant.

Saaaa—

Dark clouds descended on the old palace site devastated by transcendent battle. It seemed like black ash had spread nearby.

Unknown power clouds Jeong Yeon-shin had never experienced.

While massive pressure that could gradually crush even True Radiance Brilliant Star Heaven occupied all directions, the only things intact were Jeong Yeon-shin and Yong Hye-myeong, who had stealthily attached himself behind Jeong Yeon-shin as a shield.

But the Southern Emperor wasn’t the only one who had prepared decisive battle techniques.

“…A nation’s destruction is bound to encounter such strong resistance. If we break them, the Ming Dynasty will also end. Just as I lost many swords to the young Desolate Fortress Lord and old Zhang Sanfeng.”

Before long, all the feathers on Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor’s hat had been plucked out and were circling nearby, and intimidating waves spread from the two Divine Sword Group Leaders’ hearts.

Except for Yong Hye-myeong, they were all in a state where upper energy center spirit power had swollen enormously. For some reason, only Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor’s voice was in vocal form rather than echo form.

[Six Armors Observing World Sound…]

Into that, Dharma King’s strange Buddhist chant mixed faintly.

The five transcendents spent several breaths as if waiting for each other’s ultimate techniques to be fully loaded. Even until the moment blue light was suddenly carved in circles on the entirely darkish floor.

Crack, crackle—

Masters were like this.

At the end of battle, they didn’t disturb their opponent’s martial arts. They trusted their own accumulated lives and staked everything on that completeness.

Confidence that they could surely win if their techniques fully unfolded. That is, they were peerless masters.

Naturally, they were leisurely even at the gap between life and death.

[Shame Extreme King left like a flash without even holding a funeral. And this place is also a funeral of light… Just as Upright Star failed, our retreat will also fail. I remember the humiliation I’ve suffered.]

[No way back? Well. This ruined dynasty’s emperor judges that the Northern Emperor is not yet the true fastest under heaven. No type of ‘world’s greatest’ can be completed in such a short time. The Beggar Sect Leader was not in perfect condition each time he met the Northern Emperor, and after his decline, he would have transmitted mysteries through words and energy waves.]

Woong!

Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor continued his will to Dharma King from among the starlight-tinged feathers. While darkly condensing the radiance crystallized in each strand of feather.

[There are those who shed some shell when they directly witness inspiration. In my experience, Zhang Sanfeng and the Desolate Fortress Lord, the Fighting God and Northern Emperor are like that. But in speed, such opportunity was not permitted to the Northern Emperor. Thanks to the Southern Emperor’s schemes that caused the world’s fastest to fall in advance, retreat will also be possible.]

Most Transcendent Martial Arts took time like this. But as breathing lengthened, it wasn’t only they whose techniques became more complete.

By then, beneath Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet, the originally gentle Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji was glowing Azure-blue.

Haa—

From his white breath seeped resonance like a mountaintop. Breath mixed with resonant sound. Naturally, it was the precursor to Transcendent Martial Art.

The Southern Emperor’s calm will continued.

[It’s a life-saving ultimate technique whose analysis is complete on a national scale. You’ve deployed it too many times. Like your predecessor Ma Yeon-jeok did.]

Words that meant many things.

Deeply understood Transcendent Martial Arts are hard to use as life-saving ultimate techniques. Because they’re hard to create variables in battles between peerless masters. That was the same even for the Tyrant Hero under heaven.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin silently raised Starry Night and let it hang long to his feet. The sword body that fell like sword-blue flames rippled as if mixing with the azure-blue radiance of Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji.

It wasn’t Enter The Dao Transcend Together.

* * *

It was when gentle blue light seeped out like mist from the empty lot that had been Black Capital Old Palace.

The handsome man with white hair flowing down his back, the Blood King, was silently surveying the battlefield. He had originally intended to charge straight in but found himself at an untimely crossroads.

The river that encircled the back of the great city Black Capital.

A tributary of the Amur River, one of the widest and longest under heaven.

A great army was charging from the ridge beyond. A number that seemed to require counting at least thirty thousand or more. A martial army force where every soldier appeared merely as clouds.

Kugugugugugu—

‘That’s an abyss.’

The moment one was sucked in, any peerless master would meet death in eon-like time. Only those like the Fighting God or Desolate Fortress Lord would be able to break through.

Moreover, it was Yao tribe forces.

A few peerless masters couldn’t drive them away with overwhelming martial prowess. Because no Yao tribe member felt fear. It meant one couldn’t hope for the army to collapse on its own.

The Blood King slowly opened his mouth.

“That child…”

A woman looking down at them from one side of the distant ridge. Faded black robe hems and even blacker hair fluttered long. It was a body that also seemed to feel reddish.

Had she been guarding against military forces equivalent to disaster from the beginning?

She couldn’t help but draw attention in many ways.

But the feeling the Blood King was receiving was beyond that. His gaze wouldn’t fall away.

Meanwhile, Vast Wind Curtain Leader standing beside him was looking elsewhere. At the two figures bursting all sorts of shock waves like disasters on the dark green water of the river flowing leisurely behind Black Capital.

“Someone who can drive Northern Blade under heaven to that extent… very young, but who exactly is he?”

Vast Wind Curtain Leader’s muttering. The reason the two Northern King forces dragged by the Northern Emperor had briefly stopped.

Which side should they support? At this juncture when intelligence had come that even Six Star Lord Finance Star had set out to help Northern Blade.

If they mistakenly chose an order that didn’t fit reason, the war situation’s flow could become very problematically twisted.

Naturally, they had to consider future troubles too. Because the peerless masters on the Southern Emperor’s side were all veteran generals skilled in retreat.

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, aged presence stirred beneath the cliff they stood on. It was an old beggar no one had paid attention to until now.

The masters of the Blood King Family and Vast Wind Curtain were each sensing with their energy perception that the old man had no legs.

“That guy.”

Cough, and with a dry cough, aged soliloquy flowed out. Straight to the riverside where Northern Blade was creating massive tsunamis.

“Is he truly that guy I know…?”

Going down the slope where the old beggar was positioned led to flat ground, and crossing that wilderness led straight to Black Capital. And behind where Black Capital Old Palace had been, flowing river water continued.

That is, the cliff they stood on could be called the starting line just before intervening in the battlefield. Which no great force under heaven would rashly try to cross.

Woooooooong!

Suddenly, bee-swarm energy waves arose. From the lower body of the old beggar whose legs had been missing.

It was an instant until some energy flow rotated in a tangle as if intoxicated, then formed the shape of legs.

True energy operation permitted only to Orthodox Leader Master Beom-heo or Northern Blade under heaven. It was literally divine technique.

If another imitated it, tremendous burden would inevitably be placed on the entire body’s meridians—technique hard to maintain for even a few breaths.

The Blood King and Vast Wind Curtain Leader had no time to react.

What they sensed the next moment was only the afterimage the beggar had left.

There was no roar.

Only light drawn in a straight line across the vast battlefield existed.

“…!”

The fastest under heaven had raced across the wilderness.