Chapter 204 – Radiant Demon Wing (5)

Hah—

A sigh escaped Xiahou Wei-zhen’s lips. It resembled a groan.

His massive frame leaned backward.

The Forest-Treading Leader paid no heed to the book Jeong Yeon-shin produced. Kneeling on one knee, he kept his gaze fixed solely on the Desolate Fortress Lord.

As if her faintly curved lips were a rare marvel of the martial world.

“…?”

Beside him, Yue Shou-lin raised an eyebrow slightly. Her jet-black pupils shifted from upward to sideways.

Her eyes darted between the Desolate Fortress Lord and the Breaking Guide. With sharp, perceptive glances, she seemed to gauge the Lord’s mood and the meaning behind the book’s title.

Neither black-rank master could conceal their astonishment.

Jeong Yeon-shin, silently holding the book, grew puzzled. How rare must the Desolate Fortress Lord’s smile be?

‘She smiled often since I first met her.’

The new Radiant Demon Wing Leader soon dismissed his curiosity. There must be another reason, he thought.

He withdrew his attention from his black-rank seniors and simply raised the Breaking Guide slightly higher.

At that moment, the book floated upward on its own.

A mystical sight. It was called void manipulation—the art of handling objects without touch.

Having mastered the Luminous Wheel Technique, Jeong Yeon-shin now sensed a distinct energy wave.

A spring breeze-like energy flowed from the Desolate Fortress Lord, enveloping the book.

An utterly transparent texture. It differed in essence from the artistry of Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. Far more natural, it was energy that moved like an extension of limbs.

Something akin to Jeong Yeon-shin’s full-body emission had manifested in the realm of internal energy. A mastery of energy control on another level.

He had witnessed this technique several times before, yet it struck him anew like a shiver. It seemed she had no distinction of meridians.

Had she forged her entire body into a single dantian? The skill of modulating energy extended outward was unfathomable.

It resembled a sentient tree moving its branches—purely wondrous.

Could she wield abilities like Myriad Heavens Flower Rain or sword flight without specific incantations?

‘The more I advance, the higher and broader I see.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought this, gazing at the Desolate Fortress Lord’s face as she skimmed the book’s title.

As a white-rank, she had seemed an imposing absolute; now, as Radiant Demon Wing Leader, she appeared a peerless master deserving acclaim.

His perspective had risen accordingly.

While recognizing his tremendous growth, he awaited her words. He felt his heart thrum alongside the Luminous Wheel.

Expectation mingled with unease. Perhaps sensing this, the Desolate Fortress Lord’s lips curved ever so slightly more.

“Breaking Guide.”

She parted her lips.

“Plain yet audacious.”

Jeong Yeon-shin lowered his eyes silently.

For the first time, he regretted the hastily chosen name. His thoughts swelled like dandelion seeds swept by a breeze.

Did growing limbs bring more musings? That alone could not explain it. It was because his counterpart was the Desolate Fortress Lord.

His lifeline. His salvation.

The one he most needed to impress in the martial world.

He never imagined hearing her critique his naming. He had called it Breaking Guide because it countered orthodox martial arts.

Which part was audacious? It was a literal title.

‘Does ‘Guide’ sound strange?’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought this. It does not seem odd.

He pondered briefly. “Breaking” for countering orthodox martial arts, “Guide” for compiling insights from various factions into one.

Though hastily named, it should not warrant being called audacious.

His thoughts teetered on sinking just then.

“I acknowledge your merit. I can surmise it without close study. Your refusal to choose a reward…”

The Desolate Fortress Lord moved her lips quietly.

“…is reasonable.”

She spoke, keeping the Breaking Guide hovering above Jeong Yeon-shin’s head. The book floated in the air, evoking a dreamlike sensation.

She did not ask what it was.

Nor did she flip through its pages.

She likely understood the new Radiant Demon Wing Leader’s potential more deeply than anyone in the martial world.

She merely smiled faintly. She seemed to have deduced the book’s title, its deeds, and its contents.

She showed no doubt about the document’s quality.

“I will instruct the Grand Administrator. You deserve much.”

“What of that…?”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked cautiously, referring to the martial world’s pinnacle fruit.

Previously, he could not consume the fragment she offered. His skill was too low, she had said.

What now? Having forged the Luminous Wheel Technique, might it differ?

Suppressing his anticipation, he met her gaze.

Her beauty, proof of peerless martial prowess, did not register. He stared intently into eyes like gems crafted from leaves.

He needed no other reward. His grandfather now had the Great Rejuvenation Pill. His uncle would receive a prosthetic.

For a reward solely for himself, the fruit she guarded came to mind first.

‘Even a fragment.’

He struggled to steady his mind. His heart pounded fiercely despite bearing the Luminous Wheel.

The Desolate Fortress Lord surely perceived all this. Her faint smile gradually faded.

“You breathe with divine technique now, so you should understand.”

Her tone was gentle.

“You must refine essence, energy, and spirit evenly. I learned this through our past encounter.”

She spoke of the three-flowers gathering at crown realm.

Only after uniting essence, energy, and spirit could one begin to partake of the fruit.

A realm Jeong Yeon-shin had realized upon reaching black-rank. Her words now made it intuitively clear.

The martial world’s sacred fruit affected body, energy, and soul as one.

An unbalanced practitioner could not absorb its potency.

Jeong Yeon-shin understood.

He did not feel great disappointment. Suppressing expectation to avoid hurt was, in martial terms, a mastery.

It had been so since his days at the Jeong Family Estate. The Radiant Demon Wing Leader murmured inwardly, as if unaffected. I see.

‘I can overcome it through training.’

He accepted it as a process. A crossroads on the path to the fruit. Such was uniting essence, energy, and spirit.

To continue accruing merits, he must achieve this state. It was an inevitable step toward donning purple robes.

“Do not despair. You will reach it in time.”

The Desolate Fortress Lord spoke slowly.

Her voice carried a strange transcendence. Her robes brushed the tree trunk rooted at the martial world’s apex.

They flowed down in soft verdant hues.

Rustle.

“Praise is overdue.”

The Desolate Fortress Lord extended her bare white feet and descended slowly, bending toward the Radiant Demon Wing Leader kneeling on his left knee.

Sunlight shattered around her clear face.

Her cascading hair shimmered with a grassy glow, and the breath of her unfathomable divine technique dispersed across Jeong Yeon-shin’s forehead.

“Well done.”

Her brief words rang with crystalline clarity.

At that moment.

Swish.

A warm sensation brushed Jeong Yeon-shin’s forehead. A hand gently ran through his hair, strand by strand.

Even its descent was tender and deliberate. It was peculiar. Though brief, it felt eternal.

The Desolate Fortress Lord stroked the new Radiant Demon Wing Leader’s head.

As Yue Shou-lin and Xiahou Wei-zhen raised their eyebrows sharply, Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes unwittingly. A dreamlike sensation flowed from his crown.

It was unprecedented. The warmth from his head reached his heart, turning to peace.

Fatigue he had not noticed melted away. He felt serene in an instant.

The human heart was strange. At times, it held abilities more mystical than martial arts.

“Persevere, and you will surely reach that realm. There is no cause for sorrow.”

“…Yes, my Lord.”

—

Meanwhile

The Breaking Guide passed into the Desolate Fortress Lord’s hands. She said it would be stored at the highest level of Desolate Fortress’s Golden Vault.

With it came word that purple and black-ranks would gain priority access.

—“A formal announcement will follow.”

The Desolate Fortress Lord’s words.

The Divine Sword Deputy Leader, Forest-Treading Leader, and Radiant Demon Wing Leader exited the main gate silently. Yue Shou-lin and Xiahou Wei-zhen asked nothing about the Breaking Guide.

Such was the Leaders’ decorum. Knowing the Lord had spoken, they trusted the announcement would come swiftly above all else.

It might even be tomorrow.

For Jeong Yeon-shin, this was fortunate. He could savor the warmth lingering in his mind a bit longer.

‘The reward will come through the administrative office, but it feels as if I have already received it all.’

The Radiant Demon Wing Leader’s lips twitched faintly upward.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

“We celebrate your safe return.”

“Respect to the Leaders.”

The gate guards’ clasped-fist salutes greeted the Leaders. Only Jeong Yeon-shin returned the gesture identically.

Yue Shou-lin and Xiahou Wei-zhen merely nodded. They seemed lost in thought.

A sunset now bathed a corner of the inner stronghold.

The walls and human shadows donned the orange glow of dusk.

Amid tranquil silence, warriors moved with discipline—an ancient scene. Desolate Fortress’s twilight was ever thus.

“Someone from the administrative office came. They said to follow the Radiant Demon Wing Leader…”

A girl in blue robes approached them. An ocular technique expert admitted to the Radiant Demon Wing by the Desolate Fortress Lord’s word.

Lady Ye was absent, but Zhuge Qing-ya explained with an impassive face.

She had gone straight to the administrative office as an Alliance envoy, guided by headquarters’ scholars.

“Should I address you as Leader?”

“Yes.”

Jeong Yeon-shin nodded curtly, recalling familiar rumors.

“Swift.”

Tales of the uppermost echelon’s efficiency. The Desolate Fortress Lord issued commands from her reclining perch.

Her voice transmission reached from the inner stronghold’s peak to the administrative office, it was said.

Grand Administrator Lin Jin-ming’s martial prowess was striking. He never missed the Lord’s voice.

Such a feat required profound mastery of sensory pathways.

Rumors abounded that his martial skill rivaled black-ranks. Like most Leaders, he had likely refined essence, energy, and spirit evenly.

“The path ahead is long.”

Jeong Yeon-shin thought this.

Much lay ahead. Beyond giving his grandfather the Great Rejuvenation Pill.

Returning to the Radiant Demon Wing’s pavilion, he must focus on two tasks.

Training existing seniors as disciples to enhance their skills and recruiting additional blue-rank masters.

While organizing internally, he must engage in duels. How would the Luminous Wheel Technique and Lightning-Annihilation Sword Style fare against black-rank masters?

He set an internal goal. Defeating two would suffice. For now, that would satisfy him.

‘How many Leaders remain?’

Desolate Fortress’s black-ranks were ever on the front lines.

Masters serving as strategic weapons in faction wars would not idle at headquarters.

The administrative office dispatched black-ranks outward as much as possible, especially lately. Famine had ushered in chaos.

Jeong Yeon-shin recalled Lady Ye’s words.

‘She said she realized how scarce headquarters’ hands are.’

Doubt stirred alongside it.

The cryptic exchange between her and the Lady, Lady Ye’s audacious behavior, her familiar demeanor, and her constant honing of movement techniques.

“Could a Blood Flame Sect apostle pose as the Alliance’s strategist? Even the Sword Star said nothing.”

Regardless, the Lady had admitted her to headquarters. Premature suspicion should be set aside.

Resolving to observe would suffice. They would cross paths again somehow.

At that moment.

Xiahou Wei-zhen, the Forest-Treading Leader, looked down at the rookie Leader. The four walked together.

“The rumors were true. The Lord favors you.”

“Such words humble me.”

Jeong Yeon-shin replied calmly, finding it trivial.

No words had passed until they descended the inner stronghold’s stairs, but now they seemed to reflect on what had occurred above.

Yue Shou-lin, the Desolate Fortress Divine Spear, spoke similarly.

“No, the big lug misspoke, but the Lord’s reaction was unusual. A favor she never showed even to imperial disciples—or Leaders. When I returned to youth, she smiled once and that was it.”

She chattered lightly.

“She only said I was fit to be the next Group Leader… I’m not sure if she meant it. Her tone is always so even.”

Xiahou Wei-zhen’s lips turned downward.

“The Divine Sword Squad Deputy Leader cannot distinguish formal praise from sincerity.”

He continued.

“Lowly clans won’t rise to the Divine Sword Group Leader’s rank thrice.”

His characteristic deep voice boomed, as if crashing down from his towering frame. A faint anger tinged it.

A reminder of competition among Leaders. Jeong Yeon-shin felt it anew.

“The Radiant Demon Wing Leader is no different. The Lady’s favor does not justify recklessness. Your feats at the Alliance were impressive, but they fall far short of compelling us to yield subordinates.”

The Forest-Treading Leader growled on.

“Win through combat. Without such skill, you must impress us somehow. Even that will not be easy. Forcing your will through martial prowess would be quickest.”

He spoke firmly, in an archaic tone.

A fair point. Desolate Fortress’s black-ranks roamed the martial world as supreme masters. Their experience was typically vast.

Ordinary means would not sway them. Duels were the solution. Jeong Yeon-shin agreed.

Suddenly.

The Radiant Demon Wing Leader gazed at the Forest-Treading Leader’s legs.

“They resemble a noble clan’s footwork.”

“Hmm?”

“If you stepped differently, it might be lighter.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke.