Chapter 246 – Punishment, Fate (3)

Yeo So-hyang’s eyes widened.

It was a fleeting moment.

Perhaps it was because the one who annihilated his mother’s home stood before him as an irreconcilable enemy. A sinister feeling stirred in Jeong Yeon-shin’s heart.

Had they not shared such a conversation? With a calm and indifferent expression.

“During my travels abroad, I looked down upon land that exceeded its worth. Fertile soil has always been prey for the World Tree’s Fruit, so your family deserved to be laid waste.”

“For just that reason? The household my mother chose had many commoners too.”

“Pitiful. You ought to be grateful for contributing to the sect leader’s grand purpose, yet you cannot.”

The fierce battle with a core supreme master of the Thirteen Evil Sects reached its conclusion.

Jeong Yeon-shin severed her sole remaining arm entirely. The elder overseer of Tyrant Sword Sect was far more renowned for sword power than protective energy.

She could not withstand the Radiant Demon Wing Leader’s final supreme technique with her bare body.

The winter sunlight, piercing transparently from the sky, shimmered faintly on Yeo So-hyang’s right arm. Shadows bloomed and faded as if signaling the end of the fight.

At last.

“Urgh…!”

A groan burst from Ghost White Divine Sword’s mouth. Her lips trembled faintly.

Her former lofty demeanor crumbled. Pain, racing like a burn, seemed to rend the old woman’s mind.

The sword beneath her feet lost its strength. It began to plummet.

“You wretch…!”

Yeo So-hyang twisted her body. Only her torso and legs remained.

Her energy, now directionless, erupted transparently amid the blood scattering in the air. Even the lingering true energy in her minor meridians was astonishingly vast.

Jeong Yeon-shin did not lower his guard and clenched his left hand into a fist. His opponent was once a figure who could rival purple-rank masters.

Even diminished by tyrant power and time, she likely possessed dozens of life-saving supreme techniques. She might manipulate her sword with her toes, so he had to crush her completely.

‘Tch.’

He swallowed a groan.

Azure Flame Solar Eclipse was a sword technique that perfectly aligned the inner energy of all his meridians with his sword path. It overtaxed his entire body’s muscles. As the ultimate explosive technique, its recoil was immense.

His body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton, but he could not entrust himself to the technique’s rebound now.

‘One move. Just one final move…!’

He had to exploit even the gashes raking his body. The blood swept by the sword wind chilled his skin.

Jeong Yeon-shin treated the bleeding like ice water. He sought to sharpen his mind by gathering the piercing pains like blades.

A sharp exhale sounded.

He fell alongside Yeo So-hyang.

Even this brief airborne moment offered a supreme master the leeway of a dozen exchanges. He struck her abdomen with his clenched left fist.

A heavy thud resounded.

It landed squarely. A weighty energy wave hammered Yeo So-hyang’s protective energy. His fist met an exceedingly solid texture. It was befitting a seasoned supreme master.

Though the loss of major meridians must have disrupted her inner energy flow, she had erected an unyielding shield of intangible true energy. It was not a flimsy barrier that would shatter under a weakened blow.

Thud! Thud!

Jeong Yeon-shin did not halt his punches. From his shoulder blade to his fist, he fiercely circulated the true energy flow of the Eternal Blossom Fist.

It felt as if his blood vessels were grinding apart. Had he not tempered himself with the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, he would have sustained permanent damage, but for a grandmaster of the physical body, it was meaningless. Only the pain intensified.

Energy waves of the Luminous Wheel Technique blossomed from his fist. It was the third form, Blossoming Fist.

A colorless, distorted force bloomed like a bouquet. Power struck power, generating repeated explosive force.

‘I will cripple your martial arts.’

He drove it relentlessly toward the vicinity of Yeo So-hyang’s lower dantian. Her inner energy barrier began to shatter into fragments alongside the energy wave debris.

Her tyrant power energy, perpetually at odds with the Luminous Wheel Technique, unraveled. Soon, Jeong Yeon-shin’s punch burrowed into her lower dantian.

A shattering clang echoed.

The moment his fist made contact, twenty-four strikes landed. Translucent petals seemed to scatter from the old monster’s abdomen. They were all fragments of energy waves.

It demolished her protective energy and smashed the solid shell of inner energy in her lower dantian to pieces. Blood gushed from Yeo So-hyang’s mouth.

The ground drew rapidly closer.

‘I will not let my guard down.’

Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his blood-soaked left shoulder back. He lacked the strength to unleash a Brilliant River, but an Advancing Thunder would suffice.

Aiming at Yeo So-hyang’s middle dantian, where her wrinkles twisted like a vengeful spirit’s face, he threw his final punch.

It was the second form of the Eternal Blossom Fist. The instant all remaining energy converged into his fist.

His knuckles grazed her solar plexus.

The final energy surged from a long-spinning luminous wheel.

A deep boom erupted.

A heavy energy wave exploded. It plunged deep, shattering her middle dantian. He distinctly felt the crunching impact.

“Haah…!”

As the old monster let out a pained gasp, both supreme masters crashed into the leafy ground simultaneously.

A dull thud rang briefly through the grass. It mingled with the finely scattered blood.

Yeo So-hyang’s right arm tumbled to the rear.

The arm of a swordsman who once dominated an era began to stain the dirt black. As if it had never unleashed ferocious roars.

It was a profoundly eerie sight.

A short exhale sounded.

While Jeong Yeon-shin slowly rose, bracing his knee, the onlookers expressed their shock in varied ways.

Some gaped dumbly, others twisted their lips with strange sentiments, but none could utter a sound.

The legend of Ghost White Divine Sword’s sword flight had shattered.

“…”

Only a few breaths had passed, yet everyone’s expressions turned peculiar.

From the commoners watching across the gorge to the martial artists who had approached the hill, all were the same.

The elder overseer of Tyrant Sword Sect had fallen to a youthful prodigy. Everyone witnessed her right arm severed and her body brutally struck.

She was a supreme master, among the most formidable even in Shaanxi, where three major factions held sway, and had lived a long life. Today, she descended to punish a prodigy, only to be broken instead. Utterly devastated.

Shock, disbelief, and bewilderment lingered in the vast, slow breeze of Great Moon Gorge.

Only one remained free of the silence. The Radiant Demon Wing Leader of Desolate Fortress, disguised as the Radiant Arts Squad Leader.

Jeong Yeon-shin lifted his hand from his knee and straightened his bare torso. Then, slowly and with effort, he parted his lips.

“It was splendid swordsmanship.”

“I am glad to have been of help. Though it was not a pleasant memory, the ways of the world are truly strange.”

Zhuge Xian approached from the side and spoke. As the eldest son of the Zhuge Family, he suppressed his shock with deep contemplation.

He thought to himself. The upper echelons of the martial world might shift within three years.

Dragon Sage Zhuge Xian recalled the Radiant Demon Wing Leader stepping onto his fan at the orthodox gate of the alliance.

‘To think he would reduce the elder overseer of Tyrant Sword Sect to this… Squad Leader Jeong’s achievement is immense. This is no ordinary matter. The alliance will be upended. The impact will surpass that of the alliance-opening war. Predicting each faction’s movements will be difficult.’

His gaze grew heavy.

“Well, he went and caught her after all. That sense of his is as uncanny as ever.”

Lazy Flame Dragon approached from the opposite side. His demeanor differed starkly from his earlier rush to intercept the Brilliant Sound Twin Demons’ strike.

His steps thudded in a figure-eight pattern. Yet his carefree posture did not last long. He halted abruptly.

A sword lying on the ground floated upward.

A controlled sword.

The treasured blade that had felled the Yu Ling Sect’s Brilliant Sound Twin Demons and heavily checked Ghost White Divine Sword moved on its own.

It headed toward the cliff below. As Jeong Yeon-shin gazed at it quietly, he heard a strange voice.

“I cannot face you directly out of shame. I will visit you soon. Please do not turn me away at the gate… I am sorry.”

A slightly hoarse yet refined voice. One he had encountered before.

‘Swimming Heaven Sword Ghost Baek Seo-gun. The Sword Venerable of Henan…’

A question flickered in Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes. She aided him without context and left only cryptic words. What was this?

She was said to have ties to Jeong Family Manor. Was it no ordinary connection? Today’s events suggested as much.

Had he not received a life-saving grace? A combined assault from Ghost White Divine Sword and the Brilliant Sound Twin Demons would have been a challenge even for leaders of major orthodox factions.

He merely nodded slightly. He wished to offer a fist salute, but his disguise as an evil faction leader prevented it.

Was that enough, though?

For a moment, Baek Seo-gun’s sword trembled faintly. Then, as if nothing had happened, it vanished like a streak of light below the cliff. Only the faint sound of slicing air remained.

Zhuge Xian and Lazy Flame Dragon beside him did not speak.

A connection at the martial world’s pinnacle was treated as equal to a rare martial arts manual. It was not something to probe lightly.

“Haah…”

A sound like air escaping a lung emerged.

Ghost White Divine Sword Yeo So-hyang gasped faintly. She lay collapsed at Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet. Her karma had claimed both her arms.

Her left to Zhongnan Sword Immortal, her right to the Radiant Demon Wing Leader. Her vital points were sealed just before the fall, rendering her immobile.

She could not even take her own life. She could only muster faint murmurs.

Jeong Yeon-shin looked down at the old monster and spoke.

“I will interrogate you.”

“Heh, heh… What a ridiculous notion…”

Yeo So-hyang curled her lips upward. As if saying he would not extract a single word. It was remarkable resolve.

Despite losing an arm and having her lower and middle dantians shattered, she still exuded a martial artist’s spirit. The energy yet to dissipate from her body was formidable.

Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly.

“You boasted loudly before the fight. Are you not ashamed? What is more laughable than a loser’s bravado now…”

Genuinely puzzled, he trailed off, and Yeo So-hyang closed her mouth.

Jeong Yeon-shin no longer spared the old monster a glance. As a leader of the Thirteen Evil Sects, she would not yield to ordinary questioning.

‘I have no talent for torture…’

It was fine.

As he turned his head, a cascade of jet-black hair entered his vision. It was Baek Mi-ryeo, the Bewitching Sword Demon.

She ran toward him, her pale face etched with worry. Despite the rough fabric of her disguise, her white robes fluttered gracefully.

She possessed pure demonic energy.

Yet she showed no sign of it, much like Blood Guardian Squad Leader Jin. Alongside Cheong Myeong, she was among the most reliable seniors in the Radiant Demon Wing.

She would locate Jeong Hye for him. Injecting her energy would itself be a fearsome form of torture.

Meanwhile.

“Ghost White Divine Sword, Ghost White Divine Sword lost!”

“Crippled… No, is she dead?”

“Another supernova has risen in the martial world. It borders on monstrous strength.”

“Spread the word! We must spread it!”

A belated uproar erupted across the gorge. It was like a microcosm of the martial world.

Messenger birds flapped their wings in all directions, and some in the crowd scrutinized Jeong Yeon-shin and his companions closely.

A steady step sounded.

Jeong Yeon-shin walked silently. He glanced at Ghost White Divine Sword and gave a short nod toward Lazy Flame Dragon.

Ignoring any retort like ‘You want me to carry her?’ he stepped forward. The sunlight reflecting off the sparse remaining foliage glinted noisily.

***

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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

The Ming Dynasty was an empire.

It did not neglect the livelihood of its people, the root of its strength.

If martial artists who wielded blades atop the Great Ming Code were left unchecked, the populace would suffer. If public sentiment turned sour or taxes were not collected on time, governance would falter.

Thus, the government and the martial world were inseparable.

They could not be divided. The martial world existed atop the lives of the people.

Even dark path factions that collected rent from inns and shops paid tribute to local magistrates.

They had to, lest they face a visit from Desolate Fortress’s white-rank warriors. These warriors possessed the strength of a dozen average wanderers and could crush small factions on solo missions.

The moment a magistrate reported to Desolate Fortress, the plaques of various sects would come down. The tribute was to prevent this.

Famine.

A time when corrupt officials and martial factions collaborated more fiercely than ever.

Hooves thundered.

A luxurious carriage raced along the official road. Drawn by two fine horses, it trailed a long cloud of dust.

The wide street fell silent. Windows of shops and stores lining both sides quietly shut or cracked open.

To keep their heads, they had to remain as still as dead mice.

The regional magistrate, who had been observing until now, was making his move.

The faction war in Xi’an Prefecture, Shaanxi, bordering on a civil uprising, had ended. It was time to restore order over the interests of the great city.

Voices from the carriage mingled with the clamor of its wheels.

“So, the Radiant Arts Squad Leader. I still cannot believe it. I scattered sacks of silver, and those madmen vanished entirely. Into the ground, no less.”

“Is that not the nature of the evil faction martial world? They annihilate each other and get annihilated. What loyalty can one expect from a band that scatters and regroups endlessly?”

“Are you saying my judgment was lacking?”

“No, sir. I merely…”

“Merely jesting. Honestly.”

“Regardless, you must be cautious. They say he defeated even Ghost White Divine Sword. Surely a ruthless scoundrel.”

“Do you not know my origins? I understand lowly martial artists better than anyone. Inner energy requires deep study of letters, so one with such prowess cannot be an illiterate fool. Only those ignorant of the world speak of the martial world defying the government.”

“Of course. I understand.”

“He cannot touch a regional magistrate of the Great Ming in broad daylight. I need only mind my conduct slightly. You, however, should keep quiet. Do not provoke him needlessly. Are they not the sort to double our tax revenue?”

“Yes, Lord Magistrate.”

At that moment, the carriage slowed to a stop.

They had reached their destination. It was an inn with a separate annex.

[TL Note- Another fool heading for his own guillotine.]