Chapter 259 – Ascension (9)

Rumble.

The earth trembled.

White dust mixed with stone fragments swirled as if struck by cannon fire.

It was because the translucent, spiraling wind from Jeong Yeon-shin’s outstretched left palm did not cease.

Even the vibrations beneath his feet were immense. The air above the suddenly shaking peak grew hazy.

It was a sight hard to believe even with one’s eyes.

An earthquake had erupted from a human hand. A massive stone wall was collapsing.

Jang Sun-il fell to the ground, unable to regain his senses. With a dazed face, he merely clutched his throat and let out a faint “uh.”

A stifled groan escaped his gaping mouth. Only when Bei Gong-lin roughly grabbed him by the nape did focus return to his eyes.

“Crazy…! Crazy!”

As Jang Sun-il muttered curses, Bei Gong-lin seized him and leaped off the ground. She blurted out a frantic question that went unanswered.

“You, you! Do you know that guy? What is he! What is his identity!”

The hem of her trousers flapped as if struck by a thunderbolt. The heavy vibrations of her lightness technique were entirely drowned out beneath her feet.

The torrent from the exploded palm technique seemed to consume all nearby echoes as it surged outward.

They had to distance themselves from the explosion’s epicenter.

“That palm force! Is he human…!”

Bei Gong-hui widened the gap alongside her. Even in his urgency, his sharply raised eyebrows betrayed profound shock.

The Rogue King Jin Shi-hu alone was a supreme master beyond their handling. Their companion, who had abruptly displayed an otherworldly strike, was no less. That single move was truly astonishing.

Who could have imagined it?

They had not dreamed it. Their young companion possessed a divine might that could dominate even in the frozen lands.

“Just a bit more… We need to get a bit farther!”

“What is the point of saying it! Put up your protective energy properly!”

The elder sister Bei Gong-lin snapped reproachfully.

The energy waves flooding up to their backs lent weight to her words.

Even as they sped away with lightness techniques, the power fluctuations of supreme masters pressed in vividly.

The increasingly intense ripples were terrifying. They drove even the refined nobles of the frozen lands to sprint.

One could not watch a clash of supreme masters from below. A stray energy wave could send them to the afterlife.

They flung themselves sideways, stepping swiftly onto the ground. At the same time, they ascended the upper hill, effectively circling the rock where the Rogue King Jin Shi-hu had stood.

Jang Sun-il dangled helplessly, gripped by the nape in Bei Gong-lin’s hand. She dropped him roughly and stood side by side with her twin brother.

Below, their companion stood at the center of the hazy stone dust.

With dust draping around his refined face like a curtain, he seemed detached from reality.

It was as if a bewitching spirit sucked the viewer’s mind into a void. It felt like gazing long at the radiant cloud streaks filling the frozen sky of the North Sea.

Bei Gong-lin spoke slowly.

“I sense ones with blood-red hair. They are climbing from below. Like a pack of wild dogs.”

“Not just a few. Some dark crimson ones are mixed in too.”

Jang Sun-il groaned at Bei Gong-hui’s nodding words.

“Blood demons and blood swordmasters…!”

“They must be famous in the Central Plains too. This friend likely knows them.”

“That makes sense. A few are especially strong and feed on human blood. More pressing, though, is that Rogue King down there.”

Bei Gong-lin, peering below, furrowed her brow.

She continued.

“There is no damage. He completely escaped the energy wave’s range. They call him the king of wanderers… His skill has no false reputation. He rivals the great warriors of our frozen land. We must see him as superhuman.”

“Our companion’s age…”

Bei Gong-hui trailed off.

“Chattering noisily. Make more racket, and I will snap your necks.”

A smooth voice rang out from behind, startling the group into turning around.

A woman sat on the stump of a large tree.

She wore a black eyepatch over her left eye. Her red robe seemed as if it had been dyed with melted blood.

Her skin was as strikingly white as that of the North Sea nobles who mastered the Ice Soul Divine Technique.

Its eerie pallor made her seem like a spirit born from the halo of eternal snow atop the peak.

Her ebony hair, hanging loose, glinted with faint red hues. The shifting aura each time sunlight danced over her head was bewitching.

A monstrous prodigy.

Even her closed eye beneath the eyepatch evoked fear.

Jang Sun-il instinctively stepped back. The chilling instinct that occasionally sharpened his perception of people struck him.

“A Blood Flame Sect… noble!”

He whispered as if squeezing his throat.

Yet no one heard.

The Bei Gong siblings subdued their presence before this blood-red noble, busy confirming their companion’s battle. The Blood Flame Sect supreme master they faced did not lift her eyelashes, as if sensing something. She ignored them entirely.

She murmured to herself.

“When did he learn to… use it like that again…”

Her closed-eyed form trembled faintly. It came with a bright red smile.

To Jang Sun-il, she seemed utterly mad. Even among martial masters, few lacked eccentricity, but this was near incomprehensible.

Her life’s path appeared wholly different, yet it allowed the boy to look down.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

A ruined mountain path.

It was the moment Jeong Yeon-shin raised the Northern Light Sword to block a strike from the Rogue King’s crossed twin sabers. A shout, laden with inner energy, burst from Jin Shi-hu’s mouth.

“Ha!”

Another heavy vibration resounded. It followed sparks flying from the Northern Light Sword’s blade, caught between the twin sabers.

Fragments of sharp energy scattered, tearing into the dirt ground.

He bore the title of king. A name rarely acknowledged across the martial world, earned over decades.

The Rogue King’s foot technique was honed like saber energy. Even the aftermath of a single slash rivaled the life-preserving ultimate moves of most elite masters.

As Jeong Yeon-shin clashed blades with him, a sword scar twisted upward on Jin Shi-hu’s cheek. It was the smile of an extraordinary ronin.

At a distance where their noses nearly touched, his colorless eyes gleamed, scanning his opponent’s gaze and breath.

“I did not expect you to drag me down like that. An astonishing palm technique, and a reckless spirit. I nearly lost a foot.”

“Did the Blood Flame Sect truly commission you?”

When the Radiant Demon Wing Leader asked quietly, the Rogue King twitched an eyebrow.

“They spoke of ample salt and provisions. No reason to refuse, is there? Slit the throats of some clueless peasants and martial artists, and food appears. It turns a killing sword into a living one, does it not? The authorities will not feed me anyway.”

“A sword’s edge can feed you. You will die here.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips closed into a straight line as he finished speaking.

He cited provisions as an excuse, but any government office could sustain a supreme master of this caliber.

The Rogue King had chosen a strongman’s freedom, befitting his title. It was a position the Radiant Demon Wing Leader of Desolate Fortress had to confront.

‘Eliminate.’

He infused the Luminous Wheel Technique fully into the fine meridians of his right hand gripping the Northern Light Sword.

The stalemate broke. The Rogue King’s crossed twin sabers were pushed back. The sword force of the Luminous Wheel Technique surpassed the miscellaneous inner energies of the righteous and evil divide. Its purity was distinct.

“You!”

Jin Shi-hu roared a shout-like cry.

His twin sabers dropped downward. He sank into a horseman’s stance, leaning his upper body back. At the same time, just before Jeong Yeon-shin’s Northern Light Sword could cleave his head, a fierce wind surged from below.

The Rogue King’s right foot rose. It was a direct upward kick. The energy wave at the toe of his leather boot was chillingly sharp.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s blue eyes flashed.

Thud!

He stomped down on the Rogue King’s knee with his sole. It was right after reading the move’s path with the Lowly Revelation Technique.

Before surprise could fully form in Jin Shi-hu’s keen eyes, Jeong Yeon-shin reversed his grip on the Northern Light Sword and stabbed downward at the Rogue King’s abdomen.

A near-artistic flourish. In an instant, a faint wind from the Judgement Qilin form of the Thunder-Annihilation Sword Technique spread from the circling blade.

Boom!

The sword plunged into the stone ground.

‘Rolling Strike.’

Jeong Yeon-shin’s blue-tinged eyes tracked Jin Shi-hu. Dust swirled over the Rogue King’s body as he rolled sideways.

It was a move heedless of dignity, yet a supreme master’s Rolling Strike resembled the playful antics of a land deity.

“A brutal sword taste.”

The king of ronin rose, laughing.

At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was already slashing down at him from point-blank range.

The recoil of the Wind Body Movement Technique ruffled his robes while the sword tip drew a white line. It reflected sharply in the Rogue King’s eyes.

Clang!

It sounded like thunder. The Rogue King blocked again with crossed twin sabers.

The air, crushed by the Northern Light Sword’s energy wave, shuddered under the compression. The aftermath of the foot technique tore the ground, spreading like silk.

In an instant, the Rogue King’s form vanished.

He reappeared like a phantom behind Jeong Yeon-shin.

The Rogue King’s secret Rakshasa Steps. His adaptability was unmatched. The realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown he had achieved shone clearly.

“Even in close combat, I am faster.”

He spat the taunt like lightning, weaving it into the exhalation of his move. It was a fleeting gap.

The twin sabers scissored toward Jeong Yeon-shin’s back, their strikes perfectly synced with his inner energy breathing, glowing like beams. It was a master’s realm.

Jeong Yeon-shin twisted his upper body slightly and lashed backward with his left palm.

Boom!

A thunderous force erupted. The faint afterimages of the saber strikes, fluttering like moth wings, scattered without a trace.

A sudden storm whipped up the Rogue King’s crimson robes and blood-mixed spit.

As immense vibrations raced from the ground, one saber fell from the distant sky.

The Rogue King’s left hand was empty.

He seemed to speak with a stunned face. Your energy control may be slower than mine.

The Radiant Demon Wing Leader replied expressionlessly. Nonsense.

Crunch.

The moment he turned his step, Jeong Yeon-shin’s form blurred. The Luminous Wheel, now spinning furiously in his heart, spread the Luminous Wheel Energy throughout his body.

It was the moment the wheel’s energy accumulation speed shone. With his second step, his body, propelled by the Wind Body Movement Technique, shot forth like lightning.

Whoosh!

The fierce wind against his skin felt absurdly heavy in that instant. Jeong Yeon-shin was already gripping the Rogue King’s face with his left hand.

He muttered in close combat.

“Die.”

The Brilliant River, ever-present since activation, reacted in his grip.

The moment the fine muscles of his left hand tightened with the inner energy breath he exhaled as a shout, a dragon’s roar exploded within his grasp.

Boom!

The palm technique’s energy wave distorted wildly like turbulence.

Winds carrying dust and stone fragments spun fiercely. The Rogue King’s headless body was swept into the storm and fell below.

All beasts held their breath amid the mountain spirits’ battle.

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his hand once.

Smoke from the Samadhi True Fire, burning away bloodstains, drifted with his sleeve. It was as if roughly commemorating the futile death of a figure who had lived as the king of martial wanderers.

“…”

The Radiant Demon Wing Leader did not look back for a moment. Only the torn, blackened hem of his robe swayed calmly.

He gazed at the white winter landscape stretching far across the mountains before speaking.

“It was you, Lady Ye.”

“I do not use Ye as a surname. It is Jeok.”

[TL Note- Jeok means red.]

The Seventh Apostle, approaching silently, answered with an ambiguous expression.

A faint smile curved Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips.

“You would not speak straightforwardly.”

“Hm? I have always been honest.”

She widened her lone crimson eye. Only then did Jeong Yeon-shin turn his gaze toward the Seventh Apostle.

“What do you want from me?”

The evil outer path was rooted in madness and desire. It comprised lunatics who did not even know their own hearts. He had asked seriously, expecting a long answer.

He was wrong.

Sunlight gleamed vividly in the Seventh Apostle’s ruby-like eye.

“I want you to breathe your last in my arms. I wish the final voice the martial god hears to be mine. I will tell you clearly. Your life was brilliant, and I revere only you.”

[TL Note- Find yourself someone who is as crazy as the Seventh Apostle.]

“I forgot for a moment. Facing you makes calling you mad feel tiresome.”

“For that, you talked to me so long it is thrilling. It feels like returning to when I achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.”

“Stop there.”

Jeong Yeon-shin recognized the emotion rising in him at that moment. It had been a long time.

It was the feeling he had whenever the children of Xinye County excluded him and played fun games. He would secretly watch kite-flying or shadow plays, mimicking their gestures.

‘What does it feel like? It must be nice.’

He suppressed his envy. From now on, he should call it the Dull Flowers Gathering at the Crown.