Chapter 297 – Lotus (16)

Baek Seo-gun, standing on her snow-white sword, turned her head. She had just surveyed the faces of commoners in the crowd who were nodding in agreement with Slaughter Chivalry’s words.

She possessed an auspiciousness that made even those ignorant of the martial world bow their heads instinctively.

To the common people, Mind-controlled sword was a skill from Daoist legends, attributed to the sword immortal Lü Dongbin.

“Dharma treasure?”

Her transparent gaze fell from her position in the air, and Slaughter Chivalry faced her stare with composure that few powerful figures could maintain.

As if he had faced extreme masters like Valor Fist Lord, Radiant Demon Wing Leader, and Sword Ghost before.

“Yes. It rightfully belongs to Radiant Demon Wing Leader who took Valor Fist Lord’s final moments. There are no individuals here who had deep personal connections with her anyway.”

His gesture of smoothing the black silk covering his mouth appeared somewhat cunning.

He seemed to be considering the relationship between Valor Fist Lord and Heart Martial Alliance’s Sword Venerable. His innate temperament was neat yet sly.

“Who are you?”

Sword Venerable Baek Seo-gun asked him.

She did not speak separately about the dharma treasure.

In that moment, following her downward glance, a strange breeze arose and coolly swept past the robes of the aristocratic masters surrounding them below.

The presence of power emanating from her pitch-black pupils was tremendous.

She seemed to have roughly grasped the situation just by glancing at the pebble at Slaughter Chivalry’s feet.

The aristocrats and commoners each showed their own reactions. Mind-controlled sword. The crowd grew increasingly restless as they witnessed this sight that was difficult to accept as real.

“The Sword Venerable of Henan… what business does she have in Shanxi?”

“’Was that truly an existing technique? I thought it was merely a rumor…”

“A fairy, no, a divine general has descended…!”

Only Slaughter Chivalry stood proudly below, slightly tilting his black bamboo hat upward.

“I must apologize for not revealing my true name. I have entanglements with malicious groups… In any case, I am humbly called Slaughter Chivalry here in Shanxi.”

Swish.

Slaughter Chivalry laughed with a ‘haha’ and raised his clasped hands in an exaggerated greeting.

As his pitch-black sleeve cuff slightly slipped down, the muscle fibers of his swift-looking forearm became prominent. His was a body that had refined extreme swift swordsmanship.

Baek Seo-gun’s eyes remained indifferent as she looked down at him from her lofty position.

“This one does not know you.”

“Of course. Compared to Sword Venerable who has made her name known throughout this vast country, I am merely a humble assassin. Only the name of my unrefined sect is somewhat known. The Blazing Moon Great Slaughter Sect.”

“Blazing Moon Great Slaughter Sect…?”

A peculiar expression crossed Baek Seo-gun’s face as she repeated the name of his sect. It was accompanied by a colorless flash of her eye technique.

Slaughter Chivalry hesitated as he lowered his hands after seeing her expression, but she paid no heed and spoke again.

“I can guess your roots. You have survived well… But this one has no reason to be interested.”

Swish.

As soon as Baek Seo-gun extended her hand, a faint ray of light rose from near Slaughter Chivalry’s feet and was drawn in. It was the remnant image of the dharma treasure.

She retrieved it using the principles of Mind-controlled Sword, not an absorption technique.

The energy wave was nearly nonexistent, causing the surrounding aristocrats to wear chilling expressions as the pebble was guided to beneath her wrist and wrapped in her long gray sleeve.

It did not touch her skin. Anyone could see she was concerned about its owner’s whereabouts.

“Sword Venerable of Heart Martial Alliance! The aristocrats of this land were about to mediate!”

“Would you consider descending for a moment?”

The Shanxi aristocrats who had been surrounding Slaughter Chivalry each raised their voices politely.

Their auras, more contained than revealed, were honed like blades, yet none showed signs of drawing their weapons.

Whether they could subdue Sword Venerable by force was secondary. The issue was the martial might of Heart Martial Alliance behind her.

The great faction with the second largest numbers after Blood Flame Cult.

Unlike ordinary blood demons, it was said that most were elite martial artists.

Moreover, the current Heart Martial Alliance Leader was openly called the Military King Martial Emperor.

The title of an absolute being among the Thirteen Evil Sects. Despite the watchful eyes of the imperial court and Desolate Fortress, the characters for ‘king’ and ’emperor’ flowed through the martial world.

The distance from Heart Martial Alliance, located in the northwest of Henan, to Shanxi was also extremely close.

The second-in-command of that Heart Martial Alliance was floating above them. Anyone would hesitate.

Even as Baek Seo-gun turned her head toward distant mountains, the voices of the Shanxi aristocrats naturally grew quieter.

“Sword Venerable, martial world disputes should not be resolved in such a manner.”

“This venue was properly established through our efforts for a martial arts tournament…!”

Puff.

The black silk covering Slaughter Chivalry from the bridge of his nose to below his chin slightly twitched.

“These fellows have refined the sword of shame. They could kill observers with embarrassment alone.”

His voice carried a hint of laughter. Because he did not lower his voice, it spread widely.

However, the aristocrats did not act rashly. Valor Fist Lord and Radiant Demon Wing Leader had just made them acutely aware of supreme masters’ power through their terrifying life-or-death duel.

The crowd in the arena was cautiously looking up at Sword Ghost Baek Seo-gun, like those awaiting judgment from Yama.

“……”

But she now seemed to have completely forgotten what was happening below.

She only stared blankly in the direction where Radiant Demon Wing Leader had disappeared, and her two feet standing on the sword blade slightly faltered.

Baek Seo-gun, who had descended like an immortal, hesitated to proceed further.

‘Lightning Genius Jeong Yeon-shin.’

The boy who had translated the principles of Go taught by Jeong Family Head into swordsmanship. The image of him raising his sword above his head in the stance of a chess player contending for victory still appeared vividly in her mind.

It had been a great comfort to her recently.

The long-held identity had been preventing her from feeling that even the wealth and glory before her eyes were truly hers.

When the principle, like the teachings of Jeong Pan-yue, came to her in the form of transcendent sword techniques, she consoled herself that the Jeong Family Head’s judgment had not been insignificant.

The inferiority complex that had remained deep within her even after she began to be called Sword Venerable was severed. The current Radiant Demon Wing Leader had cut it for her.

‘I did not realize it until I left, but now that I face it, the feeling is strange. I see Jeong Pan-yue in your face.’

‘If I had not made a great choice, I would have walked with you through Xinye County. As a consolation, it is fine. You have received plenty of the love I could not give. Seeing your healthy complexion… I wonder how you were raised.’

‘You have grown upright. It is fortunate that your family did its duty before disappearing.’

Words spoken in days past.

‘Ah…’ Her speech, which had been as unrestrained as the days she had lived, turned into bars that bound her.

A cool sensation burrowed into her inner self, leaving cracks in the dignity of Sword Ghost and Sword Venerable, revealing a part of her foundation.

Until she was twenty, she had been a maid serving Jeong Pan-yue.

This had repeated dozens of times in her mind. She had to cut it off.

Grip.

Baek Seo-gun applied force to her feet standing on the sword blade, then slowly shook her head alone.

Now she had to face it. To establish Sword Venerable Baek Seo-gun completely within herself.

Woong.

The snow-white divine sword beneath her feet cried out as it flew upward.

“Hey! Hey! Look here!”

“No matter if you are the head of Heart Martial Alliance’s Three Martial Venerables, you cannot treat us like this!”

“Consider how much rice flows from Shanxi to Henan! Do you think there is another place that can provide this much grain during a famine?!”

The small outcries of the aristocrats did not reach her ears. The speed of Mind-controlled sword was incomparably faster than lightness skills that tread the ground.

Without even looking down, she rose to a distant height, then with a humming sound, rapidly faded away.

“Damn it!”

“Does she think she alone is powerful in this world!”

The aristocrats dressed in precious silk robes spat out curses.

Some adjusted their belts or tightened the straps of their leather shoes as if they would chase after her immediately.

“You have refined the sword of shame to a remarkable degree. It is truly the realm of a master. I deeply respect it.”

An exaggeratedly courteous voice rang out.

It was Slaughter Chivalry.

He was already lightly treading on the edge of the ruined tournament grounds. He glanced at Hyeon Won-chang in the distance as he did so.

While distorting his body with an extremely careless protective energy technique, he winked at Hyeon Won-chang’s group.

Whoosh!

Slaughter Chivalry advanced far away as if vanishing. By the time Shin So-bin, standing with Hyeon Won-chang, blinked once, he was completely gone.

***

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Translated by Nine Heavens!

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***

A whitish radiance etched a long straight line in the air.

Screech!

The current Radiant Demon Wing Leader was racing. The torn wind behind him continuously erupted with loud noise.

He passed straight through the occasional marshes and lakes he encountered.

Ten Li Gentle Light contained the principles of transcendent lightness and equal movement techniques as its foundation. This was because it was created with inspiration from noble clans.

It was the lightness skill mobility that was making Jeong Yeon-shin into a flawless master.

Whoosh!

His skin tightened against the tremendous resistance. But Jeong Yeon-shin kept his eyes fully open. While quickly scanning his surroundings with his energy sense, he also closely observed the scenery that came into his field of vision.

‘It must be this way.’

He was following the faint traces left by the powerful true energy waves of Divine Sword Squad Leader and Blood Guardian Squad Leader.

Their uniquely deep energy quality remained. By continuously pursuing it and occasionally activating his eye technique, he had structured his own tracking method.

In this moment, he did not envy the tracking arts of Jang Sun-il, the herb-gathering boy who had taken the Evil Sects Annihilation Martial Arts Compendium.

There was nothing wrong with Jeong Yeon-shin’s tracking.

‘But…’

The traces were greatly interrupted, and then the formless echoes shifted far away, as if a line had been reconnected elsewhere. It was beyond the undergrowth blocked by a snow-covered hill.

This was the third time.

It meant that his two seniors were located in some kind of disconnected space. Even that seemed to have moved continuously.

Unless it was the legendary immortal technique of shrinking the earth to reduce distance, this was not a phenomenon that those who had only cultivated martial arts could create.

It was the trace of a mysterious marvel. They had clashed with Zhuge Clan Leader.

Thud!

Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes narrowed as he stamped the ground again. The traces of battle were too long. It meant they were at least evenly matched.

‘Uh…’

For a moment, he felt a chill around his heart.

The rotation of the Luminous Wheel stopped by itself. A dazed sound flowed faintly from his mouth. Just the assumption of repeated loss made him like this.

Yue Shou-lin and Jin Myeong-jo dying?

‘No. It cannot be.’

Boom!

Energy waves exploded from beneath his feet. The surrounding undergrowth simultaneously lay flat in all directions, and fragments of leaves crushed by the lightness skill energy waves soared in the strong wind.

“Lightning Genius? It is Lightning Genius!”

A girl’s voice rapidly grew louder from high in the sky. At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes widened as he jerked his head upward.

Rustle!

Black robes were violently fluttering.

Tremendously powerful lightness skill energy waves distorted the air behind her back, flowing from the ends of her short black hair. She seemed to be making a great leap downward.

“I need some meat and blood! It is not extremely urgent, so look around carefully!”

Yue Shou-lin shouted from high in the air.

She was barely carrying a black form on her narrow shoulders.

***

Crunch.

Dry leaves of an unnamed mountain crumbled beneath black leather shoes.

Jeong Yeon-shin surveyed his surroundings. He had just descended after racing in all directions without finding any signs of life.

Due to Jin Myeong-jo’s critical condition, they could not immediately proceed to a city or village, so he wanted to sense deep into the ground.

He had come without even hearing the detailed circumstances. All he knew was that they needed to escape from Zhuge Clan Leader’s domain first.

Yue Shou-lin immediately sat cross-legged and entered a state of energy circulation.

She was a supreme master who had surpassed Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and was approaching the state of Five Qi Return to Origin. With complete control over her internal energy, she did not need protection.

‘Wild animals…’

It was a winter of famine. Wild animals were becoming scarce.

Even wild boars had become extremely rare. They were not easily caught even by the energy sense of renowned masters. That was why plundering was rampant and the strong were greatly respected.

Hoo.

White steam rose from between Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips.

It had already been an hour.

The black-rank supreme master had not succeeded in hunting.

No one would believe such a thing. Was it due to his lack of experience? He freshly realized the depth of the famine.

‘Senior Jin needs the vital energy contained in blood…’

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin was slightly biting his lower lip.

Suddenly, something large caught the corner of his vision. It came with a fishy smell.

A large form was approaching from a distance, gliding through the air. Like deploying the extraordinary protective energy technique of Void Treading Skill.

It was a dead wild boar.

‘…?’

It approached hesitantly for a long time, as if wavering, then fell with a thud… A massive wild animal rolled at Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet. Its heavy presence was desolate.

It seemed like someone had thrown prey to them.

But these were chaotic times. No one wearing a sword would accept it without question. Even if it came from someone who had once greatly helped them.

‘What is this? Playing a generous hunter.’

The current Radiant Demon Wing Leader’s eyes sharpened.