Chapter 299 – Lotus (18)

Yue Shou-lin’s voice had a peculiar quality.

It seemed drowsy yet carried clear purpose.

Even in her half-asleep state, the sense that she could exert full power emanated from her, befitting her status as the second strongest among the seventeen members of the Divine Sword Group.

A supreme master approaching the state of Five Qi Return to Origin. One whose appearance did not reflect her true capabilities.

‘She noticed immediately. How broad is her energy sense?’

Jeong Yeon-shin rolled the pebble that Baek Seo-gun had given him in his palm.

Though it had been called a dharma treasure and he could vaguely sense its mystical energy, it didn’t strike him as particularly special. At least not now.

It was difficult to determine whether it belonged to the Yan family or the Zhuge clan.

Having retrieved Yan Hwa-ryeon’s secret manual, he had connections to both sides, so he could comfortably return it to either party.

“The person outside is…”

Just as he began to speak.

Haaaam—

The girl who yawned widely began to blink with alertness in her eyes.

Her internal energy, powerful enough to mark her as a future Divine Sword Group Leader, flashed in her pupils with colorless radiance.

It was a glow far more intense than the mystical campfire illuminating her face.

“The sword energy is cultivated in a unorthodox manner? The martial art itself clearly has noble clan qualities… I should call it a sword ghost rather than a swordsman.”

Tap.

The spear that had been carelessly sprawled on the ground caught on Yue Shou-lin’s instep.

Then, with just a slight movement of her ankle, the spear shaft seemed to be drawn up as if by itself, firmly grasped in her small hand.

The surrounding undergrowth trembled slightly from the aftereffect.

“Though we’ve never met, reports about her have piled up at the administration office. I heard she appeared in Shaanxi too? The second-in-command of the Heart Martial Alliance’s martial arts group. I also heard she helped you inexplicably. That was appreciated.”

Yue Shou-lin said.

She spoke after grasping her symbolic divine spear and simultaneously deploying her energy sense.

Rather than immediately displaying the combative nature characteristic of Desolate Spear, she first adopted the attitude of a black-rank addressing another black-rank. It meant she would listen to what Jeong Yeon-shin had to say.

This was respect from the Divine Sword Squad Leader who had made her name known throughout the world.

The boy who had been the Jeong family’s burden just two years ago slowly opened his mouth.

He felt both warmth in his chest and a sense of how much times had changed. Grandma Yue remembers me too.

“She has a connection to my bloodline.”

Yue Shou-lin, holding her spear, extended only her index finger and lightly tapped the shaft. A transparent energy wave spread, seemingly playful yet threatening, but light.

“Hmm… The vast martial world sometimes feels narrow. Can you tell me more?”

“She’s someone who shared my father’s childhood…”

“Then she’s a b*st*rd!”

She abruptly cut him off, deeply furrowing her small brow.

With a surge of energy, Yue Shou-lin’s hair by her ears fell back to her nape. Her fingers repeatedly clenched and unclenched around the spear.

“She hunted a wild boar for us in this winter of famine. She’s a helpful person. I didn’t sense any malice even with my upper dantian’s abilities.”

Jeong Yeon-shin answered briefly while inwardly tilting his head slightly.

He wasn’t sure how much Senior Yue knew about his family history. Had the administration office investigated separately?

‘The people of Xinye County still live there.’

Some unpleasant faces flashed through Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. All were villagers.

Each with distinct personalities and simple faces, they had adhered to superstitions and despised him…

‘I hope there won’t be any missions to Henan.’

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin was putting aside these brief thoughts.

“So you’re saying she’s trustworthy…? According to our youngest squad leader’s perception with five senses.”

Rustle.

Suddenly moving closer and plopping down beside him, Yue Shou-lin scrutinized him intently.

“……”

She created silence with her gaze.

As only the crackling of the campfire sounded, the intense gleam characteristic of Desolate Spear disappeared from her eyes, revealing unusually clear and pitch-black pupils.

It was a gaze devoid of her usual capricious nature.

“I sometimes sense something extremely mystical about you.”

Yue Shou-lin’s expression was peculiar. A face Jeong Yeon-shin had never seen before. It simultaneously revealed conventional distrust and strange relief.

It was visible along with her front lapel, which was unusually darker. It was the trace of blood she had coughed up while circulating her energy after facing Zhuge Clan Leader.

Soon, the corners of her mouth turned up slightly.

“Well, it seems the Sword Ghost of the Thirteen Evil Sects is like a wet nurse to you. And she’s here now.”

“For a grown adult, wet nurse is a bit…”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s thick eyebrows rose as he averted his gaze diagonally.

For a moment, Yue Shou-lin’s lips twitched slightly, but ultimately, as if unable to hold back her laughter, she parted her lips slightly.

Ahaha!

She laughed brightly.

As the instantaneous energy wave characteristic of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown erupted, causing her pitch-black hair to sway messily, she rocked her body and patted Jeong Yeon-shin’s shoulder with one hand. Adult, he says he’s an adult!

Brushing off her youngest junior’s cold gaze, she composed her voice.

Then, her voice, still tinged with laughter, flowed out somewhat playfully.

“That’s a relief. I would have felt uneasy leaving our youngest alone.”

Yue Shou-lin giggled softly with a girl’s face. Her appearance as a senior preparing for death was tucked away behind her expression.

“Pardon?”

“Zhuge Clan Leader was incredibly powerful. And it’s your first time properly facing a peerless master.”

“…That’s true.”

“We need to devise a strategy worth betting our lives on. His prepared mystical martial arts are incredibly free and complex. In a moment of carelessness, your abdomen could be pierced like Blood Guardian’s. And we don’t have regenerative abilities.”

Yue Shou-lin exaggeratedly shrugged her small shoulders.

However, the black robe she wore did not feel as light as it appeared.

“If any one of the three of us becomes unable to fight, the other two should flee immediately. Understand?”

“No.”

At his immediate response, she grinned.

“Well, how could you turn your back on such a beautiful senior sister? I’d rather induce my own deviation and leave first.”

“…Is Zhuge Clan Leader’s martial arts that formidable?”

“He moves with all sorts of mystical mediums. Formations, dharma texts, talismans with internal energy and mental imagery that were chilling. He was like someone who had given up on being human. He made a many-against-one battle feel like one-on-one. He’s completely insane.”

“Mystical martial arts…”

“His domain kept expanding even during the fight. Not just the size of a training ground. Not even a county. Moreover, all those things were woven into one great mystical formation, moving with that b*st*rd as its axis.”

“He’s not a person but a disaster.”

Yue Shou-lin nodded, saying, “Yes.”

“Whether it’s a vast wilderness or a famous scenic spot, it’s all his domain. Since he’s not in the Martial Alliance, he can set up mystical formations without worrying about appearances. Most joint attacks can’t defeat him. He’s harder to face than the Hwangbo Clan Leader who was killed by Annihilation Team, Azure Sky, and the Eunuch. That’s a fact known throughout the martial world.”

[TL Note- Ma Jin being done dirty by Yue Shou-lin lol.]

Swish.

“So, to increase our chances of victory even slightly…”

Suddenly standing up and casually dusting herself off, Yue Shou-lin said:

“We need to train. Even if briefly. This sister will teach you how to face peerless masters. Blood Guardian and I were defeated like this, so how could we include you without any preparation?”

“You must treat me as an equal.”

Jeong Yeon-shin wasn’t making a childish complaint. He was stating a fact. From the perspective of someone who now wore a black robe yet looked even higher.

It meant she needed to accept her junior’s martial prowess without reservation and form tactics accordingly.

“Well.”

Yue Shou-lin smiled brightly.

“Even if you become stronger than me someday, it will be the same. To me, you’ll always be the youngest junior who’s precious beyond words.”

Her tone was cheerful.

She stood lightly on the snow-white ground. The pitch-black robe falling to her feet suited her perfectly.

The undisputed strongest black-rank. Faint energy waves emanated from the spear in her small hand.

“Let’s begin. Let’s see what our Lightning Genius’s practical capabilities are like.”

She still had her energy sense broadly deployed. If the legendary Nine Heavens Fairy descended holding a weapon, would she look like this?

Her hair, with a texture like black ebony, swaying strand by strand, was mystical. In this moment, Yue Shou-lin was close to an immortal wielding a spear.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly rose, pushing off the ground.

“I look forward to your guidance.”

It was an opportunity to prepare for a battle with a peerless master while also measuring the martial prowess he had accumulated so far.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

Clang!

How did Zhuge Clan Leader defeat this person?

‘One hundred and thirty-five moves.’

This thought deepened as time passed. Jeong Yeon-shin barely managed to handle the impact each time he deflected Yue Shou-lin’s spear strikes with Northern Light Divine Sword.

He was doing so without activating Ultimate Thunder.

His opponent was the second-in-command of the Divine Sword Group who had approached the state of Five Qi Return to Origin after decades of cultivation. It was difficult to face her with just his body.

They couldn’t be considered the same rank of black. If this had been when he had just created the Luminous Wheel that Transcends Law Technique, wouldn’t it have been difficult to withstand even ten moves?

‘She mentioned to Senior Xiahou of Forest-Treading Wing about withstanding for ten moves.’

Trapped in the intense silver trajectory, Jeong Yeon-shin strongly felt it. Even in this situation, his sword power and sense that deflected and raised the spear seemed admirable.

As the wind repeatedly rushed in, strongly striking his ears, suddenly Yue Shou-lin leaped upside down above his head.

“Your sword tastes good!”

Her legs scraped the air in a curve.

Then, as if stepping on a true angle in midair, she twisted her waist, and from the spear thrust straight toward his crown, a rough wind swept up like a condensed typhoon.

She had elegantly connected three body movement changes to create a terrifying trajectory like lightning.

Before Jeong Yeon-shin’s exhalation could even leave his lips, an extremely powerful and swift technique was executed.

Yue Family Spear. General’s Thunder.

Boom!

As the snow-white spear strike was violently thrust down like divine punishment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s thoughts turned to light.

‘She properly imbued foot energy into the trajectory. That’s an absolute technique. It’s beyond the realm of illusion.’

It was just a moment.

Blue afterimages traced a faint line following Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes as he quickly turned his head.

He captured Yue Shou-lin’s spear strike trajectory in the radiance of his eye technique, dissecting it into countless concepts.

The hand from which the powerful strike sprouted, the destination and timing of the extremely precise spear technique trajectory, the flow of power connecting the foot energy, and the true energy structure of the energy wave rising from the spear tip to the shaft were all engraved in his eyes.

‘The energy wave was amplified five times in succession. The trajectory is a perfect vertical straight line…!’

This was after Yue Shou-lin had said she would recreate Zhuge Clan Leader’s attack.

At this moment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand raising Northern Light Divine Sword twitched three times. It was right after his upper dantian’s perception was brightly activated.

Swoosh!

Azure Qilin’s swift sword technique penetrated the storm of foot energy emanating from the spear strike.

The strands of energy waves that had thrust down like lightning were severed one by one by the extremely subtle hand movement, and the change that occurred in that momentary gap swallowed Yue Shou-lin’s strike in colorlessness.

Boom!

Intense vibrations raced along the hemispherical energy barrier.

Along with a cutting wind that seemed to have substance. The accumulated snow rose, and even white snowflakes scattered.

‘Ugh.’

Jeong Yeon-shin slightly bit his teeth. The fragments of energy that had cut through various parts of his upper body delivered a burning pain.

Though they were only minor cuts, he had clearly lost in the exchange.

His senior had shed the monkey’s shell through the bone-transforming metamorphosis that led to the state of Five Qi Return to Origin. She was close to a heavenly star.

Crunch.

Soon, the sound of stepping on snow rang out.

“I’m uneasy knowing you’re hiding an extremely large move. I don’t want you to get hurt needlessly. Our Lightning Genius’s body and face are treasures.”

Yue Shou-lin approached through the snowflakes, her black hair and black robe fluttering. She wore a peculiar expression.

“You really succeeded in breaking it down? Is your perception several moves ahead? With my energy deployment speed, you could have faced Zhuge Clan Leader alone.”

“I don’t envy Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.”

Jeong Yeon-shin deliberately spoke calmly. The corners of Yue Shou-lin’s mouth twitched upward as if seeing a puppy.

“I told you Zhuge Clan Leader’s attack techniques are about thirty percent stronger than this, right? He thrusts down as if he’s the Jade Emperor himself.”

“Yes.”

“You seem somewhat prepared now. It’s fine to go for individual training. I wonder where Blood Guardian is slacking off.”

“As a martial artist of complete perfection, he must be preparing in other ways.”

“Yes, right. That must be it.”

Yue Shou-lin smiled brightly before suddenly narrowing her brow.

“By the way, Zhuge Clan Leader hasn’t moved for too long. How many days has it been? Winter will be over soon. He must have heard about Valor Fist Lord, yet he remains quiet.”

While Jeong Yeon-shin remained silent, recalling Yan Hwa-ryeon, Yue Shou-lin lightly stroked her chin with her thin index finger.

“I’m very uneasy. We shouldn’t give mystical practitioners too much time…”

***

—The young black-rank of Desolate Fortress has touched the reverse scale of a peerless master. The absolute being who inherited the blood of Zhuge Liang is enraged and seeks to annihilate all traces of Desolate Fortress from Shanxi Province.

It was a rumor that inevitably spread beyond even the vast Shanxi.

Rumors about peerless masters travel a thousand li. This is because the martial might of one such person is comparable to a northern military division.

Not only the martial worlds of Shaanxi and Henan surrounding the vast land, but even the nobles of Northern Zhili, where the imperial court resided, reacted.

Those considered precious in various aspects throughout the world began to gather.

“The identity of the one called Slaughter Chivalry, which came to prominence due to Yan Hwa-ryeon’s matter, is irritating. Go and confirm it this time. I have an idea why the face of the Desolate Divine Hero I saw during the sect war looked familiar… Focus all your efforts on killing those two rather than Radiant Demon Wing Leader.”

While one who simultaneously inherited the legacy of the Murong clan and Heavenly Demon was awakening.

“Abbot, please permit me to descend the mountain. I will examine the difference between Demon Destroying Azure Unyielding Palm and Avalokitesvara Azure Unyielding Palm to benefit Longfeng County. My dharma brother Gak Jung, using his secular title ‘Little Diving Monk,’ says that the current Radiant Demon Wing Leader enjoys offering the skulls of blood demons to Buddha…”

Pure chanting sounds echoed in the Great Hero Hall of Mount Song.

“The Violet Exalted Pill? Among my peers, I’m now second only to Lightning Genius, but it seems a bit harsh for just me to go… Ah, alright! I’ll go! Don’t spread black incense with your finger! You need to conserve your energy!”

As plum blossom fragrance subtly spread on Jade Maiden Peak of Mount Hua, where flowers were hard to find.

“It matters not if delay is inevitable. This old man’s grandson is different from the insignificant ones, so your concern is unfounded. What? Dark Sword? You speak nonsense like a dog eating grass.”

In the southern end of the Ming Dynasty, a water dragon ascended from the seashore of Hainan, a place distant in both geography and climate, almost like another world.