Chapter 502 – Desolate Great War (2)

Definitely.

Someone’s gaze was upon them.

Ma Se-in had long since sharpened his energy sense with the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique. It was impossible to dismiss such a strange feeling as mere illusion.

The situation where even the supreme masters who had been fighting on the mountain path had stopped their movements.

Only the hollow sound of wind striking the emaciated tree branches that had survived the barren winter echoed emptily.

‘What is this…?’

However, Ma Se-in deliberately ignored the sensation that seemed to bind his entire body as he grabbed Crimson Day Sword’s arm and pulled him along.

Moving his body wasn’t difficult. Somehow the gaze that had descended from the distant void felt familiar rather than strange. There was no killing intent. At least, that’s how it felt to him.

Thwack!

They began running again.

At the same time, the presence of the gaze that had been massively consuming the sky also disappeared. While faintly planting a familiar sensation of intent in Ma Se-in’s mind.

—I’m in closed-door cultivation. Sorry, just hold on a little longer.

‘What?’

The location was grasped.

The last words ended like that.

It was definitely mental transmission.

“……!”

An extremely strange feeling.

He couldn’t guess how many li it had flown across. Would it be like this if the Shaolin Abbot borrowed the power of a precious dharma treasure to send Wisdom Light Heart Speech?

Ma Se-in’s expression brightened as he began sprinting again.

He could die here. That was the karma of a family under Desolate Fortress who had lived their entire lives eating the nation’s grain.

He couldn’t know what method the main fortress’s purple was cultivating right now. Whatever the circumstances, only the fact that Jeong Yeon-shin had entered cultivation mattered.

He had said closed-door cultivation.

It would require a long time.

‘But.’

That was rather better.

How many of the Thirteen Evil Sect Leaders had set foot on Xiangyang’s land today?

Jeong Yeon-shin shouldn’t come here. Apart from the various positions he had to consider as the young master of Desolate Ma Family, Ma Se-in’s personal feelings were the same. Rather, he harbored different expectations.

If qualities infinitely close to the greatest of all time emerged from breaking long closed-door cultivation.

What kind of purple would the martial world welcome then?

There was nothing to think about.

Desolate Fortress would once again become the oppressor of the jianghu’s martial sects, and the suffering of common people by the Sima unorthodox path would also be significantly reduced.

This was why Ma Se-in’s lightness technique sprint became even swifter at this moment.

“……?”

Meanwhile, Crimson Day Sword only kicked the ground together with him while showing a puzzled expression.

The intent that had descended from the void had been transmitted to only one person, but Ma Se-in didn’t have the leisure to explain the situation right now.

“Hooh.”

This was because a thread of admiration had settled low like twilight. Directed precisely at Ma Se-in.

“Now I won’t need to send challenge letters.”

The voice of a middle-aged man filled with great interest fell from the sky.

Truly enormous presence.

Before they knew it, he was positioned at the exact center where the Martial Dragon Alliance’s Supreme Protector and Desolate Fortress’s two Squad Leaders were confronting each other. Like a great mountain suddenly sprouting through the clouds.

Ma Se-in intuitively realized.

That the middle-aged man, the Martial Dragon Alliance Leader, had grasped the existence of that mental transmission.

That was a capability permitted only to the absolute masters of internal energy cultivation who commanded the natural earth energy between heaven and earth like servants.

Ma Se-in, who had been raised as the successor of Desolate Ma Family, had heard from Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok.

Among the jianghu’s miscreants who roamed the official roads like their own homes without paying even the price of a grain of rice, an extremely few achieved enlightenment harmful to the world and stole others’ secrets.

‘The realm of eavesdropping on mental transmissions… could he have completely discerned even the content?’

Ma Se-in continued running without looking back.

And he felt it with his entire body. The sensation of the atmosphere suddenly becoming heavy. It was as if the earth was slowly submerging into deep water.

His limbs, which had been smoothly pushing through the air with Harmonious Flower Divine Technique’s true energy, rapidly became heavy, and the firmly dried ground became sticky and mushy like a swamp, swallowing the propulsive energy waves from his soles.

From far behind.

Wuuung—

This had happened due to the power wave that the Martial Dragon Alliance Leader had suddenly exhaled once. Even though Ma Se-in’s internal energy possessed the gentle and pure qualities characteristic of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique.

‘Merely by circulating energy, he suppresses the opponent’s internal energy operation…?!’

When had he made his move?

Ma Se-in hadn’t properly perceived it.

He only realized belatedly the existence of a storm that whooshed over his head during the moment when the world’s movements felt extremely stifling.

Kwaaaaaaaa—!

Along with a roar.

[Supreme Protector, now is not the time to play with youngsters. The time has come, so follow me! Now, let’s go destroy Desolate Fortress!]

The Martial Dragon Alliance Leader’s great laughter that followed those words stirred up gales in all directions.

The wind pressure that seemed to block breathing tore through the dense dust clouds.

From the ground, cracks arose with squelching sounds and split into several streams, roughly racing along the mountain path.

It was the aftermath of Void Treading.

Whiiiiiiiiing—!

The shadow of Martial Dragon Alliance Leader Helian Feng-yue, sprinting through the sky like a comet toward Desolate Fortress and disappearing.

[Sturdy! They must be fellows from the Divine Sword Group who are particularly skilled in defensive basics!]

Before they knew it, the Azure Sky Squad Leader and Ultimate Martial Hall Leader were being held by their heads in his broad hands while colliding with the fierce winds.

The repulsive force from the two Squad Leaders’ noble protective strong energy created friction with the wind current, bursting vermillion sparks in lines.

They were black rank.

Even after allowing the Martial Dragon Alliance Leader a lethal move, their heads hadn’t burst instantly.

Rather, blue-green sword energy endlessly extended from Azure Sky Squad Leader’s treasured sword, grinding against Helian Feng-yue’s shoulder blade, and Ultimate Martial Hall Leader’s jet-black prosthetic leg repeatedly struck Helian Feng-yue’s profile with thuds, continuously creating massive shockwaves.

But the protective strong energy he wore didn’t shatter like diamond, only bursting with roars.

[Very good! Let’s go like this once!]

While Helian Feng-yue’s spirited cry scattered like an echo.

“Youngsters of Desolate Fortress, I’ll come to examine the dynamic techniques you’ve cultivated someday, so you must not die.”

Martial Dragon Alliance’s Supreme Protector Burning Heaven Elder, who had risen with his hands clasped behind his back while laughing loudly, lightly stepped on a thin tree branch and crossed the atmosphere like a shot arrow, following behind.

“Precisely south. If we’re talking about Desolate Fortress, that’s the main gate… our Martial Dragon Alliance will rule that battlefield.”

Hwa Yeon-bi blocked Ma Se-in’s path with leisurely bearing.

Soft footsteps lightly treading the ground… She was together with the white-robed man she had brought earlier, but perhaps due to the Martial Dragon Alliance Leader’s command, no particular hostility could be felt. Both were the same way.

For them, Helian Feng-yue’s words were providence itself.

“The Martial Dragon Alliance will dominate the battlefield?”

Ma Se-in quietly asked back while taking a joint attack formation with Crimson Day Sword.

They positioned themselves three steps apart from each other, raising their swords to middle stance, aiming at the chests of Hwa Yeon-bi and the white-robed man.

Soon Hwa Yeon-bi smiled brightly.

“Countless like-minded people have deeply studied countless martial arts and given teachings to each other. The martial artists of our alliance who face factional wars must be stronger than any masters. The upper dantian battles of Martial Dragon Alliance masters will flexibly and immediately accept any variables to counter the opponent’s techniques.”

“That…”

Ma Se-in didn’t smile. He just continued speaking bluntly.

“Sounds familiar somehow.”

“What?”

“Did you cultivate such things? No, I should say it happened naturally due to the Martial Dragon Alliance’s style. Not innate, but acquired.”

At his words, Hwa Yeon-bi’s head tilted minutely to the side.

It was a strange enough tone to make her tilt her head, but she didn’t bother to inquire further. She just opened her mouth while still wearing a smile.

“Young Master Ma is correct. Moreover, this factional war is a feast where we can witness most of Desolate Fortress’s martial arts in one place. That’s why our alliance accepted Yu Ling’s joint attack proposal. Right now you don’t have many masters who can handle our Alliance Leader, let alone our Supreme Protector.”

“You want to more freely steal common people’s rice bowls during the famine, right? Taking advantage of the chaotic times to annihilate our main fortress in advance since it would be bothersome.”

“That’s how we’ll leave great footprints in all creation through Martial Ultimate. It’s the most noble challenge under heaven. Of course, the bandits, water bandits, and schemers who came here seemed only interested in this land called Xiangyang.”

She collectively looked down on the major factions allied with the Martial Dragon Alliance. It would be because what they pursued was greatly different.

The Sima unorthodox path Thirteen Evil Sects were tribes impossible to become close with, but Yu Ling Leader’s ‘Desolate Fortress Annihilation Great War’ stratagem that had been woven for a long time was somehow casting invisible dark clouds over Xiangyang.

It was more malicious and meticulous than any Transcendent Martial Art.

“Insane.”

Crimson Day Sword laughed.

“The same parasites making excuses.”

At his words, Ma Se-in tapped the ground with his toe while opening his mouth. It was preparation for lightness technique.

“First we should check on the main fortress. We’ll have to continuously shake off those two… would it be possible?”

Ma Se-in felt heavy responsibility. In a situation where he alone knew that Jeong Yeon-shin had entered closed-door cultivation.

He had to convey this to the main fortress that would be waiting for the youngest purple in all history. So that the main fortress martial artists who would sporadically face death could embrace honor rather than vain hope.

Then Hwa Yeon-bi interjected as if finding it amusing.

“Would that work? The Lightning Genius martial lineage is just particularly strong in single strikes, but it has heavy energy consumption and is vulnerable in long battles. For Sima path martial arts, the techniques are too refined, and for righteous path martial arts, they’re too explosive… To overcome this, you need to learn Radiant Arts Bond to boost each other’s energy waves in group battles, but that’s a martial art only Radiant Demon Wing can cultivate. Not many in this vast world have seen it.”

She had mentioned weaknesses already known throughout the world. The answer came from Crimson Day Sword.

“Your tongue is long.”

“The Martial Dragon Alliance is a sect of records. We store tremendous knowledge in our heads and manifest it with our bodies.”

“Then try answering this once.”

Suddenly hazy waves of light began glimmering on the middle-aged blue master’s sword blade, and his legs stirred up rough winds as if about to sprint toward Desolate Fortress immediately. Soon Crimson Day Sword slowly concluded his words.

“Which jianghu person has gone to a long battle with the Lightning Genius martial lineage?”

“……”

Hwa Yeon-bi couldn’t answer immediately.

* * *

High above where the vast castle walls spread out in white marble could be clearly seen.

“Alliance Leader, look there. They’ve already started.”

An aged voice mixed into the fierce storm. It was the voice of Burning Heaven Elder, who was leisurely following behind the Martial Dragon Alliance Leader with his hands clasped behind his back.

Helian Feng-yue, who had been racing through the sky while gripping the heads of two Divine Sword Group black ranks with his large hands, burst into great laughter.

“What a spectacular sight!”

Desolate Fortress’s main gate.

Already.

That place was a battlefield of stars that hung high in the jianghu.

Crackle crackle crack! Bang! Kwakwakwang!

All sorts of energy waves lengthily tore through the void, bursting with greater recoil than thunderclaps.

While some shattered marble fragments scattered in all directions, there were masters of the Thirteen Evil Sects walking vertically up the castle walls.

Above them, arrows of archery martial arts and palm winds, fist strike energy waves poured down like thunder, clashing with the enemies’ techniques, and each time the ground shook violently with thuds.

The strikes of Desolate Fortress martial artists carried no emotion. Everything was lethal killing moves.

The temperament of extending techniques toward rotten tree branches that should rightfully be cut. Their facial muscles only moved when battle cries were needed.

“……”

There were no other sounds. Only roars filled the air.

Thud! Kuung! Crackle crack!

A factional war of the world’s masters.

Despite the scale that resembled war, no one discussed the battle situation in voices that could reach the enemy. The battlefield composed only of masters who used mental transmission was intense in silence.

In the midst of this, one master of the Thirteen Evil Sects’ Martial Dragon Alliance finally climbed onto the castle wall, and at that moment, sword winds that poured hazily like thread from all directions silently burst his body.

Splat.

The swordsmen of Azure Sky Squad, who stepped on the floor that had become sticky with blood, moved to different positions. While simultaneously raising Squad Leader level power waves.

Soon the roughly twenty large-bodied martial artists who naturally filled that empty spot. They were the blue and white of Divine Sword Group’s Forest Treading Squad.

“Alliance Leader, what did you decide to do about the other leaders?”

Burning Heaven Elder, who had been quietly looking down at that sight, suddenly asked, but Helian Feng-yue was already descending toward a distant place with the two Squad Leaders hanging on both sides. It was a descent accompanied by great laughter.

The grandmaster of Great Sun Void Pulling Force, a divine technique that had never existed under heaven, was that free.

Burning Heaven Elder shook his head.

“Let’s see…” He muttered while treading the void. While sensing the vast battlefield with his energy sense.

Already all four sides of Desolate Fortress were battlefields of noble combat.

Right now, the south where the main gate was located had the Martial Dragon Alliance and their subordinate factions, plus first-rate wandering martial artists that Yu Ling had bought with money.

‘The north is the domain where the Desolate Fortress Lord’s residence is located. The formations are strict, so we agreed not to enter…’

The western castle wall had long since been blown away entirely by Myriad Upper Road Stronghold Leader Sea Overflow Fist Heaven’s single punch.

An absolute master who had been holding his breath for an extremely long time before suddenly grasping the nation’s waterways. At this moment, the midwinter sky that had been transparently pouring cool sunlight was distorted like summer.

It would be due to the energy waves of Sea Overflow Fist Heaven, who was said to hold blazing heat in his grasp.

Conversely, the east was eerily quiet. It was the direction that Dream Human Moon’s master was supposed to enter, but it seemed as if no battle was taking place.

“Monstrous things.”

Hwaaaaa!

Burning Heaven Elder’s form, who had recited his brief thoughts, suddenly began to descend.

Desolate Fortress couldn’t end here.

Right now, just the supreme masters of Martial Dragon Alliance, Yu Ling, and Dream Human Moon were clashing with Squad Leaders throughout Desolate Fortress.

Some of them were being greatly pushed back, and the reasons were very diverse. Cases where superiority was divided in martial arts themselves, formations and sword formations that exceeded imagination, etc.

They might suffer great damage unexpectedly.

Burning Heaven Elder was assigned to attack the main gate. The task of bringing down Desolate Fortress’s signboard. He had to exercise greater influence than the self-willed leaders of each faction.

So that the horde of men and horses currently charging toward the main gate like an avalanche while spewing cloud-like dust behind them could rush into the main fortress at once.

‘Gang of Demons Green Forest came on time, but…’

Burning Heaven Elder’s gaze turned to the center of the main gate.

One person was standing there.

“……”

A human shadow holding a silver long spear planted in the ground while gazing at Gang of Demons Green Forest. The hem of the black robe she wore fluttered endlessly in the fierce wind. While revealing a surface that had faded to gentle gray.

A very small frame compared to the battlefield, and even her short-cut hair was close to shocking. Desolate Fortress’s First Black Rank had completed preparations to face the mounted martial arts of the major faction called Gang of Demons Green Forest alone.

Wuung! Wuung—!

The energy waves accumulated in the spear shaft were so dense that circular dust clouds endlessly extended from beneath her feet.

Thud!

Burning Heaven Elder, who had landed while creating cracks in the ground, blocked Yue Shou-lin’s path. The Martial Dragon Alliance’s Supreme Protector was captured in her jet-black eyes.

“Yue family child, do you plan to die meaninglessly? Don’t needlessly block the path. They must reach the Desolate Fortress Lord’s residence like this, and I fear you might apply even a little braking.”

“Come at me.”

She said.

Burning Heaven Elder immediately gave up. He had read Yue Shou-lin’s intentions with an old jianghu veteran’s experience.

There was no need to exchange more words. He had to clear her away in advance.

“A unprecedented coward who kicked away the family estate she should rightfully inherit and entered the imperial embrace from the main family.”

Kuguugugugugung—!!

Behind him.

The cloud that had been charging toward the battlefield began to rapidly grow. It was just before Gang of Demons Green Forest, which had already slaughtered several powerful martial families, arrived.

Earthquake-like rumbling gradually grew louder along with roars, and before long, thick earthen fog began to surround all directions.

It was the harbinger of Gang of Demons Green Forest’s manifestation.

Soon.

A natural disaster made of martial arts would arrive.

“Yue family child.”

Colorless swirling tension gathered in Burning Heaven Elder’s hands.

Power waves that penetrated even the explosive sounds continuously raised by the mounted army and lifted his yellow robe hem. One strike would be able to push her away. Right now Yue Shou-lin was also pulling her spear shaft from the ground.

“This is the jianghu.”

It was right after he briefly exhaled and took one breath.

Suddenly a grayish-white thread was carved into Burning Heaven Elder’s neck, and following that boundary line, a space that opened like a mouth pushed his head and body apart up and down.

Thud.

The old man’s head that fell drearily was crushed by some leather shoe and burst right there.