Chapter 534 – Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji (5)

‘Both are mad.’

With that thought, Jade Cliff’s fist clenched with a cracking sound. Instantly, explosive roars rang out in succession along the boundary of the formation.

Explosive energy waves repeatedly generated in a short time. It was a command to the Wudang disciples comprising the encirclement in the venue. To open the sword formation.

“Sect Leader, you cannot go now. Please hand over the expelled disciple.”

Wuuung!

[Seven Seats Hidden Heaven!]

The voices of over a hundred Wudang disciples rang out as one. With an extremely mournful feeling.

“You dare…?”

Profound Void’s head, which had seemed about to leave immediately at that rallying cry, turned back with jerky movements.

Kureulung! Jjeojeojeojeojeojjeok—!

Suddenly the massive energy barrier shattered into pieces, and at the same time, a pair of man and horse came racing down through the void.

Along with thunder sounds that filled the ears numbingly. Each time the horse hooves struck the atmosphere, earthquake-like reverberations beat and split not only the ground but even the air.

[Where are you. Desolate Day Extinction.]

It rang out powerfully. A voice where one couldn’t distinguish whether it was human speech or shock waves.

In an instant, Profound Void’s eyes widened.

“That shabby appearance… a northern spawn dares to enter our sect…?”

A northern spy, Super Mad Dream Demon.

A mad sect leader.

Wudang masters trying to correct their sect’s ways.

A peerless man and horse that suddenly intruded.

Mount Wudang, the immortal mountain surrounded by pure white clouds, instantly transformed into an unprecedented battlefield.

While Jade Cliff squeezed his eyes shut once, Mount Wudang’s characteristic gentle air began heating up like a furnace due to internal energy fluctuations.

“What is your purpose?”

[You are number seven.]

Kureulung!

Instantly the atmosphere filled with grayish-white lightning.

It was the recoil from Profound Void’s sword blocking the man and horse that had been heavily charging through void treading.

All directions flickered and dimmed, and on the ground, trees that had been barely green were uprooted and blown away as if swept by a typhoon.

In the midst of this, the iron-colored protective strong energy surrounding the man and horse only scattered red sparks against Profound Void’s Pine Gate Ancient Sword.

It could not be cut.

“B*st*rd.”

In Profound Void’s eyes was reflected the man riding the war horse.

He had a tremendously massive frame.

He wore a bamboo hat like the Heaven Conquering Sect Leader, seemingly to hide his face. Due to energy waves that ceaselessly distorted like steam, even his lower jaw was not properly visible.

[Answer the question. This is a futile fight.]

In the midst of this, the man’s tone was indifferent. Only powerful energy waves that beat the ears disturbed the vicinity.

It was a pure white afternoon with sunlight pouring down in streams.

* * *

—First, we must eliminate the source of energy waves that further incite the Sect Leader Immortal’s heart demons. The sound arts that Super Mad Dream Demon employs are the main cause. According to our sect’s knowledge, it’s a technique of Divine Theft, unbelievably secretive and vicious. Ah… also, absolutely do not make eye contact with that person. Lord Jeong might not have any particular problem, but just in case…

This was Zhu Se-hwa’s advice.

She was not with Jeong Yeon-shin now. It was because she had been pushed back as soon as he began racing downward. Her lightness skill was below that of Lazy Flame Dragon.

‘And.’

Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes darkened.

The mad Profound Void Immortal was certainly a big problem by his very existence, but he wasn’t sure if Super Mad Dream Demon was the same.

It was because of the energy waves that had suddenly intruded. A cluster of internal energy so tremendously massive that he had rarely felt it before.

Moreover, it wasn’t one but two. It felt like two internal energy masters moving together as one body, yet they didn’t seem like they would lose to Profound Void Immortal. It was unbelievable but certainly so.

It was an impossible thing.

Jeong Yeon-shin and Desolate Fortress had fought countless battles and achieved results with all sorts of sacrifices.

Thanks to that.

The martial jianghu was already in a somewhat organized state.

Though there were countless strange beings under heaven, could such an existence that could compete with the Five Greatest Swords under Heaven suddenly pop up out of nowhere?

Even if there were peerless masters who stood alone in the world. The energy waves of the intruders felt at this moment were extremely alien.

They were crude yet precise. Simultaneously destructive. With such contradictory qualities in one body, he couldn’t guess what martial arts they would use.

It was a first.

‘Unless they came from a completely different jianghu…’

Jeong Yeon-shin was unconsciously surprised by his own thought. At the same time, he felt a familiar presence beside him.

“This time, where have you been all this while?”

He suddenly asked while crossing through the void. Shin Cheon-hwa was right beside him.

A mischievous smile formed on her lips.

“Always remember and be wary. Masters of sorcery martial arts who have achieved Form Shifting Void can exist anywhere. They make all of space the interval of their movement techniques. There must be at least two or three in the northern jianghu as well.”

“Couldn’t you bestow the formulas of Form Shifting Void upon me as well?”

This was by no means a shameless question.

It wasn’t an individual begging for martial arts, but the Acting Divine Sword Group Leader demanding attack methods from a grand perspective. Rather, he should be confident.

But Shin Cheon-hwa only shook her head slightly with a mysterious smile.

“Can’t you already move anywhere from branch to branch of World Tree? You even possess divine technique sword strikes that follow Form Shifting Void. You’re already a perfect martial artist.”

“I’m not perfect.”

“You’re already sufficient. It’s for your sake.”

Rustle.

She lightly clasped her hands behind her back. While matching pace with Jeong Yeon-shin who had struck the ground once more and soared up.

At this moment, lightness skill rushing so fast that all directions were distorted. It was a path going straight downward.

“It’s better not to delve further into sorcery martial arts beyond that. The endings of those who looked deeply into all creation were generally terrible. The things I taught you are the same. Use them only as light techniques and prioritize swordwork.”

“What do you mean by terrible…?”

“Just as corpses enter graves, there are cases where natural earth energy invades all sorts of death points causing short life. Thus sorcery martial arts are sorcerous techniques that wield harmony beyond one’s own ability. Unless one is covered in precious dharma treasures, one is inevitably bound to pay a price. Being wary of this is precisely the fate of those who have learned sorcery martial arts.”

“…I once exchanged hands with the Wudang Sect Leader Immortal. He wielded power beyond his body with natural earth energy, and I felt unbelievably stable energy waves.”

“Well, that’s Zhang Sanfeng’s martial arts.”

As if that was the end, no further explanation followed. Soon after, Shin Cheon-hwa concluded her words.

“Four times. The number of times I deployed Form Shifting Void in life. It’s not a study to use frequently unless you’re about to die. It would be a hundred times better to focus on fully awakening that Three Clear Powers instead.”

“……”

Suddenly Jeong Yeon-shin felt a certain déjà vu. It seemed like he had already had this conversation…?

‘Was it right after the Desolate Great War?’

It was certain.

This was a story he had already heard once. Right before the true Shin Cheon-hwa disappeared from under heaven. In other words, the Shin Cheon-hwa who had accompanied him thus far was somehow an illusion of Jeong Yeon-shin who had become unbalanced.

Pararararararak!

Suddenly his sleeve hem violently struck his arm. More precisely, that sensation was felt intensely.

“……”

The Shin Cheon-hwa who had been conversing with him until just before had disappeared. More precisely, she had moved far forward at some point.

Hazily.

He could see her back.

Beyond those angular shoulders, some battlefield was spread out, which suited well with the back view fluttering purple garment edges.

But now, for some reason, it wasn’t fixed to one appearance. Like a gem that looked different depending on the angle.

‘Ah.’

That purple martial artist.

At this moment appeared to Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes as Shin Cheon-hwa, yet also appeared as Yong Hye-myeong, and for an instant also flickered as Ma Yeon-jeok’s reliable back.

Then returned to Shin Cheon-hwa again. In any case, they were all Divine Sword Group Leaders who could overturn all battlefields under heaven.

At the same time, they were also illusions of deviation of mind.

Age eighteen.

Heart demons that had silently crept into a youth who had continuously faced the deaths of main fortress warriors in a situation where the energy between heaven and earth passing through his Baihui acupoint had naturally explosively increased.

Naturally, he would need to shatter them in his head to find himself.

‘No.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought. I can’t end it there.

Kuuuuuuung!

The ground shattered into pieces from the propulsive energy waves of Ten-Li Gentle Light. Cracks spreading far like an earthquake. He had stepped forward once more.

It was already the seventeenth step. Jeong Yeon-shin completely split space while generating grayish-white shock waves behind him.

Huuuuk!

He soared into the void. To a point where Mount Wudang’s battlefield could be seen at a glance.

It was an instant.

The moment Jeong Yeon-shin’s body overlapped with the illusion that had been flickering in three forms, his long black hair and purple long robe became even deeper.

It was warm. The phrase “revering oneself alone” also came to mind.

‘Of course.’

The one who inherits them.

Because only he existed in all under heaven.

Finally, it arose in Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. The stories that the true Shin Cheon-hwa had conveyed while disappearing from under heaven right after the Desolate Great War. Now reflection was possible.

There had been a farewell greeting that ended all those words along with good wishes that his labors would inevitably be great. At this moment, it rang out once more in Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind.

—You too are a Divine Sword Group Leader.

Instantly, semi-transparent glass fragments formed in his vision. And completely shattered and disappeared.

Thukgang—!

The names of those fragments were various. Sense of defeat, impatience, sorrow, inferiority complex, fear… heart demons that narrow a person’s vision and place the heart on hellfire.

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had overlapped his body with Shin Cheon-hwa’s illusion, accepted all of that and let it flow widely through his toes.

Thus the invisible fragments fell to the ground along with the gentle energy wave fragments of Ten-Li Gentle Light.

At an immeasurably high place.

The moment he felt the entire world had become spotlessly clear.

“What is that again?!”

“Desolate Day Extinction… no, Lotus Nezha, he’s a guest! How so quickly…”

[Desolate Day Extinction?]

“…Already a child who has exchanged swords. I told you not to look for me.”

“Desolate Fortress Lightning Genius? Why does he look fine…?”

He was already falling toward the place wrapped in hazy energy wave storms.

Finally, the beautiful youth who had burst out in doubt existed at the center of the battlefield, with Profound Void Immortal beside him.

‘Super Mad Dream Demon.’

Jeong Yeon-shin moved his hand to his waist.

Swish.

The instant he grasped the sword hilt tied to his belt, he felt the tranquil pine tree pattern. A clear roar arose from the Pine Gate Ancient Sword simultaneously.

The sound of something invisible shattering. The Natural Sword’s disguise had broken.

“…!”

The moment all the gazes of Wudang’s immortals were sucked toward the Pine Gate Ancient Sword.

Kugugugugugugung—!

The energy waves that had been bursting magnificently in all directions began to mix in a circle. It was power originating from Jeong Yeon-shin’s grasp.

It was an instant until the chaotic yet powerful festival of internal energy fluctuations was woven into a single line.

Jeong Yeon-shin had already dropped the Pine Gate Ancient Sword held in reverse grip as if casually striking downward.

Peoeoeoeoeoeoek!

The old sword pierced through Super Mad Dream Demon’s ribs and fixed him to the ground. His scream rang out belatedly, and the instant Profound Void Immortal’s eyes sharpened like blades.

The shock wave of the single strike did not burst.

Passsss—!

The dirt of the wide clearing was merely pushed in all directions, drawing a single pattern. Like a great imugi coiled up.

Suddenly.

The movements of Profound Void Immortal, who glanced down at the ground, stopped. The same was true for the Wudang masters who had been emitting sublime internal energy fluctuations.

“……”

Crack, crackle—

Sounds like firewood crumbling.

Beneath the feet of the assembly, a deep blue taiji was burning gently. It was a circle made of long blue flames.