Chapter 599 – Intoxicated by the Starry Night

Swords, axes, crescent blades.

These were the edged weapons that the common people of the demon realm held closer than pickaxes.

Unlike the south, they did not strive to block the ‘Gates,’ so they even sharpened the roofs of their houses to ward off the strange birds that occasionally flew down from the sky—such was their way of life.

All pavilions were like swords.

And the place with the most swords in the demon realm was the capital city of Black Capital.

A great city that revealed itself in blackish hues when one traveled about three thousand li northeast from Juyong Pass of the Great Wall north of Beijing.

As distant as it was, it was filled with exotic culture and customs.

However, the ruler’s palace alone was covered with elegant octagonal roofs like Ming Dynasty architectural style, and the darkness that filled its interior was as black as the south.

Black Capital Imperial Palace.

It was the palace of the Northern Greatest.

“Southern Emperor, the construction of the sorcery formation is complete.”

A voice that brazenly violated the residence of one who would become the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. It was a voice muddied and altered by internal energy, requiring very careful listening to recognize it as a woman’s voice.

“Only now?”

At the Southern Emperor’s counter-question, the darkness rippled.

It was a space where one could not see where he sat or where the throne was positioned.

A scene of being buried in an abyss. Just by cultivating martial arts, he had summoned the night sky to the palace in broad daylight.

But the woman’s answer was leisurely.

“There was an unexpected incident.”

“Yes, I can see it now. The Western Greatest has suffered internal injuries.”

The Southern Emperor spoke slowly, then immediately added a brief question.

“What happened?”

“You need not know.”

“Indeed. If it doesn’t greatly affect the Great Method, that’s sufficient. Just tell me how long it will take.”

“Two fortnights.”

Ming Cult Leader Young Heavenly Demon Invincible continued indifferently.

“That’s the time needed for the sorcery formation to gather sufficient natural energy. Your clan’s Fighting God will appear under the full moon that rises and sets twice.”

“Truth. Well done.”

Well done. It was rare praise from the Southern Emperor. It was because he, as one who would ascend to the imperial throne, took all matters seriously.

“When the Fighting God returns, everything will be finished.”

He spoke slowly.

“The Ming imperial family is absorbed in strengthening imperial power and pathetically holds onto the Wudang Sect Leader, while the Desolate Fortress Lord will be killed by the tree with legs and the Crown Prince of Dali within a year.”

“I’m not interested, so just supply the dharma treasures properly. No one under heaven has ever handled energy of this magnitude.”

The task of manifesting the Fighting God of the north.

The situation was different from the southern jianghu people who used branches of the World Tree as a medium to travel between their sects and the ‘Gates.’

The Desolate Fortress and Nine Sects received support from the Ming Dynasty in that way, but Young Heavenly Demon Invincible was on the verge of summoning the Fighting God from nothing in the wilderness.

How long had the demon realm been looking down upon the Ming Dynasty? Two fortnights was no different from an instant.

This was a matter between nations.

The Southern Emperor asked.

“Do you have any thoughts of forming a marriage alliance with me?”

“What?”

“Qualities are inherited. My descendants must be stronger than the Ming Dynasty’s imperial family.”

Young Heavenly Demon Invincible’s presence suddenly vanished.

As if it wasn’t even worth responding to.

The next moment, as if waiting for her to leave, a voice rang out from outside. It was the Southern Emperor’s confidant.

“Your Majesty.”

“Speak.”

“There’s a report that the gates of Yeoktru Castle have opened. They’re advancing directly toward us.”

“The Divine Sword Group?”

“Yes.”

“Lightning Genius’s body is not intact. The Sword of the Night Sky is also about to die. It must be his subordinates acting on their own.”

“By estimation, two transcendents at the Northern King level, at least ten black-ranked great warriors, and over four hundred elite martial army forces… Truly overwhelming. As a single force, it’s impossible to oppose…”

“Very emotional behavior. Find out the reason. I’ll handle the response.”

“Yes!”

The subordinate’s presence disappeared.

Soon after, the Southern Emperor’s voice entered the distant sound caves. Bright Wind Spirit. The sound transmission space of the pro-Fighting God Northern Kings.

—I tell my comrades. When the full moon breaks twice, there will be the Fighting God’s return, so all should raise armies and come here.

Now only the Southern Emperor’s laughter remained in the inner chamber that was black as night.

Black Capital Imperial Palace. Darkness without stars.

—This is the final naadam (festival).

The Southern Emperor’s words, no different from commands, permeated the nothingness.

Wooooooong!

Immediately, voices that returned from various parts of the vast demon realm made the darkness surge. It was the sound transmission of Northern Kings who cared not whether the new nation’s name would be Jin or Great Qing.

Where all devoured and were devoured by each other.

To end the hell called famine.

All the absolute masters who would participate in the founding of the Qing Dynasty responded.

* * *

A place where dozens of self-luminous stones rolled around like marbles. Hazy clusters of light illuminated various spots like stars.

On the ceiling, on the walls, and embedded in the floor, making it difficult to distinguish up from down.

A dim starry world.

All the cave passages were as wide as decent marketplaces.

Their size and the luminous pearls were things that even fairly wealthy major sects would find hard to imagine, but under the name of the Ming Cult, impossible things generally did not exist.

It was a place that held fame equal to “All martial arts under heaven come from Shaolin” and “Ten thousand swords look back to southern Wudang,” yet pursued strength in the secular world.

The foremost demonic sect lineage. A religion that bewitched and misled the people.

It was inevitable to possess both martial arts and wealth and glory.

This was why the two hundred Ming Cult members who had rushed into the great cave at this moment appeared both intimidating and wealthy.

Most wore soft black satin or gorgeous white silk clothing.

Their fine and smooth skin stood out despite living in the underground cavity during the great famine. Along with the dark haze they were faintly emanating.

Bang!

“What is that?!”

A short Ming Cult member who had belatedly rushed into the group pointed at one spot.

What the Ming Cult members in the hall were facing at this moment. It was a pile of rocks that had completely blocked what had been a wide passage like a barrier.

One of his subordinates answered.

“There was an emission of the Three Ceremonies Triple Palace’s Light Spear. It was heading toward the Northern Dark Treasury when it suddenly collapsed the ceiling and built a barrier as you can see.”

“Imperial Three Great Masters…? No wonder the wall is so thick!”

The beard of the man with a height like a ten-year-old child but an unusually sturdy build became distorted. Meanwhile, a pair of large hand axes hung on both sides of his thick waist. They gleamed with sharp silver light as if freshly made.

“Martial Brightness Lord, you’ve come well.”

The middle-aged man at the front of the Ming Cult members welcomed the short man.

It was Thorn Disaster Lord, who had earlier said he would dig out and eat the Divine Sword Group Leader’s skull, one of the Three Desolate Dark Lords who led the Ming Cult’s three battle groups.

“We were afraid that if we acted, we might collapse even the Northern Dark Treasury. Martial Brightness Lord, you’ll have to do it.”

A voice brimming with power.

Thorn Disaster Lord was letting his monkey-like long arms hang down. While gazing intently beyond the stone wall where Jeong Yeon-shin’s party had disappeared.

Similarly, Martial Brightness Lord, who was one of the Three Desolate Dark Lords, looked up at Thorn Disaster Lord with a displeased expression.

“Northern Dark Treasury? You’ve already collapsed it, so what nonsense are you spouting?”

“Weren’t the pills that the Cult Leader gathered worth an armful? After this matter is settled, if even one pill remains intact, we must find it.”

Dwarf and monkey.

These were the names Ming Cult Leader Young Heavenly Demon Invincible used to call Martial Brightness Lord and Thorn Disaster Lord, and the two lords gladly accepted the nicknames she had given them. Regardless of their dignified status.

“What about the Grand Preceptor?”

At Martial Brightness Lord’s question, Thorn Disaster Lord pointed upward.

“As soon as the front was blocked, he went up to the altar on the upper floor. With the intention of definitely killing those heretics.”

“Definitely kill? How?”

“He told the Bright Demon to temporarily stop the sorcery formation and said he would temporarily accept that power himself. In preparation for when we fail.”

“The ground will collapse! This underground cavity is maintained in its current form thanks to the Cult Leader’s sorcery formation in the first place. If it weren’t for that, it would have collapsed long ago! Originally, it couldn’t exist intact!”

“That’s what he’s aiming for.”

“What?”

“The enemies are all peerless masters. No matter how exhausted they may be, it’s hard to be certain that techniques we can’t imagine won’t emerge, isn’t it? If we can collapse part of this underground cavity and kill all three at once, wouldn’t that be a profitable deal?”

Before he knew it, Thorn Disaster Lord was raising his long arms left and right. It was the opening stance of the ‘Towering Ancestor Great Transposition of Northern Darkness,’ known as the Ming Cult’s protective divine art.

A divine technique famous for not being inferior to the Wudang sect’s Taiji martial lineage in the art of using an opponent’s force against them.

“Let’s see first. If you break through that wall, I’ll neutralize all the enemies’ defenses. If I can somehow deflect just one move… the rest will be resolved with wheel warfare.”

“Mm.”

The short man, Martial Brightness Lord, no longer argued. The next moment, the two axes hanging on both sides of his waist began rotating on their own.

Divine Art Secret Technique.

Small Universe Heaven-Defying Scripture.

Whirrrrrrr!

A gale struck from underfoot like a phoenix’s wingbeat. The dust that had been flowing around with the light clusters of luminous pearls was pushed away all at once.

A divine art that viciously penetrated the gaps in all things.

Dwarf clan jianghu people were skilled at breaking martial arts. Because they observed the grain well.

If such a person from birth learned the Ming Cult’s Heaven-Defying Scripture and also reached the realm of unity of essence, energy, and spirit, they were bound to become the leader of a great martial force.

“Divine Sword Group Leader.”

The dwarf lord muttered.

“A name with many debts to our cult.”

* * *

The sound of wind was loud.

It was impossible to know where it was blowing from.

Whether it was from the Gate of Life acupoint behind Jeong Yeon-shin’s back, from inside his body, or perhaps a gale that had struck his consciousness. Perhaps it could be all of them.

How much time had passed?

Wooooong—!

The black wheel surrounding his heart rapidly became complete. A luminous wheel that even Jeong Yeon-shin would have needed to cultivate for a year to use properly.

Ascension. Literally ascension.

Even though the two original layers of luminous wheels had grown dim, the luminous wheel that had swelled in size with black light could now replace their original power.

‘Why…’

For a moment, strength entered Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.

Why the third luminous wheel?

From the perspective of true energy that flowed naturally like the winds of nature, it would have been easier to restore the originally thick wheels.

The black luminous wheel.

Greatly enlarging what had been insufficient from the beginning was much more difficult.

Because it is the body and energy that seeks to maintain what originally existed. So for Jeong Yeon-shin, it was actually an absurdly fortunate turn of events.

But he wasn’t happy. He couldn’t smile.

Swish.

Before he knew it, he had turned around like a lie and was holding the Sword Star in his arms. The old swordsman had released his own pressure points just before collapsing.

Pressure point techniques had little effect on a grandmaster of the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, and moreover, the peerless swordsman of wanderer origin had achieved everything he intended for Jeong Yeon-shin in just that instant.

Sword Star Hyeon So-baek, the world’s only Martial Alliance Leader, was such a person.

Wooong!

At this moment, the luminous wheel that darkly surrounded the Divine Sword Group Leader’s heart. Within it, extremely small swords flowed like constellations. It felt that way because the particles of true energy were large.

It wasn’t something Jeong Yeon-shin had built himself, but originated from another’s power. It meant that Body-Crossing Power Transmission had succeeded. With an overwhelmingly perfect completion that defied belief.

“Why…”

Jeong Yeon-shin stamped his foot in place.

Bang!

Radiant Wing Six Steps.

Originally a retreating footwork that seemed to rewind time, but Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t fall backward. Time didn’t flow backward either.

He was not the dead Divine Thief. Her Transcendent Martial Art belonged to her alone. Even if Jeong Yeon-shin was overwhelmingly talented throughout history, it was the same.

He was a mayfly who could barely properly observe the life of a single common person.

Bang! Bang!

Jeong Yeon-shin finally stamped his feet like a boy his age. Because the world he had encountered after entering the jianghu was too vast. Because there was nothing he could do.

“Why…!”

Whoooooosh!

Wind rushing in spiral patterns from the sole of his raised foot.

All the martial studies of the Heavenly Demon Divine Art mixed into his stationary footwork. They were the essences of demonic arts that had been floating in Jeong Yeon-shin’s unconscious until just before.

That footwork was most fitting for the Divine Sword Group Leader’s most domineering present throughout his life.

Kwang—!

As soon as he brought it down, it transformed into shock waves that completely shattered the nearby massive stone walls.

“What in the…!”

A startled Yu Xiong-gong leaped up to the ceiling. It was because pressure too difficult to handle even with protective energy had surged in all directions.

Radiant Wing Seven Steps.

It was created at this moment. A charging footwork.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang—!… 

Gales struck along with fragments of shattered rock. Naturally, the mouth of the dwarf who had been approaching Jeong Yeon-shin’s party fell open.

“Sovereign Steps…?”

Zzeojeojeojeong!

Like a lie, the two hand axes gripped in the dwarf’s hands spun chaotically.

The sight of deflecting rock fragments with roars in the dim cave. Even in the confusion, it was fluid weapon technique like carving a statue. The trajectories of the axe work were beautifully distorted.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, who had been looking down at that scene like a bat from Yu Xiong-gong’s back, shouted.

“That’s Martial Brightness Lord among the Three Desolate Dark Lords! One who has learned the Small Universe Heaven-Defying Scripture, who must not deploy the same technique more than twice…!”

Radiant Wing Eight Steps.

Pueoeoeoeoek—!

He struck the ground but it made a sound like lashing flesh. The three hundred Ming Cult members who had been forming an encirclement rose into the air.

All with their heads snapped back as if they had been struck in the jaw by invisible kicks.

“…!”

Among them were the dwarf and monkey, but before they could form counterattack stances in the realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown, another roar erupted.

Kwagagagagak!

Jeong Yeon-shin’s kick had swept the floor. The Sword Star’s large needles that had been lying on the ground rose following that trajectory and transformed into a dark shower.

Myriad Heavens Flower Rain.

It was rain pouring forward.

Pubeobeobeobeobeok!

Bloody flowers bloomed in full in front. Along with the sounds of hundreds of layers of skin being pierced, bursting, and torn apart.

The bodies that had briefly floated were scattered here and there in the blood. It took only the blink of an eye for everyone to become rags and lie down on the cave floor.

The humidity in the cave suddenly thickened. It was because Myriad Heavens Flowers Rain had created friction with the Ming Cult members’ protective energy in an instant.

“……”

Silence mixed with the muggy air.