Chapter 600 – Intoxicated by the Starry Night (2)

Behind Jeong Yeon-shin.

There was suddenly a rattling sound.

The presence of rusted armor. The iron scales of imperial armor. Yu Xiong-gong had descended to the ground while carrying Divine Beggar Zhu Guang on his back.

He had no need to strain himself floating with void-treading steps. Jeong Yeon-shin’s stationary footwork would not continue for long.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang spoke calmly.

“Your joints just creaked – couldn’t your bones achieve rejuvenation?”

“Isn’t this how I ended up trying to rescue you?”

Yu Xiong-gong spoke lightly of his battle with the Southern Emperor. It was to lighten the mood.

The old masters who appeared elderly and young respectively looked upon the youth. The Divine Sword Group Leader reflected in both their eyes. Jeong Yeon-shin was only silently looking down at the Sword Star in his arms.

Throughout his several foot stompings, he had not once gazed at the enemies. He seemed to have suddenly mastered the wanderer’s sensory path.

“Hmm.”

Yu Xiong-gong let out a breath like a sigh.

His words continued at length.

“If such consecutive attacks are possible with footwork alone, it’s martial prowess no less than Natural Form. Though it would be difficult to achieve naturalness with a heart full of rage… even so, it’s a realm where one can definitely protect someone.”

“Don’t say tactless things.”

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang scolded Yu Xiong-gong. But Yu Xiong-gong shook his childish head.

“Look carefully. Even after stomping his feet like that, no shock waves reached So-baek. Isn’t there still a faint breath? Even with a wanderer’s tough body, that would be difficult…”

His small mouth was blocked by Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s wrinkled hand.

Fortunately, Jeong Yeon-shin was preoccupied with examining the Sword Star’s body with both hands.

His arms that should hold him did not move, performing Pushing Palace Penetrating Points with true energy alone. Continuously from when he had rolled with footwork until now.

‘No. This isn’t fortunate.’

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang thought.

Even from several steps away, he could feel the Sword Star’s breath. It was rapidly growing faint. The exhalation weakening as if revealing the collapse of unity of essence, energy, and spirit characteristic of masters.

The foundation of internal energy breathing had been shaken.

Sword Star Hyeon So-baek’s life ended here. Literally heavenly mandate. Something humans could not grasp.

The person who would have felt this most acutely was Jeong Yeon-shin.

When he raged like a child, Divine Beggar Zhu Guang felt deep sorrow.

Though losing people repeatedly was inevitable for those in the position of sect leader, the old beggar was still not accustomed to deaths around him.

‘But the Ming Cult hasn’t ended immediately. This place is a demon cave.’

The foremost demonic sect where one couldn’t know when, where, or how bizarre things might emerge.

Earlier, they said the Ming Cult’s Grand Preceptor had gone up to a place called the ‘altar.’ Moreover, this was still an unfathomably deep underground.

They needed to be vigilant.

“Look here, Lightning Genius.”

It was when Divine Beggar Zhu Guang carefully spoke up.

“Sorcery formation.”

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly muttered. Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s question immediately followed.

“Did you say sorcery formation?”

“There’s said to be a sorcery formation that makes this underground cavity livable. Drawing outside air down below, supporting the ground so it doesn’t collapse…”

“Well, that would be so. There must be mysteries accumulated by generations of demonic monsters here.”

“I must give the energy that goes into that sorcery formation to elder Sword Star. With such a formation, there should be strength remaining even after that.”

Before they knew it, Jeong Yeon-shin was craning his neck upward.

The ceiling high enough to contain a two-story pavilion was reflected in his pupils. The dim, smooth cave walls. The fragments of luminous pearls scattered in all directions were distant like stars.

But.

—That sky is fake…

Wanderer. Using the character for wave. Because they made the sky their bedding and befriended the earth. The Sword Star had wanted to see the real sky.

“It’s impossible.”

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang shook his head.

“Look at his body. He’s no longer in a state to accept other energy.”

But something being impossible applied to Jeong Yeon-shin as well. He wasn’t in a state of mind to hear other words.

He stepped Radiant Wing Seven Steps once more, and as soon as he struck down on the ground, darkish shock waves rose in a circle from his feet.

Kwaaaaaang!

It bored directly into the ceiling and created spider web-like long cracks. The aftermath of one step had risen to the distant next floor.

It was similar to Radiant Wing Two Steps that pierced through momentum, yet distinctly different. It was footwork that actually pulverized obstructions.

“As expected, it’s demonic energy! No, why does demonic energy feel pure…?”

While Yu Xiong-gong muttered blankly.

Jeong Yeon-shin was already kicking off the floor and soaring upward. Even that leap was Radiant Wing Seven Steps, and naturally the ceiling shattered into pieces before his crown even touched it.

Kugugugugung!

It collapsed as it was.

Amidst tremendous shock waves boring into the rock face, everything shaking roughly in all directions, and grayish stone dust falling with rustling sounds everywhere.

Step.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently stepped onto the upper floor. It was similarly a dim passage in all directions. Wide enough to approach ten zhang.

“Elder.”

He called the Sword Star quietly, but no answer returned.

The gaunt old swordsman was already nestled in his arms with eyes closed. As if the arms of his junior in martial studies were the ground where he would soon sleep.

Those who reacted like lightning were others. Those blocking a black iron door on one side of the passage, numbering over thirty by rough count.

“Heretic, it’s a heretic!”

“The Divine Sword Group Leader…!”

“Shut up.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice naturally permeated the commotion. He was walking toward the Ming Cult members.

Then the Ming Cult members’ cries really stopped. Even though many were monsters with unusually large hands and feet, or emitting dark aura from blackened eye areas.

“…?!”

It was a reaction showing they themselves didn’t understand.

Originally, demonic arts were bound to submit to greater demonic arts, but there had never been a Divine Sword Group Leader who reached the transcendent realm through demonic arts in all history.

Bang!

The Sect Leader who had belatedly climbed up with Yu Xiong-gong shouted.

“Right there! It was right above the medicinal storage! Of course, to operate such a sorcery formation, they would have had to draw up even the smallest spiritual medicine energy!”

An iron door similar to the Heavenly Demon Treasury.

Jeong Yeon-shin looked at nothing else. He walked while silently gazing only at the altar where the Ming Cult Grand Preceptor was said to have ascended.

Step, step.

It was ordinary walking.

This time it wasn’t even Radiant Wing One Step or Two Steps.

But none of the thirty demons rushed at Jeong Yeon-shin.

Was it because the black luminous wheel had completely settled in his heart? They retreated with black light glistening like demons in both eyes, yet with a feeling as if it were irresistible.

They could not commit insubordination against superior cultivation. Their demonic energy would not permit them to act.

Anyone who forcibly tried to operate their power immediately vomited blood on the spot.

“What…! Why…!”

“The Divine Sword Group Leader is using sorcery… Kheuk!”

[Bright Phoenix Divine Form], [Bewildering Phantom Sutra], [Divine Demon Eight Methods], [Small Universe Heaven-Defying Scripture], [Heaven-Violating Three Bonds], and the Heavenly Demon Divine Formula…

The crowd split to both sides.

A path opened by itself without striking a single blow.

The third luminous wheel was the culmination of demonic cultivation, and it was overlaying Jeong Yeon-shin with a presence like the Heavenly Demon.

Finally.

He was able to touch the iron door with all the Ming Cult members having stepped aside left and right.

The entrance to the sorcery formation that had created the Ming Cult’s main branch in this unfathomable underground cavity.

Swish. Kugugugugung—!

As soon as his palm touched it, the massive iron door opened quickly. It seemed to react on its own to the high-level demonic cultivation. This time Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t need to reverse-calculate the key formula.

“Preposterous.”

An aged voice echoed through the cave.

An old man dressed entirely in white robes stood before some altar. He had features that suited expressionlessness, but at this moment he wore wrinkles on his brow.

“The Cult Leader has never spoken falsely, but to truly have the same qualities as her…”

Suddenly.

“Ah.”

The Ming Cult Grand Preceptor’s eyes widened as he cut off his own words. He immediately muttered as if entranced.

“I was foolish. This was her will.”

A sign of sudden realization. Soon the Grand Preceptor’s lips drew a mad arc.

“Yes, you finally found him. More than us who cared for you for over twenty years, closer to kinship than the Heavenly Demon martial lineage you’ve lived with your entire life – a fellow Heavenly Demon who could understand you…!”

Laughter seeped from each word. It was truly mad laughter.

He even shrugged his shoulders as he stepped aside. Completely dropping his guard. Incomprehensible behavior.

“Use it! Do as you please! Our cult’s wish in a person like you…”

Thump—!

Round shock waves burst out, slamming the Grand Preceptor’s body into the stone wall.

Vibrations roughly racing across the floor. Before they knew it, Jeong Yeon-shin stood where the Grand Preceptor had been, having struck the ground with Radiant Wing Eight Steps.

The shock waves from his footwork faithfully reproduced the single strike he had envisioned in his mind. Extremely aggressive yet precise footwork. It was the influence of the First Heavenly Demon, said to be close to a god of the mortal world.

Everything went well.

It would take a month to restore the two original luminous wheels. Since there seemed to be no more fighting in the Ming Cult, it would be fine to use this place as a temporary hideout.

“Elder, elder.”

Jeong Yeon-shin let out a dryly cracked voice from his throat quietly.

“We’ve arrived. Here it is.”

He was sensing the energy swirling massively beneath his feet. Invisible but definitely felt.

Even in the demonic realm’s capital where they intended to bring about the god’s return, such formations would be created, but what was immediately important to Jeong Yeon-shin was the energy such a formation would inevitably contain.

This would do. He could repay energy to the Sword Star.

Swish.

Jeong Yeon-shin seated the old swordsman on the altar.

But he couldn’t straighten his waist. Suddenly gaunt but strong hands had grasped Jeong Yeon-shin’s arm.

Sword Star Hyeon So-baek.

“…!”

Flame-like strength existed. The old Martial Alliance Leader was slightly twisting his head up while seated.

“Elder…!”

“Don’t be stubbornly futile. Let me get some outside air.”

He spoke in a surprisingly clear voice. Eye-light also sparkled in the two eyes looking up at Jeong Yeon-shin. Like the sky that briefly brightened at sunset.

Instead of answering, Jeong Yeon-shin stepped in place.

Instantly a thump— spread throughout the entire underground cavity. He had drawn up the sorcery formation’s energy extending in all directions from the altar’s center with Radiant Wing Seven Steps.

“This should do.”

He had already mastered the Sword Star’s Body-Crossing Power Transmission with his body.

Jeong Yeon-shin placed his hand on the Sword Star’s Gate of Life acupoint exactly as before, and began pouring the sorcery formation’s energy into the Sword Star after twisting it with Towering Ancestor Great Transposition of Northern Darkness.

The Ming Cult divine art that arbitrarily reversed flows was very appropriate for this situation.

“Yes, this much should do.”

The Sword Star spoke while energy poured into him.

Something that shouldn’t be done during energy circulation, but the peerless master’s internal energy operation made it possible.

“Will you listen to my story?”

“You’ll be able to speak much more later.”

“Listen now. This old man’s rambling might become insight for a young person like you. I’ll begin anyway.”

“……”

“Generally, sword-wielders was a term to disparage those whose human nature was a level lower. Of course that’s natural. How could those who harvest human heads be equal to noble farmers? It’s sufficient to think that the already lowered character shouldn’t fall further. I took up a sword instead of a sickle to survive… but I was always deeply ashamed. I wanted to become a better person.”

The aged voice continued desolately from the center of the foremost demonic sect.

“One day while starving in the marketplace, I met my master. Eternal Spring. That was my master’s epithet. I heard it was mockery for poor swordsmanship, but as a child taken as a servant by my master, I created my own meaning.”

The Sword Star’s quiet laughter settled in the stone chamber.

At this moment, the room where the Ming Cult’s sorcery formation was located was under Jeong Yeon-shin’s dominion.

Even the Grand Preceptor who had risen dusting off stone powder from the side, and Yu Xiong-gong and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang who had just entered the altar room could make no particular sound.

The atmosphere was such.

Only the Sword Star was permitted to speak.

“Even a wanderer who sold sword skills for a few copper coins… could engage in quite rewarding work. For instance, when a child who lost parents to some heretical sect requested revenge with coins worn by their hands. There were also good people asking to rescue children captured as disciples by criminal gangs. The Desolate Fortress warriors aren’t spread throughout the entire world.”

The Sword Star laughed at himself once more.

“So the sword I think of is a blade that brings spring to the faces of the weak. What if blood spatters a bit and there’s a fishy smell? Flowers bloom on the faces of those who’ve escaped the hell called life a little. That’s a flower many jianghu people can make bloom with just a little courage.”

“……”

“Courage to advance despite losing much, courage to take human duty for granted. Wielding the sword like that, I found myself at the top of the jianghu before I knew it. People called me a star.”

That’s when it happened.

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly felt the Sword Star’s Gate of Life acupoint closing. He had sealed the acupoint with the energy received so far. It was the internal energy technique of an old peerless master.

“Elder…?”

“In the jianghu, one must be careful of the elderly.”

Wooooooong—!

The flow that had been grandly continuing toward the Sword Star was completely reversed. Directly toward Jeong Yeon-shin’s grip.

Energy already refined once through the Sword Star’s meridians was returning intact.

“…!”

Energy instantly flowing through his right arm’s three meridians to his left heart. The luminous wheels that had lost light began glowing dimly one by one. All were rapidly regaining their original form.

Focus disappeared from Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.

“You take it. If sent to me, it would only scatter futilely.”

The Sword Star slowly rose from the altar. And he turned his head to the Grand Preceptor.

“Can you let us out? If we stay here longer, only property will be broken.”

“Indeed.”

The Grand Preceptor answered immediately.

An incomprehensible demon religion.

And Jeong Yeon-shin, who was no different from an unmatched Heavenly Demon only to demons.

The expressions of Divine Beggar Zhu Guang and Yu Xiong-gong, who had been wary of him from the entrance, became blank, but the events in the hall flowed naturally as if gaining momentum.

“Outside… go outside.”

Rather, the Sword Star grasped Jeong Yeon-shin’s sleeve, and the Grand Preceptor, as if entranced by glimpsing Young Heavenly Demon Invincible in Jeong Yeon-shin’s face, guided them to some pulley.

It was truly a moment when many things aligned.

All that flow was like the sword strike of the Martial Alliance Leader who was said to contain worldly affairs in a single blade. Truly flowing like water.

Grrrrrrng!

Before they knew it, Jeong Yeon-shin’s party stood on a platform ascending to the surface, and by then Jeong Yeon-shin had conversely grasped the Sword Star’s sleeve.

As if feeling the Sword Star’s pulse even a little more was the immediate task.

“Hmm…”

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang felt this situation as a type of secluded cultivation. Secluded cultivation that the old master called Sword Star was bestowing on the unfathomably young Jeong Yeon-shin.

It was different from jianghu people who cultivated for years with fasting pills. It was the moment when the Divine Sword Group Leader, who lived moments like long years, was emerging from eternal-like seclusion.

They ascended endlessly, endlessly past the cave of madness.

The friction sound of the platform scraping the cave walls echoed like eternity, and when grayish starlight poured overhead, Jeong Yeon-shin’s mouth opened.

“Why…”

The Sword Star slowly shook his head. As if knowing what words would come.

“I felt the wheels settled in your heart. How long would you be filling those?”

“……”

That was the end.

Grrrrrng— Thump!

The pulley completely pulled them up to the outside world, and clear, cold air rushed into the party’s skin.

Before they knew it, they stood over a suspiciously large well. The Ming Cult’s Dwarf clan mechanical formation had been pretending to be a blocked well on the outskirts of the great city.

“The Ming Cult’s entrance. Remember it.”

Saying this, the Sword Star collapsed in place before taking even one step. Just before his back touched the edge of the well’s mouth, Jeong Yeon-shin supported his back.

Time endlessly stretched, distantly extended through endless alternation of eternity and moments like feelings.

Thumping sounds were clamorous.

The end of something was approaching. Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t want to look at the Sword Star’s face, but had no choice but to look down at him.

Because his wrinkled lips were moving slightly.

“I’ve seen many weapons. Swords made from internal energy, well-made metal, brushes of famous powerful families… But none of that mattered. Because they lacked courage. What weight could weapons wielded lightly have?”

All around was dim.

It was night. Jeong Yeon-shin wanted to say something, but the old swordsman was stopping him with a faint smile.

“So…”

Swish.

Suddenly the Sword Star’s raised hand groped for the way. Jeong Yeon-shin silently clasped hands with him. The old swordsman’s lips also rose faintly simultaneously.

In that instant, all the party intuited. That the next exhalation would be the old swordsman’s final internal energy breathing.

“This is.”

The Sword Star slowly grasped Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand. Above their heads spread the late winter night sky.

“The last sword I held.”

That was all.

Suddenly the darkness painting the night sky grew thin, and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, who had been quietly carried on Yu Xiong-gong’s back since coming outside, opened his eyes wide.

Crack!

A large sword-shaped starry night was visible overlapping Jeong Yeon-shin’s body. A sky-blue flame rippling and scattering like one handful of sky.

It was a scene announcing the end of the secluded cultivation that the Divine Sword Group Leader had unintentionally undertaken.

“……”

And it was also the end of some boyhood.