Chapter 601 – Intoxicated by the Starry Night (3)

Seokgwon Territory.

A great city backed by massive stone mountains, surrounded by three fortress walls. It was also the place where the Ming Cult’s underground cavity was located directly below.

It was at the northern edge of the demon realm.

The night air was different.

Even the outskirts beyond the fortress walls were so.

A bit colder, a bit darker. And the wind was tenacious. The nearby tree branches were constantly swaying their skeletal arms.

The sight of gaunt shadows swaying and caressing Jeong Yeon-shin sitting directly below them.

Jeong Yeon-shin, along with Divine Beggar Zhu Guang and Yu Xiong-gong, were silently gazing in the same direction. It was where the Sword Star lay using dried tree branches as his deathbed.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly thought it was fortunate the demon realm was vast. Because there were many stars in the dim sky. To him, they were spring flowers that the Sword Star had bloomed.

The party was troubled. How should they conduct the Sword Star’s funeral?

The Ancient Sword who had departed first had the Wudang Sect. The most famous Taoist sect under heaven. Naturally, there was no difficulty with the funeral rites.

They had conducted his burial with the wooden box containing the Ancient Sword’s head led by the Path-Opening God of Taoist funerals.

But the Sword Star had nothing.

No sect, no master.

Only Jeong Yeon-shin, who could be called his life’s disciple, was all there was, so it was naturally for Jeong Yeon-shin to ponder. What should be done with the Sword Star’s remains.

“Wouldn’t cremation be best after all?”

Yu Xiong-gong’s childish voice broke the silence.

“This land is full of jianghu people who eat humans. There are plenty of martial arts for detecting scents too. If we made a grave here, all sorts of rotten b*st*rds would come coveting the flesh that was a peerless master in life…”

“Who doesn’t know that? Please be more tactful. I know you’ve been acting below your age from the bottom up?”

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang scolded one of the illustrious Imperial Three Great Masters. While glancing at Jeong Yeon-shin’s expression.

Yu Xiong-gong let out a hollow laugh.

“Anyone else would be fine, but I don’t want to hear such words from you at least. Even if you seem to know all worldly affairs, aren’t you just a pretty but useless thing among the Nine Sects’ leaders? Even now, there’s surely at least one thing they all know but only you don’t.”

“How could that be?”

“Anyway, it’s not just the man-eating b*st*rds that are the problem. Isn’t the demon realm’s jianghu a place that constantly extracts and uses the energy of corpses from the ground? Burying someone like the Sword Star in such land? No, it won’t do. Even if it doesn’t quite fit the principles of the Four Books and Five Classics, burning would be…”

By the time he spoke to that point, Yu Xiong-gong was also stealing glances at Jeong Yeon-shin. Even the movement of his small throat had become somewhat more shrunken.

Jeong Yeon-shin was only silently listening.

He no longer expressed particular emotions. He only looked down at the Sword Star with a face whose thoughts were unknowable.

At some moment.

“He’s gone.”

The night air rippled at the emotionless voice.

It wasn’t the party’s voice.

It was internal energy cultivation worthy of being honored as the deceased anywhere. But none of Jeong Yeon-shin’s party were wary of him.

“My condolences.”

It was a man who had suddenly appeared.

Facial features resembling Lazy Flame Dragon. A face that seemed perpetually carefree beyond mere tranquility, with a faint drop of sweat beaded on it.

He seemed to have rushed after climbing up on another pulley.

It was Divine Hand Light King Hwangbo Gon.

“I came to see him off. Seeing it now, that’s good.”

At his words, Divine Beggar Zhu Guang asked.

“Are you alright? The Ming Cult won’t look kindly on this.”

“What can I do if they hate me? Those mad fanatics are now in a situation where even one hand is precious. They lack even the energy to maintain the underground cavity.”

Hwangbo Gon was as leisurely as his grandson. Only the faintest sorrow seeped into his glance at the eyes-closed Sword Star.

“That fellow was called Chivalrous Ghost when I was the Hwangbo family head. Since he was of wanderer origin, he never participated in the Dragon Phoenix Assembly, and many noble clan b*st*rds looked down on him…”

He departed with the Divine Sword Group Leader as chief mourner. Hwangbo Gon concluded his story that way. His tone suggested that was sufficient.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang nodded and asked.

“But what brings you here?”

“Ah, about that…”

Then suddenly an aged voice echoed like a cave from behind the party.

[Leave him here.]

He had truly appeared out of nowhere. An old man in white robes with some dust on them.

The Ming Cult Grand Preceptor.

It seemed he had manifested with Form-Shifting Void.

For a moment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes seemed about to rise sharply, but seeing the old man’s semi-transparent form, they settled quietly.

A clone firmly crafted with upper energy center power and lower energy center true energy. That is, a Spirit Body.

The Grand Preceptor was staring piercingly at Jeong Yeon-shin with madness glistening in his eyes.

[Divine Sword Group Leader, let’s make a deal with our cult. You’ll surely find it satisfactory.]

It was tremendous presence. The icy winter air became even colder.

For a moment, darkish breath faintly leaked from Jeong Yeon-shin’s mouth. It was demonic energy he hadn’t managed to control.

“Don’t speak down to me.”

[You too must know. The demon realm is full of b*st*rds who like human flesh. If we bury a swordsman with such a body outside, it would be hard to see a good end, so we’d rather safeguard him preciously. The funeral will be conducted not by our cult but according to common Ming Dynasty rites.]

The old demon’s respectful speech was smooth.

Amidst Yu Xiong-gong, Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, and Hwangbo Gon’s expressions becoming strange, Jeong Yeon-shin asked.

“You want to make a deal?”

[The day when you and our Cult Leader meet again will surely come. At that time, please reconsider striking, even briefly, just once.]

“Difficult.”

[It might be easier than you think. Among our cult’s strongest rising talents… that is, the Silent Demon among the Dark Silent Twin Demons is someone you’re looking for.]

Radiant Demon Wing Baek Mi-ryeo.

Though there was no specific designation, anyone could guess. Moreover, it was one of Jeong Yeon-shin’s reverse scales.

He said quietly.

“Coming as a Spirit Body doesn’t make your true body safe.”

The Grand Preceptor was silent for a moment.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice, with all three luminous wheels at full capacity, had pressure that could push away even the northern winds. It was some quiet yet distant power.

[…Even so, our cult’s proposal remains the same. Silent Demon Baek Mi-ryeo is now serving our Cult Leader of her own accord, and her heart is sincere. We swear there’s no other external pressure or threat. So to you too, our proposal is nothing special…]

The words that only a particularly dignified demon from the Ming Cult could utter were cut off. Due to a strike that suddenly rushed in.

Bang!

With a roar, the Grand Preceptor’s chest crumpled crooked. An invisible force had precisely struck his solar plexus. Subsequently, thunder-like reverberations scattered with a rumbling sound.

[Kheuk!]

Blood leaked from the Grand Preceptor’s mouth. Yu Xiong-gong and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang muttered with exasperated expressions simultaneously.

“His palm moved only an inch.”

“Remote Palm Strike with dharma power…?”

Then Jeong Yeon-shin was already meeting eyes with the Grand Preceptor face to face. Only his trajectory of movement remained as darkish smoke, slowly dispersing.

The Ming Cult Grand Preceptor.

He had paid the price for speaking lightly as if Baek Mi-ryeo were a Ming Cult disciple. It was also behavior that violated etiquette in universal inter-sect protocols.

It was just that there had been no existence worthy of discussing universal etiquette with someone at the level of Ming Cult Grand Preceptor.

“……”

A grown youth and an old man whose mind was filled with demonic energy.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s eye level was higher. The Grand Preceptor had to look up at him with blood-stained lips.

Divine Sword Group Leader Lightning Genius. Though still dressed in faded gray common clothes, he had the temperament of wearing purple robes.

The Ming Cult Grand Preceptor, former Hwangbo family head, Beggar Sect Leader, one of the Imperial Three Great Masters.

It was a place full of peerless masters.

They felt that Jeong Yeon-shin’s upper energy center was more intensely white-hot than anyone else present.

Wooong!

They also realized this resonance was the product of insight no less than that of noble clans. It was eye technique that clearly distinguished between false and true.

“Don’t be at ease.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly spoke.

“The elder must receive three years of mourning from me. So I will surely return someday.”

It meant he accepted the deal. From the beginning, briefly considering other thoughts before striking was nothing at all.

If the thoughts flowing from peerless masters’ battles of moves were made into books, even just one bout would produce dozens of pages.

[Three years of mourning? Three years? You will…?!]

The Grand Preceptor laughed with a blood-boiling throat.

More admiration than mockery seeped out.

Demons are generally beings who applaud acts that go against natural order. He had taken Jeong Yeon-shin’s casual words as great defiance of heaven.

[I understand well.]

The Grand Preceptor’s behavior became much more docile.

[I will personally take charge of the Sword Star’s funeral. I won’t have subordinates do it.]

“I’ll be watching.”

Hwangbo Gon bluntly interjected.

“If your circumstances permit, please look after my grandson too. After achieving Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown at the Ice Palace, he became arrogant, and now he’s become someone who might die young anywhere.”

“Always.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly continued his words. While gazing at the Sword Star lying with eyes closed in a very peaceful face.

“I am always watching my surroundings.”

* * *

Jeong Yeon-shin left Seokgwon Territory behind. Together with two people who had naturally become his companions.

A roughly spread dirt road.

The ground was completely unorganized, with sharp tree branches protruding like spears on both sides. It was like a path made of Yao tribe weapons.

No matter how generously viewed, it wasn’t land managed by officials.

The Southern Emperor had said he would establish a new nation, but this was hardly what could be called an official road. It was closer to traces made by countless people’s footsteps.

“They have no intention of developing this place.”

Yu Xiong-gong said while walking the path lightly.

His shoulders now looked very relieved, because Jeong Yeon-shin had taken over carrying Divine Beggar Zhu Guang on his back.

It was also because they had completely escaped the Ming Cult, where anyone must always be tense.

“The Southern Emperor, that villain, has been eyeing only the Ming Dynasty his entire life. He thinks there’s no need to painstakingly cultivate land he’ll replace anyway. Isn’t that truly shameless?”

“Isn’t it that he lacks leisure rather than thought?”

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang replied blankly from Jeong Yeon-shin’s back.

“What use is paving roads well? When there are no goods to come and go on them. The Southern Emperor was a person of deep schemes.”

“You would have been one to sell out the country.”

Yu Xiong-gong said with a calm face and turned his head to Jeong Yeon-shin.

“How do you plan to move forward? Since we’re companions now, we should know too.”

At his question, Jeong Yeon-shin quietly asked back.

“Are you planning to follow me?”

“I stayed in this land to harvest the heads of Northern King b*st*rds. That’s the only reason I didn’t return with the army. If I had gone to Beijing following the new emperor, wouldn’t I be guarding the Forbidden City by now?”

Imperial Three Great Masters.

Emperor Qian-ling’s three divine swords.

They had suffered great defeat to the martial army forces led by the Fighting God, and were scattered throughout the demon realm, living like jianghu people.

Without telling others what their purpose was.

But at least at this moment, Yu Xiong-gong’s words seemed sincere. Jeong Yeon-shin stared at him intently, then raised his head.

Dawn was already breaking.

How long had he gazed at the stars? The faintly brightening sky was unfamiliar. At the same time, he felt for the first time the power within his body that suggested he could accomplish whatever he planned.

Three luminous wheels.

It was truly tremendous.

The spirit of his upper energy center growing alone. Because of this, his body, which had been maintaining Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown only through innate senses, was gradually regaining its original balance.

Flash—

Jeong Yeon-shin flickered with black and white eye-light. Black and white lightning occasionally glimmered unstably in his eyes.

But even his internal energy wasn’t unstable.

His senses never let go of what they once grasped. The third luminous wheel that the Sword Star had completed was completely under Jeong Yeon-shin’s control.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly spoke.

“I’m going down to Yeoktru Castle.”

Yu Xiong-gong’s round eyes widened slightly.

“From here to Yeoktru Castle would be a two thousand li journey. A width that could contain four or five decent countries. Just entering the territories of Vast Wind Curtain and Crimson Blood King Family would take more than a day or two… it’s about one hundred twenty li distance, so it requires a long journey.”

Vast Wind Curtain. Crimson Blood King Family.

Northern King forces of the anti-Fighting God faction.

Though Jeong Yeon-shin had heard of them from Ming Dynasty Grand Commander Quan Yu-li, they were still unfamiliar names.

It was natural if it was natural.

The northern edge of the demon realm was peripheral land even in the northern jianghu. The territory where Northern Kings who survived despite rebelling against the Fighting God, the absolute masters of the anti-Fighting God faction, had settled after being pushed by the Fighting God.

Passing through a two thousand li journey, one would inevitably step on such Northern Kings’ territories several times.

Just as when traveling one hundred twenty li south from here, one would pass through a massive canyon called Grudge Blood Valley.

Grudge Blood Valley.

Land where blood demons who had their legitimate successors stolen by the white-haired Blood Flame Cult Leader and the mounted peoples of the old Yuan Dynasty engaged in territorial disputes.

The territory of blood nobility and former royalty.

“Will you bypass Grudge Blood Valley? I’m asking because I don’t know what you prioritize now. Whether you plan to reach your destination quickly, cultivate martial arts more for a revenge battle, or have other plans.”

“If there are Northern Kings worth saving, I plan to subjugate them under me and quickly take them down. Considering it, it’s all three.”

At Jeong Yeon-shin’s words, the surroundings became quiet for a moment.

It was silence that enveloped them for a long time.

“……”

The party had quietly passed through the one hundred twenty li journey in strange silence, and soon reached a canyon made of pure white rock.

None of the three counted how many days and nights had passed.

Because Jeong Yeon-shin was refining his insights, Yu Xiong-gong was deeply skeptical, and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang was troubled.

Thus.

Before they knew it, it was Grudge Blood Valley.