Chapter 626 – Red Sky (7)

Six stars never set.

They fill the sky even in hazy daylight and don’t die even when mortally wounded on the battlefield.

That’s why they are the Six Star Lords. Stars that cannot be brought down by human power. Even if shot and hit by some divine bow, that too would end as a midday dream, beings that brilliantly illuminate the starry night.

Among them, the Southern Emperor and Northern Blade were Yao tribe members who each discussed supremacy in two or more aspects.

Their innate earth energy was of different caliber, and their bodies forbade death along with the power of upper energy center spirits. In a different era, they would have been the greatest under heaven.

A fact well known throughout the demon realm.

Swish.

The figure holding a hammer long as a crescent blade silently looked down below.

A hazily materialized storm was reflected. It was rotating like the blade of the giant Pangu, connecting river water and clouds.

All directions had long been dyed with muffled roars.

Massive explosiveness that seemed to sever even thoughts was tearing apart the vicinity. Six Star Lord Finance Star simply muttered as he pleased.

“With such a life-saving ultimate technique that ruthlessly pierced through that, even Uncle Northern Blade would have a hard time being unharmed.”

Natural soliloquy. It was a characteristic of masters who had to mutter all sorts of formulas during long periods of closed-door cultivation.

Since jianghu people rarely stayed sane as their martial prowess increased, he was also showing a smiling face at this moment.

“But Uncle is the incarnation of the north wind. His lifeline won’t be severed. Though he might have cracked the opponent’s head.”

It was a madman’s muttering.

Meanwhile, snow powder from Mount Everest, which had been his place of seclusion, occasionally fell from his body, because the tremendous gravitational force from the Absorption Formula had endlessly sucked in all sorts of heat.

“…How envious.”

Soon Finance Star turned his head to one side and spoke.

“Look here. That’s the naadam we wanted.”

An aged voice immediately returned from the empty sky above.

“You mean Yuan Dynasty’s festival? Ridiculous talk! As you said, since we don’t die easily and collapse, we can enjoy fighting, can’t we?”

Though it was a strong retort, the end of the words became hazily distorted. As if the speaker had permeated the vicinity at invisible speed.

Saaaa…

A sprint that completely deflected atmospheric pressure was unfolding. Lightness skill mysteries had reached heaven. It wasn’t human running.

“Not wrong.”

Finance Star’s shadow shrugged its shoulders.

His manner of speech had also changed.

“The greatest lifeline under heaven is that Uncle Northern Blade. He really doesn’t die. Even when his whole body was pierced like a honeycomb by one of Qian-ling’s ultimate techniques, even when his entire skeleton was shattered by the joint trickery of two of the Ming imperial house’s three great masters, and also when that Latter Heaven Guangchengzi or whatever? That Kongtong Sect old monster rode on top of young Beom-heo’s Hundred Steps Divine Fist and tore up his insides like a cannonball with twenty kicks.”

“……”

“Even when Blade Palm Immortal, that is, the Mount Heng Sect Leader’s life-saving ultimate technique pierced his heart. He endured for months with innate earth energy until his body recovered. I saw that directly. While eating the wife of a Ming Dynasty swordsman I’d brought as provisions during spying. Ah, the swordsman who chased after took one look at my hands and gouged out his own eyes… It was unfortunate but a major incident. The Ming Dynasty’s Unorthodox Finest Sword was born then.”

That’s when things went wrong with that old Southern Emperor too…

Anti-Fighting God faction Six Star Lord Finance Star concluded his words like that and laughed like a monkey.

Sitting with white cloud streams as a chair, with his rambling continuing arbitrarily. He was no different from Sun Wukong from when he was a monster in stories.

“Ah, but I can’t just watch like this.”

Finance Star’s figure stood up treading on clouds. With bright sunlight at his back.

“If Uncle Northern Blade becomes critical, territorial negotiations with the Southern Emperor will also become difficult. We’re going to obtain an autonomous region where demon realm customs are preserved.”

Whoooooosh!

At this moment, the whirlpool that began subsiding below.

The momentum to strike Ma Yeon-jeok’s back inside it. Clouds scattering in pieces at Finance Star’s feet. It was transcendent propulsive shock waves.

Then.

“Monster, sit down. I can’t see.”

“Hmm?”

Finance Star’s face that had blocked the sunlight showed bewilderment briefly, then the old beggar’s voice continued.

“I said I can’t see that strangely young face because of your bulk. I was already heated up since it was hidden by the storm.”

“Old man, are you crazy?”

“Get lost! Is eating people something to be proud of?”

Light that charged in faster than that shout suddenly stopped just before colliding with Finance Star.

Crash!

All feathery clouds were torn to shreds.

A technique that pushed away pressure without colliding with Finance Star’s transcendent internal energy barrier. It was the reverse wind of lightness skill void-treading.

While hazy ripples lined up drawing circles in succession, Finance Star was trapped in the center of shock waves and bounced away like an arrow.

“Just a fast-footed old man…!”

It was a gradually fading shout.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, who had revealed himself, looked down from the sky. While treading on wind with legs of misty true energy.

“Why are those monsters stuck together like that again? Can’t even approach carelessly.”

It was soliloquy filled with complex emotions.

* * *

The whirlpool had stopped.

Though briefly, things that had simultaneously remained by the riverside. The senses of masters from both sides who had filled Black Capital with clamorous energy waves and roars. Extraordinary energy perceptions focused on the battle’s outcome.

Whoooooooosh…

River remnants pouring down like rain.

The flow of massive blade wind was subsiding like a lie.

It was a calamity like droughts, typhoons, earthquakes, flash floods, or avalanches that swept people away then vanished futilely. It was literally a natural disaster.

As the terrifying whirlpool dispersed in the void, Ma Yeon-jeok and Northern Blade slowly fell.

The incarnation of tyrannical way under heaven.

A Yao tribe giant who carried tremors.

Each was a sword of an old nation and a general who had substituted for the Fighting God in the Fighting God’s absence.

They were embedded in each other’s embrace.

Moon Protector sword had penetrated Northern Blade’s iron armor-like abdomen and even pierced through to his back. Conversely, Ma Yeon-jeok was receiving an axe blade that had dug deeply into his chest.

A confrontation that had lasted dozens of breaths.

Northern Blade’s will rang out.

[To face someone like you, reason must be shining like the North Star. Even if I was angry about losing my companion, it’s the same.]

Meaning he had always kept counterattack techniques prepared. No matter who the enemy was, the moment they broke through the storm and approached, he could embed his axe.

That too was part of Transcendent Martial Art ‘Replacing Horse Depending on North Wind,’ so it was transcendentally natural.

Splash.

Northern Blade treading the river’s surface like ground.

Dark water rippled, and dark red blood spread gently beneath the water. Ma Yeon-jeok looked down at him while trampling Northern Blade’s knee.

It was natural movement with Level Ground Water Crossing.

A scene proving both had remaining strength. Practitioners of tyrannical martial arts infinitely close to the world’s peak had great strength remaining even after unleashing Transcendent Martial Art like this.

Northern Blade’s words continued quietly.

[This is the spirit our clan must pursue. The fate of Yao tribe who can never hold farming tools – if we don’t fight, we get robbed… I’m very pleased thanks to you.]

Ma Yeon-jeok didn’t answer.

Victory and defeat were clear. The penetrating wound dealt by Moon Protector sword could be called fatal.

Northern Blade had earlier twisted his body sideways, but even so, the experienced sword had followed to pierce his lungs.

It was simultaneous with the tremendous force carried by Moon Protector sword completely crushing the bones and organs around it.

Thump- Thump-

But both their bodies were still continuously emitting fierce energy waves like heartbeats. It was the vitality unique to peerless masters.

Beings whose innate earth energy’s robustness had reached heaven.

Northern Blade was even the demon realm’s legitimate lineage. Yao tribe who made the north their homeland. Otherwise, the clan of struggle.

It was said that when the demon realm’s six stars combined, they formed the constellation called Fighting God.

Among the Six Star Lords, Northern Blade under heaven’s symbol was inexhaustible vitality and overwhelming breakthrough power. Since all of that was close to the world’s greatest, he was worthy of claiming himself as the demon realm’s legitimate lineage.

Therefore.

He could still move.

Crack…

Northern Blade’s axe blade dug deeply into Ma Yeon-jeok’s chest, however slightly. Straight to the Jade Hall acupoint at his solar plexus.

The middle energy center’s domain.

Thunder-like resonance flowed from Ma Yeon-jeok’s body simultaneously. As a precursor to obsessive martial disorder, just a little more to the side would be his heart.

Monster-like power was budding from the grip holding the large axe handle.

Yao tribe. It was Yao tribe.

Ma Yeon-jeok’s lips slowly rose.

“Your spirit is useful. Calling it Transcendent Martial Art when you’re like this.”

[I am curious about something.]

“Babble away.”

After deploying Transcendent Martial Art. Cracks had also formed in the middle energy center inside his solar plexus. Even if he killed Northern Blade and reached Black Capital Old Palace in such physical condition, he would immediately become Jeong Yeon-shin’s burden.

Rather than that.

It would be better to die himself.

Then Northern Blade spoke. While spreading divine power with the hand gripping his axe.

[Your life-saving ultimate technique wasn’t in this form.]

“It’s natural for it to change. Where in jianghu is there someone without life’s bonds?”

[You’re not. I know because I, of course, the Aisin-Gioro family and Spirit Leader read your life.]

“What?”

[Successive Divine Sword Group Leaders were objects of demon realm jianghu’s attention, and your Transcendent Martial Art always grew stronger in the same form. Pride that you wouldn’t rust as a nation’s divine sword, countless deaths of subordinates, people’s livelihoods ruined by being crushed by evil heretics, losing your wife before your daughter even grew up, severing ties with that daughter…]

It was a voice with rough pleasure like northern songs. Northern Blade slowly concluded.

[Everything was wishing return for you. Always a failure’s life wanting to turn back time. A life studded with regret.]

“This is getting troublesome.”

[But since it was a right life as a warrior, even the former Wudang Sect Leader wanted to receive your ultimate technique. Such Transcendent Martial Art. Why did it change only now?]

But Ma Yeon-jeok only snorted.

“Soon-to-die bastard.”

[Respect this body. I am the Yao tribe’s legitimate lineage who doesn’t die from such wounds, and the demon realm can only preserve its sacred spirit under my leadership.]

Will seeped out in archaic Chinese.

Simultaneously, a ringing arose from the axe handle Northern Blade gripped. Explosive force began accumulating in a state close to dying.

It was also the vitality of a Six Star Lord.

Power not permitted to Han tribe.

[What I bear is great. I must never die in vain. You close your eyes.]

“Stupid bastard.”

Ma Yeon-jeok’s mouth slowly moved.

“Does life’s regret come once and end?”

Suddenly, from the tip of Moon Protector sword that had penetrated Northern Blade’s back, a bluish spark settled on the water surface like a petal. It was also like an old man’s tears that usually ended with just a few drops.

Woong…

When faint concentric circles spread on the lake.

Centered on a single azure flame cluster.

Crash!

Space reaching one hundred zhang in diameter crumpled frighteningly in an instant.

A scene where river water was briefly carved out in a giant hemisphere. Even the sunlight pouring transparently from the sky bounced here and there, beginning to curve long in all directions like meteor shower trajectories.

Like the streams of anguish that always stirred the Divine Sword Group Leader’s life.

“……”

The place where heaven and river had completely disappeared as if filled with the void universe.

It forced silence. It was a space of annihilation.

Simultaneously, it was Transcendent Martial Art that would only cease after killing the enemy.

Soon.

Bang bang bang bang bang bang bang…!

A storm that gradually swelled its body massively began filling the empty space, swirling like a tsunami together with water spray.

[Consecutive, strike…?]

Northern Blade’s will seeped from the contracted space. It was after his transcendentally robust body had been compressed and disappeared as blue petals.

The only one with an intact body was Ma Yeon-jeok, who had dropped tear-like flames with a single blade.

[In the end, like this.]

Before his eyes, hazy wind floated precariously like will-o’-the-wisp. Without any presence or special form.

It was precisely Northern Blade’s remnant. The azure flame petals had crushed even the Six Star Lord’s upper energy center spirituality.

[Mixing with the flowing wind…]

Deep regret went only that far.

Before Ma Yeon-jeok’s white breath could lead to a deep inhale, the source of will had vanished without a trace.

Complete death.

Ma Yeon-jeok slowly straightened his back before it.

Splash.

He was somehow treading river water like ground, with his leather shoes repeatedly digging beneath the surface then rising.

But after deploying Transcendent Martial Art’s consecutive strikes with an indifferent expression. Even unstable Level Ground Water Crossing couldn’t harm his perfection.

His body was merely bound so that he could hardly move in place, let alone set foot in the peerless realm again.

Kurung…

The flow of obsessive martial disorder he had always experienced since entering tyrannical martial arts was penetrating his body like lightning.

This time it was particularly severe, but even so, his complexion remained calm.

Soon Ma Yeon-jeok’s gaze headed toward Black Capital Old Palace beyond the riverside.

The palace that had risen loftily had completely disappeared, and land where deep black mist like an abyss wrapped the old palace site while slowly rotating.

The former and current Divine Sword Group Leaders were there.

“……”

Another perfected one.

Enter the Divine Sword Master Yong Hye-myeong’s energy waves were faint.