Chapter 629 – Red Sky (10)

“Your Majesty the Grand Empress Dowager! The scene you are showing us now… does it not far exceed expectations, all suppositions…!”

“That’s right. Lightning Genius’s realm looks down upon Qian-ling.”

“Correct words. If we premise the Divine Sword Group’s supply like now, truly to the former emperor’s realm… I understand why the Desolate Fortress Lord only devotes herself to the matter of World Trees. As famines repeat, the Great Gates that grow larger are grasped by the Fortress Lord, and the great nation of the north by the Divine Sword Group Leader.”

“Great nation, yes… They call Lightning Genius the northern emperor. An absolute master who has surpassed the Northern Kings.”

“Who dares such treason…?”

“All the common people of the demon realm speak so. He has greatly won the hearts of the land’s people.”

“Huh.”

“A few Northern Kings even follow Lightning Genius.”

“To call a sword held by an enemy nation’s imperial house an emperor? Though it’s the land of ignorant brutes who only know fighting, for their own dignity they shouldn’t do so. Aisin-Gioro Nurhaci’s ruling power seems ultimately unable to approach the former emperor even slightly.”

[TL- Aisin-Gioro Nurhaci is the Southern Emperor.]

“Now Lightning Genius must never return. It’s fitting for him to remain as he is, making Nurhaci submit and always serving as the national sword that blocks the north. The Divine Sword Group Leader position should be attributed to Yong Hye-myeong.”

“However, Your Majesty. Though it’s presumptuous to say, due to ‘that person’ and the martial clan powers, the situation south of the Yangtze River has reached catastrophe. The Hanlin Academy advises on state affairs that even the Great Wall’s forces must be sent south…”

“The spirits of peerless masters still confuse the Wind King’s vision. I can no longer observe Black Capital.”

“Your Majesty, my humble advice…”

“It’s also right to examine the situation south of the Yangtze River. That’s why I told you to construct the formation I need, didn’t I? You prepare for when the Desolate Fortress leadership including Lightning Genius and Yong Hye-myeong return alive.”

* * *

The silence of Black Capital Old Palace grew deeper and deeper. It had been long since Lu Ban Heavenly Emperor’s flock of feathers had stopped moving.

“……”

The battle between the Northern Emperor and Southern Emperor.

Victory and defeat were naturally divided. Like a page from some book turning over in a fierce wind.

From some people’s positions, Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t be seen.

Because his entire body was blocked by the Southern Emperor’s large back. Therefore, only one scene stood out. Precisely the tip of the formless sword that had pierced through and emerged from the Southern Emperor’s dark back.

Nevertheless, there existed strongmen who could see scenes outside their vision with their skin.

If they were those who had disregarded life and death in Black Capital’s great battle, they were all like that. Literary Star who had intruded earlier and the Divine Sword Group’s black ranks were the same.

The Southern Emperor bending his waist crookedly.

Jeong Yeon-shin who had diagonally thrust a sword-blue blade up into his solar plexus.

While many things maintained silence.

The first to react to Northern Emperor Jeong Yeon-shin’s declaration of war’s end was Jin Myeong-jo.

“…It’s over.”

Blood dripped from the ends of his long white hair.

His left shoulder’s lower part was even empty like a fruit tree in a bad year, but even with such one-armed appearance, his rebellious spirit was maintained. His momentum didn’t flow out.

“Literary Star, give up.”

Separately, bright red eye-light flowed like smoke from his eyes. It was difficult to gauge whether he had remaining strength or not.

From right after four black ranks had intruded into the Yao tribe emperor’s palace until now.

Jin Myeong-jo had never once spoken to Jeong Yeon-shin. It was also the first time seeing him since learning the lifespan of his junior and superior.

The same was true for Annihilation Team Leader Shin Hwang, Radiant Sword Squad Leader Hak So-seon, and Wish-fulfilling Spring Leader Beigong Ya.

They had only fought fierce battles because they couldn’t freely let Literary Star and Dharma King loose. Each of their hair soaked in blood and sweat revealed the hardships they had endured.

“Ah, you didn’t know.”

The giant Literary Star smiled gently with his blood-covered face and spoke.

“The Southern Emperor I serve as master still hasn’t unleashed his life-saving ultimate technique. There was a reason he had to do so even until the moment just before losing his life.”

Though he concluded his words so calmly, it was fully felt by strongmen whose energy perception was extremely sensitive. The first faint trembling that had crystallized in the voice of the world’s greatest external artist.

A monster who prioritized great cause over his own life.

“Just as you trust the Northern Emperor, I trust and follow everything about the Southern Emperor. Because he has shown such caliber for long years.”

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, a gentle wine fragrance flowed.

* * *

It was the smell of alcohol tinged with a bit of fishiness. As if the alcohol in wine jars was brewed with rotten fruit flesh.

It seemed to seep out little by little from a corner of Black Capital Old Palace’s underground, and there seemed to be a secret storage where the emperor’s goods were hidden.

Though it had been severed from the surface until now, gaps seemed to have formed due to the aftermath of fierce battle.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

‘There would likely be Zhongnan Sword Immortal elder’s secret manual too.’

The conversation he had shared with the Southern Emperor before him came to mind. It was a story that had opened with words that the lightness skill of the world’s fastest when drunk was faster. The Southern Emperor’s words had been impressive.

“I already want to have a drinking match with you. But I intend never to do so. Clans in chaotic times walk the path of destruction if they don’t found nations. To find another way, too many lives rest on my shoulders.”

“Then we must compare martial arts.”

Since ancient times, drinking matches between rulers meant reconciliation.

They face each other and drink alcohol. It was a process of equally sharing each other’s positions under intoxication. It was also a symbol of great promises.

More difficult than any victory.

If it were between the demon realm and the Ming Dynasty, it would be a drinking match that moved the times, but there was no history of it actually occurring.

Moreover, martial world strongmen were distant from such grand schemes. Treatment of Desolate Fortress warriors wasn’t different. They were usually relegated to being swords of Ming Dynasty rulers.

The Ming imperial house did the thinking.

Major decisions were also the share of the powerful, and Desolate Fortress was merely a tool for stabilizing people’s livelihood.

The reason some Beijing nobles devalued jianghu as a low-class world. Also the reason the main axis of the dangerous northern border had always been the imperial army.

Because their roles were different.

The Divine Sword Group’s strength could overturn the demon realm but couldn’t conquer it. They expected even less mediation between the demon realm and Ming Dynasty.

They had only needed the time-buying of Desolate Fortress masters who were good at hit-and-run tactics.

Jeong Yeon-shin was also aware of this.

But he had never entrusted his own thoughts to the nation. He always made sword strikes with his own judgment.

Just like now.

Saaaa—

Black mist scattering like grains of sand from the face of the Southern Emperor standing blankly… gradually revealed.

Features as fierce yet solemn as if Marquis Zhuangmiu Guan Yunzhang had been born as a Yao tribesman.

Even if deep juniper shade were overlaid like a cap down to below his eyes, it would suit him. Pale white breath also seeped out from under his ashen skin.

He spoke.

“There was no Northern Emperor in your sword. It was just full of others.”

Even an inhuman being had a face. At this moment, even the appearance of opening his mouth came across as surreal.

“Did such an empty one scheme against me?”

The Southern Emperor asked Jeong Yeon-shin. Deep resonance with smooth low tones. Somehow it seemed to contain disappointment too.

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“I am this starry night.”

In space surrounded by the Southern Emperor’s black mist instead of the old palace.

While Jeong Yeon-shin’s azure energy filled the hall, the radiances of explosive force were looking down below. Though it appeared narrow at a glance, the vicinity was clearly dyed with grayish white light.

While each beautifully revealing lives Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t directly live.

“…How arrogant.”

The instant the Southern Emperor concluded his words, Jeong Yeon-shin felt his vision suddenly distort and he was being sucked in along with his consciousness by something.

Whoosh!

The next moment he was standing on completely different land.

A horizon where blue junipers shook their leaves in rows like clouds. Inside that, land where golden sunlight shattered over all sorts of grain ears.

Jeong Yeon-shin immediately intuited.

‘It’s the Southern Emperor’s mental image. The flow of time is different.’

If he pushed this land outside his body with spirituality and power, it would become Transcendent Martial Art as is. It was literally mental image space.

All directions were abundant.

If he deployed explosive force within such clusters of long golden reeds, the waves of that experience would fade before reaching the horizon. While sending fragments of grain ears in rows to the sky.

Then the Southern Emperor’s voice rumbled and flowed out.

[It’s a southern scene I once saw. I don’t know the place name. It was a field I saw while being chased by Ming Dynasty imperial troops.]

“I’ve never seen such rice paddies.”

[Long years have passed. To regain such scenery, I must crush the Ming imperial house and cut down the World Trees they protect.]

Jeong Yeon-shin had also heard rumors that ‘trees with legs suck up all the earth energy of the world’s lands.’ Hadn’t the Jeong Family Manor been exterminated in the first place to harm the World Trees’ earth energy?

Jeong Yeon-shin turned his head toward the distant horizon and asked.

“What about the aftermath when the World Trees are cut? Can you block the monsters that will pour from the Gates? The World Trees would be blocking hundreds of flood dragons and such.”

[Did you know even that far?]

“I’m the Divine Sword Group Leader.”

[The World Trees’ ability to suppress Gates comes from their roots. If we pile towers of corpses above the base, the Fighting God will substitute for the Desolate Fortress Lord. Only the World Trees’ clans will suffer damage in that process.]

“The noble clans?”

[Their lifelines and qualities come from the World Trees. The reason their ears are long like blades is because they share spirituality with the World Trees. So if the trees with legs lose their trunks, those haughty noble clans will become no different from Han people.]

Information that could be easily accessed because of his imperial position flowed out.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s consciousness was like being invited into the Southern Emperor’s upper energy center at this moment, and therefore he could distinguish truth from falsehood more sensitively than ever. Like the Qingcheng Sect Leader who would never be deceived by feints.

‘There are no lies.’

The story that towers of corpses piled throughout the demon realm would supply energy to the World Trees, and the Fighting God would take the role of ‘gatekeeper.’

How long-planned was this?

[Noble clans. Those who fled from their homeland.]

The Southern Emperor’s shadowy laughter filled the mental image space.

[Those involved in Ming’s founding consented to the noble clans’ deception to push out the Yuan Dynasty. They studied history books like the false Great Ming Outline mixed with lies like salt, and wielded the great power called Desolate Fortress at will under the banner of stabilizing people’s livelihood. As disgusting as my cannibalistic tribesmen.]

“That’s for me to judge. Just babble your last words.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said calmly.

He was taller than the nearby rice ears, and at this moment also appeared to have transcended many things.

His pupils, crystallized with the unique eye-light of the Heavenly Manifestation Method, were gazing not at the rice paddies but at the horizon.

Perhaps because of that?

The Southern Emperor’s voice descending from the sky was briefly cut off. The mockery that had always followed Desolate Fortress warriors also didn’t flow out.

‘Is judgment possible for a nation’s sword?’

An individual blade cannot do so. But it’s possible for the swordsman who wields it. Hadn’t even Sword Immortal and Sword Star chosen their own ends?

For a moment, faint surprise crystallized in the Southern Emperor’s voice.

[Has the jianghu person transcended grudges?]

“No.”

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“I cannot forget those who met different fates because of you. I’ve just decided to see both small and large things.”

[Large things?]

“Eliminating famines.”

What spoke those words was the world’s greatest sword holding possibilities vast as the night sky.

In Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind, his jianghu travels flowed like rays of light. There had been all sorts of incidents.

Many of them had originated from fundamental desires like accumulating wealth, and behind many events was a world that became more chaotic as bad harvests repeated.

Uprisings of powerful clans.

Weakening of the Ming imperial house’s dominance.

Local government offices where honest officials were disappearing.

The demon realm that had tried to found a new nation after eating people.

The countless deaths of chivalrous men Jeong Yeon-shin had experienced in all these processes.

He had no choice but to think. What would the Ming Dynasty look like by now? It had been long since he left.

[Do you plan to cut Gates too?]

“I could try.”

[It’s not something possible at human level. Even if Zhongnan Sword Immortal cut one and ascended, it’s only a part compared to the Gates scattered throughout the world. How do you scheme for something greater when you can’t even do anything about your own lifespan?]

“Are your last words finished?”

Suddenly the sky flickered jet-black. As if the Southern Emperor had flashed his eye-light.

[If you plan to cut not only famines but also my people, you cannot leave here.]

Jeong Yeon-shin asked as if testing him.

“If the people are safe, is it fine however your safety turns out?”

[I am the one asking.]

The Southern Emperor’s archaic voice shook the sky.

[Are you a sword subordinate to the Ming Dynasty, or a chivalrous man who doesn’t distinguish between all lands under heaven?]

“There’s no need to divide the two. I won’t harm innocent common people.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s answer went only that far.

Suddenly space that had broken into sword form from his grip filled with azure flames, and simultaneously the Southern Emperor’s mental image space also dyed with the night sky then was instantly reality.

Whoosh!

Cold wind swept his cheek.

Starry Night was still embedded in the Southern Emperor’s solar plexus, and not much time seemed to have passed. Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.

“I am a person from Xinye County who follows principle.”

Before he knew it, two things had been drawn from underground cracks by the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain Absorption Formula into Jeong Yeon-shin’s grip.

One was Zhongnan Sword Immortal’s half-torn secret manual, the other was a gourd bottle containing spoiled alcohol.

Rustle…

A book that burrowed into Jeong Yeon-shin’s bosom by itself.

At this moment, what was fully gripped in his hand was the alcohol bottle.

Even until then, Jeong Yeon-shin and the Southern Emperor’s upper energy centers were entangled with deep spirituality. They had shared martial arts for a very long time.

That is, despite being mortal enemies, they were in a state where they could feel sincerity more nakedly than any earth energy.

The Southern Emperor exhaled a faint breath and spoke.

“I said there would be no drinking match with you. I cannot stake my life on your words that you won’t harm innocent common people.”

“No need for drinking matches.”

Great military energy was felt from outside.

Martial army forces numbering easily in the tens of thousands. Irresistible to any peerless master.

At the same time, those Jeong Yeon-shin had brought had also struck Black Capital.

The Blood King Family and the Blood King father and daughter, Vast Wind Curtain and Vast Wind Curtain Leader, Light Spear Yu Xiong-gong who had recovered his internal injuries to some extent by now, and for some reason Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, the world’s fastest, who had begun destroying the martial army forces’ periphery with unprecedentedly fast sprinting.

This way, both sides would be mutually destroyed. They would all die.

One side had to withdraw. And they must never clash again eternally.

Finally, the Southern Emperor pierced by Starry Night was also at a crossroads of choice.

If he deployed recovery abilities with dignified spell martial arts, he might be able to plan for the future regardless of how many subordinates were sacrificed, and if he eliminated all explosive forces in the hall with a life-saving ultimate technique, he would die here but no further collisions would occur.

Then Jeong Yeon-shin slowly tilted the gourd bottle with the hand not gripping Starry Night. As if he had no intention of drinking with the Southern Emperor from the beginning.

“……”

After a loud gurgling sound rang from the ground that had collapsed into fragments.

“This land has drunk it.”

Jeong Yeon-shin concluded his words bluntly. Simultaneously, while receiving the white-pouring starlight of Sword Star Hyeon So-baek with his entire body, he asked.

“What are you? A ruler who just needs to live well alone, or an emperor who rebelled out of concern for his people?”

Instantly.

For the first time in his entire life, the Southern Emperor’s lips curved in an arc and split long.

The ends of the gradually scattering black mist also fluttered like his lips, and the Southern Emperor’s laughter spread like an echo then soon crystallized into one will.

[South-Facing Capable Emperor.]

An emperor for whom everything is possible when facing south.

“I stake the world on your qualities.”

Whoosh!

With the scene of all energy that had stained the vast hall scattering like a dream as the end, Jeong Yeon-shin’s consciousness slowly grew hazy. He was finally meeting the recoil of the repeated Transcendent Martial Arts.

Even in that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin stood blankly.

While wrapped in an intimidating presence greater than the now-dead Southern Emperor like protective energy.