Chapter 639 – Big Dipper Hundred Stars (2)

Doubt formed on the face of the Dark Path middle-aged man who had been tilting wine cups in the pavilion, Red Crane Sect Leader. At the same time, monotone soliloquy flowed from his mouth.

“What is that…?”

“Move aside.”

Jeong Yeon-shin commanded calmly.

Behind him stood about two hundred Divine Sword Group warriors.

About half an hour ago, they had been bewildered by encountering the Forbidden City’s remains. It had also been a moment when even the always composed Yong Hye-myeong had briefly turned pale with shock.

But the force Jeong Yeon-shin had brought were people who shouldn’t waste time on any bewilderment.

The remaining Divine Sword Group blues had scattered into Beijing with several squad leaders. It was to investigate what had happened in the meantime.

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin was leading his party toward the former Chief Eunuch’s hall. Because something had suddenly occurred to him.

‘Map.’

The complete map of the Ming Dynasty was a top-secret document.

Only from black rank could one barely access it, and even Desolate Fortress’s leadership including Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t privately carry it around.

‘The Chief Eunuch is different.’

A position that looked into the Central Plains from his seated place. The high official closest to the emperor.

Considering the always chaotic times since Emperor Qian-ling’s death, there was a high possibility that a Central Plains map would be stored in the former Chief Eunuch’s residence.

“…Who are you?”

The middle-aged man called Red Crane Sect Leader asked.

Jeong Yeon-shin lightly turned Seventh Apostle’s shoulder with his fingertip. Her dimple also sank whitely into the robe hem that had wrinkled inward against her skin.

Rustle.

“Desolate, black rank… truly…?!”

The middle-aged man narrowed both eyebrows extremely.

But no response came back. This was all the time Jeong Yeon-shin and his party could spend on this person called Red Crane Sect Leader.

Because the time of Desolate Fortress warriors who had set foot in the Central Plains couldn’t be substituted with anything.

Even while exchanging trivial questions and answers with Seventh Apostle, Jeong Yeon-shin was pondering future whereabouts.

—When will you take off this black robe?

—I can’t give it with my own hands. If it bothers you, try taking it off.

—How mischievous.

Soon he turned his head toward the former Chief Eunuch’s hall.

“What? Suddenly why…!”

“Desolate?”

The Divine Sword Group blue ranks had entered the hall’s inner courtyard, outer quarters, and separate buildings and crossed hands with Dark Path people.

Red Crane Sect warriors wearing red martial robes as their name suggested. Most of them fell backward as if their bodies were bound by their own hands as soon as they exchanged one technique with the blue ranks.

Swish… Thud!

Heavy vibrations occurred everywhere along with the sound of robes crumpling.

The class was different. The sight of being suppressed by Grappling Technique proved the great gap, and originally Desolate Fortress blues were all fighting demons who could single-handedly annihilate local small and medium sects.

Having learned Divine Sword Group’s Jeong Family Dynamic Technique and Radiant Art, they were now no different from Jeong Yeon-shin’s swords.

It was certainly a very rare sight throughout all of jianghu.

“……”

While Red Crane Sect Leader, who had been occupying the best mansion in Beijing, froze while holding up his wine cup.

Yong Hye-myeong and Ma Yeon-jeok slowly approached Jeong Yeon-shin’s side.

“No common people.”

“Same with imperial descendants. They all seem to be buried in the ground.”

Their voices sounded strange.

The feeling when children had been playing in the village in childhood, watching endlessly, then suddenly the moment came to return home. The orange twilight that had hazily spread across the evening sky came to mind.

Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes once and opened them.

“Are you leaving?”

“Yes, now I’m returning to exile. What attachment could there be after handing over even Enter The Divine Sword?”

Yong Hye-myeong continued speaking somewhat playfully as always.

“Thanks to that fearsome cripple doing our work for us, we had leisure, but that’s as far as it goes. The inside of the Gates where he and we used to eat and sleep can be considered another world. All sorts of monsters and demons multiply well like the Yao tribe. That’s why we must gradually leave.”

Then he added. Swords must return to their sheaths.

Jeong Yeon-shin briefly repeated those words.

“Swords to their sheaths…”

It was meaningful words. A story that brought many things to mind. Even more so because it was chaotic times that only people from the Yuan-Ming transition period might have experienced.

Yong Hye-myeong, who smiled slightly, lightly gestured toward Jeong Yeon-shin’s waist.

“That’s why I gave you the sword.”

Enter The Divine Sword. A blade that symbolized only the Divine Sword Group Leader. Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips rose faintly.

“Are you worried that your junior might ascend to the throne in these ruins? But I prefer the epithet Sword Heaven to Northern Emperor.”

“How absurd. It’s your heart anyway. I’ve already handed over the hilt.”

Yong Hye-myeong casually waved one hand and turned around sharply. The scholar-style robe that had become close to pink color fluttered elegantly.

“Just judge what’s best for yourself. How far the strongest Divine Sword Group of all time should rampage for the world’s benefit.”

It sounded like telling him to draw a line at first glance, but it was actually the opposite meaning. It meant that as a predecessor, he wouldn’t mind even if Jeong Yeon-shin extended his power throughout the Central Plains.

Yong Hye-myeong and Jeong Yeon-shin were such a relationship.

Comrades who had entrusted their lives to each other several times, sect senior and junior, teacher and student who had given and received teachings, companions who had passed down and inherited the chivalry of stabilizing people’s livelihood with one sword called Enter The Divine Sword…

Rustle.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s long sleeves flowed downward. Because he had raised both hands to the former Divine Sword Group Leader.

“Thank you for everything.”

“Don’t speak as if we’ll never meet again. You there. Yes, you, Half-Sided. You must follow me.”

At Yong Hye-myeong’s gesture, a boy who appeared to be about sixteen or seventeen followed.

A disheveled warrior with sword-like long pupils. A person who had once been suppressed by Sword Star as Dragon Sound Sasa King’s Great Warrior, whose name was said to be Sword Satin.

Whatever deal he had made with Dragon Sound Sasa King at Black Capital, he had been naturally accompanying Yong Hye-myeong from some point.

“Half-Sided, we’re going back to the Forbidden City. Usually you can only enter the Gates through World Tree branches.”

[If we’re going back like this, why did you follow us this far?]

“Originally, relationships must be tied with greetings to have their proper flavor. Anyway, seeing your speech, you’ll need to learn Etiquette Spear first.”

[Etiquette Spear?]

Sword Satin’s voice, rumbling because he couldn’t control his tremendous energy accumulation, gradually grew distant. Naturally, it was with Yong Hye-myeong.

The back of Yong Hye-myeong, known to have inherited Enter The Divine Sword around when famine began, somehow looked very lighthearted. Even though the inside of the Gates would likely be more dangerous than the Central Plains.

“……”

Before they knew it, Divine Sword Group warriors throughout the hall were paying respects to Yong Hye-myeong.

Each elegantly raising both hands. Jeong Yeon-shin stared intently at Yong Hye-myeong who had become small as a dot among them, then suddenly thought.

‘Can I too…’

Someday set like that?

That’s when it happened.

“Yeon-shin.”

Ma Yeon-jeok had approached. Despite having suffered severe internal and external injuries, he was trying to return to where he originally belonged.

“Grandfather.”

Jeong Yeon-shin had to smooth his slightly furrowed brow immediately. Because he had suddenly seen the sight of a sea of clouds scattering like mist in the northern sky.

An ominous energy stirred.

It felt like the Human-Faced Ground Spider he had once killed in Beijing, but this time it was something swimming through the sea of clouds like its own home. It looked like a dragon at first glance.

Step.

Jeong Yeon-shin, who immediately took one step forward, was stopped by Ma Yeon-jeok’s hand. Ma Yeon-jeok was smiling broadly.

“This old man will go. You live in the human jianghu.”

The same story Great Master Beom-heo had told Jeong Yeon-shin.

Originally, Ma Yeon-jeok and Yong Hye-myeong’s missions weren’t different.

The Gates that gained momentum as famine repeated, whatever the relationship. It was an era when several purples couldn’t gather like the life-and-death martial arts duel once held with the Namgung family.

Woom!

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, who had been carried by nearby Hyeon Won-chang until then, suddenly floated up and was carried on Ma Yeon-jeok’s back like some weapon. It was natural void grasping.

Ma Yeon-jeok said.

“I’ll look for appropriate methods for you from beyond my Gate.”

Then Divine Beggar Zhu Guang also added.

“Even if Lords Yu Xiong or Yang Cheon someday appear as enemies, don’t hate them too much. If you completely melt what I taught you into forms and styles befitting you, whatever relationships you form in the future, all grudges will be placed beneath your feet.”

“Is Elder Zhu Guang also going together?”

“Since ancient times, Nine Sects One Alliance has maintained close cooperation with Desolate Fortress only regarding ‘Gates.’ Since your grandfather’s body is like a mangy dog, shouldn’t even an old beggar without legs lend strength? See you again.”

One by one. Then another.

Jeong Yeon-shin had to see off people who had to return. While putting the ‘Northern Blade’s books’ that Ma Yeon-jeok had left him into his bosom.

Literary Star said with a smile.

“Everything has birth and conclusion. Their play seems to end here.”

When Red Crane Sect Leader respectfully came down from the pavilion like Demon Contempt Blade after the figures were revealed in order like this, Divine Sword Squad’s Yeon So-ha found and brought a Ming Dynasty map.

“But isn’t this sort of thing clearly drawn in the Group Leader’s mind?”

Yeon So-ha suddenly asked.

He had only been inside the hall until the moment Yong Hye-myeong bid farewell, and even now he just tried hard to avoid looking toward where his former superior had left.

It was different from when he had talked about rotten straw rope. Because he was riding on affection rather than rope.

“Because the black rank seniors need to see it.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke calmly. While deliberately ignoring the gazes piercing his back at this moment.

Among them, Jin Myeong-jo and Cheon So-so’s gazes were particularly piercing, because he still hadn’t opened up to the squad leaders. About his remaining life.

‘I must still be immature.’

Jeong Yeon-shin knew too. That he couldn’t pass things over flowing like water forever.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“…Let’s return now.”

“This humble one will lead the way.”

“Go to the back.”

Demon Contempt Blade and Hyeon Won-chang left the estate with lofty behavior, going back and forth, and Yeon So-ha followed the turned Jeong Yeon-shin while slightly whispering in Red Crane Sect Leader’s ear.

“Since the Divine Sword Group has arrived, don’t breathe… Tell this to the Dark Path ruffians occupying Beijing now.”

“……!”

Shin So-bin, who had been keeping her feet at the edge of Jeong Yeon-shin’s shadow until then, smiled.

“They probably won’t believe it anyway? Even I think we shouldn’t have been able to return from the north. The entire martial world won’t know.”

Her smile somehow carried a white feeling. It was also somewhat like Jeong Yeon-shin when he was climbing to Wudang Sect in temperament.

Come to think of it, he still hadn’t opened up to Shin So-bin either. Jeong Yeon-shin found Hyeon Won-chang, who was patting his shoulder, a bit annoying and turned his head toward Literary Star.

The Divine Sword strategist immediately reacted.

“What Sword Heaven desires would be stability of this Central Plains land, wouldn’t it?”

“Correct.”

“That’s what I hoped for. First stabilize the crisis, solve the famine, and when everything ends well like that, the demon realm’s common people can also enjoy fertility. Verdantly, and verdantly again.”

“If you have good ideas, speak.”

“They say today’s Central Plains land is more chaotic than the northern demon realm. If that’s truly so, first we must focus all Central Plains people’s attention on Sword Heaven. News that would make them prick up their senses toward here even while splattering blood among themselves, or even more shocking great events would be better. So that those who discuss the world show conspicuous movements in some way.”

By then Jeong Yeon-shin was walking Beijing’s wide official roads with the Divine Sword Group and Desolate Jeok Family behind him. Beside him was Literary Star, who still emitted tremendous presence.

“What can be gained by doing that?”

“Order among strongmen can be created. If you reveal all the power Sword Heaven currently possesses, the strength achieved, everything to all directions, a great framework will form in the world somehow. What needs to be organized where in these chaotic times will become crystal clear.”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked calmly.

“A method of suddenly striking throughout the Central Plains like Hidden Sword?”

Literary Star’s lips tore politely.

“That’s a method befitting various masterminds who clumsily dreamed of jianghu unification. To stop the world, the world must know. Surprise attacks are meaningless.”

Soon the scholar-style giant asked.

“Can you make all the world look at you? First, this is the first thing.”

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t answer.

Saaaa—

Beijing’s spring wind embraced shattered stone fragments and blazed through the marketplace. Crimson sunset was descending on the great city that had once been most prosperous under heaven.

* * *

—Master, have you been well all this time?

—Lightning Genius.

—This unworthy disciple pays respects from atop Beijing’s World Tree branch. I have completed northern expedition and returned as originally ordered.

—You have become an adult. I can tell by feeling the wind.

—There is something I wish to ask.

—Speak.

—Perhaps now, if I arrive at where Master is with one sword…

—…….

—May I take the World Tree’s fruit?