Chapter 672 – Divine Sword’s Domain (2)

Jeong Yeon-shin of Henan. His hometown is Xiangyang.

It had been long since all counties came to replace Xinye County, and the fortress’s perimeter was the Divine Sword Group Leader’s sword circle.

And the great river flowing across the northern direction of the city, the fortress walls of Xiangyang Castle thrusting their brick bodies into that verdant water wind, while energy waves ceaselessly rattled the signboard of the gate called Linhan Gate.

Though it was a distance easily exceeding over a hundred li from Desolate Fortress main fortress, for Jeong Yeon-shin who had decided to move, it was like his own bedroom.

He arrived in one step.

Whoosh.

Stepping on feather clouds, resistance like a puddle caught the soles of his leather shoes. The technique of fixing void grasping energy from the Yongquan acupoints on his soles—void treading.

As soon as he rotated one light wheel, the bell sound faintly ringing in his ears deepened. A young gatekeeper was striking a bell under Linhan Gate’s antique roof.

Dong— Doong—

He repeated two bell strikes. A signal to run as far as possible, preferably to Desolate Fortress.

He was a brave man.

Because inside the gate was already another world.

“Run quickly! Quickly!”

“It’s noble clans!”

“Heavens, to see Shaolin’s Abbot with my own eyes…!”

Those running toward the marketplace without looking back were common people. Those forming crowds from the long fortress walls to rooftops were jianghu martial men who had been loitering outside Xiangyang.

Compared to the scale of those coming and going through Xiangyang’s north gate, only an extreme minority held their ground on the well-maintained main road. They were the group that first entered Jeong Yeon-shin’s vision.

‘World Tree and Shaolin…’

Noble clans whose green silk robes gleamed like leaf luster, and an antique carriage.

And even a monk with both empty sleeves hanging long.

They faced off on both sides.

The old monk’s atmosphere was like incense filling a dharma hall, while the noble clans felt like they wouldn’t move from their spots like tree roots even if swept by typhoons. In terms of martial arts principles, it was the difference between stillness-within-motion and immobility.

While examining Master Beom-heo’s complexion, Jeong Yeon-shin perceived the noble clans’ condition.

‘Unified noble clans.’

Absurdly strong.

They had gained all sorts of abilities while having their minds eroded by World Tree. It was a situation where the world’s earth energy and spirituality that World Tree had absorbed for hundreds of years had returned to them.

Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously muttered like Hyeon Won-chang.

“No different from bandits.”

An intuition that without Desolate Fortress martial units who had learned Divine Sword Group’s Jeong Family Dynamic Technique and Radiant Art Formula, no sect could match them in group combat.

Even from the carriage, he felt a spirit reminiscent of past emperors. It wasn’t even hidden by something like Return to Origin.

At the same time, strangely, it was difficult to find the carriage’s door. It seemed they had given no consideration whatsoever to someone getting out from inside. It looked as if they had put a person inside and nailed it shut.

‘I feel growth rings from their upper energy centers. Overwhelming years.’

To block such beings without harm to common people, there was no choice but to suddenly deploy Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji and strike Enter the Dao Transcend Together several times. Even then, it would be best not to fight in Xiangyang at all.

Jeong Yeon-shin decided to observe for a moment.

The center between both sides.

Where two other people faced each other.

Thud—

A heavy shock wave seeped underground.

It was a shock from some defrocked monk’s shabby straw shoes among the two, but strangely there was no aftermath. Only faint wind carrying dust was pushed in all directions.

“The same story repeats.”

The defrocked monk said.

“Just as one cannot judge patrons’ Buddha-nature by the facade of noble clans, the Four Great Vajra’s Won Jeok is not World Tree’s property.”

Though six precept marks were stamped on his forehead, his lusterless hair hung down disheveled behind his back. His robe hem, too worn to distinguish whether it was a long robe or kasaya, even had various meat broth stains here and there.

Yet he stood with his back to former orthodox path’s greatest Master Beom-heo.

That is, he represented Shaolin.

‘Hell Deviation Beom-ryeol.’

A name he had heard while spying on noble clans’ information flashed through Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind.

The being who had ghostly noticed that gaze when he had observed Shaolin with World Tree’s eyes before, thrusting his pupils into the field of vision.

It would be the reason why pilgrims’ footsteps to Shaolin never ceased despite there being Gates on Mount Song.

Because he would have been inside the Gates.

The unified noble clan facing such Beom-ryeol was a very young handsome youth.

“No… it’s not that your monk is our tree’s property, what I mean is…”

In robes where golden light rippled like lightning, with golden radiance embedded like beads in his eye sockets instead of pupils. An appearance both familiar and strange to Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes at this moment.

He felt a tremendous presence.

He seemed like lightning itself.

‘Senior Golden Thunder.’

Judging from upper energy center visualization of combat in an instant, unless he deployed Formless Sword Starry Night, defeat with just one blade was certain. Due to overwhelming thunder and lightning power, he couldn’t draw proper sword paths with metal.

Someone the current Divine Sword Group Leader had to utilize his specialty against. That is, the strength of unified Four Great Dharma Protectors was equal to World’s Five Swords.

“Uh, wait a minute. You…? If you say it like that, that monk might suffer internal injuries to his heart. He’s not from just anywhere but a high monk of Shaolin.”

World Tree’s Golden Thunder Viscount babbled with a bewildered expression. It seemed as if he was also talking with someone far senior to him in age.

“Ah really! Stop it… I’m sleeping?”

Watching his completely insane behavior quietly, Jeong Yeon-shin thought. He’s actually sane.

Beom-ryeol shook his head.

“Our temple’s Heavenly Eye Pavilion disciples said that among Four Great Dharma Protectors, Golden Thunder Viscount and Northern Darkness Fist Marquis weren’t worth associating with… This monk will take his leave.”

Swish.

Before finishing his words, he scattered like dock fog from his spot then rose like a mirage beside Master Beom-heo.

‘Vajra Immovable Divine Method…?’

Movement that manipulated space-time at will as if his whole body was Buddha’s palm, but that brief movement wasn’t felt by human balance nerves. Like becoming similar to monsters while annihilating monster spirits inside Gates.

“Abbot senior brother, I’ll depart now.”

Beom-ryeol’s voice was plain, but underlying it was feminine arrogance. Meaning he could leave anywhere anytime if he wished.

Master Beom-heo only smiled faintly.

“Do as you wish.”

Beom-ryeol immediately embraced Master Beom-heo’s waist and spoke to Golden Thunder Viscount.

“Seeing that even World Tree’s patrons have walked to Xiangyang, it would be difficult to meet the Divine Sword Group Leader if not now. Apart from worldly reputation… I hear he’s a youth with many grudges and favors everywhere.”

“Huh?”

As Golden Thunder Viscount tilted his head, Jeong Yeon-shin also inwardly wondered. Because he had never made enemies in Central Plains.

‘Did I cut too few necks?’

In that instant, Beom-ryeol’s form became hazy along with Master Beom-heo. Immediately crossing Xiangyang’s roadside whitishly like morning mist settling at dawn, it momentarily felt like grabbing and stopping time and space.

Saaaa—

Though Jeong Yeon-shin was observing with both eyes, he nearly missed the movement. If prime Master Beom-heo’s balance nerves reached opponents’ skulls with bell-like weightiness, defrocked monk Beom-ryeol was so different he seemed free even among earth-shaking dragons.

A new jianghu.

Even Golden Thunder Viscount, who followed that movement line by transforming it into golden flashing trajectory and blocked it at once.

Crackle!

Both sides bounced forward and back, creating scorched furrows before stopping.

At that moment, Beom-ryeol stomped another shock with thud, and fragments of golden lightning and blade-like light skill pieces that had surged up from collision’s recoil sank to the ground. Naturally, many among the common people fleeing to both sides sat down in place.

Master Beom-heo, who had escaped from Beom-ryeol’s embrace, bowed to them.

“Namo Guanyin…”

“Sorry.”

It was hard to gauge whether Golden Thunder Viscount’s words were directed to Shaolin or the common people. At that moment, unified noble clans arrived gliding like spring wind simultaneously. Strangely, the rosewood carriage also moved on its own.

Another confrontation.

How many times had such situations repeated?

While several common people shivered as if getting goosebumps, embracing their arms and hesitantly standing up, Beom-ryeol suddenly let out a hollow laugh.

“Namo Amitabha. Buddhism speaks of cause-condition-effect-retribution.”

“……?”

“It’s different from worldly words like cause and effect retribution. It’s just words describing phenomena. If hydrangeas sprouted from the ground, it’s because hydrangea seeds were scattered, and if cabbages grew, it’s because cabbage seeds had burrowed in.”

“Our tree said so too. If you just lend us Won Jeok briefly, we won’t fight with Shaolin.”

Like most peerless masters, they each babbled only their own words.

Nevertheless, unified noble clans didn’t bother interfering with Four Great Dharma Protectors’ stories, and Master Beom-heo seemed to entrust everything to Beom-ryeol. They were faces that even the Divine Sword Group Leader would have to show courtesy to if he stepped forward.

Beom-ryeol said.

“So if patrons’ bones and flesh part here, it could be called inevitability according to cause-condition-effect-retribution. It’s unrelated to my emotions.”

That was as far as it went.

When Golden Thunder Viscount, who couldn’t understand what he meant, blinked his eyelids, Beom-ryeol was already pouring out Hundred Step Divine Fist at Golden Thunder Viscount’s face without taking a single step. Simultaneously, the houses behind him also entered Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes in that instant.

Instantly, three luminous wheels in the Divine Sword Group Leader’s heart spun all at once.

Three rotations emit brilliant light and interlock like gears, and the thus-swollen internal energy stimulated the divine energy, shattering the Return to Origin and of the Divine Blood Extreme Demon Realm.

Conversely, before his eyes spread a stopped world as if time’s gears had turned backward to create load.

Thud— Thud— Thud—!

Amazingly, Beom-ryeol’s straight punches were extending at the speed of an ordinary person’s gestures within that. The scene of distorting void circularly and golden fist power like warship bombardment bursting from its center.

Golden Thunder Viscount, whose neck and waist bent bizarrely in opposite directions from three punch strikes, was the same. In a pose like making an arrow shape from the front, his evasion divine method’s reaction speed was lightning-fast.

But both people’s gazes were gathered elsewhere in stopped time. Beom-ryeol who had bulged his eyes over Golden Thunder Viscount’s shoulder, and Golden Thunder Viscount who seemed to want to look in the same direction, rolling his pupils toward the back of his head.

Completely a world of extraordinary people.

‘Radiant Wing Seven Steps.’

In World’s Fastest’s eyes as he raced trampling Hundred Step Divine Fist’s power radiances like stepping stones, Master Beom-heo, who alone was smiling on one side, was reflected. For some reason, Jeong Yeon-shin felt like he had finally returned to Central Plains jianghu.

Step.

As soon as he stood on the noble clans’ carriage roof, time began returning to normal. Hundred Step Divine Fist’s explosive forces penetrated endlessly into the ground, and the headwind from Jeong Yeon-shin’s lightness skill flew to Master Beom-heo’s sleeve.

Rumble!

“……!”

The noble clan masters who had been expressionless throughout turned like leaves in a blade wind. Their temperaments looking up at Jeong Yeon-shin on the carriage were each different, and though unified with World Tree, their personalities seemed greatly varied.

‘Qingcheng Sect Leader, Taoist Qingshui was also like that.’

At this moment, Hundred Step Divine Fist’s characteristic heavy pressure was rising from his soles to ankles, but there was no need to show it. Since fighting hadn’t continued, it would soon subside.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.

“Of all places.”

“……”

“In Xiangyang.”

There was no need to add more words.

Because he was the Divine Sword Group Leader.

Instantly, Golden Thunder Viscount, who had returned his pupils to normal, bewilderedly uttered.

“Yue Feng…?”

It was the first Divine Sword Group Leader’s name. The one who had first guarded the young Desolate Fortress Lord’s side. But Jeong Yeon-shin was already tearing at the carriage roof in a bent posture. Because he was used to Golden Thunder Viscount’s senility symptoms.

“Since World Tree and Shaolin have violated public order with private disputes, they can all be called criminals caught in the act.”

He continued indifferently.

“I arrest you here.”