Chapter 673 – Divine Sword’s Domain (3)

All will be taken into custody.

Words that descended upon World Tree and Shaolin.

They had no choice but to have great repercussions because Jeong Yeon-shin had uttered them. Even more so because he was the Divine Sword Group Leader who had survived after northern expedition, despite Central Plains considering him a war casualty.

To begin with, the word arrest itself could only be a type of declaration of war in this era.

“Rarely seen big shots of the world have encountered each other…”

“What crazy business.”

“Let’s report to the Sect Master! No matter who wins, Xiangyang will definitely become a sea of fire…!”

Whispers squeezed out from everywhere.

Local jianghu people of Xiangyang and those appearing to be Ha Sect disciples, even several beggars, were startled and disappeared somewhere. Nevertheless, Jeong Yeon-shin only calmly looked down at the half-torn carriage ceiling.

“……”

The flow of atmosphere stopped. With not a single breeze blowing, dust settled soundlessly like silk.

Between wood fragments torn like paper, a pair of eyes was reflected. An old woman fixing only her green pupils upward in their sockets without any head movement. Before anyone knew it, she was quietly meeting Jeong Yeon-shin’s gaze.

Ming Dynasty’s founder and first empress.

She knew everything.

As Ming Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang’s companion, she had participated in the founding of the nation, intervened in great governance until noble clans were revered as immortals, and as a warrior had crossed hands not only with Yuan Dynasty war gods but also with Wudang’s Zhang Sanfeng.

Finally, after looking down at Desolate Fortress’s establishment, she was a being who had become Central Plains’ living history.

Jeong Yeon-shin recalled Literary Star’s sound transmission that had followed as soon as he stepped out of his office.

“If that old monster truly moved, it would be big trouble for the world. If she had privately utilized that demonic tree’s power from the beginning, the demon realm would have fought two Emperor Qianling. Of course, if the situation became very bad, the anti-Fighting God faction’s Northern Kings would also have joined the demon realm.”

Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yan.

Nothing could be read at this moment.

It was just like looking at a corner of nature, to the degree there was no difference between Lowly Revelation Eye Technique and the naked eye.

‘Is she human?’

Separate from such thoughts, Jeong Yeon-shin quietly uttered what he had to say. While placing his hand on Enter The Divine Sword’s faded hilt.

“Only the Son of Heaven exists above national law, and even noble imperial family cannot go against Great Ming Code.”

“……”

“Please follow me.”

He didn’t even perform any particular courtesy. Jeong Yeon-shin thought honorific speech was sufficient.

But Wei Yan only looked up at him silently. What reacted immediately were the unified noble clans surrounding the carriage.

Practically the most noble group in current Central Plains.

“Divine Sword Group Leader Lightning Genius.”

“That is worldly law.”

Not just words.

Should one say it befitted those who had come to discuss the world at Desolate Fortress? Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly felt all the fine hairs on his skin being pressed down by something.

It was because some energy waves had become lush like abundant vegetation in a good harvest year. While luxuriant as if some gang energy was made into leaves, an invisible form confined Jeong Yeon-shin.

‘Formless energy.’

It felt like southern barbarian jungle had poured into the marketplace. But since it wasn’t visible to the eye, it only looked like elegantly scolding the Divine Sword Group Leader.

Combined energy waves reminiscent of great achievement of Radiant Art Formula.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t mind.

“The momentum permitted to peerless masters, they can create through combined attacks…”

He clicked his tongue like a monarch gauging enemy scouts. Though the unified noble clans’ faces still showed no expression, they changed atmosphere as soon as Jeong Yeon-shin’s muttering flowed out.

Lowly Revelation Technique didn’t miss those subtle facial muscle movements. Soon Jeong Yeon-shin raised his lips faintly.

“They can’t unconditionally dominate minds.”

“Divine Sword Group Leader, do not commit further rudeness.”

One of the noble clan masters spoke quietly, but Jeong Yeon-shin slowly organized his insights.

“It seems unified noble clans are divided into two branches.”

“Stop.”

“Cases that became exactly like World Tree’s incarnations. Cases that came to blindly follow World Tree due to eroded upper energy centers.”

“Divine Sword Group Leader.”

“Consciousness doesn’t seem divided enough to make all those noble clans into incarnation bodies. Then World Tree isn’t something encompassing all creation, but just a transcendent being with personality. Or it would be acceptable to view it as one absolute being with absurdly powerful abilities.”

The noble clans no longer spoke.

Without any questions and competitions, he approached the truth of the world on his own. Martial talent close to the greatest of all time was like that.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin had pressed down the hall with just a few words to himself. As if revealing that Xiangyang’s land was the transcendent Divine Sword Group Leader’s domain.

Suddenly Master Beom-heo laughed heartily.

“Shaolin acknowledges guilt. Arrest as you wish.”

The old monk who said so fluttered his sleeves hanging like torn rags with void grasping technique and smiled awkwardly.

“Would tying the hem work? As you know, I have no arms to extend.”

“The Divine Sword Group Leader is not trash.”

At Jeong Yeon-shin’s bland answer, Master Beom-heo’s smile deepened. He seemed to find it somewhat interesting.

“You’ve gained Daoist learning in the time we haven’t seen and become free-spirited. Good to see. This monk thought honesty rather than restraint suited your martial arts.”

“The Abbot seems to have become cheerful.”

“Of course. It’s a situation where those who would carry this monk’s burden instead have appeared throughout the temple and world. How could I not be joyful?”

Then he gestured to the defrocked monk with long black hair hanging disheveled.

“Our temple’s odd-job worker… that is, a Buddhist laborer. If Tyrant Hero hadn’t intervened, he might have substituted for this monk in the previous Mount Hua Agreement martial competition.”

At Master Beom-heo’s introduction, defrocked monk Beom-ryeol wrinkled his brow and raised one palm to Jeong Yeon-shin.

“I came from the temple. The two of us like this.”

It was rough by anyone’s view.

A look of having no particular interest in Jeong Yeon-shin. Though as a master of internal energy cultivation he must have felt dharma power and more, he didn’t withdraw the gaze he had once poured on Golden Thunder Viscount.

‘He’s like a fierce dog.’

One who must bite enemies’ necks.

It naturally felt how he had lived in the Gates. Gauging the presence polished like diamond here, it seemed the sect leader-level martial competition between Desolate Fortress and Shaolin at Mount Hua Agreement would have ended in Desolate Fortress’s defeat.

‘Still, we would have won the overall competition.’

With Shin So-bin who defeated Diancang Sect’s Little Sword Queen, and blue rank Lazy Flame Dragon plus uncle Ma Jin. But at this point, two of the three weren’t in the main fortress. As the leader of the Divine Sword Squad, it was impossible to rashly go looking for them.

It was then.

Instantly, upper energy center prescience activated.

Was it because he thought of them in the midst of unified noble clans with thick spirituality? A scene of wrapping black robes around Lazy Flame Dragon’s soon-to-be-born child seeped into his mind.

A scene where the long robe that should be bestowed on the father was used as swaddling clothes for a newborn baby.

Truly an unexpected connection.

Jeong Yeon-shin briefly felt gratitude toward World Tree’s noble clans. No matter what would happen ahead, the future he glimpsed was no longer future.

“Golden Thunder Dharma Protector, the Divine Sword Group Leader is crossing the line. Drag him out.”

“Uh… what to do? When Yue Feng moved, just watching was right. Elder Zhang Sanfeng made Wudang Cotton Palm to strike that fellow’s back of the head when he ran wild.”

“That person is not the first Divine Sword Group Leader. He’s merely someone temporarily substituting for the fortress lord in a masterless castle.”

Jeong Yeon-shin had been meeting eyes with Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yan until then. In reality, it had long been since he repeatedly clashed with her dozens of times in a mental image stretched like eternity.

A realm where they could gauge each other without directly crossing hands at this place. In that brief moment, Jeong Yeon-shin had lost to the founding absolute being ten times and won a total of fifteen times.

Only then.

“…You.”

Wei Yan’s wrinkled lips slowly opened.

“You are the current era’s Qian-ling.”

It was meaningful words. The late Emperor Qian-ling was said to be an emperor who constantly pushed back her interference with just his personal martial arts and dignity.

“Not Yue Feng?”

A voice that rang from behind Jeong Yeon-shin before he knew it.

It was Golden Thunder Viscount.

“Right? Jeong Family’s Lightning Genius!”

Belatedly, lightning remnants scattered flashing like golden nets. Literally electric light. For brief movement, he seemed comparable to Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, and as a unified noble clan he even possessed divine rank equal to World’s Five Swordsmasters.

Even his subordinate noble clans as well as Wei Yan were together. That is, it was forces like coming to wage war with one nation.

“Friend, come down. I don’t want to fight.”

Saying so, Golden Thunder Viscount casually put his arm around Jeong Yeon-shin’s shoulders. It was similar to when young ruffians of Xinye County had bullied five or six-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin long ago.

But the Divine Sword Group Leader couldn’t have a life-and-death battle with them here. Right now it was broad daylight, and the martial power and status of beings who had publicly visited Xiangyang were problematic to begin with.

Therefore.

Tap, taptap.

Jeong Yeon-shin carved bright blue Radiant Taiji light rays on the back of his hand, and naturally Three Pure Forces, the peak of Daoist internal energy, sprouted on his skin like Zhang Sanfeng’s power.

The next moment, Golden Thunder Viscount was on the ground with arms crossed as if he had been on the ground from the beginning. While lightning-like Form-Changing Position-Switching traces spread as brilliantly golden sparks flying in all directions with crackles. He even spat on the dirt.

“Grandmother, come down.”

“……”

World Tree, Shaolin, and Desolate Fortress.

In any context, they were names with the word “greatest” attached. A meeting of such beings was a major event in itself. Not only was it difficult to seek harmony recklessly in chaotic times, but it could also be like bringing thunderbolt shells to Desolate Fortress, which needed to work on reconstruction.

Because not only World Tree and Shaolin but all the world was moving in some way.

But Jeong Yeon-shin silently led them to the main fortress from the front. Meanwhile, Wei Yan didn’t get off the carriage and followed, moving the wheels with void grasping technique for some ulterior motive.

In the meantime, Xiangyang’s people honored the Divine Sword Group Leader with purple lanterns they had brought from somewhere, and some people asked about Jeong Yeon-shin and Desolate Fortress Lord or Yong Hui-myeong’s well-being.

“Group Leader, are you eating your meals well? There couldn’t be much food left in the main fortress.”

“When will the Fortress Lord return?”

“Forgive the discourteous words, but I don’t understand why Dragon Vessel Divine Hero passed down the Enter The Divine Sword so early. Since being rejected after proposing marriage to Tyrant Hero’s daughter, he hasn’t had descendants…”

“……?”

They were more familiar with Jeong Yeon-shin himself and Desolate Fortress than Jeong Yeon-shin was. Looks regarding the Divine Sword Group Leader as something like the city’s pride. Walking the main road after a long time, all sorts of stories could be heard.

Golden Thunder Viscount also naturally asked questions.

“Did you also learn from Wandering Star? I couldn’t feel Return to Origin at all.”

“Wandering Star…?”

“They say Pure Righteousness something is popular these days. That alliance leader there.”

“I learned from the Divine Sword Vice Leader. Never again distort Divine Blood lineage.”

Around the time that conversation finished, Jeong Yeon-shin had arrived at the main fortress General Administration with those under arrest. Simultaneously, the unified noble clans’ energy waves also became dense like damp marshland.

Jeong Yeon-shin guessed what they were aiming for.

‘Master’s room.’

The World Tree branches that had filled Desolate Fortress Lord’s inner room were particularly thick compared to branches elsewhere. Whatever the exact reason, it was enough that unified noble clans would try to reclaim them.

“Golden Thunder Dharma Protector.”

A swordsman with particularly sharp momentum among the unified noble clans spoke.

“Since we must protect the Grand Empress Dowager, you must handle the master second only to the Divine Sword Group Leader here. Block his movements.”

“Hmm…? Alright.”

The stairs going up to General Administration’s meeting room.

Obeying Heaven Wing Leader Namgung Hwa-shin was sleeping leaning against the railing. Facing him, Golden Thunder Viscount yawned lazily and closed his eyes.

‘He won’t wake up for two days.’

Separate from what expressions Shaolin’s high monks were making, Jeong Yeon-shin as the Divine Sword Group Leader with excellent colleagues could exclude one of the most threatening variables.

“Please come up. The main fortress’s strategist is waiting.”

He spoke calmly.