Chapter 678 – Three Emperors of Martial World

Jeong Yeon-shin silently climbed the mountain path.

Rustle.

Many things were being stepped on beneath his old leather shoes. Small stones and wood chips. Somehow, it felt like walking through accumulated grudges.

From gritty resistance to soft crushing beneath his leather soles, sometimes pushing the shoe away with hardness that would not crumble under considerable weight.

At the end of such an earthen path, two people were there.

A giant sitting silently on a cracked log, tossing and catching pebbles. And a noble clan man sitting laxly on a slanted old tree, looking down at Jeong Yeon-shin.

“I’ll interrupt briefly and withdraw. I have no qualification to sit with you.”

The noble clan man said.

Among his long tangled hair, his sharply pointed ear was tinged red. A face like someone who had drunk lightly.

In contrast, his carelessly opened front robe was colorless. His face was touched by sunlight, but his body was still dyed in a world of black and white.

‘Fighting God.’

It was a very special energy skill and the overwhelming aftershock of a great master. It seemed to be guarding his own people.

He didn’t even turn his head toward Jeong Yeon-shin, just propping his elbow on an iron cage. Fighting God was letting his subordinate speak first.

Meanwhile, the top information gatekeeper of current Central Plains was still staring at Jeong Yeon-shin with shocked eyes. He swallowed dry saliva and spoke again.

“Ah, I’m Hao Sect Master. Personally, I am a friend of Profound Martial Alliance’s madman… I mean sword ghost Baek Seo-gun. You know that crazy woman? Someone who got into debt to you out of trivial pride and paid it off alone, a walking symbol of jianghu’s sword ghosts.”

“…….”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s upper energy center, extremely elevated, insightfully understood Fighting God’s intent.

He hoped Jeong Yeon-shin’s state would relax to full by Hao Sect Master’s disconnected rambling. Indeed, the noble clan’s drunken voice calmed his mind and body like a flute. This was something he had once experienced from Immortal Tree Spirit Leader Cheon So-so.

“As investigated, you seem to cherish your surroundings greatly. Like the abnormal energy consumption rate of Desolate Fortress… I really did not expect you to walk alone. No matter how much Fighting God’s combination attacks fail on you….”

Jeong Yeon-shin looked at the iron chest supporting Fighting God’s bulky elbow. It was similar size to the wooden armor used when moving Taoist High Sword’s head to Mount Wudang.

A fishy smell flowed in.

What could be inside?

Before climbing the mountain, he had searched thoroughly with energy sensation, but he couldn’t feel a trace of Elder Council Leader Shin Byeok or uncle Ma Jin. Only the presence of a lame figure blocking the sky remained.

Meanwhile, Hao Sect Master seemed burdened by Jeong Yeon-shin’s silence. Glancing at Fighting God, he sweated coldly and disappeared by Ethereal Shift on the spot.

[TL Note- Changing the technique name Form-Changing Position-Switching to Ethereal Shift.]

—I have orders from Fighting God. You may move freely today… therefore I will observe and record everything from afar. Of course, only within allowed eye technique limits. The outcome will surely shock this bleak world.

His voice, seeming forced and unenthusiastic, grew more cheerful as it moved away from Jeong Yeon-shin. Like a madman playing against all Central Plains.

Until then, Jeong Yeon-shin quietly stared at Fighting God’s chest, then slowly asked.

“…Is it something to give me?”

“Yes.”

It was a rough voice that seemed to scrape inside his ears. It was very different from the low, familiar voice he had heard when they first met.

He rose slowly from the log.

His shadow grew.

He was a huge figure feeling different from Literary Star. Though also appropriately called well-built, if Literary Star’s body was a steel tower, Fighting God was like a sculpture. His muscles were strapped tightly in battle preparation.

Another version of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique.

‘While I learned and practiced it, he was born with it.’

His insight stopped there.

Because Fighting God’s pebble suddenly bounced at Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet and hit with a bang.

The cracking pattern spread like rippling fractures, exploding thick dust clouds. Jeong Yeon-shin’s eye level greatly lowered, while Muling Mountain crumbled with a roar in a landslide.

Crackling rumble!

Dust clouds seemed to blur even time.

It didn’t take long for ground that had been clearly a mountain to sink like collapsing.

Only jagged stone pillars remained standing like spears on the rough rocky surface. It looked like sculptors had carved the vast ground. Fighting God stood heavily on one of them.

It was a bleak, even perilous terrain.

“It’s become like my hometown.”

Fighting God said.

On a somewhat lower stone pillar, Jeong Yeon-shin quietly asked.

“Why drop the iron chest first, even wrapped in energy barrier?”

“Would I give you that first?”

Fighting God raised his bare hands.

Empty. Literally bare-handedness.

Only a reddish blood color began swirling in his large fists. It felt like death was worn like gloves instead of weapons.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently looked down at the densely sharp terrain like a forest of swords.

Bang!

With Ten Li Gentle Light, he smashed the stone pillar.

Several layers of translucent energy waves trailed behind. Ten or so rocks shattered in line, and before the roar ended, Jeong Yeon-shin launched a foot strike in front of Fighting God.

At that moment, Fighting God clenched his fist. Slightly leaning back his broad shoulder, he evaded a diagonal single sword strike.

Beside Fighting God’s blunt ear, the Enter The Divine Sword blade flashed white. Time slowed so much the streaks of sunlight looked painfully clear.

Fighting God was smiling.

Whoosh—

With an extremely refined movement, he reached forward with the opposite hand. At a glance it looked like a light probing strike, but Jeong Yeon-shin crushed Fighting God’s knee like ground and sharply braked while using Brilliant River.

It was a ring defense technique leveraging demonic energy.

‘It’s coming to the chest.’

He was wrong.

His blade paths were freely changing.

In an instant, the fist changed trajectory. The punch that had been rushing toward Jeong Yeon-shin’s middle energy center smashed into his jaw.

Divine power like Literary Star’s surged from jaw to head, and in an instant, Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes turned white and were immediately painted with an even deeper pure white light.

‘Radiant Star.’

Crack!

The moment he grabbed Fighting God’s shoulder robe, the form that should have soared to clouds reversed and stood on its head.

The defensive energy shattered by a single fist flowed down his jaw like white mirror fragments, and the fragments of that dharma power were sucked into the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain absorption technique emanating from his left hand.

When Fighting God grabbed Jeong Yeon-shin’s head with one hand, Jeong Yeon-shin was drawing Formless Sword Starry Night from the left hand gripping Fighting God’s robe.

Flare!

It came.

With sword draw, there was a terrible sound of tearing flesh.

The sword burning Fighting God’s robe hem blue and piercing even his flesh. Starry Night penetrated through defensive energy and shoulder completely, then was drawn out. Instantly, Fighting God had thrown Jeong Yeon-shin by the head and hammered him into a stone pillar opposite.

Crashbang!

Jeong Yeon-shin spun his neck while lodged in the rock. Two swords passed beneath his view with clattering sounds.

Enter the Divine Sword and Starry Night. Twin swords.

That was enough.

No other aid was needed. Combined attacks were the same.

—He is a person who acts strictly strategically. That is why he could face Emperor Qian-ling’s Ming Dynasty even with the anti-Fighting God faction behind him.

It was what he had heard from Literary Star before setting out.

Imperial Three Great Masters, Three Direction Generals, several Nine Sects leaders – Fighting God was someone who had experienced all kinds of combined attacks. Yet surviving and causing massive damage to Ming forces meant his survival ability in chaotic battles was clearly the world’s greatest.

‘I must defeat him one-on-one. For other reasons as well.’

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly recalled Lazy Flame Dragon in the north.

“When I think of you.”

It was Fighting God.

“I estimated growth speed outside normal expectations.”

He turned his shoulder once like a back alley ruffian, and with that alone muscles tightened and blood stopped without further hemostasis.

“About a year.”

Muttering something without clear meaning, Fighting God suddenly laughed.

“But you’ve already surpassed even that. What happened?”

Fighting God was curious about someone’s achievement. Obviously it was thanks to Lady Lu Xian’s Living Sword.

The world’s unparalleled mystery that made green sprouts bloom in wastelands, greatly boosting the activity of all things as well as people’s essence, energy, and spirit.

It also caused mysterious effects on luminous wheels.

He had synchronized the movements of the three-layered wheels of internal energy to rotate organically. Like applying the most precious oil to gear wheels.

‘Artificial unification.’

It was like the sword of Mount Hua Sect Leader born from a deep realm of enlightenment bringing organ-like efficacy inside Jeong Yeon-shin’s body.

—Three is too many. Try reducing to one.

As the words the first Heavenly Demon had thrown echoed in his ears, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.

“Come at me.”

A feeling was coming.

Living Sword’s power would not last long. Already the three luminous wheels showed signs of rotating separately, and as Lady Lu Xian said, half a day would be the limit.

As always, a short decisive battle.

“…Are you in a hurry?”

A vague smile formed on Fighting God’s lips.

“I’ve experienced much on battlefields. Strong ones who wait for something or are chased by some matter.”

“What I’m waiting for is one thing.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said with an expressionless face. The current Divine Sword Group Leader had also experienced hundreds of battles.

“Interesting. Tell me.”

“The end of grudges.”

At the brief reply, Fighting God’s smile deepened.

“Grudges are shackles one can only throw off when dying. Not just someone like me, but even common people whose every moment is war.”

“Your view is similar to Southern Emperor’s.”

“Perhaps so. The young Southern Emperor raised the young me, and the young me raised the old him.”

Whoosh—

From Jeong Yeon-shin’s left hand as he somersaulted to stand on the tip of a stone pillar, a sword-blue fire blade flickered long.

He calmly said.

“Southern Emperor’s intent when he died was different.”

“He said he would embrace? Because he had an emperor’s vessel. As a common person who thought only of Southern Emperor as the next generation’s world, I am still pondering about you.”

Fighting God spoke casually.

But Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly felt pressure like facing the first Heavenly Demon in Baek Mi-ryeo. Whether because his opponent’s martial arts were beginning to covet the greatest of all time, or because it was an era when all the world was going mad with strength from earth energy, he couldn’t tell.

Crack, crack—

It sounded like ice crumpling. At this moment, sunlight began scattering around Fighting God’s body like diamonds.

Even without seeing, he could tell.

The world’s strongest defensive energy, Northern Strength Mixed Origin Desolation. The origin of Heavenly Steel Light Armor.

“From the exchange we just had, you experienced Literary Star and Upright Star from me.”

“…….”

“If I load Southern Emperor and Northern Blade into each move of Martial Star, how would you respond? Who else and how many could I contain?”

Add the Northern Six Star Lords and you get Fighting God.

Northern Blade’s true destruction, Martial Star’s short decisive battle, War God Upright Star, monster spirit Literary Star, street ruffian bat, world Southern Emperor.

It was a declaration of short decisive battle in the form of an absurd question. He seemed to have gauged Jeong Yeon-shin’s weaknesses with insight from countless wars, yet still deliberately chose this.

The incarnation of the north was before his eyes.

‘If I win, I’m the world’s greatest.’

Jeong Yeon-shin kicked the ground. Trailing two white and sword-blue sword paths behind his back like constellations.