Chapter 704 – Desolate Fortress Lord (4)

All directions were dark black, but gently illuminated by starlight embedded here and there. All were condensed forms of energy waves that Jeong Yeon-shin had sent floating upward.

The sum total of sword techniques that the ‘Northern Emperor’ had experienced was dark like jianghu’s night sky. Within it, Jeong Yeon-shin thought. The flow of the battle that would unfold from now on must be controlled by him.

‘Constellation of blades.’

It was the manifestation of the second Vast Taiji that would allow him to unleash the mysteries of swords he had never learned at full power.

Reactions arose from distant ridges.

“What kind of sorcery is this? They said the gate was cut like that, so heaven is truly angry…!”

“Retreat! It’s a sword circle! Report that Divine Sword Group Leader’s sword domain encompasses the mountain ridges!”

No different from the jianghu people of the Jinling mountain range. Naturally not a level to be concerned about. At this moment, regardless of whether the highest-level jianghu battle broke out or not, the sight of many rushing down the mountain in droves.

But Jeong Yeon-shin silently swept his gaze over them. While drowning Tyrant Sword Sect Master and Desolate Fortress Lord like a swamp in his endlessly deepened energy perception, with eyes that held faint compassion.

There were so many people.

Most would be those who had flocked from Henan alone.

The crowds filling the slopes of Silent Radiant Sword Constellation looked like withered, blackened grain ears. A group that would have come hearing rumors that Mount Song’s gate had been cut. The nodding of some who looked around the sky in the untimely twilight was like waves of a dead reed field.

‘Perhaps truly.’

They might be grain on the verge of death.

As long as crop failures continued, they too would be terminal patients no different from Jeong Yeon-shin.

“It comes.”

Words from the cripple standing beside him. Even without turning his head, he could guess what expression he would be making. Because excitement leaked from his voice.

Simultaneously.

When he raised his head, Desolate Fortress Lord’s profile floated before him like a slender moon. From her pure white skin, the internal energy barrier of Moon Spirit Divine Art transparently rippled, and the evening mist of the night sky receded like a curtain from her flawless form.

After touching Jeong Yeon-shin’s abdomen.

Rustle-

The sensation of her palm pressing against protective strong energy, purple robe, and abdominal muscles all at once like pushing them away. There was no softness like usual. It was simply indifferent. Enough that Jeong Yeon-shin’s intuition suddenly followed.

‘Killing move…!’

Her hand harbored palm force so condensed that nothing could be felt.

Like a moon ring without a single point of heat.

Even the roaring when palm force exploded didn’t exist. Despite the shock that seemed to turn even internal organs inside out tearing through Jeong Yeon-shin’s abdomen and driving his body all the way to the opposite peak.

Bang!

The collision sound that spread from Jeong Yeon-shin’s back only after hitting the stone wall like pale light rays. It rang very briefly, because he had bounced at unprecedented speed. It was also due to the mystery of implanting even the recoil of the strike into the opponent.

The pain was deep. A feeling as if his body had been crushed.

‘She has further developed her hand techniques.’

It was a technique once used to protect his maternal grandfather and Elder Council Lord, who had become no different from mummies, from the previous generation’s Pure Demon Alliance Lord, but now it had been utilized as an offensive move. Even the world’s greatest had not stopped advancing.

She stood blankly in the spot where she had bounced Jeong Yeon-shin away. Silent Radiant Sword Constellation’s constellation dropped pale light like a shower, and her hair gently wrapped in that radiance rippled in white-green.

The world’s greatest, Desolate Fortress Lord.

She seemed to exist alone in the world.

“…Do I displease you?”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth while looking down at her.

“Why? Aren’t you World Tree now? With no connection to me whatsoever.”

The round eyes of his young master whom he had faced hundreds of times overlapped with Desolate Fortress Lord’s eyes. She simultaneously raised her head toward Jeong Yeon-shin.

“……”

They clearly met eyes.

And she formed a white smile. A pale moonlight-like smile that didn’t feel human.

“Little seed, having met you.”

“What?”

“Fate has fully bloomed.”

Those incomprehensible words were the end.

Instantly thud, drag- the sound of heavy legs being dragged rang out. The cripple’s advancing footwork that reached her side. Fighting God’s fist that pushed back his large shoulders whipped like a whip while shattering space in an instant.

Thud.

It was blocked by a pale sword surface.

Somehow the Enter The Extinction Sword was gripped in Desolate Fortress Lord’s hands as she crossed her arms. Her appearance of placing the sword surface like armor against her shoulder seemed not to scorn the opponent but rather like the unconscious action of a master who had mastered the sword.

An unparalleled scene.

Absorbing Fighting God’s energy release with a grip technique that supported the sword hilt at her elbow, her long legs flowed the fist force worthy of the foremost external cultivator into the ground without the slightest movement.

Gurgle-

Shock waves digging underground like rainwater sprinkled on trees. The ground she stepped on rippled like a sandcastle for a moment. Even though Mount Song’s Little Room Mountain slopes had Shaolin’s formation techniques always spread, making them unbreakable like diamond.

Truly mysterious stability. Had she been deflecting Fighting God’s techniques, which were all world-opening, in such a manner until now?

‘Martial God.’

Even to Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes after meeting Taoist Sanfeng, she was indeed a completor worthy of discussing ancient and modern times. She was clearly the strongest being throughout this era when all martial arts under heaven were unprecedentedly flourishing. He would naturally have to control the battlefield with methods befitting her.

“Southern Emperor was right.”

Fighting God’s mouth suddenly tore wide.

“If I tear apart and kill a being like you, the hideous stems rooted throughout all under heaven will also be torn. Soon a good harvest will come. The matter of people miserably devouring people will also disappear.”

Only then did Desolate Fortress Lord turn her head to the side.

“……”

Fighting God and Desolate Fortress Lord.

The difference in eye level was great. Fighting God had no choice but to look far down at her. But their appearance of being close to each other felt strangely harmonious.

The scene of gods of both clans facing each other.

“Bearing the great gate alone…”

Desolate Fortress Lord slightly moved her lips. Still with arms crossed while gripping her sword.

“Do you intend to replace me?”

“I grew up intending to do so.”

Fighting God’s words were grandiose. It meant he had decided his direction of growth from childhood when he wandered in the Demon Realm. The rumor that the sum of all Six Star Lords was Fighting God. At the same time, he intended to enter the great gate that Desolate Fortress Lord had taken charge of and never come out again.

Desolate Fortress Lord slowly nodded.

“You are capable.”

A very human-like appearance, but precisely because of that, an inexplicable eeriness emerged. The feeling of something non-human pretending to be human.

“Screw that.”

Fighting God grinned while withdrawing his fist like a black path fighter.

“Since the emperor who would acknowledge me is dead, I don’t need your acknowledgment either. How about you enter first this time? Since you’re an invader by nature, you should be confident in attacking first too.”

But Desolate Fortress Lord only moved her lips again. Like a tree branch that dismissively lets even human affairs flow by like a gentle breeze.

“The rest.”

It was a brief question.

If Fighting God entered the great gate, what would happen to the people left in the gaps between other gates?

Despite being a transcendent to whom all things were trivial, she asked about Fighting God’s jianghu. To Jeong Yeon-shin, it had been only a few words given like charity.

“Isn’t the whole world jianghu? Struggle is possible for everyone.”

The giant cripple continued crudely.

“But no one can overcome hunger. I will burn what I cannot overcome and go.”

That was as far as it went.

There was no room for compromise.

No conversation could change the heart intent on killing Desolate Fortress Lord, and like a drunkard’s hand habits, the simple fighting path lined up and overturned mountain ridges. Naturally, Desolate Fortress Lord disappeared in the dust clouds and rock piles that rose like a tsunami.

Boom boom boom boom boom boom bang-!

Those who had each symbolized north and south respectively from before the current Divine Sword Group Leader emerged in jianghu.

Literally all of jianghu’s attention was focused on them. It would appear as a fight no one could dare intervene in.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently lowered his gaze. Shaolin’s mountain gate was clearly visible below.

Crack crack crack! Bang! Boom boom bang!

Northern Darkness Fist Marquis with long limbs and the giant Literary Star, Taoist Qingshu who had somehow risen like clouds without any particular presence and gripped his sword downward, Little Heavenly Demon Invincible wrapped in dark flames so her form couldn’t be seen, and Praising Earth Sword Duke. Peerless masters who could kill anyone under heaven if they properly landed just one initial strike.

At this moment, those reflected in Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes were like the eighteen types of weapons that could stop the world’s greatest of this era. Otherwise, they were supreme divine weapons.

‘With my martial prowess, I must utilize those things.’

Shifting his gaze distantly to the side, he could see Great Righteous Alliance’s martial forces. A mass writhing like the body of a flood dragon he had seen in Hangzhou. It would be because they couldn’t allow ‘liberated Shaolin’ to exist so close to their stronghold of Luoyang. The fact that their most important force, Tyrant Sword Sect Master, had climbed the mountain gate would also be significant.

A small number of Divine Sword Group members were blocking that flood dragon-like crowd’s advance. The sight of Radiant Art Bond’s light clusters repeatedly brightening and darkening the ground like the Milky Way blooming on ridges. At a glance, it looked very precarious.

Step.

The next moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was beside Tyrant Sword Sect Master’s shoulder. The ‘World’s Greatest Sword’ who had shown no movement until now. The appearance of standing still like a scarecrow with his great sword piercing the now shallow-breathing Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader’s abdomen.

No.

There had been movement all along.

Jeong Yeon-shin could see it. The muscle strands that twitched faintly like heartbeats in Tyrant Sword Sect Master Dan Seong-eum’s body.

Because he was treading the pinnacle of dynamic martial arts, he knew.

Such reactions of fine muscles weren’t accomplished only unconsciously. Like movements the body naturally makes when the brain awakens slightly from sleep. Literally the precursor to awakening from long slumber.

‘Is it because of Master? Because the resentment is deep…’

If Tyrant Sword Sect Master who had regained reason unleashed the secrets of the Three Desolate-Breaking Forms at will?

Such a catastrophe must not roam the Central Plains. When just controlling Desolate Fortress Lord and Fighting God here would require risking one’s life.

“You.”

“……”

“Are you about to wake?”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked quietly.

But the gaunt swordsman didn’t answer. Only standing blankly with eyes that had lost light as if submerged in depths like an abyss, wrapped in transparent sword energy like dew throughout his body.

Hiss-

The appearance of making the sword strike pressure waves constantly spewing from the sword engraved with the crooked characters ‘Silent Art’ into protective strong energy. A technique that slowed the opponent’s hand speed to distant levels as it approached, ultimately delivering fatal counterattacks to anyone with heavy sword mysteries.

There were no other energy techniques.

He was a swordsman who breathed with his blade. He would have poured his entire life into just one sword, with senses absurdly duller than Jeong Yeon-shin’s.

‘Even so, he’s only half-complete. Because his will is empty.’

Jeong Yeon-shin moved his arm indifferently.

Thud!

After forcefully striking Tyrant Sword Sect Master’s middle energy center with his back hand imbued with Brilliant River energy, he hooked his hand like a grappling hook on the sword hilt of the one who had been pushed back half a step. Simultaneously kicking away Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader’s body that had been a sword sheath, and tapping the pushed abdomen like acupuncture with the energy release of his toe tip with cracking sounds.

Pushing Palace Crossing Acupoints.

A technique that not only stopped bleeding but promoted meridian circulation, immediately stopping the blood flow. At the same time, Tyrant Sword Sect Master shot up toward the direction where Desolate Fortress Lord and Fighting God had disappeared, but they were all incomprehensible actions. He seemed like someone who had become delirious early.

Thud.

The bamboo hat of the blind man who had roughly sat down like a marketplace storyteller creaked on his head. A dim voice also flowed out.

“Why bother…?”

A question of why he had saved someone who was about to die.

For that, his internal energy breathing was proper, which would be thanks to Tyrant Sword Sect Master’s delirium symptoms and the strong innate energy characteristic of peerless masters.

“You have your uses.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said nonchalantly. Simultaneously lightly dusting off both hands that had pressed close to Tyrant Sword Sect Master. Because reddish wounds that seemed scratched by a blunt sword blade remained. Without protective energy’s radiant stars, his arms would have been severed.

‘The Brilliant River energy went quite deep.’

For some reason, the back of his hand that had dented the fellow’s solar plexus felt very refreshing. A feeling that shared the trajectory with the sword taste that Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader habitually babbled about. Otherwise, it could be called hand satisfaction.

“You.”

Words that flowed when he grasped the blind man’s nape.

“I don’t know why you raised such stars at this point so early.”

“You mean Silent Radiant Sword Constellation?”

“Yes, when you should save strength even if it’s not enough. The scenery was enjoyable to watch… but not only World Tree or the cripple, didn’t your subordinates block the Great Righteous Alliance, that monster of human wave tactics? The sum total of jianghu intending to open up a single nation. Yet you’re so leisurely, how many funerals do you plan to hold? There’s no chief mourner under heaven with as many memorial tablets as you.”

“You look perfectly healthy.”

“There are few things as fun for a swordsman as sincerely mocking a worthy opponent. Think of it as entertainment before death.”

“That’s not a constellation only I use.”

“Mm…?”

“Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji distributes consciousness and abilities like Wudang’s Dual Mind Cultivation Technique, and Silent Radiant Sword Constellation is a sword domain that manifests sword techniques in my experience at full power.”

“I was roughly guessing that?”

“Then you’ll know your provocation is groundless.”

Jeong Yeon-shin, carrying Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader on his back like baggage, began stepping on empty air toward Shaolin’s grounds. While continuing to speak calmly.

“Divine Sword Group masters who have learned Jeong Family Dynamic Technique are all the same as me at that level.”

At that moment, Enter The Extinction Sword Master Divine Emperor’s body pierced through several cliffs like a peculiar sword below the mountain slopes, Shin So-bin’s Ultimate Thunder burst like swarms of bees with tremendous roaring, and Hyeon Won-chang’s single sword cut through peaks with transparent slashes like that age’s unorthodox heroes and Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader joining hands. The Great Administrator who had taken Wol-yo’s head seemed to be safely wielding wide-area sound attacks with Sword Star’s sword screen.

Each scattered to engage in one-against-absolute-majority fierce battles, then final moves ending all fights. He could feel it without needing to see. Countless energy waves of Great Righteous Alliance masters had largely scattered.

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin stood stepping on wind above Shaolin’s pagoda forest. Already silently following with his eyes only the traces of his master and Fighting God, and Tyrant Sword Sect Master who had crossed dozens of peaks.

Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader asked.

“I understand the effectiveness, but what about your fight? You seem to have poured out all your energy. Well, with those two, the cripple and idiot, they could certainly kill your master.”

Then suddenly.

Some Six Union Battlefield Formation arose from underfoot.

[Having solemnly obtained permission from one hundred and eight mountain guardians, the master of the Green Jade Buddha Staff speaks from the Thousand Buddha Hall.]

Shaolin’s inner courtyard abbot quarters. Great Master Beom-heo’s voice spread in all directions like a Buddhist chant.

[Activating the One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation.]

Jeong Yeon-shin felt with the hand gripping Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader’s nape. That the blind man had lowered his gaze as if his eyes had opened. In those roughly clouded eyes, one hundred and eight monks would be reflected.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“Since World Tree and the Yao tribe’s vitality is endlessly infinite, at least here…”

Jeong Yeon-shin continued slowly.

“I also intend to act at full strength at all times.”

They said all martial arts under heaven come from Shaolin.

Dharma power was the same.

At this moment, the energy waves rising from underfoot were transforming Jeong Yeon-shin’s Luminous Wheel That Transcends Law Energy into something supreme. It was as if Shaolin’s One Hundred Eight Arhats had substituted for the true energy supply of resonant command, and their purity was so tremendous it felt as if time itself had stopped.

Woooooooooooong-

It rose.

From the Yongquan acupoint under his feet to his upper energy center.

The dharma power dwelling in his body began flapping violently like the wingbeats of a golden divine bird. Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin felt that his energy waves were even restoring Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader’s innate energy.

“You are a prisoner.”

He said.

“You can only die with my permission.”

At this moment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s tone was as extreme as the presence of Bodhidharma he had felt in the Wall-Facing Cave.