Chapter 710 – Desolate Fortress Lord (10)

Jeong Yeon-shin pretended not to see Wan Hui’s smile.

A person necessary for the great cause and one who was inwardly familiar were separate matters. As someone from the Unorthodox Path, the only one who satisfied both aspects was Seventh Apostle, who had seeped subtly into him over a long time like blood in his skin.

“…It’s become no different from striking with the sword’s flat side. The final ultimate technique of an extremely evil person.”

He was sincere.

He didn’t know how the Unorthodox Path’s swordwork had reached such a state. The exact abilities and mysteries of ‘One Sword Crosses Sea,’ its application methods, and what price must be paid for that technique.

“Isn’t that rather good? For you, it couldn’t be better than this.”

The blind man in the bamboo hat tilted his head curiously.

“Surely you weren’t planning to kill your master? From what I heard, you were expelled.”

“You speak as if it’s something new. To master such swordwork in the Unorthodox Path, truly unfilial conduct would have been routine.”

“I observed three years of mourning for my master.”

“What…?”

“Thinking of it as seclusion, it was quite decent. You might reference that.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly descended to the ground.

Nearby, the form of the sword-blue taiji he had unfolded earlier was scattering like mist. Spring winds fluttering semi-transparently, caught in the traces left by the intangible sword Starry Night’s charge. Already reaching the realm of touching nature’s providence with one sword. Perhaps that’s why the fluttering wind felt like Desolate Fortress Lord’s clothing hems.

Of course, it was just his imagination.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin slightly lowered his eyelids in the thread-like gentle breeze. His sword had sent his master away, but his heart was clutching her sleeves. Even at this moment while stepping on the ground together with Wan Hui.

Step.

“Hmm.”

Wan Hui, who had made a hand shadow, looked up at the traces of the sword-blue taiji.

His expression was very strange. It somehow felt like facing a familiar scene, and it was certainly because of Taoist Sword Immortal.

“…Probably won’t work twice. Why would jianghu people be reluctant to reveal their ultimate techniques? Each would prepare countermeasures by some method.”

Silent Radiant Sword Constellation was condensed forms of energy waves that floated the studies of swordsmen Jeong Yeon-shin had experienced like stars. A swordsman of Unorthodox Finest Sword’s caliber would have felt that Taoist Sword Immortal had helped.

None other than his own swordwork.

Praising Earth Sword Duke and Northern Darkness Fist Marquis, and although he realized it late, even Taoist Qingshu had been swept up in the trajectory of swordwork while pursuing Jeong Yeon-shin. Because the sword path of taiji could only be circular. Naturally they too had disappeared like the three absolute beings, and considering six martial prowesses in total, it was truly tremendous.

The taiji of one who doesn’t compromise was that vast. Even after several breaths had passed, it was enough to create whirlwinds on the ground.

“I too don’t have twice.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said quietly. Desolate Fortress Lord, Tyrant Sword Sect Master, Fighting God. Only people with whom he must see the conclusion on the day they meet again.

The canyon became momentarily quiet.

Light dust drew faint circles at the feet of the two people lost in their respective thoughts. The wind circled and circled them for a long time. Until the silver powder of Enter The Divine Sword that had shattered earlier was sucked into Jeong Yeon-shin’s bosom.

* * *

To Eunuch Ming Yu, wind was a very familiar existence.

Naturally. Because he was of the Noble clan.

It was also true as an Eastern Palace official who had once been in charge of Radiant Demon Wing Leader Lightning Genius . The days when he broadened his knowledge with young black martial arts under the observation of ‘Crown Prince’ Zhu Yunming, who was then the Imperial Grandson. The days after reporting that he had glimpsed gentleness in Lightning Genius’s character.

Even then, wind had been with Ming Yu.

“My judgment was accurate, wasn’t it…?”

The political downhill path. Repeated demotions as high-ranking figures died to Radiant Demon Wing Leader.

The wind of that abyss was ridiculously harsh. The ascending storm he tasted after being reinstated due to Lightning Genius’s successive victories was sweet.

But there was no fierce gale as violent as the wind brushing his skin now. Such were the threats to life, such were jianghu’s blade winds.

Whoooooosh!

“Oh my!”

Ming Yu, who had rolled ungracefully down the steep mountain slope, immediately rose like a gale and ran. He had already mastered Flying Dragon Steps. The sword wind that had nearly severed his head just now had burrowed into the old tree ahead.

Crack!

He rushed past the base of the tree that had split in two and fallen. Beside him, a dark-complexioned young man was somehow keeping up with Ming Yu.

“Soon-il!”

“Yes…!”

Hao Sect Blade Zhang Soon-il answered while panting.

When crowds gather in chaotic times, bandits naturally swarm as well. They had already cut down several unorthodox scoundrels lurking throughout the mountain slopes.

Because Ming Yu had said he was delivering the Emperor’s letter. To none other than Divine Sword Group Leader Jeong Yeon-shin.

The situation was that several unknown Noble clan warriors were chasing Ming Yu and Zhang Soon-il from the farthest ridge behind. Jianghu people who saw this from a distance thought the two had some murim treasure and got entangled along the way.

That rumor.

“Divine Sword Group Leader has cut the gate.”

Even now all of jianghu was flocking to Mount Song.

Ming Yu tightly bound the bundle on his back while running. And shouted.

“Soon it’s Shaolin’s mountain gate!”

“I know! Just a little more and…!”

“Stop here!”

“What? After coming all this way, what’s…?”

“I mean you, Soon-il! I have to go!”

“What?”

“Delivering an imperial command is that kind of work. This must be promulgated from Shaolin in time for the current Divine Sword Group Leader’s worries to be lessened even a little. Otherwise, the disgrace of being a mad dog that bites its own master will be placed on him… Please buy me time. I only have gratitude for you.”

He casually babbled about wanting him to become a shield. Yet there was no sense of discord. Because Ming Yu had been a gale of the political world.

Even now lightning-like calculations flashed in his upper energy center.

‘The Three Direction Generals let me go without killing me. They’re now traitors who betrayed His Majesty, but it’s proof that they respect imperial commands even a speck… But would that be the same after they join their master, Grand Empress Dowager? I must hurry!’

The Emperor enthroned in Desolate Fortress’s main castle had summoned the Three Direction Generals under heaven to serve as Ming Yu’s escort, but now it had become meaningless.

“We cannot deliver that message tube, that imperial command, to Divine Sword Group Leader. Go alone.”

It still rang in Ming Yu’s ears. The story of the Three Direction Generals who had left him as soon as they reached Henan.

“Our choice is wrong. Extremely dishonorable. Therefore now we can no longer be generals or even common soldiers, falling to mere ronin. This is because we cannot coexist with the northern monsters, because our tolerance is narrow. Also because the soldiers and disciples who were like children to us, those dead ones, linger before our eyes with Yao tribe axes embedded in their skulls. However, if you can safely deliver the imperial command, tell Divine Sword Group Leader this.”

‘The military gate showed respect to you.’

Whoosh!

The sparse tree branches blocking his view all cleared with a single leap.

Though he no longer had the power to maintain protective strong energy and his shoulders and waist were scraped painfully, Ming Yu was only glad for the untimely twilight.

‘Silent Radiant Sword Constellation…! Just as reported by those Shaanxi fellows!’

Finally Shaolin’s mountain gate was before his eyes, but glancing sideways, Zhang Soon-il wasn’t there. He had really turned back at that spot upon being asked to buy time.

It was the conduct of a gallant hero.

Moreover, he was already quite far away. There must have been some grievance. Whether with unorthodox scoundrels or Divine Sword Group Leader.

“I’ll see all kinds of crazy bastards! Really thank…”

He was shouting to Zhang Soon-il without looking back when he stopped short. Even though one leap down from the hill would take him straight to Shaolin.

“Crazy.”

It flowed out unconsciously.

Ming Yu’s sleeve edges drooped along with both arms.

“How, what should I…!”

He had known from the beginning that the vast mountain ridges were filled with crowds. He had foreseen what it would be like before Shaolin. Weren’t beings competing for supremacy under heaven consuming each other beyond the ridges? The lineup confirmed by onlookers’ eyes was already terrifying.

But the situation unfolding on the path leading to Shaolin’s mountain gate was different again.

Flutter!

A flag fluttering with only the single character ‘Grand’ inscribed, and the palanquin carried by sixteen World Trees of the Ming clan with that flagpole planted to one side.

“……”

The sixteen-person palanquin of the Martial Painting Sixteen Trees.

It was the symbol of Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yeon, permitted by the founder’s command. The most high-ranking person under heaven was manifesting.

At Shaolin, which now held only monks.

‘Feint!’

Invisible pressure filled the silence. It wasn’t the momentum Wei Yeon had released. It was the solemnity created by the Central Plains people themselves, who split apart like a tsunami and retreated in all directions.

The living history of hundreds of years of Ming Dynasty.

Without any exaggeration. Where else in all of today’s world would there be an existence more authoritative than the founder of Ming’s companion?

That status surpassed even the current Emperor, who had lost all military power and authority. She could give Praising Earth Sword Duke another Enter The Divine Sword without much commotion. Since even Desolate Fortress Lord was in her grasp, it was like a substantial emperor manifesting.

Step.

As an extremely tall old woman descended from the palanquin, most of the crowd prostrated themselves on the spot. As her wrinkled bare feet stepped forward, more people withdrew while bowing.

A presence that forced the crowds to become well-ripened grain ears.

Like Emperor Qian-ling.

At least that’s how Ming Yu felt.

When he suddenly met eyes with Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yeon as she turned her head, and even after being pulled in like light by her hand that had instantly performed Void Grasp.

Whoooooosh! Thud!

He was grabbed by the collar by an elegant golden tree. It was internal energy manipulation beyond human recognition.

“Eunuch Ming Yu.”

“Cough, kugh! You know… me…!”

“I know all officials of the Central Plains. Because they are the cornerstones of the nation my husband accomplished in life.”

Then the old woman said.

“You would be no different.”

“……”

Ming Yu froze while being lifted by Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yeon. At the same time, when her gaze focused on his bundle, it felt like the blood vessels in his brain froze and settled down to his spine.

“There is something to confirm. Come with me.”

Creak.

The large mountain gate opened by itself, and the grounds were revealed.

The outer courtyard surrounded by bluish dharma halls and pagoda forests like a folding screen. A front yard so excessively flat it possessed even austerity. It was so vast that it couldn’t be called cozy even as a figure of speech, and countless monks filled the great temple’s outer courtyard.

Their number was obvious without counting.

Shaolin, One Hundred Eight Arhats.

Woooooooooooong!

Semi-transparent dragon energy was encompassing them while ascending somewhere unknown. It was tremendous energy beyond Ming Yu’s experience, but as soon as Grand Empress Dowager waved her hand once in the tranquil silence, it snapped off with a clang!

Whoosh!

Dusty wind that lifted even the hem of Ming Yu’s trousers hanging down. She had forcibly blocked the true energy supply to someone through tension.

But not one person coughed blood.

The warrior monks of Shaolin only gazed at the high-ranking uninvited guests with clear eyes. Was it the ability of the Muscle Changing Classic? Ming Yu suddenly felt like he had fallen into a world of supernatural beings.

“It was used wrongly.”

Wei Yeon spoke.

“Like putting a dragon-slaying sword into a furnace.”

Before he knew it, her gaze was focused on the left guest hall. The one-eyed old monk with no arms, Shaolin Abbot Great Master Beom-heo, watching them from a distance like an incense guest.

He answered with a faint smile.

“In wartime make swords, in peaceful prosperity melt them down to make plows and hoes… Metal should naturally be used that way.”

“Guide me to where the gate was.”

“Don’t you already know? Since nothing feels different, everything would be empty.”

“I must see with my eyes.”

“Amitabha. It’s right there.”

Suddenly Great Master Beom-heo’s sleeve edge fluttered up playfully, then became rigid diagonally as if pointing at empty air with nothing there. It was some point leading from Shaolin’s outer courtyard to the pagoda forest.

“According to records of predecessors, the founder commanded thus: ‘Let Shaolin’s pagoda forest always look down on supernatural beings, so the relics of enlightened high monks may exert merit’… Indeed that wisdom was correct, as Divine Sword Group Leader who walked to Mount Song through Shaolin’s connection achieved Gate Severing. Truly excellent karma.”

“……!”

Shock spread like great waves not only throughout Shaolin’s grounds but to the audiences listening from outside. Some masters even burst their energy waves.

Even to Ming clan perception, not the slightest falsehood emerged. Ming Yu thought while shocked to the point of dizziness.

‘Shaolin Abbot’s words and actions possess two things.’

Bewilderment and cunning.

It was as if he had seen through how Grand Empress Dowager Wei Yeon cherished Ming founder to the point of literally considering him her companion, her other half. The founder who was a farmer by birth and a natural martial artist. The grain ears remaining in Wei Yeon’s heart after long famine.

Rustle.

Ming Yu’s hand twitched as if to reach for the bundle behind him or not. Wei Yeon’s grip still strangled his collar, and the moment he touched the bundle, the message tube might burst into flames.

Her Samadhi True Fire, having mastered peerless wind arts, was comparable to the black flames of past Fire Cult Leaders.

‘I must proclaim the imperial command…!’

Wei Yeon’s silence lengthened. Ming Yu’s anxiety also secretly reached its limit. As an official who had earned Grand Empress Dowager’s displeasure, it was time to clearly align with someone.

If the tightrope walking was ambiguous, he would certainly die. An old maxim among eunuchs.

Then Great Master Beom-heo pointed to the sky.

“There, the person concerned is coming.”

Ming Yu’s upper energy center blazed white-hot at the same time. He convulsively shouted.

[I deliver an imperial command! Kneel!]

Resonant Uniting Heaven Sound.

Dust flowed down between the brick walls, and Wei Yeon’s indifferent glance dropped onto Ming Yu more carelessly than that movement.

He shouted regardless.

[Since the northern Divine Thief infiltrated the imperial secret archives leaving behind heteromorphic void techniques, and the northern Fighting God manifested in Beijing following those traces… abridged…!]

Every word was spoken aloud. Until then Ming Yu was unharmed, and while finding this strange, he shouted with all his strength.

[I declare where this letter exists. Desolate Fortress is indeed a unified sect of the imperial family. Therefore gathering the remaining imperial seal and immortal legitimacy belonging to the Son of Heaven, I strip Wei Family of the position of Desolate Fortress Lord, and install Jeong Family Lightning Genius as the Second Desolate Fortress Lord.]

“…Noisy.”

It was when Wei Yeon’s arm moved. Suddenly earth surged up between her and Ming Yu, instantly molding the form of some giant. A one-eyed cripple who misstepped with one leg. As soon as he appeared, he pulled Ming Yu’s nape, with strength and technique worthy of being called divine power.

Whoosh!

“……!”

Like that of Emperor Qin’s tomb.

Terracotta Army. Ceramic Soldiers and Horses. A primordial spirit molded from earth. It was grinning at Ming Yu as if telling him to continue speaking.

Of course Ming Yu concluded his words as if bewitched.

[Pacify the end times.]

The shadow of Divine Sword Group Leader falling against the gentle morning sunlight. He had brought three people of various types to the sky like a heavenly army, and that appearance was truly a victorious general.

At the same time, the earth giant threw Ming Yu to the ground and said.

[It is proper compensation. I bear witness to this.]