Chapter 722 – Great and Small Affairs (2)

This marriage.

It was a strategic exchange.

A transaction to take Blood King Jeok Family, who had been northern kings, as military force most quickly and wholly, and to give up about half of the life of a man with a base heart.

He must not show that the product called Divine Blood Extreme Demon, no, Divine Blood Returning Star had defects.

Jin Myeong-jo moved his Adam’s apple very slowly. Since he had spoken in brief answers for quite some time, it was right to be careful with vocalization.

“…Thank you.”

He spoke smoothly.

Fortunately, no squeaky sounds came out.

Rustle.

Jeok Lee-seo, who had stepped back one pace, tilted her head to the side ever so slightly. His courteous speech seemed puzzling.

She moved her lips.

“Husband, please speak comfortably.”

“If Your Royal Highness will also do so.”

Though he spoke with difficulty, Jeok Lee-seo only slowly shook her head and spoke.

“Wife.”

“Wife.”

As he echoed formlessly like No Forms Style, she smiled gently.

For a moment, Jin Myeong-jo unconsciously stared intently at Jeok Lee-seo’s reddish pupils. The man’s pale face reflected in those red eyes.

That worthless man.

Was he mixed blood crushed by his wife’s bloodline like a life that was always intimidated? Or was he the Divine Sword Vice-Leader who grasped at straws for a superior who would die young? Or perhaps a fool who had increased what he had to take responsibility for?

“……”

The man did not answer.

Only the red pupils held faint heat and rippled like dew. The man who had only been swept along by turbulent waves also swayed together within them.

Then he was obscured by some eyelashes.

It was because Jeok Lee-seo had gently lowered her white eyelids. Jin Myeong-jo, who immediately came to his senses, quickly opened his mouth with a stiff expression. Along with regret that he must have seemed impertinent.

“Let us depart.”

“…Yes.”

The place the two people walked to next was an isolated annex.

Blood King Jeok Family Head, where Blood King was waiting for his daughter and son-in-law. The reason he didn’t reside in the main altar’s palace was said to be because of Blood Flame Sect Leader’s smell. Because he had deep ties with the deceased sect leader Baek Rak.

“You’ve come.”

An inherently cold voice drifted through the chamber interior that was dark as a cave.

Not a single lantern flame. An environment conducive to absorbing yin energy, however minutely. The completely concealed secret chamber was cool regardless of season.

A man’s form was coalesced like twilight.

A handsome man with pure white hair hanging neatly like silk behind his back. A white color even whiter than Jin Myeong-jo’s white hair.

“I pay my respects to Blood King.”

As Jin Myeong-jo respectfully clasped both hands together and raised them, a voice cold as broken icicles blew over.

“Father-in-law.”

“Father-in-law.”

Jin Myeong-jo, who repeated it verbatim like a mechanical formula, lowered his hands. The wide crimson sleeves also hung down long, and seeing it, Blood King’s eyes flashed.

“It suits you well.”

“It’s excessive ceremonial robes.”

“Ceremonial robes? No, that’s a weapon.”

“Then I’ll treat it like a weapon.”

Even soulless words become flat assertions once spoken aloud. One corner of Blood King’s mouth rose long.

He said.

“You’ll use Baek Rak’s dharma treasure without restraint? Your spirit is considerable. Have you learned its usage?”

“My wife taught me.”

“To our blood clan or Baek Rak it was merely a symbolic treasured robe, but you wearing it are like perfection itself. Now you won’t be defeated.”

Blood King declared like a father-in-law.

Jin Myeong-jo only silently nodded his head.

It was a situation where he learned a child had been conceived. He couldn’t help but be somewhat dazed.

However, the royal blood clan were a people far removed from small sentiments. Because they seemed to accept Jin Myeong-jo’s dazed bearing as composed dignity.

“Undefeated blood demon…!”

Blood King, who repeated his own words, laughed.

“I’m fortunate that my daughter has embraced you. Our bloodline’s nobility originates from immortal honor. For the next three hundred years, our family’s spirit will not perish.”

“My bloodline is insignificant, so whether I can live three hundred years…”

“My grandchildren.”

“Grand, children…”

Jin Myeong-jo suddenly moved his neck. Because someone had pulled his sleeve from the side, and when he turned around, Jeok Lee-seo was nodding so faintly it was barely visible. He didn’t know why.

Blood King brushed his clothing.

“Let’s depart. It’s called Xiangyang in Huguang?”

“Yes.”

“Though I naturally knew it, truly the very center of the Central Plains… Even the location is magnificent. I like it.”

Jeok Lee-seo, who had completely grasped Jin Myeong-jo’s sleeve at some point, interjected.

“It’s been the most supreme land unchanged since the nation’s founding. I heard it’s a place jianghu people detest yet are desperate to go to.”

“Same as us.”

A voice mixed with laughter flowed from Blood King’s mouth as he passed the two people and took the lead.

“Despising blood demons, yet bewitched by beautiful appearance.”

And so they departed.

Blood King and the Jin Myeong-jo couple entered the dazzling sunlight. Throughout the palace, Blood King Jeok Family’s household members joined one by one, leaving red eye gleams like afterimages. The northern blood demons who began following like that numbered over two hundred.

Their destination was Xiangyang’s Desolate Fortress.

It was a long road.

* * *

Though not a single person used Grass Treading Lightness Skill, there were no footstep sounds. They crossed mountains and fields like ghosts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas. Even river banks deeply dried up like waterless gorges at times.

For a long time, day and night, they did so.

Especially when it grew dark, the procession became even faster.

Even the youngest household member didn’t need a fine horse. It was said the weak had all died in the north.

Blood King’s voice repeatedly filled the group like smoke then scattered within that movement.

“I understand Divine Sword Group Leader concurrently serves as Divine Sword Squad Leader, so as Divine Sword Squad Vice-Leader, you’d be a close aide among close aides. How did you withstand the dharma power?”

“I couldn’t withstand it.”

“Your mental strength is formidable. It would be good if my eldest granddaughter resembles you. Was Baek Rak’s spirituality tasty?”

“Besides the sensation of bursting First Apostle’s head…”

“The second should be born with that fighting spirit. Then it will be more than enough to sustain the eldest granddaughter’s hardships. Try recommending now. Among Divine Sword Group’s seventeen squads, which seems suitable for my grandchildren? If you’re also a father, you must have thoughts.”

“Resonance Spirit would be good.”

To Jin Myeong-jo’s dazed answer, Jeok Lee-seo also added. That Resonance Spirit’s masters were fast on their feet and disappeared far away in an instant.

Blood King shook his head.

“For royal clans, the important virtue is not lightness techniques but fighting spirit. Transcendent regenerative abilities surpass all protective nerves.”

“It’s why Pure Blood Brilliant Flame Robe suits my husband.”

Jeok Lee-seo said.

Even at this moment, the crimson long robe glistening like blood on Jin Myeong-jo’s body. It would also be correct to call it Blood Flame Sect’s sect leader command robe. What Baek Rak had hidden deep in the palace.

‘…I wonder about its abilities.’

No one from Blood King Jeok Family had injured Jin Myeong-jo to test it. He felt he could only know through real combat, so he opened his mouth.

“If Blood Flame Sect Leader wore it…”

“He didn’t need it. So much so that he hid it away pristinely like an unused imperial seal.”

Blood King dismissed it while twisting his lips.

It was also then that the person who had pulled Pure Blood Brilliant Flame Robe from the ruins interjected. It was the smooth voice of a young woman.

“Right now the important virtue is lightness techniques. You people are so slow you might go to the past.”

A voice that fell from empty air.

“I’m really envious. If you meet young Yeon-shin, bring him so you can let me bite him just once.”

Subtle madness was rippling like spring wind.

Jin Myeong-jo didn’t bother to crane his neck at Seventh Apostle, who flew through the sky like a bat.

Even as her shadow mischievously swept the wilderness, he only silently advanced. Because Blood King’s lightness techniques had suddenly become much faster, not caring even if Jeok Family’s household members fell behind.

Jeok Lee-seo, who had been running alongside Jin Myeong-jo, whispered to ask.

“Since when has youngest been with Northern Emperor…?”

“I understand it was before Lord Jeong met me. They were enemies.”

Talk like personal trivia continued quietly. Throughout that, their destination only gradually drew closer. Until they reached the North River basin of De’an in Huguang Province.

Water sounds babbled.

If traveling south to Huguang from Henan and South Zhili, it was a riverbank inevitably passed by at one of four levels.

A shabby-clothed old woman and herb gatherer couple were drawing water. The peacefulness common folk created was tranquil as the sky at sunset.

Despite it being early morning.

Whoosh!

The blood demons didn’t stop their lightness technique sprint. Jin Myeong-jo was the same. Blood demons with good bloodlines distinguished friend from foe with animal-like five senses, and Jin Myeong-jo was equal to Divine Sword Group Leaders only in upper energy center spirit’s spirituality.

– What blood demon group…? The scale is one hundred… two hundred.

– Divine Sword Vice-Leader Jin Myeong-jo is also there. Crazy.

– Let’s hold our breath and then report. Is Sect Leader in South Zhili? This is information worth a reward… Even more so since Fighting God has disappeared.

Sect Leader, South Zhili, Fighting God.

The common folk were Hao Sect members. Even masters with eye techniques capable of detecting the blood demons’ sprint in time, even capable of sound transmission. Naturally, no one but Hao Sect Leader could command them.

Information warfare in chaotic times was this fierce.

Pwaaak!

Before he knew it, Blood King stepped on the old woman’s crown and burst it as he passed. Jeok Lee-seo’s fingers dug into the temple of the man who had been disguised as an herb gatherer.

Jin Myeong-jo glanced at his wife’s index finger, which had followed like a shadow to his side again. White-pale steam rose from her blood-stained finger, and Jin Myeong-jo’s complexion became the same.

Jeok Lee-seo shyly averted her gaze.

“…Both smelled of human flesh from their mouths. They would have killed even god of war. Northern Emperor would have done the same.”

“Northern Emperor.”

Blood King interjected.

“Gathering the world alone isn’t an easy task. Only someone like Dharma Master, who firmly planted Chan Buddhism in the vast Central Plains, succeeded, and besides that, there’s nothing comparable except past sage kings and First Emperor.”

Settling the chaotic world.

It was the undertaking Jeong Yeon-shin had personally engaged in. But Jin Myeong-jo thought. He hoped to just gather up his own remaining days.

“According to rumors encountered in my family until now, that’s so. When fighting actually breaks out with World Tree’s noble brats, you’ll have to pray that Northern Emperor alone can handle Desolate Fortress Lord wholly. Hands will be woefully insufficient.”

Blood King’s words were what Desolate Fortress masters had lived with all their lives. Why take on hardship? Why not pursue glory and honor with such martial prowess? Why do they die and struggle constantly when called the world’s greatest faction?

‘Because it’s vast.’

To gather with one hand.

Along with conclusions not at all novel, it was already Xiangyang. Atop the roofs of palace complexes overlooking Desolate Fortress.

“Pancakes for sale, pancakes! A delicacy you might see once a year! Don’t think of stealing within Lord Jeong’s nose distance, I’ll sell for one full salt pouch!”

“Literary Star and Great Administrator Lim are competing with brushwork? Hey, didn’t Desolate Fortress’s signboard fly off with the main gate? They’re hanging a new one. Writing the three characters ‘Desolate Fortress (入荒城).'”

“That Yao tribe fellow? He’s really coming out publicly?”

“Lord Jeong appointed him as Divine Sword Strategist. He defended the fortress twice… So no more complaints.”

The marketplace was packed with crowds.

As if it were the safest land under heaven, people of all appearances flooded in like a river in an abundant year. They bent this way and spread that way in all directions.

For a moment, Jin Myeong-jo recalled the marketplace from about three years ago. Before the famine struck in earnest and even the gates became perilous. Xiangyang when fifteen-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin knocked on the fortress gate.

It was that noisy.

“Great Administrator Lim won! Lord Jeong didn’t choose Divine Sword Strategist’s signboard!”

“Hahaha! He lost the war and lost at calligraphy!”

“Provincial exam success my ass! If a Yao tribe bastard is Jieyuan [top provincial exam graduate], then I’m a writing teacher too!”

Amidst that, some were looking up at Blood King Jeok Family’s blood demons. They were martial forest people capable of seeing through concealment techniques with eye techniques.

“That Literary Star, Divine Sword Strategist…?”

Only after Blood King muttered vacantly did they scatter with shocked faces.

Two were different.

“To overlap at times like this?”

A black-robed man wearing a pitch-black hood laughed. Radiant Demon Wing Leader Cheong Myeong. Following his lips, his single blue eye also curved beautifully.

“I’m embarrassed bringing only one. It invites comparison.”

He muttered.

Meanwhile, next to Cheong Myeong stood a lama monk whose elegant orange monk robe hung to his feet. After glancing once at Blood King, he cast his gaze to Desolate Fortress’s walls. Blood King also loftily paid him no mind.

The lama monk said.

“…I came to the Central Plains’ center, but this land is also disappointing, like Blue Eye Demon Sword’s face without oil. Rather, the one who performs funerals with flashing blade work, the Funeral Master, did he truly steal master’s seat?”

Words referring to Lightning Genius. Cheong Myeong’s face became cold as frost.

“That’s right, Lord Jeong became the fortress lord. When we meet him, we’ll have to show courtesy.”

At those words, the lama monk nodded.

“Funeral Master is a terrible existence. Courtesy to an expelled orphan.”

The forms of address for Jeong Yeon-shin changed moment by moment.

Northern King, Dharma King.

For a brief moment, Jin Myeong-jo exchanged eye greetings with Cheong Myeong. Then he followed Seventh Apostle, who had already flown overhead like a bat.

Whooooooosh!

Even until then, Jeok Lee-seo was grasping Jin Myeong-jo’s sleeve. Jin Myeong-jo, who glanced at her fingertips, suddenly brushed Pure Blood Brilliant Flame Robe’s sleeve with golden hand movements, then interlaced fingers with his wife.

As if gathering a full handful.

“……!”

It was when they were about to fly over Desolate Fortress’s walls with protective nerves. Blood King pointed to one place.

“That would be good for our family’s homesite. It’s completely collapsed, utterly ruined.”

It was Desolate Xiahou Family’s manor.