Chapter 728 – Time Limit (3)

It was a forest.

A place lush with green vegetation.

Gentle orbs of light floated around like fireflies. They were crystallizations of dense earth energy. The children sitting in a large circle nearby would push or caress the faint glows like handling throwing weapons, laughing innocently.

They appeared not yet ten years old.

All were pureblooded noble clans with ears sharp as blades.

At their center sat a gaunt old woman. Her ears were smooth compared to her aged face. She opened her mouth to speak to the children.

“Let’s see. The Yao tribe member who introduced himself as Do-hyo is landing in a splendid palace. Among Great Righteous’ Four Great Wives sitting in the palace, three are superior masters to him, but it seems difficult to pierce through the Yao tribe’s Heavenly Steel Light Armor. Indeed… this is no easy task for anyone. Only Divine Sword Group, which made itself special, was the exception.”

Wind Empress Wei Yeon.

Her tone was gentle.

“The Yao tribe members who suddenly covered the Forbidden City came from that distant, distant Demon Realm. They are very brave yet barbaric. Though perhaps not as noble as you children.”

She drew a benevolent arc with her wrinkled lips. It was as if she were telling old stories to her grandchildren.

“Clan Elder Grandmother.”

A young boy raised his hand.

“Is Heavenly Steel Light Armor that sturdy? More than the main trunk’s leaf internal energy shields?”

“Pale Dew Divided Light is a divine art that the sacred tree has recently created, is it not? As the experiences and mental images of all living tribes are woven together like branches, its transcendence cannot be approached by an individual’s martial arts… But Heavenly Steel Light Armor is the martial learning that created a border across the entire Great Wall. We’ll have to compare them directly to know.”

“Grandmother, you’re smiling right now.”

“My dreams are pleasant. This Pale Dew Divided Light will be divine art that will protect countless tribes in the great battles to come.”

Kiiiiing…

A strange sound.

It spread from Wei Yeon’s palm covered in blade scars. Energy that flickered and vanished in seven layers like falling leaves in an instant. At the same time, the nearby atmosphere was sucked into the place where that semi-transparent internal energy shield had formed.

A flow accompanied by natural earth energy.

The children each giggled at the wind streams that scratched their heads and disappeared. Wei Yeon, who smiled broadly, continued speaking.

“Let’s return to the Forbidden City.”

One of the children asked.

“Did Northern Emperor’s lackey die?”

“You mean Do-hyo?”

Wei Yeon shook her head.

“Audaciously, even his companions violated the Forbidden City’s old site. Easily over a hundred of them, and they crushed Great Righteous’ masters guarding the palace like medicinal herb roots. This is well done, but…”

“That’s satisfying! It was Clan Elder Grandmother’s home!”

“However, Li Chuang’s wives escaped from the palace. Gracefully like their aliases as immortals, or miserably like mangy dogs… But, oh my.”

“Why?”

“Gongsun Noble Family’s previous family head blocked the Yao tribe members. He came with a new divine sword. He engraved the phrase ‘Revering Art’ on the sword hilt; what a sentimental old man.”

Wei Yeon continued that Mad Lord Gongsun Yue’s sword wind had bisected twenty Yao tribe members.

“With that single sword strike, the remaining eighty or so were also pushed back to the palace’s far edge. It’s the form of battlefield martial arts.”

“Didn’t Profound Martial Alliance Leader once shatter the internal energy barriers of hundreds with a single move?”

“But they weren’t military forces who had learned Heavenly Steel Light Armor. Gun Wi-hu never lost a battle, and the alias Military King Martial Emperor was Qian-ling’s sarcasm.”

“So the previous Gongsun family head is remarkable.”

“Since it’s become difficult to find the original form of Gongsun family sword techniques, he lost his foundation. He doesn’t even sense my gaze.”

“Isn’t being powerful enough?”

When a young girl raised her hand and asked, Wei Yeon shook her head with half-opened eyes.

“Ultimate martial arts is ultimately returning to origin. The person who returns to their own essence and sees themselves most clearly is truly invincible. Just as Unorthodox Finest Sword was on the day he died.”

[TL Note- I’m assuming Wan Hui died along with Wudang’s gate.]

And she added.

Since a peerless master can already kill anyone, the one who wields their own martial arts best is truly the world’s greatest…

The children couldn’t respond to the difficult words. But Wei Yeon didn’t mind and began telling them about the Forbidden City’s current situation again.

Like nurturing future generations.

“The masters who raised the Azure Dragon banner escaped from the Forbidden City first. An old man called ‘Invincible Lee Beom’ was among them.”

“I know the Azure Dragon banner. You said it’s a dharma treasure that controls the dazed world’s greatest sword. That Great Righteous made with tremendous, tremendous difficulty.”

Another child grinned while raising their hand. Wei Yeon nodded.

“Great Righteous’ garrison forces surrounding Beijing are beginning to return. Easily thousands in number, and their momentum is tremendous. All are rushing to the Forbidden City with lightness techniques.”

“How did the Yao tribe members reach the Forbidden City?”

“They forcefully broke through the northern garrison. Their lightness technique breakthrough is difficult to stop with human power. Their speed is also extremely fast… Right now they’re bursting through Invincible Lee Beom and the Azure Dragon banner’s masters alive as they pass.”

“What about the banner?”

“Among the Four Great Wives, Peony Immortal Hyeong Lan snatched it and soared high, but Hwangbo family fellow trampled her lower back. In one step her skin disappeared and white bones were revealed. Hyeong Lan screams. Since even her erector muscles and acupoints melted along with her protective strong energy, you must beware of his extreme yang cultivation. It seems to be the only natural enemy of Pale Dew Divided Light.”

“Before, you said Hwangbo scoundrel was someone about to die…”

“He was joined with a companion and became human.”

Wei Yeon’s wrinkled eyes curved contentedly for the first time. As if the transcendent being of jianghu who had watched all affairs under heaven like entertainment had taken the narrative of a regular plaything to heart.

“It’s as if his foundation has been richly inflated, so I don’t know how long he’ll live now. If you children also marry well, you can become like this. As I did.”

“……?”

The children couldn’t grasp what she meant, but soon Wei Yeon scattered light laughter like spring wind and continued her story.

“Hwangbo fellow who just landed broke and burned the Azure Dragon banner, so now Tyrant Sword Sect Leader will fade into history as a worthless existence. Meanwhile, outside the Forbidden City, the Yao tribe members and Great Righteous’ military forces have clashed. It’s a chaotic melee.”

“Which side will win?”

“Unless someone appears among the Yao tribe members to directly face the former Eight Family Heads and Wandering Star, the battle will continue for a long time. Of course, most of Great Righteous’ other masters will likely be trampled to death by Heavenly Steel Light Armor… But we can withdraw our attention.”

Because only Jeong Yeon-shin and Fighting God were actually threatening World Tree right now.

Suddenly Wei Yeon raised her finger and the children’s bodies stiffened with a thud. Conversely, the ground shook gently.

Kuuuuuuuung!

It spread from the children’s bodies.

Countless tree leaves fell covering the clearing here and there, but only briefly. When Wei Yeon’s sleeves rose softly, it was revealed: the children who had somehow transformed into appearances of about fifteen years old.

Bones grew like tree branches, thus Bone Transformation.

Skin stretched into beautiful forms, thus Embryo Shedding.

Each had become somewhat more mature in bearing. They each grinned with youthful faces.

“By the eightieth birthday celebration, I might grow bigger than Wei-jin.”

“The Xiahou family friend? Outside tribes grow quickly.”

“Those children are Unorthodox Path who absorb worldly energy, and the main trunk is an orthodox tribe with slow maturation.”

The result of accumulating earth energy from the world for hundreds of years. In jianghu martial circles, the sect’s name itself was World Tree.

“We are the greatest sect of all time.”

Telling the current situation to various future generations, familiarizing them with the characteristics of noteworthy strong figures, and making prepared tribes into military strength. Constantly replenishing already extremely powerful noble clan masters.

Preparation, and more preparation.

Since the appearance of Zhang Sanfeng.

World Tree had been preoccupied with preparations for survival. Thus, now that the threat of gate severing was imminent, the noble clans began being called by the alias Demon Immortals.

They were no longer immortals.

The merchant caravans that had supplied all manner of goods to the main trunk would often leave only cargo carts and disappear without any flattery.

To Clan Elder Wei Yeon, it was a trivial matter.

‘Soon not only Praising Earth and Northern Darkness but even the tribes’ countless swords will arrive.’

She moved her lips that had dried like famine fields at some point.

“Intensify your upper energy center cultivation to the extreme.”

“Why?”

“To observe Desolate Fortress Lord Jeong Yeon-shin. The aftereffects might reach us.”

Whoosh!

Her vision changed. The shabby old man who had been silently alternating his gaze between Lazy Flame Dragon and the corpse he had trampled disappeared, as if turning a page…

“……”

It was a desolate plain with nothing. Not only moisture but even nutrients had dried from the soil. A landscape where nothing seemed able to grow. Paradoxically, only spring wind blew refreshingly.

This place had originally been a city.

Countless ruins of pavilions were scattered across the sand, looking as if something huge had torn through them. The castle walls were miserably broken and buried in the ground. Given that each color was vivid, it must have changed to ruins within at least the past year.

At its center, only a pool of grayish-white mist sat eerily. It was a gate.

‘Huguang Province’s Wuchang.’

The immersion of her vision was different.

Naturally so. Who had she come to observe?

Just after Elder Council Lord Shin Byeok had entered the gate. Together with a woman in purple robes that looked like ordinary clothes rather than a dharma treasure.

Who was she?

But there was no time to resolve the question.

A drinking table set up before the gate.

It was hard to call it a wine table. Because there were no side dishes at all. Just one white jade bottle, with five cups placed around it.

Likewise, five people sat around it.

Desolate Fortress Lord Jeong Yeon-shin, a man with gaunt arms fully exposed by sleeveless robes, the faded monarch, Martial Dragon Alliance Leader, Sword Venerable Baek Seo-gun.

The feeling between them was not friendly.

It would never be so.

Suddenly Martial Dragon Alliance Leader Helian Feng-yue’s eyes widened. A startled face as if he sensed Wei Yeon’s gaze. An expression of showing what he didn’t want to show, befitting the most transcendent disease insect in jianghu.

“I say, Lord.”

Just as he stood up abruptly, about to unleash some technique…

Jeong Yeon-shin raised his hand to stop him. His still-purplish sleeves lightly brushed the wine bottle. Immediately a clear stream of water rose from the bottle and was poured into the four people’s cups.

And he spoke.

“I will transmit the oral instructions of the gate severing. You will witness that the noble clans’ clan elder also heard.”

The faded monarch gave a smile of unknown meaning.

“That’s not a difficult task.”

Those who dare when they’re busy pursuing their own lives.

For a moment Wei Yeon almost withdrew her vision, but ultimately stayed still. Even though it had to be a trap in name. Because she was a martial artist.

“I’ve reinterpreted it in my own way, but there’s no deviation from martial principles. People of your caliber will naturally understand.”

Thus Jeong Yeon-shin, who grasped his cup, recited what seemed to be the first phrase of the oral instructions.

“Even monkeys can do it.”

The youngest voice opened the spring wind. Four shadows listening silently.

…….

They said peerless masters were madmen crazed by martial arts.

The wine bottle placed between them was roughly passed around and half-emptied, and contrary to the dawn sky, their eyes gradually grew hazier. The occasional sounds of tilting wine cups couldn’t interrupt Jeong Yeon-shin’s words and only dispersed in the dust winds.

Until morning sunlight rippled in the wine cups.

Around that time, Wei Yeon sensed a commotion outside her vision. Unified noble clans who had gone to pursue Wudang Sect Leader Profound Void and returned. Among them were not only Golden Thunder Viscount and Heaven-Reaching Bow Count but also Three Directions Grand General who seemed to have just returned from an outing.

“This won’t do, we need to call people. Preferably someone like the beggar head… What are you watching now?”

Golden Thunder Viscount’s hand rested on her shoulder. The vision was immediately shared, of course. Golden Thunder Viscount called the young girls with an exclamation.

“You know Desolate Fortress Lord Lightning family elite, right? This old woman is watching something handsome alone!”

Around that time, Elder Council Lord Shin Byeok and the woman in purple robes walked out of the gate in the wilderness. Their entire bodies were covered in blue and red blood.

It wasn’t the end.

Those who followed out. Each face and the number exceeded imagination. Enough that Golden Thunder Viscount tightly gripped Wei Yeon’s shoulder.

“Why do they look so old?”

Wrong question. A different question should come first. Why did they come out? How are they alive and well?

Desolate Fortress Elder Council.

That is, the previous seventeen leaders.

“The old man with black rope wrapped like a black dragon around his right arm is Dragon Treading Leader. He was hit by Gun Hui once. That half-breed noble clan with a limp is Burning Abyss Leader, and the girl was so strong-willed she sent a love letter to Annihilation Seat and was rejected. Also that friend wearing three swords is Law Enforcement Leader, so she really hated Ominous Dream. I heard she cast an opposing vote during Divine Sword Group Leader ballot and became enemies…”

[TL Note- Ma Yeon-jeok is being referred as Ominous Dream.]

Old men with rough beards billowing. Their accumulated energy exceeded normal limits. The momentum was tremendous.