Chapter 732 – With the Geniuses (3)

Unity.

Idle gossips call it demonic possession.

It was a topic thrown to jianghu. Even the clerks of Desolate Fortress General Administration were absorbed in research. Not only throughout the expedition, but even on the battlefield, the ink fragrance never dried.

“Two li distance, we’ve witnessed an anomaly.”

“World Tree’s masters are beginning internal energy breathing.”

“Confirmed with Complete Eye. They’re those who fell to Group Leader’s thrown spears. They were certainly instant death… but half have regained breathing, and they seem about to rise.”

“Chest movements are readable. Heart muscle contractions. I’ll perform ultra-long-range pulse diagnosis with eye technique. At pulse start, upper strong, on inhalation middle weak, exhaling again upper strong. Now unreadable. It would be worth attempting preemptive strike during inhalation.”

“Record it.”

People sitting cross-legged as if taking imperial examinations. They continuously moved their brushes while alternately checking the distant horizon and paper.

Great Administrator Lim Jin-ming stood at the very center, stroking his bushy beard.

“No less than Blood Flame Sect’s nobles with good bloodlines. Unity sounds nice, but it’s like demonic arts. They’re even coming again. Ten Li One Kill’s loading energy waves… even current Dark Night Palace Lord has recovered from the penetrating wounds suffered from Group Leader.”

“Then we must determine whether that’s an ability that changes according to martial prowess level, or a power uniformly possessed by unified noble clans.”

“Correct judgment.”

Lim Jin-ming nodded at his subordinate’s words while only gazing at the horizon. A hazy dot wrapped around sunlight and rose, then disappeared from view in an instant. Ten Li One Kill again. The scene of it somehow caught in Yue Shou-lin’s grasp, then bursting with a roar like tearing steel plate seemed like a lie.

The scene of Catching the Blade Bare-Handed deployed against Dark Night Palace’s ultimate secret technique. But she imprisoned it in her fist, not fingers. Because it wasn’t skill that could be caught with things like index and middle fingers.

Only because it was Dream Flight Yue Shou-lin was it that much.

If blues or whites had taken a direct hit, the residual energy waves would have swept away dozens of people nearby. From the beginning, not many could respond to Dark Night Palace Lord’s lightning-fast archery.

Lim Jin-ming’s brow furrowed.

“Is that…”

World Tree’s vanguard forces?

Kurururung!

Comets rising conversely from the desolate fields were visible. The archery of World Tree masters who became whole through regenerative abilities. Simultaneously the Ten Li One Kill arrow fired once more mixed into them, and sunlight flickering brightly from over ten arrowheads.

It seemed like a natural fortress wall approaching.

They didn’t fall. Their martial power also seemed infinite.

‘When we haven’t even begun yet, it’s daunting.’

Meanwhile, the arrow Yue Shou-lin threw back collided exactly with Ten Li One Kill’s successive strikes and exploded. Simultaneously twenty blues activated Radiant Art Formation and leaped, then struck down the remaining archery arrowheads with sword-fist-palm.

Kwaaaaaang! Zzzzzzzzzing!

Shockwaves swelling semi-transparently in rows like Surging Eternal Blossom Fist’s Fist Blossom. Momentarily the horizon blurred, and the aftermath reached the ground, bouncing dirt clods here and there.

“Crazy shit!”

“My hands are tingling…?!”

Blue masters landing with jokes.

Hard to see as exaggeration. Because some had their hand backs reddened just from deflecting one exchange. Lim Jin-ming’s gaze accurately swept over that swollen blood flow movement.

‘However.’

That also meant Radiant Art Formation’s energy waves confronted unified energy waves equally. The time when Jeong Yeon-shin, who must absolutely not move in preparation for the previous lord, took the martial arts and connections he had created and accumulated as another martial art.

Lim Jin-ming had a duty to assist such a great battle to victory. So when he turned his head to empty air, Yue Shou-lin was moving her lips. While her long black hair fluttered in the energy wave aftermath, even her indifferent expression reminded him of Jeong Yeon-shin.

[Breathing.]

At one word, the blues’ sleeves slightly swelled then subsided. Jeong Family Dynamic Technique that circulated internal energy circulation even with fine muscles. The fist and palm masters’ hands regained their original skin color.

World Tree’s noble clans poured arrows from impossibly far away, whether they saw that scene or didn’t care even if they did.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwang!

The series of patterns repeated. Returning, striking down, evading, recovering with short breaths.

Lim Jin-ming calmly ordered amid the unceasing roars and rock pile fragments.

“Fold the tents and gather the baggage. Especially prevent moisture from invading the Fasting Pills… deflecting archery shots in rotation is sufficient. Advancing without stopping is the lord’s will.”

They began moving.

There was no advance and retreat. It was unconditional advancement.

Even amid that, giant Literary Star was pinning a handsome golden lightning youth to the dirt ground. Though Literary Star knelt on one knee, his eye level roughly matched Lim Jin-ming’s.

Lim Jin-ming asked him quietly.

“Will suppression be possible?”

“Even holding him down is difficult. Originally thunder and lightning’s power is usually counted as all under heaven’s most tyrannical force.”

Lightning fires crackling and bouncing along Literary Star’s mouth that moved sedately. His words were right. Though giant Literary Star’s stature was still overwhelming, at this moment it seemed he was pressing down a lightning bolt’s head rather than a person.

Chiiiiiiiik!

Thick steam rose.

The scene of both transcendents’ skin simultaneously burning. Literary Star from Golden Thunder Viscount’s lightning power, Golden Thunder Viscount from Literary Star’s Heavenly Steel Light Armor Extinction Demonstration.

Meanwhile, Literary Star’s other hand was striking down Golden Thunder Viscount’s lower back countless times. Swinging his fist like a hammer with repeated thuds, no different from Martial Star’s Great Sliding Hammer. Each time, with crunching sounds, Golden Thunder Viscount’s lumbar vertebrae shattered.

No one else could intervene. In that state, only Literary Star striking the opponent was right.

But Lim Jin-ming’s face was grave.

“Please continue. This seems unusual.”

“I receive Great Administrator’s command. If my brushwork is poor, at least my fighting path should be flowing to be a strategist.”

Yao tribe’s internal energy breathing made even their words into battle’s breath. Literary Star was the same.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Even while conversing with Lim Jin-ming, he endlessly struck down Golden Thunder Viscount, and the force in that released power never wavered once. Enough that Law Enforcement Leader Woon So-yu’s erector muscles, who had departed first with Divine Sword Group camp, twitched faintly.

Even so, Golden Thunder Viscount raised his head while lying down.

He was even smiling.

“Can’t beat this with strength alone. I’d have died if I hadn’t refined Thunder Transformation Taiji.”

Instantly Lim Jin-ming perceived with Complete Eye. The sight of Literary Star’s fearsome released power climbing Golden Thunder Viscount’s body, indistinguishable whether lightning or person, like a lightning rod and seeping into the ground. It also looked somewhat like tree roots guiding water into the earth.

‘Preposterous enlightenment…’

Caught by the north’s greatest external martial artist and receiving that fist force countless times, with the aftermath ending at lumbar shattering? Would it be like this if Wudang Zhang Sanfeng’s Taiji cultivation was deployed with lightning energy cultivation?

“That what’s-it, the old lady told me to tell you. She wants to get along well with Yeon-shin.”

Golden Thunder Viscount, who said that, tilted his head.

“But who’s Yeon-shin?”

Chijijijijijijik!

Suddenly blinding lightning thickened. Golden Thunder Viscount slipping from Literary Star’s grasp was simultaneous. A body rising connected to golden threads like a marketplace opera puppet.

Movements transcending human tendons and bones.

He connected the lightning strand he himself spewed to empty air, literally looking like lightning incarnate. His internal energy cultivation realm had unified with nature.

Lim Jin-ming groaned.

“Martial arts I’ve never seen.”

“Elder Sanfeng said so. You’re too scattered by nature so you can’t follow nature’s body… Just keep sparkling and make kids laugh for a living.”

Though his whole body was wrapped in golden radiance, only his two eyes’ focus was eerily clear. As always with old people sunk in dementia, the eyes reminiscing the past were very clear.

“Then I have to see the extreme with sparkling, what else can I do?”

Kwadeuk.

It was a sound spreading from Golden Thunder Viscount’s lower back. One could tell without even looking deeply with eye technique. His lumbar spine and other things shattered by Literary Star must be returning to place.

Lim Jin-ming suddenly assumed the worst.

‘It might be like facing martial military forces made of Blood Flame Sect Leader Baek Rak.’

With earth energy from throughout all under heaven and World Tree’s orthodox martial arts added.

“……”

After Desolate Fortress masters advanced.

Now few remained under Golden Thunder Viscount’s eyes. Literary Star who had somehow risen, Lim Jin-ming absorbed in observing Golden Thunder Viscount, and Jeong Yeon-shin who had been clasping his hands behind his back throughout, and the seven old masters of Elder Council standing surrounding him.

It wasn’t only Jeong Yeon-shin who had to preserve upper energy center spirituality, middle and lower energy centers’ true energy, and even whole body muscles and fine acupoints.

Desolate Fortress’s main forces who ignored Golden Thunder Viscount and passed were the same. Yue Shou-lin, Jin Myeong-jo, Blood King, Dharma King, and Namgung Hwa-shin and Baek Mi-ryeo in coffins, as well as Wish for Peace Sword Hall’s other black rank masters too.

Their opponents were separate. The Four Great Protectors who would climb World Tree’s branches like flood dragons, Imperial Three Great Masters, and hundred-battle absolute beings like Three Directions Grand General. Even World Tree’s warriors who were originally super masters and noble clans who were currently super masters would also be challenges.

Naturally World Tree’s objective could only be to make Jeong Yeon-shin move even a little more.

Each time Lim Jin-ming assessed their strength, his crown felt stuffy. If even they were like that Golden Thunder Viscount, would it be possible to create a one-on-one situation with his master for Jeong Yeon-shin?

That Thunder Bolt Realm and Thunder Transformation Taiji were at a level refusing combined attacks.

‘Even if the lord greatly exerts strength once, completely eliminating Golden Thunder Viscount here…’

But Lim Jin-ming inwardly shook his head. Because the form of the previous Desolate Fortress Lord with white-green hair hanging in sunlight came to mind. She had been perfect.

Then Jeong Yeon-shin asked.

“Has my master arrived at World Tree?”

“Huh? Yeah, of course. If tree branches extend, it’s one step. She even sat cross-legged saying there was realization in that body.”

“You know who my master is…?”

“Mmm?”

Golden Thunder Viscount’s words, looking down at them with bizarrely clear eyes, stopped. At a glance, he seemed somewhat flustered. Jeong Yeon-shin asked again.

“Hasn’t the dementia been completely cured?”

“……?”

“As I know it, World Tree is a strange and mysterious force that can give eternal life through unity even to those with little life remaining. How much more would they leave someone who should be taken as great military strength like Golden Thunder Viscount Elder with an unsound mind?”

“……?”

“I’m sorry, but Golden Thunder Viscount Elder is someone famous as an eccentric. I presume you’re conflicted centered on connections rather than great duty.”

But Golden Thunder Viscount didn’t lay out any particular answer. His pupils filled with clear golden light only moved here and there. At a glance, he seemed like a tree that human words didn’t reach.

He absolutely didn’t seem like a demented old man caught while playing hide-and-seek.

Was that also World Tree’s temperament?

But apart from Lim Jin-ming’s thoughts, Jeong Yeon-shin’s story was calm.

“Aren’t you inwardly greatly wandering? Between the clan elder you’ve been with for hundreds of years and this young one who is Taoist Sanfeng’s unified successor.”

Instantly Golden Thunder Viscount’s eyes grew cloudy. Because his focus blurred like fog, but to Lim Jin-ming it appeared as human aspects returning. Golden Thunder Viscount’s subsequent stammering was the same.

“But isn’t Elder Sanfeng’s direct lineage me, not…?”

“No.”

Immediately after, Jeong Yeon-shin added. It’s only you.

In a situation where the current Desolate Fortress Lord’s sword was sealed until the final battle, Jeong Yeon-shin began wielding his tongue like a sword. And to Lim Jin-ming, who knew all of Jeong Yeon-shin’s deeds, this skirmish was a fight finished along with drawing the blade.

Like White Qilin’s Transcendent Martial Art sleeping in the coffin.