Chapter 736 – With the Geniuses (7)

The beginning of the end.

It was also a fight no one else would know about.

There was no fortuitous encounter. Not an opponent to hope for heavenly fortune with. He must fight only with what he had.

What would be the aftermath of allowing the world’s greatest person a single sword strike? At least it didn’t exist in Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. Though brief, across old years, a grandmaster of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique was an existence who ignored penetrating wounds.

Like Literary Star.

‘Brilliant River, Ultimate Thunder.’

Kwaaaaaaang!

When he struck down Wei Gun-hye’s hand with one hand, the ground sank. It was the instant when her right hand gripping the sword hilt loosened slightly. As soon as Jeong Yeon-shin, who had dropped his Desolate Fortress sword himself, stepped with retreating footwork, Wei Gun-hye’s left hand touched her loosened right hand.

Movements premised on swift swords. It was absurdly fast even in the swamp of time where his upper energy center had already been elevated to the extreme.

‘It’s coming…!’

Role Puppet Ripening Steel Method.

Enter The Extinction Blade, half-drawn from Jeong Yeon-shin’s abdomen, pulsed like a heart. He felt his organs and acupoints that had been refined like iron with Jeong Family Dynamic Technique rapidly softening. As if steel was melting in a furnace.

Like reducing Yao tribe to Han tribe.

Originally it was martial arts that made martial power or protective strong energy denser. But they said Iron Demon Spring Lord Ji Gang-hyeon also operated its principles in reverse. Just now, like Enter The Extinction Blade’s released force had fundamentally shattered Jeong Family Dynamic Technique’s true energy structure.

Kurururung!

His insides had withered.

If hit by the blade he would die, and if his neck was broken he would also die. A truly strange state. Even Internal Weight Hand Method would approach as a fatal attack.

Possible because she was the world’s greatest person. Even after experiencing it, it was hard to believe, skill like a god.

Cough.

As soon as Jeong Yeon-shin put more than ten steps of distance between them, he vomited clear blood. And immediately assessed.

‘This technique, the duration.’

It depended on the victim’s internal energy manipulation power.

He had to restore the true energy structure himself. At this moment, while withstanding Wei Gun-hye’s sword strikes who had followed right to his face with light single steps.

Kwang!

He struck the blade surface away with his left hand, but the struck hand tore bright red. Impact that pierced without hesitation through protective strong energy deployed at full strength and Brilliant River’s transparent internal energy shield, digging into the bones.

If the mental images of the Tang siblings and Azure Qilin had been even slightly faint, he would have lost his hand. Of course it was because Jeong Family Dynamic Technique had collapsed.

While reaching his right hand over Wei Gun-hye’s shoulder, he briefly wondered. Another master of Role Puppet Ripening Steel Method. Where was Iron Demon Spring Lord?

There was no existence to give an answer. Only the characters “Entering Desolation” sparkled from the ground his hand aimed toward. It was writing engraved on the new Desolate Fortress sword’s blade surface.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwang!

With the principles of sword control, it swept her waist while returning like light. Bright red sparks burst in lines, and the empty marketplace was gouged like furrows in the sword control trajectory. Wei Gun-hye, who spun like dancing in that fierce friction, brushed past Jeong Yeon-shin.

Small whitish green particles gently swept across his cheek.

Puhwak!

Blood exploded from his side. Along with shocking severe pain.

‘Loading true energy into lightness skill’s reverse wind…?’

Was it human creation? At this point, she was a wind god.

It wasn’t even the end. The moment he turned, her indifferent face was visible. The scene of pure white Enter The Extinction Blade wrapped in gentle halos like moonlight. Space unable to withstand the force rippled semi-transparently. The true energy dwelling in the blade and Nature Sword’s blade force were creating perfect harmony inside and out.

Perfectly flawless Energy-Imbued Blade.

When Wei Gun-hye’s bare feet slowly stepped on the ground, the sky distorted. Hair melting in pale green in dazzling sunlight.

Divine bearing.

His master’s temperament. As always experienced. No different from when they first met.

“Ah.”

Upper energy center insight flashed.

World Tree had added nothing to Wei Gun-hye’s prowess. She wasn’t a temperament to add or subtract anything.

She had already walked herself to the realm of discussing all ages. Like the other mad peerless masters who never stagnated whether late or early.

The tree had merely harvested her. Jeong Yeon-shin’s master who had already been complete like a full moon. It was different from unified warriors who were hard to gain any inspiration from.

‘Then…’

Why did she advance to the martial extreme? Having the deepest and longest contact with World Tree, even knowing she would someday be unified.

He pierced the answer.

Because there was need not to stop. Because her disciple had to experience her and become the greatest person of all ages. So that Jeong Yeon-shin could completely escape the heavenly mandate of time limit.

Excessive arrangement.

Very premature. When he was merely a disciple who hadn’t even woven his life into Transcendent Martial Art.

Jeong Yeon-shin gazed at Wei Gun-hye who had somehow approached close range. A blade that captured the moon in broad daylight was striking in curving.

He had to retreat immediately.

Boom!

He stepped on the ground but it felt like steel plate bursting. Jeong Yeon-shin’s retreating footwork was that fast. Radiant Wing Steps were right for forward advance only, but against a martial god, it was like killing opportunities himself.

A body bouncing like a shell to sword strikes that grazed before his throat while evading. Semi-transparent blade wind rippled like shockwaves, and Jeong Yeon-shin penetrated twenty homes in a straight line.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!

All walls crushed by protective strong energy’s rebound force raised dust storms. Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t close his eyes even while his insides churned. Because he had to look into the hazy dust. The martial god wrapped in moonlight was walking through space-time.

Step.

As soon as seen, she was before his eyes. As if lightness technique dash like the world’s swiftest had melted into footwork.

By then, Great Circulation flow had also been reconstructed in Jeong Yeon-shin’s body. Dynamic technique true energy’s threads rapidly sealed penetrating wounds, and replaced stamina loss from massive blood loss with overwhelming innate true energy. Meanwhile, the Desolate Fortress sword that leaped from his grasp with Energy-Wielding Sword directly struck Wei Gun-hye’s Enter The Extinction Blade.

Thwang!

Giant shockwaves tore apart the dust clouds and scattered in all directions. As soon as the Desolate Fortress sword shattered, Jeong Yeon-shin was already rotating like a leaf brushing past Wei Gun-hye.

Two people crossing close enough to press even skin.

Kwarururururung!

Between them, hazy radiances interlocked like lightning. Also lightness skill’s rebound energy waves, the result of Jeong Yeon-shin likewise raising them in defense. Exactly the same forms proved his aptitude.

‘I learned one more thing, but if something like Role Puppet Ripening Steel Method comes out again, my side loses.’

The merged and crumpled waves seeped underground. The ground split with a crack lengthwise. A crevice hard even to guess the depth. The moment their positions completely switched, Wei Gun-hye’s lips moved.

“Absurd.”

“What is?”

“A lower hand who should be plotting life, calculates the master’s lifeline.”

“I’ve never held back in my strikes. No way there’s leisure for that.”

“I know. You will find it hard to transcend.”

Speech that skipped context. But since it was the martial god’s words, it made sense. Because it was true he had no intent to kill her.

Idioms like sacrificing the small for the great, like using great power to overcome difficult situations, didn’t resonate with young swordsmen like Jeong Yeon-shin.

Of course that alone wasn’t enough.

He couldn’t die irresponsibly as current Desolate Fortress Lord. Meaning he hadn’t even envisioned vacancy in the lord’s seat. So he spoke.

“You made a mistake.”

“What.”

“You shouldn’t have appeared alone. I no longer lose anyone before my eyes.”

Simultaneously he mocked himself.

Lightning Genius Jeong Yeon-shin. The rear waves of the Yangtze River.

How had the initial resolution not to lose unconditionally drifted here?

Wei Gun-hye’s head tilted minutely. While fluttering pale green hair like a god, revealing human-like curiosity.

“What is the nourishment of your heart?”

“You truly ask like a tree.”

Jeong Yeon-shin smiled.

“People’s nourishment is people. More precious than your earth energy.”

Saying so, he slowly drew in the fragments of Desolate Fortress sword he had floated with Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. He left only one piece in front. A fragment of the blade surface where characters had originally been engraved.

“Going around and around as human, conversation with you is useless.”

That was the end of words.

Wei Gun-hye stepped with advancing footwork. A face distant and expressionless like dawn moon. Her Enter The Extinction Blade moved before her hand, already bending with optical illusion as if she had already cut Jeong Yeon-shin.

Hwaryeok!

Jeong Yeon-shin drew deep blue flames from the small metal fragment’s “Desolation” character. It was an instant until Formless Sword Starry Night was forged long. starry Night that had swallowed the metal fragment and Enter The Extinction Blade collided flickering.

…….

There was no roar whatsoever.

Only the surroundings encircling the two people dyed pure white. A large city surrounded by three walls was also visible. Wind slightly drier, tougher, and even chilly like winter blew.

‘Shiquan Territory?’

[TL Note- Shiquan Territory was previously translated as Seokgwon Territory. The main base of Ming Cult.]

The land where Sword Star Hyeon So-baek died.

It was Form Shifting Void. Deployed with force far transcending human limits. That’s also why Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t react.

His lips twisted faintly.

“…Has it become hard to handle Master? Since the chaotic battle at Mount Song.”

Transcendent battles inevitably deeply stimulate masters’ senses. Wei Gun-hye was the same. Though World Tree had seized her body, it was clear it hadn’t killed even consciousness that could discuss all ages. In the midst of that, she also encountered Fighting God and Tyrant Sword Sect Master, and of course techniques of absolute beings like Jeong Yeon-shin, Literary Star, and Wan-hwi.

And again it was Jeong Yeon-shin.

“You must be suppressing consciousness trying to awaken with spirit rivaling all under heaven’s force. But since human bodies have limits, you must disperse even after pouring excessive force.”

For instance, the aftermath of water overflowing from hastily filling a vessel. The vessel was Wei Gun-hye’s body, the water was World Tree’s energy, and the aftermath was Form Shifting Void.

Like Black Capital scoundrels engaging in threats and intimidation, the most familiar skill for existences walking heterodox paths would be spatial tricks.

‘Is it here because of Starry Night’s intent?’

But Wei Gun-hye remained silent with blades matched. She never revealed inner thoughts with an indifferent face. Even though peerless swordsmen who exchanged fierce battles’ upper energy center consciousness had no choice but to overlap like one body.

“What venerable ones have journeyed here!”

It was so even until the next moment when some man shot up from the ground with a boom. Features resembling Lazy Flame Dragon. It was Divine Hand Wisdom King Hwangbo Gon.

Sunken eyes.

Different from his wastrel grandson’s decadent eye shadows. It would be traces of painstaking efforts to somehow further improve Scorching Divine Meridian. Therefore, under Hwangbo Gon’s eyes looked warm.

Like fifteen-year-old Lightning Genius whose shadow beneath eyelashes had been warm rather than the shade called Jeong family estate.

“You…?”

The moment his face bore rare great surprise, Starry Night and Enter The Extinction Blade slightly twisted. That alone colored the vicinity with different scenery. As if in a painting centered on Jeong Yeon-shin and Wei Gun-hye, the painter had newly stroked brush only on the background.

Whoo…

The scent of a temple seeped into internal energy breathing. Perhaps he had tried to maintain composure.

Inside mountain ridges cut orderly. Also the midst of shaved heads that had pushed away all worldly attachments like jade.

Mount Song Shaolin.

One corner of the temple, yet heard from afar.

“…Thus Shaolin Abbot Beom-heo will expel monk Beom-heo. Since gate severing is true extinction, before this Green Jade Buddha Palm…”

“Namo what-nonsense Guan Yin…”

That was as far as it went.

The two old monks’ voices cut off simultaneously, and the next moment their presences bloomed like lotuses behind Jeong Yeon-shin’s back. Together with another giant monk. The Yao tribe martial monk who had mastered Muscle Changing Classic, Great Master Won-mu.

‘Like a gift.’

Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips formed a hazy arc. How many more landscapes would be drawn ahead?

“If we continue like this enjoying time’s scenery until reaching World Tree…”

That would have its own elegance…He muttered while making eye contact with the martial god wearing moonlight.