Chapter 739 – With the Geniuses (10)

Soon after.

Jeong Yeon-shin habitually looked up beyond the grassy plaza. A place where he had to raise his vision slightly because it was a low hill. He felt it vividly with energy perception. Wei Gun-hye sitting cross-legged before the wooden sculpture that was World Tree’s main body.

Rustle.

There was only one reason she didn’t join the fight immediately. The Form Shifting Void that had been repeatedly used until now.

If only the two of them disappeared again, it would become harder to kill Jeong Yeon-shin. The current world’s fastest couldn’t be dealt with without an encirclement.

“…Though the outsider’s martial prowess is overwhelming, it’s better to confine him to the main trunk like this. Before such military strength, even any transcendent would fall to merely being human.”

A voice that flowed out like a soliloquy from the high and dense foliage. It was the words of an unknown noble clan master, and thus the current situation.

A single point of purple dusk in an entirely green world.

“……”

Suddenly semi-transparent energy waves sharpened like blades from Jeong Yeon-shin’s legs. The Night of Shame Leg Method that had meant embarrassment in his youth. Now it was Night of Repentance because there were many figures who came to mind in the night sky.

Therefore it was stronger.

Kwang!

He kicked Yang Cheon’s abdomen as is. Simultaneously shattering the internal energy shield Yang Cheon had raised at his lower abdomen to pieces. Even then, power remained in his leg.

“Hup…!”

Yang Cheon was ultimately flung away at explosive speed.

At least he kept his body intact when it should have been pierced or split. He even lowered his speed by scraping the ground with the fishing rod slung over his shoulder while airborne, befitting the leader of Imperial Three Great Masters.

But his face bore faint traces of dismay. Because he had been distanced by nearly five li at once. A distance difficult to remain in the world’s fastest’s attention, with his body stiffened by Yu Xiong’s Transcendent Martial Art and the Night of Repentance Leg Method just now.

It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say he had been cleared away.

Jeong Yeon-shin had already set foot in the plaza.

‘Master.’

He looked up again at Wei Gun-hye who had drawn a bit closer.

Her appearance with eyes quietly closed.

If her deep green pupils opened beneath her thick eyelashes, she would truly seem like his master. Even the warm gaze like Jeong Family Dynamic Technique’s key principles was drawn.

Even though right now she was only this place’s final checkpoint and the greatest wall under heaven.

“I saw your gaze dare turn to that place several times.”

Wei Yeon’s aged voice fell.

“You must intend to target the main trunk. That’s impossible with a mortal’s sword from the start, but even so I won’t permit you such blasphemous attempts.”

“Try stopping me.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke calmly.

But among the over ten thousand masters, no noble clan approached him again. Fist force like Literary Star’s combined with Sword Song and Eternal Blossom Fist. From now on, the only ones who would block his way ahead would be peerless masters who could withstand even such ultimate techniques.

It was so from the start.

Step.

A presence wearing light leather armor.

It arose in the peerless realm where even the movements of bushes had stopped. It was Moon Direction Great General wearing short shields on both forearms like bracers. Coming out from the thicket forest on the plaza’s left side, she was already before his eyes.

‘She withstood Eternal Blossom Fist alone and completely resolved the energy wave shock?’

A master who had long defended the Great Wall from Six Star Lords and northern kings.

The next moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was blooming the hand shadows of Eternal Blossom Fist’s fist blossom before her face, and she began deflecting all the fully blooming energy waves with both arm shields.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!

Divine martial art Lofty Rampart Divine Shield. Ming Dynasty’s strongest shield martial arts. Experiencing it directly, it was worthy of long veneration by the common people near the Great Wall.

She scraped away the protective strong energy wrapped around Jeong Yeon-shin’s fist with her shield, and struck the fragments of energy shattered like glass with the opposite shield. Of course, the pieces of released force that returned rained upon Jeong Yeon-shin. Explosive power reminiscent of Eternal Blossom Fist. An untimely fog was surrounding them.

‘There’s nothing to say to this person.’

Jeong Yeon-shin gazed intently at Moon Direction Great General’s eyes. Even without activating upper energy center abilities, he could feel her hatred. What would remain after speaking of great causes to someone who lost a partner and child?

Sun Direction Great General and Star Direction Great General who had rushed in from left and right would be the same. Various swords, bladed staffs, spears, great axes, long poles, hooks and such were narrowing their intervals in a wide circle.

The eighteen conventional weapons.

An aged intent flowed in like a beam of light.

[You won’t permit the deaths of Demon Realm jianghu people like Literary Star now.]

A giant old man wearing worn battle robes. He immediately knew it was Sun Direction Great General. Privately, they said he had been Perfect Battle Sect Leader’s master.

Whoosh…

Even though he had charged close to Jeong Yeon-shin then suddenly stepped with retreating footwork, the afterimage from initially rushing in remained. That Form Shifting illusionary body burst out against Jeong Yeon-shin’s left hand Brilliant River.

Kwang!

It was a primordial spirit attack technique. A militarily restrained explosion pushed Jeong Yeon-shin’s body back. In that direction, a middle-aged man with a half-melted face was stepping forward with his hands clasped behind his back.

‘Star Direction Great General?’

The man who had been like a strategist since Moon Direction Great General was one of the Four Generals of Sun, Moon, Star, and Divine.

[Face North, Southern Emperor.]

The intent loaded in the art technique martial arts was intense. The Southern Emperor who should only look north. Suddenly the ground between Jeong Yeon-shin’s legs split in nearly a straight line extending thirty zhang. Stone blades made of rock simultaneously shot up from that crack.

Kwang! Kuguuuuuuguuung!

The giant stone blades were trampled under Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet and shattered in succession. Stone fragments rising on both sides mocked the sunlight, and what Jeong Yeon-shin had stepped with was Radiant Wing Eight Steps.

[……!]

Moon Direction Great General who had been driving in divine art Lofty Rampart Divine Shield’s finishing attack technique hastily crossed both arm shields. But the footwork’s shockwave had already struck all three Direction Great Generals’ jaws upward.

Zzzzzzzzzt!

Along with a roar, semi-transparent protective strong energy fragments scattered in all directions. Three people floating into empty air from the released force that had penetrated to their skulls. But no one’s focus blurred. Only Star Direction Great General’s crushed eye wrinkles squirmed.

[Ripping Northern Blade.]

Blade to rip and kill the north. Wind bent dozens of times in the distant sky fell like lightning.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwak!

He added an unavoidable feint to the blade wind that had been scraping Yao tribe’s Heavenly Steel Light Armor. It was only an instant until the hazy vortex swallowed Jeong Yeon-shin’s protective strong energy while rotating.

[Failing Literary Star.]

Bright red flames of Samadhi True Fire wrapped around Jeong Yeon-shin. A chain attack. Flames burning fiercely as if using hundreds of thousands of sheets of dry paper as kindling.

Into that, old general Sun Direction’s Form Shifting illusionary bodies endlessly interspersed and burst out while dancing with the eighteen conventional weapons, and the pair of shields Moon Direction Great General threw began circling around like flying sword techniques.

Difficult to shake off.

They were a moving Great Wall.

‘Unless it’s Fighting God…’

None among the Six Star Lords could have withstood their combined attack with body intact. The story he heard from Literary Star was the same. Inducing one-on-one combat was always a challenge. Especially Star Direction Great General’s techniques were so, along with those words.

Fire, wind, bladed weapons, shields.

Those who had lived their lives as ramparts went mad when the walls lost their meaning.

A human’s jianghu.

Jeong Yeon-shin advanced silently wrapped in the raging natural disaster. While sinking the ground with each step. Not a single scratch yet. Like the common people who lived inside the Great Wall.

Moon Direction Great General groaned.

[How can that protective strong energy…!]

Perhaps a meeting that could have been good.

Henan person Jeong Yeon-shin was a memorial tower for the fallen Great Wall masters. Moreover, he was the Transcendent Martial Art of those who kept Jeong Yeon-shin alive. At least he thought so.

He muttered calmly.

[How can human affairs be one’s own responsibility alone? Even the lovely petals of hydrangeas ultimately fall and are trampled and gather dust. If fortunate they wash themselves in downpours, but if they fall in chaotic places, they become hard to distinguish from soil.]

He didn’t emit only upper energy center intent. His mouth moved together.

[You’ve bloomed great spring flowers for a long time.]

Simultaneously Jeong Yeon-shin’s stride began widening. It had been a fight arising in the peerless realm throughout. Even if his advancing speed seemed slowed, he was just about to leave the plaza.

[Now it’s the junior’s turn. I too must bloom my flower.]

In the instant split dozens of times, it was when the Moon Direction Great Generals hesitated. Blue radiance spread from the footprint Jeong Yeon-shin left next.

Wuuuuung…

Blue light rays split in both directions and ran, drawing a massive circle in an instant. A momentum that permitted no compromise. At its very center, a Taiji pattern rippling like waves was completed.

[Must block…!]

Wei Yeon’s intent rang out. The moment Jeong Yeon-shin escaped the encirclement, she must have intended to drive down Transcendent Martial Art.

Other peerless masters on World Tree’s side had also been waiting at each direction. Even if they lent a hand to absolute beings like Moon Direction Great Generals’ combined attack, it would be like engaging in chaotic battle with Fighting God.

They would judge that engaging in wheel warfare was better. But Jeong Yeon-shin thought. Would it be so even for a master of short decisive battles who had crossed the wall?

Vast Taiji.

[Underworld Path Crossing…]

A dusky flower bloomed in his body.

Brilliant River’s explosive power continuously chaining as Ultimate Thunder within his body. Additionally he wore Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique’s flying sword principles on his body. Up to here was Entering Path Crossing. But Jeong Yeon-shin added duration to the decisive battle technique that had been instant activation type.

Not a single strike.

Maintaining Enter The Dao Transcend Together’s state.

‘Five breaths.’

The time his body would endure. A body that had already become like Literary Star’s. Together with Azure Flame Vast Taiji, he would surely withstand the overload.

He pushed the ground surface that seemed frozen in time slowly with his legs.

Rustle…

The next moment Jeong Yeon-shin had Wei Gun-hye before his eyes. As if he had torn open space-time in a single step. Dozens of li back, Jeong Yeon-shin’s afterimage where he had first set foot was seeping into the ground like a primordial spirit.

The atmosphere had become empty in a straight line. Space transformed into true void like a monk’s mind entering nirvana. Some tree leaf was pulled in by that suction and played above Jeong Yeon-shin’s head. Before any roar could occur.

“……!”

The surroundings were colored with shock, and Jeong Yeon-shin extended his left arm behind without looking back. A sensation as if pushing through a swamp. Imperial Three Great Masters Gyo Cheon’s ribs touched that hand.

They said when the Divine Sword appeared, Emperor Qian-ling would bring her out as his trump card, and indeed she had followed with remarkable reaction speed. But at this moment, touching her rectus abdominis muscles was enough. That alone made Gyo Cheon begin being flung away.

Transparent ripples spread like waves.

Even this was slow.

A state where all attack techniques entered Enter The Dao Transcend Together.

Simultaneously Jeong Yeon-shin was pressing Wei Gun-hye’s forehead with his Radiant Demon Formation right hand. While being pierced in the abdomen by her Enter The Extinction Blade once more. But Heavenly Steel Light Armor, Brilliant Star Radiant Heaven, and Jeong Family Dynamic Technique’s grandmaster smiled hazily. Colorless transparent palm force moved in his grip.

‘It’s over.’

Moon Spirit Chaos Seal.

What Desolate Fortress Lord Wei Gun-hye had arranged for maid Dan Jeong-jeong. Provisions prepared for Jeong Yeon-shin who always had to wander outside. Namely Moon Spirit Divine Energy’s counter technique. It was true energy manipulation that immediately severed Moon Spirit Harmony’s protective strong energy strand by strand.

Simultaneously he broke one layer of his heart’s halo.

[Gate Severing, Heaven Breaking.]

Puhwak!

Energy that exploded like a tidal wave flowed into his right hand. Techniques to cut what couldn’t be cut, to strike what couldn’t be struck. Then he should also be able to grasp what couldn’t be touched.

From her crown.

Kuuuuuuuuuuuuuuung!

Even though it was space transcending even the peerless realm, his head became stuffy. Because a sound like crying echoed through vast World Tree.

It was also then that Jeong Yeon-shin grasped Wei Gun-hye’s upper energy center spirit. Precisely World Tree’s spirituality. Because he had distinguished both with Radiant Demon Formation activated earlier.

The sensation of grasping smoke was strange.

[If only once, I’d touched it earlier…]

Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice tinged with laughter.

His large grip grabbed and raised the whitish form like a spirit, then finally tore it out by the roots before the pounding sound could overturn heaven and earth.

Thud…!

That was as far as it went. World Tree masters who had somehow caught up to Jeong Yeon-shin stopped around the plaza’s edge. Because spiritual light had flashed in Wei Gun-hye’s pupils. A feeling as if sucking out souls.

The world’s greatest person’s gaze was returning.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin was the opposite.

His vision blurred. Was it the backlash of Underworld Path Crossing and Gate Severing? The blood flowing through his acupoints had become sticky like a thousand catties. He even lost his body’s balance.

Thud.

The two master and disciple’s foreheads touched.

The grass scent thickened sharply. Jeong Yeon-shin looked down into his master’s eyes and whispered.

“It’s part of the plan. I…”

Didn’t waste the opportunity of Gate Severing. But the words didn’t continue. In the first place, it would take a few more breaths for Wei Gun-hye’s reason to completely return.

He felt it because they were so close. Conversely, World Tree masters behind couldn’t move rashly. They should naturally be so.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin raised his master’s hand to his own shoulder. And began tracing the scorched character “Desolation” with her index finger.

Slowly.

Leisurely.

It was absolute being Jeong Yeon-shin’s stroke. He thought himself currently an absolute being. Because everything was as intended.

Soon finishing the final stroke, Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips rose slightly.

“…How exhausting.”

Step.

When he stepped back once, his master’s atmosphere was slowly changing. The temperament of a flawless perfecter. She who was beginning to wrap gentle spring wind like a palace robe.

Around that time, the tree leaf circling Jeong Yeon-shin’s shoulder landed on her forehead. The place Jeong Yeon-shin had been touching just before.

Whoosh.

Suddenly his body blurred like a mirage.

A battered body, perhaps because he had even bestowed Moon Spirit Chaos Seal to his master. The conversation they shared earlier came to mind.

—I heard World Tree can attempt unity on me too, is Master’s martial arts the medium?

—Correct. The reason Moon Spirit martial lineage wasn’t spread throughout Desolate Fortress was also that circumstance.

Jeong Yeon-shin inwardly nodded. Would he be sucked into World Tree’s interior like this? Just as Wei Gun-hye had grown as World Tree’s preliminary unified body, Jeong Yeon-shin too might become so.

Then.

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly felt the ground strongly pulling him down. An instant of sinking into the earth as if affected by Form Shifting Void.

“……!”

His master’s gaze belatedly followed down. As if returning her reason as quickly as possible in Underworld Path Crossing’s world. With the sight of unfamiliar surprise spreading like green paint in her pupils as the end.

Whoosh!

Jeong Yeon-shin’s vision was dyed pitch black.

What he heard just before completely disappearing from his spot was, unluckily, Wei Yeon’s voice. It was shaking unprecedentedly.

“Gun-hye.”

* * *

His consciousness floated in darkness. All around was full of wood energy, but not only front and back and left and right, even with energy perception the surroundings couldn’t be distinguished. Whether a well or valley, it was only unpleasantly humid.

‘World Tree’s interior?’

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin was thinking.

“With utmost courtesy, I greet the new fortress lord.”

A rough voice rang out. The resonance characteristic of the Iron Clan.

“I am Iron Demon Spring Leader Ji Gang-hyeon.”