Chapter 762 – Three Radiances Demon (8)

It was right after Hell Deviation Beom Ryeol, the disciple of Shaolin Abbot Beom Heo, mentioned opening the killing precepts. The words that rang from afar activated the greatest formation throughout all time.

…….

The clouds drifting around the moon’s halo stopped.

The wind ceased. The atmosphere felt heavy. Jeong Yeon-shin felt the same sensation as when he unfolded Radiant Wings Ninth Step.

One Hundred Eight Arhats Formation.

It was as if time had stopped.

“……!”

Praising Earth Sword Duke’s eyes twitched.

Jeong Yeon-shin immediately understood the reason. Southern Splendor Vast Taiji was the cause. The blue light that had been flowing like a ring, enveloping the vast tree’s entire territory.

Heavy brakes were applied to the flow that had been drawing such an enormous circle.

It stopped rapidly.

As if an invisible Buddha statue was sitting upon the vast ring of light, or as if the Buddha’s palm had grabbed and halted it.

Duuuuuuuuuuung—!

A friction sound spreading like temple bell ringing.

His ears became muffled.

Finally, the flow of Southern Splendor Vast Taiji stopped. Even the miraculous effects that had been boosting only those who learned the World Tree’s tribal martial arts.

It was Mount Song’s Shaolin.

‘Even if I had deployed it, I would have suffered the same fate.’

Jeong Yeon-shin felt it.

The abilities that had been exerting tremendous influence across the entire battlefield were disappearing one by one. The linking of techniques in essence-energy-spirit unity realm, the suppression of recoil when executing supreme strikes…

Even within the vast typhoon surrounding the vicinity, that reverberation occurred. Among the shadows flickering palely, the Divine Sword Group masters began rampaging once again.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!

Oh Wol-hyang’s blade strike completely severed the opponent’s protective strong energy along with their ribs, and Yeon So-ha’s blue sleeves stiffened like blades, then cut three people’s eyes with one leap and rotation before returning. Meanwhile, the former generation black-ranks’ single strikes and fists painted storms upon the massive vortex.

Even among the mourning wails of thousands of World Tree martial military forces, it was the same.

This much in just a brief moment.

One reason Jeong Yeon-shin risked unification and was absorbed by the World Tree. He needed to enter from the start, and it was naturally fine to do so.

It was then.

“The lost dharma power cultivation you transmitted, saving the Shaolin Abbot in Hangzhou, and even cutting the gate of Mount Song to obtain as payment…”

Praising Earth Sword Duke continued speaking in a low voice.

“You’re worthy of mentioning Transcendent Martial Art. With the One Hundred Eight Arhats and Hell Deviation Beom Ryeol, any peerless master would find it difficult to oppose them.”

His face didn’t particularly care even though Southern Splendor Vast Taiji had fulfilled its function. He felt no emotion toward anything.

Jeong Yeon-shin had seen a similar expression before.

The soldiers at the northern Great Wall were like that. Though sick to death of fighting, they gripped swords by unavoidable external compulsion.

Jeong Yeon-shin gazed intently at Praising Earth Sword Duke, then slowly nodded and spoke.

“In my experience, there’s no wide-area cultivation that can break through the One Hundred Eight Arhats Formation’s oppression. The martial monks of Mount Song will control the battlefield like this… When the time comes, they’ll lend their strength to felling the tree.”

“…The Divine Tree has manifested in the same body as you, yet the true you is here in that wretched state. Does it not matter?”

“There are things difficult to prevent even if the World Tree imitates me. Now is one such time.”

With those words, Jeong Yeon-shin gently gripped Yue Shou-lin’s neck. She, who had been kneeling on one knee, flinched while looking up at Jeong Yeon-shin obliquely.

“I really can’t get used to this. You’re imitating Senior Annihilation Seat, right?”

“Won’t you use Divine Sword Group Leader’s speech?”

He didn’t hear the answer.

Jeong Yeon-shin circulated Major Heavenly Circulation. Inside Yue Shou-lin’s body, with his Jeong Family Dynamic Technique true energy.

Wuuung—

The wounds in her acupoints and muscles rapidly sealed. Her meridians regained elasticity, and the flow of her accumulated energy began becoming fierce like torrents.

Movements regaining the status of the Divine Sword Group Leader under heaven.

It was something permitted only to Jeong Yeon-shin. Yue Shou-lin’s eyelashes trembled lightly as she felt the near-omnipotent supply with her entire body.

“…It’s an incredible feeling.”

“If you enter energy circulation meditation briefly like this, you’ll be fine.”

Naturally, Praising Earth Sword Duke moved.

Huuk!

The sight of him drawing his sword horizontally right beside the two. A trajectory cutting Jeong Yeon-shin and Yue Shou-lin in one strike.

That tranquil sword momentum felt like the living Emperor Qian-ling had drawn his blade.

As it was difficult to handle with a primordial spirit on the verge of extinction, Jeong Yeon-shin snapped his fingers once more.

Zzzeeeeeeeeeeeong!

A sword rushing from behind deflected it as if striking down the fake Ente The Divine Sword. Qi controlled sword that rapidly accelerated eight times in an instant’s sprint.

Jeong Yeon-shin caught the Qi controlled sword’s blade that popped out from the recoil and embraced Yue Shou-lin. As he returned together with the sword, a woman with gray-white short hair retrieved that blade.

His hands were dyed bright red. It was because Jeong Yeon-shin had overlaid Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique on the dust in the atmosphere and struck. He had boosted Qi controlled sword ‘s execution with another Qi controlled sword.

She had originally been an observer.

‘But.’

It was different where Jeong Yeon-shin was positioned. Sword Ghost Baek Seo-gun. The heretical demon madwoman’s conduct had always been this way since the past.

After setting down Yue Shou-lin, Jeong Yeon-shin immediately opened his mouth.

“I didn’t expect such a fast reaction.”

“…My ennui and madness have made me regard you as a great stain.”

Baek Seo-gun spoke.

Qi controlled sword was upper energy center cultivation.

The higher one’s achievement rose, the more premonition inevitably developed.

Was that why? Baek Seo-gun seemed to have intuited something. That if not now, it might be difficult to convey words to Jeong Yeon-shin.

“Xinye County, Jeong Family Manor, Panyang… Though I gained quite a great name, I had to bury my origins. The higher I climbed on Taohua Mountain’s sword forest, the more it was entirely full of noble clans, so I had to be upright. Saying I lived in a good place despite being lowborn.”

At the same time, her pupils glanced at Jeong Yeon-shin’s face.

* * *

Skin rippling like smoke.

At any moment, the beautiful face of the one-eyed True Blood Body seemed about to be revealed, or not.

Was it because he wore another person like a mask? In Baek Seo-gun’s eyes, Jeong Yeon-shin seemed like a person manifested from another world. Even the sight of him moving his lips toward her.

“There’s time to talk briefly. Praising Earth Sword Duke must first deeply assess the One Hundred Eight Arhats Formation. You speak.”

It was true.

Southern Splendor Vast Taiji was the wide-area martial art the World Tree had drawn out as a trump card. If Praising Earth Sword Duke was the World Tree’s Divine Sword Group Leader, this local battle would be secondary. Because he would need to survey the entire battlefield.

But Baek Seo-gun only gave Jeong Yeon-shin her gaze.

“That air about you.”

She spoke slowly.

“I’ve experienced it before. Old masters before their golden basin hand-washing were like that. As if beginning to tie up life’s final threads…”

Her words stopped. Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips rose faintly, if dimly. A bearing as beautiful as Jeong Pan-yue in his youth.

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke.

“It’s not exactly a leisurely situation.”

“…My Transcendent Martial Art is one flawless sword strike. Since I pursued only that my entire life, you shook the foundation of my martial arts. For my blade work to reach absolute perfection, Jeong Family Manor must be a perfect nest.”

That’s what it meant to penetrate life with one strike. Naturally, mind and body must achieve supreme harmony.

But Jeong Yeon-shin only laughed once dismissively.

“Jianghu people, they say.”

“So I don’t know what to do. How can I see the Martial Ultimate with one blade and die?”

That was why Baek Seo-gun followed Jeong Yeon-shin.

She held no great affection for Jeong Yeon-shin, whom she never saw in childhood. Because she was the heretical demon’s Sword Venerable.

She only keenly felt her flaws, and only her own regrets were important. Following Jeong Yeon-shin’s footsteps leisurely, even trying to help him even a little, it was all to refine her Transcendent Martial Art.

The same for the faded monarch and Martial Dragon Alliance Leader Helian Feng-yue standing at a distance with hands clasped behind their backs. Only the grain differed. In an all under heaven about to collapse, lives that lost their destination without proper signposts…

Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin was sending sword-crimson finger winds whenever Divine Sword Group members were pushed back within the outer vortex wall.

Jjeng! Jjejejejeong! Puhwak!

Most of the dark crimson winds were torn apart by the sword winds Praising Earth Sword Duke sent.

But when they properly hit, several World Tree masters were flung from the storm wall. Each with holes punched through their Adam’s apple and heart.

Jeong Yeon-shin postponed his answer to Baek Seo-gun. And he quietly asked the World Tree masters who flew to his feet.

“Do you know hunger?”

“Desolate Day Extinction…? To the Divine Tree’s, to the tribe… What kind of, nonsense?”

“I know the World Tree’s mental restrictions only affect peerless masters. At least you all must be in your right minds.”

“There are no, restrictions. We only follow, great and certain, purpose.”

“I might end the chaotic era. Earth energy may become abundant again, and an all under heaven without gates may come. However, noble clans will no longer be noble clans, and the World Tree will disappear from the world.”

“……!”

It wasn’t only the dying World Tree noble clans whose eye radiance wavered at those words.

“I say.”

The faded monarch who had been standing at a distance approached Jeong Yeon-shin for the first time. Meanwhile, Praising Earth Sword Duke, who had been emitting dark green eye radiance of his upper energy center to the extreme, also hesitated.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked the World Tree masters sprawled at his feet again.

“Could you endure such a situation?”

“…Absurd, words.”

“I’ve left your upper energy center intact. Feel that it’s no falsehood and answer. Is this great purpose a righteous cause that conforms even to such circumstances?”

In that instant, Baek Seo-gun felt Jeong Yeon-shin’s question explode across the entire World Tree.

Kureureung!

Some wind wrapped around the vine ground and bark walls like whips and undulated tautly. It was a voice that had infiltrated the Wind King technique’s voice transmission network.

Baek Seo-gun had no choice but to temporarily set aside her question about the Martial Ultimate. Because she became extremely curious. How many among the World Tree’s masters answered that question?

Only Jeong Yeon-shin would know.

At this moment, his face was strange. It would be right to say his expression had disappeared.

“……”

The breaths of the sprawled noble clans extinguished.

Together with Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice that seemed to mutter via voice transmission.

“Finger technique Dark Night Divine Blood… I will supply the secret formula to the Divine Sword Group’s Blood Guardian Squad and Desolate Fortress Jeok Family. General Administration Office, please register this as a collateral martial art of Desolate Fortress Jeong Family’s True lineage martial veins in the Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal afterward.”

Then.

Heaven-reaching Bow Count’s voice fell like a giant arrow.

[You’re mistaken.]

* * *

Jeong Yeon-shin nodded while beginning to send finger winds again.

“Spout whatever words you like.”

He had been somewhat disheartened.

Those who conveyed answers just now were two people.

The first was naturally Golden Thunder.

The second was the village elder Zhong Yan, with whom he had formed a connection at the World Tree earlier.

—Is the Council of Elders hall at Desolate Fortress well-built? I think I’ll become an old man breathing his last breath once unification is released.

—Miss, young master, no, miss… It’s nothing else, but I’m worried. The Divine Tree has no distinction of essence-energy-spirit. The tree’s spirituality accumulated over hundreds of years is its protective strong energy. To cut it with a blade, one must have a lifespan matching the Divine Tree’s… I heard Emperor Qian-ling and King Qiong-ming say so before.

That was all.

The vast and fierce battlefield.

Most World Tree masters had switched the wind threads at their ears. Not many remained in the voice transmission network stolen by Jeong Yeon-shin.

Heaven-reaching Bow Count was among the former.

[The main trunk’s Law Enforcement Department and Divine Tree have confirmed every single one of your actions after purple-rank. You’ve been using and discarding even those you should kill with facades like Divine Sword convicts.]

“It’s common in military sects. Is there a problem?”

[Even those you take as allies, you use and discard without responsibility. All Under Heaven’s Northern King Vast Wind Curtain Lord, Sword Star Hyeon So-baek, Heavenly Soaring Guest Wan Hui… Who would want to surrender to you? Desolate Day Extinction, crazed with great causes, who can’t develop affection even when making peace.]

Jeong Yeon-shin decided not to listen further and turned his head to Baek Seo-gun.

“Your hometown is a peaceful place. At least in my heart, there’s no hatred.”

“……”

“I filled it with other things.”

Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, which even incorporated feelings toward his father into its secret formulas, had completely flawless wavelength. At this moment, Baek Seo-gun must have newly realized. Because energy waves with this degree of completion were only the techniques transmitted to Yue Shou-lin and Literary Star.

The problem was Praising Earth Sword Duke before her eyes.

With balance like an ancient tree’s roots, he stood on the vine ground, slowly lowering the pure white fake Enter The Divine Sword. It seemed he had finished analysis of and instructions for the One Hundred Eight Arhats Formation.

He would soon charge in.

‘Until Senior Yue reaches perfect condition again, about one quarter-hour…’ Yue Shou-lin was devoted to Dynamic Technique Major Heavenly Circulation in a battered state. Though she never let go of her spear despite hair stuck to her nape from cold sweat.

Could he protect her?

Huuk—

Suddenly his vision blurred.

There was no problem with balance. Energy sensation was the same. Then it was a precursor to primordial spirit extinction.

“I’ll step forward.”

It was the faded monarch.

The words about killing the tree he had planted seemed to have turned into great favor. Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“You have work to do. Not only you, but also Sword Ghost and Martial Dragon Alliance Leader.”

“Me, you mean…?”

The situation was so urgent that even Helian Feng-yue pointing at himself blankly wasn’t immediately important.

Jeong Yeon-shin was scattering from Seventh Apostle’s body. A feeling like a possessing ghost exhausting its power and ascending to heaven. Only the fact that he was in the ghost’s position was unfamiliar.

Wuuuuuuuuuung!

Seventh Apostle’s upper energy center spirit was exerting sticky attractive force. She truly seemed to be straining with all her might. The primordial spirit was caught in her tiny head, to the extent that even her memories were visible.

Many phantoms flashed past.

He quickly skipped over himself lying naked on a bed after being kidnapped by Blood Flame Cult.

Jeong Yeon-shin in his youth striking her abdomen with blood-stained hands, Jeong Yeon-shin pushing her away with eyes flashing bright blue eye radiance, half-destroyed Blood Flame Cult branches, commoners expressing gratitude to her, vision tilting sideways repeatedly as if her head was cocked, Blood Flame Cult martial veins becoming a wasteland, the day she mistook a cannibal for a blood demon and struck, the days when she stopped distinguishing between the two out of annoyance…

A series of memories overlapped like mirages with the World Tree’s battle situations. Like the flow of jianghu affairs converging here in the end.

The next moment, what appeared in Jeong Yeon-shin’s vision was Seventh Apostle’s hand rising as if to grasp his chest.

Jeong Yeon-shin smiled.

“This is.”

—Don’t go.

“Now the hand of a chivalrous warrior.”

* * *

Right after the voice speaking of a chivalrous warrior’s hand cut off, Praising Earth Sword Duke gripped his sword handle with force. The One Hundred Eight Arhats’ movements were unusual. The World Tree’s leaves were jostling their bodies, telling them to block.

His thoughts fixed like mechanism formations.

‘I should clean up starting here.’

He couldn’t.

Murky waves were swirling at Blood Flame Cult Seventh Apostle’s feet. It was like watching Desolate Day Extinction’s energy waves.

Passssssss—

Patterns that extended slightly then bent crookedly, spiraled while becoming distorted in all directions.

If he entered that distance, he might have to pour a bit more of the World Tree’s energy into regeneration ability once again. Something to avoid.

Praising Earth Sword Duke opened his mouth.

“…I heard Blood Flame Cult Leader Baek Rak’s teachings copied Buddhist cultivation, and seeing it now, it was true.”

The pattern seemed to be that influence too.

Because it was like brush-stroking a temple mandala with reddish blood. In other words, energy waves imbued with Seventh Apostle’s spirituality.

Praising Earth Sword Duke intuited.

‘It’s manifesting.’

Her Transcendent Martial Art.

He had stopped his body on his own. Praising Earth Sword Duke asked a question appropriate for this moment out of a martial artist’s curiosity.

“A mandala is originally an altar for offering to Buddha statues, what wish did you make to it?”

A few murmuring phrases of intent rang out instead of an answer.

Transcendent Martial Art.

Perilous Dream Scheme.

—The redly risen moon, the great master who grew in Blood Flame Cult.

It was like a storyteller’s song assuming some situation. It also seemed like a stormy girl reading her diary.

Praising Earth Sword Duke didn’t ask further.

“……”

In the center of the reddish mandala stood a woman with both eyes intact. With gem-red ruby coloring and black hair cascading below her waist.

An excessively bewitching temperament.

Different in grain from Jeong Yeon-shin who had manifested as primordial spirit.

Upper energy center insight followed. If Desolate Day Extinction had been born a woman and grown among blood demons, she would have had such energy waves, regeneration ability, and sensory paths.

The vast battlefield.

A banquet of all kinds of cultivation.

One. The World Tree’s fruit that shaped Desolate Fortress Lord’s Lightning Genius.

Two. The madwoman’s Transcendent Martial Art that assumed Blood Flame Cult Leader’s Lightning Genius.

‘Are there more?’

It was a jianghu of mad fakes.