Chapter 766 – Light Flame

Literary Star reflected in Myriad View Place.

He showed no great expression. His ash-gray face remained only peaceful. Even while moving his body like a ray of light.

He threw punches at Jeong Yeon-shin holding Starry Night, and with just that single strike, he tore apart dozens of surrounding World Tree masters into multiple pieces.

—Kureureurereureung!

A distantly rumbling roar.

With each fist strike, the ground collapsed. Even though the World Tree village’s earthen floor was as solid as diamond with dense Wood Energy.

Watching that scene, Invincible briefly said.

“He resembles my younger brother.”

[Of course. He’s a collateral inheritor of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique.]

Jeong Yeon-shin answered calmly.

Invincible suddenly turned her head toward him with a curious face.

“There’s no body better at quick decisive battles than that monster, so can you tell me who the orthodox successor is?”

[I don’t know yet.]

“What?”

[Because Jeong Family Dynamic Technique is incomplete martial learning. If someone receives the completed version later and masters it as their own martial art, that person would be the orthodox inheritor.]

It could be anyone—Shin So-bin, his niece Jeong Hye, Lazy Flame Dragon. Even his maternal grandfather Ma Yeon-jeok would be possible.

“Incomplete? That thing?”

[Yes.]

There had been two Gate Severing Strikes.

Out of three total, two luminous wheels were shattered, and the accumulated energy that had been stored in the luminous wheels had long since permeated his body.

The boundary between martial arts handling body and energy became blurred. Even though they were respectively Jeong Family Dynamic Technique and Luminous Wheel That Transcends Law Energy.

‘The complete unification of the two martial arts…’

Might it not lead to a once-in-a-lifetime Transcendent Martial Art? Because the secret formulas of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique remained in his childhood, while the secret formulas of Luminous Wheel That Transcends Law Energy spoke of the future but weren’t concluded.

The moment when his past and future faced each other once like an eclipse.

That would be when he could unravel life’s beginning. It was intuition separate from upper energy center insight. Also a long-held speculation.

[The timing must align well.]

Jeong Yeon-shin’s thoughts inadvertently flowed out.

On the other hand, the mayfly who didn’t dream of Transcendent Martial Art seemed immersed in Myriad View Place’s scenery. Far from responding to Jeong Yeon-shin’s intent, she was frowning.

“Those things.”

She said.

“Are extremely insulting.”

[What is?]

In Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes as he turned his gaze, the World Tree masters appeared. Bodies that had exploded from Literary Star’s fist strikes were regaining their forms like tree roots growing rapidly.

They even exchanged opinions among themselves.

—The analysis seems correct. His internal energy breathing is extremely fluid.

—However, inferiors still can’t break in. Unless they’re the Seventeen Hall Lords, it’s difficult even to scratch him.

—Leave the offensive to the Divine Tree’s True Body…

—We must not rely entirely on the Divine Tree. To regenerate a body like Desolate Fortress Lord Lightning Genius would require truly massive Wood Energy. That must be why the Divine Tree isn’t actively engaging in combat now.

Invincible looked extremely irritated.

“I understand why those people were loftier than our cult’s messengers. When the time comes, they don’t die even when killed, so they acted as if they were a celestial god’s tribe.”

[It’s understandable to be angry from the position of one about to die.]

“It’s not fun. That’s not jianghu.”

[Right.]

Jeong Yeon-shin quietly looked up at Myriad View Place’s massive wall. Just gazing this deeply caused a change. The vivid scenery began reflecting other locations like a mirror.

Land with only scorched vines.

Cheong Myeong, Baek Mi-ryeo, and Lazy Flame Dragon were moving palely along with Clan Leader Wei Yeon. A spectacle of position shifts leaving afterimages like threads.

Invincible’s grumbling followed.

“This foolish elder brother was watching.”

[Control of Myriad View Place’s mechanism formation is my role. Also, if you continue with elder brother talk, I may call you little sister.]

“Try calling me that once.”

Jeong Yeon-shin closed his mouth.

Somehow losing in everything from sword debate to verbal exchanges to Invincible, the scenery on Myriad View Place’s wall was ash everywhere.

Lazy Flame Dragon in prolonged combat.

An unfamiliar sight to Jeong Yeon-shin.

Lazy Flame Dragon’s intent echoing rapidly like flickering sparks was the same.

[Truly tireless like the incarnation of greed.]

—Child of Hwangbo Family who can’t even be proud of your own name, how long do you intend to hold my ankle?

[Demon Sword senior, please keep blocking that old monster’s wooden blade. With wrist bones that achieved great mastery of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, isn’t it no different from steel? Bewitching Sword senior, just restraining the back of the knee like that ties down half the footwork. That truly terrifying demonic energy… watch out!]

Talkative intent.

The power of upper energy center spirit. It didn’t end with frivolous words.

—Hwaryeok! Hwaryeureureuk!

He was fanning Lazy Flame Dragon’s semi-transparent Scorching True Energy every moment. While rippling like summer haze, adding power to Cheong Myeong’s spinning sword strikes, sometimes becoming clouds for Baek Mi-ryeo to step on like the Great Sage’s cloud somersault.

Finally, when overlapping Lazy Flame Dragon’s arm extending toward Wei Yeon like a sleeve, it was formless sword energy tearing through space.

—Zzzeooooooong!

Just the youthful woman stepping onto that hand’s back spread massive shockwaves. The collision of strength and grace. Rejuvenated Wei Yeon’s body movement was another peerless defensive technique.

She moved her lips.

—I sense desperate intent. You plan not to send anyone to Literary Star at any cost.

Something Jeong Yeon-shin watching had been constantly concerned about.

Literary Star’s physical power was close to an incomprehensible realm, but he was tired. Becoming proficient at controlling that pace and rhythm would be future training.

If the opponent was the World Tree’s martial military forces including even ‘fake Jeong Yeon-shin,’ he could truly be worn down by a war of attrition. Because the earth energy the World Tree had accumulated from all under heaven for hundreds of years must be beyond human limits.

Of course, it would also be an unexpected situation for the World Tree’s tribes including Wei Yeon.

The World Tree’s True Body, meaning the fruit, imitating Jeong Yeon-shin yet blocked by someone? Anyone would find it difficult to imagine.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

‘From the start, Literary Star’s role isn’t to block the martial military forces.’

The moment another peerless master joined in subduing Literary Star would be catastrophic.

Was it telepathy?

In the scenery, Lazy Flame Dragon with his arm extended smiled like a noble family’s young master.

[Please hurry up and die. You’ve lived long enough already….]

Before his words could even finish, Baek Mi-ryeo gripping her sword in reverse fell diagonally toward Wei Yeon like a meteor.

—Kwareureurereureung!

Once again, vine fragments rose up like waves.

Soon after, the ground stained dark like night fog with demonic energy. Unusually dense demonic cultivation power.

Invincible, who had somehow aligned her shoulder with Jeong Yeon-shin’s, muttered.

“That’s also irritating.”

Did she think of the first Heavenly Demon?

It was quite far from where Forest Treading Leader Xiahou Wei-jin lay sprawled.

He had collapsed when the World Tree’s Jeong Yeon-shin’s Southern Splendor Vast Taiji was at its height. It was after repeatedly breaking Wei Yeon’s sword techniques that alternately poured toward Cheong Myeong and Lazy Flame Dragon.

Right after that came Baek Mi-ryeo’s intrusion.

With hair constantly changing colors as now. Baek Mi-ryeo, who bounced Wei Yeon away and landed, had white hair.

Even that appearance seemed displeasing to Invincible.

“The remnant of the founding patriarch.”

Her grumbling.

Jeong Yeon-shin recalled the massive presence that once scattered like flower petals from Baek Mi-ryeo’s body.

[…A body where the greatest demon throughout all time resided. I suspected it. That some trace of his intent or spirituality would remain.]

“It’s said in our cult that the first Heavenly Demon Energy could transform into any kind of energy. Even though the Shaolin Abbot at the time was a master of dharma power, he treated the founding patriarch with respect as an orthodox grand master at their first meeting. They even competed over who understood the Diamond Sutra’s scripture more deeply before parting.”

Invincible concluded with a snort.

[An amusement befitting him. Is there no problem with Senior Baek’s body?]

“Originally, demon means acting directly on human desires. It simply transforms endlessly. That woman’s Heavenly Demon Divine Art changed that way too… Truly an excessive matter.”

[Then you can change your heart too.]

“Change my heart?”

[If you’re truly the pinnacle of the Demonic Path, not only your true energy but also your heart would transform endlessly. Just as the first Heavenly Demon did.]

“Insolent….”

As Invincible’s lips slowly closed after uttering those words.

The four people reflected in Myriad View Place were also conversing while repeatedly clashing and separating without rest. Mainly Wei Yeon and Lazy Flame Dragon who had breathing room.

—You’re trying to imitate Lightning Genius. Hardship, overcoming, victory… What was only possible with martial talent that briefly flickered then faded.

[You’re mistaken? This isn’t about overcoming. We’re just confirming.]

—What?

[For these few years, our lives that fiercely followed that Lightning Genius in our own way.]

Lazy Flame Dragon was swinging his arm at Wei Yeon like a whip. His robes had completely burned inside, revealing his naked body with scorched and split sword scars.

[Is our worth less than your head?]

Close combat distance. Wei Yeon swept away Lazy Flame Dragon’s inner elbow with her sword hilt with a bang. Simultaneously, just before kicking and shattering Cheong Myeong’s head rising from behind, Baek Mi-ryeo swooped down from below with long black hair flying and struck her lower abdomen with a palm strike.

Her entire body was covered in blood yet her movement was soundless like autumn wind. In that instant, Wei Yeon let out a short exhale.

—One Inch…!

The faint green light of protective strong energy Pale Dew Divided Light rippled like waves. All seven layers of internal energy barriers did so, as Metal Energy of the Five Elements seemed to properly tear through Wood Energy.

In that moment, Cheong Myeong was spinning with his sword using the nearby hazy Scorching True Energy as propulsive energy waves. Aiming for Wei Yeon’s wrist that had struck down after hitting Lazy Flame Dragon’s arm? The scene of semi-transparent surging true energy accumulating on the blade in an instant.

‘Accumulated Spinning Strike.’

The swordwork that became the foundation of Thunder Annihilation Sword Style drew a silver sword path, and in midair Lazy Flame Dragon gripped Wei Yeon’s shoulders. Even while standing on his head from the massive waves Wei Yeon released, the Radiant Demon Wing’s poppy addict laughed.

[Wounds burned by me don’t regenerate, do they?]

—Kureureurereung!

Instantly Wei Yeon’s Wooden Blade Sword exerted tremendous pressure.

—……

Suddenly everything stopped.

The nearby vine stems that had been scattering endlessly, the ash flying in all directions, Cheong Myeong flying toward Wei Yeon’s wrist, even his airborne body.

Time seemed to have stopped.

All directions became tranquil. Even the moonlight flowing from the clouds avoided them and only rushed across the night sky.

The techniques of Wei Gun-hye and Jeong Yeon-shin master-disciple emerged. Respectively Sword Pressure and Radiant Wings Ninth Step. They shared all kinds of knowledge centered on the World Tree, and had already copied such techniques.

—Scorching Divine Meridian. Bright talent.

Wei Yeon spoke slowly. To move in space where all things stopped seemed to require internal energy breathing even for her.

—With just a few years of diligence achieving this much… Truly admirable, but what you do is merely futile struggling. Your great master’s intent was so from the start.

Lazy Flame Dragon looked down at her crown and replied blankly.

[Aren’t you ashamed before Emperor Ming Taizu?]

—Me? Before my husband?

[You’re ruining the nation he built. You seemed mentally clear when giving power to Emperor Qian-ling.]

—It’s essentially a nation I established. You know nothing.

[Taizu was a puppet? Do you even have human warmth?]

—…My husband was a farmer who possessed nothing. His features weren’t distinct, his martial talent wasn’t exceptional. He merely had broad shoulders, a pleasant smile, and throughout that chaotic era, had an incomparably gentle disposition.

The voice gradually thickened. The reason was difficult to grasp. Whether because internal energy breathing was being gathered, or because her emotions were climbing up somewhat along rusted years.

—I asked Zhang Sanfeng to transform his muscles and cleanse his marrow, I made a deal with Yue Feng to create martial arts befitting my husband. I presented all under heaven’s elixirs to him. He was an emperor I created. My companion, my possession. Don’t judge me with your meager knowledge.

[Huh…? Then you must have tried to bring him inside the World Tree too. Given your temperament, you couldn’t have stood not being together forever. You know, like making him a unified noble like our Lord Jeong?]

Lazy Flame Dragon’s demeanor was strange. He too seemed to be preparing something. Naturally Wei Yeon would have noticed, yet her lips only groped through distant years.

—He did.

[Speak comfortably. I’m listening in a comfortable position. Having determined life and death this much, even if we part, at least a sincere conversation….]

—He refused.

[Hmm?]

—He said I was wrong. For the first time in our life together.

The pale green protective strong energy ruptured by Baek Mi-ryeo’s One Inch Strike trembled faintly. In stopped time, only Wei Yeon’s intent was thick.

—So I grew old with him, at the same age as him, and sent him off.

[A bit late, but my deepest condolences….]

—You too will now follow that setting sun. If you want to act human here, you should have brought your wife. Child who is but a candle without the light called Lightning Genius Jeong Yeon-shin, you will now be extinguished.

[How can the sun be extinguished like a candle?]

Lazy Flame Dragon’s lips rose.

[It will burn even below the horizon.]

Words befitting him.

Unlike nobles who endlessly recovered with regeneration abilities. He repeated battles without any supply and reached now by keeping up with their stamina.

Suddenly Wei Yeon’s hand moved.

—Try it.

Untimely thunder sounds flowed into Myriad View Place.

It didn’t originate from her Wooden Blade Sword. One breath earlier, Lazy Flame Dragon’s body emitted pure white radiance.

White light that painted all directions flashed brilliantly, and within it four dark shadows moved slowly.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt Wei Yeon and Lazy Flame Dragon had entered a fractured instant. The peerless realm sensing moments as eternity. The shadow appearing as Lazy Flame Dragon flashed pure white eye radiance the same color as the background.

[Transcendent Martial Art.]

Originally his Scorching True Energy had been released only as much as his body could endure. But Jeong Yeon-shin intuited. That wasn’t the case now.

Wei Yeon had no gap to display Transcendent Martial Art. After repeatedly combining attacks to overheat her upper energy center spirit, Lazy Flame Dragon was far ahead.

In the breathing of quick decisive battle.

[Light Wings.]

Time seemed sluggish.

While surroundings stained black and white, everything appeared fractured. The scene of sword, hand, and fist penetrating Wei Yeon’s shadow, gripping, tearing, and shattering.

Three black robes fluttered.