Chapter 773 – To My Younger Brother, From The Heavenly Demon (6)

Footprints were carved into the snowfield.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt the gently settling earth through his leather shoes. As he slowly raised his head, the night sky spreading to the edge of the plains was filled with hazy starlight, making even his mind feel distant.

“The north, isn’t it?”

The mutter came from Wandering Star, who had traveled with him.

With a peasant-like face, he clicked his tongue and spoke.

“Even the night sky is hazy, and the wind carries frost… This place too has reached the end of its life as human habitat. Decades ago, it wasn’t like this.”

Jeong Yeon-shin answered with an indifferent expression.

“They say it’s a time when a small ice age has descended upon the world.”

“Who said that?”

“The current Ming Cult Leader.”

“You mean that blockhead who’s learned everything but can do nothing useful in the Central Plains? Our alliance tried to recruit that friend but gave up.”

Wandering Star continued with a laughing face.

“What a sight she was. Her childhood exploits that are now fairly well known… Debating Buddhist scriptures with Potala Palace’s Great Dharma King until she drove her to qi deviation, pulling out an island nation’s sacred sword treasure from beyond the Silk Road while claiming to train Form Shifting Void, then moving it to an enemy nation. And when the powerful families of the great desert sent her marriage proposals, she immediately unleashed Samadhi True Fire on every oasis in the desert…”

Jeong Yeon-shin cut off the long story.

“So you know I’ve grown close to her?”

“I’m simply curious about your intentions. From Desolate Fortress’s northern expedition until now, the things I’ve done in the Central Plains should be no less egregious to you than the Ming Cult Leader’s misdeeds.”

Wandering Star stroked his stubbled chin and asked.

“You’re pushing aside all those grudges for one Tree Severing formula? It doesn’t quite resonate with this wanderer who’s rubbed shoulders with the human jianghu. By what means do you plan to trample my personal vengeance and teach me Tree Severing?”

“Be quiet.”

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

Kwang!

Suddenly, a woman landed, breaking through the icy earth.

Land where the Ice Palace was nearby. Perhaps sensing Wandering Star’s massive presence, an intent echoed sternly.

[Who are you.]

She had black hair flowing from her ankles and ice-blue eyes. The white palace robes fluttering meant two things: the status of a Northern Sea absolute and the deep internal energy achievement of being impervious to cold and heat.

She reminded him of Lazy Flame Dragon before becoming close with Jeong Yeon-shin. Her indifferent expression as she raised her head, then the strange look upon recognizing Jeong Yeon-shin, it was all the same.

Soon her mouth opened.

“Northern Emperor…?”

She was the Grand Palace Lord of Northern Sea Ice Palace. Jeong Yeon-shin clasped his hands together and answered quietly.

“Sister-in-law.”

A small bewilderment cracked across the Ice Empress’s face, white as if sculpted from frost.

“Sister what?”

“The Palace Lord’s husband has achieved great merit reaching the main castle’s purple rank, and his limbs are still intact. That’s the only news worth mentioning.”

Jeong Yeon-shin continued slowly.

“Separately, I came to see the child once. Would it be acceptable if I perform Marrow Cleansing?”

The Ice Empress, who had been staring at him, stroked her own belly at the mention of Marrow Cleansing.

“It’s still here though…?”

“Last time I saw you, it hadn’t grown enough, but now it has. I can work on it with Strike in Void Palm.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said. At the same time, Wandering Star deployed his sensory paths. Soon, words that were either pity or exclamation flowed from his mouth.

“Holding both extreme yin and extreme yang simultaneously? If something like that burrows into the body… even if the mother is a master, it would be dangerous. Isn’t it like living with Internal Weight Heavy Method attached to your body? No, no…it’s practically a living Brilliant River!”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s brow furrowed at the wanderer’s characteristically crude speech.

“Don’t be disrespectful.”

“Anyway, I understand what’s happening. If it grows safely, it will overwhelm the Demon Realm, but if things go slightly wrong, it will die young without ever seeing a single lush reed field.”

“You can’t see those in the south either.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s calm rebuke.

Meanwhile, the Ice Empress gave no answer. She would have known best from the start.

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly wondered. Did mother Ma Yeon-sang also know? When the baby’s head formed in the womb, the power between heaven and earth that began filling through its Baihui acupoint. The child’s fate.

‘…Wouldn’t she have felt it, even vaguely?’

What was that heart like?

It was a question even the greatest sword of all time’s eye technique couldn’t answer. Therefore, Jeong Yeon-shin silently gazed at the Ice Empress’s face until she gave a small nod.

The Ice Empress spoke with an expressionless face.

“But fixing something like this is forbidden even to your master or Divine Physician. Unless you tear out all three dantians plus all acupoints and meridians…”

In that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s raised finger overlapped with the night sky’s starlight. The North Star, uniquely bright among all the hazy stars. It was another aspect of Sword Star Hyeon So-baek, who once deployed absolute defense with a sword curtain.

Ttak.

As soon as he snapped his fingers, a faint constellation poured toward the Ice Empress. For an instant, there was a mirage visible only to Jeong Yeon-shin. The image of himself embracing not the Ice Empress, but Ma Yeon-sang.

Mind  sword and Void Palm.

He imprinted the mental image of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique onto the immature upper dantian, and the release force striking the void planted an infinitesimal amount of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique true energy.

‘Breath transformation. With the mental image of planting Jeong Family Dynamic Technique’s seed in the pure middle dantian. So that the child’s every inhalation and exhalation leads to cultivating Jeong Family Dynamic Technique…’

He could feel it.

A child literally beginning to cultivate Jeong Family Dynamic Technique from inside the womb.

It was possible because the Ice Empress withdrew her protective strong energy for that split second.

It was an understanding surpassing all sensory paths in the world. Ma Yeon-sang must have had it too…

The corners of his mouth rose faintly.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought: You will live a different branch.

An insignificant vicarious satisfaction, but this was also why he came. Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin felt it, the second knot had wrapped around the blank book in his mind.

“Resemble your father just a little.”

With quiet words, he turned. It was while gripping Wandering Star’s nape. Wandering Star didn’t even bother dodging and gave an empty laugh.

“Treated worse than an unborn baby…”

Until then, the Ice Empress’s eyes had been half-open, but suddenly they flashed. She muttered as if enchanted by the brilliantly flickering starlight.

“That legendary strange art… to think it was this kind of monstrous skill, insane…”

“I’ll be going now.”

At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin wondered. What would the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique of a child loved by both parents be like? Even as the hand gripping Remaining Thunder blurred, it was an image not easily drawn.

‘Perhaps it might become the second Fighting God.’

As he stepped into the torn space…

Whoosh…

A sudden snow-laden wind blew over, gently pushing his back. It seemed like Sword Star Hyeon So-baek’s genteel smile was seeing him off.

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered.

“Second Step.”

Only then did the Ice Empress, with a face urgent as shattered eternal snow, call out to him.

“Come to the palace, let me repay this debt…!”

Crunch.

The voice cut off the moment he took the second step.

His vision transformed completely.

Steep mountainous terrain unfolded from his feet. Mountain peaks filled with clouds. A somewhat less cold wind began blowing fiercely.

Hwaaak!

It was Wudang Mountain.

Jeong Yeon-shin lowered his head. A worn blade was stuck at his feet. A sword with the characters “Winter Dream” roughly engraved on the handle.

The Wudang Taoists seemed not to have taken it. Perhaps the resentment was too deep to preserve it carefully, yet the merit too great to break it.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked the sword.

“What was your heart like?”

No answer came.

Cloud fragments merely mixed into the gale like down feathers.

A suddenly thickened wind current whispered unintelligible words, as if spitting out pointless jokes or mockery.

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke to the wind distorting the clouds.

“Unlike your wretched self, I have much to leave behind. So our circumstances are vastly different… I wonder if I came here for nothing.”

“Are you preparing to die?”

Wandering Star suddenly asked. Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head and answered.

“It’s a process of cultivating my upper dantian intent to the extreme.”

“Oh ho.”

For the first time, Wandering Star’s eyes shed their peasant-like appearance. Eyes filled with immense interest. His following words were purely those of a warrior.

“So… you’ve entered training to prepare for the final life-and-death battle? But if you want to forge your intent more robustly, why not go to the waterfall where Wudang Taoists are hiding and sit cross-legged? How can a youngster like you expect to gain enlightenment without hardship or training?”

“Train for enlightenment?”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s head tilted to the side.

“Isn’t that the luxury of jianghu people whose lives aren’t desperate enough?”

“…I guarantee even if you’d grown up in a proper household, you’d have been somewhat hated.”

Swish.

Jeong Yeon-shin merely placed his hand on Winter Dream’s hilt. He could feel Heaven Soaring Guest Wan Hui’s palm lines like a brand.

The solo weapon of a swordsman who had fought to the death.

Naturally, he anticipated what Wan Hui would have spouted if he were here.

—Life is one great lie, and the enlightenments of all living beings are nothing but self-hypnosis. Whether the universe disappears tomorrow or not, if you deceive yourself prettily, that’s what life is.

“…True to an unorthodox path.”

Muttering lowly, Jeong Yeon-shin turned. He simultaneously stepped into the semi-transparently torn space. This time, Wandering Star took the lead of his own accord, with the sarcastic remark, “Mastering orthodox and unorthodox paths, I see.”

Crunch.

Third Step.

Seven steps remaining until ten.

* * *

Jeong Yeon-shin’s Fourth Step was taken in Hanzhong territory. The martial alliance tournament stage where the Radiant Demon Wing’s flag had once been planted. As if it had never nearly become the center of jianghu, it was now merely a cluster of ruins where tile fragments rolled roughly.

He spread his qi sense to find two graves first.

Azure Qilin Namgung Se-jin.

Fan Dragon Zhuge Xian.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt the spirits of the two people from the crumbly dirt mounds. Now with an upper dantian that, though perhaps duller than Invincible’s, could transcend anything.

Sarak…

A free wind circled his ears like someone’s laughter. Has the Returning Steel become widely known?

Another breeze spread like a fan and supported his wrist. Remember the posture of sacrificing a piece to gain the initiative…

‘Is it thanks to Winter Dream Sword?’

His upper dantian’s power became as solid as diamond on its own. Though difficult to readily admit, the words about self-hypnosis were quite apt. All the more because it was the path he had walked.

“Why are you turning away? I want to enjoy the downfall of those who acted so noble a bit more.”

“This place is done.”

Fourth Step.

Whoosh!

The scenery changed once more.

Then the step Jeong Yeon-shin took became a true energy vibration containing the Brilliant River. Release force that raced along the Great Wall, exploding and crushing all manner of bizarre monstrous beings. Along the trajectory of that long, semi-transparent shockwave, the atmosphere tilted crookedly.

All around filled with screams and roars.

Pupupupupupuk! Kwareu reureureurung!

Indistinguishable whether they were flood dragons or human-faced beasts. Flesh fragments of monsters racing to distant walls and falling with blood of all colors.

Below them, familiar faces showed Jeong Yeon-shin various expressions. It was a group including Mount Hua’s Yu Hyeon.

“…Ya!”

Yu Hyeon approached in one bound with Dark Fragrance Steps and firmly gripped Jeong Yeon-shin’s shoulder.

“Oh! You came…?! Take our master away!”

“What’s wrong?”

“She’s been a rakshasa lately!”

Though his expression was serious, neither asked after the other’s well-being. Jeong Yeon-shin exchanged eye greetings over his shoulder with Little Sword Queen Qu Su-yu. Her expression was extremely cautious.

Regardless, Yu Hyeon’s words continued.

“Last time, didn’t she try to catch a flood dragon by herself? It was about thirty percent the size of Hangzhou’s flood dragon, but wouldn’t she find some reason if she were with peers of equal standing?”

“Who’s guarding here then?”

“I heard the Grand Commander is returning alive? That man, I never knew he could even shake off the World Tree’s Chief Guardian. He looked tough, but I don’t know what happened…”

“It’s because Praising Earth Sword Duke held back his hands. He would have been someone who tried hard to keep his sanity for when needed.”

“Really?”

Yu Hyeon responded casually. Then, looking Jeong Yeon-shin up and down, he asked equally lightly.

“…But why do you have the face of someone going to die? I’ve seen plenty of those faces on this damned wall.”

Thud.

A feeling as if Literary Star’s foot had fallen on his crown. It was exactly Jeong Yeon-shin’s Fifth Step. He repeated Yu Hyeon’s words with a calm face.

“Seen plenty… Right, nothing special.”

“You remember Hangzhou?”

Yu Hyeon looked into Jeong Yeon-shin’s face. Not avoiding that gaze, Jeong Yeon-shin realized anew that the languidness Yu Hyeon had shown as Mount Hua’s Hidden Dragon was completely gone.

Yu Hyeon continued.

“I don’t know how things are unfolding, but don’t think foolish thoughts.”

That was all.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently turned, and to Yu Hyeon who tried to follow, he extended fist shadows blooming like flowers and pushed him back with a rumble. Eternal Blossom Fist’s Blossoming Fist. How desperate must he have been? The next moment, the counterattack Yu Hyeon launched to grab Jeong Yeon-shin was truly worthless nonsense.

“Hey, that Purple Pill bath, you and Master…!”

Yu Hyeon’s face suddenly lost words.

His eyes that snapped up filled with the scene unfolding in the sky. The flood dragon’s body descending through the thick sea of clouds was exploding from its massive head along with Jeong Yeon-shin’s step.

Kureureureureurung!

“……!”

“I challenged my fate.”

Having spat that out, Jeong Yeon-shin felt his own lips. A smile deeper than when facing Lazy Flame Dragon’s baby was hanging there. Was it the difference between Second Step and Fifth Step?

“I can’t stop now.”

Whoosh!