Chapter 778 – To My Younger Brother, From The Heavenly Demon (11)

Jeong Yeon-shin and Invincible were mayflies living each day anew. They knew. Because they couldn’t accept life as it was, every moment was more meaningless than anyone else’s.

Though they knew time’s preciousness, they carelessly let it flow by. They couldn’t savor the world.

That was why Jeong Yeon-shin spoke to her about hydrangeas. He wanted to say that fleeting blooms are also beautiful. Isn’t it enough to bloom once, no matter when they wither?

Kugugugugugugung!

The top layer of the World Tree filled entirely with leaves.

In Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes, it overlapped with a field of hydrangeas. The place he’d promised to enjoy someday with those he’d formed connections with.

What about Invincible? She must have watched everything from Myriad View Place.

The reckless one who threatened precious oases with Samadhi True Fire as soon as she received marriage proposals from desert power holders.

The walk to Nine Steps was also a question posed to Invincible. Do you understand that a mayfly’s wingbeats can bloom like hydrangeas? If you follow these steps, I’ll call you elder sister, but if you can’t, you’ll be younger sibling forever…

As idle thoughts flowed like light beams.

The land of leaves tilted sharply then stopped.

It seemed the world was turning over, but ultimately ended with tilting diagonally. Because the World Tree balanced itself like a person.

It was a thrilling sight.

The energy waves of four people grew faint like mist. Three Divine Sword Group Leaders and Literary Star. Regardless of their overwhelming presence, accumulated energy and upper dantian spirit had been consumed to their limits.

That alone bought great time.

‘Dan Sung-eum must be before the tree.’

Just like himself facing Zhang Sanfeng with his consistently indifferent face.

The step Jeong Yeon-shin just took was Transcendence before Self Walk. A fearsome power slowly rose. Nine Steps that boosted only one breath’s movement. The essence of swift decisive battle.

A mayfly’s one breath equals a hundred years.

“It begins.”

Life surpassed talent. His experiences and emotions came to pour out more stories than meager martial inspiration.

Thus now.

Silence engulfed all directions.

……

Vision distorted. His entire body melted into starlight. At the same time, the night wind brushing his skin slowed enough to feel even its cool texture in each strand.

‘With an upper dantian on the verge of death, the speed of thought opened to extremes…’

A body that followed with exactly the same swiftness. He became a flash. Just like his epithet. Was it the result of pursuing swift decisive battles throughout all jianghu journeys?

Thud.

It was Void Treading.

The roar didn’t spread. Since it was speed racing moonlight, sound only flowed in as vibrations. Legs were the same.

In feet that pushed night air, all principles of Ten Li Gentle Light and Radiant Wing Steps were loaded. Though muscle, acupoints, and true energy flows differed, they seemed like one martial art. Just as a person’s life is necessarily made of each unique experience.

An unprecedented propulsion energy wave.

It arose from his entire body due to Wind Body movement technique. Both hands wielded all grip methods of Thunder Annihilation Sword Style through dual barrier energy.

The Baihui acupoint opened wide to a level never experienced, white hot. Starry Night and Remaining Thunder were flying alongside on both sides. While splitting space at the same speed as his body.

He surpassed human limits.

A tremendous load pressed on his entire body.

A body that should have been crushed long ago. Luminous Wheel That Transcends Law Technique and Jeong Family Dynamic Technique became one to protect it. Though atmosphere collided at light beam speed, his body advanced like diamond.

Instantly close at hand.

Zhang Sanfeng raising his left palm. Hands wrapped semi-transparent silks. The speed at which those Ten Section Brocade technical foundations and palm force formed amazingly kept up with Jeong Yeon-shin’s Self Walk.

Jeong Yeon-shin lifted his leg.

Kwang!

Ten layers of silk shattered with his kick. It must have been made of Wudang’s Heaven Yang Rescuing Yin Energy, yet felt like breaking roof tiles. Zhang Sanfeng soared straight to the clouds. It was clearly Form Shifting Void for evasion.

Jeong Yeon-shin was certain.

He would win.

Kurururung!

Starry Night and Remaining Thunder got caught in Pine Pattern Ancient Sword’s semi-circular trajectory and distanced. The result of simultaneously manifesting Three Purities Force that flows all things and Wisdom Sword. Zhang Sanfeng was clearly looking down at the future and moving in advance.

But what use is it for a person to fathom starlight’s shimmering? It would already be after illuminating the body. At least Jeong Yeon-shin thought so. While appearing behind Zhang Sanfeng’s back flickering.

“……!”

After the two divine swords of dark blue and white were sucked into both hands. Just the returned recoil exploded a tremendous shockwave with a bang and stopped Pine Pattern Ancient Sword. Starry Night and Remaining Thunder dancing like wings in Jeong Yeon-shin’s hands.

The flow of battle came over.

Zzjeojeojeojeojeojeong!

Thousands of exchanges continued in one instant.

Clouds swirled long like flood dragons caught in sword force, and Starry Night’s footwork energy that bounced off Wisdom Sword struck distant gorges and brought down ten-thousand-zhang cliffs.

When Remaining Thunder hummed with sword song, moonlight bent in all directions evaporating the sea of clouds. Cotton Palm and Ten Section Brocade’s earth-shaking palm force naturally self-destructed.

Wudang’s protective strong energy, Jade Solitude Robe’s transparent internal energy barrier was being torn away. Blood mixed into those fragments.

The moment Zhang Sanfeng’s legs in disarray struck away both swords with Five Elements Graceful Footwork’s gentle foot movements, Jeong Yeon-shin who released the swords struck and split the legs with dual palms. Starry Night and Remaining Thunder simultaneously penetrated through Zhang Sanfeng’s body and passed.

Kurureung! Kwakwang!

Two vibrations following thunder. They exploded from Zhang Sanfeng’s chest and side. In that split second, both blades even carried Dark Night Brilliant Blood Demon Sword’s sword energy.

Regeneration impossible.

The sky that had been bent by Taiji Force returned to its place. The Silent Radiance Sword Constellation’s stars began dimming one by one. What ultimately remained in the night sky was two things. Hazy clouds and moon halos.

In that instant, the World Tree’s calculation inside Zhang Sanfeng’s head flowed into Jeong Yeon-shin. That the sharpness when stepping on Self Walk Transcendence might be invincible throughout past and present.

It had no meaning to Jeong Yeon-shin.

The body the World Tree created of Taoist Sanfeng. Though it could unleash Zhang Sanfeng’s martial arts, piercing Taoist Sanfeng’s life in one move was a different matter. His Transcendent Martial Art must have been something unknown to the World Tree.

‘What can never be replicated.’

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t reproduce any peerless master’s Transcendent Martial Art.

How could one empathize as much as the person themselves, even if greatly immersed in books recording someone’s experiences? The smell of worldly life that seeps in with different fragrances every moment.

“You should have lived it yourself.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said slowly.

“Rather than putting forward proxies and avatars.”

It was a story carried on exhalation. The moment Self Walk’s boost ended. His body began rapidly growing heavy.

Time that had raced with moonlight returned to normal. Drought’s dry wind brushed his skin, and starlight poured over his head.

But the overheated Baihui acupoint remained.

His upper dantian read everything between heaven and earth. To the point where even the World Tree’s thoughts endlessly flowed into his head.

“…What?”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s brow furrowed.

What the tree truly coveted wasn’t earth energy but amusement. The emotions of people in the world, the lives of crowds racing through jianghu, stories captivating enough to make books, the thought of always reading them…

It intended to forever spectate human history. It even held fondness for the Central Plains jianghu. That was also why it didn’t see Jeong Yeon-shin as an enemy.

The Great Ming Code that Wei Yeon wrote.

Because the protagonist decorating that history book’s finale was Desolate Fortress Lightning Genius.

Fruit Zhang Sanfeng spoke of the next land.

Meaning to open gates and go to another world. It would be together with the noble clans who were the World Tree’s hands and feet, and they would put down roots in another land under the pretext of compatriots. Just as they did in the Central Plains.

Which jianghu person would permit that?

Jeong Yeon-shin laughed.

“Tree, you too are part of that story.”

“Part…?”

Zhang Sanfeng floated in midair covered in blood with his waist bent. His words flowed out like a broken mechanical technique.

“Warrior Lightning Genius.”

“Speak.”

“An invincible one to discuss throughout past and present. You are now the world’s number one. No one can oppose you.”

“A meaningless story.”

Nine Steps’ Jeong Yeon-shin had to be so. Because he hadn’t lived alone. He was tempered by connections up to Eight Steps, and ultimately became a sword created by the world.

Then Zhang Sanfeng asked.

“What about person Jeong Yeon-shin?”

“……?”

“A mayfly. One deserving pity.”

A flat tone.

Jeong Yeon-shin who tilted his head to the side answered.

“Those words are rather good. Hearing them from the World Tree doesn’t feel pleasant. Is that all you have to say?”

“If Fighting God hadn’t stripped the tree bark’s protective strong energy, you couldn’t have landed even one strike on me.”

“Because swords only work by spending lifespan?”

Jeong Yeon-shin nodded. Zhang Sanfeng’s following words were flat.

“Warrior Lightning Genius has the qualification to be arrogant, but person Jeong Yeon-shin does not. In circumstances where there’s absolutely nothing more you can do… you should be satisfied with being recorded in the Great Ming Code. You cannot put your name in later history.”

“You’ve become talkative.”

Jeong Yeon-shin pointed below the clouds.

“The one to fell the tree is separate.”

“Dan Sung-eum.”

Zhang Sanfeng’s immediate answer. Right after, he raised his mouth corners.

“You said I have no Transcendent Martial Art, but that’s not true.”

A smile chilling because it was human-like.

“What is inseparable from the World Tree? The martial learning I’ve handled my whole life?”

The World Tree asked through Zhang Sanfeng’s dying body. In that instant, the pouring moonlight stopped. It was together with tremendous power fluctuation. Energy waves originating not from Zhang Sanfeng’s body but from the World Tree.

Something manifested from below the tree.

……

Vast silence covered the night sky. Just like when Jeong Yeon-shin stepped on with Self Walk. The world was falling into silence.

One character arose.

‘Gate (門).’

The moment he realized it, the deed occurred.

The three Divine Sword Group Leaders and Literary Star’s massive presences vanished without a trace. As if killed by a single sword.

Those who had threatened the tree even slightly were first. It was the moment the World Tree, which had been stopped by master Wei Gun-hye’s upper dantian suppression, was finally released.

“……!”

There was a group that reacted immediately. Masters who had been looking up at Jeong Yeon-shin and Zhang Sanfeng with shocked eyes from atop the World Tree. Lazy Flame Dragon, Black Return, Baek Seo-gun, Dharma King and others’ heads bent downward like lightning.

In that moment, over half of the Divine Sword Group and Demon Realm jianghu people were erased. A suddenly sweeping gale. Because the presences numbering tens of thousands changed to night air.

Tremendous suction arose.

Even the tilted leafy ground atop the World Tree shook violently.

Kwakwakwakwakwakwa!

“Martial arts…?!”

“Don’t try to block it!”

“Retreat with footwork…”

Jeong Yeon-shin assessed the situation with wide-area energy sense. Four sword orbs were racing in all directions. Semi-transparent spheres that no protective strong energy stopped. Jianghu people who vanished the moment they touched, without time to deploy defensive moves.

It was as if four Fan Dragon Flower Treading Formulas had ambushed.

No one could do anything. Starting with the One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation, Wudang’s Great Harmony Seven Venerable Stars, Martial Dragon Alliance Leader Helian Feng-yue’s energy wave were erased. Did it move in threatening order? It was as natural as adding more ink to wrongly written characters.

They weren’t in the Great Ming Code.

“You all.”

Zhang Sanfeng’s lips moved.

“Presented extreme pleasure. I go to the next land. After absorbing remaining earth energy in the world.”

Below the treetop.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt massive emptiness.

Did it imitate Self Walk speed? Four sword orbs that annihilated most jianghu people in two breaths’ time. One of them carried Mount Hua’s clear stone scent.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s mouth opened.

“Made from gates. An absurd martial art.”

Different caliber from the previous Zhuge Family Head who barely wielded one. It had drawn gates positioned at the Nine Sects’ immortal mountains through Body Shifting Void, condensed them like sword orbs, and moved them with Fan Dragon Flower Treading Formula.

Martial arts impossible with a human body.

‘The World Tree’s main body executed it.’

Jeong Yeon-shin looked down at the writhing tree leaves with his body exhausted from Self Walk. The sound of leaves rubbing against each other. Zhang Sanfeng’s low laugh mixed into it.

“I knew you’d see through it. An irresistible attack, absolute defense.”

Jin Myeong-jo and Blood King couldn’t avoid it either. They who would have regenerated with limbs intact, survived countless deaths yet vanished without trace. Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes.

Zhang Sanfeng asked.

“Do you worry for those who vanished?”

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head. While inserting returned Remaining Thunder into its sheath.

“I know no one died. At most they stepped on land beyond gates. They’re strong.”

“They can enter but cannot exit.”

Zhang Sanfeng’s assertion.

Was it because gates were condensed with supremely elevated martial arts? The semi-transparent sword orbs had already risen to the World Tree’s top.

Two total.

The other two below mingled with Dan Sung-eum’s sword control flight. Movements extremely wary of Desolate Third Breaking Strike.

“That crazy bastard…?”

“No different from a demon!”

Lazy Flame Dragon and Black Return’s bodies grew faint. Movement lines flickering in zigzag patterns like sparks and lightning. But the sword orbs rather herded their movements toward the center like shepherds. They clearly bent inward with Wisdom Sword principles.

Kugugugugung!

Five energy waves burst from below. The faded monarch, Three Imperial Greats, and Taoist Qingshu. Presences immediately rushing toward Dan Sung-eum.

That way they couldn’t help but be struck by sword orbs.

Both below and above the tree were so. If the fight ended like that, the World Tree would attempt massive absorption. Hard to fathom how much earth energy was being consumed for techniques beyond providence right now.

‘And it will disappear.’

To another world beyond gates.

Having stolen all earth energy from this land.

Rustle.

Jeong Yeon-shin placed his hand on his left chest. One remaining light wheel pulsated. The final third resembling the night sky.

The light wheel of demonic energy.

Zhang Sanfeng shook his head.

“Don’t do that. You have the qualification to die as fated. Heaven and I permitted it.”

“You’re mistaken.”

“About what?”

“My Self Walk sequence hasn’t ended.”

It was also then that some young man’s voice rang resonantly from below the tree.

“Sect Leader, get a grip! Have you forgotten the sunset clouds you showed me?! Will Qingcheng truly set below the clouds?!”

Qingcheng disciple Jin-mu. Had he accompanied prestigious clans? One of the very few remaining jianghu people. Soon surprisingly, Taoist Qingshu’s answer came.

“How could that be.”

“Sect Leader…?!”

“Sunset clouds bury themselves in clouds at day’s end. When the world can’t produce any bustle, at the very last when there are no variables… your sword path must be this satisfying. That is what Azure Cloud Crimson Sunset means.”

Taoist Qingshu’s presence.

He’d applied brakes to his guard nerves while chasing Dan Sung-eum. Fierce counter-wind burst with a bang. The faded monarch and Three Imperial Greats had no time to turn. The natural sword’s sword marks just sliced through vine-covered ground.

Zzjeojeojeojeojeojeong!

Taoist Qingshu vanished struck by sword orbs that thrust into those sparks.

Jeong Yeon-shin who’d been recovering his body with Rotating Major Heavenly Circulation hesitated. Because he felt strange unease. What he’d originally anticipated was Immortal Profound Void ‘s manifestation, but demonic energy was rising from the natural sword scars.

‘Invincible?’

She shouldn’t come out. Wasn’t she holding onto her lifespan because inside the World Tree flowed infinite innate energy?

The performer was Jeong Yeon-shin.

He’d intended to gather all gates under heaven into one massive Taiji together with Immortal Profound Void. Opening the Baihui acupoint wide, with a body whose accumulated energy limit temporarily vanished.

Then end everything with one Tree Severing Strike. Of course it would lead to death. Because only that way was it possible.

‘The arrangement for Invincible is separate.’

Though he pitied her, his belief that she’d fully understand his steps was thin. Half-Incomplete Invincible who was only outstanding in martial talent yet unbearably eccentric. A woman who sought warmth. He only hoped she’d someday have a change of heart and stop by Xinye County’s hydrangea hill.

In that instant, a sound like cave wind arose. Together with dense and sinister energy.

Gooooooo…

Rising from the natural sword fissure.

Though only felt through energy sense, color was visible. Pitch black smoke as if drawn from an abyss. It momentarily recalled the First Heavenly Demon.

Suddenly Master Beom-heo’s words arose.

“As long as tea water remains, steam can always be raised white.”

The immediately following report from Iron Demon Spring Leader Ji Gang-hyeon.

“It seems only tree-felling will allow escape! Why? That reckless one knocked out Wudang’s sect leader and climbed up alone! Truly a cowardly ambush…”

His transmission cut off as soon as the fissure closed. The World Tree’s characteristic regeneration ability. Without complete tree cutting, ultimately just repeating the same thing.

‘Dan Sung-eum must concentrate on sword strikes.’

Now sword orbs chasing Dan Sung-eum’s sword control flight had swollen to over ten. As if drawn not only from the Central Plains but also foreign countries. Demon Realm Emperor Black Return had vanished from the World Tree’s top, and only Lazy Flame Dragon ran in circles centered on Baek Seo-gun.

“Damn tree, why only me…?”

The sight of racing while avoiding spheres pouring like bombardment. Leaves vanished chunk by chunk in semi-transparent sword orbs’ trajectories. It was bizarre yet natural disappearance. It also felt like visualizing death that had been cast moment by moment on Jeong Yeon-shin, Invincible, and Lazy Flame Dragon.

It was also then that Invincible’s voice rang from below the tree.

[Shabby.]

In that instant Jeong Yeon-shin heard Fan Dragon Flower Treading Formula’s characteristic roar-like vibration. The moment some sword orbs chasing Dan Sung-eum bent direction smoothly like Taiji curves, it was suddenly before Invincible’s face.

Huuk!

Invincible’s silhouette appeared in Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes executing Lowly Revelation Eye Technique. Blocking a sword orb with one finger while fluttering long black hair like the universe.

She was an absolute of the unorthodox path.

[Hard to even acknowledge as martial arts, so shabby.]

She said.

The dawn glow that had lined all directions like gold trim was nowhere. A horizon rippling with blackish lines. It seemed the world draped pitch-black Taiji.

Kurururung!

The moment another sword orb thrust toward Invincible, heaven and earth shook. Jeong Yeon-shin intuited it. Some gate manifested from distant land above her head.

Ultra-long-range Form Shifting Void. She invoked it without moving even a finger.

Kiiiiiiing!

A curtain of grayish mist rubbed against the sword orb. Moonlight naturally distorted murkily centered on the impact point. But it wasn’t penetrated. Because mist was shaped exactly like the sword orb.

She was called Invincible because she was a demon mocking heaven. At least now that name fit. Jeong Yeon-shin’s face twisted.

“You…!”

[Younger brother must live. For my reputation too.]

“Will you not follow my words to the end?”

He spat out as if chewing. It was a question filled with anger.

But Invincible wasn’t looking up at Jeong Yeon-shin. What formed in her eyes was the sky in spring breeze. Night sky licking clouds with its blackish color like a tongue.

Once Jeong Yeon-shin had resented it.

And it always strangled Invincible.

“I am Heavenly Demon.”

Her lips moved.

It truly seemed like addressing the sky. Even the appearance of moving only vocal cords momentarily without upper dantian spirit flow was so.

“I won’t live as you will.”

The sea of clouds in the night sky that stopped moving.

Sword orbs that had spread like comets centered on the giant tree stopped, and the World Tree’s bark turned pitch black centered below Invincible’s feet.

Her demonic energy was overlaying the World Tree.

“Erosion? You’ll steal my main body…?”

Zhang Sanfeng revealed rage.

“Do you think it’s possible with humans’ Soul Transfer Great Method? Why are you humans this arrogant?”

Soul Transfer Great Method. The Ming Cult secret said to settle souls in others’ bodies. The First Heavenly Demon was also recorded as manipulating others’ bodies as if his own.

‘The World Tree is a different story.’

Even thinking of such an attempt defied heaven. Because upper dantian brute force must be strong enough to ascend against providence.

[Why wonder about possible or impossible?]

Invincible’s echo ringing like mockery.

[Doing what’s not permitted to humans. That is the demon army and Heavenly Demon. To me, trees, heaven, everything is offensive.]

In that instant, vibration that rose to the World Tree’s top occurred.

Kurureung! Kwakwakwakwakwakwang!

The distant ground split. Earth energy’s characteristic humid feeling suddenly pressed in. Together with endlessly cracking and extending fissures.

Had she begun using the World Tree’s power as her own?

The next moment Invincible’s intent that spread boastfully was secondary to Jeong Yeon-shin. Because her other voice tickled his head like a whisper.

[Transcendent Martial Art.]

That flower viewing.

[Hydrangea Banquet.]

It would be quite interesting.

In that instant, gates that surged from the entire world struck down like lightning to Xinye County’s plains.​