Chapter 785 – Side Story – So I Have Many Regrets

They called them Taoists because they sought the path to freedom from the secular world. The Mount Hua Sect Leader was even the pinnacle of Central Plains Taoism.

Lady Lu Xian’s words and conduct were as free-spirited as her nature.

“For one who has mastered energy, Purple Pills are the world’s finest medicine. Through pill refining methods, you can greatly obtain the effects of ingredients like Folia Polygalae, Calamus, and Licorice. Naturally, they’ll also soothe your weary mind and body.”

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“You sound like a medicine peddler.”

Lady Lu Xian’s laughter spread through the mist.

“All Taoists are medicine sellers. But I won’t charge you. Haven’t we already exchanged much?”

However, Jeong Yeon-shin knew. He had to pay with stories for the bath water. Of course, he could choose not to, but he’d originally intended to uphold propriety toward Dan Sung-eum.

He established a blade in his mind.

‘Mind Sword.’

Whoosh!

The moment he thought of cutting around Lady Lu Xian’s body, the mist rippled. He’d temporarily severed her energy sense. Only after that did Jeong Yeon-shin enter the water.

“Mm.”

Lady Lu Xian seemed quite impressed by the Mind Sword. It was together with her hand blade slicing through the mist.

“I should study it. You sense me, but I don’t feel you…”

“I prefer one-sided things.”

Jeong Yeon-shin had already withdrawn his energy sense of Lady Lu Xian. His senses were only prepared for Jeok Yu-ha’s potential intrusion.

‘She won’t misunderstand, right?’

Then Jeong Yeon-shin pondered. Was this a relationship to worry about misunderstandings? But what exactly was this connection?

From a water pit about ten zhang away, Lady Lu Xian asked.

“How have you been living?”

“…I had no other thoughts during the three-year mourning. I only thought of two people.”

“Besides Sword Star elder, who else?”

“Someone named Yun So-hyeon.”

“The former Nether Stream Squad Leader? I heard she led a great battle to victory in the north.”

“Yes. Her grave is in Desolate Fortress’ Yun Family cemetery, but the land where she rests is in the north.”

“You’ve grown accustomed to loss.”

“That can’t be.”

Jeong Yeon-shin smiled faintly. There was a moment of silence, then Lady Lu Xian spoke.

“Mount Hua also has many stone graves. Your pain is no different from mine.”

“Is there a place for Dan Sung-eum among the graves?”

“He dominated Shaanxi and Sichuan jianghu with blood. How could I make a grave? You especially have deep ties with me.”

Tyrant Sword Sect Lord Dan Sung-eum.

Not even a corpse remained. They said his body scattered like ash in the flames where Lazy Flame Dragon carved the characters “Je-yul.” Together with the noble clans who’d tried to kill Jeong Yeon-shin atop the fallen World Tree.

Those flames were Dan Sung-eum’s grave.

Not a single blade remained. Even Silent Art Sword had melted.

Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth.

“You’re being unusually cautious, unlike yourself.”

“I dislike feeling guilty. Especially toward someone with whom I’ve exchanged life-saving grace.”

It was a purely clear voice. Not just Dan Sung-eum, but anyone would have liked this quality of hers.

Jeong Yeon-shin poured spring water over his neck as he spoke.

“I understand Dan Sung-eum.”

“You understand? Isn’t he the one who annihilated your family? Because of that, I…”

“It’s alright.”

Jeong Yeon-shin who shook his head continued.

“I experienced the same thing myself. Holding only memories and crossing long years… the heart grows greatly numb. Only one goal remains like a flag.”

Splash.

A low water sound arose. The presence of Lady Lu Xian turning her body. Her voice trembled.

“You too, the Dan Family Time Transcendence Method…?”

“I came to ask if one nameless stone grave wouldn’t be alright. Not elsewhere, but at Mount Hua where you are.”

“……”

Lady Lu Xian couldn’t concentrate.

Because she was a Nine Sects Sect Leader who perceived others through just a few words of conversation.

The Fan Dragon Flower Treading Formula that resonated with Dan Sung-eum.

For Jeong Yeon-shin, it was great self-harm. Because Dan Family Time Transcendence Method was Dan Sung-eum’s Transcendent Martial Art.

His heart had been shaved down as much as the confined years.

It hadn’t broken, but being somewhat exhausted was correct. It would be a long-lasting aftereffect.

“But Lady Lu, could you please turn your body back around?”

“Is that what’s important right now?”

“Yes.”

Jeong Yeon-shin told Lady Lu Xian about the time of Tree Severing.

It started with how one of the Ten Steps was Dan Sung-eum’s backward step. He also spoke of how he and Dan Sung-eum spent their years to cut down the World Tree. Calmly, losing track of time.

Lady Lu Xian also shared her time with Dan Sung-eum. The prince who fled holding the Azure Dragon flag, the friendship that began with sympathy, the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly of that time, the fractured relationship…

The sunset stained the mist.

Even then, the subtle fragrance of Purple Pills surrounded the two people. The sunset hung like a flag on the plum tree’s shadow.

* * *

The Mount Hua elders were absent.

They said they’d departed on a long-postponed jianghu journey.

The Plum Blossom Swordsmen were the same. Taoists with swords in the marketplace. Thanks to them, Shaanxi’s people’s livelihood was noticeably improving.

“What about you?”

On the way down, Jeong Yeon-shin asked Yu Hyeon who’d brought Hwangbo Geon-ryun.

Yu Hyeon waved his hand with an annoyed face.

“I’m the next Sect Leader. I have a lot of things going on these days. Work is excessive.”

“What does Lady Lu do?”

“Originally the Sect Leader doesn’t handle affairs. She’s the person who guards the sect’s highest position. I should quickly put her in the Elder Council.”

“That’s too much. She’s the head of a sect.”

“The new imperial family is pressing to send the elders as Grand Preceptors. There’s even a strange rumor that the Northern King and Great Hero couple set up a honeymoon home in the Qinling Mountains. Even your Mad Demon… Senior Baek Mi-ryeo was suddenly refining thunder energy on Mount Hua’s farmland and got struck by lightning. Then demanded a large amount of silver. Saying she’d receive the harvest value in advance since the land would’ve become fertile.”

“What are all these stories?”

“You should know, Desolate Fortress Lord.”

“The Fortress Lord doesn’t work. It’s enough to just guard the world’s number one position.”

By the time Jeong Yeon-shin evaporated the remaining moisture on his body with Samadhi True Fire, they were under Mount Hua’s signboard again.

Yu Hyeon gestured beyond the mountain path and asked.

“Where are you going now?”

“I heard the Dragon-Phoenix Assembly is being held.”

“That’s close from here. Probably Xi’an? This time Zhongnan is hosting.”

“I intend to broaden this child’s perspective. And handle some business nearby.”

Jeong Yeon-shin stroked Hwangbo Geon-ryun’s head. The child was writing another passage in his small booklet. The Northern Emperor and Jade Flame Sword God spent good time at Cloud Summit bath water…

“……?”

Hwangbo Geon-ryun who put the book in his clothes raised his small head.

“Lord Jeong, shouldn’t we wait for the Scarlet Blood Cult Leader?”

“…She’ll follow on her own. Right now, it’s better if we depart first.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said while evaporating the remaining Purple Pill fragrance with Jeong Family Dynamic Technique. In front, Yu Hyeon was looking at him with a smiling face. As if he had something to say but ultimately just saw him off.

Jeong Yeon-shin decided not to see Yu Hyeon for a while. Heart moves body. Because it was a realm where annoying feelings could lead to drawing his blade.

Yu Hyeon seemed to have noticed. Because he sent a short transmission only after Jeong Yeon-shin reached the mountainside.

“The disciple resembles the master. It’s your turn to experience it once. That way you’ll be good at being a real father later, won’t you?”

Jeong Yeon-shin dismissed it.

It would be welcoming if he truly resembled him. Because it would mean one more noble person in Desolate Fortress full of petty people.

He thought that way the entire time riding with Hwangbo Geon-ryun toward Xi’an.

“Lord Jeong.”

“Speak freely.”

“I’m trying to draw your appearance in my Martial World Compendium, but your smile is a bit strange.”

“My smile?”

“Yes, energy doesn’t circulate to the Dicang acupoints at both corners of your lips. So you can’t smile broadly. Is it because that part isn’t needed for the Major Heavenly Circulation? I heard your internal energy cultivation is the world’s best…”

The child was well-versed in acupoints and calm like young Jeong Yeon-shin. He also had great curiosity.

It was the same after arriving in Xi’an.

“Excluding the Zhongnan Sect Leader and Dark Fragrance Sword King, are those people the jianghu’s finest rising stars?”

“In Shaanxi lands, they would be.”

The top of Giant Goose Pagoda rising south of vast Xi’an’s city center.

Jeong Yeon-shin looked down while carrying Hwangbo Geon-ryun on his back.

An estate about twenty li away. A place where dozens of jianghu people gathered. Each wore colorful silk clothes and carried fine swords or famous blades.

Each face was as prosperous as those precious blades. Because the flow of natural earth energy monopolized by the World Tree and noble clans for over a hundred years had returned.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

‘No pointed ears. Pleasant to see.’

Hwangbo Geon-ryun swept over those faces then opened his small mouth. The child’s plump cheeks bore a flush.

“Is Great Hero Jeong Jung-san among them?”

“That can’t be.”

“As expected, Great Hero Jeong Jung-san looks down even on peers who are supreme masters.”

“Mm, he should be below.”

“The Central Plains is truly vast. That person over there is performing techniques similar to one of the World’s Six Great Palm Methods with the soles of her feet… She even has her hands clasped behind her back. That young lady who appears to be about fifteen.”

“That’s my niece.”

“Violent Dragon Jeong Hye! She seems much prettier than the appearance notes I saw…”

Hwangbo Geon-ryun trailed off. Perhaps because of the epithet he’d unconsciously uttered. A jianghu prodigy who commits violent acts.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t scold him. Because he’d just heard Jeong Hye’s voice faintly.

“You can’t share a meal with Great Hero Zhang Sun-il because he smells like dirt? If you eat some dirt once, it’ll be fine.”

Rarely gentle.

If an epithet were made from appearance, it would only be Lady Xishi. A peerless beauty from the ancient era like Banye. She was the age Jeong Yeon-shin had been when he first entered jianghu.

She wore a green hero’s headband on her forehead, with its tail fluttering at her lower back together with her hair.

Kurung! Kururung!

She was jumping around using two young masters’ heads and shoulders as stepping stones. Spiral propulsion energy waves tore through their protective strong energy. Together with fluttering whirlpools.

Jeong Yeon-shin wondered.

‘Why are they deliberately getting beaten?’

The boys being kicked and stepped on here and there. Their faces seemed indignant at a glance, but held no hostility. Moreover, one even spread his shoulders wide to better support Jeong Hye’s footwork.

The surrounding people’s reactions varied. Expressions of spectacle, gazes tinged with faint jealousy, pleased faces. Some even watched fondly.

“Mm?”

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin who spotted some man among them hesitated.

“She’s really pretty.”

Hwangbo Geon-ryun’s exclamation as he stared only at Jeong Hye’s movements.

When Jeong Yeon-shin lowered his head, the child’s eyes had activated eye technique. And looking at Jeong Hye again, he glimpsed father Jeong Ban-ak’s features. He naturally felt ugly.

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head and asked.

“Do you want to see up close?”

“May I?”

Jeong Yeon-shin gave his back to the excited child and spoke while leaping.

“The thicker the diary, the better. Meet many people even after this jianghu journey ends.”

“But Jeong Family Dynamic Technique was thin.”

“So I have many regrets.”

“Does the world’s Northern Emperor also have disappointments?”

The Dragon-Phoenix Assembly’s estate rapidly approached. The estate’s name was written splendidly on the plaque, but Jeong Yeon-shin felt it. That the child clutching his back was concentrating on the words.

He spoke while stained by wind.

“Many jianghu people try to see martial extremes but fail futilely. However, everyone sees life’s end, and connections are more difficult than martial arts. If one’s skills at living are clumsy, one sometimes makes the departed turn back. That’s an illusory sword that can’t be avoided by any footwork.”

“Even Radiant Wing Ten Steps?”

“Yes, the Ten Steps is also enduring steps. A true master is someone with few regrets. Become that kind of martial artist.”

“I will.”

The moment he heard the answer, Jeong Yeon-shin appeared atop a large palace. It seemed to be Xi’an’s largest estate.

They were in the front yard.

A group possessing something worthy of associating with Jeong Hye, called Shaanxi’s Greatest Rising Talent. That could be martial arts and wealth, as well as family history or prestige.

‘They look friendly.’

Many people flocked to Jeong Hye. Had peers already built quite a rapport? From their respective appearances and energy waves, he could guess their origins… The new direct line of the rebuilding Namgung Family, a peer head of the Gongsun Family who collected swords Jeong Yeon-shin used, a practitioner of Yan Family Fist who seemed like he should be given something, young masters of Hui Merchant Dai Quan Gang called the world’s wealthiest, Tyrant Hero who’d changed his features with Disguise Art…

“……?”

Jeong Yeon-shin descended beside them.