Chapter 797 – Side Story – An Unbreakable Sword

Desolate Fortress is home.

Jeong Yeon-shin wasn’t the only one who felt this way.

Most main fortress warriors felt the same. Even after returning from very long missions, everything in Desolate Fortress felt familiar. Even new warriors whose faces they didn’t know felt dear.

Now it was different.

Jeong Yeon-shin stood before an unfamiliar hall.

Boom! Boom!

Violent true energy pulsations spread. Beyond carving concentric circles in the dirt floor, the ground around the hall gradually sank.

Like a coiled lesser dragon.

Air as cold as frost seemed to meet scorching heat. The atmosphere undulated transparently and swayed away.

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered.

“Here…?”

“With this much accumulated energy, who else but that Yong fellow?”

It was Helian Feng-yue’s question as they looked up side by side. Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly opened his mouth while pondering whether to handle Yong Hye-myeong’s crisis with martial arts or Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique.

“At Dongting Lake.”

“Hmm?”

“When you and Senior Yong first met, was Pure Demon Alliance Lord Baek Seo pregnant?”

“How do you know about that…?”

Helian Feng-yue asked back.

He seemed surprised, perhaps confident that Yong Hye-myeong wouldn’t have spoken lightly of it.

Jeong Yeon-shin moved his lips while thinking it was a strange kind of trust.

“Since ancient times, those who walk the Demonic Path have extreme tendencies regardless of gender. Peerless masters even more so. She likely intended to bear a strong child with you, who were the greatest rising star at that time, and raise them as successor to the Demonic Path’s martial lineage, while broadening her knowledge with the Central Plains’ finest martial arts and growing stronger herself.”

“You imagine all that without any real clues? As you know, Pure Demon Alliance was nominally Sichuan’s hegemon. What do you take the Demonic Path for?”

“Jianghu people.”

“Now see here.”

“But then Senior Yong appeared and defeated you. Mysterious Ghost Demon Baek Seo, who inwardly considered herself the strongest rising star, when she was going around collecting only the best.”

“……”

“You weren’t number one. Unfortunately, Baek Seo was already pregnant. She must have been greatly enraged.”

Hiss.

Hwangbo Geon-ryun, standing beside him, took out a small booklet and began taking notes with Scorching Yang Energy. Helian Feng-yue seemed bothered by it, but couldn’t take his eyes off Jeong Yeon-shin.

Jeong Yeon-shin continued calmly.

“Those of the Demonic Path wear leisure like protective energy, but at crucial moments they’re hot-blooded. You must have been abandoned, because you became a faded person in Pure Demon Alliance Lord Baek Seo’s eyes.”

“I rejected her advances.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s upper dantian experienced confusion for the first time in his life. Being abandoned was truth, and the statement about rejecting her was also true.

‘Ah, they’re jianghu people.’

Immediately understanding, Jeong Yeon-shin decided to talk a bit more with Helian Feng-yue.

Because Yong Hye-myeong’s energy wave turned attention to them like a snake’s tongue. Transparent energy was looking down at the two.

“…In any case, after being abandoned like that, she would have made Senior Yong her enemy. Anyone who dines with noble clan patricians like you must be a worthless person.”

Helian Feng-yue tilted his head.

“Now that I’m listening, I’m curious. If you had to pass down only one thing to a child, what would you choose? Brilliant River, Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique, Remaining Thunder, Myriad Heavens Flower Rain…”

Instantly a blade touched Helian Feng-yue’s chin. Baek Mi-ryeo’s sword was drawn without hesitation. Before that, Helian Feng-yue had awkwardly smiled while raising both hands, just before Remaining Thunder drawn by Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique poured out Brilliant River’s energy waves like Myriad Heavens Flower Rain.

Jeong Yeon-shin clasped his hands behind his back and muttered.

“Good instincts.”

“…If you retaliate against jokes with death, you too become just another common jianghu person.”

Helian Feng-yue subtly withdrew.

Meanwhile, Hwangbo Geon-ryun, who’d been holding his breath waiting for Jeong Yeon-shin’s choice, resumed recording. When Jeong Yeon-shin glanced over, writing like “Lord Jeong could not choose” was written on the pages. The child even pressed the pressure points in front of his temples and shed a few tears.

“……?”

The small back turned sideways to subtly hide from Jeong Yeon-shin’s gaze.

“Please don’t mind me, Northern Emperor. It needs to be read widely.”

Hwangbo Geon-ryun said, his large eyes tinged red. How much did he intend to solidify the Young Palace Lord’s position?

‘I should secretly read it sometime.’

Jeong Yeon-shin gently lowered Baek Mi-ryeo’s hand and sheathed her sword. Then he moved toward Yong Hye-myeong’s quarters, where his upper dantian intuition sensed a lesser dragon as large as Desolate Fortress opening its mouth.

Helian Feng-yue didn’t follow inside.

He only offered Jeong Yeon-shin a simple smile and blessing.

“I came to Desolate Fortress, not the Gate. Please wake an intact Yong Hye-myeong.”

Then he turned and headed for the inner fortress where the former world’s foremost master, Literary Star’s footsteps, Desolate Fortress Jeok Family blood demons, craftsmen who demolished Ma Family’s wall, and the current Heavenly Demon were. The guest quarters he’d been guided to earlier were in that direction.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t mind and threw open the hall’s door. Simultaneously, a rat’s corpse flew from the room.

Whoosh!

He turned his head to avoid it.

A dim room.

A youthful young man came into view, wearing very worn blue martial robes that matched well with his disheveled hair.

Jeong Yeon-shin searched his memory.

“…Your name was Geom-dan. The north’s Half-Dragon Body and a great warrior of the Dragon Sound Sasa Kings. Now you must be Senior Yong’s disciple.”

“Simultaneously a blue rank of Desolate Fortress. This unworthy Geom-dan respectfully greets the Fortress Lord.”

The youth gave a deep bow from the room’s corner.

His conduct was very dignified, with none of the mountain beast temperament from before. Did Yong Hye-myeong have a talent for teaching people?

‘That can’t be.’

He had contained energy waves as fierce and strong as the Yangtze’s current. His cultivation was worthy of discussing black rank. He was only blue rank due to insufficient merit.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked Geom-dan,

“That rat just now?”

“It was the last snack remaining to me. My master told me that when facing an invincible strong opponent, throw the most precious thing first and see… I apologize.”

“Senior Yong said that? He himself never did such a thing.”

“He said he once threw a chamber pot at Annihilation Seat Shin Cheon-hwa, Divine Sword Group Leader before Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok.”

Jeong Yeon-shin made up his mind. He definitely had to use Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique.

He said,

“Stay in Radiant Demon Wing Hall. Say I sent you.”

“Yes.”

Geom-dan not asking why was strange, because northerners generally weren’t like this. The contained internal cultivation, as if endlessly struck by something, was the same.

‘Senior Yong.’

Jeong Yeon-shin felt a wall after a long time.

Life is like linked techniques. Even if you showed superiority with one technique, it wasn’t the end. The next always waited, and it was the same for Jeong Yeon-shin and Yong Hye-myeong as teachers.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked Geom-dan as he was leaving the room,

“After entering the main fortress, have you ever crossed techniques with Burning Abyss Squad Leader Shin So-bin? Comparing martial arts to gauge each other.”

“I’m a blue rank who couldn’t enter Wish for Peace Sword Hall. How could I commit such insubordination? I’ve never even dared imagine it.”

“……!”

Words he never expected to hear in today’s Desolate Fortress. It was like a corpse rising from the tomb of common sense in Xiangyang lands.

Jeong Yeon-shin almost shook his head at the sense of defeat piercing even his Hundred Meeting Point. But he had the composure of Azure Qilin and Fan Dragon.

‘In any case, superiority between disciples is only their problem. This too isn’t my defeat but So-bin losing.’

All this time, Yong Hye-myeong slept calm and composed in bed. Jeong Yeon-shin quickly judged.

“His Sleeping Cultivation hasn’t broken.”

He was absorbing and expelling energy while lying down, and moreover accumulating sleep.

“Please wake up.”

Desolate Fortress Lord Jeong Yeon-shin only stretched out his legs to poke Yong Hye-myeong here and there. He shouldn’t bend his waist to a subordinate.

Tap, tap… thud, thud, bang, clang…

His former superior didn’t move at all. They said a new white warrior had changed his bedding.

‘Should I imitate Literary Star’s Mencius Steadfast?’

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin was opening his mouth.

Rumble!

The hall shook and uneasy sounds creaked from the roof ridge. Vibrations created by Yong Hye-myeong’s divine cultivation breathing. For a moment, even Jeong Yeon-shin’s true energy shook.

“Such snoring in a place without natural earth energy…”

He endlessly accumulated energy, yet the balance of essence, energy, and spirit remained the same. Harmony permitted only to Yong Hye-myeong. Talent that grew stronger as internal energy increased.

Once, while searching for useful cultivation methods, Yong Hye-myeong mastered constant energy accumulation one day without even learning Jeong Family Dynamic Technique. News was immediately delivered to Jeong Yeon-shin.

When observing three years’ mourning, he’d asked through correspondence why he was boasting. The reply was spectacular.

—My disciple’s audacity was so annoying that I wanted to punish him even while sleeping. I fell asleep with the mental image of absorbing the air he would breathe. But it suits my body quite well.

Shin So-bin lost, but Jeong Yeon-shin won.

Whatever mental state Yong Hye-myeong was sleeping in now would be the same.

Divine Secret Technique

Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique

Woom!

Just before invisible force surging up like a geyser struck Yong Hye-myeong, a hand full of calluses blocked it.

Bang!

The roof lurched from the heavy shockwave, and grayish dust spread in all directions.

“……”

Yong Hye-myeong was already holding up his right arm, still with eyes closed. The upper dantian secret technique was blocked by a palm technique.

Great Rainbow Palm.

It was something even Jeong Yeon-shin had never experienced.

“Are you awake?”

He asked quietly, but Yong Hye-myeong was silent. He seemed to have struck out in his sleep, instinctively protecting his own pride.

“How long do you plan to idle? I know it’s already been well over a month. The salary won’t allow it.”

Jeong Yeon-shin, who’d idled for six years, said this.

Desolate Fortress purple ranks were like clusters of cannons moving around firing shells. One strike required rebuilding much. It meant they constantly used tremendous wealth.

‘I’ll have to carry him.’

He wrapped Yong Hye-myeong in his bedding and strapped him on his back. It was no different from a large bundle. It would be the world’s foremost weapon.

Exiting the room as is, Baek Mi-ryeo looked on with puzzled eyes.

Jeong Yeon-shin explained calmly,

“It’s a sense that the same method won’t work. If I try to break his defense techniques and an absolute technique actually enters properly, Senior Yong will fall into cultivation deviation. I’ll have to carry him around for now. If necessary, even to Beijing.”

It wasn’t unfamiliar. It had been the same during the Heavenly Pillar Sect incident, when he struck Dark Night Palace Lord and Martial Dragon Alliance Leader alone and was injured on his own.

Care was still Jeong Yeon-shin’s duty.

“I’m fine, only So-bin needs to win…”

Jeong Yeon-shin moved. The next destination was the Council of Elders. Proper order of seniority.

—

“But what is the reason for preventing this useless old body’s retirement?”

A question encountered in the neat front yard. Elder Council Head Shin Byeok threw it. Jeong Yeon-shin was flustered since he’d been receiving blessings from him.

“Retirement?”

“I understand the General Administration’s intention. The old people remaining in the Council of Elders are all former Squad Leaders from Wish for Peace Sword Hall. I’m the only one who can communicate with those stubborn fighting chickens. But the time is slowly coming. Fortress Lord, please give this old man proper compensation.”

What wrinkled Shin Byeok’s eyes was time.

Repeated heroic acts, the combined attack by Sword Alliance Leader and Blood Flame Cult Lord, Dan Family Supreme Family Head’s human experimentation under the guise of cultivation, Shin Cheon-hwa’s manifestation in the Desolate Fortress Great Battle. Jeong Yeon-shin read Shin Byeok’s intention.

“I understand.”

“Truly?”

Shin Byeok quietly asked back, and Jeong Yeon-shin nodded while gripping the large bundle on his back more firmly.

“I happen to have a spiritual medicine in my hands. And inside old senior’s head, who mastered Thousand Gold Martial Drum, is Jeong Family Cultivation. If only the spirit doesn’t weaken, it will succeed.”

“Hmm?”

Jeong Yeon-shin sent Shin Byeok to Yong Hye-myeong’s quarters to attempt Shin Byeok’s rejuvenation before departing for Beijing. Success meant rejuvenation. Failure still meant mutual benefit.

‘Main fortress masters are unbreakable swords.’

Shin Byeok was given an empty hall.

“…!”

Jeong Yeon-shin felt aged astonishment from afar. The emotion of an old jianghu veteran like Shin Byeok was difficult even for the Desolate Fortress Lord to fathom.

Next, Jeong Yeon-shin headed for Wish for Peace Sword Hall. Dusk had already fallen, but the round hall blazed with presence.

Natural, if natural. Those attending the meeting inside were Desolate Fortress itself. The presence of three people alone was that tremendous.

–Forest Treading Squad Leader would be good in the north. Completely useless unless it’s a surprise attack.

–What nonsense when this Xiahou Wei-jin’s fist force is still strong? Then where does our Ultimate Martial Hall Leader plan to take charge?

–The center of the round table to evade Combined Harmony Spirit Method’s explosive force. The moves are vertical anyway, and the starting point is set at the ceiling. Law Enforcement Squad Leader, aim for old senior Ma’s beard. How about it, Squad Leader Woon?

–…Let’s call Literary Star.

–That one fled to Beijing. If we collapse again, unable to block old senior Ma next time, it’ll be the eighteenth time since the Great Tree Battle. Then rather.

–Rather?

Xiahou Wei-jin’s question came without particular expectation. Only Ultimate Martial Hall Leader Jin Cheong-won’s voice continued calmly.

–Could the Fortress Lord and Crimson Robed Mad Blood be inferior to Jin Myeong-jo and Jeok Yi-seo? I don’t think so. Someday, if we wrap the baby who will be old senior Ma’s great-grandchild in black robes and seat them here, extreme offense is supreme defense.

At those words, Law Enforcement Squad Leader Woon So-yu’s measured admiration and Xiahou Wei-jin’s exclamation followed.

–Oh…

–I must acknowledge this month. Ultimate Martial Hall Lord is the foremost black rank.

A blade resembling the night sky fell on Wish for Peace Sword Hall. Jeong Yeon-shin turned his back on the dust cloud blooming like clouds over the shattered roof. Priority tasks in the main fortress were finished.

‘Imperial examination, childhood tutoring, flower viewing. Once these three are handled, external matters will be settled for now.’

Step.

For now, one place remained.

Jeong Yeon-shin headed for the Fortress Lord’s office where he’d sent Yelu Zhen ahead.