Chapter 804 – Side Story – Tomorrow You Too

A dusk-tinted night.

The mountain path ended at a gorge.

Jeong Yeon-shin was looking down at the sloped ground with a curious expression. Because it was a familiar place. The cliff he’d once stepped on just before gathering three Divine Sword Group Leaders with the world’s fastest movement, after taking one palm from Fighting God.

‘Always noisy.’

It was the same now.

Jeong Yeon-shin had long since turned his gaze away from Literary Star.

Seven absolute masters had already confronted each other where Literary Star would soon arrive. Three Northern Kings including Northern Blade, and Great Master Beom-heo’s group.

Everything was grayish-white. Difficult to pierce through with ordinary Eye Techniques.

Rummmmmble…

Intangible energy waves crashed and interlocked like tidal waves. At the boundary of energy friction, even mist was forming in thick clumps. It seemed like they were confronting each other above clouds.

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered.

“Snow King handles water energy. That guy with the dangling neck… His true energy tries to seize the interval, but keeps getting blown away by Senior Latter Heaven Guangcheng’s Samadhi True Fire.”

A tall man on Northern Blade’s side.

Snow King. He’d also confronted Great Master Beom-heo’s group once before with Literary Star in the middle. Quite some time had passed since then, yet he still had a neck cut about one-third through.

Hissss…

The source of pure white clouds. But he acted as if nothing was wrong. Snow King even looked around at distant mountains as if on a jianghu tour.

His humming could be faintly heard. Tomorrow you too, dangle…

Literary Star’s mental transmission followed.

—He was a Northern King with expertise in regeneration. The ability of Water Calamity Divine Art. Northern Blade took him around to resist Great Master Beom-heo’s group. While gradually teaching him divine techniques like Quli Divine Light.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked back.

“Resist?”

—The Orthodox Nine Sects’ martial arts have strong endurance, but their finishers fall short compared to tyrannical martial arts, don’t they? On the other hand, Snow King was Demon Clan and very tenacious thanks to Water Calamity Divine Art’s regenerative abilities. Like Northern Blade.

“Why is his neck like that?”

—I heard he deliberately left it incompletely healed. If your opponent’s face dangles before you, wouldn’t it be disorienting in many ways? He obtained a trick close to divine techniques for free.

Northern Emperor Jeong Yeon-shin nodded. That makes sense.

Meanwhile, on the ground, the interval contest was reaching its conclusion. Northern Blade’s group had retreated one step at a time.

Northern Blade and Snow King, and the massive Demon Realm woman called Beggar King too.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang was mocking them.

“Your retreat footwork is top-rate. You’ll walk all the way to the moon.”

[Beggars should not speak. One mustn’t discuss strength with a begging mouth.]

Northern Blade’s retort. Everything buzzed around him, as he’d already opened his upper dantian to the limit. In other words, a life-or-death battle stance. Enough to crush even Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s grumbling like “bastard who begs with an axe.”

It couldn’t be helped.

Because not only Great Master Beom-heo and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang but also those on either side were problems. Each was a Taoist. A handsome giant with fine physique, and an old Noble Clan Taoist.

[Mount Heng’s Blade Palm Immortal. Kongtong Sect’s Latter Heaven Guangcheng. Overflowing with masters to hold festivities with.]

As Northern Blade laughed, Great Master Beom-heo at the center of the group chanted Buddhist invocations. While carrying ten large carts on his back.

“Namu Amitabha… This is why it’s hard to trust. If we give you alms rice, there’s no knowing whether it reaches the people intact. You might prioritize filling the martial military’s bellies instead.”

[That paltry rice. The effort is admirable, though.]

Northern Blade pointed over Beom-heo’s shoulder from atop his war horse. A cluster of carts filled with countless sacks of alms rice.

[Even with that, no more than a thousand people can fill their stomachs. How can a mere jianghu person discuss nations?]

“I have no such intentions. Just as much as works, just as much as I can.”

[Just hand over the rice. We’ll use it ourselves.]

Jeong Yeon-shin above the clouds calmly assessed Northern Blade.

“That bastard ruined it. The Southern Emperor should have negotiated.”

At the same time, he wondered.

Even so, that amount of food was close to being part of strategic supplies. Naturally, it couldn’t leave the Great Wall. The phrase official-martial non-aggression meant jianghu also couldn’t cross the line officials protected.

The middle-aged young Great Master Beom-heo smiled.

“Amitabha, I can always prepare this much alms rice. Only how properly you use it matters.”

A bloody smell seemed to emanate from hands that should strike wooden fish. Speculation inevitably followed. Northern Blade muttered.

[Local procurement? Killing Northern Kings and great warriors…?]

No matter how barren the land, a king’s storehouses were always filled.

A Shaolin Abbot with looting experience. Jeong Yeon-shin decided to pretend not to see. Divine Beggar Zhu Guang, Blade Palm Immortal, and Letter Heaven Guangcheng showed similar attitudes.

Literary Star’s mental transmission rang out.

—There was much talk in the Ming Dynasty about this. Looting enemy storehouses to feed the greater enemy’s people… Some ministers even submitted memorials saying they should send Tyrant Hero north to punish him.

Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly.

“Sounds reasonable, but why didn’t it happen?”

—Surprisingly, Great Master Beom-heo and Tyrant Hero had little opposition. Even when about to clash, they’d side by side make shocking conspiracies. Tyrant Hero coming north to loot Northern Kings together wouldn’t be strange… The Ming imperial family probably worried about such things.

“Surprising? What…?”

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin replied casually. Suddenly thunder boomed from the ground. The negotiation didn’t seem to be going well.

Rumble…

[Northern Kings wearing Central Plains faces. Precisely because you’re no different from our kinsmen, we cannot let you into the Black Capital. The land where we hold festivities is here.]

A crescent blade and massive axe descended on either side of Northern Blade’s war horse.

[Snow King and Beggar King, don’t fix on opponents. These are faces that can only be chaotic battle.]

Northern Blade gripping two weapons simultaneously. His dual-wielding riding style overflowed with power. He exuded vitality even Jeong Yeon-shin saw for the first time.

The most tyrannical energy. Youth.

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang glanced at Great Master Beom-heo and whispered.

“This is troublesome, let’s just leave the carts. Pulling them with Void Grasp wasn’t ordinary work, was it?”

“Amitabha, if I trusted them, I’d have to believe the rumor that Patriarch Bodhidharma physically blocked the South Seas Fire Eruption. Don’t most jianghu people treat that as fiction? To this poor monk, the promises of rulers are like that.”

“……”

“I must see the people eat.”

The Great Master Beom-heo of this time was an Orthodox paragon, for better or worse. There was no room for compromise.

Jeong Yeon-shin looked down at those drawing closer to each other with advancing footwork and asked.

“The Patriarch Bodhidharma rumor, is it possible for Divine Sword Tactician too?”

—Such things seem to be matters of courage before external cultivation achievement. I wouldn’t want to contend with nature itself, let alone people.

The giant said. Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“How weak. In the imperial palace, viper-like people will engage in political strife.”

—Don’t fists work on vipers?

The provincial graduate’s retort. Before Jeong Yeon-shin could shake his head again, fierce waves rode the sky creating transparent furrows. His vision momentarily shook.

Booooom!

The absolute masters’ simultaneous strikes.

The start of chaotic battle. Fierce from the first exchange.

Great Master Beom-heo, who struck first, had his golden fist force ridden by Latter Heaven Guangcheng. The old Taoist with hands clasped behind his back atop the light-beam-like Hundred Step Divine Fist. The moment he reached Northern Blade, Latter Heaven Guangcheng’s leg afterimage swelled like clouds.

Craaaack!

He kicked his ribs twenty times. While Northern Blade’s axe swept away the Hundred Step Divine Fist. The divine technique twisting from frontal to lateral, internal energy skill enduring all the incomplete Heavenly Steel Light Armor’s counter-force.

Most experienced on that field.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt satisfied. Literary Star seemed to feel the same.

—After this day, Latter Heaven Guangcheng returned to Kongtong Mountain and entered closed-door training, but whenever Northern Blade did absurd things, he’d reminisce. If only I had properly learned leg techniques…

“Don’t say such terrible things.”

Meanwhile, Literary Star of this time couldn’t join the chaotic battle. Because Martial Star blocked the front of the slope. A position where he could only look up at the fight at the summit with his eyes.

Whistle.

Martial Star whistled and said.

“He got hit properly. Uncle Northern Blade’s ribs could fit salt pouches.”

“Please move aside. I can mediate.”

Literary Star said. Though he stood on a lower downslope, his eye level matched Martial Star’s. The young Martial Star shook his head vigorously.

“This isn’t a fight needing mediation. That Shaolin monk should die there. Otherwise, who knows when he’ll come up with the terrifying Emperor Qian-ling dragging the 108 Arhat Formation.”

“They came with good intentions.”

“Can you say the same before the corpses at the Great Wall? The clan’s bodies.”

Even as Literary Star fell silent, the chaotic battle on the upper slope only intensified.

Crash crash crash crash! Craaack!

Hundreds of exchanges flowed like chaos. Seven figures entangled grayishly then bounced far apart, creating storms. Even a small backwind current crushed rocks. The cliff carved down into shapes Jeong Yeon-shin knew by winds from swords, axes, crescent blades, as well as hands and feet.

Meanwhile, Martial Star almost became jerky while chewing human flesh jerky before Literary Star.

Boooooom!

The ground within fifty zhang radius caved deeply.

The gorge momentarily shook, affecting Great Master Beom-heo’s group’s fight. The seven absolute masters accumulated even the untimely vibration as force, and Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s foot went further to snap Snow King’s head.

Snap!

“……?”

Snow King’s large hand blade rested on Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s ankle.

Because his neck was already bent, it moved well. Snow King was laughing bizarrely. While loading his hand blade with sword energy.

“Tomorrow the beggar too dangles….”

[Indestructible Bond, Indivisible Sword.]

It rang in an instant. Mental transmission like reciting poetry.

Mount Heng Sect Leader Blade Palm Immortal’s Transcendent Martial Art.

The battlefield cleared instantly. Along with Blade Palm Immortal’s glossy jet-black hair fluttering in the center. A sword sphere deployed so densely visible within ten zhang radius.

Dust winds pushed in all directions drawing transparent domains, and…

Clang! Thunk….!

Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s ankle was unharmed while Blade Palm Immortal’s sword pierced Northern Blade’s heart without meeting any resistance.

[……!]

It was right after Northern Blade had struck Latter Heaven Guangcheng’s sword to the ground with his crescent blade.

Northern Blade looked down briefly at the sword embedded in his chest. And said to Blade Palm Immortal standing on his beloved horse’s head.

[No manners.]

[Discussing manners with beasts? You were unexpectedly a gentleman.]

Blade Palm Immortal’s amused reply.

Jeong Yeon-shin perceived his Transcendent Martial Art from above clouds. Indestructible Bond, Indivisible Sword. Meaning tenacious ties are hard to sever.

A domain where what’s easy and difficult to cut was determined by Blade Palm Immortal’s will. Upper dantian spirit, extreme intent, Blade Palm Immortal’s life creating immortal-like harmony.

By sword sphere subtlety, he might be the world’s foremost. Literary Star’s mental transmission added to Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind.

—Blade Palm Immortal was originally a renowned swordsman who turned away from the secular world and entered Mount Heng at a relatively late age. Peculiarly, he’d once divorced. According to Yu Ling’s report, that greatly influenced Blade Palm Immortal’s Transcendent Martial Art…

“A fearsome trick.”

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered.

He’d heard that at the Great Tree Felling Battle, at the Southern Battlefield, he slaughtered countless Unified Noble Clan members along with Yong Hye-myeong. Looking at it, that made sense.

“This terrifying head…!”

The moment Divine Beggar Zhu Guang escaped Snow King’s hand.

Amid the confusion, the fight seemed to be settling. On one side, Beggar King was being crushed by Great Master Beom-heo’s countless hand shadows. She, unfamiliar even to Jeong Yeon-shin, was being buried in the ground without even a chance to show her face.

An echo rang out indifferently at that moment.

[Southern Facing Capable Emperor.]

A translucent reed field rippled once and disappeared. An afterimage only Jeong Yeon-shin could see.

“……!”

The translucent domain deployed around Blade Palm Immortal vanished. Not only the wind spiraling up from Divine Beggar Zhu Guang’s feet, but also Great Master Beom-heo’s countless hand shadows.

A domain where force release was impossible.

Even now, an overwhelming Transcendent Martial Art.

Crack… Prostrate Beggar King’s arm bent bizarrely and grabbed Great Master Beom-heo’s hand. Since no one could use lightness skill, Snow King who came running with quick steps grabbed the opposite hand.

Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes.

Whoosh!

The highest place on the sloped battlefield. A pitch-black shadow rose high. It took but an instant to form the tall Southern Emperor’s shape.

He said evenly.

[It’s awkward to kill a monk when facing a nation’s great affair. If you lose your limbs, will you only tap a wooden drum like a monk should?]

That would never happen. Heads instead of wooden fish, lion’s roars instead of invocations. Jeong Yeon-shin silently shook his head instead.

The Southern Emperor seemed to perceive it too.

[No, you wouldn’t. Death is correct.]

Truly an emperor.