Chapter 808 – Side Story – This Land Has Drunk

It was a moonlit night.

Beyond the wilderness’s dust winds, the Demon Clan masters’ cries faintly spread.

—Subdue, the land…!

A land where even the strong’s voices cut off intermittently due to the transcendent force field deployed.

Two human deities faced each other.

That Jeong Yeon-shin had nearly been detected didn’t affect things even a speck. He could feel it intuitively. The scene unfolding before him was flowing identically to the past.

Everything was the same.

For Fighting God, subjugating Emperor Qian-ling was his cherished wish.

From Emperor Qian-ling, a certain clear goal could be felt.

“……”

Emperor Qian-ling stood tall.

It felt like transcendence draped over the dragon robe. He seemed to stand alone in the vast wilderness. Without Fighting God, wouldn’t he have appeared as the world’s center?

The palace’s sage king who’d dressed the young Jeong Yeon-shin in purple robes. And now, the emperor calmly facing the battlefield.

They were so different. Rather than the young Jeong Yeon-shin misjudging, it was the degree to which Emperor Qian-ling revealed himself.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

‘He forged his will as solid as the Great Wall. To the point where the plains seem narrow….’

Fighting God muttered quietly.

“I thought wide-area absolute techniques might work now. It still doesn’t.”

Then he rubbed his foot against the ground, as if soothing his Earth King.

“Comrade, understand. It’s Qian-ling we face.”

It was a complete empty plain. The military camps on both sides had grown distantly far.

Five thousand zhang apart.

A result similar to Formless Void. The only difference was that there was no backlash reaching Emperor Qian-ling.

Void Law.

The name encompassing Emperor Qian-ling’s martial arts. Jeong Yeon-shin had heard it after his death. From Literary Star, who wasn’t even a Ming imperial family member.

‘Not to mention movement, the efficiency of internal energy control is absurd. My Sword Control at this time was a final absolute technique lasting just one breath….’

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin was thinking.

[Thunder Blade Field.]

An upper dantian echo.

Suddenly from the void where Emperor Qian-ling raised his head, blue light strands descended like beaded curtains. Piercing through ripples spreading like water’s undulations.

Craaaaaackle!

Lightning without thunder was summoned. In an instant, all directions became a lightning rain. The dim plains were naturally illuminated in blue.

The emperor’s absolute technique. Though clearly not a Transcendent Martial Art, it was more brilliant than any Transcendent Martial Art.

Fighting God pounded his chest.

“Did you bring a different realm’s natural disaster intact…! North Force Primordial Desolation’s countermeasure!”

The transparent surface of the protective energy North Force Primordial Desolation, the origin of Heavenly Steel Light Armor, spewed sparks. In an instant, one lightning strand connecting sky and earth grazed Fighting God’s shoulder.

Splash!

Blood bursting from inside the internal energy barrier. It completely penetrated the protective energy. Truly as if he’d dragged out a different world’s lightning through spatial absolute technique.

Emperor Qian-ling said.

“It’s the thunderstorm of your homeland.”

“Speak correctly. It would be my grandparents’ generation’s homeland.”

A voice whose location differed with each syllable.

Fighting God split into over ten people had approached Emperor Qian-ling through gaps in the lightning rain. Each wielded rock-made axes and spears or stretched out long legs and arms.

[Solitary Feast.]

Fighting God’s voice. It rang in Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind as Lone Dance. Like Emperor Qian-ling’s lightning strands. Though not a Transcendent Martial Art, upper dantian will echoed.

Rummmble! Clang! Craaaash!

They were Form Shifting clones, but because Fighting God’s power was imbued, they displayed tremendous force. Enough to think that Ten Perfections Sect Leader Thousand Soldier Heaven Lord’s Transcendent Martial Art might have originated there.

Emperor Qian-ling countered with small movements.

Rolling away a massive foot with his smooth hand back, the void that brushed his dragon robe’s elbow naturally created semi-transparent ripples. As the earth-rock weapons exploded brilliantly, both sleeves of the dragon robe rose accordingly.

Even that was powerful like an extreme strong sword. Enough that the Form Shifting clones on both sides were torn and scattered by his robe’s hem.

The three in front flew off when Emperor Qian-ling flicked his finger, hit by the bursting earth wind, and collided with Thunder Blade Field’s lightning strands.

Splash!

The power of the annihilated bodies fluttered like smoke, and a quiet laugh spread through Fighting God’s mental transmission.

[Your patterns are read.]

Fighting God appeared behind Emperor Qian-ling. Without any of Form Shifting’s characteristic blurred texture, just the clear original body.

He’d already driven a straight punch into Emperor Qian-ling’s lower back. The pinnacle of formless technique. Without any preparatory movements, only furrows over a hundred zhang long ran across the ground following the fist strike’s direction.

Boooooom!

It meant Emperor Qian-ling had diverted the fist force. Because Fighting God was at a realm where even the aftershock of energy release accumulated in the opponent’s body.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes widened.

Fighting God’s fist was faintly buried in a colorless ripple. It was Emperor Qian-ling’s lower back. The fist force had passed through his body due to the distorted space.

An unprecedented divine art. Emperor Qian-ling’s unique protective technique that couldn’t be transmitted. Fighting God recited the name of that absolute defensive technique.

“Void Mirror….”

Emperor Qian-ling asked Fighting God.

“Did you learn Go?”

Meaning he’d read this far in the exchange of moves. It also meant that if he prepared in advance, he could create the defensive technique called Void Mirror anytime.

Fighting God pulled back his fist and answered.

“That suits the Southern Emperor. I find board flicking more enjoyable.”

The only one embarrassed by his honesty was Jeong Yeon-shin. Because he’d been packaging the sword technique Judgement Qilin, which was close to board flicking, with Go’s secret of sacrificing one stone to seize the initiative.

‘Aren’t they the same thing…?’

Jeong Yeon-shin’s thought. Emperor Qian-ling’s following reaction was the same.

“That’s good too. Me once, you once… You’ve learned to wait for the opponent suited to you.”

Those words.

Were directed at two people. At least that’s how Jeong Yeon-shin felt. That the opponent worth waiting for was himself.

—This one will become a sword blocking the north as an emperor obsessed with competitive spirit.

‘Already keeping True Tree in mind….’

Jeong Yeon-shin intuited, and Fighting God laughed heartily.

“Teaching me patience?”

It meant it was strange since subjugating Emperor Qian-ling had been his goal for a long time. Even the knee he naturally kicked up to break Emperor Qian-ling’s waist at this moment seemed natural.

Thud!

For an instant, night descended. Because the collision of true energy had broadly pushed away the moonlight. Emperor Qian-ling was already rotating like a dance move, moving away using the rebound from blocking Fighting God’s knee.

Slaaaaaash!

The dragon robe’s sleeves naturally cut Fighting God several times. Parts of the semi-transparent North Force Primordial Desolation bounced in all directions, and the earth received those fragments like meteors.

An earthquake occurred with explosive sounds.

The plains shook violently as dust rose. Dust flowing like water in the faint moonlight. Within it, Fighting God repaired his torn internal energy barrier here and there while muttering.

“Nothing reaches my skin. Do I still look like a cub learning to fight?”

“Is fighting all you must learn?”

Emperor Qian-ling’s answer.

A tone saying he must be taught many things.

But both were already complete. Because even to Jeong Yeon-shin, their techniques showed no flaws.

Whoosh!

Again, Fighting God attacked first. As if mixing false moves into footwork, his whole body drew a zigzag then blurred, blazing like a comet before Emperor Qian-ling.

Ten steps’ distance.

Before even blinking once.

The force accumulated in four steps crushed the atmosphere, and his body shot like a catapult was just before crushing Emperor Qian-ling.

[Ten Thousand Steps Domain Construction.]

Emperor Qian-ling casually struck the void. To Jeong Yeon-shin, it looked like the form of Hundred Step Divine Fist. Manifested with Emperor Qian-ling’s Void Law….

Thoom…

The colorless flames Fighting God wore crumbled and fell like sand. Fighting God’s body naturally stopped abruptly.

Still ten steps away.

He’d clearly struck across distance.

But Emperor Qian-ling’s fist force wasn’t diminished even slightly. It felt like he’d driven in even the Hundred Step Divine Fist’s propulsion force intact.

‘Because propulsion force isn’t needed.’

Jeong Yeon-shin understood. Had he ignored distance with spatial absolute technique?

Intervals lost meaning. Any strike connected. He was making the realm of natural body useless with just martial arts alone. Even as Fighting God began rushing from all directions like meteors.

Rummmble! Slaaash!

Reading, deflecting, sealing.

Absurdly elegant, as leisurely as if he were jianghu’s emperor.

The reason Fighting God had to somehow get close.

Though they were evenly matched with no fatal blows on either side, it appeared as Emperor Qian-ling’s advantage. It would look the same against anyone.

That was an emperor.

[Qian-ling…!]

“You are my finishing touch.”

Those words were the same too. A story that resonated with not only Fighting God but Jeong Yeon-shin as well. As if uttered with both in mind.

Fighting God didn’t stop. Fist, palm, and footwork were just basics. Earth King’s earth-rock weapons were pulled out in lines shaped like swords and axes as well as spears and clubs, all mixing into Fighting God’s blurred techniques.

Boom—!

When Fighting God flew at and collided with Emperor Qian-ling like that, the bladed weapons’ real lines swelled like clouds. Thunder Blade Field’s lightning strands either bounced away on their own or bent and curved their direction upon collision.

The moonlit plains covered in earth clouds.

A figure vaguely flickering with each step landing in a different place.

Truly a fighting god.

Within that, only Emperor Qian-ling was leisurely. It was a moonlit board game.

“After patience comes decision.”

[Hahaha! This bastard, Qian-ling! You still fight like a dog…!]

“When the time comes, you reach boldness.”

Emperor Qian-ling spoke in the storm.

Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin watching their fight had his vision flicker. There was a briefly overlaid scene. Fighting God extending his hand to Jeong Yeon-shin who’d killed countless clansmen.

A scene that immediately disappeared.

It was different in this time period. Fighting God had just deflected Emperor Qian-ling’s Ten Thousand Steps Domain Construction’s energy release force.

The foot that seemed to be extending a leg only raised propulsion light waves, and with that single limp, the interval of ultra-close combat.

It was before Emperor Qian-ling’s face.

Boooooom!

The instant he struck down with his forehead like a Dark Path thug, the space Emperor Qian-ling had folded dozens of times shattered like glass. Because it was formless technique, even the will was arbitrary.

[Rice, for everyone…!]

Different from when fighting Jeong Yeon-shin.

Not calm at all. Like someone with their cherished wish before their eyes. Strong yearning and responsibility were felt simultaneously.

[Flame Abyss.]

Emperor Qian-ling’s amused mental transmission.

Finally gently wiping his bleeding forehead below the crown, Emperor Qian-ling was laughing quite loudly while doing so.

Conversely, the atmosphere swept by the dragon robe’s elbow blazed intensely. Because dozens of layers of space had simultaneously rubbed against the wide sleeve.

[……!]

Bang!

A fire lightning struck Fighting God then drove straight deep into the ground.

Fierce earthquake and thunder followed, and cracks ran across the ground. The fire realized in Emperor Qian-ling’s earlier lightning rain strands combined with the friction fist strike called ‘Flame Abyss.’

Distant heat.

Shaaaaaaaa…

Heavy rain began pouring. Together with ceaselessly falling fire lightning.

Fighting God’s laughter rose from underground.

The remnants of Fighting God’s energy release force and North Force Primordial Desolation’s rebound force summoned a storm, and both people’s upper dantian spirits also interlocked. With will hoping the fight would last forever.

“Demon Clan cripple.”

[Speak.]

“In my thought, there’s only one thing after worldly patience and decision.”

[Your death?]

“Enjoyment. About having fulfilled my portion… That is a wise person.”

Rummmmmble!

To Fighting God who surged up splitting the earth lengthwise, it seemed not to have been heard. That the fight continued for days and nights was a natural course.

A fierce feast of power.

A fight where even receiving one blow required a mountain’s weight.

Meticulous exchanges of moves followed in the gap of one instant. Emperor Qian-ling’s Void Law endlessly pushed Fighting God away, and Fighting God covered the plains with clouds of earth-colored weapons.

On land where fire lightning fell.

Their interlocked spirits seeped into nature.

Like Sword Energy Retention fixing true energy to blades…. It was a true demonic realm. Fire lightning that didn’t cease even in the rain, north winds endlessly pushing and pulling clouds….

Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes.

‘Former Emperor.’

He was in a state where he could unify at any time.

Though there was no decisive unification attempt during the fight with Fighting God, Emperor Qian-ling must have always been on guard. By leaving reserves.

Not here.

A point not yet critical for True Tree.

[You’re late.]

Emperor Qian-ling laughed.

Whoosh!

In that instant, Jeong Yeon-shin sensed True Tree’s unification attempt. It was as Emperor Qian-ling said. True Tree belatedly realized that the chess king it had intended to use when needed was scheming something on its own and planning to die.

He felt it all distinctly.

True Tree usurped the emperor’s Baihui point and began reconstructing all body meridians with vast earth energy.

Fighting God couldn’t not feel it.

Because he wasn’t tired at all from the start.

As he was flying away from his own force returned from the absolute defensive technique Void Mirror, the instant he suddenly made a strange expression.

“All Creation.”

Emperor Qian-ling muttered. There was no upper dantian echo. Only his will was brilliant.

“Bends.”

Transcendent Martial Art, All Creation Bends.

—Nothing among all creation cannot be seized.

As Jeong Yeon-shin’s upper dantian perceived the Transcendent Martial Art’s will, Fighting God was blurring in place as if annihilated. Had he been struck the moment Emperor Qian-ling released his will?

Without any particular roar, it was serene.

Fighting God asked.

[What are you trying to protect?]

“Me.”

[Qian-ling, yourself…? Like other rulers, did you plan to leave your name? I expected an answer like ‘the realm.’]

“Same words.”

That was all.

Whoosh!

When Fighting God disappeared from the void with resounding laughter.

Emperor Qian-ling slowly stopped breathing. After voluntarily consuming his innate energy. Only the aged dragon robe fluttered.

“……”

Flawless death. Diamond indestructible life.

From a distance, several Six Star Lords’ energy waves were rushing over. Was what Literary Star wanted to show Emperor Qian-ling’s final appearance?

Literary Star’s mental transmission spoke after a moment of silence.

—And next.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.

“That’s enough. I’ve truly seen plenty.”

Next would have been the Southern Emperor. Because the surroundings had turned into ruins then stopped. Of course, it was a familiar scene to Jeong Yeon-shin as well.

The day the Southern Emperor died.

Black Capital Old Palace.

The semi-transparent Southern Emperor was uttering.

“I said I wouldn’t have a great match with you. I can’t stake my life on your words about not harming innocent commoners.”

“No great match is needed.”

As past Jeong Yeon-shin pulled out a gourd from his chest, present Literary Star was explaining to current Jeong Yeon-shin.

—Isn’t it persuasion staking one’s life? I prepared many things but….

He understood.

There were many Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t talk to either. Uncle Ma Jin who believed himself a gentleman, sleeping Yong Hye-myeong, the Tyrant Hero currently racing through reality’s Beijing in a straight line like the avatar of Jeong Family Dynamic Technique at this moment…

‘Have you gathered enlightenment?’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought he should evacuate Literary Star soon.

“…If you pass, leave the fortress. Make sure to properly hand over my orders and duties.”

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly concluded.

The past he’d watched until now, stories salvaged from long years.

He’d decided long ago. It had just been difficult to say. Not because of Literary Star’s skill, but because of the affection between them.

Whoosh!

The world became transparent.

Everything in the palace began disappearing one by one. Simultaneously, Literary Star’s words were heard not as mental transmission but as voice.

“Having received permission from Lord Jeong, the Desolate Fortress Lord I served, now this one….”

—This land has drunk.

The words Jeong Yeon-shin had said at the Black Capital Old Palace faded like an echo. It was after past and present switched. The place where the youthful Jeong Yeon-shin had poured alcohol. Current Literary Star knelt.

“This one will serve this land.”