Chapter 825 – Side Story – Even Knows How to Give Well-Wishes

On a lush, grassy mountainside, there were only those who had no need for chamber pots. Each was a transcendent who’d completed Greater Circulation through their own unique energy circulation paths.

Among them, Jeok Yu-ha had long ago mastered Yelu Zhen’s Earth Escape Divine Technique with her body. A skill that, if taken further, would approach Form Shifting Void. The sight of her seeping into Jeong Yeon-shin’s shadow like flowing water was already heretical.

—The place seemed like it would get crowded.

When a whisper tinged with laughter tickled inside his head, Jeong Yeon-shin answered plainly.

“Stay beside me.”

—I’m tired.

“You?”

—Having a child, you know.

The laughter in Jeok Yu-ha’s voice deepened.

—It feels like creating another dantian. A dantian that must continuously accumulate energy. That’s what experiencing it is like.

“Ah.”

Though Jeong Yeon-shin had created light rings three times with Luminous Wheel That Transcends Law, he couldn’t fathom Jeok Yu-ha’s sensation.

—Why do I crave honey so much?

She murmured.

Meanwhile, the old man wearing a cone hat was chattering away to Yong Hye-myeong.

“I had as many questions as the rainfall of my homeland. That’s why I cooperated with the Desolate Fortress Lord, but… after all the stories are done, it would be better to return to deep sleep. At least for another hundred years.”

Yong Hye-myeong tilted his head.

“At least a hundred years?”

“I’ve thoroughly investigated your heroic deeds, so I’m telling you this specially. According to what my sect has learned, dragon breeds accumulate energy through sleep.”

“But I’m human.”

“Also, according to my knowledge and insight, you haven’t yet matured. Though you’re extraordinarily powerful for such a state… as if you truly lived a human life.”

“Seeing you talk only about me, you must be powerful. An island nation jianghu person?”

“Oh… perhaps someone called Taoist Yong Myeong of the old Kunlun Sect might be your blood relative. Didn’t you have martial arts that matched you exceptionally well? Among the Kunlun Sect’s martial studies that the Ming Dynasty Imperial Family collected.”

“…You’ve discovered Dragon Ring Secret’s secret. I’ll need to kill you to silence you.”

“Taoist Yong Myeong had friendship with the Sword Master during her lifetime, and was a dragon who disguised herself as human. She died after blocking the world’s jianghu from crossing to the Central Plains, the World Tree’s birthplace, many times. Of course, it was a natural death.”

Then Tower Master added.

“We called her by the title Evil Dragon. The act of protecting the Central Plains was evil to us, and she seemed like a playful one mimicking human life like other dragon breeds.”

Yong Hye-myeong shrugged.

“There’s only one person who could claim to be my father.”

“Taoist Yong Myeong was a woman.”

“……”

“In any case, that fight reached near the Central Plains at one point. That’s when you seem to have been conceived. Precisely, the egg containing you… Given your origins, hatching must have taken a long time.”

“Mm, perhaps.”

“Truly fascinating! Like the boy famous for Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, concealment techniques were carved into your acupoints…! It seems she hoped you wouldn’t die young after being born among powerful jianghu people! How audacious!”

Tower Master rejoiced like a scholar reaching a great discovery, but Yong Hye-myeong was indifferent. Was it because he’d gained family long ago? Rather, his face showed he had something to say to Jeong Yeon-shin.

“Lightning Genius.”

“Yes.”

“Did you properly see off Sword Star?”

“‘Elder Sword Star’ would be the correct term.”

“And did you meet the previous Fortress Lord?”

“I met both my past and present teachers. They were both well.”

“Late winter has ended. When will the child be?”

“Around early winter after harvest… Oh my, you’ve already noticed.”

“As I thought.”

Tower Master babbled something else, but Jeong Yeon-shin and Yong Hye-myeong didn’t listen.

“So Baek Mi-ryeo is at the main fortress?”

Yong Hye-myeong had many questions. So much so that Jeong Yeon-shin felt like he’d returned to the past. To when he occasionally had to give detailed reports to Divine Sword Group Leader Yong Hye-myeong.

“…She’ll fully recover at Radiant Demon Wing Hall. In the first place, Senior Baek’s heart demon was a madness that someone well-versed in demonic energy techniques could easily calm. I properly corrected her Heavenly Demon Divine Art’s energy circulation path and, understanding Senior Baek’s loneliness, sent her to the main fortress.”

“Mm, a Heavenly Demon with many close friends…”

At Yong Hye-myeong’s mutter, Jeong Yeon-shin immediately asked back.

“What did you just call the Fortress Lord?”

“Was this not a private occasion but an official one?”

“Yes.”

“Then respectful speech is appropriate… I have another question.”

“Please speak.”

“The Ma old man’s energy waves.”

“…?”

“They’ve become unbelievably flexible and tough. If he moved his arms and struck with that kind of elasticity, there wouldn’t be many humans who’d survive… What on earth happened?”

“You can sense that from here?”

Jeong Yeon-shin knew his maternal grandfather Ma Yeon-jeok had returned to Xiangyang’s main fortress.

Unless it was himself or Yelu Zhen with their upper dantian spirits extremely elevated. It was a distance difficult to reach with human energy sense.

Unless one used natural earth energy as eyes.

‘It’s the eye technique that Hangzhou’s Flood Dragon used. He could sense all directions without eye movements…’

There would have been no limit to resonance either. Because he wasn’t human. It seemed Yong Hye-myeong had also sprouted such abilities.

The “Ascending Heaven” in the title Ascending Heaven Sword Emperor might mean he wasn’t human. Indeed, Yong Hye-myeong only smiled faintly.

The feeling of fixing his lips like a predetermined sword path rather than laughing according to emotion.

Jeong Yeon-shin said.

“A person’s laughter has no forms. It comes out unconsciously.”

“……”

Come to think of it, Yong Hye-myeong had also lost much.

The Desolate Fortress people from white rank to purple rank that Jeong Yeon-shin had seen off. They were the ones who’d been with Yong Hye-myeong the longest from the start. Both Burning Abyss Squad Leader Yu Jeong-myeong and Nether Stream Squad Leader Hyeong-wol.

They said that when great waves ceased, gentle ripples followed.

Many people only properly faced loss after turbulent times ended. Jeong Yeon-shin had been that way during Sword Saint’s three-year mourning period.

Would Yong Hye-myeong be any different?

But Jeong Yeon-shin asked as if seeing a lazy uncle’s smiling face.

“Are you not fully awake?”

Yong Hye-myeong, who’d been leaning against a tree trunk, placed his elbow on his knee. A gesture oozing with much contemplation.

“Well… I don’t know whether I’ve woken from a dream or am still forcing myself to sleep. What does the Fortress Lord think?”

“Idle wanderer.”

“So what happened to the Ma old man…?”

Yong Hye-myeong skillfully changed the subject, and Jeong Yeon-shin laid out a brief story.

His grandfather who broke through limits with Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, Literary Star’s leaving the fortress, their collision… When it came to saying they seemed to have tied, Yong Hye-myeong rarely laughed heartily.

“The old man worked hard.”

“That laughter has no forms.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said. Simultaneously Yong Hye-myeong’s lips hesitated, and wind that seemed to completely end late winter swept through the undergrowth.

Rustle..

Jeong Yeon-shin intuitively knew there was no need to interfere with Yong Hye-myeong. Because he was Divine Sword Group Leader, there was nothing he couldn’t cut.

His own inner self was the same.

“In any case.”

Yong Hye-myeong smiled again.

“It must have been quite troublesome. Since it’s too low in status for the Desolate Fortress Lord to intervene, next time feel free to use me as mediator.”

Now a tone as if looking down on both Ma Yeon-jeok and Literary Star. Jeong Yeon-shin guessed Ma Yeon-jeok would also view Yong Hye-myeong that way, so he didn’t add more words.

“Lastly.”

“Senior Yong, there’s more?”

“The Desolate Fortress Lord is a position that broadly oversees the main fortress’s martial artists. But isn’t the Fortress Lord being too lax with Senior Divine Spear?”

Nagging to the end. Was Divine Sword Group Leader Yue Shou-lin not trustworthy? Rather, it seemed he had much to say about the current Desolate Fortress Lord’s personnel management.

“Wasn’t it a lax position…?”

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly asked back. Because that’s what he’d observed and learned. For a very long time.

Indeed, Yong Hye-myeong’s answer didn’t come.

Only then did Jeong Yeon-shin escape from the meddlesome mouth, but the old man in the cone hat quickly interjected.

“There’s an important matter.”

The conduct of a genial country old man.

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“That’s enough. What’s more important to me is the whereabouts of a strong person like you. Where is your true body and what are you doing right now?”

A thin silence spread. But Tower Master didn’t answer. He just changed the subject like a woman.

“…It’s truly important. If Divine Sword Yong Fellow doesn’t hibernate again, he cannot return to his original form. He’ll live like a human forever and then die.”

It was a somewhat solemn tone. Even accepting it with upper dantian insight, there was no lie. Of course Yong Hye-myeong said with a laugh.

“You’re not a barbarian after all. You even know how to give well-wishes.”

“What…?”

“I should go pound some sense into Feng-yue. I wonder if the challenge letter is at the main fortress.”

At Yong Hye-myeong’s mutter-like question, Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth.

“If you mean Martial Dragon Alliance Leader, he followed all the way to Mount Wudang, but he’s probably in Beijing now. After seeing Winter Dream, he said he needed to meet his daughter imprisoned by the Imperial Family. Hwa Yeon-bi, I heard reports that she was captured by Bright Wind Cave’s Yao Tribe masters.”

“Beijing. May I go?”

“Yes, well… We’re planning flower viewing, and it seems we can do without just Senior Yong. Many other seniors will come.”

Yong Hye-myeong shook his head.

“I did it a lot when I was young. Though I wasn’t particularly moved…”

Whoosh!

Grass blades scattered upward in profusion, and the afterimage of Form Shifting Void that Yong Hye-myeong left distorted the sunlight. The scene of dark twilight staining the void. It was as if Yong Hye-myeong had briefly grasped light and disappeared.

Tower Master sighed.

“Has he transcended his evil nature…?”

“For those who were once Enter The Divine Sword Masters, there’s nothing they cannot cut.”

After speaking quietly, Jeong Yeon-shin drew Remaining Thunder. While gripping the sword handle loosely like Unorthodox Path’s Finest Sword long ago.

He added.

“Distance is the same.”

Jeong Yeon-shin had many sword techniques.

The Orthodox Path’s Form Shifting Void was one of them.

A sword strike that followed an enemy using them as medium if they’d already crossed space. He’d used it extensively on the World Tree’s trunk or Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader’s techniques.

“Mm? Why so scary?”

Tower Master shamelessly raised his eyelids.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked back.

“Don’t you know why Senior Yong suddenly left? He’s certainly someone who must have felt something suspicious from you.”

“……”

“You were buying time. It seems you’ve already found Big Sister Yelu.”

“…How did you know?”

Tower Master asked with a smiling face.

Jeong Yeon-shin answered briefly.

“Upper dantian intuition.”

“…That’s why most were branded as demonic. Those whom Gods call too early. Having utterly absurd talents, they offended many great legalists’ sensibilities.”

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t listen. He just pondered briefly. Would current generation Heavenly Demon Yelu Zhen readily accept his help?

‘With that pride.’

She’d already gotten greatly angry at him and disappeared. He didn’t want to create another pointless situation of appeasement.

Meanwhile, Tower Master’s lament continued.

“The current Sword Master was the same. With absurd words that the spirit tells her everything… she accumulated inhuman achievements. A mere farmer’s daughter.”

“Right, upper dantian spirit. It wouldn’t be difficult for Big Sister either.”

Jeong Yeon-shin replied blankly. Tower Master seemed momentarily speechless, but didn’t stop talking in the end.

“…But none of them overcame heavenly mandate for hundreds of years. Rather, those who truly transcended were ordinary geniuses and extraordinary mediocrities.”

Step.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently walked toward Tower Master. Together with the realization that he’d never considered Yelu Zhen’s pride in his life.

Instantly, purple eye light flashed from beneath Tower Master’s cone hat. An eye technique imbued with transcendence. The feeling of predicting how Jeong Yeon-shin’s sword path would unfold.

Tower Master slowly retreated.

“Yelu Zhen, who pretended to be my disciple, couldn’t endure that. She vented excessively. Throwing our homeland’s finest dharma treasure to an enemy nation, spitting out food from time to time making palace chefs abandon their kitchens, interfering in great legalists’ sect wars pretending to be a spirit’s messenger… it even worked.”

“Isn’t that a good thing…?”

Thud!

Jeong Yeon-shin stopped Tower Master’s clone body with Radiant Wing Nine Steps. Remaining Thunder immediately distorted the old man’s body with a blurry trajectory.

Tower Master’s surprised intent remained.

—How does a swordsman know this technique…?

It was after a semi-transparent sword trace appeared. The scene of void splitting open like a door. Jeong Yeon-shin immediately stepped on the flickering door gap like the capricious blind man’s sword strike and.

Flash!

“……?”

He stepped onto a garden where flowers of all colors bloomed in full.

It was Yelu Zhen’s Safe House.