Chapter 387 – Divine Sword Group (3)

Swirling currents of faint energy waves.

They literally reached the sky. This was because the hemispherical space created by the Transcendent Martial Art couldn’t actually reach the true heavens.

At this moment, the dragon ascension composed of fragments of protective energy was creating cracks in the ceiling.

Boom boom boom boom—!

Fragments of the Luminous Wheel faintly sparkled and disappeared repeatedly on the surface of the vortex.

This was accompanied by a noise like rocks shattering. The space created by spell martial arts was gradually cracking.

Sichuan’s foremost beauty was trapped in the vortex.

She had been forcibly lifted into the air. The gourd bottle that had been hanging at her waist had long since shattered into pieces.

“This… this is…!”

The golden feather-shaped protective energy was continuously being shredded by the vortex. Blood seeped through the gaps between the faint light streams that formed the powerful wind.

Until now, the Golden Wing Sect Leader had routinely deployed void treading and void absorption.

Merely lifting her body into the air wouldn’t restrict her movements. That would normally be the case.

[They said Sichuan’s flower rain could even trap a rain dragon. It shouldn’t be different for a person.]

Jeong Yeon-shin said.

His protective energy was based on the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. Though seemingly chaotic at a glance, it moved according to his thoughts.

Moreover, the Bright Dawn vortex could be viewed entirely as trajectories. This was because the principles of the Mind-controlling sword had been added.

“…!”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader couldn’t break free. She could only writhe in the air.

When she tried to move her wrist, her entire elbow was lifted up.

When she attempted to emit propulsive energy waves from the Yongquan acupoint on her sole, suddenly intensified blade winds pushed diagonally against her hamstring and thigh.

The flow that swept powerfully was incredibly complex. It was different from when they first met at the Golden Wing Sect.

Blade winds that bent and curved repeatedly in the air. All trajectories were variations. Years that hadn’t existed before were now melted into them.

“Ah… ah…!”

[Now die.]

The Radiant Demon Wing Leader quietly looking up at her.

He was completely comprehending all muscle movements. He immediately penetrated and responded to even the energy waves arising from the acupoints.

He had mastered the human body. He even possessed the perception of a thousand years.

Equal energy levels.

Internal energy where opposing qualities had become meaningless.

Fragments of protective energy with elasticity drawn to the extreme.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s sense controlling all those light clusters with the Fan Dragon Treading Lotus Technique, and the enemy’s movements completely dissected during their exchange of over two hundred moves.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader was a figure who specialized in close combat and claw techniques. Even her Transcendent Martial Art was a technique that assisted close-range strikes.

Even when the fight had just begun, she had helplessly soared up against the Mind-controlling sword.

The situation where the completed form of the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain approached fatally was no different for her than for a rain dragon.

A bird cannot escape the rain and wind.

Defense was impossible.

Kiaaaaaaak—!

Her scream was like the cry of a raptor. The echoing reverberation was extremely loud. It seemed to be coming not from her mouth but from her entire body.

Jeong Yeon-shin maintained the Bright Dawn while standing motionless.

‘Just a little more.’

The feeling of his upper dantian burning in his mind actually proved that Bright Dawn was an ultimate move effective against transcendent masters.

Dizziness was nothing. Even though the Golden Wing Sect Leader appeared to be multiplying before his eyes, it was bearable.

Eventually.

The semi-transparent vortex made a cracking sound as it ruptured at the ceiling of the Transcendent Martial Art, and from that spot, it transformed into hundreds of streams of wind.

The vortex, unraveled into countless strands, pushed away the nearby dust and disappeared.

Saaaa—

The faint star cluster returned and seeped into Jeong Yeon-shin’s body.

He briefly lowered his eyelids.

The fragments of light gathered back into his heart to form the Luminous Wheel. It didn’t feel as powerful as before.

This was because he had used a great deal of energy, but it was an issue that would improve with proper timing and energy regulation.

‘As the price for defeating Sichuan’s foremost beauty, a transcendent being, it’s light.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought calmly.

When he put strength into his eyes, his vision became clearer. On the barren ground without a single piece of grass or wood, there lay a dust-covered rag.

It was the Golden Wing Sect Leader.

Through the gaps in her tattered clothes, blood showed instead of skin. The bright red glistening appearance was horrific.

A dark red area was expanding from the ground where she lay.

Haa…

A thin breath was felt.

It was internal energy breathing. The fact that she was faintly raising energy waves suggested she had entered energy regulation.

Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously recalled the Ten Perfections Sect Leader. A figure who had survived death a couple of times at his hands and the Blood Flame Cult Leader’s.

All peerless masters had primordial energy so strong it was almost sickening. Almost no different from the immortal nobles of the Blood Flame Cult.

‘Head.’

Thud.

He moved his now-heavy legs. This was accompanied by the activation of the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique stabilizing his body. The wheezing breathing gradually became closer.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader’s body trembled.

“Don’t, come. Go away…”

He didn’t respond.

The moment he stopped his legs upon reaching the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s vicinity, the dust swirling around his feet scattered to the left and right with a whoosh.

At the same time, the flow of natural qi that had been gathering toward her nose was also cut off.

Footsteps that penetrate energy. It was the Radiant Wing Step.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader’s eyes shook. Her pupils were still dyed golden as if they had always been that way.

“Using footwork to disrupt energy regulation…?”

“I thought I would complete up to the eighth step when facing you.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said. Though it was extremely enjoyable to counter counters in reverse, it had no effect on improving his footwork.

He wasn’t particularly disappointed. There were many touchstones. Once he left this place, he would become a storm throughout the martial world. He had to anticipate challenges from peerless masters.

“It’s fortunate that I could at least cultivate Bright Dawn. Wasn’t the protective energy quite good?”

“That’s not… protective energy…”

These were the words of the defeated. Jeong Yeon-shin only said what he needed to say.

“With that much power mobilized at Yunhui Peak, the Sima Evil Path of Sichuan must have no strength left? Since the influence that Yu Ling and the Tyrant Sword Sect can exert elsewhere must be limited.”

“I don’t know… about each of those things.”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader, moving her bright red burst lips while lying face down. Soon after, her eyes met Jeong Yeon-shin’s as she slightly raised her head.

“How did you do it…?”

Finally.

The attention of Sichuan’s foremost beauty, who had looked down on the world, was fully directed toward Jeong Yeon-shin.

It was the gaze characteristic of peerless masters, madmen who build martial arts with principles of all things comprehended through enlightenment, tinged with madness.

“Do what?”

“That move just now… wasn’t just the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain. Emission incantation, energy, Mind-controlling sword, different trajectories for each fragment… It’s not something a human’s upper dantian can handle. Did Wudang give you the Two Minds Technique to hunt me…?”

The Wudang Sect’s Two Minds Technique. It’s a supreme martial art said to divide the thoughts in one’s head into several parts.

Jeong Yeon-shin had once thought about it too.

Wondering if he could simultaneously operate Thunder Annihilation and Fan Dragon Treading Lotus Technique, which both trigger energy waves by detonating full-body energy.

Woong—

While more strongly raising the Great Heavenly Cycle of the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique stabilizing his body, he briefly shook his head.

“I tried making the overlaying of the Mind-controlling sword’s principles onto protective energy into a single martial art. Recalling the flow wasn’t difficult.”

“…That’s wordplay.”

“They say the life-saving ultimate move of peerless masters is unleashing all the martial arts they’ve cultivated throughout their life at once. Your Transcendent Martial Art, which broke the framework, broadened my perspective.”

He had unified two unique martial arts.

Jeong Yeon-shin thought while caressing the handle of Remaining Thunder with his thumb. Now that I’ve grasped the concept, I can go further.

The golden light in the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s pupils faded.

“Different. Transcendent Martial Art is not a technique but mental imagery. Even if you use the upper dantian as naturally as breathing, you can’t…”

“Is breathing difficult?”

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin refined his insights in the now-quiet space. The Golden Wing Sect Leader was Sichuan’s foremost beauty acknowledged by the world.

Even seemingly trivial questions and answers contained insights and enlightenment.

A position that made one freshly realize even what was already known. Her view on the Transcendent Martial Art was also worth engraving in his mind.

‘Not a technique but mental imagery…’

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had inwardly pondered this, adjusted his grip on the sword.

“Earlier you said you were going to the world. I heard you don’t move unless it’s about mystical creatures. Where were you thinking of?”

“…The southern end of this land.”

“I heard the Tyrant Hero of our main fortress went to capture the sea serpent of Hainan.”

Jeong Yeon-shin said, recalling his grandfather’s face. It was something he had heard in passing while chatting about the purple martial world.

Does she know the former Divine Sword Group Leader well? The Golden Wing Sect Leader changed her words as easily as flipping her palm.

“Then west.”

“Why?”

“I have a hometown. A place with beautiful mountains.”

She said. Jeong Yeon-shin slowly nodded.

“See it after you die.”

There was no answer. It had ended from the moment the Radiant Wing Step disrupted her energy regulation. She had endured Bright Dawn with her entire body and couldn’t manage her severe internal injuries in time.

The Golden Wing Sect Leader’s complexion turned pale. Death was rapidly approaching.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked.

“Why were you so obsessed with the rain dragon that you harmed innocent people and the common people’s livelihood?”

“Because that’s my heavenly mandate.”

It was right after she spoke of heaven’s will.

Whoosh—!

Suddenly a golden light cluster arose and spread to Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet. It was radiance originating from the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s body.

For an instant, a massive bird form flickered and disappeared above her body.

“People are attached to names… and want the attention of future generations…”

The Golden Wing Sect Leader said. In her pupils was the dry playfulness occasionally seen when she drank wine.

“But there are beings who want to return to the sky without leaving even a trace. Because they don’t want to be defiled by your hands.”

A scene close to a miracle unfolded.

Her body was turning golden. The rapidly fading appearance was extremely mystical.

Energy waves that weakly brushed against Jeong Yeon-shin’s trouser hem like a gentle breeze.

Was she really not human but a being of extraordinary power? They say mystical creatures rarely leave their traces on the ground. Because human greed extends even to corpses.

“I’m not dying from defeat. I’m ascending beyond the mortal world…”

Boom!

Suddenly a colorless ripple that arose in the void struck downward.

“…!”

The wind that pressed down on the Golden Wing Sect Leader and scattered semi-transparently. Her body instantly became clear, and at the same time, the golden radiance disappeared without a trace.

“I’ve ruined your spell technique once before, yet you still try this nonsense.”

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had brushed off his hand once, adjusted his grip on the sword blade. Since coming to Sichuan, he had experienced quite a lot of spell martial arts.

He had become capable of blocking them with energy release if the casting wasn’t fast enough to be used in combat.

It was time to end this martial journey.

“Now die.”

The divine sword Remaining Thunder transformed into a chilling light stream.

The sword strike that rushed down from above cut off the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s neck with a splat. Though it was a somewhat weakened and dull strike, it was sufficient to take her head.

Thud.

A face full of shock rolls on the ground.

At the same time, the space above began to shatter. As the realm of the Transcendent Martial Art formation broke apart, the night sky was greatly revealed.

Jeong Yeon-shin immediately closed his eyes. Since he had dispersed the accumulated energy release power of the Golden Wing Sect Leader with the Jeong Family Dynamic Technique, he needed to rotate the Luminous Wheel for a short time to accumulate energy.

Outside was a battlefield. Along with the disappearance of the Transcendent Martial Art formation, the rain dragon’s spirituality that had dwelled in his heart was also vanishing.

‘Let’s remember the dharma power that reached completion.’

While imprinting the feeling of the Luminous Wheel in his mind, he worried about his senior squad leaders.

Many of those gathered outside were elites of major factions.

All of them were much stronger than ordinary ronin and numbered in the hundreds. It was a force that would require anyone to be prepared for death. How much more arduous fighting would be needed?

‘I couldn’t heal the severe internal injuries.’

The aftermath of killing Sichuan’s foremost beauty was tremendous. Both internal and external injuries were so.

Severed and burst acupoints and wounds reaching the bone. The briefly raised Jeong Family Dynamic Technique was merely a temporary measure.

Shaolin’s famous pills were now gone. The secret medicine of the Heaven’s Pillar Sect that he had entrusted to Lazy Flame Dragon had been used for bone transformation.

There were also mysterious medicines given to the squad leaders of the main fortress, but they had disappeared without a trace long ago due to the Golden Wing Sect Leader’s claw techniques.

Saaaa—

The night sky gradually grew larger.

Jeong Yeon-shin stood motionless as he assessed his martial arts. Thunder Annihilation Sword Style and Eternal Blossom Fist wouldn’t work. He needed techniques with minimal recoil force and energy consumption.

‘Let’s go with One Hand Hundred Strikes. Supplemented with sword techniques.’

It was right after he recalled the fighting method inspired by the Yan Family’s First Fist.

Slowly.

The hemispherical space was completely lifted.

The vast night sky spread out. The characteristic grass smell of mountains at night was in the air. It was extremely pungent.

Under the densely sparkling star cluster.

There was a field of corpses.

The sight of broken weapons embedded all over the ground. There were also large pits dug here and there, as if they had been hit repeatedly by wide-area ultimate moves imbued with profound internal energy. A stench spread from the pooled blood.

It was a quiet night.

Amidst the countless sprawled corpses, the long shadows of over a dozen figures were cast. This was because they had each turned or raised their bodies.

Faint starlight poured down toward their pitch-black long robes.

“……”

Jeong Yeon-shin silently met their eyes. With the bisected corpse of the Golden Wing Sect Leader at his feet.