Chapter 405 – Peerless Realm (5)

The shadow of the formless great sword was vast.

The shade created by the southern region’s finest swordsman through decades of refinement. At this moment, the life of Namgung First Sword dwelled within this abyss that had taken the form of a sword.

Within the rough bedding of common people, the touch that had gently entered and left his embrace, and the desolate blood wind that had blown upon a young man who had dispersed his energy sense solely to feel his lover…

—Young Master, this lowly one has revealed her true nature.

—What?

—While Young Master was sleeping, the lowborn stole your precious item and fled. I carefully observed that dull woman’s movements in secret, but all she did was haggle with a merchant at the stall across the way… this.

—What is this…?

—I secretly beheaded her and took care of it. Since the Family Head ordered me to strictly discipline Young Master’s conduct… Aren’t you facing an arranged marriage with the Huizhou merchant house that possesses one hundred thousand bushels of rice?

Namgung Mu-jin was the legitimate first son of the South Zhili’s foremost clan.

The bodyguard who protected him was the Family Head’s confidant, and as a young master, he couldn’t defy his family.

He fled like a fugitive with just a sword in hand.

The cowardly young master wandered the martial world aimlessly until he found something fundamentally blameworthy.

The World Tree standing alone on cracked earth. That monstrous thing that hardly looked like a tree at all, covering the entire sky with its deep green leaves…

It was.

Not merely an ancient tree.

It was clearly something with will.

The young swordsman gazed up at that tree for a fortnight from a distance.

Avoiding the strict surveillance of superior masters with ears raised like sword tips, while honing his increasingly sharp conviction.

—That’s it. That’s the demon that’s sucking up all the earth’s energy in the world.

[TL Note- Maybe the world tree is what’s causing the famine.]

It deserved to be cut down.

That’s why it’s called Sword Night Painting Moonlight. The Transcendent Martial Art is the culmination of a peerless master’s refined mental imagery. Namgung Mu-jin’s formless great sword despises the famine that has fallen upon the world.

At the same time, it yearns for the manifestation of martial gods who will never again be swayed by the earth’s energy.

At this moment. Even on this land.

Kwaaaaa—!

The massive sword shadow flickered like lightning several times above the desolate clearing. Namgung Mu-jin had added variations to his formless great sword.

Though the white light streams of the Shooting Moon Single Path had somehow become embedded in the blade of the formless great sword earlier, Namgung Mu-jin paid it no mind.

This was the mystery of the heavy sword that would one day crush the World Tree and the Desolate Fortress Lord.

Better to break here once than be blocked by a youngster who hadn’t formally attained purple rank. Because the Transcendent Martial Art would advance further as a result.

Emperor Sword Form, Azure Thunder Middle Heavy Strike.

It’s a sword form that accumulates energy waves through multiple bending variations before delivering a powerful strike. It aims for both power and precision.

Swaaak!

A blade that bends dozens of times in the void as it presses down, despite being fifteen zhang in size. Dust swept up by the sword wind surged in all directions.

This was accompanied by a noise like hundreds of sheets of paper being continuously torn.

At the end of the massive trajectory was Radiant Demon Wing Leader Jeong Yeon-shin.

Namgung Mu-jin intended to completely crush the young man wearing the purple robe from crown to toe.

At that moment, blue radiance rose like flames from Jeong Yeon-shin’s upraised sword.

A display contradicting the information that he didn’t handle energy emission techniques like sword energy or slashing.

With a whak— sound, the blue flame sword energy that had surged upward attached itself to the dozens of white streams that had been clinging to the formless great sword.

It was just for an instant.

The fiercely burning blue flame raced along the long white streams. Like a flame poured onto a fuse.

Kugoong—

The formless great sword hesitated. This was due to the heavy vibration it had received.

The blue flame, which appeared to be flickering, was actually composed of incredibly sharp fragments of sword energy.

It was enough to burrow into the formless great sword and grind away its interior.

The shadow cast on the ground was dyed bluish.

A crackling sound like sparks flying filled the surroundings. It was noise flowing from inside the visibly slowed formless great sword.

Now Namgung Mu-jin’s Sword Night Painting Moonlight truly only cast a shadow.

A scene virtually indistinguishable from being stationary. It seemed even a child could close their eyes and avoid it.

Below.

Two swordsmen facing each other thirty paces apart. Namgung Mu-jin had to struggle not to show a stunned expression before the youthful young man.

“How did you do that…?”

“No matter how refined the martial art, there are only two fundamentals, aren’t there?”

The two things the Radiant Demon Wing Leader calmly mentioned.

Namgung Mu-jin immediately understood.

Spirituality, which dwells in weapons to create divine martial treasures and in martial arts to create divine skills. And true energy, which is the form of natural qi refined through energy operation techniques.

Even the divine skills of the Nine Sects that have left deep marks in martial world history, or the Heavenly Demon Divine Technique, must have begun with those two fundamentals.

Namgung Mu-jin opened his mouth again. He was a martial artist of the Martial Dragon Alliance.

A league of madmen who share their sect’s martial arts with others to enhance achievement. Even if Desolate Fortress’ Black-ranks were approaching, he had to ask if he was curious about martial arts.

“And so?”

“I sensed the propulsive energy waves that enhance the arrow’s power and speed in the Shooting Moon Single Path’s white streams. The pattern inside the streams was quite complex, but… after enduring it with my body, I got a feel for what kind of energy wave patterns the Shooting Moon Single Path responds to.”

Jeong Yeon-shin concluded with an appearance that seemed somehow calm.

Namgung Mu-jin’s eyes trembled slightly. It was because a fact that would astonish anyone had struck the back of his head.

He was saying that he had reverse-engineered the Dark Night Palace Leader’s Transcendent Martial Art to insert blue flame sword energy into the formless great sword.

It was a technique that would be difficult to attempt without possessing both qualities.

Transcendent protective energy that buys time to analyze an opponent’s ultimate move, a sense granted by heaven’s mistake…

“They say clumsy joint attacks are inferior to wielding a sword alone, and that’s what you are. If you had come at me one by one, I might have struggled more.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s serene voice settled on the sword he held. It truly felt that way.

This was due to the transparent currents rippling on the silver blade. Was it spirituality? The haze on the blade seemed to be connected to the blue flame dwelling in the formless great sword.

Even the sword energy he had already emitted remained under Jeong Yeon-shin’s control.

It couldn’t be denied. The person before him was a once-in-a-millennium genius.

A gleam of ecstasy appeared in Namgung Mu-jin’s eyes… “You, your martial talent is certainly extraordinary.”

He continued, stumbling over his words.

“It’s a faster achievement than any prodigy I’ve seen or heard of. If someone like you joined the Martial Dragon Alliance, we could harmoniously select only the best aspects from all the martial arts under heaven to create a divine skill for the ages…! I, I will be your backing! All sorts of renowned sect martial arts lie dormant in our society! With you, me, the Alliance Leader, and Fire Swallow Flying…!”

“You’ve lost your mind.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s sword drew a curve. A blade that left a faint afterimage like a moon halo made a click sound as it disappeared into the scabbard at his waist.

A sheathing as beautiful as a painting. At the same time, the current that had transparently connected the sword and blue flame was cut off.

That was the beginning.

Kugoong—

A thunderous sound erupted above the two men’s heads.

A wave spreading from the formless great sword in the form of sky-blue concentric circles.

The ground was dyed pale along the mystical shockwave.

Along with the explosive noise like thunder, the fragments of the formless great sword that had shattered into pieces began to fall with a blue tint.

Unlike the debris that had fallen beneath Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet earlier. Both power and speed were different.

Whaaak—!

Fragments with blue radiance drew thousands of vertical lines like exquisite swords. The sunlight that had belatedly poured down scattered chaotically within them.

A rain of energy waves more lethal than any hail.

This is what battles in the peerless realm are like. The harmony of a single sword they have refined creates natural disasters that rival heaven and earth.

[This means you won’t escape unscathed either…!]

A voice that rang out like a ray of light. Namgung Mu-jin’s spirituality had overflowed due to his urgency.

The formless great sword had shattered right above the two swordsmen, making evasion impossible due to the blue flame mixed in like propulsive energy waves among the energy wave rain.

Woong!

Colorless radiance enveloped Namgung Mu-jin’s entire body.

The Heaven Thunder Emperor Divine Technique’s protective energy.

There was no time to slow the fragments with the Emperor Sword Form.

There wasn’t even leisure to fully deploy protective energy. The true energy consumed by the formless great sword had also been enormous.

The first swordsman of the southern region deeply blamed himself inwardly. This is why one shouldn’t casually draw out a Transcendent Martial Art.

‘Kuk…!’

Namgung Mu-jin’s Emperor Sword Form had long since strayed far from the orthodox mystery of commanding sword and space.

When instinct crossed the instant, what bloomed from his sword was not sword energy that spread chivalry widely, but merely four streams of sword light barely sufficient to bind a single person.

As bluish despair filled his pupils.

Pieces of blue flame fell from the sky like a downpour.

Jjeojeojeojeojeong!

Blue sparks exploded all over Namgung Mu-jin’s body.

Multiple shockwaves from the explosion continuously overlapped, distorting the atmosphere, and the cracks that arose from the ground raced far along the surface.

His life-saving ultimate technique had returned to him. What had gone wrong?

In the midst of the light streams pouring down without pause, Namgung Mu-jin staggered and lost his balance. When a peerless swordsman becomes this disheveled, the fight is already over.

By then, Namgung Mu-jin had belatedly realized.

That the Dark Night Palace Leader had almost completely withdrawn from this affair. That cunning archer would never show himself here.

Then.

Hwaaaaa—!

His protective energy shattered with a scream.

***

Read only at nineheavens.org

Translated by Nine Heavens!

https://discord.gg/XC9DTsTQ9Z

***

Jeong Yeon-shin walked through the streams of blue rain falling down.

Thud.

The fragments of energy waves pouring down like rain could do him no harm.

They could only barely absorb the sound of his footsteps. As they bounced off with white lightning each time they touched his body.

Ground cracked in all directions like drought had come.

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been walking on the deeply settled dust, stopped at one point. He slightly lowered his eyelids.

Jeong Yeon-shin was reflected in the eyes of Namgung Mu-jin, who had collapsed in a bloody state. The appearance of wearing a purple robe with a faint cluster of stars above it, with long black hair flowing down.

Namgung Mu-jin let out a laugh mixed with coughing.

“You… are not someone to be called a genius. You’re just a powerful, peerless master… who has emerged once more from Desolate Fortress. For the World Tree, for that monstrous being… it’s an extremely excessive, blessing.”

“That is my master.”

Jeong Yeon-shin quietly answered. He had called him immoral.

For if one had properly learned from a sect, one could never insult that master to another’s face.

But Namgung Mu-jin’s corners of the mouth didn’t lower. Rather, his expression of hollow laughter deepened.

“After using a sword form never seen or heard of… you deceive me.”

“Why would I need to…?”

“Have you heard rumors that Bodhidharma and Zhang Sanfeng had masters? What kind of being like you would deeply learn anything from anyone? You’d be busy adapting everything to your own body.”

Namgung Mu-jin’s voice grew increasingly clear.

Was it his life force rising to his throat just before dispersal? It was clearly a return of light before death.

“In any case, it’s regrettable. Look there, at that fading white stream. The Dark Night Palace Leader is fleeing.”

Namgung Mu-jin gestured toward the void with his eyes.

“No matter how extraordinary your lightness skill, it would be impossible to catch him at this distance. Yes… perhaps only the Beggar Sect Leader, Dwelling Light Divine Beggar, could do it, and only when not drinking.”

Thud.

Jeong Yeon-shin moved his steps without answering.

The dying man at his feet was not someone worthy of sharing thoughts about Azure Qilin. He only evoked unfamiliar contempt. Now that he had seen him, White Qilin was enough.

“I wasn’t wrong. I am right. In a starving world there is no proper emperor… and only martial arts that can cut down the plunderers before one’s eyes have value in this era.”

The muttering voice like someone who had lost his mind followed Jeong Yeon-shin’s heel.

He silently stamped the ground and soared. Toward the white streams of the Shooting Moon Single Path that were fluttering aimlessly in the void.

Whoong—

The white stream undulated like waves as soon as he set foot on it. It was a transcendent light stream that turned all arrows into exquisite swords to ensure they hit their mark.

It didn’t seem to be withdrawing according to the Dark Night Palace Leader’s will, nor did it appear to welcome Jeong Yeon-shin.

That was until he suddenly drew his sword and shook it off like cracking a whip. The white stream that stretched out straight, tearing the air with a loud noise. It was the Thunder Annihilation Sword Style’s Judgment Qilin.

He commanded the wind with a single sword strike.

Namgung Mu-jin’s eyes, which had been losing focus, widened in shock… That was the end. When Jeong Yeon-shin’s form, which had slightly tilted forward while stepping on the white stream, became hazily distorted, the sword wind extending from his foot sliced through Namgung Mu-jin’s neck and buried itself in the dirt.

Kwajik—

With the sound of flesh splitting, the severed head tilted toward Jeong Yeon-shin’s back.

Namgung Mu-jin’s astonished eyes were filled with the purple robe hem fluttering like a storm wind. Until the rapidly distancing purple robe finally turned into a dot and disappeared.