Chapter 503 – Entry Into Desolate Great War (3)

Among the masters who had been fiercely crisscrossing the battlefield, some witnessed that sight.

The scene where the head of Martial Dragon Alliance’s Supreme Protector was shattered beneath the feet of a youth who had suddenly appeared while cutting through the void.

It was an incomprehensible sight. At this moment, it was just as mysterious as the Thirteen Evil Sect Leaders who were on the verge of occupying the three sides—east, south, and west—of the vast Desolate Fortress.

The manifestation of yet another peerless master.

Wuuuuuung!

Instantly, the atmosphere in all directions surged violently.

It was the influence of energy waves. The reason was that not only the great factions surrounding Desolate Fortress but even the main castle martial artists under the Divine Sword Group had simultaneously sent out mental transmissions in all directions of the battlefield.

Masters of internal energy cultivation announced the appearance of a great variable through such the most reliable means. To superiors and subordinates, colleagues, or teachers and disciples, martial brothers and sisters.

—Purple appearance thirty zhang ahead of the main gate!

—Burning Heaven Elder is dead! Don’t wait for instructions!

—What the hell… wasn’t there no word that purple would come?

—Look here! Isn’t this different from the agreement? We’re wandering martial artists! Life is more important than sword payment!

—What kind of technique is it that we can’t tell…!

Desolate Fortress main castle.

The foremost stronghold of the jianghu that now embraced ninety-nine large and small halls.

When fighting in such a vast place, even internal energy masters with broad energy sense inevitably had limits in gauging the battle situation.

This was why at this moment, the blue martial artist Sam-bok of the Law Enforcement Squad was standing at a corner of the castle wall.

“Hooo…”

The far right corner of the main gate.

Atop the ramparts where the two walls extending south and east met vertically.

The young martial artist Sam-bok surveyed the battlefield from such a position where he could observe both sides. While putting strength into his heels with the technique of Radiant Wing Step so he could withdraw his feet at any time.

He was one of the top rising talents even within the Law Enforcement Squad, with broad vision and considerable skill in acting like a marketplace entertainer, so he was often dispatched on espionage missions.

In great factional wars like now, his role was to assess the battle situation.

‘Gang of Demons Green Forest…!’

Sam-bok’s eyes became sharp as he observed the main gate direction.

Those bandits who used horses like military weapons had brought almost all their elite masters.

A force close to the full strength of one of the Thirteen Evil Sect major factions. The situation was already problematic with just the wandering martial artists of Martial Dragon Alliance and Yu Ling.

If they ignored Jeong Yeon-shin who had just manifested and charged straight ahead, Desolate Fortress’s signboard might really be shattered. This was a great disaster.

There was another problem.

It wasn’t just the main gate direction that was overwhelming. Sam-bok immediately narrowed his eyes as he turned his head to the left.

Under the roof of a hall gracefully curved in the distance, a beggar woman with long, oily black hair could be seen sporadically.

Body movements without presence despite staggering steps.

Every time the main castle martial artists charged toward her, their legs were shattered or their abdomens were pierced by something invisible, and they collapsed without even a trace of presence.

As if the atmosphere brushed by the woman’s long legs swallowed all sounds.

Dream Human Moon master.

Ahhhhhhh—

Occasionally pressing her lips against the mouth of a gourd bottle lifted at an angle, humming melodies that were almost completely chaotic.

Even with movements like a drunkard out for a stroll, not a single person could stop her. It was literally impossible to oppose.

‘They say she witnessed the ultimate mysteries of Grass Flying Steps…!’

Strength entered Sam-bok’s fists.

The eastern side of Desolate Fortress had encountered techniques whose mysteries were difficult to fathom.

Naturally, morale had no choice but to fall, and the main castle personnel who might at least exchange hands with a peerless master were busy fighting life-and-death duels with the leaders of the Thirteen Evil Sect elites.

The immediate arrival of Gang of Demons Green Forest was already a huge problem, but it wasn’t something that could be blocked by the Acting Divine Sword Group Leader’s hands alone.

That’s when it happened.

Suddenly, a human shadow soared up from inside the main castle. Extremely domineering energy waves. It was Ma Jin of the Ma Family.

He had abandoned commanding the Ma Family’s formations and household martial artists to step forward personally. He seemed intent on clashing directly with the Dream Human Moon master. Even though there was absolutely no chance of victory.

Such situations were unfolding throughout the main castle.

In a situation of numerical disadvantage from the start, with the means to defeat peerless masters located deep within the main castle.

‘But if the enemies completely violate the interior of Desolate Fortress, in the future…’

The symbolic nature of the character “Desolate” would fall to the ground.

The dignity that character possessed was the shield of common people, and at this moment it was the reason the enemies were primarily striving to defile the main castle or bring down the signboard.

Thwack!

Sam-bok shattered the skull of a wandering martial artist who had approached from behind with the straight punch of Law Enforcement Limitless Fist’s ultimate technique. Then he drew up all his body’s energy to his throat.

[Master Jeong.]

It was time to create a great variable.

[Has arrived.]

He said.

Simultaneously, the resonance of Six Harmonies Voice bounced between castle walls and spread out in all directions.

In the battlefield of masters where silence was an unwritten rule, it surged greatly while breaking that taboo that wasn’t quite a taboo.

Instantly Sam-bok witnessed it.

The sight of the Dream Human Moon master’s staggering steps coming to a halt.

* * *

A youth with two swords at his waist and purple robe sleeves hanging long stepped on the ruins.

Scrape—

Jeong Yeon-shin roughly scraped the leather shoes he had worn firmly against the ground. It was right after hastening the departure of an old man who would have died soon anyway.

Finely shattered bone fragments and flesh pieces were crushed under his feet with rough sounds. It was a good deed.

He silently looked around. While spreading his energy sense to assess the battlefield unfolding throughout the entire main castle, he was also engraving the visible scenes in his mind.

The very spacious official road. The path that led straight to Jeong Yeon-shin’s home.

It was the place where he had once taken the Desolate Fortress entrance exam together with Hyeon Won-chang, so it could be considered the place where the two people’s jianghu journey began.

Naturally, to Jeong Yeon-shin, it was now the most familiar official road under heaven. It was the path he had no choice but to use every time he returned after completing missions.

He remembered what merchants sold sweets, toys, and ornaments at which stalls.

He also had in his mind exactly where the official road bent and curved minutely. With a very tranquil feeling.

“……”

Now it was different.

It was full of acrid and fishy scents.

Smells that shouldn’t be in this place. The scent created by masters’ characteristically swift strikes and the wounds that burst from them.

Also, the sight of the ground pitted in various places, the roars echoing from all directions and violently moving presences, and the scene where common people had completely disappeared didn’t suit this place.

“Lightning Genius…?” 

It was a girl’s whisper.

Jeong Yeon-shin turned around and at this moment met eyes with his most reliable senior.

“Lightning Genius, that’s right.”

Desolate Divine Spear Yue Shou-lin quietly examined Jeong Yeon-shin’s entire body with her jet-black pupils. An expression that valued his physical condition more than the extraordinary movement technique.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt a fluffy feeling like clouds just from that. Somehow his spirits also lifted.

As if the energy that had been massively consumed from imitating the Unorthodox Path’s Finest Sword’s blade work after uniting with World Tree had returned.

He asked quietly.

“Were you planning to face them alone?”

“You know too that there are always few people in the main castle.”

Yue Shou-lin said. Her tone was rather ordinary.

Very different from usual. Her face, where it was difficult to find playfulness, was the same.

Loneliness emanated from her appearance of holding only a single spear with her back to Desolate Fortress, which was the temperament that main castle martial artists who had gone on jianghu journeys several times naturally acquired.

Meanwhile, behind Jeong Yeon-shin facing her, a large amount of cavalry presence was rapidly growing. Bringing vibrations huge enough to make ears ring.

“Who were those friends?”

Creak.

Yue Shou-lin, who had readjusted her grip on the spear shaft once, asked.

She seemed to have seen the human shadows that had vaguely soared up and disappeared together with Jeong Yeon-shin earlier. Even among peerless masters, it was difficult to completely capture each other’s body protection energy.

The eye technique of the main castle’s second black rank had improved compared to before, regardless of her own age.

“They are helpers who will briefly provide assistance.”

Having answered thus, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly turned around again.

The horde of men and horses that had somehow rushed right before his eyes.

The waist area of the man driving a huge horse at the front was annoying to look at.

The sight of two roundish forms hanging there was somehow unpleasant. It was even more so because that appearance couldn’t be properly identified due to the yellow dust fog.

It was a special divine technique.

‘Gang of Demons Green Forest.’

A great faction that had become one of the Thirteen Evil Sects in one stroke by stealing some of the divine techniques and supreme arts known from the northern jianghu called the Other World.

Even though they must have seen Jeong Yeon-shin, they didn’t stop charging. Rather, they were creating dust clouds like waves while increasing the intensity of the vibrations.

It felt like an earthquake was approaching, and every time horse hooves struck the ground, the energy wave fluctuations of the masters riding fine horses spread out like ripples.

At the same time.

At the front, the Gang of Demons Green Forest Grand Chief’s mouth moved hazily. With a feeling of courtesy like a deeply learned scholar.

‘I pay my respects to you.’

Mounted martial arts. Grasping Wei and Observing the World Below Heaven.

The horse hoof sounds transformed into thunder-like resonance.

Crack!

The ground broke and was pushed away. A continuous process where massive pressure overlapped with other pressure to create semi-transparent force fields.

It was like using a massively formed energy barrier as an overwhelming offensive weapon, and the man who began raising a large axe at the front was precisely White Axe King Zhi Jiang-xian.

It seemed like a huge fortress was being pushed in entirely. It wasn’t a charge that anyone could receive alone.

On the other hand, Jeong Yeon-shin was in a situation where he needed a brief moment of internal energy breathing due to the aftermath of displaying transcendent sword strikes.

Kugugugugung!!

Now it was close at hand.

Jeong Yeon-shin and the Grand Chief’s gazes met plainly. At the same time, the moment Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand, which had gone down with an afterimage, gripped the hilt of Wudang’s Pine Pattern Ancient Sword.

It was behind his shoulder.

Thump!

Yue Shou-lin, who had rotated once while fluttering her long sleeves like a painting, threw her long spear as it was.

Instantly space warped dizzily in her grasp, and the long silver light burst forth explosive ripples as it extended.

Zzzzzzzing—

The silver spear that flew like lightning embedded directly into the hazy energy barrier of the cavalry charge.

The flames that violently flared up from that impact point were brief.

Boooom!

Yue Shou-lin’s long spear, after creating rough friction sounds, exploded the bodies of five cavalry masters in a line and passed through.

At the same time, even if minutely.

Gang of Demons Green Forest’s cavalry assault was slowed. It would be correct to say that the momentum of a natural disaster had been broken for an instant.

Even so, the divine technique ‘Grasping Wei and Observing the World Below Heaven’ continued charging in like a storm after scratching that instant, but in front of their group that would originally have collided with Yue Shou-lin stood Jeong Yeon-shin, who had already drawn the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword.

While having completely inhaled one long breath of the Luminous Wheel Technique.

Thump.

He struck the ground once.

The energy waves of Three Clear Powers flowed into the ground. In an instant, the Luminous Wheel in his heart roared and rotated vigorously.

Simultaneously, in his mental image, the forms of Invincible, Dark Heaven Emperor, and the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword were crafted from light.

Rumble!

It was an instant.

The ground beneath the horde of men and horses that had been charging right up to his nose shattered into pieces and erupted.

The legs of the fine horses that had been extending strongly were forcibly folded upward, and even that wasn’t enough as the ground itself surged like waves, lifting up the entire five hundred pairs of men and horses.

It was a sight where peerless sorcery martial arts were nothing special.

The warhorses that had been exhaling thick breath and glaring at Jeong Yeon-shin with murderous eyes to the end suddenly burst into screams.

Neeeeeigh!

The Gang of Demons Green Forest masters who were suddenly soaring diagonally while charging. The horse hooves that had successively crushed the Gongsun Family, Shandong Yue Family, and Namgung Family futilely kicked the air.

Among them, only a couple including the Grand Chief managed to properly stand by stepping on the stirrups on both sides of their warhorses.

Even they all had faint signs of bewilderment appearing for the first time in their previously indifferent eyes.

Like their subordinates who had come to swim in the air in an instant.

“…!”

Below them.

The old sword edge of the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword went up.

Whoosh!

Along the iron sword that Jeong Yeon-shin immediately struck downward, strange suction force arose.

Power originating from the mysteries of taiji gathered the reverse wind that had blown in all directions at this moment and unhesitatingly pulled the axe of one of the Gang of Demons Green Forest masters.

Tap.

From Jeong Yeon-shin’s grasp that naturally caught that axe handle, a heartbeat-like resonance emerged.

The vibration of sword song that was immediately activated extended overhead. In a thoroughly concentrated form like white mist.

Thump! Kugung!

Five hundred pairs of warhorses and masters burst blood from their eyes, noses, and mouths as they fell. Heavy vibrations settled on the ground with thumping sounds like the lingering sound of sword song.

Soon.

The countless pulsing tendons of men and horses from each body faintly disappeared from view.

Damage close to annihilation… The movements of the masters who had been crisscrossing the southern battlefield stopped all at once.

Although the blade and head of the axe in Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand crumbled into powder and scattered with a crack, it couldn’t break the silence that stained the battlefield.

“……”

Step.

Two supreme masters under Gang of Demons Green Forest’s Grand Chief abandoned their horses in midair and landed.

Those wearing elegant silver armor. They were middle-aged men and women holding axes and spears respectively, but both their faces had lost expression like plain white porcelain.

The Grand Chief, who alone had landed intact with his warhorse on one side, was showing his back as he passed beyond Jeong Yeon-shin and Yue Shou-lin.

In the midst of this.

The youth alone wearing a purple long robe slowly parted his lips. While sheathing the Pine Pattern Ancient Sword and carelessly throwing the axe that was only a handle to the ground.

Thud.

[Desolate Fortress.]

It was a voice overflowing with power.

[Guard your position.]

Jeong Yeon-shin’s voice quietly filled the battlefield like an echo.