Chapter 510 – Sunset

Scholar Oh Il-hwan, the administrator of the Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal, was bounced away by the aftershock of the tension that had suddenly swept through, but was caught by the guard warriors and planted his feet on the ground.

It was a moment when everyone’s garment hems that had fluttered violently were slowly settling down.

The warriors were not unharmed either. Each showed signs of barely enduring the overwhelming power wave fluctuations. Scholar Oh quickly made his judgment.

“Let’s enter the arsenal! We need to deploy the Gate Protection Formation!”

The Gate Protection Formation of the Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal.

A formation that protected the countless martial arts manuals of Desolate Fortress, which had continuously developed and become vast in number through generations. As the name suggested, it protected the gate.

It involved surrounding the arsenal’s fortress with internal energy barriers like protective strong energy using the deep cultivation of the guard warriors.

It was also a method decided to be activated when anticipating a reversal of circumstances rather than the annihilation of the main castle during a factional war.

[Yes, the foundation of Desolate Fortress lies with the scholars.]

Shin Cheon-hwa laughed.

[Good judgment. The Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal is a place that contains the history of the main castle, so there’s no reason to burn it down prematurely when a purple has arrived. Just avoid physical harm.]

“May you have martial fortune…!”

It was after seeing Elder Council Head Shin Byeok transform into her.

Scholar Oh and the arsenal’s guard warriors immediately entered the interior of the Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal and disappeared.

Flutter.

The smile of Shin Cheon-hwa, who had shaken out the hand that had earlier unleashed the palm technique several more times, deepened.

[Nephew, your body is in terrible condition.]

Her mental intent rumbled as it pushed and scattered the dust swirling on the ground in all directions.

Even though the original spirit of the former Divine Sword Group Leader had overlaid him, the original body was that of the current Elder Council Head.

A foundation far from wholeness. The former Divine Sword Group Leader’s power couldn’t be completely unleashed.

[I’ll have to use techniques. There will be some enjoyment in moving as I can.]

It wasn’t a soliloquy. Just a voice flowing out according to the dense thoughts of the original spirit.

She was already looking directly at Sea Overflow Fist Heaven, who had reached right before her nose and was pulling back his waist and fist.

Hwaaaaaaaaak!

That fist struck through the instant and stretched out, distorting the surroundings whitishly.

The process of compressing and exploding the hot energy characteristic of blazing yang true energy occurred in an instant, but Shin Cheon-hwa merely flicked her long index finger upward before that fist could even reach her abdomen.

[Thousand Shields, Reckless Thunder.]

Zzzzzzzzzzzing—

A semi-transparent barrier that suddenly manifested between the two in the form of a screen collided with Sea Overflow Fist Heaven’s fist and shattered into dozens of layers.

The recoil that occurred violently enough to destroy even the nearby Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal was sucked into the fragments of the internal energy barrier and couldn’t burst outward.

Crackle!

Simultaneously, blue-green light streams flickered among those colorless true energy fragments.

“…!”

They swelled into blue bodies like threads in the instant Sea Overflow Fist Heaven, wearing a demon mask, widened his eyes, binding him like rope.

A form like the five-colored rope used by government runners to bind criminals. It was a net of internal energy that arose purely using the fist strike shock waves he had earlier exploded as power.

[Very solid indeed. Protective energy that might be used in the northern jianghu. Moreover, traces of imperial army can be seen in your appearance and movements.]

Shin Cheon-hwa parted her lips while meeting his gaze.

[If you were a great general befitting those clothes, you’ve hidden your identity incompletely, and if you’re merely a commoner who learned martial arts, you’re mocking those who protect this nation.]

She asked in a low voice.

[Which is it?]

“Both are correct.”

Sea Overflow Fist Heaven answered with pronunciation that leaked like smoke.

While lightly spreading both arms to either side as if feeling the true energy rope that bound him. But Shin Cheon-hwa’s finger flick came before he could tear apart the restraints.

Snap.

[Puppet’s Play.]

Instantly, the internal energy rope that had heated up blue-green like a bomb’s fuse scattered by itself while emitting a transcendent resonance.

Kwaaaaaaaaang—!

Waves that shot straight up into the sky with tremendous roaring sounds.

Sea Overflow Fist Heaven’s body mixed into that and soared up into the distant void. Like a puppet manipulated in a crude opera performance in the marketplace.

[The peerless masters called vermin of the martial jianghu tend to have terribly tenacious life threads. Naturally, you’ll be the same.]

Wuung.

Shin Cheon-hwa floated up with void treading while clasping her hands behind her back, following him. While leaving her voice mixed with laughter echoing on the ground like an echo.

[The south looks quite peaceful…]

* * *

Eastern side of Desolate Fortress.

The moon that Dream Human Moon Lord had raised didn’t disappear for a long time. The twilight that had dyed the sky hazy black also remained the same.

Her body was the same way.

Even after losing her head, she floated in the void for more than a moment. Like how people’s consciousness drifts through dreams even without particular reason.

Thus.

Golden Thunder gazed silently at Dream Human Moon Lord’s body for quite a long time while holding her head down.

This was because he didn’t know what commands the mental intent that had been on the verge of unleashing Transcendent Martial Art might have given to the body. Such was the existence of peerless masters who had achieved deep Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown.

Yawn—

When he finally yawned.

The prematurely risen moon scattered like smoke. The sky that had become colorless and dim as if twilight had settled also slowly regained its blue color.

Saaaa.

The source of internal energy that had been deploying Transcendent Martial Art lost its vitality.

Dream Human Moon Lord’s headless body fell from the sky and began violently colliding with the air, and the energy waves that had flowed out intensely like a dream scattered helplessly in gray along with the moon’s fragments.

“Whew.”

Golden Thunder, holding the bodiless head, drooped his shoulders in the void.

The eyes that had briefly glowed golden earlier lost their light again, and his focus slowly became hazy.

Only two things had changed from before the life-and-death battle. His face darkened with fatigue and his appearance close to being in tatters.

He grumbled.

“I won’t do it anymore. Can’t do it.”

Hwaaak!

Simultaneously, Golden Thunder released his void treading step right there and began falling toward the ground.

He looked ready to catch up to Dream Human Moon Lord’s body that was falling ahead, but his expression showed extremely exhausted signs.

The nameless Transcendent Martial Art.

A technique where the body flickered like thunder and lightning… Though it displayed overwhelming divine power even for an instant, he had no choice but to receive the recoil of causing the unique mystery under heaven with his entire body.

The two people struck the ground in succession with hair’s breadth differences.

Thud.

With dull collision sounds, small dust clouds rose nearby.

From far above in the void, the scene was captured in the jet-black pupils of the white spirit creature swallow, White Swallow, who was looking down.

Also the sight of Desolate Fortress warriors driving dozens of Dream Human Moon masters in the Obeying Heaven Wing training ground surrounded by white walls.

Zzzzzing! Bang!

“The sect leader…!”

“Don’t speak. I know.”

“We must retreat. First save Junior Zhao, and plan for the future…”

The masters of Dream Human Moon.

Instantly, sound transmission energy waves rippled in unison among them, and each flipped their bodies up into the void to instantly withdraw from the battlefield.

The fruit wine sloshing noisily in the gourd bottles hanging from their waist belts. Simultaneously, hazy power wave fluctuations spread from their bodies.

White Butterfly Forgetting One Life.

Hwaaak!

The energy barrier spread out just like that. They intended to disturb the enemies’ energy sense and even strike acupoints.

At the epicenter was also a giant middle-aged man carrying a youth with one side completely torn off on his shoulder.

They were respectively Magic Phantom Divine Killer and Nine Provinces Dream Fiend, each symbolizing the future and past of Dream Human Moon in Guangxi lands.

But White Swallow glanced roughly at the scene below then turned her small head westward.

Even the sight of Ma Jin tearing through the energy barrier with his entire body and charging at the Dream Human Moon masters at the end of that brief head turn was momentary.

The white swallow stretched her wings backward and shot out like an arrow toward the western side of the main castle. As if there was no need to observe further.

Squeeeeeak!

White Swallow was extremely swift.

The halls of Desolate Fortress captured in the small bird’s pupils became dizzyingly small, and all the scenery was stretched long like countless threads by that speed.

Thus, just as she was passing even the central part of Desolate Fortress, White Swallow briefly glanced at the southern main gate direction.

Ruins stained with corpses.

Just those scattered roughly on castle walls and ground pits numbered in the hundreds.

Instead of the shock waves characteristic of those who steal and use natural earth energy, only a few strands of faint dust like mist blooming by a riverside were tickling those corpses.

The Desolate Fortress people who had retreated like ebbing tide were in a state of turning their blade tips toward enemies who had penetrated into the main castle interior. Not one of them looked back at the main gate.

This was the reason the white swallow’s master remained there.

With his back to a girl holding a silver spear while fluttering black sleeve hems, surrounded by powerful figures possessing truly massive energy waves.

[Half a period remains. I once showed half a time period of generosity to that Yong fellow, but since you’re not a Divine Sword Group Leader… and this is clearly a battlefield, you’ll have to be satisfied with one period.]

The powerful human of Martial Dragon Alliance, who had insight into escape, spoke loudly.

Meanwhile, beside him.

The scholarly-looking man with a bandit-like large frame didn’t seem to agree with those words.

Rather, as if he had earlier delivered a great strike, he was catching his breath while spinning a large axe round and round, and following that rotation, typhoon-like winds scratched the ground creating vast dust clouds.

The white-feathered spirit creature instantly saw through it. That each was aiming for a lethal opening.

In the midst of this.

Yue Shou-lin’s appearance of guarding the surroundings like Jeong Yeon-shin’s shield was extremely stern, and the youth in the only purple long robe on the battlefield had his eyes closed for some reason.

For a brief moment, White Swallow quickly tilted her head. Was he also sleeping while standing?

Squeeeeeeek!

She let out a long cry that couldn’t reach her master and flapped her wings with even more force.

The status of a Desolate Fortress spirit creature was equivalent to its master’s rank.

Rather than the master who couldn’t provide immediate help, it was better to first fulfill the request of the bearded scholar holding a brush.

Thus the Phoenix Annihilation swallow folded the tips of both wings and dove sharply.

“Look there! Look there!”

“It’s White Swallow!”

Waaaaaaaaah—!

Overwhelming cheers rang out. The white warriors and nameless disciples of Desolate Fortress who had already fought one fierce battle and were catching their breath.

The muscles throughout their bodies that had been releasing energy through exhalation contracted once more, and the meridians and blood vessels constricted by those movements heated their internal energy once again.

It was literally momentum rising like wildfire. Enough to startle the plunderers of the jianghu martial world who were approaching from a long distance at the completely collapsed western castle wall.

The incarnation of Phoenix Annihilation.

By its very existence, it boosted the morale of the main castle masters while maintaining tension.

White Swallow, who had greatly puffed up her snow-white belly, soared up to the tall tree towering after crossing the inner castle for a long time.

The tallest tree in the main castle.

The arborvitae tree that the Desolate Fortress Lord had personally watered and tended.

Some human shadow with long hair fluttering was standing on those tree branches. Holding a great bow as large as her body downward.

Swish.

The fingertips of her who had long ago tamed White Swallow as a spirit creature stroked the swallow’s small chin.

“Did you come to urge me?”

Though it was a question, the end of her voice descended indifferently. There wasn’t even a fragment of emotion.

White Swallow chirped quietly.

“If you want to make anything certain, wait a little longer.”

Then the owner of the great bow continued speaking softly.

“Soul-Transcending Bow Technique ends with one shot. Both the life of the one hit and my cultivation sucked into a single arrow.”

Soon after, she turned her head down below the tree.

“…Would you choose?”

A gaze that gently swept over two very distant places. In turn, it passed over the Administrative Office at the center of Desolate Fortress and toward the main castle’s main gate.

There was a figure brazenly crossing the threshold of the Administrative Office, taking advantage of the confusion.

A man dressed entirely in black clothing and wearing a conical hat, whom the jianghu called Yu Ling Leader.

Meanwhile, beyond the still-firm main gate of the main castle, dots were also charging across the horizon carved into Xiangyang’s land.

Even at a glance, it wasn’t a number that would end with just hundreds. The energy waves that overlapped distantly but powerfully while shaking the earth were the same.

Rumble—

The jianghu sects that had hoped for Desolate Fortress’s annihilation… At the end of the extremely secret communications and all sorts of intelligence that Yu Ling had scattered earlier overlapping, all under heaven was rushing here.

Squeak!

White Swallow, who spread her wings wide, suddenly felt through the senses connected to Jeong Yeon-shin that her master had opened his eyes.

Simultaneously.

Kwaaaaaaaaang!

Something that suddenly struck down from the sky created a very large and long furrow in the ground, and some woman stepped down in front of it.

While her hair tied in a single black line fluttered long.

“……”

At Desolate Fortress’s main gate, just before welcoming all the martial world in one place.

Two purples stood there.