Chapter 549 – Demon Realm (4)

Yeoktru Castle.

Built by the northern Yao tribe.

Like their imposing physiques, the massive outer and inner castles were mainly filled by two groups. The northern monsters and southern fugitives. The inside and outside of the huge fortress was their world.

Perhaps that was why.

The wind blowing from outside often clashed with the large stone walls and bodies, creating unusually heavy friction sounds.

This was literally because all kinds of energy waves were pressing down on the atmosphere.

Han Chinese wanderers who made Yeoktru Castle their base and sold their sword skills.

Ming warriors who, for whatever reason, found it difficult to associate honorably with their clans.

Jurchen tribes from Liaodong whose entire clans had been absorbed by the Yao tribe, making their original forms difficult to recognize.

Remnants of the once mighty Yuan Dynasty.

Northern Yao jianghu people who silently observed the fugitives who came up from the south, then either disappeared into darkness or silently dragged some of them away.

Even prodigies born with extraordinary qualities among them.

Yeoktru Castle was a cold furnace.

Winter of famine years. A fortress built on the cold northern land, where powerful clans were chaotically mixed together.

“What is this…?”

“Divine King! How could the Divine King…?”

Among them, the most intimate place was the inner castle of Yeoktru Castle.

It had to be overwhelmingly large and magnificent.

The ceiling height reached over ten zhang, and wide banners hung messily connecting the pillars in the hall and the inside of the roof.

On their surfaces, phrases like “Jin (Gold)” and “Great Qing” were carved in thick brushstrokes. Each bearing slightly different traces of time in their own way.

All of it was in Chinese characters.

This was because the lord of Yeoktru Castle was of mixed Yao and Han blood, and the fortress of Yeoktru itself was a city that absorbed those who fled from the south with full force.

Different traditions, customs, and ways of thinking had to become one, at least in this place.

The dwelling of one who had to press down on all kinds of clans in such a manner.

Outside, several masters known for their mastery of surveillance techniques were peeping into the inner castle through window gaps.

Separate from them writing letters at this moment, great events were repeatedly occurring inside the hall.

“…The pulse has disappeared.”

“Dead. The King has passed away.”

Crude words rang out.

Those surrounding the massive corpse.

Like the corpse lying on the cold stone floor, their physiques also reached at least seven feet.

Yao tribe jianghu people. All naturally possessed bodies like interlocked iron armor.

That’s when it happened.

From exactly three steps above, looking down at the floor from the grand chair.

“Does that fellow still look like a king to you?”

A foreigner wearing a silver mask asked while roughly sitting on tiger fur laid out like a cushion. His build couldn’t be seen precisely due to the thick blood-stained robes he wore.

It was Jeong Yeon-shin.

Drip, drip.

Blood drops falling gloomily along his arms.

The skin on each knuckle of his half-clenched fists was crushed, and blood had pooled stickily between his sleeve edges and arms, making squelching sounds.

“……”

The Yao tribe jianghu people closed their mouths.

None of them looked at Jeong Yeon-shin.

It wasn’t disregard. Everyone in this place knew.

They were just hesitating to turn their bodies toward Jeong Yeon-shin. Due to their instinctively sharper energy sense than most Ming people.

Saaaa—

Meanwhile, white smoke was even faintly rising from the surface of Jeong Yeon-shin’s garment edges. It was the heat that Flame Heat Divine King, who now lay as a corpse, had driven into him.

All that scene made Jeong Yeon-shin’s figure sitting on the grand chair at this moment into something overwhelming.

Enough to make his conduct of looking down at jianghu people of clans larger than himself appear natural.

“Now.”

The masked figure said.

“I am the lord of Yeoktru Castle and the king of this land.”

It was a story uttered with his sleeves stained dark red with blood. For a moment, the silence in the hall deepened.

There was no other reason.

It was because his words and conduct of killing Flame Heat Divine King and sitting on the grand chair suited the northern land very well.

Such was this land where even status was determined by martial prowess.

The man in patched silk robes who had stepped far back, the northern gatekeeper, was also keeping his mouth shut.

‘Is one of his parents Yao tribe…?’

When he wondered.

Jeong Yeon-shin looked at one of those gathered around the dead Flame Heat Divine King and said.

“Now you’re the former lord of Yeoktru Castle.”

“……”

“The king you served is dead, and I wish to sit on the seat of a new Northern King. If you find it distasteful, speak now.”

The one who had originally been lord of Yeoktru Castle.

The unusually tall man didn’t answer those words. He only crumpled his face, which had been distorted from birth, even more.

In the end.

He didn’t charge.

Bundles of dry wind rumbled and repeatedly struck the massive window frames. Only that sound was clear in the hall.

* * *

In any case, things went well in a good direction. Jeong Yeon-shin thought so.

‘Fortunately.’

Yeoktru Castle’s inner castle.

Though a great many people came and went, he looked down at the great hall, the most noble in this city.

“……”

The width of the space spread below the grand chair itself was luxurious. Everything was large. Truly like an inner chamber where a king would conduct government affairs with his subjects.

‘Northern King. It was worthy of being called king.’

At this moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was hiding all his thoughts behind the silver mask. While enduring the burning pain in both arms.

It was the aftereffect of defeating the northern peerless master of Heat Yang True Energy who wore Heaven Silk Steel Armor protective energy.

The one called Northern King Flame Heat Divine King.

—You came after killing a Ming official? Remove your mask and become my subordinate. If you don’t intend to follow orders, you’ll have to prove yourself a strong person.

These were the words Jeong Yeon-shin immediately heard when he had an audience with her, and they were utterly absurd.

The Acting Divine Sword Group Leader of Desolate Fortress should bow his head to village elders, but must never become another’s subordinate. No matter how much it was covert action.

If such conduct were ever revealed later, the prestige of all of Desolate Fortress would inevitably be diminished.

Yong Hye-myeong and Jeong Yeon-shin were such beings.

The most venerable divine sword under heaven. Even wearing a mask right now didn’t change the essence.

—Prove it.

Jeong Yeon-shin killed her with bare hands after fierce combat.

They were literally bare hands, and he didn’t reveal any of the techniques of Lotus Nezha Lightning Genius that were now widely known in the jianghu under heaven.

It could be said to be quite sufficient as the price for today’s wounds… since those who had been her subordinates were now cleaning the hall following Jeong Yeon-shin’s gestures.

—It went… well, right? I was going to lend a hand if things went badly. That’s right, hand! Don’t your hands hurt? It might not look good to apply golden wound medicine now, but you must tell me if it hurts a lot.

Shin So-bin’s mental transmission tickled his ear. Right now she was standing leaning right next to the grand chair where Jeong Yeon-shin sat.

Jeong Yeon-shin became serious on the spot.

—Even as a joke, you shouldn’t say such things. If I’m losing, you should run away.

—Ew, I don’t want to? I have my pride too.

—This is why children…

—You know we’re the same age, right? I’ve been curious about what Grand Leader thinks from before.

Jeong Yeon-shin resolved. To firmly make an agreement so Shin So-bin wouldn’t do absurd things.

Grand Commander Quan Yu-li said all Northern Kings were peerless masters.

The reason the Ming Dynasty’s imperial masters and military had all blocked the Great Wall.

In southern terms, they were beings comparable to princes like King Qiong-ming, the Thirteen Evil Sect Leaders, or sect leaders of the Nine Great Sects.

Even the Fighting God couldn’t unify the north because of them. Some followed him, but others rebelled against him.

So Jeong Yeon-shin had to mix among them even if it meant pushing himself somewhat.

Fortunately, the northern jianghu was also a place that absorbed even Han and Ming fugitives, swelling the martial power of that land.

It was truly difficult.

Both mixing into the north while maintaining dignity.

And facing monsters like Northern Kings with bare hands.

Even so, Jeong Yeon-shin had to hide his true identity. At least until his colleagues from the main fortress arrived.

‘I wonder if Senior Beigong and Senior Wei Zhi were safely released.’

While thinking of things that wouldn’t have immediate answers.

The blood was wiped away, and the corpse disappeared.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently dominated that time and naturally became the head of Yeoktru Castle. There was no one who rebelled against the legitimate result of a life-and-death duel.

The north was such a land.

—The name Yeoktru (役褸) attached to that castle means our clan’s gesture of treating humans from your land as lowly servants.

Northern Blade’s words.

Jeong Yeon-shin now had to stand at the head under the name Yelu. Of course, he had no intention of acting as Northern Blade said.

Since he had gained status to actively intervene in northern affairs, he could move greatly in his own way on this northern land and attempt internal collapse.

While being careful that other Northern King forces couldn’t expose his identity.

‘But right now…’

His attention was drawn to the inadequacy he felt while facing Flame Heat Divine King.

Initially, he had wanted to use his sword.

First, he had the intuition that it wouldn’t be easy to face Flame Heat Divine King without swordwork and Remaining Thunder, and second, he didn’t want to face a Heat Yang martial artist like Lazy Flame Dragon carelessly.

But even after recognizing anew the situation he was in during that brief moment, he couldn’t do so. He had to fight with fist and foot techniques without Remaining Thunder.

‘And…’

He would have to continue doing so.

Similarly, until the Divine Sword Squad came up to this land.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth. Toward the raggedly dressed man in silk robes, the northern gatekeeper, who was blankly staring at him.

“Your protective energy.”

“Uh, um…?”

The man reflexively asked back.

He had handed Jeong Yeon-shin over to Bright Sky Fortress Lord Demon Contempt Blade, then came to the inner castle as soon as he heard news that the guest he had let through began fighting with Flame Heat Divine King.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked quietly.

“Does Heaven Silk Steel Armor display different functions according to the energy cultivation you’ve learned? Your protective strong energy was different from Flame Heat Divine Corpse’s methods. Hers was so aggressive it was hard to call protective energy.”

He called her a corpse because he was reluctant to call a Northern King a king, and it felt quite fitting.

Absolute beings who had slaughtered countless Wudang disciples and all sorts of southern warriors. If he could change all these people’s title of King to Corpse in the future, wouldn’t there be fewer sad masters like Taoist High Sword?

Swish.

He slightly raised one arm then lowered it.

Fierce heat had penetrated through internal weight techniques. Even though the protective energy the Tang siblings had built up, Precious Radiant Star Heaven, was transparently wrapped around him, he was in this state. Pain was stabbing through every fine texture of his skin.

Meanwhile, the gatekeeper seemed flustered.

“…Why don’t you just ask me to teach you the formulas?”

“That’s something only those without manners would do. I’m not someone who uses force to commit tyranny.”

For a moment, Jeong Yeon-shin felt the presence of Shin So-bin’s small toe beside him curling. The reason was hard to fathom.

In the meantime, the northern gatekeeper who had been silent briefly opened his mouth again.

“Your words are correct. Heaven Silk Steel Armor is a martial art that naturally harmonizes with internal energy cultivation methods. Whatever martial art you learn, it raises deadly spikes in form, so it can truly be called the world’s greatest battlefield martial art.”

“The Fighting God created it?”

“If not him, then who? There’s only one person so obsessed with fighting throughout ancient and modern times. He’s a vessel who would found a nation beyond jianghu.”

Like this, one by one.

Northern martial arts began to reveal their substance.

It seemed all of them were traces of the Fighting God.

“Ordinary fist and foot techniques would be difficult. If I were to continue consecutive battles.”

Jeong Yeon-shin muttered low.

The gatekeeper erased the surprised look filling his face and smiled broadly. Regardless of his origin, his very soul felt extremely free.

“A correct thought. Right now the jianghu people of this inner castle acknowledged you through your fight with Flame Heat Divine King, but the various Northern Kings will view you differently. Right now nearby Shame Extreme King and Dragon Sound Sasa King have requested audiences, so who knows what judgment they’ll make.”

“Speaking of which.”

“…?”

“Is Yeoktru Castle’s military strength now mine?”

Northern King Yelu.

It was the question of one who had dug into Yao tribe customs and become king himself.

At that moment.

The gatekeeper answered affirmatively with a somehow active attitude, and immediately added follow-up words.

“So… what I just said means you must do politics well. Tightrope walking with eloquence and conduct. Operating Yeoktru Castle’s military strength is the same. Looking at you, you seem like a peerless warrior of solitary jianghu like Sword Saint or Wolf Saint, so you probably lack experience as a monarch…”

“I’ll do well.”

Jeong Yeon-shin declared.

Unlike the Acting Divine Sword Group Leader, Northern King Yelu had no great responsibilities.