Chapter 555 – Five Swords, Six Stars (2)

Sword Silk, who had been sent flying by the old swordsman’s gesture.

The sharp sword wind faintly disappeared, and part of the remaining blade wind silently seeped into the earth dust like thread. All that scene was extremely concise.

It was a move of an absolute swordsman.

For a moment, Sword Silk’s fallen shadow gradually darkened within the smoke. Along with the silence of the Mineral Soul Mountain Range’s common people who had been cheering for Dragon Sound Sasa King’s proxy warrior, most of whom were Yao tribe.

“……”

Men and women, old and young, with massive builds standing on sharply pointed rooftops or proudly on war horses’ saddles.

Cold gazes looked down at Sword Silk.

It was different from the Ming Dynasty jianghu that praised both winners and losers together in martial contests. They submitted to the strong while despising Northern Kings or monarchs who lost in fights.

Victory reports that would allow them to escape the barren land were their life’s hope.

Monarch Sword Silk’s defeat.

But since he was a Northern King’s proxy warrior, he hadn’t lost consciousness from a single move. Starting with how he shook his head vigorously from where he lay sprawled, then struck the ground with one hand and stood up.

[Damn it.]

Yellow eye light flashed through his disheveled black hair like a wild horse’s mane.

His pupils, still erected long like northern spears, repeatedly expanded and contracted for a brief moment. Like a beast that had reached a master’s realm through inner energy cultivation.

Sword Star openly expressed admiration.

“Truly an enviable body. The strongest of strong bones.”

It was a story told peacefully while releasing his hand blade technique.

Sword Silk, who had lost balance and been sent flying before the absolute swordsman, was already as good as dead. It was why Sword Star hadn’t bothered to follow up with consecutive attacks.

Jeong Yeon-shin inwardly agreed with his words.

‘I don’t know if it’s really true, but they said he has a half-dragon body like Senior Yong.’

Would the young Yong Hye-myeong have been like this if he hadn’t been taken in by Ma Yeon-jeok? Though he seemed to be around twenty, he was emitting such vast accumulated energy that Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown would be impossible. It certainly wasn’t an ordinary case.

Crack—

[I lost.]

Contrary to his words, colorless sparks were violently bursting from his body like lightning.

But Sword Silk leaped back and retreated far away. At this moment, it was movement that made his belligerently glowing eyes pale.

[As my defeat for failing to achieve Dull Flower Gathering at the Crown, Northern King Yelu has the right to receive an apology from monarch Sword Silk. Please forgive my rudeness.]

“His acceptance of defeat isn’t clean. He must be quite young.”

Shin So-bin’s whisper, but Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t answer because this fellow called Sword Silk overlapped with his past self. It felt like karma rising from distant past. Why had he been like that?

Then.

Kugugung—

The void trembled.

The city at the entrance of Mineral Soul Mountain.

It was propulsive energy waves that arose from the middle of the marketplace spread behind Sword Silk’s back.

Some man’s stone statue was erected quite large, and shock waves of void treading hazily burst from those giant hands.

As a fairly large shadow was cast over Jeong Yeon-shin’s group’s heads for a moment.

A massive woman carrying a fine horse on her shoulder landed before them.

Thud!

Dust clouds spreading in concentric circles from the tips of her callused bare feet.

For an instant, a thick vibration arose with a whoosh, but it was the mystery of divine technique that mixed all the rebound force from landing into the dust.

The war horse the woman carried wouldn’t have felt a trace of impact.

Sword Star, who had been quietly watching that sight, slowly opened his mouth.

“The horse is pregnant. Wouldn’t it be better to leave her comfortably in a stable?”

“Who knows if someone might steal her?”

The woman, whose features were all intact like Han Chinese but had very thick facial lines, said with an equally blunt smile.

Clearly the appearance of mixed Yao and Han blood. It was a rough smile that suited her height looking down at Jeong Yeon-shin and Sword Star.

Soon after, she introduced herself according to northern jianghu etiquette.

“Strange Northern King and proxy warriors. I am the king of Yaozhou and Quanxi, the predecessor of the dead flood dragon martial lineage, and also the master of southern Mineral Soul Mountain and monarch Sword Silk.

Though I will not break the noble laws established by the Fighting God, I cannot let you pass through this place.”

“……”

“Be satisfied with the land you possess and return. I am a king who will someday conquer the Henan lands of the Ming Dynasty, and my head is overheated with plans to smash Shaolin’s 108 Arhat Formation… You, Yelu, must respect the Northern King’s karma given to me.”

Watertight temperament.

She was an absolute master worthy of calling herself king.

Ironclad transcendence surrounded her, with no feeling that she could be persuaded by anyone. She seemed well-versed in etiquette yet had tenacious subjectivity and stubbornness.

‘The information is correct. A Northern King favorable to the Fighting God.’

Jeong Yeon-shin inwardly chose his words.

The Fighting God’s law that Northern King and Northern King shouldn’t engage in one-on-one life-and-death duels. But there was no law that Northern Kings who didn’t cooperate with the Fighting God would also keep his will.

If Dragon Sound Sasa King had charged first like that, it would have been easy, but now that it had come to this, it became difficult to see blood.

—It seems difficult to hand over territory with just one proxy warrior’s defeat. She seems inclined to only treat us with courtesy as a Northern King… and doesn’t seem likely to cooperate further.

At this moment, Shin So-bin’s mental transmission while standing upright even before the absolute master. Jeong Yeon-shin’s thoughts were the same as hers.

What should he do?

When he was briefly pondering.

Suddenly Sword Star burst into hearty laughter.

“Your face is quite thick. I suppose one would need to be that way to play king.”

Even at the old man’s pointed words, Dragon Sound Sasa King’s smile didn’t disappear.

“This body is an old Northern King, and my name is thicker than Yelu’s. Would Sword Silk be the only monarch to fight for Dragon Sound Sasa King? I know your purpose lies in expanding territory.”

At her words, Jeong Yeon-shin was certain.

‘The Northern King didn’t properly grasp the Alliance Leader elder’s martial prowess.’

Sword Star Hyeon So-baek.

Unlike when he was once pressuring multiple great houses alone at the Hanzhong Martial Alliance, he was in a state of hiding his true martial prowess.

The Return to Origin that Sword Star had achieved was a realm that made even equal masters’ eye techniques useless. It was truly the bearing of an absolute swordsman who had lived in a wanderer’s world where survival was prioritized.

Just as Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t properly gauge Divine Sword Deputy Group Leader Jin Myeong-jo’s martial prowess, conversely Dragon Sound Sasa King didn’t seem to regard Sword Star as an existence of Northern King caliber.

Was it possible for an existence capable of ascending to kingship themselves to serve another as king? At least in this land it was unprecedented, so it was inevitably difficult to immediately assume as a Northern King.

“Do you intend to plan consecutive battles with other proxy warriors?”

Sword Star clicked his tongue and added. I wonder if this old man’s knees will hold out.

Naturally it was jest.

But it seemed only Jeong Yeon-shin and Shin So-bin, and somehow only Demon Contempt Blade, could feel absolute faith in those peaceful words.

‘What is that fellow doing?’

Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at Demon Contempt Blade’s heavy presence felt from behind. And he asked Dragon Sound Sasa King, who was somehow already stroking the war horse’s belly.

“How many more proxy warriors and monarchs do you have?”

“Right now only Sword Silk, but unlike you, I have alliances.”

“Alliances?”

“This wilderness isn’t a place where only Northern King Yelu’s forces roam. Other kings also have thoughts, and they properly look ahead, pondering by what means they can crush you under horse hooves for quite some time.”

“……”

“Your movement route was simpler than expected, moving only to nearby places. Even if one wasn’t a tribal priest, it was easy to guess. That Yelu’s next conquest would be this place, my land.”

Purrrr—

The fine horse placed on her shoulder snorted roughly, and that sound brought an eerily oppressive feeling as if it were a precursor to Transcendent Martial Art.

“You obtained a strong proxy warrior, but originally war isn’t conducted one-on-one.”

Dragon Sound Sasa King said.

Mineral Soul Mountain, where tension had been briefly relaxed.

“…!”

While Sword Silk, who had been crouching sulkily at a distance with a somewhat dejected face, blinked his eyes, the valley that had long been said to be dried up began to flow rapidly like it had become a gorge.

Something accomplished by the will of various Northern Kings and monarchs.

[Ice Emperor approaches!]

[Northern King Shame Extreme arrives!]

Kugugugugung!

Following the competitive voices of men that suddenly rang out, the valley shook.

Six Harmonies Voice arising from tremendous accumulated energy in each case. Particularly the voice of the one who mentioned ‘Ice Emperor’ was mysteriously peaceful yet contained overwhelming power reminiscent of an absolute master.

It was also a voice very familiar to Jeong Yeon-shin. Because the same burnt smell as his name flowed from the voice.

Passs.

Stone piles rolling down here and there due to the aftermath of the two shouts.

“Did you hear?”

Dragon Sound Sasa King said while adjusting the fine horse on her shoulder.

“When there are three Northern Kings, that place becomes the north’s hell. As far as I know, they use similar words in the southern Desolate Fortress. I don’t know which came first, but in terms of the dignity of names, this side would be far superior.”

Aren’t you also a king? she added.

Speech naturally including even Jeong Yeon-shin as a Northern King while displaying lofty pride. It was truly worthy of being called royal dignity.

But Jeong Yeon-shin had long since placed his energy sense elsewhere. Naturally because he absolutely trusted Sword Star, but at this moment there were energy waves felt along with Shin So-bin’s cry.

“We’re being surrounded from the bottom of the mountain! Not just one or two, but at the level of a major sect’s full strength… Huh, both sides are too strong…!”

[Northern King Yelu, listen roughly.]

Then Six Harmonies Voice with a somehow languid feeling cut off Shin So-bin’s words. It was the man who had mentioned Ice Emperor earlier.

[This body is First Husband Someone Hwangbo of the world’s Ice Emperor, and on the way here I casually stopped by Yeoktru Castle and received the surrender of the northern gatekeeper and former Yeoktru Castle Lord.

In other words, you now have no stronghold. Unless you’ve devoured the entire Mineral Soul Mountain Range in this short time.]

By then, Shin So-bin’s head movements as she hurriedly looked left and right had quietly stopped.

In front of them, Demon Contempt Blade was somehow offering a strand of dried grass to Dragon Sound Sasa King’s war horse, making it difficult to distinguish whether he had switched sides or intended to launch a surprise attack on the opponent.

Even in that moment, the First Husband’s provocative words continued leisurely.

[Particularly, the former Yeoktru Castle Lord held great resentment toward you due to the death of Flame Heat Divine King he originally served. I heard he was Flame Heat Divine King’s proxy warrior, but if it were me, I would have beheaded him long ago. Looking at it, you… rather than being a Ming Dynasty fugitive, you’re closer to a chivalrous hero with generous hands. What’s your identity? Anyway, I’m coming to see now.]

—Leading the absolute master of the strongest ice techniques under heaven, truly serving a new Northern King.

Lazy Flame Dragon’s words were cut off like that.

‘That crazy b*st*rd…?’

Jeong Yeon-shin inwardly wondered. Why is he so competent now?

* * *

The south of the demon realm.

Land where monarchs brought under command symbolized a Northern King’s power and prestige.

Dragon Sound Sasa King and Shame Extreme King, and the newly-appointed Northern Kings Yelu and Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord respectively encountered each other in the Mineral Soul Mountain Range composed of strange rocks.

Each using the dry winter wind as cushions or mats.

An incident that those with wind techniques who had extremely fast news were already calling the Mineral Soul Gathering, thanks to their possession of wind studies.

Dragon Sound Sasa King and Shame Extreme King were existences waiting for the Fighting God’s return.

Therefore, it was essentially a fight between proxy warriors possessed by four Northern Kings, and the northern jianghu people below Mineral Soul Mountain had mostly climbed the mountain to see the Northern Sea Ice Palace Lord’s overwhelming Northern King enthronement ceremony.

The odds were already being predicted that way.

Even by the insight of those who had claimed positions on Mineral Soul Mountain’s stone hills first.

“It’s a kind of ritual. You could call it a festival. Our palace has finally come down to the south.”

“Well. There might be unforeseen circumstances…”

They were twin siblings.

With long pale blue hair hanging down, each face had clear lines with authoritative temperament gathered on them.

Beigong Hu and Beigong Rin, who attended to the Ice Palace Lord’s First Husband. Otherwise they were guards and servants.

The younger sister Beigong Rin said while looking down below. At this moment, Northern King Yelu’s group was reflected in her faintly silver-tinted eyes.

“There are rumors that two of the Six Star Lords in the eastern demon realm broke their seclusion. I heard they’re absolute masters who read heavenly secrets, so I wonder if the Palace Lord knows about it.”

“Two of them? Did they come out for a stroll?”

“That’s an unfunny joke. Anyway, we need to establish ourselves here as quickly as possible. Before an unbearable storm blows.”

Around then.

Hwaaaaaak!

The atmosphere below the hill violently distorted with hot energy, and like invisible fireworks exploding, a pair of man and woman manifested while tearing open the space warped here and there.

A scene fitting the title Ice Emperor.

The Ice Palace Lord and her First Husband had arrived before Shame Extreme King’s group.

“I’ve been waiting.”

The First Husband Lazy Flame Dragon, wearing pale blue silk clothes like a noble, briefly smiled faintly and then stopped speaking. As if his complex divine technique breathing had gotten tangled for a moment.

Beigong Rin, who had been watching them from the hill, clicked her tongue.

“Hadn’t he quit the poppy? Our Palace Lord said it was an absolute elixir.”

“As if that wastrel could manage such a thing.”

Beigong Hu said with a slow smile.

Meanwhile, below the hill.

“……”

Northern King Yelu was silently watching the Ice Palace Lord couple.