Chapter 570 – Contest (3)

There exists a being called Pangu.

The creation god of Taoism.

It’s a legend that the Yao tribes became fond of telling after the founding of the Ming Dynasty. It’s known to have been first written in a book called the Three-Five Calendar Record of the ancient Wu Kingdom.

The story of how the world was created when a giant as large as the world itself collapsed and died.

The northern Yao tribes couldn’t help but make use of it.

They too possessed large builds, and they intended to found a nation in the future. The same goes for ‘Pointed Rock Space’ – that is, the distinctive northern architectural style where roof ends rise sharply like blades.

It proved that even the Yao tribe common people who built their own houses were extremely warlike.

Not only that.

The northern blacksmiths who only knew how to make bladed weapons, the axe-wielders who commonly exchanged martial arts under the name of schools rather than sects, and even the wandering warriors who didn’t seek advancement under the Northern Kings but engaged in plunder in the wilderness.

Every being enjoyed elevating themselves.

Even various dynastic names that Scholar Star had prepared in advance were being widely used.

Jin. Da Qing.

Like this, the ‘Pangu legend’ was also one of the means to establish tribal prestige. At the same time, it was also the core mental imagery used by Yao tribe secret martial techniques.

A massive frame with Heaven Silk Steel Armor that blades and spears couldn’t penetrate.

Strength that could uproot ancient trees by the roots with external martial arts alone.

With a plausible appearance plus extraordinary shields and spears, they had more than enough reason to claim themselves as descendants of Pangu.

“…Just like the Ming Imperial family’s lies.”

A giant standing tall in the wilderness laughs.

It was Scholar Star among the Six Star Lords.

“Compatriots with long ears and short stature returned from the gates of heaven, destroyed the evil Yuan, and founded the Great Ming together with Taizu… Haha, not foreigners but ‘returning compatriots’! Isn’t that an excellent play on words? I truly learned much from them.”

“……”

“Ruinous Star might not know this, but it was precisely a collaboration between Ming Founding Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and the Grand Empress Dowager. Founding Emperor wanted the power of the elf clan masters, while the Grand Empress Dowager wanted stability for the clans that had fled from the Gates. Their interests aligned, allowing them to completely annihilate the Yuan Dynasty’s powerful martial military forces.”

Thus the Mongol mounted martial arts, which remained only in bloodline, were absorbed by the Yao tribes.

Because the interests of the Yao tribes and the former Yuan Dynasty coincided. In conquering the Ming Dynasty and in extinction respectively.

“Likewise, King Yelu should have something worth trading with me. It’s regrettable and troublesome to be like this. I’m only now understanding why the Northern Blade elevated you to the Six Star Lords…”

Scholar Star said this while lifting King Yelu up to an eye level close to a considerable castle wall.

Nine feet tall.

Literally a giant.

The sight of Jeong Yeon-shin being lifted by his right arm.

A thudding sound came from King Yelu’s half-torn armpit. But the two stared at each other without showing any expression.

Saaaa—

Sand grains that had shot up from several shockwaves fell along their bodies.

The blood that had been flowing from Jeong Yeon-shin’s split armpit had long since stopped on its own.

Only the sandy wind stirred desolately with the sticky pool of blood.

Meanwhile, dark blue mirages were rippling across the giant’s body. Even distorting the mirage spread widely across the wilderness.

The words of the one known to have conversed most with the Fighting God continued.

“So it seems the flames of my energy armor are useless against Ruinous Star. This has never happened before, so I’m perplexed about what kind of protective energy you’re wearing.”

Truly admirable—

It was Chinese pronunciation so clear it was chilling.

The head of Jeong Yeon-shin hanging from Scholar Star’s hand tilted slightly to the side.

“You’re quite comfortable being right next to me.”

Following his head movement, his ebony-like hair flowed down smoothly.

The bearing of Prince Nezha, known in folk religion as a god skilled in battle.

The connoisseurs who had once given him the epithet Lotus Nezha had good judgment.

The eyes of Scholar Star, who had the widest knowledge among the Six Star Lords, didn’t miss such temperament.

“Ruinous Star, you are…”

Then.

Suddenly, colorless threads arose from inside Jeong Yeon-shin’s right arm.

Jeong Family Dynamic Technique Mastery.

Chapter of Ghost Cry Hegemon King.

Wooong!

Materialized true energy, that is, streams of protective energy, filled the split bones and reconnected severed meridians in an instant.

Every single movement was extremely precise.

“…!”

It was said that the Desolate Fortress Divine Sword Group Leader’s entire body was composed of martial arts.

Jeong Yeon-shin was the same.

Having experienced many battlefields, he wouldn’t fall into combat incapacity until reaching death. He was now in a position where this was only natural.

Crack!

The masked natural disaster flicked the fingers of his right arm caught by Scholar Star. An extremely short movement. It was precisely Finger Wind.

Neither the closest Scholar Star nor the Divine Thief standing right beside him had any chance to intervene.

Kugugugugung!

Semi-transparent whirlwinds struck up Scholar Star’s arm with banging sounds.

The sleeves of the giant with an enormously wide build wrinkled in succession. Scholar Star’s grip also loosened slightly at the same time.

Jeong Yeon-shin had already deflected both the Divine Thief, who had placed her hand on his front lapel, and Scholar Star’s straight punch that came charging directly at him by rotating his entire body.

It was the Wind God body technique.

Flap!

He whirled back to his original position along with loudly fluttering sleeves.

At the feet of Jeong Yeon-shin who had stopped like this was the Sword Empress. Still leaning on her sword with lost consciousness. As if nothing had happened at all.

Diancang Sect Leader Jin Xuan-chan. She was the eye of the storm.

Quick-witted Scholar Star flexed and opened his hand that had been repeatedly struck by the Finger Wind and laughed.

“Sword Empress Jin Xuan-chan… The eighth-generation direct descendant of the Yunnan Jin Family, a person who once revealed Transcendent Martial Art in the jianghu. Her other ultimate technique is Sun Piercing Sword. The protective energy that needs to be broken is Light Yang Chaotic Heaven Silk. Additionally, be wary of the footwork of Heavenly Yang Divine Steps. It’s a face from the appearance records sent from Yu Ling.”

“Pure-blood Yao tribes seem to have large tongues too.”

“What King Yelu is trying to protect is also considerably large. As the Southern Emperor said, I’m now beginning to be certain of your identity as well…”

Scholar Star ambiguously trails off his words.

Beside him, the Divine Thief kicked the ground tap tap. In a manner of accumulating propulsive shock waves, each time her heel touched the ground, gentle dust clouds drew concentric circles.

The ends of her long ash-colored hair were fluttering lightly as if teasing.

The Divine Thief spoke in a voice faint as a dream.

“One strike and I can take it back again.”

What she was talking about was clear.

Half of the Zhongnan Sword Immortal secret manual that Jeong Yeon-shin had taken. Her interest as the Divine Thief was focused on the item that had been stolen from her again by someone.

Two northern monsters of supernatural strength skilled in combined attacks. They had even spent incomparably more years in war than Jeong Yeon-shin. Naturally, one thought inevitably came to mind.

How long could he protect the Diancang Sect Leader?

Kugung! Kugugung—!

Sharp shockwaves were constantly bursting in the distant sky. It was none other than the Sword Saint clashing with Six Star Lords’ Upright Star.

Occasionally, white feathery clouds would be torn lengthwise at the points where they collided.

‘Right now, except for the elder among our allies, there’s no one who could block that much.’

But he didn’t know how the outcome would turn out.

The temperament of the person presumed to be Upright Star was very peculiar. Likewise, her martial arts system would be bizarrely monstrous.

However, he couldn’t think further.

It was because Scholar Star and the Divine Thief had disappeared from their positions.

The next moment.

Zzeojeojeojeojeojeong!

Before he knew it, Jeong Yeon-shin was at a point ten steps forward, completely deflecting all the hand techniques of the two war monsters. While completely turning his back on the Sword Empress.

Luminous Wheel Energy that fiercely rotated the light wheel of the heart and pounded throughout the entire body.

His whole body’s muscles had long been filled with the explosive power of Ultimate Thunder, and his form had become hazily distorted in a state completely adapted to the speed of Scholar Star and the Divine Thief.

Kung! Kugugung!

Hands and feet entwining like whips while creating semi-transparent storms in place.

Those afterimages grew thicker as the exchanges continued.

All sorts of punches and kicks were carved into the air, their numbers swelling like clouds and reaching hundreds.

Scholar Star’s fists, focused entirely on strong punches, caused the ground to sink each time they fell, while the Divine Thief became blurred as she lightly stepped on the layers of rising dust like stairs.

Scholar Star’s temperament as he poured out fists like hail was no different from a madman. He seemed intent on crushing Jeong Yeon-shin to death.

At the same time, strange energy waves puffed out from the Divine Thief’s body and seeped into Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. Literally like rays of light circling around with the optic nerves.

Jeong Yeon-shin swept away and checked all those powerful attacks and movements with all his hands and feet. Naturally, he also concentrated on the spirit in his upper dantian to prevent his mind from shaking.

Meanwhile, the two absolute masters on the enemy side substituted internal energy breathing with speech as if they were veterans of war.

“Ruinous Star, was this your level!”

“Give it back. Hand it over.”

When deflecting giant fists with his forearms, their protective energies exploded in dark blue light, and to the Divine Thief who kept pressing down on his limbs with the pressure of thousand-pound weights, he poured out the repulsive force of True Radiance Brilliant Star Heaven.

Each time, tremendous pressure pressed on his five organs and six bowels, and his shoulders crashed down with banging sounds.

It was the same as when he had once handled the combined attack of the Heaven Conquering Sect Leader and Dark Heaven Emperor. He couldn’t gain the upper hand.

However.

It was possible to hold them off temporarily.

The problem erupted from elsewhere. Enormous pressures pressed in from distant points.

Tremendously concentrated energy waves were constricting from all directions, and it wasn’t just one or two groups. It would be the martial military forces brought by the Northern Kings.

Thud thud thud thud thud!

The resonance of horse hooves loaded with internal energy.

The vibration was intense.

The scale transmitted through the ground was tremendous. It seemed at least a thousand or more enemies had come charging on horseback from all directions.

Sharpness entered Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.

‘Bright Wind Spirit…’

The enemies’ reaction speed was terrifying.

This Clear Light Plain was originally an empty wilderness, but it felt like human barriers had been erected in an instant.

Naturally, the allies that Jeong Yeon-shin had called would also have been blocked.

Everything was a difficult problem.

How to protect the Sword Empress in this situation.

What movement route to take to safely join with allies.

“I did strike with swift resolution… but I’m afraid the book you took might be torn. Please give us that bundle of papers and agree to mediation. I cannot allow anything else.”

Scholar Star spoke during the intense movements, and for some reason, he felt the shadow of the Fighting God whom he’d never even seen.

The sound caves created by the enemies.

Masters of the battlefield who had moved in unity since long ago. Literally a nation’s Empty Moon Dance.

It was overwhelming.

‘First push forward directly, then…’

It was when Jeong Yeon-shin was mulling over the distant feeling.

Kugugung!

Suddenly, some ominous vibration burrowed under his feet.

It was the mystery of words formed by some kind of explosive force technique striking his sole’s Yongquan acupoint, with that content immediately carved into his mind.

—New Nether Stream Squad Leader Yun So-hyeon pays respects to the Acting Group Leader. You might not remember, but we met once at the Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal before.

One of the seventeen energies most familiar to Jeong Yeon-shin. Energy waves by the internal energy operation method of the Nether Stream Squad’s Earth King Divine Arts.

Coming in waves with time delays like aftershocks of an earthquake that had already occurred and stopped, those shock waves even contained Radiant Art Bond.

The identity was clear.

—I’ve organized the lineup of allies and enemies plus the martial arts and elimination order of key figures. As you know, the situation is not good. The battlefield extends from here at Clear Light Plain to Yeoktru Castle and the opposite Ice Breathing Mountain, with a diameter of one hundred li. Having completed battlefield assessment, I’ll provide support from now on.

In the storm of life-and-death struggle spread across the yellowish-brown vast plain.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s face changed to a faintly smiling one, but he couldn’t send a reply to Yun So-hyeon.

The Nether Stream Squad’s secret Earth King Word Crossing Technique was a sound transmission method where the caster’s location couldn’t be determined.

It was said that even if the supreme master who cast it had already died, the words left in advance would be completely transmitted. Like accumulating explosive force in one point.

—In the current situation, Sword Empress Jin Xuan-chan is nothing but baggage. I’m sorry for not being able to seek agreement from the Acting Group Leader, but I’ll wake her up here.

Originally, energy that pierces heaven awakens the spirit, while earth energy that supports the feet governs the body.

The two were connected.

The Nether Stream Squad’s distinctive earth energy passed through Jeong Yeon-shin and exploded at the Sword Empress’s soles and buttocks.

Kwakwakwang!

While the eyelids of the Diancang Sect Leader who had been kneeling on one knee trembled.

Nether Stream Squad Leader Yun So-hyeon’s shock waves gently wrapped around Jeong Yeon-shin’s heels once more. Because the true energy structure of Radiant Art Bond was mixed in, it felt naturally drawn in by the Luminous Wheel Energy.

She said.

—First, please call the purple long robe and divine sword Remaining Thunder. You must reclaim your identity.

Nether Stream.

Faith that flows even in the underworld.

It was said that the word ‘invincible’ was permitted to a Divine Sword Group Leader who received support from subordinate squad leaders.

Jeong Yeon-shin had also become that way.