Chapter 573 – Contest (6)

Two shadows buried in a sea of pure white clouds.

A gaunt old swordsman and a large-framed young woman facing each other. They stood on clouds using void-treading steps.

A Han Chinese and a Yao tribesman respectively.

The Yao woman’s face was rough. Like the handle of a weapon worn down by long battles. But her grayish-white skin was full of vitality.

Unlike the old swordsman, her face had elasticity. There was no feeling whatsoever that her skills had rusted.

The old swordsman opened his mouth.

“How vexing. You are too young.”

Too young.

Meaning a warrior whose blood and energy are vigorous compared to her age.

Even the crescent blade in one of her hands was the same. The long handle was entirely brilliant red, with an unusually large butt-spike attached to its end that scattered sunlight.

A weapon that mixed the northern style emphasizing strength with the Ming Dynasty’s graceful casting methods.

It was truly magnificent.

In contrast, the old man’s sword was aged like its master. It was simple without any style worth mentioning, rusted in places and chipped.

The northern woman clicked her tongue as if the old sword and old swordsman were pitiful.

“Truly regrettable beyond measure. You’ve been taking the full brunt of the rushing years head-on. The time I’ve lived must be similar to yours, yet I feel the strength in your grip gradually weakening. If only you had been a Yao tribesman, you would have given me pleasure for much longer than this…”

“What strange things are regrettable. Living in this harsh world naturally brings wrinkles to one’s face and stains to one’s sword handle.”

The old man appeared leisurely at a glance.

But whether his aged muscle fibers and old acupoints were the same was another matter.

Meanwhile, the scenery that filled their surroundings.

The sea of clouds was torn to shreds like feathers. Everything was white and sharp. A scene where only dazzling sunlight rippled leisurely above it.

It was the effect of repeatedly unleashed energy waves.

Their battle had long exceeded a thousand exchanges. They had collided before Jeong Yeon-shin clashed with Literary Star and the Divine Thief beneath the pure white clouds.

Sword Star Hyeon So-baek and Six Star Lord Upright Star.

Even throughout all under heaven, such a battle would not easily occur, yet they still had leisure.

Enough to simultaneously disappear while substituting internal energy breathing for conversation.

“Your state is laughable. An ignorant old man is satisfied with just holding me down!”

“Your tongue is long.”

The collision was instantaneous.

Zzeojeojeojeojeojeong! Pwaaaaang—!

Ripples burst as if summoning a typhoon in the sky, and feathery clouds were pushed out in giant circles.

Upright Star’s Towering Yellow Ten Knots and the Sword Star’s unique sword technique, the Martial Net Sword.

Both their hands became blurred.

With consecutively swung crescent blade and sword, they distorted the sunlight wavily. Naturally, the two blades clashed endlessly in that instant.

With their respective empty hands, they deployed peerless palm techniques, semi-transparent blade winds shooting out in dozens of streams to disrupt each other’s sword paths and spark flames on protective energy.

Both were transcendents of practical martial arts. They didn’t rest for a moment.

Each time, massive shockwaves burst out in chains in the sky. It was a scene as if earthquakes were racing across heaven.

“Old man, you don’t know the Southern Emperor’s scheme! Do you think he would just stand by and watch such an unconventional foreigner like that fellow Yelu?”

“Scheme? Must I know it?”

“What!”

“I too, and my king too, are complete warriors with the sword. Scheme, you say. That’s not like a Yao tribesman.”

For a warrior of wanderer origins, provocation and sharp wit had to be daily life. Upright Star’s brow furrowed viciously.

“Are you still acting like a Great Warrior!”

Simultaneously, she spun her crescent blade in a large circle, and just that caused the blade spitting out grayish-white shockwaves in succession to clash with the old sword.

Zzeojeojeojeojeojeong!

The crescent blade’s body scraped along the chipped sword’s body and soared upward.

The opening move of Towering King Ten Knots that cuts up the opponent’s weapon. Once again, the clouds that had been cutting through them scattered up and down like white waves.

But the blade didn’t break in half.

Hwaaak!

Sword Star spun in the air like light, as if the gale that shot up into the void were his rope. It was a technique of freely manipulating the opponent’s blade strike energy waves.

The next moment, his gaunt legs were kicking up at Upright Star’s chin like a comet.

Kwaaaaaaaaaaang—!

Not only did grayish-white ripples arise like a lakeside, but white cloud streams were sucked in like smoke along the trajectory of his leg technique.

Roughly whirling suction force. The atmosphere had been completely emptied once.

Upright Star was completely flipped over and laughed madly with rolled-back eyes showing only whites.

“You won’t be able to hold me for long! It’s because you’re someone who has no cultivation other than swordwork!”

A grayish-white pill spontaneously popped up from within her bosom and entered her mouth.

As soon as it was crunched, Upright Star’s facial skin took on even deeper vitality.

It was a pill made by extracting and hardening human innate true energy. Cultivation possible only in the north where towers of corpses were stacked. It was a secret transmission taught by the King of Dream Demon Body, the Divine Thief.

Northern jianghu people.

If one was a Yao tribesman, it was as if they were born having mastered supernatural arts, and if they were even peerless masters, they had to be transcendents of perfection.

This was different from the Sword Star who only knew the sword.

He quietly asked.

“I heard that the Southern Emperor is truly the northern strongest, but do you know exactly what this scheme of the Southern Emperor is?”

“You’re trying to sound me out.”

Upright Star continued speaking with eyes rolled back white.

“But it’s useless. Our land has nothing to lose unlike your Ming Dynasty, so we personally test all sorts of things. Naturally, techniques for handling Gates are also much more developed than yours. You could never dream of it. The Southern Emperor is cooperating with the western strongest to plot the Fighting God’s second coming in this land, precisely in Yelu’s land…!”

“I heard well.”

The Sword Star shook out his sword and breathed deeply.

“Originally, if one properly takes a hit to the Integrity Heaven Point, one’s head becomes confused and briefly reveals their inner thoughts obediently. Even peerless masters are no exception.”

He hadn’t bothered to waste sword strikes on Heaven Silk Steel Armor. It was better to occasionally strike major shocks into the body’s interior like now.

Six Star Lord Upright Star’s internal energy barriers were sinister and belligerent like their master. That was what the Sword Star felt.

Because they would accumulate the opponent’s energy waves without showing it, then suddenly burst them at unexpected moments.

The old man had nearly died several times earlier.

But he was composed.

Though Six Star Lord Upright Star was an extremely ‘experienced danger,’ Martial Alliance Leader Hyeon So-baek had already actually died once before. None other than to the mad Dark Heaven Emperor who had targeted Taoist Zhang Sanfeng.

“How vexing.”

He muttered habitually.

At the same time, he briefly recalled another madman who, intoxicated with boredom and pride, had claimed himself to be Jeong Yeon-shin’s wet nurse.

The Swimming Heaven Sword Ghost of Profound Martial Alliance.

‘That friend was also dying, but I wonder how she is now.’

Soon the Sword Star put aside his thoughts.

Hwaaak!

The clouds trampled by Upright Star spat rainwater toward the ground with sharp sounds.

She was in perfect condition.

“……”

Her pitch-black pupils had returned at some point.

Heaven Silk Steel Armor wove new patterns with crackling friction sounds, and the deep energy characteristic of Towering Yellow Ten Knots distorted with white mist.

Swish.

The large-framed woman held her crescent blade, much larger than her own body, behind her back.

She was extremely calm. As if wondering when she had been furious.

“You must die here. Now I see you’re more dangerous than Yelu.”

At her words, the Sword Star laughed.

“Do you know who Yelu is to speak so?”

Moisture so gentle it was almost damp formed on their bodies. It was while grayish-white clouds spread flat like the ground.

‘Hmm?’

For an instant, three things reflected in the eyes of the old swordsman who lifted his head slightly.

The dreamlike spread pond of clouds, a slightly faded purple long robe, and a divine sword with pure white body gleaming between them.

They seemed like servants waiting for their master’s command. The Sword Star lowered his head pretending not to see, so Upright Star’s gaze wouldn’t turn that way.

But the direction he turned his eyes was also problematic.

Upright Star, who overlapped her gaze in the same direction, had her lips curve up slightly.

Soon after, she slowly drew out her story. The Sword Star wasn’t the only one skilled at provocation.

“Are you worried? Looking at it, there are many battlefields indeed. Literary Star and those seven, the Literary Star Army and the Ice Emperor’s husband, there are also those simultaneously facing my forces and Shame Extreme Army, and over there are the forces of Yeoktru Castle. Being chased by Bright Sky City Master Demon Contempt Blade… are they southern martial people?”

Their attire looks quite noble. You might be acquainted with them.

Right after Upright Star concluded her words like that.

After a moment of silence flowed, the two simultaneously fell. More precisely, the Sword Star reacted to Upright Star’s movement.

Exactly half and another half move.

He was one step late.

Whoooooooosh!

Pure white sunlight mixed with fierce wind noisily swept in all directions. The sound of strong winds swirled chaotically.

At the place where their forms fell diagonally were eight people. One giant and seven black-robed figures. That is, the Fighting God’s strategist and the squad leaders under the Divine Sword Group.

Gloomy Star, Wealth Preservation Star, Literary Star, Upright Star, Finance Star, Ruinous Star.

The six star lords of the Northern Dipper excluding the foremost Flirting Star. Literary Star would be the third among them.

The third throughout the northern territories that might be even vaster than the Ming Dynasty.

At that level, one was self-transcendent. An existence that could be called a moving volcanic eruption with will.

If their skills could handle him even with combined attacks, from Upright Star’s standpoint, it would be a threat whose buds should be cut in advance.

Euhahahahaha!

A resounding voice burst with thunderous laughter. It was Six Star Lord Upright Star’s cry.

“The old sword-wielder follows well! Did I choose correctly?”

The resonance was even more chilling because it was still in Chinese.

Was it her innate nature?

She had no retreat.

Woooooooooooong!

Grayish-white waves spread from the crescent blade aimed at the ground.

Spirituality.

Literally mysterious nature.

The essence, energy, and spirit accelerated by the movements of so-called peerless masters would pour out a lifetime in a single move. Along with overwhelmingly dense will.

It activated.

[Towering Pillar Great Genesis.]

Six Star Lord Upright Star’s Transcendent Martial Art.

From her crescent blade, a hemispherical sphere arose transparently, then began to swell in size instantly.

It had the momentum to swallow not only Upright Star and the Sword Star but also the battlefield on the ground. Naturally, the seven squad leaders and Literary Star were there.

“…!”

The Sword Star’s eyes widened.

The old man who had once been Martial Alliance Leader knew all the appearances and circumstances of the seventeen black swords.

Whoooosh!

Time stopped as it was endlessly drawn by his sensory path.

A single scene was completely engraved in the old swordsman’s eyes.

The Ultimate Martial Hall Master was already beginning to be torn apart with limbs caught one by one by Literary Star, but the Forest Treading Squad Leader who had soared high with Wind God body technique struck Literary Star’s pupils with a straight punch and gouged out his eyeball.

Meanwhile, the Resonance Spirit Squad Leader whose ankle was trampled by Literary Star thrust the sword gripped in reverse into the giant calf.

Blood was bursting from the mouth of Dragon Treading Squad Leader who had wrapped Literary Star’s shoulder and neck with rope. It was clearly because he had temporarily sealed the Six Star Lord’s power alone.

At the same time, Wish-fulfilling Spring Squad Leader Beigong Ya stepped with Radiant Wing Steps on Literary Star’s lower back, and the blue-green flames of Heaven Silk Steel Armor split left and right making thunder sounds with a rumble.

From her completely torn trouser hem, blood and moisture were flowing out as vapor.

Fragments of Annihilation Team Leader’s black robes flew mixed in the gap, having blocked Literary Star’s kicks with both hands.

The leg technique originating from Literary Star’s Nine Marsh Demonic Power Steps was dislocating Shin Hwang’s arms.

The others were barely standing, and in some ways might have seemed dead.

If not for the grayish-white light clusters characteristic of Radiant Art Bond, anyone would have been certain of it.

Kuuuuuuuuuung—

A giant shadow fell toward all of them. It was the hemisphere created by Upright Star’s crescent blade with energy waves, an art whose abilities were unimaginable.

The Sword Star immediately deployed his life-saving ultimate technique. A faint sword cry leaked from the old sword.

Transcendent Martial Art.

[Piercing Heaven.]

It wasn’t the Sword Star’s voice. Will as if the sword had clanged with metallic sound. But before his single sword could fully manifest, Literary Star was laughing quietly on the ground.

[Mencius Steadfast Solid.]

Transcendent Martial Art, Transcendent Martial Art, and another Transcendent Martial Art.

Only peerless masters with perfect internal energy breathing. Those who mastered practical calculation of intervals. Naturally, each Transcendent Martial Art they deployed was also successfully unfolding.

The Desolate Fortress Wish for Peace Single Sword Hall existed within that.

Each turning pale under pressures difficult to resist.

That was when it happened.

Whoooooooooooosh!

Suddenly, a flagpole that came racing through the void, tearing through the center, struck through Literary Star’s back with a crack and protruded. It was a penetrating wound in one blow.

[Silent Night.]

A chillingly grim voice fluttered along with the flag written “Divine Sword Group Divine Sword Squad.”

The final Transcendent Martial Art. The firm right arm of Desolate Day Extinction.

It was the Southern Emperor of the Divine Sword Group.

[TL Note- Southern Emperor is a predicate nominative. It doesn’t mean quite literally. It just signifies the standard.]

“…!”

A total of five domains swelled like mist in an instant, then became one space.