Chapter 575 – Contest (8)

The cripple beyond the Gate.

If spoken aloud, it would inevitably produce an awkward resonance. Because it doesn’t fit.

Saaaa—

A faintly dark blue breeze blew. Colored wind. An excessively damp feeling on dark earth. Certainly not a place for people to live.

You could tell just by looking at the stone mountains that broadly surrounded the wilderness.

Each pointed sharply upward like theatrical spears, and if you listened carefully, you could hear ghostly wailing sounds emanating from those smooth rock faces. It literally sounded like the cries of ghosts.

A demonic realm like the north.

Not a place where a cripple could live.

But words can carry vastly different weight depending on the presence of the one who speaks them.

The words of Ma Yeon-jeok and Yong Hye-myeong were as heavy as all under heaven, and utterly natural.

“It’s far away. Even if Yeon-shin sprinted with Ten Li Gentle Light, it would take about one meal period. However, it’s hard to gauge whether that cripple is human or supernatural being.”

“About one meal period… That sounds about right. Perhaps it could be even shorter. Hmm, what about Divine Beggar Zhu Guang? The fastest under heaven.”

“You mean the beggar king?”

“Why set aside the term Beggar Sect Leader?”

“In terms of lightness skill training alone, he’s better than anyone. He’s mastered the art of rolling like a bear. When that beggar king’s sprint gains good momentum, we might consider half a meal period. From there to here.”

“You regard him highly. Isn’t that rare?”

“Since he moves so pleasantly and interestingly, his footwork would also be faster than any cripple.”

“Then let’s assume half a meal period until we encounter the strange fellow. We can count from the moment he starts moving.”

It was when Yong Hye-myeong said this.

Suddenly.

Very slowly.

The presence the two men had been sensing moved.

From a place invisible due to the various stone mountains. A build that pushed against the atmosphere greatly like a Yao tribesman, with movements that dragged one leg smoothly.

It was ordinary as Yong Hye-myeong had said. Not particularly impressive momentum.

But the owner of that presence also seemed to sense Ma Yeon-jeok and Yong Hye-myeong precisely.

Because the giant form headed toward them.

Soon, the moment it stepped forward, Yong Hye-myeong slowly rose from his stone seat. The scabbard of the Enter the Divine Sword at his waist tapped against the armrest.

They had assumed half a meal period earlier.

The brief time it takes to eat, half of that.

It wasn’t. It was slower.

At the same time, it was much faster. A faint but gradually growing roar. It approached by piercing straight through the stone mountains between them.

Something Beggar Sect Leader Divine Beggar Zhu Guang couldn’t do. It felt as if all things in the universe were as soft as membranes compared to this cripple at this moment.

Like that, landslide dust clouds billowed like curtains from the distant place.

Leisurely fast. Without obstruction.

Soon it transformed into what seemed like the most vivid presence under heaven, and by the time Yong Hye-myeong’s Enter the Divine Sword was distorting with rainbow colors, it came sprinting with irregular strides.

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud—!

Yong Hye-myeong and Ma Yeon-jeok welcomed the strange resonance side by side. At this moment, their bodies were fixed in the atmosphere with transcendent harmony.

Perfect balance.

It manifested most naturally. The mystery of unity between body and sword transcended the limits of blade and flesh, crossing into great nature. A state where the body came to dominate the surrounding space.

There was only one ability.

No matter in what state the Enter the Divine Sword and Moon Protector Sword were wielded, they fully carried sword power at the level of Divine Sword Group Leader.

All movements transformed into mystical killing techniques. Even if some natural disaster collapsed their postures.

That was the entirety of their preparation.

No energy flowed out from the bodies of the contemporary and former Divine Sword Group Leaders.

They only gazed steadily ahead. Now at a distance close enough that the ground beneath their feet trembled like an earthquake. With rustling sounds, the pebbles at their feet crumbled on their own.

Then soon all resonance ceased.

As if someone not of this world had moved the cripple with Form-Shifting Void.

—Emperor Qian-ling… protecting even in death. Remarkable.

It departed with low laughter. Soon adding words like “one time remains” like clear north wind, then dispersing and disappearing completely.

That was all.

Yong Hye-myeong whistled briefly, then slowly opened his mouth.

“…It was human. This is serious trouble.”

“I can guess who it is.”

Ma Yeon-jeok clenched and opened his firm grip as he spoke. Yong Hye-myeong nodded.

“When we meet again… if by any chance we die here, what happens? It seems the late emperor’s life-saving ultimate technique still remains, holding the cripple back. I mean the Transcendent Martial Art ‘All Things Bend.'”

“If we die? What a ridiculous assumption. Are you still a Divine Sword Group Leader after saying such things?”

As always, Ma Yeon-jeok’s reproach never reached Yong Hye-myeong. The contemporary Divine Sword Group Leader took out yellowed paper from inside his scholarly purple long robe and fiddled with it.

It was the Imperial Edict.

“If one is truly a Divine Sword Group Leader, one must consider all variables. Isn’t the jianghu a place where anything can happen if luck runs bad?”

“Your mind has rotted. Bring me that Enter the Divine Sword. Looking at it now, I should be the one to keep it.”

“Hmm? Impossible words.”

Yong Hye-myeong said while putting the Imperial Edict back into his bosom.

“I judge the qualifications of the Enter the Divine Sword Master. Unfortunately, the former elder has no opportunity.”

“What?”

“If you don’t like it, draw your sword.”

They were equals, but as Yong Hye-myeong said, Ma Yeon-jeok would never draw his sword.

Was it because of the stuffy air? The young old man merely asked abruptly while shaking his pink robes vigorously.

“Seeing that cripple, it seems time to judge has come. In your opinion, is Yeon-shin a Divine Sword Group Leader or Acting Group Leader?”

An answer didn’t come immediately from Yong Hye-myeong’s mouth.

He was still young. Much younger than when Ma Yeon-jeok had passed the Enter the Divine Sword to him. At the same time, possessing a Half-Dragon Body. Without any exaggeration, he would remain in his prime forever.

Divine Sword Group Leader Yong Hye-myeong. An existence also called the incarnation of the Enter the Divine Sword.

But he was also someone’s senior.

—…I wish you martial fortune.

—There’s someone who speaks of my martial fortune. Something to see after living long.

It would have been around the time of the life-and-death duel with the Namgung family…. When the conversation he first had with fifteen-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin tickled his mind, Yong Hye-myeong’s lips curved up faintly.

“As long as he doesn’t go around unnecessarily hiding his true martial arts, wouldn’t it depend on how you think about it? From the beginning, it’s a position where there can be no such thing as ‘acting’…”

* * *

The true Divine Sword Group Acting Leader was at Clear Light Plain. The Ming Dynasty’s seventeen black-rank swords. The masters of the Divine Sword Group Round Table.

Seven of them had come.

Jeong Yeon-shin clearly recognized his seniors and sprinted across the plain with a much more comfortable heart. In battle, he must not worry about them.

The Desolate Fortress black ranks were existences that should receive respect, not concern.

Kwaaaaaaa—!

Fierce wind roughly striking his ears.

Ground shattering like glass with each step.

Amid all that, what was clear were only the words carved into Jeong Yeon-shin’s soles each time he stepped on the ground.

Nether Stream Squad Leader’s Earth King Word Crossing Technique. Her message, sent from who knows when and where, accumulated steadily.

—Since I mixed the warp of Radiant Art Bond, I trust it’s being well transmitted to the Acting Group Leader. For some lost transmissions, please understand the context from the flow of words. First, it’s the Divine Thief.

‘Following properly.’

Jeong Yeon-shin made the luminous wheel of his heart spin even more fiercely as he leaped greatly. Waves of sand shooting up like waterfalls from his kick.

—The former Ruinous Star… that is, Severing Hope King has been blocked by the Ice Emperor. I don’t know how things are now, but I believe the Acting Leader doesn’t need to worry immediately.

Northern King Severing Hope.

The person who had been pushed out of the Six Star Lords because of Jeong Yeon-shin. Naturally, he couldn’t have harbored goodwill toward King Yelu. He would have come to restore his prestige.

How earth-shaking would such an existence’s martial arts and Transcendent Martial Art be? In a situation of continuous crises, he would be more than enough of a particularly great threat.

But Jeong Yeon-shin excluded his existence from his mind. He remembered the smile Lazy Flame Dragon made at his wife the Ice Emperor. The Nether Stream Squad Leader’s advice was also significant.

—Please go straight ahead as you are. By now the battlefield would have been laid out in one great straight line, and there’s only one thing you need to do. Extract the military forces under the Divine Sword Group that went north at the Acting Group Leader’s assembly order—among them, the Radiant Sword Squad and Resonance Spirit from the isolated front line. Of course, the Radiant Sword Squad Leader and Resonance Spirit Leader are extremely powerful, but they cannot shake off two Northern King armies bearing Bright Wind Spirit without any support. The lightness skill mobility is different.

Group lightness skill sprinting varies tremendously in reaction speed depending on command structure.

Naturally, faster is better. The same was true in scale warfare between jianghu people that had grown to war proportions.

In that sense, Bright Wind Spirit was the greatest dragnet of all time. The ultra-long-range sound transmission space created by the Fighting God.

Naturally, army movements had to be among the fastest under heaven, and even the contemporary fastest under heaven could be said to be a peerless master of the northern jianghu.

‘Divine Thief.’

King of Dream Demon Body.

The absolute being whom the Fighting God had permitted to his side for long years.

At this moment, Jeong Yeon-shin had to simultaneously overcome the fastest individual and group.

Kugugugugugugung—!

The divine form that had already transformed into grayish-white light and was sprinting across the plain.

But it hadn’t reached the maximum speed that ultimate Ten Li Gentle Light could produce. Because he couldn’t shake off the Divine Thief.

She was definitely faster than Jeong Yeon-shin, and with movements that created afterimages like moth wingbeats, she constantly extended her hands and feet.

Like now.

“Can’t go.”

With footwork like crossing through dreams, she overtook Jeong Yeon-shin once again. There was even leisure to extend her long legs to collapse his ankle.

The mist rippling white around her shins would be Heaven Silk Steel Armor.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t stop.

Thud!

He kicked through as he passed. Of course, a massive shockwave burst from behind.

Furrows carved deeply in a line on the ground with cracking sounds. It was already leg technique loaded with Ultimate Thunder.

But even that slowed his speed again.

Because he had poured strength into striking the Divine Thief’s leg when he should have charged forward. Compared to Divine Beggar Zhu Guang at full strength, who knows how it would compare, but her lightness skill training surpassed Jeong Yeon-shin’s sprint in every aspect.

“Give up.”

The Divine Thief’s smooth whisper tickled his ear and scattered. Her divine form had also disappeared somewhere again.

It was a repetition of the same pattern.

Kugugugugung! Clang! Zzeojeong! Kwang—!

Two streams of light rays spread across the vast plain, constantly entangling.

Grayish-white propulsive energy waves followed each other on the dirt ground, and before those afterimages could even disappear, the heads of the two light streams clashed again.

Wide shockwaves exploded in several overlapping circles, and the ground was gouged out roughly as if a comet had grazed past.

The Divine Thief’s movements seemed like walking on a river unfolded in dreams, then would suddenly distort quickly. Each time, Jeong Yeon-shin lost the rhythm of his sprint and met the rebound of Heaven Silk Steel Armor with his body.

Truly heavy impact. In the midst of that, he also had to deflect the unique power of Dream Demon Body that struck his upper energy center along with fragrant scent, using concentration.

It even stole one’s soul.

The Divine Thief was such an existence.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt vastness amid her hands and feet that swept like swarms of stars. The reason anger gradually welled up.

He felt annoyance at the unknown realm of lightness skill, then became heated with frustration. Because he didn’t know when the Radiant Sword Squad and Resonance Spirit might be annihilated.

Each time, Nether Stream Squad Leader Yun senior whispered to his feet with delicate handwriting.

—Calculating by the speed of Ten Li Gentle Light reported to headquarters, you should be seeing Ice Breathing Mountain by now. Right behind it, two Divine Sword Squad units face Upright Star Army and Shame Extreme Army.

It was as she said.

He had already come within sensing range.

Mounted army forces stationed beyond a considerably tall mountain. Literally fearsome creatures emitting terrifying pressure along with steeds that had learned martial arts. It was materialized military spirit.

‘Almost there.’

About five hundred mounted troops total perhaps.

Even the martial army forces of Northern Kings possessing Bright Wind Spirit. There was also someone called Shame Extreme Son-in-law.

By now the Radiant Sword Squad and Resonance Spirit were not just in serious crisis, but perhaps even on the verge of annihilation….

—Of course, it might be a critical situation. Even if when the Acting Leader arrives at the battlefield dragging the Divine Thief, they’re in a state of near-total casualties, please don’t be heartbroken. The death of Desolate Fortress warriors is a common occurrence in warfare. Even more so in war of this scale.

‘No, Senior Yun is wrong about that.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought while looking at the Divine Thief who was somehow facing him side by side while walking backward.

Unbelievable lightness skill. Her grayish-white hair swayed like teasing, somewhat hidden by the sunset glow.

If delayed further, everything would unfold according to the Northern Kings’ intentions.

That must not happen.

He had issued a general assembly order to the subordinate military forces as Divine Sword Group Leader. He had to properly fulfill his responsibility.

Now, here.

Whoosh!

Jeong Yeon-shin released True Radiance Brilliant Star Heaven that had been surrounding his entire body. The Tang siblings’ calluses instantly returned to his heart and formed a second luminous wheel.

“…?”

Great doubt filled the Divine Thief’s face.

It was natural. Because the internal energy barrier that had constantly received her Heaven Silk Steel Armor, Golden Flow, and lightness skill leg techniques had disappeared.

But now Jeong Yeon-shin knew.

That what cares for his heart is sometimes not himself, but other people.

Divine Art Secret Technique

Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji

Crack—

It was a sound that rang from his heart.

The luminous wheel that had been recovered from True Radiance Brilliant Star Heaven earlier was peeled off again, and as soon as it flowed out of his body, it blazed up and began sprinting across the plain.

It was faster than any lightness skill. Blue light. Literally azure light was carved long across the ground.

That blue line passed the Divine Thief, instantly crossed even the mountain ridge, and finally drew a vast taiji at some point invisible to Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.

Circle of blue light.

Within it, all techniques of Radiant Art Bond connected at the speed of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown. That is, as long as energy reserves permitted, everyone was Jeong Yeon-shin.

Just as once all hundreds of Wudang disciples had appeared as Advanced Sword Formation members to him.

—Lightning Genius Martial Lineage.

The Grand Master said.

—It is Radiant Art Bond. Annihilate the enemy.

Sound transmission that would have penetrated many ears following Southern Splendor Radiant Taiji.

Before he could even sense the reaction of the main fortress masters to it, Jeong Yeon-shin was already facing the Divine Thief, who had wrapped her body even more solidly with white Heaven Silk Steel Armor. Both had stopped in place.

Rustle—

Small stone fragments crumbled mixed with dust wind at their feet.

Now Jeong Yeon-shin had no protective energy.

“Just now, what did you do? Why deliberately do something so foolish…?”

The Divine Thief asked.

Unlike her, with hazy white light rippling along her body lines, Jeong Yeon-shin’s body was piercingly distinct under the transparent sunlight.

Instead of answering the Divine Thief’s question, what rang out was thunder.

[Let’s see who’s faster. Of course, this side might lose, but I won’t die here.]

His voice was already echoing like reverberations. It was the harbinger of Transcendent Martial Art.

Desolate Day Extinction.

For now, it was exactly as the name given by some unperceptive person. Momentum that swept vastly as if to block even the ceaselessly pouring sunlight.

[I’m coming.]

No more stopping. No need to hide anything.

“Here…?!”

Vast doubt filled the Divine Thief’s eyes.

[Radiant Taiji.]

Jeong Yeon-shin’s mental command permeated the earth.