Chapter 174: The Sword of Autumn (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 174: The Sword of Autumn (2)
Baek Seo-gun, the Yeongcheon Sword Ghost, hailed from Xinye County in Henan Province.
She had once worked as a maidservant for a martial family known as the Jeong Family Manor.
Her treatment there hadn't been bad. Having lost her parents at an early age, she earned the pity of the Master of the Jeong Family Manor and the Grand Madam. Baek Seo-gun was assigned to serve the eldest son of the Jeong family, a boy born ten years after her.
Her young master was more frequently called by his alias, Ban-ak, rather than his actual name, Jeong Dae-myung. Even in childhood, he was an exceptionally handsome young noble. He was also generous, never stingy with his silver.
The Flower Playboy, Jeong Dae-myung. Or Jeong Pan-ak.
The young master associated with many women, and Baek Seo-gun played a part in his escapades. She would deliver Jeong Dae-myung's love letters to the young ladies of neighboring villages and bring back their replies. The reward was always generous—she received a very handsome allowance, all in silver.
Although Baek Seo-gun possessed a remarkably rare beauty herself, Jeong Dae-myung never viewed her as a woman. He merely regarded her as a young nanny. For Baek Seo-gun, that was enough. Occasionally, there were rejection letters that displeased the young master, but even on those days, she still received her allowance.
The young noble Jeong Dae-myung had harbored a strange superstition since childhood—something akin to an obsession. As the heir to a great landowner, one of his core beliefs was that employing people without proper compensation would bring misfortune. Consequently, very few servants disliked him.
Thanks to his peerlessly beautiful appearance, she rarely had to walk on eggshells around him when it came to the love letters. The young master's facial structure and features were unrealistically outstanding. Once, he joked that he would seduce a woman from the Desolate Fortress someday, and none of his friends or servants laughed it off as an empty boast. He was barely thirteen at the time, yet he already possessed both the family background and the looks to back it up.
She didn't particularly envy him.
Around that time, Baek Seo-gun was secretly practicing martial arts. It was her tenth year of training. The Jeong Family Manor was merely a third-rate martial family; she had found no trace of any divine arts within its walls. Instead, she had spent her years practicing after obtaining a peerless secret manual—a fated encounter one could scarcely hope to find even once in a lifetime.
She had discovered it in a cave after taking a wrong step and falling into a canyon, one formed by the battles of bizarre entities during the late Yuan Dynasty. A single book lay before the corpse of a Brightfolk sitting in a lotus position. Neither the corpse nor the secret manual had decayed. It was a bizarre domain.
The moment her eyes met those of the Brightfolk, spirituality was engraved into Baek Seo-gun's dantian. It felt as if she had swallowed a handful of the sun. A mysterious sensation filled her lower abdomen.
I am destined to soar across the world.
Faced with such a miracle, she could only view it as her Heavenly Mandate. Her life was not meant to end in Xinye County. Her path stretched out toward the Jianghu.
I will hone my strength here, then throw myself into a Great Sect.
She made this vow. After harboring such a grand ambition, her personality grew lively. She got along famously with the young master, Jeong Dae-myung. The ten-year-old young master even taught Go to his twenty-year-old maidservant.
It was then that she learned the Ten Commandments of Go.
"Don’t Sacrificing a Stone for Initiative and Do not greedily seek victory contradict each other? How can you tell me to discard stones to take the initiative, yet also tell me not to greedily seek victory?"
"Foolish girl. How is that a contradiction? It means you should take the initiative while relaxing your shoulders. It means even if you discard a few stones, you shouldn't grow impatient."
It was a good lesson. She thought that if the young master ever had children, he would raise them very well.
Even while secretly cultivating her Internal Qi Gong, Baek Seo-gun never neglected the young master. This remained true until the night she secretly left the Jeong Family Manor under a cloud-shrouded moon.
"Thank you for raising me."
She cupped her hands in salute toward the massive estate. At that point, her Eight Illusion Divine Art had reached the fourth stage. She had cultivated it with a talent more extraordinary than anyone else's. She believed there was no martial genius in Xinye County who could match her.
And she was right.
Her martial arts were formidable enough to shake the world.
No wandering warrior could withstand a single blow from her, even when she was still inexperienced in real combat. By the time she encountered the experts of the Deep Martial Alliance, her Eight Illusion Divine Art had reached the sixth stage. Every sect sought to recruit her as a Bong-gong or a Guardian.
Rejecting all offers, she crossed the threshold of the Deep Martial Alliance. It was a sect of the Heterodox Paths, backed by a Feudatory King. As expected of a sect that combined such rare and ideal conditions, its wealth and power were immense. She had enjoyed them for a long time.
Like the other elders of the Thirteen Heavens, Baek Seo-gun gradually transformed into a monster of the Jianghu. Wealth and the Tyrannical Way had made her so. Before she knew it, she had become a peak expert with decades of refinement, establishing herself as someone well-versed in the affairs of the martial world's highest echelons.
Then, one day.
She heard rumors of a rising expert emerging from the Desolate Fortress, coinciding with the death of Geomyehwa. Only then did she learn of the destruction of the Jeong Family Manor. While she felt a small pang of regret, she also found it strange.
The Lord of the Hegemon Sword Sect spared the Flash Art? Out of admiration for his spirit and talent? He is not that kind of man. He definitely has an ulterior motive. The collapse of the Desolate Fortress is his lifelong desire.
She felt a passing curiosity to see Jeong Dae-myung's son, though it wasn't a particularly strong urge.
In certain regions of Henan, she was called a Sword Venerable rather than a Sword Ghost. The life of Baek Seo-gun, who had earned the moniker of the Yeongcheon Sword Ghost, was already far removed from the third-rate Jeong Family Manor.
"And yet, he became the Commander of the Demonlight Wing."
Her interest was piqued when she saw the public notices posted throughout the Central Plains.
The name of the Flash Art, Jeong Yeon-shin, was engraved on the list of experts invited to the Sect Founding Ceremony. To alleviate her boredom, she requested permission from the Alliance Leader to travel to Shaanxi. It was readily granted. A year of famine was no trivial matter, even for a Great Sect backed by a Feudatory King.
To easily maintain a martial arts army, it was only logical to secure supplies from the outside. This meant that the plundering in the lands of Hanzhong had been instigated by the Flash Art.
I wonder how much our little young master knows about the Lord of the Hegemon Sword Sect.
Baek Seo-gun smiled as she looked out over the canyon.
It was a smile as deep as her internal energy. Her half-white hair resembled a lion's mane, falling thickly over her shoulders in a way that suited her perfectly. Because the traces of the Brightfolk were deeply embedded in the Eight Illusion Divine Art, the passage of time on her face had stopped after she turned thirty, as if she had cultivated a youth-retaining art.
The same applied to the muscles of her entire body, honed to wield her Illusion Sword. It meant that every single day was her prime.
Thud.
She stood atop the rugged rocky mountains of the Seven Crowds Gorge. The wind howled through the gaps of her fingers. Stone peaks stretching in all directions filled her vision, as if trying to pierce her eyes.
She had been playing Go with her first disciple, whom she had stationed on West Peak Road, when she suddenly felt a desire to see the scenery of the canyon and wandered over. She didn't know why. Perhaps it was because the fated encounter she had obtained in Xinye County had suddenly crossed her mind.
It was said that when one reached her age, the upper dantian naturally communed with the heavens. There was also the saying, "Knowing the Mandate of Heaven." Since she did not know what destiny might be guiding her, Baek Seo-gun stepped forward without much thought. A peak expert like her was free to roam anywhere within the Nine Provinces and Eight Desolates.
Those who bound themselves to the Desolate Fortress just because they reached the Black Rank were the mad ones. Chivalry? What a laughable virtue in a year of famine.
"I am quite curious about his martial prowess as well. He certainly wouldn't have learned the third-rate martial arts of the Jeong Family Manor."
She was an eccentric of the Jianghu. It was not awkward for her to mutter to herself. She had lived a life where no one dared to speak against her, even when she voiced her passing thoughts without filter. She hummed to herself as she walked.
Then, a group of people caught Baek Seo-gun's eye. They were surrounded by her subordinates at the edge of the Seven Crowds Gorge.
She felt a powerful Fervent Yang Energy and refined killing intent. It was only natural for interest to spark in the eyes of a Sword Ghost, a Sword Venerable. Immediately, the voices of the strangers reached her ears.
"These bastards treat Hanzhong like their own backyard, don't they? I didn't expect to get caught like this."
The one with the powerful yang energy spoke. He was holding off seven martial artists all by himself. He unleashed his attacks with a blazing, intangible heat wrapped around both hands, and not a single opponent could properly withstand even a single exchange.
He appeared to be Lazy Flame Dragon of the Hwangbo Clan, widely known for his formidable talent and short lifespan. It aligned with the intelligence that he was moving together with the Flash Art, Jeong Yeon-shin.
There was also another who unleashed strange sword strikes, as if an assassin had learned orthodox sword techniques. In contrast to his lively Body Protection Scripture, the gaze beneath the Hero's Headband on his forehead was sunken and calm. He seemed quite taciturn.
It appeared there was a story here that could inject some excitement into Baek Seo-gun's boring Jianghu.
Now that I look closely, a treasure chest has walked right into my lap.
The sight of a young girl darting through the canyon with lightning-fast thrusts also caught her attention. Because the sword qi she had refined to the absolute limit of her ability was so outstanding, her ebony hair fluttering in the wind did not seem like a flaw for a martial artist. She was as beautiful as Baek Seo-gun herself.
"Amusing. Even the sword of Diancang, which is said to shoot down the sun."
Baek Seo-gun murmured with a smile. The other two weren't bad either. They appeared to belong to the martial lineages of the Gongson Clan and the Moyong Clan.
Flutter!
The grey long robe she wore rustled loudly. With a single step, her next footfall landed thirty feet away.
It was a Body Protection Scripture that ignorant commoners would mistake for the Earth-Shrinking Art. With her hands clasped behind her back, she advanced as if skipping through space. At the same time, she drew and threw her sword.
Rumble—!
It was a sound like the atmosphere tearing apart. Above the heads of the rising stars of the Orthodox Factions, a brilliant sword trajectory was engraved in the air.
It flickered with white light. "Yeongcheon"—the name, meaning to swim in the heavens, was indeed fitting. It was the technique of one who had earned the title of Sword Ghost as an elder of the Deep Martial Alliance.
Baek Seo-gun brought the index and middle fingers of her empty hand together. It was the widely known Sword Secret Finger.
The moment her two fingers extended like a dagger, an internal power wave erupted from the hilt of the sword in midair. Her terrifying presence felt as though it would crush even the wind.
"Sword Venerable!"
"Sword Venerable? The Yeongcheon Sword Ghost...!"
Delight and shock crossed their faces.
The strike of Baek Seo-gun, the Yeongcheon Sword Ghost, descended indifferently. The shockwave extending from the sword in midair shattered and unraveled all the martial forces in the area. A gale fiercer than the canyon wind erupted. The tip of the sword hadn't even touched them. It was an attack that defied common sense.
A peak expert.
A being who looked down upon all other experts from the realm of high-level martial arts. It was a stage where one could discuss the world through martial arts alone. It was possible for her to enforce her will even against the Black Ranks of the Desolate Fortress. A martial artist free from the oppression of the imperial sects. As the trump card of the Thirteen Heavens, she looked down at the rising stars.
Gongson Min and Moyong Myeong-jun flinched under her steady gaze. The corners of Baek Seo-gun's mouth curled upward into a somewhat bored smile.
"Follow me. As long as you keep this seat entertained, I will not kill you. Eat, drink, and display your martial learning. I will sever your necks only when even the amusement fades."
"You talk as if the Jianghu is in the palm of your hand. If we don't comply, you'll attack us along with these soldiers, won't you?" Lazy Flame Dragon retorted. He studied Baek Seo-gun with a strange look.
She knew that look all too well. It was the gaze of insight that only the greatest geniuses of all time possessed. They skipped the process of understanding martial learning through intuition, easily grasping a level of martial power that transcended the limits of their age. Baek Seo-gun herself had been like that, and so was the Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult who had visited the headquarters of the Deep Martial Alliance about three years ago.
I don't understand. A descendant of the Jeong Family Manor leads a youth of that caliber? If he has even a drop of Jeong Dae-myung's blood, such a thing should be impossible, she thought as she turned around without hesitation.
Clack.
The sword that had been floating in the air returned on its own, sliding smoothly into Baek Seo-gun's scabbard. The boy of the Gongson Clan gasped.
The complexions of the others were equally grim. They were completely trapped as hostages. If the Yeongcheon Sword Ghost had not been a person of eccentric temperament, it wouldn't have been strange for their heads to roll right then and there.
"I should have thinned them out faster. If it weren't for your subordinates, it would have been worth trying to escape."
Only Lazy Flame Dragon remained nonchalant. Perhaps because he lived having already accepted his short lifespan, his slightly bitter expression seemed relaxed.
"I'm going to get lectured by our young Commander again. He'll call me incompetent."
"By 'young Commander,' do you mean the Flash Art?" Baek Seo-gun asked without looking back.
The encirclement moved along with her steps. Lazy Flame Dragon and his companions had no choice but to follow her lead.
"Yes. And don't try any funny business."
"Funny business?"
"If you intend to use us as hostages to do something to our Commander, I'll kill all of them and commit suicide myself. I may look like this, but I was the eldest son of Shandong's greatest noble family. I have my pride."
Lazy Flame Dragon spoke softly. Beside him, Heonwon Chang muttered that this was insubordination.
Baek Seo-gun laughed as if it were absurd, but she did not lay a hand on anyone for two days. As a peak expert of a Great Sect of the Heterodox Paths who had enjoyed many things and grown bored of everything, she focused on filling the void in her heart. Just like when she had left the Jeong Family Manor in search of a new world.
She confined them to the largest tent among the camps set up in the Seven Crowds Gorge. Whenever she felt like it, she dragged one of them out. She used the martial learning of the great sects unleashed by the young warriors as a source of amusement. She pressured them as if dealing with caged animals. When she sustained a minor burn from Lazy Flame Dragon's fiery energy, she actually laughed.
"No matter how I look at it, I cannot believe it. How could a mere bloodline of the Jeong Family Manor have taken you in?"
"You'll know the moment you see him," Lazy Flame Dragon replied languidly.
Boom—!
A thunderous roar echoed.
An overwhelming wave of energy surged from beyond the peaks. It was bizarrely auspicious. Instantly, a strange light flickered in Baek Seo-gun's eyes. It was a qigong that externally manifested a divine nature. A long-forgotten memory was dragged to the surface.
The spirituality bestowed by the Brightfolk expert in the cave, the one who had left behind the Eight Illusion Divine Art, had felt just like this.
"Ah, I'm really going to get chewed out."
"Is that the Commander of the Demonlight Wing?" she asked Lazy Flame Dragon, who was muttering with a smirk.
"Can't you tell just by feeling it?"
"Let us go."
A massive movement took place. The martial arts army of the Deep Martial Alliance, which had established the camp, began to move. Baek Seo-gun, who was called the Sword Venerable here, vanished first. Lazy Flame Dragon, Heonwon Chang, and the warriors of the Alliance followed behind her. Thanks to Baek Seo-gun's eccentricities, they had been free to move from the very beginning. No one blocked their path.
It was a short distance. Lazy Flame Dragon followed behind Baek Seo-gun and arrived at the source of the thunderous roar. He saw the young Commander confronting her, clad in a splendid crimson martial uniform. How long had he been running? His disheveled hair was pushed back, revealing his smooth forehead.
The black hair of the new Commander of the Demonlight Wing, falling to his shoulders, suited his pitch-black long robe perfectly. Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been staring intently at Baek Seo-gun, shifted his gaze. His eyes met those of Lazy Flame Dragon over her shoulder.
"Incompetent fool," the boy said bluntly.
Lazy Flame Dragon sighed. "I have nothing to say."
"You shouldn't."
Soon after, the Small Sword Empress arrived. Her steps, which had been flying with the Body Protection Scripture, came to a halt upon seeing Jeong Yeon-shin. As the martial soldiers of the Deep Martial Alliance surrounded them, her lips parted.
"If I feel like I'm becoming a burden, I will take my own life."
The Small Sword Empress, Chwi So-ok, was also no ordinary person. As a promising swordswoman of the Diancang Sect, she valued honor above her life. She possessed the qualities of an Orthodox Faction martial artist so often praised by gossips. She was a warrior suited to the spirit of the times.
"I, too, know shame. Though I would be glad to witness a life-and-death duel between our Commander and this old monster."
She spoke of her dignity with a blank face. Jeong Yeon-shin nodded slowly.
"I will avenge you."
"That's the first warm thing you've ever said to me. I'm quite pleased." The Small Sword Empress smiled brightly.
It was then that Baek Seo-gun spoke up.
"You haven't cultivated the Jeong Family Divine Sword, have you? It seems you have reached a realm that cannot be attained with such trivial swordsmanship."
She asked the question abruptly, having stared at Jeong Yeon-shin for a long time with a strange expression.
"The Jeong Family Divine Sword?" The boy's brow furrowed slightly. It was a name he hadn't heard in a truly long time. The sword technique of the Jeong Family Manor.
It was said that his paternal grandfather, a lay disciple of the Zhongnan Sect, had simply adapted the sword techniques he learned there. It was a third-rate sword art with a grandiose name.
“Do you know the Jeong Family Manor?”
“Your informal speech is grating, you arrogant brat. I suppose I’ll have to test your qualifications myself.”
Baek Seo-gun formed the Sword Secret Finger. As her index and middle fingers brushed past the hilt of the sword at her waist, the blade lifted on its own, scattering a pure white sword light. It was a technique many in the Jianghu would mistake for Sword Kinesis.
By then, Jeong Yeon-shin was already raising his Northern Light Sword above his head.
Slide.
His black sleeve slipped down past his shoulder, revealing his right arm. Firmly sculpted muscles stretched from the back of his hand to his bicep.
The sword vibrated, a sound like the blade itself was crying out. Holding the blade straight and high, he achieved the Unity of Body and Sword.
The High Stance.
It was a calm posture, which made it all the more chilling.
What is that?
Lazy Flame Dragon’s eyes widened slightly at the unfamiliar stance.
Whoosh!
The sword held by the young Commander of the Demonlight Wing unleashed an intangible shockwave.
Its density was immense. Though invisible, it felt as if a translucent wind had enveloped the area.
Baek Seo-gun's sword, which had been advancing through the air, faltered. The peak expert’s technique ground to a halt in an instant.
To any observer, it was clear she hadn't stopped of her own volition. The pressure he exerted on the surroundings was immense. It felt as though anyone with shallow internal cultivation would be forced to their knees before a single strike was even thrown.
In that split second, without any warning.
Whoosh!
The boy and Baek Seo-gun crossed paths, their positions reversing in an instant.
Step.
Having achieved extreme speed through full-body Fa Jin, the Commander of the Demonlight Wing lowered his sword. A pure white sword path flickered into existence a moment too late.
A long trajectory distorted the air behind him. Before anyone realized it, Baek Seo-gun was standing to one side, her own sword already in hand.
It was a sudden exchange between peak experts. The warriors of the Deep Martial Alliance, who dared not intervene, let out stifled gasps.
Neither seemed to have sustained a fatal wound. However, Baek Seo-gun's appearance had changed.
A shower of half-white hair fell through the air. The ends of her iconic mane, once long and flowing, had been neatly severed, scattering like feathers.
Carried on the relentless canyon wind, the strands blended into the light of the setting sun.
The young Commander of the Demonlight Wing turned around, his sword held low.
He glanced at the fluttering, severed hair. Tilting his head slightly, his lips slowly parted.
“Short hair suits you,” the boy said.