Chapter 196: Lightning-Flash Sword Ridge Style (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 196: Lightning-Flash Sword Ridge Style (4)
The fingertips of the Commander of the Demonlight Wing moved with fluid grace.
Just before the shockwaves from the six swordsmen could tear through his robes, Jeong Yeon-shin’s gesture conjured a rain of steel flowers. His five fingers repeatedly concealed and revealed his palm, finely tuning the interplay of absorption and emission. Shimmering fragments of shattered swords scattered left and right like a dreamlike illusion.
Thud, thud, thud!
Dull impacts resounded. Blood sprayed from his fingertips, which had been moving as elegantly as if plucking the strings of a zither.
The bodies of the six experts from the Worthy Heaven Unit jerked violently. They froze mid-thrust, their swords still extended.
“Ugh.”
“Ngh…”
They staggered, their eyes bloodshot.
They had not been killed instantly. These were not mere third-rate martial artists who could be swept away by a single wide-area secret technique. Though their martial arts belonged to the orthodox factions, they possessed the practical, battle-hardened temperament of their noble family, and they had enveloped their entire bodies in incredibly sturdy Body Protection Qi.
They were simply too strong to be slain by a hastily unleashed Myriad Blossoms Rain.
To the martial artists of the Alliance watching, however, the spectacle was nothing short of astonishing. Sharp gasps of disbelief erupted from the onlookers who had boldly followed Jegal Cheong-a into the noble family’s territory.
For the Commander of the Demonlight Wing, this was only natural. Thanks to Ak Su-rim, he had already neutralized their ultimate techniques. Since their strength lay in their formations rather than raw martial arts, having a countermeasure made breaking through them entirely feasible.
“If we are to weigh the gravity of the situation,” Jeong Yeon-shin declared, slowly lowering his right hand, “I, as Commander, have no choice but to prioritize the report I received today. If my judgment proves wrong, I will formally apologize to your family. Do not block my path any longer. I am holding back only out of respect for Seon-ryong.”
He spoke while recalling Jegal Hyeon, who had mastered the Taoist arts to an astonishing degree. Jeong Yeon-shin took another step forward.
Jegal Cheong-a, scurrying to keep up, glanced back at the family’s martial artists, who could only stare blankly as they struggled to steady themselves. She spoke cautiously, “Their injuries…”
“They’ve wrapped even their blood vessels in Body Protection Qi. They are properly trained. There is no need to worry.”
“Ah.”
A dazed sound escaped her at his indifferent reply. Jegal Cheong-a could not fully comprehend a level of martial arts that transcended her own perception. It was one thing to estimate his strength by examining wounds; it was another to witness it firsthand. The Commander of the Demonlight Wing existed in an entirely different realm.
The Worthy Heaven Unit is a group comparable to our own Demonlight Wing, Jeong Yeon-shin thought. Such was the nature of a great sect’s elites.
Although their methods differed, the martial arts of a noble family, built upon generations of history, were fundamentally more solid than those of even some of the Thirteen Heavens. Had they properly deployed their sword formation, they might have been able to handle him. The advice of his senior, Ak Su-rim, had played a crucial role.
Now, time was the only concern.
He looked at the martial artists lined up ahead. They were the ones who had been rushing forward from behind the group he had just struck down. Six of them. They stood still, honing their sword force, having already shifted their formation.
Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t care.
Boom!
His Infinite Flower of Time Hand, deployed from both palms, shattered several weapons as he charged forward without pause.
The Radiant Wing Step was the natural counter to the Worthy Heaven Unit. With a supreme expert holding an elemental advantage from the start, there was no way the elites of the Jegal Clan could display their true capabilities.
The location also played a part. Even if the Martial World Alliance was a vital stronghold, they would not have brought the full force of their main family here. The prowess of a sect with a long history—especially one practicing sorcery-based martial arts—was always maximized at the heart of their power.
Suddenly, he thought of the Azure Qilin, waiting at their destination. He also recalled his own lifespan of less than three years.
A sense of disillusionment washed over him.
A fundamental question etched itself into his mind.
Are you truly angry for Namgung Se-jin’s sake right now?
Only half of it was true. The other half was for the sake of achievements.
The realm of the Black Rank was vaster than he had ever imagined. He had to compete with supreme experts of the highest caliber, yet even Ak Su-rim and the Commander of the Thread-Annihilation Unit—warriors whose prowess made it difficult to find rivals—had not yet reached the Purple Rank. This was despite the fact that every incident they resolved was of extraordinary gravity.
He couldn't even begin to fathom how many achievements he would need to accumulate. Every time he felt his expanded Baihui Point, a fresh wave of helplessness washed over him.
Right now, Jeong Yeon-shin was forcing himself to be angry just to survive.
Feeling a pang of guilt that he, too, might be exploiting Namgung Se-jin, he fueled his body with rage. To secure more achievements by dealing a devastating blow to the Jegal Clan, a pillar of the Alliance, the boy kept repeating to himself:
I am truly sorry for not having pure intentions.
Jegal Cheong-a had said this was their only chance. He had verified the truth through the ability of his Upper Dantian. This was a golden opportunity he could not let slip away.
“Check the Qian trigram! Step into position!”
“He manipulates energy waves at will! Prepare for a blow beyond the standard level!”
“Draw swords!”
Over a dozen men and women in green martial robes unleashed outstanding waves of energy. Their determination to stop him was palpable. Some had even abandoned the Cloud White Severing Formation entirely to focus on honing their individual sword strikes.
By this point, even Jegal Cheong-a began to feel the pressure. It wasn’t enough for the Commander of the Demonlight Wing to guard his front; the swords of warriors leaping down from above gleamed with light. They activated a Body Protection Scripture that disregarded all self-preservation, as if they only needed to land a single strike.
Imbued with powerful internal energy, precious swords that warped the sunlight plunged toward Jeong Yeon-shin. The momentum of the noble family’s experts, focused entirely on their swordplay, pressed down like an iron wall.
In that instant, Jegal Cheong-a’s eyes widened. She was so startled that the presence of the onlookers crowding behind them vanished from her senses.
Swoosh.
The boy’s black robe fluttered gently.
The moment he took a single step, the Commander of the Demonlight Wing’s body blurred. It was as if his entire being had turned into the wind. In a single stride, he slipped past every single sword. His reaction was a step faster than any of his enemies’ attacks.
While the paths of the Worthy Heaven Unit’s experts tangled, causing them to collide and dodge one another, Jeong Yeon-shin leaped forward once more.
Swoosh.
He didn’t even look back. He merely aimed his right hand behind him.
The weakness of the fourth form of the Infinite Flower of Time Hand only mattered against experts of equal caliber. Against lesser opponents, he had more than enough time to execute it. The profound principles of the sorcery formation blooming in his palm wove together the two currents of energy inherent in his Law-Transcending Halo Qi.
Blood Art and Dharma Power clashed like thunder. Instantly, an explosion of Brilliant River erupted.
Boom!
The explosion detonated seven paces away. Plumes of dust soared from the shattered ground, and the surrounding pavilions shook as if on the verge of collapse. Those pursuing him were swept up in the shockwave and skipped across the ground like stones on water.
The colossal roar tore through the alleys, its echo lingering long after.
It was a terrifyingly profound display of divine prowess. The seamless integration of his evasive movement and offensive palm technique had forged an unbelievably formidable expert.
Her eyelashes trembling, Jegal Cheong-a followed Jeong Yeon-shin. She had initially estimated their chances of success at seventy percent. Now, she raised it to ninety.
How can someone my age be this strong? she wondered. Is it really related to the desperation I felt from the Azure Qilin’s wounds?
Step.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s pitch-black back moved forward, indifferent. Every time martial artists of the Jegal Clan appeared, he executed a breakthrough that could only be described as godlike. With movements like the wind, he struck with the speed of lightning.
It was a level of martial prowess that silenced even the onlookers. The true power of a supreme expert always shone brightest in one-against-many battles.
“Over there!” Jegal Cheong-a suddenly cried out, pointing a pale finger.
A modest pavilion stood ahead. Along its side, three martial artists of the Jegal Clan were sprinting toward it. They were closer to the building than Jeong Yeon-shin and Jegal Cheong-a, their objective clear. It was a race.
Once that door was opened…
He would see his lifelong rival lying there like a mere test subject of the Tang Clan.
He could not let them take him. He could not allow him to be harmed. Jeong Yeon-shin filled the fine meridians of his right hand with Halo Qi. His palm grew burning hot as the mnemonics of absorption and emission intersected along three aligned acupoints.
“Huh?!”
With a strange cry, he drew Jegal Cheong-a’s scabbard from her waist without even touching it, hurling it with a mere flick of his hand.
Dust billowed. The distorted shockwave of the Myriad Blossoms Rain gouged the earth.
Swoosh!
A monstrous amount of Halo Qi was loaded into the emission. The white scabbard surged forward like a beam of light. Tearing through the air, it struck the heads of two men in an instant before slamming into the lower back of the third.
Thwack!
The dull impact was loud. Despite their Body Protection Qi, the blow seemed to have delivered a powerful shock directly to their bodies.
His attack cleared a path through the three collapsed figures. Because it was a sudden surprise attack launched by a supreme expert, the Jegal Clan had been unable to defend against it. Such was the majesty of a supreme expert, truly worthy of acting as a strategic weapon in a great sect war.
“Let’s go,” Jeong Yeon-shin said, his voice sounding somewhat somber.
Jegal Cheong-a unconsciously pursed her lips, her mouth dry. An unbelievable sight, a heart swelling with emotion. Now, she could finally be free from her father. She would overthrow his authoritarian oppression and change the noble family according to her and her brother’s wishes. A righteous justification was a divine sword more powerful than any other.
Or so she thought.
Suddenly, the sky darkened.
An early dusk fell. Low-hanging clouds gathered, drawn by some mysterious energy. The slowly fading sunlight seemed to herald the arrival of an absolute being.
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly looked to the side, toward a pavilion whose blue tiles rose elegantly from the rafters.
Atop its highest roof stood a man in a white silk robe, looking down with aloof dignity.
“They said you fearlessly stepped into the cage of young beasts time and again,” he spoke, his gaze fixed on Jegal Cheong-a. In his left hand, he held a White Crane Fan adorned with a dark blue tassel. His snow-white robes suited his pale skin perfectly, complementing his sharp facial features and thick, dark eyebrows.
He had the appearance of a scholar, yet he did not look weak in the slightest. His entire body was enveloped in a strange aura of transcendence. From the moment he appeared, the world seemed to fill with his presence. Even the freely blowing wind suddenly felt sluggish.
“Clan Leader!” one of the pursuing Jegal Clan experts cried out. His voice was a pained groan, as if he feared severe punishment.
Their Clan Leader was an absolute master whose martial prowess was discussed throughout the world. His presence here felt entirely natural. The current Jegal Clan Leader’s moniker was the Reincarnated Crouching Dragon. He had not earned the name of Zhuge Liang, the Jegal Muhu, for outstanding intellect, but for an extraordinarily sharp wit. That, combined with his peerless sorcery-based martial arts said to summon the wind and call down the rain, made his appearance and dignity worthy of comparison to the Jegal Muhu of the Shu Kingdom.
He had been keeping a close eye on Jegal Cheong-a’s unusual movements. With the prudence befitting a clan leader, he viewed the repercussions of the Azure Qilin’s corpse with gravity. Even with important business elsewhere, he had never taken his eyes off the Alliance.
And so, he had descended at this very moment. With a Body Protection Scripture that few in the world could match, he had caught the youths completely off guard.
His gaze slowly shifted toward Jeong Yeon-shin. It felt as though a great mountain were turning.
“You must pay the price,” said the absolute master, holding the fan. “Had you taken the Great Restoration Pill and retreated, that would have sufficed.”
“…”
“Your excessive greed has shortened your lifespan.”
Jeong Yeon-shin fell silent. For a second, words failed him. What would Heonwon Chang or the Lazy Flame Dragon have said?
Feeling the qi from his Upper Dantian whisper that his chances of victory were slim, the young Commander of the Demonlight Wing slowly parted his lips.
“…Have you no shame? And you call yourself the leader of a clan.”
“Hardly words to be spoken by a wicked, lawless intruder.” The Jegal Clan Leader’s lips slowly curved into a smile. “I shall send your head to the Lord of the Desolate Fortress. If she flies here in a rare fit of rage, the unification of the Martial World Alliance will only hasten. The justification lies with my family. When that happens, the strength of the Alliance will surpass that of the Desolate Fortress.”
His calm declaration carried a chilling weight of reality. It came as his fan suddenly moved.
Boom!
A sudden gale swept in—a razor-sharp wind, as if imbued with a divine sword. Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t even have time to draw his sword. He wasn’t fast enough. Forcing his Law-Transcending Halo Qi to wrap around both hands, he crossed them in front of him to endure the biting wind. He had no time to track the Jegal Clan Leader’s movements; the man’s manipulation of internal energy was terrifyingly swift.
As his vision blurred, he felt a sharp pain in his forearms. Lines of blood burst open across his skin. To withstand the forms of a divine art, his Body Protection Qi also needed to be at the level of a divine art. The structure of his current internal energy barrier was too weak. He realized this instinctively after taking just one blow.
Inaccessible.
There would need to be two or three more of him to even attempt a lethal strike. Otherwise, he would die here.
Riiip!
With a sound like tearing silk, the black-robed boy was sent flying backward. Yet, it was astonishing to see him spin his body mid-air and somehow regain his balance.
What kind of movement technique has he mastered? And what is that sensory perception? The whites of the Jegal Clan Leader’s eyes flashed.
“Indeed,” he said, folding his fan with an elegant gesture. “He is not someone who can be left alive.”
It was the same thought he’d had when observing the Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult from afar. He had not expected to feel it again so soon. To one who weighed the affairs of the entire martial world, the boy’s talent was exceedingly dangerous. There was no telling what kind of sword path he would carve out in the future.
Why was such a child not born into the Jegal Clan?
His boundless potential instilled a sense of vigilance even in this peerless master. It was only right to kill him here. Another Commander of the Divine Sword Corps must not be allowed to emerge.
And certainly not another Lord of the Desolate Fortress…
He hardened his resolve. He would kill him, even if it meant turning the Desolate Fortress into an enemy.
Swoosh.
Just as the Jegal Clan Leader’s fan began to trace a transcendent afterimage—
Wrooooom!
From afar.
From very far away, the atmosphere began to hum. The roaring sound doubled in volume with every passing instant. The moment they registered it was coming from behind, a long stretch of darkness pierced through all the barriers of the sorcery formations and flew toward them.
Arriving like a beam of light, the sound of tearing air slammed down right next to Jeong Yeon-shin.
Boom!
Someone landed with a terrifying vibration, and an earthquake-like tremor rippled in all directions. It was impossible to even guess from where they had leaped.
A black robe fluttered amidst a wave of energy that rose like a tsunami. It did not belong to Jeong Yeon-shin, but to the girl who had just descended.
It was a familiar profile.
Pitch-black short hair that defied all etiquette and formality. Upon her cheeks, so pale the sunlight seemed to filter through them, flickered a wave of energy like lightning. Her nose, which looked as if carved from fine ivory, was also familiar. A wild, colorless internal energy overflowed from her entire body, as if she had been born wearing the black robe of the Desolate Fortress. Her wide sleeves, too loose for her frame, billowed like the robes of a celestial maiden.
Ak Su-rim, the Divine Spear of the Desolate Fortress.
Turning her head slightly toward Jeong Yeon-shin, she flashed a bright smile.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
There were more. From the flank.
Crash!
Pavilions collapsed one by one. Every time a massive figure burst through a wall, a monstrous shockwave spread out. It was a giant of a man in a black robe, with ears pointed like leaves. He charged forward, smashing, crushing, and tearing down entire walls. The tyrannical power loaded into his soles left smoking footprints in his wake, the violent movement of his true qi generating intense heat.
“You—lowly—fools—!”
A roar erupted. Like a Lion’s Roar, it shook the surroundings violently. An explosive voice, carrying an amount of accumulated qi so vast it was hard to measure, swept through the area like a Thunderbolt Bomb, powerful enough to shatter doorframes on its own.
"Intruders! We have a massive breach!"
The frantic scream tore through the chaotic, dust-choked air, immediately followed by the frantic, ringing clash of steel upon steel.
"Look at their banners! They bear the character 'Hwang'! It's the Desolate Fortress!"
"Emergency! Form up the ranks! Deploy the sword formation and hold the line! Do not let them advance any further!"
The desperate, panicked shouts echoed faintly from the distance, carrying over the deafening, rumbling destruction of the collapsing walls. It was immediately clear that the enigmatic girl and the monstrous giant man were not the only attackers orchestrating this assault. There was an entire vanguard storming the compound. Had the rest of their forces—those who didn't possess peerless Body Protection Scriptures capable of shrugging off the crushing weight of a collapsing building—simply smashed their way straight through the heavily fortified main gate?
Even without such monstrous physical defenses, the martial prowess of these invaders was undeniably extraordinary. The martial artists of the Alliance were no mere pushovers; they were seasoned, blooded veterans who would be considered formidable powerhouses and respected figures anywhere else in the Jianghu. Yet, against this sudden, overwhelming onslaught, they were being utterly routed, thrown into a state of absolute, chaotic panic.
The sheer scale, precision, and ferocity of the attack made one thing abundantly clear: these were not opponents who could be repelled with standard defenses or ordinary preparations. The enemy had come with overwhelming, unstoppable force, tearing through the Alliance's outer defenses like paper.
The Desolate Fortress...
They had played their absolute strongest cards right from the very beginning. They hadn't held back a single ounce of their power, deploying an overwhelming, elite force to crush any and all opposition before it could even mount a proper resistance. It was all a calculated, ruthless maneuver to guard against any unforeseen disasters, and solely to ensure the absolute protection of their transcendent rising star. They were taking zero chances, choosing instead to annihilate the threat at its root.
Aren't there a bit too many of them?
Though profoundly relieved to have just narrowly escaped the gaping jaws of death, Jeong Yeon-shin found himself quite taken aback by the sheer, terrifying scale of the rescue operation. The magnitude of the destruction and the overwhelming numbers of the Desolate Fortress forces pouring into the compound were staggering. However, true to his disciplined nature, he didn't let a single trace of his inner turmoil show. He simply maintained his cold, perfectly expressionless facade, his dark eyes quietly observing the brutal carnage unfolding around him.
Are they seriously trying to start an all-out war?