Chapter 225: Vast Art Formula (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 225: Vast Art Formula (5)
"Huh...?"
Lazy Flame Dragon, who had been lounging on the roof tiles, reacted instantly. His eyebrows shot up for a moment before he rose to his feet without so much as using his hands.
As if reversing the principles of the Iron Plate Bridge, he shot upright using only the strength of his feet and waist. He had lifted himself in a fraction of a second—an exquisite display of a movement technique.
Rustle.
Two black figures descended nearby, their Body Protection Scripture shimmering around them like an illusion.
The fluttering, pitch-black hems of their robes announced the arrival of two supreme experts: Ak Su-rim, the Divine Spear of the Desolate Fortress, and Un So-yu, Commander of the Law Enforcement Unit.
Ak Su-rim furrowed her brow slightly as she gazed into the distance.
She placed her hands on her hips and glanced down from the roof. Near the Great Training Ground, Jin Myeong-jo, the Divine Blood Ultimate Demon, stood motionless. As usual, his head was tilted slightly to the side. He showed no sign of coming up.
"What are you doing? Our junior might be on the verge of enlightenment, and you can't even be bothered to stand guard?"
"I'm scanning the perimeter. Don't mind me. Three unit commanders guarding one direction? That's an inefficient deployment of forces."
"That makes a certain kind of sense..."
Ak Su-rim trailed off and gestured toward Lazy Flame Dragon.
"Hey, child of the Hwangbo Clan."
"...Speak."
He replied while looking down at the streaks of white shockwaves. It was a wave of True Qi similar, yet distinct from, the Radiant Brilliance Sword Style. The streaks of light erupting now were slightly denser. They pierced through parts of the pavilion before dissipating like mist, creating a mystical sight.
Ak Su-rim didn't comment on his rudeness. Regardless of where Lazy Flame Dragon’s gaze fell, her focus was on Jeong Yeon-shin inside the pavilion.
Nothing else mattered. The safety of Flash Art was paramount.
She opened her mouth.
"How many days has our Flash Art been at this?"
"About nine."
"As I thought, it's practically closed-door cultivation. No wonder the deputy unit commander was the one who replied to my message. What about his meals?"
"I brought them to him on time. He's still a growing boy, after all."
"It wasn't useless stuff like Fasting Pills, was it?"
"How can anyone build their body eating that stuff? He's not some Taoist ascetic; he's a growing boy."
"My, how different from our kids. The Demonlight Wing really takes good care of its commander."
Swoosh.
Ak Su-rim gently reached a hand toward the residual energy leaking through the gaps in the roof tiles.
White light scattered from the edge of her black silk sleeve, like mist blending into the dawn twilight.
The corners of her mouth curled up.
"What a peculiar shockwave. It has a distinct character. This is different from the materialization of True Qi; the aftermath of the technique remains as dense internal power, adding to its overall strength. He wasn't meditating, he was practicing his strikes. There's no need to stand guard."
Speaking as if to herself, Ak Su-rim raised her head.
"You weren't standing guard, were you? You just didn't want to break Flash Art's trance. Quite out of character for the Hwangbo Young Master. Weren't you acting like royalty back in Jinan?"
"Stop making a fuss. This is standing guard," Lazy Flame Dragon replied bluntly, clearly annoyed.
His previously polite demeanor had vanished. It even showed in his posture, his weight shifted to one leg as if his subconscious thoughts were manifesting physically.
It was a change Ak Su-rim cared little about.
"But what is he doing?"
She pointed to a corner of the roof, near the gently sloping edge.
There, a presence whose breathing was nearly impossible to detect even with the senses of a supreme expert clung upside down beneath the rafters. It was Heonwon Chang.
He was invisible from Ak Su-rim's angle, clinging to the structure like a cicada. Her head tilted slightly.
"He's mastered the arts of assassination quite well. Is he planning to kill his own commander?"
"The opposite, though he's being incredibly dramatic about it."
"Guarding? Why from under the rafters?"
"Because of the recent rumors. They say several pavilion roofs in the Desolate Fortress have been destroyed. He said there might be an attack from above, so he'd intercept it. It'll be a miracle if they don't both get crushed together."
"..."
Ak Su-rim pursed her lips and leaped lightly from the roof.
Rustle.
With a faint sound, she landed in the middle of the Great Training Ground in a single bound. The footwork of a supreme expert. Not a speck of dust rose, as she had landed on a sparse patch of weeds. The blades of grass beneath her leather shoes didn't even bend. This was the realm of Grass-Gliding.
Beside her, Un So-yu, Commander of the Law Enforcement Unit, descended just as naturally, without a hint of presence. She had mastered the Brightfolk's Body Protection Scripture to its absolute limit. Her movements were terrifyingly refined for a martial artist, and as always, her elegantly tailored uniform stood out.
"I shall return," she said calmly.
Glancing at Un So-yu's profile, Ak Su-rim smiled teasingly.
"Weren't you hoping to learn the trick to finding countermeasures? That should be quite important for the Law Enforcement Unit."
"I intend to visit again tomorrow at noon. Since it is necessary to show sincerity to the new unit commander, if I tell him I visited three times while he was in seclusion, he might at least hear me out."
She spoke in a quiet, gentle tone and turned to leave.
Rustle.
Watching her receding back, Ak Su-rim turned her head. Jin Myeong-jo, the Divine Blood Ultimate Demon, stood tall, the aura surrounding him lofty. He was speaking with the Blue-Ranked experts he had sent from the Bloodkeeper Unit: Asura Demon Soul and Blood Sword Ghost.
He's a hard one to read, Ak Su-rim thought.
The Divine Blood Ultimate Demon was a strange man. It wasn't just his pale complexion, which made it difficult to read his thoughts. He also never participated in the Desolate Fortress's public events, like the Black Rank duels. While expertly hiding his true intentions, he had achieved tremendous feats against the Unorthodox Factions. Judging by his aura, it wasn't something accomplished solely through his martial skill.
He was hiding a dangerous trump card other than his signature technique, the Flash-Blood Claw Art. He was more like an expert from the Heterodox Sects than the Black Way.
It was the same now. A chill emanated from his words as he questioned his former subordinates.
"He hasn't looked over your martial arts even once?"
The already pale faces of Pung-ran and Na Il-cheon turned even whiter. The Bloodkeeper Unit was said to be a martial unit run with military discipline. It was hard to see the dignity of Blue-Ranked experts on their faces. They had only been in the Demonlight Wing for a few days. In terms of temperament, they were still closer to the Bloodkeeper Unit. For now.
"The Commander of the Demonlight Wing must have been preoccupied."
"It's not something to blame him for. Aren't Black Ranks busy with all sorts of affairs?"
"You bastards, your auras have grown sloppy. The flow of your True Qi is broken in several places. This is what happens when fools try to cultivate an unfamiliar art using only a manual. You're stuck in limbo. Pathetic," Jin Myeong-jo muttered.
The unit commanders under the Divine Sword Corps were like sect leaders running their own schools. If the disciples they took in showed lacking achievements, the blow to their reputation was naturally immense. Even if he showed anger, it wouldn't be considered excessive.
I practically wept with indignation when I sent them over...!
Jin Myeong-jo recalled the letter he had sent to Jeong Yeon-shin, a letter he'd nearly shed tears of resentment over multiple times. The new Commander of the Demonlight Wing shouldn't be treating Pung-ran and Na Il-cheon this way. This was too much. It wasn't as if he had secluded himself to devise an educational system for his juniors like some imperial court scholar.
"Have you even seen the new Commander of the Demonlight Wing's face twice?"
"..."
Pung-ran and Na Il-cheon didn't answer. Any answer would insult either Jin Myeong-jo or Jeong Yeon-shin, so silence was their only option.
The Divine Blood Ultimate Demon's eyes darkened.
"Show me something. Can you execute three consecutive strikes within a single breath? If not, I will demand an explanation from my outstanding junior."
Jin Myeong-jo glanced at the Demonlight Wing Commander's pavilion out of the corner of his eye. He was already plotting what excuse he could use to slip away the moment the door opened.
Demand an explanation, my ass. I'm just saying what's expected of a commander who let his subordinates go.
He thought, It has to be something I can say in a single breath.
The surrounding experts interpreted it differently.
The question was whether they could execute three forms in the space between a single breath. Coming from a Black Rank supreme expert, it had to be seen as a challenge to execute a strike with their full power—no easy task for anyone.
Step.
Pung-ran, a woman with a thin, curved saber slung across her back, stepped forward.
Her alias was the Blood Sword Ghost. From the Flash-Blood lineages of the Bloodkeeper Unit Commander, she had learned the Flash-Blood Chaotic Trace Saber Art. Relentless consecutive strikes were its core principle. She was often mentioned as a difficult opponent, even among Blue-Ranked saber masters.
"It's not that I've made no achievements. It's just that my progress has slowed compared to before," Pung-ran said.
A hush fell over the Demonlight Wing's Great Training Ground. The Bloodkeeper Unit Commander had shown his anger. In an instant, all eyes were on her.
Blood Sword Ghost Pung-ran.
She resembled the Divine Blood Ultimate Demon as if they were kin. Her pale face and slender jawline were sharp as a blade, but her movements were incredibly gentle as she reached for the scabbard on her back. Already, an irregular wave of internal power spread out from her, sharp and sinister, much like her former commander.
Clang!
As she drew her saber, the blade began to dance.
The technique she had learned from the Flash Art's lineage was the Scripture of Initial Overcoming, a principle that momentarily boosted power by concentrating True Qi. In other words, she had to prove the power of her saber's shockwave.
Hum!
The forms of the Flash-Blood Chaotic Trace Saber Art unfolded in a long sequence. The thin blade sliced through the sunset's halo. The faintly blurring trajectory of the blade burst with sharp shockwaves, the humming sound loud. With two swings, the very air seemed to tear.
But the third was different.
Swish!
Even the sound diminished. The shockwave weakened noticeably. As she executed a horizontal slash, the tip of her saber, now pointing at the ground, trembled slightly.
It was the same phenomenon Kang Chang-mu and Wi Ye-ryeong had experienced. She couldn't sustain her internal energy circulation. On the third form, the power condensed in her fine meridians scattered. She had hit the limit of an unfamiliar martial lineage that emphasized senses over raw power. Her training, which amounted to self-study, was also a problem.
She couldn't surpass the original martial arts she had practiced for so long.
It was a problem that could be resolved with continued training. However, the martial artists of the Desolate Fortress could not afford to speak of the future. Once one reached the level of a Blue-Ranked expert, they were expected to act as an elite, immediate force. In the main fortress, few words were as shameful as "incomplete."
In the sunset-drenched Great Training Ground, Pung-ran bit her lower lip, her saber held low.
"..."
"You've regressed," Jin Myeong-jo said, his face indifferent.
"This can't even be called stagnation. I can see that even your method of applying force has become clumsy..."
"..."
"It would have been better to focus on your original martial arts. Having witnessed this myself, this isn't a matter of holding my outstanding junior accountable. It is simply your own inadequacy. You coveted a martial art beyond your station and lost your consecutive strikes, so what more is there to say? Indeed, Flash Art is not to be blamed. He, with his exceptional talent, bestowed an extraordinary martial art, but mere sparrows cannot keep up with a dragon."
His cold words meant one thing: she was to discard the martial art she had learned from Flash Art. It was also a declaration that it was not an art she was capable of emulating.
No one could refute it. The higher one's cultivation, the harder it was to master a new high-level martial art. It was like trying to dig a deep well—far more arduous for a Blue Rank than a White Rank.
The only one who could properly use Flash Art's techniques was Flash Art himself. It was a fatal flaw, one that would only become more apparent with time.
Silence persisted.
Those who had been watching the Bloodkeeper Unit members awkwardly turned away. Ak Su-rim also said nothing, merely staring at the unit commander's pavilion. Before anyone knew it, the light that had been leaking from the gaps in the door and roof tiles had vanished.
"Is there any way to properly teach the Demonlight Formula?"
"Learning it now, it'll be hard to use in coordinated attacks. I suppose we'll have to start with small-scale missions like the other units."
"We have a problem too. If we encounter a group of Plum Blossom Sword Masters in a battle, we have no way to handle them. If we had a proper sword formation like the Heaven-Aligned Wing, replenishing our numbers would have been easy..."
The conversations, not deliberately hushed, continued. This was a gathering of Blue-Ranked experts. They knew that lowering their voices out of half-hearted consideration would only bring more shame. The Demonlight Wing martial artists comforted each other in the way of warriors, their hushed words a mix of concern for their comrades and for themselves.
It was a noisy silence.
Lazy Flame Dragon lay back down on the roof, and Heonwon Chang's presence remained absolutely still. Cheong-myeong and Baek Mi-ryeo, sitting askew on the wall of the Great Training Ground, also focused on observing the White-Ranked warriors.
And so it remained, until the door to the commander's residence suddenly rumbled open.
Rumble.
Ak Su-rim leaped onto the wall, her face alight with delight. In a single instant, she was standing on the corner of the wall in her pitch-black trousers, dust rising from beneath her feet.
"Our Flash Art! What have you been doing shut away in there? You're not sulking because I called you my nemesis, are you?"
"Just a moment."
A short, somewhat raspy voice rang out.
Step.
Before the experts of the Demonlight Wing could even vault the wall, their commander was already moving, traversing the air like the wind. He landed in the center of the Great Training Ground like an apparition—a mystical sight. With a heavy, balanced posture, only his pitch-black robes fluttered. It was the Wind God Movement Technique.
Jeong Yeon-shin's appearance was revealed.
As always, he wore a black robe that left the skin of his left arm bare. His hair, which now fell past his shoulders, was like black silk, the sunset rippling calmly across it.
"Commander! Did you make a breakthrough?"
"We've been waiting for so long! You haven't come out to the training ground once, yet somehow you look even stronger."
Amid the warm welcome, only Jin Myeong-jo took several elegant steps backward, though no one paid him any mind. The members of the Demonlight First Team—including Cheong-myeong, Baek Mi-ryeo, and Heonwon Chang—along with the existing experts of the Demonlight Wing, surrounded Jeong Yeon-shin.
Their numbers were close to thirty. The transparent air of early winter warmed in an instant. The newly joined mid-level experts also shifted their feet awkwardly.
"You really are a beloved commander. Hey, Flash Art! We..."
Just as a smiling Ak Su-rim was about to call out, the experts of the Demonlight Wing took several steps back. It happened right after Jeong Yeon-shin slightly parted his lips. The distance between them gradually widened until they formed a large, unbroken circle.
Swoosh.
The new commander planted his feet firmly on the ground.
First was a straight punch.
It was not fast. He extended it with natural, disciplined grace. A shockwave scattered from his shoulder like snowflakes as True Qi surged from his legs into his hand, the overlapping energies growing denser. His entire aura was not overwhelmingly strong, yet his fist caused an explosion as it reached its peak.
Whoosh!
The vivid sensation of tearing air rushed outward. It was similar, yet different, to the Advancing Thunder of the Infinite Flower of Time Hand. Harmonized with the Radiant Wing Step, the punch flowed with the fluid grace of a river current, spreading a fierce shockwave.
It was the same with the second form. The air warped and distorted as he made a sideways hand gesture. A spiral shockwave. Light flowed from the rotational energy gathered on the surface of his fist.
Thud! Whoosh!
As he repeatedly released his power, his internal energy drew closer to materialization. The scattered sunlight collided with the shockwaves, distorting into white light. Flashes of brilliance erupted sporadically from his black-robed figure, possessing a terrifyingly sharp, mystical quality.
"That..."
Even as someone let out a low groan, the forms continued. His third punch bloomed with a hazy brilliance.
Before the fist-flower of the Infinite Flower of Time Hand could even fade, a soft click came from Jeong Yeon-shin's waist.
Shring.
With a hand marked by prominent veins, he drew the Northern Light Sword. Wisps of frost, like the cool air of early winter, rose from the pure white blade. A transparent energy spread in all directions, accompanied by a dense silence that fell over the area.
A single sword moved.
Hum.
Jeong Yeon-shin performed a sword dance. Trajectories of brilliance bloomed into countless streaks. The light-drawn arcs of his sword faded slowly, only to be replaced by new trajectories.
It was as if he were bringing forth dawn amidst the twilight of the sunset. His black sleeve billowed along with his right arm holding the sword. As the wave of internal power grew denser, the brilliance enveloping his entire body like a haze also deepened.
A power far exceeding the aura he had first displayed sliced through the air. This was movement predicated on the Scripture of Initial Overcoming.
The Infinite Flower of Time Fist, the Radiant Wing Step, and the Radiant Brilliance Sword Style fused into a single, seamless dance. Not a single person present was a novice—they were all experts, and every one of them recognized the sheer mastery on display.