Chapter 244: Punishment, Ties of Fate
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 244: Punishment, Ties of Fate
One day ago.
The message left by Jin, the acting Lord of the Vast Art Stronghold, was nothing short of unprecedented.
It was safe to say that anyone of note in the vicinity of Xi'an had flocked to the scene, regardless of their status.
Both the common folk and the martial artists of the Jianghu had caught wind of the news: the Elder Council Head of the Hegemon Sword Sect might make her descent.
The Ghost Soul Divine Sword, Yeo So-hyang.
She was a legendary figure even within the Thirteen Heavens, often compared to Baek Seo-gun, the undisputed Sword Saint of Henan Province.
Though the Yeongcheon Sword Ghost was far younger, their martial prowess and reputations were the subject of fierce debate, with neither clearly surpassing the other.
"Perhaps she is still too formidable an opponent for that child..."
Baek Seo-gun muttered.
She was perched on the roof of a pavilion, one knee drawn up to her chest.
Lately, she had been talking to herself more often. Was it because the life of the Jeong Family Manor—which she had turned away from precisely because she considered it her root—had seeped into her heart?
Or perhaps it was because the words written by that fellow Jin had pierced her so deeply.
— Chivalrous heroes still pity the weak, allowing their noble intentions to bloom everywhere. This is because they have engraved the teachings of their sects and parents onto their hearts.
What kind of teachings did the Jeong Family Head, Ban-ak Jeong Dae-myung, engrave upon Flash Art's heart? With what mindset did Flash Art throw himself into the Desolate Fortress?
How could he have grown into a martial artist who held the peace of the common people as his highest banner? So upright and dignified, at that.
Baek Seo-gun was a sword ghost unparalleled in her mastery of the blade, yet she could not find a single answer to the questions that had recently surfaced.
The tens of thousands of sword paths filling her head were utterly useless for this. She wished she had possessed a simpler, more honest demeanor and heart when they first met.
Jeong Pan-ak, Jeong Pan-ak... If only that crazy, idle bastard had played the father properly...
— It must be because he has no parents.
She flinched.
Her short, gray hair tickled her shoulders in the breeze.
Just then.
"Sword Saint, the Alliance Leader urgently requests your presence."
An exceedingly polite voice echoed from below the roof. She did not need to look to know who it was.
It was a commander of the Deep Martial Alliance's martial army. A figure of considerable status in the Jianghu, someone who would normally hesitate to even show his face.
But such status was meaningless before the Sword Saint, Baek Seo-gun.
She slowly parted her lips.
"This seat has already spoken of winter to the Alliance Leader. The grace period is quite long, so state the reason for summoning me so early."
"……"
Baek Seo-gun let out a dry chuckle. She brushed back her sideburns and stroked the nape of her neck, exuding a strange aura where absolute authority and magnanimity coexisted.
"It is not the Alliance Leader. That brat of an Eldest Son must have thrown a tantrum."
"My apologies."
"You have disturbed my contemplation. What did you intend to pay as the price?"
"I was prepared to offer my left arm."
"The Eldest Son's left arm. Quite fitting indeed. I shall consider it."
"Sword Saint...!"
"Begone. For the crime of having you lie to my face, I will severely punish that boy the moment I return to the main alliance. Even calling him a rising star is too generous. He is a worthless loafer who cannot even compare to the tip of the toe of the Desolate Fortress's Commander of the Demonlight Wing."
Her voice was chilling, as cold as the moonlight falling upon her silver-streaked hair.
The commander of the Deep Martial Alliance could not answer immediately. He could only barely manage to say that he would return the next day.
* * *
The day of the decisive battle.
"This way! Step here!"
"Do not cut in line. You might truly meet an early grave by my hand."
Before anyone knew it, Jegal Hyeon and the Lazy Flame Dragon had arrived below the opposite peak.
Amidst the devastating landslide triggered by the Ghost Soul Divine Sword, they shattered boulders and cleared away dust, helping the common folk evacuate. It was the very picture of righteous heroes.
The experts of the Demonlight Wing, widely scattered around the Great Moon Gorge, did the same. They unleashed shockwaves here and there to clear paths.
Rather than maintaining their guise as unorthodox martial artists, they focused on saving the lives of the crowd.
Rescue and relief. This was the original banner of the Desolate Fortress. Seeing this, some of the Jianghu martial artists also began to help them.
A flower blooming amidst pandemonium.
Despite his heavy heart, Jeong Yeon-shin felt a sense of relief.
"……"
He looked up.
The Elder Council Head of the Thirteen Heavens.
She was at the absolute pinnacle of the Jianghu. To anyone, she would be considered a person of extreme danger.
Even the wind blowing from the hillside thickets seemed to whisper as much. The rustling of leaves at his feet sounded bleak.
Hehe—
A bizarre laugh escaped the lips of the old woman standing on her flying sword, the Elder Council Head of the Hegemon Sword Sect. She clicked her tongue for a moment, then stopped as if nothing had happened.
"To see everything..."
A hollow chuckle laced her words.
"What arrogance, to dare speak of the unorthodox path. Compared to our Sect Leader, who remains humble despite reaching the supreme realm, even calling you insolent would be an understatement. You simply do not know your place."
Her wrinkled face appeared completely indifferent.
The Ghost Soul Divine Sword, Yeo So-hyang, was a peculiar individual.
Though she seemed easily provoked, she observed her opponent closely. Even after seeing the light in Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes, she did not show excessive caution.
This was despite her being an old master who well understood the utility of eye techniques. She simply knew that the difference in their sword power was stark.
"You are still unrefined."
Yeo So-hyang's eyes rolled back wildly. She possessed a madness-tinged insight and a terrifyingly powerful disposition.
At a glance, it was impossible to imagine her defeat. She was indeed worthy of being the one who had raised the Lord of the Thirteen Heavens as his wet nurse.
"Your discernment is lacking. Quite fitting for the one who raised the Lord of the Hegemon Sword Sect so poorly."
Jeong Yeon-shin's reply was calm. The logic he had learned from Heonwon Chang rolled off his tongue quite naturally.
He felt he could almost adopt "Jin" as his own alias. The man was far more worthy of being called a true brother than his second brother, Jeong Jung-san.
"……"
As the old woman fell silent, Jeong Yeon-shin measured the combat interval in advance.
The distance from the Northern Light Sword at his waist to Yeo So-hyang was vast. The sensation it impressed upon his instincts as a swordsman was nothing short of a chasm.
She was incredibly powerful. Having developed his eye technique, he realized this even more clearly.
But the Commander of the Demonlight Wing did not care.
The Black Rank of the Desolate Fortress was a level that knew no fear.
Its primary virtue was simple: to clash head-on with the spirit befitting a unit commander. They were those who charged through the Jianghu with the temperament of the military.
Even if he was at a disadvantage, it was not a matter of comparing the heights of their martial arts, but of maximizing his own strengths. The martial art he had created for that very purpose was the Sight of the Lowly.
He slowly parted his lips. There was something he needed to hear before they began.
"Do you remember the Jeong Family Manor? It was in Xinye County, Henan."
Jeong Yeon-shin asked calmly.
"Are you speaking of the family that produced the Divine Archer and the world's greatest swift sword? No, if it is Henan..."
Yeo So-hyang's eyes narrowed. But only for a moment.
Soon, they curved along with the wrinkles stretching to her temples. It was a silent, mocking smile.
"Ah, so that was it. You were that child. No wonder you were absurdly strong for your age. The Sect Leader's foresight is truly magnificent."
"Was the dispatch of the assassins your doing?"
"I was on my way out for a journey. I looked down and saw a land far too grand for its own good. Since fertile soil naturally becomes food for the World Tree, it was only right that your family was laid to waste."
"For such a trivial reason? There were many commoners in the household my mother chose."
The Jeong Family Manor was a great landowner's estate in Xinye County. Aside from family members, servants and guests constantly bustled in and out of the inner quarters.
There was even a servant who had always called Jeong Yeon-shin "Young Master" and offered him meals.
Now, they were dead. Murdered.
Faint veins bulged on the back of Jeong Yeon-shin's hand as he gripped the hilt of his sword. The old woman standing on her blade cackled.
"How pitiful. You should be grateful for having contributed to the Sect Leader's noble cause, yet you show such ingratitude."
It was indeed the mere nod of this old monster of the unorthodox faction that had drenched the Jeong Family Manor in blood.
Jeong Yeon-shin decided not to show his enemy any courtesy. A deep, intense hue flashed in his blue eyes.
Distance: ten feet. The energy wave is distorting toward the southeast. Her first strike will plunge straight down.
She will lower her hand directly from her sword flight to retrieve the blade. Her altitude won't change. A long-range slash.
This was the vision of the Sight of the Lowly. An immense torrent of information flooded his mind. He instantly processed his innate senses directly into his brain.
Just as the supreme masters of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak could circulate their internal power the instant they willed it, he had pushed his physical reaction speed to its absolute limit.
He drew his talent inward. Insight was unfolding within the realm of pure instinct.
"Ghost Soul Divine Sword."
The Commander of the Demonlight Wing parted his lips.
"Come down."
He stood balanced on a single strand of the Thread Sword wrapped around the trees.
As the clear winter wind tickled the hem of his black robes, the brilliant sunlight caught his proudly tilted jawline.
It was an outstandingly elegant figure. In terms of mystical appearance, he was easily a match for the Ghost Soul Divine Sword.
"Look over there, look!"
"Don't push! Calm down!"
"No! The Ghost Soul Divine Sword is right there!"
"The Lord of the Vast Art Stronghold and the Ghost Soul Divine Sword have clashed!"
Those who were fleeing down the hill formed by the landslide froze in their tracks. They were people possessed of enough curiosity to stop and watch a duel between peerless unorthodox masters.
Even with death staring them in the face, they could not turn away from such a rare spectacle.
Some even turned back. A few martial artists used the Gecko Technique to scale the cliffs like spiders.
It was a confrontation between a rising star and an old master.
As they faced each other, a suffocating aura radiated in all directions.
The crowd, looking up or watching from afar, swallowed hard, their eyes glued to the two figures.
Few had ever witnessed the Elder Council Head of the Hegemon Sword Sect strike in person. It was simply widely accepted that she possessed a sword art capable of shaking the world.
The Lord of the Vast Art Stronghold, who had emerged after suppressing the Seven Great Sects of Xi'an, was also the center of attention.
Finally, they clashed.
The tension exuded by the supreme masters felt like a blade scraping against the skin, slowly spreading outward.
The moment even the sound of falling pebbles and the frantic rustling of fleeing commoners faded into the background—
Sshhhk!
A colorless sword wind tore through the atmosphere as it plunged. Before anyone realized it, Yeo So-hyang had already swung her sword in midair, unleashing a shockwave of sword force from the tip of her blade.
The crowd could not even see her precious sword rising from beneath her feet. Her movements appeared fragmented, as if skipping frames—the realm of a supreme master.
Thrusting-Step Desolation-Breaking Sword, Shattering Thunder.
Jeong Yeon-shin saw everything. It was a secret technique that had sliced a mountain peak.
The Ghost Soul Divine Sword, Yeo So-hyang. Though she was rapidly declining as a practitioner of the Hegemon Art, she still possessed fragments of a sword force realm capable of contending with a Purple Rank peerless master.
He could not withstand it head-on. With a brief glance, Jeong Yeon-shin swept over the texture of the sword wind.
The trajectory entering his vision perfectly matched his predicted information. He was now dissecting even the precursors of a technique unleashed by a superior martial artist.
A brilliant blue light flashed in the eyes of the Commander of the Demonlight Wing.
Rustle.
He took a step to the side, still atop a strand of the Thread Sword. In that brief instant, he completely dismantled the net he had woven around the area.
The recoil of the bundle of Thread Swords being drawn back into his sleeve pulled his body to the left.
Crash!
The slash grazed past him, whipping his hair. It was a hair's breadth escape.
The moment the strike directly hit the ground, an earthquake-like rumble erupted. The earth seemed to writhe like a dragon.
"Such sword power in an old body destined for hell soon—truly fascinating. Show me more."
Jeong Yeon-shin's voice pierced the wind. The slash had been focused on cutting him down, not the peak.
The angle itself dictated so. It was insufficient to sever the largest hill in the Great Moon Gorge. This was precisely the location he had chosen with this in mind.
"Impudent brat!"
Crash!
Finally, Yeo So-hyang landed right in front of Jeong Yeon-shin. Cracks spreading from her feet spiderwebbed in all directions.
Her landing itself was like a heavy stomp. Suddenly, her sword thrust forward.
Shhhk!
A white light flashed. It was an incredibly swift strike. Despite being an instantaneous attack, the intangible energy gathered on the blade distorted the air as if it had been prepared long in advance.
At that exact moment, Jeong Yeon-shin slipped inside the old woman's guard. This was a move that had anticipated her strike.
He knew he could not yet match the sword speed of the Hegemon Sword Sect's Elder Council Head. Thus, he had anticipated her move, closed the distance, and snatched the wrist of the hand holding her sword.
The wrinkled texture of her skin met his palm. It was a perfectly executed Grappling Technique.
"You bastard...?"
Their eyes met at point-blank range. Jeong Yeon-shin's lips curved into a faint arc.
Even without words, his clear intent reached Yeo So-hyang:
This will do.