Chapter 259: High-Level (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 259: High-Level (9)
Rumble—
The earth shook.
Stone dust, mingling with the pure white powder covering the ground, erupted as if struck by a cannonball. The source was the translucent, swirling wind emanating from Jeong Yeon-shin's outstretched left palm, a force that showed no signs of stopping.
The vibrations underfoot were monstrous. The air on the suddenly trembling peak grew hazy with debris. It was a sight difficult to believe even when seeing it with one's own eyes.
A single human hand had triggered an earthquake, and a massive stone wall was crumbling to pieces.
Jang Sun-il collapsed, his mind unable to process the scene. With a dazed expression, he could only manage a faint, choked sound. A suppressed groan escaped his gaping mouth. It wasn't until Bukgung Rin grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and yanked him back that his eyes regained their focus.
"Crazy…! That's crazy!"
As Jang Sun-il muttered curses, Bukgung Rin held him tight and kicked off the ground, frantically spitting out questions that went unanswered.
"You! Do you know that guy? What is he? Who is he?!"
Her trouser cuffs whipped around as if caught in the blast of a Thunderbolt Bomb. The powerful tremor from her own lightness skill was completely swallowed by the cataclysmic vibration radiating from the palm strike. It was as if the torrent of power was consuming all other sensations as it surged outward.
They had to get away from the epicenter.
"That palm force…! Is he even human?!"
Bukgung Hu widened the distance alongside her. Even in his haste, his sharply raised eyebrows betrayed his immense shock.
The Wolf King, Geum Si-hu, was already an overwhelming master. But their traveling companion, who had just unleashed a strike that seemed to transcend reality, was his equal. That single move was truly astounding.
Who could have ever imagined it? Not even in their wildest dreams had they suspected their young companion possessed a divine might that would allow him to reign as a powerhouse even in the frozen lands of the North.
"A little more… we need to get further away!"
"No kidding! Just make sure you manifest your Body Protection Qi properly!" his older sister, Bukgung Rin, scolded.
The wave of energy surging right behind them proved her right. Even as they fled using their lightness skills, the shockwaves of the supreme masters’ clash reached them clearly. The increasingly intense fluctuations were terrifying—enough to make even the proud nobles of the frozen lands turn tail and run.
They couldn't afford to watch a battle between supreme masters from below. A single stray shockwave could easily send them to the afterlife.
The siblings threw themselves to the side, landing nimbly on the ground before scrambling up a hill, effectively circling around the boulder where the Wolf King had been perched. Bukgung Rin tossed the limp Jang Sun-il aside and stood shoulder-to-shoulder with her twin brother.
Below, they could see their companion standing in the center of the hazy dust. With the stone powder veiling his handsome face, he seemed utterly detached from reality—like a bewitching spirit that captivated all who saw him. It was like staring into the glowing, streaked clouds that filled the frozen skies of the North Sea.
Bukgung Rin spoke slowly. "I can sense them. Bastards with blood-red hair, coming up from below. They're moving like a pack of wild dogs."
"There are more than a few. I see some dark red ones mixed in, too," Bukgung Hu added with a nod.
Jang Sun-il groaned. "Blood Ghosts… and even the Blood Master Swords…!"
"They must be famous in the Central Plains if even this fellow knows their names."
"It makes sense. Some of them are incredibly strong, and they suck human blood. But right now, that Wolf King is the immediate problem."
Bukgung Rin looked down, her brow furrowed. "He took no damage. He completely escaped the shockwave's range. They call him the king of wanderers… his reputation is no exaggeration. He’s comparable to the Great Warriors of our frozen lands. A true superhuman."
"But our companion's age is…" Bukgung Hu trailed off.
Just then, a smooth voice echoed from behind them.
"Chattering so noisily. If you make any more noise, I'll snap your necks."
The startled group spun around.
A woman was sitting on a large tree stump. She wore a pitch-black eyepatch over her left eye and was draped in a red robe that looked as if it were dyed in molten blood. Her skin was remarkably pale, easily rivaling that of the North Sea nobles who practiced the Ice Soul Divine Art. She was so unnaturally white she looked like a spirit born from the eternal snows of the mountain peak.
Faint glints of red shimmered in her ebony hair, and the very air around her seemed to shift bewitchingly as sunlight danced over her head.
Strange, violent, chaotic, and supernatural.
Even with her other eye closed, she radiated an aura of profound dread.
Jang Sun-il instinctively took a step back. A chill ran down his spine—an instinct that sharpened his perception of others.
"A Blood Flame Cult… aristocrat!" he whispered, his throat tight.
But no one was listening. The Bukgung siblings, their spirits suppressed by the blood-robed woman’s presence, were focused on their companion's battle. Meanwhile, the supreme master of the Blood Flame Cult didn't even twitch an eyelash, as if sensing something else entirely. She was completely ignoring them.
She murmured to herself, "When did he… manage to do that again…"
Her closed-eyed face trembled from time to time, a bright red smile playing on her lips. To Jang Sun-il, she was utterly insane. While no martial arts master was without their eccentricities, she was simply incomprehensible.
But her indifference allowed him to look back down at the ruined mountain path.
At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin raised the Divine Sword: Northern Light to block a strike from the Wolf King's crossed twin sabers. A shout filled with internal energy erupted from the Wolf King's mouth.
"Ha—!"
Another heavy vibration rumbled through the ground as sparks flew from the divine sword’s blade, which was caught between the twin sabers. Sharp fragments of force scattered in all directions, tearing up the earth.
He had earned the title 'King' and lived by it for decades—no small feat in the unforgiving Jianghu. The Wolf King's force was as honed as saber qi, meaning the mere aftershock of his slash was as deadly as a final, desperate strike from an ordinary master.
The faint scar on Geum Si-hu's cheek twisted upward as he clashed blades with Jeong Yeon-shin. It was the smile of an extraordinary wanderer. At a distance so close their noses almost touched, his colorless eyes shone, scanning his opponent's gaze and breathing.
"I didn't expect you to drag me down like that. An astounding palm technique, and a cheeky disposition. I almost lost my footing."
"Is it true you accepted a request from the Blood Flame Cult?" the Commander of the Demonlight Wing asked quietly.
The Wolf King raised an eyebrow. "They offered a large amount of salt and food. Is there any reason to refuse? If cutting the throats of a few ignorant commoners and martial artists puts food on my plate, isn't that turning a killing sword into a living sword? The government certainly isn't feeding me."
"I can feed you a blade, at least. You die here."
Having said his piece, Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips pressed into a tight line. Though the man used food as an excuse, any government office would have gladly supported a supreme master of his caliber. True to his moniker, the Wolf King had chosen the freedom of the strong. And it was Jeong Yeon-shin's duty as the Commander of the Demonlight Wing of the Desolate Fortress to eliminate such threats.
He flooded the fine meridians of his right hand with Law-Transcending Halo Qi.
The deadlock shattered. The Wolf King's crossed twin sabers were forced back. The sword force generated by the Law-Transcending Halo Qi surpassed the miscellaneous internal energy of both the orthodox and heterodox paths, its purity on an entirely different level.
"You bastard!" Geum Si-hu roared.
His twin sabers slipped downward as he sank into a horse stance and leaned back. Just as Jeong Yeon-shin's Divine Sword: Northern Light was about to cleave his head in two, a violent wind whipped up from beneath his feet.
The Wolf King's right foot was rising in a vicious upward kick, the shockwave gathering at the tip of his leather boot chillingly sharp.
Jeong Yeon-shin's blue eyes flashed.
Thud!
Having already read the attack with the Sight of the Lowly, he stamped down hard on the man's knee. Before surprise could even register in the Wolf King's sharp eyes, Jeong Yeon-shin reversed his grip on the Divine Sword: Northern Light and stabbed downward toward his abdomen.
The movement of his hands was almost artistic. As the blade drew a circle, the wind of the Lightning-Flash Sword Ridge Style: Qilin's Judgment faintly radiated outward.
Crash!
The sword plunged into the stone ground.
Lazy Donkey Rolling.
Jeong Yeon-shin's deep blue eyes tracked Geum Si-hu as he rolled across the ground, kicking up a cloud of dust. It was an undignified move, but when performed by a supreme master, the Lazy Donkey Rolling looked like the playful antics of a mischievous earth deity.
"Your blade has a brutal taste to it," the king of wanderers laughed as he rose to his feet.
In that same moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was already bringing his sword down right in front of the man's face. The recoil of the Wind God Movement Technique whipped his robes as the tip of his sword drew a pure white line, clearly reflected in the Wolf King's eyes.
Clang!
The sound was like a clap of thunder. Once again, the Wolf King blocked by crossing his twin sabers. The air, crushed by the impact, fluctuated wildly. The aftermath of the force tore up the ground, spreading out like a sheet of silk.
In an instant, the Wolf King's figure vanished.
He reappeared like a phantom right behind Jeong Yeon-shin, demonstrating his secret technique, the Rakshasa Steps. His speed of adaptation was on another level, a clear display of the realm of Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak.
"I suppose my lip-reading is faster, too," he taunted, his words carried on the same breath that powered his technique. It was a split-second opening.
The twin sabers scissored behind Jeong Yeon-shin's back, their movement perfectly synchronized with the Wolf King's breathing, transforming into a flash of light. It was the attack of a true master.
Jeong Yeon-shin merely twisted his upper body slightly and slapped backward with his left palm.
Boom—!
A violent energy erupted like a thunderbolt. The faint, moth-wing afterimages of the saber strike scattered without a trace. The sudden storm whipped the Wolf King's vermilion robes and sent a spray of bloody saliva from his mouth. Amidst the monstrous vibrations surging from the ground, a single saber fell from the sky.
The Wolf King's left hand was now empty.
His bewildered face seemed to say, His internal energy manipulation should be slower than mine.
The Commander of the Demonlight Wing's expressionless face replied, Bullshit.
Step.
The moment he turned, Jeong Yeon-shin's figure blurred. The wheel of light spinning at its peak within his heart was already dispersing Law-Transcending Halo Qi throughout his entire body. The accumulation speed of the halo was truly shining. By his second step, his body, propelled by the Wind God Movement Technique, shot forward like a bolt of lightning.
Whoosh—!
In the brief moment the gale brushing past his skin grew absurdly heavy, Jeong Yeon-shin had already gripped the Wolf King's face with his left hand.
He mouthed the word, "Die."
The Brilliant River, active since the start of the fight, reacted within his grasp. As he exhaled the word, he tightened his grip, unleashing a force like an ascending dragon from his palm.
Boom!
The shockwave of the palm strike distorted violently like turbulence. Swirling gusts of wind, carrying dirt and stone dust, raged across the peak. The headless body of the Wolf King was swept up in the storm and thrown from the cliff.
It was a moment where every beast held its breath at the battle of the mountain gods.
Jeong Yeon-shin shook his hand once. Smoke from the Samadhi True Fire, which had burned away the bloodstains, drifted from his sleeves, a casual mourning for the futile death of the man who had lived as the king of Jianghu wanderers.
"..."
The Commander of the Demonlight Wing did not look back. Only the hem of his worn, pitch-black robe fluttered calmly. He gazed at the white scenery of the winter mountains stretching into the distance.
"You were Miss Ye."
"I don't use Ye as my surname. It's Jeok," the Seventh Apostle, who had approached soundlessly, replied with an ambiguous expression.
A faint smile touched the corners of Jeong Yeon-shin's mouth. "Of course you wouldn't tell the straight truth."
"Hmm? I've always been honest," she said, her single red eye widening.
Only then did Jeong Yeon-shin turn his gaze to her. "What do you want from me?"
The heterodox path was a martial way rooted in madness and desire, practiced by madmen who didn't even know their own minds. He had asked seriously, but he expected it would take a long time to get an answer.
He was wrong.
Sunlight gleamed brilliantly in the Seventh Apostle's ruby-like eye. "I want you to draw your last breath in my arms. I want the last voice the incarnation of martial arts hears to be mine. Let me make this clear: your life was exceedingly brilliant, and I revere only you."
"I forgot for a moment. Talking to you makes the word 'crazy' feel exhausting."
"And yet, talking to you for this long is so thrilling. It feels like I've returned to the moment I achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak."
"That's enough."
Jeong Yeon-shin immediately recognized the feeling that arose in him. It had been a very long time. It was the same emotion he felt whenever the children of Xinye County excluded him from their games. He used to secretly watch them fly kites or perform shadow plays, mimicking their hand movements from afar.
What does it feel like? Must be nice.
He suppressed his envy. From now on, I should call it the Dulled Flower Convergence.