Chapter 301: Lotus (20)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 301: Lotus (20)
Jeong Yeon-shin felt relieved.
This was shortly after the Lazy Flame Dragon, Heonwon Chang, and Shin So-bin had accepted the Slaying Hero's invitation. Jegal Cheong-a seemed to have vanished the exact moment her father manifested.
It was for the best. He hadn't wanted to show her the sight of her own father being wounded and killed.
Even if she herself desired his death after Seon-ryong Jegal Hyeon closed his eyes, sparing her from witnessing it was a mercy.
'Because they are family.'
It was also fortunate that the other three were no longer here.
He had no idea how this battle would unfold. This uncertainty lingered even as his mind was bleached white by the sensory overload of his Upper Dantian.
Perhaps it meant that the variations of sorcery martial arts he was about to face were near infinite.
[That sword technique... it interests me.]
He felt a piercing, transparent gaze. It came from the Jegal Clan Leader, who floated effortlessly in midair.
Their eyes met instantly.
'What in the...'
In an instant, his mind turned ice-cold. It was the resonance of his Upper Dantian. Driven by the overflowing spirituality unique to peerless masters, the bastard's emotions flooded straight into him.
If a sheet of solid ice could flow like a waterfall, would it feel like this?
It was pure madness.
All sorts of mental images surfaced in the deluge. For a split second, Eon Hwa-ryeon's face seemed to flash by.
But the image immediately sank into a morass of unrecognizable thoughts and blunt, tangled clumps of emotion. The bastard's inner mind was akin to a deep sea whipped into a frenzy by a typhoon.
'He's completely out of his mind.'
Yet, the Jegal Clan Leader's eyes were perfectly calm. It was enough to bring the phrase "clear mirror, still water" to mind.
While he engaged in battle with chilling composure, his grandest actions were clearly driven by madness. Jeong Yeon-shin could not even begin to fathom what the man's true goal was.
But now was not the time to ponder such things.
[Do you intend to recreate it? The day the Hwangbo Clan Head was slain.]
The Jegal Clan Leader spoke, elegantly covering his mouth with his White Crane Fan.
[I hear three exceptionally powerful Black Ranks have gathered here, leaving behind the rest of the world's common folk.]
"You know it well. If you have any last words, leave them now. What happens here today will spread far and wide, becoming all kinds of gossip on the lips of busybodies. That's exactly why I'm keeping up appearances right now. Unlike you lot, the Desolate Fortress has to look good to the common people."
Ak Su-rim said, spinning her silver spear at her side. Her pitch-black hair fluttered wildly in the fierce whirlwind she had generated around herself.
The Jegal Clan Leader chuckled.
[I am different from that man.]
"I know. You shamelessly colluded with two of the Thirteen Heavens—the Hegemon Sword Sect and Lingering Spirit. I have no idea how many dharma treasures and riches you've pocketed to weave a domain of this scale. Though, I must admit, your ability to make use of whatever is poured into you is quite impressive."
Her eyes constantly scanned the surroundings as she kept muttering. How did she ever manage to hold her tongue while studying under the Sword Saint?
'She's buying time. She's mapping out the terrain.'
Jeong Yeon-shin thought, keeping a firm grip on the Northern Light Sword, which was already imbued with the energy of the Demon-Quelling Azure Steel Hand.
He knew exactly why the Jegal Clan Leader's sorcery was growing infinitely powerful. Jegal Cheong-a had told him: this man had sacrificed even his own flesh and blood to refine his martial arts.
The bastard was already a peerless master of sorcery martial arts. The direction of his growth was simply fundamentally different from orthodox cultivators.
Sssss—
He flared the Samadhi True Fire to dry his heels, which had grown damp from stepping on that Gwi fellow.
Instantly, the steam rising from his leather boots brushed past his ankles. It was a sensation that was both hot and cool.
This was a battle where even the slightest disarray could lead to a fatal wound.
The pristine white robes of the Jegal Clan Leader floating before him were neither stained nor shaken by the violent waves of energy. Was even his body protection qi woven from sorcery?
[Flash Art. You have forgotten my words.]
The Samadhi True Fire seemed to have caught his attention. The Jegal Clan Leader's eyes shifted back to Jeong Yeon-shin.
— Such reckless behavior, showing no regard for heaven and earth, is unwise. You will die an early death in a foreign land. Even a flower unprecedented in a thousand years is meaningless if it fails to bloom. Though your talent may be spoken of across past and present, the strong of the world will not look upon you kindly.
The function of his Upper Dantian instantly recalled what had happened at the Martial World Alliance. Those had been the exact words of the Jegal Clan Leader.
[Ak. Thank you for buying time.]
The Jegal Clan Leader said, turning his gaze back to Ak Su-rim.
[Have you fully grasped the spell formation? I have already finished calculating the sorcery formula. You bastards probably never dreamed you would be countered instead, but thanks to your stalling, this body has bought enough time to activate my peak state.]
"What?"
Just as her thick eyebrows arched upward in alarm, the Jegal Clan Leader lowered the fan from his lips.
With an exceedingly gentle gesture, the tips of the White Crane Fan's ribs drew a smooth curve in the air, leaving a faint afterimage.
At that moment, the spell formation that enveloped the entire Gongya Clan estate in a translucent barrier hummed and resonated deeply.
[The Return of Wenzhong. Male-Female Divine Whip.]
Vroooom—
He spoke not just with his lips, but with his internal energy. It was the pinnacle of the lip-reading technique. Dozens of verse-like mutterings overlapped at extreme speed, striking the ear like a peerless fast sword.
Anyone who had not trained in the path of the senses would have perceived it only as a single clap of thunder. It was said that the mantras of sorcery only truly harbor power when they are physically released into the world.
Wenzhong was the name of the Taoist God of Thunder when he was still a mortal, and the Male-Female Whip was the divine weapon he wielded.
Crackle! Rumble!
It happened in an instant.
The feathers of the elegant White Crane Fan split into individual strands.
The ten ribs that made up the fan separated like daggers and began to emit a monstrous roar.
Scattering over the Jegal Clan Leader's shoulders while imbued with incredibly powerful internal energy, they draped themselves in long strands of astral qi, resembling threads pulled directly from thunderclouds. They radiated a hazy, colorless hue.
The Jegal Clan's secret immortal art, the Male-Female Divine Whip.
It unfolded before one could even blink.
The threads fluttered like the fabric of a celestial maiden's robe, surrounding the peerlessly handsome man clad in a black bamboo hat and pristine white robes. A strangely transcendent aura spread outward from him.
"The Male-Female Divine Whip of the Universal Transformation Divine Art?!"
At that moment, Ak Su-rim, whose silver spear was similarly dyed pitch-black with energy, narrowed her eyes sharply.
Even though she was fully prepared to unleash the Ak Family Spear to its absolute limit, she could not hide her shock.
"You're unleashing that without the help of your clan members? The reason you were staying quiet all this time was to fully absorb the formation into your own body...?"
[While you were devising a way to counter me, did you think this seat would just sit idly by? In any case, one's own body must be exceptionally strong. Especially if one is to guard against extreme variables like the Dark Night Hall Master's Ten-Mile One Kill. Surely you all possess such ultimate techniques as well.]
The Jegal Clan Leader lightly flicked his wrist.
[Thus, this seat is now the Jegal Clan itself.]
Instantly, a colorless net was etched across heaven and earth. It was a wide-area ultimate technique aimed at attacking all three Unit Commanders simultaneously.
In a battle between martial arts masters, if the difference in strength is clear, observing the opponent must come first; thus, the first strike is rarely the prerogative of the weaker party.
Within the Gongya Clan estate, where everyone held their breath, a world of super-ascension unfolded.
Rumble!
The wind and thunder roared violently.
It was the first time in his life.
Jeong Yeon-shin faced a strike charging at him with murderous intent from the purple realm. No, it was more accurate to say that an entirely different dimension of speed had unfolded before his eyes.
The Northern Light Sword, which he was already slashing upward, was dyed a deep, brilliant blue. He had just extended the internal energy structure of his divine dharma power into the blade.
Jeong Yeon-shin's senses no longer distinguished between his hand and his sword.
The sword technique he had devised specifically to counter the Jegal Clan Leader, which he had named the Demon-Quelling Azure Steel Sword, carved a long, blue arc through the air.
Clang!
He severed one strand of the Male-Female Divine Whip and fiercely parried the second.
The friction digging into the blade was immense.
It felt as though wild sparks were cascading straight down into his grip. Despite his wicked heart, the opponent was a peerless master who had trained orthodox martial arts to their absolute peak.
The demon-quelling function generated by his dharma power only gave him a slight advantage in compatibility. This was entirely different from the sorcery martial arts of those he had faced before.
Yet, did even that small resistance offend the absolute master?
[Grand Thunder.]
A colorless pillar descended from the heavens, connecting with the earth.
The violently churning air disheveled Jeong Yeon-shin's hair; it seemed the five strands of the whip had been divided among the three of them.
Because the strike was so incredibly swift, it felt less like it was falling and more like it was being instantly etched into reality.
However, the Upper Dantian burning in Jeong Yeon-shin's mind was already piercing through the turbulent flow of energy in all directions.
He perceived how the attack form split dynamically according to the targets' positions.
'The crown of my head.'
Claaaaang—!
He crossed his left arm and the Northern Light Sword to block the descending strike.
A sickening crack echoed from within his body. His forearm bent at an awkward angle, severely stretching the ligaments.
His mind went blank. His dharma power had failed to fully absorb the instantaneous impact. A terrifying bolt of pain surged all the way up to his head.
[Ho.]
But his expression remained completely unchanged. The Commander of the Demonlight Wing shook off his sword with an indifferent face, protecting his body with the Law-Transcending Halo Qi and the Jeong Family Dynamic Art.
As the residual shockwaves scattered like falling petals, accentuating the swordsman's resolute posture, the Jegal Clan Leader let out a low murmur of admiration and flicked his index finger upward.
In the prison of the five strands of thread controlled by the Clan Leader's other hand, Jin Myeong-jo was moving in a hazy ink-black light, his attempts to unleash his ultimate technique constantly disrupted.
Perhaps his previous wounds had reopened, for crimson blood was already dripping down his form. The way his hands were clasped made it look as if he were holding an invisible sword.
'If only Senior Jin were at full strength...!'
The thought flashed just before a wave of internal power exploded from Jeong Yeon-shin's heels.
The Male-Female Divine Whip reacted to the Jegal Clan Leader's gesture. It was a simple finger movement, yet it appeared fragmented to the eye because it was as fast as a beam of light.
As two strands collided, a flash of lightning flared, and one strand struck the ground with a monstrously heavy blow.
K-boom! Crash—!
A blue-white bolt of lightning born from the friction raged outward, accompanied by massive boulders flung with the force of a catapult. They carried a terrifying kinetic force. Brilliant River erupted from Jeong Yeon-shin's left hand as he faced the onslaught head-on.
Boom—!
Thick stone debris scattered, mingling with wild sparks.
'At this rate, compatibility is useless.'
Jeong Yeon-shin narrowed his eyes and adjusted his grip on the Northern Light Sword.
His skin tingled, and in the very next instant, another explosion of electricity and rock fragments erupted. Attacks that filled his vision like a localized natural disaster continued to rain down without pause.
The shockwaves exploding continuously were immense.
It felt as if he had been dropped into the middle of a chaotic battlefield. Yet, the attacks coming from every direction were calculated as precisely as a martial arts form.
The Clan Leader did not direct his sorcery attack forms straight at the Commander of the Demonlight Wing. Instead, he poured his power solely into creating an unavoidable aftermath. In a life-and-death duel of martial arts, he was truly worthy of being called the incarnation of Jegal Muhu.
Yet, the Clan Leader's gaze was actually directed straight ahead. His eyes, glowing with an eerie green light, chased the blurred movements of Ak Su-rim, who had transformed into a veritable deity of the spear.
Most of the Male-Female Divine Whip's threads were colliding with her. With every clash, localized earthquakes rippled in all directions.
Clang-clang-clang-clang—!
Earth-shaking.
It was literally so.
Heaven and earth trembled. It was a battle on a scale unlike any Jeong Yeon-shin had ever experienced.
[As expected.]
And finally.
[You are first. Divine Spear of the Desolate Fortress.]
The Jegal Clan Leader descended. His wide sleeves fluttered like the massive wings of a white crane.
Step.
Darkness rose from the tips of his feet as they elegantly touched the ground. He looked at Jeong Yeon-shin, who had suddenly driven his sword into the earth to stand firm.
The Jegal Clan Leader's domain covering the sky grew slightly fainter. Had he drawn heavily upon the power of the spell formation integrated into his body?
Something unfolded.
A single, extremely brief step fundamentally altered the structure of the natural qi.
[Fall.]
A deafening noise, like bolts of lightning falling in endless torrents, resounded.
The air distorted violently in patches, and the moment Jeong Yeon-shin raised the Northern Light Sword, everything around him simply vanished.
The last image imprinted on his retina was the face of the girl, her eyes wide, her lips moving to shout a warning.
— A formation! It's a formation! The Heaven-Piercing Falling Formation...!
'Senior Ak.'
Absolute darkness fell in an instant. He could feel nothing. Paradoxically, this made the stark severance from reality all the more palpable.
Jeong Yeon-shin immediately examined his body inside and out.
The halo spinning in his heart, his still-elastic meridians and capillaries throughout his body, the hot, racing pulse of his muscles, the rhythm of his inhalation and exhalation, the presence of others outside...
'It's not an illusion.'
As he forcefully activated the Sight of the Lowly, a faint blue light flickered to life within the void.
Light and shadow became distinct. It was a space that surrounded him like a pitch-black sky. His entire sense of distance felt completely warped.
Swish!
Even though he stamped his foot and slashed his sword, he could not move from his spot. Only the air brushing against his skin shimmered faintly.
Indeed. He was completely stuck in place.
Jeong Yeon-shin's senses, honed as sharp as a divine sword, accurately analyzed his current state.
'The Heaven-Piercing Falling Formation?'
He had heard of it. It was a secret formation of the Jegal Clan that normally required all its members to deploy at their main estate. Now, the Jegal Clan Leader was using it to completely isolate him in a one-on-one situation.
In the realm of sorcery martial arts, it was an ultimate technique with a reputation rivaling the Mount Hua Sect's Plum Blossom Sword Formation or the Wudang Sect's Mysterious Void Sword Formation.
No matter. It didn't concern him right now. He had no way of knowing what was happening outside anyway.
Breaking out was his absolute top priority.
Thump—
As he clenched his fist, a sound like a beating drum echoed from deep within his body.
A brilliant light flared inside him, and a colossal strength began to surge through his twelve meridians and capillaries.
'Ugh!'
The pain, feeling as though his blood vessels were tearing apart, was far more severe than before. Perhaps it was because of the vast difference in his accumulated qi between now and when he had gone to fetch the spirit medicine for his niece, Hye-ah.
The strain was proportional to the amplified power. It felt as though his body was absorbing phantom steel directly without any filtration.
Just as he hesitated, wondering if he should deactivate the technique...
His twelve meridians and three hundred and sixty-five acupoints suddenly tightened with a soft, comforting texture.
The oldest warmth he had ever known descended from the heavens and embraced him tightly. Mother. It was the profound meaning of the Jeong Family Dynamic Art, which had reached both completion and great mastery.
Whoosh—!
The body-protecting function withstood the micro-fractures forming inside him. His meridians and capillaries fully absorbed the violent power of the Full Body Brilliant River.
'Brilliant River, Ultimate Lightning.'
Starting from the Yongquan Point beneath his feet...
Vroooom—!
Dozens of concentric waves of internal power rippled outward.
Hazy halos of light fluttered around his body, taking the shape of large, ethereal leaves.
They emitted a monstrous vibration outward, crackling like colorless lightning.
Soon after.
Flash!
A massive, translucent flower bud completely enveloped Jeong Yeon-shin's entire body.
'Mother.'
Please help me break through my limits.
He slowly took a step forward. Toward Ak Su-rim.
The muddy ground beneath his feet gouged deeply as if struck by a thunderbolt bomb, and a deafening resonance rippled from the massive flower bud.
A moment later, the flower bud enveloping his body burst wide open.
Rumble—!
Cracks of brilliant light began to race in all directions from the zenith of the dark sky.
The leaves of the barrier descended en masse, mirroring the blooming of the Ultimate Lightning.
Fragments of internal power colliding violently above and below occasionally threw off purple sparks before crumbling away into nothingness.
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes, flashing with a brilliant blue light, took in the structure of the true qi, which was being revealed piece by piece through the collapse of the formation.
Thud—
The sky tore open.
[Hmm?]
The Jegal Clan Leader's mind-intent hummed intensely, accompanied by the heavily stirred presence of those nearby.