Chapter 334: Grandfather and Grandson (7)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 334: Grandfather and Grandson (7)
How long had it been since he first stepped into the Jianghu?
About two years...?
Jeong Yeon-shin couldn't calculate it precisely.
For him, counting the days was synonymous with counting down his remaining lifespan. It inevitably dragged up the very thoughts he fought so hard to suppress.
The things he wanted to do when he came of age; the design of the house he wished to build when he started a family; his interactions with the Seventh Apostle; his body's strange reactions when helping Shin So-bin with her martial arts; the strange temperament that occasionally broke through his innate humility... These were the things that made the approach of death even more terrifying, serving as stark reminders of his borrowed time.
Once, a comrade from the Azure Sky Unit—who had marched with him in Sichuan as part of the Radiant Wing Unit—told him something: The temporary unit commander's path is like a lightness skill cutting a straight, unyielding line across the wilderness.
He also recalled the well-wishes from the scholar at the Chief Steward's Office. The scholar had claimed that one of the Three Black Strengths would become the next Commander of the Divine Sword Corps, and the one to immediately succeed them could only be the current Commander of the Demonlight Wing.
He had said Yeon-shin’s footsteps were carving the shape of a divine sword in a perfectly straight line—that a once-in-a-millennium genius was sprinting forward as if merely looking ahead wasn't enough.
Jeong Yeon-shin didn't see it that way.
He was simply afraid to look back. He was terrified to measure how much time had passed and how far he had walked, lest he begin to wonder if there had been a better path. The Jianghu was far too harsh and unforgiving for such regrets.
His solo, life-and-death duel against the Star-Brilliance Great Sword Lord.
It had been terrifying. Even if they were to fight again, he had no confidence he would win. Though only the people of Liaoning would bring up Moyong Jung-rak's name when listing the Ten Great Masters of the World, the Star-Brilliance Great Sword Lord was undeniably a peerless expert whose title resounded across the realm.
He was a man who could match an entire army alone. The fact that the battle had ended in something akin to mutual destruction was nothing short of heavenly luck.
The Meteor Sword lodged in his abdomen carried a terrifying sword force. The martial arts of a peerless swordsman always transcended common sense. The shockwave emanating from that piercing strike had long since seeped deep into his flesh.
A single strike contained all sorts of profound truths, and a brutal internal heavy-handed technique was one of them. The Jeong Family Dynamic Art had been reduced to little more than a means of keeping his corpse looking presentable.
Death.
The last thing he remembered was his vision fading to black as he collapsed helplessly.
He lay fallen beside the closed eyes of the Moyong Clan Head, feeling his consciousness sink into a dark quagmire. Will the moment I exhaust my heavenly lifespan at the Baihui Point feel like this too?
Many faces came to mind.
His nephew and his second brother; the revered Lord of the Desolate Fortress; the people of the main fortress with whom he had shared life and death as martial brothers and comrades; those he had befriended in the Jianghu; and the Seventh Apostle, who, by saving Jeong Yeon-shin, had saved his uncle and dozens of his Desolate Fortress comrades...
As he sank into the abyss, Jeong Yeon-shin thought: I must repay my debts.
In this moment, the only things he could grasp like lifelines were his feelings and memories of them.
Even as death dyed his consciousness pitch-black, Jeong Yeon-shin felt a profound sense of gratitude. This fear was not a terror that ended in empty futility.
In the end, all of you filled my journey through the Jianghu...
The spirituality dwelling within the halo of his heart was drifting far away. The wheel fashioned from Dharma's Manifestation was losing its light.
Suddenly, a pair of mad red eyes flashed through his mind. Those eyes that had looked only at him—which, alongside the Lord of the Desolate Fortress, had undoubtedly influenced him the most—surfaced once more, only to fade away with his consciousness.
Jeong Yeon-shin knew all too well the weight of unrequited goodwill. She, too, might eventually come to accept it with dull resignation. It wouldn't be a pleasant feeling.
Hero Namgung.
Finally, he tossed a stray thought toward the Azure Qilin. I wanted to be like you.
But my limbs are still too short, so it would have been difficult. Jeong Yeon-shin smiled, deliberately turning his gaze away from his own demise.
Slowly, his consciousness was embraced by a dull, colorless void. In the end, he could feel nothing at all. It was exactly as he had always imagined his end would be.
Then, suddenly.
Thump—
Even when a wick forged of true qi was driven into his chest, he could not escape the abyss.
He slept deeply, unaware of the warm energy filling his twelve meridians and three hundred and sixty-five acupoints before seeping into his very bones.
Only the Jeong Family Dynamic Art activated on its own, responding to the miraculous anomaly occurring within his body.
—Mother?
His subconscious began to dream, completely oblivious to his current reality.
—No, it is the Lord of the Fortress.
He felt his body being caressed by martial arts.
The sensation was soft and warm, instantly reminding him of the touch of the Lord of the Desolate Fortress, who had always guided him so gently.
Wandering in a daze, his subconscious quickly pushed away the thought that it might be his maternal grandfather. That would be incredibly awkward.
Thump— Thump—
His heart beat like a war drum.
The blood vessels and muscles inside his body writhed as if boiling. The circulating current of qi, which seemed intent on crushing and remolding his entire body like clay, felt somewhat arrogant.
It was trying to reshape his flesh exactly as it pleased, moving in a flow akin to a mysterious miracle.
It was undeniably a dream.
It felt as though his muscles, acupoints, and even his joints were being forged anew. Though his physical body had already been refined to its absolute limit, the Jeong Family Dynamic Art heated his entire being, striving to surpass even the stage of great completion.
Reaching beyond that point required creating something out of nothing, yet his body glowed white-hot, burning as brightly as his Upper Dantian.
—You say it is possible? As expected of the Lord of the Fortress...
The energy began by touching the acupoints of the Great Heavenly Cycle, dividing his upper body in two.
Was it seeking its own version of the optimal path? Just as the current of qi—which moved entirely independent of his conscious will—began to tightly constrict the ligaments along his spine...
—My apologies. I do not think that is correct.
Speaking softly in his mind, Jeong Yeon-shin redirected the flow of change.
It was incredibly easy.
The constriction of his ligaments stopped. His once-in-a-millennium genius had seized control of the Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth.
His true qi and his physical body could never defy his will. Just as it had always been.
—The Lightning-Flash Sword Ridge Style and the Infinite Flower of Time Fist are fierce, blistering martial arts. While straight-line forms are excellent for ending a fight quickly, it is a pity that mixing in variations is so difficult. If we weave the extensor muscles to be thicker and more elastic, executing variation moves will become far easier. The radius bone of the wrist must also be made sturdier.
His body was shaped according to his will. It moved exactly as he demanded. This profound intuition blossomed within his dreamlike consciousness.
Jeong Yeon-shin found it amusing. It felt as though he were playing a childish game of house, something he never could have dreamed of back at the Jeong Family Manor.
Together with the Lord of the Desolate Fortress—who stood in his mind as the very incarnation of the martial apex—he treated the task of reshaping his body like building a sandcastle.
He had always been skilled at playing alone since childhood.
—The wider the Yongquan Point, the better. The Ten-Mile Light Grace is a lightness skill of my own creation, but it is quite a decent piece of work. I wonder if it might be a pleasing sight for you, Lord of the Fortress. If you find it agreeable... You say it is a problem if the propulsion shockwave is too strong? Please do not worry about that. How can one even be called human if they cannot control their own body?
—The length of one's limbs determines the combat interval. I wish for my height to grow as much as possible. Tall enough to look down on anyone in the world, like the giant Pangu from the Classic of Mountains and Seas... Yes? Why can I not...?
His subconscious hid nothing in this dream. His deep reverence had blossomed into a warm sense of intimacy.
—Cartilage. Yes, cartilage is critical... It must be as robust as diamond, with internal power residing within it constantly so it never wears down. It is not difficult. By weaving threads of true qi between the joint bones like this, the ligaments will connect like Heavenly Silkworm thread...
—If we consider counter-moves, the greater the elasticity of the body's bones and muscles, the better. I will shape it along the Jueyin meridians inside the body. It is not difficult. The issue is extending the bones while keeping them sturdy, but if this state allows for it, it does not matter how much energy is consumed.
—...This is a physical body I can control exactly as I wish. If my body truly becomes this robust, achieving the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak will be as easy as flipping my hand.
His upper and lower body were completely restructured according to his will.
The Jeong Family Dynamic Art within the dream was truly formidable. A physical vessel capable of perfectly executing his sect-exclusive martial arts had been forged.
Regardless of the depth of his actual martial attainment, he felt that in terms of his physical body alone, he would no longer fall behind any peerless expert.
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke with some difficulty.
—Raising this flow to my head... that would still be difficult, wouldn't it...?
It was said that the human skull housed a microcosm containing all of creation. Since ancient times, it had been revered as the dwelling place of the spirit, mysterious and divine.
The Baihui Point at the crown of the head was the passage connecting the Upper Dantian to the heavens. This meant it was directly linked to the brain itself.
It could not be altered artificially.
The contraction and expansion of acupoints always moved in tandem with the meridians, and even with the Jeong Family Dynamic Art, one could not tune the brain like a set of fine meridians. Not unless one wished to end their life immediately.
Thus, it remained the Heavenly Mandate. A lifespan decreed by the heavens.
The same principle applied to the Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth. If he had undergone it defenselessly, without a controlling will guiding it from both inside and out, his Upper Dantian would have forcibly expanded at this moment, just like his newly widened Lower and Middle Dantians.
That would have inevitably triggered a catastrophic adverse effect on his Baihui Point.
It is fine, Jeong Yeon-shin repeated to himself.
It was in that moment he suddenly became aware of his true situation. His consciousness was astonishingly clear.
It was so bright and vivid that he felt he could almost enshrine the Lord of the Fortress within his mental space, even if he couldn't fully manifest her divine power.
I am alive.
His heartbeat was stronger than ever before.
Even his halo had long since regained its brilliant, radiant light.
Huu—
Suddenly, he caught the faint scent of earth. It arrived alongside an excruciating pain that sliced through his entire body.
It felt as though every inch of his pores had been flung wide open. It was transparent and freezing.
The late winter air felt sharper than ever. The inexplicable sense of unity vibrating through his entire body was also deeply unfamiliar.
It was hard to open his eyes. His hands refused to move.
Only the bustling movements of those around him reached his ears, echoing like thunder.
Jeong Yeon-shin kept his eyes closed for a moment, silently enduring the backlash of the Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth. It seemed he would need dozens of breaths to recover.
* * *
On a barren, treeless hill lay the corpse of the Moyong Clan Head. The surrounding soil, which should have been the pale color of clay, had long since been stained a dark, rusted red.
Blood seeped endlessly from beneath the corpse of the Star-Brilliance Great Sword Lord, Moyong Jung-rak.
It was a surreal, impossible sight.
This was why the people clinging to the surrounding cliffs or hiding behind rocks had been frozen in shock for so long.
None of the members of the Killing Gate—who had been living under the guise of prominent citizens in the great city of Taiyuan—could feign composure. Whether they were old scholars, wealthy merchants, third-rate swordsmen, or renowned martial artists, all of their masks had slipped.
The Star-Brilliance Great Sword Lord had been defeated and killed in a one-on-one life-and-death duel.
It was an undeniable, absolute defeat. The breathing of the Commander of the Demonlight Wing, who lay right beside him, was steady and peaceful. To the hidden assassins, each breath sounded as deafening as thunder.
“It seems the Eldest Son of the Deep Martial Alliance missed the Leader of the Deep Martial Alliance. He is leading a martial arts army straight here...”
One elder, having just received the delayed intelligence, spoke up vehemently before quickly snapping his mouth shut.
These masters of the underworld, who had ruled Taiyuan from the shadows, had witnessed far too many bizarre sights today. Even their sect's long-cherished desire for vengeance had been resolved out of nowhere.
Not by their own hands, but by the precious sword of the Desolate Fortress.
“...”
A strange, heavy emotion drifted through the silence.
The corpse of the absolute master—the man who had destroyed the Tomb of the Heavenly Demon and plundered the Heavenly Demon's legacy—was gradually growing cold.
The crowd gathered on this peak were all people of the Jianghu, experts capable of substituting their physical sense of touch with their sense of qi.
They remained dead silent as they felt the heat steadily draining from the corpse of the Star-Brilliance Great Sword Lord, the First Sword of Liaodong.
The defeat and death of a peerless expert was a sight one would be lucky to witness even once in a lifetime.
It was even more profound when that expert was their sect's mortal enemy.
Even if the four Desolate Fortress warriors guarding the resting Commander of the Demonlight Wing hadn't been present, the experts of the Killing Gate would have gladly stood guard to protect the Lotus Nezha, the Flash Art.
“To think it is a Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth...”
Glancing at his younger brother, Heonwon Chang, the Slaying Hero muttered as he pulled down his black bamboo hat.
A phenomenon that defied belief, even as they watched it happen, had unfolded right beside the corpse of the peerless expert.
Everyone had witnessed the transformation of the Commander of the Demonlight Wing. A sight so wondrous and beautiful that it seemed to draw in the very souls of those who watched.
Time flowed on as the setting sun draped over the distant ridge, yet no one dared to move.
Not until the boy who had slain the peerless expert...
Opened his eyes in the form of a long-limbed young man.