Chapter 338: The Tyrannical Way (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 338: The Tyrannical Way (3)
At that moment, the rustle of robes cut through the air.
A figure descended in a straight line, the rhythmic energy waves of her Lightness Skill dissipating in her wake. She had crossed from the opposite hill to the clearing where Jeong Yeon-shin sat in a single bound.
Tap.
She landed with a light footfall. It was White Cat Shin So-bin. The ends of her long, braided hair lifted in the wind from her descent before settling.
It seemed she had passed the time braiding her hair while keeping watch.
“Commander, I think it's safe now.”
“Thank you.”
Jeong Yeon-shin offered a faint smile.
Even though he had told her he was fine, his prized disciple had insisted on standing guard, patrolling the nearby hill. Her audacious temperament was tempered by a sparkling wit, and it had been this way for years.
Even when he’d plunged into the heart of an army, she had stood guard alone, securing his escape route.
Though he only taught her martial arts, Shin So-bin grew on her own, as if to prove her noble lineage. He could entrust her with scouting at any time.
Slowly, Shin So-bin rested her hands on her knees and leaned forward slightly. A playful glint entered her eyes as she looked down at her commander.
“You really mean that, right? You didn't think I was being overly fussy, did you?”
“……”
“Commander, you never get stuck like this when it comes to martial arts mnemonics.”
“I get stuck if I lack inspiration.”
Jeong Yeon-shin had long since discovered a certain talent, one born from the slander of his character. It was a talent for brushing off insults with a calm excuse. However, this rarely worked on the experts of the Demonlight Wing, who knew their commander all too well.
Shin So-bin straightened her back.
“I heard the Ma and Shin clans have had bad blood for generations despite their marriage alliance. I think I finally understand why.”
She tossed her hair over her shoulder and beamed. Then, with the exaggerated posture of a high-ranking official, she clasped her hands behind her back and began to pace around the clearing.
“I did live in Xiangyang for a long time, after all. When you become the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps, you'll need to learn how to make pleasantries. Like when you eventually defeat Uncle Yong and have to visit the Imperial Court about the Commander's seat, or when you need to boost the morale of the subordinates who will fight for you in the Nine Sects' duels of the Mount Hua Agreement…”
As Shin So-bin counted her commander's prospects on her fingers like a fortune-teller, she suddenly flinched.
The Seventh Apostle was awake. Sometime during their conversation, she had turned to face them.
Her dark red eyes, reflecting the setting sun, were fixed on Jeong Yeon-shin.
While one cheek was pressed against the ground, her other jawline was exceptionally pale in the twilight's faint glow. Her skin, as smooth as white porcelain, was a testament to her clan and her status.
A Blood Ghost…!
Goosebumps erupted on Shin So-bin's skin. She couldn't help it, even with her commander right beside her.
The youngest Apostle.
The True Blood Physique, the one closest to succeeding the Blood Flame Cult Leader.
Even the proudest military factions of the Jianghu coveted the Seventh Apostle, willing to suffer immense losses just to possess her. None of the rumors surrounding the Blood Ghosts were pleasant, and Shin So-bin, who had grown up among the Jianghu’s elite, was particularly wary of them.
Yet, the Commander of the Demonlight Wing spoke with an unbothered expression.
“I figured you’d be awake.”
“…Grand Preceptor.”
The Seventh Apostle pushed herself up onto her side. Her hair flowed over her shoulders like polished ebony.
The clotted blood on her body vanished into thin wisps of smoke as the hem of her Pure Blood Robe regained its smooth, crimson texture. It was an incredibly delicate manifestation of the Samadhi True Fire derived from her Blood Art.
Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at her before looking away.
“You, using such strange mnemonics…”
“My mnemonics are strange? What kind of flea dared to say such a thing?”
Her lips parted in genuine anger. Her voice was as bewitching as it had been when they first met, and an unstable, erratic wave of energy rippled from her, pushing back the very dirt on the ground.
“No one,” Jeong Yeon-shin replied curtly.
That seemed to suffice. The corners of the Seventh Apostle's mouth curled upward slightly.
“Of course. Anyone can see this martial art was tailored just for me. Even with only a few lines of the mnemonic left, it feels absolutely ecstatic. You know my acupoints so well…”
“Because I've taken your pulse before.”
He looked at the Seventh Apostle again. The sensation on his skin was strange.
Her behavior—staring intently at him, only to quickly look away and then steal glances—was not that of someone in their right mind. Her rambling was just as erratic.
“Where did that brat from the Namgung Clan go? Weren't we on our way to a martial duel? The Namgung Clan and the Desolate Fortress, I mean.”
“…She needs time.”
Her Qi Deviation hasn't fully subsided, Jeong Yeon-shin thought.
It was said that turbid True Qi could rush to the head and cloud one's reason. Her consciousness seemed trapped in the time before he met the Azure Qilin, Namgung Se-jin—back when he had exchanged only a single clash and a set of mnemonics with her.
Only the Mara True-Blood Art he had created for her could cure her Qi Deviation. After staring at her in silence for a moment, he spoke very slowly.
“Don't you have a Dharma Treasure? A sorcery tool that alters how others perceive your energy and physical form when you cover your eyes.”
At that, her single visible red eye widened completely.
“How did you know? I also found it strange that the Blood-Preserving Golden Silk Scarf was in the folds of my robe just now. This is the Cult Leader's sacred relic, after all.”
“Take it out and wear it. We are heading to the Main Fortress.”
“With you? Me…?”
There was no sign of refusal. The Seventh Apostle merely blinked as if in a dream. For a moment, she stared blankly, her ruby-like eyes filled with the image of Jeong Yeon-shin as a young man…
Suddenly, the young man tilted his head slightly.
“If it's before the duel with the Namgung Clan, my appearance should look strange to you…”
It was then.
Jeong Yeon-shin couldn't finish his thought.
A sudden, thunderous roar echoed. Circular shockwaves rippled across the distant sky, and from within them, a reddish-white light descended like a bolt of lightning.
Thud.
A man in a pink robe stepped into the center of the clearing. Though his footfalls were silent, a powerful updraft from his Void Treading surged through the area. His skill was at a level where even the recoil from a Body Protection Scripture was vented into empty air. Immediately after, three wild boars flew through the air and tumbled to the ground, brought over by the subtle art of Void Grab.
The Hegemon Hero, Ma Yeon-jeok, smiled at his grandson.
“I saw you had no room to spare, so I merely watched from afar.”
“Grandfather.”
“It seems you are fine now,” he said, casting a brief glance at the Seventh Apostle.
For a moment, her lips parted as if to say, Grandfather.
Ma Yeon-jeok's eyebrows twitched violently, but he forced himself to turn back to Jeong Yeon-shin. He didn't have much time.
“Since this old man doesn't have much time, I must shamelessly play the part of a doting grandfather today.”
* * *
The grandfather and grandson moved to another spot.
Sitting side by side on a boulder on a moonlit hill, they gazed out at the dark mountain ridges.
“Your martial arts have become exceptionally profound,” Ma Yeon-jeok said. “I want to tell you in advance about the things you will soon come to know. Since the Fortress Lord is highly likely to be away, my mind will only be at ease if I teach you at least a little.”
“What do you mean by ‘things I will come to know’?”
“There are many things you must encounter and resolve in the realm of the Purple Rank. The world is always short-handed. The Fortress Lord's departure is also related to that.”
“I don't understand what you mean.”
“Do you know Chapter 1, Section 4 of the Annotations of the Compendium of the Great Ming?”
After staring at his maternal grandfather's profile for a moment, Jeong Yeon-shin recited the passage without question. He had heard it once before, even before the Zhongnan Sect and the Hegemon Sword Sect had come to the Jeong Family Manor.
“From the gates of heaven, our long-eared and short-statured compatriots returned, destroyed the wicked Yuan, and established the Great Ming alongside Taizu.”
“And Chapter 1, Section 8 of the Annotations?”
“A massive demon pursued our compatriots, but we were able to annihilate them by closing the gates in time.”
“Keep this engraved in your heart. The Purple Rank Jianghu you will face will be akin to a pandemonium. You might even see a real Flood Dragon.”
Pandemonium. A cavern where demons lurked.
It didn't sound like an empty boast. It vaguely hinted at where his grandfather had been and what he had been doing all this time. He could only imagine how busy the man had been, moving through that hidden world of the Jianghu.
“It feels like grasping at clouds. Could you be more specific…”
“You will hear more at the Main Fortress. But more than that, I wanted to tell you why you must further advance your martial arts, even though your prowess is already unbelievably strong.”
“Are you offering me guidance?”
“If there is anything you are curious about, speak. With your current senses, all sorts of questions must be arising.”
Ma Yeon-jeok spoke in a warm voice. Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth immediately.
“Since the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak is now within my grasp, I am curious about what kind of realm the Five Qi Converging to the Origin is. I heard from my uncle that it is a Peerless Realm… The martial attainment of the Invincible Ones, who are counted among the top ten in the world, must be incredibly deep, right?”
“The Five Qi Converging to the Origin, you say?”
Ma Yeon-jeok burst into a hearty laugh.
“There is no such realm.”
“Pardon?”
“It is simply…”
At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was forced to forget his manners and look up at the sky. The feeling that his surroundings had momentarily brightened was no illusion.
The sparsely scattered stars in his vision began to grow larger. Starlight, unobscured even by the moon, was drawn down by his grandfather's gesture. He could hardly believe his eyes.
Slowly, skeins of white radiance bent and gathered around them. The flashing was magnificent. Hundreds of comet tails, reminiscent of the creation of heaven and earth, poured down like a dream. Beams of light carved a mandala into the empty air.
“Can you express the martial arts you have refined your entire life in a single technique?” his grandfather continued in a calm tone. “That single technique determines the Peerless Realm. That is where the paths of the Purple Rank and the Black Rank diverge.”
“……”
“The Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak is, in essence, merely the state required to physically manifest the martial arts within one's mind.”
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly realized the spectacle in the sky was an illusion. It was like an Illusion Sword technique taken to its absolute peak, where a single blade appeared as dozens. It was not sorcery, but a harmony created by his grandfather's martial arts.
He had twisted the very air and light with sheer, monstrous force.
It was a world-shaking principle of martial arts, one that completely transcended common sense. The rumors of the Lord of Heaven's Bane—one of the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens, said to cut down providence itself—were likely no exaggeration.
This isn't a martial arts mnemonic, he thought. He has manifested his enlightenment outside his body.
Jeong Yeon-shin recalled the ultimate technique of the Mount Hua Sect Leader, a stance that seemed to use the sunset-drenched horizon as a sword. Among all the strikes of the peerless experts he had seen, that had been the most magnificent, but his grandfather's casual gesture surpassed even that.
“That fellow from the Moyong Clan had one too,” Ma Yeon-jeok said casually, as if disgusted with himself for even mentioning such trash.
A memory surfaced in Jeong Yeon-shin's mind: Divine Star Halberd Construction. The single thrust that had penetrated the Moyong Clan Head's Sword Sphere. At the time, Jeong Yeon-shin had been unable to react, helplessly exposing his abdomen.
“A Life-Saving Herb technique…”
Ma Yeon-jeok laughed.
“How straightforward. Yes, when a Life-Saving Herb technique reaches mastery, it is called peerless. That Jegal bastard who committed patricide substituted it with sorcery, formations, and Dharma Treasures. But that brat of the Moyong Clan could unfold it on his own.”
“So the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak is merely a stepping stone.”
“Once you achieve the Unity of Essence, Qi, and Spirit, your intent begins to merge with your martial arts. Eventually, you will unify all the martial arts you have trained with a single technique. Those worthy of discussing the Purple Rank attach fancy names to it, calling it the Five Qi Converging to the Origin or Unified Martial Transcendence.”
“Unified Martial Transcendence.”
Jeong Yeon-shin repeated the term calmly. All martial arts transcending their limits.
Suddenly, Ma Yeon-jeok's brow furrowed.
“After undergoing rejuvenation thanks to you, this grandfather's enlightenment moved in yet another direction. I ended up taking your absurd name as my ultimate meaning.”
Yeon-shin (Ashen Smoke). Smoke rising from what remains after burning.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not bother to ask for the name of the technique. He felt too self-conscious to do so.
Suddenly, Ma Yeon-jeok's expression shifted, and he laughed with satisfaction.
“You cut down the Jegal Clan Leader and the Moyong Clan Head without even having such a thing. That’s more than enough to make a mockery of the Tyrannical Way this grandfather walked after reaching the Purple Rank at thirty. In that sense…”
He took off his robe and handed it to his grandson. The garment that symbolized the Hegemon Hero of the Desolate Fortress was being passed down, an event that would shake the world.
“I want you to wear this. It is a garment that once made the Jianghu tremble.”
“…Grandfather, your grandson does not have the confidence to walk the same path as you. My innate nature is not so unyielding…”
Staring down at the brilliant pink robe, Jeong Yeon-shin silently returned it to his grandfather.
In Ma Yeon-jeok's eyes, this was an outstanding display of the Tyrannical Way.