Chapter 346: Enemies in the Same Boat (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 346: Enemies in the Same Boat (2)
It was an era of chaos.
Accurate information was exceedingly rare. If a dozen rumors circulated about a single incident, the truth usually lay in only one or two of them.
The portraits of the current Commander of the Demonlight Wing—circulating primarily in the central plains—were a prime example.
The features depicted on these canvases varied wildly, and even then, there were supposedly fewer variations than one would expect given her fame. This was because anyone caught privately sharing personal information about high-ranking figures of the Desolate Fortress faced severe punishment from the government.
This feeling.
Jeong Yeon-shin had examined twelve different sketches of her appearance, each with its own distinct style and depiction. He couldn't afford to take the documents lightly; they had been personally handed to him before his departure by Cheong-myeong, Baek Mi-ryeo, Ak Su-rim, and the Grand Steward.
Their thoughtfulness had broadened his horizons. Thanks to them, he had learned quite a few detailed anecdotes about the figure he now had to face.
The opponent's appearance certainly matched several pieces of that intelligence.
"Strange. I heard you were about three years younger than me... yet you've fully grown into your body."
The figure, loosely holding a bamboo fishing rod, glanced at Jeong Yeon-shin and spoke.
Her pronunciation was clear, but her voice was grating. It sounded as if an invisible rake were scraping against a throat meant to produce a clear, resonant tone.
Her appearance was equally striking. She exuded the aura of a direct descendant of the Ming Cult—a lineage said to have deceived the heavens for generations.
It started with the silver mask covering her from forehead to nose, elegantly leaving only her lower face exposed. Even without any special engravings or patterns, a faint luster rippled across its surface. It paired perfectly with the crooked smile that seemed stitched onto her lips as a habit.
Her entire body was draped in an incredibly lavish white cloak, yet the long black tassels adorning its hem didn't feel excessive. This was likely due to the overwhelming presence radiating from the dark blue eyes behind the mask. Even the neck scarf woven from pure white animal fur felt like the mane of a divine dragon.
"Your swearing doesn't sound like swearing," the strange figure slowly said.
Between syllables, and whenever she wasn't speaking, the chilling silence unique to a winter stream became exceptionally pronounced.
Whether she was actually trying to catch fish was secondary. A truly monstrous presence saturated the surroundings.
"Is it because of your unusual features? Hearing you swear sounds rather amusing. It must be because of your gentle nature."
"..."
Jeong Yeon-shin thought in silence. I must be wary of her insight.
Yelu Jin, the Heaven-Smiling Invincible.
The greatest genius under heaven, widely renowned throughout the vast world.
She was a person who had blocked the path Jeong Yeon-shin was bound to cross, utilizing an astonishingly formidable information network.
Her clothing concealed her physique, and a luxury item that wasn't quite a proper mask covered half her face. Aside from her broad movements and ambient energy, it was nearly impossible to gauge her martial arts.
Was this person a woman, or a man? To what extent had they trained in physical martial arts, aside from sorcery? Nothing could be pinned down.
The cloak wrapped around her body seemed akin to a dharma treasure. Because it fundamentally blocked her energy, nothing could be sensed.
I shouldn't exchange too many clashes with her.
An unprecedented sensation washed over him—an intuition bordering on insight.
Jeong Yeon-shin etched a single light dragon holding a fan in its mouth into his mind. This way, he could overlay his mental image onto the Meteor Sword at his waist at any moment and launch Sword Kinesis straight at his opponent's neck. Among his martial arts, no technique executed faster than the Fan Dragon Lotus Art.
At the same time, I must keep the Ultimate Lightning in mind. My own head might fly off while I'm busy using Sword Kinesis.
He opened his mouth.
"Yelu Jin of the Ming Cult. Have you clashed with the warriors of our main fortress?"
Immediately after his flat question, waves of energy erupted like wildfire from various points in the barren forest, pressing down on Jeong Yeon-shin.
There were easily dozens of them.
The snowy coats on the tree branches shattered into white powder in all directions. The density of their internal power was uniformly immense.
Among them, the speed at which the first person unleashed their energy could only be explained by the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak. This meant the Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult commanded precious swords equivalent to the Black Ranks of the Desolate Fortress.
At that moment.
Whoosh!
The falling snow was crushed and swept away by a massive circular shockwave.
Its source was right next to Jeong Yeon-shin. The Seventh Apostle, her single ruby-like eye bewitchingly exposed, slowly scanned the surroundings with her back held perfectly straight.
The reddish current of internal power spreading from her body seeped into the snowy ground like flower petals.
Soon, words that the subordinates of the Heaven-Smiling Invincible might have uttered flowed from the Seventh Apostle's lips.
"Insolent."
"My, my..." The Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult let out a low exclamation of admiration. "Your lady is quite extraordinary. If I order a coordinated attack, the casualties on our side will be severe."
"Answer me," Jeong Yeon-shin demanded with an indifferent face.
Though there was a sudden, startled movement beside him as the Seventh Apostle gently smoothed her sleeves, finding out the whereabouts of his seniors remained his top priority.
"Commander of the Demonlight Wing... you certainly have mettle. No wonder you dare to carry such a large character 'Hwang' in broad daylight. These days, Desolate Fortress warriors are considered prime targets for plunder among reasonably strong martial artists. Especially in the lands of Sichuan lately."
The Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult stood up.
The Heaven-Smiling Invincible casually tossed aside her bamboo fishing rod, muttering a complaint through the mouth revealed beneath her mask.
"They say fishing is about angling for time, but not a single fish is biting. How irritating."
"A target to be plundered?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
The Young Sect Leader glanced at him and gave a casual nod.
"You might not know yet in Huguang. Well... that's just how the world is now. The warriors of the Desolate Fortress, you see. They have plenty of provisions, and the martial arts in their heads are quite precious, yet there are no repercussions. After all, you lot are the busiest in chaotic times like these."
"You constantly neglect your own warriors under the pretext of looking after the commoners' livelihoods or going on solo missions, don't you?" she continued. "Of course, you are still grim reapers to third-rate sects. But for those experts who only avoided the White Ranks or Blue Ranks out of fear of the Desolate Fortress's retaliation... rather than starving to death in a famine while obeying the law, wouldn't they prefer to just do whatever it takes? Whether that means plundering civilian homes or turning the tables on the Desolate Fortress warriors sent to capture them."
The Desolate Fortress warriors whose communications had been cut off all over the world.
It wasn't just the Heaven-Aligned Wing, the Forest-Treading Unit, and the Immortal Wood Spirit. What had once been an occasional occurrence was reportedly becoming commonplace. Many lower-ranked warriors were failing to return.
Jeong Yeon-shin had heard whispers of this since entering the fortress.
In Sichuan's City of Master Craftsmen, they had lost several senior Demonlight Wing members. Even after he became the Commander of the Demonlight Wing, stories of Desolate Fortress warriors dying in foreign lands never truly ceased. It was a constant shadow over them.
"Humans are bound to be swept away by the tides of the times eventually. Would the Desolate Fortress be any different?"
A light flashed in the Young Sect Leader's dark blue eyes, as if she were peering straight into Jeong Yeon-shin's inner thoughts.
"The answer you want might actually be nothing special. There are more peerless experts wandering the world than you can count on both hands. Your seniors might have simply run into one of them and died in defeat somewhere."
"So it wasn't you?"
"Well. I am indeed one of those peerless experts... but surely you don't believe the rumors spread by Lingering Spirit, do you?"
"Those bastards are masters at driving a wedge between the Jianghu and the Desolate Fortress." Interlocking her fingers with a relaxed gesture, the Young Sect Leader glanced at Jeong Yeon-shin. "You don't seem to believe them much either. As expected, warriors have to trade blows first. Though I absolutely detest pain..."
In an instant, the silence of the snowy field grew heavy. Jeong Yeon-shin felt an intangible pressure pressing down on his shoulders.
Among the Ming Cult experts who had reacted sharply earlier, not a single one broke their concealment. Even on the verge of a clash, they remained hidden.
This meant only one thing. They possessed absolute confidence in the word "Invincible" attached to their master's title. Just like the trust the Demonlight Wing experts placed in Jeong Yeon-shin.
"Shall we exchange two or three moves? Your energy is highly unsettling, but an expert's true intent is always revealed in their strikes."
A pitch-black flame flickered beneath the Young Sect Leader's mask. There was no precursor to the activation of her martial art, nor any sound of crackling fire.
A terrifying power emanated from the Black Flame coiling up her thick cloak.
It was a natural progression. Theirs was a relationship where trust could not exist in the first place.
Jeong Yeon-shin released the internal energy concealment technique he had inherited from the Commander of the Bloodkeeper Unit. Simultaneously, a lotus made of white light bloomed beneath his feet.
Law-Transcending Halo Qi, Brilliant River—Ultimate Lightning. He was going all out from the very first move. It was the first time he had done so since undergoing his Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth. The opponent demanded nothing less.
* * *
Everywhere was in ruins. Corpses littered the ground amidst swirling smoke carried by what seemed like a typhoon.
This was a place where the major affairs of the Jianghu were decided. It could be called the absolute summit of the martial world.
"The Desolate Fortress will be annihilated."
The voice was quiet and composed. The speaker was a man wrapped entirely in black robes. Beneath his bamboo hat, his lower face, adorned with a pitch-black beard, moved slowly.
"A net of heaven and earth composed of every great sect under heaven will make it so. Only the Nine Sects might exclude themselves from it."
"Speak sense."
Ten steps away, a man with the scholarly air of a literatus retorted. He was clad in a purple silk robe resembling a scholar's attire.
Though surrounded by glaring enemies, not a single person dared to rashly approach the bare-handed man. This remained true even though his only ally was a youthful young man in blue martial attire standing beside him with furrowed brows.
The black-robed man wearing the bamboo hat, the Yeoryeong Lord, stood at the forefront facing them. His attitude was exceedingly relaxed.
"You shouldn't have trusted the Eight Families. Even after suffering so much... Knowing your righteous spirit makes this all the more regrettable, Yong. The members of your Divine Sword Squad, who will return as corpses from Mount Anpyeong, will not be able to close their eyes in peace."
Behind the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps, a middle-aged swordsman with long, flowing blue sleeves blocked the path of retreat.
The momentum radiating from his pure white sword filled the world like a translucent mountain, permitting no movement. It was the Imperial Sword Form.
"Commander. It is time to let go of the Jianghu," Namgung's First Sword of the Martial Dragon Association spoke.
They were not the only ones. The Commander of the Divine Sword Corps and Yeon So-ha of the Divine Sword Squad knew that the peerless arrows of the Lord of the Dark Night Hall were aiming at them from twenty miles away.
The Yeoryeong Lord spoke.
"A net of heaven and earth to defeat the seventeen units of the Divine Sword Corps individually will soon be complete. Among them, the annihilation of your Divine Sword Squad will mark the beginning of our grand plan. The same goes for the unit commanders dispatched west from the Desolate Fortress. Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan. There are more than five of them, I hear."
He spoke as if they were already dead. The Lord of Lingering Spirit. If one were to discuss who the grim reaper of the Jianghu was, he was an absolute being who would easily rank first in sheer capability.
The corners of the Divine Sword Corps Commander's mouth curled upward.
He had experienced situations like this countless times. For a very long time, he had tolerated the way these free-spirited Jianghu people ran rampant, acting like ruffians who had acquired the power of gods.
Ever since he inherited the supreme rank from the Hegemon Hero Ma Yeon-jeok, he had lived as a fortress wall, silently blocking the raging winds.
"These bastards are getting on my nerves," he muttered.
With a smooth motion, the Four Treasures of the Study rose from the travel bag lying at his feet. It was the profound mystery of the Void Grab. A brush, ink, an inkstone, and seventeen sheets of paper danced in the air of their own accord.
"What trick is this?"
The enemies didn't dare move rashly. The Commander of the Divine Sword Corps had not yet drawn his signature weapon, the Dragon Ring Sword.
This meant that although they had managed to poison him by some stroke of luck, they hadn't truly diminished his full strength. They needed to buy time.
"Commander?" Yeon So-ha, the Blue Rank warrior of the Divine Sword Squad, looked up at his superior.
The Commander of the Divine Sword Corps burst into a hearty laugh.
"It seems I cannot remain a righteous hero after all. Check the contents for me. My sense of Qi has grown dull. If the back page is incomplete, copy it down exactly as it is."
Yeon So-ha faithfully obeyed. Turning his back to the enemies, the young man checked the contents of the letter.
His shoulders gave a violent flinch.
"Are you serious?" he asked. "Are we really writing this? All seventeen copies? The unit commanders were gathering swallows earlier... was it really for this...?"
"You sound like you're indirectly asking if I've lost my mind."
"No, but seriously?"
Yeon So-ha was a loyal subordinate. Pulling the back page from the air with Void Grab, he picked up a brush and copied the text as he asked once more.
The Commander chuckled.
"Those stubborn old fogeys in the Elder's Council will probably try to strip me of this uniform in a rare unanimous vote. But what choice do I have now that I've heard their plans?"
"If it only ends with that, we'd be lucky. What about the commoners?"
"...That is a sin I must bear. As the Commander, I judge that doing this is better than all of us falling together and having our fortress annihilated."
His voice was incredibly heavy.
But that was all.
The Commander of the Divine Sword Corps did not rescind his order.
Flutter!
He simply spread his hand wide, folding the letters suspended in the air and sending them soaring in all directions.
The documents bound themselves directly to the legs of a hawk and over a dozen swallows occupying the sky above.
It was an internal energy technique bordering on the divine. The sword winds and hidden weapons unleashed by the surrounding enemies couldn't even come close, torn to shreds before they could reach their targets.
This was because the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps had already drawn his light sword, scattering rainbow-colored brilliance and pouring out a monstrous torrent of Sword Qi.
"Go."
He held them off until the seventeen spirit beasts of the Desolate Fortress flapped their wings and scattered in all directions.
The Yeoryeong Lord and Namgung's First Sword didn't try to stop the birds. Through their highly developed Upper Dantians, they had deduced that the moment they targeted those letters, the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps would throw away his life to wage a desperate, suicidal battle.
"Are you curious about what I wrote?" the Commander asked.
The Yeoryeong Lord slowly nodded. "I can guess. But can you handle the consequences? The Imperial Family will not sit idly by after what you have done."
"Did a chill just run down your spine? You Jianghu bastards probably thought our fortress would just take your blows lying down."
No answer came.
The Commander picked up the single remaining letter in the air with his fingertips. Simultaneously, smoke from the Samadhi True Fire rose from his fingers.
The burning letter. The words that would shake the world were written in messy handwriting, gradually burning away from the corners.
[To the Unit Commanders. To you esteemed individuals.
I am terribly sorry to disturb you in the midst of your busy schedules. I know everyone is in a state of confusion. Therefore, I do not know how many of you will actually open this letter, but praying to the heavens, I shall cut straight to the chase...
The Commander of the Divine Sword Corps hereby commands.
Ignore whatever damage is caused by the Jianghu ruffians for the time being. The Divine Sword Corps of the Desolate Fortress will now secure our own safety from the entire martial world. We shall show them what happens when our fortress unites just like they do.
All Black Ranks under my command, upon reading these words, immediately cease all missions and assemble at the Sichuan Tenth Sect.
Seventeen.
All of you.]