Chapter 350: Enemies in the Same Boat (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 350: Enemies in the Same Boat (6)
Meanwhile, the dozen or so people in the audience stirred.
At this moment, there wasn't a single person in the Golden Wing Hall who wasn't a master.
This grand hall was a gathering place exclusively for those leading the hunt for spirit beasts. Before their integration into the Golden Wing Sect, every single one of them had reigned as a sect leader within the Dragon Slaying Alliance.
Their first reaction was to frown and grip their weapons.
Though they carried a diverse array of armaments—ranging from pitch-black harpoons and chained scimitars to standard sabers and swords—every one of them stood their ground. They anchored themselves with heavy momentum to withstand the suction force that was tearing the ceiling apart. Their postures remained haughty and unyielding.
"The Tang Clan's secret divine art...?"
"No way!"
"There's no way the Tang Clan Leader could have come all the way here!"
"Where are you looking? Over there. It's that guy."
Their voices were drowned out by a deafening roar.
At the seat of honor in the meeting hall, a vortex swirled from the hand of the young man standing in attendance behind the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
A translucent whirlwind raged along his arm, which was stretched diagonally upward. Debris from the ceiling spun and tore away with a tremendous racket. To anyone watching, it was unmistakably the Myriad Blossoms Rain.
Jeong Yeon-shin had unleashed it.
The moment the Successor of the Beggar Sect brought up the Supreme Elder and the Dragon-Phoenix Twin Poisons, a sudden flash of insight had sparked in his upper dantian.
It wasn't entirely intentional. The mental image that briefly crossed his mind had simply manifested into reality.
He had only thought to shut the Successor up by smashing the ceiling. However, his Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak, which was on the verge of completion, caused unexpected trouble due to its astonishing level of achievement.
This happened right after he realized that the Golden Wing Sect required a highly proficient user of the Myriad Blossoms Rain.
Meanwhile...
'This much?'
Yeon-shin was inwardly taken aback. The power of the Myriad Blossoms Rain had far exceeded his expectations.
The energy he used to execute the Tang Clan secret art wasn't his fully unleashed Law-Transcending Halo Qi, but the Jeong Family Dynamic-Art True Qi permeating his entire body.
Beneath his irritation lay worry for his seniors and the need to keep his identity hidden. He hadn't even used his full strength.
Naturally, he hadn't expected the roof to collapse.
The speed at which the forces of release and absorption multiplied through friction, sparking like flint, was entirely different from before. Even his physical strength to withstand the recoil was incomparable to his body before his Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth.
"Elders! I will stop him! That bastard, right now...!"
"Do not act rashly. Isn't our Sect Leader, who is right next to him, locking eyes with the fellow? Besides, the breeze is quite cool and pleasant."
"Why are you laughing?"
"This is the Myriad Blossoms Rain. A stroke of good fortune has practically rolled right into our laps."
"No, but at this rate..."
"Did the Tang Clan breed such a weapon? He seems to be from a collateral branch."
Ughhh!
Groans escaped the mouths of the young masters whose internal energy was still shallow.
The elderly masters and a few Brightfolk with youthful appearances sat calmly amidst the tempest, clicking their tongues at the younger generation.
"You've neglected your training. How on earth did you study the secrets of the Thousand-Pound Weight?"
"It must have been easier for them to cultivate the mental image of a thousand pounds rather than delve into the subtle principles of adhesion."
"Look at that fellow clutching the armrest over there. The patriarchs of the Geum Sword lineage would weep. How does he expect to withstand the breath of a flood dragon like that?"
The Golden Wing Sect. A great sect straddling the line between the Righteous and Demonic paths.
Amidst the lighthearted jokes of some old masters, more and more people struggled to avoid being dragged in by the suction force pulling down the very roof. Groans echoed from all sides.
Meanwhile, those who had firmly anchored their feet to the ground with internal energy turned their gaze toward the stone throne of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
Beneath the shafts of white sunlight pouring down, the peerlessly handsome young man stood out starkly, his presence fully laid bare by the light.
His firm yet slender jawline was so finely chiseled it seemed to merge with the sunlight. His eyes, with pupils as deep as an abyss, carried the dignified air of a martial artist. His flawless skin, fully exposed under the harsh light, combined with his high-bridged nose to evoke an almost dreamlike aura. He looked as if he existed alone in the world.
An age where one's bloodline truly blossoms.
He was Ban-ak, quite literally. Having increased his food intake recently, the young man had, for better or worse, fully bloomed from the seed of his parents.
He was vastly different from the boy he had been before his Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth. It was to the point where Ak Su-rim had once compared the difference to that of a tadpole and a frog.
Even the Tang siblings and the Successor of the Beggar Sect, who possessed eye techniques ranked among the best of the Righteous Faction's rising stars, failed to recognize Jeong Yeon-shin.
The Dragon-Phoenix Twin Poisons merely stared back and forth between the roof and Jeong Yeon-shin with expressions of utter bewilderment.
"What... is that? That's definitely it."
"Sister, did Father have a secret child?"
"I don't know!"
"Poison Phoenix, Poison Dragon, stop playing dumb and tell us! Is this truly the first you've heard of this?"
"No wonder the Sect Leader took him in as an attendant. That's not just a face; it's a masterpiece of divine inspiration."
"We might see an increase in the forms of the Heaven-Overturning Dragon-Slaying Formula..."
The area below the seat of honor was in an uproar. People of all factions and backgrounds clamored noisily—and this was in the presence of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
Indeed, unless it was the Myriad Blossoms Rain unleashed to its absolute limit by Jeong Yeon-shin, it could not have shaken the purple-ranked experts of the Jianghu.
Without lowering his raised hand, he locked eyes with the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
A terrifyingly violent true qi flickered within her light brown eyes.
The muscle fibers beneath her seemingly delicate shoulders looked as though they were woven purely out of internal energy. This was evident from the way they pulsed subtly beneath the folds of her red-gold robe, radiating a strangely transcendent aura.
Everything else was meaningless. Her small head, proportionate to her petite frame, and her emotionless face with its sharp, delicate features.
Yeon-shin instinctively calculated.
'Thirty percent...?'
Could he win three times out of ten?
He couldn't be sure yet. He would need to see at least a glimpse of her signature techniques, the Heaven-Ruling Dragon-Slaying Art and the Heaven-Overturning Dragon-Slaying Formula, to make an accurate assessment.
However, the sheer pressure radiating from her was undeniably overwhelming.
The world of the great sect leaders.
Just how vast was the realm of the Black Rank? There was a yawning chasm between the Moon-Gazing Radiant Halberd of the Tenth Sect, whose face had already faded from his memory, and the Three Black Strengths of the Desolate Fortress.
It was a difference as vast as when one had just formed their Law-Transcending Halo Qi versus right after creating the Fan Dragon Lotus Art.
'The Purple Rank must be even more extreme.'
Amidst his brief thoughts, Yeon-shin suddenly wondered.
Was the Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult, who had lived about three years longer than him, truly his equal? Could that cynically smirking face of hers actually be the expression of a corpse?
'One who should have already died, or is on the verge of death...'
Even then, Yeon-shin deliberately did not withdraw the Myriad Blossoms Rain. He let the mnemonic run wild according to its nature—or rather, according to his deep calculations.
It was then.
"I've watched long enough, yet you still haven't lowered your hand! How dare you in this presence!"
A fierce shockwave erupted from the side, rustling Yeon-shin's robes.
It was Wanyang.
The man who had been acting as his senior attendant thrust his hand-blade toward Yeon-shin.
Slaaaash!
The energy concentrated in his hand-blade was immense. With a deafening sound like tearing paper, it sliced cleanly through the tempest of the Myriad Blossoms Rain.
At the same time, it felt as though an invisible layer of clothing was stripped from Wanyang's body, and his blunt ears instantly grew long and pointed.
Though his features had seemed quite human, he was actually of the Brightfolk. It appeared that the appearance and aura he had concealed with some kind of sorcery martial art had been laid bare by the sheer force of his strike.
'The Right Guardian of the Golden Wing Sect, the Molten Spirit Divine Fist.'
Yeon-shin deduced this from the colorless, blade-like shockwave wrapped around the man's hand.
He was one of the two guardians of the Golden Wing Sect, who had long hunted and killed the Murim's spirit beasts—creatures akin to natural disasters. While his alias was incredibly famous, this old master's face was largely unknown.
A master of strikes, it was said he could shatter a hill with a single punch. In terms of the Desolate Fortress, he was on par with a mid-tier Unit Commander.
They had both deceived each other.
Yeon-shin instinctively felt that the Jianghu he belonged to was entering a realm of profound mystery.
'Halo.'
It was a split second. He compressed his Law-Transcending Halo Qi to the absolute limit within the narrow meridians of one arm, then wrapped it in the energy of the Jeong Family Dynamic Art.
It was the mental image of wood wrapping around an iron core. Immediately after, he swung his other arm sideways, maintaining the Myriad Blossoms Rain.
Boom!
A violent shockwave rippled outward. The vortex that had been hazily enveloping the hall shuddered.
'So this works.'
Yeon-shin marveled as he felt the presence of the Molten Spirit Divine Fist being flung far back. He had adapted a portion of the Brilliant River mnemonic to focus on repelling his opponent, and it had succeeded perfectly.
The state of the Unity of Essence, Qi, and Spirit was truly magnificent.
Even though he had not yet achieved complete stability, he had maintained the Myriad Blossoms Rain while repelling one of the two great guardians of the Golden Wing Sect.
This carried significant implications. Through sheer improvisation, he had brushed off a strike from the Molten Spirit Divine Fist—a figure established as the natural enemy of spiritually endowed entities, whose attacks undoubtedly possessed the efficacy of Dragon Slaying.
'Her strikes will be on another level entirely.'
Yeon-shin once again locked eyes with the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect, who was staring at him intently.
What was she thinking? It was difficult to read her light brown eyes, which held a strange sense of transcendence.
Just then, Wanyang let out a thunderous bellow akin to a Lion's Roar.
"You bastard!"
He stomped his foot violently once more, his momentum like a pouncing tiger. The paving stones around his legs erupted with translucent waves of internal power, shattering into pieces and soaring into the air.
It seemed his fury had reached its peak at this insolence occurring right in the heart of the Golden Wing Sect.
'Damn it.'
Yeon-shin was equally furious. He simply didn't show it, maintaining the calm composure that had become a habit, much like how he counted his remaining years backward.
The enigmatic Young Sect Leader, and the sects of the Sichuan Murim entangled over the flood dragon.
And his seniors, whose traces had become impossible to find amidst all this chaos.
The truth about the Tang Clan twins that the function of his upper dantian had forced into his mind. A constitution that grotesquely mimicked Yeon-shin's own body.
And the mouth of the Beggar Sect Successor, who sought to exploit that truth for whatever purpose.
'That jaw of his...'
Yeon-shin pushed the fact that he was currently standing in the greatest sect of Sichuan to the back of his mind.
"What do you two siblings think of him? Isn't he far too powerful to be from a collateral branch of the Tang Clan? Could the Poison Lord have secretly taken on a new disciple...?"
Yeon-shin lowered the palm of his Myriad Blossoms Rain toward the Successor, who was now watching the spectacle in the hall with an intrigued expression.
In his mind, he marked down a mental debt to the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
At the same time.
"Stop."
The lips of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect uttered a dry sound. It was a voice close to a whisper.
Yeon-shin did not listen.
He adjusted the true qi in the Shaofu and Laogong points of his palm, aligning them up and down.
Simultaneously, the vortex that had completely pulverized the ceiling let out a massive rumble of thunder, carrying all kinds of debris. It immediately began to shape itself into a sharp pillar pointing straight down.
Like a rising dragon.
"Hmm?"
The change occurred in a flash. The Successor's reaction was a step too late.
"What...?"
Whoosh!
Just before the vortex of the Myriad Blossoms Rain could plunge like an awl into the forehead of the Successor, who had slightly raised his head...
"I told you to stop."
A slender arm rose toward Yeon-shin's palm.
In an instant, a massive, resonant roar echoed. White sparks flew from the hand of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect, who had suddenly blocked the source of the Myriad Blossoms Rain.
Her arm was now enveloped in an energy that seemed capable of mincing all creation. It was as if she had woven thousands of invisible lightning bolts around herself.
Yeon-shin immediately ignited his upper dantian to a white-hot intensity, entering a slowed-down world.
The flow of air brushing against his fingertips began to feel as distinct as streams of water, and behind the shoulder of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect, the startled exhale of the Successor stretched out incredibly long.
'The Heaven-Ruling Dragon-Slaying Art.'
The red-gold sleeve of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect did not flutter, even when facing the Myriad Blossoms Rain. It felt as though a transparent giant was overlapping with her body.
The Lord of the Golden Wing Sect reached out to interlock her fingers with Yeon-shin's. A complete seal. The true qi in each of her finger joints began to unravel.
She was reading every single trajectory of his five fingers, each drawing a different movement.
Slowly.
Yeon-shin's eyes sharpened. Losing in a battle of forms? Impossible.
Before his hand could be caught in her grasp, he tilted his index finger diagonally downward, gathering and extending the flow of the Myriad Blossoms Rain to his fingertip.
Thud—
It was the sound of the Successor's body collapsing, having finally been struck by the whirlwind. It echoed incredibly slowly.
The eyes of the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect clouded slightly. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they brightened.
For her eyelashes, which had been casting dense, faint shadows, lifted slightly.
In this realm of super-ascension, her lips parted slowly.
"Are you married?"
A flicker of doubt crossed Yeon-shin's eyes. Was he truly the only one among the peerless masters whose comprehension and sanity remained intact?
"I am not." He spoke calmly, just as he had once reminded the Young Sect Leader of the Ming Cult.
Immediately, the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect spoke as if issuing a command.
"Become my weapon."
"Cut the crap."