Chapter 377: The World
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 377: The World
Step.
The Lords of the Tenth Sect ceased their movements, halting in their tracks as they surrounded Jeong Yeon-shin.
Twelve identical figures. Sunlight poured silently over the white armor symbolizing the Sovereign of All Weapons, the Emperor of All Weapons.
"..."
In Jeong Yeon-shin's hand was a small axe.
It was the same axe that had been sent flying earlier by the palm force of his Brilliant River. Though several fine cracks marred the blade, it remained usable. Perhaps it had survived because it weathered a hastily unleashed Brilliant River, rather than a strike backed by his full, calculated strength.
Jeong Yeon-shin recalled the Lord of the Tenth Sect's axe strikes.
There was no set form.
A seemingly haphazard downward hack, a loosely woven barrier of internal energy, a subtle shift that lightly deflected and redirected the shockwave.
Yet, it had successfully blocked his Brilliant River, even though the man didn't appear to have trained in any profound, specific forms.
Come to think of it...
The very first martial art Jeong Yeon-shin had encountered at the Desolate Fortress was the Demonlight Formula.
It was renowned as a mnemonic for body movement that could be applied to any exotic weapon. However, the means he had primarily used to slay his enemies thus far were his fists, feet, and sword.
Jeong Yeon-shin lowered the small axe slightly. If he delved deeply into other weapons, would he too be able to set foot into the realm of Unified Martial Transcendence?
Just then.
[Your swordplay and footwork are undoubtedly peerless.]
The twelve men spoke in unison, surrounding Jeong Yeon-shin. Rather than bizarre, the sight was simply overwhelming, even with identical smiles plastered across their faces.
[But what do you intend to achieve by holding that? Since ancient times, the profound truths of the axe can only be grasped through the tempering of a battlefield.]
"Is this place not a battlefield as well?"
Yeon-shin replied calmly. The small axe in his left hand spun in place.
He rolled it by generating a faint shockwave from his palm; it followed his intent better than expected.
The light reflecting off the axe blade illuminated the face of one of the Lords of the Tenth Sect.
A satisfied smile stood out against the dim backlight. He did not look like a man who had just lost his disciples to Yeon-shin's hands.
[Since there are twelve of me, you speak the truth. It would be exceedingly difficult to find such a battlefield anywhere else in the world.]
"You have a broad mind, Sect Lord. Thank you for your goodwill."
[...Goodwill?]
Yeon-shin did not answer.
He had activated the Sight of the Lowly long ago. His gaze—which had initially shone with the color of the sky before deepening into a dark blue—swept over his enemies.
Fascinating.
From the perspective of internal cultivation, every single one of them was no different from the Lord of the Tenth Sect he had clashed with moments ago.
The energy waves emanating from all twelve bodies were perfectly identical. Their appearances were merely slightly hazy, like smoke taking shape.
Unified Martial Transcendence.
The shape, interval, and density of the internal power waves sweeping hazily in all directions were completely identical.
This meant that their very first strikes would unconditionally be on par with the real Lord of the Tenth Sect.
Yeon-shin wondered: What kind of enlightenment is that?
[Your eyes are creepy. What are you thinking?] asked the Lord of the Tenth Sect who had stepped forward last to grab his axe.
His face looked as if he had witnessed something deeply unsettling. At this moment, his was the body closest to Yeon-shin, and unlike the other clones, his physical outline was distinct.
I won't know unless I experience it firsthand.
Yeon-shin brushed aside his thoughts on the secrets of Unified Martial Transcendence.
Immediately after, the figure of the Lord of the Tenth Sect suddenly filled his vision. He rushed forward bare-handed, holding no weapon.
The sight of the atmosphere burning into a colorless void around his wide-spread hands was spectacular.
[Though it is not a weapon, there is something counted among the eighteen weapons.]
[Bare-handed combat.]
These were the other clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect. In a single step, they took positions to Yeon-shin's left and right.
[I have no interest in your arrogant attitude.]
[But if we do not avenge our comrades and disciples here, who would ever want to join our sect?]
They spoke with intent faster than lip-reading. One aimed a sky-piercing halberd at Yeon-shin's flank, while another brought a crescent blade down toward his crown.
Front, left, and right.
Three points of impact. The air rippled translucently.
Slightly twisting his waist, Yeon-shin firmly gripped the hilt of Lingering Thunder. In that instant, the Law-Transcending Halo Qi began to race through the acupoints of his entire body like a flash of lightning.
Lowering his stance slightly, he stepped forward and spun along with his sword.
Swoosh!
He slipped right past the flank of the Lord of the Tenth Sect who was thrusting a fist from the front. It was the Wind God Movement Technique. For a brief moment, the sensation of his blade scraping against armor vibrated through his grip.
Dust swirled like a tornado beneath his feet.
The recoil of his movement technique and sword strike created a rapidly spreading vortex of shockwaves. It wrapped around the hem of his pants, rising to sweep up and deflect the sky-piercing halberd and crescent blade that had pursued him from behind.
He had turned even the aftermath of his strike into an offensive maneuver.
Whoosh!
The trajectories of the two weapons warped.
For a split second, it felt as if the sky behind Yeon-shin had opened wide. The space occupied by the two clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect had been completely filled with a solemn shockwave force.
Yeon-shin spun around on the spot.
With just that, he completely escaped the three-move chain attack. It was a perfect neutralization.
Slide.
Sunlight slid down the blade of Lingering Thunder, which the Commander of the Demonlight Wing held pointed downward.
His black robe, its hem stained with dirt, exuded a solitary yet unapproachable aura. His long, cascading hair only deepened this quality.
It was the posture of a martial artist bordering on perfection.
A robust, vigorous beauty. Gasps of admiration escaped from the crowd, who had been spellbound by the Lord of the Tenth Sect's Transposition.
[A truly formidable body protection scripture. To think you have such movement techniques on top of your lightness skill.]
The bare-handed Lord of the Tenth Sect caressed his ribs. A single straight sword mark was left on his armor, proving that the Commander of the Demonlight Wing's strike had severed his body protection qi in an instant.
[There is a trace of the Brightfolk's nature in it, yet it is far cleaner and faster. It must be a martial lineage of your own creation.]
"..."
Yeon-shin lowered his eyelids slightly.
He felt the lingering sensation in his sword hilt. Cutting through the body protection qi wasn't the end of it; true qi was infused directly into the Lord of the Tenth Sect's armor.
At this rate, inflicting a fatal wound would not be easy, especially since he couldn't focus entirely on a single sword strike.
He also engraved the movements of the sky-piercing halberd and crescent blade—which his sense of qi had just captured—into his mind. Even in those brief forms, the profound truths of weapon arts were present.
It was then.
Step, step.
The Lords of the Tenth Sect approached.
[They say the martial arts of the current Commander of the Demonlight Wing fall into one of two categories.]
[A decisive battle of short duration—settling the score quickly and cleanly—or a dazzlingly lavish onslaught.]
[Yet, you are doing neither right now.]
[Do you intend to die?]
They spoke leisurely, one by one, as they fanned out. Their condescending gaze toward Yeon-shin felt entirely natural.
Whoosh!
The sky shimmered hazily.
A monstrous pressure began to fill the space. As if to show that this wouldn't end with a single joint attack by three clones, they closed in, forming a circular formation.
Yeon-shin shook the axe in his left hand once.
Thud—
The grip felt decent. Though it fell far short of the Divine Sword: Lingering Thunder, the balance from the blade to the handle wasn't bad.
I need to conserve my strength.
He intended to defeat three leaders of the Thirteen Heavens here today.
He could not back down. The blood debt of the Desolate Fortress had to be repaid by a martial artist of the main fortress, and the Emei Sect Leader must not be killed by the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect.
[I must thank you for setting up such a grand stage.]
[For our sect shall rise even without the Flood Dragon's inner core.]
[You may cross the Sanzu River now.]
The Lords of the Tenth Sect spoke as they formed the encirclement. Perhaps it was the leisure unique to absolute masters, but their rough voices carried a strangely noble quality.
Soon after, the bodies of the Lords of the Tenth Sect vanished simultaneously.
It was a leap using their lightness skill.
A sharp hook blocked out the sky first—a long scythe known as a guaizi. Behind him, the heavy sound of tearing air echoed loudly.
A Lord of the Tenth Sect holding a shield was charging in with fierce momentum.
Yeon-shin gripped the axe tightly and clenched his other hand into a fist.
A translucent current flowed from his shoulder down to his knuckles. It was the dense shockwave characteristic of a powerful fist technique. Spinning in place at blinding speed, Yeon-shin struck the shield head-on.
Infinite Flower of Time Hand, Second Form: Advancing Thunder.
Rumble!
Multiple layers of ripples erupted from the point of impact, the result of the clashing force of peerless masters.
The Lord of the Tenth Sect was flung in the opposite direction along with his shield, which was now covered in fine cracks.
The ground, swept up by the shockwave, rose like a tidal wave and crashed over the surroundings. Through his hair, which had flown straight up, Yeon-shin felt the blade of the hook digging in.
Slash!
A hot sensation sliced his shoulder. He had been grazed by a wide-spreading sword qi.
Though his own blood flashed red in the corner of his vision, Yeon-shin did not activate his newly created body protection qi.
He had no intention of revealing it beforehand to the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect, who would be watching this duel.
Without even looking back, he swung Lingering Thunder upward behind him.
A sharp, heavy vibration immediately traveled down from the blade to his elbow. Blocked by Lingering Thunder, the shaft of the scythe bent elastically in place.
This is a divine weapon too, Yeon-shin thought.
The divine dragon arising from his mind bit down on a fan and wrapped around Lingering Thunder.
The moment he opened his hand, Lingering Thunder swept over the scythe as if wrapping around it, ruthlessly severing the neck of the Lord of the Tenth Sect below before plunging into the ground.
There was no time for the bastard to launch another spear strike.
Thud!
As the ground violently vibrated upon receiving Lingering Thunder...
[Are there about ten layers of shockwaves superimposed on that fist strike? I couldn't even redirect it.]
The Lord of the Tenth Sect, who had landed in the distance with his shield, raised his blurred body.
[His accumulated qi amount is one thing, but his control of internal energy is truly monstrous.]
The clone whose head had been severed while holding the sky-piercing halberd was already regenerating a new head, as if possessing some innate power of regeneration.
I think I understand.
Yeon-shin felt the true qi pouring toward them like streams of water.
It was an invisible pathway of internal energy flowing from the body of the Lord of the Tenth Sect, who stood far away, bare-handed with his arms crossed.
It seemed his spirituality had unified with his internal power to form these clones.
There was a term for such a phenomenon in Taoist cultivation. Yeon-shin spoke slowly.
"I thought the Nascent Soul was a secret technique used by the Ancient Sword of the Wudang Sect."
[You noticed?]
The Lords of the Tenth Sect laughed.
[That Taoist priest was a great inspiration. Though I operate it in a different manner than he does.]
"Are you close?"
[The Nine Sects consist of Buddhist temples and Taoist monasteries. Since they cannot expand their influence unless the Imperial Family turns a blind eye, there are many times they must follow the Emperor's will.
Whether it is hunting down spirit beasts and demons, or being drafted to the northern front as a martial arts army.]
The Lords of the Tenth Sect did not stop walking.
Step.
The grass, which had been raising its green head to welcome spring, was crushed back beneath the soil. With every single step that narrowed the distance, the pressure grew heavier.
It was not because of internal power. In terms of accumulated qi amount, Yeon-shin held the upper hand.
It was simply that the Lord of the Tenth Sect's intent, imbued with a monstrous spirituality, was shaping a certain form at this very moment.
Something that penetrated the profound truths of the eighteen weapons and influenced this land with a power beyond true qi.
Rustle—
[Our fellow martial artists of the Jianghu have wondered.]
Holding eighteen different weapons, they surrounded him from all directions. It was a circular encirclement akin to a wheel formation.
[They say that if one digs many wells, one cannot go deep. So how is it that I have mastered the eighteen weapons and become a peerless expert?]
It was like the cloning technique of the Great Sage Equal to Heaven depicted on a canvas. The way each of them took a starting stance suited to their respective weapons was exactly like that.
[It is because I command the principles of weaponry.]
The space felt blocked by an invisible, hemispherical dome. No air could circulate.
It was as if a formation art had been deployed. It was a harmony that began to transcend the realm of martial arts.
A Lord of the Thirteen Heavens. The pinnacle of the Heterodox Sects.
Whoosh!
It began without warning. The first strike was a meteor hammer. A rope suspending a massive metal sphere tore through the air as it flew toward him.
It was a strike aimed at his shoulder—a technique that would inevitably cause dislocation upon a direct hit. A roar echoed, sounding as if hundreds of ordinary martial artists had thrust their fists simultaneously.
A world-shaking force was fully loaded into it. Yeon-shin concentrated his Halo Qi from the arm holding the axe up to the Jianyu Point on his shoulder.
Clang!
The moment he deflected the meteor hammer upward with his axe, the ground sank with a heavy thud. In that instant, Yeon-shin felt true qi invading all the way to his wrist bones. It was a strike imbued with an internal heavy hand technique.
The Lord of the Tenth Sect holding the meteor hammer retreated. He had lost energy and blurred the moment he unleashed the strike.
While he was becoming distinct once more, other clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect—holding a nine-section whip, a sky-piercing halberd, a crescent blade, and a sword—flew in, honing a chilling brilliance.
Slash!
Beams of light were etched across the necks of two clones. The violent backdraft of sword control dispersed the dust in a circle.
While the two figures were flung back still clutching the nine-section whip and the sky-piercing halberd, the Divine Sword: Lingering Thunder began to spin widely in all directions, spreading its wings.
Five clones on the outer edge of the encirclement clung to Lingering Thunder with rapid lightness skills.
Yeon-shin was trapped by seven of them. He had to invoke the mnemonic of the Infinite Flower of Time Hand bare-handed. Both of his hands brimmed with the explosive power of Brilliant River.
Clang! Boom!
He deflected spear thrusts with the backs of his hands and crushed sword qi in his grip. Every time he did, the entire broad peak shook.
It was nothing but blades. It felt as if he were surrounded by the Hell of the Mountain of Blades in the underworld.
The hazy dust warped violently in spirals, and the shockwaves erupting in between rippled outward in ten, twenty layers.
They gradually grew faster.
They were peerless experts. The time it took for their strike speed to reach its limit was terrifyingly short. Once the confrontation was established, all of their figures blurred in an instant.
Only the clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect, who had to receive true qi at intervals, became distinct from time to time. Even in the midst of this, hundreds of beams of light constantly trapped Yeon-shin.
While the trajectories formed by all kinds of weapons continuously roared without end, the brilliance in Yeon-shin's eyes flowed here and there like blue streams of water. It followed his movements and the tilts of his head.
[A movement that is more than enough to establish a school of your own. Your martial attainment is higher than any of the Eight Family Heads in the world!]
[If the Fighting God had seen you, he would have taken you as a disciple instead of cutting you down. You are a bastard who must never go to the North.]
[What a waste of years!]
[In ten years at most, the Jianghu might have seen the greatest under heaven...]
Slash! Splat!
Even as the nine-section whip lashed his flank and a shockwave from the Lord of the Tenth Sect's palm force sliced open one of his shoulders, he felt no pain. Only the exhilaration surging in his mind intensified.
He had never obtained such a rich fated encounter from an enemy. Hundreds of trajectories ceaselessly filled his vision.
Sabers, swords, spears, shields, battleaxes, nine-section whips, staffs... The beams of light bending and twisting in countless variations through the air were branded into his mind like hot irons.
From the ancient Song Dynasty to the present day.
The eighteen weapons were a class of armaments established over generations. Hundreds of years were contained within them. It was a depth that Yeon-shin could not dare to covet.
How could he approach it with a life that might barely span nineteen years?
Thump!
A sound echoed inside his crown. A lightning bolt of ecstasy exploded in his mind, along with the inferiority complex he harbored toward his short life.
His innate talent was merely an aid. From the deepest depths of his being, a greed and resentment regarding time flared up like a wildfire.
I want to see it. I must see it.
He let his body move on its own. Entrusting himself to the sequence of dodging, turning, and striking was possible without a single conscious thought.
He expanded his sense of qi to its limits. He held all the clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect in his consciousness.
Through his senses, Yeon-shin densely scanned the trajectories they unleashed, their gripping methods, and the secrets of their shockwaves. Just like the gaze of the Seventh Apostle he had once faced.
Ah.
Something like a wave flowed in.
It was the same sensation he had experienced from the Ghost-Howling Hegemon's Unified Martial Transcendence.
It was time.
An overwhelming span of years enveloped his upper dantian like a cloud. The ethereal sensation was satisfying. The illustrations containing all the weapons present here were bound into a single volume in his mind.
A book of his mental image. The roughly written pages flipped rapidly. Even though there was plenty of blank space, Yeon-shin did not mind. It's too narrow to add annotations anyway.
[You do not calculate your next move. They say a short, decisive battle is your specialty.]
[This is the end.]
The chilling declaration reverberated through the air, carrying the heavy, oppressive weight of absolute certainty. The voices did not just speak; they echoed directly above his head, overlapping and harmonizing into a singular, inescapable death knell.
From the zenith of his vision, two identical figures descended. They were the clones of the Lord of the Tenth Sect, striking downward with synchronized, ruthless precision. One wielded a massive sky-piercing halberd that seemed to sever the very heavens, while the other brought down a heavy staff with earth-shattering momentum. The sheer pressure of their combined assault threatened to crush everything in its path.
It was clear that they had already layered several intricate variations into this single, decisive strike. The ambient energy violently twisted, giving birth to volatile shockwaves that instantly transformed into crackling arcs of white and pitch-black lightning. These dual-colored torrents of electricity erupted in a cacophony of roaring waves, tearing through the atmosphere with deafening noise. The world itself seemed to scream as the destructive tempest bore down upon him.
Yet, in the face of this apocalyptic descent, Yeon-shin’s expression remained perfectly composed. His eyes, deep and unfathomable, tracked the blinding arcs of lightning. With a casual, almost dismissive elegance, he simply flicked his fingers.
In a fraction of a heartbeat, concentrated blasts of white finger wind shot forth. The compressed qi struck with pinpoint accuracy, colliding directly with the descending weapons and traveling violently up the clones' arms. The impact was bizarre and devastating. The flesh and bone of their arms visibly distorted, blurring and rippling like wrinkles rapidly forming on a violently shaken piece of fabric. Under the disruptive force of his finger technique, the terrifying shockwaves of their combined strike rapidly lost their structural integrity, dissolving into harmless sparks before they could even reach him.
He did not pause to admire his handiwork. Moving with fluid, uninterrupted grace, Yeon-shin tossed his own axe straight up into the air above his head, freeing his hands for the next sequence. He seamlessly transitioned into a profound grappling technique, his movements blurring into a phantom-like dance. He spread both hands wide, his palms surging with an irresistible magnetic pull. His fingers curled like the talons of a mythical beast, perfectly wrapping around the shafts of the two clones' weapons in mid-strike.
Flash!
[...!]
A blinding burst of light erupted at the point of contact, accompanied by the sharp, metallic screech of violently redirected momentum. The psychic ripples of the clones' shock and disbelief echoed in the space between them, their absolute confidence shattered in an instant.
In the very next instant, the impossible had occurred. The dynamic of the battlefield was completely inverted. Yeon-shin stood tall and unyielding, now firmly holding the sky-piercing halberd in one hand and the heavy staff in the other, having flawlessly snatched them away from his assailants. The residual energy of the clash exploded outward, causing his pitch-black sleeves to billow violently to both sides like the wings of a dark raptor riding a tempest.
He stood at the epicenter of the fading storm, his breathing steady, his grip ironclad upon the stolen weapons. His mind, operating at a terrifying speed, calculated the remaining duration of his explosive exertion.
Ten seconds, he thought, his inner voice calm, cold, and utterly detached from the chaos around him.