Chapter 378: The World (2)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 378: The World (2)
Jeong Yeon-shin expanded his sharply honed sense of Qi in all directions.
The trajectories drawn by every kind of weapon brushed against his skin with a chilling sensation, while the methods to counter them painted brilliant pictures in his mind.
The eyes of the Lords of the Tenth Sect widened.
Whoosh!
Spinning the shaft of the Sky-Piercing Halberd in a wide arc with one hand, Jeong Yeon-shin smoothly twisted his waist.
The exceptionally long weapon naturally traced a wide trajectory, thrusting backward.
Thud!
A powerful shockwave erupted. The abdomen of one of the Lords of the Tenth Sect rushing from behind was pierced clean through.
A deep furrow was violently plowed into the dirt below. Translucent wind dispersed from the halberd tip protruding from the clone's back. Anyone could tell it was a spear-strike shockwave.
Jeong Yeon-shin furrowed his brow slightly. Grandma Ak honed her spear strikes to be much sharper than this, he thought.
[How is that spear strike my...!]
[What is happening?]
Releasing his grip on the halberd, Jeong Yeon-shin snatched an axe falling from the sky and immediately hurled it forward.
From the palm that had just released the handle, a Propulsion Shockwave erupted like a colorless flame, instantly blowing apart the head of a shield-bearing Lord of the Tenth Sect.
Boom!
The violent shockwave tore up the ground in all directions. Shattered rock fragments shot high into the air like cannonballs.
[What in the...?!]
It happened just as the thoughts of the remaining clones converged in sheer shock.
Jeong Yeon-shin concentrated his Law-Transcending Halo Qi into the Yongquan Point on the sole of his foot. Riding the wind with his entire body, he spun on the spot.
The encirclement formed by the Lords of the Tenth Sect was an ultimate technique. Even for a leader of the Thirteen Heavens of the Wicked Way, it was a masterpiece.
Unified Martial Transcendence.
It was the enemy's final trump card. In truth, this was the first time Jeong Yeon-shin had been pushed back this far since undergoing his Marrow Cleansing and Bone Rebirth.
If he could break this formation here, he would win. It would mean overcoming the decades of martial mastery the Lord of the Tenth Sect had cultivated over his lifetime.
Crash!
He struck one clone's Nine-Section Whip with the Brilliant River swirling over his palm. At the exact same time, Jeong Yeon-shin executed the Internal Heavy Hand Technique.
He drove the palm force imbued within the Brilliant River into the Nine-Section Whip, transmitting it directly up the weapon and into the clone's grip.
The surrounding dust parted violently to the left and right like a crashing wave, and the hand of the clone holding the whip violently spasmed.
Using a Grappling Technique, he wound the iron whip in reverse, snatched it away, and whipped it at a sword-wielding Lord of the Tenth Sect, binding him tightly.
With his other hand, he spun a club into a reverse grip with dazzling speed and drove it straight into another clone's solar plexus.
Clang!
A brief, intense vibration traveled up to his elbow. It was incredibly powerful. He had perfectly executed the Staff Technique Fa Jin. The struck clone's figure rippled like water.
[Urgh!]
The bare-handed Lord of the Tenth Sect—the one serving as the core body—staggered and let out a groan.
It seemed the damage accumulating on the Nascent Soul had reached the main body, likely due to their connection through Spirituality.
[How dare a mere brat...!]
Jeong Yeon-shin faced the clones calmly as they regenerated their bodies and rushed him once more.
Thud.
He caught an incoming spear mid-thrust. It wasn't difficult.
Because he had generated the exact same grip and the exact same type of Internal Power Wave in his own hand, he met zero resistance.
He deflected the spear shaft to the side. The throat of a clone swinging a hook from behind was instantly pierced by it. The air exploded violently.
[This cannot be... This is impossible!]
The bare-handed Lord of the Tenth Sect unleashed a wave of energy. It was a stream of internal energy connecting to the clones of his Unified Martial Transcendence.
Jeong Yeon-shin caught sight of the enemy's face, now entirely distorted with bewilderment.
He took another step toward him. An afterimage of his figure lingered behind.
As the colorless Internal Power Wave generated by his body grew incredibly dense, he moved at a speed that far exceeded it.
It was Transposition.
[……!]
In a space that felt as sluggish and slow as a swamp, yet operated on a completely different timeline from the outside world because it was the realm of Super-Ascension—
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes, flashing with a brilliant blue light, darted around alertly.
All the weapons closing in to slash and crush his body only added fuel to the sparks of inspiration rising within him.
Slash! Clang! Boom!
Hundreds of lines intertwined.
Jeong Yeon-shin made every weapon held by the Lords of the Tenth Sect his own.
He fought as if completely possessed. There were absolutely none of the gaps that should naturally exist between martial forms.
He caught a flying spear and slammed it down, deflected a strike to make it pierce another clone, and then drove a snatched sword, axe, or long staff into yet another target along a complex trajectory.
With every strike, the ground of the peak rumbled and caved in.
His afterimages blurred the surroundings in all directions. Following the trajectories of the dozens of forms he unleashed, a massive sphere of light-woven threads was engraved into the air.
And finally.
He stood right in front of the physical Lord of the Tenth Sect.
Jeong Yeon-shin's afterimages, previously scattered in all directions, converged into a single point as his hand touched the Lord of the Tenth Sect's abdomen.
A double-layered gale of Brilliant River swirled in the center of his palm. The ground screeched loudly as it was violently gouged.
"That's enough."
[What...?]
"There is nothing left to see of your hand-to-hand combat."
KABOOM!
A roar echoed like a thunderbolt striking the earth. The dirt rose dozens of yards high like a tidal wave, swallowing the surroundings.
Immediately after, the Lord of the Tenth Sect's body was sent flying like a loosed arrow. The fragments of his shattered Body Protection Qi dispersed from his entire body, mingling with the dust.
It looked like a cluster of stars faintly illuminating a hazy cloud.
"……"
The silence of the crowd, who had been tight-lipped and frozen for some time, only deepened.
Not a single person moved among those packed along the nearby mountain paths, let alone on the distant peaks.
The experts standing on high tree branches with their arms crossed froze in place. Those sitting in palanquins under silk canopies, looking as if they were attending a banquet, stopped fanning themselves.
Even though the movements of peerless masters were as swift as rays of light, the flow of the duel could still be discerned.
This was thanks to the Lord of the Tenth Sect, whose moments of hesitation had grown more frequent toward the end of the fight.
Swoosh—
Dust and smoke thickly enveloped the hill.
It looked as if a thick cloud had been draped over the peak. Here and there, people finally began to find their voices.
Just as clamorous cries demanding to know the outcome whipped through the mountain air—
Clang!
The massive cloud of dust was torn apart by a whirlwind. It was the recoil of a pure white Divine Sword flying across the sky and slotting perfectly into the sheath of the Commander of the Demonlight Wing.
Like ripples spreading across a lake's surface, the surrounding dust was pushed away and vanished.
The stark reality of the battlefield was revealed.
The Commander of the Demonlight Wing, with one hand resting on the hilt of his Divine Sword, was staring blankly ahead. Though blood dripped from various parts of his body, he did not look wretched in the slightest.
With his long, flowing pitch-black hair, he looked reminiscent of a noble from the Blood Flame Cult.
On the opposite side lay the Lord of the Tenth Sect, his limbs sprawled wide.
His armor, which was practically his symbol, had been completely stripped away. The fragments scattered around him flashed brilliantly in the sunlight.
The Divine Weaponry, which hadn't lost its luster even when covered in dirt, had been shattered to pieces.
There was only that one man.
No more clones were in sight.
Cough!
The Emperor of All Weapons, the Lord of the Tenth Sect, coughed up blood as he lay there. It was a sight that silenced all who witnessed it.
"Is it over? I thought heavenly generals were fighting..."
"Hey! What on earth happened?"
"...The Commander of the Demonlight Wing is... standing alone."
"They say the Hidden King Amidst Flowers won!"
"To think the Myriad Weapon Heavenly Lord actually...!"
While the crowd lined up relatively close to the front fell dead silent, the rear, where it was difficult to clearly discern the battlefield, gradually grew noisy.
The rising commotion snapped the high-ranking figures at the front back to their senses.
"Bring a messenger falcon! A messenger falcon! Are all three still here?!"
"How could the Commander of the Demonlight Wing, a mere rookie, do this when he's not even the Commander of the Thread-Annihilation Unit...!"
"Prepare to send a matchmaker to the Desolate Fortress Main Fortress in Xiangyang. My second... no, there must be plenty of suitors. My eldest child would be better."
"Get a grip. As the successor, you must not lose your mind here. Tell me what kind of waves the defeat of the Lord of the Tenth Sect will bring to the Sichuan merchant world."
A massive uproar spread like wildfire.
Even so, almost no one dared to take a single step forward.
Even if the repercussions of the duel's outcome were monumental, only one match of the tournament had concluded.
The immense crowd remained rooted to the spot, clamoring with all sorts of talk.
Screech—
In various places, messenger pigeons and birds akin to Spirit Beasts fluttered their wings and took flight.
A master of the Thirteen Heavens of the Wicked Way had been defeated by a unit commander of the Desolate Fortress. It was an event that would shake the entire martial world.
"A mere Black Rank has finally made it this far."
The Lord of the Tenth Sect spoke slowly from where he lay. He was staring at the distant sun rather than at Jeong Yeon-shin. A master of the Thirteen Heavens was truly a transcendent being.
Even at this moment, the pitch-black, shimmering internal energy in his eyes allowed him to look directly into the harsh sunlight.
"It is truly absurd," he muttered.
The peerless master, the Emperor of All Weapons.
Though the energy wave radiating from his body was gradually fading, his internal energy breathing remained deep.
Deep enough that his voice, though forcing its way through a throat surely filled with blood, barely faltered.
Jeong Yeon-shin stared blankly at him before speaking.
"You should have expected this."
"...What?"
"The parasites preying on the common people even harmed the martial artists of our fortress. This is not a duel."
"Then what is it?"
"The state's punishment."
"Ha...! I should have expected punishment?"
The Lord of the Tenth Sect burst into a hollow laugh.
"Is that not inherently absurd? No matter how powerful the Divine Sword Corps is, it is divided into seventeen units. If the sects of the martial world unite even slightly, they can easily avoid the risk of annihilation and instead pose a threat. Any sect possessing a peerless master would naturally look down on you lot."
"A corpse speaks too many words."
Jeong Yeon-shin dismissed the man's protest with the reality of the final outcome. His voice was calm. The Lord of the Tenth Sect could no longer open his mouth.
"……"
"Now, die."
Did those words reach him like a death mantra?
Slowly, the Lord of the Tenth Sect's breathing stopped. The dense, intangible wave of energy that had been radiating from his entire body vanished as if it had all been a lie.
Only a corpse remained.
"Sect Leader!"
"General! Grand General!"
The disciples of the Tenth Sect who had been waiting below rushed up, their armor clanking. Jeong Yeon-shin paid them no mind.
Killing the remaining masters of the Thirteen Heavens was his priority. He needed to conserve his strength.
Just then.
"Commander of the Demonlight Wing!"
One of the disciples examining the Lord of the Tenth Sect's corpse shouted. The face he raised was filled with deep resentment. A venomous malice gleamed in his eyes.
"We are not our sect's main force!"
"……?"
"Aren't you curious? Where did the countless subordinate sects under our sect, the Pure Demon Alliance, and the Golden Wing Sect go? Where are the forces of Lingering Spirit and the Hegemon Sword Sect, who joined hands with us, secretly operating? Why has not a single one of them shown their faces...!"
The man, who was spewing words as if possessed by rage, was suddenly struck on the back of the neck and collapsed. It was the work of the person next to him, who appeared to be a fellow disciple.
"I apologize to the Commander of the Demonlight Wing. You are the rightful victor of this duel."
He clasped his hands in a respectful salute.
"We shall now retrieve our Sect Leader's body and depart."
Jeong Yeon-shin, staring blankly at him, turned around. They were disciples of the Thirteen Heavens. Even if he interrogated them, they wouldn't spill any more information.
However, he was mentally keeping track of the time. If the Pure Demon Alliance Leader or the Lord of the Golden Wing Sect failed to show up, he intended to descend the mountain immediately.
He spoke, channeling his Law-Transcending Halo Qi into his throat.
[Let the next traitor step forward.]
Whoosh—
A gust of wind that had been constantly sweeping up and down the hill surged upward, carrying a stray leaf. The hem of his blood-faded black robe fluttered wildly.
*
The experts of the Qingcheng Sect and the Emei Sect were hiding in a cave on a nearby cliff.
The disciples escorting the Lord of the Tenth Sect were far from elite experts, and the Pure Demon Alliance and the Golden Wing Sect had not even shown their faces. They couldn't risk being blindsided.
Rumble—
Yet, even the experts of the Nine Sects, who were revered as immortals and bodhisattvas, could not escape the physical aftermath of the duel.
Due to the crowd stomping and causing a commotion above, they had to endure a constant shower of stone debris.
It was sheer madness.
"The Commander of the Demonlight Wing really won. It doesn't feel real."
"It's bizarre. Such an achievement at his age... he can only be the reincarnation of Bodhidharma."
"He is certainly on a completely different level from what we saw at the Hanzhong Martial World Alliance. We must consider that another Purple Rank has emerged in the Desolate Fortress."
Astonishment and a sense of futility seeped from every word.
This was a conversation among the young rising stars. The Red Cloud Dragon of the Qingcheng Sect, the Golden Staff Divine Maiden of Emei, and the Small Sword Empress of Diancang were gathered together.
"……"
The Sect Leaders of Qingcheng and Emei sat cross-legged at the cave entrance in silence.
The air quietly brushed against the stone walls, lightly caressing the fabric on their shoulders.
"Abbess."
The Sect Leader of the Qingcheng Sect—a young man in a white robe with ears as sharp as blades—called out to Abbess Baekyak. The Sect Leader of Emei turned her head.
"Speak."
"I will step forward for the next duel."
"The young benefactor will not allow it. Though he possesses an incredibly tender heart, he is razor-sharp when it comes to his decisions."
"A child must obey their elders. Such is the natural order and law of the world."
"A child, you say? Outwardly, is there any young man more imposing and dignified than him?"
The Qingcheng Sect Leader did not reply.
He had sent the Lord of the Tenth Sect to the afterlife. The Commander of the Demonlight Wing of the Desolate Fortress had done more than his fair share.
If he were to defeat the masters of the Thirteen Heavens one after another, he would indeed gain overwhelming fame, but they could not afford to let him lose his life on a mere sliver of a chance.
Right then.
Whoosh—!
A spine-chilling energy forced its way into the cave. For a moment, the entire world seemed to darken. It was an immense, monstrous demonic energy.
It had appeared entirely out of nowhere.
"It's the Pure Demon Alliance Leader! Disciples, focus on your breathing!"
"Do not open your mouths under any circumstances!"
Back at the tournament grounds. The hill of Mount Mi's Unhoe Peak was visible in the distance.
An old man clad in a pitch-black robe was striding up, parting the mist.
Dark footprints were left on the dirt ground, and even from a distance of several hundred yards, a sinister energy spread outward. It was suffocating.
Rumble.
Black waves of internal power occasionally blocked out the sunlight. The sky flickered darkly.
He was the master of the former Pure Demon Alliance Leader.
He looked like the incarnation of Yama from the underworld. His very presence forced silence upon the crowd.
The Qingcheng Sect Leader rose smoothly, like a figure stepping out of a painting. Blue and red energies alternated and shimmered at the hem of his robe.
"Abbess, I shall take my leave now."
"Mmh..."
The Commander of the Demonlight Wing, now facing the Pure Demon Alliance Leader, looked incredibly precarious.
Unlike the old man's demonic energy, which raged like a natural disaster, the young man simply stood there blankly, looking around.
[I hear you dared to call me a macaque. Is that why you stand there so insolently?]
"Old man, glad you could make it."
[Your discernment is laughable. Do you think I am on the same level as some fallen imperial army trash?]
The demonic energy carried within the Pure Demon Alliance Leader's voice fluctuated in all directions.
The word "magnificent" was fitting. There was not a single obstacle that could impede his powerful wave of energy.
"There is something I need to hear from you."
The moment the Commander of the Demonlight Wing finished speaking—
Hum—!
The Eighteen Weapons scattered across the hill rose into the air all at once.
It was a sight familiar to the crowd. All the weapons spun on their own, slowly surrounding the Commander of the Demonlight Wing and the Pure Demon Alliance Leader.
It was a bizarre harmony.
It was impossible to tell whether it was the Myriad Blossoms Rain or the subtleties of Sword Control.
Crackle— Crackle—
An auspicious white light flashed among the blades forming a large circle. The streaks of light, repeatedly leaping from place to place before vanishing, looked like jagged lightning bolts.
As several monks of the Emei Sect watching the scene from the cliff chanted, "Amitabha," the Pure Demon Alliance Leader parted his lips.
"...I shall concede this match."
Step.
The Qingcheng Sect Leader froze just as he was about to leap off the ground.