Chapter 470: The Peerless Grand Festival (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 470: The Peerless Grand Festival (5)
Master of Taemo Mountain Fortress. Dark Sky Emperor Cho-yeol.
His long, flowing black hair cascaded down to his waist. His ears, pointed sharply upwards, were as keen as spearheads, and a large golden sun was embroidered on the chest of his tattered, pure white robe.
His finely chiseled features suited the attire perfectly. His overall impression was as cold and remote as a plaster statue.
Even at the moment he unleashed his Unified Martial Transcendence, Cho-yeol’s face remained utterly expressionless, as if he were indifferent to all worldly affairs.
Flutter!
The sound of a strong wind swept up his clothes.
He had suddenly soared upward, his movement as ephemeral as a reflection on falling dew. Even among the wondrous arts of sorcery, this technique was on a completely different level—a feat impossible unless one's body was forged entirely from true qi and spiritual energy.
Just as he appeared, the orange hem of a Buddhist robe fluttered behind him.
Vajra Immovable Body Art.
Before anyone could react, a golden radiance erupted from the old monk's shoulder, forming a spectral arm. Its hand, shaped like a blade, chopped down, splitting the back of the Dark Sky Emperor's head.
CLAAAAANG!
A massive shockwave erupted from the point of impact. The ripples spread outward in concentric circles, shaking the entire area. Stone debris crumbled from the walls of the vast cavern, shaken loose as if by the toll of a giant bell.
It was a single, merciless strike delivered without a word.
It was the Divine Monk, Abbot Beomheo.
“……”
Not only the experts of Taemo Mountain Fortress, but even Cho Il-seo, who was scrambling down from his palanquin, froze in place. Anyone would, upon witnessing a technique so transcendental it made them question if the user was even human.
The same could be said for the Abbot of Shaolin, who had instantly countered the Dark Sky Emperor's ambush the moment the cavern transformed into the Void Extinction Realm.
However, the gazes of the Divine Monk, Lady Yul-ha, Perfected Clear Water, and Ak Su-rim were all directed elsewhere.
[Beomheo.]
A figure flickered in the damp air at the center of the cavern before solidifying into the form of the Dark Sky Emperor, who stepped onto the cavern floor.
The sound of his footsteps echoed hollowly. The Dark Sky Emperor whose head had just been crushed by the Shaolin Abbot had vanished, scattering like sea foam.
Nascent Soul.
It was a state passed down in Taoism where one's spiritual energy, which amplifies internal power, fuses completely with true qi to create another body.
Among the Nine Sects, the Perfected Ancient Sword had wielded it, but the Dark Sky Emperor, a master of sorcery martial arts who had reached the peerless realm, was the most fitting practitioner of such a technique.
[You have finally...]
The newly emerged Cho-yeol opened his mouth.
[...stepped into my domain.]
It was not Beomheo who answered. Perfected Clear Water of the Qingcheng Sect quietly took a step forward.
“Since when was Hangzhou your land?”
A brilliant blue light flashed in his eyes—the searching gaze of a noble clan. Cho-yeol replied without even glancing at the Qingcheng Sect Leader.
[Since before you were born.]
Perfected Clear Water's expression grew solemn.
“It’s true,” he said, not to Cho-yeol, but to his companions. He was confirming the sheer amount of time Cho-yeol had invested in this land—the place where the absolute master of sorcery martial arts had accepted confinement for over one hundred and fifty years.
In the eyes of the world, the danger of those who had achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak lay in their use of the Body Protection Scripture. These powerhouses, wielding martial arts more formidable than any cannon, flaunted their might by traversing the wilderness like the wind with their lightness skills.
The same applied to peerless experts who possessed Unified Martial Transcendence. This was why factions with powerful vested interests rarely left their home territories.
A stationary cannon, however, is not to be feared. One simply has to avoid its range. In that sense, it could even be called worthless.
The Master of Taemo Mountain Fortress was such an existence.
He had remained apart from the history of the Jianghu, a distant ripple on the Yangtze River. He had done so for so long, in fact, that several juniors sharing his exact moniker had come and gone.
From a political standpoint, there was no greater waste. Instead of wielding his mysterious sorcery to seize what he desired, he had allowed his power to pool like a well in this specific location over a vast span of time.
But if, as they had now…
…one walked into that well of their own accord.
“……”
Perfected Clear Water used his internal energy to evaporate the saliva gathering in his dry throat and tightened his grip on his sword. Then, his eyes widened.
His true qi was rising slower than his thoughts. For a peerless expert, this was an impossible occurrence. The lag was infinitesimal, yet it felt like an eternity.
The Unified Martial Transcendence had indeed been unleashed.
It lacked the destructive power of the life-saving ultimate techniques of other peerless experts. Had ordinary people been passing by, they would have felt nothing. It was a special technique precisely because it was so highly restricted.
“Sect Leader of Mount Hua…?”
“This was within my expectations. I came prepared,” Lady Yul-ha said, flicking blood from her sword. Her gaze never wavered from the Dark Sky Emperor, who had driven Jeong Yeon-shin to death's door earlier. It was the look of an archer staring down her target.
‘They said Hangzhou itself is the Dark Sky Emperor's sorcery formation.’
Perfected Clear Water intuitively realized that she, too, was far from comfortable. She seemed to be concentrating her entire being on keeping her essence, qi, and spirit intact.
Even the Purple Mist Divine Art, said to grant agelessness upon reaching great completion, was not omnipotent. It was clear Lady Yul-ha was not in perfect condition either.
Void Extinction Realm.
Perfected Clear Water could not fathom the range of this Unified Martial Transcendence. Anywhere else, it would have struggled to exceed a single li, but here, only the Dark Sky Emperor's intent could be felt. Words once spoken to the founding ancestor of Wudang seemed to drift through the air.
—Do not avoid the fight. Let us test our skills through sorcery alone, without martial arts.
Step.
[The person I desired...]
The Dark Sky Emperor's Nascent Soul suddenly began to walk.
[...fled along the natural path, true to his original nature, yet...]
Crackle!
Blue lightning spread like a net beneath his feet, a sight that repeated with every step. In an instant, the cavern lit up.
[...those who have lived but a mere handful of my years have dared to trespass here.]
That was all he said.
In an instant, the Dark Sky Emperor collapsed like mist.
Rumble!
An invisible force capable of collapsing the cavern flickered where he had stood before vanishing without a trace. It was the Divine Art Secret Technique: Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
[Beomheo, Beomheo...]
On a completely different wall, another Nascent Soul of the Dark Sky Emperor emerged sideways.
[Did you truly think I would not prepare for you?]
He stood on the wall. The amount of qi he'd accumulated was unbelievable. Even for a Brightfolk who had lived one of the longest lives in the world, it was an absurd amount—unless he was drawing on an infinite source of energy.
“……!”
Perfected Clear Water’s eyes widened as he rushed toward the newly appeared Dark Sky Emperor.
Ak Su-rim, the Divine Spear of the Desolate Fortress, who had been dashing at the same speed, was suddenly thrown back by a blast of wind pressure, crashing heavily to the ground.
Swoosh!
The Dark Sky Emperor, having just flicked his hand, was sliced in half by a translucent slash that bent dozens of times in midair—a shockwave from Lady Yul-ha's sword.
Meanwhile, the Young Fortress Lord Cho Il-seo, having regained his senses, leaped frantically from his palanquin. He gestured to the martial artists who were still dazed by the feast of peerless martial arts.
“The Dark Sky Emperor protects us! If we deploy our formation now and form a wall, they too will eventually—”
“Does a temple bell toll only once?” the Shaolin Abbot’s low voice echoed.
In a split second, the Dark Sky Emperor's Nascent Soul, which was reforming on the cavern ceiling, was torn apart along with the space itself.
Even the upper bodies of the martial artists below, who were channeling sinister true qi into their weapons, exploded like fire bombs, their crimson blood faintly brushing past the light of the night-shining pearls.
Beyond them, Beomheo was lowering his golden arms.
Step.
Another footstep echoed past the lightning on the ground. The Dark Sky Emperor took shape amidst the crackling blue arcs, appearing behind Perfected Clear Water.
With a snap of his fingers, sharp stalactites shot up from the ground and down from the ceiling, distorting the air.
Clang!
Two loud crashes erupted simultaneously. Sparks of body protection qi flew from Perfected Clear Water's back and abdomen as he was crushed between them, while the golden palm of Shaolin's Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm slammed down on the Dark Sky Emperor's head.
Translucent flames of true qi surged within the thick dust. Despite being repeatedly destroyed, the Dark Sky Emperor emerged once more from another spot.
[Young Fortress Lord, do not act rashly.]
“Fortress Lord…!”
[It is enough to keep them contained.]
For the first time, those words made the Shaolin Abbot pause. The old monk's single eye calmly regarded the Dark Sky Emperor.
“How much longer can you keep this up?”
[For another hundred years,] the Dark Sky Emperor replied expressionlessly.
At that moment, the scene was reflected like a mirror in his eyes: Lady Yul-ha walking steadily toward him, Perfected Clear Water descending after shattering a stalactite with a single sword strike, and Beomheo standing silently.
It was a lineup of the absolute pinnacle of martial arts, a sight unlikely to be seen again in the mortal world.
From the side, the Young Fortress Lord Cho Il-seo raised his voice.
“Shaolin Abbot, drop the bluff! Even this foolish junior can see that the speed of your internal energy circulation has slowed! The Sect Leader of Mount Hua is sluggish too—at this rate, even I could land a blow on her! Furthermore, even if you manage to reach the Fortress Lord after all this, there is no way you can handle the former Brightfolk our main fortress has nurtured for its century-long plan…”
[Silence,] the Dark Sky Emperor said softly. Cho Il-seo’s words ceased instantly.
“You’ve overlooked one thing,” a girl’s voice cut in.
Ak Su-rim was pushing herself up, her face a grimace of pain. Even if it was only a Nascent Soul, she had been hit by the Dark Sky Emperor's technique. There was bound to be damage. Indeed, blood trickled down her neck from a wound on the back of her head.
Still, Ak Su-rim sought to shake her opponent, if only with her words.
“You've lost an ally who held a seat among the Five Great Swords of the World, and now you have someone else turning against you.”
[Wilderness Sunfall.]
He seemed to understand immediately. However, the Dark Sky Emperor did not bother to elaborate.
Perfected Clear Water guessed the reason. Wilderness Sunfall Jeong Yeon-shin was someone whose Upper Dantian was inevitably highly developed. To possess such martial prowess at his age, he had to have a sense of qi touched by the divine. But at this moment, within the Void Extinction Realm, the most useless thing was precisely that intangible spiritual sense.
This was a land where all functions of the Upper Dantian were extinguished.
Naturally, one had to fight using only physical senses. Experience accumulated over long years, physical robustness, and the sheer amount of accumulated qi were all that mattered. These three things were all one had to compensate for the degraded circulation of internal energy.
‘Even if, by some stroke of heavenly luck, he manages to reach this place…’
Perfected Clear Water immediately pushed Jeong Yeon-shin from his mind. He was the one who had forced the First Sword of the Outer Paths from the battlefield. One could not ask for more. He had no place on this battlefield of peerless experts.
* * *
The movements of Beggar Sect Leader Ju Gwang-singae and Jeong Yeon-shin were like rays of light.
After leaping across a river in an instant and sprinting through a dry plain, Ju Gwang-singae's tracking technique proved its worth, pinpointing their destination with absolute accuracy.
Yet, a look of bewilderment flickered in the old beggar's eyes, as if he could not comprehend what he was seeing.
“Your true qi… was it truly dharma power?”
“The elders who practiced orthodox martial arts seemed to like it. However, not many of them improved just by being exposed to my qi, so you must have accumulated a great deal of merit, Senior.”
Jeong Yeon-shin, speaking like a Shaolin monk, drove his Sky Torrent into the ground. The same stabbing technique that had pushed back the Sword Empress at the Mount Hua Agreement Martial Arts Tournament penetrated the earth and settled deep.
A colossal roar echoed for a long time. The ground shook violently, as if an earthquake had struck, before finally falling still.
Afterward, the old man and the young man plunged underground. Ju Gwang-singae looked somewhat flustered.
“This place is…”
In that instant, Jeong Yeon-shin’s body faltered.
A vast stone chamber. The surroundings were blocked by eight doors, each stone door seemingly part of the Eight Trigrams. A gloomy air drifted like mist.
“It is the Dark Sky Emperor's Unified Martial Transcendence. Stay on guard,” Ju Gwang-singae whispered quickly.
There was no telling what might be hiding here. It was a completely unknown space. A Unified Martial Transcendence that disrupted the state of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak. The measures Taemo Mountain Fortress would have prepared for such a situation were obvious.
While peak experts who had achieved the unity of essence, qi, and spirit could not be artificially nurtured, it was certainly possible to increase their accumulated qi through long years and spirit medicines, and to temper their martial arts into something vicious and unpredictable.
Taemo Mountain Fortress was a great sect founded during the nation's founding era. If they did not expect their disciples to reach the highest realms, they could do anything.
Step.
Several figures flickered before their eyes. Every single one of them harbored a heavy, oppressive momentum. Perhaps because they had accumulated energy to the absolute limits of the human body, even the surrounding air grew heavy.
Ju Gwang-singae's eyes crinkled with concern. “Hey, are you alright?” he asked Jeong Yeon-shin.
“The Strange-Blood Sword Demon, the Heaven-Forgetting Hand, the Origin-Melting Divine Saber…? How are former experts of the Outer Paths here?”
“Your perception is truly inhuman.”
“How long has it been since we left the Jianghu, yet you recognize us?” It was the voice of a middle-aged man.
Soon, five or six people walked out from the gaps in the dark mist. They had grayish-white skin and unusually long ears. Judging by their speech and behavior, they were clearly former experts.
Furthermore, they were all Brightfolk, whose accumulated qi was bound to reach the absolute limit.
“It seems the old beggar is the Beggar Sect Leader.”
“And the fellow next to him?”
“His body is certainly out of the ordinary. We should deal with him first.”
The voices echoed slowly, their words and actions carrying the weight of long years.
Ju Gwang-singae took a step back, having grasped the situation. The Dark Sky Emperor was on the other side of the stone wall, and these people were the guardians whom Taemo Mountain Fortress had buried away in time—existences who were bound to be stronger than anyone else within the Void Extinction Realm.
‘We should have landed a bit further ahead.’
Luck was not on their side.
Ju Gwang-singae shouted toward Jeong Yeon-shin, who was standing blankly, “Hey, watch your distance—!”
The faded former Brightfolk experts did not give him time to finish.
With the sound of air tearing violently, three of them closed the distance in an instant, appearing right before the youth in the torn purple robe.
At that same moment, Jeong Yeon-shin’s right arm suddenly whipped out to the side.
Thud!
The flat of a blade bounced off the back of his hand. Instantly slipping inside his opponent's guard, Jeong Yeon-shin struck the man's chin upward with his left palm, then drove his elbow down like an axe into the wide-open chest.
A thunderous crack echoed as the man’s ribs and spine shattered simultaneously. Because his acupoints and even his bones were filled to the brim with true qi, the sound was exceptionally loud.
“Eon Family Fist…?”
“No, it's different!”
While that expert collapsed, Jeong Yeon-shin was already spinning, extending his left arm backward. Another sword hilt and the swordsman’s wrist became entangled with his elbow, bending with a sickening crunch like a branch wrapped by a snake. Simultaneously, Jeong Yeon-shin’s knee drove ruthlessly into the man's abdomen.
Boom!
It was as if a fire bomb had exploded. Fragments of body protection qi shattered by the single blow flickered white, briefly illuminating the stone debris on the cavern floor before vanishing.
The faded Brightfolk experts came to a dead halt.
“……”
It was clear. The conditions should have been equal. Those hailed as peerless experts had been dragged down to the level of lesser martial artists.
Yet, how?
Whoosh—
Gusts of strong wind swirled around them, scraping against the stone walls. For a moment, a sound like wailing ghosts swept through the air.
To one side, the old beggar wore a dumbfounded expression. Just like the faded Brightfolk, his eyes were fixed on Jeong Yeon-shin.
“What in the…”
“My body…”
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly clenched and unclenched his fist. His long, draped purple sleeve fluttered with the movement.
“...feels strange.”
A hint of ecstasy laced his voice.