Chapter 471: The Peerless Grand Festival (6)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 471: The Peerless Grand Festival (6)
Three masters of the previous generation were cut down in rapid succession.
Although the robe Jeong Yeon-shin wore was a mere imitation of the real thing, the ashen-skinned Brightfolk seemed to immediately think of the Desolate Fortress.
“Purple…!”
“Indeed, they would have no choice but to intervene!”
“But how…?”
They did not approach.
They merely flickered in the dim air, their dull skin blending into the atmosphere like dust-covered metal.
Soon, the area fell silent.
“…”
All five or six of them suppressed their auras, their gray eyes flashing faintly as they executed the highest level of the Stealth Technique right where they stood.
Their control over internal energy was profound, regardless of whether they had achieved the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak.
Ju Gwang-singae quickly wiped the panic from his face.
“They are old masters of the previous generation who have lived for a very long time. Since they are Brightfolk, their physical bodies do not decay. Instead, their mastery of internal energy has only deepened… It is just like their troublesome clan to become more formidable with age.”
Weariness clung to the wrinkled mouth of the old beggar.
The deep furrow between his brows was like another face of the Jianghu, reflecting both the character and the life of a man counted among the most renowned figures in the entire martial world.
The Dragon Head Leader.
The head of the Beggar Sect looked anxious about what was to come.
Meanwhile, Jeong Yeon-shin was reconsidering the figure known as the Dark Sky Emperor.
I don’t understand.
He couldn’t fathom the profound principles that had activated the vast, unfolding Unified Martial Transcendence. He couldn’t even sense the structure of its True Qi.
He didn’t know if it was because it was a high-level sorcerous art of an entirely different caliber, or because his own Upper Dantian was no longer the same.
One thing was certain.
From the very beginning, this domain was a technique aimed at Perfected Zhang Sanfeng, who had already ascended to the heavens.
The Dark Sky Emperor’s intent said as much. This wasn’t a life-saving herb meant for some distant junior, but an ultimate art born from a centuries-long obsession held in solitude.
Though the sensation in my head remains the same…
Jeong Yeon-shin marveled as he felt his internal power surge. Even if he wanted to suppress it, believing the timing was wrong, the feeling welled up naturally from his heart.
The spirit in his Upper Dantian, which had been expanding, was now being compressed. His head, once plagued by a silent, roaring din, fell quiet.
His physical body, which had barely served as a vessel through Bone Rebirth, had finally assimilated with the spirit of his Upper Dantian.
Twenty years old.
No, would it have been like this if I hadn’t been born with a heavenly mandate to die at nineteen?
Jeong Yeon-shin straightened his back.
Crackle—
Instantly, several streaks of white lightning flashed around his body.
It was a wave of internal energy from the Law-Transcending Halo Qi, reacting not to his thoughts, but to the slightest movements of his body. He was in the extremely sensitive state of the Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak.
“How does it feel?”
A woman’s voice slid smoothly down the cave wall.
Jeong Yeon-shin raised his head.
A figure sat cross-legged, clinging upside down to the ceiling. Yet, her long black hair and the hem of her clothes did not hang downward. It was as if she existed under a different set of physical laws.
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke slowly.
“…Ming Cult Leader.”
“Quite nice, isn’t it?” she asked.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not answer, his eyes fixed on his opponent’s near-perfect attire.
The Ming Cult Leader, the Heaven-Smiling Invincible.
She was wrapped from head to toe in a white cloak as magnificent as an emperor’s dragon robe. Unrecognizable patterns, which he presumed to be characters from an ancient era, decorated the hem in pitch-black embroidery.
Meanwhile, the flowing scarf wrapped around her neck was pure white. It diffused a hazy mist around her nape, as if woven from the fur of a spirit beast.
This time, it was real. This was her true body.
Swoosh.
Beside him, the Beggar Sect Leader took his stance. Jeong Yeon-shin stared up at the Heaven-Smiling Invincible.
“Your aura is different,” he said.
A dizzying smile formed on the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s pale face—pure demonic charm.
The temperament of a Grandmaster of the Ming Cult who could bewitch anyone. Even though only one corner of her reddish lips curled upward, her unrivaled presence was overwhelming.
“There’s no way I wouldn’t make use of something like this, is there? I’m no fool.”
She was speaking of the Void Extinction Realm.
Her demeanor had changed. Gone was the polite condescension she had shown when joking with him before.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not care.
“What about Senior Baek?”
“Cho-yeol is certainly a remarkable figure. His standards are different. His gaze is fixed on the past, and the one who became a legend in that era is none other than Zhang Sanfeng.”
“Tell me her location.”
“But it seems one cannot defy heavenly law, can they? The spirit afflicting your head and mine is not something that can be crushed by human technique. If that were possible, I would have revered Cho-yeol as my savior. In about half a day, the Upper Dantian will begin to move again, whispering mockingly to us: ‘Did I not grant you infinite talent?’”
Jeong Yeon-shin’s pupils filled with white light as he stared at the Heaven-Smiling Invincible.
It was the Sight of the Lowly.
He began to calculate the timing and openings for combat within the dim cave. Yet, the crooked smile on the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s face did not fade.
Instead, she uttered words steeped in profound mystery, unlike someone who wielded demonic energy.
“This damn Upper Dantian is a heavenly punishment. I told you before that I felt the will of heaven. Aren’t you curious what it is?”
“…”
“There are too many strong people in the world today. Every single one of them takes the natural Qi into their bodies, calling it internal energy, and never lets it flow back to the earth. We are the scythes that harvest their heads. Of course, we aren’t durable blades like diamonds, but wooden tools destined to become fertilizer once the harvest is done.”
Her voice continued, seeming to tear through the air of the cave.
“As you must well know from experience, the people of the Jianghu never leave born powerhouses like us alone. They literally seek out their own graves. The natural order is woven that way. Hasn’t the Jianghu you’ve lived in been exactly like that?”
There was a deep resonance in her seemingly casual question. Jeong Yeon-shin, quietly looking up at her, placed his hand on the hilt of Lingering Thunder and tossed out a single remark.
He directed it at the Heaven-Smiling Invincible, who was smiling as if she had expected him to dismiss her words as some grand delusion.
“That is a good thing.”
“What?”
“Because those kinds of people inevitably use their strength to oppress the lands cultivated by commoners. Do you even know that carrying weapons is forbidden unless permitted by the state? That is the Great Ming Code.”
Ju Gwang-singae’s arm suddenly twitched, but no one spared him a glance. The very air between Jeong Yeon-shin and the Heaven-Smiling Invincible was warping into a translucent distortion.
Grayish-white stone dust crumbled all around them with a dry, crackling sound.
“What did you do?” Jeong Yeon-shin asked abruptly.
“What?”
“There are no traces of you in the current Jianghu. Did you do nothing at all just to reject that destiny? You, who claim to be the descendant of the Heavenly Demon.”
“Ha.”
The Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s smile deepened.
“The feeling is mutual. The foreign martial world was set back a hundred years by my hands. Aside from the Potala Palace in Tibet and the Ice Palace in the north, not a single place remains intact. An exceptionally conspicuous talent always invites blades—whether they are actual weapons or sharp glares.”
Just as her life was revealed through those few words—
“How long must we just stand here and listen? That child’s aura is adversely affecting the Castle Lord…”
The moment one of the previous generation’s masters stepped forward, the area was engulfed in pitch-black flames. A flower of black flame bloomed like an illusion.
Immediately after, nothing remained where the flames subsided. The master had vanished, leaving behind not a single bone fragment, piece of flesh, or scrap of clothing.
An utterly surreal strike.
The Heaven-Smiling Invincible had not even lifted a finger. She had merely cast a sideways glance.
Jeong Yeon-shin felt the silent shock of the Beggar Sect Leader beside him. A heavy silence filled the underground cavern, as if the invisible embers of the Samadhi True Fire were swirling through the air.
“They should know their place,” the Heaven-Smiling Invincible muttered briefly, then smiled at Jeong Yeon-shin. “When I am conversing with a precious guest.”
Rustle.
She stood up.
She still treated the ceiling of the cave as her floor.
Thus, the upside-down Heaven-Smiling Invincible and the grounded Jeong Yeon-shin gazed at each other. For a moment, their calm gazes met.
Their equally long hair fluttered in opposite directions.
“…”
The first strike belonged to the Divine Sword: Lingering Thunder.
Boom!
It slammed into the spot where the Heaven-Smiling Invincible had just been, having soared from Jeong Yeon-shin’s scabbard via Sword Control.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes, already glowing with the Sight of the Lowly, traced a white arc to the side. The Heaven-Smiling Invincible, who had descended with a somersault, was smiling as she snapped her fingers.
[Dragon Pillar.]
Rumble!
The ground beneath Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet transformed into a massive stone pillar and shot upward.
It was a state where her intent flowed freely, as if she were in a constant state of Unified Martial Transcendence. For a sorcerer who could unleash fierce techniques with a few words, this was equivalent to another Three Flowers Gathering at the Peak.
[Midday Bright Lightning.]
It was a linked technique. Her intent connected in an instant.
Crackle—!
Illuminating the cave in blue, a net of lightning spread out and instantly converged on Jeong Yeon-shin, who was suspended in midair.
It was faster than any swift sword. A mass of deep blue lightning trapped him entirely, flickering violently.
In an instant, the surroundings became as bright as day. It was a sorcerous technique imbued with monstrous power. As if another sun had risen, every direction was filled with blue light.
The radiating heat was immense. Soon, even the dirt floor began to crack with sharp, splintering sounds.
Yet, the figure trapped within the lightning was neither torn apart nor vaporized. There wasn’t even the smell of burning flesh.
At the very moment the lightning had struck, he had woven starlight into a garment at a far greater speed. It was a peerless Body Protection Qi.
“You may take your leave, Elder Leader. You must stop the Master of Taemo Mountain Fortress’s Dragon Summoning Formula.”
The voice drifted calmly from within the lightning.
Ju Gwang-singae flinched. He had been looking back and forth between the gourd tied to his waist and his short staff, a troubled expression on his face.
“…Do you intend to face the Ming Cult Leader alone? No matter if you are a Purple Rank of the Desolate Fortress, you should reconsider. What that person… what the young leader of the Ming Cult did in foreign lands is all true. Her earning the title of ‘Invincible’ is also…”
“Go.”
Ju Gwang-singae’s words were cut short.
At the same time, the figure trapped in the lightning vanished and reappeared right in front of the Heaven-Smiling Invincible, who was tapping various points in the air with her long fingers.
It was the ultimate Transposition. A trail of blurry afterimages etched itself behind Jeong Yeon-shin a moment too late.
Clang—!
His fist struck a translucent barrier.
It was an internal energy shield the Heaven-Smiling Invincible had conjured out of thin air. Though he had only struck it with the forceful fist technique of Advancing Thunder, a fierce backdraft, reminiscent of Brilliant River, whipped up the hems of their clothes.
Not only his movements but even the speed of his Infinite Flower of Time Fist was vastly different from before. In an instant, long cracks raced across the barrier of internal energy, which was as solid as a fortress wall.
[You are far too strong.]
The low laughter of the Heaven-Smiling Invincible blended into the noise.
[Even though I loosened my restrictions a bit, it is not easy to respond.]
“…”
Jeong Yeon-shin silently raised his left hand.
Before anyone knew it, his hand was dyed in pure white light—a radiance even paler than the Bare-Hand Demonic Art the Ming Cult Leader kept constantly active. It was the technique he had once used to break through a portion of the Void Displacement.
The Demon-Slaying Light Trace.
Swoosh.
His outstretched hand penetrated the internal energy barrier as if it were mere air and quickly grabbed her white collar.
The entire sequence was so natural it was hard to believe.
[…]!
In that instant, the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s eyes widened.
Ju Gwang-singae, who was passing by her, also showed a rare look of shock. By then, however, the corners of the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s eyes were curving beautifully like crescent moons.
[It is impressive no matter how many times I see it. A counter-technique aimed specifically at me… It seems you have been thinking of this Cult Leader day and night.]
Jeong Yeon-shin did not answer.
The back of his hand was touching the area near her collarbone, but he couldn’t turn his hand or open his palm. A fierce recoil force, born from the powerful heartbeat unique to peerless masters, pushed back.
Crackle!
Dark blue sparks flew up in disarray.
For the first time, he was blocked. It was the Heavenly Demon Divine Armor. In that moment, the Heaven-Smiling Invincible tilted her head slightly toward him and whispered.
“I thought of you as well. My only kindred spirit, and the adversary standing on the complete opposite side. Other than you, what else would I think of as I breathe?”
Along with her breath, a single thought-transmission spread.
[Ashen Smoke’s Hidden Embrace.]
There was no particular wave of internal power.
The moment the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s thin exhalation swept over his hand, the pure white radiance simply shattered like glass.
A resonance like the grinding of sand swept through the air. It was, quite literally, demonic—a technique that disrupted the very structure of the Demon-Slaying Light Trace’s True Qi from its source.
Rip—
At the same time, the clothes Jeong Yeon-shin was wearing crumbled, exposing his bare skin.
The genuine purple robe, already heavily torn by the Lord of Heaven’s Bane’s sword, now hung from his shoulders like a sleeveless shirt.
The Grandmaster of the Ming Cult.
A manipulation of True Qi that reset the compatibility between Dharma power and demonic energy to zero.
Jeong Yeon-shin thought of his own upbringing in the Ming Cult. Immediately, the exact same technique formed in his mind. He felt the flames of the Samadhi True Fire darkly enveloping the surroundings.
And he questioned.
Are the gentleman staring into a broken mirror and the identical monster staring back truly the same being?
No.
In that instant, light flowed within Jeong Yeon-shin’s body.
If he couldn’t win on this board, he would simply change it.
[Of course you aren’t surprised. Shall we sleep for a bit?]
Just before the ultimate black flame conjured by the Heaven-Smiling Invincible could swallow them both whole—
“It is too narrow here.”
[What?]
Step.
Jeong Yeon-shin stepped to the side like an illusion. At the same time, he channeled force into his right foot as if stomping the ground.
Thud—
The suddenly activated Brilliant River continuously overlapped at the Yongquan point on the sole of his foot like waves of light. In an instant, the layered Fa Jin transcended the concept of overlapping and slammed directly into the ground.
Perhaps she had been bracing for a powerful strike at close range; a look of dismay flashed across the Heaven-Smiling Invincible’s face as she leaped backward.
BOOM!! Crack-crack-crack—!
With a dull roar, the entire ground shook.
It was as if an uncountable number of bombs had exploded all at once. Thick cracks raced in all directions, but only for a moment.
Before long, a tremendous explosion burst from the web-like crevices, shattering the vast floor and walls into fine dust and unleashing a thick cloud of powder.
Whoosh!
The space, which had been vast yet felt like a sealed chamber, suddenly expanded to infinity.
Beyond the ceiling, which had vanished without a trace, the sky opened wide. Dazzling sunlight poured down from above.
“What is this? What’s happening?!”
“Has the flood dragon already…?!”
“Avoid the monstrous monk! No, the Saint Flower Sword God is over there…!”
Within the precariously shaking cavern and hazy air, Jeong Yeon-shin perceived new presences.
Behind him, he sensed new arrivals: a master of the Nascent Soul realm with dense internal power, the Shaolin Abbot, Lady Yul-ha, Perfected Clear Water, Ak Su-rim, and a host of other warriors.
In front of him, he sensed the Beggar Sect Leader Ju Gwang-singae, the lingering True Qi of an ancient power, and the remnants of the Dark Sky Emperor's technique.
There was also a massive, heavy energy that was hard to measure, perhaps indicating that the Dragon Summoning Formula had been completed.
Gradually, the commotion died down.
This was a land that any faction of the Jianghu would hesitate to approach.
Perhaps it was because no one here had failed to awaken their sense of Qi. Or perhaps it was because this was a battlefield where peerless masters were gathered in abundance.
“…”
An extremely dense silence began to fill the surroundings. Amidst all kinds of world-shaking auras, the sunlight itself bent and warped.
In the midst of it all, Jeong Yeon-shin’s body emanated a faint radiance.
His shabby robe absorbed internal energy that vibrated as fast as a beam of light. The garment bestowed upon him by the Emperor was a Dharma treasure imbued with its own spirit.
Soon, smooth, silk-like fabric began to drape down from his torn sleeves.
Rustle—
It was purple.
Jeong Yeon-shin casually kindled the flames of the Samadhi True Fire.
In an instant, with the sound of burning fabric, the pitch-black character for ‘Desolate’ (荒) was stroked onto both of his shoulders.
Sunlight rippled through the thick dust as the sleeves were restored, and the long hem characteristic of the robe descended to his feet.
Thus, his attire became whole.
Step.
He slowly took a step forward.