Chapter 493: The Brightfolk Tree (5)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 493: The Brightfolk Tree (5)
Jeong Yeon-shin sensed an anomaly.
What is this?
The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit's pulse had changed.
Just moments ago, it had been racing frantically. Now, it had suddenly grown as calm as the endless flow of the Yangtze River.
He didn't even need his sense of Qi to perceive the change; he felt it entirely with his physical body.
Step.
She took a step back, her movement entirely natural. It felt as though she had always been standing there—a retreating footwork unique to master archers.
Jeong Yeon-shin didn't bother to pursue her.
Although he had originally intended to test the joint-striking techniques derived from Eon Hwa-ryeon, the Duke of Eminent Fists, he merely stared at the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit.
Her complexion had completely changed.
The exhaustion clinging to her face had vanished, as if she had spent a long time circulating the Great Heavenly Cycle through a dynamic cultivation art meant to strengthen the body.
"What in the world..." the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit murmured softly.
Several emotions leaked from her breeze-like breath: immense shock, unprecedented bewilderment, and a sense of peace she didn't even seem to recognize herself.
Did she have no intention of hiding her inner thoughts and physical state from someone she had just clashed with?
A dense mist was already rising from her limbs, which were just as long as Jeong Yeon-shin's. It was none other than her wave of energy.
Hummmm—
The resonance of profound internal energy.
It was incredibly bizarre. It was as if she had just consumed a legendary elixir, the likes of which was rarely seen even once in a thousand years.
Jeong Yeon-shin felt and measured every single one of her changes in detail. This was the proper attitude to maintain before a peerless expert capable of threatening his life.
Suddenly, his eyelids twitched upward.
This is...
Jeong Yeon-shin had experienced something similar about three times before.
When he first completed his Dharma Power through the Demon-Quelling Azure Steel Hand, when he extended his Radiant Wing Step to the Fifth Step, and when he moved alongside the immortals of the Nine Sects and One Gang in Hangzhou.
One thing remained the same across all those instances.
A Shaolin monk had been by his side.
Beings who had deeply recognized the Dharma Power he had created.
This had been true starting with Great Monk Wonjeok, one of the mighty Four Great Vajras, and Abbot Beomheo. Every time Jeong Yeon-shin drew near, they would welcome him with a subtle twitching of their acupoints.
For a boy who had once needed someone to push his swing during the Dano Festival, he couldn't help but be deeply grateful. He had starved for recognition since childhood.
But...
He didn't need the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit's goodwill.
An idle, carefree clan.
Jeong Yeon-shin turned around without a word. His interest in her—whose indifference, once close to Clear Mirror, Still Water, had now shattered—was brief. He quickly lost interest in why he had unintentionally revitalized her energy.
The World Tree was a vast well.
These people had no interest in how the chaotic world turned. Unless it concerned their clan, they viewed it as trivial—even though they had reached a realm where they could easily discuss the affairs of the world.
In that case, Jeong Yeon-shin shouldn't think much of them either.
In the first place, there was no reason for a Purple Rank of the main fortress to spare them a second glance.
They were people who exerted no influence on the world. Was that not why their names were entirely unknown in the Jianghu?
The names of seniors who had lost their lives, like Ha Do-un, the Commander of the Heaven-Aligned Wing, flashed through his mind. He couldn't even count how many they had lost since Sichuan City of Master Craftsmen.
Jeong Yeon-shin nodded slowly.
"You people are no different from trees."
A remarkably calm, venomous remark. Immediately after, with his back turned to the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit, his figure scattered into thin air. It was the lightness skill, Ten-Mile Light Grace.
Whoosh!
A faint haze of light seeped into the ground. By the time the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit belatedly raised her head, even that had vanished.
It took only an instant for urgency to flood her expression, shattering the look of someone who had just emerged from a dream.
* * *
A lush, green forest.
Bushes as tall as grown men swayed like waves. Even without sunlight, they emitted a soft glow of their own, radiating a breeze-like warmth completely detached from the biting winter air outside.
"He fled?"
The moment the low voice echoed, the swaying of the grass blades stopped.
The warm wind that had been swirling through the bushes like a spool of thread unraveled. It was as if the surroundings were listening to the voice of the man who had suddenly appeared, standing on the very tip of a single leaf.
He slowly continued his monologue.
"A Purple Rank of the Desolate Fortress knows how to preserve his own skin...?"
He was a black-haired, middle-aged man clad in a dark maple-colored robe.
He had long ears, shaped like blades of grass.
Yet, he lacked any other distinctive features. Even his eyebrows and the corners of his eyes formed straight lines, and his facial muscles barely moved when he spoke.
Rather, the single green longsword at his waist possessed a more vivid vitality. Even inside its scabbard, it pulsed intermittently—thump, thump—as if a heart were beating within it.
It was a divine weapon in a state of Unity of Body and Sword. The name Yongji was finely engraved on the hilt.
"The intruder is the grandson of Ma Yeon-jeok, the Hegemon Hero?" the middle-aged man asked, looking toward the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit on the other side of the bushes.
"Put his lineage aside. I told you, my vitality has been restored."
Her voice was dry.
However, she spoke slightly faster than usual. It was also unusual for her to fidget, subtly shifting her heels back and forth with her long legs. She looked as if she might leap away at any moment.
"Isn't the only Purple Rank who learned sorcery martial arts recently the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps? What was her name again? That girl from the Desolate Shin Clan. She was a very spunky friend... Didn't she have a rather unusual courtesy name?"
The figure perched on a branch above trailed off, cradling the back of his neck with clasped hands. He was an extremely youthful young man.
He had golden hair that gleamed as if melted gold had been poured over it, cascading all the way down to his waist.
Dozens of golden streaks of light constantly rippled across his loosely worn martial uniform, as if lightning itself had been woven into the fabric.
Rustle.
The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit slowly turned around.
None of the noble clan members trusted the golden-haired youth's memory. This was because he had trained in a highly unique martial art of the Upper Dantian.
Glancing at his gentle face, the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit muttered flatly, "Shin Cheon-hwa, the former Commander of the Divine Sword Corps from two generations ago. She is dead and gone now."
"Dead...? To whom?"
Shock colored the youth's face. The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit replied briefly,
"She was of the Han people."
"So time killed her. What a relief."
The youth murmured softly, a gloomy look on his face.
The streaks of lightning pooling at his hem crackled for a brief moment, shifting from straight lines into curved patterns.
"So, who did you say ate up all of today's feast?"
He was spouting nonsense once again. The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit turned her gaze back to the middle-aged man.
"Anyway."
She parted her lips cautiously.
"Don't talk about whether we should capture that Purple Rank or not. My claim that my vitality has been restored is no empty boast. If I meditate here for just one more day, I can enter the Root Wood."
"Is it truly to that extent?" the middle-aged man, who had been quietly watching her, asked.
"..."
The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit didn't answer further.
The weight carried by her words and actions was among the highest in the entire vast city of the World Tree.
It was to the point where even the clan's Chief Guardian, who possessed the green divine sword, had no choice but to believe her for now.
The middle-aged man nodded slowly.
"He possesses a miraculous ability. It is worth noting."
"Then...?"
"We must keep that in mind when we proceed with the capture. The laws of the clan make no exceptions."
As soon as the middle-aged man spoke, he swept his gaze over the completely ruined village.
Swoooosh—
The bushes surrounding them stood upright, each blade sharpening into a cold, blue edge like a sword. The space, which had been completely devoid of wind, began to fill with a dry, biting gale.
At the same time, the golden youth let out a small gasp and lightly leaped down from the stiffened branch.
Amidst the surrounding nature bristling like blades, the middle-aged man asked in a calm tone.
"A Purple Rank of the Desolate Fortress cannot possibly be ordinary. From this moment on, attempt to capture him the instant he is spotted. However, if it is judged that the aftermath of his resistance will reach the city, execute him on the spot. Any objections?"
"..."
The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit parted her lips a few times but ultimately said nothing. She stood before the laws of the entire clan. She couldn't offer any other response.
* * *
"You must avoid Sword Duke Yongji and Master Golden Thunder at all costs."
These were the words of the boy sitting across from Jeong Yeon-shin. They were inside a thatched cottage loosely woven from silver grass and straw. Although the roof and walls were extremely crude, a cozy warmth lingered within.
The thick scent of grass evoked the feeling of a modest, peaceful retreat.
"Especially Sword Duke Yongji. There's even a saying in our village that we have his principles and rules instead of the sun and moon. Honestly, what the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit said is right. It really is a hundred times better for you to wait for the people who came with you."
The boy, holding a blunt stone knife, chattered cheerfully as he carved a piece of tree bark into the shape of the World Tree with his other hand.
This was Jong-yeon, who had received his name as a gift from Jeong Yeon-shin.
He was a boy who had formed a bond with Jeong Yeon-shin in the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit's village, which was now half-destroyed. He had a build that made him look about ten years old, but his features were as finely chiseled as a sculpture.
This was accompanied by eyes that looked slightly dim-witted.
"Oh, and you'll get a feel for Master Golden Thunder the moment you see him. A long time ago, outside the tree, he learned how to harbor thunder and lightning inside his body from someone named Perfected Zhang Sanfeng. But they say he engraved the teaching of Wu Wei into his Baihui Point, which made him go senile early. Even though he's a Guardian, the city people avoid him."
Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been sitting casually on the ground and half-listening to Jong-yeon's words, unconsciously gripped the hilt of the Songmun Ancient Sword.
It was the legacy of a Great Grandmaster that he would have to return to the Wudang Sect someday.
"A Guardian here is a disciple of Perfected Zhang Sanfeng?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked, though he wasn't particularly surprised.
After all, he had already dealt with that old monster, the Dark Sky Emperor. The lifespan of the long-eared clan seemed to mock the heavenly mandate Jeong Yeon-shin had been born with.
"No? We don't have things like masters or disciples here. Mother Nature is our master, and we are always her disciples," Jong-yeon replied casually.
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly recalled the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit, who had mocked his master-disciple bond. The World Tree was indeed that isolated from the outside world.
He slowly stood up.
Jong-yeon stared up at him blankly.
"Are you really going? Now I wonder if I shouldn't have told you."
"No." Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head. "Thank you so much for telling me. If I had gone searching for the true body of the World Tree on my own, someone would have definitely ended up hurt."
"That's exactly why I told you. Even if you look at the entire city, not just our village, there's no one who can fight on par with the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit except for the Guardians," Jong-yeon said with a slight smile.
The smile of the boy, who was uniquely kind among those he had met inside the World Tree, was incredibly warm. It possessed a literal, untainted friendliness.
Like the Ice Palace siblings with whom he had once shared a campfire in Shaanxi, where he had briefly traveled for his niece, Jeong Hye.
He had just learned the location of the World Tree's true body, which was said to be in the center of the city.
Jeong Yeon-shin didn't bother to ask why the boy had treated him so well. The simple feeling of human empathy was enough.
"Thank you."
"Don't mention it. Just make sure to travel safely. Honestly, there's not much to see anyway."
"I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but until then... Ah, by the way, how old are you?"
"We don't really keep track of our age. Though, some friends from the outside once threw a seventieth birthday feast for me. That was a really big party."
"...I wish you good health."
In Hangzhou, he had settled an ill-fated relationship with the Dark Sky Emperor, and here in the World Tree, he had gained a good-fated relationship in contrast. They said the moon waxes and wanes, and the tides ebb and flow.
So it was with human connections. After offering a polite cupped-fist salute to the village elder, Jong-yeon, Jeong Yeon-shin immediately left the thatched cottage. For the next few days, he wouldn't be able to sleep comfortably under a blanket.
His eyes sank.
I must see it.
What on earth was the World Tree that as many as four peerless experts were bound to it?
Even if the interior was vast, it was ultimately a city of people whose numbers didn't even reach ten thousand. Reaching the center would inevitably be quick.
His mind burned like fire. He had held back for an incredibly long time.
The Lord of the Desolate Fortress, who was said to be washing away the grime of the secular world for his coming-of-age ceremony, had long since vanished from a corner of his mind. His master's bath was taking far too long.
Step.
The moment his foot made contact, his figure blurred.
Ten-Mile Light Grace.
Jeong Yeon-shin's body remained clad in his purple robe. He didn't cover the character 'Hwang' on his shoulder, nor did he hide the color of his fabric with any other rags.
In the first place, as far as he knew, a Purple Rank of the main fortress was of a status that should never resort to disguises. He didn't care what kind of storm arose because of it.
A straight line.
He intended to traverse the shortest distance.
Through the city where those who claimed to be the most noble in the world pooled like a well.
With the intent to crush anyone who blocked his path in a single strike, Jeong Yeon-shin shattered the ground beneath him and shot forward like a beam of light.
The shockwave that erupted beneath his feet only let out a thunderous roar a long moment later.
Ever since his explosive growth in Hangzhou, Jeong Yeon-shin harbored a mind more domineering than ever before.