Chapter 497: The Brightfolk Tree (9)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 497: The Brightfolk Tree (9)
The destination of a Jianghu journey that felt both brief and long.
The Body Protection Qi flowing over Jeong Yeon-shin like transparent lake water dispersed, allowing his deep purple robes to flutter and settle low.
Step.
He stepped into a land where only a select few in the vast world could ever hope to tread.
It was one of the Three Forbidden Areas of the Nine Provinces, standing alongside the Forbidden City of Beijing and the Northern Jianghu.
The True Body of the World Tree will be there.
That was what Laojun Jong-yeon of the Eastern Village had confidently assured him not long ago.
Unlike the other Brightfolk he had encountered in the cities and villages, Jong-yeon's words carried weight. The old man was the only member of the World Tree's clan who hid nothing and spoke only the truth. The exceptionally kind Jong-yeon was truly the most noble soul in this land.
He had just exchanged blows with someone wielding a poorly patched-together martial art—a so-called Brightfolk Elder.
But this time, he had found the right place.
Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously parted his lips.
Haa.
A faint breath escaped him.
There were no seasons inside the World Tree. Had it been winter outside, a white mist would have bloomed from his breath. Instead, only green, firefly-like particles drifted and scattered around his lips.
It was a fleeting sight, like falling snow. The drifting light collided grain by grain against a snow-white chin before vanishing into dust.
The faint glow gently illuminated the figure before him—a woman who possessed the exact same face as the Lord of the Desolate Fortress.
'This is the True Body of the World Tree?'
Questions flooded Jeong Yeon-shin's mind. The woman stood atop a massive, severed tree stump. Her expression was so utterly blank she barely seemed human at all.
Since the moment he laid eyes on her, all his senses had been locked onto her figure. Yet, he couldn't detect a single trace of breath, let alone a heartbeat. Naturally, there was no color in her face or her lips.
Was she merely an exquisite statue carved from white marble?
At a glance, she looked like someone who had lost consciousness after having her acupoints sealed.
'She is not my master,' Jeong Yeon-shin thought.
Not only did his Upper Dantian's intuition and the surrounding circumstances fail to align, but above all, his master was never this expressionless. She was someone whose smile felt like leaves bathed in dawn sunlight. There was no way this statue-like being was the Lord of the Desolate Fortress.
For starters, everything from her long hair to her ancient, flowing court robes was entirely white.
And yet...
Jeong Yeon-shin reached out and placed his hand on her shoulder.
He was drawn by an inexplicable pull. A fabric that felt more colorless than white pressed against his palm. It was freezing to the touch, but surprisingly, it possessed the distinct weight of a real person.
Right then.
Thump—!
Jeong Yeon-shin's heart beat like a drum.
To be precise, it was a vibration originating from the Halo that endlessly circulated the Law-Transcending Halo Qi within his body. Meanwhile, a faint breeze drifted like smoke from the True Body of the World Tree where his hand made contact.
It felt exactly like a wave of energy emitted by a living human.
His eyes widened.
'She has acupoints...?'
A roaring sound instantly echoed in his mind. His innate talent engraved endlessly extending lines into his consciousness. It mapped the acupoints and meridians of this being, blurring the line between statue and human.
Only after touching her directly did he realize her interior was flooded with a massive amount of Natural Qi. It was a density that far surpassed the limits of the human body.
The meridians of the World Tree's True Body all converged near her solar plexus, a structure reminiscent of an internal cultivation expert who had opened their Middle Dantian.
However, there was no accumulated internal power. There was only an overwhelming suction force.
It felt like a void ready to swallow the entire world. At that moment, the breeze rising from her shoulder licked Jeong Yeon-shin's palm like a small tongue.
Rustle.
The fabric on her shoulder wound into his grasp, and—
"..."
In an instant, a storm-like pressure seized the Law-Transcending Halo Qi flowing through his body.
It threatened to draw out his True Qi like threads from a spool, essentially forcing an Internal Power Transfer. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to call it the Star Absorption Technique.
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes narrowed under the strain.
He felt as though he were caught in an abyss unfathomable to mortals. Questions naturally arose. Why was this entity, clearly the True Body of the World Tree, so incredibly thirsty?
Was it truly a being that supported the world? Why did it happen to resemble his master?
Rumble—!
The ground sank beneath him.
He couldn't pull his hand away from her shoulder. The pulling force was so violent it felt as if it would suck out his very soul.
Incomprehensible. This being literally defied human understanding.
'No.'
Jeong Yeon-shin dismissed his human impressions.
Unlike the experts of the Jianghu who used all sorts of methods to prevent others from probing their depths, the True Body of the World Tree was as defenseless as an ordinary tree.
The human body diagram mapping her acupoints had already taken root in his mind. As a grandmaster of the Jeong Family Dynamic Art, he was unconsciously analyzing the physical form of the World Tree's True Body in meticulous detail.
'Natural Qi flows through her vessels instead of blood. Starting from the Jianyu Point where my hand rests, her structure is identical to a human's. Her acupoints possess elasticity. Furthermore, the source of this suction is the Yutang Point in the region of the Middle Dantian. It's a flow that draws a massive circle... though there is no movement in her chest muscles, the circulation of Natural Qi creates a massive suction formula that feels like Taiji. What does she want? What kind of energy, and how much of it, must she consume to finally stop? Perhaps, if I rotate my Halo Qi to match the pattern of this Taiji and feed it to her...'
Just as his thoughts immersed themselves in waves of light—
Thud!
A heavy impact suddenly struck his abdomen.
It was someone's scabbard. The force loaded into that single strike was so immense that his body was sent flying like an arrow, blasting straight out of the Elder's Council pavilion.
A violent rush of wind whipped past his ears. Naturally, the hand he had struggled to pull away was instantly severed from its contact.
Mid-flight, Jeong Yeon-shin executed a sudden flip and slammed his feet hard into the ground.
Screeech!
His body skidded backward for a long distance, carving a deep trench into the earth.
Lifting his head, he saw a swordsman walking out against the backdrop of the half-destroyed Elder's Council pavilion.
It was a black-haired, middle-aged man clad in a robe the color of deep autumn maple. The surrounding foliage parted and bowed to either side with his every step, as if nature itself were opening a path for him.
Around him, countless Brightfolk were converging on their position.
"A Purple Rank is one who has walked through carnage," the middle-aged man said, his voice deep and resonant. "You must have already learned many lessons in the Jianghu. This place is no different from the outside world. One must not rashly touch what they do not understand. Your life was nearly forfeit."
Even as he spoke these lengthy words, his facial muscles barely moved. He was as expressionless as a stone statue.
"...Thank you."
Jeong Yeon-shin stared at him silently before returning the gesture with a cupped-fist salute.
He had already sensed this man's presence. The man had been deeply immersed in Qi Meditation with his back to the True Body of the World Tree. Since there had been no reason to disturb him, Yeon-shin had paid him no mind.
The middle-aged man—the World Tree's First Protector, Sword Duke Yongji—nodded briefly and slowly spoke. The grass at his feet remained flattened, as smooth as a carpet.
"I heard you while I was circulating my Qi. I cannot deny your words. Since our clan also receives a massive stipend from the Ju Imperial Family, turning a blind eye to the world does not stand to reason."
"Yongji! Watch your tongue!"
A sharp cry rang out from the direction of the Elder's Council behind Sword Duke Yongji.
Yet, the two men facing each other did not break their gaze. Sword Duke Yongji remained perfectly indifferent, as if his emotions had been stripped away. Likewise, Jeong Yeon-shin had no intention of listening to the shouts of the Elder who had blocked him earlier.
'There was a reason Elder Jong-yeon only mentioned the Four Great Protectors.'
The Elder was nothing.
The pressure Master Golden Thunder emitted was stronger than her lightning. She lacked that overwhelming presence that threatened to take his head the moment his concentration wavered. She didn't even possess the lethal intent of the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit.
She was merely mimicking an expert by scraping together the leftovers of Master Golden Thunder and the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit. The openings in her posture were as vast and clear as the flow of the Yangtze River. She was nothing like the peerless martial artists who had forged their respective martial arts to a state of diamond-like completion.
"You faced the First Elder for quite a while," Sword Duke Yongji asked abruptly, pausing his silent scrutiny. "What was your reason?"
"I gained some personal insights," Jeong Yeon-shin replied quietly.
The First Elder of the World Tree possessed many different natures within her single body. Naturally, his horizons had broadened. He had also obtained a significant subject of contemplation regarding the future direction of his Unified Martial Transcendence. But that wasn't something he needed to voice here.
"That is something to be congratulated."
Sword Duke Yongji nodded mechanically, like a mechanism formation. It was a gesture as bizarre as his speech and behavior. It felt as though even his sword path would be a perfectly straight line.
A moment later, Sword Duke Yongji spoke again.
"Can you withdraw from here? If you insist on entering again, you must fight and defeat me. Regardless of your arguments, such is the law of the clan regarding the Four Great Protectors."
"Does that law take precedence over your own will?"
At Jeong Yeon-shin's question, Sword Duke Yongji slowly shook his head.
"If an event directly threatening the safety of the clan were to occur, it would be a different story. But that does not apply to the current situation."
"I suppose so."
That was the end of the conversation.
Before anyone realized it, they had both drawn and lowered their swords in an identical, uncanny fashion.
It was an extremely natural draw. Both had reached the absolute limit of the Unity of Body and Sword.
A crowd composed entirely of Brightfolk surrounded them, stepping lightly on the tips of grass blades and tree branches. Their movements were entirely silent, as if the Grass-Gliding Body Protection Scripture were merely a basic technique to them.
"To think the Great Elder has been reduced to such a state..."
"Should we have stopped him?"
"But after being called parasites, how could we act rashly... Did we not need time to reflect on our clan?"
"Given his age, it's hard to believe. With martial arts like that, he could easily match our Sword Duke..."
"Of course he surpasses our imagination. The Desolate Fortress is a great sect that strategically matches bloodlines. Besides, where would the bloodline of that Nightmare go? It's only natural that he is transcendent."
The whispered conversations continued.
By now, no one showed any significant hostility toward Jeong Yeon-shin. Perhaps, unlike the Elder, they lacked stubbornness. Or perhaps it was thanks to Master Golden Thunder, who was currently tilting his body this way and that nearby.
Jeong Yeon-shin merely engraved the identity of the person who had uttered that last absurd remark into his memory.
"Against Brother Yongji...? Man, who should I cheer for?"
A peerless Brightfolk expert clad entirely in gold floated amidst the crowd. Unlike ordinary Void Treading, no wave of energy could be felt from him.
An invisible lightning bolt was supporting Master Golden Thunder. It was the absolute pinnacle of mystery.
There was no question about it—if Master Golden Thunder joined forces with Sword Duke Yongji, Jeong Yeon-shin's defeat would be absolute.
'That World Tree... is strange. It's far too strange.'
Yet, even as Jeong Yeon-shin kept his attention on the two of them, that was his sole thought.
The situation was riddled with questions. The fact that the entire Brightfolk clan was bound to that entity—which was neither clearly tree nor human—was just one of them.
Presumably, that cataclysmic suction force was one of the primary reasons. He could easily picture it periodically draining the energy of the Brightfolk, who possessed massive amounts of accumulated Qi.
This was evident from how, even after consuming Sword Duke Yongji's power, only a small patch of her clothing had faintly regained a green hue. And even that spot of color was already fading back into white.
'If she fully recovers her energy, will she wear the same attire as my master?'
Just then.
Hummm!
The fine hairs on the back of his neck stood on end.
The moment his opponent took a single step forward, a sharp sensation descended from afar, piercing his skin like lightning.
He realized it without even looking. The Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit had aimed her arrow.
"It is the Soul-Transcending Archery!" The shout erupted from the direction of the Elder's Council. It was the First Elder. "Stop right there! Do not tarnish your master's name any further!"
"...Elder," Sword Duke Yongji muttered. But the First Elder paid him no heed.
"Flash Art, you may think you know a great deal, but in the end, you are merely an ignorant Han. You know nothing of what we have endured. No matter how deeply the world has fallen into chaos, taking someone from this place is nothing but an absurd, unreasonable demand. If your horizons were broad enough to encompass our clan, you could never do this."
"..."
"We took the name of this empire as our own and have sacrificed ourselves like the rain needed by a parched land. The True Body of the World Tree you saw is the proof. Our great tree literally supports heaven and earth. If this role is ever undone, the sight the world will witness... will be, at the very least, hundreds or thousands of coiled Flood Dragons descending. Yes, to put it in terms of your own knowledge, that is what will happen. Incomprehensible beings from throughout history, both from this land and beyond the gate, will show their faces. It is something that must absolutely never be allowed to happen."
For the first time, Jeong Yeon-shin cast his gaze past Sword Duke Yongji's shoulder.
He looked toward the half-destroyed Elder's Council. Supported by two people, the First Elder was staring at him with heavy eyes.
"That is why our clan does its part by protecting this land and this tree. So, leave it at that. Otherwise, you will only bring shame upon yourself."
Her voice was as sharp and tingling as lightning.
Gazing at her quietly, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.
"If I told you there seems to be a way, would you believe me?"
"What kind of way?"
"A way to give this land some breathing room, even if only temporarily."
"I can see that you are sincere. However, I cannot rashly trust this 'way' of yours, nor the judgment of someone who has only just reached the Purple Rank. Please understand."
The First Elder shook her head stubbornly. It was a gesture steeped in centuries of time, hardened like a bizarre crag. Soon, her lips parted again.
"Looking through the eyes of our pure clan, the intruder's intent has not softened. As the Great Elder, I command you. Protectors, subdue that man."
Instantly, Sword Duke Yongji's precious sword blurred.
At the same time, several booming sounds erupted from a point dozens of li away. An arrow took flight, tearing through the split second of time.
Along with it, the hair of Master Golden Thunder—who had been floating leisurely in the air—stood on end, strand by strand, like divine swords.
A suffocating pressure sprouted in an instant, choking Jeong Yeon-shin.
These were three beings against whom he couldn't guarantee victory even in a one-on-one fight. Every single one of them was a peerless expert of the ancient World Tree.
'The moment I try to block a single blow, I lose.'
Thud!
He stamped his foot. He lunged forward, crushing the earth beneath him.
With the activation of the Ultimate Lightning, his vision stretched out like pulled taffy. It felt as though he were kneading the time touching his skin with his Body Protection Scripture. It was a sensation of the peerless realm that he had now grown accustomed to, yet Sword Duke Yongji's blade had already sliced through even that stretched moment, arriving right before his eyes.
He pressed down on the flat of the blade with the Brilliant River of his left hand.
His palm force violently scraped against the shockwave of Sword Duke Yongji's sword strike, sending sparks flying in all directions.
The First Protector of the Brightfolk was indeed a master of the sword. The trajectory that had been aiming to decapitate him seamlessly shifted into a lethal thrust aimed right at his solar plexus.
He had completely caught up to the axis of time in which Jeong Yeon-shin drifted. However, before his purple robe could even flutter once, Yeon-shin used Sword Duke Yongji's precious sword as a stepping stone, launching himself into the air.
'Though I stand no chance in a direct confrontation...'
He could temporarily guide the battle in the direction he desired.
A storm composed of countless trajectories raged in his mind. The ability to dictate the flow of battle at will—a talent granted only to Jeong Yeon-shin, the Heaven-Smiling Invincible, the Seventh Apostle, and the Lazy Flame Dragon—flashed through his mind like a biting wind.
Boom!
The arrow plunged like a meteor from the sky, blowing up the ground into a massive hemispherical crater. At the same time, the sword wind of Sword Duke Yongji—which had been deflected by the earlier sweep of Brilliant River—sliced diagonally through the arrow's pressure.
Jeong Yeon-shin was already squeezing through that gap, surging forward like a beam of light.
He did so by stepping on the palm force of Master Golden Thunder—which had stretched out and distorted the surroundings into colorlessness—using it as a stepping stone.
The wave of internal power he had exploded when first pressing down on Sword Duke Yongji's sword with Brilliant River connected directly forward like a thread.
In an instant, he broke away from the battlefield.
Perhaps because his concentration had reached its absolute limit, a mental intent spread through his mind as if he had activated his Unified Martial Transcendence.
[If the issue is the World Tree's suction force draining energy, one simply needs to view it as a gear and block it by shaping internal power into a specific True Qi structure. This is identical to the Fa Jin that experts execute as naturally as breathing. By slightly opening the Dachangshu Point below the waist and channeling strength into the rectus abdominis in front to create elasticity...]
Step.
Leaping over the dazed First Elder, he stepped deep into the Elder's Council once more.
At the exact same moment, Jeong Yeon-shin thrust his hand forward, reaching out toward the True Body of the World Tree without a single shred of hesitation. The movement was an absolute blur, a perfect execution of martial intent. It took no more than a mere fraction of a second for him to close the distance and press his extended fingers firmly against the solar plexus of the enigmatic being—an entity that bore an uncanny, almost haunting resemblance to the Lord of the Desolate Fortress.
[If one twists Taiji three times to form the Six Harmonies, and then advances twice more from that foundation to firmly grasp the profound concepts of the Eight Trigrams... using those two pivotal points as the central axes of rotation... all while maintaining the absolute mental image of slamming a brake onto that terrifying suction force, one only needs to detach a reasonably useful, concentrated fragment of True Qi and feed it directly into the vortex...]
Rustle.
Despite the monumental clash of energies, there was no grand explosion, no deafening roar of power. In fact, there was almost no particular sound at all. Yet, the entire scene unfolding before his eyes underwent a drastic, impossible transformation. In the span of a single heartbeat, the pristine garments worn by the eerily expressionless True Body began to shift in hue, rapidly being dyed a light, vibrant, grass-like green.
It was not merely a localized change or a single spreading spot of color; the transformation washed over her entire body in absolute unison. It was a breathtaking, surreal sight, looking exactly as if a master painter had taken a massive, ink-soaked brush and boldly swept it across a blank canvas, claiming the space in one fluid, undeniable stroke.
Behind Jeong Yeon-shin, the imposing figures of Sword Duke Yongji and Master Golden Thunder had already moved to flank him, taking up lethal combat positions. But upon witnessing this impossible phenomenon, both absolute experts froze completely solid, paralyzed like blocks of ancient ice. Even the lethal, qi-infused arrow fired by the Heaven-Piercing Bow Spirit—a projectile that had already left the bowstring and was hurtling forward with deadly precision—suddenly veered sharply to the side. It curved through the air as though it had been forcefully redirected by the profound, invisible principles of Sword Control, missing its mark entirely.
Rumble—!
A heavy, ominous vibration suddenly shook the very air. It was the distinct, terrifying sound of the distant ground violently collapsing, echoing ominously through the vast expanse of the Elder's Council.
"You claimed that you all sacrificed yourselves for hundreds of years," Jeong Yeon-shin stated, his voice calm yet cutting through the heavy tension. He cast a fleeting, piercing glance at the face that so perfectly mirrored the Lord of the Desolate Fortress, before smoothly pulling his hand away from her solar plexus. This time, unlike his previous struggles against the overwhelming energy, the withdrawal was completely effortless. There was no resistance, no clinging suction. It was not difficult in the slightest.
"Was it a wall-facing meditation like Bodhidharma's legendary seclusion?" Jeong Yeon-shin continued, his tone carrying a mix of genuine inquiry and subtle accusation. "I find myself deeply curious about the true reason behind such an extreme act. But, if there is some ancient sin or grave mistake that you feel you must repent for in this manner, I will ask no further. Even if I were to simply withdraw like this, turn my back on this place, and go beg my master for forgiveness for failing to uncover the whole truth..."
"I do not know."
The response came immediately, cold and entirely devoid of human inflection. Once again, Sword Duke Yongji's reply was completely rigid and mechanical, sounding less like a living martial artist and far more like a soulless, pre-programmed mechanism formation responding to a set trigger.