Chapter 533: Southern Flower Radiant Taiji (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 533: Southern Flower Radiant Taiji (4)
The rustling of grass echoed through the silence.
Rustle.
An old Taoist with disheveled hair wandered the green foothills. He was the Wudang Sect Leader, known to the world as the Late Emperor, who had received the Taoist name Hyeon-gong from Mount Wudang.
Currently, he wandered aimlessly through the pathless wilderness. Yet, with every step he took, the tree branches parted on their own to clear his way.
He was no longer a true Wudang Taoist.
It had been a long time since he cast aside the Dao of natural non-action (wuwei).
He was merely an absolute being who wielded natural Qi like a heavenly god. Even Hyeon-gong himself was dimly aware that he had become trapped by his human emotions.
Even so, like a dazed beggar, he muttered incoherently as he roamed the vast slopes of Mount Wudang alone.
"Junior Brother, Hyeon-ryeo, Hyeon-ryeo... Yes, you rascal, Ancient Sword, why didn't you listen to the mnemonic of the Wisdom Sword to the very end? When this senior brother offered to teach you, even if it meant changing the sect rules, you should have listened to me. What was so important about the dignity of the Wudang Sect Leader? It didn't even need protecting..."
The junior brother who had fled to the distant heavens just to escape his bothersome senior brother.
"Did this master teach you that? Were your roots really that important...? Yes, in the harsh northern Jianghu, there must have been another Dream Demon Physique. But what does any of that matter? You are already a pine needle of Wudang."
The disciple who still lived on Mount Wudang, yet would never return to the past.
Hyeon-gong had to find those two: Ancient Sword and the Super Mad Dream Demon. To be precise, he needed a mind capable of fully embracing who they were today.
But that vessel of the mind, often called the Taoist vessel, was nowhere to be found on Mount Wudang.
Naturally, he lost his way. He dashed aimlessly in all directions, his presence fading away only to flare up again like a sudden spark.
And so, he fell into Qi Deviation.
Tap.
Hyeon-gong suddenly stamped his foot on the ground.
At the same time, he soared into the sky like an immortal with his hands clasped behind his back, yet there was no leisure in his movement.
The old Taoist spent about fifteen minutes drifting alongside the long, white clouds.
Stopping at a certain point, he stepped down through the empty air as if descending a staircase. A moment later, a faint, whitish, hemispherical barrier suddenly materialized beneath his feet like a mirage.
Rustle—
Hyeon-gong stepped precisely onto the very apex of that energy barrier, the sleeves of his shabby Taoist robe fluttering behind him like wings.
The barrier was Wudang's grand formation.
It was the Infinite Suffering Extraction Formation, designed to block all internal power waves. Long ago, one of Perfected Zhang Sanfeng's disciples had created it.
It was born from an incident where a commoner in De'an Prefecture, Huguang Province, had been turned into a fool after being exposed to the residual energy waves of a Great Sect War.
Though it was now famous as a rare concealment formation in the martial world, the greatest Taoist of the era could read the internal power waves composing the formation as easily as breathing.
The strength of the energy barrier, said to be as formidable as a fortress wall, was of no concern to him either.
Whoosh!
He passed straight through it.
There was no method of breaking the formation involved. He had simply harmonized his body naturally with the formation's energy.
It took only an instant for him to appear beneath the ceiling of the massive hemispherical barrier.
Inside the energy barrier.
The Wudang experts surrounding the swordsman in the bamboo hat snapped their heads up. Despite having maintained a tense standoff for a considerable time, their reaction was instantaneous.
"..."
A hollow silence fell over the crowd of over a hundred people.
But it was short-lived. The area quickly grew tumultuous, as if the flames of Hyeon-gong's Qi Deviation had flared up and spread to them. The Late Emperor Hyeon-gong was a figure who stirred deep agitation in every expert of the world's great sects.
Even when those experts were disciples of his own sect.
"What... Sect Leader?!"
"How is the Sect Leader here?"
"It is entirely possible. Square formation! Disciples, do not waver and deploy the square formation!"
Hum! Rumble!
Internal power waves surged in all directions.
In the center of the encirclement, the one-armed swordsman disguised as the Lord of Heaven's Bane slightly lifted the front of his bamboo hat.
It was a slow movement, contrasting sharply with the urgency of his surroundings.
Whoosh!
With just that, a fierce, blade-like wind swept through the surrounding thirty-six directions. A truly monstrous momentum enveloped the area like a typhoon.
This was the reason why the Wudang Sect had hesitated to strike until now.
With a significant number of Wudang experts already having crossed over the 'Gate,' any further loss of disciples would directly lead to more than double that number of civilian deaths.
"I've waited so long that the day has broken," the middle-aged man in the bamboo hat spoke nonchalantly.
"Between you, Sect Leader, and that fellow Flash Art, it seems the Return to Simplicity is all the rage these days. It makes it terribly difficult to sense anyone's presence."
"...You are well-informed of the rumors outside," Hyeon-gong muttered, staring down at him.
The man in the bamboo hat smirked.
"Unlike you, Sect Leader, I take the whole world as my blanket. Moreover, my meddlesomeness is as vast as my stride. That is why I couldn't bring myself to just pass by Mount Wudang."
"..."
"Speaking of Perfected Ancient Sword, is his head still intact? I was in quite a rush back in Hangzhou. So, before I head to the North, I thought I'd drop by to say hello and offer my deepest condolences..."
"Enough," Hyeon-gong said.
Rumble—
Behind his back, the air shimmered darkly like storm clouds. Every word from the man in the bamboo hat was provoking Hyeon-gong's Heart Demon.
Though they had exchanged only a few brief words in the span of a few breaths, the demon's words and actions were maliciously explicit.
"My disciple, your imitation is clumsy."
Hyeon-gong's voice sank low as he continued.
"Is your plan complete if I, in my fury, strike you down, only to realize afterward that you were my disciple? How utterly trivial. Is this the extent of the North's scheme to drag the Wudang Sect Leader into the abyss?"
"...How did you know?" the man in the bamboo hat tilted his head and asked.
"Was my disguise and transformation not perfect? My esteemed companions even personally procured a blustering martial art from Hangzhou for me, and I studied the demeanor of the First Sword of the Outer Paths for quite some time..."
As he spoke, his face began to melt away like water.
In an instant, the middle-aged man's features shifted into those of a handsome young man. First, his skin turned pale and bloodless, like a noble of the Blood Flame Cult.
Then, a sinister aura flowed along his extremely sharp jawline, and with a sickening crack, the right sleeve of his thick cloak filled out with an arm that shouldn't have been there.
Haa—
White steam escaped the young man's mouth. It was the backlash of his suddenly deactivated Transformation Technique.
The Super Mad Dream Demon.
The joint disciple of the Wudang Sect Leader and the God Thief.
"What a pity," he muttered nonchalantly, shaking his head.
Groans broke out from all sides. The Wudang experts froze in their tracks, halting mid-formation.
"You... You...!"
"How dare you masquerade as the Lord of Heaven's Bane in our sect?!"
"...The Primordial Pacification Mantra."
But the Super Mad Dream Demon didn't even spare them a glance. There was an air of absolute confidence radiating from his entire body.
The confidence that he could escape whenever he pleased. Indeed, he only looked up at Perfected Mystic Concord and asked again:
"I asked how you noticed. I was certainly close enough to the Lord of Heaven's Bane in every way... except for my martial prowess."
"A martial artist who strives to be noble does not mock a corpse. Remember that. The same would have been true for that swordsman of the outer paths, regardless of his conduct before he cast aside his sword."
The answer from Hyeon-gong, one of the Five Great Swords of the World, was calm.
But the air in the area was anything but calm. Instead, it trembled with unease, as if something was on the verge of exploding at any second.
It was the precursor to a deeper demonic possession.
"Of course!" the Super Mad Dream Demon shouted excitedly.
"It must have been too much stimulation for a senile old man! How could you possibly bear that sight? The one who sent our esteemed Martial Uncle Ancient Sword to his grave and vanished into thin air... You must be dying to kill him by any means necessary!"
Rumble!
The air surrounding Hyeon-gong distorted violently. Glancing at him anxiously from a distance, the Acting Sect Leader Jade Cliff barked at the Super Mad Dream Demon.
"Shut your mouth, you northern scum! Are you even human? What kind of grudge drives you to exploit the Sect Leader's affection like this? Unless you are begging to die by my hand today...!"
In an instant, Jade Cliff's body was thrown back with explosive force, slamming into the energy barrier behind him with a loud thud!
It was because of a mere flick of Hyeon-gong's hand.
A peerless palm force had crossed the empty air in an instant. He had blended the subtle principles of the Air-Hitting Palm with the Wudang Cotton Palm. It was a speed impossible to react to.
"Do not speak of a disciple's death..." Hyeon-gong muttered in a low voice. "...so lightly. Please. It is a deeply tragic and horrific thing. What I saw in the North was more than enough, so I beg of you..."
He was rambling incoherently.
Meanwhile, his eyes rolled back, showing only the whites. His pupils had slipped upward beneath his eyelids.
The Wudang Sect Leader, driven to demonic possession because he could not sever his worldly attachments. At this moment, he was likely one of the most dangerous existences in the entire world.
—Disciples, fortify your Upper Dantians with internal energy, and do not make eye contact with that northern scum... that expelled disciple! You will be bewitched by his sinister eye technique!—
Jade Cliff sent a voice transmission even as he lay slumped against the barrier. Then, he glanced behind him.
An incredibly smooth, translucent wall. The energy barrier of the Infinite Suffering Extraction Formation had completely absorbed the impact of the Cotton Palm without a trace.
Cough!
Coughing up a mouthful of blood, he refilled his throat with internal energy to send a message to the disciple waiting outside the formation.
—Did you say seventeen li?—
—Yes, Acting Sect Leader. From the Low Sheath Pavilion where the guest is staying to this location, it is roughly seventeen li. The moment you signal, we will open the formation. Please take care...!—
A distance of seventeen li. For a master of lightness skills, it was bound to be incredibly short. Moreover, the lightness skill of the Lotus Nezha, Jeong Yeon-shin, was said to be purely linear.
A sprint completely devoid of any foot-twisting to generate propulsion shockwaves. Naturally, the wait for Jade Cliff and the other Wudang disciples would be brief.
But would that still hold true with another of the Five Great Swords of the World standing right before them?
Furthermore, Hyeon-gong was a name clearly ranked above Jeong Yeon-shin in the eyes of the world. The gap in their age and experience was vast.
It was far.
Seventeen li was far too great a distance.
"Let us go. I must teach you once more."
It was Hyeon-gong's voice.
Jade Cliff snapped his head up. The expressionless Wudang Sect Leader was descending once more to take the Super Mad Dream Demon away. A smirk played on the face of the expelled disciple, shielded by his mad master.
Just how.
How did things turn out like this?
Jade Cliff's brow furrowed deeply.
"Not this time!" he shouted.
"Not this time, Sect Leader! Please, open your eyes! That demon is no longer the infant you raised on your back! He is a dam blocking the streams of Mount Wudang! Do you intend to let our sect wither and die like this?!"
"Wudang is green on its own. This child is nothing. He is merely a disciple who takes after this humble Taoist, who is lacking in all things."
Hyeon-gong remained indifferent. And he was harmless to his disciple—so much so that the Super Mad Dream Demon casually chimed in beside him.
"I did stray a bit, didn't I? But if you were to meet the God Thief in person, Sect Leader, you would think differently. The grandmaster of the world's Dream Demon Physiques, the one to whom the Northern God of War granted a place by his side. My roots lie with her... and with the North..."
His eyes grew hazy, as if shrouded in fog.