Chapter 9: Entering the Fortress
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 9: Entering the Fortress
"...What do you mean by bloodline?"
"You seem to already know. You have an audacious side to you."
The green eyes of the Lord of the Desolate Fortress were serene. Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been feeling overwhelmed, slowly nodded.
"It is true that I am of the bloodline of the former Commander of the Divine Sword Corps. I am his maternal grandson."
"Though he will soon rise to head the Elder's Council, he is a stubborn child... You carry a wound."
"It is not a matter for the Lord to concern herself with. It is merely a trivial family affair."
"Such things are never trivial. Though hidden behind your well-trained body, you look to have lived no more than fifteen years. However... it is true that an outsider has no right to interfere. Family matters must be resolved by family."
"My apologies."
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke with a face completely devoid of apology or discomfort.
He firmly believed that the transcendent aura of an absolute master and her prying into his family matters were two entirely different things.
Sensing his thoughts, the corners of the Lord of the Desolate Fortress's mouth curled up ever so slightly.
"I like you. It is amusing to see your unyielding spirit, even though you came here seeking something."
As expected, she saw through me.
It was not surprising. An abnormally open Baihui Point in his upper dantian? Jeong Yeon-shin himself was well aware of his own constitution.
It was only natural for a peerless master like the Lord of the Desolate Fortress to see through it at a single glance.
"Can someone like me survive if they eat the fruit of the World Tree?"
"Its efficacy is somewhat exaggerated, but yes. You will be able to fully achieve what you desire."
"Is it possible to obtain it?"
At Jeong Yeon-shin's bold question, her smile deepened.
"That depends on you."
"That is enough for now. Thank you."
Jeong Yeon-shin clasped his hands in salute. Then, he asked one final question.
"Am I now truly a warrior of the Desolate Fortress?"
"Yes. You may go down now, future Commander of the Divine Sword Corps."
He couldn't tell if she was merely teasing him or if she truly recognized his talent.
It also sounded like she was saying he could obtain the fruit of the World Tree if he managed to become the Commander of the Divine Sword Corps.
Leaving behind the woman with the playful smile, Jeong Yeon-shin stepped out of the wood-scented office.
When he descended to the first floor, Heonwon Chang greeted him fussily.
"What on earth happened up there? Please, tell me! You took especially long, Young Master Jeong. What did the Lord of the Desolate Fortress say to you? Did you pass?"
"It is a personal matter, so it is difficult to talk about. I did pass, though. But why have the numbers dwindled so much again?"
"Except for Young Hero Namgung, all those people who were standing around blankly left! I'm seriously dying of anxiety here!"
It meant everyone except the White Qilin, Namgung Hwa-shin, had been sent back.
Turning his gaze, their eyes met. Namgung Hwa-shin smiled and bowed his head.
As Jeong Yeon-shin returned the nod and turned away, Heonwon Chang was already climbing the stairs, his face deathly pale.
"It's nothing much. Go on."
Heonwon Chang weakly waved his hand at Jeong Yeon-shin's encouragement.
* * *
"Bwahaha! The Desolate Fortress! I am the Divine Hero of the Desolate Fortress!"
Heonwon Chang had passed. Because of the location, his attempt to cheer in a hushed whisper was truly pathetic.
It was a good thing since they had shared a brief acquaintance, but honestly, Jeong Yeon-shin had absolutely no idea what the passing criteria were.
"The Desolate Fortress seems to have its doors wider open than I thought."
"What do you mean?" Heonwon Chang blinked.
Choosing not to answer, Jeong Yeon-shin watched a middle-aged man dressed like a scholar approach them.
"Welcome to the fortress. I am Gi Dae-seung of the Chief Steward's Office. I will guide you to the quarters where you will stay until your unit assignment is decided, so please follow me."
"When will our assignments be decided?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
"The unit commanders will select you, which should take at least seven days and nights. Now that you have become warriors of the main fortress, let me tell you... Ah, let's talk as we walk."
Jeong Yeon-shin, Namgung Hwa-shin, Heonwon Chang, and another swordsman who had passed.
The four who had survived the interview with the Lord of the Desolate Fortress followed the scholar, Gi Dae-seung.
"Hmm, do you know what the Desolate Fortress primarily does?"
"Preventing rebellions by martial arts masters?"
"Young Hero Heonwon is correct, but that is more of a grand duty rather than our primary day-to-day work. What we do more meticulously and consistently is something else. It is preventing or suppressing conflicts in the martial world above a certain scale. Young Hero White Qilin should know this. The Namgung Clan's operations have been blocked by the Desolate Fortress on numerous occasions."
"Yes." Namgung Hwa-shin nodded briefly.
Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at him and felt a sense of wonder, as his expression seemed much more composed than expected.
Since he had left such a prominent family to come here, there had to be circumstances that outsiders would find hard to understand.
Furthermore, Gi Dae-seung, who had thrown such words right to his face, was clearly no ordinary person either.
"No one can predict how a fight in the martial world might escalate. The moment a rumor spreads that the Tomb of the Heavenly Demon has been found, a bloodbath sweeps through the Central Plains. If those coveting peerless martial arts manuals and spirit medicines only fought among themselves, that would be fine, but the very movement of warriors rising up from all over is the problem."
Sighing briefly, Gi Dae-seung continued.
"The atrocities of violent martial artists do not discriminate between other martial artists and the common people. Public order becomes chaotic. Looking at those hellish scenes, it feels like a world completely detached from the Great Ming Empire. It is as if the tomb of some nameless Heavenly Demon summons King Yama himself."
"The Rebellion of the Tomb of the Heavenly Demon..." Heonwon Chang muttered. His face looked unusually solemn.
Gi Dae-seung nodded.
"It has been seventeen years now. It is not just the Heterodox Sects that are the problem. Flaunting power or fighting over interests is not uncommon even among the Orthodox Factions, including the Nine Sects and the Eight Great Families. It is even worse for mid-sized local sects or clans that pass down their martial arts to only a select few. Though the groups are diverse, the individuals within them are even more varied. If left alone, the commoners suffer, and if public sentiment turns sour or tributes are not paid on time, it causes problems for the reign."
"..."
"That is why the imperial court supports this place, the Desolate Fortress, with vast wealth, spirit medicines, secret manuals, and masters. What you will be doing is exactly that. You must decapitate the martial artists who disrupt the lives of the common people."
"I already knew that much, but why are you telling us this when I asked about our unit assignments?" Heonwon Chang asked.
"It means we are short-handed. To be precise, trustworthy talents with great potential are rare. There is simply too much work, and the territory we must cover is vast."
"A whole bunch of them failed today, after all. Though I passed."
"...Therefore, it takes time to distribute the selected talents to the right places. About seven days and nights. Ah, we have arrived."
Gi Dae-seung, who had worn a slightly sour expression for a moment, pointed to a building. It was an incredibly luxurious pavilion.
Compared to this, the Jeong Family Manor was nothing but a stable.
While Jeong Yeon-shin was thinking, Gi Dae-seung clasped his hands in salute to them.
"I wish you the best of luck. Once you enter the pavilion, the servants will guide you."
* * *
Seven days and nights passed.
The pavilion they stayed in was even more luxurious on the inside than it appeared on the outside. As if proving the immense support of the imperial court, each person was given a lavishly furnished room to themselves.
It even had a training ground behind the pavilion, allowing them to train at any time.
And finally, it was time to move quarters.
Having been assigned to their units, they headed to the private quarters and training grounds of their respective units among the seventeen.
"I wish you martial fortune."
"You too, Young Hero Namgung."
After exchanging farewells, they parted ways.
Meanwhile, strange rumors had been circulating in the Desolate Fortress.
It was said that the unit commanders of the seventeen martial units under the Divine Sword Corps had held duels to recruit the new warriors.
"My subordinates who went to watch the Desolate Fortress Entrance Exam made a huge fuss. They said we had to bring in either the White Qilin or the Flash Art."
Ma Jin, the leader of the 'Demonlight Wing' among the seventeen units of the Divine Sword Corps, was a man with a horrific scar.
A terrifying gash ran diagonally down from the left side of his face to the right.
As it was a wound so severe that it was a miracle he was even alive, his body was shrouded in a rough, powerful aura.
"You, Flash Art."
He looked at Jeong Yeon-shin.
The sharp glint in his bulging eyes seemed to flaunt his powerful internal energy, but Jeong Yeon-shin had already spoken his mind before the Lord of the Desolate Fortress herself, so he was completely unfazed.
"Yes."
A casual reply. Seeing him not even change his expression, Ma Jin nodded.
"I like your spirit. Bastards like you don't die easily."
The place they were in was the training ground of the Demonlight Wing.
It was an impressive space, large enough to easily accommodate at least five hundred people, with a wide variety of weapons lined up on one side.
The adjacent pavilion was also massive, on a completely different scale from the one they had used while waiting.
Around them, about thirty men and women were sitting or standing, watching the two newcomers.
"The martial units under the Divine Sword Corps of the Desolate Fortress are equivalent to a single sect of the Central Plains. You will learn martial arts and perform missions here in the Demonlight Wing. Everyone here is your senior brother and senior sister."
"Unit Commander Ma, I have a question!"
The one who was not overwhelmed by the aura—in a different sense from Jeong Yeon-shin—was Heonwon Chang. He looked so excited he didn't know what to do with himself.
"Speak." Ma Jin nodded.
The Demonlight Wing had taken two of the four newcomers.
While waiting, Jeong Yeon-shin had heard that Ma Jin was one of the strongest among the leaders of the Desolate Fortress's seventeen units. Seeing him today, he thought it was no empty rumor.
Meanwhile, Heonwon Chang was pouring out words in his excited state.
"Thank you for permitting my question! When you say we learn martial arts in the Demonlight Wing, does that mean everyone shares the same martial arts?"
"No. Your sect-exclusive martial arts belong to you alone. What is taught and learned here is only the martial arts of the Demonlight Wing. The rest is not mandatory."
"Ah! In any case, the famous Demonlight Formula...!"
A deeply moved expression crossed his face. The yellow dragon hero's headband, which he had not taken off even after entering the Desolate Fortress, fluttered as if reflecting its owner's racing heart.
The Demonlight Formula.
It was a martial art Jeong Yeon-shin had also heard of.
To begin with, the Demonlight Wing was highly famous even among the seventeen units of the Divine Sword Corps.
This was because they had once clashed with the twenty-four Plum Blossom Swordmasters, the elite masters of the Mount Hua Sect, without suffering a single casualty.
It was an incident that lent weight to the claims of gossips who called the Desolate Fortress the greatest faction under heaven.
"You will have to train hard if you want to survive," Ma Jin said. His face, which made one wonder if a general on the northern border would look like that, was dead serious.
"Although the Desolate Fortress is an imperially established sect, attacking a warrior of the Desolate Fortress is not considered treason. Therefore, you must learn and train here to become endlessly stronger. If you can't, you die."
"Not treason? Why is that?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
Before Ma Jin could speak, Heonwon Chang opened his mouth first.
"From the perspective of the imperial family, the crime of treason must be uncovered and the offender's entire family executed to the ninth generation. Otherwise, the empire's dignity cannot be maintained, and the absolute authority of the imperial family is tarnished. At least, that is how they think."
"...Crazy bastard."
Ma Jin smirked but did not stop him from talking.
"But there are many eccentrics in the martial world. There are plenty of those who have lost their minds practicing demonic arts, or whose lightness skills are so swift and elusive that they can strike an official and flee into the deep mountains and valleys. Therefore, the imperial family cannot grant imperial dignity to the warriors of the Desolate Fortress, whose very mission is to clash with martial artists, unlike ordinary officials."
Jeong Yeon-shin nodded slightly.
Unlike his usual frivolous self, the man named Heonwon Chang occasionally showed flashes of brilliant wit.
This was especially true when he spoke of the origins of sects or the balance of power.
The same went for guessing the intentions of the imperial palace based on the state of the martial world.
His hostility toward the great sects was also a sign that he possessed a background quite contrary to his usual lighthearted demeanor.
"Heonwon Chang is not wrong. That is why you must become strong. That guy over there, who went out on a mission and came back after getting slashed by Namgung's First Sword, can probably explain it better."
Where Ma Jin pointed, a handsome man wearing a blue headscarf was sitting sprawled out casually.
He had strangely distinct features and a gentle impression.
The atmosphere he exuded was free-spirited, and the tail of his headscarf at the back of his head fluttered constantly in a gentle breeze.
He was clearly extraordinary at a single glance.
"That Imperial Sword Form is incredibly terrifying," he said, waving his hand.
One couldn't help but be surprised.
The Imperial Sword Form was a peerless martial art counted among the best sword techniques in the world, learned only by the direct lineage successors of the Namgung Clan.
It was a name that had reached Jeong Yeon-shin's ears even when he was staying in a remote village.
Moreover, isn't Namgung's First Sword a master discussed as the strongest in Southern Zhili?
The headscarf-wearing man's aura itself did not look particularly robust, but looking closely, the waves of energy writhing around his body were thoroughly controlled.
In the first place, the very fact that he had returned alive from a super-master like Namgung's First Sword was proof of his skill.
"Well then, shall we take a look at Flash Art first!"
The man in the headscarf sprang to his feet. As if they had already agreed beforehand, Ma Jin took a step back.
The man strode toward Jeong Yeon-shin. His eyes were strangely drawn to the sword dangling loosely from the young man's waist.
He smirked.
"To have come here at your age means you have quite a bit of talent. Shall we take a look? At your sword aptitude, I mean. I'm exceptionally good at checking that kind of thing."
"Did you say you are good at seeing talent?" Jeong Yeon-shin asked back reflexively.