Ghost Cry Hegemon King, Radiant Demon Wing Leader, Wind Lord.
A situation where Ghost Cry Hegemon King and Wind Lord had trapped the Radiant Demon Wing Leader from front and back, with the other Two Kings and Three Lords looking down on them.
"..."
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly ran his hand along the blade. He felt the continuously intersecting wave pattern, similar to the Northern Light Divine Sword that had broken earlier.
It seemed to be a pattern originating from the Tang family's unique forging method, known as a secret technique.
'The material is true silver ore.'
It was said to be iron found only in this place.
It was an extraordinary weapon.
About three and a half chi in length, with even the handle made of silver.
The appearance of a soft radiance continuously flowing from the blade's surface. He felt that it would move like his limbs regardless of which Lightning Genius martial art he used.
It was a sword that required no breaking in.
"It's been a while since I've seen such a swift flying sword. It could even compete with the Ten Li One Kill of the Dark Night Palace Leader."
"The accumulated years are not thick. For heaven to have bestowed such a person to Desolate Fortress…"
"A youngster is a youngster. What a complicated way to say someone is young."
The voices rang out from above.
It was the conversation between Divine Hand Hegemon King, the former Hwangbo family head, and Shadow Lord of the Kunlun Sect. He also felt the sinister gaze of Ghost Lord from the Beggar Sect, lying on a large rock on the ridge.
Everything created an invisible pressure.
But Jeong Yeon-shin merely raised his eyelids slightly.
The person he was looking at wasn't the unfamiliar Two Kings and Three Lords, but the enemy of his squad who had claimed to have killed the Obeying Heaven Wing Leader of Desolate Fortress.
Ghost Cry Hegemon King Peng Yu-lan.
Ha— Ha—
The blood flowing from her pierced abdomen was gradually stopping.
Along with invisible energy waves, white steam flowed from both sides of her lips and dissipated into the void.
It was strange to see her slowly straightening her waist, despite having her abdominal artery, spleen acupoint, and spine torn out along with all sorts of internal organs.
She still gripped the handle of a great blade that seemed too large to hold with one hand.
The smoke flowing from her entire body was gradually dyeing the surroundings whitish, suggesting that a fatal blade strike could extend out at any moment.
She was an absolute being.
'She's activating martial arts. Five Tiger Severed Gate Blade.'
Jeong Yeon-shin saw through her condition. A figure who had refined Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown to a high achievement.
As soon as she was struck by the flying sword, she had created a bone structure in her back and an internal organ structure in her abdomen with colorless true energy.
The realm of materializing true energy was creating extreme vitality.
Tremendous energy accumulation and internal energy technique.
They say truly high-level masters don't die easily, and this was fitting for someone who had boasted the greatest power in this vast formation space.
But she wouldn't be able to live long. True energy couldn't indefinitely substitute for human bones and flesh.
"What is this…? Peng! Peng…!"
An anguished cry.
It was Wind Lord Li Shi-ming. While tending to the internal injuries he had suffered from the Sword Song behind Jeong Yeon-shin, he had belatedly accepted Ghost Cry Hegemon King's fatal wound.
For the former Peng family head of the world, the Ghost Cry Hegemon King of the immortal realm, to be struck by a youngster from Desolate Fortress who had come from the outside martial world…?
It made no sense.
It was enough to make the spectators who had been fleeing down the mountain after witnessing the appearance of the Two Kings and Three Lords stop their lightness skill rush one by one and turn back with extremely surprised expressions.
"For a former Peng family head, how old would she be?"
Suddenly Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
"..."
Wind Lord didn't answer and just glared at him.
He seemed to be examining the intervals and gaps of the sword. It was fitting for an old martial world figure known as Ghost Cry Hegemon King's limb, not giving in rashly to anger.
High above their heads, Divine Hand Hegemon King, who was crouching on a very high tree branch, grinned. Jeong Yeon-shin felt from just the presence that the movement of his mouth corner resembled Lazy Flame Dragon.
"Enough to make counting her years pointless."
The former Hwangbo family head said.
He was a figure whose inner thoughts were difficult to gauge. But Jeong Yeon-shin didn't particularly care.
"The old one's mouth was reckless."
He parted his lips while making eye contact with Peng Yu-lan. She was narrowing her eyes while taking a long internal energy breath.
She seemed to have already calculated Jeong Yeon-shin's situation, where it was difficult to strike rashly with all the Two Kings and Three Lords gathered.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly continued.
"You could have spent your meaningless remaining life comfortably… yet you mock the death of another squad leader in front of the Radiant Demon Wing Leader."
"You b*st*rd!"
The rage of Li Shi-ming behind him exploded.
Whoosh—!
Jeong Yeon-shin felt a kick striking toward his back. The energy waves were very fierce. In an instant, the air was fiercely split, pressing down from his clothes.
Wind Lord's Wind Flower Four Wheel Leg.
It was what Jeong Yeon-shin had hoped for. With the Two Kings and Three Lords gathered together in a confrontation where the future was difficult to predict, he needed to somehow eliminate Ghost Cry Hegemon King and Wind Lord first.
'Die.'
Jeong Yeon-shin twisted his waist just as he was.
Killing intent filled his left palm as it cut through the air following his body's rotation.
He intended to kill quickly with the Brilliant River. The young man with the appearance of a youth couldn't maintain his composure after the death of his fellow squad leader.
Though he didn't show it, his heart was flickering wildly like a fire on dry kindling.
It was then.
Ghost Cry Hegemon King Peng Yu-lan's eyes suddenly opened wide.
She was an old master who had observed the martial world for a long time. She had seen countless scenes where an unexpected messenger of death came and took a martial artist's life.
The unpredictable intrusion of a powerful figure, techniques that particularly didn't flow properly that day, the energy of one's body reacting a beat too late like a cough before the opponent's strike… She understood very well the life thread of martial world figures who could always disappear like mayflies.
Today was her end.
Peng Yu-lan didn't deny the death that had come without any omen on an auspicious day. It was a companion of martial artists.
She fully felt the final moment of irresistible surrender that came like some pleasure.
'But I can't go in vain.'
She should at least take someone with her. If it was a youth as handsome as that Desolate Fortress youngster, he would be a suitable companion to cross the Sanzu River with.
If she got bored while crossing the river of death, she could also try to seduce him as a concubine.
She aimed her great blade at the youth who was turning his back on her.
'How dare you.'
Earlier, Peng Yu-lan had acknowledged Jeong Yeon-shin as an opponent through the exchange of a few hand techniques.
The reason she hadn't turned her head despite hearing the Forest-Treading Squad Leader's shout. It wasn't just because of the Radiant Demon Wing Leader's bewitching face.
Woooong—
Five layers of energy waves surrounded the blade in the form of semi-transparent rings… The energy waves that manifest when activating all forty-five forms of the Five Tiger Severed Gate Blade in a single strike. It was an ultimate move that Ghost Cry Hegemon King had obtained after decades of refinement to break the Golden Wing Sect Leader's Dragon-slaying Heaven Overturning Form.
Using it even a couple of times in her current body condition would lead to death, but no other technique would be able to take the extraordinarily beautiful young man from Desolate Fortress as a companion.
The opponent Ghost Cry Hegemon King had met at the end of her life was that powerful.
'Let's go together.'
She smiled with her eyes and slowly, very slowly extended her blade. Li Shi-ming was blocking the back. She could focus on the precision of a single strike.
Though they had only taken the front and back, it was a situation that could be described as being surrounded on all sides.
"…!"
In that moment, Wind Lord Li Shi-ming, who was extending his foot with Jeong Yeon-shin in the middle, raised his eyebrows.
The Radiant Demon Wing Leader, who must have clearly felt Ghost Cry Hegemon King's blade strike, was instead rotating his body even faster in an extremely short moment.
The sight of him elegantly spinning while emitting a terrifying spiral-shaped gale with the palm that wasn't holding the sword. Wind Lord Li Shi-ming couldn't immediately gauge who Jeong Yeon-shin was targeting.
'Where is the striking point…?'
The trajectory of the palm technique was too long. With that form of diagonally passing by Li Shi-ming's instep, he couldn't withstand the Wind Flower Four Wheel Leg.
Unless, assuming Li Shi-ming wasn't there, he was targeting Ghost Cry Hegemon King behind him and attacking with rotational force.
It was then.
"…!"
Due to the Radiant Demon Wing Leader's overwhelming presence, he hadn't noticed.
Li Shi-ming, who belatedly raised his head, was engulfed by a massive shadow.
[You disgrace to the clan!]
A mental imagery that rang out like a rebuke. Heart speech. The state of Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown and enormous energy accumulation triggered the inner cry like a lion's roar.
Forest-Treading Squad Leader Xiahou Wei-jin was falling toward Wind Lord at a terrifying speed.
—I would like you to review just the Bladder Meridian among the twelve meridians of the body again. If you slightly open the Large Intestine Acupoint below the waist, and apply force to the rectus abdominis muscle in front, you'll see a different method of true energy operation. The three vessels will move on their own, comparable to energy release.
In the extremely brief time of super-speed.
The advice of his junior flowed through the mind of Xiahou Wei-jin, who had his forehead fully exposed. That story had already been close to an incantation when it came from Jeong Yeon-shin's mouth.
Xiahou Wei-jin, born with a large build unlike most renowned clan members, had a weakness in his movement technique.
He had repeatedly trained following his junior's incantation faithfully, and finally reached this day.
'I can reach in time.'
His large eyes looked down.
It was within reach.
Kuguung—
After a large semi-transparent earthquake occurred in the air around the blade tip that Ghost Cry Hegemon King had extended, just before Wind Lord's toe was about to touch Jeong Yeon-shin's nape.
Xiahou Wei-jin relaxed the strength in his gluteus maximus and pelvic muscles.
Simultaneously, he spread the internal energy he had moved to the Kidney Acupoint on his right waist throughout his entire meridian system as if exploding it.
As he had practiced according to his junior's advice.
—That way, the energy that has come down to the plantar fascia gains elasticity on its own.
He became a seat of the Lightning Genius martial lineage.
Whaaaak!
Heavy energy waves filled his toes.
In that moment, a whitish shockwave that burst from his large body pushed the surrounding dust in all directions, and through that gap, Xiahou Wei-jin's leather shoe fell like lightning and trampled Wind Lord's knee.
'When did he…?!'
Kwaduk—
While Li Shi-ming's eyes shook with astonishment.
Jeong Yeon-shin, who hadn't stopped for even a moment, was continuing to spin his body. While fully transferring that rotational force to his left hand.
'Spiraling Strike, Brilliant River.'
He had anticipated Xiahou Wei-jin's assistance from the moment Ghost Cry Hegemon King raised her blade.
He was a Black-rank senior from the main fortress. He had no doubt that he would clear away the interfering one.
He placed his palm against the energy waves of Ghost Cry Hegemon King's blade strike that had somehow reached right before his eyes.
Five layers of true energy stacked in ring form.
It contained a fierce colorless current as if a typhoon had been refined.
Jeong Yeon-shin didn't hesitate and triggered the Brilliant River.
Kwaaaang!
In an instant, the air distorted. Beyond the wave of earth that had overturned and risen enormously from the aftermath of the strike, Ghost Cry Hegemon King's face was visible.
She was moving her lips with a faint smile. As if to say, take the Dragon Manifestation Heaven-Shaking Cannon.
'There's more.'
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes narrowed.
Five rings.
As soon as they touched Jeong Yeon-shin's palm energy, they dissolved their form and transformed into dozens of fragments.
And at this moment, they were rushing in. Each one bursting with a fierce destructive quality as if it were the soul of a tiger.
It remarkably resembled the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain, the divine secret skill that the Golden Wing Sect Leader had desired.
It was also different from Jeong Yeon-shin's.
There was a consistent trajectory within all the fragments. Each drawing a different path while targeting the vital acupoints of his entire body at a ray-like speed.
It was incredibly complex. The years Ghost Cry Hegemon King had accumulated were evident.
That was indeed the case.
Ghost Cry Hegemon King recalled the past as she swung her blade here and there like a hedonist drunk on pleasure.
She had to. The Dragon Manifestation Heaven-Shaking Cannon is a secret skill built by years. The key points existed in the past she had lived.
'It was quite enjoyable.'
After spending the night with men and women to her liking and taking a sip of wine, when she closed her eyes, the sharp trajectory of the Five Tiger Severed Gate Blade would wander through her empty mind and break through to the next realm.
Ghost Cry Hegemon King had advanced step by step like that to reach today. All while looking only at the Golden Wing Sect Leader.
Kuuuuu—!
Amid the air rippling with a terrifying resonance.
'Forty-five.'
Jeong Yeon-shin flashed a blue light in his eyes.
Information instantly transmitted through the Lowly Revelation Technique. His pupils, which had moved minutely up, down, left, and right, captured all trajectories in his vision, and Jeong Yeon-shin mentally calculated all the power and direction imbued in those fragments.
It felt like a clear constellation was being engraved in his mind. As he raised his sword to strike, he unconsciously thought, was my reaction speed always this fast?
Saaaak!
His sword disappeared, leaving a streak of white light.
The vibration instantly transmitted from the blade to his toes caused cracks in the ground, and the air in front split with a jjeojeong— sound, deflecting the white fragments of the Dragon Manifestation Heaven-Shaking Cannon in all directions… The five or six he couldn't properly counter penetrated his skin and passed through, spraying blood.
They pierced straight through the faint sword wind he had raised with a single sword strike.
"The Five Tiger Severed Gate Blade is bound in five sets of nine forms each. A total of forty-five blade strikes. That's something that can't be faced head-on with ordinary capacity…"
From high up on a tree branch. The words of Divine Hand Hegemon King, who had been leisurely reciting like a gambler at a martial arts tournament, ceased.
The mountain path that had suddenly grown quiet.
The exchange of proper hand techniques had ended.
Ghost Cry Hegemon King was standing motionless three steps in front of Jeong Yeon-shin, who was holding his sword diagonally down. She had dozens of holes throughout her body.
"I saw it well."
Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth.
"Thanks to you, I've filled decades."
"..."
White dandelion seeds were gently falling around them as they faced each other. They had risen with the sword that Jeong Yeon-shin had swung upward earlier.
Sunlight shattered finely over the traces of the Myriad Heavens Flower Rain.