Chapter 793: Side Story – Dan Seong-eum Would Mock This |
Jeong Yeon-shin opened his eyes.
Pure white everywhere. At the center stood a figure seemingly made of cosmos. A body entirely black with stars flowing through it.
Jeong Yeon-shin smiled faintly.
“Sister Yelu.”
This was definitely the world of Fan Dragon Flower Treading Technique. Outside it would bloom and wither in an instant, yet Yelu Zhen had suddenly entered.
For the current Heavenly Demon, it was as easy as breathing divine energy. Because her Demonic Energy Primordial Spirit could go anywhere.
Yelu Zhen asked.
“Will you continue?”
“If you stayed still, it would be just a blink of an eye. Yet you came all the way here…”
“What’s like me?”
“Though your character is greatly crumpled, your vessel is quite solid… In any case, isn’t this like stealing a peek at someone’s diary? What kind of amusement is this?”
“Where in the world is there anything more entertaining than this?”
“That’s…”
Yelu Zhen couldn’t answer.
Suddenly Jeong Yeon-shin looked at her head. A crown perfect for placing his hand upon.
In an instant, at a speed hardly surpassable, Yelu Zhen retreated one step.
“Don’t even dream of it.”
“Heavenly Demon Domination Steps has no retreat footwork.”
“My movement itself is footwork. In any case, my younger brother has developed a vicious hobby.”
“I won’t abuse it carelessly. Only for those I must cherish… Aren’t you a suitable candidate?”
Yelu Zhen shook her head.
“My essence, energy, and spirit are thoroughly complete. Just do what you were doing.”
Along the tip of her chin, space split apart.
The widening crack. It swelled into another background in an instant.
Because the past world of Jeong Yeon-shin that Yelu Zhen had been controlling was released. The sky painted blue in all directions like a brush stroke.
Woom.
Even in that moment, Yelu Zhen didn’t mention flower viewing. Because her sincerity could be felt, Jeong Yeon-shin nodded. Indeed, how could flower viewing suit the Heavenly Demon?
‘She must have forgotten. That’s fine then.’
Simultaneously, she spoke.
“Don’t make me wait long.”
Deliberately choosing to wait. Without using her upper dantian, if she just closed and opened her eyes once, he’d be back.
“Dan Seong-eum would mock this.”
The world’s most useless imitation of Dan Family’s Time Transcendence Technique.
Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head and walked. Behind him was Yelu Zhen’s presence scattering like flower petals. Together with her voice flowing faintly.
“I waited a long time…”
“Dan Seong-eum would burst out laughing.”
A thought he’d acquired like a habit toward those who’d commented this way and that about Sword Star’s three-year mourning. Soon after, Jeong Yeon-shin scoffed. How much could she have waited?
Now Yelu Zhen was nowhere to be seen.
Step.
Before he knew it, greenery spread beneath his feet. Grassland with sparse vegetation. Only dry wind swept over his skin.
The distant Tian Shan mountain range.
‘I can tell just from the ridgeline.’
Because it was filled with rounded or half-pointed mountain peaks. A demon realm to those who despised Ming Cult’s remnants. A wall protecting indigenous nomads from foreign powers and northern winds.
“Would you like some?”
Some girl’s question.
Jeong Yeon-shin looked down at a fluffy sheep. Below it, a girl about ten years old stood up while wiping her mouth. Together with the beast’s fishy smell.
The girl said with an indifferent face.
“There won’t be much until tomorrow. I milked and drank a lot.”
It was Baek Mi-ryeo.
No need to guess from physique, location, and energy wave. Because her features were hers.
He’d also heard she grew up harshly under Baek Seo’s tacit consent.
Jeong Yeon-shin muttered.
“I didn’t know you took a sheep as your mother.”
Young Baek Mi-ryeo’s eyes widened. Then she spat out as if talking to herself.
“You’re from the Central Plains after all. Your face and clothes are so shiny.”
Her tone suggested children drinking directly from livestock were common. Even Jeong Yeon-shin’s faded long robe seemed to look like imperial robes.
It was a period when famine raised its head. In barren outlands, it would have been even worse.
Then the girl held out her shabby arms.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s question followed.
“What…?”
“I’ll be captured.”
“What?”
“Didn’t a hero come targeting a demonic cult’s branch descendant? You seem to be showing respect because you know my identity.”
“…Pure Demon Alliance disguised you well. At this rate, I wouldn’t notice even passing by.”
“Disguised?”
Young Baek Mi-ryeo’s head tilted. Over her shoulder, Pure Demon Alliance masters could be seen. Running from afar holding plows, their momentum perfect like unique weapons.
“A Central Plains bastard!”
“Inform the Branch Leader!”
Jeong Yeon-shin had already encountered that Branch Leader in his maternal grandfather’s memories. The person who ended Ma Jin’s lineage. A fearsome plow.
Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
“Your sister?”
“You’re targeting my sister too? I heard Central Plains martial artists are mad with ambition, but I didn’t know someone with such discerning features would be like that…”
Discussing features with an appearance especially poor even among nomads. Jeong Yeon-shin couldn’t continue. Because it meant he’d appeared narrow-minded in Baek Mi-ryeo’s first impression.
‘Now would be better though…?’
Jeong Yeon-shin wondered. What kind of existence had his childhood self been to the seniors? They’d definitely taken care of him a lot.
Then Baek Mi-ryeo was boasting about Baek Seo.
“My sister is incredibly strong, and she’s currently on a jianghu journey to greatly raise Pure Demon Alliance. She even met a decent sucker.”
Deliberately buying time.
In case she willingly got captured by Jeong Yeon-shin, then got rescued and returned, it would be troublesome. Even if she inwardly wanted to escape Pure Demon Alliance, she couldn’t do so recklessly.
Whoosh!
Grass leaves flew roughly from afar. Demon cult members holding plows rapidly approached with Grass-Treading Step lightness skill while shouting.
“How did you find out! How did you secretly enter the Inner Grassland!”
“Seeing conduct targeting children first, you must have lost your parents young and earned curses even with your jianghu title after growing up!”
“……!”
Though their dozen faces were mud-covered like farmers, this place was close to a demon den. Only food was lacking.
Desolate Day Extinction Jeong Yeon-shin turned around thinking.
‘Senior Baek must have been lonely too.’
Pure Demon Alliance’s main branch was in Sichuan. Very far from here. Baek Mi-ryeo was the second successor prepared for when Baek Seo died.
Moreover, Yelu Zhen’s maternal second cousin once removed.
Befitting a branch of the Demonic Path Main Family, she was raised in harsh conditions. Perhaps even now she might be skilled at plowing.
Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth.
“Soon a reliable person will come. A man dark as an abyss in propriety and law, but with strong responsibility.”
Then he turned around.
Simultaneously he felt through energy sense. Disappointment was staining the girl’s face. Like himself watching his father Jeong Pan-yue go flower viewing in Suzhou taking only his two older brothers.
* * *
Tears bloomed like flowers.
On young Ma Jin’s face.
After Jeong Yeon-shin gestured to push forward several years. In the rapidly flowing time, the Radiant Demon Wing Leader had seized Baek Mi-ryeo. Together with Burning Abyss Squad that followed as support.
And already Xi’an.
Jeong Yeon-shin saw his uncle in such a pitiful state for the first time.
“Haah…”
In a familiar marketplace alley, Ma Jin was leaning against an inn wall. His blue martial robe with roughly washed bloodstains stood out. His pants seemed newly changed.
Burning Abyss Squad Leader Yu Jeong-myeong looked at him silently, then spoke with some difficulty.
“Though you paid a great sacrifice, thanks to you, Sichuan’s people’s livelihood will improve. Because Pure Demon Alliance Lord can’t run wild as if she has two lives. With such merit, you could try challenging the black rank promotion.”
“Yes, well.”
“I didn’t know you’d break through the storm of explosive release power and snatch the child. It’s not possible with Radiant Demon Technique alone. Indeed, Combined Harmony Divine Technique’s divine power lives up to its reputation.”
“My virility disappeared.”
Then Yu Jeong-myeong silently patted Ma Jin’s shoulder, then startled by his “Ah, ah” groans, returned to the inn.
Swish…
Only his Form Shifting Void’s afterimage remained like Fastest among Black Ranks trace, and from the inn window, Baek Mi-ryeo’s face peeked out. A plow was gripped in her hand on the window ledge.
“Hey, are you alright?”
“Sleep.”
“Yes…”
The now-silent alley. Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously tried approaching Ma Jin but stopped. Because Radiant Demon Wing Leader of that time, Demon-Subduing Strange Hero Xiahou Yu, descended before Ma Jin.
Step.
Hair cut short below the neck. A fist technique practitioner who’d refined Radiant Demon Technique close combat to the extreme. What comfort would such a strong-spirited previous generation senior Radiant Demon Wing Leader offer Ma Jin?
“I have lost too.”
She said.
‘That’s true.’
It was when Desolate Fortress Lord Jeong Yeon-shin learned empathy as a superior’s virtue. Suddenly he witnessed Ma Jin’s ultimate technique he’d never seen before. The technique’s name was Insubordination.
Thwack!
Xiahou Yu immediately retreated with footwork while muttering.
“Your upper dantian is unusual. Though you’re blue rank, essence, energy, and spirit seem to be unifying, the same efficacy as Virgin Power Technique. That is, essence rises to spirit amplifying explosive release power in a virtuous cycle… Is it thanks to Combined Harmony Divine Technique?”
The deserted alley smelled of the main fortress. Jeong Yeon-shin smiled faintly and gestured.
Whoosh!
The scenery blurred like galloping on a warhorse.
As his momentarily hazy vision returned, the surroundings changed once more. A very familiar feeling. It was atop Radiant Demon Wing Hall’s roof.
The atmosphere was gloomy.
Fallen leaves rolling around the training ground, battle cries nowhere, pressed collective energy waves.
Familiar air. When Radiant Demon Wing seniors died in Sichuan, during the collective funeral after the Desolate Fortress Great Battle…
‘Senior Xiahou passed away.’
Right after Radiant Demon Wing Lord Xiahou Yu was killed by Thirteen Evil Sects’ Sword Alliance at that time. Around now, Lim Jin-ming was probably pondering how to lure Blood Flame Cult Lord and Heaven-Conquering Sect Leader to Sword Alliance.
Thud.
Two familiar people were crouched at the hall entrance. Cheong Myeong and Baek Mi-ryeo. Two people in their late teens wearing white martial robes.
Cheong Myeong spoke.
“Already white rank after joining… Your talent is considerable too. Now I understand why Senior Ma Jin urgently taught you Radiant Demon Technique. You don’t carry a plow around anymore either.”
Baek Mi-ryeo’s face was indifferent.
“I’m overwhelmed that Noble Clan Elder praises me. We’re only talking after becoming white rank peers.”
“I’m the same age. Growing up in the secular world makes you mature faster. Like someone who touched demonic cultivation.”
When Baek Mi-ryeo flinched at those words, Cheong Myeong’s eyes curved into crescents. Even to Jeong Yeon-shin, it wasn’t a very good temperament. Needless to say, Baek Mi-ryeo’s tone became prickly like a hedgehog.
“You grew up at Heaven Pillar Sect. That’s a Noble Clan sect, so it’s hard to consider secular.”
“If I say that, martial artists see me as a young monster. I’m just weak but they think I’m pretending to be. How convenient?”
“You’ll get hurt badly if caught.”
“Usually I kill them before that. Because they look at my swordplay as mysteriously profound.”
Young Cheong Myeong spoke brazenly. Enough that Baek Mi-ryeo shook her head.
“You’re a demon sword. Even your eyes are piercing blue…”
After that, the two became close within days.
Was it because they both lost siblings or were effectively estranged? Cheong Myeong and Baek Mi-ryeo seemed to have great expectations for Radiant Demon Wing’s future juniors.
Their conversations remained in all sorts of places, training ground, hall, Heavenly Gold Martial Arsenal, outer fortress.
“Mi-ryeo, let’s remember yesterday’s inn. The cook’s skill was decent.”
“How many can we bring along?”
“Next year’s Desolate test? Let’s not expect much. The Fortress Lord was looking more strictly.”
“If we can help even one person escape junior status, I can cook for them. You just go milk camel milk at the stable.”
“Your skill is obvious… What if a junior likes Five Cloud Mountain Vegetable Dish?”
“There’s no such trash person that exists.”
* * *
Time flowed.
Jeong Yeon-shin silently watched until Baek Mi-ryeo became attached to Desolate Fortress. While occasionally pulling the years forward.
After skipping a few more times, trash entered Desolate Fortress. Fifteen-year-old Jeong Yeon-shin was at Radiant Demon Wing Hall.
Fortress Lord Jeong Yeon-shin could see again the seniors’ words and conduct he’d experienced then.
“Lightning Genius.”
“Spirit shows. Guys like you don’t die easily.”
“Martial prowess transcending age.”
“Radiant Demon Wing has gained a treasure.”
Before the disgraceful name Desolate Day Extinction arose. The main fortress’s temperature was different. Jeong Yeon-shin silently thought. That time was good.
An era when people he couldn’t see anymore and people he could see anytime had the same tone…
“……”
Jeong Yeon-shin turned his back on his white rank self who, unlike now, was being treated lavishly. Because some wind tickled his back.
Rustle.
A feeling of being touched by soft hands. As if hesitating momentarily. It precisely reached Jeong Yeon-shin who’d been treading distant wispy clouds.
‘I was detected.’
An absolute being’s whisper swept past his ear.
“Lightning Genius.”
“…Master.”
“I waited long.”
It was Desolate Fortress Lord Weii Gun-hye’s voice. Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously opened his mouth.
“Dan Seong-eum… Ah.”
Stopping quickly, he slowly walked down toward the Fortress Lord’s office.
His master with intact memories was waiting.