The power wave of the Heavenly Demon Divine Armor suddenly dissipated. It was because the Murong Clan's leader, sensing Yeonshin's peculiar aura, immediately withdrew it.
He seemed particularly unsettled by Jung Yeonshin's transparent gaze.
"...."
Many eyes were fixed on the open space at the summit, a place close to a wasteland.
The dozens of Slaughter Sect warriors, who had been acting as the ruling force of the grand city of Taiyuan, the Radiant Demon Squad's elites, and the previous Divine Sword Order's leader, all were scrutinizing the Radiant Demon Squad's leader and the Murong Clan's leader, each wearing a different expression.
Anxiety, shock, doubt, various emotions flowed into Jung Yeonshin's upper dantian. The crowd harbored all sorts of thoughts.
Hanging onto the cliffs on both sides, standing far away in a corner of the open space, halfway up the sloping path…
'I must surpass this here.'
Jung Yeonshin paid no heed to the Murong Clan's leader's intent.
A faint heat emanated from the Beiming in his right hand. The radiant wheel of his heart had also begun to turn slowly.
The words that the head of a martial sect had spat at Desolate Fortress' Sacred Warrior grated on his nerves. He had claimed that Heon Wonchang's Energy Meridians and Eight Vessels should have been entirely extracted.
"Such a lack of refinement."
The Radiant Demon Squad's leader parted his lips before the Murong Clan's leader.
"At your age, and yet you know no shame."
He spoke without much thought.
As the hem of a pink robe, far away on the sloped path, flinched, Jung Yeonshin's icy blue eyes gleamed as he confronted the Murong Clan's leader.
Translucent, colorless petals flickered in and out of existence before his eyes.
It was because he was restraining the activation of Ultimate Thunder. He aimed to sustain it for as long as possible.
At the same time, he measured the sword authority of the Star-Radiance Grand Sword Lord.
The formless energy waves scraping his skin, the ceaselessly vibrating flow of the air, the equilibrium of the Murong Clan's leader standing firm on his robust legs, and the way he gripped his sword, all of these elements composed an intangible domain.
In Jung Yeonshin's eyes, an intricate space filled with countless trajectories unfolded.
Centered around Murong Zhongrak, it had long since encompassed a radius of about thirty zhang. It was as if he were declaring his complete mastery as a swordsman.
The Murong Clan's leader was a name no one in Murim would fail to recognize.
Jung Yeonshin reflected on the martial arts he had honed.
'How much will they work against him?'
It had already begun, his duel with the Murong Clan's leader.
"Your sight arts are quite extraordinary."
Murong Zhongrak met Jung Yeonshin's bluish gaze.
With a subtle smile befitting a great noble, he adjusted his grip on his sword, his fingers shifting ever so slightly, altering the form of his sword energy with each movement.
The airflow flowing opaquely between his thumb and forefinger alternated between sharp swiftness and heavy sluggishness. He controlled it with absolute ease.
As if testing Jung Yeonshin's insight, the depths of his swordsmanship remained a mystery.
"Liangdong is a harsh land."
Murong Zhongrak said.
"It is nothing like the comfort of Huguang. A truly brutal land. The swordsmen of the Green Forest inherit the temperament of the North, making them immensely savage. Those who have never lost their homeland will struggle to withstand such a land."
It was as if they were exchanging letters through spoken words. He was directing his message toward Jung Yeonshin.
With the soft, flowery lands of Huguang, the swords Jung Yeonshin wielded could never stand against the indomitable will of Liangdong.
But his attention was actually fixed on Ma Yeonjeok. While observing the presence of another strong warrior, he had merely provoked Jung Yeonshin in passing. It was evident to all.
The Murong Clan.
A martial clan settled east of the Liao River. They traced their lineage back to the Murong Xianbei clan, descendants of the fallen Yan Dynasty long before the rise of the Ming Dynasty.
Their lingering resentment was infused into their Meteor Sword Style, the most ferocious among the Eight Great Clans' sword arts.
Jung Yeonshin tilted his head slightly.
"Isn't it just an old, fallen kingdom?"
"…Those without heritage all speak the same. Even if you bear the blood of the Ma Clan of Desolate Fortress, you are no different."
Murong Zhongrak raised his sword. The hem of his white long robe lifted slightly.
A fierce gust of wind surged forth.
A chilling touch swept across Jung Yeonshin's face. This was different from his battle against Zhuge Cheonsang.
Unlike that chaotic fight, this was a one-on-one life-or-death duel between two leaders of the Eight Great Clans. Their sword authority clashed directly.
At this moment, his right palm, linked to the Beiming Sword, absorbed more radiant wheel energy than ever before.
'Sword Thunder Flash Art.'
Jung Yeonshin awakened the acupoints throughout his entire body.
His muscles repeatedly contracted and expanded. It was a preparatory stance for full-body force emission, imperceptible from the outside.
However, the Murong Clan's leader seemed to have noticed it. The look in his eyes, fixed on Jung Yeonshin, sharpened intensely.
The treasured sword of the Murong Clan gleamed with a fierce, bluish light.
It was coming. He knew it at once.
Jung Yeonshin pushed off the ground with his right foot first. A powerful gust of wind surged from underfoot. Wind Body. His form blended into the transparent breeze sweeping toward the peak.
In the instant he lowered and raised his eyelids, Murong Zhongrak's upper body filled his vision. He had closed a three-zhang distance in a blink, right after Jung Yeonshin fully activated Ultimate Thunder.
Saaaaaaak—!
A fierce wind wrapped around the blade of Beiming as it slashed upward. The Judgment Qilin mnemonic verse turned even the most casual sword swing into a Swift Sword technique.
A domineering force was entirely condensed into a single sword path—neat and precise, like Azure Qilin.
Clang!
Murong Zhongrak's sword hilt struck down on the Beiming.
A refined defensive maneuver. It was like hammering with a sword wave.
For a brief moment, a dull vibration rippled outward, casting a long shadow over Jung Yeonshin's face as he raised his eyebrows. A deep voice accompanied it.
"Hidden Black Star."
The words were muttered swiftly through the Art of Lip Synchronization.
Murong Zhongrak had spoken the name of his technique while everyone already knew his status. It was nothing short of mockery.
Facing the Radiant Demon Squad's leader, who was vastly inferior in both age and reputation, he still sought to uphold his own honor.
The descending sword wave was overwhelmingly ferocious, tangling Jung Yeonshin's hair into a disheveled mess.
It was a single technique that involved striking down with a sword wave while letting the blade drop, but Murong Zhongrak, with a mere flick of his wrist, unleashed a peerless force emission.
Jung Yeonshin responded with the Second Form of Sword Thunder Flash Art, cutting upward while withdrawing his body. From the firmly braced thumb that supported the sword wave, the Nine Azure Rivers counterstroke sprouted.
Zzeoooong!
A tremendous impact surged through his palm. The opponent's sword energy tore into the flesh beneath his thumb, sending the shock all the way down to his feet. His leap came to an abrupt halt.
The ground beneath his leather shoes caved in with a rough sound. As his vantage point sank lower, the translucent lotus of Ultimate Thunder wavered once.
Through that gap, Murong Zhongrak's voice rang out.
"You withstand this. It's as if I'm facing the Ruyi Spring Squad's leader."
The origin of the voice was above Jung Yeonshin's head. The following words came from the same elevated height.
"How about Expansive Starfall Sword Rain?"
Before he even finished speaking, Murong Zhongrak executed his second technique. In an instant, the sky rippled. The sword energy, spreading vast and wide, made the air shimmer.
Unlike Jung Yeonshin, who wielded his entire body like a sword, Murong Zhongrak treated a mere blade of iron as an extension of near-absolute internal energy mastery.
Meteor Sword Style—Expansive Starfall Sword Rain.
Saaaaaa—
It sounded like paper scraping against itself in midair. An immense sword aura radiated. Invisible swords were descending from the heavens.
Dozens of them. With each brief moment they neared the ground, their sword energy amplified. The sun's rays warped in all directions in that fleeting instant.
The intent within the technique—the Sword Will—was clear.
'Your movements are decent, so let's see you dodge this as well.'
It didn't feel like human effort. The boundary between martial arts and sorcery blurred. This was clearly the realm of absolute mastery.
Swish.
Jung Yeonshin placed the Beiming's blade against his left shoulder, covering it with the flat of his sword.
"Hm?"
Murong Zhongrak, who had been raising his sword, let out a questioning sound.
Beneath Jung Yeonshin's feet, a subtle tremor erupted.
The next moment, his body blurred, and a faint trail of light carved a straight line through the air.
Murong Zhongrak's eyes widened.
This was no ordinary movement technique.
Suddenly appearing right in front of him, the Radiant Demon Squad's leader lunged with his sword-pressed shoulder, crashing into him.
An instant as noble and intense as a comet.
Kwaaaaaang!
Murong Zhongrak's body was flung off the cliffside.
It happened immediately after a massive shockwave erupted in a perfect circle from where he had been standing.
The peak's surface was crushed. The sound of stone shattering followed the two combatants' movements.
Their battleground had moved into midair.
Flipping in the sky, the Murong Clan's leader stepped onto the air using the Void Stepping technique.
"That bastard."
His eyes narrowed.
The Radiant Demon Squad's leader, who had just unleashed an outrageous force strike, was now racing up the cliffside, continuously kicking off its surface.
The faint halo of light spreading from his foot bleached the rock face pale. It was a scene as majestic as if he were tracing constellations across the vast ridgeline.
Behind him—
Kugu-gooong—!
The cliff edge where the two had stood crumbled completely beneath the force of Expansive Starfall Sword Rain. The dry terrain couldn't withstand the formless swords pouring down like rainfall.
As massive boulders plummeted with a deafening roar—
'I wasn't mistaken.'
Murong Zhongrak thought. The technique that the Radiant Demon Squad's leader had just executed was the problem.
It resembled an ancient method of Radiant Concealed Art.
A supreme technique that the Profound Martial Alliance's leader had trained in for a lifetime had just been manifested through the sword-braced shoulder of the Radiant Demon Squad's leader.
A technique that simultaneously merged offense and defense for maximum efficiency.
Had the Radiant Demon Squad's leader been clad in protective energy equivalent to an advanced divine skill, even defending with a sword might not have prevented internal injuries. He wouldn't have simply been flung back, he would have suffered serious damage.
"I admit, I underestimated you."
At that age, to wield the Dragon Fist of the North and be worthy of discussing martial arts alongside Ruyi Spring Squad's leader Bukgung Ah, his talent might even rival Invincible Laughing Heaven of the Ming Cult.
It meant he had a high possibility of growing into a peerless martial master fit to stand by the Lord of Desolate Fortress. And in a short time at that.
Indeed, he was a sprout that needed to be cut down.
There was no room to hold back strength while pondering over warriors suspected of being rogue heroes. This battle required his full power. He was on the verge of perfecting the martial path that would restore the lost glory of the Yan Dynasty.
If he could cut down that young yet brilliant sword prodigy, and cross blades with the one who had torn off the Profound Martial Alliance's leader's arm, he could completely internalize the enlightenment he had accumulated over the years.
Murong Zhongrak's jet-black eyebrows hardened into a straight line.
Meteor Sword Style—Calamity-Casting Thunder Dash.
His form, which had been poised midair, suddenly vanished. He had completely disappeared.
The eyes that had been locked onto Radiant Demon Squad's leader, racing up the cliffside, blurred into a streak of deep blue light stretching long and far, then came to an abrupt halt right in front of him.
Jung Yeonshin, who had been sprinting along the cliff face, stepped forward into a True Advance. His reaction speed was like a flash of light. The rock wall shattered with a crash, and his long hair was swept backward all at once.
The shockwave from Murong Zhongrak, who had suddenly appeared before his eyes, was immense. The sword trajectory extending toward him was far faster than his own hands.
Kwaaaaaang!
A blinding white flash erupted before his eyes.
It was as if a thunderbolt had struck, he could see nothing.
Even with the Heaven-Piercing Technique activated, if his vision was this impaired, Murong Clan's leader's sight must have been the same.
However, the searing pain of his torn palm seemed to belong to him alone.
For just an instant, the dull, hollow sensation of Beiming Sword's blade splitting in two spread through his grip.