Chapter 99

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Translated by Seoulbound

Read it only at Novelbyu.com & Utoon.net
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**

A pitched battle.

It refers to an event where two forces pour in all their strength to fight in a single promised area.

Ultimately, it was a matter that had no choice but to carry the destinies of two sects.

Since the victory of a pitched battle soon proved the victory of that force.

“This is a complete plot twist.”

“Indeed. To think that the allied forces of the Zhuge Clan and the Dawn Sky Blood Cult would be blocked by the Wudang Sect alone.”

“Should we downgrade our evaluation of the Blood Cult’s strength?”

“No. We must upgrade our evaluation of the Wudang Sect’s strength.”

The man who answered his subordinates’ words.

Gold-Knot Wandering Beggar, the Central Courtyard Branch Leader of the Beggars’ Sect, continued his words.

“They defeated an alliance of one of the Seven Great Clans and one of the Six Great Evils. Their class is different, far beyond simply dismissing them as one of the Nine Great Sects and One Association.”

“It also seems significant that the factions opposing the alliance with the Blood Cult within the Zhuge Clan were excluded.”

“Also, only two bloodlines of the Blood Cult had advanced into the Central Plains.”

“Even so, two sects combined their capabilities. Think about the Beggars’ Sect facing them right now. Would we be able to annihilate them like the Wudang Sect did?”

“…”

Not a single beggar answered Gold-Knot Wandering Beggar’s question.

Looking at his subordinates, Gold-Knot Wandering Beggar continued.

“Furthermore, the Wudang Sect was not even able to fully exert all its strength either.”

Meanwhile, the report on the strength confirmed at the time of the pitched battle he handed over was grasped in the hands of his subordinates.

“The mobilized strength. It is only about half of the True Martial Pavilion. Even among the Eight Disciples, only three entered the battlefield. And since they say the Medicine Immortal did not even step onto the front lines, only two actually held swords.”

And one of those two decisively altered the situation of the battlefield.

The world’s number one sword.

However, a person about whom rumors were rife due to his long seclusion.

“We did not know the Sword Immortal was still alive and well.”

“Especially since there were even rumors that he had been heavily injured in the decisive battle with the Northern Emperor’s Fortress Lord and had ascended to heaven.”

It was a secret history not widely known in the Jianghu.

A speculation that even the Beggars’ Sect could not verify the truth of.

However, it was a rumor that had arisen because he had hidden himself from the Jianghu for too long compared to his personality and righteous mind.

And by revealing himself in this battle with the Zhuge Clan, it was revealed that those words were true to some extent.

“He appeared while having lost half of his body.”

“And they say he had even lost his right hand at that.”

It was said that the Sword Immortal, reappearing with a crippled body, boasted a marvelous divine power.

In a situation where the eyewitness accounts of Beggars’ Sect disciples who dared not join the fight were coming in one after another. According to the real-time information, the collapse of the Zhuge Clan’s formation was due to a single sword strike from the Sword Immortal.

“Yet they say he faced the Marquis of Divine Martialry and two of the Blood Cult’s Blood Lords all at once and overwhelmed them.”

“At that level, it would not be an exaggeration to call it his peak capability.”

The three strongest forces prepared by the Zhuge Clan were blocked by the Sword Immortal alone.

In essence, the outcome of the battle had been decided right there.

“Since it has been confirmed that the Sword Immortal is alive and well, it would be acceptable to place the Wudang Sect on equal footing with Shaolin.”

At those words, the opinions of the beggars gathered in the Central Courtyard Branch office began to diverge.

From the opinion that they were still far from it, to the opinion that they could easily be compared if they had the Sword Immortal.

While they were in such an uproar.

The door to the meeting room opened.

A disciple carrying a tired-looking carrier pigeon container entered.

It was Sang-won, the Beggars’ Sect disciple who had previously been with the True Martial Pavilion disciples in Wuchang and Zhushan.

However, the Central Courtyard Branch executives gathered in the meeting room continued their debate without turning their heads toward Sang-won.

Meanwhile.

“Here, according to the newly received information, the Wudang Sect’s Young Bringer of Chaos against the Zhuge Clan’s Eldest Young Master…”

The moment the name Young Bringer of Chaos came out of Sang-won’s mouth, the eyes of those gathered focused on Sang-won.

Young Bringer of Chaos.

It was another moniker given to him because the moniker ‘Bringer of Chaos’ did not match his age. News regarding the few rising stars evaluated as ‘Dragons ‘ was more important than the weighing between Wudang and Shaolin.

“What about the Zhuge Clan’s Eldest Young Master!”

“Speak quickly!”

Accusations from the executives poured over Sang-won who paused for a moment, and Sang-won continued after taking a brief breath.

“…He reportedly even defeated Sagacious Eye Scholar.”

Instantly, silence descended upon the noisy room.

“That Sagacious Eye Scholar?”

“Yes, the Sagacious Eye Scholar who is the younger brother of the Marquis of Divine Martialry.”

“They say there was a melee, so it is not that the Young Bringer of Chaos engaged in a battle of attrition?”

“It is written that the relay battle was suffered by the Young Bringer of Chaos…”

“Really?”

“Ah, according to the information received here, it is written so.”

At those words, the branch members gathered in the Central Courtyard Branch exchanged glances.

The eyes of those who had initially argued that comparing the Wudang Sect to Shaolin was still far-fetched slithered downward.

And the conclusion reached?

– If we stay like this for just five more years, the Wudang Sect might surpass the Shaolin Temple.

That was the final evaluation of the Central Courtyard Branch of the Beggars’ Sect, which was closest to the Wudang Sect.

**

“They say the Zhuge Clan branch families who did not cooperate with the Blood Cult have sent official documents to our main sect.”

“They were martial clan nobles. Their complete collapse is not entirely a good thing.”

“Although they say they have definitely expelled those who cooperated with the Blood Cult, can we really guarantee that there are no remnants left?”

The road back to Wudang Mountain at last, after the pitched battle and the aftermath were all finished.

His senior brothers and sisters were talking about the intimate affairs of the Jianghu, but it did not enter his ears easily.

‘The path to the Nascent Soul Stage.’

Because he was busy even just sorting out the realizations obtained through the fierce battle of his Grand-Master, the Zhuge Clan, and the Blood Cult’s Blood Lords.

‘The shortcut was indeed utilizing quantum tunneling.’

Something he had felt since before.

While the natural energy filling heaven and earth flowed, moved, and was transmitted like a wave, the internal strength, which was natural energy accumulated in the body through a martial artist’s breathing, changed states just like a particle.

When the amount of accumulated internal power was minuscule and not pure, it behaved like a gas or a wave, and as the volume of accumulated qi increased and the method of accumulating internal strength in the body developed, it grew thick like a liquid and even clumped like a solid.

The internal strength moving like a particle, like an object with physical reality, moved along the acupoints and energy channels.

As the Conception and Governing Vessels passing through the centerline of our bodies were blocked by the small barrier of the Hundred Convergences acupoint.

‘If it only behaved like a particle, it could never be pierced.’

Therefore, he turned the particles back into waves.

A matter made possible by doing so.

Even though there was a wall, it became no different from not being there.

It was the result of applying the proficiency of returning force obtained while cutting down blood ghouls in Guizhou to his upper dantian’s internal power operation.

It was a realm that could be reached only after arriving at the state of internal power utilization precise enough to control a single particle of internal power.

And what happened was:

While the internal strength was moving along the energy channels, it acted like a wave.

When it was emitted outside the body, it acted like a particle again.

It moved as if the two states were ‘entangled’ (entwined).

Thus it was possible.

‘Convergence and divergence were possible simultaneously.’

Because various states could coexist, he operated returning force where internal power gathered and swirled, and release of force which emitted internal power, at the same time.

Carrying out two completely opposite operations of internal power at once.

He had reached the Neutralizing Force stage.

Along with that, a completely different world unfolded before his eyes.

The amount and processing speed of information entering his head through his upper dantian became exponentially faster.

Matters that were impossible before became possible.

One of them was his cutting down of Sagacious Eye Scholar, the younger brother of the Zhuge Family Head.

‘I will organize the things that can be accomplished in this sense and state.’

That sensation felt like a dream even now.

But he could not be drunk on a dream.

For it was because a passage from The Art of War by Sun Tzu, which he had read during his Library Pavilion training under his Master’s orders, came to mind.

‘If you know the enemy and know yourself, you will not be in danger.’

If he were drunk on a dream, he would not be able to fully comprehend himself.

While organizing his thoughts like that, the advice that Senior Brother Myeong-jin had given him previously came to mind.

‘If it is now.’

The thirst he had felt when he first cut down a Vajra Bloodline practitioner.

‘I might even be able to operate two types of martial arts at once.’

He could even think that if he systematized that method a bit more, the probability of Wudang Sect disciples surviving in times of chaos would rise a little further.

The nightmare he still occasionally had even now.

He felt like he could shake off the dream of the main mountain being invaded by blood ghouls, and his martial nephews of the Yang generation and Hwan-yang suffering at the hands of the blood ghouls.

And.

‘Because if you depart from the opponent’s expectations, the opponent cannot know themselves and know you.’

The best way to make the opponent not know him.

Was to possess moves that departed from the opponent’s predictions.

**

Myeong-hun looked at Yeon Baek-jung, who was lost in meditation inside the returning carriage, and sent a telepathic message.

[Junior Brother’s reputation will rise even higher, right?]

[Since he cut down both the Zhuge Clan’s Eldest Young Master and Sagacious Eye Scholar’s head. He will draw attention from all the sects that produced the Eight Talents of the Rising Wave.]

Myeong-jin, who closed his eyes with folded arms, answered and turned his attention to Yeon Baek-jung.

The movement of swirling internal power was forming an air current inside the carriage.

A sign that he was completely concentrating on internal strength training.

Since it was always like this when he concentrated while feeling safe among his senior brothers.

The three people riding in the carriage together.

Smiles formed on the faces of Myeong-jin, Myeong-hun, and Yi Chae-yang.

Since a martial artist disconnecting from the outside to that extent meant they trusted their companions that much.

It was a pleasant thing for the senior brothers and sister that their junior brother, who was growing infinitely fast, trusted them.

Just at that gratifying moment.

Yi Chae-yang looked at Myeong-hun’s face and asked mischievously.

[Are you perhaps jealous? Because his reputation became greater than yours?]

[Am I like Junior Sister Yi?]

[What?]

Although Myeong-jin’s closed eyes did not open even as the Supreme Clarity Free Hand clashed in the small space of the carriage.

[Enough.]

The bickering of the two stopped at that single short word.

After a short silence flowed like that, Myeong-hun spoke softly.

[It is because I am worried. I wonder if he is driving himself too hard.]

Before Yeon Baek-jung entered the True Martial Pavilion, the one who heard the word ‘genius’ was Myeong-hun.

His talent was counted among the best even in the Wudang Sect where geniuses were kicked around at one’s feet. He could not possibly be ignorant of the burden when receiving overflowing expectations.

Myeong-jin, who had his eyes closed, also nodded inwardly.

At the time when they were wiping out the blood ghouls at the Murim Alliance’s Guizhou branch.

Because he remembered the gazes of the Lord of the Mysterious Heaven Pavilion, Immortal Mang-won, and the other martial artists of the Murim Alliance branch.

‘It would be hard to endure with average guts.’

If Myeong-jin thought of receiving the gazes they sent to Yeon Baek-jung himself, he felt it would not be easy to endure for even a single day.

In addition, in this pitched battle with the Zhuge Clan, he cut down the Zhuge Clan’s Eldest Young Master and even the Family Head’s younger brother, Sagacious Eye Scholar.

It was bound to be an event as shocking as when the Young Spirit Slayer of the River of Three Crossings, one of the wings of the Six Great Evils, cut down the Mount Heng elder.

The gazes looking at Yeon Baek-jung not only within the sect but also outside the sect were bound to change.

‘Because it will not be a gaze looking at him as a simple rising star.’

At that, Yi Chae-yang chuckled and replied.

[If it were anyone else, I don’t know, but Junior Brother Yeon will be fine.]

Myeong-jin’s eyes opened at her words, which sounded full of conviction.

Receiving Myeong-jin’s questioning gaze, Yi Chae-yang moved her lips slightly.

[Think about the evaluations the junior brother received before he entered the True Martial Pavilion.]

At Yi Chae-yang’s words, Myeong-hun and Myeong-jin searched their memories for what evaluations Yeon Baek-jung had received in the past.

– A nuisance who could not display all the talent he possessed.

– A lazy genius.

⁝

They realized that he was receiving completely different evaluations in less than a year.

Yet, had the junior brother been burdened by such evaluations?

– Indeed. Wudang of the South!

– Then that boy is?

– Yes! The Bringer of Chaos that appeared in the Wudang Sect!

– They said he was young for his moniker.

– Grow up quickly and become one of the Ten Swords rather than the Nine Swords!

What was the reaction shown by Yeon Baek-jung, who heard praises from the commoners of Hubei?

It was not a reaction that those of his age group would typically show.

[He merely twitched the corner of his mouth slightly.]

[Since he hid his heart’s movement with just that.]

That appearance resembled Immortal Gangwon, who always had no change in expression.

They realized.

The junior brother was someone who, if anything, enjoyed such attention, not someone who would collapse under burden.

However, they did not know.

A fact they could not know because they themselves were not the youngest junior brother.

The fact that when Yeon Baek-jung received interest and attention, the potential energy of his middle dantian always rose.

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