Chapter 222 - Radiant Genius Formula (2)

The Radiant Demon Squad’s main training ground.

It was spacious enough to accommodate a good five hundred people, with all manner of weapons lined up on marble racks. The vast expanse of earth had been packed exceptionally hard from enduring countless forceful stomps.

SWISH! BANG!

Martial artists of every kind were swinging their weapons. Sharp waves of force erupted incessantly amid their disorderly ranks.

Men and women alike were powerful. Not a single person present was anything less than an expert.

“I heard there was some commotion over at the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace?”

“They say a bolt of lightning struck in broad daylight. I’m worried about our captain’s safety.”

“Oh, stop. Who are you to worry about a Black?”

“The veteran captains can take care of themselves. With protective force qi like theirs, I wouldn’t be surprised if they could withstand heaven’s punishment. Their internal cultivation is at least at Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. They must be able to raise a shield of core energy with a mere thought.”

“I’m a little less certain about our captain... but with those senses, he must have managed something. The seniors are there too. And isn’t the hall protected by the noble race’s secret Enchantments in the first place?”

“What if it wasn’t lightning, but an intruder?”

“Then that’s his misfortune. There are six captains in the hall right now. The chief administrator’s internal cultivation has reportedly reached Three Flowers Gather at the Crown too, so you could easily count him as a seventh. It’s rare to have so many gathered together. Wouldn’t that make it the most dangerous place under heaven?”

“If it were truly serious, the fortress master would have manifested.”

“The alarm bell hasn’t rung either. Get back to concentrating.”

The atmosphere was free and easy, yet orderly. Even their neatly worn cotton garments and blue and white martial robes reflected it.

Their flowing, old-fashioned hems had been pressed smooth. Not one looked like the clothing of a martial artist.

Ironing. Servants tended to their appearance for them. The sight was a testament to the Desolate Fortress’s prestige.

“You should fall back to the rear there.”

“Why don’t we switch? Your wave of force is powerful, but I don’t think it’s as good as a swift sword for the opening attack.”

Many were coordinating their movements in preparation for group combat, working closely together to hone their deadly moves.

Others stood atop the roofs with their arms folded, or sat casually some distance away, practicing regulated breathing and circulation.

No one worried about internal injuries. The others simply kept a discreet watch on their surroundings for them.

“The Radiant Demon Squad has a free-spirited culture.”

The speaker was a woman in sleeveless blue martial robes. Her ears rose to points like sword tips, and there was an aloof elegance to the way she calmly folded her arms. Beneath her neck, muscles honed through archery traced graceful curves.

She was Wi Yeryeong, the Moon-Shooting Bow Fiend, a master archer who had supported the Immortal Wood Spirit command’s rear. Cheon Soso’s defeat in their duel had brought about her transfer.

Beside her, Baek Miryeo roughly swept back the jet-black hair below her ears.

“A combat unit’s character depends on its captain. We’re like this because we haven’t gone on a mission with the new captain yet. A junior has become our superior, and neither side quite knows how to act. Discipline will settle into place soon enough.”

“You seem very fond of our young captain, Wave Swordswoman.”

Wi Yeryeong’s faint smile resembled a pale crescent moon.

Baek Miryeo glanced at her, then turned away again and spoke indifferently.

“That isn’t quite right. It’s the captain who takes care of me. And...”

The corners of the Wave Swordswoman’s mouth dipped slightly.

“‘Young captain,’ is it? Don’t let me hear that again. I find the description irritating. Isn’t that bow of yours made of precious ebony? It would be such a shame if it snapped in two.”

“A slip of the tongue.”

Wi Yeryeong’s smile deepened.

That was all.

She did not yield in their battle of wills. She held the blue-robed rank and possessed noble-race blood. Even if the Wave Swordswoman and the Azure-Eyed Demonic Swordsman were contenders for the strongest of the Blues, she did not fall far behind.

The Desolate Fortress’s elite experts.

They had attained blue-robed prowess in this endlessly vast land. In practical terms, that meant worthy opponents were hard to find.

The upper echelons of the martial world—the Unorthodox Thirteen Skies, the Nine Great Sects, and the Eight Families—were only a tiny minority.

An elite member of a great faction had every reason to possess a distinctive personality and immense pride.

Baek Miryeo said no more. This was for the captain to manage. It was Jung Yeonshin’s responsibility.

The established and rising talents newly arrived from the Immortal Wood Spirit command, the Blood-Preserving Squad, and the Forest-Treading Squad would observe order alongside the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts beneath Lightning Genius’s Northern Radiance. It was only a matter of time.

Everyone had matters of their own to address. Baek Miryeo was no exception.

‘Once Lightning Genius has a little room to breathe... I’ll have to give the former captain’s words some serious thought.’

Her eyes grew somber as she sank into thought.

[“The Wave Swordswoman, Baek Miryeo, is studying the lost Heavenly Demon Sacred Arts alone? That’s no reason to keep Lightning Genius at a distance. The boy is the future of the Desolate Fortress in every sense. I don’t know what those who haven’t seen him might think, but there’s absolutely no reason to dismiss his words as advice from someone beneath you. I’ve never even heard of talent like his.”]

Ma Jin’s words had posed a difficult question for a long time. They had given her something worth pondering, prompting her to watch Lightning Genius for all this time.

Now that he had become captain and led a force approaching that of an entire sect, Baek Miryeo had come to serve him wholeheartedly as her superior.

She could not burden him.

She would have to gauge his capacity by watching how he brought order to the Radiant Demon Squad.

After that, she intended to ask for help. She would disclose the formula in its entirety—to her captain, and him alone.

The silence did not last long. There were simply too many exceptional martial artists present.

“How domineering. They weren’t exaggerating about how threatening fully developed Radiant Demon Arts can be.”

“They’re strictly combat-oriented martial arts. Close to the Way of Perception.”

“It’ll be difficult to practice both. The Lightning Genius martial lineage and the Radiant Demon Arts... They’re both advanced disciplines. You have to devote yourself entirely to one. Learn them halfheartedly, and you could end up getting nowhere with either.”

“It’s not as though we didn’t expect this. Seeing it merely drives the point home. So this is why transferring between combat units is frowned upon.”

The newly transferred experts spoke with troubled expressions. Six were blue-robed experts and two were white-robed warriors. They had been watching the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts train.

They had turned their backs on the martial learning they had accumulated to take up Lightning Genius’s arts.

Once had been fine. Even when those arts went beyond supplementing their original martial arts and outright replaced their principal disciplines, they had been able to accept it. However arduous the training, it had been their own choice.

Here was a martial lineage with principles similar to those they had pursued, yet standing on a higher plane. The more they learned, the more they enjoyed their training.

But the Radiant Demon Arts were another matter entirely.

They were the power that transformed the Radiant Demon Squad into a single treasured sword in group combat.

Their combat paths shared the same character. They saw the same openings in their enemies and followed similar currents alongside their comrades. Thus they had annihilated their foes along trajectories that afforded no chance to defend.

The effectiveness of their coordinated attacks was tremendous. That was the nature of the Radiant Demon Arts, and the reason the squad was so often compared to the Plum Blossom Swordsmen.

Even without a supreme formation like the Plum Blossom Sword Formation, they displayed equal might in group combat.

“If we can’t solve this, there won’t be much point in having brought in all those Blues. We’ll just have to send them on solo missions.”

Chung Myung muttered from where he lay atop a wall to one side.

The bustle continued. No one interrupted the Azure-Eyed Demonic Swordsman’s musings.

It was nothing new, nor could it even be called a problem to solve. It was simply the natural order of things.

“There’s nothing like racing across the wilderness with your comrades. Didn’t we come here knowing we’d have fewer chances to experience the joy of sweeping away enemies together? I’d like to ask for some instruction, at least, but the captain never shows his face.”

The Dawn Tree Sword, Kang Changmu, spoke sullenly.

He was a swordsman from the Forest-Treading Squad. Like his former captain, the Thousand-Fist, Dragon-Strength Retainer, he was a large man. So was the sword case strapped to his back.

A dense, overwhelming presence rose from his entire body. If this was the pressure he maintained at all times, his reserves of qi had to be enormous.

“Well, with your level of comprehension—your ability to think—that’s probably as far as you’ll get anyway.”

A young man in carelessly donned cotton clothes spoke as he passed, both arms resting behind his head.

Chewing on a blade of grass, he looked no different from a back-alley thug.

“I see you’ve picked up a clumsy version of the Radiant Sword Art. What a pity.”

“What?”

“It looks impressive, but in truth, that sword art was designed without the slightest consideration for its practitioner. I imagine you’ll get stuck at about nine-tenths mastery. Ordinary senses won’t be enough to develop its sword paths.”

His shadowed eyes looked languid. The Supreme Flame Dragon indicated Wi Yeryeong with his eyes alone.

He extended the same treatment to Na Ilcheon, who had come from the Blood-Preserving Squad.

The twitch of his eyebrows was so aristocratic that it unmistakably betrayed his standing as the young head of a regional noble clan that held sway over Jinan.

“You too. And you. Evading Swift Step and the Classic of Initiating Transcendence aren’t things just anyone should dabble in, either. Unless you’re someone of my caliber, of course.”

The Radiant Demon Squad’s unranked disciple had a date with death. He could not tolerate a sight that offended him.

That was all the more true when it concerned the captain’s martial arts. They were the world of martial learning belonging to the man he had chosen as the last interest of his life.

The Supreme Flame Dragon thought, ‘These halfwits don’t know their place.’

“So you’re the Hwangbo clan’s wastrel. I’ve heard plenty about you.”

Kang Changmu’s temperament resembled that of the Forest-Treading Squad Captain. He wasted no further words.

Punishing insubordination did not violate the Desolate Fortress’s laws. He unfastened the sword case on his back and immediately drew his greatsword.

An incident broke out.

* * *

Jung Yeonshin left the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace as though fleeing.

He did not look back, even when his maternal grandfather called after him at the top of his lungs. He walked straight across the Desolate Fortress’s main avenue.

The embarrassment he had to suppress with every step was immense. So much so that he only belatedly realized he was already crossing the threshold of the Desolate Fortress’s Shin Clan.

Even the gray main gate was enormous, rivaling that of the Desolate’s Ma Clan.

The trees beyond it had been beautifully landscaped. Here and there, red petals of winter clivias lapped at the sunlight.

“The Radiant Demon Squad Captain, here in person...!”

The gatekeepers were startled out of their wits.

Jung Yeonshin had taken part in several ceremonies at the fortress. Each had been public, in accordance with ceremonial procedure.

His coming-of-age ceremony, his promotion to Blue, his promotion to Black, and his duel with the Immortal Wood Spirit Lord.

Few within the fortress failed to recognize his face now, vast though the Desolate Fortress was.

“Please wait just a moment!”

He was treated with the utmost courtesy. A Blue even came out to guide him. The man introduced himself as Shin Baek, the Clamorous Sword, and Shin Sobin’s older male cousin.

Shin Sobin was Jung Yeonshin’s subordinate. Her prestigious family background and rare talent did not change that fact.

Had she not left her clan to serve elsewhere, things might have been different. But as a member of the Radiant Demon Squad, she was under Jung Yeonshin’s wing.

The Shin Clan, too, had no choice but to consider its captain’s feelings.

‘Sobin belongs under my protection. As captain, I need only take her back. More importantly...’

How was he supposed to face his Black-ranked seniors now? Jung Yeonshin’s spirits sank endlessly.

There was an abyss within the abyss. The voice that escaped his lips naturally sank as well.

“Take me to your clan head.”

The Shin Clan’s experts flinched in apprehension. There was no one in their halls who could bear the wrath of a Black-ranked supreme master.

The Elder Council Leader’s strength was spent, and the Annihilation Squad captain was away on a mission.

No one dared look the Radiant Demon Squad Captain fully in the face, even though the new captain was renowned for his upright character.

Amid the hushed atmosphere, the Radiant Demon Squad Captain entered the clan head’s hall, the bare flesh where his left sleeve was missing drawing the eye.

Shin Seolha awaited him in the seat of honor, her back straight.

Dignity flowed from her seated figure.

“Forgive my failing in not coming to see you, despite having entrusted my daughter to your care. Clan affairs have kept me so busy that I have yet to entertain you, Captain.”

“I have come to take Shin Sobin into my custody.”

Jung Yeonshin spoke as he seated himself with proper bearing.

His words and conduct were entirely consistent with the rank of a black-robed expert of the Divine Sword Squad.

Only the purple-robed masters and the fortress master stood above a Desolate Fortress captain. The head of a clan under the fortress’s authority could raise no objection.

Even so, there was something natural about the new Radiant Demon Squad Captain’s manner. He was exceedingly haughty.

An unusual gleam entered Shin Seolha’s eyes.

“Straight to the point. I hear the martial arts of the Lightning Genius lineage have much the same temperament. I had a servant prepare Longjing tea, but it seems that was in vain. Those leaves were acquired at considerable expense.”

“The matter is too serious for tea. Had you respected me as captain, you would not have slighted me. You removed an expert serving under the Divine Sword Squad without her captain’s permission. I would be within my rights to punish you for insubordination this instant.”

Jung Yeonshin spoke quietly. Shin Seolha’s eyebrows twitched.

“I already held you in the highest regard. Your accomplishments alone demand no less. But I ask you as Sobin’s mother: could you not hear at least a little of what I have to say?”

“Speak.”

“My daughter’s martial arts were the problem. She had become excessively devoted to them. To the Lightning Genius martial lineage, I mean. Yet our house possesses an outstanding supreme art in the Martial Scripture Equal to Heaven.”

Shin Seolha adjusted her orange sleeves as she spoke. Her clear voice called Shin Sobin to mind.

“Sharpening its talons like a bird of prey does not make a crow an eagle. That principle is separate from your exceptional talent. Your ultimate techniques suit you alone, Captain Jung. The Martial Scripture Equal to Heaven is a martial art tailored to the Shin bloodline. Sobin has duties of her own. Bringing glory to her family’s name... That is the obligation a direct descendant of an illustrious house must bear.”

“You underestimate your daughter. Sobin is a bird of prey.”

“Then that only lends greater weight to my argument. It means she is a child who can reach Black even by studying the Martial Scripture Equal to Heaven. Your words do not persuade me, Captain.”

Shin Seolha finished with her lips set firmly.

She had already made up her mind before facing Jung Yeonshin. The duties of blood kin collided with a captain’s authority.

Silence descended upon the quiet hall. The air was heavy and deep.

Jung Yeonshin found himself thinking of the Desolate’s Ma Clan.

That first encounter, which had been anything but pleasant. They had advanced arguments much like Shin Seolha’s...

BOOOOM!

Suddenly, the ceiling shattered. The blow plunging from above had not even reached it yet. A pink thunderbolt rushed inside like heaven’s punishment.

The humming roar of displaced air was ferocious. It was a terrifying sight.

An irresistible typhoon seemed to have taken human form. It hurtled straight at Shin Seolha.

Before even a question could form on her face.

CRAAASH!

The protective force qi surrounding Shin Seolha shattered. It all happened in a mere instant.

The backlash of wind arrived a moment later, sweeping the colorless waves of force upward like shards of a mirror. Fragments of martial force shimmered like dust in the sunlight.

Then her body toppled backward with a dull thud.

There was no need to check her pulse to know. She was completely unconscious. She seemed to have only narrowly escaped instant death.

“Worthless thing.”

A man in his thirties spoke with a stern face, standing imperiously beside Shin Seolha’s head.

Having manifested out of nowhere, he casually brushed off his pink sleeves. The sight was profoundly mysterious.

Jung Yeonshin held back no longer.

“Grandfather!”

The Indomitable Hero’s head turned at once.

“Grandfather...?”

The youthful Ma Yeonjeok echoed the word, his question coming somewhat slowly.

Jung Yeonshin realized he had been discourteous. He slowly steadied his breathing and spoke with deliberate composure.

“When you interfere while I am acting as captain, you undermine my dignity instead. You did the same at the Hall of the Sword That Seeks Peace. I did not get the chance to tell you how difficult that made things for me... but I would prefer that it not happen again.”

“... Yes, I see. Quite right. You’re right.”

His agreement was swift. His maternal grandfather immediately continued.

“It is my fault as your grandfather. I am very sorry. I failed to consider that. My temper got the better of me. Your insight puts me to shame.”

Ma Yeonjeok was smiling. His mood appeared to have improved enormously. His lips curved upward in a broad arc, forming an expression he had never shown before.

“From now on, this old grandfather of yours will think twice, three times. Forgive me.”

At the same moment, Ma Yeonjeok vanished. Only his kindly voice lingered briefly before it, too, gradually receded.

He had soared upward with peerless Mobility Arts. His presence raced endlessly skyward. This was the realm of Soaring Through the Void.

“...”

Jung Yeonshin slowly lowered his head.

He stared blankly down at the Shin Clan head. She showed no sign of getting up. Outside, members of the household who had belatedly noticed the disturbance were murmuring.

Only the weight carried by the name of a Black kept them from daring to burst in. But that would not last long.

The sounds of weapons being drawn came from all around. Their chill crept through the gaps in the door along with the winter wind.

‘I’ll have to say I struck her.’

The new Radiant Demon Squad Captain thought calmly.