Chapter 224 - Radiant Genius Formula (4)

The new captain of the Radiant Demon Squad paid no heed to the Shin Clan head’s peculiar expression. He knew what she was thinking. Her muttering alone had made it clear.

‘They say the reverse happens often enough, too.’

Had Jung Yeonshin been a woman, she would have mentioned a son. Leaders throughout the world had expanded their influence through marriage since ancient times. That was how much importance they placed on the houses they belonged to. For a powerful figure in these troubled times, for a martial artist of exceptional attainment, gender made no difference.

This was a world where the strong preyed on the weak. People staked everything on elevating their group’s honor and consolidating its strength.

It was not something Jung Yeonshin had any reason to concern himself with. All that mattered was keeping the Radiant Demon Squad whole.

His family, and his home.

The incident in the City of Master Artisans in Sichuan had made that clear. The seniors who had died there still haunted him. The sense of loss he had struggled to ignore remained branded upon his heart. This affair had brought him to realize it.

From now on, everyone had to remain. Unless it was truly unavoidable, there could be no empty places.

The warmth he had discovered so late was like seawater, which he had never even seen. They said the more one drank, the thirstier one became. The Radiant Demon Squad was no different.

They were alive. They were not like the Movement Art, which pursued his mother’s departed spirit. They were real.

‘I won’t lose anyone else.’

The words and actions of Shin Seolha, head of the Desolate Fortress’s Shin Clan, had instead spurred Jung Yeonshin’s awakening. Deep in his heart, the capacity to lead a martial house began to sprout like a flower bud.

The absence of Shin Sobin alone had made him reflect on the past. It did not matter that he had never led so many people before. Remembering anew how precious they were was enough.

‘My seniors, my peers, my juniors—they all need to grow stronger. So they can stay with me by their own strength.’

So that nothing would take them from the Radiant Demon Squad’s embrace.

So thought Jung Yeonshin, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

A faint radiance seemed to fill the upper dantian within his head. For the first time, he had resolved to create martial arts for others.

From within, the martial artist Lightning Genius took on the mantle of a Grandmaster, captain of the Radiant Demon Squad. In that moment, the capacity of a great founding master was silently taking shape.

Beyond his years at the Jeong Clan Estate, where loneliness had stretched like mire, he blossomed like a lotus rising from a swamp.

A small beginning had brought a great change. Suddenly, he understood. Jung Yeonshin had never created martial arts for someone else to use.

Not once. Until now, his talents had served only himself. Even so, he had established a martial lineage.

‘But I should never have expected much simply by handing them my martial arts.’

He sank into thought.

‘An art designed from the outset to represent the Radiant Demon Squad...’

He should weave together the principles of Lightning Genius’s martial arts and the radiant demon arts. It was something both the squad’s seasoned warriors and its new recruits would need to master.

It also had to be exceptional. Just as the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts were compared to the Plum Blossom Swordsmen, its martial art deserved to stand alongside the Plum Blossom Sword Art. Only then would it be worthy of the Radiant Demon Squad.

“Captain Jung?”

Shin Seolha’s voice broke his contemplation. He raised his head to find her looking puzzled.

“Very well. I’ll take her with me.”

Jung Yeonshin spoke calmly and rose. A faint, rough scraping spread through the room.

It was the sound of a stone chair, peculiar to the Desolate Fortress, dragging across the floor. It rang with unusual clarity in the quiet hall.

“...”

A curious light entered Shin Seolha’s eyes.

She was the founding master of a martial house, sensitive to changes in the temperament of the person before her.

Having blossomed with a small realization, Jung Yeonshin carried himself differently. The air of a supreme master who breathed through a divine technique followed the images within his mind.

An elusive dignity was beginning to infuse his slightest gestures. He was Huguang Province’s Lightning Genius, Sichuan’s Hidden King Among Blossoms.

Until he began walking outside, Shin Seolha said nothing more. The intuition she had cultivated as clan head told her to remain silent.

An unnecessary word might earn her a harsh lesson. No one understood the dignity of a Black-ranked supreme master better than the people of the Desolate Fortress.

Jung Yeonshin spoke first.

“As Shin Sobin’s superior, I offer you my respects. You raised a precious subordinate for me. I am grateful.”

“Our family has produced the fortress’s Elder Council Leaders for generations. A scion of its foremost illustrious clan ought to be capable of that much.”

The corners of Shin Seolha’s lips lifted as she adopted a deliberately jovial tone.

Jung Yeonshin did not look at her. At the mention of the fortress’s foremost clan, he instinctively focused his energy detection on the empty air.

There seemed to be no one there. But that meant nothing.

If his maternal grandfather were concealing himself, Jung Yeonshin would have difficulty noticing. It was enough that no disaster had immediately followed.

“I will send spiritual herbs and medicine for internal injuries to the Radiant Demon Squad. They should prove valuable.”

Shin Seolha spoke as she led the way toward the door. Jung Yeonshin gazed steadily at her back.

“What do you mean by that?”

“I am repaying a debt. You have been going out on missions so incessantly, Captain Jung, that I have had no chance to repay your kindness. Had you not distinguished yourself in Sichuan, the Elder Council Leader would have met with misfortune.”

“Your attitude has changed.”

“As it should have. Quite apart from the matter of Sobin.”

Jung Yeonshin did not refuse. His Radiant Demon Squad family would need those things when they engraved a new martial art into their bodies.

A martial artist’s training wore away at the flesh.

Good food and excellent medicinal ingredients were essential to mastering a worthwhile martial art quickly, but poor harvests had made food and supplies scarce.

Even the Command Bureau could supply only a limited quantity of spiritual herbs and medicine for internal injuries to help nourish their bodies. He had already requested them as his reward for dominating the founding ceremony, but there was no telling how much he would receive.

‘The more, the better.’

Because he needed to create a martial art that would demand them, Jung Yeonshin thought.

A soft laugh sounded ahead. It was Shin Seolha.

“Let us go.”

He stepped through the door she opened for him. He sensed someone falter backward.

Shin Sobin’s delicate qi waves were oddly unsettled. She seemed to have taken some meaningless words to heart.

“Let’s go.”

He looked at her small face as he spoke. She was a girl with strikingly clear eyes.

Shin Sobin gave a small nod.

“It’s been so long. I’m glad you’re safe, too.”

“You’ve been conditioning yourself with the Infinite Blossom Fist Strike. Your body is well trained. Your martial bearing is solid.”

“You noticed right away.”

Her lips curved into a smile. The art’s own creator had praised her attainment. A martial artist could scarcely know greater joy.

Most Grandmasters of exceptional arts were distant predecessors, long dead. It was a rare luxury to enjoy in one’s own lifetime.

Behind her, the blue-robed expert Shin Baek, the Clamorous Sword, watched them with complicated feelings.

As a blue robe from a collateral line, he had no authority to oppose the clan head’s decision. Nor did he feel inclined to.

All that lingered in his ears was that voice, warm even as it spoke of a subordinate as though she were his possession.

‘Perhaps I’d be better off...’

As he flinched at the thought that had occurred to him, the Radiant Demon Squad captain passed him. A jet-black sleeve fluttered lightly at his side.

Never before had black robes felt so real. Here was a man who raced freely across the vast martial world.

The supreme master’s qi waves swept through the surroundings like a winter wind, then faded. Not one of the gathered warriors could move.

“I won’t be coming back for a long time.”

Shin Sobin spoke boldly. Her eyes were steady and clear as she looked up at Shin Seolha, her clan head.

“If you reach your limits, come ask about the Martial Scripture Equal to Heaven whenever you wish. There is no shame in it. However much you study the Lightning Genius martial lineage and the radiant demon arts, I will not interfere.”

Shin Seolha answered with a smile, one that had grown astonishingly benevolent.

With a soft footfall, Shin Sobin turned away, snorting. Her steps were light as she immediately followed behind her captain.

White robes and black, practitioner and Grandmaster, left the garden together.

* * *

After retrieving his subordinate, the new captain of the Radiant Demon Squad shut himself away.

Once he entered his hall, he did not emerge. He took every meal in the captain’s quarters.

Only the squad’s servants who brought food into his room could see him. Days passed without him showing his face.

He had gone into seclusion.

Even Chung Myung and Baek Miryeo were bewildered by this unprecedented behavior. But there was nothing they could do.

Lightning Genius was their captain. They had to obey his order to admit no one.

The sun set and rose again. Nine times, the shadows of sunset stretching toward the hall passed over the heads of the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts.

“It’s already the ninth day. Could he have suffered qi deviation?”

“That is possible. I heard he fought a fierce battle at the Shin Clan. Perhaps he’s quietly treating internal injuries...”

“To keep us from worrying? Our captain would do that. He never lets anything show.”

Sunset had come once more.

Orange sunlight settled over everything. It was an evening when the clear air wore the sunset’s glow like a blanket.

Beneath the high walls enclosing three sides of the main training ground, the Radiant Demon Squad’s experts clashed weapons or attended to their training.

Many others looked down on them. Some crouched atop the high walls; others stood tall on the roof of the hall opposite.

Those perched on the roof tiles mostly watched the captain’s quarters. Such was the Radiant Demon Squad’s character, an atmosphere utterly unlike that of prestigious orthodox sects.

There were some thirty of them. Even those who had gone on solo missions had returned.

“Rumor has it he only fought the clan head. They say it was one-on-one.”

“Was the Shin Clan head skilled enough to inflict internal injuries on our captain? I thought she fell short of Black rank.”

“She still heads an illustrious clan. She must have a secret life-saving technique or two. Or she might have activated some hidden trap device formation.”

“Enough about internal injuries. If that were true, the azure-eyed demonic swordsman would have noticed at once. Forget it. Let’s help those people train. He’ll come out when he’s ready.”

The people conversing in their various postures turned their heads. Their gazes converged on one spot.

Kang Changmu, greatsword in hand, was sparring with Wi Yeryeong, who held her bow at an angle. A large Han man and a lithe expert of the noble race.

As their footwork intertwined, a blade brushed blue robes.

They were the blue-robed experts known as the Dawn Tree Sword and the Moon-Shooting Bow Fiend, and the arts they were displaying were the Radiant Sword Art and Evading Swift Step.

BOOM!

Kang Changmu’s greatsword slammed downward. The wave of force from the straight-line sword strike split left and right before Wi Yeryeong’s legs.

Only dust touched her feet. Her Evading Swift Step had reached the pinnacle of proficiency.

So had the Dawn Tree Sword Kang Changmu’s Radiant Sword Art. An exceedingly faint halo enveloped his blade.

He immediately swept the plunging greatsword upward. The sound of the strike tearing through the air was tremendous, like fragments of stone exploding in every direction.

“This is where it falls apart.”

Wi Yeryeong murmured with her hands behind her back.

She did not move. Standing aloof, she faced the sword strike’s wave of force. Her eyes remained wide and clear, her courage befitting ears that rose like sword points.

WHOOOOSH!

A fierce wind swept across her face. Wi Yeryeong’s blue eyes flashed with an icy gleam. It was not a cutting sword wind.

Kang Changmu lowered his sword, the corners of his mouth lifting slightly. Not with pleasure. It was a hollow smile.

“According to the radiant demon arts, an upward strike is appropriate here...”

“I know. Chaining strikes is difficult.”

Wi Yeryeong answered with her arms crossed.

CLACK!

Kang Changmu lowered his head and slid his sword into the scabbard on his back. He did not even look around, yet the movement was exceedingly swift.

The blade blurred for an instant and vanished. It was a master’s sheathing, a sight that also attested to his exceptional swordsmanship.

He spoke.

“You didn’t seem capable of using Evading Swift Step again, either.”

“That’s right. I need to spread my power upward and downward from the Great Ravine point by my ankle, but I’d already used it once. The fine meridians didn’t respond immediately. In a real fight, I would have used my original martial arts.”

“My sword path was blocked, too. I couldn’t extend it further. The problem isn’t my pressure points, but the muscle bundles in my forearms. To continue the chain of strikes, I need to make minute adjustments and produce an internal Burst Discharge. Only once I can do that can I speak of complete mastery of the Radiant Sword Art. In the end, that Hwangbo bastard wasn’t wrong.”

Kang Changmu glanced upward as he spoke.

The Supreme Flame Dragon lay sprawled at the roof’s edge, chewing on a poppy. He appeared to have made a bed of the tiles on the Radiant Demon Squad captain’s hall.

Since sparring with Kang Changmu, he had not so much as glanced at the practitioners of the Lightning Genius martial lineage.

He merely lounged there, looking as though he were serving as Jung Yeonshin’s Dharma protector.

Wi Yeryeong unfolded her arms.

“All of Lightning Genius’s martial arts are like that. They put such emphasis on a single strike that they’re suited to one-off use. The captain may be the only one who can use them consecutively. It’s a difference in talent. Something you only realize after learning them to a certain extent...”

Her voice trailed off.

Terrifying qi waves reached them from beyond the main training ground’s walls. Their magnitude lay beyond anything Blue-ranked attainment could explain.

For an instant, an immense pressure seemed to slice through everything around them.

In the martial world, there were those who embodied irresistible power in human flesh.

At the Desolate Fortress, they wore jet-black robes. These were Black-ranked supreme masters. Their palpable presence spread from beyond the wall.

“He is here, isn’t he? How can he leave so many messages unanswered? Did calling him my enemy bother him? What if it really did?”

“If he is in closed-door training, the proper thing would be to turn back.”

“Don’t be ridiculous. Soyu, you were the one who suggested coming. You’re burning with impatience for the coun—hm, the book. Blood fiend, say something. Our darling youngest even skipped the meeting.”

“This has nothing to do with me. I merely wish to know how the subordinates I sent to the Radiant Demon Squad are faring. Captain Jung just happens to have gone into seclusion...”

“Are you afraid of our Lightning Genius?”

“I am simply respecting my junior’s private time.”

Everyone recognized those voices and manners of speech.

The Divine Sword deputy commander, the Law Enforcement Squad Captain, and the Blood-Preserving Squad Captain had arrived. The Radiant Demon Squad experts lounging at ease slowly rose.

They could hardly greet the captains of other combat units in such indolent postures.

It happened then.

Was it a response to the captains’ formidable qi waves?

A minute ripple of internal power arose. It emerged from the gap in the door of the captain’s imposing hall, beyond the main training ground’s wall.

It was as though sparks of radiance had suddenly bloomed. They even pierced through gaps between the roof tiles beneath the reclining Supreme Flame Dragon.

Then shafts of light formed from waves of force began flowing out like smoke.