“......”

Under the sound of dry firewood crumbling into ashes, Jeong Yeon-shin stood still. He had unfolded the domain of the sword he had conceived all the way down from the Ming Cult.

Tak, takdak―

The formless sword of deep blue and the Southern Flame Vast Tai Chi at his feet flickered with calm blue flames, repeating a cycle of rising and falling.

Everything was faintly dancing.

Countless clusters of strike force gathered in the air were scattering gentle light like constellations, and the shadows of the crowd, stretched long and sharp like swords, fluttered under the untimely dusk. Some stars glowed with a piercing brilliance like comets, while others remained dim.

It was an entirely different space.

Even for transcendents representing an entire nation.

“It’s like a night on the steppe.”

It was Heavenly Patriarch Noban.

Somehow, once again, the feathered lights of starlight fluttered around him.

The Ultimate Martial Way that the last emperor of the Yuan had prepared matched Jeong Yeon-shin’s domain to a degree, but Heavenly Patriarch Noban, now with all the feathers once pinned to his hat removed, looked strangely bare. Like a field stripped bare after harvest.

“A quiet passage of time can be felt. Is it the hue of temperament like your life?”

To Noban’s question, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly shook his head. And answered.

[It is the lives of two chivalrous warriors.]

How could one unfold an Ultimate Martial Way using the lives of others? It was a question anyone would have, yet Noban merely smiled faintly.

“They will live immortal lives. To be remembered so intensely by someone like you.”

[Isn’t the emperor the most remembered by people?]

“How one is remembered is what truly matters, no?”

Heavenly Patriarch Noban’s counter-question. For a moment, it was as if rusted iron filings had fallen from his voice.

At the same time, the roar of Mun Gok, which had until just now shaken the heavens, fell silent as if it were a lie. The single sword of Hуeon Won-chang, which scraped the throat of that giant, strangely resembled the sword strikes that teased space from the Heavenly Extremity Sect Master.

In an instant, the tide of battle—once about to tilt—was overturned. An enormous feat.

The failure of Mun Gok’s Ultimate Martial Way.

Like a massive firebomb stuck in the barrel.

Mun Gok’s Ultimate Martial Way was a kind of lion’s roar that resonated with transcendent vibrations through the body of the greatest external martial artist.

Thus, Jeong Yeon-shin’s strike force formed a night-sky-like domain without a single disturbance, and at this moment, the absolute figures of the enemy had no choice but to sweep the surroundings with threads of qi-sense like beams of light. To analyze weaknesses and devise counters.

It was a space so grand that it demanded profound vigilance. Especially from those who called Jeong Yeon-shin the Northern Emperor. Even now, the Dharma King was walking forward, letting the white radiance in his hand hang like prayer beads.

But not toward Jeong Yeon-shin—toward Yong Hui-myeong.

[This is a fair match. A one-armed monk is a mendicant merchant. I must be pitied.]

He didn’t even glance at Jeong Yeon-shin. He merely remained highly alert through qi-sense.

From the severed shoulder of the Dharma King, dark mist lingered.

It must’ve been difficult for him to maintain the state of Threefold Harmonization, but the Namje’s sorcery seemed to be exerting some sort of functionality.

And that wasn’t all.

Yong Hui-myeong now stood against even the greatest external martial artist—Mun Gok—whose mouth was now only spewing cold northern air like hollow breath.

Facing both the bloodshot-eyed giant and the one-armed Dharma King simultaneously. Protecting the blood-covered, crumpled Hуeon Won-chang lying to the side.

―That monk’s Ultimate Martial Way...

Amidst it all, Yong Hui-myeong sent a calm telepathic message to Jeong Yeon-shin.

―It almost delivered a fatal blow regardless of my body’s defensive strength... but it didn’t actually transcend space. That’s a technique only possible when the flow of thought itself is completely twisted—a principle of the outer path. Meanwhile, the monk’s strike is a highly advanced internal technique that doesn’t clash with any energy. Just keep that in mind, in case.

It was a strange story.

Unusual for Yong Hui-myeong.

A faint sense of foreboding came through. As if he were assuming his own death.

Jjeojeojeojeojeong!

Even as Jin Myeong-jo, Bukgung Ah, Shin Hwang, and Hak So-seon burst into the field in an instant and surrounded Yong Hui-myeong to oppose Mun Gok and Noban, that dissonance remained clearly felt.

Jeong Yeon-shin wanted to say something to Yong Hui-myeong, but no words would come out.

Too much had already been lost. The old vow to lose nothing had long been closed, like a point inside his knees that no longer extended further.

What replaced it was the courage to move forward through loss. A man with more than anyone else in Kangho, but one who also had to lose more than anyone else. That was the mindset of the Divine Sword Sect Master.

‘Ah.’

Saaaa―

While staring at Namje approaching like a ghost, Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly realized why Yong Hui-myeong had spoken of inheriting the Divine Sword.

He had read Jeong Yeon-shin’s change through those eyes split like divine swords. Like a wise dragon reading the heart of a man. For the current Divine Sword Sect Master, it was more than possible.

Honestly.

Jeong Yeon-shin didn’t like it.

With everything he’d been through now rushing toward its conclusion, he was tired of it all.

Just like Namje’s palm, which came hurtling toward him with transcendent black wind.

Jjeong!

As he lifted “Starry Night,” a deep blue ripple burst out. Under the immense pressure, the ground caved in deeply, and a heavy recoil surged into his palm.

At the same time, the divine point in his upper dantian pushed Jeong Yeon-shin’s thoughts out of the world.

[I’m getting tired of this. Surrender.]

[More meaningless words.]

Namje’s immediate reply came crashing down with his other hand. Once again, Dry Soul. This time, the faint sword force feathers of Heavenly Patriarch Noban wrapped around it all poured down like a meteor shower—and all of them were caught and repelled by the arc of “Starry Night” swung in a flash.

Kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa kwa quang!

Cracks spread across the ground like spiderwebs.

In that moment, Namje’s palm had closed in to the point of casting a shadow over Jeong Yeon-shin’s forehead. The two emperors’ combined attack was about to end by blowing apart Jeong Yeon-shin’s head.

A star descended from the sky.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Quite literally like a beam of light. It fell like a leaf onto the deep blue blade of “Starry Night” and shattered without taking even a moment, without even a resounding echo.

The overwhelming might of the rising sword was the only thing to clash with Namje’s hand across a different axis of time.

The resulting shockwave washed outward like a colorless tidal wave, and for the first time, Namje’s arm was lifted by a single sword strike—delayed by an echoing explosion.

Kwaaaaah!

This time, not even his Energy Absorption could absorb even a fraction of Jeong Yeon-shin’s sword strike progression. It simply wasn’t a level of sword force that could be absorbed.

[Ma Yeon-jeok’s sword...?!]

But Namje adapted quickly.

As he surged upward, the sword strike that came crashing down on his chest like lightning was deflected at an angle by the black mist covering it, and using that recoil, he spun his entire body in a full rotation.

In that instant, the transcendent spiral force of a warrior’s Bal-gyeong imbued the pitch-black barrier of internal energy.

Hoo-wook!

Jeong Yeon-shin’s returning sword strike, overwhelming in its momentum, was swept into that spiral current and dropped downward. The moment it hit, the ground split under the deep blue tip of the Starry Night. A heavy rumble echoed as the impact bored all the way into the underground.

At their feet, shadows billowed and undulated like a dancing wave.

It was the martial prowess of Namje, Emperor of the World.

He wielded at will the body-protecting steel energy that could absorb any kind of shockwave. He was a perfect emperor of the Demonic Realm in both martial technique and sorcery. Though a large portion of his protective energy had been torn away earlier by the Heaven Splitter technique from the Heaven Splitter, the internal energy he had drawn from the formation spanning the Black Province had already replenished it.

He hadn’t activated the Namje's Ultimate Martial Way, the Ultimate Martial Way technique capable of engulfing even his allies within the Black Province, but in its place, the limits of his original martial art had vanished.

Thus spoke the emperor, the one who countered all variables.

[You are the greatest obstacle to the grand enterprise. Even if you now declare your departure from the Black Province, I cannot let you go.]

[After I pierce the Great Wall and establish a new nation.]

Jeong Yeon-shin asked while swinging his brutal sword strikes like bombardment, endlessly.

[Can you tell me what exactly you intend to do in Jungwon?]

Tremendous internal energy was being sucked into the Formless Sword. There was a limit to the supply provided by the Resonance Division. It was nearly time to end it.

Still, maintaining Starry Night was essential.

Unlike the sword force layered onto the blade, it was pure internal energy—its firmness followed a different trajectory and was unaffected by gripping techniques, which made it easier to respond to Namje’s unpredictable forms. Starry Night was the only skill that could constantly ignore the suction of Energy Absorption.

[Establish a prosperous nation. Behead the neck of the world with the authority of the Emperor. I will mobilize every master under heaven to achieve this.]

Separate from his thoughts, Namje’s hands distorted the air in sequence, reaching all the way to Jeong Yeon-shin’s face. Words no longer came from his lips. The true dialogue was exchanged between Namje’s hands and Jeong Yeon-shin’s Starry Night, clashing a dozen times in the blink of an eye.

Feathers of pitch-black smoke burst like sparks inside the indigo sword light, and the ruins of the ancient palace seemed to cave deeper and deeper into the earth.

The abyss shaped from black mist clashed endlessly at close range with the body of the swordsman wielding a piece of the night sky instead of a blade.

Jjeojeojeojeojeojeojeojeojeong!

Even Heavenly Patriarch Noban, who had become a manifestation of Namje’s Ultimate Martial Way, was now raining down feathers upon Jeong Yeon-shin. 𝙛𝓻𝒆𝓮𝒘𝙚𝙗𝒏𝙤𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝓬𝒐𝙢

“......!”

As their exchanges accumulated—

The rest of the battlefield had grown silent. Time stretched as other battles ground to a halt. Terror bloomed in the eyes of those witnessing the colorless gazes of beings no longer human.

Jeong Yeon-shin was truly wielding the sword of the Tyrant Herо.

The sword power of Ma Yeon-jeok, who had once reversed his aging, was now ramming through the heavenly brilliance of Emotion-Distorting Force like a spiral of strength.

[Is this your true Ultimate Martial Way? Dissolving your grandfather’s straight-line sword strikes into mere slashes? It’s certainly remarkable. But did I not tell you—I have already calculated even the trajectory of your Entry into Ultimate Martial Way... Did you forget that?]

Just before Namje’s counterattack burst forth from within that satisfied thought—

Somewhere from the night sky, a soft radiance descended once more. It was directed at Jeong Yeon-shin’s flaming, deep blue Formless Sword.

Starry Night—

Basked in another ray of starlight.

At the same time, a thousand strands of sword strikes erupted forth.

KWAHHHHHHHHH!

In that moment, the slightly curved sword path of Starry Night ripped through Namje’s forearm along with the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} black mist, and once again, the deep blue blade shimmered like a mirage before his eyes—only to blast both of Namje’s dark hands away in a fierce gust of wind.

Even the feathers pouring down like monsoon rain from Heavenly Patriarch Noban’s sword aura were swept into that tidal wave of sword strikes. Jeong Yeon-shin did not hear Noban’s Ultimate Martial Way Ideation. He was utterly immersed.

Power Sword, Phantom Sword, Changing Techniques, again Power Sword, Warrior’s Realm, Flower Realm......

Countless skills unfolded in an instant through infinite trajectories. All fueled by the perfected swordsmanship of a true Divine Sword Corps Commander.

Faced with the web of these foreign-path strikes, Namje had only one choice left.

[Emotion-Distorting Force, Deep Black.]

In that instant where he scattered the dark vortex enveloping his body, he pushed the rebound power of the heavenly Emotion-Distorting Force brilliance to its utmost.

The space quivered faintly like smoke rising from ashes.

Woooong—

At that very moment, yet another star above their heads lit up in dazzling brilliance. Like a fickle dragon snapping the strings of a seven-stringed zither, the afterimages of the Formless Sword split into dozens of fragments.

[......!]

Before the shock could even spread—

All the blades slammed into Namje’s entire body.

KWAKWAKWAKWAKWAKWAHHHH―!

Blackish shockwaves overlapped like ripples in a lakeshore circle, and even the sky above burst and surged like a miniature night sky.

The absurdly intense display of rebound energy revealed an inevitable opening.

‘The heart.’

At that moment, a single shard of Emotion-Distorting Force brilliance fluttered like a leaf from the night sky—

And the blade of Starry Night, its body of the sword, overlapped with it like a lie.

Puhak!

The deep blue tip pierced straight through Namje’s solar plexus. Bathed in the light of three stars that had rained down from the night sky.

The union of Tyrant, Heretic, and the Ruined Sword.

“......”

From the moment the deep blue night unfolded in the hand of Divine Sword Corps Commander Jeong Yeon-shin until now—

All the greatest swordsmen under heaven had entered and retreated at just the right moments.

But in truth, that was impossible. Not even once had the flow been broken.

They say that when the Six Original Star Lords unite, they become the God of Battle.

That is the completion of the Big Dipper.

By that same logic, what happens when the former Commanders of the Divine Sword Corps and the One Seat of the Five Greatest Swords align like constellations?

No counterattack.

This was the result of commemorating the lives of dead heroes, merging the Southern Radiance Grand Tai Chi with Starry Night.

The limitation on sword strikes had vanished completely.

He wielded Starry Night like a thunderbolt, though swinging it even a few times should have been difficult.

Silent Starry Night Sword Scripture. The sword’s constellation.

It was the thin journal of a youth destined to die young.

“Cease the war.”

The Divine Sword Corps Commander spoke beneath a cluster of stars from the small night sky.