Ma Yeonjeok, the Indomitable Hero.

A peerless master who had once symbolized the Desolate Fortress. With the Desolate’s Ma clan’s Divine Sword of United Splendor, he had held his own against the former Wudang Sect Leader’s Taiji Enlightened Sword Art.

The old Wudang swordsman, hailed as the greatest sword under heaven, had been the first to suggest a rest. Ma Yeonjeok had been thirty-seven at the time.

His emaciated appearance was unimportant. A few months of recuperation would transform his body beyond recognition anyway. It was his newfound youth that posed the problem.

“Did that man just speak the venerable retired head’s name?”

“Is this not another insult?”

“But those clothes are unmistakably...”

Profound bewilderment settled over the Ma clan experts’ faces.

Anyone would have reacted the same way. This was not something easily accepted at once. Even in the Desolate Fortress, which possessed more supreme masters than any other martial sect, only Ak Surim had received heaven’s favor.

They knew of it, but were unaccustomed to seeing it.

No one present had ever seen Ma Yeonjeok in his youth.

Yet at this moment, they felt a wind bearing terrifying power.

Invisible strands brushed their skin like sword blades. These waves of qi demanded understanding.

He did not even seem conscious of it. They simply spread with stern authority.

HUM.

The reverberations of the man’s power filled the wind, extending in a magnificent, unimpeded resonance like a dragon’s breath.

Without holding a blade, he produced sword resonance with his body. He had reached a realm in which his entire body was a sword.

A purple-robed master who could stand against the lords of great factions and debate the fate of the world.

His very existence was a mystery of the martial world.

“This...!”

Ju Yeonjeong’s lips trembled faintly. For a moment, she could not continue.

The grounds, which had gradually quieted since Jung Yeonshin’s order to stop fighting, fell utterly silent.

Every gaze among the Desolate’s Ma clan and Radiant Demon Squad experts converged on one spot.

He had claimed to be the Indomitable Hero. He had called himself Ma Yeonjeok.

A man in sleeping clothes stood in the middle of the battlefield, his pink sleeves hanging long. He lent a strange quality to the silk nightclothes that only someone of high station would wear.

His bearing was as forbidding as though he wore martial robes or armor.

The man spoke again.

“I am your elder, you worthless rabble.”

The core energy carried in his youthful voice pressed down on the air. It was as though he had breathed out seething power.

His face, too, belonged to a man in his thirties. Not a wrinkle remained.

His eyes, rising slightly before sloping down, resembled those of Lightning Genius, the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad beside him. They looked somewhat stubborn, yet carried a lonely air.

He was handsome, with strong, distinct features.

Ever since appearing, he had kept a hand on the squad captain’s shoulder, showing no sign of removing it.

No one could laugh. There was nothing ridiculous about him.

Such was his presence. The qi surrounding his body traced terrifying ripples through the air, spreading around his jet-black hair and brows and his unwrinkled skin.

It flowed outward transparently, like the currents of the Yangtze.

“What...”

Ju Yeonjeong, who had been holding her breath, let out a low sound.

Her hand rose as though to cover her mouth, then stopped, clutching empty air. It shook with an uncontrollable tremor.

Confronted with something beyond common sense, that was all she could do. She could not immediately deny it, either.

The man was proving himself through his qi, as though declaring that he was a purple robe of the Desolate Fortress.

After a brief silence, he spoke.

“What are you doing?”

The eyes of the man in nightclothes sharpened.

Beyond the mystique of a peerless master, he possessed a distinctly worldly side. It showed in his face as he surveyed the Desolate’s Ma clan’s household.

His expression was cold enough to feel like steel.

Then a thunderous rebuke burst from his mouth.

“Kneel and pay your respects! To your benefactor and to me!”

It was a fiery roar. His voice clawed through the air and instantly spread in echoes.

The shrubs at his feet bent every which way. His shout was like a Lion’s Roar.

More than a dozen experts flinched as though hundreds of hooks had torn at their ears.

Dust billowed up, twisting into irregular ripples under the onslaught of his tremendous qi. This was the domineering structure of core energy unique to the Divine Art of United Splendor.

It seemed to brand the skin of everyone present. Fierce and deep.

No one else there possessed such a presence. Once again, he had proved himself.

Before long, a middle-aged man in ornate green martial robes spoke.

“Venerable retired head, is it truly...?”

He was one of the Desolate’s Ma clan’s established warriors.

The fingertips of his black-gauntleted hands trembled slightly, unbecoming of a Fusion Fist Strike expert.

A crease formed between Ma Yeonjeok’s smooth brows.

“Ma Jinun, you have forgotten fear. Shall I wash out those witless eyes three times? I have already told you twice. If I must say it once more, you will pay dearly.”

The warning passed his taut lips like a lion’s growl.

Ma Jinun’s shoulders jerked.

No one else would speak or act this way toward an expert of the Desolate Fortress’s Ma clan. His words and manner, at least, were no different from those of the aged master Ma Yeonjeok.

An odd relief touched Jung Yeonshin’s face beside him. Meanwhile, a large number of Ma clan warriors came rushing forward as though Thunderclap Bombs lay beneath their feet.

There were well over twenty of them.

“These bastards...?”

“You should be reining yourselves in!”

The Radiant Demon Squad experts were on the verge of attacking by reflex.

The instant Jung Yeonshin shook his head, the blue-robed experts’ qi died away. Their hands, which had been beginning domineering transformations, also stopped.

They had responded to their captain immediately. The Desolate’s Ma clan experts passed them and kicked off the ground again.

They swept forward.

They were not attacking. Dropping to their knees, they extinguished the momentum of their extraordinarily swift Mobility Arts.

At once, they struck their heads against the ground with dull thuds. Yellow-brown dust rose thickly around their heads.

“This unworthy Ma Jinun was too foolish to recognize the venerable retired head!”

“We humbly pay our respects to the Indomitable Hero!”

Voices laden with all manner of emotion rang out together. Their synchronized prostration and greeting displayed discipline.

Their expressions, however, were the opposite: full of shock and confusion.

Unable to conceal what anyone could read on their faces, they raised their heads toward their longtime master.

They were facing something all but impossible.

The retired head Ma Yeonjeok’s body had been refined through supreme power.

He had reversed his body’s time. Like the Desolate Divine Spear and a very few other chosen supreme masters, he had defeated the years with a human body.

The entire martial world would stir in astonishment.

A miracle.

Who had helped bring it about?

“...”

The Ma clan experts’ gazes shifted to the retired head’s side.

There stood the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad.

Amid the dusk, light spilled outward from the moon’s halo.

It settled over Jung Yeonshin’s face like a translucent veil. Deep shadows gathered beneath his thick eyelashes.

A luminous gleam lingered in his dark, still eyes. The moonlight on his high nose was beautiful as well.

He was indeed a captain of the Desolate Fortress.

He wore a mystique befitting his lofty standing, together with the gentle moonlight.

His achievements were no different. He had accomplished something that was quite literally near miraculous. It made them recognize anew how striking his features were, no less exceptional than those of the noble race.

The sight inspired both acceptance and questions.

Awe entered the eyes of the great clan’s experts, alongside curiosity they had no way to satisfy.

This was a matter apart from his generosity in handing over an entire Great Restoration Pill to his maternal grandfather. Just what kind of martial learning did he possess?

For warriors of the Desolate’s Ma clan, decline was destiny.

Though they looked down on sects outside the Desolate Fortress, they envied orthodox martial lineages such as the Nine Great Sects.

The monks and Taoists of the Nine Great Sects did not wither. Instead, they grew stronger with the years.

They were unlike Ma clan warriors, who grew strong quickly and declined just as quickly, like expendable soldiers.

‘They said there was a Movement Art that had refined the Radiant Demon Squad captain’s body in childhood.’

‘It truly existed!’

‘The current clan head was so adamantly opposed to making it public...’

Yet none dared ask.

They were no different from underworld minions awaiting the King of Hell’s judgment.

After bowing to the retired head, they bowed to the Radiant Demon Squad captain as well. Deeply, ever more deeply, with apologies escaping here and there.

“... We greet our clan’s benefactor.”

“We are overcome with gratitude for the martial learning you have bestowed.”

“We owe the captain of the Radiant Demon Squad an immense debt...!”

Jung Yeonshin did not answer.

They were of no value to him now. If anything, they only made him keenly aware that he had brought his grandfather back to his feet.

Only after that renewed relief did a realization come.

This was a meritorious deed. An enormous achievement.

The Divine Sword Squad Leader, the Elder Council Leader, the former Divine Sword Squad Leader.

All were purple robes. Each had duties of their own.

The fruit of the world tree was a treasure personally guarded by the Desolate fortress master.

A supreme clan treasure held sacred by every member of the noble race in the Central Plains. He had been told there was only one in the whole world.

Just as merit points had to accumulate before one advanced to the next color of martial robes, he could not receive the fruit immediately after completing a single mission befitting his rank.

That would throw the reward system into chaos.

‘She said the noble race throughout the world must accept it.’

To receive an entire fruit rather than a fragment, he would have to undertake repeated journeys through the martial world as a purple robe.

He knew. That was fine.

‘I’ve already accomplished two of those deeds.’

The Comprehensive Compendium for Breaking the Righteous Path. His grandfather’s Rejuvenation.

He had achieved them wearing black, taking two great strides toward the fruit.

He had added several thick layers to the justification he would need to build before receiving the Fruit of the World Tree as a purple robe. He had brought that day forward enormously.

Now his martial attainment truly mattered.

‘I need to challenge the Blood-Preserving Squad Captain to a spar... No, finish what’s in front of me first.’

Jung Yeonshin inwardly shook his head.

Dismissing the thought, he gazed down at the Desolate’s Ma clan warriors.

He could see the backs of more than twenty heads. They remained prostrate.

“...”

He could guess why they had caused the disturbance. Whether they shared Ju Yeonjeong’s intentions, he could not know.

But they had acted alongside her. Something truly could have gone wrong. It would have, had he circulated his qi with an internal martial art less stable than the Movement Art.

‘You were concerned for my grandfather’s health?’

A fine-sounding excuse.

The justification itself was sound. An internal martial arts expert’s knowledge differed from a physician’s.

A physician’s learning would have been better suited to tending Ma Yeonjeok than knowledge of most internal qi arts.

Ju Yeonjeong was meticulous. She had made that point clear from the start. Jung Yeonshin had heard her shouts perfectly well.

But anyone could read between the lines.

The disturbance had been excessive.

The qi unleashed by the Ma clan had been clamorous. The waves sweeping the pavilion and garden had resounded with exceptional force.

Jung Yeonshin had felt unmistakable malice. It was as though they were asking whether he could continue circulating his qi even through this.

Blatant, yet insidious. A scheme worthy of the imperial Forbidden City.

Anyone would know.

Jung Yeonshin glanced beside his shoulder.

If Ma Yeonjeok’s treatment of them and Ju Yeonjeong proved inadequate, he intended to set aside his grandfather’s dignity for a moment and act as a captain of the fortress.

Sword Thunder, Ridge-Cleaving Form or Infinite Blossom Hand—either would do. They had attempted to harm a Black and a purple robe of the Desolate Fortress. Ordinary punishment would not suffice.

Then:

“Foolish, disloyal wretches.”

Ma Yeonjeok ground out the words.

STEP.

His pink trouser leg moved forward as he slowly lifted his hand from his grandson’s shoulder.

The qi spreading from the young old man’s body vanished all at once. He had become even more frightening.

He had fully contained the power overflowing from his Rejuvenation. It was like compressing a flame.

His seasoned eyes flashed with blue fire. Some warriors flinched at the unprecedented light in his gaze.

Ma Yeonjeok paid them no heed. He understood the entire course of events.

“How dare you.”

He muttered the short words. His heart, briefly relaxed as though wandering through heaven, filled with wrath.

The contrast between inside and outside the pavilion was stark.

Earlier, he had felt his daughter in his grandson’s divine technique.

The Movement Art was a peerless art with a poignant formula. It portrayed only the young Grandmaster’s mother. Ma Yeonsang. Ma Yeonjeok’s daughter.

He had encountered the image of his daughter’s heart.

It had been so warm. It had transformed into the Great Restoration Pill’s energy and filled his entire body.

He would never forget the sensation as it traveled up his fine meridians and brushed every pressure point. A sorrowful comfort.

And so, in his grandson’s hands, the years had unwound. Back to the day he had first held his newborn daughter and wrapped her in his purple robe.

He could not help but regain his prime. He had reached Rejuvenation as though it were only natural.

He raised his gaze and looked ahead.

Ju Yeonjeong stood with lofty poise, her back straighter than anyone else’s.

Had she already mastered her panic? She merely raised her clasped hands toward Ma Yeonjeok.

“Congratulations on your Great Completion.”

She was of Imperial blood. Kin of the Forbidden City did not kneel.

All expression vanished from Ma Yeonjeok’s face. With a look resembling his grandson’s, he slowly took a step.

STEP.

That first step was the beginning. He started striding forward.

He headed straight for Ju Yeonjeong. Not even the warriors she had brought from her birth family dared block him.

They merely flinched and hesitated.

“I know why you are angry.”

Ju Yeonjeong spoke with upright composure.

“This is a misunderstanding. Please calm yourself, venerable retired head.”

She retained her dignity, her face elegant and her bearing composed.

“You dare order me to calm myself? After scheming to harm my grandson?”

Ma Yeonjeok did not stop walking. The shrubs crushed beneath his feet crumbled beyond recognition.

It happened even though he no longer emitted waves of qi. His completely refined might manifested as naturally as the powers of a supernatural abomination.

Ju Yeonjeong’s lips moved a little faster.

“Please consider the circumstances and understand. Everything was out of concern for your safety...”

“If your scheme had brought harm only to me, that would have been the end of it. But you sought to touch my treasure, so I must repay you with more. You had best prepare yourself. Here and now.”

STEP.

Ma Yeonjeok’s six-foot frame came to a halt before Ju Yeonjeong.

Then he lowered only his eyes to look down at her. Blue light flashed repeatedly within them.

At last, Ju Yeonjeong’s eyebrows rose. Coldness began to gather around her mouth.

“Do not do something you will regret. I have no intention of letting matters pass so leniently again. Remember the august bloodline of the Ju clan, and remember that the Desolate Fortress is the imperial family’s sword. Your own station is no different, retired head.”

It was a reasonable threat.

The Ming imperial family devoted tremendous effort to preserving its dignity.

Its public denial and severing of its ties to the Desolate Fortress was one example. Ju Yeonjeong continued calmly.

“If you harm me, the imperial family will naturally take corresponding...”

Suddenly.

THUD!

“Guh—!”

Ju Yeonjeong doubled over in an instant. At the same time, a heavy wave spread from the lower dantian in her lower abdomen. It was an extraordinarily powerful shock wave.

Her energy core seemed to have been shattered in a single blow. Blood poured from her mouth. Anyone could see that the vomiting was involuntary.

No one had seen Ma Yeonjeok strike.

He simply stood exactly as before, looking down at Ju Yeonjeong.

“Haaagh—”

Expelling blood and a ragged breath, Ju Yeonjeong jerked her head up. Dismay was plain in her eyes. Her expression was one of disbelief.

“A sword has just... against its master’s kin...!”

“There are many of the Ju clan under heaven.”

Lightning Genius’s maternal grandfather spoke calmly.

“But there is only one Ma Yeonjeok.”

The young old man’s fingertip pointed toward Ju Yeonjeong’s solar plexus.

It was where the Middle Dantian lay.