Chapter 494: Chapter 494

Jeong Yeon-shin sensed an anomaly.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek’s pulse had changed.

Earlier, it had been racing, but now it had settled into a steady rhythm, as calm as the endless flow of the Yangtze River.

The change was so distinct that no sensory perception was needed to notice it—it could be felt entirely through the body.

With natural ease, she took a step back. It felt as if she had always been standing there. It was the unique retreating footwork of an expert archer.

Jeong Yeon-shin did not bother to follow.

Initially, he had intended to test the Joint Hundred Strikes technique he had learned from Kwon Mugong Eon Hwayeon, yet he merely observed Chi Cheon-gung Baek in silence.

Because her expression had changed.

The exhaustion that had clung to her face vanished. It was as if she had been circulating her energy through her Dantian for an extended period, reinforcing her body.

“This... what is this...?”

Chi Cheon-gung Baek muttered under her breath.

There were several emotions embedded in her voice, soft as a breeze—great surprise, a rare sense of bewilderment, and, strangely enough, a tranquility she herself seemed unaware of.

Was she not even attempting to conceal her thoughts or physical state from someone she had just exchanged blows with?

A dense mist, heavier than before, was now seeping from her long limbs. It was none other than her Qi wave.

The deep resonance of profound internal energy.

It was extremely peculiar. As if she had ingested some rare, ancient elixir.

Jeong Yeon-shin observed every subtle change in her. It was the only proper response when standing before a supreme master capable of threatening his life.

Then, all of a sudden, his eyelids lifted slightly.

Jeong Yeon-shin had experienced something similar three times before.

The first time was when he perfected his martial power using Myeolma Cheonggangsu.

The second was when he extended his Hwanik Step to five steps.

The third was in Hangzhou, when he moved alongside the Daoist Immortals of the Nine Schools.

One thing was the same.

A Shaolin monk had always been nearby.

They were the ones who had acknowledged the martial power he had created.

From the grand master of the Four Vajras, Great Master Wonjeok, to the esteemed Abbot Beomheo—each time Jeong Yeon-shin approached them, his acupoints would respond with minute tremors, as if welcoming him.

For a boy who once needed someone to push his swing on Dragon Boat Festival, their recognition had meant the world. He had craved acknowledgment since childhood.

He had no need for Chi Cheon-gung Baek’s approval.

‘A detached and carefree clan.’

Without a word, Jeong Yeon-shin turned his back.

He had been momentarily intrigued by the break in her emotionless composure, but he quickly lost interest in the reason he had inadvertently invigorated her Qi.

The Heavenly Wood was nothing but a vast well.

No matter how chaotic the era became, they did not care. If it was not related to their clan, it was beneath them. Even after reaching a realm capable of discussing the fate of the world, they remained indifferent.

In that case, Jeong Yeon-shin saw no reason to think highly of them either.

From the very beginning—

There was never a reason for his violet eyes to linger on them.

They had no influence over the world. Their names were unknown in the martial realm for that very reason.

Images of his fallen seniors flickered through his mind—Suncheon Ik Lord Ha Do-un, and many others whose names had faded away since the battle at Sichuan's Myungongdo. He could not even count how many had been lost.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly nodded.

“You are nothing but trees standing apart.”

A cold, composed mockery.

The next moment, his form shattered in place, dispersing into countless fragments. It was the lightness technique, Ten Ri Light Traversal.

A pale, flickering light streaked across the ground.

By the time Chi Cheon-gung Baek belatedly lifted her gaze, even that had vanished.

For a fleeting instant, urgency crept onto the face that had seemed as if it had just awakened from a dream.

The undergrowth, as tall as a grown man, swayed like waves. Even without sunlight, it emitted a soft, radiant glow, exuding a gentle warmth that was entirely detached from the frigid winter air outside.

The moment the low voice echoed, even the movement of the leaves halted.

The warm breeze, which had been weaving through the undergrowth like tangled threads, unraveled all at once. It was as if the foliage was listening to the man standing atop the edge of a single leaf.

He spoke slowly to himself.

“The one called the Violet of Ipwang Fortress knows how to retreat...?”

The speaker was a middle-aged man with black hair, draped in a deep crimson robe.

His ears were long, like leaves.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

Yet, beyond that, he had no distinguishing features. His brows and the corners of his eyes aligned in a straight line, and even when he spoke, the muscles in his face hardly moved in response.

Instead, the green longsword at his waist pulsed with a deeper vitality. Even while sheathed, it throbbed intermittently, as though a heart were beating inside it.

A divine blade in a state of unity with its wielder. Faintly etched into the hilt was the inscription: Yongji

“The intruder is the grandson of the Fiendish Chivalry Ma Yeon-jeok?”

The middle-aged man directed his question toward Chi Cheon-gung Baek, who stood beyond the thicket.

“That bloodline is secondary,” she replied. “I already told you. My energy has recovered.”

Her voice was devoid of emotion.

Yet, her speech was slightly faster than usual. Her long legs shifted subtly, twisting her heels as if preparing to launch herself forward at any moment—an unusual display of unease.

“The only one in recent years to have learned spell-infused martial arts was the Divine Sword Sect leader, wasn’t it? What was her name? That girl from the Ipwang family... She was a rather bold one. Didn’t she have a peculiar honorific?”

The figure perched on a tree branch trailed off, his fingers laced behind his neck. He was a strikingly youthful man.

His golden hair gleamed like molten metal, cascading down his back.

The loosely draped martial robes he wore rippled with dozens of golden streaks of light, as if woven from lightning itself.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek slowly turned her body.

Among the esteemed clans, there was not a single person who trusted the golden-haired youth’s memory. It was due to his mastery of an exceptionally rare form of martial arts centered around the Upper Dantian.

Glancing briefly at his docile face, Chi Cheon-gung Baek casually remarked,

“Shin Cheon-hwa, former leader of the Divine Sword Sect. She’s long dead.”

“Dead...? By whose hand?”

Shock colored the youth’s face.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek answered briefly.

The youth murmured softly, his expression darkening.

For a fleeting moment, the lightning patterns gathered at the hem of his robe crackled, shifting from rigid straight lines to curved streaks.

“So who ate all of today’s feast?”

He suddenly blurted out nonsense again.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek turned her gaze back to the middle-aged man.

She carefully parted her lips.

“Forget about capturing that Violet. When I said my energy had recovered, I wasn’t exaggerating. If I circulate my energy for just one more day here, I’ll be able to enter the Rootwood.”

The middle-aged man, who had been gazing at her intently, responded quietly.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek offered no further reply.

The weight of her words was acknowledged throughout the vast city of the Heavenly Wood.

Even the foremost guardian of the clan, the wielder of the green divine sword, found it wiser to take her words at face value.

The middle-aged man slowly nodded.

“A miraculous ability. Worth remembering.”

“When carrying out the pursuit, we will take that into account. The clan’s laws permit no exceptions.”

As soon as the middle-aged man finished speaking, his eyes swept across the ruins of the village.

The undergrowth surrounding them abruptly straightened, each blade of grass sharpening like a drawn sword.

The previously still air was suddenly replaced by a desiccated wind, carrying the sharpness of countless unsheathed blades.

At the same time, the golden-clad youth let out a startled sound, swiftly leaping down from the now-rigid tree branch.

With the surrounding nature bristling like an array of drawn weapons—

“The Violet of Ipwang Fortress is no ordinary figure.”

“From now on, initiate pursuit the moment he is spotted. If we determine that his resistance could affect the city—execute immediately.”

The middle-aged man spoke in a serene tone.

Chi Cheon-gung Baek parted her lips as if to speak, but then hesitated.

The clan’s law stood before her.

There was nothing more she could say.

“You must avoid Yongji Sword Master and Geumbyeokja at all costs.”

It was the boy sitting across from Jeong Yeon-shin who spoke. They were inside a crude straw hut, its walls and roof haphazardly woven from reeds and straw. Despite its flimsy structure, the space was filled with warmth.

The thick scent of grass gave the place the feel of a modest retreat.

“Especially Yongji Sword Master. Our village has neither sun nor moon, only his unbending laws. To be honest, Chi Cheon-gung Baek was right. It would be far wiser to wait for the people who came with you.”

The boy cheerfully chattered on, holding a dull stone knife. In his other hand, he was carving the shape of the Heavenly Wood into a piece of bark.

He was Jong-yeon, the boy who had received his name as a gift from Jeong Yeon-shin.

They had met in the now half-destroyed village of Chi Cheon-gung Baek. He was about ten years old, with delicate features as though sculpted with precision.

His slightly blank-looking eyes gave him a somewhat naive appearance.

“Oh, right. You’ll recognize Geumbyeokja the moment you see him. He once learned how to contain thunder and lightning within his body from a man outside the Heavenly Wood called Great Elder Sambong. But they say he engraved the teachings of Wu Wei Zi Ran onto his Baihui acupoint, and now he’s wandered into senility. Even though he’s a guardian, people in the city avoid him.”

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been idly listening while sitting cross-legged on the ground, unconsciously gripped the hilt of Songmun Ancient Sword.

A relic of a Grandmaster that he would one day have to return to the Wudang Sect.

“There’s a guardian here who was a disciple of Great Elder Sambong?”

Even as he asked, Jeong Yeon-shin was not particularly surprised.

He had fought a monster like the Dark Heaven Emperor not long ago. The long-lived clans with their oversized ears always seemed to mock the fate he had been born into.

“No? There are no masters or disciples here. The great nature is our master, and we are always its disciples.”

Jong-yeon replied nonchalantly.

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly recalled Chi Cheon-gung Baek mocking his teacher-disciple relationships. This Heavenly Wood was truly severed from the outside world.

He slowly rose to his feet.

Jong-yeon gazed up at him.

“You’re really leaving? I feel like I shouldn’t have told you all that.”

Jeong Yeon-shin shook his head.

“Thank you for telling me. If I had gone searching for the core of the Heavenly Wood alone, someone would have been hurt.”

“That’s why I told you. In this village and the entire city, the only people who can match Chi Cheon-gung Baek are the guardians.”

Jong-yeon smiled slyly as he spoke.

His smile was warm—perhaps the only truly kind expression Jeong Yeon-shin had seen from anyone inside the Heavenly Wood. A pure, untouched friendliness.

It reminded him of the twin siblings of the Ice Palace, who had shared a bonfire with him once when he briefly traveled to Shaanxi for his niece, Jeong Hye.

He now knew the location of the Heavenly Wood’s core, which lay in the city’s center.

Jeong Yeon-shin ❖ Nоvеl𝚒ght ❖ (Exclusive on Nоvеl𝚒ght) didn’t bother asking why Jong-yeon had been so kind to him. He felt it was simply human nature.

“It’s nothing. Just be careful out there. Honestly, there’s not much to see.”

“I don’t know if I’ll ever see you again, but until then... Oh, how old are you?”

“We don’t count our ages here. Some friends from outside once held a Gohui-yeon for us. That was a huge banquet.”

In Hangzhou, he had severed an evil fate with the Dark Heaven Emperor. In the Heavenly Wood, he had gained a good one.

They say the moon and tides rise and fall in cycles.

So, too, did human connections.

With a respectful clasp of his hands, Jeong Yeon-shin bowed to the village elder, Jong-yeon, and stepped out of the hut.

For the next few days, he would have to avoid sleeping under a blanket.

‘I have to see it for myself.’

What was the Heavenly Wood, that it had four supreme masters bound to it?

Even if its interior was vast, it was still a city of less than ten thousand people. It wouldn’t take long to reach the center.

His mind burned like fire. He had held himself back for far too long.

Even the thought of the Lord of Ipwang Fortress, cleansing himself of worldly impurities in accordance with tradition, had long faded from his mind. His master’s bath had taken too long.

The moment his foot touched the ground, his body blurred.

Ten-League Light Vault.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s figure, still draped in his violet longcoat, shot forward. He didn’t bother hiding the golden Hwang character embroidered on his shoulder, nor did he try to conceal the color of his robes beneath some ragged disguise.

After all, as far as he knew, a true Violet of the Main House was not allowed to change their attire.

No matter what kind of storm his presence might cause, it wasn’t his concern.

He would take the shortest route.

A city where the so-called most noble beings in the world stagnated like water in a well.

No matter who stood in his way, he would crush them in one move.

Jeong Yeon-shin shattered the ground beneath his feet and shot forward like a streak of light.

The shockwave from his launch roared like thunder, only reaching the ears of those behind him long after he had vanished.

Since his explosive growth in Hangzhou—

Jeong Yeon-shin had never felt this domineering.