Amidst the commotion, a dozen or so attendees stirred restlessly.
At this moment, there was no one in the Golden Wings Sect who was not a master.
This grand hall was filled solely with those leading the hunt for the Spiritual Predator. Before the unification under Golden Wings Sect, these individuals had once reigned as the leaders of their respective factions within the Dragon Slayer Alliance.
The first reaction was to tighten their grips on their weapons and furrow their brows.
Black harpoons, chained curved blades, and other exotic weaponry, as well as swords and sabers, adorned their figures in various forms. Yet, without exception, all of them exuded a commanding aura, their force so oppressive that it seemed as if it could tear through the ceiling itself. Even as they held their ground, they radiated an unshakable presence.
"Tang Clan's secret technique...?"
"No way!"
"There's no way the Tang Clan's leader himself could have come all the way here!"
"What are you looking at? Over there, it's that man."
Their voices were drowned out by the deafening roar.
At the seat of honor in the gathering hall, standing behind the Golden Wings Sect's leader, a young man's hand was stirring a whirlwind.
A translucent vortex surged forth along his diagonally raised arm, a sight to behold. The debris from the ceiling was being ripped apart with tremendous noise and swept into the spiraling wind. There was no doubt—it was Full Sky Flower Rain.
Jung Yeonshin had invoked it.
The moment the Beggar Sect's Hu-gae mentioned the Grand Elder and the Twin Venoms of Dragon and Phoenix, a flash of insight struck the upper dantian of his mind.
It was not intentional. A fleeting thought that had momentarily crossed his mind had materialized into reality.
A desperate desire to shatter the ceiling just to stop Hu-gae from speaking—his near-completed Three Flowers Gathering at the Crown had erupted into an incredible manifestation, causing unintended havoc.
Right after comprehending the necessity of a perfected Full Sky Flower Rain within the Golden Wings Sect.
Meanwhile—
'This much?'
Jung Yeonshin was inwardly startled. The power of Full Sky Flower Rain had exceeded his expectations.
The energy used to invoke the Tang Clan's secret art was not the extreme, Radiant Wheel Energy, but the refined Jung Clan's Movement Arts True Energy flowing through his body.
Beneath the underlying frustration, there had been concerns for his seniors and a need to conceal his identity. It was never meant to be an all-out attack.
Naturally, he had never expected the roof to collapse.
The opposing forces of repulsion and suction had clashed like flint, amplifying their strength at an unprecedented rate.
Even the resilience of his body, which now had undergone a Rebirth of Bones and Flesh, was incomparable to his former self.
"Elders! I will stop it! We must subdue him at once—!"
"Do not act rashly. The Sect's leader himself is gazing into his eyes, is she not? The breeze is rather refreshing."
"Why are you smiling?"
"This is Full Sky Flower Rain. A great blessing has rolled into our lap."
"But at this rate...!"
"Did the Tang Clan raise such a formidable weapon? He seems to be from a branch family."
Krrrrrr!
The young masters with shallow martial attainments let out suppressed groans.
Meanwhile, a few aged elders and youthful figures of noble lineage sat calmly within the storm, clicking their tongues at the younger generation.
"You have been negligent in your training. Have you truly understood the core of Thousand-Pound Hammer?"
"Rather than delving into the mysteries of convergence, they must have found it easier to refine the Thousand-Pound Will instead."
"Look at that fool clutching the armrest. The elders of the Golden Sword Lineage must be sighing in disappointment. If they struggle like this, how will they withstand the breath of the Flood Dragon?"
Golden Wings Sect—a grand faction at the pinnacle of both politics and martial arts.
As the elders shared wry jokes, many struggled to endure the gravitational pull that had even torn down the ceiling. Groans continued to emerge from different corners of the hall.
Yet among them, some had firmly anchored their feet to the ground using their inner energy, directing their gazes toward the sect leader's throne.
Amid the cascading beams of white sunlight—
Perhaps it was because the sun had fully revealed itself, but the young man's stunning appearance became all the more prominent.
His firm yet slender jawline was so finely shaped that it blended seamlessly with the sun's rays. His deep, abyss-like pupils exuded the essence of a martial artist.
Bathed in stark daylight, his skin was flawless, harmonizing with his sharply defined nose to create an almost ethereal impression. He seemed to exist alone in the world.
The prime of youth, when one's lifeblood blossoms.
The term Half-Evil (Ban-ak) suited him perfectly. With his recent increase in food intake, the young man had, willingly or not, begun to blossom as the seed of his parents.
He was utterly unrecognizable compared to his boyhood self, before his Rebirth of Bones and Flesh. Once, Ak Surim had likened it to the difference between a tadpole and a frog.
Even among the later-generation elites of the righteous sects, renowned for their expertise in Sight Arts, neither the Tang Clan siblings nor Hu-gae recognized Jung Yeonshin.
The Twin Venoms of Dragon and Phoenix merely alternated their gazes between the wrecked ceiling and Jung Yeonshin, their faces frozen in shock.
"Wha... what? That's him, right?"
"Sister, did father have a hidden child somewhere?"
"I don't know!"
"Venomous Phoenix and Venomous Dragon, stop feigning ignorance and speak! Is this truly the first time you've heard of this?"
"The sect leader could very well take him in as a personal attendant. That's not a mere face of flesh, but a collection of ancient spirits, is it not?"
"The number of techniques in Heaven-Flipping Dragon Cleave might just increase because of this..."
The area beneath the seat of honor grew restless. Everyone, holding different positions and opinions, chattered noisily. This was the seat of the Golden Wings Sect's leader.
Unless one executed Full Sky Flower Rain with absolute mastery, it would be impossible to shake the martial world.
Jung Yeonshin did not lower his raised hand as he locked eyes with the Golden Wings Sect's leader.
Her light brown eyes flickered with a terrifyingly ferocious true energy.
Beneath what seemed like a slender frame, the sinews of her muscles appeared woven entirely from sheer internal power.
The faint yet strangely transcendent pulsation of her crimson-gold robe only reinforced this impression.
Everything else was meaningless.
Her small head, proportional to her physique.
Her finely sculpted, sharply defined features, void of any apparent emotion.
Jung Yeonshin instinctively calculated.
'Thirty percent...?'
Could he win three times out of ten fights?
He wasn't sure yet. He would need to observe at least a glimpse of Heaven-Piercing Dragon Slaughter Art and Heaven-Flipping Dragon Cleave to assess it accurately.
But the overwhelming sensation he felt was undeniable.
The world of the great sect leaders.
How vast was the black domain?
Between the Moonlight Extreme Arts of Ten Perfection Sect and the Black Three Steel of Desolate Fortress, there was an immeasurable gap.
It was akin to the difference between the moment one first forms Transcendent Radiant Energy and the instant one conceives Fan Dragon Lotus Binding Technique.
'Purple must be even greater.'
In this brief contemplation, Jung Yeonshin was suddenly struck by a question.
Was the Young Lord of the Ming Cult, who had lived three years longer than him, truly his equal?
Was that ever-cunning, smirking face actually the expression of a corpse?
'One who should have already died, or is on the verge of death…'
Even as these thoughts passed through his mind, Jung Yeonshin deliberately did not withdraw the Full Sky Flower Rain.
He let the mnemonic verse run rampant in its nature, or rather, let it act as dictated by his deep-seated considerations.
And then—
"I've held back long enough, and yet you still refuse to lower your hand! Do you think this is a place of safety?"
A fierce shockwave burst forth, pushing against Jung Yeonshin's robes.
It was Wanyang.
The man, who had posed as a senior attendant, extended a knife-hand toward Jung Yeonshin.
Slaaash—!
The energy infused in the hand blade was tremendous.
With a deafening noise akin to tearing paper, the storm of Full Sky Flower Rain was forcibly split apart.
Simultaneously, something about Wanyang's body seemed to shift, as if an unseen layer of clothing had been shed. His previously blunt-looking ears suddenly grew long.
His human-like features had been a deception, he was of noble blood.
A hidden Energy Art had been concealing his appearance and aura, but the act of revealing his True Flow had unraveled it.
'Golden Wings Sect's Guardian Art, Spirit-Melting Divine Fist.'
Jung Yeonshin deduced this from the colorless blade-like aura wrapping around Wanyang's hand blade.
One of Golden Wings Sect's two guardians, a figure who had spent years hunting and slaying near-apocalyptic mystical beasts.
His moniker was renowned, though his face was seldom recognized.
A master of fist and foot techniques, rumored to be able to topple an entire mountain range with a single punch.
Equivalent to a mid-tier black-rank in Desolate Fortress.
Both had deceived and been deceived.
Jung Yeonshin instinctively realized that the martial world he was navigating was entering a realm of deep mysteries.
"Radiant..."
In an instant, he compressed Transcendent Law Radiant Wheel Energy into a single meridian in his arm and layered it with Jung Clan Movement Arts True Eneegy.
Like an iron core wrapped in wood.
Then, maintaining the same posture as when he had cast Full Sky Flower Rain, he swept his other arm outward.
Kwaaaaaang—!
A violent shockwave rippled through the air. The swirling vortex that had enshrouded the hall trembled.
'It works.'
Jung Yeonshin sensed Spirit-Melting Divine Fist being flung away into the distance and marveled.
He had borrowed a portion of Radiant River's mnemonic verse, focusing solely on repelling the opponent, and it had worked perfectly.
The fusion of Essence, Energy, and Spirit was truly formidable.
Even though he had not yet fully stabilized this state, he had managed to repel one of Golden Wings Sect's Twin Guardians while maintaining Full Sky Flower Rain.
This had significant implications.
Spirit-Melting Divine Fist, a technique renowned for its effectiveness against beings of mystical energy, had failed to subdue him.
'This one's True Flow will be entirely different.'
Jung Yeonshin once again met the Golden Wings Sect's leader's gaze.
What was she thinking?
Her enigmatic, transcendent light brown eyes were impossible to decipher.
Just then, Wanyang let out a thunderous roar.
[You insolent wretch!]
The force with which he stomped down was akin to a tiger's fury.
Around his legs, translucent energy waves exploded, shattering the ground beneath him. The stone tiles of the hall splintered and shot into the air.
The Golden Wings Sect, witnessing such chaos at its very heart, seemed to have reached its boiling point.
'For fuck's sake.'
Jung Yeonshin was just as enraged.
He merely concealed it beneath the habitual composure that had settled within him, as though counting his age backward.
The sectarian disputes of Sichuan, tangled around the Young Lord of the Ming Cult and the Flood Dragon.
The vanished seniors, whose whereabouts had become impossible to trace.
The undeniable truth about the Tang Clan twins, branded into his mind by the power of his upper dantian.
The imitation of his physique, grotesquely crafted.
And the Beggar Sect's Hu-gae, who had intended to exploit it for his own purposes.
'That damned jawline…'
Jung Yeonshin.
Cast aside the thought that he was standing within one of Sichuan's greatest sects.
"What do you two siblings think of this one? Isn't he far too formidable to be considered a mere branch descendant of the Tang Clan? Perhaps the Venomous Leader took a secret disciple after all…"
With an amused expression, Hu-gae continued watching the commotion unfold.
At that moment, Jung Yeonshin brought the palm of Full Sky Flower Rain down upon him.
Toward the Golden Wings Sect's leader, he merely erected an imaginary fan within his mind.
And at the same time—
"Enough."
The Golden Wings Sect's leader spoke. Her voice was dry, barely above a whisper.
Jung Yeonshin did not listen.
He adjusted the true energy between the Shaofu Acupoint and Laogong Acupoint in his palm.
The whirlwind that had shattered the ceiling entirely condensed into a singular column, its roaring thunder carrying countless debris.
It took the shape of a dragon's ascent, honed into a razor-edged spear.
"Hm?"
A shift as swift as light itself. Hu-gae's reaction lagged by a beat.
"What the...?"
Fwaaaaash—!
Just before the spiraling storm of Full Sky Flower Rain could pierce into Hu-gae's forehead like a drill—
"I said, enough."
A slender arm rose toward Jung Yeonshin's palm.
In that instant, a massive roar ziiiing— echoed through the air. Sparks flickered from the hand of the Golden Wings Sect's leader, who had somehow blocked the source of Full Sky Flower Rain.
Her arm was now wrapped in an energy that seemed to compress all things. It was as if thousands of invisible lightning bolts had fused together to form a single force.
Jung Yeonshin immediately ignited his upper dantian, entering a world of slowed perception.
The flow of air brushing his fingertips became as distinct as a stream of water, and behind the Golden Wings Sect's leader's shoulder, he could clearly sense the long, drawn-out exhale of stunned Hu-gae.
'Heavenly Dragon Slaughtering Art.'
Even in the face of Full Sky Flower Rain, the golden-red sleeves of the Golden Wings Sect's leader did not so much as flutter. It felt as though a transparent giant was overlapping her form.
She interlocked her fingers and reached toward Jung Yeonshin, a complete blockade. True energy unfurled from every joint of her fingers.
She was calculating every trajectory of her five fingers, each moving in a different pattern.
Slowly.
Jung Yeonshin's gaze sharpened. Losing in a Turo battle? Impossible.
Before her hands could close around him, he angled his index finger downward, gathering the flow of Full Sky Flower Rain at its tip and thrusting it forward.
Boom—
The resounding crash of Hu-gae being struck by the whirlwind echoed through the air. It was a slow, drawn-out sound.
The Golden Wings Sect's leader's pupils flickered ever so slightly. Or perhaps it was more accurate to say they brightened.
Her delicate eyelashes, which had formed a dense yet faint shadow, lifted slightly.
Within the realm of transcendent perception, her lips moved ever so slowly.
"Have you attained union(marriage)?"
A trace of doubt passed through Jung Yeonshin's eyes. Among the supreme martial artists, was he the only one with complete intelligence and composure?
"I have not."
He answered calmly, just as he had once informed the Young Lord of the Ming Cult.
Immediately, the Golden Wings Sect's leader spoke, her words carrying the weight of a command.
"Become my weapon."
"Fuck off."