Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time

The endlessly long body of the flood dragon.

The supreme masters who arrived in Hangzhou had, at this moment, taken a calamity manifesting on earth as their battlefield.

If not for the Dark Heaven Emperor’s dragon-controlling sorcery keeping the exalted creature in slumber, even this much would have been impossible.

The moment either side’s internal energy was exhausted, it would be over.

Even just descending to the ground, the dragon blanketed the sky with storm clouds as though laying out a sea of mist, summoning endless thunderbolts. If it fully regained consciousness, it would become utterly unbeatable.

This was a battle against time, and Abbot Beomheo entrusted the rest to Jeong Yeon-shin and Yulha Nangnang.

Or rather—

Jeong Yeon-shin intensified the blazing rotation of the radiance within his heart as he reconsidered.

Yulha Nangnang had already done her part by driving the flood dragon all the way to Zhejiang. The Red Tide of the Vast Moon Dance—a feat Jeong Yeon-shin himself could never accomplish.

Thus, severing Dark Heaven Emperor’s lifeline had to be done by the Imperial Purple Newcomer. The Shaolin abbot of this era had chosen Jeong Yeon-shin. The battle had unfolded that way.

“……”

Upon the vast circular waters of the great river—

The eyes of the living and the dead met, pressing against the silence.

***

Jeong Yeon-shin knew little.

His learning amounted only to the Four Books and Five Classics he read under the indifferent guidance of a teacher, along with passages from Laozi and Zhuangzi. His understanding was shallow.

The ones who had, for the first time, sincerely imparted teachings to him were the Shaolin monks.

When he forged his Dharma Power—

So Shin-seung and the old monk Wonjong taught him about Buddhist principles.

For a short time, it had been pleasant. Those days when he pondered what kind of intention should be infused into refined internal energy to give it a divine quality.

Thanks to the discussions he had with the monks, Jeong Yeon-shin was able to build the foundation of his Radiant Dharma Wheel Technique.

A grandmaster of martial studies was said to be one who could fashion countless techniques while gazing at drifting clouds or reflecting on accumulated knowledge.

At the time, the Shaolin monks had been his great natural world.

Daoism was different.

What High Sword Immortal passed on to him was chivalry.

From Three Peaks Zhenren, he had uncovered the mysteries of the sword. Even if one were to call it an incomparably sublime skill, they would not be wrong.

Yet in between—