WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 14: Southern Heavenly Steel Sword (1)

──────

‘That sword is powerful?’

Was the SoDam Sword talking about that rusted iron sword?

As I wondered at its words, Evil Heaven pointed at the Skull fragments and said,

“This is the one who will become your master.”

‘!?’

Being told that a dead man would become my master sent a chill down my spine.

Moreover, the Skull was not in good condition.

Even though I was only a third-rate warrior, I had still lived as a martial artist. I had seen enough intact Skulls to know something was wrong.

- That Skull is missing an arm.

‘It’s not just the arm.’

Both leg bones were broken.

More precisely, the kneecaps had been nearly pulverized. Injuries like that would have made walking impossible for the rest of his life.

What had happened to leave him in such a state?

“What a foolish bastard. He met his end in a cave like this, beyond the reach of human hands.”

It was strange to hear Evil Heaven criticize the dead man.

Rather than mockery, there was a faint note of regret in the old lunatic’s voice.

“Follow me.”

Evil Heaven took the lead deeper into the cave.

On the way, Evil Heaven carefully walked around the place where the Skull lay.

‘Ah!’

I finally understood why.

I had not noticed from the entrance, but writing had been carved into the ground beneath the skeleton.

It looked as though it had been carved with a finger.

How great would someone’s strength have to be to engrave words with a finger?

“This is what you will learn.”

“This...?”

“Yes.”

- A Skull as your master. Ugh, that gives me chills.

Just as the SoDam Sword said, it seemed that this dead man would truly become my master.

The thought made me uncomfortable, but my eyes were naturally drawn to the writing.

The first line read:

[Destroy Your Internal Energy]

‘What?’

The absurd words made me frown.

I wondered if I had read it wrong, but there was no mistake.

To destroy one’s own internal energy was no different from destroying one’s dantian.

‘So that’s why Evil Heaven brought me here.’

That was the reason.

To learn this, one had to have their dantian destroyed, whether willingly or not.

From Evil Heaven’s perspective, there had been no need to force someone into that state. I was the ideal candidate.

‘This makes me uneasy.’

Perhaps someone with an Intellectual Disability who knew nothing at all about Martial Arts would not understand the danger, but I had been born into a martial household.

I had no internal energy, but I knew the Radiant Earth Clan’s interal energy breathing technique and the basic Cultivation technique learned by Blood Cult warriors.

- So you know the theory inside out.

‘But I’ve never heard of cultivating internal energy after destroying the dantian.’

Even if it were possible, it might be an unorthodox art or a sinister technique that put one’s life on the line.

I had heard that unorthodox arts differed completely from ordinary internal energy breathing techniques.

They let one accumulate internal energy faster than orthodox techniques, but caused severe side effects in return.

“Why? Do you think I’m telling you to learn some unorthodox art?”

This old lunatic read my thoughts as if they were a ghost.

When I said nothing, Evil Heaven spoke mockingly.

“Even if someone picked the fruit everyone else is desperate to taste and handed it to you, you would still be full of suspicion.”

“What do you mean by that?”

“Who do you think this Skull is?”

There was no identification tag on him. How was I supposed to know?

Then Evil Heaven should have just told me from the beginning.

“This fellow is... Tsk. Never mind.”

“...?”

For a moment, I felt as though my insides had twisted.

If Evil Heaven was going to stop there, then the old lunatic should not have brought it up in the first place. It felt like being fed a dry sweet potato and denied water.

The SoDam Sword muttered, apparently just as irritated.

- ...Is this a new form of torture?

Whether Evil Heaven knew that or not, the old lunatic changed the subject.

“Do you know what Delicate Energy Spirit is?”

Delicate Energy Spirit.

It was one of the first concepts anyone learned after beginning Martial Arts.

Its first component could mean a finely milled grain of rice, and it was also used to mean the most refined thing.

In Martial Arts, that first component of Delicate Energy Spirit was...

“Essence is here. It refers to the dantian.”

Evil Heaven pointed below the navel.

Through a Breathing Technique, one refined ki into essence.

That essence was the dantian.

“Those who practice Martial Arts refine their energy into essence in the dantian through a Breathing Technique or Cultivation technique. That is internal energy.”

I already knew this well.

It was also called internal cultivation.

If I trained diligently through internal cultivation and accumulated internal energy, then one day I could become an internal energy master.

“Then what does ki mean?”

“...Doesn’t it refer to vitality?”

That was what I had learned.

I had heard that the vitality one was born with was the ki of Delicate Energy Spirit.

Evil Heaven shook their head.

“You only learned half of it.”

“What?”

“Vitality is not wrong, but what lies at the center of your chest is called innate life energy.”

“Innate life energy?”

I felt as though I had heard of it before.

But according to what I had heard then, innate life energy was vitality itself. Using it up was nearly the same as committing suicide.

I had a bad feeling about this.

“They say innate life energy possesses twice the power of the internal energy accumulated through essence.”

That was because it was not built up through effort. It was the vitality one was born with.

As far as I knew, vitality had only one use.

It was for perishing together with an enemy one could not defeat.

‘Don’t tell me the method of handling internal energy is...’

As unease filled me, Evil Heaven grinned.

“That is why you are fortunate. This contains a method for handling innate life energy.”

‘Ah... This really is exactly what I expected.’

As expected, Evil Heaven had hidden intentions.

Someone counted among the Blood Cult’s five greatest supreme masters could not possibly be unaware of what happened when vitality was depleted.

“You have only one task here. Learn it.”

“Right now?”

“Who told you to master it completely? Start by sensing your innate life energy.”

This was troubling.

Evil Heaven was telling me to learn how to consume my vitality.

If I comprehended this and kept using my vitality, I would not live long.

“You understand that if you cannot learn it, I will have no more use for you.”

It truly was a situation where I could neither advance nor retreat.

The only difference was whether my life would gradually be endangered as my vitality depleted, or whether I would die instantly at that mad old lunatic’s hands.

With that as the final word, Evil Heaven turned to leave the cave as if there was nothing more to discuss.

“That is all?”

“Should I stay by your side and keep watching you?”

I hurriedly shook my head.

If that old lunatic remained here, even sitting on a cushion would feel like sitting on thorns.

Evil Heaven was probably going to teach the twin brothers.

“You know where to return once you can sense your innate life energy, do you not?”

I was annoyed by the way Evil Heaven spoke as if it were obvious.

When I did not answer immediately, Evil Heaven gave me a frightening look.

‘Whew.’

I suppressed my anger.

Showing my feelings here would only harm me.

At times like this, the answer was to remain as calm as possible and not let it show.

“...May I ask just one thing?”

“What is it?”

I asked the puzzled old lunatic,

“Will you not tell me about Spirit?”

We had only covered Essence and Ki from Delicate Energy Spirit.

At my question, Evil Heaven tapped their head with a finger.

Tap. Tap.

Then the old lunatic left the cave.

The SoDam Sword spoke.

- The head?

* * *

‘He is not a fool.’

Evil Heaven smirked while using movement skill to return to their quarters.

Judging by his expression, So WoonHwi seemed to know quite well what would happen if he consumed innate life energy, or vitality.

He was probably racking his brain for a way out right now.

Even so, he would ultimately have no choice but to learn it.

‘What a pity. If the entire inscription had been written, it might have been a blessing for you as well.’

Of course, if that were the case, Evil Heaven might have sought someone more suitable than So WoonHwi.

Though it required a destroyed dantian, this was a secret art that countless martial artists would covet with fire in their eyes.

* * *

‘What is this?’

As I read through the writing left by the dead Skull, I was utterly bewildered.

The secret art was incomplete.

Perhaps he had run out of strength and breathed his last while writing it. The inscription stopped midway.

‘This is insane!’

I cursed the dead man inwardly as I looked at the skeleton.

The final part he had failed to write was the method for preventing innate life energy from being depleted.

In other words, there was a way to stop vitality from diminishing.

Yet it ended at the most important part.

‘You should have written this first!’

It was cruel to think that way about the dead, but I could not help feeling furious.

If I learned this as it was, I would only consume innate life energy and be unable to recover it.

Then the SoDam Sword spoke to me.

- WoonHwi.

‘Wait a moment, SoDam. I need time to think.’

I needed to find some solution.

I did not know when the match would take place, but Evil Heaven would surely wait until the twins were fully prepared.

By then, my vitality might be completely depleted.

- Hey.

‘Should I control it in a way that conserves as much vitality as possible?’

The SoDam Sword shouted so loudly that my head rang.

- Hey, you!

‘Startled me. You scared me.’

- That is because you were not listening. Hey, how about asking that one?

‘What?’

I had no idea what the SoDam Sword was talking about.

- Ask that one. That Skull’s... Ah. This brat is giving me an earful for calling its owner a skeleton.

‘Wait, you... are you talking to that iron sword?’

- Yes. Ask it. If it stayed with that skeleton all that time, then it should know at least... Ah, honestly! Why is it so sensitive? How was I supposed to know whether your owner was Hoh JongDae or Moh JongDae?

‘!?’

For a moment, I doubted my ears.

‘...What did you just say?’

- Hoh JongDae or Moh JongDae? This one says its owner was Hoh JongDae, the Southern Heavenly Swordmaster.

‘The Southern Heavenly Swordmaster!’

- Why are you so surprised?

Anyone would have been surprised.

He was a renowned master swordsman who had once been said to have shaken Yunnan with a single iron sword.

His reputation had been so great that people said if he had not suddenly disappeared fifteen years ago, the Eight Sword Masters of the Central Plains might have become the Nine Masters of the Central Plains by now.

- Is he that impressive? No wonder he was acting so proud.

If this Skull truly was the Southern Heavenly Swordmaster, then he had every reason to be proud.

But I could not understand why a man known to have vanished in Yunnan was lying dead like this on an unnamed mountain peak in Guangdong Province.

‘Could that mad old man, Evil Heaven, have done this to him?’

- This one is laughing.

‘Why?’

- It says that old man never beat Hoh JongDae even once.

‘!!!’

It was astonishing.

Evil Heaven was strange and monstrous, one of the Blood Cult’s Four Venerables. Though Evil Heaven could not compare to the Eight Sword Masters of the Central Plains or the Four Great Evildoers, the old lunatic was still one of the foremost masters in the Central Plains.

Yet Evil Heaven had suffered an unknown defeat.

‘So that was it.’

Only then could I vaguely guess why Evil Heaven had made me this offer.

Perhaps it was to restore the old lunatic’s honor.

Regardless of their origin, most martial artists took great pride in Martial Arts.

No one liked being defeated.

‘If he really is Hoh JongDae, this is good news.’

Then, as the SoDam Sword said, this iron sword might know the missing part of the inscription.

It was nothing less than a fortuitous encounter for me.

I urged the SoDam Sword to ask the iron sword about the cultivation technique for handling innate life energy.

But...

- Am I your matchmaker? It is right in front of you, so ask it yourself.

At those words, I let out a deep sigh.

I had touched other Weapons, including sabers, but I had never heard any voices.

The same was true when I touched hidden weapons.

That was why I had believed the SoDam Sword alone was special.

‘It needs to speak before I can ask it anything.’

Certain that nothing would happen, I absentmindedly grabbed the iron sword’s hilt.

Then a voice rang through my mind.

- Haa. It has been a long time since I last felt a touch.

A chill ran through my entire body, and I snatched my hand away from the sword’s hilt.

‘W-what was that?’

The SoDam Sword answered as if it were nothing.

- That one’s voice.

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried