WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ Damned Transmigration ◈

Chapter 100: Dang Family 3

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The sparring match that had suddenly been arranged in the middle of the street was about to begin without delay.

Several hundred martial artists who had come to keep watch on the Dang Family blocked off the street and formed an arena. Tang Seo-jin stood at ease with one hand behind his back, hiding his mouth behind an open Folding Fan.

ㅡWhy did it come to this?

“Yuri, wait.”

Rather than lose herself in thought, Haryeong hurried over. Yuri, sitting on the ground and rubbing his knee and shoulder joints, spoke without even looking at her.

“Just watch from behind.”

“Why are you suddenly acting like this?”

“What did I do?”

“You aren't usually this reckless.”

“I do tend to read the mood and bend a little when I need to.”

Yuri answered listlessly as he shook out his wrist.

“When someone's stronger than me, when I don't want to make an enemy of them, or when I can't figure out what they're thinking.”

“The Dang Family is...”

“They're probably stronger than me. I don't want them as enemies, and I have no idea why they're suddenly pulling this shit. So, Haryeong, do you want to go with the Dang Family?”

Haryeong fell silent for a moment.

Why was this man suddenly stepping up for her?

The thought crossed her mind, but this was not the time to ask why. She needed to answer his question.

“I...”

This time, she didn't avoid answering. Looking Yuri straight in the face, Haryeong continued slowly.

“Not yet... No, I don't want to be dragged away like this. And I especially don't want to go with those irritating nieces and nephews.”

“Got it.”

His preparations were complete. Yuri rose to his feet, took off his robe, and handed it to Haryeong.

“If you don't want to go, you don't have to.”

She didn't ask whether he could win.

Yuri's actions were unlike him, but Haryeong believed this one thing had not changed.

If he thought he would lose, he would never have agreed to this match. He must have stepped forward because he believed he could win.

‘The Banner of Reversing the Death Realm?’

Was he planning to test the Sect of War's Divine Relic? No, more than that...

‘Gebra.’

That was not his only reason, but Haryeong had guessed right. Yuri wanted to test Gebra's abilities.

He couldn't use the Banner of Reversing the Death Realm in a match that wasn't to the death, but Gebra was different. Its power was already within Yuri, and the snake of flames dwelled in the flames of the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil.

“I'll yield the opening attack.”

Tang Seo-jin spoke with a thin smile, one hand still behind his back. Tang Mu-seok and Tang Seo-woo stood behind him. Tang Mu-seok looked displeased by the entire situation, while Tang Seo-woo stared at Yuri with sparkling eyes.

She imagined Yuri suffering a miserable defeat.

He was a bastard who had dared to look down on the Dang Family's name without knowing his place. This was a match where killing was forbidden, but she still hoped he would be humiliated badly enough to have his reputation dragged through the mud.

How entertaining would it be if the man called Cloud Dragon, who strutted around so proudly, crawled across the ground like an earthworm and made a complete fool of himself before all these people?

‘What will that bitch think when she sees it?’

The thought alone made a smile spread across her face.

“Thank you for yielding the first attack.”

Yuri nodded and extended his right fist.

In a sparring match or training bout, it was common for the more skilled and senior fighter to yield the first attack. Tang Seo-jin was thirty-three, eleven years older than Yuri, and was at a higher tier, so it was only natural for him to do so.

Of course, yielding the first attack did not mean he had to take the hit. He could dodge or block it. He simply could not counterattack. Normally, the opening strike was deflected before the exchange began.

‘The first hit.’

Then Yuri only had to land an opening blow that could neither be dodged nor blocked.

He steadied his breathing and circulated the Heavenly Art of Annihilating Evil.

ㅡFwoosh.

Scarlet flames coiled around Yuri's right arm like a living snake before gathering at his fist.

“...?”

Tang Seo-jin's eyes widened behind his fan.

A force aura that looked like flames. No, it was more than that. Just looking at those flames made it clear they were fundamentally different from ordinary force aura.

‘What is that...?’

Yuri didn't care what Tang Seo-jin was thinking. He continued guiding the blazing flames within himself into his fist. Thump, thump, thump... The vigorously pulsing flames expanded and contracted repeatedly, gradually taking the form of a single point.

He concentrated all his power into that point. He even poured his Intent into it.

Tang Seo-jin had said Yuri could use his full strength, so Yuri didn't hesitate.

Yuri had stopped midway through advancing to tier 6. His current tier was at the peak of tier 5, but what he could do far surpassed tier 5. In particular, his control over Intent would not fall behind even that of someone at tier 6.

“Wait...”

Tang Seo-jin decided he couldn't let this continue. The moment he spoke, Yuri's foot drove into the ground.

Yuri desired an opening attack that could never be blocked or evaded. His martial arts responded to that desire.

Gebra's flames had strengthened Yuri's body far beyond the body he had possessed when he charged at Agwi, and lightning joined that explosive physical power.

ㅡPurple Lightning Flash.

A violet bolt with a scarlet point at its tip tore through space.

All Tang Seo-jin could see through his wide-open eyes was a torrent of blazing red rushing toward him. The concentrated power distorted the surrounding scenery and threw his vision into chaos.

‘Ghk...!’

Tang Seo-jin leaped back in a hurry and gathered his protective force aura. He couldn't counterattack. He had to dodge or block.

‘Too fast...!’

He wasn't confident he could evade it cleanly.

Then he had to block it.

Could he?

ㅡBoom!

His mind went blank.

He couldn't tell what had happened to his body. The sky spinning in his vision suddenly flipped over, and the ground came into view.

“Ghk...”

Crack, crack...!

His twisted arm snapped back into its proper angle. His scattered senses returned. Before his face could slam into the ground, Tang Seo-jin hurriedly forced his body to stop.

If he had regained his senses even a little later, he would have crashed face-first into the ground. Tang Seo-jin swallowed hard and pushed himself up.

Even after raising his protective force aura, he had been unable to hold his ground and had been launched high into the air. The bones in his left arm, which had taken the punch, were crushed, and the impact he had failed to fully deflect had shaken his insides.

But it was fine.

Tang Seo-jin, a direct descendant of the Dang Family, was a Poison Human. His body was fundamentally different from that of ordinary people, martial artists, and even mages.

‘So he's a direct descendant of the Dang Family.’

Yuri calmly turned on his heel.

In the game, the Dang Family was difficult to kill despite having relatively low health bars. Most of them had absurdly high resistance to elemental attacks, and their health regeneration was ridiculously fast.

The standard methods for dealing with them were to account for their resistance and land one massive hit, pile on debuffs, or beat them down faster than their regeneration could keep up.

Yuri was most familiar with the last method.

“Grit...!”

A sticky green light oozed from Tang Seo-jin's eyes as he staggered to his feet.

He couldn't use killing moves. He couldn't use poison. He couldn't kill.

The conditions Tang Seo-jin himself had set for the match now restricted him.

The difference between tier 5 and tier 6 was whether one could use Intent.

As a direct descendant of a prestigious family who had learned a divine art, Tang Seo-jin knew that Intent was not exclusively the domain of tier 6 and above. Those who had learned a divine art could handle Intent even at tier 5.

Even so, a tier 5 martial artist's Intent could not compare to that of a tier 6 martial artist. At that level, Intent could only be used to manipulate qi and mix it into force aura to increase its power. Even if Yuri was no ordinary tier 5 martial artist, he couldn't be a match for Tang Seo-jin, who had learned the Dang Family's divine art and properly reached tier 6.

ㅡWoooo...

An eerie sound scraped across Yuri's eardrums.

He couldn't tell exactly where it came from. The sound approached from all directions and clung stickily to his mind as black ink slowly crept in from the edges of his vision.

‘Sound Art... No, an Illusion Art?’

The tips of Tang Seo-jin's feet rose as though he were standing on tiptoe, skimming the ground. Tang Seo-jin's body swayed like a ghost. Then he disappeared beyond the black ink invading Yuri's peripheral vision.

It was footwork similar to Haryeong's, yet far more advanced. That was probably the Dang Family martial art Haryeong had not been able to properly learn.

‘He said he wouldn't use poison. Is the Intent he spread with his qi clinging to my mind and becoming an illusion? Or is this sound truly acting as Sound Art?’

Either way, it was the martial art of an assassin who hid his presence, approached, and targeted a blind spot.

Yuri had no reason to panic. The web of Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death had already spread around him.

Thud!

Tang Seo-jin, who had approached like a ghost, recoiled in shock. An attack had flown at him the instant he closed the distance.

‘How?’

It was an attack that someone at tier 5 shouldn't have been able to see through. How had Yuri known?

ㅡHis eyes?

‘He's not looking at me.’

Only now did Yuri's gaze turn in his direction.

Had he seen through it without using his eyes? What kind of absurd sixth sense was that?

Instead of retreating farther, Tang Seo-jin closed the distance.

Crack!

The opened Folding Fan swept toward Yuri.

‘Of course it isn't an ordinary fan.’

It was sharp enough to cut bone with the slightest graze. If that were all it could do, though, he would have been better off wielding a sword.

Woooo...

Each time the fan cut through the air, it produced a strange vibration.

Was it a weapon for Sound Art?

The moment Yuri became conscious of the sound, it clung to his mind. It showed illusions, disrupted the senses, and ultimately shook the target's mind. The black ink encroached faster from Yuri's peripheral vision, and he felt a dizzying lurch as if heaven and earth had flipped over.

Crack.

He already had a way to deal with mental attacks.

With a thought, Yuri activated the Veil of Deception around his neck. Yuri had resisted even the nightmares Agwi had created with Divine Grace Authority. Sound Art on this level would never shake his mind.

The black ink stopped advancing, and his senses returned.

For an attack detected by Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death before he even saw it, Yuri's counterattack had already been launched.

Bang!

The Folding Fan flew back.

Tang Seo-jin's eyes widened in disbelief. Yuri hadn't even staggered under the Sound Art at this distance?

‘What the hell is this bastard?’

Neither Sound Art nor Illusion Art worked on him. Ambushes were seen through before they could reach him.

How could this be possible?

Tang Seo-jin held onto his spinning thoughts and folded his fan once before opening it again.

Clack!

With that crisp sound, his stance changed. He had begun using his martial art in earnest.

Ghost-Sound Killing Fan Dance.

The Folding Fan moved slowly in time with his ghostlike footwork.

Causing confusion through sound was not all Sound Art could do. Sound infused with inner power could shake space itself. When Intent was added, sound could strike space.

That was the Ghost-Sound Killing Fan Dance.

As Tang Seo-jin's Folding Fan traced through the air, a slash crossed the distance and rushed at Yuri.

Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death.

The web of lightning qi detected the slash. Yuri leisurely avoided the attack and waved his hand.

A small sphere of force aura drifted between him and Tang Seo-jin.

ㅡCrackle!

The sphere exploded and lightning qi burst outward. The throwing knife Tang Seo-jin had cast amid his fan dance was blocked by the lightning qi.

‘Fuck...’

He had learned martial arts meant to kill people, yet he had forbidden killing moves. He was a Poison Human, yet he had forbidden poison.

Tang Seo-jin hadn't thought it would become a problem. It wasn't because he had been arrogant. Yuri was simply too far beyond common sense.

He resisted confusion with the Veil of Deception, completely blocked ambushes with Sealing Thunder at the Gate of Death, and his firepower never fell short.

With killing moves and poison forbidden, Yuri's offensive power was far greater.

Boom!

Tang Seo-jin was driven back again.

He barely suppressed the poison boiling within his stomach. Not much time had passed since the match began, but Tang Seo-jin had already swallowed his killing intent more than ten times.

Should he release his Poison Qi? Should he use a killing move?

He kept forcing down those urges.

Tang Seo-jin was the one who had said Yuri could use his full strength, so Yuri had no reason to hold back.

And so Yuri freely and comfortably beat the hell out of him.

His treasured fan was being chipped away bit by bit. A Poison Human's tough body healed most injuries immediately, but even a glancing blow from Yuri's fist made his bones ache.

No, they burned.

It felt as if they had been seared with a branding iron.

“Could it be...”

“Really? The Dark Soul Poison Dragon of the Dang Family is losing to Cloud Dragon?”

The spectators' voices grated on him.

You little worms who don't know shit.

Losing? How was it losing when he wasn't fighting at full strength, not using killing moves, and not using poison? Victory and defeat were decided by life and death, not by some pathetic sparring match. This was just... a friendly exchange between martial artists...

“Brother?”

Tang Seo-woo's voice reached him.

Ah, a fist grazed his jaw.

A fierce heat surged all the way to his brain. He didn't know whether Yuri's fist was hot or whether his anger was simply boiling over.

Green light overflowed from Tang Seo-jin's eyes.

Rumble!

The blood vessels across his body bulged and writhed as the nature of his protective force aura changed. Poison Qi pouring from his dantian had dyed his inner power.

‘You bastard, I'll kill...’

Boom!

Before he could properly release the Poison Qi, a fist slammed into his chest.

“Ghk.”

Black blood sprayed from his gaping mouth. As Tang Seo-jin staggered back, another fist buried itself in his chest.

Boom!

Unable to withstand it where he stood, Tang Seo-jin flew backward and rolled across the ground.

“Argh!”

He sprang back to his feet the moment he stopped rolling. Tang Seo-jin wrapped Poison Qi around his arm and tried to charge again, only to freeze in place.

“You... What are you doing?”

“The match is over.”

Yuri answered with both arms raised high over his head.

“You said you would not use killing moves or poison, Tang Seo-jin.”

“...”

“But you just used poison. That means the match is over.”

Tang Seo-jin's lips twitched because he had no answer.

“Thank you for sparring with me. I learned a great deal.”

Yuri wasn't used to doing it, but he smiled as he gave a cupped-fist salute.

“This exchange has strengthened our friendship, so perhaps one day I'll even call you elder brother.”

Tang Seo-jin's shoulders trembled at the blatant taunt.

Footnotes:

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