WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 112: When Young, I Knew Not Sorrow's Taste (17)

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The next day.

Namgung Ujin, Hwangbo Hwi, and Jin Geol gathered on the first floor of an inn that had been rented out in its entirety.

“Young Master Namgung, Young Master Hwangbo, thank you so much for answering my call. And Young Master Jin, I’m always grateful for how you help us.”

At Moyong Ha’s words, Namgung Ujin waved his hands. Looking a little embarrassed, he shifted his large, lanky frame and adjusted his seat.

“I was the one who told you to call on me anytime. I only wish to make up for my mistake last time, so please don’t give it another thought, young lady.”

Hwangbo Hwi, on the other hand, smiled with a child’s bright-eyed excitement. His broad, crescent-shaped grin revealed a row of white teeth.

“There’s no need for that, young lady. I’ll hear you out, and if it doesn’t sound interesting, I’ll sit this one out. Haha.”

His tone was full of mischief, yet there was a subtle consideration beneath it.

Unlike the other two, Jin Geol had no intention of letting this chance slip by.

“Young lady. If you truly are grateful... please grant me that one request.”

“Pardon?”

“You know. That.”

“What do you mean... Ah! Don’t tell me you mean a portrait?”

“Yes! That! A portrait!”

Jin Geol’s eyes burned like embers, filled with 120 percent sincerity.

Moyong Ha let out a quiet laugh.

“Very well. I’ll make time for it once this matter is over.”

“At last...!”

Jin Geol clenched his fist, his face turning red.

“Hm? A portrait? You mean a portrait of Young Lady Moyong? She’ll let you have her portrait painted so you can keep it?”

Hwangbo Hwi leaned forward, suddenly interested.

“Mm. Ahem. Mm...”

Namgung Ujin could not bring himself to say anything, but his darting eyes showed just how interested he was as he kept stealing glances at Moyong Ha.

She burst into laughter again, her voice clear as pearls rolling across a silver tray.

“Then all three of you can bring painters. We can have three portraits done on the same day, at the same time.”

“If that’s the case, I’ll definitely have to take part in this.”

“Mm... Thank you.”

Hwangbo Hwi looked pleased.

Namgung Ujin’s face reddened as well, though he continued to watch Moyong Ha cautiously.

Once the mood had softened, Yeon Sowol stepped before the three of them.

“Brother Namgung, Brother Hwangbo. What you and Jin Geol need to do is spread rumors. We’re preparing a martial arts tournament. Spread every sort of story that’ll make people feel they can’t afford not to enter, and make them desperate to win.”

“Scratch at their nerves?”

Hwangbo Hwi tilted his head, not quite understanding.

“That’s right. We need to scratch at them. I called Brother Namgung and Brother Hwangbo because you both have many people under your command. Use them to spread the stories until all of Yuezhou is in an uproar. Jin Geol is naturally good at this sort of thing, so he can put in some work himself.”

“I’m not quite getting it. What exactly are we supposed to say?”

Instead of answering Namgung Ujin, Yeon Sowol snapped open his fan.

‘Hmm. It’s a little embarrassing to say this myself.’

He gently fanned himself.

Yeon Sowol had been a model student in twenty-first-century South Korea.

He had browsed gaming communities before, but he had never posted anything there. Fundamentally, he thought people who posted on online communities were a little strange. They were funny to watch, but he had never wanted to get tangled up with them himself.

‘But I have no choice now.’

This was the moment to stir up one massive mess in peaceful Yuezhou.

‘Remember... all those trolls and provocateurs I saw with my own eyes...!’

I am a troll.

I am a troll.

I have now become the perfect troll.

Yeon Sowol steeled himself and snapped his fan shut.

Rustle!

He pulled a rolled-up sheet of paper from his robes and spread it across the table.

At the very top, it read:

[A Genius Rising Young Talent Versus an Experienced Senior]

“A rising young talent versus a senior?”

Yeon Sowol spoke bluntly to the three confused men.

“Then I’ll teach you the tricks to spreading rumors. First, state everything with absolute certainty. Better yet, completely disregard what people generally believe.”

“Mm?”

“For example, like this.”

Yeon Sowol took one last deep breath, then blurted it out.

“If they’re both late first-rate, wouldn’t a genius rising young talent just beat an experienced senior? Calling them experienced seniors sounds nice, but aren’t they really just failures who never achieved anything while they were young?”

“!!!”

“!”

“!!?”

Namgung Ujin, Hwangbo Hwi, and Jin Geol all widened their eyes.

“H-how could you say such a thing...?”

“What arrogance!”

“S-Sowol...?”

Yeon Sowol waved a hand.

“I’m not saying I think that. I mean you need to spread rumors in that sort of way.”

“Mm... Like that...”

“Ah. Certainly. Hearing something like that...”

“Wait, Sowol. You want me to spread that? Me?”

Jin Geol’s situation was different from Namgung Ujin and Hwangbo Hwi, who could simply have others spread the rumors. His face turned slightly pale.

Yeon Sowol ignored him for now and continued.

“Second, you need to compare specific people. If possible, pit well-known figures with established reputations against each other.”

Yeon Sowol pointed at the second item on the page.

[A Martial Official Versus a Rising Young Talent]

“Namgung Ujin and Hwangbo Hwi are said to stand out among the younger generation, so people call them rising young talents, right? But no matter how you look at it, aren’t they all failures in the end? They wander the Jianghu because they can’t even dream of passing the military examination. If the Yuezhou Prefectural Inspector Commander, Lord Ha Taeseok, stepped in, wouldn’t that settle all of them? No, even Lord Go Hyeon, a sixth-rank Prefectural Inspector beneath him, should be enough. Real martial artists and fake martial artists are on entirely different levels.”

“???”

“?”

“!!!”

Namgung Ujin, Hwangbo Hwi, and Jin Geol’s eyebrows twisted at once.

“What complete nonsense!”

“Ha...? Say that again, Young Hero Yeon.”

“S-Sowol...?”

Yeon Sowol waved his hand again.

“I’m not saying I think that... I’m saying this is the kind of thing you should spread.”

Jin Geol’s eyes wavered once more.

“That... me?”

“Third, you must always spread rumors from the opposing side as well.”

Yeon Sowol pointed at the third item.

[Orthodox Schools Versus the Secular World]

“Say someone insulted secular teachings like this.”

Yeon Sowol cleared his throat and spoke.

“Aren’t martial arts that depart from the orthodox teachings of the Confucian tradition, Buddhist tradition, and Daoist tradition basically the same as martial arts from the unorthodox schools? The only truly orthodox schools are the Confucian tradition, Buddhist tradition, and Daoist tradition. So although places like the Five Great Families claim to inherit orthodox teachings, they differ from the true orthodox path and have become corrupted. Aren’t their martial arts basically the same kind as martial arts from the unorthodox schools? I really don’t know.”

“...?”

“...”

“...Sowol...”

Yeon Sowol continued, waving his hand.

“If you scratch at one side like that, you must spread something about the other side too. For example.”

He cleared his throat again.

“Isn’t it an undeniable fact that the Daoist tradition’s swords are weak? Sword Fingers itself is a defeatist way of thinking. You hold a sword with one half of your heart and hold yourself back with the other? Sounds like martial arts for cowards.”

“That’s right!”

“It’s not like there’s no truth to that.”

“...”

Namgung Ujin and Hwangbo Hwi slapped their knees, while Jin Geol stared at Yeon Sowol with trembling eyes.

Yeon Sowol sighed quietly.

‘Ha... This is exhausting.’

Even if it was necessary for their purpose, it weighed on him to keep saying things he did not believe, especially things that demeaned others.

‘As expected. Online communities really aren’t for me...’

Seeing Moyong Ha beside him shaking with suppressed laughter only made him feel twice as tired.

“Anyway. Spread stories like that, following each item written here.”

The list continued far down the page.

Namgung Ujin, Hwangbo Hwi, and Jin Geol carefully examined it.

[The Foremost Female Master Versus an Ordinary Male Master]

[Fast Sword Versus Heavy Sword]

[Weapons Versus Fist-and-Kick Arts]

[A Master of the Orthodox Schools Versus a Master of the Unorthodox Schools]

[Yuezhou’s Foremost Master Versus a Master from Another Region]

[Are the martial arts of the Clear Water Sect an inferior version of the martial arts of the Vast Sea Sect?]

...

The three men’s eyes filled with anguish.

At some point, they all stared at Yeon Sowol and asked, “I’m not quite getting it. What sort of rumors would be best for these cases...?”

“Follow the principles I explained and make up the logic yourselves.”

“Even if we try, we don’t know what to say. Please give us some examples.”

Yeon Sowol frowned.

‘You want me to do it again...’

He really did not want to, but there was no helping it.

With a sigh, he gave them examples one by one.

By the time he had gone through the entire list and made an example for every item, Namgung Ujin, Hwangbo Hwi, and Jin Geol were staring at Yeon Sowol as if they had seen a ghost.

“...What is it?”

Jin Geol muttered, “Sowol... You’re a demon. How could you come up with such...”

“No... You asked me to explain...”

Yeon Sowol felt deeply wronged.

* * *

The Jianghu people of Yuezhou could only swallow hollow laughs.

“Well. I never imagined this would turn out like this.”

In pavilions, gardens, and spacious halls, people in different places and with different faces held identical letters in their hands.

“They’re holding a martial arts tournament to help those who were kidnapped? And they’re even giving out the gifts we sent? That got us good.”

A junior had shown such goodwill. For seniors to pretend not to know about it would damage their face and reputation.

“Mm. It’s a nuisance, but I suppose I should humor this martial arts tournament thing for a moment.”

“Maybe I can exchange ten moves or so, then leave...”

Up to that point, things were fine.

Yeon Sowol’s scheme was rather audacious, but they could see it as a cute little trick.

Then word spread that a martial arts tournament would be held. A tournament platform was actually built outside Yuezhou, and rumors circulated that they were accepting the names of entrants.

The atmosphere began to turn strange.

“Lady Shin, are you entering this martial arts tournament?”

“No. I don’t have any particular connection to this fellow named Yeon Sowol, and I plan to leave Yuezhou soon anyway. I don’t intend to participate.”

“Ah, that makes sense. Still, it’s a shame. Yuezhou’s current foremost female master, Lady Shin, won’t be taking part...”

“Oh, it’s nothing more than an empty reputation.”

Shin Si-ye had been planning to laugh it off and let the tournament pass when she heard people talking in the street.

“You’re asking who would win if the foremost female master fought an ordinary male master? Assuming they’re at the same realm? Obviously, the ordinary male master would crush her!”

A crude-looking man with his shirt rolled up, exposing a belly as large as Namsan Mountain, launched into a grand speech while spraying spit everywhere.

The man did not look like someone who knew martial arts.

Yet the man spoke with complete confidence.

“Have you never heard the saying, ‘A woman’s skill is two ranks lower’? You have to count a female master’s realm as two levels lower. So a female peak realm master would be about the same as a male mid first-rate master.”

“Really? There’s a saying like that?”

“Isn’t it obvious? The difference between men and women in martial force is absolute!”

“That’s true!”

“Then will the female masters stay out of this tournament?”

“Of course they will. Why would they come out and disgrace themselves?”

“That’s true!”

Everyone heard that booming voice.

Shin Si-ye, the current foremost female master of Yuezhou, and the male masters around her all heard it.

“...”

Creak.

The sound of Shin Si-ye grinding her teeth was chilling.

She smiled coldly.

“In all my life, this is the first I’ve heard such nonsense. A woman’s skill is two ranks lower? Hah. Don’t they know that the further one’s internal energy cultivation advances, the less innate physical conditions matter? What? A mid first-rate master can defeat a peak realm master? What do they think the peak realm is...”

“...Do not pay them any mind, Lady Shin. They are ignorant people spouting nonsense.”

“Phew...”

Shin Si-ye took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.

Then the chatter from the street struck her ears again.

“Come on. Martial artists have internal energy, don’t they? Peak realm versus mid first-rate is ridiculous. The power of internal energy lets you overcome physical limits. This is the Jianghu, where an old man can defeat a young man.”

Shin Si-ye’s expression brightened slightly.

Then another man spoke up.

“That’s true. Peak realm versus mid first-rate is impossible. Still, if it’s late first-rate, it might be possible depending on the situation.”

“Come on. That’s a bit much too.”

“No, listen to me. Even if internal energy is a mysterious power, it’s still power in the end. You use your body. Men and women use their bodies differently from the start. Women have that, what is it, characteristic timidity. Even if they have strength, they can’t use it properly. So even a female peak realm master could lose to an outstanding late first-rate male master.”

“Oh? Is that so?”

Crunch!

Shin Si-ye ground her teeth, louder than before.

“...?”

Something else bothered her even more.

‘These people...?’

Until a moment ago, the male masters had defended Shin Si-ye, saying ignorant people were speaking carelessly.

This time, they said nothing.

As if they were thinking:

That’s true.

It could happen.

“Ha...?”

Shin Si-ye’s lips curled crookedly.

“Hm? Where are you going, Lady Shin?”

Without answering, Shin Si-ye hurried away, radiating a cold chill.

Toward the place where they were accepting tournament applications.

Footnotes:

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