WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 125: When Young, I Knew Not Sorrow's Taste (30)
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Late at night.
Moyong Ha wore black night garb.
“There’s no doubt that Dongting Lake is home to demons or Strange Ghosts.”
She had lied to her companions.
What she had found in the government offices was clear evidence of a fiendish demon and a Strange Ghost.
She still did not know exactly what it was.
‘The Mid-Autumn Festival. Something will happen that day.’
For the past few days, Moyong Ha had wandered through the deepest parts of the government offices, barely managing to hide as she moved through spaces twisted by fiendish and strange powers.
She had searched all the way to the Yuezhou provincial governor’s bedchamber and uncovered the truth.
The Mid-Autumn Festival.
The middle of autumn.
That day, at Dongting Lake, the Yuezhou provincial governor would do something with followers of the Demonic Path.
Once she began looking, the traces and evidence were blatant.
The provincial governor was pushing things through so recklessly that, while nothing might go wrong immediately, countless suspicious details would surface with time.
It was as if nothing mattered as long as he made it past the Mid-Autumn Festival.
‘That was the same with the jiangshi among the martial officials. Since none of it would matter after the Mid-Autumn Festival anyway, they did not report them as missing. They just told a flimsy lie about having dispatched them somewhere else.’
So there was a time limit.
‘It would be nice if I could get help from the family estate...’
Liaoning was far away. No matter how urgently they moved, support from the family estate could only arrive after the Mid-Autumn Festival.
“...I’ll have to confirm it alone. I can’t trouble them any further.”
She thought of the companions who had helped her until now.
Especially Yeon Sowol.
She did not know what was in Dongting Lake. She could not shamelessly ask for help.
Anyone unfamiliar with demons and ghosts would never stand a chance against them.
If things went wrong and someone had to die, she alone would be enough.
“Even if I die... I can still send information about that fiendish demon back to the family estate.”
It was worth the risk.
Flap flap!
Moyong Ha opened the birdcage that always sat in one corner of her room.
Coo-
She tied a letter to the pigeon’s leg.
“Please.”
Flap flap!
She sent the carrier pigeon into the dark night.
* * *
“A corpse!”
Yuezhou’s dawn was a little noisy that day.
“Ugh. How many does that make?”
“No matter how often I see it, it’s horrible.”
A corpse had washed up on the shore of Dongting Lake.
Who knew how many days old it was? It had swollen in the water until it was beyond recognition, and the stench was awful too.
They could only assume it was a man from the cut of its clothes and its build.
Yeon Sowol had just finished his dawn training and come outside for some air when he saw the scene.
He frowned at the horribly bloated, rotting corpse.
‘How would the family feel if they saw this...?’
If someone they loved appeared before them like that, reeking and grotesque, it would surely become a nightmare they could never forget.
The people recovered the body with hands that looked strangely practiced, then brought over a rough cloth and covered it.
Yeon Sowol asked, “Does this happen often?”
Someone who recognized him jumped in surprise.
“Ah. Hero. It’s, it’s an honor. Um... it has become more common over the past few years.”
“More common?”
“Yes, yes. Corpses did wash up sometimes before, but not this often. There have been quite a few over the past few years...”
“Do you have any idea why?”
At Yeon Sowol’s question, the people fidgeting nearby after recognizing him all eagerly offered their own theories.
“It must be lake bandits!”
“That’s right! The provincial governor has governed Yuezhou so well that the lake bandits have been wiped out in great numbers. Those must be the bodies of lake bandits killed by government troops and swept ashore!”
“It’s smugglers. The provincial governor imposed a travel ban on Junshan Island some time ago, so they swim across the lake to smuggle Junshan tea leaves out. Then they end up like that.”
“There are fishermen too. Some cannot stand the travel ban and secretly take out boats to fish, then get into accidents.”
Among all their chatter, the words “travel ban” especially caught Yeon Sowol’s attention.
‘A travel ban...’
He could not help thinking of Moyong Ha.
The voice that had asked him to let her take one last look around Junshan Island, despite the travel ban.
‘Right.’
Newly worried, Yeon Sowol let out a deep sigh.
What else could he do?
‘One last time. I guess I’ll have to make a huge mess.’
He had no choice but to grant her request.
* * *
The martial arts tournament to determine the rankings began.
During that time, Gaseopmyeong published another booklet introducing the Twelve Earthly Branches. People now respectfully called the masters selected as the Twelve Earthly Branches Hunan’s Twelve Supremes, meaning they were martial artists who had left their mark on Hunan.
With the final rankings soon to be decided, all of Hunan, not just Yuezhou, was boiling with excitement.
Yeon Sowol used a very simple gradual practice system to determine the rankings.
Everyone started with twenty-four units of gradual practice.
A victory earned one unit of gradual practice.
A defeat cost two units of gradual practice.
Rankings would be determined by gradual practice.
On top of that simple system, Yeon Sowol added one more incentive.
“However, there is special gradual practice!”
Yeon Sowol began naming people.
Senior Fifth Rank, Prefectural Inspector General Shin Gilrip.
Senior Fifth Rank, Flying General Wang Su.
Junior Fifth Rank, Commandant Yi Geumha.
Senior Sixth Rank, Prefectural Inspector Commander Ha Taeseok.
Junior Sixth Rank, Prefectural Inspector Go Hyeon.
Junior Sixth Rank, Roving General Ga Geukjun.
All six were renowned martial officials of Yuezhou.
“Now that masters representing Hunan have been selected, how could their skill not be verified by Yuezhou’s martial officials, who hold the greatest authority in Hunan?”
Yeon Sowol had chosen his words carefully.
He praised Yuezhou’s martial officials and deliberately used the word “verified.”
“I humbly ask this as Yeon Sowol. If any of Hunan’s Twelve Experts request instruction from the honored officials I have named, I ask that those honored officials grant them a lesson. If you exchange a few moves and acknowledge their skill, I will immediately award five units of gradual practice for recognition from a fifth-rank official, and three units of gradual practice for recognition from a sixth-rank official.”
Murmur-
The venue grew noisy.
The Jianghu martial artists gathered there.
The spectators watching.
Yet the most excited people were the martial officials who had been dispatched there.
“Verification...?”
“Hm...”
“This...”
The martial officials had been itching to do something the entire time.
They wanted to show off their own skills too.
They wanted to know how they compared to the mighty Twelve Supremes.
Their dignity had prevented them from stepping forward. There was no justification for martial officials to interfere in a Jianghu martial arts tournament. Even if they did join, there would be another problem.
‘What if we lose and disgrace ourselves...?’
They would rather die.
For officials whose authority was their lifeblood, it was unbearable.
Yet Yeon Sowol had solved both problems at once.
‘Verification.’
As officials responsible for governing the people, they would simply be confirming whether Hunan’s masters truly possessed that level of skill.
It was the perfect justification.
There was another meaning in the word verification.
‘There’s no way we’ll be disgraced.’
This was not a true match.
The moment they could win, the Jianghu martial artist would put away their weapon and withdraw. It was verification, after all. Once the verification was complete, there would be no need to decide victory or defeat.
No Jianghu martial artist would want to crush a martial official’s pride and earn the government’s resentment. It was a very reliable safeguard.
They had both a justification and a safety measure.
“This is driving me mad.”
“Yeon Sowol, that fellow is no ordinary man.”
“Ah, it’s a shame I can’t step forward myself.”
“He chose the candidates well too. It’s been a long time since we saw Senior Go Hyeon wield his sword.”
“They say Lord Wang Su is incredibly skilled, don’t they? I’d only heard about him because our posts differ. Now I’ll get to see his ability!”
The martial officials began to grow excited.
No, they boiled over.
The people involved had not even heard the news or given permission yet.
Still, the mood burned fiercely, as if refusing would disgrace them.
This was the final arrangement Yeon Sowol had prepared.
He would draw the government directly into the martial world’s festival.
Every martial official’s attention would turn to the martial arts tournament.
All the defenses Yuezhou’s martial officials had maintained would be shaken.
Yeon Sowol quietly looked behind him. He could not see it from the tournament platform below the basin, but Dongting Lake lay in that direction.
‘This should be enough. Ha.’
For some reason, Yeon Sowol thought he could hear Moyong Ha’s voice saying, “Thank you!”
* * *
The final flames of the martial arts tournament were burning.
“Ah, every day has been so much fun lately. That makes it sad.”
“You too? Me too...”
“Damn it. Everything has an end, but I really don’t want this to end. I never even imagined my life could be this fun...”
“I want to see the end. I want to know who’s the strongest. But I don’t want to know. This is driving me mad.”
People were happy, yet already regretted what they would lose.
Yeon Sowol felt that atmosphere too.
His feelings were not much different.
‘It’s a relief, yet sad.’
He remembered leaving Guangdong, taking a boat, crossing mountains, and coming all the way here.
Almost all of it was coming to an end. Once the martial arts tournament ended, he would bid farewell to the people with whom he had formed bonds, and after the Mid-Autumn Festival, he would leave for Wudang.
Thinking of that, the goodbyes he had exchanged with Moyong Ha were only the beginning.
‘Once I go to Wudang, I’ll part with Jin Geol, Huiseung, and Lady So Hye too.’
It felt as though a happy chapter of his life was ending.
It was for the sake of moving forward. It was because he expected something greater.
Still, sadness was sadness.
Yeon Sowol walked slowly along the shore of Dongting Lake.
Then someone suddenly landed before him.
!
The person appeared like a bird dropping from the sky, yet not a single footstep could be heard.
The presence had been so faint that Yeon Sowol had thought it was a small bird.
He blinked. He had only felt this kind of presence once before.
“Are you Young Master Sowol?”
Tall.
A pale face, handsome features.
Every detail reminded him of one person.
Yeon Sowol somehow knew where the man had come from.
“Could you be related to Ha?”
A smile touched the man’s lips. He lightly cupped his fist.
“I am Moyong Jun.”
“I am Yeon Sowol.”
Yeon Sowol clasped his hands and bowed. The man clearly appeared to be his friend’s older brother, so he showed extra courtesy.
Moyong Jun grinned.
“I was traveling the Jianghu to handle family business when I heard my little sister was here. I hear you’re close with Ha. Where is she?”
“Ah.”
Yeon Sowol answered, looking a little troubled.
“Ha left a few days ago.”
“She left?”
“Yes. Before leaving, she said she would secretly look around Junshan Island. I don’t know whether she has already looked around and left, or whether she’s still there.”
“Ah, I see!”
Moyong Jun smiled bitterly.
“That little rascal. She doesn’t look it, but she has a carefree side. Then perhaps I can find her on Junshan Island.”
“Ah, well...”
Moyong Jun looked ready to rush straight to Junshan Island, so Yeon Sowol hurriedly called out to him.
He meant to tell him that the Yuezhou provincial governor had imposed a travel ban on Junshan Island.
There was no need.
“Hm?”
Moyong Jun had spotted something as he turned.
“A head on display?”
Yeon Sowol turned his gaze too.
A man’s head, mouth hanging open, sat atop a high board.
His head had been cut off and hung there for all to see.
Beneath it was a list of his crimes.
<This man secretly entered Dongting Lake in defiance of the provincial governor’s orders. His head has been taken as a stern warning.>
The people who saw it began talking.
“Wow. That’s brutal. They cut off his head for breaking the travel ban?”
“They even put it on display...”
“Has this ever happened before? The provincial governor imposed travel bans from time to time, but this is the first time I’ve seen this.”
“You know, there are rumors that the Yuezhou provincial governor has been in a bad mood lately.”
“Why?”
“Well. Because of Yeon Sowol.”
“Hero Yeon?”
“Yeah. I heard he gave a stern warning not to cause a disturbance when the martial arts tournament first began.”
“...Isn’t it incredibly noisy?”
“Exactly. They say he’s furious, but everyone likes it so much, and all of Yuezhou’s prominent figures joined in, so he’s been holding it in.”
“Ah, so that’s why...”
“Yes. That beheaded fellow was unlucky enough to get caught and be made an example of.”
Whisper whisper.
Murmur murmur.
Many people were talking, but their conclusions were all similar.
“...”
“...”
Moyong Jun, who had quietly listened, suddenly turned and stared at Yeon Sowol.
Yeon Sowol flinched, yet anxiously met Moyong Jun’s gaze.
“...So Ha said she was going to enter Junshan Island?”
“...Yes.”
“Junshan Island is the island I know, in the middle of Dongting Lake? The one with a travel ban written right there?”
“...Yes.”
“And Yeon Sowol, the person the provincial governor is furious with, is you?”
“...Yes.”
“...”
After a brief silence, Moyong Jun asked,
“What exactly have you two been doing?”
Yeon Sowol had nothing to say.
Footnotes:
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