WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 132: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (6)
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Jin Hyeogo, Hunan's foremost spear wielder.
His most common sobriquet was Black Spear.
This was not his first meeting with Yeon Sowol.
They had shared drinks several times already. After each day of the martial arts tournament, drinking parties sprang up along Dongting Lake, and Jin Hyeogo was one of the people who always sought Yeon Sowol out to pour him drinks.
But now...
‘He feels unfamiliar.’
Jin Hyeogo seemed like a completely different person.
He was in his fifties, with graying hair and beard. He looked exactly as he always did.
Yet as he stood at an angle with a long black spear resting on one shoulder, his black robe hanging loose around him, he gave off an overwhelming pressure Yeon Sowol had never felt from him before.
“Sowol.”
Jin Hyeogo suddenly spoke.
“Yes, Senior.”
“Do you think you can win?”
“I intend to do my best.”
“Really?”
His lips curled into a grin beneath his roughly trimmed beard.
“Then go ahead. Do your best.”
Whoosh!
Standing where he was, Jin Hyeogo swung his spear one-handed.
At first glance, it was a careless movement full of openings. Yet qi waves spread from it, swallowing the surroundings and producing immense pressure.
‘Hmm...’
Yeon Sowol intensified his stage of maturity, sending hot qi circulating through his Eight Extraordinary Vessels.
Only then could he withstand Jin Hyeogo's momentum as it crashed over him in an instant.
Sliiide.
Yeon Sowol extended his Sword Fingers alongside his sword and took his opening stance.
The black spearhead came into view.
At some point, Jin Hyeogo had gripped the spear with both hands and pointed it straight at Yeon Sowol.
‘...This is uncomfortable.’
For some reason, the spearpoint aimed directly at him made Yeon Sowol uneasy. He began to shuffle sideways.
But the spearpoint followed him, maintaining precisely the same distance. Like a high moon that followed wherever he went, shining down from above.
It was like scenery fixed in the distant background. No matter how Yeon Sowol moved, the spearpoint did not change.
The exact same distance.
The exact same angle.
It even created the illusion that the spear stood still while only the landscape around it changed.
Jin Hyeogo grinned.
“What? Is the spearpoint bothering you? Can't get away from it?”
“Hard to say.”
The moment he answered, Yeon Sowol kicked off the ground.
Fwoooosh!
True Flame coursed through every meridian in his body, tempering him from within.
It was like clear stones striking together with a sharp ring.
Like wind passing through finely carved bamboo.
Windborne Drift, unleashed at twelfth-stage mastery, surpassed its original limits and made Yeon Sowol's body lighter and more supple.
Tap!
With each Willow Leaf Steps footfall, empowered by martial force striking the ground, he moved with the shifting grace of reed leaves fluttering through the air.
Right or left, above or below, it was impossible to tell. Riding the wind raised by Windborne Drift, Yeon Sowol's body swayed and flickered.
Fast.
Dazzling.
When it seemed he had been caught, he was already gone. When he seemed to be here, he was there instead.
It was footwork that contained the essence of the martial arts Yi Yubaek had taught him, the martial arts of the Windflow School. No, it had gone far beyond their limits.
“As expected. Beautiful. With movement like that, even most peak-realm masters would have trouble.”
Jin Hyeogo's spearpoint stopped before that movement, as if it could not follow him any farther.
“But I’m not your average master.”
Swish!
The spearpoint that had seemed absent-minded suddenly shot straight out, as lightly as a fisherman casting a rod.
But the result was anything but light.
“Hup!”
Yeon Sowol's eyes widened.
Claaang!
Jin Hyeogo had only thrust his spear with a casual flick, yet it looked as if Yeon Sowol had run straight into it himself.
Yeon Sowol hurriedly swung Clear Mirror and knocked the spear aside, but his footwork broke for an instant.
His gaze wavered.
‘What was that...?’
It was as if Jin Hyeogo had known exactly where he would place his foot beforehand.
‘But how?’
Yeon Sowol was confident in his ability to control his own mind now.
‘Even with an extremely sharp qi sense, it shouldn't be easy to read my intentions...’
Jin Hyeogo's voice reached his startled ears.
“You still can't hide your pulse.”
“My pulse...?”
Before he could fully consider what that meant,
Claaang!
Jin Hyeogo's spear thrust in again.
“Ghk!”
It was strange.
Whenever Jin Hyeogo attacked, he jabbed as lightly as though he were poking with a wooden stick. But when Yeon Sowol tried to deflect it, it felt as if he were striking an iron pillar weighing ten thousand jin.
Yeon Sowol staggered backward.
‘He's different.’
He gritted his teeth.
Jin Hyeogo was completely unlike the peak-realm masters Yeon Sowol had faced so far.
Yeon Sowol was still sorting through his realization of the universe. Because of it, even when he clashed with peak-realm masters, he had come out ahead. At the very least, he had never been at a disadvantage.
Though incomplete, the level of that realization was so high that he could contend in a clash of affinities against almost any kind of qi.
But Jin Hyeogo's spear was different.
‘I can't suppress it through affinity...’
Whoooom!
Jin Hyeogo stepped forward.
At the center of the ball of his foot, the part twenty-first-century runners called the forefoot, lay the Yongquan acupoint. Qi erupted from the Yongquan acupoint, braced against the firm earth qi, and gained explosive rebound force.
His waist twisted.
Until that moment, the spear in his hands weighed no more than a flame. The wind naturally parted around it. Then, as he cast the spear with ever-accelerating qi behind it, it suddenly became as heavy as Mount Tai only when it reached its destination.
A wonder beyond the laws of nature.
The marvel created by qi.
At times, Jin Hyeogo's spear was a light flame. Then it suddenly became tenacious and alive like wood. At other times, it blew like wind, only to bear down like Mount Tai, then seep in like water.
‘I can't keep up at all...!’
Whenever Yeon Sowol tried to receive the flame with earth qi and suppress it, it had already become wood qi and burrowed into his energy. When he tried to cut down that wood qi with metal qi, it suddenly turned to water qi and wrapped around him.
All these transformations occurred several times in the brief moments when the spear stretched and swung. Even the energy Yeon Sowol was so proud of, the energy that aspired to become the universe, could not withstand it.
The difference was not only in the level of their qi. Their mastery in using it was worlds apart. Yeon Sowol was barely managing to keep up.
Clang! Claaang! Clang!
Unable to properly evade Jin Hyeogo's spear, Yeon Sowol could only barely knock it aside as he was driven back again and again.
“Can you win by doing nothing but blocking? Hm?”
The black spearhead shot toward his eyes.
Clang!
The black shaft whooshed toward his temple.
Claaang!
The black spearhead thrust at him again and again, dancing through the air.
Clang! Claang!
Riiip!
His clothes tore because he had failed to evade properly. In that instant, the spearhead accelerated once more and lunged for Yeon Sowol's neck.
He barely avoided it with a stumbling, tilting step of Willow Leaf Steps, but he had no room to breathe.
The black spear again.
The black spear.
Black.
‘So that's why he's called Black Spear.’
Black Spear.
Jin Hyeogo's representative sobriquet.
It simply meant a black spear. Considering he was Hunan's foremost spear wielder, it was an almost painfully plain sobriquet.
Yet Yeon Sowol understood.
He understood how Jin Hyeogo's opponents must have felt when they gave him that name.
Black Spear.
This damn Black Spear would not leave him alone.
In no time, his breath had climbed to his throat, and his vision swam.
Still, he gritted his teeth.
‘I can't fall apart like this.’
Was he going to lose like this?
Without even getting a proper move in?
What if Jin Hyeogo stood in the way of avenging Moyong Ha?
Would he lose like this then too?
Would he once again be helpless and unable to do anything?
Creak.
Yeon Sowol's spirit burned hot.
Spirit was the heart.
The essence of a person.
Will and realization both came from it.
His blazing spirit temporarily expanded his limits. It let him see what he had not seen before, feel what he had not felt before, and do what he had not been able to do.
Clang, clang, clang!
Clear Mirror danced in Yeon Sowol's hand.
“Hmm?”
Yeon Sowol's sword grew lighter as it knocked aside Jin Hyeogo's spear.
A moment ago, every deflection had felt as if its weight were crushing him and making him stagger. Now he met the spear almost evenly and struck it away with force.
That was not all.
Whoosh!
Fwoosh!
Jin Hyeogo's spear began piercing empty air more and more often.
Yeon Sowol's willow-leaf movements had begun to slip lightly past Jin Hyeogo's spear.
“Well, look at that.”
A disbelieving smile appeared on Jin Hyeogo's face. He slowly looked Yeon Sowol up and down.
“You managed this in the middle of a fight? Even for a genius, that's something. You can even hide your pulse a little now... Hm. No, not quite yet?”
Even as sword and spear clashed fiercely, Jin Hyeogo nodded while deflecting Yeon Sowol's sword, which had begun to launch proper counterattacks.
“Your eyes are clear. Your spirit is definitely burning hot, yet your eyes are clear. Did you take an incredible Clear Heart Pill? Was that pretty young lady an alchemist?”
Having guessed the nature of the elixir pill So Hye had made, Jin Hyeogo gave a dry laugh.
“Even taking that into account, you're remarkable. Really. Sowol, you really are remarkable.”
He bared his teeth in a grin.
“That makes me want to show you a little more. I wasn't planning to show you this much...”
Hummm!
Jin Hyeogo's spearhead trembled.
Yeon Sowol flinched.
His momentum had been rising, but he kicked off the ground and leaped back. Goosebumps rose along his arms.
“This is...?”
“I'll show you a little more.”
Jin Hyeogo's momentum changed.
“Sowol. They say your qi is special. That even though you haven't reached Hundred Flowers in Wild Profusion, you've suppressed qi that had.”
Jin Hyeogo's humming spearpoint suddenly stopped.
Instead, heated haze rose from its tip. Jin Hyeogo's black robe distorted like a swirling mirage.
“Then take this too.”
As soon as he finished speaking, the black spearhead was before Yeon Sowol's eyes.
Startled, Yeon Sowol twisted his body and swung Clear Mirror.
Claaaaang!
“Urgh!”
Yeon Sowol flew away like a straw doll.
Screeech!
Unable to properly break his fall, he hit the ground shoulder-first and slid across the martial arts platform.
Covered in dust, Yeon Sowol hurriedly pushed himself up, fearing the next attack.
His hands and knees trembled.
Jin Hyeogo did not rush in. He simply rested his long spear on his shoulder and waited until Yeon Sowol stood and regained his stance.
“How was it?”
At that question, Yeon Sowol’s gaze wavered.
‘How was it?’
He recalled what had just happened.
‘My qi... was shattered...’
It had never happened before.
Of course it had not. Yeon Sowol's realization was the universe.
The universe had an inherent advantage in affinity over any kind of qi.
Because it was the largest.
Because it contained everything.
Yet that qi had just been completely destroyed.
Even if it was incomplete.
‘How...?’
Yeon Sowol recalled the qi Jin Hyeogo wielded.
It was pure Five Elements qi.
In that respect, it resembled Yeon Sowol's own.
But Yeon Sowol wanted to form the universe from the Five Elements. Jin Hyeogo, on the other hand, simply used the Five Elements as the Five Elements. In a sense, it could even be called simple.
He was simply insanely good at using it.
And yet...
‘What was that just now...?’
The simple Five Elements qi had shattered Yeon Sowol's qi, which was intertwining and circulating to form the universe.
Yeon Sowol could not understand this at all.
“What? You don't know?”
Jin Hyeogo asked with a broad smile.
Yeon Sowol pressed his lips together.
Jin Hyeogo looked at him as though he found him adorable, then said casually, “Sowol, you've already done well. I wasn't even planning to show you this much. You've done more than well enough just by forcing me to reveal this much of my method.”
He had already done well?
Yeon Sowol found that hard to accept.
Doing well was not enough.
‘At least... I need the confidence that I can win in a fight to the death...’
Here in Yuezhou.
In Yuezhou, shrouded in a fog where he could not tell who his enemies were.
Yeon Sowol could not accept defeat with a smile.
No matter who his opponent was, he needed to be able to see a path to victory in a fight to the death.
Only then would he avoid miscalculating when he fought Yuezhou's provincial governor.
That was one reason he intended to see the martial arts tournament through to the end.
Jin Hyeogo saw the look in Yeon Sowol's eyes and chuckled.
“That's right. A young man who breaks at this point isn't much of a young man. The hot blood of youth. A boy's privilege. Its strength. But.”
Jin Hyeogo lowered his spear and took his stance. He bared his teeth. It was hard to tell whether he was smiling or growling.
“Adults have a duty to crush that hot blood. You become an adult by being crushed like that.”
Jin Hyeogo’s black robe fluttered.
Yeon Sowol threw off his torn and ragged outer robe, gritting his teeth.
“I'll... figure it out.”
How could the simple Five Elements qi shatter energy that was intertwining and circulating to imitate the universe?
Yeon Sowol's eyes fixed on Jin Hyeogo's spear.
Jin Hyeogo smiled, making his coarse gray beard tremble.
“Go ahead and try.”
Footnotes:
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