WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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Chapter 50: In April, All the Flowers of the World Have Faded (21)

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'Is it funny? Am I that funny? Is this amusing to you?'

Jeon Taegwang's heart boiled.

The world had done nothing but laugh at him.

They laughed at him for being the Weak Severing Sword, the weakest of the Four Absolute Swords.

They laughed that he would never endure the training his senior brothers had overcome.

They laughed at him for being a resentful bastard.

Then Yeon Sowol had appeared out of nowhere, insulted him and his friends, and trampled them until they passed out...

'Stop laughing...'

Jeon Taegwang was sick of all of it.

The battle had briefly lulled.

Heavenly Road Mountain and the White Dragon Gang.

Windflow Martial Academy and the Severing Sword Sect.

Jeon Taegwang charged into the space between the two forces facing each other.

"What?!"

"Stop him!"

He ran straight for Hang Inwoo, cutting between their formations.

The bandits and White Dragon Gang members lowered their stances, radiating vicious killing intent.

"Where did this lunatic come from...?"

"Kill him!"

The bandits rushed at him, swinging their blades.

Yet Jeon Taegwang slipped past them with a Movement Art far smoother than when he had chased Yeon Sowol before.

In an instant, he had reached Hang Inwoo's vicinity.

"Stop him!"

More enemies swarmed in.

They flashed their swords, desperately trying to halt him.

Then,

Thud.

Realizing he could go no farther, Jeon Taegwang fell to his knees.

"Huh?"

"What's that?"

"Taegwang...?"

The bandits were confused. So was the Severing Sword Sect.

Only Jeon Taegwang raised his voice.

"I surrender! I surrender! I'll do anything you tell me to! Please, just spare my life!"

He was begging for his life.

Jeon Taegwang, Resentful Dog of the Shinheung Three Dogs, chose betrayal.

He had only befriended Laughing Dog and Mad Dog in the first place because being among such losers made him feel normal by comparison.

In his eyes, Hang Inwoo was enough of a loser too. If it meant surviving, he could easily stand at his side.

"I'll serve you well. Please take me in!"

Bang!

Jeon Taegwang slammed his forehead to the ground.

"Taegwang! What are you..."

His senior brothers had been about to draw their swords and rescue him, thinking their youngest brother was trying to prove his strength. They stared in shock.

"Jeon Taegwang!!!"

As Seong Bumyeong, Shin Jae-eon's eldest disciple and the Great Severing Sword, cried out, Hang Inwoo sauntered over to Jeon Taegwang.

He looked down at him with an unreadable expression.

"You're surrendering?"

"Yes."

"You're betraying your master?"

"...Yes. To begin with, that man never fulfilled his duty as a master. What kind of master obstructs his disciple's progress? I have no lingering attachment to him. Please, just spare me."

Hang Inwoo gave a faint smile.

"Why? Why do you want to live that badly?"

"I haven't accomplished anything yet. It's too unfair to die like this. I want to survive. Accomplish something. Show everyone so no one can laugh at me anymore."

"It's unfair? You haven't accomplished anything?"

Hang Inwoo mulled over Jeon Taegwang's words.

"Puhahahahahaha!"

His huge body shook with laughter.

"So Cheong, isn't this brat your friend? What was his nickname again? Some kind of dog bastard, wasn't it?"

Laughing Dog, grinning despite being covered in dirt and blood, looked down at Jeon Taegwang.

"Yes, Third Division Leader. Heh. This one's called the Resentful Dog bastard."

"What? Puhahahahahaha!"

Hang Inwoo's broad shoulders heaved.

"It fits! It fits perfectly! A dog bastard who does nothing but resent! Hey, you blame-everyone-else bastard. You're afraid to die? That's what you're afraid of? Puhahahahaha! That's why you've accomplished nothing, you idiot! You've got it backward! Your priorities are backward, you bastard! Kahahahaha!"

With his head bowed, Jeon Taegwang's eyes trembled as though the ground beneath him had collapsed.

Hang Inwoo smacked the back of his head with his large palm.

"Kahaha. What a pathetic fool. If you ask me, you could never have endured Shin Jae-eon's old training methods. Shin Jae-eon must've known that, so he raised you gently. Puhaha. Stupid bastard. The most pitiful fool under heaven."

Hang Inwoo began poking Jeon Taegwang's chest with his foot. He kicked his side, then pressed the sole of his foot against Jeon Taegwang's back.

All the while, he mocked him.

"The Severing Sword Sect is truly pathetic. This trash is a direct disciple? No, is a piece of trash like this a direct disciple because the Severing Sword Sect is only worth that much? Kahahahaha! I was the fool for offering a deal to a sect this worthless! I was wrong! I was wrong!"

Hang Inwoo mocked Jeon Taegwang even more loudly on purpose, so Shin Jae-eon and the disciples of the Severing Sword Sect could hear.

"Ghk..."

"That bastard..."

"Jeon Taegwang. How could you..."

The Severing Sword Sect's disciples were already exhausted, and now their breathing grew ragged.

"...Taegwang..."

Shin Jae-eon, who should have kept them in check, looked more shocked than anyone. His face had gone deathly pale as he staggered.

"Master..."

The three disciples who needed to look after Shin Jae-eon had betrayal written across their faces as well.

Hang Inwoo grew even more excited at their reaction.

He laughed louder at Jeon Taegwang and ridiculed the Severing Sword Sect.

Following his lead, the White Dragon Gang and bandits burst into laughter so loudly it seemed to shake the valley.

Their laughter scattered over the water, struck the leaves, and bounced off stones and boulders.

Hahaha. Hahaha.

Hahaha. Hahahaha.

It echoed.

It echoed again.

The whole world was laughing at Jeon Taegwang.

At its center, he remained on his knees with his head lowered.

When the deafening laughter subsided a little, Jeon Taegwang's shadowed lips moved.

"...Are you laughing?"

Hang Inwoo stopped laughing and looked down at him uneasily.

What did this bastard just say?

Slowly.

Resentful Dog Jeon Taegwang lifted his bowed head. His eyes were bloodshot.

"Why? Why are you laughing? Why?"

His gaze gleamed.

"Has this bastard gone mad?!"

At his insolent tone, a bandit rushed forward. The moment the man stretched out his leg to kick Jeon Taegwang in the head,

Flash!

"Aaargh!"

Jeon Taegwang's sword, drawn before anyone noticed, severed the man's calf. The bandit rolled across the ground, blood spraying from the severed stump.

With the screams as his backdrop, Jeon Taegwang slowly rose.

"Why? Why laugh at me? Gang Leader Hang Inwoo, shouldn't you be the last person laughing at me? What's so different about me betraying my master and you betraying Yi Yubaek?"

"This bastard really has gone insane."

Hang Inwoo's face flushed, then darkened. His robes fluttered as the killing intent of a first-rate master targeted Jeon Taegwang directly.

But Jeon Taegwang truly seemed to have lost his mind.

His eyes blazed as he raised his sword.

He could no longer endure the humiliation the world heaped upon him.

"Am I... am I really that funny? Huh? Do you think I'm that funny too? Even you?"

"Crazy bastard."

Whoosh!

Hang Inwoo's broad saber came down to split Jeon Taegwang's skull.

It was a strike Jeon Taegwang could never evade.

He did not even seem to intend to try.

Still staring into Hang Inwoo's eyes, he screamed.

"Am I funny?! You bastards! Why?! Why only me?! What did I do so wrong...?!"

Just as Hang Inwoo's broad saber was about to split his head,

Clang!

A long sword suddenly cut in and knocked the broad saber away.

"Shin Jae-eon?"

Hang Inwoo's eyes widened as he looked around.

There was no one. No master stood behind Shin Jae-eon to support him.

Shin Jae-eon had charged in alone.

"Master!!!"

"Master! No!"

His disciples cried out desperately from behind, blocked by the bandits. This had truly been Shin Jae-eon's decision alone.

Hang Inwoo's eyes curved gently.

"Leader Shin. You've gone mad too, haven't you?"

But Shin Jae-eon did not even look at Hang Inwoo. He only looked at Jeon Taegwang, his disciple.

"Taegwang. Run."

Tap.

Shin Jae-eon shoved Jeon Taegwang in the chest.

Jeon Taegwang stumbled back weakly, doing nothing but staring with wide eyes.

"Now!"

Blades from first-rate masters rushed at Shin Jae-eon.

Clang!

Clang!

He deflected one and knocked aside two.

"What a tearjerker."

Crunch!

He could not block Hang Inwoo's broad saber, the third strike.

Shin Jae-eon was already covered in wounds. Charging this deeply into enemy lines had been far too reckless from the start. If he had fought cautiously and conserved his strength, he could have kept fighting much longer.

But the moment he had forced his way in alone like this, he had no future.

That was how much Jeon Taegwang had always been Shin Jae-eon's sore spot. Three of his seven disciples had died, and Jeon Taegwang was one of the disciples he had raised afterward. The disciple who had gone astray.

Because he could not teach him martial arts as harshly as before.

He had given him all the more of his heart instead.

"Ghk!"

Shin Jae-eon grabbed the broad saber embedded in his shoulder and sank to the ground. He looked back at Jeon Taegwang desperately.

Jeon Taegwang still stood there like an idiot, his eyes wide.

"You bastard! I said run!"

Shin Jae-eon's face was pleading.

But Jeon Taegwang only stared blankly.

"You bastard..."

At the final moment, as though he had sensed something, Shin Jae-eon's face crumpled into something between a smile and tears.

"I... I'm sorry. For everything. For all of it."

Thud!

Shin Jae-eon's head flew through the air.

"What a..."

Hang Inwoo drew back his broad saber with a contemptuous snort.

"Ah. Ha...?"

Jeon Taegwang remained standing there stupidly, making a strange sound as he breathed.

Hang Inwoo looked at him in disgust.

"Get rid of that thing already."

"Yes."

Jeon Taegwang swayed.

His bloodshot eyes had become so red they looked black. With those pitch-black eyes, he watched his master's head hit the ground and get kicked aside.

He was not supposed to die like that.

He was not supposed to die like that.

Jeon Taegwang had resented him his entire life.

He had betrayed him in the end.

But not like that...

Why?

The world was spinning too violently around Jeon Taegwang.

"Ha. Ah. Ah. Ha. Ha...?"

He was not crying.

He was not laughing.

He was not in pain.

The bandits approaching him flinched and hesitated.

Before them stood a man with an expression they had never seen in their lives, bloody tears streaming down his face.

"Why..."

Was it memory?

Resentment?

Longing?

Guilt?

Irritation?

A sense of injustice?

He had betrayed him so easily.

Why did he feel this way now?

Amid a storm of emotions even he could not understand.

With a heart tangled beyond all unraveling.

His qi choked in his chest.

The Eight Extraordinary Vessels, tightly blocked within Jeon Taegwang, writhed and convulsed.

Then,

Surge.

At last, they burst open.

Through the cracks in the ruptured Eight Extraordinary Vessels, the hottest and purest innate true qi granted to man by heaven and earth surged forth.

Whoosh!

A mirage rose from Jeon Taegwang's entire body.

No.

Brilliant blue flames erupted around him.

"You...?"

Hang Inwoo froze.

Whoosh!

Jeon Taegwang stomped the ground, yet no sound came from beneath his feet.

"Aaargh!"

"Fire! Fire!"

"Aaah!"

Blue flames roared within the sword qi blooming along the path of Jeon Taegwang's rampaging blade.

The White Dragon Gang members and bandits caught in it writhed across the ground, howling like dogs beneath heat as fierce as the fires of hell.

"Fuck...!"

Even Hang Inwoo could only focus on dodging that terrifying momentum.

"Aaargh!"

A first-rate bandit who tried to flee a moment too late was grazed by the tip of the burning sword qi and shrieked. The flames of innate true qi did not go out. They ate into his wound and burned ever larger.

Chaos erupted in an instant. A vision of hell.

Kang Muhyeok, the eldest of the Windflow Three Young Lords, did not miss the opportunity.

"Now! This is our last chance! Kill them!!!"

"Aaargh!"

The White Dragon Gang members and bandits had their formation shattered by Jeon Taegwang's rampage.

Windflow Martial Academy and the Severing Sword Sect rushed into the opening.

"Th-this!"

"Gah!"

The stunned bandits and White Dragon Gang members fell and died helplessly.

The scales of battle, which had completely tipped to one side, tightened once more.

Then,

"..."

Whoosh.

After tearing through the enemy ranks for a while, Jeon Taegwang suddenly stopped moving.

Twitch. Twitch.

His body trembled as if trying to move forward, but he only swayed in place.

Whoosh.

The blue flames burning over his body gradually faded.

"..."

Jeon Taegwang felt dizzy.

Through his increasingly muffled ears, he heard terrified voices.

"Fuck... I-is it over?"

"That... that crazy bastard..."

"Eek! S-stop him! We don't have time to worry about that now!"

"Aaargh!"

But the frightened White Dragon Gang members and bandits soon turned their attention away from him.

They had to stop Windflow Martial Academy and the Severing Sword Sect as they charged like vicious demons.

Crackle. Crackle.

Jeon Taegwang listened to the dying flames.

Thud!

Suddenly, the ground rose up and struck him in the forehead.

Thump.

The world reflected in his tilted head was half earth and half sky, slanted crookedly.

"..."

Shadows moved over him.

Shouts.

Curses.

Screams.

"..."

People brawled noisily, yet between their voices, several birds chirped.

Jeon Taegwang suddenly grew angry.

His dried, cracked lips moved as he let out his final breath.

"Stop... laughing..."

At the age of twenty-one, Jeon Taegwang died fighting bravely for his master and fellow disciples.

Of all the people who witnessed this battle, no one later bothered to dispute it.

Over Jeon Taegwang's corpse, his eyes still open,

The shouting returned.

Drops of blood fell.

Shadows crowded together, then scattered.

Before the miraculous time he had created came to an end,

"..."

Yeon Sowol arrived.

Footnotes:

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