WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 75: When Water Is Too Clear, There Are No Fish (23)
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They were surrounded by pitch-black darkness.
The only thing visible was the faint light cast by the Demon-Severing Sword.
And the blades that caught that light and gleamed even more faintly.
Even the people holding them were barely visible. It looked as though pale blades alone floated through the darkness.
“Don't pay attention to the darkness. This isn't ordinary darkness.”
Noh Huideok warned them.
“The more you focus on it, the more you lose. Little by little, you won't be able to hear, smell, or feel anything, until you finally lose yourself. Focus only on the light of the blades.”
He raised the Demon-Severing Sword, setting a marker in the darkness.
Then an unfamiliar voice suddenly bored into their ears.
“Yes. Focus on the blade's light. Then I'll pierce the backs of your necks. I'll pluck out your eyes.”
The voice was so close that they could feel damp breath against their earlobes.
“Urgh!”
“Fuck...!”
“What was that?”
The alliance members recoiled as if something had stabbed into their ears. Noh Huideok hurriedly shouted.
“Get a grip! Demonic arts are cultivation that accepts sinister energy. The more power its wielder uses, the denser that sinister energy becomes, until he turns into something that isn't human. Don't listen to him. Keep your heads clear and keep cutting. That's all there is to it.”
Wooooooong!
The Demon-Severing Sword trembled softly in his grip. The anxious alliance members calmed somewhat.
“When I cut, you cut. When I run, you run.”
“Yes!”
Chwaaaang!
With a bright cry, the Demon-Severing Sword cleaved through the darkness. For an instant, the world lit up as though lightning had struck, and the martial artists of the Guangdong Martial Alliance unleashed sword strikes at the pale figure of the demonic practitioner that flashed into view.
Chwachachachachang!
Their blades surged forward with the furious, deadly sound of a swarm beating its wings.
But their blades struck nothing.
The world went dark again.
They could not tell where the enemy was.
It was like fighting a ghost.
[[[ Krrrk! ]]]
Instead, the sound of grinding teeth echoed from the darkness once more.
Wooooooong!
At the same time, Noh Huideok poured true qi into the Demon-Severing Sword. Its majestic sword cry drove away the sinister martial force waves carried by the sound.
Even so,
“Ghk...”
“Khk...”
several alliance members following behind began bleeding heavily from their eyes and ears and fell behind in the darkness.
They staggered farther and farther away before vanishing from sight.
Noh Huideok did not look back.
It was heartless, but he had no choice. This was the time to look ahead.
‘Even this much means heaven is on our side. Young Master Yeon has the Demon-Severing Sword, and the enemy's martial arts are sound arts.’
Otherwise, they would already have suffered losses close to annihilation. If they had needed to face a master of the transcendent peak realm's sound arts without the Demon-Severing Sword's power, Noh Huideok himself would have collapsed, bleeding from his ears.
All he could do was run forward in gratitude, without looking back, while they could still fight, to create even the smallest opening.
[[[ Krrk! Krrk! Krrrrk! ]]]
The grinding grew louder.
When they had first encountered him, he had used a metal fan, opening and closing it to unleash sound arts. Now, he was using the grinding of his teeth instead.
He kept speaking in a voice that sounded utterly insane, as though his lips were pressed right beside their ears.
“Where are you looking? Look ahead. You have to look only ahead. Good. That's how I'll break you.”
Crack!
A sickening sound rang out, and one alliance member suddenly collapsed.
The back of their skull had been smashed in.
“There!”
Noh Huideok's Demon-Severing Sword flashed. In the lightning-bright world, a pale shadow slipped past the corpse with its broken head. The alliance members all swung their swords after it, but once again, nothing caught on their blades.
They had clearly cut at it, yet it was as if they had only passed through a shadow. No sensation remained in their hands.
[[[ Krrrk! Krrk! ]]]
Sharp martial force waves seeped in on the sound, boring into vulnerable places like ears, noses, and eyes, tearing apart blood vessels.
“Grrk...”
“Kh...”
Several more alliance members finally failed to endure and collapsed, blood streaming from them.
Still, Noh Huideok did not grow impatient.
He simply settled his heart, calm yet burning.
‘A demon. I've encountered a real demon.’
Demonic practitioner.
That term lodged in Noh Huideok's heart.
The dreadful darkness swallowing everything around him.
The strange cold.
The dizziness.
A calamity no human could bear.
‘Did Master face a demon like this too?’
Just before Noh Huideok could be accepted as a direct disciple, his master had been killed by a demonic practitioner.
Noh Huideok had never forgotten that.
How could he?
His lifelong wish to become a mountain-guarding disciple of the Dian Cang Sect had been crushed in that demonic practitioner's grasp.
The master he had followed like a father had died in that same grasp.
In truth, that person had not even been his master.
Since he had never become a direct disciple, he had no right to call him Master.
That had always remained a bitter regret for Noh Huideok.
‘And now I've encountered a real demon too.’
He felt strange.
As though this battle had been destined long ago. As though he had spent his whole life preparing for this day.
‘Focus. Focus. Gather more strength. Be quieter. Sharper.’
Just as his master had taught him.
The less energy that spilled outward, the more keenly he could feel the energy beyond himself.
Naturally, Noh Huideok, who was only at the late first-rate realm, could not see through darkness cast by a master of the transcendent peak realm.
But he had the Demon-Severing Sword's light.
If he could gather his energy a little more and awaken his qi sense just a little further...
‘Then even if I can't cut him, perhaps I can at least reach him.’
Noh Huideok had promised Yeon Sowol ten moves.
He had promised to create an opening within them.
He unleashed the fourth move from his grip.
Flash!
Like a disciple of a proper Daoist sect, Noh Huideok had cultivated the pure energy of the Five Elements.
Of them, he had focused on the energy of Metal.
Pure Metal qi surged through his Eight Extraordinary Vessels.
Among the Five Elements, Metal was called the energy of solemn slaughter, cold and severe in its killing.
The White Tiger, guardian deity of the west, governed this Metal qi and tore wicked things apart with its fangs.
That energy gathered fully within the Demon-Severing Sword before shooting outward like lightning.
Unlike anything before.
It did not simply flash. It carried the frost-sharp edge of something that could tear apart heaven and earth.
Kakang!
For the first time, Noh Huideok's attack reached the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion.
A fan thrust straight out struck aside the Demon-Severing Sword.
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion's face, paler than before, and his bloodshot eyes appeared for a brief moment before fading back into the darkness.
A boulder split apart where Noh Huideok's sword qi had been deflected. Its cut surface was as smooth as a mirror.
‘...Master.’
Noh Huideok tightened his grip on the sword hilt.
* * *
‘So this is what he meant when he said it wasn't human...’
Only now could Yeon Sowol fully understand Noh Huideok's words.
Yeon Sowol alone possessed qi sense keen enough to see through even this darkness, allowing him to make out the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion's figure, however vaguely.
Since casting the darkness, the man's appearance had grown stranger by the moment.
His head twitched like an insect's.
His teeth ground without stopping.
The joints in his arms and legs bent at unnatural angles.
He looked as though something inhuman had taken possession of his body.
Demonic practitioner.
That term lodged in Yeon Sowol's heart.
Whenever that insane-looking thing ground its teeth and swung its fan, two or three alliance members fell away.
They wandered through the darkness, blood pouring from them, before collapsing. Or they were simply smashed apart and left sprawled on the ground.
The sight made it feel as though the metallic taste of blood was rising in Yeon Sowol's throat, but he clenched his teeth and suppressed his presence. He followed quietly behind them, as silent as the dead.
In Yeon Sowol's eyes, Noh Huideok was already covered in blood.
Though he held the Demon-Severing Sword, he had paid a price for repeatedly blocking the sound arts from the very front.
Blood dripped from his ears and nose, while his arms and shoulders trembled faintly.
Strangely, his presence only grew sharper and more forceful.
With not an inch of wasted energy, he gathered his strength and sent it through the Demon-Severing Sword, tearing open the darkness for brief moments and driving the demon back with fierce sword qi.
At some point, Noh Huideok had begun reciting a Daoist incantation.
“Golden light fills my body, covering and illuminating me.
Though one looks, one cannot see it. Though one listens, one cannot hear it.
It encompasses heaven and earth and nurtures all living beings.
The Three Realms stand guard, and the Five Emperors welcome me.
All gods bow in reverence, and even thunder obeys my command.
Ghosts and demons lose their courage, while spirits and monsters forget their forms.”
It sounded like a song.
Like a commanding cry.
Like a monk chanting sutras.
“Cough!”
Even as his qi-blood churned from blocking the sound arts and forcing out sword qi, making him vomit blood, a radiant smile spread across Noh Huideok's lips.
Clang!
Claaang!
Kaaang!
Noh Huideok's sword, honed through upright training in the Dian Cang Sect, began to carry purer and purer Metal qi.
No matter that the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion's martial arts were sound arts, a man who had reached the transcendent peak realm should never have been unable to withstand Noh Huideok's sword.
It would not have been strange if a martial force wave carried by his fan had sent Noh Huideok flying while coughing blood.
Yet Noh Huideok endured.
Through the power of the Demon-Severing Sword.
Through the pure Metal qi he had gathered entirely within it.
Through the upright Dian Cang Sect sword arts he unleashed with that energy.
He did not bend. He kept releasing sword qi.
And from his mouth, he continued singing the incantation that destroyed demons.
“Cough!”
Noh Huideok vomited blood as he challenged him again and again.
The Guangdong Martial Alliance martial artists followed behind him with renewed confidence and swung their blades. The countless flashing swords pouring down began to wear away at the demonic practitioner's nerves.
He was not accustomed to close combat.
The more power he used, the less sane he became.
The demonic practitioner's head twitched more violently.
His arms and legs writhed more like an insect's.
At last, Yeon Sowol found an opening.
‘Now.’
Whoosh!
His body moved with the thought.
Windborne Drift pushed to its limit.
Willow Leaf Steps pushed to its limit.
Just as he had learned from Yi Yubaek, just as he had learned while fighting beside Eun-yeong, just as he had trained without rest through the long dream born from a cup of wine.
Sway.
Yeon Sowol's body swayed like a willow leaf and slipped into a lapse in the demonic practitioner's awareness.
The sword strike he had waited for finally erupted from his hand.
He could see threads.
The whole world was flat.
Even the darkness blanketing every direction was flat.
Everything was made of threads.
People.
Darkness.
The demonic practitioner.
With the intent to cut them apart.
Chwaaak!
‘It reached him!’
he thought for an instant.
But his hand felt empty.
His sword tip had cut only a few pieces of darkness. Even those were quickly covered by other darkness, leaving no trace.
Only one being noticed it.
“You... Just now!”
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion glared at Yeon Sowol with bloodshot eyes. Both eyes gleamed dangerously.
“What did you just...”
Yeon Sowol did not listen any further. He did not even wonder why his previous strike had missed.
The fact that he used darkness like a protective qi art showed that these demonic arts specialized in hiding and evading. It would not be strange if the enemy had another method to escape or deceive him even at close range.
Instead, Yeon Sowol released his Sword Fingers and extended his left hand.
If his sight was confused, he would find the enemy directly through the sensation in his fingertips.
Relying solely on qi sense.
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion felt an inexplicable chill.
A sense of danger.
A horrific omen sharp enough to snap his mind back to clarity after it had briefly been lost in demonic arts.
His face twisted violently.
His head jerked as he opened his mouth wide.
Far wider than a human mouth should open.
From the black throat within burst a horrifying Ghost Valley Cry.
[[[ Kyaaaaaaa! ]]]
Martial force waves poured forth on the sound.
It was as though the entire world had become blades.
“Young Master Yeon!”
Noh Huideok rushed between them, pouring true qi into the Demon-Severing Sword, but he was half a step too late.
Wooooooong!
[[[ Kyaaaaaaa! ]]]
The Ghost Valley Cry that the Demon-Severing Sword's cry could not fully cancel poured over Yeon Sowol.
It slashed through everything around him.
Drip.
Blood ran from Yeon Sowol's ears.
Drops of blood formed beneath his nose, while bloody tears streamed down both cheeks.
Martial force waves carried over by the sound seeped into his skin, into his blood vessels, trying to rip apart every meridian in his body.
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion staggered back and said,
“Ah. I killed him. Tsk. But that dangerous feeling from before...”
His head twitched as he tried to take another step back.
Click.
Someone grabbed his wrist.
“Huh?”
Yeon Sowol, his face covered in blood, was holding that wrist.
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion could not understand the situation.
“How?”
The martial force wave that had struck Yeon Sowol could never be endured by a martial artist in the late first-rate realm.
Not unless every minor channel in his body had undergone thorough bodily cultivation.
“Wait. Don't tell me. You. You've already fully absorbed the Greater Rejuvenation Pill...?”
Snap.
Before he could finish speaking, a thread snapped.
The Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion's eyes rolled upward.
They sank beneath his eyelids.
Crunch!
Yeon Sowol's thrusting sword pierced through the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion's mouth and burst out through the back of his skull.
Footnotes:
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