WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 80: I Was Once a Madman of Chu (2)
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Crash!
Everyone turned at once.
Won Huiseung wiped the wine dripping from his face while Yeon Sowol stared at him coldly.
The entire crowd froze.
‘What the hell?’
‘A cup? At Young Hero Won’s face?’
‘How is he planning to handle the consequences...?’
‘No, what on earth happened for it to come to this?’
Scrape!
Won Huiseung shoved his chair back and rose. Shards from the broken cup that had not fallen away yet clinked across the floor.
Scrape!
Yeon Sowol stood as well.
The two martial artists glared at each other without a word, then picked up their swords. Neither drew their blade. Instead, they tightly wrapped the scabbards and hilts together with cord.
A silent declaration that they would duel without unsheathing their swords.
Gulp.
People swallowed all around them.
The noisy boat had fallen silent before anyone noticed.
Some even looked faintly eager.
The Nine Great Sects and One Gang.
Ten great factions whose names stood above countless martial factions beneath heaven. In some regions, their wondrous martial arts were treated almost like legend. The thought of witnessing them made everyone tense.
Whoosh.
At that moment, the boat tipped to one side.
As if that had been the signal, Won Huiseung and Yeon Sowol rushed toward each other.
That was when Jin Geol moved.
“Come on, come on! Who do you think will win?”
Everyone turned to him in disbelief.
‘Do we even need to say it?’
‘Does he really not know?’
‘What’s wrong with him?’
Jin Geol grinned.
“I think my friend will win. Our Yeon Sowol.”
Brows furrowed as though they were looking at a madman, and Jin Geol pulled shining gold from his robes.
Two one-nyang gold yuanbao.
“Here. Two nyang of gold. Anyone want to bet?”
Gold had a certain magic to it.
Enough to change the looks people had been giving Jin Geol.
Their eyes widened. Now they looked at him like a harmless madman.
“Ahem. Are you sure about this?”
“If I wasn’t, I wouldn’t be offering. I told you, my friend will win.”
“Pfft. Ha, I don’t know whether you’re mocking that friend Yeon of yours or what. Fine! I’ll put up a one-nyang silver ingot! I was going to buy agarwood incense before heading home from Guangdong, but thanks to this, I’ll be able to buy Laoshan sandalwood instead!”
Laoshan sandalwood was a special fragrant wood from India, renowned for its deep, honeyed fragrance. Its fragrance was as expensive as gold. Joy glittered in the gambler’s eyes.
“Me too! I’ll place a bet too!”
Everyone began laying down silver ingots worth one or two nyang.
With so many people, a mound of silver ingots quickly formed.
Every silver ingot was wagered on Won Huiseung.
The only money placed on Yeon Sowol was Jin Geol’s two gold yuanbao.
“Ah, this feels a little cruel.”
“It does. Isn’t he already being pushed back?”
“Still, he’s impressive. He’s holding out against Young Hero Won.”
“There are masters like that in Guangdong...?”
“By the way, isn’t Young Master Yeon handsome?”
“...Ahem. He is.”
They chattered and giggled without a trace of tension.
Jin Geol ignored them and smiled at the pile of silver ingots.
Then someone muttered.
“Oh. This looks like it’s about to end.”
Jin Geol raised his head.
Won Huiseung was driving Yeon Sowol back.
Overwhelmed by that crushing sword force, Sowol could not even think of meeting it head-on. He could only evade.
“Ha! Zhongnan’s Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven! Its reputation is well deserved!”
Someone’s cry of admiration struck Jin Geol’s ears.
* * *
‘So this is the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.’
Sowol remembered the days when he had studied the Jianghu’s common knowledge under Yi Yubaek.
‘Father. Why is Zhongnan’s Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven called the Thirty-Six Swords? I read about it, but the explanation wasn’t very detailed.’
Yi Yubaek had answered then.
‘Because it is a flawless martial art that occupies all thirty-six directions.’
‘Ah. I see.’
Sowol answered first, then counted on his fingers.
Afterward, he tilted his head.
‘Father.’
‘Speak.’
‘What exactly are thirty-six directions?’
‘Thirty-six directions? Well...’
Yi Yubaek, who had been about to answer, closed his mouth.
Sowol kept calculating in his head.
With modern knowledge, if a circle had 360 degrees, thirty-six directions would divide it into ten-degree intervals. But that was modern knowledge.
‘There’s no local system for thirty-six directions?’
Nothing he had learned since coming here provided a way to divide directions into thirty-six.
‘Not the eight directions from the four cardinal and four diagonal directions. Not the twelve directions indicated by the Twelve Earthly Branches. Not even the twenty-four directions made by adding the Ten Heavenly Stems to the Twelve Earthly Branches and joining heaven and earth. I just couldn’t figure out what thirty-six directions were supposed to mean.’
‘...’
After a long silence, Yi Yubaek had answered.
‘You’re right?’
‘...’
It was a pleasant memory now.
Clang!
Sowol finally solved that old question.
Crack!
Frosty metal qi mingled with lively wind qi, weaving sword strikes that were swift and vicious. It was not simply fast and fierce. The prickling force that surged around him seemed to block Sowol’s circulation of true qi at every turn and make his heart shrink.
Yet it had not been this ferocious from the beginning.
At first, it had been cunning instead. The sword was meticulous, full of sly feints, sticky and persistent. Then, like the sword of a coward who had suffered hundreds and thousands of defeats, it suddenly became cautious and suspicious. After that came a straightforward sword, faithful to the basics yet powerful, before it finally grew as savage as this.
It was hard to believe one person could possess such varied dispositions.
As he experienced the progression, Sowol understood.
Thanks to qi sense greater than anyone else’s, he could infer the meaning contained within the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.
“So that’s why it’s thirty-six. It isn’t talking about directions.”
Won Huiseung’s brow twitched as he swung his sword in silence. Most of the world believed Zhongnan’s Thirty-Six Swords were a sword art that occupied every direction.
“It isn’t thirty-six directions. It is the Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits. Zhongnan’s Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven is a martial art that seeks to express heaven’s power and order through the human body.”
“Huh.”
Won Huiseung’s tightly closed lips parted slightly, and a breath of admiration escaped him.
Because Sowol was right.
The spar had begun with a cup striking his face. At first, Won Huiseung had only been bewildered and flustered, but now he thought he might begin to enjoy it.
“Since you recognized that much, I’ll show you something in return. The Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven. Properly.”
* * *
The Thirty-Six Heavenly Spirits were stars that guarded the Big Dipper in heaven.
Some stories said they had originally been demon kings. Others said they had been sealed into stars and reformed.
In any case, they symbolized heavenly order and power.
The Zhongnan Sect had brought that down into the world, expressing heaven’s power and order through human beings.
The Heavenly Strategist Star excelled at schemes.
The Heavenly Defeat Star rose after defeat.
The Heavenly Steadfast Star did not waver.
The Heavenly Ferocity Star was fierce.
The Heavenly Swiftness Star was fast.
The Heavenly Leisure Star was unhurried.
The central principle of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven was to freely draw upon swords bearing all thirty-six such traits.
Yet it was no easy thing for one person to possess so many dispositions. That was why Zhongnan’s training was an endless succession of arduous trials that practitioners repeatedly threw themselves into. To gain one state of mind required an intense experience with the weight of an entire lifetime.
Once one gained all thirty-six states of mind and wielded the sword freely, the powers and order of heaven’s thirty-six stars could be completed within a human body.
But...
‘I’ve never reached that limit and unleashed it!’
Won Huiseung thought.
The swords of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven were not separate from each other. Heaven’s power and order became complete only when all thirty-six stars were woven together. If even one was missing, the meaning of the whole would be distorted.
Like a person’s life, those thirty-six aspects had to interlock organically to complete the ultimate power and principle.
But Won Huiseung had never felt that sensation. It frustrated him.
When he had been at his sect, even their sparring lacked tension because everyone knew one another’s methods too well.
After descending the mountain, everyone he met had either been far stronger or far weaker than him. Even when he found an equal opponent, it was difficult to request a spar out of courtesy.
He had found no one he could truly fight with all his strength.
So he had almost never had the chance to display all thirty-six swords and seek their complete union.
‘The Heavenly Spirit Star must stand at the summit of this order completed through thirty-six.’
Gang, a noble and powerful star.
Even gang qi, the symbol of masters without equal, took its name from that star.
‘In the end, the other thirty-five swords are a process meant to bloom into the Heavenly Spirit Sword at the end. If I could walk through that entire process even once...’
Won Huiseung’s heart pounded.
‘Just once. If I could clash with someone with all my strength!’
If he could give it everything he had against an opponent he had never encountered before, unfold all thirty-five swords, and in that final moment unleash the most powerful sword strike he had never managed to release.
‘Then it will become my enlightenment on the path to the peak realm.’
Won Huiseung’s gaze deepened.
The young martial artist from Guangdong was far stronger than he had imagined.
Strong enough to make him hope.
‘Please. Hold on until the end.’
His fiercely pressing sword changed once more.
This time, it became clever and inventive.
* * *
‘So this is the mountain-guarding ultimate art of the Nine Great Sects and One Gang.’
Sowol was honestly impressed.
‘It’s profound.’
The principles contained in the sword were so distant and mysterious that he could not grasp even a fraction of them completely.
And what about Won Huiseung, who expressed them?
It was a sword art that looked difficult enough to learn at a glance, no, so difficult that Sowol could not understand how anyone had managed it. Yet Won Huiseung unfolded it without the slightest wavering. His skill was astonishing for someone around the same age.
Sowol could sense how diligently Won Huiseung had built this sword, how much pain and fear he had endured.
Honestly, it almost made him like the man.
Enough that he nearly forgot his grudge over Won Huiseung carelessly speaking about the Guangdong Martial Alliance without knowing anything about it.
‘No. Not that.’
Sowol’s eyes cooled again.
Won Huiseung’s sword was rushing toward its peak.
Just as Won Huiseung had wished.
The sword’s momentum grew more powerful, and the harmony of true qi that constricted Sowol became more vicious.
‘He’s planning to end it with the next sword. No. He’s been waiting for that one sword this entire time. For this moment alone.’
Sowol had already seen all thirty-five swords.
Each had been difficult to deal with, but none were impossible. Sowol had fought Yong Useok, a master of the peak realm, and the Master of the Dark Shadow Pavilion from the Demonic Cult.
Won Huiseung was a disciple of one of the Nine Great Sects with a supreme-grade ultimate art, but Sowol could still see places where he was rough around the edges.
It was the same now.
‘Why is he so obsessed with the final move?’
The Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven as Sowol felt them were not that kind of sword art. It drew heavenly principles into the world, each sword pushing and pulling against the others in an endless cycle until they were complete as a whole. There was no need to cling so desperately to a single sword.
Sowol’s qi sense, and every moment when he had fought with his life on the line and contemplated martial arts, gave him the answer.
Then Sowol suddenly understood.
‘What is righteous, and what is demonic?’
Demonic nature was still vague to him, but he felt as though he had found at least a clue to righteousness.
‘Righteousness is what is natural. To be natural is for harmony to continue without breaking, boundless and unending. Therefore, it cannot be forced.’
Once he grasped that, Won Huiseung’s condition became even clearer.
‘He’s gone blind.’
He had become too trapped by a single thought.
“At last...!”
Ecstasy filled Won Huiseung’s face.
Flutter!
His robes billowed.
Heat haze rose around him.
His sword bent within the heat.
Hummmmm!
A magnificent sword hum rang out.
He had not even drawn the sword, yet blue energy formed along the scabbard.
Not a dim glow, but a vivid light. Compressed and compressed again until it blazed brilliantly.
As if it were gang qi from legend.
“Now I must be the one to thank you. You have allowed me to unleash this sword strike.”
Won Huiseung was overcome with emotion.
“It’s over!”
“What overwhelming momentum.”
“Good heavens. Is that really sword qi? It looks like...”
“Ah...”
The spectators were left speechless.
Whoosh!
Sowol’s body swayed like a willow leaf.
“Wha...?”
Willow Leaf Steps.
Windflow Martial Academy’s unique footwork merged with the assassin’s steps he had learned from Eun-yeong, then joined with Sowol’s overwhelming qi sense. In an instant, Sowol moved into Won Huiseung’s blind spot.
The gap in his mind created by his obsession with a single sword.
Sowol did not miss it.
His sword looked as though it carried no sword qi, utterly ordinary and giving off no momentum at all.
Thud!
It casually jabbed Won Huiseung in the side.
“Ghk!”
Won Huiseung let out a strange cry and collapsed.
“Ghk! Khehk!”
Unable to breathe, he flailed on the floor before going limp.
Sowol slowly walked over, confirmed that he was still breathing, then dusted off his clothes and turned away.
“Uh...?”
“Uh...?”
The spectators could only gape.
“He won?”
“How...?”
“So he was that strong.”
“There’s such a promising rising expert in Guangdong...”
One of the stunned onlookers asked Jin Geol.
“Did you know?”
Jin Geol grinned.
“Of course I knew. That man is Sole Crimson of Shinheung County in Guangdong, Yeon Sowol, the Hidden Sun Sword.”
* * *
The river outing ended there.
As soon as the boat reached the Gold River ferry crossing, Sowol and Jin Geol were the first to disembark. Behind them, Won Huiseung limped after them, clutching his side.
“Young Hero Yeon!”
Sowol slowly turned around.
Won Huiseung asked with a pale face, as though he had lost his country.
“Why... did I lose?”
Sowol considered how to answer.
He wanted to tell him if possible. He felt Won Huiseung had paid enough for his careless words, and aside from that, there were unexpectedly likable aspects to him.
Sowol also had something he wanted to say.
It seemed Won Huiseung did not know what he was wielding. Even as he handled the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, he seemed to have forgotten its true meaning.
But...
‘It would sound too much like teabagging.’
It would be like Sowol, who was not from the Zhongnan Sect, telling one of Zhongnan’s mountain-guarding disciples, ‘Ah, you’re doing that wrong.’
‘Should I just explain it all in detail?’
‘You tried too hard to build momentum. You did not need to do that then. If you had stayed more alert to my attacks and watched for an opening, the outcome would have been impossible to predict.’
‘But that sounds too much like I’m lecturing him.’
Sowol thought.
‘Can’t I put it into one sentence?’
‘Open your heart more. Broaden it. Make it more complete...’
As Sowol’s silence dragged on, Won Huiseung looked at him desperately.
That expression softened Sowol’s heart, and words suddenly slipped out.
Really, before he even realized it.
“Why didn’t you dodge?”
Won Huiseung’s eyes widened.
Sowol hurriedly closed his mouth and turned away. For some reason, the tips of both his ears had reddened.
“Huh...”
“Good heavens.”
“He hit him and then asked why he didn’t dodge...”
The watching crowd sighed.
“...”
Won Huiseung’s face turned bright red.
Footnotes:
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