WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
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◈ I Became the Mad Demon in a Novel ◈
Chapter 29: Calculations
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At last, we reached Heungmun, the final stop on the way to Chongqing.
When I paid the coachman and stepped out of the carriage, thick humidity swept over me.
“Ugh.”
They said the dogs of Sichuan barked every time the sun came out.
That was how rarely they saw a dry, sunny day.
The weather really was a bitch.
Every damp breeze seemed to leave another thin film of water on my skin.
There was no road from here.
More precisely, no road a carriage could travel.
'Phew...'
I could see sheer cliffs in the distance.
To reach Chongqing, we had to go down to Longchang and take a boat.
The problem was getting to Longchang.
We would have to follow endless stretches of narrow paths cut into the mountainsides.
The parts that could actually be called paths were the good ones.
Crude planks had been laid across the dangerous sections.
What if one of the rusty iron pins holding them up broke with a snap?
We would plunge straight into the distant depths below.
Safety nets?
As if those existed in a martial arts world.
This was an ancient world without safety standards or even the concept of maintenance work.
A guide was absolutely necessary.
Title: Gui (“Return”) (Private)
Hey, lady!
Just got to Heungmun. Where are you?
It's hot. Hurry up and come get me.
I had already told the Swordwood Lord two days ago that I intended to visit.
To bait the Tang Clan with the Nine Yin White Bone Claw that the Pale Enchantress Fairy would create, I desperately needed Yeowol's help.
After about ten minutes, the view count finally went up.
└Hey! Who's that next to you? You never said you were bringing someone.
└Where?
└Just answer the question. She looks shady. I know I've seen that woman somewhere.
Hmm. I knew bringing this up would make her lose her shit.
But if she was watching us from somewhere, there was no helping it.
└The Pale Enchantress Fairy.
└What? No wonder I felt a chill down my back!!
└Can't she come along?
└You want me to invite that outcast bitch to Swordwood as an honored guest?
└Why not?
└If word gets out, I'll be the one they come after.
└And?
└Fuck! I was so happy you were coming that I dropped everything and rushed over, and you dragged a piece of shit along?
└Then we'll just head back. Thanks anyway.
└Hey! Ha... I'm so fucking pissed...
About five minutes later, Yeowol appeared at the mouth of a distant alley.
After all that swearing in the gallery, she was now smiling brightly.
“I thought you looked familiar. You're a junior from the Pale Enchantress Sect. It's a pleasure to meet you.”
Looking tense, the Pale Enchantress Fairy returned her greeting with a fist-and-palm salute.
“I've heard so much of your fame, Senior Flying Sword Empress. This humble junior offers greetings.”
Oh, so the Flying Sword Empress was the Swordwood Lord?
That was an epithet I had occasionally seen mentioned in the gallery back in the real world.
A female martial artist who ranked quite high even among the Hundred Greatest Masters Under Heaven.
She usually acted so silly and pathetic that I couldn't match her to that image, but it wasn't strange when I thought about it.
She really was rather good at pretending to be a sect leader in public.
“Since you put it that way, I can speak a little more freely. If our Forest accepts a disciple of the Pale Enchantress Sect as an honored guest, it will cause serious trouble. We would be violating the Alliance's sect closure order as well.”
“...I'm well aware of that.”
“Then why? Why would a junior suddenly turn up and put us both in a difficult position?”
The Pale Enchantress Fairy glanced at me.
“But you openly associate with a Venerable of the Demonic Cult like this...”
“Oh, for fuck's...”
Yeowol's eyebrows were twitching.
It was clear from her face that she was barely holding herself back.
It was oddly entertaining to watch.
Two grown men possessing women's bodies, trying to stare each other down.
Yeowol soon shot me a glare.
“Yes. That's the most pressing issue here. Then let me ask. Why did a proud Venerable of the Demonic Cult suddenly send me a letter of friendship?”
What? When had I sent anything like that?
Oh, was that how she was describing my gallery post?
“I settle all debts and grudges in full. That is my guiding principle.”
“What debts and grudges?”
“I wish to meet the experts of your sect who pursued me that day.”
“Must you?”
I spoke with an indifferent expression.
“That day, they could easily have disposed of me after I lost the Ten Armies of the Mad Demon. Withdrawing in the face of a mortal enemy is no easy decision.”
“Oh? Are you saying you wish to reward the disciples of our Flying Sword Corps personally?”
I showed her the gold ingots filling my bundle.
“Good heavens!”
Apparently, even someone who had lived as the head of Swordwood had never seen so many gold ingots.
“I-if your purpose is to offer a generous reward in gratitude... I think you could just give it to me...”
“It is not your share to receive.”
“Surely all that matters is conveying your gratitude? If anything, as the master of the sect, I could distribute it fairly...”
“I trust wealth, not people.”
“...What an unpleasant principle.”
After saying that, she wrestled with the decision for a while.
Her brain must have been working overtime.
Trying to figure out how to make all those gold ingots her own.
The burden of receiving a Demonic Cult Venerable and a disciple under a sect closure order as honored guests?
That probably didn't even exist in her mind anymore.
We knew all too well how frightening human greed could be, that sticky desire awakened by the sight of wealth.
Sometimes, riches came before life itself.
Just look at the Pale Enchantress Fairy. She had dared to enter demonic territory and gamble with her life.
“...Fine. But you cannot officially visit our Forest.”
“Then?”
“If your intention really is to reward them, surely you don't mind meeting the Flying Sword Corps elsewhere?”
I considered it for a moment.
“Then we shall meet at that place.”
“That place? Ah.”
The outer edge of the Heavenly Net.
The cliff I had jumped off after this bastard stabbed me dozens of times.
That very ridge, where the clear sky had left such an impression.
“I understand. We'll do that.”
* * *
“Phew...”
I let out a long breath.
I thought I was going to die. Not as an exaggeration. Literally.
As if I had triggered some death flag, a rotten plank had actually split in half beneath my feet.
If I hadn't driven Silent Aeon Demon Soul into the cliff, I would have fallen straight into the distant clouds below.
'Damn it. If only I could use lightness arts.'
Today, the lack of a dantian felt especially bitter.
Still, we had made it onto the boat safely and set foot in Chongqing.
The mountain ridge beside the cliff was visible in the distance.
Members of Swordwood's Flying Sword Corps were gathering there, one by one.
Yeowol appeared again, moving at a furious pace with her lightness arts.
“I've assembled the Flying Sword Corps as you requested. Of course, I didn't tell them that this reward was your idea.”
“They might accept it without knowing. They certainly wouldn't if they knew.”
They were upright orthodox warriors.
True inhabitants of this martial arts world.
To Gallers like us, it was just free money. But they would never readily accept gold ingots offered by an outright demonic fiend.
“You really are strange.”
“How?”
“I've never seen anyone offer rewards like this over debts and grudges. It's funny.”
I smiled quietly.
“But if this was your purpose, why did you bring that junior from the Pale Enchantress Sect?”
“I had intended to visit Swordwood before heading to River North. That woman also desperately needs Swordwood's reputation. Our interests align, so we are traveling together. Nothing more, nothing less.”
Yeowol's eyes went round.
“...River North? You, the Mad Demon?”
“I intend to act as a disciple of the Pale Enchantress Sect.”
“Do you think that makes sense? No, do you think it's even possible?”
I glanced at the Pale Enchantress Fairy.
“I have already arranged it with that woman.”
“What kind of... You'll be found out in no time...”
Pfft.
“Every orthodox martial artist who has seen my face is dead. There are no demonic qi arts within my body, so examining my aura would be pointless. What, will those orthodox old men open up my heart to check for the Sacred Fire inside?”
I gave Yeowol an even darker smile as she listened, looking stunned.
“But when I thought it over, I realized that was true of the old Mad Demon.”
“...What was true?”
I gazed at the Flying Sword Corps in the distance.
“The moment I decided to head to River North, I realized something. Orthodox martial artists who had seen the Mad Demon's face and lived. Unfortunately, they existed. The Mad Demon had made a mistake for the first time in his life.”
Why? Because I had been a newbie back then.
“What are you...?”
I unwrapped Silent Aeon Demon Soul.
Shing.
The ash-gray blade emerged from its sheath.
Vmmm. As Silent Aeon Demon Soul hummed low, the ecstasy of slaughter rushed into my head.
“You fucking bastard! Get away! Everyone, get away!”
Yeowol's lion's roar carried a tremendous amount of internal energy.
But she was too late.
The Mad Demon's festival, his bloody slaughter, had already begun.
Pure white cold exploded beneath my feet.
White frost spread over the undergrowth.
In an instant, white mist swallowed everything up to the distant mountain ridge.
“A-an ambush!”
The shout came too late.
Their reactions were quick, as expected of Swordwood's elite.
Clang! Clang-clang-clang!
Dozens of swords were drawn at once.
They stood back-to-back, completing a sword formation in an instant.
But they wouldn't be able to see the Mad Demon's blood-red eyes burning beyond the mist.
Or the bloody melodies that would begin to trace themselves across their bodies, one by one.
Red lines trembled in the mist like a heat haze.
At first, they were faint.
But as Silent Aeon Demon Soul's cries grew louder, the lines of slaughter became darker and more brutal.
“Aaaaaaargh!”
“Guh!”
They grazed shoulders and crossed throats.
Paths pierced hearts and stretched far beyond their backs.
Paths of death that had already been decided.
In the world reflected in the Demon Eye, the melodies of death rippled wildly.
“Hold the sword formation!”
Someone screamed the order.
The Flying Sword Corps' blades moved as one.
More than ten streams of sword qi tore through the white mist.
Ka-boom!
The ground burst apart, and trees were cut through at the waist.
Powdery frost mixed with clouds of dirt and shot up in every direction.
They truly were Swordwood's elite.
The problem was that there was no enemy in front of them.
Inside the Demon Calamity Snow Domain, even a companion a few meters away was nothing more than a dim shadow.
However they tried to push through the gaps and struggle, all that awaited them were red lines like a spiderweb.
Vmmmm.
A strange rush traveled through the blade.
My heart sped up, and my mouth went dry.
Strange laughter kept forcing its way out.
'You're a fucking idiot.'
This was the old Mad Demon.
Mocking the current Mad Demon.
Even with Silent Aeon Demon Soul in hand, I had failed to punish those weaklings.
Instead, I had suffered the disgrace of begging someone like the Swordwood Lord for my life.
I couldn't bear that anger.
The one who had denied the Mad Demon's life, built through worship, dominion, and a story written in blood.
The one who had taken possession of Yuk Jin-gwang, only to stain his honored name so terribly.
Ironically enough.
That was me.
That burning rage turned every line before my eyes into a point.
Wind-Snow Demon Calamity River.
The cold, settled spiritual energy gained direction all at once and surged toward the mountain ridge.
At the same time, I drew Silent Aeon Demon Soul across at an angle.
That was all.
The moment the blade cut through the air, every red melody filling the Demon Calamity Snow Domain pulled taut.
The change was almost too fast for the eye to follow.
Past the throat and into the heart. Across the collarbone and into the lungs. Through the space between the eyebrows and out the back of the head.
And at the end of each path, red points flickered, one by one.
Shaaaaaa!
The sound of air splitting followed a beat later.
The tightly drawn sword formation collapsed all at once.
One had raised a blade.
One had leaped.
One had stepped in front of a companion.
One had instinctively ducked.
The warriors of the Flying Sword Corps froze with all kinds of expressions.
Their poses were all different.
But the result was the same.
Death.
“You, you, you fucking bastard! What the fuck have you done?!”
Yeowol arrived at the scene with swift lightness arts and immediately began screaming.
My expression remained blank as I turned toward her.
“Kneel.”
I bared the Mad Demon's white teeth at Yeowol, the Swordwood Lord.
“We still have some accounts to settle.”
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