WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 108: The Secret of the Jade Token (4)
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"Remove the artifacts! Now!"
Mo Il-hwa was briefly confused by Ja Muk-hyun's demand.
When he'd told her not to touch them, she had assumed they already knew that Mumu controlled his strength through the things he called Ki-Restraining Bracelets.
But now he was telling her to take them off?
What was that supposed to mean?
"If Mo Il-hwa tries anything while removing the artifacts from your wrists, you'd best be prepared for the consequences."
At Ja Muk-hyun's words, Mo Il-hwa realized something.
Ja Muk-hyun had misunderstood.
He seemed to believe Mumu's power came from the artifacts on his wrists.
Mo Il-hwa clicked her tongue inwardly.
'If there weren't hostages, we could turn this situation around the moment I took these off.'
It was a shame.
Still, what choice did she have when he was ordering her to remove them?
Mo Il-hwa approached Mumu and asked, "How do I take these bracelets off?"
"...Turn the adjustment screw past One, all the way to the final Opening."
Mo Il-hwa nodded and reached for the adjustment screw.
Then Ja Muk-hyun instructed her, "Remove both wrist bracelets at once."
What an irritating bastard.
Mo Il-hwa snapped, "Why not tell us to remove the ones on his ankles at the same time too?"
"Ankles?"
Ja Muk-hyun's eyes narrowed.
Master Heo had clearly said Mumu had artifacts on both wrists.
Were those not the only ones?
'How fortunate.'
The corner of Ja Muk-hyun's mouth curled up.
He'd heard she was a cunning girl, yet she had just made a foolish mistake. For a retainer to reveal their master's trump card so carelessly, she truly acted without thinking.
"Gasp!"
Mo Il-hwa covered her mouth with a startled expression, as if she had just realized her mistake.
Seeing that, Ja Muk-hyun became certain. He gave Jin-hyeok a crooked smile.
"What a foolish girl. Yu Jin-hyeok, remove the bracelets on his ankles at the same time."
"...All right."
Jin-hyeok approached Mumu with a stiff expression.
'Why did she bring up his ankles?'
Still, Jin-hyeok knew that removing them would only reveal that they did not enhance Mumu's power, but sealed it away.
Besides, hostages were being held. Even if Mumu revealed his strength, it would only make them more wary. He couldn't understand why Mo Il-hwa had said such a thing.
'What should I do? Isn't there any way out of this?'
More than that, he had to find a way to break this deadlock.
Otherwise, his father and mother would die.
Tap!
Following orders, Jin-hyeok placed his hand on the adjustment screw of the Ki-Restraining Bracelet around Mumu's ankle.
Mo Il-hwa likewise gripped the adjustment screws on both bracelets around his wrists.
Ja Muk-hyun said, "Remove them at the same time."
Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa turned the adjustment screws together.
Kiiiiiiiiik!
The Ki-Restraining Bracelets kept turning.
Eight.
Seven.
Six.
Five.
Before long, the numbers on the adjustment screws around his wrists and ankles reached One, then Opening.
Mumu's expression turned strange.
Only once, at the Discipline Bureau, had the restraint on his right arm been released.
That had only been one arm. This was the first time in his life that he would be freed from every Ki-Restraining Bracelet.
Click!
The Ki-Restraining Bracelets came off both his wrists and ankles.
Ja Muk-hyun's lips rose.
At that very moment,
Riiip!
Mumu's shirt and trousers tore apart as his muscles swelled.
His body grew into a giant form that nearly reached the ceiling.
'What is this?'
Yet the change had only begun.
Crack! Whoooosh!
Steam poured from his entire body. Every muscle writhed violently, turning red before darkening into complete black.
'!?'
Ja Muk-hyun frowned at the bizarre transformation.
Why was this happening after the Ki-Restraining Bracelets had been removed?
Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa were also shocked by Mumu's sudden, tremendous transformation. They retreated as far as they could.
Crack! Crack!
'Huh?'
Mumu's body, which had reached the ceiling, was shrinking.
It looked as if he were undergoing Body Reconstruction right before their eyes. His body swelled, then gradually compressed into shape.
'What is this?'
The muscles all over his body compacted tightly, and his build returned to its usual form.
Yet the opposite of what they expected occurred.
Crack! Rumble!
The floor of the lecture hall beneath Mumu's feet split apart, and the entire building shook as if an earthquake had struck.
"W-What is that?"
"The building..."
Everyone watching was left dumbfounded.
What they did not know was that this enormous tremor was not limited to the building.
Everything around the building they occupied was shaking.
It did not last long.
Whoooosh...
The steam pouring from Mumu's body subsided, and his blackened, heated skin soon returned to normal.
His skin tone became no different from before.
The only difference was that every muscle in his body seemed compressed so tightly that its form had become refined down to the smallest detail.
Then,
Tremble!
Ja Muk-hyun's face turned utterly pale as he stared at Mumu.
No, his eyes overflowed with fear.
The hand holding his sword shook madly, and he could not stop it.
'W-What is this?'
Every sense in his body was warning him.
The being before him had gone beyond humanity. No, it had completely left the realm of humans behind.
The pressure alone felt as though it were crushing his entire body.
He was not the only one who felt it.
"Gasp... gasp... gasp..."
Ha Ryun, who was being held hostage, was drenched in cold sweat.
Even breathing seemed difficult, and his breaths came raggedly.
Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa, who stood even closer, were no different.
'W-What is this?'
'Is this even human?'
It was a completely different kind of being.
Only his outer shell was human. Something from another realm seemed to be inside him, pressing down on not just their five senses, but everything around them.
Mumu, on the other hand, felt differently.
'Ah.'
A sense of freedom incomparable to anything he had felt before.
Now that he was completely free from restraint, it felt as if he had burst out of his shell.
He felt as though anything was possible.
No, every one of his senses was telling him so.
'This isn't even close to when one was removed and lowered to One.'
It was a completely different dimension.
As if he had entered a transcendent realm, every sensation reaching his skin had been liberated.
These senses were entirely different from when he wore all the Ki-Restraining Bracelets. The world Mumu saw now was unlike the one ordinary people saw.
Waver...
Mumu had always seen auras as colors.
Now, they had become completely tangible.
He could see every detail of the energy flowing through the bodies of Mo Il-hwa, Jin-hyeok, Ja Muk-hyun, and Ha Ryun nearby.
What was even more astonishing was this.
-Was that an earthquake just now?
-Didn't the ground shake?
Murmur, murmur!
Even when the adjustment screws had been turned to the first level, he could hear sounds from over a hundred jang away.
Now even that ability had become more distinct.
Sounds collided in intricate, organic patterns. Within his mind, everything around him took shape in three dimensions, revealing where people were and even what posture they had taken.
'This is fun.'
He could feel everything.
Watching Mumu, Ja Muk-hyun bit his lip so hard that blood ran down it.
It was a desperate attempt to overcome the fear born from that crushing pressure.
Still, he could not stop trembling.
'...I've never felt anything like this, not even from the Lord.'
Ja Hyang-gyeong, Lord of the Paralysis Blade Estate.
Ja Muk-hyun had felt pressure from the person considered, alongside the Lord of Heavenly Kill Valley, the strongest in the current House of the Eight Villains.
But this was entirely different.
It felt as though he had touched something that must never be touched.
'How could I have made such a mistake...?'
Ja Muk-hyun's gaze fell upon the Ki-Restraining Bracelets lying on the floor.
Master Heo had completely misjudged the situation.
These were not artifacts that simply increased that bastard's monstrous strength.
'What... have I done?'
He had removed something that should never have been removed.
He needed to tell Mumu to put the Ki-Restraining Bracelets back on immediately, but his lips would not move.
Then Mumu glanced once toward the east before turning his head west.
Everyone wondered what he was doing.
Swish!
Mumu bent down and slowly curled his index and middle fingers.
The bicep and forearm of his right arm swelled enormously.
'What is he trying to do?'
As they watched in confusion, he flicked his fingers toward the west.
At that instant,
Boom! Crash!
A piercing blast tore through the air, punching a hole smaller than a fist through the lecture hall wall.
It had not merely pierced the wall.
They could see outside through the hole.
* * *
"Who do you think you're taking away? Hmph!"
"Huff... huff..."
'That damned girl had been hiding this kind of strength?'
An eighteen-year-old boy with a rugged face and lion-like hair stared at someone in disbelief.
He was Man Chu, successor of the Aberrant Blood Sect, one of the House of the Eight Villains.
The Aberrant Blood Sect, like the Valley of White Death, excelled in Poison Art, so Ja Muk-hyun had assigned him this mission.
But then,
Whoooosh!
Tang So-so's hair and entire body were dyed in a radiant purple.
That change had occurred because she had unleashed the Body of Ten Thousand Poisons.
Man Chu had also nearly reached the realm of Poison Form, but he could not compare to the Body of Ten Thousand Poisons, a constitution that naturally assimilated every poison in existence.
'Sichuan Tang Clan... those crafty bastards. To think they had hidden a monster like this so well.'
Man Chu clicked his tongue inwardly.
Competing through poison was already hopeless.
That left him no choice but to settle this with an Ultimate Technique.
Step!
Man Chu took his starting stance.
Tang So-so also assumed a form in response to the extraordinary-looking stance.
"Girl. Even if you possess the Body of Ten Thousand Poisons, this technique won't be easy to handle. If you let your guard down for even a moment, your..."
Pop pop pop pop!
Before he could finish, a strange sound caught Man Chu's attention.
He turned his head.
At that moment, a hole opened through a tree.
Crunch!
A fist-sized hole was punched directly through Man Chu's face.
Thud!
Man Chu collapsed to the ground without even managing a scream.
"W-What was that?"
Tang So-so stood frozen in shock.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
Beyond the direction Man Chu had been looking, holes continued to appear through the trees.
Tang So-so stared at them with wide eyes.
* * *
At the eastern gate of the city, a man dressed as a guard warrior looked in confusion at the warriors surrounding him.
'That damned Vice-Master.'
They were warriors under the Vice-Master's command.
He had intended to leave the city unnoticed, but they were guarding the gate.
They told him to turn back, saying that by the Vice-Master's order, no one was allowed outside the city. So he had changed his plan and tried to climb over the city wall in secret.
Just as expected, they had pursued and surrounded him.
'I need to carry out my orders quickly.'
He had to hurry to the Paralysis Blade Estate, lead its forces here, and capture Mo Yun, Minister of Justice, along with the former Scholar.
Yet he could not even get out of the city and had been caught like this.
As he stood flustered, Secret Operative No. 4 shouted, "Hey! Surrender now!"
The man snorted.
"Don't get so full of yourselves. At best, you can only buy time. It's not as though I can't deal with the likes of you..."
Crunch!
At that moment, a hole opened straight through the man's head.
'!?'
Secret Operative No. 4 and the warriors under the Vice-Master's command, who had been trying to capture him, could not hide their shock at the sudden turn of events.
* * *
Mumu slowly lowered the hand he had flicked while looking at the breached eastern wall.
"Done."
'Done?'
Neither Ja Muk-hyun nor anyone else understood what Mumu meant.
What had he just done?
He had punched a hole through the wall and said it was done. What was that supposed to mean?
Mumu looked at Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa and spoke as casually as ever.
"I killed both of them. It's all right now."
Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa looked at Mumu as if asking what he could possibly mean.
Ja Muk-hyun's eyes, on the other hand, shook wildly.
'...That's impossible.'
Could such a thing truly be possible?
Footnotes:
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