WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 120: Dongha Sword Saint (5)
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What had once been a mountain now lay stripped bare.
Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom stared at it, feeling utterly hollow.
He had felt this same sense of inadequacy seventeen years ago, when he first encountered that man.
It had been overwhelming strength in the truest sense.
After seventeen years of relentless training, he had gained the confidence that he could win even if he faced that man alone.
But what was this?
Before the astonishing sight before him, he could not picture any path to victory.
This went beyond being on a different level.
‘Only seventeen...’
The boy had not even reached manhood, yet he possessed such strength.
As Shin Ui-gyeom stood there speechless, Mumu's low voice reached his ears.
“Since it's just the two of us now, may I ask you one thing?”
“...”
Had he grown so relaxed because he was certain of victory?
What could he possibly want to ask?
Then an utterly unexpected question reached Shin Ui-gyeom's ears.
“Was my father really so frightening that it took four people like you to face him?”
‘!?’
Shin Ui-gyeom's thoughts came to a halt.
What had this boy just said to him?
Was his father so frightening that it took four people like him to face him?
‘Father?’
That final word echoed through his mind.
His heart pounded violently.
The shock was so intense that it became difficult to breathe for a moment.
As his thoughts spun wildly, Shin Ui-gyeom began sorting through what Mumu had said.
‘Four people like you...’
He meant the Four Immortal Masters, himself included.
There had been only one person against whom they had mounted a combined attack and fought to the death.
The man known as the Overlord of the Force of Evil seventeen years ago.
‘The Overlord of Blood and Slaughter!’
Goosebumps rose over Shin Ui-gyeom's skin.
Cold sweat even trickled down his forehead.
‘That can't be... No. It can't be.’
That man had exploded before their eyes, leaving not even a trace of a body behind.
Afterward, to prevent any future trouble, they had rooted out every one of his blood relatives and killed them with their own hands.
[Do not weaken your resolve.]
[A second Overlord of Blood and Slaughter must never appear in the martial world.]
[...Understood.]
With that fierce resolve, they had erased every last one of them from the world, young and old alike.
Then what could these words from this boy possibly mean?
Shin Ui-gyeom swallowed dryly.
While he stood lost in thought, Mumu might make a move at any moment and take his life.
After wrestling with his thoughts, Shin Ui-gyeom opened his mouth.
“What are you talking about?”
“Exactly what you heard. Ah... do you not know who I'm talking abou...”
Whoosh!
Before Mumu could finish, Shin Ui-gyeom sprang back with lightning speed.
He hurriedly took a fighting stance.
Mumu stared at his tense face and said, “Your heartbeat got much louder. Does that mean what I said shocked you a lot?”
Shin Ui-gyeom could not deny it.
He truly could not control his heart.
Mumu's words had shocked him that deeply.
“Please don't be too surprised and answer my question.”
“That cannot be.”
“What cannot be?”
“...Every one of that man's blood relatives was killed without exception. Yet you call him your father?”
Mumu scratched his head at that.
“Ah. It hasn't been that long since I learned that he was my father either.”
“Not that long?”
“Yes. I was raised by my adoptive father from the time I was a baby.”
Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes narrowed.
Had this child been secretly taken away before that man's blood relatives were exterminated?
There was no other way a descendant could have survived.
‘Overlord of Blood and Slaughter... You somehow saved one of your own bloodline.’
This was not something to dismiss lightly.
The martial world would be shaken.
If Mumu had not learned Martial Arts, lived an ordinary life, or lacked strength, it would have been another matter. But his power surpassed Shin Ui-gyeom, one of the Four Immortal Masters.
‘...This is bad.’
If a monstrous child like this set out to unite the force of evil, the remaining forces that had scattered and gone into seclusion might rise again.
If that happened, the peace that had lasted for seventeen years would end.
The Great Orthodox-Hertic War would begin again.
As every dark possibility ran through his mind, Mumu spoke.
“You still haven't answered my question.”
“What?”
“I asked whether my father was frightening enough that four of you had to face him.”
“...”
Shin Ui-gyeom did not answer.
It was not because the answer was no.
The Overlord of Blood and Slaughter had been called the Overlord of the Force of Evil, but he had also been the greatest under heaven.
Shin Ui-gyeom could say that with certainty as someone who had fought him directly.
“So he was frightening?”
“...Are you trying to condemn us for four people making a combined attack against your father?”
Mumu shrugged.
“No. You said four of you faced him because you were scared, so what could I say? My biological father must have been that strong.”
Shin Ui-gyeom could not hide his confusion.
What was this child trying to say to him?
Then a thought suddenly crossed his mind.
‘Was it intentional?’
He had come to Changcheon Martial Academy because of his disciple's death.
It seemed possible that everything had been planned by the child before him.
Shin Ui-gyeom parted his lips.
“Did you kill my disciple to draw me out?”
Mumu tilted his head before answering.
“Why would I do something like that?”
“...I am one of the people who killed your father, along with the Four...”
“Why go to all that trouble?”
“Trouble?”
“Yes. Why would I need to do something so troublesome as kill your disciple and pin the blame on someone else just to deal with you?”
Shin Ui-gyeom felt anger rise inside him.
This child was treating one of the Four Immortal Masters as though he were some insignificant nobody Mumu could deal with whenever he pleased.
Still, Shin Ui-gyeom could not entirely deny it. This child's power belonged to a realm he had never experienced before.
It was strength from an entirely different dimension.
‘Then what is this?’
Shin Ui-gyeom was puzzled.
Then what had the matter of framing the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle's daughter for his disciple's murder been about?
Had he fallen for that scheme, he would have become enemies with the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle.
A scheme meant to divide the Four Immortal Masters was exactly the sort of plot their enemies would devise.
‘...Strange.’
Mumu had stopped that scheme.
If it had succeeded, they could have driven them apart with ease.
Yet Mumu had then tried to protect the person who was surely behind it.
That was why they had ended up fighting like this.
Unable to contain his curiosity, Shin Ui-gyeom finally asked, “...If you and the child who killed my disciple are not in league, what is your motive? Don't tell me you stopped it so you could personally avenge your father?”
“I just didn't like it.”
“What?”
“My father said a gentleman should not use vile means.”
“Your father?”
“Ah. I mean my adoptive father who raised me.”
Shin Ui-gyeom frowned at Mumu's words.
Was this boy serious?
He could not understand why Mumu had stopped an opportunity to divide the Four Immortal Masters without lifting a finger, simply because the method was vile.
It was not something one would expect from the child of the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter, the man called the Overlord of the Force of Evil.
Mumu casually added, “Besides, I can kill you anytime. There was no need to do that.”
‘This brat?’
Shin Ui-gyeom's brow twisted fiercely at Mumu's arrogant words.
The outcome had been decided, but Mumu was far too confident in himself.
Had not even the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter lost his life to them because he had been too confident in his own strength?
“You seem upset.”
In a low voice, Shin Ui-gyeom replied, “...I acknowledge your strength. But an awl inside a sack will always poke through. The moment you kill me and begin your revenge, the martial world of justice will unite once again.”
He spoke gently, but the meaning was simple.
Great strength would frighten everyone and eventually bring them together.
Believing that Mumu would kill him here if he truly was the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter's son, Shin Ui-gyeom did not hide his true feelings.
“If that happens, you too will follow in your father's footsteps.”
“What a hassle.”
“...What?”
“I said this is why it's a hassle.”
What was this brat talking about?
Mumu scratched his head as Shin Ui-gyeom stared at him in confusion.
“Actually, I've been thinking about it.”
“Thinking about what?”
“Yes. Since you people killed my biological father, I thought that, as his son, I should show filial piety and do something.”
“...What do you mean, do something?”
Shin Ui-gyeom's voice grew heavier because he could guess what Mumu meant.
Mumu said, “I don't want to make a big matter of it, so I thought maybe I should just kill all the people who killed my biological father.”
‘Hah!’
Shin Ui-gyeom was dumbfounded.
Mumu was talking about the Four Immortal Masters as though they were no more than wild animals crossing his path.
Perhaps it was because he was still young, but his overconfidence had gone too far.
“...You do not understand what I mean. If I die and you continue on your path, your identity will eventually be exposed. When that happens, the other Four Immortal Masters and the martial world of justice will join forces to eliminate you...”
“Exactly. That's why I said it's a hassle. If I kill everyone, how would that make me any different from what my biological father did?”
“What?”
“I'd be no different from a butcher.”
Shin Ui-gyeom was dumbfounded.
He had thought it was simple overconfidence in his own strength.
But did this child truly believe he could win even if the Four Immortal Masters and the martial world of justice joined forces against him?
If that was what he thought, Shin Ui-gyeom wanted to tell him how mistaken he was.
“You are immature for someone with such power. No, you are foolish. If you think one person's strength can do anything to the world...”
“It's not a mistake.”
At that moment, Mumu turned his body to the left.
He clenched his fist and drew his arm back.
Shin Ui-gyeom let out a quiet breath at the sight.
He had already experienced Mumu's strength firsthand. What did he hope to accomplish by showing it again?
Crack! Creak!
That was what he thought.
Then Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes trembled as he watched Mumu.
Mumu's deltoid, triceps, biceps, and forearm muscles swelled in turn with geometric precision.
Muscles so detailed that they looked almost savage.
Rooooooooar!
Shiver!
Goosebumps spread across Shin Ui-gyeom's entire body.
He could feel something that stirred all five senses gathering in Mumu's fist.
It went beyond ominous. It inspired fear.
“I think this is my first time throwing a punch at full strength since I was born.”
‘Full strength?’
The moment he finished speaking, Mumu threw his fist to the left.
In that instant,
Booooooom!
“Hurk!”
An enormous pressure wave erupted around them and shoved Shin Ui-gyeom backward.
He sent life energy into his Yongquan point, raised a sword-finger seal, and used a ki weapon to block the pressure wave, but there was nothing he could do to stop himself from being pushed back.
Kwoooooong! Eeeeeee!
“Urgh!”
A tremendous roar rang in his ears, followed by a shrill ringing like tinnitus.
The sound had been so loud that it seemed to affect his eardrums.
Had he not protected them with life energy in that instant, they might have burst.
Screeeeeeech!
Shin Ui-gyeom was pushed back for quite some time before he finally managed to stop.
He seemed to have been shoved back several dozen steps.
‘What kind of power was that?’
Shin Ui-gyeom lowered his sword-finger seal and looked ahead.
‘!!!!!!!!!!!’
His mouth fell open.
What lay before him was so unbelievable that he felt as if he were dreaming.
They stood in an area surrounded by mountain ridges, where large and small mountains clustered together.
But now...
‘...This is impossible.’
A fan-shaped plain stretched out from Mumu, who still stood in the posture of his punch.
Shin Ui-gyeom could not even tell how many mountains had disappeared.
Even more astonishingly, the clouds in the sky had been split in a fan shape far into the distance, as if they too had been struck by the force of that blow.
‘That earlier power was not even his full strength?’
Blowing away one mountain had already seemed beyond human.
But this was difficult to believe even as he watched it happen.
Tremble! Tremble!
Starting from his legs, Shin Ui-gyeom's entire body began to shake.
This could not be explained simply as surpassing human limits.
It was terrifying beyond fear.
When facing Mumu's father, there had at least been hope that they could win if they joined forces.
But this was different.
‘...No. This is a being that must never enter the world.’
Even the word monster was not enough to describe him.
There was no one who could stop this.
Even if the Four Immortal Masters and Mumu's father, the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter, returned to life and joined forces, they could not hope to do anything against this absolute power.
‘Invincible.’
No one could be Mumu's match.
To a predator, every other being was only prey.
The relationship between Mumu and all other beings could be nothing more than that of predator and prey.
Thump! Thump! Thump! Thump!
Shin Ui-gyeom could not control his trembling heart.
Boom!
Then Mumu, who had been far away only moments ago, appeared before him.
Mumu placed a hand on Shin Ui-gyeom's shoulder as the Eastern River Sword Sage stood drenched in cold sweat and shaking all over.
“Don't tremble. It makes me feel too sorry to kill you.”
Footnotes:
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