WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 39: The Grandmaster's Title (1)
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"Don't tremble. It'll make me feel bad about killing you."
Even though Mumu's words might have sounded humiliating, Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage, could not answer.
The dignity of being one of the Four Immortal Masters no longer meant anything.
Mumu's strength inspired astonishment beyond ordinary shock.
'...No one can stop him.'
Even if all Four Immortal Masters launched a combined attack, Shin Ui-gyeom doubted they would have any chance of winning.
No, even if the entire martial world of justice united against him, how could they possibly stop this power?
Shin Ui-gyeom looked at Mumu with trembling eyes.
If this boy casually raised a hand, Shin Ui-gyeom's head would fly off and his body would be crushed into minced meat.
'Is this what it feels like to face death?'
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
His life had not been so bad.
Born a man, he had made his name known throughout the world, and everyone in the Central Plains regarded him as a hero.
Even if he died here, he would have no regrets.
Then a thought suddenly came to him.
'If he's going to take revenge, why show me his strength instead of simply killing me?'
Mumu's actions held little meaning if revenge was all he wanted.
Why had he deliberately displayed his strength as if making a show of force?
Puzzled, Shin Ui-gyeom looked at Mumu and opened his mouth.
"If you're going to kill me, then kill me. Why show me this?"
Mumu answered as if it were nothing.
"To show you that killing you and the other three Immortal Masters wouldn't be difficult."
"...Are you trying to humiliate me?"
"Why would I bother doing something so troublesome? Besides, I told you earlier."
"Earlier?"
"If I kill you and the other three, things might get big and become troublesome."
Shin Ui-gyeom frowned at those words.
He could not understand what this boy was thinking.
Even someone outside the force of evil would try to kill the person responsible for their parents' deaths.
Yet this boy seemed to see things from an incomprehensible perspective.
'...Does he feel little attachment because he learned of his father so late?'
If that was the case, it made a certain amount of sense.
Mumu had said himself that he had been raised by his adoptive father since infancy.
Perhaps he felt almost no affection for his birth parents, allowing him to judge this matter coldly.
'If he was raised by someone virtuous enough to be called a gentleman, then there is still hope.'
Mumu's power had already surpassed the bounds of humanity.
It was like a natural disaster, a calamity.
If Mumu decided to seek revenge or walk the tyrant's road, no one could stop him.
There was only one way to prevent that.
Mumu had to choose not to walk that path himself.
-Thud!
Shin Ui-gyeom dropped to his knees.
Then he looked at Mumu and spoke in a resolute voice.
"Whatever kind of person your father was, it doesn't change the fact that I am your enemy. Even if I die by your hand, I will bear no resentment."
"Is that so?"
Mumu's response was flat.
Shin Ui-gyeom slammed his forehead against the ground.
-Bang!
Anyone who saw this scene would have been stunned.
Since earning the title of one of the Four Immortal Masters and being called a hero of the martial world, he had never knelt before anyone or pressed his forehead to the ground like this.
He was casting aside every shred of his pride.
Mumu scratched his head.
"I don't understand why someone who says he doesn't mind dying is doing this."
"I don't mind dying."
"Then why are you doing this?"
"I ask you not as an enemy who deserves to die by your hand, but as one person of the Central Plains. If you seek revenge, let it end with the Four Immortal Masters, myself included."
"You want me to kill only you four?"
"Please, let the bloodshed end with us."
That was what Shin Ui-gyeom wanted.
He wanted Mumu to stop with them and cause no further casualties.
The title of Four Immortal Masters carried weight unlike any ordinary person's title.
But looked at another way, they were still only human. There were only four of them.
If sacrificing four people could save countless others, he believed it was not a bad choice.
-Bang!
Shin Ui-gyeom struck his forehead against the ground again.
"I beg you!"
Mumu stared at him, then answered in the same flat voice.
"You said the martial world of justice would unite if I killed all four of you. I'm worried that would become troublesome."
Shin Ui-gyeom replied.
"There is one way."
"A way?"
"Our deaths merely need to happen quietly, without causing an uproar."
"Quietly? What do you mean?"
Shin Ui-gyeom spoke to the puzzled Mumu.
"You said you don't want things to grow or become troublesome. Is that right?"
"Yes, that's right."
"Then you need only prevent a public Proclamation announcing that you killed us."
"...How?"
Shin Ui-gyeom raised his head.
"Delay taking my life for now."
Mumu tilted his head.
What did it mean to ask him to delay taking his life?
Shin Ui-gyeom continued.
"If I die here, word of your path of revenge will naturally spread throughout the martial world."
"Hmm."
"I'm not begging for my life."
"Well, let's say you're not."
"If you delay taking my life, I will gather the Four Immortal Masters in one place."
'!?'
Mumu's eyes flickered with interest.
"You'll gather them in one place?"
"Yes. I swear it on my life."
It was an unexpected offer.
Mumu had never imagined those words would come from Shin Ui-gyeom.
"If you settle your grievance in a quiet place where no attention is drawn, no one will know of your existence even if we die. There will be no problem."
"..."
Mumu rubbed his chin at the proposal.
Shin Ui-gyeom was making the offer with his own life on the line.
Certainly, if no one learned that he had avenged his birth father, the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter, he could settle everything quietly.
It was not a bad offer.
Still...
"How can I trust that?"
"I saw with my own eyes that if you set your mind to it, you could lay waste to the entire martial world, no, wipe it out. Why would I make a false proposal just to escape death at this moment?"
Mumu looked into Shin Ui-gyeom's eyes.
It was a gaze that seemed to have forgotten fear, without the slightest trace of wavering.
Perhaps because he had already prepared himself for death, even his heart, which had been pounding so violently, had calmed.
Mumu stared at him before speaking.
"You seem sincere. But how will you bring the others here? Will they agree with you?"
Shin Ui-gyeom had seen Mumu's power and viewed him as an unstoppable calamity, which was why he made this choice.
The other three Immortal Masters had not.
They had not witnessed Mumu's strength, which transcended all common sense, so they would not easily believe it.
Even if they did believe it, there was still a problem.
Would they readily accept a proposal to sacrifice their own lives?
"I would like you to give me an opportunity to handle that."
"An opportunity?"
"Yes. As you said, if I ask them to follow my choice to prevent countless casualties, someone will surely refuse."
"Then how will you gather them in one place?"
Shin Ui-gyeom's face turned bitter.
"My defeat will move them."
"Your defeat?"
"Yes. All of us, myself included, are Grandmasters and martial artists of this era. My defeat will stir their competitive spirit. Without fail."
Shin Ui-gyeom intended to draw out their competitive spirit.
There was naturally some difference in martial prowess among the Four Immortal Masters.
Yet they had grown accustomed to facing one another, to the point that they could nearly see through each other's Martial Arts. Some of them longed to face another powerful opponent.
"Will that really bring them together?"
"I will make certain they gather. I only ask that you give me the chance."
"What chance?"
"Give them a chance to fight you as well. Even if they are your enemies, they are martial artists. I want you to give them the chance to fight without regret before they die."
This proposal was, in truth, for the other three Immortal Masters.
Their odds of winning were vanishingly small, but even if Shin Ui-gyeom admitted defeat, he could not ask the others to offer up their lives without even trying to fight.
That was why he intended to give them a chance, however slight it might be.
'Even if we fight this boy and lose, it will end with only the four of us being sacrificed... And if, by some chance, we win, we will have an opportunity to erase this calamity through a combined attack.'
He did not say that aloud.
It was little more than a gamble with miserable odds.
'...Please accept.'
Shin Ui-gyeom desperately hoped Mumu would accept the offer.
If Mumu changed his mind, killed Shin Ui-gyeom, and then hunted the others down one by one, a calamity unlike any the martial world had ever seen would descend.
-Bang!
Shin Ui-gyeom struck his forehead against the ground once more.
"I beg you."
"Hmm."
Mumu stared at him before finally opening his mouth.
"All right."
'Ah... It worked!'
As Mumu readily accepted the proposal, Shin Ui-gyeom let out a breath of relief, his tension finally easing.
His gamble with his life had succeeded.
Not only had he found a way to prevent massive casualties, but he had also gained one final chance to oppose this monster.
The odds were incomparable to those in his battle with the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter roughly seventeen years ago, but in battles between masters, even the slightest chance could reverse the outcome.
'Right, you never know.'
Shin Ui-gyeom found it strangely ironic.
Back then, he and the other three Immortal Masters had challenged the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter with the resolve to die.
Yet seventeen years later, he found himself carrying the same resolve toward that man's son.
'...Is it fate?'
Perhaps it was their karma.
He did not know how this would end, but since he had gained this opportunity, he intended to struggle with everything he had.
After steadying his resolve, Shin Ui-gyeom rose to his feet.
Mumu walked toward him.
Shin Ui-gyeom spoke with gratitude.
"Thank you for giving me this cha..."
-Swish!
He had not even finished speaking.
Mumu suddenly brought a finger to Shin Ui-gyeom's forehead.
"What?"
"I'm leaving proof that you were defeated."
"What?"
-Snap!
Mumu flicked his middle finger into Shin Ui-gyeom's forehead.
-Thud! Crack!
"Urgh!"
With a short cry, Shin Ui-gyeom's body flew backward.
He was hurled nearly two hundred feet, breaking dozens of trees with his body before finally stopping.
"Guhhhhh..."
Shin Ui-gyeom staggered to his feet among the broken trees.
His skull had been rattled so badly that he saw double, and the pain made it difficult to stay conscious.
He had raised Ki Armor at the instant of the blow, yet it seemed the bone in his forehead had cracked, no, caved inward.
"Khup... Haa... Haa..."
Other bones must have broken as well. Pain coursed through every part of his body.
-Boom!
Mumu appeared before him.
Startled, Shin Ui-gyeom waved his hands at the two Mumus in his vision.
"T-this should be enough..."
"I don't think that'll be enough."
-Smack!
With those words, Mumu grabbed Shin Ui-gyeom's right arm as if snatching it.
Shin Ui-gyeom hurriedly tried to shake Mumu's hand off, but how could he possibly resist strength capable of sending mountains flying with a single punch?
He could not move at all.
Mumu spoke casually.
"Wouldn't the other three Immortal Masters lose all doubt and have their competitive spirit stirred if at least one of your arms were crippled for life?"
"W-wait..."
"Ah! Since we're doing this, should I do both arms to be sure?"
'!?'
Footnotes:
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