WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 40: Western Wind Poison Leg (5)
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-Papapapat!
Jin Hyang, Gu Yang-gyeong's daughter-in-law, hurried toward the dormitory with her movement skill.
It was hard to believe, but she could not shake what Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom had told her.
For some reason, Shin Ui-gyeom had insisted that her father-in-law avoid meeting Mumu at all costs.
'Is Mumu the sort of child who becomes combative around the strong?'
That seemed the most likely explanation.
Why else would two people with no grudge or connection to each other cause such trouble just by meeting?
Just then, a thunderous roar erupted.
-Kwaaaaaang!
As she neared the dormitory, something caught her eye.
'Ah?'
On the northeastern side of the dormitory, where the training halls stood, a mound of earth surged into the air like a flooding wave, towering far above the trees.
Her eyes widened at the sight.
In the current martial world, only the Four Immortal Masters possessed strength like that.
'Father?'
It had to be her father-in-law.
Jin Hyang bit down hard on her lower lip. It appeared that what Shin Ui-gyeom had feared had happened.
[If... if the two of them are fighting, please pass this on to Mumu. Tell him that I will keep my promise, but that the time has not yet come.]
[A promise?]
[If you tell him that, he will understand.]
Shin Ui-gyeom had not told her what that promise was.
Still, if Mumu was a master strong enough to defeat even Shin Ui-gyeom, then her father-in-law was also someone Mumu could not easily defeat. There was no need for her father-in-law to overexert himself, damage his vitality, or lose face.
-Papapapat!
She pushed her movement skill even harder.
As the daughter-in-law of Western Wind Lone Angle, Jin Hyang's movement skill was exceptional. Before long, she reached the spot where the earth had surged upward.
'!?'
The moment she arrived, she was struck speechless.
An overwhelming pressure, strong enough to make her heart pound madly, twisted the air around her. Its source appeared to be the handsome young boy with monstrous muscles.
'But why is he standing still... Ah!'
As she drew closer, she understood why.
Purple veins spread across Mumu's upper body from around his heart.
'He was hit by Mighty Heaven Poison Contest.'
As Gu Yang-gyeong's daughter-in-law, she recognized the technique at once.
Mighty Heaven Poison Contest.
Most techniques of the Dread Poison Staff Art were dangerous, but its two most fearsome moves were the eighth technique, Mighty Heaven Poison Contest, and the tenth technique, Killing Poison.
Anyone struck head-on by Mighty Heaven Poison Contest would die within an hour unless they were a Grandmaster-level martial artist like the Four Immortal Masters.
If they had thirty years' worth of internal energy or less, they would struggle to last even a quarter hour.
'Did Father win?'
That was what the situation looked like.
Still, Gu Yang-gyeong did not appear to be in particularly good condition either.
'Did he push Father that far?'
Jin Hyang marveled inwardly.
Could that child truly have driven both Shin Ui-gyeom, a Grandmaster, and her father-in-law into such a state?
It seemed poison had been the deciding factor.
'...What a relief. If Father won, there is no need to deliver my brother-in-law's mes...'
-Udeudeudeudeuk!
'!?'
The boy's muscles writhed so violently that they looked grotesque.
Each muscle seemed to contract and relax over and over. Could a human truly control their own muscles to that extent?
'W-what is he doing?'
As she stared in confusion, something even more shocking happened.
-Pshhhhhhh!
Purple-tinged blood sprayed from the boy's mouth.
That was deadly poison.
Jin Hyang's eyes went wide.
'...What?'
Had he expelled the deadly poison from Mighty Heaven Poison Contest by controlling the flow of blood and the muscles in his body, rather than using internal energy?
Even with her extensive knowledge of poisons as a member of Gu Yang-gyeong's family, Jin Hyang could not understand what she was seeing.
Then another explosion thundered.
-Kwaaaaaang!
In the blink of an eye, Mumu expelled the poison and kicked Gu Yang-gyeong in the shin.
-Paaaaaang!
Gu Yang-gyeong's body spun wildly in place like a windmill.
'What?'
He spun so quickly that it was impossible to tell how many times he had turned.
Jin Hyang was horrified.
If a Grandmaster-level martial artist like her father-in-law could not escape that rotational force after taking a kick, how much strength had Mumu put into it?
Mumu clenched his fist and aimed it at Gu Yang-gyeong, who was still spinning madly.
Panicked, Jin Hyang launched herself forward and shouted.
"S-stop!"
"Stop!"
Someone else stepped in at the same time.
It was none other than Jin Hyang's daughter, Gu Yang Seo-rin.
"Seo-rin?"
"M-Mother. We have to stop him now. Otherwise, Grandpa..."
Gu Yang-gyeong was not simply going to suffer a serious injury. He was going to die.
Even Gu Yang Seo-rin had not expected Mumu's strength to be this great.
This was not a battle between opponents of equal skill.
-Flinch!
Mumu, about to throw his fist, paused at their cries.
He looked at them in confusion.
Jin Hyang shouted at him.
"My brother-in-law, no, Great Hero Shin Ui-gyeom, the Eastern River Sword Sage, asked me to tell you this. He said he will keep his promise, but that the time has not yet come."
Mumu opened his clenched fist at those words.
Gu Yang-gyeong was far older than Shin Ui-gyeom, so Mumu had not intended to injure him as badly as he had Shin Ui-gyeom in the first place.
His final strike had been meant to end the fight, but it seemed he should stop here.
Mumu reached toward the spinning Gu Yang-gyeong.
-Pak!
Mumu grabbed Gu Yang-gyeong's shoulder, bringing his spinning body to a stop.
Then two voices cried out.
"F-Father!"
"Grandpa!"
The momentum from his spinning had created crushing force and made it hard for him to breathe.
Even Gu Yang-gyeong could not endure that spin, not with Grafting of Flowers and Trees or his profound internal energy.
Gu Yang-gyeong's eyes had rolled back during the spin, and he had passed out.
"Gllrk..."
Gu Yang-gyeong's face had gone pale, and foam spilled from his mouth.
Even Jin-hyeok and Mo Il-hwa, who had been watching from afar, were speechless.
"D-Did you see that?"
"...Yes."
Ever since Mumu defeated Eastern River Sword Sage, they had considered him almost beyond human.
But this was something else entirely.
He had practically toyed with Gu Yang-gyeong, Western Wind Lone Angle and one of the Four Immortal Masters.
"Father, are you all right? Father?"
Jin Hyang laid Gu Yang-gyeong on the ground and called out to him.
It was the first time she had ever seen her father-in-law in such a state.
The same was true for his granddaughter, Gu Yang Seo-rin.
'Grandpa...'
Covering her mouth with one hand, she frowned.
Gu Yang-gyeong's back had been ground bloody, while the shin of his left leg had twisted completely. Shattered bone jutted out through the flesh.
Mumu, on the other hand, was completely unharmed.
The only thing she could point to was the rotten blood he had spat out after being poisoned.
"You!"
Gu Yang Seo-rin started to demand an explanation from Mumu, then stopped.
She had been about to say that he had gone too far, but her grandfather had unleashed poison techniques that even most masters would struggle to withstand.
Anyone else would have died.
"Was that a little too much?"
"...You said you were going easy."
"I went as easy as I could."
"What?"
"If I'd kicked a little harder, Grandpa's lower body would've flown off."
Gu Yang Seo-rin could not believe what she was hearing.
If that was true, then Mumu had not even used his full strength against Gu Yang-gyeong, who stood at the peak of the current martial world.
-Gulp!
Gu Yang Seo-rin swallowed without realizing it.
She must have been mistaken.
She had thought that defeating Eastern River Sword Sage meant Mumu now stood shoulder to shoulder with the Four Immortal Masters.
But that was not it.
'...He's already surpassed them. How can something like this be possible?'
Mumu was only seventeen years old.
Yet, despite having learned almost no Martial Arts, his strength had already surpassed even the realm of the Four Immortal Masters. It was an unprecedented event in the history of the Central Plains' martial world.
No, had it not already been proven?
Not one, but two of the Four Immortal Masters had been defeated.
Mumu was, in truth, the current martial world's...
"Did you say your name was Mumu?"
At that moment, Jin Hyang addressed Mumu.
Mumu nodded.
"Yes. I'm Mumu."
Despite the overwhelming pressure he gave off, his answer was so innocent that Jin Hyang frowned.
What in the world was this child?
After a moment of confusion, she asked.
"Why were you fighting my father-in-law?"
She had already been curious, and Shin Ui-gyeom had told her nothing, so she asked Mumu directly.
Mumu scratched his head, glanced at Gu Yang Seo-rin, and answered.
"I didn't start it."
"You didn't start it? What do you mean?"
"Mother... I'm sorry."
Gu Yang Seo-rin pressed her palms together and apologized to Jin Hyang.
Jin Hyang wondered what that meant when Gu Yang Seo-rin continued.
"I said I wanted Mumu to be my beloved, so Grandpa decided to test him."
"A test? Does this look like a test to you?"
Jin Hyang gestured at the surroundings and Gu Yang-gyeong.
The area had been devastated, and Gu Yang-gyeong had been severely injured and left in a miserable state.
This was not a test. It was a life-or-death battle.
Still marveling inwardly, Jin Hyang turned to Mumu.
"I'm this child's mother."
"Ah. Hello."
Mumu pressed his hands together and bowed politely.
She found it hard to reconcile that sight with what she had just witnessed.
He still gave off pressure that made him seem capable of destroying and devouring everything around him, yet why did his behavior seem so innocent?
Jin Hyang frowned and asked.
"Were you dating my daughter?"
"No."
"What?"
"Senior said she wanted to date me, but I turned her down."
Jin Hyang whipped her head around to stare at Gu Yang Seo-rin.
Gu Yang Seo-rin shrugged awkwardly.
They were not even dating, so why had her father-in-law tested this child?
As Jin Hyang stood there bewildered, Gu Yang Seo-rin said,
"I said I would make Mumu my man even if I had to try ten times, and Grandpa must have been upset about it. He said he wanted to see whether Mumu was worthy of being my beloved, and this happened."
"Ha!"
Jin Hyang was dumbfounded.
This result had come from such a trivial reason?
Gu Yang Seo-rin liked Mumu, Mumu rejected her, and Gu Yang-gyeong had become angry enough to cause this disaster.
It was utterly absurd.
"...All this happened over something like that?"
After clicking her tongue repeatedly, she said to Mumu,
"First, I'll apologize. Because of my daughter and Father, you were dragged into this for no reason."
"It's okay."
Mumu shook his head slightly.
Even if this had not happened, he had intended to meet Western Wind Lone Angle anyway.
It was just unfortunate that they had ended up fighting like this.
Jin Hyang sighed and spoke to Mumu regretfully.
"This happened because of my daughter and Father, so I cannot blame you for the outcome. Still, I wish you had shown a little more restraint, especially if you are such an overwhelmingly strong master."
They had caused the problem, so she had no right to complain, but Gu Yang-gyeong's condition was terrible.
Judging by his leg, he might have to rely on crutches for the rest of his life.
It was absurd that Western Wind Lone Angle, known as the Wind God, had been reduced to this state over his granddaughter's beloved.
Mumu scratched his head.
"I really did go easy."
"A supreme master like one of the Four Immortal Masters could not withstand your strength, and his leg ended up like this. Unless you used strength close to your full pow..."
Before Jin Hyang could finish, Mumu kicked at empty air.
-Paaaaaang!
"Hurk!"
"Urk!"
A tremendous blast of wind erupted, distorting Jin Hyang's face and flipping back Gu Yang Seo-rin's eyelids and lips.
The layer of air where Mumu had kicked rippled like water.
-Hwaaaaaaa!
Then a sharp tearing sound cut through the air, and a huge hole opened in the clouds overhead.
Mumu pointed at the sky and said casually,
"I did go easy, right?"
'!!!!!!!'
Jin Hyang and Gu Yang Seo-rin stared upward, unable to speak.
A single kick had punched a hole through the clouds in the sky.
Could he truly be human?
Jin Hyang stood with her mouth open for a long time before swallowing hard.
"...Th-thank you for showing restraint."
Footnotes:
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