WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 41: Interest (1)
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Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu was heading toward the city gate to receive a visitor.
The visitor was none other than Gu Yang-gyeong, the Western Wind Lone Angle, one of the Four Immortal Masters.
The sudden visit had surprised him, but he had some idea why Gu Yang-gyeong had come.
‘Did the Academy Director ask Elder Gu Yang for help?’
As far as Dan Pil-hu knew, Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong was on good terms with the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle and had deep ties to the Western Wind Lone Angle as well.
After all, Gu Yang-gyeong's daughter-in-law, Jin Hyang, was Do Jeong-myeong's maternal cousin.
He assumed Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong had asked Gu Yang-gyeong, in addition to the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle, to help settle the matter.
Still, the timing was rather unfortunate.
‘To show up after the incident has already been resolved.’
That was the problem.
It would not have mattered if the situation had been resolved according to Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom's wishes.
Yet the one who had resolved it was Mumu.
And Mumu had resolved it through force.
‘I hoped they would not meet.’
Dan Pil-hu was worried about Mumu meeting Gu Yang-gyeong.
If Gu Yang-gyeong learned that another of the Four Immortal Masters had been defeated by a mere seventeen-year-old cadet, his competitive spirit might be stirred.
That was simply the nature of martial artists.
And, as expected, the very situation he had feared occurred.
[Urgent. Western Wind Lone Angle Gu Yang-gyeong and young master Mumu have encountered one another near the dormitory training hall.]
A carrier pigeon had arrived from Secret Agent No. 2.
‘Damn it!’
Dan Pil-hu immediately changed direction and headed for the dormitory training hall.
The two people he had desperately hoped would not meet had crossed paths in such a bitterly ironic way.
As Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu hurried toward the dormitory training hall, he came across someone in his path.
“Academy Director?”
It was Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong.
“Vice-Master?”
The two had met by chance on the way there.
They did not need to speak to know why the other was heading in that direction.
Without slowing down, they used their movement skills to race toward the training hall as they spoke.
“Are you thinking the same thing I am, Vice-Master?”
“If this is about Mumu, then yes.”
“As expected.”
“Elder Gu Yang has a strong competitive streak and an impatient temperament, does he not?”
“That is why I am hurrying as well.”
-Whoosh!
As they raced forward with their movement skills, the two exchanged their thoughts.
Their conclusion was the same.
They had to prevent Western Wind Lone Angle Gu Yang-gyeong and Mumu from clashing.
The academy was already in an uproar over Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom's defeat, and before long, the news would turn the entire martial world of the Central Plains upside down.
And now Mumu might face another of the Four Immortal Masters?
That could cause an even greater upheaval than they imagined.
‘The balance may be broken.’
The Four Immortal Masters were the pillars of the current martial world.
Stationed in the east, west, south, and north, they kept the martial world of justice in balance.
The force of evil had remained suppressed and unable to spread its influence largely because of them.
That was why both of them feared an event that could shake that balance.
“Surely Elder Gu Yang and Mumu will not rashly clash?”
“Not so far. This is different from the case with Great Hero Shin, the Eastern River Sword Sage.”
Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom had a reason to clash with Mumu.
Gu Yang-gyeong and Mumu did not.
There was no reason for them to confront each other, so there should have been no need to worry that they would fight...
-Kaboom!
‘!?’
In the distance, they saw a wave of dirt surge into the air.
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong's and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu's expressions hardened.
They had hoped otherwise, but it seemed the worst-case scenario they had feared had occurred.
-Whoosh!
Without pausing to think, the two pushed their movement skills even harder.
The Academy Director spoke uneasily.
“Surely Elder Gu Yang will not suffer defeat as well?”
“...It is difficult to be certain, but you know Elder Gu Yang too, do you not?”
In a sense, Gu Yang-gyeong was considered the most dangerous among the Four Immortal Masters.
He had attained the status of Grandmaster through poison and kicking arts.
His poison had played a major role in defeating even the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter roughly seventeen years earlier.
Even the other Four Immortal Masters were reluctant to fight Gu Yang-gyeong because of it.
‘Poison... Elder Gu Yang has poison.’
That would likely be a major variable.
No matter how inhuman a monster someone might be, poison was entirely different from other Martial Arts.
Even a master with profound internal energy had no choice but to expend it to keep deadly poison from spreading through the body.
Yet Mumu's internal energy was only second-rate.
‘Mumu's strength lies in the physical power that completely surpasses human limits. But if he is poisoned, he will naturally be vulnerable.’
He had no way to protect his body from poison.
Because of that, Gu Yang-gyeong and Mumu seemed like perfect counters to one another.
Dan Pil-hu voiced his opinion.
“...What has already happened cannot be changed, but because of poison, the fight may end quickly, contrary to our fears.”
“Poison... There is sense in what you say, Vice-Master. Few things are as troublesome to deal with as poison...”
Then the continuous explosions suddenly stopped.
There was no way a fight between Grandmaster-level martial artists like them could end so easily.
“It appears your prediction was right, Vice-Master.”
Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu nodded at the Academy Director's words.
Since it had become so quiet, there was a high chance that the fight had completely ended, or that Mumu had been poisoned and the situation had been settled.
Then,
-Riiip!
The sound of air tearing apart suddenly rang out.
They both looked up.
‘!?’
Their faces hardened at what they saw.
A huge hole pierced through the clouds overhead.
‘W-what is this?’
What kind of absurd phenomenon was this?
Dread filled them in an instant.
That hole in the clouds.
‘Could it be?’
It was a sign that the outcome had been completely opposite to what they had expected.
When they hurriedly arrived at the site of the fight, they could not hide their shock.
‘!!!!!!!!’
“Vice-Master...”
“...You need not say it. I can hardly believe it myself.”
Gu Yang-gyeong was covered in blood.
His granddaughter, Gu Yang Seo-rin, and daughter-in-law, Jin Hyang, stood beside him.
It clearly showed Gu Yang-gyeong's defeat.
‘Even Elder Gu Yang was defeated?’
Academy Director Do Jeong-myeong and Vice-Master Dan Pil-hu could not believe what they were seeing.
In just three days, not one but two of the Four Immortal Masters had been defeated.
This meant something different from Shin Ui-gyeom's defeat.
The defeat of one of the Four Immortal Masters meant Mumu had become their equal, but the defeat of two meant...
‘...Has that child's ability already surpassed even the realm of the Four Immortal Masters?’
It meant that the entire structure at the peak of the current martial world had been overturned.
* * *
After Gu Yang-gyeong received emergency treatment, the guard warriors placed him on a stretcher.
Jin Hyang and Gu Yang Seo-rin watched him with worried eyes.
Gu Yang-gyeong had yet to regain consciousness.
When he did, the shock would likely be immense.
According to the physician,
[...The bone in his left shin is not merely broken but has been crushed.]
[Is there no possibility of recovery?]
[I am sorry. I will do everything I can, but as things stand, restoring his left leg is impossible.]
[Then his left leg will be crippled?]
[At present...]
As they had expected, it was true.
The physician had concluded that Gu Yang-gyeong's left leg had almost no chance of recovering.
Even with extraordinary luck, he would barely be able to walk.
It meant one thing.
Gu Yang-gyeong would no longer be able to display the martial prowess and valor he once had.
“...This is all my fault.”
Gu Yang Seo-rin blamed herself.
Her grandfather, Gu Yang-gyeong, had survived, but he had lost the use of one leg.
Her heart felt as though it were being torn apart when she thought that all of this had happened because she provoked her grandfather by saying she wanted Mumu as her beloved.
“Mother... I...”
“Enough.”
Jin Hyang stopped her daughter's self-reproach.
“But...”
“Victory and defeat are common in warfare. Father, no, your grandfather, has always been vastly stronger than everyone around him, so he has rarely lost or suffered injuries. But do you think someone who has walked the path of a martial artist would believe something like this could never happen? No. Your grandfather is a martial artist too. He has always prepared himself for the possibility that such a day might come.”
“...”
“Besides, your grandfather is a strong man. He is not someone who will lose heart and stay down because of this. So don't worry anymore. The more you do, the more you dishonor him.”
Jin Hyang's heart also ached at seeing Gu Yang-gyeong in that state.
But what had happened could not be undone.
Gu Yang-gyeong had roamed the martial world for decades, killing countless people and crippling others.
Because of that karma, he had likely long prepared himself for the possibility that such a fate might someday befall him.
“There is something more important.”
“Something more important?”
Gu Yang Seo-rin looked confused.
Jin Hyang glanced at Mumu, who stood some distance away with his friends, and spoke.
“You said you would win him over even if it took ten tries, didn't you?”
“What?”
“You said you would make that child your beloved no matter what.”
Gu Yang Seo-rin fell silent.
Mumu had left her grandfather like this. She could not bring herself to speak of it again.
“I'm sorry. I was too hasty...”
“Does that child Mumu have a woman he likes, or a beloved?”
“What? No. I don't think so.”
Why was her mother asking that?
As Gu Yang Seo-rin stared at her in confusion, Jin Hyang suddenly said,
“That's fortunate. Then make sure you win him over.”
“What?”
“Don't you understand what I mean?”
“Mother, what are you talking about...?”
“I'm telling you to make him your man.”
Gu Yang Seo-rin was dumbfounded by her mother Jin Hyang's words.
Mumu had crippled one of Gu Yang-gyeong's legs. No matter how much she liked him, she thought the whole family would oppose it now.
She never expected to hear such words from her mother.
“But, Mother...”
“If I were you, I would never let that child go.”
“Never let him go?”
“Do you think any of the Four Immortal Masters could put your grandfather in that condition?”
“Well, no, but...”
Two of the Four Immortal Masters had already been defeated by Mumu.
Not simply defeated, but defeated by nearly overwhelming strength.
At this point, only one thing was certain.
Jin Hyang spoke seriously.
“I guarantee it. From now on, no, beginning today, the martial world will revolve around that child.”
“Around Mumu?”
“Two of the Four Immortal Masters have been defeated. Do you not understand what that means?”
‘Ah!’
Gu Yang Seo-rin's eyes trembled at Jin Hyang's words.
She understood exactly what her mother meant.
At this moment, Mumu alone was closer than anyone to being the greatest under heaven, just as that man had been roughly seventeen years earlier.
“Today may be a sad day for our Gu Yang Clan, but things will be different if you make that child yours.”
Gu Yang Seo-rin's eyes shone.
Her mother was right.
She could not simply grieve over her grandfather's injury.
This incident had made it certain.
If she made Mumu her man, there would be nothing left in the world to fear.
Gu Yang Seo-rin spoke, her voice brimming with fighting spirit.
“I will make him my man, even if I have to try ten times, no, a hundred times.”
“Yes. That's my daughter.”
Jin Hyang encouraged her daughter, Gu Yang Seo-rin.
Once word of this spread through the martial world, a competition would begin, whether openly or quietly.
A fierce contest to claim Mumu, who still had no beloved.
‘I shouldn't leave things like this. I should send a matchmaker to Mumu's family.’
She could not simply leave it all to her daughter.
* * *
The door opened, and Western Wind Lone Angle Gu Yang-gyeong was carried into the infirmary on a stretcher.
He must have awakened at some point, because he blinked with a dazed expression.
The aftereffects of his defeat still weighed heavily on him.
“Elder, we will move you to a bed.”
The guard warriors carefully moved Gu Yang-gyeong onto an infirmary bed.
Then Gu Yang-gyeong's gaze turned toward someone.
‘Hm?’
Someone was sitting propped up on the bed opposite him.
It was Eastern River Sword Sage Shin Ui-gyeom, who had been defeated by Mumu and brought to the infirmary first.
The two members of the Four Immortal Masters met each other's eyes in silence.
“...”
“...”
They looked at one another with complicated expressions.
Footnotes:
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