WeTried Translations
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Editor: Abstract
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 49: Great Dharma Protector (2)
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Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu, the Towering Giant, looked utterly dumbfounded for a moment.
Mumu had killed that man and all his vessels?
Did these people even understand what they were saying?
Seeing his reaction, Mumu scratched his head.
“Seems like you don't believe us.”
Kang Mu-i smacked his lips and replied.
“Would you believe it if you were in his place?”
“What's so hard to believe?”
“...I'm only saying this now, but you're abnormally strong.”
Kang Mu-i clicked his tongue at Mumu's bewildered attitude.
In truth, Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu's reaction was the normal one. They called them vessels and all that, but those beings who shared the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter's soul were monsters that even the Ten Great Masters of the Force of Justice could not face.
Who would believe that Mumu had slaughtered them all alone?
Especially Seo Yong-chu, who had served the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter more closely than anyone.
‘What is this?’
The Grand Guardian was thoroughly confused.
He almost wondered whether they were playing some kind of joke on him.
At first, he had thought they were vessels retrieved by his lord, the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter. That was why he believed they were testing him.
Yet the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter would never make a joke like this.
He was filled with such pride and insolent arrogance that he seemed overweening. He would never demean himself.
-Swish!
Seo Yong-chu raised his head and looked at Mumu and Kang Mu-i.
Though he had lost an arm, he had been the Mighty Conqueror Council's second-in-command seventeen years ago. Even now, while he might not be on the level of the Four Immortal Masters, he possessed the martial prowess to easily suppress the Ten Great Masters of the Force of Justice.
‘This person who identified himself as Young Master Mui has reached the very peak of the Master level. But this one...’
No matter how much he heightened his Ki sense, Mumu had not even reached the Expert level.
He looked as though he would soon reach that level, but his internal energy was only at that point.
Then why was Mumu making such a joke in front of him?
Was there something Mumu relied on?
‘...Let's test him.’
After some thought, Seo Yong-chu made up his mind.
They had shown him the Jade Medallion, but no matter how he looked at them, their behavior was far removed from the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter's imposing brutality.
-Tap!
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu rose to his feet.
Kang Mu-i asked,
“If you really don't believe us...”
“If you truly faced my lord's vessels alone, then you must possess martial prowess worthy of that feat. Show it to this subordinate.”
“You want us to show you?”
Kang Mu-i glanced at Mumu.
“That's what he says.”
“Really? Then how should I show you?”
The moment Mumu finished speaking, Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu unleashed the energy of his entire body.
-Whoooooo!
As he raised his Force of ki to the tenth level, crushing wind pressure rose around him and scattered fragments across the ground.
Kang Mu-i's eyes gleamed at the chillingly intense pressure.
He had long heard of the Towering Giant, Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu. As the Mighty Conqueror Council's second-in-command, he possessed martial prowess so exceptional that countless supreme masters of the force of justice had died at his hands.
‘So it wasn't an empty rumor.’
Even if Kang Mu-i unleashed the power of the Three Spirit Beasts, it was uncertain whether he could win.
No, it was not uncertain. Seo Yong-chu was simply too strong.
He truly deserved to be called second-in-command.
Then Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu spoke in a low voice.
“If you defeated my lord, subduing this subordinate should not be difficult. Haaap!”
-Psh!
With a shout, Seo Yong-chu shot toward Mumu.
His movement was astonishingly swift for someone with a body large enough to be called a giant.
Leaving an afterimage, Seo Yong-chu appeared before Mumu in an instant and threw a punch.
‘Giant Defeat Form Fist!’
-Pwaaaaaaah!
A huge blue Fist ki manifestation took the shape of a fist.
It looked like a simple punch, but it held greater power than Shaolin's Hundred-Step Divine Fist.
Then,
-Tap!
-Kwaaaaaaang!
The blue Fist ki manifestation missed Mumu and split the earth on both sides of him.
Its power was so great that even the surface of the water in the valley surged upward and split apart from the shockwave.
Yet,
‘!?’
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu doubted his eyes.
Mumu was blocking his full-powered punch with a single index finger.
Despite the enormous force behind it, Mumu had not been pushed back a single step.
‘This can't be...’
He had expected Mumu to easily stop a punch like that if he could truly defeat his lord's vessels, but witnessing it was still shocking.
Mumu asked,
“Is this enough?”
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu swallowed and calmed his racing heart before answering.
“...Not yet.”
Blocking it with a finger alone had revealed Mumu's strength.
Still, as far as Seo Yong-chu knew, the vessels who received the Jade Medallion had each been exceptionally perfected in a particular area.
Perhaps Mumu possessed extraordinary physical toughness.
Even his visible muscles were denser and more developed than Seo Yong-chu's own.
“Then what should I do?”
“Whatever it is, subdue this subordinate in a single strike. Then I will believe you without question.”
The Overlord of Blood and Slaughter could subdue him in one technique.
No, if the Overlord truly put his mind to it, a single movement or punch would be enough.
Anyone equal to or greater than the Overlord should be able to show that much.
“You want me to subdue you in one blow?”
“It must be at least that much...”
“It isn't difficult, but I'm practicing with my Ki-Restraining Bracelets unfastened, so I'm not very good at controlling my strength right now.”
At those words, the corner of Seo Yong-chu's mouth lifted slightly.
He struck his chest with a fist and said confidently,
“This subordinate has completed the Golden Body Art and attained the indestructible golden body. Even if I lose now, I am confident I will not be injured.”
“Oh. Is that so?”
“Of course, I will not simply stand here and take it. Subdue this subordinate with your own hands...”
-Creak! Creak! Riiip!
Mumu's right sleeve tore apart as his forearm muscles swelled.
Seo Yong-chu frowned.
The moment Mumu's right arm expanded, an intense pressure he had not felt until then poured from Mumu.
Then it happened.
-Pwaaaaaang!
Mumu lightly thrust a fist toward the valley cliff.
A fierce, rippling shockwave erupted from his fist. Wind pressure blasted out and pierced through the left cliff of the gorge surrounding them.
-Kwaaaaaaang! Pwaaaaaang! Papapapapang!
The gorge wall was destroyed, yet the wind pressure continued farther.
Before long, it pierced the air and bored through the clouds.
‘!!!!!!!!’
A hole had appeared in the clouds overhead.
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu's expression stiffened as he stared at it.
Kang Mu-i shook his head and clicked his tongue.
‘Tsk tsk... He could've shown him something more moderate.’
Still, Kang Mu-i thought this much would be enough for the Grand Guardian to accept it.
No, seeing Seo Yong-chu stand there with a blank look on his face, there seemed to be no need to prove anything further.
Mumu smiled at the Grand Guardian.
“You said you're sturdy, so you should be able to withstand at least this much, right?”
-Gulp!
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu swallowed dryly again.
He truly had attained the indestructible golden body.
But one punch like that would shatter his whole body, indestructible golden body or not, and kill him.
Seo Yong-chu spoke in a low voice.
“...Come to think of it, I believe this is enough.”
Even if the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter's grandfather came, he could not stop that fist.
It seemed Mumu's claim that he had killed all the vessels was not a lie.
Mumu smacked his lips in disappointment.
“That's enough?”
“Yes.”
Kang Mu-i snorted at Seo Yong-chu's subdued voice.
Before that absolute power, which bordered on a natural disaster, anyone would have to kneel.
* * *
-Crackle!
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu looked at the campfire he had built before the cave and spoke.
“You wanted to know about your mother?”
“Yes.”
Seo Yong-chu let out a deep breath at Mumu's answer.
In truth, he had promised that person he would never reveal this story, not even to his lord, the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter.
He had nearly been killed by the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter while keeping that promise.
Still, even the Overlord could no longer press Seo Yong-chu, who had followed him since the Mighty Conqueror Council's founding and continued to protect the vessels to the end, even after the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter had died at the hands of the Four Immortal Masters.
No, the question itself had been different.
‘What my lord wanted to know was the Ha Family that could provide a womb.’
One of the Ha Family women had also given birth to Extreme.
Seo Yong-chu looked at Mumu.
‘Yes... If my lord and all his vessels are dead, that promise no longer has meaning. Besides, doesn't the young master have the right to know?’
Though it came through his maternal line, Mumu had inherited the Ha Family's blood.
That meant he had the right to know the truth of that time.
Seo Yong-chu looked at Mumu for a moment before finally speaking.
“Young Master, you have more than enough right to know.”
“So you do know about my mother?”
“...Yes. How could I not know your mother?”
He did not remember the other women who had served as wombs, but he remembered her clearly.
Unlike the others, she had followed the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter of her own accord.
She was even the only woman who treated that arrogant, self-indulgent man as if he were truly her husband.
Of course, to the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter, she had remained nothing more than a womb that would bear a vessel.
‘Or was she?’
Thinking about it now, perhaps that was not entirely true.
The child she bore had been a vessel the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter could have called a failure.
Despite having no talent for Martial Arts, the Overlord had bestowed the name Mumu, Martial Nothing, and a Jade Medallion upon him.
It had been a truly exceptional case.
‘I'd thought it was only a whim, but perhaps he felt a trace of affection.’
She was the kind of woman who made everyone around her happy.
With wistful eyes lost in memory, Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu spoke.
“Your mother was a very unusual person. No matter what happened, she never lost her smile.”
“Really?”
“Yes... Come to think of it, you truly resemble her.”
Mumu resembled her, his mother, more.
Seo Yong-chu placed a branch into the campfire and said,
“Hae Ha-rang.”
“Yes?”
“That is your mother's name.”
“Hae Ha-rang... Is that my mother's name?”
“Yes. She is the eldest daughter of the Ha Family, a prestigious martial family of Datong in Shanxi Province, with an unusual bloodline.”
Mumu's eyes shone in the firelight as he heard about his mother for the first time.
He had wanted to know about her so badly.
Mumu was usually unruffled in all matters, but now his voice trembled with tension.
“My mother died at the fortress that day too, didn't she?”
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu looked at Mumu and began to speak in a grave tone.
“Young Master.”
“Yes.”
“Your mother is alive.”
‘!?’
Mumu's expression froze, and his eyes trembled.
What had he just heard?
Mumu had learned of the Overlord of Blood and Slaughter through many people, so he had naturally assumed his mother had met a terrible end as well.
Mumu asked in a shaking voice,
“...What do you mean?”
“Just as you heard. Your mother is alive.”
“H-how?”
“On the day the Mighty Conqueror Council's fortress was burned to ashes by the Four Immortal Masters...”
Grand Guardian Seo Yong-chu recalled that day.
He remembered seeing her carried over the shoulder of Hong Hwa-yun, the Southern Blade Imperial Uncle.
Footnotes:
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