WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 46: The Secret Archives (2)

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The Secret Archives (2)

The torch flared to life.

"Ho ho hong. There's no lamplight on the stairs, so mind your step."

Mumu followed first-floor manager Lim Jeong down the stairs, torch in hand. If the public Changcheon Martial Archive climbed the tower level by level, the secret archives sat below ground instead, in the opposite direction entirely. Unlike the Changcheon Martial Archive, the secret archives clearly saw far fewer hands and footsteps, judging by the musty smell and the cobwebs scattered here and there.

'I wish the others could've come along too.'

"Um, manager, sir."

Mo Il-hwa had carefully asked whether she could at least look at the entrance to the secret archives, but she'd been refused flat out, told that anyone without the qualification couldn't set foot inside. So the group had decided to wait, passing the time by looking around the first floor archives instead. Everyone except one person.

"Ahem. Miss. Forgive me, but I'll be heading up to the second floor archives." "Well, look at him."

Jin-hyeok had placed among the top twelve in the entrance examination, so he could go up to the second floor. The two siblings groused at each other, calling it rotten luck that they'd both been left behind. Mo Il-hwa never held back what she thought.

"Your name was Mumu, right?"

Lim Jeong asked as they descended the stairs.

"Yes." "See the red line on the wall and the stair floor here?"

Just as Lim Jeong said, at a certain point a red line ran along the wall and steps like a boundary marker, almost a warning. Lim Jeong's mouth curled up at the corners.

"From here on, you need to be careful. Even if someone manages to find the location of the secret archives, wandering in without permission could mean never coming back out. Ho ho ho hong."

Lim Jeong said something terrifying with a smile the whole time.

"Ah. Is that so?"

But Mumu's reaction couldn't have been more relaxed. Watching him, Lim Jeong thought inwardly,

'Is he bold, or just pretending to be? Can't tell at all.'

Judging by his face alone, he looked innocent enough. But compared to ordinary cadets, it was strangely hard to guess what was going on in his head. Cadets who made it into the secret archives usually reacted one of two ways. Either they couldn't hide their delight the whole way through, or they stayed tense from start to finish. Mumu was neither.

'Can't figure him out at all.'

That was one thing. But something else nagged at Lim Jeong too.

'Has he actually trained in Martial Arts?'

Judging by Mumu's gait, he looked more like an ordinary person than a martial artist. He shuffled along, or trudged, plodding without any particular form. Anyone who'd trained in a Body-Lightening Technique, meaning a step, tended to develop a distinct pattern in their stride and footfall. Mumu showed nothing of the sort.

'And I can't sense any ki from him either.'

However Lim Jeong looked at it, the boy seemed to have no training in Martial Arts whatsoever. And yet somehow he'd earned two star marks. It made no sense. From where Lim Jeong stood, this was a genuinely strange child.

'Hmm. Well, not my business either way. I'm not his teacher.'

Whatever the case, the job at hand was simply to guide Mumu, who'd earned two star marks, into the first stage of the secret archives.

* * *

After descending for quite a while, a vast cavern came into view. Getting this far had meant disarming nineteen trap mechanisms along the way. Anyone who came down without knowing better would have been caught out easily. Lim Jeong felt along the wall, pressed at some spot, and brought the torch close. Oil seeping from a hole and running through the cracks caught fire, and the flame spread out in every direction.

It roared to life, racing along the walls, lighting lamp after lamp set into the cavern's surfaces. As the surroundings brightened, the vast cavern came into full view, along with three massive black iron doors. Above each black iron door, a plaque had been carved with words.

[Weapons] [Elixirs] [Martial Arts Manuals]

The black iron doors, firmly shut, gave off an atmosphere entirely different from the floor above. It felt like something guarding treasure with unshakable resolve. Lim Jeong spread both arms wide toward Mumu and announced in a loud voice.

"Ho ho ho hong. Welcome to the first of Changcheon's hidden secret archives."

The secret archives. A genuine privilege granted only to cadets of exceptional talent. Not a single cadet who'd received this privilege had failed to make real progress in their Martial Arts afterward. Lim Jeong explained to Mumu.

"Let me lay out the rules simply. You may enter each of these three doors exactly once. And from inside, you may only take out one item." "Ah... so they just give you something?" "That's right. You can take whatever you want. Though if it's a martial arts manual, you'll need to copy it out by hand and return it within three days. Just keep that one rule in mind. Ho ho hong, exciting, isn't it?" "Yep!"

Mumu answered readily enough, but he felt no real excitement. The only thing that had caught his interest so far was the last archive, the one he'd talked about with his friends, but as for the privilege offered here, someone with no interest in Martial Arts like Mumu simply didn't care much either way.

'Still, it's probably worth a fortune, right?'

If anything, Mumu's attention had drifted toward the potential profit instead. According to Hae Ryang, the things kept in the secret archives counted as treasures even by the martial world's standards, priceless beyond any normal valuation. If he managed to grab something, couldn't he use it to make his father's life easier?

"So, where do you want to start?" "Hmm."

Mumu glanced around at the three black iron doors. Then he pointed toward the elixirs.

'Hm? Unexpected.'

A flicker of interest crossed Lim Jeong's eyes. Naturally, the vast majority of cadets chose the martial arts manuals first. Anyone would be curious just how advanced a manual had to be to earn a place in the secret archives. But choosing elixirs first, that Lim Jeong hadn't expected.

'Maybe there's some ancient ginseng root in there or something?'

Mumu's priorities were focused squarely on grabbing whatever was worth the most. Lim Jeong, not knowing this, naturally found it puzzling.

'Ah... maybe his internal energy just isn't developed enough.'

Come to think of it, Lim Jeong's ki sense hadn't been able to gauge Mumu's internal energy at all. Taking that into account, it made a kind of sense.

"Ho ho hong. Follow me."

Lim Jeong led Mumu to the black iron door marked Elixirs. In front of the door stood a stone statue holding a flat square stone slab, carved with eight star shapes.

"You have the seal you received, right?" "Yes." "Press the matching seal against the same star shape."

Mumu pressed the seal the Vice-Master had stamped onto his card against the matching star shape carved into the slab. The star turned red, then sank inward with a soft click.

"Oh."

Mumu marveled at the sight.

"Do the rest too."

At Lim Jeong's words, Mumu pressed the seal given by Dan Baek-yeon, one of the Six Stars of Heaven, against another star. The same thing happened, the shape flushing red before sinking inward. Before long, some hidden mechanism triggered inside the firmly shut black iron door, and it creaked open.

"Whoa!"

The moment the door opened, an exclamation burst from Mumu's mouth at the sight before him. The cavern stretched out on a massive scale, filled with countless display cases holding elixirs and medicinal herbs, looking exactly like some grand physician's hall.

'Ho ho hong. Surprised, are you?'

Even at a glance, what stood on display was staggering.

[Four-Hundred-Year Ginseng Root] [Three-Hundred-Year Spirit Fungus] [Dried Golden Flower Fish] [Man-Shaped Snow Ginseng] [Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus] [Five-Hundred-Year Fleeceflower Root] [Little Return Pill] [Purple Nascence Pill] [Great Clarity Pill] [Blood-Melting Treasure Pill] [Nine Heavens Divine Pill]

Every single one was an elixir, herb, or pill that couldn't be bought for any amount of gold. Most of them, at their core, boosted internal energy, and beyond that offered all sorts of other effects too, poison resistance, a surge of scorching yang energy, or the deepening of yin energy. Lim Jeong smiled and explained.

"With elixirs, the important thing is choosing whatever suits your own constitution best. Say, if your yang energy runs too strong and you need something to balance it out, that Heavenly Mountain Snow Lotus over there would work well. And if you need to suppress an overwhelming yin energy, the Dried Golden Flower Fish would serve you better."

Mumu scratched his head. Put that way, he had no idea what would actually be good.

"Ho ho hong. Not sure, are you? Then just ask me. I'll explain everything kindly."

So Mumu smiled brightly and asked.

"What's the most expensive thing in here?"

Lim Jeong's eyebrow shot straight up.

* * *

'The most expensive thing, he says?'

Lim Jeong watched Mumu, satisfied, tuck a pouch at his waist, and privately found the whole thing absurd. Of all the cadets who'd ever come through the secret archives, not one had picked an elixir based purely on its price tag. Well, until now, that is. Mumu had chosen Shaolin's Little Return Pill. Considering reputation, stability, and pure market value, the well-refined Little Return Pill was, without question, the finest choice among everything in there.

'Goodness me. This kid really is something else.'

He'd looked so innocent, and yet he'd chosen an elixir this way. The standard for picking was entirely up to the individual, so there was nothing to be done about it, but it really was unexpected. Was he more materialistic than he looked?

The next door Mumu chose was the one marked Martial Arts Manuals. When the iron door opened, a precious library came into view, holding roughly three hundred volumes. Unlike the first floor of the Changcheon archives, the manuals kept in this precious library were far fewer in number. The reason for that,

"Every manual kept here represents the highest level of Martial Arts. Some were donated by various martial clans and sects, some copied out from the old Martial Alliance and the imperial archives, and there are even techniques from the academy's own masters and the Six Stars of Heaven."

Every one of them was a peerless technique of the highest order. Precisely because these were meant for those aiming to reach a lofty, exalted level, the manuals could never number many. But it wasn't an exaggeration to say this collection, taken as a whole, held more of them than anywhere else across the entire Central Plains.

"Hmm."

'Ho ho hong. Fine, the elixir was one thing, but surely as a martial artist he can't look at these incredible manuals without his eyes lighting up... hm?'

Lim Jeong's eyes narrowed. Mumu's eyes, fixed on the precious library's shelves, looked strangely exhausted. This was the moment his eyes should have been shining, and instead, it made no sense at all.

'Goodness, no. What's with that face, standing in front of something even more precious than the elixirs?'

Lim Jeong clicked her tongue inwardly. Mumu really was exhausted, and sincerely so.

'...Fist technique... sword style... nothing but this mystic art or that. Nothing interesting here at all.'

Mumu genuinely enjoyed reading books. But with zero interest in Martial Arts, of course his enthusiasm had drained right out of him.

"I have to pick something within half of a two-hour period?" "That's right."

Mumu shuffled into the precious library. He pulled out one book after another, flipping through, looking for anything remotely interesting. Watching him, Lim Jeong felt something tighten in her chest.

'Wait. Why is he looking over there?'

Anyone with even the slightest eye for Martial Arts would have known exactly which shelf held the manuals that would draw everyone's attention among all these peerless techniques. And yet Mumu wasn't even glancing at it. Frustration finally got the better of Lim Jeong, who stepped in.

"Ahem."

Mumu blinked, puzzled, and turned his head.

"Ahem, ahem."

Lim Jeong tilted her head subtly, gesturing toward the back. Mumu just tilted his own head, confused.

'Ugh.'

"Ahem, ahem. Behind you."

Only after hearing that did Mumu finally turn around. On the shelf he now faced sat manuals of lost peerless techniques preserved only in the imperial archives, techniques from clans long vanished, along with a portion of the Six Stars of Heaven's own specialty martial arts, donated and kept as bound volumes. Mumu walked over to that shelf and pulled out a manual.

'Finally, finally.'

Lim Jeong's stomach, which had been in knots, finally settled. Having to spell it out that obviously before he noticed. What a frustrating child.

Mumu flipped through the manuals on the shelf carelessly, skimming with quick, careless strokes. His expression showed nothing but boredom, bordering on outright disinterest. Lim Jeong couldn't understand how anyone could look at manuals of lost, legendary techniques and wear a face like that. After skimming through them for a while, Mumu's face twisted into something like disgust. Then he turned to Lim Jeong.

"Do I have to pick one of these?"

Lim Jeong felt like her chest might burst. Was he really about to throw away the greatest privilege he'd been given, just like that?

"...If that's really what you want, it's your choice, but are you sure you don't want to pick anyth..." "Wait!"

Right then, Mumu's eyes went wide.

"What is it?"

Mumu walked off as if in a trance, eyes trembling, toward something. Had he finally found the manual he wanted? While Lim Jeong watched, Mumu pulled out a single book. Flipping through it, Mumu's face broke into a bright grin, and he shouted.

"I'll take this one!" "Ho ho hong. Looks like you finally found something you like. Bring it here."

Mumu came trotting over, thrilled, book in hand. Lim Jeong's expression froze the moment she saw the title of the book he'd brought.

[On Muscle Contraction and Release]

How in the world had garbage like that ended up among all these mystic and peerless technique manuals? It seemed there'd been some kind of error in the selection process by whoever oversaw this.

"Um, Cadet Mumu. That one, well, it seems like someone put the wrong book in the wrong place by mistake. How about picking something else?" "I'll take this one." "Goodness me. It's not really my place to interfere as the manager, but that one's really not it. Please, pick something else." "I'll take this one." "No, actually, why don't I just pick one out for you myself?" "I'll take this one." "That one's really not it, I said!" "I'll take this one." "......"

Lim Jeong gave up trying to persuade him.

'This kid, really...'

No, Lim Jeong decided to stop thinking about it entirely.

* * *

The black iron door of the Weapons chamber creaked open. Torchlight flared up, revealing countless weapons on display inside. These weren't ordinary weapons. Every one had reached the ranks of legendary blades or treasured swords. Any martial artist who trained seriously would have had their eyes light up at the sight, but Lim Jeong had already given up expecting anything from this one.

"Just pick whatever you want, roughly."

Lim Jeong said with a sigh. Normally there'd be some anticipation over which weapon a cadet might choose, but with this kid, no such anticipation rose up at all.

'...What on earth is his standard for picking things, anyway?'

For the elixir, he'd asked for the most expensive one. For the manual, he'd picked out the most worthless garbage in the whole collection. Something that wasn't even a real technique, and somehow ended up there in the first place.

'Judging by that, he's not exactly greedy either.'

This child was impossible to read. Unlike when he'd picked the trash of a manual, Mumu's expression had gone back to looking thoroughly uninterested. Mumu wandered around the weapons chamber, glancing this way and that. Swords etched with elaborate patterns, gleaming things everywhere he looked.

'Hmm.'

Mumu found himself at a loss. He knew nothing about Martial Arts or elixirs, and he had no eye for weapons either. So he had no idea what to pick.

'Guess I should ask the manager again, like before?'

He was curious just how much these dazzling weapons might fetch if sold. But as he scanned the room, his eyes narrowed.

'Hm?'

Lim Jeong caught the shift in his expression, and a flicker of interest crossed her eyes.

'Has something caught his attention?'

Lim Jeong had already resigned herself to not caring what Mumu picked. But the moment he saw what weapon had caught his eye, he couldn't stay indifferent. Right at the center of the weapons cavern stood a massive crescent blade. A crescent blade was a great blade shaped like a spear, curved into a half-moon, which was where the name came from. But the one Mumu was looking at now was called the Demonic Dragon Crescent Blade, and it was nothing like an ordinary crescent blade.

'That one's impossible.'

An ordinary crescent blade weighed somewhere between sixty and ninety geun. That alone made it far heavier than most weapons and difficult to wield, but this Demonic Dragon Crescent Blade, forged from black iron, weighed a staggering eight hundred geun. The weight made sense given its length too, twice that of an ordinary crescent blade, carrying an immense blade at its end. Even a martial artist who'd reached the level of Expert would need to summon seventy or eighty percent of their full Force of ki just to swing it even once. Lim Jeong walked closer and spoke.

"To notice that one shows you really do have an eye for weapons." "......" "But it's impossible. That weapon can only be handled by the one who once owned it."

A figure once called a twelve-cheok giant. The Grand Guardian of the Mighty Conqueror Council, once the ruling power of the martial world. Seo Yong-chu, the Towering Giant. This had been his exclusive weapon. Mumu walked toward where the Demonic Dragon Crescent Blade stood.

"Can I lift it?"

At Mumu's question, Lim Jeong let out a short laugh. Such a strange child. Out of every weapon in the room, he had to covet the one that belonged to that legendary giant. Still, given the blade's length and its absurd weight, even a Master would struggle to handle it.

"Ho ho hong. No harm in lifting it, but you won't be able to take it with you even if you... wait? What are you doing right now?" "I'm going to lift it." "Goodness me? But why are you climbing up there?"

Mumu was climbing onto the display stand where the Demonic Dragon Crescent Blade lay bound in iron chains. Because of its extreme weight, the blade rested atop pillars set on either side, with a black iron bar fixed across them, weighted down on both ends with massive stone counterweights heavy enough to bear the load.

'What is he doing?'

Lim Jeong's eyes wavered. Mumu reached for the black iron bar fixed atop the pillars. Why would he touch the iron bar when he was supposed to be lifting the crescent blade?

"What are you doing?" "Can I take this?"

Mumu pointed at the black iron bar serving as the mounting frame, and Lim Jeong was left speechless. Why would he ignore a perfectly good weapon and want to take that instead?

"...Kid. That's a support bar. And it's meant to bear the weight of the crescent blade, so it must weigh well over a thousand geun on its own. How exactly do you plan to lift... it's impossible... wait, wait!"

Right then, Lim Jeong's eyes went wide. Mumu was trying to lift the black iron bar without even undoing the chains binding the crescent blade to it. The two combined easily weighed close to two thousand geun.

"I told you it's impossible. Stop, it's dangerous. If you keep doing that... huh?"

What happened next defied belief. The black iron bar, the mounting frame itself, lifted upward.

"Hoo-ah!"

The back of Mumu's hand and his forearm muscles bulged and swelled as he gripped the iron bar. Even the muscles of his face stood out sharply.

"You... just what are you?"

How could anyone lift something like that? The crescent blade alone would have been one thing, but combined with the iron bar, this was a weight even a master who had reached the true peak of Expert would struggle to lift. Lim Jeong was so stunned he couldn't find words. Mumu, meanwhile, could barely contain his excitement.

'This is it! This is exactly it!'

The training equipment he'd been searching for all this time. A weight that easily exceeded what he normally trained with. Something he'd wanted so badly.

"Uh, uh, uh oh?"

But even for Mumu, fully bearing a weight of two or three hundred geun without releasing the Ki-Restraining Bracelets was no easy feat. Standing atop the pillar, Mumu lost his balance.

He staggered.

"It's dangerous!"

Lim Jeong lunged toward Mumu at once. But the problem was that even as Mumu lost his balance and began to fall, he never once let go of the iron bar in his hands.

"You, if you hold onto that..."

The iron bar, the mounting frame, came crashing down, and the pillar lost its balance and toppled over. And when that pillar fell, it struck the other pillars around it, knocking every single one of them down in turn.

Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!

"Ah..."

As luck would have it, the pillars surrounding the area collapsed one after another, and the impact of each one striking the ground played no small part in shattering the very foundation they stood on.

The floor split apart with a deafening crack.

"Goodness meeeeeee!" "Aaaaaaaah!"

Mumu and Lim Jeong plunged straight down as the collapsing floor gave way beneath them.

Footnotes:

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