WeTried Translations

Translator: ZERO_SUGAR

Editor: Abstract

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 48: Six Stars of Heaven (1)

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Six Stars of Heaven (1)

A garden sat not far from Changcheon Martial Academy.

A small pond held a pavilion strung with red, blue, and green lanterns.

A neat spread had been laid out inside the pavilion, several bottles of liquor arranged across the table.

An old man of about seventy, a gourd flask tied at his waist, gazed at the bottles with anticipation in his eyes.

Across from him sat a man in blue formal robes. The angle of the tri-colored lantern light left his face shadowed and hard to make out.

The old man spoke without taking his eyes off the bottles.

"What's the next one?"

The shadowed man smiled at the question.

"Why don't you guess this time, sir?"

"You want this old man to guess?"

"A man of your depth in the way of drink should manage it easily enough."

"Heh."

"I had this hauled all the way from Shandong just for you. Might as well make a game of it."

At that, the old man smiled and reached for the bottle.

He unwound the cord tied around the neck and pulled the stopper free.

A sweet fragrance drifted out the moment the mouth opened. He didn't even need to bring it close to his nose, it was strong enough to perfume the whole pavilion.

The corner of his mouth lifted.

"A heavy fragrance. Though it leans closer to nong-xiang than jiang-xiang."

"Ho."

"Baijiu."

Baijiu was distilled from fermented grains such as sorghum, corn, or wheat, its vapor condensed and concentrated. Depending on how concentrated the fragrance was, it was graded jiang-xiang, nong-xiang, qing-xiang, or mi-xiang. Knowing that distinction at all said a great deal about how deep the old man's knowledge of liquor ran.

"As expected of you, sir."

The old man poured a cup this time. He swirled it gently, brought it to his nose, and savored the scent.

"That sweetness within the fruit-notes, that's pear fragrance. I have a guess, but tasting is the only way to be certain."

The old man drank it down. He held it in his mouth, savoring the heat that struck straight through his nose first. The warmth slid down his throat and traced its way along his gullet.

"Ah. Good. Very good."

"Do you know what it is?"

The old man laughed at the question.

"Brought from Shandong, with this much pear fragrance in a baijiu, there's only one it could be. Kongfu Jiajiu."

Kongfu Jiajiu. A famous liquor from Qufu in the northeastern part of Shandong Province. Qufu was the hometown of Confucius, the great master of the Confucian way, and Kongfu Jiajiu was the liquor once used in his honor and in his memorial rites. Its fragrance and flavor made it a prized name among true connoisseurs.

"Remarkable. You spotted it at once, as always."

"Heh heh heh. What kind of connoisseur wouldn't know Kongfu Jiajiu?"

With that, the old man filled the man's emptied cup with Kongfu Jiajiu, then poured his own.

"Good liquor should be shared with a good friend for it to taste right. Come, another round."

"Of course."

The two drank together.

"Hoo."

"Good."

Setting his cup down, the man smiled.

"It's been eight years now since I first came to know you, sir."

"So it has. Eight years since a friend who once made his name in Guangdong with the Ten-Finger Art crushed the original Six Stars of Heaven in barely ten-odd exchanges and took his seat."

"You flatter me."

"Not flattery. Simple fact."

The old man laughed and refilled his cup.

"What a fine day this is. Thanks to you, I get to taste famous liquors from every province like this."

The man studied the old man with a curious look, then spoke carefully.

"You truly are a man I can't quite figure out, sir."

"How so?"

"A man who could easily be counted among the Five Immortal Masters, and yet you're content to stay here in this academy as nothing more than the archive manager. I confess I don't understand it."

The old man let out a short laugh at that.

"How could this old man ever stand on the same ground as them? And honor, fame, all of it fades with time. You'll understand, once you're a bit older, that clinging to such things means nothing in the end."

"I wonder if it's true detachment, or something to do with a promise made to the Imperial Uncle."

"......"

The old man drank in silence at those words.

The man refilled his cup and said, "But now that the promised term is nearly over, that whole journey will come to a close too, won't it."

"Time to rest, I'd say. With young ones like you around, or like Meok Chong-un of the Hidden Shadow Sword, I can step back with an easy mind."

"How could I ever stand beside Great Hero Meok, the foremost among the Six Stars of Heaven?"

"Heh heh heh. Why do you speak so low of yourself?"

"It's simply the truth."

"You're plenty strong yourself. Don't sell yourself short."

"I have no particular interest in managing the archive. I'm only sorry that once you retire, sir, I'll lose my drinking companion."

A flicker of something crossed the old man's eyes at those words.

For a long while now, he'd been unable to decide between the Hidden Shadow Sword and this man for who would succeed him as manager of the third underground floor of the archive. Lately, though, his heart had been leaning toward the man before him. Unlike the Hidden Shadow Sword, this man had no greed in him, always carrying himself with modesty.

The old man ate a piece of the boiled meat set out as a side dish and said, "All this time we've spent together, and even over drinks you've never once asked what's kept down there."

The man's eyes flashed for an instant at those words. But the old man, busy pouring another cup, missed it.

The man spoke in a modest tone.

"I've no particular interest. And there are some things better left unknown."

"Heh heh heh. Well said. But tell me. If down there sat a damaged copy of the rumored True Heavenly Martial Scripture, or some treasure left behind by 'that one' who bathed the Central Plains in blood some seventeen years ago, could you truly stay indifferent to it?"

The old man asked with narrowed eyes, watching the man's reaction closely.

"I......"

Just as the man opened his mouth to answer, someone came rushing toward the pavilion.

"Sir."

It was a warrior of Changcheon Martial Academy. The warrior glanced once at the man seated across from the old man, clearly aware of his presence, then leaned in and whispered something into the old man's ear.

The old man's brow creased, and he rose from his seat.

"Sir?"

"It seems tonight's drinking has to end here. This old man needs to go."

With that, the old man left the pavilion with the warrior who'd come for him. Once he was fully gone, the corner of the shadowed man's mouth slowly curled upward.

"So it really was down there, after all."

He had waited a long time to hear those words leave the old man's lips. Eight years of humoring him, drinking liquor he barely even cared for, had finally paid off.

* * *

Barely half an hour earlier.

The hidden mechanism control room of the Changcheon Martial Archive.

Chaos had broken out here.

Jo Du-an, the disciple of the Master of Ten Thousand Wisdoms and manager of the control room, couldn't hide his bewilderment at the situation unfolding before him. The mechanism devices on the third underground floor of the secret archive had activated.

The control room could track the situation in real time through a red stone dial mounted before them. They'd first noticed something was wrong when the fourth gear of the red stone dial began turning.

However the intruder had gotten in, they'd suddenly appeared in the middle stage of the Infernal Thousand Calamities Ten-Thousand Transforms Formation, Screaming Hell. And before long, they'd passed through Screaming Hell and entered the fifth stage, Great Screaming Hell.

"S-sir, this is bad. Mechanism Manager, is the intruder going to make it through Great Screaming Hell too?"

Jo Du-an shook his head at the assistant manager's question.

Up through Screaming Hell, even Expert-level masters could somehow endure the trial. But beyond that, it was said to be a hell that even Master-level masters would struggle to survive.

"No. They'll be drowned soon enough."

Great Screaming Hell was a hell of water. Anyone who entered it would be submerged, unable to breathe, and die.

Just then the assistant manager cried out in alarm.

"Th-the operation of Great Screaming Hell has stopped!"

"......What?"

His confident prediction of certain death suddenly looked foolish. They couldn't have been inside long. What kind of disaster was this?

"That can't be. They already passed through Great Screaming Hell?"

"S-something's strange. I don't know what went wrong, but the formation itself just stopped operating."

'!?'

Not passed through, but stopped operating entirely?

What in the world was happening?

Skreeeek!

While they puzzled over it, the gear of the sixth red stone dial began to turn. That meant the sixth stage of the formation, Intense Heat Hell, had activated.

'This is bad......'

Jo Du-an bit down hard on his lip.

"Is the head manager still not here?"

"No, sir, not yet."

Intense Heat Hell's danger couldn't even be compared to Great Screaming Hell before it. But something about the intruder's momentum felt wrong. They kept getting closer to the archive. Of all times for the head manager to be away, this had to happen now. He needed to arrive soon.

'At this rate we might have to activate the Special Emergency Protocol.'

That was the academy's special alert regulation, triggered once the eighth of the Eight Great Hells, Avici Hell, was reached. If it came to that, every master in the academy would be summoned, entering a full defensive formation to protect the treasures of Changcheon Martial Academy left behind for future generations.

'Whoever this intruder is, please just stop breathing in Intense Heat Hell already...'

Skreek! Skreek! Pshhh!

Just then the sixth red stone dial's gear ground to a halt with a puff of smoke, the same phenomenon as before with the fifth.

'Gasp!'

Jo Du-an's eyes bulged nearly out of his head at the sight.

It hadn't even been long since it activated, and now the sixth, Intense Heat Hell, had stopped too?

[Kuku, this master can guarantee you, no intruder has ever walked out of the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations alive.]

'......Master. But the intruder has already reached the seventh hell.'

The seventh was Great Intense Heat Hell. If they passed through even that, they'd reach the final stage, Avici Hell. And if that happened, every automatic defense system guarding the archive would collapse.

"M-mechanism Manager, what do we do?"

Jo Du-an bit his lip hard at the assistant manager's question, then finally spoke.

"Prepare to activate the Special Emergency Prot......"

"What's going on?"

A voice came from behind them.

Jo Du-an turned, his eyes going wide.

"Great Hero?"

"Seems like something's happened."

"Th-there's an intruder on the third floor of the secret archive."

"The third floor?"

"Yes."

"Isn't that where the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations is?"

"......The intruder has already passed through the sixth stage, Intense Heat Hell."

"Hm."

The man standing behind them stroked his beard at this, then turned on his heel.

"Great Hero Hwang?"

"If the intruder's made it that far, this has gotten serious. I'll go deal with it myself. I'll be back soon, don't worry."

Shhk!

With those words, the man's form blurred and vanished from the control room, evidently rushing toward the third underground floor.

The assistant manager let out a breath of relief at the sight.

"Thank goodness. With him stepping in in time, we can breathe a little easier, can't we?"

"I'd like to think so, but......"

Just then, someone shoved the control room door open.

It was Man-guk, another assistant manager of the control room.

"This is bad!"

"What now?"

"Manager Lim Jeong, it looks like there was some kind of accident, he fell all the way to the third floor of the underground archive along with a cadet."

'!?'

Jo Du-an's eyes went wide at the unexpected news.

So what was in the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations right now wasn't an intruder, but them?

"......How did that happen?"

"We'll need to look into it more, but from what we can tell, the pillars in the first floor's weapons storage all collapsed at once and the ground gave way beneath them."

Jo Du-an's face went pale. He shot to his feet and shouted.

"Q-quick, go after Great Hero Hwang!"

They had to catch him and stop him right now. Otherwise Manager Lim Jeong and the cadet might end up dead at his hands. The man was one of the Six Stars of Heaven, the strongest force Changcheon Martial Academy claimed to possess.

* * *

Meanwhile, on the third underground floor of the secret archive.

The seventh formation of the Infernal Thousand Calamities Ten-Thousand Transforms Formation, Great Intense Heat Hell, had activated.

Molten orange metal, glowing bright and scalding hot, poured through the maze like flowing lava, burning anything it touched, filling the passages at terrifying speed. The heat was so fierce that the maze itself melted away as the metal flowed.

Inside that maze,

Boom! Boom! Boom!

A hulking, muscle-bound figure was ignoring the paths entirely and smashing straight through the walls in a direct line. That figure was none other than Mumu.

"Ohh dear!"

Lim Jeong, clinging to Mumu's side, clicked his tongue in disbelief.

'What in the world is this kid?'

He genuinely wasn't sure this was really a cadet anymore. His muscles had swollen to some absurd degree, and he was smashing through formations by brute force alone, completely beyond common sense. He was just breaking everything with sheer strength. The Eight Trigrams Formation, the Golden Lock Formation, the Yin-Yang Formation, the Five Flowers Grand Ultimate Formation, all of them were supposed to require unraveling their hidden principles to escape. He was ignoring all of that and simply smashing through. And somehow, it was working.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The thunderous crashes almost sounded like screams from the formation itself.

If this kept up, they might actually manage to break free of the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations.

He'd been charging through the maze like that for a good while, destroying everything in his path when,

Kukukukuku!

Something suddenly changed.

The maze walls blocking their way began sinking into the floor. The orange molten metal that had been heating everything around them stopped flowing. The chaotic clatter of mechanism devices from every direction fell silent, and the surroundings went quiet.

Lim Jeong tilted her head, puzzled.

"Huh? Hey, can you put me down?"

"Ah, sure."

Mumu set Lim Jeong down. He handed the black iron bar back to him, complaining it was heavy, and looked around. Luminous Stones scattered across the floor lit the area well enough without any need for a torch.

'Could the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations have actually stopped?'

There was no other way such a change could have happened.

While Lim Jeong studied their surroundings, Mumu glanced down at his Ki-Restraining Bracelets. The adjustment screw, set to five, had gone red hot.

Sizzle!

It felt like it was searing his skin. He'd never left the adjustment screws on both wrists and both ankles turned this high for this long before. Maybe that was why the pressure felt like it was building stronger and stronger.

'Better turn it back down.'

He wasn't sure why, but it seemed wiser to reset them. Just as he reached for the adjustment screw,

"Hey. Look over there."

Lim Jeong pointed toward the entrance of a chamber, where old, elegant display racks stood inside. It had to be the third floor's secret archive.

His face lit with relief as hee pointed at it.

"Ho ho ho hong. Our suffering's finally over. Looks like someone up there noticed we're down here."

"Ah! Really?"

"Yeah. Just in case the formation or the mechanisms accidentally kick back on, let's go inside the archive and wait it out."

Lim Jeong led the way toward the chamber's entrance. Mumu thought he'd reset his Ki-Restraining Bracelets first before following, when,

Whish!

'Hm?'

A faint sound reached his ears. It seemed to come from somewhere quite far off. With the adjustment screws on his Ki-Restraining Bracelets all set to five, Mumu's senses had sharpened well beyond normal. He tilted his head slightly, puzzled.

Whish!

The faint sound came again, much closer this time.

Mumu started to turn his head, when,

Shhk!

A voice suddenly reached his ear.

"Speed is weight. Ever been kicked at a speed you couldn't handle?"

'!?'

Thwack!

Before he could even register it, a kick slammed into Mumu's cheek. His body flew back from the impact.

Kwakwakwakwang!

Startled by the sudden crash, Lim Jeong spun around. Standing there with his hands clasped behind his back was a tall, bearded man in blue formal robes.

Lim Jeong's eyes went wide at the sight.

'H-Hwang Won, Special Master Grade?'

She recognized him the instant she saw him.

Wind Kick Leg Hero, Hwang Won. One of the Six Stars of Heaven that Changcheon Martial Academy took such pride in. A supreme master of leg and kick techniques, a master of movement skill so accomplished that even Western Wind Lone Angle, one of the Four Immortal Masters, had praised him without restraint.

'A monster, just as I thought.'

Lim Jeong clicked his tongue. He'd already heard plenty about how strong the Six Stars of Heaven were, but this was something else. Mumu had just torn through the Infernal Formation of Thousand Calamities and Myriad Transformations on raw strength alone, and this man had put him down in an instant. Seeing him sprawled facedown on the broken floor was almost unbelievable.

'He really is strong. Even inside the Eastern Eunuch corps of the imperial palace, only the Chief Eunuch or the Deputy Eunuch could probably match Master Hwang.'

No wonder Changcheon Martial Academy, despite being a school, was said to command the strongest fighting force in the martial world today.

Lim Jeong shook off her astonishment. There was no time to stand around marveling. If Special Master Hwang Won had attacked Mumu, something must have gone very wrong somewhere.

"Master Hwang! It's me, Lim Jeong. I think there's been some misunderstanding, this boy and I fell down here when the floor of the first-floor weapons storage collapsed under..."

Shhk!

In the blink of an eye, Hwang Won closed the distance.

"I'm disappointed. To think the archive manager herself would let greed drive him to something like this."

"Ohh my! What are you talking about? Greed? You think I'd actually do something like that..."

Thwack!

"Gulp!"

Hwang Won's kick drove straight into Lim Jeong's stomach. His foot sank deep into his gut, the pain so sharp he could barely breathe. Retching, unable to speak, he heard Hwang Won murmur to him.

"For the sake of the years we've known each other, I won't kill you outright. Whether such a flimsy excuse works on the head manager or the Academy Director, I can’t say, but do your best."

Hwang Won scoffed as he said it. He'd already convinced himself that Lim Jeong had let greed blind him and betrayed the academy, all because of that unidentified, hulking, muscle-bound monster he'd just sent flying with his leg technique. He had no idea how he'd smuggled the thing into the academy, but it looked dangerous enough that he'd dealt with it first.

"Let's head up now."

Hwang Won moved to hoist Lim Jeong, retching and on the verge of passing out, over his shoulder. Just then, a rustling sound came from behind him.

'!?'

He turned his head to find Mumu, who'd taken that leg technique full on, slowly climbing back to his feet.

Hwang Won's brow furrowed.

'His neck should have snapped.'

He'd struck with every intention of killing him instantly. Yet here the boy was, getting back up as if nothing had happened.

Crack! Crack!

Mumu rolled his neck and stretched it out, looking a little stiff.

Then he looked at Hwang Won and spoke.

"What was that just now?"

Footnotes:

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