WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Ceaseless
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Martial Arts Survival Guide ◈
Chapter 6: Peach
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“Ah.”
Baek Hyun stood still for a moment before letting out the sound.
The fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o lay before him. The same fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o who had beaten him up every day for two years.
The victory brought no particular excitement. He had already won several times before. Half a year ago, Baek Hyun had managed to fight the fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o to a draw. A month after that, he had finally defeated him. He had felt all the joy of victory he needed back then.
Even afterward, he had continued fighting Ju Han-o. He wanted a more complete victory. He wanted to win as overwhelmingly as Ju Han-o had when they first fought.
And today, not one of the fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o’s attacks had so much as brushed his clothes.
Baek Hyun looked down at the thin layer of protective force aura surrounding his body. In truth, it could not quite be called protective force aura yet. The Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art might be an outstanding internal energy cultivation method, and the Peach Blossom Realm might be rich in qi, but forming force aura required a great deal of internal energy. Even the Innate Martial Genius talent, a blessing of martial arts, could do nothing about how quickly internal energy accumulated.
“Are you satisfied now?”
The fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o staggered to his feet. Baek Hyun stared blankly at him, then nodded with an awkward look.
“Uh... yes.”
“Damn it, what’s with that face? You just completely thrashed the future greatest under heaven.”
“I already won half a year ago, so...”
“...Ha! So the current me doesn’t make you feel a thing?”
The fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o’s words were full of irritation. But Baek Hyun knew perfectly well that this Ju Han-o was not truly annoyed.
That figure was a projection of the Martial God Demon Ju Han-o’s past self, created through the mysteries of the Peach Blossom Realm. Their personalities might differ, but the fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o still possessed the Martial God Demon’s memories.
“...Still, you did well.”
The fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o spoke bluntly.
“It pisses me off to lose so badly, but you’re my disciple, after all. ...Well done. I thought it would take three years, but it only took two... No, a year and a half.”
“...Thank you.”
Baek Hyun belatedly bowed his head.
Tsk. The fifteen-year-old Ju Han-o clicked his tongue at the sight of him, then dissolved into smoke.
“Are you satisfied now?”
The Martial God Demon Ju Han-o approached as he asked. Baek Hyun stared at him for a moment, then smiled.
“Yes.”
“You always grow faster than I expect.”
Ju Han-o smiled back as he spoke. When he had given Baek Hyun ten days, he had finished within a week. When he had said three years, Baek Hyun had done it in a year and a half. His Innate Martial Genius talent, the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art, and Ju Han-o’s teachings had all played a part, but it was also thanks to Baek Hyun himself, who had come to enjoy martial arts and devoted himself to training every day.
“How old will you be next?”
Baek Hyun dispelled the protective force aura around his body. He had spent three years training in the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art and had now reached its second stage. Since reaching that stage, he had been able to release qi outside his body like this.
“Before that, we must do something about your internal energy.”
Ju Han-o shook his head.
“My internal energy?”
“The Peach Blossom Realm may be rich in qi, but your internal energy is accumulating far too slowly.”
“Then... what was it called again? A spiritual elixir? That’s right, isn’t it? You’re going to give me one?”
Remembering the martial arts novels he had read long ago, Baek Hyun brightened and cried out. Ju Han-o gave him a curious look.
“You are a strange one, Hyun. You weren’t born in the Central Plains, and you lived in a world without martial arts, yet sometimes you seem remarkably knowledgeable about the Central Plains. You even mentioned the Nine Great Sects and One Gang before.”
“They come up a lot in martial arts novels.”
“I truly cannot understand that. Martial arts novels...”
Muttering to himself, Ju Han-o turned with his hands clasped behind his back.
“Follow me.”
“Where are we going?”
Baek Hyun followed, his heart pounding. It had already been three years since he came to the Peach Blossom Realm. In all that time, he had never set foot outside the estate. At first, he had been desperate to leave, but at some point, martial arts training had become so enjoyable that he stopped even thinking about going outside.
“To find a spiritual elixir.”
“Can’t you make something like that with the mysteries of the Peach Blossom Realm?”
“The mysteries of the Peach Blossom Realm cannot do everything.”
“Or is it going to be one of those things? You know, in martial arts novels, the master sometimes passes all his internal energy on to his disciple...”
Ju Han-o turned to look at Baek Hyun in disbelief.
“You want me to give you all my internal energy? Then what am I supposed to use to ascend to immortality?”
“You need internal energy to ascend?”
“Of course. A martial artist’s internal energy is like a record of the life they have lived.”
Apparently, Ju Han-o had absolutely no intention of passing his internal energy on to Baek Hyun before leaving.
As they talked, they arrived before the estate’s tightly shut gates. Baek Hyun swallowed nervously.
“...Um, Master.”
“What is it?”
“What’s outside this estate?”
“You will see for yourself shortly. Why bother asking?”
“So I can at least prepare myself.”
Ju Han-o let out a dry laugh.
“It has already been three years since you came here, Hyun.”
“And I haven’t been outside once in those three years.”
“Because there was no need.”
The gates opened on their own before Ju Han-o even reached out. With his hands behind his back, he slowly walked through them. Baek Hyun swallowed and followed him outside.
“Do you remember what I told you the Peach Blossom Realm was?”
“You said it was the boundary between the world of the living and the world of the dead.”
“Indeed. The boundary between life and death... The Peach Blossom Realm belongs to neither world. Neither the living nor the dead can come here.”
“Then who exactly does come here?”
“People like me stay here.”
“People like you...”
“Those who can ascend to immortality but still have one last attachment.”
Ju Han-o murmured the words. Beneath the gray sky, Baek Hyun looked out over the Peach Blossom Realm. This was the scenery beyond the garden and walls he had seen every day. There were no mountains, and another estate stood not far away.
“Then does someone on the verge of ascending live over there too?”
“Yes.”
“Who?”
“Yu Un-ryeo, the Snowfire Phoenix (雪火鳳).”
The epithet alone made her sound formidable.
“Have you met her, Master?”
“I have.”
“What attachment is keeping her here?”
“You have so many questions, Hyun.”
“That’s what happens when you’re the only person I’ve talked to for three years.”
“Are you saying I wasn’t enough company for you?”
Ju Han-o asked with a faint smile. Baek Hyun laughed heartily and shook his head.
“Of course not. I enjoy talking with you. This might sound a little strange, but you’re like a parent to me. My parents died so long ago that I barely remember them, though.”
Ju Han-o stopped walking. He stood still for a moment, then glanced back at Baek Hyun.
“What makes you feel that way?”
“You can be strict sometimes, but you teach me so much. And in the end, you believe I can do it.”
“That is because you were born with the same Innate Martial Genius talent as me.”
“I know. But back in my own world, no one ever had even that kind of faith in me.”
Ju Han-o said nothing. He gazed at Baek Hyun’s face for a little while, then turned and resumed walking. Following behind him, Baek Hyun suddenly thought of another question.
“What price did you pay to bring me here, Master?”
“I did an imugi a favor. Summoning you from another dimension was beyond my abilities. I may be on the verge of ascending, but I know little about sorcery.”
Ju Han-o answered as though it were nothing important. An immortal... Baek Hyun murmured the word, then asked another question.
“Is an immortal a god?”
“I consider it the stage a human reaches before becoming a god.”
Ju Han-o glanced back at Baek Hyun as he spoke.
“Do you understand what I mean?”
“...Not really.”
“I told you that mastering the Heaven-Shattering Divine Transformation Art could make you a god. But I failed to become one. I only managed to become an immortal.”
Baek Hyun did not know how to answer. He closed his slightly parted lips and looked at Ju Han-o. In truth, gods and immortals were far beyond his reach. At present, he lacked the internal energy to properly form even force aura.
“...What does that mean?”
“It is too early to explain that to you, Hyun.”
Muttering those words, Ju Han-o pointed at the estate ahead.
“Yu Un-ryeo, the Snowfire Phoenix, lives there. Her lingering attachment is the same as mine.”
“A disciple?”
“Indeed. Her unique martial art, the White Snow, Blazing Fire Heavenly Martial Art (白雪炎火天武), is impossible to learn unless one is born a Yin-Yang Incarnation (陰陽化身), possessing the two opposing energies of yin and yang. The martial world she lived in was different from mine, but apparently, she was the only Yin-Yang Incarnation there. There were none in my martial world, either.”
“Did she find a disciple?”
“Yu Un-ryeo, the Snowfire Phoenix, found a seventeen-year-old disciple a year ago. Yin-Yang Incarnations are rare even across all dimensions, so it took quite some effort to find one.”
It was not Ju Han-o who answered Baek Hyun’s question.
He turned toward the voice and saw a small girl floating in the air, smiling brightly.
“Yeo-hwi.”
Ju Han-o frowned as he muttered the name.
“Who...?”
“The imugi who helped me summon you.”
An imugi she might be, but Yeo-hwi showed none of the dignity or majesty Baek Hyun would have expected from one.
“You look well, Martial God Demon. How is your disciple progressing?”
“Three years have passed, yet he has only reached the second stage.”
“Isn’t that already quite fast?”
“What brings you here?”
Ju Han-o did not seem particularly fond of Yeo-hwi. She giggled at his question.
“Surely you’re not still holding a grudge because I asked you to kill that evil dragon (惡龍) last time?”
“It took an enormous amount of effort to kill that evil dragon.”
Ju Han-o sounded irritated.
“I went to just as much trouble to find your disciple. Like Yin-Yang Incarnations, people born with the Innate Martial Genius talent are rare across all dimensions.”
“I asked what brings you here.”
“Where are you going?”
When Ju Han-o repeated his question, Yeo-hwi answered with a question of her own and a little smile.
“To obtain an immortal peach (仙桃).”
At those words, Yeo-hwi’s smile grew faint.
Footnotes:
An imugi is a great serpent from Korean folklore, often said to become a dragon.
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