WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Alyo

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈

Chapter 30: Living Corpse

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Things outside were in disarray.

“...Why isn’t he coming out?”

“Wait a little longer.”

Lady Yun and Un Mu-jeong were speaking. More than six hours had passed since the Golden Heaven Divine Sword entered the Clan Head’s bedchamber.

Did it make any sense for it to take this long?

After two hours had passed, the magistrate left, telling them to send word once the Golden Heaven Divine Sword emerged.

After four hours, the Hyeokri Clan Head left as well.

Only the three from the Yi Clan remained.

Yi Won anxiously bit his nails.

‘Surely... Yi Do didn’t kill the Golden Heaven Divine Sword...?’

Perhaps sensing Yi Won’s thoughts, Lady Yun patted his shoulder.

“Mother...”

“Don’t worry. Who do you think the Golden Heaven Divine Sword is? He is one of the strongest candidates to become one of the Ten Greatest Masters Under Heaven. His realm is the Creation Realm, a level ordinary people like us cannot even imagine.”

That was certainly true.

Could someone like that fail to kill a martial artist who was only at the Circulation Realm, perhaps even just entering the Four Qi-Cultivation Realms? There was no way.

“The matter must already be settled by now. That bastard Yi Do is probably lying on the floor, coughing up blood. The Golden Heaven Divine Sword belongs to the Orthodox Path, but his disciple’s clan has just been wiped out. As a master, he cannot simply stand by. He must be torturing him by now.”

That was the most likely explanation for why he had not emerged after so long.

“...It looks like this will take a while longer. Leave a few servants here, and let us return to our quarters.”

It was already late. There was little reason to remain here into the early morning.

After ordering several servants to remain behind, the three from the Yi Clan returned to their quarters.

A few servants remained to guard the front of the Clan Head’s Hall.

Then, without anyone noticing, a man slipped into the Clan Head’s Hall.

The servants did not notice him. If they had, this man would never have earned the title of the Thousand-Faced Assassin.

After entering the empty hall, the man looked around.

He found a bed that had been pushed out of place. Looking beneath it, he discovered an opening leading underground.

‘...This place really has everything.’

Hwang No-baek silently descended underground and found a tightly sealed iron door.

He gave it a light push with one hand. It did not budge.

‘...Did they set up some sort of mechanism? No, wait...’

A chill ran down his spine.

Why was it so quiet?

It should not have been this quiet.

He had no time to think. He used both hands to force open the iron door.

The door opened. Then something fell with a thud.

Hwang No-baek looked down and was struck speechless.

It was Yi Do.

What had just fallen was Yi Do’s arm. He must have lost consciousness while using it to push against the iron door.

Hwang No-baek could not understand it. He raised his head.

...There were two pieces.

One was a man’s upper body, the other his lower body.

Both were drenched in blood, but there was no way he could fail to recognize who it was.

The Golden Heaven Divine Sword, Ma Heuk-rang.

He was dead, his body split in half.

Even his head had been cleaved in two.

“.......What the hell is this...?”

Why had Hwang No-baek, the Thousand-Faced Assassin, come here?

Above all else, it was to save Yi Do.

He had prepared plenty of words.

“Senior Ma Heuk-rang, this junior greets you... To someone like me, who bears the undeserved title of Thousand-Faced Assassin, Yi Do is a benefactor... Could you consider him already dead and allow me to take him away... I beg you,” and so on.

He had come to beg.

To be honest, Hwang No-baek had no wish to become entangled with the Emperor Sword Sect.

But there was someone who had moved him.

His only disciple, Jo Hyeon.

-Master. I heard someone called the Golden Heaven Divine Sword came to kill Lord Yi Do.

-Even if he is not your benefactor, he is mine. He is the one who brought you and me together.

-That had only been a coincidence. Even if Yi Do had never appeared, you and I would have continued our connection as an attendant and a cook, would we not?

-But I would not have become your disciple.

He had nothing to say to that. If it had not been for Yi Do, he would never have even considered becoming active as the Thousand-Faced Assassin.

-Lord Yi Do may be excessively harsh, but Master, I want to save him. You said it yourself. One must never take the debts and grudges of the martial world lightly. I don’t know much, but I think I understand a little. If it had not been for Lord Yi Do, those bastards from the Hyeokri Clan would probably have beaten me black and blue. And if I had never met Lord Yi Do in the first place, I would have lived as an attendant, then died as some ordinary person in a place no one knew. Please, just this once. I beg you.

Jo Hyeon had said much more, but the conclusion was simple.

Save Yi Do.

But bluntly speaking, no matter how capable the Thousand-Faced Assassin was, he was not as formidable as an elder of the Emperor Sword Sect.

Fight one-on-one? That was madness. If he aimed for a surprise attack, he might somehow inflict serious injuries, but the chance of a successful assassination would not even reach three in ten.

Still, he came.

What master could refuse when his disciple got down on his knees and begged?

Yet faced with the sight before him, he was at a loss for words.

It felt as though his thoughts had simply stopped.

How?

Why?

Why was the Golden Heaven Divine Sword dead?

He did not know. It did not seem as though thinking would give him an answer.

Then Yi Do’s condition caught Hwang No-baek’s eye.

“Huh...”

It was the first time in his life he had seen anything like this.

The veins all over Yi Do’s body bulged. At a glance, one might think blood had simply soaked his body, but that was not it.

Those were all veins.

Blue veins. Red veins.

The moment Hwang No-baek saw the blue and red veins writhing madly as though they might burst at any moment, he stopped thinking and acted.

First, he placed Yi Do in a seated position and set both hands against his back.

He closed his eyes.

He circulated the Black Malice Heart Technique.

The internal energy Hwang No-baek had accumulated over decades was drawn into Yi Do’s body.

Gradually, Yi Do’s body began to stabilize.

His face, which had been twisted in pain, slowly became calm.

In contrast, sweat began pouring down Hwang No-baek’s forehead like a waterfall, but he did not stop.

Time passed.

* * *

Cough.

I woke up coughing blood.

My final memories surfaced hazily.

After splitting Ma Heuk-rang’s head open, I desperately approached the entrance. I had not been trying to escape. I did not have the strength to leave. I had needed to stop anyone from entering somehow.

The moment I placed my hand against the iron door, I lost consciousness.

The iron door stood before me now. Then I felt someone’s hands against my back.

I rose and turned around.

“Haa... haa...”

His face was covered by a mask, but I could tell who it was this time as well.

Hwang No-baek.

I checked my body.

My arms and legs? Fine.

My dantian? Empty, but not broken.

My middle dantian was fine too.

My upper dantian... I did not know.

The Heavenly Spirit Root Pill.

That spiritual medicine had allowed me to draw out the power I possessed in my previous life, if only for a moment.

Honestly, forcing open my upper dantian had not felt good.

Everything had its proper time. If one refused to wait for that time and tried to take a shortcut, they would suffer severe consequences.

In that moment, I had thought I might lose all the internal energy I possessed.

It would not be wrong to call this a miracle.

My current realm was Five Dragons Honoring the Sage. Some might call me an expert, but by my standards, it was a weak realm.

Still, I did not want to rush.

As I said before, everything had its proper time.

I only needed to move on to the next stage slowly.

Then I looked toward my dantian.

‘...What is this?’

Something was there.

Was it the remaining energy of the Heavenly Spirit Root Pill?

That strange power I had felt then.

It was undoubtedly still there, that power which resembled Properly Aligned Qi yet was completely different.

More than that, it felt as though my body’s overall recovery ability had improved.

‘...’

For a moment, I could not speak.

Was this a true stroke of fortune?

It was too incomprehensible.

I clenched my fist again.

Squeeze.

I had lost a little strength, but overall, my condition was not much different from before.

This was truly absurd.

It felt as though the recovery ability one could only gain after nearly reaching the Creation Realm had been forcibly fitted into the body of someone at Five Dragons Honoring the Sage.

A smile escaped me.

I had no interest in human sacrifice or spiritual medicines made from people. No matter how recklessly I acted, I drew the line there.

The Heavenly Spirit Root Pill was an extremely pure spiritual medicine. I had hesitated to take it because I had no reliable information about its effects, but in the end, it had brought me a great benefit.

This was enough.

I held out my hand behind me.

Hwang No-baek, who had been catching his breath, grabbed it. After helping him to his feet, I asked,

“Didn’t you say you would not interfere no matter what happened?”

“...Do you think I wanted to interfere? Taking on the wrong disciple has gotten me into this mess... Tsk.”

From the looks of it, Jo Hyeon must have asked him.

Without intending to, I had received help twice.

“Is there something you want?”

“Why? If I ask for something, will you give it to me?”

“I will.”

“You say that without even knowing what I will ask for?”

I answered firmly.

“Whatever you want, if I wish to give it to you, it will be yours. If you want money, I will give you money. If you want land, I will give you land. If you want a country, I will make you its king.”

“...If I didn’t know any better, I’d think some crazy bastard was spouting nonsense, but... Haa... It is frightening because I feel you might actually do it.”

Hwang No-baek’s condition clearly did not look good. I appeared healthier than he did. He looked like the injured one.

“I do not want anything. If you have something to give me, then see that I receive it later.”

“Fine. I will do that.”

Yet Hwang No-baek seemed to have more questions.

“Tell me honestly.”

“What?”

“You’re an old master who underwent Rejuvenation, aren’t you?”

“...”

“The original Yi Do died long ago, and you changed your face with some kind of Face-Changing Art to act in his place. Right?”

“That is not the case.”

“If it is not, then how is that possible?”

Hwang No-baek pointed toward the dead Golden Heaven Divine Sword.

“I mean, he is not some ordinary martial artist passing by. He is an elder of the Emperor Sword Sect. How did you... What are you, really?”

It was the first time.

I had not known Hwang No-baek for very long to begin with, but it was truly the first time I had seen him so flustered.

“I was lucky.”

“...If luck were all it took, anyone could become the greatest under heaven through luck.”

I looked around.

It was a mess, but the hidden cave remained intact. I knew where the streams within this hidden cave led.

There was a large mountain behind the Yi Clan.

Jangnyeong County called that mountain Bewilderment Mountain. These streams undoubtedly led there.

“So, what will you do now?”

I looked at Hwang No-baek.

“You killed an elder of the Emperor Sword Sect. They will hunt you now. Honestly, aren’t you basically a living corpse?”

I burst out laughing.

“You can make jokes too.”

“I am not joking.”

“Fine, let us say you are not. But the Golden Heaven Divine Sword? I have no idea what you are talking about.”

“...What?”

“The Golden Heaven Divine Sword never came to Jangnyeong County. The world will learn that something happened on his way here, leaving his fate unknown.”

Hwang No-baek’s mouth fell open.

“Go back now. This is not over yet.”

“...Is it what I think it is?”

“I do not know what you are thinking, but it is probably that.”

“...Understood.”

Hwang No-baek got to his feet.

As he opened the iron door and prepared to leave, I spoke quietly.

“It has been quite difficult to get to eat Dongpo pork.”

“For crying out loud, you did not even come to eat it.”

“I might not go this time either.”

“...”

“Thank you. I will repay this debt.”

Hwang No-baek waved a hand.

“Forget it. What debt? Gaining one kind-hearted disciple is enough for me.”

Leaving only those words behind, Hwang No-baek went outside.

Alone, I sat down cross-legged.

The Golden Heaven Divine Sword never came to Jangnyeong County.

To make that true, I had to kill everyone who knew he had come here.

Slowly, I began circulating my qi.

I had never spared anyone who betrayed me.

Not once.

Footnotes:

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