WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Alyo
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◈ Memoir of a Regressor ◈
Chapter 55: The Radiant Cult
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The Radiant Cult was a religious order that had existed in the distant past. It had completely vanished from the world, only to reappear in the Righteous-Demonic War that would break out ten years later.
Its influence was immense.
Led by Great Elder Ak Nan-hyang, the organization drenched the Jeok Martial World in blood. In the end, however, time passed, and they were slaughtered one by one.
Naturally, the Orthodox Path would be the final victor of the Righteous-Demonic War. They would eventually wipe out every demonic fiend.
I looked at Ak Nan-hyang with brief pity.
I remembered her name because her end had been more pitiful than expected.
This also needed to be made clear. The Sword Sovereign was a martial artist.
There were two things he was mad about.
Martial arts, and women.
People believed that the Sword Sovereign was obsessed only with martial arts. They knew nothing else.
Even if they did know, they pretended not to. They had no choice.
Because he was strong.
Ak Nan-hyang was beautiful. That was an undeniable fact.
After losing all her martial arts, Ak Nan-hyang became the Sword Sovereign's plaything for three years. When he lost interest, he handed her over to a brothel. She spent two years there with all four limbs bound, until Myeong-hyeon, who pitied her, ended her life.
That was how she died.
“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
I was not particularly compassionate, nor was I the sort who could not tolerate injustice, but I could at least sympathize.
It was regrettable that such a confident woman would meet that end, but it was someone else's problem. She was neither my person nor someone connected to me.
I sheathed my sword.
“So you've finally cleared up your misunderstanding.”
“I believe you. But that is all.”
“Hm?”
“I have no interest in the Radiant Cult. Leave.”
“...Why wouldn't you be interested? Doesn't it surprise you that an order that disappeared centuries ago is still alive and well? You know what realm I'm at. This should interest you. Doesn't it?”
“I'm intrigued, but I have no interest in it.”
“Then why? If you're going to serve Dokgo Dan-ya in the Asura Sword Sect anyway, why not simply join our Radiant Cult...?”
“I serve Dokgo Dan-ya?”
The corner of Ak Nan-hyang's mouth twitched.
“Don't you?”
“If it looked that way, then I have even less reason to go.”
“...Well, look at this... Don't tell me... you're that kind of person?”
“I do not know what you mean by that, but you and I have nothing to do with one another. I will overlook what you did to the Hong Clan's caravan. I hope we have no further cause to become entangled.”
I was about to walk past her when she spoke.
“So you're an ambitious man?”
I stopped and turned around.
“You didn't use the Asura Sword Sect as your backing... You intend to swallow everything from the bottom up?”
Strictly speaking, it was a little different, but it was similar enough.
As I had said before, I was not the type to serve anyone. Even if I did, there was only one person.
I intended to serve only my master.
Myo Man-ri, Dokgo Dan-ya.
I would serve neither of them.
“I like you even more now. Since you yourself say you don't want it, I have nothing more to say.”
At some point, the torrential rain pouring from the sky had turned into a drizzle.
“Um, I think I have a rough idea of what kind of person you are... Shall we make a promise?”
“What promise?”
“If the Radiant Cult ever comes after you, it will never be the will of the entire Radiant Cult. And if that happens, I hope you won't regard it as a debt or grudge.”
Unexpectedly, Ak Nan-hyang was taking a humble stance.
The reason was obvious. She was leaving room for me. That great demonic fiend liked me far too much.
“But it feels a little strange to say all this empty-handed. There should be give and take between people.”
“What are you trying to say?”
Ak Nan-hyang smiled strangely.
“The Assassin Fortress has entered the Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect's service.”
I already knew that. Ak Nan-hyang continued.
“The Black Slaughter Ghost King, Mun Hu-do, Master of the Assassin Fortress, met directly with the Heaven-Breaking Fist Sect Leader and reached an agreement. The details were quite absurd. You could call it a deal... Do you know what it was?”
“I do not.”
“Gong Wi-ryang told Mun Hu-do to recruit several elders within the Asura Sword Sect as the condition for admission. Mun Hu-do said they would use any means necessary to kill you and asked Gong Wi-ryang to clean up afterward. You can see the picture, can't you?”
I could see it clearly enough.
“You don't need to thank me. Live a long life. When we meet again, we won't be enemies then either, just as we aren't now, so let's have a drink.”
Ak Nan-hyang turned away. The plum blossom pattern embroidered on her robe was particularly striking.
And now that I looked more closely, she had not reached the Five Qis Return to Origin Realm, but the Creation Realm.
I spoke to her.
“Ak Nan-hyang.”
She turned back.
“You gave me excessive information.”
“You do know.”
“I know well enough. So I will give you two pieces of information in return. Avoid any conflict with the Emperor Sword Sect. And if you are ever captured by the Emperor Sword Sect, kill yourself without hesitation. Even if your dantian is shattered and your limbs are restrained, develop a method that lets you burst your own heart and head with the smallest trace of internal energy.”
The longer I spoke, the deeper the furrows between Ak Nan-hyang's brows became.
Then what she said next surprised me somewhat.
“...That is a very strange thing to say. Just how much do you know?”
That meant Ak Nan-hyang also knew quite a lot about the Sword Sovereign. It was somewhat interesting.
I answered as though tossing out the words.
“I know about the Sword Sovereign's hobbies.”
“...”
“I have clearly warned you. No matter what you have done until now, if you wish to die at least as a martial artist, or as a person, remember my words.”
I turned away. My business here was finished.
I could feel Ak Nan-hyang's gaze on my back, but I did not react.
“Are you worried about me?”
I did not answer her.
Worried, my foot.
“I'll ask just one final question. I really hope you'll answer this one. Do you know about the Radiant Cult's current situation?”
I stopped walking and looked back.
“You think I would know?”
“...An outsider shouldn't know, but you seem to know. Do you know that the factions are divided as well?”
I did not answer.
But perhaps she read the answer from my expression, because Ak Nan-hyang burst out laughing in disbelief.
“So you do know. This is driving me mad. Truly.”
“Is there more to the point?”
“...There is now.”
“Go ahead.”
“If you don't want to join the Radiant Cult, how about joining hands with me personally?”
“What benefit would I gain from joining hands with you?”
“...Well, I haven't thought about that specifically, but wouldn't it benefit us both in many ways? Whether we cause trouble or get swept up in it, as long as you and I are in the martial world, wouldn't it be reassuring to have each other as allies?”
“You belong to an unstable organization.”
Ak Nan-hyang pressed her lips together.
“Your enemies would become my enemies. You need to offer a benefit worth bearing that burden. Simply saying that we should become allies and have each other's backs is not a concrete answer. Why should I accept that proposal?”
Above all, the Asura Sword Sect was unstable now. Should I join hands with someone from the equally unstable Radiant Cult?
Serve under them? Belong there?
There had to be a limit to foolish choices.
“...You're a difficult man.”
“There is no reason to join hands with someone I cannot trust.”
“You should at least give me a chance to earn that trust.”
“Am I not giving you one now?”
Ak Nan-hyang tilted her head.
“Bring me an offer tempting enough to sway me. Then I will at least consider it.”
I turned away and walked on in silence.
I could feel Ak Nan-hyang watching me, but ignored it.
That was how I crossed Bibong Mountain and arrived at the entrance to Three Phoenix County.
A man stood there, drenched from head to toe by the rain. Water dripped from him in streams. I could roughly guess how long he had been standing there.
Un Do-hyeon performed a cupped-fist salute.
“You have worked hard.”
I nodded.
“Let's go in.”
“Yes.”
* * *
Yi Do knew an enormous number of martial arts.
Not only martial arts that had been lost in the past, but also the arts practiced by many martial artists still alive in the present.
There were two reasons he had come to know them all.
The first was that he had killed so many people. Most of those martial artists carried their secret manuals in their breast pockets. It was likely their wish that the art would be passed on to someone, somehow. Yi Do had acquired quite a few martial arts this way.
The Scarlet Dragon Divine Art of the Scarlet Dragon Divine Lord, commander of the Martial Alliance's Azure Dragon Corps, was one such case.
The other reason was that, in his previous life, Yi Do's enemies had been many organizations.
Among them were the Emperor Sword Sect and the Martial Alliance.
Other groups were large as well, but these two were the largest. They were also the hardest to deal with.
What was interesting was that, while attacking those two organizations, Yi Do had learned their secrets.
Both organizations collected martial arts.
Not only Orthodox Path arts, but Demonic arts as well.
Beneath the Emperor Sword Sect's Heavenly Archives Pavilion was a secret space containing countless Demonic arts and the martial arts of martial artists from the past.
Then there was the Martial Arts Archive, which only the Alliance Leader and Deputy Alliance Leader of the Martial Alliance could enter.
Yi Do had gone in and out of both places many times. That was how he learned those martial arts. Lost arts of Mount Hua, the Jeomchang Sect, even the Beggars' Sect and Shaolin.
Neither organization was clean.
Yi Do did not defend himself. He had no regrets about what he had done, nor did he care how others perceived it.
There were debts and grudges, and he had repaid them.
The fact that he had never once denied being called the Martial World's Public Enemy was proof enough.
However.
There were those who, unlike Yi Do, had been branded demonic fiends despite having committed no crime.
Many powerful martial artists, overflowing with chivalry and devoted to righteousness, had been hunted down by the Martial Alliance and Emperor Sword Sect.
One such person was the Sword Emperor, one of the Ten Great Masters of the Jeok Martial World.
The Sword Emperor, Sim Seon-ryong.
He was the last descendant of the Changnyeong Sword Sect, which had been wiped out in the past. He was a martial artist who had died roughly twenty years before this point in time, after being branded a demonic fiend for allegedly massacring three county-level administrative regions of Jeok Nation for “no reason.”
In truth, the Heavenly Emperor of the Martial Alliance had committed those acts while searching for spiritual medicine, then simply pinned them on him. He was hunted down. Until the moment he died, he cried out that he was innocent, but no one listened.
The people who ruled the martial world wanted it that way. There was no way to overturn it.
He used a sword art called the Five Elements True Sword Formula. Every time he swung his sword, the energy of the Five Elements would visibly take shape and rip apart everything in the sword's path at once.
That was the Five Elements True Sword Formula Un Do-hyeon was practicing now. His level was still dreadful, but he would improve with time.
“Un Do-hyeon.”
He stopped his sword.
“Yes, Branch Leader.”
“That is enough for now. Are there any parts of the cultivation method that are giving you trouble?”
Un Do-hyeon shook his head.
“There are none, but my level is still shallow. I have not yet been able to fully sense the Five Elements.”
That was understandable.
“You are still at Five Dragons Honoring the Sage. Once you reach the Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, you will improve further. Consume a few of the spiritual medicines over there.”
“...Thank you.”
Yi Do knew himself.
He was not without talent for teaching others, but he was not particularly good at it either.
Still, experience could not be ignored. Since he had already reached the Creation Realm, he believed he could at least point out a few flaws and mistakes related to martial arts.
That was when it happened.
“Ah, so this is where you are.”
At the unfamiliar voice, Yi Do and Un Do-hyeon turned their heads at the same time.
A man stood at the entrance to the basement.
The robes Yi Do and Un Do-hyeon wore were those of martial artists from the Asura Sword Sect. They were marked by a cart and flames. The man's robe also bore a distinctive design.
A white cart with golden flames.
Within the Asura Sword Sect, gold represented figures of elder or sect leader rank.
A red cart with golden flames denoted an elder. A golden cart with golden flames denoted the sect leader.
A white cart with golden flames, like the man before them wore, denoted a Protector.
“Pleased to meet you. I am Yi Maeng-rip, Elder Neung-don's direct Protector.”
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