WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Oblivious

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◈ Murim in my Hometown ◈

Chapter 50: Gap

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“Isn’t that what I should be asking? How did an opium merchant like you learn an Internal Energy Method?”

I draped my long saber over my shoulder like some carefree bladesman and calmly threw the question back at him.

Inside, I quietly swallowed a sigh of relief.

I had almost ended up as food for the wild beasts here.

Pyo Holdeuk was skilled enough to fight Bok Hagyu on equal terms and even land a blow on him.

Of course, a real fight was not a spar. Skill alone did not decide victory or defeat.

All kinds of tricks and underhanded methods ran rampant, and sometimes absurd misfortune or blind luck created the strange result of an expert losing to someone weaker.

Since mastering all the way through the Latter Eighteen Forms of the Heavenly Steel Saber Method, I had made considerable progress. After closely watching Pyo Holdeuk's swordsmanship, I judged that I would not lose.

If necessary, I had planned to use inner energy.

Pyo Holdeuk was alone as he fled, and I was alone in pursuit. There was no one to see us.

My inner energy was precious, but if it let me meet Jeok Chuyeong, this was no time to conserve it.

I had never imagined Pyo Holdeuk could use inner energy too.

Judging by how he had not fled far and instead waited for me in a clearing halfway up the mountain, it seemed he had been thinking the same thing.

He must have planned to use inner energy to kill me, then return and ambush Bok Hagyu's group.

He had come all this way for the opium. There was no way he would give up so easily.

“For an opium merchant to be an expert skilled enough to use inner energy... I don't know what sect you belong to, but it's pathetic.”

I had not said it expecting an answer.

I was just rambling to buy time to increase the amount of inner energy I was circulating.

Perhaps the clumsy provocation worked. Pyo Holdeuk's face twitched.

“It is Tianshan's martial lineage. It is not something a bladesman like you dares belittle.”

“...You're from the Demonic Cult?”

His identity was so unexpected that I stood there dumbfounded.

Thinking about it, it finally made sense. No wonder all three of them had been so strong.

“You know nothing about Tianshan either. Then again, all Central Plains bastards are the same.”

Pyo Holdeuk raised his sword and lowered his stance.

“Wait. Is the Explosive Heat Fist Demon still alive?”

“Go to hell and ask him.”

Pyo Holdeuk's eyes flashed as he rushed in. He was agile enough to bring a tiger or leopard to mind.

Circulating inner energy did not merely improve speed and strength. As my body became faster, my eyes improved as well.

I followed Pyo Holdeuk's movements and the path of his sword, then raised my long saber over my head. Drawing a semicircle, I put my weight behind it and made a long horizontal cut.

Just before I could sever the sword thrusting upward from below, Pyo Holdeuk lowered one knee and twisted his wrist.

The sword tip turned sideways, and my long saber sliced through empty air.

Without stopping, I used footwork to move to Pyo Holdeuk's left side and spun around once.

I took his blind spot in an instant and thrust my long saber forward.

Pyo Holdeuk did not retreat. He leaned his upper body back, knocked the saber tip aside with his sword to scatter its trajectory, and counterattacked.

A battle fought with inner energy was incredibly fast.

The force carried by our weapons was heavy as well, and every clash of saber and sword rang out like metal bells.

How would this fight between Pyo Holdeuk and me look to martial artists who could not use inner energy?

They would probably be left gaping at a battle too fast for the eye to follow.

No wonder martial artists went mad whenever they heard the words Internal Energy Method.

Using inner energy had made our conditions equal, but Pyo Holdeuk was still no easy opponent.

He was the bastard who had killed a Martial Alliance Inspector with a single thrust from behind. He had not been pushed back at all in his fight with Bok Hagyu.

I had made my living by the blade and been through every kind of hardship, but what kind of life had this son of a bitch lived in Tianshan for his sword tip to be so filthy?

Won Seogang's swordsmanship had also been extremely troublesome, but this demon bastard's sword was vile enough to make even Buddha see red.

He pressed me so fiercely that I could not find even the smallest opening to punch or kick him.

Every fierce clash consumed a handful of my inner energy.

I had only trained for a short time, so my efficiency was poor, but the inner energy was draining fast enough to chill me to the bone.

It was on a completely different level from practicing the saber method by feeding inner energy into individual forms.

I could understand why Pyo Holdeuk was attacking so desperately. I wanted to finish this as quickly as possible too, if only to save inner energy.

“Haap!”

With a shout, Pyo Holdeuk unleashed a fierce series of thrusts.

The speed and force of the incoming strikes were terrifying from however much inner energy he had poured into them.

The storm of sword strikes was so overwhelming that I could barely knock them away and defend myself, much less counterattack.

I desperately swung my long saber as I retreated, but my left shoulder suddenly burned.

Seeing blood, Pyo Holdeuk pressed forward with even greater momentum.

Pyo Holdeuk was older than me, so he had probably trained his inner energy for longer.

That meant the density and depth of his inner energy, as well as his efficiency in controlling inner qi, had to be a level above mine.

I grew anxious, but I could not draw out any more inner energy here. Even now, I was circulating as much as I normally could.

If I forced my inner energy beyond its limits and my qi and blood flowed backward, I would be finished.

I calmly knocked away the sword strikes and endured, waiting for a chance to counterattack.

Fortunately, like rain weakening after a heavy downpour, Pyo Holdeuk's momentum gradually faded.

I tilted my head at the feeling that his sword tip had become dull.

He was slow. Both his reactions and movements.

The moment I realized what that meant, a shiver shot to the top of my head.

His inner energy had run dry... after barely more than thirty exchanges.

That incredible flurry from earlier must have been a decisive gamble in which he poured in all his remaining inner energy.

I had used up a great deal of inner energy too, but I still had about half left.

Pyo Holdeuk had not used inner energy back down there. He had already landed a blow on Bok Hagyu, so there was no need to waste it.

Once inner energy was used, it was gone. To replenish it, one needed to obtain precious spirit herbs. It was best not to use it unless necessary.

Even after Geuk Hwan and I intervened and drove him into a corner, he had chosen to flee rather than use inner energy. Now I thought I understood why.

He did not have much inner energy to begin with.

If he could use it to cut down an opponent at once, that would be fine.

But if either Geuk Hwan or I could use inner energy, the fight would have dragged on like this. If his inner energy ran out, he would have had no answer.

He had judged that he could not bear such a risk and retreated into the mountains first.

I took a deep breath, opened my eyes wide, and stared at Pyo Holdeuk.

Now it was my turn.

I pushed off the ground and charged boldly.

Despair filled Pyo Holdeuk's face as he gritted his teeth.

I struck like lightning to finish it.

Pyo Holdeuk retreated and desperately pressed his sword tip against my blade, trying to redirect it.

It was an exquisite move, but he was overwhelmed by speed and strength and could not bring out its full power.

I shook off the sword strike and made a wide cut from left to right.

Pyo Holdeuk threw himself back to barely evade it, then aimed for my lower body. I kicked off the ground, leaped up, and swung my long saber downward.

Pyo Holdeuk rolled across the ground in terror.

A moment ago, when Pyo Holdeuk used inner energy, I had been driven into a corner. Now the situation was exactly reversed.

Pyo Holdeuk could not keep up with my movements, and he was weaker in strength as well.

Growing confident, I relentlessly unleashed the Heavenly Steel Saber Method’s ultimate techniques, modifying them into countless variations.

Each time I slashed upward, thrust, or swung my saber, Pyo Holdeuk's vital points drew a little closer to the blade.

His sword finally flew from his hand, and his upper body was left open.

Without the slightest hesitation, I slipped into his blind spot and swung my long saber.

Slice!

I knew it was over from the familiar resistance I felt through the blade.

Prepared for a possible counterattack, I turned as I swung my saber again.

The headless corpse slowly toppled backward. Pyo Holdeuk's head flew into the nearby brush.

Thud.

The corpse sprawled across the ground.

I steadied my breathing and flicked the blood from my long saber. As I approached, I frowned.

The fingers of the corpse gripping the sword twitched.

It was enough to make anyone seeing it for the first time panic and wet themselves.

He was not alive.

Fresh corpses sometimes did things like this. Some moved their feet, while others had chests that rose and fell as though they were breathing.

I had even seen air whistle out through a hole in the bloody cross-section of a severed neck.

I did not know why. Maybe men who had lived such fucked up lives could not even die peacefully.

The fingers soon stopped moving.

I was about to wipe the remaining blood from my long saber on his clothes when I paused.

The Martial Alliance Inspector's official uniform Pyo Holdeuk wore was something I needed for my deal with Bok Hagyu.

I stuck my long saber into the ground, removed the uniform, and rolled it up. I wiped the bloodied saber on the padded clothes he wore beneath it, then sheathed it.

I tucked the inspector's identity plaque and seal into my clothes. I also took the money pouch and a bag containing various belongings.

His sword looked useful too, but the corpse was gripping it tightly, as if saying that this was the one thing I could not take.

Was that why his fingers had twitched earlier, to protect this? Pyo Holdeuk really was a martial artist to the bone.

Still, I could not leave an expensive sword behind.

I straightened his fingers one by one, then picked up the sword.

As my excitement faded, my wounded left shoulder began to throb.

I slipped my fingers through the torn clothes and examined the wound. It was shallow, little more than a graze.

To get away with only this much injury against such an expert was truly incredible luck.

I took a small bamboo tube of Gold Wound Medicine from my clothes. I applied the medicine to the wound and wrapped it in bandages.

Awooow.

Perhaps they had smelled the blood. Wolves howled not far away.

As my body cooled, a bone-deep chill swept over me. The mountains, their unmelted frost dried white against the ground, were as cold as midwinter.

The sun set quickly in the mountains. I had to hurry if I wanted to get down before dark.

Carrying my spoils, I started retracing the path I had taken.

As I passed through a thick patch of brush, I climbed onto a rock. The scenery around me did not match my memory.

I went back up the path and descended in another direction. This time, I came across a steep cliff.

I had no idea where I was.

I must have forgotten the way I came while fighting so frantically.

Clouds covered the sky, hiding the sun. I could not tell which direction was which.

As I walked while studying the shape and terrain of the mountain, I sensed something following behind me.

I quieted my steps and hid beside a rock. When I cautiously peeked out, I met the eyes of a wolf crouching in the distance.

Patchy fur. A belly clinging to its ribs.

It was an old wolf that had been driven out or abandoned by its pack.

The wolf stared at me with the whites of its eyes showing. Drool gathered around its mouth and dripped down.

Being old and weak, it did not attack easily.

It would probably just keep following me stubbornly, salivating as it waited for me to collapse from exhaustion.

By now, the wolves had likely claimed Pyo Holdeuk's headless corpse.

“Get lost!”

After shouting at it once, I continued up the mountain path.

Just as I began wondering whether I should find a cave, start a fire, and warm myself up, I spotted something moving.

It was beyond a nearby ridge.

I drew up inner energy to sharpen my vision, and I saw a way out of the mountains.

Two large carriages were moving slowly along the official road. I headed in that direction.

Following the mountain path down, I had to make a long detour before finally reaching the official road.

The old wolf did not leave the mountain. No matter how hungry it was, it had never left the forest. That was probably how it had survived until now.

“Phewww.”

My strength suddenly drained away, and a languid exhaustion washed over me.

It had been a day in which I gained much and had much to reflect on.

I did not know how much time had passed, but I had found the road. Even if night fell on the way, I would soon be home.

As I walked along the official road, a carriage appeared behind me. I moved to the roadside so I would not be trampled by the horses.

The carriage that had passed in a gust of wind suddenly stopped. Someone opened the window and leaned out. It was a young woman.

“It has been a while, hasn't it? Why do you look like that? Did you roll around with bandits again?”

It was a familiar voice.

Maybe I was tired from climbing mountains and fighting so fiercely. For some reason, a wistful ache filled me, and I unconsciously muttered like I was complaining to myself.

“...Noona?”

The woman narrowed her eyes as though I were being ridiculous.

“You have become awfully shameless since I last saw you. Who are you calling noona? Your face has aged far more than mine. Do you happen to prefer older women?”

I shook my head to clear it and looked again.

A cold beauty, her looks blooming as though she had met her season, glared at me with clear eyes.

The Tang Clan member who had come to Seochon a few months ago in pursuit of a traitor before returning to Sichuan.

It was Dang Hyeseo.

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