WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Episode 7: The Principle of Attachment (4)
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“You finally switched to the second young master’s side... but this fake did not cooperate with you and killed the second young master’s guard. What are you going to do now?”
The moment Guard Gam heard Mok GyeongUn’s words, his expression stiffened.
The death of Jo Il-sang, Mok EunPyeong’s bodyguard warrior.
He had considered that the least likely possibility.
A warrior on the verge of reaching Advanced could not be dealt with through brute strength alone.
‘Impossible.’
Guard Gam stared at Mok GyeongUn with unsteady eyes.
It was impossible, yet he could not disbelieve it.
The fact that Mok GyeongUn knew he had changed sides, and that he had told the second young master Mok GyeongUn had lost his Martial Arts, proved it.
“You... really...”
“Yes. I killed them.”
“How did you kill someone nearing Advanced...?”
“I hung them upside down and cut their throat.”
“What?”
“They pitifully begged me to spare them. Master or not, I suppose they didn’t want to die.”
Mok GyeongUn smiled as he said that.
When Guard Gam met his eyes, a chill ran down his spine.
Mok GyeongUn’s vicious gaze seemed to be tightening around him.
‘This bastard really is...’
A killing fiend.
He was reminded once more that this impostor was a death-row convict who had slaughtered countless people.
Guard Gam had once been an assassin who killed many people himself, but he had quit because he disliked killing and had grown sick of it.
Yet this bastard belonged to an entirely different realm.
He enjoyed keeping death close at hand.
‘Damn it.’
Guard Gam’s thoughts became tangled.
Mok EunPyeong had given him four hours.
He had ordered Guard Gam to find Jo Il-sang, his bodyguard, within that time. Yet Jo Il-sang was already dead.
The boast he had made while wagering his arm had become meaningless.
This was the worst possible situation.
[If you fail to find Jo Il-sang, you should be prepared to give up not only your arm, but that pathetic life of yours.]
Mok EunPyeong’s killing intent-filled warning lingered in his mind.
‘Just when I finally changed sides.’
His new connection had been severed in less than a day.
Who could have expected such an absurd situation?
Guard Gam’s mouth went dry.
Then, suddenly...
‘...Did this bastard kill him on purpose?’
Thinking about it, that had to be it.
Since he was an impostor, he had to be careful in all things.
No matter how unpredictable he was, someone as cunning as him could not possibly have been unaware of his own circumstances.
Yet he had killed the second young master’s bodyguard.
‘He killed Mok EunPyeong’s bodyguard because I abandoned him and changed sides. Ha...’
It was truly unbelievable.
How could he be this cunning?
By killing Mok EunPyeong’s bodyguard, he had driven Guard Gam into a corner.
Now he could no longer switch to another young master.
Who would trust him?
Clench!
Once he understood this cunning bastard’s intent, his fist tightened.
A killing fiend who had not even learned Martial Arts had backed him into such a corner.
‘Because of this bastard, everything I prepared...’
Had gone to waste.
He was furious.
“You certainly go through many emotions. Your face is red, so I suppose you’re angry.”
Guard Gam glared at Mok GyeongUn at his mocking voice.
He wanted to kill this bastard immediately.
No, should he kill him?
Mok EunPyeong would seek his life anyway, so there was little point in remaining at Yeonmok Sword Manor...
‘Ah!’
Guard Gam’s gaze fell on his chest.
Inside his clothes were the cover of the Yeonmok Heart-Transforming Method and two inner pages from it.
The instant he saw those two pages, Guard Gam realized it.
This was the genuine manual.
‘That bastard Go Chan kept their mouth shut until the end, but the fact that Go Chan had this...’
It meant Mok GyeongUn had obtained the martial arts book.
How had he obtained it?
The question arose, but that was not what mattered.
Thrust!
Guard Gam pressed his Dagger against Mok GyeongUn’s ribs and whispered,
“You have the rest of the martial arts book, don’t you?”
“The martial arts book?”
Tap! Tap!
Guard Gam struck his own chest.
“This. This.”
“Ah, that?”
“Yes.”
“Of course I have it.”
Color immediately returned to Guard Gam’s face.
Even when the heavens collapsed, there was always a way out.
‘It’s done. It’s done!’
The Manor Lord’s life hung by a thread.
As no successor had been chosen, the retainers were divided in their opinions.
In such a situation, a blood relative who possessed the martial arts book only the Manor Lord could learn, or had learned that Martial Arts, could be considered closest to becoming the successor.
‘It can pay for my life.’
Mok EunPyeong would have no choice but to covet this martial arts book as well.
If he obtained it, he could offset the price of his dead bodyguard, Jo Il-sang.
Thrust!
Guard Gam pressed the Dagger closer.
“I won’t waste words. If you don’t want to die, hand over the martial arts book.”
“You seem to need that martial arts book badly.”
“I don’t have time for wordplay with you.”
“Are you in such a desperate position?”
“You must be madly eager to die.”
“Not at all. I’m simply asking whether it’s all right for you to threaten me like this when I don’t seem to be the desperate one.”
Guard Gam snorted at Mok GyeongUn’s words.
“Don’t think I’m like Go Chan or Jo Il-sang. Killing you here so you cannot even make a sound would be nothing to me.”
Though he had retired, he had once been an assassin.
He knew dozens, no, hundreds of ways to kill someone.
And he was an Advanced master.
There was a clear gap between someone nearing Advanced and a true Advanced master.
He could kill the likes of Jo Il-sang with one hand.
“Do not provoke me any further.”
“How frightening...”
Stab!
Before Mok GyeongUn could finish speaking, the tip of the Dagger lightly pierced the flesh between his ribs.
“I won’t ask again. If you refuse to speak of the martial arts book, I will drive this Dagger all the way in. If it enters between these ribs, you will die instantly.”
“...You’ll suffer a greater loss if I die here.”
As he spoke, Mok GyeongUn nodded toward the Medicine house workers.
He was asking whether Guard Gam could truly kill him while they watched.
Guard Gam let out a faint breath.
“Phew.”
Then...
Whoosh!
He released Mok GyeongUn and shot toward the workers in the Medicine house.
His movement was so swift that he reached them in an instant, then buried his Dagger in their vital acupoints with hand movements swift as lightning.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Medicine house workers died instantly, their vital acupoints pierced.
Despite the Daggers embedded in them, there was barely any blood, nor did they cry out.
It was clean work, befitting a former assassin.
‘The second young master can handle the deaths of three Medicine house workers.’
Guard Gam was certain Mok EunPyeong, unlike him, could silence everyone involved.
That was why he was willing to take this risk.
“Are you still certain I cannot kill you?”
Guard Gam spoke as he approached Mok GyeongUn.
At this point, even this bastard should feel some tension.
But then...
Snicker!
‘He’s smiling?’
Mok GyeongUn was smiling.
Three Medicine house workers had died in an instant.
Yet he was smiling after seeing that?
“You truly fail to grasp reality. It seems you will only open your mouth after experiencing pain yourself.”
Whoosh!
Guard Gam used the Body-Lightening Technique and closed the distance in an instant.
Then he used a grappling hold on Mok GyeongUn.
Wham! Wham! Wham! Wham!
Guard Gam seized Mok GyeongUn’s arm and twisted it behind his back. He gripped one finger on Mok GyeongUn’s right hand, held the Dagger against it, and said,
“You seem rather resistant to pain.”
Guard Gam recalled the first time he had seen Mok GyeongUn.
Even while trapped behind wooden bars and pelted with stones by onlookers, he had not let out a single groan.
He had considered him a stubborn bastard then.
“But even if you are stubborn, that does not mean you feel no pain. I know how to maximize that pain.”
Stab!
The Dagger pierced his finger.
Guard Gam smiled coldly.
“I will shave the flesh off your fingers strip by strip, as though peeling fruit. It will be pain you have never experienced in your life.”
“Is that so?”
“Let’s see how long you can keep acting so relaxed.”
Guard Gam tried to draw the edge of the Dagger upward.
Then Mok GyeongUn spoke.
“Before you begin, there is something I should tell you.”
The corner of Guard Gam’s mouth slowly rose.
Of course.
No matter if he was a killing fiend, he was only seventeen.
Even if he pretended to be calm, he could not help but fear the pain to come in this situation.
“Speak.”
“I was wondering how I should put it to use. I’m grateful.”
“What?”
What kind of nonsense was that?
Put what to use?
‘!?’
At that moment, Guard Gam felt something strange.
His palm, which held Mok GyeongUn’s finger, felt as though something had adhered to it.
Thinking he had simply gripped too tightly, he loosened his hand slightly.
Stick!
His palm remained stuck to Mok GyeongUn’s finger.
‘What the...’
Sensing something was wrong, Guard Gam drew up his Force of ki in an attempt to pull his palm away.
But then...
Whoooosh!
The internal energy he had concentrated in his palm began to drain away.
“Gasp!”
Guard Gam could not help but panic at the sudden phenomenon.
His hand was stuck, his internal energy was rapidly draining away, and even the flow of his ki circulation was being disrupted, making it difficult to pull his palm free.
A considerable amount of internal energy had already been sucked away.
His left hand and arm, which held Mok GyeongUn’s finger, were beginning to weaken.
‘Where did this bastard learn such sorcery?’
This was not Martial Arts of the orthodox path.
Absorbing another person’s internal energy?
A tenth of his internal energy had already been drained. If this continued, something terrible might truly happen.
“Let go!”
Guard Gam gripped the Dagger in reverse and tried to strike Mok GyeongUn’s neck with his fist.
He intended to knock him unconscious.
But Mok GyeongUn twisted his neck, taking the blow on his shoulder.
Cough!
Yet an Advanced master was still an Advanced master.
Mok GyeongUn coughed up blood from the impact of a fist laden with internal energy.
Still, he did not release his finger.
“Grrr! You bastard!”
Thump! Thump!
Enraged, Guard Gam repeatedly struck Mok GyeongUn’s neck and back.
Mok GyeongUn suffered beneath the fists laden with internal energy, yet he held on until the end.
‘This stubborn bastard!’
At last, Guard Gam drove the Dagger between Mok GyeongUn’s ribs.
Stab!
“Ghk!”
As the Dagger sank halfway between his ribs, Mok GyeongUn’s breathing stopped, and the movement of Adhesion was broken.
The instant the adhesion vanished, Guard Gam kicked Mok GyeongUn in the back and created distance.
Thump!
Tap tap tap tap!
Guard Gam retreated about seven steps, his face pale as he stared at his palm.
No internal energy could be felt in his violently trembling left hand.
He could circulate his ki and restore it, but he had never felt such an unsettling sensation before.
Guard Gam glared at the staggering Mok GyeongUn.
“What was that? What sorcery did you learn?”
“Huff... Huff...”
Mok GyeongUn gripped the Dagger embedded between his ribs, staggered, then barely managed to steady himself.
“You truly are... Advanced.”
“Speak. What was that just now?”
“It seems it will be difficult to deal with you using this alone.”
Grit!
Guard Gam ground his teeth.
Did this insolent bastard think that because his sorcery had worked briefly, he could do something to him?
If so, he was mistaken.
Guard Gam circulated his ki, pulled out a Dagger, and took an opening stance.
There would be no more carelessness.
‘Let’s see whether you can still pull that nonsense after all your limbs have been cut off.’
Whoosh!
Guard Gam shot toward Mok GyeongUn, who had only just regained his footing.
As long as he avoided making palm contact, he could deal with Mok GyeongUn.
Thud! Stab!
The Dagger Guard Gam threw embedded itself in Mok GyeongUn’s thigh.
Mok GyeongUn staggered.
Not missing that chance, Guard Gam drew another Dagger hidden at his wrist and prepared to hurl it at Mok GyeongUn’s shoulder.
That was when it happened.
“Demonic Monk.”
Shiver!
The moment the words left his mouth, Guard Gam felt his entire body break out in goosebumps. Something behind him seemed to reach for his wrist.
Startled, Guard Gam lowered his arm and threw himself sideways to escape the eerie sensation.
Then he looked back.
‘!?’
Guard Gam furrowed his brow.
He had clearly felt a chilling, bizarre sensation behind him, yet there was nothing there.
‘What did this bastard do?’
He could see nothing, so what was this strange feeling?
As Guard Gam looked toward Mok GyeongUn, he asked,
“What did you just do?”
Mok GyeongUn calmly replied,
“What are you asking about?”
“Do not play dumb. Something behind me clearly tried to seize my wrist.”
“Your senses are certainly sharp.”
“...So you did do something.”
“Well, it was not me. This friend did it.”
“This friend?”
What did that mean?
Could there truly be an accomplice?
Guard Gam heightened his Ki sense and searched his surroundings. Mok GyeongUn spoke casually.
“Since you are curious, I will show you. Demonic Monk.”
The instant he finished speaking...
Fwoooosh!
‘!!!!!!!!!’
Guard Gam doubted his own eyes.
A massive monk wearing blood-soaked robes and a skull prayer-bead necklace appeared before his very eyes like a heat shimmer. The monk looked down at him with a chilling glint in their eyes.
‘W-what in the world...?’
Unless his eyes were deceiving him, this was no living human.
It was like a ghost...
That was when it happened.
Stab!
Something passed through the monk and embedded itself in the center of his chest.
It was a Dagger.
That should do it.
Fwoooosh!
As those words were spoken, the monk’s body blurred and vanished. Behind it stood Mok GyeongUn, posed as though he had thrown something.
‘Th-this...’
Guard Gam looked down at the Dagger lodged in his chest.
He had protected his body with internal energy, but the internal energy imbued in the Dagger had driven it deeply in.
Guard Gam muttered with a dumbfounded expression.
How?
Mok GyeongUn smiled at him.
“The Dagger and the internal energy were both yours.”
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