WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Episode 16: Corpse-Blood Valley (3)
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People said that once you lost the battle of wills, it was over.
The burly-looking boy was so thoroughly overwhelmed by Mok GyeongUn’s cruel methods that they could not even think of attacking.
No, it would be more accurate to say they were seized by fear and terror.
Mok GyeongUn smiled at the boy.
“If you do not hurry, you will not find one of these.”
Mok GyeongUn waved the blood-soaked iron bead.
The burly-looking boy turned to run back toward the valley as though they had suddenly realized something.
But perhaps their legs had given out, and they fell.
After stumbling several times, the boy finally forced strength into their legs and made it back into the valley.
Splash! Splash!
Yet they were not the only one turning back.
About three others returned to the valley with startled expressions. Like the burly boy, they had been waiting to snatch the first iron bead.
But they too had been frightened by Mok GyeongUn.
‘...He is completely insane.’
‘No matter what, how could he do that?’
‘He killed someone without hesitation to save himself and take it.’
Even the way he had killed the boy was enough to leave them speechless.
The fear that they might suffer the same fate if they carelessly provoked him had taken root in them.
“Ha...”
Someone watching the scene let out a breath of admiration.
It was the man in the Evil Spirit Mask whom the red-sashed warriors called the Valley Lord.
One of the warriors beside him spoke.
“...It seems a real find has entered this time.”
“Indeed.”
“I have never seen it unfold this way. The true culling should have begun with that first iron bead.”
It was not simply a matter of who found an iron bead first.
The number of iron beads being fewer than the contestants, and the torches being extinguished, had all been carefully calculated.
The first iron bead was the signal flare for the culling.
A fight would break out over that single bead, making everyone realize something.
Finding an iron bead was not enough.
The true issue was how to protect it and bring it to the censer.
Yet the beginning had unfolded differently.
“His methods are one thing, but his strength is extraordinary as well. Even with the Golden Gate Locks sealing his ki gateways, he tore out an Adam’s apple that easily.”
Most of the warriors were astonished by Mok GyeongUn’s cruel methods and strength.
But the Evil Spirit Mask found something else interesting.
‘He obtained an iron bead without getting a single drop of water on his clothes.’
It was the first time he had seen such a thing since taking charge of Corpse-Blood Valley.
No one had ever obtained an iron bead without even entering the water.
After killing someone as an example and burning incense to impose a time limit, no matter how clever they were, they would normally leap into the valley stream.
Yet while everyone else ran, that boy alone had stayed where he was.
‘He had been aiming for this from the beginning... Interesting.’
Had there ever been someone so clever throughout all the times this gate had been held?
It was not something anyone could do without considerable nerve.
Thinking of it that way, even the boy’s cruel methods might have been deliberately calculated.
In the meantime, Mok GyeongUn approached the censer.
“Is this enough?”
Mok GyeongUn showed the bloodstained iron bead to the Evil Spirit Mask seated on a rock.
The Evil Spirit Mask nodded and called out.
“Pass!”
Then he spoke.
“You... What is your name?”
‘!’
The warriors nearby showed surprise at the question.
It was quite rare for the Valley Lord to take enough interest in someone to ask their name during the First Gate of Corpse-Blood Valley.
Mok GyeongUn answered.
“Mok GyeongUn.”
The eyes visible through the mask’s slits narrowed.
‘Mok GyeongUn?’
With over eight hundred people present, he had not memorized every individual.
But he remembered the name Mok GyeongUn.
He had received orders to let the boy join later than the others.
‘...One of the two from the Mok Family brought here as hostages.’
That surprised him again.
He had naturally assumed the boy came from the Matching Vista Sect, Scarlet Slaughter Valley, Flower Hat House, or some other notorious group selected for this.
Yet he was from Yeonmok Sword Manor, a renowned martial family of the orthodox path.
The Evil Spirit Mask recalled what had happened only an hour earlier.
[What? You want the hostages brought from Yeonmok Sword Manor sent into Corpse-Blood Valley as well?]
[It is the Council Head’s order.]
[If it is an order, I will naturally obey. But are you certain? This is not a place where weak members of the orthodox path can endure.]
[That is not your concern. Carry out the order.]
[Understood.]
He had not minded if the plan was to torment them a little before killing them.
But seeing this changed his mind.
As expected, the Council Head would not have sent him without reason.
‘So this is why. Still, it is unexpected.’
Had he not known the boy was from Yeonmok Sword Manor, he would never have thought him a member of the force of justice.
Everything about his bearing made him seem better suited to this side.
‘Watching him will tell me soon enough.’
If he truly belonged on this side, he would survive somehow in Corpse-Blood Valley, the place called hell.
The Evil Spirit Mask stared at Mok GyeongUn, then took something from his robes.
“Catch.”
He flicked it at Mok GyeongUn with a finger.
Whoosh!
The object flew precisely toward Mok GyeongUn’s chest.
Mok GyeongUn snatched it out of the air with one hand.
‘What is this?’
It was a thin, round Silver Medallion engraved with [One].
“This is the pass medallion for completing this gate in first place. Keep it together with the iron bead you brought.”
‘A gate? First place?’
Mok GyeongUn looked at the Silver Medallion in puzzlement.
The use of the term first place allowed him to infer one thing.
‘It is a competition?’
[Listen carefully. The chance of arriving at Corpse-Blood Valley and surviving intact is not even one in ten.]
Based on what the Taoist occultist Jo Ui-gong had said, this seemed to be a system where only the survivors of a competition remained.
Two had already died.
No, if his guess was correct, a bloody competition would begin in earnest very soon.
Splash! Splash!
Mok GyeongUn’s prediction proved exactly right.
Someone else found an iron bead.
Some had seen the trouble caused when the first boy foolishly cheered, so this time there was no such thing.
The instant the boy found it, they bolted from the stream.
It was certainly the right choice, but...
“He found one!”
“Get him!”
They had made themself too conspicuous.
Running out of the stream alone naturally drew attention.
Ten-odd boys rushed at them at once.
“Damn it!”
They fled in a panic.
Then someone sprang from the water, seized their neck, and snapped it just as Mok GyeongUn had done.
Crack! Splash!
The second death followed.
The person took the iron bead from the dead boy, then beckoned at the boys rushing forward and warned them.
“Those who want to die, come forward.”
The eighteen-year-old boy had taken off his shirt, revealing a sturdy body covered in bizarre patterns.
The boys who recognized them could only curse and stop themselves from charging in.
“Damn it!”
“It is Scarlet Slaughter Valley.”
Scarlet Slaughter Valley.
It was one of the three most notorious groups beneath the Heaven and Earth Society.
Though it had only around thirty disciples, every one of them was an exceptional master. Their strange secret Martial Arts made everyone wary and afraid of them.
“Cowards without any guts.”
The boy brushed back his hair, spoke in disappointment, and strode toward the censer.
As he passed Mok GyeongUn, he whispered,
“Do not think you will be ahead at the next gate too.”
It was an unmistakable declaration.
Mok GyeongUn merely shrugged.
He had no desire to waste his strength over something so pointless.
‘If he becomes a nuisance...’
He licked his upper lip as if tempted.
This place was quite nice.
Unlike at Yeonmok Sword Manor, he did not need to watch others’ reactions just because he killed someone.
Unaware of Mok GyeongUn’s expression, the boy from Scarlet Slaughter Valley went before the censer and showed the Evil Spirit Mask his iron bead.
“Pass!”
In the meantime, chaos erupted all over the stream.
Those who had found iron beads appeared one after another and ran toward the censer. Boys desperate because they had not found one attacked them, and fighting broke out.
The fights went beyond merely subduing one another, creating a situation where they killed and were killed.
“It has begun.”
At the warrior’s words, the Evil Spirit Mask nodded and watched.
With two already dead, the boys no longer hesitated to harm and kill each other.
The stream had become a true Asura battlefield.
Stab! Stab! Stab! Stab!
“Ghk!”
Several people stood out amid the chaos.
A beautiful, short-haired girl with a pale face had found a sharp stone somewhere and was ruthlessly stabbing those who rushed at her as she advanced.
Even without internal energy, her movements were so swift that the boys charging at her were helpless.
“I know who that girl is.”
“Flower Hat House.”
“You recognized it.”
How could he not?
That swift and efficient short sword art that targeted only vital points.
It was Flower Hat House’s Linked Assassination.
Though it was now called one of the Three Great Assassin Groups, Flower Hat House had once been counted among the Four Great Assassin Groups.
But it had abandoned the assassination trade and joined the Heaven and Earth Society.
“Excellent.”
She held only a sharp stone, yet she was already that formidable. There was much to anticipate once the restriction on her internal energy was lifted.
Then the Evil Spirit Mask pointed at someone.
“That one must be from the Matching Vista Sect.”
“Huh?”
The warrior let out an exclamation.
A muscular, powerfully built boy charged forward like a bull. Every boy he struck was sent flying, unable to withstand the impact.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Matching Vista Sect was renowned for its Iron String Art, an external energy art. Perhaps because it trained external energy rather than internal energy, his physical strength was remarkable.
“Pant... Pant...”
After shaking off the countless boys who had rushed him, the boy from the Matching Vista Sect arrived.
“Pass!”
The girl from Flower Hat House arrived shortly afterward.
“Pass!”
Besides them, boys began arriving one by one before the censer after fighting bloody battles over iron beads.
Among them was one boy who had been waiting for this very moment.
In truth, he had found an iron bead before anyone else. But he had waited for the battle to become chaotic, fearing he would become a target if he stepped forward while no one else had found one.
The boy barely made it before the censer, raised the iron bead, and shouted.
“I found one.”
The boy’s mouth twitched upward with delight.
In truth, before the search for iron beads began, he had quietly taken the one embedded in the forehead of the boy killed by the Evil Spirit Mask for raising a question.
‘Idiots. There was such an easy way to do this.’
It seemed everyone else was foolish, since none had noticed.
Then the Evil Spirit Mask shouted.
“Denied!”
“What?”
“Just as it sounds.”
What did that mean?
Why had he not passed?
He could not understand.
“W-why? I clearly found an iron bead. Why...”
Swish!
Something sharp grazed his neck.
The boy’s head fell to the ground.
“I clearly told you not to raise questions.”
Clink!
The red-sashed warrior who had cut off the boy’s head muttered as they sheathed the saber in the saber case at their waist.
Thud!
The beheaded boy collapsed, and the iron bead fell from his hand and rolled across the ground.
It stopped in front of Mok GyeongUn, who had passed first and was sitting near the censer.
Mok GyeongUn looked at the iron bead he held and gave a faint laugh.
[Sixty-Three]
The iron bead in Mok GyeongUn’s hand was inscribed with the number sixty-three.
Yet the bead belonging to the beheaded boy had nothing inscribed on it.
He had tried to be clever and, unfortunately, lost his head.
On the other hand...
‘Should I call myself lucky?’
Mok GyeongUn had also intended to take the iron bead from the forehead of the boy killed for raising a question before the trial began.
But someone had taken it in that brief span of time, forcing him to change his method.
Thanks to that, he had been fortunate.
Yet the feeling did not last long.
Instead, Mok GyeongUn smacked his lips in regret at the sumptuous feast spread before him.
Creep...
As more people died in the bloody struggle over iron beads, deathly energy filled the area.
If the Golden Gate Locks had not sealed his ki gateways, he would have immediately used reverse ki circulation.
‘Hmm.’
But did he truly need ki circulation to gather this energy?
Mok GyeongUn stretched out an arm toward the empty air in the direction from which the deathly energy flowed and silently recited a verse formula.
‘Mu Jeolmang Ryeoseo... I Hyeong Wi Sim Yang...’
It was the movement of Adhesion.
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