WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

Chapter 582: Looking for an Owner

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Even with immortality, I had no desire to fight a qi practitioner who had reached the principles. The one saving grace was that Blanca was far stronger than us. A fight only worked when the opponents were at least somewhat evenly matched. Blanca could not take this fight too seriously either.

"Shei has already lost his manhood. He's even had both arms torn off once. Just saying."

I had only just regained my footing and approached Blanca.

The distance between us vanished in an instant. A hand in a pitch-black fighting glove covered my face. Her not particularly large hand seized my face and crushed down with tremendous force. It felt as though my neck would snap.

"Urk!"

I did not resist. I could not win. Instead, I threw myself down while grabbing Blanca's arm and pulling it with me. The balance of force shifted for a moment, and my body spun halfway through the air. Rather than shattering the back of my head, I landed on my back.

The instant I hit the ground, I uncurled my body. After shaking off Blanca's arm, I rolled backward to get away.

Blanca rubbed her fighting glove.

"Not bad."

"You're too kind."

"I won't hold back next time."

"Subtly pointing out that you weren't going all out. It might be true, but isn't that a little pathetic?"

"Woof. Sorry. I'll catch you without being pathetic this time."

Blanca kicked off the ground. A black afterimage surged toward me across the World Tree's branch, trailing ghostly flames.

But...

"You're a little slow, aren't you?"

Her movements as she ran across the Tree of Origin were more sluggish than usual.

The Tree of Origin was both the Demon God and the World Tree. It was filled with the World Tree's vital energy. On this ground, no, on these branches, it was difficult to use Earth Qi Art. A mere human's qi could not easily penetrate deep into the Tree of Origin, which overflowed with vital energy.

Why would qi practitioners learn Earth Qi Art? Why would they pour their precious qi into the earth?

Without using Earth Qi Art to anchor their legs into the ground like stakes, they would slide around, unable to withstand their own incredible strength and speed.

So even those who had reached the principles could not move as quickly as I could on this branch. Unlike them, who could not properly use Earth Qi Art, I could use the Demon God to perform an imitation of it.

"Come catch me!"

I ran straight for the edge of the branch. Blanca looked flustered when she saw me seeming ready to leap off at any moment.

"Where are you going? You'll fall if you go there."

"Don't worry. Monkeys might fall, but I won't!"

It was an edge that might as well have been a cliff. I ran along the precarious boundary where the branch curved sharply downward. My body swayed as though I might slip at any second, but I moved across it like level ground without ever falling.

"Qi arts? That can't be..."

Even Blanca, who had reached the principles, could not properly use Earth Qi Art. Like a dog left behind when the chicken it chased flew out of reach, she looked at the green grass left in my footprints and realized my secret.

"You grew little patches of grass to hold your feet in place? You're quite resourceful."

"It's nothing much."

"Woof. I really am impressed. Making grass sprout beneath every step you take is a difficult feat even with qi arts. Qi arts only control the body, but you're using magic alongside qi arts. Woof, that is a technique polished to the limit."

She was an enemy, but I still felt proud. No one had ever acknowledged me, no matter what impressive techniques I showed them.

I was fleeing with a pleased smile when Blanca's derisive laugh reached me.

"But exceptional techniques have to be delicate. That's their weakness."

Blanca lifted one leg high into the air. Her suit stretched as though it would tear, and her leg extended in a straight line. Like the hands of a clock pointing at six, her feet spread as far apart as her body allowed.

A bad feeling came over me, and I looked back.

"Uh, wait! Don't tell me!"

"Woof."

The moment her legs formed that dizzying straight line, Blanca slammed down her raised leg with all her strength.

This was what an earthquake wave would look like if one could see it. A massive ripple originating from Blanca spread across the World Tree's branch. The branch, which was practically ground beneath our feet, heaved violently up and down. Twigs broke off, and ears of grain rained down.

"Aaaagh!"

"The tree's shaking!"

The shock produced by a qi practitioner who had reached the principles and put her full force behind it was incredible. Even people accustomed to living in trees nearly fell from the impact.

And I, balancing along the edge, was affected even more.

The swaying branch nudged my feet away. I needed to step where I had made the grass grow, but that slight disruption threw me off.

"That's cheating!"

"Woof. You're the bigger cheat here."

I screamed and reached out. Instead of taking the step I had already missed, I stretched out my hand and touched the Tree of Origin.

Part of the shaking branch transformed into a vine. I quickly wrapped my hand around it and hung on. I had made it in a hurry, so I worried it would break, but the vine grown with the World Tree's vital energy was tough and sturdy enough.

I lived. Just as I sighed in relief while dangling from the vine, Blanca slowly came into view.

She was standing upside down on the branch.

"Huh? How?"

"Woof. I got the idea from you."

Blanca casually raised a leg. Her claws, poking out from inside her shoes, were embedded in the branch.

"That's something only leopards do!"

"I can do it too if I know how."

"Damn it, this is why geniuses..."

"That makes me sound shabby. Compared to the feat you pulled off, using my claws is child's play."

Blanca walked like a bat through a world turned upside down. Hanging from the vine, I could only watch. She eventually reached it.

"Goodbye, woof. The person who almost became my master."

"Aaaah! Stop!"

Ignoring my screams, Blanca crushed the vine with one hand. The vine snapped and fell far below...

"Huh?"

But I did not fall. The vine Blanca had snapped was not the one I was hanging from.

Blanca had not made a mistake. She truly meant to make me fall, and she had snapped the vine she saw. Yet the vine that broke was a different one.

What had gone wrong was Blanca's senses. A single shimmering butterfly fluttered before her eyes.

"...A butterfly?"

Feeling something was wrong, Blanca bristled and spread out her qi senses. Only then did she notice the heavy floral scent lingering at the tip of her nose. She saw that branches stretching horizontally, vertically, and diagonally had been unnaturally severed. She also realized that the sounds reaching her ears were subtly different.

Her five senses had been twisted. With a beastkin's instincts, Blanca thrust her fist into the gap between her senses. There was a ripping sound, as though a curtain had been torn apart, and a hat-wearing witch appeared within like an illusion.

"I thought I told you not to draw attention to yourself."

No, she had not actually appeared. There was no one there. Yet a fragrance made by burning petals, faint smoke, and sounds inaudible to human ears had created the illusion of a woman.

Magic capable of disrupting even the senses of a qi practitioner who had reached the principles was rare. This was the work of Walpurgis, the Night Witch. The Witch of Revelry and Illusions scattered catalysts infused with magic into sight, sound, and scent, creating the hallucinations she envisioned.

Recognizing the nature of the illusion, Blanca spoke.

"The Night Witch herself has appeared. Is this man really that important?"

"This is separate from him, Blanca. We helped you, yet you ultimately failed to conquer Ende. Why are you attacking him when you should be reflecting on your failure and waiting for the next opportunity?"

"Because... someone would come and tell me why I shouldn't kill them?"

She attacked because asking was too bothersome? Violent, but efficient.

"This is not about whom you kill. It is about your authority. Do you know how many meat fruits were consumed to feed the King of Wolves and his pack? We even assigned people to assist you. Yet you suffered a major failure and lost the King of Wolves as well."

"These two are the ones who stopped us in Ende. If they hadn't been there, the route to the Empire would have been open."

"That cannot excuse your failure. Had you succeeded, you would have brought him here sooner."

Blanca froze at those cold, piercing words.

Walpurgis's illusion scattered in an instant. Her image transformed into dozens of bats, which flew around me. It sounded like thousands of insects buzzing. Amid the bats' strange cries, my body slowly rose.

"You must not go out without informing anyone. If you wish to travel, let me or another witch guide you."

"I did bring someone along on the way."

"That is why I was able to arrive before it was too late. Still, I hope you will bring me with you in the future."

Walpurgis's swarm of bats briefly protested while lifting my body. Riding a cloud of bats was not pleasant. Their feet pinched me all over, and the tremors were so severe that it felt as though every cell in my body was moving separately.

Just as I was about to rise past Blanca, she perked up her ears and looked at me. Despite being reprimanded by Walpurgis, she looked unexpectedly pleased.

"You're the King of Humanity Maximilien spoke of, aren't you?"

Had she figured it out? Well, hiding it was meaningless now. The news had spread everywhere.

"What do you think? Have you changed your mind?"

Blanca sheathed her claws and smoothed down her fur. She placed a hand over her chest and drew one leg back. Even while hanging upside down, she bowed politely.

"Let us meet again, Master."

Footnotes:

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