WeTried Translations

Translator: Hydrogen B

Editor: Hydrogen B

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Chapter 725: Master and Disciple Transcend Time and Space

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When I experienced Shei's Heaven-Reversing Boundary, I cursed inwardly. What kind of absurd energy art was this?

It required no willpower. You simply entrusted your body to its instinct for self-preservation and reacted. Energy arts only supported that process. You honed your reflexes to the limit, refined your body's responses, and unleashed them.

If my Human Law was a perfect understanding of humanity, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary was the perfect use of the human body.

It drove energy arts into the bones, nerves, and muscles, engraved the patterns of incoming attacks into the body, and moved faster than thought the moment it sensed them. It contained all the martial arts and accumulated experience humanity had built within a single body.

Before that overwhelming speed, power was useless. No matter how sharp a blade or how lethal a poison, it meant nothing if it couldn't touch its target.

Her very existence countered me. No, not just me. No human could possibly face her.

"Spica's seat is Virgo."

Even while fighting two mages, Antares glanced my way as he spoke.

"Spica isn't in Virgo simply because she's a virgin. It's because she hasn't allowed a single attack to land since ascending to the Star Seats."

That was strange. It felt like he'd slipped in some unnecessary information.

I rose shakily as I dispersed the impact. The Swordmistress's clear eyes followed my every movement without the slightest delay.

That sent chills down my spine. Even her eyes moved through the Heaven-Reversing Boundary? Shei's Heaven-Reversing Boundary had been troublesome enough, but the Swordmistress's was simply a wall.

There was nothing I could do. No battle of wits or prediction. The moment I made any move, a counterattack would come before either of us knew it.

Could there be anyone else against whom mind-reading was this meaningless? What kind of training did it take to become a creature like this?

What was even more surprising was that the Swordmistress had no Li.

Heaven. Earth. Water. The ultimate state of the Three Principles. Read the opponent, support yourself, and move your body. The Heaven-Reversing Boundary was the result of engraving those simple tasks into the body and training them to the utmost limit. It was an ability carved into the flesh, so neither mind-reading nor Human Law could imitate it.

Troublesome. I definitely shouldn't make her an enemy.

"The Sword Saint? He's become a star in the sky."

"...A pun."

"It's true. Do I look like I'm lying?"

I always spoke the truth. It just might not be the truth people wanted.

The Swordmistress tilted her head at my confident expression.

'He doesn't seem to be lying. But he never said the man was dead.'

Tch. She wasn't shaken at all.

The Swordmistress, Spica, resembled Shei. Rather than taking my words at face value, she judged based on instinct. Tricks and psychological warfare didn't work well on people like that.

She was practically my natural enemy.

After looking at me, the Swordmistress made her decision.

'I'll fight and find the answer. He's tough, so this will be annoying.'

Of course, Human Law had simply raised my specs, and she seemed to find that troublesome. Still, that was annoyance, not despair.

I was wondering how I could overcome this impossible problem when...

"Master...!"

At that instant, memories erupted from somewhere and came flooding into me. Shei. The instant she spotted the Swordmistress, she charged without looking back.

Right. The Heaven-Reversing Boundary could only be stopped with the Heaven-Reversing Boundary. She might have been her master in the past, but she was an enemy now. Shei might be able to take her on!

The Swordmistress spotted Shei rushing toward her. She showed no sign of tension. The Heaven-Reversing Boundary she possessed was an energy art that was virtually absolute in defense. To someone as absolute as her, Shei must have looked full of openings.

Shei threw aside both Skywarbler and Jizan and stretched out her arm. The Swordmistress reacted at once. She pushed off lightly with her left foot, lowered her waist, crossed her arms, and struck Shei's chin.

Every movement happened at once, within an instant too brief for anyone to perceive.

A counterattack launched through the gaps in perception.

But Shei's Heaven-Reversing Boundary reacted as well.

"...!"

Shock appeared in the Swordmistress's eyes. At the same time, Shei counterattacked. The Swordmistress responded to the Heaven-Reversing Boundary's instinctive retaliation, and Shei responded in turn. Dozens of exchanges passed in an instant, and before anyone could blink, they had traded a thousand.

This was no longer a contest of exchanges.

It was like two intricate machines with thousands of gears meshing and turning together. Between Shei and the Swordmistress, those gears locked together, any single misstep capable of easily taking a life.

What made this different from gears was that nothing could be predicted.

Nothing had truly been decided. There was no battle of wits in either Shei's or the Swordmistress's mind. There was no fixed future. Even a Holy Maiden could not predict even a few moves ahead. Everything changed according to the wind, the ground beneath their feet, and the opponent before their eyes.

There wasn't time for a thought to arise. Their nerves burned, and the air between them grew scorching hot, changing color as if it might explode at any moment.

Even Antares couldn't tear his eyes away from the mesmerizing fight.

"That... is the Heaven-Reversing Boundary?!"

The moment he saw it, he recognized that the energy art Shei was using was the Swordmistress's secret art, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary.

"A disciple? I've never heard anything like that."

A question surfaced in the Swordmistress's eyes. It was her own energy art, so she couldn't fail to recognize it. Shei's energy art was the Heaven-Reversing Boundary.

'Another user of the Heaven-Reversing Boundary besides me?'

Yet the Heaven-Reversing Boundary was an energy art the Swordmistress had created by driving every insight of her family into her own body so she could reach the heavens. It differed fundamentally from her family's arts.

And Shei, whom she had met for the first time today, was using it.

'...'

The Swordmistress took a step forward. Defying the Heaven-Reversing Boundary, she threw herself into her opponent's offensive. The density of attacks rose, and she staggered.

Only briefly.

Then the Swordmistress's momentum surged.

Heaven-Reversing Boundary: Seek Death, Find Life.

At its core, the Heaven-Reversing Boundary was a defensive energy art. Its essence was sensing what approached and responding to it. Shei usually made up for her slightly lacking offensive power with Skywarbler and Jizan.

But the Swordmistress didn't need that.

She had already reached the realm where Heaven and Earth became one, so there was no need to distinguish defense from offense.

The Swordmistress closed the distance. The Heaven-Reversing Boundary recognized even that approach as an attack and reacted. In an even shorter instant, she struck aside Shei's arm as though coiling around it and continued the close-quarters fight.

Shei's Heaven-Reversing Boundary reacted too, but it couldn't match the strength of its source.

Thud-thud-thud-thud. A barrage of blows poured down like a rainstorm, gradually engulfing Shei. She was losing the fight for territory. Beads of sweat ran down her face as she gritted her teeth.

In the end, though, the gap in pure skill caught up with her.

The Heaven-Reversing Boundary missed one of the Swordmistress's attacks.

That decided the match.

"Ah...!"

A regretful sigh escaped her. It was less disappointment at losing than regret that she hadn't been able to show her master all of her skill. Shei herself could not resist as the Swordmistress's fist shot toward the center of her chest.

Yet it didn't land. It stopped sharply a hair's breadth short of her chest.

Cold silence fell.

Having won, the Swordmistress stood still without extending her fist any farther. She stared at Shei as though demanding an explanation. A slight disturbance rippled across her mind, usually as calm as still water.

Despite losing, Shei's face was filled only with delight and happiness. While the Swordmistress stood frozen in a situation she couldn't understand, Shei spoke.

"Master may not remember me, but I am your disciple. You personally engraved the Heaven-Reversing Boundary's legacy into me."

"...!"

"This unworthy disciple greets her master."

Shei bowed before the Swordmistress with the utmost respect. I never expected Shei to be capable of bowing. Still, thanks to that, the Swordmistress, who had seemed as unflappable as stone, fell into confusion.

This wasn't what I had expected. Still, Shei had stopped the Swordmistress somehow. Phew.

Antares, who had forgotten the fight while watching them, spoke.

"Hey, Virgo. You don't actually believe that, do you? You've never admitted a single disciple into your martial palace."

"..."

"Did you secretly take in, train, and send off a disciple without anyone knowing? Don't be ridiculous. The Empire would never fail to notice something that major."

"She's my disciple."

"What?"

The Swordmistress turned around. As though protecting Shei from Antares, she stepped in front of her and spoke clearly.

"This child is definitely my disciple."

"Do you even know what disciple means? Have you taught her before?"

"No."

"How can she be your disciple if you've never taught her?"

"She's my disciple. That is the Heaven-Reversing Boundary."

Shei's energy art was the Heaven-Reversing Boundary. It belonged to the Swordmistress. That meant Shei could only be the Swordmistress's disciple, even if they had met for the first time today.

Their causality was wildly out of order, but the Swordmistress declared it with absolute certainty. Naturally, Antares was tearing his hair out in frustration.

"A stranger in an unfamiliar land is using the Heaven-Reversing Boundary. What you should do is seize her and interrogate her. Ask how she stole the Empire's greatest asset. You don't make her your disciple!"

"He's my disciple."

"You..."

Antares moved toward Shei, then hesitated. The Swordmistress stood before her now. He couldn't reach Shei without getting past the Swordmistress.

The Swordmistress's protective stance revealed her resolve, and Antares looked incredulous.

"Wait. You can't possibly... right?"

"..."

"Hey, hey, hey!"

The Swordmistress stood as though she intended to protect Shei from Antares.

Footnotes:

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