WE TRIED TRANSLATIONS x FLAME COMICS
Translator: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Omniscient Reader's Viewpoint ◈
Chapter 803: Episode 39: Rumors (2)
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In the old days of Murim, before the system was introduced, martial artists divided their mastery of martial arts by vague concepts like "one star" or "ten stars."
However, even among martial artists, the standards for these "star ratings" were unclear.
For example, some said it was "the fifth star of the Boundless Azure Heavens Sword Art" once a blue light gathered around the sword hilt, while others said it began once the blue light gathered around the blade itself.
That was how it was. To put it bluntly, if some family expert started lying, saying, "I'm at the tenth star of the Boundless Azure Heavens Sword Art, and from then on, Sword Aura doesn't have a color," it wasn't easy to disprove the lie.
However, after the system was introduced and "New Murim" began, everything changed.
「It became an age where no one could deceive others about their level.」
Namgung Jincheon, the Emperor Sword, was a martial artist of the so-called "New Murim" generation. He had grown up learning martial arts refined into [Skills], and was used to judging their proficiency by level.
[The skill level of Exclusive Skill Boundless Azure Heavens Sword Art has increased!]
Jincheon liked his era.
An era with nothing hidden.
He had grown up in an honest Murim, a martial world of clear desires.
「Higher levels. Stronger skills.」
That alone was the banner of New Murim.
Following that banner, he trained in martial arts, raised his level, and collected Coins.
He cleared Scenarios.
He hunted spirit creatures like five-hundred-year-old centipedes, three-hundred-year-old toads, and golden-furred wild boars. He had even participated in raids to hunt colossal imoogi.
However, the stubborn elders of Old Murim did not acknowledge his strength.
"Young people these days don't know anything. Do you know how difficult it was to learn martial arts in my day?"
"Martial arts are enlightenment. A martial artist without enlightenment can never become truly strong."
Namgung Jincheon thought to himself.
What the hell was this enlightenment anyway? Didn't they sell enlightenment in the Dokkaebi Compendium, too? If they were right, shouldn't they have been stronger than me?
Jincheon, who had come to be called the Emperor Sword, grew arrogant. He disregarded Old Murim and despised its elders.
That was how he was, until the day "it" appeared in Murim.
「It tore through the darkness of the sky and appeared.」
The shadow of a gigantic imoogi that turned noon into night.
【Wh ich bas tard to uched my chil dren】
The martial artists who heard the constellation's declaration vomited blood from all seven orifices and died.
Jincheon drew up his inner energy and desperately resisted the pressure, but instinctively knew he would lose.
「Humans cannot fight it.」
Jincheon immediately called for help from the Constellations.
The backers of the Namgung Clan, who had recognized his talent early on and sponsored him.
If it was them, they could resolve this crisis.
[Constellation Master of the Spear has fled the channel.]
[Constellation Fist-and-Kick Daoist has fled the channel.]
[Multiple Constellations from the Martial World have fled the channel!]
...
Jincheon despaired. Even the Historical Constellations who had taught him martial arts were fleeing from this opponent.
【■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah ■ Ah】
The Top Ten Masters of the age were gruesomely torn apart by the imoogi's teeth. Even after losing their heads, the martial artists struck by the Outer God continued chanting the same words like a Buddhist prayer.
Save me.
As the boundaries of reality blurred, Jincheon witnessed young imoogi tearing the skin from martial artists' faces.
The flayed faces soon became scales on the Imoogi King's body. Scales made from the skin of hundreds of thousands of humans.
A martial artist beside him, trembling at the shoulders, began to mutter.
"SaveSaveSaveSaveDieSaveDieSaveSaveDieImoogiImoogiLordIsComingToDestroyMurimToAvengeOldMurimOhOhHeWillBecomeADragonAndAscend..."
The surrounding martial artists began muttering strange words as if entranced.
Jincheon desperately drew up his Mana to remain sane, but even that had reached its limit.
Murim was finished. No one could deny that fact.
Then an elder beside him, coughing up blood, spoke.
"Jincheon. It's all right. The Sword Saint has yet to come."
Jincheon scoffed at those words.
The Sword Saint. Was there still anyone in this Murim worthy of that title?
The Constellations had fled, and the Top Ten Masters were dead. Who could possibly remain in this Murim, where nothing was left?
「Then Namgung Jincheon saw it.」
A single figure standing against the snake that covered the sky.
A giant stood before the king of snakes, before whom everyone had fallen to their knees.
[I see Murim as a forest.]
It was a voice filled with majestic spirit.
Even amid the Imoogi King's roar, the giant silently looked over the martial artists and asked them a question.
[Let me ask you. What is Murim to you?]
It was only a question. Yet no one there dared answer it. The being who had asked it was simply too great.
So instead of answering the question, the martial artists decided to accept the questioner's answer.
"Everyone, gather together!"
The elders shouted. Martial artists supported the fallen. Like trees whose roots wound around one another, they stood while supporting each other.
Murim soon became a single forest.
"The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint has come!"
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
That day, Jincheon learned that name for the first time.
[So that is your answer.]
It was a being whose strength could not be measured by any skill he possessed.
An Incarnation who directly drove back an Outer God that even the Constellations feared.
[I cannot allow a forest to collapse because of one mere snake.]
The night sky was breaking apart. Watching swarms of Sword Aura rise from the sword tip like meteors, watching the Imoogi King's true body tear apart helplessly, Namgung Jincheon sank to the ground.
[Are you the new Clan Head of Namgung?]
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had descended to the ground before he knew it and was looking at him. To the man who could only gasp for breath without answering, the Sword Saint held something out.
[Eat.]
It was a dumpling.
As Jincheon chewed the dumpling he received with trembling hands, he thought to himself.
The strongest person in this Murim was not one of the Top Ten Masters, nor the Namgung Clan Head, nor the Historical Constellations.
「The strongest person in the First Martial World is Namgung Minyeong, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.」
Several decades had passed since that day, and the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had entered seclusion once more. Naturally, even the taste of the dumpling from that day had faded from his memory.
And now, Jincheon was earning Coins by selling that memory.
"Our grand martial uncle also loved Murim Dumplings."
"Oh, could these dumplings possibly be the same ones from that day?"
"That is correct."
It was nonsense. Jincheon no longer remembered what the dumplings from that day had tasted like.
"Those were the days."
What mattered now was the Namgung Clan's Murim Dumplings, which would soon launch. And the enormous number of Coins those dumplings would earn.
The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, whose fate he did not even know, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint who offered the Namgung Clan not the slightest help, was no longer important to him.
That was when he noticed a small child's head.
'Is he a beggar?'
A shaggy-haired boy nearby was eating dumplings.
Jincheon was about to signal for someone to remove the boy, when he saw the face hidden beneath the shaggy hair and was greatly impressed.
'What a handsome little boy. He resembles me when I was young.'
Namgung Jincheon smiled contentedly at the boy, who was wolfing down dumplings like he himself had in his youth.
That was, until the troublesome boy opened his mouth.
"The filling isn't cooked evenly."
At first, Jincheon thought he had misheard.
"This crap isn't Murim Dumplings."
Murmurs rose around them. Fortunately, it seemed that not many people had heard the boy yet.
Jincheon gave an awkward smile and shrugged, trying to smooth things over.
He could let it pass for now. The words of some little boy did not matter at all. What mattered was the result of the Murim Dumpling Contest that he was about to announce...
"This crap, isn't, Murim Dumplings."
The voice rang out clearly. This time, it was reinforced with inner energy, making it impossible to ignore.
Narrowing his eyes, Jincheon asked,
"Who might you be, young hero?"
"I am Yu Junghyeok."
Jincheon tilted his head.
Yu Junghyeok? It sounded like a name he had heard somewhere before.
"How dare you! Do you know who this is..."
The Namgung Clan's martial artists, who had approached without notice, released their auras toward the boy. However, the boy did not even blink.
Looking down at him with cold eyes, Jincheon asked,
"You have remarkable spirit, young hero. What is your martial school?"
Sighs escaped from all around.
Asking about his martial school in a situation like this meant that the Namgung Clan was serious.
Some said that the boy was finished. Others said that even his martial school was finished.
Then, at last, the boy named his martial school.
"Sky-Splitting Sword Sect."
Everyone there fell silent.
Jincheon was the first to break the silence, with an ominous smile.
"From now on, young hero, you must take responsibility for that answer."
* * *
A short while later, we were being led away while bound by the Namgung Clan's martial artists. More precisely, Junghyeok was being led away while I hid in his pocket.
The Namgung Clan's wooden estate was visible in the distance. It was an impressive residence at a glance.
They say Murim means the Five Great Families. Looks like they really did earn a lot of Coins.
I could see a broken shed over there, too. It seemed the shed whose roof we had smashed belonged to the Namgung Clan as well.
―Kim Dokja.
―Yes?
―I did as you told me.
―You did well.
Actually, revealing his martial school in front of Jincheon had been part of our plan. Honestly, I had not expected Junghyeok to be this good at acting.
―What's the next plan?
―There isn't one.
Junghyeok fell silent for a moment, as if considering what my words meant. Then he glared and said,
―You bastard, what are you plotting...
―Just stay still for a moment.
―Do you not know who that man is? He is Namgung Jincheon, the Emperor Sword, and the Namgung Clan Head.
―I know. The Namgung Clan Head who's a total asshole. If you fight him, would you lose?
―In this state, I would lose to anyone.
―Really? Then stay still.
―You...
―One person, thirty steps southwest.
―What?
―Two people, fifty steps northeast.
Junghyeok hurriedly looked around at my words.
I stopped him and added,
―Don't look around. They'll notice.
From the moment Junghyeok faced Namgung Jincheon until now, I had continuously activated a Fable Fragment.
[Fable Fragment Birds Hear Words Spoken by Day continues its story.]
This Fable Fragment did not merely hear "words." If I focused and listened carefully, I could even read the distinctive energy carried in someone's breathing.
And within a radius of one hundred meters, there were several Incarnation bodies that concealed their energy remarkably well.
―Have you made enemies in Murim before?
―I just made one.
―Other than Jincheon.
―No.
I could not take Junghyeok's "no" at face value. He might not have known it himself, but in every round, he went around dragging along enemies consumed by envy and jealousy.
―Then the answer is clear.
―The subordinates of a Constellation?
I nodded.
The Constellations who had lost us near the Void Curtain had sent Incarnation bodies under their command into the Scenario areas within the Curtain.
―I don't think they've discovered us yet. They seem uncertain, too.
―But it is only a matter of time.
―That's right. Which is why I put this plan into action.
Junghyeok's steps faltered briefly. Only then did he realize it.
―Don't tell me.
The only way to protect us in this Murim while we were pursued by Constellations.
―Inside the Namgung Clan estate, even the Constellations won't be able to infiltrate easily. The Namgung Clan has been estranged from the Constellations since the Outer God Incident.
―That is why you provoked Jincheon?
―Exactly.
At some point, the names Sky-Splitting Sword Sect and Sky-Splitting Sword Saint had become taboo in the Namgung Clan.
―Others might not have taken the bait, but I trusted that the Emperor Sword would. He once tried to enter the Sky-Splitting Sword Sect.
It was secret history only found in TWSA, but Jincheon, the Emperor Sword, had visited the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint several times after becoming captivated by her martial prowess.
It was because he wanted to learn the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint's martial arts.
―You know quite a bit about the Emperor Sword. Then you must also know how he will treat us now.
―He will not harm us. Outwardly, at least.
In the First Martial World, the Emperor Sword was known as a gentleman. To protect that image, he would not harm us until the Murim Dumpling Contest was over.
The problem came after that.
―Do you think he brought us to his clan estate to serve us delicacies from land and sea?
―Of course not. We will be thrown into prison immediately. We might even get a cudgel beating.
―I do not want to be beaten with a cudgel.
Of course, that wasn't my intention. In this world, the only person who could spank Yu Junghyeok was the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
―If that happens, show him a little of the Sky-Splitting Sword Sect's martial arts. You only need to show him a few forms.
―Do you think he will help us because he once tried to enter the Sky-Splitting Sword Sect?
―No, his eyes will roll back in his head. The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint rejected him, saying the Sky Splitter Sword Art could only be learned by female bodies, but she accepted another little boy as her disciple. He might start by taking off your pants.
Junghyeok, who had been walking normally, came to an abrupt stop. I could sense the Namgung Clan martial artists flinching as they turned toward him.
Before Junghyeok lost his temper, I quickly added,
―Listen to me. Even so, this is the fastest way.
―I no longer need to listen to you.
―You do. This is the fastest way to meet the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
Junghyeok said his memories would fully return in three or four days. That meant that if we somehow endured for three or four days, we could escape the Namgung Clan and find the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint.
[Your Incarnation body is in critical condition.]
The problem was that my Incarnation body was scheduled to collapse before those three or four days passed.
―This is the fastest way?
―How quickly do you think rumors spread in Murim?
A boy appeared at the Murim Dumpling Contest, which the First Martial World was watching, and insulted the Namgung Clan Head's dumplings.
And what if that boy was known as a disciple of the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint, who had not appeared for decades?
―As you know, the Sky-Splitting Sword Saint currently has no "new disciple."
We would not be the ones to find her.
―The Sky-Splitting Sword Saint will come find us.
Footnotes:
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