WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 121: Samadhi True Fire
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“Uncle. Did you stop the bleeding properly?”
He had not called him Squad Leader. For the first time, Jeong Yeon-shin called Ma Jin Uncle.
Ma Jin’s eyes widened behind him.
He had long known his nephew’s talent, but he had never imagined he would see him like this so soon.
Even Ma Jin, who had roamed the martial world as the Leader of Demon Wings, had never imagined such a thing.
“Your arm.”
Yeon-shin added, still completely restraining the formidable enemy’s hand.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand of the Pure Demon Alliance.
Though facing a master of the highest caliber, he was worrying about his maternal uncle behind him.
Ma Jin’s lips trembled slightly. Emotions swelled within him like gathering clouds.
His nephew’s achievements laid bare before him, the feeling that their relationship as uncle and nephew had finally deepened, even the subordinates dying around them.
Everything stirred the heart of Demon Wings’ strongest expert.
“...Why did you come?”
That was all he could say.
As an uncle who had wronged his nephew, he wanted to draw closer to him. Yet words and actions were separate matters.
His nature as a warrior would not let him say anything affectionate. Ma Jin reproached himself for that brief instant.
Yeon-shin spoke calmly.
“I gathered a martial force. I became its temporary Squad Leader. You sound all right, so please take command for a moment.”
He spoke as any nephew might to his uncle. Unusually, he said more than a few words.
It carried great meaning. He had told a Black Uniform expert to withdraw. Those were not words one could speak with middling martial skill.
It was as though he spoke while draped in an invisible black robe.
‘What on earth...?’
Even knowing Yeon-shin’s talent, Ma Jin found it astonishing. No one would readily believe it.
Was he living each year as though it were ten, despite possessing talent unmatched in ages?
Ma Jin himself could not tell whether he felt pride or shock.
Still, he could not delay further. He turned away.
“May fortune favor you.”
The Leader of Demon Wings entrusted the battlefield’s strongest opponent entirely to him. As he finished speaking, he used his movement technique and sped away.
The ground sank deeply beneath every step.
Though his arm had been severed and his meridians could not be in normal condition, his presence surpassed even that of a Blue Uniform martial artist.
Until that moment, the Pure Demon Divine Hand had remained still. The unprecedented power of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel was unfamiliar to him.
Its unfamiliarity was not the only matter. It had overwhelmed him.
“...”
Once he recognized that fact, Ha Yul-geuk, the Pure Demon Divine Hand, was left speechless.
His target, the Leader of Demon Wings, was retreating, yet he could not even think of pursuing him.
The hand gripping his knife-hand without moving was one thing.
What truly seized his attention was the sight beyond the boy’s shoulder.
Through the gradually settling dust, Dokgo Gwang’s corpse came into view, with only its lower half remaining.
The hem of his dark blue battle robe fluttered emptily.
Two young masters of Desolate Fortress stood to either side, seemingly just as stunned.
‘He killed him in two exchanges? That isn’t the issue.’
The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s gaze grew grave.
A contest between masters could take as many forms as there were martial arts.
From a single-exchange victory to a battle lasting seven days and nights, there were countless possibilities.
Too many variables were involved. Terrain, weather, compatibility between martial arts, physical condition, and the sequence of techniques used that day.
Even masters of equal standing could fight in hundreds or thousands of different ways.
‘This brat... He cannot be measured. His instincts are monstrous.’
His senses as a master of the highest caliber told him so. Those linked techniques had been unleashed with thorough calculation.
The two exchanges that the Desolate Fortress boy had used just now were like that. The final palm art contained power he had never seen or heard of, but it was also a strike riddled with flaws.
Any master from a major faction would have noticed.
That was why it was even more shocking.
‘That application of Hand Arts was certainly a Divine Technique. Yet its strengths and weaknesses are distinct.’
That was why he had entered while already using a palm technique, then succeeded in linking his attacks with extraordinary precision.
The result was Dokgo Gwang’s death. The Ten Perfect Sect’s great sword had broken. The price paid was far too great compared to the boy’s preparations.
The vast martial world of Sichuan would be shaken.
‘If it had been a proper one-on-one duel... No.’
A futile thought.
Where could such a thing exist in the martial world?
Unless it was a friendly spar, martial artists did not fight under perfect conditions. The one who survived was the stronger master.
What mattered was something else.
At the level of the highest masters, he could discuss martial arts with him. That was the level of the boy holding his knife-hand before him.
His martial skill was astonishingly high. It almost seemed equal to his own. It was hard to believe, since he had not undergone Rejuvenation.
This was a serious problem.
“Is it dharma power?”
The Pure Demon Divine Hand asked, their hands still locked together.
The boy answered calmly.
“You’re light.”
It was a provocation aimed at the strength in his hand.
He did not give Ha Yul-geuk the answer he wanted, yet even that seemed natural.
It was conduct and bearing that proved the boy’s level. He carried the air of a transcendent master.
Even when he spoke down to a high-ranking master as an equal, it did not feel strange.
‘A martial art that reaches the world.’
The Pure Demon Divine Hand thought it without meaning to. At the same time, he spoke.
“So it is dharma power. It truly is hard to believe. Are you a direct disciple of Shaolin’s Green Jade?”
An uncanny gleam flickered in the blue eyes of the Demonic Sect’s great master. He had seen through the martial art of his natural enemy.
Green Jade referred to the Green Jade Buddha Staff of Shaolin’s abbot.
He was asking whether Yeon-shin was even the sect leader’s direct disciple.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand did not wait for an answer. He muttered to himself.
“No. Martial arts using dharma power have died out. How could this...?”
“You spoke of my death, yet you have much useless to say.”
Yeon-shin tightened his grip.
His right hand still held the knife-hand that had severed Ma Jin’s left arm.
Bodhidharma’s power, enough to create a Divine Technique and more, briefly amplified the abilities of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.
It was not power one could use immediately after creating a martial art.
It was like the boy’s lifeline.
Bodhidharma’s power had a time limit.
Whoosh.
A faint cluster of pure white light flowed with Yeon-shin’s breath. It bloomed auspiciously, then scattered, over and over.
To others, it was a truly mystical sight.
Yet the boy knew.
It meant this was incomplete.
‘The light wheel is a newly born organ. A heart of inner energy that has only just formed.’
It was maintaining stability through Bodhidharma’s lingering spirituality, but only temporarily. He needed to settle it through energy-circulating meditation.
‘The Emanation Body’s power will soon scatter.’
In the midst of their brief standoff, Yeon-shin had observed the inside of his body.
The strength granted by Bodhidharma’s Emanation Body would not last long.
They had said a master craftsman had refined fragments of qi from a venerable monk who should have long since passed on.
That was fine.
He had already formed the light wheel. He was past the stage of worrying about qi storage.
He only needed to continue cultivating after escaping the City of Master Craftsmen.
It was enough to kill the enemy master before him with spirituality like a wick’s flame.
“Boy, what did you say?”
The Pure Demon Divine Hand asked.
He was the man who had boasted of his prowess as he severed Ma Jin’s left arm.
Whether the situation favored him or not, he did not hesitate to speak. This time, it did not favor him.
He seemed to be stalling for time to defend himself after an unanticipated master had emerged.
“I said a corpse had a long tongue.”
The boy answered briefly.
That was the end of their exchange.
A gust brushed the cheeks of the two masters.
It poured down endlessly from the cave’s towering ceiling.
The dry breeze swept over every part of the battlefield and lifted their clothes.
Crash!
The Pure Demon Divine Hand suddenly drove his knee forward. It was a swift application of Leg Arts.
Though it was an instant attack, the force wave gathering around his knee was immense, as if he had prepared it in advance.
Circular ripples surged fiercely from the moment his foot left the ground.
Yeon-shin did not dodge. He reacted before the aura had fully spread.
The qi of the light wheel filling his body followed his innate senses. Still gripping the man’s knife-hand, he lifted his foot.
Then he brought it down.
It happened in an instant.
Thud!
The ground shook.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s rising knee stopped.
Yeon-shin’s sole rested on his ankle. He had pressed down and stopped the application of Leg Arts itself.
It was a complete counter in a contest between masters.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s eyes flew open. His blue eyes, characteristic of someone from the Western Regions, were fully exposed.
“Hm.”
A deep groan escaped him. Though he raised his power, his leg would not rise, as if it had frozen solid.
It was because of the dharma power he had initially deemed the problem.
A perfect counter.
At this moment, Yeon-shin’s power was something overwhelming.
The boy thought that he would have the upper hand even without Bodhidharma’s spirituality.
The Record of the Dharma Light Wheel was the reason.
The quality of his inner energy had changed. He no longer lost in raw strength.
Since the enemy before him cultivated the inner energy of the Demonic Sect, their compatibility favored him as well.
Then.
There was no point in probing further.
Without realizing it, he had faced his opponent with the attitude of an inferior, with the mindset of a Blue Uniform martial artist.
He had sought to examine the aura and find flaws in his techniques.
It was meaningless.
Hummm!
A wave of power stirred.
The Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.
At this moment, he drew it out with all his strength.
The response came at once.
It began beneath his feet. The foot suppressing the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s knee strike suddenly dropped.
As it pulled the man’s leg to the ground, it stomped on the top of his foot.
Crunch!
A chilling noise rang out. Yeon-shin vividly felt the ankle beneath his foot shatter.
Demonic qi with the feeling of an abyss rose along the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s foot, only to break apart.
It was as though the night air itself had crumbled into fragments.
This was not even a counter. Like bone-melting poison, it crushed the demonic qi.
“...!”
The eyes of the enemy who had taken his uncle’s arm widened as if they would split apart.
He did not scream.
He was a master considered one of the main forces of a major faction of demonic practitioners. Yeon-shin paid no mind and tightened his grip.
After the foot came the hand.
The knife-hand that had severed Ma Jin’s arm crumpled along with the bone.
His power exceeded imagination. Yeon-shin himself was startled by his strength. It was as though his qi had shed its skin and transformed.
“Haaah!”
At last.
Before his eyes, a master of the Black Uniform realm shouted a battle cry.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand thrust out his other hand.
This time, it was a straight punch.
The energy wrapped around the fist distorted the air.
It was aimed at blowing off Yeon-shin’s head, and the force wave behind it was truly savage.
In that instant.
Yeon-shin’s eyes cooled. He had anticipated the response.
Ha Yul-geuk could no longer use True Step and had lost one hand, so Yeon-shin could plainly read his next move.
There was no need for a counter.
It was time to unleash a martial art that was wholly his own.
Whoosh!
They were within the range of a close-range punch. He let go of the Desolate Sword.
The formula of Sihwa Boundless Hand was already guiding the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel within his body.
Using the method of True Barrier, he struck the side of the man’s fist.
Thud!
It hit squarely.
A straight force wave pierced through the man’s fist and shot forward.
His own hand struck his jaw instead. The sensation of bones breaking came through the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s fist.
Yeon-shin’s strike did not stop. As he drove the man’s face back, he thrust out his other hand.
Waves of power from the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel bloomed.
They unfolded as one, like blossoms opening in a cluster.
Power struck power and created another Force Projection.
‘Third form, Fist Flower.’
He drove it upward in a barrage into the man’s upper body.
It was a fist technique he had created after seeing Mount Hua Sect’s Falling Petal Palm Art while he was a White Uniform martial artist.
Now, it shattered the Pure Demon Divine Hand’s qi shield and struck his internal organs.
The dharma power within unraveled the man’s qi. The punches bored into his bones.
Crack-crack-crack! Spurt!
Eighteen blows landed in a single move. Colorless petals seemed to bloom from the man’s upper body.
They shattered his inner energy, struck his skin, and crushed his ribs to pieces.
He clearly felt the changing impact of every blow.
He truly felt the level of his martial ability had risen.
‘Urgh.’
As he unleashed the fist technique, he swallowed a groan through clenched teeth.
It was because of the internal injuries Dokgo Gwang had inflicted earlier. The pain throbbing in his abdomen was severe.
The Record of the Dharma Light Wheel had no ability to regenerate.
That was a method he could only use while siphoning essence through Blood Arts.
Yeon-shin’s internal organs were still damaged. The pain pulsing through his abdomen grew stronger.
One martial art could not contain everything.
Still, he did not care.
The ring of the Divine Technique emitted light. The revolving light wheel circulated qi throughout his body.
The power of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel was truly immense.
His strength kept growing.
‘I’ll finish this.’
The boy thought.
True Barrier once more.
He drove the final punch into the solar plexus of the man whose eyes had rolled back.
Already shattered ribs brushed against his fist.
He thought it had only grazed them.
It had not.
Boom!
A monstrous shockwave erupted.
It was a strike that completely shattered the rebounding force of the man’s demonic qi.
The Pure Demon Divine Hand’s body collapsed where he stood.
He was in a miserable state.
“Kh...”
It sounded as though air were escaping from his lungs.
Ha Yul-geuk, the Pure Demon Divine Hand, wheezed weakly.
He lay sprawled at Yeon-shin’s feet.
A deathly silence flowed through the City of Master Craftsmen.
A supreme master who had commanded the vast martial world from Shu Road to Sichuan had suffered total defeat.
“...”
The fighting across the battlefield had already stopped.
It ended almost at the same time.
Tang Family Head and Ma Jin had not taken on the enemy masters. Sword Scorpion Demon Dokgo Gwang had died, while Seom-ye had bound the Pure Demon Divine Hand, Ha Yul-geuk.
The Returning Wings Squad had also provided support.
While Thirteen Heavens martial artists lay fallen after losing their leaders, the masters scattered throughout the area stared at Seom-ye and the Pure Demon Divine Hand.
They took in the unbelievable result of the battle.
Ha Yul-geuk’s lips trembled. It seemed like his final flash before death.
“Your martial art... What is its foundation...?”
Those were his words as he died.
They said the Pure Demon Alliance originally descended from a Demon Cult that had arisen in Xinjiang.
They did not follow the laws of the Central Plains. They worshiped strength and did not care what means they used.
Yeon-shin suddenly thought of the Clear Qilin.
He had met his end not as a Young Family Head, but as a martial artist.
Ha Yul-geuk was the same.
Was the attitude one showed before death the person’s true nature?
At this moment, he did not look like a demonic practitioner.
The boy looked down at the martial artist of the Pure Demon Alliance.
“It is the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.”
It was a short answer.
It seemed enough.
“Dharma Light... Arrogant.”
The corners of Ha Yul-geuk’s mouth rose faintly.
“Yet it suits your lips. Boy. If you had grown within our ranks, you might have... rebuilt our cult...”
His breathing stopped soon after.
He did not finish speaking.
Yeon-shin, who had silently watched him, closed his eyes.
He had taken in the state of the battlefield.
With the fighting settled, he needed to properly stabilize the newly born light wheel.
At the same time.
Whoosh!
It was the Returning Wings Squad and Demon Wings.
Desolate Fortress masters leaped in from every direction.
The moment they stopped at a distance, the backdraft from their movement techniques swept through the area.
In an instant, they formed a wide circle around the boy.
Yeon-shin began to consolidate the Divine Technique in the center of the battlefield.
He was fully settling the light wheel he had created that day within his body.
Hummm!
The blue hem of the boy’s robe fluttered gently as he stood with his eyes closed.
Clusters of light from the new inner-energy technique seeped from his entire body. It was as though a faint Milky Way flowed over him.
It was a mystical sight.
The Desolate Fortress masters stood surrounding him with their backs to him.
It was a formation guarding Seom-ye’s martial insight.
There was no room to join them in standing guard.
“...”
The martial artists outside watched blankly.
All kinds of emotions showed on the faces of the Tang Sect and Beggars’ Sect masters.
Footnotes:
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