WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 140: The Turbulent Road Home (5)
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To those who did not know any better, she appeared to have been startled by herself.
Her expression was that strange.
The Little Sword Empress no longer resembled a renowned swordswoman of the martial world. She looked like one of the common folk who scurried along the roadside or stood frozen in place.
‘Rather than losing confidence...’
She seemed deeply startled by something. Jeong Yeon-shin could not understand why.
“Are you saying you will come with us peacefully?”
The boy resumed his formal tone.
Languid Flame Dragon, who had Heavenly One Sword Sa Do-ryeong by the nape, clicked his tongue.
He leaned close to Sa Do-ryeong’s ear and whispered teasingly, “It’d be hard for anyone else to suit such mercurial behavior so well.”
With his paralysis acupoint sealed, Sa Do-ryeong could only glare wide-eyed at his senior sister.
His feelings were plain from his gaze alone. It was the look of someone facing the unthinkable.
“Yes... Well, after catching a glimpse of your sword domain, young hero, I can feel my rashness as vividly as a flower in full bloom.”
She smiled brightly, as though she had never broken into a cold sweat.
“It would not hurt to treat this as an opportunity to broaden my horizons. Surprisingly few martial artists from the Nine Sects have entered Desolate Fortress.”
“I will not tolerate any rash actions.”
Jeong Yeon-shin said with a calm expression.
The Little Sword Empress’s eyes curved into crescents. It was a narrow-eyed smile.
“There is still ample time before the Martial Alliance’s grand founding ceremony. Traveling the martial world with the masters of your sect does not seem entirely unpleasant.”
The way she looked at the boy had changed. She no longer regarded him as an obstacle to overcome before meeting the Purple Uniform experts.
Her gaze carefully examined Jeong Yeon-shin from head to toe. It felt less like probing than an earnest passion for martial arts.
Though she had volunteered to become a prisoner, she still carried herself like a swordswoman.
Soon, she let out a quiet sigh.
“If only my junior disciples were not here.”
Jeong Yeon-shin had formed a small measure of mutual understanding with the Little Sword Empress through their exchange of aura. He immediately understood what she meant.
If Heavenly One Sword and Jeomchang Dancing Sword had not been subdued, she would have tested Jeong Yeon-shin’s sword.
‘She is completely different from Sword Dragon.’
She spoke lightly of harsh things. Her values were firm. Regardless of the disadvantage she had faced, her passion for sword arts seemed extraordinary.
Jeomchang Dancing Sword, with Namgung Hwa-shin’s Desolate Sword at her throat, wore a faintly tearful expression.
“Senior Sister...”
The woman’s strong features twisted with distress, but Namgung Hwa-shin’s white sword remained as steady as a stone statue.
The chivalrous martial artist who had been courteous before now possessed the resolute spirit of a Desolate Fortress martial artist.
The incident at the City of Master Craftsmen had not changed only Jeong Yeon-shin.
White Qilin’s resolve was growing firmer.
The death of the half-brother he had followed so devotedly, his inability to avenge his sister with his own hands, and the deaths of the main fortress martial artists he had witnessed at the City of Master Craftsmen.
He was growing alongside Jeong Yeon-shin, his companion in swordsmanship. He had come to understand the harsh currents of the martial world, where one could protect nothing without being severe in one’s methods.
“That is enough.”
At Jeong Yeon-shin’s command, Namgung Hwa-shin withdrew his sword. With a clear sword resonance, the Desolate Sword traced a graceful arc and returned to its sheath.
The fluid motion of sheathing it in an instant attested to his accomplishment in swordsmanship.
Languid Flame Dragon lightly tapped Sa Do-ryeong’s nape and released his sealed acupoint.
“You...!”
Heavenly One Sword Sa Do-ryeong immediately gripped his sword hilt again, moving as though about to lash out.
Yet he could not draw it.
He had met Languid Flame Dragon’s dull eyes.
They were unlike the eyes Languid Flame Dragon showed when trading jokes with Jeong Yeon-shin.
Within him too burned the dry flame born of a short life. It showed in the colorless light gathered in his eyes.
“I have many good memories of the Nine Sects. I hope you will not tarnish the reputation of a great mountain sect.”
The Sun God Meridian’s Scorching Yang qi accompanied his words. An intense, overwhelming presence bore down on Sa Do-ryeong.
Languid Flame Dragon continued slowly.
“Besides you, is there any martial lineage in the current martial world that can truly be called orthodox? As far as I know, only the Nine Sects remain. This is an age when fairness and justice can be found only in the sacred mountains of religion, whether Buddhist or Daoist.”
His languid tone carried the authority of the Young Family Head of a great clan. Sa Do-ryeong’s expression faltered.
In the end, he slowly released his sword hilt and lowered his head.
“Good. You are rather obedient.”
Languid Flame Dragon stepped back with a teasing remark. Hyeon Won-chang greeted him from the side.
“For an unranked disciple, you have quite a tongue. You will do well as a junior.”
“...”
Jeong Yeon-shin, meanwhile, watched the Little Sword Empress speaking with Jeomchang Dancing Sword.
“Senior Sister, you made the right choice. I weighed the fortunes and misfortunes, and all we could gain by clashing with Desolate Fortress here was misfortune.”
Jeomchang Dancing Sword spoke. Her sharply defined eyes bore witness to her disposition.
The Little Sword Empress absently stroked her sword hilt and replied casually.
“Oh, really?”
“As disciples of an orthodox sect of the White Path, we cannot fight a battle without justification. It would bring disgrace upon our sect.”
“Uh... Right.”
“The sect leader would have been furious. Even if Heaven favored us and we won, what came afterward would have been a problem... And if we had lost before all those people, there could have been no greater humiliation. To be frank, I believe you would have lost. Just seeing the black long robe worn by Seom-ye is enough to know the rumors are no exaggeration.”
When Jeomchang Dancing Sword’s gaze met Jeong Yeon-shin’s, she quickly turned her head away. She looked as though she had encountered an unsettling thunderclap bomb.
“Would it not be better to make it seem as though we are traveling with them rather than being dragged away? This was brought about by you, Senior Sister. I advised you so often to restrain your curiosity.”
“Sorry, sorry.”
“Desolate Fortress treats the Nine Sects relatively leniently, so it would be best to stay in Xiangyang for a while before participating in the Martial Alliance’s grand founding ceremony. In any case, it is fortunate that you made the best choice in the end.”
“Hmm...? Right? Yes.”
The Little Sword Empress smiled softly and turned toward Jeong Yeon-shin.
Their eyes met. The boy gave a slight nod.
There was a reason he had waited for her.
With the Jeomchang Sect’s First Disciple and her party joining them, there was something to gain.
There was a clear difference between traveling the martial world as a single Desolate Fortress martial force while escorting those under their protection and traveling with important figures from the Nine Sects in their group.
It could bring a major change to their situation, where they had to avoid conflict itself.
‘A very favorable change.’
He had not even once crossed blades with the Little Sword Empress. Yet they were traveling together. The next sect leader of Jeomchang, renowned for her swordsmanship, would aid them.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that the Jeomchang Sect now stood behind them. Their journey could only become smoother.
He considered it a good outcome.
Compared to the vastness of the world, Desolate Fortress was small.
To keep ignorant local clans and small-to-medium sects in check, the name of the Nine Sects, rooted throughout the Central Plains, was more effective.
That was especially true outside Huguang, where Desolate Fortress had established itself. The lofty prestige of the Nine Sects could certainly be put to use.
“Uh... Where should I stand?”
The Little Sword Empress approached with hesitant steps. She was strangely cautious.
Her repeated glances at the sword hilt at Jeong Yeon-shin’s waist made her interests obvious.
The sword, and martial arts.
Her desire to meet the Purple Uniform experts had likely stemmed from the same interest.
The boy answered briefly.
“You will have to lead the way.”
“...Can I not walk beside you? Your sword-gripping method looked somewhat unusual.”
She said it out of the blue. She seemed to be referring to the opening stance of Jeong Yeon-shin’s Radiant Sword Flow.
The boy shook his head. It was not worth considering.
“Please lead the way.”
“I’m curious about your swordsmanship, young hero. I’d like to get to know you. Can’t we be friends?”
Her tone had become completely casual. Jeong Yeon-shin did not answer. There was no need to indulge the Little Sword Empress’s peculiar temperament.
He gave a silent bow to the drivers guiding the carriages. It was a gesture signaling the resumption of the journey.
“Hyah!”
The procession of four-horse carriages began moving again.
The crowd that had watched the entire scene from afar recoiled in surprise.
The clatter of hooves drowned out everything else.
“Ah, I have never met another peer who interests me this much.”
The Little Sword Empress lingered until Jeomchang Dancing Sword pushed her onward. Jeomchang Dancing Sword’s voice dissolved into a sigh as she dealt with her willful martial siblings.
“Senior Sister, please.”
That was how the Jeomchang Sect group joined their journey.
It had been a decision made on the spot, yet it soon produced an astonishing effect.
Seven days and nights.
For that long, Jeong Yeon-shin’s procession went unimpeded.
* * *
“We are already at Xiangyang.”
Hyeon Won-chang muttered as he walked alongside Jeong Yeon-shin.
The hot wind brushed the hero’s headband tied around the Imperial Hero’s forehead.
The silence of the quiet mountain path was filled with the sound of horse hooves.
They traveled at ease.
‘It is quite effective.’
Jeong Yeon-shin watched the backs of the Jeomchang disciples walking ahead.
He had originally expected a certain degree of pursuit.
Desolate Fortress was not an all-powerful faction in the local martial world. There were two types of sects that might oppose them.
Small and medium sects that believed their own world was everything, and major factions that watched the state of the world. In effect, that meant nearly everyone.
The world was broad, vast and boundless.
Small sects could rush at them out of ignorance, hoping to gain fame. Major factions could assess the right opportunity and speak of killing them all to silence them.
“...Nothing’s happening. I’m getting bored.”
Languid Flame Dragon lay atop a four-horse carriage, using one hand as a pillow.
Jeomchang, one of the Nine Sects, had a renown that reached from Yunnan to the edge of Sichuan.
It was not inferior even to the great clans said to lay claim to royal standing.
The Little Sword Empress of Jeomchang was practically comparable to the heir of a Prince of Commandery.
It was an immensely noble status. That was even more true now that Sichuan’s Thirteen Heavens Demonic Sect had nearly been destroyed.
Long hair swayed as someone walked at a distance.
“Young Master Jeong...! There is no one around, so perhaps a spar... Never mind.”
The Little Sword Empress turned around with a gentle yet awkward expression, then turned back.
After enduring for a long time, she had finally failed to hold back her words, only to suddenly remember that Jeong Yeon-shin’s maternal grandfather lay in one of the four-horse carriages.
She appeared deeply interested in the Radiant Sword Flow that he had briefly displayed when their sword domains contended.
Because of the martial world’s code, she could not openly ask about the origins of his sword art. Her desire to cross swords with him seemed to swell like clouds.
“...”
Jeong Yeon-shin did not respond.
He did not feel the same way about her as he did Sword Dragon Weiji Myo-hwa or Clear Qilin Namgung Se-jin.
The Little Sword Empress was said to possess great chivalrous renown, but to the boy, she was still simply a strange person.
Jeong Yeon-shin treated her only as a useful tool.
‘That is what she truly is, too.’
It was then, as he thought calmly.
“There you are. My sister, Mir-yeo.”
At the left side of the broad mountain road ahead stood a figure who seemed to have descended like a mirage from the Great Desert said to lie beyond the Great Wall.
She was a person from the Western Regions, like the demonic martial artists of the Pure Demon Alliance.
Her hair was not the golden blond characteristic of those people, but black like that of the Central Plains. Still, her blue eyes were vivid and clear.
Her slanted posture looked somewhat unruly. She did not approach with the bearing of a sect leader.
Yet the instant Jeong Yeon-shin saw her, he circulated the Light Wheel.
A disaster had arrived without warning. Her presence resembled the demonic qi of Senior Baek Mir-yeo, but felt far denser and more profound.
He immediately guessed her identity.
‘The Pure Demon Alliance Leader.’
Perhaps sensing the boy’s gaze, the Pure Demon Alliance Leader smiled and stepped out through the brush.
Her sharp eyes, narrow jawline, and many other features resembled Baek Mir-yeo.
“So you are the one who scattered my alliance’s children to the winds. Your martial reputation seems ready to pierce the skies of Sichuan.”
The pressure brushing against his skin was astonishing.
Whoosh!
A colorless gale swept over them. It came with a pressure that seemed to have substance.
Her demonic qi seemed capable of crushing the dharma power of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel. It was difficult to believe a person could cultivate demonic arts so deeply.
“Receive a move from me.”
A peerless master who could rival the Blood Flame Sect Master revealed her presence with a smile.
“Ghk.”
“Pure Demon... Alliance Leader...!”
Groans came from the Jeomchang disciples walking ahead and some Desolate Fortress martial artists. What kind of movement technique was this?
She had merely appeared before them, yet people behind Jeong Yeon-shin were falling to their knees as though before an emperor.
‘I reported it, but surely...’
Jeong Yeon-shin did not look at the Pure Demon Alliance Leader. With rare surprise in his eyes, he stared beyond her shoulder.
When had she appeared? Had she come to verify the circumstances of Ma Yeon-jeok, whom she had called a friend?
Had she been lying in wait for the Pure Demon Alliance Leader from the beginning, only stepping in now that the time had come when she could no longer remain uninvolved?
A presence capable of dispelling those tangled doubts with a single name entered his sight.
It had arrived suddenly, yet unlike any disaster, at exactly the right moment.
She stood there with an elegant bearing.
The first thing that caught Jeong Yeon-shin’s eye was beauty that could topple kingdoms, beauty that seemed to symbolize immortality.
Even beneath the shade of the arborvitae trees, long pale-green hair stood out clearly.
Deep green eyes filled with an abyss seemed to silence the entire brush-covered mountain.
“You possess a remarkably well-trained physique. Your presence, too, seems capable of handling even this alliance’s Saber Fist Demon.”
Behind the smiling Pure Demon Alliance Leader, the Lord of Desolate Fortress stepped lightly forward, holding a divine sword lowered at her side as sunlight gleamed brilliantly upon it through gaps in the shade.
Footnotes:
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