WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈

Episode 144: Black Uniform (2)

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“I told you to come closer, yet you refuse to listen.”

With soft, rustling footsteps, the Lord of Desolate Fortress moved.

She stood directly before Jeong Yeon-shin. After taking one step, she drew another half-step closer.

“Is it because you’ve come of age?”

Her voice carried a hint of laughter, along with a faint bodily scent. It smelled of grass.

The two-step distance between them narrowed to half a step.

Jeong Yeon-shin was in the midst of his growth years and stood about as tall as she did. Their eyes met at the same level.

Eyes holding the will of an absolute master filled his vision. They were a sea of deep green.

The boy had to face the overwhelming force dwelling in those dark-green eyes.

Now he understood why people spoke of Mind Is Killing and the Intent-Form Sword.

How wondrous would the circulation of power be when wielded with such presence and intent?

He recalled the sword art that had driven back the Pure Demon Alliance Leader despite bearing such a burden.

The swordsmanship, as though it had absorbed moonlight, had been beautiful enough to seem beyond this mortal world.

It was the most striking eye contact of his life.

Jeong Yeon-shin stared at the black pupils reflected in the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s eyes. They were his own.

Compared to the absolute master before him, his black eyes held pitifully little power.

When would he be able to look into her eyes and boldly ask for a World Tree fruit?

‘Light Wheel.’

The boy called upon the wheel of his Divine Technique inwardly, seeking to regain his calm.

It had not been like this when he received the Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula. The Mingmen acupoint, the starting point for circulating qi received from another, was located on his back.

This was different. He was here to receive instruction in martial forms.

“A master’s senses cannot be toyed with easily. You must first carve that truth into your heart.”

The Lord of Desolate Fortress spoke quietly, never breaking eye contact.

Jeong Yeon-shin did not find it strange.

They said the martial arts scattered beneath Heaven were so varied that the forms of instruction were as countless as the arts themselves.

Even Shaolin’s Iron Sand Palm was like that. Practitioners trained their hands by plunging them into heated sand within a mortar.

The Lord of Desolate Fortress continued in a calm voice.

“Yet if you grasp the profound truth of a feint, that principle becomes a weapon.”

“Because of the confidence masters have in their own aura sense?”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked evenly.

Her eyes blinked once. Her long eyelashes moved with them, casting a faint shadow.

The Lord of Desolate Fortress’s eyes deepened in color.

“You have named two things correctly with one sentence. You are right. It strikes at their strength and turns it into a weakness. It is a method that disrupts not the five senses, but the aura sense.”

“Ah.”

“It is harder to attempt against weaker opponents. Their aura senses are too weak.”

“Then the reason we are standing face-to-face like this is...”

“Feel it. This will be enough for you.”

With that soft whisper, her face drew closer.

Softly.

Her white forehead slowly touched the boy’s.

It was gentle. Very warm.

For an instant, Jeong Yeon-shin felt a mother’s presence. It had been the same when he received the Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula.

A scene flashed through his mind, one that would have left no need to create the Jeong Family Youth Technique.

If his mother, Ma Yeon-sang, had been alive, would she have cared for him as a child and given him warmth like this?

It lasted only a moment. The Lord of Desolate Fortress quietly drew her forehead away.

Whoosh.

The top and bottom of his vision changed. It was as though only he had turned upside down around his head, his position completely reversed.

The boy felt as though he were standing upside down in empty air. Even his sight told him so.

It happened without warning, accompanied by a strand of wind that caressed the aura sense of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel as though toying with it.

It was as if she had gently kneaded the sixth sense wrapped around his entire body.

“...”

Jeong Yeon-shin, standing upon the empty air above, faced the Lord of Desolate Fortress, who still stood upon the ground.

Her lips were near the boy’s forehead. The boy’s breath lightly disturbed the grass-colored fringe of the Lord of Desolate Fortress.

‘What is this?’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought.

By this point, he was confused. Was it a type of illusory sword that induced a false perception?

Or were even her hair and his breath illusions?

The Lord of Desolate Fortress, who had reached the highest realm, had personally displayed a supreme move. Perhaps the essence of swordsmanship truly appeared in a realm beyond all reason.

Had his troubled expression shown? The Lord of Desolate Fortress smiled.

“Your lips are adorable. It is as though the leaf that was my companion in childhood is moving.”

It was truly mysterious.

At that moment, the boy realized in turn how tightly his five senses and aura sense were linked.

To react swiftly to spears and blades flying at him from behind, his bodily senses and inner-energy aura sense had to work in close coordination.

That seemed to be the phenomenon before him. Deceiving the aura sense became the miraculous feat of manipulating the senses.

‘They say the stronger the connection of one’s aura sense, the greater the master.’

That was why exceptional martial artists could face groups alone.

Which was why the method used against him now was frightening.

The Lord of Desolate Fortress called it a feint with no substance, but the true attack delivered behind that feint, after seizing control of the opponent’s inner-energy senses, would almost certainly strike home.

It was a chained sequence that led straight to death.

Its value was immense. That also meant it would be difficult to pull off.

The aura senses of masters were extremely sharp and solidly structured.

The system of Static Training, flowing through the twelve regular meridians and every minor meridian in the body, was often compared to a small universe.

It was not a sense that could easily be shaken by a single feint.

Jeong Yeon-shin asked without thinking.

“How do I do it?”

“Are we not standing like this because I intend to teach you through your body?”

The Lord of Desolate Fortress asked in a calm voice.

He understood.

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly closed his eyes.

He did not sink into his inner self. Instead, he entrusted his awareness to the formless power extending from the Light Wheel.

At the same time, he sensed the aura that the Lord of Desolate Fortress was sweeping across his entire body.

It was a strange method. It did not end with the force wave released by a strike.

It was a wave that coiled around the opponent’s aura as though it possessed will.

It rode the released qi back to its source and confused the aura sense.

‘This is it.’

He understood at once.

No one could remain affected by this method for long.

A master who had refined qi for many years would notice something wrong within a few breaths in the midst of battle.

It truly was a feint. It was difficult to pull off and difficult to maintain.

Even so, it was immensely appealing.

It would be difficult to hold an artificially tuned aura sense in place as it was now. That was an inhuman realm only the Lord of Desolate Fortress could achieve.

Yet even stealing a single breath from an opponent made it worthy of being called a supreme move. It was excellent. As an unmatched feint, it would wield tremendous power.

Jeong Yeon-shin focused his mind.

Wooooong!

As the Light Wheel in his heart turned, another aura sense arose. His vision split into two layers.

One version of himself looked at the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s lips while standing upside down, while another stood properly upon the ground, meeting her eyes.

The latter had to be his original sense.

The boy immediately moved his senses.

His head grew slightly hot. His upper dantian was glowing white-hot.

Slowly.

He traced back down the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s aura, which wrapped around his entire body.

He examined every detail of how she circulated her energy. At the same time, he worked backward to calculate the mnemonic formula.

Words imprinted themselves upon his mind. It was the operating method of the feint, one the Lord of Desolate Fortress had never conveyed with her voice.

It was not dead writing recorded in some secret manual. He experienced the form with his body and grasped its application all at once.

It was a form of instruction possible only because he was Seom-ye.

“Yes. That is right.”

He heard her whisper. Her breath, touched with laughter, tickled Jeong Yeon-shin’s lips.

She seemed to perceive with perfect clarity the boy’s senses as he unraveled her aura. It was an astonishingly lofty realm.

‘Casual training won’t be enough if I want to use this in real combat.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought as he committed the mnemonic formula to memory.

When he placed a final period beneath the invisible words, the boy’s vision returned to normal.

At the end of the aura he had traced was a small smile. A faint smile. The Lord of Desolate Fortress.

Saaaaa.

The wind surrounding them scattered. It was the current of a force wave that had deceived the intrusion of his aura sense.

“What did you feel?”

Her lips moved. Her eyes, as she watched the boy, gleamed with interest.

Perhaps their aura senses had resonated for a moment. Or perhaps the senses had become familiar after touching each other.

Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously spoke more comfortably.

“It will be difficult for now...”

“Difficult?”

“I don’t think I can use it properly yet. Both controlling my aura to enter the opponent’s aura sense and disrupting their senses during battle.”

The boy spoke.

The Lord of Desolate Fortress did not answer for a moment. She simply watched him with jade-like green eyes.

Her gaze seemed to ask whether it was truly beyond his ability.

How much did she expect from someone of Seom-ye’s caliber? At first glance, she only seemed indifferent.

Only after saying it did Jeong Yeon-shin realize how freely he had spoken. The Lord of Desolate Fortress still intimidated him.

It was not only because she guarded the World Tree. Anyone would find it difficult to breathe easily before an absolute master.

“Still.”

The boy opened his mouth again at once, nearly stammering for once.

“I understand how to control aura and sword wind. I had grown accustomed to controlling wind through Senior Cheong Myeong’s Body Movement Scripture, so I found several clues. I have also realized how frightening the feint you showed me is.”

“It is because we are so close. At an ordinary distance, it is difficult to exert this much influence.”

The Lord of Desolate Fortress spoke quietly.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently nodded.

If it could be done regardless of distance, it could hardly be called martial arts anymore. It would belong to the realm of rare sorcery arts.

“Think of it as taking one breath from your opponent. Anything beyond that is unnecessary.”

“I have fully grasped the mnemonic formula. I believe the day will come when it proves useful. I only need to train without rest.”

At the boy’s words, the corners of her lips rose slightly.

“You have begun learning it.”

Her slender breath scattered beneath Jeong Yeon-shin’s nose.

Still standing close, she lightly pushed his chest with a white hand.

Rustle.

The fabric beneath her fingertips made a small sound. The Lord of Desolate Fortress gave a quiet laugh.

“It will not take long. You may even use it in your Black Uniform promotion.”

“Ah.”

Jeong Yeon-shin stepped back and gave a short exclamation.

He had become so focused on the instruction that he had forgotten for a moment.

There had been sparring matches during the promotions to White Uniform and Blue Uniform.

Black Uniform would not be any different. He had heard that it simply involved more procedures and considerations.

Would he have to face a master whose status had been formally recognized at the main fortress? Whoever it was, they would possess exceptional martial arts.

‘They’ll be formidable.’

Jeong Yeon-shin slowly raised a fist-and-palm salute. It was his gesture of gratitude for being taught such a precious method.

“I will not bring dishonor upon you. I will repay this instruction by proving myself worthy of your reputation.”

“You need only reveal your natural talent.”

The Lord of Desolate Fortress answered quietly.

Her voice marked the end of the lesson.

She slowly turned around, apparently intending to return to her room.

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly opened his mouth again.

Before the boy could even address her, the Lord of Desolate Fortress stopped. She had sensed even that faint sign of movement.

“There is one thing I would like to ask.”

“Speak.”

She answered with her slender back turned toward him.

“Is it truly impossible to raise a sword with one’s heart? I mean the heart sword of Mind Is Killing.”

Jeong Yeon-shin asked as a promising talent aspiring to the rank of Divine Sword Squad Leader.

It was the question of a young master who hated his own constitution, yet had been born with a nature that loved martial arts.

“It is not on my path.”

Her crystalline voice flowed out. Regardless of the noisy air outside, it rang beside his ears.

It seemed to fill the empty rear courtyard with solitude.

“You may be able to do it. One day.”

That was all.

Sunset settled upon the broad robes of the Lord of Desolate Fortress.

A silent radiance flowed down from her hair like waves, as though proving how full the day had been even though she had never drawn a sword.

Rustle.

She slowly walked away. The day faded with her long strides.

Until then, Jeong Yeon-shin did not lower his fist-and-palm salute.

‘I’ve grown stronger again. There is so much to ponder.’

Wearing a borrowed Black Uniform robe, the boy had begun learning the feint. It was the Lord of Desolate Fortress who had taught him.

* * *

The next day.

Jeong Yeon-shin entered through the main gate of the main fortress with his group. They had finally returned.

He stepped between the huge open gates. Hyeon Won-chang, walking beside him, let out a sigh full of emotion.

“At any rate, we made it back alive. It was a difficult journey.”

“I hope the reward is generous. I’m out of opium poppy. And wine.”

The Languid Flame Dragon suddenly stepped down from the carriage. His movements were remarkably light.

He tapped the young Squad Leader on the shoulder and spoke gently.

“Lend me some silver. This place is good in every way, but the pay is far too meager. It can’t support my spending habits.”

“A drunk and an opium addict. I have no desire to lend money I’ll never get back.”

As he spoke, the boy glanced at the Languid Flame Dragon’s hand.

It was trembling slightly.

It did not appear to be withdrawal. It seemed to be because of the scorching yang qi from the Sun God Meridian, which was said to inflict agonizing pain upon him every day.

At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin sensed an unusual atmosphere within the vast fortress.

More people were gradually appearing. There were far more than one or two.

The noisy air was filled with excitement.

There was much whispering. Yet it all came down to one thing. Voices were saying that the central figure of the Black Uniform promotion ceremony had arrived.

It was entirely different from his Blue Uniform promotion.

The main fortress seemed to be welcoming a rare event.

‘At last.’

Desolate Fortress’s biggest current event awaited the boy.

Footnotes:

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