WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Chapter 17: Return
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At the end of the path dimly lit by torches stood a figure.
They were different from the Blood Flame Sect members Yeon-shin had seen until now.
Red hair interspersed with strands of black.
The ominous energy enveloping their entire body was palpable against Yeon-shin's skin.
A Blood Master.
They looked exactly as he had heard.
It was said that the red hair of Blood Flame Sect martial artists revealed the sinister nature of their inner energy. When some of their body hair gradually returned to its original color, it meant they had reached the realm of refining qi.
‘This will not be easy.’
The Blood Master strode toward him with their sword drawn, their face twisted in anger. Their momentum was fiercely murderous, as though they were firing hundreds of needle-like streaks at him.
“A wretch like you has ruined the affairs of our sect. Your pain will replenish my blood!”
“Are you planning to plunder qi through Blood Arts?”
It was not a question asked out of curiosity. Even before speaking, he had been gauging their combat interval.
A boy of fifteen or sixteen handling an entire Blood Flame Sect branch alone?
It was unimaginable.
The enemy slowly approaching with a sword in hand likely held the same conviction.
Even after Yeon-shin had slain several cultists, the Blood Master, whose black hair had begun to grow in, had reached a different realm from Blood Flame Sect members with purely red hair.
‘Here I go.’
Qi rose from his fully open dantian and raced through his body.
The qi of the Jeong Family Youth Technique began circulating through the fine meridians of his entire body while bearing the principles of the Ultimate Realm.
‘I have to overwhelm them before they close in.’
He had realized the value of taking the initiative when he defeated a Blue Uniform master of the Azure Sky Squad.
Thud!
Stepping through the still-unnamed leaf footwork, he made a broad half-turn.
Qi gathered powerfully in his waist and thighs. The speed at which his inner energy responded was different from when he had been at Jeong Family Manor.
The Demon's Light Leg Arts lashed out with all the strength gathered in an instant, tearing the air threateningly.
Whoosh!
Surprise flickered across the Blood Master’s face as they approached with the torchlight at their back, but they leaned their upper body back and evaded Yeon-shin’s spinning back kick.
“Hup!”
They immediately drove their sword at him in anger, but that was where Yeon-shin’s decisive move lay.
Bang!
His right foot cut through the air as it descended, then struck the ground and sent him sharply forward.
His body tilted low. It was a movement that broke the sword strike’s combat interval in an instant.
Wind swirled around him as he closed the distance at once against the careless enemy.
Within the gale he created, his outstretched left hand targeted their wrist.
It was a joint lock the Jeong Family Youth Technique had instinctively guided him to use, his first move at Jeong Family Manor before its destruction.
The Blood Master’s eyes widened as if they would split apart.
It was not surprise. It was fury, as if to say, How dare you?
Having entered the ranks of masters, such an approach was absurd to them.
But Yeon-shin was no longer the boy who had been unable to bear the tragedy of his manor’s destruction.
His left hand flowed out gracefully. The joint lock was joined by the movement pattern of Demon's Light.
“What...!”
In the end, the Blood Master’s cry of shock was no different from those of the Blood Flame Sect members sprawled at the cave entrance.
Yeon-shin knew how to use his appearance and age like a beast’s fangs. Once he bit down, it was over.
He clung close and seized the pulse at their wrist. The monstrous strength of the Jeong Family Youth Technique filled his grip.
“Argh!”
The Blood Master seemed unable to think through the pain, yet an eerie aura spread from above and below.
Yeon-shin knew without looking. They intended to strike upward with a knee and crush his head with a knife hand.
But the swift-sword formula of the Desolate Sword, wielded after he had reversed his grip, was faster.
-Demon's Light follows no fixed form.
Ma Jin’s teaching.
Ma Jin’s voice from when Yeon-shin had studied under him more than a month ago carried a trace of laughter at this moment.
At the same time, qi layered with the Ultimate Realm gathered in his right arm.
Imagining the mythical giant Pangu pushing Mount Tai, he drove the sword clenched in his fist inward.
At this point, it was raw strength that did not even require a sword path.
“Gah!”
It went deep. He could feel the Blood Master’s aura dispersing completely.
Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.
“It seems you have only ever inflicted pain. I can tell just by looking. You have never suffered it yourself.”
“Argh!”
As he applied more force inward, their screams broke off into choked fragments.
He was almost embracing them now, feeling their fading life force against his entire body.
It was a sensation that could not put even a crack in the values hardened by his manor’s destruction.
“There is a saying in the martial world. Beware the elderly, women, and children.”
He spoke into their ear, but they did not seem to hear.
Yeon-shin dispassionately pushed the body away. The Blood Master sprawled out, already a corpse.
‘I only needed to kill one Blood Flame Sect member in Jinpyeong County.’
Somehow, he had wiped out a Blood Flame Sect branch.
It was a great merit in the end, so it should not have mattered.
Yet the reason his mouth tasted bitter was likely the boys and girls lying everywhere, gaunt and emaciated.
He thought of Jeong Family Manor.
“Go to paradise.”
Yeon-shin crouched down and closed their eyes one by one.
* * *
“You exchanged blades. What happened? Are you hurt?”
Those were Baek Mir-yeo’s first words upon seeing Yeon-shin descend the mountain.
Her concerned gaze felt somewhat like that of an older sister now, and he did not dislike it.
He was wearing the blood-soaked White Uniform martial robes of Desolate Fortress, though the blood was not his, and carrying a child who no longer breathed on his back. Her concern was understandable.
“It is not my blood. I found what appears to be a Blood Flame Sect branch.”
“A Blood Flame Sect branch! As expected...”
Baek Mir-yeo nodded and spoke again.
“I am glad you are unharmed. If you learned anything of their force’s composition, tell me. How many did you exchange blows with? Their hideout has been discovered, so the sect will make some kind of move. We need to prepare.”
“There were eight red-haired Blood Flame Sect members. I also saw one strong opponent with black and red hair mixed together.”
“A Blood Master...!”
Her eyes widened slightly. Before Yeon-shin could continue after the exclamation interrupted him, Baek Mir-yeo spoke rapidly in keeping with her nature.
“Yes. If a Blood Master was there, it truly was a Blood Flame Sect branch. They had been lurking here as well. Whatever their mission, the Blood Flame Sect is a target for extermination by Desolate Fortress. You have accomplished something great, so rest now. Cheong Myeong and I will go.”
“...I fought nine. You only need to send the government troops.”
“You said eight and one, did you not? If it was nine... Did you just say government troops would be enough? Hmm...?”
Perhaps Yeon-shin’s calm demeanor finally struck her as strange.
Baek Mir-yeo furrowed her brow. Then astonishment slowly spread across her face.
“Seom-ye. Are you saying you defeated the Blood Flame Sect members, including the Blood Master, alone?”
“I killed them all.”
“Hah...”
It was a strange exclamation. It sounded like pure surprise and admiration rather than doubt.
At the same time, someone dropped down from above.
A light movement accompanied by the scent of grass. Cheong Myeong thrust their face close to Yeon-shin with a shocked expression.
“You turned a Blood Flame Sect branch into a wasteland by yourself?”
“They had already made it a wasteland with blood.”
Yeon-shin answered with an expression that was difficult to read.
Their gazes rested briefly on the child on his back.
“Damn cultists,” Baek Mir-yeo muttered.
“...Blood Masters have a strange regenerative ability. You were not stabbed in the back, were you?”
Cheong Myeong asked as if changing the subject, then continued.
“Sorry. We overlooked something we should have told you sooner. Blood Masters practically act as reapers among common folk and the lower martial world, and masters with the martial prowess to kill them are rare even across the Central Plains. Information like that cannot be easily shared.”
Baek Mir-yeo nodded, wearing a rare apologetic expression.
“This truly is our failure. I am glad you seem unharmed, but once one is in Desolate Fortress, reports like that gradually reach them. It is a story from another sect. They barely defeated a Blood Master, then died with their backs pierced because they did not know about the regenerative power of the Blood Master’s Blood Arts.”
“Anyone who is not an exceptional master is liable to fall victim. Yet you somehow remained unharmed.”
Cheong Myeong smiled with satisfaction.
Yeon-shin, who had listened quietly, slowly nodded.
“Regeneration. So there was something like that.”
He released the arm supporting the child on his back. When he brought his hand forward, red and black hair spilled down.
The Blood Master’s head.
Its face was deathly pale, and the unclosed eyes made it look even more grotesque.
“......”
Cheong Myeong and Baek Mir-yeo said nothing for a while.
“Yes... regenerative ability. There is such a thing.”
Cheong Myeong finally replied with an awkward expression. Baek Mir-yeo, on the other hand, patted Yeon-shin’s shoulder and said he had done well.
“You need to claim your merit properly. That is a good attitude.”
“Hmm, certainly... This is no ordinary achievement. All the more so for someone who is a complete novice to the martial world and has only just become a White Uniform of Desolate Fortress.”
Cheong Myeong examined the Blood Master’s head closely and continued.
“The black hair has not been growing for long. That branch must have been rather weak.”
Baek Mir-yeo shook her head.
“Regardless, the merit of finding and destroying a Blood Flame Sect branch alone can never be diminished. The Seventeen Squads, even those of the Azure Sky Squad, will only covet Seom-ye more. They cannot diminish this merit. This was accomplished by a White Uniform, not a Blue Uniform. It is a feat that goes beyond merely astonishing.”
“That is only natural.”
Cheong Myeong nodded and struck Hyeon Won-chang on the shoulder. The Desolate Fortress Divine Hero had approached at some point and was holding his breath in fear as he stared at the Blood Master’s head.
“They are dead. What are you afraid of?”
“Ah, I-I am not afraid! How many Green Forest and river bandits have died at these hands!”
The group laughed at Hyeon Won-chang, who seemed to have returned to how he had been when he first arrived in Jinpyeong County.
After that, the matter passed out of Demon Wings’ hands.
Upon seeing the Blood Master’s severed head, the county magistrate of Jinpyeong County was greatly alarmed and sent government troops.
There were rumors that several government troops wet themselves after seeing the Blood Flame Sect’s ruined Jinpyeong County branch.
Once the county magistrate learned that fearsome blood demons had been operating nearby, the county magistrate repeatedly thanked Yeon-shin while clasping Yeon-shin’s hand in both hands, as though the county magistrate had never been reluctant to touch Yeon-shin before.
Blood Masters were especially infamous among commoners apart from their martial prowess.
The corpses strewn throughout the branch were not children from Jinpyeong County.
The Blood Flame Sect members were presumed to have taken them from nearby, but since it was unclear whether the disappearances were the work of martial artists, the information had not reached Desolate Fortress.
Four days passed as they dealt with the aftermath.
“If you have occasion to travel through here again, would you visit once more?”
The county magistrate, now incomparably polite, looked up at the mounted members of Demon Wings.
It was a scene similar to their first meeting, yet entirely different. In particular, the county magistrate’s gaze toward Seom-ye seemed to burn.
Yeon-shin had not experienced much of the outside world, but he could tell that what lay in the county magistrate’s eyes was not pure respect alone.
-It seems the county magistrate wants to form a connection with the kind of martial master the county magistrate had only heard about, and a promising young hero at that.
Cheong Myeong’s sound transmission carried a trace of amusement.
‘The county magistrate of Jinpyeong County. So that is that person’s life.’
Yeon-shin gave a vague nod and watched the county magistrate smile brightly.
Perhaps the county magistrate was broader-minded than they appeared.
The ability to act that way despite suffering such humiliation was somewhat admirable in itself.
“I am Yu Geun of Jinpyeong County! Please remember me!”
The group turned their horses and left Jinpyeong County behind.
It had been a long yet short affair, peaceful yet concluded with cruelty.
The first foray into the martial world by the two White Uniforms of Demon Wings ended with Seom-ye’s solo achievement on record.
* * *
The journey back was more leisurely. They even allowed the horses considerably longer meal breaks.
Thanks to that, they did not have to see Hyeon Won-chang’s face turn pale, though Hyeon Won-chang often looked tearful on the way back.
“Young Hero Jeong has achieved a dazzling merit, while I have done nothing at all...”
“That is normal, if anything. It is enough that you kept watch and prevented the Jinpyeong County cultist’s atrocities.”
Baek Mir-yeo comforted Hyeon Won-chang at first, but after the same thing happened several more times, she said nothing with a blank expression.
Rather than sleep outdoors, they stayed at inns and slowly entered Xiangyang.
The first thing they saw was Desolate Fortress’s fortress walls, even larger than Xiangyang’s outer walls.
Yeon-shin smiled faintly. He had not spent long at Desolate Fortress, yet the gladness rising within him at returning felt strange.
“Something feels lively.”
Cheong Myeong suddenly said.
“Has it not truly been a long time? Now that we have completed our first mission, I too will visit Xiangyang’s finest tavern.”
Hyeon Won-chang had been smiling broadly for some time. The main road leading to Desolate Fortress had done that.
The energy given off by merchants, hawkers, and people of all kinds hurrying about was overwhelming.
It was enough to blow away even the Desolate Fortress Divine Hero’s present dejection.
“No, not you. The people here. It is more than usual. Wait...”
Cheong Myeong closed their eyes while still on horseback, and the group fell silent. They had become accustomed to the elven race’s keen hearing.
It was thanks to Cheong Myeong that none of them had needed to stand watch during their fairly long journey together.
“Ah. I hear that person is coming. This will be a major payday for everyone here, considering how Desolate Fortress greatly honors those who have earned merit.”
“I heard it too. The former Divine Sword Squad Leader, at last...”
At Baek Mir-yeo’s words, Yeon-shin’s body stiffened for a moment.
She glanced at him as if finding it strange, then spoke again.
“If they are challenging for the position of Elder Council Head, they will not simply overlook Xiangyang’s public sentiment.”
“The head of Desolate Fortress’s Elder Council will be closer to the imperial family than the Xiangyang Prefect. People on this street might receive at least one measure of rice each. They might not care as much in a bountiful year, but imagine how excited they would be in a lean year.”
“It seems the former Divine Sword Squad Leader has already entered the city.”
“Yes. They say the former squad leader passed by with a boy riding in front of them on the horse. That boy must be the much-rumored adopted son of the Desolate Ma family. I heard his talent is extraordinary.”
Cheong Myeong soon urged their horse onward, as if uninterested.
“Talent, huh.”
Baek Mir-yeo gave a small snort. Her long black hair swayed with the horse’s gait.
She turned her head to the side and glanced lightly at Yeon-shin.
“......”
He nodded with a calm expression.
After stroking his horse’s neck and keeping pace with the group for a while, the four members of Demon Wings soon arrived at Desolate Fortress’s main gate.
It was the end of their long mission.
Footnotes:
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