WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 218: Flash (5)
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“Where are the two rabbits running to?”
A man’s and a woman’s voices swept through the dense undergrowth. Sound Arts aura stretched outward in currents of wind.
The blue-green leaves of the evergreens shuddered in succession, shattering the silence that had rested over the mountain slopes.
The voices were eerie.
“Do disciples of a ruined sect have anywhere to lay their heads?”
The man and woman spoke as one, their voices carrying like a song. There was even a trace of laughter in their taunts, like wildcats toying with their prey.
The mockery repeated again and again.
An exceptionally advanced Sound Arts technique was being used to provoke and pursue her. The voice reached the sword-bearing woman faintly from far behind.
Her jet-black hair, adorned with feathers, fluttered with unusual urgency.
Tap.
Dawn dew scattered beneath her feet.
The branch struck by the force wave of the Body Movement Scripture bent like a bow, while droplets caught in the aura crumbled into the hazy mist.
The living branch she had landed on snapped back as though angry at the foot that had stepped on it and vanished.
Yet the owner of those leather shoes reinforced with blue cloth had already torn through the fog and shot into the air.
Her lightness skill continued without pause.
Evergreen trees wrapped in pale mist swayed in succession amid rapid clattering. The intruder’s leaps, invisible force waves gathered around her toes, shook the branches as she passed.
Weiji Myo-hwa, the Cloud Sword Dragon, Shaanxi’s foremost young talent.
‘They’re closer.’
She ran with Jeong Hye in her arms. Using the Zhongnan Sect’s secret Chasing Clouds Art, she cut through the trees in a burst of speed.
Even with a girl in her arms, she seemed to walk through the sky. Still, anxiety showed in her movements.
It was morning, and orange light seeped into the faint clouds and mist.
A valley in the Qinling Mountain Range of Shaanxi Province.
The ridges stretched far, and the chase had gone on just as long.
The mountain range extending from Mount Zhongnan was immensely high and rugged.
The old tales claiming that Pangu had once lain sprawled across it almost felt believable.
Stream-filled valleys spread through the mountains like veins. Weiji Myo-hwa had crossed the cliffs surrounding those streams again and again.
Even so, she could not shake her pursuers.
She was not of the elven race. There was a limit to how much she could conceal the signs of her lightness skill. Even as the Sword Dragon of the Zhongnan Sect, considered the strongest among Shaanxi’s young swordsmen, that much remained true.
Her enemies had never been young talents to begin with.
‘The Chaneum Twin Demons.’
They were masters of Yeoryeong, one of the Thirteen Heavens, currently lending support to the Tyrant Sword Sect’s operation.
They had mastered the use of Sound Arts through their voices. They were vicious twin siblings.
Each had reached the rank of an established master. Yeoryeong was a major faction known for secrecy, but the Chaneum Twin Demons were famous.
Their Sound Arts were flamboyant and possessed a certain elegance. Like military strike-force commanders, they often made their presence known.
“Where are the two rabbits running to!”
Sound Arts erupted again. It came in a current of wind that nearly brushed the hem of her blue robes. The brush behind her trembled in fine waves.
The sound was gradually boring into Weiji Myo-hwa’s mind. Sorcery power was woven into the two voices. It felt as though clumps of foreign matter were forcing their way into her head.
A profound sorcery-based martial art.
Was it the mind-controlling ability that assassins and hidden swords were said to suffer under? There was something sinister in the Sound Arts.
‘They can’t touch us.’
She had to get as far away as possible. The moment her body was properly brushed by the aura in their voices, they would discover her.
Once her exact location was identified, she would not be able to handle them. Even elders of the Nine Sects could not take the Chaneum Twin Demons’ combined Sound Arts lightly.
Weiji Myo-hwa bit her lower lip. A sharp pain spread through it.
Jeong Hye, held in her arms, had her eyes squeezed shut. She was still a child. Her soft lashes trembled.
She still retained her senses because Weiji Myo-hwa’s qi was wrapped around her ears.
The granddaughter of the Jeong Family Manor head, and the niece of the current Leader of Demon Wings.
She had seen her sect destroyed twice at a young age.
Even after joining the Zhongnan Sect, she sought out Jeong Yeon-shin more often than Jeong Joong-san. She possessed enough martial talent to receive the Sword Immortal of Zhongnan’s martial arts, yet her heart was kind.
Many Zhongnan disciples cherished her dearly. Even when she became of the same generation as the sect leader as the Sword Immortal’s disciple, no one envied her.
Jeong Hye respected them enough to break protocol. She did not speak down to her martial nephews. In secret, without the Sword Immortal, sect leader, or elders knowing, she called them “Martial Nephew.”
She did the same with Weiji Myo-hwa.
‘I have to protect my young martial aunt.’
Resolve settled in her beautifully shaped eyes. Her conviction was sharp as a treasured sword.
Tap.
Weiji Myo-hwa kicked off another branch and hardened her resolve.
“They said the Zhongnan Sword Dragon’s sword was quite fierce, but it seems many never saw her lightness skill as she runs like a rabbit. Running Dragon would have been more fitting than Sword Dragon.”
“We’re starting to catch your trail. You’d be better off throwing away that child you’re carrying, even now! Even if she’s the old man of Zhongnan’s disciple, she’s still lowborn!”
“She isn’t lowborn, is she? I heard she’s related by blood to the current Leader of Demon Wings.”
“Then the Leader of Demon Wings is lowborn too. Don’t talk back to your elder sister.”
The Chaneum Twin Demons’ Sound Arts cries rang out repeatedly, but Weiji Myo-hwa forced herself to ignore them.
‘I can’t tell where we are anymore.’
The closest major faction was Mount Hua Sect.
But the major factions of the Demonic Sect plotting against Zhongnan would not stand by and watch two of the Nine Sects cooperate.
Yeoryeong’s masters had secretly blocked the routes and main roads toward Huayin County of Mount Hua. They had done so even before the Tyrant Sword Sect’s swordsmen launched their surprise attack on Mount Zhongnan.
The Zhongnan Sect had no choice but to suffer helplessly.
The combined attack of two members of the Thirteen Heavens was terrifying.
The sword strikes of Tyrant Sword Sect masters crying for vengeance pressed the Zhongnan disciples, while Yeoryeong martial artists formed a Heavenly Net. It was a solid encirclement.
Weiji Myo-hwa had to turn southwest, toward Xiangyang in Huguang.
Huguang was where Jeong Yeon-shin, the Leader of Demon Wings, resided.
If the niece of a Squad Leader under the Divine Sword Squad was in danger, even if Desolate Fortress was a Hwangrip Faction, it would surely take some action.
Weiji Myo-hwa hoped the secret intelligence network of Desolate Fortress, which controlled information, would learn of this incident and send the Leader of Demon Wings.
‘Even if I ask the affiliated secular sects for help, it will only increase the casualties.’
It was not somewhere she could reach in a day or two on foot.
Still, she had to go.
Whoom.
She poured power into the Yongquan acupoints in the soles of her feet, reducing the flow of qi as much as possible.
She stretched out her legs and kicked off. A strong headwind rushed against her. Jeong Hye’s lips moved.
‘Martial Nephew...’
‘It’ll be all right.’
Weiji Myo-hwa answered with a silent smile.
That was when it happened.
“Oh? That one? Elder Sister, I’ve seen that person before.”
“A strong swordswoman, ugly gray hair. It’s the Heart Martial Union’s Sword Ghost.”
The Chaneum Twin Demons’ voices rang out, seemingly always imbued with power.
The eccentric masters of the Demonic Sect often asserted their dignity in such childish ways.
“I came because the tune was so noisy... Did you just call someone lowborn?”
Another voice spread through the forest. It answered their loud voices with one even more thunderous.
The person who had suddenly stepped in front of the Chaneum Twin Demons seemed to have a temper no less vicious than theirs.
Weiji Myo-hwa knew the Heart Martial Union’s Sword Ghost as well. Baek Seo-gun, the Spirit Sky Sword Ghost. She was said to be a supreme master of sword control.
Weiji Myo-hwa did not stop running as she listened. Soon, the Sword Venerable of Henan spoke.
“What are you two chasing?”
“That’s none of a sword ghost’s business...”
The younger brother among the Chaneum Twin Demons, Jin So-jun, the Sound Demon, spoke.
“I don’t know what you want, but we’re in more of a hurry. It would be best if you stepped aside right now. Someday, I’ll gift you a fine melody. Seeing you up close, you seem like someone worth forming a friendship with through music.”
“What friendship? The timing is poor, so we’ll go around you instead! If you stop us, we’ll consider it a declaration of war against Yeoryeong! You should know that the Tyrant Sword Sect Master has already gone up Mount Zhongnan nearby!”
The elder sister, Jin So-ryeong, the Radiant Demon, shouted. Her voice was piercing.
A calm reply came back.
“That is none of my concern. Didn’t I already ask? Did you just call someone lowborn?”
Baek Seo-gun’s voice continued.
“If you intend to pass without answering, prepare to have your bodies split in two.”
It was a voice powerful enough to stop even Weiji Myo-hwa in her tracks.
* * *
Wonpyeong One Sword Hall.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s gaze swept across the spacious interior. This was his second visit.
The first had been when he took over his duties from his maternal uncle, Ma Jin. Now, he crossed the threshold fully as a Squad Leader.
The highest echelon of Desolate Fortress.
A realm reserved for true Squad Leaders. A strange feeling rose within him.
None of the owners of the stone seats around the circular table lacked profound martial power. It befitted the world’s strongest major faction.
Each had compressed their rolling aura into something thin and dense. The room was suffocating, as though the air itself had been pulled taut.
Divine Sword Squad Deputy Leader, Ak Su-rim, the Desolate Divine Spear.
Heaven-Treading Forest Squad Leader, Xiahou Wi-jin, the Thousand Fists, Dragon-Powered Divine Official.
Blood Guard Squad Leader, Jin Myeong-jo, the Divine Blood Extreme Demon.
Lord of the Immortal Wood Spirit, Cheon So-so, the Ice Soul.
Law Enforcement Squad Leader, Un So-yu, the Black Cloud Sword Absolute.
Leader of Demon Wings, Seom-ye Jeong Yeon-shin.
“What a sight. I haven’t seen anything like this in a long time.”
Standing at one side of the round table, the Grand Chief Steward muttered quietly.
Six Black Uniform masters.
Unless one was the Lord of Desolate Fortress, no peerless master in the world would dare insert themselves among them.
Grand Chief Steward Im Jin-myeong held an old ambition. It was an enormous one.
To gather such power in one place and crush enemy factions.
Had the world been a little smaller, he might have tried it.
‘If the martial world were not so vast, if there were not countless holes in the jar called the Central Plains...’
There was no doubt about their strength.
Black Uniform supreme masters were the decisive weapons of faction wars. If major factions on the level of the Thirteen Heavens did not unite, Desolate Fortress could speak of certain victory.
Desolate Fortress simply could not attempt it. It had already experienced the backlash.
Once, it had left several fronts of the martial world vacant and gathered five martial units under the Divine Sword Squad.
The result was overwhelming, and the backlash was terrible.
It had happened long ago.
‘It’s impossible now.’
The Grand Chief Steward recalled the past. At the same time, he inwardly shook his head as he looked at the round table before him.
Six supreme masters seated at intervals.
The aura cutting sharply against his skin was formidable.
Previously, he had gathered five of them to reveal the Comprehensive Guide to Breaking the Orthodox Sects first.
Even then, their qi fluctuations had resonated on their own, but this was different. The density had grown even thicker. A new Squad Leader had joined them.
Seom-ye, the Leader of Demon Wings.
His finely drawn jaw pointed toward his chest. He sat with his head lowered, seemingly lost in thought. His young face stood out for its indifferent expression.
The Black Uniform long robe with its left sleeve cut away suited him strangely well.
‘One who breathes divine arts.’
The Grand Chief Steward smiled in satisfaction.
Supreme masters at the Squad Leader level were difficult to find anywhere. Those with such martial ability usually founded sects or acted as Princes of Commandery themselves.
The departure of the previous Leader of Demon Wings had hurt deeply, but that person’s nephew had filled the vacancy without delay. It was admirable, astonishing, and something to be grateful for.
Just watching them converse among themselves filled him with satisfaction.
“Hey, Leader of Demon Wings. I’m not trying to rush you. I’m only asking carefully, but... where is the Comprehensive Guide to Breaking the Orthodox Sects? You appear to have come empty-handed.”
“It’s far from finished.”
At Jeong Yeon-shin’s brief reply, one of Xiahou Wi-jin’s brows rose. It was a rare look of surprise.
The Grand Chief Steward had never seen a junior treat the Heaven-Treading Forest Squad Leader so plainly. What could have happened?
“Is there that much to write?”
“There is much to do.”
Jeong Yeon-shin answered briefly again.
He had come after taking Ak Su-rim’s advice to heart.
This place was a battlefield.
He had to draw in as many new martial artists who had taken the Desolate Exam as possible, look after promotion slots for his current subordinates, take on suitable missions, assign them again...
An annotated edition of the Comprehensive Guide to Breaking the Orthodox Sects was not important. The Lord of Desolate Fortress possessed the original anyway.
The Black Uniform seniors would have memorized every mnemonic formula at once. He did not think they would need annotations. It was only natural.
‘She said this was a place without seniors or juniors.’
Ak Su-rim’s advice lingered in Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. He only felt a little sorry for his maternal grandfather, who would have learned that his grandson had gone out when he visited the Demon Wings Hall.
‘He’ll be here soon.’
He forced the thought away.
He had to fulfill his duty as a Squad Leader first.
It was the same as when he went out into the martial world. All expression vanished from his face.
Xiahou Wi-jin and the other established Black Uniform masters took it differently. The bold conduct of the new Leader of Demon Wings conveyed one thing.
“If you want something from me, mind your manners.”
The Desolate Fortress Squad Leader Assembly began.
Footnotes:
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