WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 234: Treasured Sword (7)
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The air was clear. It was the hour when wind that had crossed the wall slipped through the cracks in the door.
The Leader of Demon Wings sat upright in the room where winter had forced its way in. With an elbow resting on the wooden chair’s armrest, they looked lofty.
So did their loosely raised chin. Languid Flame Dragon, who had left the room earlier, had feigned admiration and called them the embodiment of youthful turbulence.
The world.
It was not a word to be spoken lightly. The martial world was vast. Across the endless land lived all manner of extraordinary people, monsters, and supernatural beings.
Even Jeong Yeon-shin had spoken only in broad strokes.
Yeon-shin’s experience was still limited. They had not even seen half the major factions among the Thirteen Heavens. Counterforms for the martial lineages subordinate to the Thirteen Heavens would have difficulty greatly affecting their balance of power.
‘It’s fine.’
For now, it was enough to shake Xi’an in Shaanxi.
First, they needed to draw the Demonic Sect of Xi’an toward their counterforms and make it easier for the orthodox martial artists lying low to deal with them.
They wanted Jeong Hye and Weiji Myo-hwa, who were likely in hiding, to have room to breathe. They hoped it would happen through both martial arts and circumstance.
“Thank you.”
Jeong Yeon-shin thanked Jegal Cheong-a again.
Languid Flame Dragon and Hyeon Won-chang had driven the Sungyeo Branch lackeys remaining at the inn away.
The two had tied up Gal Do-jin and So Yu-rang. After striking their paralysis acupoints and locking them in a guest room, they gave the inn’s attached residence to the Squad Leader.
They had just arrived after riding hard for more than ten days from Desolate Fortress’s main fortress.
“Even martial artists’ muscles grow tired after a hard journey. Rest properly in the attached residence for a full day.”
With Languid Flame Dragon’s words behind them, Yeon-shin had gone to sleep.
The bed was made of excellent material. Even the blanket embroidered with the Ten Symbols of Longevity was as soft as though it had been stuffed with cotton.
They had the bed to themself. Yeon-shin could curl up as much as they pleased, until they opened their eyes at dawn.
“Shouldn’t we extract information first? It’s hard to learn about places where the Thirteen Heavens hold power when you’re from elsewhere. It seems all the officials have been bought off too.”
“I received a message from Senior Baek. Everyone arrived safely and has dispersed. So-bin led the White Uniforms here.”
While Languid Flame Dragon went to interrogate the two unorthodox sect members, Hyeon Won-chang went to fetch breakfast.
Both were clearly raised in comfort. After obtaining proper sleeping quarters, color had visibly returned to their faces.
And now.
Jegal Cheong-a, seated across the red sandalwood tea table from the Squad Leader, looked the same. Life had returned to her pale face.
Despite meeting alone with the Squad Leader for the first time, her expression remained calm. As she swept the black hair bound with sky-blue silk down beside her neck, Yeon-shin watched with discomfort.
“Even so…”
“Yes?”
“You’d still be easy to seize in close combat. Is the completed eye technique really that useful?”
“…”
Jegal Cheong-a blinked once as she gazed at her Squad Leader.
Her expression remained as unreadable as the Zhuge Family Head’s. She merely looked as though she could not find an answer.
“No.”
Yeon-shin closed their mouth.
Her body was so slow, yet they did not understand why she would leave such a weakness unaddressed. Perhaps they had grown more concerned after becoming responsible for Demon Wings.
It was not needless meddling. It was a Squad Leader’s concern. If anything happened to her, their heart would be torn apart.
‘I should discuss it with Ma Gwang-il’s Squad.’
The newly appointed Squad Leader set the thought aside.
They had been listening as Jegal Cheong-a explained the principles of eye techniques. There was much to learn. Creating a new martial art had always been like that, but eye techniques were especially profound.
Perhaps it was because they were not arts that struck with the body. The principles to study and reflect upon seemed endless.
Then it happened.
Creak.
Hyeon Won-chang opened the door with a foot and entered. They carried a breakfast tray in both hands. The Desolate Fortress Divine Hero was said to be highly skilled in poison arts as well.
Since Xi’an’s streets were now the Demonic Sect’s stronghold, Hyeon Won-chang had personally watched the waiters and cooks to check for poison.
“The food is safe. But…”
The wide tray was set in the middle of the tea table.
Because of the famine, the dishes were not varied. Only bowls of Kung Pao chicken and knife-cut noodles gave off a fragrant aroma.
Hyeon Won-chang handed over a letter.
The scent of ink not yet dry lingered on the rolled paper.
Yeon-shin accepted it without a word and raised an eyebrow. They had just sensed an aura approaching from outside.
The fluctuation of inner energy was quite powerful, and its nature exceptionally solid. When the person suddenly turned away, Yeon-shin had considered whether to seize them.
Yeon-shin unfolded the letter.
“I will not ask where you came from. At noon on Lesser Snow, let us test our strength beneath Daewol Gorge. The losing side withdraws.”
After reading the short message, they spoke slowly.
“They’re cautious.”
Hyeon Won-chang shrugged.
“Exactly. They came here brimming with force as if they were about to start a war.”
Hyeon Won-chang used full honorifics in front of Jegal Cheong-a. Yeon-shin smiled faintly and rose from their seat.
Step.
They walked straight to the window.
Since the room occupied the entire third floor, the view was wide open. Lowering their gaze slightly, Yeon-shin saw people with packs, A-frame back carriers, and carts in tow.
They hurried back and forth. Even amid the famine, the city was full of life. It was likely because the city was wealthy.
‘That must be why the unorthodox martial artists have multiplied.’
Yeon-shin’s gaze darkened. Shops and pavilions lining both sides of the broad official road filled their view.
So did the swordswoman walking in the distance, along with the subordinates escorting her.
The Sungyeo Branch Master, Flame-Sprinkling Demon Sword Wi Il-hwa.
True to her epithet, she seemed to scatter demonic energy. An eerie aura spread through her long, flowing hair.
Its fluctuations were firm yet irregular. Yeon-shin could sense them even from this distance.
Yeon-shin moved their lips as they looked beyond the window.
“Eye Beauty, write this down for me.”
“Yes.”
Called by her alias, Jegal Cheong-a laid out the Four Treasures of the Study. She prepared ink on the inkstone, then set out brush and paper.
It did not take long. She was ready to write within a few breaths.
Yeon-shin leaned sideways against the window.
‘Rise.’
The blood vessels running from either side of their throat to their solar plexus twitched. They were the internal carotid arteries.
Along with the bundles of nerves, they filled with the faint qi of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel. The minor meridians that ran through their eyes and directly to their brain were also wrapped in aura.
Hum.
Jeong Yeon-shin controlled their energy with extreme precision.
It circulated from the Qingming acupoint at their temples to the Sibai acupoints beneath their eyes, the Tongziliao acupoints at the outer corners of their eyes, and the Cuanzhu acupoints between their brows. Their eyes grew hot all over.
The flow should eventually converge at the Baihui acupoint atop their head, but they still had to fear qi deviation. The structure of their qi circulation was not yet complete.
‘Observe.’
The moment they imbued it with the intent to discern and examine.
A hazy image formed in their sight. The vigor of the people passing along the official road rushed into their eyes. There was no special shape to it.
It only felt as though the body’s most exposed sensory organ had become more sensitive. It was not as though something previously unseen had suddenly become visible.
That was likely because they had not guided the flow into the Baihui acupoint’s sensory passage.
Without thinking, they spoke.
“It’s no different from usual.”
“…Other geniuses experience a drastic change in their dynamic visual acuity at that point. It takes decades of training to form that much of a qi circulation.”
“It isn’t useful yet.”
Yeon-shin accepted Jegal Cheong-a’s words calmly.
A green gleam shone in her eyes as she looked at her Squad Leader, but she lowered her head again.
As she held the brush in her pale fingers, a slight crease passed over her previously smooth brow. Hyeon Won-chang grinned at her.
It was a smug smile. Great Tongue Sword had once ghostwritten Comprehensive Guide to Breaking the Orthodox Sects, only to lose that position to the calligrapher Jegal Cheong-a.
“The Sungyeo Branch’s method of using the body.”
As soon as the Squad Leader spoke, Jegal Cheong-a glanced at them leaning against the window with folded arms and began to write.
“They use the muscles throughout their body evenly when walking. Their thigh muscles do not rise high. No part protrudes, so their Body Movement Scripture is naturally covert. The center of gravity of their inner power is low. If a special directional change is forced through a variation, their balance should collapse easily. I’ll recite the directions. The Later Heaven Eight Trigrams. Kan, Kun, Qian.”
“…I’ve written it.”
“Their arms sway slightly at the waist. Their movements are restrained compared to the inner power carried in the aura they emit. Beware sudden sword strikes. The extensor muscle group and biceps of the right arm have been trained, so she will excel at fast upward-cutting sword strokes, but the energy at the Neiguan acupoint of the wrist is not strong.”
“Just a moment.”
“…Are you done?”
“Yes.”
“She relies on the blade’s sharpness and favors a dazzling sword style. If you drive forward with a hard sword in the first exchange, victory can be assured. It would not be dangerous even to stake everything on a single blow. I’ll tell you the qi structure for a countering force wave, so write it down separately.”
The Squad Leader’s voice had no rise or fall. It flowed out in an utterly matter-of-fact tone. Their question was the same.
“There’s enough room left, right? Anyone can know this much, but some people are obsessed with annotations.”
“…”
A small crack appeared in Jegal Cheong-a’s expressionless face. Her thick lashes lifted slightly.
She could not help but wonder. What kind of ability would an eye technique created by such a person possess?
‘I don’t know.’
Pressing her lips together slightly, she picked up the brush again.
* * *
‘That is a monster.’
Flame-Sprinkling Demon Sword Wi Il-hwa hurried away.
Relying on the instincts that had saved her life hundreds of times in the Demonic Sect, she withdrew.
The Sungyeo Branch was a branch of Yeoryeong. The information network of Yeoryeong, one of the Thirteen Heavens, could rival even the Beggars’ Sect. Its secret eye techniques were far from ordinary.
The Lord of Yeoryeong had bestowed the Dark Motion Transcending Time Technique upon her. It was a peerless eye technique. It could be called a grace from above.
With eyes flashing pitch-black, she had looked through the one called the leader. It possessed an ability close to seeing through things. Through walls and stone barriers, she examined the energy they possessed.
Then she turned around at once, calming her bursting heart through inner-energy breathing.
‘Could there be another person like that in the world…!’
The density of their inner energy was immense. It was shocking.
She had not been able to examine its nature. It was not because the Dark Motion Transcending Time Technique was lacking. It was simply Wi Il-hwa’s limit.
If she had attained enough to see through the nature of inner energy concealed by a supreme expert, she would have unified Xi’an’s martial world long ago.
She immediately returned to Northern Light Inn.
In one motion, she climbed to the private room at the top and sat in the grand preceptor’s chair. It was a base she had gained after driving out a Zhongnan lay sect.
The chair carved from an entire piece of ebony was Wi Il-hwa’s throne. Even its dark armrests were extraordinary. They granted her the same sense of omnipotence as always.
The Prince of Commandery of Xi’an’s Demonic Sect.
Saaah.
The cold sensation warmed in an instant.
Fiery yang inner energy flowed from her entire body. Sweat formed on the backs of the dozen or so disciples kneeling before her feet.
The slight wrinkles around her eyes softened. Wi Il-hwa muttered briefly.
‘This is who I am.’
“Send messages across all of Xi’an.”
She continued, “Do not distinguish between factions, whether they belong to the Tyrant Sword Sect or otherwise. Inform the Sobaek Sect, Chamjeol Pavilion, Great Spirit Might Shaking Sect, Sword Demon Sect, Jongcheon Saber Sect, Hwigwol Family… Inform them all that a supreme expert has arrived, one that cannot be faced alone.”
* * *
Three days passed.
The weather was fine. Dense mountain ridges wore long veils of early winter mist.
Grass bent toward the earth exhaled pale breath into the air.
The scene rested beneath clear sunlight in silence. Wild animals that had filled their bellies early entered deep into the forest.
Thin ice lay in patches along the lakeshore, loud with the rush of a waterfall. A man wrapped from head to toe in a black cloak stood upon one such patch.
It was Blood Guard Squad Leader Jin Myeong-jo.
He stood steadily upon the thin ice shimmering with rainbow colors.
Though he stood with only the tips of his feet together, he did not look unstable at all. His mind was the more precarious one.
Jin Myeong-jo parted his lips with an expressionless face.
‘Damn it.’
He could not bring himself to say it aloud. Only his lips moved slightly.
He sensed the aura of his junior approaching over the ridge. It was exceptionally vicious. An extremely faint aura of dharma power was already slicing at his skin.
Because he possessed the sharp senses of a supreme expert, he felt it all the more clearly. He could not grow accustomed to it. If anything, he grew afraid.
Lately, his junior would occasionally let their eyes flash. That too was deeply strange. Every encounter was exhausting, but he could not show it as the senior.
Honestly, he was not confident.
He screamed so terribly inside. It had not been just a day or two.
Did his junior truly not know? Or was his junior actually enjoying all of it? Divine Blood Extreme Demon Jin Myeong-jo considered every possibility by himself, denied it, then considered it again.
It was the same thought he had repeated dozens of times. In the end, it always converged on one conclusion.
Damn it, surely not.
‘They’re coming.’
He forcibly tightened his lips.
Even an expressionless face could not be worn carelessly.
He made the muscles running from his buccinator to his zygomaticus minor and levator anguli oris the target of external cultivation. There was a method for creating an aloof bearing.
It was an artificial coldness.
Before his junior’s head had even risen above the ridge, Jin Myeong-jo said coldly,
“You’re late.”
Footnotes:
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