WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 259: Ascent (9)
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Rumbleee-
The earth shook.
Stone dust mingled with the pure-white powder churned as if struck by a cannonball.
Semi-transparent wind continued to swirl from Jeong Yeon-shin's outstretched left palm.
Even the vibrations beneath their feet were monstrous. The air blurred atop the suddenly trembling peak.
It was hard to believe even as they watched it.
An earthquake had come from a human hand. Massive stone walls were collapsing.
Jang Sun-il had fallen flat and could not come to his senses. He could only clutch his throat and babble with a vacant expression.
A stifled groan leaked from his slack mouth. Only after Bukgung Rin roughly yanked him by the nape did focus return to his eyes.
"Crazy... This is crazy!"
As Jang Sun-il muttered curses, Bukgung Rin grabbed him and kicked off the ground. She blurted out frantic questions that could not possibly be answered.
"You! Do you know that guy? What is he? What's his status?"
The hems of her trousers fluttered as though struck by thunderclap bombs. The heavy tremors from her lightness skill leaps were completely swallowed by the chaos.
The raging current unleashed by the exploding palm art seemed to consume every nearby sound as it spread.
They had to get away from the source of the blast.
"That palm force! Is he even human...?"
Bukgung Hu widened the distance beside them. Even in his haste, his sharply raised brows revealed his shock.
Rogue King Geum Si-hu was already a supreme master beyond their ability to handle. Their traveling companion, who had suddenly unleashed a move beyond all reason, was no different. That single strike was truly astonishing.
Who could have imagined it?
They had never dreamed that their young companion possessed might enough to stand among the strong even in the frozen lands.
"Just a little farther... We need to get a little farther away!"
"Obviously! Make sure your Protective Qi Technique is properly up!"
Bukgung Rin, the older twin, snapped at him.
The aura surging all the way to their backs gave weight to her words.
Even as they fled with lightness skills, the power ripples of the supreme masters reached them clearly.
The increasingly intense tremors were frightening enough to make even the proud nobles of the frozen lands run.
They could not watch a battle between supreme masters from below. One stray force wave might send them straight to the next life.
They hurled themselves to the side and landed swiftly, then climbed the slope above. They had effectively circled the rock where Rogue King Geum Si-hu had been standing.
Jang Sun-il dangled from Bukgung Rin's grip on his nape. She dropped him with a thud and stood beside her twin brother.
Below, they could see their traveling companion standing at the center of a haze of stone dust.
The powder draped around his handsome face like a veil, making him seem detached from reality.
There was something almost monstrous about the way he drew in the minds of those who watched him. It felt like staring too long at the luminous streams of cloud filling the frozen sky of the North Sea.
Bukgung Rin slowly opened her mouth.
"I can sense men with blood-red hair. They're coming up from below. They're like a pack of wild dogs."
"There isn't just one or two. There are dark-red ones scattered among them as well."
Jang Sun-il groaned at Bukgung Hu's words.
"Blood demons, and even the Blood Master...!"
"So they're famous even in the Central Plains. This friend knows their names too."
"Of course. Some of them are incredibly strong, and they drink human blood. More importantly, that Rogue King is the immediate problem."
Bukgung Rin, who had been looking down, furrowed her brow.
She continued.
"He's unharmed. He got completely out of the force wave's range. They call him the king of wanderers, and it seems his skill is no empty reputation. He rivals the great warriors of our frozen lands. We should consider him a superhuman."
"Our companion's age..."
Bukgung Hu trailed off.
"You lot are chirping quite noisily. Make any more noise, and I'll snap your necks."
The group spun around at the smooth voice behind them.
A woman sat on the stump of a large tree.
She wore a black eyepatch over her left eye and a crimson long robe that looked as if it had been steeped in blood.
Her skin was strikingly pale, rivaling that of the North Sea nobles who cultivated the Ice Soul Divine Technique.
She was so unnaturally pale that she resembled a spirit born from the glow of the eternal snow piled upon the peak.
Her ebony hair held faint streaks of red. Whenever sunlight rippled across her head, her entire atmosphere shifted in a bewitching way.
Supernatural phenomena.
Even with her uncovered eye closed, she inspired fear.
Jang Sun-il instinctively stepped back. The feeling that sometimes settled in his mind and sharpened his eye for people gave him a cold warning.
"A Blood Flame Sect... noble!"
He whispered as if squeezing out his voice.
No one listened.
The Bukgung siblings were too busy suppressing their presence before the blood-clad noble and watching their companion's fight, while the Blood Flame Sect supreme master facing them did not even lift her lashes, as though she had sensed something. She ignored him completely.
She moved her lips to herself.
"Again... He's already gone that far..."
Her closed-eyed figure trembled faintly now and then. A bright red smile rested on her lips.
To Jang Sun-il, she looked completely insane. They said no martial master was without quirks, but this was nearly incomprehensible.
At a glance, she seemed to have lived a completely different life. Thanks to that, the boy was able to look below.
The ruined mountain path.
Jeong Yeon-shin had raised the Northern Light Sword to receive the Rogue King's crossed twin blades. An inner-energy-filled battle cry burst from the Rogue King's mouth.
"Ha!"
Another heavy tremor rang out. Sparks flew from the Northern Light Sword caught between the twin blades.
Fragments of sharp force scattered in every direction, tearing through the dirt.
He used King as his epithet, a title not easily acknowledged throughout the martial world. Yet he had carried it for decades.
The Rogue King's Force Projection was honed like blade qi. Even the aftermath of a single swing neared the life-saving ultimate moves of ordinary elite masters.
A sword-like smile twisted across Geum Si-hu's cheek as he crossed weapons with Jeong Yeon-shin. It was the smile of an extraordinary wanderer.
At a distance close enough for their noses to touch, his colorless eyes swept over his opponent's gaze and breathing.
"I didn't expect you to drag me down like that. An astonishing palm art, and such nerve. I nearly lost my foot."
"Did the Blood Flame Sect hire you?"
The Leader of Demon Wings asked quietly. The Rogue King raised a brow.
"They spoke of vast amounts of salt and food. Why would I refuse? They said cutting the throats of a few commoners who don't know their place, along with some martial artists, would put food in my bowl. Doesn't that turn a killing sword into a living sword? The authorities don't feed me, after all."
"My blade can feed you. You'll die here."
Jeong Yeon-shin's lips pressed into a straight line after he spoke.
He used food as an excuse, but any government office could afford to support a swordsman of this caliber.
True to the epithet he bore, the Rogue King had chosen the freedom of the strong. This was a foe Jeong Yeon-shin had to face as the Leader of Demon Wings of Desolate Fortress.
'Execution.'
He filled the minor meridians of his right hand gripping the Northern Light Sword with the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.
The balance of their standoff broke. The Rogue King's crossed blades were forced back. The sword force produced by the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel surpassed the motley inner energies of factions between orthodox and unorthodox. Its purity was on another level.
"You bastard!"
Geum Si-hu released a roar.
His twin blades dropped. He sank into a horse stance and leaned his upper body back. At the same time, just before Jeong Yeon-shin's Northern Light Sword split his head in two, a fierce wind stirred beneath his feet.
The Rogue King's right foot rose. It was an upward kick. The force wave gathered at the toe of his leather shoe was chillingly sharp.
Blue light flashed in Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes.
Thud!
He stomped down on the man's knee with his sole. He had read the path of the attack in advance with the Heaven-Displaying Eye Technique.
Before surprise could form in the Rogue King's sharp eyes, Jeong Yeon-shin reversed his grip on the Northern Light Sword and brought it down toward his abdomen.
The motion of his hand bordered on artistry. In that instant, the blade drew a circle, and the wind of Judging the Qilin from the Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art spread faintly outward.
Kraaaash!
The sword embedded itself in the stone ground.
'Lazy Donkey Roll.'
Jeong Yeon-shin's blue eyes followed Geum Si-hu. Dust swirled around the Rogue King's body as he rolled sideways along the ground.
It was a movement without regard for dignity, yet Lazy Donkey Roll performed by a supreme master looked like the play of a mischievous earth deity.
"That blade has a murderous bite."
The king of wanderers laughed as he rose.
At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was already striking down with his sword before him.
The recoil from Wind Body whipped his clothes as the sword tip drew a pure-white line. It was reflected clearly in the Rogue King's eyes.
Claaang!
It sounded as though thunder had cracked. The Rogue King crossed his twin blades again to block it.
The air crushed beneath the Northern Light Sword's force wave churned, unable to withstand the pressure. The aftereffects of the Force Projection tore through the ground and spread like a bolt of silk.
The Rogue King's figure vanished.
He reappeared like a phantom directly behind Jeong Yeon-shin.
Rakshasa Steps, the Rogue King's secret technique. His ability to adapt was on another level. The realm of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown attained by Rogue King Geum Si-hu was plain to see.
"I'm faster at lip-speech too."
He made the lightning-fast taunt part of his exhalation as he launched his move. It was a gap of an instant.
The twin blades scissoring toward Jeong Yeon-shin's back aligned perfectly with his inner-energy breath, turning into streaks of light. It was mastery.
Jeong Yeon-shin twisted only his upper body slightly and lashed backward with his left palm.
Kraaaang!
Violent energy erupted like a thunderbolt. The afterimages of the blade strikes, which had swept in faintly like a moth's wings, scattered without a trace.
The sudden storm lifted the Rogue King's vermilion robes and his blood-tainted spit.
As monstrous vibrations raced up from the ground, one blade fell from high in the air.
The Rogue King's left hand was empty.
His face seemed to say, My use of inner energy should be faster than yours.
The Leader of Demon Wings replied expressionlessly.
Bullshit.
Step.
As Jeong Yeon-shin turned, his figure blurred. The wheel of light that had begun spinning at full force in his heart was already spreading the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel throughout his body.
This was when the light wheel's qi storage speed showed its worth. The moment he took his second step, Wind Body propelled him forward like lightning.
Whoooosh!
For an instant, the gale against his skin felt impossibly heavy. Jeong Yeon-shin was already gripping the Rogue King's face with his left hand.
He muttered through lip-speech.
"Die."
The Radiant River, ever-present since activation, responded in his grip.
Using the inner-energy breath released with those words as a battle cry, he tightened the fine muscles in his left hand. A vortex exploded within his palm.
Kraaaang!
The palm-art force wave twisted wildly like turbulent air.
Streams of wind spun violently as they carried dirt and stone dust. The Rogue King's headless body was swept into the storm and thrown below.
Every beast held its breath as the mountain gods fought.
Jeong Yeon-shin shook his hand once.
Smoke from the Samadhi True Fire that had burned away the bloodstains drifted with his sleeve, as though casually mourning the futile death of a man who had lived as king of the martial world's wanderers.
"..."
The Leader of Demon Wings did not turn around for a while. Only the frayed, blackened hem of his long robe swayed calmly.
He looked out over the white winter mountains in the distance before opening his mouth.
"You were Miss Ye, weren't you?"
"I don't use Ye as my surname. My family name is Jeok."
The Seventh Apostle, who had approached without a sound, replied with an ambiguous expression.
A faint smile appeared on Jeong Yeon-shin's lips.
"I knew you wouldn't tell me plainly."
"Hm? I've always been honest."
She rounded her one red eye. Only then did Jeong Yeon-shin turn his gaze to the Seventh Apostle.
"What do you want from me?"
The Demonic Sect's martial path was fundamentally rooted in madness and desire. Its practitioners were madmen who did not even understand their own hearts. Since he had asked seriously, he expected the answer to take a while.
It did not.
Sunlight flashed wildly in the Seventh Apostle's ruby-like eyes.
"I want you to breathe your last in my arms. I want the final voice the incarnation of martial arts hears to be mine. I'll tell you clearly. Your life was terribly radiant, and I revere only you."
"I'd forgotten for a moment. When I'm facing you, calling you crazy starts to feel tiresome."
"For someone who says that, you've talked to me for quite a while. It's so thrilling. I feel like I've returned to when I achieved Three Flowers Gather at the Crown."
"That's enough."
Jeong Yeon-shin immediately recognized what he was feeling. It had been a long time.
It was the feeling he had whenever the children of Xinye County left him out and played something fun. He would secretly watch them fly kites or put on shadow plays, imitating their hand movements.
'What does it feel like? Must be nice.'
He suppressed his jealousy. From now on, he would call it Dull Flowers Gather at the Crown.
Footnotes:
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