WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 263: Ascent (13)
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The rotating assault continued.
Dozens of martial artists circled Jeong Yeon-shin in a broad ring without pause.
They blocked the Leader of Demon Wings' Myriad Flowers Rain and restricted his freedom of movement.
They regularly divided into front and rear ranks, with only eight closing in at a time to surround him. It was, quite literally, an encirclement from all eight directions.
The Beast King Sect Leader, who had grown more guarded, was responsible for delivering the heavy blows with his Hand Arts.
Orthodox martial artists appeared to be attacking from the outskirts as well, but not to an extent that could affect the battle.
Boom! Crack!
Whenever Radiant River in Yeon-shin's left hand swept through the air, white snow erupted upward.
Each blow burst apart two or three bodies along with their weapons. Blood scattered across the snow, sending up white steam.
The rotating ranks only managed to seal off Myriad Flowers Rain.
Nearby boulders exploded into fragments, and even a thick old tree collapsed from its base along with several severed limbs.
The Thirteen Heavens masters, who had carried inhuman killing intent, gradually began to look sickened.
Even they must not have anticipated Radiant River being unleashed in such rapid succession.
They seemed relieved that it was not a supreme art Yeon-shin could detonate endlessly like sword qi.
Its tremendous recoil left an opening between each strike.
More streams of blood seeped from Yeon-shin's bandaged upper body beneath his long robe.
This rotating formation had been assembled from the start to fight the Leader of Demon Wings. Three major factions of the Thirteen Heavens had joined forces with dozens of martial artists.
With the Beast King Sect Leader, perhaps the strongest among their subordinate sects, present as well, if Yeon-shin could handle this without trouble, he would have to be either the Desolate Divine Spear or the Divine Sword Squad Leader.
This was nothing like a one-on-one life-and-death duel.
Boom! Slash!
The instant he detonated the ever-active Radiant River once more, spear strikes from behind grazed his back.
A stinging pain flared up.
He had only avoided being pierced through by twisting his body.
As he prepared to unleash the sword strike of Light Sword Like Phosphorus, a counterattack form, another front rank pushed through the blood and bone fragments flying within Radiant River's force wave.
They trampled over some thirty corpses and unleashed sword strikes and saber strikes.
Yeon-shin swept the Northern Light Sword.
Crack!
The howl of the force wave rang violently in his ears.
He had just used Nine Verdants Form a River of the Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art to detonate the accumulated force waves, but his enemies now constantly changed the front ranks to minimize the damage from each strike.
They were retreating before even crossing swords with him. Their tricks were transparent.
'There's no end to them.'
White blade paths tangled together. Palm winds churned opaquely. Blood and flesh scattered through the fierce exchange of attacks and defenses...
It was a sight that forced even those watching into silence.
The present-day Leader of Demon Wings moved like an incarnation of martial might.
Blood stained the bandages over his upper body red beneath his loosened long robe, yet he continued displaying earth-shaking destructive power.
Though the rotating formation closing in from all eight directions was constantly replenished, it could not land a decisive blow.
Even the paths traced by his movements were mysterious. They were almost beautiful.
"So they said he was a supreme master specialized in short battles..."
The long fingers of the Young Lord of Yeoryeong tapped against the armrest.
"His Force Projection is getting stronger by the moment. The ones gathering information at the front should be severely reprimanded."
"If he's a supreme master at the level of a Black Uniform from Desolate Fortress, he's bound to possess at least one extraordinary ability. His stamina is clearly dropping, and his wounds are visibly numerous. At this rate, even if he does well, he'll perish together with the rotating formation."
The black-clad woman guarding the palanquin spoke.
The Young Lord shook his head.
"Protector So, please step in. Didn't I mention it before? We must be wary of the Ascension of that supernatural phenomenon. His training may differ, but he's of the same kind as the Ming Cult's Young Sect Master. People like us cannot fathom him. A sprout like that must be cut down at the proper time."
"If I disappear, who will protect you, Young Lord?"
Protector So Un-ryeo asked bluntly. A dizzying smile appeared on the Young Lord's lips.
"That is why you must return unharmed. Protector So is the only one who can protect me. Besides, you cannot possibly lose over there."
"...I'll be back. Keep watch on your surroundings at all times."
The next moment, a sword that had not been there rested in So Un-ryeo's hand. Her draw had flashed like a ray of light.
At the same time, her body vanished.
Craaaash!
A fierce gust followed. The backwind from her terrifying lightness skill scattered the accumulated snow and carved concentric circles into the ground.
More than thirty zhang away, So Un-ryeo slashed down at the Leader of Demon Wings.
Behind her, blue traces of sword-strike force waves exploded in rows.
The Young Lord gave Seom-ye a slight smile.
"I heard what happened with the Clear Qilin. The fare for crossing the Sanzu River can be paid with all that Radiant River you squandered so freely..."
At that moment.
Yeon-shin evaded half a step to the side and swung the Northern Light Sword wide, forcing his enemies back.
Did they think the end was in sight? The masters of the rotating formation and the Beast King Sect Leader did not rush in at once. Wi Se-hyeok even smiled.
"Truly remarkable. You could leave Desolate Fortress and found your own sect this instant. How did you develop your unique martial arts to such a degree... It is a pity that your thread of life will end here."
"Beast King Sect Leader. There were orders to finish this now."
So Un-ryeo had landed at one side of the rotating formation when she spoke.
Thump.
A powerful pulse surged through Yeon-shin's body.
At that moment, a resonance no one else could sense burned his upper dantian white.
The speed at which thoughts formed in his mind became as swift as lightning, accelerating without end.
Even the fragments of force waves passing colorlessly by his ears appeared slow.
'This really is a crisis.'
Suppressing the sharp pain, Yeon-shin thought.
The martial world was a forest of monsters.
It was like a snake, unwilling to permit a single tree to dominate.
It silently coiled around a sapling that suddenly stood out and watched. Then, once its prey had grown enough to be properly constricted, it tightened swiftly.
Just as Squad Leader So-yeon of Desolate Fortress had been killed by the First Demon of Shaanxi in the distant past.
Yeon-shin's crisis was inevitable as well. The severity might differ, but had not every Black Uniform gone through something similar?
That was why he needed Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. A state that would allow swift use of inner energy and let him escape even when facing a suffocating rotating formation of major factions like this.
The value of a supreme master, one said to be worth ten thousand men, shone through agile evasion.
'But...'
His upper dantian, which did not allow him a long lifespan, was a shackle even for Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
During his secluded training, he had considered it.
'If my fate makes the union of essence, qi, and spirit difficult...'
Then I'll take a stronger path.
Hum.
The moment he repeated that resolve, the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel filling every acupoint in his body reacted.
The qualities of inner energy within his body divided into mutually antagonistic forces.
Auspicious and sinister qi surged violently within him.
His inborn senses unraveled the mnemonic formula of the sorcery formation and dissolved its principles throughout his body. The martial principles Yeon-shin had gathered and perfected came fully under his command and became part of him.
The light wheel within his heart spun greatly.
Boom.
With a sound like a drumbeat, immeasurable strength stirred through the twelve regular meridians and minor meridians across his body. It felt as though his body would tear apart at any moment.
Still, it was all right. His mother was embracing him. The body forged by the Jeong Family Youth Technique endured the recoil.
Even this took only an instant. He had prepared the activation in the midst of battle.
He operated his qi with the delicacy of weaving cloth.
He etched a map of fixed inner-energy circulation into the nerves spreading from his mind throughout his body, arranging it to activate once he lit the fire with his will as the wick.
When he tried it, it worked. Where martial arts were concerned, he had never been slow.
'I'll activate it here and now.'
The colors of the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel disappeared. The force waves of Radiant Art Formation that had flowed white from his body turned transparent.
The refined energy of Radiant River flowed soundlessly through hundreds of acupoints, sending monstrous vibrations through his skin.
In that instant, Yeon-shin steadied his mind. He recalled the will that had to become the finishing touch within the structure of his qi and the flow of his inner energy.
Only one image came clearly to mind.
The Sanzu River, the road to the underworld from which none who fell in or crossed over could return.
In that moment, the snowfield spread white beneath his feet lost its light.
Hummmmmm!
It was an extraordinarily strange sight.
The outlines of energy extending outside his body like transparent leaves became plainly visible.
It flashed and exploded without end on its own, like lifeless lightning venting its resentment.
Thunderous vibrations spread from the colorless lightning surrounding Yeon-shin's entire body.
The Leader of Demon Wings stood within a huge flower of lightning.
It was a single blossom. A technique that replaced Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, a lotus drifting along the waters of the Sanzu River, and lightning that flashed without rest before death.
It was also Seom-ye, Jeong Yeon-shin.
Radiant River, Ultimate Thunder.
"..."
He lowered his sword slightly.
Crack!
With a dull boom, the ground beneath him caved in as if struck by lightning.
No trace remained of the snowdrift. The aftereffects of that small movement exposed dry yellow earth beneath it.
At the same time, unbearable pain gripped his entire right arm.
It felt as though it were being torn away. Even after unleashing such exceptional sword power himself, his body could not endure it.
This was not something he could use for several exchanges yet.
'I need a proper Protective Qi Technique. At the very least, it has to be a divine art.'
Yeon-shin moved only his eyes, bringing the Beast King Sect Leader and the black-clad swordswoman who had joined the battle into view one after the other.
The Beast King Sect Leader stared at him with an expression mixed with doubt and shock, as though facing something inconceivable that had never existed under heaven.
The black-clad swordswoman's face remained comparatively calm. It seemed to be her natural disposition.
'I need to keep the exchanges short.'
There was little time left. It was nothing like maintaining the constant activation of Radiant River through Hand Arts. This martial art resembled its creator from its very foundation. For now, its duration was desperately short.
There was a limit to how long his mother could embrace him. The longer he maintained it, the greater the recoil he would face.
He sensed it instinctively. He had only the span of one exhalation.
If he lost himself for any longer than that, he would no longer be able to endure the recoil.
Half a breath.
His consciousness sank into a bottomless abyss. He entered a state of selfless concentration. Yeon-shin could tune the state of his mind exactly as he wished.
'I'll finish this in three forms.'
He did not bother opening his mouth.
He simply stepped forward with his sword in hand. The crunch of snow beneath his feet lasted only an instant.
The scene around him blurred, and the Beast King Sect Leader's rugged face filled his vision. Behind him, the roar of fierce wind surged.
Ignoring the man's startled expression, Yeon-shin raised his sword and cut upward. Wi Se-hyeok could not immediately adapt to the sudden change in speed.
What passed for a defensive move, raising both hands, looked slow to him. By Black Uniform standards, Wi Se-hyeok was the weakest.
Was this how Senior Jin, the Blood Guard Squad Leader, had felt when watching Yeon-shin during his promotion examination?
The martial artists in the rotating formation surrounding them were even worse. They were grubs too slow even to roll away.
They could no longer enter Yeon-shin's time. They had been expelled from the realm of a one-on-one fight.
'First form.'
It was a strange feeling. His body followed the speed of his thoughts remarkably well.
It felt as if his upper dantian, where a flower of light had bloomed, had somewhat aligned with his body wreathed in a flower of transparent lightning.
Before defensive force waves could fully form in the Beast King Sect Leader's hands, the Northern Light Sword grazed upward along his right shoulder.
The air seemed to be pulled in by its cold, fan-shaped path. Then a monstrous blast swelled, as though a thunderclap bomb had detonated.
With his sword still raised, Yeon-shin turned away. He only saw the aftereffects of the sword strike begin to crush the Beast King Sect Leader's shoulder.
Before the explosion had even fully rung out, he kicked off the ground toward the side without bothering to confirm the result.
The black-clad swordswoman who had entered the battle was rushing toward him. She was an exceptionally powerful opponent.
Her thick muscles suggested that she had trained in the Heavy Sword. She brought down a large sword as a storm of powerful force waves swept outward, stirring violent snow from the ground.
The two swordsmen rapidly closed in.
The moment their eyes met, they knew each other's intent.
'One exchange will decide it.'
Yeon-shin twisted the step of his leap.
His whole body spun with his sword. His black hem fluttered violently as he raised a vortex with his blade. In that instant, the two swords slashed along opposing vertical and horizontal axes and collided.
There was no contest of strength.
A silver vortex smashed straight through her Heavy Sword. Both the power condensed in the sword strike and the level of Force Projection were different.
For the first time, the black-clad swordswoman's eyes widened.
In the realm of supreme masters, all of this happened in an instant. Even the iron fragments spilling from the Heavy Sword crushed by the blade were flattened and driven away by the pressure of the Northern Light Sword.
She should not have exchanged blows head-on. A single misjudgment decided the match. The sword vortex born from one rotation swept past her along with her Heavy Sword.
Rumble.
The ground shook.
The terrifying waves from the sword strike made the snowfield tremble. As blood etched itself across the sky, snow swallowed by the massive flower of lightning burned away without a trace.
The realm of Ascension. He had forcibly broken into the true world of the Black Uniform through Ultimate Thunder, the constant full-body activation of Radiant River.
Thud.
The Leader of Demon Wings had let out roughly two-thirds of a single exhalation, but his steps had never stopped.
They continued directly toward Yeoryeong's Young Lord, who had yet to fully grasp the situation.
At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin was silent lightning striking without end.
Footnotes:
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