WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 266: Master of the Martial Book (3)
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The Second Apostle's lips twisted wickedly.
“The Sect Master has vanished without a trace, yet Apostles with such shallow faith lord over the sect. They are vermin who deserve to die. Followers, slay the Seventh Apostle with reverent hearts.”
He spoke with elegant poise, arms folded as he hovered slightly in the air using Walking Upon Empty Space from the Body Movement Scripture.
At a glance, he looked divine. Yet the chaotic aura unique to the Demonic Sect coiled around his entire body, giving him the bearing of a demon god.
The god of the Blood Flame Sect's Shaanxi branch had issued his command.
The Blood Flame Sect followers, spread out like a swarm of red ants, responded at once. Fanaticism naturally turned toward whoever held power nearest at hand.
Shaanxi was their world. Their murderous intent toward the Seventh Apostle, whose main altar had been destroyed, proved it.
“The Apostle has given the order!”
“Drink the traitor's blood!”
“Kill her!”
Amid the cries, a fierce palm wind tore through the man shouting about drinking blood, and his head exploded in its aftermath.
From a distance, the Second Apostle remained with his arms folded after launching the Red Dark Palm with one hand. He muttered, “Not a single drop belongs to you. Every last one is mine.”
The Blood Flame Sect followers charged toward the Seventh Apostle, their red hair streaming behind them.
Even as powerful force waves exploded beside them, they kicked off the ground without hesitation. There were easily several hundred of them.
Together with the translucent, rippling walls of the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation, they created a scene straight from a tale of monsters in the Classic of Mountains and Seas.
The Seventh Apostle did not flee.
As though the followers were not even there, she merely glanced around. Her distracted manner carried an air of madness.
The Second Apostle smiled like a man from another age.
“Seventh Apostle, noble of true blood. Do not resist the followers. They were born from your martial arts and your blood.”
“You use lip-speech with the solemnity of a high minister.”
The Seventh Apostle answered briefly.
Still smiling, the Second Apostle's lip-speech flowed with the rhythm of a swift melody.
“Would you spill the blood of your own kin? Even if you escape, no Apostle will welcome you. Do not rush into apostasy. It would be better to become the sword of the Shaanxi branch. There is so much to enjoy through faith.”
At that moment, five people landed before the Seventh Apostle.
They were exceptionally powerful Blood Masters.
Their dark crimson hair fluttered as they each stepped into True Step. The deeply piled snow was torn apart at will by the aura of their Blood Arts.
“Traitor.”
“Rest in peace.”
Merciless aura flowed from the blades, swords, and gauntlets in their hands.
Every one of them had properly mastered the Blood Arts. Some, men and women seemingly born with precious blood, had bloodlust flashing in their eyes.
She was surrounded on all sides.
Even a supreme master would have to negotiate. Both the scale of their combined attack and their combined combat strength were on another level, and a clash was imminent.
“Choose.”
The Second Apostle's voice carried over from afar.
Then, suddenly.
The Seventh Apostle stretched out one long leg. Red aura spread through the hem of her Pure Blood Robe.
Step.
She took a single step.
That was the beginning.
Wooooong!
A crimson glow rose from her toes. It was qi made manifest at an extraordinary level.
The snow beneath her feet trembled slightly. Soon, the red light began to billow like mist.
At that moment, violent aura burst from the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation spread behind the Seventh Apostle.
Boom!
All five Blood Masters were shoved back at once. Despite raising resilient Blood Arts qi throughout their bodies, they carved furrows into the snow.
Confusion appeared on faces that had gleamed with blind killing intent.
The Seventh Apostle curled her lips and took another step.
Boom!
The charge of red waves stopped at once. The followers rushing forward faltered and lost their balance.
The energy forming the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation bound their bodies. The fundamental qi of the Blood Flame Sect itself had halted their massive charge.
“You, Seventh Apostle. What have you done to the sect's secret sorcery formation?”
The Second Apostle asked without expression.
The Seventh Apostle blinked once.
“I went for a walk with a younger Grand Preceptor. It was wonderful.”
On the day the main altar was destroyed, many followers had died within the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation.
It had been the work of Grand Preceptor Jeong Yeon-shin, who had operated the sorcery formation in reverse.
The Grand Preceptor had easily broken apart and used the formation that guarded the main altar.
He had drawn sorcery arts into the domain of martial arts, then wielded them with dazzling control to mercilessly punish the lesser followers of the main altar. He had not forgiven those who challenged his dignity.
She had carefully engraved those shining traces into her one remaining eye.
As she studied the young Grand Preceptor's senses, she had felt the pleasure of walking above the clouds.
The feeling had been so exhilarating and refreshing that she had realized the method of operating the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation on her own.
The Seventh Apostle had worn an Apostle's long robe at seventeen.
She had been born of pure blood.
She was a supreme master of true blood. They said talent like hers had never appeared in the sect's history.
Her blazing talent made her see the Grand Preceptor as especially radiant. She would also grieve most over his death.
Not some Sun God Meridian of the Huangbo Family, who merely shared a similar inborn fate.
“I thought about it for a very long time. I wondered why the Grand Preceptor avoided me. I couldn't understand it at all. We understood each other through martial arts. We're the only ones who can understand one another. I'm the only one who can carve words onto the Grand Preceptor's gravestone...”
Her lips, moving as though she were talking madly to herself, formed a smooth curve.
“After hearing the Grand Preceptor's words.”
Swish.
She raised one arm slightly, and her red sleeve slipped down.
“It was because of you bastards.”
She had to reclaim what she felt when she pretended to be Miss Ye at the Martial Alliance Assembly in Hanzhong.
She had liked the Grand Preceptor's words and manner then, gentler than ever before. They had melted her body and mind like medicine she could not stop taking.
Her faith in the sect had been insignificant.
The Seventh Apostle whispered to herself, “I alone bear noble true blood. Why would I need any of you?”
A reddish Blood Arts aura stirred in her pale hand.
Boom!
The walls of the sorcery formation rippled like waves in response to the Seventh Apostle's aura.
The wall built to trap Seom-ye together with all of Mount Taebaek broke off across the horizon, then slowly turned the faint color of blood, like her qi.
The Grand Preceptor's method, which had once manifested across the entire main altar, appeared again.
Only now, it had become the Seventh Apostle's method.
The blade sharpened to kill Seom-ye, Jeong Yeon-shin, turned its edge in the opposite direction.
“What is that...?”
“Divine punishment... It is divine punishment...!”
The Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation stretching high behind the Seventh Apostle pulsed. It danced under the force of her inner energy control.
The hazy, surging walls of the formation began descending toward the lower slopes of Mount Taebaek, in the direction she faced.
A translucent crimson tidal wave cast a shadow, its enormous breadth enough to cover the mountainside.
Wooooong!
It swept in, blocking out the sunlight in an instant. The earth shook.
“Fall back! Retreat!”
“Blood Buddha! Flame God!”
People turned and fled one after another.
But they were too close.
A heavy rumble rose.
It was like a net thrown by the mountain god of the Qinling Mountains.
It descended from the snow-covered slope, swept over the entrance to Mount Taebaek and the piles of corpses, passed through the Seventh Apostle, then crashed down over hundreds of people.
It happened in an instant.
The Blood Flame Sect followers, who had earlier smeared the blood of martial artists and commoners around their mouths, convulsed all at once.
The resonance of qi was immense.
An enormous amount of like energy dragged the inner energy within their bodies out through their skin.
The principle of essence absorption had been turned against the blood demons.
Bodies unable to endure it began exploding one after another.
Pop! Boom! Crash!
They were unlike the people they had killed through essence absorption.
Deaths came instantly, as though they had been struck by thunderclap bombs, and most did not even leave bodies behind.
A powerful backwash swept through, stirring up a blizzard.
The blood demons exploded without end.
A red smile formed on the Seventh Apostle's lips.
“Ahahahahaha!”
Her crazed laughter carried a question for the Grand Preceptor.
“I can act like the Demonic Sect with these bastards, can't I?”
“Seventh Apostle!”
The Second Apostle flew toward her, his eyes flashing wildly. His disheveled hair and Pure Blood Robe fluttered dully.
Like the Seventh Apostle, he was a supreme master who had refined the purity of his inner energy without resorting to essence absorption. Yet he appeared to have come close to qi deviation, and his aura was no longer as powerful as before.
The Seventh Apostle made a small gesture.
Crack.
The snow beneath her feet caved in.
In an instant, her form shot forward.
Sunlight rippled over the tips of her black hair.
The next moment, she stepped onto the Second Apostle's shoulder.
By then, the red mist of the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation had risen to his knees. The Second Apostle, his movements sealed, let out a groan.
The Seventh Apostle exhaled softly. A strange heat stirred across her pale face and in the sharp gaze unique to a supreme master.
“My Grand Preceptor, my dazzling comet.”
Next time, she would be able to see him from an even higher place.
She smiled.
* * *
“The encirclement has come apart.”
Bukgung Hu, who had come from the Ice Palace, muttered.
Jeong Yeon-shin felt it at once as well.
The vast Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation had collapsed.
It felt as though one side of a fortress wall had broken away and fallen in the opposite direction. He had some idea what might have happened, but he was not certain.
‘Could it be? No matter how mad someone is...’
They said the affairs of the martial world were as complex as the currents of the Yangtze River. It was best not to make careless guesses and instead deal with what lay ahead.
Things were drawing to a close.
Their escape route had been secured. If he could shake off the Tyrant Sword Sect Master pursuing them, the matter would be over.
That was the hardest part.
Jeong Yeon-shin looked over Jang Sun-il and the Ice Palace siblings.
“You should go down first. I still have something to do.”
They did not linger.
All three had exceptional judgment. They knew when it was time to leave.
“Young Master, may you prevail.”
Jang Sun-il seemed more accustomed to bowing his head than offering a fist-and-palm salute.
Jeong Yeon-shin hoped this kind herbalist would not die far from home.
They were both in similar circumstances, with revenge still to take.
Without a word, he patted Jang Sun-il's shoulder. Channeling the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel through his hand, he performed an acupoint-manipulation technique.
“Urgh...!”
“I stimulated the acupoints throughout your body. It should be better than the soil where he shou wu grows. People need to eat.”
Jang Sun-il's eyes widened through his groan.
Jeong Yeon-shin gently pushed the boy by the shoulder.
“Don't look back. May you prevail.”
He glanced at the Bukgung siblings, asking them to accompany Jang Sun-il.
They nodded.
“I will wait in the North Sea. Thank you.”
“This is a great service. Expect us to repay it.”
Bukgung Hu awkwardly offered a Ming-style fist-and-palm salute, while Bukgung Rin waved the Comprehensive Guide to Annihilating Evil Demons in farewell.
Step.
The three descended the mountain side by side.
They occasionally looked back at Jeong Yeon-shin.
Sunlight shimmered white over the three pairs of footprints trailing after one another. Clear tracks remained in the snow.
It was a simple bond.
He glanced to his side.
Yulha Nangnang was sitting on a snow-covered rock, absorbed in the Comprehensive Guide to Annihilating Evil Demons.
She happened to look up at the same time.
“You are quite affectionate.”
“Pardon?”
“My disciples are the same. This poor Taoist is as well.”
“The Tyrant Sword Sect Master is climbing up. Rather than saying such pointless things...”
“Comprehensive Guide to Annihilating Evil Demons.”
Yulha Nangnang cut him off.
“For the next ten years, Shaanxi's Demonic Sect will not be able to withstand the Plum Blossom Sword. At least ten years. The martial arts of renowned sects have been built up over a long time, orthodox or unorthodox. Their framework cannot be changed as easily as yours.”
She continued slowly.
“You saved my disciple Yu Hyeon a few times. Mount Hua is a sword sect with strict rules, so we should naturally regard you as a benefactor.”
“You read it quickly.”
Jeong Yeon-shin understood at once.
The Mount Hua Sect Leader had already comprehended the Tyrant Sword Sect's counterforms.
What would happen from now on?
The faculty of his upper dantian, cooled to clarity, said nothing at this moment.
Yulha Nangnang's lips curved gently. Her smile held a hint of mischief.
“Do you know how tiresome and long the passages in Daoist scriptures are? Your handwriting is neat, and the contents are straightforward, so I enjoyed it greatly. It truly felt as though I had returned to my youth. There was a time when even reading a single line of a mnemonic formula thrilled me...”
That was when it happened.
“Imperial hound, receive the Tyrant Sword Sect Master's procession!”
A young man's voice rang out loudly.
He seemed to be an expert escorting the Tyrant Sword Sect Master. His shout contained considerable inner energy.
Jeong Yeon-shin turned away without paying attention.
An immeasurable force was steadily rising.
He could not even sense the presence of the man shouting nearby.
At last, the Tyrant Sword Sect Master arrived.
‘If I study him with the Heaven-Displaying Eye Technique now, then next time...’
Jeong Yeon-shin moved his index finger slightly, like a performer in a shadow play.
‘Take the initiative. Start with a lateral strike.’
〈Comprehensive Guide to Annihilating Evil Demons: Tyrant Sword Sect Chapter〉
[They are a breed with well-developed deltoids beside the chest.
The energy at the Jianyu acupoint beside the shoulder and the Zhongfu acupoint is evenly strong. They excel at lateral strikes that extend sideways rather than downward sword blows, which means they counter vertical strikes well.
It is advantageous to open with a lateral strike and gain a split second. It is a principle even a fairly dull monkey would understand. The structure of their qi is generally...]
Suddenly.
The sky darkened.
The crown of the Tyrant Sword Sect Master's head had not even appeared yet.
Whoooosh!
Following Jeong Yeon-shin's unconscious gesture, a reddish sunset streaked across the crest of the hill.
Yulha Nangnang's elegant pink sleeve fluttered as she extended her pure white divine sword to the side.
Footnotes:
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