WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 273: Inaction
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This was said to be Cheong Myeong's sect and homeland.
The Blue-Eyed Demon Sword of Demon Wings was openly known as the foremost swordsman among the Blue Uniforms.
A mysterious master who usually seemed cheerful, yet occasionally gave off a frosty air. Despite having both accomplishments and public esteem, Cheong Myeong had no desire to compete with Jeong Yeon-shin for promotion to Black Uniform.
There was not even a trace of regret. It showed his exceptional caliber.
“Nothing's changed. It was always like this.”
Back in his homeland, Cheong Myeong looked upward with a faintly displeased expression. It was rare enough to see him look uncomfortable.
Jeong Yeon-shin followed Cheong Myeong's gaze toward an entrance far too mysterious to be called a sect gate.
‘A sect of the elven race.’
Enormous, strangely shaped rocks rose on both sides, while sunlight fractured and spilled down through the center in leaf-green hues.
Thick tree vines had been woven high like fortress walls.
They had to be at least five jang tall, yet they looked strangely natural. Their overwhelming size seemed to carry the dignity of the natural world itself.
Without Cheong Myeong's guidance, Yeon-shin would never have thought it was a gate.
It was almost the work of a formation. No one would be able to find it easily.
“To think I'd live long enough to come to the Heavenly Pillar Gate. Even if I deployed the Heavenly Net, I'd pass right by without realizing it.”
“So this is what they meant by a natural fortress.”
Languid Flame Dragon and Hyeon Won-chang spoke as they carried a small palanquin between them, one at the front and the other at the rear, under the Squad Leader's orders.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader sat inside, while Languid Flame Dragon carried out the order with a faintly displeased expression.
Their assignment was to take the place of the recuperating Divine Sword Squad.
The Divine Sword Squad had been struck by Dark Night Hall's archery arts, which pushed the effectiveness of ambushes to the extreme. Ordinarily, the Divine Sword Squad should have come with the Divine Sword Squad Leader.
Yet the Leader of Demon Wings' recuperation had taken priority, and the Heavenly Pillar Gate was not a sect that permitted many visitors.
“So.”
Languid Flame Dragon glanced at Cheong Myeong.
“How do we get in?”
“They have to open it from inside.”
Cheong Myeong answered lazily, then looked at Yeon-shin.
“My sect is inherently arrogant, so they may act very rudely...”
The Divine Sword Squad Leader was present. Since this was not a private setting, Cheong Myeong spoke respectfully.
Yeon-shin calmly nodded.
“Even dull people have patience and ingenuity. This Squad Leader simply didn't know that. The many strong people under heaven have the right to be arrogant. Besides, aren't we the ones asking the Heavenly Pillar Gate for help?”
Cheong Myeong chuckled.
It was the expression he had worn while patting Yeon-shin's shoulder back when Yeon-shin was still a White Uniform, as though looking at a younger brother going through a strange phase.
“Let's call for them first.”
“Go ahead.”
The moment the Squad Leader gave permission, Cheong Myeong pursed his lips and whistled. The sound spread clear and thin, like a bamboo flute, carrying a wave of inner power.
He seemed to be working an unusual mnemonic formula. Leaves danced along the aura that brushed up the lush green wall.
Shin So-bin, standing beside Yeon-shin, let out a quiet gasp.
After they had waited about a quarter of an hour...
“Cheong Myeong, disciple expelled from the sect.”
A clear, archaic voice rang out.
A man stood atop the rampart of ancient tree trunks, one foot planted against a slanted tree. He looked down at the group.
A bow was slung over his back, and a sword hung at his waist. Both looked natural on him. Long dark-green hair flowed down one side of his pale face.
He spoke.
“What business brings you back to the sacred pillar?”
It sounded like an ancient dialect, the syllables of its words flowing together like a song.
It differed from the standardized speech that had spread widely during the Ming founding era, when imperial authority was at its strongest. It seemed to be a dialect unique to them.
“An expelled disciple?”
Hyeon Won-chang repeated blankly. Languid Flame Dragon, fidgeting with the palanquin handle, raised an eyebrow slightly.
“The Blue-Eyed Demon Sword?”
Shin So-bin, standing beside the Squad Leader, parted her lips.
Of all Demon Wings' masters, she seemed the most surprised. Yeon-shin alone remained calm.
What was so surprising about it?
A cryptic smile formed on Cheong Myeong's lips.
“Junior Brother Jeong, your mouth has gotten nastier.”
“You are not my senior brother. You left the sect for good. How dare you come back?”
“Jeong Nan-song.”
“You'd better answer properly. Dark-clad bastards have been digging through our mountain. You abandoned your duty to protect the World Tree, so it wouldn't be strange if you'd become Dark Night Hall's lackey by now. Who knows the truth?”
“To ask about truth... That isn't a question our clan should be asking. Unless you've been remiss in training the eye technique of our bloodline.”
“I truly have nothing to say! You are right!”
That was the end of the conversation. Jeong Nan-song said he needed to ask the sect elders what they intended.
The way he wheeled around and descended beneath the tree walls was light and drifting, yet cold.
Such behavior was difficult to encounter in the martial world. Demon Wings had no immediate response.
“That was forthright,” Hyeon Won-chang said, looking somewhat dazed.
Cheong Myeong shrugged.
“I told you they wouldn't be friendly. As you saw, I'm practically a traitor to the sect.”
“A traitor? Your limbs and meridians are intact. It's strange that you were expelled from the sect.”
Shin So-bin gently rubbed one wrist as she spoke.
Even Shaolin, famed for its justice and compassion, was said to destroy an expelled disciple's dantian and sever their meridians.
They feared that profound training might be used in ways that went against their teachings. Most martial sects, strict about the relationship between master and disciple, were the same.
Cheong Myeong lightly touched the back of his head, bound with a headscarf.
“It seems they erased my name from the sect registry after I left. It does sting a little.”
“You didn't know you'd been expelled? Then you couldn't have committed some grave crime, could you?”
Shin So-bin furrowed her brow in disbelief.
Then she tossed her long braid back, her anger at the Heavenly Pillar Gate clear.
“That's true, but I probably deserved it.”
“Why?”
“This sect made it its calling to protect the core of the World Tree. They call it their duty, and they regard it as sacred beyond measure. They find the essence and tradition of their clan there. They dislike even the imperial family for having intermingled with the Han Chinese. They aren't cordial toward Desolate Fortress either. White Cat is a young lady of the Shin Family, so you've probably heard the gist.”
“Ah...”
“Since they're still a martial sect, warriors who pursue Martial Extreme through real combat sometimes emerge. They don't stop those who leave, but they aren't happy to see them return. It means they've broken faith. That village is vast, yet unbelievably closed off.”
“Then wasn't there any point in bringing the Blue-Eyed Demon Sword?”
Languid Flame Dragon suddenly cut in, looking annoyed.
“Isn't this just getting in the way of the Squad Leader's recuperation?”
“If I hadn't come, you would've had trouble even seeing the gatekeeper's face. The formation was already unsealing itself into a path from the mountainside. Our Squad Leader must have sensed it.”
“Hmm.”
Yeon-shin nodded at Cheong Myeong's calm answer, ignoring the Divine Sword Squad Leader's noisy presence.
The Leader of Demon Wings' direct superior sat cross-legged in the palanquin, snoring. The Divine Sword Squad Leader seemed badly drained of strength.
Shin So-bin spoke with a curious look.
“It seems the Divine Sword Squad Leader trusts you a great deal. I understood the Divine Sword Squad Leader wasn't someone who would let his composure slip like that.”
“We've only met once.”
Yeon-shin answered with a look of disagreement.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader's condition was worse than Yeon-shin had expected.
He occasionally coughed up blood. Breaking through the combined attack of two Lords of the Thirteen Heavens and even inflicting life-threatening injuries on them had clearly come at a steep cost.
Even moving a short distance required immense effort.
Then it happened.
Saaa...
The thick wall of vines blocking their path split apart. It was a deeply wondrous sight.
The vines opened to the sunlight as if they possessed a will of their own, reminding Yeon-shin of the Lord of Desolate Fortress's private quarters.
For a while, the mountain was filled only with the sound of foliage rustling against itself.
“A person esteemed in the mortal world has come.”
An old woman's voice rang out. Its tone was strange. It sounded as though someone valued only in the outside world had arrived.
“Young peerless master, I am Cheong Bo-hwa of the Heavenly Pillar Gate. I serve as its leader.”
Pure white sunlight streamed down through the gap in the parting wall.
Yeon-shin stared directly at the person who emerged through the light. Glare could not trouble the Heaven-Displaying Eye Technique, which had honed Yeon-shin's eyes.
Yeon-shin clearly saw an aged swordswoman with white hair hanging down her back, her lightness skill leaving no weight upon the grass beneath her feet.
Yeon-shin saw the glint in the old woman's blue eyes and her simple green martial attire as well.
‘Strong. An incredibly powerful peerless master. How old is she?’
Her inner power was impossible to measure. The air distorted with each movement of her limbs, as though she had spent an unimaginable number of years breathing and circulating qi.
It would not have been unreasonable to say her qi storage had reached the limits of the physical body. Her internal cultivation, capable of controlling such tremendous power like a gentle breeze, had to be extraordinary as well.
Yeon-shin slowly parted his lips.
“...I am Jeong Yeon-shin, Leader of Demon Wings.”
“So you are my great-grandchild's superior. That enormous, unstable man over there must be the Divine Sword Squad Leader.”
Cheong Bo-hwa stepped before Yeon-shin as she spoke.
Her voice was songlike as well, but it carried a deeper resonance than Jeong Nan-song's.
‘She is Senior Cheong Myeong's great-grandmother.’
Yeon-shin looked back and forth between the two of them, both expressionless.
Neither showed the slightest emotion. The resentment between them appeared deep.
Cheong Bo-hwa had been studying Yeon-shin more closely than her great-grandchild. She spoke again.
“It is something that happens now and then, once every few generations. This time, it seems you have brought a martial art the Central Plains has never known, one newly sprouted from the order of the Ming.”
“I have heard that all martial arts under heaven began at Shaolin on Mount Song. It may not be so new.”
“Then I cannot allow you into the lake. Such are the rules of our sect.”
“Then I shall test your sect's discernment.”
“Words fitting of a Grandmaster. Please understand. Even the Lord of Desolate Fortress cannot forcibly change our rules. She retains a sliver of conscience, after all, as one born of our clan's noble bloodline.”
Her answer was resolute. Even as Cheong Bo-hwa spoke, the soft wrinkles at the corners of her eyes did not shift.
Only the eyes studying Yeon-shin continued to gleam blue.
Yeon-shin calmly met her gaze.
“Do I only need to show the completion of my martial arts in three bouts of sparring?”
“That is so. We improve our martial arts by keeping ourselves apart from the civilization that settled in this land. The sect members who clearly remember the distant past are sickened by the tyranny shown by the Yuan, Song, and the Ming during its founding era. Even if it makes us frogs in a well, it cannot be helped.”
The master of the Heavenly Pillar Gate continued slowly.
“If your unique martial arts have crossed the boundaries of our clan... then we shall properly reward you for broadening our horizons. Letting you enter the lake is only part of it. I intend to grant you things you have never experienced.”
“Then let's do it.”
Yeon-shin was about to take an opening stance when Cheong Bo-hwa shook her head.
“Are you not a Black Uniform of Desolate Fortress? We know what needs knowing. This would not suit your station.”
“I do not understand what station you mean.”
“Your station is too high. I fear it would obscure the essence, like an adult joining a children's fight. I sense aura similar to yours from the young ones you have brought. The maturity of a martial art should properly be judged by those who practice it, not by a Grandmaster.”
“Children and adults...”
Yeon-shin nodded and stepped back.
Shin So-bin, standing nearby, shot her peer, the Squad Leader, an incredulous look, but the Leader of Demon Wings paid no attention to the child's gaze.
‘If they are the martial arts of the mysterious Heavenly Pillar Gate...’
The United Way Celestial Image Sword, the Moon-Guarding Piercing Art, and the Threefold Net Tree Step were said to be famous.
Each was renowned for being as profound as the immortal martial arts of the Nine Sects.
Now that Yeon-shin saw it, the sect's reputation seemed to have been built on the martial prowess of disciples who left prepared to be expelled. What would the martial arts of the elven race, who had devoted themselves solely to cultivation at their home sect, be like?
People usually discussed Yeon-shin's martial arts in connection with the power Yeon-shin possessed.
This was the first time Yeon-shin's unique martial arts would be compared so closely with other martial arts.
“Let's begin now.”
The Leader of Demon Wings crossed both arms beneath black sleeves as Yeon-shin spoke.
Footnotes:
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