WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈

Chapter 30: Genius (2)

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The mountains were bustling with activity.

They were in the midst of dealing with the aftermath after repelling the attack when Zhongnan Sect's main force returned from striking a branch of the Tyrant Sword Sect.

A day after receiving the news, Yeon-shin and Won-chang were able to meet the ruler of Mount Zhongnan.

They were accompanied by Great Elder Ye Yil-sin, who had shown Yeon-shin favor during the destruction of Jeong Family Manor.

“You have done us a great service.”

The sect leader of Zhongnan Sect was an extraordinarily handsome man.

With ears pointed as sharply as blades and a yellow long robe draped over him, he possessed the bearing of a hero of the age.

Sword Master of the Western Heavens, Gu Yang-sin.

He was said to be the son of the Sword Patriarch and Ye Yil-sin.

Yeon-shin knew him to be seventy, yet he did not look over thirty.

He was of mixed Han Chinese and elven race blood. One only had to look at his ears to know.

“Jeong-hye is a child whom the Sword Immortal of Zhongnan privately watches over. Since you saved a disciple of our sect, it is only right that we reward you.”

Like most of the elven race, he was handsome enough to bring Cheong Myeong to mind, yet his air was different.

He was solemn, as befitted the head of a sect.

Gu Yang-sin gazed quietly at the two members of Demon Wings, Yeon-shin and Won-chang, before speaking.

“Tell me what you want from this sect.”

Yeon-shin sensed Won-chang flinch beside him.

It seemed Won-chang had not anticipated such a reward.

It was as though Won-chang's unopened upper dantian was whirling.

Yeon-shin hoped Won-chang would not make an excessive request.

Won-chang should not lower his status as an honored guest by asking for something like spiritual medicine.

Yeon-shin decided to speak first.

“Please allow me to assist in the fight against the Tyrant Sword Sect.”

“Hmm.”

The one who reacted was Ye Yil-sin. She looked at Yeon-shin with a complicated expression, then gently closed her eyes.

Yeon-shin had wanted to ask Ye Yil-sin why Jeong Family Manor had been destroyed, but he did not wish to use this opportunity on something that ought to be granted as a matter of course.

“Seom-ye of Demon Wings. I hear you recovered my late father's legacy.”

Gu Yang-sin spoke, a slight emotion visible on his face.

“He did not pass his secret art down even to his own son because his son belonged to another sect. How ironic that it should end up with Desolate Fortress.”

“I merely used it as inspiration for my swordsmanship. I will neither learn nor spread the Nine Suns One Strike.”

“How audacious. How interesting.”

Perhaps Gu Yang-sin found Yeon-shin's calm conviction persuasive. He might even have grasped something of Yeon-shin's unusual nature.

Yeon-shin believed that his maternal grandfather Ma Yeon-jeok's martial prowess had clearly declined from its peak.

Otherwise, the eyes of the Sword Master of the Western Heavens and the Sword Immortal of Zhongnan would not have seemed so much more frightening.

“I heard you conveyed the mnemonic formula through Myo-hwa. That too is a great favor. Even if you wish to take the vanguard, I cannot refuse.”

In battles between martial factions, the vanguard was the face of a sect.

The sect leader of Zhongnan Sect had shown Yeon-shin great recognition.

Gu Yang-sin's deep eyes did not leave Yeon-shin.

Could even one praised throughout the western reaches of the world for swordsmanship remain free of a father's shadow?

There seemed to be a faint mixture of love and hate in his eyes.

Ye Yil-sin was the same. The child she had seen amid the bloodshed at Jeong Family Manor had restored her husband's swordsmanship.

“The ways of heaven are mysterious. How can these ties continue in such a manner...?”

“I have something else to ask the Great Elder. Back then, there was too much urgency for me to hear it.”

At Yeon-shin's words, her face stiffened.

* * *

Weiji Myo-hwa's sword rose straight up, blocking the sunlight.

It was a graceful high stance. Sunlight drifted softly from the sun overhead, mingling clearly with the fresh air of Mount Zhongnan.

Yet amid it all, her lone sword was anything but peaceful.

The Nine Suns One Strike was, true to its name, a single-strike sword art.

Yeon-shin was the strange one for creating a flow of swordsmanship through repeated single strikes.

Whoosh!

The sword path that should have cut down nine suns at once faltered.

The Sword Immortal of Zhongnan, watching from the side, clicked his tongue.

“You cannot focus at all.”

“I apologize for only dazzling your eyes.”

“Is Yeon-shin the problem?”

Myo-hwa shook her head.

“No. The problem is my own heart.”

She had already fully acknowledged Yeon-shin's sword. Myo-hwa's inner demon did not stem from jealousy.

Her heart was not so narrow.

It was simply that the martial gifts she had built up throughout her life and tirelessly refined now seemed futile.

It was closer to emptiness than jealousy.

“That sword art called the Radiant Sword Flow is not inferior to the Nine Suns One Strike. Did I see correctly?”

“That is so.”

The Sword Immortal of Zhongnan answered briefly. There was no need to say more about Yeon-shin's martial arts.

“It was not at the level of first attainment. While training with me, he immediately surpassed first attainment and reached the second and third... I can scarcely believe he created such a supreme martial art, but even without prior experience, his mastery of the art he had only just learned overwhelmed my Nine Suns One Strike.”

“That child has already achieved your goal.”

Myo-hwa lowered her sword and looked at the Sword Immortal of Zhongnan. He continued slowly.

“He is a Grandmaster who transcends age. It is only natural that he would master the martial art he created so quickly. All things and learning in human affairs are alike. A creator's martial art naturally suits its creator's body best. There is no martial art in the world for which that is not true.”

“He must possess talent unlike any the world has seen. Talent that even I cannot keep up with...”

“Shaolin's Bodhidharma and Wudang Sect's founding master Zhang Sanfeng were the same. Depending on how you choose to see it, living in the same era as such a Grandmaster can be a blessing. Have you not inherited the Nine Suns One Strike as well?”

“...You're right. It is a grace beyond measure.”

Myo-hwa smiled faintly. It was a smile of resignation.

The anguish that tormented her was forcibly suppressed by the discipline she had cultivated as a Zhongnan disciple.

Her pride as the Sword Dragon and her youthful spirit cried out that she must not be overtaken, but she had no confidence she could keep showing Yeon-shin her back forever.

In the near future, Weiji Myo-hwa would be the one watching Jeong Yeon-shin's back. She chose to accept that.

A favorable wind brushed past her silky hair as though lending her strength.

Yet the hand gripping her sword did not immediately grow firm.

She was preparing to step down from the pinnacle of her generation. She could hardly be brimming with energy.

“...I had not intended to tell you.”

The Sword Immortal of Zhongnan sighed. Though he regarded Yeon-shin as a grandchild, his fondness for Yeon-shin could not compare with that for Myo-hwa, whom he had truly raised as his own granddaughter.

“You must hear this and keep silent.”

“What?”

“It is about Yeon-shin. That child's Baihui acupoint communicates with the great natural world.”

Myo-hwa looked puzzled, and the Sword Immortal of Zhongnan continued.

“It was a minute change, but it changed day by day. He is absorbing too much of the power between heaven and earth. It is very dangerous. Even a peerless master would find it difficult to endure.”

“What do you mean...?”

“He does not have much time left to live. Yet he struggles as he does, as though trying to leave his mark upon the world.”

Myo-hwa's eyes widened at the shocking words.

The Sword Immortal of Zhongnan had already clasped his hands behind his back and was staring blankly at one of the cloud-covered mountain peaks.

“Regardless of martial prowess or age, I felt deep respect for Yeon-shin.”

* * *

After the conversation with Gu Yang-sin and Ye Yil-sin, Yeon-shin heard that the Tyrant Sword Sect had sent a challenge letter.

Its contents were said to be brief yet intense.

- Let us wage a decisive battle three days after Rain Water.

It was the end of the second month.

In the martial world, a decisive battle was a full-scale clash in which sects fought with all their strength, staking their fates upon it.

It was entirely different from the scattered skirmishes thus far.

A head-on confrontation between one branch of the Thirteen Heavens and one of the Nine Sects. It was an event that would shake the martial world.

There was little time for sects throughout the Central Plains to react. The day of the decisive battle arrived quickly.

Whoooosh.

The wind sweeping across the vast Guanzhong Plain felt harsh.

It was said that this was where Myo-hwa had earned the title of Sword Dragon after cutting down the sect leader of an unorthodox sect.

Yeon-shin looked ahead from among Zhongnan Sect's disciples.

Sharp energy blazed from a force of roughly two hundred people.

The Tyrant Sword Sect of the Thirteen Heavens. It was a faction said to seek the most tyrannical power in the world.

At its forefront stood an absolute master from Yeon-shin's memories.

The Tyrant Sword Sect Master. That expressionless face was familiar.

The Tyrant Sword Sect Master still had an enormous sword planted in the earth, displaying energy without restraint.

Though the Tyrant Sword Sect Master stood at least a thousand paces away, an overwhelming aura surged toward them.

Now that Yeon-shin had properly learned martial arts, he could understand just how absurd a level of force the Tyrant Sword Sect Master had accumulated.

“That man is young hero Jeong's enemy.”

Won-chang spoke while glaring ahead. Won-chang knew his companion's circumstances.

Perhaps their bond had grown deep without Yeon-shin realizing it, for Won-chang showed no sign of backing down.

For the first time, Yeon-shin saw in Hyeon Won-chang qualities worthy of being called a divine hero.

Holding that gratitude in his heart, Yeon-shin stepped forward.

The sect leader of Zhongnan Sect, Sword Master of the Western Heavens Gu Yang-sin, stood facing the enemy.

At that moment, someone from the Tyrant Sword Sect stepped out alone and shouted.

“The third disciple of the Tyrant Sword Sect Master! I, Wei Mu-hyeok, ask whether there is a rising talent who can receive my sword!”

It was a proposal for a vanguard duel.

Such duels were said to be as common in martial disputes as decisive battles between established masters.

The sects compared their future talents to gauge their underlying strength and break the other side's spirit.

It was something Yeon-shin had experienced once through Mount Hua Sect's Yu Hyeon.

“I will present that request to the sect leader now.”

“Seom-ye.”

Gu Yang-sin turned his head. Their eyes met.

“As the one who recovered the legacy of the Sword Patriarch, the late father of the sect leader and husband of the Great Elder, I request permission to step forward as a guest of Zhongnan Sect.”

“Young hero Jeong.”

Myo-hwa, who had worn a strange expression whenever she looked at him lately, gazed at him with countless emotions crossing her face.

Yeon-shin offered a slight silent salute, then looked to Gu Yang-sin.

‘I can go.’

It was not a fitting position for Myo-hwa to take.

She was slightly older than Wei Mu-hyeok, and the reputation she had built was on an entirely different level.

Gu Yang-sin slowly nodded.

If they needed a certain victory, there was no better choice among his peers than Yeon-shin.

“Go.”

“Thank you.”

After offering a fist-and-palm salute, Yeon-shin stepped forward.

Myo-hwa watched Yeon-shin's back from beside the elders of Zhongnan Sect.

Her gaze did not leave his departing figure.

A Grandmaster, burning himself away as he wrote the traces of his life, was standing there.

“He is already a magnificent young man.”

The Sword Immortal of Zhongnan's lament scattered through the air.

* * *

“Zhongnan Sect's fate has run its course.”

Those were Wei Mu-hyeok's first words upon facing Yeon-shin.

Wei Mu-hyeok looked about seventeen or eighteen, with the appearance of someone crossing from boyhood into young adulthood.

His dazzling treasured sword and crimson martial robe were both splendid. Yeon-shin remembered seeing him in passing at Jeong Family Manor. He was one of Yeon-shin's enemies.

Wei Mu-hyeok looked Yeon-shin up and down, then sneered.

“You. I know you. Jeong Family Manor, was it? You put on presumptuous antics far beyond your station. I should have killed you then, but it is fortunate for me that you have come before me now.”

“Could you even lift a hand against me back then?”

“You will die in a martial artist's life-and-death duel. On what grounds would the former Divine Sword Squad Leader intervene? It would only damage his reputation. If you are relying on the same thing as before, that is truly regrettable.”

Perhaps because Wei Mu-hyeok was the direct disciple of the Tyrant Sword Sect Master, an arrogant dignity radiated from his entire body. He looked just like a noble young master.

‘The Tyrant Sword Sect Master's disciple. I will avenge myself and earn merit as well.’

Yeon-shin silently drew his sword.

His gaze rested on the Tyrant Sword Sect Master standing far behind Wei Mu-hyeok.

The sharply angular face remained as indifferent as it had been then.

“Now die.”

Wei Mu-hyeok launched a sword strike as he spoke. The way Wei Mu-hyeok paid no heed to where his opponent was looking was typical of an unorthodox sect martial artist.

Clang! Whoosh!

The exploding force wave unleashed a fierce gust. Their swords remained crossed, neither moving.

Wei Mu-hyeok's expression shifted in surprise at the sword force that did not yield in the slightest.

“Not bad.”

Yeon-shin did not answer. Once he had properly learned swordsmanship, he could see the flow created by the sword.

His opponent's sword was no different.

He suddenly recalled the time Cheong Myeong had tested him when he first entered Demon Wings.

He slowly opened his mouth.

“Someone of the elven race I know once said that one can judge another's talent through their sword wind.”

“Hmm?”

“So that’s what it meant.”

As Yeon-shin smiled, goosebumps rose on Wei Mu-hyeok's arm.

Radiant Sword Flow.

The Desolate Sword in Yeon-shin's hand caught the sunlight.

At the same time, a faint beam of light burst forth and forced the opposing sword aside.

“What...!”

Yeon-shin's hand did not stop. Wind coiled around his entire body as he passed Wei Mu-hyeok with True Step.

A sword slash flashed white diagonally from Wei Mu-hyeok's neck, and his head fell.

Thunk.

The body collapsed where it stood.

Without looking at the corpse, Yeon-shin sheathed his sword.

“......”

For a moment, silence blanketed the plain.

Footnotes:

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