WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 303: Softened Nezha (2)
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* * *
The wind at winter’s end was dry.
Whoosh.
It swept cleanly across Jeong Yeon-shin’s face. Perhaps it was because a peerless master at full strength stood before him, smiling as an enemy.
Low dust drifted coldly across his ankles like a cluster of blades. It was the aftermath of the battle between the Black Uniform seniors and the Zhuge Family Head.
Neither senior said a word.
Had they accepted Jeong Yeon-shin’s choice as one made by an equal in rank?
As the lotus of Ultimate Thunder surrounding him grew denser, Jin Myeong-jo’s eyes hardened as though worried for his junior, while Ak Su-rim clenched and unclenched her hand several times. Both took a step back.
The cold aura sweeping across the surroundings seemed intended to deter the local clans from intervening.
‘They can’t be allowed to intervene.’
The seniors still had strength left, but not enough for a fight against a peerless master.
The moment Jeong Yeon-shin showed signs of losing, they looked ready to intervene even at the risk of mutual destruction with the enemy. That would be the moment the two of them lost their lives.
He could not allow that.
‘Never.’
Jeong Yeon-shin forcibly suppressed his impatience and unease.
Today.
At the same time, it felt as though his upper dantian were whispering within his mind.
He had to seize, in battle, the conception of a martial art of the highest order, one that linked his senses, Eon Hwa-ryeon, the dharma treasure, and the Zhuge Family Head like constellations.
It felt like one of those rare moments of martial insight that came once in a lifetime. It was an intuitive insight.
His mind tingled.
It was similar to the moments when he had founded other martial arts, yet different.
Beyond the corpses of Jegal Hyeon and Eon Hwa-ryeon engraved in his mind, a massive wave of enlightenment surged toward him.
An overwhelming inspiration pressed in on him, still too formless to grasp.
‘This is a turning point.’
Would he become one who judged the crimes of the heads of major factions and peerless masters, or fail to overcome the innate imbalance of essence, qi, and spirit, living only as the youngest Squad Leader who shone brightly for a brief time before dying?
A brilliant light fell over everything he had experienced, reaching all the way back to the Jeong Family Youth Technique of his childhood. It was the radiance of memories flowing through his mind.
In this life-and-death battle, he had to create a martial art unlike any before it. A Divine Technique that could serve as a killing move even against transcendent peerless masters.
‘Can I do it?’
Then.
Swish.
Twenty paces away, the Zhuge Family Head’s fingertips traced an elegant curve.
Threads like the loose strands of a celestial maiden’s ceremonial robes fluttered around him. Each was a Yin-Yang Divine Whip more powerful than Radiant River.
[Show them what you can do. Let the martial-world peers here remember how formidable you were. Through you, I will raise the banner of Wolsung. I will show the world that Desolate Fortress, too, can be destroyed like any other sect.]
“Let’s begin.”
The Zhuge Family Head talked too much. It felt as though karmic debts were spilling from that mouth.
Jeong Yeon-shin moved at once, deepening the enormous lotus of Ultimate Thunder around his body.
Rapidly amplified power raced through him with a deep hum. The instant he stepped forward, the ground exploded.
Bang!
A dim trail of light followed behind him like a comet. It was the aftermath of Ten Miles of Deep Light. Crossing the distance in an instant, Jeong Yeon-shin planted a True Step before the Zhuge Family Head.
The ground sank with another boom. Fragments of earth shot up in a pale blur.
‘Judging the Qilin.’
A violent gale erupted from force projected through his entire body.
As airborne stones scattered in every direction, the white trail of the Northern Light Sword, swung upward with the True Step, swept away the Zhuge Family Head’s black hat.
It happened just after five strands of Yin-Yang Divine Whip came crashing down like rays of light.
Crack!
A monstrous shockwave burst in all directions.
Jeong Yeon-shin swallowed a groan. The recoil running through his grip was so immense that it felt like lightning cutting through his forearm.
In his narrowed field of vision appeared the face of the one who had desecrated Clear Qilin’s corpse.
The features, fine yet sharply defined, looked startlingly like Immortal Dragon Jegal Hyeon’s.
‘It’s irritating.’
That person should not be wielding a fan. It was a weapon suited only to an elegant figure like Jegal Hyeon. That was how Jeong Yeon-shin felt, despite his short time in the martial world.
The one who had killed his son smiled.
[This is enough to mark the beginning of Desolate Fortress’s destruction. You are worthy of it.]
The voice hummed like a swarm of bees. Mantras were mixed into the sacred Six Directions Voice Transmission.
Ten strands of Yin-Yang Divine Whip overlapped above and below at once, and the air before that world-shaking net distorted faintly.
Crack, crack, crack!
Wielding the Northern Light Sword to deflect attacks in every direction, Jeong Yeon-shin broke free. He even had to use Wind Body.
He spun as though winding the surrounding wind around his body.
While evading the endlessly rushing threads of aura force, the sharp winter wind scraped harshly over his skin.
If he was trapped, it was over.
Those Yin-Yang Divine Whips were formed from the harmony of sorcery arts and martial arts at their peak.
The power and transformations contained in each of the ten strands were close to qi sword control. It was as though the Zhuge Family Head had created divine weapons and rare artifacts himself.
[That art must place a considerable burden on your body. How much longer can you maintain it, wrapped in power beyond your limits?]
The Zhuge Family Head smiled and flicked a hand again.
The Yin-Yang Divine Whips shot out along every possible trajectory.
There was no longer any trickery in the attacks. Since Jeong Yeon-shin had activated Ultimate Thunder, he could not fully focus dharma power into his sword.
The Northern Light Sword no longer shone blue.
He had sealed away the affinity advantage of the Demon-Slaying Azure Steel Sword. Yet to respond to the Zhuge Family Head’s attack speed, he had to keep Ultimate Thunder active.
The half-transparent lotus radiating from his entire body made a one-on-one battle barely possible.
The strength of Radiant River overflowing through him forcibly kept pace with the extreme speed produced by the unity of essence, qi, and spirit.
[You know nothing of the harm Desolate Fortress brings to the world. What a spectacle. A fortress that must be annihilated freely disrupts the martial world’s order while pretending to care for the common people.]
‘Ultimate Thunder will end soon. This won’t work. I’ll die.’
With every exhale and inhale, despair stained one corner of his mind as a colorless whip slashed through his earlobe.
The ground exploded with a boom, and a burn-like pain struck beside his ear. He had nearly died. Every evasion was like walking a tightrope.
It felt as though he had been caught in a sorcery formation.
That was what the Zhuge Family Head’s chain of moves was like.
His lips formed a picturesque curve as his fingers flicked through the air as though playing a zither. The sight was elegant.
Crack! Craaash!
The trajectories of the Yin-Yang Divine Whips tightening around him were not. They struck, battered, and pierced from all directions.
They penetrated every bolt-like path of the Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art and completely sealed even the movements of Sihwa Boundless Hand in his left hand.
The shockwaves bursting between them only scattered the Zhuge Family Head’s long, loose hair.
This was the very person who had derived a method to counter Seom-ye’s martial arts from Clear Qilin’s corpse.
Even the inferior fighter’s martial arts had been seen through. Wounds increased with every exchange. The long robe passed down by his maternal uncle gradually tore into strips.
The darkening patches across it testified to the bleeding. Blood scattered by the fierce wind of the Body Movement Scripture marked the ground below in spots.
The lotus surrounding his body was fading.
Ultimate Thunder was nearing its limit.
[Vast Thunder.]
A pale beam of light rose at the edge of Jeong Yeon-shin’s vision. He saw it first, and the agonizing pain followed like a shadow.
Only after feeling flesh gouged away did he realize his shoulder had been pierced.
‘I saw it...!’
Spurt!
Blood burst from all over his body amid intense pain. As a pillar of sorcery martial arts drove down, the Yin-Yang Divine Whips deeply carved into his abdomen as well.
This was the first time since becoming a martial artist that he had been driven so far into a corner.
Even as agony rushed into his head, frustration rose within him. His control of inner energy could not keep up with his senses.
If he could have moved even an inch faster, he could have avoided them all.
Whoooong!
Before he knew it, every direction within his sight had grown dim. Yin-Yang Divine Whips surrounded him completely.
The Zhuge Family Head’s trajectories truly closed in with the precision of a sorcery formation.
Now, the shockwaves colliding with the sword he swung almost defensively were growing rapidly stronger. The opponent’s mastery was so extraordinary that it made death come to mind.
The Black Uniform seniors might force their battered bodies to intervene at any moment.
Urgency gripped Jeong Yeon-shin. Overheated blood and inner energy raced to the crown of his head.
He did not want to be alone in a foreign land. Nor did he want to seek warmth from books and martial arts.
His mother had been enough.
Hummm.
Then, suddenly.
A searing heat flared, and a flower-shaped sensation bloomed in his upper dantian.
At his feet, dim concentric ripples spread as though a flower bud floated upon water. Intent overflowed in an instant.
‘Why are you the only ones who can bloom the lotus of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown?’
Was it because Heaven had not brought down the hammer of a shortened life upon them?
That was too unfair. All that cursed Heaven had given him was a limit born from imbalance and a short life.
If that really was true.
‘I’ll become even a little more equal, even if I have to step on your lotuses to climb higher.’
Fwaaaash!
The invisible ripples spreading like waves poured forward. Ten strands of Yin-Yang Divine Whip rushed toward him like rays of light.
The energy of his upper dantian, blazing white in his mind, surged violently forward.
Like a fierce wind shoving the sea, it extended and drove an invisible current into the Zhuge Family Head’s head.
Clang!
Only Jeong Yeon-shin heard the sound.
He recreated the resonance he had felt from Eon Hwa-ryeon’s dharma treasure. He made the upper dantian’s function into a great path and connected it to the Zhuge Family Head.
It was a conduit through which he could draw in the intimate framework of the sensation produced by supreme transcendence through the unity of essence, qi, and spirit.
For a brief moment, he shared the Zhuge Family Head’s state of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
It was an art that exceeded the principles set by Heaven. Why? Though it clearly defied all reason, his body rapidly grew lighter.
The body tempered by the Jeong Family Youth Technique and senses honed as sharply as a divine sword began holding the resonance in place, as though his entire body were a dharma treasure.
Then.
Had it taken him a little too long to establish an unprecedented martial art in an instant?
His vision filled with streaks of light. They were Yin-Yang Divine Whips. Behind them, he also saw the back of a girl with short hair rushing in.
“Seom-ye! Go!”
Ak Su-rim broke through the Zhuge Family Head’s attack path. Dark, stale blood ran from the corner of her mouth because of the internal injuries she had suffered from the beginning.
Her lips, blackened with blood, moved, and to Jeong Yeon-shin, the sight seemed terribly slow, as though she were saying she was sorry.
[Welcome, Desolate Divine Spear.]
The scenery around him suddenly came into focus. Every Yin-Yang Divine Whip had been sucked back into the Zhuge Family Head’s hand.
The completely ruined Gongya Family manor, the crowd watching from far away in every direction, Jin Myeong-jo staggering toward them...
And the White Crane Fan, which had once more taken shape in the Zhuge Family Head’s hand.
It looked as though he had gathered strength to unleash an irresistible strike. The epithet Desolate Divine Spear carried that much weight.
The Zhuge Family Head suddenly closed the distance in a single step and struck upward at Ak Su-rim’s neck with the fan ribs. The air trembled along the long arc, as though an earthquake had struck the sky.
Then.
Boom!
A pair of leather shoes stomped down on the White Crane Fan.
[What?]
Jeong Yeon-shin had fallen from above. Dim lights scattered through the air like stars. They were the aftermath of his lightness skill.
Both feet, driven down with Ten Miles of Deep Light, had planted squarely upon the fan in midair.
At that moment, the adhesive force of Myriad Flowers Rain flowed like a circulating typhoon.
[What is this...?]
“Seom-ye...?”
Leader of Demon Wings Jeong Yeon-shin silently looked down at the Zhuge Family Head, with Ak Su-rim behind him.
The feet standing on the fan employed Thousand-Pound Hammer.
Though a disaster-like force wave surged from the White Crane Fan, he did not fall. With lightning-fast balance, he created a strange stalemate.
Flap.
The Black Uniform long robe fluttering atop a peerless master’s fan was mysterious beyond measure.
Its shredded sections billowed like the trailing robes of a celestial maiden.
“...”
The Zhuge Family Head’s eyes now glowed green as the fan remained extended without a tremor.
Leader of Demon Wings stood upon it with both feet aligned one before the other, lofty and still.
Tension tightened the air. A single exchange seemed likely to decide both their lives. Not one word came from the distant crowd encircling the battlefield.
The Zhuge Family Head raised only his gaze to glare at the current Leader of Demon Wings.
[...You’re one who must not be allowed to live long. You will be a great obstacle to the advance on Desolate Fortress.]
As one of the Eight Great Family Heads, he sensed a terrifying quality.
If Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok had been raised as a honed divine sword, would he be like that?
“Advance?”
Jeong Yeon-shin put strength into both feet and lowered his eyelids slightly.
Even the motion of folding both hands behind his back became part of an opening stance. As Leader of Demon Wings Seom-ye parted his lips, he thought:
“You speak nonsense.”
Under equal conditions.
“This is Desolate Fortress.”
How far could the monkey follow my senses?
[Arrogant bastard!]
The Zhuge Family Head, rarely enraged, bared his teeth.
Kiyooooong!
Once again, the split ribs of the White Crane Fan surrounded themselves in colorless aura force and raised an immense aura.
‘Upper dantian resonance... Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.’
Standing on the tip of one fan rib, Jeong Yeon-shin closed his eyes. It was a recollection lasting less than an instant.
He took the familiar sensation from the opponent’s upper dantian senses and completely assimilated it into his body.
The sensation of essence, qi, and spirit becoming one that he had once felt from Fist Exemplar Eon Hwa-ryeon. The exaltation of a divine dragon wielding a fan soaring endlessly beyond the lotus.
A secret Divine Technique.
Dragon Fan Treading Flowers.
Wooooooong!
It began at the tips of Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet as he stood with his hands behind his back.
The speed at which power waves spread instantly caught up to the manifestation of the Yin-Yang Divine Whips.
A colossal colorless lotus suddenly burst into bloom like lightning atop the ribs of the White Crane Fan.
It was like hundreds of sword-strike force waves. His control of inner energy had reached a miraculous realm.
[...!]
Before the Zhuge Family Head’s long fingers could even coordinate the strands of aura force.
Projected force erupted from the Yongquan acupoints in Jeong Yeon-shin’s soles with a thunderous roar, then swelled into flower petals and devoured all ten Yin-Yang Divine Whips as though burning them away.
So they could never become a fan again.
Footnotes:
1. The title’s yeonhwa uses the Hanja meaning “softening” while echoing the homophonic word for “lotus.”
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