WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 314: Xuanyuan (9)
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Driven to the brink.
The Seventh Apostle had clearly cried, “Grandfather!”
Given the context of their earlier conversation, anyone would have thought of the Tyrant Hero, if only for a moment.
Even the Heart Martial Union Leader was no exception, even if it had been a lie.
“...”
His enormous shadow faltered. The absolute waves of cultivated power surrounding the Heart Martial Union Leader also came to a halt.
It was a matter that demanded he focus his consciousness outward for a moment. The absolute master lost perhaps a hundredth of the time it took to take a breath and circulate inner energy.
That was exactly what the Seventh Apostle intended. Her ruby-like eye, visible beyond her black eyepatch, flashed blood-red.
To her, that gap was enormous.
Whoooosh!
A wave flattened a circular swath of the snowfield beneath her feet. It was an aura unlike any before. Snow flurries and her jet-black hair whipped violently together.
It was no different from facing a calamity. With the Heart Martial Union Leader standing within arm’s reach, she had created an opening in a desperate crisis.
The Seventh Apostle’s upper dantian grew hot.
At the same time, her time slowed.
The cold winter air wrapped around her limbs with crushing weight. Even breathing became difficult.
She did not care.
She imagined burning away the habits of the True Blood Roaring Blood Art through visualization training.
She would completely discard the Roaring Blood Art she had learned when she first began to walk. To survive here, she needed the principles of a higher martial art, not familiar habits.
The Seventh Apostle recalled an image, a treasure now burned away and preserved only in her mind.
An anatomical diagram.
It had been so dazzling that the body had imprinted itself upon her mind as a symbol of immortality. Its skeleton, vital points, muscles, minor meridians, and everything else made it a martial masterpiece, almost a work of art.
Her extraordinary senses dipped into the blood flow of that body in her mind, carefully stroking its acupoints as though smoothing the hair of someone dear to her.
‘Grand Preceptor.’
Haa...
The Seventh Apostle’s breath clouded white. The blood gathered on her lips began to evaporate in thin strands.
Every vital point and minor meridian in her body was pushed to its limit.
Her body ached. With her innate talent for controlling her own body, she was forcibly imitating someone else from within.
It was something she had never dared attempt, considering it blasphemous.
She breathed as Jeong Yeon-shin.
She circulated qi as Jeong Yeon-shin.
The fine hairs on the back of her neck slowly rose.
It felt as though a bud of light had bloomed in her mind. Shivering goosebumps ran up her spine.
The resemblance was not even a tenth.
There was no other reason.
The sensation of the Grand Preceptor holding her filled her with such mad joy that her heart surged with unbearable excitement.
Scrape.
She pushed off the snow.
Her body, with essence, qi, and spirit united as one, could fully keep pace with thoughts shooting forward like arrows.
In an instant, she mapped out an escape route from the peerless master known as the Heart Martial Union Leader and expelled the Body Movement Scripture’s qi propulsion through the Yongquan acupoints in her soles.
She had already risen into the air.
The icy atmosphere no longer felt cold. Instead, it was fiercely hot, as though the wind itself had been warmed by her heated body.
Flutter.
The crimson sleeves on her arms billowed splendidly.
Reddish lightness-skill aura spread from the hems around her limbs and waist. It was the Graceful Body Method, a secret art of the Blood Flame Sect’s nobility.
The Seventh Apostle deliberately strained her eyes.
Hundreds of lines streaked across her vision, scraping through the air.
Even to her, she was moving at astonishing speed. It was hard to believe she had deployed a lightness skill so suddenly.
‘I can go faster... even faster.’
Breathing as Jeong Yeon-shin meant breathing through martial arts. Moving qi while thinking of Jeong Yeon-shin meant thinking through martial arts.
A red curve formed on the Seventh Apostle’s lips. It was not carelessness in the face of this situation.
She would immerse herself in the world of light where the Grand Preceptor drifted. Even if she could only dip the tips of her toes into it.
If she could soak herself, even a little, in the time he felt, if that could make her even more enraptured.
Interweaving Ashen True Blood Art.
That was the energy now racing through every acupoint in her body.
It was a divine ultimate art the young Grand Preceptor had tailored into a martial art for her alone. The Grand Preceptor had left it incomplete, but she had completed it herself.
The crown of her head trembled softly at the sense of becoming one with the Grand Preceptor.
She desperately wanted to see his sullen, beautiful face.
‘Can I shake him off?’
She thought as she felt the Heart Martial Union Leader’s heavy aura swelling in the air beneath her feet.
* * *
Two figures descended into a shadowed spot.
They stood beneath dense conifers. Though it was broad daylight, the shade was deep.
So was their conversation.
“My apologies. We could not find them.”
“They vanished without a trace? Three masters from the Great Moyong Family’s Radiant Supreme Squad simply disappeared?”
“Yes.”
“It was not even an important matter. They were only following the traces of some assassin scum.”
“Perhaps they encountered a master they could not contend with...”
“Untouchable? No such person remains in Shanxi. It has been confirmed that the Divine Sword Squad Deputy Leader, the Leader of Demon Wings, and the Blood Guard Squad Leader cannot exert their full strength for the time being. Unless they consume a Shaolin treasure, they will have trouble recovering anytime soon. They exchanged blows with the Zhuge Family Head.”
“Could Desolate Fortress have sent further support?”
“They are a force incapable of concentrating their strength in one place. Even committing three Black Uniforms would have been a tremendous overextension. Desolate Fortress is out of the question.”
“But high-ranking personnel, including the Radiant Supreme Squad Leader, have vanished. What should we do? Their trail ended near the Gongya Family...”
“...First, tell the others not to act rashly. A martial force supporting the Heart Martial Union Leader’s daughter is on the move. Our Moyong Family cannot clash with them. It would only benefit Shaolin.”
“Yes. We heard that force numbered more than a hundred.”
“There is also intelligence that more have entered. Those Heart Martial Union bastards wield their relationship with the imperial court like a sharp blade. Do not engage them under any circumstances.”
“I will relay the order.”
“What I say now is more important. Gather the family members scattered throughout Shanxi in Taiyuan. Tell them to prepare ways to conceal their identities as well. Human-skin masks, disguises, anything will do.”
“Are you speaking of war?”
“It is a Heavenly Net. Do you understand how seriously the Family Head considers this matter?”
“And what does the Family Head intend to do afterward...?”
“Crush them with force, then withdraw. The Family Head said the final mnemonic formula of the Heavenly Demon Armor should be in the Assassins’ Sect. We only need to obtain that.”
“Are the so-called Imperial Hero and Slayer Hero truly descendants of the Geum Family Assassins’ Sect that guarded the Heavenly Demon’s Tomb? It was determined that the Owol Grand Slaughter Sect’s methods differ from those of the annihilated Assassins’ Sect.”
“The Family Head remembered.”
The slightly larger superior continued.
“That fellow named Hyeon Won-chang was a boy who escaped from our main family. We brought him from the Assassins’ Sect as a captive to extract the energy of spiritual medicine from him. He endured the cruel torture remarkably well...”
* * *
A manor stood atop a high hill.
It lay within walls overlooking a small country village.
One girl and three men faced the manor’s household. A middle-aged man in yellow robes standing at the front wore an expression of disbelief.
“...I can tell from your bearing. You truly are from the main family.”
His tone was heavy.
The Slayer Hero’s quiet laughter rang out.
A black martial hat covered his head, revealing only the lower half of his face. His deeply curved lips carried an air of elegance.
“This must be disconcerting. The ghosts of a past you had forgotten for over a decade have come calling. Ah, I did not even offer my apologies for intruding.”
“Forgotten? Never. The sect’s foundation collapsed, so we simply continued living. How could we have resisted the Moyong Family and Taemo Mountain Fortress, which drove out our sect and took possession of the Heavenly Demon’s Tomb? Did even the main sect not submit to them?”
“The Branch Master is quite shameless. This unworthy Geum’s reputation is known throughout the world, yet you never sought the main family. I even left traces of assassination arts that a branch should have recognized, even if the two great sects did not.”
It was a remark anyone could recognize as mockery.
The middle-aged man’s feral features twisted faintly.
The atmosphere between them was tense. The chilly breeze that swept across the front yard was no different from the wariness they held toward one another.
Willow Family Manor.
The village landowning family had admitted four unwelcome visitors.
They had no choice. Every one of those visitors was far from ordinary.
Even the beautiful girl standing in the middle was the same. The hems of her white clothes fluttered faintly on their own.
She carried such a formidable martial presence that ordinary regional martial artists would rarely encounter its like. Her martial prowess was enough to destroy a small sect by herself.
“What am I, some kind of sweet? Keep your eyes to yourselves.”
Shin So-bin snapped the words out bluntly.
Five or six boys who had been staring blankly at her flinched and lowered their heads.
They seemed to immediately sense the noble grace ingrained in Shin So-bin’s conduct. They also understood that winning her favor would not be easy.
The manor’s women, who had been distractedly watching the two imposing men, also averted their eyes.
Even the weakest among the unwelcome visitors had that kind of presence.
“Won-chang, is this really the place? This young master expected you to have had a more privileged upbringing.”
“I told you it was a branch. Saying I was raised in comfort would be misleading as well. There was only one place in my life that truly valued me.”
“You’re only known for that great tongue of yours.”
With a faint laugh, Languid Flame Dragon leisurely surveyed the surroundings as though appraising them. Hyeon Won-chang, on the other hand, merely lowered his head slightly while stroking the sword hilt at his waist.
A page bearing a mnemonic formula kept by Willow Family Manor was the key that would soon unlock part of the seal.
To follow Jeong Yeon-shin as he advanced without end, Hyeon Won-chang had to at least not lag far behind Languid Flame Dragon.
The young men wore only thin silk long robes, as though they had lost their minds in late winter.
‘How could the half-destroyed Geum Family Assassins’ Sect produce people like these...?’
The Willow Family Manor Head felt intense bewilderment.
He did not want to shatter his family’s peace. Most of Willow Family Manor’s household seemed to feel the same way.
They were an important branch of the Geum Family Assassins’ Sect. They had concealed their identity and lived in hiding, remaining cut off from the main family since the Heavenly Demon’s Tomb Uprising.
They knew what the group from the main sect wanted.
The Gatekeepers’ Secret Arts dispersed among the branches.
By now, they had become the core of Willow Family Manor’s martial arts. They could never surrender them.
Even if the Alliance Leader of the Pure Demon Alliance, the largest group to split from the Ming Cult, came in person, they would not yield. Even if Yelü Zhen, the orthodox heir of the Xinjiang Ming Cult, demanded it, the answer would be the same.
“At first, you must have watched the Moyong Family and Taemo Mountain Fortress carefully.”
The Slayer Hero, who had been staring quietly at the Willow Family Manor Head, spoke slowly.
“You must have intended to cooperate with the main sect. At least when the few elders of the main family, now all dead, sold Seon-hwi to the Moyong Family.”
“...”
“Then time deceived you. As the years flowed on without end, you must have wanted to become independent as a branch. Is that not so?”
“The Willow clan is not made up of people without roots.”
The Willow Family Manor Head spoke.
At the same time, the Slayer Hero clapped.
“I misspoke. I carelessly judged the branch’s spirit. After Seon-hwi’s test is over, I will even bow and apologize to the Branch Master. I promise.”
“A test...”
The words slipped out like a groan.
The Slayer Hero took one casual step forward and pressed for an answer.
“There must be something prepared through the generations. Test Seon-hwi according to the Assassins’ Sect’s laws.”
Silence lingered for a moment.
The Willow Family Manor Head bit down hard on his lower lip.
“...You have brought outsiders to the sect. I cannot perform this sacred rite here.”
“Will you truly respond this way?”
The Slayer Hero’s lips had just begun to twist.
[Of course they will! A bastard carrying lowborn blood intends to unlock the cultivated power vested in the Sect Leader’s position! No matter how I think of it, this is something that must be reconsidered!]
An aged voice boomed through the air, accompanied by powerful waves of cultivated power.
Dust rose from patches of the ground. Fragments of deep inner energy scattered in every direction.
Shin So-bin sharply furrowed her brow.
The old man she had encountered in the Geum Family Assassins’ Sect was descending from above.
He had never looked kindly upon Hyeon Won-chang.
They had said he was an elder of high standing even within the Assassins’ Sect. In the outside world, he was said to pose as a renowned old scholar.
He had rebuked Hyeon Won-chang, claiming that the Slayer Hero had worked so hard to gather the shattered and scattered Assassins’ Sect, only for Hyeon Won-chang to try to seize his achievement through the single blood tie of direct lineage.
It seemed he had followed them here to interfere.
[So the rootless fighting demons of Demon Wings truly had their eyes on our main sect!]
The old man’s pitch-black long robe flapped brilliantly as he descended with a thud into the center.
Bang!
His belly hit the ground first.
The old man collapsed face-first. In that instant, the surrounding air warped and swayed.
Languid Flame Dragon had already closed in beside the Assassins’ Sect elder and driven an elbow into his back.
The shockwave that spread in that moment was terrifyingly powerful.
“What a worthless little thing...”
Languid Flame Dragon muttered with shadowed eyes.
Footnotes:
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