WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 334: Grandfather and Grandson (7)
──────
* * *
How long had it been since he entered the martial world?
‘About two years...?’
Jeong Yeon-shin could not say for certain.
To count would mean examining the life he had left. It would bring back even the things he consciously tried to suppress.
The things he wanted to do at twenty. The kind of home he hoped to build after starting a family. His body’s urge to react differently to contact with the Seventh Apostle, or to reviewing Shin So-bin’s martial arts. The strange disposition that sometimes broke through his innate humility...
They all made death more frightening, or reminded him of it anew.
A comrade from the Azure Sky Squad, with whom he had served in Sichuan as part of the Returning Wings Squad, had once told him that the acting Squad Leader’s path resembled a lightness skill cutting across the wilderness.
He also recalled the kind words of a scholar from the Chief Steward's Office. One of the Black Uniform Three Pillars would become a future Divine Sword Squad Leader, and the one after that could only be the current Leader of Demon Wings.
The scholar had said his footsteps were drawing the shape of a divine sword in a straight line, because a genius seen once in a thousand years ran as though even looking only forward was not enough.
Yeon-shin did not see it that way.
He was simply afraid to look back. He dreaded seeing how much time had passed and how he had walked through it.
What if there had been another best choice somewhere along the way? The martial world was too harsh and difficult a place.
His life-and-death duel with the Star Radiance Great Sword Lord.
It had been terrifying. Even if they fought again, he could not be certain of victory. Only people from Liaoning would likely name Moyong Jung-rak when speaking of the Ten Great Masters Under Heaven.
Yet the Star Radiance Great Sword Lord was undoubtedly a peerless master whose epithet resounded throughout the world.
A man capable of replacing an entire army by himself. Even the fact that their battle had ended in something close to mutual destruction had to be accepted as heaven-sent fortune.
The Meteor Sword lodged in his abdomen had contained dreadful sword power. The swordsmanship of a peerless swordsman transcended common sense.
The force wave released from that thrusting sword form had seeped into his body long ago.
That single sword had contained every manner of profound principle, including a brutally powerful internal heavy-hand technique. The Jeong Family Youth Technique had been little more than a means of keeping his corpse presentable.
Death.
The last thing he remembered was his vision darkening as he collapsed helplessly.
He lay beside the Moyong Family Head, whose eyes were closed. It felt as though his consciousness were sinking into a dark mire. Would it feel like this when the lifespan granted to his Baihui acupoint finally ran out?
Many faces came to mind.
His niece and second brother. The Lord of Desolate Fortress, whom he revered. The people of the main fortress, fellow disciples and comrades with whom he exchanged his life. Those he had befriended in the martial world. The Seventh Apostle, who had saved Yeon-shin and, in doing so, saved his uncle and dozens of Desolate Fortress comrades...
As he sank into the abyss, Yeon-shin thought that he needed to repay them.
At this moment, the only things he could cling to like straws were his feelings and memories of them.
As death dyed his consciousness black, Yeon-shin felt grateful. This fear was not the terror of an empty end.
‘Even you, in the end, filled my journey through the martial world...’
The spirituality dwelling within the Light Wheel of his heart drifted far away. The wheel forged from Bodhidharma’s Emanation Body lost its light.
Then crazed red eyes flashed through his mind. The eyes that had watched only him, and perhaps influenced him more than anyone besides the Lord of Desolate Fortress, came to mind before fading with his consciousness.
Yeon-shin understood kindness that went unrewarded. She, too, might eventually settle into quiet resignation. It would not be pleasant.
‘Great Hero Namgung.’
Lastly, he spoke to the Clear Qilin. He told him that he had wanted to become like him.
My arms and legs are still too short. It will be difficult. Yeon-shin smiled as he tried to turn away from his own end.
Slowly.
His consciousness sank into a muted, colorless void. Eventually, he could feel nothing at all. Just as he had always imagined his end would be.
Then, suddenly.
Thump.
Even when a wick made of qi was planted in his chest, he did not escape the abyss.
Warm energy filled the twelve regular meridians and three hundred sixty-five acupoints, then penetrated deep into his bones. Yet he remained deeply asleep.
Only the Jeong Family Youth Technique stirred on its own, answering the strange transformation within his body through its mystical power.
“Mother?”
His unconscious mind began to dream, having forgotten everything about his present circumstances.
“No, it is the Lord of Desolate Fortress.”
It felt as though someone were caressing his body through martial arts.
Soft and warm. It reminded him of the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s hand, which had always offered instruction with gentle care.
His dazed unconscious mind pushed aside the thought that it might be his maternal grandfather.
That would be far too embarrassing.
Thump. Thump.
His heart boomed like a drum.
The blood vessels and muscles within his body writhed as though boiling. The circulating current felt somewhat arrogant, as though it intended to knead his entire body into clay.
It sought to remake his body as it pleased through a flow bordering on the miraculous.
This had to be a dream.
It felt as though not only every muscle and acupoint, but even his bones, were being remade. His body had already been refined to its limit, yet the Jeong Family Youth Technique heated every part of him as it sought to exceed even great completion.
It burned white-hot like the upper dantian, though going beyond this point required creating something from nothing.
“It is possible? As expected of Your Lordship...”
It first touched the acupoints of the major circulation that divided his upper body in two.
Was it seeking its own best outcome? The current, which could not possibly follow the will in his mind, began by tightly drawing together the ligaments along his spine.
“I apologize, but I do not think that is right.”
When Yeon-shin spoke cautiously, the flow of change shifted.
It was remarkably easy.
The movement of his ligaments stopped. Talent seen once in a thousand years had brought Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging under his control.
His qi and body could not defy his will.
As always.
“The Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art and Sihwa Boundless Fist are forceful and swift martial arts. Their straight-line trajectories are good for ending a fight quickly, but it is regrettable that they make it difficult to add variation. If the muscle bundle of the finger extensor muscle were thicker and more elastic, it would be easier to incorporate changing forms. The radius in my forearm must also become stronger.”
It took shape as he wished. It moved as he demanded. In the dreamlike haze of his consciousness, that certainty came to him.
Yeon-shin enjoyed it. It felt like make-believe, something he could never have dreamed of doing at Jeong Family Manor.
Together with the Lord of Desolate Fortress, who had taken root in his mind as the incarnation of Martial Extreme, he treated the work of shaping his body in that hazy dream like building sandcastles.
He had always been good at playing alone.
“The wider the Yongquan acupoint, the better. Ten Miles of Deep Light is a lightness skill I created, but it is a fairly respectable work. It might offer Your Lordship a pleasant sight, and if you would be willing to see it, the fruit... The force wave’s propulsion is too strong? Please do not worry about that. How can someone who cannot control their own body be called a person?”
“The length of one’s arms and legs determines one’s reach. I would like my height to grow as much as possible. So that my eye level rises higher than anyone else’s, like Pangu, the giant from the Classic of Mountains and Seas... What? Why is that not possible...?”
The unconscious mind in his dream concealed nothing. Reverence became familiarity.
“Cartilage. Yes, cartilage is important... It must be as strong as diamond if possible, with inner power constantly abiding within it so it can never wear away. It is not difficult. I only need to weave threads of qi between the joint bones like this, so that the ligaments connect like heavenly silkworm silk...”
“Considering counterattacks, the greater the elasticity of the bones and muscles throughout my body, the better. I will shape them from within, along the Jueyin meridian. It is not difficult. The issue is strengthening and lengthening the bones at once, but if this is possible, it does not matter how much energy it requires.”
“...This is a body I can control as I wish. If it truly grows this strong, even Three Flowers Gather at the Crown will be easy.”
His upper and lower body were completely shaped as he wished.
The Jeong Family Youth Technique in his dream was truly astonishing. It had created a body that could ideally wield his unique martial arts.
Regardless of the depth of his martial attainment, he felt that, where his physical body was concerned, he would not fall behind any peerless master.
Yeon-shin hesitantly broached the subject.
“Taking this flow to my head would still be difficult, would it not...?”
The human skull was said to be a miniature universe containing all things. Since ancient times, it had been called unknowable and sacred, a place where the spirit resided.
The Baihui acupoint at the crown of the head was a passage connecting the upper dantian to heaven. It was directly connected to the brain.
It could not be tampered with by human means.
Acupoints contracted and expanded together with the meridians, but even the Jeong Family Youth Technique could not regulate the brain as it did the minor meridians. Not unless he wished to die immediately.
That was why it was called heaven's decree. A lifespan determined by heaven.
The same was true of Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging. Had he undergone it defenselessly, without a will controlling it from within and without, his upper dantian would have expanded just like his now-widened lower and middle dantians.
It would inevitably have harmed the Baihui acupoint.
‘It is all right.’
Yeon-shin repeated the words inwardly.
That was when he suddenly understood everything that had happened. His consciousness was astonishingly clear, so bright and lucid that he felt he might be able to invite the Lord of Desolate Fortress into the space of his visualization training, though he could not manifest her divine form.
‘I am alive.’
His heart beat more fiercely than ever.
The Light Wheel had long since regained its brilliant radiance.
Hoo.
Then he caught the faint scent of earth, together with agonizing pain that cut through his entire body.
It felt as though every pore of his skin had opened wide. He felt transparent and cold.
The late-winter air seemed clearer than ever. The incomprehensible sense of unity throughout his body was equally unfamiliar.
It was difficult to open his eyes. He could not move his hands, either.
Only the signs of people bustling around him thundered against his senses.
Yeon-shin closed his eyes for a moment and endured the backlash of Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging. It seemed he would need dozens of breaths.
* * *
The Moyong Family Head’s corpse lay on a barren hill.
The soil, which had likely once been yellow-brown, had long been stained with dark red blood.
Blood continued to seep from beneath the corpse of Moyong Jung-rak, the Star Radiance Great Sword Lord.
It was an unreal sight.
That was why those clinging to the surrounding cliffs or hiding behind rocks had remained visibly shocked for so long.
None of the assassins’ sect members who had lived while posing as influential figures in the great city of Taiyuan could pretend to be calm. Elderly scholars, great merchants, third-rate swordsmen, and renowned fist masters all wore different expressions.
The Star Radiance Great Sword Lord had lost a one-on-one life-and-death duel and died.
It was an unmistakable defeat. The breathing of the Leader of Demon Wings, who lay beside him, was calm.
To the assassins, those breaths could only sound like thunder.
“It seems the Heart Martial Union’s eldest young master missed the Heart Martial Union Leader. The martial army is heading straight here...”
An elder who had received the news late reacted fiercely, then shut their mouth again.
Those who had ruled Taiyuan from the shadows had witnessed too many strange sights today. Even the sect’s long-held wish had suddenly been fulfilled.
Not by them, but by Desolate Fortress’s treasured sword.
“...”
A strange feeling drifted through the silence.
The corpse of the supreme master who had destroyed the Heavenly Demon’s Tomb and seized the Heavenly Demon’s legacy gradually grew cold.
Everyone gathered on this peak was a martial artist who could use aura sense in place of touch.
They remained silent as they felt every trace of warmth leave the corpse of Liaodong’s First Sword, the Star Radiance Great Sword Lord.
The defeat and death of a peerless master was a sight one could hardly witness even once in a lifetime.
All the more so when that person was their sect’s enemy.
Even if the four Desolate Fortress martial artists guarding the Leader of Demon Wings had not been present, the masters of the assassins’ sect would have stood guard over Seom-ye, the Lotus Nezha.
“Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging...”
The Slayer Hero glanced at Hyeon Won-chang, then adjusted his black hat and muttered.
The unbelievable phenomenon had unfolded openly beside the corpse of a peerless master.
Everyone had witnessed the Leader of Demon Wings change. It was a wondrous and beautiful sight, as though it were drawing in people’s souls.
Time passed beneath the sunset spilling across the distant ridges, yet no one moved.
Until the youth who had slain a peerless master
opened his eyes as a young man with long arms and legs.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
