WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 338: Tyrant's Way (3)
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It was then.
The flutter of clothing brushed through the air.
Someone descended in a straight line, releasing the rhythmic aura unique to a lightness skill. It took only a breath to cross from the opposite hill to the clearing where Jeong Yeon-shin sat.
Tap.
White Cat, Shin So-bin, landed with a light step. The end of her long braid lifted slightly in the backdraft of her lightness skill before settling again.
It seemed she had passed the time on watch by braiding her hair.
“Squad Leader, I think it’s all right now.”
“Thank you.”
Jeong Yeon-shin smiled faintly.
Though he had said he was fine, his chief disciple had insisted on standing guard and gone up the hill. For years, she had honed what at first seemed like an impudent nature into bright, lively wit.
Even when Jeong Yeon-shin entered the forces, she had remained alone at the outskirts to watch the retreat route.
He taught her nothing but martial arts, yet Shin So-bin had grown on her own, as though proving she had been born into a distinguished family. He could entrust scouting to her at any time.
Swish.
Shin So-bin rested both hands on her knees and bent forward slightly. Mischief flashed in her eyes as she looked down at her Squad Leader.
“You really are grateful, right? You don’t think I’m being strange, do you?”
“……”
“Squad Leader, you don’t get this stuck on martial mnemonic formulas.”
“I do when I lack inspiration.”
Jeong Yeon-shin had long since discovered one of his own talents through those who slandered his character.
He could take accusations in stride and calmly offer excuses. Yet that rarely worked on the masters of Demon Wings who knew their Squad Leader well.
Shin So-bin straightened.
“They say the Ma Family and the Shin Family were bound in a lifelong marriage bond, yet never got along for generations. I think I finally understand why.”
She tossed her hair behind her shoulder and smiled sweetly. Then, with the exaggerated bearing of a high official, she clasped her hands behind her back and began looking around.
“I did live in Xiangyang for a long time, after all. When you become the Divine Sword Squad Leader someday, there’ll be times when you have to say things you don’t mean. Like when you beat Uncle Yong and have to visit the Imperial Court over the Squad Leader position, or when you need to raise the morale of subordinates who go before you in the Nine Sects martial duel pact under the Pact of Mount Hua……”
Shin So-bin had been counting off her Squad Leader’s future on her fingers like a fortune teller when she flinched.
The Seventh Apostle was awake.
She had already turned onto her side to face them.
Her dark crimson eye stood out as she looked at Jeong Yeon-shin with the setting sun behind her.
One cheek was slightly pressed against the ground, but the line of her jaw descending from the other was strikingly pale even beneath the twilight.
Her unusually smooth, porcelain-like skin attested to her clan and status.
‘A blood demon…!’
Goosebumps rose along Shin So-bin’s skin. She could not help it, even with her Squad Leader beside her.
The youngest Apostle.
The bearer of the True Blood Physique, said to be closest to succeeding the Blood Flame Sect Master.
Proud martial-world warlords had coveted the Seventh Apostle even while accepting heavy losses.
There were no decent rumors about blood demons, and Shin So-bin, who had practically grown up among the upper ranks of the martial world, feared them all the more.
The Leader of Demon Wings spoke with an unruffled expression.
“I thought you’d be awake.”
“…Grand Preceptor.”
The Seventh Apostle pushed herself upright.
Her hair flowed below her shoulders, soft as ebony.
The clotted blood scattered over her body gave off faint smoke and vanished, while the hem of her Pure Blood Robe regained its vivid scarlet color and smooth texture.
The Samadhi True Fire born from Blood Arts had been wielded with astonishing delicacy.
Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at her, then turned his gaze aside.
“You used a strange mnemonic formula……”
“Your mnemonic formula is strange? What flea said something like that?”
Her lips moved with genuine anger.
Her voice was as bewitching as when they first met, and irregular, unstable waves of aura flowed from her entire body, pushing against the dirt.
“No one.”
Jeong Yeon-shin ended the matter with a single word.
That seemed enough. The corner of the Seventh Apostle’s mouth rose slightly.
“Of course. It’s a martial art made for me. Even though there are only a few lines of the mnemonic formula left, it feels so intoxicating. You know my acupoints too well……”
“I felt your pulse.”
He looked at the Seventh Apostle again. Something about the sensation against his skin felt strange.
She looked directly at him, immediately avoided his gaze, then stole glances at him again. She did not seem clear-headed. Neither did the way she rambled.
“Where did that brat from the Namgung Family go? Weren’t we on our way to a martial duel together? Between the Namgung Family and Desolate Fortress, I mean.”
“…She’ll need time.”
Her qi deviation had not settled completely, Jeong Yeon-shin muttered to himself.
He had heard that muddled qi could rise all the way to the head and disturb one’s reason.
Before Jeong Yeon-shin met Namgung Se-jin, the Clear Qilin, he had exchanged one move and mnemonic formulas with the Seventh Apostle. Her consciousness seemed to be lingering at that moment now.
Only the Mara True Blood Art Jeong Yeon-shin had created could cure her qi deviation. He watched the Seventh Apostle for a moment, then slowly opened his mouth.
“Don’t you have a dharma treasure? A sorcery implement that makes people perceive your aura and physique differently when you cover your eyes.”
At once, her single crimson eye opened wide.
“How did you know? I thought it was strange that the Blood-Protecting Brocade Blindfold was in my possession right now. It’s a sacred treasure of the Sect Master.”
“Take it out and use it. We’re going to the main fortress.”
“With you? I……?”
There was no sign of refusal. The Seventh Apostle merely blinked as though she were dreaming, staring blankly at the now-grown Jeong Yeon-shin for a while. His image filled her ruby-like eye.
Suddenly, the young man tilted his head slightly.
“If this was before the martial duel with the Namgung Family, I should look strange to you……”
It was then.
Jeong Yeon-shin could not finish his mutter.
A thunderous roar suddenly rang out. Circular shockwaves formed one after another in the distant sky, and from within them, a white-tinged red light descended toward them like lightning.
Step.
A man in a pink long robe stepped into the center of the clearing. A powerful backdraft from Walking Upon Empty Space rose above his soft footfall.
He had reached a realm where even the recoil of the Body Movement Scripture could be transferred into empty space. Then, through the principle of Remote Object Manipulation, three boars flew in with him and sprawled across the ground.
Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok smiled at his grandson.
“You seemed to have no room to spare, so I only watched.”
“Grandfather.”
“It seems you’ll be all right now.”
He glanced at the Seventh Apostle and addressed her.
Her lips moved as if to say, “Grandfather.”
At the same time, Ma Yeon-jeok’s brows twitched sharply, but he had to turn to Jeong Yeon-shin at once. He did not have much time left.
“The time granted to this old man is not long, so today, I shall shamelessly act as your grandfather.”
* * *
Grandfather and grandson moved elsewhere.
They sat side by side on a rock atop a hill bathed in faint moonlight, looking out together at the dark ridgelines.
“Your martial arts have become immensely formidable.”
Ma Yeon-jeok spoke.
“I want to tell you beforehand what you will come to know. There is a good chance the Lord of Desolate Fortress has left his post, so I’ll feel better if I can teach you even a little.”
“What do you mean by things I will come to know?”
“There are many things you will encounter and have to resolve in the realm of Purple Uniform. There are always too few hands in the world. The Lord of Desolate Fortress’s departure is connected to that as well.”
“I do not understand.”
“Do you know Article Four of Chapter One in the main text of the Grand Compendium of Ming?”
Jeong Yeon-shin looked at his maternal grandfather’s profile for a moment, then recited the passage without asking further. He had heard those words before, even before Zhongnan Sect and Tyrant Sword Sect came to Jeong Family Manor.
“From the Heavenly Gate returned comrades with long ears and short stature, who destroyed the wicked Yuan and founded Great Ming alongside the Founding Emperor.”
“And Article Eight of Chapter One?”
“A great evil spirit pursued the comrades, but the gate was closed in time, allowing it to be annihilated.”
“Engrave it in your mind. The martial world of Purple Uniform that you will face will be closer to a den of demons. A cave where demons hide. You may even see a flood dragon with your own eyes.”
It did not sound like empty words. They vaguely revealed where his maternal grandfather had been and what he had done until now.
Jeong Yeon-shin could roughly guess how busily he had moved through the martial world of another realm.
“It sounds like I am grasping at clouds. Could you be more specific……”
“You will hear it at the main fortress. More than that, I wanted to tell you why you must improve your martial arts further. Your martial might has already become incredibly powerful, but still.”
“Will you teach me?”
“Ask whatever you are curious about. With your current senses, all manner of questions must have arisen.”
Ma Yeon-jeok spoke gently. Jeong Yeon-shin immediately opened his mouth.
“Three Flowers Gather at the Crown feels close enough to grasp, so I am now curious what kind of realm Five Qi Return to Origin is. I heard Uncle mention in passing that it was the peerless realm. The cultivation of the invincibles counted among the ten greatest under heaven must be immensely profound, must it not?”
“Five Qi Return to Origin?”
Ma Yeon-jeok burst into hearty laughter.
“There is no such realm.”
“Pardon?”
“It is only……”
Jeong Yeon-shin had no choice but to forget his manners and look up at the sky.
The feeling that the surroundings had brightened for a moment was no illusion.
Every star in his sight, scattered here and there, was growing larger. The starlight, which the moonlight had not fully concealed, was drawn down by his maternal grandfather’s gesture.
He doubted his eyes.
Slowly.
Threads of pale radiance bent and gathered toward grandfather and grandson.
The flickering was magnificent. Hundreds of comet tails that called to mind the creation of heaven and earth poured down like a dream.
Radiant streams of light were inscribed in the sky in a mandala-like spectacle.
“Can you reveal the martial arts you honed throughout your life with a single move?”
His maternal grandfather continued in a calm tone.
“That one move determines the peerless realm. It is there that the paths of Purple Uniform and Black Uniform diverge.”
“……”
“Three Flowers Gather at the Crown is, by nature, only the state needed to manifest the martial arts in your mind through your body.”
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly realized that the sight unfolding in the sky was nothing more than an illusion.
It resembled an illusion sword brought to its peak and split into dozens of blades. This was not sorcery, but a wonder created by his maternal grandfather’s martial arts.
He had twisted the light-filled air with overwhelming force.
It was the principle of world-shaking martial learning, completely beyond common sense. The rumor that the Heavenly Nemesis Sect Master, one of the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens, could cut even through the laws of nature could not have been an exaggeration.
‘This is not a martial mnemonic formula.’
He thought.
‘He has manifested his enlightenment outside his body.’
Jeong Yeon-shin recalled the Mount Hua Sect leader’s ultimate technique. It was a form that seemed to use the sunset-stained horizon as a sword.
Of all the attacks by peerless masters he had seen, it had been the most splendid and mystical, yet his maternal grandfather’s casual gesture surpassed even that.
“The Moyong Family bastard had one too.”
Ma Yeon-jeok spoke as though spitting out the words, as if even mentioning such trash displeased him.
Something immediately came to Jeong Yeon-shin’s mind. Divine Spirit-Building Flash Halberd. The single thrust that had entered through the Moyong Family Head’s sword domain.
At that time, Jeong Yeon-shin had not been able to react. He had helplessly offered up his abdomen.
“A life-saving ultimate move……”
The words slipped from his mouth without thought.
Ma Yeon-jeok smiled.
“Straightforward. Yes. When a life-saving ultimate move reaches mastery, it earns the title of peerless. That Zhuge bastard who committed filial impiety substituted it with sorcery arts, formations, dharma implements, and the like. The Moyong Family brat could use one alone.”
“Three Flowers Gather at the Crown is a stepping stone.”
“When you reach the state of Unity of essence, qi, and spirit, your intent will begin to seep into your martial learning. In time, you will pierce through every martial art you have practiced with a single move. Those fit to discuss Purple Uniform call that Five Qi Return to Origin, or Transcendent Martial Art, attaching whatever names they please.”
“Transcendent Martial Art.”
Jeong Yeon-shin repeated it calmly. It meant that every martial art had surpassed its limits.
Suddenly, Ma Yeon-jeok’s brow furrowed.
“After undergoing Rejuvenation thanks to you, this old man’s enlightenment advanced in another direction. I came to make the meaning of your absurd name my ultimate principle.”
Yeon-shin. Smoke rising from what remained after burning.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not ask for its name. He felt too embarrassed to do so.
Then Ma Yeon-jeok’s expression changed, and he smiled in satisfaction.
“You cut down the Zhuge Family Head and the Moyong Family Head without even having such a thing. You will more than make a joke of the Tyrant’s Way this old man walked after reaching Purple Uniform at thirty. Which is why.”
He took off his long robe and handed it to his grandson. The garment, like a symbol of Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok of Desolate Fortress, changed hands. It was enough to shake the world.
“I would like you to wear this. It is a garment that once made the martial world tremble.”
“…This grandson does not have the confidence to walk the same path as Grandfather. My natural disposition is not strong enough……”
Jeong Yeon-shin stared quietly at the brilliant pink robe, then returned it to his grandfather without a word.
To Ma Yeon-jeok’s eyes, it looked like an exceptional Tyrant’s Way.
Footnotes:
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