WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 346: Enemies in the Same Boat (2)
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It was an age of chaos.
Accurate information was exceedingly rare. When a dozen rumors circulated about an incident, usually only two or three held any truth.
Even the portraits of the current Leader of Demon Wings, which had spread primarily through the central regions, were no exception.
The faces depicted in them varied wildly. Considering his fame, people said there were relatively few versions.
Anyone caught privately sharing personal information about a high-ranking figure of Desolate Fortress would be severely punished by the authorities.
‘This feeling.’
Jeong Yeon-shin had examined twelve facial-feature portraits, each rendered in a different style. He could not take lightly the documents Cheong Myeong, Baek Mir-yeo, Ak Su-rim, and the Grand Chief Steward had personally handed him before his departure.
Their concern had broadened his knowledge. He had learned many detailed stories about the person he would have to face.
The figure’s appearance clearly matched several pieces of information.
“Strange. I heard you’re about three years younger than me... but you’re already fully grown.”
The figure spoke while still loosely holding the fishing rod and glancing at Jeong Yeon-shin.
The pronunciation was clear, but the voice was rough. It sounded as though an invisible rake had scraped a throat that ought to have produced a resonant voice.
The figure’s appearance was striking as well. There was an air befitting a direct descendant of the Ming Cult, which was said to have deceived Heaven for generations.
It began with the silver mask extending from the forehead to the tip of the nose, leaving only the beautiful lower half of the face exposed.
Though it bore no engraving or pattern, a faint sheen rippled across it. It suited the crooked smile that seemed habitual.
A splendid white cloak enveloped the figure’s entire body, yet the long black threads embroidered along its hem like decorations did not seem excessive.
That was likely because of the overwhelming presence radiating from the dark blue eyes behind the mask. Even the neck scarf woven from pure-white beast fur resembled the mane of some divine dragon.
“Your curses don’t sound like curses.”
The strange figure slowly moved their lips.
Whenever the figure fell silent, the chilly stillness unique to a winter stream seemed all the more pronounced between each syllable.
Whether the figure was truly fishing was beside the point. An utterly terrifying presence filled the surroundings.
“Perhaps it’s because of your uncommon features, but even ‘damn it’ sounds amusing. You must have a gentle disposition.”
“...”
Jeong Yeon-shin silently thought, I should be wary of their discernment.
Laughing Heaven Unrivaled, Yalu Jin.
A peerless talent known throughout the vast world.
This was the person who had blocked Jeong Yeon-shin’s path with astonishing intelligence.
The figure’s clothing concealed the extent of their physical training, while a luxury item that could scarcely be called a mask hid half their face. Aside from large movements and aura, it would be difficult to gauge anything about their martial arts.
Was the figure a woman or a man?
To what extent had the figure cultivated martial arts that used the physical body, aside from sorcery arts?
Nothing could be determined.
The cloak around the figure seemed almost like a dharma treasure. It fundamentally blocked aura, making it impossible to sense anything.
‘We can’t exchange many moves.’
A feeling he had never experienced before came over him, an instinct close to insight.
Jeong Yeon-shin pictured a Light Dragon with a fan in its mouth.
At any moment, he could overlay that visualization onto the Meteor Sword at his waist and launch qi sword control at his opponent’s neck. None of his martial arts struck faster than Dragon Fan Treading Flowers.
‘Still, I need to be prepared to use Ultimate Thunder instead. My head might fly off while I’m using qi sword control.’
He opened his mouth.
“Yalu Jin of the Ming Cult. Have you ever clashed with martial artists from the main fortress?”
He had barely asked in an even tone when auras rose like wildfire throughout the leafless forest, pressing down on Jeong Yeon-shin.
There were at least dozens of them.
The snow coating the branches shattered white in every direction. Every pulse of inner power was incredibly dense.
The speed at which the first person to release an aura circulated inner energy could only be explained by Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. It meant the Ming Cult’s Young Sect Master wielded a treasured sword on par with a Desolate Fortress Black Uniform.
Then.
Whoosh!
The falling fragments of snow were crushed and swept away by a massive circular shockwave.
It came from beside Jeong Yeon-shin. The Seventh Apostle, one ruby-like eye exposed with an alluring gleam, slowly looked around while keeping her back straight.
The reddish current of inner power spreading from her body seeped into the snow like flower petals.
Then words that might have come from Laughing Heaven Unrivaled’s subordinates flowed from the Seventh Apostle’s lips.
“Insolence.”
“Hah...”
The Ming Cult’s Young Sect Master let out a low exclamation.
“Your lady is quite extraordinary. If I ordered my people to launch a combined attack, the casualties would be severe.”
“Answer me.”
Jeong Yeon-shin urged him on with an indifferent expression.
Beside him, he sensed someone startle and gently straighten a sleeve, but learning his seniors’ whereabouts took priority.
“Leader of Demon Wings... You certainly have nerve. You must, to walk about in broad daylight with such a large character for Desolation on you. These days, among reasonably powerful martial artists, Desolate Fortress martial artists are considered people to rob. Sichuan has been especially bad lately.”
The Ming Cult’s Young Sect Master rose to his feet.
Laughing Heaven Unrivaled carelessly tossed aside the bamboo fishing rod, then muttered beneath his mask.
“They say fishing is about catching time, yet I haven’t caught a single fish. It really gets under my skin.”
“People to rob?”
Jeong Yeon-shin asked. The Young Sect Master glanced at him and gave a casual nod.
“You might not know yet in Huguang. Well... that’s how the times are. Desolate Fortress martial artists have ample provisions, and the martial arts in their heads are valuable, yet no retaliation follows. You are the busiest people in an age of chaos like this.”
“You tend to leave the martial artists under your command to fend for themselves, saying you need to care for the people or handle solo missions,” the Young Sect Master continued.
“To third-rate sects, you are still grim reapers. But those masters who only avoided White Uniforms and Blue Uniforms because they feared Desolate Fortress retaliation... rather than obey the law and starve in a famine, wouldn’t it be better to do whatever they can? Raid civilian homes, or kill the Desolate Fortress martial artist sent to capture them instead.”
Desolate Fortress martial artists had gone missing throughout the world.
It was not limited to the Swift Heaven Wing Squad, Heaven-Treading Forest Squad, and Immortal Wood Spirit Squad. Incidents that had never been rare were gradually becoming commonplace. Many martial artists in the lower uniform ranks did not return.
Jeong Yeon-shin had heard bits and pieces about such matters ever since joining Desolate Fortress.
At the City of Master Craftsmen in Sichuan, he had lost many Demon Wings seniors. Even after becoming Leader of Demon Wings, stories of Desolate Fortress martial artists dying far from home had never truly stopped. Such deaths had always been with them.
“People are bound to be swept along by the current of their era. Would Desolate Fortress be any different?”
Firelight flashed in the Young Sect Master’s blue-black eyes, as though he could see through Jeong Yeon-shin’s thoughts.
“The answer you seek may be nothing special. There are more peerless masters wandering the world than one can count on both hands. They might have encountered one and died somewhere.”
“Not you?”
“Well. I am one of those peerless masters... but surely you don’t believe the rumors Yeoryeong has been spreading?”
“Those bastards are experts at driving a wedge between the martial world and Desolate Fortress.”
The Young Sect Master casually interlaced his fingers, glanced at Jeong Yeon-shin, and spoke again.
“You don’t seem to believe them too strongly. As expected, martial artists have to exchange blows first. I truly hate getting hurt...”
In that instant, the silence of the snowy field seemed to gain weight. Jeong Yeon-shin felt invisible pressure weighing down on his shoulders.
None of the Ming Cult masters who had reacted fiercely to his earlier words emerged from hiding. Even with a clash imminent, they remained concealed.
There was only one explanation.
They possessed absolute faith in the word unrivaled attached to their master’s epithet, just as the masters of Demon Wings trusted Jeong Yeon-shin.
“Shall we exchange two or three moves? Your energy feels deeply unpleasant, but a master’s honest intent always shows through in his strikes.”
Black flames rippled beneath the Young Sect Master’s mask. There was no sign of a martial art being activated, nor any crackling sound.
Terrifying power emanated from the black flames winding up his thick cloak.
It was only natural. Their relationship was not one in which trust could be considered from the outset.
Jeong Yeon-shin released the method of concealing inner energy he had inherited from the Blood Guard Squad Leader. At the same time, a white lotus bloomed beneath his feet.
Record of the Dharma Light Wheel, Radiant River, Ultimate Thunder. He was going all out from the first move. It was the first time since his Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging.
This was an opponent who demanded it.
* * *
The surroundings were in ruins. Corpses filled the area amid smoke sweeping through like a typhoon.
This was where a major matter of the martial world would be decided. It was the very highest level of the martial world.
“Desolate Fortress will be destroyed.”
The voice was gentle. A man wrapped head to toe in black robes spoke, his bearded lower face moving slowly beneath the conical hat on his head.
“A Heavenly Net formed by every major faction in the world will make it so. Perhaps only the Nine Sects will be excluded.”
“Say something sensible.”
Ten paces away stood a man with the bearing of a scholar. He wore a purple scholar’s robe.
Enemies surrounded him and glared, yet none dared approach the unarmed man carelessly.
Only a young man in a blue martial uniform stood beside him as an ally, his brows drawn together.
The black-robed figure in the conical hat, the Lord of Yeoryeong, faced them from the forefront with an extraordinarily relaxed bearing.
“You should not have trusted the Eight Families. Even after suffering so much... Knowing your chivalrous heart makes this all the more regrettable, you of the Dragon family. The Divine Sword Squad members who will return as corpses from Anpyeong Mountain over there will be unable to close their eyes in peace.”
Behind the Divine Sword Squad Leader, a middle-aged swordsman with long blue sleeves blocked the route of retreat.
The force radiating from his pure-white sword filled the world like a translucent Mount Tai, permitting nothing to move. It was the Imperial Sword Art.
“Leader, please let go of the martial world now.”
Namgung First Sword of the Martial Dragon Society spoke.
They were not alone. The Divine Sword Squad Leader and Yeon So-ha of the Divine Sword Squad knew that the overwhelming arrow of the Dark Night Hall Lord was aimed at them from twenty ri away.
The Lord of Yeoryeong said, “The Heavenly Net that will defeat the Divine Sword Corps’ Seventeen Squads one by one is complete. The annihilation of your Divine Sword Squad will mark the beginning of the great plan. The Squad Leaders Desolate Fortress sent westward will be no different. Xinjiang, Qinghai, Sichuan. There are more than five of them, I hear.”
It was as though the Lord of Yeoryeong were speaking of lives already lost. As Yeoryeong’s master, the Lord possessed skill worthy of being ranked first among the martial world’s grim reapers.
The corner of the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s mouth lifted.
He had endured this sort of situation countless times. For a very long time, he had tolerated free martial artists swaggering about like thugs granted divine power.
From the moment he inherited the supreme authority of Tyrant Hero Ma Yeon-jeok, he had lived like a fortress wall silently blocking a raging storm.
“These bastards are really getting on my nerves.”
He muttered.
Swish.
The Four Treasures of the Study suddenly rose from the travel bag lying at the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s feet. By the principle of Remote Object Manipulation, a brush, an inkstick, an inkstone, and seventeen sheets of paper danced through the air on their own.
“What trick is this?”
The enemies could not move recklessly. The Divine Sword Squad Leader had not yet drawn his signature Dragon Ring Sword.
They had only managed to poison him by sheer luck, and it had not diminished his full fighting strength. They needed to buy time.
“Leader?”
Yeon So-ha, the Divine Sword Squad’s Blue Uniform martial artist, looked up at his superior. The Divine Sword Squad Leader burst into hearty laughter.
“I suppose I won’t be remembered as a chivalrous hero. Read the contents. My aura sense has dulled. If the pages at the back are unfinished, copy them exactly.”
Yeon So-ha faithfully obeyed his leader’s order. The young man stood with his back to the enemies and checked the letter.
Then his shoulders jolted once.
“Really?”
He asked.
“Really write it exactly like this? All seventeen pages? The Divine Sword Squad Leader gathered the Squad Leaders’ messenger swallows, so don’t tell me you were planning this...”
“It sounds like you’re politely asking whether I’ve lost my mind.”
“No, I mean it. Really?”
Yeon So-ha was a loyal subordinate. He took the last sheet from the hold of Remote Object Manipulation, picked up a brush, and copied it as he asked again.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader snickered.
“The stubborn old men of the Elder Council will finally vote unanimously to strip me of this uniform. But now that I have heard those bastards’ plan, what else can I do?”
“You think that would be the end of it? What about the common people?”
“...It is a sin I must bear. In this leader’s judgment, this is better than all of us being ruined and exterminated together.”
His voice was tremendously heavy.
That was all.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader did not reverse his order.
Flutter, flutter!
He simply spread his hand wide, folded the letters held aloft by Remote Object Manipulation lengthwise, and sent them soaring in every direction.
The documents tied themselves to the legs of a hawk and more than a dozen swallows occupying the sky overhead.
It was an inner-energy art that had reached the divine. Sword winds and hidden weapons launched by the surrounding enemies could not approach and were torn apart.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader had already drawn a light sword scattering rainbow radiance and unleashed monstrous sword qi.
“Go.”
Seventeen spiritual beasts of Desolate Fortress flapped their wings and scattered in every direction.
The Lord of Yeoryeong and Namgung First Sword did not stop them. Their highly developed upper dantians had told them what would happen.
The instant they tried anything against those letters, the Divine Sword Squad Leader would disregard his own body and fight to the death.
“Curious what I wrote?”
The Divine Sword Squad Leader asked. The Lord of Yeoryeong slowly nodded.
“I can guess. But can you bear the consequences? The imperial court will not overlook what you have done.”
“Did it send a chill down your spine? Martial-world bastards like you must have thought our fortress would only take whatever was done to it.”
No answer came.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader picked up the one remaining letter in the air with his fingertips. At the same time, smoke from Samadhi True Fire rose from his fingers.
The letter burned. Words that would shake the world were written in disorderly handwriting, but they gradually vanished in flames from the corners.
[Personal Dispatch to Squad Leaders. To my esteemed comrades.
I am terribly sorry to trouble you while you are busy. I know none of you have room to spare. I do not know how many people will open this letter, so with a prayer to Heaven, I will get straight to the point...
The Divine Sword Squad Leader commands this.
For now, ignore whatever harm the martial world’s thugs cause. The Divine Sword Corps of Desolate Fortress will now seek its own safety against the entire martial world. We will show them what happens when the main fortress unites as they do.
The Black Uniforms under my command are to halt every mission the moment they read these words and gather at the Ten Perfect Sect in Sichuan.
Seventeen.
Every one of them.]
Footnotes:
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