WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 352: Breakneck Rush
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Pale white light streamed out in strands along the edge of the formation as it rotated in a vast circle.
It was aura with physical substance, capable of blocking outside interference.
The swallow circling overhead could not bring itself to land.
The sorcery formation's function was impossible to gauge, and extremely dangerous beings surrounded its master on the ground.
Pii.
The winged spiritual beast blinked its tiny black eyes as it looked down at its master.
It had finally located the energy it had not sensed for so long and flown here, only to find that its naturally hot-tempered master had once again involved himself in something it could not approach easily.
The mystical swallow of Desolate Fortress sensed it instinctively.
If it carelessly approached the formation, it might never be able to deliver the piece of wood tied to its leg.
Its small eyes darted repeatedly between its master, its master's shadow, the Golden-Wing Sect Master and Ten Perfect Sect Master standing nearby, and the untouchable being racing toward them from afar at tremendous speed.
“Net.”
At that moment, the Golden-Wing Sect Master spoke.
The small, pale face of the Beauty of Sichuan, who had stood with her eyes closed amid the sorcery formation's faint white light, took on the transcendent air unique to an absolute master the moment she opened her eyes and looked at Jeong Yeon-shin.
Sunlight poured over her sharply sculpted features, blending with the formation's glow to create a dreamlike impression.
“Before you meet the flood dragon, you should reflect on your Full Heaven Flower Rain.”
Net.
That was what the Golden-Wing Sect Master called Jeong Yeon-shin.
It was neither an affectionate expression nor an exaggerated title. She truly had no interest in Jeong Yeon-shin's real identity or background.
She treated him as an inanimate object, something incapable of serving any purpose on its own.
“Now?”
Jeong Yeon-shin asked curtly. He had heard nothing from the Golden-Wing Sect Master during the three days they had shared meals.
A faint color entered her light brown eyes as she lowered her lashes slightly. She resembled an ascetic contemplating an awakening.
“Timing is not important. A great awakening is like thunder on a clear day.”
“Explain.”
Jeong Yeon-shin pressed her in an even tone, already having some idea what she meant.
‘Did she see through it?’
The one flaw he possessed in martial arts.
“Insolent brat. I've reminded him repeatedly, yet this pup still speaks and behaves...”
“Remain still, Right Protector.”
Right Protector Wanyang, who occupied one axis of the sorcery formation, regarded Jeong Yeon-shin with displeasure. Yet aside from a martial artist who appeared to be Wanyang's confidant, no one from the Golden-Wing Sect paid him any mind.
Jeong Yeon-shin remained faithful to his assumed identity as a talent who had mastered Full Heaven Flower Rain after the Tang Family Head.
A collateral member of the Tang Sect, which the Golden-Wing Sect had nearly destroyed. A key figure in hunting the flood dragon. A man of extraordinary talent. He had to cast aside the courtesy and propriety ingrained in him. It was not easy.
Even when Jeong Yeon-shin acted somewhat disrespectfully, the Golden-Wing Sect members accepted it without comment.
Instead, the Ten Perfect Sect experts, carrying all manner of weapons, watched Wanyang, famed as the Molten-Spirit Divine Fist, with caution.
From their murmurs, Yeo Ju-ha, the Mangwol Light Halberd and former leader of their martial force, appeared to have once suffered a crushing defeat at Wanyang's hands.
“Full Heaven Flower Rain. I saw it many times before it was lost.”
The Golden-Wing Sect Master elegantly fluttered her silk sleeve within the formation.
“Yours is no more than technique. You precisely manipulate the Absorption Formula and the mnemonic formulas for dispersal, imitating the Full Heaven Flower Rain described in stories. It is like imitating qi sword control through powerful Remote Object Manipulation.”
“So?”
“You wield that art too easily. You have not poured your heart and soul into your martial arts. You will not be able to hold the flood dragon for long.”
“My heart and soul?”
“Full Heaven Flower Rain is a form in which a Tang Sect master unfolds all the poison arts and hidden-weapon arts cultivated over a lifetime at once, like the Milky Way. It is a martial art forged over a lifetime. A talent who accomplishes everything easily would find that difficult to understand.”
Her usual dry, unguarded voice grated on Jeong Yeon-shin's nerves.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master seemed to ask with her eyes, Have you ever poured your heart and soul into martial arts?
Golden-Winged Roc.
She had named her sect after the legendary bird that devoured dragons. The strongest martial artist in Sichuan had seen completely through part of Jeong Yeon-shin's nature, despite the aura and identity he concealed.
If his essence, qi, and spirit had not been close to unity, she might have even seen through his lifespan.
The young man slowly parted his lips.
“...Isn't that meaningless talk when the great undertaking is right before us?”
“Sometimes, there are beings who cross in an instant the years they ought to have walked through. Like that child of the Ming Cult.”
It was advice bordering on whim, resting on an insignificant possibility. She turned her head toward the sorcery formation again.
“...”
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly recalled the rumor that the Golden-Wing Sect Master might be older than the Ming Dynasty itself.
They said that even as the great factions that formed the Nine Sects, Eight Families, and Thirteen Heavens changed with time, the Dragon-Slaying Alliance, predecessor of the Golden-Wing Sect, had never failed to be a great sect, just like Shaolin and Wudang.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master must have seen many Tang Family Heads who led the Tang Sect.
And the Full Heaven Flower Rain they displayed.
“Why did you not cooperate with the Tang Family ancestors who mastered the orthodox Full Heaven Flower Rain?”
Jeong Yeon-shin asked.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master, whose light brown eyes were now fixed entirely on the formation, answered with her lips alone.
“I did. Once.”
“Once?”
“The other times, the timing was not right. That flood dragon's formation never stays still.”
“Why proceed with this when you were dissatisfied with my Full Heaven Flower Rain?”
“Because I have grown stronger than I was then. You only need to hold it down from time to time.”
“...”
“Do not approach the flood dragon. Your body... bears no trace of a Protective Qi Technique worth using. Its snort will tear you apart.”
She meant that he should perform his martial arts from as far away as possible. It was the same provocation he had once received from the Ming Cult's Young Sect Master.
‘That one and this one.’
Did they think they could act however they wanted just because they were older?
It was unfamiliar advice to Jeong Yeon-shin, who had mainly trained close-range martial arts such as hand-to-hand combat and swordsmanship.
An unfamiliar heat quietly rose in his chest. Then the Ten Perfect Sect Master, who had been standing with his arms crossed, approached with a hearty laugh.
“Successor of Full Heaven Flower Rain!”
“Ten Perfect Sect Master.”
“You are younger than I expected. The world is in such turmoil that even the Tang Family has produced a hidden dragon.”
“Younger?”
“They say Laughing Heaven Unrivaled, the Dark King Among Flowers, the blood demon Seventh Apostle, and two pups from the orthodox sects have begun to be called the Hwanmyeong Five Absolutes. Yet now that I see you, should it not be the Six Absolutes? At the very least, that Peng Family Human Monkey brat must be inferior to you.”
A peerless master from the military, proficient in all eighteen weapons.
The preconception that he would always be taciturn shattered. He even looked simple and honest as he counted on his fingers.
Unlike his first impression, he seemed to enjoy talking.
He did not care for Jeong Yeon-shin's response and continued as though it were obvious.
“But it is not yet your era.”
“They say the breath of a long-bodied flood dragon can destroy even a nation. It may be one of the evil demons that drove the clans who descended after opening the heavens from their homeland. This is no time for a pup to involve himself actively.”
His figure looked enormously large in the pure white armor he wore like ceremonial dress.
He was nearly as tall as Jeong Yeon-shin, yet from up close, his overwhelming presence felt like a living fortress.
The missing Xiahou Wi-jin, Squad Leader of the Heaven-Treading Forest Squad, would likely be larger still.
Yet the Ten Perfect Sect Master was wrapped in the transcendence unique to a peerless master, something Xiahou Wi-jin did not possess. He exuded an overwhelming air that made anything seem possible.
“Be content with helping from the rear. Even so, your name will remain in the history of the martial world, and beyond that, the world itself.”
His archaic speech and manner suited him perfectly, like a great general of the military. It was not because of martial arts that had reached the peerless realm. It was simply his nature.
Though the aftereffects of the injury inflicted by the Blood Flame Sect Master were said to be severe, a keen light shone in the eyes with which he studied Jeong Yeon-shin.
“The world itself...?”
Jeong Yeon-shin repeated as though to himself. The Ten Perfect Sect Master slowly nodded, his arms still crossed.
“The Golden-Wing Sect has held an event unlike any before. It opened its great gates beneath its signboard and received guests, so the entire martial world must be in an uproar. I heard even that pup from the Beggars’ Sect came. That says it all.”
The Successor Beggar had been knocked unconscious by a direct hit from Full Heaven Flower Rain. Jeong Yeon-shin did not bother recalling the man's face and silently watched the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
“You do not know, pup, how the achievement of slaying a flood dragon will be received by the imperial court and the many mystical clans.”
“Quiet.”
The Golden-Wing Sect Master stopped the Ten Perfect Sect Master with a small gesture.
The surroundings were bright.
White light flowed endlessly from the formation in threadlike strands, steadily growing denser.
The flow of sorcery arts appeared to have reached its peak. As Jeong Yeon-shin swept through all the aura flowing from the formation with his consciousness, he sensed the signs of sorcery manifesting.
The great undertaking the Golden-Wing Sect had prepared for centuries since the dynasty's founding was about to come to fruition.
“No one knows where we will land. If you die, accept it as heaven's will.”
Rustle.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master's reddish-gold sleeves brushed the sides of her waist as they fell.
The Golden-Wing Sect and Ten Perfect Sect members standing on the formation adjusted their grips on their weapons with metallic clatters.
Some masters also wrapped their bodies in colorless Protective Qi Techniques as energy hummed around them.
Elite masters from two great sects of the Thirteen Heavens, their expressions alight with excitement as they steeled themselves for battle. It was a sight difficult to find anywhere outside Desolate Fortress.
“Do not take it too hard, Molten-Spirit Divine Fist. You are the charge commander who must take the vanguard. You bear many lives.”
“The Ten Perfect Sect Master does this one honor.”
Wooooong!
The light enveloping the surroundings rapidly deepened. A resonance like a dragon's cry filled the clearing, and it did not seem like a wonder of the human world.
“It is starting! It has begun!”
“Are they really leaving for the Immortal Realm where the flood dragon lives?”
“How can people ascend as immortals through human effort...?! Not one or two people, either!”
Hundreds of people.
Those who had hidden their presence along the Golden-Wing Sect's massive walls began revealing themselves one by one.
Martial artists from outside, unrelated to the two great sects gathered here. They stood far enough away that they could not possibly affect the formation's activation.
Most had simply heard the rumors, come to witness it, and were stunned. Some immediately turned and released carrier pigeons or scattered with lightness skills.
Just as the Ten Perfect Sect Master had said, the eyes of the entire martial world would turn here.
“So you are saying two Lords of the Thirteen Heavens are gathered in one place?”
“Is that all? It looks as though they mean to empty the sect entirely. Even the Golden-Wing Sect's two great Protectors are here!”
“Mad... They really mean to do it.”
Soon.
Something would happen.
By then, Jeong Yeon-shin had finished interpreting the sorcery formation.
In his mind, senses meshed together with the precision of a mechanism formation, completely grasping the formation's functions and consciously selecting only what he needed.
The Light Wheel in his heart rotated.
‘Heart Sword.’
Invisible strands of inner energy stretched from Jeong Yeon-shin's entire body.
Dozens of streams of aura. He entwined them, strand by strand, with the flow of inner power composing the sorcery formation, silently taking control of the sorcery arts from the Golden-Wing Sect Master.
‘The Tang siblings have already been drawn in as offerings to the formation. It is impossible to separate them.’
His thoughts converged into a single line like a ray of light.
Bring the Tang siblings to his side, and exclude both Lords of the Thirteen Heavens without fail.
Jeong Yeon-shin's will immediately became intent that governed martial arts and flowed into the sorcery formation. In that instant, ancient writing carved into the ground in a circle shook violently.
“...?”
The Golden-Wing Sect Master, whose lashes had been neatly lowered, suddenly opened her eyes. She immediately noticed the anomaly.
She could not fail to notice.
The calculations that had formed the sorcery formation's central components were being forcefully scattered and changed into a different sorcery formula.
Yet Jeong Yeon-shin had acted on the assumption that the attacks of peerless masters would come the instant they perceived it.
Wooooong!
The formation had already activated.
Dozens of threadlike strands made of light stretched from the circular border and rippled in every direction. The chill late-winter wind brushing the air gradually faded, until every trace of presence was gone.
Everything blurred.
“You...!”
The Golden-Wing Sect Master glared at Jeong Yeon-shin, her short cry carrying emotion for the first time.
* * *
An instant passed. It was truly brief.
But the scenery surrounding Jeong Yeon-shin was no longer the same.
It had changed completely.
Ancient trees rose endlessly high, the scent of grass hung thick in the air, and dozens of dwarves, ordinarily an exceedingly rare sight in the world, stood around them in strange clothing and murmured among themselves.
It was a miracle. Would such a thing ever happen again in the world?
At this moment, only the Tang siblings and Right Protector Wanyang beside Jeong Yeon-shin remained as they had been before.
They could not hide their stunned expressions. More precisely, only the Poison Dragon and Poison Phoenix siblings were stunned. Alongside his confusion, Wanyang seemed to feel a strange exhilaration.
Wooooong.
“This power... Yes, we came to the right place...!”
Colorless aura faintly surrounded his entire body.
It was tremendously powerful, enough to make the air around him ripple.
His inner energy was incomparably stronger than before, as though it had returned to its homeland.
Wanyang smiled.
“Even the Sect Master makes mistakes. I should interrogate those lowly wretches and seek an audience with her.”
The unfamiliar dwarves surrounding them flinched.
“Hey.”
Wanyang turned his head slightly toward Jeong Yeon-shin, his bearing proud despite having been pushed back by Jeong Yeon-shin once during the chaos of Full Heaven Flower Rain.
“Do not dare defy me. I will punish you severely.”
It was an order.
Jeong Yeon-shin could guess the reason.
Even he, withdrawn into his inner self at this moment, felt a strange elation.
‘The flood dragon's formation? What is this place...?’
The core of his inner power. The ring of light dwelling in his heart.
Outside the Light Wheel that had always been there, another wheel made of radiance appeared briefly, then vanished.
Leaving behind a resonance that made his entire body tremble.
An unimaginable possibility.
A second ring.
Footnotes:
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