WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 361: Perfect Completeness (2)
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Ghost-Cry Tyrant King, Leader of Demon Wings, Wind Lord.
Ghost-Cry Tyrant King and Wind Lord had the Leader of Demon Wings trapped between them, while the other members of the Two Kings and Three Lords looked down from above.
“...”
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly ran one hand along the blade.
Like the Northern Light Sword that had broken before, it bore endlessly intersecting wave patterns.
They seemed to be markings created by the Tang Sect's unique forging method, known as a secret art.
‘The material is True Silver Ore.’
It was said to be a metal found only here.
It was an unusual weapon.
Roughly two and a half feet long, even its hilt was made of silver.
A soft radiance constantly flowed across its surface. Whatever martial art of the Seom-ye Martial Lineage he used, the sword felt as though it would move like one of his limbs.
It was a sword that needed no taming.
“It has been a long time since I saw qi sword control that fast. It might even be comparable to the Dark Night Hall Lord's Ten Miles One Kill.”
“The weight of years upon him is not great. For heaven to send someone like that to Desolate Fortress...”
“A Taoist will be a Taoist. You make ‘young’ sound so roundabout.”
Their voices rang out from above.
It was a conversation between the former Huangbo Family Head, Divine-Hand Radiant King, and the Dark Lord of the Kunlun Sect. Jeong Yeon-shin could also feel the sinister gaze of the Beggars’ Sect's Ghost Lord, lying atop a large boulder along the ridge.
Everything radiated invisible pressure.
Yet Jeong Yeon-shin only raised his eyelids slightly.
The person he watched was not one of the unfamiliar Two Kings and Three Lords, but an enemy of his faction, someone who had personally claimed to have killed Desolate Fortress's Swift Heaven Wing Squad Leader.
Ghost-Cry Tyrant King Peng Yeo-ran.
Haaah. Haaah.
The blood flowing from her pierced abdomen gradually slowed.
Along with invisible waves of inner power, white vapor leaked from both corners of her lips and seeped into the air.
Her abdominal artery, Spleen Shu acupoint, spine, and internal organs should have all been torn apart, yet she slowly straightened her back.
She still gripped the hilt of a saber so enormous it looked difficult to lift with one hand.
Smoke pouring from her entire body had already turned the surroundings hazy white, as though a fatal saber strike could erupt at any moment.
She was an absolute master.
‘She has activated her martial art. Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber.’
Jeong Yeon-shin saw through her condition. She had cultivated Three Flowers Gather at the Crown to an extraordinary level.
The moment she had been struck by the qi-controlled sword, she had shaped colorless qi into bones inside her back and organs within her abdomen.
The ability to give qi form created extreme vitality.
Immense qi reserves and masterful inner-energy arts.
They said truly exceptional masters did not die easily. She had indeed been the person commanding the greatest force within this vast formation.
Still, she would find it difficult to live long. Inner power could not replace human flesh and bone forever.
“What is this...? Sister Peng? Sister Peng...!”
It was a desperate cry.
Wind Lord Lee Si-myeong had been tending to the internal injury inflicted by Sword Song behind Jeong Yeon-shin when he realized Peng Yeo-ran's fatal wound a moment too late.
The former Peng Family Head, the Ghost-Cry Tyrant King of the Immortal Realm, had been wounded like this by a brat from Desolate Fortress who had come from the outside martial world...?
It made no sense.
The spectators who had fled down the mountain after witnessing the arrival of the Two Kings and Three Lords gradually stopped using their lightness skills and turned back in utter shock.
“If she is the former Peng Family Head, how old is she?”
Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly asked.
“...”
Wind Lord did not answer. He only glared at him.
He studied the sword's range and openings. He did not recklessly surrender himself to rage, as expected of the veteran martial artist known as Ghost-Cry Tyrant King's right hand.
High above them, Divine-Hand Radiant King crouched on a branch and grinned. Merely from his presence, Jeong Yeon-shin could tell that the curve of his lips resembled Languid Flame Dragon's.
“She is old enough that counting her years would be pointless.”
The former Huangbo Family Head spoke.
He was difficult to read, but Jeong Yeon-shin paid him little attention.
“Her loose tongue has brought this upon her.”
He met Peng Yeo-ran's gaze and spoke. Her eyes had narrowed as she drew long breaths to circulate her inner energy.
She seemed to have already judged that Jeong Yeon-shin could not easily attack while the Two Kings and Three Lords had gathered.
Jeong Yeon-shin continued slowly.
“You could have spent the rest of your meaningless life in comfort... Yet you mocked another Squad Leader's death before the Leader of Demon Wings.”
“You bastard!”
Lee Si-myeong's fury exploded from behind him.
Whoosh!
Jeong Yeon-shin felt a kick rushing toward his back. The force wave was fierce enough to violently split the air and press down even the hem of his clothes.
Wind Lord's Wind-Blossom Four-Wheel Kick.
It was exactly what Jeong Yeon-shin wanted. With the Two Kings and Three Lords gathered and locked in a confrontation whose outcome was impossible to predict, he had to eliminate Ghost-Cry Tyrant King and Wind Lord first, somehow.
‘Die.’
Jeong Yeon-shin twisted his waist.
Killing intent filled his left palm as it cut through the air with the turn of his body.
He intended to kill Lee Si-myeong swiftly with Radiant River. The boy with the appearance of a young man had failed to keep his composure over the death of his fellow Squad Leader.
Though he did not show it, his heart surged wildly like flames catching on dry firewood.
Then it happened.
Ghost-Cry Tyrant King Peng Yeo-ran's eyes snapped open.
She was an old master who had watched the martial world for a long time. She had seen countless martial artists lose their lives when an unexpected reaper arrived.
The sudden intrusion of an unpredictable master, a technique that failed especially badly that day, one's own inner power reacting a step too late before an enemy strike, as though delayed by a cough... She understood better than anyone how the lives of martial artists could vanish like mayflies.
Her end was today.
Peng Yeo-ran did not deny the death that had arrived without warning on an auspicious day.
Death was a martial artist's companion.
She fully embraced the irresistible end that washed over her like pleasure.
‘But I cannot go in vain.’
She had to take someone down with her. If it was a handsome youth like that brat from Desolate Fortress, he would make a fine companion to cross the Sanzu River with.
If she grew bored while crossing the river of death, perhaps she could even make him her concubine.
She aimed her great saber at the youth turning away from her.
‘How dare you.’
After exchanging several moves, Peng Yeo-ran had recognized Jeong Yeon-shin as an opponent.
The reason she had not turned her head even after hearing the Heaven-Treading Forest Squad Leader's cry was not only because the Leader of Demon Wings possessed such an entrancing face.
Wooooong!
Five layers of inner-power waves took the shape of translucent rings around the saber blade.
It was the force wave that manifested when all forty-five moves of the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber were unleashed in a single strike. It was an ultimate move Ghost-Cry Tyrant King had gained after decades of bitter training to break the Golden-Wing Sect Master's Heaven-Turning Dragon-Slaying Form.
Transcendent Martial Art. Dragon-Manifesting Heaven-Rending Cannon.
In her present condition, using it only twice would lead to death. Yet no other method would let her take the peerlessly handsome youth of Desolate Fortress with her.
The opponent Peng Yeo-ran had encountered at the end of her life was that formidable.
‘Come with me.’
Smiling with her eyes, she slowly, very slowly extended her saber. Lee Si-myeong blocked the rear. She could devote all her strength to the precision of this strike.
Though they had merely taken his front and back, it was a position that fit the phrase surrounded on all sides.
“...!”
Wind Lord Lee Si-myeong, whose kick was shooting toward Jeong Yeon-shin, raised his brows.
The Leader of Demon Wings had surely sensed Peng Yeo-ran's saber strike, yet in that impossibly brief instant, he was rotating his body even faster.
As he spun gracefully, he released a terrifying spiral gale from the palm not gripping his sword. Wind Lord Lee Si-myeong could not immediately tell who Jeong Yeon-shin was targeting.
‘Where is the point of impact...?’
The palm strike's path was too long. An attack that passed diagonally over Lee Si-myeong's instep like that could not block Wind-Blossom Four-Wheel Kick.
Unless, assuming Lee Si-myeong did not exist, he was using the rotational force to attack Peng Yeo-ran behind him.
Then...
“...!”
The Leader of Demon Wings's presence was too overwhelming for him to notice.
Lee Si-myeong belatedly looked up and was swallowed by a massive shadow.
[You shame your clan!]
An intent that rang like a roar. It was heart speech. In the state of Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, an immense reserve of qi made the heart's cry erupt like Lion's Roar.
Heaven-Treading Forest Squad Leader Xiahou Wi-jin fell toward Wind Lord at a terrifying speed.
―I would like you to examine only the Foot Taiyang Bladder meridian among all twelve regular meridians once more. Open the Dachangshu acupoint below the waist just slightly, then put strength into the rectus abdominis in front. You will see a different way to circulate qi. The minor meridians will produce movements comparable to Force Projection on their own.
In that exceedingly brief instant.
The advice of his junior flowed through Xiahou Wi-jin's mind, his broad forehead exposed.
Though he was of the elven race, Xiahou Wi-jin had been born with an unusually large physique, and the Body Movement Scripture was his weakness.
He had faithfully followed his junior's mnemonic formula and trained repeatedly until he reached this point.
‘I can make it in time.’
His large eyes turned downward.
He was within reach.
Boom!
Just before Peng Yeo-ran's saber strike caused a massive translucent quake in the surrounding air and Wind Lord's toes reached Jeong Yeon-shin's nape, Xiahou Wi-jin relaxed the gluteus maximus and pelvic muscles.
At the same time, he spread the inner energy he had shifted to the Shenshu acupoint on the right side of his waist through the meridians of his entire body as though causing an explosion.
Exactly as his junior had advised.
―If you do that, the inner power that reaches the plantar fascia will gain elasticity on its own.
He had become one of the Seom-ye Martial Lineage.
Whoooosh!
A heavy force wave filled his toes.
A pale shockwave burst from his massive body and scattered dirt in every direction. Amid it, Xiahou Wi-jin's leather boot fell like lightning and crushed Wind Lord's knee.
‘Since when...?!’
Crack!
As Lee Si-myeong's eyes shook with shock, Jeong Yeon-shin, who had not paused for even an instant, completed a full turn, pouring all that rotational force into his left hand.
‘Spinning Thread Force, Radiant River.’
He had expected Xiahou Wi-jin's assistance from the moment Peng Yeo-ran raised her saber.
He was a Black Uniform senior from the main fortress. Jeong Yeon-shin had not doubted that he would remove the nuisance.
He pressed his palm against the force wave of Peng Yeo-ran's saber strike, which had already reached him.
Five rings of qi.
They contained a violent, colorless current, like a hurricane compressed into shape.
Jeong Yeon-shin detonated Radiant River without hesitation.
Boom!
The air warped in an instant. Beyond the huge wave of dirt thrown skyward by the impact, Peng Yeo-ran's face came into view.
Her lips moved with a faint smile, as though telling him, “Take Dragon-Manifesting Heaven-Rending Cannon.”
‘There is more.’
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes narrowed.
The five rings.
The moment they touched his palm force, they dissolved and became dozens of fragments.
Then they charged in.
Each one let out a violent shriek through the air, as though it contained the soul of a tiger.
It looked remarkably similar to Myriad Flowers Rain, the divine secret art the Golden-Wing Sect Master had wanted.
Yet it was different from Jeong Yeon-shin's.
Every fragment followed a set trajectory. All of them drew different paths as they targeted the vital acupoints across his body like streaks of light.
It was immensely complex. It revealed the years Ghost-Cry Tyrant King had accumulated.
And that was truly the case.
Peng Yeo-ran waved her saber this way and that like a carefree wanderer drunk on the pleasures of life, recalling the past.
She had to. A Transcendent Martial Art was a secret move built by the passage of time. Its core lay within the past one had lived.
‘It was quite enjoyable.’
Whenever she spent a night with a man or woman she liked, drank a cup of wine, and closed her eyes, the sharp paths of the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber would roam freely through her blank mind before breaking through to the next realm.
Ghost-Cry Tyrant King had advanced one step at a time in that way until she reached this day, with her sights fixed solely on the Golden-Wing Sect Master.
Rumble!
The tremendous roar made the air ripple.
‘Forty-five.’
Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes flashed icy blue.
Information streamed to him in an instant through the Heaven-Displaying Eye Technique. His pupils moved minutely up, down, left, and right, taking in every trajectory as he calculated the force and direction behind each fragment.
It felt as though a vivid constellation had been carved into his mind.
As he swung his sword upward, he unconsciously thought, Was my reaction speed always this fast?
Swoosh!
His sword vanished, leaving behind a streak of white light.
The vibration transmitted from the blade to his toes in an instant split the ground, and the air before him cracked apart, flinging the white fragments of Dragon-Manifesting Heaven-Rending Cannon in every direction.
Five or six fragments he failed to properly deflect pierced through his flesh, spraying blood.
They tore straight through the faint sword wind he had raised with a single strike.
“The Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber is divided into five volumes of nine moves each. Forty-five saber moves in total. It would take extraordinary courage to receive that head-on...”
High atop a tree branch, Divine-Hand Radiant King had been calmly reciting the details like a gambler at a martial contest. Then he stopped.
The mountain path had become quiet.
The exchange of true moves had ended.
Peng Yeo-ran stood motionlessly three paces before Jeong Yeon-shin, who held his sword angled downward. Dozens of holes had opened across her body.
“I saw it well,” Jeong Yeon-shin said.
“Thanks to you, I have gained decades’ worth of martial understanding.”
“...”
White dandelion seeds drifted down around them.
They had risen earlier with Jeong Yeon-shin's upward sword strike.
Sunlight shattered finely over the traces of Myriad Flowers Rain.
Footnotes:
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