WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 369: Peerless Master (4)
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Martial arts involving armor were rare.
It would not be an exaggeration to say that only three martial lineages were widely known Under Heaven.
The northern demon race, the military opposing them, and Sichuan's Ten Perfect Sect.
Martial artists enjoyed the order established by the state while brazenly carrying blades without any special qualification, yet privately donning armor was an act far closer to treason than bearing a sword.
That was why the Ten Perfect Sect came to be called one of the unorthodox Thirteen Heavens.
They had made a retired Grand General, who had once commanded one side of the northern front, their sect leader. Through his connections and skill, along with isolated Sichuan's geographical advantage, they had cleverly circumvented the laws of the land.
Thus, the armor martial arts personally systematized by the peerless Ten Perfect Sect Master entered the world.
They were the Ten Perfect Sect's primary martial arts, allowing it to threaten the Tang Sect and Sichuan's two sects of the Nine Sects while standing shoulder to shoulder with the Pure Demon Alliance.
“...”
Silence followed.
The Tang Sect, Ten Perfect Sect, Qingcheng Sect, Ami Sect, and Pure Demon Alliance.
Masters praised as shining stars even in Sichuan's harsh martial world had gathered here. There was not one among them who had not cultivated an eye technique.
They all witnessed the same sight.
The Loyal Heart Piercing Heaven Art of the Ten Perfect Sect, which was famed for more than a dozen martial arts besides the eighteen skills of the eighteen martial weapons, collided with the black-robed youth and destroyed itself.
Thud.
Blood, flesh, and iron fragments that had shot high into the sky in the violent explosion splattered across the ground.
They were the grim remains of Jeong Chu-gon, the Inscribed Vermilion Radiant Star. True to his position, the Ten Perfect Sect's vanguard had been the first to die.
Amid it all, the handsome young man in a black long robe did not so much as glance at the corpse's remains. Instead, he looked indifferently at the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
A faint bluish radiance wrapped around his entire body.
It was an unbelievable sight.
Not only for the Red Cloud Dragon, who had announced the Inscribed Vermilion Radiant Star's identity earlier at the Tang Family's front gate, but also for the Ten Perfect Sect Master, who had been closely watching Jeong Yeon-shin in case anything happened to the vanguard.
“Chu-gon.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master facing Jeong Yeon-shin murmured. Sunlight flickered across the eyes of the peerless master who had fought through countless battlefields.
In Sichuan's Ten Perfect Sect, masters of the same generation as the sect leader were usually both the sect leader's subordinates and disciples.
Most of those representing the sect were old comrades as well. Jeong Chu-gon, the Inscribed Vermilion Radiant Star, had followed the Ten Perfect Sect Master since the northern front.
“...You've forged impressive inner-energy armor.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master spoke slowly.
The waves of inner power that had been violently clawing at the ground beneath his feet abruptly subsided.
At the same time, the gleam vanished from his silver armor, and an unnaturally heavy silence began to fill the surroundings.
He had completely contained that powerful aura within his body.
Jeong Yeon-shin lowered his eyelids slightly.
‘He hasn't withdrawn his qi.’
His upper dantian sensed an immense weight.
It felt as though the Ten Perfect Sect Master had abandoned the opening stance of a wide-ranging martial art suited for chaotic battle and adopted qi circulation fit for a one-on-one life-and-death duel.
It offered a glimpse of why he remained renowned as an unparalleled absolute master even after suffering essence absorption at the hands of the Blood Flame Sect Master.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master spoke expressionlessly.
“Other than the Lord of Yeoryeong, could anyone Under Heaven deceive others with that degree of martial prowess? Perhaps the gray-eared ghost from Dark Night Hall, or that lowly Fighting God of the north.”
“That's quite a few.”
“Leader of Demon Wings Jeong Yeon-shin. So you weren't spouting lies.”
“You talk too much.”
“I didn't believe your words at first. I saw your face once before, when the baby fat hadn't even left your cheeks...”
“...”
“But seeing you again now, you seem to have undergone Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging.”
Who else could have done this to Chu-gon at that age?
The Ten Perfect Sect Master continued as though speaking to himself.
“Gwang and Ju-ha also met their deaths at your hands.”
Sword Scorpion Demon Dokgo Gwang and Mangwol Light Halberd Yeo Ju-ha.
They had been supreme masters of the Ten Perfect Sect. Jeong Yeon-shin remembered them.
They were enemies who had killed countless Demon Wings martial artists until just before he created the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.
‘They died too easily.’
Jeong Yeon-shin was once again reminded of the drawback of ending battles quickly when the Ten Perfect Sect Master spoke again.
“Come to think of it, one brat from Desolate Fortress has cut off a great many of my limbs. What a joke.”
The instant he finished speaking, the Ten Perfect Sect Master's hand moved in segmented motions from top to bottom, like a moth fluttering its wings.
A precious sword had appeared in his grasp as though by magic. Not even the faintest sound of a blade being drawn could be heard.
‘That's a martial art.’
With a hand resting on the hilt of the nameless divine sword, Jeong Yeon-shin stared into the Ten Perfect Sect Master's quietly sunken eyes.
The Ten Perfect Sect's Heaven-Treading Martial Art.
He had heard of it. It was said to resemble Demon Wings' Demon's Light, a technique that turned the control of one's body into a single martial mnemonic formula.
“Come.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master spoke as he lightly tipped his blade.
He looked as though he were a senior martial artist dealing with a junior. As one of the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens, he did not acknowledge a Black Uniform of Desolate Fortress as his equal.
Whatever his true feelings, it could not be helped. To uphold the dignity of a great sect, he had to act that way.
The crowd stirred.
“The Dark King Among Flowers transformed...?”
“The sect leader said so. It must be true.”
“Then he couldn't have come alone. He must have brought others with him...”
“We need to check behind us at once.”
“There are two Lords of the Thirteen Heavens here! No matter how formidable a Black Uniform of Desolate Fortress may be, he's only bait!”
It came from the Ten Perfect Sect and Pure Demon Alliance. The eyes of those glaring at Jeong Yeon-shin gleamed with domineering inner power.
“Look at that sword!”
“Isn't that a mark of forging through the Transcendent Craft Method? The method passed down only to the direct line.”
“The gleam is strange... Is that True Silver Ore? You could barely obtain that even from a flood dragon's formation...”
“Dark King Among Flowers! You truly are our benefactor!”
“It seems the Young Master and Young Lady worked on it.”
“Stop them! We can't let them strike him from behind!”
As the short masters of the Tang Sect gripped their daggers, long needles, Flying Flutters, and other weapons more tightly in alarm, cries rang out from both sides not to let a single person escape.
Whoooosh!
The air inside the compound rippled translucently.
This was a place where masters of the Thirteen Heavens, the Eight Great Families, and the Nine Sects faced one another.
The atmosphere undulated with the inner-power waves of martial artists who had cultivated different mental arts. Then, just as the killing intent of the battlefield was about to erupt once more, an aged laugh echoed heavily.
A rumbling laugh.
The overwhelming inner power carried in that voice crushed every aura in the area.
It was demonic qi.
[The child's antics are rather cute. Go on, play together.]
Whoosh!
The dirt that had risen into the air suddenly spread heavily downward.
As the walls surrounding the manor shook precariously, fragments of stone rolling across the ground burrowed into the earth on their own.
Those who had been shouting raised their faces with drastically changed expressions. Some even muttered as though groaning.
“Pure Demon Alliance Leader...!”
Another peerless master.
An elderly woman with a long white beard streaming as though she were an immortal.
What was more, she was an absolute master of the demonic path that had split from the Ming Cult's martial lineage. No one knew when she might change her mind and strike from behind.
If the Ten Perfect Sect Master and the Pure Demon Alliance Leader launched a combined attack, even Jeong Yeon-shin would have no choice but to prepare for death.
Without turning his head, he sensed the elder floating far away in the air.
From the beginning, he had paid more attention to that side than to the Ten Perfect Sect Master. A youth clung to the cliff at the far end of the manor like a spider, helplessly toyed with by the Pure Demon Alliance Leader.
‘A White Uniform martial artist from the main fortress.’
He remembered crossing paths with the youth at the Qizhou Branch in Sichuan, around the time he had given his maternal grandfather the secret manual of the Jeong Family Youth Technique. He could not leave the youth like that.
“You're taking a long time to size me up. I heard your martial lineage became famous for keeping its exchanges short.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master met his eyes and murmured with apparent disappointment.
Jeong Yeon-shin turned the Light Wheel dwelling in his heart once.
At the same time, the image of a sword formed in his mind.
It was sharper than ever after achieving Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging and Three Flowers Gather at the Crown.
‘One move will be enough.’
Keeping the same impassive expression, he aimed the sword in his heart at the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
“Hmm?”
In that instant, a pure white sword strike surged like a wave from the Ten Perfect Sect Master's grasp.
Extreme reaction speed.
The moment he judged that an attack had been launched, his body moved on its own.
A harsh sound like bundles of paper being violently torn rang out as his sword technique ripped through the air where he stood.
That was what Jeong Yeon-shin had aimed for.
He had mastered Demon's Light, a technique similar to the Ten Perfect Sect Master's Heaven-Treading Martial Art, to its utmost level.
‘Dragon Fan.’
In an instant, he erased the sword in his heart, raised a fan, and overlaid it upon the sword at his waist.
At the same time, a blinding ray of light erupted from the scabbard with a tremendous roar and pierced straight through the air.
Dragon Fan Treading Flowers, sword-control techniques.
Clang!
A circular shockwave burst through the air, drawing one enormous ripple.
The haze born from the aura of the masters in the area was forced in every direction at once, while a tidal vibration swept in and rumbled across the ground.
Through that gap, the Pure Demon Alliance Leader descended swiftly.
It was almost a fall. Even Walking Upon Empty Space could not withstand the recoil.
The Pure Demon Alliance Leader's wrinkled face bore undisguised surprise. Her usual expression, that of an absolute master of the demonic path who treated everything as entertainment, had vanished as she watched Jeong Yeon-shin.
Tap.
“So you truly are Tyrant Hero's bloodline.”
The elder who had landed on the ground furrowed her brow.
And so, a scene that made the hundred-odd people gathered in the compound hold their breath came to pass.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master, the Pure Demon Alliance Leader, and Sichuan's Dark King Among Flowers.
If one asked a hundred people of the martial world, ninety-nine would say that the Dark King Among Flowers was bound for a miserable defeat and death.
It was also a burden for Jeong Yeon-shin. If he began exchanging blows with them, he would inevitably be unable to protect the Tang siblings' carriage.
That was why he revealed the extent of his martial arts.
They all treasured their own lives above all else. He intended for them to understand that they would gain nothing by exchanging blows with him in this situation.
Even the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens were fundamentally martial artists of the Demonic Sect. Had they not pursued their own prosperity, they would never have become Lords of the Thirteen Heavens.
The Pure Demon Alliance Leader bared yellow teeth.
“Desolate Fortress has raised a monster. My disciple should've killed that child long ago.”
“No. That bastard grew up on his own. I heard it from the Lord of Yeoryeong.”
It was the Ten Perfect Sect Master's reply. The Pure Demon Alliance Leader casually shook her head as though it made no difference.
“It is quite the sight, a child of that age facing this old one. This has become quite troublesome.”
The Tang Sect they had infiltrated was a family with an extremely long history.
Great and prestigious sects naturally held mysteries accumulated over countless years.
From the Tang Sect's entrance to its inner compound, there were the Nine Poison Formation, the Silent Dragon Seeking Dread Formation, the Ghost King Spirit, and the Heavenly Thunder Torrential Rain Formation, made from every kind of poison, dharma treasure, and hidden weapon.
They were the Sichuan Tang Clan's final defensive formations, not easily faced even by peerless masters.
The mechanism formations of the family known as the best Under Heaven in poison arts, medicine, and smithing were unparalleled.
That was why the Ten Perfect Sect Master and the Pure Demon Alliance Leader could not easily strike at Jeong Yeon-shin.
They were not in perfect condition.
There was no need to consider such things when facing an inferior opponent.
But this was different.
At some point, the two peerless masters had abandoned their arrogant air of treating all things Under Heaven like insignificant creatures.
“What will you do?”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master asked, sheathing the sword he had swung on his own.
It was as though he had never been angered by his subordinate's death. The conduct of a peerless master of the Demonic Sect was astonishing in its Unhindered Adaptability.
The Pure Demon Alliance Leader glanced at that behavior, laughed heartily, then gestured toward Jeong Yeon-shin with her chin.
“Child, no matter how skilled you are, you cannot handle two of us. You don't think we'd politely take turns exchanging blows with you, do you?”
“Despicable.”
Jeong Yeon-shin replied calmly and spread both hands slightly downward.
Before anyone knew it, the Tang siblings' divine sword floated behind his back, shining with keen sword light.
Though he emitted no particular aura, an overwhelming presence flowed from his entire body.
The transcendence unique to a peerless master.
He slowly opened his lips.
“You may attack together.”
“...”
The crowd was left speechless.
Footnotes:
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