WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 370: Peerless Master (5)
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The Pure Demon Alliance Leader and the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
Two beings regarded as natural disasters had been stopped by a single person.
A swordsman in a black robe embroidered with the character for Desolation on both shoulders. A youth who had barged in while pulling a cart had spoken brazenly before Sichuan's absolute masters, yet the two who heard his outrageous words remained utterly calm.
As though they stood in a position that required them to keep minds as clear and still as a mirror.
A strike that had lost its precision would not work against any peerless master.
Their minds could not waver. That was why the Pure Demon Alliance Leader and the Ten Perfect Sect Master silently watched Jeong Yeon-shin. They were searching for openings.
“…….”
A chilling silence settled over the scene.
Stone chips rolled across the ground in the wind, which swept past with a dry rasp.
Every major faction in Sichuan was involved.
Enormous interests were at stake, along with the immense influence the outcome would have on the martial world and the livelihoods of Sichuan's people.
Every merchant guild and sect had no choice but to await today's result with bated breath.
Neither side could easily back down.
The more than one hundred people surrounding them no longer released their aura.
They simply kept a suitable distance apart and watched the three figures face off. Only members of the Tang Sect occasionally whispered as they looked at Jeong Yeon-shin.
Their dark green-gloved fingers were slightly curled, ready to throw hidden weapons at any moment.
“Could he truly be the benefactor from back then? He’s grown so much……”
“They say he achieved Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging. Though that came from the Ten Perfect Sect Master.”
“He looks truly magnificent.”
The Tang family.
Sichuan's foremost great martial-noble family could breathe again.
They were remarkably bold. Some even eased the tension by joking that they should send matchmakers to Desolate Fortress. One woman casually said they should send her instead of the Poison Phoenix.
“Wouldn't that work?”
“Stop it. Not a chance. If it isn't the Young Lady, the match won't be worthy. She would need enough talent to contend for Sichuan's finest……”
“But where are those two? Why is only our benefactor here……?”
“We can ask later. This isn't over yet.”
The Tang Sect masters spread their aura in every direction and remained vigilant, yet they could not take their eyes off Jeong Yeon-shin.
With a divine sword floating behind his back, he shielded the cart and even the Tang Sect's inner compound from the absolute masters.
It was the presence of a man capable of facing a thousand alone.
His features, touched by dreamlike sunlight, were more mysterious than those of any member of the elven race. His hair, flowing down to his waist, rippled gently in the breeze.
His long robe, blackened in places as though he had come through a blaze, did nothing to diminish him.
Today, in this place.
Everyone was witnessing a new peerless master who had emerged in the martial world. No martial artist could look away.
The same held true for the Ten Perfect Sect masters armed with all manner of weapons and the bizarre-looking demonic martial artists of the Pure Demon Alliance.
Only after several breaths did the Pure Demon Alliance Leader's wrinkled lips move.
“Jang.”
“Speak.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master answered.
Though he replied to the Pure Demon Alliance Leader, he did not take his eyes off Jeong Yeon-shin. She did not seem to mind.
“Before that child displayed qi sword control, I saw you strike at empty air.”
“…….”
“Why?”
“It was a feint.”
“A feint?”
“It differed slightly from Harming others with intent, but my aura sense clearly detected an attacking move.”
“So you moved?”
“That is right. But I will not fall for it twice.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master smiled faintly.
It was a tense smile, yet it also carried the depth unique to a peerless master.
‘He isn't bluffing.’
The upper dantian heated by Dragon Fan Treading Flowers whispered as much to Jeong Yeon-shin.
Myriad Weapons Heavenly Lord.
It was another epithet of the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
In places far from government offices, he was also called the Myriad Weapons Emperor.
True to someone who wielded every kind of weapon at a master's level, he seemed to have devised a countermeasure on the spot against the technique that had struck him so hard. A lord of the Thirteen Heavens truly stood apart.
Jeong Yeon-shin assessed the spacing between the Ten Perfect Sect Master and the Pure Demon Alliance Leader before him.
‘It won't be easy.’
The Ten Perfect Sect Master stood slightly farther forward.
They were not truly side by side.
Earlier, the old woman, the Pure Demon Alliance Leader, had failed to properly receive Jeong Yeon-shin's qi sword control imbued with Light Wheel qi. She appeared to have no intention of facing him head-on again.
A peerless master's movements came from instincts refined to the utmost precision.
Judging from their spacing, if a battle broke out, the elder would likely seek an opening from behind the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
With the strange martial arts unique to the Ming Cult.
The pressure was palpable.
What kind of Transcendent Martial Arts did those two possess? What ultimate techniques had been created by those who ruled vast sects rather than a single family……?
Jeong Yeon-shin was conscious of the cart behind him. It could not withstand the aftermath of a battle.
They had only just come home.
Then it happened.
The Pure Demon Alliance Leader, who had been watching Jeong Yeon-shin with a furrowed brow, suddenly let out a low groan.
“That bastard is cultivating a Heart Sword. Nothing else comes to mind.”
“A Heart Sword, you say?”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master, who had been touching one of his vambraces, paused.
“That is not all. I sensed spirituality in several of his martial arts as well……”
The Pure Demon Alliance Leader muttered, her voice low and sinister.
“At this rate, there will be more disaster than fortune.”
The corners of the Ten Perfect Sect Master's lips rose.
“Then we should return.”
“Are you serious?”
“Do you still see that friend as Black Uniform? I see something else.”
“Hmm.”
“Are we in perfect condition? How many of the Tang Family's supreme formations did we destroy? Besides, a flying needle is lodged in my Huiyin acupoint, and it has been bothering me terribly.”
His deep voice carried a playful note.
It was the easy manner of a peerless martial artist who had seen every ugly sight a battlefield had to offer. After glancing at Jeong Yeon-shin, the Ten Perfect Sect Master drove the point home.
“I have no desire to risk my life unnecessarily.”
“How frivolous for the master of a sect.”
“It is a decision I must make because I am a sect master. What will become of a sect whose pillars have all been broken if it loses its master as well?”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master frowned as he answered. At the same time, he thought, What a troublesome old woman. I ought not be giving her excuses.
“There is some truth to your words.”
The elderly Pure Demon Alliance Leader made a show of turning away brusquely. The hem of her long robe, embroidered with intricate golden patterns, fluttered with the movement.
“We return to the Alliance.”
The instant the Pure Demon Alliance Leader's brief command fell, the demonic martial artists stationed around the area flashed sinister looks and shot into the air all at once.
Their obedience was terrifying. The sound of rough robes fluttering rose from every direction.
A slow voice drifted from the Pure Demon Alliance Leader's retreating back.
“You are fortunate. Had you faced enemies who cared for their pride, this would not have ended so easily.”
The elder added at once.
“That cart would not have remained standing intact, either.”
“You chose your timing very well.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master nodded slightly.
“You have martial arts, backing, and luck. You are worthy of being called a man of Three Excellences.”
He was speaking to the Leader of Demon Wings.
Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly. It was his first time seeing members of the Demonic Sect be so generous with praise.
“Your swordplay was exceptional in its own right.”
“…….”
Step.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master seemed to know how to accept praise modestly.
At Jeong Yeon-shin's words, he immediately fell silent and turned away. The Ten Perfect Sect disciples, whose appearance resembled soldiers more than martial artists, followed their sect master amid the clanking of metal.
A single intruder had saved them from the calamity of their sect's destruction.
Who would believe it?
“Ah…….”
Someone let out a groan, a breath filled with anger, regret, and renewed shock. It gradually spread through the Tang Sect's martial nobility, one person at a time.
Regardless of their determination to face death, they had to let their enemies leave as members of a family responsible for protecting their kin.
Even if they fought again, the battle had to take place outside the family grounds.
“Benefactor!”
“Our gratitude is beyond measure!”
“Quickly, please come this way……!”
Their eyes painfully swept over their blood relatives lying dead on the ground before turning to Jeong Yeon-shin.
They did not even look at the cart, considering it their benefactor's possession.
Jeong Yeon-shin could not meet their eyes. He only lowered his gaze slightly.
Sring.
The divine sword floating in the air returned to its scabbard on its own.
* * *
The Family Head’s Hall of the Sichuan Tang Clan.
The faint fragrance came from medicinal decoctions.
Though the chamber of blackened iron seemed to be surrounded on all six sides by mechanism formations, it was warmer than it looked.
“They say that what a genius under heaven commands at will is not a sword, but time itself.”
That was the Tang Family Head's first remark upon reuniting with Jeong Yeon-shin. The bearded, middle-aged Family Head smiled at the sight of the young man, now fully grown.
Just as he had when he and Jeong Yeon-shin clasped hands and shared the mnemonic formula for Myriad Flowers Rain.
Jeong Yeon-shin pulled a chair close to the bed and sat down. Then he quietly looked down at the Tang Family Head lying there.
‘His internal injuries are severe.’
He had heard that the Golden-Wing Sect Master had critically wounded him, and the rumors had not been wrong. His complexion was poor enough to remind Jeong Yeon-shin of the Blood Flame Sect's aristocrats.
“I had pierced the paper window like a thief and watched the battlefield below. I intended to intervene if need be.”
The Tang Family Head, Poison Commander Dang Un-hwang, continued in a thin voice.
“Just as I reached the point where I could no longer endure it, you crossed the threshold, Benefactor. At my age, I felt a thrill run through me.”
Jeong Yeon-shin remembered what the Ten Perfect Sect Master had said earlier about the role of a sect's master.
About what happened when a sect lost its leader.
The Tang Family Head, who could barely control his body, must have found it difficult to step forward as well.
“Our family owes you another great debt, Benefactor.”
Dang Un-hwang attempted to rise, but Jeong Yeon-shin stopped him. Dang Un-hwang made a clasped-fist salute instead.
Even in his sickly state, the bearing distinctive to one of the Eight Family Heads showed in his gesture of respect.
Jeong Yeon-shin silently returned it with a nod.
“…….”
He did not speak for a while. The sharp scent of the medicinal decoction on the table behind him faded into the background, and only then did the Tang Family Head slowly open his mouth.
“Thank you.”
Perhaps it was the consideration of a senior in the martial world. His voice carried no particular emotion.
It differed from when he spoke of a debt as the Family Head.
This was thanks for watching over the Tang siblings' bodies in the cart.
Dang Un-hwang did not show the grief of losing his children before Jeong Yeon-shin.
“Thank you.”
He repeated it in the same calm voice.
* * *
Jeong Yeon-shin climbed Meishan with the weakened Tang Family Head.
It lay quite far from the Tang Sect. They said it was the place where the Twin Dragons and Phoenixes of Poison had met their father while avoiding the Supreme Family Head's eyes.
For the three days of the siblings' funeral, Jeong Yeon-shin remained at the Tang Family Head's side on the mountain peak.
It was only right. He had received their kindness as well.
“Your Protective Qi Technique was dazzling.”
Dang Un-hwang suddenly spoke as he descended the misty mountain path alongside Jeong Yeon-shin.
Tang family martial artists, still wearing grave expressions, surrounded and followed them.
Dang Un-hwang was different from his household.
He was the head of a great martial-noble family. Someone ordinary could not lead the Tang Sect. He had to put away his grief and alter his bearing, even if he had to force himself.
“The two of them were my inspiration.”
Jeong Yeon-shin had noticed his demeanor. At those considerate words, Dang Un-hwang gave a low laugh.
“They were children bewitched by martial arts. They would be pleased.”
“…….”
“What will you call it?”
“I plan to write the name True Radiant Starry Heaven in the manual.”
Jeong Yeon-shin answered reluctantly. It meant a starry night as precious as a jewel, but that Inscribed Vermilion Radiant Star bastard from the Ten Perfect Sect had tarnished the name.
“Benefactor, do you know the final thing an artisan does after creating a work?”
“……?”
“Names it, so the spirituality suited to its purpose can be carved into it as deeply as possible.”
“I see.”
“That is why it is regrettable. If it is a Divine Technique that already possesses spirituality, then naming it is all the more important. I cannot help but be concerned.”
Jeong Yeon-shin's brow twitched. No one had ever said anything about the name before.
But Dang Un-hwang was a man who had lost his children. Feeling the humility ingrained in him, Jeong Yeon-shin opened his lips.
“It may be lacking by one part in ten thousand.”
“You compared my children to stars, Benefactor, and that inspiration reached you and became a long robe. How about Bright Dawn?”
“It does not sound very good.”
After answering briefly, Jeong Yeon-shin repeated the name inwardly.
Bright dawn. Not night, but dawn.
“Is that so? Then…….”
After that, he let the Tang Family Head's frivolous chatter pass through one ear and out the other.
Jeong Yeon-shin occasionally glanced at his own shadow beneath his steps.
A dark figure cutting across the mountain path.
Was it an illusion? Every so often, a gurgling rumble seemed to rise from the shadow.
He suddenly wondered what would happen if he placed well-dried jerky on top of it.
Then, without warning.
“Forgive my shamelessness, Leader of Demon Wings, but I have a request!”
A young man's shout rang out from below the mist-covered mountain. Jeong Yeon-shin sensed the auras of three people.
Qingcheng Sect's Red Cloud Dragon, Ami Sect's Golden Staff Divine Maiden, and Jeomchang Sect's Little Sword Empress, whom he had not met in a long while. They were martial artists of the Nine Sects, known as some of Sichuan's greatest young geniuses.
Then the Red Cloud Dragon shouted again.
“This is a message from the Venerable Sect Leader of the Ami Sect! Please accept this challenge letter!”
Footnotes:
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