WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 376: Grand Contest (6)
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Jeong Yeon-shin’s tone was flat.
It was not only that his voice held no rise or fall. His expression did not change as he spoke. Even his lips moved as little as possible.
Because he meant it.
“The Divine Sword Corps’ main force. A Squad Leader beneath the Corps Leader...”
The genial look faded from the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s face. He furrowed his brow slightly and spoke as if to himself.
“None of those who wear black with the character for Desolation embroidered on them have ever been right in the head, but you’ve taken it too far.”
“That is how a traitor sees it.”
“...”
Meanwhile, some of the people surrounding them repeated Jeong Yeon-shin’s words.
Masters who had cultivated Sensory Training and possessed keen hearing kept murmuring the word “monkey.”
Some commoners who heard it secondhand cried out in admiration. That young master truly despised the Demonic Sect.
“I said I needed to see your martial arts. I never said I would indulge the martial world’s unwritten rules.”
Jeong Yeon-shin added as he ran his fingers over Lingering Thunder’s hilt.
“The contest will continue even if you step down.”
It was a statement that broke the conventions of the martial world. Jeong Yeon-shin did not consider that important.
Would it not be strange for a constable dispatched by the authorities to follow the customs of black-path scum?
The same applied even if his opponent was one of the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens.
No matter how transcendentally powerful they were, strong enough to contend one-on-one with the sect leaders of the Nine Sects, they were still beneath thugs registered as military households and dragged off to serve as soldiers. That was how Jeong Yeon-shin saw them.
“Hah.”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master’s lips suddenly curled upward.
“Monkeys. So it is acceptable because they are monkeys...?”
After muttering to himself, he gestured behind him.
Rumble!
Several short tremors overlapped, shaking the ground. They came from among the disciples standing behind the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
They drove about a dozen large wooden chests into the ground, then withdrew some distance. Their movements were orderly, as though arranged into a martial form.
“I wonder whether a brat from Desolate Fortress has accumulated enough effort to rival a Transcendent Martial Art.”
A spiritual ripple rose from the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s body as he stood with the chests at his back.
The moment Jeong Yeon-shin sensed an aura that seemed to lie between qi sword control and Remote Object Manipulation, every wooden chest behind the Ten Perfect Sect Master burst apart.
Crash!
Weapons burst through the splintered wood and rose into the air.
They were the eighteen martial weapons said to be used on the northern front.
A crutch weapon with a large hook in place of a grip, an axe-halberd with an additional axe blade beneath its spear point, a nine-section whip that swayed in nine linked segments, a crescent-bladed halberd with crescent-shaped blades on either side of its spearhead, shields engraved with swirling patterns.
Divine aura flowed from every short and long weapon. They floated in the air, brilliantly reflecting the sunlight.
Their owner was one of the Thirteen Heavens. Even unusual weapons could not help but contain spirituality.
Wooooong...
Divine weapons and rare artifacts lined up behind the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
The retired peerless master’s eyes flashed fiercely.
He had the bearing of a great general hardened by field campaigns. Now, he stood as an absolute master in a martial world that grew stronger and more advanced with every passing year.
“Let us see how we compare.”
The noisy crowd fell silent. Tension seemed to draw taut not only across the hill, but throughout the air around the mountain’s base.
Shing!
The Ten Perfect Sect Master drew the sword at his waist and reached back with his other hand to seize the handle of the silver nine-section whip.
By then, Jeong Yeon-shin already held Lingering Thunder in a lowered grip.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master let out a soft sound of admiration at the sword draw, which slipped free of the scabbard as naturally as flowing water. Yet Jeong Yeon-shin, his aura sense sharpened, did not so much as twitch an eye.
He recognized his opponent as a powerful spiritual beast.
Great Sage Equaling Heaven...
The crown of his head grew hot.
It was not solely because of the qi sword control he had used earlier. The Ten Perfect Sect Master’s martial arts, commanding divine weapons and rare artifacts, radiated spirituality.
Like Jeong Yeon-shin’s Dragon Fan Treading Flowers, the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s Myriad Essences Unified Origin Art seemed to possess a secret technique for handling the upper dantian.
An exalted aura held the weapons aloft, allowing them to fly into and out of his grasp at any moment.
The Myriad Weapons Heavenly Lord, the Myriad Weapons Emperor, the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
He had cultivated the qi of the Myriad Essences Unified Origin Art to its peak and mastered the Divine Technique called Heaven-Treading Martial Art.
Even while being ambushed by the Blood Flame Sect Master, he had delivered a devastating counterattack.
I’m going in.
Jeong Yeon-shin stepped forward.
Though it was broad daylight with no sunset in sight, something purple seemed to flicker at his heel. Not within some flood dragon’s hidden formation, but in the heart of the ever-turning world.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s figure blurred.
Thud!
The next moment, he drove his long leg into the ground directly before the Ten Perfect Sect Master. His black robes, dark as the night sky, fluttered amid faint fragments of white light.
He had closed the distance with the lightness skill Ten Miles of Deep Light.
A tremendous recoil passed through his waist and legs, but it lasted only a moment.
From the Mingmen acupoint near his lumbar spine, he twisted his qi and muscles, sending all that force into his right hand. At the same time, a form sprang forth as naturally as lightning.
Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art, Judging the Qilin.
He raised Lingering Thunder and brought it down.
Clang!
An explosive sound erupted. A translucent shockwave tore fiercely across the ground, while heat flowed from the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s armor after he belatedly extended his sword to block the opening strike.
He had forcibly raised his inner power in an instant. It was a swift sword strike that would have been impossible to react to without Three Flowers Gather at the Crown at its peak.
“This is surprising...”
Cold sweat gathered on the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s forehead, turning to white vapor and scattering away.
Jeong Yeon-shin, whose sword was locked against his opponent’s, glanced at Lingering Thunder’s blade, which partly concealed his face. It was wrapped in a segmented iron whip.
The nine-section whip.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master had extended it at the same time he struck out with his sword.
Jeong Yeon-shin had seen it seal off the sword form before the power of Judging the Qilin could reach its peak.
He had also seen the whip coil around the sword like a small serpent dragon and suppress the force wave of the sword strike.
It was a form he had never seen before. It was exceedingly profound.
“That will no longer do.”
After only one strike, the Ten Perfect Sect Master clicked his tongue and released the nine-section whip. The gilding on its handle had been badly stripped away.
At the same time, a small axe flew into his hand. He did not break the lock between their swords, which met in his other hand.
This time, it was an axe technique.
Slash!
It chopped at Jeong Yeon-shin’s side with terrifying speed.
The grim gray light spreading from the axe came first, followed by the sound. The force behind it was immense.
His linked forms had reached the realm of mastery.
There seemed to be no fixed pattern. Their hidden essence was simple. It was enough to kill his opponent.
Jeong Yeon-shin spread his left hand wide and pressed it against the man’s abdomen.
He has surrounded himself with a Protective Qi Technique.
He felt an intense current like a waterfall. It was an invisible barrier of inner energy. The man had something to rely on.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not care. The moment he recalled the mnemonic formula of Radiant River, the current of Helix surged from his palm.
It was qi manipulation that called forth a compressed typhoon. The dam that had confined his talent had already broken because of Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging and Three Flowers Gather at the Crown. The technique manifested the instant he thought of it.
Boom!
A deafening roar tore through the air.
A heavy tremor spread across the broad hill. The ground beneath their feet sank deeply in a wide circle, while dirt, sand, and shredded brush shot upward like an inverted waterfall.
A figure burst violently through the dust cloud.
It was the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
“A martial lineage even more suited to killing people than the martial arts of my sect...!”
With an incredulous look, he swept both hands through the air. Instead of the sword and axe lying far away, a crescent-bladed saber and shield flew into his hands.
“Your mouth still works.”
Jeong Yeon-shin swung Lingering Thunder hard once and flung off the nine-section whip.
The group of weapons constantly replenishing his opponent’s arsenal bothered him.
They were not as unrestrained as qi sword control, but they clearly floated in the air according to the Ten Perfect Sect Master’s will.
Even when Radiant River had erupted moments earlier, they had scattered in every direction and avoided breaking. Targeting them one by one would leave his back exposed to the Ten Perfect Sect Master.
A peerless master of the eighteen martial weapons.
Even the method he had used to block Radiant River had been unexpected. Realizing he was too late, he had covered the face of his axe with an inner-energy barrier against the palm-strike force wave.
Then he had used Harmonizing Force to redirect the power and relax his body, like a Wudang Sect Taoist famed for taiji.
The sight of him yielding his body to a force wave that was difficult to resist had been impressive.
He was a master versed in all manner of principles. That was why he could still act as Sichuan’s ruler even after having his essence absorbed by the Blood Flame Sect Master.
He is showing me this much.
Jeong Yeon-shin inwardly admired him.
A person capable of drawing out the full effectiveness of every form in any situation.
His skill ran deep.
Years had seeped into it, enough for the Golden-Wing Sect Master’s words to suddenly come to mind.
“Yours is nothing but technique.”
She had said it in passing after witnessing Jeong Yeon-shin’s Myriad Flowers Rain.
“Myriad Flowers Rain is a form in which a Tang Sect master unfolds poison arts and hidden-weapon arts refined over an entire lifetime all at once, like the Milky Way. It is a martial art built over years. A genius who accomplishes everything easily would find it hard to understand.”
It struck him deeply, even before the Ten Perfect Sect Master displayed his Transcendent Martial Art.
Unlike Guimyeong Overlord, who had acted as a Prince of Commandery alone within a flood dragon’s formation, the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens must have continually clashed with the world and honed their martial arts.
Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously parted his lips.
“You must have lived as though you were in closed-door training your entire life.”
Those born with meager martial aptitude carved the traces of their lives through Transcendent Martial Arts. Naturally, it would require painstaking endurance.
He was unlike Jeong Yeon-shin, who had only recently taken an interest in the fact that other martial artists set aside time for training.
“Since your body was slow, you must have felt the world’s storms all the more keenly.”
“Hmm?”
“You are impressive, Sect Master. You have worked hard to survive.”
Jeong Yeon-shin said it.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master stared at him for a moment, then burst into hearty laughter.
“I have heard every kind of insult on countless battlefields, but you are the first brat to provoke me so absurdly. I wonder if it would work on the War God of the north.”
“Provoke...?”
“Raise your sword so you do not regret it. Every one of your forms has been remarkable, but looking at you now, I do not think you can withstand my ultimate technique.”
“Are you speaking of a Transcendent Martial Art?”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master answered with the upturned corner of his mouth. Something worth seeing was coming. Jeong Yeon-shin felt a measure of anticipation.
The Ten Perfect Sect Master opened his mouth.
“Open.”
His voice rang out like an echo. Spirituality was mixed into it, carrying a quality that dreamily loosened the minds of those who heard it.
It was a prerequisite for a Divine Technique.
They said martial arts that reached a world-shaking realm became difficult to distinguish from sorcery arts.
As the Ten Perfect Sect Master trudged toward Jeong Yeon-shin, his eighteen martial weapons spread out into a great circle.
They formed a ring around the two of them. The air split with a chilly sound.
Saaaa...
The bladed crutch weapon, crescent-bladed halberd, great axe, axe-halberd, hooks, long staffs, and more began spinning widely like a sorcery formation as they closed in.
“I never had any particular ultimate technique,” the Ten Perfect Sect Master said with a genial smile.
“I mastered every art to a level sufficient for killing people, so there was no reason to seek something grand and make it my life-saving ultimate move.”
“Sufficient?”
The Ten Perfect Sect Master did not lose his smile even as Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly. It had been a smile filled with killing intent from the start.
“So...”
He stepped forward.
“I decided to display all eighteen weapon arts at once. It was the rashness of youth.”
Boom.
The sound rang out as he lifted his foot. It was like a drum being struck deep within a cave. At the same time, the Ten Perfect Sect Master stopped.
Then another Ten Perfect Sect Master separated from that spot and took another step. His figure looked somewhat blurred.
“Sword.”
He spoke and stopped in place. When he extended his hand, the sword Jeong Yeon-shin had knocked away flew to him and was caught.
“Saber.”
Another Ten Perfect Sect Master split away and took a step. As he said, a great saber flew into his hand.
The same scene continued. One Ten Perfect Sect Master after another split off while calling out the eighteen martial weapons one by one. It was a godlike feat. Even the Great Sage Equaling Heaven’s cloning art would have been no different.
As the crowd stirred as though they had beheld the Jade Emperor, a faint thrill appeared in Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes.
At last, it had come. The true realm of Purple Uniform.
[It is Shifting Form, Changing Position.]
Eleven Ten Perfect Sect Masters spoke at once as they slowly moved into position in the shape of a circular formation.
It was an overwhelming sight that seemed to transcend reality. It differed from the swift movement art known to the world as Shifting Form, Changing Position.
An art transformed into a peerless master’s Transcendent Martial Art was transcendent in the truest sense.
[And this is...]
As yet another Ten Perfect Sect Master took a step, Jeong Yeon-shin seized the final weapon before the duplicate could.
Starlike force waves from Ten Miles of Deep Light were fading beneath his feet.
“Axe.”
He spoke.
Footnotes:
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