WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 383: The World (7)
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The divine sword Lingering Thunder returned to Jeong Yeon-shin's hand, flowing like water from the Golden-Wing Sect Master's abdomen.
They hovered in the air, with Unhoe Peak looking small below them.
Flare.
Wrapped head to toe in blue flames, the Golden-Wing Sect Master dipped her head slightly toward Jeong Yeon-shin.
At that small motion, flames scattered from the nape of her neck like feathers. She resembled the incarnation of a golden-winged bird said to devour dragons.
She seemed less auspicious than supremely transcendent.
"That was a little sharp."
Her clear voice rang softly.
Jeong Yeon-shin glanced at her narrow abdomen.
It showed through the blue flames.
A faint bloodstain marked the front of her golden garment. A trace left by his qi-controlled sword. Her skin appeared to have split slightly.
That was all.
'An absurd Protective Qi Technique.'
The speed and strength of her inner-energy barrier, as well as its ability to absorb and disperse force, were astounding. She could not be compared to anyone he had fought until now.
Swoosh.
Sichuan's Greatest Martial Artist extended a hand.
She aimed for the space between Jeong Yeon-shin's brows. Golden ripples spread from the tip of her white finger.
It was the aura that had bound his body like a statue before. The fierce wind that had lashed at their robes suddenly died down.
Blue light flashed through Jeong Yeon-shin's eyes.
'Judging the Qilin, altered mnemonic formula.'
White and red aura overlapped like waves around his sword hand and surged toward the blade's tip.
The Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula and Mara True Blood Art. He was not running them simultaneously. In that brief instant, he had continuously alternated their auras.
The veins on the back of Jeong Yeon-shin's hand twitched.
Lingering Thunder, wrapped in red and white currents, struck the great golden wave upward.
Crash!
The golden ripple scattered to either side like foam.
For the second time, he had broken the divine technique that sealed qi's movement and restrained an opponent's body.
Yet the Golden-Wing Sect Master's beautiful face remained expressionless. Only her jet-black bob rose and billowed in the gale that began to blow again.
Her lips moved.
They were as quick as though she were using lip-speech.
"Stitching Cry."[1]
Her crystalline voice rang in several overlapping layers. It felt as though multiple Golden-Wing Sect Masters had spoken at once. It was a mantra characteristic of sorcery martial arts.
Not even an instant had passed since their last exchange, yet a huge mass of golden light rose from her palm in the shape of a ring.
It was translucent, yet incredibly dense. In an instant, it swelled like a tidal surge, swallowed Jeong Yeon-shin, and passed through him.
The qi flowing through his entire body froze in place.
'It's changed.'
Jeong Yeon-shin thought.
With the brief mantra, Stitching Cry, the Golden-Wing Sect Master's nature had changed. Her presence had become faint, as though her body existed in another world.
Would a manifested ghost be like that? It was similar to what he had once sensed from the Zhuge Family Head.
The sorcery martial art, Heaven-Turning Dragon-Slaying Form.
It appeared to be a state that made her sealing arts even stronger and faster. She was wielding the Heaven-Governing Dragon-Slaying Art's power in a lethal fashion.
Unlike the Zhuge Family Head, she had not prepared a formation, sorcery arts, or dharma treasures in advance.
Whoosh!
The Golden-Wing Sect Master's face filled his vision. Void-Stepping. She had kicked one leg upward and closed the distance between them.
She was suddenly close. Her palm, wrapped in brilliant golden light, pressed against the air before Jeong Yeon-shin's abdomen.
Golden radiance split upward and downward from that point like lightning, flashing wildly.
She struck without touching him. A noncontact palm strike.
Boom!
A hazy shockwave swept across the sky.
Jeong Yeon-shin's body was driven straight down into the ground. In an instant, his back struck the earth with a thud and bounced back up.
He righted himself with an iron bridge technique, but blood slipped from his lips.
Even then, Jeong Yeon-shin somehow did not lose hold of Lingering Thunder's hilt.
A faint tremor spread through the ground around his feet. It was the aftermath of the noncontact palm strike he had just taken. Even after directing much of its force into the earth, this was the result.
His abdomen throbbed. It felt as though the muscles had torn apart in both directions and twisted violently.
His fascia had ruptured. At least his crushed organs had returned to their proper shape. That was the ability of the greatly perfected Jeong Family Youth Technique.
Unhoe Peak.
He was back on the hill where the Grand Contest had begun.
The scene had changed from moments ago. Gaps had appeared throughout the crowds filling the mountainside. The martial monks of the Ami Sect were gone as well.
Jeong Yeon-shin stitched the fascia in his abdomen with qi and looked ahead.
Step.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master landed softly, and their eyes met. Her eyes looked as though they were filled with molten gold. They had turned golden before he noticed, urging him to concede.
No one in the crowd dared to speak.
Sichuan's Greatest Martial Artist had descended among the people of Sichuan. It was different from when the Ten Perfect Sect Master had been present.
"I can forgive you once. Become the net."
The Golden-Wing Sect Master spoke quietly.
It was the same thing she had said before. She wanted him to bind the flood dragon's movements with Myriad Flowers Rain. There seemed to be no room for people in her mind. Only the image of a dragon filled it.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.
"The technique that seals qi's movement. Is it martial arts?"
"It's a sorcery martial art."
She answered readily, as though she had no guard up.
It did not feel like the leisure of an absolute master alone. Jeong Yeon-shin thought the Golden-Wing Sect Master was rather skilled at provocation.
"Why ask for Myriad Flowers Rain instead of using it on the flood dragon yourself?"
"Sorcery doesn't work on it."
The Golden-Wing Sect Master replied calmly.
Jeong Yeon-shin nodded inwardly. Arts that wielded nature's qi did not work on a spiritual beast that could be called the pinnacle of supernatural phenomena.
It seemed that only inner-energy arts born from qi absorption and exhalation, techniques that fully made energy one's own through internal cultivation, could harm it. Given the Purple Uniform martial world, it was a principle he needed to know.
"You said before that my Myriad Flowers Rain lacked depth."
"Its depth? That matters when you're catching people. A dragon is bigger, so force matters."
"Why insist on catching the flood dragon?"
"Because that's the proper order of things. Why, are you going to join?"
The Golden-Wing Sect Master asked with a slight lisp. She had covered the side of the gourd that Jeong Yeon-shin's sword had cracked with her lips.
It looked as though she intended to lick up every drop of wine beaded there like dew.
Step.
Jeong Yeon-shin silently moved closer and watched her. Her presence was still hazy, like a ghost or smoke.
She maintained the Stitching Cry state even while carrying herself as though she alone reigned supreme, ready to subdue him at any time.
"So the Heaven-Governing Dragon-Slaying Art has two forms. When you face people, you combine it with sorcery martial arts that possess mysterious qualities. When hunting spiritual beasts, you use only overwhelming Force Projection."
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke with clear eyes. The Golden-Wing Sect Master took her lips from the gourd and nodded.
"Yes. Both are the Heaven-Turning Dragon-Slaying Form."
"My martial arts pursue short battles. I do not yet have many variations."
"I'd guessed. Why tell me that?"
"Martial artists care about appearances."
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke while thinking of the Tang siblings. Honestly, the stability of the people's livelihoods was secondary to him at that moment.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master was the enemy of the Twin Dragons and Phoenixes of Poison. Holding Lingering Thunder, he intended to seek revenge as a martial artist. That was why he had told her about the Seom-ye Martial Lineage. It was a matter of martial-world etiquette.
Had she sensed his killing intent? The Golden-Wing Sect Master drew her brows together.
"If you die, Myriad Flowers Rain... What happened to the Tang children? Are they well? Or should I recruit the Tang Family Head?"
No answer came.
Jeong Yeon-shin's body distorted and vanished where he stood.
Clang!
He brought his sword down before the Golden-Wing Sect Master's eyes. Dust rose like waves on both sides of Lingering Thunder's white blade.
A pale shockwave spread out next, shaking the ground violently.
It was the beginning.
Their limbs clashed. Lingering Thunder's sword light began flashing without pause.
Golden ripples from the Heaven-Governing Dragon-Slaying Art, radiating brutal pressure, collided with sword-strike force waves from the Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula and Mara True Blood Art. White and red threads unraveled within a golden haze.
Clang! Boom!
It was different from before. They were no longer trading brief strikes.
Jeong Yeon-shin poured out every form of the Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art.
At close range, he used Judging the Qilin to close the distance between his sword and the Golden-Wing Sect Master at once. Within the storm of force waves that lashed his skin, he released the compressed power in his sword with the second form, Nine Verdants Form a River.
Whenever the Golden-Wing Sect Master's golden hands exploded force waves like thunderclap bombs, he drew a chaotic path with Light Sword Like Phosphorus, a counterattack form born from the Languid Flame Dragon's red flower, and scattered the shockwaves.
Boom!
His vision shook. A golden ripple had suddenly swept over his body.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master's fist was buried in the pit of Jeong Yeon-shin's stomach, where the force waves propelling his entire body had stopped.
A circular shockwave spread from the face of her fist and bored endlessly into the earth beneath their feet with a cracking roar.
The Stitching Cry state of the Heaven-Turning Dragon-Slaying Form. She wielded a powerful sealing art with the speed of a ray of light.
Cough!
Jeong Yeon-shin vomited blood.
For an instant, the faces of the Tang siblings surfaced and vanished in his clouded mind, along with the Protective Qi Technique they had given him, arranged like a constellation of stars.
He thought, Not yet.
"You're tough... Should I use a blade? Your swordsmanship is more mysterious."
The Golden-Wing Sect Master muttered, her round eyes widening further. Jeong Yeon-shin slammed her hand down with his left elbow and released Lingering Thunder from his right hand.
"Qi sword control? No."
Hum!
Her crystalline voice rang out, and a mass of golden light swept through the surroundings again.
Jeong Yeon-shin seized Lingering Thunder as it fell powerless, then spun in place.
Clang!
It was the Thunderclap Flash-Ridge Sword Art again.
His grip began to tremble. The impacts stacked with each exchange. Every strike from the Golden-Wing Sect Master was brutally strong.
He had the instinctive certainty that if he allowed a hit to land and did not immediately disperse its projected force through the muscles of his whole body, that part of him would burst apart.
Crash!
The Golden-Wing Sect Master's noncontact palm strike erupted at close range. Flesh burst from Jeong Yeon-shin's right shoulder and left thigh in a spray of blood.
His wrist gradually stopped obeying him.
His meridians felt ready to tear. The battle itself was like a hell of endurance.
Time, which had never been on his side since birth, wrapped around his body and mind, making both sluggish. He could not tell how many forms had passed.
Only his sharpened senses burned hot.
From the Baihui acupoint onward, his whole body seemed to turn white. Even the fine hairs on his skin brushed against and analyzed every force wave his opponent released.
What principle made qi sealing possible? Was the Golden-Wing Sect Master's Force Projection, said to shatter even a flood dragon's scales, truly limited to this much? If he brought out the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel here, what form would its clash with the Heaven-Governing Dragon-Slaying Art take?
His vision blurred.
Only the paths drawn by the Golden-Wing Sect Master's hands and feet remained clear.
Each time the Dragon-Slaying Scale-Treading Body Art, said to climb along a flood dragon's body, moved behind him at extreme speed, Jeong Yeon-shin's blue gaze swept over the alignment of her iliopsoas, knees, and toes.
It was a habit built over time. The forms of every technique were slowly being carved into his unconscious.
A familiar state of selflessness was approaching.
He could not see a path to victory yet. Still, only one question gained an increasingly vivid presence in his mind.
He thought.
What would Bodhidharma and Zhang Sanfeng do?
Grandmasters who had wielded Buddhist dharma power and Daoist Three Pure Ones Power in life. Would even they have no choice but to lose to a master of the Heaven-Governing Dragon-Slaying Art?
'No way.'
Then he had to consider it.
What were martial arts?
The question, which sounded unimportant at first, crossed Jeong Yeon-shin's mind for the first time.
Something distinctly different pressed into his head with a tingling sensation, along with thoughts that rose one after another from the question.
A monkey's hundred years of effort and a man's single year of progress.
'Does time matter...?'
Haa.
As he began to forget to breathe in and out, a brutal impact across his entire body woke his consciousness.
An explosion from the Golden-Wing Sect Master's palm art. Lightning-like vibrations raced from his sword through his hands and feet.
"I'm done."
The Golden-Wing Sect Master had knocked Jeong Yeon-shin far away. A faint trace of confusion passed through her golden eyes and disappeared.
"What...?"
"You've been punished enough. If you won't listen to me, don't ever come to Sichuan again."
Sichuan's Greatest Martial Artist spoke.
Jeong Yeon-shin tilted his head slightly. His hair, soaked dark with blood, brushed his shoulders, but he felt no particular pain from wounds where bone showed through.
Stories sometimes circulated of martial artists who took their lives in resentment after their enlightenment had been interrupted.
Jeong Yeon-shin could not understand them. He could not understand them now, either.
His talent was lightning. It brightly illuminated even his unconscious. He never missed or forgot a single clue.
Dusk had begun to fall around them.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly parted his lips.
"One move."
"Hm?"
"Let's exchange one move. A life-and-death duel."
"No. Do it with that old Pure Demon. I'm sick of this."
Step.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master turned away. Her embroidered shoes stepped lightly onto ground gouged deep all over, like furrows made by giants.
Jeong Yeon-shin bit his lip unseen.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master's Dragon-Slaying Scale-Treading Body Art was a peerless movement art. She could even use force waves for lightness skill.
In Jeong Yeon-shin's current condition, he could not catch her. The same would be true even if he used Ten Miles of Deep Light.
"Let's not meet again."
Just after she spoke.
Rumble.
The martial qi around them stirred, faintly but clearly. The energy of a group. Inner-power waves from an enormous number of people faintly cut through the air.
Killing intent aimed at slaughtering the enemies gathered on this mountainside. It was not one or two people. There had to be hundreds.
The Heavenly Net.
He had experienced many kinds of aura before.
The heavy pressure weighing down the air belonged to the Tyrant Sword Sect. The demonic qi spreading as sharply as countless blades belonged to the Pure Demon Alliance. The faction that gave off heavy martial qi alongside the clatter of armor was the Ten Perfect Sect. The hunters who displayed uninhibited inner power through all manner of unusual weapons were the Golden-Wing Sect...
They were not the only ones. A force this large could not be assembled without mobilizing subordinate sects.
Among them were many wandering martial artists who sold their skill with a blade for food and a few copper coins.
The battle that had begun with the Grand Contest suddenly gained momentum. It had entered an entirely new phase.
[The Golden-Wing Sect Master's amusement ended sooner than I expected! While those bald-headed monks from Ami and those Qingcheng Daoist bastards squabble below, I ought to kill the Leader of Demon Wings!]
At the broad summit of Unhoe Peak.
The three manifested Ten Perfect Sect Masters appeared while leading an enormous crowd, as though they had activated Transcendent Martial Art.
It was an army of martial artists.
Most did not climb up in lines. They rose from every direction, landed, and began filling the area densely.
An incredibly concentrated aura. Jeong Yeon-shin saw the undergrowth cut itself apart and wither.
"..."
He had been surrounded.
The Golden-Wing Sect Master had not left yet. She stood with her body turned slightly, quietly watching Jeong Yeon-shin.
The Ten Perfect Sect Masters picked up the Eighteen Weapons scattered around them one by one.
It was a Heavenly Net manned by the elite masters of the Thirteen Heavens. Daoist Cheong-su had suffered grave internal injuries from the Golden-Wing Sect Master, while Abbess Baekyak was difficult to find, perhaps because she had belatedly gone after the Pure Demon Alliance Leader.
A desperate situation.
He had long expected that such a situation could arise.
In war-torn Sichuan, he had simply placed the chance to cut down three Lords of the Thirteen Heavens above all else.
He had seen no chance of winning a sect war. Nor could he abandon the Tang Sect, which had been placed in a difficult position.
[Even if we leave, we must take that bastard's head. If we let him live here, there's no knowing what calamity he will bring us later.]
The Ten Perfect Sect Masters said. Jeong Yeon-shin swept his gaze over each of them.
"You answer a challenge letter with the Heavenly Net... You've discarded all shame."
[You must weigh the importance of things. A brat is still a brat.]
"Your achievement in the Tortoise Breath Method is remarkable. Do you know the Desolate Fortress Divine Hero of the main fortress's Demon Wings? He would be a worthy match for you. Though unlike you, he is not the type to pretend to be dead..."
[...]
Apart from the Ten Perfect Sect Masters' silence, the cold sunset cast across Unhoe Peak gradually deepened. The inner-power waves of those forming the encirclement were extremely dense.
Dense enough to form a massive invisible aura barrier. At some point, even the wind had stopped blowing.
There was only silence.
"Dark King Among Flowers. I am the sect leader of the Venerated Sword Sect, founded in Luzhou Prefecture after learning the sword from the Tyrant Sword Sect."
A swordsman with a scar across his cheek stepped forward.
"As a Squad Leader under the Divine Sword Corps, declare that you will no longer interfere in Sichuan's martial world."
"Bring me an official letter bearing an official seal, then say it. I will listen."
Jeong Yeon-shin said slowly, standing still.
'Could it be...?'
Even as hundreds of gazes swept over his body, he felt something strange. His heartbeat was loud.
Its pulsation was strong as well. For the first time in his life, he felt immense excitement. It was the first time he could not believe his own aura sense.
'Really?'
There was no point asking himself.
They were coming.
From afar.
Familiar auras and unfamiliar presences rushed forward, mercilessly tearing through the senses he had spread wide.
Their speed was monstrous.
Had they all departed from the same place? How could that be possible?
"Famine has covered the world for a long time. The time has come to cast off Desolate Fortress's oppression. Noninterference between government and martial world... The martial world under heaven will begin cutting off the fingers of the Divine Sword Corps, one by one..."
Then.
At the outer edge of the encirclement.
Boom!
A great flag plunged into the ground at an angle. Blue cloth streamed long in the tremendous recoil.
Six characters were written upon it, each stroke light enough to seem ready to fly away.
Divine Sword Corps, Burning Abyss Squad.
"Divine Sword Corps, Burning Abyss Squad...?"
One of the martial artists in the Heavenly Net muttered blankly. It was a martial force famed for having the finest Body Movement Scripture in Desolate Fortress.
Then.
Boom! Boom!
Blood Guard Squad.
Martial Extreme Hall.
Dust surged upward like a waterfall flowing in reverse. Flags planted themselves one by one, or all at once, as if they were surrounding the Heavenly Net.
Vibrations born from the immense attainment of inner energy swept in every direction. The encirclement fell silent as though frozen, yet Unhoe Peak continued to shake.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom! Rumble!
Divine Sword Squad, Nethercurrent Squad, Wishspring, Heavenly Dragon Squad, Code Enforcement Squad, Heaven-Treading Forest Squad, Immortal Wood Spirit Squad, Azure Sky Squad, Annihilation Squad...
The frost-like silence shattered again and again. Yet no master spoke.
They only hurriedly looked around in speechless shock, as if the mere flags were something greater than divine weapons and rare artifacts.
And then.
Boom!
A flag plunged into the ground beside Jeong Yeon-shin. Its pole shook violently, unable to bear the impact. Orange dusk light passed over the words, Divine Sword Corps, Demon Wings.
He raised his head.
Beyond the flags whipping in the gale.
The invisible auras released by more than ten people layered together like a tidal wave. Figures walked toward him with the setting sun behind them. Black sleeves fluttered from all directions.
Footnotes:
[1] “Stitching Cry” is homophonous with “Phoenix Cry” in Korean.
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