WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 394: Carpet (3)
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Shockwaves rippled through the air several times.
Wooooong-
The black arrow beneath the intruder's foot trembled violently. Though pressed down from above, it could not advance.
Waves of inner power spread outward in dark concentric circles.
It was strange.
The Young Hall Master of Dark Night Hall had released the bowstring immediately after accurately gauging the intruder's presence.
Dark Night Hall's Phoenix-Driving Radiance Bow Art was an orthodox martial art that allowed no shortcuts in its mastery. It differed from the domineering arts of many within the Thirteen Heavens.
It was a martial art of patience. Firing a single arrow was itself an exceedingly intricate form.
‘How did he move...?’
The Young Hall Master's gaze swept over the intruder.
Not only the point of impact, but even the moment of impact had been anticipated.
The fact that the arrow lay beneath his foot rather than striking his body or leg proved that the opponent's Body Movement Scripture had achieved a strange harmony in that brief instant.
Had his movement somehow distorted time itself?
The Young Hall Master shook his head inwardly. That man was neither Shaolin's abbot nor the Heavenly Nemesis Sect Master.
He knew because he had seen those eminent figures when he was young. Yet the intruder felt far younger than either of them.
Then it happened.
The arrow beneath the young man's foot jerked sharply in midair. It slowly tilted upright, then drove straight through the marble floor.
Bang!
Its splendid fletching trembled.
In that instant, the royal descendant of the faded clan understood why the intruder had briefly held the arrow beneath the inner-power waves in his legs. He had savored the arrow's force wave as though tasting food.
It was as if he had examined every detail of the Force Projection's principle and structure within the arrow shaft through his aura sense.
What judgment had he reached?
A strange sensation ran down the Young Hall Master's spine. He slowly opened his mouth.
“There is no need for courtesy before the calamity of a sect's destruction, is there?”
“...”
The young man descended without a sound and looked around without answering.
Sunlight filtered through the thick dust and passed dreamily over his features. His face was like the movement he had displayed earlier, blurring the boundary between dream and reality.
The Young Hall Master fell silent for a moment. This was not the appearance he had imagined before firing the arrow.
Then a subordinate beside him, who had been preparing another bow, shouted in a low voice.
“You do not even know whose territory you stand in! Even an enemy sect could not behave this way if it understood propriety! Do you know that you have revealed yourself to be a classless rogue?!”
Dark Night Hall was a major sect that served the legitimate line of the faded clan. The Young Hall Master's right-hand subordinate was no different from the royal descendant's trusted retainer.
It was a position demanding mastery in both civil and martial matters. He frequently represented his lord's words to the outside world.
He had also mastered sorcery martial arts that lent weight to speech, an art that made listeners pause to consider its words.
It could buy the flustered Young Hall Master time to prepare another arrow.
The subordinate finished speaking and turned to signal the Young Hall Master.
Pwoook-!
The Young Hall Master's bow shattered. A Finger Wind had just shot from the distant intruder's index finger.
The subordinate stared blankly at the splinters of wood rising like dust.
Such terrifying self-assurance. He allowed not the slightest doubt about his own nature. An utterly domineering disposition.
Either possibility would have carried weight. Whether he knew himself to be a rogue or did not think of himself that way at all.
‘Superior mind-affecting sorcery martial arts will not work easily on that man...!’
His martial prowess was the problem to begin with.
The Finger Wind that had shattered the bow had truly been like a flash of light. There was an unbridgeable gap in the speed at which Jeong Yeon-shin could deploy his inner energy.
The Young Hall Master shook his head at the subordinate.
“I sense a peerless, exceedingly rare eye technique. We are already within his sight. Do not strike rashly.”
“That quickly?”
Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been watching them quietly, parted his lips.
“Is that a dread raptor?”
The bird perched upon the Young Hall Master's shoulder fluttered its wings in place. Several gray feathers drifted down around it.
It looked like a small crane, aside from the color of its feathers.
“Ah.”
A faint curve appeared on the Young Hall Master's lips.
“So this child was your objective.”
“I heard it is used to send letters to the Dark Night Hall Master.”
Jeong Yeon-shin's clear gaze fixed on the Young Hall Master. It was a look that allowed no question of whether he would surrender it willingly.
The Young Hall Master stared at him as though looking down on an inferior, while swallowing a groan inwardly.
‘He is clearly a swordsman...’
There was no guessing the breadth of his sword domain. The range of his forms seemed capable of reaching not only the grand preceptor's chair behind him, but beyond the pavilion itself.
Impossible to judge.
He had experienced something similar before with peerless swordsmen whose epithets were known to all.
Each possessed sword qi that could cut down a hill, peerless sword-control techniques, or a Body Movement Scripture close to the Ground-Shrinking technique.
The Young Hall Master's martial attainment and talent ranked among the finest of the Thirteen Heavens' younger generation, but that meant little now.
The moment he raised a hand to snap the dread raptor's neck, he felt his own head would fly off. At least seven jang separated them.
The royal descendant of the clan finally spoke with difficulty.
“Who are you?”
“Leader of Demon Wings, Desolate Fortress.”
Jeong Yeon-shin answered slowly. The Young Hall Master's eyelids rose slightly.
“Your martial prowess exceeds the rumors. Your spirit and disposition are impressive as well.”
“Your eye technique has reached a deep level.”
“It is a curious feeling, taking pleasure in praise from a lowborn. You came to take the dread raptor, did you not? If I hand it over peacefully, will you withdraw?”
The Young Hall Master asked. The trusted subordinate below abruptly turned toward him.
The dread raptor was the only way to deliver a letter directly to the Dark Night Hall Master. It was both a precious spiritual beast and a sacred creature of Dark Night Hall.
Only those who possessed both the martial arts passed down to the Hall Master's direct line and noble blood could command it. Once trained, the dread raptor would seek out its masters wherever they were.
It could not be compared to a carrier pigeon, which could lose its way or become prey for birds of prey.
“Your disciples have suffered greatly. Even now, terrible aura shakes the earth. Still, should I be thankful that members of the elven race are among them, since they have not touched the vegetation?”
The Young Hall Master spoke softly. The subordinate lowered his head.
“You are mistaken.”
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke as he sensed the spirituality linking the dread raptor to the Young Hall Master's head.
Was this what the gu poison he had only heard about was like? It was a secret art of the elven race. He felt that if he severed the Young Hall Master's head, the dread raptor would die as well.
“Mistaken?”
“You are traitors who have engaged in plunder. Even if you escape beheading here, you will not escape arrest.”
Jeong Yeon-shin said this without feeling anything from the Young Hall Master's words. He had seen countless starving people outside.
The famine that had struck the nation was a natural disaster incomparable to the gathering of Black Uniform martial artists, yet many martial factions close to armed martial nobility had filled their own bellies through plunder. Dark Night Hall was no different.
“Only now does it feel real. Desolate Fortress has truly reached our main hall.”
The Young Hall Master slowly stroked the broken bow. His touch was exceptionally elegant.
Kugugung-
The roar drew closer. Violent tremors shook the great hall without pause.
A great upheaval had come for the Thirteen Heavens.
Twelve Black Uniform martial artists, and the swordsman standing before them.
Jeong Yeon-shin urged him to surrender with an expressionless face. The pressure was immense.
At last, the Young Hall Master dropped the snapped bow.
“Arrest me first.”
* * *
Rumors spread like a storm.
The Battle of Unhoe Peak in Sichuan had left tremendous repercussions, born from both the course and outcome of the battle. Some had suddenly become more renowned, enough to become targets throughout the martial world.
The Seom-ye Martial Lineage was the prime example.
“They say it's all over! We're too late!”
The girl in white martial robes shouted self-mockingly. Her long braid swayed as she rode a fine horse.
It was White Cat, Shin So-bin.
A barren forest stretched along both sides of the official road.
Hyeon Won-chang, a blue hero's headband tied around his forehead, shook his head at the front.
“What can we do when the Squad Leader's lightness skill is so fast? Those riding horses cannot compare with it.”
“It is because insignificant Blue Uniform and White Uniform fools held us back.”
A man with a bright blue long robe carelessly draped over his shoulders like a quilt mocked them lazily. It was Demon Wings' Languid Flame Dragon. Faint shadows hung beneath his eyes.
Shin So-bin narrowed her eyes.
“What did you say?”
“It is thanks to my qi storage, but my lightness skill does not fall far behind the Squad Leader's. Had I departed first, I would have arrived long ago.”
“That is ridiculous. Is being quick at lightness skill all that matters?”
“The tongue of the weak is long.”
“I would have been the first to meet the Squad Leader, anyway. The chief disciple of the Seom-ye Martial Lineage would have moved far more diligently than some idle drunkard and opium addict.”
“Chief disciple...? Have you even entered the Flame River?”
“I have no interest in collateral martial arts.”
“You speak smoothly. So the next Great Tongue Sword was here all along.”
Hyeon Won-chang did not join in. He only grinned.
Jeong Yeon-shin's martial arts made brief exchanges of blows their central truth.
No matter what the brat and the opium addict babbled about, there was only one person who used the Radiant Art Formation brilliantly.
“I wonder whether news of the Squad Leader has reached the main fortress. It has been around seven days since we learned of it, so the storm should be reaching Xiangyang soon...”
“I want to split myself in two.”
“Why?”
“I absolutely have to see the Elder Council Head's face. I still cannot believe it...!”
“There must be fierce debate at the main fortress right now. The gathering of Black Uniform martial artists is unbelievably satisfying, but it is certainly madness.”
They did not stop moving.
At times, their journey south slowed. More and more masters with information, discernment, and great nerve had come looking to provoke them.
“Desolate Fortress, Demon Wings?”
“So?”
“Judging by your appearance, you must be some spoiled brat of the Huangbo Family. I have no business with you, so step aside.”
“What?”
“Let one who has learned the Seom-ye Martial Lineage step forward. I must see for myself the martial art that killed the Phoenix of the Golden-Wing Sect in defeat.”
The same thing happened now.
Languid Flame Dragon's eyes drew a faint curve. The dark shadows beneath them deepened slightly, making him look as though he might lie down in a coffin at any moment.
In contrast, heat rose from his entire body like a wildfire, stirring the hem of his robes.
“...I had no right to challenge you. Forgive my discourtesy.”
The swordsman who had hidden his face beneath a bamboo hat clasped his hands and retreated.
It had happened repeatedly.
The land was vast, and all kinds of people existed within it. Few truly understood their own limits, no matter how well informed they were about rumors.
It was also because the three of them had formed a single group. The seasoned experts of Demon Wings, led by Cheong Myeong and Baek Mir-yeo, had suddenly received a letter from some Surveillance Censor and gone north to Beijing.
This had happened after they confirmed Jeong Yeon-shin's safety.
Shin So-bin furrowed her brow.
“How about we chase him down and make an example of him? This has happened more than once or twice.”
“Would you display his head?”
An unfamiliar voice slipped naturally into the conversation.
“...!”
The group swiftly raised their heads.
A handsome man with a bold impression sat casually on a tree branch, giving off not the slightest aura.
Any knowledgeable master would have recognized it. He had reached the realm of Return to Simplicity.
Shock crossed Shin So-bin and Hyeon Won-chang's faces. It was not because of the man's unfathomable realm.
It was his face. His features were astonishingly similar to Languid Flame Dragon's.
The man smiled.
“I owed the Leader of Demon Wings a debt at the Flood Dragon Formation. Now I see he has even trained his juniors. Truly remarkable.”
“...Who are you?”
Languid Flame Dragon asked blankly.
“I came to deliver your Squad Leader's words and see my grandson's face... but it seems I have come to the wrong place.”
Divine Hand Radiant King Huangbo Gon said.
* * *
Dark Night Hall's main headquarters.
The Nethercurrent Squad Leader decided to remain in the gray forest, to bind those who had not learned martial arts with rope and hand them over to the authorities.
That was not all.
Many martial artists had been deployed to evacuate the common people of the faded clan. They were said to be on the side opposite the entrance.
That route, too, was blocked by an invisible formation, one that had endured the Squad Leaders' forms again and again. It was as though it had been filled with the power of every dharma treasure a major sect normally possessed.
“Seom-ye, want to try? Breaking through is only a matter of time.”
“I will sever the connection between the dread raptor and the Young Hall Master first. The Divine Sword Squad Leader's safety takes priority.”
“I'll try going around.”
The Young Hall Master did not speak through all of this. His eyes were half-open as he endured even the Heaven-Treading Dragon Squad Leader's tendon-rending and bone-dislocating.
Jeong Yeon-shin asked even though he already knew.
“Why go this far?”
“A lowborn could not understand.”
The Young Hall Master muttered calmly.
They stood in the forest beyond the pavilion.
Hwaaaak-
The sky suddenly split in two. Vast sunlight poured in as the formation was completely torn apart from the rear.
“So this truly is Dark Night Hall.”
“It appears so.”
One voice belonged to an elderly woman, the other to a young man.
Their figures flew in with the sunlight behind them. An old-fashioned Buddhist robe and Daoist robe streamed behind them.
They were among the most esteemed figures in the martial world.
Heavy aura settled broadly across the air. Several Black Uniform martial artists' eyes widened.
“I had been waiting for you to finish recuperating... I did not expect you to leave so early.”
“I considered the bloodline of the Tyrant Hero and your contribution in the Battle of Unhoe Peak. You are the rightful inheritor of the Pact of Mount Hua.”
Ami and Qingcheng.
The sect leaders of the Nine Sects descended before Jeong Yeon-shin with Walking Upon Empty Space.
Footnotes:
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