WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 401: Realm Beyond Compare
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Grains of sand scraped across the ground with a dry rustle.
A cool wind clung low to the earth. Dust rose like a sigh from a broad stretch of churned earth.
Saaa―
The clearing that had once been a forest no longer looked desolate. A silence so dense and alive had settled over it.
A young man with a purple silk robe draped over his shoulders like a cloak. Corpses split in half on either side of him, pouring vivid red gore over their bodies. A sword planted amid the stench of blood, breathing out hot steam...
The silence was tumultuous.
The translucent force waves that had spread along the path of the sword-control techniques shattered and dispersed. Sunlight, refracted in every direction, slowly rippled back into place.
About ten paces from the carnage.
“...”
The youthful man stood frozen with one hand extended. Yeon So-ha, the Divine Sword Sharp Broom of the Divine Sword Squad, had been the youngest Blue Uniform before the current Leader of Demon Wings entered Desolate Fortress.
The symbol of the Divine Sword Squad Leader, which Yeon So-ha had once hoped to receive, now rested on someone else’s shoulder.
Under normal circumstances, that would have been a great shock.
Not now. An enormous question came first. Swallowing hard, Yeon So-ha slowly opened his mouth.
“...Thank you for saving my life. But who are you...?”
He had clearly seen the character meaning Desolation marked on the intruder’s shoulder.
Along with the narrow-cut black robe. It was clearly the long robe of Jin Myeong-jo, the Blood Guard Squad Leader, as though warriors of equal rank had temporarily exchanged supplies.
But Yeon So-ha had never seen anyone like him.
Things within the main fortress often changed rapidly during missions, but no newly appointed Black Uniform had ever displayed such overwhelming martial strength.
‘This is a battlefield for Purple Uniforms...’
Yeon So-ha met the young man’s eyes. At once, he swallowed an admiring curse.
A face worthy of Pan Yue himself.
Crunch―
The Divine Sword embedded in the dry earth created a small crack, then rose on its own and returned to its master’s hand.
“This Jeong is the Leader of Demon Wings.”
Gripping Lingering Thunder’s hilt, Jeong Yeon-shin spoke to the Divine Sword Squad Leader with a greeting glance tinged with relief.
The situation did not permit him to offer a proper martial salute.
“Greetings, Squad Leader.”
He spoke quietly.
Yeon So-ha caught his breath. Namgung First Sword, who had already lowered his sword, showed a flicker of interest.
Yong Hui-myeong smiled. He wore a white scholar’s robe, stained with blood here and there.
“You’ve grown a great deal.”
There were many meanings in those words.
Yong Hui-myeong’s pupils were slitted vertically.
Yellow light flickered through them like lightning. The mysterious quality about them suggested some manner of divine art.
With the eye technique possessed by the foremost master of the Divine Sword Corps, he would be able to discern Jeong Yeon-shin’s identity.
“We’re almost eye to eye now. When I first saw you, you only came up to here.”
He lightly tapped below his own chest with the edge of his hand.
Jeong Yeon-shin narrowed his eyes without reacting to his superior’s playful behavior. Yong Hui-myeong’s movements looked unnatural.
The Divine Sword Squad Leader was an incarnation of martial arts.
Every gesture should have been perfectly natural, yet his injuries were deep enough that he seemed almost like a wooden puppet. His pallid complexion also showed signs of poisoning.
“Demonic and unorthodox martial artists rarely fight head-on. You seem to have fallen victim to the vile sorcery arts of some rabble.”
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke evenly.
“...”
Namgung First Sword’s mouth stiffened slightly as he studied him with an intrigued expression.
Yong Hui-myeong laughed.
“You say just what I wanted to hear. True to the Ma Family bloodline.”
“I wouldn’t know about that...”
Jeong Yeon-shin vaguely brushed it off. Had it not been the Squad Leader speaking, he might have answered with a Finger Wind.
“Your martial arts have improved beyond recognition. No wonder that Namgung sword fiend can’t rush you so easily. Even I can scarcely believe it... Hah, that archer from Dark Night Hall in the distance is watching carefully too. It looks like the Dark Night Hall Master is measuring you.”
Yong Hui-myeong spoke.
Jeong Yeon-shin could indeed feel two gazes as though they were stripping his body bare.
One was the eye technique of Namgung First Sword, a peerless swordsman. The other was the gaze of the Dark Night Hall Master, said to be the reincarnation of the legendary Hou Yi.
Jeong Yeon-shin met their gazes not with his eyes, but with his senses.
Wooooong―
The air lashed like a great whip. The aura sense Jeong Yeon-shin released collided with the waves of inner power emitted by the peerless masters.
It was a phenomenon that testified to his martial prowess: he could contend with any of them in a one-on-one fight.
“...!”
He could feel their surprise against his skin. From more than twenty li away, he could even sense the Dark Night Hall Master’s eyebrows twitch.
Hah―
Namgung First Sword sighed, an inscrutable expression on his face.
“Divine Sword Squad Leader Yong has gained a truly dependable junior. Speak a little longer. I shall wait.”
“You’ll regret it.”
Yong Hui-myeong grinned.
He understood his opponent’s intentions. Jeong Yeon-shin, the Leader of Demon Wings, was a master about whom far less was known than the other supreme figures of the martial world.
It was said that gossip-lovers who enjoyed babbling about rankings were divided over whether he had entered the ranks of peerless masters.
Most people fell silent upon hearing the rumor that he had personally slain the Moyong Family Head, the Starlight Great Sword Lord. Even then, it was only natural for arguments to continue over whether it was true.
It had all happened in too short a time compared to the vastness of the world.
Information about the current Leader of Demon Wings could not help but be sparse compared to what was known of peerless masters who had ruled the martial world for decades.
Even if the major factions were fighting behind the scenes to uncover enemy masters’ signature techniques and Transcendent Martial Arts, Yong Hui-myeong himself did not know what Jeong Yeon-shin’s Transcendent Martial Art was.
‘Martial Dragon Society, Dark Night Hall, Yeoryeong... They know their lives are precious.’
They also preferred certainty.
From now on, the many major demonic and unorthodox factions of the Thirteen Heavens would be busy trying to gauge Jeong Yeon-shin, oblivious to the fact that Seom-ye, too, was studying them.
Yong Hui-myeong thought, Go ahead and watch all you like.
‘He seems to respect Myeong-jo more than he respects me, but he’s always been skilled at hiding what he has.’
His opponents were Namgung Mu-jin’s Imperial Sword Art at its transcendent pinnacle and the Dark Night Hall Master’s arrows, said to pierce even the sun.
Yong Hui-myeong wanted to buy Jeong Yeon-shin time instead.
“What happened with the Sichuan mission?”
Jeong Yeon-shin answered immediately.
“Senior Ha, the Swift Heaven Wing Squad Leader, has passed away. The culprits were the former Peng Family Head, Golden-Wing Sect, and Ten Perfect Sect. Before that, I heard that the Pure Demon Alliance clashed with the Swift Heaven Wing Squad as well.”
It was a simple report.
Yet it contained what needed to be said first.
Jeong Yeon-shin did not think the rest mattered much. No matter how many enemies’ heads he took, it would not make up for the death of someone who had been like a senior brother to him.
Silence passed.
Yong Hui-myeong’s lips pressed together and parted several times, like an inarticulate scholar despite the countless sentences in his mind.
“...The culprits?”
At the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s question, Jeong Yeon-shin casually flicked Lingering Thunder.
A straight trail of blood was carved into the ground. It was the blood of the person who had earlier struck at Yeon So-ha, the Blue Uniform.
Yong Hui-myeong’s lips curved faintly.
“You’re better than me.”
“Let’s return to the main fortress. I’ll escort you.”
Jeong Yeon-shin dared to place a hand on the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s back. His words were deliberately familiar.
It was the same gesture he had made when soothing the Squad Leader’s inner injuries after Yong Hui-myeong killed the Namgung Family Head in a single move.
Jeong Yeon-shin’s palm rested on Yong Hui-myeong’s Mingmen acupoint.
‘Mother.’
With the principles of the Jeong Family Youth Technique, energy rising from his palm flowed inward.
Softly and with restraint, like the bearing of the Divine Blood Extreme Demon he always watched and learned from, it entered the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s body.
When Jeong Yeon-shin had still been a Blue Uniform, he had felt the universe during this process.
Now, it was different.
The resilience and breadth of Yong Hui-myeong’s meridians were now comparable to Jeong Yeon-shin’s own. His middle dantian, which had once felt like a dragon’s inner core, was astonishingly similar to the Light Wheel containing the Record of the Dharma Light Wheel.
The endless qi storage was the same.
It was no longer mysterious.
Having undergone Marrow Cleansing and Bone Reforging, Jeong Yeon-shin’s body did not fall short of the Divine Sword Squad Leader’s Eight Extraordinary Meridians in profundity.
‘There’s something impure in him. Qi-dispersing poison?’
Only the Squad Leader’s condition surprised him.
His inner energy was continuously scattering like dust. Even the flow of his blood was terribly unstable.
It was impossible to tell how he had continued fighting. There was clearly something to learn from that.
Ha ha―
Yong Hui-myeong gave a hollow laugh.
“This is rather embarrassing. It’s astonishing.”
There was quiet surprise in his casual words. Perhaps he could feel that his junior’s guidance of qi was no longer being overwhelmed by the capacity of his own body.
Whoosh!
Jeong Yeon-shin continuously poured in the qi of the Jeong Family Youth Technique and set it into major circulation, his speed in handling inner power now close to a ray of light.
Beginning at the Mingmen acupoint in the center of Yong Hui-myeong’s back, passing through the Shenzhu acupoint above it, and circulating without obstruction, it formed a cycle.
The inner power that had borne Jeong Yeon-shin through childhood and accepted every kind of qi planted a certain spark in the blink of an eye.
“You brat, this is awkward.”
Yong Hui-myeong pulled away from him. He seemed conscious of Namgung First Sword’s gaze.
It also meant that was enough.
At this point, even someone whose active cultivation was no better than a monkey stuffing itself with bananas could stabilize the inner injuries.
‘All that remains is buying time.’
Jeong Yeon-shin thought.
He had to protect the Blue Uniform and his direct superior. In this situation, he did not yet have the confidence to face two peerless masters on the level of the Lords of the Thirteen Heavens at once.
He had not even properly received his Purple Uniform robe, let alone inherited the title of Divine Sword.
He did not know the difference between a Purple Uniform master without a position and the Divine Sword Squad Leader.
All he could do here was try.
‘What is this?’
Jeong Yeon-shin found the purple silk robe clinging tightly to his shoulders strange.
Its soft hem fell to the backs of his calves. It differed even from the black robe woven of precious heavenly silkworm silk.
It seemed to be a dharma treasure with a faint trace of spirituality.
“It seems you have said all you wished to say.”
The middle-aged swordsman who had watched the senior and junior members of the Divine Sword Corps stepped forward.
Beneath sleeves as blue as the sky, the milky-white blade hanging from his hand released a humming sword resonance.
“I heard that you took in all my nieces and nephews. Their epithets were, if I recall correctly... Clear Qilin and chivalrous heroine.”
There was only one man who could call Clear Qilin Namgung Se-jin his nephew.
The Sword Howling Emperor, Namgung Mu-jin.
It was said that he had been the finest swordsman in Southern Zhili for the past twenty years.
Though his family had placed all its hopes on him, he had suddenly abandoned his place as heir and left home.
He was now a man who had taken the Martial Dragon Society’s leader, one of the Thirteen Heavens, as his sworn younger brother.
‘Namgung First Sword is in the Martial Dragon Society. He is White Qilin’s paternal uncle.’
Cheong Myeong of Demon Wings had once told Jeong Yeon-shin that.
“A spy of our society who visited the Martial Alliance told me that the child born to my younger brother’s concubine regarded you as a superior. Even after Se-jin and Mi-ah, my beautiful child, were left as they are by your hand. Should I say that child went searching for their roots...?”
“The affairs of the martial world are impossible to understand, even when you think you do.”
The middle-aged man shook his head, then smiled faintly.
“Come to think of it, my family’s enemies are gathered in one place. The Divine Sword Squad Leader who killed our Family Head, and the Leader of Demon Wings who cut off the direct line. I may not look it, but I am the foremost sword of the main family. Had I not encountered you, that would have been one thing. But now that we have met, how could I simply stand by?”
“The foremost sword...?”
Jeong Yeon-shin murmured.
‘You?’
Young Family Head Namgung Se-jin had treated Namgung Hwa-shin, who was born to a concubine, wholly as his younger brother. He had even openly said that his heart ached for him.
That was the dignity of the Namgung Family Jeong Yeon-shin had come to understand.
Concubine. Lineage.
Even as provocation, those were not words one should say.
Jeong Yeon-shin thought of his mother.
Shing.
The Sword Howling Emperor Namgung Mu-jin’s blade gave off a chilling sound.
“This has gone on too long. The Dark Night Hall Master is a peerless archer, but patience does not run particularly deep.”
As he spoke, something suddenly came flying from afar.
Its form appeared clearly in the eyes of Jeong Yeon-shin, who had activated the Heaven-Displaying Eye Technique.
It was a long arrow.
The instant it entered his sight, it rapidly grew larger. Above it, the sky shook violently as though an earthquake had struck amid the clouds.
Kugugung―
The Dark Night Hall Master’s Ten Miles One Kill.
Jeong Yeon-shin looked calmly into the sky, then clenched and opened his left hand.
A resonant hum rose from his heart.
Suddenly, a cluster of stars blooming from the ground surrounded his entire body.
The surroundings turned pale in an instant.
Boom!
The next moment, a muffled sound exploded from his grip.
The ground struck by the circular shockwave caved in.
Even Yeon So-ha and Namgung First Sword widened their eyes.
Starlight warped over the purple silk robe Jeong Yeon-shin wore.
It was profoundly mysterious.
The dull black iron arrow now in his hand looked almost out of place.
Crunch.
A small sound.
The arrow in his grasp bent like a stick of taffy.
Footnotes:
Mi-ah means “beautiful child,” an affectionate form used for Namgung Mi.
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