WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 430: Grandmaster (4)
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A hot wind swept across the dueling platform and blew toward the viewing stands.
Sunlight poured down from the clear, open sky, dazzling in its own right, but it was not as noisy as the chatter of those who lived amid the dust and turmoil of the martial world.
“Who is that? What right does he have to enter the duel?”
“Didn’t he say it was the Jeong Family Youth Technique? The martial art that the defeated White Uniform mentioned earlier as an abbreviated version!”
Murmurs erupted from the crowd. The shattered wall continued to spit out rough stone fragments with soft clattering sounds.
Off to one side, the Peng Family members, all clad in silk martial robes and carrying antique sabers, remained silent. Each wore a different expression.
Many were dumbfounded by conduct they would never see in the orthodox martial world.
Most of the crowd only began exchanging opinions after the intruder deflected Peng Ga-inhu’s saber strike.
A few let out low groans, seemingly recognizing the identity of the man in black.
The Peng Family’s masters were no different.
The faint satisfaction they had shown when Namgung Hwa-shin remained silent was gone. They tried to suppress their shock, but every trace of a smile had vanished from their faces. Elders, veteran masters, and young saber wielders whispered among themselves.
“Abyssal Killer Ma Jin... the former Leader of Demon Wings.”
“I heard he lost an arm and became the Desolate Ma Family Head, but those movements just now did not look like those of someone who had lost their acupoints. How could that be...?”
“He said it was the Jeong Family Youth Technique.”
“I heard it was a martial art created by the Leader of Demon Wings. Of course, since he is the Leader of Demon Wings’ uncle, he likely received the true version rather than an abbreviated one.”
This was a tournament to determine the relative standing of martial lineages from prestigious major factions.
No duel carried greater honor. That was why Abyssal Killer Ma Jin had named his martial art.
After sending Peng Ga-inhu’s saber back into its sheath, he had explained its principle. No one could help but pay attention.
The Jeong Family Youth Technique.
Little was known of the martial art.
Some Desolate Fortress martial artists who had entered the martial world claimed it was a body-tempering art comparable to Shaolin’s Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture, but few took that claim at face value.
That was because of the symbolic weight of Bodhidharma’s Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture. It was a world-shaking Divine Technique that refined the bones and sinews of the greatest martial monks from their very foundations.
Besides, the talent of a Martial God, who grew powerful at a pace that seemed to compress time itself, and the aptitude of a Grandmaster, who created a Divine Technique that had never existed before, were often treated as separate matters.
“Oh...”
Several knowledgeable people in the viewing stands had gleaming eyes.
They were those the surrounding crowd had earlier called the Six Kings martial lineage. From youthful men to older, handsome men and beautiful women, all wore leather hand guards over their bare hands.
“That is a prosthetic arm bearing the craftsmanship of master dwarves. Still, even if one attaches a hand moved by inner power, it cannot fully restore the balance of meridians that were torn away.”
“He said it was a body-tempering art. If its effects even reach half those of Shaolin’s Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture, it could cultivate his acupoints.”
“Did you see his move?”
“Only vaguely.”
“My eye technique could not capture it completely.”
This was the orthodox martial world. Exchanges and hospitality between sects were frequent, so discussions of martial arts had naturally flourished.
As such, many in the viewing stands discussed the origins of Ma Jin’s martial arts.
At the center of the platform, Peng Ga-inhu narrowed her eyes as she gripped both saber hilts over her shoulders.
Colorless force waves rose from her grip like smoke, tossing the ends of her hair.
“Full-body Force Projection...?”
She muttered under her breath. Since her twin sabers had returned to their scabbards, she had been assessing her opponent’s martial art.
“I heard you have some talent.”
The man in black, the former Leader of Demon Wings, Abyssal Killer, continued in an even tone.
“You will find it difficult to comprehend.”
“Ha...!”
Peng Ya’s lips twisted with a hollow laugh.
Abyssal Killer Ma Jin.
He was infamous. To the common people, he was called a chivalrous hero, but in the martial world, he was known as a rogue, a figure close to a killing ghost.
When he fell from power over the matter at Sichuan’s City of Master Craftsmen, people even mocked him. They said he had finally met an end worthy of his epithet.
Some had been relieved. Ma Jin had been among the most vicious of the Divine Sword Corps’ seventeen Black Uniforms.
If Abyssal Killer had truly risen again through Seom-ye’s martial arts, the rumor would be treated as urgent news. Numerous sects would blame Lotus Nezha while also standing in awe of him.
They would be shocked by the emergence of a peerless Divine Technique rarely seen in the martial world.
Boom!
Peng Ya vanished from where she stood. Only a pale ring of dust remained.
It was footwork meant to disrupt the eye, appearing almost like Shifting Form, Changing Position.
Ma Jin, in contrast, simply stood there. His dark metallic left arm and intact right arm both hung at his sides.
“Hm.”
He stood with his chest out, calm and imposing. Only the hem of his black robe, embroidered with the character for desolation, snapped violently in the wind. His bearing made it clear that he intended to gauge the depth of his opponent.
He had not even taken an opening stance, and his expression remained calm.
Whoosh!
Peng Ya appeared at his side, having drawn her twin sabers at some point.
Her disheveled hair flew around her as she swung both sabers sideways at once. The air around them shook as if struck by an earthquake.
In that instant, Ma Jin extended his dark prosthetic arm without even turning his head.
Clang!
The metal fingers forged from precious black iron knocked the twin sabers upward from below. That alone blocked the saber strike.
It was because the sister buried in the Jeong Family Manor cemetery had firmly stabilized the flow of inner power from his shoulder to the prosthetic arm.
Ma Jin immediately reached out with the black-iron prosthetic and seized Peng Ya by the front of her robe.
“You have good spirit.”
His brief comment meant that, despite using an extreme attacking form like twin-saber techniques, she had shown no caution in her strike. Colorless light immediately flashed in Peng Ya’s eyes.
In the brief instant her twin sabers flew into the air, she reversed her grip.
It was handwork close to the miraculous. As Ma Jin pulled her forward by the collar, Peng Ya was dragged helplessly toward him while bringing down both sabers in a reverse grip.
Ma Jin naturally swung his intact right arm and knocked away the saber strikes.
Boom!
A fierce shock wave erupted. At the same time, the dueling platform cracked apart, scattering dust and stone fragments in every direction.
Ma Jin smiled.
“You managed not to let go.”
His tone was too plain to sound mocking. Still, it was not something one said to a martial artist who now represented an entire family.
Peng Ya retreated a considerable distance and spat bloodied saliva. Both sabers remained firmly in her hands.
“Did you think that Force Projection would work twice?”
She was a martial arts genius.
She had surpassed the limits of her age long ago. At times, the Embroidered Uniform Guard invited her to serve as an instructor, where she received the full admiration of the Forbidden City’s martial artists.
Other than the imperial clan, it would not be an exaggeration to call her Northern Zhili’s greatest prodigy.
She could review an opponent’s previous move and grip her sabers with a sword-gripping method that prevented her from falling for the same technique twice.
The five fingers of both her hands twitched faintly as she redistributed her strength.
She also poured a great deal of inner power into the Shaofu and Laogong acupoints gathered in her palms.
Then she stared at her opponent.
‘That thing...’
The dark prosthetic arm worn by Abyssal Killer looked closer to an artifact than a human limb.
Just as a supreme master at Three Flowers Gather at the Crown controlled qi as desired, that prosthetic arm held inner power and mimicked human movements down to its finger joints.
It was surely one of the divine weapons and rare artifacts that could only be made in Desolate Fortress, where neither wealth nor food was lacking, after undergoing the secret processes of the dwarven race.
Still, it could not fully replace human flesh and bone. It had to have limits.
Peng Ya’s eyes gleamed with quick wit.
‘It must consume a tremendous amount of inner power. That’s why he hasn’t made any large movements. The longer this exchange goes on, the more advantageous it will be for me.’
All she had to do was endure. That was what she thought.
The Jeong Family Youth Technique was certainly a body-tempering martial art rare under heaven. What more needed to be said? It had reunited the essence, qi, and spirit of someone whose entire arm had been torn away.
But could it be as solid as the martial arts of a prestigious family that had endured for centuries? Could its circulation of qi possess both stability and explosive force?
‘This sect war could end in a draw.’
One corner of her lips rose crookedly.
Ma Jin, who had been watching her quietly, casually asked, “Why are you so obsessed with such a trivial victory?”
“Because it isn’t trivial.”
Peng Ya answered as she spread the inner power from her dantian through the acupoints across her body. From now on, it would be an unbroken barrage of heavy strikes.
She had to maintain that rhythm without being drawn into her opponent’s offense. If she did, an opportunity to win would eventually appear.
Her lips moved.
“This is a duel with my family’s fate at stake. The late Family Head forced through something that should never have been done, and even that failed. If we lose here, we may have to close our gates.”
“Something that should never have been done?”
Ma Jin repeated her words in an odd tone.
Both knew they were speaking of the Heavenly Net against the Divine Sword Squad Leader. Peng Ya slowly nodded.
“You may not believe us, but the rest of the family opposed it. I was at the Forbidden City then because I didn’t want to obey the order. I thought the Family Head had completely lost his mind. Talking about the martial world’s freedom and all that...”
“You are greatly mistaken. What I believe is unimportant.”
For an instant, Ma Jin glanced toward the viewing stands. Jeong Yeon-shin sat there in a long robe that looked crimson beneath the shade of the canopy.
He lightly held his forehead as if ignoring Perfected Ancient Sword beside him, looking almost mature. It seemed his uncle’s imposing spirit burdened him.
Through sound transmission, Jeong Yeon-shin said, “She’s not lying.”
Jeong Yeon-shin was now Purple Uniform. It was impossible to guess just how powerful the upper dantian’s effects had become. At the very least, he could judge whether someone’s words and conduct were true.
‘He has already become such an imposing man. I can no longer expect to guide that child properly in the future.’
Ma Jin shook his head inwardly.
Even so, he could not abandon his role as the representative of his sister, Ma Yeon-sang. He had to set a proper example for the nephew who repeatedly broke convention.
“I will end this with the next move.”
Peng Ya raised one eyebrow.
“What?”
“Fortunately, it appears your interests and those of the main fortress align rather well. We do not know when the Thirteen Heavens will gather and stir again. There is no need to add another corpse here.”
It was the uncle of the Desolate Fortress Purple Uniform who had slain the Peng Family Head.
Peng Ya closed her mouth. She had already finished preparing her ultimate move. There was no reason to listen to nonsense.
‘First, one strike.’
Martial nobility.
They were also called martial families.
They tended to crush their opponents through overwhelming force.
For generations, they had prioritized their clan’s interests, allowing their families to prosper in the martial world. They had relentlessly pressured nearby sects into submission.
It was the same even now.
A majestic, unobstructed resonance rose from Peng Ya’s sabers. Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber, Dragon-Swallowing Vast Tiger. True to its name, it was a tiger that had devoured a dragon.
Her arms, brimming with tremendous power, began to tremble as afterimages coiled around them. She was loading up a heavy strike, which placed a burden on her body.
Peng Ya could unleash this five times. That was why it was called the Five Tigers Severing Gate Saber.
It was more than enough to test how far the Jeong Family Youth Technique, the martial art that had raised Abyssal Killer Ma Jin again, could go.
The crowd watching the dueling platform likely thought the same. Rabble could not even have crossed the gates of Green Jade Sword Manor.
This was a place where two martial lineages compared the heights of their mastery.
Peng Ya lightly tapped the ground with the tip of her foot.
It looked like a light step, but it was True Step.
The dueling platform rippled in broad concentric circles like a lake. The roar followed a moment later.
Boom! Whoooosh!
In the next instant, she was before Ma Jin, thrusting her twin sabers in a crossing strike. The force of her legs, used to charge forward, deepened the blades’ sharp whistle through the air.
Ma Jin widened his stance and threw a punch at the point where the two sabers crossed.
This time, it was not his prosthetic arm. He struck with his other arm, the bare hand of flesh and blood.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Peng Ya’s eyes widened. She had expected five exchanges.
Reflected in her eyes, where colorless light flickered, was a fist advancing as it shattered both blades to pieces.
‘What...?’
That was not all.
Through the metal fragments scattering in all directions and refracting sunlight, Abyssal Killer’s entire figure came clearly into view.
A saber hilt rose diagonally over one of his shoulders.
Only then did she realize it. It was truly shocking.
That was right. The former Leader of Demon Wings’ signature ultimate art was said to be a practical saber art fit for a battlefield. His first move had prevented her from considering it.
The humiliation he was inflicting upon the entire Peng Family was immense. Even if she burrowed into the deepest abyss, she could not escape this shame.
‘You damn turtle...’
Boom!
Ma Jin pursued her as she was sent flying backward. It took only an instant.
The moment he raised a hand blade and struck Peng Ya’s abdomen, a circular shock wave exploded with a bang. Peng Ya was slammed straight into the floor of the dueling platform.
Boom!
Dust rose thickly with the dull impact.
“...”
The midday sun was dazzlingly bright. Anyone could tell who was standing and who was lying down. Before silence could cover the grounds, a voice came from the viewing stands.
“The Peng Family has lost.”
It was the voice of Desolate Fortress’s newly elevated Purple Uniform.
Perfected Ancient Sword, who was about to announce the result as the duel’s official witness, stopped short.
Lotus Nezha Seom-ye, who had been looking down toward his uncle with the corner of his mouth twitching faintly, immediately returned to an indifferent expression.
Footnotes:
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