WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 57: Huangbo Clan (5)
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The Huangbo Family was old.
In the late Yuan era, the Huangbo bloodline rose to prominence in Shandong and settled in the heart of Shandong Province.
Jinan.
Grandmasters had refined the family’s martial arts over generations.
The martial arts of the gathered bloodline grew stronger by the day. It was an age of chaos. They seized the Yuan dynasty’s vast lands indiscriminately.
That continued until the elven race, said to have descended upon light, rose to power.
In exchange for submitting to the new Ming dynasty, the Huangbo Family came to be called local magnates.
Thus, a martial family was born. For generations, they ruled Jinan.
“Mother, when is my brother coming back?”
A girl of around fifteen set down an axe with a thud beside the household belongings.
Her family had cut firewood in Pingyin County, Jinan, for two generations.
Martial arts might not have been easy to learn, but those who could read often kept books on breathing and qi-circulation techniques.
The Three Talents Heart Method, distributed by the imperial court, had increased the available workforce.
They said even ordinary people could gradually draw in the energy of the air.
It was an elven secret art that imbued the body and soil with strength, producing mighty strongmen and fertile fields.
A middle-aged woman sat twisting straw rope and spoke.
Her hemp clothes were shabby, yet her tone was dignified and her pronunciation clear.
“The Huangbo Family took him, didn’t they? Wait quietly. Your brother may return as a martial artist. If he becomes even a gatekeeper for a powerful family, we will not have to go hungry.”
“The trees behind the mountain have not been good lately. Uncle Ma keeps lowballing the price. Why did they not take him too?”
The girl complained.
She was skilled with an axe for her age, but she was no true powerhouse.
The Three Talents Heart Method was wondrous, but it was closer to a health regimen. She could work as much as grown men only because her talent was exceptional.
Uncle Ma, who seemed to have ties to the Huangbo Family, had even begun forcefully urging her to join.
Startled, her mother whispered.
“Taken? Watch your words. They say martial artists’ ears are as sharp as bats’.”
“They are all probably feasting with the county magistrate. It is nice that those loafers who kept bothering me were taken too, but at this rate, we will starve to death. Firewood sells for nothing, and hardly any food grows. Whatever does grow gets swept away by the county magistrate and those Huangbo bastards.”
“I told you to watch your words!”
The middle-aged woman let out a breathy shriek, then steadied herself.
“The Huangbo Family is a prestigious household that protects us. It was the same in your grandfather’s day, when he passed the civil examination.”
“There you go again, talking about Grandfather!”
“He said people outside Jinan regularly had their labor taken by martial artists. At least that does not happen to us. If your late father had not been a gambler, we would have lived respectably.”
“Having their labor taken? The Huangbo bastards are doing exactly that. Do you know how much my brother could earn if he were here?”
“You little...! You will get us in trouble if you insult an orthodox sect!”
After receiving a sharp slap on the back, the girl grumbled as she left the house.
“What kind of orthodox sect kills all the righteous heroes? You keep using that word wrong, Mother! Didn’t you teach me how to read?”
Her mother’s scolding leaked through the closed door, but the girl paid it no mind as she walked down the road.
Perhaps because she had been wandering without thinking, she soon found herself before the largest Huangbo residence in Pingyin County.
The girl glanced up at the huge manor, then quickly turned around.
“Uh?”
“You came at the right time.”
The voice was deep and resonant. A rough hand seized the back of her neck and lifted her.
“I thought one of our branch families might be wiped out by those Desolate Fortress ruffians.”
“U-Uncle Ma?”
The girl was spun around. A middle-aged man in yellow silk stood with an indifferent expression.
As he walked toward the shattered gate, he muttered, “You may give those bastards a question to answer. What is chivalry?”
* * *
Sword Song. The power revealed by the sword’s Sound Arts was overwhelming.
“What is this...?”
Huangbo Mi-mi, the Deepwater Sword, stared blankly around the manor.
The dead and unconscious lay sprawled everywhere, one after another.
The battle had stopped. The servants who had retreated the moment the fighting began, leaving only the table settings behind, cautiously peeked their heads out.
“W-What happened?”
“Why are they lying down? They are bleeding.”
“They are not moving. Are they dead?”
Their shrill screams rang out as they saw the devastation.
Aura flowed from the Deepwater Sword’s hand resting on her sword hilt.
No amount of adornment could hide the traces of training on that hand.
She was certainly a rare swordswoman. Her lips barely moved as she spoke through clenched teeth, yet killing intent could be felt in her voice.
“How dare you.”
“...Sound Arts are among the rarest martial arts under heaven.”
The county magistrate muttered.
Nothing remained of the refined idler who had wanted to watch a bloody battle alongside music.
With grave eyes, the county magistrate could only stare at the three members of the Demon Wings.
Jeong Yeon-shin gained a few breaths of time. He drew a long breath.
The Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula was also a method of inhaling and exhaling.
When he recalled the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s long, thin breath from when he had received the technique, his heart calmed.
‘That was too much.’
The qi manipulation required to use Sword Song was incredibly precise. It pushed his senses to their limit.
It involved carrying projected qi on sound created from inner energy.
It was a martial art that made enormous use of the upper dantian’s capacity. It could practically be called a divine technique.
“You were talking about refined pleasures. Why have you gone quiet?”
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke as though perfectly at ease, though he felt crushing fatigue.
It felt as if someone had stuffed a water-soaked cloth into his head.
This was his first time using Sword Song at full power. To kill martial artists instantly, he had needed to do so.
The same was true even if they were weaker than him.
Their natural protective qi was still an inner-energy barrier. If he wanted to pierce their ears with the sword’s resonance and kill them, he had no choice.
‘I cannot use it twice. I did not think even once would be this difficult.’
His previously vigorous body rapidly grew sluggish. They said that, in the world of experts, life and death could be decided by a hairbreadth.
If any enemy was equal to or stronger than him, he would have to endure a difficult battle.
‘Hm?’
As he looked inward with the Moon Spirit Harmonization Formula’s breathing method, Jeong Yeon-shin was briefly stunned.
At the top of his head, at his crown.
It was clearly different from that morning. His innate senses recognized the difference from a single day.
The Baihui acupoint had widened further. It seemed like the equivalent of three days.
‘My hand.’
His index finger trembled in the middle of a real battle. It was not because he lacked strength.
A brief panic had seized him.
The instinctive fear of death had suddenly come upon him. For a moment, the abyss swallowed him.
Moving qi was like using muscle strength.
They said that if one could freely direct one’s power without exerting one’s will, one had already become an absolute master.
The inner energy realms called Three Flowers Gather at the Crown, Five Qi Return to Origin, and Reaching the Pinnacle were all part of that process.
It differed from the senses Jeong Yeon-shin had been born with. This was like climbing an enormous mountain.
‘I will think of a solution later.’
A life-and-death duel lay ahead.
He forcibly pulled his consciousness back. He pushed his unease into a corner of his mind.
Just as he had forced down the shock of his first kill during the destruction of Jeong Family Manor.
‘Think about martial arts first. Would reaching at least the level of Black Uniform be enough to avoid backlash?’
Jeong Yeon-shin’s control over his power owed much to his innate upper dantian.
Without any fundamental change to his inner energy realm, he controlled qi through his senses alone.
Anything that surpassed its limits was bound to have a reaction.
“Gold-thread embroidery. You are a disciple of the Lord of Desolate Fortress.”
The Deepwater Sword, Huangbo Mi-mi, slowly approached.
The sight before her was the reward for the price Jeong Yeon-shin had paid.
The collapsed encirclement was truly overwhelming.
A Blue Uniform martial artist had single-handedly crushed the forces of a branch family of one of the Eight Great Families.
“...”
How did Jeong Yeon-shin appear as he stood there without saying a word?
The Deepwater Sword’s steps were cautious. Though she seemed to have begun using footwork, she gave off no particular presence.
Jeong Yeon-shin simply watched her.
‘Huangbo Mi-mi, the Deepwater Sword.’
She was the Family Head of a branch family, after all.
The image of her wearing rouge on her lips and displaying affection for her husband alongside the many wives and concubines had to be set aside.
He could not believe the martial arts she had accumulated would be shallow.
Jeong Yeon-shin had reached this point by capitalizing on his enemies’ carelessness. The reverse could never be true.
Shing.
He gripped the Desolate Sword’s hilt and slowly drew it.
“Deepwater Sword. I remember what you said.”
“...Serving Desolate Fortress does not make lowborn blood noble. You are not qualified to speak with me.”
“You mentioned the arm first. You scum from the unorthodox sects.”
Jeong Yeon-shin spoke quietly. His head was ringing.
His overworked upper dantian felt blazing hot, but he sent a sound transmission to Cheong Myeong and Baek Mir-yeo.
He told them that he considered this a solo mission.
It meant they should not interfere. To advance beyond Black Uniform and reach Purple Uniform? Could there be any path other than carnage?
There would be battles where he wandered the edge of death. He needed the experience of bringing out his martial arts even in a condition this poor.
That was why he said, “Come.”
At that moment, he sensed people crossing the manor’s threshold in the distance. This was not the time to concern himself with them.
Whoosh!
A heavy aura surged from the Deepwater Sword’s blade as it rushed toward him.
The sword’s surface was extremely broad, just as the Blue Uniform senior from the Annihilation Squad had told him.
The martial art inherited by this Pingyin branch family was the Heavy Sword.
That meant its sword force was firm and unshakable.
A straight force wave shot toward him alongside tremendous sword power.
It was as though she had circulated her qi countless times while walking here. This was a properly prepared strike.
Clang!
The moment he met it with the Desolate Sword, he nearly lost his grip.
That was despite trying to redirect as much of its force as possible.
At the same time, Jeong Yeon-shin’s sluggish senses sharpened once more.
Tap!
He stepped back.
At the same time, instinct took hold. Twisting his elbow, he guided his opponent’s force wave to the internal obliques at his lower back.
His knees naturally bent. The aftermath of the sword strike he had received passed through his gluteus maximus and reached the backs of his thighs.
At that point, his opponent’s strength became Jeong Yeon-shin’s force wave.
Powerful energy erupted from the leg with which he had stepped back.
Boom!
Without raising his foot to stamp, Jeong Yeon-shin executed True Step. It lasted only an instant.
The movements of every muscle that had guided the force through his body reversed in an instant.
The burning power reached the hand gripping his sword hilt, unleashing a formless, heavy force wave.
The air shook. He returned a Heavy Sword with a Heavy Sword.
Fragments of force that burst from Jeong Yeon-shin’s hand raised a violent wind. He swung his sword upward.
Bang!
“Hup!”
The Deepwater Sword’s blade flew away just as she was bringing down her second sword form.
She had not let down her guard.
This was the strength of Jeong Yeon-shin’s senses and Seom-ye’s martial might.
The edge of his vision caught her face, momentarily dazed. The instant he sent her sword flying, he spun with Spinning Thread Force.
Jeong Yeon-shin had prepared a second strike at once as well.
Slash!
A snagging sensation traveled clearly through the blade.
The Desolate Sword returned in a pale blur, stained with blood. The Deepwater Sword’s right arm flew away.
“Ghk!”
She let out a ragged breath and staggered back.
Jeong Yeon-shin shook his sword once.
At this moment, he was the stronger one. He was clearly looking down upon the Family Head of a Huangbo Family branch.
His talent was not limited to learning. Even in moments of utter exhaustion, he possessed the combat ability to keep his edge.
There was a strength within his senses that could not be measured by the level of his martial arts.
“You might go out into the martial world alone next time.”
Cheong Myeong’s amused voice came from behind him.
Jeong Yeon-shin strode forward.
Blood dripped from the lowered sword tip. At its end stood the Deepwater Sword, desperately striking the acupoints of her right arm to stanch the bleeding.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly parted his lips.
“You said it yourself.”
He stepped forward indifferently and raised the Desolate Sword slightly. This was the moment he destroyed a Huangbo Family branch all by himself.
It felt excessive for the price of three days’ worth of lifespan. At the very least, this was not a feat a Blue Uniform could accomplish alone.
The Lord of Desolate Fortress’s face already came to mind.
“After the arm, you spoke of my neck,” he said.
Footnotes:
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