Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time - Chapter 69

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈

Episode 69: Reputation (4)

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The Blood Flame Sect Master burst into laughter as he looked down. It did not stop.

The delight spilling from him deepened by the moment, soon turning into maniacal laughter.

The Blood Flame Sect Master swept his white hair aside and began laughing madly.

Amid it all, Jeong Yeon-shin stared directly at Go Jong-hak. Go Jong-hak’s complexion had gone terribly pale.

He stood there awkwardly, unable to decide what to do.

“You’ve ignored an order.”

Jeong Yeon-shin spoke quietly.

He took a slow step toward Go Jong-hak, openly letting the qi fluctuations of the Mara Roaring Blood Art spill forth.

No one could stop him. Jeong Yeon-shin now carried an air of authority, at least within the Blood Flame Sect.

He was the Grand Preceptor who had fulfilled their long-held wish.

Only the Sect Master stood above Jeong Yeon-shin, who had personally performed a miracle.

The Blood Flame Sect Master’s laughter, echoing through the silence, proved it.

Standing before Go Jong-hak, Jeong Yeon-shin looked up slightly.

“I gave an order.”

“...”

“Offer it up.”

Go Jong-hak could not answer. The hand slowly gripping his necklace trembled.

The entire leadership of the sect watched in silence.

The Third Apostle’s son, the Blood Master who ranked among the Blood Flame Sect’s finest, was offering a treasure with his own hands to a lowly Desolate Fortress wretch.

“A precious tribute.”

Jeong Yeon-shin closed his hand around it.

The smooth jade against his knuckles felt unfamiliar. They said poison was more terrifying than any master beneath heaven.

He had heard that the Poison-Avoiding Pearl’s value could not be measured in money. It was the most valuable possession he had ever acquired.

“Grand Preceptor!”

The Blood Flame Sect Master shouted with a broad smile. His voice was full of cheer.

It was the first time Jeong Yeon-shin had seen him act this way since he had been brought here captive. Even the Blood Flame Sect’s masters seemed to be seeing him like this for the first time as well.

As they failed to hide their bewilderment, Jeong Yeon-shin met the Sect Master’s eyes.

The Sect Master’s scarlet lips split wide at the corners.

“Come here! I grant you a place at my side!”

Sharp breaths escaped from all around. These were not people who had maintained detachment through the Blood Flame Sect’s profound cultivation.

He continued to defy convention. Jeong Yeon-shin’s alteration of the formula held that much power.

“Such a strange thing...”

“It truly is. Is it not a marvel?”

The attendant whose hair had turned black like that of an Apostle shared the crowd’s attention with the Grand Preceptor.

“...Very well.”

As the Blood Flame Sect’s Grand Preceptor, Jeong Yeon-shin climbed the thirty-six steps.

Attendants with fluttering red hair hurriedly cleared a place beside the Sect Master.

The faces glancing toward the Grand Preceptor all seemed to carry the same feverish desire. They wanted black hair.

“Come quickly!”

The Blood Flame Sect Master, his lips torn wide with madness, made an elegant gesture before spreading his arms.

“Music! Strike up the music!”

The purge became a grand celebratory banquet.

They said melodies that struck at the mind were an effective means of rule.

The Blood Flame Sect was no different, even if it held no rites to worship Heaven.

Performers carrying every sort of instrument, including zithers and bamboo flutes, walked out.

“Take it.”

Smiling, the Blood Flame Sect Master lifted the jade bottle of Dukang Wine. His movements were exceedingly delicate.

There was a trace of consideration within his haughty bearing.

Even when Jeong Yeon-shin merely touched his cup, the Sect Master only smiled.

“You must now learn the sect’s doctrines. Someone of ordinary standing will not do to teach the Grand Preceptor. I should assign you an elder.”

“...”

“Yet placing this sect’s ideals in your mind now carries great meaning. I wish to teach you the first essential point myself. Listen. The essence of our doctrine can be expressed in a single sentence.”

Though Jeong Yeon-shin did not answer, the Blood Flame Sect Master continued.

“Our sect burns away the turmoil and torment of the human world.”

“Affliction.”

At Jeong Yeon-shin’s murmur, the Sect Master looked pleased. His white hair tilted slightly with his smile.

“That is right. Buddhist monks call those two together affliction. These thirty-six steps hold great meaning.”

The Blood Flame Sect Master lightly kicked the floor of the stairs. There was an almost frivolous lightness to his actions, unbefitting the supreme power of the martial world.

“They were built to overcome the thirty-six afflictions of this world. It means our sect’s teachings are no different from Maitreya’s salvation.”

“Is death salvation?”

Jeong Yeon-shin suddenly asked. The smile on the Blood Flame Sect Master’s lips deepened.

“To debate its profound meaning would not be enough, even after watching dawn rise countless times. Do you know that the Ming Dynasty was wrong from its very birth? The realm has already fallen into misery. The Grand Preceptor must also know of the poor harvests spreading across the Central Plains lately.”

The Sect Master’s long finger traced his cup, as if drawing across the earth.

“Poor harvests bring troubled times. The martial world is no land of immortals either. They are people who must eat to live, so it is obvious what will happen. Poor harvests bring famine, and the strong will not endure starvation. Next comes plunder. The boundary between the government and the martial world will truly collapse.”

There was a strange depth to the words of the head of an unorthodox sect.

He spoke with insight befitting a divine art raised to lofty heights.

Were all leaders of the greatest factions beneath heaven like this? Jeong Yeon-shin slowly parted his lips.

“Desolate Fortress will grow busy.”

“Your sect is powerful. Yet it is small compared to the vast Central Plains. The Great Ming Code? The day will come when the power of martial artists scattered across the realm becomes absolute authority. Martial arts stand above the law. The conduct of the Huangbo Family you witnessed already tells you as much.”

“...”

“When Founding Emperor Zhu Yuanzhang and that damned elven race founded the nation, I saw it clearly. What a spectacle the Central Plains were. The fools beneath heaven condemn Blood Arts, but even this sect’s ultimate arts could not compare to the horrors of the war waged by Yuan and Ming.”

“...They said you have lived as long as the elven elders of the Nine Sects.”

“I guarantee it. A disaster no less severe than that era will come, and there will be no chivalrous heroes in those days. When their bellies shrink, will they raise the banner of righteousness? What a joke.”

The Blood Flame Sect Master drained his cup and declared, “There will be no coexistence of martial arts and chivalry, as the idlers of the martial world proclaim. Only martial arts will remain. That is why our sect must spread far and wide. We will reduce the mouths beneath heaven with Blood Arts, and the followers strengthened by the inner energy of sacred sacrifices will restore order to the realm.”

“Did you not say you would burn away turmoil and torment?”

“It is this sect’s duty to trample the ignorance of the masses and move forward. To eradicate affliction, one must endure affliction.”

The breath he exhaled with those words carried a solid weight.

Jeong Yeon-shin almost accepted it as profound insight alone. He could not. A sinister nature seeped through it as well.

The man held both the depth of a supreme martial artist and the demonic qi of an unorthodox sect leader within himself. He was close to chaos itself.

Jeong Yeon-shin understood only part of those conveniently twisted beliefs. Yet he had no leisure to consider the troubled age that would come.

‘Time is up.’

He sensed the fading glow of sunset and judged the hour.

The time the Lord of Desolate Fortress had given him had passed. She could appear at any moment.

Then a shout filled with resentment suddenly rang out.

“Almighty Sect Master!”

Looking down, Jeong Yeon-shin saw Go Jong-hak dragging a ragged, beggar-looking boy by the nape.

He knew at once.

The boy was a commoner captured outside. He appeared to have been beaten badly. Not a patch of the boy’s swollen face was uninjured.

“The Grand Preceptor has proven his astonishing talent! The force of the Mara Roaring Blood Art he possesses is truly lofty, yet I understand he has not displayed the wondrous effects of star absorption! This Blood Master wishes for the honor of presenting an offering to the Grand Preceptor. I humbly ask your permission!”

“Hmm.”

Interest appeared in the Blood Flame Sect Master’s expression. He turned to Jeong Yeon-shin.

“To my knowledge, that is true as well.”

“...”

“Go down and add that boy’s insignificant strength to your growth. You should understand the principles of the Star-Absorbing Method contained within Blood Arts. Go and use it. You will step into a new world.”

His smiling voice urged him to murder.

Star absorption. To absorb stars. Fanatics always gave holiness to their actions.

The Star-Absorbing Method was what Blood Flame Sect martial artists called the theft of another person’s qi.

Jeong Yeon-shin felt the time had come. Some instinct beyond his own understanding sensed the Lord of Desolate Fortress watching him.

He slowly rose and began descending the Thirty-Six Steps of Affliction.

Wooooong.

He roused his inner energy.

He wrapped the qi of the Mara Roaring Blood Art around the power of the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand. This place was a den of demons.

It was the Blood Flame Sect’s main headquarters, where demons might as well have lived and breathed. Many great masters here could see through most advanced martial principles at once.

The Blood Flame Sect Master and the Apostles were such people, regardless of Jeong Yeon-shin’s talent for creating martial arts.

The Third Apostle’s gaze, boring into the back of his head, felt like blazing hellfire.

Unlike those awed by the miracle, the eyes of some great masters who blindly trusted bloodlines were far from kind.

This was a nest of madmen. He could sense people everywhere who seemed ready to endure the Sect Master’s wrath and attempt an assassination.

‘It is time to return.’

He had earned more than enough merit. They said the Chief Steward’s Office of Desolate Fortress handled the assessment of achievements.

He had been away from the main fortress for too long. Just as missions had come one after another, there was much he was owed within Desolate Fortress.

Step.

He had already reached Go Jong-hak. He glanced at the boy sprawled beside him, staring up with a swollen face.

There was something oddly extraordinary about the child. Spirit shone from the boy’s eyes.

“You vile, vile blood demons... Father will not forgive you...”

The boy mumbled through slurred speech. The eyes glaring at Jeong Yeon-shin were remarkably strong.

Go Jong-hak did not strike the boy again. He only snickered and watched Jeong Yeon-shin.

“What do you think? I have brought someone who has consumed many spiritual medicines for the Grand Preceptor. If you begin absorbing him, I will gladly stand guard for you.”

His expression seemed to ask whether Jeong Yeon-shin could truly do it.

Jeong Yeon-shin silently extended a hand. The irregular fluctuations unique to Blood Arts spread from each finger joint.

His technique was not directed at the boy.

It shot toward Go Jong-hak’s neck.

Go Jong-hak snickered and his Blood Arts qi rose.

Protective qi of considerable density rose around him like a red haze. He did not dodge.

He looked as if he were indulging a childish outburst.

“Noble people can set aside their beliefs before the greater cause. Whether the Grand Preceptor is noble as well is another matter, but... Urk!”

The essence of the move was the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand. At that moment, Jeong Yeon-shin realized the true nature of the inner-energy deception art.

The layered qi displayed power unlike before.

Blood Arts qi and dharma power. Opposing energies merged through his innate sense. It was powerful.

Powerful enough to scatter Go Jong-hak’s protective qi like mist and seize his throat.

Urgency rose in Go Jong-hak’s expression as his qi surged. Jeong Yeon-shin clenched his grip without hesitation.

Crack.

He felt it as he crushed him without mercy. The sensation of both carotid arteries and the neck bones, tempered by qi, collapsing together was vivid.

He casually shoved him away as if discarding a wooden stick. Go Jong-hak’s corpse fell with a thud.

The eyes of the boy, who had been sitting there and glaring at Jeong Yeon-shin, widened.

“What a terrible thing!”

“You bastard!”

The Blood Flame Sect masters’ perception was lightning-fast, even though something utterly unexpected had happened.

They rushed in at once, stirring up a storm. It felt as though a prison of killing intent had formed in an instant.

Jeong Yeon-shin calmly stepped in front of the innocent commoner.

‘I want to rest for a while.’

His journey through the martial world, which had begun at the Dragon-Phoenix Gathering, had been quite long. How much merit he had earned was secondary.

The mission rewards would be immense, but that was separate from what he was thinking now.

Was Hyeon Won-chang safe? Had the expedition party, including Ma Jin, suffered any harm at the hands of the Huangbo Family?

His mind burned. Warmth filled his Baihui acupoint.

At that moment, the upper dantian sense that suddenly came to him mapped out the area outside the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation.

Hundreds of martial artists lay in ambush, surrounding the area. Their presence was extraordinary.

The most striking sight was the sky above the center of the spell formation.

The Lord of Desolate Fortress floated there, her pale-green garments streaming like palace robes.

She stood upon the wind, carrying the bearing of a true supreme master.

She was calmly using Void-Stepping.

Her long leg moved. Her merciless foot came down upon the barrier.

Kuuuuung!

The air rippled in an instant.