WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈

Episode 71: Reputation (6)

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'As expected. No squad leaders from the main fortress are here.'

Jeong Yeon-shin swept his gaze over his allies once more. The formidable aura unique to Black Uniform warriors was nowhere to be found.

It was only natural. The Central Plains were as vast as a dozen foreign nations combined. Even the Seventeen Squads struggled to cover such an expanse.

Three squads were concentrated at the Huangbo Family, so the main fortress could not help but be left greatly undermanned.

It was because their forces had already scattered across every corner of the Central Plains.

Even the Divine Sword Squad Leader rarely returned to the main fortress in Xiangyang. It meant the Squad Leader was fulfilling Desolate Fortress's duties.

Even if one or two squad leaders had come, they would likely be keeping the Blood Flame Sect Apostles absent from this place in check.

There were quite a few Blue Uniform warriors. They mainly commanded martial artists drawn in by prestige and authority.

They were engaged in a fierce clash with the Blood Flame Sect's main force.

"Did you throw yourself in with the Blood Flame Sect?!"

A strangely familiar shout rang out amid it all. A young Taoist priest had already rushed up before him.

The plum blossom embroidery on the Mount Hua Sect robes fluttered.

'Yu Hyeon.'

Yu Hyeon was the Mount Hua Sect's chief disciple and had become Yeon-shin's friend.

Despite the battlefield, Yu Hyeon carried the same easy manner shown on the day they first met.

Weiji Myo-hwa, Zhongnan's successor, was there as well, along with Gak Jeong, Shaolin's Young Divine Monk.

Their acquaintances from the Nine Sects had even brought their fellow disciples with them. Yeon-shin understood the moment he saw them.

They had come purely out of friendship and chivalrous loyalty. They must have secured their sect elders' permission first.

'He spoke of heroes disappearing.'

Yeon-shin remembered the Blood Flame Sect Master speaking of famine and hunger. He shook his head inwardly.

Could that man say the same after seeing people like them?

Tap.

"These bastards are pretty strong, aren't they?"

Cheong Myeong's lightness art was the fastest. The Blue Uniform robe of Desolate Fortress flowed gracefully as Cheong Myeong spun through the air and landed.

Cheong Myeong's movements while stepping beside Yeon-shin were remarkably light.

Whoosh!

Yeon-shin's hair fluttered in the cool breeze distinctive to the elven race. Cheong Myeong grinned and gave Yeon-shin's shoulder a light tap, looking more dependable than anyone else at that moment.

Baek Mir-yeo and Weiji Myo-hwa arrived as well, stirring up fierce gusts.

That was not all.

Yu Hyeon and five Plum Blossom Swordsmen, Gak Jeong and four extraordinary warrior monks, ten familiar masters from the Zhongnan Sect, and Hyeon Won-chang.

Yeon-shin greeted the others with a glance. There was no room for leisure.

"Blood Flame Sect's main headquarters... It truly lives up to its name."

One Plum Blossom Swordsman murmured.

A standoff formed.

Jeong Yeon-shin and his fellow martial artists stood in the center, while the Blood Flame Sect's leaders began encircling them.

'They left us an opening. Deliberately.'

Yeon-shin saw through the intentions of the Blood Masters, including the Sixth Apostle.

They seemed to have highly rated the martial arts of the intruders with the fastest lightness arts. They intended to draw them all in at once, then annihilate them first.

"Seom-ye's divine weapon has been secured."

Baek Mir-yeo spoke.

"The problem is getting out. We don't know how many exchanges the Lord of Desolate Fortress will need to kill the Blood Flame Sect Master."

Even as she spoke, her gaze swept over the Pure Blood Robe Yeon-shin wore, as though checking whether he was injured.

"Isn't that bastard an Apostle?"

Hyeon Won-chang belatedly pointed at the Sixth Apostle in alarm.

The elites who had arrived first had been watching the Apostle from the beginning.

The Apostle was cloaked in the most formidable aura among the enemies. The stronger the master, the keener their martial senses. They could not help but remain wary.

"Mount Hua, Zhongnan... Shaolin. Even the Nine Sects have come."

The Sixth Apostle smiled. The Apostle's hollow cheeks, stripped of flesh, sank inward.

"Were you afraid of future consequences? Your force is paltry. Not a single elder among you."

No one answered.

The Blood Flame Sect was vast. Its combined branches might have been stronger than its main headquarters.

They said the martial strength of the scattered First and Second Apostles nearly matched the leaders of great sects.

The relationships between great factions belonged to the realm of politics.

The Thirteen Heavens, which represented the unorthodox sects, and the great orthodox sects were like that. For an elder-class supreme master of the Nine Sects to step forward carried tremendous weight.

It was tantamount to declaring a sect war. To fight to extermination, as the Zhongnan Sect and Tyrant Sword Sect had done? Anyone would avoid that if possible.

Even if orthodox sects proclaimed chivalry, the realities of life came first.

Swish.

The Blood Masters began executing their footwork. Before long, they had formed battle lines. The pressure of their explosive momentum was immense.

The battle between masters was about to begin. Perhaps it was the tension, but Hyeon Won-chang's voice suddenly rang out.

- I don't know why the Blood Masters here look so strong.

It was sound transmission. Yeon-shin answered at once.

- They really are that strong.

He had stayed at the main headquarters for a long time. Many had come to seek his instruction.

No small number of blood demons had offered living people as tribute, but the Blood Masters who presented martial artists as offerings were especially powerful.

- There's a dungeon holding people whose qi was nearly taken from them. We need to win and save them.

After speaking with the Seventh Apostle, he had been assigned a dungeon. He had gathered the people who had nearly been sacrificed in an underground prison.

He wanted to protect at least those who had been offered up.

Hyeon Won-chang's expression changed. Without a word, Hyeon Won-chang adjusted their grip on the sword. A sharply honed presence extended as Hyeon Won-chang assumed the opening stance of a killing sword.

Yeon-shin raised his inner energy once more.

He filled the Renying acupoints on either side of his Adam's apple and the Lianquan acupoint directly above his vocal cords with qi. He paid special attention to them.

- Since I can kill every Blood Master, will you stand guard for me?

It was sound transmission sent to Baek Mir-yeo.

- ...You are a Blue Uniform warrior who carried out a long-term mission. You deserve respect.

Baek Mir-yeo smoothed her puzzled expression into calm as she answered. The enemies were already rushing in.

As the Nine Sects' masters guarded every direction, the masters of Demon Wings quietly watched over him.

Wooooong!

Yeon-shin immediately unleashed the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand.

The hand blade dyed blue was different from before. Strange ripples spread outward.

The Sixth Apostle seemed to be the first to realize something was wrong, but Yeon-shin was already unraveling the principles of the Sword Song through the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand.

Wooooong!

It was a martial art that carried projected qi through sword resonance. This time was different. Rather than sound, he infused it with dharma power.

The force of the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand began to spread in every direction. It awakened the energies of the same kind that he had planted like thunderclap bombs.

The strength he had planted while watching more than thirty sunrises at the Blood Flame Sect responded. The sound of resonance did not cease.

In the midst of it all, the Sixth Apostle's figure flashed. The Body Movement Scripture was as fast as a ray of light.

Boom!

Marble fragments from the inner courtyard scattered in every direction.

Gak Jeong and the Shaolin monks stepped forward to block the Apostle. Upright aura spread from them as one.

For an instant, it seemed as though the image of a Buddha had appeared. It was qi given form.

A formation that multiplied strength through combined effort. Were only five of them truly deploying the legendary Shaolin Eighteen Arhats Formation?

"The Tathagata's will rests upon your crowns!"

Gak Jeong stood at its center. Gak Jeong used the fist art shown during the debate on Buddhist teachings with Yeon-shin to block the Sixth Apostle's punch.

Majestic force surged from their colliding fists. It was the Shaolin Dragon Fist.

Even so, Gak Jeong was driven backward. Gak Jeong let out a lion's roar.

"Ahhhhh!"

The battle cry was tremendous. The four warrior monks supporting Gak Jeong from both sides did the same.

They took the same opening stance and lent their force waves to Gak Jeong. They said all martial arts under heaven originated from Shaolin. Its foundation was truly formidable.

Yeon-shin was deeply grateful. He immediately closed his eyes.

He could feel Cheong Myeong, Baek Mir-yeo, and Hyeon Won-chang nearby.

Protecting a martial artist preparing to execute complex qi circulation. That was what it meant to stand guard.

Their trust reached him as unexpected warmth.

Clang! Boom!

Masters clashed.

The force waves beating against his skin like drums were incredible. He could feel their full force.

The masters who had faced off became entangled in chaotic combat.

'I won't drag this fight out.'

The scale of the battle was vast. So were the efforts he had devoted to preparing for it over more than thirty days.

A faint aura spread in concentric circles. It was the Sword Song of the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand, gathered in his right hand.

The response was immediate.

Wooooong!

It began at the railings of the Thirty-Six Steps of Affliction. Dharma power aura suddenly burst forth.

Even with his eyes closed, Yeon-shin felt it.

"Gasp!"

The breathing of two Blood Masters faltered. They had been exchanging blows with Plum Blossom Swordsmen while running up and down the stairs.

A momentary opening led straight to death. The moment the Mount Hua Sect's Plum Blossom Sword flashed, one of their heads flew.

"What...?"

One Plum Blossom Swordsman muttered blankly despite winning.

It was only a glimpse of what was happening. The same thing gradually began occurring everywhere.

The Blood Masters' defeats increased sharply. The source was obvious.

Blood spattered, and the Sixth Apostle ran rampant, but people from both sides began extending their martial senses toward the young Desolate Fortress master one by one.

Amid it all, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly took a step.

Step.

He began ascending the Thirty-Six Steps of Affliction. Surrounded by his Demon Wings comrades, he alone seemed peaceful.

The Blood Masters could not approach. The ripples of the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand grew denser by the moment.

Wooooooong!

With every step, his dharma power grew stronger. His long preparation caused the flower of demon-slaying to bloom.

Successive bursts of upright energy erupted throughout the Blood Flame Sect's main headquarters.

Yeon-shin reached the end of the Thirty-Six Steps of Affliction. He opened his eyes.

It was where the Blood Flame Sect Master had once looked down upon all beneath him. Yeon-shin raised his foot to execute True Step.

He could barely endure any longer. The upper dantian blazing in his mind was turning his thoughts white.

Boom!

He stamped down.

That was the beginning.

Wooooooong!

A pale blue light began rolling in all eight directions.

The core of the Two-Flame Blood Spirit Formation transformed into an anti-demon formation.

Even the fragments of the sorcery formation that the Lord of Desolate Fortress had shattered were completely altered.

The strength of the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand that he had planted across the main headquarters surged outward like waves.

It began at the railings and reached the stairs and rafters. The shock triggered further eruptions, and the chain of reactions exploded one after another.

All kinds of screams rang out from the Blood Flame Sect's main headquarters, now a battlefield.

They were the cries of blood demons. The agony each of them felt filled the sky in naked clarity.

In an instant, it became a scene from hell. The Blood Flame Sect members writhed as though they had fallen into the grasp of the Immovable Wisdom King.

"Huh, huff."

"What, what is this...?!"

The battlefield before the Sect Master's Hall was worse.

They had taken the layered ripples of dharma power head-on. Those who collapsed where they stood were the fortunate ones, for they died cleanly.

The leaders who staggered only to be hacked apart by the orthodox sects' sword strikes met gruesome ends.

Compared to the momentum they had shown at the start of the battle, their collapse was almost anticlimactic.

Slay demons and eradicate heresy was a phrase with a chilling edge, and the orthodox martial artists were merciless toward Demonic Sect practitioners.

Yet the Blood Flame Sect members in the inner courtyard did not look at them. Even as they died, they fixed their eyes on Jeong Yeon-shin standing atop the stairs.

The young Grand Preceptor.

His black hair, reaching his shoulders, swayed in the ripples as his eyes shone like a sea lit by sunlight.

A deeper blue radiance wrapped the hand he held out.

The auspicious rolling blue light mingled with the blood-red skirts of his Pure Blood Robe, creating a strange sight.

"That bastard...!"

"A reaper was let in."

"How can the bearing of one so lowborn be, be so noble..."

"If only he had truly become the Grand Preceptor."

The orthodox martial artists were much the same. Even as they cut off the enemies' breath, they looked toward Seom-ye of Desolate Fortress.

Their original plan had been different. They had only meant to withstand the attacks of the enemy leaders, including the Apostles.

At its heart was their faith in the Lord of Desolate Fortress's absolute martial strength.

They had prepared to accept great sacrifices. Yet it had been unnecessary.

It did not feel real. The young genius of Desolate Fortress, who had been captured, had turned the tide of the battle.

"What in the world happened...?"

"Hey! The evil sect bastards have taken their own lives!"

"It wasn't suicide. It was a method of the orthodox Buddhist school."

"I've never heard of anything like it. Who in all under heaven could..."

They were martial artists from martial clans and martial halls gathered from the surrounding regions. Other Blue Uniform warriors were among them as well.

As they came up from the outer perimeter, they saw the sight at the Thirty-Six Steps of Affliction.

The vanguard rushing over with lightness arts stopped in their tracks. Silence lingered for a moment.

They too were martial artists whose martial senses had opened. They could clearly feel the dharma power aura lingering in the hand of the boy in the blood-red robe at the top of the steps.

Before anyone realized it, the Sixth Apostle was the only enemy left standing.

Blood dripped from the fist that had crushed several masters of the Nine Sects. That was all.

The fighting naturally came to a stop.

"Has the Great Sun Tathagata descended...?"

The Sixth Apostle sighed. The Apostle's speech and conduct did not seem like those of a Blood Flame Sect member.

"Grand Preceptor... No. It is Seom-ye. From the beginning, you..."

"These Apostles."

Yeon-shin cut the Apostle off and continued slowly.

"You talk too much. Every one of you."

He raised the hand imbued with the Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand.

The dharma power ripples, which still had not stopped, warped and unfolded without end. It was a gesture that said there was no need for further words.

The formation, transformed into the perfect countering formation, was now his ally. He could handle it.

'It's hard.'

His body said otherwise.

The backlash from the Sword Song was flooding over his upper dantian. It felt as though his head was being crushed inward.

He desperately kept it from showing. The Shaolin monks who had faced the Sixth Apostle's assault were in miserable condition.

Now, he was the only one with power specialized for facing Demonic Sect enemies.

"Ha."

The dejection vanished from the Sixth Apostle's face. The Apostle's eyes widened.

Fame, profit, and doctrine had fallen away from the Apostle. A desire to test their strength showed in the Sixth Apostle's expression.

The Sixth Apostle spoke with admiration.

"Even if it is only your head..."

Splatter!

The Apostle's entire body, along with the mouth that had been speaking, shattered into pieces. A tremendous gale arrived a moment later and swept away even the fragments of the corpse.

Softly, like a flower petal drifting down from above, a woman stepped onto the ground beside Jeong Yeon-shin.

"Lord of Desolate Fortress!"

Cheong Myeong and Baek Mir-yeo, both covered in blood, prostrated themselves. Hyeon Won-chang belatedly dropped to one knee as well.

The Desolate Fortress warriors among the crowd also paid their respects.

Many martial artists followed suit, kneeling or raising clasped fists. Their varied faces held the deepest awe or fear.

"My Lord..."

Yeon-shin barely managed to speak. His entire body suddenly grew heavy.

The burden he had barely endured poured down like a flood bursting through a dam.

With some difficulty, he turned his head.

Their eyes met.

Dark-green irises shimmered in the sunlight. The gaze that watched him quietly was radiant.

Was it because she was a peerless master who had surpassed the ordinary realm? It was always like this whenever he faced the Lord of Desolate Fortress.

It felt as if even a blade of grass could tease his martial senses. Something dreamlike washed over his entire body.

Her lips moved slowly.

"Your standing will change."

Her voice sounded as though it came from far away. He did not know when his eyelids had fallen shut. Before he knew it, his vision darkened like a dream.

"I grant you a long sleep first. Rest."

Rustle.

He felt the soft touch of fabric against his cheek. His body, which had begun to tilt out of balance, stopped.

Had someone caught him in their arms? The Lord of Desolate Fortress had spoken of a long sleep. Perhaps he would wake in Desolate Fortress.

He had never wanted an escort in the first place.

'It would have been better if she'd given me the fruit.'

Even one piece of it.

That desperate stray thought gradually scattered away.

He fell into a bottomless abyss that pressed down on him like a swamp. Without resisting, he let his consciousness sink.

Even the blade of his heart, honed through his arduous journey in the martial world, grew dull. Jeong Yeon-shin thought it would only be for a moment.

Footnotes:

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