WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR

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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈

Episode 83: Battle for Supremacy (2)

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The glow of inner energy in Jeong Yeon-shin’s eyes quickly faded. He parted his lips slightly and exhaled a long breath.

An aura spread out from him once, then vanished. It seemed heavier by as much as his qi had increased.

“Anyone would take you for an elite martial artist, if not for that youthful face.”

“His body is different from the start, so all the more so. There cannot be many bodies so well tempered even in the main fortress.”

Several seniors tossed out jokes. They said he now carried the bearing of a martial-world master regardless of his age.

“Thank you.”

Jeong Yeon-shin cupped his fist to those who had stood guard for him. They were the seniors who had watched over his energy-circulating meditation in the Grand Training Hall.

They showed him a concern he had never received at Jeong Family Manor. Their sincerity, so great it nearly felt excessive, was especially precious to him.

“You do not know how much stronger you have become? That can happen.”

Ma Jin spoke while studying the boy closely.

“That is what an increase in inner energy is like. What you can discern through observation is not all there is. You have to use it to realize it.”

Jeong Yeon-shin smiled faintly.

“Are you going to spar with me?”

His tone had changed. There was more ease in it, much like the way he spoke to his maternal uncle.

Ma Jin also seemed pleased to see his nephew gradually open up.

“That would be fine, but... say your farewells first and follow me.”

Ma Jin turned and immediately headed for the exit of the Grand Training Hall.

Jeong Yeon-shin, who had been standing there blankly, turned to his comrades.

“So I get the Squad Leader’s guidance right before a mission.”

“No matter how often you hear advice, it is never enough.”

“The opponent is the Namgung Family. They are called the greatest lay martial family under heaven.”

“Seom-ye, come back in one piece.”

The Demon Wings masters behind him laughed as they offered their farewells.

They sounded as though they were saying they would see him tomorrow, but that was how Desolate Fortress martial artists always said goodbye.

Missions were dangerous. Quite a few comrades never returned. That was why they sent each other off lightly.

‘It is their own kind of prayer.’

They wanted him to return as surely as daylight came the next day. It was a Desolate Fortress custom. Jeong Yeon-shin calmly cupped his fist, then slung the travel pack at his side over his shoulder.

“Young Hero Jeong!”

“Yes, Young Hero Hyeon.”

Jeong Yeon-shin looked at someone who, like him, was still unfamiliar with the customs of the main fortress.

Hyeon Won-chang was grinning broadly.

The blue hero’s headband tied around Hyeon Won-chang’s forehead fluttered slightly behind. To anyone unfamiliar with them, it might have looked as though Hyeon Won-chang were the one departing on the mission.

“This time, return once the martial match is over. If you stay away too long again, I might rise to Blue Uniform myself. Should not a fellow trainee witness the moment you advance in rank? Like me?”

“Young Hero Hyeon, reaching Blue Uniform? Is that not a little early?”

“I have been hiding seven-tenths of my true martial arts. Young Hero Jeong, do not drag out the martial match. You must return.”

After trading a few idle jokes, Jeong Yeon-shin turned away.

He began walking silently. The Training Hall floor, gouged by the True Steps of masters, was especially rough.

This was his first mission without anyone from Demon Wings accompanying him. They had missions of their own to carry out.

‘They said the Huangbo Family operation had drawn too much of their strength.’

He learned it only after returning. The expedition to destroy the Huangbo Family had been a difficult decision.

He had heard they had diverted already scarce manpower to make an example of them.

The martial world was a realm layered over the empire, and Desolate Fortress was a martial faction that protected administrative regions from countless martial-world practitioners.

The Divine Sword Squad’s Seventeen Squads were powerful, but there were far too few of them to cover the entire Central Plains.

People who shared the ideal of stabilizing the people’s lives and whom the main fortress could trust.

Masters with the martial strength to stand against powerful martial-world practitioners.

A main fortress martial artist had to be both. They were difficult people to cultivate.

Many outsiders with enough martial ability to pass the Desolate Exam were filtered out by the Lord of Desolate Fortress. Their temperament was the issue.

‘Desolate Fortress suppresses the freedom of martial-world practitioners.’

It was the potential enemy of every martial faction. If the whole martial world were seen as one, Desolate Fortress was the minority.

The main fortress was not small. The world was vast. The Central Plains was a chaotic land where the Thirteen Heavens, the Nine Sects and Eight Great Families, and countless mid-sized sects stood in disorder.

“So that is why the Namgung Family confidently accepted the challenge letter.”

Jeong Yeon-shin faced Ma Jin in the sealed stone chamber of the small Training Hall.

“Yes. It is very different from the Huangbo Family affair. This is a one-on-one martial match from the start, and they are a major faction that knows our circumstances rather well. They believe the outcome is uncertain if it comes to a contest between small elite forces. The Namgung Family is clearly stronger than the Huangbo Family. They are called the greatest lay martial family under heaven among the orthodox sects.”

“...”

“I will soon have to go to Sichuan as well. Because of the thunderclap bomb that injured you badly. Information says the Sichuan Tang Clan is secretly manufacturing fire bombs. The Chief Steward’s Office ordered me to verify it.”

“The Tang Sect... I heard the Sichuan martial world is dangerous. Is it not a place where even Demon Wings masters cannot guarantee their survival if they get caught up in its currents? The Sichuan Tang Clan contends for the top among the Eight Great Families, and three of the Nine Great Sects and three major factions of the Thirteen Heavens have gathered there.”

Jeong Yeon-shin tossed it out as if it meant nothing. It was the sort of thing a nephew would say.

At the end of the Yuan and beginning of the Ming, supreme masters of movement arts implicated in treason had leisurely evaded the pursuit of imperial martial artists and vanished.

It had been an incident that deeply damaged the dignity of the Ming imperial court.

That was why Desolate Fortress, which carried out missions in the martial world, was not publicly affiliated with the authorities.

The martial world was where the burden of mission failure was greatest.

It meant sharp-witted martial-world practitioners did not hesitate to kill Desolate Fortress martial artists. This was precisely what killing to eliminate all traces meant.

“I understand what you mean. I am more worried about you.”

Ma Jin spoke with a faint smile.

“I, the Leader of Demon Wings, survived without trouble until I rose to Black Uniform. A Blue Uniform brat is not in any position to worry about me.”

“Without trouble?”

That was not true. Ma Jin had lost his testicles during a mission to save Baek Mir-yeo when she was a young girl.

Jeong Yeon-shin unconsciously glanced at Ma Jin’s groin, then quickly looked away.

Ma Jin furrowed his brow and spoke as though he had noticed nothing.

“You showed a new palm art, did you not? During your martial match with the White Qilin.”

“Yes. I have been refining it recently.”

Jeong Yeon-shin recalled the combination of Demon-Slaying Azure River Hand and Mara Roaring Blood Art. It was a method that harnessed the fierce repulsive force of opposing forces within a sorcery-arts formation.

For all its astonishing power, it lacked finesse, and that was not easily changed.

“The Black Uniform martial artists who saw your match that day would have grasped its strengths and weaknesses from that single move. Your forms are not precise. Is that correct?”

“...Yes.”

“It is good to see you admit it readily. Let me give you some advice. What is the foundation of your martial arts now?”

“Jeong Family Youth Technique.”

Jeong Yeon-shin answered without hesitation.

“Correct. The Young Divine Monk Gak Jeong said it was comparable to the Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture. If Shaolin’s Eighteen Arhats acknowledged it as such, then your Jeong Family Youth Technique truly is a peerless dynamic training art. Have you not neglected that training lately while focusing on increasing your inner energy?”

“Ah.”

He nodded. It was training he had never skipped at Jeong Family Manor.

Carrying a log on his back while repeatedly sitting and rising as he circulated qi was one example.

“Since the martial art has already reached great completion, I thought there was little need...”

“Great completion...?”

The conversation stopped for a moment. Jeong Yeon-shin waited quietly while Ma Jin stared down at him.

“...The durability of your acupoints is likely beyond what you imagine. That means you can afford to be bolder when experimenting with martial arts. You are different from ordinary inner-energy masters. Your entire body has been solidly forged, so you need not worry too much about qi deviation.”

Ma Jin continued slowly.

“Shaolin’s seventy-two arts are all famous as divine arts, but some seem strange once you hear their training methods. Heat Sand Palm and Iron Cloth Shirt are like that. You strike your hands into sand heated by fire and throw your body from cliffs. They do not worry about internal injuries while refining bodies that cannot break. It is thanks to tempering the entire body through the Muscle-Tendon Change Scripture.”

“Your knowledge is no less impressive than Young Hero Hyeon’s, Squad Leader. To know Shaolin divine arts in such detail...”

“Hyeon Won-chang?”

Ma Jin furrowed his brow at Jeong Yeon-shin’s joke, then shook his head.

“The point is that you need not worry about the handling of inner energy in your new palm art. It will be enough to circulate your qi without restraint and refine its precision. I know you are absorbed in creating an inner-energy method, but for now, the palm art will be more useful.”

“That certainly makes sense.”

Jeong Yeon-shin nodded and respectfully cupped his fist.

“Thank you for your advice. It is time for me to leave.”

“...Yes. The swords of the Namgung direct line are frightening. Do not let down your guard. Sever your opponent’s head and return.”

The long scar on Ma Jin’s face twitched. It seemed to carry concern.

It did not suit a Black Uniform master who had lived through Desolate Fortress customs for so long.

“I will return, Squad Leader.”

Jeong Yeon-shin bowed once and turned away.

At the same time, he activated his aura sense to its fullest and checked what he had prepared.

Desolate Sword, Northern Light Sword, a martial outfit made from heavenly silkworm silk, a money pouch and travel pack... and his martial arts. He had equipped himself with them all anew.

His preparations were complete. It was time to depart on his mission.

* * *

Jeong Yeon-shin, known as Seom-ye, and Namgung Hwa-shin, the White Qilin, each led a horse along the official road out through the main fortress’s front gate.

The young Blue Uniform masters of Desolate Fortress drew the eyes of passersby, but Jeong Yeon-shin paid them no mind. The situation was strange.

“Where did those two go?”

“I was only told they received a mission that would take them through another region first...”

Namgung Hwa-shin shook his head as though Namgung Hwa-shin did not know.

What.

This was not how the original mission had been assigned.

Jeong Yeon-shin’s maternal grandfather, Ma Yeon-jeok, and the Elder Council Head had been meant to accompany them as part of the martial-match delegation.

The Divine Sword Squad Leader and Divine Sword Squad were supposed to join them later, to participate and provide protection.

‘The two rising juniors are traveling alone until then?’

Jeong Yeon-shin was somewhat dumbfounded. How long had it been since he became a target of the Blood Flame Sect and was hunted down?

It was strange that the main fortress was leaving him unattended again. Could it be the Lord of Desolate Fortress’s order?

‘They say a martial-world journey without hardship is not good for martial attainment, but...’

He asked, “Are the Elder Council Head and the Family Head of the Desolate Ma family currently carrying out missions as well?”

“I do not know.”

As he watched Namgung Hwa-shin smile awkwardly, Jeong Yeon-shin realized something anew.

The White Qilin had also taken the Desolate Exam alongside him.

At their age, it was normal for both of them to still be low-ranking White Uniform martial artists, so it was difficult for them to know the main fortress’s affairs well.

Their situations were the same. Jeong Yeon-shin sharpened his aura sense a little further as he spoke.

“We should hurry. I have accumulated many debts and enmities with the Thirteen Heavens, so we may fail to arrive by the deadline if we are not careful.”

“That seems best.”

Namgung Hwa-shin readily nodded, and they mounted their horses at the same time.

Neigh!

They immediately spurred their fine horses onward. There was no need to discuss the route.

It was no longer an unfamiliar road to Jeong Yeon-shin, and Namgung Hwa-shin’s destination was Namgung Hwa-shin’s family home.

The wind of another beginning blew toward them. The fierce gusts sweeping over their faces and the rising and falling motion were invigorating.

They raced without restraint along the road beneath the early-summer sun, which shone down through a heat haze.

Namgung Hwa-shin smiled.

“You are skilled at riding.”

“It seems Young Hero Namgung is more skilled.”

For half a shichen, the ride was refreshing. The route was simple.

That was true of the road from Xiangyang, where Desolate Fortress stood, to Huizhou in Southern Zhili. There was only one route if they followed the relay-station road.

Perhaps that was why.

All at once, Jeong Yeon-shin felt a certain inevitability.

It was as if a thread of wind bearing a vivid red hue caressed his cheek, as though it had waited only for this moment.

The aura spreading from far ahead was very familiar. It was irregular, yet strangely refined.

Had someone been waiting there for a long time?

‘It is weaker than usual. The aura is shallow.’

The boy spoke from atop his horse. A brief conversation between the two geniuses followed.

“Young Hero Namgung.”

“The strange energy? I sensed it.”

“Yes. It is qi from Blood Arts.”

“It does not seem to be someone at the Blood Master’s level.”

“An Apostle.”

“An Apostle of the Blood Flame Sect?”

“Yes. It should be the Seventh Apostle.”

“I have heard that she lived with you.”

“You know how to joke as well?”

“I am human too. More importantly, that aura is strange. It is too weak for an Apostle’s power.”

“If she has weakened, it is an opportunity. If this is her original martial ability, it is already too late. She will catch up through movement arts.”

“If we discuss our chances on the premise of joining forces?”

“I do not know. We have no choice but to fight loudly and hope the main fortress’s supreme masters notice.”

He answered honestly.

His inner energy had increased after he consumed the elixir pill given as a mission reward.

Yet in the world of masters, a difference of an inch was a gap in martial strength. Jeong Yeon-shin was cautious.

He lived a life pressed for time. It was difficult to give a certain answer without pushing his body to its limits.

Did they have a chance?

‘Still, if that markedly weakened aura is real...’

Thud!

Jeong Yeon-shin leaped from his horse as he judged the distance. His field of view expanded sharply.

At the same time, Namgung Hwa-shin sprang into the air beside him. Then someone emerged from the forest, which was now quite close.

The Seventh Apostle wore a flowing red long robe.

Ebony-black hair and one red eye.

There had been almost no change to her body. Perhaps her hair had grown a little longer.

Her appearance was different because of the blood running from her mouth. The dark-red fresh blood looked unfamiliar.

Blood Arts possessed regenerative effects, yet she seemed unable to heal her internal injuries.

Boom!

Since a clash could not be avoided, Jeong Yeon-shin and Namgung Hwa-shin immediately unleashed a storm of movement arts.

The scenery flashed past like an arrow, and the Seventh Apostle’s face filled his vision.

Thud.

“The main altar must have fallen.”

Jeong Yeon-shin’s feet scraped over the ground, kicking up dust.

As the backlash from their moisture-laden movement arts blew back against them, Jeong Yeon-shin stopped exactly ten paces away and spoke.

“What do you want, coming all the way to Xiangyang?”

“...You were not home.”

Slowly, the Seventh Apostle parted her bloodstained lips.

From the moment she faced Jeong Yeon-shin, she wore a faint smile that almost made her seem pitiful.

Her jet-black hair swayed in the dusty wind.

“So I came to find you.”

The Seventh Apostle’s lips moved. Her red eye, opposite the black eyepatch, gleamed.

“What is with that state?”

Jeong Yeon-shin, long accustomed to hollow madness, asked indifferently.

“Are you worried about me?”

Her smile brightened. Namgung Hwa-shin seemed completely absent from her sight as a deep red smile spread over her face.

“You Black Uniforms were a little rough with me.”

Her speech was halting. Her inner-energy breathing was unstable.

There had been Desolate Fortress masters he had not seen during the incident at the Blood Flame Sect’s main altar. Had they done this to the Seventh Apostle?

Then the Seventh Apostle spoke.

“Now that I’ve found you, that’s enough. Come here.”

Step.

She staggered toward him with a smile. Her internal injuries were clearly serious. She did not seem normal.

Jeong Yeon-shin raised a hand, stopping Namgung Hwa-shin from intervening.

Fortunately, Namgung Hwa-shin stopped. It was a sign of trust.

It was likely because of Jeong Yeon-shin’s growth, his Blue Uniform standing, the missions he had completed, and the bond they had built.

‘This is strange.’

He remained still, watching only the Seventh Apostle’s expression and aura until her thin breath touched the nape of his neck.

Rustle.

With unsteady breaths, she embraced Jeong Yeon-shin. He clearly felt the cautious brush of her clothes.

“Go back and create a divine art for me. My own young Grand Preceptor. My little sect leader.”

The Seventh Apostle whispered, tickling his ear.

‘If it works on this one, it will work on the Namgung Family’s direct line as well.’

Jeong Yeon-shin thought while held in her embrace.

“Your young Grand Preceptor is gone now.”

He spoke calmly. He had not expected his new palm art to see actual combat so soon.

As he activated the mnemonic formula, a sinister wave of qi arose from his right hand.

It happened in an instant. The dust storm spreading beneath his feet began to ripple gold beneath the sunlight.

A thunderous roar exploded with the boy’s words.

Footnotes:

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