WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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◈ Surviving as a Genius on Borrowed Time ◈
Episode 87: Battle for Supremacy (6)
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“······.”
Wearing a Pure Blood Robe and an evil-spirit mask, Jeong Yeon-shin slowly stepped forward.
At this moment, he had to pose as one of the Blood Flame Sect's most prominent rising talents. The Seventh Apostle had told him that the Pure Blood Robe was a treasure bestowed upon Apostles.
‘My martial arts haven't reached an Apostle's level yet. I should act like Go Jong-hak.’
The Blood Flame Sect had its own nobility. Families as old as the main altar naturally formed the established elite.
The Third Apostle's son had been one of them. Go Jong-hak, the man who had constantly kept Jeong Yeon-shin in check at the main altar.
He had forced Yeon-shin to absorb the qi of a boy who had not even learned martial arts, then died for it. Yeon-shin remembered snapping his neck.
He decided to impersonate him.
Step.
His gait was unhurried, his back held straight.
He carried himself as if he looked down on all beneath heaven. He impressed the thought upon himself.
Outside the main altar, no one was more exalted than he was. They were all insignificant vermin.
He strode toward Namgung Mi, seated in the place of honor. Without showing it, he measured the distance between them.
“Mm······.”
“They don't seem to be of ordinary status······”
The guests who called themselves orthodox sect martial artists could not move. They must have known he was from the Blood Flame Sect.
His appearance and aura overwhelmed them.
Few in the regional martial world could rival his presence. He was operating the Mara Roaring Blood Art at the level of a Desolate Fortress Blue Uniform.
Eyes lowered everywhere. These were people who had long kept their heads down before the unorthodox Wise Teacher Sect.
They were nothing like when they had shouted indignantly at Namgung Mi's words. Hardly any martial artist dared show spirit before Yeon-shin.
The Namgung Family was different.
“A mere blood demon dares enter this place?”
“Are you perhaps an Apostle's blood relative?”
The Namgung Family martial artists immediately rose, about to draw their swords, but Namgung Mi raised a hand with a peculiar smile.
Her smooth, white fingers stopped them.
“I like the color of its flesh.”
Yeon-shin spoke while still filling Yeomcheon, the acupoint at his nape, with qi.
With a deliberately produced cracking sound, his bizarre voice emerged with a deep resonance.
He approached at an unhurried pace, coming within arm's reach. He stood diagonally to Namgung Mi's left.
Swish.
He picked up a piece of peach flesh. Rather than immediately fight, he wanted to distance this Blood Flame Sect identity from himself.
Even if his aura differed, he could not change his build. He had to make sure they did not think of Seom-ye of Desolate Fortress.
‘Words and actions far removed from mine.’
For the first time in his life, Jeong Yeon-shin intended to provoke someone. He wasn't confident. Could he pull it off?
“Such fruit is wasted on trash like you.”
He raised his indifferent tone slightly, trying to sound arrogant. It suited him.
The unexpected comfort of it made him feel strange.
“······.”
No one except the Namgung Family masters raised their heads. It seemed to have worked better than expected.
He did not know how he looked to them, wearing the precious Pure Blood Robe and an evil-spirit mask while operating the Mara Roaring Blood Art.
Did they see him as a true Blood Flame Sect noble?
Then Namgung Mi's lips moved.
“I was about to take that. Doesn't that white peach flesh suit me?”
She slowly crossed her legs. Their gazes met through her faintly smiling eyes.
Her words flowed smoothly on.
“A blood demon is pretending to be from a noble clan before me. Do you perhaps feel inferior to my family? You don't even know your place.”
“You talk too much.”
“What?”
“That head of yours is about to fall, yet your mouth keeps moving.”
Yeon-shin spoke leisurely through the evil-spirit mask.
Then he moved his hand.
He casually tossed the peach flesh in his hand at Namgung Mi's nape. He paid no heed to the sharp breaths around them.
She rose without avoiding it. The fallen peach flesh was gently crushed beneath her fine leather shoes.
“I suppose you heard the rumors and came to suck up qi.”
She spoke with a smile.
“Kill him.”
As Namgung Mi finished speaking, she drew out all her power. She recalled the aura emitted by the blood-robed evil spirit before her.
He was not someone she could take lightly. She intended to use the Changnyeong Flower martial artists as her limbs to gauge his full strength.
‘Before that.’
She would first slow his body with her qi technique.
The cold energy of the Human-Form Snow Ginseng surged frigidly from her dantian.
The moment she endured the pain of her veins seeming to burn and raised her hand, thin frost formed around her body. It shimmered in five-colored waves of light.
Its appearance suited her own nobility. She believed its effects would as well.
Whoosh!
It happened in an instant. The moment white mist burst from Namgung Mi's entire body, the evil spirit's body jerked to a stop.
The chill of inner energy was faster than any sword strike. Smiling faintly, she retreated with soft, floating steps.
Changnyeong Flower martial artists rushed in from every direction. Chaos broke out in the blink of an eye.
Food and liquor scattered everywhere as the clash of swords rang out.
Clang!
Jeong Yeon-shin felt the vibration travel up to his right hand gripping the sword hilt.
One attack had been fast, but he blocked it with the flat of an iron sword that had not even been fully drawn. His movements had certainly slowed.
What had entered his body was no ordinary cold. It seemed to possess the nature of an inner-energy heavy-hand technique.
Even so, his physical strength remained unchanged.
“Your sword force is pathetic.”
Yeon-shin spoke calmly behind the evil-spirit mask.
His defense did not waver. The moment the Namgung martial artist flinched, Yeon-shin struck the man's face with the back of his left hand without hesitation.
A loud smack rang out. He felt the man's jaw catch beneath his blow and sent him flying.
“Gah!”
It was a deathly groan. The man flew away, eyes rolling back as he lost consciousness.
The instant Yeon-shin sent the man flying with that blow, he knew it. He could manage without using his unique martial arts.
He had grown much stronger. He was far beyond the level of a low-ranking Blue Uniform.
Without stopping, he pressed forward. He could clear away any stray swords that might fly at him.
He was grateful for Namgung Mi's decision to use her underlings as expendable tools.
‘I've got to fight like this.’
It was the moment he greatly increased the flow of the Mara Roaring Blood Art.
“Sword formation!”
Another Namgung martial artist shouted urgently.
A sword formation was a tactic in which multiple swordsmen joined together to strengthen the links between their techniques.
They seemed to have decided on a combined attack after seeing Yeon-shin's movements. Before anyone knew it, a separate world had formed apart from the guests who had drawn back.
Five Changnyeong Flower martial artists faced the evil-spirit mask.
Jeong Yeon-shin narrowed his eyes. The Namgung martial artists occupied every direction before him and swung their swords.
He responded at once with a swift sword mnemonic formula, but the iron sword Namgung Hwa-shin had provided moved at a speed similar to theirs.
The meridians throughout his body gradually began to ache. The cold's invasion was formidable.
‘I’ve become terribly slow.’
It did not matter.
Moving slowly, he combined evasion and counterattacks. His sense for calculating distance had reached the realm of instinct.
Despite the sensation in his skin growing numb, his perception was extremely sharp. He dodged five sword strikes by a hair's breadth and drove in his own.
Once each, once each. Five strikes sufficed.
Jeong Yeon-shin pulled the iron sword from the fallen martial artist's abdomen. This one had been the last.
Blood flowed very slowly down the blade, creating a hush.
The vivid crimson long robe seemed wrapped in noble killing intent.
The blood of the Namgung Family's Changnyeong Flower martial artists looked like filthy stains against it.
“······.”
While everyone held their breath, Namgung Mi still did not move.
This was a battle between masters. Rashly joining in could only disrupt their attacks.
She was the master of Changnyeong Flower. What did it matter how she used her underlings?
It was enough to watch how long the martial prowess shown by her enemy would last.
Only then did Namgung Mi take a step.
“Your eye techniques do not appear deeply trained.”
She spoke as she slowly approached.
“Your sense of distance is quite exceptional. You measure the spacing well. Is it natural talent?”
Her tone was relaxed. She had seen the evil-spirit mask's movements grow slower and slower.
The Human-Form Snow Ginseng's energy, refined through pain, was that powerful. It was inner energy that had reached another realm.
Jeong Yeon-shin stood still and watched her.
A sensation like frostbite swept through his entire body. Though he had been exposed to only a single move, the aftereffects were significant.
He had expected this, but if he had not learned Jeong Family Youth Technique, he would not have even considered challenging her.
‘Can't use my unique martial arts.’
He could not use a new palm technique here. It was a martial art with distinctive traits.
He could only use it once it no longer mattered if he revealed his identity.
Step. Step.
Namgung Mi approached with a smile.
She did not look careless, yet she closed the distance without hesitation.
Her confidence in her cold-energy inner power seemed tremendous. It was a martial art worthy of such confidence.
She had a complete grasp of her own inner energy. She had accurately seen through Yeon-shin's condition as he gradually found it harder to control his body.
“Let's see, then.”
Approaching as close as a lover, she reached out with a hand as white as snow. She lightly touched the evil-spirit mask covering Yeon-shin's face.
“Starting with that ugly face.”
Her lips curved into a thin line. Her movements looked utterly defenseless.
Her vicious nature showed through clearly.
It was an act that inflicted the greatest possible humiliation on an opponent who practiced martial arts.
‘This is enough.’
Yeon-shin thought. Talking about ten moves was for a formal duel.
He had no intention of dealing with her honorably. He had revealed an opening to draw her in, but he had not expected her to approach this closely.
Yeon-shin's martial world differed from hers. It was a struggle for survival.
He wanted to defeat an opponent he had never faced before with ease.
‘It can be done. Languid Flame Dragon is stronger.’
The inner energy density of the Huangbo Family's Young Family Head, who had trained the innate heat of the Sun God Meridian, was greater.
Yeon-shin recalled a method that had come to him after seeing him.
As it turned out, it was a martial art many of those called masters in the martial world could use.
‘Samadhi True Fire.’
He had been using it from the moment she took her step. It was a method that made qi vibrate from its smallest units.
Movement itself generated heat. It differed from the immediate release of heat by Languid Flame Dragon, who had been born with the Sun God Meridian.
This was the delicate qi control of an inner-energy master.
Hummm.
The sound came from within his body.
He felt it clearly. The cold in his meridians crackled as it burned away.
His entire body, strengthened like steel through Jeong Family Youth Technique, withstood the heat and vibrations, while the Mara Roaring Blood Art's circulation route coursed through his body in a destructive flow.
It felt as if every acupoint in his body, including the twelve regular meridians and Eight Extraordinary Meridians, crackled.
He could keep it up all day. He did not let his enemy notice the thawing within him.
Jeong Yeon-shin immediately activated Demon's Light.
The moment the upper dantian in his mind blazed fiercely, the Demon Wings' unique martial art drew in every scrap of information.
Their stances, Namgung Mi's smiling breath, even her gaze fixed on the mask.
Within it,
a single invisible trajectory emerged. It was a beam of light in his mind, visible only to Jeong Yeon-shin.
It was the path of Demon's Light. The boy followed it exactly. It was a move that began from his right elbow, with his shoulder only barely moving at the end.
Swish.
Just before Namgung Mi could remove Yeon-shin's mask, he seized her by the throat.
It was an entirely natural movement.
Namgung Mi's unwavering confidence, Demon's Light's trajectory advancing from a blind spot, the distance between them collapsing to nothing, and his suddenly accelerated strike from the destruction of the cold all came together to create a one-strike victory.
Seom-ye of Demon Wings was a fighter.
“······!”
Her smooth neck fell into his firm grip. Namgung Mi's eyes widened beyond measure.
Had she ever been subdued so absurdly in her life? She could not have seen or heard of such a thing.
Jeong Yeon-shin slowly opened his mouth.
“A noble of the Blood Flame Sect under heaven commands.”
“Ugh······!”
“You lowly Namgung wretch.”
With his words, the Blood Arts responded. It felt as if his body, tempered through Jeong Family Youth Technique, had opened wide.
The image of this moment joined the intent that formed the mnemonic formula.
‘They said you inflicted every kind of humiliation on Young Hero Namgung's mother.’
Someone who lacked nothing had committed every kind of cruelty. Yeon-shin thought.
Was he not more dignified than this person called Namgung Mi? It was a thought he had never had before.
An arrogant intent sprouted in his mind.
He spoke.
“Kneel.”
They stood before a great crowd. The instant he put sincerity into his words, he felt something strange.
The energy drawn into the Mara Roaring Blood Art's circulation increased slightly. His qi storage had grown.
The rushing flow of qi seemed to laugh wickedly, as though this was how Blood Arts should be used.
‘This is another realization.’
Jeong Yeon-shin opened his mouth again. This time, his contempt was complete.
“What are you doing, wretch?”
“Y-you······ You······”
Namgung Mi could not continue speaking. She showed no sign of moving.
The moment he grabbed her throat, he had struck a paralysis acupoint. Her body had been immobilized through acupoint striking.
Even if she wanted to kneel, she could not. Control of her body was in Jeong Yeon-shin's grasp.
“You aren't moving. You're rather stubborn.”
“Kgh··· Cough······”
The boy held Namgung Mi by the throat and lifted her, laughing low behind his evil-spirit mask.
The hem of the Pure Blood Robe, reaching down to his feet, fluttered like scattered blood. It was a grotesque yet mysterious sight.
Footnotes:
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