WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 16: Autopsy (1)

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I instinctively drew my sword and looked around.

"Brother Peng, can you sense anything?"

This was exactly the sort of sudden situation where I needed the help of my senior colleague, an experienced Records Officer. I placed my hopes in Peng Juhyeok.

Byeolui had always said that masters at the Peak realm naturally came to sense the presence of Anomalies, so I had once asked about my senior's level.

Peng Juhyeok had answered, "I know how to adapt martial forms to suit my own abilities."

It sounded like a modest answer, but that was not what he meant. He had reconstructed the forms of techniques passed down by a master or martial manual, then remade them to perfectly suit himself.

In other words, he had reached the Peak realm.

"...Brother Yeok, let me say this first."

"What is it?"

"Your nose will be more useful than my qi sense in this situation."

"Are you in your right mind?"

I reflexively glared at Peng Juhyeok, but he was completely serious. Despite the freezing air, sweat ran down his face as he spoke in a grave voice.

"Didn't you say you smelled something delicious just now? Your five senses have transformed into something strange through the Ghost Valley Master's arrangements. You've gained the ability to find Anomalies like a hunting dog."

I swallowed.

Certainly, both with the Feathered-Human Gu Byeolui had shown me and with the unseasonable frost before my eyes...

I had smelled something delicious.

If this was a sense that could detect Anomalies, it would be useful.

'Why did it have to be my sense of smell...?'

At this rate, I would never shake off old man Byeolui's claim that my tastes were strange.

Taking Peng Juhyeok's advice, I asked him to stand guard. Naturally, I was not about to sit down and regulate my qi.

I only intended to focus on my sense of smell and search the area.

Internal energy enhanced the body's abilities across the board. That was why masters could fight faster than sound without destroying themselves with their own movements.

My level was nowhere near that high, though, and the enhancement I needed now was different from that sort of overall physical improvement.

I needed a method to focus the power of my internal energy solely on my sense of smell.

Fortunately, I had an excellent reference.

'If I apply the principles of an eye technique, I should be able to improve my sense of smell to some extent.'

Just as the Martial Alliance standard Eye Art temporarily enhanced vision by sending internal energy into the acupoints and fine veins around the eyes, concentrating my internal energy into the acupoints around my nasal passages should produce a similar effect.

I pushed internal energy into the pair of Yingxiang acupoints beside my nostrils and the Biyi acupoint between the bridge of my nose and the corner of my eye.

Hup. I inhaled.

Scents far more layered than anything I had smelled before rushed into my nose.

The fragrance of nameless flowers, the green smell rising from crushed grass stems.

And the scent of corpses, frozen before they could rot.

A familiar smell of blood seeped through the ice. Cerebrospinal fluid flowing from a shattered head, marrow leaking from broken bones. Everything had frozen solid, so the smells could not spread easily, but I could sense them clearly now.

I let out a sigh of relief.

Not because I was relieved to see corpses. I was not some Anomaly bastard from a wicked heresy.

I was only relieved that whatever had created the corpses, rather than the corpses themselves, did not seem to be here at the moment.

"...It seems the culprit behind this tragedy isn't nearby."

"Oh, is that so?"

"At least, it seems the culprit has gone down the mountain."

Even as I spoke, I found it absurd. I could smell and distinguish the scents of an entire mountain village at once. I really did feel like a hunting dog.

Peng Juhyeok sighed as well, but he did not loosen his grip on the horse-chopping saber. Instead, he surveyed the surroundings with an even warier gaze.

"All right, then what will you do?"

"What do you mean?"

"I only came along to supervise, but you're responsible for this field investigation. The place where you were supposed to assess the situation and record information has been completely destroyed, so retreating would be reasonable. Looking into this Anomaly would also be reasonable. It's your call."

I swallowed.

There was not a single living animal left in Azurewater Village. The culprit had painstakingly killed the one dog tied outside a house and every chicken.

Part of me wanted to turn around at once and flee back to the Martial Alliance as fast as I could.

But leaving now would not be wise.

The reason was simple. I was a Records Officer.

Running away would be easy and quick, but if I did, I would gain no clues about how to handle this culprit when I encountered them again.

Since the culprit had only just struck, investigating now would let us record more information.

"It seems the culprit has left, so let's find out what kind of technique they used to create this tragedy."

"Bold!"

* * *

Before beginning the investigation in earnest, I asked Peng Juhyeok a few questions, including how to examine wounds.

"Have any Anomalies like this been recorded?"

I was asking about precedent. If it was an Anomaly that wielded such vicious cold yin energy, there had to be a similar precedent recorded in a rulebook.

'What if there isn't one?'

"I don't know. I have heard of a mad jiangshi that was trapped alive in a massive ice crystal before being released."

"What kind of insane incident was that?"

"I heard it was a strange martial artist who possessed martial arts from the ancient era. The martial artist was called General Winter because of that trait, I think. Other Anomalies related to cold yin energy..."

Peng Juhyeok pondered for a while, then picked up a brush and bit his left hand until it bled.

He dipped the brush in the blood.

"What are you doing all of a sudden?"

"Ah, normally, this is something they only teach you after you've gone on three or so field inspections. But given the circumstances... Watch closely."

He took a notebook from his robes. It was not the case file, presumably embezzled from the local government office, that we had received with the order to be dispatched to Azurewater Village. It was the information-recording notebook issued to Records Officers.

The brush, using blood in place of ink, moved across the page. Strangely, the red marks it left vanished as though evaporating.

A moment later, letters appeared on the notebook despite Peng Juhyeok not having written anything.

『What's going on?』

"Look, Brother Yeok. This is why the Anomaly Records Office building must always have a Daoist who knows Unorthodox Techniques stationed there."

"...Are you exchanging written messages with Records Officer Jade Scale right now?!"

"Exactly. It can't be used in places strongly affected by Anomalies, but it's convenient at times like this. Should I ask her to look for Anomalies related to cold yin energy?"

It was a truly strange combination of methods. People spoke of clairvoyance and clairaudience, but there was actually a technique that allowed communication across a distance that would otherwise take several nights of hard riding.

Impressed by the capabilities of this bizarre martial world, I examined the corpses.

"...The condition of the corpses is somewhat different."

"Different?"

"Yes. First, most of those who were directly attacked were struck in the head. Their brains were shattered, so they must have died instantly."

I pointed at the frozen corpses lying side by side. One had its head completely burst open, while everything below the neck was frozen.

The other frozen corpse behind it had no obvious wounds. It appeared to have frozen after being struck directly by the cold energy that had exploded from the first corpse.

"The culprit did not attack the corpse in the rear any further. It seems killing itself was the goal, and the culprit had no intention of committing needless killings."

"Hmm."

Peng Juhyeok's reaction was oddly reluctant.

"Why?"

"No, seeing how rationally the culprit acted, I was wondering if this might not be an Anomaly at all, but the work of some human butcher from the unorthodox world."

...It seemed the standards for being recognized as an Anomaly in the martial world were strict.

"Perhaps the culprit simply intended to catch and kill everyone as the villagers fled. Even these corpses had turned to run away."

With that, I began walking.

I headed in the direction the frozen corpses had fled. The scent was especially strong on corpses the culprit had killed with their own hands, so I pointed to the places where they had fallen.

Peng Juhyeok followed my finger with his gaze, then let out a quiet "Ah." He understood what I meant by the corpses being different.

"The application of internal energy becomes more exquisite as it goes. That corpse over there had no head left at all, but closer to the edge of the village, their heads remain intact."

I looked at the final corpse, which had fled all the way to the boundary of the frozen village.

Five holes had been clearly punched through her skull.

No blood flowed, though. The wound had frozen at the same moment the fingers shattered her skull.

"Was this young woman the last victim? It seems the culprit left the village afterward."

"Yes. Which means that if we go in the opposite direction, we can find where the tragedy began."

I retraced my steps through the corpses. Since we followed the path they had taken while fleeing, we could not help but meet their preserved expressions.

The pain and fear that had come to them at the end of their lives were clear.

I breathed slowly, calming myself while checking for the culprit's approach.

Fortunately, there was no great change in the surrounding scents. Sunlight was only creeping closer, melting the ice and gradually releasing the trapped smell of blood.

Our path back ended at the cemetery on the edge of the village.

"...This is an Anomaly."

Peng Juhyeok tossed out those words. I silently agreed.

The burial ground had been dug up.

With no shovel, only human hands.

Something had burst out from inside a grave. I looked at the name written on the wooden marker.

Muun.

It was the name of the woman who had hanged herself.

* * *

Turning away from the cemetery, I focused once again on the frozen corpses. More precisely, the corpses near the edge of the village that had been struck by the "complete form" of the martial art.

Five distinct wounds on their skulls.

'When the culprit's martial art is properly used, it leaves wounds like these...'

I knew of a martial art that began in a very famous martial arts novel and became synonymous with demonic arts. It was an especially vicious claw technique, notorious for the brutal training method of piercing victims' skulls.

Nine Yin White Bone Claw.

Footnotes:

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