WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Haruto
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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈
Chapter 18: Chain of Vengeance (1)
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The White-Robed Miracle Physician looked at Jade Scale.
“Any news?”
Jade Scale let out a quiet sigh. Her hair, blacker than ink, swayed with her breath.
“Young one, do not throw a tantrum when you already know the answer. Blood Script consumes both internal energy and Divine Ability. Internal energy can be replenished through meditation, but how could the Divine Ability within the Heart-Succession Secret Book be restored?”
Had a Daoist accompanied them, the Divine Ability within the Heart-Succession Secret Book might have been replenished as well. Yet the two who had gone to investigate had nothing to do with sorcery or Daoist arts.
The Hebei Peng Clan had always been too straightforward to dabble in such miscellaneous arts, and a wandering martial artist like Yeok Cheonmyeong likely had neither the time nor money to learn Daoist arts.
“If I had known this would happen, I should have gone with them instead of Peng Juhyeok...”
“Stop that. You are too old to be wandering around.”
The special physician wanted to snap, ‘Did you already forget what you scolded me for just now? I suppose it is because you are older than I am.’
But he soon let the thought go.
Provoking Jade Scale would not bring the two outside the Martial Alliance’s shadow back any sooner. Rather than taking his frustration out on her, it was better to consider how to respond.
“Soul-Piercing Demon Hand should certainly be dead.”
“What about the Eon Clan’s Soul-Reclaiming Evil Ghost?”
It was the name of a demonic villain who had yet to be caught. The special physician shook his head.
“That person may be skilled in jiangshi arts, but they are not well versed in the Soul-Returning Art that restores spirits. Besides, Soul-Piercing Demon Hand’s corpse was burned on the spot. No matter how strange Soul-Reclaiming Evil Ghost’s Body-Transformation Grand Method may be, it cannot be used when the brain meant for transplantation has been reduced to ashes.”
Jade Scale sighed. Once every possibility had been eliminated, only one remained.
“The real Heavenly Demon?”
“...”
It was an ominous name.
An inn attendant who had never even set foot in the martial world once received its laying on of hands and became a demonic practitioner who terrorized an entire city. A first-generation disciple of a prestigious sect once stabbed their own master to death, took the master’s heart, and corrupted their original martial arts into demonic arts.
Yet it had its own cycle of activity.
People often praised exceptional younger talents by saying, “The martial world is blessed.”
But there were times when great fortune truly came to the martial world. Times called the golden age of the martial world, when geniuses who would normally be born only one to a generation and dominate their era appeared as if by miracle.
But why were auspicious and inauspicious signs, calamity and fortune, all bound together as fortune and misfortune?
Because disaster lay behind fortune, and fortune behind disaster.
The Heavenly Demon awakened at precisely such times. It approached those of both the Orthodox Path and Unorthodox Path who pressed forward according to their beliefs, granting them power beyond the path of man.
“Nothing else could perform such miracles.”
Jade Scale sighed. She had spent fewer years in the Anomaly Records Office than the special physician, but twice as many in the martial world.
With time, one came to recognize miraculous phenomena that could never be explained as human in origin.
And when one traced the roots of those miracles, that name appeared.
“The Alliance Leader and the Director were bold to even think of opposing it...”
Jade Scale shook her head before suddenly letting out a startled cry.
“What is it?”
“A carrier pigeon came from the branch near Azurewater Village. It seems our Records Officer has returned safely.”
“That is a relief!”
The special physician hurried upstairs. Since they had submitted their report through a Martial Alliance branch, they seemed to have made it down from the mountain safely without suffering any further disaster.
They should be able to return to the Martial Alliance headquarters before long.
* * *
“It is such a shame.”
“Are you saying that again?”
I tapped the bridge of my nose a few times. I had no intention of pursuing Muun, who had likely been resurrected as an Anomaly, with just the two of us, as Peng Juhyeok had assumed.
Still, his suggestion gave me an idea. Perhaps I could use my ability to smell Anomalies to determine where Muun had gone.
So I returned one last time to where the frozen corpse had been and took a few steps along the road Muun had tried to flee down.
I found nothing.
The footprints Muun had left throughout Azurewater Village had frost settled in their shapes because she had released frigid internal energy.
But the footprints along this mountain path gradually grew fainter. Since everyone had already been killed, there was no reason to use footwork any longer, and naturally, less strength went into each step.
Once the footprints vanished, so did the scent.
The fragrance had evaporated along with the internal energy.
It meant that even those who had become Anomalies could conceal their scent as long as they did not actively use internal energy.
“Of course it is a shame. If we could sense approaching Anomalies in advance, we would not have to die sudden, gruesome deaths.”
“If you could distinguish every Anomaly by scent, you would need to worry about something besides Anomalies.”
“What would that be?”
“Death from overwork.”
I looked at Peng Juhyeok, thinking it was a thoroughly pointless joke, but his expression was quite serious.
“Our Director would send you all across the country. Naturally, you would not have any days off.”
“Huh. It sounds like the Director really hates Anomalies.”
“Hate them? The Director is exceedingly compassionate and merciful. The Director even feels sympathy for Anomalies.”
“...?”
Just as I wondered how someone like that had become the head of the Anomaly Records Office, Peng Juhyeok continued.
“That is why the Director wishes to banish every Anomaly from this mortal world. They are pitiful souls who should have met peaceful deaths, yet they wander the living world. The Director wishes to grant them their proper ending.”
“Does that really count as sympathy?”
Was that not just an elegant way of saying, “I will slaughter every Anomaly I see”?
“Mm, probably?”
Even Peng Juhyeok did not seem certain. I thought back on the usual temperaments of the Anomaly Records Office members I had met.
The special physician seemed better suited to being called an Eccentric Physician than a special physician, and Peng Juhyeok would follow anything if it bore the label of a chivalrous deed...
Jade Scale had not shown any strange traits, but perhaps that was only because I had not known her long enough.
Hmm.
It seemed best to assume the Director had an eccentric personality as well.
* * *
After we entered the Martial Alliance branch and reported the Azurewater Village massacre, the matter left our hands.
Or so I thought...
“Brother Peng. How did we end up being detained?”
This was not a dungeon. It was a luxurious guest room with silk cushions, soft chairs, and even elegant tea ware.
Yet sturdy men with swords at their waists stood guard outside the door, so this was closer to confinement than lodging.
Peng Juhyeok chuckled.
“I do not know either.”
“This is driving me mad.”
How had this happened?
As we were about to leave the Martial Alliance branch and return to headquarters, some elder sent word that they wished to see the people who had first reported the massacre.
I thought some senior personage, perhaps around a branch chief’s level, had summoned us in person. Since the Anomaly Records Office was confidential to outsiders, I assumed they wanted to hear the report connected to the Anomaly separately.
Peng Juhyeok agreed that this was likely the case.
The moment we agreed, they sent subordinates to lead us out of the Martial Alliance branch and into a spacious tiled-roof house.
Inside the main gate, people dressed in garments that seemed to fall somewhere between an official’s uniform and martial attire appeared and ushered us in with immense courtesy.
The gold silk uniforms embroidered in red revealed their identity at once.
“Damn it, what are the Embroidered Uniform Guard doing there?”
They had never directly said they were from the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but anyone with the barest knowledge could have recognized them.
“Quite. It is a truly strange matter. The Martial Alliance’s protection should cover us in all but extraordinary cases.”
“What?”
“Ah, we have connections in the local offices that have been kept well-greased. They say Noninterference Between Officials and Martial Artists is written in letters of gold. An entire village was massacred, so it is a fairly large case, but a Martial Alliance investigator should be questioning us, not the Embroidered Uniform Guard...”
I was shocked all over again.
Was Noninterference Between Officials and Martial Artists just political-business collusion?
Unable to continue speaking from sheer disbelief, I caught something Peng Juhyeok tossed from the table.
When I opened my hand, I found a Go stone.
He tapped the Go board resting beside the table. Its red lacquer made it clear that it was a very expensive piece.
“The Embroidered Uniform Guard may be holding us here, but they do not seem to intend to kill us. They are not forming a Coordinated Attack Formation to stab us. They are simply treating us well in a fine room.”
“Since it does not seem like we are about to die, are you saying we should play Go?”
“Ah. Five-in-a-row, please. I do not know how to play Go.”
I sighed and nodded. No matter how powerful the Embroidered Uniform Guard were, they could not be planning to beat two Martial Alliance members to death without cause.
* * *
“Can we detain Martial Alliance members like this?”
An Embroidered Uniform Guard Enforcer asked their superior, the Captain. The Captain nodded with a deliberately fearless expression.
“They swagger about as though they have formed some grand martial alliance, but at their core, they are nothing more than martial brutes. We enforce the laws of the realm, so there is nothing to worry about.”
That was what the Captain said, but the Captain was equally concerned about the consequences.
This matter had been strange from the beginning. Witness accounts of the Azurewater Village residents’ deaths had naturally reached the local authorities as well.
The scene had been horrific, but when martial artists were involved, such eerie circumstances were expected in their own way.
There was even an established procedure for dealing with such cases.
The pursuit would be delegated to the Martial Alliance. It was a sensible plan, spilling the blood of sword-carrying madmen instead of that of valuable officials.
For some reason, though, events had moved very differently.
After reading the report on the Azurewater Village corpses, an Embroidered Uniform Guard Commissioner had gone half-mad and begun to act.
The Captain did not know it, but Commissioner Baek was a man who had lost his daughter to Soul-Piercing Demon Hand.
Footnotes:
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