WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried

◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 19: Chain of Vengeance (2)

──────

Clack.

The game stones linked together, each following the next.

Given Peng Juhyeok's straightforward temperament, I had expected our game of five-in-a-row to end quickly. Yet even when cornered, he kept finding ways to defend and stubbornly prolonged the match.

"This game's lasting quite a while."

"Haha. I'm not the sort to admit defeat so easily! It's a little different from my clan's way, but I'm the child the clan gave up on, after all!"

Several stones that had broken my flow linked together naturally, creating a position that threatened a five-in-a-row. Peng Juhyeok won several rounds by targeting diagonals I had failed to notice.

I was down roughly one to three.

In martial arts novels, a martial artist's temperament was often said to reveal itself through their style in board games like Go or chess.

'Does that mean Peng Juhyeok is the kind of person who never gives up and keeps gnawing at something until the end?'

Perhaps he suited the Tang Clan better than the Peng Clan. Tang Clan martial artists were usually known as eccentrics, and although Peng Juhyeok had an easygoing nature, when it came to chivalrous deeds, the word suited him well.

Click.

That move gave me the win. As I cleared the board and began separating the black and white stones...

Boom.

I heard a sound. It was like the beating of an enormous drum. It reminded me of a modern concert hall. A singer's voice blasting from massive speakers could feel as though it shook the audience to the marrow.

That same vibration had just travelled up through the floor.

Boom.

The sound rang out again. The interval between each beat was even, but the vibration coursing through my body was slightly stronger than before.

When it sounded a third time and an even more powerful vibration wrapped around me, I realized what it was.

"Footsteps..."

Someone's footsteps.

A stamping technique performed by a seasoned martial arts master could wield enough destructive force to overturn the surrounding area.

Yet the person approaching us had not turned the force in their stamping technique toward destruction. They had restrained and directed their power, pressing gently against the ground only hard enough to shake the bodies of the two people confined in this room and announce their arrival.

It was no ordinary technique.

At the same time...

'This is the tantrum of a crazy master...!'

It was no ordinary waste of effort, either. What profound martial principles and how much internal energy were they using just to flaunt their strength?

Perhaps to create a sense of intimidation, the insane Embroidered Uniform Guard master was walking especially slowly. Even so, they would arrive within half a quarter of an hour.

I had no idea what they planned to say after barging in.

"Brother Peng, do you feel it?"

"Mm. This situation may be more serious than I thought."

"More serious?"

Peng Juhyeok explained the Embroidered Uniform Guard's chain of command.

"The leader of the Embroidered Uniform Guard is usually called the Chief Commander. The formal name is something like the Embroidered Uniform Guard Imperial Personal Guard Chief Commander's Office, but hardly anyone uses such a long name."

Beneath the Chief Commander were two Assistant Chief Commanders, each with a Deputy Commander to assist them.

"Those are the generals, so to speak. When they move in earnest, it means something huge is happening. Beneath them are the people who handle fieldwork. They are household units that root out treason while commanding Enforcers and Captains. Depending on the number of men under them, they are called Hundred Household commanders or Commissioners..."

Peng Juhyeok explained that someone with this level of skill was likely a Commissioner, one of the highest-ranking Embroidered Uniform Guards directly beneath the generals.

"Why would someone like that detain members of the Martial Alliance?"

Without even looking up, I immediately began moving my hands. Someone that important might take issue with the fact that we had dared to set out a game board while waiting to receive them.

As I hurriedly gathered the stones, I tossed out a remark.

"Because they have too much free time?"

"No."

"Since those sword-carrying thugs who already got on their nerves seem to have brought a bloody incident with them, they decided to use it as an excuse to shake us down?"

"That's close."

I turned my head. At first, I naturally assumed that had been Peng Juhyeok's answer, because the voice had come from in front of me.

The second voice was different. It had still come from Peng Juhyeok's position, but I could hear a subtle difference in tone.

An old man in golden armor stood behind me.

With his flowing white eyebrows, he might have looked like a scholar at first glance. Yet his sturdy body, which suited the armor perfectly, allowed no room for the word frail.

It was likely a technique similar to Six Harmonies Voice Transmission.

Six Harmonies Voice Transmission used the principles of the six directions, east, west, south, north, above, and below, to make a voice come from every direction. This was an application that made the voice come from only one direction.

"Quick on the uptake."

His mouth was moving right in front of me, but his voice came from behind my head.

I turned around again. Peng Juhyeok was silently moving his lips. Since no sound came out, it was clear his mute acupoint had been sealed.

'When...?'

The question surfaced, then settled.

The movement technique that had made such an excessive show of proclaiming, 'I've arrived.' What if it had not simply been meant to display martial arts, but to seal our acupoints?

It was an incredible feat. From that distance, he had managed qi acupoint sealing with qi transmitted through the floor.

A second question followed.

'Peng Juhyeok is a Peak realm master, yet he was sealed. What about me?'

The old Embroidered Uniform Guard had the same question.

"Strange. Your aura does not seem particularly profound. Is it a matter of physique?"

That one word, physique, was enough to tell me what he suspected. The old man was probably thinking of innate constitutions such as the Heavenly Martial Physique or the Extreme Yang Physique.

'Did the Shadow Anomaly's blood essence alter my acupoints as well?'

I felt no particular difference when circulating my internal energy, but I would need to examine it properly someday.

Either the special physician had failed to discover something during the diagnosis, or perhaps using internal energy while practicing lightness techniques over the past few days had acted as a catalyst for further changes.

After sorting through my thoughts, I spoke.

"Who are you?"

"Call me Commissioner Baek."

'A Commissioner!'

Peng Juhyeok's prediction had been correct. He was close to the highest ranks of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

"...I don't know why someone of your standing would oppress mere martial folk like us."

"Mere martial folk? Mere martial folk, you say?"

Commissioner Baek laughed loudly. His booming laughter contained such profound power that it seemed to shake my entire body.

It was truly destructive laughter. I desperately raised my internal energy to protect my qi and blood.

'What absurd martial prowess. He's far beyond Peng Juhyeok. At the very least, he is in the Transcendent Peak realm. He may even be in the Transformation Realm.'

Before long, the laughter stopped. Commissioner Baek's smile vanished at once as he repeated himself.

"How could the Anomaly Records Office be 'mere' martial folk, hm?"

In that instant, thoughts raced wildly through my mind.

Should I pretend not to know? Or should I joke that the Anomaly Records Office was still an organization under the Martial Alliance, so weren't we mere martial folk after all?

Before that, how did this old man know about the Anomaly Records Office?

In a moment shorter than a breath, a sound came from behind me.

"Cough, cough..."

Peng Juhyeok gasped roughly, like someone who had barely escaped drowning after being submerged in deep water, then immediately spoke.

"It seems your temperament hasn't changed, Commissioner Baek. Don't bully a friend who knows nothing. Speak with me instead."

Commissioner Baek's gaze shifted. Eyes that burned far too brightly for his age shot toward Peng Juhyeok.

"You know me?"

The words, "Your temperament hasn't changed," were strange if Peng Juhyeok had only learned his name from that introduction.

Was he famous?

As the son of a prestigious clan, perhaps Peng Juhyeok had made a point of learning the names of influential officials.

Yet his answer was beyond anything I expected.

"Every rulebook from the Ceremonial Affairs Department is gathered at the Anomaly Records Office. I have read the rulebook written about you as well."

"What did it say?"

Peng Juhyeok frowned before speaking.

"Do not reveal that you are a martial artist. Do not reveal that you belong to the Martial Alliance. Above all..."

"Above all."

"Do not speak of the Soul-Piercing Demon Hand."

The corners of Commissioner Baek's lips twisted strangely. His grin kept rising, as if his mouth might split apart.

"Yes, yes. You put your finger right on it..."

He approached us with that grotesque smile.

Ah, damn it.

That old man was not a person of the martial world, but he was a martial artist.

And martial artists were bound by debts of gratitude and grudges. Commissioner Baek clearly held a grudge against the Soul-Piercing Demon Hand.

I quickly spoke.

"Sir. The bloody incident in Azurewater Village was not committed by the Soul-Piercing Demon Hand."

Commissioner Baek stopped short.

"It wasn't?"

Peng Juhyeok's advice about rulebooks came to mind. He had said that if we ever encountered people like the Black Lotus Society's punishment squad, we should hand over the rulebook and seek a way to survive.

Commissioner Baek might not belong to the unorthodox sects, but he seemed every bit as insane as them.

I took the booklet from my robes.

"Someone like you will know what this is."

"Isn't it the rulebook written by your ilk of Records Officers? They're all utterly flimsy."

'Flimsy?'

At least in Soul-Severing Mountain Villa, the Anomaly Records Office's rulebook had saved my life. Since Records Officers wrote down what they had personally experienced, there should have been a minimum level of reliability.

"Yes. Aren't they worthless defective goods that couldn't even save my daughter?"

Footnotes:

Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried