WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 29: Walking a Tightrope (1)

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Peach-stealing. Did that mean stealing peaches?

Considering those strongmen claimed they would pick heavenly peaches, it was a very straightforward name.

I quickly turned the pages.

『This rulebook has been written with two situations in mind.

First, these rules are for those who do not know what the Peach-Stealing Grounds are and have no intention of fighting.

Turn to the next page immediately and follow the rules written there.

If you have come as a martial artist, refer to the third page. However, unless you came prepared to risk your life, it is recommended that you also read the second page in case of an emergency.』

I recalled the story Jade Scale had told me about Old Madam Baek. Hadn't she said they needed to prepare for the possibility of an ordinary person finding a rulebook?

I quickly turned the pages.

『You will soon encounter strongmen who claim they will steal peaches from the heavens. If they have not yet begun climbing the rope into the sky, turn around naturally and leave at once.

The scenery on your way back will differ greatly from what you saw when you arrived. You may hear a Hubei dialect from one shop and a Hainan dialect from another.

Do not be alarmed. They are certainly living people, not a heavenly change and earthly disaster.

Your confusion or shock matters little to the shopkeepers, but it is different for the two strongmen searching the passersby.

If you do not wish to be seized by them and taken to the heavenly realm, keep walking while pretending to know nothing.

The market street will seem to stretch on forever, but you will surely spot at least one familiar shop.

Once you find such a shop, enter immediately and do not come out until one quarter-hour has passed.

If it is a restaurant, order food. If it is an inn, renting a room would be an even better option.

After spending that time inside, you will find familiar scenery waiting outside.

However, if you feel an indescribable gaze and a strange warmth while searching for a familiar shop, enter the nearest shop immediately.

The scenery outside will not be your hometown, but wherever it is, it will be better than the heaven the strongmen speak of.』

This confirmed my hypothesis that markets from several cities overlapped here. What kind of Anomaly could do something like this?

‘Is it connected to the earth veins Soul-Severing Mountain Villa uses?’

Another thing that bothered me was this “heaven.” Did the end of that rope really reach it?

I hurriedly opened the next page, the one for martial artists.

『You have come for some reason or another to interfere with the peach-stealing event. If you wish to put an immediate stop to this event, there is only one way.

Before the strongmen take the rope in hand, seize the pure white sack containing it and flee.

If you successfully flee for more than one quarter-hour, throw the sack into any nearby alley. The two strongmen of the peach-stealing event will then be unable to appear again for over a year.

However, if they have already begun their performance, do not attempt to steal the sack.

The rope inside exceeds a thousand zhang in length, and the moment the strongmen take it out, it gains physical form.

If you have reached the Beyond Peak realm through external martial arts, I will not stop you, but fighting the strongmen would be a far simpler choice.』

A thousand zhang?

As far as I knew, one zhang was about three meters. So more than a thousand zhang meant around three kilometers.

There was no way to know the rope's exact weight per unit of length, but it probably weighed well over a ton...

It was not a weight an ordinary martial artist who had not even reached the Peak realm could bear.

『If, beyond interfering with the peach-stealing event, you wish to reach the True Empty Homeland, may good fortune be with you.』

The True Empty Homeland?

Something I had learned in world history class vaguely came to mind. Wasn't that a doctrine of a group called the White Lotus Sect?

To me, the White Lotus Sect was more memorable as the group a protagonist in a classic martial-arts novel became leader of than as a popular movement from history.

“Ha ha, you aren't even watching the performance. That book must be pretty interesting.”

A clear, graceful voice came from behind me. I hurriedly checked the rest of the rulebook, but none of the strange phenomena said to be caused by the Peach-Stealing Grounds mentioned voices.

Trying to keep my tone casual, I replied, “It's quite exciting. The protagonist seems to be desperately trying to escape a crisis right now.”

“Even if your Records Officers write everything down vividly, it can't be very entertaining when the one editing it is such a stuffy monk.”

Someone who knew the Anomaly Records Office and the rulebooks.

I turned around sharply.

It was a woman in black martial attire. Her hair was even darker than the black silk she wore, swept up and gathered into a single tie. Her red eyes sparkled as she smiled brightly.

“Nice to meet you. You're the new recruit at our rival organization, aren't you? Please call me Mubeon.”

There was only one rival organization to the Anomaly Records Office.

“Are you a senior from the Anomaly Destruction Hall...?”

“A senior? How stiff. Just call me Mubeon.”

She suddenly came up beside me and draped an arm around my shoulders, then glanced over the rulebook.

“Ha, this thing is like a disgusting fish. I can't properly see through it unless I take it to the Anomaly Destruction Hall and dissect it. What's written in there?”

For a moment, I wondered if I should reveal the rulebook's contents to a member of the Black Lotus Society. The thought soon faded.

Hadn't the senior Records Officers all said the same thing? If someone wanted the rulebook, it was better to hand it over and focus on surviving.

Since my seniors had advised me to save my life before the rulebook, it was only right for this junior martial artist to follow their guidance.

“It says that if you want to stop the peach-stealing event, you should disrupt the strongmen's performance. If you want to reach the True Empty Homeland, you should volunteer to steal a peach yourself.”

“Hmm. That's no different from what we have. Well, this is an event that comes around once a year, so we see it often enough. Of course there are limits to the information your side can obtain.”

Still smiling cheerfully, Mubeon asked, “So, are you interested in the True Empty Homeland? In ascending to heaven?”

I answered at once. Wasn't the White Lotus Sect in martial-arts stories usually another name for the Demonic Cult? Going to a heaven they spoke of?

I'd be fortunate to avoid a violent death.

“No. I don't believe in the White Lotus Sect.”

“Oh? You know who they are?”

“What?”

What was this? Wasn't it common knowledge that the True Empty Homeland was White Lotus Sect doctrine?

Mubeon pointed at the strongmen. The rope they had raised seemed to stretch all the way to heaven, its end hidden in the clouds.

The one called the son grasped the rope with both hands.

“As you said, young hero, they are followers of the Bright Sect. More precisely, they are Bright Sect officials who died, ascended to heaven, and temporarily descended to recruit new believers.”

Mubeon looked at the strongmen's faces for a moment, then tilted her head.

“Hmm, the previous Zengzhangtian, and was the other one Duowentian? I'm not certain. I can recognize Zengzhangtian, at least.”

The dead had descended.

All Anomalies defied common sense, but this went far beyond it. Mubeon grinned and lightly gestured toward the sky.

“Up there is the True Empty Homeland. Another world apart from this one. Heavenly Paradise, a place that seems as if it could fulfill any dream.”

“Any dream?”

“Why? Didn't they say they would pick heavenly peaches for you?”

Mubeon confirmed that the words openly shouted by the dead officials of the Bright Sect were true. There really were peaches in the heaven they headed toward.

“They're delicious. I don't know whether eating one truly extends your lifespan, but it definitely contains enough concentrated energy to be called a spiritual elixir.”

She spread both hands wide. Secret martial manuals, divine weapons, spiritual elixirs. The True Empty Homeland had everything.

“If you can return alive, you can fulfill at least one desire. Don't you want to go up there?”

I became even more frightened.

Didn't martial artists who invaded secret realms full of treasure usually end up slaughtered? Except for the protagonist.

“Then I suppose it can't be helped.”

Mubeon shook her head.

“Young hero, you needn't worry anymore. Those people will be satisfied as long as they recruit even one person to send to the True Empty Homeland, then they'll disappear.”

“Then doesn't that mean at least one person gathered here will be taken?”

“Ahaha. This is why people from the orthodox sects are so cute. I meant that I'll volunteer, so you can relax. To investigate an Anomaly, you have to reach the deepest place it has hidden.”

During our brief conversation, something fell from the sky. I knew it not by sight, but by smell.

From above the clouds, an intense fruit fragrance that seemed to overwhelm every smell in the market rapidly drew closer.

Three or four fruits fell from the clouds to the ground.

The one called the father somehow caught all of them, then immediately brought the peach in one hand to his mouth and bit into it.

A crisp crunch rang through the entire square. An even stronger fruit fragrance filled my nostrils.

He proudly showed the crowd the cross-section of the peach he had bitten into. Then he suddenly tossed one peach to a child nearby.

The child devoured the peach in a frenzy.

By the time the child had eaten about half of it, the father strongman threw the remaining peaches to the crowd as well.

Everyone who ate one exclaimed that it was a delicacy. Then the father strongman frowned and looked up at the sky.

“Son! Aren't you being too lazy? Why aren't you picking the peaches already?”

At that moment, a sheet of paper fell from the sky. The father strongman easily caught the fluttering white sheet, then read it in an exaggerated voice.

“Goodness! This is a serious problem. The peach orchard in heaven is fully ripe, but my son says he needs more hands.

Is there anyone here who would like to go up to heaven and steal heavenly peaches?

Eat one and you will live one more year. Eat ten and you will live a hundred years. These are spiritual fruits!”

The people looked at one another. The peaches had certainly been incredibly delicious, but the endless rope was too frightening to climb.

Then an unsuspecting child stepped forward. It was the child who had received a peach.

“Mister! I-”

“Me!”

Before the child could finish speaking, Mubeon shot her hand up. The crowd before her naturally parted.

“My, you look rather delicate. Can you climb that rope?”

Mubeon's smile deepened as she called out, “This young hero says he'll help!”

This crazy woman.

Footnotes:

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