WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 30: Walking a Tightrope (2)

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The father strongman approached me. Just as I was about to turn and run, a voice transmission pierced my ear.

[Hehe, Zengzhangtian was a master of the Peak realm while he was alive. Who knows what realm he may have reached after being taken into heaven?]

It was a taunt, daring me to run from an opponent who was at least a master of the Peak realm.

I stopped myself from turning and calmly settled my heart.

‘The rulebook said I could look for an opportunity to climb down if things went wrong...’

I had not been able to read it closely because Mubeon had suddenly interrupted, but the Peach-Stealing Grounds rulebook for martial artists was broadly divided into three stages.

The first was the preparation stage for the two strongmen, before anyone climbed the rope. Ordinarily, the best time to intervene was at this stage, before anyone could be taken away.

‘That crazy unorthodox sect member volunteered, so I don’t need to worry about some passing civilian being caught by the Anomaly.’

The second stage was while climbing the rope.

The rulebook called this stage Ascending to Heaven.

『During the Ascending to Heaven stage, malicious phenomena will rain down upon you in an effort to knock you from the rope.

If your resolve does not waver and you do not reach your physical limits, you will be able to ascend safely into the sky.

But a person's will and stamina are not limitless. If, while climbing the rope, you reach a point where you feel that nothing you do will let you climb any higher, act as follows.

First, confirm that you have climbed high enough. Here, high enough means above the clouds.

If you have climbed above the clouds, remain still where you are.

The strongmen can detect your movements through the faint vibrations carried by the rope.

If you remain still for more than a quarter-hour, a voice will call out from the ground below.

Most of the time, it will ask, “Why can you not climb any higher?” At that time, say that your arms have lost their strength and you cannot climb further.

Then, the strongman who remained below will begin climbing the rope, saying that they will help you.

Once the strongman enters the clouds and their view is blocked, release the rope and fall. If you fall below the clouds, use your lightness technique to its fullest, seize the rope again, and descend.

Remember, you must never be seen directly by the strongman.

Once you have safely reached the ground, rest easy. Return home, get sufficient rest, then visit a Martial Alliance branch and report the incident.』

Being told to free-fall from above the clouds sounded insane, but martial artists could control their bodies in midair over a very short distance with movement techniques.

A disciple of a renowned major sect who had learned ascending martial arts like the Treading-Cloud Step or the Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon could do so with ease. The part about lightness techniques had been written for those who were not disciples of such sects.

It advised reducing the strain on the body as much as possible through a lightness technique to aid one’s movement in the air.

Any First-rate martial artist could manage it.

The problem was that I was only Second-rate, but if I gritted my teeth and pushed through, I should be able to do it.

I was confident in my stamina, at least enough to climb to the clouds.

Over the past few days, I had climbed all kinds of famous mountains, including Mount Wudang. Compared to climbing Sword-Relinquishing Pond, my arms and legs felt much lighter. Of course I could climb as far as the clouds.

There was another problem, though.

The strongman's response did not always involve someone climbing up from below. There was also the possibility of someone descending from above.

『If the strongman on the ground does not climb up personally, but instead asks the strongman who ascended to the True Empty Homeland to descend and help you, we regret to inform you that this is unfortunate.

Continue your ascent while following the strongman's guidance, then refer to the next chapter, How to Escape the True Empty Homeland.』

Fortunately, since it did not say to exercise a martial artist's right, immediate death did not seem to be drawing near in that case either.

Suppressing the sigh rising in my throat, I stepped forward.

“Here, I shall give you tools that may be of help!”

Zengzhangtian gave Mubeon and me belts and a thin rope. The belts were meant to be worn around our waists, with the rope connecting us as though we were climbers tied together.

“You can go up first!”

“Senior, why are you doing this?”

Mubeon beamed.

“Isn’t it fun?”

Was she insane?

“Every visit to the True Empty Homeland is different. Unfulfilled wishes left behind on earth twist it into something with a different character each time. The moment you steal the traces left by departed souls and escape is thrilling!”

The unorthodox sects truly were not people worth associating with. Why else would the word used for the unorthodox be part of the term heterodox evildoers?

The orthodox sects. Only the orthodox sects were the future of the martial world.

At Mubeon’s urging, I gripped the rope and slowly began reaching upward.

* * *

The wind was sharp.

Not sharp in the figurative sense of being bitterly cold. It was literally sharp. A passing gust lightly cut the back of my hand.

“What is this...?”

“Ha ha! Young hero, congratulations. It seems the True Empty Homeland truly wants to bring you in!”

Mubeon’s beautiful voice drifted up from below. That only made it more chilling.

“What do you mean?”

“Shouldn’t Heavenly Paradise be difficult to reach? The more deeply the True Empty Homeland takes an interest in someone, the harder it becomes for them to climb the rope.”

“There are two of us climbing. Isn’t it possible that I’m receiving such a warm welcome because of you, Senior?”

“Ah, not me. After climbing three or four times, it stopped welcoming me so eagerly. I could deceive the White Lotus Sect adherents, but it seems the master of the True Empty Homeland already knows everything.”

Cold sweat ran.

Not because of the sharp wind, but because of the person below me, smiling as she clung to the rope.

Repeated visits made the climb easier. That information had not been written in the rulebook.

It made sense, really.

What kind of mad person would repeatedly gamble with their life?

There were only two possibilities.

Mubeon was insane.

Or she was a master so powerful that the dead of the White Lotus Sect posed no threat to her.

The distinction was nearly meaningless. I had seen and heard that the higher one’s realm became, the stranger one’s mind grew.

“You’ll probably start hearing things after climbing a little farther. If it welcomes you even more intensely, perhaps you’ll see things too? Don’t trust your eyes or ears. Just focus on your fingertips! You can do it! Go, go!”

I remembered the Eccentric Physician’s warning.

The Anomaly Destruction Hall’s addict of life-and-death gambles. The one the Eccentric Physician had said I was to accept any wager from if I met her.

Life-and-Death Gambler.

With a trembling heart, I tested Mubeon.

“What would you do if I gave up climbing and decided to go back down?”

“That would be a shame. But would that be all right? Zengzhangtian would become desperate to catch you and pull you back up.”

“What exactly do you want, urging me to climb like this?”

Hee hee hee hee...

Her laughter scattered into the wind. Mubeon spoke in a truly clear and lovely voice, as if whispering.

“How about a wager?”

Damn it.

“Whoever steals more heavenly peaches. Or whoever brings down something more valuable!”

Both of my guesses had been right.

Mubeon was a mad master.

* * *

Now that things had come to this, I could not stop climbing. Life-and-Death Gambler would never quietly let go of an opponent for a wager she had found after so long.

Wasn’t that what the Eccentric Physician had explained too? Even if she pretended to accept a refusal, she would provoke the Anomaly and drag both of us into ruin all the same.

It was better to climb with her.

I gripped the rope.

The blade-like wind cut at my skin, and a voice sounded behind my head, but none of it mattered now.

Every instinct I had for survival was focused on that mad master.

Life-and-Death Gambler’s presence was so intense that it reduced the Anomaly’s whispers to nothing more than white noise.

‘First, I’ll pretend to go along with the wager.’

Losing would not matter. She enjoyed the life-threatening thrill of a life-and-death gamble itself, not the result.

I just had to climb up, pick one peach, then come straight back down...!

The latter part of the rulebook, the section on the True Empty Homeland, spun chaotically through my mind. The situation was too urgent for me to organize the information properly.

The only thing I remembered was the warning not to catch Maitreya’s eye.

That line had been repeated several times.

“When you reach Peach Blossom Spring, Duowentian will be waiting. As your senior in Anomaly recordkeeping, I’ll give you a three-move head start!”

Just as I was considering how to escape the True Empty Homeland as quickly as possible, Life-and-Death Gambler started saying something insane again.

“A head start?”

“I’ll draw Duowentian’s attention. Steal any three things from the True Empty Homeland before I do! Once we’re done, we’ll go down and compare their value.”

I immediately understood the trap hidden in that proposal. The dangers in the True Empty Homeland were not limited to the two strongmen we had met on the ground.

“What if Maitreya is encountered?”

I asked directly. Life-and-Death Gambler brushed it off lightly.

“Oh my, you already read that far at the Peach-Stealing Grounds? Then, well, that would just be bad luck.”

Bad luck.

I remembered the section where the rulebook warned about Maitreya. If Maitreya was encountered, there was no escape.

The phrase about exercising a martial artist’s right, which had not appeared until then, had been written in the section about Maitreya.

Along with the implication that failing to exercise that right would lead to an even more dreadful fate.

“Good luck!”

Life-and-Death Gambler treated the impending destruction as entertainment.

Footnotes:

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