WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 31: Heaven's Greatest Treasure (1)

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An Anomaly above, a lunatic below.

Weren't insane masters strange beings in their own right? It would not be wrong to say I was surrounded by Anomalies above and below.

Caught between pressure from both directions, I gritted my teeth and climbed into the sky, already thinking about how I would get back down as soon as I reached the top.

Then, at some point, the air changed.

The scent of peaches.

The fragrance that had been strong enough to fill my nostrils with only a few fallen peaches below now permeated the entire atmosphere.

It no longer smelled pleasant.

It was too thick.

Didn't they say that the substances behind the fragrance of roses and the stench of farts were the same?

Like inhaling perfume so concentrated it reflexively made me want to cough, it was difficult to breathe.

Once it became hard to inhale, exhaling naturally became difficult as well. As my breathing fell apart, the Life-and-Death Gambler shouted.

"Huh? Breathe! You can't die yet!"

The word "yet" dug into my ears. It was the regret of someone wondering what would happen if I died before the wager had even properly begun.

That deranged sort of sympathy brought me back to my senses.

Breathing through my mouth, I continued thinking.

According to Daoist Heosong's speculation, my sense of smell detected whether something would be beneficial or harmful if eaten and perceived it as a scent.

Then what was this phenomenon?

I'd heard somewhere on Earth that every substance was poison, with only the amount differing.

The True Empty Homeland surely contained a vast amount of Demonic Qi, and my body could take it in and use it as a substitute for True Origin Qi.

The problem was that there was far too much of it.

It was probably my unconscious warning me, Don't even think about eating all the peaches.

Until now, my sense of smell had only reacted with things like, Don't eat this, or, It won't taste good even if you eat it. Yet it was judging this Demonic Qi as something that would make me sick if I consumed too much.

Just how much Demonic Qi was hidden here?

My question was answered the next moment.

As I reached higher, my hand felt as though it had pierced something soft, like very sparse down.

The place I pulled myself into was Peach Blossom Spring.

As far as the horizon, everything was filled with peach trees. Whenever a gentle breeze swept through the branches, a dizzyingly thick fragrance spread through the air.

Even without my warped sense of smell, everyone would be able to smell this. It felt like plunging my nose into a dish filled with perfume.

"You made it up here, Brother!"

Duowentian approached. He was the departed soul of the White Lotus Sect member who had played the son among the two rope performers.

"Come, please. Welcome to this Heavenly Paradise! Isn't it truly beautiful?"

As though introducing the clouds beneath our feet, he raised his right arm and slowly swept it outward from his chest.

It truly was. The cloud beneath my feet shimmered with a faint five-colored glow. The endless fields of peach trees inspired grandeur through their scale alone.

"This Peach Blossom Spring is only the entrance to Heavenly Paradise. Let us go farther inside. Farther..."

A subtle, sinister current clung to Duowentian's friendly, sociable voice. It was a voice that subdued the spirit and inspired submission and reverence.

I recognized it because I had experienced a similar technique before.

The Newcomer Welcome Banquet. The Soul-Binding Art that had secretly been used throughout the previous day and the day of the event. I could still feel the sensation of my thoughts being drawn in only one direction.

Borrowing the power of Soul-Binding Art, Duowentian whispered temptation. Anyone whose spirit had been subdued would accept his guidance at once and head deep into Peach Blossom Spring, toward the heart of the True Empty Homeland they spoke of.

And they would never come back.

What should I do? I considered whether I should pretend to have fallen under his Soul-Binding Art or act like one of the ignorant masses blinded by greed for heavenly peaches.

Then.

Pshk.

Without any warning, a hand thrust through Duowentian's chest. Though I clearly heard the sound of human flesh being torn, it was a pure white hand without a single drop of blood on it.

The hand, sharp and shaped like a hand blade, slowly tilted sideways.

"Huh?"

Only then did Duowentian realize something was wrong. Before he could say anything more, the sideways hand blade swished upward.

From around his solar plexus to his skull, a rectangular column of flesh exactly as wide as the hand blade shot into the sky.

The flesh stretching from one end of his eyes to the other had already been cut away and flung into the air. The strips along the sides of his head, with their sideburns and surrounding hair, and his cheeks remained like a tuning fork.

Beyond the cleanly severed cross-sections of his spine, organs, and blood vessels, I could see Mubeon's brightly smiling face.

She waved her raised arm. It was a greeting to the chunks of Duowentian's flesh freely swimming through the distant air.

"See you again next time!"

Then blood began pouring from the wound. Duowentian's body, with a rectangular column cut out from its solar plexus to its head, collapsed.

"That man would keep being a nuisance if we left him alone."

Was it possible to dispatch an Anomaly like that for such a reason?

Mubeon must have read the shock in my eyes, because she shook her head.

"No. I could've sent him off like that on the ground, but these departed souls are already bound to the True Empty Homeland. He'll regain his form before long. At most, an hour."

Clap.

She clapped her hands with boundless cheer.

"So that's the time limit! I'll wait here for fifteen minutes, then set off. Let's meet again around the two-hour mark! The smell of corpses will be enough of a signpost, right?"

"Can I forfeit?"

"Come on, you've made it this far. At least take some peaches with you! They're delicious. Though they don't do much after the second one."

* * *

As though pushed along by that insane master, I began walking.

The moment Mubeon sliced Duowentian apart remained burned into my eyes. The scene itself had been horrifying, but the martial principles within it were another reason it remained etched in my mind.

There had not been a single unnecessary movement.

From piercing his chest and raising her hand to that innocent wave goodbye. Her greeting clearly had not been part of a martial form, yet I could not find an opening anywhere.

Was that the realm beyond Peak?

A realm where one could reveal and conceal the real and the false at will, without following the Orthodox Path?

"...Why would a master like that have the insane hobby of wagering her life?"

I looked around. I picked a few heavenly peaches, but I had no desire to eat them right away.

The fragrance was still far too thick. I had put them in my pocket so I could claim, I've done enough, in the Life-and-Death Gambler's wager, but putting one in my mouth felt worse than drinking perfume.

It seemed I would have to return below before I could feel hungry.

I looked around. Something like an enormous wall shimmered on the horizon. Was that where the White Lotus Sect members who had reached the True Empty Homeland lived?

The scenery of the True Empty Homeland truly resembled a realm of immortals, and that fortress must have contained every kind of treasure. Still, I had no desire to go inside.

This place possessed a beauty difficult to find on the ground, but it was also a den of fiends that the rulebook had warned against time and again.

The rules concerning the Peach-Stealing Grounds below had included several passages saying that, if one reached the Transcendent Peak realm, it might be worth facing the rope performers directly.

Yet the rules concerning the True Empty Homeland had always been consistent. They did not discuss the level of one's martial arts, but only advised people not to catch Maitreya's attention.

It implied that even a Transcendent Peak realm master could not escape disaster upon encountering that thing called Maitreya.

I abandoned every desire.

There was nothing I wanted in this terrifying heaven.

* * *

The True Empty Homeland read the desires of those who ascended to heaven.

The exploited adherents had wished for a peaceful paradise where no one could prey upon them, so a grand fortress unlike anything found on earth was built.

They had also wished for ageless immortality, never to be hurt again, so heavenly peaches rose up and restored their youth.

The White Lotus Sect martial artists, including the Four Heavenly Kings, wished to hone their martial arts further and make their own souls more valuable.

So secret martial manuals were bestowed upon them.

Yet it was all truly foolish and pitiful.

Why was the True Empty Homeland called true emptiness?

The true end, the end that would come by following the will of the Unborn Venerable Mother, was a white silence where nothing remained.

The True Empty Homeland born from these desires granted without end so its people could realize the impermanence of desire.

When every sect member laid down their accumulated desires and wished for true emptiness.

When the scenery above the clouds became one with pure emptiness, only then would the True Empty Homeland descend into the present world.

Very few had reached such a realm. Not only among the fellow believers accepted on earth according to their spiritual nature and aptitude, but even among those who had cultivated within the sect from the beginning.

There were few who had cast aside every desire and become truly pleasing in his eyes.

But now, the True Empty Homeland announced it.

Someone who had only just ascended to heaven had already laid down their desires.

Ah.

Maitreya smiled in satisfaction.

Footnotes:

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