WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 33: Between Second-rate and Peak (1)

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Leaving behind the heavens, where horrific sounds echoed, I grabbed the rope. There was no time to descend carefully, one step at a time.

I focused on the hand gripping the rope. Drawing up my internal energy to protect my skin, I loosened my grip, which had been clenched far too tightly.

Sssshhhk─!

Gripping the rope, I slid down. I prayed that Zengzhangtian's Divine Ability, which held up this rope, would not come undone.

The ascent had been long and grueling, but the descent was short and intense. The Peach-Stealing Grounds were already coming back into view.

'Damn it...'

Reaching the ground would not mean everything was over. Zengzhangtian was waiting below.

According to the rulebook, the way to deal with the Peach-Stealing Grounds was simply to wait it out. Since Zengzhangtian had used a terrifying Divine Ability to bind together markets from several cities, it probably could not last long.

Still, I had no way of knowing how many quarter-hours or two-hour periods I would need to endure before Zengzhangtian's internal energy ran dry. Steeling myself, I jumped from the rope.

"Goodness, young hero! Where is the young lady? How could you leave a woman behind and come down alone?"

What woman? Judging by martial ability alone, she could have led some sect somewhere.

"Miss Mubeon is..."

Just as I was about to make up an excuse like, 'She told me to bring a sack to fill with peaches and come back up,' something hot fell onto my face.

I instinctively wiped my face. When I looked at my fingers, they were stained with a red, sticky liquid.

A drop of blood.

Thud!

Something fell from the sky. A piece of a human body that had fallen from the heavens struck the ground.

An arm. It had already been severed from its body, yet even that arm was not intact.

The forearm, severed below the upper arm, twitched.

Silence hung over the people who could not understand what had happened. Zengzhangtian put on a sorrowful expression.

"Ah, how could this happen! It seems my son has been caught by the groundskeeper guarding the heavenly Peach Blossom Spring!"

No. That was not Duowentian's arm. That arm, so white it was hard to believe it belonged to a living person, was the Life-and-Death Gambler's.

As if Zengzhangtian's words had been a signal, human body parts suddenly began falling from the sky.

This time, they clearly belonged to Duowentian.

Several pieces fell from above until Duowentian's head finally came tumbling down as well.

Weeping bitterly, Zengzhangtian prepared the pieces for burial and placed them inside the chest he carried on his back. Then he called out.

"Everyone, if you pity me, please offer your condolences."

He went among the spectators, collecting a few coins from each of them. After listening to their consolation and condolences, he patted the chest holding Duowentian's pieces.

"You little rascal, why are you not coming out when our guests are paying their respects?"

Duowentian then opened the chest and emerged. His body was whole, without a single trace of being cut apart. As though nothing had happened, he bowed to the spectators gathered at the Peach-Stealing Grounds.

Only then did the audience's stiff expressions ease, and they applauded. Even those who had paid cried, "For a spectacle like that, what are a few coins?"

Zengzhangtian and Duowentian coiled up the endless rope, placed it in a white sack, and left the market square.

I watched where they were headed. Though I had not looked away even once, the two figures had vanished before I knew it.

They were not the only things that had disappeared. The endlessly sprawling market street had returned to the Taian marketplace where I had been watching the show.

People began leaving the square, saying they had seen a truly wondrous sight. Before I knew it, the sun was setting.

A sigh of relief escaped me.

"Ah, young hero."

I take that back.

"Could you help me too?"

* * *

Mubeon's appearance when I turned around was quite horrifying.

Like Duowentian, who had fallen apart in several pieces, she too had been cut into pieces.

The Mubeon talking to me now had nothing below her waist.

Strangely enough, Mubeon did not seem to be in much pain. No blood had welled along the exposed cross-section where her organs could be seen. It was beyond strange, almost Anomaly-like.

I remembered the blood that had splashed across my face.

Was that Maitreya's blood?

"I'm hard to kill. Please gather me together."

I obediently did as that Anomaly-like person's words instructed. Mubeon raised her right arm. Her small bag opened on its own, and a long needle rose into her hand.

Its point was sharp enough to be used as a hidden weapon.

After tying thread to the needle, Mubeon began sewing her waist back together.

Scrape. Scrape.

The sound of the needle piercing flesh and thread brushing past her organs.

The reattachment surgery taking place in the nearly deserted square at sunset, on a road filled with shadows from the backlight, was gruesome and dizzying.

"Oh, did my left hand not fall off? It should be easy to spot since it is still attached up to the elbow."

"...Zengzhangtian took it."

"Ah. I thought those persistent bastards were leaving too quickly. So they noticed the fight happening above. Still, they probably did not really take it. Someone filled with desires like me would be treated as an impurity over there."

I searched around the square. Sure enough, Mubeon's forearm had fallen near where the two White Lotus Sect followers' lost spirits had left the chest.

It seemed they had only pretended to put it in the chest to quickly deal with the commotion a severed arm would cause. Mubeon looked at her arm for a moment, then gave up on reattaching it, saying it was too badly damaged.

"I have so many broken parts now. Should I go find the Soul-Reaving Demon?"

Mubeon smiled faintly and slowly moved her body. Her movements above the waist were natural, but her legs moved stiffly, making her resemble a wooden puppet.

"Ugh, it has been a while since I have been cut up this badly, so I cannot get used to it. If it came down to killing techniques alone, Maitreya's name would be disgraced."

After hearing Mubeon's grumbling, I immediately asked, "Is he dead?"

"Hm?"

"I mean Maitreya."

The corner of her lips lifted. It was not quite a sneer. It was closer to the smile an adult made when a child said something illogical but cute, like, 'Clouds are soft and fluffy, so they must taste good!'

"No way! He can easily kill even someone as hard to kill as I am. Even if I fought until my body broke, the best I could do was barely graze him with a single move. Unless Heo Yu personally arrived, I do not think there is a martial artist in the current martial world who could fight him in the True Empty Homeland and win."

Heo Yu?

I had heard that name somewhere.

My memories turned to the Martial Alliance organization chart I had seen long ago.

"Do you mean the Martial Alliance Leader?"

"Yes. It is amazing that someone with that temperament has stayed in that position for so long. Considering how scholarly he is, it would not have been strange if he had destroyed the dantians of the higher-ups and quit long ago."

Mubeon's words implied many things. There were people among the Martial Alliance's leadership committing wrongdoing, and the Martial Alliance Leader opposed them.

It also meant the Martial Alliance Leader was unimaginably strong.

"Anyway, I had fun today. It has been a while since I lost this thoroughly."

The one-armed Life-and-Death Gambler held out her hand. A handshake was not something often seen in the martial world. After a moment's hesitation, I took her hand.

She had started my climb through the True Empty Homeland, but she had also saved me from danger.

More than anything, there was no need to deliberately offend a mad expert.

"The secret martial manual I gave you is quite valuable."

Ah.

Right. There was something like that.

I remembered the booklet Mubeon had thrown at me as the price of my victory.

I had caught it without thinking and stuffed it into my clothes, but I had fled immediately without even having time to look at the cover, so I did not know what it contained. Still, it had to be a high-level martial art if an expert like her called it valuable.

"Thank you for your generosity, Senior."

Mubeon waved her hand. She explained that she had only paid a fair price. I could learn it, sell it, or use it wherever I needed it.

"Still..."

Her glowing red eyes swept over my body. It was the method experts used to measure another's martial ability.

"Your forms are already quite impressive."

I nodded at the assessment. The red shadow's movements had indeed been that meticulous and precise.

Since I had been able to reproduce those movements on my own, could I not call myself First-rate at this point?

"Your internal energy is the problem. If you solve that, you could go around calling yourself a Peak realm expert."

"You're flattering me."

Mubeon shook her head. She asked whether I knew why it was called the Peak, meaning the highest point.

Did paths such as the Transformation Realm and Mystic Realm not continue after Peak realm?

I touched my chin. I had heard an explanation like this at some point while playing Black and White Martial Heroes Chronicle.

"Isn't it because the highest point referred to by Peak realm is limited to physical skill?"

"Oh? You know quite a bit! Did the Eccentric Physician teach you?"

Mubeon tried to clap, then said, "Ah, I do not have my left hand right now," and continued her explanation.

Peak realm was the state of being able to fully display every bit of strength one's body possessed. Even ordinary people sometimes displayed superhuman strength in extreme situations, such as a fire.

Peak realm was the level at which one could reproduce that phenomenon entirely through one's own will. Someone who possessed the skill to transmit force from the tips of their feet to the tips of their hands and use every last bit of physical strength dormant within their body was a Peak realm expert.

"I saw you running from Maitreya. It was Drifting Cloud Step, right? The Martial Alliance's shared footwork technique."

Mubeon explained that the Drifting Cloud Step I had used had surpassed the limitations of shared footwork. I had preserved the martial art's true meaning, but changed its form to suit my body.

"To fully embody a martial art, you must break down its form once and build it again. The body of the person who created a martial art cannot perfectly match the body of the person learning it. Still, rebuilding that form requires an understanding of your own body."

Only by understanding oneself perfectly could one discover the most suitable form. Mubeon believed that, having found my own form, my skill already rivaled that of a Peak realm expert.

"Uh..."

I was about to object. These movements were only a reproduction of the red shadow, not entirely my own skill.

At the same time, I remembered the moment when I had copied the red shadow's martial ability and defeated it. I still remembered its movements, and just as I had done with Drifting Cloud Step, I could reproduce the shadow's movements.

'Wait, then am I a Peak realm expert?'

Had I escaped my life as a Second-rate wandering martial artist?

As I was thrown into confusion by a mixture of elation and doubt about myself, Mubeon continued.

"Wow, I thought the Records Office had been short on talented people lately, but to think someone like you would join."

"...Have their numbers been reduced for some reason?"

"Our Anomaly Destruction Hall fighting with your side is... a routine event. Imperial fengshan? No. If people die at a Mount Tai rite, it would be the Eastern Depot or the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Mubeon's words, as she considered reasons people might die, ended on a chilling note.

"Who knows. Maybe it is simply the season when there are fewer people."

"What kind of season is that?"

Mubeon shrugged, saying that every season was like that in the martial world, then prepared to leave. Her lower body's movements were still awkward, but she did not seem to have much trouble walking.

I also turned away. I needed to return to my lodging quickly, pack my things, and head up to the Taishan Sect.

After encountering an Anomaly, my anxiety was creeping back in. There were martial artists at the Martial Alliance branch, but surely the safest place on Mount Tai was within the Taishan Sect's grounds.

"Young hero!"

Someone called out to me as I hurriedly turned away. I reflexively looked back.

"Yes?"

"Then let's play again sometime."

Footnotes:

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