WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 38: The Gap Between the Records Office and the Anomaly Destruction Hall (2)

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"Once you've learned the Star-Absorbing, no, the Demon-Breaking Vajra Art to a certain degree, tell me. I'm curious about the difference between consuming an Anomaly by mouth and absorbing one with the Demon-Breaking Vajra Art."

"Sir, be honest with me. Aren't you more interested in satisfying your curiosity than solving my internal energy problem?"

"Now, now. Do you think this White-Robed Miracle Physician would prescribe a remedy out of personal curiosity?"

Ignoring the special physician's shamelessness, I flipped through the Anomaly Records Office's rulebooks. Since I had just returned from a lengthy assignment, no one would complain if I spent a few days idling around.

'Still, I feel awfully uneasy just sitting around doing nothing.'

From what the senior Records Officers had consistently told me, the Anomaly Destruction Hall and the Anomaly Records Office were bound to cross paths eventually.

Most of those encounters ended in fights to the death. I had been thoroughly taken aback when I heard that the Life-and-Death Gambler was better than the average Anomaly Destruction Hall operative because, although she dragged people into wagers, she did not immediately resort to tricks or killing moves when she met them.

That was why I had recently been looking through rulebooks on notable figures of the martial world instead of rulebooks about Anomalies.

These were unlike the Martial Alliance's protocol rulebook, required reading for Ceremonial Affairs Department staff. Though based on that book, they contained far more detailed and confidential information. They were rulebooks for countering martial arts, strictly managed by the Anomaly Records Office.

The protocol rulebook's formal name was the Illustrated Register of Notable Figures of Jianghu. It had earned that name because it offered detailed explanations alongside portraits of important figures.

This countermeasure rulebook was called the Countermeasure Volume of the Illustrated Register of Notable Figures of Jianghu.

As I read passages that discussed the flaws in techniques with detailed illustrations and explained how to break martial principles, I found myself speaking aloud.

"...We shouldn't let the person concerned find out about the Countermeasure Volume, right?"

"If the person concerned found the rulebook, they would first kill whoever possessed it, burn the book, then run wild, vowing to find and execute whoever wrote it. That's what unorthodox sects all... No, that's what martial artists whose martial arts' strengths and weaknesses have been exposed generally do."

That had not been the White-Robed Miracle Physician's aged voice. When I turned around, Jade Scale stood there, her green eyes gleaming. She rarely came out of the northern bookbinding room. What was going on?

"Senior Jade Scale? What brings you out here? And where did Elder Special Physician go this time?"

"He went upstairs, saying he needed to write a report on the Medical Hall's use of medicinal ingredients. I have something to report to the Director."

Tsk.

The special physician was a busy person. It was not as though I had set out on some dangerous mission. I was quietly reading indoors, so there was no reason for him to stand guard over me.

The moment that thought settled, a new question came to mind.

"Ah, is our Director at the Martial Alliance?"

Jade Scale looked at me as if she could not understand what I was saying.

"Wouldn't it be stranger for the head of an institution to wander about instead of remaining at their post?"

"Well, I've been with the Anomaly Records Office for quite a while now, but I've never seen the Director's face. I thought they had gone on assignment to write a rulebook for a Heavenly-grade Anomaly, or perhaps entered secluded cultivation."

"Secluded cultivation may not be too far off. The Director is usually in the deeper levels of the Records Office."

The deeper levels?

The Records Office was already underground. It was quite expansive too. Yet it had stairs leading even farther down.

The special physician and Peng Juhyeok had both told me it was not somewhere I would normally need to visit, so I had not paid it much attention.

"Does the Director use the entire lower floor as an office?"

This was power? Incredible...

Jade Scale shook her head.

"The Director's work is usually carried out down there. Still, a seal chamber would be a more fitting name than an office."

She went on to explain that every Anomaly the Anomaly Records Office had successfully sealed was down there.

The concentrated Demonic Qi of those Anomalies distorted the space in the deeper levels, forming something like a formation array. Even experienced Records Officers could not enter and leave freely.

"Suppressing the Demonic Qi of sealed Anomalies and preventing their escape is the Director of the Records Office's primary duty."

"...There are demonic practitioners down there?"

"There are some demonic practitioners as well. But most of what is sealed exists in forms closer to secret martial manuals or essences..."

In many cases, a demonic practitioner's core was not the person who had learned it, but the demonic arts themselves. Even after the practitioner's physical form was defeated, the essence of those demonic arts remained behind and contaminated the surroundings.

According to Jade Scale, the Director of the Records Office served as a guardian, containing those essences so their corruption could not spread.

The idea that martial arts, rather than the martial artist, were the core of the threat was difficult for me to understand.

'Should I think of it as something like a demon sword from a fantasy novel?'

"By the way, why are you reading the Countermeasure Volume? Looking at the books you piled up, they're all about unorthodox sects. Were you assigned to negotiate with the Black Lotus Society?"

"What? There are assignments like that?"

Jade Scale nodded and rubbed her chin.

"Hm. I can't remember how many years ago the most recent exchange meeting was. It would have been after Peng Juhyeok joined."

Sighing that being underground all the time dulled her sense of time, Jade Scale shrugged.

"At any rate, such things happen from time to time. They're events where the Anomaly Destruction Hall and the Records Office exchange information, and sometimes prisoners."

"Prisoners?"

"They occasionally abduct martial artists to obtain information about us."

I rubbed the back of my neck. Were those unorthodox sect bastards not taking things too far?

"I haven't received an assignment like that... Still, I think I may end up involved with the Anomaly Destruction Hall."

There was the time I met the Human-Skin Chef when I went out with the special physician, and the incident at the Peach-Stealing Grounds, where I was forcibly dragged into the Life-and-Death Gambler's wager and put through hell.

"I thought I should memorize ways to deal with them beforehand, in case I meet them again."

"That's a good attitude. Still, when facing martial artists, it's best not to rely too heavily on knowledge gained from books."

Jade Scale then recited another saying, just as famous as the warning to beware of women, children, and the elderly in the martial world.

"In the martial world, hide three-tenths of your skill. You've heard that saying often, I'm sure."

"Yes. Among wandering martial artists like me, they say that if you hide your skill, you'll die. If you want to live, you should give everything from the start..."

"That's not wrong. Even a master can die to a blind strike from a lesser opponent fighting for their life."

Jade Scale nodded, but then told me of the Countermeasure Volume's greatest flaw.

"For these rulebooks to be updated, someone must naturally fight those people. But if the Records Officer who fought a life-and-death duel died, we have no way of learning what happened. Conversely, even if both sides return alive, we cannot fully trust the information."

"...Because it wasn't the opponent's full strength."

A martial artist's hidden trump card, their life-saving ultimate move, was naturally used only when their life truly needed saving.

If an encounter ended with both parties alive rather than in a fight to the death, it was difficult to say one had seen that martial artist's full strength.

So if one judged an opponent's strength solely by the Countermeasure Volume's descriptions, one risked dying to a hidden move.

"I thought the only thing I could trust in this mountain of blades and forest of swords called the martial world was rulebooks...!"

To think even rulebooks could not be trusted completely.

'Then again, I encountered a variant at Soul-Severing Mountain Villa that was not written in the rulebook.'

In the end, was a martial artist only able to trust their own martial arts? The thought left a bitter taste in my mouth.

It felt as though I had gained yet another reason to learn the Star-Absorbing Great Method, now renamed the Demon-Breaking Vajra Art.

"Still, they're not meaningless. Simply knowing the general methods your opponent uses broadens your options for responding. They may even feel intimidated when they see you easily counter their martial arts."

After offering a few more words of advice, Jade Scale said she would be back shortly and headed down into the underground levels...

But before she did, she gave me a few instructions.

"If I haven't returned after two hours, and you're still in the records room by then, go to the bookbinding room, close the door, and wait."

"Pardon?"

"No matter what sounds you hear outside, don't open the bookbinding room's door. Either I or another Records Officer will come in to work and open the bookbinding room's door for you."

"Why are you saying something so ominous?"

"There have been cases where people suffered because no one told them."

"...Can I just go home now?"

"That would be a good option too."

I heard Jade Scale descend the stairs. The steadily fading sound and the darkness with no visible end stirred my imagination in unpleasant ways.

I hesitated for a moment. Taking the Countermeasure Volume out of the office was out of the question. Should I leave work now, then come back tomorrow to continue reading?

There were still two hours left. I had plenty of time, so perhaps I could finish the book I was reading before deciding...

Tap.

Footsteps echoed. Footsteps approaching the records room from the deeper levels.

Just as I was about to leap up the stairs and leave work immediately, reading be damned, Jade Scale's voice called out.

"You haven't left yet, have you?"

To my utter deflation, it was Jade Scale.

* * *

"Have you already finished what you went down there for?"

"I went to report that, having seen the Heavenly Order, I thought another Anomaly would emerge, but the Director already knew."

"Ah. Then why were you looking for me...?"

"The Director said you would be suited for this matter."

Oh, no.

As I shuddered at the cold-bloodedness of the Director of the Records Office, who would not allow an underling to rest, Jade Scale searched the shelves, took out a volume of the Illustrated Register of Notable Figures of Jianghu, and handed it to me.

"Among the unorthodox sect scum in the region you're heading to, this one is the only one you need to keep in mind."

The cover of the Countermeasure Volume bore four characters: Iron-Headed Fire Axe.

"A Peak realm expert of the Green Forest..."

Footnotes:

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