WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 63: Records Office External Affairs Officer (1)

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At Peng Juhyeok's words, my hand rose to my temple of its own accord. After massaging my temples with both hands for several seconds, I calmly asked again.

"What did you say?"

"I said there was precedent."

I covered my face with my hands.

"No..."

These insane martial artists.

After witnessing how terrifying Anomalies were, I'd been thinking that dealing with people was better than dealing with those Anomaly bastards.

Whenever I tried to think a little more positively about martial artists, they immediately set me straight.

"How did they not get expelled from the orthodox martial world after something like that happened?"

"Hmm. You could call it cutting off the tail. It was treated as the personal misconduct of individual clan members. Only a few people were quietly purged, while the clan itself remained untouched."

Peng Juhyeok explained that even among those who belonged beneath the immense shadow of the Five Great Clans, a person who became a clan head came to know many things.

The clan elders quietly received information about Anomalies, as well as confidential information about the leading figures of the unorthodox sects.

At first, they were outraged by the antics of those heterodox evildoers. Before long, though, they arrived at a somewhat more "flexible" conclusion.

"If we just close our eyes once, just once, and join hands with the unorthodox sects, couldn't we guarantee prosperity for the clan's next generation? That is how they rationalize it."

"Why would they guarantee prosperity by cracking open their descendants' skulls and taking over their bodies...?"

I cried out in despair. Were there really no normal martial artists in the martial world?

"I wouldn't know. Still, I think I can make a guess. Have you encountered the Life-and-Death Gambler?"

I nodded. She was the troublesome heterodox evildoer I'd met at the Peach-Stealing Grounds, the one who had dragged me all the way into the True Empty Homeland.

"Those people from the Anomaly Destruction Hall are a little mad, aren't they?"

I nodded calmly. In the past, I would have nodded vigorously, but after hearing that the orthodox sects did plenty of insane things too, I'd lost some of my enthusiasm for criticizing the unorthodox sects.

"Doesn't that madness arise because the convictions they place in their martial arts are reflected in the way they live? A martial artist's qualities, rooted in Essence, Qi, and Spirit, broadly affect how they learn martial arts. Yet martial arts also affect the martial artist."

I thought I'd heard something similar from the special physician before. Nodding, I asked again.

"Then the reason people from the clans make such deranged choices is...?"

"The deepest intent they carved into themselves while learning martial arts was the continuation and prosperity of their clan, was it not? Since they came to hold the clan closer to their hearts than the greater cause, it makes sense that they would choose such bizarre acts."

Intent.

To be honest, I still didn't properly understand that lofty state.

It was a concept I had often seen in martial arts novels, but when I imagined myself using a method that transcended phenomena through sheer will, I couldn't quite grasp it.

Still, I understood the heart of what Peng Juhyeok was saying. Their desire for the intent they embraced had grown so immense that it eventually overcame even their sense of moral duty.

It might be something I needed to keep in mind as well.

After all, I was a martial artist too. I was not even properly at the Peak realm yet, so I did not need to agonize over establishing the right intent from now. Still, I needed to remember not to be controlled by my martial arts.

The Star-Absorbing Great Method was especially troubling. At its core, it was a method for stealing another person's qi. It coveted power that was not mine, so the intent contained within that martial art could never be good.

As I sorted through my thoughts, something suddenly occurred to me.

"But say someone transplanted their brain into a child's body using the Soul-Reaving Demon's method. Would Essence, Qi, and Spirit still be in harmony?"

"I don't suppose so. The reason the Soul-Reaving Demon continues killing and conducting bizarre experiments is to overcome that very incompleteness."

"...Wouldn't it be better to use the Soul-Separation Grand Method instead?"

The Soul-Separation Grand Method was a technique that transferred a soul into another person's body. It was said to be the ultimate realm of the Soul-Binding Art.

"Ah. That has a problem."

"A problem?"

Peng Juhyeok nodded with a very serious expression.

"It costs far too much."

"What?"

He began to lay out everything he knew. To perform the Soul-Separation Grand Method, one first needed a vessel capable of receiving and preserving a person's spirit, and they generally used a spirit creature's inner core.

Yet to preserve a master's spirit intact, an ordinary spirit creature would not do. One needed a creature that had lived so long that words like thousand-year or ten-thousand-year would be attached to its name. The cost of performing the grand method even once would be unimaginable.

"What's more, simply gathering such vessels could make others realize you were preparing some special grand method. Because of the two issues of money and security, they choose the Soul-Reaving Demon's transplantation art over the Soul-Separation Grand Method."

His explanation was excessively detailed, as if he had been deeply involved in a transplantation incident himself.

"Is the reason Brother Peng left his clan related to that 'precedent' as well?"

Peng Juhyeok regained his usual smile.

"Something like that! When people hear that someone comes from a clan background, they praise them, saying it must be some splendid family and so on. But you'd be shocked if you knew how many elders from fairly prominent clans approached the Soul-Reaving Demon."

Disillusioned with the clans, Peng Juhyeok had stormed out of his own clan and been recruited by the Anomaly Records Office soon afterward.

"Putting that aside, I believe it is highly likely that the mysterious young master was created solely through the Murong Clan's choice, without any involvement from an Anomaly."

If that was truly the case, it would be difficult for the Anomaly Records Office to intervene.

The Anomaly Records Office did secretly possess some authority that went somewhat beyond the law. For example, personnel powers that flagrantly violated Martial Alliance regulations, or forged writs of command when necessary.

Yet those powers were allowed only for investigating Anomalies.

Besides, the Murong Clan was a clan. No matter how powerful the Martial Alliance was, its authority could hardly cross another person's threshold.

"Does it still bother you?"

"Yes. Murong Sung and I saved each other's lives. If he became involved with an Anomaly... or with some old monster even stranger than an Anomaly, and met a horrible death, I do not think I'd sleep well."

"Then there is a good way!"

His cheerful cry filled me with equal parts hope and dread.

Recently, I had become involved with so many strange people that I had realized something.

When strange people got excited, they always ended up saying something strange.

"Reach the Transformation Realm."

"Brother Peng, with all due respect, are you insane?"

At my reply, Peng Juhyeok protested in an exaggeratedly aggrieved tone.

"No, Brother Yeok! How can you be so heartless? As a member of the Anomaly Records Office, it is not easy to cross a clan's walls. So why not build a martial reputation and receive an honorable invitation?"

What followed was ridiculous. He said that if I reached the Transformation Realm before the age of thirty, countless people across the martial world would seek to form ties with me, and naturally, some letters would come from the clans as well.

Dumbfounded, I rebuked him again.

"No. For someone who knows so much about how to conduct himself, how are you still only a Peak-realm master?"

"Ahem. I remain at the Peak realm because I dislike the attention of those clan bastards. If I'd wanted to, I would have reached the Transformation Realm by now and monopolized the world's attention!"

"You reckless Peng Clan brat. What nonsense are you spouting?"

Perhaps the records room had become too noisy, because Jade Scale's voice came from the end of the northern corridor. Peng Juhyeok laughed heartily and answered with confidence.

"This has nothing to do with Senior Jade, who is already getting on in years! The fresh young talents are dreaming of rising high in the martial world!"

A deep sigh followed. With a soft rustle, Jade Scale emerged with her long robes trailing behind her and snapped her fingers.

Peng Juhyeok made a strange choking noise, clutched his throat, and collapsed. Judging by the way he patted his mouth, she had sealed his mute acupoint.

"Ignore that idiot who spouts nonsense whenever he gets the chance. You were talking about the clan's Anomaly matter?"

"Ah..."

The situation had become a little absurd, but I had wanted to ask her something too, so this worked out well.

I nodded and told her about the Murong Clan.

'After receiving advice about this matter, I should bring up the Calamity-Averting and Disaster-Escaping Office's rulebook...'

* * *

Jade Scale let out a long sigh. Twisting a lock of hair that fell beside her face around her right index finger, she finally managed to speak.

"That reckless brat has a point."

"Ha ha! Senior Jade has finally developed the generosity to acknowledge the truth!"

Jade Scale snapped her fingers once more, sealing Peng Juhyeok's mute acupoint again, then clicked her tongue as if she had a headache.

"Building a martial reputation and receiving an invitation from a clan is, more or less, the right direction. Of course, that does not mean you should truly reach the Transformation Realm as that idiot says. It is not a realm one can attain simply because one wants to."

"Then what should I do?"

"First, let us be clear about what you want to do. Once you uncover the false young master's identity, what do you intend to do with it?"

Footnotes:

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