WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Haruto

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◈ The Martial Alliance Rulebook Archives ◈

Chapter 68: Cheongyeong Town (1)

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Peng Juhyeok, who was eating a piece of twice-cooked pork over rice, looked at me with vacant eyes.

"Listen, Brother Yeok. The Discourse on Heaven and Earth is a refined gathering where only selected individuals may participate and compete in wisdom."

"Yes."

"Servants may wait outside the conference hall to attend to the participants, but the qualifications for entering are extremely strict. No one other than the three participants chosen in advance may enter."

"Yes."

"In other words, if this Peng wishes to accompany you to the Discourse on Heaven and Earth, I have no choice but to go as a servant rather than an official participant! Do you think I, who carry the blood of a clan despite belonging to a collateral line, would accept such humiliation?"

"Yes."

He grinned.

"You really do know me well! This will be entertaining. I'll get ready at once!"

* * *

When Peng Juhyeok heard where the Discourse on Heaven and Earth would be held, he grabbed the back of his neck.

"Ha. Of all places, Cheongyeong Town?"

"Why else would I have come to ask for your help, Brother Peng?"

Peng Juhyeok nodded. Even if the matter had concluded long ago, it was a place once shadowed by a Heavenly-grade Anomaly. For a Records Officer, vigilance was only natural.

"But if it involves a Heaven-grade matter, wouldn't it be more reassuring to ask Senior Jade or the special physician for help instead of me?"

"Can either of them leave the Alliance?"

Peng Juhyeok nodded as if he understood. The White-Robed Miracle Physician outranked even the head of the Medical Hall in seniority, and he had even more duties than the head of the Medical Hall.

Unlike Peng Juhyeok, whose eccentricity was infamous throughout the martial world, the White-Robed Miracle Physician was renowned as one of its great elders. It would be difficult for him to enter as a servant.

The special physician himself might find participating as a servant amusing, given his peculiar nature. Even if there were some way to work around the issues of seniority and reputation...

'If that man said he couldn't show his face at the Medical Hall for several days, the Alliance itself would talk him out of it.'

Jade Scale was in a similar position. Unless there was a truly unavoidable reason, she could not easily leave the Records Office while observing the Heavenly Order.

When she confronted Soso Soso, there had been no other Records Officers available at the time. Jade Scale had read the Heavenly Order as indicating that the Anomaly Destruction Hall would bring down an Anomaly. Apparently, she had little choice but to step in.

Still, the moment Jade Scale heard the name Cheongyeong Town, she said, "Nothing remains there anymore, so the Heavenly Demon will not take an interest in it again," then promised to examine the Heavenly Order and shut herself away in the bookbinding room.

That was likely the best help Jade Scale could offer when leaving was difficult for her.

"Tsk. What a shame. If the other Records Officers had returned, I would've brought them all along."

"But Brother Peng, you seem to believe me without question."

In truth, my concern had no rational basis. The Cheongyeong Town bloodbath was an event of the past, and no other incidents or even signs had ever been detected in that area.

The only reason for my paranoid reaction was an instinct I could not explain.

"Ah. That?"

Peng Juhyeok shrugged and explained what martial artists called instinct.

"There's an analysis that says intuition is unconscious insight based on experience accumulated over time. But a martial artist's instinct goes one step further, you see."

Martial artists constantly honed themselves. Drawing in natural qi and making it their own internal energy was part of that process.

Then, upon reaching a certain realm, a realm where they created harmony on their own, martial artists ceased to be beings merely oppressed by nature as they waited for its blessings.

They completed their own small universe and became capable of interacting with the great universe as equals.

Whether that interaction took the form of becoming one with nature, seeing nature and oneself as separate before realizing one existed within it, or ruthlessly exploiting nature in the hope of becoming master of all things depended on the martial artist's will.

"Wh-what does such an exalted realm have to do with this? As you know, Brother Peng, I'm at the Peak realm at best."

"Doesn't the process of completing something that can be called one's own universe naturally involve encountering the Heavenly Order, measuring oneself against it, and honing one's intuition? In a sense, Breath Regulation is the act of using nature as a whetstone to sharpen oneself."

Breath Regulation, the practice of building internal energy through breathing, was an encounter between the Heavenly Order and a martial artist. It was not a method of directly observing the Heavenly Order, as Daoist arts did, but martial artists faced it at every moment and grew through it.

Therefore...

"A martial artist's unexplainable intuition may be an inspiration that brushed past them through their encounters with the Heavenly Order."

"Not every intuition can be the result of reading the Heavenly Order."

I asked doubtfully. Perhaps the sixth sense of masters at the Transformation Realm, who looked down upon the world, worked that way, but it did not seem like something that suited me.

Peng Juhyeok burst into laughter and nodded.

"True! But shouldn't we give some credit to the intuition of someone who survived an Earth-grade Anomaly before even becoming a Records Officer?"

"Ah."

...He meant that he believed me because of my misfortune and my record of overcoming it through instinct.

It was certainly high praise, but it somehow made me feel sad.

* * *

Cheongyeong Town was damp.

Cheongyeong Town was dry.

Those two conflicting impressions came to me at once.

The dampness was like that of a marshland. The foul stench unique to stagnant, rotting water had begun to rise even before we neared the village.

Judging by the others' faces, it did not seem to be a scent only my unusual sense of smell could detect. Most of our companions were frowning.

The dryness came from the shape of the land. Like ground parched by a long drought and cracked like a turtle's shell, Cheongyeong Town's abandoned farmlands had become barren without a trace of moisture.

It was strange that the smell of rotten water and the sight of dried earth could coexist.

I could smell the scent of blood rising from deep beneath this land. The stench of decayed blood seeped up from the depths of the earth.

I heard one of the Ceremonial Affairs Department members speaking in an attempt to curry favor with Zhuge Yeong.

They could do nothing about the foul odor rising from the ground, but workers had been sent ahead to prepare temporary buildings. Plenty of sachets had been placed inside, and deodorizers such as charcoal and camphor oil had been used to block the stench.

Without changing her expression, Zhuge Yeong nodded and asked, "What about the Sima Clan?"

"We have not yet heard of their arrival. Those bastards enjoy pointless contests of pride, so aren't they likely planning to arrive one or two double-hours later than us?"

"Is that so? If that is your interpretation, then so be it."

"...D-did I make some mistake?"

"No. It is nothing. It's just... Hm, this is not the right time to say it."

The Alliance member, who had been reporting so eagerly moments earlier, wore a strangely twisted expression. They could not tell whether she was reprimanding them, whether there truly was not enough time, or whether something had displeased her.

I shook my head and turned away.

From what I had learned during my not-insignificant time in the martial world, it was better not to get close to people who were not in their right mind.

[Ho. The Zhuge Clan has begun showing off its hereditary madness. What do you think? Perhaps the unease you felt before we left came from their mouths!]

[...Brother Peng. Please be quiet.]

The person beside me, disguised as a servant with his face hidden, was not entirely sane either.

As I shook my head, the conference hall slowly came into view. It was not a grand mansion, but it was a fairly well-built tile-roofed house.

It stood out all the more because it was so clearly different from the ruined houses around it.

The building erected for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth had been made by reinforcing the landlord's house that had originally stood at the center of the village. Naturally, they could not build something entirely new in such a short time.

A wide platform had been set up in the courtyard to serve as a debate hall, unnecessary walls had been torn down, and the rooms had been remodeled into lodgings.

[It looks like they built it in quite a hurry and didn't properly restore it. Look at that wall. There are bloodstains.]

There were traces of the old bloodbath.

They were not clear, having been worn away by time, but anyone with knowledge could recognize them without much difficulty.

In my mind, reports from the Records Office and the traces left in this place came together.

'There are no signs of resistance on the doorframe. That means someone opened the door from inside...'

If so, the person who killed someone here was likely an acquaintance.

They had said demonic arts had fallen in the form of rain.

When something seemed to have happened outside, the culprit must have told the family to hold the door tightly, pretend no one was home, and wait, then gone out himself to assess the situation.

Then the culprit went outside...

'Most likely the husband.'

The husband had surely been struck by the raindrops and consumed by demonic arts. He returned to his wife and demanded that she open the door.

'There are two traces of blood remaining in the room.'

The directions in which the blood had splattered were completely different. There had been two attacks in this room.

With the power of a demonic practitioner, an ordinary person could be killed with a single gesture. It was reasonable to interpret this as meaning there had been two people inside the room.

'The wife and child?'

The husband, possessed by demonic arts, had killed his own family.

Before I realized it, my eyes had begun following the traces of blood. Yet I could not follow them to the end.

The materials used in the repairs for the Discourse on Heaven and Earth had cut off the traces of the old tragedy.

Then Zhuge Yeong's voice reached my ears, bringing me back to the present.

"Unpack your belongings in your assigned places and prepare for the upcoming schedule. Those assigned to receive the Sima Clan... the Black Lotus Society, make your preparations without any issues."

Footnotes:

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