WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 1: The Third-Rate Martial Artist Who Remembers Everything

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At the edge of a razor-sharp cliff amid mountain ranges soaring through the clouds, a slight man sat hunched over.

He gazed wistfully at the white clouds drifting past in silence.

"...Hm?"

Then his eyebrows rose, and his words hung in the empty air.

"Yong Soa... No, should I call you the Taechung Divine Sword now? What brings someone as esteemed as you all the way here?"

The moment he finished speaking, a man in immaculate white martial robes appeared before him from empty space, using an elusive movement art.

Tap.

The man called the Taechung Divine Sword asked in a voice as deep and commanding as his imposing appearance.

"Are you Jin Sowoon, Unit Leader of the Sojeong Unit?"

"Unit Leader, Unit Leader..."

Still watching the clouds, Jin Sowoon asked,

"...Are all the members of the Sojeong Unit dead?"

"..."

"Then I must be the captain. Unless I'm not."

"I asked whether you are Jin Sowoon."

"You came here knowing that already, so why bother asking?"

At Jin Sowoon's words, the Taechung Divine Sword drew his sword.

"I came to retrieve something."

"..."

Jin Sowoon looked up at the Taechung Divine Sword, then shifted his gaze back to the clouds floating before him.

Despite the unmistakable killing intent, his voice remained utterly relaxed.

"Didn't I restore all the Martial Alliance records that were lost?"

"You possess too many records that you should not have."

"Most of what I restored was useless records and materials."

"We know that you remember the materials from the Profound Mystery Pavilion."

"..."

The Profound Mystery Pavilion.

The archive where the Martial Alliance's highest-level secrets were kept.

The deepest sanctum of the Martial Alliance, accessible only to the Martial Alliance Leader, the Grand Strategist, and a select few appointed individuals.

It was what had driven the Taechung Divine Sword, the current Martial Alliance Leader, all the way here.

Jin Sowoon spoke in a hollow voice.

"You bastards. I said I wouldn't look at them, but I knew this was how I'd end up."

"..."

"So... You came all the way from the Northern Sea to kill a third-rate martial artist while avoiding the Demonic Cult's eyes?"

"For the justice of the martial world. More than that, this is a matter that must be dealt with decisively."

Jin Sowoon chuckled and nodded.

"What happened to the others in the Sojeong Unit?"

"I don't know."

"Heh. Of course you don't. From the beginning, scraps like us must have been nothing but tools to people like you."

"Everything was for the greater cause..."

That damned greater cause.

That hollow cause which had driven us into certain death.

Jin Sowoon's voice dripped with mockery.

"Did that precious greater cause bring you prosperity in the Northern Sea?"

The Taechung Divine Sword's sword tip trembled.

The master of the martial world had changed, and the Martial Alliance had fallen.

The Martial Alliance's key figures had fled all the way to the Northern Sea and barely managed to preserve what remained.

Cough.

Sowoon's slight body shook with a cough and tipped toward the Taechung Divine Sword, who stepped aside slightly.

The hem of his spotless white martial robes retreated with him.

Jin Sowoon sneered at the sight.

"Right. You failed in the end."

"The Martial Alliance will rise again as the foundation of the martial world."

"I may have belonged to the Martial Alliance, but I sincerely hope that terrible world never returns."

"...You've been tainted by the Demonic Cult."

Just as the Taechung Divine Sword was about to cut off his head with a single stroke.

He stopped short.

As though he had sensed a ghost behind him, the Taechung Divine Sword shuddered and spun around like lightning.

Someone had appeared, someone he had never expected to see here.

"...How is that person here?"

The Taechung Divine Sword glared at Jin Sowoon again.

"Were you already colluding with the Demonic Cult?"

Jin Sowoon leisurely turned his head and looked toward a point in the distance.

"Who am I to move a figure like that? It must be a coincidence."

"..."

"Anyway, are you planning to stay?"

Before Jin Sowoon had even finished speaking, the Taechung Divine Sword kicked off the ground and vanished.

He had not left completely, though. He took up a position atop a peak overlooking the cliff.

A short while later, footsteps sounded.

Step. Step.

This time, a man in black martial robes slowly approached Jin Sowoon.

Without turning around, Jin Sowoon said,

"Black Lion Gwak Gung."

Gwak Gung could not hide his surprise.

Jin Sowoon had clearly been facing away from him.

"How did you know?"

"There seem to be a lot of visitors today. Such nice weather, too."

"I asked how you knew."

"The Blood Serpent Dance Steps, the unique movement art of the Demonic Cult's Young Cult Leader, contains the principle of twisting the third step to advance in any of the eight directions."

Gwak Gung let out a cry of astonishment.

"Huh. Have we met before?"

"The Sojeong Unit once stood as a wall of flesh to stop the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit. Do you remember?"

"Heh heh, who knows? Back then, everyone in the Martial Alliance was no more than a wall of flesh to us. Still, they said you remembered everything in the world. Impressive."

"A useless talent for a martial artist."

Gwak Gung's gaze moved to the Taechung Divine Sword, who stood proudly atop the peak and watched them.

"So the Martial Alliance came to save you? All the way from the Northern Sea?"

Jin Sowoon shook his head.

"He said there was something he had to take from me."

"?"

He looked like a man who did not possess even a single silver coin.

"What is it?"

"This worthless head of mine."

Gwak Gung looked toward the peak and clicked his tongue as though he understood.

"Tsk. I heard the Sojeong Unit tried to keep you alive until the end because your head held everything about the Martial Alliance."

"That wasn't why... They said it was because I wanted to live more than anyone."

Jin Sowoon muttered to himself, "Idiots."

"That is some tearful camaraderie."

A fire lit in Jin Sowoon's eyes.

"They aren't people a demon like you can speak of so lightly."

"Interesting."

Gwak Gung did not react even as Jin Sowoon released killing intent. If anything, he seemed to be inviting him to try harder.

Before long, though, Jin Sowoon appeared to run out of strength and withdrew his killing intent.

"...Do you want the same thing as the Taechung Divine Sword? While he's watching, I could give you everything about the Martial Alliance."

"What value would that kind of information have to the Divine Cult now?"

"...That's true. Then why come all the way here?"

"I came to capture the Unit Leader of the Sojeong Unit, which has been the Divine Cult's most persistent enemy."

Jin Sowoon nodded a few times.

Gwak Gung could not hide his confusion at Jin Sowoon's calm response.

"Aren't you afraid?"

"...Would someone whose life is hell fear death?"

"You wanted to live so badly, yet you say life was hell?"

"You're capable, aren't you? Imagine a life where you remember everything. A life where you remember nothing but countless deaths and defeats..."

After a brief pause, Gwak Gung nodded.

"Hm. You must have lived a difficult life."

"Khuhuhuhu."

"What's so funny?"

"Isn't it funny that a demonic bastard I hated is pitying me?"

"You may take pride in it. You of the Sojeong Unit were the Divine Cult's most persistent enemies."

"Third-rate martial artists abandoned by the Martial Alliance, acknowledged by the Demonic Cult. The Martial Alliance's downfall must have been inevitable."

After a moment, Jin Sowoon spoke.

"But I'm curious. Why did the Young Cult Leader come personally to capture a single third-rate martial artist? Did you know the Taechung Divine Sword would come?"

Seemingly unconcerned with the nearby Martial Alliance Leader, Gwak Gung pointed at Jin Sowoon's hand.

"That bracelet you're wearing."

Jin Sowoon lowered his head and looked at the jade-colored bangle.

A jade bangle engraved with a strange dragon pattern.

It did not suit his shabby clothing at all.

"That is a sacred relic of the Divine Cult."

"...Is it?"

Jin Sowoon raised his arm and examined the bangle closely.

His eyes filled with longing, as though recalling something.

Countless lives that had fallen, and all they had achieved in exchange for those lives.

"When we captured the Sect-Protecting Dharma King..."

He had thought the Martial Alliance, and the world, would change.

How foolish he had been.

Jin Sowoon let out a derisive snort at himself.

"Any last words? If you die by a member of the Divine Cult, the Demon God will grant your wish."

"Heh. Seeing faith arise from such ridiculous doctrine, you really are a group of lunatics."

"Our god is real."

"A wish... Fine. In my next life, I'd like to be born into a world without the Martial Alliance that abandoned us or the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that killed us."

"Oh dear, that is quite a difficult wish. The world belongs to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult now."

Jin Sowoon's body floated into the air and was drawn neatly into Gwak Gung's hand.

'Ghk.'

A moment later, Jin Sowoon felt Gwak Gung's demonic qi flooding into his entire body.

The pain was as though his nerves were being torn to shreds and every joint in his body were shattering.

'Ah, a life full of regrets. May the karma of this life end with this life.'

His senses slowly began to fade, and the world went dark.

#

"...That definitely happened."

I definitely died.

I'd always had a good memory, but my memories of the day I died were especially clear. I could even remember the scent of the wind.

So that bastard definitely appeared and killed...

My back itched, and I reached out.

Scratch, scratch.

The refreshing relief and vivid sensation felt far too real.

"What the hell is going on?"

I had died at the hands of Black Lion Gwak Gung, yet somehow, I had returned to when I was nineteen, thirty years ago.

Not to when I was Jin Sowoon of the Martial Alliance's Sojeong Unit.

But to when I was Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.

Not to the era when the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult had turned the world upside down.

But to when the Martial Alliance ruled the martial world.

"Was that wish thing real?"

I recalled my final conversation with Gwak Gung.

I had never believed that some stray god, impossible to distinguish from a cult scam, would grant a wish...

Did it actually work?

"But... true to a Demon God, it couldn't even listen properly."

I'd said that I wanted to be born into a world without the Martial Alliance and the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult... Yet it had sent me back to before that hellish Orthodox-Demonic War began.

As expected, you should never associate with anything that has the word demon in its name, whether it's the Demonic Cult, demonic martial artists, or a Demon God.

"Haa..."

I had regained my youth, but I wasn't happy about it at all.

The hellish reality of the next thirty years remained vivid in my mind, and I was still only a Taeul Sect disciple who would be lucky to reach the second-rate.

Nothing about returning to the past seemed like a sign that I was supposed to save the world.

"If that were the case, it should've at least given me some special ability or attached the soul of Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng to me, shouldn't it?"

That damned Demon God.

The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would return.

No, it had already returned. I was simply the only one who knew.

The Martial Alliance, which had placed absolute faith in its own power, would be swept away like autumn leaves.

Those who trusted the Martial Alliance would be swept away with it.

My sect, the Taeul Sect, trusted the Martial Alliance as well.

So it was swept away too. Damn it.

"It hurts enough just remembering it. Do I really have to watch those horrific scenes again?"

After putting together everything that had happened to me, there was only one conclusion.

In other words...

"I'm screwed."

For some reason, I felt like that Demon God bastard was somewhere laughing at the state I was in.

Why?

Because if I were the Demon God, I would have wanted to do the same.

Footnotes:

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