WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 123: The Black Flame Dragon Who Gives an Opportunity (3)
──────
-To my respected elder brother.
I hope you have remained in good health.
As your younger brother, I never doubted for a moment that you would become the Martial Arts Academy's top student. Still, when I heard the news, I wanted to rush straight to Wuhan.
Please forgive me for being tied down here by other matters.
The Taeul Sect has been well, with nothing out of the ordinary.
Recently, the people dispatched by the Mount Mao Sect completed the installation of their arcane formation and moved on to the Wang Family Estate.
Once I finish installing the Taeul Sect's Mechanism Formation, I must go to the Wang Family Estate to install the same thing there. I do not know whether I can make the timing work.
The Mechanism Formation's design has been completed, but we currently lack anyone with the skill to manufacture its parts.
The Outer Hall Lord and the Lord of the Wang Family Estate have been searching far and wide for capable master smiths, but it does not seem likely to go well.
I desperately wish to settle everything as soon as possible and come see you, Elder Brother. Still, you would be disappointed if your younger brother proved irresponsible, would you not?
I, too, will fulfill my duties perfectly and look forward to the day I can stand before you as a fine man worthy of respect.
Fortunately, Senior Brother Eunho sent a portrait of you in all your splendor, and it has brought me great comfort. I could not take my eyes off the golden letters spelling “top student,” and I spent the entire day staring at the painting.
Senior Sister Wang summoned a master painter and asked for the same portrait to be made larger. The Sect Leader said they would hang the painting Senior Brother Eunho sent in the most prominent place in Daehyeon Hall, so many of the junior disciples...
I stopped there and tossed the letter aside.
Thud.
“...Where's Eunho?”
Moyong Jaehwa poked his head out.
“If you mean Brother Eunho, he left just as you began reading the letter.”
“...That bastard.”
Over the past few days, I had often seen him spending time with someone unfamiliar. I thought he had finally made a friend at the Martial Arts Academy.
Who would have thought it was a painter pretending to be his friend?
“Where did that damn bastard get the money?”
What would he even need money for inside the Martial Arts Academy, where food, clothing, and lodging were all provided?
What they offered here was better than what the Taeul Sect had provided. The Geum-Eun-Dong brothers, at least, could not have been more satisfied with Academy life.
He had never asked me for money, either. Other than the small amount of spending money I gave him, he should have had none.
“...”
“Ugh, I feel stiff. Should I go loosen up a little?”
Seong Moran suddenly rose from her seat.
“Miss Seong.”
Her shoulders jolted and trembled.
Suspicious. Very suspicious.
“...Ahem. Seonhwa, do you want to spar?”
“Did you know about this too, Miss Seong?”
“...”
“So you were the culprit.”
“N-no, no. What are you talking about? I have nothing to do with it.”
“...”
“I-I'm serious. Eunho said he wanted to paint a few pictures, so I gave him some money.”
“When did you expect an Academy student to repay you?”
“Ah... Well, it wasn't that much money. Besides, I received something that could count as payment... Let's just say money isn't something I need to worry much about anymore...”
Seong Moran was rambling.
For some reason, Namgung Seonhwa was avoiding my gaze as well, fidgeting with her fingers in a suspicious manner.
“Ah, right! Come to think of it, Monk Ilgak sent an invitation. Did you see it?”
Namgung Seonhwa changed the subject with painfully obvious awkwardness.
I sighed quietly and decided to play along.
“Are they holding a banquet too?”
This was already the third one.
The Twelve Peak Alliance had moved first, followed by the Five Great Clans. Now the Nine Sects One Gang intended to hold a banquet as well.
“Exactly. The Academy Representative has not even held one yet.”
Seong Moran fanned herself as if she could not believe it.
“Shouldn't we hold a banquet too?”
“Who would attend if I held one?”
Normally, once the Academy Representative Corps was fully formed, the Academy program would begin with its first banquet. The others had stolen that opportunity.
“But at this rate...”
It had been two weeks since the Academy program began.
As the Academy Representative Corps grew accustomed to the work, it moved faster. We had completed all the paperwork that once seemed impossible for us alone.
The real problem was that no one would attend the Academy events I organized.
If that continued for three months, I would eventually have to step down as Academy Representative. That was why the Three Pure Supreme Sword had resigned.
“They are not people we can force to attend. We would be better off using that money elsewhere.”
“Elsewhere?”
The information in my head was not useful only for processing the Academy Representative Corps' documents.
I also knew how to make the Mantong Office, which controlled and allocated the budget, function properly. More importantly, I knew exactly how to use it.
“There is no need to beg them to attend. We only need to make them desperate to come.”
I had no intention of stepping down so easily.
#
“What is all this?”
Jegal Somyeong shouted in irritation, but none of the staff reacted.
The Martial Arts Academy regular examination had just ended, and everyone had been waiting for leave because there was no work left to do. Then a volume of paperwork comparable to the regular examination workload arrived at the Mantong Office.
“These came from the Martial Arts Academy.”
“The Academy? Since when did those people handle work like this?”
“Not the Academy itself. The Academy Representative Corps.”
“What?”
Jegal Somyeong absentmindedly flipped open one of the documents.
“...”
The documents were organized clearly and perfectly, without a single unnecessary detail.
“How many times did this go back and forth?”
“It was processed in one attempt.”
“What?”
Even the Academy Representative Corps needed time to learn the Martial Alliance's procedures. Their reports were usually rejected several times and revised repeatedly before anything presentable reached this point.
Yet these documents looked as though they had been prepared by an administrator who had already gone through that process countless times.
“Did Maeng Juwon agree to help the Academy Representative Corps?”
Assuming that was what had happened, Jegal Somyeong muttered to themselves. The staff member shook their head.
“What are you talking about? Head of the Mantong Office Maeng even created useless documents to make Jin Sowoon's life harder.”
“And they processed even those?”
“Yes.”
Amid the mountain of documents, Maeng Juwon sat on the floor with a vacant expression.
“On top of that, they suddenly requested an enormous budget for the Academy program.”
“What?”
“Look at this.”
The Academy Representative Corps' program usually focused on building connections. Most of the time, they held banquets or invited notable figures from the martial world to flaunt their connections.
“Thirty thousand nyang of gold?”
Jin Sowoon had no connections worth boasting about, so Jegal Somyeong assumed he had simply requested a banquet budget.
The amount was enough to make even Jegal Somyeong, who was not easily surprised, stagger.
“...That madman. Does he intend to invite every one of the Ten Great Masters Under Heaven and throw them a banquet?”
The staff member only clicked their tongue and laughed. Some people demanded ridiculous lecture fees when claiming they would invite renowned figures, but Jegal Somyeong would never approve such a request.
“Of course not.”
“Um... I think we need to approve it.”
“What?”
“This is the proposal explaining how the budget will be used.”
The neatly organized report went on and on, explaining why the money was needed, where it would go, what effects it would have, and what the Martial Alliance stood to gain from the event.
Every sentence flowed so flawlessly that there was nothing to interrupt the reading.
“...”
“Can we really refuse?”
This was on an entirely different level from those from the Elders' Council or Martial Hall who simply came demanding increased budgets.
The Mantong Office could not refuse this funding request.
No, it had reached the point where they needed to reduce another department's budget to provide the money.
“Ha. This boy really is...”
Jegal Somyeong could not help feeling that Jin Sowoon had enough ability to serve as the Mantong Office's Deputy Head immediately.
‘Deputy Head? No, he could probably manage Profound Mystery Pavilion.’
While Jegal Somyeong indulged in a hopeful fantasy, the staff member continued.
“In any case, this has also increased the amount we need to verify. That is why the Head of the Mantong Office is in that state.”
“Tsk. Why did they create work for themselves, then?”
Maeng Juwon, who had been blankly staring at the mountain of documents around them, suddenly came to their senses and slowly turned their head.
Their expression was so grotesque that Jegal Somyeong instinctively stepped back.
“G-Grand Strategist...”
“I will not help you! You planted these seeds, so you reap them!”
“Grand Strategist!”
Maeng Juwon crawled over on all fours and grabbed Jegal Somyeong's trouser leg.
“I said I will not help you!”
“Did you see this? Did you?”
Waving the budget increase request the staff member had just shown Jegal Somyeong, Maeng Juwon shouted.
“Jin Sowoon must join the Mantong Office after graduation. No, he needs to join immediately. Give him my position as Head of the Mantong Office. I will become Deputy Head, no, just an ordinary staff member.”
“Y-you madman...”
“Grand Strategist! Please! Jin Sowoon!”
“Why are you standing around? Get them off me!”
Only after four or five staff members rushed in was Maeng Juwon finally pulled away. As Jegal Somyeong left the Mantong Office, Maeng Juwon cried out after them.
“Grand Strategist! Jin Sowoon must come to the Mantong Office!”
#
“...I truly cannot understand why you refuse to wear it.”
The Head Attendant let out a long sigh.
There was no way I could give in.
“...I nearly died wearing that.”
“What? What do you mean...?”
“My reflection in the bronze mirror was so shameful that I wanted to throw myself into a lake.”
“...H-how can you say that? Geumbun Atelier, the finest embroidery workshop in Hubei Province, spent one hundred days...”
“Exactly. Why should I wear this when it is not even a formal event?”
The Head Attendant was still trying to dress me in that “top student” robe.
“Academy students will attend, as will notable figures from the Martial Alliance. You must wear this striking outfit.”
“I will not wear it this time, even if it kills me.”
When I deployed the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, the attendants trying to seize my afterimage fell to the floor.
“W-wait! Fine, I understand! Just do not say you will attend wearing that dreary martial uniform, the one that looks as though all sense of beauty was thrown away!”
“...”
I looked down at my martial uniform.
It had not been long since I had it made, so it still bore no signs of mending or patching. I had not needed to roll around on the ground recently, either, so it was not particularly stained.
How was this dreary?
“...I prepared another outfit, just in case.”
The Head Attendant nodded with an expression that made her look ten years older. The attendants brought out new clothes.
“Please attend in this at least.”
It was still the black I always wore, but the high-quality fabric gleamed. Delicate silver embroidery ran along the sleeves, giving it a far more refined appearance.
“...You should have shown me this from the beginning.”
I did not care much about clothing, but this was perfectly acceptable. To be honest, my black martial uniform looked too plain compared to what the other Academy students wore.
When I stood among them, I sometimes wondered whether I had come as the representative or as a servant to wait on them.
The upper garment had long sleeves like a robe. Each time I walked, the silver embroidered patterns at the back flashed in splendid overlapping designs.
“If I had known this would happen, I should have embroidered it here too.”
The middle-aged Head Attendant still seemed unable to let go of the words “top student.”
“If you do that, I will never wear this outfit again either.”
“Why do you dislike drawing attention to yourself so much? Is that not why you are having trouble with Academy life?”
For some reason, the middle-aged Head Attendant seemed familiar with my circumstances.
When I did not respond, her eyes widened like a rabbit's.
“I apologize. I spoke out of turn.”
“What is there to apologize for?” It was not wrong.
#
I headed to the banquet hall hosted by the Nine Sects One Gang.
Colorful lanterns decorated the path leading there.
People walked along the lantern-lit road in groups of three or four.
About half appeared to be Academy students.
The other half had come to forge connections with them at this sort of banquet.
Their luxurious clothes and ornaments made it clear that none of them were ordinary people.
The banquet hall was still some distance away, but cheerful music could already be heard.
Winter had ended and the weather had warmed, so drinking tables had been set up outside as well. The disciples of the Nine Sects One Gang moved from table to table, greeting each other and busying themselves with building relationships.
“You have come.”
When I turned, Jegal Jeonggi gave me a light fist-and-palm salute.
“Did you come alone?”
“The others said they were not feeling well.”
In truth, I was the one who had stopped them from coming despite their insistence.
I knew they would receive uncomfortable looks at a place like this. I thought it was enough for me to bear that discomfort alone.
“You are quite considerate.”
Jegal Jeonggi smiled strangely.
“Still, are you attending the Nine Sects One Gang's banquet?”
“As you know, the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans are not enemies.”
“That does not mean they are one body, does it?”
If they were not enemies, why had they fought such a bitter power struggle in my previous life?
“You could call them strategic allies.”
“If that is the case, is their common enemy not too insignificant?”
“Are you pretending not to know, or do you truly not know?”
“...”
“Young Master Jin is a symbol. The symbol of a rather large fracture.”
“Me?”
“Does chaos not begin with a small fracture?”
“...”
Jegal Jeonggi studied me closely, then exhaled softly.
“By the way, why have you not held a banquet as representative? Since the Academy Representative has not held one, we lose face for hosting ours first.”
“...Would you attend if I held one?”
“Of course I would not. Still, you never know. There may be people secretly supporting the Academy Representative.”
I looked around and met the eyes of Cheol Sunjik, who stood beside Nam Hwaseong.
For some reason, they stared at me with rigid expressions before slowly looking away.
“So hold your banquet soon. If you keep delaying it day after day, you may become an Academy Representative who stepped down without even holding a banquet, let alone an Academy program.”
“May I ask you something?”
I looked at his grinning face.
“Yes. Anything.”
“Why do you not ask about Jegal Cheongi?”
“...”
For the first time, his face stiffened.
“As far as I know, the Jegal Clan does not follow primogeniture. It chooses its successor based on ability. Is that why you are wary of Cheongi?”
“...That is a matter for my clan. It is not something Young Master Jin should concern himself with.”
“Or is it because Cheongi is also a symbol of fracture?”
“...”
Jegal Jeonggi's formerly relaxed face twisted like a fiend.
“Young Master Jin is a rather harmful person. The problem is that you do not seem to realize it.”
In my previous life, Jegal Jeonggi had not even considered me a fellow human being. Did this count as moving up in the world?
“And you think everyone in the world except yourself is wrong.”
Jegal Jeonggi's voice steadily rose.
One by one, nearby people began looking our way.
“That is why you are dangerous, Young Master Jin. Do you understand?”
At that moment, a group of middle-aged figures approached us.
“What commotion is this at someone else's banquet?”
Every one of them wore fine clothing and gaudy jeweled belts, fanning themselves with folding fans as though they had been made from the same mold.
Jegal Jeonggi saw them and quickly offered a fist-and-palm salute.
“I greet the honored elders of the Martial Alliance. I am Jegal Jeonggi of the Jegal Clan.”
The person at the front briefly examined Jegal Jeonggi, then turned their eyes to me.
I slowly offered a casual fist-and-palm salute.
“Greetings. I am Jin Sowoon.”
“If you do not say where you belong and where your roots lie, how am I supposed to know you?”
The person at the front frowned deeply.
“You do not know me?”
“How would I know you?”
“Did you not just say this was someone else's banquet? You must already know that neither Jegal Jeonggi nor I belong to the Nine Sects One Gang, or you would not have said that.”
“...”
The faces of the middle-aged figures, no, the elders who would become the spark of the Martial Alliance's internal power struggle, twisted in anger.
#
“...Young Master Jin. Do you know who this is, yet still behave so rudely?”
The bald person in monastic robes spoke with a startled expression. It was Ilgak of Shaolin Temple.
“I am Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.”
I gave another light fist-and-palm salute. Daoist Myeonghyeon sneered.
“Hmph. So it is true that the Black Flame Dragon, backed by the Black Path martial world, has quite the presence.”
“Something that was not true has become true because of Elder Myeonghyeon, and it has caused me considerable trouble.”
“You claim it is my fault that you cannot properly fulfill your duties as Academy Representative?”
“Otherwise, would the forces of the Nine Sects One Gang, Five Great Clans, and Twelve Peak Alliance so openly disregard me? This has all happened because you elders obstructed my events.”
“Ha. What did you say?”
The atmosphere turned dangerous, and pressure closed in from every side.
“Did no one teach you that speaking like that in the martial world will cost you your life?”
Not only Daoist Myeonghyeon, but all the elders around Daoist Myeonghyeon released hidden force at once, as though they were of one mind. I could barely breathe, let alone answer.
Jegal Jeonggi, standing beside me, flinched in shock and clutched his throat with both hands, unable to hide his panic.
Unable to move under the powerful pressure closing in around him, his face quickly turned blue. He looked as though he would soon die.
I immediately pushed the Taeul True Scripture to its limit and drove back their hidden force.
“Gasp!”
Startled cries burst out from behind Daoist Myeonghyeon, and I finally had enough room to breathe.
Daoist Myeonghyeon looked at me with surprise.
“So you did not enter by luck after all.”
With Daoist Myeonghyeon's words, the hidden force crushing the area vanished at once. Jegal Jeonggi, who had been clutching his throat, collapsed to the floor and gasped for breath for a long time.
In the same space, Jegal Jeonggi had collapsed while I looked unharmed. The crowd began watching me with new interest.
I wanted to gasp for breath just like Jegal Jeonggi, but I gritted my teeth and endured.
“So, I hear you have not held an Academy program or even a banquet in the Academy Representative's name?”
“Who should I hold a banquet of empty ceremony and extravagance for?”
“This is why the uneducated are hopeless. Tsk.”
Daoist Myeonghyeon clicked their tongue and smiled unpleasantly.
“Then why did you request a budget of thirty thousand nyang of gold?”
Cries of shock erupted throughout the hall at Daoist Myeonghyeon's words.
“Th-thirty thousand nyang?”
“They are giving that much money to the Academy Representative?”
“What is going on?”
Because of Daoist Myeonghyeon's words, not only the Academy students at the banquet but also those hoping to build ties with the Nine Sects One Gang had turned their attention to me.
“Of course it is for the Academy program.”
“Thirty thousand nyang of gold?”
“Yes.”
“Do you intend to hand a gold sycee to every person attending your banquet?”
When I paused before answering, the hall fell silent like a forest beneath a sudden downpour.
“Of course not.”
“Then where do you intend to spend that much money? Do not tell me you plan to embezzle it and send it to your sect as a secret fund. As long as I am here, I will never allow it.”
“You see us as beggars far too readily.”
“Then reveal where you intend to spend the money.”
The music in the banquet hall had already stopped. It was not my intention, but thanks to Daoist Myeonghyeon, things were proceeding more easily than expected.
I began speaking with internal energy carried in my voice.
“Everyone here must remember the nightmare at Demon Spirit Plateau.”
“...”
“The dreadful killing formation that turns anyone trapped inside into a lost soul, regardless of their martial skill.”
Hundreds of eyes followed me with every step.
“I have decided to share the solution to the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation so that nightmare will never be repeated. To that end, the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation is currently being recreated at the Martial Arts Academy's Grand Training Ground.”
Pained groans rose from all sides.
“Ha...”
“So that was why those strange structures were being built.”
“He is going to teach us?”
“Even the Mount Mao Sect said it had no method of formation breaking...”
The brief commotion disappeared like shadows exposed to light when I opened my mouth.
“Some of you may know this already, but I was the only person who entered and left that Soul-Destroying Formation to rescue people. If you attend this Academy program, you will be able to save your lives if you are ever trapped in a Soul-Destroying Formation.”
The murmuring grew louder.
“On top of that, you may gain clues to installing a Soul-Destroying Formation in your own sect.”
The uproar grew once more as soon as I finished speaking.
Then someone in the crowd asked a question.
“Can anyone attend?”
I looked toward the voice and saw Cheol Sunjik among the Twelve Peak Alliance members.
I nodded readily.
“Of course. This event is for all Academy students.”
I paused briefly before continuing.
“Still, since the facilities are not yet complete, there will be limits on time and attendance. For ten days, only the first two hundred people will be able to learn the solution to the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation.”
As soon as I finished speaking, the uproar in the hall rose sharply.
The banquet was already forgotten. Everyone was busy exchanging stories about what had happened at Demon Spirit Plateau.
Daoist Myeonghyeon, the elders, and the Academy students of the Nine Sects One Gang stared at me with burning eyes.
I casually ignored them and approached Jegal Jeonggi.
“Did you call me a fracture?”
“...”
His face showed that he had not recovered from the shock of the hidden force he had felt earlier and the things I had said.
I whispered in his ear.
“You saw correctly. I am a fracture. And that fracture will become the first hole to break the dam you built so solidly.”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried