WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 131: The Black Flame Dragon Proving Himself
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“Oh...”
The man looked at Jegal Somyeong with surprise in his eyes, but Jegal Somyeong merely shook their head.
“Am I right? Are you from the Alliance Leader’s Hall?”
“Can you tell me why you think so?”
Swift swordsmanship might seem like the most efficient form of movement, but in truth, it possessed the opposite nature.
It had to cover the shortest distance in the fastest time possible, which required more muscles. And to unleash explosive force, the movements naturally had to grow larger. It sacrificed efficiency for speed.
This man, on the other hand, kept his movements small and free of wasted motion.
That was why he seemed faster than expected despite not using swift swordsmanship.
It was not just his swordsmanship.
Though his steps made barely any sound against the ground, he closed the distance in an instant.
Only two kinds of people in the martial world possessed such traits.
‘Assassins, or shadow warriors.’
Jegal Somyeong would not have brought in an assassin, which left only one possibility.
A shadow warrior.
Moreover, though it was not obvious, the unknown sword art he used contained movements similar to those of Hyeok Mugang, the White-Handed Divine Sword.
The conclusion was simple. He was a shadow warrior of the Alliance Leader’s Hall.
“You haven’t answered my question, so I can’t be the only one answering yours.”
The man nodded at my response.
“That’s fair. Shall we continue, then?”
“No, wait...”
I had been trying to buy time to think of a countermeasure, but the man resumed the spar as if his pride had been wounded.
Perhaps he no longer saw a need to hide his identity. His movements grew larger and bolder than before, becoming even more threatening.
Swish, swish, swish, swish.
While the man unleashed three moves in an instant, I retreated eight steps and received shallow cuts on both arms.
And that was despite desperately defending with the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
“You show no mercy to a cute junior.”
“You’re too tall to call cute, and your hands are vicious as well.”
The man tugged at the torn front of his robe as he spoke.
“Are you not going to fight properly?”
“Can’t you see that I’m fighting for my life?”
“Not your schemes. Your strength. Shouldn’t a martial artist prove himself through the power he possesses?”
At that point, my temper began to rise.
It was not because I felt wronged about sparring without knowing why.
It was the competitive spirit every martial artist felt toward someone stronger.
Thinking about how I had used Shattering Form to overwhelm my opponents until now, I realized I had never truly measured my own ability.
‘Should I consider this a good opportunity?’
My opponent had reached a realm far beyond mine and was a shadow warrior whose sword art had no known origin.
There might not have been a better opponent to test myself against.
“Then I’ll get serious.”
“Hearing that puts me in a foul mood. Are you saying you’ve been taking it easy until now?”
“Isn’t disrupting your opponent’s composure a basic tactic in a duel?”
I drew upon the Taeul True Scripture and scattered the Greater Heaven Sword Art in every direction.
The space between the man and me, two zhang apart, filled with the sword images of the Black Dragon Sword.
“Do you not know that illusion swords like these won’t work against an expert like me?”
“This is the sword art of the legendary Taeul Sword Emperor. I’d be disappointed if you compared it to ordinary sword arts.”
I overlaid the Lesser Heaven Sword Art upon the sword images of the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Rather than combining them into the Twin Heavens Sword Art, I used the two sword arts separately to confuse him further.
“!”
For the first time, the man’s expression changed. He swiftly scattered his sword strikes like the ribs of an opening fan.
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
As every strike of the Lesser Heaven Sword Art overlaid on the Greater Heaven Sword Art was blocked, I thrust out my left hand with the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist.
Fist images from the hand fitted with the Flying Dragon Claw bloomed in numbers no fewer than the sword images of the Greater Heaven Sword Art, targeting the man’s fatal acupoints.
Whoosh.
After dispelling the Lesser Heaven Sword Art, the man spun twice and neutralized every Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist strike with Arched Body, Springing Shadow.
I had expected that much, so I immediately used the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to catch up.
As if he had predicted I would approach him, he threw a punch. Like his swordsmanship, it was a clean, efficient movement stripped of all waste.
Smack.
“Hm?”
I caught his extended hand and used the principle of Lotus to slam him into the ground.
Yet just before his back struck the floor, he escaped my grasp with the Iron Bridge technique and swung his sword again.
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
To avoid the sword thrusting fiercely at my fatal acupoints, I used the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps. The distance between us widened to two zhang once more.
“...”
The man looked at his fist as though recalling the move he had just suffered.
“That was an interesting martial art. Is that also a secret art of the Taeul Sword Emperor?”
“It’s something I learned here and there.”
“Is that so? This is becoming more interesting.”
The man lightly waved his sword.
I was left speechless when I saw it.
“...”
“What is it?”
“Is that sword qi around your sword?”
“It is. Why?”
“What do you mean, why? Why are you using sword qi when this isn’t a fight to the death?”
“I want to see how far you can go.”
Before he even finished speaking, the man fired three strands of sword qi.
Each was only the size of a palm compared to ordinary sword qi, but the power contained within them was no joke.
Worse, they flew at three fatal acupoints at once, making it impossible to respond properly.
Boom, boom, boom.
The marble floor of the training ground caved in, scattering black earth in every direction.
“Is it all right to damage the Martial Alliance’s property like this?”
“Ho, you still have strength left?”
Perhaps encouraged by that, the man poured out sword qi one after another.
I pushed the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to its utmost, trying to confuse him with afterimages. Yet as if he had predicted even that, he scattered sword qi toward every place I could flee.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
The entire training ground was nearly filled with sword qi. With nowhere left to evade, I wrapped the Black Dragon Sword in sword qi and unleashed the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
Boom! Boom! Crash!
Every time I struck down one of those palm-sized strands of sword qi, the impact jolted my entire body.
That showed just how tremendous the power contained in each one was.
Unless I borrowed the power of the Azure Dragon Bangle, there was no point dragging this out any longer.
Tap.
I pushed the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to its limit.
If I placed my afterimages too far apart, he would see through them as fakes. I packed the afterimages as closely together as possible, drawing out his sword qi.
“Ho...”
Despite his exclamation of admiration, the man scattered threatening sword qi to locate my real body among the afterimages. I narrowly avoided them, slipping through gaps no wider than a finger joint as I ran forward.
The two-zhang distance shrank to a range where a single sword swing could reach him.
I swung the Black Dragon Sword, filled with sword qi, and unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
Swoosh.
The man looked at the illusion swords with a noticeably stiff expression.
Once they contained sword qi, distinguishing the illusion swords from the real blade would become difficult.
I had closed the distance so he would have no time to think.
Bang! Bang! Crash! Boom!
Just as expected, he fired sword qi at several illusion swords. The instant he realized they were fakes, the real blade struck his body.
Slash.
The man desperately twisted his body and barely avoided a serious injury, but he could not prevent the sword wound crossing his chest.
Ten illusion swords remained in his sight, along with three real swords hidden among them.
Convinced of my victory, I continued to unleash the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
Clatter.
At that moment, the Twin Heavens Sword Art began to be blocked one strike at a time, accompanied by the sound of thin iron plates flexing.
Bang! Bang! Boom, boom, boom!
I groaned at the rebound transmitted through the Black Dragon Sword and took two steps back.
Considering I possessed three gapja of internal energy and the refined nature of the Taeul True Scripture, being pushed back meant my opponent was a true monster.
After steadying my shaken insides, I looked up.
A sword I had not seen before was in his left hand.
It was an unusual sword with no guard or pommel, its blade and hilt joined as one.
I frowned deeply.
“Isn’t using a soft sword cheating?”
The belt around his waist had disappeared. It seemed he normally wore it as a belt and used it as a sword in emergencies.
I had heard that bodyguards often fought that way, but this was the first time I had seen even a shadow warrior of this level use the same method.
“Listen, I’m not your master or martial arts instructor. Strictly speaking, I’m your enemy right now.”
“Fine. Then I’ll treat you like an enemy too.”
I extended my left hand and fired the Flying Dragon Claw.
The man knocked it away with the soft sword held in a reverse grip, and the Flying Dragon Claw flew powerlessly behind him.
“Is that all...?”
Before he could finish, the Flying Dragon Claw returned, clutching the largest fragment of marble from the ruined training ground. The marble flew at him.
Thud.
At the same time, I sent out three flying swords, pushed the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to its limit, and occupied every direction around him.
Then I scattered the Greater Heaven Sword Art like an opening fan.
Clatterrrrr.
“What is this...?”
Crash! Boom! Boom!
The man swung his sword frantically. Even then, he looked in every direction to find my true body before thrusting his sword without hesitation.
I blocked his sword using the swiftness of the Lesser Heaven Sword Art. Using the recoil traveling through my sword as a stepping stone, I retreated two steps and unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash!
Whenever sword qi collided with sword qi, the air rang with thunderous explosions. Dirt and sand flung up by the impacts filled the training ground like fog, obscuring everything beyond an inch ahead.
Without stopping the circulation of the Taeul True Scripture, I swung the Black Dragon Sword at him, obscured by the dust.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
He somehow found the real swords mixed among the illusion swords amid the dust, but that was all he could do.
As he struggled merely to defend himself, I unleashed the ultimate art of the Twin Heavens Sword Art as a finishing blow.
[Twin Heavens Sword Art]
[Ultimate Art: Twin Heavens Shake the World]
Before the dust could settle, illusion swords filled the entire training ground. Among them, exactly twenty real swords, each containing sword qi, shot forward to claim his life.
Crash! Crash! Boom! Boom!
The thunderous explosions of clashing sword qi were loud enough to deafen both ears.
Then something unexpected happened.
-------!
------------!
With an enormous blast that made everything before it seem insignificant, the dust was swept away completely.
The man walked out.
“Haah, haah, haah, haah.”
I steadied my breathing and stared at him, my brow tightly furrowed.
A blade of sword force as long as his forearm extended from the tip of his sword.
“Haha...”
Sword force. Sword force...
Even Namgung San, whose younger sibling’s opportunity I had stolen, had not been that shameless.
Did my father or the seniors of my sect have some deep grudge against this man?
There was no other explanation for using sword force during a friendly spar.
“Fuck...”
“Did you just curse at a senior of the martial world? What a rude junior.”
“Didn’t you say you were my enemy right now?”
The Taeul True Scripture did not contain sword force to begin with.
Furthermore, no one in the Taeul Sect knew how to use sword force. Perhaps this was no different from seeing my limit with my own eyes.
If I forcibly gathered sword qi, I could create something resembling sword force, but there was no chance it could stand against the genuine sword force before me.
I bit down hard on the inside of my cheek, forced myself to focus, and kicked off the ground.
“It seems you intend to continue.”
“The Martial Arts Academy representative cannot run from an enemy standing before him!”
“Still, rushing in with the same method doesn’t look promising.”
I poured internal energy into the Twin Heavens Sword Art and scattered it, but the dozens of sword images decorating the air vanished like dust with a single swing of his sword.
Clatter.
Using the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, I created eight afterimages. Moving through all eight directions around him, I scattered flying swords.
Flying swords filled with sword qi covered the space above his head, but his sword instantly cut them in half and dropped them to the ground.
“With something like this...”
The man, who had been so relaxed, suddenly widened his eyes like a rabbit’s.
Did someone at his level instinctively know what I was preparing?
The man, who had been standing still and waving his sword force about as though displaying it, bent his knees and rushed at me like an arrow.
I unleashed the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven and Earth Sword Art at his face.
“This...”
Five Black Dragon Swords formed in the air.
The Dragon-Phoenix Association had not known the difference between the Twin Heavens Sword Art and the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven and Earth Sword Art, but he seemed to recognize it immediately. His brow furrowed deeply.
“...”
The five Black Dragon Swords used the Twin Heavens Sword Art in midair, swinging dozens of illusion swords and more than twenty real swords.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
Explosions erupted continuously as if it were a New Year’s celebration. The illusion swords decorating the air and the real swords created by Ten Thousand Swords vanished in an instant.
Yet the five Ten Thousand Swords still targeted the man.
His sword force grew longer until it was as tall as a person.
If this could not defeat him, there was nothing else I could do. With the desperation of someone staking everything on one strike, I unleashed the rest of the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven and Earth Sword Art.
“Die!”
Crash, crash, crash, crash, crash!
The training ground floor shattered completely. Mounds of dirt rose like waves, scattering dust in every direction.
Birds in the nearby forest took flight all at once, startled by the impact, and several roof tiles from the lodgings came crashing down.
“Huff, huff, huff, huff.”
I had gone all out, using most of my three gapja of internal energy. Even my dantian felt empty.
I caught my breath while staring at the dust.
“...Haah, fuck.”
A breeze swept away the dust, revealing the man walking out with his sword force still maintained.
“They said you were a rising star of the Black Path, and your mouth is as foul as expected.”
Normally, I would have answered that joke with a punch to the face, but I had no energy left to respond.
“I lost.”
As I flopped onto the ground, the man looked at me for a moment.
“...I had quite a good time too.”
With those words, the man vanished as if he had sunk into the earth.
I thought I had fought fairly well, but perhaps it had not even registered with him.
‘The martial world truly is vast, and there are so many experts.’
Ever since I began my second life, I thought I’d been giving it everything I had. Yet the helplessness I felt again drained even more strength from me.
‘Still, I should consider this a lot of progress.’
I was trying to console myself as I looked at the wrecked training ground when Jegal Somyeong approached.
Normally, I would have jumped up like a dog waiting for food and shown proper respect, but I did not feel like doing that.
The Grand Strategist did not seem particularly bothered by my lack of manners in this situation either.
“Hmm...”
Jegal Somyeong looked around the area for a while, then stared blankly at me.
As I mourned the loss of the Demon-Subduing Divine Wood, Jegal Somyeong slowly opened their mouth.
“You.”
“...Yes.”
“Do you have any interest in going to the Alliance Leader’s Hall?”
“...”
Another inexplicable remark.
Was it a trait of geniuses to leave out all context when they spoke?
For some reason, the favorable impression I had held of Jegal Somyeong in my previous life felt as though it were being chipped away.
Footnotes:
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