WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 135: The Black Flame Dragon Proving Himself (5)
──────
The position of Martial Arts Academy Director held an ambiguous status even within the Martial Alliance.
If someone who had served as a Unit Leader and Hall Leader took the post, it was seen as a guarantee of advancement.
On the other hand, if someone had risen as high as Deputy Pavilion Master only to be appointed Academy Director, it meant they should begin preparing for retirement.
By that measure, the current Academy Director, Buk Wonpyeong, the Three Pure Water Divine Dragon, was on a path of advancement that rivaled even the elite of the Nine Sects One Gang.
It was an exceptionally rare achievement for a disciple of a lineage passed down to one person alone.
Even in the martial world, where building one's own faction had become the norm, the Three Pure Supreme Sword held an especially lofty status.
Its sanctity stood beside Shaolin Sect's Bodhidharma Muscle-Tendon Transformation Scripture and Wudang Sect's Heaven and Earth Taiji Divine Art. Perhaps that was only natural.
‘How did I end up here...?’
Buk Wonpyeong looked at the young man before him.
The youth wore black from head to toe. His martial robes, sword, and even the cloth binding his hair were all black. Those dark eyes stared directly at Buk Wonpyeong.
“What I want to learn is the Jade Clarity Celestial Star Sword.”
“...”
The way Jin Sowoon demanded it as though it already belonged to him made Buk Wonpyeong, who was nearing forty, swallow a groan.
Even when learning a single move from a third-rate wanderer, one would bow three times, if not nine...
“You aren't thinking of breaking your promise now, are you?”
Jin Sowoon was as forceful as a loan shark, but Buk Wonpyeong had no grounds to complain.
Their wager had been that Buk Wonpyeong would teach Jin Sowoon martial arts.
“Before that, there's something I'm curious about.”
“What is it?”
“How does a youth barely past twenty know about the theory concerning the relationship between acupoints and qi deviation?”
The martial world's common belief had always been that qi deviation arose from impure internal energy settled in the dantian or excessive use of internal energy.
Recently, though, a theory had begun circulating among martial artists versed in medicine and physicians knowledgeable in martial arts. It claimed that weakened acupoints could also cause qi deviation.
It was not something even instructors knew well, much less those with no interest in martial arts theory.
That was why Buk Wonpyeong had confidently accepted the wager.
Yet this youth, barely past twenty, had recited it all without hesitation.
“I felt the limits of my sect's martial arts, so I read every book I could find that seemed like it might help.”
Buk Wonpyeong already knew that the Taeul Sect was not a particularly noteworthy sect.
In the martial world, comparing the Taeul Sect to the Three Pure Supreme Sword, a lineage passed down to a single disciple, would have seemed rude. The difference in standing was that vast.
“...And that was how you learned the theory on the relationship between acupoints and qi deviation?”
“Yes. I have a fairly good memory.”
“...”
Only then did Buk Wonpyeong understand how Jin Sowoon had rattled off the names of all three hundred and sixty-five acupoints when an instructor had asked him about acupoint methods.
‘Man proposes, Heaven disposes...’
Had he done everything he could for his sect despite being in such a desperate situation?
Perhaps reclaiming the Taeul Sword Emperor's legacy had not been an accident either.
“You aren't going to take back the wager because you didn't know I had a good memory, are you?”
Jin Sowoon watched him suspiciously.
Buk Wonpyeong had not looked kindly on the youth because he kept causing trouble, but somehow, Jin Sowoon's actions were gradually becoming less irritating.
“I heard you recovered the Taeul Sword Emperor's legacy. Why are you interested in another person's martial arts?”
“I don't know how to use sword force.”
“What?”
Buk Wonpyeong frowned.
If a martial art had reached a sufficiently high level, it was only natural for it to include the path to sword force.
Some parts of the tales were certainly exaggerated, but even if only half the legends were true, it was strange that the Taeul Sword Emperor's martial scripture contained no record of sword force.
“It seems the Taeul Sword Emperor did not place much importance on sword force.”
“Is that so? Even then, among your sect's elders...”
“I have seen Hall Leader Gang Chaeseok of Gwaehwa Hall project sword qi, but...”
That told Buk Wonpyeong enough.
Without masters in the sect, they could not raise masters either.
“So that fellow was there...”
“You know him?”
“We attended the Academy together. He was very promising...”
Buk Wonpyeong left unsaid that Gang Chaeseok's progress had been slow because his martial arts could not support him.
It was a setback suffered by nearly sixty percent of those admitted under the special provisions for the One Hundred Eight Peaks.
“That is why I asked you, Academy Director. I thought it might help me learn sword force.”
“You didn't ask. You made a wager.”
“If word got out that you lost a wager and handed over martial arts, wouldn't your ancestral masters be saddened?”
“Then you shouldn't have proposed such a wager in the first place.”
“Is that so?”
The youth looked utterly shameless, as though he did not even realize he had done anything wrong.
Buk Wonpyeong felt strangely unsettled.
It was like meeting a former Academy peer from his youth after turning back time.
Gang Chaeseok had shown that same astonishing determination and conviction in the past.
“A promise is a promise, so I should teach you martial arts. But I can't teach you about sword force. To learn sword force, you must receive the full transmission of the martial art, and you have no intention of inheriting the Three Pure Supreme Sword, do you?”
“Isn't there something like private tutoring?”
Buk Wonpyeong gave him an incredulous look.
“Do you think sword force is some trick you can pick up with a few lessons?”
Jin Sowoon nodded readily.
“I expected as much. That's why I said I wanted to learn the Jade Clarity Celestial Star Sword.”
Buk Wonpyeong shook his head.
“Unfortunately, that is impossible as well. The Jade Clarity Celestial Star Sword requires you to possess Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force, one of the Three Purities.”
That was why the Three Pure Supreme Sword had no choice but to remain a one-person lineage.
The Three Purities were Great Clarity, Jade Clarity, and Supreme Clarity.
They were not ordinary worldly qi moved by the will of martial artists. They could only be accumulated through Way of Heaven Force, the essence of the Three Purities.
Furthermore, building the Three Purities through Way of Heaven Force required both an inborn Martial God Physique and a dantian formed from pure internal energy. Anyone who ate cooked food from childhood was practically born unable to cultivate the Three Purities.
“Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force is formed from the purest internal energy among the Three Purities, so even if you learned the sword forms...”
Buk Wonpyeong's mouth fell open as he trailed off.
His eyes locked onto something like a meteor hammer extending from Jin Sowoon's left hand.
“Th-that is...”
Golden radiance shimmered around the weight hanging toward the floor and the cord connected to it.
“Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force?”
Even as Buk Wonpyeong spoke, he looked unable to believe it.
“H-how can a lay martial artist...?”
“The foundation of the Taeul Sword Emperor's martial scripture was based on Way of Heaven Force. Fortunately, or perhaps unfortunately, I have cultivated only the Taeul Mind Method, the foundation of the Taeul True Scripture, since childhood.”
It was astonishing.
Way of Heaven Force arose when ancient Taoists accumulated emptiness. It differed from the worldly qi used for martial arts.
“Because the true transmission had been severed for five hundred years, you were able to avoid straying down another path... Is that it?”
“Well, I don't know if that's a good thing now.”
“Does the Taeul True Scripture you speak of contain no martial arts that use the Three Purities? If it uses the Three Purities, surely such martial arts should have been prepared as well.”
“Actually, I realized this while cultivating a martial art created by a strange master. When the Taeul True Scripture was influenced by that martial art, I became able to wield Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force.”
“You happened to become able to wield Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force? What kind of martial art did that strange master create...? Could it be that you can't say who it was?”
“Yes.”
“Hoho...”
“This is my greatest problem now. My Jade Clarity Celestial Star Force is effective at subduing demons, but it has no effect when I strike an opponent.”
“That is only natural. It is energy meant to accumulate emptiness, not to harm others.”
“If you tell me how to change that, you needn't teach me the sword art.”
“Hmm...”
It was strange that someone possessed the energy of the Three Purities yet had no clear method to use it.
Or perhaps people of that era had thought there was no need to explain it.
Perhaps the study of the Taeul True Scripture was beyond comparison even with the Three Pure Supreme Sword, which was counted among the most difficult martial arts.
“Have you considered becoming a lay disciple?”
“No.”
Buk Wonpyeong hurriedly waved his hands at the firm refusal.
“I don't mean to burden you with obligations. If you wish to wield all Three Purities, would there not be limits to learning only one or two fragments of martial arts?”
“I am not sure. If the Taeul True Scripture cannot manifest Great Clarity Force or Supreme Clarity Force, would learning other martial arts not be a distant prospect anyway? Besides, if I cultivated another internal art at this point, would it not alter my original nature, no matter how pure it was?”
“That is... true...”
Buk Wonpyeong could only smack his lips in regret. He was nearing forty, and he needed to start looking for a disciple to inherit his legacy.
He had planned to search after becoming sufficiently successful in the Martial Alliance, but he had never risen as far as he had hoped.
No matter how favorably the martial world treated him, one person alone could accomplish nothing.
“What about you becoming a lay disciple of the Taeul Sect, Academy Director?”
“What?”
Buk Wonpyeong was about to laugh at the terrible joke and begin training, but Jin Sowoon's expression was completely serious.
Then something astonishing came from the youth's mouth.
“Are you not at the age when you should begin looking for a disciple?”
“...”
“But it is not easy to find a vessel capable of receiving the energy of the Three Purities, is it?”
“How do you know that...?”
“Didn't I say I have studied many things? So how about becoming a lay disciple of the Taeul Sect?”
“What does my need to find a disciple have to do with becoming a lay disciple of the Taeul Sect?”
“Is the Taeul Mind Method, the Taeul Sect's foundational martial art, not ultimately related to Way of Heaven Force?”
“...”
Buk Wonpyeong felt as though he had been struck squarely on the head.
“Of course, I only learned this recently as well. Still, if the Taeul True Scripture and Taeul Mind Method were originally one discipline, then a child who built their foundation through the Taeul Mind Method should have the physical conditions necessary to receive the Three Pure Supreme Sword's transmission.”
“...”
If Jin Sowoon was right, even a child who had eaten cooked food could use the Taeul Mind Method to gradually purge fire energy from their body. If they could form a dantian with the Taeul Mind Method, filling it with the energy of the Three Purities afterward would not be difficult.
The reason they sought those with the Martial God Physique in the first place was to find constitutions that naturally accumulated little fire energy.
“Can you teach me the Taeul Mind Method?”
Somewhere along the way, the one meant to receive instruction and the one meant to provide it had switched places, but neither of them cared.
“Hoho...”
After completing one full circulation according to the incantation Jin Sowoon recited, an incredulous laugh escaped Buk Wonpyeong.
His dantian, filled with pure energy, circulated it without the slightest problem.
That meant the Taeul Mind Method was a discipline for cultivating Way of Heaven Force.
“A lay disciple... A lay disciple...”
Though he was nearing forty and had considerable experience in the martial world, Buk Wonpyeong felt no great resistance to joining the Taeul Sect as a lay disciple.
No, he desperately hoped they would accept him.
If that happened, the Three Pure Supreme Sword could abandon its tradition of one-person transmission and be reborn as a sect.
“Will the Taeul Sect accept me as a lay disciple?”
“You do not seek the Taeul Sect's core teachings. You only wish to use its foundational martial art, so it should not be a problem. Our Sect Leader is quite generous.”
“Haha... That is truly welcome news. May I go pay my respects to the Taeul Sect as soon as tomorrow?”
Jin Sowoon frowned.
“The term has not ended yet. And you still have something to teach me first.”
“Ah... Right. That is true.”
As Buk Wonpyeong taught martial arts to someone for the first time in his life, a thought suddenly came to him.
“Why... are you setting yourself against the Orthodox Society?”
He knew the instructors had been exchanging all kinds of stories.
As a member of the Education Hall, he was expected to remain neutral, but worldly affairs were never so simple.
This incident during the examination had occurred because several instructors aligned with the Orthodox Society had suspected Jin Sowoon.
“The Nine Sects One Gang, the Five Great Clans, and the Twelve Peak Alliance are enormous powers. They are not people you can oppose through the impulsiveness of youth.”
Buk Wonpyeong spoke as though he were speaking to his younger self.
Jin Sowoon was not so different from who Buk Wonpyeong had been in the past.
But Buk Wonpyeong had eventually broken.
Some things could not be overcome, no matter how hard one tried or how strong one's will was.
“I have never set myself against them.”
“...”
“I only said that what was wrong was wrong.”
“But that may make them decide you are an obstruction.”
“I don't care.”
“Do you mean you don't care for advancement or wealth and glory?”
Weak convictions could not overcome powerful desires.
Whether Jin Sowoon knew that or not, he answered without hesitation.
“What pleasure could there be in enjoying advancement and wealth gained by unjust means? I only wish to become someone who is not ashamed before my junior disciples and the senior members of my sect.”
“...”
“Also, I do not believe there is such a thing as an absolute power. If I show resistance, then even if I fall, my junior disciples will carry on my will. If even they fall, their disciples will continue to carry it on. Is that not the spirit of the White Path today?”
“...!”
Buk Wonpyeong could only stare blankly, his mouth open at Jin Sowoon's profound words.
The shock was like lightning striking his mind. He remained silent for a long while before murmuring as though in a groan.
“So even if a dragon is born in a shallow stream, it remains a dragon...”
Buk Wonpyeong found himself thinking that if he joined the Taeul Sect as a lay disciple, perhaps he could raise disciples like Jin Sowoon.
“Still, be careful. I have overheard the instructors talking, and it seems they are planning something troubling.”
“If the Academy Director is going to join the Taeul Sect, what have I to worry about?”
Buk Wonpyeong burst into hearty laughter at Jin Sowoon's playful remark.
#
The Academy's atmosphere became somewhat excited after the written examinations ended.
This practical examination was an arena for sparring matches where the Academy students' abilities could be directly measured.
For Academy students who were warriors to their bones, such an event was no different from a festival.
“There are a lot of people here even though it's only the first day.”
The practical examinations began with Class A. Many had gathered to watch, including Academy students and people from the Martial Alliance who wanted to see their junior sectmates or disciples perform.
“Most of them seem to be from the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans today.”
Seong Moran spoke as she looked around at the people in matching robes seated at intervals throughout the stands.
“Wouldn't these occasions become contests of pride even among them?”
Eunho's words made Seong Moran nod as though that made sense.
“By the way, who will Young Master Jin be facing?”
Before I could answer, Namgung Seonhwa spoke.
“There are no students in Class A who are not from the Nine Sects One Gang or Five Great Clans. He will probably face someone selected from Class B.”
I thought the same. If people with vastly different skill levels were matched, it would be impossible to assess their abilities accurately. That was why the instructors' strict evaluations would factor into these matters.
“If it's Class B... Could it be Black Whirlwind Yuk Jagwang?”
Yuk Jagwang of the Beijing Yuk Family was talented enough not to fall behind even the elite of the Nine Sects One Gang.
Seong Moran stared at my face before speaking.
“But you don't look nervous. The Yuk Family Spear Forms are said to be among the sharpest in the martial world.”
Whether it was fortunate or not, I knew all six ultimate moves of the Yuk Family Spear Forms thanks to Yuk Sirang.
Furthermore, Yuk Sirang had perfected the Shattering Form for all six moves of the Yuk Family Spear Forms with Jegal Cheongi's help.
His dream of returning to the Yuk Family Estate after the war and taking revenge had never come true, but perhaps I would fulfill that dream here today.
“It isn't a fight to the death. Why would I be nervous?”
Looking around the stands, I saw Class B students waiting in various places, likely because some of them would be taking the examination today.
“We will begin the Martial Arts Academy practical examination! Those whose names are called, step onto the training ground!”
The instructor's booming voice echoed throughout the great training ground.
He glanced at the paper in his hand and called out.
“Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect!”
Everyone's eyes turned toward me.
Envy, jealousy, hatred, wariness, dissatisfaction.
All kinds of emotions mixed together and pressed down on me.
As I rose from my seat and headed toward the training ground, Eun Seollan, seated beside Saryeon, said, “Good luck, Brother!”
I nodded at Eun Seollan. For some reason, Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa were glaring at me viciously.
“Keep your head on straight. Don't let your guard down.”
“I heard Black Whirlwind Yuk Jagwang lives an ascetic life and devotes himself entirely to training... It will be difficult for Young Master Jin to win.”
I put on an aggrieved expression, but the two of them simultaneously looked away and merely snorted.
It had been the same in my previous life, but a woman's heart was truly impossible to understand.
On my way to the training ground, I saw Yuk Jagwang in blue martial robes rise from his seat in the stands across from me.
The instructor gave me a strange look, then checked the paper and shouted loudly.
“His sparring opponent is... Ilgak of Shaolin Temple.”
My steps came to an abrupt halt.
So did Yuk Jagwang's across the way.
A monk quietly rose from the section where Shaolin Temple's monks were gathered.
“Damn...”
Starting with someone's muttered curse, the great training ground erupted into an uproar as though it had become a marketplace.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried