WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 145: Those Who Wear Black Masks (4)

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“I offer my respects to my benefactor.”

Faint traces of time lined her face, and strands of white had appeared amid her black hair.

Though time had taken her youth, the woman still possessed a distinctive, mysterious beauty as she bowed deeply before me.

I hurried to help her up.

“Such excessive courtesy is more burden than honor. Whether by standing in the martial world or by age, I am your junior.”

Even at my words, the woman merely smiled faintly.

“If a mother does not consider the person who saved her child to be a benefactor, then who in this world could be called one?”

She was Haeryeong, the first disciple of Yeo Mimi, the Hao Sect Leader.

Haeryeong calmly rose and gestured elegantly toward the table. For some reason, Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa both stiffened at the sight.

“May I prepare some tea for you?”

“……”

“……”

The two young ladies nodded at the same time, and Haeryeong gave a small laugh as if she found them adorable.

Trickle.

There was beauty in every motion, from preparing the tea to pouring it. This must have been the refinement people spoke of.

Before her, Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa looked as tense as students sitting before a strict teacher.

The fragrant scent of tea drifted up, and since I was thirsty, I quickly drained my cup in one gulp. Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran stared at me with startled eyes.

“……!”

What were those looks for?

“What is it?”

“……Nothing.”

“……”

I tilted my head, wondering whether I had done something wrong, but neither woman answered. Haeryeong covered her mouth and quietly laughed, apparently finding even that amusing.

“You have not changed, Young Master.”

“Not enough time has passed for a person to change.”

“Yet in that short time, your standing in the martial world has become worlds apart from what it once was.”

“That was not something I accomplished alone. It was only possible because an excellent sect like the Hao Sect assisted me.”

“I am grateful you see it that way.”

As Haeryeong and I discussed things only the two of us understood, Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa looked at me, unable to hide their curiosity.

“Um… who might this be?”

Seong Moran had always been so blunt. Seeing her suddenly act like such a proper lady, perhaps Haeryeong gave off some kind of imposing aura I could not sense.

I did not know how to introduce Haeryeong, the Hao Sect Leader's first disciple.

I had never expected to meet her here in the first place. Even if I had, considering her desire for secrecy, I would naturally have asked Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa to wait outside.

Yet before I could decide, Haeryeong rose and bowed deeply.

“I am Haeryeong, Pavilion Master of the Hao Sect's Manbin Pavilion.”

“……”

“……”

Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa exchanged glances, then slowly opened their mouths in disbelief.

“The Manbin Pavilion Master… then you are the Hao Sect Leader's first disciple…?”

“Yes. She took in someone as lacking as me.”

“Ha…”

“I heard the Hao Sect never reveals the identities of its key figures to outsiders.”

Haeryeong looked between me and the two women.

“You are friends of our Young Master Jin.”

“……‘Our’?”

“She definitely said ‘our,’ right?”

The two wore expressions of utter confusion.

While they continued to mull it over, Haeryeong looked at me.

“You came because of Master Jang's matter, did you not?”

“You knew?”

“Our side had been keeping watch. When we heard that you had come to Yueyang, we expected you would stop by.”

If she had anticipated that much, there was no way the Hao Sect had remained idle.

I swallowed and cautiously asked, “……Then was it truly the Demonic Cult?”

It was the most important question.

The two young ladies, who had been in a daze, immediately raised their heads at the mention of the Demonic Cult.

Haeryeong stood and approached the bookshelf.

“The rumor was actually why I came to Yueyang as well. The vile rumor that the Demonic Cult was abducting people.”

She spread a large scroll across the center of the table. It was a map densely depicting all of Yueyang.

Red and black dots had been marked throughout it.

“The red dots mark people whose deaths have not been confirmed, while the black dots mark those whose deaths have been confirmed.”

“All of these?”

The sheer number and wide distribution of the dots showed that so many disappearances and murders had occurred that it was impossible to identify a specific area.

“There are no common traits between the dead and the missing either. Heo Hu was an eighty-year-old grain trader, while Jeonghwa, the young lady who disappeared here, was a musician at a brothel.”

“……We cannot tell what the perpetrators want.”

“No.”

I asked about the first question that had arisen in my mind.

“Where did the rumor that the Demonic Cult was behind this come from?”

If the real Demonic Cult had been active, there was no way their identities would have been exposed.

If they had, the Martial Alliance would already have been thrown into an uproar.

“We do not know either. Since this began, everyone in the marketplace has been speaking of the Demonic Cult.”

Their purpose was demonic rule over the world, not plunging it into chaos. Meaningless murders and abductions like these would only heighten vigilance against the Demonic Cult.

As that thought reached me, heat slowly rose in my head.

“Someone is impersonating the Demonic Cult for their own benefit. That must be it.”

Haeryeong nodded silently.

How many desperate deaths had I witnessed in my previous life while fighting the Demonic Cult?

Countless sacrifices and setbacks had occurred because of them.

This crossed far too many lines to be dismissed as people acting for simple profit.

“……Those goddamn bastards.”

No matter how thoroughly I searched the records of the world in my mental library, I could find no connection between this incident and the Demonic Cult.

That meant something that had never happened in my previous life had occurred in this one.

“When did this incident begin?”

Haeryeong flipped through the book she had brought, then answered.

“Half a year ago. The first incident began on the Gapjin Day of the Im-in Month.”

“Half a year ago… Half a year ago… Did anything major happen in Yueyang then?”

“Nothing happened in Yueyang, but something quite major happened in nearby Hubei Province.”

“In Hubei Province? What happened?”

Haeryeong looked at me and stifled a laugh.

“You led the Black Path factions to the Martial Alliance, Young Master Jin.”

“Ah!”

I had become so absorbed in the case that I had completely forgotten what had happened to me.

“What are you talking about? It is a misunderstanding. Their cause was noble, so I only joined them out of respect that transcended the Black and White Paths.”

“We will make sure that is how the rumor spreads.”

Haeryeong covered her mouth and laughed as if it were terribly amusing.

It was making me self-conscious for no reason.

“……In any case, did this begin in Yueyang right after that?”

“No. The Black Path factions based in Yueyang, the Black Blood Sect and Black Talisman Palace, came into sharp conflict with the Yuwol Sect and Changseong Sect. There was bloodshed as well.”

“Were those two factions not originally the dominant forces in Yueyang?”

“The Black Blood Sect and Black Talisman Palace bore a grudge over the Demon Spirit Plateau incident. After the Black Path martial world gathering, it seems they tried to divide Yueyang between themselves by creating a pretext. They ultimately failed, and the result was the Mount Cang Sect establishing the Sacred History Tea House.”

“Then it would make sense to suspect that the Black Path factions held a grudge and committed these crimes.”

Haeryeong nodded.

“Yet we could not find any evidence against the Black Blood Sect or Black Talisman Palace.”

“……”

The case quickly reached a dead end.

If Haeryeong had resolved it herself, she would have brought me the information afterward.

After asking her permission, I began scanning through the book listing the missing and the dead, committing each name to my mind.

I hoped that even a small detail might become a clue in solving the case later.

Yet as I placed the names in my head one by one, I suddenly stopped at one entry.

“Is the Silver Phoenix Inn not operated by the Shandong Ak Clan?”

“Yes. It is one of the three largest inns in Yueyang. Its proprietor died, so the Silver Phoenix Inn closed for a while.”

“……”

“What is strange?”

Instead of answering, I committed the entire book to memory.

Then I reviewed it again and compared it with the information in my mental library.

Something… something felt as if a thin thread was slipping through my grasp.

Then, the moment I caught that faint sensation.

Tap.

“None of the people connected to the Mount Cang Sect have died or disappeared.”

“……!”

“……”

An inexplicable silence settled over the room.

It was not simply because we were deep underground.

“Do you have information related to these victims as well? For example, what happened to their businesses or families after they died?”

“……Yes.”

Haeryeong swallowed and brought over a thick book, as bulky as a wooden box.

It was a rough collection of information rather than a properly bound book, but it was enough for checking the details.

“After Heo Hu died, the grain trading rights they held passed to an escort agency operated by the Changseong Sect.”

“……Jeonghwa's father is the proprietor of Green Bamboo Pavilion. Green Bamboo Pavilion was recently negotiating an acquisition with the Mount Cang Sect.”

“……So the ones who have profited from these incidents have always been the Mount Cang Sect and factions connected to it…”

The more we compared the information, the heavier the atmosphere grew, pressing down on the air around us.

By the time we had checked everything, no one could easily speak.

“……”

“……”

“……”

“……”

The information we had confirmed so far was not enough to say that the Mount Cang Sect was behind this.

Perhaps the incidents had simply happened by coincidence, and those connected to the Mount Cang Sect had profited afterward…

“……Like hell it was.”

The three who had been lost in thought raised their eyebrows at my curse.

“Those pillars of the Martial Alliance are impersonating the Demonic Cult to fill their own pockets?”

“……”

Haeryeong looked at me with concern.

“Young Master, we cannot jump to conclusions based on this evidence…”

Of course, they might have nothing to do with it. Yet with the Yuwol Sect and Changseong Sect deeply involved, the Mount Cang Sect could not be completely free of responsibility.

This was the kind of thing that could not happen without the Mount Cang Sect's approval.

Haeryeong's unspoken meaning was that, though she had phrased it indirectly, it was impossible to condemn the Mount Cang Sect.

Even if we called the Inspectorate to investigate, that would be the end of it if the Mount Cang Sect denied everything.

The arrow of suspicion would turn on me instead, giving them grounds to claim that I had insulted them.

The Mount Cang Sect's disciples might even rush to the Martial Arts Academy to take my head.

“I know.”

“……”

“Even so, this is not something we can simply let pass. Is it?”

Unlike Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran, who wore anxious expressions, Haeryeong let out a small sigh.

“How may I help you?”

“You will help?”

“Were you not planning to act even if we did not?”

#

We returned to Jang Dowon's house.

We told the Taeul Sect disciples what we had learned, and the four of them were, naturally, even more enraged than we were.

Still, being angry did not mean we could expose everything.

“If we provoke the Mount Cang Sect, it will put not only us but the Namgung Clan and Iron Sword Sect in a difficult position.”

I agreed with Saryeon.

The matter clearly needed to be resolved, but if we acted rashly, the backlash would engulf us and tear us apart instead.

“The Namgung Clan will not simply stand by and watch this happen.”

Namgung Seonhwa said so, but if we gave the Mount Cang Sect a pretext, we could not bring another great upheaval upon the Namgung Clan when it had only just regained stability.

“So we have to find the missing people without drawing the Mount Cang Sect's attention.”

I nodded at Eunho's words.

“The Hao Sect has gathered people and is searching in earnest, but it will take time. If they learn that we are looking, they may erase the evidence.”

Eunho fell into thought for a moment, then looked up and scratched his cheek.

“This is a bit off topic, but when Geumpyo and I get snacks, we eat them right away. Dongryong always saves his for later.”

“……What?”

It was so sudden that I tilted my head, but Eunho continued.

“Since we know Dongryong saves them for later, we always look for where he hides his snacks. He has gotten better and better at hiding them.”

“……And?”

“So one day, I asked Dongryong whether he had eaten the snacks he hid. I told him they were really, really sweet, and that ants would swarm them if he left them there.”

Dongryong's eyes narrowed, as though he remembered that moment.

“Dongryong watched us carefully, then hurried to where he had hidden the snacks. Geumpyo and I got to share the snacks he had hidden.”

“You bastard…”

The moment Eunho finished, Dongryong lunged at him. Eunho restrained Dongryong while pretending to be the mature one.

“……Hmm.”

Instead of us searching for them, we should make them go check on what they have hidden.

It was not a bad idea.

Leaving Eunho and Dongryong to continue squabbling, I looked to Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran.

“Shall we try it?”

“……Try what?”

#

Yueyang's streets were more splendid at night than during the day.

People from across the land came to see Dongting Lake at night, while those rushing about to profit from the crowds packed the streets so densely that one could trip over them.

That was Yueyang's nightscape.

People who would not have cared even if high officials or renowned martial artists appeared began to focus on two women.

“Ha… Are they human? Or heavenly maidens?”

“I thought the Soul-Stealing Western Beauty and the Jade-Faced Gentle Smile were the very pinnacle of beauty, but tonight, my horizons have broadened.”

“Who in the world are they?”

“Do not think of approaching them. That playboy young master's group tried speaking to them earlier, but they were sent flying three zhang before crashing to the ground.”

“They are skilled in martial arts too?”

The two women, who had drawn everyone's attention, headed for the Flowing Flower Pavilion, a brothel famous for being expensive even among Yueyang's lavish establishments.

The many men whose eyes had been captured by them began to follow in droves. The attendant who had been soliciting customers at the Flowing Flower Pavilion hurriedly opened its doors, delighted by the unexpected windfall.

As the two women entered, the inside of the Flowing Flower Pavilion fell silent in an instant.

“……”

As though they had forgotten the conversations and laughter from moments before, people began whispering while looking at the two women.

The attendants rushed forward competitively, each hoping to guide the women to their own table.

“I will take excellent care of you tonight.”

“Leave it to me.”

“Do you have an ideal type? I will search all of Yueyang if I must and find one for you.”

The women exchanged glances at the attendants' competition, then quietly laughed.

“We did not come here to drink and enjoy entertainment.”

“Ah, then…?”

“We came to find our younger second cousin. We heard she plays the zither here.”

“Ah… Is that so? May I ask her name?”

“Jeonghwa.”

At Namgung Seonhwa's words, the attendants looked at one another and tilted their heads.

“Have we had a musician named Jeonghwa?”

“I have never heard of her.”

“There is no musician named Jeonghwa at the Flowing Flower Pavilion.”

The attendants answered at once.

“That is strange. I heard she plays the zither here.”

While the first and second attendants worried over what to do, the third stepped forward and asked, “May I ask why you are looking for this musician?”

“It is nothing serious. My grandfather told me to ensure she attends the Namgung Clan's upcoming event.”

“What?”

The attendant looked shocked, and Namgung Seonhwa tilted her head.

“What is wrong?”

“Ah, nothing. Could it be that you are…?”

“I am Namgung Seonhwa.”

“……”

“Jeonghwa is a distant relative, but she was a younger cousin whom my family and grandfather were especially fond of.”

“I-I see.”

“If she is not here, there is nothing to be done.”

Unable to find Jeonghwa, or rather, never intending to find her there in the first place, Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran left the Flowing Flower Pavilion.

As the eyes of those in the street turned toward them again, they covered their faces with veils and turned into an alley.

They had walked through the darkness for a while when Namgung Seonhwa received a sound transmission.

-Good work.

The person who sent it was none other than Jin Sowoon, observing the scene from the roof of the Flowing Flower Pavilion.

Namgung Seonhwa gave a small nod where no one could see.

-Has anything changed?

-One of the attendants is pushing through the kitchen staff and heading outside.

-It must be the person I spoke with.

-Most likely.

The culprit was moving to check on the snacks.

Footnotes:

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