WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 163: The Black Flame Dragon Quelling the Chaos (8)
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The area around the Yujang Sect, quiet for nearly three days, was now in uproar.
Every Black Path martial artist in Yueyang who knew how to wield a blade had gathered here. There was barely room to set foot, both inside and outside the Yujang Sect.
Some fought over who had claimed a place along the walls first. Others had set up gambling tables, while still more had brought liquor and snacks as they waited for the duel to begin.
All kinds of strange people had gathered.
Several White Path sects had come to observe as well, but they were so badly outnumbered that they could not even stand tall.
“White Path trash, get to the back!”
“Hey! After the Yujang Sect, your sect is next. Did you know that?”
“The Martial Alliance has no interest in the likes of you! Don’t expect any help!”
The decisive martial duel had not even begun, yet the excitement kept mounting. Just as the crowd’s murmuring reached its peak...
“They’re here!”
At one man’s shout, everyone in the arena turned to look behind them.
Like the sea parting, the tightly packed crowd stepped aside, opening a path through the Yujang Sect’s already shattered gates.
“Looking good, Black Blood Sect!”
“Show those bastards what you’re made of!”
“Let’s drive every White Path sect out of Yueyang while we’re at it!”
Behind So Gyeongchu, the deputy sect leader of the Black Blood Sect... no, its new sect leader following the former leader’s death, came Assault Captain Shangguan Baek, Sword Evil, Serpent Evil, and the Black Blood Sect’s martial artists. They strode through the ruined gates without hesitation.
After crossing the Yujang Sect’s Grand Training Ground, the Black Blood Sect members took their places in the large training ground and faced forward.
The Yujang Sect martial artists, the people from the Martial Arts Academy, and Jin Sowoon’s group slowly assembled on the opposite side.
Even the spectators who had been noisily chattering fell silent, and an odd tension swept through the arena.
At last, Dang Hyeokjae, standing to one side of the training ground with the Martial Alliance members, called out.
“The decisive martial duel will now begin.”
“““Waaaaaah!”””
True to their nature as Black Path men who loved watching fights, they cheered loudly enough to shake the Yujang Sect.
So Gyeongchu scanned the Yujang Sect’s side, his brow furrowing.
“Where did that arrogant bastard go?”
Sword Evil stepped forward at So Gyeongchu’s words.
“Escort Jin. Not here. Bring Escort Jin.”
Dang Hyeokjae answered in Jin’s place.
“Jin Sowoon is preparing to come out.”
“Hah! Does the Black Blood Sect look that laughable to you?!”
So Gyeongchu’s booming shout silenced even the crowd.
Dang Hyeokjae replied calmly.
“...You people came early in the first place.”
“...”
“Why are Black Path scum so punctual? Tsk.”
Though he muttered it as if speaking to himself, every Black Path martial artist around him heard it clearly.
Teeth ground everywhere, and killing intent flared, but Dang Hyeokjae simply picked at his ear with his little finger and ignored them.
Soon, footsteps sounded from the main hall, drawing every gaze toward one spot.
“No... Good heavens...”
“What is that supposed to be?”
“Is that really the Black Flame Dragon?”
The gathered crowd began to stir in confusion.
The Black Flame Dragon emerged from the hall, supported by Namgung Seonhwa.
He was little more than skin and bone, looking as though he might stop breathing at any moment.
Only three days had passed, yet he had changed so much that it was hard to believe he was the same person they had seen then.
“Escort Jin. Something wrong.”
Sword Evil’s words made So Gyeongchu snort.
“Anyone can see it.”
His face was bloodless, his eyes deeply sunken, and the veins all over his body bulged as though they would burst, even as his flesh had wasted away.
“He has suffered qi deviation.”
“Qi deviation?”
“He must have tried to create some new move over the last three days and failed. Sword Evil, it seems your task has become easier.”
“...”
Supported by Namgung Seonhwa, Jin Sowoon slumped into the chair the Yujang Sect members had brought out.
A great roar of laughter erupted from the Black Path side.
“Hey! Black Flame Dragon! That’s the White Path side, you bastard! Get your head straight!”
“Hey! You’re supposed to stand over here!”
“The Lord of the Four Emperors Association sends his regards!”
Jin Sowoon slowly raised his head toward the voices.
“...”
Then he slowly raised both hands and flipped them off.
Some Black Path martial artists saw how slowly he moved and doubled over with laughter.
So Gyeongchu stepped onto the large training ground.
“...He doesn’t look well. Is he still participating?”
When So Gyeongchu asked, the Yujang Sect Leader looked at Jin Sowoon. Jin nodded.
“Yes. I still intend to participate.”
“The best support you could find was a weakling like that? No wonder the Yujang Sect is doomed!”
“...”
So Gyeongchu stepped down from the training ground. A man carrying a sickle stepped forward, and Jang Woojae emerged from the Yujang Sect’s side.
“If you want to resent someone for how cruelly I fight, resent Jin Sowoon.”
Jang Woojae looked at Jin Sowoon.
How shocked had he been when he heard that the man who had warned him not to use a Bloodburst Pellet had pushed himself into this state while trying to find a way to save the Yujang Sect?
Jin always sacrificed and endured more than anyone could have expected.
Jang Woojae glared at the man with the sickle once more.
“Even if I die today, I won’t resent him.”
Jang Woojae assumed the opening stance of the Cascading Flow Sword Art, and the sickle-wielding man did the same.
“Begin!”
At Dang Hyeokjae’s shout, the two men shot toward each other like arrows.
The sickle moved first.
Moving along a compact trajectory, it carved a cross through the air before stabbing at five fatal acupoints in succession.
Faced with the sharp attack, Jang Woojae hurriedly withdrew his sword and blocked the strikes aimed at his fatal acupoints.
Clang, clang, clang!
The sickle was an unfamiliar weapon, one that even an experienced martial artist would struggle to defend against, but Jang Woojae blocked its attacks with surprising skill.
“Now it’s my turn!”
Using the Drawing Art of the Cascading Flow Sword Art, Jang Woojae pulled in the sickle and unbalanced his opponent. He immediately attacked three vital acupoints.
The man tried to dodge, but the unprecedented pulling force left him no choice but to suffer a wound to his arm.
“Tsk!”
After glancing at the wound, the man drew the short saber hanging from his waist.
“Now it begins.”
The instant he drew the short saber, barely half the length of an ordinary sword, his bearing changed completely.
Gulp.
Jang Woojae swallowed without realizing it.
Then...
-The sickle is only meant to draw your attention. Focus on the short saber.
A sudden sound transmission reached him.
When his eyes met Jin Sowoon’s, Jin nodded.
Jang Woojae clenched his teeth and moved first this time.
“Uaaah!”
Wind began to rise around him as he unleashed Returning Wind Cascading Flow. Riding that wind, Jang Woojae’s sword began to press in on the man with the sickle.
“You think you can accomplish anything with such worthless tricks?!”
The sickle swept past and grazed Jang Woojae’s face.
It was an attack that any ordinary person would have avoided long ago.
Yet Jang Woojae remembered Jin Sowoon’s words. Rather than dodging the sickle, he continued to target the short saber until the end.
“Argh!”
Jang Woojae cried out and bent over, a long slash running across his cheek.
The man withdrew his sickle and swung it three more times with vicious force.
The attacks were so fierce that afterimages of qi lingered in the air.
Still bleeding heavily, Jang Woojae forced himself upright and continued attacking the man’s left hand with the Cascading Flow Sword Art.
Stab. Stab. Stab.
As flesh was pierced, blood sprayed like fountains from Jang Woojae’s abdomen, thigh, and left arm.
Yet the scream came from the man with the sickle.
“Argh! My hand!!!”
The hand holding the short saber had been completely severed.
The man stared at his empty left arm with an expression of disbelief.
Both men had fallen to the ground, making it impossible to tell who had won.
So Gyeongchu looked toward Dang Hyeokjae.
“Who won?”
“...”
Dang Hyeokjae tapped Jang Woojae’s cheek to check whether he was conscious before speaking.
“The Black Blood Sect wins!”
For a brief moment, cheers rang out from the Black Blood Sect.
The Yujang Sect members carried Jang Woojae away and began emergency treatment. Jang Sageong stepped onto the training ground and watched the scene carefully.
“...”
“Is the Yujang Sect worth enduring this much, even if it means pushing your son to the brink of death?”
When Jang Sageong turned his head, So Gyeongchu, who had stepped onto the training ground, continued.
“The Black Flame Dragon used his wits to keep him alive, did he not? You could have matched him against a suitable opponent, then surrendered.”
“Deputy Sect Leader... No, I should call you Sect Leader now.”
Jang Sageong slowly drew his sword.
“Do you know why no matter how powerful a Black Path sect may be, it never lasts more than a hundred years?”
“...”
Jang Sageong’s eyes shone.
“It is because they lack conviction.”
“...That sounds like something a bookish White Path bastard would say.”
Jang Sageong paid him no mind and looked around as he spoke.
“No, this is truly important. Without the powerful conviction needed to establish a sect or a clan, it is nothing more than a gathering of thugs.”
“Then today will prove that even with conviction, the weak still die.”
“Perhaps. If you return alive from here, think about what spirit supports the Black Blood Sect.”
“You’re trying to test me with your treacherous words.”
So Gyeongchu raised his great saber and prepared his opening stance.
Like Jang Woojae, Jang Sageong assumed the opening stance of the Cascading Flow Sword Art.
Whoosh.
Dang Hyeokjae had not even called for the match to begin, yet the two men sent qi flying at each other at the same time.
Boom!
Sword qi and saber qi exploded in midair, and dust from the sand covering the training ground billowed upward.
Without either taking the lead, the two men entered the thick cloud of dust and continued their duel within it.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The sound of metal striking metal.
The sound of qi colliding and exploding.
The thick dust scattered in all directions, obscuring the spectators’ vision.
“Ptooey! Ptooey!”
“What? The Yujang Sect Leader is this strong?”
“Then why was he getting pushed around so badly until now?”
The answer came once the dust finally cleared.
A martial artist’s internal energy was normally used in the most efficient way possible.
A fist fighter used it only in their fists, and a swordsman only in their sword.
Yet qi now covered not just Jang Sageong’s sword, but his entire body.
“He’s using innate true qi?”
“Isn’t he going to lose anyway? Why go that far...?”
“What a desperate struggle.”
Mocking laughter rose from the Black Path martial artists.
The Yujang Sect members were just as shocked by the sight.
“Sect Leader!”
“Father!!!”
They screamed Jang Sageong’s name in alarm, but he looked only at So Gyeongchu before him.
“...Are you planning to die together with me?”
So Gyeongchu clenched his teeth. Jang Sageong answered in a relaxed tone.
“Are you afraid?”
“You think such paltry tricks can make up the gap between us?!”
“Are you afraid of death?”
“You bastard!”
So Gyeongchu’s Demon Steel Blood Calamity Saber let out a thunderous roar, firing saber qi in every direction.
Eight streams of saber qi struck the training ground and surrounding halls, exploding wildly.
Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom!
Amid that overwhelming destruction, Jang Sageong calmly wielded the Cascading Flow Sword Art, redirecting the saber qi and blocking the fragments.
“Do you know why you fear death?”
“What?”
“Because you have left nothing behind you.”
“What nonsense are you spouting?!”
Jang Sageong glanced toward Jang Woojae.
The boy who had been unconscious moments ago was watching him with a pale face.
His face was filled with fear, but his gaze remained fixed on his father.
“That is why conviction... why spirit... is important. Something remains, even when death comes.”
“Fine. I’ll give you a death you need not fear!”
So Gyeongchu’s great saber glowed crimson.
A two-foot-long crimson saber force rose above it.
“Blood Calamity Ravages the World!”
When So Gyeongchu brought down the saber force, it split into eight streams that tore through the bluestone training ground and shot toward Jang Sageong.
“Of course. I do not fear it.”
Even more qi wrapped around Jang Sageong.
The Yujang Sect members called out to him in horror, but he did not look back again.
“Returning Wind Cascading Flow!”
A wind of qi began swirling around Jang Sageong.
He shot forward at once, raising a foot-long sword force from the tip of his sword.
Boom, boom, boom!
The ground of the training field overturned, and mounds of earth rolled away like waves.
Crack, crack, crack!
“D-Dodge!”
“Gravel is flying!”
Smoke and sand swept in every direction on the force of their qi. The Black Path martial artists who had been leisurely watching stumbled backward in horror.
“Cascading Flow Subdues the Enemy!”
Jang Sageong’s shout was followed by another ear-splitting roar.
Boom. Boom. Boom.
Then the explosions abruptly stopped.
A brief silence followed.
“W-What happened?”
“Who won?”
Those who had turned their heads could not close their mouths when they saw the sight on the training ground.
“...Good heavens.”
“What is this...?”
The great saber that had soaked in the blood of hundreds, So Gyeongchu’s treasured weapon as the Black Blood Sect’s second-in-command, had been cut in two.
Jang Sageong’s sword had pierced So Gyeongchu’s heart precisely.
“D-Damn it...”
So Gyeongchu fell backward with a heavy thud and did not move again.
Thud.
As though he had exhausted every last bit of fuel, Jang Sageong dropped to his knees. The Yujang Sect members rushed toward him.
“Sect Leader!”
“Sect Leader!”
Then someone wearing black-and-white robes pushed through the Yujang Sect members.
They immediately took Jang Sageong’s pulse, placed a pellet in his mouth, and inserted more than ten needles into him.
“Gasp!”
Jang Sageong, who had been as motionless as burned ash only moments before, opened his eyes wide.
“Do not move.”
“W-Who are you?”
“I am from the Tang Clan.”
“Is that so?”
“...Why did you push yourself so far?”
The person checking Jang Sageong’s pulse shook their head.
“I am sorry, but I have only bought you some time.”
Jang Sageong slowly nodded.
“...Thank you. That is enough.”
Jang Sageong rose under his own power.
He brushed away the hands trying to support him and walked back to his place.
Soon, Jin Sowoon stepped onto the training ground with Namgung Seonhwa’s support. Their eyes met for a moment.
Jang Sageong spoke as though forcing out each breath.
“Help the Yujang Sect... carry on... its conviction...”
Jin Sowoon grinned with dry lips and slowly looked around.
“The Sect Leader has already ensured that the Yujang Sect’s conviction will break before it bends.”
Following Jin Sowoon’s gaze, Jang Sageong saw the eyes of the Yujang Sect members. Though tears streamed down their faces, fierce spirit burned within them.
Their gazes were unshakable.
A satisfied smile spread across Jang Sageong’s lips.
“I see. This is what I should have done from the beginning. We should have stood straight on our own, without relying on anyone.”
As Jang Sageong stepped down from the training ground with the Yujang Sect members, Jin Sowoon freed himself from Namgung Seonhwa’s hand and slowly walked to the center.
He staggered every few steps, but eventually reached the center and looked at Sword Evil.
“Come up. Shouldn’t we see this duel through to its end?”
“...”
For some reason, Sword Evil only stared blankly at Jin Sowoon without moving.
“Sword Evil! Are you scared of that brat? Why can’t you move?”
At Axe Evil’s rough shout, Sword Evil shook his head as if snapping out of it.
“Escort Jin, strange. Different from three days ago. I won’t fight.”
Sword Evil looked as strange as a puppy that had encountered a tiger. Axe Evil looked at Serpent Evil and spat out a curse.
“Damn it, your dog is shaking. What are you going to do about it?”
“...”
Serpent Evil looked at Sword Evil for a moment, then cursed as well.
“Crazy bastard! What do you expect me to do if he says he doesn’t want to? You go out there yourself, you bastard.”
“Hmph! Idiots, just as I expected.”
Axe Evil forcefully kicked off the ground, leaped high into the air, and landed on the training ground with a heavy thud.
“Brat, you don’t mind if I fight you instead?”
Jin Sowoon looked toward the Black Blood Sect.
“If your side recognizes it...”
A brief commotion arose among the Black Blood Sect.
Their Sect Leader and Deputy Sect Leader had suddenly died, leaving no one with the authority to decide.
After a moment, one man stepped forward and nodded.
“Brat, are you comfortable fighting with the arena in that condition? You look like you can barely walk.”
“It does not matter. I have no intention of taking a step anyway.”
“They said the Black Flame Dragon had lost his mind. I see it was true.”
Jin Sowoon nodded.
“...Lately, I’ve begun to wonder whether that is true as well.”
“Mad bastard.”
Axe Evil swung his great axe through the air.
Green qi gathered around the axe. Then, despite his enormous build, he charged Jin Sowoon with nimble movements.
He swung both arms, thick as logs, intending to cut Jin Sowoon in half at the waist in a single blow.
Click.
Swish!
Yet Axe Evil’s great axe never completed its swing.
He passed Jin Sowoon, took several more steps, then blankly touched his neck.
“What... is this...?”
A thin line appeared across his neck.
Blood poured from it, and soon his massive body and head separated cleanly, rolling across the ground.
“...”
“...”
“...”
Though thousands had gathered, not even a breath could be heard after that shocking sight.
Then Sword Evil began to tremble violently, clutched Serpent Evil, and spoke.
“S-Sword Demon... It is the Sword Demon! Sword Demon! We have to run!”
Footnotes:
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