WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 174: The Black Flame Dragon Swallowing the Sea of Blood (4)
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Darkness receded as dawn approached and light began to spread, yet the entire area was filled with an ominous red aura.
“...Amitabha.”
Despite the compassion in his voice as he recited the Buddha's name, Ilgak watched the red aura with sharp eyes.
Powerful energy condensed between his clasped palms.
As he slowly moved one hand as if pushing away the space before him, the massive Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm unfolded with his gesture and began forcing back the dark arts.
Though neither force had physical form, a giant golden hand and the red space clashed in midair, producing a strange sound like flesh being torn.
Crackle, crackle.
Kyaaaaaah!
As the unknown red space tore apart, screams leaked from within and violently shook his mind.
Ilgak had thought he had glimpsed liberation through the deep practice of wall-facing meditation and silent practice. Yet he was deeply disappointed in himself for being so violently shaken by such a small evil.
‘How did it come to this...?’
Thoughts he normally never entertained filled his mind. Still, that sinister sound could not be the cause.
It was only deep regret over the past he had overlooked.
No, it was contempt for himself, for reassuring himself that things would be fine and refusing to face the truth.
‘They say even the swiftest regret comes too late...’
A quick glance around showed countless Shaolin Sect disciples and disciples from lay martial sects clutching their heads and chanting scriptures.
They were desperately resisting the strange sounds and illusions invading their minds.
At least they were in comparatively good condition.
The Mount Cang Sect disciples and their lay sect disciples who had accompanied them were convulsing, foam spilling from their mouths and their eyes rolled back.
When he saw even Hyesung, their only hope, clutching his head beside Myeonghyeon, helplessness washed over him.
‘What a fool I have been.’
There had been chances.
When Jin Sowoon's letter arrived.
At the very least, he should have seriously considered the dangerous entity Jin Sowoon mentioned.
Even if Myeonghyeon and Hyesung had scorned the warning and become indignant, he should have considered it.
If he could not defy them, he should at least have maintained strict vigilance.
This was the price of dismissing all those anxieties as mere worldly concerns.
“Amitabha...”
Reciting the Buddha's name again and again would solve nothing.
Even so, all Ilgak could do now was cast away every stray thought and recite it.
“Amitabha.”
He drew upon the power of the Bodhidharma Muscle-Tendon Transformation Scripture and further amplified the energy of the Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm.
Golden light spread in every direction, but the evil presence showed no sign of retreating.
His energy was already running dry, so he could not make the Thousand-Hand Tathagata Palm any stronger. Yet if he withdrew it, he could not guarantee the safety of those behind him.
Step. Step. Step. Step.
Suddenly, disciplined footsteps rang out.
Ilgak's unease deepened.
‘Surely not...’
From between the red spaces, figures clad head to toe in crimson blood robes began emerging in orderly ranks.
The red space veiled them like a curtain, making it impossible to tell how many there were.
‘Is this the end...?’
As a disciple of Shaolin Temple, Ilgak had never once imagined he would face such a fate.
His heart was not filled with a desperate desire to survive, but regret over a life in which he had failed to properly put his realizations into practice.
Clang, clang, clang, clang.
The blood-robed men drew their heavy swords in unison.
Faced with the choice between his own death and the deaths of others, it was only natural for Ilgak to choose the former.
“Amitabha...”
The blood-robed men slowly approached, as though preparing to slit the throats of prey caught in a trap.
Though he had attained an unmoving mind, Ilgak could not help but close his eyes as death leisurely approached.
Soon, he would feel a cold blade pierce the back of his neck...
Or so he thought.
Boom! Thunk!
A sound like a drum tearing apart rang out, followed by a heavy impact.
When Ilgak opened his eyes, he saw that the formation of blood-robed men advancing in a line had been utterly shattered.
‘What in the world...?’
Swoosh!
A sound ripped through the air beside Ilgak's ear.
His large earlobe burned as something flew past his gaze.
‘An arrow?’
The blood-robed men seemed to have seen it as well. They raised their heavy swords and gathered internal energy to knock it aside.
Boom! Thunk!
The arrow, which should have been severed by the sword infused with internal energy, pierced straight through the blood-robed man who swung it and continued on.
Its penetrating power was unbelievable even to the eye.
“Monk, are you all right?”
“...”
When Ilgak turned his head, Moyong Jaehwa stood there, his eyes bloodshot as he watched him with concern.
A bow was in his hand, so he must have fired the arrow.
How had he avoided falling into the illusion formation?
As Ilgak stood there blankly wondering...
“Benefactor Jaehwa...”
“Ah! Your ear, Monk...”
When Ilgak reached up to touch it, he found a small wound on his earlobe, blood trickling from it.
“My apologies. It was so urgent that I couldn't aim properly.”
“I-It's all right.”
Jaehwa looked toward the blood-robed men.
“I'll drive them back for now. Please wake the others.”
“Wake them? What do you intend to do once they are awake?”
The enemy used sinister dark arts, and there was no way to know how many there were.
Those whose minds had been shaken by the dark arts were in no condition to rise and fight again.
“We have to avoid them and hold on.”
“Hold on...?”
Moyong Jaehwa looked exhausted. The veins in his bloodshot eyes had burst, and blood seeped from his cracked lips. Looking at him, Ilgak keenly felt his own foolishness.
Even if they gathered everyone here, there was no way they could escape.
Judging by the enemy's numbers alone, that was already impossible.
“...I'm sorry, Benefactor Jaehwa. This is all my fault.”
Moyong Jaehwa shouted in response to Ilgak's guilt-ridden apology.
“Monk! Get ahold of yourself. How can you fall apart now?”
Ilgak felt even more ashamed at the sight of Jaehwa speaking of what seemed like futile hope.
“We only need to hold on a little longer. If we do, everything will be resolved.”
“What do you mean...?”
Moyong Jaehwa spoke with complete certainty.
“Brother Sowoon will come.”
“Sowoon? Do you mean Representative Jin Sowoon?”
They were already surrounded by the unidentified blood-robed men.
The second and third lines would likely be in the same situation.
No one could break through this hellish battlefield to reach them.
Yet Moyong Jaehwa's gaze was firm.
“Didn't he clearly say in his letter that he would come?”
“That is true, but... this place is already...”
Ilgak spoke with doubt written across his face, but Jaehwa firmly shook his head.
“Brother said he would come! Then he will definitely come!”
Moyong Jaehwa repeated those words just as Ilgak had repeated the Buddha's name.
The difference was that Jaehwa believed his own words as though they were truth itself.
“...”
Watching Moyong Jaehwa draw his bowstring while staring unwaveringly at the blood-robed men, Ilgak could no longer recite the Buddha's name.
#
I recalled the routes the Corpse Mountain Blood Cult had taken in my previous life.
At the same time, I overlaid them with the routes the Martial Arts Academy students had taken in this life.
When the two maps from different times aligned, the result was grim.
‘Damn it...’
The first line was facing the Corpse Mountain Blood Cult's main force.
There would also be a moving Blood Cult unit blocking the road ahead of us.
Charging into them would be no different from coating myself in oil and leaping into a fire pit.
My thoughts grew even more tangled.
‘And I can't ask the Green Forest for help(?) anymore.’
I had already gotten through one crisis with the Green Forest's help(?). Asking them for anything more would be the mindset of a thief.
And unlike those bastards, I wasn't a thief.
As I desperately considered how to break through, Nam Hwaseong spoke.
“There is something I am curious about.”
Did this bastard leave his sense of timing back at his clan?
“Now?”
“Yes. Now.”
“Do you really need to ask a question in the middle of a crisis like this?”
“I do.”
“Damn bastard...”
He nodded, his expression stiffer than ever.
Fine. Let's hear it.
“Speak.”
“Moyong Jaehwa and Eun Seollan are not members of your sect. So why are you going this far for them?”
“What kind of bullshit is that now?”
“You know it too. Against enemies like this, they may have already...”
“What? You think they're dead?”
Nam Hwaseong nodded without answering, as though that was exactly what he meant.
Well, most people would naturally give up by this point.
“But we haven't confirmed that they're dead yet.”
“...”
“What if they're desperately resisting and waiting for rescue right now?”
“...Isn't that too optimistic?”
“If I haven't seen the body, they aren't dead to me yet.”
I looked at Nam Hwaseong.
“And if they're not dead, I'll go save them no matter what.”
“...”
Nam Hwaseong continued.
“...Is it because they are your people?”
“Bastard, aren't you tired? Should I speed up even more?”
“Jin Sowoon! This is an important question.”
“...”
Considering all the suffering I had put him through, the fact that he still hadn't come to his senses meant he had guts at least as good as Gotae from the Sojeong Unit. In the end, I gave in and answered him.
“Yes. It is because they are my people.”
“...”
Nam Hwaseong still looked as though he couldn't understand.
Of course he couldn't. No, he couldn't possibly understand.
To understand this, he would have had to experience terrible loneliness.
During the Orthodox-Demonic War, the Sojeong Unit had nowhere to turn.
I was the same after the Taeul Sect was destroyed.
Even when we were left alone in enemy territory, we couldn't even hope that someone would come to save us.
Were we the only ones?
Moyong Jaehwa was the same.
Eun Seollan was the same.
Everyone who had devoted themselves to the Martial Alliance from behind the scenes had been alone and lonely.
I had watched them die alone.
That was why I didn't want to repeat it.
“Because they are my people.”
So that I would not leave them alone.
So that I would not be alone.
So that even if the martial world was destroyed by the Demonic Cult once again, I would not have to be afraid alone.
“I don't leave my people to die alone.”
Silence followed.
Nam Hwaseong spoke heavily.
“Then why did you save me?”
This bastard, seriously...
“Will you only be satisfied if I throw you back into the illusion formation...?”
Nam Hwaseong shouted.
“Answer me, Jin Sowoon! You could have left me behind. Then why did you save me?”
Why was he suddenly getting angry? This was making things awkward.
I looked at his face.
Then, seeing the longing in his eyes, I had no choice but to tell him the truth.
“Following my orders means you've entrusted your life to me, doesn't it? Then, while you follow my orders, you are one of my people.”
“...”
Nam Hwaseong finally shut his mouth tightly, his expression grave.
Then Blood Cult units began to come into view ahead.
“They've already come this far?”
Some of them must have noticed us, because shouts rose from the blood-robed men as they drew their weapons.
No matter how exceptional the Peerless Wanderer Divine Art was, breaking through that encirclement would be no different from volunteering to be stabbed into a pincushion.
In the end, one person had to throw the unit into confusion while the other crossed that deadly line...
‘Why doesn't the Taeul True Scripture have something like a clone technique?’
As I indulged in that extreme escape from reality, Nam Hwaseong spoke again.
“Leave that burden to me.”
“...What are you talking about? You have no strength left.”
“I only need to deliver it to Moyong Jaehwa, right?”
Nam Hwaseong took the burdens strapped to my back and carried them himself.
“...What are you doing?”
“One of us has to break through there, right?”
Nam Hwaseong pointed at the Blood Cult unit ahead.
“It is humiliating, but I don't have the confidence to stay here and fight those damned bastards, nor do I have confidence that I won't fall under their malevolent qi. ...Instead, I'll run like hell and deliver those items to Moyong Jaehwa.”
What had gotten into this bastard?
“...You might die if you go alone. No, it'd be more accurate to say you'll almost certainly die. Are you all right with that?”
Nam Hwaseong furrowed his brow deeply.
“Even if I become a ghost, I will deliver them.”
He nodded as though making a solemn vow.
I didn't know why he suddenly intended to throw himself into certain death, but there was no other way now.
At times like this, even if someone was unreliable, all you could do was trust them.
I had trusted those Sojeong Unit bastards even when they cheated at gambling. What reason was there not to trust Nam Hwaseong?
“Fine. I'll draw as much attention as possible.”
“All right. I'll see you ahead.”
Grateful that he had willingly stepped forward, I offered him words of encouragement.
“If you survive this time too, I'll give you five talismans.”
Nam Hwaseong, who was already running ahead, glanced back at me once before shouting as he continued on.
“You fucking bastard!”
He cursed as though he had found considerable motivation.
Did he want the Demon-Subduing Talismans that badly?
I began running in the opposite direction from Nam Hwaseong.
“You bastards spawned by the Blood Demon Sect! Over here! There is a promising White Path hero right here!!”
I would make plenty of noise.
Footnotes:
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