WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 186: Rewriting the Sichuan Bloodbath (6)
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I was screwed.
I had given him every signal not to say that...
Was he unable to read the room, or did he simply refuse to?
‘When did I ever swear that we'd die on the same day, at the same time?’
It certainly wasn't in my perfect memory.
Still, it wasn't as if I hadn't expected a situation like this to arise.
Yet as I headed to Sichuan, he was the only person I could ask for help in an emergency.
In the worst case, I might have to fight the entire Blood Cult. I had no intention of doing something as insane as holding out endlessly until the Martial Alliance arrived, like in my previous life.
Besides, would one more rumor about my being sworn brothers with someone from the Green Forest really hurt when absurd rumors already called me the Black Path divine prodigy and its Joint Successor?
More importantly, Bang Duchil had become an outright monster in the time since I'd last seen him.
Even with the Heavenly Vajra Limitless Physique, wasn't this cheating?
Thanks to the Nine-Spirit Divine Herb and the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand, I had accumulated just under four gapja of internal energy.
What the hell had Bang Duchil eaten in the meantime? His presence wasn't the least bit inferior to mine.
“Little brother! It seems you haven't neglected your training either! Hahahahaha!”
Each time he pounded my shoulder, it felt as though both my feet were sinking into the ground.
Wait, he'd only trained?
And he'd become this strong...?
“Did you really only train?”
Bang Duchil rolled his eyes with the look of someone caught red-handed.
Of course. He must have eaten something.
Maybe he had mistaken Azure Stone Milk for liquor and gulped down a whole jar, or stuffed himself with Myriad-Year Flower Ginseng because he thought it was a drinking snack...
“To be honest, I couldn't devote myself entirely to training while I was sorting out the Green Forest strongholds in Zhejiang. Seeing how much you've improved makes me ashamed, little brother.”
“...”
He hadn't even done that?
Damn it, I'm done.
Just then...
“You son of a bitch!”
A curse that perfectly expressed my feelings burst from among the deputy stronghold leaders.
The warm atmosphere instantly turned cold, and Bang Duchil glared at them in annoyance.
“Which one of you was that? Who is interfering with us?”
Technically, Bang Duchil was the one interfering between the Green Forest strongholds and us. But Bang Duchil, who lived by the creed that he alone was supreme above heaven and below it, clearly didn't see it that way.
“We are the deputy stronghold leaders of Flower-Strict Stronghold, Red Flower Stronghold, and Black Phoenix Stronghold!”
“And?”
“Urgh!”
Was this what it was like when you couldn't reason with someone?
Honestly, if Bang Duchil had spoken to me with that attitude, it would have felt like my guts were twisting inside out.
He had no idea what he had done wrong.
If Bang Duchil had been an easy target, the deputy stronghold leaders would have split his head open with an axe and told him to think before he acted. But there was no way they could fail to sense the overwhelming aura I felt from him.
“Dear. I think they don't like that we've intervened.”
At Baek Soryeong's elegant voice, Bang Duchil raised an eyebrow.
“Then they should say so. They truly are ignorant bandits.”
The deputy stronghold leaders' faces turned bright red.
They looked ready to explode from frustration.
“If you don't want to die, get lost at once!”
Despite the deputy stronghold leader's fierce shout, Bang Duchil calmly asked me, “Why did you call me all the way here, little brother?”
Things had strayed far from my original purpose, but his arrival was still like a golden lifeline dropping from the sky.
For someone with nowhere in the world to turn, having an older brother like him was better than nothing.
I gave a firm nod.
“Face them in a Mountain King Challenge.”
“Hm?”
One of Bang Duchil's eyebrows rose.
He clearly hadn't expected those words to come out of my mouth.
“What you did in Zhejiang must have been through a Mountain King Challenge as well. Please bring Sichuan under your feet too.”
The Sichuan Bloodbath of my previous life had become chaos when the Blood Cult, the Martial Alliance, Sichuan's leading powers: Qingcheng Sect, Mount Emei Sect, and the Tang Clan, dozens of small and medium-sized sects that followed them, and even the Green Forest strongholds all became involved.
There was a reason it had become a history written in blood.
At the very least, if the Green Forest strongholds stayed still, Sichuan's leaders would not move while ignoring the Martial Alliance.
“Hehe, so you knew that too, little brother. But I've only just taken Zhejiang. Why would I start with Sichuan?”
Even Bang Duchil knew that subjugating the Green Forest Seventy-Two Strongholds had to be done gradually, like claiming territory piece by piece.
“I'll be honest. You're right, Brother. It does sound unreasonable.”
But I knew Bang Duchil better than he knew himself.
I knew the potent words that could move him as if he had fallen under dark arts.
“But would the ‘king’ of the Green Forest care about something like that?”
“Hm?”
He took the bait.
I gently prodded his competitive spirit.
“The whole world belongs to the Green Forest's ‘king’ anyway. What difference does it make what you place beneath your feet first?”
After a brief silence...
Bang Duchil raised both eyebrows, let out a quiet cry, and began trembling.
Even in my previous life, he had been unable to contain his emotions at a single bold phrase.
That was certainly true, but...
“Uwahahahahahaha!!!”
His booming laughter hammered my eardrums.
‘Isn't that reaction a little too intense?’
He didn't even seem to be using internal energy, yet my insides felt shaken.
He was in such a good mood that he showed no mercy with the hand slapping my shoulder either.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Barely enduring the pain as if my bones were breaking, I lowered my head and saw that my feet had actually sunk into the dirt.
Did this man have no concept of moderation?
“That's right! A king of this age doesn't make calculations here and there like some petty fool!!”
...His reaction was even more extreme than in my previous life.
Had his damaged dantian softened his personality back then?
Bang Duchil finally withdrew the hand he had been hammering against my shoulder with and threw back his head.
“Listen!”
He looked at each deputy stronghold leader in turn.
“I, Bang Duchil, leader of Green Dragon Stronghold and ruler of Zhejiang Province, declare to the Green Forest members...”
At the mention of Zhejiang Province and Bang Duchil's name, the deputy stronghold leaders swallowed heavily.
“I challenge the Green Forest strongholds of Sichuan to a Mountain King Challenge!”
“Green Dragon Stronghold...?”
“Xiang Yu reborn?”[1]
“Why is he here...?”
Though they had shut themselves away in the mountains and cut their ties with the outside world, they apparently still kept track of matters concerning their own kind. The deputy stronghold leaders recognized Bang Duchil at once.
The people who had seemed ready to charge us moments ago now rolled their eyes and moved their lips nervously.
After whispering among themselves, the deputy stronghold leader of Flower-Strict Stronghold spoke once they seemed to have reached a decision.
“Bang Duchil, leader of Green Dragon Stronghold. I know we must accept a Mountain King Challenge, but now is not the time.”
“Are you planning to violate the first rule of the Green Forest Alliance?”
“That is not it! We are here to punish an enemy who has endangered our strongholds' very existence. As a stronghold leader yourself, you must know this is not the time for a Mountain King Challenge.”
Bang Duchil's eyebrow twitched slightly.
“Endangered your existence?”
“Y-yes! The one you call your little brother caused irreparable damage to all three of our strongholds. Before we can accept the Mountain King Challenge, resolving that matter comes first.”
I had expected this response to some degree.
Naturally, if they gave that reason, the Mountain King Challenge could not continue.
What I wanted was for Bang Duchil to be as unreasonable as usual.
Normally, he would have insisted that none of that mattered. If he won the Mountain King Challenge, wasn't that all that mattered?
But contrary to my expectations...
“Is that so? Then there is no problem.”
Bang Duchil pointed at me.
What? Before I could even try to cover his mouth in the face of that sudden, inexplicable unease...
“My little brother will participate in the Mountain King Challenge as well.”
Huh? Excuse me?
A Mountain King Challenge is for bandits.
Apparently, the deputy stronghold leaders found it just as absurd as I did.
“Stronghold Leader Bang Duchil! Are you saying you will violate the Green Forest Alliance's rules? If so, you have no right to belong to the Green Forest Seventy-Two Strongholds.”
Yes, exactly.
It would be better if he simply made some unreasonable demand and said we should fight. Right, that was much better.
I could contact Moyong Jaehwa and have him fire off a few Thunderclap Arrows. Then Bang Duchil and I could stir things up a little, and they would eventually have no choice but to accept Bang Duchil's Mountain King Challenge.
Me participating in one made no sense at all.
Yet Bang Duchil's solemn voice continued.
“I am not being unreasonable.”
“T-then! Are you saying that person is the leader of one of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Strongholds?”
“That is correct!”
Huh? What did he say?
Had I heard wrong?
I wasn't old enough to have hearing problems yet...
“My little brother is Jin Sowoon, leader of Black Dragon Stronghold!”
Huh?
What the hell was he talking about? This lunatic...!
#
“So, to summarize...”
I desperately held on to my fading sanity as I continued.
“You created Green Dragon Stronghold and Black Dragon Stronghold where the Twin-Curtain Strongholds used to be...”
Even as I repeated what I had heard with my own ears, I prayed again and again that it wasn't true.
“...And I'm the leader of one of them?”
“That is correct!!!”
Had this man lost his mind?
What made it even more absurd was the way he said it as though it were obvious.
“Um... just to be sure, does Black Dragon Stronghold actually exist?”
“Of course! With my subordinates and new recruits combined, it is a stronghold of two hundred members.”
“...Then who is leading Black Dragon Stronghold right now?”
“One of my subordinates serves as its deputy stronghold leader.”
That just meant he ruled two strongholds himself!
“So the leader of the Black Dragon Stronghold shrouded in mist... was you?”
Gu Jeongryong, who had been listening beside us, stared at me as if he had witnessed something unbelievable.
Damn it, that's not true.
“I knew there was something unusual about you.”
Deputy Hall Master Gam Cheonak was looking at me with strangely sparkling eyes.
“It isn't like that.”
I avoided their gazes and glared at Bang Duchil.
Tell them it isn't true already!
Bang Duchil only nodded.
Baek Soryeong finally stepped forward.
At least there was one sane person here...
“I'm sorry, Young Master Jin. This man is so stubborn. I did let it continue, partly as a joke.”
A joke? A jooook?
What kind of joke was this?
“Still, isn't it fortunate? Now you can participate in the Mountain King Challenge. Hehe.”
“...”
I took back what I said about her being sane.
No wonder they suited each other so well.
No, looking at the madness hidden behind her lovely smile, she might have been stranger than Bang Duchil.
“Sister-in-law...”
I had no idea whether to laugh or cry.
The deputy stronghold leaders said it was not their decision to make and led us to their stronghold.
We had tried to leave the injured behind with their guardians, but the Green Forest members would not allow it. In the end, we had no choice but to head to Flower-Strict Stronghold with nearly a thousand bandits.
“““Waaaaaaaah!”””
Cheers that seemed to shake heaven and earth.
‘This is insane...’
It brought back the nightmare of my visit to the Twin-Curtain Strongholds.
Back then, only Golden-Faced Buddha Blade and One-Eyed Blood Axe had sat there like kings. Now, three stronghold leaders and an enormous crowd that filled an entire peak had gathered in one place.
The Academy students and elders who had been dragged along to Flower-Strict Stronghold also looked utterly bewildered.
“You came here for a Mountain King Challenge?”
At the words of Jo Sangbin, the leader of Flower-Strict Stronghold, the cheers echoing through the mountain peak abruptly stopped.
Bang Duchil stepped forward without the slightest hesitation.
“I, Bang Duchil, leader of Green Dragon Stronghold, and Jin Sowoon, leader of Black Dragon Stronghold, hereby issue a Mountain King Challenge.”
“...I understand that Jin Sowoon is an Academy student.”
Bang Duchil nodded.
“He is only attending for a while. He is originally the leader of Black Dragon Stronghold!!”
This man really...!
No! That isn't true!
Not only the Green Forest members but also the Academy students could not stop whispering.
“Black Dragon Stronghold? Wasn't he just the Black Path divine prodigy?”
“If he's the Black Path's Joint Successor, perhaps he is connected to the Green Forest too?”
“...Who the hell is he?”
I knew this would happen. My path was already full of thorns, and now he had set it on fire.
Ah... I shouldn't have called him. Seriously.
Whether my expression had darkened or not, the stronghold leaders continued their conversation.
“Even so, we cannot tolerate the damage he caused to Green Forest strongholds before issuing a Mountain King Challenge.”
Bang Duchil snorted at Jo Sangbin's words.
“So?”
“...What?”
Bang Duchil picked at his ear with his little finger and asked again.
“So what are you going to do about it?”
Jo Sangbin ground his teeth at that attitude.
“...We could kill every last one of you here.”
His words put the Academy students and even the elders on edge.
To be fair, with a difference in numbers this large, the gap in martial arts skill became somewhat meaningless.
Yet Bang Duchil seemed not to consider that even if his own subordinates and our group were combined, we numbered fewer than three hundred. He spoke without hesitation.
“Try it if you can!”
“...”
Bang Duchil took a couple of steps forward.
That was all, but his subordinates swiftly gathered their internal energy and lowered their stances.
‘What is this?’
Before I could finish the thought, a tremendous wave of energy burst from Bang Duchil's body.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The ground around him sank slightly as mounds of dirt were pushed aside and pebbles rolled in every direction.
‘He just unleashed his internal energy?’
It was difficult enough for an ordinary martial artist to swell their martial robe as if it might burst. Yet Bang Duchil displayed this absurd divine might as though it were nothing.
When he stomped his foot, it felt as though the earth itself trembled.
“If you do not accept the Mountain King Challenge, I will beat every last one of you to death!”
...He sounded like a madman, but no one could dismiss it as madness.
“...Gulp.”
It felt as though he would actually do it.
Even my skin was crawling.
“K-killing is strictly forbidden in a Mountain King Challenge.”
Jo Sangbin lowered his eyes, looking slightly intimidated.
Come on. If you're scared already, what are you going to do?
Bang Duchil pointed straight at him and shouted again.
“Then accept the Mountain King Challenge, and I will spare your lives!”
“...”
He sounded like a highwayman. Accept if you want to live...
Then again, he was a bandit, so perhaps that was accurate.
It was a blessing that this man had not come to the Martial Arts Academy.
If he had entered the Martial Alliance, he would have caused trouble immediately and spent his days fleeing after being branded a public enemy of the martial world.
He had chosen his path remarkably well.
Overwhelmed by Bang Duchil's momentum, Jo Sangbin finally squeezed his eyes shut.
“F-fine. I accept. But if you lose the Mountain King Challenge, Jin Sowoon, who harmed the Green Forest strongholds, will be held responsible and beheaded!”
If I got beheaded when we lost, what was the point of holding a Mountain King Challenge?
I was about to object.
“Excuse me...”
But Bang Duchil was faster.
“Of course that is how it should be!”
...This man had sworn that he would die on the same day and at the same time as me, hadn't he?
Could he say that so easily?
“Who will step forward first?”
At Jo Sangbin's question, Bang Duchil answered, “Send two out at once. I will face them both together.”
“What?”
As the stronghold leaders twitched their eyebrows in disbelief, Bang Duchil casually added, “I came all the way to Sichuan, so I need to sightsee. I don't have time to waste on a Mountain King Challenge.”
“...”
By now, the stronghold leaders seemed unable to tolerate him any longer. Killing intent began to pour from them.
Bang Duchil was only just past twenty, and his behavior looked unbearably arrogant to them.
“Do not regret those words.”
“The king of the Green Forest does not take back what he has said.”
Well, look at that.
He had already made himself the king of the Green Forest.
The leaders of Black Phoenix Stronghold and Red Flower Stronghold stepped forward first.
They looked like typical bandits, each holding a broadsword or a massive axe.
Tremendous fighting spirit erupted from the two stronghold leaders as they drew out their internal energy with all their strength.
“Aaaaaah!”
“Aaaaargh!”
With savage roars, the stronghold leaders charged as if they would kill Bang Duchil in a single blow.
But...
Bang!
The leader of Black Phoenix Stronghold collapsed, white teeth spraying from their mouth.
As the leader of Red Flower Stronghold hesitated with a twisted expression, Bang Duchil used the Gale Art to yank the Red Flower Stronghold leader toward himself.
Crash!
He shattered the massive axe with his bare fist, then sent the leader of Red Flower Stronghold flying three zhang away.
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Silence swept through the entire stronghold as though a sudden downpour had fallen.
Everyone stared wide-eyed, as if they might fall over from shock at this impossible display of power.
Only Bang Duchil moved calmly.
“Next!”
When he spoke while looking at Jo Sangbin, his complexion darkened.
“Y-you aren't planning to face all three of us, are you?”
“Of course not. My little brother will face you.”
Jo Sangbin let out a small sigh of relief.
What? Why did he think I was an easy opponent?
That was needlessly irritating.
Jo Sangbin looked over the fallen stronghold leaders before glaring at me.
“I will beat you to death and avenge the Green Forest members and the stronghold leaders!”
“The one who knocked them down was that guy.”
Though I spoke reasonably, Jo Sangbin did not respond reasonably.
“Enough talk!”
Jo Sangbin swung his greatsword like a storm, sword qi coiling around its blade.
Unable to hide my grievance, I shouted, “Why the hell are you only picking on me?!”
At the same time, I unleashed the first form of the Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms and cut through his greatsword and the waistband of his trousers.
Clang───
With a strange sound, the greatsword split in half and rolled across the ground, while his trousers slipped all the way down.
Jo Sangbin stared back and forth between his greatsword and me in stunned disbelief.
“Will you continue?”
Bang Duchil asked the dazed Jo Sangbin, who stood there with his trousers down.
Jo Sangbin hurriedly shook his head.
Bang Duchil smiled in satisfaction and proclaimed to everyone around us.
“From this moment, Red Flower Stronghold and Black Phoenix Stronghold shall obey the orders of Bang Duchil, leader of Green Dragon Stronghold. At the same time...”
His gaze turned to me.
“Flower-Strict Stronghold shall obey the orders of Jin Sowoon, leader of Black Dragon Stronghold!”
His booming voice rang through the entire stronghold, and everyone's eyes turned toward me.
Ha. Why not announce to the entire world that I'm the leader of Black Dragon Stronghold?
At this rate, the rumor might even spread across Sichuan.
[1] Xiang Yu: A famed ancient Chinese warlord renowned for his exceptional strength and battlefield prowess.
Footnotes:
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