WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 192: The Messenger from the Past (2)
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Not one former Sojeong Unit member had ever even been near the Martial Arts Academy.
To those who barely survived on monthly stipends despite possessing incomplete martial arts, the Martial Arts Academy was practically another world beyond their reach.
For those bastards, for whom even admiring it was a luxury, all they could do was fiercely hate Academy graduates.
Yayul Jae was especially bad.
He usually barely spoke, but the moment he saw an Academy graduate, his eyes would roll back in rage.
He would pick a fight, and when the other person casually made a move, he would retaliate with his incomplete martial art.
Of course, it always ended with Yayul Jae sprawled on the ground and humiliated.
As if he never got tired of it, Yayul Jae picked fights with Academy graduates over and over, getting beaten half to death every time.
That was certainly how it had been.
There couldn't possibly have been any connection between him and the Martial Arts Academy...
‘Who the hell is that?’
Yayul Jae had never mentioned anyone from his sect attending the Martial Arts Academy.
To begin with, the Flowing Cloud Sect's martial arts weren't the sort to possess a one-strike killing move.
It wasn't a sect favored by those who dreamed of becoming martial artists.
Its martial arts were incomplete, and the sect had always suffered from poverty.
Yayul Jae had said that he had spent his entire life as a wandering martial artist, trying to complete his sect's incomplete martial arts before eventually joining the Martial Alliance.
A sect with neither strength nor money taking the regular examination was practically impossible at this point...
“Hey, you sons of bitches! Come at me, all of you!”
A clear voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I looked ahead.
The small Academy student who had thrown the large student to the ground shouted for the next challenger, but no one among the onlookers moved.
‘As expected, it's still incomplete.’
The large student who had been thrown aside rose as though nothing had happened. They grabbed the small student's shoulder and lightly kicked their leg.
Thud.
The Academy student's stance crumpled helplessly.
Smack.
The large student's kick struck the Academy student's face, quickly leaving it drenched in blood.
‘This won't do.’
I drew up my internal energy and released a faint trace of killing intent.
“!!”
The people watching leisurely nearby widened their eyes and sprang to their feet.
As I slowly stepped forward, I warned them.
“Will you stop now?”
The large student couldn't move another muscle and could only glare at me.
I gave them a bright smile.
“I'm in a good mood today.”
“...?”
That expression said they had no idea what I meant.
Well, I wasn't trying to make them understand.
I waved my hand before their face as though shooing away a fly.
“Could you get lost?”
Grit.
The sound of grinding teeth rang out, and their face twisted.
“You're going too far, Jin Sowoon.”
At that moment, one of the onlookers wearing the robes of the Shandong Ak Clan spoke.
I thought his name was Ak Jupyeong.
“This is a personal grievance. Don't interfere. Just leave.”
Oh? So he was the leader.
“Hmm, don't you know what ‘personal’ means? How many of you are there?”
I tilted my head at him, then dramatically slapped my forehead.
“Ah! I heard the Ak Clan doesn't teach reading!”
Veins bulged on his forehead.
“You dare insult my clan!”
“So now there's a personal grievance between you and me too. Right?”
“...”
“As the Academy Representative, I can't just stand by and watch this kind of garbage.”
I crooked a finger at him.
“If you're confident, come fight me. Otherwise, get lost.”
He snorted at my words.
“Do you still think you're the Academy Representative?”
Look at this bastard. Does he ever stop buzzing?
This was why idiots couldn't be reasoned with.
I picked at my ear and let my aura swell.
“Ah, I said get lost, you bastards!”
The moment I unleashed my killing intent, they hurriedly stepped back.
“...Ghk!”
Only after realizing they had retreated did their faces redden.
Ak Jupyeong bit hard into his lip, then sharply turned around.
“Let's go.”
Once their stupid leader backed down with his tail between his legs, the others who had been loitering around glared at me before following him away.
“Tsk. They never listen when you speak nicely.”
Clicking my tongue, I approached the student who had been getting beaten.
‘I've never seen that face before...’
I looked more closely in case they were connected to Yayul Jae, but they looked nothing like him.
The only similarity was the identical sect emblem embroidered on his clothes.
“Hey. Are you all right?”
When I shook his shoulder, the Academy student, who had curled up while protecting his head, sharply opened his eyes.
Then he jumped to his feet.
“C-come on! Come at me, you bastards!”
He immediately took a fighting stance.
He's certainly got guts.
“They're gone. Calm down.”
“...Gone?”
Only then did the Academy student look around.
I nodded and tried to ask what I wanted to know.
“You're from the Flowing Cloud Sect...”
“Where did those bastards go!”
“...”
The agitated student glared at me with bulging eyes.
“I chased them away. So you can rest easy now...”
“You chased them away?”
The small Academy student trembled.
“Who are you to chase them away? If I'd had just a little more time, I could've taught them a proper lesson!”
“...”
It seemed neither this bastard nor that bastard had learned how to read.
They were using the phrase “proper lesson” in a very strange way.
“Bring those bastards back right now! Bring them back!”
How was I supposed to bring back people I'd chased away?
“Then you can take their beating instead!”
The small brat grabbed my hand and tried to use the Snow Flower form of the Flowing Cloud Divine Art.
If Lotus was a countering form, Snow Flower was an attacking form.
Since it couldn't use the opponent's power, its principle was to maximize the user's own energy. Yet this small brat didn't seem to know even that, forcefully trying to twist my hand.
‘This little brat...’
He's crossing the line.
My patience finally ran out. I slightly raised my internal energy, lifted him bodily into the air, and slammed him into the ground.
Boom!
“Cough!”
The impact was so great that the brat threw up what he had eaten.
Now we could probably talk.
“Now, calm down and let's talk...”
Before I could finish, the brat sprang to his feet and began running away.
“J-just you wait, Jin Sowoon! I'll get my revenge! Watch your back!”
After saying that, he limped away at a speed that wasn't particularly fast.
“Ha!”
I let out a hollow laugh at the absurd situation.
In the end, I hadn't learned a single thing I wanted to know, but I could still be certain of one fact.
That bastard was connected to Yayul Jae somehow.
No, they were probably brothers.
‘There's no way personalities that awful could be so alike without blood ties.’
An inexplicable longing rose in my chest.
#
I visited Jang Woojae in the dormitory.
Jang Woojae was a central figure among the unaffiliated, so I thought he might know something.
“Ah... You mean that vicious bastard?”
Sure enough, Jang Woojae recognized him as soon as I gave a brief description of his appearance.
“Yuhun Sect? Flowing Cloud Sect? I remember it was something like that.”
“He really is from the Flowing Cloud Sect?”
“Do you know where it is? It was the first time I'd heard the name, so I didn't remember it well.”
“Ah, I'd heard of it before.”
Jang Woojae nodded a couple of times.
“Anyway, he's a rather unusual fellow. He never spends time with anyone, and I've never seen him go out drinking or leave on personal business. He seems to carve out time every day to train, though his skills don't seem to improve much.”
“Do the others isolate him?”
Jang Woojae scratched his cheek with a finger.
“Well, the White Path Society, Orthodox Society, and Twelve Peak Alliance never even treat us like people. So we usually stick together fairly well.”
“Then why?”
“Well... That fellow barely speaks at all normally.”
“...Then what did you mean by ‘vicious bastard’?”
Jang Woojae rolled his eyes as if searching his memories.
“There was a time when he got into an argument with someone from the White Path Society. It wasn't a major incident. He demanded an apology, but the White Path Society member ignored him and walked away.”
“And?”
Jang Woojae paused, then raised both hands as he answered.
“At that time, he struck the White Path Society member's head with a rock...”
Ha, that crazy bastard...
Even his behavior was exactly like someone else I knew.
“After that, the White Path Society took revenge on him as a group. Then he tracked them down one by one and attacked them again... It's already been going on for three months.”
“What a spectacle.”
“On top of that, he attacks anyone who tries to help him... There's nothing we can do.”
“He's even crazier than I thought...”
“Yes?”
“Ah, nothing. I was just thinking to myself. But...”
I tilted my head at Jang Woojae.
“Why do you keep speaking so formally?”
“Ah, haha. It's simply more comfortable for me.”
“...”
“Does it make you uncomfortable?”
“No, not particularly.”
Jang Woojae's eyes sparkled like a puppy wagging its tail at its owner.
“Then may I continue speaking this way?”
“If it's comfortable for you...”
Just as I finished my conversation with Jang Woojae and turned to leave, I remembered the question I hadn't asked.
“Come to think of it, what was that guy's name?”
“His name? ...Ah! It was unusual, so I remember it.”
“Unusual?”
Jang Woojae vigorously nodded.
“Yes. He said his name was Yayul Geuk.”
“...”
See? I was right.
That bastard, whose head was filled with reckless spirit instead of brains, was definitely Yayul Jae's blood relative.
#
A question came to mind.
Why had Yayul Jae never spoken of his younger brother?
He had been a quiet friend, but he wasn't someone who completely hid his own story.
A poor sect, incomplete martial arts.
Yayul Jae had said he lived as a wandering martial artist in his youth to resolve those two problems.
The quickest way to complete a unique martial art was through extensive real combat, so he had tried to send money to his poor sect while completing the Flowing Cloud Divine Art.
Yet the fairy-tale story of successfully completing a lone journey through the martial world and mastering one's martial arts was something only exceptional people like Hyeok Mugang could accomplish.
Like the seniors from my own sect, Yayul Jae had ultimately failed to complete his incomplete martial art.
The place he had eventually drifted into was the Martial Alliance's Sojeong Unit.
Ironically, Yayul Jae finally completed the Flowing Cloud Divine Art only after giving up on everything, but by then, the Orthodox-Demonic War had already been raging for a long time.
It had been seven years since the Flowing Cloud Sect had been uprooted completely.
[Dammit, it actually ended up being completed.]
Yayul Jae had seemed unhappy with himself for completing the martial art. In his anguish, he drank more than usual.
‘What could have happened? Were the two of them not on good terms?’
Either way, I wanted to hear it directly from Yayul Geuk.
Based on what I knew from my previous life, Yayul Jae would have realized his limits by now, abandoned his life as a wandering martial artist, and be living like a broken man.
If I could pass the completed Flowing Cloud Divine Art to Yayul Jae through Yayul Geuk, perhaps his current life would change a little.
Yet Yayul Geuk was nowhere to be found, not in the Academy classrooms or in the eight-person dormitory where he stayed.
‘Is he getting beaten up by those White Path Society bastards again?’
Just as I gave up looking and was about to return, I sensed something flying toward me from behind.
I casually turned my head aside to avoid it, then caught the object in my hand.
‘A... rock?’
A jagged rock rested in my hand.
“Ha...”
It was so absurd that I turned toward where the rock had come from.
“That bastard!”
Yayul Geuk, looking flustered, had turned and was running away like mad.
He kept running his mouth even as he fled.
“J-Jin Sowoon! Watch out when you walk at night!”
After warning me to watch my back last time, he had thrown a rock at me. Did that mean he planned to ambush me at night this time?
“No one would doubt he's Yayul Jae's blood relative.”
Yayul Jae must not have talked about his younger brother because their relationship was extremely bad.
Didn't they say that people with rotten personalities hated those with the same personality most of all?
A kind of self-loathing, was it?
“If I try to help him, it'll only give me a headache.”
It didn't seem like the time to speak with him yet.
I gave up chasing him and returned to the dormitory.
#
“Pant, pant, pant.”
After running for a while and ducking behind a building, Yayul Geuk peeked out to see whether Jin Sowoon was following him.
Fortunately, he couldn't sense any sign of pursuit.
“Hmph! See? Now he'll be too scared of my attack to sleep!”
Yayul Geuk laughed for a while, then slowly stopped.
“Geuk, what the hell are you doing?”
Yayul Geuk shook his head in self-contempt.
Jin Sowoon was a legendary figure.
Though he belonged to the One Hundred Eight Peaks, he came from a sect even more insignificant than the Flowing Cloud Sect.
Yet despite that, he took the regular examination with only his junior disciples and claimed the position of top student.
Yayul Geuk, on the other hand, had made it to the Academy on the sacrifices of his brothers. Yet instead of thinking about completing his martial arts, he spent every day fighting.
‘That's why I said I didn't want to come.’
His eldest brother had entered the martial world long ago, determined to complete their incomplete martial art, but had ultimately failed.
Then his eldest brother told him that he could do it and sent him to the Academy.
During the regular examination, his second brother died and his third brother was crippled.
His eldest brother had told him not to worry about any of it and focus on his studies, but was that really so easy?
Still, he had worked himself to death to live up to his brothers' expectations, and in the process, he realized one thing.
‘...I can't do it.’
Every day, when he went to bed, he thought of it.
That he hoped he would close his eyes and never wake again.
That he hoped he would never see tomorrow's sun rise.
That was why he hated Jin Sowoon.
Because he shone too brightly.
Because he seemed larger than life.
The way Jin Sowoon stood confidently before the strong.
The way he continued onward without wavering, no matter what problem arose.
Yayul Geuk found it all utterly contemptible.
Then the arrow of contempt turned and flew back toward himself.
‘No... The contemptible one is me.’
Yet there was nothing he could do now.
Behind him lay his second brother's death and his third brother's severed arm. Before him stood a solid, towering wall he couldn't overcome.
“When will I be able to see my second brother again...?”
Today, he especially remembered his second brother's gentle smile.
He shook off the thought and started walking.
If he planned to ambush Jin Sowoon at night, he should get at least some sleep now.
Then...
“So you were here.”
At the unpleasant voice behind him, he jerked his head up.
Ak Jupyeong.
The bastard who had started this ill-fated feud.
The White Path Society bastards who always followed him stood in a line around him.
There were three times as many as usual.
“You fucking bastards. That's cowardly...”
“Don't worry. You'll face us one at a time.”
“Fuck off!”
Yayul Geuk gave them the middle finger and sprinted with all his strength in the opposite direction.
He didn't even make it a few steps before a kick shot out from the alley, lifting him off the ground.
Crash.
“Cough.”
The kick was so hard that his insides churned.
Ak Jupyeong approached at a slow pace and crouched down.
“What is your relationship with Jin Sowoon?”
Ak Jupyeong stared at him intently.
Did that bastard fear Jin Sowoon too?
“Why are you curious?”
“We're preparing something. If you have a connection to Jin Sowoon, we'll postpone your punishment for a while.”
Was he saying that he could get out of this crisis by using Jin Sowoon's name?
“Pfft.”
“You're laughing?”
Yayul Geuk swallowed the derisive laugh that nearly escaped him.
Had he become so pathetic that he had to use the name of someone he despised?
“Why would I have any relationship with someone like Jin Sowoon?”
“...”
Yayul Geuk's eyes flashed like a wildcat's.
A smile appeared on Ak Jupyeong's lips.
“That's a relief. I'd feel rather uneasy about delaying the crushing of you.”
Ak Jupyeong slowly rose without losing his smile.
It was a smile completely opposite to Yayul Geuk's second brother's.
Footnotes:
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