WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 197: The Uninvited Guest Who Visited the Academy (2)

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"H-how... do you know Lotus...?"

For the first time, Yayul Geuk wore the blank, foolish expression expected of someone his age.

"Lotus?"

I asked as if I had no idea what he meant.

The Lotus I had used was the Ascendant Form transformation through the Jegal Three Forms.

"Are you talking about the Flower-Grafting technique?"

"...That wasn't Lotus?"

"No."

Suspicion filled his eyes, but what could he do about it? I said it wasn't.

It wasn't as if the Flowing Cloud Sect had a monopoly on Flower-Grafting.

"Are you done attacking? Just as I said, are you and your brothers all utterly useless?"

"..."

Yayul Geuk's face twisted with rage again.

"Why only you...?"

"Hm?"

"Why were you the only one who brought all your martial brothers with you?!"

That was why he reacted so violently toward me.

"Is that why you hated me?"

We had been in the same situation, yet I had achieved a different result.

The more brightly I shone, the darker his own world must have seemed.

"Do you truly not know why?"

"Why?"

Yayul Geuk's eyes widened.

He looked as though he was hoping for an answer beyond anything his mind could imagine.

"Because you're inadequate."

"..."

I actually welcomed his inferiority complex.

If he had truly given up, he would have been swallowed by his darkness and become numb to everything.

"Why are you blaming others for your own inadequacy?"

Somewhere inside him, he still had the will to change. That was why he felt such resentment toward me.

"Go on, then. Let all that patheticness spill out, you miserable bastard."

"Uaaaaaah!"

That was why I kept provoking him. I thought Yayul Geuk could use his darkness and wretchedness to become stronger.

Yayul Geuk charged in, drawing on every bit of internal energy he had.

He unleashed the Thunderforce Fist Art and Torrential Rain Palm Art, but martial arts that were not even secret arts could never be effective against me.

Tatatatak.

I neutralized his martial arts with one hand. Perhaps realizing he could not win this way, he used Snow Flower from the Flowing Cloud Divine Art.

If Lotus was a counterattack technique that used Flower-Grafting, Snow Flower was an offensive technique based on the principle of Four Ounces Move a Thousand Pounds.

It was supposed to deal tremendous damage with minimal force, but...

"This is hardly more than child's play."

His Snow Flower felt like nothing but a few clumsy hand movements.

Thwack!

"Aaargh!"

Yayul Geuk cried out as his wrist bent backward, stumbling away from me.

"Understanding potential energy and kinetic energy is the foundation of Flower-Grafting and Four Ounces Move a Thousand Pounds."

Yayul Geuk rubbed his wrist with a grimace, glaring fiercely at me.

I grabbed him by the collar and threw him into the air.

"Uaaaaah!"

Yayul Geuk flailed in midair, trying to regain his balance.

I put more force into my grip.

"The energy that makes an object that has risen high fall back to the ground is potential energy."

Bang!

Then I slammed him into the ground.

"Urgh."

Yayul Geuk ground his teeth as he sprang to his feet and threw a punch.

I lightly dodged it, hooked his foot, and pulled his clothes in the direction he had been moving.

"The energy a moving object possesses is kinetic energy."

Thud, thud, thud!

He rolled across the ground several times, then staggered to his feet, apparently in considerable pain.

"If your sect's martial arts focus on the principles of Flower-Grafting and Four Ounces Move a Thousand Pounds, you should have learned the fundamentals. Did you fail to master them?"

"...Huff, huff, huff."

Yayul Geuk kept breathing heavily, as though he could not hear a word I said.

His appearance was not unfamiliar.

"Just like his brother."

I muttered quietly, too softly for him to hear.

Yayul Geuk was like this, but Yayul Jae had not exactly been mild-mannered either.

When he used Flower-Grafting, he forcibly added strength to it, and whenever he used Four Ounces Move a Thousand Pounds, his body was tenser than usual.

He wanted to hit his opponent as hard as his temper demanded, so he used too much force.

That might work with a domineering martial art, but there was no way it would work with a martial art that needed to use the opponent's strength.

It was deeply ironic that Yayul Jae had finally completed the Flowing Cloud Divine Art near the end of the Orthodox-Demonic War because he had been forced to relax and use it properly while fighting without ever fully recovering his internal energy.

'I need to make him loosen up a little.'

And there was nothing better for loosening someone up than a good beating.

Of course, I had no intention of using mindless violence like Ak Jupyeong.

My goal was entirely different from that bastard's.

If I kept hounding him with the Acupoint Blood-Circulation Technique while never letting him fully recover his internal energy, perhaps he would realize it eventually.

Besides, he had an excellent(?) teacher in me to guide him.

Where else could he find such personalized education?

'What a ridiculously irritating pair of brothers.'

Yayul Geuk's breathing remained ragged.

"Already tired?"

At my words, he charged at me again, looking ready to lose control.

He was remarkably easy to read.

Tap, tap, tap, boom!

A chained combination following the Thunderforce Fist Art and Torrential Rain Palm Art.

Yayul Jae had used that method until I was sick of seeing it, so I knew it by heart.

If I countered it just a little...

Grab.

Just as expected, the Flowing Cloud Divine Art came right after.

"Tsk. I told you it wouldn't work."

I returned his Lotus to him and slammed him into the ground.

Thud!

"Ugh..."

That one had hit hard enough that he twisted in pain.

"Softness Overcomes Hardness. Think again about how the soft can overcome the hard. Flower-Grafting and Four Ounces Move a Thousand Pounds are not simple techniques. Unless you understand the source of their principles, you will never complete your sect's martial arts, no matter how long you live."

Even while sprawled on the ground, Yayul Geuk glared at me furiously.

"..."

The way he hissed like a wounded cat was utterly laughable.

Still, I had shown him clues to Lotus and Snow Flower, so he would not give up again.

I gave him one last mocking smile and left.

"Y-you bastard! Jin Sowoon! Watch your back!"

Ha... That bastard was still obsessed with hitting me in the back of the head.

#

The next morning, I straightened my clothes and stepped out of the hall when my energy sense detected something above me.

"Unbelievable..."

Yayul Geuk was jumping down from the roof, clutching his usual jagged stone.

"If you're going to ambush me, wouldn't the sword the Academy gave you be better?"

I truly could not understand what was inside his head.

Then again, I had never understood Yayul Jae's personality either, so trying to understand his younger brother was nonsense to begin with.

'Does he have some disease that'll kill him if he doesn't follow through on every threat he makes?'

No matter what, constantly aiming for the back of my head was deeply strange.

I stepped back slightly and drove a roundhouse kick, the specialty of pathetic men, into his abdomen.

Thud!

Yayul Geuk flew nearly thirty feet and rolled across the floor of the private training ground. His stomach must have turned over, because he began retching.

Yet all that came out was yellow stomach acid instead of food.

"Tsk... Did you come without even eating breakfast?"

I had intended to find him anyway, so I appreciated him coming to me. That did not mean I would go easy on him.

"I was going to deal with you after enjoying a peaceful morning, but you had to interrupt my morning routine."

I used the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist and applied the Acupoint Blood-Circulation Technique all over his body.

In other words, I struck every last part of him without leaving anything out.

"Khk!"

He flew another ten feet, then sprang up before seeming to notice something wrong with his body and retching again.

This time, it was dark red blood instead of yellow stomach acid.

The stagnant blood that had accumulated in his body for a long time had risen through his insides.

"Dammit..."

An ordinary martial artist would have hesitated, worried that they had suffered an internal injury.

Yayul Geuk simply wiped the blood from his lips and prepared his guard stance again.

Then he rushed at me like lightning.

'Oh, he recovered this much in a day?'

It seemed the Acupoint Blood-Circulation Technique I had applied yesterday had stirred his blood channels somewhat.

His movements were far smoother and faster than they had been yesterday.

But...

"Softness Overcomes Hardness! Softness Overcomes Hardness! You stupid bastard! Did you already forget what I taught you yesterday?!"

His movements were brutally forceful, without a trace of the Flowing Cloud Sect's principles.

Swallowing a sigh, I used the Flowing Cloud Divine Art's Lotus, transformed with the Jegal Three Forms' Ascendant Form, with one hand and slammed him into the floor.

"Ugh..."

The pain must have been unbearable after he rolled across the hard marble floor. He wriggled for a long time like a worm that had been stepped on.

I lightly stepped on him.

"If you're going to charge in recklessly, use a different martial art. If you're going to use your sect's martial arts, bring out their principles. You have to do one or the other."

"Huff... huff..."

Yayul Geuk breathed harshly as he glared at me.

I crooked a finger at him.

"Come on. Staring at me won't break the back of my head."

"Uaaaaah!"

Yayul Geuk screamed and charged.

Before half an hour had passed, I had completely exhausted him.

"Haah, haah, haah."

Yayul Geuk lay sprawled across the ground, breathing heavily.

I deliberately curled my lips into a smirk.

"Not going to attack?"

"...You, you. Once I... complete the Flowing Cloud Divine Art..."

"Don't worry. From what I can see, you don't have a shred of talent."

"Grrr!"

His eyes widened in a furious fit, but what could he do?

All he could do was lie there and breathe.

"Jin Sowoon."

At that moment, the Head Attendant came out of the hall.

"It is time for breakfast. Will you be eating with your friend?"

I looked at Yayul Geuk and asked, "You're eating, right? The food in the dormitory used by the Academy Representative is famous for being good."

"...I-I'm not eating!"

For some reason, Yayul Geuk's face turned red.

What was that about?

"This one says he does not want to eat inside."

The Head Attendant nodded.

"Then I will have it brought here."

"Please do."

The Head Attendant went back inside, and Yayul Geuk raised his voice.

"I said I'm not eating!"

Why was he putting so much effort into shouting that he would not eat?

That temper of his was really something.

"Eat. I want to beat you up more, but beating someone who is already lying down is not my preference."

"...You son of a bitch!"

A short while later, the Head Attendant led three attendants carrying trays of easy-to-eat dishes, which they set down before us.

Yayul Geuk stubbornly insisted he would not eat, but when the attendants did not leave and continued waiting, he eventually took a spoonful.

"!!!"

After one bite, Yayul Geuk's eyes grew as large as a rabbit's.

"Good, right?"

"...I can eat things like this once I become the Academy Representative!"

I could not help letting out a laugh.

"Hahaha! With that skill?"

"...!!!"

Yayul Geuk shut his mouth tightly and trembled as he glared at me.

"The Flowing Cloud Divine Art of the Flowing Cloud Sect can counter any martial art! You won't be an exception!"

Only then did I understand a little.

Why he had never sought anyone's help.

Why he had kept charging at Ak Jupyeong despite being beaten every day.

Why he had raised such sharp, thorny defenses.

'This bastard...'

He was trying to protect a noble pride.

His refusal to accept others' help came from the pride that he needed no one but his brothers.

Knowing he would be beaten senseless yet continuing to charge in must have been his final struggle to avoid dishonoring the brothers who had sacrificed themselves for him.

He had struggled and struggled again, right up to the brink of death, to protect those things.

A hollow laugh escaped me at the strength of his will.

'...He's even crazier than I thought.'

Yayul Geuk kept glaring at me as he rapidly cleared away the food.

Without taking his eyes off me, he moved his utensils quickly, trying to eat faster than I could.

Tap.

"T-thank you for the meal."

He gave the attendants an awkward bow, then looked at me again.

"How long are you going to keep eating?"

This bastard...

Why was he still giving me that disrespectful look?

I was the one treating him to food.

He clearly needed education in many areas.

"You're dead."

Training was all well and good, but correcting his character came first.

After all, Yayul Jae had become more agreeable after getting beaten repeatedly.

It was a proven method.

#

After feeding Yayul Geuk all three meals and making him throw each one back up immediately afterward, I finished the day and changed clothes for an evening appointment.

I needed to prepare a representative corps before the Academy's schedule began again.

'First, Jang Woojae.'

One of the four vacant positions had been filled, leaving three.

Then one of those three was unexpectedly filled as well.

'Nam Hwaseong...'

Someone I had never expected had appeared.

If Cheol Sunjik wanted to know about internal matters, I had thought he would come himself.

'It is not like that man to trust anyone enough to entrust them with work.'

For some reason, Nam Hwaseong had applied to join the representative corps.

I asked a few questions to learn why he had applied, but he only brushed them off with answers like, "I just wanted to. Is there a problem?" and, "Why do you think I can't be an officer of the representative corps? I'm not that stupid."

"It is suspicious, but it is not something I failed to anticipate when I assembled the representative corps."

As long as he cooperated at the bare minimum, even while I kept an eye on him, I had little to lose.

"Once I fill the remaining two positions, the representative corps can officially launch."

Thinking that, I headed to the meeting place.

Wuhan's entertainment district had more martial artists carrying weapons than the entertainment districts of other regions, which also meant more chances for disputes to break out.

I used the subtleties of the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to weave through the crowd.

'Huh?'

Then I had no choice but to stop in front of a man.

I had clearly scattered afterimages and slipped into an opening, yet the man had somehow blocked my path again.

It was an unmistakably deliberate act.

I looked up to see a huge man staring down at me with fierce eyes.

"Are you Jin Sowoon?"

'Just as I thought...'

Without even waiting for my reply, the man continued.

"I am from the Inspectorate. Come with me."

The man roughly gripped my shoulder.

Footnotes:

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