WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 211: A Favor from an Enemy (4)
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Martial Arts Academy.
Four-person dormitory.
Ak Jupyeong grimaced as he flexed the foot that had received his clan's secret treatment.
“What was that?”
“Jin Sowoon is gathering people to break the Jegal Clan's arcane formation.”
“What?”
It made no sense, even after hearing it again.
Break the formation?
The Seven Stars Seven Locks Formation had been revealed to the world over fifteen years ago, yet no method of breaking it had been found.
And Jin Sowoon was going to break the Dualities Eight Trigrams Myriad Manifestations Formation, the Jegal Clan's crowning arcane formation?
“The White Path Society Leader, the Dualities Eight Trigrams Formation... and the people inside...”
He heard more, but none of it registered with Ak Jupyeong.
Only the words “Jin Sowoon,” “formation breaking,” and “people” kept circling in his mind.
Then his whole body trembled as if lightning had struck his head.
‘This is an opportunity! An opportunity!’
If Jin Sowoon failed, he could hold him responsible, have him expelled from the Academy, frame him for a crime, and even ruin his sect.
On the other hand...
What if Jin Sowoon succeeded?
That would mean he knew the weakness of an arcane formation that had only just been developed. He could never escape suspicion of being a Martial Alliance spy!
It was checkmate either way!
Ak Jupyeong sprang to his feet.
“Huh? Why are you getting up all of a sudden?”
“You said the White Path Society's event was being held at the Great Training Ground, right?”
“That’s right.”
Limp. Limp.
“Hey, where are you going, Jupyeong?”
Ak Jupyeong ignored the calls behind him and hurried off on his limping foot.
The physician his clan had sent said he would be left with a disability.
Even if it healed fully, the awkwardness would never disappear when he used his movement art.
As a martial artist, his foot had been ruined. He was doomed to chase after others while always several steps behind.
‘Jin Sowoon! Did you think you could do something like this and still live well?’
He had been caught off guard and crippled, yet Jin Sowoon was still strutting around as the Academy Representative.
Ak Jupyeong could never accept that.
He had been planning to use his sect's influence to pressure the Taeul Sect.
And he would have to take revenge on Jin Sowoon personally.
Ak Byeongbi had scolded him over this matter, but he did not seem to like Jin Sowoon much either.
If he used the Inspectorate's power again, he could finally make Jin Sowoon...
Then...
“Ak Jupyeong.”
A small figure with long, tangled hair like a beggar stepped out of an alley.
“...Yayul Geuk?”
“You finally came out.”
The moment he saw Yayul Geuk, who was practically the cause of this entire mess, irritation surged through Ak Jupyeong.
“Get out of my way. I don't have time to deal with you right now.”
Yayul Geuk stepped closer, one step at a time.
He no longer carried the presence of the weak boy Ak Jupyeong used to beat.
“Really? I have business with you.”
“You bastard... I was going to cut off your limbs someday anyway, so take good care of them until then.”
“Why? Are you afraid of me now?”
With his injured foot, Ak Jupyeong could not move from where he stood and could only shout.
“You little shit...!”
Had word spread that he would be crippled?
Now even worthless trash like this saw him as easy prey and came at him.
“You still don't know why you got beaten so badly.”
Click. Click.
Ak Jupyeong assembled the collapsible spear he had drawn from his waist.
Yayul Geuk raised both hands and assumed a starting stance.
Ak Jupyeong drew up the Dark Heaven Hidden Thunder Divine Art and prepared the Ak Clan Spear Art.
“Fine. There’s no need to put off judging you any longer.”
Ak Jupyeong's spear tore through the air with a chilling sound.
He had relied most heavily on the Ink-Cloud Flash Spear, but his impaired foot prevented him from charging effectively.
Even so, the Ak Clan Spear Art that had built the Ak Clan into what it was today could not be considered inferior.
It should have been more than enough to cut off the arms and legs of a pup that did not know to fear a tiger...
Swoosh, crack!
The path of Ak Jupyeong's spear, aimed at Yayul Geuk's heart and dantian, twisted strangely.
“Ugh?”
Though he poured enough power into it, the spear's path warped and stabbed at empty air. Yayul Geuk slipped inside his guard and slammed both fists into Ak Jupyeong's abdomen.
Ak Jupyeong sensed something was wrong and hurriedly turned, but it was already too late.
Boom.
“Gah!”
Ak Jupyeong was driven back five steps. It felt as though his insides had twisted.
The unexpected blow made the breakfast he had eaten churn up his throat.
He had no idea what had happened, but Yayul Geuk's skill had changed completely.
Ak Jupyeong desperately denied the fact that he felt fear toward that weak, tiny bastard.
“You bastard!”
Ak Jupyeong infused his spear with the internal energy of a Seven Star and produced spear qi. Forcing his injured foot to move, he thrust dozens of times at Yayul Geuk.
Swoosh! Swoosh!
As spear shadows filled all three directions, threatening to riddle Yayul Geuk's body with holes, Yayul Geuk murmured quietly.
“As expected, you’re nothing compared to him.”
Yayul Geuk lowered his gaze coldly and fearlessly rushed into Ak Jupyeong's guard.
He recalled Jin Sowoon facing Ak Byeongbi, the Inspectorate's department master.
Jin Sowoon had charged through a far denser barrage of spear strikes than Ak Jupyeong's.
Yayul Geuk caught the spear shaft with a rigid knifehand and unleashed Lotus.
Screech!
The parts that should have bent flexibly twisted instead, then broke apart.
Crack!
The sudden rebound traveling through the spear forced Ak Jupyeong to let go.
In his panic, he unleashed the Phoenix Divine Fist at Yayul Geuk.
Yayul Geuk only looked down at Ak Jupyeong and sneered.
“Do you know how much that bastard beat me while I was training this?”
“...What?”
Yayul Geuk's eyes flashed.
“That means you're dead!”
After uttering those incomprehensible words, Yayul Geuk seized Ak Jupyeong's fist and unleashed Snow Flower.
Ak Jupyeong's body was dragged along helplessly and lifted into the air.
‘W-What is this...?’
His body floated as though resisting gravity, then was driven straight down into the ground.
Crash!
A technique he had never experienced before. Pain he had never felt before.
And fear he had thought he would never feel.
“Ghh...”
Yayul Geuk approached the groaning Ak Jupyeong and looked down at him.
“You don't think this is over, do you?”
Ak Jupyeong's mind, filled with thoughts of revenge against Jin Sowoon only moments ago, went blank.
#
Martial Arts Academy.
Academy Head's office.
“Ahem...”
I felt this every time, but the Academy Head's office seemed poorly ventilated.
The air always felt strangely stuffy.
“Ahem!”
Then again, perhaps it was because of the people gathered here.
After breaking the Jegal Clan's arcane formation, I tried my best to exaggerate my injuries and hold out.
But Sama Jeong, who had been urgently summoned from the Academy Medical Hall, looked at my hand and diagnosed me as “fine.”
What kind of physician saw a patient in such grave condition and ended things by applying golden wound medicine?
He really had no sense.
I was in this much pain.
“Ah... The energy channels inside my hand must be twisted. It keeps trembling. I should hurry back and rest...”
I showed them my violently shaking hand, but Jegal Somyeong spoke indifferently.
“Your left hand appears to be in worse condition, so why are you shaking your right hand?”
The Jegal Clan's formation masters looked at me in disbelief.
Oh. Was that so?
I must have been too distracted by the pain.
“W-Wounds that cannot be seen are more serious.”
“Sama Jeong was specially recruited for his medical skill alone. Even in the Martial Alliance Physicians Hall, few can compare to him. That is even more true considering his age.”
“...”
When I fell silent, the room grew quiet.
No, honestly, did it make any sense to drag in the person who had saved everyone and interrogate him like this?
This was why the Martial Alliance fell into the hands of the Demonic Cult...
“First, there is one matter we must ask about most seriously.”
The formation masters seated opposite me, with Jegal Somyeong at their center, narrowed their eyes.
“How did you know about the Dualities Eight Trigrams Myriad Manifestations Formation?”
At least one thing had changed.
They were no longer speaking to me in outright informal language.
Still, that was hardly comforting when I was in such a dangerous situation.
“I didn't know about it.”
“...”
If they found something to use against me here, I might really be dragged into the Inspectorate's basement.
The eyes of those around me narrowed.
“You didn't know?”
They soon let out hollow, mocking laughs.
It wasn't as if I could tell them I knew because I had experienced it in the future.
One of the formation masters asked in a voice thick with suspicion.
“The Dualities Eight Trigrams Myriad Manifestations Formation is an arcane formation that only a very small number of people within the Jegal Clan have researched. Not only outsiders, but even most members of the clan do not know about it.”
“How would I know something like that?”
“...”
The formation master who had asked the question moved their mouth like a fish, unable to respond.
Of course, I could not keep refusing to cooperate like this.
The Jegal Clan's arcane formations were secrets among secrets of the White Path Alliance, important enough for the Martial Alliance to designate and manage separately.
This was not something I could dismiss with, “I don't know!”
‘Sigh... What do I do?’
I could not explain the truth either.
Even if I said, ‘The Demon Brain will completely break your arcane formation in the future,’ they would not believe me.
And I had no idea how the Jegal Clan would react after such a blow to their pride.
Even as I agonized, the Jegal Clan formation masters continued pressing me.
“You must answer properly. Regardless of the merits and faults of this incident, it concerns the leaking of confidential information.”
Damn it... ungrateful bastards.
It was an important matter, so I could not just curse at them.
I racked my brain to come up with an excuse, but nothing came to mind.
Then...
“Cheongi must have told him.”
A voice of salvation spoke up.
“Pardon?”
“What do you mean...?”
Jegal Somyeong calmly drank the tea Buk Wonpyeong had prepared.
“Didn't that boy's sect take Cheongi away? The trouble Cheongi caused within the clan before also concerned the Living Formation.”
I see.
So Jegal Cheongi was not imprisoned in the Golden Prison simply because he researched Mechanism Formations?
That was something I had not known.
“D-Does that mean Young Master Cheongi leaked confidential information?”
“Tut.”
Jegal Somyeong's gaze sharpened at the foolish question.
“Do you think Cheongi lacks even that much sense?”
“But...”
“Cheongi must have told him about the concept of the Living Formation.”
“But, Supreme Sect Leader... no, Grand Strategist. Even if he knew the Living Formation existed, that does not mean he could break the formation.”
Jegal Somyeong turned to me and indicated me with their chin.
“It’s him.”
“Pardon?”
“He is the one who broke the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation on Demon Spirit Plateau. Did you not know that?”
“...”
Was it merely my imagination that I saw firm trust in their eyes?
“Even in that barren place, with help from the Mount Mao Sect, he entered and left the Soul-Destroying Formation as though it were his own home. The Dualities Eight Trigrams Myriad Manifestations Formation must not have seemed so difficult to him.”
A smile formed at the corner of Jegal Somyeong's mouth.
Why were they smiling when their clan had just suffered such a humiliation?
Had they gone mad?
“Even so, the Dualities Eight Trigrams Myriad Manifestations Formation...”
Bang!
Jegal Somyeong struck the table and silenced the formation master.
“Are you still trapped in your little well?! Haven't I always told you to broaden your horizons? Did you think I didn't know you hastily made and announced that half-baked formation because of the Soul-Destroying Formation?”
“...”
The formation masters all fell completely silent.
Jegal Somyeong looked at me, still visibly angry.
“You explain the rest.”
Was I supposed to explain it?
I was caught off guard at being put on the spot, but only for a moment.
I began talking to survive.
“When Cheongi told me about the concept of the Living Formation, I thought an ultimate formation unlike any seen in a thousand ages would be born. But when you think about it, just as no martial art in the world is perfect, there can be no perfect arcane formation either.”
Seeing my confidence, the formation masters raised their heads one by one to look at me.
“After spending weeks, no, months imagining a hypothetical Living Formation and testing it in my mind, I started to think I could break it.”
“Weeks?”
“Months?”
Their expressions showed they did not like the numbers I gave them.
But the Demon Brain had broken the Myriad Manifestations Formation in less than three months.
That was why I used that as my standard.
By then, something boiling in my chest seemed to rise into my head.
I-I might turn into a demonic being at this rate...
“Yes. So I tried it as I had imagined, and it worked.”
“...”
“...”
All the formation masters wore expressions as though they had bitten into shit.
Damn it. They should have treated me with respect from the start.
My answer must have struck a sore point for the Jegal Clan's formation masters, who were called prodigies.
“What nonsense! Our Jegal Clan spent years creating this. How could a mere Taeul Sect...”
Bang.
At the sound of Jegal Somyeong striking the table, the formation master flinched.
But the formation master's unspoken words completed themselves in my head.
“...What did you mean by ‘a mere Taeul Sect’?”
“...”
“I asked what you meant by ‘a mere Taeul Sect.’ Say it. No, go on, say it!”
I sprang to my feet and grabbed the formation master by the collar. The other formation masters, shocked, began trying to pull me away.
But how could they?
Could people who had spent their entire lives at desks stop a monster with four gapja[1] of internal energy?
“Say it! What about the Taeul Sect? What is the Taeul Sect, huh?!”
“Urgh, urgh!”
Buk Wonpyeong grabbed the hand I was using to shake the formation master.
“That’s enough.”
I glared at him.
“No! Senior Brother, are you telling me to forgive someone who dared insult our sect?”
“...”
Even Buk Wonpyeong looked flustered.
The formation masters' shock was understandable.
These bastards, did they know whose sect they had dared to insult?
I might be a lay disciple, but it was the sect of the Martial Arts Academy's Academy Head!
“They dared insult the Taeul Sect, your sect! Instead of stopping me, you should grab that bastard by the throat.”
“What are you talking about? Why would the Three Pure Supreme Sword be connected to the Taeul Sect...?”
“...Sigh.”
Buk Wonpyeong finally let go of my hand. I was about to lift the formation master and start shaking them in earnest.
But...
“Enough.”
Jegal Somyeong took a sip of tea and spoke that quiet word, making me flinch and stop.
Ah, I could have smoothed everything over if I had just kept at it a little longer.
When I released the formation master, whose clothes and hair had become a complete mess, the others shielded them and continued watching me warily.
“We will settle this matter here.”
“Grand Strategist!”
“Grand Strategist! We need a more thorough investigation!”
“This cannot end like this!”
As the formation masters protested, Jegal Somyeong's eyes turned fierce.
“Do you wish to bear heavy responsibility for this matter?”
“...”
“If an investigation proceeds, your mistakes will naturally come to light. Do you wish to pay the price for enticing a young master of the clan and installing an unfinished formation?”
“...”
The formation masters, usually so proud, trembled.
“We will settle this matter here. Does anyone still have something to say?”
Instead of answering, the formation masters shook their heads.
“Leave.”
At Jegal Somyeong's dismissal, the formation masters all rose. I had no reason to remain either, so I was about to leave as well.
“I did not tell Jin Sowoon to leave.”
“...I was refilling the tea because there was not enough.”
“You should leave as well, Academy Head.”
“...Yes.”
“Wait, why...?”
I sent a pleading look to my old martial brother, asking for rescue, but he only sighed, shook his head, and left.
That useless old martial brother.
Trickle.
“The tea is overflowing.”
“...”
No matter how slowly I poured, the cup had a fixed capacity.
In the end, I sat across from Jegal Somyeong.
“...”
Jegal Somyeong said nothing for a long time, even after I sat down.
What did they want to discuss with me in private? I tried to think of something, but nothing came to mind.
Were they going to tell me that nonsense about joining the Mantong Office again?
As I tried to imagine a positive future...
Jegal Somyeong asked me in a heavy voice.
“What are you?”
“Pardon? What do you mean...?”
“Even if Cheongi follows you, he would not have told you clan secrets.”
“...”
“What is your true identity?”
It felt as though my heart dropped with a thud.
Damn it, were they asking this now?
[1] Gapja: a traditional sixty-year calendrical cycle; in martial arts fiction, it measures an immense amount of accumulated cultivation.
Footnotes:
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