WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 216: An Unwanted Invitation (5)
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Moyong Gang.
During the golden age of the martial world, when masters were as numerous as grains of sand on a beach, he had proudly earned a place among the Ten Venerables, chosen without regard to either the Black Path or the White Path. An absolute master.
During the chaotic Orthodox-Demonic War, he rallied martial artists to defend the region north of the Yangtze River in place of the Martial Alliance, which was tearing itself apart from within. He had even revealed his clan's martial arts and urged others to resist the demonic path.
Though the name Moyong Clan vanished after the Orthodox-Demonic War, he remained forever in people's memories as someone worthy of respect.
‘He was definitely the kind of person whose merits outweighed his faults.’
His thoughts were unpredictable.
His emotions were a storm he never even tried to control.
He was an all-powerful thug, backed by the enormous name of the Moyong Clan and strong enough to vent every bout of irritation directly on others.
If people had known this was his true nature, they wouldn't have respected him nearly as much.
And because of this old man's absurd words...
“Why aren't you answering? Is the name Moyong Clan not satisfying enough for you?”
I stopped thinking and let out a sigh.
“Ha... Of course it is.”
Honestly, a Taeul Sect disciple like me becoming the Moyong Clan's resident son-in-law?
Even if someone wrote it in a novel, people would curse it for being too far-fetched.
It was such an unbelievable opportunity that I couldn't possibly be dissatisfied.
Still, just as the Namgung Clan had asked before, I couldn't choose to marry a woman from a collateral line and become bound to her family.
I had too many people to protect, including the Taeul Sect and the Sojeong Unit.
‘Besides, Miss Seol is part of the Moyong Clan...’
Moyong Seol had also been a woman of great significance to me in my previous life.
Keeping her close while marrying someone else wouldn't be right, either for me or for the person I married.
Then Moyong Gang's voice pierced my ears.
“Or do you think Seol is unattractive?”
“What?”
What the...
Dear heavens, he was talking about Moyong Seol?
“Her gate has been reinforced with iron because matchmakers never stop coming, and she uses the marriage proposals that arrive every day as kindling.”
Moyong Gang narrowed his eyes and jerked his chin toward me.
“If you're a man, you've heard of our Seol, haven't you?”
Moyong Seol... Moyong Seol... He meant Moyong Seol...
So...
She would be my wife?
And I would be her husband?
Good heavens...
Then my wife would be the Sword Empress?
In my mind, I imagined marrying Moyong Seol, having children, seeing my child's grandsons and granddaughters, and finally holding her hand as I drew my last breath...
Then I remembered her voice.
[Because that's how you want to live. So survive that way...]
She had said that after becoming disappointed in me for running away from the Sojeong Unit and fleeing into the mountains.
I vividly remembered her cold expression, her eyes, and the way she turned away without warmth.
Then came the image of her approaching me after battle, exhausted as she spoke about her father...
And the image of her longing for her younger brother, who had died as the Shattering Bow after losing their clan...
One after another, they surfaced clearly in my mind.
‘Heh.’
A bitter laugh slipped out before I could stop it.
What kind of fantasy was I entertaining?
Hadn't I desperately wished for the past not to repeat itself?
If she didn't lose everything and join the Sojeong Unit, she would likely earn the title Sword Empress much later.
If she didn't lose her clan, she would never enter the Sojeong Unit in the first place.
And above all...
I didn't want to violate her free will.
I only wanted her to meet someone she truly loved in a peaceful world.
Yes. That was what I wanted.
After sorting through my thoughts, I tilted my head skeptically.
“What on earth are you talking about?”
“...?”
“An arranged marriage in this day and age? Aren't you sorry for your granddaughter?”
“What? How dare you!”
I hastily cut him off.
“That's not what I meant.”
“Something else?”
Moyong Gang was clearly someone who couldn't be reasoned with.
If logic and reason didn't work on someone...
All I had to do was stir their emotions.
“Is the Moyong Clan even a sword clan?”
“Are you insulting my clan right now?”
Ignoring him, I looked him over.
“Then where is your sword, sir?”
Moyong Gang was mad about martial arts.
His experimental spirit toward martial arts was as remarkable as his bizarre temperament.
Hadn't I just witnessed that strange martial art capable of distorting space?
When it came to martial arts, his mind wasn't sealed behind an iron wall.
Moyong Gang snorted.
“A pathetic brat like you wouldn't understand. At my level, everything I hold, everything I do...”
“If every sword art of the Moyong Clan vanished, would it no longer be the Moyong Clan?”
“...?”
He had probably never considered it.
Before the Orthodox-Demonic War, no sect or clan in the Martial Alliance had ever imagined its own destruction.
Especially not the great Moyong Clan...
I stepped closer and asked again.
“If the Moyong Clan could no longer wield a sword, would it no longer be the Moyong Clan?”
Ironically, the person who made the Moyong Clan most famous in my previous life was the Shattering Bow.
People praised the already destroyed Moyong Clan to the skies, saying the grandson took after his grandfather.
“What are you talking about?”
Moyong Gang's eyes turned cold.
There was no trace left of the thug-like manner he had shown until now.
I had seriously struck a nerve.
Exactly as I wanted.
If I pushed him one more time...
“What is the Moyong Clan's core ideal? Is it the Wind-Splitting Sword?”
“...!”
Wind-Splitting Sword was the epithet bestowed upon every Moyong Clan Head throughout history.
The Moyong Clan took immense pride in preserving that name. That pride would make it impossible for him to endure my mocking provocation.
As expected.
Moyong Gang trembled.
He lowered his head, then glared at me with reddened eyes.
“I misjudged you. To hide such a small flaw, you've committed a grave wrong.”
It was the same distortion of space I had seen when escaping before.
Unlike when it had swept past me in an instant, immense pressure now began to crush my entire body.
“I tried to look kindly upon you, yet there is no end to your insolence. I've already shown the Taeul Sect enough favor, so I have the right to punish you.”
Creak. Creak. Crrreak.
My skin began to swell as though the blood in my body had stopped circulating.
It felt as though blood would burst from my seven orifices, and my eyes seemed on the verge of exploding.
Even so, I remained calm. Again and again, I forced myself to stay calm.
“Is the Moyong Clan's core ideal... truly the Wind-Splitting Sword?”
“Hah? Are you still going to wag that treacherous tongue? Yes, it is. The Wind-Splitting Sword. It is what our Moyong Clan has protected through long, arduous years.”
Though I could barely breathe, I spoke each word clearly.
“...I-I don't think so.”
“What?”
The image of the Shattering Bow ranging across the battlefield like an Iron Eagle in my previous life came back as vividly as if I had seen it yesterday.
As I watched the Shattering Bow's divine might hold back the Demonic Cult, I had thought this.
As though he could shatter even the heavens...!
Forcing myself to lift my head and meet his gaze, I said, “The Moyong Clan's true core ideal... Cough, is Heaven-Breaking, isn't it...!”
“...!”
In an instant, the pressure tightening around me stopped.
It still hurt, but I no longer felt as though I were about to die.
I barely managed to exhale a hot breath.
“Do you think the Taeul Sect's core ideal is Ten Thousand Swords?”
“...”
“The Taeul Sect failed to inherit Ten Thousand Swords for five hundred years. Yet the Taeul Sect continued to endure.”
After catching my breath, I looked at Moyong Gang with an unwavering gaze.
“I have never forgotten the Taeul Sect's core ideal that I learned when I first picked up a sword as a child.”
[The Taeul Sect's core ideal is change.]
Though he had remained second-rate because of his lack of talent, Hong Mungi had never lost sight of the sect's roots.
Nor had he forgotten to pass that teaching on to his disciples.
That was why the Taeul Sect had preserved its name for the past five hundred years.
“...”
Silence hung between us for a while before Moyong Gang nodded with a strange look on his face.
“Heaven-Breaking... Heaven-Breaking... Heaven-Breaking...”
As though the word had been branded into his mind, he repeated it again and again.
It couldn't be helped.
There was a world that couldn't be seen through the Wind-Splitting Sword alone.
A world visible only to Heaven-Breaking.
“When you are shattering the heavens, does it matter whether you use a sword or a fist? Even if it is a bow, what does that change?”
The hostility gradually disappeared from Moyong Gang's eyes.
Only a mysterious gaze remained as he stared at me.
“Jaehwa made the Blood Cult tremble with a single bow. His fellow martial artists even gave him the epithet One Arrow Against a Thousand.”
That was right. The divine might he had shown with his bow in Sichuan had been astonishing.
“If Jaehwa uses the Moyong Clan's martial arts to one day shatter the heavens, what does it matter if he uses a bow instead of a sword?”
“Hah! You're certain of it?”
I could be certain.
The Shattering Bow had already been born even under the harsh conditions of my previous life.
In this life, as Jaehwa had said, he could make Heaven-Breaking Divine Bow a reality.
I nodded firmly.
“I'm certain that Jaehwa will surpass the title Wind-Splitting Sword and gain the title Heaven-Breaking.”
“...Heaven-Breaking.”
“Then you can't say the Moyong Clan's line has been cut off, can you?”
I looked at Moyong Gang and grinned.
“...A new martial art has been born.”
Moyong Gang watched me with a complicated expression.
“You truly...”
I couldn't tell whether he was sad or happy.
Still, one thing was certain. His anger had subsided.
There was no way his heart hadn't raced after hearing the words Heaven-Breaking.
“Will you release this now? I think I'll die if this goes on much longer.”
“...Ah, I'm sorry.”
What? Sorry?
The word I never thought I would hear from him came out at the same time as the pressure crushing my body vanished.
As my halted blood circulation resumed, my whole body tingled as if electricity were running through it.
“Ugh... My body...”
“A-are you all right?”
Moyong Gang's attitude became oddly cautious after he regained his senses.
As expected, after hearing Heaven-Breaking, he must have realized just how great a mistake he had made.
I deliberately patted my throbbing shoulders.
“What was that? I made my choices for the Moyong Clan's sake, yet you wouldn't even listen to me.”
“Ahem. You should have told me sooner, shouldn't you?”
“Did you give me a chance to explain? No, what was that energy you used to squeeze me like you were going to kill me while I was talking?”
Moyong Gang subtly avoided my eyes.
“Ahem... I wished to show you my life's martial art...”
“Stop talking nonsense. I nearly died!”
Moyong Gang's face stiffened.
“So what do you expect me to do about it?”
This old man was showing his thug side again.
His expression became even more shameless.
“Are you saying you want to hit me back for it?”
Other people might have been frightened and backed away at that sight, but I wasn't about to do that.
“Hah, forget it. My fists wouldn't hurt you much anyway. Just compensate me for my injuries.”
“What?”
“Why? If you hit someone, isn't it only natural to compensate them?”
Moyong Gang's mouth fell open as he stared at me in disbelief.
What was he going to do, glare at me like that?
Besides, I had taken the beating in Moyong Jaehwa's place, so it was only natural to charge double compensation. Of course it was.
#
The rumor that Moyong Gang would appear at the Martial Arts Academy's Invitation of Distinguished Figures excited the academy students.
“Good heavens! The Wind-Splitting Sword himself?”
“I never thought I would live to see him in person!”
“T-then will Miss Moyong Seol come with him too?”
“Hey! Didn't I tell you not to hang around with that guy? Why can't you read the room?”
“What are you talking about? You belong to the Orthodox Society, so you didn't like Jin Sowoon in the first place.”
“...What nonsense! After seeing him save the White Path Society members, I decided to recognize him as a true chivalrous hero.”
For the first time, academy students submitted participation applications for one purpose alone, regardless of their affiliations or sects. They wanted to attend the event.
Except for some who couldn't participate because of private lessons, nearly every student joined the event.
The news also reached the nearby Martial Alliance.
As the fighting in Sichuan dragged on, the tension filling the Alliance eased somewhat. Some Alliance members wanted to attend the academy's event, but the academy didn't permit it.
This led to disgruntled talk within the Alliance that such a great figure(?) had been invited out of favoritism toward the Academy.
“Tsk, tsk. Just like someone who has lived however he pleased all his life, he's causing a great deal of trouble again.”
At Jegal Somyeong's words, Moyong Gang deeply furrowed his brow.
“What are you talking about, you petty brat? What trouble have I caused?”
When their voices rose, Hyeok Mugang stepped in to mediate.
“Hoho. Stop it, both of you. The children outside will hear.”
“Hmph! It is unbelievably awkward seeing you sit in the Alliance Leader's seat and act so refined when it doesn't suit you.”
When Moyong Gang turned his attack on Hyeok Mugang, the corners of Hyeok Mugang's eyes twitched.
Hyeok Mugang rarely showed emotion, so it was clear that the bond they had built in their youth had not faded easily.
“What change of heart made you suddenly decide to attend the event? And you said it was Jin Sowoon's request?”
At Jegal Somyeong's question, Moyong Gang looked guilty and quickly raised his teacup to his lips.
“Ahem. Considering the relationship between that brat and me, I can readily grant a request like this.”
“...”
The suspicion in Jegal Somyeong's eyes did not fade.
“You didn't even attend my grandson's entrance ceremony, yet you came all the way here to fulfill the request of a disciple from another sect?”
“Ahem! Cough, cough!”
“Besides, why are your hands so swollen?”
It was not only his hands.
There were small scratches on his neck and face, and bruises could be seen here and there along both arms.
Jegal Somyeong shook their head and clicked their tongue.
“Tsk. At your age, are you still going around picking fights?”
“Who said I fought? Th-this is... Yes. It happened while I was giving someone instruction.”
“Instruction? To Jaehwa?”
Moyong Gang furrowed his brow.
“That damned grandson... No, not that bastard. Another damned bastard.”
“Jin Sowoon?”
“Yes.”
At Moyong Gang's words, Jegal Somyeong and Hyeok Mugang exchanged strange looks.
What relationship did the Wind-Splitting Sword and Jin Sowoon have that they gave each other instruction and granted each other's requests?
As though answering their question, Moyong Gang added, “He's the man I'll bring into the family as my son-in-law.”
“Son-in-law?”
“...!”
Moyong Gang proudly lifted his chin.
“He'll raise the Moyong Clan to great heights one day. Hahaha!”
Hyeok Mugang and Jegal Somyeong barely held back the tea they had almost spat out.
It was the first time they had seen the impossibly arrogant Moyong Gang acknowledge someone so highly.
“No, listen. That brat easily dodged my Void-Destroying Fist! And he's only just over twenty! He even thought about our clan's future in ways I had never considered. Where else could you find someone like that? Hahahaha!”
Watching Moyong Gang smile as though the thought alone pleased him, Jegal Somyeong tilted their head.
“You say he will be your son-in-law, but he will raise your clan... Are you speaking of a resident son-in-law?”
“Yes.”
“Pfft...!”
In the end, Jegal Somyeong and Hyeok Mugang spat out their tea.
They knew not only how much Moyong Gang cherished Moyong Seol, but also that he wasn't someone who would easily decide to bring an outsider into his clan.
Then Jegal Somyeong noticed something strange in Moyong Gang's words.
“...Do you know that he is the Taeul Sect's Head Disciple?”
Moyong Gang nodded confidently.
“That is what I heard.”
“The Taeul Sect's Head Disciple usually inherits the sect's traditions.”
“...Eh?”
Jegal Somyeong sighed as though they had known it would come to this.
“...You didn't consider Jin Sowoon's wishes or circumstances at all, did you?”
“Ahem... Well, he can hold both positions. It is the position of the Moyong Clan's son-in-law, after all!”
“Hmph!”
Jegal Somyeong sneered at him.
“As expected, you haven't changed one bit since the old days.”
“W-what are you talking about? The brat clearly liked it when I brought it up!”
“Liked it? You probably threatened him again by beating him with your fists!”
Moyong Gang couldn't contain his anger and sprang to his feet.
“You bastard! Would you like to be persuaded by my fists too?”
“Oh? Perhaps you need to be trapped in the Eight-Lock Formation and starved for fifteen days before you come to your senses!”
Hyeok Mugang finally stepped in.
“Stop it. Everyone outside can hear...”
“Stay quiet!”
“Alliance Leader, please remain silent!”
Hyeok Mugang's intervention had no effect.
The elders of the martial world, now revered masters, bared their teeth and growled at each other as though they had returned to the past.
After another round of bickering...
“By the way, I heard on the way here that things are quite noisy in Sichuan.”
At Moyong Gang's words, Jegal Somyeong let out a long sigh.
“It is because peace has lasted too long.”
“Shouldn't you send more martial artists?”
Jegal Somyeong lightly shook their head.
“The momentum has shifted to our side. The war will be won in the end. It will simply take time.”
“I heard those Black Path bastards are making noise about forming an alliance. Should I go over and stir things up?”
Jegal Somyeong glared fiercely at Moyong Gang as he shrugged.
The second battle was about to begin.
“Just try it! I will immediately lead martial artists to your clan and pull out every blade of grass, roots and all!”
“You curse me even when I offer to help!”
Jegal Somyeong tapped their head with a finger and mocked him.
“Don't you understand how dangerous it is to split the front in two? Is there anything inside that thing attached above your neck?”
“Hmph! Your nerve has shrunk to the size of a pea as you have gotten older. So you plan to just let them form an alliance?”
“You know about the demonic beings, don't you?”
Jegal Somyeong brought up the attack on Moyong Sangwon.
Only then did Moyong Gang's voice settle.
“Are you taking this seriously?”
“Nothing that happened during the regular examination or in Sichuan has been ordinary. A darkness worse than the Black Path is likely approaching.”
“Are you thinking of pitting one barbarian against another?”
“That is not it.”
“Hm?”
Moyong Gang turned his head.
The answer came from Hyeok Mugang.
“When that darkness covers the world, we and the Black Path may have to fight together.”
Moyong Gang's expression hardened briefly before he let out a faint laugh.
“Will that be possible?”
“We must do our best. If it cannot be done, much more blood will be spilled.”
Since the martial world began, had there ever truly been a time when black and white did not fight?
Moyong Gang felt a strange anticipation at the thought that he might see many things he had never witnessed in his life.
“Things are about to get interesting in the martial world.”
With a strange smile, Moyong Gang said, “If you are considering an alliance, you must send a delegation.”
He turned his gaze back to Jegal Somyeong.
“Whom will you send? Isn't this an opportunity for you to deal with your political enemies? Will you send those disobedient Wudang Sect bastards?”
“...”
“...”
The strange silence irritated Moyong Gang.
“...Don't tell me you are thinking of sending the Dragon-Phoenix Association?”
It was customary for the most symbolic figures to attend such occasions.
The problem was that Moyong Seol was among the Dragon-Phoenix Association.
And the place they would attend was amid a group of Black Path martial artists.
Jegal Somyeong cleared their throat and answered.
“No...”
“Then?”
“Jin Sowoon, among others...”
“Eh? You're sending our Sowoon?!”
At Moyong Gang's words, Jegal Somyeong furrowed their brow.
Who did he think he was, calling him our Sowoon?
Had this man really gone senile?
Footnotes:
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