WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 229: Tomorrow's Fortune (4)
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I had planned to attend the banquet with only Dang Seohui, my food taster, but Ilmyeong came with us.
“Since all the Black Path divine prodigies are gathered there, it could be dangerous for Benefactor Jin to go alone.”
Gun Yuhyeon agreed that it would be better that way, and we followed his lead to a pavilion on the outskirts of the Black Alliance.
Unlike the other pavilions, the one north of the main hall had been finished with obvious care and luxury. It was clearly a space meant for honored guests.
Once inside, attendants with disciplined manners showed us to our seats. We were led to a great hall at the very back of the pavilion.
A long table stood in the center, laden with every kind of delicacy from land and sea.
It was the only thing in the vast hall, so the guests’ boisterous chatter echoed throughout it.
The moment we entered and approached the table, the marketplace-like clamor abruptly stopped.
Their hostile gazes plainly asked why the hell we were here.
“...Perhaps inviting you was a mistake.”
A shadow passed over Gun Yuhyeon’s face.
Thinking that standing around would get us nowhere, I stepped forward and cupped my fists.
“I heard there was a gathering to forge good ties, so I came. May we join you? If our presence offends you, we’ll leave.”
I spoke politely but confidently. The others exchanged glances, unsure how to respond.
Then everyone’s eyes turned in one direction.
A sharp-eyed man seated at the center of the table held a cup of wine.
Tap.
Dam Ak set down his cup.
“First, I apologize for not inviting you. Had I known you were so open-minded... I would have invited you much sooner.”
It was obvious he didn’t mean a word of it.
I smiled.
“Isn’t this how we close the distance between us?”
Dam Ak smiled in return at my calm response.
“If you don’t mind, would you join us and grace the occasion?”
He pointed to the seats beside him.
Those seated near Dam Ak rose and cleared the spaces for us.
“This is going to ruin the taste of the wine.”
“Hehe.”
“Hmph.”
Someone muttered under their breath.
There was no way martial artists like us would fail to hear it.
Still, Ilmyeong, who possessed an unmoving mind, would not rise to such provocation.
Neither would I.
As for Dang Seohui...
I wasn’t sure. She had her eyes fixed on the food and didn’t look anywhere else.
Even after we sat down, the mood did not return to normal.
Some felt awkward. Others were openly hostile.
Then the man seated across from us spoke with a knowing smile.
“Come to think of it, we were in the wrong. Isn’t the Black Flame Dragon a renowned divine prodigy of the Black Path martial world?”
“Ha ha ha ha!”
“Hehehe.”
A group of people burst into laughter at his words.
The noise returned, but it still felt as though everyone’s attention was fixed on us.
“But I heard something strange. They say the Black Flame Dragon is arranging an alliance between the Black Alliance and the Martial Alliance.”
The man looked around, seeking agreement.
“Do you think that makes any sense?”
He licked his lips and stared at me, as though waiting to see what I would do.
As I considered who he might be, Gun Yuhyeon’s sound transmission reached me.
-The fourth disciple of the Yellow Sand Sect Leader, Gal Jeongi. Like his master, he is a hard-line member of the war faction.
Evil Bear Gal Jeongi had originally come from the Yellow Sand Sect?
Those Black Path bastards changed affiliations as often as they changed clothes, so it was impossible to tell where any of them had truly begun.
Either way, Gun Yuhyeon’s explanation made the man’s intentions clear.
I looked Gal Jeongi directly in the eye.
“Why shouldn’t it?”
“Hm?”
“The Black Alliance wasn’t formed solely to fight the Martial Alliance, was it?”
He leaned back and laughed.
“Ha ha! That’s true.”
Then his eyes gleamed.
“To be precise, it was formed to resist the Martial Alliance’s oppression.”
Hah. He had no idea of war’s horrors, yet he strutted around with his meager skills and reckless bravado.
Men like him were why calls for war always gained momentum.
When an actual fight broke out, they would be the first rotten bastards to hide in the rear.
Trying to persuade someone like this would only exhaust me. It was not fear that kept me from him. I simply found him repulsive.
I had come here to persuade Dam Ak in the first place.
“You seem to enjoy fighting.”
“I do not avoid a fight brought to me.”
“Do you know what the crime of provoking an assault is?”
“What?”
Look at that vicious glare.
“Even if you didn’t start the fight, if you did something that got you beaten, then you deserved it.”
“...Ha. What the hell are you talking about?”
I looked around the room, provoking him further.
“Is there anyone here who can defeat Senior Ilmyeong?”
“...”
“Even if a hundred warriors from the Yellow Sand Sect attacked at once, they would not be able to defeat Senior Ilmyeong.”
“You bastard!”
Bang!
Gal Jeongi rose so violently that the table shook. Food spilled, and wine cups toppled over.
“Do you think the Yellow Sand Sect is a joke?”
“You seem desperate to go to war with the Martial Alliance. I’m asking whether you have the confidence to fight Senior Ilmyeong in a life-and-death duel.”
“...”
“Why aren’t you saying anything? Even if you start a war, do you intend to avoid experts like Senior Ilmyeong?”
I studied the people who had laughed along with Gal Jeongi.
Each had built a notorious reputation through talent far beyond others their age.
That was only possible in times of peace.
Once war broke out, everyone, regardless of age or gender, would be judged by the absolute measure of strength and weakness.
“War is not a martial arts match. Your opponent will not come out at a level suited to you. If war breaks out between the Black Alliance and the Martial Alliance now, won’t everyone here be driven to the very front of the battlefield?”
On that merciless battlefield, there was no compassion in an opponent’s blade.
In a place where people no longer saw others as human, the heartless sword that once cut trees and straw would cut people instead.
“Do you know how many people die on the first day of a war?”
Once both sides had fully prepared and battle began, countless casualties would arise in an instant.
Some wars moved with such momentum that they ended before even a week had passed.
If ordinary wars were like that, would wars between martial artists be any different?
“War is not a fight that ends with injuries. At the very least, you must be prepared to lose your limbs. More often, you must be prepared to lose your life.”
The atmosphere sank even further at my words.
Gal Jeongi bared his teeth.
“...Do you think our Black Path would start a war without that much resolve?”
“I am not asking about the Black Alliance’s resolve.”
“What?”
“I am asking whether you possess that resolve.”
I met his eyes.
“The resolve to face Senior Ilmyeong in a life-and-death duel on the first day.”
“...”
Gal Jeongi glanced at Ilmyeong before turning back to me, his eyes sharpening again.
Then Dam Ak, seated in the middle, spoke.
“If that is so... should we wait for death while watching the Martial Alliance’s moves?”
What was this all of a sudden?
Dam Ak drank his wine and continued calmly.
“For now, the Martial Alliance’s attention is elsewhere because of the Blood Cult’s rise in Sichuan. But once the battle against the Blood Cult ends, where will that arrow point?”
Every organization needed goals and a cause of its own.
An organization that pursued only power and influence was no different from a carriage without a horse.
Organizations always pursued goals and causes.
That was why Dam Ak was asking about the Martial Alliance’s cause and objective.
“I believe letting this moment pass, while the Martial Alliance is weak, would be no different from throwing away an opportunity granted by heaven. What do you think, Lord Black Flame Dragon?”
Of course Dam Ak was right.
This was the best possible time for the Black Alliance.
Provided they could defeat the Martial Alliance.
But...
“That will likely be impossible.”
“Do you believe the Black Alliance lacks the strength?”
I shook my head.
The Martial Alliance’s strength did not come from its size alone.
“The roots are different. If the Black Alliance attacks the Martial Alliance, do you have the confidence to face the Nine Sects One Gang, the Five Great Clans, the One Hundred Eight Peaks, and countless other sects that support the Martial Alliance as well?”
The Martial Alliance’s true strength lay in the sects that had grown alongside it.
No matter how many people the Black Alliance gathered, sects founded less than a century ago would have limits to the strength they could provide.
“If you attack the Martial Alliance, it will clearly be seen as an attack on every White Path sect. Is the Black Alliance prepared for that?”
For an instant, Dam Ak’s gaze wavered.
He looked at me for a moment before speaking slowly.
“The Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance are like water and oil. The Martial Alliance will never wait until the Black Alliance has established its foundation.”
Dam Ak’s eyes were full of hostility as he looked at us one by one.
How could someone who had served as the Martial Alliance’s Grand Strategist in my previous life hold such hostility toward it in this life?
Tapping a finger against the table, Dam Ak asked, “They say Lord Black Flame Dragon is exceptionally clever, so let me ask you something.”
His sharp gaze settled on me.
“Should the Black Alliance wait for death until the Martial Alliance comes to destroy it?”
The Dam Ak I knew in my previous life had not been so obsessed with bloodshed.
He might seek someone’s opinion, but he had always made the final decision himself.
He was not asking because he truly didn’t know. He was testing what intentions we held.
I didn’t avoid his gaze.
“Even after the war against the Blood Cult ends, the Martial Alliance will not attack the Black Alliance.”
“How can you be so certain? Lord Black Flame Dragon is only an Academy Representative.”
That was true.
As merely an Academy Representative, I could not predict the Martial Alliance’s actions.
But I had already lived through a future none of them knew.
“The Blood Cult is not the only group that uses bizarre dark arts. There are more frightening beings.”
“...”
“And those beings are now aiming for the world. Monsters that do not care in the least about human lives.”
Dam Ak touched his chin and leaned back.
He looked as though he thought my claim was baseless nonsense.
“Are you speaking of a conspiracy theory?”
A conspiracy theory...
I asked Dam Ak directly.
“Have you heard that Iron Zombies appeared in Sichuan?”
“...Those who use dark arts naturally employ such things.”
I shook my head.
“During the regular examination, I saw beings far stranger than them.”
“How strange?”
I recalled that day.
Beings that could not be seen at all, that had no form to grasp, that hid in darkness and stole people’s lives.
“Their skin is as hard as steel. They sharpen their bones and use them as swords, then melt into the darkness and devour everything.”
“...”
His eyes showed that he could not believe such things truly existed.
“If we fight each other, it will be no different from signaling that we are handing the world over to them.”
“Do you have proof?”
“...No.”
Dam Ak immediately shifted his gaze to those beside me.
“Did the rest of you see the same thing?”
Ilmyeong and Dang Seohui shook their heads under Dam Ak’s gaze.
The people who had listened to our conversation with some tension let out breaths, then began to snicker.
I probably wouldn’t have believed it easily if I had only heard it as a story.
Just as the subdued mood was about to turn noisy again...
“...They also give off something like poisonous qi.”
A man’s voice cut through the hall, cold and clear.
“...?”
“Hm?”
Everyone turned toward the speaker.
The man standing beneath all those gazes was Gun Yuhyeon.
His body trembled as though he were afraid.
“They were definitely human, yet not human.”
I barely swallowed back a groan.
“...You saw them?”
“From a distance, but I saw them clearly.”
As the two of us exchanged looks, Dam Ak watched Gun Yuhyeon for a moment before shaking his head.
“Even so, we cannot place our hopes on something we have not seen ourselves.”
Dam Ak shook his head as though making a final judgment.
“We cannot trust the Martial Alliance.”
His resolute words echoed through the great hall.
#
My impression of Dam Ak from my previous life had been that he was quite capable.
Perhaps he had only seemed capable because the people who had handled strategy before him had been incompetent.
This meeting made me realize something for certain.
Dam Ak was a very difficult person to deal with as an enemy.
‘He never shows what he is thinking.’
Realistically, Dam Ak must know that it would be difficult for the Black Alliance to go to war right away.
Unless he wanted the Black Alliance to fall, he would also know that even if they targeted the Martial Alliance now, they could not bring down the entire White Path.
Then why?
Why did Dam Ak keep voicing such hostile opinions?
“This has become difficult.”
Gun Yuhyeon, who had left the hall with us, also looked troubled.
Nothing remained of the composure he had shown at the gambling table.
War carried a weight that gambling never could.
I cupped my fists toward him.
“You took such care of us, yet we could not bring you a good result.”
Gun Yuhyeon shook his head.
“No. What you said today will at least help some people understand the reality of the situation. If we gather those people and form a prevailing opinion, those above may reconsider as well.”
A smile appeared on Gun Yuhyeon’s lips as he continued.
“What do you plan to do next?”
“I think I should meet a few more people first. There should still be some time before the founding ceremony ends.”
First, I needed to speak with Cha Seokdu, the Black Alliance Lord, and those I had met at Demon Spirit Plateau.
Gun Yuhyeon nodded.
“I see. If you need any help, please let me know at any time.”
“I am grateful for the offer alone.”
As we spoke, we eventually reached the lodgings where we were staying.
Just as I was about to say goodbye and turn away, Gun Yuhyeon asked, “Would you answer one question as payment for what happened today?”
An answer? What answer?
When I tilted my head, Gun Yuhyeon spoke without hesitation.
“In the final game, when the Five Heavenly Kings appeared...”
He looked more serious than ever as he asked, “Was it real?”
He looked as though he were awaiting the answer of a lifetime.
He must have loved gambling that much.
I almost felt guilty for deceiving him.
Instead of answering, I smiled.
That alone seemed to satisfy him, and he nodded.
“I see. So that was it. Really, truly! What a relief.”
Gun Yuhyeon returned to his lodgings with steps as light as if he were flying.
Watching his departing figure, his feelings so plain to see, I found myself smiling for some reason.
When I turned my head, Dang Seohui was still watching him leave.
“What a strange person. He fell for a trick, yet he is smiling like that.”
Even Dang Seohui apparently could not easily understand the minds of gamblers.
Then again, who in the world could understand gamblers?
I stretched and looked at my companions.
“Let us go inside as well. I think we need to discuss where we are going from here.”
The moment we entered the lodging and stepped into the inner chamber, all of us stopped at once.
‘The scent of blood?’
The room was filled with the unmistakable smell of blood, mixed with a metallic tang.
Then...
“Benefactor Jin!”
Ilmyeong’s eyes widened as he pointed to one side.
Where his finger pointed...
Ak Byeongbi lay dead, covered in blood.
Footnotes:
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