WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 248: The Black Flame Dragon Collects the Winnings
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“Aaaargh!”
Je Geumhak frantically pounded his chest.
The members of the Formless Shadow Demon Unit, who had been standing guard around him, also thrashed wildly as they tried to extinguish the sacred flames burning atop their heads.
Their hair and skin burned, spreading a sickly stench through the room, but it was not all that painful.
The blood pouring from my nose drowned out their smell.
Still, the internal energy consumption was absurd.
I'd only manifested it once, yet my dantian was already nearly empty.
The drain on my internal energy was incomparable to when I first used the Mad Heaven Divine Palm.
How the hell had that old man Moyong Gang ever used such an unreasonable martial art?
Either way, the robes binding my hands and feet had loosened, so I tried to move.
My body would not obey me.
Fuck, this was my chance to counterattack.
“Huff, huff, huff, huff.”
White steam poured from Je Geumhak's face and chest as he looked at me with a sickened expression.
“You...”
He chewed his blackened lips as though he were deciding what to do with me.
“I can't leave you alive, if only to prevent future trouble.”
He said that, but Je Geumhak was in no better condition than I was.
Kneeling on the floor, he screamed until his throat nearly burst.
“That bastard will become the greatest obstacle to our Heavenly Cult!”
The Formless Shadow Demon Unit members, who had been struggling to put out the sacred flames until then, began rising one by one.
Yet none of them moved.
Could what I had hoped for really be happening?
“...”
“...”
Je Geumhak forced his trembling legs upright and tried to approach me.
“Kill that bastard at once!”
But the Formless Shadow Demon Unit did not move from their spots. Instead, they supported the staggering Je Geumhak.
Something about that felt strange.
‘Does he not know?’
Je Geumhak was flustered because the Formless Shadow Demon Unit would not move.
“What are you doing?! Didn't I tell you to kill him at once?!”
After looking at me from the black shadows where their faces should have been, the Formless Shadow Demon Unit members exchanged glances and began lifting Je Geumhak to his feet.
He struggled helplessly in their grip.
“Not me! Him! I'm telling you to kill him!”
Swish.
The Formless Shadow Demon Unit simply stood Je Geumhak up and surrounded him protectively.
So this was how it ended.
Once I understood the situation, I mocked him to my heart's content.
“Are you just going to leave?”
“You stupid puppet bastards! Let go! I'll tear that bastard's throat out right now...!”
The Formless Shadow Demon Unit's top priority was the safety of the person they guarded.
When that safety was threatened, they sometimes placed it above even their charge's orders.
The Unit had probably judged that trying to kill me after recognizing the threat of the Void-Destroying Fist might get Je Geumhak killed. Protecting him took priority.
Je Geumhak must not have known that. He desperately tried to shake off the Unit's hands, but they had no intention of letting him go.
“Let go! I said let go...! That's an order!”
As Je Geumhak was dragged away, I forced up an arm.
The feeling still had not returned, so I bit the inside of my mouth and forced it to move, again and again.
“...”
“...”
“...”
When I made that suspicious movement, the Formless Shadow Demon Unit raised their swords warily.
Seeing that, I poured every last bit of strength into giving Je Geumhak the finger.
“I won, you bastard!”
As expected, his reaction was fierce.
“...Aaargh! Let go! Let go of me, you bastards!”
I fired the Flying Dragon Claw at the struggling Je Geumhak as he was dragged away.
Ping.
The Formless Shadow Demon Unit stepped into the mystic formation.
This fucking bastard.
...They dared think they could just leave after facing someone as obsessed with profit as me?
I moved my dantian again.
It felt as if claws were raking through my lower abdomen, but I clenched my teeth until they nearly broke and endured it.
“If you lose a gamble... you have to leave the stakes behind!”
Hummm...
The space around where the Formless Shadow Demon Unit and Je Geumhak were trying to escape began to distort.
The Unit hurried to throw themselves fully into the mystic formation when they saw it, but...
This time too, I was one step faster.
Whoosh.
With a faint sound, the Lesser Heaven Sword Art manifested and severed Je Geumhak's arm.
A pain-filled groan burst from his mouth.
“Urgh!”
“...!”
After confirming that his neck had not been cut off, the Formless Shadow Demon Unit immediately tried to lead the bleeding Je Geumhak into the mystic formation.
I couldn't let Je Geumhak go.
‘He learned about me.’
Yet if Je Geumhak died, the Formless Shadow Demon Unit's enraged blades would come for my neck.
This was a chance at survival I had barely managed to obtain. I had to get out alive somehow.
‘Then...’
Even if I couldn't kill him, I had to turn him into a fool.
I waited until the very last moment.
Then, the instant every member of the Formless Shadow Demon Unit stepped into the mystic formation...
I drew up my internal energy and unleashed the Void-Destroying Fist again.
Hummm.
As the space began to twist, the robed figures who had stepped into the formation startled and spread their robes.
But it was already too late to do anything.
Thud.
It was only one strike, but the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist struck Je Geumhak's baihui point precisely.
“Gah!”
Je Geumhak, who had been writhing in pain, rolled back his eyes and vomited blood. Then his head drooped, and he disappeared into the mystic formation.
“Haa, I did it. Haa, haa, bleurgh...”
My insides twisted, and I vomited the blood that had risen to my throat, but I did not feel any better afterward.
If anything, my stomach churned as though it were on fire.
I barely lifted my head and checked where they had vanished.
“Damn it... Damn it... Damn it...”
Je Geumhak's arm was still hooked to the end of the Flying Dragon Claw, but I couldn't circulate internal energy to pull it over or move my legs to retrieve it.
Thud. Thud. Thud.
I forced myself to hit my thighs, but my legs still would not move.
Instead of relying on my unresponsive dantian and legs, I used both arms to crawl toward Je Geumhak's severed arm.
With great difficulty, I removed the Devouring Gauntlet from his arm.
Click.
Then I put it on my own arm.
At least this way, I would not have to fight over who got this thing.
After completing that series of actions with a body that felt ready to die, I collapsed spread-eagled onto the floor in utter exhaustion.
“Haa, haa, haa.”
Even breathing was painfully difficult.
Still, a smile slowly formed at the corner of my lips.
“Fuck... I won...”
Je Geumhak might not, but the Formless Shadow Demon Unit would think of me every night and lose sleep.
Just as my Sojeong Unit had after facing the Demonic Cult in my previous life.
They would toss and turn every day, consumed by rage, vengeance, and the helplessness of their own weakness.
Unable to deal with those unresolved feelings, they would curse and swear.
“Heh.”
The Sojeong Unit bastards would love hearing that I could ruin their peaceful sleep.
“I... I won, you bastards!”
As I let my body relax completely against the floor, my eyes gradually began to close.
My insides felt so shaken that I thought I might die, but...
My heart was at ease.
Was it because my wrist felt so reassuring?
No, that wasn't it...
The greatest stake I had gained from this gamble was...
‘...The wish of those Sojeong Unit bastards.’
For some reason, I could almost see those creepy bastards smiling in front of me.
#
“What in the world is this...?”
Muyeong, who had secretly infiltrated the Black Alliance disguised as a horse handler delivering supplies, could not close his gaping mouth.
“An ambush! It's an ambush!”
“The murderer is still here!”
“Jin Sowoon! Get Jin Sowoon! He needs to use his mind-reading art(?)!”
“Don't move! Anyone who moves is the murderer! Check everyone for human-skin masks!”
The Black Alliance should have been bustling with its founding ceremony, but the place was filled with agitation and confusion.
Muyeong had planned to simply ignore it and pass by, but this was not happening in only one or two places.
From every pavilion came reports that people had been killed.
Those who had seen the corpses were somehow suspicious of everyone around them as well.
The identities of Muyeong's group, disguised as horse handlers, were about to be exposed.
“Muyeong, what should we do?”
Muil, who had infiltrated alongside Muyeong, asked the question. Muyeong coldly suppressed his emotions.
“End the infiltration. Securing the target is now our top priority.”
“Yes.”
The moment the order was given, they abandoned their deliberately ordinary gait and used their movement arts.
Avoiding the crowd's attention, they leaped onto the rooftops.
It was highly unusual for the Alliance Leader's Hall personal guards to leave the Martial Alliance.
When they first received Jegal Somyeong's order, Muyeong had been the first to object.
But after Alliance Leader Hyeok Mugang also voiced concern over the Black Alliance situation, they had no choice but to come here.
What was happening in the Black Alliance was connected to the situation in Sichuan.
If they could not understand the Black Alliance's situation, they had no way of knowing what might happen to the martial artists dispatched to Sichuan.
“Hmm...”
Muyeong was now deeply relieved that they had come here themselves.
...Since entering Shanxi Province, not a single thing had gone according to plan.
Even now, their attempt to infiltrate and observe the Black Alliance's movements had been exposed almost immediately.
In any case, securing the target came first.
They could investigate what had happened within the Black Alliance afterward.
They began moving toward their primary objective.
Then...
Whoosh.
“Hup!”
A blast of qi suddenly flew toward them at high speed, and the personal guards kicked off the ground at once.
A moment later...
Boom!
The place where the personal guards had stood exploded as though a massive hole had been blown into it.
Powerful, yet precise control of qi.
It meant their opponent possessed terrifying skill.
Muyeong prepared for an unexpected battle.
Then...
“What? It's a White Path bastard?”
The voice came from behind him.
‘What the...?’
When Muyeong turned his head, the Tyrant Saber of a huge figure clad in iron armor was already at his forehead.
Muyeong recognized the man's identity immediately.
‘Hwang Busik, the Colossal Tyrant of the Four Emperors Association!’
To think someone with such a massive body could move that quickly.
There was a reason his name was known throughout the Black Path martial world.
“Hey.”
Hwang Busik looked at Muyeong's sword, which was already pressed to his neck, and spoke.
“Doesn't look like we're after each other. Should we put our weapons away? Or am I your target?”
“...We're not assassins.”
Only then did Muyeong withdraw his sword from Hwang Busik's neck.
Hwang Busik also pulled back his Tyrant Saber, grumbling as he did.
“Why'd you sneak in disguised as horse handlers? You looked suspicious.”
Muyeong snapped back without yielding an inch.
“Why would you swing a weapon without checking first? Like an idiot.”
“What? An idiot?”
“Why, do you have an argument against that?”
“Tch.”
Thinking he had lost the verbal exchange, Hwang Busik clicked his tongue and gestured below them with his chin.
“Can you still say that after seeing the Black Alliance in this state?”
Hwang Busik's reaction was unfamiliar to Muyeong.
The man clearly knew Muyeong was a Martial Alliance martial artist, yet he showed little hostility.
Without lowering his guard, Muyeong asked, “What happened here?”
“What happened? What Jin Sowoon said would happen came true.”
“What?”
Hwang Busik answered in a strangely friendly tone.
“I don't know either. We were told to prepare because there might be an attack. Can this even be called an attack? It's a war.”
Muyeong could hardly understand what Hwang Busik was saying.
To begin with, he could not understand why Hwang Busik was openly telling a Martial Alliance martial artist everything about the current situation.
“It seems to be a professional assassin. They're going around the pavilions and carrying out killings. I came out to catch them.”
“...Jin Sowoon said that?”
“Yeah. Anyway, didn't you bastards come looking for them too?”
“...”
Muyeong could not decide how much he should reveal.
After arranging his thoughts, he spoke.
“We have lost contact with the Martial Alliance delegation that entered the Black Alliance. Do you know anything about that?”
“...I see. So they really had been cut off.”
Muyeong frowned at the incomprehensible remark.
“What do you mean?”
“There are things going on. If you're looking for Martial Alliance personnel... go to that building over there.”
After speaking, Hwang Busik immediately kicked off the rooftop and flew away.
A companion asked Muyeong, who was watching his retreating figure, “Muyeong, what should we do?”
“...”
Muyeong watched where Hwang Busik had vanished, then nodded.
“Let's go.”
He could not trust a Black Path martial artist, but Hwang Busik's attitude had not seemed entirely hostile.
#
“Haa, haa, haa.”
Through a coordinated attack with Dang Seohui, Ak Byeongbi reduced the last robed figure to poisonous fluid and breathed heavily.
They were terrifying opponents.
Like the Tang Clan's poison men, they emitted something akin to poison mist, and every time their weapons met, his mind grew dizzy as though he had fallen victim to dark arts.
The robes, made from an unknown material, absorbed or deflected attacks, making them nearly impossible to deal with.
It was fortunate that masters like Blood Brawl and the Flame Ghost Consort were there. Before they could even worry about Jin Sowoon and Ilmyeong, they had almost been killed themselves.
When Ak Byeongbi turned his head, Blood Brawl and the Flame Ghost Consort appeared to be in much the same condition.
The robed figures disappeared without a trace the moment they died, as if Bone-Dissolving Powder had been scattered over them, and even the Black Path martial artists looked sickened by it.
“Are you all right?”
At Ak Byeongbi's question, Blood Brawl, whose foot had been reduced to a bloody mess, flicked his hand as though he were fed up.
“I can't move anymore. If you want to save them, go yourselves.”
He had faced three robed figures alone, after all.
The fact that he was still alive at all was remarkable.
The Flame Ghost Consort had fought one, while Dang Seohui and Ak Byeongbi had fought another. Blood Brawl had more than done his part.
“...”
The problem was that none of them could move anymore.
Then...
Tap tap tap.
Ak Byeongbi's eyes widened when someone landed before them.
“...Why are you here?”
Someone who should have been in the Alliance Leader's Hall had appeared at the Black Alliance, thousands of miles away.
“Third Department Master. Have you been well?”
Ak Byeongbi asked at the greeting, which did not suit the situation at all, “What happened?”
“We came in haste after losing contact with you.”
Ak Byeongbi frowned.
“Lost contact...? We sent reports regularly.”
“...”
Seeing Muyeong say nothing, Ak Byeongbi realized that none of the messages sent by the delegation had reached the Martial Alliance.
Muyeong looked at Ak Byeongbi's grave expression and shook his head.
“We can discuss that later. Where are Jin Sowoon and Ilmyeong?”
Ak Byeongbi looked through the doorway toward the pavilion where red energy rippled.
“They're in there.”
“What? Are they trapped in a mystic formation?”
Being trapped in the mystic formation deployed by the Black Alliance was a grave matter.
But Muyeong was left dumbfounded by Ak Byeongbi's next words.
“They aren't trapped. They went in to save someone.”
“Save someone? Who?”
“The Black Alliance's chief strategist.”
“...”
The situation made no sense.
Why would Jin Sowoon and Ilmyeong willingly enter a mystic formation to save the Black Alliance's chief strategist, someone who was no different from an enemy?
Come to think of it, the people fighting beside them had also been suspicious.
An old man who fought with his feet alone, and a woman who controlled yang energy.
When Muyeong looked around with suspicion, Ak Byeongbi stepped closer to where Blood Brawl and the Flame Ghost Consort stood.
“Anyway, there were circumstances.”
“...Then shouldn't we go inside?”
Ak Byeongbi had also thought that since Muyeong had appeared, they could help Jin Sowoon.
“We were just about to do that...”
But as Ak Byeongbi began to speak, Dang Seohui took mother-of-pearl vials from her robes.
“Someone is coming out.”
Ripple.
The red wall rippled once, then spat out the robed figures who had entered the mystic formation.
At their center stood Gun Yuhyeon, half his face melted away as blood streamed from all seven orifices.
“Those bastards...!”
Before Ak Byeongbi could finish speaking, qi force shot from Blood Brawl's foot, despite his earlier complaints that he could not move any longer.
Boom!
Flames rose from the Flame Ghost Consort, and Dang Seohui immediately spread poison mist to block every direction, leaving the enemy nowhere to flee.
“W-what is this?!”
Even as Muyeong stood bewildered, unable to understand the situation, a fierce exchange began.
Whoosh!
The four figures swung their long robes, deflecting attack after attack.
“Where is Jin Sowoon?”
Dang Seohui's eyes widened in disbelief.
At the same time, her hands moved in a dazzling blur, as though she had more than ten of them.
But...
Whoooosh!
The robed figures, whom everyone expected to defend themselves with their robes as before, immediately leaped into the air.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Blood Brawl's qi force shot at them like cannonballs, but even after taking the blows, they only continued fleeing.
“Damn it, they're too fast.”
The robed figures eventually vanished without a trace, and a grim silence settled over the area.
Then...
The wall rippled again.
Expecting the robed figures to appear once more, everyone raised their weapons, determined not to let them escape this time.
“Ilmyeong?”
...The smooth head that appeared made them freeze.
“Huff, huff, huff. P-please take this man. I need to go help Benefactor Jin.”
“What? Weren't you with him?”
Ilmyeong's head shone brilliantly with sweat as he gasped for breath.
“Benefactor Jin told me to evacuate this man first...”
“Don't tell me Jin Sowoon was fighting Gun Yuhyeon?”
Ilmyeong answered Ak Byeongbi immediately.
“How did you know? I was shocked as well.”
“...”
When sudden silence filled the area, Ilmyeong wore a puzzled expression.
Then Dang Seohui's despairing voice filled the space.
“That can't be... Jin Sowoon is the Stronghold Lord of the Black Dragon Stronghold and the Black Alliance's Vice Alliance Lord. He can't die here...!”
Dang Seohui collapsed to her knees in despair. Ak Byeongbi calmly asked again.
“Were Jin Sowoon and Gun Yuhyeon truly fighting inside?”
“Yes. He definitely threw this man to me and...”
Ak Byeongbi cut Ilmyeong off.
“Gun Yuhyeon just escaped with people who appear to be his group.”
“What? Then Benefactor Jin...”
Everyone there looked toward the mystic formation.
They all understood what must have happened inside, but no one spoke.
“That bastard... in the end...”
Ak Byeongbi dropped to one knee, his face twisted in pain.
Muyeong, who had watched the entire situation unfold, felt bitter.
Death could approach anyone who lived in the martial world, but the death of an extraordinary divine prodigy like Jin Sowoon brought with it a strange sense of emptiness.
‘What a shame. I wanted to speak with him again someday... To think he has faded away like this.’
For some reason, Muyeong recalled Jin Sowoon's face from the day they first met, when Jin Sowoon had seen through his identity and smiled so slyly.
Footnotes:
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