WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 282: Night of the Greedy (3)
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When were people most dumbfounded?
When they were minding their own business and got cursed out for no reason.
That was why Jin Sowoon was currently beyond dumbfounded.
“I'm a Beggar Sect disciple!”
He couldn't understand why this beggar kept shouting that he was a Beggar Sect disciple.
Did Beggar Sect disciples have some special right to curse at anyone passing by?
And on top of that...
“Dog-Beating Staff Art! Break the Dog's Leg!”
The fact that the man even shouted the name of his move before using martial arts made it clear that he wasn't in his right mind.
So Jin Sowoon suppressed his emotions and began beating the beggar.
Why did the Beggar Sect teach martial arts to bastards like this?
‘Tsk. No wonder they keep getting crushed by the Demonic Cult.’
They called themselves an information organization, yet they couldn't even tell which of their own beggars were crazy.
Then again, how could someone who didn't know how many rice spoons were in their own house know the affairs of another?
Could an information organization like that really call itself an information organization?
The Dog-Beating Staff whipped through the air with impressive force, but Jegal Cheongi had already revealed the Shattering Form against this martial art.
Unless this beggar used the Ascendant Form, it was useless. Yet he still didn't seem to know that.
“Urk! Cough!”
Jin Sowoon struck the man's elbow with his sword sheath, stopping the staff's movement. As the beggar began to fall, he drove his foot into the man's stomach.
“Guhk!”
He waited for the beggar to rise into the air, then sent him flying with a spinning back kick as he fell.
Thud!
From this day forward, that beggar would probably be called the guy who got hit by a spinning back kick.
“Ughhh...”
Perhaps the impact had been severe. Or perhaps the beggar was already agonizing over the humiliating nickname he would be called from now on. Either way, he crouched there for quite a while.
Whether they understood his feelings or not, the subordinate beggars rushed toward him.
“Boss!”
“Boss! Are you all right?”
“You just got hit by a spinning back kick...!”
“Aaargh! Shut up!”
The worried voices pouring in from every direction only irritated O Sam further. Grinding his teeth, he sent them away.
It was too humiliating to lie there because he was in pain.
“Y-you coward. How dare you...!”
A spinning back kick... A spinning back kick...
Wasn't that as cowardly as throwing dirt into someone's eyes in the White Path martial world?
O Sam had lived his entire life as one of the Beggar Sect's elite. He could never accept such a thing.
“You! Aren't you afraid of what will happen afterward?”
Yet the slave trader, no, Jin Sowoon, didn't even blink. Instead, he let out a sigh.
“Hah, this damned beggar is such a nuisance... I'm busy, so get lost if you don't want another beating.”
“Y-you bastard!”
He had clearly lost the first exchange because he had let his guard down.
He had made a habit of calling out his moves to avoid creating innocent victims, only for it to come back and hurt him like this.
Still, he had no regrets. He was a proud Beggar Sect disciple who upheld righteousness. If someone like him crumbled under such a minor trial, how could he become a true Beggar Sect disciple?
O Sam rose to his feet and squared his shoulders.
“I'll do this properly now. Prepare yourself.”
“...Hah.”
Jin Sowoon clutched his head as he looked at the persistent beggar.
The martial art he was preparing to use while claiming he would do it properly was the Eighteen Dog-Beating Strikes. Judging by the way he looked, he probably hadn't learned any advanced martial arts.
Because of this beggar, his junior disciples' training had come to a stop.
‘We came all this way, and this is what happens.’
His junior disciples seemed to value their time just as much as he did. They couldn't take their eyes off O Sam.
For the sake of those adorable junior disciples, Jin Sowoon even felt a sense of duty to deal with this beggar quickly.
As if telling them to trust only him, he pounded his chest and gave his junior disciples a warm smile.
The other four, of course...
‘Please, just hold on a little longer... We could use a break too...’
‘Another pitiful soul has been added...’
They had completely different thoughts.
Jin Sowoon crooked a finger at O Sam.
“Sure. When has my life ever been smooth? Fine, come at me. I'll consider it a lesson for a rabid dog.”
“Haah!”
After the Opening Stance came Dog's Tail Sweeps Past, Beggar's Staff Beats Dog, and Wind Dog's Chaotic Stirring in rapid succession.
Jin Sowoon used the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, smoothly evading the Dog-Beating Staff.
O Sam's eyes widened at the sight.
The Dog-Beating Staff Art was one thing, but the Eighteen Dog-Beating Strikes weren't martial arts that could be easily evaded.
Even beggars his own age, even other four-knot beggars, struggled to withstand his Eighteen Dog-Beating Strikes. So how could someone like Jin Sowoon evade every strike so smoothly, as though he already knew them?
‘What is this...?’
He wasn't even dodging widely. He evaded the Eighteen Dog-Beating Strikes with the bare minimum of movement, narrowly slipping past each attack.
There were only two possible explanations.
‘Is there... really this much of a difference between Jin Sowoon and me?’
Either there was an enormous gap between their martial arts, or Jin Sowoon had memorized all the Eighteen Dog-Beating Strikes.
But it had taken O Sam a whole year to memorize them himself. There was no way Jin Sowoon had memorized them all.
Once that thought reached him, O Sam realized that this was beyond anything he could handle alone.
But it was already too late.
“W-wait...”
“What do you mean, wait?”
Jin Sowoon pulled back a fist flickering with fist qi and glared viciously at O Sam.
“This is for cursing at me out of nowhere.”
Boom.
A powerful impact swept through O Sam, strong enough to make his organs lurch.
Yet his body didn't move even an inch.
‘Guhk!’
Before O Sam could even scream, Jin Sowoon's fist struck his abdomen again.
“This is for being in my face and ruining my morning!”
Bang.
“And this is for interrupting the precious training time of my adorable junior disciples!”
Jin Sowoon's foot shot straight up above his head, then came crashing down on O Sam's crown.
Thud!
As every bone in his body seemed to splinter and his head felt as though it would split open, O Sam recalled what he had seen earlier.
Those four people walking through winter, sweat-soaked and half-dead, looking miserable enough to make any beggar shudder...
‘Who makes their junior disciples train like that?!’
He wanted to scream in protest, but O Sam had already let out a strangled cry and fainted.
Clap, clap.
“What a ridiculous beggar... No, he really is a beggar. Why's some beggar bastard making trouble for me? Tsk.”
As Jin Sowoon shook off his hands and approached them, Eunho asked with a genuinely curious expression.
“Um... But, First Senior Brother. Who exactly are these adorable junior disciples? Is there someone here besides us?”
“What are you talking about? You're the adorable junior disciples.”
Huh? Had Eunho heard that wrong?
“...Us?”
“Of course. Can't you tell from how I cherish all of you like gold and jade?”
Goosebumps suddenly rose all over Eunho's body, leaving him speechless.
“But, Eunho.”
“...Yes.”
For some reason, First Senior Brother's self-proclaimed affectionate gaze seemed to be directed at Eunho's feet.
“Why have your feet stopped moving?”
“Uh...?”
Eunho's mind began spinning furiously.
“I was so enraged by that beggar bastard daring to curse at our First Senior Brother, the very pillar of our group, that I forgot myself... Forgive me.”
“Is that so?”
The other junior disciples, who had been watching Eunho anxiously, raised their thumbs a little.
With a relieved sigh, Eunho hurriedly changed the subject to divert First Senior Brother's attention.
“But, First Senior Brother, didn't you say those people were from the Beggar Sect? Is this really all right?”
“What if it isn't?”
“They'll surely... call more people.”
What made the Beggar Sect frightening wasn't the skill of each individual beggar.
It was the sheer scale of their manpower.
Every one of them had cultivated at least a little internal energy.
And their numbers were constantly changing.
The hundred thousand Beggar Sect disciples were only an estimate. Some said the actual number was even greater.
People in the martial world often said this.
It would take ten years to destroy Shaolin Sect, but even a hundred years wouldn't be enough to erase the Beggar Sect.
“Didn't you provoke an opponent like that? You knew it too, considering how you kept going on about the Beggar Sect...”
“Tsk. A Beggar Sect beggar is still just a beggar.”
Right. What did any of that matter?
“Move your feet already. Unless you want to get beaten half to death like him.”
“Y-yes!”
Yet they hadn't gone far before their steps stopped again.
Nearly twenty beggars rushed over and blocked Jin Sowoon's group.
“See? What did I tell you?”
“Eunho.”
“Yes!”
“You stay right there and keep moving your feet.”
“...”
“Otherwise, after I clear them out, you're dead.”
“I'm already moving them as hard as I can!”
Eunho began moving his feet in place like he had stepped on thorns.
Just as they had feared, it had happened.
They were beggars, but they were still one of the pillars of the Nine Sects One Gang.
They couldn't have expected the Beggar Sect to let it slide after one of their own had been beaten into a pulp and their group had arrived.
Yet First Senior Brother's expression remained utterly relaxed.
“Why are you all rushing over here now?”
At Jin Sowoon's rebuke, the most flamboyantly dressed beggar among them stepped forward.
“I am Sam Cheol, Third Branch Leader of the Xi'an Branch in Shaanxi Province.”
“Enough with the introduction.”
Jin Sowoon picked at his ear, then nudged O Sam with his foot.
“This beggar interrupted our training. How are you going to compensate us for the damages?”
The Taeul Sect disciples were stunned.
‘Crazy...’
‘What is he talking about?’
‘Has he lost his mind?’
‘First Senior Brother... is strange...’
Sam Cheol's body shook at Jin Sowoon's attitude as well.
“You turned someone into this because he interrupted your training?”
“What? Interrupted it?”
Jin Sowoon stretched out his fingers and began folding them down one at a time.
“On top of that, he cursed at me and threw the first punch.”
Irritated by his relaxed attitude, Sam Cheol shouted.
“Do you not know what organization he belongs to?!”
“What don't I know? He even shouted the names of his moves himself.”
“And you still dare!”
Sam Cheol ground his teeth.
“You oppress a Beggar Sect disciple?!”
“If you're too clueless to see what's happening, you'll break your begging bowl while begging. Didn't you know that before becoming a beggar?”
“Reveal your identity. I will grind your sect and affiliation to dust!”
At Sam Cheol's bloodshot threat, Jin Sowoon snorted.
“The world really has gotten better. A mere Third Branch Leader is threatening retaliation. What do you think the Martial Alliance would say if it saw Academy students being oppressed like this?”
“What...?”
Sam Cheol felt his spine grow cold.
Why had Academy student status suddenly entered the conversation?
Martial Arts Academy students were candidates for Martial Alliance official positions.
The status of an Academy student itself was no different from carrying an identification token that marked them as a Martial Alliance official.
Protecting them was one of the Martial Alliance's foremost duties.
If Academy students suffered misfortune outside, the Martial Alliance would always retaliate in its own name.
That was one reason people without connections sought to enter the Martial Alliance through the Academy, aside from hopes of advancement.
So Sam Cheol had essentially just said he would grind the Martial Alliance to dust.
“A-are you not going to reveal your identity?”
Still, there was no reason to panic too much.
Academy students naturally made connections among themselves.
There happened to be several Beggar Sect disciples in this year's class.
Through them, this matter could be resolved easily enough.
No, they might even receive an apology for being rude to a friend's senior.
“Reveal your identity first.”
For that, information about the other party was essential.
“Honestly.”
Jin Sowoon shook his head as though he had seen through all of Sam Cheol's thoughts, then answered flatly.
“Taeul Sect.”
“What?”
Sam Cheol frowned.
A sect he had never heard of... Wait, why did it sound familiar?
Taeul Sect... Taeul Sect... Taeul Sect...
He felt as though he had heard that name often lately...
Sam Cheol's eyes suddenly flew open.
“The Hefei divine prodigy! Taeul Sect!”
Jin Sowoon clicked his tongue.
“Not the Anhui divine prodigy. What kind of nonsense is the Hefei divine prodigy? The people who come up with these names really have no taste...”
Sam Cheol carefully examined the troublesome man's appearance.
A black martial uniform with faint embroidery. A pitch-black sword at his waist. A shifty-looking face.
And above all...
The unmistakable bulge at the front of his trousers!
“D-don't tell me... You're the Black Flame Dragon?”
Jin Sowoon creased his brow as though he didn't like the epithet he had been called.
Only then did alarm bells begin ringing in Sam Cheol's head.
‘I'm fucked!’
And badly.
#
Sam Cheol slowly turned his head.
Three young men who looked somewhat alike, though they were dressed like half-beggars.
‘Those must be the Geum, Eun, and Dong brothers, known as the Three Iron-Wall Dragons.’
Then there was a woman who would likely possess beauty like a flower in bloom if the dust and grime were washed from her face.
‘That must be Hong Saryeon, Hong Mungi's beloved only daughter.’
He had even heard that Hong Saryeon had met Namgung Taeha privately when he visited the Academy.
To the public, Taeul Sect was still no more than an insignificant sect. But from the perspective of an information organization like the Beggar Sect, it was like a Thunderclap Bomb that could explode at any moment.
‘The Black Flame Dragon... That bastard is impossible to predict...’
And the person standing at the center of all that was Black Flame Dragon Jin Sowoon.
The troublesome thug before him.
“Jin Sowoon...”
Sam Cheol asked in a low voice, as though chewing the words.
“Why did you come all the way here instead of using the Academy to return?”
Academy students made good use of their status.
One of the Academy's many benefits was making it easy for them to return to their hometowns.
If Jin Sowoon had made proper use of that benefit, this unpleasant incident never would have happened in the first place.
That was why Sam Cheol asked.
But Jin Sowoon casually picked at his ear and replied.
“Because I wanted to.”
Sam Cheol's expression soured at the answer.
“I said I'd move as I pleased. Do I need the permission of beggars for that too?”
“...”
It was too obvious a point to find any fault with.
O Sam being beaten up was unfair, but it was also his fault for picking a fight without properly identifying his opponent.
It was best to end things here.
“Fine. It seems there was a misunderstanding between us. How about we settle this quietly?”
The Martial Arts Academy's backing was frightening, but they were still the Beggar Sect.
A huge sect and information organization compared to Taeul Sect.
Taeul Sect wouldn't want to make an enemy of the Beggar Sect either.
“Let's do that.”
Hmph. So he feared the Beggar Sect's power after all.
Thinking Jin Sowoon had understood, Sam Cheol turned away.
“But.”
Jin Sowoon's voice continued behind him.
“Only if you compensate us properly.”
“...Compensate you?”
Sam Cheol looked at O Sam, sprawled on the ground with his eyes rolled back.
Then he looked up at Jin Sowoon, who was not only completely fine but standing there with a loose, cocky posture.
Who exactly was compensating whom here?
“Because of that beggar bastard, my junior disciples couldn't train properly. And his harsh curses tore my delicate heart to shreds. I need compensation for the time and emotional damage.”
“...Ha!”
They said the Black Flame Dragon's tongue was sharper than any needle.
His skill at spewing complete nonsense was truly impressive.
Sam Cheol let out a hollow laugh.
“Aren't you afraid of what will happen with the Beggar Sect?”
“What is this beggar bastard saying?”
As expected, the crazy... No, Jin Sowoon didn't disappoint.
“If you do something wrong, you should take responsibility! Does the Beggar Sect not teach even that basic principle?!”
“...”
“That beggar over there picked a fight with someone who was minding his own business and threw the first punch. Even looking only at the facts, the instigator and victim are obvious, so why do you keep spouting nonsense? You beggar bastard!”
As he said, looking only at the facts, the Beggar Sect was clearly in the wrong.
Still, in a situation like this, people usually let it go because there had been a misunderstanding between both sides...
“Are you not going to compensate me? Then pay with your body.”
“...Wait.”
As Jin Sowoon moved to draw his sword, Sam Cheol raised a hand to buy time.
His mind was moving faster than it ever had in his life.
‘That bastard has no limits. If this gets bigger, there's no telling where the sparks will fly.’
Just look at the strange things the Black Flame Dragon had done until now.
Wherever he went, the aftermath was a miserable wasteland, as though a swarm of locusts had passed through.
And the other side had justification.
Taeul Sect itself wasn't frightening, but the Martial Arts Academy and the Martial Alliance were a different story.
The Beggar Sect would not lose in the end, but if this became a problem, his own head as a branch leader would surely roll.
Perhaps it would be better to settle things at a reasonable level.
Having made his decision, Sam Cheol spoke with a resolute expression.
“What payment do you want? Money?”
Jin Sowoon sneered as he stroked the front of his trousers.
“What money would beggar bastards even have?”
Sam Cheol barely suppressed his trembling body.
He really was a beggar.
Yes, he was a beggar, but...
Why did the words beggar bastard sound so irritating whenever that dog bastard shouted them?
Still, endure it. Endure.
The opponent was crazy... No, he was the Black Flame Dragon, the Academy Representative.
“...Then what do you want?”
Jin Sowoon snorted.
“You're selling maps again this time, aren't you?”
“...”
“After the Demon Spirit Plateau Incident, you bastards still haven't learned your lesson.”
Contempt filled Jin Sowoon's face, but Sam Cheol firmly swallowed his anger.
“Bring me one of those. Then I'll call it even...”
“Are you talking about the treasure map?”
A Five-Spirit Flower Dew treasure map was currently being traded for twenty nyang of gold per copy.
He wanted one over a single mistake?
This wasn't just a crazy man. He was a complete thief!
“Do you even know how much a treasure map costs?”
“What treasure map? Do you think I don't know it's just a map of Heavenly Cave?”
“...!”
Every hair on Sam Cheol's body stood on end.
How did that bastard know that?
The Beggar Sect was selling it as a Five-Spirit Flower Dew treasure map, but it wasn't a map marking the actual location of the Five-Spirit Flower Dew.
It was only a map of the complex cave system called Heavenly Cave.
All they had was a prediction of where the Five-Spirit Flower Dew might appear.
Even so, the maps were selling like hotcakes.
Twenty nyang of gold for a single map was an absurd price, but it was cheap when one considered the hope of protecting one's only life and obtaining the Five-Spirit Flower Dew.
“What are you talking about...?”
“If you're going to play dumb, then forget it.”
Jin Sowoon moved to draw his sword again.
“Wait!”
“Why?”
Sam Cheol asked urgently.
“How did you know...?”
“Twenty nyang of gold.”
“Huh?”
Jin Sowoon wiggled two fingers.
“If you want to know how I found out, pay twenty nyang. You trade information, yet you want information for free without a shred of conscience.”
“...”
“Are you buying it?”
What was this guy? Who the hell was he really?
“...Forget it.”
“What about the map?”
“...”
After considering it, Sam Cheol finally made his decision.
Even with the map, it was a place he couldn't enter.
It was far better to hand it over than continue arguing with this dangerous man.
“...Fine.”
“Then that's settled.”
Just as the two reached a dramatic agreement...
“Ughhh...”
O Sam, who had fainted, barely pushed himself up. When he spotted Sam Cheol, he cried out like a chick finding its mother.
“B-Branch Leader! It's him! That bastard! He doesn't know the might of the hundred thousand Beggar Sect disciples, and a mere Academy student dares attack an elite of the Beggar Sect...”
But O Sam's desperate plea didn't continue.
Powpowpowpowpowpowpow!
Sam Cheol suddenly unleashed the Drunken Eight Immortals Fist, smashing O Sam in the face.
As O Sam lost consciousness again, he looked at Jin Sowoon, who was laughing at him, and thought.
‘No... Why... me...?’
Naturally, no one explained the reason to him.
Footnotes:
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