The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 300

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 300: The Black Flame Dragon Shows Himself (4)

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Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

The blades the martial artists drew in unison plunged the previously boisterous area into silence, as though someone had thrown cold water over it.

“What do you think you’re doing?!”

Wang Soso tried to rush out from inside, but a guard stopped her.

“Soso.”

I raised a hand toward Wang Soso, signaling for her not to come any closer, then calmly looked over the martial artists.

“You drew your swords because...”

They glared at me as if they wanted to kill me.

“You took me for an intruder or a thug, didn’t you?”

The corners of the martial artists’ eyes twitched.

Their faces betrayed a sudden realization.

“But what are you waiting for? If you’ve drawn your swords, shouldn’t you fight?”

“...”

Of course, they couldn’t.

Unfortunately for them, I was a guest invited by the Eunha Merchant Group’s leader.

“Do the Eunha Merchant Group’s guards stand around when bandits attack as well?”

At my words, those waiting in the long line began whispering among themselves.

This alone would not ruin the merchant group’s reputation, but people loved putting others down.

You only had to look at how they whispered about an upright man like me under the epithet Black Flame Dragon.

This was certainly not a situation the Eunha Merchant Group wanted.

Step! Step! Step!

A group of men approached the entrance from deeper inside the Eunha Merchant Group, their footsteps carrying a disciplined air.

Thud!

The people around us could not hide their surprise when the group drove their spears into the ground in unison.

“It’s the Guard Star Hall!”

“I heard they wiped out the Chuhon Stronghold by themselves.”

“Then where is the Meteor Spear?”

Despite the rising noise from the crowd, the Guard Star Hall members merely surveyed the area with steady eyes.

The man standing at the front swept an arrogant gaze over me, then turned to the martial artists who had drawn their swords.

“What is the meaning of this?!”

“Hall Master, that... that person suddenly resorted to violence...”

The Hall Master’s eyes fixed coldly on my face.

“Who do you think you are, causing trouble on such a joyous day for the Eunha Merchant Group... Gasp! What is this?!”

I reached for his throat.

The Hall Master’s eyes widened as he stepped back.

Tap! Tatatat!

My hand moved like a snake, chasing after his neck.

“Stop this...!”

Apparently deciding they could no longer hold back, the Guard Star Hall Master used seizing arts as well.

I didn’t know how good their spear art was, but their seizing arts were nothing impressive.

Then again, even the leader of a merchant group’s martial force could not compare to a Hall Master of the Martial Alliance. That was only natural.

Then how had they defeated the Chuhon Stronghold?

I used the White Phoenix Hand, knocked aside their hands twice, struck their paralysis acupoint, then grabbed their neck and lifted them into the air.

“Gurk! Gurk!”

The Eunha Merchant Group’s martial artists looked ready to faint at the repeated sight.

“This madman...!”

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The Guard Star Hall members leaped into position around me, surrounding me from every direction.

They aimed their spearheads close enough to make it clear that, given the order, they would gladly turn my entire body into a sieve.

“Release them at once!”

“Let the Hall Master go!”

No matter what nonsense they shouted, I held the trembling Hall Master by the throat and raised my internal energy.

Then I shouted toward the instigator somewhere inside the merchant group.

“IS THIS HOW THE EUNHA MERCHANT GROUP TREATS ITS GUESTS?!”

My voice was so loud that even my own ears hurt.

Several people waiting nearby could not bear it and collapsed while clutching their ears.

It must have reached the inside of the Eunha Merchant Group.

Quite a few people’s expressions had probably stiffened by now.

At least five people probably wanted to kill me right now.

That did not mean I could stop here.

Right now, I had to be a simple, crude Black Path martial artist who lived however he pleased.

That was right. I was the Black Flame Dragon, the Black Path’s divine prodigy acknowledged by the Black Alliance Lord, and the Black Path’s Joint Successor.

It wasn’t enough to look like my pride had been hurt and I’d lost my temper.

I had to act as though I could not resist indulging every impulse.

Just like Black Path martial artists did.

“I WAS INVITED BY THE MERCHANT GROUP LEADER! DOES THE EUNHA MERCHANT GROUP TREAT THE MERCHANT GROUP LEADER’S GUESTS THIS WAY?! DO YOU TAKE ME, JIN SOWOON, SO LIGHTLY?!”

As I shouted while shaking the Hall Master in my hand like a bundle of straw, even those who had frowned at me began looking as though they had no idea what was going on.

If I had come to spoil another person’s celebration, this was the kind of outrageous behavior that deserved to leave me skewered on a spear. Yet none of them boldly stepped forward. They only aimed their weapons at me.

That was how the world worked.

When things failed to unfold as people expected, they wanted to believe there must be a reason behind even the most unreasonable behavior.

“Fuck! Who’s in charge here?! Tell whoever’s in charge to come out!”

The faces of the martial artists aiming swords and spears at me twisted as though they had unwillingly tasted shit.

Why did they have to provoke someone who had been watching for an excuse to pick a fight?

“What is all this commotion?!”

The Eunha Merchant Group martial artists all turned their heads.

Then they called out to him desperately, as though they had met their savior.

“Young Merchant Lord!”

“Y-You’ve arrived! That scoundrel dared to cause trouble at the Eunha Merchant Group...!”

Before the martial artists could continue, the man raised a stiff hand and clenched it into a fist.

Everyone clamped their mouths shut as though they had been sewn closed.

Without taking his eyes off me, the Young Merchant Lord spoke in a low voice.

“Who are you?”

This rude bastard looked to be in his mid-thirties, yet he didn’t even introduce himself before asking who I was.

“Who are you, then?”

A vein rose on the man’s broad forehead at my casual tone.

“Did you not hear them? I am Jeong Sogun of the Eunha Merchant Group.”

The moment Jeong Sogun gave his name, whispers rapidly spread through the crowd.

“Meteor Spear Jeong Sogun!”

“Jeong Sogun, the Great Hall Master of the Black Tortoise Pavilion?”

“I heard it took him only ten years to become a Great Hall Master.”

“They say he could have risen even higher, but returned to inherit the merchant group.”

People were more interested in meeting a famous person than in the serious situation before them.

Well, it was understandable.

To the spectators, this probably wasn’t a serious situation.

Jeong Sogun himself was busy glaring at me.

Even after revealing who he was, I had shown no reaction. More precisely, I had not displayed any sign of backing down, and he clearly did not like that.

“Do you intend to withhold your name?”

“Your hearing must be bad. I was shouting loudly enough to shake the Eunha Merchant Group just now.”

“...‘It seems,’ does it?”

The corner of Jeong Sogun’s eye twitched.

“It seems they don’t even teach basic manners at the Academy these days.”

I put on an innocent act.

“You know me?”

“I have heard the rumors that the Black Flame Dragon, the Black Path’s divine prodigy, serves as the Academy Representative. In my day, that would have been unthinkable.”

He casually reminded everyone that he was an Academy graduate, emphasizing that we were senior and junior.

His intentions were painfully obvious.

I almost laughed at his pathetic attempt.

He had probably never experienced a gambling den where people used every trick, psychological ploy, and scheme imaginable to kill one another over a single missing silver coin.

People raised in greenhouses were always so careless.

“Ah! So you were my senior.”

When I scratched my head and put on an innocent expression, a smile immediately formed on his lips.

“Your mistake today will be reported to my peers in the Martial Alliance...”

“But if even a senior like you, the Young Merchant Lord, knows who I am, how did the Eunha Merchant Group’s martial artists fail to recognize me and create this mess?”

“What?”

“Is this truly the level of the Eunha Merchant Group, one of the Four Great Merchant Houses, Senior?”

If he attacked me, I attacked the Eunha Merchant Group, the source of his pride.

Jeong Sogun’s face turned bright red.

Still, he did not simply take it.

His eyes moved to my hand.

“...Do you intend to kill the Guard Star Hall Master?”

The Hall Master hung there with foam at their mouth and rolled-back eyes.

Tsk. I hadn’t intended to take things this far.

Because of that bastard Jeong Sogun, they had ended up in such a state.

“If you don’t intend to kill them, hand them over.”

He said it as though asking for an object, so I threw the Hall Master I was holding toward Jeong Sogun.

Jeong Sogun caught them like a piece of luggage, quickly checked their condition, and struck several acupoints to wake them.

“C-Cough! Y-Young Merchant Lord... I-I apologize.”

“Can you stand?”

“Pardon? Ah! Yes! I-I can stand now.”

Regaining their senses in Jeong Sogun’s arms, the Guard Star Hall Master staggered to their feet as though eager to resume their duties.

Then...

Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!

In an instant, four punches left clear imprints on the Hall Master’s vital acupoints. The person who had only just managed to stand under their own power vomited blood and collapsed.

Everyone from the surrounding guests to the martial artists stared wide-eyed.

“How dare you spoil the Eunha Merchant Group’s commemorative celebration! Can you still call yourself the Hall Master of the Guard Star Hall when you failed to prevent such an incident?!”

Under the harsh rebuke, the Hall Master, who had just coughed up a mouthful of blood, forced themself upright again.

They lowered their head deeply, looking like they could die at any moment.

“I-I apologize, Young Merchant Lord!”

“What are you standing around for?! Remove this person, along with every fool who failed to prevent this incident!”

“Yes, sir!”

At the thunderous order, the waiting Guard Star Hall members led the Hall Master and the martial artists who had been blocking the entrance inside.

Jeong Sogun erased all signs that he had been angered moments ago and spoke to me with an indifferent expression.

“I apologize for the shortcomings in the event’s arrangements.”

As he spoke, Jeong Sogun gave a slight nod.

I had expected him to at least cup his fist in greeting.

‘He’s an interesting one.’

He seemed to understand what the problem was and where it had begun.

Yet Jeong Sogun never reprimanded the martial artists for failing to recognize me.

He only reprimanded them for failing to stop the “incident” I had caused.

I could practically hear the gears turning in his head.

“But you also understand that, whatever the problem may have been, your conduct in disgracing another party through such outrageous behavior was clearly wrong.”

He subtly rebuked me for overreacting.

‘So he did not rise to Great Hall Master solely because of his father’s backing?’

This was a side of him that had not been written in the Mantong Office documents.

“Furthermore, officials from Beijing have attended this event at the merchant group leader’s invitation. How do you intend to take responsibility for causing such a disturbance?”

The more I listened, the more this bastard crossed the line.

Did he take me for an idiot just because I had acted like a Black Path brute?

“Why should I take responsibility?”

“...Your voice is loud.”

That was because I wasn’t saying this for you to hear.

In case anyone had missed it, I put a little more internal energy into my voice.

“You sent your own younger sister to the Taeul Sect and invited me three times, yet you told me to enter through the middle gate because my name wasn’t on the list. Is it because the Eunha Merchant Group is truly incompetent?”

After sweeping my gaze over the gathered crowd, I fixed my eyes on Jeong Sogun and curled my lips upward.

“Or was it to humiliate me?”

“...”

“Do I truly need to take responsibility?”

Jeong Sogun glared at me in silence for a long time before finally opening his mouth.

“...How rash. To trade your future for a moment of wounded pride.”

What was he talking about?

Jeong Sogun turned away as though there was nothing more to see.

He strode to the scholar at the entrance and slapped them hard across the face.

Smack!

Before the scholar, stunned by the sudden slap, could even rise, Jeong Sogun headed inside.

“See that the guests are properly received!”

“Y-Yes, sir!”

Only then did the martial artists who had drawn their swords line up before me and lower their heads.

Their manners were respectful, but their expressions remained hostile.

As though it were only natural, I followed the path they opened and entered the Eunha Merchant Group.

Wang Soso began walking close at my side.

Silence had fallen over the bustling Eunha Merchant Group, and uncomfortable gazes gathered on us from all around.

Apparently uneasy under those stares, Wang Soso asked in a worried voice.

“Brother Jin. The Eunha Merchant Group has deep connections with Beijing’s high officials and nobles... Our Wang Family Estate cannot even compare.”

I knew what she was worried about.

The rule of the martial world was that the authorities and martial world did not interfere in each other’s affairs, but neither a merchant group nor a sect could ever be entirely free from the authorities’ influence.

If the authorities set out to obstruct us, there was no telling how much trouble they could cause.

But...

“Do not worry. Unless the merchant group leader steps forward, no one here will make a move.”

“Pardon?”

“If people of higher standing than the merchant group leader had come, the merchant group leader would have appeared long ago. That Young Merchant Lord would not have beaten his subordinates as if he were creating an atmosphere of fear, either.”

A one-hundred-eightieth anniversary celebration?

It was neither the hundredth nor the two-hundredth anniversary, only an awkwardly numbered celebration. They might invite entertainers, but they would not invite superiors they had to watch their step around.

If they did, someone else might act as the host at an event where they were meant to be the center of attention.

“Put another way, most of the officials attending this event are people who need to curry favor with the merchant group leader.”

“Huh... Did you calculate all of this from the beginning?”

“I predicted some of it. The rest, I calculated as things happened.”

Wang Soso looked up at me with astonishment in her eyes.

“Wow... Just like Sister Saryeon said, you really have a knack for petty scheming.”

“...”

Was that a compliment? It wasn’t an insult, right?

“This way.”

The martial artist guiding us pointed toward a hall crowded with people.

At a glance, it appeared to be the sort of place where five or six people would be packed into a single room.

They had prepared all sorts of things.