The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 327

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Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 327: Spirit Hunt (2)

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“D-Don't lie to me.”

Yang Japyeong's eyes trembled violently.

“Why would I lie?”

“...To sense a spirit vein, you need endless time and effort, as well as the patience to endure suffering for an eternity...”

“No, I'm telling you, I can sense them.”

I moved a short distance as I spoke.

“There’s a spirit vein about this thick flowing here, and a thin one about this wide over there. Isn’t that right?”

“It took me three years just to get started...”

Yang Japyeong merely muttered incomprehensibly to himself, his expression vacant.

It felt awkward to ask anything more, so I began examining it myself.

“This is interesting.”

As Yang Japyeong had said, Mukrim's spirit veins affected the entire forest.

Their energy did not grow thinner the higher it rose, like air. Instead, it was evenly distributed from the ground to the treetops, as though the entire space itself were a vessel holding the spirit veins.

‘So there was a reason natural formations kept appearing throughout the forest.’

Not only animals and insects, but even trees and grass roots received the spirit veins’ energy.

Those touched by that energy created strange phenomena unseen in the Central Plains.

And natural formations formed wherever those phenomena occurred.

When I reached out and placed my hand into a natural formation, I could clearly see space twisting.

‘No wonder no one can find their way through here.’

The strange phenomenon became even clearer when I took a step forward.

The spirit vein beneath my feet told me to go left, but the path through the forest stretched straight ahead.

The moment someone stepped according to the visual information before them, they lost their bearings.

Their sense of direction became completely warped, making their level of martial arts irrelevant.

Only the spirit veins could show the way and point toward the correct path.

That was why only the Namgwon Sect could manage Mukrim.

“...This is impossible... It’s a lie...”

Yang Japyeong blankly muttered to himself, unable to accept reality.

Just then.

Boom!

A huge explosion rang out from deep within the distant forest.

We had heard shouts and trees falling all along, but this was the first blast loud enough to carry this far.

Yang Japyeong, who had been dazed, got to his feet and looked toward the sound.

“I’ll go take a look.”

Yang Japyeong untied the thick rope around his waist, wrapped it around a tree, and rapidly climbed upward.

‘Huh. He’s moving nearly as fast as, if not faster than, when I use the Flying Dragon Claw.’

I watched the unusual Gecko Climbing Art for a moment. Soon after, Yang Japyeong climbed back down.

His face was filled with disbelief.

“It seems... they’ve encountered a divine spirit.”

Then he cautiously watched my reaction.

“What is it?”

“I was worried... you might say we should go.”

What did he take me for?

No matter how obsessed I was with spiritual medicine, what use was any of it if my life was in danger?

Besides, my Taeul Sect juniors and the other group members were here.

I obediently shook my head.

“Don’t worry. You clearly said it was dangerous, Hero Yang, didn’t you? And that the chance of succeeding in the hunt was low.”

“...That’s right.”

“Then I’ll trust you, Hero Yang.”

“...”

It seemed Yang Japyeong had been anxious that I would head out to hunt after learning to read the spirit veins.

Seeing his relieved expression, I asked again.

“It really is dangerous, right?”

“...”

“And it’s definitely difficult to hunt one?”

“...”

“We’d definitely fail, right?”

“...”

Yang Japyeong wore an oddly detached expression.

Still, it was better to be certain.

I asked one more time.

“Tell me we can’t do it.”

That night, after everyone had fallen asleep, I quietly opened my eyes and checked who was on watch. As planned, Eun Seollan was on guard duty.

That was exactly why I had woken up at this hour.

Seollan had the weakest energy sense among us.

I rolled over.

Then I suppressed my presence as much as possible and began crawling away.

Who knew the crawling drills I did on the battlefield would help me now?

I felt a little grateful to those demonic beings, bastards that they were.

When I saw them next, I’d be sure to smash their heads in.

After crawling about ten jang, I got up and began using the Ghost Breath Movement Art. Once I was thirty jang away, I used the Peerless Wanderer Divine Art and ran.

‘It was definitely this way.’

Following the flow of the spirit veins rising from deep underground, I retraced the path we had taken during the day.

Mukrim was already dark enough, but once night fell, it became impossible to see anything.

Only the occasional glowing insect or flying bug gave off any light.

That actually made moving easier.

With nothing in my sight to confuse me, I only had to follow the spirit veins’ flow.

After running at full speed for about fifteen minutes, I arrived at the corpse of the Black-Red Serpent we had hunted that afternoon.

“Heh heh. Now I can find my way here on my own.”

I moved a short distance away and dug up the spot where Yang Japyeong had buried the poison cores.

After brushing aside some soil, a poison core giving off an ominous green glow appeared.

“Heh heh...”

Ever since I learned to read spirit veins, I had waited for nightfall.

Now I could absorb poison cores whenever I wanted, without drawing anyone’s attention.

And with the Azure Dragon Bangle, I did not even need to use qi-regulating breathing to dissolve the poison cores.

I could just swallow the cores and leave, so there was no reason for anyone to suspect me.

‘I’ll say I went to take a leak.’

As a result, in less than an hour, I absorbed the poison cores of the Flying Red Serpent, Blue-Sound Venom-Horned Serpent, Venom-Horned Monster Dragon, and Three-Colored Poison Frog.

“Is there a limit to how many times I can do this?”

I clenched and unclenched my left hand, checking the sensation.

It felt as if my senses had dulled a little.

Maybe only my fingertips and palms were numb.

The feeling would probably return after some time passed.

Still, I could feel the internal energy in my dantian increase, so the numbness in my hand did not bother me.

It wasn’t as though I couldn’t use my hand just because it had lost some feeling.

And if my internal energy was full, I could smash my opponent’s head in more easily.

“Heh heh heh.”

That eased some of my regret about the divine spirit.

Right. It was better to safely increase my internal energy than do something dangerous.

Boom, boom, boom!

Far off in the forest, a flash of light burst through the darkness alongside another explosion.

“...Right. Safety first. Safety first.”

Yang Japyeong was right.

Divine spirits could not be hunted.

Just look at the mess those people were making.

Explosions loud enough to shake the entire forest had continued for three days now, day and night.

Some people must have become trapped in natural formations and lost their way during the hunt. Others were probably seriously injured and fighting for their lives.

Yet they likely could not bring themselves to stop hunting with a divine spirit right in front of them.

“...Right. This is right. This is the right choice.”

I barely forced my heavy feet to turn back toward the others.

Boom, boom, boom, boom!

I did not feel like using the Peerless Wanderer Divine Art, so I simply walked slowly.

I continued stepping forward while repeating the flow of the spirit veins in my mind. Thanks to that, I quickly stopped paying attention to the sounds of the divine spirit hunt.

“This forest is really damn awful.”

I was clearly following the same route I had taken before, but it had changed into a different path.

What was more, not a single cut I had made while coming here remained.

It made me wonder whether it was even possible to leave this forest without reading the spirit veins.

I used internal energy to heighten my Divine Sense.

It put a strain on my head, but it made the spirit veins clearer.

I thought about asking Yang Japyeong about it, but decided against it.

He did not seem to know.

Whenever I asked about spirit veins, he looked as though he had gone beyond despair and might start crying at any moment.

It took him three years? I could do it right away. Tsk.

Soon, the faint spirit veins became clearer.

I could not see them with my eyes, but I sensed them densely filling all of Mukrim.

To be able to see without seeing. It was truly strange.

As I walked while examining the spirit veins, something like a small star glowed on the ground where I had not seen anything on my way here.

‘What is that?’

When I approached slowly, I saw spirit vein energy gathered together like gemstones, shining brightly.

The moment I stopped reading the spirit veins, the energy that filled Mukrim vanished, along with the gathered light.

In the place that had glowed like a star lay a fruit resembling a cornelian cherry.

“Hmm...”

Yang Japyeong's words suddenly came to mind.

[Most things in Mukrim contain poison, so don’t just shove any old thing into your mouth... No, never mind.]

Yang Japyeong had stopped in the middle of saying something.

He had probably wanted to warn me about poison.

Still, it did not matter much to me, since I was already building poison resistance.

“Heh heh...”

I absorbed one fruit with the Azure Dragon Bangle.

‘Oh?’

Warm energy flowed into my palm and was absorbed into my dantian.

It did not carry the cold energy unique to poison cores.

‘I might actually be able to eat this.’

I plucked another fruit and put it in my mouth. Soon, warm energy slowly rose from my stomach.

It had the same effect as the spiritual medicine commonly mentioned in the Central Plains.

“Well, Mukrim's spirit veins affect everything. Of course there must be spiritual medicine like this too.”

With that thought, I headed back toward the others while checking whether anything buried underground gave off light.

Spiritual medicines like ginseng and fleeceflower root mostly grew underground.

‘Nothing.’

I carefully searched as I walked quite a distance, but did not find even a single root of ginseng or fleeceflower.

Once again, I thought Mukrim was a truly rotten place.

Spirit veins gathered in cornelian cherry-like fruit, yet their power did not settle in common ginseng or fleeceflower roots.

What kind of forest grew however it pleased like this?

That complaint only lasted a moment.

I used the Ghost Breath Movement Art and carefully returned to camp.

“Where have you been...”

“Gah! You startled me.”

“...Why are you so startled?”

Yang Japyeong was staring at me from the darkness.

‘Damn it.’

The Ghost Breath Movement Art had one flaw. It hid your presence, but not your body.

“Ah... Haha, I just went to take a leak...”

“While using a stealth art?”

“Ah! I didn’t want to wake anyone.”

Wouldn’t that make me look like an Academy Representative considerate of others?

“...For an entire shichen?”

Huh? Had that much time already passed?

As I tilted my head, Yang Japyeong's voice lowered further.

“Where... have you been?”

Yang Japyeong took a large step toward me.

He had warned me over and over about safety, so it seemed he did not like that I had wandered through Mukrim alone.

Hmm... How could I explain this?

I could not say I had gone to absorb poison cores.

‘Ah!’

At that moment, I remembered the cornelian cherry fruit in my robe.

“Actually, I saw this during the day and went to pick some.”

“What is that?”

“I think it is a fruit infused with spirit vein energy. It seems to help increase internal energy a little.”

“...You went out in the middle of the night just to pick that?”

Well, it did sound ridiculous. I could have picked it during the day, yet I went out at night...

Still, I had worked in the Sojeong Unit, where lying was part of daily life. If I could not overcome a crisis this small, that would be ridiculous.

“Actually, I didn’t want the others to see me.”

“Why?”

Yang Japyeong looked even more suspicious.

“Even though the elixir pellets are tiny, you haven’t eaten a single one, Hero Yang, have you?”

“...”

Since Yang Japyeong had been unable to help hunt monsters, he had always skipped his turn when it came to eating elixir pellets.

So I targeted that point.

Wasn’t the best way to avoid suspicion to make someone suspect something else?

“I thought you felt awkward eating them in front of the others, so I came out at night.”

“...”

Yang Japyeong's fierce gaze subtly wavered.

“You have suffered because of us. I thought I should at least take care of you with something like this.”

Soon, his gaze softened.

“...I’m fine...”

“Come on, I put thought into this...”

“No, still...”

“Are you going to keep making a mockery of my good intentions?”

Seriously, enough refusing. Just eat it.

I would need to keep moving at night from now on.

It would be better if Yang Japyeong simply chose to overlook it.

“...Th-Then I’ll try just one.”

Still uncertain, he put one fruit in his mouth and chewed.

Then, as if he immediately felt something, his eyes flew open.

I smiled in satisfaction and nodded.

“Hurry and begin qi-regulating breathing. You’ll wake the others.”

Yang Japyeong hesitated, then sat cross-legged and closed his eyes.

That was also permission for me to keep absorbing poison cores from now on.

We finally entered the Demonic Realm.

Sure enough, the number of monsters increased once we entered.

Still, there were no major problems.

The group members had practically become half-Mukrim natives by now. They hunted skillfully, cut open the monsters to remove their poison cores, then divided and consumed the elixir pellets.

Nothing else was particularly different.

Normally, finding the way should have become harder as the spirit veins’ power grew stronger.

“This way.”

There was now another person in our group besides Yang Japyeong who could read spirit veins.

“Eunho.”

“Yes, Eldest Senior Brother.”

“Am I not impressive?”

“...”

I helped whenever Yang Japyeong became confused, so our exploration speed within the Demonic Realm did not slow much.

“...By the way, the noisy sounds have stopped.”

Namgung Seonhwa said, looking toward one side of the forest.

Just as she said, the sounds that had echoed for four days and nights suddenly stopped, and no noise could be heard anymore.

“...You are all right, aren’t you, Young Master?”

For some reason, Namgung Seonhwa asked me that.

I answered casually.

“Ah, ah, wh-why would there be any reason for me not to be all right?”

“...”

I wasn’t hurt, and I was not even a little jealous.

It was only a formality, but we had gradually begun making a map of the Demonic Realm. Once that was finished, our work in Mukrim would be over.

Then we only needed to return to the garrison, spend the remaining days there, and go back to the Martial Arts Academy.

“They say every little bit adds up. Now that we’ve gathered so much, it really does seem like quite a lot.”

Those who shared the elixir pellets from the monsters and the fruit I gathered at night had achieved a satisfying increase in internal energy.

‘Well, it’s nothing compared to mine.’

The Azure Dragon Bangle was truly an abnormal item. I had not eaten a single elixir pellet or fruit, yet I had increased my internal energy more than anyone else here.

One night, after we had made camp, a presence came from the forest.

Rustle.

Every group member immediately drew their weapons and took up guard positions.

A familiar face soon pushed through the brush.

“...Lecturer?”

Seong Moran tilted her head at No Jinha.

His appearance was very different from when we had seen him several days ago.

“What happened to you?”

One eye was wrapped in bandages, and deep burn marks covered his face.

He glared fiercely and growled.

“Did a divine spirit come here?”

What kind of nonsense was that?

“Surely you bastards did not hunt the divine spirit?”

No Jinha and his group glared at me.

“Answer me, Jin Sowoon. Did you capture the divine spirit?”

“What kind of bullshit are you...”

Before I could finish speaking, Saryeon stepped forward.

“We have not even seen a divine spirit.”

“I will not forgive lies.”

“Why would we lie? If we caught one, it would be better for us to say so honestly. It is not as if we committed some grave offense.”

No Jinha's lips twitched at Saryeon’s words. He snorted and turned away.

“As if Taeul Sect trash could hunt a divine spirit.”

After spouting that nonsense, No Jinha quickly disappeared into the brush.

Seong Moran spoke in quiet amazement.

“It seems hunting the divine spirit was not easy.”

“I suppose not. The lecturers are all Hall Master-level or above in the Martial Alliance, and they mobilized many members of the Orthodox Society too.”

I agreed with them and felt relieved.

If we had joined the divine spirit hunt, we might have suffered those losses ourselves.

“If there were casualties during the divine spirit hunt, the lecturers will not escape responsibility either... Will they be all right?”

At Seong Moran's words, I smiled pleasantly.

“Why should we care about that?”

People should take responsibility for digging their own graves.

Darkness fell over Mukrim again.

I slowly suppressed my presence and left camp.

Yang Japyeong, who woke every two hours, would notice that I had gone out, but it did not matter much now.

The fruit I brought back every night had sealed his mouth tighter than any lock.

More monsters appeared after we entered the Demonic Realm, so I had to move more diligently than when we were near the garrison. It was not particularly hard, though.

It meant more chances to absorb poison cores.

Once we returned to the garrison, there would be too many eyes around for me to wander about at night.

This was my last chance to gather internal energy.

So I absorbed a total of eight poison cores, until all feeling vanished from my hands, then calmly returned to the others.

“There aren’t many fruits in the Demonic Realm.”

This Mukrim, which seemed to grow however it pleased, did not have even a speck of consistency.

The spirit veins were stronger, yet there were no fruits infused with their energy.

Still, I raised my Divine Sense as much as possible and thoroughly searched the Demonic Realm.

Whoosh.

A bright flame shone intensely through the darkness.

“Hmm?”

For a moment, I was confused.