WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 332: Chasing Shadows (2)
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We came across more stragglers.
“Damn it...”
It wasn't a welcome reunion.
“What the hell is going on...?”
All three Martial Arts Academy students we found were dead.
“Brother Baek!”
Several Orthodox Society members who seemed to know them turned pale and rushed toward the bodies.
“What happened? What the hell happened...?!”
Yet none of them even dared attempt first aid.
The bodies had all been horribly torn apart.
I approached the corpses, examined their wounds, and checked the Red Phoenix Bangle.
“...”
The Red Phoenix Bangle showed no reaction.
‘Should I consider that fortunate?’
Even Seong Moran, who had just finished putting the Orthodox Society members in their place, wore a worried expression.
“Who could have done this...?”
“Monsters, most likely.”
“Monsters?”
She looked as though she couldn't believe it.
That was understandable.
Martial Arts Academy students were, for the most part, exceptional enough to outclass others their age.
Every sect and clan had poured its full resources into cultivating them.
Besides, our unit hadn't stopped hunting monsters since entering Mukrim.
And those very monsters had done this to them.
It was hard to believe.
“There are spots on their arms. They were probably poisoned.”
“Poison...”
It likely wasn't a particularly potent poison.
Just the venom of some insignificant insect, something anyone with profound internal energy could have overcome.
But their terrible circumstances had ultimately turned them into lonely ghosts.
“After separating from the main group, they must have wandered until they were exhausted, been poisoned, and then attacked by monsters.”
Internal-energy training gave one the strength to endure even extreme conditions, but it could also make matters worse.
Their faster legs had probably led them around the same area several times. Their greater strength likely made them believe they could overcome the problem, even when they should have been conserving their energy and quietly holding out.
In the end, excessive confidence had driven them to their deaths.
This was likely what Yang Japyeong had been wary of throughout their time in Mukrim.
“We need to move faster.”
I didn't know how many people had fallen behind, but if things went wrong, there might be mass casualties.
Our pace naturally quickened.
“Representative, I think we need to turn back here.”
Yang Japyeong spoke as he looked at the enormous natural formation before us.
Instead of answering, I looked at the hunter.
“To be honest, the scent has already grown faint. They're two days away now.”
In other words, we had no strength left to turn back.
I looked behind me.
Our numbers had risen to nearly fifty.
There was no guarantee all of them could safely pass through the natural formation.
“Perhaps we should leave some people behind, find the others, and return for them later...”
Ignoring the hunter's suggestion, I stepped forward.
Leave them behind?
In this situation, it was the right thing to say.
But...
“...”
I had a feeling that when we came back for them later, none of them would still be alive.
Rumble.
A powerful vibration shook my palm.
Considering where we were, I'd planned to avoid wasting my strength on anything unnecessary.
But I had no choice.
Kwauuuung!
With a tremendous explosion, the natural formation blocking our path vanished without a trace.
I turned back and shrugged.
“Let's go. Carrying corpses back will be much harder. Isn't it better to bring them along while they're alive?”
“...”
No one could answer me.
#
The deeper we entered the Demonic Realm, the wider the natural formations became.
Yet the scent the hunter followed continued through those formations.
As a result...
“Young Master Jin, stop. At this rate, you'll collapse before anyone else.”
I drained the cold water Eun Seollan held out in one gulp.
My physical exhaustion was severe compared to the internal energy I was using.
If I was this tired, I didn't need to look at the others to know how they felt.
“I'm still fine. I've also been practicing qi-regulating breathing whenever we rest.”
Of course, I was using more than I could recover. That was the problem.
“Young Master, just tell us from now on. If we pool our strength, we can destroy natural formations too.”
Namgung Seonhwa brought several Orthodox Society members over as she spoke.
They couldn't properly meet my eyes, looking embarrassed, but one of them still muttered with a flushed face.
“W-well, if you collapse from exhaustion, we'll get lost in this forest too. Don't get the wrong idea.”
I watched Namgung Seonhwa, who had gotten them moving, then smiled faintly.
She was more resolute than I'd expected.
“All right.”
I nodded without objection.
It wasn't a solution to keep draining my strength alone.
Still, as we continued forward, only bad signs appeared.
The stragglers we encountered half a shichen later were also cold corpses.
“...They're dead. They weren't even poisoned.”
“...”
Five more bodies.
The Red Phoenix Bangle hadn't shaken, but I noticed something strange about the wounds.
‘They're definitely blade wounds...’
The injuries had been torn apart as though made by beasts, but the sharp cuts were unmistakable.
“These people weren't killed by monsters.”
“What? What do you mean...?”
I pointed to another corpse's chest.
“The marks resemble the claw wounds we saw before, but the cross-sections of these injuries are too clean.”
“They are...”
The Orthodox Society members who had quietly listened from nearby flew into a rage.
“Who would dare?! How dare they attack us...!”
Whether the Orthodox Society members were angry or not, my thoughts were a mess.
“Senior Brother.”
Eunho approached with a troubled expression, as though he felt the same unease I did.
I asked him, “What do you think?”
“There's only been one question on my mind.”
“What is it?”
“The signal flares.”
“...!”
Every Academy student had been issued three signal flares in case of an emergency in Mukrim.
Green if they got lost, yellow if they were injured, and...
“Shouldn't they have fired red signal flares in a situation like this?”
“They should have.”
Eunho handed me several signal flares that he seemed to have recovered from the corpses.
“But none of them were used.”
“...We should assume they couldn't use them.”
“Yes.”
If they had been facing someone, if there had been any kind of standoff...
They would have fired a flare.
No matter how strong their opponent was, Academy students could create at least that much of an opening.
Yet they hadn't used a single signal flare.
“We have to assume they were ambushed.”
“Since this is forbidden ground, they wouldn't have expected anyone other than us to be here.”
“And if someone did appear, they would've assumed it was a rescue party or fellow Academy students.”
“They must have taken advantage of their lowered guard.”
I hurriedly rose to my feet.
“We need to move quickly.”
“Yes. We need to join the main group as soon as possible. The lecturers will be there.”
Eunho was right.
None of the Martial Arts Academy students had prepared for something like this.
No one could have foreseen it either.
Just look at the situation now.
The Orthodox Society members were only enraged by the deaths before them. They couldn't see what lay ahead.
I stared into the endless darkness of the forest.
“We move again.”
Something was happening in Mukrim.
#
“Brother Jong, are we really just going to leave like this?”
“...”
“Brother Jong!”
Jong Chuak shook off the hand gripping his shoulder.
“Are we really just going to keep following them?”
“Then what do you suggest?”
“We need to collect the bodies and...”
“Jin Sowoon said he'll collect them later!”
The expression of the person pressing Jong Chuak somehow stiffened.
“You're going to listen to Jin Sowoon? Do you think the Qingcheng Sect seniors will be pleased when they hear about this...?”
“Shut your mouth.”
“...!”
Jong Chuak bit down on his lip and roughly seized the man's collar.
“Why don't you say that to Jin Sowoon yourself?”
“...”
“What? You can't say it?”
Of course he couldn't. The people at the front, opening the way and fighting the monsters, were the group they had always despised so much, Jin Sowoon's group.
Jong Chuak casually released the man's collar.
‘What the hell has Jin Sowoon been doing?’
Perhaps because of the harsh environment, using martial arts had become difficult ever since they entered Mukrim.
Then they fell behind the main group. After getting bitten by a venomous insect, even recovering their strength had become difficult.
He had trained more harshly than anyone in the Qingcheng Sect, yet in Mukrim, he kept proving useless, like someone who had never learned martial arts in his life.
He raised his head and looked toward the front.
A solid back came into view.
‘Jin Sowoon...’
Unlike him, Jin Sowoon's group moved as actively as they usually did, if not more so.
They hunted monsters, checked the wounded, took the lead in clearing the path, and watched over everyone from the rear as they moved.
Perhaps because he had watched them do this again and again, he became increasingly certain that he couldn't leave this group.
“If you can't do it, shut up and follow. There's nothing we can do right now.”
It was humiliating, but there was no choice.
Ever since they separated from the main group, an unknown sense of unease had kept closing in on him.
Still, whenever he followed Jin Sowoon, he felt a little better.
“Tch! The great Jong Chuak has really fallen this far.”
The sneers of the other Orthodox Society members didn't bother him either.
Survival was all that mattered now.
Then...
“...Gasp!”
The man who had been sneering as he returned to his place froze stiffly while staring into the bushes.
“M-monster...”
The monster that had been no more than prey had now become a predator, aiming for their throats.
“What are you doing? Run, now...!”
Before Jong Chuak's shout could ring out, the monster moved first.
Kraaaah!
The enormous Imugi[1], about to swallow the man's head in one bite, failed to reach its target when a sword pierced straight through its head.
Thwack-
“...That's not even a monster. Get a grip. Even weakened, you people can handle something at this level.”
“...Uh, well...”
The man who had cursed Jin Sowoon moments ago was so shocked that he couldn't even rise.
Jin Sowoon looked at Jong Chuak.
“Horse-nosed Taoist. You can look after this one, right?”
Jong Chuak barely managed to part his lips.
“...Why are you doing this much for us?”
“What?”
He looked toward the front.
Though Jin Sowoon had been walking with short strides, there had still been a distance of three jang between them.
It was obvious that Jin Sowoon had used a fair amount of internal energy to cross that distance.
That was why Jong Chuak couldn't understand.
They were already struggling this much, so there was no way Jin Sowoon wasn't struggling too.
“Why are you going this far to protect us as well?”
Jin Sowoon could have simply ignored them.
Even if someone died, no one would have held Jin Sowoon responsible.
Yet he had come all this way, pushing himself to his limits.
“What's your purpose...?”
“Didn't you want to live?”
“What?”
“You followed us because you wanted to live, didn't you?”
“...”
Jin Sowoon casually sheathed his sword and replied.
“Then I believe it's my job to protect you all as much as I can, for as long as I have the strength. That's all.”
“...”
“Does that answer your question? Then look after this one.”
Jin Sowoon lifted the collapsed man and placed him over Jong Chuak's shoulder before walking forward again.
Jong Chuak looked at his retreating back and thought,
‘...Was he always that big?’
Someone more immense than Mount Tai stood before him.
#
The sun set quickly in Mukrim.
And once it set, darkness swiftly swallowed the surroundings.
‘Not even the moonlight reaches this place.’
The thick trees blocked out even the moon, making it feel as though everything had sunk into darkness.
We lit torches, but they only let us see one jang ahead.
That was why we hadn't moved at night until now.
But we had no choice but to keep moving.
We gathered the injured in the center as much as possible, and had each person carry two others.
Otherwise, we couldn't protect the group while moving forward.
“Representative, shouldn't you rest now? I'll take the lead.”
Yang Japyeong offered to lead the way, but that wasn't an option.
I couldn't put him in front when a monster could appear at any moment.
I still had some strength left, too.
“It's all right. We're almost there, so there's no need to worry.”
According to the hunter, the people who had been two days away were now only half a day away.
Considering that we had traveled for about a day, that meant the main group had stayed in one place.
Once we met the main group and joined the lecturers, getting out of Mukrim would certainly become much easier.
“W-we're almost there.”
The hunter, who had been following the scent, reported this, and everyone who had joined us, including my unit members, breathed sighs of relief.
Once we joined the main group, we would at least have some measure of safety.
We pushed through the bushes and entered a small clearing.
The people resting there quickly rose and drew their swords at our arrival.
Chaeng, chaeng, chaeng!
So the main group had been on guard after all?
I quickly shouted, “I'm Jin Sowoon, the Martial Arts Academy representative!”
“Jin... Sowoon? Jin Sowoon?”
“That's right.”
I held my torch close to my face and approached.
The dozens of people seated in the clearing rose one by one.
I asked them, “Where are the lecturers? They've noticed something strange is going on, haven't they?”
We could deal with the fact that they had abandoned the stragglers to hunt divine spirits later.
For now, we first needed to discuss what was happening in Mukrim and how to prepare for it.
“...”
But no one answered.
“Where are the lecturers?”
“They aren't here...”
“What? Isn't this the main group? With this many people, you're obviously the main group.”
“That's true, but...”
What was this uneasy atmosphere?
The Orthodox Society members who usually treated me with hostility weren't acting like themselves.
They all looked dejected and drained.
“The lecturers went to the camp first.”
“...”
Had I been poisoned on the way here? I was hearing nonsense.
“What the hell are you talking about? The lecturers went ahead first...?”
“They told us to wait here. They said they'd lead the others back...”
Something was strange. Then what about the hunter who had guided us? We came here because the scent led here.
“B-brother!”
The hunter who had guided us using tracking incense discovered a corpse, crawled over to it, and burst into tears.
More than ten Academy student corpses lay beside it.
“What the...?”
My vision spun.
A terrible premonition swept through my body.
Why was I feeling the same unpleasant sensation I had experienced in my previous life?
Then...
Piiiiing.
A sharp sound cutting through the air rang out.
Bang!
A red light flashed through the dense brush.
“Senior Brother!”
It came from the northeast.
The camp's direction.
Before anyone could say another word, the sound of another signal flare rising echoed out.
Piiiiing!
Bang!
This time, it came from the southeast.
But it didn't end there.
Piiiiing.
Bang!
Piiiiing.
Bang!
Ominous signal flares continued to paint Mukrim red.
[1] Imugi, a Korean mythical giant serpent believed capable of becoming a true dragon.
Footnotes:
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