The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 334

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 334: Division

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After the Orthodox-Demonic War began to turn decisively against them, the Martial Alliance discussed relocating its headquarters from Wuhan to the Northern Sea to escape the Demonic Cult's relentless offensive.

Then the Beggar Sect made a shocking announcement.

The Demonic Cult had been active throughout the Central Plains even before the Orthodox-Demonic War. Before starting the war, they had laid the foundation for victory through countless schemes.

That startling information left the Martial Alliance leadership trembling in fear, yet it also made them turn away from reality and dismiss it as absurd misinformation.

Naturally, no one pointed out the ridiculous fact that they had only learned this after the Orthodox-Demonic War was nearly over.

They could not bear being ridiculed by their enemies, then by their own side, especially those they had looked down on.

Thousands of pages of classified documents were burned without approval from either the Profound Mystery Pavilion or the Mantong Office.

Because of that, I had been unable to access this information in my previous life.

Everything they had done.

Every plot they had devised.

Still, I could tell that the events which had seemed coincidental in my past life were not coincidences at all. I could also guess what they wanted.

Their attempt to assassinate Moyong Sangwon. Their interference in the regular examination, where they sought to have Academy students killed through a borrowed blade.

Their infiltration of the Black Alliance and attempt to shape its forces as they pleased.

Looking at the whole chain of events, they wanted the Central Plains to be filled with chaos until they revealed themselves.

The moment they stepped into the open, all eyes would turn to them. They did not want to become a common enemy.

‘Then why now?’

What was happening in Mukrim was different from everything before.

They wore the mask of divine spirits, but showed no intention of truly hiding themselves.

Like a tiger wearing a rabbit mask.

It made no attempt to hide its bold stripes or mountain-sized body, shamelessly insisting that it was a rabbit.

‘Fucking bastards... At least hide your claws.’

Clear blade marks ran across the corpses.

Before, they had at least gone through the trouble of hacking their victims apart messily. Now, even that was gone.

As if they wanted us to know exactly who had done it, they stabbed vital acupoints and cut through fatal points in a single stroke.

“Th-this is the divine spirit's curse...”

“This happened because we tried to hunt divine spirits...”

“No. I don't want to die here!”

Was it because this was the first time they had witnessed death on such a large scale?

Or because their own deaths were so far from something they could accept?

It was not their first time seeing corpses, yet they could not escape the shock.

I checked on my group.

My group members were also struggling desperately to contain their turbulent emotions.

This would not do.

The first battle was when newly deployed martial artists died most often.

Most deaths were not caused by an overwhelming gap in strength, but by the carelessness brought on by trauma.

So...

‘Fuck...’

If this atmosphere continued, everyone here would die.

“Get a hold of yourselves!!!”

I poured internal energy into my voice and shouted.

They turned to me with vacant eyes.

They still had not come to their senses.

I drew another breath.

“Get a hold of yourselves!!!”

“...”

“I said get a hold of yourselves, you bastards!!!”

At my repeated shouts, a glimmer slowly returned to their eyes.

Then their faces turned pale at the noise.

“Q-quiet! What if a divine spirit appears?”

“Crazy bastard... Are you trying to announce our location to all of them?!”

People who had acted as if they alone ruled heaven and earth were frightened stiff by spirit creatures. They had definitely lost their reason.

That only made me shout louder.

“Get a hold of yourselves!!!”

“Fuck, get a hold of yourselves already!!!”

After I repeated myself about five times, no one remained standing around in a daze.

Instead, they became worked up and rushed at me, each trying to cover my mouth.

Thud! Thud!

As if I would let that happen.

“Th-that crazy bastard!”

“You asshole! How can you attack us?!”

Those sprawled on the ground gritted their teeth.

Only then did I lower my voice.

“Feeling a little clearer now?”

“What?”

“Stop blaming this shit on divine spirits.”

“...”

I pointed at the corpses.

“Do those still look like claw marks and bite wounds to you?”

Only then did the Academy students stare at the corpses properly.

They had trained with weapons from the time they first learned to walk. There was no way they could not distinguish wounds made by beasts from wounds made by weapons.

“...”

Perhaps they knew enough to be ashamed, because their faces reddened.

“The greatest danger right now isn't monsters or the weather.”

“...”

“Did you not learn that losing your cool-headed reason is the most frightening thing of all?”

Of course they had learned it.

The importance of cold, clear reason was one of the most basic and fundamental values taught from the moment they first held a sword, from the moment they first gathered internal energy in their dantian.

It was simply too obvious. When danger arrived, they easily forgot it and surrendered their reason to panic.

Perhaps that was why it had been emphasized so much. Maybe that was human nature.

What we needed now was action, not thought. There would be time to think after we understood the situation.

“We move again.”

The Academy students moved sluggishly with the corpses before them, but soon began following me again.

They knew what mattered too.

We passed the Academy students' corpses and moved forward once more.

We neither slowed down nor rested, but no complaints came from anyone.

Everyone knew better than to carelessly run their mouths.

“Huff, huff, huff.”

“Hang in there a little longer!”

We traveled without rest, and monsters attacked without pause.

Not only the injured, but even those who had been fine began showing signs of exhaustion one by one.

The most serious issue was poisoning.

We had stayed vigilant and prepared ourselves for the venom spewed by large monsters, but we had no proper defense against the poison spread by small venomous insects.

Poisons they could have endured under normal conditions were deadly in their current state.

The symptoms were minor: paralysis, vomiting, and mild chills. But they were enough to slow the entire group.

“Representative Jin, we can't keep moving blindly. If we go on like this, everyone might collapse.”

I checked on my group.

None of my members were suffering from poison.

The work we had done to build poison resistance after entering Mukrim was paying off.

‘If the number of people who can fight keeps shrinking, people will definitely get hurt.’

In an emergency, the healthy ones would have no choice but to step up first.

That meant my group members would end up bearing greater risks.

“I'll give you an hour. Tell them to restore themselves to fighting condition before then.”

The moment I finished speaking, the Academy students dropped where they stood and began qi-regulating breathing.

As I watched them for a moment...

“Young Master Jin.”

Namgung Seonhwa handed me a water flask. It carried a chill, so she must have asked Eun Seollan for it.

“...”

“Seollan prepared it especially for you. Please drink some.”

As the cold water slid down my throat, vitality spread through my entire body as though rain had fallen on parched earth.

I thought I was fine because of the Wind Bell. Maybe I was not as fine as I had thought.

“Is Seollan all right?”

“Yes. She learned qi circulation too.”

Of everyone classified as a noncombatant, Eun Seollan was easily the busiest.

Since the injured had joined us, she had been constantly tending to them.

Only Eun Seollan could lower the temperatures of the wounded burning with fever.

“Still, please tell her not to overdo it. Her own safety comes first.”

I had no intention of abandoning my group members.

Just because the Academy students were now part of our party did not mean I would place them on the same level as my group.

Traveling with them was only an extension of the choices I had made for my group.

“...The situation is very serious, isn't it?”

Namgung Seonhwa studied my face and asked carefully. I tried to hide my expression.

“No. Once we reach the garrison, the lecturers should be there...”

“Could this be related to ‘them,’ the ones we encountered then?”

Neither of us said anything directly, but we both knew exactly what we were talking about.

As I hesitated, unsure of what to say, she continued.

“Your expression... It's the same expression you had at Puyang Plains.”

Had I been unable to relax without realizing it?

Should I tell her?

...Or would it be better to let her remain unaware like the other Academy students?

My hesitation did not last long.

Even if the worst happened, she had to be someone who survived this place.

“I can't be certain... but I think this is as dangerous as it was then.”

For Namgung Seonhwa, who had experienced the Dark Soul-Severing Unit, that might have been the worst news possible.

Even during the Orthodox-Demonic War, many people who encountered the Dark Soul-Severing Unit suffered trauma, lost their minds, and became walking corpses.

Namgung Seonhwa's response was slightly different from what I expected.

“I see.”

She looked as though she were firming her resolve.

“...Aren't you afraid?”

“I am. But...”

She looked at me with steady eyes.

“There's someone here who knows what we should do.”

Namgung Seonhwa's bright smile drew an involuntary chuckle from me.

“Isn't that giving me too much credit?”

“I'll do my best. I don't intend to be helplessly overwhelmed like last time.”

A faint killing glint shone in her eyes.

She was a martial artist too.

More than that, she was Namgung Taeha's granddaughter.

‘Does someone raised beneath a tiger never become a cat?’

Watching her, I felt the weight pressing on my chest lighten considerably.

Perhaps because my expression eased, Namgung Seonhwa looked slightly relieved as she asked me,

“Then where did the lecturers go?”

Just as she said, that was what puzzled me too.

No, why had No Jinha been kidnapped instead of killed in the first place?

And why had the lecturers who supposedly went to the garrison not issued an order to gather everyone?

I stood.

“We'll find something once we reach the garrison.”

The hour had already passed. It was time to move again.

“Hmmm... They said he was the Unit Commander of the White Tiger Pavilion, but he doesn't taste like much. The Zhongnan ones last time were quite good.”

Thud.

A watermelon-sized lump, bearing obvious bite marks, fell to the ground.

It was a human head, dead with its eyes wide open.

The severed head rolled until it stopped at the feet of the figure in a cloak.

“Did you spend every day indulging in pleasure instead of training? You taste bland. I expected more from a Taoist, tsk.”

“...”

Words spilled from the beast's long snout, but the cloaked figure said nothing.

“By the way, did you hear Jin Sowoon is here?”

“...”

The one who had shown no response to the beast's words raised his head for the first time.

“He is mine-. Touch him, and I will kill even you-.”

A rough metallic voice came from beneath the cloak, but the beast only snickered.

“That won't do. If you end up dying, I would have to take responsibility.”

Grrrk.

“Do you think the Aberrant Fiend Demon Art- can protect you, is that- it?”

Ice shards began forming around the cloaked figure.

The bloodied head at his feet hardened under the cold, and a thin layer of frost began to cover it.

“You wolf down Ice Purification and instantly forget all decency. This is why they say you should never take in a black-haired beast, tsk.”

“How dare you- call me a beast?”

The snouted beast gave a short laugh.

“Anyway, just remember that you are under my command, Je Geumhak.”

“Then carry out the mission properly. Where did you- sell off Fire Purification?”

The beast's laughter stopped.

“I am pursuing the other lecturers now. Don't worry.”

“This kind of trash- How could anyone entrust work- to you?”

“...Should I carve up that rag-like face of yours too?”

“Fire Purification- is what will allow the Little Demon- to achieve the ultimate demonic state. Remember that this operation is not simply a slaughter.”

“Hmph. I will finish the task a hundred times better than you ever could.”

Swoosh.

With those words, the beast's body vanished in an instant.

“...”

In the silence that followed, Je Geumhak turned over the head at his feet and checked its face.

No Jinha, was it?

Trash who had grovelled and begged to be spared until the end, only to die anyway.

Crack.

No Jinha's face froze solid.

The one Je Geumhak wanted to make feel this despair and terror was not No Jinha.

Je Geumhak placed his foot on No Jinha's head.

Then...

Crunch.

No Jinha's head shattered into pieces and scattered across the ground.

“Jin- Sowoon.”

A thin stream of blood flowed from Je Geumhak's mouth along with his metallic voice.

“I will show you hell.”

It was the third day since we had left the Demonic Realm.

Everyone's bodies were reaching their limits.

More than half could no longer walk on their own, and injuries continued to increase as monsters kept appearing. Even the number of people who could fight had dropped sharply.

Even so, we did not stop moving until sunset on the third day.

The garrison was right before us.

At least there had been no attack from demonic beings, the thing I had worried about.

That was the only reason so many of us had managed to make it this far.

“Hold on a little longer!”

“...”

Among those who had stood with me at the vanguard, not even half were still standing straight.

“Crazy... You're crazy, Jin Sowoon.”

“Representative.”

“Hah... Hah...”

Jong Chuak shook his head as if he was sick of it.

Then he looked ahead.