WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 343: Life and Death (4)
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Jong Chuak unconsciously loosened his clothes.
His sect and master had taught him to maintain proper conduct in any situation, but such teachings easily vanished before pain so intense that even breathing was difficult.
Each breath came harder than the last.
He had reached his physical limit, and his internal energy had run dry. Both surely played a part.
Still, this was different.
Fundamentally different.
It felt as if he were gasping for air in a space thick with poisonous mist.
Every breath he drew felt as though his acupoints were being torn apart.
Every breath he released felt as though his Eight Extraordinary Meridians were twisting.
Yet he could neither sit down nor rest.
The Unit Commander had ordered them never to stop.
The order was one thing, but there was no chance to stop anyway.
Monsters rushed at them from all directions.
Enemies of unknown identity attacked them.
Clang, clang, clang, clang!
Jong Chuak, who wanted to collapse and lose consciousness right then, swung his sword again and again.
Even so, he took another step forward, leaving the remaining enemies to those behind him.
“Gasp! Gasp! Gasp! Gasp!”
“Are you all right?!”
Wi Ripgun, injured from the start, patted Jong Chuak’s shoulder and asked after him.
“I, I’m fine...”
“Fall back for a moment. I’ll take the front.”
“No...”
“Aren’t we in the same unit now? If we can’t help one another, the entire Fifth Unit could be wiped out.”
“...”
The unit, haphazardly assembled from the Orthodox Society, White Path Society, Twelve Peak Alliance, and everyone else, had blended together so well that its initial disorder and awkwardness seemed almost unreal.
Their terrible circumstances might have forged a sense of belonging beyond their sects, but too little time had passed for that alone to explain such solidarity.
It was more likely that the Fifth Unit’s role, and the people chosen for it, had made that unity easier.
Jong Chuak was not alone in thinking so. Quiet exclamations rose all around him.
“How are we working together this well?”
“I know Mount Zhongnan Sect’s martial arts, but aren’t they completely different from our sect’s?”
“Exactly. When he put us in the Fifth Unit the moment he saw us, I thought he was just assigning people however he wanted... Guess not.”
“Who the hell is our Unit Commander...?”
Everyone looked toward the very front of the procession.
Their Unit Commander stood there, as dependable as Mount Tai.
He was fighting most fiercely at the forefront of the fiercest battlefield.
Ilgak and Nam Hwaseong rotated positions according to their turns, but Jin Sowoon continued running at the front.
He was clearly just as exhausted and wounded as they were, yet Jin Sowoon had not fallen back even once.
Like a torch burning itself away, he lit the dark path and led the Academy students from the front.
Then...
“Damn it. Damn it. Damn it.”
Gun Daseong of Mount Cang Sect, whose muscles had weakened after the long battle and who had been resting briefly, began striking his own arm.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Jong Chuak hurriedly stopped him.
“Hey! What are you doing?!”
“Let go! I’m Gun Daseong of Mount Cang Sect...! Do you think I can stand here breathing a sigh of relief in the shadow of a third-rate sect like Taeul Sect?!”
His words were rough, but Jong Chuak could feel the sincerity beneath them.
He was frustrated by his own helplessness.
He despised the past version of himself that had insulted Jin Sowoon.
“...”
Jong Chuak felt the same way, so he could not stop him any longer.
Gun Daseong kept striking his arm senselessly until feeling returned to it, then repeatedly clenched and opened his fingers.
After doing so for a moment, Gun Daseong spoke.
“Good. It moves. Switch with me!”
Gun Daseong moved toward the edge of the formation to face the monsters.
The unit members guarding the perimeter immediately shoved him back.
“What are you talking about? Wait your turn! It’ll be a while before your turn comes.”
“What do you mean...?”
“You think we’re comfortable with this?!”
“...”
It was strange.
Sects that had been bitter rivals were looking out for one another while their lives hung by a thread.
They were not sacrificing themselves for their own sect brothers.
They were sacrificing themselves for their unit members.
They had never fought together before, yet everyone acted as though this were only natural.
Even in a dangerous situation where no one knew when or how they might die.
‘Why...?’
Boom!
A massive explosion rang in Jong Chuak’s ears.
Everyone turned toward the sound from ahead.
There, they saw Jin Sowoon from behind as he pushed aside enemies mixed among the monsters and took another step forward.
“Huff...”
‘Jin Sowoon...’
Jong Chuak could not understand why people from different sects and backgrounds, even former enemies, were caring for one another as though they were one body.
Yet somehow, it made sense.
Whenever he looked at that small back, something surged inside his chest as though it would burst.
Jong Chuak gathered what strength he had recovered and switched with another person.
Once again, it was someone neither from Qingcheng Sect nor the Orthodox Society.
#
In my previous life, I was always at the rear.
Even when the disciples of Taeul Sect went to the battlefield at Gye Cheolyeong’s urging, I remained buried in the Mantong Office, repeatedly memorizing documents.
Even when I became a meat shield as a member of the Sojeong Unit, I stood at the very back, staring only at the backs of those damned bastards.
The impractical martial arts and meager internal energy of a third-rate sect like Taeul Sect were less useful than the crude martial arts cobbled together by low-ranking martial artists wandering the mercenary circles.
[Stay back, you scholar brat!]
[More accurately, he isn’t actually a scholar. He wasn’t good at studying!]
[Young Master Jin, stand behind me.]
Even the Sojeong Unit members who had lived like weeds, and Moyong Seol, who had lost her clan, always stood in front of me.
I was the first to tire, so I survived the longest.
Even though I had been no help at all.
I resented the sect that had made me feel such guilt.
I blamed myself again and again, wondering how weakness could be such a sin.
That was why...
After receiving another life, I searched for spiritual medicines like a madman.
Because I never wanted to see their backs again.
Because I did not want to lay the same nightmare over the nightmare that would never fade.
Because, in this life at least, I wanted to protect my people.
So I struggled and fought desperately.
And now.
There was no one standing in front of me.
Clang, clang, clang!
A martial artist in dark crimson robes barely avoided the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
‘Have I lost strength?’
Normally, I should have cut him down in one blow.
If he had been driven aside, I would have left him to the other unit members. Instead, as though he was targeting me, he retreated before rushing at me again.
“You damned bastards!”
As I thrust the Scarlet Radiance Sword forward, his sword stabbed toward me as well.
As though their lives meant nothing if they could kill me.
But that was not how this calculation worked.
You really thought your lives held the same value as mine?
“You think you’ll get your way?!”
I twisted the sword’s path and stepped into his guard.
His sword barely grazed my neck.
I could not even count how many wounds I had taken.
In exchange for the wound, I seized his body and unleashed Lotus.
Whoosh!
Just as his airborne body was about to fall onto the Academy students’ heads...
Crunch.
Nam Hwaseong, standing behind me, crushed his head in one blow.
“Unit Commander-nim, you’re slowing down!”
The people following him wildly stabbed the demonic being’s vital acupoints with their weapons.
“Bullshit. You’re the ones overexerting yourselves.”
“Shouldn’t you start falling back, Unit Commander Jin?”
The bastards who called me “Unit Commander-nim” kept speaking rudely.
The ones who spoke politely called me “Unit Commander.” Damn bastards.
Could a ragtag unit of idiots like this really escape Mukrim?
Strict discipline was what showed a group’s martial strength.
“Well, you’ve overdone it for a Taeul Sect disciple.”
This time, Wang Joeun of Yuwol Sect stepped in front of me and began running.
Then...
“I was going to properly teach you what an illusion sword is one day.”
Jo Gaeryong of Mount Hua Sect also started running ahead of me.
“Have you forgotten that the Unit Commander’s orders are absolute?”
“If my master learns I hid behind a Taeul Sect disciple, they’ll kill me.”
That bastard was remarkably good at speaking disrespectfully.
“Don’t be so hard on us. What commander in the world stands at the very front?”
Another person passed ahead of me after leaving those words behind.
As we neared the Demonic Realm, the enemy attacks were becoming fiercer and fiercer.
What was this? Did they want to die?
“You bastards, don’t you realize there are more and more enemies?”
Just as I had expected, the monsters reacted sharply to demonic qi.
The demonic beings did not appear while monsters were present. When monsters showed up while we were fighting demonic beings, they attacked the demonic beings first.
The intervals between attacks were also becoming shorter as we approached the Demonic Realm.
“We know. That’s why we’re doing this.”
“What are you talking...!”
Then Ilgak, who had been running behind me, placed a hand on my shoulder.
“Benefactor Jin, I have heard that the Demonic Realm is an even more dangerous place. Wouldn’t it be better to recuperate a little before entering it?”
“Recuperate, my ass...”
“And standing in the rear does not mean we will not fight.”
So they really were elites, after all.
Before I knew it, I was once again running while looking at someone’s back, just as I had in my previous life.
But unlike before, I did not feel helpless or depressed.
Instead, an indescribable, strangely warm emotion filled me.
I swallowed down the feeling trying to rise out of me.
“I told you to call me Unit Commander, you bald monk!”
“Pfft. Calling Master Ilgak a bald monk? Shaolin Temple would faint if they heard that!”
The First Unit members burst into laughter.
How could they laugh at a time like this?
The laughter eventually died down.
“Unit Commander, I’ll keep your secret. Buy us drinks once we’re out of here.”
“Drinks?”
“You may be an unofficial unit commander, but you’re still the commander. It is Martial Alliance tradition for a commander to buy the unit drinks after an operation.”
Come to think of it, that was why the Sojeong Unit bastards had hated serving as Unit Leader too.
Well, I had more than enough money now. Buying drinks was nothing.
Sharing a drink while facing each other would not be so bad either.
“Fine. I’ll buy. I’ll buy enough to drink yourselves to death, so fight properly.”
“Huh? You’re buying for us regardless of affiliation?”
Jo Gaeryong of Mount Hua Sect spun around and asked.
That bastard was supposed to be a Taoist disciple...
“Enemy! Enemy!”
“Good grief! Eat this!”
Deadly plum blossoms fluttered through the air and split a demonic being’s chest apart.
After barely dealing with the enemy, Jo Gaeryong turned to me again.
“Huff... You’re really buying?”
“Yeah. I’ll buy for each unit separately, so drink as much as you want.”
“Hehe. Then we can show you how well Mount Hua Sect drinks.”
The corners of his eyes curved seductively, and the other unit members’ eyes twitched as well.
Since when had they gotten close?
They exchanged glances and shared rotten smiles.
It was so unpleasant to watch that I looked toward the rear and sent Eunho a sound transmission.
-How is it over there?
Eunho, who had been running with a stern expression, flinched in surprise before meeting my eyes.
-There have been casualties, but we are all right.
My heart dropped at the word casualties.
-What casualties?
-We are being attacked from the flanks too.
-What about Taeul Sect and the unit members?
-They are all right.
All right. You say you’re all right...
My hands tightened.
-You are doing well.
-Senior Brother...
The sound transmission abruptly cut off.
When I turned back, Eunho was staring at me intently.
-What is it? Is something wrong?
-...No. Be careful.
-Worry about yourself.
-...
Boom!
The sounds of explosions and clashing weapons continued without pause.
With every step, the threat of death grew greater.
Still, I could not stop.
The moment I did, it would all be over.
#
After running for two full days, we reached the vicinity of the Demonic Realm.
The number of savage monsters continued to rise, while attacks by demonic beings became less frequent.
‘They never expected us to pass through the Demonic Realm in the first place.’
Only madmen would choose such a route.
Well, the fact that I was a madman was the variable here.
Still, I could not relax completely.
If they realized we were taking an unexpected route, they would have rearranged their units and would be rushing here with everything they had.
‘Just once... They will strike at the end.’
If I were the Demonic Cult, I would bind the feet of Academy students who could not move quickly anyway, then aim for one final blow.
One blow right before we entered the Demonic Realm.
I had recovered some stamina while staying in the rear. It was time to move forward again.
“Unit Commander, why have you come forward? I told you to stay planted in the rear.”
Covered from head to toe in blood, Wang Joeun still cracked a joke like that.
Someone with no sense of humor whatsoever.
“Get ready.”
“Hm?”
“They are coming.”
“I cannot sense any...”
Wang Joeun trailed off.
The silence quickly spread from the First Unit to every other unit.
“Well, their attacks did suddenly decrease.”
“Fuck, that gives me chills.”
“How long have they been hiding in this forest...?”
The air grew heavy.
Those who had only just crossed a land of certain death felt death closing in again.
The procession fell silent without even making crude jokes.
Only the Academy students’ footsteps echoed through the forest.
I gave them comfort that would not comfort them.
“You all saw it. The monsters attack the enemy before us. Once we enter the Demonic Realm, we will at least only have to deal with monsters.”
“...”
The heavy air remained.
“Right! Fighting monsters is better!”
Nam Hwaseong, standing beside me, awkwardly joined in.
Jang Gwangbo continued.
“He is right! At least monsters scream!”
“That’s right...! They are better than those bastards!”
“Let’s kill them all!!!”
Awkward, clumsy threats erupted from all around us.
That was enough.
Once the true battle began, they would fight without even having time to think anyway.
And...
‘If we keep fighting like that, we can survive again.’
Those still capable of fighting properly came forward, regardless of whether they belonged to the First Unit or Second Unit.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
The fact that someone who looked ready to collapse was among those most able to fight showed just how terrible our situation had become.
“Where is the bastard who said he would teach me what an illusion sword is? Is the Mount Hua Sect disciple tired already?”
“...”
“...Is he dead?”
“He said he was going to rest for a little while.”
“I see...”
He would not be joining the drinking party later.
He had bragged about showing me Mount Hua Sect’s drinking capacity too...
Damn it.
“Argh!”
Shouting let some of the anger threatening to burst in my chest settle down.
I had been fighting so frantically that my mind did not seem to be working properly.
Was this why commanders were told to stay in the rear?
I did not know anymore.
For my people.
To protect them somehow, I had thought it did not matter what I did.
They had done the same thing in my previous life, after all.
So I had thought it was all right for me to do the same.
But this was not as one-sided as what they had done.
Was it because they, the people in this unit, had become my unit members now?
Or because I had watched too many people die with my own eyes?
My chest, which I thought would be fine, felt ready to burst.
Thump.
Why was I like this?
The Orthodox Society, White Path Society, and Twelve Peak Alliance.
No one had ever taken our side in the past.
Thump.
No matter how many times I recited the Taeul True Scripture, my pounding heart would not settle.
It felt as though I had witnessed a friend’s death.
Even though they had never once been my friends.
Thump!
Maybe I had been poisoned by demonic qi.
Their demonic qi could cloud the mind.
Yes, that was probably the likeliest explanation.
There could be demonic qi that even the Red Phoenix Bangle could not detoxify.
But whatever the reason...
“Arghhhhhhh!”
I was sick of death.
My people.
Those who competed against me.
Those who had never acknowledged me.
Whoever they were.
Thump!
I did not want to see anyone turn into a corpse anymore.
Yes. I did not want to remember scenes like this anymore.
“Unit Commander-nim!”
Then someone grabbed my shoulder and gestured with their chin.
Creak. Creak. Creak.
The sound of solid trees snapping echoed in my ears.
As though they had made a promise, everyone swallowed and tightened their grips on their weapons.
They instinctively understood what the sound from ahead meant.
‘The decisive battle.’
If the goal of those who had attacked us until now was to obstruct our route, the reason for that obstruction must have been to reorganize their forces.
They were regathering the units that had scattered to form the Heavenly Net and Earthly Web.
Thud. Thud. Thud. Thud.
Trees fell all at once, and the natural formation was broken.
Then...
Whoosh. Whoosh. Whoosh.
Torches ignited all at once in the dark forest.
At the sight of countless flickering flames, the figures of comrades whose lives were being extinguished overlapped in my mind.
I pressed down the fury that threatened to burst from me and vowed again and again.
If I could cast those bastards into hell, I would gladly become its hellfire.
Footnotes:
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