WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 35: The Second-Rate Martial Artist Seeking a Legend (7)
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Our destination was the unexplored area at the end of the map.
The person who had wandered through the caves said they had seen the Mita Sacred Water beyond that unexplored region and returned.
The cave consisted of interconnected chambers of all shapes and sizes, making it even more confusing.
There had been many cases where people fought in one chamber, retreated, became lost among the rooms, then encountered the same enemies again and were killed.
“There’s a fight ahead. We’ll go around.”
Avoiding combat as much as possible, I took one detour after another toward the destination.
“...You heard that already?”
Seong Moran, who had somehow moved close to my side, listened for a moment before looking at me in surprise.
“Just how much internal energy do you have?”
The five senses were influenced by internal energy, so heightened senses were also proof of immense reserves.
Still, I couldn’t tell her everything, so I gave her a vague answer.
“It’s probably because my internal energy is pure. The Taeul Mind Method is known for its purity, isn’t it? What you gave me last time also helped.”
“Ah...”
“That’s a relief.”
Seong Moran nodded, then followed me without another word.
As I moved forward while observing the entire cave, I gained a rough understanding of how the fighting was unfolding.
Yet at the same time, it was hard to believe five hundred people had died here.
Scattered fights continued to break out, but none were desperate enough to kill the wounded to silence them. Everyone knew that escalating a fight would inflict considerable losses on their own side as well, so most stopped after a measured show of hostility.
“...This is troublesome.”
Lost in thought, I stopped at a fork in the path.
Seeing my troubled expression, all the martial artists tightened their grips on their swords.
“What is it?”
“A fierce fight is underway along one path, while a group of people is waiting along the other.”
“And?”
“The smell of blood is quite strong on the side where they’re waiting.”
“...!”
“What should we do?”
“We didn’t enter this place just to keep avoiding people.”
Namgung Seonhwa drew her sword, and the Namgung Clan martial artists released fierce auras.
Bringing them along in preparation for a situation like this had been the right choice.
“I’ll take the lead.”
The Iron Sword Sect, including Seong Moran, took the rear while the Namgung Clan moved to the front.
“We should go left?”
“Yes.”
When we entered the chamber, we found three men in luxurious robes and more than ten men in red martial garb standing amid a mountain of corpses and a sea of blood.
‘Ma Gosan, the Nine-Finger Divine Sword, Sa Muin, the Golden-Horned Copper Man, Seo Hyeonjae, the Paradise Child.’
Among the Black Path martial artists I had seen on the streets of Yueyang, the experts I had been especially wary of had claimed this cave for themselves.
“Well, well. The young lady of the Namgung Clan has come to such a dangerous place.”
Seo Hyeonjae, the Paradise Child known as the Yin Demon, licked his lips.
“Didn’t you enter to find the Mita Sacred Water? Even if you are Black Path martial artists, do you think such meaningless slaughter is acceptable?”
“To be honest, we didn’t want to waste our time in a place like this either. We had no choice, though.”
“What happened?”
“Our map vanished during a fight.”
“...That isn’t all, is it?”
They had clearly lost it while fighting someone, or it had been destroyed.
“Either way, we need a map to find the Mita Sacred Water. If things continue like this, we may be so disappointed at failing to obtain it that... we’ll keep killing people.”
Seo Hyeonjae’s eyes gleamed as he smacked his lips.
“You must think the Namgung Clan is a joke.”
The three men all belonged to the Blood Sand Society, a massive Black Path organization based in Guiyang, Guizhou Province.
Even so, they should not have been able to stand against the Namgung Clan, one of the pillars of the Martial Alliance. I was rather curious what gave them the confidence to behave this way.
“How could that be? We lost quite a few people on the way here, so we’re in this pitiful state. That is why we prepared something separately.”
He took out a sphere as large as two human fists.
Someone among the martial artists groaned as they recognized it.
“A Thunderclap Bomb...!”
“!”
“!”
Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran’s eyes widened in shock as well.
The Thunderclap Bomb was a military supply, not something easily found even on the black market.
It was something that absolutely could not be allowed to fall into the hands of Black Path martial artists.
“If you use that, you won’t come out unscathed either.”
“If we cannot obtain the Mita Sacred Water and leave this place, we would rather die here.”
“Even so, do you think the Namgung Clan would yield to threats?”
I tilted my head as I looked at the Thunderclap Bomb.
When Seo Hyeonjae revealed the Thunderclap Bomb, I had been quite surprised and wondered if it was responsible for the five hundred deaths. Yet after enhancing my vision and seeing its size, I could only be puzzled.
Its destructive power was formidable, but something that size could not collapse the entire cave.
Near the end of the Orthodox-Demonic War, when the Sojeong Unit had truly been pushed to the brink, we had raided a military storehouse and used Thunderclap Bombs against our enemies. I knew their power well.
Besides, the stone in Demon Spirit Plateau’s caves was quite sturdy. A collapse in one place did not seem likely to spread elsewhere.
“Prepare the sword formation.”
At Namgung Seonhwa’s cold words, Seo Hyeonjae took out a tinderstick and lit it.
That was when I stepped in.
“Did you truly follow the map all the way here?”
Seo Hyeonjae frowned and glared at me.
“Who are you?”
As expected of a Black Path stray with no roots, he chose whom to show manners to.
“I’m part of their group, and I’m the one managing the map.”
“Why do you ask?”
“If you followed the map here, you should know that we’re not far from the destination.”
“...Hmm, was that so? I could not check because the bastard burned the map as he died.”
“Did you lose the map while betraying someone? And lose the route you saw on it as well?”
“...!”
The men exchanged looks without a word.
“It seems I was right.”
“Shut up. If you do not wish to die here as well, it would be wise to hand over the map in your possession.”
“Very well.”
Startled gazes came from Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa’s group.
Ignoring them, I took a map from my robes and tossed it over.
“It marks the route to the destination. Do not ask where this place is.”
“Hmph! We know roughly where we are as well.”
Seo Hyeonjae licked his lips with regret and returned the Thunderclap Bomb to his robes.
“What a shame, young lady. Still, I hope you won’t follow too closely behind us. One never knows when a Thunderclap Bomb may explode.”
Seo Hyeonjae and his group slowly assumed guarded stances before heading into the leftmost of the three paths.
“Young Master Jin, what were you thinking?!”
Namgung Seonhwa approached with a pale face.
“Ah, don’t worry. They won’t get near the Mita Sacred Water anyway.”
“What do you mean?”
“The map they took was fake.”
“What?”
“Surely there was bound to be fighting over maps inside the cave. Of course, I didn’t know there would be a madman who brought Thunderclap Bombs into a place like this, but I prepared several extra maps for that reason.”
I showed them several scrolls from my luggage, and Namgung Seonhwa, Seong Moran, and Yu Jiryang stared in disbelief at the scrolls hidden in their robes.
“Ah, those are real maps. You needn’t worry.”
“Then is it true that we have reached the destination?”
“Yes.”
“Then let us hurry.”
When we began moving again, Namgung Seonhwa pressed close to my side instead of Seong Moran.
“Young Master Jin, may I ask you something?”
“A request...?”
“Yes. You may refuse after hearing it if you wish.”
“Let me hear it.”
“If Young Master Jin obtains the Mita Sacred Water, would you sell me all of it except for your share?”
“If we continue moving together, wouldn’t your chances be higher? Why would you say that?”
“I have a feeling that Young Master Jin will obtain the Mita Sacred Water.”
I had separately prepared a water flask to hold the Mita Sacred Water, but I knew how the story of the Mita Sacred Water had ended in my previous life.
In that incident, which had claimed five hundred lives, the Mita Sacred Water never revealed itself in the end.
“Why do you think that?”
Namgung Seonhwa pointed at my flask.
“The Mita Sacred Water has an extremely yin nature, so it must never touch a human body. It freezes everything around it, so it cannot be stored carelessly either. Yet on the way here, I’ve seen fewer than ten people who prepared a flask like that.”
It seemed she had kept glancing at me to figure out what the flask was for.
“I must refuse.”
“What? Why?”
“I plan to give it to a suitable child from my sect.”
“Ah... Is something happening?”
“The Taeul Sect intends to have its younger disciples take the Martial Arts Academy’s regular examination.”
“The Taeul Sect is taking the examination?!”
“...”
Only after Namgung Seonhwa cried out did she realize her mistake.
Asking whether the Taeul Sect intended to take the examination was no different from looking down on them.
“Ah... I-I’m sorry.”
“I understand.”
After saying that, I began walking a couple of steps ahead.
Her reaction was nothing new, but that did not mean it failed to bother me just because I was used to it.
After passing through several more chambers, a group radiating tremendous energy approached from one of the paths.
I briefly stopped our party and stepped forward.
Since we would reach the destination once we passed this place, I intended to assess them and let them go first.
Swoosh, crack.
A finger wind shot past the side of my face, and several shattered stones fell from the ceiling.
At the same time, Yong Soa and the Wudang Sect Taoists approached in orderly formation.
Not a single drop of blood stained Yong Soa’s body, and the Taoists’ robes showed no signs of a major battle.
The groups led by Ha Minjung, Ak Muhen, and Yang Insu, who had followed them, had been reduced by half. Their condition did not look particularly sound either.
“You had some petty tricks, yet you survived alone?”
Yong Soa looked me over and spoke. At the same time, Ha Minjung’s group snickered behind him, as if something were terribly amusing.
I ignored Yong Soa and shouted behind me.
“Come out. They do not seem to be enemies.”
As Namgung Seonhwa, Seong Moran, and the others began emerging one by one from the cave behind us, Yong Soa’s expression cracked slightly, while Ha Minjung’s group twisted their faces as if they had bitten into dung.
“It was fortunate we did not follow your group after all.”
“...”
At my words, Yong Soa fixed me with an icy stare.
“...I will watch until the end.”
Ha Minjung and his group looked at the Namgung Clan’s party like cattle being led to slaughter, then followed Yong Soa.
At last, we arrived at the destination and found a massive cavern unlike anything we had seen before.
The cavern was large enough to hold hundreds of people, yet there was not a single person inside.
That was not the only strange thing.
Unlike the circular chambers in the other caves, one side of this enormous cavern looked as if it had been cleanly cut away. Where a wall should have been, a dark shadow stood in its place.
“It seems everyone entered through here.”
Yu Jiryang cautiously reached a hand into the black shadow.
His hand vanished completely within it.
“Fortunately, the formation set up here does not look especially dangerous. It seems somewhat like a natural formation, but...”
“Is there something strange about it?”
“It is not that. The energy forming it is exceptionally powerful. Even for a formation that has endured for three or four hundred years, it is too strong.”
“Is that a problem?”
“I am only accounting for every possibility. Since it takes the form of a natural formation, a sufficiently powerful force should destroy it quickly.”
Perhaps Yong Soa had been listening to Yu Jiryang as well, because he immediately started walking.
Namgung Seonhwa cried out in alarm and tried to stop him.
“Great Hero Yong Soa! Would it not be better to wait until the analysis is complete before entering?”
“A herb gatherer escaped this formation. There is no way martial artists cannot pass through it.”
With those words, Yong Soa and the Wudang Sect Taoists slipped inside. Ha Minjung’s group followed them into the formation one by one.
“As Great Hero Hyeoncheong said, there may be no serious problem. We are only preparing for the worst.”
Then a voice echoed thunderously through the cave.
“Namgung Clan! That name is wasted on you! How dare you play such a filthy trick!”
It was Seo Hyeonjae’s voice, the man we had met earlier.
“Deploy the Firmament Sword Formation!”
At Namgung Seonhwa’s cry, the martial artists began moving as one.
Amid them, the three Mount Mao Sect practitioners swiftly probed the formation. They drew diagrams and numbers on the ground as they worked through their calculations.
“You bastard who gave us that map! I will tear out your eyes and eat them!”
The voice was drawing closer.
Then Yu Jiryang sprang to his feet.
“The calculations are complete. We can enter.”
“Move quickly!”
This time, Yu Jiryang took the lead, followed by me, then Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa.
The place was filled with pitch-black darkness where we could not see even an inch ahead. Yu Jiryang walked left and right for a long while before eventually finding an exit that gave off a faint light.
The instant we crossed through the exit, a sword blade suddenly lunged out. I swiftly kicked the back of Yu Jiryang’s knee, knocking him down, and drew my sword at the same time.
Clang!
The moment our swords met, I realized my opponent did not possess much internal energy. I immediately drew upon eighty percent of my power and cut through the attacker’s neck.
Slash!
“Guhk!”
The Black Path martial artist collapsed in a spray of blood.
Beyond the formation lay another massive cavern the same size as the one we had just passed through. People inside were fighting while spurting fountains of blood.
“Maintain the sword formation!”
“Iron Sword Unit! Deploy the Ninefold Sword Formation! Eliminate our blind spots!”
We stood to one side and watched the battle unfold.
There was something strange about the people fiercely fighting on opposite sides.
In particular, the people standing against those who had entered with us were all gaunt. Their clothes were filthy, as if they had not changed them for days.
“Lady Namgung!”
For the first time, Yu Jiryang called to Namgung Seonhwa in agitation.
“We are in serious trouble!”
“What is it?”
Namgung Seonhwa only answered, keeping her eyes on the battle.
“I believe we are trapped.”
“What?”
“The formations inside and outside are different.”
“I do not understand. Explain it simply.”
“The natural formation outside appears to be a chance result created after the original formation collapsed.”
“!!!”
Footnotes:
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