WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 354: Encounter with the Enemy
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The White Path and the Black Path.
The conflict between these two irreconcilable forces began three hundred years ago.
That was two hundred years after the Martial Alliance was founded, back when the White Path and Black Path had not yet been clearly divided.
At the time, the Martial Alliance had yet to resolve doubts about its very existence.
The Seven Sects, already the Martial Alliance's central pillar, wielded influence as the leading sects of their regions and provinces even without the Alliance's help.
The Martial Alliance had deteriorated into little more than a social club that collected money from each sect without doing much of anything.
Back then, the Martial Alliance maintained ties not only with the Seven Sects, but also with the Three Great Clans, predecessors of the Five Great Clans, and the Three Sects One Gang, who represented the Black Path. Green Forest bandits and river strongholds also came and went from the Martial Alliance as though it were a tavern.
It had no authority to compel anyone. It merely served as a place for people to mingle.
From the perspective of the Seven Sects, who bore the actual financial burden, the Martial Alliance looked like nothing more than a wasteful gathering that squandered their wealth to give others a place to enjoy themselves.
Its gradual collapse seemed inevitable.
Then an incident occurred.
Guyang Geuk, an unaffiliated martial artist who had risen to the rank of an absolute master through his unique martial arts, killed Jayang, the Transcendent Divine Sword and Martial Alliance Leader at the time.
One might wonder what was so significant about one person killing another while living in the Central Plains.
The issue was their status.
The death of the Martial Alliance Leader, a position that was practically that of a social-club chairman, caused a considerable uproar.
All the Martial Alliance Leader really did was host banquets, share drinks and food, and laugh with others, but the position was still nominally the representative of those who upheld the White Path.
Since the Martial Alliance Leader had ties to Wudang Sect, Wudang Sect could not simply stand aside while the bereaved family cried out over the injustice of his death.
In the end, the Seven Sects issued a statement in the Martial Alliance's name. They intended to arrest Guyang Geuk and imprison him for several years to settle the matter.
He had no faction of his own, and his disposition had never been entirely aligned with the White Path, so they did not consider it a particularly burdensome task.
The response was fierce.
The Three Sects One Gang of the Black Path, along with Green Forest strongholds and wandering martial artists, vehemently protested and began defending Guyang Geuk.
The important part was that they had protested vehemently.
Their reaction was so excessive that even those who had intended to brush the matter aside could not help but grow grim.
They had their pride too.
Once they had declared him guilty, they could not take it back.
Besides, the man Guyang Geuk had killed was the Martial Alliance Leader. They could not simply let it pass.
The Martial Alliance, such as it was, could not act because of the Black Path's fierce response.
More precisely, an investigation party made up of Wudang Sect, Mount Hua Sect, and Shaolin Sect was formed.
They went to Guyang Geuk's residence and arrested him.
“You've come.”
Guyang Geuk calmly admitted his wrongdoing and allowed the investigation party to escort him to the Martial Alliance.
The real problem came afterward.
As though to prove that their protest had not been empty bluster, the Black Path formed a rescue party more than five times larger than the investigation party and freed Guyang Geuk.
This ridiculous farce left the Seven Sects of the Martial Alliance deeply embarrassed.
Once the prisoner they had been escorting was snatched away, it could no longer end with a simple loss of face.
After all, had it not been the Martial Alliance, led by the White Path, that had once saved the Central Plains and brought peace?
Yet many martial artists at the time favored freedom, so the Black Path's influence was far greater. In the end, the Martial Alliance failed to punish Guyang Geuk.
That incident served as a great warning to the Martial Alliance, or rather, the White Path martial world.
The Seven Sects began formally assigning personnel to the Martial Alliance and drove out every Black Path member who had freely entered its grounds.
The Seven Sects laid the foundation for what would become the Nine Sects One Gang.
They brought the Jegal Clan and Namgung Clan into the Three Great Clans to establish the Five Great Clans, strengthening the Martial Alliance's foundation.
Then they began a full-scale war with the Black Path.
The lines that had once been unclear became sharp and distinct from that point on.
The righteous path became the White Path, and heretical martial artists became the Black Path.
And the result was what everyone knew today.
The White Path, built upon the justification of “justice,” emerged victorious.
“...And that is how the long, dark history between the Black Path and the White Path began.”
Even after Cheol Sunjik finished his story, no one offered a question or response.
Only a long silence followed.
Then Seong Moran tilted her head in confusion and asked, “What does that story have to do with us being here...?”
Cheol Sunjik lightly shook his head.
“It means that the White Path and Black Path were not always so distant. They were once close enough to stand together.”
He smiled and nodded as though telling everyone not to worry.
“So there is no need to be afraid. There was even a time when they shared drinks together at the Martial Alliance.”
Seong Moran stared at him incredulously.
“...That incident happened because Jayang, the Transcendent Divine Sword, violated Guyang Geuk's wife. And after that, didn't the Martial Alliance declare the Black Path martial world its main enemy, making the hatred between them even deeper over the past three hundred years?”
“Isn't it time to break that chain of hatred?”
Faced with such baseless logic, Seong Moran tilted her head again.
“...Didn't you dislike Jin Sowoon in the first place, Young Master Cheol? Why are you defending the person who put us in the Golden Prison?”
Cheol Sunjik fell silent.
He wanted to know why too.
[Make sure you explain it well and keep them calm.]
If Jin Sowoon had not said that before they were locked up here, there would have been no reason for him to step forward.
Still, Jin Sowoon was the Unit Commander of the Life-and-Death Unit now.
Failing an assignment given to him by the leader would wound Cheol Sunjik's pride.
“Either way, aren't we able to rest comfortably in a safe place?”
“Safe...?”
Seong Moran ran her fingers over the iron bars separating their cell from the next chamber and tilted her head.
The bars were jet black, likely made from black iron, famous for its durability.
As Cheol Sunjik searched for an answer...
“Um...”
Dang Gihan, the Seventh Unit Leader, whose face had been full of worry since entering the Myriad Poison Sect, cautiously spoke up.
“Those holes in the walls.”
Dang Gihan ran a hand over the holes, eyes vacant as though imagining something.
“They are probably mechanisms for firing arrows.”
“...”
Cheol Sunjik, still trying to choose his words, felt his head go numb.
Holes densely covered every wall inside the iron bars.
If Dang Gihan was right, and arrows fired from mechanisms within the walls all at once...
Everyone inside the Golden Prison would become pincushions.
Cheol Sunjik turned from the holes to Dang Gihan.
“...You've never been to the Myriad Poison Sect before, so how can you be so certain?”
The sharp words slipped out before he could stop them.
His duty right now was to calm everyone down.
The Unit Commander had gone to contend with the other leaders, which meant Cheol Sunjik had been entrusted with full authority in the meantime.
Wouldn't revealing such grim information in this situation only make them more agitated?
Dang Gihan continued anyway, whether aware of his thoughts or not.
Like a child excited to find a question they knew the answer to.
“And do you see the smaller holes up there?”
The small openings appeared and disappeared beneath the reddish shadows cast by the torches.
“Poison fog will probably flow out of those holes.”
“...”
“Ah, the Tang Clan has facilities with the same purpose! They mostly use them to confine demonic beasts brought in for research.”
So after risking their lives to escape Mukrim and break through the Demonic Realm...
After defeating even those people who used bizarre arts, the place they had finally reached was...
A Golden Prison for demonic beasts?
“...”
What could he possibly say to keep everyone from panicking?
The people who had complained of exhaustion and shown the limits of their bodies were now wide-eyed, unable to hide their alarm.
“Hah...”
Murmurs swelled among the Academy students.
Through the commotion came words like, “Are we going to die here?” and, “Did we flee the fox only to enter the tiger's den?”
Then...
Bang! Bang!
A guard struck the iron bars and shouted.
“Quiet! Quiet!”
The murmuring mouths clamped shut under that stern voice and icy stare.
The Myriad Poison Sect martial artists showed not goodwill, but open hostility.
Seong Moran whispered to Cheol Sunjik, “Can we really relax?”
“...”
She moved away from him and shrugged.
“I think hearing Monk Ilgak's words about Buddha would be more reassuring than Young Master Cheol's ridiculous history lesson.”
“...”
For some reason, Cheol Sunjik felt slighted.
He found himself jealous of the bald... no, Ilgak, who had gone with Jin Sowoon to meet the Myriad Poison Sect Leader.
#
To Ilgak, choosing the Myriad Poison Sect had been the lesser of two evils.
Coming here to avoid those suspected of being Demonic Cult members had not been a bad choice in itself.
They had no way to seek help from a Martial Alliance branch right away, and relying on a small or medium-sized sect would only cause greater harm.
But...
The Myriad Poison Sect was a sect that even the great factions of the Martial Alliance found unsettling.
Partly because they handled poison, and partly because they were as vicious as the Tang Clan when it came to poison.
Anyone who knew the Myriad Poison Sect's fearsome reputation would not dare enter its territory lightly, even if their sworn enemy was hiding within.
In that sense, it might have been the best possible choice.
The reason it could only be the lesser of two evils was that the Myriad Poison Sect hated White Path sects with a passion.
No, it went beyond dislike. They hated them.
Dan Se-ung, standing before him now, was an extremist so notorious that even Black Path martial artists were wary of him.
At his appointment ceremony as sect leader, he had declared that he would wipe out the White Path martial world and turn the Central Plains into a Black Path martial world. His words had shaken the martial world for a long time.
When Ilgak heard that Jin Sowoon was considering asking the Myriad Poison Sect for help, he had been badly startled.
Still, Jin Sowoon had visited the Black Alliance and had some connection to the Black Path, so Ilgak followed him, assuming he must have something to rely on.
How could someone's face look so...
That expectation shattered the instant he saw Dan Se-ung's face, vicious enough to belong to a demon from a nightmare.
On top of that, seeing the Academy students thrown into the Golden Prison the moment they entered the Myriad Poison Sect made Ilgak certain that Dan Se-ung intended to carry out the declaration he had made long ago.
-Unit Commander Jin, what do you intend to do?
Amid Dan Se-ung's hardened expression and the sharp stares of his subordinates, Ilgak carefully sent a sound transmission.
Jin Sowoon's eyes widened like a rabbit's.
-Why are you asking me? You're the one who said we should come here, so you should talk.
Ilgak's heart plummeted.
“What?”
He was so shocked that he forgot he had been speaking through sound transmission and blurted it aloud.
“Ahem...!”
Dan Se-ung and the Myriad Poison Sect's senior members openly showed their displeasure.
Unable even to wipe away the sweat running down his scalp, Ilgak hurriedly sent another sound transmission.
-W-What do you mean by that?! Unit Commander Jin! Unit Commander Jin!
He called desperately, but Jin Sowoon did not even pretend to hear him.
Then Dan Se-ung, who had been frowning, opened his mouth.
“So you came to ask the Myriad Poison Sect for food and lodging?”
His deep voice rumbled.
Though he spoke normally, his voice echoed through the grand hall as if there were some special mechanism at work.
Jin Sowoon, who had been casually looking elsewhere until then, immediately answered.
“Yes.”
“Do you think the Myriad Poison Sect is... an inn?”
Dan Se-ung's voice was filled with displeasure.
No, he seemed especially furious that they were treating his sect like a guesthouse.
Ilgak could not even imagine how he could calm that man's anger.
Cheol Sunjik would have been better suited to thinking up a response for a situation like this...
Ilgak could not understand why he had been dragged here... no, why he was here at all.
The only thing he could do now was trust the Unit Commander he trusted so deeply, Jin Sowoon...
“Can't you at least acknowledge that this is a genuine emergency?”
Could he really trust that man?
While Ilgak silently recited a prayer, Dan Se-ung's voice fell low again.
“Did you think I would believe such a ridiculous story?”
“Then why did you let us in???”
That mad... no, had the Unit Commander just shouted?
As Ilgak doubted his own ears...
“If you were going to refuse, you should've refused from the beginning. Why give people hope and then act like this?”
“...!!!”
That lunatic... no, Jin Sowoon was treating the infamous extremist Dan Se-ung like a neighborhood uncle.
Ilgak was not the only one who found Jin Sowoon's behavior disrespectful.
A commotion had broken out among the Myriad Poison Sect's senior members, with people talking about killing Jin Sowoon.
Dan Se-ung gave a derisive snort.
“Why did I let you in? I was considering executing every Academy student and sending them back to the Martial Alliance.”
“Amitabha...”
Ilgak's expression somehow became one of enlightenment.
The Demonic Realm and the Demonic Cult had failed to take his life, but Jin Sowoon would finally get him killed.
Then...
“Is that all you are?”
“...What?”
Jin Sowoon's voice rang sharply through the grand hall.
“I heard that when you were appointed sect leader, you boasted that you would sweep every White Path martial artist from the martial world. Are you carrying out that plan now?”
“...”
“Do you believe that sending the Academy students' heads to the Martial Alliance will fulfill the vow you made then?”
“...At the very least, they would learn to fear the Myriad Poison Sect.”
Jin Sowoon gave a quiet snort.
“Wouldn't that just make you a group obsessed with murder? If you do something like that, people will rely on the Martial Alliance even more. They'll say, ‘See? You should never associate with Black Path scum!’”
“...”
“Three hundred years ago, the Martial Alliance united and declared the Black Path its main enemy because the Alliance had the justification of ‘justice.’”
Thud!
Dan Se-ung struck the chair, his voice full of irritation.
“So what are you getting at!”
Jin Sowoon's voice suddenly became calm.
Ilgak had heard that tone and seen that expression before.
Quite a few times, in fact.
And whenever he saw it...
Something bad always happened to him.
Just like now.
“Didn't you experience it at the Black Alliance as well? A new enemy will soon appear in the martial world. And they will be an enemy neither the White Path nor Black Path can handle alone.”
“...”
“If we must fight together anyway, won't the side that extends its hand first take the initiative?”
Dan Se-ung remained silent for a moment, then let out a mocking laugh.
“...The hypocrites of the White Path will not take that hand so easily.”
“Then that would be even better.”
“What?”
Dan Se-ung leaned forward slightly.
Not missing the moment, Jin Sowoon leaned toward him as well.
“The Black Path extended its hand first for the peace of the martial world. Yet the arrogant White Path rejected it.”
One corner of his mouth curled upward as he added, “Doesn't that sound like it could create a very different picture from three hundred years ago?”
Dan Se-ung stared at Jin Sowoon, lips tightly sealed.
“Terrifying enemies beyond imagination have appeared. Yet the White Path turns its back, petty enough to refuse joining hands with the Black Path. People are dying, and the Black Path fights desperately. What kind of picture will that present to the martial world?”
In response to Jin Sowoon's question, Dan Se-ung muttered, “The White Path... would look foolish.”
“You understand quickly.”
Ilgak had no idea what was happening.
One thing was clear, though. Dan Se-ung was gradually showing a strong desire.
“...”
Covering his mouth with clasped hands, Dan Se-ung remained silent for a while.
Then...
“But.”
His eyes flashed as he spoke.
“How am I supposed to believe that what you went through is true? I cannot believe that such a large force moved against you, and I cannot believe that you hunted a divine spirit.”
“Isn't that why I brought him here?”
“What?”
Jin Sowoon pointed directly at Ilgak.
“This is Monk Ilgak, who has mastered the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic of Shaolin Temple.”
Ilgak's face twisted strangely.
Ignoring him, Jin Sowoon turned to the others and shouted loudly.
“Have you ever seen a monk of great Buddhist virtue tell a lie?”
“...”
Jin Sowoon introduced Ilgak like a swindler selling medicine in the marketplace.
“If anyone has seen an eminent monk of Shaolin Temple tell a lie, step forward.”
Even with Jin Sowoon's confident declaration, the response was lukewarm.
Naturally, one could not judge truth and lies based on a person's status or origins.
It was only natural that Ilgak wore an expression full of betrayal, as though thinking, Is this why you brought me here?
Even after going that far, the others' response remained tepid, and Jin Sowoon smacked his lips.
“Tch, I even sold Shaolin Temple's name, and they still don't believe us.”
With an expression full of disappointment, Jin Sowoon slipped a hand into his robe. A moment later, he took out a leather pouch.
“This is a Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear gallbladder. Take a look.”
“!!!”
“!!!”
“!!!”
Every Myriad Poison Sect member flinched at once.
Dan Se-ung's expression hardened as he nodded. One martial artist swiftly approached, took the item from Jin Sowoon's hand, and brought it to Dan Se-ung.
“...!”
After taking out and examining the pouch's contents, Dan Se-ung's eyes widened like a rabbit's again.
“This size... Did you truly hunt a Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear?”
“That is what I've been saying.”
“The elixir pellet... What happened to the elixir pellet?”
“There was none.”
“...That makes no sense...”
Jin Sowoon shamelessly shrugged.
“If there had been one, do you think we would have had to flee so desperately?”
At that moment, one Myriad Poison Sect disciple quickly interjected.
“Sect Leader, according to the records, the essence of Mukrim's divine spirits is often very small or absent altogether.”
“Hm... Is that so?”
Dan Se-ung could not take his eyes off the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear gallbladder, looking regretful.
Then Jin Sowoon smiled playfully.
“Oh, and I brought that gallbladder as a gift for you, Sect Leader. I would appreciate it if you accepted.”
“Huh?”
“I was taught that you should not visit another person's home empty-handed.”
A brief silence followed.
Then Dan Se-ung burst into loud laughter.
“Hahahahaha! You have been properly taught at an excellent sect. Now I understand why the Lord of the Four Emperors Association likes you. Hahahahaha!”
As Dan Se-ung laughed, those who had been radiating murderous intent began to smile one by one.
Dan Se-ung abruptly stopped laughing and spoke with a solemn expression.
“Listen. These are White Path guests visiting our Myriad Poison Sect for the first time in three hundred years. Treat them better than any guests we have received before.”
His subordinates answered in unison.
“““Yes!”””
Jin Sowoon grinned at Ilgak.
“That worked out well. It was a good thing I brought the gallbladder.”
“...”
“Why? What are you unhappy about?”
What was he unhappy about?
“Did you really... need to use Shaolin Temple's name?”
Jin Sowoon clicked his tongue, looking sincerely regretful.
“If Shaolin Temple's name had sold better, I wouldn't have had to give away the gallbladder. What a waste.”
“...”
“Ah, you need to try harder. You have no credibility, no credibility. Tch.”
Faced with Jin Sowoon's shameless attitude, Ilgak remained openmouthed for a long while.
Footnotes:
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