WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 355: Encounter with the Enemy (2)
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After Jin Sowoon and Ilgak returned, the Academy students were finally able to leave the grim prison.
The injured students, who had received only first aid, were taken to physicians for proper treatment.
“Guests have arrived! Wake everyone up!”
Lights came on throughout the Myriad Poison Sect as its sleeping members were summoned to attend to the Academy students.
Those who needed sleep were given bedding, while those who were hungry received food.
The guest pavilions and reception quarters could not accommodate everyone, so they even gave up the annexes and the residences of Hall Master-level officials.
“You may enter here.”
“...This is an annex.”
“It is a space provided to official guests of the Myriad Poison Sect.”
“Guests...?”
The sudden, earth-shattering change in treatment left them dumbfounded.
The Myriad Poison Sect was one of the White Path martial world's greatest and most terrifying enemies.
To the Academy students, its goodwill could only seem suspicious.
“Are they trying to poison us? Like some kind of final meal...”
“Hmm. Maybe they plan to assassinate us while we sleep.”
“...But I'm really, really exhausted.”
They only hesitated for a moment.
“I'm going to sleep first. If someone dies or we get ambushed... no. Don't wake me. Just let me die.”
“Me too... The Unit Commander must have handled everything.”
“Right. Unit Commander Jin is good at this sort of thing.”
Exhausted beyond reason, the Academy students gave up worrying and went to sleep.
“We've prepared your meal... Oh my?”
“It seems they haven't woken up yet...”
“They're White Path martial artists. Aren't they afraid?”
“I heard they suffered terribly in Mukrim.”
“Let's leave the food and go.”
Then, whenever they woke up hungry, they ate the food laid out before them.
Their fears of poison and ambush had long since vanished from their minds.
They spent two full days recovering, and once everyone had regained some strength...
“Precious guests have arrived, so how can I sit idly by? Hahaha!”
The sect leader of the Myriad Poison Sect hosted a banquet.
The Academy students attending it were stunned.
“Uh... Where are we?”
“Who am I?”
They could somewhat understand being given places to sleep, but it was hard for the White Path's elite to accept that the sect leader of the Myriad Poison Sect was personally holding a banquet for them.
Still, someone even more difficult to understand than the Myriad Poison Sect was...
“This wine is excellent, Sect Leader. Hahaha!”
Jin Sowoon, their leader.
“Can you make sense of that...? I'm seeing it with my own eyes, and I still can't understand it.”
“Exactly... The sect leader of the Myriad Poison Sect and the Martial Arts Academy representative are drinking together so warmly...”
“But why is our Unit Commander acting so casually? Anyone would think they're really close.”
Despite the gulf between them as representatives of the opposing White Path and Black Path, and despite the difference in age between a sect leader and an Academy student, Jin Sowoon showed no discomfort in dealing with the Myriad Poison Sect's leader.
“...Still, he isn't intimidated even before one of the Black Path's great figures. His nerve is impressive.”
“Didn't he declare that he would return alive from Mukrim? He's never had ordinary nerve.”
“...Don't you all curse Jin Sowoon every day for seeming insane?”
“Ahem!”
As the Academy students secretly watched Jin Sowoon with pride, members of the Myriad Poison Sect approached them one by one.
“I heard you broke through the Demonic Realm. How did you manage it?”
“Mukrim is never an easy place, even for our Myriad Poison Sect. Yet you fought there as well? Remarkable!”
The Academy students, who had held a vague fear of the Myriad Poison Sect, gradually relaxed as its members approached them so warmly.
The rift between them ran too deep for them to act as though they had met old friends, like Jin Sowoon did, but they could at least sit together and share cups of wine.
Two days after that strange banquet ended, when the critically injured had gradually begun moving around again...
Around a hundred Martial Alliance members from the Kunming Branch, to which they had sent a carrier pigeon, arrived at the Myriad Poison Sect.
“Welcome...”
“Move!!!”
The Academy students were shocked when they saw the newcomers roughly shove aside the Myriad Poison Sect members as they entered.
“Lecturer?!”
“Lecturer Gang Suntak?!”
The Academy lecturers they had believed dead walked into the Myriad Poison Sect, alive and well.
Jong Chuak, who had grieved for the deaths of his seniors more than anyone, forgot his injuries and rushed toward them in his stockinged feet.
“S-Senior! You're alive!”
Gang Suntak strode forward, then his hand flashed like lightning.
Smack!
With the sound of skin tearing, Jong Chuak's body dropped heavily to the floor.
Jong Chuak looked up with a dazed expression.
“How dare you!!”
Gang Suntak's roar rang through the air.
“How dare you disgrace the name of Qingcheng Sect!! Who told you to raise your head?!”
“...”
The lecturers, including Gang Suntak, swept their fierce gazes across the room.
When they saw the Academy students talking with the Myriad Poison Sect members, killing intent even flashed in their eyes.
“Hah... You've gone so far as to beg the Black Path for help? You must have lost your minds...”
The longer Gang Suntak spoke, the more violently Jong Chuak trembled.
Did they even know what hardships the students had endured just to reach this place?
The events of Mukrim, which he thought he had barely managed to bury, flooded back like an unstoppable fog.
His memories were hazy, but the despair and pain he had felt then were clearer than ever.
Jong Chuak clenched his fists.
“Senior... I think you're going too far.”
“What? You still haven't come to your senses, and you dare say that!”
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
Gang Suntak's feet lashed out without restraint.
Jong Chuak's body, which had only just begun to recover, was battered again.
“Can you still call yourselves White Path martial artists after that? Can you still call yourselves Qingcheng Sect disciples after begging the Black Path to save your lives?!”
Jong Chuak rolled across the floor, his wounds worsening, but no one stepped forward.
Before they were a lecturer and an Academy student, the two were fellow disciples of the same sect.
No matter how unfair the treatment, Jong Chuak's defiance could not be forgiven.
Knowing that, Jong Chuak accepted the one-sided beating.
After continuing the assault for some time, Gang Suntak snorted heavily.
“Seeing that you've all gone mad together, this must be that bastard's fault.”
“...”
Gang Suntak turned sharply, looking around as though searching for the source of it all.
“It is obvious that Jin Sowoon, that son of a bitch, tried to throw all of you into the Black Path's jaws!!”
At that moment.
Jong Chuak's eyes flew open, and he lunged toward Gang Suntak.
“Watch what you say...!”
Just as Jong Chuak's fist was about to fly...
Tap.
Someone stepped in front of him.
Thud.
A fist struck Gang Suntak directly in the face.
Gang Suntak stumbled back a full ten feet, wearing a blank expression before grasping what had happened and raising his head.
“How dare you... Do you want to die!!!”
The one who had thrown the punch was none other than Nam Hwaseong.
He growled in a low voice, as if barely holding back his rage.
“Sounds like you're the one who wants to die. You abandoned the Academy students and ran away on your own. What gives you the right to come back now and lecture us?”
“...You mad bastard. You will also be thrown into prison on suspicion of being a Black Path spy...”
“I've heard enough. I really can't stand listening to this anymore.”
In an instant, Nam Hwaseong's martial robe swelled as though it would burst.
“Do you have any idea what kind of hell we crossed...?”
Then he shot toward Gang Suntak like an arrow.
“How could you bastards possibly know!!”
Nam Hwaseong's fist flew forward with tremendous force.
“I swore it over and over. If the lecturers were alive, I would beat every last one of them to death with these hands!!!”
His momentum was fierce, but momentum was only momentum.
His surprise attack had worked because Gang Suntak held an absolute belief that Academy students would never dare challenge a lecturer.
Still, an ordinary Academy student could not overwhelm a Hall Master-level martial artist.
Tap.
Nam Hwaseong's iron fist was caught in Gang Suntak's hand as though it had been drawn in.
“You... I hear you volunteered to become Jin Sowoon's lackey?”
Tatatatak!
The Seventy-Six Formless Finger Techniques struck Nam Hwaseong's lower body. His legs gave out, and he fell to his knees, leaving his head slightly below Gang Suntak's.
“Good. I'll fix that warped mind of yours, then accept your sect leader's thanks.”
Thud! Thud! Thudthudthud!
Fists rained down without restraint.
The Heavenly Wind Formless Divine Fist.
Was it fortunate? Or was this the last mercy Gang Suntak could offer as a lecturer?
No internal energy was contained in Gang Suntak's fists.
Thud! Thud! Thudthudthud!
The savage beating of Nam Hwaseong began.
Nam Hwaseong tried to fight back from time to time, but Gang Suntak quickly stopped each attempt.
“You...!”
Jong Chuak could not bear it any longer and tried to step in.
Nam Hwaseong raised a hand and stopped him, as if warning him never to get involved.
Other Academy students then grabbed Jong Chuak's robe and pulled him back.
When he looked up, he saw Cheol Sunjik.
Jong Chuak struggled and shouted.
“Let go! Martial Uncle Gang is...”
“Perhaps not for us, but you would be committing the crime of betrayal of master and sect. Stay still.”
“...”
Only then did Jong Chuak regain his senses.
He took ragged breaths and looked around.
Then he stared at Cheol Sunjik, the man holding him back.
Had Cheol Sunjik stepped forward for his sake?
But why...?
“Aren't you a member of the Life-and-Death Unit?”
Cheol Sunjik spoke as though it were nothing, but Jong Chuak felt something rapidly rise in his chest.
“...”
“And so are we.”
Cheol Sunjik looked at Gang Suntak with cold, detached eyes, eyes that had not appeared even in that prison.
“We're angry enough too.”
“...”
He approached Gang Suntak and fired a finger wind.
Gang Suntak, who had been mercilessly attacking Nam Hwaseong, swung a hand and blocked it.
“!”
Gang Suntak looked down at the hole punched through his martial robe, and his voice turned hostile.
“Cheol Sunjik... You dare attack a lecturer?!”
“It looked like someone might die if you kept going.”
“Hmph, he won't die. I held back enough, so it doesn't matter...”
“I meant you, Lecturer.”
“...What?”
Cheol Sunjik pointed around them with his chin.
His voice was colder than ever, sharp with thorns.
“Do you want to die here?”
Cheol Sunjik was referring to Gang Suntak's safety.
“...”
Gang Suntak, along with the lecturers whose reason had been consumed by the Academy students' defiance, had failed to notice until now.
“You bastard lecturers...!”
“Hah, you're alive? Fuck, and you have the nerve to show your faces now?”
“Exactly. The shamelessness is unbelievable.”
The Academy students surrounding them were glaring murderously at Gang Suntak and the other lecturers.
Their hostility was plain to see.
‘Ah!’
Only then did Jong Chuak understand.
The relief at the lecturers' survival was a feeling that belonged only to him, their fellow Qingcheng Sect disciple.
In Mukrim, in the Demonic Realm, and through every terrible situation afterward...
The lecturers, who should have stood at the front and protected the Academy students, had not been there.
Then, only after the students crossed the threshold of death and reached this place...
Those who should have been dead appeared again, perfectly unharmed.
That alone was enough reason for the Academy students not to hide their hostility.
Gang Suntak still did not fully realize the depth of that rage.
Veins bulged in Gang Suntak's neck as he roared at Cheol Sunjik.
“You... insane bastard! Did the Twelve Peak Alliance give you a second life? Or has Mount Zhongnan accepted you as a formal disciple?”
Gang Suntak's target had shifted from Nam Hwaseong to Cheol Sunjik.
The Seventy-Six Formless Finger Techniques shot forth with the same hidden presence, aiming for Cheol Sunjik's paralysis acupoint.
Rustle.
Cheol Sunjik spread his outer robe wide and dispersed the finger technique, then turned as he drew his sword.
Clang!
He had only blocked the finger technique and taken an Opening Stance, but Gang Suntak grew even more enraged.
He had just watched his own skill get humiliated by a junior who had not even graduated from the Academy.
“You! Don't think you'll leave here alive!”
As though forgetting that this was the Myriad Poison Sect, Gang Suntak unleashed fist force at full power.
Boom!
The Heavenly Wind Formless Divine Fist that had struck Nam Hwaseong now bore down on Cheol Sunjik, accompanied by powerful fist winds that seemed ready to crush him.
Cheol Sunjik fired sword qi at the incoming fist force.
At the same time, he slashed down with sword qi, causing an explosion.
Boom!
He had copied exactly what Jin Sowoon had done in Mukrim.
“Cough, cough!”
The sudden cloud of dust blew back and covered Gang Suntak's body, making him instinctively close his eyes.
Cheol Sunjik did not miss the opening.
Swish!
Sword qi, sharp as ice, slashed toward Gang Suntak's chest.
Whoosh...
A new energy seeped in like the wind, diverting Cheol Sunjik's energy to the side.
“What!”
Cheol Sunjik lost his balance and quickly retreated with swift footwork.
Then a clear voice rang out.
“Don't you know that attacking a lecturer is a serious violation?”
Cheol Sunjik's whole body stiffened as he frowned deeply.
“!”
For this person to appear here.
Nam Hwaseong sprang up from the floor, then froze like stone upon recognizing the owner of the voice.
“...Y-you are...”
The other Academy students did the same.
They even stopped breathing at the sudden appearance of the newcomer.
“If you don't intend to continue, sheathe your sword.”
No one could move easily, even while looking at the sword tip extending toward them without emotion.
That was the kind of person he was.
Then...
“Wow...”
A playful voice came from among the Academy students.
Step. Step.
The person who had frozen the Academy students turned his usual expressionless gaze toward the one approaching.
“Jin Sowoon.”
“I never thought I'd see you in a place like this... You really do live long enough to see everything.”
Jin Sowoon's eyes swept over the three people sprawled around him and Cheol Sunjik. He glared at Gang Suntak.
“What a complete mess.”
Then his gaze returned to the man in blue martial robes.
Jin Sowoon smiled mischievously, as usual.
For some reason, though, the Academy students felt an unidentifiable unease within that smile.
Jin Sowoon spoke softly as he looked at the man in blue.
“Why would someone as lofty as you get involved in a mess like this? Hm? Answer me.”
“...”
“Yong Soa.”
Yong Soa, the man in blue martial robes, continued staring at Jin Sowoon with the same emotionless gaze.
Footnotes:
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