WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 40: The First-Rate Martial Artist Stirring Up a New Wind (2)
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I truly felt as though I were about to die.
It felt as though my spirit, one of the three aspects of essence, qi, and spirit, might fade away.
Most people lost their spirit because they lacked essence and qi. In my case, I had forced my body to keep moving with internal energy and spiritual medicines that restored vitality, so it was my spirit that had been worn down.
Still, with Namgung Jinmyeong, the leader of the Four Emperors Association, and the leader of the Black Lion Society personally standing guard over me, how could I dare say I wanted to rest?
Thanks to that, I had experienced a luxury no one else in the martial world ever had.
I was likely the only person to have every expert from both the White and Black Paths stand guard over me and tap my pressure points.
Then, while pushing myself through exhaustion so deep it felt as though my mind would vanish, I entered the Soul-Destroying Formation again, and something finally went wrong.
I took several wrong steps.
Oddly enough, though, a new route through the Soul-Destroying Formation appeared before me at that moment. I simply continued walking as if nothing had happened.
It was a mistake I should never have made, but no one besides me could have known about an error inside the Soul-Destroying Formation anyway.
When I casually asked Yu Jiryang about it, he said there was a method of studying formations where one first identified the routes, then internalized the calculations.
Personally, though, I suspected it was the effect of the Taeul True Scripture.
After I began cultivating the Taeul True Scripture, a discipline meant to awaken one to the Way of all things, I started viewing the information around me differently. Perhaps, with my essence and qi separated, my spirit had become detached enough to understand the mysteries of formations.
That was only a guess.
In any case, I saved them all in the end.
Everyone except those who had died after moving recklessly within the formation, from their injuries, or from starvation.
I heard that never in the history of the martial world had one person saved so many lives.
To be honest, the people dying inside did bother me, but they were not people I needed to risk my life to save to this extent.
I could have negotiated properly, taken what I wanted, and saved them at a reasonable pace.
I could have turned the situation into one that benefited both the Taeul Sect and me in countless ways. Yet after hearing that Yong Soa had fled through the Martial Alliance to Wudang Sect, and that the information about the formation inside had not been properly shared, I decided I would save everyone in there even if it cost me my life.
“That way, their reverence for Yong Soa will be thrown straight into the gutter.”
The Martial Alliance, a towering pillar among the White Path factions, had ultimately fallen into Yong Soa’s hands because of his overwhelmingly powerful martial arts and the support of Wudang Sect, the strongest faction in the Martial Alliance.
Whenever the Demonic Cult clashed with the other sects, those sects suffered helpless losses. Yong Soa, on the other hand, kept winning against the Demonic Cult with abilities that seemed hardly human.
All of that had grown into reverence, making people believe Yong Soa was the Martial Alliance’s only hope.
“But that only lasted until today.”
The people gathered in Yueyang from across the Black or White Paths had apparently become friends. They shared meals, drank, and celebrated without pause.
Disciples from Black Path sects thanked experts from White Path sects, while experts from White Path sects, in turn, offered their thanks to Black Path sects.
In the process, Yong Soa had become their common enemy. At every drinking table, people tore him apart more eagerly than they ate snacks, feeding their anger toward him.
Yong Soa had made such a massive mess, and Wudang Sect had made matters worse by bringing him in and hiding him away.
Once survivors began emerging, supplies and volunteers poured in from the Martial Alliance and across the martial world.
Wudang Sect was nowhere among them.
“This is going to get interesting.”
Even a solid reservoir begins to collapse from a small crack.
Wudang Sect, the strongest force in the White Path martial world, had developed its first small crack today.
It was only a small crack, so they could patch it up if they wished. Still, after seeing how they had behaved until now, I had to wonder whether they would actually do so.
Even now, a bizarre rumor centered on the Beggar Sect was on the verge of spreading. Some claimed the formation inside was not truly that terrifying.
Whenever someone dared voice such nonsense, though, those who had suffered at Demon Spirit Plateau beat them into a pulp.
The ridiculous rumor quickly died out.
“I finally look like a person again.”
After rescuing every survivor, we withdrew the command post and field camp, then moved to Yueyang.
We rented out thirty inns and guesthouses, assigning them first to the injured and those exhausted from the rescue operation. I was given a separate annex among them, where I could rest in comfort.
Whenever I woke up, I called a server over and stuffed myself with food, practiced qi-regulating breathing, then went back to sleep. Once I woke up hungry, I repeated the same thing.
Only after three days did I begin to feel my mind clearing and my body returning close to normal.
The first thing I examined after waking was my internal energy.
In the midst of the emergency, I had been circulating my energy in a trance, without any time to check the effects of the Taeul True Scripture. Now, I found that my internal energy had already reached two gapja.[1]
“...Hah.”
The Taeul True Scripture had likely traveled throughout my body and gathered every last trace of medicinal energy still dormant within me.
The sensation of possessing internal energy I could draw upon freely, along with complete martial arts capable of unleashing it, felt deeply unfamiliar.
“So this is why the great experts of the martial world, and that bastard Yong Soa, carry themselves so proudly.”
It was a feeling of fulfillment I had never known in either this life or my previous one.
I felt confident enough to believe I could resolve every part of my plan without much difficulty.
Three months had passed at Demon Spirit Plateau, leaving only three months remaining. It was time to move with urgency.
“Still, it was time well spent.”
After congratulating myself, I went to visit Jang Dowon first.
“Good grief, you really...”
Jang Dowon let out an incredulous laugh as he looked at the Mita Sacred Water.
“I would have considered it a blessing if you simply returned alive...”
“It was all thanks to you, sir. This helped quite a bit.”
I said that while shaking the Flying Dragon Claw.
“I should never have made it for you. If I’d known you would make me work this hard, I would’ve just slapped something together.”
Though he spoke that way, Jang Dowon could not wipe the smile from his lips.
In my previous life, Jang Dowon had once said that a craftsman found joy simply in meeting an owner who made good use of their creation.
“Come back in three days.”
“Will it take that long?”
“It possesses extreme yin energy second to none. Did you think I could process it in an instant?”
“I understand. How much money should I prepare?”
“Forget it. It’s not as though I have any use for money.”
“Really?”
“Some of the people you saved this time were my customers. Let’s call that payment.”
“Huh? Wouldn’t that mean the balance is still off?”
“What are you talking about?”
“Right now, people from both White Path and Black Path sects are saying they’ll repay me. Shouldn’t you at least give me one treasure?”
“You rotten bastard. Do you want to watch me fail and waste even the Mita Sacred Water?”
Before he could change his mind, I quickly left his shop.
Jang Dowon even closed his shop and began his work.
#
I was about to return to my annex.
I had spotted a group of martial artists in Martial Alliance uniforms and was about to step aside when the nearly twenty people in that group stopped directly in front of me.
“Are you Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect?”
They already knew who I was.
“That is correct.”
“You need to come with us.”
The Martial Alliance martial artists reached for my arms from both sides.
I immediately unleashed a two-handed palm strike, forcing them back.
Caught off guard, the martial artists staggered back three steps and reached for their swords in alarm.
“Are you defying an order from the Martial Alliance?”
“You have not yet identified yourselves, where you came from, or why you are here.”
Previously, I would have considered following them quietly, without making a scene, the correct choice.
But not now.
“I am Gong Seokchan, the Martial Alliance’s Yueyang Branch Director. You understand what this concerns if I say it is about what happened at Demon Spirit Plateau.”
I tilted my head.
“I do not.”
“You bastard! The Taeul Sect, your sect, also holds one of the One Hundred Eight Peaks. Do you intend to disregard the laws of the Martial Alliance?”
“I have told you clearly that I do not understand. What crime did I commit there, exactly?”
Gong Seokchan signaled to the Martial Alliance martial artists.
Four of them were about to rush me at once.
Without even drawing my sword, I unleashed the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Martial Alliance martial artists were swallowed by dozens of fist shadows that shot toward them in an instant. After being struck several times in their vital points, they gasped as though they could no longer breathe.
“You bastard! Do you have any idea what you have done?”
“What exactly are you trying to do by invoking Martial Alliance law, Branch Director?”
“What?”
“The Namgung Clan and the Mount Mao Sect are both staying at the same lodging as me. If you had gone through them, there would have been no need to bring force like this. Why did you choose this method instead?”
“...”
“I do not know your reason, but if it is reasonable, I will come with you. If not, I will not.”
I remembered what Namgung Seonhwa had told me.
The Martial Alliance had stood by and watched even when Yong Soa fled into Wudang Sect.
That behavior had nearly caused a war between the Namgung Clan and Wudang Sect.
Namgung Jinmyeong had been furious over the matter, which was why he completely excluded the Martial Alliance from the rescue operation afterward.
There was no reason for me to bow my head simply because they were the Martial Alliance.
“From the start, there has been suspicion that some kind of device was built into the formation at Demon Spirit Plateau.”
I listened quietly to Gong Seokchan’s words, but I still did not understand.
When I tilted my head again, Gong Seokchan explained further.
“Can you prove that the formation spread across Demon Spirit Plateau was not created by the Taeul Sect?”
“Ha.”
Yong Soa could not break through it, and neither could the Mount Mao Sect. Yet a disciple of the Taeul Sect had managed it, so they suspected the formation had been the Taeul Sect’s work from the beginning?
The sheer absurdity made me laugh.
“If the Taeul Sect had the ability to deploy a formation of that level, would we have any reason to live under oppression at the bottom of the One Hundred Eight Peaks?”
“...We will find that out through an investigation.”
“Then show me a formal order from the Mantong Office.”
“...What?”
“If this is such an important matter, surely you received approval from the Mantong Office. Or are you saying that you intend to investigate based on your own suspicions, Branch Director?”
“...”
Naturally, there was no such order.
For an order concerning such an important matter, it would have required Jegal Somyeong’s approval. There was no chance they would take such a conspiracy-minded suspicion seriously.
“The more you keep talking in circles, the stranger this seems.”
Something suddenly occurred to me as I watched Gong Seokchan act without any logic behind it.
“Are you perhaps from Wudang Sect?”
Gong Seokchan flinched.
Seeing Gong Seokchan’s expression, which was not concealed well enough, I finally understood.
“Ah, if you are from Wudang Sect, then this makes sense.”
Why the Martial Alliance had failed to act properly even after Yong Soa had come to seek their help and fled into Wudang Sect.
“This has nothing to do with my sect...”
Why they had remained at a distance, hoping every witness within the Soul-Destroying Formation would disappear.
Why they had rushed to act only now that Yong Soa’s name had fallen into disgrace.
“Bring the order. Otherwise, I will not go.”
I ignored Gong Seokchan and was about to leave.
Unable to endure any longer, Gong Seokchan finally made a move.
“Hmph.”
I was about to respond immediately with the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist.
I did not yet know how formidable the Taeul Sword Emperor’s martial arts were, nor whether they could contend with Wudang Sect’s martial arts. One thing was certain, though.
My internal energy was greater than the Branch Director’s.
At that moment, a massive man appeared between us and swung a great saber at Gong Seokchan.
Bang!
The massive man stood still after swinging his saber, but Gong Seokchan was sent flying roughly twenty feet through the air.
“Cough! Wh-who are you? How dare you attack a branch director of the Martial Alliance!”
“A branch director?”
The massive man rested his saber on his shoulder.
“A mere branch director dares harass the benefactor of this Cha Seokdu from the Four Emperors Association? Kid, if you want to take this child, go bring your alliance leader here.”
Gong Seokchan’s face went pale at the mention of Cha Seokdu, leader of the Four Emperors Association, one of the Black Path martial world’s most powerful groups.
Namgung Jinmyeong of the Namgung Clan then stepped forward beside Cha Seokdu.
“I am certain I told you this was not a matter for the Martial Alliance to interfere in.”
Not only Gong Seokchan, but even the Martial Alliance martial artists looked as though they wanted to flee the moment those two appeared.
In the end, Gong Seokchan gave a hurried, half-hearted fist-and-palm salute before leaving.
“So we finally get to see our benefactor’s face.”
“Did I not tell you to inform our escorts whenever you went out?”
The sight of the two giants of the White and Black Paths standing together like friends, despite seeming as though they should be ready to bare their fangs at one another, left my mind in complete disarray.
[1] A gapja: sixty years’ worth of internal energy.
Footnotes:
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