WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 406: The Reason for the Struggle (6)
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His earliest memory was of being pushed from behind.
In that hazy memory, a shabby old couple shoved him toward several frightening men. He clung to them, crying that he did not want to go.
“I said go! Why won’t this brat listen?!”
The couple had been trembling as though terrified, but when he continued clinging to them, they flew into a rage and kicked him. The pain that tore through his body made it impossible to hold on any longer.
“Hehehe. Look at that old geezer. He sure cuts the figure of a peerless master in front of a child.”
“Bwahahaha. I was so scared I nearly pissed myself.”
The laughter erupting from all around was what he remembered most clearly.
Looking back, that old couple must have been his parents, or at least the guardians who had raised him.
The men had nothing else to take from them, so they handed him over in exchange for keeping the food they needed to survive the winter.
Everything that followed was completely different from his life before.
He had only suffered from hunger in the past. Now, he had to endure hunger alongside brutal labor.
Men who returned wounded from somewhere would often vent their frustrations by beating him.
“I-I’m sorry. I was so hungry...”
“You dare touch the food before we eat?”
Some children were beaten to death for secretly stealing food while cooking.
The only luxury allowed there was picking scraps of meat from the bones the men had discarded.
Whenever the men threw down the discarded bones they had been eating, he competed with the other children who had been captured alongside him.
Fights were common, and the men enjoyed watching.
That was how he lived in that strange world, where pain and suffering were ordinary, while hunger was happiness.
Until one day, men in matching clothes and carrying matching swords entered the mountain stronghold and began a slaughter.
“...”
“...”
None of the children cried over the men’s deaths. Some worried they might be included among the dead, but no one mourned them.
He looked down at the men, crushed beyond recognition and embedded in the ground. It was the first time he had ever looked down on them.
Then he raised his head and looked at the intruders. Against the blue sky, they seemed steadfast and enormous, unlike the men who had filled him with fear and dread.
The men he had believed to be the most frightening people in the world were no match for those gentle figures.
Savage axes and broadswords that had split children in half were sliced through as easily as tofu by sword blades only three fingers wide.
Rather than fear the sight of someone dying before him, he was captivated by their power, which defied all common sense.
After the mountain stronghold was disbanded, the children who had been forced to work there were gathered together and taken elsewhere.
None of them were happy or excited.
They had never experienced freedom, peace, or an ordinary life.
They only felt even greater fear toward the mysterious men who had cut through the huge axes they dreaded and split broadswords like wood.
“You... possess a special talent.”
As he was being loaded onto a carriage with the other children, a middle-aged man examined his body.
“What do you think? Will you come with me?”
That was his first meeting with Qingxiu Zhenren.
The place he followed him to was the Wudang Sect, the greatest sect in the martial world. It was only some time later that he learned his master was closest to becoming the next Sect Leader.
What surprised him most after entering the Wudang Sect was that pain and suffering were no longer part of daily life.
No one cursed at him no matter how much he ate, and no beating followed even when he slept to his heart’s content.
Of course, he had duties to perform.
Labor and training.
Still, the labor was light enough for children his age, mostly washing clothes or fetching water.
Children around his age complained and grumbled that it was difficult, but even that labor was a joy to Hyeonyeong.
Training was even more enjoyable.
He ran, jumped, and moved his body without any particular purpose.
Each time he moved, it felt as though another piece of his past pain disappeared.
To Hyeonyeong, training was like peaceful play.
Once he began to enjoy and understand that happy daily life, a great question arose within him.
[Why was my life at the mountain stronghold so different from my life at Wudang when I was the same person in both places?]
When he asked the master who had given him the name Hyeonyeong, Qingxiu Zhenren answered with a gentler expression than ever before.
“Because the world is clouded.”
Whenever his callused hand patted Hyeonyeong’s head, he felt warmth.
“When the righteous path does not stand firm and people do not uphold justice, the weak fall into suffering and misery.”
Hyeonyeong had not felt anger when his parents abandoned him, nor when he was dragged to the mountain stronghold and beaten nearly to death.
For the first time, he became enraged.
“Then... if there is no justice, will there continue to be children like me?”
“Of course.”
Overwhelming despair swept through his body in an instant, and his heart sank.
What a hopeless world this was.
The pain of the past, which he had believed he had shaken off whenever he moved his body, began crawling all over him like a living thing.
“Master. What must we do to make people uphold justice?”
“We must set the righteous path straight.”
“What does it mean to set the righteous path straight?”
“It means tempering yourself and proving justice.”
His master stroked his head once more, his eyes filled with pride.
“You are already doing well enough.”
From that day onward, Hyeonyeong’s goal became setting the righteous path straight.
To save the world from suffering and ensure there would be no more victims like him. That was Hyeonyeong’s only goal.
He devoted himself even more earnestly to training and achieved results.
Not only Qingxiu Zhenren, his master, but even the current Sect Leader visited to watch Hyeonyeong train.
“I will one day establish a stronghold for the righteous path on behalf of Wudang and bring peace to the martial world and the world beyond it!”
He could endure any painful training and difficult studies because he had a goal.
Everyone at Wudang gave Hyeonyeong unstinting support.
Until that day.
“Remarkable. A child who has not even begun learning martial arts can move his qi on his own.”
“Never in the history of the martial world has there been a child with such extraordinary comprehension.”
“What a great blessing for Wudang! A great blessing!”
A junior brother two years younger than Hyeonyeong had entered after him.
After that child’s arrival, all the attention directed at Hyeonyeong shifted to him.
The generous support and concern Hyeonyeong had received slowly began to diminish.
“What a pity! Hyeoncheong, if not for that child, you would have become Wudang’s Sect Leader.”
Even his only master tried to withdraw from him, but Hyeonyeong was fine with it.
“I’m all right, Master. My goal is to bring about justice and set the righteous path straight, not to rise in the world.”
“Yes, that is a good way to think.”
For the first time, Qingxiu Zhenren cautiously raised a matter with his disciple, who had said something so admirable.
“...The brighter the light, the darker the shadow. Do you know that?”
“Yes.”
“That child needs a deep shadow.”
He gripped his disciple’s shoulder tightly.
“Can you take on that role?”
“...”
“You will not have a future like the other children. Even so...”
Eyes carrying quiet flames swept over Hyeonyeong’s entire body.
“For the righteous path, for justice, can you serve as that shadow?”
Hyeonyeong felt neither hurt nor disappointed.
He had always been prepared to sacrifice himself for justice and the righteous path.
Calmly, he met his master’s eyes.
“Of course.”
“Good. From now on, you are Yong Soa’s shadow. Wudang will now prosper forever.”
It was the first time he had seen his master laugh so heartily. Even though it was the moment he gave up his future, Hyeonyeong felt better than he ever had.
#
Pain beyond what his body could endure assailed him, and just as his mind was about to vanish into distant darkness to sever itself from that pain, a voice pierced his ears.
[You’re lucky. I wanted to show you what real sacrifice is.]
Why was he here?
What mission had he needed to accomplish?
Who was he... who was “I”?
He answered the questions that came to him one by one.
-To protect justice and set the righteous path straight.
-To eliminate Dam Ak, who sought to plunge the world into misery.
-Hyeonyeong of the Wudang Sect.
With each answer, he pulled his mind back from the darkness that had been about to swallow it.
‘Partial damage to the dantian. The wound crossing my upper body is, at minimum, a serious injury. The tendons in my left arm and the ligaments in my right leg are strained. Can I continue fighting...?’
In an instant, Hyeonyeong assessed every part of his condition and reached a conclusion.
‘Possible. But Jin Sowoon’s attainment is greater than reported. Using internal energy beyond my limits is unavoidable.’
Hyeonyeong could likely recover from the damage to his dantian with half a day of rest and treatment.
But if he waited to recover, Dam Ak would escape.
[You’re lucky. I wanted to show you what real sacrifice is.]
Strangely, Jin Sowoon’s voice continued to echo in his ears.
He spoke as though Hyeonyeong did not understand the meaning of sacrifice at all.
‘Me... not understand sacrifice?’
If Dam Ak escaped, the Black Alliance would rise to power, and the world would once again be filled with evil people.
If that happened, victims like him could emerge anywhere, at any time.
‘I can’t let him go!’
Once his deliberation ended, he acted quickly.
A handful of internal energy followed his will through the most dangerous point of his qi and blood circulation.
The qi and blood he drew forth struck the place within his dantian that should never be touched.
Thump.
A bell rang within his dantian.
Thump.
As it shook violently, the innate qi that should have remained stored in its deepest recesses stirred and rose for the first time in his life.
Woooooo-
When he opened his eyes again, the world looked different.
He could vividly sense even the creatures moving beneath the ground and the tiny living things dwelling inside trees.
The boundless energy rising from his dantian filled his body with exhilaration and made him feel omnipotent for the first time in his life.
Then he raised his head.
‘Dam Ak!’
He saw the startled face of the evil he had to kill.
Then he saw fierce eyes looking his way.
‘Jin Sowoon!’
The moment he stepped forward and used the Ladder-to-the-Clouds movement art, his body moved even faster than expected.
He was briefly startled, but Hyeonyeong’s talent quickly adapted, and he quickly regained his feel for the movement art.
When he stepped forward again, he was already standing before Jin Sowoon, who had been far away moments earlier.
“You lunatic! I saved you!”
Screeech!
Jin Sowoon’s swift sword, once too fast to follow or counter with the naked eye, now appeared perfectly clear.
At the same time, Hyeonyeong’s hands and feet obeyed his will more faithfully than ever.
Clang!
He could clearly feel that he was slightly faster.
The moment he was certain, Hyeonyeong increased his speed another level.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
When he saw Jin Sowoon’s blocking sword gradually slowing, he immediately changed his target to Dam Ak.
Jin Sowoon had only strayed from the righteous path for a moment after being lured by something wicked.
If he killed Dam Ak, the one who had led him astray, Jin Sowoon would return to himself.
As he thought that, more strength flowed into his hand.
How many good people could a single evil person corrupt?
Clang!
At last, Jin Sowoon’s sword was knocked aside. Dam Ak’s face appeared between Jin Sowoon’s shoulder and head.
Without hesitation, Hyeonyeong thrust his sword forward.
‘It’s over!’
Thud!
Creeeak-
But why?
He had clearly heard the sound of flesh being pierced, yet the sword went no deeper.
When he turned his gaze, he saw Dam Ak still breathing, while Jin Sowoon had raised his left hand to block the sword in Dam Ak’s place.
“...!”
“How...?”
“It isn’t over yet, you bastard!”
Blood dripped from Jin Sowoon’s hand as he gripped Hyeonyeong’s sword barehanded and swung the Scarlet Radiance Sword with his other hand.
Hyeonyeong quickly released his sword, retreated, then advanced while unleashing the Seven Stars Fist.
Boom! Boom-boom-boom! Boom-boom!
Whenever a fist strike came at him, Jin Sowoon desperately protected Dam Ak, who was tied to his back.
Like a wild animal fighting desperately to protect its young.
‘This man... cannot be awakened!’
He had not simply sold his conscience for shallow desires, nor had he been deceived after being lured by something wicked.
Just as Hyeonyeong’s parents had, people gave up many things over small pains.
But Jin Sowoon possessed the spirit to never retreat, no matter what happened.
Such a spirit could only arise from powerful conviction.
Hyeonyeong picked up his sword, which had been embedded in the ground.
It was regrettable, but there was no other way.
There was no way left to persuade him now.
The blue sky filled his eyes.
He pointed his sword at the man standing with his back to the heavens.
“Understand that I have no choice but to kill you.”
The rough man, who possessed not the slightest trace of gentleness, gritted his teeth.
“Did you suffer qi deviation or something? You’re saying nonsense like you’re out of your mind.”
Footnotes:
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