WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 41: The First-Rate Martial Artist Stirring Up a New Wind (3)
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As soon as word spread that I had recovered enough to go outside, visitors began lining up at my door.
“You saw him earlier, right? He’s Cha Seokdu, Lord of the Four Emperors Association.”
“I’m Gang Maengji, leader of the Black Lion Society. You’ve heard my name, haven’t you?”
“I’m Ko Gilsan, sect leader of the Four Dragon Sect.”
“Leader of the Blood Spear Sect...”
“Blade Armor Sect...”
Ordinarily, as a Taeul Sect disciple, meeting with the foremost masters of the Black Path martial world would have put me in an awkward position. Yet they did not care about my circumstances in the slightest and barged in anyway.
“The Black Path martial world owes you a great debt.”
At Cha Seokdu’s words, everyone gathered there nodded in unison.
“I can’t imagine how much turmoil the entire Black Path martial world would have faced if not for you.”
“Not at all. Setting aside my convictions, I only did what had to be done.”
“No. Both we and those White Path hypocrites know how difficult it is to do what must be done, even putting aside one’s convictions. Take the Martial Alliance’s lukewarm response. Wasn’t it, in part, because most of those gathered at Demon Spirit Plateau were Black Path martial artists?”
“...”
“Which is why what you did was an extraordinary deed, one beyond measure.”
Cha Seokdu scratched his cheek, looking embarrassed.
“Thanks to you, I learned that there are some decent people even among those White Path hypocrites.”
“Ahaha...”
I had no idea whether I should be pleased by this situation or not.
Before the Demonic Cult appeared, the Martial Alliance’s chief enemies had been the Black Path and the unorthodox factions.
“If I had my way, I would invite you and everyone from your sect to a grand feast, but...”
“What?”
A cry escaped me before I could stop it. Cha Seokdu’s face filled with regret.
“...That would put you in quite a difficult position.”
I hurriedly continued, hoping to lessen their gratitude.
If it became known that I had been invited by Black Path sects, there would be trouble if I refused, and even greater trouble if I accepted.
“I have already received sufficient reward in knowing that the principles of the martial world were upheld without regard for White Path or Black Path. Any further thanks would feel excessive.”
Strange emotions crossed the faces of Cha Seokdu, Gang Maengji, Ko Gilsan, and the others.
I could not tell whether they were angry that I had refused their goodwill or delighted that they would not have to repay me. Their fierce faces made them impossible to read.
“Bwahahaha! Truly remarkable. Remarkable! Why do such talents keep springing up without end in the White Path?”
As Cha Seokdu threw back his head and laughed, the other Black Path martial artists burst into laughter as well.
“...Haha.”
I felt like a piglet dragged before a group of hunters, uncertain when I would be roasted whole.
“Even so, failing to repay a favor would mean abandoning one’s humanity, regardless of whether one belongs to the Black Path. Take this.”
What he held out was a plaque no larger than two finger joints.
“The Four Emperors Association will repay its debt whenever you have need of us.”
“...!”
I could only gasp inwardly.
The plaque he was giving me was not an ordinary token. It was closer to a debt-repayment token.
One personally offered by the leader of a sect, with his entire sect’s name behind it.
It was essentially a promissory note declaring that the Four Emperors Association would repay its debt whenever necessary.
In the martial world, even a Black Path sect that failed to honor such a token would be branded as an organization without even the most basic integrity. It would struggle to survive even among the Black Path martial world.
What was more, debt-repayment tokens had no expiration date. As long as the Four Emperors Association endured through the generations, no matter whose hands the token fell into, it would have to act at least once. It was practically an oath. The plaque was also a symbol of trust that could not be repaid with money.
Would it really be all right for a disciple of a White Path sect to accept this?
While I was considering that, the leaders of the other sects stepped forward as well.
“Our Black Lion Society feels the same.”
“So do I...”
The plaques piled up one after another.
There were twenty tokens spread across the table. More sects had participated in the event, but it seemed they had chosen representatives from among themselves.
“Uh...”
“Don’t refuse these as well. Even for the Black Path, that would turn us into heartless beasts.”
After considering it for a moment, I nodded and rose from my seat.
Once the Orthodox-Demonic War began, everyone would die, whether they belonged to the White Path or the Black Path. What did black and white matter before those madmen of the Demonic Cult?
I recalled the legacy left by my sect’s founder, which I had committed to memory.
Wouldn’t this gradually give me a foundation that no longer required me to watch the reactions of other sects?
“Regardless of our respective affiliations, how could I refuse the goodwill of my seniors in the martial world? Thank you. I will put these to good use.”
After all the Black Path sects left, the representatives of the White Path sects entered before I even had time to gather my thoughts.
Their number was lower than that of the Black Path sects, since fewer White Path sects had participated.
“It seems the Lord of the Four Emperors Association has already visited.”
Namgung Jinmyeong smiled as he looked at the tokens covering the table. While I wondered whether I should clear them away, he waved his hand as though he understood what I was thinking.
“It’s fine. Lord Cha Seokdu asked me what sort of reward would be appropriate for you, so I told him.”
The leader of the Four Emperors Association and the heir apparent of the Namgung Clan had discussed such things?
“The work was easy because they stirred Yueyang up so thoroughly. Merchants are the sort to make opportunities out of other people’s misfortune, aren’t they?”
The situation was this.
When tens of thousands of people gathered at Demon Spirit Plateau and supplies grew scarce, they had needed to procure goods from Yueyang, the closest city.
The merchants had seized the opportunity to raise prices sharply. The White Path sects had been about to pay through the nose, but the Black Path sects had thrown the merchant groups and escort agencies into chaos, threatening them until prices stabilized again.
Namgung Jinmyeong called it a perfect joint operation between the White Path and Black Path factions. All I could do was laugh helplessly.
“Ha... ha...”
Having developed a deep grudge against the Martial Alliance through this incident, the Namgung Clan was openly building ties with the masters of the Black Path martial world for all to see.
Could I act as freely as he did?
No.
He was the heir apparent of the Namgung Clan, while my sect was the Taeul Sect.
He nodded as though telling me not to worry.
“No one will say you colluded with the Black Path because of what you did this time. If someone does, I’ll kill them myself.”
“...What?”
“I’m joking.”
I shut my mouth tightly at that chilling joke, and he chuckled as if amused.
“I heard you caught the Emperor Sword Art with your bare hand, but you don’t seem to have such great nerve.”
At Namgung Jinmyeong’s words, the eyes of the people seated nearby lit up.
“Great Hero, is that true?”
“I’m telling you, it is. You should have seen how startled our San was. He nearly dropped his sword on the spot.”
Everyone looked at me with wonder.
I glanced at Namgung San, worried Namgung Jinmyeong’s words might have embarrassed him. Yet he seemed perfectly fine, even smiling faintly.
“All right, there are still more people waiting. Let’s make room for them.”
There were still people waiting?
As I screamed inwardly, a martial artist from the Hyeongsan Sect stepped forward.
“I am Ha Minjung’s senior martial brother. Thank you for saving our youngest junior brother.”
A middle-aged man who looked old enough to be Ha Minjung’s father clasped his hands and bowed.
I nearly let on that I knew him.
He was the man who would become the next sect leader of the Hyeongsan Sect, famed even within the Martial Alliance for being fair and impartial.
“It is an honor to meet the Seven Slaying Soul-Destroyer.”
“...You know me?”
“I have heard much of your great reputation.”
“You make me ashamed... I heard that my junior brother spoke harshly to you. Even so, thank you for saving him without holding it against him.”
“It was nothing. Nothing he said was particularly hurtful. Please tell him to recover quickly.”
Song Jeongmu, the Seven Slaying Soul-Destroyer, looked at me with an unreadable expression.
“You are... remarkable in many ways.”
After those incomprehensible words, Song Jeongmu took something from his robes.
“...This is a gift the sect leader asked me to deliver to you.”
He handed me a thick leather pouch a little larger than my palm.
“This is...!”
“It contains one hundred Demon-Subduing Talismans made by our sect.”
“!”
“!”
The others listening were even more shocked than I was.
The demon-suppressing effects of Hyeongsan Sect martial arts had been famous even before the Orthodox-Demonic War.
Demon-Subduing Talismans were the most potent among the Hyeongsan Sect’s secret talismans, capable of driving out demonic evils and poisons.
They were also incredibly difficult to make. There had even been rumors in the martial world that fewer Demon-Subduing Talismans existed than Lesser Rejuvenation Pellets.
“Is it really all right to give me so many?”
A single Demon-Subduing Talisman was worth ten taels of gold.
This was not one or two, but one hundred. It meant they had brought every talisman they had made over the years.
“We brought them to break the formation. Yet it was so powerful that we could not even consider using them. The sect leader said we should not be stingy toward the person who saved our disciple from within that formation.”
Was there any reason to refuse when they were giving them freely?
Besides, once the Orthodox-Demonic War began, Demon-Subduing Talismans would prove highly effective against Demonic Cult followers, rising to a value of one hundred taels of gold apiece.
“I will accept them gratefully.”
“Will you come to Hyeongsan sometime?”
“...?”
“No, that is not right. It should soon be time for you to come to the Martial Alliance as well.”
“...I suppose it will be.”
“Good. Then I will see you at the Martial Alliance.”
After Song Jeongmu, people from the Shandong Ak Clan and Yang Family Estate left their own tokens behind.
“I heard from Jiryang that you have a great interest in arcane formations.”
I had been considering Mechanism Formations and arcane formations for the defense of the Taeul Sect.
When the Orthodox-Demonic War broke out, the difference in damage between sects that had installed Mechanism Formations and arcane formations and those that had not was immense.
The cost of Mechanism Formations and arcane formations was one matter, but there were only a handful of places capable of installing them. Even those with money often found them difficult to obtain.
That was why I had casually asked Yu Jiryang, with whom I had formed a connection this time, about the costs and necessary materials for installing arcane formations. It seemed that information had reached his superiors.
“So, we are thinking of installing an arcane formation at the Taeul Sect. What do you think?”
My mouth fell open.
“Need you even ask? I was about to ask you for exactly that. Still, I understand that installing an arcane formation costs quite a lot. How much should I expect it to cost?”
I had secured funds in advance for a Mechanism Formation because I planned to hire Jegal Cheongi, but I had not accounted for an arcane formation.
“As for that cost, how about exchanging it for the things you obtained from the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation...?”
“The things I obtained?”
“Didn’t you say you took a wrong path inside it?”
It seemed that even the story I had mentioned in passing to Yu Jiryang had been reported.
I had nothing to lose anyway, and if the arcane formation installed at the Taeul Sect could become more powerful through the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, that would only be better.
“Very well. I leave it in your hands.”
“No, we should be the ones asking for your favor.”
Once Yu Jiryang left, only Namgung Jinmyeong and Namgung San remained.
Honestly, this was the turn I had anticipated most while receiving all these gifts.
What would the Namgung Clan, one of the Five Great Clans, have prepared?
Namgung Jinmyeong had said before that they would not settle their debt with just the Great Lotus Divine Pellet. Would it make me seem too greedy to expect more?
While I was lost in such thoughts, Namgung Jinmyeong held out an envelope.
‘A bank note?’
Even if I received debt-repayment tokens, how well could I really make use of them?
Especially if I accepted help from the Black Path, people would not let it go easily.
The Namgung Clan’s token was much the same.
In cases like this, a straightforward payment in money was not so bad.
“You have already given me the Great Lotus Divine Pellet...”
I pretended to refuse once. Of course, if he actually took it back, I intended to curse him for the rest of my life.
“Didn’t I say it then? Would the great Namgung Clan pretend not to owe a debt to the benefactor who saved both my daughter and our martial artists with a single Great Lotus Divine Pellet?”
“Haha, right.”
As he spoke, I casually drew the envelope toward me. Yet the paper visible through the slightly opened envelope did not look like an ordinary bank note.
Noticing my reaction, Namgung Jinmyeong burst out laughing.
“Puhahaha! You may check it.”
“...Ah, well.”
“In truth, you need to see that before I can tell you what I came to say.”
Unease filling me, I quickly pulled the paper from the envelope.
The contents were nothing like what I had expected.
【...Please make certain to visit.】
It was not a bank note, but a letter.
An invitation from the Clan Head, asking me to visit the Namgung Clan.
“My father said he very much wanted to meet you.”
“...”
Namgung Jinmyeong’s father was Namgung Taeha, the Azure Emperor Divine Sword and Clan Head of the Namgung Clan.
Leaving aside that he had reached a realm far beyond anything I could compare myself to, I was not even in a position to receive an invitation from him based on seniority in the martial world.
In such situations, the proper method was usually to send an invitation to one’s sect, then have that sect’s representative instruct their junior.
Yet not just anyone, but the Azure Emperor Divine Sword himself, had lowered himself to formally send an invitation to a Taeul Sect disciple.
“Uh, well...”
I had received an extraordinary invitation, yet it only added to my burden.
“I am sorry. While I believe my actions were right, I do not think they warrant receiving such an invitation from the Azure Emperor Divine Sword.”
I tried to decline as humbly as possible, but Namgung Jinmyeong and Namgung San still had smiles on their faces.
“Ah, there is no need to feel so burdened. My father said he had a separate matter to discuss with you.”
“What?”
I had never met the Azure Emperor Divine Sword, neither in this life nor the last.
How did he know me, and why did he want to meet me?
“I heard you took my father’s treasure, the Seven-Colored Jewel?”
“!!”
The sudden question left me utterly confused. I glared at Namgung San for an explanation, only to find him suddenly staring at the ceiling and whistling.
“N-No, well, that was...”
“More than that, my father nearly fainted when he heard that his grandson had been stripped of the Great Lotus Divine Pellet and even the Heavenly Silkworm Thread.”
The story was becoming more absurd by the moment.
“So, visit without feeling burdened.”
Was this man joking with me?
“Oh, and if you do not visit, my father says he will personally come looking for you.”
Was that his way of saying that if I did not come to get beaten, he would chase me down and beat me?
At that terrifying statement, I hurriedly answered.
“I will certainly visit as soon as I have finished my urgent business.”
At least if I went there to get beaten, I might take one less blow.
Namgung Jinmyeong nodded in satisfaction.
Namgung San turned back to look at me again. While I glared at him and demanded an explanation with my eyes, Namgung Jinmyeong spoke once more.
“And I have a favor to ask.”
“Please, tell me.”
“I’d like to bring someone in. I would like you to hear that person out.”
Who could be important enough for Namgung Jinmyeong to refer to as “that person”?
And someone whose story I specifically needed to hear?
I could not guess who it was, so I simply nodded. Then an elderly man entered cautiously with Seong Moran, and I understood why Namgung Jinmyeong had said it.
“It has been a while.”
He was the sect leader of the Iron Sword Sect.
“Have you been well?”
I replied with a clasped-hands salute.
“...”
The Iron Sword Sect leader only stared at me without answering.
He looked far more haggard than when I had last seen him.
The flesh on his face had sunken in, and his eyes were hollow. His already unpleasant expression looked even more spiteful.
“I have not been well.”
“Ah... I see.”
“My grandson, who was meant to inherit the family, was sent to the Golden Prison. The Ninefold Sword was taken from me, and the Iron Sword Sect’s name has fallen into the dirt. How could I possibly be well?”
Namgung Jinmyeong looked flustered for the first time, as though this differed from what he had been told beforehand.
“...But those were all my faults, the consequences of my own wrongs. If you have any fault, it is only that you exposed them.”
Namgung Jinmyeong’s hand, which had begun to rise as if to stop him, slowly fell.
“And yet the person I should resent saved the life of my only remaining granddaughter. How can I continue to resent you now?”
He continued speaking, though I could not tell whether he was blaming me or condemning himself.
“When I heard that Moran was trapped within the soul-destroying formation, I swore to heaven. If only Moran were returned to me, I would give my life.”
The Iron Sword Sect leader suddenly dropped to his knees and prostrated himself.
“!”
“!”
“!”
I was not alone in the room. Namgung Jinmyeong, Namgung San, and even his granddaughter Seong Moran were all there.
Startled, I hurried to help the Iron Sword Sect leader up.
“Please rise. I only did what had to be done.”
“It may have been natural for you, but not for me. I pledged even my life. What does kneeling matter now?”
His voice was filled with sorrow.
“I beg forgiveness from my benefactor. Please forgive the sins this old man committed in the past.”
Everyone froze at the sight of a man casting aside the weight of his reputation and years. No one could speak.
I nodded and said, “...I accept your sincere apology, Sect Leader. Please rise now. If you continue this, will it not make my rescue of Lady Moran a source of shame?”
“Please do, Sect Leader. If you burden him this way, will the relationship between the Taeul Sect and Iron Sword Sect not remain awkward in the future?”
Only after Namgung Jinmyeong stepped in did the Iron Sword Sect leader finally stand.
Like the others, he took a token from his robes and placed it down.
“From now on, I will not infringe upon the Taeul Sect’s position in Hefei. I will also strive to ensure that our two sects build a good relationship.”
“Your words alone are enough. Thank you.”
As I offered a clasped-hands salute, the Iron Sword Sect leader did the same and bowed deeply.
Seong Moran seemed to have something she wanted to say, but she could not carelessly open her mouth under the immense weight of her grandfather’s actions. Instead, she kept looking in my direction until she left.
“Whew. You really are remarkable.”
Namgung Jinmyeong sighed as though he had finally relaxed.
“You are right. It could not have been easy for him to act that way from his position.”
Namgung Jinmyeong looked at me as if I had said something strange.
“I meant you.”
“What?”
“Who else, at only twenty years old, could receive debt-repayment tokens from both White Path sects and Black Path masters, then receive such a deep bow from the Iron Sword Sect leader? Not my son, and not even Yong Soa. At your age, they had only made names for themselves through martial arts. Is that not so?”
Footnotes:
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