WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 43: The First-Rate Martial Artist Gathering People (2)
──────
Not long ago, I had seen Namgung Seonhwa and Seong Moran, two of Anhui's three great beauties, but they paled before her.
Her pale, naked body looked as though it had stepped out of a painting. Every feature was delicate and perfectly balanced. Her hair was black as ebony, and golden ornaments swayed with each step, barely covering her most intimate places.
Regardless of gender, no one could remain rational before such beauty.
Tremble. Tremble. Tremble.
My body shook without my realizing it.
“You came all this way, so I should reward you.”
She stroked her lips with a finger like a shy girl, then opened her arms.
At the same time, an irresistible desire surged within me.
Like someone who had gone seven days without sleep and found a bed before them. Like someone who had eaten nothing for a month and found a feast of mountain and sea delicacies before them.
“...Ahem. Impressive. Have you been stopping intruders this way for all these years?”
“Intruders? I have never thought of them that way. Every one of them was a precious guest to me.”
I pointed to the pile of skulls stacked to one side.
“Isn't that a little excessive for entertaining guests?”
She pouted and crossed her arms.
Every small movement she made drove my body to move on its own. To restrain myself, I had to desperately circulate the Taeul True Scripture.
“What can I do when they desire this body until the moment they die?”
She twisted her body in a strange, suggestive way and put on a sullen expression. Even the Taeul True Scripture I was barely maintaining nearly broke off.
‘Just how powerful is her spiritual power...?’
No matter how low my attainment was, it was shocking for the Taeul True Scripture, a method founded on the truths of all creation, to halt even briefly. I focused my mind and desperately continued circulating it.
She looked as though she had found something fascinating.
“You can still retain your senses. What an impressive child. Are you a Shaolin Sect disciple? A Wudang Sect disciple?”
“Neither. What exactly are you doing?”
“It is called the Bewitching Search Art. A peerless martial art said to make even an ascended immortal fall back into the mortal world.”
“Ha.”
The name of the legendary seduction art of the Pleasure Palace, which had vanished thirteen hundred years ago, came from her lips. I could only stare in disbelief.
“Have you truly lived since the State of Yue?”
“Do you dislike a woman who never grows old?”
She approached one step at a time, fully confident that I could not move.
“Among those bones are the remains of the Shaolin Sect's elders, as well as a Wudang Sect Taoist who stood on the verge of ascension. So you need not blame yourself too much.”
Each time her hand touched my skin, beginning with my face, it felt as if all the blood in my body rushed downward.
She drew the golden dagger at her waist and tried to drive it straight into my heart.
Thud.
“How?”
The woman stared in shock at her hand caught in my left hand.
“I don't possess the mental discipline of the Shaolin Sect's elders, but I do have this.”
I showed her the Demon-Subduing Talisman blazing in my right hand.
That was why I had changed course from my original destination and deliberately come to this place rumored to be haunted.
The Demon-Subduing Talisman given to me by the Hyeongsan Sect absorbed and burned away her demonic qi, allowing me to escape its influence for a moment.
“You resort to petty tricks.”
I unleashed Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist, sending twenty fist images flying in an instant.
Unable to withstand the impact, her golden ornaments scattered in every direction.
“Lewd child.”
She did not appear hurt at all.
Her charge was no movement art or footwork, only an ordinary motion, yet she was as fast as a master using the finest movement art.
Bang.
I barely managed to knock her away, but she spun once through the air like a cat and rushed at me again. I could scarcely catch my breath.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Her brutal attacks sent me tumbling everywhere like a toy in a cat's paws.
“What kind of sorcery are you using?”
Neither her movements nor her attack stances had the nature of martial arts, yet their destructive power far surpassed Seong Mohyeon's attacks at the Iron Sword Sect.
“Did you think anyone who came looking for me was not a master?”
Anyone capable of forcing their way through this treacherous place had already surpassed the ordinary.
The fact that such people had met their deaths showed that her strength was anything but ordinary.
The Demon-Subduing Talisman's effect gradually faded, and my body began to stiffen.
Just as I reached for another talisman, she kicked off the wall and shot toward me like a ghost.
“Damn it!”
I desperately twisted my body and used the Lotus technique to send her back in the direction she had come from.
At the same time, the Demon-Subduing Talisman I had meant to grasp was carried onto her body.
“Aaaah!”
For the first time, she let out a bloodcurdling scream and frantically slapped at the tiny flame attached to her body.
The talisman soon fell away, but the place where it had stuck was no longer firm flesh. The flesh had shriveled like a mummy.
“So that is your true form.”
“...I've changed my mind. I will chew you to pieces and eat you.”
A crimson gleam flashed in her eyes, and her hair rose wildly in every direction.
All traces of beauty vanished. She rushed at me like a hellish evil ghost made flesh.
“I received quite a generous gift this time.”
I held Demon-Subduing Talismans in both hands and used Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist with palm forms.
The power was far weaker than when I used fist images, but more than ten palm images formed in the air in an instant.
As expected, the woman, who had never learned martial arts, could not distinguish the real attacks from the illusions.
“Aaaah!”
Flames rose from her arms and legs.
While she stomped her feet, trying to put them out, two more Demon-Subduing Talismans stuck to her shoulder and back.
“Aaaaaaaaaah!”
With a sound like metal scraping against metal, her entire body began to burn.
“No! No! It is all mine! Everything here belongs to me!”
Once the flames on her body stopped spreading, she threw herself onto the pile of treasure and struggled desperately to keep it from being taken from her.
“It is time you followed the natural order.”
When I attached the final Demon-Subduing Talisman to her head, her body burned up in an instant as if it were a single talisman, then vanished into ashes.
“I resent this... I resent it.”
After Wolhyang's body turned to ash, a single black orb remained in its place.
“This has a strange shape for an inner core.”
The moment I picked it up, enormous energy began pouring into me.
“Huh?”
The endless energy flowing into me was innate true qi, the source of human life.
“Ha. So this was the secret of immortality.”
As innate qi filled every corner of my body, even the impurities that the Mita Sacred Water had failed to expel vaporized through my pores.
With power overflowing within me, all fear vanished.
It felt as though I could face any of the powerful figures I had seen across both lives. Taechung Divine Sword, the leader of the Four Emperors Association, even Black Lion Gwak Gung, the Demonic Cult's young cult leader.
“So I found such a fortunate opportunity here.”
I no longer needed Mechanism Formations or elixirs.
With this orb, I was confident I could protect the realm and cut down every last member of the Demonic Cult.
“Let's see.”
I raised my sword and slashed diagonally through the passage twice.
I had not used any form, merely swung the sword, yet sword qi formed like sword force and thundered through the cavern.
Kwarrrr! Bang! Bang!
Every Mechanism Formation was cut apart, and the passage became twice as large as it had been when I entered.
I no longer needed gold and jewels, either.
Wasn't someone with absolute power free from everything?
Even wealth could not bind me now.
The moment I confidently stepped toward the passage.
Twitch.
All the innate true qi in my body suddenly drained away, and I went limp.
Only a faint chill rose from the orb in my hand.
“...”
I took two steps back.
I am all-powerful! I am invincible! The Demonic Cult and the Martial Alliance alike will have no choice but to maintain peace beneath me!
Confidence flooded through me.
I strode forward two steps again.
“...”
I looked around.
The golden ornaments scattered during the battle lay all over the floor.
“I should gather every last piece.”
I was not free from anything, so I certainly needed wealth as well.
#
After descending Mount Nine Dragons, I headed back to Yueyang.
I took out the Heavenly Silkworm Thread from the Flying Dragon Claw, stretched it out, and slung two stone coffins full of treasure over my shoulders.
At this time, many wars were occurring in the north, and it was customary to send those killed in war back to their hometowns. People did not find my carrying stone coffins strange, though they did avoid me.
When I entered Yueyang's cloth shop with the coffins on my back, the noblewomen buying fabric inside frowned and clicked their tongues.
“What is that?”
“What is he doing? Why did no one stop someone like that from entering?”
“Do they intend to do business or not?”
Yang Gunbaek had been chatting with the women while selling expensive silk. The moment our eyes met, Yang Gunbaek opened their mouth wide and hurried outside.
“You have finally come home!”
Yang Gunbaek suddenly clutched one of the stone coffins and burst into tears.
The women seemed to understand what had happened from Yang Gunbaek's reaction, and their expressions turned sympathetic.
“This is my little brother, who was dragged to the north for military service. We had no money to hire a proper escort agency, so he has only arrived now.”
As Yang Gunbaek cried streams of tears, the noblewomen began crying as well.
“You have come home. You truly have.”
Yang Gunbaek said that, then winked at me.
#
“For someone who never tells us when you are coming or going, I was quite surprised this time,” Yang Gunbaek said over tea.
“You didn't seem surprised at all.”
“Stone coffins in a place where the wives of high officials come and go? Sowoon, you have quite a talent for mischief.”
Yang Gunbaek was no ordinary person. It had been the same the last time.
“Anyway, what brings you here?”
“I have a favor to ask, and I'd like you to handle this as well.”
I tapped the stone coffin, and Yang Gunbaek tilted their head.
“It would have been better to bury the body deep underground. Do you need Bone-Dissolving Powder?”
Instead of answering, I casually opened the coffin.
“Gasp!”
Yang Gunbaek's eyes widened.
“The one beneath it contains the same kind of things.”
At my words, Yang Gunbaek looked back and forth between me and the coffin overflowing with treasure, unable to believe it.
#
Yang Gunbaek laid every jewel out on the floor and arranged them one by one.
It was quite different from how I had tossed them into the stone coffins as if gathering fallen leaves.
“You truly are remarkable, Sowoon.”
“How much can I get for them?”
Yang Gunbaek considered the matter for a long time, then spoke after calculating their value.
“How does twenty thousand taels of gold sound?”
“...”
“Is that not to your liking?”
It was exactly the opposite.
The weight and value of the treasure came to roughly ten thousand taels by my calculations.
Considering that a black market outlet normally valued purchased goods at only three-tenths of their worth, it would actually be a loss for the black market outlet.
“That is exactly twice the market value. Does a black market outlet usually calculate prices this way?”
“Please consider it repayment for the favor you showed us.”
Yang Gunbaek hid their hands in their sleeves and offered a respectful salute.
“I see...”
“Is that still not to your liking?”
“No. The favor I said I wanted to ask of you is related to that very debt.”
The Hao Sect owed me greatly because of this incident.
The Namgung Clan and the Black Path's martial forces had intended to hold the Beggar Sect and Hao Sect responsible for selling the map.
“...I do not believe this amount can repay it all. Could you accept this as repayment for part of the debt?”
It was understandable.
The matter had been settled after I appeared, but unlike the Beggar Sect, which belonged to the Nine Sects One Gang, the Hao Sect had truly suffered some losses.
“I believe you misunderstood me. What I meant was that I wish to become a guest retainer of the Hao Sect.”
“...”
The Hao Sect had no tangible existence. Therefore, it had no guests who stayed there and received food and lodging.
A person referred to as a guest retainer of the Hao Sect was a valued guest whose interests the sect considered before its own.
“...I do not know how you learned of it, but that is not within the authority of someone like me.”
“If Hero Yang Gunbaek, the eleventh disciple of the Hao Sect Leader, has no authority to grant it, then who in the Hao Sect does?”
“!!”
Yang Gunbaek's expression showed bewilderment at how I knew their true identity, followed by deliberation over whether to kill me.
“I would rather we did not test each other over something like this. I want to become a guest retainer because I have areas where I can help the Hao Sect as well.”
“...Then asking how you learned this would be pointless?”
I nodded instead of answering.
“Ha, I hear frequent surprises are bad for one's health. You are a truly terrible friend.”
“The Beggar Sect.”
“...?”
“I will give you the Beggar Sect. In return, become my eyes and ears so that I can understand the martial world whenever I need to.”
The records of the future I knew were gradually changing in subtle ways.
To see what effects these changes would have in the future, I needed someone to gather information from across the realm.
“...”
“You cannot decide this here and now, can you?”
Only a handful of people had gained the position of Hao Sect guest retainer throughout history.
Most had surpassed the absolute peak and reached the Transcendent Realm.
They were people who could destroy the Hao Sect if it refused to cooperate with them.
“Please tell the Hao Sect Leader about this. Let that settle our debt.”
“...”
“And this is my gift.”
I handed Yang Gunbaek a document containing the Beggar Sect's one-year plan for this period.
“...”
Yang Gunbaek's eyes showed that they could not easily believe it. Yet with even a little investigation, they would be able to confirm that the document was genuine.
“Then shall we finish the calculation? As I said, the debt has now been repaid, so ten thousand taels will be enough.”
“...Could I possibly conduct business with my benefactor? Please accept this.”
Determined not to remain indebted to me, Yang Gunbaek pulled a bundle of bearer notes in small denominations from within their robes.
“...Even so, I will speak to the Sect Leader.”
I had never intended to obtain everything from the beginning.
I needed to make my presence known to them step by step, and I also needed time to learn about them.
“That would be more than I could ask for.”
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
