WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 434: Wings Flying South (4)
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As if proving the epithet One Saber Against a Thousand had not been won through gambling, the path of Jang Buyong’s saber was vicious beyond measure.
It shut down changes and ignored illusion swords.
The saber bore clear traces of the Sun-Shooting Sword Art, revealing Jang Buyong as a lay disciple of Mount Cang Sect.
There was no need to examine its origins closely to know that its foundation was swiftness.
Whoosh!
It moved quickly enough to burst the air.
It carried a weight that ignored all changes.
Jang Buyong’s saber, refined through years of experience and real combat until it had nearly reached perfection...
“Hmm.”
...was certainly difficult for Gang Yuseong to face.
‘Well, he’ll be able to deal with it soon enough.’
Jin Sowoon stepped through the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps and created phantoms.
Although six phantoms rushed in from every direction, Jang Buyong’s senses, honed as sharply as a blade, accurately pierced through to Jin Sowoon’s true body as Jang Buyong swung the saber.
Slice!
No blood spilled, but the hem of Jin Sowoon’s robe was cut away and drifted to the ground.
Waaaaah!
The spectators erupted into louder cheers than ever at the dazzling display.
“Do you think such tricks will work in the martial world?”
Jin Sowoon shrugged at Jang Buyong’s words.
“Those who fell to this sword would have a fit if they heard you say that.”
“A frog in a well thinks itself king. But...”
Whoosh!
The third move began with Jang Buyong’s saber.
Jang Buyong’s saber was overwhelming and immense, like the sun at the origin of all things.
“The moment it steps outside the well, it realizes that it was no more than a frog.”
Boom!
Though they were watching from the sidelines, the spectators flinched as if the saber would sweep over them like a wave at any moment.
“It can dry up and die from even a handful of sunlight.”
The immense saber qi that had spread in every direction gathered into one point.
“And it is no more than prey to even a young snake!”
Like a snake rising to devour a frog, it poured down over Jin Sowoon’s head in an instant.
“Take this!”
But then...
Shrrr!
The Twin Heavens Sword Art unfolding from Jin Sowoon’s sword wrapped around Jang Buyong’s saber.
The flow of Change spread the saber qi back in every direction.
The enormous wave of saber qi brushed past Jin Sowoon and faded into empty air.
“For a snake, your fangs are rather dull.”
The Twin Heavens Sword Art Jin Sowoon unleashed next sent sword blades flying like a rain of blossoms.
Like flowers falling in an unpredictable pattern, shadows from the Scarlet Radiance Sword, brimming with Illusion and Change, covered Jang Buyong.
“You think I’ll fall for a mere illusion sword?”
Jang Buyong’s saber surged with even greater force and pressed forward with overwhelming power.
Shhhhhh!
The saber qi extending from Jang Buyong’s saber became a single gale, blowing away every illusion sword and Changing Sword.
Jang Buyong’s saber art clearly bore the influence of the Forty-Eight Returning Wind Flowing Swords, and it was even more destructive than when the art was originally used with a sword.
It was an attack that fully made use of a saber’s defining trait: cutting.
The wind that had protected Jang Buyong while spreading its force in all directions swelled in size and shot toward Jin Sowoon.
It was such a massive saber gale that even grazing it would leave irreversible wounds across Jin Sowoon’s body.
The moment Jang Buyong looked at Jin Sowoon, certain that Jin Sowoon would be sacrificed to the saber, Jang Buyong felt a strange unease.
‘He’s smiling?’
Though the situation was urgent enough to make a moment seem stretched into eternity, Jin Sowoon’s relaxed voice reached Jang Buyong clearly.
“Jang Buyong was too good to be the first one out.”
It was a murmur whose meaning Jang Buyong could not understand.
‘...?'
Jang Buyong soon learned what it meant.
A storm of swords had already enveloped the saber gale.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Boom-boom-boom!
A great storm of qi rose and erased the saber gale in an instant.
It was an overwhelming gale that seemed ready to overturn the entire training ground.
Once it faded, only Jang Buyong remained, covered in sword wounds.
“One Saber Against a Thousand!”
“That’s impossible...!”
The people were not shocked only by the sight before them.
What was even more shocking was that One Saber Against a Thousand had been defeated in fewer than ten moves.
“T-Taeul Sect’s Jin So...”
As Gang Chaeseok was about to declare Jin Sowoon’s victory, Jin Sowoon stopped him with a raised hand.
Then Jin Sowoon spoke quietly to the protesters.
“Next.”
Not only the protesters, but even the spectators stared at Jin Sowoon with their mouths hanging open.
#
The protesters were divided into two groups.
Lay disciples of the parent sects and disciples of lay martial sects.
Most of those who had fought before Jang Buyong were disciples of lay martial sects.
They had gathered at the Taeul Sect for their own sects and their own honor.
They had come from different affiliations and for different reasons, but most of them followed the parent sects’ lay disciples.
Especially after learning that a full disciple, and no ordinary one at that, was among the parent sects’ lay disciples.
When Jang Buyong, one of the experts among the lay disciples who seemed ready to step forward in earnest, fell in fewer than ten moves, the lay martial sect disciples turned their eyes toward the parent sect lay disciples.
“...”
Their expressions had stiffened ominously, and their eyes seemed ready to spill killing intent at any moment.
It was the kind of situation where saying one wrong thing would bring disaster.
“What are you waiting for? He’s only one person.”
At the words from behind them, the lay disciples began stepping onto the training ground again.
Step.
Step.
There were no introductions or decisions over who would go next.
Both the protesters and Jin Sowoon knew how laughable it would be to keep up such half-hearted courtesies now.
Whoosh!
Whoosh!
Their sharp weapons aimed for each other’s vital acupoints.
Clang!
“Urgh!”
The martial contest ended even faster.
“How...?”
The blade of the sword raised against Jin Sowoon was cut off.
The opponent struck directly with the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist collapsed with a dying scream.
Without even looking at the fallen opponent, Jin Sowoon walked all the way to the protesters and said,
“Next.”
The spectators did not even get a chance to cheer.
An ominous atmosphere had begun to form between the protesters and Jin Sowoon.
The third person stepped onto the training ground.
The moment they took the Opening Stance, Jin Sowoon’s body disappeared completely and appeared behind them.
“What?!”
Thud!
The instant the Lesser Heaven Sword Art struck them, horrific pain raced through their entire body, and their consciousness began to fade.
‘Impossible! Me?!’
They were confident.
They had made a name for themselves in the martial world and possessed abundant experience.
No matter how much Jin Sowoon was the top student of the Martial Arts Academy, they had been certain that someone who had learned Wudang Sect martial arts and experienced countless real battles would not lose.
But that certainty shattered into pieces.
“Next!”
Clang!
The person who stepped up after them met the same fate.
Having seen Jin Sowoon’s footwork, they tried to keep their guard up and open the distance as much as possible.
But the Twin Heavens Sword Art bloomed into an even larger flower in an instant.
“Damn it!”
They were swept up in the flower that bloomed from the sword in an instant and thrown out of the training ground.
‘What the hell is this?!’
Jin Sowoon had crushed them in one stroke.
“Next.”
Jin Sowoon’s cold eyes turned toward the protesters.
After three people fell in succession without being able to do anything properly...
“...”
“...”
Not only the lay martial sect disciples, but even the parent sect lay disciples began to hesitate one by one.
Unlike before, no cheers came from within the Taeul Sect or from the spectators.
Everyone looked as though they were overwhelmed by something.
They could only watch with both hands clenched tightly in tension.
The only voice filling the training ground belonged to one person.
“I gave you an unlimited opportunity. Do you have no intention of using it?”
Silence fell again, and after a while...
“I’ll go!”
A member of a lay martial sect confidently stepped onto the platform.
The instant the signal sounded, Jin Sowoon kicked off the ground, and his fist slammed into the opponent’s face.
Thud!
The opponent was thrown out of the training ground without being able to do anything, then lost consciousness on the spot.
“Is that enough proof?”
“...”
“No, I suppose not.”
Jin Sowoon’s mocking gaze traced a cold arc toward the protesters.
Yet none of the protesters showed any sign of acknowledging it.
Even if every person standing here lost to Jin Sowoon, they would not easily accept the Taeul Sect.
The moment they admitted it, the cause that had brought them together here would vanish.
Knowing that, Jin Sowoon shouted,
“Next!”
#
[How long are you going to keep playing around?]
Even after I had shown outstanding martial prowess and overwhelming victories, this impatient old man quickly began to complain.
[Do you think the martial world will recognize the Taeul Sect’s strength just because you beat up a few brats?]
I asked Moyong Gang in return.
[I don’t think that’s something you, who showed his clan’s strength through violence and fighting more than anyone else, should say.]
A brief commotion broke out among the guests on the platform.
Hyeok Mugang and Namgung Taeha grabbed Moyong Gang’s robe and made him sit back down.
Worried that he might come over and ruin the martial contest, I quickly sent him a sound transmission.
[I’ll get serious now. Just watch a little longer.]
After drawing my sword, I stood on the training ground once more.
Then I waited for my opponent to step up.
‘Recognition... A sect’s strength...’
How should a sect’s objective strength be assessed?
The number of disciples?
The scale of its wealth?
A sect’s strength could not be judged by visible things alone.
The Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans, now pillars of the martial world, had once been nothing more than small sects.
Over hundreds of years, they had endured countless crises and trials, and their fortunes had declined as well.
Even among the lay martial sects gathered here, many were several times larger than the Taeul Sect.
Yet their strength was not evaluated as that of independent entities.
Then what about the emergence of an expert?
If an outstanding master stirred up the entire martial world and received endless admiration from the people...
Even that could not become a measure of a sect’s strength.
If no one with the same talent appeared after that master disappeared, it could not truly be called the sect’s strength.
‘What matters is the foundation.’
Countless people had gathered to watch the martial contest.
I knew the best way to spread word through them.
‘Overwhelming strength.’
But that would be my strength alone.
It would not become the Taeul Sect’s strength.
I did not agree with everything Jang Buyong said, but I thought he was right about one thing.
It had to be proven.
To show the Taeul Sect’s true strength, I had to prove its foundation.
And beyond that...
An opponent stepped onto the training ground.
I reduced the internal energy I had been pouring out continuously and faced them with my sword.
Perhaps because of everything that had happened, my opponent was releasing an excessive amount of internal energy.
Boom-boom!
Their martial robe swelled as if it would burst.
Sword qi gathered at the tip of their sword.
Brilliant sword qi danced wildly.
I calmed my heart more than ever.
Then I slowly unfolded the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
Without the Twin Heavens Sword Art or the Greater Heaven Sword Art, I would not be able to win easily.
But that was why I had to show them.
How the Lesser Heaven Sword Art was used.
Not as an attachment to the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Not as a foundation for the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
But as a martial art in its own right.
Thud.
The amount of internal energy flowing into the Lesser Heaven Sword Art was minuscule.
But it was enough.
I had fought endlessly with this in my previous life.
I watched my opponent’s sword art closely.
‘Its origin is... the Seven Stars Sword Art!’
A dazzling sword art unfolded.
Methods to break it at once came to mind, but I suppressed that instinct.
The Lesser Heaven Sword Art extended carefully.
With small changes, it blocked those swords.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Within those small changes, I created phantoms and deceived my opponent.
“Hup!”
Having avoided Illusion only to be struck by Change, my opponent gritted their teeth and scattered sword strikes everywhere.
Clang-clang-clang-clang-clang!
Like letting out and reeling in a fishing line, I drew them freely into my range.
Then...
Thrust!
I turned the force of the sword I had been blocking against them and drove it into their vital acupoint.
“Urgh!”
My opponent clenched their teeth, afraid of dropping the sword in their hand, and I pressed them harder.
“Argh!”
As they gripped their sword to force it free, the skin tore from their palm.
They swung their sword wildly to relieve the pain, then barely suppressed it and raised their head.
At that moment...
Shing.
“Ha...”
The tip of the Scarlet Radiance Sword was already touching their Adam’s apple.
“Will you continue?”
The person who thought they had been defeated far too absurdly...
“...”
...could not bring themselves to speak.
I turned away from them and shouted,
“Next!”
Footnotes:
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