WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 437: The Bird That Calls the Typhoon (2)
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It changed, then changed again.
The golden light that had begun as a tiny candle flame trailed a long tail through the raging typhoon, transforming itself before the majesty of the fierce wind.
At times, it seemed as though the light would vanish in an instant.
Yet just as a flame clinging stubbornly to the end of a wick flared back to life, the flame that had seemed to fade from the sword’s tip blossomed brightly once more.
Then.
As though it had been waiting for this very moment.
Fwoooosh!
The tiny flame multiplied like an inexhaustible spring, spreading in every direction.
It had clearly been nothing more than a frail flame, too weak to compare to the enormous typhoon.
Yet the spreading flames left fiery trails as they swallowed the typhoon.
As though its entire body had been bound, the typhoon was engulfed by those flames and vanished.
Namgung Taeha let out a quiet gasp at that wondrous sight.
“Good heavens...”
It was strange and bizarre.
At first, it resisted with faint strength, then was swept along.
It was pulled hard, then dragged away helplessly.
The massive typhoon had flaunted its violence fiercely enough to shake even the marble training ground.
Yet the small flame seemed to be swept along by it, holding its breath while refusing to be overcome.
“Haah!”
Wild energy burst from Jong Byeokgi’s body.
The winds raging in every direction split apart, then rushed toward Jin Sowoon from both sides.
Rumble!
Everyone knew those were not ordinary winds.
They were qi given form.
Wherever those winds passed, countless blade marks would surely remain.
Whoooosh!
The two streams of wind that had risen as high as the rooftops charged straight at Jin Sowoon.
Kakakakakakak!
Like a howling beast, the razor wind scraped wildly against the solid floor of the training ground.
It roared as though raking it with steel claws.
Stone fragments flew, and dust scattered in every direction.
Even the hard marble could not remain intact. What chance did a human body have?
The spectators’ eyes turned to Jin Sowoon.
“Good heavens...”
There he was, lightly swinging his sword within the wind.
The small flames extending from the tip of Jin Sowoon’s sword changed the wind’s course.
Illusion swords wrapped in golden sword qi collided with the wind and shattered.
It was not a clash between equal amounts of power.
Forces of clearly different strength collided, yet neither gained the advantage.
It was not some shallow insight or special trick.
It was.
An orthodox assault.
An orthodox assault...!
Namgung Taeha could not close his mouth.
What was an orthodox assault?
It was the most ideal form of martial training.
The supreme state one could only picture in one’s mind.
People called it theory.
Because practical combat required other applications to be mixed in.
Yet it was unfolding before their eyes.
Pure and noble.
Ideal and complete.
An orthodox assault met martial arts.
Theory was responding to reality.
Crack.
Namgung Taeha was roused by the noise beside him and turned his head.
The armrest beneath Moyong Gang’s arm had shattered to pieces.
The old man had broken someone else’s property without even realizing what he was doing.
“This... This is the martial mastery of the Taeul Sword Emperor!”
Moyong Gang trembled as he half rose from his seat, as though he wanted to leap into the training ground at once.
Namgung Taeha felt the same. That was how astonishing the sight was.
Fearing Moyong Gang might actually leap down, Namgung Taeha grabbed the hem of his robes as he watched the Taeul Sect’s foundation on display.
Jong Byeokgi’s sword was solemn and sharp.
Overwhelming and destructive.
It shot down the sun and summoned winds to cover the sky.
The spectators had already retreated several steps from the training ground.
They could barely withstand the aftermath of the power one man had unleashed.
Within it.
Within the typhoon.
Jin Sowoon did not retreat.
At times, he stood firm like a rock. At times, he swayed like a reed.
He flowed like water, then blazed like fire.
Mount Cang Sect was clearly on the offensive, yet only Jong Byeokgi’s face was filled with unease.
Jin Sowoon simply continued to change himself within his opponent’s domain.
“Ah...”
Moyong Gang let out a quiet sigh.
It was not because the fight between the young martial artists had astonished him.
This martial contest showed something else.
The essence of the Taeul Sect.
Its foundation.
A legendary existence that had vanished without a trace five hundred years ago.
“This is what the Taeul Sword Emperor meant by...”
That existence had crossed five hundred years.
“Transformation!”
The Taeul Sword Emperor’s realization was being passed on.
“Hehe...”
Moyong Gang was utterly captivated by the awe-inspiring sight.
The Taeul Sword Emperor, whose martial mastery had not been passed down for five hundred years, was revealing it to the world through Jin Sowoon, proving that the Taeul Sword Emperor had existed and that their will had endured.
Over Jin Sowoon’s figure, another appeared, like an immortal.
Moyong Gang, Namgung Taeha, Hyeok Mugang, and even Jegal Somyeong.
No one could take their eyes off this martial contest.
#
Jong Byeokgi loved hawks.
Hawks that soared freely through the open sky.
And Mount Cang Sect, which resembled those hawks.
A hawk that sometimes swallowed the sun to become a firebird, and sometimes became a single gust of wind to summon a typhoon.
Jong Byeokgi could not help but love it.
To him, Mount Cang Sect was the hawk itself.
That hawk he loved so passionately was something he would not regret giving his life for.
He had felt guilty.
Because the true worth of his beloved and proud hawk had not been revealed.
Because it could not shine brightest beneath heaven.
If that hawk could become the master of the blue heavens.
If it could be acknowledged by all under heaven.
Even if his life burned away like firewood, he would have had no regrets.
But.
He could not even become that firewood.
Plum blossoms blocked the hawk’s vision.
Taiji hindered its flight.
Vajra became Mount Tai and stood in its way.
Even so, Jong Byeokgi had not fallen into complete despair.
He had seen a possibility beyond that towering wall.
The hawk was surely supreme.
It had simply been born in the wrong era.
Like a firebird that blossomed in flame and rose again, one day it would rule the boundless blue heavens.
‘It should have... It should have been so...’
Jong Byeokgi’s face grew distant.
His eyes, overtaken by deep despair and fear, scanned the sky that had never become his.
The precarious flame revived no matter how fiercely the wind blew.
As if it were a firebird itself.
Sweeping through the open sky without hesitation.
‘Why? Why...!’
No matter how fiercely he beat his wings to summon a typhoon, it slipped away with ease, then blossomed again in brilliant light.
It leaped nimbly to evade, using his power to subdue it.
It created false images to drain away force, then changed to turn aside.
A small flame that looked ready to go out but never did.
That damned flame had grown immensely before he knew it.
It was no longer a frail, tiny flame.
‘Again? Are you a monster too?!’
Hwa Jeongsan. Ilmyeong. Dang Seohui.
And Yong Soa.
They were monsters.
Monsters who had surpassed the limits of genius.
Those monsters had claws.
Claws called foundation.
That was why they could not be surpassed.
But Jin Sowoon was different.
He was simply a monster.
A monster without the claws called foundation.
That was why Jong Byeokgi could not easily acknowledge it.
That the Taeul Sect possessed a foundation like Mount Cang Sect’s.
Yet the more their swords met and the more they exchanged energy, the more he felt it.
“Is this... Is this...?”
The wings of the hawk soaring through the blue heavens broke.
The wind summoned by the hawk stopped.
And the upright yet flexible flame was never shaken by the typhoons scattered all around it.
“Is this your foundation?!”
Amid countless changes, it changed itself as well.
Endless transformations bloomed like flowers along the border.[1]
It was showing him.
Its roots.
It was proving its foundation.
He could not look away.
He did not dare estimate how many branches those infinite transformations possessed.
It was not only because of his leg, which no longer worked properly, or his ruined dantian.
“Hehe...”
A laugh like a sob slipped through Jong Byeokgi’s lips.
His martial mastery could not keep up with Jin Sowoon’s.
‘Just a little...’
He wanted to watch just a little longer, to see how much more Jin Sowoon would change, but he could no longer follow those changes.
He did not realize it.
The martial contest he had dominated was now being led wherever Jin Sowoon wished.
He was now following Jin Sowoon’s movements.
‘Just a little more... Just a little more...’
He had to confirm it.
How far the Taeul Sect’s roots extended.
How great the gap was between Mount Cang Sect’s hawk and Taeul Sect’s transformations.
His ruined self could not make Mount Cang Sect the greatest beneath heaven.
So it was his duty to grasp the enemy’s ability.
Even if he burned to ash in the process.
Because one day, Mount Cang Sect would step over his ashes and become a hawk that swallowed the sun and covered the sky.
Whoooooom!
He forcibly stirred his ruined dantian.
The words of the physician who had treated him rang in his ears like a phantom voice.
“Master Jong, you must never overexert yourself again.”
But he could not retreat here.
This was his duty to Mount Cang Sect.
The turbulent currents and savage winds all scattered and faded away.
Perhaps sensing the change, Jin Sowoon, who had not spoken until now, taunted him.
“Have you finally decided to get serious?”
“...”
Having steeled himself, Jong Byeokgi no longer wavered.
Now was the time to confirm the Taeul Sect’s foundation.
He drew back his sword as though loading an arrow to fire.
Jin Sowoon also returned the magnificent flames to their original state.
“If I lose...”
He put all his strength into his injured leg.
“It will only mean that I was lacking. Mount Cang Sect will never...”
“You sure talk a lot.”
His words were cut short, but anger did not rise within him.
Jin Sowoon simply knew better than he did, that one decisive battle was surer proof than a hundred words.
Whoooom!
Through the compressed waves of qi that seemed ready to burst, the Flying Cloud Sword shot forth like a beam of light.
A hawk piercing the sun.
The beginning and end of Mount Cang Sect.
The Sun-Shooting Sword Art.
Jong Byeokgi poured the essence of his life into the tip of the Flying Cloud Sword.
Swoosh!
A strike that tore through the air.
Tadadadadang!
It was so fast that dozens of metallic chimes rang out within a single exchange.
Sword tips descended upon Jin Sowoon as though hundreds of arrows had fallen at once.
Yet.
“What an expensive sword. You only show it to me at the very end.”
A faint smile rested on Jin Sowoon’s face.
Then.
Shararararar.
Dozens of Changing Swords, dozens of illusion swords.
Hundreds of transformations born from them.
The true foundations of Taeul Sect and Mount Cang Sect collided.
Flash!
In that instant, the force of the clash drove the rain more than twenty feet away in every direction.
It compressed again.
Then.
Boom!
It burst outward.
Kwakwakwaang!
The wave of qi that swept out in an instant stopped the rain over the Taeul Sect for a brief moment.
When the spectators came to their senses beneath the falling rain once more.
Only one person remained standing on the training ground.
“Th-this is... the Taeul Sect.”
That was the Taeul Sect.
#
The rain gradually stopped.
Had it only been a shower?
Or had the clouds simply moved on?
I didn’t know.
White steam rose from my entire body.
I had not used much internal energy, but an orthodox assault exhausted both mind and body.
I looked down at Jong Byeokgi, who had collapsed on the ground.
I could not sense even the slightest trace of energy from him. His dantian had not merely been damaged. It had completely shattered.
He would never be able to live as a martial artist again.
A fight fought with one’s life on the line.
I did not know whether this martial contest had been worth that much to him.
He could have lived as a martial artist of moderate ability. Why had he pushed himself this far?
‘It probably wasn’t for the Taeul Sect... though that was the result.’
The unpleasant memories and nightmares I had associated with him in the past felt a little fainter.
At the very least, he had helped display the Taeul Sect’s righteousness.
At my signal, the Taeul Sect disciples carefully carried Jong Byeokgi down from the training ground.
I waited for the next opponent.
Drip. Drip.
The occasional raindrops gradually stopped as well.
I slowly walked toward the protesters, my body soaked by the rain.
“Next.”
“...”
One by one, those who had glared at me as if they wanted to kill me turned their heads away.
“Next.”
I stared at one person who tried to pick up a weapon and come forward, but the people around them stopped them instead.
“No, why?”
“Stay still. This isn’t your place to step forward.”
“But we have more people...”
“Numbers don’t mean anything anymore.”
“What are you talking about...?”
“Just stay still.”
It did not look as though anyone else among the protesters would come forward.
“You called it the Infinite Martial Contest, but that doesn’t mean I’ll accept challengers forever. If you’re not coming up now.”
They could not even easily meet my eyes anymore.
“Don’t ever think of coming up again.”
“...”
I had received more than four hundred challenge letters.
And the Taeul Sect had defeated nearly two hundred of those challengers.
“Would you say the Taeul Sect has proven its definition now?”
“...”
The remaining people looked away whenever their eyes met mine.
There was no point in any more questions and answers.
“I’ll take your silence as an answer. As the Taeul Sect’s Head Disciple, I thank you for attending the Taeul Sect’s event.”
After clasping my fist in salute, I turned away without hesitation.
Gang Chaeseok’s moved voice rang out behind me.
“Victory for Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect!”
At that moment, sunlight shone through the clouds, and a path made of light guided me toward the Taeul Sect’s camp.
I remembered my founding patriarch, whom I had seen within the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, and asked them.
‘Would you say this was decent for a founding ceremony?’
My founding patriarch smiled brightly at me, a smile I had never seen before.
Footnotes:
[1] The Korean words for “change” and “border flower” are homophones, creating a wordplay between ceaseless transformation and flowers blooming at the edge.
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