WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 446: The Definition of Justice
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“W-What do you mean by that?”
Yu Jiryang’s voice trembled violently.
“Exactly what I said. Only the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation can save the Mount Mao Sect now.”
Still on Eunho’s back, he looked ready to sink into thought again.
I gripped his shoulder.
“I’m saying the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation can save the Mount Mao Sect.”
“I know that... But the mystic formation currently in place...”
“I know.”
The Mount Mao Sect possessed an adapted version of the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, but they had never constructed it themselves.
Their existing mystic formation was already an exceptional arcane formation, one that could contend with the Jegal Clan’s Seven Stars Seven Locks Formation.
“It would take a full month just to dismantle the existing mystic formation. Even if we install the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation, it would take at least a month...”
I cut him off at once.
“Does it need to be perfect?”
“What?”
“It doesn’t need to be perfect. What if we use the existing mystic formation and build only the damaged sections anew?”
The two formations might have had nothing in common beyond the Eight Trigrams, but completion was not what mattered right now.
“Besides, formation breaking has not yet been completed on the existing mystic formation.”
True to the Mount Mao Sect’s reputation as masters of mystic formations, some of their formations remained intact even though part of the main formation had been destroyed.
So they only needed to maintain the existing formation while installing the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation in the gaps.
It would be difficult, but if they could accomplish those two things...
“We can save people.”
“...!”
Yu Jiryang’s wildly shaking eyes grew steady and profound.
“But...”
“Do you need another excuse?”
Mystic formations were difficult because they had to meet three conditions.
They had to thoroughly protect allies, avoid harming innocent people, and stop the enemy.
Remove even one of those conditions, and installing a formation became far easier.
Yu Jiryang had to know that.
He had simply clung to despair before reaching for the faintest possibility.
It was a natural choice for anyone.
And yet...
“I’ll see it through to the end. So that even one more person from the Mount Mao Sect can live, I’ll offer my life if I have to.”
If even one person was willing to hold on to that possibility with me, people could find courage.
“...Young Hero Jin!”
That was how history had changed, and how it would continue to change.
Yu Jiryang slowly raised his head and looked into my eyes.
His voice carried more strength than ever before.
“Whether I succeed or fail, the rest of my life will belong to you.”
He immediately closed his eyes and began muttering numbers.
He had begun calculating how to deploy the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation.
“Senior Brother, there are more and more of them.”
Saryeon pointed at the hundreds of Black Officials blocking the mystic formation.
“It’ll take time to break through.”
“We aren’t going that way.”
“Then where?”
“There.”
I pointed straight at the main gate.
“But the mystic formation has been activated there.”
“So what? We have someone here who has crossed that mystic formation countless times.”
When I pointed at Yu Jiryang, he nodded.
“Let’s go! Geumpyo and I will clear the way. Our destination is the Mount Mao Sect!”
“Yes!”
We started running again.
Martial artists surged toward us like raging waves.
#
“Catch them!”
At Heo Gwanjung’s desperate command, the Black Officials sprang into action.
“...We lost them.”
“Damn it!”
He had known they possessed an extraordinary movement art.
They had run from the village to Mount Mao while leaving behind every Black Official, martial artists who were second to none in movement arts.
It was a movement art worthy of being called the best under heaven.
Still, he had never imagined they would break through the encirclement amid such a chaotic battle.
“Damn it!”
What he found even harder to understand was that, in this hellish mess, with the sect’s destruction certain, Jin Sowoon and his group had rushed in without hesitation.
“I heard they were insane, but I didn’t know they were this crazy...”
The operation had already begun before Jin Sowoon’s group reached the village.
No matter how fast they ran, they could not stop the Mount Mao Sect’s destruction.
What should have unfolded before their eyes was three centuries of tradition collapsing in vain, along with the overwhelming might of the Martial Alliance.
Instead, those bastards had thrown themselves into the flames.
“What should we do?”
“They won’t come out this way again. It’ll take them a long time to pass through the mystic formation. By the time they emerge, make sure they see nothing but corpses and ash!”
“Yes!”
Excessive courage was no different from foolishness.
That was why there was a word for reckless courage.
And reckless courage had never brought good results.
The Mount Mao Sect’s destruction had already been decided.
#
The Mount Mao Sect’s response had been perfectly reasonable.
Who in the martial world had spent years there without ever being falsely accused?
Even the Mount Hua Sect had once been suspected of pursuing a deviant path.
Wudang Sect had been dismissed as a sham sect.
Jealousy and rivalry.
In a martial world tangled in such clinging emotions, nothing was impossible.
That was why the Mount Mao Sect had responded within the bounds of reason.
They had been somewhat frightened by the Black Officials’ involvement, but they believed the matter would pass with time.
The Mount Mao Sect’s influence in the martial world was far from weak, and they had spread no small number of bribes among Martial Alliance officials.
On top of that, the Mount Mao Sect was one of the Martial Alliance’s most important business partners.
They could not imagine the Mount Mao Sect being destroyed over an accusation of practicing a forbidden art.
No.
They had refused to imagine it.
Every single one of them.
“Aaaagh!”
“Argh!”
“Kyah!”
The result unfolded before them in a horrific scene.
Spirit practitioners who had been joking around that morning.
Children who had sneaked away to eat snacks.
People who had heatedly debated their differences.
All of them bled and died.
The mystic formation they had hurriedly altered broke down before it could function properly, and attackers poured endlessly through shadow-like gaps in it.
“We are the Mount Mao Sect! How can the Martial Alliance attack the Mount Mao Sect?!”
Even in the face of their desperate cries, the attackers continued their slaughter.
If they had at least explained why the Mount Mao Sect had to die, the disciples could have cursed and screamed at them.
Instead, their opponents remained silent.
No, they did speak.
“Die for justice!”
Justice.
The very thing the Mount Mao Sect had upheld with honor for centuries.
They said that was the reason they had to die.
But it made no sense.
How could their deaths be justice?
Had their mystic formation not existed to protect justice in the first place?
“Aaaagh!”
Hwang Sagong, the Hall Lord of the Mount Mao Sect’s Qian Kun Hall, died without ever finding an answer to that question.
He was not alone.
Countless people of the Mount Mao Sect lost their lives helplessly, as did the companions forced to watch it happen.
“Sect Leader! The enemies... More enemies are coming!”
“What do you mean?”
“Three hundred! No, I think there are four hundred of them...!”
At the spirit practitioner’s report, Gu Songbaek, the Sect Leader of the Mount Mao Sect, lost all strength in his legs and sank to the ground.
“Heaven... Heaven has abandoned Mount Mao.”
They had sent disciples to sects that had always exchanged aid with them, asking for help. They had also urgently sent disciples to the Martial Alliance officials they had bribed.
Yet none of the disciples who should have returned by now had come back.
Could every one of them have met with an accident on the way?
‘...Of course not.’
Everything rose and fell, and nothing lasted forever.
Still, none of the disciples had expected the Mount Mao Sect’s end to come like this. They could barely stand beneath the weight of their despair.
“Aaagh!”
“Ghk!”
Their fellow sect martial artists stepped forward to defend them, but they were hopelessly outmatched.
“If it was going to come to this... If it was going to end this way... We should never have sealed the ritual arts.”
They had sealed dozens of powerful ritual arts that could be branded dark arts.
That was why the Mount Mao Sect had no way to respond to the attack.
An age of peace, an age of gold, had arrived.
The people of the Mount Mao Sect had believed there was no chance the seals on their ritual arts would ever be lifted, and they had even considered destroying those sealed arts entirely to erase the slightest suspicion directed at them.
And yet...
“Why...?”
What they had done for justice was now killing disciples who had lived righteously.
“Sect Leader! We must retreat... Retreat comes first!”
Even as the Hall Lords struggled to protect him until the very end, Gu Songbaek avoided their hands.
“S-Sect Leader!”
“Hall Lords, listen to me!”
“Give us your orders!”
“I will unseal the Four Dragon Pavilion now.”
“...Sect Leader?”
Gu Songbaek’s resolute voice instantly overwhelmed the chaos.
“Leave this place at once with the younger disciples. And... never again!”
Blood flowed from both his eyes.
Whether he knew it or not, Gu Songbaek continued in a firm voice.
“Never again... form ties with the Martial Alliance!”
“Sect Leader!”
“That is what you must do now. I will do what I must!”
“...”
“This is my final order as Sect Leader. Go!”
Blood seeped over his tightly bitten lips.
“Let’s go!”
The Hall Lords took in the sight of their Sect Leader’s back before running toward the Four Dragon Pavilion.
Those who remained prepared for their final stand alongside their Sect Leader.
Rustle.
His long robe spread open, and dozens of cylindrical pillars shot from Gu Songbaek’s hands.
Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap! Tap!
The cylindrical wooden pillars embedded themselves throughout the area with fierce force.
Clicking sounds rang out between the upright pillars.
The intruders assumed it was a formation and rushed forward to break it.
Then...
Roar!
A tiger the size of a house appeared and opened its enormous jaws.
“W-What is that?!”
The intruder twisted sharply in the middle of the run and barely changed direction.
Roar!
The Black Official narrowly avoided the tiger’s jaws, then saw its faded colors and realized they had been fooled by an illusion.
“What a ridiculous trick!”
Enraged at having been frightened by nothing, the Black Official charged the Mount Mao Sect with the force of Bow-Arrow Flickering Shadow.
The faded tiger opened its mouth again, but the Black Official did not hesitate.
The moment they swung their sword to cut down the remaining disciples of the Mount Mao Sect...
Crunch!
Sudden pain froze their entire body.
Unbearable agony shot from their shoulder to the nape of their neck.
Why...?
The moment they turned their head, they saw it.
The blurred tiger created by the illusion had its teeth sunk into their shoulder and neck.
Blood gushed from the wound and spilled everywhere.
“What the...!”
Before they could say anything more, the tiger made from illusion violently shook its head.
At the same time, the Black Official’s body lifted into the air and whipped about like a toy.
“Aaaagh!”
Blood sprayed from them like a fountain as they were tossed around, then smashed into the ground.
By then, their shoulder and arm had already been torn away.
“Do you think this is nothing but an illusion?”
Five talismans shot from Gu Songbaek’s hand.
Alongside them came a dragon, a Black Tortoise, a Vermilion Bird, a qilin, and a White Tiger, creatures that should have existed only in illusion.
“A-Aaaagh!”
“Get away!”
“Dark arts! It’s dark arts!”
At the Black Officials’ cries, Gu Songbaek’s heart sank.
How much had the Mount Mao Sect sacrificed to change that perception?
How much had they scorned their ancestors’ enlightenment?
And the price of killing what they cherished while watching others’ reactions was...
“I knew it was dark arts!”
All their efforts, their sacrifices, their pain, and their sorrow crumbled into sand with those few words.
All the suffering they had endured while building it vanished as though it had meant nothing.
Faced with that sorrowful futility, Gu Songbaek shouted.
“Yes... You are right!”
His voice was steeped in emptiness.
“This is the Mount Mao Sect’s dark arts!”
The illusory beasts immediately lunged at the attackers.
The Black Officials joined forces to resist them.
Strangely, every attack passed through the illusory beasts.
The Black Officials’ attacks only cut uselessly through empty air.
Yet the illusory beasts’ attacks worked against them.
“Ghk!”
“R-Run!”
Black Officials were bitten by the dragon, rammed by the Black Tortoise, and thrown aside by the White Tiger’s claws.
As the Black Officials’ losses gradually mounted, the tide of what had been a one-sided slaughter slowly began to turn.
“Master!”
“Go! I said go!”
“This is your last chance!”
For a brief moment, those trying to send their disciples away and those trying to stop them faced one another amid the despair.
Ping!
Until he appeared.
Ping! Ping! Ping! Ping!
Five throwing knives flew toward the illusory beasts.
As expected, the knives passed through them.
But after passing through the beasts, the throwing knives wrapped around one of the cylindrical pillars Gu Songbaek had thrown out.
Clack! Clack! Clack! Clack!
The final knife struck the cylindrical pillar.
Crack!
The pillar warped weakly, and the illusory Black Tortoise immediately vanished.
Only a burning talisman remained, fluttering in the wind before turning to ash.
“You fools, did you not even know the Mount Mao Sect’s Sect Leader practiced the Illusory Phantom Art?”
The person who revealed himself was, surprisingly, a boy who did not even appear to be twenty.
“You...”
“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Sect Leader. I am currently known as Heo Gwanjung.”
“You know it is an illusion art, and yet you commit such atrocities?”
A faint sneer formed on Heo Gwanjung’s lips.
“You are naive for a Sect Leader. That is why your sect has ended up in this state.”
“What is this all for? Why? Why would you do this?!”
“Because...”
Blue claw qi gathered around his fingers.
“Justice!”
The four illusory beasts rushed Heo Gwanjung at once.
With nimble movements, he barely evaded only their teeth and claws.
As though he knew that was their weakness.
Then he went straight for Gu Songbaek.
“...Is that not why?”
“You bastard!”
Heo Gwanjung had already closed the distance. His vicious claw qi tore through the Mount Mao Sect’s disciples.
As if he wielded ten swords, blood flowed like a river wherever his hands passed.
“So please die quietly. A troublesome meddler has joined in and made things difficult.”
“Even in death, I will never forget this grudge!”
“Hmm... That is rather frightening. A curse left by the Mount Mao Sect’s Sect Leader.”
Contrary to his words, the corners of his lips curved into a smile.
“But I have been studying hard because I was ordered to learn banishing evil and suppressing spirits again, so I am not too worried.”
The tide turned again in an instant.
“Ah...”
Gu Songbaek could not hide his despair as the remaining four talismans vanished helplessly.
“Is this the end...?”
Ten streams of claw qi drew cruel arcs through the air above Gu Songbaek.
Just as he closed his eyes, sensing his end...
Whoosh!
The sound of something slicing through the air cut across the battlefield.
Thud!
Heo Gwanjung was struck by something and sent flying fifteen meters away, crashing into a burning building.
“Guaaagh!”
As though his fury pierced the heavens, claw qi flashed and sliced apart every burning piece of the building.
Soon, Heo Gwanjung walked out from the collapsed wreckage, his body scorched by fire and his eyes blazing.
“Who is it?!”
His yellow eyes swept sharply through the surroundings.
Then Heo Gwanjung sensed something strange.
The battlefield had gone silent enough that even breathing could not be heard.
Everyone was staring in one direction.
The Mount Mao Sect’s Mechanism Formation.
A place thick with white mist.
The mist parted like curtains there, and someone walked out.
“How dare a runt like you go on and on about justice?”
A dissatisfied voice shattered the silence.
It was accompanied by a crooked stance overflowing with ease.
“What a mess you have made. What a complete mess.”
The owner of the voice clicked his tongue, then noticed Gu Songbaek and respectfully cupped his fist.
“I am a little late. You are Sect Leader Gu Songbaek, correct?”
“W-Who are you?”
He had broken through the Mount Mao Sect’s Mechanism Formation and sent the Black Officials’ leader flying with a single blow.
Gu Songbaek had forgotten that his own life had been in danger moments ago as he stared at the man before him.
The man said,
“I am Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.”
“Jin Sowoon?!”
His voice did not carry even a trace of fear or hesitation.
He had announced his name.
Gu Songbaek felt as though he had witnessed the descent of a celestial being with his own eyes.
Footnotes:
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