WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 463: Uncertain Conviction (5)
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The Blood Cult emerged in Sichuan, and when their stronghold was struck, a great number of dark arts were discovered.
The Blood Cult's might, displayed in its desperate battle against the Martial Alliance until the very end, left a deep impression on the White Path.
Some of those involved began to wonder.
Could they rise to another level by making use of it?
Their methods had been different from the beginning, and by all common sense, it should have been impossible.
Yet martial artists were a group filled with people who believed themselves exceptional.
Those who succeeded by defying common sense brimmed with confidence.
When that confidence crossed the line, it became arrogance. Arrogance made them believe, “Others may find it impossible, but I can do it.”
That was how people began laying their hands on the Blood Cult's arts.
It was an embarrassing situation for the Martial Alliance.
Those allied with the Alliance had begun dabbling in dark arts.
Publicly exposing their wrongdoing and punishing them was one option, but the Martial Alliance was not in a position to do so.
Division within the Alliance was already growing, and the pretext of a public purge operation against forbidden arts could harm innocent people.
The Black Alliance was another problem.
If other sects saw one being wiped out over forbidden arts, they might begin to think that shifting their allegiance to the Black Alliance was also an option.
‘Every piece fits together.’
That was why the covert purge operation had been devised, to prevent all of this before it happened.
“To guard against any leak of classified information, only the minimum number of people knew of the operation. The Death List was delivered under seal.”
They were investigating where things had gone wrong.
The purge operation already underway had also been temporarily halted.
For the time being, everyone who had delivered the Death List to Heo Ilsik had been confined in the Golden Prison. No matter how long it took, a thorough investigation would be conducted.
With a grave expression, Ak Byeongbi painstakingly broached the matter.
Yet however difficult and weighty it was to explain, the story could be summed up in a single phrase.
It was a mistake.
And the victims hearing that story could not easily contain their anger, no matter what hollow words were used to dress it up.
Yu Jiryang trembled, and the other Mount Mao Sect members were not much different.
I stayed silent.
This was not something I could defend in the first place.
“...”
My role was simply to listen while drinking the tea before me, like a bird briefly stopping at the water's edge.
Ak Byeongbi did not look to me for support, either.
“The Martial Alliance deeply mourns the present situation and is doing everything it can to repair the damage.”
I had heard those words many times in my previous life.
In my experience, they did not comfort anyone.
Just as I had in my previous life, the Mount Mao Sect members' faces turned red.
The urge to point fingers and curse was plainly written across their faces.
Still, they barely restrained themselves and looked toward Gu Songbaek, seated in the place of honor.
“I have heard how this came to be.”
Without question, Gu Songbaek was the angriest person in the room.
“But there was no explanation for why it came to this.”
After remaining silent throughout the explanation, Gu Songbaek looked at Ak Byeongbi with cold eyes.
“Is that truly all?”
“...”
Words as cold and piercing as his gaze struck Ak Byeongbi.
As though his heart had been stabbed by an ice awl, Ak Byeongbi lowered his head like a criminal.
“...”
Both Gu Songbaek and Ak Byeongbi knew why.
It had all been for justice.
Yet the best answer Ak Byeongbi could offer was, “I'm sorry.”
The moment he spoke of why, every apology he had offered would become meaningless.
The Mount Mao Sect's grievous losses would become something inevitable.
“I asked if that was truly all.”
Even so, Gu Songbaek pressed Ak Byeongbi harder.
If he did not vent his anger somehow, it would turn inward and destroy him.
“Answer me!”
“...I'm sorry.”
Yet all that came back was another apology.
Both men knew.
Neither anger nor apologies would bring the dead back to life.
Then Gu Songbaek spoke.
“One hundred years.”
The moment he realized that, the rage burning in his chest turned into a deep and lasting resentment.
“A century-long alliance, decided by a single sheet of paper...?”
At Gu Songbaek's hollow words, Ak Byeongbi hurriedly added, “The Martial Alliance feels boundless responsibility for this mistake. Until this situation is resolved, we will use every means at our disposal to rebuild the Mount Mao Sect.”
“...”
“We will construct new quarters within the Martial Alliance so that you may stay without inconvenience. In addition, three halls will be mobilized to protect the Mount Mao Sect, and the Mantong Office has promised unlimited financial support.”
It was an extraordinary offer.
“!!!”
“!!!”
It was a clear sign of the Mount Mao Sect's standing in the martial world.
Even the Mount Mao Sect members who had been consumed by rage could not hide their surprise.
Even I, listening from the side, felt my scalp tingle.
“The Martial Alliance will never betray the Mount Mao Sect's trust. That has always been the case, and it will remain so.”
The Mount Mao Sect members' eyes wavered.
Remembering the Martial Alliance's mistake made their anger surge, but the compensation offered was generous enough to shake their hearts.
Everyone's eyes turned to Gu Songbaek.
No martial sect in history had ever received such compensation.
“Remarkable.”
Gu Songbaek understood that as well.
But that was all.
“Is that what the Martial Alliance considers responsibility?”
“If you tell us what you want...”
“What do you think I want?”
The one eye Gu Songbaek had left burned red.
Resentment, rage, grief, longing, and countless other emotions were tangled within it.
Soon, his voice, laden with tears, filled the room.
“What I want... is for the dead of the Mount Mao Sect to return.”
Gu Songbaek's final words pierced Ak Byeongbi's heart more deeply than anything else.
#
In the end, nothing was resolved.
No, to be exact, nothing had changed.
Gu Songbaek did not say that the Mount Mao Sect would leave the Martial Alliance, and Ak Byeongbi did not clearly state how he would take responsibility.
Ak Byeongbi had only been repeating the compensation plan decided by the Martial Alliance.
“Phew...”
Ak Byeongbi's face was full of worry.
“Isn't this acceptable from the Inspectorate's perspective? The worst outcome has been avoided.”
The Martial Alliance had feared most that the Mount Mao Sect would break its alliance with them over this incident.
Once the Mount Mao Sect's alliance with the Martial Alliance ended, they would become the greatest prize in the martial world. Countless people would covet them.
“...”
Ak Byeongbi looked at me for a long moment before speaking.
“While working in the Inspectorate, you meet countless people who have suffered injustice. People with fiery tempers, people begging for judgment, people driven mad by their grievances, people who ruin themselves.”
His eyes stared into empty space as if recalling them, then trembled faintly as though he had caught sight of a particular scene.
“Do you know which of them are the most frightening?”
For some reason, I felt that Ak Byeongbi, who carried a more intimidating presence than anyone I had met, was trembling in fear.
“Those who want nothing. You never know what those people will do.”
Ak Byeongbi, who had been through every kind of hardship, was afraid.
“And they always end up causing something terrible.”
I agreed with him.
When Gu Songbaek spoke at the end of the conversation, I had felt an inexplicable chill.
“Either way, it has already happened.”
At my reproach, Ak Byeongbi's eyes took on the look of a drenched puppy.
A grown man was making that kind of hurt expression.
“Shouldn't people take responsibility for what has happened?”
“...Do you think I'm this worried only because of the Mount Mao Sect?”
What was that supposed to mean?
“Am I wrong?”
“Of course, that is part of it. But the greater problem is...”
Ak Byeongbi's eyes, which had been on me, turned once more toward somewhere far away.
As though he was on guard against some immense presence.
“The purge operation has effectively stopped.”
A chill ran down my spine.
Why had I not considered that?
“And those who were supposed to die have not died.”
The people who had benefited most from this were not the Mount Mao Sect's rivals.
They were the people who had nearly been killed for possessing Blood Cult martial arts.
Something similar must have happened in my previous life.
It was something I had lived through without ever knowing.
The people who should have died in my previous life had survived in this one.
“Now that they know they nearly died, they'll hide even more thoroughly.”
“...”
Where would those who had escaped death eventually end up?
“I have never seen the situation in the martial world this chaotic. I cannot even guess what kind of future will unfold...”
Ak Byeongbi was truly afraid.
#
Ak Byeongbi led his people away.
No one from the Mount Mao Sect saw them off.
The Mount Mao Sect quietly held a funeral for the dead.
Countless people wanted to attend, but the Mount Mao Sect allowed no one inside.
The funeral was not grand.
It was held with only the bare minimum of ritual vessels and food.
It reminded me of the funerals held on the battlefield in my previous life.
Naturally, they had not been arranged by the Alliance. Low-ranking martial artists had pooled their money to hold those modest funerals.
No one had mourned our deaths.
Still, there was one difference from us in my previous life, who had been soaked in grief and resentment.
“The Mount Mao Sect will not forget this day, nor will we send you, our dead, away.”
That solemn, quiet funeral felt like a departure ceremony sharpened to a blade's edge.
“So you cannot yet go to the land of the dead. You must watch what we do from now on.”
Every word Gu Songbaek spoke carried a ghostly aura.
“If wandering without finding rest becomes resentment, then direct all that resentment at me.”
Eunho shuddered.
“This is... creepy.”
Just as Eunho said, the funeral was filled with an icy chill.
#
Perhaps the funeral had stirred memories of my previous life.
Unable to calm my heart, I took a bottle of liquor and climbed onto the roof.
‘Maybe it is because of Gu Songbaek...’
I remembered the ghostly look he had worn during the funeral.
It was the face of someone carrying an immense resentment in his heart.
[They are evil. Evil that must be cut down before it grows any greater.]
Yong Soa's irritating voice came to mind.
[Ten times out of ten.]
His expression was certain, and his tone was firm.
[Gu Songbaek was missing his left eye among the demonic beings.]
No matter how I tried to erase it, that emotionless voice burrowed into my thoughts and stirred violent feelings within me.
‘Then why did that bastard turn back halfway through?’
What I still could not understand was that Yong Soa, who could clearly have killed Gu Songbaek at the end, had not done so.
When Heo Gwanjung, no, that bastard Heo Ilsik, had my hands tied.
He could have killed Gu Songbaek easily.
Yet he had not.
Then a thought suddenly occurred to me.
He could see the future.
He must have seen the future in my previous life as well.
If so, was the martial world he created in my previous life the best future he had seen?
[I saw the destruction of the martial world. Its endless deaths.]
It had only been for an instant, but I had clearly seen fear in his eyes.
That emotionless bastard, who had not even blinked as hundreds and thousands of martial artists died.
“Gulp... Huh? Already?”
Lost in thought, I had mindlessly swallowed the liquor until the bottom of the bottle was already visible.
As I debated whether to get more, a regular wooden tapping sound rang out.
Tap. Tap. Tap. Tap.
Then the owner of those footsteps spoke.
“Do you need liquor?”
I had been caught on the roof in front of the host, so I awkwardly smiled and leaned my head over the edge.
“Ha ha... I was just about to come down.”
“Ho ho, don't say that. If it were you, young hero, no one would have said a word even if you drank in the Patriarch's Shrine rather than on the roof.”
His voice was full of warmth. It was completely different from the person I had seen that morning.
“But I find it difficult to move about now, so could you come down? I cannot climb up to the roof.”
When I came down, Gu Songbaek had already set out two bottles of liquor and some snacks.
The liquor and snacks were all offerings that had been set out for the funeral rites.
“I am sorry that we did not properly receive our guest.”
“What are you saying? You have already given me more than enough.”
I deliberately joked a little to lighten the mood.
Several cups of liquor passed between us.
“...To be honest, I cannot understand it. Why did the Taeul Sect, why did you, come to help us?”
Perhaps because he had been drinking, his voice sounded a little tired.
“Could it be repayment for Mount Mao Sect installing Taeul Sect's arcane formation? The matter at Demon Spirit Plateau had already settled that debt. We also wanted to learn more about the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation.”
Or perhaps he was facing the brutal realities of the martial world head-on and feeling their weight.
“Because of that, the Taeul Sect had no reason at all to step in. It was too dangerous to do so while expecting repayment. The consequences afterward were too great.”
Gu Songbaek understood the people who had turned their backs on them.
If he had been in the same position, he would have turned away as well.
“You had chances to flee in the middle of it, but you did not.”
Gu Songbaek looked at me with a flushed face.
“Can you tell me why?”
Why...
I could not speak of what would happen in the future, or of the future I was trying to create.
So I simply told him part of the truth.
“I was taught that it was justice.”
His alcohol-reddened eye widened slightly.
I met his gaze.
“That is all.”
“...Justice.”
I had also faced a moment of doubt.
The tragic future Yong Soa had seen, the future of someone who could see what lay ahead.
My own life, and the lives of my junior disciples who mattered more to me than my own.
Yet what had made me accept all those risks was this.
[If the Mount Mao Sect's destruction is the natural course of history, then it is still my duty to save at least the innocent children.]
The desperation Gu Songbaek had shown for that brief moment.
The sense of justice that had tried to protect at least the bare minimum, even in that desperation.
That was why.
In his eyes, I had found an uncertain certainty.
The certainty that he would never join the demonic beings.
The chill and ghostly aura he showed at the funeral had shaken my feelings for a moment, but the person I had seen in that desperate moment still moved me.
“Yes. The justice you showed as well, Sect Leader.”
“...”
Gu Songbaek said nothing for a long time.
He looked as though he were caught in endless deliberation, struggling with a grave conflict as he weighed a decision that would change his life.
I waited in silence, drinking.
Sip.
By the time I had emptied both bottles by myself, he spoke.
“The Mount Mao Sect will remove the seals from all its spell arts.”
The declaration struck me like a blow.
“And we will return to our original form.”
Gu Songbaek had refused the Martial Alliance's generous support.
Yet he had not severed ties with the Martial Alliance.
It was all for this.
“This incident made me realize painfully how powerless justice is without strength.”
It was for the Mount Mao Sect's new path.
“And how fleeting the peace gained by adapting to others can be.”
From my perspective, this was welcome news.
If they removed the seals early, rather than after the Orthodox-Demonic War, they could train more highly skilled spirit practitioners.
“There will be fierce opposition.”
I did not forget to voice my concern.
Removing the seals after the Orthodox-Demonic War and removing them now would bring trials on entirely different levels.
“The only thing to do is prove ourselves.”
For some reason, Gu Songbaek smiled calmly, as though he had already anticipated every trial to come.
That smile seemed to leave a mark on my heart.
“There is something else I wish to ask.”
Thinking things had gone better than expected, I nodded lightly.
“Where does the Taeul Sect stand?”
He was asking whether the Taeul Sect belonged to the Orthodox Society, the White Path Society, the Twelve Peak Alliance, or somewhere among them.
“The Taeul Sect belongs nowhere.”
“Will that remain true in the future?”
I would create an independent force before I allowed myself to be drawn into another's orbit.
“Yes.”
I had lived enough of a life being dragged around in my previous life.
I would never repeat the same mistake in this one.
No matter how lonely or difficult that path became.
“Then would it be acceptable for the Mount Mao Sect to walk that path with you?”
“...What do you mean?”
“I mean the Mount Mao Sect wishes to walk alongside the Taeul Sect.”
That was right.
That path might not be lonely after all.
I lifted the bottle and filled his cup.
“Are you certain?”
The Taeul Sect had been chosen after turning away the offers of countless sects and factions.
The Mount Mao Sect's choice would make people question them.
Even so.
“After hearing you speak, Young Hero Jin, I became certain.”
Without hesitation, Gu Songbaek emptied his cup.
“The Mount Mao Sect will stand with the Taeul Sect.”
The first blood oath alliance had been formed.
Footnotes:
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