WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 468: The Anxiety of Goodness (5)
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The welcome banquet was held in grand fashion.
All the Tanghyeon Sect disciples stood in neat rows, dressed in immaculate robes, to receive the Dragon-Phoenix Association.
Nearly five hundred people dressed alike had gathered to welcome them. It was quite a sight.
Polite pleasantries passed back and forth over tables laden with food and liquor.
Once everyone seemed to have observed enough formalities, Mak Hyowol looked at Ilgak.
“I heard there were no Shaolin Sect disciples in the Dragon-Phoenix Association this time. Why is someone wearing Shaolin robes accompanying you?”
Ilgak rose from his seat and pressed his palms together.
“I am Ilgak, a disciple of the Shaolin Sect.”
Mak Hyowol gave a small exclamation as Ilgak bowed deeply.
“Oh, you are Vajra Monk Ilgak?”
“It is a title I do not deserve.”
“But I heard that Venerable Ilgak had gone elsewhere rather than joining the Dragon-Phoenix Association...”
“Yes. I had my reasons.”
“Hmm... Is that so?”
Mak Hyowol had received no answer to the question of why Ilgak had accompanied them, and the response was lukewarm.
Mak Hyowol appeared to consider asking more, then turned their gaze toward me.
“Then the person beside you is...”
I rose and cupped my fists.
“I am Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.”
“Oh! Black Mait... No, the Academy Representative.”
I deliberately spoke up.
“For certain reasons, I accompanied the Dragon-Phoenix Association. It weighs on me that I seem to have disrupted an important occasion.”
Mak Hyowol shook their head, then smiled warmly.
“How could we not be pleased to welcome not only the Dragon-Phoenix Association, but divine prodigies whose names ring throughout the martial world? Let us raise a toast to celebrate this meeting.”
As the cup was raised, everyone in the hall followed suit.
“It is good to meet you!”
As the liquor went down my throat, its fragrant aroma filled my nose.
Ilgak only lifted his cup before setting it down again. He spoke to me quietly.
“Didn’t you say something seemed suspicious?”
It seemed he was reluctant to drink because of what I had said before we entered.
“Even if Tanghyeon Sect has done something wrong, would they try to harm us already?”
Unless Tanghyeon Sect intended to take the Dragon-Phoenix Association’s heads straight to the Black Alliance, they could not act carelessly either.
“I see.”
Ilgak nodded and swallowed his drink.
“What a sham monk you are, drinking liquor too.”
“...Would it not also be discourteous to refuse a celebratory drink at a martial world event? It is within acceptable bounds when done to observe proper etiquette.”
“That’s awfully convenient.”
“...But Benefactor Jin, aren’t you drinking too much?”
Ilgak pointed at the empty bottle in front of me.
“Ah, I’m fine. I built up a lot of poison resistance in Mukrim, so most poisons don’t affect me.”
“...What?”
Ilgak looked between the liquor he had drunk and me.
For some reason, he looked as though he had been betrayed.
#
The event continued in a friendly atmosphere.
Once the formal proceedings were over, Tanghyeon Sect disciples approached the Dragon-Phoenix Association one by one to exchange greetings and drinks.
Some younger disciples came to receive seal impressions, while others spoke of teachings and enlightenment.
When the banquet ended, the lodgings assigned to us had been stocked with every necessity.
“What did you think?”
“Why are you asking me?”
As soon as we returned to our quarters, Ilgak asked me.
“I... didn’t notice anything particularly strange.”
His brows furrowed with confusion.
“I didn’t sense any impure energy either.”
The same was true for me, so I said nothing.
After a moment of silence, Ilgak cautiously spoke again.
“Could we not remove Tanghyeon Sect from suspicion?”
“Could we?”
“I also found what Benefactor Jin said strange, but... perhaps the Sect Leader simply failed to recognize me.”
The Dragon-Phoenix Association members, who had naturally been listening to our conversation, nodded as well.
“Hmm, that is true.”
I asked them a question.
“Then shouldn’t the other disciples have failed to recognize you too?”
“...?”
“Did anyone look at the Tanghyeon Sect disciples’ expressions when Ilgak introduced himself?”
I looked around at the Dragon-Phoenix Association members, but no one raised a hand.
“I was watching.”
The faces of the Tanghyeon Sect disciples from that moment remained vivid in my mind.
“Yet none of them looked surprised.”
“...!”
“They may have thought a sham monk who drinks liquor and eats meat was nothing special, but Ilgak of the Shaolin Sect is still a name anyone would recognize.”
“I did not eat meat!”
Ilgak made a pointless little protest, which I ignored.
“Yet rather than being surprised, they all seemed to be trying not to show their nervousness. Then, during the banquet, they approached Ilgak again and sweet-talked him about how they had wanted to meet him.”
I might have been overly sensitive.
My subconscious might have already decided they were guilty, and I could have been forcing the facts to fit that conclusion.
Still.
“The welcome was strangely excessive.”
The instincts that had kept me alive so disgracefully until the end in my previous life were warning me.
“If Tanghyeon Sect knows our visit isn’t simply for friendship or gratitude, why would they go this far to welcome us?”
Something felt wrong.
“Um...”
At that moment, Danmok Gyoryeon carefully raised a hand.
“Now that you mention it, I noticed something strange too.”
Everyone’s attention turned to Danmok Gyoryeon.
One person’s suspicions might amount to nothing more than needless worry, but if someone else added to them, the situation changed.
Danmok Gyoryeon continued, clearly suspicious.
“When the Tanghyeon Sect Leader addressed Group Leader Jin, they referred to him as the Academy Representative rather than Black Flame Dragon or Black Maitreya.”
“...”
What was that supposed to mean?
Just as I was about to object in disbelief...
“Ah... Now that you mention it!”
The others gave stiff-faced exclamations.
What was with these reactions? This was ridic...
“That is certainly strange.”
“Yes! It does seem like they’re hiding something.”
“Suspicious.”
...Our suspicions toward Tanghyeon Sect suddenly soared.
#
After washing up first, I headed to the garden.
Even if we listed every suspicion about Tanghyeon Sect now, we could not begin investigating them immediately.
The investigation would begin in earnest tomorrow morning, once daylight came.
Tanghyeon Sect was not the end of this special investigation. It was only the beginning.
Staying tense and going all out from the outset of an extended mission would be foolish.
Proper pacing was essential for a special investigation that could last a long time.
To relax, I took out the spell scripture Mount Mao Sect had given me as a gift.
[Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon]
When I first received this technique, I had felt more bewilderment than admiration.
The value of a sect’s teachings could not be exchanged for gold or treasures.
Passing a sect’s teachings to a complete outsider was no different from handing over its soul.
And it was not as though Mount Mao Sect lacked wealth, yet they had gifted me a martial art...
I understood it even less.
The energy used in spell arts was fundamentally different from that used in martial arts.
Even if one learned spell arts, they were useless without a cultivation method that supported them.
Mount Mao Sect could not have been unaware of that, which made their intentions even harder to understand.
‘It wasn’t as if they gave it to me so I could trade it for taffy.’
Still, since the opportunity had come, I should examine it in detail.
Using the same method I always used to read, I began to devour the Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon.
Rustle, rustle, rustle, rustle.
As I flipped through the spell scripture, Ilgak, who had finished washing and was heading back to the lodgings, tilted his head.
“Benefactor Jin, what are you doing?”
“Can’t you see? I’m reading.”
“...Who in the world calls that reading?”
“Why are you suddenly picking a fight? Are you jealous because you have no hair?”
“I do have hair...! Ahem. That is not the point. No one calls it reading when you flip through a book that quickly and carelessly.”
Only then did I understand what Ilgak meant.
Then again, I was probably the only one who could read this way.
Back when I worked at the Mantong Office in my previous life, I had developed the habit of first cramming documents into my head so I could read as many as possible as quickly as I could.
“People with hair read like this.”
“What does hair have to do with... Forget it. Please continue your diligent reading.”
I gave him a careless answer because I could not be bothered, and Ilgak, apparently offended, shook his head and went inside.
Once I had quickly stored the entire contents of the Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon in my mind, I drew upon the energy of the Sunfire Monkey.
Whoosh.
The Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon vanished without a trace, turning to ash in an instant.
“Hmm... I received a far greater gift than I thought.”
That was my first impression after learning the entire Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon.
It was not limited to the Binding Spell alone.
Before the Orthodox-Demonic War, the Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon had been little more than a performative technique used in folk ancestral rites and shamanic ceremonies.
In a world where only orthodox spell arts existed to ward off dark arts and black magic, what other purpose could it have served?
It could not contend with high-level dark arts or black magic, but it was more than sufficient for lifting low-level curses and dark arts.
‘More importantly, it doesn’t require a separate cultivation method.’
The spell arts in the Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon could be fully used with Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.
I did not need a cultivation method like Mount Mao Sect’s that fully utilized the upper dantian.
They must have seen me use Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force and decided to pass these spell arts on to me.
‘It can even perform low-level illusion arts.’
That was the most astonishing part of the Spirit-Suppressing Binding Canon.
Perhaps there was a concept of binding even in deceiving others, because it described low-level illusion arts as well.
It would be useless against masters whose battles were decided in a single move, but it would be a useful weapon against Demonic Cult bastards and dark arts practitioners whose next move could never be predicted.
To try the illusion art, I took out a talisman.
At that moment, Ilgak came out wearing more comfortable clothes.
“It seems you have already finished reading?”
Ilgak spoke with uncharacteristic sarcasm.
“As expected, those blessed with hair read at a different pace.”
Was he sulking?
His sarcasm was rather pointed, but as a former member of the Sojeong Unit, I would not lose my cool over such weak mockery.
Honestly, it was enough to make me yawn.
The best response to sarcasm was not more sarcasm.
In situations like this, accepting the mockery and playing along was the better attack.
“Want to see?”
“Pardon?”
I drew upon Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.
The energy moved differently from when it was used for martial arts.
Rather than supplying strength throughout my body, it felt as though my bodily strength was draining away.
In exchange, my mind became clearer and fresher than ever.
It felt like I was seeing the world anew.
At the same time, immense fatigue washed over me.
‘There was a reason spell practitioners were so frail.’
If low-level spell arts consumed this much mental strength, how much would high-level spell arts consume?
I cleared my mind and recited an incantation.
As I chanted, energy flowed into the talisman, and I felt the talisman resonate with my middle dantian.
‘Now!’
The instant everything was ready, I threw the talisman.
Flutter.
The talisman drifted freely like a fallen leaf, then suddenly formed a figure with a puff of smoke.
“...”
It was Ilgak in Shaolin robes, with a thick, full head of hair.
“What do you think?”
“...”
“Full, isn’t it?”
Killing intent filled Ilgak’s eyes at the result of my first illusion art.
‘Tch, was that too much?’
It might have been too severe a psychological attack against someone who had been respected his entire life.
“Ilgak, that joke may have been a little too...”
Just as I was about to apologize, golden light flashed from Ilgak’s body, and golden fist force struck the illusion in a barrage.
“Whoa...!”
I hurriedly raised my hand to block, but the fist force was not aimed at me.
Thud, thud, thud, thud, thud!
Golden fist force battered the illusion from head to toe, and the energy of the Muscle-Tendon Change Classic cleanly erased the illusion created by Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.
Ilgak with a full head of hair vanished, turning back into a talisman.
“My first creation!”
Ilgak ignored my cry and went back into the lodgings.
The moonlight clearly licked his scalp.
Footnotes:
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