WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 485: The Conditions of Hatred (3)
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A destined future never changed.
That was what Yong Soa had learned after years of seeing the future and enduring the torrent of events that followed.
The great current of history was a vast Yangtze, a sea formed by hundreds and thousands of streams gathering together.
Blocking one of those streams only created an unpredictable, negative future.
The most he could do was redirect it.
Even then, he could not stop the greater flow.
He could only predict it and prepare for the greatest possible damage.
‘What is meant to happen will happen.’
He had never doubted that belief after watching his clan be consumed by flames.
[If you’re so certain, then kill him.]
Yong Soa was not someone who would be swayed by the foolish words of a wicked man.
[Perhaps your actions are what will turn Sect Leader Gu into that!]
Yet that day, the turmoil in his heart had strangely refused to settle.
No, defiance had risen within him.
He did not know why he felt that way.
Yong Soa had never once experienced such a change in emotion because of another person.
That defiance soon became anger, and as if to hold Jin Sowoon responsible for creating that desperate future, he chose not to execute Gu Songbaek.
‘I’ll have nightmares again.’
In the dreams he faced from now on, he would probably see Jin Sowoon collapse in despair before Gu Songbaek’s atrocities.
But.
‘This...’
Something that had never happened in all that time.
A future that had never changed, no matter how much he tried.
Yet in the first dream he had seen since the incident at Mount Mao.
Gu Songbaek stood beside Jin Sowoon.
Wearing an eyepatch and a prosthetic leg, he led the charge as he swept aside the Demonic Cult.
“Heh... Yong... Senior. Have a drink.”
Yong Soa raised his gaze and looked around.
“Jin Sowoon isn’t here.”
“Jin... Group Leader is, heh... with Miss Song...”
“I know.”
Yong Soa rose before Gwak Susan could finish speaking.
The garden of Hwapung Manor.
His white martial robes rustled as Yong Soa walked forward.
Though there was no sign of anyone there, the place was undeniably warm and peaceful, yet it gave off a strange sense of unease.
‘Strange.’
It was strange.
This anxiety he could not understand, and...
‘Why am I going to see him?’
The sight of himself heading toward Jin Sowoon as well.
[Are you truly certain?!]
A man who could understand him, yet had cursed him.
An uncertainty that carelessly twisted the predetermined flow.
A dangerous variable that might bring about countless tragedies.
His “dreams,” which he had never once doubted.
After meeting that man, he had wavered for the first time.
Perhaps I could be wrong.
No, was it that...
I hoped I was wrong...?
‘Did I... truly think that...?’
Yong Soa had come to Hwapung Manor to prove it.
“I want to know Young Master Jin.”
That he was not wrong.
That Jin Sowoon was wrong.
“Oh, why are you so embarrassed?”
Thump.
Through Jin Sowoon’s death as Yong Soa had foreseen it. To witness the end of someone who had defied the flow.
“...I want to know more. About Young Master Jin...”
Thump.
To laugh at his arrogance in the final moment when his heart was pierced and he fell.
But.
[If you’re so certain, then kill him!]
That hate-filled cry disturbed his clear mirror and still water.
[Kh... cough... Haa...]
Rational judgment vanished as he looked into the hollow eyes of Jin Sowoon, covered in blood from head to toe as the life drained from him.
Swoosh.
“About... about...?”
His body reacted before his mind.
“Y-Young Master...”
Blood gushed from Song Yesul’s wound.
And he felt relief.
Jin Sowoon, the “uncertainty” he had wanted so desperately to erase...
“Yong Soa!!!!”
Was alive.
#
I had hoped for it.
That Hwapung Manor would not fall.
That this warm, comforting place, like the Taeul Sect, would not become ashes.
That the woman who carried responsibility would not grieve.
That was all I had wanted.
“Then why?!”
Swoosh.
At the command of my will, my dantian expelled internal energy more fiercely than ever. Empowered by that qi, the muscles throughout my body swelled as though they would burst through my clothes.
The Scarlet Radiance Sword shot forward like a ray of light and pierced straight through his heart.
Sizzle.
Yet Yong Soa’s body, its heart pierced, vanished like dust.
I kicked off the ground toward where my energy sense detected him.
Boom.
The surface of the earth split open, exposing the soil beneath as dust rose in every direction.
Swoosh.
The simplest and most efficient Lesser Heaven Sword Art slashed at Yong Soa seven times in one second.
Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish, swish!
The sound of air being cut rang out continuously, but the tip of the Scarlet Radiance Sword struck nothing.
I drew out more internal energy.
Internal energy filled all twelve primary meridians, then spread to the ends of the Eight Extraordinary Meridians.
My movements became faster, my senses sharper.
Boom!
I rushed at Yong Soa as though folding space itself.
For the first time, that emotionless bastard’s expression twisted slightly.
As he tried to leave the area, I blocked his escape route with a swift sword faster than anything else.
[Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms]
[First Form]
[Extreme Swiftness]
The Scarlet Radiance Sword cut through space, and the sound followed after it.
Swoosh!
No blood sprayed.
Only a few fluttering strands of hair and a scrap of sleeve drifted through the air.
As if he had expected it, he casually brushed his hair back.
Then he urgently kicked off the ground and leaped away.
The Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand I had unleashed through the principles of the Void-Destroying Fist exploded where he had stood.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
‘Faster!’
I unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art and trapped him in a storm of swords.
As though he had known beforehand, he used Thousand-Catty Drop to evade the sword storm.
When I unleashed the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist where he would land, he answered with the Two Modes Fist Art and redirected it.
‘Faster!!’
I fired the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand at the place he had no choice but to move toward. He answered the soundless, formless attack with a Wind Thunder Palm, nullifying its palm force.
‘Even faster!!!’
Why hadn’t I realized it?
That he would have at least one technique capable of concealing himself from energy sense.
Why hadn’t I continued suspecting him until the end, when he clearly had another objective?
Because Hwapung Manor had been saved.
Because I had thought it was over.
I had let my guard down and failed to keep questioning him.
I had suspected him from the day I arrived until today, only to relax at the very end.
“Argh!”
I poured out my rage with the Mad Heaven Divine Palm.
Kwakakakakakakakakakakakaboom!
Once again, he evaded every part of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm’s range as though he had anticipated it.
“W-What is this?!”
The aftermath of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm shook all of Hwapung Manor, and people began rushing out.
“Y-Yong Soa?”
“Why is Jin Sowoon...?”
“What are you doing?! Stop at once!”
The cries of the Azure Dragon Pavilion’s Hall Master and Great Hall Master.
The frightened eyes of the Hwapung Manor members.
None of it could stop me.
Grrrrrr.
I had decided to kill him.
My will was imprinted upon the Scarlet Radiance Sword, and streams of red killing intent stretched outward.
“Won’t you at least hear me out?”
Yong Soa’s emotionless attitude made my killing intent rise further.
“If you intended to talk...”
For a moment, I had mistaken the Yong Soa before me.
I thought he might be different. No, that he could be different.
But he was...
“You should have done it before you started this.”
The same kind of person as Yong Soa in my previous life.
Someone who never considered others, who put only his own thoughts first and stood alone among all people.
Between the emotionless choices of a man who believed only he was right, our desperate cries had never been considered.
That was why I had hated Yong Soa, the hero of my previous life, more than anyone.
There had been no feeling for people in his “choices.”
“If you truly saw me as a person!”
Without hesitation, I unleashed the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Shrrrrr.
The Scarlet Radiance Sword spread like the ribs of a fan, leaving sword images in the air.
Illusion swords would not work against Yong Soa.
That did not matter.
“You would have spoken to me first!!!!”
This was a new secret art I had devised to fight someone who could see the future.
A technique I had only been able to use after acquiring the covert sword art known as the Drifting Current Formless Sword.
“...!”
Perhaps sensing something strange, he finally took a stance.
Draw-Sword Posture.
Yong Soa’s unique Draw-Sword Stance, which no one had ever seen twice.
He was finally preparing to fight in earnest.
“Stop at once!!!”
Hwang Seoyul’s Lion’s Roar thundered through the garden, but as though it were a signal, I swung my sword.
Shrrrrr.
Shrrrrr.
Sword images spread, then spread again.
Among the dozen or so sword images, Yong Soa defended only against the real blades with perfect accuracy.
Slice!
Yet a sword he had thought was an illusion cut his clothes.
“...!”
Then.
Slice! Slice!
The illusion swords he had ignored began cutting his clothes as though they were real blades.
Swoosh!
One sword image drove toward a vital acupoint like a swift sword.
Yong Soa evaded with the Ladder-to-the-Clouds movement art, but the sword image vanished like dust.
The blade he had thought was an illusion left its first wound on his arm.
Drip.
It was only a small wound.
“...!”
But it was clearly a meaningful strike.
And as though it had not been an accident.
Drip. Drip. Drip. Drip.
Wounds began appearing one by one across Yong Soa’s body.
“He wounded Yong Soa...?”
The Azure Dragon Pavilion members who had rushed out to stop us had fallen silent and begun watching our fight.
“How did he do that?”
Yong Soa’s white martial robes gradually became stained with blood.
Blood was beginning to run down Yong Soa’s body. He had not shed a single drop even while fighting three thousand people.
Clang.
Yong Soa used the Whirlwind Sword Art in a wide sweep to redirect the sword images dominating the space, then retreated.
He looked back and forth between the Scarlet Radiance Sword and me.
“Are you swinging your sword in the same manner as the illusion swords you have scattered?”
“...”
There was a reason Yong Soa was regarded as the greatest talent in history.
“That means you can use illusion swords not as deception, but as possibilities.”
It was not simply because he could see the future.
“No matter how much one trains, past movements and present movements cannot be identical...”
Even aside from his supernatural ability, he was the greatest martial artist in history.
“You are using that extraordinary memory of yours.”
That was why he never believed he could be wrong.
“What will you do if you know?!”
And that arrogant self-righteousness gave rise to hatred.
Boom!
Sword qi exploded, making Yong Soa stagger.
I unleashed the Greater Heaven Sword Art and kept the illusion swords pressed close to him.
I did not know how far into the future he could see, but an attack decided right before his eyes could not be predicted through mere foresight alone.
Clang, clang, clang!
The sound of swords scraping against each other rang out without pause.
Clang! Clang, clang, clang!
Sparks continuously burst forth, illuminating the dark night.
Clang! Clang, clang, clang! Clang!
As we traded strikes again and again, I felt it clearly. I was stronger.
And I used that strength to crush him.
Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!
Without allowing even an instant of distance between us, I attacked again and again.
Slash.
At last, I managed to leave a small cut near his neck.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
I exploded the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand through the principles of the Void-Destroying Fist, blocking his vision.
I poured out both the principles of the Drifting Current Formless Sword and the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand, driving him back without pause.
Kwakakakakakakakakakaboom!
As qi collided with qi and the shockwave spread in every direction, his movement stopped.
“...?”
The Whirlwind Sword Art slowly subsided.
His sudden stillness was strange, but I did not care.
I had finally found the chance to kill him.
‘I’ll kill him! I have to!!!’
Just as I tried to drive the Scarlet Radiance Sword, packed with internal energy, through his heart without hesitation, my entire body stiffened.
Gurgle.
The internal energy that had flowed through me like the currents of the Yangtze suddenly began to reverse.
Pain that began in my lower abdomen tore through my blood vessels.
“Urgh!”
Yong Soa spoke emotionlessly, as though he had expected this.
“If you force your internal energy to rise while under the effects of dispersing energy poison, it will hurt even more.”
When?
The moment our fight began, I had circulated internal energy throughout my body and never withdrawn my energy sense for even an instant.
Besides, dispersing energy poison could not be administered that way.
“Arghhh...”
It did not matter.
Even if I suffered qi deviation today, I would still...
“Recover. You’ll need to move again.”
He struck my paralysis acupoint, then passed by me like a ghost.
And there.
Creak, creak, creak.
-How did he know?
Song Yesul, whose neck had been half severed and who had become a dead soul, was rising to her feet.
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Author's Note
Today is a multi-chapter release. Thank you, as always.
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Footnotes:
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