The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 49

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 49: The First-Rate Martial Artist Peering into the Darkness (2)

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There were countless reasons for the defeat in the Orthodox-Demonic War, but the most fatal was demonic qi.

Countless demonic arts had originated from the Heavenly Demon Scripture, the foundation of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.

The unique demonic qi emitted by those arts was far deadlier to those struck by it than to the people who practiced the demonic arts themselves.

Only profound spiritual attainment or innate qi could resist demonic qi.

Yet over five hundred years of change, the martial world had come to regard deep spiritual cultivation as the practice of heretical sects. It had focused solely on cultivating forms over spiritual power, and internal energy over innate qi.

The result was the fall of the White Path martial world.

Weak demonic qi could be expelled with vast internal energy, but once that balance collapsed, it devoured the body in an instant.

Demonic qi was deadlier than poison.

There was no specific antidote. The victim could only expel it with their own bodily strength.

"He'll die like this."

Setting aside the wounds covering his body, Moyong Sangwon had no energy left to drive out the demonic qi.

The best solution I could think of was to take him to Wolhyang's tomb and cleanse his body with innate qi.

Still, even the slightest movement could kill him due to his internal injuries.

I had the Fire Monkey's inner core, but if I fed it to him while he was this depleted, his internal organs would melt away.

"Is there no way?"

I wanted to save him somehow.

I wanted to give Moyong Seol, who had always come to me to talk on her hardest nights, a true source of comfort.

It had not happened yet, but I hoped it could bring some solace for that time which was my past.

"Hm?"

At that moment, the Heavenly Demon Supreme Bangle on my right wrist, or rather, the object that had now become the Red Phoenix Bangle, began to tremble faintly.

I had not known what effect it possessed, so I had simply carved the words Heavenly Demon Supreme Bangle from its inner surface and kept it.

Strangely, as the Red Phoenix Bangle trembled, it gradually drew in Moyong Sangwon's demonic qi.

Only then did I realize what it could do.

No matter how much internal energy I had poured into it, the Red Phoenix Bangle had never reacted. It responded only to demonic qi.

Slowly, I sent internal energy into the Red Phoenix Bangle.

Its faint trembling steadily intensified, and it began drawing in the demonic qi consuming Moyong Sangwon's body.

I worried that the demonic qi it absorbed might poison me, but thankfully, it only swallowed it. It did not release it again.

"Urgh."

After some time, Moyong Sangwon vomited dead blood tainted by demonic qi like a fountain.

"Whew."

As color gradually returned to his face, I finally let out a breath.

Thankfully, all the demonic qi that had consumed Moyong Sangwon's body was gone.

His energy was still faint, though, so I could not move him carelessly.

"He'll have to recuperate here for a while... I need a spiritual medicine that can restore his strength immediately..."

I searched through the Martial World Elixir Compendium in my mind for a spiritual medicine that could treat Moyong Sangwon, but the nearest one was six days away.

"It still isn't safe to leave and find a physician."

He opened and closed his eyes at intervals. He could stop breathing at any moment.

If I left to prepare medicine, I might return only to find a corpse.

Then Moyong Sangwon regained a little consciousness.

His voice was clearer than before as he tried to make his wishes known.

"I, I have a request..."

When he tried to lift his head, I said in alarm, "Please stay still. If you move carelessly now, your condition could worsen."

"No... I..."

I covered the uncooperative patient's mouth.

Right now, conserving even a little strength was best.

"At least I have this."

I took a dagger from my clothes.

I sometimes used it while sleeping outdoors, so its edge was razor-sharp.

Then I sliced open my palm in one stroke.

Most of the elixirs I had consumed had been converted into internal energy through the Taeul True Scripture.

Even so, I had consumed so many that some of their energy still remained in my body.

What was more, I had already digested them and removed their toxicity, so there was no harm in giving it to a patient.

"Please live. If you die, she'll have no one to rely on when things get hard."

Desperately, I squeezed the blood from my hand.

As Moyong Sangwon contemplated his end, he reflected on his past.

His son, Moyong Jaehwa, had talent and passion for martial arts, but he had always been weaker and less capable than his sister. Jaehwa was Sangwon's greatest worry.

He had fed Jaehwa countless elixirs, but perhaps it was simply how he had been born. His internal energy increased, but his constitution itself did not change.

Then, a renowned physician invited by the Martial Alliance took Jaehwa's pulse and clicked their tongue, saying he had consumed elixirs unsuited to his body.

According to the physician, Jaehwa lacked fire energy for a man's body, leaving his physical balance disrupted. If he consumed an elixir pellet overflowing with fire energy, he would gain an extraordinarily powerful constitution.

After that, Sangwon spread word everywhere and spent heavily to find an elixir of fire energy, but with the Martial Arts Academy examination approaching, such elixirs had become scarce.

Then he received reliable information that a Fire Monkey had been found on Mount Huang, and Moyong Sangwon set out himself.

He entered Mount Huang with two escort warriors, where the Fire Monkey had been sighted. After weeks of hardship camping in the mountains, they finally found it.

Together with his two escorts, Moyong Sangwon succeeded in driving the Fire Monkey into a corner and obtained its inner core.

The instant he thought all his worries had been resolved, unidentified figures attacked them.

At first, Moyong Sangwon did not think much of their assault.

He thought they were insignificant fools after the Fire Monkey's inner core.

‘W-what kind of martial arts are these?!’

Their chaotic martial arts followed a completely different path from those of the Central Plains, and an unknown energy gnawed away at his body as though he had been poisoned.

When he saw the escort warriors who had tried to protect him vomit blood and die instantly, he felt death closing in for the first time in his life.

He fled desperately to an unknown mountain, but eventually found himself surrounded by the attackers with a sheer cliff at his back.

"Who are you people? Do you know who I am to dare do this?!"

He tried speaking to learn anything about them, but the attackers only continued their silent assault.

In the end, Moyong Sangwon threw himself from the cliff. He was dying at its base, afflicted by whatever the attackers had poisoned him with.

How many days had passed like that?

‘Father, I'm worried. Wouldn't it be better if you didn't go?’

He recalled his daughter's sorrowful face as she worried for his safety when he left the clan.

He had laughed it off, saying she was old enough to marry soon and yet still worried over every little thing.

Now, he thought he would pay any price if he could see her just once more.

Through his fading consciousness, he saw someone descend into the valley on a rope.

When that person searched his clothes and found the Fire Monkey's inner core, perhaps because his daughter's face had just come to mind, Moyong Sangwon did something he should not have.

Without realizing it, he revealed his clan affiliation.

Moyong Sangwon sensed his end.

‘Ha... How foolish. I've brought death upon myself.’

The Fire Monkey's inner core was among the ten most precious elixirs in the martial world.

No martial artist capable of descending into the valley would fail to covet such an elixir. Once they learned he was from the Moyong Clan, they would surely kill him to eliminate all witnesses.

Saving a member of the Moyong Clan and returning the Fire Monkey's inner core would bring less profit than consuming it and growing stronger.

‘My foolishness has brought me to my death. I'm sorry, Seol... I won't be able to see you again.’

As he closed his eyes, certain of his end, the man began doing something strange.

He started stripping Sangwon's clothes off.

‘At least let me die with dignity! What use are these clothes to you when they're already in tatters?!’

He shouted with all his strength, but only "Ugh... ugh..." came from his mouth.

Then, when the young man placed a hand on his middle dantian, Sangwon felt the oppressive energy consuming his body gradually drain away.

The toxic energy that had spread through his body seeped out through his pores, while the energy lodged in his organs burst out through his mouth.

Cough!

Once he expelled all the toxic energy, his mind became clear again.

‘W-what is this?’

Moyong Sangwon looked at the suspicious man before him... no, the righteous hero who now burned with chivalry and did not care in the least about the Fire Monkey's inner core.

The youth still had traces of boyishness on his face, but he was striking and imposing, with well-defined masculine features harmonized by a feminine grace.

The youth looked back and forth between the Fire Monkey's inner core and Moyong Sangwon's face.

Moyong Sangwon realized his intention and turned pale.

Some of the toxic energy had been expelled, but it had already been absorbed into his body. Feeding him an elixir pellet full of fire energy now would be no different from pouring oil onto a fire.

Fortunately, the youth set down the wooden box again.

The youth looked up at the cliff, gauging whether he could climb back up.

The hope that he might live was short-lived. It did not seem possible for the youth to scale such a high cliff while carrying him.

Traveling back and forth to treat him would be even more impossible.

Once he accepted that, his heart grew calm.

‘This is my end. If only he would pass my last words to my daughter and son...’

With the strength that had returned to him, he barely managed to speak.

"I, I have a request..."

Before Moyong Sangwon could finish, the youth shook his head.

"Please stay still. If you move carelessly now, your condition could worsen."

"No, I..."

The youth covered Moyong Sangwon's mouth with a hand, then pressed a finger to his own lips to tell him to be quiet.

‘Tell them my last words!’

Moyong Sangwon felt frustrated, but he lacked the strength to show it.

The youth drew a dagger and cut open his own palm.

Then he brought his bleeding palm to Moyong Sangwon's lips.

‘Who is this man... to do this for a stranger...?’

There was an old tale passed down among the people. When an elderly, sickly father lay at death's door, the child cut off a finger and fed the father their blood to buy time until a physician arrived.

Moyong Sangwon knew that story as well.

Like all such stories, he had thought it was fabricated to emphasize filial piety, and it had never moved him much.

Yet as the blood trickled past his lips and into his stomach, his whole body warmed, and strength began to return.

‘Was the legend true?’

Then the youth's voice reached Moyong Sangwon's ears.

"Please live. If you die, she'll have no one to rely on when things get hard."

He could not tell what the youth meant, but he could clearly feel how desperately the youth was clinging to the hope of saving him.

As Jin Sowoon bled for Moyong Sangwon, he realized he had made a mistake.

‘I should have struck his paralysis acupoint.’

Anyone who practiced martial arts was obsessed with elixirs.

In the past, there had even been fiends who captured those who had consumed elixirs, boiled them alive, and ate them.

If Moyong Sangwon realized his blood was full of elixir energy...