WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 505: The Beginning of Night (10)
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I drew out the Sunfire Monkey’s energy with all my strength.
Immense heat rose from my lower body and engulfed my entire upper body.
The heat that burst forth in an instant burned away the poisonous energy inside me.
Pop!
Heat poured from my pores, making my martial robes swell as though they would burst.
The poison that had obstructed the circulation of my internal energy was gone, but my body hurt even more than before.
It was likely the poison Dang Suje had mentioned, the kind meant to suppress heat.
Once I calmed the Sunfire Monkey’s energy, the heat-suppressing poison stopped reacting.
‘That confirms it.’
I could no longer use the Sunfire Monkey’s energy.
From now on, whether I could endure the poisonous energy Dang Suje scattered would determine whether I could pass Strongest-Decides-the-Wish.
As though he had grasped my condition, Dang Suje let out a low chuckle.
“Are you overestimating yourself, or are you looking down on me?”
As if he knew exactly what I was thinking, he casually shook out his hands.
Then he lowered his stance.
He held a flying sword and wore green leather gloves.
Bang!
Two marble tiles flipped over as he shot toward me like an arrow.
He rushed in with enough force to drive me out of the training ground in one move, so I used Snow Flower.
‘Huh?’
He suddenly eased his strength, then pressed forward with even greater force than before.
“Urgh!”
I fled, leaving afterimages with Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps, but he followed while eliminating each one.
As I continued retreating, I unleashed the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Shrrrriiing!
The Scarlet Radiance Sword spread out like the ribs of a fan, targeting Dang Suje’s vital acupoints, but he remained perfectly calm.
“Did you think I couldn’t tell an illusion from the real thing?”
That confidence did not last long.
The Drifting Current Formless Sword moved exactly like an illusion sword.
Slice!
It was no more than a shallow scrape on his arm, but Dang Suje’s surprise was obvious.
“Hup!”
I repeatedly unleashed the Drifting Current Formless Sword before he could collect his thoughts.
Slice! Slice! Slice! Slice!
The attacks he had assumed were illusion swords did not vanish. They cut into him one after another.
Dang Suje stepped back for the first time.
“What sword art is this?”
I had no obligation to answer, so I simply continued unleashing the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Shrrrriiing!
Dozens of sword forms descended upon him. After considering his options, Dang Suje put away his flying sword and unfastened the belt around his waist.
At once, it transformed into a long red whip, one jang in length, and began lashing through the air.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
It moved on an entirely different level from the whip Dang Daegwang had shown before, writhing like a living creature.
‘...Wow.’
It moved madly, like a barrage of arrows, and neutralized the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
I found an opening and was about to rush in when an ominous feeling made me stop.
Tap.
Something brushed the tip of my foot. When I looked down...
‘When did he...?’
Countless iron caltrops, difficult to spot with the naked eye, covered the ground.
He must have judged that responding to the Greater Heaven Sword Art would not be easy and scattered them along his retreat path to buy time.
His judgment and thoroughness left me impressed.
In the end, I had no choice but to use Grass-Skimming Flight and cross the training ground.
Tap, tap, tap.
I moved like the wind over the countless caltrops and swung the Scarlet Radiance Sword.
[Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms]
[First Form]
[Extreme Swiftness]
Alarm clearly appeared on Dang Suje’s face as he defended against the Greater Heaven Sword Art.
Screeeech!
The sound of splitting air followed a moment later.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
The red whip in his hand was cut into three pieces.
“The Five-Segment Blood-Leech Whip...”
Yet I had not left even a scratch on Dang Suje.
Without giving him room to breathe, I unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art at him as he glided across the training ground.
When dozens of sword forms tried to swallow him again, he drew his flying sword and shook off the sword qi.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Amid his frantic defense, I fired the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand.
The Silent Sound Azure Water Hand shot swiftly toward him without sound or form.
At the very moment it was about to strike, Dang Suje flinched more violently than ever and fled with all his strength.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The Twin Heavens Sword Art he failed to neutralize left wounds across his upper body, but he seemed relieved that he had suffered only those injuries. He stared with shocked eyes at the place he had just escaped from.
“What... was that?”
“It’s nothing special.”
“What?”
“It really is nothing special. You’ll understand if you get hit by it once.”
“...???”
I did not know how he had recognized it, but he seemed to instinctively sense the terror of the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand.
Thanks to that, I could see a little more hope in this fight.
But then...
Thump.
My heart began racing again.
Thump. Thump.
A stinging pain crept across my skin, beginning at my toes.
Thump. Thump. Thump.
Every time I moved my internal energy, pain spread through my entire body as though it were being torn apart.
‘Damn it. Damn it.’
I did not have much time left.
#
Dang Suje had long since grown indifferent to titles like Divine Dragon and New Phoenix.
The more widely praised the young martial artists were, the more they tended to disappoint him.
Today was different.
Dang Suje’s surprise continued to grow.
The young man’s understanding of martial arts, his unbelievable internal energy, his adaptability in battle, and even his method of neutralizing an opponent’s strengths.
It did not feel like fighting a brat in his twenties.
‘It feels like...’
He was fighting a retired soldier who had spent an entire lifetime on battlefields.
The strangest part was the sword art that turned forms that were clearly illusion swords into real swords in an instant. He had never seen or heard of such a thing before. It gave him not only surprise, but a new experience.
‘His persistence is astonishing too.’
Even among the Tang Clan’s children, who would not lose to anyone when it came to poisonous energy, there was no talent comparable to him.
In that sense, Jin Sowoon was certainly remarkable.
‘But that’s as far as it goes.’
The repeated attack patterns were gradually reaching their limit.
The bizarre attacks that fired real swords while pretending to be illusion swords could make one’s heart drop.
Still, under the current circumstances, Dang Suje would not fall for them.
He wanted to play with the boy longer, but if he did, Jin Sowoon might end up ruined.
‘It’s time to finish this.’
Today’s defeat would become nourishment for the boy and raise the Tang Clan’s standing in the future.
Dang Suje believed that would be enough for him to have done his part.
Shiver!
That had been true.
Until an unknown sense of danger engulfed his whole body.
‘I have to dodge!’
As he knocked away the illusion swords that were impossible to distinguish from real ones, his hair stood on end and a chill ran down his spine.
In that instant, a clear instinct came to him.
He did not know what it was, but he had to avoid it.
Dang Suje accepted the damage and broke straight through the Twin Heavens Sword Art.
Slice! Slice! Slice!
Pain, which he had not felt in a long time, made him grit his teeth.
Once he had passed through the storm of sword forms and thought he had escaped far enough...
“Hmm...”
The boy’s face entered his vision, filled with disappointment.
“What...?”
Dang Suje’s shoulders trembled without his realizing it.
Like someone seized by chills.
“...What was that?”
“It’s nothing special.”
Nothing special. Nothing at all...
It was absolutely not nothing.
The instinct that had saved his life countless times while roaming the martial world told him so.
This was dangerous.
‘This won’t do.’
He could not drag this out any longer.
The moment he made his decision, he released three kinds of poison and scattered concealed weapons at the same time.
The wind was blowing directly toward him, but that was no problem at all.
He would scatter concealed weapons and poison the boy.
Yet that dangerous brat...
Boom!
Without showing the slightest panic, he unleashed that absurdly powerful palm force and destroyed both the training ground and its wall.
“You brat! Are you trying to destroy every Tang Clan building?”
“Then just let yourself get hit!”
Dang Suje was nearly dumbfounded enough to laugh.
Jin Sowoon had already been poisoned by more than five poisons. His condition had to be a complete mess.
And yet the brat still...
“Huff!”
Moved his body.
His mental strength was so unyielding that Dang Suje almost suspected he might have killed Jin Sowoon’s parents in the past.
‘Tch... What should I do?’
His elder brother, Dang Hyeokje, had told him not to inflict serious injuries.
They were children who needed to enter the Sword Tomb.
But even Dang Suje found it difficult to subdue a boy who gritted his teeth and charged at him like this without seriously hurting him.
When he looked up at Dang Hyeokje, his brother was smiling broadly and nodding.
‘Really, is he that pleased?’
Dang Suje watched his brother for a moment, then found himself smiling as well.
Well, he did not dislike this brat that much either.
‘Then...’
He had permission now. There was no reason to hesitate any longer.
He took out every concealed weapon hidden inside his robe.
They were things Jin Sowoon, in his current condition, could not easily avoid.
He released them all at once, intending to subdue him in a single blow.
Rumble.
Then the boy unleashed that absurd palm force again.
Boom!
Violent destruction swept through the training ground once more.
The overwhelming destructive force was certainly enough to sweep away the smaller concealed weapons.
But how long could he continue using it?
Swallowtail Silver Needles, Golden Bee Needles, Asura Darts, and Thunder Blood Needles poured down.
Soul-Scattering Incense, Crane-Top Red, Blood-Dissolving King Poison, and Snow Poison Flower rode the wind and poisoned the boy.
And the boy’s response...
‘Th-that madman!’
That same absurd palm force once again.
Boom!
Dang Suje, who had moved beyond the palm force’s range, lightly landed on the training ground, more than half of which had been destroyed, and looked at Jin Sowoon.
His breathing was ragged. His skin had begun to discolor, his eyes were bloodshot, and saliva dripped uncontrollably from the corner of his mouth.
He was thoroughly poisoned.
Even standing would surely cause unbearable pain.
Yet the boy still swung his sword.
Despite his terrible condition, there was not the slightest tremor in the sword art he displayed.
It was truly astonishing.
“Then I’ll give this my all too.”
A technique he had not used since killing the villain known as the Fatal Acupoint Poison Demon ten years ago.
Heaven-Turning Flower Rain.
It was not quite equal to Myriad Heavens Flower Rain, but it was an ultimate concealed-weapon art said to rival it.
Dang Suje rose with the force of a crane soaring into the sky. His hand moved so quickly it could not be seen.
Tiny silver pellets poured from his hand.
Until now, Jin Sowoon’s sword forms had filled the space between them.
Now Dang Suje’s silver pellets filled the space, no, the sky itself.
Screeeech!
Dozens, then hundreds of silver pellets rained down like a downpour, leaving no gap at all.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
The sword art Jin Sowoon unleashed lost one sword form after another to the pellets falling like rain.
In the end, they struck Jin Sowoon directly.
‘He’d better recover well.’
Dang Suje could not take his eyes off him, worried even as he attacked.
Bang!
Jin Sowoon’s body, struck by the metal pellets, vanished in a cloud of smoke.
What remained after the smoke cleared was...
‘A talisman?’
Dang Suje tilted his head in confusion.
Then someone sprang up from the ground.
“J-Jin Sowoon!”
It was clearly Jin Sowoon, who should have been poisoned.
Huh? Jin Sowoon...?
“That’s how it turned out.”
“What?”
That same absurd palm force filled Jin Sowoon’s hand.
On top of that, Dang Suje had risen into the air to use Heaven-Turning Flower Rain and was now falling.
Dang Suje had not yet reached the realm of Void-Walking, so he had no way to evade the palm force.
‘D-damn it...’
Boom!
He was struck head-on by the palm force’s terrifyingly broad range and sent crashing down.
His protective qi force prevented him from being injured by the palm force itself, but where he landed was...
‘Damn...’
The training ground Jin Sowoon had already shattered with his earlier palm force.
In other words, outside the ring.
“That means I won, right?”
“Ha... Hahaha...”
Leaving the dumbfounded Dang Suje behind, Jin Sowoon looked toward the platform.
It was an unspoken request for a ruling.
Silence hung over the training ground for a moment.
Dang Mუგap, who had been lightly covering his mouth, shouted.
“Jin Sowoon wins!”
A cold silence fell over the area.
The victor did not bother looking around.
He thought it was only natural.
The Tang Clan members would not readily accept losing in such a way.
‘My goal was not to earn their recognition.’
Just as Jin Sowoon turned away...
Clap... clap clap.
Clap clap clap...
Clap clap clap clap clap.
Applause began to ring out.
Jin Sowoon stopped and looked around.
Everyone in green robes was applauding and cheering.
“To push Elder Dang that far!”
“That’s right! I acknowledge you, Black Flame Dragon!”
“Amazing!”
Cheers. Cheers, huh...
Then...
“Let’s get along from now on!”
There were some strange words mixed in.
“Congratulations on becoming part of the Tang Clan!”
Part of the Tang Clan?
“Black Flame Dragon, you’re good enough for us!!”
The more he heard, the less sense it made.
“If you make our young lady cry, you’ll regret it!”
“Don’t think you’ve already caught the fish! You have plenty of rivals!”
Strange words.
“Ha... What are they even talking about?”
The Tang Clan was definitely a place where no one could be reasoned with.
Jin Sowoon shook his head and walked out of the training ground.
And then...
“Hehe...”
Dang Mუგap had lowered his hand from his face at some point. A satisfied smile spread across his lips.
It was a beautiful spring day for the Tang Clan, which had been covered in poison and concealed weapons.
#
I took the antidote Dang Suje offered with a reluctant expression and began qi-regulating breathing.
The poisons had mixed together, so the detoxification was not complete. Still, thanks to my absurd recovery ability, I had no major trouble moving.
Then I went straight to see Dang Hyeokje.
And made my demand.
“Please make ten thousand.”
“...Have you lost your mind?”
The Poison King furrowed his brow deeply.
“Didn’t you say you needed one thousand?”
“That was the amount when I was making a request. Things are different now.”
I puffed out my chest.
“I passed Strongest-Decides-the-Wish.”
“...”
For the first time, the Poison King looked flustered.
“Actually... that was not Strongest-Decides-the-Wish...”
“What?”
What? Had I heard wrong?
“Strongest-Decides-the-Wish is a tradition permitted only to members of the family.”
“What?”
“...So what you did was...”
“What?”
“...”
What kind of ridiculous nonsense was this?
It had been Strongest-Decides-the-Wish, but it was not Strongest-Decides-the-Wish?
“No! Are you saying that the great Poison King, in this grave, urgent, pressing moment where every second counts, made me fight using wicked, vile, and cowardly words just for his own entertainment?”
“...That is quite an exaggeration.”
“On top of that, I was poisoned and nearly died, nearly went blind, nearly had my heart stop, and nearly exploded into a lump of meat from concealed weapons during that fight... and you’re saying it was just a fight???”
“...”
Was he kidding? This old man must have spent too many years as an absolute master and forgotten how frightening the world could be.
“You really mean that??”
No one could match him in martial ability, and with his family background added on top, he was like Mount Tai itself.
So what?
“I trusted the Poison King’s words as though they were worth a thousand gold, and I risked my life. Yet I was nothing but a toy for the Poison King’s amusement!!!”
Whether he was Mount Tai or the Martial Alliance’s grandfather, anyone who had done wrong needed to be punished.
“I had heard that lies, fraud, contempt, and deception ran rampant regardless of the righteous path or the unorthodox path, but who would have thought... who would have thought... who would have thought!!!! That the Clan Head of the Tang Clan, the greatest Tang Clan under heaven!!! The Poison King himself!!! Dang Seohui’s grandfather!!! Would be someone who spouted lies, fraud, and deception every time he opened his mouth. I. Truly. Did. Not. Knowww!!”
“Stop...”
“I’m so hurt that I shall compile this story into a book and tell the martial world that justice has vanished. I shall make a song about what happened today and...”
“Stop! Stop it!!!”
“...”
The Poison King looked as though he had bitten into something foul.
“If you spread false rumors, you might die without anyone knowing...”
“Then all you need to do is make them for me.”
“...”
After a brief silence, the Poison King fixed a steady gaze on me.
“If I make ten thousand Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets, I may be unable to treat patients in Sichuan and Gansu in time. Do you still think that is more important?”
Of course, that was possible.
But I was certain. The Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets were more important right now.
“Yes.”
At my answer, a green gleam flashed in the Poison King’s eyes as he stared at me.
Then he gave an order.
“Tell the Pavilion Master of the Tang Clan Medical Pavilion to summon every physician from the Tang Clan and the Sichuan region.”
“Yes!”
Dang Mუგap answered and left the inner hall.
He should have done that from the start. Tch.
“There will be no false rumors spreading, then.”
“Grr... You insolent brat...”
Pretending not to hear him, I walked away with light steps.
#
“Let’s see...”
For now, I decided to secure five hundred Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets from the Tang Clan.
Nearly fifty physicians and more than a hundred female healers gathered at the Tang Clan. They set up cauldrons and began boiling water in the medicine-decoction equipment, and the scent of herbs filled the entire compound.
Once word spread that the Tang Clan needed Heart-Calming Spirit Pellets, the physicians also brought the emergency supplies they had prepared beforehand.
Three hundred were made in two days.
“The Tang Clan’s capabilities are incredible.”
It was honestly impressive enough to make me marvel.
They had somehow reached five hundred in only three days.
Making ten thousand would take time, but considering the herbs and physicians they could mobilize, even that would not be too difficult.
Just as I was starting to think positively...
“Sa-save...”
Part of the Tang Clan investigation team that had gone to investigate the Sword Tomb returned.
Then...
“The Sword Tomb is... h-hell... Never, never... go inside...”
After saying something I could not understand...
“Never... go...”
They collapsed.
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