WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 518: The Monster That Feeds on Despair (3)
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Bzzzz-
The Red Phoenix Bangle vibrated far more violently than it had when I encountered the Soul-Returning Iron Zombie.
Bzzzz-
I spread my energy sense through the passage, but nothing registered.
Bzzzz-
What the hell was it?
Bzzzz-
The intervals between vibrations grew shorter.
My heart began to race from the anxiety of not knowing what I was facing.
Bzzzz-
I drew my sword and stepped in front of everyone.
“Group Leader Jin... what are you...”
Someone said something behind me, but I could not hear it.
I pushed the Taeul True Scripture to its limit and shrouded myself in Jade Clarity Celestial Phenomenon Force.
Bzzzz- Bzzzz- Bzzzz-
The Red Phoenix Bangle trembled without pause, like an alarm.
It only reacted like this when its target was extremely close.
Yet the source of that demonic qi remained nowhere in sight.
Bzzzz- Bzzzz-
I heard people carefully draw their weapons behind me, but my attention remained fixed on the passage ahead.
‘What is it? The Dark Soul-Severing Unit? The Formless Shadow Demon Unit? The Ghost Five Demons?’
I considered every possible threat and tried to think of a way to respond.
Nothing came to mind.
We were trapped in a dead end, and the enemy was invisible.
Rumble.
Just as I prepared the Mad Heaven Divine Palm and braced myself for death, the intervals between the Red Phoenix Bangle's vibrations began to widen.
Bzzzz-
The intensity remained the same, but the gaps grew longer.
Bzzzz-
Then the vibrations came only sporadically before finally falling silent.
‘What the hell was that?’
The Red Phoenix Bangle, which had warned me as though an enemy would appear at any moment, suddenly went quiet as if nothing had happened.
I withdrew the Mad Heaven Divine Palm and sheathed my sword.
Only then did I hear the sighs behind me.
“Ah, sorry. I think I was mistaken.”
There was no need to make everyone anxious for nothing.
Everyone visibly breathed a sigh of relief.
“Do Gwangsu.”
Do Gwangsu, who had been trembling at the deepest point of the cave, poked his head out with a dazed expression.
“Take the lead. Find us a path.”
The cave's passages were changing.
My memory was no longer any help.
It would be better to trust Do Gwangsu's instincts.
“M-me?”
“Yes.”
“...”
Do Gwangsu looked as though he was about to die on the spot, but soon stepped forward as if he had given up.
We began preparing to move again.
“Group Leader Jin, was it really a mistake?”
“...”
“I've never seen you look so tense.”
Of course I was tense. The vibration had been stronger than any demonic being I had encountered in this life.
The countless horrors I had faced in my previous life came back to me with perfect clarity.
I shook my head, trying to blur those memories.
Naturally, my Heaven-Sent Punishment did not allow it.
#
Yi Sangbyeok, the leader of the Martial Alliance’s First Investigation Team, bowed deeply in greeting.
“It has been a long time, Poison Sage.”
Dang Suje helped Yi Sangbyeok up.
“Have you been well?”
“Thanks to you, I have been well.”
After their brief exchange of greetings, Dang Suje asked, “Judging by your direction, it seems you're heading out. Is that right?”
“Yes. We are on our way to the exit.”
“You're leaving sooner than expected.”
They should have searched for more martial legacies, but Yi Sangbyeok had ultimately decided to leave the Sword Tomb.
“The situation doesn't look favorable.”
A martial artist turning back in the face of hardship was not something anyone wanted other martial artists to see.
Still, the situation was far too dire to cling to pride.
The team's priority was to leave for now, even if that meant sending the martial legacies they had secured to the Martial Alliance, selecting an elite force, and returning later.
“It seems you have faced many difficulties.”
“The fighting inside the Sword Tomb is growing fiercer by the day. Just today, we witnessed people being massacred in three separate places.”
“I see.”
Yi Sangbyeok cupped both hands in a fist salute to the somber Dang Suje.
“Ah, and I must thank you.”
“Hmm?”
“Thanks to the antidote you sent us, our journey out has become much easier.”
The greatest problem since entering the Sword Tomb had been the changes in the members' states of mind.
For some reason, more and more people were committing acts only beasts in human skin would commit, without the slightest hesitation. It had become so common that no one could stop it.
Some had even begun trying to seize martial manuals.
If not for the Tang Clan antidote Jin Sowoon had given them, they would not have even realized they had been poisoned by a fungal organism and were losing their reason.
“How did you prepare such a perfectly suited antidote? The depths of the Tang Clan's medical arts and poison arts truly seem endless.”
“...Who told you that?”
“Pardon? Jin Sowoon said so...”
“Oh... Is that what he said?”
“Is there a problem?”
“Not at all. I simply can't decide whether I should commend that boy's actions.”
Yi Sangbyeok tilted their head, unable to understand, so Dang Suje continued.
“We will be heading deeper inside.”
“Yes. Please do.”
“Oh, and take this route. When we came in, I noticed the paths inside the Sword Tomb did not match the treasure map. The exit is in that direction.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
The Tang Clan members entered the cave, and just as the First Investigation Team was about to move again, Yong Soa approached Yi Sangbyeok.
“It would be better to go this way.”
“Hm?”
Yong Soa pointed toward the path opposite the one Dang Suje had taken.
“This is different from the path the Poison Sage indicated.”
“I think this is the right way.”
“...”
Yi Sangbyeok considered it for a moment.
Then they made a decision.
Since the paths inside the Sword Tomb had changed, the team had never suffered a setback while following Yong Soa's advice.
“At least that's a relief. Now that the Tang Clan people have arrived, many lives will be saved.”
“...”
“Is that not so?”
Instead of answering, Yong Soa stared in the direction Dang Suje had disappeared.
#
As Yuseong Hall and the Moyong Clan hurried along together, Do Gwangsu suddenly flinched and slowed down.
“Hero Jin... over there...”
About twenty people stood where he pointed.
“What should we do?”
It was not the first time Jin Sowoon's group had encountered other groups, but this time was different.
Every one of them had drawn a sword.
Jin Sowoon's gaze fell on the patterns embroidered on their clothing.
The emblem of the Cheongeom Sect, which held one of the seats in the Twelve Peak Alliance.
“You must be members of the Cheongeom Sect. I am Jin Sowoon, Group Leader of the Martial Alliance’s Yuseong Hall.”
Jin Sowoon even cupped his hands in a fist salute, but the Cheongeom Sect members did not hide their hostility.
“Hand over your food.”
“...”
One look at their condition told Jin Sowoon how long they had been trapped in here. Not a single person among them was uninjured.
The groups they had encountered before usually backed off after seeing Yuseong Hall's prestige and the Moyong Clan's emblem.
These people seemed to have been overcome by hunger.
“We'll give you food, but how about you lower your swords first?”
“Did you not hear me? I said hand over the food!”
It sounded like a desperate cry for help.
A plea to save them from this terrible hell.
“Fine. But I have a condition first.”
“A condition?”
“Yes. Will you take this first?”
Jin Sowoon tossed over the wooden box containing a Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pill, and the middle-aged man who had been speaking caught it.
“What is this?”
“An antidote.”
“Antidote? We have not been poisoned.”
“You are trying to threaten and rob Yuseong Hall of the Martial Alliance and the Moyong Clan. That's proof enough that you have been poisoned.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
Jin Sowoon shrugged.
“If you take it, we'll give you food.”
“Do you want to trade our lives for food?”
“Right now, we're trying to help you. If not...”
At that moment, dreadful killing intent poured from Jin Sowoon's body.
“Ghk!”
“Urk!”
Overwhelming killing intent constricted their entire bodies and felt as though it pierced their hearts, seizing their nerves until they could not move.
The one releasing it still wore the same relaxed expression as always.
“Do you truly think you can wipe us all out?”
“...”
The killing intent flowing from Jin Sowoon vanished as if washed away, and the Cheongeom Sect members gasped for breath.
“Huff, huff, huff.”
“What will you do?”
“...If we take this, will you share food with us?”
“Of course.”
The middle-aged man glared at the pill in the wooden box as if it were poison and hesitated.
As the man deliberated, complaints erupted from behind.
“Damn it, can't you just take it already? I'm starving to death here.”
“Exactly. You brought us into this deathtrap, and now you can't even take responsibility for it!”
The remarks, spoken as though they were talking to themselves, rang loudly enough for Yuseong Hall and the Moyong Clan to hear.
Yuseong Hall simply took it in stride, but the Moyong Clan members' faces turned red with anger.
The middle-aged man shot a murderous glare behind him, then seemed to make up his mind and swallowed the pill.
He closed his eyes as though prepared to die.
Yet even after some time passed, he neither vomited blood nor collapsed.
Instead, clarity returned to his eyes. He blinked several times with a stunned expression.
“W-what is this...?”
“A fungus called Mushim Illusion Powder disrupts people's reason. That medicine is its antidote.”
“Ha...”
As he stood there blankly in shock, more complaints poured out from behind him.
“When are you giving us food?”
“You'll give us food even if we don't die, right?”
“...”
The middle-aged man looked at his sect members in disbelief, and Jin Sowoon handed him more Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pills.
After some brief squabbling, the pills passed from the middle-aged man's hands into the mouths of the Cheongeom Sect disciples.
“““We have committed an unforgivable sin, Young Hall Master!”””
It led to the same outcome as with the Moyong Clan.
“Well then, we'll be going.”
They distributed food and tried to leave immediately, but the middle-aged man stopped them.
“I know this is shameless, but may we travel with you?”
The middle-aged man looked back and forth between his sect members and Jin Sowoon.
“I don't mind, but our side will be in command.”
Dang Seohui cut in.
“We need to be clear about this. Jin Sowoon, Group Leader of Yuseong Hall, will be in command.”
“You...?”
The middle-aged man gave Jin Sowoon a strange look as he considered it, but eventually nodded.
“It would be foolish to concern ourselves with seniority in the martial world right now. We will follow your orders.”
“Understood.”
“Ah, I haven't introduced myself. I am Ha Dosu, Young Hall Master of the Cheongeom Sect.”
Ha Dosu, the Young Hall Master of the Cheongeom Sect, was Ha Yeongyeong's father.
“I have heard much about you from Yeongyeong. Ha Yeongyeong often said it was a pity that someone as extraordinary as you had not joined the Twelve Peak Alliance.”
It seemed Ha Dosu had heard about Jin Sowoon through Ha Yeongyeong.
With the Cheongeom Sect joining them, they began moving again with even more people.
Once their numbers exceeded fifty, no one dared to attack them or block their way.
After they had traveled for some time, Ilgak left the group and approached Jin Sowoon.
“Group Leader Jin, there is something I would like to ask.”
“What is it?”
“Mushim Illusion Powder... What happens if someone is continuously exposed to it?”
“Well...”
In Jin Sowoon's previous life, there had not been time to investigate Mushim Illusion Powder in depth.
The Orthodox-Demonic War had been in full swing, and the people of the Central Plains had continued to die in droves.
Even the discovery that the Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pill could counter Mushim Illusion Powder had happened by chance.
“To be honest, I don't know. It's only a guess.”
Unable to reveal the truth, Jin Sowoon answered that way.
The situation had proven quite different after entering the Sword Tomb.
Jin Sowoon had thought people gained immunity based on the depth of their internal energy and the purity of their qi, but that was not the case either.
“Look at that guy.”
Jin Sowoon pointed at Do Gwangsu.
“His internal energy is a mishmash of forces from who knows where, and it's pitifully weak besides, yet he's fine.”
Then he nodded toward the Young Hall Master.
“The Cheongeom Sect's Young Hall Master possesses pure internal energy at the Peak Realm, yet he tried to attack us recklessly.”
“...”
Information about Mushim Illusion Powder would likely come to light only after the Sword Tomb closed and the truth of this place was revealed.
Of course, surviving until then was more important.
“Is there something worrying you?”
At Jin Sowoon's question, Ilgak nodded.
“Shaolin Temple also dispatched an investigation team.”
Shaolin Temple had not accompanied the First Investigation Team Yong Soa belonged to.
That meant Shaolin Sect’s investigation team was likely still somewhere inside the Sword Tomb.
Jin Sowoon read Ilgak's expression.
His face was filled with concern. This was no ordinary worry.
Was someone important part of that investigation team?
“How many people entered?”
“I heard it was an investigation team of thirty.”
“Set aside thirty Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pills.”
“No. I didn't say it because I expected that...”
“Forget it. If Shaolin Temple joins us, our chances of survival will rise. This is for all of us.”
Ilgak paused, then pressed his palms together deeply.
“Amitabha.”
Their traveling speed slowed considerably because their numbers had increased.
Still, they did not rush.
Escaping was important, but safety came first.
Two days later, when they entered an unfamiliar chamber, Jin Sowoon's group felt that this place was somehow brighter than the other caves.
“It's been a while since the light hurt my eyes.”
The bald figures in monk robes filling the place Dang Seohui pointed toward could only be a coincidence.
The investigation team dispatched by Shaolin Temple.
But-
“What is that?”
Something about them looked strange.
The monks of Shaolin Temple formed a circle at regular intervals.
Then monks rushed into the center before being forced back, and those waiting took their place and charged in.
“Is that... the Eighteen Arhat Formation?”
The fact that they had deployed the Eighteen Arhat Formation, one of Shaolin Sect's representative formations, meant their opponent was so far beyond them that even all the monks of Shaolin Temple together could not handle it.
Puzzled, Jin Sowoon craned his neck and tried to see the center.
“Did a jiangshi appear? But if it's a jiangshi...”
But then...
“It isn't a jiangshi...”
“Hm?”
The answer was unexpected.
“M-my master is in there.”
“Your master... Venerable Cheonsim?”
The revelation was shocking beyond belief.
Footnotes:
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