The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything - Chapter 52

WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 52: The First-Rate Martial Artist Peering into the Darkness (5)

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As Moyong Sangwon headed for the Cheongmyeong Escort Agency in Wugang, a sudden unease flashed through his mind. He stopped and looked back.

‘Surely not...’

He soon shook his head.

No chivalrous martial artist in the world would find it easy to risk their life for someone they had only just met.

Much less could he believe that a youth not yet twenty would willingly act as bait to save him.

Moyong Sangwon rushed into the Cheongmyeong Escort Agency at full speed.

The guards at the main gate were startled by the bizarre sight of a disheveled man in tattered clothes charging toward them, but they soon recognized Moyong Sangwon, who had visited a few days earlier.

“Young Clan Head!”

Though it was an escort agency, there was not a single piece of cargo inside.

Instead, escort warriors and martial artists filled the grounds, ready to fight at any moment.

“What happened to you? Everyone from every branch in Henan Province has been searching for you.”

“Jin Sowoon! Has a man named Jin Sowoon come here?”

“Who?”

That bad feeling seemed to be coming true.

Had that boy truly sacrificed his life for him?

“...No. It can’t be.”

If one of them had to die, it should have been him.

He already owed Jin Sowoon his life once.

He could not let the same thing happen twice.

“Young Clan Head, are you all right?”

Ignoring the branch manager’s question, Moyong Sangwon asked, “How many people have gathered here?”

“Everyone from the nearby branches is here, three hundred in total. The Namgung Clan has also sent one hundred reinforcements.”

“The Namgung Clan?”

Only then did Moyong Sangwon turn and notice the people standing in formation off to one side, dressed differently from the others.

At their front stood Namgung San, his face grim, and Namgung Seonhwa, pale as a sheet.

“San, Seonhwa.”

“...Greetings, Young Clan Head.”

“It is a great relief to see that you are safe.”

“You two came as well.”

Namgung San immediately got to the point.

“Is this Jin Sowoon you mentioned Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect?”

“You know him?”

Namgung San and Namgung Seonhwa exchanged glances.

“What happened?”

“I was attacked by unidentified enemies at West Lake Peak.”

“Did Young Master Jin remain behind alone?”

Namgung Seonhwa, who rarely stepped forward, suddenly interrupted.

Namgung San was about to say something, but stopped when he saw her bloodless face.

She did not even seem to have the presence of mind to worry about her own rudeness.

“...I hope not, but I have a feeling that may be what happened.”

Moyong Sangwon briefly explained the circumstances of their parting.

“Knowing him... he would certainly make that choice.”

“...I hoped it was not so.”

“Young Clan Head, we should move at once.”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

[You want to live more than any of us. You survive.]

After leaving the Sojeong Unit, I continued to survive.

That did not mean I found peace.

While I shut myself away in a remote mountain valley after leaving the martial world, I did not know a moment of peace.

During those days when I met no one, I had to meet everyone from my memories.

The endless enemies of the Demonic Cult rushing toward us. The Martial Alliance leaders who stood with their hands behind their backs even as disaster loomed before them.

The comrades I had grown close to while rolling through the mud together, dying helplessly beneath the cold blades of demonic martial artists. Even the Demonic Cult dogs who mocked those comrades’ desperate deaths.

Within those memories, I had to die tens of thousands of times.

One day, I recalled Gotae, heir to the Vajra Sealing God, blocking the sword of a Flame Demon Ghost-Eye Unit member.

I had replayed that memory hundreds of times, and for the first time, I saw the opponent’s weakness.

One single opening I had never noticed before.

It felt as though I could reach a different ending if I thrust my sword into that spot.

I imagined thrusting the Lesser Heaven Sword Art into that opening within the memory.

In that imagined outcome, the Flame Demon Ghost-Eye Unit member’s fatal acupoint was pierced, and they died as blood sprayed forth.

For a brief moment, relief washed over me.

Another day, I recalled Yayul Jae, heir to the Flowing Cloud Divine Art, sending a Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit member flying.

I saw a weakness there as well. I imagined swinging the Flash Lightning Sword Art and cutting the opponent’s throat.

As I added imagined countermeasures to the hellish memories that surfaced vividly each day, I was finally able to sleep without pain.

One day, ten days, one hundred days, one thousand days.

I studied how to deal with every enemy the Sojeong Unit had faced, imagining and practicing responses against them.

I spent my entire life thinking through strategies I would never use again, because while I thought about them, I did not have to spend my days in pain.

“Back then, it was nothing more than a futile attempt to escape the pain.”

I had never imagined that the thoughts I entertained only to free myself from suffering would one day be useful like this.

The corpses of the Flame Demon Ghost-Eye Unit members lay scattered all around me.

Had I ever seen so many of their corpses in the past?

“If those bastards saw this, they would’ve brought wine and meat and raised holy hell about throwing a feast. Crazy bastards.”

Before I could even dwell on the fact that I had killed nearly twenty people, a laugh escaped me.

I buried most of the Flame Demon Ghost-Eye Unit corpses in the mountain, leaving only a few behind. If word spread that I, a disciple of the Taeul Sect, had dealt with all of them, it would only invite needless suspicion.

Once I had finished up, the tension left my body.

“The Azure Dragon Bangle isn’t all-powerful either.”

Fatigue had been washing over me from the moment the fight ended.

I had absorbed all the internal energy and innate qi from those bastards overflowing with demonic qi, but what entered my body had still become pure true qi.

Yet perhaps because the Azure Dragon Bangle had purified the demonic qi, unbearable drowsiness was overwhelming me even though more than half my internal energy remained in my dantian.

“Sleeping for a moment, just a moment, should be fine, right?”

For some reason, I felt that if I slept now, I would see the old members of the Sojeong Unit again.

Seeing the faces of those bastards I could not stand would not be so bad right now.

“It’s not you bastards I want to see. I want to see Lady Moyong Seol.”

I leaned against a rock and closed my eyes for a moment.

“Young Master Jin Sowoon!”

The mountain was dark at night.

Hundreds of torches pierced that darkness, lighting every corner of West Lake Peak.

“This is the path.”

Retracing the path he had taken, Moyong Sangwon spread the others out, spacing them ten jang apart in every direction.

The attackers might still be nearby, and they did not know where or how Jin Sowoon might be hiding.

Namgung San, who ran closest to Moyong Sangwon, asked, “Young Clan Head, could you tell us what happened?”

Namgung Seonhwa, on the other side, also looked desperate to hear the answer.

“I was attacked at West Lake Peak and nearly died. At that time, a friend named Jin Sowoon saved my life.”

“...”

“But while we were on our way to Wugang together, those who attacked me were waiting for us.”

“...Gasp!”

Namgung Seonhwa involuntarily drew in a breath.

“Thanks to Sowoon’s quick thinking, we escaped them. But as you can see, I was in poor condition, so we decided to split up and flee.”

“Then...”

“But... I can’t shake the feeling that the boy became bait for my sake. It troubles me.”

Before Moyong Sangwon had even finished speaking, Namgung Seonhwa’s pace quickened.

Namgung San started to say something, then closed his mouth.

He was feeling exactly the same way as Seonhwa.

“There are signs of a fight here.”

The escort warriors sent ahead had gathered in one place.

Moyong Sangwon hurried over.

It was not far from where he and Sowoon had first fled in different directions.

“There is quite a lot of blood...”

“Hmm.”

Moyong Sangwon’s brow furrowed deeply.

“There are traces here as well!”

“There is a large amount of blood here.”

They followed the martial artists who had found the next signs and arrived at the exact place where Jin Sowoon and Moyong Sangwon had separated.

“He went and did it after all! He really did it!”

Moyong Sangwon felt anger more than sorrow.

Who was he for Sowoon to go this far? It was a life that had already been lost once. It should have been enough that he had survived long enough to deliver the news.

Namgung San’s expression was grave as he examined the site of the fierce battle.

“There is too much blood.”

“If it had all been spilled by one person?”

“...They could not have survived.”

“Corpses... No! Traces! Search for traces! Anything connected to Jin Sowoon or the attackers, find it all!”

“Yes!”

The escort warriors and martial artists moved with greater speed than ever before.

They instinctively sensed that the Young Clan Head of the Moyong Clan had reached some grave resolve.

“Ah...”

Unable to bear it any longer, Namgung Seonhwa sank to the ground.

Namgung San barely managed to catch her arm before she collapsed.

“Pull yourself together. We have found nothing yet.”

“But, Brother...”

“Do you not know him? If he were someone who would end so easily, he would have died long ago.”

“...”

“People are watching. Get up.”

“...Yes.”

Moyong Sangwon, who had overheard their conversation, sensed something unusual and asked, “What connection do you have with Jin Sowoon?”

He himself owed Jin Sowoon a debt he could never repay, for the boy was his savior.

Yet the two children of the Namgung Clan were acting much as he was.

“Do you know what happened at Demon Spirit Plateau?”

“I heard of it too late. I am sorry. I heard there was a benefactor?”

“Yes. That benefactor was Young Master Jin Sowoon.”

“The person who entered the Boundless Indestructible Soul-Destroying Formation countless times to save people...”

“Yes.”

“Good heavens...”

Now he understood why Namgung Seonhwa had nearly collapsed.

The chivalrous martial artist who had saved everyone at Demon Spirit Plateau, regardless of whether they belonged to the White Path or Black Path, was Jin Sowoon.

“Why did he have to save me...”

Moyong Sangwon now felt disgust toward himself.

If he had simply died sooner at the bottom of that cliff, Jin Sowoon could have returned with the Fire Monkey’s inner core and become a chivalrous hero remembered throughout the martial world.

If Jin Sowoon truly died here, had he not brought immense harm upon the martial world?

“What is the life of a mere middle-aged man worth?”

Moyong Sangwon let tears stream down his face, regardless of whether the Namgung Clan siblings saw him.

Then, at that moment.

“H-Here!”

“Isn’t that... a person?”

“It’s a person! There’s someone here!”

A faint voice rang out from the other side of the forest.

Moyong Sangwon, Namgung San, and Namgung Seonhwa met one another’s eyes.

Without needing to say a word, all three kicked off the ground and shot forward like the wind.

“Where? Where is he?”

Moyong Sangwon shoved past the escort warriors and martial artists as he rushed ahead.

Then, in one corner of a small clearing, he saw Jin Sowoon sitting against a rock, drenched in blood.

“Is he alive?”

“He’s all right, isn’t he?”

“Is he alive?”

Amid the barrage of questions from Namgung San, Namgung Seonhwa, and Moyong Sangwon, the escort warrior who had first checked Jin Sowoon’s condition nodded.

“He is breathing.”

Moyong Sangwon approached and checked Jin Sowoon’s pulse.

Fortunately, it was beating strongly.

Worried that he might be injured, Moyong Sangwon lifted the clothing covering Jin Sowoon’s arms, abdomen, and legs to examine him.

Thankfully, aside from the bloodstains, there were no wounds.

Around then, Jin Sowoon woke up.

Severe exhaustion had accumulated. With his eyes half-open, he said, “Ah, you’re here.”

Moyong Sangwon let out a hollow laugh at Jin Sowoon’s calm reaction.

“My friend! What happened? Did you really act as bait for me?”

“Ah... I had set a few more traps on this side, so I thought I could make use of them.”

“Ha! And?”

“After I dealt with them for a while, they fortunately ran away.”