WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 525: The Monster That Feeds on Despair (10)
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The voice was unyielding.
The daggers came fast.
‘Damn it!’
I threw Do Gwangsu behind me and raised a sword screen.
I didn't have enough internal energy left to use Extreme Strength.
The sword screen I unleashed with all my strength was too loose to block every dagger.
I barely protected my heart and vital acupoints. Several daggers embedded themselves in my body like hedgehog quills.
“Hurk-”
That had been too much as well. My dantian tightened, and something like molten metal surged up my throat.
The daggers lodged in my body must have struck my qi pathways. An uncontrollable urge to vomit rose within me.
“Blergh!”
Dark red blood ran thickly from the corner of my mouth.
“Take aim!!!”
I didn't even have time to lose consciousness and collapse.
At that sharp command, they raised their daggers again.
“W-Wait!”
Without even wiping away the blood, I raised the hand with a dagger embedded in it.
“We're Yuseong Hall of the Martial Alliance!!!”
“Yuseong Hall?”
The man furrowed his brow as he considered it for a moment, then stared at me as if he could bore through me.
“If you wanted to impersonate the Martial Alliance, you should've done your research properly! There is no such organization in the Martial Alliance!”
The middle-aged man shouted and swept out his hand.
As though he were delivering a death sentence.
“Take aim!”
Cold light flashed from the daggers at his command.
The commander had no intention of stopping.
Just as I was considering whether to cut them all down with Extreme Swiftness or sever the commander's head with sword qi, Geumpyo stepped in front of me and raised the Vajra Shield.
“Senior Brother!”
He had been some distance away. When did he get here? My heart swelled with emotion...
“Why are you using your body as a shield? It's stupid.”
“...It's not like I wanted to...”
“Shut up and get back!”
Geumpyo crouched behind the Vajra Shield, and I crouched beside him.
Clangclangclangclang!
“Did you just tell me to shut up?”
“...A dagger is coming at you, Senior Brother!”
Strangely, one dagger sailed over us before dropping straight down.
With both hands occupied holding the shield against the barrage, I awkwardly drew the Ascending Heaven Dagger to intercept it.
Clang!
The dagger struck something and fell to the ground.
“Huh?”
Then the sound of metal being struck rang out again and again.
Clangclangclang!
At the same time, the sharp daggers fell to the ground as though they had struck an invisible wall.
“Are you really going to play with concealed weapons in front of the Tang Clan?”
A blank-faced girl in green robes stood there.
Each time she flicked her fingers, another dagger dropped to the floor.
Dang Seohui's arrival briefly calmed the situation.
“Please stop for a moment! We truly belong to the Martial Alliance! This is Dang Seohui of the Tang Clan!”
Geumpyo desperately explained, but it didn't work.
“The Tang Clan arrived in the Central Wing long ago. Why would the Tang Clan appear only now?!”
‘That bastard...’
I slightly raised my head and looked into the commander's eyes.
Unlike his stiff expression, his eyes were full of fear.
‘He's scared.’
I knew people like him.
They spent their lives enjoying a little power, then got thrown onto a battlefield and lost their reason because of fear.
Once they lost their judgment, they could only make shallow decisions. Commands meant to avoid responsibility always ordered charges and purge operations.
Of course, they never went out themselves. They only stood at the rear and kicked others into death traps.
I hadn't fought seriously because I didn't want to start slaughtering people before joining the others in the Central Wing.
Still, it seemed I would at least need that bastard's head to resolve this situation.
“Take aim!”
As if trying to overcome his own fear, he shouted at the top of his lungs.
“What are we going to do?”
Dang Seohui appeared to be thinking much the same thing.
“We don't have much choice.”
She nodded at my answer.
“Fire!!!”
The attack order came down.
At the same time, Dang Seohui, who had slipped her fingers into both sleeves, scattered her hands as though playing an instrument.
Thudududud!
The people who had been throwing daggers collapsed like straw.
Their faces gradually lost their color.
“No, don't kill them!”
“I’m not killing them.”
Dang Seohui tilted her head.
The Deputy Hall Master, blinded by candied fruit, had just used a killing move.
After demonic beings and jiangshi, were we going to be chased by White Path martial artists too?
As I panicked, Dang Seohui calmly put on an innocent expression.
“I didn't kill them.”
Good grief.
“...You made a joke during an emergency, so no candied fruit after dinner.”
“T-That's ridiculous!”
While everyone was flustered, I tried speaking to the man again.
“Excuse me, wait...”
“Take aim! Can't you hear me telling you to take aim?!”
“Our identities...”
“Fire! I said fire!!!”
When the commander-like man threw another fit, the others reluctantly raised their weapons again.
At that moment,
“Amitabha...”
Cheonsim Seonsa stepped in front of Dang Seohui.
Boom!
His monk's robes billowed as his internal energy pushed away the air around him.
For some reason, a warm breeze washed over us.
“Benefactors, stand behind me.”
Cheonsim Seonsa held both palms forward and assumed the Opening Stance of the Mountain-Pushing Palm.
“...Huh? Is he from Shaolin Temple?”
“I think that's Cheonsim Seonsa.”
“I-It is?!”
Even with the commander raging, those holding daggers began lowering their stances one by one.
“Fire! Fire, damn it!!!”
“...”
In the end, someone dragged their commander away.
The others pressed their palms together toward Cheonsim Seonsa.
“We're sorry, Venerable. We failed to recognize you and behaved rudely.”
“It's all right. Anyone could react that way when faced with such a confusing situation.”
Everyone seemed moved by Cheonsim Seonsa's words and deeply lowered their heads.
“Huh? I'm the one who got stabbed, so why is that monk accepting their apology?”
I disliked Shaolin Temple a little more.
#
“W-We’re sorry.”
“W-We had no choice. We were following orders...”
The people who had thrown daggers came over to apologize as my wounds were being treated.
I couldn't readily accept their apologies. The commander was the one who had given the order to attack us.
“...”
I quietly glared at him, but he never came over.
Instead, he sharply turned his head away as though displeased and walked off to one side.
“Who is that person?”
“He is Joo Anpyeong, the Ten-Section Scholar of the Jangyu Sect. He is currently the Second Group Leader of the Martial World Corps.”
“Martial World Corps?”
Even Dang Seohui, who had been treating my wounds, turned her head at the unfamiliar name.
“It was established after people realized they were trapped here. Group Leader Joo is responsible for guarding the boundary from the Tenth Cave to the Fifteenth Cave.”
‘So it's Joo Anpyeong...’
From what I heard next, it seemed we weren't the only ones who had realized something had changed inside the Sword Tomb.
People who sensed something strange because of the Mushim Illusion Powder and evacuated, people fleeing jiangshi, and people who saw the demonic beings and realized this was a trap had gradually gathered in the Central Wing.
Those gathered had formed groups, taken up positions, and guarded against the demonic beings and jiangshi.
“But who are they?”
On the opposite side of the eastern part of the Central Wing, several hundred people had gathered.
Like us, they had formed groups and were watching the cave passages.
“Black Path bastards.”
The martial artist ground their teeth.
“They took the White Path's Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pill, but they don't want to take responsibility, so they're operating separately.”
Their eyes were filled with deep hatred.
What bothered me, of course, was something else.
“The White Path's Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pill?”
“The Tang Clan discovered that there was a germ in this Sword Tomb that destroyed people's reason, then made an antidote. If they received the antidote and saved their lives, shouldn't they follow the White Path's instructions?”
“...”
It seemed the story had become distorted. The Clear-Mind Spirit-Protecting Pill was now something the Tang Clan had discovered and distributed.
‘Well, it isn't exactly a lie.’
If I said I knew about the antidote, anyone would find that suspicious and want to investigate me.
If they believed the Tang Clan had done it, they would simply think, ‘Well, they must've had some way of figuring it out.’
Then a man approached us.
The martial artists stepped aside and lowered their heads, so he appeared to be someone on Joo Anpyeong's level.
“I pay my respects to Cheonsim Seonsa. I am Lee Jeonggon, a humble junior of the martial world.”
“Isn't the Empty-Handed Divine Hand's record too impressive for you to call yourself a humble junior of the martial world?”
“Who would dare speak of their accomplishments before you, Seonsa?”
They exchanged a few polite remarks.
“We ask that you join the leadership of the Martial World Corps.”
“Hmm... Me?”
Cheonsim Seonsa's gaze shifted to me.
He looked at me with an odd expression, then shook his head.
“My apologies, but I am currently under orders and cannot move freely.”
“...Pardon? I-I don't think I heard you correctly.”
Lee Jeonggon blinked several times as though he had misheard something.
“That is exactly what I said. I am moving with this Yuseong Hall Master, Jin Sowoon, under his orders, so please understand that I cannot readily act on my own.”
“...”
When Cheonsim Seonsa gestured toward me, Lee Jeonggon looked back and forth between us repeatedly, unable to understand the situation.
“Or... how about Hall Master Jin joining us as well? If Hall Master Jin permits it, I believe I can join you.”
That was even more surprising.
Lee Jeonggon fell into thought, as though the words would not come easily.
“...Did you say Hall Master Jin?”
“Yes.”
“Will you join us?”
That was what he said, but his eyes clearly told me, ‘There is no place for you here.’
So I nodded.
“All right.”
I couldn't just let a look like that slide.
“You asked so earnestly. It would be discourteous for a junior to refuse.”
“...I didn't ask earnestly.”
I wanted to know what kind of operation the Martial World Corps was planning.
And I had also noticed that most of the Moyong Clan martial artists who had been following us were nowhere to be seen.
“...Sob, damn it... Damn it...”
“...Let's go.”
My steps were heavier than when I had walked through the cave passages.
#
After walking east through the Central Wing for quite some time, we found a round tent erected at the very center of several hundred people.
‘What kind of lunatic brings such a large tent into a cave?’
The answer was inside.
Renowned figures of the martial world sat talking on chairs that I had no idea where they had acquired.
“Welcome, Cheonsim Seonsa!”
“So you were inside this place...!”
“This isn't the time to say it, but I consider it a great fortune that we have met here.”
The person with the lowest seniority among those seated rose and offered Cheonsim Seonsa their chair.
There was no seat for me, of course.
No one even paid me any attention.
“Why aren't you sitting?”
Cheonsim Seonsa pressed his palms together as he answered.
“My apologies, but I am currently under orders and have no authority to decide anything. I do not believe there would be any meaning in my sitting here.”
“...???”
Everyone turned to Lee Jeonggon. They could not make sense of Cheonsim Seonsa's words.
Awkwardly, he pointed toward me.
“Uh, well... This is the Yuseong Hall Master of the Martial Alliance. It seems he is leading Shaolin Temple and the Moyong Clan.”
“Huh??”
Bewildered gazes gathered on me.
I could clearly feel what they were thinking.
‘Where did this nobody come from?’
Since I had only said I would lead the way, the word ‘orders’ felt especially forceful to me.
Naturally, the pressure doubled.
“Please take a seat, Hall Master Jin.”
“...???”
Cheonsim Seonsa even offered me a seat.
I had no idea why he was doing this, but I put aside my hesitation and decided to face it head-on.
With the stage already set so perfectly, standing around awkwardly would be something only an idiot like Nam Hwaseong would do.
And I wasn't Nam Hwaseong.
“I pay my respects. I am Jin Sowoon, Hall Master of the Martial Alliance's Yuseong Hall.”
Their lips moved.
They were probably using sound transmission to ask each other what Yuseong Hall was.
“It was recently formed as a unit directly under the Mantong Office and dispatched to investigate the irregularities within the Sword Tomb.”
At the mention of the Mantong Office, two distinct reactions emerged.
Some responded with hostility but reluctantly nodded, while others glared as though they had encountered an enemy.
“So, what have you learned after entering this place? If you came from the Mantong Office, you must know something different.”
“I don't believe it differs greatly from what everyone here already knows.”
“Then you have no right to be here.”
The Light-Fingered Fist Saint, Gong Choryang.
When the older master and leader of the Sangkwon Sect sharpened his tone, several people nodded.
“Hmm...”
Cheonsim Seonsa's expression changed significantly with a low murmur.
A cold atmosphere filled the tent.
“If you're looking to pick a fight, then I will leave. I did not come here to engage in political disputes or fight over positions.”
A heavy voice came from one side.
At that voice, everyone's expressions instantly became like puppies desperate to take a shit.
It was strange.
They had not even batted an eye before Cheonsim Seonsa, yet they tucked their tails at once.
This could not be a matter of martial seniority or strength alone.
That person probably held the answer to whether they lived or died.
A voice full of warmth followed.
“Besides, that young man is very closely connected to our clan. Isn't that right, Young Master Jin?”
He wasn't exactly wrong.
I had won the wager, but I had certainly received the Tang Clan's help.
“You could say that.”
“Anyone who objects to our Sowoon taking a seat, speak now.”
“Ahem...”
“Mm-hm...”
Dang Suje had the White Path martial artists gathered here completely under control.
‘What is this?’
Then, for some reason, he secretly winked at me while avoiding everyone's eyes.
As though he wanted praise.
Footnotes:
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