WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 529: The Monster That Feeds on Despair (14)
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Just as my eyes began to close from exhaustion, Do Gwangsu quietly approached.
Strangely, his movements made no sound at all.
“Let’s go.”
“Is it Tiger Hour[1] already?”
“Yes.”
“How do you know?”
“I can tell from how tired my eyes feel.”
Perhaps this was what thieves could achieve once they had perfected their craft.
Breaking the awkward silence, Do Gwangsu asked, “Are you any good at stealth art?”
“I can’t use stealth art, but I know something similar.”
When I used the Ghost Breath Movement Art, Do Gwangsu’s eyes widened.
“H-how did you do that? I can see you right in front of me, but I can’t sense anything...!”
“We can talk about martial arts later. Let’s check first.”
“Yes.”
Avoiding everyone’s attention, we quietly walked along the outskirts of the central district.
After passing several pillars and nearing the boundary, we saw the Chobeon members stationed by the Martial Group nodding off.
“Just follow where I go.”
Do Gwangsu’s presence faded from my energy sense.
His martial attainment was not particularly high, but as expected of someone skilled in thievery, his stealth art had reached a considerable level.
I carefully followed him into the Martial Group’s territory.
Just as he had said, the Chobeon members did not look well.
Some had yet to recover from their injuries, while others showed clear signs of internal injuries.
‘They must’ve chosen their people carefully. Yet they’re in this state?’
As I watched in confusion, Do Gwangsu urged me on.
“Let’s go.”
Past the Chobeon members and inside the boundary, I saw rows of tents.
Beside the tents occupied by the leaders and guards stood a tent used to store food.
“...?”
I sensed something strange before we even reached it.
I could not sense anyone inside tents where people should have been.
Tap, tap.
Do Gwangsu gestured toward the tent holding the food stores.
I followed him for the moment.
“How could this be...?”
There was nothing inside.
Forgetting he had come here to steal, Do Gwangsu ran around the tent in a panic.
I immediately left and headed for another tent.
Flap.
The tent where the Martial Group members stayed.
There was no one there either.
The tent where the leaders stayed.
No one there either.
Do Gwangsu hurried over with a dazed expression.
“W-what could have happened?”
A familiar feeling rose in me as I looked at the Martial Group, now reduced to an empty shell.
That filthy sensation of being stabbed in the back again and again, yet still feeling my blood boil every time.
“What do you think? They ran off without us.”
It had happened to me countless times in my previous life, but I still could not get used to it.
“Those bastards.”
I could not hold back the curse.
“G-Great Hero Jin! Please calm down for a moment...”
My will filled with rage, and my internal energy began to circulate.
The first form of the Tyrant King Divine Fist, which I had never even practiced, unfolded as though it alone could express my anger.
Boom!
A tyrannical force shot straight upward and hurled the entire tent into the cave ceiling.
The huge tent soared high, changed direction, and crashed to the ground.
Crash!
“Aaaargh!”
The tent that had flown to the ceiling shattered as it struck the ground, scattering dozens of fragments.
“W-what was that?!”
The drowsy Chobeon members and those outside the boundary barely forced open their heavy eyelids and looked this way.
“An intruder!”
At someone’s shout, the Chobeon members on watch rushed over.
Leaving a gap of one zhang between us, they surrounded me and drew their swords at once.
Shing, shing, shing, shing, shing!
“We told you not to cross this boundary!”
“Who did?”
“What?”
“I asked who said that.”
The Chobeon members carried a heavy sense of duty without even knowing they had been betrayed.
Why was that making me so angry?
“Which bastard told you that?!”
“You wretch! Even if you are a Hall Master of the Martial Alliance, you cannot speak so disrespectfully of your elders...”
“Where are those bastards?”
“What?”
They had likely joined the Martial Group after turning their backs on their comrades and enduring their curses because they believed the group would take responsibility for them.
Just as countless people in my previous life had clung to a small hope and obeyed the Martial Alliance’s orders.
“Bring those bastards here. I’ll gladly accept whatever punishment you want.”
“...?”
Sensing something was wrong, the martial artists slowly relaxed their stances and looked behind me.
There was no sign of anyone among the wreckage of the tents.
Despite the tremendous noise, no one had come running from the other tents.
Even those who had laid down nearby to rest were nowhere to be seen.
The others gradually began to realize something was amiss.
“What in the world...?”
Among the martial artists approaching the tents with slumped shoulders, I spotted the Moyong Clan’s Deputy Hall Master.
I had wondered whether they would take them along because of their skill, but it seemed a limping foot had kept them here after all.
Survival of the fittest.
Discarding people for efficiency.
Choosing and concentrating resources for the future.
Strength with a price attached to it.
Lives divided into light and heavy.
The sense of superiority that judged one outstanding Martial Group member’s life more valuable than the lives of ten ordinary martial artists.
What had rotted the Martial Alliance.
What had given Jegal Somyeong endless headaches.
What Hyeok Mugang had failed to resolve.
The true cause that led the White Path to ruin in my previous life.
I did not consider this the White Path’s hypocrisy.
This was human instinct.
The essence of the martial world.
In an age of peace, that essence had merely been protected by a thick mask.
Once the situation worsened even a little, the chivalry and moral duty they preached became nothing more than decorations they could ignore in favor of practical gain.
How many people would abandon practical gain for mere decorations?
It was nothing new.
The Deputy Hall Master had belonged to the Martial Group, and the Martial Group had abandoned them, all because of the martial world’s essence.
There was no need to pity them.
“H-how could this have happened?”
The answer was simple.
“They threw us away because we weren’t needed.”
“T-threw us away? The Martial Group did?”
Considering the food they had stockpiled, it would not have lasted long even if it were distributed only among the White Path.
On the other hand, if they chose only the elite and monopolized the food, they could last several times longer.
The choice was between everyone dying and many dying so a few could live.
“B-but it’s the Martial Group. Isn’t it the Martial Group that inherited the Martial Alliance’s spirit and led the White Path...?”
Do Gwangsu seemed to hold some sort of illusion about the White Path.
“Right. They made this choice because they inherited the Martial Alliance’s spirit.”
“What?”
The Martial Alliance in my previous life,
the sect leaders,
and even that hateful Yong Soa,
all made choices like this.
As if it were only natural.
They always stood among the few who survived and justified the choice by saying it could not be helped.
Then were the many who died, no, the many who were killed, supposed to accept and approve of this choice because it was unavoidable for the future?
If so,
how was the seed of the White Path preserved in that way any different from the Demonic Path?
What enraged me was that the Martial Group members who had fled would not feel the slightest guilt toward the many they had left behind.
Just like Yong Soa, who had come all the way from the distant Northern Sea to kill me in my previous life.
They would think it was something they naturally had to do, something that had to be done anyway, something that had simply turned out this way.
From their perspective, it would be better for even a small number to survive and inform the outside world of what had happened here than for everyone to remain and die.
And this situation was the result of raising their chances of survival as high as possible.
The “heavy responsibility” they so loved to speak of.
At the end of my previous life, I chose Gwak Gung’s hand instead of Yong Soa’s.
I hated both of them enough to tear them apart and kill them.
But at the very least, I did not want my life to end as a “justified sacrifice” at Yong Soa’s hands.
“Hoo...”
I took a deep, long breath, then let it out.
It was just like the final moment of my previous life.
Even now, I had no intention of ending my life as their chosen “justified sacrifice.”
I had not planned to give up in the first place.
Now my mind was filled with the thought that no matter what happened, even if all four limbs were cut off, I would crawl out of here if I had to.
I ground my teeth.
And after getting out, I would chew every one of those bastards to pieces.
I would cut down the Demonic Cult and chew up the White Path.
That was all I could think about.
“G-Great Hero Jin?”
“Let’s go. If I stay here any longer, I won’t be able to contain my anger.”
“Are we going back?”
“No.”
“Then where are we going...?”
There was something I needed to learn first.
Why had those people, who had planned to sit around and waste time until the Martial Alliance arrived, suddenly begun moving?
Their chances of survival would certainly improve if they monopolized the food with only a small number of people.
Yet it was still a lower chance than waiting for the investigation team, as they had originally planned.
I needed to find out why they had made this choice when they had not even listened to me after I argued until my voice went hoarse that we needed to move.
I passed the White Path martial artists standing blankly before the empty tents.
#
The commotion grew.
Then it spread.
At first, those who had not even gone near the tents began crossing the boundary one by one to inspect the area.
Next, those watching them began to stir.
“Where did everyone go?”
“No, why did they suddenly disappear? Didn’t they say the Martial Alliance would send reinforcements?”
“Don’t tell me... they ran away on their own first?”
Those who realized they had been abandoned showed shock and anger.
The helpless ones collapsed where they stood as though their legs had given out, while those who had followed the Martial Group brimmed with fury.
“They said we would all live if we just endured and waited a little longer!”
“They said the Martial Alliance would come too!”
The Martial Group had claimed to represent the White Path.
They had gathered people, collected food, and controlled its distribution.
There had been only one reason people from different sects and affiliations followed the Martial Group.
The group had promised to take responsibility for them.
And the price of that trust was deception.
The anger and helplessness people felt at finally understanding reality grew even deeper.
“What did the Martial Group ask you?”
I grabbed a survivor who had spoken with the Martial Group most recently and questioned them.
“T-they clearly said we would leave together... Why... why did they leave me...?”
The shock was so great that the survivor could not even feel anger.
“Hey!”
“...Huh?”
“What did the Martial Group ask you?!”
“...The Black King’s Wraith... They asked about the Black King’s Wraith...”
That again?
“They asked where we saw the Black King’s Wraith...”
“You saw the Black King’s Wraith?”
“Y-yes. It was definitely the Black King’s Wraith... the Black King’s Wraith...”
The man who had broken from the group and fled in the opposite direction the moment the Black King’s Wraith appeared said he had barely escaped with his life.
“What about you? What did they ask you?”
I received the same answer from another woman who had spoken with the Martial Group’s leaders.
“They asked about the Black King’s Wraith... the Black King’s Wraith.”
Then from the next man, and the old man after him.
The Martial Group’s leaders had persistently asked about only one thing.
The Black King’s Wraith, that entity.
‘Wasn’t the Black King’s Wraith just a ghost story?’
I listened carefully as each person explained when and where they had seen it.
The first to arrive had seen the Black King’s Wraith fifteen days ago, while the most recent witness said they had seen it four days ago.
I asked Do Gwangsu again, who stood beside me looking helpless.
“You’re sure the food never ran out until three days ago?”
“Yes. It steadily decreased, but it never suddenly dropped by a large amount.”
The dates matched perfectly.
“...Um, did I do something wrong?”
The Martial Group had not been prepared to fight the Black Path to the death in order to protect the food from them.
They had drawn their blades to protect the food from fellow White Path martial artists.
They had learned that the Black King’s Wraith was drawing closer and had been preparing to flee.
“Those dog bastards...”
Disgustingly, by driving their conflict with the Black Path to the extreme, they had made it easier to achieve what they wanted.
‘What in the world is the Black King’s Wraith?’
The more I heard, the more questions arose.
It was an entity so terrifying that White-Strike Fist Wanderer Gong Choryang lost his reason.
A threat so great that Earthlight Fist Sage Gong Choryang had fled in the dead of night.
‘Did the Demonic Cult use some art I don’t know about?’
Then a terrible scream rang out.
“Aaaaargh!”
A voice full of rage followed, loud enough to shake the entire cave.
“You fucking bastards!!!”
When I turned, I saw people unable to contain their fury trampling what remained of the Martial Group.
“You were in on it too, weren’t you? Where are they? Where did you agree to meet?”
Others were threatening the Chobeon members abandoned by the Martial Group.
“There’s no way these bastards didn’t know. They kept standing watch until the Martial Group fled!”
“Talk! If you don’t, we’ll kill you!”
“Did you think only you bastards could get out of here?!”
The area became a courtroom in an instant, and the people wanted to vent their anger on the Chobeon members.
“W-we don’t know anything. We truly didn’t know anything...!”
The pale martial artists waved their hands and feet as they denied it.
“We’ll find out once we beat it out of them.”
Their words could not reach the ears of those consumed by rage.
“Kill them!”
“Eek!”
“One of them is running!”
A Chobeon member trying to flee was caught in seizing arts.
With an injured body, the Chobeon member could not even display their original skill properly.
“W-wait, I’ll tell you everything I know... Urk!”
Consumed by rage, they began beating the Chobeon member without restraint.
Thud, thud, crack!
As people rushed in, the Chobeon member’s chest caved in within moments.
“S-save me...”
Soon, the Chobeon member’s head cracked open, and blood flowed from the seven orifices.
The Chobeon member lost all signs of life without even managing a scream.
“...”
It had not even taken an instant.
For one person to die.
And then,
“Tell us where the Martial Group went!”
Their anger quickly began turning toward others.
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Author’s Note
There are two chapters today.
Thank you always.
==========
[1] Tiger Hour: the traditional East Asian time period from roughly 3:00 to 5:00 a.m.
Footnotes:
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