WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 538: Even If I Become Ashes (3)
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There are times in life when you suddenly realize you are completely screwed.
For example, when you were clearly working on homework assigned by the village school, only to come to your senses after sleeping through the night and waking at dawn.
Or when you closed your eyes for a moment before your turn to fetch water, then realized you had slept until nightfall.
That was exactly how I felt now.
I did not know when I had fallen asleep, but when I came to, I had passed out cold.
It felt like hearing Father’s returning footsteps after realizing too late that I had fallen asleep on my way to fetch water.
‘Gasp!’
The moment I shot my eyes open, my heart dropped.
For some reason, my body swayed.
“Don’t move too violently. It’s hard to keep your balance when you’re missing an arm.”
The voice belonged to Venerable Cheonsim, who was carrying me on his back.
“What happened?”
The answer came from beside us.
“What happened? You nearly died, but you survived.”
Gongsun Feng’s face was gray.
Only then did I realize we had escaped the place where we had fought the Black King’s Wraith.
“Is it dead?”
“I thought you were dead too.”
That was how terrible my condition had been.
“But your recovery is strangely good. I thought you wouldn’t wake up and would just die.”
I answered Gongsun Feng as if it were nothing.
“I’m young and full of life. You can’t compare me to someone who’s practically ready for the coffin.”
“Who’s practically ready for the coffin?!”
Despite my words, I was moved by their actions.
Venerable Cheonsim had lost an arm, while Gongsun Feng seemed unable to move comfortably because of his severe internal injuries.
Even so, they were carrying me, someone on the verge of death, as they escaped the cave once more.
Even after taking the antidote to the Mushim Illusion Powder, it was not an easy choice to make in such dire circumstances.
Overwhelmed by gratitude, I spoke.
“Isn’t it a little harsh to make a one-armed man carry someone? Ah, is that just how the Black Path works?”
“Damn it... Even if Bodhidharma himself saw this, he wouldn’t tell me to carry you.”
I lightly patted Venerable Cheonsim’s back.
“Venerable, I’m fine now. Please put me down.”
No matter how bad my condition was, I could not keep relying on a Shaolin Sect venerable to carry me.
“Keep relying on me. You practically walked back from the gates of the underworld.”
“...”
His words were firm, leaving me nothing to say.
Without one arm, I kept slipping down, but each time, Venerable Cheonsim used his remaining arm to hoist me back up.
“The ones ahead of us must have had it rough too.”
Gongsun Feng clicked his tongue as he looked at the corpses of jiangshi and demonic beings scattered throughout the cave.
Among them were familiar faces from the escape party.
“If those bastards come out here, we’ll all die too, right?”
Gongsun Feng grinned broadly even as he spoke of dying.
He looked as though he was so exhausted that he had finally lost his mind.
But I was more worried about something else than enemies appearing in our current situation.
‘Did he... see it?’
I had clearly seen Gongsun Feng lose consciousness at the last moment.
But I was not sure whether Venerable Cheonsim had passed out after taking that attack.
Gongsun Feng had suffered deep internal injuries, so even if he had woken up, he would not have sensed me using the Azure Dragon Bangle.
But if Venerable Cheonsim had been conscious...
Venerable Cheonsim surely would have sensed the flow of internal energy moving from the Black King’s Wraith to me.
A master of that level would not lose their awareness, no matter how dire the situation.
‘He... didn’t see it, right?’
Part of me found comfort in Venerable Cheonsim carrying me.
If the venerable knew I had learned the Absorbing Star Grand Art, one of the Four Great Forbidden Arts, would Venerable Cheonsim really have gone out of his way to take me along at such a difficult moment?
The venerable could have simply left me behind, and I would have died on my own.
‘...He isn’t forcibly taking me with him to punish me, is he?’
There were people like that.
People who would insist on saving someone who was dying, only to throw them into the Golden Prison...
‘Come on. There can’t be another person like Blood Star Ak Byeongbi.’
We had grown close enough that he was now telling me to join the Inspectorate, but if he learned I had mastered the Absorbing Star Grand Art, he would still be the first to come running.
“...”
I shook my head, pushing aside those unpleasant thoughts.
My condition was so bad that pessimistic thoughts kept flooding in.
As I tried to turn my mind elsewhere, Gongsun Feng muttered quietly.
“You really survived...”
“Amitabha.”
Gongsun Feng could not take his eyes off me.
He looked as though he were staring at the most amazing thing in the world.
“I never imagined you’d survive in there.”
The fact that the Black King’s Wraith, which had filled him with such terror, was dead seemed to carry special weight for him.
His praise seemed ready to continue, so I quickly steered the conversation elsewhere.
If he asked how I had killed it, I had no way to answer.
“Give me that.”
I held out my hand toward the Demon-Expelling Four-Spirit Bead.
For the first time, Gongsun Feng flinched and stepped back.
‘What’s with this man?’
When it came to recognizing a divine relic, what difference was there between the White Path and the Black Path?
Though it had only been a short time, Gongsun Feng seemed to have fully realized what kind of item the Demon-Expelling Four-Spirit Bead was.
“What exactly is this?”
Mindful of Venerable Cheonsim, I answered casually.
“It has been passed down through the Death Gate for generations. If it hadn’t been an emergency, it would never have ended up around a Black Path martial artist’s neck.”
“Death Gate? Isn’t the Taeul Sect a Daoist sect?”
‘Why is he doing this...?’
Gongsun Feng kept asking questions without reading the room, unaware of how anxious I was.
I used the White Phoenix Hand to snatch the Demon-Expelling Four-Spirit Bead from around his neck, then quickly tucked it into my clothes.
“I was going to give it to you...”
Whether Gongsun Feng sounded disappointed or not, my eyes remained on Venerable Cheonsim.
I was worried the venerable might recognize the Demon-Expelling Four-Spirit Bead.
“...”
Yet, seeing the bald head silently bobbing as Venerable Cheonsim walked, the venerable did not seem particularly concerned with it.
‘He said it had been entrusted to someone one gapja of internal energy ago. It may have disappeared even earlier than that.’
At times like this, I needed to focus on something else.
I quickly spoke to Gongsun Feng.
“Are you sure you’re following the right path?”
“You wake up and the first thing you do is insult an injured man?”
“Wouldn’t it be unfair if I barely survived, only to die because an incompetent and vicious Black Path martial artist couldn’t find the way?”
Gongsun Feng’s face turned red.
It was reassuring to see some color return to it.
“Who here is incompetent and vicious? Are you talking about Venerable Cheonsim?”
“Hah... You’re calling a venerable incompetent and vicious when the venerable willingly carries an injured man despite having lost an arm, all to protect the common people?”
“Damn it... I’ll admit I’m incompetent, but I’ve never done anything vicious!”
“So you’re only incompetent?”
“No, you bastard! I’m following the path properly!”
Gongsun Feng pointed at the ground.
A small, rough cloud character had been carved there.
“...What if the pursuers follow it?”
I worried that the Demonic Cult bastards might notice the marking and follow it, but I could also feel the consideration behind it.
“Huu... I thought my stamina was fine, but without being able to use my internal energy, my body feels like it weighs a thousand pounds.”
There was another concern as well.
Could we even follow the trail they had left behind?
Gongsun Feng still had not recovered from his internal injuries, and though the venerable pretended otherwise, Venerable Cheonsim’s condition was worsening too.
“Huff... Huff...”
I knew that even if I asked to be put down, the venerable would not do it.
So I stayed quiet to avoid wasting my strength.
‘At least I should keep up my qi circulation.’
If even Venerable Cheonsim collapsed, I would have to lead them again.
And if that situation came...
“...”
None of us said it aloud, but we all had some idea.
That we would die here.
“...What a disgrace to the Black Path. To die alongside a bald Shaolin Temple monk and a White Path brat.”
Still, no one gave up.
Not because we clung to life, but because we wanted to resist the death the Demonic Cult had spread until the very end.
We continued onward to prove that we had not been broken by their malice.
After we continued onward with ever-slowing steps for some time, Gongsun Feng finally stopped.
“Hey... I think I need to rest for a while.”
“...”
I climbed down from Venerable Cheonsim’s back.
Perhaps he no longer had the strength to joke, because Gongsun Feng spoke weakly.
“I’m going to die...”
Gongsun Feng gestured at me, but I slowly walked toward him.
“That’s right. We’re going to die.”
“...”
“But not today.”
Just as I was about to approach Gongsun Feng, a corpse stirred.
‘Did we fail to deal with a jiangshi properly?’
All sorts of pessimistic thoughts flooded my mind as I gathered the tiny amount of internal energy I had left.
Gongsun Feng clenched both fists, ready to fight, but it was absurd to think someone unable to use internal energy could face a jiangshi or a demonic being.
Venerable Cheonsim and I met eyes, nodded, then rushed toward the moving corpse at the same time.
Both of us moved more slowly than we could have ever imagined under normal circumstances.
But this was the best we could do now.
Then.
“Have you arrived?”
Huh?
The jiangshi spoke.
“...What is this...?”
As I stared in stunned disbelief, the corpse beside it stirred, and someone rose.
“Waiting was difficult. The smell was terrible, lying beneath these damned things.”
They were the people who had gone ahead to escape the cave.
They had been hiding among the corpses.
“Don’t tell me... you waited for us?”
At Gongsun Feng’s question, the two awkwardly nodded.
“We couldn’t possibly... leave ahead of you on our own.”
“...”
“Let’s go. We’ll carry you.”
One of the martial artists turned their back toward me.
“I’m fine...”
“Young Hero, I can see at a glance that you’re in serious condition. Please get on.”
I had no choice but to entrust myself to them.
But that was not the end.
“No matter how I thought about it, I didn’t think you’d return intact after fighting that bastard.”
New figures stepped forward.
Two Black Path martial artists had been waiting for us in the darkness of the passage.
“...”
That was not all.
“There is no fool in the Martial Alliance who leaves their commander behind.”
“The Black Alliance is the same.”
Six people had remained behind this time.
Then another four appeared.
“...Then there was no point in sending you ahead.”
Gongsun Feng grumbled.
Yet his eyes held immense relief.
He had been at his limit and ready to give up on life.
After we walked for some time like that, shouts rang out.
“They’re here!”
“They’re alive!”
“I knew it! I knew they would make it!!!”
Countless figures rushed toward us from the darkness.
“Hah, these stupid fools...”
There was a wetness in Gongsun Feng’s voice.
“Amitabha...”
Venerable Cheonsim bowed deeper than ever.
Everyone from the escape party who had gone ahead was there.
They had been waiting for us.
“How did this happen?”
Dang Seohui quickly treated my injuries as she answered.
“I didn’t order them to do this.”
“...”
She groaned as she examined my injuries.
“They disobeyed my orders, so this happened.”
Not just the members of Yuseong’s party, but White Path people I only knew by face and Black Path people whose faces I did not recognize all gathered around to celebrate our return.
“Senior Brother... I’ll tell Senior Sister Saryeon about what happened today.”
Geumpyo, who had somehow come to my side, grumbled as he supported me.
“I’m really glad.”
Moyong Seol approached me with her lips pressed tightly together, tears in her eyes.
Then a small face looked up at me.
Those clear eyes were wet too.
“I listened to the Hall Master’s orders, so you have to lift the restriction on candied fruit now.”
Although we were inside a cave filled with cold air.
“...You came back safely.”
A warmth greater than anything before filled my chest.
“Thank you for coming back, Jin Sowoon.”
Footnotes:
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