WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 569: An Uninvited Guest to the War (2)
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“I asked what you were doing here.”
He did not answer.
I gathered the blood flowing from my wound and flung it at him.
As if he had expected it, he dodged with a fluid motion.
“...???”
“...!”
An uncomfortable silence fell between us.
What kind of lunatic throws himself into the middle of a battlefield because he is afraid of staining his gray martial robes?
“Do not just hide your sword art. Hide that damned obsession with cleanliness too.”
I wrapped myself in qi and kicked off the ground, sending dust flying in every direction.
Naturally, he thrust his sword through the flying dust with a reverse strike.
Clang!
A sword strike without a trace of excess.
Clang! Clang!
Even when an attack was blocked, there was no interruption in the flow of his next strike.
His sword art was clearly a patchwork of basic sword arts like the Three Talents Sword Art, the Heaven, Earth, and Humanity Sword Art, and the Six Harmonies Sword Art, yet it had no openings.
‘Fuck, life really...’
There was no way I could hold back the curses.
When I pressed him with qi force, trying to force him to abandon that shabby sword art, I found the principle of arriving later yet seizing the initiative hidden within that mishmash of techniques.
When I used the Greater Heaven Sword Art to close in from all directions, the steps he took to evade contained the essence of the Ladder-to-the-Clouds movement art.
It took real talent to make Wudang Sect influences seep through sword arts and footwork thrown together so recklessly.
Bang Duchil was the same...
The world’s cruelty was painfully clear.
“How long are you going to keep up that idiotic disguise?”
“I have no idea what you are talking about.”
“Idiot. Do you think someone who has reached the realm of sword and self as one can easily erase the traces of the Wudang Sect from his sword?”
“...”
Yong Soa came to a stop, looked at his sword for a moment, then spun it once.
A completely different aura burst forth.
It was raw killing intent.
‘This bastard... When did he learn the Blood Wolf Sword Art too?!’
His aura changed in an instant, and every trace of the Wudang Sect vanished from his sword.
In an instant, he became a Black Path martial artist who cut an opponent’s throat with a single killing blow.
With only a few words, he had become a completely different person.
“You crazy bastard...! Do not waste your insight on something like this!”
When I unleashed the Twin Heavens Sword Art, a storm of sword forms enveloped him.
Like a wolf, he charged through the storm of sword forms again and again.
He was trying to break the Twin Heavens Sword Art in a completely different way from before.
“You think I will just let you?”
Shrrrrrrrr!
The widely spread sword forms gathered tightly, blocking his escape routes.
Just as I closed every opening to carve his body apart.
Tap!
He accelerated even further, broke through the storm of sword forms, and thrust out his sword.
I avoided his blade with the Iron Bridge maneuver, but his sword still sheared through my hair.
Slice!
My hair scattered across the ground like fallen leaves.
I immediately rose and swung the Drifting Current Formless Sword, but he had already retreated beyond the range of my strike.
“...Do you even know what you are doing right now?”
The man who had never reacted until now flinched and stopped moving.
Then his dull eyes opened wide.
“There has never been a time when I did not know what I was doing.”
Yong Soa looked at me with eyes full of resentment.
“You know and you are still doing it... You have finally gone mad.”
“I am in the process of correcting what has gone wrong.”
Anger surged within me.
“Was Baeksong Sect the Orthodox Society’s handiwork after all?”
“...”
“Answer me! Is Wudang’s foremost disciple fighting for the Northern Forest Alliance to finish what Baeksong Sect started?!”
Amid a war where blood and flesh flew through the air and screams and shouts filled the battlefield, Yong Soa did not waver.
He was as calm and peaceful as a lake at dawn.
“I am only...”
Even his voice rang out without a change in tone.
“Trying to return everything to its proper place.”
He stared at me as though he felt nothing about the consequences his actions would bring.
“Because of you, Jin Sowoon.”
He did not even try to hide his resentment toward me.
“To return the future you ruined to what it was meant to be.”
He was giving his actions justification.
“I have let this slide long enough, you bastard...”
Once again, I recalled the worst future he was trying to create, the future I had experienced in the past, and renewed my anger toward him.
“You think things will go your way?”
Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms
First Form
Extreme Swiftness
My sword split through space.
Screeeech!
The sound of tearing air followed.
Yong Soa’s figure, which had occupied that space, scattered like smoke.
Instead, the Northern Forest Alliance’s Green Forest fighters there suffered the damage in full.
Slice!
Blood burst forth all at once and rained down.
The Northern Forest Alliance’s Green Forest fighters, drenched in blood, fled in panic, while the Southern Forest Alliance fighters surged forward in excitement.
My eyes remained fixed on Yong Soa.
As long as I kept him occupied, the battle would eventually turn in the Southern Forest Alliance’s favor.
“...Did you think keeping me occupied would give you the advantage in this battle?”
With Yong Soa’s ominous words, countless Green Forest fighters appeared from both flanks.
“Waaaaah!”
“Waaaaah!”
‘He was waiting for this...?’
The Green Forest fighters emerging from the mountains charged downhill like mad.
If they joined the battlefield, the situation would surely be turned completely around.
Pheeeew!
Then a whistling arrow sounded from behind, signaling retreat.
“Retreat!”
“Retreat!”
A standard bearer near Baek Soryeong waved the retreat flag, and the Southern Forest Alliance’s Green Forest fighters turned and began to run.
As I stood there watching them, Yong Soa’s voice reached me.
“In the end, everything will return to what it was.”
Yong Soa did not waver in the slightest, as though it were only natural.
‘What the hell is wrong with this bastard?’
I simply could not understand him.
#
Yong Soa acknowledged the uncertainty of his ability, Dragon Eye.
He had failed to foresee Gu Songbaek’s future, and he had failed to foresee the survival of those who were supposed to die in the Sword Tomb.
‘No.’
Dragon Eye was not uncertain.
Humans were.
Humans did not understand the truth that careless actions could greatly change the future.
If one were to name the person whose recklessness had recently been greatest, there was no question who it would be.
‘Jin Sowoon.’
It was Jin Sowoon who created Dragon Eye’s uncertainty.
At one point, Yong Soa had hoped the uncertainty Jin Sowoon brought might become the seed that changed an unchanging future.
Hope. That was all it had been.
That was why he had prevented the death of the one who brought uncertainty.
He had traded his one chance for the future.
Because he wanted to see a better tomorrow.
Yet Jin Sowoon could not let go of Song Yeseol’s death, nor could he face the fact that the Demon-Subduing Madman could not be turned back.
Unable to accept what had already happened, he poured his resentment onto Yong Soa.
In the end, Myo-in Satae’s death could not be prevented, and the Jwabur Association was dissolved.
The dissolution of the Jwabur Association became the signal that brought the Demonic Cult’s appearance even sooner, accelerating the chaos in the martial world.
If Yong Soa had simply allowed Jin Sowoon to die and gone to save Myo-in Satae instead, the future would not have become this uncertain.
Uncertainty brought change.
The Martial Alliance ultimately failed to move to the Northern Sea.
The deaths of countless people had come to mean nothing.
‘In the end.’
The spark of hope had gone out.
He had placed false hope in the change Jin Sowoon brought, and even the martial world’s last hope had disappeared.
Change was uncertainty.
That was why Jin Sowoon’s uncertainty was no longer something to hope for.
The uncertainty he created was a destabilizing factor that ruined the future that had been decided, an evil that created unpredictable despair.
Yong Soa had done everything he could to reverse that uncertainty.
He could not stand by and watch the martial world and the Martial Alliance burn to ashes.
Yet the future, which had already strayed far from its destined path, did not return to its proper place.
Instead, it shook with even greater uncertainty.
His mind, which had always remained clear mirror and still water[1], began to tremble. Anxious that even the last hope would vanish, he clung to the future even more tightly.
‘It cannot be. No, it must not...’
Yong Soa began involving himself in things he had never done before.
Even when he could not see the future, he eliminated those who seemed likely to harm it.
He saved those who seemed likely to be of help from danger.
But Dragon Eye became even more uncertain.
Now, it began showing futures that were clearly different from one another.
The future where hope had vanished without a trace still remained.
Moreover, another future had appeared, one where the people of the martial world became the Demonic Cult’s lackeys.
‘Why...?’
Dragon Eye was forcing Yong Soa to choose.
To choose between extinction and slavery.
‘...Is this as far as it goes?’
Yong Soa despaired and resented his own foolishness, as well as Jin Sowoon’s uncertainty.
Yong Soa had known from the beginning that the best possible outcome was for the Martial Alliance to go to the Northern Sea.
Even so, his eyes had been clouded for a moment by the positive uncertainty Jin Sowoon brought.
Could there perhaps be a better future than the one he had seen...?
He had indulged in desire, no, greed.
It was the first time he had felt he had met an equal, someone who could share the weight he carried.
‘Did I... want to be saved...?’
He had always been a savior to others, so perhaps Jin Sowoon’s appearance had pleased him even more.
Yet in the end, the price of his greed was a forced choice in which he desired neither outcome.
The guilt of having ruined everything through his greed shattered his clear mirror and still water.
“Yong Soa, why do you say you will not examine the martial legacies? It will surely be of use to your studies.”
The Martial Alliance gave him, who had earned the greatest merit, the opportunity to examine the Black King’s martial legacy and the Sword Venerable’s martial legacy.
It was an opportunity made possible by the influence of the Wudang Sect.
But Yong Soa examined neither.
No matter what he saw, the future would not change.
To know that every action led to the same result was no different from shackles that prevented him from taking any action at all.
Yong Soa shut himself in his room and meditated over and over in an attempt to regain his clear mirror and still water.
[Young Master. If you only stay in your room, you will become an idiot.]
Around then, he saw the fading image of ‘Soa.’
‘Soa’ still looked exactly the same as back then and treated him like a child.
‘Soa,’ who had wanted to go see the flowers for the young master’s sake, wore jade hairpin powder and smiled more brightly than the flowers around them.
[Why do you look like that?]
Ridiculously, the ‘Soa’ in his dream even questioned him.
“My greed has ruined so much.”
Unable to maintain his clear mirror and still water, he answered weakly.
Then.
[Pfft. I thought it was something serious.]
‘Soa’ laughed as though it were nothing and breathed in the scent of the flowers.
Watching that, he wondered what use the future or revenge was.
Just as that child’s death could not be changed, the destruction of the martial world had already been decided.
‘Soa’ bent down and pressed a finger against his brow.
Though he had clearly grown into an adult, ‘Soa’ still looked at him with the same affectionate, gentle gaze one would give a child.
[I am sorry I seem to have become a bad memory for you, Young Master.]
“What do you mean...? You...”
[Try opening your heart a little more.]
Soa reached out and gently stroked his head.
[Like your old self, Young Master.]
Yong Soa tried to say something, but no words left his mouth.
When he woke, he found himself in his dark room instead of the bright flower field.
“...”
And Dragon Eye began showing him the possibility of returning to the original future once more.
“This is...”
He thought it was a gift from ‘Soa.’
How else could such a miracle happen?
Though these were not things a disciple of the White Path should do, that no longer mattered.
It was a future he had ruined through his greed.
If he lost even this hard-won possibility, he would not have the courage to face ‘Soa’ again.
Knock, knock.
Just as Dragon Eye had shown him in advance, Cheongsu Jin-in knocked on the door and entered.
[There is something I need you to do.]
“There is something I need you to do.”
And Cheongsu Jin-in spoke the words he had already heard.
[...If you do not wish to, you need not do it.]
“...If you do not wish to, you need not do it.”
He knew what the task was and why Cheongsu Jin-in was being so cautious.
That was why Yong Soa could make his choice with even greater certainty.
“I will do it.”
That was the only way.
The only chance to set right the future he had ruined.
He vowed that no matter what means he had to use, no matter what price he had to pay, he would protect this future.
[1] Clear mirror and still water: an idiom for a mind that is lucid, calm, and undisturbed.
Footnotes:
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