WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 584: In the Line of Fire (6)
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“Can you see this?”
Bang Duchil pointed to an extremely narrow gorge nestled between the tangled valleys.
“If they take this path, they’ll suffer some losses, but not everyone will die. But if they go past here... there won’t be any way out.”
He shook his head, looking utterly baffled.
“No matter how many Green Forest bandits there are, Martial Alliance elites trained in tactics should have chosen this path. Hmm... I don’t understand.”
Like Bang Duchil, I still had my doubts.
Even aside from tactics, Yong Soa could see the future.
It was hard to understand why he would knowingly walk into a deathtrap.
“Is there another route besides this one?”
I held out hope that they might be trying to escape by some means we did not know about.
“There could be. There may be paths that are not marked on the map. But...”
Bang Duchil looked doubtful.
“The conditions would be far worse than before. The deeper you go into Despair Valley, the harder it becomes to escape.”
Even the swiftest fish could not escape once it entered a fish trap.
To get out, it needed someone’s help.
“Then we must move quickly, before they go any deeper.”
“...”
Bang Duchil stared at me silently.
“What is it?”
“Could they... be considering something else?”
“What do you mean?”
“Suicide.”
I was about to say this was no time for jokes, but Bang Duchil’s expression was completely serious.
“They concealed their identities and helped the Northern Forest Alliance, then failed. A vast organization like the Orthodox Society does not leave its mistakes behind.”
I understood what he meant.
I could not be certain the Orthodox Society was not that kind of organization.
But at the very least, they were not stupid enough to treat someone like Yong Soa as a disposable tool.
Nor would Yong Soa ever make that choice.
‘That lunatic... sacrificing himself for someone else?’
It would be more believable if the Heavenly Demon converted to Buddhism.
#
We moved quickly.
This operation was, above all else, a race against time.
The faster we moved, the greater our chances of saving them.
Bang Duchil joined the Yuseong Unit and moved with us, while the Gale Unit led the slower Green Forest bandits and followed behind.
Since we needed speed, we abandoned the beaten path and traveled in a straight line.
We climbed cliffs and stepped across tree branches as we moved.
Crack-
Once, a rocky outcrop Moyong Jaehwa used as a foothold broke beneath him, and he nearly plunged into a thousand-zhang ravine.
Whiiing-
Dongryong and I fired our Flying Dragon Claws, catching Jaehwa by his clothes and saving him.
“Thank you...”
“You can thank us later.”
Still, no matter how fast we moved, there were limits.
“Kill Bang Duchil!”
Some Stronghold Leaders and Northern Forest Alliance Green Forest bandits still did not think the war was over.
They used the rugged terrain to launch arrows from afar, while some threw themselves off cliffs to take us down with them.
The Yuseong Unit members already knew how to end these battles quickly. They cut through the chaotic battlefield and went straight for the Stronghold Leaders.
The first to arrive this time was none other than Dang Seohui.
“H-how...! Why is someone from the Tang Clan interfering in a Green Forest war?”
“Hmm? Aren’t I the Stronghold Leader of Black Phoenix Stronghold?”
“What are you talking about? There is no Black Phoenix Stronghold!”
“...There is now.”
The Stronghold Leader, who had denied Black Phoenix Stronghold’s existence, was seized by Dang Seohui in an instant.
Unable to endure the agony of the poison, they eventually struck their own Baihui acupoint and killed themself.
Her methods were far more merciless than before.
“...”
After forcing nearly five hundred Green Forest bandits to surrender in half a day, we entered Despair Valley. We still had a long way to go.
“Unit Leader... shouldn’t we rest for a while?”
Moyong Seol spoke with exhaustion written across her face.
“Everyone is very tired. If we keep going like this... we will not be able to properly fight the demonic beings when we meet them.”
Since their opponents had been Green Forest bandits, the Yuseong Unit had not found them difficult to deal with.
Yet ignoring enemy attacks in such rugged terrain and targeting only the Stronghold Leaders hidden in the deepest areas had clearly exhausted them, both physically and mentally.
As she said, no one showed it, but they all looked worn out.
“Then let’s rest and practice qi-regulating breathing before we move again.”
Yet even that rest was not easily granted.
From the dark forest came a coarse killing intent.
Step. Step. Step.
“Prepare for battle.”
The exhausted Yuseong Unit members, who had been sprawled across the ground, began taking up battle positions.
#
There was a kind of anxiety one could not escape.
Even when you knew what choice would make that anxiety disappear, the situation could be too painful to make it, so you accepted the anxiety.
No, you looked away from it.
You looked away from the worst possible outcome.
You rationalized that the enemy was also tired and wounded, so they would not attack easily.
You could not overcome the cognitive dissonance otherwise.
By rationalizing it, you could buy even a little more time with your dying comrades.
That was how the Orthodox Society Special Operations Unit soothed its anxiety.
But then...
“Urgh!”
“Guh!”
The anxiety they had desperately avoided became reality and fell upon them.
Throwing knives rained down upon the Orthodox Society members, who had not even lit a small fire.
The attack came without warning, but it was not dangerous to the Orthodox Society elites.
The wounded who stood at death’s door were different.
Already drained of blood and losing body heat, the wounded were dealt the final blow by the incoming throwing knives, sending them to the Underworld.
Though they knew their comrades were already dying, the Orthodox Society members still tried to protect them.
It was not a rational decision, but an instinctive one.
“Urgh.”
“Guh!”
“Damn it!!!!”
As though they had anticipated that instinctive reaction, the attackers inflicted further damage until even the uninjured became wounded.
“Y-you bastards...!!!”
Their malicious curses only sounded like praise to the enemy.
More throwing knives flew in.
One person, unable to contain their rage, rushed forward and became a porcupine in an instant.
Thud-
As though they did not care about the person collapsing like a log, more throwing knives came flying in.
Swish. Swish. Swish.
“Yong Soa!”
Yong Soa burst through the rain of knives.
Whoosh-
His Whirlwind Sword Art swept toward the direction from which the knives were flying.
Like a herd of horses that had found its leader, the throwing knives changed direction and followed the flow of his Whirlwind Sword Art.
Shrrrk-
By the time Yong Soa had spun twice, the number of knives following him had grown, and they began colliding with the knives thrown by the enemy.
Clangclangclangclangclang-
Countless throwing knives rained onto the ground.
As though guiding a current of water, Yong Soa increased the number of knives following his Whirlwind Sword Art.
The throwing knives that had poured down like rain soon began moving with his sword, and dozens, then hundreds of them shot back in the direction from which they had come.
Like salmon swimming upstream, the thrown knives attacked those who had sent them.
At that moment.
Thudthudthudthudthud-
Dull impacts rang out in succession, and the knife attack stopped.
A brief silence followed.
In that stillness, Yong Soa stepped forward alone and waited for the enemy.
But...
“...”
The attack he expected never came.
No matter how long he waited, the enemy did not appear.
Even within his energy sense, presences began disappearing one by one.
Silence settled all around them.
Then quiet sobbing broke out.
“Sniff...”
“Mom...”
“I want to go home.”
The attack they had desperately wanted to stop had ended, yet their anxiety only grew worse.
Before they could even mourn their comrades’ deaths, the realization that death had drawn close enough to touch them shattered their reason.
A shapeless fear spiraled out of control, and those helpless within it were too terrified to even look around.
The damage was worse than before.
The wounded had died, while those who had been unharmed suffered severe injuries.
When people had gone without food or sleep and endured constant pain, even a small injury could be as fatal as having their blood vessels cut.
The number of people who could move properly had been cut in half, and fewer than half of those could still fight properly.
“Y-Yong Soa. We need to move...”
Terrified, they had forgotten their pain, their injuries, and their comrades. They wanted only to flee.
“It is better not to move right now.”
“What are you talking about...! The enemy has already found us! We need to run!”
The enemy had already surveyed this area. They had only been waiting for the right time to attack.
In their current situation, it would be better to form a defensive formation and wait for dawn.
Yet those whose reason had been consumed by fear could not even recall the most basic teachings.
Yong Soa stated the unavoidable reality in an impassive voice.
“More people have been wounded. We cannot move now.”
There were people dying while clutching their injuries, unable to receive even the most basic emergency treatment.
The gazes directed at them were no longer warm or sympathetic as before.
“W-what can we do? We cannot get treatment here anyway. It would be better if we escaped quickly and brought back a physician...”
“...!”
Unlike before, when the wounded had been an excuse not to move, they had now become the reason everyone needed to move.
‘Did they never care about the wounded in the first place?’
The fear consuming their minds stripped away even the thin shell of their hypocrisy.
No, they were merely using words to rationalize their own actions once more.
Before and now, they had all thought only of their own safety.
“Yong Soa, this is the time to think of the greater good. We have to inform the Martial Alliance that demonic beings have appeared here...”
“That is enough.”
Contempt filled Yong Soa’s eyes.
Regardless of whether there were wounded, moving now was not an option.
Further rational persuasion had no meaning.
No matter what he said, those gripped by fear would only want to escape this place.
What was needed now was an order that bordered on coercion.
With a colder expression than ever, Yong Soa opened his mouth.
“That is out of the question. If we move from here...”
He could not finish.
Twinge-
A splitting pain stabbed through his head, and an immeasurable amount of information began flooding in, far more than before.
[RunawaygobackthisfarYongSoawewilllivenoitdoesntmatteryouaretheLittleDemonstoy]
Twinge-
[DamnYongSoasoitcametothistheOrthodoxSocietysplitsWhitePathSocietyisexterminatednomore]
Twinge-
[NorthernSeaMartialAlliancewhatagoodresultDemonicCultworldDivineCultunbeatableHeavenlyDemonreturnsworldsubmitsunbeatablemythstrongestDivineCult]
“Y-Yong Soa! Y-your eyes...!”
Yong Soa suddenly clutched his head and collapsed.
Blood burst from both his eyes.
Splurt-
Overwhelmed by the unbearable flood of information, Yong Soa fell while clutching his head as though he had been consumed by it.
“Urgh.”
Soon after, the tangled information forced into him slowly began to unravel.
[Run away.]
[You are only the Little Demon’s]
[With this, the lamp that will not go out...]
[Your life ends he...]
The future he had guarded for so long.
The future that had twisted because of a single mistake.
And the future now, different from that time.
In the gap between them, he came to understand what price he would have to pay to restore the future he had twisted.
At the same time, he realized why he had come to Despair Valley, why Dragon Eye had led him onto a path of death, and why his future had turned dark even though the Martial Alliance had moved to the Northern Sea.
The chain of events pointed to one thing.
The death of a single person.
‘This...’
The lost future he had longed for so deeply.
‘The true...’
Yong Soa.
Through his own death.
‘...price.’
It was a future that could only be completed in the end.
Footnotes:
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