WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 587: Yong Soa (3)
──────
The surviving members of the Orthodox Society were enduring the harshest time of their lives.
They were suffering through misery so terrible that it made the wretched conditions of the Northern Forest Alliance seem nostalgic.
Their food had run out long ago, and they had been starving for days.
After seeing comrades die from eating mushrooms and berries, they refused to put any in their mouths, no matter how hungry they were.
In the end, they chose moss growing between rocks and trees.
“Ptoo! Ptoo! Uegh!”
Of course, hunger did not turn moss into food.
“Uegh!”
After vomiting yellow stomach acid despite having nothing in their stomachs, even the little strength they had left drained away, leaving them close to collapse.
“F-fuck.”
Curses fit for back-alley thugs flew from every direction.
“I’m going to die.”
Someone wiped the acid from their mouth with the hem of their clothes.
“Hey, you’ll ruin your clothes.”
“Clothes? Have you lost your mind already?”
No one had cared about their appearance or attire for some time.
Yong Soa was the only one whose grease-slicked hair had not been scratched into a tangled mess.
Riiip.
“What does it matter now if these damn clothes get dirty?”
“...”
They vented their aimless anger by tearing their clothes, but it did not improve the situation.
They had been fugitives for who knew how many days.
For the first time since entering the martial world, they truly felt their lives were in danger.
At drinking parties, they had freely made bold declarations that a martial artist must lay down their life when the time came. Yet now, they could not shake their instinctive attachment to life, let alone remember such words.
No, the fear of death was greater and deeper than they had ever imagined.
“You’re especially sharp today.”
Those who had trained their minds should have found it strange, but abandoned in such terrible conditions, they felt even greater fear without realizing why.
“Did I say anything wrong?”
Sharp words, no more than instinctive struggles to escape the fear of death, pierced one another.
The deep friendship that had once been strong enough for them to call each other sworn brothers scattered like a mirage in an instant.
“...No.”
No one added anything.
The thread of reason they barely held onto told them where their anger truly lay.
They had abandoned dying comrades.
They had left, saying they would bring back a councilor, but everyone here already knew.
The comrades they had left behind would die.
They had abandoned them knowing that.
Even knowing it was all a lie.
No one objected.
Everyone here was both an accomplice and a bystander.
Ridiculously enough, once they no longer had the burden of caring for the wounded, guilt came rushing in like a flood.
“Is anyone injured? There’s some golden wound medicine left.”
“Save it. You’re the one who’s hurt the most.”
They deliberately focused on the present.
Facing their guilt was like constantly feeling the thorn lodged in their throats.
The deeper they felt it, the farther that thorn dug in.
So they focused on other sensations instead.
“Still...”
Someone cautiously brought up the strange sensations they had briefly felt while fleeing.
“Isn’t something a little strange?”
The demonic beings’ attacks had been crude, rough, and savage.
As they barely avoided those uncontrolled attacks, doubts had arisen.
“Doesn’t it feel like they’re only targeting a certain person?”
“...”
It was an abrupt remark, yet no one mocked or dismissed it because they had felt something similar.
These elites, who had spent every moment quickly calculating their gains, could not possibly overlook such a thing.
Still, only fools openly revealed their own interests.
“So I wasn’t the only one who felt it?”
From a step away, someone offered detached agreement, as though stating an objective fact without emotion.
The tower they carefully built piece by piece slowly took shape.
“Yong Soa fought at the front more than anyone, but... our casualties really were strangely low.”
Then it quickly settled into a clear form.
“If that means... their goal is...”
Even without anyone saying it directly, a distinct answer formed in their minds.
“Then why are we... in this state?”
Once that answer had formed, their past gratitude and guilt became shameful.
Those deceived by another’s trickery felt anger.
“So all of this... is because of Yong Soa?”
They even poured their guilt onto the target of their anger.
“...”
No one named him outright, but everyone here was directing resentment at one person.
At that moment.
Step. Step. Step.
Cold silence descended with the sound of footsteps.
The person who appeared was perfectly neat, unlike the haggard group.
Several fruits and mushrooms were clutched in his hands.
“They’re safe to eat.”
“...”
When the impassive Yong Soa handed over the bundle, they quietly divided the food and put it into their mouths.
Whenever this happened before, they had made a fuss about thanking him. Today, though, they glanced at Yong Soa with cold, sharp eyes.
“Is something wrong?”
Nothing could be heard besides the sound of chewing fruit and mushrooms.
Yet those furtive looks did not change.
“Not at all.”
“I see. Recover as much strength as you can.”
“...Why? Do we have to fight too?”
Yong Soa hesitated before speaking again.
“Don’t you intend to fight?”
“Ah! No, no, we have to fight. Of course we do. Of course!”
“...”
Their voices held a strange mockery.
Their behavior was completely different from usual, and anyone else might have been flustered. Yong Soa was not.
He had already seen this situation.
#
[We don’t think we’ll be of any help.]
“We don’t think we’ll be of any help.”
[Let’s part ways here.]
“Let’s part ways here.”
The Orthodox Society members said exactly what he had seen.
Just as he had seen, they tried to leave separately without any preparation.
[We’re no help. Shouldn’t at least one person make it out alive?]
“We’re no help. Shouldn’t at least one person make it out alive?”
At first glance, that “one person” seemed to refer to Yong Soa.
In the end, though, they likely meant themselves.
“Do you have the strength left to run?”
“What? The strength to run?”
With deep frowns, they openly showed their displeasure.
“Do we look like we’re running away?”
Yong Soa had only spoken without any hidden intent.
His indifference alone had offended them.
In that sense, it was strange.
How had no one ever raised an issue with that indifference before?
“...”
Knowing the reason well, Yong Soa neither explained himself nor showed anger.
He only looked at them impassively.
“Hah! Well... the great Yong Soa is different from the rest of us. Don’t worry. We’ll take care of ourselves.”
Yong Soa did not know whether those leaving would live or die.
That meant only one thing.
Their lives and deaths would not affect history.
Part of him even thought it was for the best.
At least he would not have to see them die.
Yong Soa headed down the path he had seen, while the Orthodox Society members moved in the opposite direction as though they had been waiting for it.
He did not feel hurt or furious.
There had never been any understanding in the reverence they had shown him.
No, since leaving the Dragon Clan, he had never once felt that he belonged to anyone or anywhere.
‘It’s been a lonely life.’
A small loneliness spread through the stillness of clear mirror and still water like ripples.
Jin Sowoon, who would take his place, suddenly came to mind.
Jin would become the hope of the martial world and move the Martial Alliance to the Northern Sea. Would he be understood by others?
[Fuck off!]
[Get lost!]
[Fuuuuck!]
Yong Soa did not know.
He did not even understand why Jin Sowoon, rather than Ilmyeong or Hwa Jeongsan, would lead the Martial Alliance.
Even so, he felt Jin would not suffer the same loneliness.
There were always people at Jin’s side, people who cursed at him yet remained with him.
Like family...
‘Am I jealous?’
The emotion that suddenly pierced his chest made Yong Soa shake his head.
It was not such shallow jealousy.
This was only...
Longing.
A feeling he had thought he had forgotten long ago.
Yong Soa returned to the state of clear mirror and still water.
After walking for about a sichen, Yong Soa saw demonic beings appear one after another.
Swish.
Swish.
Yong Soa continued walking as though it did not matter.
Just as in the future he had seen, they did not attack easily.
Swish.
Swish.
The number of demonic beings grew.
They revealed themselves as though guiding Yong Soa along his path.
Following the path formed by the crowd, he reached a large clearing.
Nearly five hundred people were already there, all looking at Yong Soa at once.
Within the crowd stood a man who jutted out like a boulder and, in contrast, a slender man.
The path led all the way to those two.
Yong Soa had been walking toward his final moment with an impassive gaze, but his feet came to an abrupt stop.
“You...”
“It’s been a long time, hasn’t it?”
The person who had searched for the Nine Heavens Incense Burner at Jeongmu Gate in the past.
The person who had revealed himself as the enemy responsible for destroying Yong Soa’s clan, then humiliated Yong Soa.
“It was you...”
Coldness filled Yong Soa’s face.
He knew he would die, but the one bringing about his death was the very enemy who had destroyed his clan.
“The Little Demon ordered me to deal with you personally.”
“...”
“So, have you enjoyed the life that was granted to you?”
He had clearly maintained clear mirror and still water, yet the lake churned violently.
Shing.
He knew his death was coming. He knew it was certain.
Still, he could not simply accept it.
“My life... was a life granted to me?”
“That’s right. You...”
“Then you made a mistake.”
“Hm?”
A rare emotion appeared in Yong Soa’s eyes.
“By not killing me earlier, you’ll die here.”
The man’s eyes widened.
Then they narrowed.
“Oh? Well... your resentment toward me must be great. What was it called again? Ah!”
A meaningful smile spread across the snake-eyed man’s lips.
“Soa.”
“...!”
“You must want revenge for that girl named Soa.”
Snap.
A storm-like surge of energy swept out from Yong Soa’s body.
“I still remember that child clearly. At the end, there was something she wanted.”
“...Something she wanted?”
The snake-eyed man slowly nodded.
“Yes... her final wish.”
Yong Soa knew he could not leave an opening, but for a moment, he was consumed by distracting thoughts.
What had Soa wanted most?
To be saved?
Had she tried to hide my existence until the end?
Was that why he had survived?
Several possibilities came to mind.
But what meaning could the final wish of a dead child possibly hold?
Soa, that child...
“That child desperately begged me.”
The snake-eyed man seemed desperate to say it, parting his lips with a sneer.
“She begged me to please kill her.”
────!
The calm, tranquil energy of the Wudang Sect burst outward in sharp waves.
“But I didn’t grant that wish. Hahahaha.”
The snake-eyed man’s mouth stretched all the way to his ears.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
