WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 594: Beyond the Line of Fire (4)
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The Scarlet Radiance Sword shot forward like a beam of light.
Slash-
At the same time, I twisted my head while calculating the trajectory along which the curse would activate.
Splat-
A sharp whistle grazed past my ear, striking my eardrum as it passed.
It was a sensation no one but the person bearing the curse could feel.
“Argh!”
Gu Do-cheong screamed as his remaining ear was cut off.
Considering how delighted he had been whenever his body was injured, it was a most unfamiliar sight.
“Stop him!”
Perhaps sensing that something was wrong, the Iron Demon Sword Unit stepped between Gu Do-cheong and me.
The Scarlet Radiance Sword shifted from the Drifting Current Formless Sword to the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
True to their reputation as the Demonic Cult’s most tyrannical unit, the sword arts and demonic qi they unleashed were brutally fierce.
As in my previous life, I faced them with the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
That did not mean I was using the same shallow sword art from my past life, one that had desperately focused only on preserving my own life.
The Taeul Sect’s doctrine had always been Change.
And the Lesser Heaven Sword Art was a martial art of countless transformations, perfectly suited to applying that doctrine.
My current attainment had expanded the Lesser Heaven Sword Art’s uses far beyond what they had been in my previous life.
Boom-
Each stroke of the Lesser Heaven Sword Art, imbued with the principle of the Tyrant King Divine Fist, sounded like an exploding shell. The shockwaves burst the Sword Unit’s eardrums.
Boom!
The Black King’s ultimate attainment in the Path of Defeat unfolded through the Lesser Heaven Sword Art.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Just as Gan Se-ung passed through anything without obstruction, nothing could stop the Lesser Heaven Sword Art infused with the Tyrant King Divine Fist’s principle.
Crash!
The destructive force of the sword qi tore through even the flying clods of earth, mangling the Iron Demon Sword Unit members’ flesh and shattering their bones.
Shrrrk-
The Greater Heaven Sword Art then spread out like the ribs of a fan, turning the already chaotic battle into utter disorder.
Slash! Slash!
My steps accelerated with every stride.
I barely slipped past the swords thrust out by the Iron Demon Sword Unit and headed straight for Gu Do-cheong.
“S-stop him!”
Ignoring his desperate order, I sent the Scarlet Radiance Sword forward like a beam of light.
Swoosh-
It drove precisely into his left eye.
Thud-
“Argh!”
A scream sharp enough to tear the air rang out, and a piercing whistle brushed past my temple.
Splat-
The Brand’s curse activated, leaving a shallow wound and cutting loose strands of my hair.
‘As expected... it was too deep.’
I had remembered the sensation perfectly, but that did not mean I could completely dispel the curse.
‘So I can’t go deeper than the distance from my head to my eyes.’
To protect its caster, I peeled away the vicious, tenacious curse one layer at a time.
“Argh!”
A fist force he threw out at random grazed past me before raining down mercilessly upon the Iron Demon Sword Unit.
Boom! Boom!
The blood they spilled after being struck by those blind fist forces flowed back to Gu Do-cheong.
At this rate, I would have to keep fighting without end.
Whoosh-
The sparks of the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand bloomed in my palm and clung to the Iron Demon Sword Unit’s bodies.
If their wounds burned shut, they would not bleed.
“Argh!”
Unable to withstand the Sacred Flame’s demon-subjugating power and heat amid the melee, the Iron Demon Sword Unit members threw themselves in every direction, spreading the Sacred Flame Demon-Extinguishing Hand to others.
“Kill them! Kill them first!”
Without the slightest hesitation, the Iron Demon Sword Unit members swung their swords at their comrades.
The headless corpses collapsed, and the demonic qi remaining in their bodies burned away.
The Iron Demon Sword Unit’s killing intent grew even denser.
“So you do have some sense of comradeship.”
Of course, no one answered me.
Driven by their twisted camaraderie, the Iron Demon Sword Unit’s offensive became even fiercer.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
They threw themselves at me as though their sole aim was to perish together.
Watching them, I understood why so many masters of the martial world had died helplessly before demonic beings in my previous life.
“But I’m not like them.”
Using the Lotus form, I pulled one Iron Demon Sword Unit member toward me and snapped their arm.
Crack-
I kicked down diagonally and broke their shin, then snapped the demonic being’s neck as they fell.
After that, I unleashed the eighth level of the Myriad Blossoms Invincible Fist and pressured the others.
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
My fists, not even wrapped in fist qi, steadily broke their bones and slammed their bodies into the ground.
No matter how vicious they were, they could not stand on broken legs. No matter how prepared they were to die, they could not swing a sword with broken arms.
As I retreated while fighting the Iron Demon Sword Unit, a chill ran down my spine.
I felt an intense gaze and turned my head slightly.
Gu Do-cheong, who had lost an eye and was panting heavily, was glaring at me with all his might.
The blood that had been flowing toward him had disappeared without a trace.
He slowly lowered his hand, and there...
‘Damn it.’
The eye that should have remained gone had returned to normal.
His blood-slick eye made his already grotesque appearance even more terrifying, like oil poured onto a fire.
Most of all, his gaze seemed to pierce straight through me, leaving behind an unpleasant feeling.
Swish-
His figure vanished in that instant.
He was fast, but his clumsy footwork clearly revealed his direction.
He was heading straight for me.
Unlike before, he closed a considerable distance in an instant.
Thud!
His fist descended from the air, grazing my ear before burying itself in the ground.
He rose and charged at me with both arms spread wide, as if he intended to embrace me.
“Sorry, but...”
The place he charged toward was...
“I’m not into men.”
An illusion.
Gu Do-cheong tried to seize the false image and slammed into the ground.
He sprang back to his feet.
As if nothing had happened, Gu Do-cheong rushed at me again.
‘Did he figure it out already?’
The most frightening thing about him was neither the curse on his body nor his endless vitality.
It was his cunning mind and obsessive nature.
Those two traits had met the Blood Brand’s curse and evolved into an unprecedented nightmare.
His powerful desire to make his opponents suffer allowed him to endure his own pain.
And a mind with a clear purpose would always search for an answer to achieve what it wanted.
Just like now.
‘He definitely figured it out.’
Once I retreated more than three moves, the smile that had vanished from his lips slowly returned.
“Why aren’t you using fire art on me?”
He smiled like a snake that had driven its prey into a corner.
“...”
“As I thought... it wasn’t banishing evil or suppressing spirits.”
He licked the blood running down his cheek with his long tongue.
“Of course not. A mere martial-world fighter cannot overcome the Divine Cult’s great...”
“Why didn’t you restore your ears? I was going to cut them off again.”
“...”
His expression froze for a moment, then quickly relaxed.
“So this is your limit.”
He pointed from his temple to his eye.
“You think you can kill me with only this much?”
“You figured out that much and you’re already acting smug?”
“What can you do at such a shallow depth? From what I can see, you can’t even land a single punch on me.”
I saw him put force into his feet as he sneered.
It was a trait common to those with clumsy footwork.
“Why aren’t you answering? Answer me!”
Gu Do-cheong shot forward like an arrow, both eyes gleaming as though coated in oil.
I lunged toward him as well and sent out my sword.
The Scarlet Radiance Sword pierced through the fist force he scattered and drove into his newly restored left eye once again.
“Argh!”
He let out a more horrifying scream than before and collapsed to the ground.
“I really don’t understand. Were you honestly getting smug over that?”
After passing him, I sent my sword at him again.
Splat-
A vital acupoint at the nape of his neck was cut, and blood poured out as though his throat had been severed.
I had cut the largest blood vessel leading to his head, yet he thrashed wildly.
I swung my sword at him again.
Slash-
His left wrist was cut off.
Slash-
The blade carved into his heel next.
Far more blood than an ordinary human could possibly lose poured from him.
“You think everything’s fine because I can’t kill you?”
“...”
The leader of the Mad Demon Sect possessed an immortal body through the Blood Brand and the Blood Demon Sect’s secret arts.
He enjoyed his opponents’ suffering, and enjoyed his own pain even more.
Yet I could read an emotion I had never once seen from him in my previous life.
“Did it never occur to you that I could make you think death would be better?”
The wounds affected muscles essential for moving his body, so Gu Do-cheong’s body healed them even against his will.
Then I swung my sword at him again.
Splat-
“Argh!”
His wrist, which had only barely reattached, was severed again.
Slash-
Even his intact right eye was gouged out.
He had now reached the point where he could not wait for the blood flowing toward him, throwing himself into pools of blood instead.
Blood sloshed around him.
“That’s your blood.”
“...!!!”
The hand he had been using to greedily scoop blood into his mouth froze.
“You said you can’t absorb the blood you spilled again, didn’t you?”
Gu Do-cheong turned his red, gouged-out eyes toward me. They had not yet healed.
He was clearly unable to see, yet I could feel his obsession with trying to look at me.
I could not help feeling pity as I watched him.
‘Eun Seollan should have been here.’
Gu Do-cheong drew in a ragged breath.
“You really are...”
Words whose meaning I could not understand slipped from his mouth.
“One of our kind.”
When Gu Do-cheong reached through the air, a demonic being approached to support him.
“Heh heh... You subject your opponent to constant pain, and you enjoy watching them suffer...”
Leaning against the demonic being, Gu Do-cheong instantly bit into their neck.
“Ghk!”
The demonic being collapsed helplessly under the sudden attack.
The blood flowing from their neck was quickly absorbed by Gu Do-cheong.
He blinked his injured eyelids several times. His torn pupils returned, and his clear gaze turned toward me.
“Jin Sowoon, you...”
A faint smile appeared on his lips.
“You’re the same breed as us, the kind that clings on until the very end and eventually tears apart even their opponent’s soul.”
“...”
“But do you know something?”
His smile twisted grotesquely, as if he were delighted and resentful at once.
“The world we have lived in is far more desperate than the world you have lived in.”
Once he had drained the demonic being’s blood, another approached Gu Do-cheong.
Gu Do-cheong raised his hand like a blade and cut off the demonic being’s neck in a single strike, then began absorbing that blood as well.
One by one, the demonic beings approached him as though they were waiting for their turn to die.
“Perhaps things would be different if every person in the martial world were like you, but you alone can’t stop us.”
Slash-
Another demonic being lost their life, and their blood was absorbed by Gu Do-cheong.
The desire to survive was humanity’s strongest, most fundamental instinct.
The actions of these demonic beings, who had been stripped of that powerful instinct, were deeply disturbing.
“It will be the same here. You will die in the end. I haven’t even used half my strength yet.”
When the number of demonic beings who had died by his hand surpassed ten, white vapor began rising from Gu Do-cheong’s body.
“You said you would make me want to die? Go ahead and try. Let’s see whether I die first or you do.”
He slowly approached me.
“Go on. Do whatever you want.”
His arms spread wide.
As though he did not care whether he died.
Perhaps sensing Gu Do-cheong’s momentum, the demonic beings no longer approached him.
I immediately sent out the Scarlet Radiance Sword.
Thud-
It pierced his newly restored eye again.
Gu Do-cheong pulled out his own injured eyeball.
Then he killed another demonic being and absorbed their blood.
“Is attacking my eyes the only thing you can do?”
At this rate, I would be overwhelmed by his momentum.
Calculating the timing perfectly, I sent the Scarlet Radiance Sword out once more.
It flew in a straight line and pierced his heart precisely.
“Ghk-”
Blood burst from his mouth, and I immediately twisted my body.
Slash-
I had twisted perfectly, but I still could not completely avoid the Brand’s curse.
A deep wound opened beside my heart, barely missing it.
He looked at the wound and smiled wickedly.
“You’ll make a mistake someday too. And that mistake will cause you the greatest pain.”
Gu Do-cheong approached me again.
When I tried to retreat, the demonic beings closed in and blocked my escape.
“Try again! Go ahead, stab out my eyes and struggle all you want!”
He took another step closer.
It was the best possible strategy for driving me into a corner.
But despite his triumphant attitude, I was not all that desperate.
‘Shouldn’t it be about time?’
I had not been able to bring Eun Seollan, but that did not mean I had come here without any plan for dealing with a Blood Demon Madman.
Then, at that moment,
Fweee!
The signal flare I had waited so long for rang out as it streaked across the sky.
The moment I heard that crisp sound, I pulled a signal flare from my robes.
“Jin Sowoon! Go ahead. Do whatever you...”
As agreed beforehand, I fired it straight at Gu Do-cheong.
Fwoosh-
The signal flare traced a red path through the air, struck Gu Do-cheong’s body directly, then fell to the ground with a soft plop.
Gu Do-cheong tilted his head at the utterly insignificant attack.
“What... is this?”
“Do you think I would jump into a deathtrap without any plan?”
“This pitiful thing is your plan?”
“Are you sure you won’t regret saying that?”
The utterly trivial attack was merely a means of conveying information.
More specifically, it was the clearest signal for the one person far away, unable to know exactly what was happening here.
Whoosh-
An ominous sound pierced through the silence between us.
At the sound, the demonic beings and Gu Do-cheong alike looked up at the sky.
Then, in that instant,
Swoosh!
An arrow transformed into a streak of light, pierced straight through Gu Do-cheong’s body, and nailed him to the ground.
“Ghk!”
“Don’t move. It’s not over yet.”
“What?”
I moved quickly.
Jaehwa’s arrows never ended with simply hitting their target.
Boom!
The arrow exploded, scattering more blood than ever before in every direction like a downpour.
“You seem pretty confident in your endurance, so let’s see how long it lasts, you perverted bastard.”
Then the whistle of arrows cutting through the sky shook the air like celebratory fireworks.
Footnotes:
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