WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 595: Beyond the Line of Fire (5)
──────
When the Wind-Splitting Sword's good-for-nothing grandson appeared with a bow in hand, people laughed.
They said he had ruined his clan with his reckless behavior, and now he had even lost the sword art known throughout the martial world.
They reacted the same way when that good-for-nothing grandson stood before the Demonic Cult with a bow.
They sneered that he would die a meaningless death trying to preserve his nonexistent pride.
Yet whenever he released his bowstring, he saved dozens, even hundreds of people and sent the demonic beings into a panic.
People fell silent.
Wheee-
A new archery art that changed the martial world's very concept of bow arts from the ground up.
Swoosh-
A source of terror for demonic beings unafraid of killing.
Boom-
A nightmare for demonic beings who treated their own lives as disposable.
For the man who had appeared only briefly and discarded his life as if it were no more valuable than a blade of grass, people gave a reverent epithet in place of “the Wind-Splitting Sword's good-for-nothing grandson.”
Shattering Bow
Wheeeik-
Gu Do-cheong desperately twisted his body at the faint whistle.
But as if it had anticipated his movement, the arrow detonated its thick arrowhead before he could escape.
Boom-
Fine iron powder scattered in every direction.
It punched dozens of tiny holes through trees, grass, and human bodies alike.
Blood burst from Gu Do-cheong's body as though an enormous waterskin had ruptured.
“Argh!”
Each time Gu Do-cheong screamed, demonic beings rushed forward and offered up their lives.
Wheeeik-
Boom-
Yet whenever an arrow exploded, the blood Gu Do-cheong had absorbed spilled uselessly onto the ground.
More blood was pouring out than Gu Do-cheong could absorb.
Gu Do-cheong's body had already grown a little smaller.
A red barrier rippled around him.
Some parts were thick, others thin. A master used a protective qi barrier as naturally as flowing water, but Gu Do-cheong's was nothing like that.
‘He must never have had a reason to use one.’
It looked as if Gu Do-cheong were using a protective qi barrier for the first time in his life.
At that moment, another arrow flew in and exploded before Gu Do-cheong.
Wheeeik-
Despite wrapping himself in a protective qi barrier, Gu Do-cheong flinched, covered his head, and shut his eyes.
Boom-
Blood still burst from Gu Do-cheong's body, though the qi force prevented him from losing as much as before.
I slipped into that opening.
“Did the Little Demon teach you that protective qi barrier?”
“!”
Slash-
I sliced through the unstable qi force covering Gu Do-cheong's neck, cutting it open. Blood gushed out.
His complexion had gone pale as well.
His steps grew hurried.
When I tried to retreat, Gu Do-cheong rushed at me without even taking the time to clutch his wound.
He intended to make me suffer the arrow's damage with him, at the very least.
“Not a bad choice. But that only works when your opponent isn't the Shattering Bow.”
Swoosh-
Feeling the swiftly fired arrow through my energy sense, I immediately used the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps.
The Horse-Piercing Arrow pierced through my afterimage and embedded Gu Do-cheong's entire body into the wall.
“Urk!”
Gu Do-cheong pulled the arrow from his body with his own hand and shouted.
“Kill him!”
The demonic beings who had stood back, trusting Gu Do-cheong's curse, began to move.
Those who had only watched and kept me in check until now charged like a swarm of locusts descending on prey.
Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms
First Form
Extreme Swiftness
The Scarlet Radiance Sword instantly opened a gap in the charging horde.
Screeeech-
With the sound of tearing air behind it, the bodies of the charging demonic beings split apart.
Slash-
Without giving them even a moment's reprieve, the Scarlet Radiance Sword moved again.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Each time the Scarlet Radiance Sword, carrying the principles of the Tyrant King Divine Fist, shot out, it sounded like a cannon blast. The screams of demonic beings with exploded heads and missing limbs swept through the battlefield.
Slash-
Even when I cut off heads and pierced hearts in a single strike, too many still charged at me.
Rumble-
When I unleashed the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, it tore open a gap in their encirclement.
The instant I used the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps to pass through it, I swung the Scarlet Radiance Sword again.
Ten Thousand Seas Heaven and Earth Sword Art
Heavenly Sword
Four swords identical to the Scarlet Radiance Sword danced in midair, and an enormous sword flower bloomed.
Shrrrraaak-
The sword flower, filled with immense internal energy, swallowed the demonic beings rushing in like locusts and bloomed into an even more dazzling flower.
Slash-
Unlike usual, the blood they spilled bothered me.
Not because I was afraid of getting it on my clothes like Yong Soa, but because I knew the blood spilled by the demonic beings would eventually flow to Gu Do-cheong.
“No matter what preparations you have made, I won't die here.”
Gu Do-cheong, whose color had somehow returned, slowly wiped the blood running down his neck amid the demonic beings.
“But you will die. Without fail.”
He meant that he would kill me even if he had to sacrifice every member of the Iron Demon Ghost Sword Unit and the Demon-Slaying Saber Wolf Brigade here.
I looked up at the sky.
The sun had moved far across it since I first arrived.
“Hey.”
I met Gu Do-cheong's venomous gaze.
“That's the sort of thing you say after you've won.”
Wheee-
That faint whistle sounded again.
Boom-
A Thunderclap Arrow dropped straight from the sky and exploded among the demonic beings, taking their lives at once.
“Otherwise, it just ends up awkward like this.”
“...?”
Ordinary martial artists might have struggled to arrive here in time, but they were not ordinary martial artists.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
A massive explosion rang out from far behind us.
Rumble-
A huge boulder even came flying in.
Honestly, who used siege weapons in a martial artist's fight?
I didn't even need to see who it was to know...
“Little Brother!”
“The Black Phoenix Stronghold Lord is here!”
...Well, it was nice to hear those words.
Bang Duchil and Dang Seohui joined the battle.
Rumble-
Swish-
Whenever Bang Duchil threw a punch, four or five demonic beings flew away like jackstones.
And Dang Seohui?
Whenever she revealed the hand hidden in her sleeve, demonic beings collapsed like puppets with their strings cut.
Wheee-
Boom-
Whenever the whistle rang amid the chaos of battle, the demonic beings flinched.
They had already seen the devastation that single tiny arrow could cause.
Gu Do-cheong's face twisted with fury.
I stared directly at his bloodied face.
“I know you won't die here.”
Even within the Demonic Cult, few could match Gu Do-cheong's tenacious vitality.
“But...”
But surviving did not make it a victory.
“Does that prove you won?”
Sometimes, survival left behind defeat and regret that nothing could overcome.
Just as it had in my previous life.
“Today, you'll bitterly regret that you couldn't die.”
Boom!
Bang Duchil landed beside me with his massive body.
The heavy force he released as he landed snapped the demonic beings' swords and bones like branches.
“What did you do with the demonic beings?”
“My senses are telling me those two are more dangerous than this trash.”
Bang Duchil's eyes burned with fierce hostility like a tiger's.
Shrrrraaak.
Dang Seohui had somehow stepped across the demonic beings' heads to reach us. She casually placed a hand on her waist.
“The Black Phoenix Stronghold Lord doesn't fight small fry.”
I looked at Gu Do-cheong and spoke to the two of them.
“The person you two Stronghold Lords need to face isn't this one.”
“Hm?”
“Over there.”
I pointed the tip of the Scarlet Radiance Sword toward Gan Seungung, who was fighting Yong Soa.
“Please go deal with that one.”
Dang Seohui noticed Yong Soa's missing eye but asked nothing. She simply nodded.
“Understood.”
“Little Brother, be careful.”
Contrary to my expectations, Bang Duchil threw himself forward without hesitation despite seeing Yong Soa, the man who had tried to kill him.
Crunch.
Gu Do-cheong ground his teeth as he glared at me murderously.
Those snake-like eyes were blazing with fury.
‘All right, then, let's see...’
“Let's keep going.”
#
Hwa Jeongsan grimaced as he fought for breath.
‘Damn it.’
He could accept being slower than Dang Seohui in movement arts to some extent.
But losing even Bang Duchil, a mountain bandit who seemed to use a movement art with no proper foundation, was enough to shatter his pride.
‘No, Jin Sowoon was there from the start.’
He had clearly been running at full speed, yet when Jin Sowoon said he would go ahead, Hwa Jeongsan's mind reeled.
Seeing that movement art performed at a speed he had never seen or even heard of had nearly shattered his pride in Mount Hua Sect martial arts.
In any case, after Jin Sowoon, Bang Duchil, and Dang Seohui charged ahead, he increased his speed even further.
There was no point in calling it a coordinated attack if everyone arrived scattered apart.
After barely catching his breath and looking over the battlefield, he saw it.
“Waaaaah!”
“Graaah!”
Killing intent and fighting spirit crashed down on him.
‘W-What is this?!’
Hwa Jeongsan unconsciously took a step back.
He had believed he had lived more desperately than anyone on the border between life and death.
Yet corpses lay strewn everywhere while people who did not care about death charged onward.
The scene of a mountain of corpses and sea of blood, something he had only heard about, unfolded before his eyes.
‘What the hell is this?!’
The part of him ruled by instinct sounded an alarm without his realizing it.
Battle cries close to shrieks rang out as people rushed forward without noticing their organs spilling from their torn bellies.
This was not the “battle” Hwa Jeongsan knew.
It was a battlefield of bloodshed consumed by madness.
His gaze turned toward Jin Sowoon, who fought at the deepest point of the battlefield.
‘He threw himself into this?’
The dangers of Despair Valley they had passed through so far were not dangers at all.
Yet Jin Sowoon had thrown himself without hesitation into the midst of people beyond any comparison to ordinary martial artists, all to save Yong Soa.
‘C-Crazy bastard.’
He could not understand.
He could not accept it.
Even if a Mount Hua Sect disciple had been here, Hwa Jeongsan would not have been able to step forward easily.
Yet Jin Sowoon had thrown himself in alone, not even together with others.
And that attempt had succeeded. Yong Soa was still alive.
“...Hwa Jeongsan. Aren't you going?”
The voice calling him brought him back to his senses.
“Of course I'm going. But are you planning to go too?”
“When you say ‘you,’ who do you mean exactly?”
“Obviously, I mean you and that kid...”
Hwa Jeongsan could not finish his sentence.
He followed Moyong Seol's fingertip and saw it.
‘H-He’s smiling?’
That kid was smiling with delight.
Dongryong was throwing his whole body into the crowd of demonic beings, swinging a sword larger than himself.
Every time he drove back an enemy, he smiled as if he could not contain his joy.
“Then I'll go first.”
“W-Wait...”
He had no time to think further.
Saving Yong Soa was not over yet.
#
Whoosh!
Boom!
Bang Duchil's punch sent up a wave of dirt.
“You're not surprised.”
At Bang Duchil's words, Yong Soa blocked Gan Seungung's fist guards and answered.
“Why should I be?”
“If someone you tried to kill suddenly appears, shouldn't that surprise you?”
Yong Soa glanced at Bang Duchil with an indifferent look.
“I don't see why that would be surprising. Isn't it an opportunity?”
“Oh? An opportunity to kill me, is that it?”
“Is that not obvious? Is speaking as if the obvious is not obvious how Green Forest bandits talk?”
“!”
In that instant, Bang Duchil could no longer restrain himself and hurled a punch at Yong Soa's side.
As if he had been waiting for it, Yong Soa raised his sword and blocked it. Bang Duchil, who had released seven-tenths of his strength, felt his fist qi scatter apart.
“Don't you know this is a situation where you should at least say thank you?”
Yong Soa's gaze briefly turned toward Jin Sowoon before returning.
“Then I should thank Jin Sowoon. He must have given the order.”
“You bastard! Jin Sowoon is my sworn younger brother! Our relationship isn't one where he gives me orders...”
“What are you all doing?!”
Dang Seohui cut between Bang Duchil and Yong Soa, blocking Gan Seungung's fist guards.
Gan Seungung growled low when she stopped them.
“You fucking bastards... Who do you think you're standing before?”
Their face had turned red enough to look ready to burst.
“Big guy, wait your turn. I'll turn this Martial Alliance pretty boy into minced meat, then I'll kill you too.”
“You intend to face an enemy using a wicked technique without even realizing it. As expected of Jin Sowoon's sworn brother and a Green Forest bandit.”
“You little...!”
“Now.”
“What are you doing?”
Bang Duchil and Yong Soa shut their mouths at the chilling voice that slipped into their argument.
“Do you both really want to die?”
Dang Seohui's cold gaze turned toward them.
“Get serious.”
“...”
“...”
The three of them acted as if they were the only people here.
As if Gan Seungung did not matter to them at all.
Gan Seungung finally exploded and launched their massive body forward.
“Bandit, move. You can't block it.”
Yong Soa moved out of the way as he spoke, but Bang Duchil did not budge.
“Hmph!”
Bang Duchil's straight punch shot toward Gan Seungung, who charged like a wild boar.
Boom-
The air compressed in an instant, creating a powerful rebound.
Gan Seungung, who had never stopped moving until now, not only halted but was flung backward.
Of course, Bang Duchil was not unharmed either. The recoil left him feeling pain as though his body would break apart for the first time in his life.
But he could not show that pain now.
“D-Did you see that, Martial Alliance brat?!”
“...That is stupidity taken too far.”
“You bastard!”
Though they continued bickering, both men moved toward Gan Seungung.
Yong Soa knew how frightening Gan Seungung was because he had faced them already.
Bang Duchil, on the other hand, had collided with Gan Seungung at full strength and felt that they were no ordinary opponent.
“Raaah!”
The Gale Mad Demon Fist shot toward Gan Seungung.
Yong Soa's Whirlwind Sword Art targeted Gan Seungung's vital acupoints.
Boom!
Gan Seungung sprang up from the ground and threw a punch, rendering both attacks useless.
“Gan Seungung uses some strange repulsive force.”
“...Hmph. Then we just need to break it.”
Though he said that, Bang Duchil did not rush at Gan Seungung.
“Come at me! You Central Plains rats!”
Gan Seungung charged again.
Yong Soa and Bang Duchil leaped in different directions.
“Didn't you say we just needed to break it?”
“...”
Boom!
Thud!
Gan Seungung increased their speed even further and rampaged more violently.
Bang Duchil was busy blocking Gan Seungung, while Yong Soa was busy deflecting their attacks.
“...Does Little Brother need to come after all?”
Before they could find a proper way to deal with Gan Seungung, Dang Seohui landed between Bang Duchil and Yong Soa.
“...Black Phoenix Stronghold Lord, you said this was a serious situation. Where did you go?”
Dang Seohui answered Bang Duchil's dissatisfied question as if it were nothing.
“I went to take care of something.”
“Your job?”
“Get ready.”
“Get ready for what?”
“To deal with them.”
Bang Duchil looked back at Gan Seungung.
Gan Seungung was still charging at them with that monstrous, bizarre strength.
What had changed that she was telling them to deal with Gan Seungung now?
“Now...”
“Now?”
Gan Seungung's face began to turn black.
Soon, their entire body reddened, and they let out a scream filled with pain.
“Argh!”
Gan Seungung vomited black blood.
“Their recovery is remarkable, so they'll recover soon. We need to finish them quickly.”
Before Dang Seohui had even finished speaking, Yong Soa shot forward.
Bang Duchil stood frozen in shock.
“When? No, when did you poison them? Gan Seungung was clearly moving so fast.”
Her poison art was beyond anything he could have imagined.
He had heard that the Tang Clan possessed the finest poison techniques under heaven, but he had never imagined they would be this terrifying.
“Did you poison them while chasing after them? Your hidden weapons must have bounced off.”
Dang Seohui looked at Bang Duchil as if asking what nonsense he was talking about.
“Why would I do something that stupid? I only needed to scatter poison all over this area.”
Ah, so there was such an easy metho...
“What? T-Then what about us?!”
“I gave you antidotes earlier.”
Bang Duchil remembered the moment she had stopped him and Yong Soa.
At the same time,
“Argh!”
“Urk!”
“Bleurgh!”
The demonic beings surrounding them began vomiting blood and collapsing.
Dang Seohui blankly watched the scene as though it were only natural.
Bang Duchil and Yong Soa silently looked at each other.
“...”
“...”
Then they both took a step away from the Black Phoenix Stronghold Lord.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
