WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 75: The Black Flame Dragon Surpassing the Gate (3)
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First, to deal with the initiation ceremony I had promised the Hwamok Stronghold bandits, I sent a courier hawk to request the Hao Sect's assistance.
Two days later, carriages loaded with dozens of large barrels entered the village as I had ordered. I couldn't hide my surprise when I saw who was leading the procession.
“Aren't you supposed to be in Yueyang?”
The person chuckling was Yang Gunbaek, the head of Yueyang's black market outlet and the Hao Sect Leader's eleventh disciple.
“It just worked out that way. Still, I'm delighted to see you again after so long, Sowoon.”
Yang Gunbaek's warmth was almost excessive. Even considering that my position had changed since Yueyang and I was now a guest retainer of the Hao Sect, it made me uncomfortable.
‘In a way, Yang Gunbaek lost the chance to become the Hao Sect Leader because of me. Do they know that?’
Whether Yang Gunbaek knew or not, their smiling expression remained unchanged.
“Did you bring what I requested?”
Yang Gunbaek nodded.
Four boxes sat in a row in one corner of the carriage Yang Gunbaek led me to.
The first and second boxes contained fifty gold coins in total.
“Usually, a merchant group or escort agency spends around twenty nyang of gold on an initiation ceremony like this. Is there a reason you prepared so much?”
The third and fourth boxes each held twenty gold sycees.
Each box contained a thousand nyang of gold.
“I heard the villagers have been taken to Mount Cheonmok.”
“Ah... Don't tell me...”
Worry darkened Yang Gunbaek's face as they realized my intention.
“You must have a plan, Sowoon, but I can't help worrying.”
I wondered what Yang Gunbaek was thinking.
“The Golden-Faced Buddha Blade and the One-Eyed Blood Axe, the two men who recently became stronghold leaders on Mount Cheonmok, are both brutal and greedy. Even if you rescue the hostages, they'll resume their cruelty within days.”
“Please, continue.”
“Furthermore, the Twin-Curtain Strongholds are twice as large as the other Green Forest Seventy-Two Strongholds, with nearly a thousand members. Why not find another mountain stronghold while there's still time?”
Yang Gunbaek looked at me as though watching a younger sibling being dragged onto a battlefield.
“I've already accepted the request.”
“A request?”
“Yes. Village Chief Huh's grandson hired me.”
“If it's a request, does that mean you've already been paid? How much was it?”
“One nyang of silver.”
“What?”
Yang Gunbaek could no longer speak and stared at me with a complicated expression.
“This is also connected to the matter you asked of me, isn't it?”
“Yes.”
“...I hope you return unhurt.”
Touched by Yang Gunbaek's concern, I took out the five-thousand-nyang note I had kept inside my robes.
It covered the coins, the liquor, and the cost of hiring people.
“...”
Yang Gunbaek studied the note for a moment, then shook their head and pushed it back.
“Is it not enough?”
“No. It's more than enough.”
“Then why?”
“I want this matter to be a gift from me to you, Sowoon.”
“What?”
The Hao Sect was meticulous about every exchange, even with its guest retainers.
Why would Yang Gunbaek refuse payment?
“Senior Sister Haeryeong has cared for me like a mother since I was young.”
“Ah.”
“When one misfortune after another fell upon her, I can't describe how devastated I felt.”
Yang Gunbaek drew a hand from their sleeve and respectfully clasped their fists.
“Thank you so much for saving Senior Sister.”
Unlike the Yang Gunbaek I had met in Yueyang, this was an honest expression that laid everything bare.
#
“Geumpyo, what do you think our Eldest Senior Brother is planning?”
“Who knows? More importantly, are you actually putting any strength into it?”
“Shouldn't the people who brought the liquor be doing this in the first place?”
Geumpyo, Eunho, and Dongryong were pushing a cart loaded with a huge barrel with all their might.
“Ughhh, I think our Eldest Senior Brother must have a plan.”
“Dongryong, you'd believe him even if he claimed red beans could make soybean paste.”
“Isn't that true?”
“Damn it, both of you, put some real strength into it before I let go too.”
“Damn it! What is that man thinking, using all this oil...”
Eunho was grumbling beside me.
“You're saying that so I can hear it, right?”
“Huh? Eldest Senior Brother? When did you get here?”
“Hmph.”
I discreetly sent a finger wind at one of the wheel pins.
Snap.
“Uh, uh!”
“Move back!”
“Get out of the way!”
The wheel came loose, the cart shattered with a crash, and the barrels loaded atop it rolled down and broke apart, spilling their contents everywhere.
Thankfully, the cart pulled by the three brothers had been at the very back, so no one was hurt.
“Tsk, can't you even pull one cart properly?”
“If we weren't using qi circulation, we could have moved it easily.”
“Then there'd be no point in the training, would there?”
As I bickered with my junior brothers, Bang Duchil approached.
“Do you really think this will rescue the hostages?”
Bang Duchil's subordinates were already moving the carts up Mount Cheonmok with the escort warriors.
Thirty carts were making their way up a single mountain path, an impressive sight.
“If we don't bring down the Twin-Curtain Strongholds, all of this will become meaningless anyway.”
“Still, isn't it better if there are no hostages?”
“...”
Once the procession laden with liquor reached the end of the road up Mount Cheonmok, the bandits appeared and blocked our path.
“Stop!”
They were the same bandits who had raided the village only days before.
“Greetings.”
“You don't keep appointments.”
Because I had sent someone ahead to announce that I would hold the initiation ceremony, the bandits already knew we were coming.
“My apologies. As you can see, there was a great deal to deliver, so we were delayed.”
The bandit looked quite pleased as they eyed the meat and liquor barrels piled onto the carts.
“It makes no difference to us, but the stronghold leaders of the Twin-Curtain Strongholds won't overlook this so easily.”
“I prepared separate gifts for them, so you needn't worry.”
“From here, we'll carry the goods.”
“Yes.”
At the bandit's words, hundreds of figures suddenly burst from the thickets.
“Waaaah!”
With thunderous cries, they began hauling away the goods piled on the carts with the practiced speed of bandits.
“Wait.”
I stopped the hand reaching for the box in front of me with the Black Dragon Sword.
“What?”
“This is something I must personally deliver to the stronghold leaders.”
“What kind of bullshit is that?”
Smack.
I struck the hand away with my scabbard. Clutching their hand, the bandit looked ready to draw their saber at any moment.
“Stop. Don't touch the stronghold leaders' things carelessly.”
When the bandit I had spoken with said that, the one about to draw their saber turned away.
“Follow me.”
#
A hill stood between the two massive peaks that made up Mount Cheonmok.
Whenever there was a major occasion, the Twin-Curtain Strongholds gathered on this hill to feast.
“Waaaah!”
“Waaaah!”
As nearly a thousand people shouted across the hill, the air rang with their cries.
The sheer number was overwhelming enough to drain the color even from Bang Duchil's face, despite him having lived as though he alone reigned above heaven and earth. Geumpyo, Eunho, Dongryong, and Bang Duchil's subordinates were equally overwhelmed.
“Senior Brother, is this really all right?”
Geumpyo couldn't hide his unease.
Their clothes and weapons were not uniform, but every one of them was a skilled martial artist. Compared with the sects of the One Hundred Eight Peaks, the Twin-Curtain Strongholds were already at least middle-ranked in strength.
“Silence!”
A resounding lion's roar swept through the hill. The cheering bandits froze and looked toward the two figures seated in places of honor.
“You're Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect?”
A massive chair rested on a tiger hide, with an enormous saber as broad as two palms leaning beside it. This was Song Goak, the Golden-Faced Buddha Blade.
“This unworthy junior of the martial world, Jin Sowoon, pays his respects to my seniors.”
Strictly speaking, it made no sense to call Black Path scum my seniors. Still, I was a chivalrous warrior who showed courtesy even to villains.
“Heh. If you're the Black Flame Dragon, calling us seniors isn't so strange.”
The one-eyed man seated on a bear hide beside Song Goak was the Geummok Stronghold leader, the One-Eyed Blood Axe.
“So, what brings Junior Black Flame Dragon to a place where mere bandits live? And why summon every member of the Twin-Curtain Strongholds?”
“Could it be that you summoned us because you're taking the Martial Arts Academy's regular examination?”
“Khahahaha!”
“Khahahaha!”
At the One-Eyed Blood Axe's words, laughter thundered throughout the hill.
They knew perfectly well why I had asked them to gather. This act was merely an attempt to raise their price.
“As my seniors know, what business would the Taeul Sect have with the Martial Arts Academy's regular examination? As I said before, I came to hold the initiation ceremony.”
“Hm.”
“Our Taeul Sect recently acquired a large merchant group, and we'll likely be traveling often to Hangzhou and Suzhou from now on. So I prepared a small gift.”
Geumpyo and Eunho each stepped forward carrying a small box.
The Golden-Faced Buddha Blade and the One-Eyed Blood Axe looked indifferent at the boxes containing twice the usual amount for an initiation ceremony.
“Junior, we appreciate the sincerity you showed by bringing liquor and meat. Still, gathering us all here over such a trivial matter is deeply displeasing.”
I nodded readily. After all, when I had first asked them to gather every bandit from the Hwamok and Geummok Strongholds in one place, their reaction had been much the same.
“Actually, there was another proposal I wished to make.”
Geumpyo and Eunho opened the large boxes again.
The boxes, each holding twenty gold sycees, reflected the sunlight falling over the hill and cast their gleam in every direction.
Even the thousand bandits chattering all around fell silent in that moment, staring wide-eyed as they drooled.
“While traveling through the nearby villages, I heard that villagers were being forced to work here.”
Thump.
When the Golden-Faced Buddha Blade stamped his foot, the aftershock reached me in a faint tremor.
“So?”
“Our sect's precept is to broadly benefit people, and I couldn't simply ignore this. If you permit it, please allow us to take away the people being held here.”
I clasped my fists in salute, but neither of them answered.
“Heh. You're an amusing one.”
The One-Eyed Blood Axe picked up his red axe and ran his fingers over its blade.
“You dare propose a deal to the Twin-Curtain Strongholds.”
“Isn't most of the world built on deals?”
“Not when you injure the other side's pride. You may have to leave your head here as the price.”
“They say only fools kill the goose that lays golden eggs.”
“What!”
The One-Eyed Blood Axe shot to his feet.
The bandits seated on the right side of the hill rose with him and drew their weapons.
Geumpyo, Eunho, Dongryong, and Bang Duchil's subordinates flinched at the momentum and began reaching for their weapons as well.
“Perhaps you heard that the Taeul Sect acquired the Namgung Clan's Changgung Merchant Group despite possessing no noteworthy martial arts. No one can predict how much larger it will become. Only fools would cast aside such a good trading partner and let momentary greed cloud their judgment.”
“Haha, do you have three lives?”
“Because I'm certain that men worthy of being stronghold leaders of the Twin-Curtain Strongholds won't make a foolish choice.”
“You're an insolent one.”
The One-Eyed Blood Axe spoke while idly spinning his axe, but his eyes still could not leave the boxes.
Even as the Geummok Stronghold leader, he couldn't help being tempted by a thousand nyang of gold.
“As you say, we can release the people in exchange for that money. But we can't guarantee they won't return here.”
They meant they would take the money, release the people, then capture them again.
‘Bandits will be bandits.’
I nodded readily.
“What happens later is none of my concern.”
“What?”
“Huh?”
At my words, our group, the One-Eyed Blood Axe, and the Golden-Faced Buddha Blade all stared at me with round eyes.
“We only do good. We can't prevent disaster from striking again, can we?”
The One-Eyed Blood Axe, who had been standing there dumbfounded, burst into uproarious laughter.
“Khahahahahaha!”
“Khahahahahaha!”
At once, the bandits on the right, who had drawn their weapons, laughed along as if they were the One-Eyed Blood Axe's shadow.
“An amusing fellow. They said a rising star of the Black Path had appeared wearing the skin of the White Path, and the rumors were true.”
No. How dare they compare me with them?
“Fine. Take them. But!”
The One-Eyed Blood Axe paused for effect.
“Prepare food for the feast before you take them!”
“Waaaah!”
At the mention of a feast, bandits who had caught the scent of liquor erupted into cheers from all sides.
-Do you think this settles everything?
A booming sound transmission struck my eardrums so hard that I nearly covered my ears.
When I turned, Bang Duchil's lips were moving.
Just like his absurd internal energy, he couldn't control his sound transmission at all.
-At least we rescued them, didn't we?
-Thanks to you, we lost our chance to launch a surprise attack.
-You were planning to ambush them? Against a thousand people?
Was one of the traits of the Heavenly Vajra Limitless Physique having a brutally stupid head? His mind couldn't even keep pace with half his body.
-...
-Just watch quietly. I've prepared everything.
Footnotes:
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