WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 81: Those Who Chase the Dragon (2)

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By the time Gate I of the Martial Arts Academy regular examination ended, the disciples of prominent sects were the most worked up.

The disciples of the powerful sects among the One Hundred Eight Peaks, including the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans, had failed to conquer mountain strongholds not because they lacked skill, but because they had missed their chance. Their anger and obsession now turned toward the others who had passed Gate I.

“Scattered battles are already breaking out everywhere. Many disciples from the One Hundred Eight Peaks have been eliminated in the process, and in severe cases, entire units have been wiped out.”

The strange thing was that no one had yet drawn a sword against the Nine Sects One Gang or the Five Great Clans.

“The person in the greatest danger right now is you, Sowoon.”

Perhaps that was only natural.

The Twin-Curtain Strongholds, one of the Green Forest Seventy-Two Strongholds.

The eight Gate I Tokens we had obtained by conquering its two actual strongholds, Hwamok Stronghold and Geummok Stronghold, would certainly whet their appetites.

Add the two Gate Tokens Bang Duchil had possessed personally, and we had ten in total.

“I’m prepared.”

I had always been considered an easy target in my previous life, but this was the first time I had become prey enticing enough to make everyone drool.

“The One Hundred Eight Peaks sects based in Zhejiang Province, including the Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship, are already moving toward Mount Cheonmok.”

“Already?”

My face stiffened before I realized it.

The Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship were Zhejiang’s established powers, ranked twenty-third and thirty-second among the One Hundred Eight Peaks respectively.

In my previous life, each had sent three disciples into the Martial Arts Academy. They were coming after us to preserve their sects’ prosperity.

“The Beggar Sect has already begun focusing on you.”

We were the most tempting prey, and the most expensive information.

If the weakest group possessed the greatest number of Academy Admission Tokens, there would be no shortage of people willing to pay a fortune for information about us.

“We’re trying to release as much other information as possible, but that...”

Yang Gunbaek spoke with the expression of someone confessing to high treason.

The Beggar Sect, one of the pillars of the Martial Alliance, received real-time updates on the examination’s interim results, while the Hao Sect gathered intelligence by working in the field. Naturally, there would be a difference in the reliability of their information.

Besides, if the Hao Sect tried to obscure information about me by releasing other information, it would lose its credibility.

I had no desire for innocent people to suffer because of me.

More importantly, spreading false information would not benefit me in the long run either.

I looked at Yang Gunbaek and shook my head slightly.

“No. I don’t want the Hao Sect to do anything that would damage its credibility.”

“What?”

“If the Hao Sect’s reputation falls into the dirt, wouldn’t that make it harder for me to use it later?”

“...But if that happens... something truly terrible may happen to you, Sowoon...”

I gave Yang Gunbaek a faint smile.

“I’m the Hao Sect’s guest retainer, not its enemy.”

Yang Gunbaek looked at me with a complicated expression.

“How long until we encounter the Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship?”

“There is still a four-day gap between us... but if you delay, Sowoon, that distance will close in an instant.”

A darker shadow than ever rested on Yang Gunbaek’s face.

#

It was Tiger Hour, from 3 a.m. to 5 a.m., before the sun had risen.

I left my room to gather my junior brothers.

Village Chief Huh stood in the corridor with his back to me, drawing smoke from his long pipe.

“Sir.”

“...You’re awake?”

“Yes.”

“You’re leaving early.”

“Yes. I think we need to move early.”

“You have a moment, don’t you?”

I glanced toward the room where the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers slept, then nodded.

Village Chief Huh’s face was filled with regret, and I could not simply refuse and leave.

The village chief and the villagers had wanted to scrape together everything they had to hold a feast for us, but with the Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship chasing us hard enough to wear through their soles, we could not foolishly linger for a celebration. We had politely refused.

“I can’t stay long.”

“It won’t take long.”

Village Chief Huh led me behind the inn to the patch of ground used as a vegetable garden.

The neglected vegetables had dried out and withered, but Village Chief Huh paid them no mind. He headed to one corner of the garden and began digging.

“Sixty years ago, after I had just inherited this inn from my father and started running it, there was a time when business was so poor that only flies came in, perhaps because the taste had changed.”

“...”

Village Chief Huh quietly told me a story from his past, though I could not see where it was going.

“That day too, I had failed to sell the noodles I made and was about to throw them out when a middle-aged man dressed like a beggar came in.”

Once he had dug deep enough, Village Chief Huh took up a hoe and carefully scraped at the surrounding soil.

“When I told him business was poor and I had nothing to give him as alms, he laughed heartily and asked me to make him a bowl of noodles. It was obvious he had no money... but since I had not sold anything anyway, I made him a bowl of noodles as though I were giving alms.”

After digging for a while, Village Chief Huh looked as though he had grasped something deep underground, then carefully pulled out a small bundle.

It had been buried for so long that parts of the cotton cloth wrapped around it had rotted away and fell apart with clumps of dirt.

“As expected, after he finished the noodles, he said he had no money. I had expected as much and was about to let him go, but then he said he would leave one of his belongings with me. I refused several times, but he forced it on me before leaving.”

The bundle was wrapped in several layers of cloth. Once he removed them one by one, an oiled leather pouch appeared. When he removed that pouch, the tightly wrapped object inside emerged.

“But that middle-aged man never came back. Not after ten years. Not after twenty. I do not believe in Buddha, so I considered throwing it away, but it gave off a strange aura.”

Inside the final pouch were prayer beads made of many differently colored beads, along with a small wooden box.

“When I wore the prayer beads, my stray thoughts disappeared and my mind became calm. The object was so strange that I never dared open this wooden box.”

Village Chief Huh handed me the prayer beads as he spoke.

“...”

The moment I took them without a word, the thoughts tangled by the Huang Sword Sect, the Cheongdo Fellowship, and the other sects the previous night strangely became clear.

“Could it be...?”

I immediately searched through the library in my head. I opened the section on artifacts among the Profound Mystery Pavilion’s classified records.

‘Demon-Subduing Prayer Beads...?’

One of the seven great artifacts recorded in the artifact section.

The Demon-Subduing Prayer Beads, which should have been enshrined in the deepest part of Shaolin Temple, were in my hands.

“How could this...?”

The Demon-Subduing Prayer Beads were made by gathering the single sarira relics left behind by monks of great spiritual attainment after their deaths, then shaping them into one hundred and eight prayer beads. Those who entered seclusion deep within the temple for wall-facing meditation were given the beads, filling them with Buddhist devotion until they became a sacred relic.

Not only did they take a long time to create, they used one hundred and eight sariras. It was said that they contained Buddhist power equal to one hundred and eight stone pagodas.

“Is it valuable?”

Village Chief Huh looked anxious, like someone waiting to learn whether an antique they had kept for decades was genuine.

I barely managed to answer.

“...It is beyond price.”

It was the sacred relic Martial Alliance members had desired most when facing the Demonic Cult on the front lines.

The Demonic Cult had many practitioners of the Heavenly Demon Scripture’s dark arts.

Rather than causing external destruction, those dark arts muddled the mind and made people lose their reason.

On the battlefield, more people than I could count had their minds ruined when malevolent qi and demonic qi seeped into their brains rather than dying to a blade. Yet the Martial Alliance had never brought out a single sacred relic during the war.

All they did was spout nonsense about chanting the Demon-Subduing Mantra to set one’s righteous heart straight.

Only now did I understand why the Martial Alliance and Shaolin Temple had never brought out the Demon-Subduing Prayer Beads, their greatest relic for sweeping away demons and eliminating evil.

They had been asked for something they did not possess, so all they could do was spout nonsense.

“My guess was right. I knew it.”

Village Chief Huh smiled faintly for the first time, but I could not understand why.

Sixty years ago, Great Master Suheo had been the abbot of Shaolin Temple.

A sacred relic like this could not be taken out without the abbot’s permission, and every removal should have left a record.

Besides, there had been no monk of that era who claimed enlightenment and wandered about dressed as a beggar.

“Did anyone from Shaolin Temple come looking for it?”

“This belonged to Shaolin Temple?”

It seemed Village Chief Huh had not even known that.

“Yes.”

“Hoho, so that was it.”

“Why didn’t you try to find its owner?”

“How could a country man like me know who owned such a precious object and go looking? Do you know what might have happened to me if I had?”

If word had spread improperly, his entire family could have been slaughtered. Before an artifact of this caliber, the distinction between the White Path and the Black Path was meaningless.

Was that not the true nature of the martial world, more merciless than anything before greater strength and power?

There was a reason even the Martial Arts Academy examination of the supposedly righteous White Path was conducted fiercely enough for people to die.

I nodded in understanding.

“Do you want to open this too?”

“...Doesn’t it belong to someone?”

“I gave it some thought. It is too much to accept in place of a bowl of noodles, but I did receive it as payment. And if no one has come looking for it in sixty years, it is rightfully mine now, isn’t it?”

A smile naturally rose to my lips.

“You must be the person who sold noodles at the highest price in the world.”

“Stop talking nonsense and open it.”

I nodded and opened the wooden box.

With a soft pop of escaping air, the wooden box opened, and a clear fragrance spread from within.

Rather than standing in a ruined vegetable garden that smelled only of dirt, it felt as though I had stepped into the heart of a dense forest.

“What is it?”

Village Chief Huh swallowed hard as he asked, and I nodded.

“It is a Lesser Rejuvenation Pellet. You have heard of it, have you not?”

Even civilians with no interest in the martial world rarely failed to know of the Lesser Rejuvenation Pellet.

“The miraculous medicine that can even revive the dead?”

“Well, it is not quite that potent, but it is said that an ordinary person who takes it can live a long life without ever suffering from minor illnesses.”

“And if someone who practices martial arts takes it?”

“What more is there to say? They can immediately gain the internal energy that would otherwise take fifteen years of training. That is why the Lesser Rejuvenation Pellet and the Greater Rejuvenation Pellet are considered the greatest elixirs in the martial world.”

“Hoho, it is that valuable?”

“If it is properly absorbed, yes.”

Village Chief Huh stroked his beard and nodded. Then he quietly muttered, “Well done. Well done,” praising himself for keeping such a treasure hidden instead of revealing it to the outside world.

“You must have been curious for a long time. You endured well.”

“No. If there had been no reason, I would never have taken it out. I have watched countless people die with my own eyes over the years because of treasures that appeared in the martial world.”

“I see.”

I handed the wooden box back to Village Chief Huh.

For some reason, though, he shook his head and pushed it back toward me.

“Hmm?”

When I looked at him in confusion, Village Chief Huh tightly gripped my hand.

“You eat it.”

Had I heard him wrong?

I asked him again.

“Sir, did you not hear what I said? An ordinary person who takes it will not suffer from illness, and someone who practices martial arts...”

“I know. But eating one of those will not turn the world upside down, will it?”

“...”

“If my grandson wants to learn martial arts, I can take him to a nearby martial arts school. If the elixir’s aura remained in his body and drew suspicion, a greater disaster might strike.”

Knowing how many years he had endured, I could not bring myself to accept the treasure.

“Sir, even so, this is far too valuable.”

“I would never have taken it out if it were not for you.”

“What?”

“I have seen countless people over the years, but not a single Martial Alliance member or righteous hero ever raised a sword for us. The righteousness and justice they claimed to protect were all for their own sakes.”

I could not say everyone was like that, but that was the reality for most.

No, some sects would even question why one had made enemies of Black Path martial artists for the sake of powerless commoners.

The wrinkles around Village Chief Huh’s eyes curved as he smiled.

“You are the first. That is why I want you to take it.”

“...Sir.”

“If it is that valuable, consider yourself indebted to me. I, too, have always wished to have someone I could trust and rely on, like other people do.”

I knew his words were meant to ease my burden.

Just as I had done for Village Chief Huh.

“Then perhaps one of my junior brothers...”

“No. You eat it.”

“What?”

“Wouldn’t it be safer if no one even knew there was evidence of it?”

“...”

In the end, Village Chief Huh stubbornly watched until the Lesser Rejuvenation Pellet entered my mouth.

The instant it touched my tongue, it dissolved and slid down my throat so quickly that I could hardly believe it had been stored for sixty years.

“Good. Good. It has finally found its owner.”

Village Chief Huh could not stop smiling, as though he were delighted beyond measure.

“Oh, take this too. Whether you give it to one of your junior brothers or return it to its owner, that is up to you. I will pretend I know nothing about it.”

It seemed he had decided to bring out the item after seeing Dongryong consumed by killing intent several days ago.

He must have agonized over it, since a rumor spreading because of me could have put him and his family in danger.

Even so, he had found the courage to help my junior brothers and me. Moved by his kindness, I gave him a respectful cupped-fist salute.

“Thank you, sir.”

“...It is fine. I will be telling everyone from now on that you are the power behind me.”

Perhaps because of the rising sun, Village Chief Huh’s face seemed flushed.

As though afraid of being noticed, he quickly went back inside the inn.

#

Jin Sowoon’s group left Mount Cheonmok and headed north.

After crossing Zhejiang Province, they planned to turn northwest.

It was the best route when considering Gate II, which would begin soon, and Gate III, whose details had not yet been announced.

Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!

“Dongryong! Don’t rush out!”

“O-Okay!”

“Just hang on a little longer! Senior Brother will be here soon!”

As Geumpyo shouted desperately, perhaps his voice truly reached the heavens, because screams began to come from the rear.

“Aaagh!”

“An ambush!”

The eight attackers surrounding the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers fell into chaos when Jin Sowoon attacked them. In that gap, the three brothers activated their sword formation with even greater ferocity and attacked the assailants from both front and back, ending the fight in an instant.

“Master... I’m sorry... Sob...”

“Senior Brother! It isn’t your fault! It’s all my fault! If I hadn’t made a mistake...”

The examination candidate who could no longer fight broke down in despair, weeping as though they had lost their parents.

Despite winning the battle, there was no sense of relief.

“Pant, pant. Damn it.”

“Damn it.”

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers had never cursed before leaving the Taeul Sect, but curses now slipped out of their mouths naturally.

This was already their second ambush.

It had not even been two days since they left Mount Cheonmok.

Their attackers were disciples and martial artists from the Hongsun Sect, which was based at Mount Yandang in Zhejiang Province.

It was strange that the Hongsun Sect, located at the far edge of Zhejiang Province, had already reached the area near Mount Cheonmok, which was practically on the opposite side. There was no time to think deeply about it, though.

“Get yourselves together! They’re coming again!”

“Damn it.”

They had already endured two fierce battles, but thankfully, about half their internal energy remained.

That was thanks to desperately practicing qi circulation.

They no longer wondered why they had to learn such a cumbersome practice as they had at first.

Without qi circulation, they would have had to give up several times already.

By the time their internal energy ran dry despite their desperate qi circulation, the sun had set, and the day’s attacks came to an end.

“...Do you think it will get worse?”

Jin Sowoon’s group had slipped deep into a mountain forest to avoid the pursuers’ eyes. Without even lighting a fire, they chewed dried meat.

“You’ll feel better if you think this is the easiest it will ever be.”

“...Why is everyone so desperate?”

Eunho voiced a question he had never considered before.

Looking as though he truly could not understand, Eunho stared blankly into the air for a moment before looking at Sowoon.

“Why are they going this far?”

The utter despair on the face of the Hongsun Sect disciple who had attacked them that day came to mind.

Jin Sowoon, who had been tearing at dried meat, stopped moving.

Then he looked directly into Eunho’s eyes.

“Because that is the nature of the martial world.”

“...”

“If you do not climb, you fall. Standing still does not mean remaining where you are. You must keep climbing just to barely hold your place.”

Within the martial world’s power structure centered on the Martial Alliance, power within the Alliance directly became a sect’s benefit.

One could see it in the Taeul Sect, which had not enjoyed prosperity even once in the past five hundred years. Conversely, one could see it in the sects that had not been annihilated in Hefei, a place like a dragon’s den and tiger’s lair.

“No martial sect can live free of the Martial Alliance’s influence. Why do you think Gye Cheolyeong wanted to enter the Martial Alliance so badly?”

Gye Cheolyeong and Gye Yeonseok had planned to use the Martial Alliance to make the Gyerong Merchant Group the foremost merchant group in Jiangxi Province.

They had intended to achieve through the Martial Alliance what they could not accomplish with their own abilities in their generation.

“The candidates are not taking the Academy examination simply for their own success.”

Even if the Martial Alliance claimed to uphold justice, and even if the martial world gathered beneath the banners of righteousness and chivalry.

“They also bear their sects’ prosperity on their shoulders.”

In the end, the most important goal was to survive, and to create an environment in which one’s precious people could survive.

“...”

Jin Sowoon’s words made Eunho feel dizzy.

He had thought everyone took the examination simply to enjoy wealth and glory, and to make a name for themselves.

Yet everyone bore a greater burden than he had thought.

“Because of that intensity and ruthlessness, even an examination run by the Martial Alliance is called the Hellish Exam.”

Eunho, who had listened quietly, clenched his fist and asked, “...Why does the Martial Alliance allow an examination like this?”

It truly was a question from someone still untouched by the world.

The pure belief that an organization founded for justice would not stand by and watch injustice unfold.

“There are many people with great desires, but resources are limited. So they have no choice but to compete fiercely. Besides, that must benefit the powerful sects that currently hold the Martial Alliance leadership.”

At that moment, Geumpyo tilted his head.

“Couldn’t they just divide it fairly?”

“...If someone told you to reduce your two meals a day to one, could you accept that?”

“...T-That is...”

“And you would be doing it not for the Taeul Sect, but for the Iron Sword Sect.”

“Absolutely not!”

Jin Sowoon lightly patted Geumpyo’s head.

“Yes. That is how it is.”

“...”

Jin Sowoon had compared it only to a rice bowl, but in the future Orthodox-Demonic War, people would fight power struggles with their lives at stake.

The disciples of powerless sects would die in greater numbers, while those from powerful sects would suffer a little less grief.

Jin Sowoon had experienced the cruelty of power more keenly than anyone in his previous life.

That was why he understood better than anyone those who risked their lives over a mere Academy entrance examination.

Suddenly, Eunho remembered something he had forgotten.

“Gate II! That gate’s examination has not started yet, right?”

“Why would that be the case?”

Jin Sowoon looked incredulous.

Eunho frowned deeply, as though he had bitten into sand along with his dried meat.

“It already started?”

“We received the Gate II notice together with the Gate I Tokens.”

Jin Sowoon showed him the Gate II notice he had received from the Hangzhou branch head.

● Martial Arts Academy Regular Examination, Gate II

Self-Improvement

Examination: Secure an inner core.

Details: Martial Arts Academy students must know how to strive for their own growth. The most fundamental growth for a martial artist is an increase in internal energy. To increase internal energy, one must be capable of securing an inner core.

Conditions:

One inner core equivalent to ten years of cultivation may be exchanged for one Gate II Token.

A maximum of three Gate II Tokens may be exchanged per inner core.

However, no distinction will be made between the inner cores of spiritual creatures and monsters.

Eunho’s eyes widened like a rabbit’s as he read the notice.

“Senior Brother, since when were inner cores like a brown bear’s gallbladder?”

Jin Sowoon answered only with a bitter smile.

“No, I’m not joking. What kind of bullshit is this?”

At Eunho’s words, Geumpyo and Dongryong looked at the notice and furrowed their brows.

“These bastards are insane.”

Spiritual creatures and monsters.

Creatures that received spiritual energy in deep wilderness untouched by human hands, allowing them to live beyond their natural lifespans.

A tiger larger than an ordinary tiger could be a spiritual creature, and if that tiger developed a tendency to attack humans, it would be classified as a monster.

Yet spiritual creatures and monsters that had lived long enough to form an inner core were rare.

Before an inner core formed, they either harmed the human world and were killed, or were spotted by humans and hunted.

Furthermore, a spiritual creature or monster with an inner core equivalent to ten years of cultivation could be considered the equal of a martial artist who had trained external arts for thirty years.

Those who had passed Gate I had to hunt while simultaneously defending against other candidates’ interference or ambushes.

“This examination was not designed for anyone to complete it.”

Jin Sowoon pointed at the notice.

“Look at it carefully. What do you think the intent behind this examination is?”

Geumpyo and Dongryong only tilted their heads as though they had no idea.

Eunho, on the other hand, studied the notice more closely under the moonlight.

‘The intent behind the examination?’

Thinking more deeply about Jin Sowoon’s words, Eunho finally found the strange part of the notice.

“It says we must secure an inner core, but it does not say we have to obtain it by hunting one ourselves.”

At Eunho’s words, Geumpyo raised one eyebrow.

“What are you talking about? Telling us to bring an inner core means we need to hunt one.”

“Brother, think about it. We do not have money, but if we had enough to buy an inner core on the market, could we not get one as easily as we wanted?”

Geumpyo’s mouth fell open as though he had been struck on the back of the head without warning.

“Huh...”

“Should we assume its purpose is the same as the first examination?”

Jin Sowoon nodded at Eunho’s words.

“In the end, telling us that we must defend our Gate I Tokens while obtaining an inner core means they intend to select people who have both martial strength and the wealth to acquire an inner core, or those whose strength is overwhelming enough to hunt spiritual creatures or monsters.”

“That is right.”

“Hah...”

He had received the answer, yet none of his doubts had been resolved.

In the end, was this not an examination that selected not the talented and hardworking, but people who also had money and strength?

As though he had read Eunho’s thoughts, Jin Sowoon spoke.

“The Martial Alliance wants the Martial Alliance alone to be the martial world’s absolute power. To maintain that system, it wants people with strength, money, and influence to keep competing within the Martial Alliance.”

“What are people without those things supposed to do to rise high?”

Even though he knew the obvious answer, Eunho asked again because he did not want to accept that cruel reality.

But the answer that came back was still cruel.

“What more is there to say? They have to take that absurd examination.”

It was the first time Eunho truly understood how fucking awful it was to face reality.

Footnotes:

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