WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 82: Those Who Chase the Dragon (3)

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The Martial Arts Academy regular examination in my previous life had been fiercer than ever.

It had been a stage where sects throughout the martial world, led by the Martial Alliance, reached their zenith during the long peace and unleashed every bit of strength they had been conserving.

Some said the competition had only been that fierce because several leading White Path sects caught up in the Demon Spirit Plateau incident had declined to participate, unable even to recover their disciples' bodies.

But with no Demon Spirit Plateau incident this time, the current regular examination was becoming an even more brutal contest than the one I had seen in reports during my previous life.

[Martial Arts Academy Regular Examination Status Report]

- Total groups eliminated so far: eighty-nine.

- Total injured so far: five hundred.

- Total deaths so far: fifty-seven.

※ Special Note: Attacks against the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans have begun earlier than before.

- The Chosang Divine Star of the Qingcheng Sect has been eliminated after suffering serious injuries.

- Ak Museong of the Shandong Ak Clan has also been eliminated after falling into critical condition.

These were things that had not happened in my previous life.

Even those taking Hell's Entrance Exam tended to save the Nine Sects One Gang and the Five Great Clans as their final targets. The fact that attacks had already begun meant this regular examination was far fiercer than the one in my previous life.

※ Special Note II: I am reporting this in case you were wondering.

The report began that way.

- The group traveling together from the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect has passed Gate I, but suffered serious losses and is now hiding somewhere.

It was quite shocking to hear that even the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect had been hit.

‘The Firmament Cloud-Guarding Sword Art should have been completed by now.’

The Azure Emperor Divine Sword had entered closed-door seclusion with half of Jegal Cheongi's Ascendant Form from the Changgung Unhindered Sword Art.

If he had completed it, Namgung Seonhwa would surely have participated while leading the Namgung Clan warriors she was meant to lead.

‘Did he fail to complete it?’

If they had been traveling with the Iron Sword Sect as well, there should have been no one in Anhui Province capable of challenging them.

If those two sides had to hide to avoid attacks, it did not mean they were weak. It meant something had gone wrong.

‘The Azure Emperor Divine Sword did ask me for a favor, but...’

Right now, I was already busy enough looking after Geumpyo, Eunho, and Dongryong.

“Gasp!”

Dongryong jolted upright in alarm.

His face was caked with blood that was not his own as he looked around with tense eyes.

“Are you all right?”

“...Senior Brother.”

“You must have had a nightmare.”

“...”

It had been three days since we left Mount Cheonmok.

The children had barely slept, forced to fend off one attack after another.

They had fought fiercely just before this. The moment I told them to rest a short distance away, the three brothers tried to begin qi-regulating breathing and immediately fell asleep.

They were desperately maintaining their qi circulation, but internal energy equivalent to ten years of cultivation had its limits.

The greater problem was rest.

After gritting their teeth through three days of constant fighting, their bodies and minds were beginning to break down.

“...I'm sorry, Senior Brother.”

Even after I told him to sleep again, Dongryong only stared at me blankly before hanging his head.

“This is not your fault.”

“...”

“Rather than blaming yourself, recovering even a little internal energy is more urgent.”

Dongryong nodded at my firm words and quickly began qi-regulating breathing again.

“Then I'll leave it to you.”

The reason the children were this exhausted despite maintaining their qi circulation and using the White Tiger Sword Formation was Dongryong.

Until we left the Taeul Sect, the three had moved as one body. After Dongryong's Heavenly Killing Star awakened, though, they were less coordinated than complete novices.

More precisely, Dongryong's increased skill had begun breaking apart the formation.

The instinct of the Heavenly Killing Star, which made him stronger each time he killed someone, allowed Dongryong to advance by a step with every battle. Geumpyo and Eunho could no longer keep up with his rate of growth.

Yet they could not fight without Dongryong. The White Tiger Sword Formation required at least three people to occupy the three positions of Heaven, Earth, and Man, so Geumpyo and Eunho could not form it alone.

“...I think it may be better for us to go back.”

Eunho, who had woken at some point, spoke quietly.

“You're awake?”

Eunho hesitated before speaking again.

“...Wouldn't that be better?”

Knowing what Eunho was worried about, I ignored it and asked, “Do you feel any less tired?”

“...I've recovered some internal energy, but my senses are gradually becoming duller.”

The side effects of replacing sleep with qi-regulating breathing were beginning to appear.

“Eat something first.”

I tossed Eunho the pouch of dried meat I had been eating.

Eunho was about to reach into the pouch but withdrew his hand when the thick scent of blood drifted over from beyond the forest.

“If you don't eat now, you don't know when you'll get another chance.”

“...”

Eunho forced the dried meat into his mouth despite being unable to swallow it properly, retching a few times.

“Senior Brother, I noticed you practice a different movement art from ours.”

He was probably referring to the Peerless Wanderer Divine Art I had shown a few times during battle.

“I was fortunate enough to learn it. When the time comes, I'll teach it to you as well.”

It was an ancient martial art created by the Hell Demon Emperor and the Taeul Sword Emperor. I had not yet achieved enough in it to pass it on to anyone.

“That isn't what I mean. If you have that, couldn't you leave us behind?”

The conversation had returned to the beginning.

“...”

Eunho looked at the sleeping Dongryong with pity.

Dongryong had disrupted the formation, yet Eunho did not look at him with even a trace of resentment.

“I already gave you the chance to withdraw. Remember that you cannot turn back now.”

“Wouldn't you be freer without us?”

Would that kind of freedom truly be freedom?

The past, when I had never been free, came to mind, and I shook my head.

Eunho raised his voice in frustration.

“Senior Brother... The formation has already fallen apart...”

“I'll enter it.”

“What?”

“I'll join the formation and rebuild it.”

“What kind of nonsense is that...”

Eunho, who had been speaking, suddenly turned around as though he had heard a ghost laughing.

“Senior Brother... Just now...”

The attackers targeting us must have come that close.

“I know.”

“Then hurry and...”

Eunho moved to wake Geumpyo and Dongryong.

“Leave them. They are cautious, so it will take them a while to come.”

“What?”

“Isn't it still daylight? If they have been watching us, they know what kind of battles we have fought over the last three days.”

This was closer to psychological warfare than a battle of attrition.

They had deliberately let me know they were there.

Rather than moving the moment I detected their energy sense, I told the children to rest.

They must have expected us to flee without resting. When we sat down and began resting one by one instead, they could not approach.

They must have started wondering whether it was a trap.

“So you're saying we'll rest until they attack us?”

“They are not the only ones targeting us right now.”

Groups of ten and twenty martial artists were watching us from every direction.

“They're only watching to see who attacks first. They will not move until they have a reason.”

Even if victory was certain, avoiding injury was human instinct.

Besides, the regular examination had not even reached its midpoint.

“We have only passed Gate I. They won't act until they are confident they can deal with us for certain.”

“...”

Eunho stared blankly as though he had heard something insane, then collapsed onto the ground.

He shook his head as though thinking any further was too exhausting.

“I don't know. Senior Brother, you'll handle it somehow.”

A snort of laughter escaped me at his words.

In my previous life, he had not followed me this closely.

“Do you want me to tap your sleep acupoint?”

“My sleep acupoint?”

“Do you think you can fall asleep in this situation?”

Eunho stared at me blankly, then nodded.

“Please do.”

“Sleep.”

I sent out a finger wind and put Eunho to sleep.

The forest became quiet once more.

From time to time, people announced their presence by releasing killing intent.

“Like a pack of jackals.”

There was no longer any trace of the fairness the White Path preached in the Martial Arts Academy regular examination.

#

Eunho was stunned in more ways than one.

A sword formation was not something that could be completed simply by moving according to a fixed pattern.

The people forming it had to feel one another's bodies as their own, moving as one heart, as though their own bodies were guided by the other person's mind. Only then was a formation complete.

That was why a sword formation could not be operated carelessly just because one's martial arts had reached a high level.

Even Shaolin Temple, the martial world's Mount Tai and North Star, deployed its genius Ilmyeong separately from the One Hundred Eight Arhat Formation.

Yet...

‘This works.’

It worked.

It really did.

They were not merely coordinated. It felt as though they possessed a new power they had never experienced before.

After the Heavenly Killing Star awakened, Dongryong's martial realm had risen by a stage and created an imbalance in the formation. Eunho finally understood why Dongryong had been operating the formation so freely.

The formation had grown far more powerful and fierce, to the point where the one they had used before now felt stifling.

‘Senior Brother only joined us.’

That was why Senior Brother had acted as if he were insane and put them to sleep despite enemies surrounding them from every direction. He had been confident that the formation, with him in it, could handle whoever came.

‘He really is an incredible person.’

His choices went beyond common sense to the point of seeming mad, yet they always brought the best result.

Even now, the brief rest had greatly improved Geumpyo and Dongryong's complexions.

“Hold on a little longer!”

“Yes!”

At Eunho's desperate reply, he felt Geumpyo and Dongryong tighten their grips as well.

The nearly seventy people who had swarmed at them like a cloud of bees were almost all collapsing to the ground by the time the moon began to wane.

Swords whose owners had fallen now filled the places where weeds should have grown.

“Haah, haah, haah.”

When the last enemy finally fled and Eunho leaned against his sword, dawn began to break in the east.

“Haah, haah.”

Geumpyo drained the remaining water from his flask, then forced dried meat into his mouth as though he had forgotten the fierce battle they had just fought.

Chew, chew.

Eunho also forced dried meat into his mouth, unwilling to be outdone despite feeling uncomfortable about eating with bloodied hands.

If they could not eat now, they did not know when they would get another chance.

In only three days, the three brothers had lost any peace of mind about eating.

“Senior Brother, you should eat too.”

Dongryong held out the pouch of dried meat, but Jin Sowoon stared into the forest rather than answering.

Another attacker?

The thought that he would be satisfied if they could rest for even half a day today had barely crossed Eunho's mind when three or four men in yellow robes emerged from the forest.

Only four?

Thinking they had a chance, Eunho hurriedly tried to rise, but Jin Sowoon stretched out an arm to stop him.

“...?”

The yellow-robed men only stood where they were and watched them.

They were different from the others, who had hidden themselves before attacking in an instant.

“What are they?”

“Their aura is quite different.”

They did not give off killing intent, but their presence was heavy.

That rock-like solidity felt even more ominous.

As Jin Sowoon stared at them silently, a sound transmission reached Eunho's ear.

-May we approach for a moment? I would like to speak with you.

Eunho turned his head in alarm. Geumpyo and Dongryong also seemed startled, as though they had heard the same sound transmission.

“...”

They had only a moment to marvel at the mysterious technique.

When Jin Sowoon nodded, the yellow-robed men slowly approached.

Three of the men appeared to be in their early thirties, while the freckle-faced youth at their center looked about Eunho's age.

The freckled youth was the one who spoke.

“I was impressed.”

Despite looking over the grim traces of battle scattered around them, the youth remained remarkably calm.

“I do not know whether you are aware, but I am Jong Seogang of the Huang Sword Sect.”

Jin Sowoon responded to Jong Seogang's greeting.

“How could I not know a fellow martial artist from the One Hundred Eight Peaks? I am Jin Sowoon of the Taeul Sect.”

“To call us both members of the One Hundred Eight Peaks is somewhat of a stretch...”

“...”

Despite his calm tone, his words were sharp.

Hostility was clear within them.

“I heard the rumors. You were fortunate enough to acquire Gate I Tokens this time, were you not?”

Eunho wanted to refute Jong Seogang's rude words immediately.

“...Are the affairs of this world decided by luck alone? People gain what they work for.”

Jong Seogang's lips curled upward at Jin Sowoon's response.

“I do not know whether Young Master Jin is aware, but our Huang Sword Sect has never failed to enter the Martial Arts Academy.”

“Is that so?”

“But this time, we were unfortunately unable to take the Gate I examination.”

“...”

“So I was thinking, how about you yield the Gate I Tokens you so fortunately acquired to us?”

Eunho's teeth ground together as he listened to Jong Seogang.

Fortunate?

They had fought a war against two Green Forest strongholds to obtain the Gate I Tokens. They had nearly died several times, and in the middle of it, Dongryong's Heavenly Killing Star had awakened. Dongryong could have died at his brothers' hands.

Eunho did not like the way Jong Seogang spoke.

He called it yielding, but how was it any different from demanding they hand them over by force?

Without realizing it, Eunho drew up his internal energy.

Just then, a force constricted him from every direction, scattering the internal energy he had gathered.

‘What is this...?’

Interfering with someone's qi circulation was an absurdly profound technique.

No matter how modest his own attainment was, how could someone disrupt his qi circulation with presence alone?

Eunho's eyes turned to the person standing at Jong Seogang's right.

As though they had no intention of denying what they had done, they looked straight back at Eunho.

It was as if they were warning him not to act rashly.

‘An expert... One whose attainment is so unfathomable that I cannot even gauge it...’

Were martial artists above the first-rate not barred from participating?

“...”

Jin Sowoon, who had been watching, let out a small sigh.

“I would be willing to yield two.”

Having experienced the unknown expert's power with his entire body, Eunho understood why Jin Sowoon had been on guard from the beginning.

“Two?”

“If it is that much, I can yield them gladly. After all, are we not two sects counted among the same One Hundred Eight Peaks?”

“Oh?”

Jong Seogang suddenly chuckled.

“You knew?”

“You made it so obvious that it would be strange not to know.”

“Unfortunately, we cannot be satisfied with two. All the forces of the Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship have gathered here, along with the sects that agreed to work with us.”

“...”

“You will have to give us everything you possess.”

Other sects had gathered alongside the Huang Sword Sect and the Cheongdo Fellowship?

How many of them could there be?

Jong Seogang lightly raised his right hand.

“...!”

Powerful killing intent exploded from the forests in every direction.

Birds hidden in the trees flew up at once in shock. Wild animals that had crouched down at the sound of human footsteps began shrieking and fleeing in every direction as though they had encountered a natural predator.

“As I said, all our forces are here. We are not like the people you have faced before.”

The invisible killing intent constricting their entire bodies made Geumpyo, Eunho, and Dongryong's teeth chatter.

Footnotes:

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