WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Chen

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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈

Chapter 94: The Sharpest Blade in the Darkness

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“Why isn’t it here?”

Jin Taesan tilted his head as he searched through the Taeul Sect’s oldest storage room.

“What are you looking for?”

Hong Mungi poked his head inside.

“Ah, Sect Leader.”

Jin Taesan’s eyes trembled slightly as he looked at Hong Mungi.

The man was nearing fifty, yet his martial attainment grew by the day, to the point that he seemed like a different person.

“Have you been training?”

“A sect leader can’t be weaker than his disciples, can he?”

Jin Taesan had been too busy sorting through the assets transferred from the Changgung Merchant Group to train, but Hong Mungi, the hall lords, and the other martial brothers had forsaken food and drink as they studied the Taeul Sword Emperor’s martial texts.

“Then you should go train more. I can find it myself.”

“Even so, how can the sect leader stand aside while the Outer Hall Lord is having trouble?”

“...”

He was clearly tired of training and looking for something else to do.

Even as a child, he had never been able to focus on one thing for long and had always been scolded by his masters.

Jin Taesan had thought age might have improved that habit, but apparently not when it came to training.

“I can’t figure out where the sect standard was put.”

“You mean the Taeul Sect’s flag?”

“Yes.”

The merchant group’s affairs were mostly sorted out now, and production at the iron ore mines was steadily increasing.

Once they found buyers, they would need to establish regular distribution routes.

Though the sect had closed its gates, it was time to use the Taeul Sect’s name to expand the merchant group’s influence.

As the merchant group grew, so would the Taeul Sect.

“Someone else took it.”

“...What?”

Jin Taesan wondered if he had misheard.

A sect standard could serve as a portable signboard on occasion.

The Taeul Sect had been such an insignificant sect that it had never needed to raise its flag, but that did not mean it was something to hand out freely. It was practically the sect’s pride.

“Sowoon said he needed it, so I gave it to him.”

“Jin Sowoon? You mean my son?”

“Yes.”

Why was that damned boy’s name coming up again?

“...Why?”

“How would I know? He said he might need it and wanted to take it with him, so I let him.”

“...”

Now, Jin Taesan became tense whenever Jin Sowoon did anything at all.

“Do you need the standard? Should we make a new one while we’re at it?”

“It’s fine. I’ll place an order for one.”

“Ahem. Can that be done? A sect standard embodies the spirit of the sect. As sect leader, I should make it myself, stitch by careful stitch...”

“Go train. What sect head these days sits around making a sect standard?”

Bang.

Jin Taesan shut the storage room door with unnecessary force, unable to shake his unease.

#

“From now on, we’ll only travel along the main roads during the day.”

We decided to leave the injured, those who had trouble moving, and those too exhausted to move at all at the brothel.

When I told them not to take a single step outside, those left behind wore strange(?) expressions. They worried for those departing, yet could not hide their delight.

“The problem is the main road from Heze to Puyang.”

If we pushed the horses to their limits, we could reach a village before sunset on the way to Heze.

But there was no village within half a day’s journey on the road from Heze to Puyang, beyond the provincial border. We would have to sleep outdoors or travel at night.

“When night falls, they’ll certainly move.”

Fighting the Dark Soul-Severing Unit in the darkness was no different from fighting water underwater.

“If we ride through the night...”

I shook my head at Seong Moran’s suggestion. The Dark Soul-Severing Unit practiced the Heavenly Demon Overlord Steps.

It was a movement art ranked among the ten fastest under heaven, not only in destructive power but also in speed.

They were not opponents we could escape on horseback.

“There would only be pointless casualties.”

“...”

Seong Moran pressed her lips together.

Even someone as bold as she was frightened by the terror those people inspired.

Namgung Seonhwa spoke, trying to hide the tremble in her voice.

“Then... what should we do?”

I looked at Eunho.

“This.”

Eunho spread out the cloth he held in his hands.

Seong Moran, who had been downcast, and Namgung Seonhwa, who had been quietly trembling, both went wide-eyed like startled rabbits.

“A-Are you insane?”

“No matter what, this is...”

The others did not react much differently from the two women when they saw the Taeul Sect’s standard.

“What they fear most is having their identities exposed. We’ll hide among people.”

“No, wait... Haah.”

“Young Master Jin, I don’t think this is a good idea. If we raise that flag, everyone under heaven will come after us.”

“That is exactly what I want.”

The two women sighed at the same time.

#

“Is this really right?”

As they rode toward An County, the first town on their route, Seong Moran asked Eunho, who carried the flag.

“This is like wrapping ourselves in straw and jumping into a fire.”

More than ten warriors had been left behind at the brothel in Feng County. Now, the number of warriors was slowly nearing one hundred.

No matter how great an absolute master might be, they could not overcome sheer numbers.

And they were not absolute masters.

Yet Jin Sowoon had raised the Taeul Sect’s standard to draw enemies in from every direction.

“I don’t know.”

Eunho shook his head, saying he did not know either.

That answer felt surprisingly fresh. Eunho was the cleverest and most eloquent of the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers. Whenever Jin Sowoon did something no one understood, Eunho had usually been the one to explain it.

“Really?”

Even Eunho did not know.

“Yes. Eldest Senior Brother sometimes does things that defy common sense. No, not sometimes. Often.”

“...And yet you’re working quite hard.”

Eunho had found bamboo himself and raised the standard high.

Holding a flag while riding was not easy, but he had refused to leave the task to anyone else.

“I don’t understand it, but I trust Eldest Senior Brother.”

“What?”

“Eldest Senior Brother’s choices are always for us. Not once has he chosen for himself. I think this choice also put us before himself.”

For some reason, Seong Moran felt a thump in her chest.

She remembered the short time they had spent together.

He could have practiced sword forms with his martial brothers and eaten warm meals, yet he had stayed with them.

Thanks to that, Gang Seopyo and Choe Mubin, who needed to protect Seong Moran and Namgung Seonhwa, could pay more attention to the other warriors.

She had hardly ever seen him sleep. Even when she struck her sleep acupoint and fell asleep, he had remained awake. When she woke, he was already up, searching for kindling.

“That is why I sometimes stop thinking. If I try to think things through, I become slow because I waste time trying to understand Eldest Senior Brother’s intentions.”

“...You really like Eldest Senior Brother.”

Eunho was holding the reins, carrying the flag, and riding at full speed while eating jerky.

He chewed for a moment, then grinned.

“How could I not follow such an Eldest Senior Brother?”

“...”

Seong Moran found herself nodding.

“Right. Then I should stop thinking so much too.”

“You’ve made a good choice. Considering our schedule from here on, it’ll be easier to act without thinking.”

“What? What do you mean by that?”

“Before we left the village this morning, Eldest Senior Brother told the Hao Sect to spread word of our location among the examinees. I doubt we’ll even have time to eat jerky from now on.”

“Hey! You should’ve told me that sooner!”

Seong Moran hurriedly pulled out her pouch of jerky.

#

They suffered no major losses until they reached An County.

There were groups that appeared to be examinees, but they were unprepared for the unreasonable strategy of “shut up and charge,” so they did not pose much of an obstacle.

As they traveled from An County to Chengwu, the crowds grew far larger.

Seeing the flag from afar, examinees and warriors rushed at them from all directions.

There were no sword formations or defensive formations.

They charged straight through, no matter what.

Whenever a horse was injured, its rider immediately took another person’s horse and kept going.

By the time they entered Chengwu, hundreds of examinees trailed behind them.

From Chengwu onward, they stopped at another Changgung Merchant Group branch.

Hundreds of people had gathered around the branch, glaring at it, so there was no need to seek out a brothel where the lights stayed on all night.

They lost the most people on the road from Chengwu to Heze.

Some were wounded in battle against other examinees and could no longer continue with them. Others fell victim to the Dark Soul-Severing Unit.

They were ambushed by other examinees just before entering Heze, and the sun set. In the chaos, the warriors who remained even briefly in the lightless darkness never returned.

Only eighty warriors remained.

Most were severely exhausted from the forced march.

“Now it really begins.”

From Heze, they raced like mad with a long trail of pursuing examinees behind them, but as they crossed out of Shandong Province, the sun began to set.

Hundreds of examinees behind them lit torches one by one, while examinees waiting ahead lit theirs as though announcing their presence.

“How are we supposed to distinguish those things?”

At Seong Moran’s question, Jin Sowoon answered as if it were obvious.

“If you cannot sense any presence, pour sword qi into that spot.”

“What?”

It was an absurdly unreasonable response.

“If there is no presence at all despite all these people being around, then those things are there.”

“...All right.”

Torches began lighting up everywhere.

In nearby forests, on distant ridges, and behind them where dust rose into the air.

They had heard the Hao Sect’s information, the Beggar Sect’s information, seen the Taeul Sect’s standard, and watched other examinees move.

Nearly a thousand people had gathered to seize the Gate Token.

And even more terrifying beings hid amid their darkness.

The moment they acknowledged that reality, fear only grew.

They clung to a single thought.

“If there is no presence, cut. If there is no presence, cut.”

Only Dongryong’s voice, repeating Jin Sowoon’s words, echoed among the people.

---

Clang clang clang clang clang.

Clang clang clang.

Clang clang.

“I’m counting on you.”

In the end, the group of eighty was blocked by a wall of hundreds.

The horses we had ridden either collapsed or panicked and fled, throwing off their riders. Those who fell from their mounts did not hesitate to strike at their foes by the light of their small torches.

Gang Seopyo, who had insisted on coming despite the wound on his chest, took my reins.

“Come back safely.”

He immediately forced his horse toward Namgung Seonhwa.

I separated from him, used the Peerless Wanderer Divine Art, and moved far from the battlefield.

Then I circulated the Taeul True Scripture at full power and searched for presences in every direction.

I sensed everyone, from those with formidable internal energy to those with meager martial skill who had joined the battle.

Then I began pursuing the places among them where I could sense nothing at all.

This was the method I learned only after the Orthodox-Demonic War began and I discovered the Dark Soul-Severing Unit’s existence.

With so many people gathered here, it was easier to find the places where there was no presence at all.

I unleashed fist qi into the empty air.

Only attacks made of qi could deal even some damage to them.

Thud.

A pair of eyes, wide with surprise like a rabbit’s, suddenly appeared in the darkness where nothing should have been.

“Surprised?”

The eyes vanished back into the darkness.

Something seemed to wind its way up my arm. I released fist qi toward that empty space, but this time I felt nothing.

“Your methods haven’t changed.”

I swiftly turned my head.

Shk.

A white bone sword sliced through the place where my head had been.

There was a way to deal with them. It was simply difficult and troublesome.

“That’s what happens when you see them for the first time. But this isn’t my first time seeing you.”

I grabbed the bone sword of the one trying to retreat into the darkness.

Creak.

I applied enough force to break a human bone, yet it remained intact.

Perhaps it was surprised that I had avoided and grabbed the bone sword, because its eyes appeared in the darkness again, wide like a startled rabbit’s.

“I’m sick to death of this.”

Holding the bone sword, I unleashed Lotus in reverse.

As I applied force in the exact opposite direction from its original axis, the one wielding it could not withstand the force, and their flesh burst.

Crack.

Thump.

More blood flowed from the bone sword than before. Lotus had injured the bastard as well.

The bone sword that had protruded through its palm tried to retreat back inside...

“Not a chance.”

I immediately filled my right foot with qi and stomped down on the bone sword.

Crack.

-Kyaak!

The bone sword finally broke, and it screamed.

“Even your screams sound like an animal’s.”

-!

Its eyes appeared again.

Now, its eyes were completely bloodshot, as though it had become a real rabbit.

-Who are you?

A voice that seemed to belong to it rang inside my head.

Their vocal cords melted away during the Fluid Bone Sword procedure, which was why they used a specialized martial art called the Heavenly Demon Mind Transmission Art.

“Do I need to tell you?”

It finally succeeded in pulling the broken bone sword into its palm.

Then it hid itself in the darkness.

In the brief instant that followed, every torch held by the people around us went out at once.

They’re coming...

Drawing on the memories of my previous life, I predicted the direction they would take in the darkness.

I could sense no presence, so I relied on memory and moved first.

Shushushuk.

One phantom image created by the Taeul Eighty Thousand Divine Steps had been pierced through the head, heart, and dantian by three bone swords.

The other two had appeared in that brief moment.

If I had not moved according to my memories, that would have been my future.

Unwilling to make the same mistake as their companion, they quickly hid themselves in the darkness.

I set aside the teachings of the Taeul True Scripture for a moment and drew upon the teachings of another martial canon.

The Adversarial Demon Scripture.

It was the martial art created by the Hell Demon Emperor, the Heavenly Demon of his era, while imprisoned within the Boundless Eight Trigrams Soul-Severing Formation. Resentful that none of the cultists came to rescue him, he created the Adversarial Demon Scripture.

Born from a truly demonic heart, its purpose was to eradicate demons with ruthless desperation.

“The Heavenly Demon and I share the same purpose. Isn’t that the kind of contradiction that only exists in literature? What do you think?”

Chrrrk.

As I extended the Flying Dragon Claw, white light gathered around the Heavenly Silkworm Thread.

The light traveled up the thread, coating the thin strand in a thick layer before finally reaching the clawed tip.

Like the Heavenly Demon Scripture left behind by the Hell Demon Emperor, the Adversarial Demon Scripture contained only its principles, without forms or set patterns.

The forms and patterns it manifested depended entirely on my realization and my desire.

My deepest desire for revenge, born from the tens of thousands of nightmares I had endured in my previous life.

And the shape that desire took was...

The Demon-Severing Radiant Whip.

Slash.

The cruel whip that severed demons lashed out.

Something was caught in the space where nothing should have been.

“!!”

Three pairs of eyes, wide with surprise like rabbits’, suddenly appeared in the darkness.

A smile rose to my lips.

“Finally, I caught you.”

Footnotes:

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