WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: DereKimchi
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Retuned Zenith wants to Rest ◈
Episode 20:
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Yoon Seoha stared at Yoo Kangmin in stunned disbelief.
“Th-the Ultimate Zenith?”
“Yeah.”
Even knowing it sounded absurd, Seoha was certain it was no empty boast.
Hadn't she felt it herself?
He had made her submit through sheer will alone.
If Yoo Kangmin had not been there, she might have taken her own life long ago.
‘Then why... why doesn't Master look afraid at all, even though he has to face someone like that?’
Yet that terrifying being's will had not reached Yoo Kangmin.
They said you could only see as much as you knew.
Having indirectly experienced that unprecedented power, Seoha could vaguely understand.
‘Just how strong is Master?’
Yoo Kangmin had reached a place so distant that she could not even dare look up at him.
“Will you be stepping in, Master?”
“I have to. I can't exactly tell you to fight him.”
Yoo Kangmin sounded annoyed.
Seoha wondered how he could react that way even before that unknown being.
“R-right.”
“Let me borrow your sword again.”
“Ah, yes.”
Yoo Kangmin picked up the sword lying on the floor.
“Once you've recovered, take your time getting here.”
“Y-you're going?”
“Should I stay here forever? Class is over for today.”
Yoo Kangmin slowly headed toward the collapsed passage.
“Ah, try to come quickly if you can. He may be a ghost, but martial arts at his level aren't something you see often.”
Yoo Kangmin did not think it would help at all for Seoha, at her current level, to watch his fight with the Martial Emperor.
She had the talent to possibly become the Sword Empress, but when it came to martial arts, she was still no different from an ordinary person.
Even so, once she reached a higher realm someday, today's sight would help her, even if only unconsciously.
“Ah, yes!”
Seoha answered without thinking, but she wondered whether she could truly make it beyond that passage.
‘I just want to go home...’
* * *
Beyond the passage lay a massive cavern.
Dragons coiled around each stone pillar supporting the ceiling, while countless weapons were embedded in the floor.
At its center stood a high stone throne.
“Amazing.”
A man sat upon it.
He wore a black robe embroidered with golden dragons.
Beneath his loosely opened collar, his pale chest was exposed.
He lounged sideways with his chin propped on an armrest.
He hardly looked like someone facing an intruder.
Yet that was exactly how Yoo Kangmin remembered the Martial Emperor.
“To think they recreated him this vividly.”
Yoo Kangmin's gaze settled on the man's face.
His eyelids hung half-lowered.
Beneath them, his eyes held deep weariness.
There was no hostility or wariness in them.
They merely seemed to be checking who had come to waste his time this time.
But the moment his gaze fell upon Yoo Kangmin, the cavern's air grew heavy.
He had done nothing more than lift his eyes, yet everything beneath the throne seemed to sink infinitely lower.
[What have you come here to obtain, intruder?]
The Martial Emperor, a man who had placed every martial artist of an era beneath his feet.
To him, being the strongest under heaven was not a position earned through competition.
It was already his. All he had to do was remind anyone who dared covet it of that fact.
“Martial Emperor. I have come to cure your boredom.”
The strongest under heaven was bound to attract challengers.
Countless people had sought that position and challenged him.
The Martial Emperor might even have welcomed challengers at first.
A life-or-death battle against the strong must have been the only time he truly felt alive.
But the Martial Emperor was strong.
Too strong.
Even those who came prepared to risk their lives often fell before lasting more than a few exchanges.
[My boredom...]
After years like that, only boredom remained.
The certainty that no matter who came, the result would be the same.
The tedium of one who knew the ending before his opponent even drew their sword.
That was right.
The Martial Emperor's Sword Tomb was not the Martial Emperor's grave.
It was the grave of those who had challenged him and lost their lives.
And the Martial Emperor merely waited here for those who would challenge him.
In relentless boredom and tedium.
[You are an amusing one.]
Whoosh.
The Martial Emperor rose from his seat.
He had merely stood up.
Yet the entire space felt as though Mount Tai were pressing down upon it.
[Now then...]
Rumble!
It was no mere illusion.
The entire Martial Emperor's Sword Tomb shook, and clouds of dust rained down from the ceiling.
[Show me whether you are worthy.]
What filled the vast cavern was the Martial Emperor's will.
[Kneel before this one.]
That absolute will commanded Yoo Kangmin to kneel.
The pressure bearing down on him grew stronger by the moment.
It felt as though his neck would snap if he did not kneel.
Crack!
Crack!
The floor split as if an earthquake had struck.
“‘This one.’ It's been a long time since I heard that.”
Yet Yoo Kangmin remained completely unshaken.
The Martial Emperor's presence could do no more than stir the hem of his clothes.
[Oh?]
A gleam appeared in the Martial Emperor's eyes.
To receive his presence head-on and remain so calm meant Yoo Kangmin was, at the very least, qualified to contend with him in martial arts.
[Good. Let us fight after so long.]
The Martial Emperor held out his hand.
A sword embedded in the nearby floor rose into the air and flew into his grasp.
Whoooom!
A blue light bloomed brightly enough to drive away the darkness around them.
[Take this.]
The Martial Emperor swung down his sword.
Distance held no meaning.
A slash shot from its tip, cutting through the air as it reached Yoo Kangmin.
“Tch.”
Yoo Kangmin raised his sword at an angle and diverted it.
Craaaash!
The slash that skimmed past Yoo Kangmin turned the wall into dust.
The Martial Emperor watched and raised one corner of his mouth.
[You diverted it instead of meeting it with strength.]
“My sword might break if I take it head-on.”
[You are not at a level where you can blame your weapon.]
“It isn't mine.”
The Martial Emperor's smile deepened.
He seemed to have taken it as a joke.
[I wonder how long that composure will last.]
For an instant, the boredom vanished from the Martial Emperor's eyes.
Slice!
At that moment, a thin line appeared across Yoo Kangmin's hem, and it was cut through.
“...”
The Martial Emperor's sword intent, his intent to cut, had arrived before his sword.
Perhaps this was what the reputed realm of Death at a Thought (心卽殺), in which one could kill an opponent the instant a thought arose, was like.
Had his opponent been anyone but Yoo Kangmin, he might have been able to cut them down through will alone.
Fwoooosh!
Yoo Kangmin could see it all clearly.
He could see exactly how the Martial Emperor's intent was flying toward him.
So Yoo Kangmin, too, raised sword intent against the Martial Emperor's.
Intent to cut off his neck, pierce his chest, and sever even his path of retreat pressed in on Yoo Kangmin from all sides.
Hundreds of times.
No, before he knew it, thousands.
Within the two men's minds, swords clashed and scattered.
After countless exchanges like that...
Craaaaaash!
Unable to endure any longer, the Martial Emperor charged in himself, swinging his sword.
At last, sword met sword.
To make that single clash happen, they had already exchanged thousands of moves.
And even now, that battle of moves continued.
Their swords remained pressed together, neither pushing the other away nor separating.
Countless contests continued upon that thin point of contact.
“Tricks like that won't work.”
[Hahahaha. Good.]
When had he last met an opponent like this?
How long had it been since he had thought that one mistake could cost him his life?
The Martial Emperor's presence surged even more fiercely.
The heavy pressure weighing on the cavern gathered into a single sword.
The simple desire to defeat an equal drove away his long-standing boredom.
[Do you have more?]
“What?”
[I asked whether there is more you have yet to show.]
Yoo Kangmin looked at his face.
The man once buried beneath boredom and tedium was nowhere to be seen.
Only a martial artist seeking a way to surpass the opponent before him remained.
‘Right. You had that expression back then, too.’
Yoo Kangmin adjusted his grip on his sword.
“Has your boredom lifted a little?”
[Not yet.]
The Martial Emperor raised his sword and pointed it at Yoo Kangmin.
The blue sword light deepened.
[Then show me more.]
“Can you handle it?”
Instead of answering, the Martial Emperor simply tightened his grip on his sword with both hands.
“You may not remember, but in my memories... you were an excellent martial artist.”
[How strange. I am meeting you for the first time. Why do you look at me with such eyes?]
The Martial Emperor could not understand.
Why did Yoo Kangmin look at him that way?
“You were my master.”
[What?]
“Ah, not that I learned martial arts from you, of course... More like a mentor in spirit.”
The Limitless Heavenly Origin Art.
Yoo Kangmin had completed that peerless martial art through his battle with the Martial Emperor.
The Martial Emperor was the emperor of martial arts.
The speed of swift techniques, the weight of heavy techniques, the dazzling changes of changing techniques, the softness of yielding techniques, and the strength of dominating techniques, none of them worked against him.
Because the Martial Emperor had understood the principles behind them all.
“From you, I realized that martial arts have no limits.”
Through him, Yoo Kangmin gained insight into the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art and was able to complete it through his battle with the Martial Emperor.
“Thanks to you, I was able to make them one.”
The Martial Emperor watched Yoo Kangmin for a moment.
Then he smiled.
[Then show me.]
He did not ask about a connection he could not remember.
Nor did he question whether the man before him was lying.
[Show me the martial art you say you realized.]
That was all that mattered to the Martial Emperor.
Yoo Kangmin nodded.
“Please watch until the end this time as well.”
Hummm.
Yoo Kangmin pushed the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art to its limit.
He was far stronger now than when he had fought the Martial Emperor in the past, but he believed going all out was the only respect he could show him.
[Remarkable.]
The Martial Emperor voiced his surprise.
He could clearly see what the Limitless Heavenly Origin Art contained.
He laughed.
[So that is it.]
The Martial Emperor raised his sword.
The blue light filling the cavern was drawn into the blade all at once.
The principles of martial arts he had realized over his lifetime were contained within a single sword.
If there were another Limitless Heavenly Origin Art, it could only exist in the form displayed by the Martial Emperor.
Rumble!
The entire Martial Emperor's Sword Tomb trembled.
[Come.]
“I'm coming.”
Neither moved first. They charged at one another at the same time.
Their two swords collided at a single point in the air.
Flaaaash!
Not a deafening roar, but an intense burst of light bloomed from that point.
The light distorted space for an instant.
As the Martial Emperor faced the unfamiliar world spread beyond that space, he finally realized.
‘Had I not died?’
Who had killed him.
The Martial Emperor's chest split as he came to understand his death.
From the opening, the qi of false life began to seep out.
Thud!
The Martial Emperor fell to his knees.
[I surely...]
[I must have died before your eyes.]
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