WeTried Translations

Translator/Editor: Satori

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◈ Wanderer of the Martial World ◈

Chapter 17

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Whoosh!

My straight saber flew from its sheath, aiming for the back of Jo Man-sik's head.

"Eek!"

Jo Man-sik ducked and rolled forward, evading my saber.

Even without internal energy, he had spent enough years as a wandering martial artist to make that a respectable dodge.

Martial artists affiliated with martial sects considered the Lazy Donkey Roll shameful, but wandering martial artists did not.

Rolling on the ground to survive was nothing to them.

Rather than approach him, I straightened up.

Pahk!

Just as expected, dirt scattered through the air.

At the same time, I moved diagonally backward.

Whoosh!

A heavy throwing knife passed through the spot where I had been standing moments ago.

Even without learning concealed-weapon techniques, a person who practiced enough to throw one properly could make it a fairly decent weapon through sheer destructive power.

"What are you doing?!"

Jo Man-sik was already glaring at me with his broadsaber drawn.

"Hwang Jeong-un! What grudge do you have against me that you're attacking me?!"

"...You attacked Yi So-gang, injured them, and stole their money."

I forced myself to find an excuse.

Come to think of it, someone I was close to had been hurt.

And in this world, that alone was enough justification to kill someone.

"Eek!"

The bastard charged at me with his broadsaber.

It was already too late for him to run.

Killing me actually gave him a better chance of surviving.

I lightly met the diagonally descending broadsaber with my straight saber.

The moment they touched, I pushed upward.

Scrape!

Just before the tip of my saber pierced his Adam's apple, I noticed Jo Man-sik's left hand move strangely.

I quickly planted my front foot beside him, bent my knees, and ducked.

Fwoosh!

Gray powder scattered over my head.

Before it could settle, I put one shoulder to the ground and rolled away.

At the same time, I slashed his calf with my blade.

"Urgh!"

Using the momentum of my roll, I sprang back to my feet.

Jo Man-sik was kneeling while clutching one side of his neck.

It seemed that just before my saber pierced his throat, my body had moved and changed its path, slicing open one side of his neck instead.

Even so, Jo Man-sik tried to stagger to his feet.

Before he could properly rise, I feigned another charge.

Fwoosh!

Gray powder once again painted the air.

This was why even third-rate martial artists could not be underestimated.

Even without internal energy, they were lunatics who had killed people countless times.

I was no different.

While the powder obstructed my sight, I drew a dagger and threw it toward where I expected his body to be.

Since I had not learned throwing techniques, aiming for his body gave me far better odds than aiming for a difficult target like his head.

"Ghk!"

The dagger buried itself cleanly in his stomach.

The instant it struck, I avoided the powder and charged in.

It was an attack aimed at the instant he reacted to the pain.

The first form of the Flowing Current Heaven-Severing Saber.

Flowing Water Line.

Internal energy coursed, and footwork that flowed into the enemy's blind spot like water took shape.

At the same time, as my qi-infused body moved, my straight saber drew a sharp line through the air.

Slice!

I moved my rear foot to the side and immediately stepped back.

Jo Man-sik's neck slowly split open as he clutched his stomach.

Then his head dropped with a thud.

This was martial arts.

It was far stronger and faster than ordinary strength and speed.

It was my first time using it in real combat, so it consumed quite a lot of internal energy. Still, as befitted such an efficient martial art, it was not enough to cause a serious problem.

I immediately approached Jo Man-sik's corpse and searched his clothes.

The first thing I found was a book wrapped in cloth.

Turbulent Wind Saber Method and Turbulent Wind Inner-Energy Method.

Had he known martial arts all along?

He might have bought them at the black market this time, but the heavily worn pages suggested otherwise.

The martial arts books I had seen at the bookstore earlier had all looked very clean.

I wrapped the manuals in the cloth again and tucked them into my clothes before searching his body further.

There was a pouch containing around ten silver taels and a small wooden case.

It was the same sort of wooden case that the young man at the apothecary had bought.

When I opened it, there was a round pill inside.

It was probably a spirit pill.

Though I could not be certain.

I tried to find the powder from before, but he had apparently used it all. There was none in his clothes or pouch. Instead, I found one dose each of internal-injury medicine and wound medicine.

I realized that Jo Man-sik had intended to leave altogether, even before he and Yi So-gang left the county.

Otherwise, he would not have taken his martial arts manuals with him.

Killing Yi So-gang might not have caused him much trouble, but people close to Yi So-gang could have found out, so it was a reasonable choice.

Many people had already seen the two leave the tavern together, so he could not have concealed it.

In a world where a friend's death could serve as justification, he seemed to have planned to leave altogether.

I carried Jo Man-sik's body and head into the nearby mountain and threw them away.

Whether beasts or yokai, something would dispose of the corpse.

It did not matter if someone found it.

No one would bother investigating the death of a single wandering martial artist in the first place.

That was true even within the county. Out here in the wilderness, it would be even more so.

I took his broadsaber, two daggers, and the medium-sized throwing knife from earlier, then headed toward Yeongheung County.

As the sun gradually rose, the world became brighter than before.

By the time I reached Yeongheung County, the sun was shining brightly on the ground.

First, I sold Jo Man-sik's weapons at a smithy. Then I stopped by a stall selling morning food, ate a simple meal, and ordered firewood delivered from a wood seller sitting beside a stack of logs.

As soon as I paid a few mun, the wood seller loaded the firewood onto his A-frame carrier and followed me.

When I arrived home, I went into the kitchen, somewhere I rarely entered.

It was a simple kitchen attached to one side of the house.

I lifted the pot, rinsed it out, and poured water into it.

Then I lit the firewood and boiled the water.

The reason was simple.

I wanted to soak my body.

Unlike modern times, when warm water would pour out just by turning on a shower, bathing here required preparation.

As a result, I usually only washed up roughly.

I fetched water again, washed out a tub that came up to my waist, and washed myself as well.

Then I poured the boiling water into the tub, adjusted the temperature with cold water, and climbed in.

"Ugh..."

A pleased sound slipped out without my realizing it.

It felt as though every muscle worn down by fatigue was loosening.

I closed my eyes.

Jo Man-sik had possessed secret manuals but had been unable to cultivate internal energy.

The reason was probably simpler than expected.

Talent.

Because it was unfair, it was cruel.

Some people quickly formed a dantian, while others could train for years without even gaining qi sense.

In truth, this did not apply only to martial arts.

Most things in the world ran on talent.

Of course, even talent could not blossom without effort. But when someone talented and someone without talent put in the same effort, the gap between them was not something that could ever be closed.

That was why Jo Man-sik had probably bought a spirit pill at the black market.

Blocked by the wall of talent, he must have thought that if he could not create it through effort, he could create it with external aid.

Unlike him, I had talent.

It might have been because of the special Qi Accumulation Method the old man passed down to me, but I had sensed qi and formed a dantian with relative ease.

That did not make me happy, though.

I tilted my head back and looked at the ceiling.

It was an old wooden ceiling damp with moisture.

Sunlight leaked through gaps scattered across it.

Modern times were better. Compared to this, had they not been heaven?

I had that thought again, one I had thought countless times before.

Loneliness seeped into me.

The emotional loneliness I had felt even in modern times had stubbornly followed me here.

The feeling that Seoryeong had slowly erased raised its head again the moment she disappeared.

"Fuuu..."

I submerged my head in the water.

After sleeping deeply, I examined the martial arts manuals I had obtained from Jo Man-sik as soon as I woke up.

The world had already gone dark, and I had to light an oil lamp.

By its light, I read.

Fortunately, the manuals were not written in the form of secret manuals.

They had been written simply enough that even I could understand them immediately.

"Hm..."

I let out a low sound.

I had not learned them yet, but they seemed to be basic martial arts.

The inner-energy method was a basic Qi Accumulation Method like the one in the Flowing Current Heaven-Severing Formula, while its qi circulation method was even simpler.

The same went for its forms. Rather than being profound, they seemed intended to kill an opponent by swinging wildly.

Still, that was fine.

In an era where a single martial art held enormous value, even this was no different from gaining a great treasure.

Besides, I had promised to teach martial arts to Gu Deok this time. This seemed suitable to pass on to him.

Its simplicity would make it easier.

Thinking I would practice it tomorrow, I pushed the manuals aside.

Then I took out the spirit pill.

I had just watched a Goe-grade spirit pill sell for nearly fifty gold tael.

It had certainly cost more than its original price because it was the black market, but spirit pills were not distributed among ordinary people in the first place.

If people found out I had one, it could cause problems.

Even so, there were things I needed to consider before taking it immediately.

If I sold this for even thirty gold tael, I could get thirty Yo-beast Yodans.

Moreover, even if this was a Goe-grade spirit pill, there was no guarantee that it contained the full power of a Goe.

Was that not the nature of ritual refinement?

If yokai aura was removed from a Yodan, it seemed that even the energy capable of creating internal energy would inevitably be lost little by little.

If so, selling the spirit pill and exchanging it for Yodans was unquestionably more profitable for me.

Another reason I would not consume it right away was that I could not absorb qi as freely as I wanted.

It was an issue of control over my internal energy.

There was nothing wrong with the quality of my internal energy.

At first, I did not know.

It was my first time circulating energy, so I simply assumed that was how it normally felt.

But once I grew somewhat accustomed to energy circulation, I realized that might not be the case.

After absorbing one Yodan and circulating my energy, I felt a slight awkwardness when I consumed another.

Even then, I thought the awkwardness came from the increase in my internal energy.

But when I circulated my energy before Yi Pyeong came yesterday, I saw that my internal energy was gradually obeying my will better and realized the truth.

It was a problem of control.

Of course, after that energy circulation, it now moved well according to my will. Still, I realized that absorbing Yodans could not be done recklessly.

I had to absorb them while gradually bringing my inner qi under control, and that was the safe way to do it.

Even so, the speed at which internal energy accumulated was incomparably faster than ordinary Qi Accumulation.

I put the spirit pill back into the wooden case, wrapped the manuals in cloth, and carefully hid them where I kept my silver taels and martial arts manuals.

For now, I decided to store the spirit pill.

If my guess was right, taking it to the black market and trading it for Yodans would be better. But I did not know whether my guess was entirely correct, and I could not trust that old herb seller either.

If the man who had bought Yodans yesterday suddenly brought in a spirit pill to sell, he would surely grow suspicious.

No matter that it was the black market. No, precisely because it was the black market, I could not trust it.

The black market...

Still, thanks to Jo Man-sik, I had saved the silver taels I would have spent on wound medicine and internal-injury medicine.

And with the ten silver taels he had carried, I could buy three Yodans.

I roughly organized my belongings, replenished the internal energy I had consumed through Qi Accumulation, and left the house.

After checking on Yi So-gang's condition, I thought I should visit the black market again.

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