WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 474: Searching for Evidence (4)
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“Benefactor Jin… Your injury is serious.”
At the baldy’s… no, at Ilgak’s words, I looked at my arm and saw blood streaming from the gash.
‘I thought it would heal quickly.’
The cave where I fought the Blood Men had been large, but the usable space within the Golden Prison was still limited. That was how I got hurt.
The Taeul Sect’s sword arts were well suited to facing multiple opponents, but they were not as effective in confined spaces.
‘This is why I need mid-level martial arts.’
Of course, once one reached a certain realm, it no longer mattered what martial arts one had learned.
The problem was that I was more likely to die before reaching that realm.
The fastest way for me to grow stronger now was to learn new, efficient martial arts.
I couldn’t use the Three White Moon Heaven-Subduing Forms, which required extensive preparation each time, or the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, whose destructive power was absurd.
I examined the wound closely.
Considering the Ten-Thousand-Year Earth Bear’s recovery ability, it should have healed halfway by now. Since it had not, the Blood Man must have contained blood venom as well.
Still, the fact that the wound had not festered and continued bleeding probably meant my superior recovery was forcing the poison out from within.
“It’s fine. It’ll stop bleeding soon.”
“This is not a wound to take lightly. Give me your arm.”
Ilgak recoiled in shock, took out golden wound medicine, and liberally smeared it over the wound.
It would heal even if I left it alone. What a fuss.
‘Come to think of it.’
Hadn’t he been sulking because I criticized bald men?
Ilgak carefully wrapped a bandage over the medicine, then inspected the wound.
“…I heard it from the Society Leader. You called the branch instead of Azure Dragon Pavilion.”
It seemed he had asked Gwak Susan why Azure Dragon Pavilion had not launched its raid.
“Thanks to Benefactor Jin’s mercy, innocent lives could be saved.”
“It wasn’t mercy.”
“Pardon?”
“I only did it because they didn’t seem capable of posing that kind of threat.”
If I had sensed danger from Mak Hyowol, Sang Jayang, or the people of the Tanghyeon Sect…
I would have called Azure Dragon Pavilion.
I had only called the branch and handled matters peacefully because they were not that dangerous.
“If I had judged them dangerous, I would have stepped in and left not even a blade of grass standing here.”
“…”
Ilgak’s hand paused as he tended my wound.
Then he began treating another wound.
“They say deciding whether someone lives or dies is emotionally painful. That is why people often stop thinking to avoid that pain.”
I hadn’t known in my previous life that making choices from the position of one who judged others could be this painful.
“Yet you did not stop thinking. You considered matters to the end and acted accordingly. Does that not mean the Buddha resides in Benefactor Jin’s heart after all?”
It wasn’t that grand.
I simply knew how much pain the rash choices of evaluators in my previous life had caused people.
Even so, now…
“What are you saying to a disciple of a Taoist sect, you bald monk?”
This baldy’s comfort brought a small warmth to my heart.
“The Buddha is everywhere. In the hearts of disciples of Taoist sects, Confucian scholars, farmers tilling their fields, and fishermen casting their nets.”
“What a frightening man.”
“Amitabha.”
For some reason, Ilgak stared at me with an unpleasantly pleased expression.
The Tanghyeon Sect broke the arcane formation.
As soon as the formation breaking was complete, the branch leader of the Martial Alliance’s Maseong Branch and its members poured in.
Including those stationed at the branch and martial artists mobilized from nearby sects, their numbers nearly reached eight hundred.
The branch leader’s eagerness to seize a rare opportunity for promotion was obvious.
“You have done excellent work!”
The branch leader immediately sought out the Dragon-Phoenix Association and the rest of us, praising us tirelessly for what we had done.
He would likely use this matter to reinvigorate a career he had been preparing to wrap up.
The senior officials and disciples were thoroughly separated. In particular, all Hall Master-level figures were tightly bound.
Gwak Susan watched the scene with worry on his face.
“Azure Dragon Pavilion will be angry.”
“I suppose so.”
We had turned those waiting to carry out their mission into dogs that had lost their prey. They were probably quite furious.
“What do you mean, ‘I suppose so’? Why are you talking as if this has nothing to do with you?”
“Mm, because it has nothing to do with me?”
I wasn’t the Society Leader, was I?
“…!!!”
Why did he look as if someone he trusted had stabbed him in the back?
There was another reason I had excluded Azure Dragon Pavilion from this matter, aside from the Tanghyeon Sect’s disposition.
I still didn’t know what intentions Azure Dragon Pavilion harbored.
Until I met them directly, I couldn’t know whether they wanted the Dragon-Phoenix Association’s activities to succeed or fail.
“Are you… Alliance Member Jin Sowoon?”
A martial artist who looked far older than me cautiously approached.
“The Tanghyeon Sect Leader has requested to see you.”
He wanted to see me all of a sudden…
“Where is he?”
I followed the martial artist.
The Tanghyeon Sect’s Hall Master-level officials had been gathered in the main hall.
In one corner, Mak Hyowol was bound and under guard.
“What is it?”
“I heard we will soon be transported to the Martial Alliance.”
The branch leader was rushing things, clearly intending to move everyone before Azure Dragon Pavilion arrived.
“Once we leave this time… it will likely be the last time we see one another. I wanted to say goodbye.”
It was the first time I had met him, and we had known each other only briefly, so I didn’t think we were close enough to share such sentiments.
Then Mak Hyowol’s behavior seemed slightly strange.
“…?”
His gaze briefly shifted toward the Martial Alliance members guarding him and listening nearby, then returned to me.
“Ever since I realized that trust built up becomes meaningless before overwhelming power…”
He brought up something he had said while drinking several days ago.
“I couldn’t sleep soundly for even a single night. Whenever I tried to sleep, illusory strength in my dreams wouldn’t let me rest.”
As if he were saying it for the first time.
“No matter how strong one may be in a dream, reality is never so easy.”
Then he added calmly.
“But… I think you may be able to live the life envisioned in that dream.”
“…Is that so?”
He slowly nodded.
“It is. Since you understand my state of mind, you will not repeat my mistakes.”
Soon after…
A bright smile, wide enough to show his teeth, spread across his face.
“Do not give up as quickly as I did. You are clever, so I am sure you can obtain that illusory strength.”
He looked not like a man facing death, but like someone who had reclaimed his life.
A moment later, one of the Alliance members entered the main hall.
“We are leaving!”
At those words, the Alliance members began escorting the Tanghyeon Sect’s people into carriages one by one.
Just before boarding, Mak Hyowol looked at me again.
“Remember this. Before power, trust is meaningless.”
Even as an Alliance member urged him on with blows, Mak Hyowol seemed desperate to convey something to me.
#
The Tanghyeon Sect had been emptied out.
Their granaries and warehouses.
Even the many books and secret-technique manuals in their library had been loaded onto carriages and sent to the Martial Alliance.
Nothing remained but old buildings and a few Alliance members guarding them.
For a very long time, the Martial Alliance would investigate the Tanghyeon Sect again and again.
In the end, nothing would remain.
Only the plaque hanging over an empty estate would show that this had once been the Tanghyeon Sect. Once ownership changed, even that trace would vanish.
“We should leave as well.”
I stopped Gwak Susan for a moment.
“There’s something I need to check.”
With that, I headed to the Sect Leader’s Hall.
Mak Hyowol’s final words.
They had not simply been reminiscing about the past.
He must have been trying to convey something to me under the strict watch of the Alliance members.
“Dreams and illusory strength…”
I searched the area thoroughly, trying to find what he had wanted to tell me.
Even the candlesticks once used inside the Sect Leader’s Hall had been removed.
All that remained were the now-useless Golden Prison in the basement and the broken furniture in the Sect Leader’s Hall.
‘He knew they would take everything for the investigation, yet he still tried to send me a message. That means he knew they wouldn’t take the item…’
Then I noticed the bed that had been used to block the basement.
It had been wedged sideways into one corner of the room after the items in the basement were removed.
Clunk.
Most of the furniture in the room was new and lacquered, but the bed alone was old, with all its lacquer worn away.
It had an antique charm, but it was riddled with wormholes and did not suit the furnishings of this inner chamber.
“He said illusory strength in dreams…”
Come to think of it, the fabric beneath the bed was unusually glossy. It was evidence that it had been replaced recently.
I split open the bottom with the Ascending Heaven Dagger, removed all the cotton, and tore away the silk cloth. A section of the wooden bed base was revealed.
When I lifted even the wooden base…
“This is it.”
A small box sat in the space beneath it.
I pried off the lid and found three martial arts manuals inside.
“What could these possibly be?”
Just as I thought what Mak Hyowol had so desperately tried to convey was rather unimpressive…
“…!”
The moment I saw the titles of the manuals, my entire body stiffened.
[Silent Sound Azure Water Hand]
[Drifting Current Formless Sword]
[Iron Dragon Armor]
The first manual, the second manual, and the final third manual.
Not one of them was ordinary.
And I…
“W-Why are these here…?”
I knew every one of these manuals.
[Silent Sound Azure Water Hand] and [Drifting Current Formless Sword].
They were the ultimate arts of Windless Asura, an assassin from three hundred years ago.
The tale that Windless Asura alone assassinated every blood relative of the Cheon Clan, which had been called the foremost clan under heaven at the time, was still passed down like a legend. People still debated whether it was true.
In other words, Windless Asura was an assassin who had achieved something impossible.
“Why are they… here?”
The reason there was so much debate over the Cheon Clan’s annihilation was that Windless Asura’s true teachings had ultimately been lost.
After he disappeared, no one had ever used the Silent Sound Azure Water Hand or the Drifting Current Formless Sword.
“Ha, and even the external martial art of the Iron Pagoda Hermit?”
Likewise, [Iron Dragon Armor] was the martial art that had allowed the exceptional external martial artist known as the Iron Pagoda Hermit to rival Shaolin Sect’s Vajra Indestructible Divine Art.
Its true teachings had been lost as well.
That naturally raised a question.
Why had the Tanghyeon Sect Leader, who had obtained these unbelievable martial arts manuals, turned to the art of the Blood Men?
“Are they fakes? But they were kept too carefully for that.”
The answer came quickly.
“…Their source is the Martial Alliance?”
The contents of the manuals had all been written in cipher.
It was the cipher used only for top-secret documents in the Profound Mystery Pavilion.
Mak Hyowol, who had obtained the manuals, must have been bewildered.
Every word aside from the illustrations explaining the forms had been written in cipher.
Still, he could not seek out someone to decipher it.
The moment he traced the origin of this unusual cipher, its owners would learn that he possessed the manuals.
Mak Hyowol had risked everything to choose the art of the Blood Men because he had no other choice.
“Still, why are the ultimate arts of people who vanished written in the Martial Alliance’s cipher?”
The manuals, filled with strange things, made my head spin.
Then…
“Benefactor Jin, how much longer will this take?”
Ilgak’s impatient voice called from outside the door.
The branch personnel still at the Tanghyeon Sect might see, so I could not let them catch me taking the manuals.
“Damn it, I thought I wouldn’t have to do this again in this life…”
I quickly committed the manuals to memory.
I had neither the time to determine what kind of martial arts they were nor even to complain.
Footnotes:
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