WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 479: Each One’s Purpose (3)
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No one could endure relentless, extreme tension forever.
The pressure of death, in particular, pushed human endurance to its limit. Those who remained at that edge for too long sometimes became strangely calm instead.
During the early days of the Orthodox-Demonic War, low-ranking martial artists faced one life-threatening crisis after another. After battle, they could not bear the silence that stretched through the night, so some deserted while others took their own lives.
By the middle of the war, they behaved like thugs at a festival instead.
They secretly brewed liquor from supplies, bet an entire month’s stipend on a single game, and played pranks that put their lives on the line.
New martial artists sometimes looked at them with a strange kind of envy, thinking they were somehow different.
Yet beneath the surface, they were only broken people who had let go of everything under the pressure of death.
In that sense, the taut tension filling Whirlwind Estate was proof that its people were still ordinary humans.
“…”
That tension spread to the Dragon-Phoenix Association as well.
The association’s atmosphere rapidly sank after they suddenly found themselves joining a battle.
They had experienced Mukrim, but frantically moving in an urgent situation was entirely different from knowing a battle was coming and waiting for it.
Chomp. Chomp. Chomp.
Though mealtime had passed long ago, few people could bring themselves to touch their food.
“…Group Leader, can you really swallow that?”
I answered the stare fixed on me as though I were some strange creature.
“The food’s excellent.”
“No, that isn’t what I mean. Isn’t it standard practice not to eat before an important spar or battle?”
Major sects did sometimes make their disciples skip meals before sparring matches or examinations.
Martial artists these days were often judged through tests, after all.
But that only applied to evaluations.
“Sure, fighting on an empty stomach can be good. If you stay tense too long, you might get indigestion.”
A real battlefield was different from practice.
“But if the fight drags on, you won’t die because you’re weaker. You’ll die because you’re hungry.”
“What?”
Battles could break out day or night, at any time, and there was no referee to end them.
No one would wait for mealtime in the middle of a fight, so if you missed one meal, there was no telling how long you would have to fight hungry.
Even a master with tremendous internal energy could get cut down by a stray blade because they were hungry.
“Do you think Blood Heaven Fort will tell you to go eat in the middle of a battle? Do you think Guigol Sect will give you time to drink water?”
“…”
On a battlefield, the person who ate well, fought well, and rested well survived.
Especially when we were overwhelmingly outnumbered, we had to take even better care of ourselves.
“Even dying in battle comes down to skill. Don’t die over something absurd.”
Danmok Gyoryeon, who had asked the question, shuddered as if sickened by the thought.
Then, seeing Yong Soa calmly eating, Danmok Gyoryeon began scooping up porridge as well.
The other Dragon-Phoenix members followed suit and picked up their spoons.
“Young Hero Jin. I’m Song Yeseol.”
It seemed she had brought what I had asked for.
When I went outside, Song Yeseol was struggling beneath a large sack and several large water containers.
They were the jerky and water containers I had requested before the battle.
The Dragon-Phoenix Association was basically a group that had come to eat and play, so they had not brought any personal gear beyond their weapons.
“You’ve worked hard, Miss Song.”
I quickly opened the sack. It was filled with jerky made from quality meat.
I stuffed as much jerky as possible into my pockets and checked the water containers as well.
Throughout all this, Song Yeseol stood there and watched me intently.
“Is there something you need?”
“No… I was just curious.”
Song Yeseol spoke vaguely, then seemed unable to hold back any longer and finally said what she had been keeping in.
“Why did you say you’d help us?”
“When one ally helps another…”
“You don’t need to say that. I’m old enough to understand these things now.”
I guessed at her age.
She was a little past twenty.
Someone raised like a flower in a greenhouse might still not understand how the world worked at that age. But someone who had lived like wild grass would have more than learned the world’s harshness.
Song Yeseol was clearly the latter.
In a way, it was only natural for her to bristle at an offered hand.
After cursing a cruel and merciless world, she had become so cautious that even approaching warmth felt as though it would burn her skin.
Having yielded even the last of her life to others, she could not think of caring for herself, nor could she believe anyone else would care for her.
The only reason she was barely holding herself together was probably because there was still something she had to protect until the very end.
“I simply wanted to help.”
That was why I wanted to help her.
Through Saryeon, I had seen how she was standing alone amid immense fear and anxiety.
I too had wandered endlessly through a hollow abyss after fearing I would lose my sect, only to fall into despair when it was taken from me in the end.
“That’s all it was.”
I was offering my hand as though atoning to my past self and my fellow disciples.
“I have no other intention.”
She must have bitten her lip hard, because red blood flowed from the corner of her mouth.
That blood was the last shred of will she used to hold back the troublesome moisture threatening to spill from her eyes.
It looked like a vow not to be deceived by false kindness again.
I took a handkerchief from my robes and offered it to her.
But she only stared at me as though rooted to the spot.
“The world is cruel, and the martial world is harsher still. That doesn’t mean everyone living in it is an evil spirit or a ghost.”
I had met the Sojeong Unit amid that merciless despair in my previous life.
I met countless people there, fought alongside them, and watched them die.
“Sometimes we fight with nothing to gain. Sometimes we fight while accepting a loss. We call that justice and chivalry. Isn’t that why we call ourselves the White Path, because we hold such things as our highest values?”
The justice, chivalry, and sacrifice I had never seen in the Martial Alliance were not far away.
They blossomed among those who wished to fight together, within the resolve of those who wanted to save their friends.
The true heart of the White Path was among the low-ranking martial artists who traded curses without hollow alliances or calculations of gain and loss.
“Estate Master Gongsun, Miss Song, and the countless people remaining at Whirlwind Estate… aren’t you all staying here now to protect those values?”
Tears streamed down her cheeks.
She had even bled trying to hold them back, yet now the tears fell freely.
The night sky was clear without a single cloud, but droplets gathered one by one and fell to the ground.
“I stayed because I was moved by the people of Whirlwind Estate. If you insist that I give a reason for why I stayed, then that is the reason I want to give.”
Song Yeseol sobbed as I offered the handkerchief again. This time, she accepted the cloth and wiped away her tears and blood.
“Don’t worry too much. The great despair you imagined won’t come to pass.”
Song Yeseol wiped her tears away, regained her composure, and spoke stiffly.
“How can you guarantee that?”
“We have Yong Soa, don’t we?”
“Ha… hahahaha!”
Her rigid expression loosened in an instant, and she burst into helpless laughter.
Under the golden moonlight, her smile looked like a bottle gourd blossom covered in dew.
It was not as flamboyant as other flowers, yet it bloomed more beautifully than anything among the wild grass.
“How can a grown man speak of his resolve, then stand behind someone else?”
“I’m a man, but I’m not the heroic sort. I’m hiding behind the real heroic sort.”
At such a silly joke, Song Yeseol clutched her stomach and burst into loud laughter.
She laughed for so long that she forgot to wipe away her tears. Then she looked down at the handkerchief, now soaked with her blood and tears, and murmured softly.
“…I think I would have liked to attend the Martial Arts Academy with you.”
“Once this is over, couldn’t you prepare well during the remaining time and take the regular examination?”
Song Yeseol looked at me with a complicated expression.
“No. By then, I don’t think there will be anything there that I want.”
What did that mean?
The Martial Arts Academy would continue operating right up until the Orthodox-Demonic War began.
Tap tap tap tap tap.
Tap tap tap.
At that moment, hurried footsteps rang out.
“I’ll go ahead.”
I stopped myself from holding Song Yeseol back and spread my energy sense.
Whirlwind Estate was about as large as the Taeul Sect had been in the past, so it was not difficult.
There were four people within the range of my energy sense.
Their unrefined, rough energy spilled in every direction. They were Black Path martial artists.
As I considered what to do,
“Are you not going?”
An irritatingly flat voice came from behind me.
“…Didn’t you say you wouldn’t eat sweets?”
Yong Soa stood there holding sweets he must have found somewhere.
“You understand that sufficient nutrition is important before battle, yet you don’t know that sugar improves concentration?”
“Oh, is that so?”
“Are you in love with that woman?”
“What?”
Yong Soa looked in the direction Song Yeseol had disappeared.
“By objective standards of beauty, Namgung Seonhwa or Seong Moran, whom we were with during the regular examination, should be more attractive.”
What the hell was this bastard talking about?
“I asked because I could not understand why you suddenly decided to help Whirlwind Estate.”
Yong Soa had been an incomprehensible being in my previous life, like a distant star.
Even now, after we had grown close enough for me to know that he saw the future, I still could not understand what the bastard was thinking.
“Are you not going?”
“Why? Are you going too?”
“Was it not your intention to use me to stop this battle?”
Yong Soa put one of the sweets in his mouth and began walking in the direction Song Yeseol had gone.
I really had no idea what went on in that bastard’s head.
#
When we reached Whirlwind Estate’s Great Training Ground, its people had already drawn their swords and formed a semicircle around four Black Path martial artists, their faces filled with killing intent.
The four Black Path martial artists who had entered Whirlwind Estate, on the other hand, stood at ease without even drawing their weapons.
They looked like a pack of wild dogs trying to hunt a tiger.
“What kind of trick is this?!”
“Like I said, we have nothing to discuss with people like you.”
“What?!”
“We heard the Dragon-Phoenix Association arrived. We came to see them, so call them out.”
The people of Whirlwind Estate flushed red at the Black Path martial artists’ sneers.
“Oh, there they are now.”
When Yong Soa and I arrived, everyone’s attention turned toward us.
“You’re the Dragon-Phoenix Association, right? Come over and let’s talk. If it makes you uncomfortable, we can go outside instead.”
They were clearly disregarding Whirlwind Estate.
I had a rough idea of their intention.
They wanted to pressure Whirlwind Estate while using psychological warfare to separate the Dragon-Phoenix Association.
I did not answer.
Moving without considering Whirlwind Estate’s wishes while we were guests there would have been absurd.
Crunch.
Yong Soa bit into another sweet beside me.
When we did not move, the Black Path martial artists finally began to frown.
“Can’t you hear us? Or did you get scared?”
I picked at my ear as though I wondered where a dog was barking, and the man who had been speaking drew his sword.
Clang!
“Fine, so you want blood first! Works for me!”
Just as he started striding toward us,
“Wait!”
Gongsun Myeong shouted, then looked at me.
“Young Hero Jin, would you speak with them?”
“I’m worried we might bring trouble upon Whirlwind Estate.”
“Don’t worry. Even if you refuse, Whirlwind Estate has already been pushed to the brink.”
If he put it that way, I had no reason to refuse.
The people of Whirlwind Estate slowly opened a path for Yong Soa and me.
The Black Path bastards wore smug expressions.
“You should’ve done that from the start.”
As the Black Path bastard who had drawn his sword started to sheath it again,
“Why put it away? If you drew it, you should swing it.”
“…”
The Black Path martial artists’ faces froze, and a cold silence settled over the training ground.
“You…”
“If a man draws his sword, he should cut something before putting it away. Do you even have a pair of balls?”
Panic appeared on the Black Path martial artist’s face.
“Come to think of it, looking at that pathetic beard of yours, it’s obvious you don’t have both balls. Did you fail at becoming a eunuch and turn to the Black Path instead? Oh… Blood Heaven Fort even accepts eunuchs? For such a free-spirited sect, I didn’t expect it to be free of prejudice to this extent.”
“Y-Young Hero Jin…”
Gongsun Myeong seemed to say something, but he spoke so quietly that I could not hear a thing.
“Y-you little bean-sized brat…!”
“What are you going to do when you can’t even function as a man? Want to have a go?”
I rested my hand on my sword hilt and drew up my internal energy.
Internal energy equivalent to three and a half gapja, two hundred and ten years, surged visibly enough to burst through my martial robes, openly bearing down on them. Dust from the Great Training Ground rose and swallowed them.
When the dust settled, all four Black Path martial artists had drawn their weapons.
“Hehehe. What cowards. I thought only the Blood Heaven Fort bastard had no balls, but it looks like the bastards from the other sects don’t have any either?”
The four Black Path martial artists’ faces crumpled as if they had bitten into shit.
The Black Path bastards hated humiliation more than death. To them, this must have been like meeting their parents’ killer on a narrow bridge.
Yet none of them dared to charge in carelessly.
I had already crushed their spirit. It was time to talk.
“So, what did you want to discuss?”
“…”
The sages said one should always refine and choose one’s words carefully, because speech revealed the heart.
But that only applied when speaking to people.
When dealing with dogs, you naturally had to speak their language.
“Say something, you idiots. Did they cut off your tongues along with your balls?”
Their red faces gradually turned black.
Only the Blood Heaven Fort man barely managed to open his mouth.
“Th-this is a matter between Blood Heaven Fort and Whirlwind Estate. If the Martial Alliance intervenes, it could provoke conflict with the Black Alliance.”
I knew he would say that.
“So what?”
“…”
It was terribly difficult for a chivalrous hero, but some people understood harsh curses better than the words of sages.
“You brought men openly wearing the emblems of Manpa Estate, Jinpyeong Society, and Guigol Sect, and you call this a matter between Blood Heaven Fort and Whirlwind Estate? Do you bastards have nails hammered into your heads?”
It was hard to live in a world like this while saying only nice things.
“To begin with, Whirlwind Estate is an ally of the Martial Alliance. It’s only natural for the Dragon-Phoenix Association, which happened to be passing by, to help Whirlwind Estate.”
“Don’t you know that if the Martial Alliance gets involved, the Black Alliance will get involved as well?”
“Did Strategist Dam say that?”
“What?”
“I asked whether Strategist Dam said the Black Alliance would help if the Dragon-Phoenix Association joined the battle.”
“What are you…”
“Your Black Alliance’s Chief Strategist recently escaped from the Martial Alliance, right? I gave Dam Ak piggyback rides! Fed him! Slept in a cave with him! Fuck, I did everything! How dare a worthless nobody throw around the Black Alliance’s name!”
The Blood Heaven Fort man clearly had not imagined this at all. He blankly froze, then barely managed to speak.
“B-Black Flame Dragon?”
Why the fuck was that coming up here?
“What is that?”
“Your epithet…”
“I don’t have an epithet like that, you bastard!”
The man stared at me in confusion as he sorted out his thoughts, then asked again.
“J-Jin Seoun?”
“It’s Jin Sowoon, you bastard! Can’t you remember a three-syllable name?”
“Jin Seo… no, Jin Sowoon. Why are you here…?”
Look at this bastard changing his attitude.
And when had he ever met me to start calling me sir?
“You have a thousand men, yet you don’t even have a proper information network?”
“…”
Then again, all those Black Path sects without foundations that only increased their numbers without asking questions were the same.
“Hmm… Then you probably don’t know who this unpleasant bastard here is either?”
Crunch.
“This bastard who’s eating sweets without reading the situation is…”
Crunch.
“Yong Soa of the Wudang Sect.”
“!!!”
The Black Path bastards’ faces turned pale.
“Tell your Fort Lord this. If you touch Whirlwind Estate…”
Crunch.
“The Wudang Sect will step in.”
“…”
“What are you waiting for? Get lost already. What, do you each want a stab wound?”
The men who had swaggered in so confidently rushed through the gates as though competing to see who could leave first. They were so flustered that they could not even think to sheath their weapons.
After every last one of them disappeared, I turned lightly and gave a cupped-fist salute.
“Everyone, please do not worry. No matter what threats those bastards make, we will not leave Whirlwind Estate.”
“…”
I deliberately spoke energetically, but no one moved.
What was this? Had those pathetic bastards already overwhelmed them?
But that did not seem right either.
Everyone’s eyes were somehow fixed on me.
“…?”
What was wrong with them all…
Then,
“Honestly.”
The irritating bastard who could not read the mood casually spoke up.
“I cannot tell who belongs to the Black Path.”
Crunch.
What the hell was that lunatic saying while eating sweets?
Footnotes:
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