WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 480: Each One’s Purpose (4)
──────
“Young Master Jin… is this really the kind of person you are?”
Song Yeseol’s disappointed tone caught me off guard.
I’d heard that one should beware of becoming a demon while fighting demons, but being indistinguishable from those Black Path bastards was a bit much.
Just as I was lamenting it,
“Hehe, I’m joking.”
She smiled innocently, as though nothing had happened.
“Still… I think I understand why your epithet hasn’t changed.”
“Please tell me.”
“Pardon?”
“Why hasn’t my epithet changed?”
It was an abrupt question, but it was very important to me.
“Ahaha.”
For some reason, Song Yeseol laughed even harder.
“Haah, I really shouldn’t keep laughing at a time like this.”
As she spoke, she lightly patted my arm.
“Still, I think everyone feels much more at ease thanks to you, Young Master.”
In the end, she never answered what I really wanted to know.
“Maybe it helps just knowing that someone is willing to curse freely on our behalf.”
Following Song Yeseol’s gaze, I saw the people of Whirlwind Estate quietly talking among themselves, their expressions much more relaxed.
Some of them were even laughing.
It was a far cry from the earlier atmosphere, steeped in vague fear and despair.
Then,
Bang! Bang!
Bang! Bang!
The gates shook violently.
The pleasant mood turned cold in an instant, and the color drained from Song Yeseol’s face.
My energy sense had already detected those outside, so I reassured her.
“Don’t worry. You can open the gates.”
“Pardon?”
The people gathered outside Whirlwind Estate were not Black Path martial artists.
The gates slowly opened.
“Huh? Why are you all here?”
Nearly forty children around fifteen stood before the entrance, holding their favored weapons and torches, ready to fight.
“Kids!”
“““Eldest Senior Sister!!!!”””
“What happened here?!”
“We heard Blood Heaven Fort attacked! We’ll fight with you!”
“What are you talking about…?”
The children all spoke with shining eyes.
“We’re disciples of Whirlwind Estate too. Please let us protect Whirlwind Estate!”
“Didn’t you say that a true martial artist is someone willing to lay down their life to protect what they must? Please let us protect Whirlwind Estate too…!”
“Whirlwind Estate is our only family. Please don’t make us cowards who run away while our family is in danger.”
The adults of Whirlwind Estate could not hide their shock at the sight of them.
Some of the men secretly wiped away tears, and Song Yeseol’s eyes had already brimmed with moisture.
“You idiots! You fools! What is Whirlwind Estate worth…?!”
Song Yeseol smacked the back of the nearest child again and again.
It wasn’t because she was proud that a child had made a decision even adults found difficult.
Nor was it because she blamed the child’s innocence in not knowing the fear of death.
She was worried by their selflessness, by how they placed Whirlwind Estate above their own lives.
It was self-loathing anger at the thought of a child willing to sacrifice themself.
Did the sight of a child swallowing saliva as they endured their hunger and held out a rice ball not tear at an adult’s heart?
The child didn’t even dodge the blows. Instead, they clung to Song Yeseol’s arm, tears welling up in their eyes.
“I don’t want to run away while Eldest Senior Sister fights alone. If I do… I think I’ll regret it for the rest of my life.”
“Sniff…”
In the end, Song Yeseol pulled the child into an embrace, leaving tear stains on their back.
As if to comfort her, the others gathered around them one by one, wrapping the pair in layer after layer of embraces.
Like flowers blooming in sorrow, they shared each other’s warmth for a long while.
“…Yong Soa, you asked why I was helping Whirlwind Estate, didn’t you?”
Yong Soa had apparently finished all his sweets. He held only a long skewer.
“Look over there.”
Ironically, Gye Cheolyeong, who had taken everything from the Taeul Sect, fled under the excuse of a mission when the Taeul Sect needed him most.
The disciples who ran to save the Taeul Sect then…
They had been children affiliated with the Taeul Sect simply to receive a meal.
Like the Taeul Sect children, the children who attended Whirlwind Estate for an extra meal had also come running without hesitation.
Beyond food, Whirlwind Estate had given those children something of value. They considered it more precious than their own lives, so they returned without hesitation.
“That is why I’m helping Whirlwind Estate.”
Yong Soa, who had been watching Song Yeseol and the children, shook his head.
“More accurately, you aren’t helping them. You intimidated the enemy by putting the Wudang Sect forward. If I had to put it another way, it was a fox borrowing a tiger’s might, a fox using borrowed tiger might, or a fox borrowing a tiger’s authority.”
“…”
What was that?
I’d just made what seemed like a very important statement about the values of the righteous path.
“Was I wrong?”
It was true, but I didn’t want to accept it so easily.
I refuted him head-on.
“No, more accurately, it was using barbarians to subdue barbarians. You could also call it killing two birds with one stone.”
Yong Soa stared at me for a moment before turning away.
“Childish.”
What was he talking about?
He was the one who had repeated the same thing three times.
#
The children eventually went home.
Many of them sat down or threw themselves onto the ground, refusing to leave, but after Gongsun Myeong appeared among the troubled adults and spoke firmly, they could no longer throw a tantrum.
“From this moment on, anyone who appears at Whirlwind Estate before being called back will be expelled as a disciple!”
“M-Master!”
“Master! Please let us fight too!”
No matter how desperately they pleaded, they could not send fragile children into battle.
Gongsun Myeong turned away firmly, and the adults of Whirlwind Estate had no choice but to send the children outside and lock the gates.
The children’s cries continued from beyond the gates for a long time.
“May I speak with you for a moment?”
At Gongsun Myeong’s request, I followed him to a pavilion in a corner of Whirlwind Estate.
“The bold spirit Young Hero Jin showed may intimidate them, but it will not stop the battle.”
He was certain they would attack anyway, even after hearing that the Wudang Sect stood with us?
“Why do you think so?”
“Blood Heaven Fort has invested too much in this matter.”
“What do you mean by invested?”
“Among the moneylenders around Kaifeng, there isn’t one who has not lent money to Blood Heaven Fort.”
Hearing that only made things more confusing.
Whirlwind Estate was not the only side staking everything on this battle.
“Um… could you tell me why Blood Heaven Fort is so fixated on Whirlwind Estate?”
I couldn’t understand why Blood Heaven Fort would need to borrow money from moneylenders just to attack Whirlwind Estate.
The bullshit excuse that they wanted it as a Black Path base didn’t make sense from the start.
The interests Whirlwind Estate possessed were insignificant even within Kaifeng.
“…Ahem.”
After hesitating, Gongsun Myeong spoke carefully.
“A few years ago, a landslide caused by heavy rains struck Whirlwind Estate’s ancestral mountain. …And a gold vein was discovered then.”
“What?!”
“We tried to suppress the rumor quickly, but I believe it must have spread.”
What kind of gold vein was revealed by heavy rains? That meant the deposits had to be enormous…
“Young Hero Jin?”
“Ah! Yes… Sorr, slurp… y.”
“…”
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“It seemed as though your eyes were shining…”
“I think that happens sometimes as my internal energy cultivation deepens.”
“It didn’t feel like that…”
Everything fell into place.
If it was a gold vein, wasn’t it only natural that Blood Heaven Fort and other Black Path sects would come rushing in with greed in their eyes?
“Anyway… we had kept this hidden from the Martial Alliance and our White Path brethren, so we couldn’t reveal it now.”
They said that when wealth came in, trouble always came with it.
Whirlwind Estate had tried to hide a treasure it could not handle, but its shine had been too bright. In the end, it caught people’s eyes.
Still, something felt strange.
“Why are you telling me this?”
The Dragon-Phoenix Association had already decided to stay and fight with them. Would revealing the truth now not only increase their troubles?
“Do you happen to have one silver tael?”
“I don’t!”
“…?”
Without realizing it, I reacted to the mention of money…
Realizing my mistake, I quickly corrected myself.
“Ah! Sorry. It just slipped out. Here, I have one silver tael. But why do you ask?”
Gongsun Myeong muttered quietly.
“I knew you were obsessed with money, but I didn’t realize it was to this extent…”
Tch. He was judging me too quickly over one small mistake.
Anyway, after taking the silver tael, Gongsun Myeong put it into his sleeve.
I barely managed to keep the question, What are you doing right now? from coming out of my throat.
Then Gongsun Myeong took two envelopes from inside his robes and handed them to me.
“What are these?”
“The deed to the ancestral mountain.”
“???”
“And this is the document stating that it was sold for one silver tael.”
What kind of insane…
He continued in a detached voice.
“If Whirlwind Estate falls, please take in the children who have nowhere to go at the Taeul Sect. If they cannot become formal disciples, then please at least let them work as attendants at nearby shops. If anyone survives this battle, I ask that you look after them as well. That is all I want from this transaction.”
“…”
Even if I built every person in Whirlwind Estate a palace and gave them enough money to live in luxury forever, it would not compare to the value of those documents.
Yet in handing over such an enormous treasure, Gongsun Myeong asked only for protection.
“…I believe it is worth that much.”
I shook my head and handed the envelopes back.
“That probably won’t happen. Please keep these, Master. And return my tael as well.”
But Gongsun Myeong did not take the envelopes.
“Please keep them, Young Hero Jin. I wish to fight without any reservations as well.”
“…Why entrust them to me? There are people from Whirlwind Estate too.”
He spoke apologetically, but this was a transaction that would grant the recipient immeasurable wealth.
“Yeseol told me about you. It is because you possess more righteousness than any hero I have seen and more courage than any warrior I have known. I have also seen the path you have walked, so I believe I can entrust those left behind to you.”
He added as though making a final request.
“If the battle worsens and the Dragon-Phoenix Association is placed in danger, please leave this place without delay.”
He looked at me with steady eyes.
“For the sake of our children, I do not want you to die here.”
And then…
“…”
Before even a day had passed, his words came true.
Nearly three thousand Black Path martial artists gathered around Whirlwind Estate.
#
Whirlwind Estate’s preparations for war were fairly simple.
The people of Whirlwind Estate used the walls surrounding the Great Training Ground as terrain and deployed their unique sword formation, the Whirlwind Flying-Swallow Sword Formation.
The Dragon-Phoenix Association formed the White Tiger Sword Formation before them.
Since everyone had deployed it once in Mukrim, their movements fit together reasonably well without needing further discussion.
And we placed Yong Soa before them, the Wudang Sect’s treasure and the Martial Alliance’s Green Jade.
“Do you truly think this formation can withstand three thousand people?”
The Green Jade was talking. Pointlessly.
“With this great a difference in numbers, formations are already meaningless. Psychological warfare would be better.”
Even if they packed themselves tightly around Whirlwind Estate, they would not be able to use all three thousand men.
Even if they were rootless Black Path trash, that many people could sufficiently make up for the gap in internal energy.
“I wonder whether they will fall for such childish psychological warfare.”
I wasn’t actually curious how the Blood Heaven Fort bastards would respond.
Rather…
What I was curious about was Yong Soa.
Even when I ordered him to do something in which he was clearly being used, he quietly carried it out while eating sweets without complaint.
The more he did that, the more curious I became about Yong Soa’s purpose.
“Hey, sweet tooth. Aren’t you doing this because you know we’ll win in the end too?”
“…I do not know what you mean. I told you clearly, did I not? I saw nothing.”
Even when I tested him, I couldn’t get the answer I wanted.
But I no longer had time to pay attention to Yong Soa.
Waaaaaaah!!!!
Waaaaaaah!!!!
The Black Path martial artists began charging with cheers that seemed capable of shaking heaven and earth.
#
Leading three thousand men straight into close combat was, in a way, a perfect display of the Black Path martial artists’ characteristic boldness.
Or maybe they simply didn’t have the brains to devise another strategy.
The iron-reinforced shields prepared for a rain of arrows became useless in an instant.
The Black Path martial artists ran desperately toward Whirlwind Estate.
“Waaaaah! Open the way!”
“Open the way!”
There was plainly a gate, yet they climbed the walls and trees, trying to make their own paths inside.
“Then that only makes things better for us.”
Crack.
The locked gates quickly began to split apart. Soon they shattered, and people poured through like water rushing through a collapsed dam.
“A gift for the one who arrived first!”
Rumble.
The power of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm gathered in my hand stirred violently.
There was no need to reduce its aftereffects as usual or control its destructive power.
Even if I fired with my eyes closed, some bastard would be hit.
The ominous vibration in the air intensified, and just as the Black Path martial artists sensed that something was wrong,
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!
The Mad Heaven Divine Palm shot forth far larger than usual, erasing a portion of space itself. The explosion swallowed even their screams as it shook heaven and earth.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!
When the massive explosion of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm faded, silence fell over the battlefield that had been filled with madness only moments ago.
“W-What the hell was that…?”
“F-Fuck. Nobody told us about this!”
Before fear could spread,
Rumble.
The Mad Heaven Divine Palm shot forth once more.
Kwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwakwang!
Stuffed full of internal energy, the Mad Heaven Divine Palm unleashed its original destructive power without restraint and tore everything apart in every direction.
The one who had charged forward first vanished from the battlefield first.
“C-Crazy!”
“W-What kind of battle is this?!”
“He’s a master! Fuck… I’ve never seen palm force like that!”
An undisciplined force collapsed quickly even under an unexpected minor attack.
Those street thugs had never even sparred among themselves, much less trained as a group. No matter how many of them there were, they were still thugs.
An untrained beast moved only on instinct.
When I released killing intent toward the frightened beasts, those who had been frozen in place began running away at once.
“A-Aaah!”
“M-Move! Get out of the way!”
The aftermath of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm was practically an area attack. Even while fleeing, it made them want to flee farther.
The countless men numbering nearly three thousand only worsened the confusion of those in the rear, who had no idea what was happening ahead.
“Urk!”
“Aaagh!”
After two strikes of the Mad Heaven Divine Palm, the Black Path bastards tangled together and threw everything into chaos.
The fools who had rushed in without even distinguishing units now trampled their former companions as they fled, leaving a growing number of injured behind.
Yong Soa, who had finished his sweets beside me, threw his skewer and subdued a charging Black Path martial artist.
“Do not lower your guard. Those accustomed to the law of the strong devouring the weak can quickly change their mood with just one powerful commander.”
Yong Soa spoke as though he were telling me something new.
I could already sense powerful presences leisurely joining the battlefield one by one.
Seven figures on horseback appeared atop a hill.
Even from afar, I could clearly feel their overwhelming, fierce energy.
Did the Fort Lord borrow every last bit of money and hire masters?
Then again, if he had not, he would not have dared attack the Dragon-Phoenix Association while the Wudang Sect’s Yong Soa was present.
While four of their energies were roughly equal, the other three were clearly different.
The four were probably representatives from their respective sects, while the remaining three had been hired.
“Attention!!!”
When Fort Lord Bang Chunheon unleashed a resounding Lion’s Roar, the Black Path martial artists all turned in one direction as though time had stopped.
“From this moment onward, anyone who flees will be beheaded where they stand!!!”
At his words, dozens of additional riders poured out from behind him and spread out widely around the Black Path martial artists.
Their targets were none other than the Black Path martial artists themselves.
Aaargh!
Urk!
Those who tried to flee despite Bang Chunheon’s warning had their heads ruthlessly cut off by the spear-wielding riders.
Fountains of blood burst from severed necks and stopped the fleeing Black Path martial artists in their tracks.
Blood Heaven Fort’s elite, the Blood Spear Unit.
The Blood Spear Unit, the very embodiment of terror to White Path martial artists, was now targeting Black Path martial artists instead.
“Go and take the heads of Whirlwind Estate! Victory or death, those are the only choices left to you!”
The wavering Black Path mob began moving toward Whirlwind Estate again.
“Now it begins.”
Yong Soa readied the Whirlwind Sword Art and turned to me.
“Are you not using that crude palm art again?”
Do you know how much internal energy the Mad Heaven Divine Palm consumed at maximum output?
I had to save some internal energy if I wanted to fight too.
“I have a better way to deal with them.”
Bang! Bang!
The walls collapsed, and people poured around the gates.
“A better way? Then use it quickly.”
It was an extremely effective method, the best possible method that did not consume much internal energy.
“I’ll show you.”
Namely,
“Hoo-!”
Sun Tzu’s Art of War, Thirty-Six Stratagems, Third Stratagem:
“Over here…!”
Kill with a Borrowed Knife.
“Yong Soa is here! Yong Soa is right here!!!!!”
“…”
“Capture this bastard, and the greatest reward awaits you!!!”
My Lion’s Roar, louder than the one Bang Chunheon had unleashed, tore through the heart of the battlefield.
Footnotes:
Join our discord at https://dsc.gg/wetried
