WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: Chen
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◈ The Martial Genius who Remembers Everything ◈
Chapter 493: Shadows of the Sunset (6)
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What would happen if a rumor spread that Ggaeddong’s family had a yard full of buried gold sycees?
Even if Ggaeddong’s family had always been dirt poor, surviving on one meal a day earned through begging, people would become interested in their yard.
Even if Ggaeddong’s father, finding it harder to beg, insisted there was absolutely, absolutely nothing buried in their yard, would anyone accept that as the truth?
That was my current situation.
No matter how strongly I argued that the Sword Tomb was a trap laid by the Demonic Cult, the moment real treasures were found inside as they planned, the eyes of the entire martial world would turn toward the Sword Tomb.
A martial artist’s obsession with strength was fiercer and more intense than people’s obsession with gold.
There was no stopping the people who would gather at the Sword Tomb anyway.
In that case.
‘I’d rather turn the Demonic Cult bastards’ plan into a complete mess.’
I looked into Yang Gunbaek’s eyes and smiled faintly.
“The Sword Tomb’s location and an interior map. Don’t you think that would make money?”
“……”
Yang Gunbaek stared at me blankly, as though stunned senseless.
“Young Master Jin……”
Then Yang Gunbaek spoke with a serious expression.
“Are you trying to ruin the Hao Sect?”
Huh?
“False information is an intelligence organization’s greatest weakness.”
……That wasn’t what I meant.
“I know, but it’s real.”
“……What?”
“Do you know Do Gwangsu?”
“Who is that?”
As expected, there was no way they would know some petty thief.
“He’s the thief who stole the Sword Tomb treasure map from Dark Fragrance Heavenly Elder and Five Luminaries Under Heaven, then ran away.”
“Wh-what?”
“I helped him and got the treasure map.”
Yang Gunbaek’s voice began to shake.
“C-can I see it?”
“He took it back.”
“……”
That disappointment was written all over their face.
“Did you forget that I have a good memory?”
“Ah!!!!”
Yang Gunbaek nearly threw their arms around me, then quickly came to their senses and cleared their throat.
Were they always this dramatic about their feelings?
“Ahem, cough. R-right. Young Master, you possess an excellent memory.”
“What do you think? Won’t it make money?”
Yang Gunbaek rested their chin on a hand.
They looked deep in thought.
“Young Master, may I ask why you want to sell that treasure map?”
They asked because they knew exactly what a Sword Tomb treasure map meant.
“Because it’s a trap.”
“……What?”
“I’m selling it because it’s definitely a trap.”
“……”
It did not matter how well Ggaeddong’s family had lived before, or how long they had lived there.
What mattered was that a rumor had spread saying there was gold buried in their yard.
“You said the source of the rumors couldn’t be found, and that unexplained massacres were taking place across the country, correct?”
“That could just be a strange occurrence……”
Yang Gunbaek might have gathered a great deal of information about what was happening now, but I knew what would happen in the future.
“Don’t you think the timing is too perfect for that?”
“……”
“Besides, why would the legacies of the Sword Venerable and the Black King emerge at this exact time?”
“???”
“Doesn’t it look like someone is aiming for a clash between the Martial Alliance and the Black Alliance?”
The person who spread the rumor about the gold would know.
Whether it was true or false, Ggaeddong’s yard and house would be completely torn apart in the end.
“I feel like the story itself is filled with countless traps, starting with the rumor. Don’t you think so too, Branch Leader?”
“……”
Yang Gunbaek rested their chin on a hand again.
“Who do you think did this, and why?”
I asked in return.
“Who could it be?”
Yang Gunbaek was more than capable of answering that much.
Their eyes trembled violently before they finally answered with what sounded like a sigh.
“The Demonic Cult?”
As expected of Yang Gunbaek.
“That’s what I think.”
“……”
Yang Gunbaek said nothing for a long while after hearing my answer.
Fear of an unseen entity was no different from the faith of someone who believed in conspiracy theories.
Still, anyone who had experienced a horrific hell knew.
In a world where hell had unfolded, only those who prepared for the worst ever survived.
I did not say anything more.
This was not something I could make more convincing simply by talking longer.
In the end, Yang Gunbaek had to make a judgment based on their own information.
After biting their lip for a long time, Yang Gunbaek cautiously opened their mouth.
“I see. How do you plan to sell it?”
What kind of reaction was that?
“……You believe me?”
“To be honest, I’m not sure. I don’t usually believe in absurd conspiracy theories.”
“Then why?”
“Still…… I believe in you, Young Master Jin.”
Yang Gunbaek continued.
“I was taught that when you cannot trust information, trust people.”
Yang Gunbaek’s gaze shone almost unnaturally brightly.
Then Yang Gunbaek asked another question.
“Hmm…… But if you think the Sword Tomb is a trap, shouldn’t you stop people from going inside?”
“Even if I told you it was a trap, could you lose interest in it, Branch Leader?”
Yang Gunbaek answered with a groan.
“……No, I couldn’t.”
“What’s more, the actual legacies of the Sword Venerable and the Black King will be found inside. Or perhaps incredible treasures as well.”
“……Then that means it isn’t a trap, does it?”
I brought ink and paper, then drew the treasure map Do Gwangsu had possessed exactly as I remembered it.
“If they take back more than they put out, what else could you call that but a trap?”
Yang Gunbaek carefully took the map and let out a small groan after seeing its layout.
“I see.”
“We won’t be able to stop those blinded by greed anyway. In that case, wouldn’t it be better to let everyone know and make preparations beforehand, so we can prevent innocent casualties?”
The Demonic Cult probably intended to release the treasure maps little by little to establish the credibility of the information.
There was no way I would just watch that happen.
I intended to spread so many of them that even the stray dogs in town would be carrying a Sword Tomb treasure map in their mouths.
“Oh, right! I forgot the cipher.”
“A cipher?”
“It seems to state the location of the Sword Tomb.”
I wrote down the Sword Tomb’s location, which was not on the original treasure map and which the Demonic Cult still wanted to keep hidden.
Of the three giants living north at the end of the world, only the giant with a head full of white hair had realized the myriad forms of black and white.
For the record, I had come up with it just before arriving at the branch office.
I couldn’t think of an easier way to describe Great Snow Mountain, located between the Qilian Mountains and Mingsha Mountain near Yumen Pass in Gansu Province.
I made it as simple as possible to suit the level of the Sojeong Unit bastards, whose entire education consisted of nothing beyond the Thousand Character Classic.
By their standards, even a slightly clever dog should be able to solve it.
Sure enough.
“!”
Yang Gunbaek, who was smarter than average, seemed to have already figured it out.
I began making a detailed plan with Yang Gunbaek to distribute the treasure maps.
You damned Demonic Cult bastards.
Let’s see how you like guests arriving before you’re even done preparing.
If a feast people had eagerly anticipated was not properly prepared, calming their anger would not be easy.
Kahahaha.
#
Around the time rumors of the Sword Tomb began spreading through the martial world, the Martial Alliance and martial sects that heard the rumors quickly began making preparations.
Those with access to high-level intelligence already knew that Sword Tomb treasure maps were circulating in the market.
At the same time, opinions were divided over where exactly the Sword Tomb might be.
Before investigating its interior, they first had to find its location.
“It’s in Shanxi. Taewon in Shanxi is where the Sword Venerable and the Black King fought their final battle. The Sword Tomb must be there.”
“No, if they shared a tomb, wouldn’t they have been buried in their hometown of Jiangxi? There is a famous mountain called Oghwa Mountain near Jingzhou. Why would they go all the way to Shanxi Province, the Black Alliance’s front yard?”
They thought that even without a treasure map, whoever found the Sword Tomb first could monopolize the treasures inside.
The sects therefore reorganized the people they would mobilize to investigate the Sword Tomb while sending people everywhere to frantically search likely locations.
Even those who happened to obtain a treasure map first were not in a much different situation.
They had information about the inside of the Sword Tomb, but without its location, the map was almost worthless.
For some reason, whenever a treasure map changed hands, rumors kept spreading about who possessed it.
No matter how thoroughly someone eliminated witnesses or shook off their pursuers, word of the treasure map’s whereabouts would eventually spread and make its presence known.
“I heard a fellow named Do Gwangsu stole the treasure map from Dark Fragrance Heavenly Elder.”
“Isn’t Dark Fragrance Heavenly Elder a master? What the hell is Do Gwangsu?”
“He’s just a third-rate thief. I heard he got lucky and obtained the treasure map during a fight between masters.”
The bamboo-hatted figure who had been eating noodles abruptly rose from their seat and left the inn before even filling their stomach.
“Jin Sowoon, you bastard……”
The bamboo-hatted figure spat out a curse and was about to disappear into the crowd.
“Hey, Do Gwangsu.”
“!!!”
Do Gwangsu tried to flee at once, but a group surrounded him.
At the same time, those who had dispatched people to gather information began witnessing a strange phenomenon.
Many martial artists were gradually moving north.
“What’s going on all of a sudden? Is the Mount Hua Sect holding some kind of festival?”
“They’re pretending otherwise, but their destination has been revealed to be Gansu. There is no reason to stop by Sichuan when heading to Shaanxi Province.”
“What’s in Gansu?”
“They say the Sword Tomb is there.”
“……”
It made no sense for people little better than wanderers to have identified the Sword Tomb’s location and begun moving when even those holding high-level intelligence had not yet figured it out.
“They must have been taken in by some strange false rumor and decided they had nothing to lose.”
Still.
As time passed, more and more people began heading for Gansu Province.
Then the treasure maps distributed by Jin Sowoon and the Hao Sect began to circulate, causing rumors about the Sword Tomb to spread even faster.
“This is the treasure map obtained from a thief named Do Gwangsu…… supposedly. And this one is a treasure map being sold at an antique shop.”
Maeng Juwon laid out two treasure maps.
One was an old, faded leather map, while the other was a fresh bamboo-slip map whose ink had not even dried yet.
The suspicious bamboo-slip map contained a clumsy cipher that even a turtle in a pond could solve.
Of the three giants living north at the end of the world, only the giant with a head full of white hair had realized the myriad forms of black and white.
“Do you think this is real?”
At Jegal Somyeong’s question, Maeng Juwon scratched their head.
“Of course I think it’s fake, but the treasure maps themselves are identical.”
“……”
That was the problem.
The bamboo-slip map was identical to the leather treasure map. The moment Jegal Somyeong saw the two maps together, they immediately understood.
“It is as though it is telling us that the Sword Tomb is fake.”
A loud alarm rang in their mind.
They had a feeling that something terrible would happen if this was left alone.
“But now that curiosity about the Sword Tomb has spread, we cannot stop them all.”
Jegal Somyeong pressed a hand to their brow.
After the recent Demon-Subduing Madman incident, the situation was already difficult enough. It felt as though they were holding a Thunderclap Bomb with a lit fuse against their chest.
Now, a suspicious tomb called the Sword Tomb had appeared as well. Their head was about to explode.
They could not simply do nothing.
“Send warnings about the Sword Tomb to every alliance, and tell them not to act rashly.”
“Will they listen, even if we do that?”
“They won’t. That is why we must at least issue a warning. The Martial Alliance is declaring that it will not take responsibility.”
Maeng Juwon shook their head after hearing that.
If the Martial Alliance could free itself of responsibility that easily, it would have been free long ago.
“Instead of doing that, why not select people from the Martial Alliance and have them enter with the others?”
People had to be mobilized to deliver warnings anyway.
If they carefully selected the investigators to deploy and sent them into the Sword Tomb with the others?
At the very least, they might be able to stop those who knew nothing from rushing blindly into a death trap.
“Hmm……”
Jegal Somyeong considered it briefly, then nodded.
“Not a bad idea. Prepare accordingly.”
“Understood.”
“I hope there is nothing inside.”
Even grave warnings from the Martial Alliance were instinctively ignored in the face of treasure. That was the nature of martial artists.
Jegal Somyeong rose wearily and walked toward the window.
The sunset hanging over the western mountains cast long shadows, covering Wuhan in darkness.
“……Did they say that the brighter the sun, the longer the shadows at sunset?”
For some reason, the sunset before their eyes felt like the Martial Alliance, its strength nearly spent.
Footnotes:
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