Chapter 90: Forming a New Blood Wind Squad (3)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 90: Forming a New Blood Wind Squad (3)
“If you have realized that much, you will soon be able to break through your wall. However, there is one thing you have overlooked, which is why your skills do not improve no matter how much you train yourself to death.”
As I spoke, everyone’s attention shifted toward me. Even a passing mutt would have looked my way.
What should I say to make this work? Damn it, I’m so nervous I can’t think.
I once asked Elder Third Rate, who always ate at our inn, how one could become strong. He gave me an answer back then, but it didn't really touch my heart at the time.
Back then, I only liked the kind of protagonists you see in martial arts novels—the ones who could lop off dozens of heads with a single stroke. I didn't care much for the stories of martial artists who won through gritty, unglamorous struggles.
But why was that story coming to mind now? I felt that the story of that specific martial artist was exactly what I needed at this moment.
“To break that wall, you must know of a certain martial artist. He is the legendary pugilist and the greatest warrior of his time: Master Jang Jeong-gu, the Seven-Falls-Eight-Rises Fist. He earned that title because he would rise eight times even if he fell seven times in a duel to claim victory. I have always thought that title was the most beautiful of all. To Master Jang Jeong-gu, the fist was his everything. That is why he carried a coffin with him whenever he went to a duel. He possessed the will to die rather than lose. Have you prepared a coffin for your sword as Master Jang did? Have you placed your life upon your single blade? Only when you consider your sword or your martial arts to be your everything will the wall you feel finally crumble.”
To others, Master Jang Jeong-gu might just be a master of the past, but to me, he was a hero.
Living in this world, I realized that unless I was some kind of genius, there was no way to live a brilliant life. If there was a way, it was to survive tenaciously through seven falls and eight rises, just like Master Jang. No matter what it took.
Only now did I realize that such a path was the most difficult and the most beautiful.
And there was a reason he was a hero to me. A hero isn't someone who shows off destructive power to instill fear; a hero is someone whose strength moves people's hearts.
As I spoke, I felt a lump in my throat. Sometimes, I even move myself.
Thank you, Elder Third Rate. Thanks to you, I’m escaping this crisis.
The memory of the time I listened to the story of Master Jang Jeong-gu from Elder Third Rate—so moved that I even shed tears—came back vividly.
The man stood still in a rigid posture, as if he had been struck by a bolt of lightning. He probably couldn't deny my words.
No matter how much you trained, did you really train and duel with death in mind? You couldn't, and that’s why you have nothing to say now.
I turned toward the Blood Wind Squad, who were looking at me with somewhat moved expressions as if they had finally received a satisfying answer. I gave my final word.
“If you enter the Hell Pavilion and train with this mindset, you will become legends. Just like Master Jang Jeong-gu of the Seven-Falls-Eight-Rises Fist. I shall look forward to that day.”
I scanned the area below the platform. Seeing Chief Woo’s eyes burning with rare enthusiasm, I thought my speech had been decent enough. Beside him, the woman named Seo Rin was stroking a white cat and smiling at me.
This is it. Don't ask me to swing a sword; ask me to wag my tongue. I’m good at that.
Having done my part, I prepared to step down from the platform. But had my bluffing been too effective? I suddenly felt a wave of embarrassment that made my hair stand on end.
“I request a duel with the Acting Squad Leader of the Blood Wind Squad, such a great master. I believe it would be a fine sight for the warriors of the Blood Wind Squad before they enter the Hell Pavilion.”
A woman’s melodious voice echoed across the vast training ground. You might ask how it could echo when there were no mountains around.
Damn it, it means she’s a master. Her internal power was so deep that her voice resonated like thunder.
I’m talking about that unlucky beauty who just challenged me to a duel. To gauge her skill, I looked at Chief Woo. I could tell her level just by his expression.
What? She’s a master? A top-tier one at that?
Chief Woo’s face went from a grimace to a look of despair as he looked at the woman. It was the face of someone who expected me to lose. If he knew my exaggerated strength and still thought I stood no chance against this beauty, then just what was her background?
As she walked forward, I felt the illusion of flower petals drifting through the air.
“This young girl is called Cho Maeryeong.”
As she stepped forward, a maidservant followed behind her, carrying a pipa.
What, is she a musician?
While I was thinking, Chief Woo’s secret sound transmission rushed into my ear.
[That woman is Cho Maeryeong, the 'Sound-Killing Flower' and disciple of the Fourth Chamber Leader, the Thousand Changes Phantom Demon Xue Bai. It is said that Xue Bai’s sound arts are the best in both the Orthodox and Unorthodox factions, and his disciple Cho Maeryeong has also reached the ranks of the elite. You must not accept her challenge. Above all, you must be careful because the Fourth Chamber Leader stands behind her.]
It seemed Chief Woo was saying that because he was certain I would lose to Cho Maeryeong. I’ll take that advice, as your judgment is correct.
“I am Eo Ja-seo, currently serving as the Acting Squad Leader of the Blood Wind Squad.”
I greeted her politely with a fist-and-palm salute. Before her lips, red as roses, could part, I struck first.
“I cannot accept your challenge.”
“And why is that?”
As she drew closer, I felt like I couldn't breathe. Up close, she was an incredible beauty. I finally understood the meaning of the phrase 'skin like ice and bones like jade.' Her skin was so translucent it felt like you could see right through it. Combined with her seductive aura, she was truly a 'bewitching creature.'
“Because I do not wish to dampen the morale of the Blood Wind Squad with a duel on the very day they enter the Hell Pavilion for training.”
I tried to leave quickly after giving a plausible excuse. However, women like her always had a tendency to want to keep the situation under their control.
“Do the warriors of the Blood Wind Squad feel the same? Would a duel between me and your Acting Squad Leader here be a distraction?”
“Not at all!”
The bastards of the Blood Wind Squad seemed to be secretly looking forward to a duel between me and Cho Maeryeong, perhaps wanting to see my true skills.
“See? They say it’s fine. What excuse will you use this time?”
She had anticipated my move and provoked me further. Just as I was about to refuse again with another salute, Cho Maeryeong’s voice pierced my ear via sound transmission.
[It is not the way of a man to run away when a lady requests a duel. If you want to flee, leave your two central weights with me first. Then I shall let you go.]
My face flushed at those words. 'Central weights' was a euphemism for a man’s manhood. For a woman to send such a transmission with a beaming smile showed just how brazen Cho Maeryeong was.
She wasn't just brazen; she was cunning.
Cho Maeryeong would surely have succeeded even if she had practiced seductive arts instead of sound arts.
While I hesitated for a moment at her words, Cho Maeryeong immediately followed up.
“Young Hero Eo has just accepted my challenge via sound transmission. Then, I shall attack first. I have set a melody to the poem 'Early Rising' by Li Shangyin of the Tang Dynasty. Would you like to hear how it sounds?”
Without giving me a chance to make an excuse or say anything else, Cho Maeryeong took the pipa from her maid and began to pluck the strings.
Damn it, I’m trapped. I’ll be lucky if I don't end up humiliated.
I glared at Chief Woo, who had no solution even as things reached this point, as if I wanted to kill him. Shouldn't a strategist be able to predict this kind of situation? Sensing my gaze, Chief Woo subtly turned his head away. It was a gesture of surrender, as if he were saying he didn't know what to do anymore.
As Cho Maeryeong played the beautiful melody, the lesser martial artists had to cover their ears. But the sound was specifically directed at me. I trembled for a moment at the terrifying sensation, as if a wave ten chang high was crashing down on me. I finally understood the saying that sound arts could kill a person with a smile.
As Cho Maeryeong’s seductive voice flowed along the pipa’s melody, I felt a heavy pressure.
A chilly dew and wind on an early spring morning,
A person rises alone between the curtains.
The orioles cry and the flowers smile,
But in the end, whose spring is this?
To counter Cho Maeryeong’s sound arts, I circulated the internal energy of my Circulating Dantian, and the pressure significantly decreased. As my mind cleared and I savored her poem, I realized the last line—'it is not my spring'—was a roundabout way of telling me that this was not my place and that I should know my station and leave.
No matter how unrefined I might be, I was still more educated than most crude swordsmen, so I could easily grasp that much.
Hearing the poem, my stubbornness flared up. I straightened my back, determined not to lose. Cho Maeryeong seemed surprised when I stood tall and withstood her sound arts. Since she was directing most of her sonic waves at me, seeing me handle it so leisurely seemed to wound her pride.
Ting! Tiri-ring!
Cho Maeryeong plucked the strings even harder. The waves became mountains and lunged at me. I wished I knew a grand poem to recite at a time like this, but having lived a life of survival, I never had the leisure to memorize poetry. I only remembered poems that sounded like the ramblings of a failed scholar.
It was a problem that I didn't know the common 'Song of the Pipa' or 'Song of Everlasting Regret' that everyone else seemed to know a few lines of. I wanted to recite the poem the Failed Scholar always mumbled when he was drunk, but it didn't fit the atmosphere at all. Reciting such a poem would be a perfect way to get beaten up.
I found out later that there was a specific reason the Failed Scholar became a drunkard. He drank every day out of sorrow and recited that poem until it was engraved in my ears. But come to think of it, wasn't that poem perfect for right now? I had to flip Cho Maeryeong’s stomach inside out to make her stop this sound art.
By now, many of the Blood Wind Squad warriors in the training ground could no longer endure by just covering their ears; they were sitting in the lotus position, circulating their energy to resist the sound. Even the spectators had begun to counter the sound arts with their own internal energy.
On one hand, it was a duel with me, but I could see it was also a ploy to disturb the energy and internal power of the Blood Wind Squad to prevent them from training properly. Only the masters with pure internal energy watched the confrontation between me and Cho Maeryeong with great interest.
And come to think of it, I also knew how to use sound arts. Didn't I have the 'Draw Sword Instant Kill' of the 'Life Claiming Style,' one of my Three Ultimate Techniques that I realized while trying to master the Six Harmonies Voice Transmission? Didn't I have my own martial art created by modifying the Lion’s Roar?
Since I had to block Cho Maeryeong’s sound arts here, I responded with a Lion’s Roar. I let out the roar and recited the poem.
The reason I had hesitated to recite this poem was that it was a song satirizing Duke Ling of Chen, who had an affair with Xia Ji, the wife of the Great Officer Xia Shu-ying, after his death. In short, the poem 'Zhu Lin' was a song about Xia Ji’s lewdness.
I learned later that the Failed Scholar became a drunkard because when he returned to his hometown after taking the civil service exam, he found his wife had run off with another man, turning him into a broken man.
What are you doing in the forest of Zhu?
Following Xia Nan.
It's not the forest of Zhu I seek,
But Xia Nan.
I drive my horse and carriage,
And rest in the fields of Zhu.
I ride my team of four colts,
And eat my breakfast in Zhu.
If I were a cool protagonist of a martial arts novel, I would have responded to Cho Maeryeong’s poem with a beautiful one of my own, but there was no way I would know such a thing.
The poem thundered across the training ground. Cho Maeryeong’s pipa melody and my Lion’s Roar tangled in the air, creating a deafening roar. But as I recited this poem with my Lion’s Roar, Cho Maeryeong’s pipa melody became unstable.
It wasn't that my Lion’s Roar overwhelmed her sound arts; rather, it seemed Cho Maeryeong was shaken by the poem itself. Her face turned beet red.
“Ho ho ho! To be told so openly to commit adultery... that cold and fierce girl is finally flustered. In essence, he turned a virgin into the lewd Xia Ji, so if her heart isn't shaken, she isn't a woman. What an excellent choice of poetry.”
An old man spoke, unbothered by Cho Maeryeong’s sound arts or my Lion’s Roar. Come to think of it, since this wasn't one of the Nine Great Sects or an Orthodox sect, responding with such a poem wasn't considered a flaw. Instead, they praised my choice of poetry for causing psychological agitation in Cho Maeryeong.
I had forgotten. This was the Nine Demons Chamber.
Ting! Ting! Ting!
The strings of Cho Maeryeong’s pipa snapped one after another. At the same time, I stopped my Lion’s Roar.
“To counter Cho Maeryeong’s sound arts with a Lion’s Roar... his internal power is truly deep.”
“To think Cho Maeryeong’s pipa would break. What kind of master could snap her strings?”
“I never thought I’d live to see Cho Maeryeong lose.”
People everywhere were buzzing about the duel. It seemed surprising that I had won against a master of sound arts like Cho Maeryeong.
“To see the Sound-Killing Flower Cho Maeryeong defeated so miserably. The sound arts that humbled the disciples of the Second and Fifth Chamber Leaders were so easily broken by that man.”
As everyone focused on Cho Maeryeong’s defeat, I realized this wouldn't do. A bad omen radiated from Cho Maeryeong’s face, suggesting that if I offended her any further, something terrible would happen to me during my stay at the Nine Demons Chamber.
I bit my tongue. Enduring this pain was the only way for me to live a peaceful life. As the blood from my bitten tongue filled my mouth, I sprayed it into the air and acted as if I were staggering.
A master with strong pride and dignity would never do such a thing. If you win, you win; why act as if it were a draw? But someone who hasn't lived as a weakling wouldn't understand.
There are times when winning is worse than losing.