The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 101

Chapter 101. The ‘Third’ Trial of the Hell Regular Exam (4)

Whenever the Hell Regular Exam began, countless people gathered in Nanyue.

The martial duel tournament held at the Third Trial was a spectacle that even people with no connection to the murim had to see at least once in their lives, and at the same time, it was one of the essential places that gossip-loving idlers had to visit in search of stories to go with their wine.

Because not only the people of Henan Province, but also those who poured in from other provinces to watch, had gathered there, Nanyue was bustling with outsiders more than ever. Yet the people who actually lived in Nanyue were indifferent to the martial duel tournament.

“Are you not going to watch the martial duels?”

“It is the same thing every day. Why would I go watch that? You should hurry up and get to work too. If we don’t make our peak season now, when will we?”

Since Henan had Shaolin, the Mount Tai and Big Dipper of the murim, most of the Trial Tokens for the Third Trial were taken by Shaolin.

The Wudang Sect of Hubei Province did participate from time to time, but since Shaolin and Wudang did not antagonize each other, there was rarely any major change in the results of the Third Trial.

“Did you not hear? There is an uproar right now.”

“An uproar? Why? Are Wudang and Shaolin having a match or something?”

“You fool! Wudang lost to Taeul Sect.”

“Taeul Sect? That Taeul Sect of the fake legendary Taeul Sword Emperor?”

“Yes!”

At the sudden upset, even those engaged in commerce in Nanyue began closing their shops one by one.

After all, the fact that an absolute powerhouse of the murim had been defeated was something that could make even people unrelated to the murim feel their hearts race.

“How can this be!”

“Hyeon Su of the Wudang Sect lost?”

The astonishment was even greater among those who had watched the martial duel in person at the Grand Training Ground of the Murim Alliance Nanyue Branch.

In particular, the shock suffered by Shaolin, Wudang’s rival, was tremendous.

“……Senior Brother Il-myeong’s words were true.”

“Indeed. I finally understand why he told us over and over not to duel Taeul Sect.”

The Shaolin disciples taking the Murim Academy Exam had not challenged Taeul Sect’s disciples to martial duels because of Il-myeong’s words.

They had not known the reason until now, but after Jin So-un’s single move, they realized why Il-myeong had warned them.

“But even so, there is something rather bewildering about Benefactor Hyeon Su’s response. How could the Taiji Sword fail to distinguish an illusion?”

“It was not that he failed to distinguish it. He threw away the chance to distinguish it himself.”

If he had concentrated and prepared from the beginning, he would have been able to block it well enough.

Illusion and Variation did deceive the eyes, but there were not many true strikes inside them. However, Hyeon Su had voluntarily yielded the first three moves, and on top of that, he had even relaxed his tension.

But there was nothing to be done.

No one had expected Taeul Sect’s Illusion Sword to be so bizarre and uncanny.

GRIND.

Hyeon Su’s face was flushed crimson as he came down from the Grand Training Ground.

Not only had he boasted that he would yield the first three moves, but he had also panicked at the first form Jin So-un displayed, abandoned his defensive stance, taken the offensive, been struck by phantom fists that filled the empty air, and been pushed out of the Grand Training Ground, resulting in his defeat.

He had suffered utter disgrace in front of people who had traveled a long way just to catch even a glimpse of Wudang’s robe hems.

Far from showing them Wudang’s dignity, he had smeared mud on Wudang’s name. Hyeon Su, who was experiencing such a shameful situation for the first time in his life, had no idea how he was supposed to compose himself.

“…….”

“…….”

Even so, the one who spoke first was Hyeon Su. If he did not say something, he felt as though he would suffocate in the awkward silence flowing around them.

“……The, the Variations in the Illusion Sword that bastard uses are not ordinary.”

“It seemed like nothing…… I-Is that so?”

Junior Brother Hyeon Gun, who had been about to say, ‘It did not seem like much to me?’ merely clamped his mouth shut and nodded after another junior brother jabbed him in the side with an elbow.

“Even so, the principles of the real strike within it were extremely fierce.”

“Yes…… Yes. I suppose they were.”

For some reason, the manner of their replies was far from trustworthy, but Hyeon Su could not point it out.

Had he not already left the dignity of a senior brother up on that Grand Training Ground?

This time, it was time for an examinee from Taeul Sect to go up.

A moment later, Lee Dong-ryong, the youngest of Taeul Sect, stepped onto the Grand Training Ground.

With his small stature and the way he hugged a grown man’s sword tightly to his chest, he looked exactly like a sword page (a child who carried someone else’s sword for them), and laughter burst out from here and there in the audience seats.

“Ahem, the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords should be suitable for facing Taeul Sect’s Illusion Sword.”

Hyeon Jin, who had been about to step onto the Grand Training Ground, stopped short when he heard Hyeon Su’s words.

“Above all, the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords should make it easier to deal with the real sword hidden within the Illusion Sword through its speed.”

“…….”

If it had been any other time, Hyeon Jin would have answered in a booming voice, but he silently stared at Hyeon Su and Hyeon Myeong.

At the glances moving between them, Hyeon Su’s face flushed bright red.

“……I think Senior Brother Hyeon Su is right.”

Hyeon Myeong quickly supported Hyeon Su’s words, but the redness did not disappear from Hyeon Su’s face.

Even within the Wudang Sect, the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords occupied a position close to that of a killing sword.

Unlike the Taiji Sword, which dug deeply into the principles of yin and yang and sought enlightenment, it was a sword created in the direction of efficiently subduing and killing an opponent.

Naturally, it was a sword that was not even taught to a child whose realization of the Taiji Sword was still immature.

The Divine Martial Thirteen Swords pursued such extreme efficiency that even wanderers with considerable experience in the murim would find it difficult to face.

To face the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords, one either had to have a great deal of experience in killing, or had no choice but to use a sword art even more efficient than the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords. There was no way Taeul Sect possessed such a sword art.

‘How pitiful.’

If he had at least faced the Taiji Sword, he would not have suffered a major injury. Even if only to save Senior Brother Hyeon Su’s face, Hyeon Jin had no choice but to use the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords.

Now that the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords had been chosen, Dong-ryong, the youngest of Taeul Sect, suffering a serious injury was a foregone conclusion. His two remaining brothers might have to spend the rest of their lives nursing Dong-ryong.

“Ready…….”

The child, who had not even fully grown, took his starting stance, whether he knew his own future or not.

It was the same starting stance Jin So-un had used.

“Begin!”

Along with the referee’s voice, the two charged toward each other.

Hyeon Jin stepped with the Cloud-Ladder Step and received the Swift Sword that unfolded in the first move.

Taeul Sect’s sword possessed principles that mixed the Swift Sword and the Illusion Sword.

It placed Variation within Speed and Illusion to cause confusion. However, such deception was no match for a faster and more efficient sword.

When Hyeon Jin drew out the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords, he outpaced the speed at which Dong-ryong swung his sword and sent his blade across Dong-ryong’s chest.

The martial duel had ended after barely three exchanges.

“!”

Yet at that moment, “Hah!”

The direction of the Swift Sword that had been coming in as though it would cut his wrist suddenly changed. Hyeon Jin was trying to cut Dong-ryong’s chest, yet Dong-ryong was thrusting straight toward his neck.

‘Is this why the Swift Sword was not that fast?’

He had wondered why it was slow for a Swift Sword, and now he realized this principle had been hidden within it.

Left with no choice, Hyeon Jin withdrew the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords, widened the distance once, and was about to rush in again.

Afterimages of swords blossomed from Dong-ryong’s blade.

They were swords full of the same Illusion and Variation that Jin So-un had shaken out earlier.

Because Hyeon Jin had been on high alert, he could faintly distinguish Illusion and Variation and charge in once more.

Twitch.

Hyeon Jin’s steps stopped short.

It was clearly an Illusion Sword, and yet the vital acupoints it targeted were exquisite. They were fatal points where even the slightest graze would nick a blood vessel and lead to death.

Before he realized it, Hyeon Jin instinctively reached his left hand toward that Illusion Sword.

SQUELCH.

“Huuurk!”

“What is that? Why would he reach for a sword?”

“Is he crazy?”

Hyeon Jin was startled when he saw red blood spurting from his hand.

It had definitely been an Illusion Sword. But when had it become a real sword? No, had Dong-ryong deceived him by making a real sword look like an Illusion Sword from the beginning?

As if to prove that this move was not luck, Dong-ryong continued unfolding his sword forms with the same calm expression.

Several Illusion Swords appeared around him. And this time, all of those Illusion Swords thrust toward Hyeon Jin’s vital acupoints.

With a desperate heart, Hyeon Jin stepped with the Cloud-Ladder Step and escaped Dong-ryong’s sword range.

“Waaaaaaaah!”

Suddenly, cheers erupted from all directions.

Bewildered, Hyeon Jin only then realized that he had retreated as many as ten steps against Taeul Sect’s youngest disciple.

Moreover, despite those tremendous cheers, Dong-ryong was staring only at him with persistence as he pressed closer.

In the end, Illusion and Variation existed to deceive the opponent and hide the real strike within them.

Therefore, common sense dictated that they should bloom more brilliantly and more complexly.

However, Dong-ryong’s Illusion Sword was abnormal. Even the Illusion Swords that were nothing but false images aimed only for the most dangerous vital points. And within those Illusion Swords, he hid a real sword to take his opponent’s life.

‘An Illusion Sword meant only for killing?’

Hyeon Jin did not dare face that bizarre sword art he had never heard of or seen before.

It felt as if he was fighting an assassin head-on. And not some mediocre nobody, but an assassin who had reached the pinnacle of the killing sword after slaughtering thousands of people.

Using the Divine Martial Thirteen Swords against such a person was something only a half-wit would do. If he could not immediately filter out Illusion and Variation, how could he know when he might die?

Hyeon Jin instinctively glared at Hyeon Su as if he wanted to kill him.

Because that half-witted man had given useless advice, even he was about to lose to a disciple of Taeul Sect.

If he had unfolded his main sword art, the Taiji Sword, from the beginning, there would have been no reason for him to be confused by the Illusion Sword like this. The expected depth of the Taeul Sect disciple’s inner arts was roughly ten years. If Hyeon Jin, who possessed four times that amount of inner arts, could not win, what reason could there be?

As his hands became tangled against Dong-ryong’s sword, his thoughts tangled just as badly.

Once his thoughts began to grow complicated, the Illusion Swords he had already struggled to distinguish now began to look like real swords.

He drew up his inner arts with all his strength and struck away all those Illusion Swords, but most of them were mere illusions.

Unable to control his own speed, Hyeon Jin swung his sword like a madman.

“Heh heh…….”

“What is he doing right now?”

“It looks exactly as though he is afraid his opponent will approach, so he is swinging his sword wildly.”

Hyeon Jin was swinging his sword even more desperately and using even more inner arts, but the one retreating was Hyeon Jin.

By contrast, Dong-ryong of Taeul Sect did not seem to show much emotional change from when the martial duel had first begun.

That unshaken appearance made things even harder for Hyeon Jin.

“This makes no sense! How can the likes of Taeul Sect!”

“…….”

In that instant, a red light flashed from both of Dong-ryong’s eyes.

At the sticky killing intent he experienced for the first time in his life, Hyeon Jin’s entire body froze in place.

Then Dong-ryong slipped into Hyeon Jin’s guard.

“Don’t insult our sect.”

Along with the sound by his ear, Hyeon Jin’s world began to spin round and round.

THUD.

When he came to his senses amid the impact that struck his entire body, he was lying on the floor. The sword that should have been in his hand had fallen far away, and just below his throat, a keenly sharpened blade was poised so sharply that it seemed ready to pierce his neck at any moment.

“……Halt! Halt! The winner is Lee Dong-ryong of Taeul Sect!”

At the result that no one had expected, not even Hyeon Su, cheers erupted from all directions.

“““Waaaaaaaaah”””

Dong-ryong hugged the sword, larger than his own body, tightly to his chest once again. With no trace of the killing intent he had shown moments ago, he bowed toward every direction with an innocent and guileless face, then came down from the Grand Training Ground.

At the result no one had expected, the people in the audience could not hide their excitement.

It was already the second one. Disciples of the Wudang Sect, who were commonly compared to dragons, had lost one after another to disciples of a nothing sect.

“See! What did I tell you!”

“It is true. That Wudang Sect! That Wudang Sect!”

“Were the rumors about the Taeul Sword Emperor true?”

The spectators, who had somehow packed the audience seats tightly, shouted cheers wildly while being unable to hide their shock.

The same was true of the other sects watching that scene.

On the other hand, there were also those who sighed inwardly in relief. They were the ones who had thought Taeul Sect was the easiest sect to deal with, and that whoever seized them first would hold the winning card. They sighed in relief, thankful that Wudang had taken Taeul Sect from them.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

Of course, the place that received the greatest shock was none other than the Wudang Sect.

Hyeon Jin, who had come down from the martial duel, kept his head lowered and tried not to meet anyone’s eyes.

In particular, whenever Hyeon Su tried to say so much as a word, Hyeon Jin glared at him as if he wanted to kill him.

“…….”

Because of that, Hyeon Su could neither comfort Hyeon Jin nor devise a new strategy.

He knew what he had done wrong. Taeul Sect’s Illusion Sword was more meticulous than he had expected.

While the Illusion Sword Jin So-un had displayed had been nothing more than ornamentation, the Illusion Sword Dong-ryong displayed was more efficient than most Swift Swords.

In the end, it had been a martial duel he could have easily won if he had faced him with the Taiji Sword from the beginning and crushed him with inner arts, but Hyeon Su had guided it in an unnecessary direction and caused him to lose.

“……Taeul Sect’s Illusion Sword occasionally hides a real sword within it. So I think the most important thing is not to be deceived by it and to use your own sword calmly.”

Those were the words Hyeon Jin said to Hyeon Hyang, who was about to step onto the training ground next.

Hyeon Hyang had also seen the previous martial duel, so he knew that point well.

When Hyeon Hyang went up, Eun-ho stepped out from Taeul Sect.

Hyeon Su quietly approached Hyeon Jin, intending to apologize.

“……!”

Then Hyeon Jin sprang to his feet and moved five steps away from Hyeon Su.

Hyeon Su’s face crumpled like a sheet of paper.

Cheers came from all directions.

People seemed to find the martial duel exciting, for when I stepped onto the duel stage, they sent up even louder cheers.

Where is this?

Who am I?

In the mind of Eun-ho, the proposer of ‘Operation Send Our Reckless Eldest Senior Brother to Murim Academy!’, there had definitely been no plan for me to step onto the duel stage in the Third Trial.

Barely a little over ten years of inner arts.

Recently, after eating the spiritual medicine Eldest Senior Brother had found, that had become a little over fifteen years of inner arts, but I had not thought that would let me pass the Third Trial.

The people who climbed to the Third Trial were already those who possessed monstrous skills among people their own age.

Moreover, if one were to name the greatest monsters among those monsters, Shaolin and Wudang would come to mind, and one of those two was my opponent right now.

From the perspective of Eun-ho, who had the smartest head among the three brothers, this was a martial duel I could not win.

When I turned my head to look at the Taeul Sect group, Eldest Senior Brother calmly raised his thumb.

Of course, Eldest Senior Brother was a strange person, so he could win.

Dong-ryong, standing beside him, raised his thumb.

Of course, Dong-ryong could win because he could release and control the Heavenly Killing Star.

Beside him, Geum-pyo raised his thumb with an expression full of tension.

Brother, put that finger down.

‘What in the world is he thinking?’

Last night.

As soon as our opponents were decided, Eldest Senior Brother took Brother Geum-pyo and me and began last-minute cramming.

“You two will learn three forms from now on. If you master only these as if your lives depend on it, you can definitely win tomorrow’s martial duel.”

Along with those words, Eldest Senior Brother displayed a certain sword form.

At first, I tilted my head, wondering what it was.

It was the Taiji Sword.

“This is the Taiji Sword, Wudang Sect’s main sword art. And you two are going to master three Shattering Forms that will break this Taiji Sword as if your lives depend on it.”

“…….”

I had no idea when he had learned the Taiji Sword, but the three forms he displayed next made Eun-ho’s eyes snap open.

“Uh…… so. That…….”

“You have seen enough, so you understand, right?”

Eldest Senior Brother, who was giving the demonstration, slowly unfolded the Taiji Sword. Matching him, Eun-ho tried copying the Shattering Form he had seen exactly as it was.

Then,

CLANG.

The Black Dragon Sword was knocked from Eldest Senior Brother’s hand as if it would fall.

“……Huh.”

“See?”

“What in the world is this…….”

“Questions later. You two have to stay up all night and master all three of these forms.”

Brother Geum-pyo raised his hand.

“Is Dong-ryong not learning them?”

“Dong-ryong does not need to learn them. That is how the opponent will be fooled.”

Once again, I had no idea what scheme Eldest Senior Brother had in mind, but Brother Geum-pyo nodded and took his stance.

That is not what matters right now, Brother. You need to ask the truly important question.

“Eldest Senior Brother, if we learn these three forms and Wudang Sect does not use the Taiji Sword, what do we do?”

“Ah, you don’t need to worry about that. Once they experience me and Dong-ryong, I will make it so they have no choice but to use it.”

“……You mean with that thing where believing makes it come true?”

I should not have asked the last question.

Thanks to that, even while we were practicing the same forms, Eldest Senior Brother beat me several times with the flat of the Black Dragon Sword.

I stayed up all night without sleeping a wink and mastered the three forms.

In the midst of that, I could not help thinking anew that Jin So-un, who dealt with Brother Geum-pyo and me all by himself, was impressive.

In any case, if the three forms we had mastered overnight became useless, Eun-ho planned to give up as soon as he stepped onto the duel stage.

If I got injured now, I could not accompany Eldest Senior Brother on his great journey.

And yet, “Wow…… this actually works.”

Hyeon Hyang of the Wudang Sect unfolded the starting stance of the Taiji Sword.

“It really comes true if you believe.”

At this rate, I was starting to worry that I might become devoted to Eldest Senior Brother the way people fell into a religion.

Eun-ho prepared the starting stance of the Twin Heaven Sword Formula while waiting for the three forms he had learned without even sleeping.