The Genius Warrior Who Remembers Everything Chapter 92

Chapter 92. Time for the Hunt (6)

“What are the dreams of a bastard with a good memory like?”

On the evening of the Day of Gyemi in the Month of Musin, Jwa Dae-gi asked that while we had finally shaken off the Demonic Practitioners and were catching our breath.

“What?”

He was a bastard who claimed to have learned the forms of the Nanjing Six Families Manor, a renowned military family, and called himself the Six-Form Wolf.

In truth, he had been a slave of the Six Families Manor. He had been caught secretly peeking at the young master’s martial arts, nearly beaten to death, and had fled.

Because that bastard’s mouth was so foul, we called him Six-Damn Jwa Dae-gi whenever we addressed him.

“You know. If your memory is good, you remember all your dreams too, don’t you? In dreams, you meet beauties and remember doing this(?) and that(?) with them too…….”

Another bastard immediately cut in.

“Hey, then can you control things in your dreams too? Like seeing Aeng-aeng, then seeing Yeon-du?”

Once the daytime spent hovering between life and death passed, tomorrow’s despair descended through the fatigue that came rushing in.

“Fuck! Then is that bastard the only one having good experiences(?) every night?”

To overcome the fear of the death that would be waiting right before our eyes the next day, we used to talk about such pointless things every night.

In truth, for something Six-Damn thought up, it was fairly accurate.

My dreams were precise and vivid.

When I was young, there had been enjoyable(?) times, just as Six-Damn had said, and moments when I looked forward to night.

However, after I left the Sojeong Squad, I avoided sleep for the rest of my life.

“Huff… huff… huff… huff….”

“Fuck, fuck.”

“Damn it, save me!”

The Sojeong Squad Members were running beside me.

I knew that the people I was seeing were beings within my dream.

After all, I had already left the Sojeong Squad and hidden myself deep in the mountains and secluded valleys.

That was why I was not easily shaken by their vivid forms, or by scenes in which they clearly appeared to be suffering.

“Why are you running like this?”

“Fuck! Those Demonic Cult bastards are chasing us!”

I spoke to them, reassured by the fact that this was merely a dream born from my memories.

“This is only a dream. Stop now.”

“……!”

“……!!”

The ones who had been desperately fleeing stared at me as though they wanted to kill me.

“““It’s only a dream for you!”””

“Hah…… haah. Haah.”

I gasped for breath.

A dream I had not had for some time after regressing came back to me.

“A-Are…… are you all right?”

Startled, I turned my head and saw Kang Seo-pyo looking at me with a worried expression.

Only after seeing him did I realize that I had woken from the dream.

“Did you have a nightmare?”

“……Ah. A nightmare…….”

Was it a nightmare……?

Or had I seen it because I missed them……?

I closed my mouth before an answer even I could not know.

“…….”

He did not ask any further either. He set down what seemed to be my share of food and spoke.

“……Fortunately, we are sailing smoothly. I think you may rest a little longer.”

“Are there no more pursuers?”

“They must sleep as well.”

When I looked outside the window, the surroundings had grown dark before I knew it.

It seemed that after using the Radiant Heaven Divine Palm for the first time in a while, the fatigue accumulated over the past several days had made me sleep like the dead.

“That is fortunate.”

“……Thank you.”

“?”

I raised my head at Kang Seo-pyo’s sudden words.

“I should be the one thanking you. Thanks to you, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers arrived safely.”

After we joined up with them, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers had become much more psychologically stable. The warriors of the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect looked after the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers not as disciples of another sect, but as though they were their own younger brothers.

All of that was thanks to the care Captain Kang Seo-pyo and Cho Mu-bin had shown them.

“Are you not going through an even harder ordeal because of us?”

Kang Seo-pyo shook his head.

“We are the ones who should be thanking you instead…….”

A faint smile hovered around Kang Seo-pyo’s mouth. It was an expression I could not have imagined when I first met him on the Demon Spirit Plateau.

“After you joined us, Young Master, not a single one among us fell behind.”

“…….”

For some reason, I grew embarrassed and scratched the back of my head. In my previous life, I had never had anyone thank me.

As for those Sojeong Squad bastards, they would have cursed at me instead. They were not the sort of bastards who would say thank you.

“Thank you once again.”

“Ah, yes.”

“Please sleep a little more. If anything happens, I will inform you immediately.”

“Still…….”

“Are you not the one leading us now, Young Master? If you become exhausted, our casualties will naturally grow greater.”

When Kang Seo-pyo said even that much, I nodded.

I had woken from a nightmare, but somehow, I felt as though I would not have another nightmare even if I went back to sleep.

“Is he all right?”

The corners of Kang Seo-pyo’s mouth rose slightly at the voice he heard as soon as he closed the door.

“If you are that worried, I told you that you should bring it to him yourself.”

“……Ah, b-but still, going into a room where a man is alone…….”

Namgung Seon-hwa had a feminine personality, but she was not so reserved around men as this.

After all, women of the martial world being unconcerned about strict separation between men and women was nothing new. Since Namgung Seon-hwa had grown up seeing that naturally, for her to feel this embarrassed meant—

‘What a wonderful time in life…….’

The corners of Kang Seo-pyo’s mouth would not come down. To think that the young lady had grown so much before he knew it, and now there was a man to whom she had given her heart.

“Come to think of it, I am a little worried.”

“Yes?! Wh-What about?”

It was a startled expression she had not even shown when she had been told to take the Regular Exam with only twenty people.

“It seemed he had a nightmare. I was wondering whether his sleep might remain troubled…….”

“Ye……es?”

“I am saying nothing is wrong.”

“…….”

Only then did Namgung Seon-hwa realize Kang Seo-pyo was teasing her, and she fidgeted with her fingers.

“I am sorry, but I think I will be a little tired tomorrow morning, so please bring Young Master Jin his meal.”

“……You think you will be tired?”

“Yes……. And if I suddenly enter a man’s room and see him changing clothes, I feel unpleasant all day…….”

“…….”

Namgung Seon-hwa’s face finally flushed red like a ripe persimmon.

Was she that happy?

“P-Please stop!”

At Namgung Seon-hwa’s reaction, once she finally realized she was being teased, Kang Seo-pyo burst out laughing.

Embarrassed by Kang Seo-pyo’s laughter, Namgung Seon-hwa quickly changed the subject.

“By the way, what are the Firmament Unit warriors doing with the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers?”

After boarding the boat, the warriors who had collapsed and rested for a while began gathering on the deck one by one.

At the same time, they drew their swords and showed movements, or demonstrated and exchanged words.

The ones mainly speaking were the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers, while the listeners were the warriors of the Firmament Unit and the warriors of the Iron Sword Sect.

“They say they are learning a Sword Formation from the Taeul Sect’s disciples.”

“A Sword Formation……?”

Namgung Seon-hwa tilted her head.

Did the Taeul Sect have a famous Sword Formation?

No, in the first place, was there any reason for the warriors of the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect to learn another Sword Formation?

“They said the Sword Formation the Taeul Sect’s disciples learned is similar to the White Tiger Sword Formation.”

She knew the White Tiger Sword Formation.

It was the White Tiger Sword Formation linked to the White Tiger Sword Art, the official martial art of the Murim Alliance.

The name sounded impressive, but was it not merely a crudely mixed Sword Formation made by combining the Three Powers Formation and the Eight Trigrams Formation so that Murim Alliance members could learn and apply it easily?

“Why go out of their way to learn the White Tiger Formation……?”

“It is not completely identical. From what I heard, Young Master Jin taught it to them. They said he modified it and had them learn it.”

When Jin So-un’s name came up, Namgung Seon-hwa’s reaction was amusing for a moment. Kang Seo-pyo looked toward the warriors gathered on the deck and spoke.

“Its defining traits are that it is easy and simple, yet highly useful.”

Namgung Seon-hwa found it even harder to understand.

In any case, if it was easy and simple, that meant its destructive power was reduced by that much.

Why would they go out of their way to cut into their resting time to learn it?

“That…… they said it is a defensive formation derived from the White Tiger Sword Formation.”

“……What is?”

“The Sword Formation the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers use to protect their rice.”

“…….”

Namgung Seon-hwa’s gaze turned to the deck.

At the center, surrounded by the warriors, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers were unfolding the White Tiger Sword Formation.

She had thought it looked oddly familiar, and it turned out to be the Sword Formation they had unfolded every time they were ambushed during meals.

Even when the other warriors had grown so sick of ambushes that they no longer cooked rice, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers had stubbornly cooked and eaten rice anyway.

“Everyone wanted to learn it somehow…… and they readily said they would teach it…….”

“…….”

This time, Kang Seo-pyo’s face flushed red. He understood how the warriors felt, but personally conveying that to his young lady was somewhat embarrassing.

“They said they were tired of living on jerky alone……. The clan’s martial arts are powerful, but their practical utility is lacking, are they not……. The White Tiger Sword Formation can be unfolded with only three people, so…….”

“……Can I learn it too?”

“Yes?”

“No, I should learn it too. I want to make porridge with Sister Mo-ran.”

“Ah…… let us go.”

Before we reached Sihong Port, we stopped the boat in the middle of the river and crossed the current.

It was to prepare for those who would already be waiting at Sihong Port ahead of us.

“It is strangely quiet.”

Seong Mo-ran said that while rousing her Internal Qi to dry her wet martial arts uniform.

Just as she said, the surroundings were so quiet that it felt unsettling, as though our journey until now had been meaningless.

“Let us move first.”

The third trial was conducted at four locations in the Jianghu.

Nanyue in Henan.

Tongchuan in Shaanxi.

Chengdu in Sichuan.

Mount Akbuk in Hunan.

The testing grounds, installed at a distance of about two provinces each from Wuhan, where the Murim Alliance was located, were each placed in the east, west, south, and north for the convenience of those taking the exam throughout the entire Jianghu.

Because of that, the travel routes of the exam candidates became fixed to a certain degree, and as a result, examinees often waited along the routes to defeat competitors weaker than themselves.

That was also why we had been kept in check not only by Diancang and the Huayang Escort Agency, but also by other competitors.

After running through the night, we reached Sihong Port, our original destination, around daybreak.

At Sihong Port in the distance, examinees were waiting for boats.

Namgung Seon-hwa spoke quietly.

“There are…… fewer of them than I thought. Should we call this a good thing?”

“If it were me, I would not be at Sihong Port. I would wait on the road to Feng County.”

“I would do the same.”

We passed straight by Sihong Port and headed in the direction of Suqian.

There were still no people following us.

Piiiyuuk—

While I was tearing into jerky in place of breakfast, a Messenger Hawk cried and approached me.

-Wudang Sect’s Hyeoncheong and two others, along with his warriors.

-Mount Hua Sect’s Yeon U-mun and three others, along with his warriors.

※Currently waiting on the road to Feng County.

The intelligence note sent by Hao Gate contained the names of the Wudang Sect and Mount Hua Sect disciples who were currently said to be pursuing us.

What was strange was that the disciples of the Wudang Sect and the Mount Hua Sect were people I remembered.

‘Who were they?’

They were not people who had entered Murim Academy in this cohort. Even so, the fact that they were people stored in my head was strange.

Just as I was rummaging through the library inside my head for a moment, Seong Mo-ran and Namgung Seon-hwa approached.

“What are you thinking about?”

“These names feel familiar.”

I showed the carrier pigeon letter to the two of them.

After receiving the letter, Seong Mo-ran nodded as though she understood.

“If it is Hyeoncheong, he is famous as Yong So-ah’s Junior Brother.”

“He is famous as Yong So-ah’s Junior Brother?”

“Yes. He is the Junior Brother that Yong So-ah always kept at his side when he was on Wudang Mountain. Hyeoncheong himself is also unusually talented, so Wudang has very high expectations for his future.”

“What about Yeon U-mun?”

“He is the Eldest Son of the Yeon Clan. I heard he entered the Mount Hua Sect as a Lay Disciple, and it seems he is taking the Murim Academy Exam this time.”

If it was the Yeon Clan, they were a family famous for fist arts.

Their unique fist arts and kicking arts ranked among the ten greatest under heaven.

Yet if the Eldest Son who should inherit the family had gone so far as to enter the Mount Hua Sect in order to learn the sword, then his talent with the sword had to be considered no less than Hyeoncheong’s.

“Is that all?”

Still feeling as though something had not been resolved, I asked again, but Seong Mo-ran only shook her head.

“They are too formidable to call that all. They are opponents who cannot be looked down on.”

“Hm…….”

Just as I tried to search through Sim Hyeon-gak’s records in the library, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers caught my eye.

“What are you doing, you three?”

The three brothers were playing around while walking, reaching out and grabbing each other’s sleeves.

“Ah……. Well. We learned some Seizing Hand techniques from the Namgung Clan warriors.”

“Seizing Hand?”

“Yes. They said a warrior should know at least a simple Seizing Hand technique.”

The Seizing Hand technique the three brothers were unfolding was the Thirteen Seizing Hands, which I knew well.

It was not as common as the Three Powers Sword Art, but anyone with some experience learning martial arts would pass through it at least once.

The three Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers were filling in martial arts that did not exist in the Taeul Sect and the Taeul Sword Emperor’s True Inheritance on their own.

“……Are we not supposed to learn it after all?”

Geum-pyo quietly watched my expression.

Usually, sects often forbade disciples from learning the martial arts of other sects or martial arts from the marketplace.

I shook my head.

“It does not matter. No, rather, learn it diligently.”

“Really? But the warriors said that if we work too hard at it, it might affect our original martial arts…….”

“It is not as though you will ever work that hard, will you?”

“……Senior Brother…….”

“It was a joke. Do you know what the greatest martial art among the Taeul Sword Emperor’s martial arts is?”

“……Hm, the Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula.”

Geum-pyo said it as though it were obvious, and Eun-ho and Dong-ryong also nodded as though they agreed.

“That is merely the strongest martial art. It is not the greatest martial art.”

“Then what is?”

“The Taeul True Scripture.”

If I had to choose the most extraordinary study among the Taeul Sword Emperor’s martial arts, it would unquestionably be the Taeul True Scripture.

“The essence of the Taeul True Scripture is enlightenment regarding the truths of all creation.”

“……Yes?”

“And all the other martial arts are merely the Taeul Sword Emperor’s interpretations through the Taeul True Scripture.”

The Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers still looked as though they did not understand.

“What I mean is that as long as the Taeul True Scripture exists, the martial arts of the Taeul Sect will continue even without all the other martial arts.”

“I don’t understand.”

“The Ten Thousand Seas Heaven-Earth Sword Formula, the Minor Heaven Sword Art, the Great Heaven Sword Art, and the Ten Thousand Transformations Invincible Fist are all nothing more than forms and patterns.”

“But if there are no forms and patterns, is that not no longer martial arts?”

“Tsk. Do the absolute masters of the Jianghu subdue their opponents with impressive forms and patterns?”

“…….”

“Forms and patterns are merely ladders to help one learn the process of enlightenment more easily. In the end, once you climb above them, neither forms nor patterns are necessary.”

Only then did the three brothers begin to look as though they understood little by little.

“Put your effort above all else into cultivating the Taeul True Scripture. And diligently learn many different martial arts. As you do, the day may come when you create forms and patterns of your own.”

“We will?”

Eun-ho, who was usually the most interested in the depth of martial arts, asked back with delight, and I nodded.

“Yes. That is exactly why the Taeul True Scripture is such a great martial art.”

At my words, the three brothers began putting even more effort into their Moving Circulation.

“You fools! If your running speed slows down because of that, how will you take the exam?”

Only then did the three brothers’ speed rise again.

“Nothing happened here either.”

When we passed Xuzhou, we had been extremely tense.

Because the Azure Sky Merchant Guild branch in Xuzhou was there, we had rested to ease our tension, but since we had done so, we could no longer hide our presence from the pursuers’ eyes.

However, even after leaving Xuzhou and drawing close to Feng County, no examinees appeared.

“This is the first time peace has ever made me feel this uneasy.”

We deliberately left traces of our passage and even lit a fire in a clearing at night to eat.

Even so, there was no pursuit.

We also personally searched places along the road to Feng County where people might be hiding, but there was no sign of anyone.

“What is going on?”

If only Mount Hua and Wudang were plotting something, they could show unified movements.

However, they were not the only competitors.

Just as countless examinees had tried to take advantage of openings when the Huayang Escort Agency was chasing us, there should have been other competitors appearing through the gap created by Wudang and Mount Hua targeting us.

Piiiyuuk—

I raised my head at the cry of a hawk.

I had been waiting because the carrier pigeon letter that usually arrived every morning still had not come even by noon.

The Messenger Hawk reached my shoulder and slowly reduced its speed, then extended its right leg. I put a piece of jerky into its mouth and opened the letter.

-Wudang Sect’s Hyeoncheong and two others, along with his warriors.

-Mount Hua Sect’s Yeon U-mun and three others, along with his warriors.

※Currently untraceable.

“…….”

“…….”

“…….”

Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran, who were reading the letter with me, could not continue speaking either. The thing we had feared most had happened.

“They should be a group of at least five hundred.”

“They can erase all traces of themselves at once like this?”

As with us, it was by no means easy to hide while moving with a large number of people.

Considering that the number of people who carried out assassinations or thefts rarely exceeded ten when moving at the same time, it was only natural.

Yet they had vanished completely from the eyes of Hao Gate, whose intelligence network rivaled the Beggars’ Sect.

“We should definitely assume they are hiding somewhere, correct?”

“Captain Cho, Captain Kang, please strengthen the perimeter.”

“…….”

While Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran looked around like that and tightened the string of tension—

I finally found the names of those two in the deepest part of the library inside my head.

“!”

I looked at the position of the sun.

The sun hanging over the western mountain was slowly beginning to set.

I hurriedly turned back to the two of them.

“From now on, we are running at full speed.”

“Yes?”

“How do we know when the ambush will come?”

I also spoke to the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers.

“From now on, stop your Moving Circulation and run at full speed.”

“……?”

“…….”

“……Yes.”

At the urgency in my voice, the warriors of the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect also pulled their tension taut.

“Perhaps an opponent even more frightening than Wudang and Mount Hua is waiting for us.”

“Yes?”

“What does that mean…….”

Perhaps we were already too late.

After all, while coming from Xuzhou to Feng County, we had not seen a single sign of people.

“Young Master Jin, please explain!”

“Move first.”

“…….”

When I began moving urgently without an explanation, the Gold, Silver, and Bronze brothers took the lead, and the warriors of the Namgung Clan and the Iron Sword Sect also began moving.

We had to enter a village as quickly as possible. If my prediction was correct, darkness and night belonged to them.

Thump—

Thump—

My heart began beating violently.

It was not because of my intention or my emotions.

I had already lived through one life, and in this life, I had even learned the Taeul True Scripture, so I could maintain a state as clear as a mirror and still as water better than anyone else.

“……Young Master Jin, please explain something. You are making me nervous for no reason.”

Therefore, this violent pounding of my heart was caused by something external.

“…….”

Even if I had identified the opponent, what could I say?

No, would they even be able to believe it in the first place? Even the Murim Alliance had not believed it when they emerged into the world.

“It is an enemy.”

“An enemy?”

“Yes.”

The deepest part of the library inside my head.

Even among the place where Sim Hyeon-gak’s records were gathered, there was a section I had never searched through because I had no interest in it.

The names of those two people had been written there.

[Unsolved Case Report]

-Wudang Sect’s Hyeoncheong

-Mount Hua Sect’s Yeon U-mun

※Annihilated together with their junior brothers.

Presumed to have been ambushed by professionally trained individuals.

※Characteristics: Some of the bones of the excavated corpses showed black discoloration.

The pieces of information had been too far apart from one another.

In addition, I had never imagined that they would be operating here at this time.

“They are an organization specialized in surprise attacks and ambushes.”

Something caught on the sensory perception I had expanded in every direction.

“Get down!”

As soon as my words ended, the startled warriors lowered their heads. However, black flying swords had lodged in the abdomens of the warriors who reacted a little late, and blood was spraying from them.

“What is this…….”

It was a presence so faint that even I, who had learned the Taeul True Scripture, had barely sensed it.

For them, it was a situation that could only be even more shocking.

“I did not feel anything.”

Namgung Seon-hwa and Seong Mo-ran stared at the forest with eyes of disbelief.

Soon, the shadows of the forest stretched long, and nearly twenty black figures appeared one by one.

“…….”

At the bizarre sight they were seeing for the first time, everyone could only gape, unable to say anything.

“What…… are they……?”

The Dark Soul-Severing Unit.

They were beings called the most terrifying blade of the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.