The Martial Genius Who Remembers Everything Chapter 52

[ … words ]

***

Mo-yong Sang-won, who was heading to the Cheong-myeong Escort Bureau in Mu-gang, stopped his feet for a moment due to a certain anxiety that flashed through his mind and looked back.

‘No way…….’

Soon, he shook his head.

It is not easy for any Hyeop-sa (knightly warrior) in the world to give his life for someone he sees for the first time.

Moreover, he could not easily think that a young man who had not even reached adulthood would willingly become a decoy to save him.

Mo-yong Sang-won rushed into the Cheong-myeong Escort Bureau with all his might.

The warriors guarding the main gate were surprised by his bizarre appearance, wearing tattered clothes with disheveled hair, but soon realized that it was Mo-yong Sang-won who had visited this place a few days ago.

“Sogaju-nim!!”

Even though it was an escort bureau, there was no luggage inside.

Instead, escorts and warriors were gathered in large numbers, ready to go into battle at any time.

“What on earth happened? People from all the branches in Henan Province were looking for you, Sogaju-nim.”

“Jin So-un! Has the man named Jin So-un not come?”

“Who?”

It felt as if a bad premonition was coming true.

Did that child really give his life for him?

“……No, that should not be.”

If one of the two had to die, it should have been him.

He was already in a situation where he owed his life to Jin So-un once.

He could not go through the same thing twice.

“Sogaju-nim. Are you okay?”

Mo-yong Sang-won asked, listening only half-heartedly to the branch manager’s question about his well-being.

“How many people are gathered here?”

“All the people from the nearby branches are gathered, totaling three hundred people, and one hundred reinforcements have also come from the Nam-gung Clan.”

“Nam-gung Clan?”

Only then, Mo-yong Sang-won, who turned his head, could see people in different uniforms lined up on one side.

And at the very front were Nam-gung San, who had a stiff expression, and Nam-gung Seon-hwa, who had turned pale.

“San, Seon-hwa.”

“……Greetings to the Sogaju-nim.”

“It is a great relief that you seem to be safe.”

“You even came for me.”

Nam-gung San went straight to the main point.

“Is the Jin So-un you mentioned the Jin So-un of the Tae-eul Sect?”

“Do you know that child?”

Nam-gung San and Nam-gung Seon-hwa looked at each other.

“What happened?”

“I was attacked by unidentified enemies at Seo-ho Peak.”

“Is Jin Gong-ja (Young Master Jin) left alone?”

Nam-gung Seon-hwa, who did not usually step forward, suddenly interrupted.

Nam-gung San was about to say something, but he stopped after seeing her face, which had turned pale.

She did not even seem to have the leisure to care about what kind of rudeness she was committing.

“……I hope not, but for some reason, it seems so.”

Mo-yong Sang-won briefly explained the situation when they last parted.

“If it is that person…… he is more than capable of making such a choice.”

“……I hoped it wouldn’t be so.”

“Sogaju-nim. It would be better to move quickly.”

“Yes. Let’s go.”

[Because you want to live more than any of us. You survive.]

I, who had left the So-jeong-dae, continued to survive.

That did not mean I had found peace.

While I was stuck in the deep mountains and valleys, leaving the Gangho. I was not at peace for a single moment.

During the time I met no one, I had to meet everyone in my memory.

The countless enemies of the Demonic Cult that flocked, the politicians of the Murim Alliance who were standing by with their hands behind their backs even with a crisis right in front of them.

Colleagues I had grown fond of while rolling on the ground together dying helplessly by the cold sword blades of the demonic people, and even the dogs of the Demonic Cult who laughed at such miserable deaths of my colleagues.

I had to die tens of thousands of times in those memories.

One day, a memory came to mind of Go-tae, the successor of the Geum-gang-bong-sin (Diamond Peak God), blocking the sword of the Yeom-ma-gwi-an-dae.

Because it was a memory I had repeated hundreds of times, the opponent’s weakness was visible for the first time.

The one point I had never seen before.

I felt like I could see a different ending if I stabbed the sword there.

I poured my imagination of stabbing the So-cheon-geom-beop (Small Heaven Sword Technique) into that memory.

The Yeom-ma-gwi-an-dae member was stabbed in a vital point and died while scattering blood fountains.

Then, relief washed over me, albeit briefly.

Another day, a memory came to mind of Ya-yul-jae, the successor of the Yu-un-sin-gong (Flowing Cloud Divine Art), blowing away a member of the Cheon-ma-heuk-geom-dae (Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit).

The weakness was visible there too, and I poured in the imagination of wielding the Seom-roe-geom-beop (Lightning Sword Technique) to slit the opponent’s throat.

By adding imaginations that could respond to the hell-like memories of the day that came to mind so vividly, I was able to fall asleep without being in pain anymore.

Like that, one day, ten days, a hundred days, a thousand days.

I practiced responding by studying ways to deal with all the enemies the So-jeong-dae had encountered and pouring in my imagination.

I had spent my whole life worrying about strategies that I would never use again.

Because while worrying about them, I did not have to spend my days in pain.

“Back then, it was just a futile act to escape the pain.”

I never imagined that the worry I had only for myself to escape the pain would come to a day when it would be used like this.

The corpses of the Yeom-ma-gwi-an-dae scattered everywhere.

In the past, had I ever seen such a large number of Yeom-ma-gwi-an-dae corpses?

“If those bastards had seen it, they would have said let’s bring alcohol and meat and have a feast, swearing and swearing. Crazy bastards.”

Before I could even be immersed in the feeling that I had killed twenty people, a laugh came out.

I buried the corpses of the Yeom-ma-gwi-an-dae on the mountain and left only a few. Because if I said that I, a disciple of the Tae-eul Sect, had dealt with everyone, it was clear that it would only invite unnecessary suspicion.

As I finished the work roughly, the tension was released.

“The Cheong-ryong-hwan is not a panacea.”

Fatigue had been rushing in since immediately after the fight ended.

I had absorbed all the internal energy and Primordial Energy of the guys full of Ma-gi, but as expected, what came into my body was pure Jin-gi (True Energy).

But perhaps because of that, although I still had more than half of my internal energy in my Dantian, an unbearable wave of sleepiness was rushing in.

Perhaps it seemed that the Cheong-ryong-hwan had accumulated an irresistible fatigue in my body while detoxifying the Ma-gi.

“For a moment, just for a very short moment, it would be okay to sleep, right?”

For some reason, I felt like I could see the guys from the So-jeong-dae of the past if I slept now.

It didn’t seem bad to see for a moment the faces of those guys I hated to look at.

“It is not that I want to see you guys. It is actually that I want to see Young Lady Mo-yong Seol.”

I leaned my body against a rock for a moment and closed my eyes.

“Jin So-un Gong-ja!”

“Jin So-un Gong-ja!”

The night on the mountain is dark.

Piercing that darkness, hundreds of torches were lighting up every corner of Seo-ho Peak.

“This way.”

Mo-yong Sang-won retraced the path he had come and spread the people out in all directions.

Because he didn’t know if the attackers might still be left, and he didn’t know where or how Jin So-un was hiding.

Nam-gung San, who was running closest to Mo-yong Sang-won, asked.

“Sogaju-nim, can you tell us what happened?”

Nam-gung Seon-hwa on the other side also seemed to want to hear it so much.

“I was attacked by an unknown assailant at Seo-ho Peak and was in danger of dying. At that time, a friend named Jin So-un saved my life.”

“…….”

“But weren’t the people who attacked me waiting on the {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} way to Mu-gang with that friend?”

“……Heup!”

Nam-gung Seon-hwa gasped without realizing it.

“With So-un’s quick wit, we were able to escape their hands, but as you can see, because my condition was not good at all, we decided to separate and run away.”

“Then……”

“However…… I have a thought in my mind that the child became a decoy for me. It is unsettling.”

As soon as Mo-yong Sang-won’s words finished, Nam-gung Seon-hwa’s footsteps began to speed up.

Nam-gung San was about to say something, but he closed his mouth soon after.

Because he himself felt the same way as Seon-hwa right now.

“There are traces of a fight here.”

The escorts he had sent ahead were gathered in one place.

Mo-yong Sang-won approached quickly.

It was not long after he had separated and fled from So-un at the very beginning.

“The amount of blood is quite large……”

“Hmm.”

Mo-yong Sang-won’s brow furrowed tightly.

“There are traces here too!”

“There is a large amount of blood here.”

As they chased the warriors who found the next traces, that place was exactly where Jin So-un and Mo-yong Sang-won had parted ways.

“You finally did it! You did it!”

Mo-yong Sang-won’s emotion was closer to anger than regret.

Why would he go this far? He had already died once, so it would have been enough to just be able to deliver the news.

Nam-gung San’s expression as he examined the scene of the fierce battle was not normal.

“Too much blood is scattered.”

“What if one person shed it?”

“……He would not have survived.”

“Corpse……, no! Traces! Find the traces! Traces of Jin So-un, traces of the attacker are fine too! Find everything!”

“Yes!”

The escorts and warriors moved more nimbly than ever.

The Sogaju of the Mo-yong Clan.

They instinctively felt that he had taken a heavy heart in any sense right now.

“Ah……”

Nam-gung Seon-hwa sat down on the floor as if she could no longer endure it.

Nam-gung San was barely able to grab her arm and stop her from collapsing.

“Pull yourself together. Nothing has come out yet.”

“But, brother……”

“Don’t you know that friend? If that friend was someone who would end so easily, he would have ended long ago.”

“…….”

“People are watching. Get up.”

“……Yes.”

Mo-yong Sang-won, who had been listening to their conversation from the side, felt something strange and asked.

“What kind of relationship do you have with Jin So-un?”

He himself was in a relationship where he owed an unrepayable debt, as he could be called a benefactor of his life.

But aren’t the two children of the Nam-gung Clan also acting similarly to him?

“Do you know about what happened on the Ma-ryeong Plateau?”

“I am sorry for arriving too late. Fortunately, you said there was a benefactor?”

“Yes. That benefactor was Jin So-un Gong-ja.”

“The one who said he went into the Mu-ryang-bul-goe-myeol-hon-jin (Boundless Indestructible Soul Destruction Formation) countless times to save people……”

“Yes.”

“Heo-eo…….”

He learned the reason why Nam-gung Seon-hwa’s legs were about to give way.

The Hyeop-sa (knightly warrior) who saved everyone, regardless of Orthodox and Evil factions on the Ma-ryeong Plateau, was Jin So-un.

“Really…… why did he save me……”

Now Mo-yong Sang-won even felt self-loathing.

If he had died early under that cliff, Jin So-un would have been able to take the Inner Core of the Fire Tiger and return to become a knight who would remain in the Murim forever.

If Jin So-un really died like this, didn’t he cause tremendous harm to the Murim?

“What is the life of a middle-aged man like this?”

Mo-yong Sang-won shed tears without caring whether the Nam-gung Clan’s children were watching or not.

And at that moment.

“He, here!!”

“Is, isn’t that a person?”

“It is a person! There is a person here!”

A small voice heard from the other side of the forest.

Mo-yong Sang-won, Nam-gung San, Nam-gung Seon-hwa.

The moment the three people’s eyes met, they kicked the ground like the wind and flew out, without anyone needing to go first.

“Where! Where are you!”

Mo-yong Sang-won pushed aside the escorts and warriors and went ahead.

Then, in one corner of a small vacant lot, he saw Jin So-un, covered in blood, leaning against a rock and sitting.

“Is he alive?”

“Is he okay?”

“Is he alive?”

At the barrage of questions from Nam-gung San, Nam-gung Seon-hwa, and Mo-yong Sang-won, the escort who first checked Jin So-un’s life or death nodded.

“He is breathing.”

Mo-yong Sang-won approached and checked Jin So-un’s pulse.

Fortunately, the pulse was beating strongly.

Wondering if he was wounded, he rolled up the clothes on his arms, stomach, and legs to check.

Fortunately, there were no wounds other than blood clots.

And around that time, Jin So-un woke up.

Perhaps because a lot of fatigue had accumulated, he said with half-opened eyes.

“Haa, have you come?”

Mo-yong Sang-won burst into laughter at Jin So-un’s nonchalant reaction.

“My friend! What on earth happened! Don’t tell me you became a decoy for me?”

“Ah…… I thought I could utilize the fact that there were more traps installed on this side. As I was thinking.”

“Haa! So?”

“As I dealt with them a little, fortunately, the guys ran away.”

“Heo-heo. If you survived like that, you should have come back immediately. Why are you sleeping here!”

“I am sorry. I was so tired.”

Jin So-un apologized with an apologetic expression at the fact that these many warriors and escorts had moved because of him.

Mo-yong Sang-won hugged such Jin So-un and said,

“No! No! It is fine if you are alive. It is a great relief! Of course, it is a relief.”

“Uk, why, why are you doing this.”

Jin So-un, who had suddenly woken up, struggled to get out, but Mo-yong Sang-won did not easily let him go.