Translator: Wan ED/PR: Personal Ghost
55. Stalemateless (10)
The era when the myths and mysticism held superiority over the human civilization[1].
After the birth of humans, gods interfered in the human world in numerous ways, and as if influenced by that, the beings that were neither gods, nor humans, nor animals were born in the human world.
In the case of Korean Peninsula, the ones which were under a great influence of Heavenly God were alleged tigers and bears, the Ho tribe and Ung tribe, which resembled humans.
At first, they didn’t know about each other’s existence properly.
Heavenly God thought it to be a pity and interfered, holding a ‘competition’ as an excuse for them to gather.
As the result of following Heavenly God’s voice, the Ho gathered together, and the Ung gathered together, and they sparred with each other, becoming completely aware of each other’s existence.
“Jeok-ho, did you also hear Heavenly God’s voice? He said that when the day changes ten times, beings like us gather to have a spar. Even if you don’t spar, it was suggested that you should watch.”
“I heard, so what about it?”
“Hahaha! As you remember, I guess you too plan to come out in the competition held by Heavenly God, eh?”
In Hwang-ho’s case, from among the Ho tribe members, Jeok-ho was the first one he met and became close with.
From their conversations, where Hwang-ho spoke annoyingly and Jeok-ho responded with harsh words, they outwardly didn’t appear to be exactly close.
Even so, Jeok-ho didn’t trouble himself with changing the training location, which Hwang-ho found, and always gave answers.
“It’s said that the Ho will gather to spar with each other this time, so that’s a pity. According to rumors there are many bastards that are quite worthy of giving it a go among the Ung.”
“I have no interest in things like Ung.”
“Hahaha! Then how about Ho? They say that the best martial artist is Baek-ho of the West Mountain[2].”
The rumors about the Ho’s best martial artist Baek-ho spread wide among the Ho tribe, which didn’t unite yet.
The mountains and rivers were overflowing with mountain and river spirits[3]. They liked to cluster together, and if they discovered something annoying or amazing, they would spread rumors in all directions without stopping.
From among the Ho tribe members observed by the mountain and river spirits, they bragged that Baek-ho was picked by them as the best martial artist.
Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho didn’t like that rumor.
They probably couldn’t accept that their martial power was not much to Baek-ho.
Jeok-ho responded quite furiously.
“He acts up, so I’ll fight.”
“Hahahaha! I knew you would say that.”
Hwang-ho laughed at Jeok-ho’s warlike words.
Because Hwang-ho, who spoke like it was someone else’s business, also didn’t look very kind, Jeok-ho asked aggressively.
“Don’t you also think it’s disgusting?”
“Is it not natural? I don’t like it. This one doesn’t specialize in using the body, but is not weak at all.”
Hwang-ho quietly glared at the location of the West Mountain beyond the clouds, as he spoke.
Hwang-ho was born with a talent to use natural and body’s qi, rather than moving his body.
But in the competition held by Heavenly God this time, the usage of qi to attack the opponent was banned.
“Because the energy of this land is still unstable, Heavenly God said to only fight using body arts.”
“If you can’t do it, don’t fight and quit.”
In Jeok-ho’s harsh words, a faint worry about Hwang-ho was buried.
Hwang-ho spoke confidently to dispel those worries.
“This one doesn’t specialize in using the body, but I could overwhelm them.”
Hwang-ho responded to Jeok-ho right away, as he spoke.
“Let’s meet in the finals, Jeok-ho.”
“…. Let’s do that.”
Of course, this promise wasn’t kept.
Because Baek-ho and Eun-ho took complete victory starting with Hwang-ho and Jeok-ho, there was no thing like them climbing into the finals.
But until they met Baek-ho and Eun-ho, they didn’t doubt the fact they were the most powerful among the Ho tribe members.
“Many came.”
“It seems that the mountain spirits and river spirits spread rumors even outside of the Korean Peninsula, eh? There are many beings I’m seeing for the first time. Ah, there are some I know. Ung also came quite together, eh?”
Ten days later, at the peak of the highest mountain in Korean Peninsula.
The mountain and river spirits, who were born from the energy of this land which descended from the mountain, and the beings that would be later called Jin people, flocked to this land at the news that Heavenly God hosts a competition to gather the Ho tribe members.
Among them there were eye-catching beings, who came as a group, they were the Ung tribe members.
They, who had their competition held ahead of the Ho tribe, became aware of each other’s existence and became close.
“Ung? Don’t they have a separate competition? Why did they come here?”
Jeok-ho didn’t even glance in the Ung tribe’s direction, and asked absentmindedly.
“Jeok-ho, you truly don’t waste memory and your brain on things you have no interest in, eh? The Ung ended their sparring yesterday.”
“It’s none of my business.”
Jeok-ho ignored the Ung tribe, and searched for the existence of Baek-ho, who was called the Ho’s best martial artist, but couldn’t find him until the spar started.
“As his hair is said to be white, there is no way he wouldn’t be eye-catching, but he is difficult to find, eh?”
“Perhaps he saw he ran out of luck[4], and chickened out.”
“Hahahaha! It would be disappointing.”
They met Baek-ho just after the competition started.
The spar order and opponents were decided randomly, and the first ended up being between Jeok-ho and Baek-ho.
When Baek-ho and Jeok-ho were called, there was an uproar.
The best martial artist Baek-ho was well known, but Jeok-ho was also somewhat known through the word of mouth, so the audience’s expectations were big.
In fact, the main content of the rumor was his crude way of speaking and personality, but he was also considered strong anyway.
Seeing Jeok-ho excitedly jump out, Hwang-ho couldn’t hide his regretful heart.
‘I wanted to try fight Baek-ho, but that’s a pity.’
Soon a white-haired youth appeared from the chilly air.
As he looked at the scene with a cold gaze, the air seemed to become even chillier.
Baek-ho held a delicately crafted wooden sword, and as if it was finished using an eggshells technique, its surface was pure white.
The white Tiger standing with the pure white wooden blade was like a painting.
‘That’s Baek-ho, eh? Is that a wooden sword he is holding in hand? I guess it was prepared to be used in the competition, eh? Was it made for him by that dongsaeng?’
He heard that from the moment Baek-ho was born, he was with a person with a similar hair color to his, and they acted like brothers, because they were on brotherly terms with each other.
It was pretty clear that the white wooden blade was probably made by the dongsaeng, who was famous for his talented hands.
When everyone cheered seeing Baek-ho and Jeok-ho, a light descended from the sky.
It was Heavenly God sending a signal to spar to the site, but looking at that, Baek-ho raised his hand, which didn’t hold a sword.
Paat!
The sphere of light flashed towards Baek-ho.
It seemed like a signal permitting Baek-ho to speak.
Baek-ho promptly spoke with a voice without any warmth.
“… My dongsaeng doesn’t wish for useless fighting. I suggest we quit it here.”
At Baek-ho’s comment, boos poured out.
The Ho tribe’s members, who were excited for the competition, and the busybodies, who came, were sporadically pouring their qi and pulling their weapons, etc, to show their dissatisfaction.
Baek-ho, as if not even a bit bothered by the hostile atmosphere, spoke what he had to say.
“Heavenly God made such a suggestion to gather Ho in one place. Wasn’t that goal already achieved?”
The sphere of light turned towards Jeok-ho.
It seemed to be asking for Jeok-ho’s opinion.
Without even regarding the sphere of light, Jeok-ho shouted towards Baek-ho.
“If you’re jittery, just lose and shout I’m a loser.”
Whoaaa!
At Jeok-ho’s provocation, the enraged audience gave an applause.
The people, who were worried that Jeok-ho also would lower his tail and step back, were excited and chanted Jeok-ho’s name.
Baek-ho looked towards the audience seats.
His gaze was on the blue-haired woman and silver-haired man, who sat in the audience.
It seemed that they were sending him some kind of signal, but Baek-ho stubbornly shook his head and spoke:
“I withdraw the suggestion. Let’s fight all out.”
As if his personality wasn’t cold unlike his outer appearance, Baek-ho glared at Jeok-ho with the eyes that seemed to be burning.
When Baek-ho pointed the white wooden sword towards Jeok-ho, Jeok-ho smiled, showing it was what he was waiting for.
Soon the light sphere sent down by Heavenly God accepted the two tiger’s opinion, and declared the start of the spar.
Paaa…!
The light flashed brightly and enveloped the arena.
Swish!
At the same time, Baek-ho’s shadow leaped high into the sky.
Though he leaped with only the power of his feet, at the same time as he jumped, he kicked the ground strongly enough to raise a dust cloud.
The audience like Hwang-ho had to raise their heads so much they twisted their necks and stared at the sky to follow Baek-ho.
Everyone sent out an applause for the amazing feat, but Hwang-ho thought skeptically in the back of his mind.
‘The jumping ability isn’t bad, but what is he thinking? As you can’t freely move, it seems disadvantageous, eh?’
As if Jeok-ho also had the same thought, he saw him snort.
Jeok-ho avoided the slow movement of the opponent, and seemed to be planning a move to counterattack somehow.
‘If it goes on like this, there will be no problem with meeting with Jeok-ho in the finals, eh? It would be fun if it went like this, but that’s somewhat lame…’
The moment he thought this, he saw Baek-ho raise the sword high.
Seeing the bulging tendons on Baek-ho’s hand, who kicked the air and raised higher, he instantly had an ominous premonition.
Hwang-ho, who noticed uncommon sword movement, shouted with loud voice.
“Jeok-ho, avoid!”
Jeok-ho recognized Hwang-ho’s voice midst the cheers of the audience.
As if Jeok-ho also felt like something was very wrong, he threw his body back at the maximum distance from the landing point of Baek-ho.
Almost at the same time as Hwang-ho’s warning finished, the explosion burst out.
The burst flooded out as the pressure of Baek-ho’s sword hit the ground.
Kwakwakwakwa!
The sound of the ground splitting and exploding enveloped the sparring ground.
The shock wave of Baek-ho’s one attack from the sky towards the ground devastated the sparring ground.
‘That far, and without using qi, how did he bring out such a power with a wooden sword…!’
While everyone was shocked, Baek-ho landed on the ground.
He looked stable as if it was a lie that he leaped so high.
The place where he stood was intact, untouched by the sword’s attack, as if the place his feet touched wasn’t destroyed.
Seeing this, Hwang-ho realized his scheme.
‘Him showing himself defenseless in the air was a trap to make him careless, eh…!’
The one blow of that sword attack, which shown itself to be ignorantly wide-range, was a move to drive Jeok-ho into the designated position beforehand.
As Hwang-ho predicted, Baek-ho indeed moved his hand, before Jeok-ho’s eyes found a location to escape to.
Usually one would need time to prepare a technique big enough to knock an opponent out in one blow.
Baek-ho shortened that time by controlling the opponent’s location.
After adjusting the posture to use a big technique, Baek-ho kicked the ground again and jumped.
Whoosh!
Baek-ho’s white sword split the air and rushed at Jeok-ho.
Accurately assuming where Jeok-ho will move on the ground of the sparring ground that became a mess, Baek-ho swung his sword without a second of hesitation.
Jeok-ho lifted his feet with a crumpled body balance compared to him, and barely changed the trajectory of the wooden sword, twisting his body and avoiding it, but his posture was messed up and gradually crumbled.
Jeok-ho’s defeat was already set, but even then Jeok-ho endured for this long thanks to his toughness and knowledge of martial arts.
But in the end, he wrongly stepped on the destroyed floor and toppled to the ground.
When without missing the gap, the white sword stabbed with the energy to pierce Jeok-ho’s neck.
Paaa!
The light sent down by Heavenly God poured at Baek-ho.
As if knowing that Heavenly God would stop him, Baek-ho raised the corners of his lips a little and halted his hand.
Paaa…!
Soon the light poured from above at the white-haired youth, holding a white wooden sword.
Heavenly God declared Baek-ho’s victory.
*~*~*
[1] civilization — 문명 (mun-myeong) can also mean enlightenment.
[2] West Mountain — 서산 (seosan) means literally that, but it’s used in a saying ‘Sun sets behind West Mountain’, so idiomatically it means dusk.
[3] river spirits — they are called ‘천령 (cheon-ryeong)’ so I would think it meant ‘heavenly spirits’ if not for hanja given.
[4] ran out of luck — ‘revealed the bottom’
Translator’s note: Jeok-ho having zero interest in the Ung tribe, what a time.
Patron thank you note:
Thank you patron, Nobody, please accept this Echinocereus coccineus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Al, please accept this Echinocereus pacificus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Dust, please accept this Echinocereus polyacanthus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Maru, please accept this Echinocereus salm-dyckianus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, kamisonk, please accept this Echinocereus santaritensis’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Kasimir Ilmonen, please accept this Echinocereus scheeri ‘s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Tara Hess, please accept this Echinocereus triglochidiatus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Ice, please accept this Echinocereus leucanthus’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, anonymous Kofi-supporter, please accept this Echinocereus poselgeri’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Hematite, please accept this Echinocereus schmollii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Thank you patron, Deflubs, please accept this Echinocereus waldeisii’s flower as a token of my sincere gratitude.
Links to support this translation and access to 8 advanced chapter (Patreon & Kofi)
> Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/LibraryKeyTranslations
> Kofi-Euro: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslator
> Kofi-USD: https://ko-fi.com/wanthetranslatorusd
Did you see a mistake? 🐞
Leave a Reply