The Genius Martial Artist Who Remembers Everything Chapter 01
Chapter 01
Against the backdrop of towering mountain peaks, a slender figure sat hunched on the edge of a sheer, knife-like cliff.
He stared quietly at the white clouds drifting past.
“……Hm?”
His eyebrows rose slightly, and his voice echoed through the empty air.
“Yong So-ah…… No, should I call you the Supreme Purity Divine Sword now? What brings someone as important as you all the way here?”
The moment he finished speaking, a figure in spotless white martial robes appeared before him as though stepping out of thin air.
Tap.
The man known as the Supreme Purity Divine Sword spoke in a deep, commanding voice that matched his dignified appearance.
“Are you Jin So-un, commander of the Sojeong Squad?”
“Commander, you say……”
Jin So-un continued staring at the clouds.
“……Are all the other members of the Sojeong Squad dead?”
“……”
“If they are, then I suppose I am the commander. If they are still alive, then I am not.”
“……I asked whether you are Jin So-un.”
“You must have known before coming here. Why bother asking?”
At Jin So-un’s reply, the Supreme Purity Divine Sword drew his sword.
“I came to retrieve something that must be taken back.”
“……”
Jin So-un finally raised his head and looked at him. A moment later, however, he turned his gaze back toward the drifting clouds.
The Supreme Purity Divine Sword’s killing intent was obvious, yet Jin So-un’s voice remained lazy and calm.
“Did I not restore all the records the Murim Alliance had lost?”
“There are many records you were never meant to possess.”
“Most of what I restored was nothing but useless documents and old records, was it not?”
“I know you remember the contents of Sim Hyeon-gak.”
“……”
Sim Hyeon-gak.
It was the archive that held the Murim Alliance’s most closely guarded secrets.
Only the Alliance Leader, the Grand Strategist, and a handful of specially chosen people were allowed to enter and read its records.
That was the true reason the Supreme Purity Divine Sword, the current leader of the Murim Alliance, had come all the way here.
Jin So-un spoke in an empty voice.
“Damn them. I told them I did not want to see it. I knew this would happen.”
“……”
“So…… you came all the way from Bukhae to kill a single third-rate warrior? You even slipped past the Demonic Cult just for that?”
“For the sake of justice in Jianghu. This is a matter that cannot be left unresolved.”
Jin So-un let out a quiet laugh and nodded.
“What happened to the men of the Sojeong Squad?”
“I do not know.”
“Heh. Of course you do not. From the beginning, trash like us were nothing more than disposable tools to people like you.”
“Everything was done for the greater good……”
That damned greater good.
That empty excuse that had sent them into a place where death was almost certain.
Jin So-un’s voice filled with bitter mockery.
“And did that glorious greater good bring you prosperity in Bukhae?”
The tip of the Supreme Purity Divine Sword’s blade trembled.
The ruler of Jianghu had changed.
And the Murim Alliance had fallen.
Its leaders had fled all the way to Bukhae, where they now struggled to protect the last remnants of their legacy.
“Cough!”
Jin So-un’s weak body trembled as he staggered toward the Supreme Purity Divine Sword.
The swordsman quietly stepped aside.
Even the hem of his spotless white robes pulled away from Jin So-un, as though he could not bear to let the sickly man touch him.
Jin So-un noticed and gave him a mocking smile.
“So, you failed after all.”
“The Murim Alliance will rise again and restore order to Jianghu.”
“I was once a member of the Murim Alliance, but I sincerely hope that terrible world never returns.”
“……The Demonic Cult has corrupted you.”
The Supreme Purity Divine Sword raised his weapon, preparing to cut off Jin So-un’s head with a single strike.
Then he suddenly froze.
As though he had sensed a ghost standing behind him, his body shuddered, and he quickly turned around.
Someone he had never expected to see in this place was approaching.
“……Why is he here?”
The Supreme Purity Divine Sword turned back and glared at Jin So-un.
“Have you been secretly working with the Demonic Cult?”
Jin So-un slowly turned his head toward the approaching presence. His expression remained calm.
“Who knows? Why would someone so important come all this way for a man like me? It must be a coincidence.”
“……”
“More importantly, are you planning to stay?”
The moment Jin So-un finished speaking, the Supreme Purity Divine Sword kicked off the ground and disappeared.
However, he did not leave completely.
He reappeared on top of a nearby mountain peak, where he could watch the cliff from a distance.
A moment later, the sound of footsteps echoed through the mountains.
Step. Step.
A man dressed in black martial robes slowly approached Jin So-un.
Without looking back, Jin So-un called out his name.
“Black Lion Gwak Gung.”
Gwak Gung could not hide his surprise.
Jin So-un still had his back turned to him.
“How did you know it was me?”
“There are quite a few visitors today, especially on such a pleasant day.”
“I asked how you knew.”
“The Blood Serpent Dance Step. It is a movement art used only by the Demonic Cult’s Young Cult Master. On the third step, its path twists and splits in all eight directions.”
Gwak Gung let out a laugh of disbelief.
“Hah. Have we met before?”
“The Sojeong Squad once acted as a human shield against the Heavenly Demon Black Sword Unit. Do you remember us?”
“Heh. Who knows? Back then, everyone in the Murim Alliance was little more than a human shield to us.”
Gwak Gung looked Jin So-un over with growing interest.
“Still, I heard that you never forget anything you see. It seems the rumors were true.”
“It is a useless gift for a warrior.”
Gwak Gung glanced toward the distant peak, where the Supreme Purity Divine Sword stood silently watching them.
“Did the Murim Alliance come all the way from Bukhae to save you?”
Jin So-un shook his head.
“He came to take something from me.”
“Something?”
No matter how closely Gwak Gung examined him, Jin So-un did not seem to possess even a single silver coin.
“What does he want?”
“This worthless head of mine.”
Gwak Gung looked back at the peak and clicked his tongue.
“Tsk. I heard the Sojeong Squad protected you until the very end because your head contained everything there was to know about the Murim Alliance.”
“That is not true……”
Jin So-un lowered his eyes.
“They said they protected me because I was the one who wanted to live the most.”
He muttered quietly,
“Those fools.”
“How touching.”
A spark of anger appeared in Jin So-un’s eyes.
“They are not people a demonic cultist like you has the right to mock.”
“How amusing.”
Jin So-un released a wave of killing intent, but Gwak Gung did not even flinch.
If anything, he seemed to be provoking Jin So-un to continue.
Before long, however, Jin So-un’s strength gave out, and his killing intent faded.
“……Are you after the same thing as the Supreme Purity Divine Sword? With him watching from over there, I might even tell you everything I know about the Murim Alliance.”
“What value would that information have to the Divine Cult now?”
“……That is true. Then why did you come all this way?”
“To capture the commander of the Sojeong Squad, one of the Divine Cult’s most troublesome enemies.”
Jin So-un nodded several times.
His calm reaction left Gwak Gung puzzled.
“Are you not afraid?”
“Would a man whose life has already been hell fear death?”
“You wanted to live more than anyone, yet your life became hell?”
“You are an intelligent man. Imagine living while remembering everything—every death, every defeat, and every terrible moment.”
After a brief silence, Gwak Gung nodded.
“Mm. That could not have been an easy life.”
“Ha ha ha.”
“What is so funny?”
“A demonic bastard I once hated is now pitying me. How could I not laugh?”
“You should be proud. You and the Sojeong Squad were among the Divine Cult’s most persistent enemies.”
“To think a group of third-rate warriors abandoned by the Murim Alliance earned the Demonic Cult’s respect. Perhaps the Alliance was doomed from the very beginning.”
After a brief pause, Jin So-un continued.
“Still, I am curious. Why would the Young Cult Master personally come to capture a single third-rate warrior? Did you know the Supreme Purity Divine Sword would be here?”
Gwak Gung showed no interest in the Alliance Leader watching them from the distant peak.
Instead, he pointed at Jin So-un’s wrist.
“That bracelet.”
Jin So-un lowered his gaze.
Jin So-un lowered his gaze.
A Blue Dragon Bracelet was wrapped around his wrist, engraved with the image of a strange, lifelike dragon. It looked completely out of place against his worn and shabby clothes.
“It is a sacred relic of the Divine Cult.”
“……Is that so?”
Jin So-un raised his arm and quietly examined the bracelet.
Longing filled his eyes as memories of the past returned.
Countless people had died for what they had accomplished that day.
“When we defeated the Guardian Dharma King……”
Back then, he had believed the Murim Alliance—and perhaps even the entire world—would change.
How foolish he had been.
Jin So-un let out a bitter laugh.
“Do you have any final words? If you die at the hands of a member of the Divine Cult, the Demon God will grant your last wish.”
“Heh. To think anyone could believe such ridiculous teachings. Your cult truly is filled with madmen.”
“Our god is real.”
“A final wish……”
Jin So-un fell silent for a moment.
“Very well. In my next life, I wish to be born into a world without the Murim Alliance that abandoned us and without the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult that slaughtered us.”
“Unfortunately, that will be difficult. The world now belongs to the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.”
Jin So-un’s body suddenly rose from the ground and flew into Gwak Gung’s hand.
“Guh……”
A powerful wave of demonic energy surged from Gwak Gung and poured into Jin So-un’s body.
It felt as though every nerve was being ripped apart and every joint was being crushed.
Ah.
What a miserable life this had been.
May the karma of this life end with me.
His senses slowly disappeared.
Then the world fell into darkness.
“……I am certain that happened.”
I had definitely died.
My memory had always been unusually sharp, but the moment of my death remained especially clear.
I could even remember the scent carried by the wind that day.
Gwak Gung had appeared and killed me.
There was no doubt about it.
A sudden itch spread across my back, and I reached behind me.
Scratch, scratch.
The relief felt far too real for this to be an illusion.
“What in the world is happening?”
I had died at the hands of Black Lion Gwak Gung.
And yet, somehow, I had returned to the age of nineteen—thirty years into the past.
I was no longer Jin So-un of the Murim Alliance’s Sojeong Squad.
I was once again Jin So-un, a disciple of the Taeul Sect.
I had returned to a time before the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult conquered the world, when the Murim Alliance still ruled Jianghu.
“Was that nonsense about granting final wishes actually true?”
I recalled my last conversation with Gwak Gung.
I had never believed that some so-called Demon God would truly grant the wish of a dying man.
Had it really possessed such power?
“But…… as expected of a Demon God, it did not even listen properly.”
I had wished to be reborn in a world without the Murim Alliance or the Heavenly Demon Divine Cult.
Instead, I had been sent back to the time before the hellish Great Righteous-Demonic War began.
Whether it was the Demonic Cult, its followers, or the Demon God itself, nothing connected to demons could be trusted.
“Haa……”
I had regained my youth, but I felt no happiness.
I still remembered every horror that would take place over the next thirty years.
Worse, I was only a disciple of the Taeul Sect, someone destined to become no more than a second-rate warrior.
Returning to the past did not mean I had been chosen to save the world.
“If that were the case, it could at least have given me some incredible power or placed Patriarch Zhang Sanfeng’s soul inside me.”
That damned Demon God.
The Heavenly Demon Divine Cult would eventually return.
No—it had already returned.
I was simply the only person who knew.
The Murim Alliance, blinded by confidence in its own strength, would be swept away like fallen leaves in an autumn storm.
Everyone who placed their trust in it would fall with it.
My sect, the Taeul Sect, had also trusted the Murim Alliance.
And it had been destroyed alongside it.
Damn it.
“Remembering it is painful enough. Do I really have to watch it all happen again?”
After thinking through everything that had happened, I reached only one conclusion.
To put it simply—
“I am doomed.”
For some reason, I could almost feel that wretched Demon God watching me from somewhere, grinning at my misery.
Why?
Because if I had been in its place, I would probably have done the same.
Continue reading more chapters at henprogressive.com
Please join here, I need supporters to help me continue translating Surviving game as a barbarian and Lee Gwak
If it doesn’t work support me here buymeacoffee.com/hennoveltranslations. There are advanced chapters for supporters as well.