Dark Mage Vol 1 Chapter 6

Their hearts were getting more impatient, because they knew through the magic traps they had placed that outsiders were coming towards this place.  As if their desire were heard, the magic formation activated. The dragon’s heart unlike before started emitting mana strongly.  During this, Beneitez finally flew to where the magicians were and landed.

“Oh oh.  You have succeeded.  Of course, this is the ability of the top magician of the country Icarot.  Let us go to this place.”

Benitez’s face was flushed red with sweat beading.  It was because he had used consecutive magic and had flown a long distance. He already knew what the current situation was like, so he went towards the magic formation without a single word. In his bosom, he was embracing an undersized corpse(?).  The figure was covered in blood, and most weren’t sure if he was breathing at all.  Benitez must have felt this sentiment.  He breathed in shallow breaths and looked Shrekheimer.

“Fortunately, he is alive. Of course his life was hanging by a thread, but if we use a potion then we might be able to extend his life.  I’ve temporarily finished giving first-aid.”

After hearing his words, Shrekheimer reached in his bosom, and he took out a small gla.s.s bottle.  It was called a healing potion.  It was a luxury item that was in a different league compared to the trash potions that the adventurers usually carried.  Shrekheimer undid the seal and he didn’t hesitate to pour it into the corpse’s mouth.
It was an inconceivably expensive potion, but he didn’t hesitate in the least.

“Let’s leave.”

Already all the members of the delegations were gathered atop the magic formation.  They stopped breathing waiting for the dimension shift magic to materialize.

Ssssss.

It didn’t take long for the magic formation to activate.  It was unknown whether they would be able to safely return to their homeland, but a brilliant light started enveloping the magic formation.  The numerous shadows that were running toward the ray of light hesitated briefly.  However it was only a moment.  The dozen or so hazy shadow that was inside the ray of light disappeared without a trace.

Shuaaaaaa.

The brilliance that swallowed the dozen or so people started to become smaller.  It rose like a whirlwind while shrinking.  Suddenly someone appeared in front of the pillar of light. He had a rigid expression.  The ident.i.ty of this person was none other than Yorkie.

“How, how can this happen.”

He could only watch in amazement as the pillar of light shrank.  He followed his enemy to this place, but his target disappeared in front of his eyes…  A heart-rending scream exploded out of his mouth.

“If only we didn’t wait, because we didn’t know those b.a.s.t.a.r.ds’ ident.i.ty…”

While coming down to retrieve Dachshund’s body, Yorkie saw a scene that was hard to believe.  He was watching Dachshund from the cliff to see where the crash site would be, but suddenly someone showed up right next to Dachshund?

“This, this doesn’t make any sense.  Even Air Walk(TLN:Technique I re-named, allows martial artist to step on air, not flying) can’t accomplish that.

While Yorkie had his mouth open, more surprising events happened.  The figure that appeared in mid-air started flying like a bird while mumbling some incantation.  Afterwards the falling body of Dachshund started continuously decelerating?     It looked like an invisible giant hand was stopping Dachshund from falling, and in moments, his body was floating in the air. It happened the moment before he reached the cliff’s floor.  The unknown flying man hugged Dachshund’s body without hesitating.   Then they starting flying towards somewhere.

Finally he was able to grasp the situation and Yorkie started his pursuit.  The opponent could fly through empty s.p.a.ce, but Yorkie possessed an advanced technique that allowed him to catch up sufficiently.  This was happening for a while.
Yorkie was finally able to arrive at the location where a party of figures were waiting for someone. The flying man’s flight path was heading towards there.  He considered the magicians as Dachshund’s sympathizers.  Yorkie could only think of it this way, because they had rescued Dachshund.  Still he couldn’t act immediately.  For the time being they were still numerically inferior, but above all things, he was uneasy about the middle-aged expert that had used the Air Walk.

” If the expert that had used the Air Walk and his underlings joined force then it would be hard for me to handle them.  First I’ll have to wait for the Dragon & Tiger squad to arrive and then execute an attack.”

Yorkie decided in his heart that he’ll attack after the members of the Steel-Blood sect had arrived.  He checked that there were no path for the enemy to escape, and he waited for his underlings that would show up soon.  The Steel-Blood sect underlings were running behind, because Yorkie’s techniques were too fast.  In between all of this, they had suddenly disappeared. Yorkie was sure they had disappeared from this place since his skilled senses couldn’t detect them.  Yorkie gritted his teeth while watching the pillar of light shrink.

“The Bae-sect’s black arts is very impressive.  However, I cannot lose that b.a.s.t.a.r.d.  Wherever you went, I will follow even to the ends of h.e.l.l.”

Yorkie hardened his heart, and his steps moved him into the pillar of light.  Luckily the pillar of light was about to extinguish.  His body was surrounded by brilliance, and he disappeared from that place.  As if it was waiting for him, the brilliance was completely extinguished and the place became quiet.  Afterwards, a dizzying sound of feet were heard.

“What?”

“Sect, Sect Leader.”

The warriors of the Steel-Blood sect was able to witness their lord disappearing from afar. They were only able to raise their voice and yell.  However the once disappeared figure of Yorkie was nowhere to be found.  From that point on, eternally…

(TLN: Author randomly goes into a flashback mid-chapter.)

“Ooh-ahhhhhk.”

It was a death cry from one martial artist who was at the end of his life.  Events that flip between life and death is an everyday occurrence in Murim.  However it was hard to imagine that it would happen to a prominent figure of major sect that was in charge of thousands of members.
Senior Commander Dachshund Sr. (TLN: Dok-go-moo-gi – Dachshund’s father so I’ll just go with Dachshund Sr.)
He was the 18th sect leader of Bae-sect, which had a long tradition.  He was one of the de facto absolute being that had power of life over his sect. He was that kind of person, but his life was helplessly coming to an end. It was in some place that was far from the mountain where the main Bae-sect headquarters was.
Dachshund Sr’s body shook for a while, but after not too long, he lowered his head.
Looking at his shattered chest, it wasn’t hard to surmise that he perished when an advance qi technique was used on him.(TLN:내가기공(內家氣功) simplified it as qi technique)  Next to Dachshund Sr’s body, four figures were breathing short rapid breaths.

“Phew! That was really terrifying.”

A long bearded ascetic threw up while collecting his sword.  It could be guessed that the battle was very fierce since the archaically resplendent High Prosecutor of Song-moon had an unsightly appearance.
His name was Jindo.(TLN: original Juk-song-pyong)  He was the elder of the joint group, who was not too long ago the previous generation’s elder of the almost extinct White-Peach sect.  However, he wasn’t the one who took Dachshund Sr.’s life.  He was able to slaughter several members of Dachshund Sr.’s personal bodyguard called the Devil’s Guard(TLN: again cut out some word and simplified it), but he wasn’t able to handle Dachshund Sr. with his skills.   To say it again, there was another expert that was on par with Dachshund Sr.  Soon everyone’s gaze was focused on one person.  He was the culprit that was responsible of defeating Dachshund Sr.

“Ooh-week” (TLN: Barfing noise)

The old-aged monk, whose body was shaking for a while, suddenly threw up blood.
He was a wrinkled and white-haired((TLN:鷄皮鶴髮 계피학발-another phrase that doesn’t translate well…means b/c of old age his skin is like a chicken’s skin and his hair is white as crane) old man who one couldn’t tell what his age was.  His skin was very wrinkled, but he still had a benevolent countenance.  On the outside, he looked like he didn’t even have enough energy to catch one chicken.  However the ident.i.ty of the old man was actually a holy monk from the Shaolin.  He had the reputation of being an absolute expert that had acquired an unfathomable amount of inner qi.
He was an old expert who had served as the Dharma abbot 50 years ago. He was the main culprit that had slaughtered Dachshund Sr.  He had been retired for a very long time, but he had to descend from the mountain at the pleading request of the current Shaolin’s abbot.(TLN:I’m really uncomfortable translating what position these guys have in the temple…just know it’s a high ranking monk/maybe head monk) His skill was high enough that the current Shaolin’s abbot was considered his nephew, but the bout with Dachshund Sr. must not have been easy even for an absolute expert.  His face was grimacing as if he was in a lot of pain. Jindo couldn’t watch it any more so he suggested they do a qi transfer(TLN:운기조식 simplified the name, basically if you watched old martial arts movie some guy gets hurts and he sits down lotus style.  The companion sits towards the back and slaps both hand on his back and qi flows from the uninjured to the injured to fix his internal injury, its more of a manipulation then transfer).

“Don’t be like that.  Let me use qi transfer, so your body can recover.  Great Master.  We will use our qi technique.(TLN: actual translation is Dharmapala but it doesn’t make sense since they appropriated a Buddhist term for this genre of novel-I’ll just go with qi technique since its a general term).”

“Then I’ll request it.”

The Shaolin monk was barely able to spit those words out as he sat down in place without refusing.  The qi transfer was calming down his boiling qi flow.  Just inn case there was an a.s.sa.s.sination attempt, the rest of the group surrounded him in a circle.  After watching him for a moment, Jindo gently opened his mouth while looking at the surrounding people.

“This has been a very encouraging work. We were able to easily get rid of Evil Sect’s Dachshund Sr…”

After hearing those words, several of the previous generation’s experts that were lined up nodded their head.

“You are right.  Who would have thought that the Bae-sect’s absolute being would come to this place with only ten Devil’s Guard?”

“Right now the Devil sect is rising from their source so in a word, our White-Peach sect have been very lucky.”

They had eliminated the Evil sect’s magnate.  It was something to be proud of, but there were no indication of that.  They had ambushed the opponent with superior force and a.s.sa.s.sinated him.  As people of the Murim, it wasn’t a honorable act.

At that time, it was hard to even handle one branch of the Demon sect that was getting stronger and stronger.  The previous generation of experts could not watch this inferiority so they had to put themselves forward.  Finally, they were able to form a purpose.  This truth would probably be a secret they have to bury.(TLN: they came out of retirement to help out secretly and they want to keep it a secret) Right at that moment, one skinny martial artist spoke while looking around the surrounding.  Looking at the shape drawn on the robe(TLN:korean full-dress attire), he was an expert from the Shaman sect.

“So who in the h.e.l.l leaked the news that Dachshund Sr. was on the move with only ten of his underlings?”

“I understand.  It resulted in us catching a big fish, but I am very suspicious of his true intention.”

The background story of them coming to this place had a very suspicious side to it.  About a month ago, someone ordered a person, whose ident.i.ty that couldn’t be determined, to leave one page of letter at the Murim-mang’s headquarters.(TLN:무림맹-Murim vs Murim-mang: Murim is the whole society of warrior/martial artist, Murim-mang is just an organization with a similar name )  The letter had no signature, but the contents were anything but normal.

-Some year some day(TLN: author put generic year date) midday,  Bae-sect’s sect leader will mobilize 10 underlings and pa.s.s Hanam’s Starbucks.(TLN:생사평-Saeng-Sa-Pyung: I’m just going to change it to Starubcks)

It was a very short pa.s.sage.  However the one page of letter caused the whole Murim-mang’s head quarter to be turned inside out.

“This must be a lure to bring out the White Peach-sect’s main force.(TLN: I didn’t make up the White Peach sect name.)  I’m sure they are plotting to slaughter us.”

“We must not be fooled by the Evil Sect’s trick.”

However, the bait was too large to ignore. Therefore, the Murim-mang sent out several dozens of warriors to Starbucks to carefully search the surrounding.  They thought they would mobilize after finding out the truth.  The letter’s content turned out to be the absolute truth.  As the written content said, Bae-sect’s sect leader Dachshund Sr. and his 10 underling was staying near Starbucks.

“Why did that b.a.s.t.a.r.d come here?”

After Murim-mang found out the situation, they didn’t hesitate in responding. They couldn’t ignore and leave alone the expert who was surely going to be a strong enemy of the White Peach-sect in the future.  If they wanted to get rid of Dachshund Sr., who was gifted with terrifying martial art (TLN: I say martial arts which is Mu-sul.  Different from Mu-gong.  Again just a differentiation that happened in this genre, its martial arts but it enables the user to have superhuman ability. Kind of like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon), without any rumor starting then this was the only solution.  They were able to succeed as planned. They were able to kill Dachshund Sr.  However, there was a head-ache inducing work leftover…

“What are we suppose to do with that child?”

Everyone’s gaze followed toward the tip of Jindo’s hand.  At that place, there was a 2 year old or at the most a 3 year old child being held firmly by a warrior.  The child was at an age where he wouldn’t know anything.  Still the child was gazing at them with combative eyes, and it certainly seemed like he knew something about the situation.  The problem was this child was the only son of Dachshund Sr…
The one with the quickest temper, Jindo, tried to pull out his sword.

“Let’s kill him.  We can resolve this easily by killing him and shutting his mouth up.”

However, they all knew that this wasn’t an easy problem.  The people that were gathered here prided themselves for being the core members of the White Peach sect.  If it was revealed to the Murim, that they had killed Dachshund Sr. with a joint attack then their honor would be badly tarnished.  Furthermore, and on top of that if it was spread that they killed a child that was barely out of being breast-fed then they wouldn’t even be able to walk around Murim with their heads up. They had to act carefully until they were able to find out the motive of the person who sent the letter.  At that moment, the Shaolin monk, who had finished his qi transfer stood up.

“Our Shaolin temple will be in charge of the child.”

Every gaze focused on Harrier(TLN:Hae-jung is the old monk’s name-will call him Harrier) after hearing what he said.

“What, what do you mean?”

The Shaolin monk’s face was circulating with vitality after the qi transfer.

“Even if we discount the other’s gazes(TLN:other meaning their peers-they were worried how they’ll look to others),  we cannot kill a child this young.   I’ll take him to the headquarters, and I’ll try once to guide him.”

After hearing his words, the members of the White Peach sect was aghast.

“That is too absurd.  Even if he is young, that child is the Evil sect magnate’s son.”

“Look at his eyes filled with hostility.  If he finds out the truth then he would surely want revenge for his father.”

However the Shaolin monk’s att.i.tude was transcendent.