Chapter 234: Chapter 234
“Wow. Are you guys really bandits?”
Cheon-hwi, having arrived at the Hengshan Stronghold, revealed an expression of absurdity.
A massive pavilion located deep in the mountains.
The interior was too neatly organized and clean for it to be a place where bandits stayed.
“Hmm, at this rate, you guys must have a lot of gold and silver treasures.”
Cheon-hwi, who had been looking around the Hengshan Stronghold for a long time and muttering, turned his gaze to the frozen Green Forest bandits and opened his mouth.
“Gather everything without missing a single thing and bring it in front of me.”
The Green Forest bandits couldn’t hide their bewilderment.
They wondered what was going on when he suddenly told them to guide him to the Hengshan Stronghold, but to think it was to rob the Hengshan Stronghold of its gold and silver treasures.
Who would have thought it.
That a Taoist of the Mount Hua Sect would try to rob a Green Forest Stronghold.
When they were losing their minds at the unexpected situation.
“Why, do you hate it?”
Cheon-hwi stared at them, who were standing still even though he had spoken, and said in a low voice.
“If so, then I have no need for you.”
“H-heok! N-no, sir!”
“We will quickly bring them!”
The Green Forest bandits were startled and ran out.
The opponent was an incredible master.
To the point where he could take their lives just by wiggling a finger.
So how could they rebel!
A short while later, in front of Cheon-hwi, numerous precious items such as a lot of money centered around gold bars, expensive silk, and brilliant jewels piled up like a mountain.
“Heok, heok. We brought everything.”
Cheon-hwi, looking at the wealth piled up almost as tall as a person, said as if it was ridiculous.
“Look at this. It seems you guys still worked hard at banditry since you’re from the Green Forest.”
It was a rebuke, but the Green Forest bandits smiled awkwardly at the strange words that sounded weirdly like a compliment.
Meanwhile, Cheon-hwi stroked his chin while looking at the numerous gold and silver treasures that were too overwhelming to even count.
“But it’s too much to just carry away…”
It was way too much.
Even if the entire Splendid Spirit Squad wrapped the items in silk and carried them, it would be difficult.
“Ah!”
Suddenly coming up with a good idea, Cheon-hwi asked a Green Forest bandit who was panting right next to him.
“Do you have a carriage?”
It was a random question.
However, the Green Forest bandit answered vigorously before such a thought could even come to mind.
“We do! But it’s a bit old, so I don’t know if it’ll be alright…”
Toward the Green Forest bandit whose voice gradually became quieter, Cheon-hwi said calmly.
“It doesn’t matter, so bring it.”
“Understood!”
With that answer, the Green Forest bandit led his comrades and ran somewhere in a flurry.
And a short while later, the Green Forest bandits personally dragged three old carriages without horses.
“Heok! Heok!”
“P-push a little harder!”
The Green Forest bandits, who had dragged the carriages with their own bodies on the sloped mountain path, stood in front of Cheon-hwi and said while panting heavily.
“H-heok! T-this is it.”
Cheon-hwi looked at the carriages.
As he had heard, they were quite old.
But.
“Well, this is fine.”
It wasn’t too bad.
The wheels rolled smoothly without any issues, and they were only old, while everything else was fine enough.
‘I’m not going to ride in it anyway.’
The moment the faces of the Green Forest bandit and his comrades, who had dragged the carriage, were about to brighten at Cheon-hwi’s seemingly indifferent reaction.
“Where are the horses?”
At Cheon-hwi’s sudden question, sweat trickled down the Green Forest bandit’s forehead again.
He immediately bowed his head.
“I apologize! We don’t have horses!”
“Really? Well, it can’t be helped.”
Fortunately, Cheon-hwi replied simply as if he didn’t mind.
He asked, but since he had seen them dragging the carriages themselves, he hadn’t had high expectations.
‘There are plenty of guys to replace the horses anyway.’
Cheon-hwi smirked and said.
“Then load everything you brought out earlier onto the carriages, and let’s go down.”
“…Pardon?”
For a moment, air leaked out of the mouths of the Green Forest bandits at the same time.
‘D-drag the carriages loaded with all of that down?’
They thought they had misheard.
The weight of the carriages alone was immense.
But to also load the gold and silver treasures they had robbed the stronghold to bring out, it would be impossible to handle.
They looked at Cheon-hwi with desperate eyes, but all that struck their ears were words filled with rebuke.
“What are you doing, not hurrying up. We don’t have time, so load them quickly.”
* * *
“Elder.”
Chief Steward Oh approached Heavenly Ear Beggar.
Heavenly Ear Beggar, who was tying up the Green Forest bandits and Black Shadow Squad members whose dantians had been destroyed, slightly turned his head and asked.
“Hm? What is it?”
“What do you plan to do with them?”
“What do you mean what do I plan to do. I have to take them to the nearby Martial Alliance branch.”
“Phew. I see.”
Chief Steward Oh swept his chest in relief.
Because he was worried if they would have to travel with them.
However, relieved that it wasn’t the case, Chief Steward Oh opened his mouth.
“Then you will…”
“Well, shouldn’t I wait here until those guys arrive.”
Heavenly Ear Beggar said as if it was a shame.
He also actually wanted to follow the journey, but the situation had become quite urgent.
“This is not something that can be overlooked. It might even affect the future of Jianghu…”
Heavenly Ear Beggar’s expression turned serious.
‘The Four Black Alliances really did it big time.’
It was fortunate that Cheon-hwi was there; if he hadn’t been, they would have all been massacred.
‘Were they pushed into a corner too much?’
He frowned.
With the appearance of the Black Shadow Squad, it was almost certain that the Four Black Alliances were currently trying to embrace the Green Forest and the Daeeun Merchant Guild.
That much could be understood.
Replacing the absence of the White Ghost Castle with the Green Forest and trying to gain financial power was natural from their standpoint.
But what they did right now was excessive.
‘They forced it even after seeing that the World Merchant Guild requested help from the Martial Alliance, and the Plum Blossom Swordsmen of the Mount Hua Sect moved.’
Of course, since they had the Black Shadow Squad, they must have acted with the confidence to silence witnesses.
However, contrary to their expectations, the plan to attack the escort journey failed.
Not only that.
The Black Shadow Squad was defeated instead.
‘Will the Four Black Alliances just overlook this?’
It was hard to think so.
No matter how much they were wary of the Flying Heaven Society, the Black Shadow Squad was crushed, and the Hengshan Stronghold of the Green Forest, which was about to newly join them, was destroyed.
On top of that, they failed to even achieve their plan of interfering with the escort journey.
But if they just overlooked this, the Green Forest and the Daeeun Merchant Guild would burst with dissatisfaction, and the Four Black Alliances would look like they bowed their heads to the Martial Alliance, narrowing their standing.
Therefore, they couldn’t back down.
‘Why did they make such a self-destructive move…!’
Heavenly Ear Beggar clicked his tongue, saying ‘Tsk’.
It was said that the current Four Black Alliances felt a crisis as their momentum decreased compared to the Martial Alliance and the Flying Heaven Society, but this was too hasty.
‘If it goes like this, the Martial Alliance and the Four Black Alliances will end up clashing, and one side will collapse.’
Recalling the worst-case scenario, Heavenly Ear Beggar shook his head with a sigh.
‘Though we still don’t know what choice the Martial Alliance Leader and the Strategist will make.’
It takes two hands to clap.
If the Martial Alliance conceded as much as possible and backed down, it could be resolved well.
‘The possibility of that is low, though.’
However, Heavenly Ear Beggar could only smile bitterly after considering that possibility.
It was the first strike by the Four Black Alliances.
But was there a need for the Martial Alliance to concede.
‘Furthermore, the Mount Hua Sect’s choice, no. That guy’s choice will also be important…’
While continuing his thoughts and looking toward the mountain path Cheon-hwi had gone up, Heavenly Ear Beggar suddenly discovered carriages rattling down.
“Hm?”
Three old carriages were struggling down the slope, and something was strange.
It seemed Heavenly Ear Beggar wasn’t the only one who noticed the strangeness, as whispering voices could be heard from all directions.
“P-people are pulling the carriages…?”
“Those people are the Green Forest bandits the Plum Blossom Divine Hero took with him…”
Bewilderment dwelled in their eyes.
People, not horses, were pulling the carriages.
A few rubbed their eyes with their hands and blinked in disbelief, but the sight of people, not horses, pulling the carriages didn’t change.
Then they belatedly flinched upon seeing the person sitting on the coachman’s seat of the carriage.
“Plum Blossom Divine Hero?”
“Martial Uncle…?”
Cheon-hwi sat cross-legged on the coachman’s seat and let out a sleepy yawn.
“Yawn.”
Cheon-hwi, wiping a slightly fallen tear with his index finger, opened his mouth toward the Green Forest bandits.
“Come on, come on, not much left. You can rest once you arrive there.”
Not long after, the carriages stopped in front of them.
Thump-
The Green Forest bandits collapsed in exhaustion.
“Heok, heok.”
When the sound of breathing reaching the ends of their throats could be heard from them as their chests heaved.
“Heave-ho.”
Cheon-hwi came down from the coachman’s seat.
“Keok!”
Cheon-hwi, lightly stepping on them as they had collapsed, stood in front of Chief Steward Oh and asked.
“Could you take a look at the items inside?”
“You mean the items?”
Chief Steward Oh’s eyes sparkled.
“Understood.”
Chief Steward Oh, who ran over hastily, exclaimed as soon as he opened the door of the first carriage and saw the items filling the inside.
“W-what is all of this?”
“It’s from the Hengshan Stronghold.”
“Gulp-“
Chief Steward Oh’s Adam’s apple bobbed.
“C-can you let me sell this?”
Cheon-hwi smirked.
“You can pay a good price, right?”
Chief Steward Oh nodded his head vigorously up and down, as if it would fall off.
“I will provide you with as much money as possible, Young Hero.”
“Hmm, then I’ll leave it to you.”
“Thank you!”
Cheon-hwi withdrew his gaze from Chief Steward Oh, who was hastily assessing the items inside the carriage, and went toward where the Splendid Spirit Squad was.
“Did you heal everything?”
Cheon Hyang nodded.
“Then let’s go now. I purposely went and got carriages.”
At those words, the Splendid Spirit Squad looked delighted.
‘He’s not just letting us ride horses, but letting us ride in a carriage to get a good rest!’
‘What’s going on with Junior Brother!’
When they smiled radiantly, completely misunderstanding something.
“Then get ready to pull the carriages.”
Cheon-hwi shattered their expectations with a single sentence.
“…What?”
“P-pull the carriages?”
“Yes. Even those people pulled them from way over there to here, so don’t tell me you can’t do it, right?”
Instantly, Cheon Hyang flared up.
“B-but Junior Brother! You said you’d let us rest if we defeated those guys.”
Cheon-hwi chuckled and said.
“And who defeated the Lord of the Hengshan Stronghold?”
“…”
Cheon Hyang closed her mouth and lowered her head deeply.
“And who were the people who struggled helplessly against the guys called the Black Shadow Squad?”
“T-that’s…”
The backs of the Splendid Spirit Squad became damp.
Cheon-hwi looked at them with pathetic eyes and let out a deep sigh.
“Sigh, if it were me, I wouldn’t even be able to say I wanted to rest out of embarrassment. Did you learn nothing even after suffering like that?”
The Splendid Spirit Squad fell silent.
At that moment, Cheon Hyang, who had deeply lowered her head, said quietly.
“Junior Brother is right.”
At her words, the Splendid Spirit Squad flinched.
“S-Squad Leader?”
When the Splendid Spirit Squad freaked out, not expecting her to agree with Cheon-hwi’s words.
‘It was dangerous.’
Cheon Hyang recalled the battle situation from earlier.
The Black Shadow Squad was strong.
To the point where they were pushed back miserably.
‘Perhaps if Junior Brother hadn’t been here, we would have all died.’
She clenched her fists tightly.
‘I thought I had gotten stronger…’
She had prided herself on having gotten stronger than before by repeatedly undergoing hellish training.
But that was a massive delusion.
Jianghu was vast, and reality was cold.
Cheon Hyang looked at Cheon-hwi and asked.
“Will we get stronger if we pull that?”
“You’ll get stronger than you are now.”
“Then that’s fine.”
Cheon Hyang looked at the Splendid Spirit Squad and said.
“Do you guys not want to get stronger?”
At Cheon Hyang’s question, the Splendid Spirit Squad shook their heads from side to side.
How could martial artists not want to get stronger.
However.
“Even so, that training is…”
“If anyone sees us…”
They were reluctant to pull the carriages.
How would others view them if they, wearing the Taoist robes of the Mount Hua Sect, went around pulling carriages.
‘They’ll view us as crazy bastards.’
However, despite their reactions, Cheon Hyang had already made up her mind.
“Quit if you don’t want to do it. Instead, you’ll have to leave the Splendid Spirit Squad if you do.”
It was a sound like a bolt out of the blue.
The Splendid Spirit Squad members eventually drooped their shoulders as if they couldn’t help it and moved toward the carriages with sighs.
‘It’s comfortable since they listen well.’
While Cheon-hwi crossed his arms and nodded, the Head Escort approached carefully.
“Plum Blossom Divine Hero.”
Hm? What’s going on?
Cheon-hwi looked at him with surprised eyes that the terrified Head Escort had approached.
The Head Escort flinched briefly at Cheon-hwi’s gaze, but soon respectfully formed a fist and palm salute.
“Thank you for saving me and the families of our merchant guild.”
Cheon-hwi made a lukewarm expression.
“That’s what I came to do.”
At those words, the Head Escort flinched.
‘How petty. How petty. Even in the moment we avoided him out of fear for his means, the Young Hero did his best to save us.’
In an instant, he wanted to hide in a rat hole.
What a shameful act he had committed.
The Head Escort deeply bowed his head.
“As expected of a great hero.”
“…Well, is that so?”
Cheon-hwi didn’t know what he was talking about, but since he was being polite anyway, he replied roughly as if letting it pass.
At that time, the Head Escort looked at the Splendid Spirit Squad next to them and said.
“But I have one request I’d like to make. The Plum Blossom Swordsmen sustained injuries while saving us. Wouldn’t it be better to let them ride in the carriages and rest during the journey?”
How hard had they worked to protect the escort goods. He couldn’t turn a blind eye to them when they were exhausted and tired.
‘Elder!’
‘Great man!’
At the Head Escort’s words and expression, color returned to the faces of the Splendid Spirit Squad, who were preparing to pull the carriages out of lack of options.
Particularly, a look of relief flashed across the face of the severely injured Splendid Spirit Squad member, but.
“Eyy, would those called the Plum Blossom Swordsmen of the Mount Hua Sect refuse training and rest in a carriage just because their skin got cut a little?”
Cheon-hwi flatly cut off the Head Escort’s request.
“Martial Uncle…”
The moment the Splendid Spirit Squad members tried to retort, asking what he was talking about, they ultimately had to close their mouths at Cheon-hwi’s immediately following words.
“To think that a Plum Blossom Swordsman of the Great! Mount Hua Sect. Could a guy who does such an embarrassing act really be a Plum Blossom Swordsman? That level of injury will heal completely just by applying some spit.”
Cheon-hwi, who was speaking, stared gently at the Splendid Spirit Squad and slowly twisted his lips.
“Right?”
The faces of the Splendid Spirit Squad distorted.
Since he had spoken to that extent, it was a situation where they would become pathetic people if they said they would ride in the carriage here.
‘We’re doomed.’
‘Damn it!’
When they were frozen stiff.
“As expected of Plum Blossom Swordsmen…!”
“Continuing to train even after sustaining injuries, there’s a reason they are praised as the Plum Blossom Swordsmen of the Mount Hua Sect for nothing!”
The escort warriors and the porters, including the Head Escort, let out exclamations of admiration and sparkled their eyes.
They, whose admiration for the Splendid Spirit Squad had already grown tremendously due to the previous battle, sent gazes mixed with worry and expectation.
At those gazes, the Splendid Spirit Squad raised their trembling corners of their mouths and opened their mouths.
“O-of course. Would a Plum Blossom Swordsman rest from training due to this kind of injury?”
“T-that’s right. As Martial Uncle said, this level of injury is nothing.”
And a short while later.
‘Heok! W-why is this so heavy?’
‘Uwaaaak! I was crazy!’
‘Damn it! I should have just laid down saying it hurt even if I looked pathetic!’
They began dragging the carriages with expressions full of regret.