Chapter 76: Chapter 76
The Yangtze River.
Normally, people thought of the Yangtze River as a massive river that crossed the Central Plains.
In the current murim, the meaning of the Yangtze River was more important than at any other time in the past.
A boundary dividing the orthodox and the evil.
The reason for that was surprisingly simple.
It was because the Murim Alliance existed firmly north of the river, and the Four Black Alliances existed south of the river.
“Phew. Today will be tough too.”
Yeo Wun-gi, who was leaning against a ferry crossing located north of the Yangtze River, let out a sigh.
It had already been a fortnight since he stayed at this Yangtze River.
During that time, there was only one thing he had been doing.
Repelling the water bandits.
However, every time he rode a boat, his head grew dizzy from the seasickness that came, so taking down opponents was no easy task.
“Sigh, if I knew the Chivalrous Commission Squad was a place that only did this kind of work, I wouldn’t have tried so hard…….”
Grumbling, he moved his neck this way and that.
The Chivalrous Commission Squad had been his goal since a long time ago.
And rightfully so, as it was the largest martial unit he, a martial artist belonging to a small-to-medium sect called the Iron Blood Gang, could enter within the Murim Alliance.
Thus, he thought that if he entered the Chivalrous Commission Squad, he would do chivalrous deeds he had only heard of in words, or missions to take down demonic individuals.
‘Yet I am just dealing with water bandits.’
The first mission he received as soon as he became a member of the Chivalrous Commission Squad was very simple and easy.
Escorting the escort agencies and merchant guilds traveling back and forth on the Yangtze River!
‘If there is any comfort, is it that the opponents are the Water Dragon Stronghold and not ordinary water bandits? If I just take down that old man, I would build my reputation though…….’
Yeo Wun-gi recalled the old man who gave off the most intense momentum among the water bandits.
‘Well, it would be impossible.’
His mouth tasted bitter, but he had to admit it.
With his current skills, rather than taking down that old man, it was fortunate enough just to have his neck intact.
‘If I had come alone, I would have died.’
He purposely moved his neck even more broadly.
As he heard a cracking sound, he felt as if there was a slightly refreshing sensation for some reason.
“Hah, I don’t want to do this.”
“What are you talking about?”
At that moment, a scolding voice was heard from the side.
“Oops, have you arrived?”
Yeo Wun-gi scratched his head and looked at the person who scolded him from the side.
“You haven’t forgotten the work we have to do, right?”
“Haha, I know. I just complained once because this situation is frustrating. Miss Cheong-hwa.”
“That’s a relief then.”
Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa, a woman with a cold expression whose pitch-black hair tumbled down, looked at Yeo Wun-gi with a suspicious look.
However, that was also brief.
“More importantly, how do you think it will be today?”
She asked in a low voice.
Yeo Wun-gi replied as he watched her hug the sword in her embrace even tighter.
“Well, maybe since they didn’t come yesterday, wouldn’t they come today?”
Yeo Wun-gi shrugged his shoulders.
Then, taking his back off the wall, he spoke.
“More importantly, let’s go board now.”
“Understood.”
The two slowly boarded toward an old ship moored at one spot.
Climbing up the creaking wooden planks, they greeted the ones who boarded first as soon as they arrived on the ship.
“I am Yeo Wun-gi, dispatched from the Alliance.”
“I am Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa.”
A fat middle-aged man came running.
The middle-aged man, who ran over with a thumping sound, smiled broadly.
“Nice to meet you. I am Son Wi, the Bureau Chief of the Dancheong Escort Bureau.”
“Haha. Nice to meet you. I am Yeo Wun-gi.”
“I am Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa.”
“Please take good care of us this time.”
“Haha, I will try my best.”
When the three were conversing after exchanging names.
“This is not a ship you can board recklessly.”
A commotion occurred below the ship.
“But they told me to board this ship?”
“Who did?”
“Seol Geom did.”
The moment those words came out.
“What……?”
“The Vice Strategist?”
Yeo Wun-gi and Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa, who were listening to the commotion, flinched their bodies.
“Wh-why are you doing that?”
The Bureau Chief was flustered at the reaction of those two, but the two moved before him.
“We will pass by for a moment.”
“Let’s talk later.”
The two hurriedly passed the Bureau Chief in front of them and hurriedly looked down.
Down there, a sharply impressive young man wearing black martial attire and an escort guard could be seen continuously arguing.
“It’s a face I haven’t seen before. Have you seen him, Young Hero Yeo Wun-gi?”
“No. It’s my first time too…….”
While Yeo Wun-gi shook his head and answered, the young man’s voice could be heard.
“……So they told me to protect this ship from the Water Dragon Stronghold’s ambush?”
* * *
A moment later, the ship departed.
“Hahaha, so you were Young Hero Cheon-hwi. Nice to meet you. I am called Yeo Wun-gi.”
Yeo Wun-gi, who arrived at the stern of the ship, smiled broadly and welcomed the tardily-boarded Cheon-hwi.
“As expected of the Vice Strategist. To see that personnel were lacking for this mission and immediately supplement it.”
His face brightened up.
Perhaps because this mission wasn’t a proper mission yet, the people dispatched here numbered merely around ten or so in total.
However, was the Yangtze River a narrow river?
It was too wide to manage.
Due to that, Yeo Wun-gi and Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa had to carry out the mission every single day.
But for reinforcements to come like this meant.
“By any chance, could I know how many people came excluding you, Young Hero?”
He asked with a bright face, but the answer that returned to him was one that trampled his expectations.
“Only I came.”
“……Yes?”
For a moment, Yeo Wun-gi let out a deflated sound with a blank face.
Then he quickly shook his head left and right and snapped back to his senses.
“Ay, still, there’s no way you came alone, Young Hero…….”
He, who spoke while waving his hand, looked at the expressionless Cheon-hwi and swallowed his saliva.
“R-really came alone?”
“Yes.”
“…….”
Yeo Wun-gi’s expression immediately darkened.
“Hah.”
Following that, letting out a deep sigh as if the ground were collapsing, he powerlessly leaned his back against the railing of the swaying ship.
“Damn it! I thought I would finally rest a bit, but I will be rolling around all day again. Sigh.”
Cheon-hwi stared at him as if it was amusing.
Most of the Orthodox Faction people he had seen so far were either Daoists or figures of great clans.
Because of that, such a reaction was quite novel.
Didn’t annoyance ooze out from him at a single glance?
‘It’s better than those rigid guys.’
Looking at Yeo Wun-gi like that, he recalled his purpose for coming here and opened his mouth.
“Do you know where the Water Dragon Stronghold is?”
“Their home base is unknown.”
The answer flowed not from Yeo Wun-gi, but from the mouth of another.
Cheon-hwi turned his gaze to Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa, who had answered, and asked.
“Even though they continually ambushed several times, you still don’t know their home base?”
Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa’s graceful eyebrows furrowed.
“……They are not such easy opponents.”
‘What? Not easy opponents?’
He was so dumbfounded that a hollow laugh came out.
The Water Dragon Stronghold, or the Yangtze River Waterways Stronghold.
At the end of the day, weren’t they just water bandits?
‘Seeing that they are struggling against mere water bandits, there is nothing more to gain even if I keep asking.’
Cheon-hwi immediately turned his attention away from the two.
Then, Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa also closed her mouth and did not continue the conversation any further.
As the atmosphere was cooling down in an instant.
“Haha. Miss Cheong-hwa. Since we are people who will carry out the mission together from now on, how about not acting so coldly and getting along nicely?”
Yeo Wun-gi, who only vaguely hoped for the situation to flow nicely, brought up the words to ventilate the atmosphere.
However.
“Is there necessarily a need to get along nicely just because we are doing a mission together?”
Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa cut him off cleanly and refused.
“Whoa! That matches exactly with my thoughts.”
Cheon-hwi immediately agreed to those words.
‘It seemed they would be useless anyway.’
He didn’t want to consume useless time and emotions on this mission.
“Ha, haha.”
Because of that, the one who became awkward was Yeo Wun-gi.
‘Oh man. Still, since one person was added, I thought it would become a bit more comfortable than before.’
At the moment he was about to let out a sigh mixed with various emotions.
Splash…
Suddenly, the water waves became unusual.
The advancing ship was swept up by the fierce current and rocked heavily, and Yeo Wun-gi, who soon read the ominous atmosphere, sprang to his feet.
At the same time.
“W-Water Dragon Stronghold!”
A loud shout burst out from the front.
“Miss! Young Hero!”
Yeo Wun-gi quickly shouted and looked back.
“…….”
The two were already gone.
“Even if that’s the case for Miss Cheong-hwa…….”
Looking at the two who disappeared before he could even notice, he shook his head.
“Young Hero Cheon-hwi was also a tremendous expert, huh.”
Feeling keenly to the bone that only he was a mere ordinary martial artist, he let out a sigh and kicked off the swaying wooden planks.
“Sigh, let’s just do my job well.”
Meanwhile, Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa, who moved first of all, glared at the scrawny old man in front of her eyes.
“Is it you again, Heuk Ya-no.”
“And you wench, even though you suffer every day like that, you came again.”
Furrowing her brows at the sharp words, Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa glanced back and spoke.
“Everyone, hide behind.”
Her voice was very small, but it lodged clearly into everyone’s ears.
“A-understood.”
“Everyone, get back.”
Seeing the escort guards and porters of the escort bureau retreating backwards in a swarm, Heuk Ya-no raised his eyes.
“Hehehe, do you think I will let you go comfortably?”
Having finished speaking, he raised his hand high.
“Everyone, attack!”
At that moment, the calm river water surged upward, and people looking like drowned rats appeared from all directions.
“Plunder everything!”
“Loot without leaving a single thing!”
The water bandits immediately took out bizarre weapons each, and rushed in at once.
Heuk Ya-no, who issued the command, laughed.
“Fufu, are you going to just leave them be?”
“My opponent is you.”
Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa grasped the sword in her embrace.
The moment the transparent blade slowly revealed itself, the beating sunlight reflected and pierced Heuk Ya-no’s two eyes.
“Keuk! This wench! Cowardly!”
At the instant Heuk Ya-no rubbed his eyes.
“The cowardly one has been you all along.”
The woman’s cold voice spread.
Clang!
However, instead of the crisp sound of flesh being cut, the sound of iron clashing against iron erupted.
“Hmph! Do you think I will fall to a mere extent like that?”
Heuk Ya-no, who blocked it by striking the flat of the blade, revealed his yellowed teeth and laughed.
Soon, a mushy energy flowed out from his body and slowly encroached upon his entire body.
“This time for sure, I will kill you, wench.”
“No. The one dying is you.”
While Hyeokryeon Cheong-hwa also spread out her energy, Yeo Wun-gi, who was protecting the escort bureau people at the rear of the ship, gritted his teeth.
“Grit! Stop appearing already!”
Thwack! Thwack!
It was exhausting to send the continuously appearing water bandits flying with fists and palms.
He quickly looked back and spoke.
“If anyone there has learned martial arts, could you help out a little bit?”
The escort guards of the Dancheong Escort Bureau gauged each other’s expressions before pulling out their swords one by one.
As they took them on one by one, Yeo Wun-gi could feel a brief moment of breathing room.
“Phew. Now I can live a bit.”
Was it because his mind became a bit more at ease?
Tardily remembering someone, he shouted sonorously toward the sky.
“Young Hero! Young Hero Cheon-hwi!”
In an instant, a shadow swooshed and appeared.
Smash!
The rushing water bandits flew backwards.
“Why?”
Seeing Cheon-hwi pop out like a ghost, Yeo Wun-gi was startled in surprise but immediately pretended to be calm and opened his mouth.
“You have to carry out the mission!”
“Hmm, that is true, but…….”
Cheon-hwi stroked his chin.
Even while doing so, he dodged the attacks of the rushing water bandits just by twisting his body.
It was a body movement close to divine skill.
“By the way, was it like this every time you got ambushed?”
A sense of déjà vu was felt.
‘That is toying with them.’
A difference in combat power clearly existed.
First of all, they were at a disadvantage in terms of the number of people.
To face water bandits nearing forty, two people were absurdly lacking.
Of course, if the two were experts to the extent of making the difference in numbers moot, it would be different.
‘It isn’t to that extent.’
The two were not.
That wasn’t all.
What about the skills of the old man named Heuk Ya-no?
He possessed enough martial might to take down the woman right in front of him with strength to spare.
No, even if he had come alone without accompanying his subordinates, his skills were to the extent of easily hijacking the ship.
Yet he was going easy on them.
‘Why is he doing that? Could it be that this ambush…….’
While Cheon-hwi fell into thought.
‘Did you say if it was like this every time we got ambushed?’
Yeo Wun-gi rolled his eyes here and there.
Being surprisingly quick-witted, he sensually realized that Cheon-hwi didn’t spout such a question for nothing.
“Young Hero. Did you discover something?”
“Hmm, it seems this has a separate purpose.”
“Yes?”
Cheon-hwi disappeared with those words as his last.
“……Young Hero?”
Yeo Wun-gi looked in fluster, but Cheon-hwi was already gone.
“T-that guy disappeared!”
“Now is the time! Everyone, attack!”
The water bandits, who had momentarily paused at the martial might Cheon-hwi showed, began to rush in again like fish meeting water.
“Y-Young Hero! Where did you go!”
Yeo Wun-gi shouted loudly, but Cheon-hwi, who had already left, did not return again.
“This damn it!”
Soon, he clashed with the water bandits again.
“Uwaaaah!”
Meanwhile, Cheon-hwi, who killed his presence, scanned the ones fighting right now one by one.
‘I don’t know what they are trying to do.’
For water bandits, their attacks lacked energy and were not fierce.
At that moment, Heuk Ya-no shouted loudly.
“Everyone, retreat!”
To issue a retreat order despite clearly holding the upper hand.
It was an incomprehensible situation, but.
‘They are going to the Water Dragon Stronghold on their own, aren’t they?’
Cheon-hwi smiled in satisfaction.
Following that, he quickly blended in among the water bandits draining out like an ebb tide and moved.
Swish…
A moment later, boarding the Water Dragon Stronghold’s ship, he discovered a door marked as the steering room while going deep inside.
‘I can just stay here.’
Right away, as soon as he opened the door.
“I was about to depart anyway…….”
The two eyes of the water bandit, who turned his head with an annoyed expression, bulged open.
“Y-you, who are you…….”
However, he couldn’t finish his sentence.
No, he couldn’t spit out his voice.
It was because Cheon-hwi had unknowingly pressed his mute acupoint and sealed his mouth.
“You are a water bandit of the Water Dragon Stronghold, right?”
Looking at the water bandit who was nodding his head like crazy with a terrified expression, Cheon-hwi spoke to him in a commanding tone.
“Let’s go to the Water Dragon Stronghold right now.”
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