Chapter 43: Chapter 43
“Young Hero Cheon, they say Henan is so famous for dishes utilizing vegetables. It is likely because Shaolin is there, no doubt.”
“Actually, I prefer meat more.”
“Unlike your appearance, you are a picky eater. Basically, the nutrients differ for every food, so eating a balanced diet is important.”
Cheon Woo-jin feigned indifference and ignored Song Yi-yeon’s nagging.
Walking ahead, the bandit Deok-woo could not contain his dumbfoundedness.
Even though they were at the lowest rank in the Green Forest and it would not be strange if they were pushed out at any moment, they still belonged to the Green Forest.
Even ordinary martial world sects or clans could not openly disregard them like this.
Yet, these young fellows were actually discussing what to eat for dinner, as if they were merely going out to a marketplace.
‘Of course, it isn’t that they are merely young, but…’
Just recalling that single move displayed by the ill-mannered fellow made his knees tremble.
Even while guiding the way, Deok-woo busily racked his brains. Naturally, he was in the middle of devising a scheme to preserve his own life.
Just how long did they walk along such a rough mountain path?
Soon, in a situation where the stronghold was right ahead, Deok-woo glanced back at the two of them.
At that, Cheon Woo-jin raised the Crescent Moon Staff.
“Why stop pointlessly? Do not roll your brain pointlessly.”
“N-No, it is not that. Will you truly be alright? We will arrive at Heungsan Stronghold shortly.”
“Guide us.”
Deok-woo spat out a curse. Naturally, only inside his mind.
‘A young bastard has such terrible manners.’
Simultaneously, the Crescent Moon Staff struck Deok-woo’s shoulder.
“Argh!”
Clutching his shoulder, Deok-woo exhaled rough snorts and continued guiding. No matter how much he thought about it, these fellows had no chance of victory.
The number of bandits remaining in Heungsan Stronghold alone was well over fifty.
Of course, half of them were in a state where they hadn’t even properly mastered martial arts, but even so, there were close to thirty martial artists who fought reasonably well.
In particular, the Stronghold Leader was a man worthy of being called a master even in this vast jianghu. That Heungsan Stronghold, lacking by far, could become affiliated with the Green Forest was entirely thanks to the Stronghold Leader, after all.
“Once we pass that thicket, it is the stronghold. If I may dare say a word, how about resolving it through conversation first? Had they known that Yicheng Escort Agency possessed the ability to employ masters like you Great Heroes, matters would have been different.”
“I will take note.”
At Cheon Woo-jin’s dry reply, Deok-woo smirked. Of course, it was a smile that would not be visible to the two people behind him.
Heungsan Stronghold was quite prepared with plans against intruders.
‘Conversation my foot. You bastards are all dead.’
Soon, as they passed through the thicket, a stronghold built with considerable care was revealed.
Bowing his head, Deok-woo spoke.
“I will go bring the Stronghold Leader, Great Heroes.”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head.
While staying wary of the two martial artists behind him, Deok-woo slowly moved his steps toward the stronghold.
He planned to sound the alarm about the intruders after securing a minimum safe distance. The forces always in preparation would pour out and surround those fellows in an instant, and soon the Stronghold Leader and Vice Stronghold Leader would come out and tear them to shreds.
One step, two steps like that…
His heart pounded as if it would burst.
Soon, around the time Deok-woo stepped forward to unleash his lightness art.
Thwack!
His head burst into pieces, scattering bloody water all around.
After shaking off the blood smeared on the Crescent Moon Staff and sensing the stronghold’s forces through his qi perception, Cheon Woo-jin calmly spoke.
“This time, Young Hero Song should do it.”
“…Me?”
Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head resolutely.
At that sight, Song Yi-yeon, who let out a deep sigh, drew the saber at his waist and stepped forward.
After taking a deep breath…
“I am Song Yi-yeon, belonging to the Black Tortoise Squad of the Martial Alliance! Let the Heungsan Stronghold Leader come out immediately and confess his wrongdoing with his own mouth!”
When he looked back slightly after shouting boldly, Cheon Woo-jin stood with an absurd expression.
Song Yi-yeon grinned.
“They usually do it like this.”
“Indeed.”
Cheon Woo-jin crossed his arms entirely and adopted the attitude of a spectator.
Soon, unspeakable curses began to erupt from within the stronghold. Apparently, they seemed to have cultivated tongue arts more diligently than martial arts.
* * *
Cheon Woo-jin sat down on the ground.
Blood and corpses were already overflowing around the stronghold.
Song Yi-yeon continually exhaled rough breaths. However, the strange curl at the corners of his mouth showed that he seemed to enjoy this situation.
‘It is understandable.’
The martial arts Song Yi-yeon displayed differed completely from what he had shown until now. Since Cheon Woo-jin already knew the secret of the Pure Yang Boy Art, there was no need to deliberately hide his full strength.
Every time Song Yi-yeon’s saber swung, portions of the bandits’ bodies were being cleanly severed.
Cheon Woo-jin closed his eyes entirely and sensed the fine strands of energy scattered all around.
‘It is a Pure Yang Boy Art of quite a high level.’
The types of Pure Yang Boy Art were few, but even among them, they were divided into high-grade and low-grade martial arts. In Cheon Woo-jin’s view, the Pure Yang Boy Art Song Yi-yeon had learned belonged to quite a profound, advanced martial art.
The evidence of that was precisely this pure and unadulterated energy. Like that of Master White Elder, a clear qi without even a single speck of impurity was dominating the surroundings.
Even in the midst of that, Song Yi-yeon’s saber moved without rest. Since the bandits were already in a state of having lost their will to fight, the battle was becoming easier as time passed.
The thought arose that if Song Yi-yeon had not needed to hide thirty percent of his full strength, second place in the selection examination might have become his.
Soon, around the time the situation was almost sorted out, Cheon Woo-jin casually stood up from his seat.
Song Yi-yeon, who made a long slash across the Vice Stronghold Leader’s flank, widened the distance and exhaled rough pants.
“Pant, Young Hero Cheon, I feel like I am about to collapse soon.”
“You are still far from it.”
Cheon Woo-jin was resolute. However, he was also accurate.
Song Yi-yeon had almost no experience unleashing his martial arts with full strength. In real combat in particular, he had none at all.
Therefore, his first experience could not help but feel extremely grueling.
Of course, only when such experiences accumulated over and over would one finally attain seasoned maturity as a martial artist.
When Cheon Woo-jin stood up from his seat, the battle entered a lull.
Both the Vice Stronghold Leader, who spilled his internal organs from his long-gashed flank, and the Stronghold Leader, who was still without wounds, knew.
‘…That fellow is the real deal.’
One could tell just by looking at the momentum and atmosphere that could be felt.
Cheon Woo-jin, who leisurely walked over, said.
“You may kill the Vice Stronghold Leader.”
Soon, Song Yi-yeon charged without any warning. Greatly alarmed, the Vice Stronghold Leader clasped his flank with his left hand and raised his axe with his right hand.
The Stronghold Leader beside him also tried to step forward, but…
“Ugh…”
In an instant, under the oppressive pressure weighing down upon his whole body, he could do nothing. Even merely breathing felt difficult to bear.
The Stronghold Leader’s gaze turned toward Cheon Woo-jin.
‘Tremendous formless qi…’
The fact that the young fellow had reached the level of drawing out formless qi to pressure an opponent was astonishing, but the power contained within that formless qi was simply absurd.
Among all the martial artists he had seen in his entire life, the greatest master was the Supreme Chief of the Green Forest. He was the one who had slain the man called the Green King in the jianghu and newly seized that position, a dangerous figure whose mere eye contact made one’s heart uneasy.
Yet astonishingly, locking gazes with that young fellow elicited an emotion similar to back then.
While Heungsan Stronghold Leader Sin Mo-gak stood like a fool, the saber qi Song Yi-yeon poured out tore through the Vice Stronghold Leader’s entire body.
‘This fellow is also a considerable master…’
To think he possessed saber qi of such size.
Judging by his visible age, it was a realm not easily believed.
The energy commonly called sword qi, saber qi, and the like was a method that could only be properly displayed once one reached the absolute peak realm.
Of course, to the current Song Yi-yeon, it was quite a strained blow. Noticing this, Cheon Woo-jin calmly asked.
“Young Hero Song, why did you overexert yourself?”
“I wanted to end it in one blow. Besides, Young Hero Cheon was here too.”
It was saying that even if he collapsed from exhaustion, Cheon Woo-jin would resolve it.
Cheon Woo-jin shook his head.
“We cannot always be together. Keep that in mind at all times.”
Song Yi-yeon, looking somewhat dejected, nodded his head.
Soon, Song Yi-yeon’s sharp saber pointed toward the Heungsan Stronghold Leader.
“Wait.”
Cheon Woo-jin restrained Song Yi-yeon.
Heungsan Stronghold Leader Sin Mo-gak took steps back with a tense face.
“Just who on earth are you bastards…”
“I told you, we came from the Martial Alliance.”
When Song Yi-yeon answered like that, Sin Mo-gak flared up in anger.
“Are you telling me to believe those words right now! A mere squad member possesses this kind of martial prowess? Even a dog boiled and eaten yesterday would laugh.”
“You boiled and ate a dog? Wow, you are truly in big trouble. Young Hero Cheon here is an enormous dog lover. He raises as many as five dogs at home.”
Sin Mo-gak gasped for air in disbelief.
At that, Song Yi-yeon broke into a smirk.
“Just kidding. But it is true that you are in big trouble.”
“…”
Sin Mo-gak’s face flushed with shame.
The fact that he was being mocked by young fellows was humiliating, but that there was still nothing he could do was even more disgraceful.
Cheon Woo-jin asked calmly.
“Why did you target Yicheng Escort Agency?”
To Cheon Woo-jin, it was an incomprehensible situation.
Originally, bandits managed mountain roads and collected tolls.
Escort agencies handed over a pre-agreed amount like a rite of passage and passed safely through the mountain path.
Occasionally clashes occurred because opinions didn’t align, but at least there had never been an instance of abruptly swinging an axe at an escort leader like those dead bandit bastards. That was because one had to bear too great a risk to obtain petty cash.
Even more so if it was an occasion where Martial Alliance members were accompanying them.
In a word, Heungsan Stronghold was overreaching.
Sin Mo-gak raised a giant axe larger than an ordinary grown man’s torso. For a bandit, the blade of the axe, honed quite diligently, reflected and bounced off the sunlight.
“I have no intention of exchanging pointless questions and answers. I would rather fight and die like a man.”
It was not particularly out of loyalty to the Green Forest.
It was merely because submitting to green youngsters and explaining internal affairs in exhaustive detail was considered pathetic.
Cheon Woo-jin nodded his head.
“Understood.”
“W-Wait…!”
When Cheon Woo-jin approached with a dry expression, Sin Mo-gak instinctively backed up two steps. In the midst of that, the bloodstains smeared on that ink-colored iron staff caught his eye particularly well.
* * *
It did not take very long to make Sin Mo-gak open his mouth. Around the time his arm broke and his collarbone was half wrenched out, Sin Mo-gak smoothly explained the internal circumstances like a person who had honed his speech arts for a lifetime.
Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon left the stronghold behind them, leaving behind fifty-odd corpses.
“By the way, I do not know if this is alright.”
Song Yi-yeon asked in a worried tone.
At that, Cheon Woo-jin tilted his head.
“What do you mean?”
“The person who newly became the Supreme Chief seems to be quite an active man. I am concerned that he might take issue with this incident and pick a fight with the Martial Alliance.”
Sin Mo-gak’s explanation was long, but in summary, it was simple.
The new Supreme Chief was always talking about some kind of reform, saying he would expel incompetent strongholds from the Green Forest.
Heungsan Stronghold, which sat at the lowest rank, became anxious. In particular, it was likely even more so because of their location, having the Wudang Sect and Zhuge Clan to the west, and the Martial Alliance Main Headquarters to the east.
The moment Heungsan Stronghold was expelled from the Green Forest, there were far too many forces that would subjugate them, after all.
Thus, they overreached. In an effort to prove the stronghold’s capability, they recklessly tried to raise the toll, only to unluckily run into martial artists dispatched from the Martial Alliance.
Watching Song Yi-yeon’s worried face, Cheon Woo-jin spoke in a tone that seemed utterly natural.
“We are Martial Alliance members, aren’t we? If we have evil right before us and do not subjugate it, where would the reason for the Martial Alliance’s existence lie?”
“Th-That is correct, but…”
Soon, shouting that he didn’t know, Song Yi-yeon scratched his head vigorously.
In fact, in Song Yi-yeon’s eyes, the reason Cheon Woo-jin subjugated the stronghold was not particularly because they were evil.
‘Didn’t he just subjugate them because they got in the way of the mission…?’
Of course, he did not bother voicing it aloud.
Thinking that all’s well that ends well.
* * *
Cheon Woo-jin and Song Yi-yeon rejoined the escort convoy.
The escort warriors, including Jang Seong-guk, were startled.
“Y-You have already returned?”
Before anyone knew it, the manner of addressing the two had changed to honorifics.
“Fortunately, the stronghold was not very far.”
Having spoken thus, Cheon Woo-jin took his seat casually. Of course, Jang Seong-guk had not spoken with that meaning.
The escort warriors following at the tail end of the escort convoy whispered among themselves.
“What? What was that about real combat?”
“…”
The escort warrior, who had claimed that new Martial Alliance members were delicately raised martial artists, so setting aside duels, in real combat he would be stronger, firmly shut his mouth.