Chapter 84: Insubordination (4)
Myo Butcher, Jin Butcher, Oh Butcher, Mi Butcher, Shin Butcher, and Yu Butcher.
They, who had been lying on the ground, quietly raised their bodies.
Turning their heads, they saw their subordinates hesitating far away.
The gazes of the six Thousand-Heads turned fierce.
“……We must deal with them, right?”
“Of course. Since they saw, they must die.”
Myo Butcher and Mi Butcher moved first.
Seeing the weapons falling toward their necks, the water bandits urgently cried out.
“C-Chief! Why……?!”
“You saw me kneel. The one who saw is the bad one.”
They cut down and killed every single subordinate who had witnessed their unsightly state.
Jin Butcher, Oh Butcher, Shin Butcher, and Yu Butcher also slaughtered their subordinates, not to be outdone.
It was because they feared that the rumor of them lying servilely in front of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher might somehow spread.
Before long, the banquet hall was entirely dyed in blood.
Now, there was no one left who had witnessed the humiliating state of the six Thousand-Heads.
They wiped the blood off their weapons and spoke.
“What will happen to the situation in the courtyard? Senior Brother Ja and Senior Brother Chuk seem to have grown even stronger in the meantime.”
“What? Does that mean Senior Brother In is going to lose?”
“What nonsense! We saw it! Senior Brother In’s strength. That was by no means the strength of a human.”
“Even so, Senior Brother Ja and Senior Brother Chuk are ganging up on him, so how could he possibly have the skill to withstand that?”
“That’s right. Originally, Senior Brother Ja was the next Union Master, and although Senior Brother Chuk was stronger than Senior Brother Ja, it felt like he just deferred to him due to hierarchy.”
“Damn it, if I had known it would be like this, I would have also just stood by and watched like Junior Brother Sul or Junior Sister Hae.”
The Tiger Butcher was strong.
That was why the six Thousand-Heads chose to cling beneath him.
However, Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher were also strong.
If those who originally should have become the Union Master and Deputy Union Master of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union joined forces in an attack, who in the world could withstand them?
The expressions of the six Thousand-Heads turned grave.
At that time, Myo Butcher, the oldest among them, spoke.
“Whatever, why worry? We just have to stick to whoever wins.”
At those words, the expressions of the other Thousand-Heads also brightened.
“If those three fight and Senior Brother In wins, we can just remain like this.”
“What if Senior Brother Ja and Senior Brother Chuk win?”
“Then we can just beg profusely, claiming we were threatened by that Tiger Butcher bastard.”
“That’s right. Setting aside Senior Brother Chuk, Senior Brother Ja is so benevolent……”
“Then our course of action will depend on who comes out alive from over there.”
Everyone nodded at the final words of the youngest, Yu Butcher.
They began to pace in front of the inner gate, scanning the mood.
Yu Butcher muttered irritably.
“I shouldn’t have come either, just like Junior Brother Sul. Then I could have just lived comfortably at my mountain fortress.”
“Forget it. If you had done that, Senior Brother In would have immediately visited your mountain fortress.”
Shin Butcher sneered.
“Why didn’t you just monopolize Master’s favor like Junior Sister Hae? Then Master would have quietly slipped you out of the mountain fortress by himself. So that blood wouldn’t splatter on you in vain.”
Right at that moment.
…Crash!
The thick inner gate flung wide open.
!?
The six Thousand-Heads were startled and buried their necks between both shoulders.
Before long, two shadows fell in front of the gazes of the six.
“Ah……”
A low groan escaped Jin Butcher’s mouth.
Those who revealed themselves atop the stone steps of the front gate were none other than Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher.
Their shredded clothes were completely stained with blood.
Ja Butcher was in a state where he had lost one arm, and Chuk Butcher stood on one leg with a leg missing.
Both were seen standing tall empty-handed without weapons, with blood dripping from their mouths.
But despite that, they had returned alive proudly.
The situation of what had happened to the Tiger Butcher was as clear as day.
‘We are fucked!’
This was the thought that crossed the minds of the six heads in common.
The Thousand-Heads fell flat before Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher.
Cold sweat dripped down.
Their hearts were thumping like crazy.
‘That fucking Tiger Butcher bastard! He acted like he would never lose, yet he died in the meantime! Damn it, what should we do about this? No, in the first place, how did they kill that monster-like Tiger Butcher bastard? Ah, Senior Brother Ja and Senior Brother Chuk were also monsters. What a dog-like situation……’
However, what came out of their mouths was a speech entirely different from their thoughts.
“I-I knew you would win, Senior Brother!”
“Since it has come to this, we must beg desperately.”
They had to beg and beg to somehow move the broad heart of the eldest senior brother……
But.
“……”
“……”
Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher had nothing to say.
Sometimes, silence is more frightening.
The six Thousand-Heads bowed their heads even deeper, trembling violently.
“As expected of you, Senior Brother! We believed in you from the very beginning……”
At that moment.
Squeak…
The bodies of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher moved forward a little.
“?”
The quick-witted Myo Butcher noticed the anomaly.
Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher were walking forward, yet their feet were not moving at all.
They were moving while hanging limply like hanged corpses, slightly floating in the air.
And.
“That Senior Brother you speak of must refer to me, right?”
Behind the battered Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher, a dark red shadow shimmered.
!?
The six Thousand-Heads gasped for air.
Tiger Butcher. He was seen reaching out with both arms, gripping the back of the necks of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher.
The Tiger Butcher’s condition could also not be said to be very good.
Beyond his rag-like clothes, red scars were engraved here and there on his fair skin.
His face and both arms were completely covered in blood, and even his right eye was burst, leaving only a pitch-black hole.
…Thud!
The Tiger Butcher threw the two corpses he was holding down the stone steps.
The bodies of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher rolled down like rotten pieces of wood and were flung onto the dirt ground.
The Tiger Butcher spoke with an indifferent expression.
“Throw them out. Let the wild dogs chew on them.”
That was simply all.
His thoughts on the end of the fierce life-and-death struggle, the overturned hierarchy, and the shattered Oath of Piercing the Back of the Hand.
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
“……”
The six Thousand-Heads recovered the corpses of Ja Butcher Seo Woo-hak and Chuk Butcher Woo Cheol-woo with bewildered expressions.
Their senior brothers, who had looked so strong until just a moment ago, had now become cold lumps of meat.
In the process of recovering the rag-like corpses, not a single person opened their mouth.
“Hmph.”
The Tiger Butcher sneered as he watched his junior siblings clearing away the senior brothers’ corpses.
“I must heal my internal injuries. You all, guard me.”
With those final words, the Tiger Butcher shut and locked the inner gate again.
…Bang!
In the night sky, only a single Killer Star still floated alone, casting an ominous red light.
* * *
Deep inside the inner quarters.
The Tiger Butcher was channeling his qi to adjust his breathing while soaking his body in hot water.
Ch-ch-ch-ch-ch…
The blood seeping from his wounds dyed the bathwater red.
The flower petals floating on the water seemed to be dyed black, but then soon turned into powder and sank into the water.
The Tiger Butcher pressed tightly on his right eye wrapped in bandages.
“Kekekeke…… indeed impressive. Senior Brother Ja, Senior Brother Chuk. Had it been the past me, I would not have even dared to bare my teeth.”
After exchanging about three thousand passes, the Tiger Butcher was able to kill Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher.
Although he lost his right eye and numerous scars were created on his body in return.
“If this is the cost to kill those two, it was cheap. Above all……”
The Tiger Butcher closed his eyes.
And he looked inside his mental world, which was entirely dyed in dark red.
Deep within his dantian, in the swamp where internal energies flowed and gathered, something swarmed.
Tiger Ghost (倀鬼). Countless people killed by the Tiger Butcher so far were seen floundering in the swamp of blood.
The demonic art, Spear Ghost Calling. The Tiger Butcher was practicing it.
“Since I can now take two senior brothers under my command, this truly feels like gaining ten million troops.”
The Tiger Butcher spoke as he looked deep within his dantian.
There, at the center of the numerous spear ghosts, stood two spear ghosts.
Ja Butcher Seo Woo-hak, Chuk Butcher Woo Cheol-woo.
The two Thousand-Heads were wailing while shedding tears of blood.
And between them, another spear ghost was seen.
Giant Butcher Gong Je-hwan. He was the man who was once the Union Master of the Yangtze River Water Bandit Union.
The Tiger Butcher smiled as he looked at his master who had turned into a spear ghost.
“Master. I truly put in a lot of effort to catch you.”
His master had no words.
Only glaring this way while shedding tears of blood.
The Tiger Butcher spoke again.
“Had you not collapsed from old age, had your attention not dropped due to dementia—had it not been so, I would not have had the opportunity to poison you.”
When they heard these words, Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher had been insanely enraged.
And it was because they lost their peace of mind that the Tiger Butcher was barely able to grasp victory.
“Master always cherished my senior brothers, didn’t he? Saying that the next Union Master was decided early on as Senior Brother Ja, and always telling me not to feel hurt. Kekeke—but now circumstances have turned out like this. It is truly regrettable in many ways.”
The Tiger Butcher swept back his hair as he finished speaking.
At that time, Gong Je-hwan’s spear ghost raised his head and glared this way.
“……”
Seeing that gaze, something indistinguishable between water or sweat trickled down the Tiger Butcher’s forehead.
“Master. You are already dead. Even if you glare like that, I will not be frightened. Because I am no longer the me from the days when I was your third disciple.”
The Tiger Butcher opened his eyes.
And he closed his ears to the clamor of the spear ghosts trapped in his mental world.
‘Now, there is no longer any reason to turn away from the fate of the Heavenly Killer Star. It is better to throw away that absurd righteous bandit play as well. A bandit living as a bandit, and a person living according to their fate, is the natural order after all.’
Water bubbles rose around the Tiger Butcher.
Bubble bubble bubble bubble…
The bathwater boiling thickly like blood soon turned into red steam and rolled in waves.
“If only I can completely digest Master and the two senior brothers, I can absolutely cross the wall of the Transcendental Peak. Only then will I become the true master of the Yangtze.”
In an instant, the face of a person sprang to the Tiger Butcher’s mind.
An unidentified visitor who had sought him out when he was heartbroken after finishing his conversation with his master.
A corpse-like complexion visible beneath a dark red bamboo hat.
A few mnemonic phrases of martial arts delivered by that old man with ominously glowing eyes.
Thanks to that, the Tiger Butcher, who was third in rank, was able to obtain enough martial prowess to become the Union Master.
“……Hong Gong (洪公).”
The Tiger Butcher uttered the name of the one who could be called his other master.
‘He told me to seek him out once I fully achieved the Towering Vessel stage. To the “Abyss” of the Ba-Shu Snowy Mountains.’
While he was lost in thought, all of the bathwater had evaporated and vanished.
The Tiger Butcher slowly rose from his seat.
All of his wounds, except for the lost right eye, had healed cleanly without a trace.
“Once I completely take over the Yangtze, I must send my subordinates to look.”
Of course, it was not a contact for a good purpose.
The Tiger Butcher put on his outer robe with a fishy smile.
The moment he was about to step out of the bathroom.
…Crash!
A loud explosion drifted from afar.
“……?”
The Tiger Butcher turned to look at the darkness beyond the rattling window frame.
Faintly heard screams, and the smell of blood blowing on the wind.
The Tiger Butcher turned his head as if it were of no consequence.
‘It seems some remnants that my senior brothers brought along were still left.’
Something of that level was for the seven Thousand-Heads taken under his command to handle on their own.
The Tiger Butcher quietly caught his breath.
And he entered channeling his qi to subjugate the spear ghost of Ja Butcher and Chuk Butcher, which he had not long since absorbed.
…Crash! …Crash! Bang!
Meanwhile, the commotion outside the window was growing louder and closer.
Unrivaled Spear Ghost