WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 142: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (16)
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The water raiders of Dongting Lake considered everyone else inferior.
They were inferior. That was why they were robbed, humiliated, and killed.
The water raiders, on the other hand, were superior.
The very fact that they took what others owned, toyed with them, and killed them proved their superiority.
Otherwise, those people would not have been robbed. They would not have been humiliated either.
That was why the water raiders felt no guilt.
Who would feel sorry for a toy?
Give them a sword and they would not know what to do with it. Even when someone came to catch them in plain sight, they could not run away. How could anyone treat such pathetic idiots as people?
There was a game the water raiders often played.
The Water Ghost Game.
They would seize a fisherman whose eyes offended them.
After playing with the victim for a while, the defiance would vanish from their eyes, leaving only fear. Their inferior nature would reveal itself.
That was when they let them go. They would tempt the fisherman by saying they could live if they swam away.
Then the fisherman would jump into the water as ordered. Because they were inferior. Without thinking things through, they would desperately swim, believing they could really escape.
But a water raider would dive in after them.
The one following them would be a junior water raider.
Having learned martial arts, they would follow the fisherman underwater.
Night did not matter. The water raiders who had learned martial arts could tell where someone was, even what position they were in, just from the sound of splashing.
They would slip closer beneath the water, then lightly slash the desperately swimming fisherman's ankle with a blade.
“Aaah!”
The senior water raiders would enjoy the scream from above the water and burst into laughter.
The fisherman would flail and look around, but no one would be visible. Even if they plunged their head underwater, there was only darkness. They could not find a human shape anywhere.
Then a blade would come from somewhere else and carve up their body.
“Aaah! Agh! Aaah!”
Screaming, the fisherman would swim toward land.
But that would only last for a moment.
After a few more cuts, the fisherman could do nothing anymore.
They could neither swim away nor return.
All they could do was float in the middle of the water, weeping and screaming.
“Please spare me! Please spare me! I was wrong! Don't do this!”
That was when the game reached its peak.
The water raiders' laughter would grow louder.
The louder they laughed, the more recognition the junior who had struggled underwater received from the seniors.
They called it the Water Ghost Game.
* * *
Now, a water raider looked around in terror.
A dark night.
Dongting Lake, thick with fog.
It was scenery the water raider had seen thousands of times.
The fog hid their tracks.
The darkness hid their blades.
It was the scenery that made the water raiders feel safer than anywhere else in the world.
The water raider's home.
Yet tonight, everything felt strange.
No. It was more than strange.
It was terrifying.
This darkness.
This fog.
“C-Come out! Come out, you bastard!”
The water raider tried to summon courage.
Had they not always believed that even if a peak-realm master attacked, the water raiders could not lose as long as they fought amid the waters and fog of Dongting Lake?
There was nothing to fear.
But then...
Thud!
Crash!
Bang!
From somewhere beyond, the sounds of people falling rang out.
There were no screams.
No clashing blades.
Just bodies hitting the ground, one after another.
The comrades who had been making such a racket were all gone.
No one answered.
Even the late first-rate leader who had charged into the darkness, shouting that he would cut off that turtle bastard's head, had gone silent. No matter how often the water raider called out, there was no reply. Could that crashing sound have been the leader falling?
“What is this...? What's out there...?”
The water raider trembled.
They waved their arms through the darkness and fog, turning their head in every direction, but they could see nothing. There was nowhere to go.
A blade seemed ready to sweep across them the moment they took a step.
Fear.
Overwhelming fear.
Unable to go anywhere, the water raider crouched down and shook.
“Stop. Stop it... Stop, I said... Don't...”
Tears and snot streamed down until their cheeks and chin were wet.
Tap.
At that moment, faint sword qi touched the trembling water raider's shoulder. A bead of red blood formed beneath the lightly split clothing.
That was all.
The water raider could not even face the moment their pain ended.
They collapsed with their face still twisted by fear.
Pshhk!
Then sharp sword qi pierced the nape of the already dead water raider's neck.
Blood sprayed like a fountain from the severed vessels.
Crash!
That crash was the last testament they left in this life.
* * *
At that moment, Yeon Sowol was utterly cold.
‘Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk. I have to catch him before sunrise.’
Water raiders were cunning.
If they learned in advance that an armed group was attacking, they would never fight head-on, even if they were stronger.
First, they would scatter and hide.
Then they would strike whenever they found weakness. Never deeply, only little by little. Just enough to steadily pile up damage.
They would keep doing that across Dongting Lake, vast as the sea.
The key to this battle, then, was reaching Yi Geuk before news of the White-Robed League's attack reached him.
Before he could flee.
To deliver the blade before news of the attack.
That meant before sunrise.
Even if something went wrong, even if the water raiders had preparations in place, Yeon Sowol calculated that he could certainly capture Yi Geuk if they reached him by then.
But Dongting Lake was as vast as the sea.
Even on a fast boat traveling nonstop, it took three double-hours, six hours, to get from Yuezhou to the Dragon King Stronghold.
That left the White-Robed League less than two double-hours before sunrise to disembark and fight along the way.
Water stockades stood at every chokepoint, where the water raiders could detect passing fleets from sound alone.
They had to wipe them all out within two double-hours as they advanced.
That was why Yeon Sowol had to remain so cold.
Tick-tock.
A clock ran without pause in his head.
‘Within a quarter-hour... Within a quarter-hour...’
Tap!
Yeon Sowol ran.
Some water raiders had exceptionally sharp qi sense, but none could catch his trace.
People could not see things that were too small.
But neither could they see things that were too large.
Yeon Sowol's presence resembled the universe, difficult to distinguish from the energy filling heaven and earth. No one could notice him in the darkness and fog.
Whenever faint sword qi flew out and struck, water raiders died, regardless of their realm.
Then sharp sword qi followed, cutting through the necks of corpses already dead and leaving fatal wounds after the fact.
Thud. Thud.
Among the bodies falling without a single scream, one water raider trembled and made a sound.
“Sst! Sst!”
A sharp sound made through clenched teeth.
It was a signal the White-Robed League had agreed on beforehand to distinguish friend from foe.
The quick-witted water raider realized the sound drifting through the darkness was some kind of signal and desperately copied it.
“Sst! Ssst!”
Then the water raider suddenly realized someone stood behind them.
A cold voice came from behind their back.
“That’s not it.”
Thud.
Passing the dead water raider, Yeon Sowol clicked his tongue.
“Tch.”
He had memorized every presence of the White-Robed League members who had followed him from the start.
During the ride on the fast boat, he had memorized each person's unique presence as though cramming English vocabulary.
Still, worried he might mistake someone, he had checked.
It had only wasted time.
Tick-tock. Tick-tock.
Counting the imagined second hand in his mind, Yeon Sowol crushed the ground beneath his feet and ran again.
Whoosh!
Without even the sound of footsteps, his body melted into the darkness.
With every step he took, water raiders vanished, and the White-Robed League members gained more room to move.
“Gold! There’s gold here!”
“Whoa! There’s this much?”
“Hey, don't touch it! We have to divide it fairly.”
“What does it matter? There’s so much. Let's take a little for ourselves first.”
Thanks to that, the White-Robed League members occasionally found treasure.
Boxes stuffed with gold and silver ingots turned up in the water raiders' huts and tents.
The White-Robed League members cheered.
But Yeon Sowol did not even glance in their direction.
Tick-tock.
He only counted the seconds in his mind and took his next step.
* * *
Before a quarter-hour had passed, every water raider had been wiped out.
Several tried to escape through the waterways of Dongting Lake, but not one reached the water.
Archers aboard the fleet, which had drawn close by then, rained arrows down on them.
Yeon Sowol had already dealt with every master capable of avoiding that barrage, so not a single water raider escaped alive.
Elsewhere...
“Huff... Haa...”
Won Huiseung stood at the very heart of the battlefield.
The disciple of the prestigious Zhongnan Sect did not break his stance, even as heat haze poured from his entire body. With legs like pillars bracing the ground, he steadied his breathing and regulated his stage of maturity.
His sleeves and robes fluttered despite the lack of wind, stirred by his boiling true qi.
Blood dripped from the ends of his soaked clothes.
Around ten water raiders lay beneath his feet.
The White-Robed League members could not hide their amazement.
“Did he really hold them off alone? And cut down ten of them while he did?”
“The Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven! Its reputation is well deserved!”
“The Dragon-Seeking Wanderer was a late first-rate master, wasn't he? There were quite a few masters among those water raiders. Even if he is one of Hunan's Twelve Supremes, to show such skill...?”
“Sometimes it was swift... and sometimes it was heavy. A single sword held countless qualities, so even when many enemies charged together, his responses never ran dry.”
“Isn't that truly a sword capable of bearing the whole world...?”
Yet the endless praise directed at Won Huiseung froze when a young man in white appeared.
“...”
“...”
There were no exclamations. No one called out to him.
Only their ragged breathing, as if something weighed down on them, showed the depth of their awe.
Step. Step.
No one could say anything.
Only their eyes and minds raced.
‘There isn't a single drop of blood on his clothes.’
‘I saw the bodies Lord Yeon struck down. Each had two sword wounds. One was no more than a faint scratch. The other was a fatal wound. Strangely, there was not the slightest sign of resistance.’
‘Did he use faint sword qi to draw their attention, then kill them with sharp sword qi afterward? What kind of profound method could make that possible?’
‘In that fog... even I couldn't follow Lord Yeon's movements. All I could see were bodies falling...’
‘Is he really the same person?’
‘I thought Lord Yeon was good at martial arts tournaments. I thought that, in a fight to the death, he would not be able to defeat a peak-realm master so easily...’
‘Now I see it. He is even more terrifying in real combat than in a tournament.’
‘Where is his limit? Was it not empty talk when he said he would take Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk's head before sunrise? It really feels possible.’
‘Honestly, he is on our side, but he scares me.’
Fear.
For martial artists, it was not so different from respect.
“Haa... Huff...”
Step.
Yeon Sowol walked silently through the ranks of the White-Robed League.
Hot haze rose from his body as well.
No matter how great a master he was, sprinting at full speed to annihilate the water raiders within a quarter-hour would leave him breathing hard.
Yet even that felt oppressive to the White-Robed League members.
It was as though some strange being of unknowable depth had passed by at a leisurely pace, breathing white mist and warping the air around him.
Then a man stepped forward. He was a fairly renowned martial artist in his mid-thirties.
He cupped his fist and bowed his head as he asked, “League Leader, there are around three wounded members unable to continue fighting. I think we should send them back to Yuezhou first with the spoils found here.”
“I’ll leave it to you.”
Yeon Sowol answered without looking back.
The ticking clock still filled his mind.
Faster. Even a little faster...
Step. Step.
He walked toward the boats floating on Dongting Lake.
He offered no detailed instructions.
Yet no one was flustered.
“...Yes, sir!”
The martial artist in his mid-thirties muttered softly and bowed once more.
Then everything happened on its own.
“Move them! Hurry!”
“Three wounded! Make sure the spoils are guarded!”
No one had told them to do so, but everyone naturally took up their role, swiftly cleaned up the battlefield, and boarded their respective boats.
Clink.
Jingle.
Some approached the boxes of spoils and returned the gold ornaments they had secretly tucked away.
“What’s this?”
“Turn a blind eye to it. I was going to keep it for myself... I must have lost my mind for a moment.”
“Me too... Here.”
Jingle.
There was no proper organization, and in the chaos, there was no one watching them.
Still, the White-Robed League members voluntarily entrusted every last piece of loot to three of their members.
The three wounded members given that duty wore similar expressions.
“We’ll guard it with our lives and present it to the League Leader when he returns in triumph.”
“We’ll see you at sunrise.”
Their eyes were soaked in awe, filled with duty and pride.
And reverence for one person.
Creeeak!
Flap!
Then came the sound of sails unfurling.
“We’re departing! Departing!”
“...!”
With no time to spare, the boats set off at once. The White-Robed League members used lightness skills one after another to fly aboard.
Yeon Sowol had not given a single order, yet everyone kept their mouths shut, took their places around him, and maintained strict stances and tense focus.
Creak. Creak.
Splash. Splash.
The night had only just begun.
Footnotes:
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