WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 143: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (17)
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“...”
Gaseopmyeong stepped off the boat.
A group of people scattered in every direction with torches, lighting the way. Even in the darkness of night, it gave them a somewhat clearer view.
Scenes flickered in and out of sight through the thick night fog.
Water raiders lay dead all around them.
Martial artists from the merchant company moved busily with blades in hand, cutting off the dead water raiders’ heads and placing them in boxes.
It was proof. Once brought to Yuezhou, it would plainly show that Yeon Sowol and the White-Robed League were truly exterminating the water raiders.
Corpses in the night fog.
People cutting off their heads.
Gaseopmyeong watched it all, his eyelids twitching and lips quivering.
“Truly...”
Then several faces suddenly popped up over his shoulder.
“Good heavens! It’s the same here! Are these really those vile bastards? Everywhere we go, they’re all lying dead...!”
People poured off the boat behind Gaseopmyeong, chattering loudly.
They were Yuezhou’s gossipmongers, every one of them well known. They had helped Gaseopmyeong gather information about the water raiders this time.
The errand runners assigned by the merchant company held torches all around them, while Gaseopmyeong and the gossipmongers slowly wandered among them as if they were familiar with such places, examining the annihilated water stockade.
“This was where they imprisoned people. There are human bones here with flesh still clinging to them.”
“Look at this corpse. There’s another one here. A body with so few signs of struggle that it’s bizarre. Who could have done this? Who keeps doing this with such ghostly skill?”
“Of course it must be Great Hero Yeon.”
“Good heavens... Is that so? But I’ve lost count of how many water stockades we’ve seen already. Does that mean he’s been killing water raiders like this the entire time...? Just how many has he killed...? Doesn’t he get tired? I wonder if he’s all right.”
“Hm. More importantly, are there any documents? It’s not as if none of these water raiders could read! If we find records, won’t we learn more about them?”
The gossipmongers’ faces were flushed like children’s.
They were excited.
They had spent their whole lives hearing stories about water raiders. Yet now, they had the chance to witness their true nature with their own eyes.
“Don’t act like children.”
It was a chilling place, littered with corpses.
Still, the gossipmongers strutted about as if they were on an outing, making Gaseopmyeong click his tongue without realizing it.
Yet his own face was red as well.
That was when they heard a faint voice from beneath their feet.
“Uh... Hey...”
An errand runner lowered a torch. In the night fog, a water raider lay flat on their stomach, damp with fog, barely lifting their head from ground reddened by what appeared to be blood loss.
“Sa... Save me.”
It was not a loud voice.
Yet those who did not know even a scrap of martial arts somehow heard it and crowded around them.
“What? What? Is that a survivor?”
“There’s a survivor?”
“This changes things. Isn’t this our chance to hear firsthand testimony from a water raider?”
The gossipmongers surrounded the writhing water raider.
The water raider was dumbfounded.
“Uh... Wh-what... are you bastards doing...? Call... a physician...”
They writhed and begged for help. The gossipmongers had no interest in that, though. It was obvious that the water raider was already at death’s door. Rather than wasting time debating whether to call a physician, it was better to secure even one line of testimony.
Sensing the mood around them, the water raider began to tear up.
“Hey... Please. Save... me... Can’t you hear... what I’m saying? You people are... too cruel... Can’t you... help me...?”
One of the gossipmongers listening to them muttered, “Interesting! Even a water raider who brutally slaughtered countless commoners appeals to human compassion when it’s their own time to die!”
The water raider tried to answer, but no words came out. Instead, they vomited a mouthful of blood and collapsed onto the ground.
Like a worm, they twitched weakly before going still.
“Tch. We didn’t get a single worthwhile statement!”
“Exactly. What a waste of time!”
Clicking their tongues, the gossipmongers scattered again.
A martial artist from the merchant company then approached and cut off the freshly dead water raider’s head.
Gaseopmyeong watched until then, shook his head, and resumed searching the water stockade.
He entered and searched every hut and tent without missing a single one.
At last, he found it.
“This place...?”
It was a hut.
From the outside, it looked no different from any other hut. Inside, though, it had been lavishly decorated with expensive silk.
The White-Robed League members had apparently already passed through and looted the place, leaving it in ruins. Yet the treasures Gaseopmyeong sought had not been taken and were scattered across the floor.
“Found them!”
They were bundles of paper.
The treasure Gaseopmyeong had been searching for.
Records left behind by the water raiders.
Gaseopmyeong hurriedly picked up the papers scattered across the floor.
They seemed to have belonged to the water stockade’s leader.
He examined every one closely.
A journal written by the leader himself.
Various ledgers.
Letters exchanged with others...
Gaseopmyeong devoured them as greedily as if gulping down honeyed water. Then he suddenly froze.
His eyes turned cold.
“What is this...?”
One of the documents contained information that shocked him.
“Why are the patrol times and routes of the Yuezhou Patrol Guard... written here?”
Detailed classified information filled the page.
No one below the highest ranks within the Yuezhou Patrol Guard could possibly have leaked something like this.
With such information, the government troops could never capture the water raiders. The raiders would know all their movements in advance.
“Someone was colluding with the water raiders? Who?”
A chill ran up Gaseopmyeong’s neck.
Who could it be?
Who had leaked such information?
“Prefectural Inspector General Shin Gilrip?”
No. Shin Gilrip had no reason to do such a thing.
“Flying General Wang Su?”
Not him either. Wang Su was greedy, but not bold enough to do something like this.
“Commandant Yi Geumha?”
It was possible. Yet no, that was not it either. Yi Geumha was the sort to take payment whenever he passed along information, not hand over classified intelligence all at once.
Then who was it?
He ran through the backgrounds of Yuezhou’s key officials, trying to picture the person capable of placing this document here.
“...Show yourself.”
Then his thoughts suddenly stopped.
After considering every major official, he reached the very top.
“...Yang Hoeam?”
A memory suddenly came to him.
The day Yeon Sowol had faced Yang Hoeam, Yuezhou’s provincial governor.
The expression Yang Hoeam had worn when Yeon Sowol declared he would eliminate the water raiders within three days...
At that moment, Gaseopmyeong remembered the discomfort he had felt then.
He was someone who could read hidden emotions from a person’s face. That was why he had sensed something strange.
The emotion that had clearly appeared on Yang Hoeam’s face that day had been...
“Annoyance.”
And...
“Anxiety.”
Gaseopmyeong’s hand trembled as his grip tightened around the document.
* * *
“Huff. Haa...”
The boat silently cut through the water, but the martial artists’ hot breaths kept disturbing the fog.
They annihilated one water stockade.
Then they annihilated the next.
The fighting went on without end.
Before they knew it, everyone was exhausted.
The White-Robed League’s numbers had also fallen considerably.
It was not because of deaths.
Even through this brutal fighting, the White-Robed League had suffered almost no fatalities. Won Huiseung drew attention at the very front, Ha Jeop supported and protected him, and Yeon Sowol cleared out enemies like lightning. They could end each battle before suffering serious losses.
But injuries were unavoidable.
No matter how skilled a master was, a prolonged battle drained their strength and dulled their focus.
With each fight, more members were injured, and the White-Robed League’s numbers slowly dwindled.
“Huff... Haaah...”
Even Yeon Sowol, Won Huiseung, and Ha Jeop were becoming more exhausted.
As the White-Robed League grew smaller, the three of them had to bear more of the burden.
“Haa. Sowol? Haaah.”
Suppressing his boiling true qi, Won Huiseung called to Yeon Sowol.
Yeon Sowol did not answer.
He sat at the bow, staring blankly into the night fog while muttering to himself.
“That last one took another quarter-hour. I need to make up for it. We’ll finish the next battle within half a quarter-hour.”
“Sowol!”
“To bring it down to half a quarter-hour... We need to minimize wasted movement...”
“Sowol! Can’t you hear me?”
Won Huiseung got to his feet and waved a hand before Yeon Sowol’s face.
Even then, Yeon Sowol did not react. Lost deeply in thought, he only kept muttering with unfocused eyes.
Won Huiseung’s expression turned grave.
“Ha Jeop.”
“Y-yes?”
“Get us some liquor.”
“What? Ah, yes!”
Ha Jeop hurried over to a sailor. After floundering around for a while, he finally came back with a bottle of strong liquor.
Throughout it all, Won Huiseung did not take his eyes off Yeon Sowol.
“To be honest, we only need to follow Sowol’s lead, so we don’t have much to think about. Our bodies are tired, but our minds are simple. Sowol, though...”
Won Huiseung looked at Yeon Sowol, then at himself.
Heat haze constantly rose from his own body because his boiling true qi had yet to settle. Yeon Sowol, in contrast, was calm. His true qi had apparently already been completely regulated, for there was not even a faint wisp of heat haze around him.
“What in the world has this kid been eating? His body is unbelievably tough. But the spirit is another matter. I think he’s overworking his spirit right now.”
In modern terms, it could be called an obsession.
The pressure of leading the shrinking White-Robed League, opening a path through the waterways, and cutting off the head of Yi Geuk, the Dragon King Stronghold Leader.
The difficulty of having to calculate every second and minute because there was so little time.
Yeon Sowol was being tormented by that obsession, somehow forcing it to produce results.
It was impressive, of course...
Won Huiseung held the bottle of strong liquor to Yeon Sowol’s lips.
“If we leave him like this, it could become dangerous. Let’s loosen him up a little.”
The spirit.
The mind was no different from the body.
If someone held one posture for too long, their body stiffened in that twisted position, causing pain and problems all over.
The spirit was the same.
If the mind focused too intensely on one thing and became rigid, it could harden that way and become the seed of a heart demon.
That was why Won Huiseung had sought out liquor.
Intoxication awakened the spirit.
An awakened spirit loosened its rigid posture and looked around again. It was only a temporary measure, but it would do for now.
“Drink, Sowol.”
Won Huiseung shoved the bottle into Yeon Sowol’s mouth as Yeon Sowol continued muttering to himself.
“Mmph...!”
Yeon Sowol’s body jerked in surprise.
Soon, though, he naturally swallowed the liquor pouring down his throat.
Gulp. Gulp. Gu...lp.
“Are you coming to your senses? How do you feel? Are you all right?”
Seeing focus return to Yeon Sowol’s eyes, Won Huiseung pulled the bottle away.
At that moment...
Clack!
Yeon Sowol snatched the retreating bottle and brought it back to his lips.
Gulp gulp gulp!
Only after taking several long swallows did he pull the bottle away with a sigh.
“Are you all right?”
Yeon Sowol answered Won Huiseung’s repeated question.
“Yeah. This tastes good.”
He pushed the bottle, still sloshing with liquor, toward Won Huiseung.
Won Huiseung took it with a smile.
“You’ve come to your senses now.”
Then Won Huiseung took several gulps himself.
“Here.”
He passed the remaining liquor to Ha Jeop, who had been hovering awkwardly beside them.
“Ah. Uh...”
Ha Jeop accepted the bottle in a fluster and took several gulps.
A bottle of strong liquor disappeared in an instant.
Of course, masters nearing the peak realm would not get drunk from this little alcohol.
Still, as the warmth of intoxication passed through them, their tense bodies and minds softened a little.
It was exactly the drink they needed at that moment.
Even cheap liquor surpassed the finest wine in the world at a time like this.
“It really is good.”
Ha Jeop smacked his lips.
Won Huiseung even tilted the empty bottle for no reason.
Yeon Sowol, meanwhile...
“Ah.”
He suddenly realized what he had been missing.
Something he had failed to notice because he had been obsessing over time alone.
“A sound...”
“Hm?”
Yeon Sowol sharply raised his head.
Dongting Lake was deep in the middle of the night, where he could not tell where the night ended, where the fog began, or where the waves lay.
A faint, high-pitched sound drifted through it.
“It’s a flute.”
Beep.
Beeep.
Even Yeon Sowol’s qi sense could only barely catch it.
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop tilted their heads.
“A flute? I can’t hear anything.”
“Mm... Me neither.”
Yeon Sowol gritted his teeth.
“It’s a sound people normally can’t hear. Right now, the sound of flutes is everywhere.”
Beyond the audible range.
The sound spread secretly through the natural qi, filling Dongting Lake.
Beep. Beep. Signals passed back and forth.
It could only mean one thing.
“They’ve spotted us.”
The water raiders had discovered the White-Robed League’s attack.
He did not know where or when things had gone wrong. As they advanced, the White-Robed League’s numbers had gradually dwindled.
Perhaps a few water raiders had slipped away in the process.
Either way, it had already happened.
With the Dragon King Stronghold, where Yi Geuk was, so close, the water raiders had discovered their attack.
They might lose Yi Geuk.
‘I have no choice...’
Yeon Sowol made his decision.
“I’ll go ahead.”
“Hm?”
“What?”
“If we all go, we’ll stand out and be slower. We don’t know what kind of interference we might face. I’ll take a small boat alone. If I row it myself, I can get there quickly.”
“So you’ll go to the Dragon King Stronghold alone and capture Yi Geuk?”
“At the very least, I need to stop him from escaping.”
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop looked at each other.
Yeon Sowol’s expression was resolute.
“There’s no point trying to stop me. To find a lead against Yang Hoeam, we have to capture the Dragon King Stronghold Leader.”
At those words, Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop both looked at Yeon Sowol and answered.
“Then we’ll come with you. A small boat can carry three people, can’t it?”
“R-right.”
Yeon Sowol shook his head.
“No. It’s too dangerous. I can move while hiding in the darkness, but you two can’t.”
“Who says we can’t?”
In that instant, Won Huiseung’s aura changed.
Heavenly Darkness Star, one of the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.
The dark star.
His very presence dimmed, becoming like the night fog. Deep and smooth, difficult to sense.
It was not on Yeon Sowol’s level, but he could conceal himself within the night fog.
‘He could do that too?’
Yeon Sowol’s eyes widened in surprise.
Won Huiseung said, “Didn’t I tell you?”
“...Tell me what?”
“Under Heaven.”
Zhongnan’s sword could bear all under heaven.
That was why it was the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven.
Won Huiseung’s eyes did not waver as he said it. They were full of pride.
“Oh...”
Ha Jeop was deeply impressed.
Then a thought suddenly struck him.
‘Shouldn’t I... say something too?’
Otherwise, did he even deserve to follow Yeon Sowol?
After thinking for a moment, Ha Jeop timidly added beside Won Huiseung, “...They say Huashan’s plum blossoms bloom in a snowstorm...”
“...”
Yeon Sowol silently looked at Ha Jeop.
Then he turned to Won Huiseung.
A sigh slipped from his lips.
Shaking his head, Yeon Sowol said, “...Did you drink too much?”
Then he hopped into a small boat before them.
“Why are you going alone?”
“W-wait for us!”
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop hurried after him.
A little later, a small boat rowed by the three of them broke away from the fleet and shot across Dongting Lake like an arrow.
Footnotes:
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