WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
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Chapter 144: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (18)
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Dragon King Stronghold.
Yi Geuk, the Dragon King Stronghold Leader, rose in the middle of the night after receiving sudden news.
Judging by the damp wind blowing across Dongting Lake’s pitch-black waves, it was likely the beginning of the Mao hour, between five and seven in the morning.
Yi Geuk stretched lazily and asked,
“Who? Yeon Sowol?”
“Yes, Stronghold Leader.”
“Huh.”
Yi Geuk rolled the name around in his mouth.
Yeon Sowol was leading a group here?
Destroying every water stockade they came across?
Being woken from a pleasant sleep was absurd enough. What was this supposed to mean?
Yet Yi Geuk’s first response was not irritation or anger, but admiration.
“That guy’s something.”
He rolled his shoulders, bent at the waist this way and that, and loosened up as he shook his head in amazement.
“That means the Water King Stronghold’s already been wiped out, right? Then they’re practically at our doorstep. They’d be here already if they swam.”
“W-We’ve sent messages to the water stockades along the route. They’ll block the enemy’s advance, so we have some time before their fleet reaches us.”
“Really? Then we should run first.”
As though the option of waiting here to fight had never crossed his mind, Yi Geuk promptly turned his back.
“Wake everyone up. We’re retreating. Retreating.”
“Yes, Chief!”
None of his subordinates questioned it.
When enemies attacked, they first fled and hid.
Then, when the enemy withdrew, they ambushed them on the way back.
That was the Dongting Lake water raiders’ undefeated tactic.
It did not matter whether the enemy was strong or weak.
If there was even a chance they might suffer losses in a fight, this was what they did.
They had no martial artists’ pride to speak of, either.
Why pass up an easy way to win without taking losses?
That was why fighting water raiders could not help becoming a war rather than a battle.
It was also why Yeon Sowol had pushed himself to advance so quickly.
This battle nearly followed the same course.
The moment Yi Geuk, a peak-realm master who made the entire Dongting Lake region tremble in fear, decided to retreat without the slightest hesitation, Yeon Sowol and the White-Robed League nearly found themselves mired in a deep quagmire.
But Yeon Sowol, Won Huiseung, and Ha Jeop succeeded before it was too late.
They reached Dragon King Stronghold and raised the first scream.
“Aaaah!”
“Enemies! Enemies!”
A scream tore through the dark, damp night fog.
“D-Damn it! Where are they?”
“Torches! Bring the torches!”
“We can’t see anything, even with torches! The fog’s too thick!”
Feeling through one’s surroundings with qi sense in such dense night fog was a feat only first-rate masters could manage.
Most water raiders, who had not reached that level, stumbled about in darkness where they could see nothing.
Until now, they had only ever been the ones launching ambushes. Few knew what to do when the situation was reversed.
Still,
“Surround them! Form groups of three or five! We’re at the third dock right now! Someone block the first and second docks ahead!”
“First dock! I’m here! Three others and I will hold it!”
“I’ll take the second dock!”
The years they had spent making a living by the sword had not been entirely wasted.
Centered around the more experienced water raiders, an organized response slowly began to take shape.
But,
“Argh! Aaaah!”
“Urk! Who’s there?!”
“W-What? Weren’t they at the docks? Why are the screams suddenly coming from here...?”
Yeon Sowol, Won Huiseung, and Ha Jeop were all late first-rate masters.
In terms of skill, Won Huiseung stood just shy of the peak realm, while Yeon Sowol and Ha Jeop could defeat most peak-realm masters. Their movements far exceeded anything the water raiders could anticipate.
Most of all, there was Yeon Sowol.
The water raiders could occasionally catch traces of Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop with their qi sense, but not Yeon Sowol.
To the water raiders in the night fog, his movements, undetectable by any qi sense, brought the chilling terror of facing a ghost.
Only three people.
The water raiders of Dragon King Stronghold, who ruled all of Dongting Lake, fell into chaos from an ambush by just three people.
“Tch.”
Watching it unfold, Yi Geuk clicked his tongue.
“W-What should we do? Should we still retreat...?”
When one water raider panicked and said something so foolish, Yi Geuk used Finger Flicking Art to strike the water raider’s forehead.
Crack!
The water raider’s body snapped backward as though struck by a hammer, and they collapsed.
“Aaagh! Urgh...!”
As the water raider trembled from pain boring into the center of their head, Yi Geuk sneered coldly down at them.
“Are you an idiot? How are we supposed to run now? We’re already in chaos. Do you think my orders would even reach everyone properly? Or should I run away alone? Huh? Like a coward? Huh? Is that what I should do?”
“I’m sorry... I’m sorry...”
“Tch. Well, what can I do?”
Yi Geuk rolled his shoulders and drew the two axes tucked at his waist, gripping one in each hand.
“They came here asking to die, so I’ll kill them. I’ll tear them limb from limb. From what I can see, there aren’t even that many of them.”
He did not say it aloud, but at this point, it had become a matter of face.
If Yi Geuk, leader of every water raider on Dongting Lake, failed to show overwhelming strength here, they would begin to doubt him. They would lose their reverence for him.
“What a pain.”
With that, Yi Geuk leaped into the night fog.
The two axes in his hands gave off a murky gleam.
* * *
Yeon Sowol thought of Dongting Lake in daylight, beautiful beneath pouring sunlight.
A single green snail within a silver plate.
One of the most breathtaking sights in the world, one that poets and scholars could not help but seek out.
It was scenery Yeon Sowol could never have seen in the twenty-first century where he had lived.
The clean, vivid natural landscape, untouched by even a speck of pollution, moved him in ways difficult to put into words.
For someone from the twenty-first century, when nearly every corner of Earth had been developed and waste swept into the sea had created a plastic island even in the middle of the Pacific, it was a beauty that brought a strange sadness.
The memories that surfaced were beautiful too.
The friends he had met here.
The poems he had learned.
In his life, Yeon Sowol had seen scenery comparable to Dongting Lake’s beauty only once.
The day he left Guangdong, when they clinked cups and laughed together by the waters off Yanggang. The blue waves there. Nothing less could dare compare to the magnificent view of Dongting Lake.
And now, he looked upon Dongting Lake at night.
Night fog so heavy and damp that it devoured even moonlight and starlight.
Dongting Lake in daylight and Dongting Lake tonight.
Two worlds at opposite extremes.
As he ran through that dark, wet night, Yeon Sowol slaughtered water raiders.
Flump.
Thud.
The water raiders brushed by Yeon Sowol’s sword qi could not let out even a scream or spill even a drop of blood into Dongting Lake. They simply fell limply to the ground.
Yeon Sowol liked that.
The power of the Heaven-Killing Star he had gained after falling into this world.
It had helped him in many ways, but...
‘Who knew it was such a sanitary, environmentally friendly ability.’
He could not let the filth inside those vile bastards pollute Dongting Lake.
He did not want even a single breath from those disgusting things to touch Dongting Lake, where Moyong Ha’s body had surfaced.
So how could he not be grateful?
The Heaven-Killing Star’s power.
A power that cleanly separated life from them, without a scream or a drop of blood spilled.
Yeon Sowol ran.
Within Dongting Lake’s night fog, he picked the water raiders off one by one.
How long had he fought like that?
It had not been long, yet the fog suddenly began to shine blue.
Dawn was breaking in the distance.
Night faded within the fog, and blue dawn seeped through it.
Between those strands of mist, the water raiders’ forms spread like black stains.
Yeon Sowol felt an urge to erase every last stain.
He would have done so.
If a powerful explosion had not swept in from beyond the fog.
Kwoooong!
Whoosh!
As sunrise drove back the night, the blue fog was suddenly swept past Yeon Sowol and far behind him.
Yeon Sowol braced himself, strength flooding his legs.
A tingling martial force wave seized his collar and shook it violently.
Woooooosh!
The wind roared, and at the center of the fog that blew away with a pop, his view abruptly opened up.
Yeon Sowol narrowed his eyes.
“Urgh... Cough...”
Won Huiseung rolled across the ground in a miserable state.
Then,
Crash!
With the sound of glass shattering, Ha Jeop went tumbling across the ground. Won Huiseung, who had been trying to rise, tangled with Ha Jeop and rolled several more times.
“Wow. They really are just children, huh? For kids, they’re impressively skilled.”
A man appeared before them.
He looked to be in his mid-thirties.
He wore a headscarf, and his bare upper body revealed bronze muscles. He loosely held a dark axe in each hand.
The moment Yeon Sowol saw those distinctive features, he knew.
This was Yi Geuk, the Dragon King Stronghold Leader.
The moment he realized that,
Whoosh!
Yeon Sowol stomped the ground and ran.
Without sound or presence, he targeted Yi Geuk.
But,
“Hm?”
Yi Geuk’s eyes turned precisely toward Yeon Sowol.
In an instant, he saw through Yeon Sowol’s concealment, something no one else had noticed until now.
A smile rose to his lips, and he ran forward.
Pulling an axe far to his side, he tightened his grip and aimed for Won Huiseung, who was barely managing to stand.
“Hup!”
It happened in an instant.
Even so, Won Huiseung reacted in time.
Among the Thirty-Six Swords Under Heaven, Heaven-Aiding Star.
The protecting star.
The form most specialized in defense among those he could perform unfolded.
Kwoooong!
Heaven and earth shook.
The fog that had already been pushed back was blown far away once more, and ripples spread across distant Dongting Lake.
Won Huiseung flew into the air.
“Cough!”
A stream of blood shot from his mouth like an arrow.
“W-What is this...?! Such absurd internal energy...!”
Ha Jeop swung his sword in shock.
Rather than an attack or defense, it was closer to a desperate struggle to keep himself from despairing.
Even so, he was a master who could defeat peak-realm martial artists while still in the late first-rate realm.
Even under these circumstances, his sword fully displayed the profound principles of the Huashan Sect.
Twenty-Four Hands Plum Blossom Sword Art.
The countless sword strokes he had already unleashed here had scattered innumerable sword qi in every direction, like a faint fragrance. His next sword stroke drew them all together, forging blades of qi in the air.
Dark Fragrance Floats.
Like a subtle fragrance drifting and moving.
The very sword that had defeated countless peak-realm masters in Hunan.
But,
“Chaaah!”
At Yi Geuk’s single battle cry, the countless sword qi blooming in the air shattered with a crash.
“Uh...?”
Ha Jeop’s gaze wavered.
Even then, as he pulled back and raised his sword to block the axe,
Kwoooong!
Yi Geuk’s kick slammed into his lower abdomen.
“!!!”
Ha Jeop vomited a mouthful of blood and rolled across the ground.
A ringing martial force wave spread through the air.
It was hard to breathe.
‘What is this...?’
Yeon Sowol bit his lip.
It truly was absurd internal energy.
He had never seen anything like it, not even in Yuezhou.
Not even Black Spear Jin Hyeogo, who had won the martial arts tournament, had possessed strength like this. Jin Hyeogo’s power had come from the profound realm of his martial arts, not from such crude and tyrannical internal energy.
But he could not stop.
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop had been rendered unable to fight in only two exchanges. If Yeon Sowol did not step in now, their lives would end here.
Whoosh!
Yeon Sowol stomped the ground again and charged forward.
In an instant, he stood before Yi Geuk.
“So you’re Yeon Sowol?”
The corners of Yi Geuk’s eyes curved.
His gaze followed Yeon Sowol’s swift movements perfectly.
Like a snake watching its prey.
Something about that inhuman reaction speed, strength, and presence made chills crawl up Yeon Sowol’s spine.
Kwoooong!
Before he had time to think, the axe came crashing down.
Yeon Sowol raised Clear Mirror to deflect it.
‘No matter how powerful the force is, if I make proper use of the universe’s energy...’
The universe gave birth to and embraced all things. There was nothing it could not receive.
If he could imitate even a fragment of it...
Yeon Sowol’s energy finally took in Yi Geuk’s martial force.
‘Now... I just need to redirect it and push it aside...’
Bzzzzzz!
But he could not.
He could not deflect it.
Yi Geuk’s axe clung to Clear Mirror as though stuck fast. Instead, it continued pressing downward, crushing Yeon Sowol beneath it.
Overwhelming internal energy poured down through the sword.
Clear Mirror trembled and rang like a deer caught in a net.
“Urgh...!”
Yeon Sowol dropped to one knee.
The internal energy was overwhelming.
It felt as though he had been thrown into the deep sea.
He could barely breathe.
“How is it? Surprised? You see, thanks to the provincial governor, I had a fortunate encounter. My internal energy is a little different.”
Yi Geuk laughed as he spoke, making no effort to hide that he had been colluding with Yang Hoeam, Yuezhou’s provincial governor.
“You look young. This is your first internal energy contest, isn’t it? I hear your martial arts are amazing. What a shame. If I drag you into a contest of pure internal energy like this, you won’t get a chance to use any of those fancy martial arts.”
With one hand, he pressed the axe down to crush Yeon Sowol. With the other, he reached out and grabbed the back of Yeon Sowol’s neck.
He wanted direct contact so he could pour in even stronger internal energy.
“I’ll squeeze you until you burst right here, Yeon Sowol. What a waste. Seeing you endure my axe, you really do seem like a genius. But you’ll die here. You should never have dared set foot on Dongting Lake...”
Yi Geuk smiled as he babbled on.
Then,
Sliiide.
Still smiling, he tilted to one side.
Thud.
He fell to the ground.
Yi Geuk was dead.
Quiet and clean, without a single scream or drop of blood.
“Cough! Haaah!”
Finally freed, Yeon Sowol gasped for breath and pried Yi Geuk’s hand from his neck before tossing it aside.
“What was with that idiot? Cough! Cough!”
He coughed and let out a hollow laugh.
Footnotes:
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