WeTried Translations
Translator/Editor: ZERO_SUGAR
Discord: https://dsc.gg/wetried
Chapter 145: The Rear Waves of the Yangtze Push the Front Waves (19)
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“Ugh...”
“Mmm...”
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop groaned.
They shifted and rustled as they struggled to rise.
“Uh, what... Sowol?”
“Uh, uhh...?”
Their startled voices reached him.
Yeon Sowol slowly turned around. Truthfully, he had no strength left either.
He had only withstood Dragon King Stronghold Leader Yi Geuk’s monstrous internal energy for a moment, yet his whole body was drenched in sweat and his limbs shook. His mouth tasted bitter, and his nose stung.
The Eight Extraordinary Vessels churned, repeatedly spewing heat. Every meridian in his body ached.
Suppressing the urge to lie down and rest at once, Yeon Sowol asked as calmly as he could, “Are you all right?”
“Not really. I have an internal injury too, so I think I’ll need to rest and recuperate for a while... But what happened? Yi Geuk. Is he dead? He really is dead?”
Won Huiseung asked with wide eyes.
“He’s dead. Don’t worry, he’s not getting back up.”
“How? He was a peak-realm master, and that internal energy was absurd. It literally made no sense. He wasn’t human. That internal energy...”
“...”
Yeon Sowol realized his mistake.
Normally, even after killing Yi Geuk, he would have poured internal energy into the corpse and burst its meridians, leaving evidence of how he had died...
He had been too exhausted and scattered to remember.
‘Well, nothing I can do now.’
All he could do was make an excuse, convincing or not.
“He tried to overwhelm me in an internal energy contest. I found an opening, got in close, and severed his death acupoint.”
“His death acupoint...?”
“Yeah...”
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop’s expressions turned strange.
They clearly thought the explanation made no sense.
‘But they can’t exactly press me on it.’
Even between close friends, it was a serious breach of manners to pry into a sect’s secret martial arts or a martial artist’s life-saving ultimate technique.
Yeon Sowol understood that sort of thing now, which was why he could brazenly offer such a flimsy explanation.
“Urgh...”
“Hm...”
Thanks to that, only Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop were left struggling to make sense of it.
No matter how they thought it over, it was impossible within the bounds of everything they knew.
Yet it had happened right before their eyes.
Won Huiseung looked back and forth between Yeon Sowol and Yi Geuk’s corpse, then muttered in a voice tinged with defeat as he glanced at Yeon Sowol.
“How can this be possible...? A person shouldn’t be capable of this. You’re not even a dragon...”
Ha Jeop felt the same.
He lowered his head and thought it over, then shook his head repeatedly.
“I don’t know. I just... need to train harder...”
As he spoke, he waved his hand as though practicing swordsmanship. A faint current of qi curled around his fingertips, then dispersed.
* * *
Meanwhile,
“The chief...?”
The water raiders were stunned. The sheer absurdity left a metallic taste in their mouths.
Who was Yi Geuk, the Dragon King Stronghold Leader?
The absolute ruler who had reigned over Dongting Lake, as vast as the sea.
A famous master who held one of the Yangtze River Waterway Stronghold’s central positions.
He was never supposed to die like this.
Maybe if Jin Hyeogo, the winner of this martial arts tournament, the Twelve Supremes, the Thirty-Six Heroes, and Hunan’s greatest masters had swarmed him together!
But he could never have been defeated and killed by three young martial artists who had only just passed twenty years of age!
And what was this supposed to mean?
Yi Geuk had clearly been crushing them. Why had Yi Geuk suddenly died while those three battered youths survived?
What kind of trick had they used?
The water raiders could not accept it.
“Those little bastards!”
Yi Geuk had not died because his skill was inferior.
There had to have been some underhanded scheme and a stroke of luck.
The water raiders boiled with rage.
Those so-called martial artists had resorted to such a sneak attack, then stood there as calmly as though it were their own strength!
This could not be forgiven. They had to be punished.
The three friends’ battered appearance also played a part in why the water raiders made that decision instead of fleeing.
Won Huiseung and Ha Jeop plainly seemed to have suffered serious internal injuries, and even Yeon Sowol, who had appeared last, shook so badly that it was visible from a distance.
“Let’s avenge the chief!”
“Kill those damn little bastards!”
Yi Geuk’s internal energy had blown the fog away, and dawn was breaking.
It was no longer dark as before, so the three young martial artists would not be able to hide.
The water raiders rushed forward in a mass.
“The Yeon brat’s head is mine!”
“Hah! Do you think you have the skill for that? I’ll personally avenge the chief!”
“What nonsense. Get behind me.”
Some of them even competed eagerly for Yeon Sowol’s head.
They did not know what method he had used, but Yeon Sowol was the one who had killed Yi Geuk. If they could kill him, they would have grounds to declare themselves Yi Geuk’s successor.
It was a shallow calculation, but it put the people on the receiving end in a deeply awkward situation.
“Mmm.”
“Damn it...”
“W-What do we do?”
“...We fight.”
They had already reached their limit.
Still, they could not simply stretch out their necks and wait to die.
The three gripped their weapons again and squeezed out every scrap of fighting spirit they had.
Shhhhh-
Slap! Slap!
Suddenly, the sound of water being cut through came from Dongting Lake.
Perhaps everyone had been too focused on Yi Geuk’s death and what followed. Even those with sharp qi sense had noticed it too late.
“Huh?”
“Mmm?”
When the water raiders turned around, they saw a fleet stretched out along the shore of Dongting Lake.
People on every boat drew their bowstrings with creaking sounds.
“Since when...?”
That was not all.
Flap!
Flap!
Masters in white robes had surrounded the water raiders before anyone knew it.
Their hair and clothes were soaked, as though they had quietly swum in through the water. Yet the internal energy they roused burned hot enough to dry them rapidly, sending white steam billowing from their bodies.
There were only a few dozen of them, but every one was a true master who had distinguished themselves in the martial arts tournament.
Then,
“Fire!”
Pipipipiping!
The rain of arrows from the fleet announced the start of the battle.
“Argh!”
“Ahh!”
“Dodge!”
Some were struck by arrows and collapsed. Others stumbled about in panic, trying to evade or block them.
As the water raiders fell into confusion, the White-Robed League charged at them.
“White-Robed League! Follow the League Leader!”
“Yes, sir!”
Their eyes swept over Yi Geuk, the fallen water raider chief, and the dead water raiders strewn everywhere.
‘Just the three of them...’
‘They truly took him down. The Dragon King Stronghold Leader? The great evil of Dongting Lake...?’
‘...If he has done this much for us, then now...’
The more astonished they were by Yeon Sowol’s achievements, the tighter their hands closed around their hilts.
“Argh!”
“Ahh!”
Against the dawn-lit Dongting Lake, martial artists in white slaughtered the water raiders.
Arrows poured down, and blades flashed.
* * *
The Dragon King Stronghold was annihilated.
Several of the White-Robed League’s righteous heroes had been killed or injured as well.
Yeon Sowol personally gathered their bodies with every courtesy and carried them aboard the ships.
“...Thank you.”
He felt indebted.
It was an emotion he had never felt in Guangdong.
Back then, Guangdong’s righteous martial artists had gathered to subdue the bandits of Heavenly Road Mountain, and many had died as well... But strictly speaking, that battle had not been Yeon Sowol’s. It had been Yi Yubaek’s.
‘Back then... did Father feel this way too?’
This battle was his.
He had begun it, and it had unfolded according to his will.
The White-Robed League had willingly joined him, and some of them had ultimately died.
Yeon Sowol felt responsible.
How could he repay this debt?
With gold?
Yeon Sowol shook his head.
How could he compensate people who had paid with their lives using something as trivial as gold?
A life for a life.
A cause for a cause.
‘I can’t... live carelessly anymore.’
They had believed in his cause and willingly risked their lives for it.
Then he could never abandon that cause. It was no longer something he had established alone. It was a cause carved by many people’s lives.
He could not cast that aside.
No matter what reality lay ahead, no matter what circumstances arose.
With people already dead, how could he make excuses and bend his cause?
That would be betrayal.
It was unthinkable.
“When one is in the Jianghu, one’s body is no longer one’s own.”
Yeon Sowol suddenly felt a heavy chill settle on his shoulders.
Still, it did not feel entirely bad.
Perhaps that weight would become an anchor that kept him from being swept away by the world’s turbulent waves.
Perhaps that chill would become a blade that cut through the tangled confusion pressing in on him.
As though he had suddenly caught the scent of a cold, clear fragrance, Yeon Sowol’s qi settled into clarity.
“League Leader!”
A White-Robed League member came running toward him.
“We found survivors who had been held captive!”
Survivors.
This had happened before.
After subduing a water stockade, they sometimes found people who had been kidnapped and imprisoned by its water raiders.
Until now, Yeon Sowol had prioritized speed and left the rescue of survivors to the rear group, but there was no need for that now that the Dragon King Stronghold had been destroyed.
“Give them something to eat, let them wash, and make sure they rest at least a little. Then we can return to Yuezhou together.”
“Yes, sir!”
As Yeon Sowol watched the White-Robed League hero cup his fist respectfully and leave, a thought suddenly came to him.
‘...Since when did they start answering me with “Yes, sir”?’
Once he noticed it, his face heated and his body twisted slightly every time he heard it.
Yet he had a feeling that pointing it out would only create an even more embarrassing and awkward situation, so Yeon Sowol had no choice but to pretend he knew nothing.
“I should have a drink.”
He trudged back to a ship and picked up a bottle of liquor.
It had been a difficult battle.
He needed a drink to ease the tension wound tight inside him.
* * *
The number of people held captive in the Dragon King Stronghold exceeded one hundred.
The water raiders had dug pits, laid logs over them, and caged people in scattered enclosures.
The White-Robed League freed them all and cooked porridge with shredded meat.
After slurping down every drop, the survivors sat blankly, still tense.
The White-Robed League members were busy looting the Dragon King Stronghold, so no one could tend to them right away.
Yeon Sowol approached the survivors alone.
He intended to speak with them, hear their stories, and help them relax.
But then,
“Well, look at this.”
What left Yeon Sowol’s lips was a cold, unsettling voice, making the survivors watching him nervously flinch and shudder.
“W-What is it?”
One survivor before him asked while trembling.
Yeon Sowol gave him a gentle smile, as though telling him not to worry.
Then he extended a finger and pointed at a goat-bearded man hiding among the survivors.
The man looked to be in his fifties. He was filthy, with rounded shoulders and a hunched back.
“You.”
“...”
“You. The one avoiding my eyes. Come out here.”
“A-Are you speaking to this lowly one?”
The goat-bearded man replied, trembling.
A cold smile deepened on Yeon Sowol’s lips.
“I know everything, so come out.”
At that moment,
“Hm... You noticed.”
The trembling man’s expression changed completely.
He straightened his hunched shoulders and clicked his tongue.
Glancing at Yeon Sowol, he asked, “How did you know?”
“My qi sense is fairly sharp. The survivors were all pretending otherwise, but they kept watching you. And you didn’t eat your porridge.”
Yeon Sowol casually glanced at the man’s bowl, which was not even half empty.
It was plainly different from the other survivors’ bowls, which they had scraped clean down to the last drop.
He was not a survivor.
He was one of the water raiders, or at least their accomplice. Judging by how carefully the survivors watched him, he might have held a fairly high position.
When the situation turned against him, he had hidden among the survivors to save himself.
But Yeon Sowol had seen through him.
“Tch.”
The goat-bearded man stepped forward.
Yeon Sowol narrowed his eyes.
“What are you?”
Instead of answering, the goat-bearded man’s eyes gleamed.
“Don’t be like that. I have a good offer for you. Won’t you hear me out?”
“A good offer?”
“I serve someone...”
“Yang Hoeam?”
“...You know even that? Fine. That makes this easier. But not Yang Hoeam. Yang Hoeam is only like a servant to my master.”
Yeon Sowol glimpsed a sense of superiority and pride on the goat-bearded man’s smug face.
He looked like someone intoxicated by something, someone convinced nothing could go wrong for him even in this situation.
“You don’t know. You have no idea who you’ve provoked. That is why you can stand there so calmly.”
“...There’s someone else behind Yang Hoeam?”
“That’s right! My master can wipe out the likes of you with a single cough! You laid hands on my master’s servants, so you’re already dead! If you had not met me, that would surely have happened!”
“You hid among the survivors to save your own life, yet you’re awfully bold.”
Despite Yeon Sowol’s mockery, the goat-bearded man remained confident. If anything, he seemed to grow bolder.
“A deal must be conducted confidently. Now, calmly and rationally, weigh the benefits. I may look like this now, but I am actually a Daoist with tremendous mystic powers. That means I can help you.”
“You? Help me?”
“Yes! You saw Yi Geuk, didn’t you? You fought him too! Then you must know. Wasn’t there something strange about Yi Geuk?”
At those words, Yeon Sowol immediately remembered.
There had been something strange. Truly.
“...His internal energy made no sense. Even if a peak-realm master took the legendary Greater Rejuvenation Pill and Azure Void Stone Milk together, I don’t think they could possess internal energy like that.”
Yeon Sowol had consumed only a minute amount of Azure Void Stone Milk, but he had tried both elixirs himself, making it an extremely accurate assessment.
The goat-bearded man smiled and nodded.
“Yes. That internal energy. Don’t you want it?”
Shhhhh-
Suddenly, wind blew over Dongting Lake.
The fog that had sunk away with sunrise began to rise thickly once more.
A deep fragrance wafted from it, one that made the mind hazy.
It was a kind of miracle.
A strange and sinister method that could beguile even masters unfamiliar with Strange Ghosts and fiendish demons.
“I can give it to you. That overwhelming internal energy. And it doesn’t even end there. It’s only the beginning.”
The goat-bearded man’s pleasant whisper hummed in a strangely resonant way.
Yeon Sowol gave a hollow laugh and drew Clear Mirror.
Crack!
The blade flashed down like lightning and pierced the goat-bearded man’s thigh.
“Aaah!”
The goat-bearded man shrieked and collapsed onto the ground. The thick fog dispersed with a soft hiss.
“Where do you get off trying that nonsense?”
Yeon Sowol flicked his sword once through the air, then sheathed it with a sharp click.
Footnotes:
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