Chapter 6 (4)
Chapter 6 (4)
Kang-kang-kang! Chae-chaeng!
"Arghhh! Die! Drop dead!"
The sounds of weapons clashing and bloodthirsty shouts erupted from all sides.
Sang Woo-chun, the head escort of the Soun Escort Agency based in Shaanxi, slashed at a bandit's body and looked around.
'Damn it! Fuck!'
The porters were already all dead, and the escort warriors were on the verge of defeat.
Because they had been ambushed by arrows from the forests on both sides, many of the escort warriors had been injured or killed.
Furthermore, the Heuksan Fortress bandits who occupied this forest were people they had become familiar with while paying toll fees to them until now, so the fact that they had let their guard down and had no countermeasures against an ambush was also something he had to blame himself for.
"Leader of Heuksan Fortress! Do you truly intend to make an enemy of the Zhuge Clan? The whole world knows that our Soun Escort Agency is under the protection of the Zhuge Clan!"
"Kwahahahaha! What's the big deal about protection from a mere one of the many branch families of the Zhuge Clan! Besides, the Zhuge Clan itself is busy with the Demonic Cult's attack, so do you think they'd even care about us?"
"Urgh!"
The bandit leader, sporting a typical Zhang Fei-style beard and a menacing, bandit-like face, struck Sang Woo-chun with the truth.
As he said, the backer of the Soun Escort Agency was merely one of the many branch families of the Zhuge Clan, and the main Zhuge Clan family had suffered great damage from the sudden surprise attack by the Demonic Cult.
Under normal circumstances, it might be different, but in a time like this when they were in chaos, they wouldn't be able to send a combat unit just because one of their many branch families was in danger.
"And this time, I'm going to make a big score and go back to my hometown to live quietly! Even if the Zhuge Clan steps in late, will they be able to find us once we've scattered in all directions!"
As soon as the leader of Heuksan Fortress heard that the Zhuge Clan was busy with the Demonic Cult's attack, he had made up his mind to pull off a proper heist this time and run away.
Realizing that it was useless to say anything now, Sang Woo-chun, the head escort, swung his sword at the bandits surrounding them to ensure not a single survivor remained.
"Arghhh! I'll take you bastards with me as companions on the road to the afterlife! Die!"
If there is no possibility of survival, at least struggle to the end.
Just as Sang Woo-chun, the head escort, thought that and was about to use all his internal energy,
Kwoong! Kwajajajajak!
"!?"
"!!"
Suddenly, a roar erupted from one side of the mountain, and they discovered a portion of the dense forest collapsing toward them.
The bandits and the escort warriors were startled by the sudden situation, and everyone turned their eyes toward the forest in unison.
Kwaji-jik!
And the last tree, which could be called the boundary of the road, was crushed.
"Heuhahahaha!!"
"Urgh!?"
"Argh!!"
And when someone who had destroyed the tree let out a massive, uproarious laugh while channeling internal energy, the bandits and escort warriors had to cover their ears and grimace.
'An expert!'
Sang Woo-chun realized that with this level of internal energy, he was at least an expert a tier above himself.
It seemed the leader of Heuksan Fortress felt the same, as his face hardened.
Things were ending smoothly, but an unexpected event had occurred.
The most important thing in this job was that there should be no witnesses.
But with someone who appeared to be an expert popping out, his head couldn't help but get complicated.
Sang Woo-chun and the leader of Heuksan Fortress checked out the expert who had popped out onto the road.
First of all, he was younger than expected.
Because of his messy hair, he looked older, but his face itself was close to that of a young man.
Seeing his tattered clothes and disheveled hair, one could tell he hadn't been living in a civilized place.
He was carrying something on his back, and the shape of perfectly balanced muscles was revealed through his clothes.
Just as the two were about to evaluate the man,
"Wow~ That's insane~ Totally insane~! To think I'd actually encounter the cliché of 'encountering an escort mission being attacked by bandits upon entering the Murim world.' The heavens must be telling me that I am the protagonist of this world!"
"??"
"??"
But wait, his way of speaking is a bit strange?
'Saeng'? With his bizarre way of speaking that he had never heard before, and the way the man used strange words like 'cliché', he didn't look normal no matter how you looked at him.
"Uh... excuse me, So......"
"Hey, you guys!"
Just as Sang Woo-chun was about to ask him for help, the man spoke first.
"This body is in a ve~ry good mood right now! So, I'll give you a choice! It looks like you bandits are attacking an escort agency, but if you stop attacking now and disappear, I'll spare your lives!"
"......"
"......"
"......"
The messy-haired young man shouted at the bandits as if he were bestowing a favor upon them.
Naturally, from the bandits' perspective, they couldn't help but have expressions of 'What the fuck is this guy?'
"Huh? Can't you understand what I'm saying? Is your brain level that of a beast? If so, I guess I'll have to use the monkey language I learned a while ago. Ooki~ Ookikki~ Ooki~"
"Attack him too! He's out of his mind!"
"What? Out of my mind? You son of a bitch! Is your mom doing okay!"
"Black Wolf Unit! Attack him!"
The Black Wolf Unit, which could be called the elite of Heuksan Fortress, refers to the elite that Heuksan Fortress boasts.
At the command of the leader of Heuksan Fortress, 8 bandits who were properly armed began to move.
"Surround him and tear him to pieces!"
"Since his internal energy is higher than ours, don't approach him rashly!"
Perhaps because they were experienced, they tried to surround the young man, who was an expert compared to them, and attack him slowly as if hunting.
Perhaps due to the arrogance of being an expert, the young man just stared blankly as they surrounded him.
'Damn! He's a Murim novice!'
Watching the young man's actions, Sang Woo-chun judged him to be a disciple of a hermit expert who was new to the Murim world.
Such people are weak against coordinated attacks, and unlike training, when multiple people attack, they get flustered, lose their composure, and end up dying without being able to unleash even half of their true skills.
"Attack!"
"Argh!"
First, several Black Wolf Unit members rushed in from the left and right, wielding different weapons.
The young man, who was experiencing real combat for the first time, was flustered while dealing with multiple weapons, but......
"Owatcho!"
Puck-puck-puck-puck!
However, the young man moved nimbly, dodging the attacks of the Black Wolf Unit members who were wielding weapons at him, and then swung his fists rapidly with a strange battle cry.
"Urgh!"
"Argh!"
The several Black Wolf Unit members who had launched the attack were hit with speed they couldn't avoid, and they had to retreat, bleeding from their noses or clutching their chests.
'He doesn't kill even though he has the chance to? Damn! He has the skill, but he has no experience in killing!'
'If he's a newcomer who hasn't felt the shock of killing, I can easily cook him!'
Sang Woo-chun lamented, and the leader of Heuksan Fortress smiled.
Perhaps the Black Wolf Unit members felt that too, as they launched a fierce offensive once again.
"Arghhh!"
"Haah!"
The 8 of them rushed in, attacking from all sides.
But even in the midst of that, the young man smiled and rushed toward the Black Wolf Unit member who was a spearman.
"Die!"
The spearman of the Black Wolf Unit attacked the young man by thrusting his spear, but the young man lightly flew up and stepped on the spear shaft with all his might.
Naturally, as the spear shaft went down and the Black Wolf Unit member's upper body faced downward,
Udeuk!
As the young man's instep was driven into the back of his neck, a sound that shouldn't be heard rang out loudly.
As the Black Wolf Unit member with a broken neck fell powerlessly and writhed,
"Hu... huh? He... died......?!"
The young man was shocked by that sight and froze.
'As expected!'
'Now is the time!'
The Black Wolf Unit members, thinking 'as expected', smiled with satisfaction and rushed in indiscriminately to kill the young man.
Because if he became that defenseless, there was no point in surrounding him or anything like that.
"Snap out of it... urgh!"
"Where do you think you're going!"
Sang Woo-chun tried to tell the young man to snap out of it, but a sharp-eyed bandit attacked him and prevented him from speaking.
And just as the Black Wolf Unit approached the young man and was about to swing their weapons,
"Did you fall for that?"
"!!"
A sinister sneer appeared on the face of the young man who had been shocked just a moment ago.
Puck! Ppagak! Udeuk! Kwajik!
The young man moved at a speed incomparable to before, dodging the Black Wolf Unit members' attacks like flowing water and delivering a blow that crushed their neck bones.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
In an instant, 6 Black Wolf Unit members fell.
With their necks twisted in a bizarre direction.
"Hi... hiik......!"
The only surviving Black Wolf Unit member tried to throw away his weapon and run away, but the young man grabbed his face and knocked him down.
"I've been watching you for a while, and you really have a super annoying way of smiling."
"So... no, Great Hero! Please, just spare me......!"
"You should have said that line earlier."
Pung!
"Arghhhhh!"
The young man drove his thumbs into the Black Wolf Unit member's two eyes.
Chiiiiiik!
"Kieeeeeeeek!!"
Furthermore, a sound of something burning rose from the Black Wolf Unit member's eyes along with smoke.
"Next time, check whether the opponent is an expert who can kill you or not before you smile."
Pashak!
After wiping his blood-stained thumbs on the Black Wolf Unit member's clothes, the young man lightly stepped on his head, crushing it.
"Now, it's your turn."
The young man's movements after saying that were truly like lightning.
He moved quickly and punched the bandits in the neck, crushing their neck bones.
"Run... run away!"
"Argh!"
"Save me!"
At first, the bandits also gathered their strength to resist, but as the young man killed the bandits too easily, they became scared and started to run away.
"Stop! Even if you run away from here, you'll all be defeated one by one... urgh!"
"That's enough. I won't allow any more screen time for cannon fodder like you."
The young man approached the leader of Heuksan Fortress in an instant, dodged his attack, and lightly struck his face to subdue him.
Since the leader had been defeated, even the remaining bandits ran away, and the escort warriors cheered that they had survived.
Sang Woo-chun wiped the blood off his sword and approached the young man.
"Thank you very much, young hero. If it weren't for you, we would have all become food for beasts here."
"I was able to find my way thanks to the sound of you guys fighting. You don't really have to thank me."
The young man's age seemed younger than Sang Woo-chun's, but he thought that such arrogance was natural for an expert of this level.
Besides, since his life had been saved, he wasn't so inexperienced in the ways of the world that he would feel bad about being spoken to informally.
"But my discernment is low, so may I ask what martial art you used, young hero? It was a martial art I had never seen before."
"Pfft. Martial art?"
The young man burst into laughter at the part where Sang Woo-chun said 'martial art you used'.
"Hey, look here. So, your name is......"
"I am Sang Woo-chun, the head escort of the Soun Escort Agency."
"Yeah, Mr. Sang Woo-chun. Do you use martial arts when you step on an ant crawling near your feet?"
"......Excuse me?"
"I have never used martial arts on these guys even once. I just swung my fists around like street thugs and beat them up. Ah, I used a little bit when I was roasting the eyes of that bastard with the super annoying smirk earlier, but it wasn't used for attack, so I guess it doesn't matter."
"......"
Sang Woo-chun had an absurd expression at the young man's words.
So, he meant he didn't use martial arts even once while dealing with dozens of bandits?
"Urgh... I... am an ant......!?"
At that moment, the leader of Heuksan Fortress, who was suffering in pain, was indignant at the part about being an ant.
"That arrogance......! You will definitely die because of that arrogance... keck!"
Ujik!
"You should think before you speak. Who is the one holding the sword, and you dare to run your mouth?"
He tried to curse one last time, but the young man lightly stepped on his neck, crushing the bones.
Seeing the leader of Heuksan Fortress dead with his tongue sticking out long, Sang Woo-chun harbored the same thought inside.
'He has skill, but his behavior and character are frivolous. With a personality like this, it would be easy to make enemies......'
However, seeing him kill the leader of Heuksan Fortress in an instant just because he said something he didn't want to hear, he kept his mouth shut, thinking that his connection with the young man wouldn't last very long, and bowed with a fist-and-palm salute.
"Regardless of the matter, thank you for helping us. I don't know if it will satisfy you, but as a token of gratitude......"
"No, rather than that."
The young man cut off Sang Woo-chun's words and smiled broadly.
"Do you know where these bastards' fortress is? I think I could get more wealth if I raided that place than your reward."
To be honest, Sang Woo-chun had been thinking about the fortress on purpose but hadn't said anything.
That was because they intended to raid it themselves to compensate for their current losses.
"You wouldn't say you don't know, would you? Anyway, all we have to do is follow the fleeing bandits, so let's make it easy."
However, he had blocked all the excuses or escape routes Sang Woo-chun could have used.
"Understood. Please wait a moment as we need to clean up this place and inform the escort agency of the situation."
"I'll do that. As expected, you've experienced a lot of society, so you're easy to talk to."
"But may I ask your name, young hero?"
The young man smiled at Sang Woo-chun's question.
"Jincheon."
And Jincheon gave him a more detailed introduction of himself there.
"Remember it well. From now on, if you don't know my name, you won't be considered a Murim person."