Chapter 11 (2)
Chapter 11 (2)
"P-please... spare me......!"
Thwack!
"Gurgle... gurgle......."
Thud!
After easily disposing of the fleeing escort guard with an arrow, I retrieved the usable arrows.
"Let's move!"
"You guys, gather the bodies! You guys, grab the scattered items!"
"Yes!"
"Yeah!"
They've gotten used to this after doing it a few times.
They handle what needs to be done without me even having to give orders.
Well, if I were them, I'd do the same if I were getting paid a large sum for doing mere chores.
"Boss! We're done cleaning up!"
"Burn the bodies, then hide the cart to one side. Let's finish this after one more job."
"Yes!"
By moving around and attacking various escort agencies and merchant groups, I was able to obtain a considerable amount of money.
In particular, the merchant leader who was showing off his wealth had a lot of money on him, so it looks like I'll be able to finish this job faster than I thought.
Honestly, I thought I'd have to rob everything in sight for about a week.
Plus, since they were transporting food at just the right time, I was able to solve my food problem as well.
They really are like a giving tree, providing everything from head to toe.
After disposing of the bodies the guys had gathered, I sat down where the empty boxes were stacked.
"Kuu~ As expected, your archery skills are the best! Boss, don't you have any plans to build a bandit lair? I know a really good spot......."
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"Stop talking nonsense and go back to work."
"Y-yes, sir......."
The guy acting as the vice-boss tucked his tail between his legs at my response and disappeared.
Tsk. Do you think I'm doing this just to be a bandit?
From the start, the profession of a bandit has clear limitations.
I'm doing it as a side job for a moment because I need money, but if I do this for too long, I'll eventually get caught.
It's ideal to do this kind of work short and sweet, then disappear.
But there's no need to explain that to him.
With that, we cleared the cart to the corner, cleaned up the traces of the battle, and waited for the next customer.
It was a good thing I learned archery.
For reference, archery is the only weapon skill I've learned.
The offensive martial arts I mainly learned consist of fist techniques, foot techniques, finger techniques, claw techniques, and palm techniques—all arts for fighting bare-handed without weapons.
The biggest reason was that there wasn't a weapon that suited my taste.
And since I've become so used to fighting with my bare body, I actually felt uncomfortable fighting while holding something.
So, while learning fist techniques, I thought, 'Huh? What do I do for mid-range combat?' and learned finger techniques.
Then, to solve the problem of 'Huh? What do I do if the enemy attacks from below?', I learned foot techniques to fight with my feet.
By filling in the gaps like this, I ended up learning claw and palm techniques as well.
Perhaps for any other ordinary martial artist, two years wouldn't be enough to master a single martial art to the 10th level, but for me, with my bone-cleansing transformation and all sorts of talents, it was just a bit intense.
But since I have to make these guys believe I'm an archer, I'm only using a bow.
I have to plant false information step by step from the bottom up like this.
How much time had passed like that?
"Boss! I see a group that looks like an escort agency!"
I, who had been lazing around and planning the schedule ahead, stood up for the final job.
"Well then, let's do the last job. I hope there's something worth money."
I waited quietly until they came this way, as I needed to get close enough to talk to them to slaughter them without leaving any witnesses.
"Hmm?"
"Huh?"
"What the?"
But something is strange.
Looking closely, they look like they are fleeing in a hurry.
As if they are being chased by something.......
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Argh!
At that moment, masked men began to attack the escort group from behind.
The problem is that the movements of those masked men are agile and sharp; no matter how I look at it, they are the movements of experts.
"B-boss, what should we do......."
"Hey."
"Yes?"
"If one bandit group invades a road already occupied by another, what do the bandits do?"
"Well, obviously we have to take revenge because our territory was invaded... Eek!?"
"I'm not asking you to fight. If one of them comes here, you're all dead."
"Phew......."
Looking at it, they have something hidden in the escort, and those guys didn't have the means to buy it with money, so they hid their identities and attacked.
Or maybe there is an important person in that escort agency who needs to be killed or kidnapped.
How do I know?
If you read just 50 wuxia novels, this kind of development plays automatically.
"Run to the hideout."
"Yes? B-boss! Those guys are Murim experts! If we fight recklessly......!"
"I have to make those guys who looted the road I marked pay the price for ignoring business ethics."
"But......."
"Hey."
"Hiiik! O-okay, we're going!"
They finally understand when I show killing intent.
Honestly, it's hard to persuade uneducated bastards with words.
Now then, let's make the guys who ignored business ethics pay the price.
Slash!
"Kuh-ack!"
Sun-cho, the leader of the Sun-haeng Escort Agency, was able to end up with just a slashed shoulder thanks to barely swinging his sword.
However, seeing the escort guards and laborers dying all around him, he let out a voice mixed with anger and resentment.
"W-why... why would experts like you do something like this!"
"Blame yourself for not handing over the item we demanded!"
One of the masked men said that and unleashed an offensive against Sun-cho.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
Due to the crisis of death, Sun-cho was blocking the experts' attacks with movements he couldn't have imagined normally.
However, as other guards died and more masked men began to target him, he couldn't help but fall into despair.
'Just how important is that item for them to do this......!'
While feeling resentful about why he had to die because of such an unheard-of item, he swung his sword with his survival instinct.
"Die!"
However, when he saw the blade of a masked man aiming for a gap he couldn't defend, he knew his life was at an end and squeezed his eyes shut.
Thwack!
"W-what is this!"
"An arrow? From where!?"
"??"
Hearing a dull sound and feeling no pain, Sun-cho carefully opened his eyes.
"Huk!?"
What he witnessed was the masked man who had swung his sword at him collapsing in the same posture, with an arrow stuck in his temple.
Whoosh! Whoosh!
Thwack! Thwack! Thwack!
"Kuh-ack!?"
"Argh!"
As powerful arrows began to fly, the masked men, having received an unexpected surprise attack, began to panic.
Furthermore, these weren't ordinary arrows, but arrows with enough power that even they, who belonged to the expert class, had to use their full strength to block.
"Who dares to interfere with our work!"
Among the dozen or so masked men who had been relaxed because they were dealing with the guards, 4 or 5 died from the arrows.
The leader of the masked men, indignant at the unexpected surprise attack, focused his gaze toward the direction the arrows had flown.
There, a man wearing an iron mask was standing in a slouching posture with a bow.
"Interfere? Ha, that's ridiculous. Let me ask you the opposite. Who gave you permission to work here?"
"??"
"??"
The masked men were bewildered by the masked man, Jincheon's, remark.
This was because, according to their investigation, the power of bandits had weakened significantly after a large bandit lair was subjugated recently.
Moreover, the masked leader, thinking that experts like them couldn't possibly be defeated by a mere bandit archer, quickly racked his brain.
The answer that came out was,
"Kill the witnesses!"
Just kill them first.
It doesn't matter if they are real bandits or just someone passing by.
You just catch and dispose of witnesses.
"Scatter!"
The opponent is clearly an excellent archer.
If so, scatter and deal with him in close combat.
Jincheon pulled the arrow he had already nocked and fired it at the most conspicuous masked man.
Swish!
"!?"
The arrow curved like a snake, swinging through the air at the sword that was trying to deflect it.
However, he was certainly an expert, so he agilely jumped backward, trying to avoid the arrow.
Thwack!
However, the essence of the Ghost Beast Bow, a martial art created by someone once called the Bow King after observing the forms of animals, wasn't something you could avoid just by dodging.
The Ghost Beast Bow's 2nd form, Snake, which uses the essence of a sharp, persistent, and smooth attack, gained vitality through Jincheon's powerful internal energy and pierced the masked man's head.
"Charge!"
The masked men, moving while scattering, didn't care about their colleague's death and rushed in before Jincheon could nock a new arrow.
As soon as he took the action to pull out an arrow, the masked men rushed in like crazy.
"Got you!"
The moment the masked men approached Jincheon like that,
Crack! Crunch! Snap!
The sound of bones being crushed and broken was heard, and the bodies of the masked men who had reached the distance to attack Jincheon were bounced off, tumbling on the ground several times.
"!!"
The remaining masked men, who had been holding the retreat route in case Jincheon ran away, couldn't hide their bewilderment at that sight.
"T-they're dead......."
When one masked man checked his colleagues' bodies, he realized that everyone was dead.
"Kill the witnesses, I like that term too. But you do know that if you try to kill someone, you have to be prepared to die yourself, right?"
"Des-...form an encirclement!"
One of the masked men was about to say the name of a certain formation, but perhaps realizing that a word related to their identity was about to come out, he just called it an encirclement and tried to surround Jincheon.
The remaining masked men surrounded him, but for some reason, Jincheon watched them do so quietly.
If it were usual, he would have said, 'Am I an idiot? You think I'll wait for you to surround me?' and destroyed them or escaped before the encirclement was completed.
"They're making it easy for me to gain experience. Hup!"
Whoooooosh!
In an instant, as Jincheon lowered his waist and put both hands together, a phenomenon occurred where the surrounding atmosphere was sucked in.
"W-what is this! This absurd internal energy!"
"Such internal energy......!"
The masked men were all shocked by the sight of Jincheon boiling up his internal energy.
Normally, one should attack while gathering energy, but in front of the powerful flow of internal energy, no one could think of attacking recklessly.
Boom!
"Kuh-ack!"
"Huk!"
As Jincheon stomped on the spot, an intense shockwave of energy spread out, causing the masked men who were surrounding him to be pushed back in a row.
Bang!
Furthermore, their astonishment didn't last long.
Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!
Every time Jincheon unleashed a palm technique, powerful palm winds began to explode the upper bodies of the masked men.
The masked men hurriedly moved quickly to evade, but Jincheon used fierce palm winds continuously without rest, easily cornering and annihilating the masked men who were performing evasive maneuvers.
"D-damn it!"
With his subordinates wiped out in an instant, the masked leader, thinking he should at least report it, tried to run away in a hurry.
"Hello~"
But he didn't get far before his path was blocked by Jincheon, who had overtaken him in an instant.
'How is he this fast......! Hmm!? An opening!'
The masked man, shocked that he had been overtaken by a young guy, confirmed that Jincheon was full of openings and poured all his strength into creating sword energy, slashing his side violently.
Clang!
"!?"
However, the sword energy he poured all his strength into couldn't pierce the thin armor inside Jincheon's body, and the sound of metal clashing against metal rang out.
'Hmm, as expected, it can block sword energy, but it'll be dangerous if I get hit in the same spot multiple times.'
Thwack!
"Kuh-ack!"
Jincheon felt a slight stinging sensation from the shock transmitted through the armor, but satisfied with the power of the gear he had made, he punched the masked man in the face.
The masked man, who had tumbled over, judged that it was impossible to beat him with his own skills, so he quickly stood up, opened a little distance, and opened his mouth in a hurry.
"I-I don't know whose disciple you are, but if you touch us, retaliation will surely follow!"
"What?"
Jincheon was dumbfounded by the sudden threat.
No, instead of begging for his life, he threatens me?
"Did King Sejong not make your head understand things properly? Do you not know what situation you're in right now?"
Crunch!
"Kuh-ack!"
Jincheon rushed in at a speed the masked man couldn't respond to, kicked his shin, and broke the bone.
"K-kuh-ugh......!"
"Who are you? Who are you to talk about retaliation? Huh?"
"......."
Crunch!
"Aaaaaah!"
When only groans came out of the masked man's mouth, Jincheon stepped on his arm as if it were annoying.
"Kuh-ugh... keuk keuk keuk......! You... you touched something you shouldn't have......!"
"No, is this guy seriously an idiot? Hey, can't you see this?"
Jincheon pointed his mask at the masked man.
"Okay, question. What is my identity? Do you know my name? My age?"
"....... ......!"
Only then did he realize that he had been flustered and had been too overconfident in the power of the place he belonged to.
"You don't know? Then second question. If I kill you here and burn your corpse, how will your colleagues take revenge?"
"U-uaaaaah!"
"What's with the 'uaaaaah'!"
Thwack! Crunch! Snap!
Jincheon trampled on the limbs of the masked man who was trying to struggle and crushed them easily with his fists.
Crack!
Finally, he killed him by stepping on his neck and took off the masked leader's mask.
"Ugh, a male character with a face as dirty as his voice."
Beyond the mask, a man who looked like he had been through all sorts of hardships had his tongue sticking out and his eyes rolled back.
"T-this can't be... this guy is......!"
At that moment, Sun-cho, who had been bewildered by the unexpected help but was approaching to thank Jincheon, saw the man's face and was shocked.
"Un-ryong-geom Gu Seo-chan!"
"Who's that?"
"If there is the Wudang Sect in Hubei, there is the Gangjupa in Honam! Un-ryong-geom Gu Seo-chan is a peak-level warrior recognized even within the Gangjupa!"
The Gangjupa is a sect of the Evil Faction in Honam, a sect that can be called the rival of the Wudang Sect.
'Hmm, peak-level. So I can easily handle that level.'
Jincheon, who was gradually realizing how fraudulent the talent of this character he created was, grabbed the corpse and threw it near the cart.
"Ah, sorry for the late greeting, young hero. I am Sun-cho of the Sun-haeng Escort Agency. Thanks to you, I was at least able to protect the cargo."
Sun-cho belatedly cupped his hands toward Jincheon and expressed his gratitude.
Jincheon thought about something for a moment and opened his mouth.
"Jeong-cheon. I'm still a Murim novice, so I don't have a nickname."
"That's a trivial matter. An expert of your caliber will easily earn a nickname!"
"By the way, what exactly did they want that they tried to kill everyone?"
"There is a tightly sealed box among the cargo, and they demanded we hand it over right away. Plus, they occupied the rear so we couldn't escape. The rest is as you saw, young hero."
Sun-cho explained the reason for the attack exactly as he knew it.
"Anyway, I express my gratitude once again, young hero. If we return to the escort agency, we will surely reward you......."
As he was talking about the reward at the escort agency,
Snap!
His neck broke in an instant, and he collapsed helplessly.
Who would have expected that he would suddenly attack when he had been saved from the crisis of death and offered a reward?
"Thanks for the good info. I don't know what's in that box, but if it's a treasure worth attacking an escort agency for, then I, the protagonist, should be the one to use it, right?"
Increasing the number of witnesses beyond this would cause problems.
The bandits are fabricated witnesses I planted with false information, so it doesn't matter, but Sun-cho, who isn't one, would definitely make the problem bigger.
Jincheon, who had broken Sun-cho's neck, retrieved the money pouch and disposed of all the bodies.
"Good thing I learned how to drive a carriage from those guys. As expected, if you learn anything, the day comes when you can use it."
Jincheon began to drive the cart toward the hideout, excited to confirm the value of the escort agency's goods and the box the Gangjupa was trying to steal.