Chapter 197: South Sea-1
Chapter 197: South Sea-1
Since half of Guangxi Province was just as much jungle as Yunnan, we had to keep moving through the forest for a long while without even knowing whether we were in Yunnan or Guangxi.
So we couldn't meet anyone and couldn't even be sure we were heading the right way, but fortunately, we had the Black Panther.
The Black Panther had smelled salt in the air and guided us toward the sea.
Truly, the sense of smell of an animal that had reached the spirit creature level was astonishing.
Perhaps its senses had grown even sharper lately now that it was learning an internal energy cultivation method.
During a break, I stroked its neck and said,
"Thank you, Sakwol. Without you, we might have wandered for a long time."
Sakwol was the name I had given it.
A name meaning black moon seemed fitting for it, and it was also a name that contained my wish to master the fifth form of the Moonlight Illusion Sword Dance.
At that, it rubbed its head against me, making a rumbling sound like a cat.
This beast the size of a tiger had been so unbelievably cute lately.
"Now, try circulating your energy while we rest. It'll give you more strength."
When I said that, Sakwol obediently entered an energy circulation state.
I had recently been teaching it an internal energy cultivation method.
I had learned it in my dreams from Elder Mukrang, of course.
He had once created an internal energy cultivation method to teach a wolf he raised, and he had modified it to suit the Black Panther and taught it to me.
Creating an internal energy cultivation method for an animal was astonishing in itself, but it was even more surprising that its level was extraordinary as well.
It was a level that did not fall behind the Honwon Mugeuk Gong, the heart method of the Seonwoo clan head.
Perhaps because of that, even though it hadn't been long since it started learning, Sakwol's movements seemed more agile than before.
Then Jeung Chil spoke to me as if fascinated.
"Goodness, I never thought I'd live to see the day an animal circulates energy. Jin-i, where in the world did your beast learn such things?"
I answered with a grin.
"A divine master taught me in my dreams, hyungnim."
At that, he scowled deeply and spat out,
"Is it always a divine master whenever I ask? If you don't want to tell me, just say so!"
Hmm, but it was true.
I smiled in circles and hinted to him slyly,
"Come to think of it, the divine master spoke of you last night as well, Jeung hyungnim..."
Then his eyes instantly went round and he asked,
"Huh?! Is that true?!"
"No. It's a lie."
"You little rascal! How dare you tease your hyungnim!"
"Hahaha, my apologies, hyungnim."
Lately, as I had started treating Seol Pung as an older brother, Jeung Chil seemed envious and had been pestering us to call him hyungnim too.
He stubbornly insisted that since he was Lady Dang's orabeoni, it was only right for him to be our hyungnim as well.
He was an old man with so many things to be envious about.
So we had no choice but to start calling him hyungnim, and then, perhaps feeling some sense of responsibility, his behavior began to change a bit.
He started addressing us by our proper names instead of beasts or pretty-boy gigolos, and sometimes he would even get up in the morning and go hunting himself.
I suspected he felt some sort of responsibility as the eldest brother.
Of course, he only did it when the mood struck him, but even so, it was nothing short of a remarkable change.
Honestly, it was a little endearing.
At this rate, I wondered if, once we reached the sea, he would be the first to suggest an Oath of the Peach Garden — or rather, an Oath of the Sea Garden.
That was when it happened.
The Black Leopard Sakwol, which had been circulating energy with its eyes closed, suddenly snapped its eyes open and darted swiftly up a tree.
At that, Jeung Chil and Seol Pung looked at me and asked,
"Huh? What's the matter?"
"Did Sakwol find something?"
These days, I could feel Sakwol's intent to some degree even without Elder Mukrang's interpretation.
So everyone had taken to asking me about Sakwol's actions, and right now I could feel its wariness.
"It seems to have sensed something. Let's head up as well."
All of us ascended the trees in an instant.
Then we could see it right away.
Beyond the wide stretch of green forest, smoke was rising.
Sakwol had probably caught the scent of that smoke.
Jeung Chil asked,
"A forest fire?"
Then Seol Pung shook his head.
"Seeing it rising from multiple spots, it doesn't look like a natural forest fire. Something seems to be happening."
I agreed with his assessment.
I said to them,
"Let's go."
We ran over the treetops as if flying, heading toward the place where the smoke was rising.
Then, a moment later, we could see something else.
A vast blue horizon spreading out where the forest ended...
It was the sea I had only ever heard of.
We had finally arrived at the sea.
"Haa!"
I couldn't help but gasp in admiration even as I ran.
An endless, beautiful blue curve — it was truly a magnificent sight.
But I couldn't just stand there blankly and admire it.
Because the smoke was rising right in front of that sea.
And as we ran a little further, we could witness it.
An unbeautiful sight spread out upon the beautiful beach.
There was a small village in front of the shore.
And in the waters off it, two large ships were anchored, and the smoke was rising from that village.
The smoke of houses burning in the village. A small seaside village was being plundered.
As we drew closer, we could hear people's voices as well.
"Aaaagh! Please spare me!"
"Get over here, you wench!"
"Nari, please, my wife is— uwaaagh!"
"No!"
"P-please, just my life— kuaaaagh!"
Murderous intent began flashing in our eyes.
***
Chu Gye-in, nicknamed Blood-eating Fish, the captain of the 15th ship of the Haenam Sect's naval force, was originally a famous pirate who had come over to the Haenam Sect and was a peak-level master.
But his past history as a pirate wasn't particularly special.
It was because there were so many like him in the Haenam Sect.
And in truth, not much had changed just because he'd come over to the Haenam Sect.
The current leader of the Haenam Sect, Jin Tae-do, demanded absolute obedience to his orders, but other than that, he guaranteed them the same free lifestyle as before.
They drank, enjoyed themselves, fought, and plundered just as they used to.
There were no restrictions whatsoever.
If anything, having the fence of the Haenam Sect made it feel like they could run wild more safely than before.
For pirates like them, it could only be an utterly joyful life.
"Captain! This wench is still only eleven years old, what should we do?!"
"What are you asking! Haven't you ever heard that age is just a number?!"
"Keekekeke! As expected, so true. Understood!"
"Take everything worth money! Ah, just don't kill them if you can help it! We have to leave them alive so they'll be here next time, won't we?!"
"Kuahahahaha! Understood!"
"Oi! Captain, I already killed one, what do I do? I just tapped him and he went 'euk!' and died?"
"Well, what can you do if it was his fate to die? Don't worry about it too much."
Recently, orders had come down for the martial artists of the Haenam Sect's naval force to capture a beggar called the White Wolf Sword.
It was because he had recently destroyed several Haenam Sect ships.
So Chu Gye-in had also come to this village on the pretext of investigating the White Wolf Sword's whereabouts.
But there was no way finding the trail of one beggar in this vast South Sea could be possible.
The people of this village naturally did not know the White Wolf Sword's movements.
So, having failed to gain any information, Chu Gye-in declared this as the price for making him come all the way for nothing and began destroying and looting the village.
It was a completely unreasonable thing, but no one raised any objection to it.
Because both the martial artists doing the looting and even the villagers being looted knew that they had originally come for this purpose anyway.
"Aigo, heroes, you can take everything, so please, just spare our lives!"
"Please, we beg you!"
All the villagers could do was beg that their lives alone might be saved.
That was the moment.
Three streaks of light flew in from beyond the jungle.
Shiiiing!
The first place the light reached was the pirate who had been trying to drag off the eleven-year-old girl.
"Kyaaaagh! Help me, ahjussi!"
"Keuheuheu, just quietly follow—!"
Tadak!
The pirate was startled when something suddenly dropped down between him and the girl, and he stared at it.
What met his eyes was the back of some man's head.
As if it had suddenly materialized from thin air, the back of some man's head had appeared right before his eyes.
"Wh-what the?"
As he stared at that back of a head with surprised eyes, Seonwoo Jin smiled at the child and spoke.
"Hello, little one? Are you alright?"
In order not to startle the child, Seonwoo Jin had not immediately killed the opponent but instead landed in front of him.
Then, while smiling warmly and talking to the child, he struck the pirate's chest hard with a back kick.
Peo-eok!
"Keoheok!"
The pirate couldn't even react.
The pirate, his chest caved in, died instantly, and at that moment, Jeung Chil, who had arrived slightly later than Seonwoo Jin, shouted in a voice full of indignation and scattered his throwing weapons.
"Maknae, you bastard! Leaving first is cheating!"
Pushushuk!
"Kuaaaak!"
"Aaaack!"
"Keoheok!"
Chu Gye-in, the Blood-eating Fish, could not collect his wits amid the sudden situation.
It was because the twenty-odd subordinates who had landed with him were being annihilated in an instant.
He shouted,
"Who the hell are you bastards?! Do you dare, the Hae—!"
As always, he tried to threaten them by invoking the authority of the Haenam Sect, but in the end, he didn't even have the chance to finish.
Because the one who immediately lunged at him was none other than Seol Pung.
Syuhak!
"The Nam Sect's—!"
Peoseok!
Chu Gye-in's head simply vanished under Seol Pung's straight punch, which flew in like a ray of light and struck true.
It was a pathetic death for Blood-eating Fish Chu Gye-in, who had made his name as a lawless wretch of the South Sea ever since his days as a pirate.
Chu Gye-in's body, its head now vanished, stood still for a moment before finally toppling slowly backward.
Thud!
Seonwoo Jin grimaced briefly at the gruesome sight.
"Tsk, the kids are watching too, you brothers really...."
Then he immediately hurled himself toward the other pirates.
Shiiiiik!
"Mu...!"
"Huk!"
Seonwoo Jin and Elder Brother Pung swept past them like a gale, and amid that, sword light flickered like an instant.
Then, a moment later—a beat late—blood burst from the pirates' throats as they collapsed.
Puhwaaak!
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Before three martial artists possessing transcendent peak martial prowess, twenty-some pirates were no different from insects.
In barely a few breaths, every pirate who had landed ashore could no longer draw breath.
At that, a reaction came from the ship anchored in the sea about ten jang away from the shore.
Seeing another ship anchored even farther out, it appeared the pirates they had just killed had come from the nearer ship by skiff.
Ga No-je, the Jan-sim-eo, vice-captain of the 15th ship and a peak-level master himself, infused his voice with internal energy and bellowed.
- [You scum! Do you think you can dare kill martial artists of the Great Haenam Sect and survive?!]
The Haenam Sect.
Seonwoo Jin and Seol Pung exchanged glances.
As suspected, these men were indeed from the Haenam Sect.
Mukrang lamented.
- [I hoped it wasn't so, but to think these pirate rabble are truly affiliated with the Haenam Sect.]
Sensing his dismay, Seonwoo Jin let out a sigh and replied.
'I've heard that these days, ships not affiliated with the Haenam Sect can hardly even sail the Southwestern Sea. It seems the current Haenam Sect is a completely different place from the one you remember, Elder.'
But even as he consoled Mukrang, Seonwoo Jin's own heart was conflicted.
He had tried to avoid coming to the sea precisely for fear of getting entangled with the Haenam Sect, yet the moment he arrived at the sea, he didn't just get entangled—he had clashed directly with them.
A clash with the great power dominating the Southwestern Sea—this was undeniably a serious predicament.
But Hong Hae-ah Jeung Chil, who had no such concerns whatsoever, also infused his voice with internal energy and burst out laughing as he shouted.
- [Khehehehe! You ask if we can survive?! I think we just might?! Khehehehe! The real question is whether you can survive before this Jeu—! Before this Elder?!]
Jeung Chil had been about to boldly declare his own name, but after stealing a glance at Seonwoo Jin, he changed it to "Elder Jeung."
Then, with a look that seemed to say 'I did well, right?', he beamed proudly at Seonwoo Jin.
Seonwoo Jin had to exercise superhuman patience to suppress the urge to bury his face in his hand.
Seol Pung asked.
"Brother Jin, what should we do?"
Having gathered his thoughts, Seonwoo Jin answered with a faint smile.
"Well, we'll have to clean it all up. The water's already spilled, and no matter how mighty the Haenam Sect may be, we can't let wretches like these live, can we?"
At those words, Seol Pung smiled faintly and nodded, and Jeung Chil eagerly chimed in with a bright face.
"Right? Right? How could we possibly let scum like that live...!"
That was when.
Suddenly, a thunderous boom came from the ship.
Kwakwakwang!
"Huh?"
It was an explosive sound they had never heard before, like a clap of thunder.
All three of them turned their startled eyes toward the ship.
Then they spotted something black and round, like a boulder, hurtling toward them at terrifying speed from the ship.
"What is that?!"
"Is that some kind of catapult?"
As Seonwoo Jin and Seol Pung furrowed their brows at the unfamiliar sight, Jeung Chil, who had more experience and had seen such a thing before, shouted.
"Cannonball! It's a cannon!"
At that, Seonwoo Jin and Seol Pung were utterly shocked.
A cannon was a weapon strictly controlled by the state, was it not?
For mere pirates to be able to fire such a thing—the rumors that the Haenam Sect had taken over the naval forces were apparently true.
But there was no time to calmly ponder that.
Seonwoo Jin hurled himself toward the cannonball that was closing in by the moment and shouted.
"I'll take the left!"
Papak!
At that, Seol Pung and Jeung Chil also immediately launched themselves.
"I'll take the right!"
"Then I'm in the middle!"
Papak! Papak!
Seonwoo Jin, flying like a shooting star, clicked his tongue as he saw the cannonball closing in before his eyes.
A round iron mass of that size hurtling at that speed—if it struck head-on, even most demons would probably be smashed to pieces.
"However!"
Hwiik!
Seonwoo Jin twisted his body and his spinning kick smoothly deflected the side of the cannonball.
At that, the cannonball's trajectory completely shifted and it began flying toward the empty coastline to the side.
Seonwoo Jin smiled wryly and muttered.
"If it doesn't hit head-on, it's completely useless."
But in that moment, an enormous explosive sound rang out.
Kwaaaaang!
Startled, they looked over to see the cannonball Seol Pung had handled falling straight down and crashing into the sea.
Peo-eo-eong!
White waves surged skyward from the water's surface.
It appeared he had struck the cannonball head-on and driven it straight downward.
It was a response truly befitting Seol Pung.
Jeung Chil, on the other hand, had apparently wanted to catch the cannonball with his hands and stop it.
But no matter how transcendent a master he was, that was simply not possible.
Jeung Chil, gripping the cannonball with both hands, was flying along with it.
"Uwaaaah! Why won't this thing stop!"
Seonwoo Jin shouted in alarm.
"Elder Brother Jeung!"
At that rate, he seemed about to crash into the village along with the cannonball.
Kwaaaaang!
Fortunately, that didn't happen.
Perhaps because Jeung Chil had gripped it, the cannonball's speed had decreased; it fell in front of the village, and Jeung Chil let go and landed beside it.
"Aigo, my bones ache."
Jeung Chil was rubbing and massaging his shoulders.
It seemed the strain of forcibly trying to stop the cannonball had taken a toll on his body.
Seonwoo Jin sighed in relief that it was at least that much, and as he landed on the shore, Seol Pung also landed on the shore and shouted.
"Jin! Look there! They seem to be preparing to fire again!"
At Seol Pung's words, Seonwoo Jin turned his gaze to the ship and saw the bastards shoving something back into the barrel that had fired the earlier cannonball.
That was apparently how they loaded the cannon.
There were five cannons aimed this way from the ship's broadside; if they fired again, it seemed even more cannonballs would come flying than before.
They couldn't let them fire those as they pleased.
Of course, they couldn't harm *them*, but the villagers could be hurt.
Seonwoo Jin called out toward Jeung Chil.
"Elder Brother Jeung, rest for a moment!"
Then he shouted toward Seol Pung.
"Elder Brother!"
Seol Pung nodded.
And now, the two of them—whose hearts were so in sync that words were no longer needed—simultaneously launched themselves toward the ship.
Papak!
The distance to the ship was ten jang; no matter how skilled they were in movement techniques, it was not a distance they could reach in a single leap.
But they didn't necessarily need to reach it in one go.
'Now!'
Having flown five jang in a single bound, the two of them kicked off the white-capped breaking waves.
Chwaak!
Then, like skipping stones, the two of them bounced off the water's surface and flew straight across the water, shooting toward the ship.
The pirates aboard the ship saw this and cried out in horror.
"Th-that!"
"Qu-quickly, arrows!"
But it was already too late.
As Seonwoo Jin bounced once more off the waves and soared high above the ship, raising his sword, Seol Pung charged straight at the ship's hull and rammed into it.
Kwaaaaaang!
Struck by the impact of something stronger and faster than a cannonball piercing through the ship, the pirates aboard could do nothing but tumble helplessly.
"Uwaaaah!"
"Ugh! What is this?!"
"The ship's been breached! The ship!"
And in that moment, Seonwoo Jin, who had soared high into the air, descended and brought his sword slashing down.
Mukrang Sword Technique, First Move.
Opening Heaven.
Chwaaaaak!
To the pirates, it was nothing short of a cataclysm.
Under the sword strike Seonwoo Jin brought down, a third of the ship was cleaved clean through, and the vessel was split in two.
The crew, who had been tumbling across the deck as the ship lurched and nearly capsized from the blow Seol Pung had dealt, now plunged into the sea as the vessel was abruptly split into two pieces.
"Uwaaaah! What is this?!"
"The Dragon King is enraged! Save us!"
"We're falling into the sea!"
Seonwoo Jin and Seol Pung lightly perched atop the sinking ship and looked at the other vessel.
"They're fleeing."
"Indeed. Shall we try again?"
The ship that had originally been anchored behind this one immediately began fleeing toward the open sea the moment it saw this ship splitting apart and sinking.
The distance was roughly fifteen jang. Moreover, it was growing farther by the moment.
Seonwoo Jin pondered.
If he pushed himself a little, reaching that ship seemed possible.
But somehow, he didn't feel inclined to.
Seonwoo Jin suddenly looked down into the ocean—so clear and transparent, yet its depths utterly unfathomable.
He couldn't help but swallow hard.
'What if I try to cross the sea to reach that ship and fail? Then I'd fall in there?'
Just the thought was horrifying.
The mere fact that it was an unknown space he had never experienced was enough to make it seem sufficiently dangerous.
Moreover, when flying to this ship they had just reached, the shore had been right behind them and the seafloor was visible—there was at least some psychological sense of security.
But wasn't that ship already out in the excessively distant open sea?
If he attempted an attack and failed, the situation would become extremely precarious.
He abruptly asked Seol Pung.
"Elder Brother, do you know any water techniques?"
At that, Seol Pung answered with a troubled expression.
"I've lived in the mountains since I was young... I've swum in small streams, but I'm not confident in a sea like this."
Seonwoo Jin likewise had no confidence in water techniques.
He spoke with an uneasy expression.
"Then it can't be helped."
It seemed they had no choice but to let that ship go.
They probably wouldn't know who he and his companions were, but the fact that they hadn't been able to destroy the evidence left him deeply unsettled.