High Mountain, Deep Valley
Brother. Lying prone in the grass of the high mountains and deep valleys, holding my breath, only the chirping of insects and the sound of the stream tumbling over rocks reached my ears in a gentle murmur.
Dang Ju-yeon spoke. "That merchant was right. There must be at least a hundred of them. What do you plan to do?"
Through the gaps between several tents, men in leather armor came and went. Only a few were visible, but judging by the size and number of the tents, Dang Ju-yeon's words seemed accurate.
"Wouldn't it be best to turn back?" Yeom Ho-yun replied.
Dang Ju-yeon sighed. "So we have to go back down the mountain path we came up."
"Better than risking danger. There's no helping it."
"I know. I just wish we hadn't climbed up in the first place."
Dang Ju-yeon shot a glare in this direction. Still, it was a common occurrence in life that one person's gain became another's loss. Her once neatly combed black hair was now disheveled, and the sight of her barely clinging to life had been quite the spectacle. Of course, that wasn't the only reason we'd climbed the mountain.
I observed the bandits setting up their tents and unpacking their belongings, then said, "Do we really have to go that far?"
Dang Ju-yeon retorted sharply. "Then what do you suggest?"
"I mean we should find a way to fight and drive them off."
I already knew why they had set up camp here. They had come for revenge after I destroyed one of the seventy-two strongholds of the Green Forest. What kind of martial artist would flee without fighting someone who came seeking vengeance? The question was how to break through them—retreating was never an option.
In truth, a hundred men weren't that many. There was no need for someone who could take on ten thousand or a thousand alone. Just being able to handle a hundred at once would be more than enough, wouldn't it?
The Black Poison Lord had once said that three third-class fighters could match one first-class, four first-class could match one peak, and five peak masters could match one of the Top 100 Masters, making one Top 100 Master equivalent to sixty third-class fighters. But that number itself varied greatly, and there was an even bigger flaw in the logic.
Three third-class fighters might defeat one first-class, and five peak masters might defeat one Top 100 Master, but even if they surrounded him from all sides, sixty third-class fighters could never defeat one Top 100 Master. The lower the skill level, the less perfect the encirclement tactics became. From a Top 100 Master's perspective, he would only ever face three or four third-class fighters at a time. In each individual fight, he would overwhelmingly dominate, winning every battle until his stamina ran out. Even if two or three hundred third-class fighters swarmed him, it would be difficult to bring down a single Top 100 Master. It was a fundamental principle of warfare, one even mentioned in Sun Tzu's Art of War.
I was a Top 100 Master, Yeom Ho-yun was at the peak of the peak realm, and Dang Ju-yeon was also a peak master. If their skills were mediocre, why couldn't the three of us handle a hundred?
When I voiced this opinion, Dang Ju-yeon declared firmly, "That's nonsense. The Green Forest Alliance Lord is famous for being cautious. He wouldn't have assembled a hundred-man pursuit force with only third-class fighters mixed in. There will be plenty of peak masters at the very least, and it's possible the Alliance Lord himself or the Pressing Ridge Hammer might have come."
"I'm not alone, am I? We have Lady Yeom and Lady Dang as well."
"Fine. Now it's three against a hundred."
"There's no law saying we have to fight all hundred at once. Doesn't the Art of War say that one man hidden in the field can terrify a thousand?"
"That's from the Wu Tzu's chapter on the Five Elements. A fine saying, but it assumes the bandits are the ones hidden in the field first. Their name isn't Green Forest for nothing—they know these woods far better than we do."
"Then we'll just lure them to a place we know better."
"How?"
"Hmm..."
If I had to think of something, what they were after was my head. It made sense to use that. I answered, "If they want my head while I'm staying in northern Zhangjiajie, we can send word that they should come to Zhangjiajie for a life-and-death duel."
"Then they'll set the village on fire. At the very least, they'll raid and plunder it. You're mistaken—the Green Forest bandits aren't martial artists."
"Huh? They're not martial artists?"
"Do you think the government would register bandits as martial artists? They use martial arts, so they're counted among the Black Evil Five Factions when it comes to the Murim's Hundred and Eight, but they're excluded from the government's list of the Murim's Top 100. They're just criminals, not martial artists."
"Even if it's an agreed duel, killing your opponent every time gets you criticized as a murderer, but bandits can kill as many people as they want without consequence. And you didn't know this? I suppose the claim that you only lived in the mountains wasn't an exaggeration."
"I didn't even know there was such a thing as martial artist registration."
Dang Ju-yeon and Yeom Ho-yun exchanged bewildered glances.
"...Well, we'll handle that at the next village we stop at. The authorities might have registered you voluntarily. You're already famous, aren't you, Great Hero Yu?"
"So all the duels I've had so far were technically crimes..."
"The government isn't that rigid. If it comes to it, I can explain it well. My father is acquainted with the Vice Commander of the Southwest Command, so I'm known to the local offices and barracks around here."
"Wait, then can't we just call the government troops?" I asked.
Both pairs of eyes turned to me.
"What do you mean by that?"
"If we tell the authorities and have troops sent to the village, we wouldn't need to worry about them setting fires or plundering, would we?"
"Of course not, but then they'd flee immediately. Why do you think the Black Evil Five Factions have survived this long when they couldn't even last half a day against a single unit from the Command?"
"The government troops aren't good at pursuit, I take it."
"When there are a hundred men, the army marches at the pace of the slowest among them. Moreover, they'd be wearing heavy armor and dragging wagons. Chasing mountain bandits who know these paths well in that state is absurd."
Yeom Ho-yun added, "And the troops, knowing this, wouldn't bother marching out for nothing even if called."
I fell into thought. There was no need to kill all the bandits. It would be enough if they were thoroughly humiliated to the point they couldn't even make excuses. Besides, their leader was cautious and fearful, and would likely value his own life more than my head...
After organizing my thoughts, I spoke. "How about this?"
* * *
"Well, it certainly serves the purpose, but, um..." Yeom Ho-yun trailed off.
I turned my head to look at Dang Ju-yeon.
"Not bad. Making the objective clear is important."
Dang Ju-yeon nodded.
"But, but still... isn't this a kind of fraud?"
At Yeom Ho-yun's words, I mentally reviewed the plan again. It was true that withholding the full truth constituted a lie. However, fraud involved deceiving others for personal gain at their expense. Since no one would suffer harm from this lie, it couldn't be called fraud.
"If no one stands to lose anything, how can it be fraud? Just think of it as preparing for contingencies."
"When you put it that way... I suppose it does seem that way. Alright, let's go with that."
Yeom Ho-yun let out a sigh and rose from where she'd been sitting to rest.
"So I just need to head straight back the way we came?"
"No. Before that, you need to guide us to the celestial gate. Lady Dang and I would be spotted by the bandits before we even reach the back of the celestial gate."
Even if we weren't spotted, we might get lost and end up stranded in the forest. In this regard too, I'd been unusually lucky. At first, I'd thought the two of us could manage the carriage road from Chongqing to Guiyang, but the direct route from Guiyang to Changsha was a thousand-li journey through endless mountains. If Lady Yeom hadn't joined our party, it would have been quite the ordeal.
Dang Ju-yeon stood up and said, "You say that so proudly. You talked about bringing her along and all, but without Lady Yeom, how exactly were you planning to reach Yueyang?"
"Would you have been any different?"
"I've never traveled far from home, so I wouldn't know, and at least I have the humility to admit my ignorance. But Great Hero Yu lived in the mountains yet doesn't know how to find his way, while overflowing with confidence—how is that the same?"
"I never left the house before my debut in the martial world either."
Hearing this, Yeom Ho-yun, who had been walking ahead, frowned and asked, "You lived in the mountains but never left the house?"
"There was a mountain behind the house, but all around—including that side—were cliffs less than a hundred jang high, and I never went beyond them."
"What about food?"
"My master brought it."
After I answered, there was a stretch of silence broken only by the sound of footsteps on leaves. After some time passed, Dang Ju-yeon asked again, "You mentioned living as a disciple for a while, didn't you?"
"Nine years."
"Without taking a single step beyond the cliffs?"
"Without leaving."
After passing a few more trees, Yeom Ho-yun asked this time, "Come to think of it, I never asked why you debuted in the martial world. Besides making a name for yourself, was there another reason?"
"Improving my skills was one."
"And besides that?"
"Nothing in particular. Just seeing the world of the jianghu."
"Hmm... no revenge or anything?"
"I don't have anyone I hold a grudge against."
This silence was shorter. Yeom Ho-yun asked again, "...If it's rude, you don't have to answer, but how exactly did you get out of that house in the end?"
"Ah, well, there wasn't much choice. I jumped off the cliff."
"This might also be rude, so you don't have to answer if it is. May I ask what happened to your master? Or perhaps..."
Did you kill him?
Hearing those words, my footsteps stopped abruptly.
"Did I kill my master, you ask..."
I had tried. But both my master and I had known all too clearly that it would fail. Could that even be called an attempt to kill? I knew now. What I'd done was simply thrust a sword. For me to have truly tried to kill my master, I would have needed at least to fear that my sword might kill him, for my master to feel threatened that my sword might kill him, and then to extend that sword. At the very least, I had never once tried to kill my master. I couldn't. That was the goal at the end of my journey through the martial world.
"It would be nice if I could kill him."
So I smiled and answered that way. Dang Ju-yeon swallowed hard, and Yeom Ho-yun's face turned pale as if she'd seen a ghost. I could guess the misunderstanding, but it seemed amusing, so I didn't bother correcting it.