Chapter 55: Confession Attack (1)
Chapter 55: Confession Attack (1)
Let’s rewind time for a moment, back to before the nuke dropped from the sky.
I grabbed Murong Cheong, who was hopping along like an excited puppy, and pulled her back.
"Wait. We need to grab the secret manual first. If the ship gets destroyed, it’ll be lost forever."
"Ah, you are right...! As expected, you are wise for someone who isn't Han Chinese!"
Murong Cheong wore a look of realization.
Her mission was to pursue the rogue elder, Chen Zhu-eon, and recover the secret manual he had stolen. I didn't know the exact nature of the manual, but most secret techniques don't have copies.
In other words, if it sank into the ocean here, one of the Murong Family’s martial lineages would be lost.
The Murong Family had maintained its prestige for a long time, so it was possible the Family Head or the elders had already mastered the original. Still, one couldn't be careless with its management.
Take the Shaolin Temple, for example.
Shaolin, once called the cradle of all martial arts, had to struggle for nearly 150 years to restore its library after the Pavilion of Scriptures burned down. Even then, they failed to recover a third of it.
The 108 Ultimate Techniques of Songshan Shaolin were whittled down to 72.
Since these included high-level martial arts that could be classified as Divine Arts, the Shaolin monks went absolutely ballistic and changed the sect's motto to "Crushing Evil and Manifesting Righteousness."
It basically meant that despite being an Orthodox Buddhist temple, they stopped hesitating to use lethal force.
For the record, that fire was started by our founding ancestor, Peng Dan-san (the greatest master of his era, though this is debatable since Zhang Sanfeng lived at the same time).
That’s why even now, we don't even poke our heads toward Henan or Xi'an.
Anyway, the loss of a secret manual is a catastrophic blow to a sect. It’s the kind of thing that threatens a family's very existence.
"It is a bamboo scroll containing the first five forms of the Galaxy Sword Scripture. It does not matter if it gets a little wet, but we must recover it."
"A sword technique? That’s a shame."
"……? Is it not obvious that the sword is superior to the saber?"
"What? What do you mean by that?"
"Even a child knows that two edges are better than one. A saber is just a one-edged sword. It is something forged in haste by a blacksmith who lacks the skill to sharpen both sides. A saber is a tool for butchers in a slaughterhouse. This is based on cold, hard facts."
"Wow, I’m so speechless I don't even know where to start."
She was even using "fact-based" violence. Stop the bullying.
"Stop talking nonsense and let’s just find it. It looks like everyone’s swarming the deck right now. They’re probably in a panic because your family showed up."
"There will be mechanical traps everywhere. We must move carefully."
"You’ll be able to spot them, so what’s the problem?"
"That is…… true. Just trust me."
Murong Cheong stepped forward confidently.
We spent a good while checking the cabins of this massive smuggling ship. A negotiation representative for the Jinzhou Eon Family—someone of the Fist Dragon's caliber—wouldn't be staying in a shared bunk, so we focused our search on private quarters.
After several attempts, we finally found a room where the martial robes of the Jinzhou Eon Family were hanging.
"Is this it?"
"Yes! This is it! Wa-wait!"
"Huh? What?"
"I must verify its authenticity. Read it!"
"……Will me reading it even help verify anything?"
"Quickly! Quickly!"
At Murong Cheong’s urging, I mindlessly untied the string of the bamboo scroll.
Despite the stains of time, the scroll still possessed a vibrant, jade-like luster, as if it had been meticulously maintained. Small characters were packed tightly together in a bold, vigorous script.
Wait, don't secret manuals usually have illustrations? How are you supposed to learn a posture just by looking at text?
What does "start like a hunting hawk" even mean? Is this yoga?
More importantly, is it okay for me to see this? Aren't secret manuals usually "not to be passed to outsiders"? Is this legal in the Murong Family?
"Are you done? You read it all, right?"
"Yeah. But I have no idea what it’s saying. Um…… there are too many Buddhist metaphors and analogies that probably only make sense in your family. We don't write our manuals like this."
"How are the Peng Family's manuals written?"
"First, you can't use any Hanja that isn't in the Thousand Character Classic, and there have to be lots of pictures. Otherwise, even the elders won't read the book."
"I am not sure if I should call that 'very Peng-like' or not."
I handed the scroll back to Murong Cheong and stepped out of the room.
I strained my ears toward the deck, but I couldn't hear the sounds of ongoing combat. Everything had gone quiet, as if everyone was holding their breath.
"Let’s stay here for now. It’ll be safer to head out once the deck is mostly cleared."
"I agree. I can barely feel any internal energy from you anymore. Are you very tired?"
"I’m probably less tired than you. You look like you’re about to pass out any second."
"The noodles I ate this afternoon are sitting heavy on my stomach."
"See? I told you they tasted like crap. A village gets wrecked, but one tavern is operating perfectly? That was definitely a trap set by those Jongri bastards. When you get home, live with a bottle of Anti-Poison Wine in your mouth for a while."
"What about you?"
"The body of a Peng direct descendant is somewhere between 'Immune to Ten Poisons' and 'Immune to a Hundred Poisons,' so I’m fine. That includes immunity to the common cold."
"That sounds…… useful for daily life. It is strangely impressive……."
Given the nature of the Hebei Peng Family, where we excel at anything physical, our livers usually handle minor toxins on their own.
To begin with, the "Hell’s Event Tub" that Peng direct descendants are dunked in for Marrow Cleansing is basically pure poison if ingested. My resistance was guaranteed.
I’d lived my life since early childhood with the mindset of Achilles being tempered in the River Styx. A drug clumsily sprinkled by some waiter under a soul-capturing or mind-clouding spell wasn't going to ruin my condition.
We spent a while longer opening cabins and grabbing whatever we could.
It was a fun time for farming loot.
*
23. Confession Attack.
"This! Look at this!"
"What is it?"
"This is a type of Protection Bead! I have only heard stories of them. I knew such things existed, but they are so rare……!"
It seemed we were in the quarters of one of the Jongri Family’s sorcerers.
In the grand and luxurious room, a map depicting complex waterways and sea routes was spread out.
Getting caught with this would be considered treason; these guys really had some nerve. A straight line was drawn on the sea route from Tianjin all the way to Beijing.
There was a date marked, indicating about five days from now.
'They were planning to attack Beijing?'
Are they actually insane?
Setting aside the Beijing Five Army Camps, the Beijing Shuntian Prefecture is strictly our territory.
Every kind of armed disturbance in Beijing must be managed under the laws of the Hebei Peng Family, and any martial artist who violates this is beheaded without question.
In such a place, they were planning to lead Jiangshi to the Shuntian Prefecture, where my grandfather—ranked in the top three of the Fifteen Lords—resides?
As I was thinking this, Murong Cheong tapped her chest.
"Focus! Are you not focusing? This is something truly good!"
"What is it, then?"
"I told you, it is a Protection Bead!"
"No, I mean, what does it do?"
I’m not on friendly terms with the supernatural.
"A Protection Bead is a cursed object that creates a temporary Protection Aura around the body!"
"What?"
That’s a total cheat.
"Of course, the range of the blow it can block varies depending on the effort put into its creation. But this is an exceptionally well-made Protection Bead! If you wear this, it will block even a surprise attack using Astral Energy at least once."
"Oh……."
Considering how my brother Hyeong-shin lost the initiative to a surprise stabbing and ended up getting humiliated, there was no need to explain how useful blocking a surprise attack could be.
If Hyeong-shin had possessed this, he would have taken both our heads in the first clash and set sail at his leisure.
As I marveled at it, Murong Cheong handed it to me with a clean expression, devoid of any lingering attachment.
"Take it. Keep it tucked safely in your robes."
"Why are you giving this to me?"
"Because you helped me. You risked your life to help and were injured several times. So, I can afford to give you this much as a bonus. You travel often, and the Central Plains is very dangerous. I hope this can be a life-saving move for you at least once."
"I don't need it."
"Yes. Secure it tightly in your robes and…… pardon?"
"I said I don't need it."
It wasn't that I actually didn't need it.
The Hebei Peng Family’s combat style is brutally simple: charge straight ahead and land a blow.
In other words, any strike that the Heart-Protecting Fist or the Continuous Sabers fails to block during that charge will inevitably hit the body.
It’s a formidable style because if you succeed in crossing that line of death and closing the distance, you can exchange blows even with masters several levels above you.
Anyway, it was an incredibly useful treasure.
But I shook my head.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, my instinct was screaming. Don't take it.
And I trusted the instincts of the Peng bloodline implicitly. They had never been wrong.
"You take it. It’s your share."
"Why? You get hurt more often than I do!"
"I got hurt more because you’re such a novice that I had to do the heavy lifting. Normally, I don't get hurt easily."
"Were you not near death when you took Yang Jeok-yo’s head?"
"Yang Jeok-yo was one of the world's peerless masters."
"What."
Regardless, I eventually forced the Protection Bead into Murong Cheong’s hand.
When I forcibly curled her fingers around it, she seemed to resist for a moment before carefully closing her hand.
"Live a healthy life even after you go back to Liaoning, okay?"
Listen to your dad, and don't go running off on your own again.
"You…… you too……."
"Hmm?"
"Never mind. Again, you have taken a lady's hand. Is this what the Han Chinese call a marriage proposal? We do not have such a culture. I—I am very unfamiliar with this situation."
"She’s broken again."
She really needs to pay for a new translator.
Just as I smirked and turned around to see if I could find anything else in this goldmine of a room, the sky suddenly shook with a thunderous rumble.
And then, the dust floating in the cabin froze mid-air.
A wave of energy rippled out, washing over us.
Soon, an overwhelming presence began to surge from somewhere, intense enough to make my limbs tingle.
"Ugh……?!"
"This is……."
I immediately drew my saber, resting it on my shoulder as I glared at the ceiling.
I tried to visualize the deck somewhere above us, and the sky beyond it.
Chills ran down my spine.
It was a moment where my survival instinct rang alarm bells like crazy. Something was coming.
Something was coming. Something I couldn't possibly face.
It was the same sensation I felt when my grandfather, consumed by rage, declared war on the White Lotus Cult when I was seven.
No, wait.
If someone could let out that much energy so naturally…….
'The Jongri Family joined hands with the Jinzhou Eon Family. If this fact is revealed, the Jinzhou Eon Family will have no way to avoid extermination.'
'In such a precarious situation, things have gone sideways, and the Murong Family’s fleet is arriving. It’s only a matter of time before they’re caught.'
'From the Jinzhou Eon Family’s perspective, the easiest way to resolve this is to simply smash the Black Ship and sink it into the sea.'
'Someone who can quickly destroy a ship of this scale. The presence of an absolute being I felt from my grandfather. The Jongri Family doesn't have anyone among the Fifteen Lords. There is only one master of that level who could actively barge into this.'
'The Fist King. Heavenly Roar Fist, Eon Do-cheon.'
My thoughts coalesced in the mere instant after the first sound of breaking air.
I quickly rushed over, grabbed Murong Cheong’s sleeve, and shouted.
"Wh-what are you doing all of a sudden!"
"We have to run."
"Pardon? Where to?"
"The cargo hold……!!"
My instinct was screaming. If we stayed here, we would truly die.
Murong Cheong looked flustered by my words, but she followed me without any further protest.
As we ran from the cabin area down to the cargo hold and opened the first door—
『Heavenly Strike (天打)』
A voice suddenly boomed, echoing loudly.
It was a voice that seemed to come from all directions, yet also from right beside us. It vibrated in surround sound, making my head throb.
Murong Cheong stopped mid-stride as she entered the room, looking horrified.
"Six Harmonies Resonance……!! It is the Harmony Realm!"
"Obviously!! It looks like the Fist King himself has stepped out!"
"But—but why? It would be better to escape and plan for the future! For one of the Fifteen Lords to personally move for this……."
"No! If he sinks all the evidence of the Eon Family’s involvement right here, there’s no problem! The Fist King can just say he came to punish the Jongri Family for slaughtering commoners!"
"How—how can he be so cruel……? The Fist King does not know that the Fist Dragon is dead!"
"I know, right? He’s a real piece of work."
We sprinted through the cargo hold, leaping over Hyeong-shin’s headless corpse, and opened the door to the second cargo hold.
As it creaked open, the familiar, pungent smell of blood wafted out.
Perhaps this place itself had become a trauma trigger; Murong Cheong’s face turned deathly pale, and her hands began to shake.
After all, hadn't she killed her own uncle here, the man she’d been with since childhood?
Even worse, her uncle’s severed head and body would still be down there.
I patted Murong Cheong’s shoulder.
"We have to find a way to live. Right here."
"But…… but……."
"I know it’s hard, but I need you to pull through this time."
"I—I understand."
Murong Cheong descended, stumbling slightly.
Chen Zhu-eon’s mangled corpse remained exactly where it was. It seemed someone had performed a brief autopsy, making it even harder to recognize.
At that sight, a ghostly light flickered in Murong Cheong’s eyes.
Deep within her gaze, anger and hatred were burning.
It was a phenomenon that occurred when internal energy, depleted after a fierce battle, ran wild through tattered acupoints.
Emotional turmoil, leakage of internal energy, and exhausted acupoints failing to control the energy—one more step from there, and it would be Qi Deviation.
"Cheong."
"Yes…… yes?"
"You’re heading for Qi Deviation. Control your breathing."
It was proof she couldn't manage her energy.
There are plenty of martial arts that cause the eyes to glow, but the light that appears when one loses control of their emotions and lets their energy run wild has a different quality.
Murong Cheong’s gaze was closer to the latter.
It was a type of Heart Demon.
She had just cut down someone she loved and then realized the Fist King’s ruthlessness and the Jinzhou Eon Family’s true nature. If I were her, I wouldn't take a single step outside the family gates for a while.
"Thank you. I have calmed down."
As Murong Cheong nodded, the next voice rang out.
『Collapse Heaven (崩天)』
Rumble! The very atmosphere shook.
A palpable killing intent poured toward every inch of the ship.
My body froze, becoming unnaturally stiff.
No matter what form the attack took, the only thought that crossed my mind was that I was certain to die.
Murong Cheong seemed to be in the same state.
With her body frozen, she shouted to me urgently.
"Now—what do we do now? Where should we run?"
"Are you a good swimmer?"
"I am decent! The Liao River was close by!"
"Then hold your breath in advance."
I couldn't die in a place like this.
My instinct was now bellowing as if it were using Six Harmonies Resonance itself. You cannot die here.
A warning that made my ears ring and my senses numb flowed through my veins.
At that point, I clenched my fists and regulated my breathing.
Crack, snap!
My muscles and joints, which were whining that they couldn't move, made agonizing sounds as they were forced to twist.
It was even worse because my true qi was nearly exhausted from the fight with Hyeong-shin.
But thanks to the Peng direct lineage instinct, I was able to move.
The feeling of being gradually freed from the Fist King’s suppression began as my ears went numb and my senses dulled.
I reached toward the floor.
'This is the lowest hold of the cargo area. Considering the Black Ship’s structure, this is a cabin below the waterline for steering.'
I tapped the floor. My theory was correct.
This was the very bottom of the Black Ship, submerged below the water.
'If I break this wall, it’s the sea.'
Since the Fist King was trying to smash the Black Ship, the sea would be relatively safe. I had to hope so.
I had zero information on how an attack from a Harmony Realm master would manifest.
The "Harmony Realm martial art" my grandfather had briefly shown me once had withered the entire outer garden of the Family Head’s residence.
If it was on that scale, there was no way to survive other than getting far away from the Black Ship.
After organizing my thoughts, I clenched my fist.
I grasped lightning in my hand.
For an Astral Energy technique not permitted at the level of a first-rate martial artist. Thunderbolt City-Destroying Cannon.
A high-level martial art I had never once succeeded in performing during my solitary training.
Crunch…… crackle……!
I circulated my internal energy at the speed of a falling thunderbolt, but it was difficult to control.
Because the lightning qi was scattering wildly through my acupoints, I couldn't apply power properly; instead, my acupoints felt as if they were being pricked by needles.
But I couldn't give up.
I couldn't die in a place like this.
So, Peng Hyeon-hwi, you damn bastard. Whether it’s instinct or whatever, just land one hit!
Crack……! Crack! Bzzzzzzzzzt!!
The internal energy in my dantian drained away like an ebbing tide.
To the point where my innate true qi was almost exposed, the forced internal energy surged through my body as if it would tear my acupoints apart, but the result was—
I succeeded in holding a fragment of lightning in my hand.
A technique mimicking Astral Energy. It was clearly an inferior version of the original Thunderbolt City-Destroying Cannon, but a martial art that I shouldn't have even dared to attempt with this body and at this realm was now in my hand.
"Guaaaaaagh—!!"
Enduring the pain, I raised my fist.
『Great Luo Sky-Annihilating Strike (大罗歼天击)』
Just as that voice reached my ears faintly through the hearing I’d lost to pain—
My fist slammed into the floor.
BOOOOOOM!!
At the same time, a massive pillar of water erupted.
I grabbed Murong Cheong and immediately threw myself into the shattered opening.
Ignoring the water pressure and the current, I forced my eyes open—
[Wait……!!]
Murong Cheong’s urgent sound transmission reached me.
Her lips moved slowly.
As if time were stretching out of its own accord. Is this what the vision of a peak master is like?
But it wasn't that.
It was a reflexive perception faced right before death.
It was the moment when a body, sensing the final moment of life, stretches time to crave even a little more existence.
Boom. The hull shook, and the sound of something breaking echoed.
Crack. The sea surged, and the ceiling vanished.
Bang. The ceiling disappeared, and in the next instant, the very spot where we had been standing turned to dust.
Even now, before our bodies were fully submerged in the sea, the range of destruction was gradually closing in on us.
Realizing it was unavoidable.
And then.
In that moment, Murong Cheong leaped over my head and shielded me.
Gasp……!! I saw Murong Cheong foaming at the mouth and coughing up blood.
Orange powder from her hand dissolved and vanished into the seawater.
Orange—it matched the color of the Protection Bead she had tried to give me.
A profound cursed object that could block even a single strike of Astral Energy had been shattered by a single attack.
Even then, it seemed Murong Cheong had suffered a massive internal injury.
I pulled her into my arms as we were sucked into the violently churning sea.
—Success. Now, discard the baggage.
That thought occurred to me. It was an instinct so chilling it surprised me sometimes.
A "realization" that seemed to explain how to survive and what was most efficient.
The reason I had given the Protection Bead to Murong Cheong from the start, the reason we had to go down to the very bottom of the hold, and the reason I had to force open the floor and jump into the sea.
The instinct embedded in this body had coldly calculated the highest probability of survival.
And now, it told me that if I abandoned Murong Cheong, who had served her purpose, and swam away, I could survive on my own.
The moment that thought flashed through my mind, I instead put all my strength into my limbs and thought:
'Cut it off.'
It would be a problem if I actually cut it off since this is me, but just listening to what it was saying was absolutely ridiculous.
'If you’re going to live like that, don't even bother carrying it. I’d be ashamed to call myself a man of the Peng Family anywhere.'
Even after receiving the teaching my whole life that "the worst that can happen is death."
To use a friend who trusted and followed me, and even worse—
To abandon a friend I’d crawled through the dirt with just because death is expected?
I don't live like that. Even if that is the "correct" answer according to the damn ethics of this era.
I, who enjoyed the brilliant civilization of the 21st century,
I had studied Confucianism since the age of three, and even more so, I had been subjected to the Peng family’s rigorous upbringing since I was seven.
I tightened my grip around Murong Cheong’s waist as we were swept away, tumbling helplessly through the surging currents.
Seawater forced its way into my eyes, nose, and mouth, causing agonizing pain. It was hard to even move, my breath stolen by the waves.
Yet, I refused to let her go.
She was the one who had taken a blow from a Harmony Realm master in my stead. I couldn't just let someone like her die.