So You Say? (4)
The sea rolled in restless swells.
Sunlight draped itself softly over the water, and gulls cried lazily overhead. It was the very picture of peace—
“Puh-hahhhhh!”
Faces that looked as though they had just clawed their way out of hell burst up through the surface, shattering the calm as they shot into the air.
“Kek! Kekh! Keh-hehekh!”
Dang Pae, spitting water from both nose and mouth, glared in outrage.
“Why the hell did you suddenly shove me underwater like that? Why?!”
“H-hyung, calm down for now…”
“Do I look calm to you? Calm? I nearly died!”
He had been struggling his damnedest to swim, and then someone had suddenly hauled him under. Of course he would panic.
Unlike Dang Pae, who had only ever witnessed Cheong Myeong’s outrageous behavior from a safe distance, the rest of the group had been dragged into an involuntary dive—and yet they were practically cackling with delight.
“Sahyeong! Sahyeong! Did you see that huge fish just now?”
“I did! It was as big as a person!”
“Wasn’t that maybe a whale or something? Wow! I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“Should we go back and look again?”
“I want to touch it…”
At the innocent chatter of the younger disciples, Baek Cheon smiled in satisfaction.
That was a shark, you idiots.
If you try to pet it, it’ll take your hand off.
He considered telling his blissfully cheerful juniors the cruel truth of the world, but in the end he shook his head. There was no real need for them to know that sharks were cruising right under their feet.
Even if one attacked, they weren’t likely to die from that sort of thing…
“Wow! It’s coming this way! Something’s sticking out of the water. Should I try patting it?”
“Don’t go over there, you little bastards!”
When Baek Cheon barked at them, Jo Geol and Yoon Jong both looked sullen.
“Why are you getting mad, Sahyung?”
“You don’t like animals very much, do you, Sahyung?”
“Huh? Really?”
“You hate Baek Ah too.”
“…Isn’t that just because he has some weird rivalry with Baek Ah? Same surname, same first character and all.”
“I think it’s less that and more that he just hates getting fur on his clothes. He’s such a neat freak, after all.”
No! None of that’s right, you damn morons!
Baek Cheon was quietly suffering under these slanderous accusations when the others, entirely unconcerned with his wounded dignity, spoke up in flat tones.
“We’ve come farther than I expected, Sago.”
“Yeah. Farther than I thought.”
“At this rate, we really will be there in no time.”
Yu I-seol gave a light nod.
He didn’t know about the other sects, but the people of Mount Hua were more than accustomed to swimming. Cheong Myeong’s doctrine was that a swordsman ought to be able to swing a sword in the air, underwater, and even in a firestorm if necessary. And so the Mount Hua disciples had trained their swordsmanship in every imaginable condition.
Of course, Cheong Myeong’s scheme to shove them into a pit of fire so they could practice swordplay there too had been neutralized by Hyun Jong’s furious flying kick. Even then, Cheong Myeong had still muttered, unwilling to give up, that if they were going to get burned by fire arts someday, they ought to toughen themselves up in advance. In any case, thanks to all that brutal training, the disciples of Mount Hua could cover this distance without much trouble.
The waves were a little higher than expected, which was irritating, but they had already dealt with moderate swells on the Yangtze River. This was nothing they couldn’t handle…
“Let’s not waste time. Move.”
“At this speed, we can make it before sunset.”
Namgung Dowi’s enthusiasm drew a dry snort from Dang Pae.
“Before sunset? The sun’s already half gone, and you’re saying nonsense like that?”
“What? What are you talking about? The sun’s setting? Does the South Sea have shorter days or something?”
“Hm? No, I think the day is actually a bit longer here, if I remember right.”
“Then why is the sun already setting? It should still be hours away. It’s probably only noon.”
“R-really? Then why is it so dark?”
“Dark? It’s bright enough—”
Namgung Dowi abruptly shut his mouth.
“…Huh?”
Just a moment ago, it had felt like a hot summer noon with the sun pouring down from directly overhead. Now, however, it had truly become as dark as Dang Pae said.
“Why did it suddenly get so dark…?”
And then.
Kooooorrrrrrumble—!
At the ominous rumble drifting in from somewhere, everyone slowly turned their heads.
A massive bank of black clouds was now visible, rolling in from afar.
“…That’s pitch-black.”
“I thought the snowstorms in the North Sea were amazing, but what kind of cloud comes marching in with such a clean, sharp edge?”
“That’s impressive in its own way, isn’t it?”
“Haha. Exactly…”
Koooorrrrrrrrrrumble—!
Then they all saw it.
Over the sea, draped beneath those perfectly painted black thunderheads, white flashes of lightning were striking one after another in rapid succession.
For a moment, everyone fell silent.
Namgung Dowi, staring dazedly at the spectacle, muttered under his breath before he could stop himself.
“Wow… That’s insane.”
It was, in more ways than one, a killer sight.
“Looks like a typhoon, right?”
“Looks like a storm to me.”
“What’s the difference?”
“Honestly, they’re the same thing.”
KWAAAAAAA!
At that moment, a violent gust and a monstrous wave swept over them all at once. For a brief instant, everyone there regressed to the age of three, and they all let out awkward, high-pitched laughter with the helpless joy of being bounced on their fathers’ shoulders.
Kwa-rururururung!
Thunder and gale-force winds rushed in together, and a wave the size of a house rose above their heads. Jo Geol laughed, looking oddly pleased.
“We’re screwed.”
And properly, too.
KWAAAAAAA!
“Aaaaaaaaah!”
The surging tidal wave lifted people up and dropped them again as if they were nothing more than scraps of paper. Those who had shot upward by several jang were immediately slammed back down beneath the surface.
“I-I’m gonna die! We’re gonna diiiiiie!”
Jo Geol screamed with his eyes rolling white.
He was a swordsman honed by years of harsh training at that infamous Mount Hua. Even if thousands of enemies came charging at him, he was the sort of lunatic—no, the sort of brave man—who would charge straight in without batting an eye and swing his sword. But that was only when there were enemies to cut down.
“Agh! S-Sahyuuuung! I’m telling you, we’re gonna die… glubburble…”
What in the world could a sword even do in a situation where waves stacked several jang high above his head? Even if their martial arts had reached the Divine Realm and they could split dozens of waves with a single strike, the sea itself would simply sneer and say, Yes. Then here comes the next wave.
“Shut up and swim! Stop wasting your breath!”
“How are we supposed to swim in waves like this?!”
At that moment, Baek Cheon’s eyes widened.
“We’re disciples of Mount Hua, waves or not! We just have to endure it!”
“We’re Taoists!”
“So what?”
“A Taoist follows nature! Which sect ever teaches people to resist nature?”
“Then go die!”
“You can’t just say that li—”
In that instant, a bolt of white lightning struck not far away.
Koooorrrrrrumble! KWA-KWA-BOOM!
When the thunder exploded a heartbeat later, everyone’s jaws dropped open.
“Wow… That was damn fast.”
“If anyone ever says anything about a lightning-fast sword in front of me again, I’m going to rip their mouth off.”
“…For nature is, above all things, sublime, and the source of all cyclical—”
“What the hell are you spouting in a situation like this? Huh?”
Everyone felt their skin prickle.
Seeing lightning strike before their eyes made one thing painfully clear. If they were hit dead-on by something like that, whether they were the greatest swordsman in the world or some unprecedented madman, they’d all be sent straight to the underworld.
“L-Let’s go back, Sahyung!”
“…No.”
“What do you mean, no? If we keep going like this, what else is there but dying? We should retreat to shore right now and come back when the storm dies down!”
“I get that, but—”
“Who cares about Hainan or whatever! As long as we live, they live too! If Jang Il-so himself were standing here instead of the Evil Tyrant Alliance and saw this typhoon, he’d say, ‘Hmm. Let’s have some drinks until the storm passes.’ So why don’t we just come back later?”
“No! That’s not the issue, you idiot!”
“Then what is?”
“…The problem is that turning back isn’t easy anymore.”
“Huh?”
Startled, Jo Geol turned trembling eyes toward the way they had come. Far off, very far off, land could still be seen.
“…”
“Whether we go forward or back, we die all the same.”
“…What a miserable life.”
Even dying in a situation like this was somehow absurdly dramatic.
“Then we advance!”
A glint of madness flashed in Baek Cheon’s eyes. But before that light could fully blaze, a wave crashed across his face.
“Glub!”
“…Well done.”
Kwarururururung!
Kwarurururururung!
White lightning struck again and again.
At this point, there was no room left to argue about whether this was just whining. The torrent of water hurling people around at terrifying speed was frightening; the waves towering overhead like houses were frightening.
Even if they somehow managed to deal with all that, there was no way human strength could contend with lightning striking several times in the blink of an eye.
We’re really going to die!
Their faces drained white as they instinctively turned their heads.
“Cheong Myeong-aaaaaaah!”
“You little bastard!”
“Do something!”
Cheong Myeong looked at them as if they were hopeless trash.
“What, you think I’m some kind of magic pouch? A typhoon’s coming—what the hell am I supposed to do about that?”
“You were the one who said to set out!”
“You were the one who said to swim!”
“You said it’d take half a day, you bastard! Yeah, it’ll take half a day—just to get to the underworld!”
“Oh, Sect Leader… your disciple is going first!”
“…Dad.”
“Sago, don’t cry!”
Cheong Myeong stared at the half-mad bunch and clicked his tongue.
“You’re all disciples of Mount Hua… no, disciples of the Heavenly Friends Alliance, and you’re scared of nothing? And yet you call yourselves the head of a sect, the Acting Sect Leader of a school…”
Kwarururururung!
“Ah, damn!”
At the lightning bolt that struck barely ten jang ahead, Cheong Myeong’s body jerked violently.
“See? I told you, you bastard!”
“What are you going to do about it?”
“Anyway, these bastards. Do they carry their brains around on a hook like a temple ornament?”
Just as Cheong Myeong was about to snort and speak with all the confidence in the world, someone cut in.
Everyone, submerge immediately!
Cheong Myeong turned, a little dumbfounded. Im So-byeong, looking like a drenched rat, repeated himself with lips gone blue.
“Submerge! Dive several jang down, and it’ll be nothing but a calm sea. Even if lightning strikes, it shouldn’t be a problem that far below.”
“Oh!”
“As expected of the Heavenly Friends Alliance’s strategist!”
“Wow… he actually looks cool when he talks. His face is even pale—are you all right?”
Im So-byeong, having taken a direct hit from the rough current, gave a feeble smile.
“Haha. I’m fin—…cough! cough! fi—…cough! Uwaaaak!”
“...Wow, blood’s just pouring out of his mouth like a spring.”
“At this point, it’d be strange if he didn’t die.”
“Hey, something whitish just shot out over his head.”
“Sahyung! Sahyung! Recite a memorial verse or something! What do we do….”
Koooorrrrrumble!
Then the sky rumbled once more, loud and low. After a flurry of panicked glances, everyone shouted at once.
“Get in!”
“Dive!”
“Aaaaaah!”
“I-I do have a bit of a fear of deep water…”
“This guy also has a fear of heights! Shut up and get in!”
Drawing in a long breath, the Heavenly Friends Alliance members plunged deeper and deeper downward.
KWAAAAAAA!
Above the surface where they had vanished, a monstrous wave swept past with ferocious momentum.