And So, It Was for Survival! (5)
A blue sea rolled beneath the sun.
The little specks that had appeared beyond the horizon grew larger by the second.
It might not have been a scene worthy of any grand commentary, but the disciples of the Hainan Sect who watched it felt as though their breath had been stolen from them.
They lived by the sea, so they knew at a glance.
The approaching ships were unlike anything they had ever seen before.
“Evil Tyrant Alliance……”
Someone’s voice slipped out like a groan.
Moments ago they had all been moving with energy, but now they stood frozen in place, staring blankly at the ships drawing near.
They had come here burning with the resolve to throw away even their lives in defiance of the Evil Tyrant Alliance, yet the moment they saw the alliance’s fleet approaching with their own eyes, helpless despair and fear crashed over them.
Fear was contagious.
Especially in a situation like this, it spread faster than anything else. Just as someone standing on the shore began to stagger back without even realizing it—
“I’m almost glad to see those bastards so often.”
Cheong Myeong’s lazy voice cut into their ears.
“……That’s still pretty damn weird, saying you’re glad to see Sapa bastards.”
“We have seen them way too often.”
“I feel the same way, Sasuk. It’s a sight I got sick of seeing over and over on the Yangtze River, but seeing it again all the way out here makes me feel strange. At this point, it almost seems like all Sapa bastards travel by boat.”
“……Well, yeah.”
Cheong Myeong snorted.
“Seriously, those bastards never learn. They got beaten that badly while traveling by boat, and now they’re coming back on boats again?”
“Then how else are they supposed to get to the island?”
“They should swim!”
“……Cheong Myeong. Not everyone in the world is as crazy as we are.”
“I’m not crazy. I’m being reasonable!”
“If reason in this world were already dead and buried, it still wouldn’t make that reasonable……”
The Hainan disciples stared at Cheong Myeong and the Mount Hua disciples with renewed eyes after hearing that exchange.
Watching people calmly accept a situation that terrified them beyond measure, a single name naturally rose in their minds.
Maehwado.
Yes. That was it.
Come to think of it……
Maehwado had been a lonely island on the Yangtze, surrounded by the forces of the water bandits.
Mount Hua had charged onto that island without the slightest hesitation and rescued the Namgung Clan, who had been drowning in despair. And with that single deed, they had built a reputation that would not shake.
If he thought about it calmly, wasn’t that situation and this one remarkably similar?
Of course, it wasn’t exactly the same. At Maehwado, it had been Mount Hua who defeated the Evil Tyrant Alliance, but here they were only part of Mount Hua, and the ones who would truly have to face those enemies were Hainan itself.
But……
There was one thing that was certain: in a situation like this, the people you could trust more than anyone else in the world were none other than these Mount Hua disciples.
That realization eased the hearts of those who heard it.
Besides……
“Should we just crush them the moment we land?”
“Then why the hell did we even make a plan, you bastard!”
“I know, but seeing them pisses me off. Those bastards had the guts to come here.”
“No, they don’t even know we’re here.”
“They don’t know? If they don’t know, then they should get hit!”
“……Please, enough.”
Watching them crack jokes instead of cowering before the Evil Tyrant fleet, the fighting spirit in the Hainan disciples’ chests surged higher.
They were people who fought the sea as children of the coast.
They might not have been the strongest in the world, but they were proud that in courage, they would lose to no sect under heaven.
And yet, to have shown fear for even a moment after seeing the enemy—how shameful was that?
“If you’re going to attack the moment they land, please let us join you.”
“Hm?”
Cheong Myeong turned his head and looked at him, and Gwak Hwan-so grinned.
“As for the resentment we’ve built up against the Evil Tyrant Alliance, there’s probably no one here who feels worse about them than we do.”
At that, Cheong Myeong let out a quiet laugh.
“You’ve got no sense of fear, do you? What’re you gonna do if you die because of it?”
“If I were afraid of dying, I wouldn’t be standing here.”
“Oh?”
At Gwak Hwan-so’s words, the expressions of the Hainan disciples hardened with resolve.
He was right.
Everyone who had come here had already made up their minds to throw away their lives.
So what was there to fear now?
“……Come to think of it, maybe it’d be better to die attacking than to just keep running until we get caught.”
“That would definitely feel better.”
“I’ve got enough resentment built up that I’d like to put a blade through those bastards’ throats at least once……”
“Tell me about it.”
At their words, a fierce competitiveness began to ignite in everyone.
It wasn’t because they had forgotten fear. Death was still terrifying, and the Evil Tyrant Alliance was still frightening.
But if fear changed nothing, then they could not afford to be swallowed by it.
Everyone understood that, which was why they were straining to drag up whatever courage they had left.
Only after seeing that did Cheong Myeong finally grin.
“I get how you feel, but…… for now, well……”
His expression changing in an instant, Cheong Myeong looked at Im So-byeong with bored eyes.
“The bastard who used his rotten brain to come up with the plan did at least put in some effort…… so I guess we should follow it for now.”
“……How very kind of you.”
Im So-byeong spoke with the face of a man barely suppressing boiling anger.
“Gwak Hwan-so. Is everything ready?”
Gwak Hwan-so quickly surveyed the situation and nodded.
“We’ve got about two ships left, but it’s in progress now. It should be finished soon.”
“Hurry. And move everyone on the shore to the designated positions, leaving only the minimum number needed here. It won’t do any good if they notice too many people clustered along the coast.”
“Yes!”
As Gwak Hwan-so quickly issued the order, the disciples on the shore sprinted toward the rear.
“Footprints!”
At that moment, Im So-byeong suddenly bellowed.
“Erase the footprints! The footprints! Are you trying to brag to the whole world that half the coast was packed with people?”
At his shout, the startled Hainan disciples hurriedly rubbed away the scattered footprints stamped all over the shore.
“Tsk.”
Im So-byeong clicked his tongue in obvious displeasure.
He knew that even a dam built without a crack would collapse from a single tiny hole; the same was true of strategy. It was these little details that destroyed everything.
“Move!”
“Yes!”
Im So-byeong quickly checked the state of the ships and the shore.
“Are you sure they’re landing here? We’ve prepared everything, but if they suddenly head somewhere else, it’ll all be useless.”
“Ho Ga-myeong is the one who came.”
“Pardon?”
Namgung Dowi tilted his head at the answer, which seemed to come out of nowhere.
“Even from the Myriad Man Sect’s perspective, this is something that has to be handled without leaving any loose ends. It would be better if Jang Il-so himself could come, but since he can’t leave the Evil Tyrant Alliance’s main headquarters now, it must be Ho Ga-myeong who came.”
Im So-byeong continued as though it wasn’t even worth worrying about.
“Jang Il-so is the kind of man you never know what crazy thing he’ll do from one moment to the next, but Ho Ga-myeong is the type who honestly pursues practical gain. Unless he learned that we’re here, there’s no reason for him to create unnecessary complications just because Hainan is the only force here. He’ll land right here, without fail.”
Namgung Dowi stared at Im So-byeong with a dazed expression.
It wasn’t the logic that threw him off, but the certainty behind those words.
He was usually a man whose mind was impossible to understand, but when it came to things like this, Im So-byeong projected an imposing pressure that allowed no rebuttal.
This is the dignity a sect leader should have.
Namgung Dowi nodded unconsciously. He might dislike the man, but there were things worth learning here. Im So-byeong was clearly not someone to underestimate……
“What if they land somewhere else?”
“We run! Without looking back!”
“……”
Im So-byeong’s face twisted violently.
“Then it means those bastards came here knowing full well we were here and prepared for everything. If we try to fight them half-assed, we’ll just get our throats cut. Slash, slash!”
“A-ah, but there are still people left here, so to run away by ourselves……”
“What the hell are you talking about? Hainan, hell, what do I care? I just need to live first.”
No.
It seemed he had mistaken something. There was no way to learn anything from a man like this.
Fortunately—or perhaps unfortunately—the fleet in the distance did not change course, continuing straight toward the shore where they waited.
“Everything’s ready!”
Im So-byeong’s sharp eyes made a final sweep of the shore.
“Good!”
As if satisfied, he gave a broad signal with his hand.
“Move to the positions we agreed on! And let me say this in advance—you absolutely must not move first! Understood?”
“Yes!”
The Hainan disciples led by Gwak Hwan-so ran at full speed toward the brush beyond the shore.
“Let’s move too!”
“Understood.”
Baek Cheon turned his head, fixing the approaching fleet in his eyes, then nodded.
I’ve done everything I can.
What remained now was to move according to the plan they had already set. Any minor variables could be handled as they came, just as always.
“Go!”
“Yes!”
The Mount Hua disciples kicked off the ground and vaulted over the brush, racing exactly as planned toward the ridge of the mountain that connected to the coast.
Watching Baek Cheon’s back as he ran ahead, Jo Geol shook his head.
“Sasuk’s gotten really good at acting too.”
“He looked calm to me as well.”
“I was worried his legs might be shaking.”
“Exactly.”
It wasn’t as though they weren’t tense. The Evil Tyrant Alliance and the Myriad Man Sect were still frightening, threatening existences to them as well.
Usually, they had at least the confidence of fighting alongside Mount Hua, which stood behind them. But now they were in a situation where they had to coordinate with the Hainan Sect, a sect they had never once fought alongside before. How could they not tremble?
And yet the reason Baek Cheon had to exchange pointless jokes while keeping pace with Cheong Myeong was that the Hainan disciples were certain to be even more frightened and tense than they were.
People decided their own attitude by looking at the back of the one ahead of them.
Which was why Baek Cheon could not afford to look nervous. At the very least, he had to seem brimming with composure.
Jo Geol and Yoon Jong understood that completely. They understood how hard he was trying right now, too.
“This way!”
“Yes!”
The running group hid themselves in a dip in the ridge that Im So-byeong pointed out.
They were still some distance away, but perhaps because of the tension, they crouched as low as they could and watched the approaching ships with only their heads raised slightly.
“……They’re big.”
“Yeah. Just like the ones we saw before.”
They were the same ships they had already seen once before.
But the feeling they gave off while they were moored at the shore and the feeling they gave off while advancing toward them were completely different.
The sharply raised prows of the ships, seen head-on, felt like blades aimed straight at them.
“Sasuk.”
“Yeah.”
Baek Cheon nodded.
“They’re coming.”
Cheong Myeong’s eyes sank coldly at that moment.
Whooshhh.
At last, the Evil Tyrant Alliance’s fleet sliced through the rough waves and reached the shore where they waited.
Splash!
The sound of a massive anchor plunging into the water changed the name of this shore.
Into the battlefield.