Worry About the Maninbang Bastards Instead! (1)
These are the Heavenly Friends Alliance!
Geum Yang-baek could hardly contain his shock.
When they had first discussed the plan, he had been certain beyond all doubt that his side would be the ones to take the lead in this operation.
That was a little different from deciding on the plan itself. The real question was whose strength would carry it out once it had been made.
To Geum Yang-baek, it was only natural that it should be him and the elders of Hainan.
Why? Was the reason not obvious?
Even if the fame of the Mount Hua Divine Dragon had spread across the world, even if the renown of the Mount Hua Five Swords had reached all the way to Hainan, and even if the people who had come with them were destined to become heads of the Five Great Families, they were still young men in the end.
If anything, weren’t they even younger than Gwak Hwan-so, Hainan’s great disciple?
Their fame and status were certainly worthy of respect, but they had trained for at least a few decades less than the Hainan elders. It was hard to even imagine them being outmatched in raw skill.
And yet the Heavenly Friends Alliance disciples, especially those from Mount Hua, shattered that thought into pieces.
“Haaah!”
Baek Cheon, Mount Hua’s acting sect leader, unleashed streams of crimson sword energy from his blade. The surging energy scattered in midair as if it were dissolving, then became red petals that swept through the enemy ranks.
It was impossible to tell what was real and what was false.
In the first place, feints existed to neutralize an opponent’s defense, which honest, straightforward power alone could not break through. But this sword’s feints went far beyond that realm.
Among the hundreds of fluttering streaks of sword energy, it was meaningless to determine which were real and which were false. Even if you identified them perfectly, there was no way to stop them.
“Guh!”
“Aaaagh!”
And the Manin Sect’s disciples, struggling against Baek Cheon’s sword energy, proved that fact all too clearly.
In the midst of this melee, blocking each tiny streak of sword light one by one was anything but easy.
It would have been easy to assume that stopping those sword lights alone would be harder, but reality was entirely different. In a one-on-one fight, there was plenty of room to use one’s movement, but in a situation like this, retreat was impossible.
In other words, Mount Hua’s swordsmanship displayed astonishing power on a battlefield where people fought in groups.
Easy to say.
If wielding sword energy like that were so simple, wouldn’t every swordsman under heaven have chosen the same path?
Sword energy was the force that extended outward through a sword. To split that force into fine threads and move each one as desired was an absurdly difficult task.
It was impossible to even imagine what kind of grueling training they had endured to wield it so freely, even in a situation this desperate.
How can young men like these be this skilled…?
If another man had thought it, it might have been rude. But Geum Yang-baek had more than enough right to think it. No matter what anyone said, he was the sect leader of Hainan, one of the pillars of the Nine Great Sects.
And even to him, the skill of these young swordsmen seemed equal to that of Hainan’s elders. No—if he set aside his position as Hainan’s sect leader and looked at it objectively, they might be even stronger.
“Die, you Manin Sect bastards!”
“Jo Geol! I told you not to go charging out like a runaway colt by yourself!”
“But they’re Manin Sect bastards, Sasuk!”
“Then for the love of heaven, shut your mouth and keep your feet on the ground, you damned brat!”
What’s more, their experience in dealing with enemies apart from swordsmanship was in no way inferior to Hainan’s elders. Even as the mad frenzy of battle rolled toward them in waves from the front, they showed no fear—instead, their fighting spirit soared as though they were about to hurl themselves straight into the enemy ranks.
Is this Mount Hua?
Geum Yang-baek realized it again, as if for the first time.
While Hainan Sect had remained planted on this remote island, lost in the illusion that they were simply honing their swordsmanship in isolation, these people had fought again and again and again, growing stronger through endless battle.
Stagnant water turns foul.
The thought struck him like a blow: perhaps everything he had done for Hainan had been turning the sect into a puddle trapped on Hainan Island, not a lake spread across the wide sea.
“Sect Leader!”
“Understood!”
At the urgent shout from beside him, Geum Yang-baek snapped back to himself.
Thud!
Unlike usual, he stamped his foot with real force. At the same time, his sword burst forth in a wild surge of overwhelming energy, like a tidal wave.
Kwaaaaaaa!
Hainan’s sword was wind in motion and a wave crashing ashore.
Geum Yang-baek’s sword swung once, then again, and again.
One wave! Another wave! Another!
Like the tide endlessly rolling in against the shore, his sword energy surged toward the enemy without end.
The Manin Sect disciples’ faces went pale.
Unlike Mount Hua’s sword techniques, which were dazzling and threatening but lacked sheer weight, Geum Yang-baek’s sword energy was truly rough and heavy. The inner force packed into it alone was enough to make a person recoil.
“Hold the line! We have to endure here until the ship is completely ours!”
“Yes, sir!”
The elders, seeing that sword energy, also found their courage renewed and brandished their blades.
Im So-byeong, watching the situation from the rear, grinned to himself.
“The Nine Great Sects are the Nine Great Sects, after all.”
Those Hainan youngsters running around to seize the ship had, to be honest, been of little use. Strictly speaking, even if they were from Hainan, it wasn’t easy for people experiencing real combat for the first time to do what they were supposed to do. If they managed to show even half their usual ability, that would be a blessing.
But Geum Yang-baek and the elders were displaying every bit of the skill they had earned through the years in the jianghu, as if to prove that time itself. It was obvious just how much their arrival had hardened the front line.
But…
They won’t hold out long.
Even so, the limit was painfully clear.
“Kill them!”
“Kill them all!”
The Manin Sect disciples trampled over the backs of their fallen comrades and lunged forward like mad dogs.
There were only about thirty or so people holding the line. No matter how strong they were—no matter if they were the kind of masters who could fight ten or a hundred opponents—there was no way they could endure to the end against so many Manin Sect disciples.
If that were possible, would the Manin Sect have become the ruler of the Evil Tyrant Alliance?
The only reason they could hold out at all right now was that Mount Hua had cleanly seized the initiative and broken the enemy’s momentum once.
But that could not last forever.
Numbers were sometimes meaningless, and sometimes everything. Even knowing that the ones blocking their way were powerful, the Manin Sect disciples—aware that they outnumbered them overwhelmingly—kept pressing harder and harder, relentlessly driving the Heavenly Friends Alliance back.
“Guh!”
“Hold on!”
Slash!
Jo Geol’s left arm was cut deeply by a flying blade. Blood sprayed into the air.
“Geol!”
“Don’t make such a fuss, Sasuk!”
“Fall back! I’ll—!”
“I said don’t make a fuss!”
Grinding his teeth, Jo Geol bellowed and then drove his blade straight through the throat of the attacker rushing at him.
Crack!
The moment he pulled his sword free, hot blood gushed from the punched-through hole and splashed across his face.
It never ends.
They killed one and then another, yet the enemy showed no sign of thinning. No—honestly, in this place, it was impossible even to tell where this host ever ended.
It felt as though the entire vast shoreline were packed solid with Manin Sect disciples.
“Aaaagh!”
At the scream from beside him, Jo Geol nearly turned his head on reflex. Only at the very last moment did he force himself, with inhuman endurance, to keep his gaze fixed ahead. He could not look away now.
No!
That voice was not one he recognized. It was probably the sound of one of Hainan’s elders falling.
But that was no reason to feel relief. It only meant that the people who could not endure were beginning to fall, one after another.
“You bastard!”
The enemy’s response became even more agile.
Realizing that a small number of people could only be cut down, the Manin Sect disciples slowed their direct assault a little and shoved more of their own forward. Some leaped above the heads of others, raining down blade energy, while others stabbed wildly through the gaps between bodies.
It looked like a blind flailing of blades with no meaning, but even that was enough of a threat to those struggling to endure it.
“Ungh!”
“Help!”
“Hold your position!”
Yu I-seol’s cool voice snapped Jo Geol’s mind awake again.
“Damn it! King of the Green Forest, how much longer?”
“...No, at this rate it should be enough now... Wait, what are those bastards doing?”
“Huh?”
Suddenly, Im So-byeong’s voice exploded in a roar.
“You idiots! What the hell are you doing now!”
What Im So-byeong was looking at were the Hainan disciples who had leaped off the ship and were pushing hard toward the sea. At his curse from behind, one of them shouted back as if protesting.
“The ship! The ship is caught on a sandbar! We have to push it free!”
“What?”
Im So-byeong stared at the ship again in shock. Now that he looked, the front of the vessel was indeed grounded against the shore.
It wasn’t like that earlier.
There was no way he could have misread the situation, was there?
“The tide’s gone out, so the water’s receded!”
“The tide? What the hell does that mean?”
Lee Ja-yang rolled his eyes as if frustrated.
But Im So-byeong had something to say for himself too. He had lived his entire life in the mountains—how was he supposed to know anything about the ebb and flow of the sea?
“Push it free now!”
“The ship is too big—!”
Just as Im So-byeong was biting his lip in exasperation, he cried out, half losing his mind.
“King of the Green Forest! This way!”
“Huh?”
“Monk Hye Yeon!”
“Yes!”
Before Im So-byeong could make any decision, Hye Yeon, taking Baek Cheon’s order, dashed forward like a bolt of lightning. The sight made Im So-byeong’s eyes go wide as saucers.
“You crazy bald bastard! Then the front line will—!”
“I’ll gooo!”
“Aaagh! Get out of the way! Not you, you bastard!”
Im So-byeong kicked Seol Sobaek, who had started running in a panic, out of the way and wedged himself into the position Hye Yeon had just vacated, furiously whipping his fan as if his life depended on it.
“You fools who don’t know how valuable this strategist is! Die first and then you’ll learn your lesson!”
Whatever Im So-byeong muttered, Hye Yeon reached the front of the ship and shouted,
“Please move!”
“Huh?”
“Now!”
The Hainan disciples flinched and made space. Hye Yeon gave a brief bow, then pressed both palms against the ship.
“Huuup!”
Wooooooong!
Hye Yeon’s robes swelled as if they might burst apart at any moment.
“Ooooooooh!”
At the same time, Hye Yeon stepped forward and began pushing the enormous vessel.
“W-wait!”
Gwak Hwan-so, horrified, hurriedly tried to stop him. Of course the ship was a sturdy thing, but in the end it was still wood, and wood was fragile in its own way. If such force were concentrated in one place while pushing that huge ship, wouldn’t the wood split and punch a hole through it before the vessel even moved?
“Stop imme—”
But Gwak Hwan-so’s concern was dispelled in an instant.
The golden energy pouring from Hye Yeon’s palms spread wide over the front of the ship, and soon the massive vessel began to shift backward with a grating, groaning sound.
...That’s impossible...
How could a human being possibly push such a huge ship by himself? This was not something you could dismiss as mere martial prowess.
“Ooooooooh!”
At that moment Hye Yeon let out a roar like a lion and, in one tremendous heave, shoved the ship completely free. The vessel, jolted off the sandbar, slapped against the water and rocked violently.
“It moved!”
“He-he did it!”
“That was amazing!”
The Hainan disciples cheered as if they themselves had pushed it.
“Next!”
“This ship! This one!”
“The rest of you, get aboard now, hurry!”
“Yes!”
As he threw himself at the next ship and pushed it free, Hye Yeon shouted,
“Take the ships out! Right now!”
“Spread the sails!”
“Anyone with free hands, get below and take the oars!”
The ships that had been grounded on the shore began to move slowly toward the wide-open sea.