Chapter 571. Which Bandit Dares Make Eye Contact With Me? (6)
People said that when someone was too flustered, they didn’t even get angry—and Dong Ung was learning the truth of that the hard way.
Is this guy crazy?
That was the only explanation for how he’d dared to say something like that to their faces.
Who did he think they were?
They were the men of the Dae-byeol Bandit Band, infamous even among the Green Forest. Never mind their martial prowess; their looks alone were enough to make a weak-willed man lose his breath.
And yet that brat—just how little fear did he have in him to blurt out something so absurd?
“Y-you… you little…”
Dong Ung was on the verge of spluttering something out when the man who had come outside met his eyes.
“Oh?”
“……Huh?”
Then the brat’s eyes widened sharply.
“Who the hell is a bandit and still dares to meet my eyes?”
“…….”
“Are you not gonna look away, bastard?”
“…….”
Was this what people meant when they said you had nothing to say even if you had a mouth?
Dong Ung had always been the sort of man people didn’t dare mistreat, simply because of his natural appearance. But to be spoken to like this by a green little punk like that—this was a first in his life.
“Y-you…!”
He was about to explode when one of his men, who had been guarding his back, called out urgently.
“H-Hall Master! People are gathering!”
“What?”
Dong Ung looked around in a panic.
Those awakened by the huge crash and the clamorous voices were already pouring out in droves.
At first they only muttered among themselves, trying to figure out what was happening, but soon they began turning curious eyes this way.
That damn bastard!
Whether he’d done it on purpose or not, thanks to that punk making such a racket, the people in Changsha were about to come running in full force.
Shit.
So much for handling this quietly. The moment things started going wrong, his anger surged.
But before he could spit it out, the brat in front of him beat him to it.
“Aigoooooo!”
The little bastard suddenly raised his voice and started shouting.
“Now bandits are even attacking homes!”
Huh? Homes?
Dong Ung’s eyes flew wide.
“What homes?”
No, wait.
We didn’t come here to raid some home, we—
“Good heavens, to think they’d attack a home in the middle of the night! No matter how much of a bandit you are, that’s just cruel! Cruel!”
“…….”
From that moment on, things unfolded in a way Dong Ung had never imagined.
“Th-they…! So bandits really do come down into the city now.”
“Good thing, good thing! If it weren’t for the heroes of the Mount Hua Sect, who knows what would’ve happened! It’s a relief they happened to come today!”
“Exactly! Exactly what I was thinking!”
Voices rose like wildfire from the back, and the Green Forest men surrounding the inn snapped their heads around to glare at the onlookers.
“Hiiik!”
The startled spectators shrank back as though their heads had been cut off and hurriedly retreated to the rear.
Dong Ung ground his teeth.
That fox-faced bastard!
People knew more about the martial world than one might expect, but not enough to understand every detail. How could they know that the Green Forest King was staying here, or that the Dae-byeol Bandit Band had come to capture him?
From the perspective of someone who didn’t know, if bandits had crossed the city walls in the dead of night, their purpose was obvious enough.
Dong Ung’s bloodshot eyes shot toward Chung Myung as though they wanted to burn him alive. But Chung Myung merely kept gulping down his liquor as if he felt nothing at all.
“Haaah. Now this is good.”
He wiped his mouth and looked down at Dong Ung, then gave a crooked grin.
“But why the hell does this bastard keep glaring at me?”
“…….”
“Ha… the world really has changed. Even bandit bastards glare at me now. I suppose I really am living long enough to see everything.”
Back in the old days, you little punk, bandits and the like would run for the hills the moment a single plum blossom bloomed on their mountain.
You idiots wouldn’t know what that was like.
Clicking his tongue, Chung Myung glanced to the side. Even now, people drawn by the commotion were gathering one after another. By this point, it looked as though a tenth of Changsha had come.
This should be enough. The stage is pretty much set.
Chung Myung smiled brightly and turned back over his shoulder.
“What are you doing? Don’t tell me you’re not gonna stomp those bandit bastards flat.”
From within the inn, now swallowed in darkness, a low voice drifted out.
“Is stomping them flat enough?”
“Make ’em nice and soft.”
“Got it.”
Before long, a group of martial artists began striding out of the inn.
One, two… ten, no….
They kept pouring out endlessly through the shattered doorway, until they stood facing the Green Forest men who had surrounded the inn.
Black martial uniforms.
Faces filled with killing intent, as though they had just returned from the battlefield.
And bodies so imposing that even in clothes they looked like a pack of bandits far more bandit-like than actual bandits.
The Green Forest men surrounding the inn unconsciously started backing away.
Weren’t they supposed to be just kids?
Their faces are kids, aren’t they?
Their bodies sure as hell aren’t, you idiot!
The bandits around the inn instinctively realized something was wrong.
If those were kids, then who in this world could possibly not be one?
Looking at those broad shoulders and murderously intense faces, it felt like they’d run into brothers from the same line of work. If not for the clothes, it would have been impossible to tell who was a bandit and who was a Taoist.
“So they’re bandits? They look weaker than I expected.”
“What do you expect from a bunch of guys who just sit around on a mountain? How well could they possibly eat? They look half-starved.”
“Aren’t we also just sitting around on a mountain?”
“Huh? Oh, yeah.”
The Mount Hua disciples, who had already taken their positions and were chatting leisurely, soon began to snicker as they looked at the Dae-byeol bandits.
And then, at that very moment—
“Quiet.”
Baek Cheon slowly walked out from the back. At once, the Mount Hua disciples parted to the left and right, clearing a path for him.
Step. Step.
Baek Cheon, advancing slowly yet with force through the line of disciples, stopped at the front and brushed back the hair that had fallen over his forehead. Then he looked at the bandits and the crowd from Changsha gathered behind them.
“Though these are troubled times, to think thieves would set foot where common people live.”
Light shone in his eyes.
“Mount Hua reveres righteous conduct. We cannot simply stand by and watch such a sight.”
It was not all that different from what Chung Myung had said earlier.
But the reaction from the disciples—and the reaction from the crowd that had gathered—were completely different.
“Oooooh!”
“The hero is going to crush the bandits!”
“Exactly! Of course! Just looking at him, he inspires trust.”
The common people’s voices had changed dramatically.
Chung Myung’s shoulders slumped.
Jo Gul silently placed a hand on that shoulder and shook his head.
“……What?”
“It’s all right, Chung Myung. That’s just how life is.”
“What the hell?”
“The world was never fair, was it?”
“……What a filthy world.”
Was this really acceptable—that a person’s entire reaction could change just because of the face they were born with?
Of course, it probably wasn’t just the face, but still, Chung Myung felt wronged. Deeply, painfully wronged.
But the ache in his chest was nothing compared to what Dong Ung was feeling.
“……These bastards…”
His face contorted horribly as he grasped the situation.
“You knew we were coming?”
“Oh, so you finally realized. Good for you.”
“Hah.”
Dong Ung let out a short, incredulous laugh.
“You maggots…”
Then a cold glint entered his eyes.
“Only worthy men set traps. You green little brats don’t even know your place. To think you’d dare face our Dae-byeol Bandit Band!”
“What are you babbling about, bandit trash?”
Chung Myung snorted dismissively, then looked at Baek Cheon.
“It’s late. Why don’t we wrap this up quickly?”
“That was my thought as well.”
Shiiing.
Baek Cheon stepped forward and drew his sword. Then he slowly pointed it at Dong Ung.
“Surrender quietly, and I’ll spare your life.”
“You little brat has no idea how high the sky is! I’ll skin you alive today and turn your hide into a drum!”
As though the conversation had ended there, Baek Cheon called out in a low voice—soft, yet more than thunderous enough to shake the night.
“Mount Hua!”
“Yes!”
“Subdue the wicked!”
“Yes!”
Ching! Chaeng! Ching!
The sharp ring of swords being drawn tore through the night air all at once.
The sight of more than one hundred people drawing their blades in perfect unison, without the slightest error, carried a pressure that was difficult to put into words.
“Drive them back!”
“Ooooooooh!”
With Baek Sang’s signal, the Mount Hua disciples shouted together and charged forward.
Overwhelmed by that relentless momentum, the bandits who had unconsciously recoiled now flushed red and gripped their weapons tightly, swinging them with savage force.
“You little brats!”
“I’ll strip the skin right off you!”
They, too, met the charging disciples of Mount Hua while grinding out vicious curses of their own, proving they were far from easy prey.
Swordsmen whose eyes burned with keen brilliance clashed with Green Forest bandits whose bodies exuded a ghastly killing aura.
Watching the collision, the common people shut their eyes tightly before they realized it.
To them, the rough-looking Green Forest men seemed far stronger than the Mount Hua disciples, who still had the faint air of youth about them.
Even if Mount Hua could defeat them, it seemed inevitable that they would have to pay a heavy price.
But what actually happened was nothing like what they expected.
“Haaahhhhh!”
Im Pyeong of the Cheong generation gritted his teeth and glared at the Green Forest bandit facing him.
Put everything into it!
At a glance, the dao in the bandit’s hands looked ten times heavier than Im Pyeong’s sword. Meeting such a weapon head-on would only end in disaster.
So first he needed to let that dao slip aside—
Im Pyeong poured his inner force into his sword and struck the dao away.
And at that moment—
Kwaaaaaang!
The dao that had collided with his sword cracked with a sharp sound, then rebounded backward and slammed straight into its owner’s shoulder.
Huh?
“Aaaaagh!”
With a scream, the bandit rolled backward.
“……What?”
Im Pyeong blinked, even more startled than before.
No….
He’d only meant to deflect it a little, so why had it bounced off like that? Was this thing making fun of him?
But he wasn’t the only one caught in this kind of situation.
“Aaaaaagh!”
“W-what the hell are you guys!”
“What kind of strength is that…!”
Cries of shock erupted from left and right. Im Pyeong looked around blankly.
The disciples of Mount Hua were overwhelmingly driving the Green Forest men back.
When a huge dao and a slender sword collided, so thin it was almost brittle by comparison, naturally the sword should have been shoved aside. And yet the swords swung by the Mount Hua disciples were knocking aside dao as though they were toys, even when those dao looked ten times heavier than they were.
“What the hell is wrong with these bastards?”
“No, why are these kids so weak compared to how they look?”
More surprised than the ones getting beaten were the Mount Hua disciples beating them up. The Dae-byeol Bandit Band was supposed to be a fairly famous outfit even among the Green Forest—so why were they this weak?
Then, from behind them, a low voice came.
“What do you think you’re doing?”
Everyone turned at once.
Baek Cheon was walking forward slowly, sword drawn.
“Didn’t I tell you to finish this quickly?”
“…….”
His gaze was calm, as though nothing about the situation was even remotely strange. Only then did a firm confidence begin to bloom in the hearts of the Mount Hua disciples.
It’s not that those bastards are weak.
We’re the ones who are strong!
Their hands tightened around their swords.
“Crush them!”
“Loooooet’s gooooo!”
Filled with courage, they shouted and swept over the bandits like streaks of light.
It was the moment the legend of the Plum Blossom Swordsmen—those whose names would echo through the world forever—truly began.