Wouldn’t the Nine Great Sects Catch Even More Flak Then? (3)
“You bastards!”
“Don’t let them escape!”
The Mount Hua disciples, dressed in black robes embroidered with the sharp, unmistakable plum blossom pattern, chased after the bandits with a fierce gleam in their eyes.
“Aaagh! Please, spare us!”
“We’ll be good! We swear we’ll be good!”
The bandits ran as if their tails were on fire, shrieking all the while, but unfortunately for them, the people pursuing them had no idea what mercy was.
“Who said anything about killing you? Stop right there.”
“I said stop! If you stop now, you’ll get hit less. Keep running and you’ll really die, you idiots!”
At those savage threats, the bandits only ran harder, foam practically flying from their mouths.
Those crazy bastards!
The Daoists who had suddenly stormed Mount Dae-byeol had begun rounding up every miserable leftover who’d lost their place and flocked here to Mount Dae-byeol.
Do they not even have a shred of compassion?
The bandits were beaten mercilessly and fled in tears, looking utterly pathetic. If they still had any human decency left, shouldn’t they at least be given enough time to grab their belongings from the bandit stronghold before running? That was basic courtesy, wasn’t it?
But those needle-thin monsters had charged straight up Mount Dae-byeol without hesitation, taken over the stronghold, and were now even chasing down the fleeing bandits to tie them up.
“Damn it! You’re worse than beggars!”
“Huh? That bastard—?”
“Hey, now, that’s pretty harsh, isn’t it?”
The Mount Hua disciples, eyes blazing, quickened their pace even more.
No matter how hard they ran, bandits were still bandits. It was impossible to shake off Mount Hua disciples who were determined to catch them.
Thunk!
“Aaaagh!”
In the end, one bandit took a hard blow to the back of the head from a scabbard and collapsed on the spot. The Mount Hua disciple who had been chasing him leapt onto his back and started pounding his skull mercilessly.
“Go on, say something again, you punk!”
“Agh! Agh, Daoist! I’m sorry! I’m sorry! Aaaagh!”
After pounding the bandit’s head with evident delight, Gwak Hoe clicked his tongue and used the rope they’d prepared to tie the man’s hands.
“If you’re so confident, try breaking free. I’ll snap your life line at the same time.”
“……”
The other bandits who had fled were brought back one after another, all tied up by the Mount Hua disciples.
“You were going to get caught anyway, so why run so hard? You’re just wasting your strength.”
Wouldn’t you run too, you son of a bitch?
Though the bandits were furious, none of them dared talk back. These guys were utterly different from the righteous factions they had dealt with before.
To be fair, could you even call them righteous factions?
Every face being dragged back was swollen beyond recognition. Even the black-clad bandits of the underworld didn’t beat people this badly.
What kind of Daoists are these?
“Why are you glaring at me like that, you bastard?”
“N-no! I wasn’t doing anything!”
“Then are you saying I saw wrong?”
“Th-that is….”
Gwak Hoe bared his teeth. At that moment, the other disciples standing behind him stepped in to stop him.
“Senior brother. We don’t have time for this. We need to get moving. If we’re too late, Chung Myung will flip out again.”
Gwak Hoe checked the sun hanging in the sky and let out a groan.
“Fine. Let’s get back quickly, then.”
“Yes, sir.”
Having successfully subdued every last remnant, the Mount Hua disciples dragged the bound bandits back toward the Dae-byeol stronghold.
“……There are more than I expected.”
“Yeah, seriously.”
In the center of the Dae-byeol stronghold, which looked at least twice as large as the Green Forest Main Fortress, the captured bandits were kneeling in rows. Around them, Mount Hua disciples stood with drawn swords, eyes sharp and watchful.
Gwak Hoe led the bound bandits over to Baek Cheon in the front.
“Sasuk! We brought them back.”
“Mm.”
After inspecting the bandits’ swollen faces, Baek Cheon said with a rather complicated look, “......You beat them quite a bit.”
“They wouldn’t shut up, so…….”
Gwak Hoe, you’re a Daoist.
Since when was it acceptable for a Daoist to beat someone’s face in because they kept mouthing off? And on top of that, a Daoist?
Looking at his disciples, who had somehow become incapable of recognizing the most obvious things as obvious, Baek Cheon let out a long sigh.
“……Fine. Good work. Push them inside.”
“Yes!”
Gwak Hoe dragged the newly captured bandits over to where the other bandits were and forced them to kneel.
“Any trouble?”
“I thought they’d pull out swords and resist, but they were surprisingly obedient.”
“Hm.”
At that, Baek Cheon slowly looked over the bandits.
“They’re bandits, so I suppose they’re only a ragtag bunch. As soon as their leader died, they gave up resisting.”
The faces of the Dae-byeol bandits turned red.
That shameless bastard.
No, that bastard’s even worse!
As if they hadn’t wanted to resist themselves? But they had seen it clearly. They had seen how Mount Hua fought in the Green Fortress.
They had watched in horror as Mount Hua cut down every one of those blood-robed fanatics, and then they’d seen Go Hong, who had lorded over Dae-byeol like a king, lose his head and be sent flying.
There was no way that savage blade would spare their necks.
If they’d drawn their swords for no reason, it would have only meant waiting for their own ashes. How, then, were they supposed to resist?
But Baek Cheon and the other Mount Hua disciples couldn’t possibly understand their feelings.
“But why are there so few people here? Did we arrive too early? Though that doesn’t seem likely, judging by how many bandits we already caught.”
“They all went back.”
“Then where did they go……?”
“Chung Myung said that if even one bandit was left on Mount Dae-byeol, he’d return to Mount Hua on his hands. So everyone went out to check if there were any remnants nearby that had slipped away.”
“……”
Gwak Hoe’s face went pale.
Chung Myung had more outrageous qualities than there were stars in the sky, but one of the most infuriating was that he usually kept the things he said.
Hm?
What was so infuriating about that?
Obviously it’s infuriating.
Normally, it would just be empty bluster, exaggerated threats tossed out for fun. But that bastard actually went and did it. He was the kind of lunatic who’d probably clap if told that walking on his hands all the way to Shaanxi would make for good training.
“……Are we joining them too?”
“No. You lot wait here. You’re going to smash the stronghold.”
“Huh? Smash the stronghold?”
Gwak Hoe jerked his head around and stared at the stronghold spread out before him.
For some reason, those bandit bastards had built it with absurd diligence, and dozens of palace-like log buildings stood packed tightly together.
“All of this?”
“Yes.”
“N-no, why?”
“If the stronghold stays standing, the bandits with nowhere to go might gather here and go back to banditry. So tear the whole thing down so it looks like it never existed in the first place.”
“Chung Myung said that?”
“Who else would it be?”
“……”
There was nothing to say to that.
So he really does mean to wipe out every last Dae-byeol bandit.
Then again, if you thought about it, it was the right thing to do. If you were going to do something, it was better to do it thoroughly. They had gone to all the trouble of cleaning up Dae-byeol, so if some ragtag bandit hideout settled back in there, it would all be for nothing.
“……But where is Chung Myung?”
“Isn’t he right there?”
“Yes?”
“There.”
Gwak Hoe’s gaze moved toward where Baek Cheon had pointed.
Between the buildings, he could see bandits carrying things back and forth.
“Grrrrrrr.”
“Haaahhh.”
Among the grim-faced bandits hauling loads around, someone was pointing with a finger and barking orders.
“That one over there.”
“Yes, sir!”
“That one goes over there.”
“Yes, Reverend!”
“……”
Gwak Hoe stared blankly at the scene. The one directing the bandits with pointed fingers was Hyun Young, and Chung Myung was squatting beside him, stuffing his face with candy.
After watching for a while, Gwak Hoe tilted his head, unable to understand.
“What are they doing?”
“Looting.”
“……Yes?”
Gwak Hoe’s eyes went round at Baek Cheon’s calm, matter-of-fact answer.
“……Sasuk, I think I heard that wrong…….”
Baek Cheon’s expression hardened, and he let out a deep sigh.
“They’re taking the goods out of Dae-byeol’s storerooms. That man called Go Hong had been hoarding quite a fortune.”
“Ah…….”
“I wondered why he’d suddenly started ranting about how Dae-byeol needed to be ‘cleaned out’…….”
Baek Cheon ground his teeth.
A perfectly good justification for slapping the Nine Great Sects in the face—well, of course, even that wasn’t exactly something a righteous disciple should be saying, but still, it was a halfway plausible excuse. And yet.
That was the real reason, wasn’t it?
Dae-byeol was one of the higher-ranking strongholds among the seventy-two bandit factions of the Green Forest. Naturally, it would have accumulated a considerable amount of wealth over the years.
Even in the midst of a life-or-death purge, Chung Myung hadn’t forgotten to think about whatever valuables might be lying around in Dae-byeol. It was a level of fixation that was honestly chilling.
“……Did some ghost possessed by poverty cling to him or something?”
“No, Sasuk. A ghost couldn’t cling to Chung Myung. Even ghosts have standards, don’t they?”
“That’s true enough.”
Even so, he was a Daoist in name…… so if a ghost did latch onto him, that would be a problem.
Not that a ghost would ever cling to that bastard, even if he weren’t a Daoist.
“But as expected, that’s Chung Myung for you. None of us even thought of it. If we’ve conquered the stronghold, then of course we should take the wealth.”
Baek Cheon silently stared at Gwak Hoe.
“What is it?”
“……Nothing.”
He could only wonder if something had gone wrong at the very foundation of things, seeing how the disciples now considered looting a bandit stronghold to be perfectly natural.
Before long, Hyun Young stood before the mountain of gathered wealth with a solemn expression.
“Open it.”
“……Yes.”
When the sack was opened, glittering jewels and ornaments came spilling into view.
At the same time, Hyun Young’s eyes shone with an equally fierce glint, practically blazing with light.
“Heh, heh, heh. These are truly some expensive-looking trinkets. At this rate…….”
Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack!
Hyun Young’s fingers began racing across the abacus at astonishing speed. Watching him, it was hard to believe this was the same man who had once set aside martial arts.
“Just as I thought! Truly, this is Dae-byeol! They saved up quite a bit! I wondered how great Dae-byeol must be, hearing its name over and over, but this is enough to rival the wealth a decent sect would have collected over several decades!”
Hyun Young laughed until he could hardly breathe.
“So banditry can make this much money. If I’d known that, I’d have dumped Mount Hua Sect and the rest of it long ago and switched to Mount Hua Stronghold…….”
“Hey! There are ears listening! Ears!”
“Ahem. Right. Of course.”
Hyun Young covered his mouth and cleared his throat awkwardly. Then he reached out, grabbed Chung Myung by the head, and shook him fiercely.
“You little brat! You ghostly little brat! Even in a situation like this, you still managed to find a way to make money! This is exactly why I can’t bring myself to hate you.”
“Ow, that hurts!”
“You little rascal! You little rascal!”
Pressing down on Chung Myung’s head with unmistakable affection, Hyun Young smiled in complete satisfaction.
Whatever else could be said, the boy could sniff out money like a damn ghost.
“So, what now? You planning to carry all of this back to Mount Hua?”
“Hmm.”
Chung Myung looked over the mountain of loot and his eyes gleamed.
“We could, but…… that’d be a bad look, wouldn’t it? There are eyes watching.”
“Probably.”
“That’s why I’m saying……”
“Hm?”
Those shining eyes looked positively wicked.
“We’re not exactly short on money right now, right? So if we’re going to screw them over, why not do it properly?”
“……Huh?”
Hyun Young turned to look at Chung Myung, as if asking what the hell he meant now.
“Heh-heh-heh-heh-heh. First, let’s dispose of it.”
Hyun Young looked at him and simply smiled, deeply pleased.
My pretty little thing.
How can you be this much of a demon?
For the first time, Hyun Young found himself feeling a flicker of sympathy for the Nine Great Sects, who had the misfortune of becoming enemies with this boy.