To Live Like a Dog, or Die Like a Wolf (2)
“Gyorongchae has been hit by Shaolin. A message just came in saying Chaeju Sama has abandoned the water bandits and fled!”
“Wudang is advancing on Cheonghachea! Cheonghacheaju has requested reinforcements.”
“The Namgung Clan is moving north! Wh—whatever the case, we need to do something…….”
A middle-aged man seated on a black throne looked down on the whole scene before him.
The throne beneath him was so black it seemed to swallow the light, and every piece of clothing he wore was black as well. Even his long beard, reminiscent of Guan Yu’s, and his rough, untrimmed hair were pitch-black.
But the part of him that most resembled the color of darkness was his eyes. Those deep, dark pupils swept over the men bowing before him.
“Th—the Black Dragon King!”
At the urgent cry, the man’s brow twitched faintly.
He was the one man who alone could bear the lofty title granted to the Eighteen Yangtze Water Bandit Factions, the ruler of the water bandits who dominated the Yangtze River.
However vast the Eighteen Yangtze Water Bandit Factions were, once they stood between the Nine Sects and One Gang and the Heavenly Alliance, they became little more than a speck.
Shaolin and Wudang of the Nine Sects and One Gang, Namgung of the Five Great Families, and even the Sichuan Dang Family of the Heavenly Alliance were all strong enough to challenge the Eighteen Yangtze Water Bandit Factions on their own.
What, then, could the Eighteen Yangtze Water Bandit Factions possibly do against a force made by five, ten such sects joining together?
Taking into account the sects that had not yet shown their hand but were effectively of the same mind, it was no exaggeration to say that more than half the righteous path of the world was now surging toward the Yangtze.
“So…….”
“Yes, Black Dragon King.”
“What’s the plan?”
“…….”
At the Black Dragon King’s question, everyone fell silent.
“You surely didn’t plan to open those mouths of yours just to say there is no plan.”
“…….”
“Go on, then. Let me hear this plan of yours.”
The men bowing before him exchanged glances.
This was like tying a bell around a cat’s neck. They all knew the answer, but no one had the nerve to speak honestly before the Black Dragon King.
“Not a word?”
The Black Dragon King’s voice turned harsher.
“You’ve been happy enough to feed off the water bandits’ scraps with those mouths of yours, but when it’s time to open them, you clamp them shut and stay quiet. In that case, I suppose those mouths and necks of yours are both useless.”
The faces of the bowing men turned ashen in an instant.
Why else would he be called the Black Dragon King?
He was the kind of man who would slit every throat in the room without even blinking.
In the end, one of them failed to withstand the pressure and carefully opened his mouth.
“I beg forgiveness for speaking out of turn, but…….”
“Speak.”
“……There is a saying: when the rain falls, seek shelter. They may be pushing into the Yangtze now, but…… this is still an expedition. Considering the state of their own base, they cannot stay on the river for long.”
“……And?”
“For the time being, you could withdraw, and order the water bandits under your command to leave the Yangtze for a while and keep their heads down. Then, once the rain passes, you could return…….”
Thwack!
The man who had been speaking was sent flying, spitting blood.
Bang!
But no one dared even turn their heads toward the sound. They simply bowed lower still, praying that the Black Dragon King’s rage would not turn their way.
The Black Dragon King had reduced a man to a bloody pulp with a mere flick of his hand, and then he rose roughly from the throne.
“You worms! Your mouths sure do work! What did you say? Abandon the Yangtze and run for cover? I—me, the dragon of the Yangtze—am supposed to flee from those righteous bastards? Me?!”
At his thunderous roar, everyone held their breath.
“Say it again! Go on, say it again!”
It was said that when the dragon of the Yangtze grew angry, the river itself was engulfed in storm winds. As for the Black Dragon King’s fury, maybe it could not rouse the Yangtze itself, but it was more than enough to suffuse the Black Dragon Clan with killing intent.
“Th—the Black Dragon King. However mighty a beast the king of the mountain may be, if a pack of wolves comes rushing in to tear it apart, it can’t possibly withstand them. If the dragon of the Yangtze is going to be beset by a swarm of crocodiles, would it not be wise to withdraw first?”
Thwack—!
Once again, the one who had spoken was sent sprawling in a spray of blood.
“You idiots! What do you think you’re comparing him to? He is a dragon precisely because mere crocodiles can’t do a thing to him!”
If you did not speak, your head would be taken. If you did speak, you would be beaten to death.
The reason sycophants clung to tyrants was simple. If they could not say what the tyrant wanted to hear, their own heads came off first.
Of course, history was full of people who had stood before tyrants and risked their necks to offer honest counsel. But there was no chance men of that sort had washed up in the water bandits’ ranks and taken to piracy.
Normally, they would have showered the Black Dragon King with the sweet words that made his ears happy, but not now.
Damn it, if this keeps up, we’re in danger too.
Whether we die at the Black Dragon King’s hands or those Shaolin bastards’ hands, dead is dead!
“You so-called heroes of the Yangtze haven’t even fought yet and you’re already thinking about running? Cowards!”
Fury blazed in the Black Dragon King’s eyes.
“Better to stand and die honorably than to flee in disgrace and cling to life! That is what those who bear the name of the Eighteen Yangtze Water Bandit Factions should do!”
The men bowed low and let out quiet sighs no one could notice.
Damn it.
They all knew. Everything the Black Dragon King was spouting now was nothing but bluster.
If he were truly the sort of fool who cared only for face and pride, who would charge those righteous bastards without looking left or right, then he would have ended up as a cold corpse sunk to the bottom of the river long before he ever reached the Black Dragon King’s seat.
In the world of the unorthodox, simply surviving might be possible through strength alone. But in a place where schemes and plots ruled everything, anyone who wanted to stand at the top had to know how to use his head as well. That meant the Black Dragon King was, in the end, no fool.
And yet the reason he kept uttering nonsense was to create justification—to avoid humiliating himself too much in the eyes of others.
At the very least, the Black Dragon King had tried to go out and fight. But his subordinates had wept and stopped him, forcing him to retreat. He needed that kind of story.
This obvious little performance would not end until half the people here had been beaten to a pulp and sent rolling across the floor. Even knowing that, they were expected to play along.
“Who was it? Who’s the next one to open his mouth and tell me to flee? I’ll make it very clear to you that in this Yangtze, the only way out is as a corpse! I’ll stand at the very front myself. Even so—who dares speak of retreat?”
It was a situation fit only for a sigh.
Even now, the water bandit strongholds were under attack. If they hoped to recover, they needed to preserve every bit of strength they could.
If they failed to do that, the moment those righteous bastards left the Yangtze, the wolves of the unorthodox path would come swarming in from behind.
Just as they were about to speak and continue the obvious little performance, a commotion erupted from the entrance to the stronghold.
“Who goes there?”
“How dare you stick your neck out here?”
The uproar spread from the gate, and the men who had been bowing jerked around in alarm.
Righteous-path bastards?
Already here?
Fortunately, their guesses were wrong. The strangers visible at the entrance did not look like righteous-path martial artists at all.
The cold-faced man at the front twisted the corners of his mouth and said, “There is no such thing as intimidating a messenger. Are you ignorant enough not to know even that, you foolish water bandits?”
“You bastards…….”
The Black Dragon King, who had been silently watching the scene, furrowed his brow and called out in a loud voice.
“What is it?”
One of his subordinates hurried over and said, “They say they have come to see the Black Dragon King.”
“Hmm? And who are these men?”
“Well……”
When he heard the identities of the visitors, the Black Dragon King’s gaze turned cold.
“Let them in.”
“Yes!”
The water bandits stepped aside, and five or six messengers strode in with great dignity. They came all the way up to the Black Dragon King and knelt on one knee in unison.
“We greet the Black Dragon King.”
“Such courtesy…… It’s a rare sight.”
The Black Dragon King wore a clearly mocking expression as he asked, “To think you’d come all this way. Let me hear what message is so important that you were willing to risk your lives for it.”
The man kneeling at the front took a sealed letter from his robe and carefully extended it.
“This is the letter our boss asked us to deliver.”
When the Black Dragon King simply stared at him in silence, one of the men bowing nearby took the hint, rose, accepted the letter, and handed it to the Black Dragon King.
“Hmm.”
The Black Dragon King broke the seal and slowly began to read.
The contents did not seem particularly long, but in the brief time it took him to finish, his expression changed several times.
“…….”
At last, when he looked up again, his brow was deeply furrowed. At the same time, the letter in his hand burst into flames.
“Do any of you know what is written in here?”
“We do not.”
“Then do you also know that the contents of this letter will not save your lives?”
“We know.”
“Then what kind of nerve brought you here holding a letter like this before me, you little pups?”
The Black Dragon King’s killing intent exploded outward all at once.
Under that overwhelming pressure, the bodies of the men who had delivered the letter were instantly drenched in cold sweat.
“Tell me. Is delivering this letter more important than your lives?”
“That…… I do not know.”
“Then why did you come?”
The man at the front gritted his teeth and said, “……If our boss commanded it, I would go even if this place were hell itself. So what have I got to be afraid of?”
At that moment, the killing intent pressing down on them vanished as if washed away.
“……Ho.”
The Black Dragon King let out a laugh and rose from his seat, turning his eyes toward the far south.
“Jang Il-so. So it really is Jang Il-so…….”
His lips twisted.
“That brat from Guangxi has grown a great deal. To think he’d dare call me out.”
“Black Dragon King?”
Turning to look at the subordinates who were watching in confusion, the Black Dragon King snapped coldly, “Dok Mang!”
“Yes, Black Dragon King.”
“Tell every water bandit stronghold to avoid battle for a while and keep their heads down.”
“T-that means……?”
“Go and see for yourself. Find out what that damn snake of a man has prepared.”
Letting his black cloak flare behind him, the Black Dragon King strode forward without hesitation.