A Name That Inspires Fear
“Where did the guys who were supposed to be fighting go?”
Jo Gul scanned the front with a faintly displeased look on his face.
It had been a long time since Mount Hua had turned the place into a festival ground, and yet the other sect leaders, who had gone off to deliberate among themselves, showed no sign of moving at all.
“Sahyung. Looks like they’re not planning to fight today after all. Nice scenery and all—maybe they’re just going to take their time sightseeing and then retreat?”
“Gul.”
“Yes, Sahyung!”
“Shut your mouth.”
“…….”
Jo Gul hung his head, looking thoroughly dejected, and Yoon Jong let out a sigh. These days, it really did seem as though Jo Gul had a worse habit than even Chung Myung. How could he look at those famous sects and think something like that?
But this time, even Baek Cheon seemed to share Jo Gul’s thoughts.
“……They really aren’t moving much.”
Frowning, he muttered under his breath. They didn’t seem to be preparing anything, and yet the delay had become ridiculous.
After watching for a moment, Yoon Jong spoke up.
“Maybe it’s because taking that valley is more difficult than expected?”
“Hmm. That could be it.”
Just as Baek Cheon nodded, Chung Myung, who had been listening quietly, let out a snort.
“No, that’s not it…….”
“Huh?”
“Right now, they’re in the middle of a blood-splattering fight.”
“……A fight?”
Baek Cheon stared ahead with a bewildered expression. The leaders of the four sects were still standing there with their hands clasped behind their backs, watching the other side of the river with lazy composure.
“They’re not swinging swords, but are you saying they’re having some kind of battle of wits?”
“You could say that.”
“There’s actually a strategist in the Black Dragon Clan good enough to go up against those people?”
“No. The enemies aren’t the bandits. They’re the things standing next to them.”
“Huh?”
Chung Myung looked at the leaders of the four sects, twisted the corner of his mouth, and sneered.
“They’re too busy fighting each other to even care about the bandits right in front of them.”
“……It doesn’t look that way to me.”
“That’s because the high-and-mighty always look decent on the outside while rotting on the inside.”
A look of contempt flitted across Chung Myung’s face. Memories from long ago had surfaced.
It was the same back then. Bastards.
When the Demonic Sect first rose up and drove into the Central Plains. No, when the Demonic Sect had begun ravaging the outlying regions and turning the Central Plains into a sea of fire.
If the Central Plains had truly united and stood against the Demonic Sect then, the future might have been very different.
But in the end, the Central Plains failed to unite.
On the surface, they seemed to come together under the goal of stopping the Demonic Sect, but beneath that, they were obsessed with cutting their own losses and squeezing out every possible advantage.
“Ha. They’re the same no matter how many years pass. Ha…… ha…… ha…….”
The laughter gradually drained from Chung Myung’s face and disappeared.
“The more I think about it, the angrier I get, those bastards!”
Flames erupted in his eyes.
Over a simple operation, they used to fight for a day and a night over which sect should be deployed. Those damn bastards!
The more he remembered, the harder his teeth ground together.
He should’ve just smashed all their heads in back then and not looked back! Why had he held himself back, thinking he’d get some kind of luxury out of it, only to end up seeing this mess?
He should have just beaten them all down, whether Chung Mun sahyung tried to stop him or not.
“……What are you always mumbling about now?”
“Haaah.”
Chung Myung let out a long sigh.
“They’ll reach a conclusion soon enough.”
“Huh? About what?”
“They’re fighting over who gets to take the vanguard.”
“……Is that really such a big deal?”
“It is.”
Chung Myung nodded firmly.
“The vanguard is the position where you can claim the greatest merit, while also taking on the greatest danger. Which means it’s one of those weird, complicated, irritating positions where you don’t want to take it yourself, but don’t want to let anyone else have it either. That’s what I’m saying.”
“What the hell are you even talking about? You crazy bastard.”
“……What would a sasaek know?”
“…….”
At Chung Myung’s words, Baek Cheon stood there speechless, and Chung Myung clicked his tongue before jerking his chin toward the front.
“Don’t worry. Like I said, this is one of those problems with a fixed answer. No matter how much they bicker, there’s only one place that can take the vanguard.”
“Shaolin?”
“No. Namgung Family.”
“Huh?”
At that unexpected answer, everyone listening widened their eyes. Jo Gul voiced the question that sat on all of their faces.
“Uh…… well, of course the Namgung Family isn’t exactly a weak sect or anything, but…….”
“With Shaolin and Wudang here, why would the Namgung Family be the vanguard?”
“Yeah.”
It was a perfectly reasonable question. Chung Myung smiled faintly and explained.
“If only one of Shaolin or Wudang were here, the Namgung Family wouldn’t be able to stand in the front. But when both of them are here, they can. And if Qingcheng is here too, then there’s nowhere else to put the vanguard except the Namgung Family.”
“What the hell does that even mean?”
Jo Gul still looked completely lost.
But Baek Cheon frowned slightly, as if he understood what Chung Myung meant.
“……Rather than watching one of the Nine Great Sects take the lead, they’d rather hand over the credit to one of the Five Great Families?”
“Oh. Jin Dong-ryong actually has a brain in there.”
Baek Cheon gave a dry laugh, as if he couldn’t believe what he was hearing. But Yoon Jong, still unable to make sense of it, asked back.
“Even so, Shaolin, Wudang, and Qingcheng are all part of the Gupailbang, are they not? Of course they’re also close to the Five Great Families, but that still can’t compare to one of the Nine Sects. Why would they reach such a conclusion?”
Chung Myung looked at Yoon Jong with something almost like admiration.
“Kkrr. Our Sahyung really is a good person. How can you be this innocent?”
“……Just insult me already, Chung Myung.”
“Sahyung doesn’t seem to know this, but people can’t stand seeing others do well. If a complete stranger buys land, you can let it go. But if your cousin buys land, your stomach’ll hurt enough to kill you.”
“Isn’t that seeing the world a little too much like you?”
“Then watch.”
Chung Myung jerked his chin toward the front again.
“See if I’m wrong.”
“…….”
Yoon Jong looked toward the direction Chung Myung indicated with doubtful eyes.
Just then, the people who had been standing in formation began to move.
“Which one is it?”
Under everyone’s attention, the disciples lined up in order suddenly burst forward, and those wearing sky-blue uniforms ran straight toward the riverbank.
“It’s the Namgung Family!”
Baek Cheon looked at Chung Myung with a slightly stunned expression.
How does this bastard even predict things like this?
“Why? Surprised?”
“…….”
“No need to be. Anyone could guess it once they understood what kind of people they are.”
Chung Myung twisted his lips in a sneer and took another drink.
“Still…… that Namgung Family head sure does have a lot of ambition. The way he jumped at the chance to take that position, it’s obvious enough. Well…… since Dang Family withdrew from the Five Great Families, they probably need to show that the Five Great Families are still alive and kicking somehow. Heh heh.”
As Baek Cheon listened to Chung Myung, he let out a quiet sigh.
Anyway, this guy is impossible to predict.
Everyone in Mount Hua already knew Chung Myung was far smarter than he looked. But even so, to think he could predict the movements of the leaders of the Gupailbang and the Five Great Families alike.
Even as they were talking, the battlefield was moving.
The Namgung disciples who had rushed to the river leapt onto the boats moored along the bank. The whole process—from boarding to pulling up the anchors they had dropped—passed in what seemed like the blink of an eye.
Efficient.
Baek Cheon admired it inwardly.
The speed itself might have been manageable to imitate somehow, but that level of coordination was something Mount Hua couldn’t even dream of matching. It was a scene that made it easy to imagine just how strictly they had lived and how brutally they had trained.
That’s the Namgung Family……!
It was as if they were proving that the title of one of the Five Great Families was not something just anyone could earn. The boats carrying the Namgung Family surged rapidly toward the bandit ships across the river.
Jo Gul shouted in a slightly flustered voice.
“A frontal assault?!”
“Even so, they’re still bandits!”
The other disciples of Mount Hua also stared in surprise at the Namgung Family’s boats as they charged forward fiercely.
There were more captured boats heading toward the bandits than expected. But even those were only a handful compared to the bandit ships packed thickly across the far side of the river.
“Wouldn’t it be fine? The quality of the force is completely different, isn’t it?”
“N-no, but if they attack from beneath the water, there’s no way to stop them, is there?”
As if they shared the same thought as Baek Cheon, the bandits seeing the approaching boats began leaping into the river. Their plan was obvious: approach from below and punch holes in the hulls.
But the Namgung Family was not about to be easily bullied.
At the very front of the lead boat, a man climbed atop the lion-shaped figurehead.
Shrrrck.
The head of the Namgung Family, Emperor Sword Namgung Hwang, drew his sword and stared ahead with a face full of wrath.
“How dare these pitiful bandits!”
He raised the sword high overhead.
Gooooooooo!
The energy he released surged around the blade like a storm. Soon, milky-white sword light began blooming and wrapping itself around the sword.
“Taaaaaaaat!”
The sword came down in one sweeping stroke.
At the same time, a sword gang the size of a house, almost impossible to believe even when seen with one’s own eyes, shot forward like a cannon shell.
Chwaaaaaaaak!
The moment that monstrous sword gang struck the river, the water that had been flowing so calmly exploded outward in all directions. In an instant, the river was shoved to both sides and split wider than a jang.
“W-What is that!”
“That’s insane!”
The disciples of Mount Hua cried out in shock, their voices nearly becoming screams.
“He split a river with a sword? Seriously?”
It was a sight beyond astonishing.
The milky-white sword gang did not lose its force even after cleaving the river, and continued surging forward. Then, in the blink of an eye, it slammed into the ships lined up ahead.
Even the river could be split apart; a ship made of wooden planks was far too weak and insignificant to withstand it.
Kwaaaaaaaaang!
The ships did not merely break apart—they exploded, sending wreckage bursting in all directions like fireworks.
“Aaaaaaaaaaagh!”
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
Those swept away by the aftermath, screaming as they were flung through the air, were among the luckier ones. Those struck directly by the sword gang were shattered to pieces and died without even knowing how they had been killed.
Kwaaaang! Kwaaang!
As if destroying one ship outright still weren’t enough, the sword gang went on to smash two more, and only after half-destroying a fourth did it finally subside.
One sword.
With a single sword strike, he shattered three ships and slowly sent another to the bottom of the river.
“Aaaaaaaagh!”
“W-What is this!”
The screams weren’t coming only from the ships.
For those who had jumped into the water, the shock was beyond comparison.
The destructive force carried in Namgung Hwang’s sword gang had completely torn through the river as well. Swept up in the sudden vortex, they had no chance to use any water-based technique and were simply washed away. For the most part, they were forced to face a grotesque, unimaginable situation in which their bodies were being shoved out not through the surface of the water, but through its side.
The thing that awaited them when they crashed down was the deep riverbed they had thought they would only ever see with clear, living eyes if they were lucky.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
And soon after, an enormous volume of water came crashing down over the bandits embedded in the riverbed. As the split river returned to its place, the water pressure crushed them in an instant.
Namgung Hwang, who had created a situation that no common sense could explain—bandits of the Yangtze drowning to death in water—roared like an enraged tiger.
“Attack! Let those miserable bandits remember the name of Namgung clearly!”
“Charge!”
Before the echo of Namgung Hwang’s command had even faded, the Namgung disciples dashed off the boats without the slightest hesitation and leapt into the swirling Yangtze.
Everyone watching had no choice but to tremble.
“……So that’s the Namgung Family.”
“Emperor Sword…… Namgung Hwang.”
It was the moment when the disciples of Mount Hua saw with their own eyes the true majesty of a genuine powerhouse, one who looked down upon the world.