So There Was Still a Justice Gate After All (1)
“Aaaagh!”
“P-please, save me!”
A village at the mouth of the Yangtze River was soon swallowed by crimson flames. Among the people fleeing in every direction, those wielding chilling, crude weapons shouted threats as they chased them down.
“Burn it all to the ground! Hahahahahaha!”
A burly, bearded man swept his gleaming eyes across the surroundings.
Screams, people running for their lives, bodies ducking and weaving to escape, and houses engulfed in roaring fire.
“Heh.”
The man licked his lips once. How long had it been since he’d seen a sight like this?
“Boss! We’ve looted everything from the storehouse. But there wasn’t any jewelry or valuables.”
“Tch. That’s how beggars are. Doesn’t matter. This isn’t the only village around.”
The man smiled with smug satisfaction.
“But is it really all right to do this?”
“Why? You scared?”
“Not exactly, but….”
“No need to worry.”
Gwa Maeng, the leader of the Galho Sect, cackled.
“If this were normal times, those righteous-faction bastards would’ve come running the moment they heard, but now they can’t even get close. What’s the problem?”
Unspoken rules had long made the land north of the Yangtze River the territory of the orthodox factions. Because of that, even the unorthodox sects had not dared to cause major trouble near the river’s mouth. No one knew when those Nine Sects and Five Great Families might come charging in.
But now, those people could no longer approach the Yangtze.
And without the protection of the Nine Sects and Five Great Families, the other righteous factions would never have the courage to come near the Yangtze, where the Water Bandit Sect held sway.
In a situation like this, the area around the Yangtze was basically lawless. Especially north of the river, where things were utterly dire.
“Just don’t touch the merchant convoys! The Water Bandits make their living robbing cargo ships anyway, so they won’t think we’ve violated their turf just because we picked on a few farming rustics. So let’s loot everything we can while we’ve got the chance!”
“Yes, Boss!”
Gwa Maeng laughed uproariously as he watched the burning village.
This is why these chaotic times are so wonderful.
Back when the Nine Sects and the Five Hegemons of the Jianghu were quietly checking one another, even the unorthodox factions couldn’t run wild so carelessly. On a still lake, even the smallest ripple stands out. If you made yourself visible at the wrong time, you were likely to be smashed to pieces as an example, like a protruding stone meeting a hammer.
But in a world like this, there was no need to worry about such things.
“What better world could there possibly be? Hahahahahaha! Loot everything! Everything! Don’t leave a single grain of rice behind!”
Just as Gwa Maeng was shouting in delight,
“Bo-Boss.”
“What is it?”
“Something’s coming from over there. Looks like there are quite a few of them.”
“What? A government escort?”
Gwa Maeng turned with a startled expression. Then he squinted toward the direction his subordinate had indicated.
“...Doesn’t look like an escort.”
There weren’t enough of them for that. Besides, it couldn’t possibly be an escort in the first place. If those people had been the sort to move so briskly, Gwa Maeng never would have even thought to raid the village.
“Probably some crazy righteous-faction fools who don’t know the situation, or some other unorthodox trash. Don’t worry about it. We’ll finish up here first and then—”
But things did not go as smoothly as he imagined.
He stopped speaking before he even finished. The speed of the approaching group had already exceeded everything he considered possible.
The dots in the distance swelled in an instant, until they took on unmistakably human shapes.
“W-what?”
He could clearly see the one leading the charge. A young man in black martial robes, sword drawn in one hand, let out a tiger-like roar.
“Hey, you son of a bitches!”
Like a streak of lightning, he closed the distance in a heartbeat and came straight for Gwa Maeng. Gwa Maeng quickly raised the axe in his hand.
“You little punk—!”
Roaring, Gwa Maeng charged to meet the boy head-on. The violent aura coursing through his axe was just about to collide with the incoming sword when Gwa Maeng broke into a triumphant grin.
His axe was a top-tier heavy weapon, among the best of the best. It was not something some flimsy sword like that could block. Looking at the way this brat was barreling in with blood rushing to his head, he was obviously just a raw rookie.
Probably some righteous-faction fools who had heard the rumors and come blundering into the Yangtze without knowing their place. If so, he would simply make them pay for it.
Fool! Die!
But then, in that very instant—
Swish!
The sword charging toward his axe suddenly split into dozens.
What?
Countless sword images scattered like phantoms, then burst into hundreds of red sword energies.
Stunned by the unbelievable sight, Gwa Maeng’s eyes flew wide open. The scattered sword energy slipped past his massive axe and raced straight toward his body.
This... this is?
Red sword light danced through the air. Like petals.
And in that instant, Gwa Maeng realized exactly which sect his attacker belonged to.
“H-Hua…”
Slash.
The flying petals cut through his neck.
Slash. Slash. Slash!
In an instant, his entire body was carved by sword energy, blood spraying everywhere.
“Grrrgh…”
His heavy body, unable to withstand the weight of the axe in his grip, toppled to the ground on the spot. The man who had already streaked past Gwa Maeng turned back, grinding his teeth.
“B-Boss!”
“The boss was killed in one sword strike….”
The faces of those who saw it went as white as paper.
Of course, their leader was not a peerless master by the standards of the entire martial world. But among the surrounding area, he was still a man of some renown. There was no way he should have died to a single sword strike from some young punk.
Swish!
The one who flicked his sword clean of blood, Jo Gul, bared his teeth at the stunned unorthodox sect members.
“You rotten bastards! Picking on commoners!”
The Mount Hua disciples who arrived moments later charged in without asking questions and began mowing the unorthodox fighters down.
“You damn bastards!”
“How dare you little unorthodox punks run wild here!”
The eyes of Mount Hua’s disciples blazed with fury.
“Show them no mercy!”
“Ooooh!”
The startled unorthodox fighters raised their weapons and tried to resist, but a small gang of riffraff from the Yangtze’s mouth had never had a chance against Mount Hua to begin with.
Unlike when they had first occupied the village, their momentum was crushed in an instant.
“The fire! The fire! No, forget those bastards for now—put out the fire! That can wait until later!”
“...No, it looks like everything’s already burned to a crisp.”
“Why the hell are these sons of bitches setting fire to perfectly good houses! They should’ve just stolen the grain! Dammit all!”
After hurling out every curse he knew, Jo Gul rushed forward and kicked a groaning thug square in the face.
“Aaaagh!”
“Does it hurt? You bastard? Even a bastard like you can feel pain?”
Crack!
The man whose face was caved in didn’t even have time to scream before he foamed at the mouth and passed out. Even then, Jo Gul’s anger did not subside, and he barked furiously at the others.
“I said put out the fire!”
“We heard you, you bastard!”
“Dammit!”
The Mount Hua disciples who had swept the Galho Sect aside at lightning speed attached themselves to the burning houses. A few were already running toward the well, but it seemed likely that, no matter how hard they tried from this point on, only a handful of houses could still be saved.
“It never ends. It just never ends.”
That bastard Chung Myung had been right.
- What? When are we going back to Mount Hua? What kind of carefree nonsense are you spouting? The real work starts now.
- Don’t underestimate those Nine Sects and Five Great Families bastards. It’s true those assholes were living off their name instead of doing anything, but that name still matters. Now that they’ve been officially cut off from the Yangtze, things are going to explode.
- You’ll probably be running around until your legs break.
“Ugh.”
Jo Gul let out a long, heavy sigh.
Not only Jo Gul, but everyone else was also busy dealing with the scattered unorthodox thugs.
Baek Cheon, Yu I-seol, and Yoon Jong were each leading Mount Hua disciples on patrol along the Yangtze, while the people who had come from the Dang Family were also helping Mount Hua stabilize the river area.
Even so, their hands were hopelessly short.
The Yangtze was simply too vast for just them to handle. With this many people, they could barely keep the area around Jiujiang under control.
The Four Hegemons Alliance might be unable to move for a while, but the world’s unorthodox factions were not limited to just them. The miscellaneous trash who had normally been held in check by the prestige of the righteous factions were now screaming like rats fleeing a burning house.
“Those damn bastards, seriously….”
“Um… Sir Martial Warrior.”
“Huh? Yes!”
Startled by the sudden voice, Jo Gul whipped around. An old villager stood there, hesitating and looking in his direction. Jo Gul hurried over and took the man’s hands in both of his own.
“Don’t be scared. We’re disciples of Mount Hua. We won’t harm you.”
“Ah… Ahhh. Mount Hua’s….”
“Yes, that’s right.”
Jo Gul nodded vigorously and went on.
“You can take back all the grain that was stolen. We’ll make sure those evil bastards never dare to lay a finger on you again.”
“Thank you. Thank you so much. Truly….”
Tears of relief poured down the old man’s wrinkled cheeks. If everything they had was taken from them, then whether they lived or died, they were already as good as dead. Without food, most of them would never make it through the year.
“As for those houses….”
“Don’t worry about them. Just saving our lives is enough. Houses can be rebuilt.”
“...I’m sorry.”
Jo Gul let out a sigh.
He was regretting that if only they had arrived a little sooner, those houses wouldn’t have been reduced to this state by fire.
“Gul.”
“Yes, Martial Uncle.”
“Among the people who collapsed, there are a few with serious injuries. It looks like we’ll need to take them to the island.”
“Are they that bad?”
“We can’t treat them here. We need physicians.”
Jo Gul nodded.
“Understood.”
Then he turned back to the old villager. Still holding the man’s hands tightly, he spoke as carefully as he could, making sure no anger leaked into his voice.
“As you heard, we’ll need to take a few people with us. There are physicians at the dock in Jiujiang, where Mount Hua is stationed, so we’ll have them treated there.”
“Physicians? Th-that… we’re deeply grateful, but we simple folk don’t have money to pay a physician….”
“Don’t worry. We’re not charging anything.”
“P-pardon? R-really?”
“Yes. So please, Village Head, calm the others down. If you need anything for rebuilding the houses, send someone to ask us. We’ll help as much as we can.”
“...How are we ever supposed to repay this kindness….”
Just then—
“Damn it, the grain’s burned!”
“What?”
Jo Gul snapped his head around.
“Martial Brother, what do we do? These bastards parked the carts right next to the houses, and half the grain’s gone up in flames.”
“What the—... Agh, seriously!”
In the end, Jo Gul’s anger flared up again and he rushed over to kick the faces of the unorthodox fighters kneeling on the ground.
“You can’t even loot properly, you brainless idiots!”
After he had kicked the bastards around until his frustration had eased, Jo Gul panted heavily and stole a glance back at the village chief. Seeing the naked despair on the man’s face, he could only keep sighing.
“Martial Uncle.”
“Yeah?”
“You’ve got money, right? You carry emergency funds around in the Finance Hall.”
“...Kid, I know how you feel, but this isn’t something we should be using….”
“Let’s think about that later.”
“Chung Myung said not to use it.”
“...Are you really going to kill us over that?”
“...No.”
“Hand it over.”
“... ”
“Hurry up.”
Baek Sang looked up at the sky once, then finally took out his purse from his robes. He placed it firmly in the old villager’s hands.
“Grain prices are probably going to rise across the Yangtze before long, so use this to buy supplies quickly. That should be enough to get you through the winter.”
The old man, who had been at a complete loss, looked utterly stunned.
“Why would you go this far…?”
“It’s nothing like that.”
Jo Gul pouted.
“It’s just that if we told him we came back, you can bet that demon bastard would go crazy with his eyes all slanted like a fox’s, so don’t thank us.”
“...Pardon?”
“Coming into Mount Hua a little late is the regret of my life. My life’s regret, I tell you. Damn it. I should’ve been that bastard’s Martial Uncle. Then I would’ve just ripped his stupid mouth—!”
“I’ll be sure to pass that along exactly as you said it.”
“Ah, Martial Unclllllle! Why are you like this?”
Baek Sang gave a small laugh, then immediately turned serious again.
“We need to move the injured quickly. We don’t have time for this.”
“Ah, right.”
Jo Gul nodded and bowed to the old villager.
“Then we should get going.”
“Al-already?”
“There may be problems in other places too. If anything happens in the village, come to the newly built dock in Jiujiang.”
“These days, it’s also being called Maehwado, so it shouldn’t be too hard to find if you ask around.”
“...Pardon?”
“Then we’ll be off.”
As Jo Gul turned away, Baek Sang called out orders in a loud voice.
“Bind every one of those unorthodox bastards and hand them over to the magistrate! And the quick-footed ones, carry the injured over to the island, now!”
“Yes!”
“Move!”
Like the wind itself, the Mount Hua disciples who had been cleaning up the chaos vanished from the village in the blink of an eye.
The villagers, who had been staring blankly at the scene, murmured to themselves.
“...What was their name again?”
“They said Mount Hua Sect.”
“Mount Hua... Mount Hua Sect….”
A groan slipped from the village chief’s lips.
“So there really was still a Justice Gate after all. I thought those were just stories from long ago….”
He gently stroked the head of the child standing beside him and spoke in a low voice.
“Remember the names of our benefactors. That’s all we’ll be able to do.”
“Yes.”
His eyes, wrinkled by a lifetime of hardship, followed the receding backs of Mount Hua’s disciples.
He kept watching until they disappeared from sight, and for a very, very long time after that.
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