There Was One Madman (3)
The bandits of the Water Bandit Sect, weapons in hand, roared as they crashed into the Blue Sky Sword Squad.
“You beg for your lives from your enemies, survive, and then shamelessly show your faces again? So the righteous bastards don’t even know shame, huh!”
“If I were you, I’d have bitten my tongue off and died!”
The water bandits taunted the Namgung Family again and again as they fought the Blue Sky Sword Squad head-on. The sword squad had come here with unshakable resolve, but after hearing those words, they had no choice but to flush red with humiliation.
Even now, the memory was still vivid in their minds—the moment they survived on this Yangtze River, the moment they begged that treacherous Sapa for their lives!
“Hold your ground!”
Just as shame threatened to pour too much strength into their swords, a thunderous voice exploded from behind them.
Namgung Do-wi, the young master of the Namgung Family, came charging forward like a beam of light, his hand gripping the Namgung Family’s distinctive iron sword.
“It’s a disgrace to commit a mistake. But it’s even more disgraceful to make a mistake and then be trapped by it, unable to redeem yourself! Don’t be ashamed of standing here—be grateful you’re even able to stand here!”
With those words, the eyes of the Blue Sky Sword Squad were sharpened once more, like honed blades.
How could they forget it? That humiliation. That misery of having to bow their heads just to stay alive.
For the past three years, the Blue Sky Sword Squad had swung their swords for one reason alone: for this moment. For the moment they could wash away that disgrace and raise Namgung Family’s spirit high again!
“Dieee!”
Then a terrifying crescent-bladed polearm came flying straight for Namgung Do-wi’s face. His sharp brows twitched for an instant.
Kwaaaaang!
His sword flashed like lightning, splitting the oncoming weapon clean in two and driving straight into the body of the bandit who had swung it.
“Khuk!”
For a fleeting instant, shock bloomed across the bandit’s face.
Crack!
The sword, carrying all that force, tore through the enemy’s body in a single stroke. The split corpse was flung backward, scattering red blood through the air.
Even as blood rained down like stormwater, Namgung Do-wi didn’t even blink.
“I’ll lead the way! Blue Sky Sword Squad, follow behind me!”
“Yes, sir!”
Namgung Do-wi charged ahead without hesitation.
No trace of the boyish arrogance he once wore remained on his resolute face.
I’m just an insignificant man.
He had once thought it would be enough to catch up. Maybe he couldn’t compare to the Plum Blossom Sword Hero right now, but he was still a man of the Namgung Family. If he worked hard enough—harder and harder—then one day, he believed, he too could stand in the same place.
He had confidence that no one could outwork him, and that no one could outlast him.
So he had thought that was enough.
For now, he was only running a little faster thanks to the talent Chung Myung possessed; if he spent his whole life holding himself to the proper standard, he’d eventually be able to stand where Chung Myung stood.
But…
What a joke.
Now he knew just how stupid that thought had been.
It’s not something you can do just because you’re strong.
If Namgung Do-wi had been as strong as Chung Myung, would he really have been able to stand against Jang Il-so there?
If he had been that strong, would he really have been able to throw his life away and fight alone in that place where everyone else stayed silent because their own lives were too precious?
He couldn’t even answer yes in arrogance. For Namgung Do-wi, it was impossible.
In fact, even when Chung Myung stood against Jang Il-so, even when anger erupted, even when Chung Myung’s fist slammed into the face of the Wudang Sect Leader, he had simply frozen in place and done nothing.
For a sword of iron that claimed to exist to protect righteousness, it was shameful.
It’s not that you can be that kind of person because you’re strong. You’re strong because you’re that kind of person.
Losing in martial ability could be excused. But losing as a person left no excuse at all.
Whether strong or weak, a life was still only one life. Whether one could stake that life and step forward had nothing to do with martial skill.
That day, Namgung Do-wi painfully realized just how foolish he had been.
“I’m not telling you to be the strongest!”
He was speaking to the people guarding his back, and to himself at the same time.
“It’s fine to lose with your sword! But don’t you dare lose in spirit! We are the Namgung Family of Azure Heaven!”
“Yes, sir!”
The Blue Sky Sword Squad surged forward in an instant, crushing into the water bandits. Their blades, more resolute than ever, began cutting the bandits down one after another in a flash.
And at the very front, Namgung Do-wi’s sword shone more brilliantly than any other.
* * *
At the corner of Beop Jeong’s lips, a tremor ran. His eyes, fixed on Beop Gye, were heavy with shock and rage.
“...Is that true?”
“Yes, Bangjang! Word has just come in that Namgung Hwang, the Emperor Sword and head of the Namgung Family, has led the Blue Sky Sword Squad and rushed to Jiujiang.”
Ja O-gae glanced toward the door. One of the Beggars’ Sect messengers who had brought the news to Beop Gye was still peeking in from outside, too afraid to enter the room. The instant his eyes met Ja O-gae’s, he nodded vigorously.
It was all true.
“Namgung Hwang. Namgung Hwang, huh…”
Ja O-gae murmured under his breath, then let out a dry chuckle. It was less amusement than disbelief.
With that man’s temperament… yes. It’s possible.
Namgung Hwang was one of the most hot-tempered men in all the world, if not the very worst.
Even without this, he must have been simmering with fury from the humiliation he suffered in the Yangtze River disaster three years ago, and then news reached his ears that the Four Hegemons Alliance had crossed the Yangtze and set foot in the northern lands…
Ja O-gae let out a long sigh.
This was clearly the Beggars’ Sect’s mistake. Information meant nothing by itself. It only became meaningful if one could predict what would happen afterward based on it.
They should have anticipated this could happen the moment the Four Hegemons Alliance stepped onto northern soil, but they had only belatedly realized it after hearing that Namgung Family had already moved.
No, no. In a situation that urgent, how many people in the world could have predicted something like this?
Between all the upheaval happening across the world, they had no choice but to push the reaction of a sect that had withdrawn itself to the side for a little while.
As Ja O-gae nursed his sour stomach with a half-hearted excuse, Beop Jeong’s furious voice rang out.
“What in the world was Namgung Family’s head thinking? He went to the Yangtze? Did he think Namgung Family alone could fight the Four Hegemons Alliance?”
Beop Jeong looked at Beop Gye as though he simply could not believe it. Shouting at him would not change the situation, of course, but he could not bring himself to handle an event that had slipped beyond his control and started running wild on its own.
He’s lost his mind.
What kind of fool attacks a place like that with a single sect?
Jiujiang. No—Maehwado was a powder keg in every sense of the word. The eyes of the entire martial world were fixed on it, and the clash of every power in existence had gathered there.
It was hard to understand how some meaningless island had become so important, but in any case, it had become an unavoidable strategic stronghold where the pride and practical interests of the Four Hegemons Alliance and the Nine Great Sects now collided.
And he went and attacked it alone, without any discussion?
If this led to a full-scale war between the Four Hegemons Alliance and the Nine Great Sects, how in the world were they supposed to handle what came after?
“Just what were you thinking? What on earth were you thinking!”
Crack.
The prayer beads in Beop Jeong’s hand rubbed together with a sharp sound. It felt as if everything in the world was slipping beyond his control and going wherever it pleased.
“If this causes all the people under heaven to sink into misery, then all those sins will fall on Namgung Family’s shoulders! How can the head of a family, the leader of the Five Great Families, be so reckless!”
His wrathful voice kept rising, but no one dared speak rashly.
Only Ja O-gae could do nothing but sigh inwardly.
Reckless?
Yes. Maybe that was true.
But at least in the martial world, that kind of action wasn’t called reckless.
It’s called righteous.
To ignore one’s own losses and personal interests and fight against evil—wasn’t that what chivalry was?
Namgung Family had done the very thing those who used the name of justice always preached about so loudly. And yet if they started with condemnation now, then in the end they were admitting that everything they had always claimed to value was nothing but a facade.
Unable to stomach Beop Jeong’s scolding any longer, Ja O-gae finally spoke.
“Bangjang.”
Beop Jeong looked at him, the anger still not fully drained from his face.
“It’s true that Namgung Family has done something unexpected, but there’s no point in blaming them now. What matters is what we do from here.”
He paused mid-sentence, allowing Beop Jeong time to gather his chaotic thoughts, then asked in a steady voice,
“What will you do now?”
A question that pierced straight through the abdomen.
“Namgung Family has opened the door. Now you have to choose. Will you help them and strike the Water Bandit Sect, or will you declare this to be Namgung Family’s unilateral action and pull back?”
Beop Jeong shut his eyes tight.
By common sense, the right thing was obviously to support Namgung Family. But if they stepped forward to do so, and that Four Hegemons Alliance swept into the Yangtze in response…?
From that point on, it becomes a real war.
Once a full-scale war erupted, they would not be able to stop it with their own strength. Whether they won or lost, they would suffer devastating damage.
“...Elder.”
As Beop Jeong delayed his answer, Beop Gye spoke first.
“Isn’t there a possibility that all of this is part of that Jang Il-so’s scheme?”
“A scheme, you say?”
“Yes, a scheme. Didn’t everyone get dragged into the Yangtze together three years ago when those Water Bandits moved as well?”
Ja O-gae couldn’t help furrowing his brow slightly. But just as quickly, he smoothed his expression over. His face was calm, though his real thoughts were not.
That was because you people were so blinded by glory you rushed into the Yangtze without thinking!
He had plenty he wanted to say, but he had no choice but to hold it back. This was Shaolin, and the people seated before him were Shaolin’s Bangjang and elder.
“The odds of that are probably low.”
“Why do you say that? If it’s that Jang Il-so…”
“It would take a long time to explain, but... I don’t think this is the time to waste on that. In any case, the chance that everything happening right now is the Black Dragon King’s unilateral decision is high.”
At that, a bitter laugh slipped from Beop Jeong’s mouth.
“A unilateral decision, huh…”
What a ridiculous thing.
Two hot-blooded fools are dragging the situation straight into hell.
The Black Dragon King and the Emperor Sword.
There was no denying that both were formidable men with firm standing in their respective powers. But that didn’t mean their influence was enough to shake the balance of the Central Plains.
And yet, by sheer coincidence, the unilateral actions of those two men were at this very moment dragging both the Nine Great Sects and the Four Hegemons Alliance into an unwanted war that neither side had sought.
Is war originally something like this?
At least, this was not what Beop Jeong had imagined. To him, war had always meant the leaders of the factions deploying the forces at their disposal and clashing in fierce battle.
But the world now was nothing like that. Every piece was moving wherever it pleased. How could anyone possibly wage a full-scale war while leading people like this?
“I don’t understand why anyone would hesitate.”
At that moment, Peng Yeob frowned and said,
“I don’t like that arrogant Namgung Family acting on its own either, but if the situation has already unfolded, the only thing left is to support them.”
But Jongri Hyeong seemed to disagree.
“Clan Head Peng should calm down a little. If we all rush to the Yangtze now, the other Four Hegemons Alliance forces besides the Water Bandit Sect won’t just sit still. Then things will truly become irreversible.”
“But if we stand by and watch, and the Four Hegemons Alliance moves first, it’ll be too late even if we help. Namgung Family will collapse before that.”
“I know that. I know it—but this is no time for reckless action.”
“How is this reckless!”
The argument caught fire in an instant, and Beop Jeong’s face darkened completely.
By common sense, the priority was to support Namgung Family immediately and drive back the Water Bandit Sect. With the Peng Family and the Beggars’ Sect helping, it would not even be that difficult.
But what if the Four Hegemons Alliance moved north and a full-scale war broke out?
Could the sects gathered here really withstand the Four Hegemons Alliance? The Four Hegemons Alliance led by that Jang Il-so?
Not enough.
If the Nine Great Sects and the Five Great Families were all standing behind Shaolin, there would be no need to hesitate. But as things stood, they could not handle that Four Hegemons Alliance.
Even if they somehow won, they would have to watch the wolves that had been waiting idly in the rear creep forward once they were both battered and bleeding.
Lost in thought, Beop Jeong bit his lip.
What is there to hesitate over?
Shame would be his burden, while death would be the burden of others. If so, as a Buddhist, shouldn’t he naturally choose shame?
“In any case…”
At last, when he spoke, everyone’s eyes turned to him. His words still carried weight.
“Even if we rush to the Yangtze now, it will already be too late. By then, the matter between Namgung Family and the Water Bandit Sect will have been settled.”
“Mm. That much is true.”
“Then all we can do is prepare for what comes after.”
Slowly, Beop Jeong rose to his feet.
“Give me only one day.”
“One day, you say?”
Ja O-gae looked at Beop Jeong as though he didn’t understand. What could possibly change in a situation like this with just one day?
“Yes. One day will be enough.”
“If I may ask, Bangjang. What do you intend to do?”
“...I’ll be going to Shaanxi.”
“S-Shaanxi? Could it be...?”
Everyone’s eyes went wide. Beop Jeong calmly gave a single nod.
“Yes.”
His eyes did not waver at all.
“I must meet the Heavenly Alliance Lord and the Plum Blossom Sword Hero in person at once.”