You Started This Fight (2)
Arrows rained down like a storm, and beneath the water, sharp harpoons kept slicing upward without end.
It was all happening on the Yangtze River, where every one of those blows had to be weathered.
The situation was so bad that even the word “disadvantage” seemed too weak to describe it, and yet the Mount Hua swordsmen’s feet never once stopped moving.
It was as if the boiling blood of the one running in front was being passed backward, from one man to the next.
And in that scorching heat, Namgung Dowi ran with them, desperate not to fall behind.
So this is Mount Hua.
Of all people, Namgung Dowi understood better than anyone how terrifying it was to fight river bandits on the Yangtze. The vicious scars left on his body proved exactly what he had been through.
And yet Mount Hua was swinging swords and running through this nightmare as if it were level ground.
Was it because of those wooden planks?
As if that could be the whole story!
Splash!
He misstepped on a plank and slipped sideways for an instant, only for Jo Geol to grab him hard and yank him back.
“Th-thank you.”
“Don’t worry about it and keep running! I’ll cover you!”
“Yes!”
It might look easy to the eye.
But running across a stream of floating planks on a rushing river was anything but simple. And if that alone were difficult, then maintaining this kind of speed was beyond astonishing. It was enough to go past astonishment and straight into disbelief.
Without these people protecting him, Namgung Dowi would have fallen into the water several times already. But even while holding him up and running, they were parrying the rain of arrows and cutting down the bandits attacking them in an instant.
How was something like this even possible? How in the world?
Their movement technique was chilling. It was as if they had fought countless battles in such conditions, as if they had lived through life-or-death struggles in places with nowhere even to set one foot.
Yes, skilled would be the right word for it.
It should have been impossible, and yet they looked utterly used to this kind of fighting. Just what sort of training did they normally do that men about his own age could move like this?
Had he misunderstood the Mount Hua Sect? Or had the world misunderstood Mount Hua?
Just from what he had seen so far, the common belief that they were nothing more than one of the many ordinary sword sects in Shaanxi had been completely shattered.
No. No, that’s not it!
As his thoughts raced on, Namgung Dowi suddenly bit his lip hard enough to draw blood.
He couldn’t judge them by that alone. Even if the whole world focused only on their martial prowess, he had to look at something else.
They knew. They knew what kind of battle awaited them the moment they leapt onto the Yangtze.
So what Namgung Dowi needed to see was not their strength, but their courage.
The courage to hurl themselves into a storm of arrows without hesitation.
The courage to charge into a river crawling with bandits, fully prepared to be dragged under the black water below.
Even if the whole world failed to see it, Namgung Dowi had to understand that courage.
So...
I won’t drag them down even if I die!
“Taat!”
Namgung Dowi swung his sword fiercely and knocked away the arrows pouring toward him. At the sight of that, Cheong Myeong smiled lazily even as arrows kept falling around him.
“Not bad, scholar!”
With his jaw clenched tight, Namgung Dowi looked back at Cheong Myeong. Cheong Myeong grinned and said,
“Keep up like your life depends on it!”
“Yes!”
Paaaat!
Cheong Myeong’s sword flashed like a streak of light, cleanly severing the neck of a bandit surging up from beneath the water.
At the same time, his gaze snapped toward the rear. He flicked a glance toward the Tang Clan side, then shouted without the slightest delay.
“Jo Geol, senior disciple!”
“Got it!”
No more words were needed.
Namgung Dowi couldn’t understand it at all, but for them, that apparently said everything.
Jo Geol, running as if guarding Namgung Dowi’s flank, suddenly kicked off a plank and leapt into the air. Then, like a hawk diving for fish in the river, he drove himself hard beneath the surface.
BOOOOM!
With a spray of water like a cannon blast, Jo Geol plunged into the river, and at the same time, several of the Mount Hua swordsmen who had been sprinting at full speed followed him straight in.
Some dove into the water without any proper orders, while the others kept running forward without even giving them a glance.
W-what...
For a moment, confusion flashed across Namgung Dowi’s face.
Meanwhile, deep beneath the Yangtze.
Wu Ziheng shot upward toward the surface at full speed, with the members of the Black Shark Squad he led gathered around him.
Damn it!
The first wave that attacked Mount Hua had all become fish food. They had been skewered by sword qi shot into the water before they even managed to thrust a single harpoon properly. And not only that—those who barely managed to raise their heads above the surface had their throats cut before they could even take a breath.
Those bastards attacked and defended as if they could see straight through the water. The reason his body temperature was dropping had to be more than just the cold river water.
But there was no need to go after the difficult prey first. Mount Hua was not the only thing here.
The Tang Clan bastards!
If you thought about it, river pirates trained in water warfare were practically the natural enemies of the Sichuan Tang Clan. Any hidden weapon lost much of its force once it had to pierce the surface of the water, and no poison could show its full power underwater.
There was no need to fight those people above the water. If he struck from below and dragged them into the river, he could toy with them without much effort at all.
The moment Tang Clan fighters reached the space above his head, Wu Ziheng’s eyes flashed. He gave the signal to attack, and the Black Shark Squad doubled their speed, surging upward like arrows loosed from a bow.
I’ll make you regret coming to this Yangtze in hell!
But then, in that instant—
“Grrk!”
A scream rang out even beneath the water. Wu Ziheng snapped his head around reflexively and saw one of the Black Shark Squad members convulsing, foam spilling from his mouth.
What?
And it wasn’t just foam pouring out.
Blood from his side was staining the river a deep, ugly red.
W-when?
When had he been hit?
The answer came soon enough.
Wu Ziheng stared dumbly at the impossible sight before him, his eyes wide open.
Behind his subordinate, who was sinking into the depths, Mount Hua swordsmen in black uniforms were charging forward at shocking speed.
Mount Hua, after all, was just the name of a mountain in Shaanxi. Which meant these people should have had nothing to do with water for their entire lives.
And yet the way they moved in front of his eyes was so swift that it was hard to believe they had not trained specifically for water combat.
How...
Shwaaaaak!
And then, in that very instant, the sword of the young man leading the charge cleaved through the water like a streak of light. That terrifyingly swift blade, one that seemed impossible to wield underwater, pierced straight through Wu Ziheng’s neck.
“Gur...k...”
With pain surging through him, river water forced itself into the hole in his throat. The sensation of death creeping in was more disgusting and vivid than he had ever imagined.
CRK!
The sword twisted inside his throat. Only after ripping the wound apart and leaving behind a slash that could never be healed did it withdraw.
“Grrk...”
Wu Ziheng’s body began to sink slowly into the depths.
As his consciousness faded, the last thing he saw was the self-satisfied smile hanging at the corner of the young swordsman’s lips as he swam past overhead.
Mount Hua...
The true value of the training they had carried out in Mount Hua’s valleys, fighting for their lives with swords drawn, was revealed here on the Yangtze. Compared to those whirling, deep, and violently rushing ravines, the broad river’s current meant nothing to them at all.
Led by Jo Geol, the swordsmen held the lower waters in check and slashed sharply at the bandits.
“Run!”
Baek Cheon surged ahead.
Rather than cutting down every bandit who thrust at them with harpoons, he focused on dodging and leaping over them without letting his speed falter. He knew it well enough: when a group this large ran in a straight line all at once, if the front slowed even a little, they would tangle together and expose a gap.
And no matter what happened, he absolutely could not stop. Under his feet were the lives of these men—and those of the Namgung Clan!
Then it happened.
BOOOOOOM!
With a deafening blast that seemed to tear at the eardrums, something came hurtling at Baek Cheon at terrifying speed.
Black Thunder Cannon?
The cannonball crossing through the air was crystal clear even to Baek Cheon’s eyes. But before he could even decide what to do, someone shot up toward it.
BOOOOOM!
The figure that leapt up swung a sword and knocked the incoming cannonball off course.
“Yoon Jong!”
The moment Baek Cheon called his name by reflex, another cannonball came flying in, and this time Baek Sang leapt up to meet it.
BOOOOOOM!
Baek Sang’s sword smashed the flying cannonball away!
“Go, senior brother!”
“Don’t stop!”
“How dare you give orders, you damned brats!”
Baek Cheon grinned and ran on, forward and still farther forward.
Bang! Bang!
But the river bandits were not about to give up so easily. One of the approaching ships swung sideways and aimed at them. The muzzles of the Black Thunder Cannons lined up on the deck kept spitting fire.
“You—!”
The instant fury crossed Baek Cheon’s face—
“Uncle!”
A voice rang out.
No more words were needed.
Baek Cheon reflexively twisted his waist and took up a sword-swinging stance. Only this time, it was the flat of the blade, not the edge!
Paht!
Something flew at him from behind like a flying squirrel and slammed a heavy weight into his sword. Before that sensation could even fully reach his mind, Baek Cheon threw his all into the swing and flung whatever was attached to it far away.
Shaeeeeeeeek!
A black streak of light shot across the Yangtze’s surface.
“W-what is that!”
The river bandits recoiled in horror as they watched something fly at them like a cannonball.
BOOOOOOOM!
The human cannonball Baek Cheon had launched slammed into the deck of the ship that had been firing the Black Thunder Cannons, embedding itself there like a meteor.
The sturdy wooden deck shattered like tofu, and splintered planks burst outward in every direction.
Before those flying fragments of wood had even touched the floor again, a chilling sword qi sliced through the bandits on deck in sweeping arcs.
Swish. Swish!
Blood sprayed over the wood that had shot into the air. And as the bandits who had been firing the Black Thunder Cannons were cut down in an instant, dark red stains splattered across Cheong Myeong’s face as well.
“Ah... ahh...”
Paah!
Cheong Myeong flicked the blood off his blade and turned his gaze toward the still-living bandits. The instant their eyes met, the corner of his mouth twisted, revealing his white teeth.
“This...”
His voice seemed soaked in blood and iron.
“Is your fight to begin.”
BOOM!
Cheong Myeong kicked off the deck and plunged into the middle of the bandits. More than a dozen heads flew up into the air at once, and the blood bursting from those severed necks poured down over the Yangtze.
The Mount Hua fiend.
The fiend of Mount Hua, the same one who had once made even the Demonic Sect’s demons tremble in terror, had descended upon the Yangtze.