Return Operation (4)
“What?”
“You’re splitting us into two groups in this situation?”
When they barely had enough strength to stand together and face the people from the Red Horse Hall, the notion of dividing into two groups was not easy for the people under Seok Geum-ryong to accept.
“Yes. They are likely from the Red Horse Hall, and now that they’ve roughly grasped our strength... there’s no doubt they brought or invited a top-class expert with them.”
Seok Geum-ryong spoke calmly.
If they faced the enemy head-on like this, defeat was almost certain given their numerical disadvantage, and he had no intention of carrying four thousand gold worth of bills into a direct fight.
Even so, I still have a way.
He was confident enough.
Although the plan to travel by waterway had been discovered by the Red Horse Hall and Guijong-ak, the clever path still remained to him in the form of a fallback.
From the moment he chose the waterway, he had already been contemplating a last resort.
He had hoped the time would never come to use it, but unfortunately, the enemy pursuit was no trivial matter.
“Their target will be me. The Blood-Sweating Horse and the four thousand gold bills are part of it, but above all, they’ll keep chasing because they believe I’m the one carrying the bills, won’t they?”
Swish.
Seok Geum-ryong took out something from inside the boat, out of sight of the Red Horse Hall men.
It was none other than the enormous stack of bills he had obtained from successfully selling the Blood-Sweating Horse at the Xi'an horse market.
“I’ll entrust this to Butler Gong and all of you.”
“...!!”
“What? And what about you, Young Master?”
At Seok Geum-ryong’s words, which sounded as though he planned to separate and leave alone, Gong Sang-pil jumped first and protested.
“Calm down. I’m not saying I’ll go by myself. I’ll move here... together with Warrior Shin Dan-woo, just the two of us.”
“With me?”
When Seok Geum-ryong pointed to him rather than to the most powerful martial artist, Moon Spirit Sword Lady Im So-gun, as the one to escort him in what was essentially a decoy role, Shin Dan-woo asked in surprise.
“That’s right.”
“Why?”
Even Im So-gun could not easily accept it. She stared at Seok Geum-ryong with sharper eyes than usual.
It was almost enough to let her dissatisfaction show openly at not having been chosen.
“Because... our boat will pretend to dock at the ferry to lure them in, then head back to the waterway. Which means we need an exceptional movement technique to leap from the boat to the ferry in one breath.”
That was it.
Seok Geum-ryong’s plan was to spring from the boat to the ferry, and for that operation to succeed, they needed people with extraordinary movement skill.
Only then could they buy a little more time and widen the distance between them.
“I see. Since my movement technique and Young Master Seok Geum-ryong’s are the best...”
Shin Dan-woo nodded as if he finally understood.
If they could confuse the enemy with unpredictable movement and split them into two groups, Seok Geum-ryong’s side might still have a chance.
“Still, it’s dangerous. If what you say is true, then some terrifying expert will be chasing after you. What are you going to do if they catch you?”
“Exactly. It would be better if we handled the decoy role...”
Im So-gun and Gong Sang-pil voiced their concern and objected.
The strategy was to split into two teams, one by land and one by water, then reverse the plan so that the bills were not with Seok Geum-ryong but with Gong Sang-pil on the water route.
It was certainly unpredictable and would catch the enemy off guard, allowing the bills to be protected very safely, but above all else, the flaw was that Seok Geum-ryong would be the one facing danger.
“If we run by land, the one with the highest chance of survival is me and Warrior Shin Dan-woo. While we draw the enemy’s attention and split their strength, the water-route team can shake them off or defeat them and join us.”
“Even so...”
“And have you forgotten something?”
Because the situation was so urgent, Seok Geum-ryong reminded them of a fact they had overlooked.
“I was told additional troops had been sent from the main Seokga Manor to support and assist me. After Warrior Shin Dan-woo and I retreat as far as possible toward Hebei Province, we’ll try to meet up with those reinforcements if we can.”
“Ah!”
“Right, there were reinforcements from the main house.”
With that reminder, the group gave a collective cry and recovered their memory.
They needed someone to go by land, and they needed to link up with the reinforcements as quickly as possible.
The ideal outcome was for the water-route team and the land-route team to split the enemy, sow confusion, and then join the supporting force sent from the main Seokga Manor to defeat them one by one.
“Young Master, I still don’t like it. How can I drive you into danger?”
Gong Sang-pil said this with a heart full of anguish.
Watching him, Seok Geum-ryong felt as though he had been thrown back to the time when he had lost him in the past, and his heart ached.
But he was convinced that this was the only path that could reliably protect the bills, make contact with the reinforcements, and win against the enemy.
“From the moment I was born as the heir of the great Seokga Manor and decided I would build my own place by contending with my other brothers like dragons and tigers... and from the day I resolved to learn martial arts and achieve greatness, I came to understand that my life would never be safe, and that I would have no choice but to face danger.”
Seok Geum-ryong tried to persuade Gong Sang-pil with sincerity.
“Without risk, there is no success. Unlike my other brothers, who were born with distinguished maternal families and many favorable conditions... what I can be confident in at Seokga Manor is my ability to survive, and this bold courage.”
In other words, the capital and stock-in-trade of Seok Geum-ryong the martial artist and merchant was courage itself.
If this operation succeeded properly, he would gain something enormous.
“Young Master!”
“Don’t worry. I, Shin Dan-woo, will protect the Young Master even if it costs me my life.”
The Shadowless One, Shin Dan-woo, had already resolved himself to die if necessary.
This man can rise to greatness as both a merchant and a martial artist.
Someone blessed with such fortune would not die in vain, and even if he were to face such a crisis, Shin Dan-woo was prepared to die in his place.
“Then... I’ll leave it to you.”
In the end, Gong Sang-pil and Im So-gun had no choice but to follow the two men’s decision.
“Yes.”
“Butler Gong. The strong force may end up following your group. So listen carefully to what Lady Im and Lady Wol-papa say, and stay hidden.”
Even in the midst of danger, Seok Geum-ryong smiled faintly.
That easy confidence steadied Gong Sang-pil and Im So-gun as well.
“I wish you good fortune.”
After greeting Golden Needle Venerable Yeo Gwang-rae, Wol-papa, and Jang Sam, Seok Geum-ryong turned back.
Then he nodded to Shin Dan-woo.
By now, the boat being controlled by Jang Sam had drawn close to the ferry, and to anyone watching, it clearly looked as though it was about to dock.
“Just as I thought! They mean to disembark!”
Seeing this, Guijong-ak, the Red Horse Hall chief who had been pursuing them at the edge of danger, clenched his fist in certainty.
“Everyone, prepare to disembark!”
With that, he informed Mad Horse Elder Ma Gwan-pil and the Red Horse Hall’s Ten Heroes, all aboard the ship.
Mad Horse Elder Ma Gwan-pil was a superb expert at the very peak, and even among those of the upper tier. He was a man the Red Horse Hall had only barely won over by surrendering the position of chief steward and paying him an enormous sum of gold.
The Red Horse Hall’s Ten Heroes were also outstanding experts, mostly at the super first-class level, and served as honored guests of the Red Horse Hall, men invited either to covet its horses or to defend the hall itself.
In other words, the fact that the Red Horse Hall had brought all of them here meant they were staking the very life of the hall on this pursuit.
Swish.
Guijong-ak and the rest of the Red Horse Hall members expected a fierce battle to break out at this ferry.
It would have been best to sink them in the waterway where no one could see, but fortunately it was already late, and the ferry was in a sparsely traveled area, so they did not care.
I will catch him for sure.
Guijong-ak focused as he pictured Seok Geum-ryong’s face and the four thousand gold bills, and remembered how the man had made a fool of him.
At that very moment, the remarkable maneuver prepared by Seok Geum-ryong and the Shadowless One, Shin Dan-woo, began.
Fwaaaaaaah!
Like a great hawk rising from a cliff, Shin Dan-woo sprang off the heaving deck of the boat and leapt into the air.
And that was not all.
Shadowless Movement Technique!
The moment Shin Dan-woo jumped, someone followed immediately behind him and moved with him.
It was, of course, Seok Geum-ryong, whose talent outshone the rest, and whose movement skill now matched that of Shin Dan-woo, the man who had truly taught him how to use it.
Fapapapapaat!
No, the speed and distance of movement in lightness skill were directly proportional to internal energy.
Seok Geum-ryong already far exceeded Shin Dan-woo in internal strength, and so his movement skill landed him perfectly on the distant Geongwang Ferry.
Thunk.
It was something difficult even for ordinary masters, let alone most experts in movement skill.
Most of all, the starting point had been the swaying, pitching deck of a boat, which made the feat even more impossible.
Waaaaaah!
How could the Red Horse Hall members, who had been staring so hard at Seok Geum-ryong’s boat, not exclaim at the sight?
He seemed like a hawk defying heaven itself, soaring upward in a precarious but beautiful arc.
But only for a moment.
“T-that, that, that bastard is Seok Geum-ryong! Chase him! He’s definitely the one carrying the bills!”
While everyone else was admiring the sight, Guijong-ak, burning only with resentment and rage toward Seok Geum-ryong, shouted out.
So the Red Horse Hall members seemed ready to disembark as planned and head for Seok Geum-ryong, when suddenly—
Whoooooosh!
Another astonishing sight unfolded.
Just as though everyone aboard were about to disembark, the boat carrying Seok Geum-ryong’s group, the moment Seok Geum-ryong and Shin Dan-woo had landed, turned around and headed straight back into the waterway.
It worked! I caught them completely off guard!
Watching the boat wheel elegantly away the moment they got off and head back into the waterway, Seok Geum-ryong smiled with satisfaction.
[Warrior Shin Dan-woo! We must also move at full speed toward Hebei Province!]
Then, together with Shin Dan-woo, he sprinted in the direction opposite the waterway, leaving the Red Horse Hall members watching in utter confusion.
“Chief! Seok Geum-ryong’s group is running by water, while Seok Geum-ryong himself is moving by land!”
At this completely unimaginable and bizarre scene, the Red Horse Hall members doubted their own eyes.
If Seok Geum-ryong had stayed on the boat, they could simply turn the large vessel around and pursue it at ease. But astonishingly, Seok Geum-ryong was moving by land with just one escort warrior.
Is Seok Geum-ryong the decoy? Or is it that boat?
In that split second, Guijong-ak went back and forth in thought.
Honestly, since Seok Geum-ryong had come out so blatantly, it seemed possible that he was the decoy, but the fact that they were clinging to the waterway to the end also made him suspect there was something on that boat.
“Damn it, damn it all!”
In the end, though he sensed he was walking into some trap, Guijong-ak had no choice but to split his forces in two.
“I, Chief Ma, and half the Ten Heroes will pursue that damned Seok Geum-ryong! The remaining half of the Ten Heroes, together with this old captain, will do whatever it takes to sink and destroy that tiny boat!”
He had no idea where the bills actually were, but Guijong-ak believed that if he caught Seok Geum-ryong, everything could be settled.
No, the situation had now reached the point where it could not be resolved unless Seok Geum-ryong was killed.
Could Guijong-ak carry out his will?
“Say, Red Horse Hall chief. Does this Mad Horse Elder need half the Ten Heroes just to go with me? I could go alone. If you truly need someone to serve you, then take two of them with you, no, just one.”
At last, having found his target, Ma Gwan-pil unleashed the killing intent he had long forgotten.