novelraw Chapter 58 : Green Forest Eighteen Fortresses (3)
Chapter 58 : Green Forest Eighteen Fortresses (3)
“No, no way?! How so soon…!”
Before Bae Ho-cheol’s astonished shout could even end, the figure of a swordsman who had brushed past him.
“Huh?!”
Thud-
Bae Ho-cheol, who had fallen with a surprised expression, became a headless corpse, and his head rolled away.
And belatedly, the surrounding bandits screamed and were cut into pieces as they were trying to run away, scattering blood in all directions.
‘This is… the elite of the Zhuge family?’
I watched the scene of the massacre, rooted to the spot.
The Zhuge family was evaluated as the weakest among the Five Great Families in terms of martial strength alone.
But the scene that was unfolding now was clearly showing why the Zhuge family was one of the Five Great Families that ruled the Central Plains.
“Young Master! We’re saved!”
“It’s all thanks to you, Zhuge Cheonwu! I will consider you my benefactor for the rest of my life!”
The scene of hundreds of bandits being slaughtered was so shocking that I couldn’t even properly hear the moved voices of the escorts next to me.
“Zhuge Cheonwu!”
Thump!
Just then, a large man landed in front of my eyes like a meteor.
“Are you alright?!”
One of the elders of the Zhuge family. It was Protector Jangyeo.
“Let’s see! How badly are you hurt!”
His rough hands grabbed my shoulders fiercely.
My head was shaken from side to side, and only then did I feel the excruciating pain and come back to reality.
“Ha, I’m saved.”
The reinforcements from the family that I had been waiting for the most had arrived.
“I’m fine.”
After removing Jangyeo’s hands, I surveyed the battlefield. The masters who were traversing between the blood-stained ground.
The three feathers on the fan pattern embroidered on their clothes. It was the Crane Fan Troupe, one of the elite martial forces of the Zhuge family.
In the rear, the Iron Hyun Troupe, which was in charge of the Zhuge family’s military forces, was taking care of the remaining bandits who were fleeing.
Their number alone was a total of 500. It was by no means a small number.
Since there were even super-peak level masters mixed in, the quality of their martial strength was different from the bandits who had gathered as a motley crew.
“…There are quite a lot of them, aren’t there?”
“I heard that fortress master was aiming for you! So I used some of my strength and brought them.”
Jangyeo said with a hearty laugh. It seemed that they were troops that had been brought with the determination to even go to war with the fortress master of the Green Forest Eighteen Fortresses.
“Anyway, with this, it’s over…”
Just as I was about to say that, a low and cold voice suddenly cut in.
“You’re causing trouble again.”
When I lifted my head, what was there was a man looking down this way, riding on a black warhorse.
He had the appearance of a handsome man with distinct features, as if he had just reached the age of thirty, but he gave off a somewhat thick-lined and solemn atmosphere.
An unusual authority.
More than ten masters of the Crane Fan Troupe were standing around him. As if they were there to assist him, not me.
And within the family, there was only one person of that age and with that much status.
‘Zhuge Taeseong!’
The eldest son of the Zhuge family and the young family head was in this place.
‘I never thought Zhuge Taeseong would come this far.’
As I was silent at the unexpected appearance, Zhuge Taeseong’s nagging continued.
“It is said that there is a grudge in the martial world. If you’ve created a grudge you can’t handle, you should have the sense to at least take care of your own body. This time too, it would have been fine if you had come straight to the main house, but you’re causing unnecessary trouble.”
The opponent said coldly. Since they had come all the way here to help, there was nothing I could say.
‘I’ll just let it pass moderately.’
Thinking so, I was about to let it pass, but just then, a familiar voice echoed.
“Come to think of it, I’ve received a favor. To come all the way here. It’s a grateful thing.”
It was my voice.
‘Damn it!’
The [Arrogant Young Master] had activated again. Of all times, to think this crazy debuff would pop out.
“Informal speech…?”
Zhuge Taeseong, who had been making a strange expression, soon looked down at me and spread his momentum.
“Did I hear wrong?”
A suffocating pressure crushed the area. A qi wave of this level. At least at the professor level.
‘This is crazy.’
It was different from when I had faced Zhuge Paegang. The other side was a young family head with the martial strength of a super master. A being who could crush me, using etiquette as a problem.
I had to find a way to break through the atmosphere that had become murderous in just a few seconds. Just then, a brilliant idea came to me.
I endured the killing intent with [Extreme Will] and calmly opened my mouth.
As if I couldn’t even hear Zhuge Taeseong’s words, I said calmly.
“So I leave my thanks to the Crane Fan Troupe and the Iron Hyun Troupe, who came running quickly in a moment of crisis.”
Originally, it would have been a priority to express my gratitude to the person in charge of these forces first, but I didn’t.
Because it was the Crane Fan Troupe and the Iron Hyun Troupe who had come running just before I died.
And most of all, since I had changed it to a statement to the family members, the informal speech was also naturally resolved.
“Of course, I also express my gratitude to my older brother, Zhuge Taeseong, who commanded from behind.”
As soon as the [Arrogant Young Master] was released, I switched to formal speech, covered up my slip of the tongue, and made the opponent look bad.
Even though he had this much martial strength, he had just sat on his horse while his younger brother was in a crisis, so it would be fine to be this sarcastic.
‘Thanks to that, the opponent’s mood doesn’t look good, though.’
Whatever the beginning, it meant I had landed a blow. Apart from being triumphant, my future became dark.
“…We’re going back.”
Zhuge Taeseong, who had been silent, turned his horse’s head and ordered, and the martial artists in the area answered as if shouting.
““Yes!””
And then, a few of them began to check my physical condition.
“It will hurt for a moment.”
And the pain that followed. Come to think of it, I had forgotten that there were arrows stuck in my shoulder and thigh.
It must have been one of the ones that the bandits had shot when we were surrounded.
I had forgotten because I had been running like crazy.
“I’ll apply some golden wound medicine.”
I looked at the wound on my thigh and noticed something.
‘The bleeding has stopped.’
It was the result of strengthening the expected impact area with the Blood River Art in the midst of the rain of arrows that had been pouring down while being chased.
‘The bleeding stopped quickly, and the wound is shallow. It’s not comparable to a protective qi, but it’s decent for defense.’
Of course, if I were to be caught using the Blood Cult’s sorcery, it would be quite troublesome, so I couldn’t use it openly.
Still, just confirming the unexpected use of the Blood River Art was not a bad gain.
As I was thinking that, just then, other martial artists came and began to put me on a horse.
“Ah, wait…!”
I almost fell because I didn’t know how to ride a horse, but in that moment, a rough hand from the side supported me.
“Khahaha! A guy who couldn’t even hold his own in front of his older brother. You’ve changed a lot.”
Jangyeo laughed loudly from the side and took the reins of the horse I was riding.
He was probably referring to the argument we had just now.
“There won’t be any retaliation later, right?”
“He’s a big-hearted guy. He’s not a person who would hold a grudge over something like this. But if he thinks his pride as a young family head has been hurt, he’ll be merciless.”
“So as long as I don’t cross the line, it’s fine.”
It meant that something like this wouldn’t hurt the pride of a young family head. I nodded my head. This side was still a scoundrel who only caused trouble, and the other side was the next head of the Zhuge family.
And so, when we went down the mountain and finally arrived at the Hubei plains, I could see the martial artists who had arrived additionally and were standing in a line.
Their number was in the hundreds. It seemed they had brought a considerable number of the available personnel of the Zhuge family in Hubei Province.
Looking at them, Jangyeo continued.
“Don’t take my words badly earlier. Because there’s a point. If you’re going to carry the name of the family, you have to keep it in mind. Watch carefully. What happens when you mess with the Zhuge family.”
As soon as those words ended, the martial artists from the Zhuge family who had arrived late began to move beyond the mountain.
“They are skilled in tracking and group battles. For the time being, you won’t even see a single hair of a bandit in this area.”
It seemed they were going to take care of the remaining bandits.
At that sight, I vaguely understood.
What it meant to have messed with a blood relative of the Zhuge family.
For the time being, it seemed the bandits between Hubei and Shaanxi would be wiped out. Until the ringleader, the fortress master, was caught.
No matter how much of a monster he was, who was one of the top ten in the Green Forest Eighteen Fortresses, he was nothing in front of the Five Great Families.
‘It’s good to have a family backing you.’
I had used it often in the academy, but I never thought it would be to this extent. I fell onto the back of the horse that had started to run, feeling a strange sensation.
“My body hurts, so I can’t ride a horse. I might doze off as I am, so please help me so I don’t fall.”
“Now you’re even being shameless.”
Although Jangyeo grumbled, he gently held the reins. I thought, blinking my slowly closing eyes.
‘But Jo Dong-hong, did that fortress master not know it would turn out like this?’
He was a man who had risen to the rank of an executive in a large unorthodox faction. Even if he wasn’t bright in politics, he would know the meaning of messing with the Five Great Families.
‘Something’s suspicious.’
To say it was a trap to gather the forces of the Zhuge family, this side had already come out with full preparations because of the name of the fortress master.
In that case, it meant that he had deliberately induced them to arm themselves to the point of being prepared for war, but that was absurd.
In that case, it would have been much more efficient to ambush the carriage when the key figures were moving. Just like when Bae Ho-cheol had attacked me.
‘Was it just the reckless act of a disciple? And Jo Dong-hong was just caught up in his disciple’s blunder?’
But looking at the way things were going, it didn’t seem like that either.
‘There’s something.’
I closed my two eyes with a somehow unsettling feeling.
* * *
Inside a dark basement. Under a torch burning on one wall, a man, who was a mess all over, was tied in chains and coughed up blood.
“Cough!”
“Unfortunately, you’re completely useless. I heard all your subordinates are already dead.”
A bizarre voice that was neither a woman’s nor a man’s. Jo Dong-hong glared at the opponent in front with his half-closed eyes.
“You monstrous things…!”
Then, the man who was in front of Jo Dong-hong met his gaze and then tore the corners of his mouth wide to the sides. The cheeks and skin that were tearing so bizarrely for a human.
But what was more chilling was the fact that the opponent standing in front of the tied-up Jo Dong-hong had the exact same face as Jo Dong-hong.
“Did you think Mangbeonsa would collapse so futilely? We haven’t even met our quota. So someone has to take responsibility, right?”
“You crazy bastards! This is why I shouldn’t have even associated with you guys!”
At the sophistry, Jo Dong-hong became indignant and clenched his teeth. The opponent, who was just staring at that sight, slowly began to change his voice to a woman’s.
“Think of it as bad luck. Because you were the ones who came to mind. But we, who were attacked, can’t just lay a hand on the Zhuge family, can we? If that guy named Cheonwu came and found our branch specifically, the Zhuge family would also know. We can’t fight the Five Great Families, not yet.”
At the same time, the opponent’s face became bumpy in the form of blood vessels, and his skeleton changed, and his human-skin mask came off.
“Don’t be too sad. In the end, since the Blood River has flowed, you can be used as a sacrifice. The quota ends with that. Although I couldn’t kill the guy I was aiming for.”
“…What are you going to do with me now?”
The woman, who had even changed her body shape and was adjusting her shrunken clothes, tilted her head.
“Hmm, since you’ve become useless…”
And then she snaps her fingers. The sound that disappeared in an instant. The airflow in the area is reversed. The gravel on the floor floats up, and blood vessels pop on Jo Dong-hong’s face.
Splurt!
Soon, black blood burst out from his eyes, nose, mouth, and ears.
“You’re not needed anymore.”
The woman muttered, turning around. Then, as if she had just remembered, she touched the corner of her mouth.
“Come to think of it, I have to retrieve the Blood River Art manual too. Zhuge Cheonwu… I wonder what kind of guy he is?”
Her gaze shone thinly in the darkness, meeting the reflected light of the torch.
(End of Chapter)