novelraw Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141 : Chapter 141
Chapter 141 - What an infuriating thing to say?!
Kwa-gwa-gwa-gwang!
Hundreds of arrows converged and headed for the Yewi Twin Tyrants' ship.
It should have been literally turned into a honeycomb, but what people expected did not happen.
This was because the immense internal energy of the Shooting Rotation Reversing Shift, which guided the arrows, had literally blown the ship to bits.
Splash!
With the ship destroyed, it was only natural that there was nowhere to stand.
All the Hojubang black-clothed warriors aboard the Yewi Twin Tyrants' ship fell into the lake.
“Gasp! Brother! Are you alright?”
Chu Eul, who had barely managed to surface, frantically turned his head, searching for his brother.
“Don't make a fuss. I’m not dead.”
Chu Gap was behind him, where his head couldn't reach.
He stared with bloodshot eyes at the man who had made a fool of him.
“Brother. What kind of ghostly trickery is this? I’ve never seen anything like it in my life!”
“It will be the first and the last. That bastard won't be playing any more tricks from now on.”
Grinding his teeth, Chu Gap soon shouted to those around him.
“All survivors, board the nearest ships! We’re going for close combat!”
“Yes!”
The survivors skillfully moved their limbs and climbed onto the nearby ships.
From the way they had uniformly drawn their bowstrings earlier, they appeared to be a well-disciplined group.
“Brother. Shouldn’t we change our target? For now, we should combine our forces to attack that bastard…”
“Combine forces, what combine forces! I alone am enough for that bastard!”
Chu Gap raised his voice, his pride wounded.
“Brother!”
“Do as planned! Besides the merchants, how many warriors could be on that ship?!”
Chu Gap was highly agitated, but his judgment couldn't be called entirely wrong.
Although the Sedong Merchant Guild's ship was quite large, the Hojubang’s forces were so numerous that they couldn't all board it.
The opponent's martial arts were concerning.
But the difference in numbers was just too great.
“Alright. Then I’ll head over there.”
After their conversation, Chu Eul swam like an arrow and climbed onto a nearby boat.
As someone who had lived his entire life on the lake, his swimming skills were reminiscent of a large fish.
“Move the ships! Today, we will cut off all their heads and feed them to the fish!”
At Chu Gap's command, the ships split in two and advanced rapidly.
“Oh no…!”
The merchants, who had felt a moment of relief, were once again terrified.
It was fortunate that the arrows had been blocked, but now a greater threat was approaching.
The biggest problem was that there was no escape route around this vast lake.
Elm Leaf Lake was a place where one could only take the attacks as they came.
“Looks like they’re not just guys who shoot arrows from a distance, huh?”
Hyeokri Hong raised her head and asked Absolute Protector.
The strange thing was, she showed no sign of fear.
Far from being scared, she seemed rather encouraged by the fact that she could finally show off her skills.
“Prepare for battle. We can no longer expect Senior Brother’s consideration.”
“Consideration? Who?”
Hyeokri Hong’s eyes widened like a rabbit's as she followed Absolute Protector's gaze.
In fact, there was no need to ask who.
Besides her and Absolute Protector, there was only one other person from the Diancang Sect here.
“Senior Brother Biyoung?”
“Yes.”
“I don’t get it at all. Why would Senior Brother Biyoung have shown us consideration?”
As he watched the ships approaching as if they would ram into them at any moment, Absolute Protector opened his mouth.
“Senior Brother deliberately provoked their leader.”
“The part about the dwarf and all that?”
“Yes. Because of that, the bowstrings that were aimed this way were turned toward Senior Brother Biyoung.”
“Th-Then.”
Hyeokri Hong retraced the events that had just occurred.
There was certainly an element of that.
Biyoung had always had a knack for getting under people's skin, but after drawing his sword from his waist, he tended to converse more with strikes than with words.
That was Biyoung's way, and it was also the Diancang Sect's way.
But now, he had even raised his middle finger to grate on the Yewi Twin Tyrants' nerves.
He had concentrated the target on himself, in case the arrows might hurt them.
“Wow… that’s really…”
Realizing the situation, Hyeokri Hong's mouth fell open, and she was at a loss for words.
Then, suddenly, she glared intensely.
“What an infuriating thing to say?!”
“...?”
“There’s a limit to looking down on people. He thought we couldn't block some measly arrows, didn’t he? It seems I’ll have to teach him a firm lesson this time.”
It seemed that to this young warrior, Biyoung's consideration felt more like a slight than a touching gesture.
Hyeokri Hong even rolled up her sleeves and snorted furiously.
Meanwhile, the guild leader standing right next to them was deeply impressed by her.
‘A martial artist is a martial artist, indeed.’
This wasn't the kind of reckless behavior of a young, inexperienced person.
It was the desire to be acknowledged as a martial artist.
And an endless fighting spirit toward the opponent.
This child was of a different caliber than an ordinary person like himself, who had lost his will to fight the moment he saw the Hojubang.
Although she was a young girl, he thought he understood why she was here representing the Diancang Sect.
As the ships drew near, Absolute Protector drew his sword from his waist.
“Don’t exert yourselves from the start. Just pick off and attack those who climb onto the ship.”
“There are too many of them, though. A few are bound to get on board.”
“I will handle them.”
“Oho. A joint operation, so to speak? Great! Please protect this junior sister well!”
Hyeokri Hong exclaimed cheerfully, but Absolute Protector did not reply.
As always, he just stared at the enemies with an expressionless face.
Splash! Splash!
The Hojubang's black-clothed warriors leaped from the rapidly advancing ships.
The reason they chose to swim instead of staying on the ships was for a pincer movement.
This way, the opponent would have to worry about both the approaching ships and the black-clothed warriors approaching from under the water.
“...They're fast!”
As expected of those who had been plundering Elm Leaf Lake for decades, their swimming skills were extraordinary.
Sleeveless tops and tight shorts, similar to the Yewi Twin Tyrants.
Their attire was completely different from the swordsmen of the Murim.
With their amphibious martial arts uniforms alone, they were warning the merchants.
That this was a completely different battlefield from the plains or mountains.
“Escorts, grab your weapons and protect the merchants!”
Sedong looked around and raised his voice.
Biyoung, who was watching him, smiled slightly.
He had seemed like a purely innocent child, but now he saw that he had developed quite a bit of fortitude.
At Sedong’s command, the escorts on the ship moved in perfect order.
They were first-class escorts, carefully selected by the Yi Family Clan.
On the ship, not in the water, they were more than capable of doing their part.
“I’ll be back.”
“Huh?”
At Biyoung's words, Sedong's pupils dilated widely.
Be back?
In this vast lake, where could he possibly be going?
There wasn't even a place to set foot other than the ship they were on.
But Biyoung turned his back without any particular explanation.
Then, he powerfully stamped on the deck of the ship and leaped into the sky.
Pabatbak!
“!”
It was as if a small dragon on the ground was ascending to the heavens.
“Th-That!”
The merchant guild members.
The attackers on the ships, including the Yewi Twin Tyrants.
They all watched Biyoung's leap as if mesmerized.
They had never seen such a wondrous movement, not even on land.
As everyone’s jaws dropped, Biyoung held his sword in a reverse grip.
Cheok.
Twisting his waist to its limit, Biyoung coiled his body.
The Sword Aura gathered on the blade shone as blue as the sun.
And soon, a formidable sword strike was unleashed from Biyoung's fingertips.
Kwaaaaa!
An absurdly immense internal energy was infused into the blade.
Biyoung's reverse-gripped sword vibrated destructively, as if it would cleave through the entire space.
Kwakwakwakwa!
A large, crescent-shaped Sword Aura poured down towards the surface of the lake.
It was less a sword strike and more a natural disaster.
Like the talons of a huge, mountain-sized eagle snatching its prey, Biyoung's slash flew towards the swimming Hojubang black-clothed warriors.
Peobeobeok!
“Kuaaaack!”
“Keoheok!”
A massive talon-like slash, like a flash of lightning.
A technique from the Sun-Shooting Sword Art specialized for wide-area attacks.
Shooting Flash Ambush Strike.
Over a hundred black-clothed warriors were swept away by that powerful attack.
Chwaaaaaa!
It wasn't just the Hojubang who were thrown into chaos by the Shooting Flash Ambush Strike.
The calm surface of the lake surged up as if creating a waterspout, and those who watched felt the illusion of a waterfall being created before their eyes.
‘This… is a sword strike? Not a bomb?’
‘He didn't even cut them directly, so how can it have such power…!’
‘This is not the work of a human…!’
The slash swung from a distance created a massive wall of water.
The wall was tinged with a faint red color, mixed with the blood of the black-clothed warriors.
The movements of the black-clothed warriors, who had been moving in perfect order under Chu Gap's command, stopped.
A single strike.
A single strike was enough to change the tide of the battle.
Hwiririk.
Biyoung's body, having unleashed the Shooting Flash Ambush Strike, danced in the air.
Having delivered such a powerful blow, his body was now higher than before.
“Ugh…”
Those below who were looking up at Biyoung squinted their eyes.
In their vision, the deep navy martial arts uniform and the sun in the sky intersected.
The shadow created by Biyoung momentarily passed over people's faces.
A single black eagle, commanding the battlefield.
It was exactly as the World's Fastest Sword of the Diancang Sect had been in the past.
Chak!
Biyoung's body landed lightly in the exact same spot where he had first leaped from the ship.
It was a truly graceful movement, unfitting for the destructive slash from a moment ago.
The Hojubang black-clothed warriors watching this all came to have the same thought.
‘A master…!’
‘He’s a master…!!’
Elm Leaf Lake was like their own backyard.
No matter how first-rate a master was, they couldn't breathe underwater, nor could they step on the surface of the lake.
A master who cannot display their full skill is no longer a master.
But what if there was a 'transcendent' master who surpassed the ordinary?
They could witness the result right before their eyes.
“What are you all doing! Get moving, quick!”
It was unusual for Chu Gap to see his Hojubang subordinates out of control.
He drew a short sword from his waist and moved to the very front of the ship.
“Any bastard who's slower than me, prepare to have your ankles cut off!”
After saying that, Chu Gap jumped directly into the water.
He swam so fast that he moved forward faster than the rowing boat.
“…………!”
As Chu Gap swam, it was his subordinates who were even more flustered.
Chu Gap was a man of his word.
If they allowed him to overtake them in the water, their feet would never surface again.
Papat!
The ships advancing at full speed and the hundred or so black-clothed warriors swimming toward them.
The water, violently churning from the earlier slash.
An unprecedented whirlwind was raging in the once-calm Elm Leaf Lake.
“Which do you think is faster?”
At Biyoung's question, Sedong blinked two or three times.
“Huh? Which?”
“Between the ships and the ones swimming, which do you think is faster?”
“Umm…”
Perhaps because they had paused their advance for a moment, the people currently seemed faster than the ships.
“Those guys?”
Sedong pointed his finger at the swimming men.
“Then, I guess I’ll have to catch them first.”
Biyoung's voice was as calm as someone fishing at a pier.
He walked to the front of the ship and then leaped.
“!”
Sedong was greatly startled by his action.
It wasn't a high leap into the sky like before, but just high enough to jump into the water.
Could he be planning to fight a naval battle against the Hojubang?
“Ah…!”
But Sedong soon had to correct his thought.
“That’s…?”
Because Biyoung's two feet were clearly 'sprinting' across the surface of the lake.