novelraw Chapter 47 : Chapter 47
Chapter 47 : Chapter 47
Chapter 47 - I’m here to collect a debt
“Hwaaaaaaaaaam.”
The one-eyed man standing in the watchtower let out a long yawn.
At that, the pug-nosed man on the opposite side chided him.
“Hey. Even if there's no one watching, you don't have to yawn loud enough to make the mountain ring.”
“Who's there to hear? They're all probably eating and drinking with gusto.”
The one-eyed man grumbled, clearly displeased.
“Shit. Of all days, why do we have to stand guard on a day like today. Such bad luck.”
“I feel the same way. Damn it. What's the point of standing guard when the thing we were supposed to protect is already gone?”
“That's what I'm saying. Frankly, what's there to take from this place.”
The men standing guard in the watchtower took turns lamenting their situation.
After the vault was stolen, the atmosphere in the Tiger-Bear Stronghold had been extremely grim for a while.
However, a while ago, after the Tiger-Bear Stronghold took control of the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, the situation changed a little.
The leader of the Tiger-Bear Stronghold, Wi Sung, held a banquet in the stronghold for the first time in a while, and only a minimal force remained at the watchtowers to prepare for any unforeseen circumstances.
Of course, for those 'minimal forces,' it was hell.
If everyone was passed out asleep, they might have just accepted it.
But having to stand guard while everyone else was enjoying themselves made their anger boil over.
“I can't take it anymore! I'm going to talk to the Great Mother and ask for a bottle of liquor for us too!”
“You might get your head chopped off for that. The Chief's eyes are still so fierce, and you're still saying that after seeing them?”
“Let him chop it off if he wants! Are there separate people for the hard work and separate people for the feasting?”
“I told you to watch your mouth……”
The pug-nosed man was frowning when he suddenly turned his head to one side.
“Hey. Don't you hear something?”
“What sound. I only hear the wind.”
“That wind sounds a little strange……”
Sssssss!
The sensation the pug-nosed man felt was not wrong.
The sound of the wind grew louder and closer.
It was by no means a natural phenomenon.
“L-look over there!”
“What are you talking about now.”
The one-eyed man narrowed his one remaining eye and turned his head.
It was a pitch-black night, so there was nothing much to see.
But as his vision gradually adjusted to the darkness, he saw a small dot that he hadn't seen before.
A dark navy color, similar to the darkness.
It was, a martial uniform worn by someone.
“W-what's that?”
“Who are you!”
Before their words could even finish, the man's figure arrived within close range.
It was truly a mysterious and swift movement technique.
Chwang!
The one-eyed man drew his sword and pointed it at the attacker.
It was a man with particularly well-developed legs and thick eyebrows, but something was a little off.
Why did a guy attacking in the middle of the night have such a frightened look on his face?
“Ugh… I can't do it!”
The man, who had been charging like a ray of light, soon changed his path and slipped between the watchtowers.
The distance between the watchtowers was not far, so it was originally a difficult place to pass through.
But the man's movement technique was so excellent that there was no time to close the gates on either side.
“Stop!”
The pug-nosed man took out a dagger from his bosom and threw it at the attacker.
“Heek!”
The attacker was startled but managed to rotate his body and dodge the dagger.
“What are you doing!! Shoot the signal flare quickly!”
“R-right!”
Poof!
Just as the pug-nosed man was about to set off the signal firework.
Shwiiiiik!
Swhoooosh!
Two black shadows were seen rushing towards each of the two watchtowers.
“!”
The one who rushed towards the one-eyed man had slender, half-closed eyes and unusually white, pale skin.
His expressionless face, illuminated by the torch in the pitch-black night, was like a ghost, making one's liver shrink to the size of a bean.
“Huk!”
A chilling strike flew towards his chest.
The one-eyed man reflexively raised his blade to block, but,
Sreureuk!
The blade of the man with half-closed eyes flowed over the one-eyed man's sword like a snake slithering across the ground.
‘A flexible sword?!’
Puk!
By the time the one-eyed man realized the sword's identity, the cold blade was already lodged in his heart.
“Keureuk……”
Danseol.
His flexible sword was not something a mere bandit could block.
Just as Danseol was about to pull the blade out of the one-eyed man's heart,
Chwaak!
A single merciless sword line cut across the pug-nosed man's chest.
“Keo-eok……!”
The pug-nosed man, killed instantly by a single strike, rolled down from the watchtower with a single scream.
“………….”
The swordswoman who had delivered the swift strike stood in place for a while, her shoulders trembling slightly.
Danseol felt he knew what emotion she, the swordswoman, was seized by.
“Senior Sister.”
“I'm fine.”
As if making a promise to herself, a beautiful but firm voice was heard from behind her.
Danseol's half-closed eyes turned to the sword she was holding.
Seeing the faintly trembling blade gradually steady itself, Danseol nodded.
“Let's go to Solbo. He's probably running around in a panic.”
“Alright.”
Soon, two black shadows disappeared into the darkness.
***
The people in the watchtowers were hard to see, but for those approaching the watchtowers, the entire scene was visible at a glance.
Being in the darkness versus being close to the torch.
It was unnecessary to explain which side had a better view.
Watching Solbo run past the two men at the watchtower and into the stronghold without attacking them, Eung Gajin sent a warm word of encouragement to Solbo with a warm smile.
“That moron.”
How could he not deviate from expectations by even a single inch?
Biyoung sneered and asked Eung Gajin.
“You expected it anyway, didn't you?”
“It’s just surprising every time I see it.”
“Well. I can understand.”
While they were idly conversing, the signal flare went off, and two swordsmen subdued the bandits.
“Senior Brother Danseol definitely seems more suited to a flexible sword. Damn it, I have leftover swords I already made, and now I have to place an additional order.”
Biyoung, facing an unexpected expense, grumbled with a frown.
Among the six people today, the only one not using a Diancang Sect sword was Danseol.
He could endure a slightly unfamiliar grip, but he couldn't force him to fit a sword of a different shape.
But the only thing Biyoung was dissatisfied with was the money.
Danseol's swordsmanship in attacking the watchtower seemed exceptionally fast and nimble.
‘A quick sword user with a flexible sword. There's nothing more difficult to deal with.’
Thinking this, Biyoung turned his gaze in the opposite direction.
There stood a swordswoman with a cold face, delivering a single strike.
The splendid sword dance from his duel with her was nowhere to be seen.
Only a simple, heavy sword line cut through the night air.
It was a single strike that seemed to represent her psychological state and resolve after having opened the killing precept.
“Is there anything for us to do?”
Uma asked Biyoung, as if his body was itching for action.
“Of course there is. You just have to do what you do best, Senior Brother.”
“What I do best? What's that.”
“Causing a ruckus.”
At Biyoung's words, Uma's eyes turned mad.
“There's no one who can beat me at that.”
His already grim face contorted even more fearsomely, Uma ran into the darkness.
“I'm the only one left. Why did you leave me behind?”
“Perhaps Senior Brother Eung-ga's role is the most important.”
The most important role.
Eung Gajin's face lit up.
“What do I have to do?”
“Be the face.”
“Uh… the face?!”
Eung Gajin's face, which had been blooming with a warm breeze, contorted like a crushed can.
“Yeah. There will be people who get out of here alive, right. Those people will spread rumors. The moment we retake the main mountain, you have to appear, Senior Brother Eung-ga, and declare that the Diancang Sect has survived. There's still some swelling on your face, but now you look presentable enough.”
“Is that my role?”
“That kind of thing is surprisingly important. I’ve found that out from living.”
Eung Gajin, who was being told 'I’ve found that out from living' by someone ten years his junior.
He was not pleased with his role, nor with Biyoung's way of speaking.
“I-I want to use a sword too!”
At those words, Biyoung gave a meaningful smile.
“I never said you couldn't use a sword.”
“!”
Eung Gajin, realizing the meaning, shot into the darkness like a thunderbolt.
Wearing the uniform of the Diancang Sect and holding the unique sword of the Diancang Sect, how could his blood not boil?
“I think I have a rough idea now.”
Biyoung, left alone where his senior brothers had all departed, muttered to himself.
There was a reason for sending Solbo out first, and for sending Danseol and Jeong-i after him.
Whether Solbo could draw his sword when attacking, whether Danseol needed a separately crafted sword.
And whether Jeong-i could cut down a person.
Biyoung wanted to confirm those three things, and all three came out as he had expected.
“It might be a little hard for Senior Sister, but everything is difficult at first.”
It wasn't just something he said to be nice.
If you let an evil person live, there will surely be consequences.
Before the surviving evil person kills more people, it is wise to bloody one's own hands.
It was a fate that a martial artist who had set foot in Jianghu had to bear.
Biyoung walked leisurely past the watchtower.
With the skills of the Diancang Sect's next-generation disciples, wiping out the bandits here was no problem.
Even if they had to face that lanky, tall guy, it wasn't a difficult level to conquer if two or more of them joined forces.
“Well then. Shall I go find that lanky guy?”
As if taking a walk, Biyoung's body slowly disappeared into the darkness.
***
“Kuaaaaaaah! This liquor tastes great for the first time in a while!”
Wi Sung, with a reddened face, kept downing his cup.
His clothes, which he always wore neatly, were quite disheveled today.
After the vault was stolen, Wi Sung had been so angry he couldn't sleep at night for a while, but recently, something very satisfying had happened.
He had finally brought the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, where Jang Pae had reigned as leader, under his feet.
The Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, based in Duhua Mountain, Guangxi, had been in a mutually cooperative relationship with the Tiger-Bear Stronghold for a long time.
However, after the thief who stole the vault identified himself as being from the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, and news of Jang Pae's death was delivered, the alliance was flipped like the palm of a hand.
The advice of the strategist who lived by Wi Sung's side was decisive.
'Whether the thief's words are true or not, what's important is that he identified himself as being from the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold.'
Wi Sung personally wielded his main weapon, the Black Snake Silk Whip, and attacked the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, and the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold, which had lost its leader as well as its main forces, had no strength left to resist.
As a result.
He was able to take the wealth of the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold much more easily than he had thought.
Money and valuables, various gold items, and even the women who lived in the Tree-Uprooting Stronghold.
All the things he had newly plundered were scattered all around him.
“The cup is empty.”
Wi Sung chided the woman sitting next to him in a feigned rebuking tone.
Just as the half-naked woman flinched her shoulders and was about to pour a new cup of liquor.
Poof!
“?!”
Wi Sung's rat-like face hardened.
It was because there was only one reason for a signal flare to go off at this hour.
“Isn't that the direction of the watchtower!”
“I will go and check.”
“No. I will go myself.”
Wi Sung stood up from his seat with a grim face.
In one hand, his alter ego, the Black Snake Silk Whip, was already held.
‘Could what Absolute Protector said be true?’
Unless one was out of their mind, there was no reason to climb this rugged mountain path in the middle of the night.
Besides, there was no longer a vault to be stolen.
But Wi Sung remembered something his escort warrior had said from somewhere in the back of his memory.
The words that the thief who stole the vault would return.
Wi Sung was a man who would jump out of bed in the middle of his sleep if he heard talk of the vault.
What if the attacker now was that same thief from before?
Wi Sung inwardly vowed to chew the bastard alive.
“Heek!”
When Wi Sung went outside, one man was surrounded by bandits.
“Chief!”
“Is that him? The thief from before?”
“No, sir. He didn't look like that.”
Wi Sung glared at the intruder's appearance from a distance.
For all his guts in invading this place, the fellow was just running here and there, dodging the bandits' attacks.
‘What kind of guy is he?’
Just as Wi Sung was watching Solbo's escape acrobatics with a dumbfounded face.
Crash!
“Ugh!”
From the other side, a couple of bandits rolled on the floor in a heap.
‘There was more than one!?’
Wi Sung glared into the darkness and let out a roar.
“Who are you!”
Where his gaze was directed, a man who looked exceptionally laid-back and delinquent was standing.
The owner of a dirty look that would make most bandits step aside.
The man spat on the floor and then bared his teeth wide.
“I’m here to collect a debt.”