novelraw Chapter 54 : Chapter 54
Chapter 54 : Chapter 54
Chapter 54 - That's a Real Shame
It was when a lone Biyoung was just about to attack the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
“Alright. Shall I get going then.”
Having dispatched his senior brothers ahead, Biyoung leisurely walked forward.
In any case, there was no one in this stronghold who could handle those young rising stars.
Except for one.
That lanky, tall fellow.
He planned to leave the rest of the bandits to his senior sister and brothers and look for that fellow he had seen before.
If he eliminated that guy, Wi Sung's guard, there would be no special variables.
It was when Biyoung was wandering around the stronghold with such thoughts.
“Huh?”
He almost missed it.
A figure in black, with a simple pack, was running, avoiding people's eyes.
If he had not opened his Conception and Governor Vessels, he might not have been able to capture that swift movement.
It was that stealthy and quiet an action.
‘Running away already?’
He could not understand it, but it was clearly an escape.
Not even five minutes had passed since the Tiger-Bear Stronghold was attacked.
It was a time when it was difficult to even figure out what was happening on the battlefield, let alone grasp the tide of victory.
Yet there was a figure who was clearly trying to escape the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
“Hmm……”
Biyoung set up two hypotheses.
Either the guy was a serious coward who put Solbo to shame.
Or he was a guy who had no attachment to the Tiger-Bear Stronghold in the first place.
Biyoung had to make a choice.
Should he go inside before his senior brothers faced the tall swordsman?
Or should he satisfy this curiosity?
‘Alright.’
The time for deliberation did not take long.
If Biyoung's experience was solely based on his age, it might have been different, but he had the accumulated experience of living as the World's Fastest Sword.
This kind of nagging curiosity was bound to linger in his mind.
‘Well. It won't take long anyway. What could possibly happen.’
As soon as his decision was made, Biyoung kicked off the ground and soared up.
The martial art he chose was not the Flying Eagle Steps but the Vast Sky Eagle Body Method.
The Flying Eagle Steps alone would have been enough to catch the rat, but a corner of his heart was occupied with worry for his senior brothers.
Finish him off as quickly as possible and rejoin the main force.
That was the reason he blocked the fugitive's path in a single bound.
“Huk!”
The body of the man who had been running frantically stopped, and a gasp of astonishment burst from his mouth.
Did he fall from the sky or sprout from the ground?
A single figure had suddenly blocked his path.
“Who are you!”
“That's what I want to ask.”
Biyoung picked one of his ears and asked the fugitive.
“No. I know loyalty might be lacking, but where is the person who bolts without a second thought just because someone invaded? No matter how little affection there is in the Green Forest……”
A greenhorn of a kid was spouting nonsense about the affection of the Green Forest right in front of him.
It was a truly dumbfounding and ridiculous situation.
“It is none of your business. If you don't want to die, move aside.”
At that, Biyoung gave a mischievous smile.
“I have no intention of moving aside, and no intention of dying, either?”
“You bastard!”
As if thinking that no further conversation was necessary, the fugitive put his hand inside his clothes.
‘Hidden weapon?’
A wrinkle momentarily formed on Biyoung's clear forehead.
No matter how much of a bandit he was, was he going to throw a hidden weapon at a young boy?
“Chahat!”
With a short shout, a fierce light shot out from the fugitive's fingertips.
Biyoung stood still in that spot, not moving an inch.
It was a scene that anyone would have thought meant he was frozen in surprise at the hidden weapon.
Pah!
However.
The daggers thrown by the fugitive were caught between Biyoung's naturally raised fingers.
It wasn't just dodging the incoming hidden weapons; he had simply caught them with his hand.
“?!”
At the development that would startle even a ghost, the fugitive's eyes widened to three times their size.
Was it a coincidence?
No.
Catching incoming hidden weapons with one's hand could not be a coincidence.
Furthermore, hadn't he just thrown three daggers?
“You’re definitely clumsier than that tall fellow.”
Biyoung smiled as he caressed the dagger with his finger.
His face, faintly visible in the dark night, was like that of a person from the celestial realm, but the smile on his lips resembled that of a Yaksha.
“Who yells chaha! heup! while using hidden weapons? It’s not like you’re announcing, ‘I’m throwing something dangerous now’.”
A hot anger surged in the fugitive's chest.
As if it wasn't enough to ramble on about the affection of the Green Forest a moment ago, now he was lecturing him on how to throw hidden weapons?
“Die!”
The fugitive took out and threw the final resort hidden deepest in his clothes.
It was smaller in size than the daggers he had thrown before, but its power was incomparably more dangerous.
On the tip of the dagger's blade was a deadly poison that could fell even the beasts of the southern barbarian palace in an instant.
It was a hidden weapon that could inflict a fatal wound just by grazing the skin.
Swoosh!
But this time too, Biyoung’s expression was utterly indifferent.
As his hand slightly shook in the air, the fugitive's dagger stuck in his fingers flew in the opposite direction.
Clang!
One accurately hit the incoming dagger,
Thud!
And the other two accurately lodged in the fugitive's knees.
“Aaargh!”
With a piercing scream, the fugitive fell to the ground.
It would have been good if someone had heard this sound, but similar screams were echoing from within the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
“You’re definitely suspicious. We'll meet again later.”
Biyoung’s fingers poked several places on the fugitive's body.
For a moment, his mind became hazy, and his vision blurred.
That was the last scene Wi Sung's strategist, Han Hoe, remembered before he came to.
***
“Keu-eung……”
When Han Hoe came to his senses, the first thing he saw was a familiar ceiling.
If you went to the secluded area behind the Tiger-Bear Stronghold, there was a small cave, a place where foodstuffs were stored because the temperature was low all year round.
‘What happened?’
He had been brought here in a collapsed state, so it was certain that someone had moved him.
But not many people knew about the existence of this cave.
Let alone outsiders, even many of the bandits who lived together did not know such a place existed.
Sting.
“Ugh……”
A dizzying pain shot up from both his knees.
The embedded daggers were gone, but it was still impossible to get up on his own.
Han Hoe’s body began to tremble.
It was partly because the air here was cold, but the fear of the person he had encountered was even greater.
‘It was truly a ghostly skill…….’
A person who catches daggers flying in the middle of the night with his bare hands.
Han Hoe unhesitatingly judged him to be a master.
His judgment was correct, but there was one problem.
The age of the fellow he had encountered was ridiculously young.
He had seen guys who were quite strong while being a bandit, and sometimes got into scuffles with people from Jianghu.
But he could swear, he had never once considered a person of that age to be a master.
Not only the skill of snatching the daggers, but the ghost-like movement he showed when approaching him and the skill of striking pressure points were on a different level.
It would be more understandable if he were a direct descendant of a prestigious orthodox sect, but on the other hand, why would such a person set foot in a bandit stronghold?
“Oh.”
Amidst the confusion.
The voice of the very boy Han Hoe had been thinking about was heard.
“Looks like he’s awake. Senior brother. Let's get started.”
“…………!”
Get started?
With what?
Han Hoe was the person with the quickest mind in the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
He was Wi Sung's most trusted subordinate, and also the one who had figured out the location of the safe first.
Therefore, he could quickly understand the current situation.
‘Wi Sung has been defeated.’
Otherwise, these guys could not be coming and going from this cave as if it were their own home.
This was one of the most secret and deepest areas within the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
‘Damn it. I should have left earlier.’
Han Hoe sighed as if the ground would collapse.
Since the safe was stolen, Han Hoe no longer had any lingering attachment to the Tiger-Bear Stronghold.
It might have been possible to maintain the force, but given Wi Sung's caliber, he was a person who would end at playing bandit.
Rather, the ‘group’ that had given him information seemed more promising.
So, he was already looking for the right time.
However, there was a part that the clear-headed Han Hoe had not anticipated, and that was the existence of the Diancang Sect and Biyoung.
‘I don't know what they’re trying to extract, but it won't be easy.’
Han Hoe gritted his teeth and steeled his heart.
The fact that they had moved him all the way here while keeping him alive.
The reason for that was not difficult to guess either.
Whether it was money or information, it was clear they were trying to dig something out.
Even if his martial arts were outstanding, a boy was a boy.
He had no intention of revealing the contents of his mind to any kind of blackmail or threat.
After all, hadn't he also been worn down by a long period in the stronghold?
“Is this the guy?”
“!”
However, Han Hoe's ice-cold resolve melted away without a trace like snow in the spring sun.
The man Biyoung had called senior brother.
It was after seeing the face of the man, who was incomparably hideous.
“Ptooey.”
“…………?!”
How could a person look like that?
The appearance of Uma, who spat once and approached, was more delinquent and dangerous than any decent bandit.
If the man so much as frowned, it seemed even the Stronghold Master Wi Sung would have to prostrate himself on the floor, saying, ‘Big Brother, you are the master of this Tiger-Bear Stronghold.’
‘This guy and that guy, why on earth are people like this showing up…….’
It is nearly impossible to break a person's resolve with just their appearance.
But the man before him, Uma, was doing that difficult thing as if it were nothing.
Just imagining what this horrendously ugly man would do to his body gave him chills.
The man who came with Uma looked at Han Hoe and giggled.
“Yes. Make him spill everything, without leaving a single speck.”
He definitely called him senior brother earlier, but he's speaking informally so fluently?
But Han Hoe was not in a situation to be curious about such things.
Uma, who had approached him in no time, was licking his lips as if he had found an interesting toy!
“Keuheu. You look like you’ve got some guts.”
Uma nodded once as if he was pleased.
Was being acknowledged by him in this situation a good thing?
Unfortunately, the truth was quite the opposite.
“I know guys like you very well. Most of them don’t talk obediently. Even when I pull out their teeth and nails, one by one, they don't break their firm beliefs, you know? They’d even faint when I put a knife to their wrists and ankles, but they won't bend. They’d rather have their tongues pulled out than give me the answers I'm curious about. I know it well. I know it very, very well. They’re a type with very firm convictions.”
………….
Uh………….
No.
You crazy bastard.
It's not to that extent!
Don't acknowledge me on your own!
“I will do my best, so I hope you will also do your best to protect your convictions.”
Uma drew the sword from his waist.
Then, he smiled brightly as if to say let’s do well together.
His bared teeth, flickering in the candlelight, looked exactly like a demon from hell.
Think about it.
He was a man whose impression was so foul that people would sneak away from him even in broad daylight.
To face such a man in a cold, dark cave like this?
It might be better to just bite one's tongue and die.
“I will give you the choice of where to cut first.”
Uma pointed at various parts of Han Hoe's body with the tip of his sword, as if spinning a wheel.
Every time the blade grazed his body, Han Hoe felt as if his breath would stop.
“Phew……”
After a long sigh, Han Hoe opened his mouth heavily.
“I will confess everything.”
“………….”
At that, Uma bared his teeth and smiled.
“That’s a real shame.”