novelraw Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124 : Chapter 124
Chapter 124 Prince Yeomseong (2)
The sword in my hand glowed dark-red, filled with demonic energy.
Watching the hand axes that filled the sky and flew toward me for a moment, my hand suddenly flashed.
With a chilling SHRING sound, my sword cut through the air.
“……Eh?”
Pan Bing-yeong, who properly felt the energy emanating from my sword, hurriedly crouched down with startled eyes and tightly grabbed a nearby tree.
─ BOOOOOOM!
The energy erupting from my sword instantly became a massive gale and shot into the air.
With a single strike.
With just one swing of my sword, the trees that filled the middle of the mountain swayed all at once, and the incoming hand axes were deflected away just like that.
‘……It has certainly changed.’
I looked down at my sword once and shrugged my shoulders.
‘The energy has become more than just stable; it is as calm as the sea. Thanks to that, there is no loss of energy at all.’
The power I could produce with the same amount of effort had significantly increased compared to before.
When I turned my head toward the bandits with a satisfied expression, the complexions of the bandits, who were staring at me with blank faces, turned pale in an instant.
“U-ugh…….”
Stumbling and backing away, the bandits turned their heads to look at each other.
“W-what just happened? Is what I saw real? Some kind of storm blew past.”
The bewildered bandits retreated. However, I stood still without moving a single step from my spot.
Confirming that I was no longer approaching, the bandits, who had been retreating in shock, cautiously stopped in their tracks.
Looking around with a calm face, I opened my mouth.
“Can I meet the Fortress Master?”
At my calm voice, the bandits looked at each other.
Silence flowed for a while.
One bandit, scratching his head, slowly began to back away toward the fortress.
No one stepped forward to answer. After watching that scene for a long time, one bandit quietly muttered.
“Ha. Since when did Yongho Fortress become a den of such cowards……!”
A bandit with a mountain-like build snorted loudly and walked forward. Upon hearing that voice, the faces of the other bandits turned bright red all at once.
“A tiny brat dares to mention the Fortress Master right in front of the main gate of Yongho Fortress, and not a single person steps forward in this situation?”
The large bandit turned around and met the eyes of each and every bandit around him.
“Get it together, you bastards! For guys who claim to be bandits, your courage is so small. Tsk tsk. With this, how can our Green Forest hold our heads high and go out into the Jianghu!”
The bandit slammed his fists together with a THUD THUD.
“Even if we die! We have to show the fear of Yongho Fortress before we die so we won't be embarrassed to meet our predecessors in the afterlife!”
As the large bandit pulled out a hand axe, the surrounding bandits began to murmur.
“Y-yes, that's right. Even if we die, we must clearly show the fear of our Yongho Fortress……!”
“That guy is right. Even if we die, we have to land at least one stab on that kid's body to be able to proudly say we were Green Forest bandits.”
The atmosphere of the bandits changed.
Glaring at me, they soon pulled out their hand axes again.
─ CLANG
─ CLANG
The sound of hand axes being pulled out echoed everywhere. After staring at each other for a moment with clenched teeth, the bandits nodded.
“Even if we die here, let's definitely meet in the same fortress in the next life.”
“Bullshit. I'm going to be the Murim Alliance Leader, so you just keep being a bandit.”
“……A disloyal bastard as always.”
Exchanging silly jokes with solemn expressions, the bandits all turned toward me at once.
“Let’s go! Let’s show the bravery of the men of Yongho Fortress!”
The bandits' energy was poured into the hand axes they were holding. Subsequently, all the bandits threw their axes toward me with all their might.
“Aaaaaaaah!”
─ SWIIIIIISH
─ SWISH
The air was instantly filled with the bandits' hand axes. Axes containing various types of energy rushed toward me.
The axes flying from all directions did not interfere with each other's paths to a subtle degree. Yet, they covered the space above my head densely so that there was no way to escape.
Just as my sword was gathering energy once again, a loud shout was heard from behind.
“What are you doing! Put away those axes!”
The bandits, who were focused on controlling their energy, flinched and immediately broke off their momentum.
─ SWISH
As the loud shout was heard, the hand axes flying toward me instantly changed direction and were embedded into the ground on both sides.
─ BOOM BOOM BOOM BANG!
As the dust settled, I raised my head from between the densely packed hand axes.
On top of the wooden fence surrounding the fortress, a bandit with a sturdy build was looking this way.
“……Brother?”
The bandit tilted his head.
“Huh? Young Brother?”
After rubbing his eyes and looking at me again, a huge smile spread across the bearded man's mouth.
“Hahahaha. It is indeed Young Brother!”
Looking at me with eyes full of joy, the bearded man jumped down from the wooden fence.
─ THUD!
Descending to the ground with a loud noise, Sam-sik began to walk toward me with steady steps.
As Sam-sik walked out, the bandits who had thrown the axes bowed their waists deeply and moved back to create a path.
Walking through the bandits, Sam-sik stopped at a slight distance with his arms crossed.
“Keke. How long has it been? So you were alive without dying? I wrote dozens of letters to the Beggars’ Sect during that time, but I thought you were dead because I didn't get a single reply.”
There was an edge to Sam-sik's words.
“……I'm sorry. So many incidents happened in succession that I didn't have time to go to the Beggars’ Sect to check for letters.”
When I replied with a troubled expression, Sam-sik nodded.
“Keke. Of course, of course. There must have been many things much more important than my letters.”
Sam-sik toyed with a hand axe at his waist. The hand axe, which was deeply worn by hand contact to the point where the handle had turned dark, shook at Sam-sik's waist.
“Do you know? I…… have lived through hellish days during that time.”
A spark flashed in Sam-sik's eyes. Then, a snort burst from his nose with a PUFF. At the same time, the hand axe he pulled out circled in the air for a moment before landing back in his hand.
“The Green Forest King raised his subordinates like lions. He pushed everyone into the jaws of death and only took those who survived to the next stage.”
Sam-sik looked down at the deep calluses on his hands. Come to think of it, Sam-sik's entire body was covered in scars that I hadn't seen before we parted.
The various marks remaining on his body were proof of Sam-sik's life during that time.
“Honestly, I was disappointed from the moment you handed me over to the Green Forest King, but I could endure that somehow. It was an unavoidable situation, and I had expectations for the future we dreamed of together.”
Sam-sik slowly raised his head and glared at me.
“However, the letters I wrote and sent, one character at a time, during that hellish training with the feeling of grasping at a single straw, are rotting away in the Beggars’ Sect without even being opened……”
Flames smoldered in Sam-sik's eyes.
“I can't just overlook this. My waiting all this time was for nothing.”
“It's a misunderstanding. First of all, the days I stayed at the Murim Alliance were few. Moreover, after entering and coming out of the Murim Alliance's prison, I was in the Sado Alliance the whole time, so I didn't have time to go to the Beggars’ Sect……”
“Ha. The Murim Alliance's prison? The Sado Alliance?”
Sam-sik burst into a chuckle.
“The prison was quite a creative excuse. I'll give you that. But if you were in the Sado Alliance, shouldn't there have been many opportunities to contact me?”
“I didn't have the time. I unintentionally ended up fighting in the Life-and-Death Tournament, and after that, a situation occurred where I had to engage in a bloody battle with the elders of the Sado Alliance……”
“Kekeke.”
As Sam-sik began to laugh while looking around, the surrounding bandits also began to burst into laughter along with him.
“You have to say something that makes sense for me to even pretend to believe you. Why don't you just say you were late because you had a proper fight with the Alliance Leader and were taking over the Sado Alliance?”
“Uh…… I did have a proper fight with the Alliance Leader, though.”
Listening to my words, Sam-sik let out a deep sigh and shook his head.
“……Did I trust such a person and suffer all this hardship here until now?”
Energy began to gather more and more in Sam-sik's hands.
“Hero Jang. I will explain everything slowly, so please let us go inside first.”
Sam-sik, who had been focusing only on me, finally noticed Pan Bing-yeong and bowed his head slightly.
“Ah, the Law Enforcer has also come. But how am I supposed to accept such nonsense? Miss Pan, could you please explain this situation properly?”
“I'm not the Law Enforcer anymore. I quit. And there is not a single lie among what Young Hero Jaun said. It's all true—both the fact that he was locked in the prisons of both the Murim Alliance and the Sado Alliance, and the fact that he recently fought with the Alliance Leader.”
The eyes of Sam-sik, listening to Pan Bing-yeong's words, turned cold.
Staring at the two of us with a stiff face, Sam-sik bit his lip hard.
“To say such a thing now……”
Sam-sik loosened his neck with a CRACK.
Alternating his sharp gaze between me and Pan Bing-yeong, Sam-sik bit his lip.
“Even though I am confined here because of the Green Forest King's orders, if you're going to deceive the Green Forest with such nonsensical stories, I can't keep accepting it. I never thought my sincerity and efforts all this time would vanish so vainly.”
Letting out a sigh, Sam-sik looked at me quietly and raised one hand axe high into the air.
“It can't be helped. Brothers! Immediately bind these two who have intruded into Yongho Fortress and make them kneel before me!”
─ THUD!
As Sam-sik pulled up his energy, the weeds growing around him instantly began to wither and twist.
As if he had gained a fortunate opportunity while staying with the Green Forest King, his momentum was incomparable to before.
A dry energy covered the surroundings to the extent that one felt as if they had suddenly dropped into the middle of a harsh desert. Having pulled up his energy to that extent, Sam-sik let out a huge shout.
“Hyaaaaaa!”
The hand axe floated in the air for a moment, and Sam-sik, who had lunged his body, snatched the axe brilliantly.
“Be prepared. This is my new Frenzied Wind Thirteen Decisions after going through hellish training……!”
As he shouted that and tried to throw his axe toward me, Sam-sik suddenly stopped his body. This was because demonic energy was spreading out with a fierce momentum around my body as if a thunderclap bomb had exploded.
The dark-red demonic energy erupting from my body instantly covered the surroundings in darkness.
‘W-what is all this?’
He felt as if someone had poured cold water over his head, snapping him to his senses.
Sam-sik first landed on the ground and examined the surroundings. Due to my demonic energy, a deep darkness had descended upon the entire middle of the mountain.
It felt as if he had entered the mouth of a beast.
In that sticky and chilling darkness, Sam-sik trembled.
‘……You have risen to a completely different realm.’
Being able to emit demonic energy to the point where surrounding objects could not be properly sensed meant that I had already reached a realm incomparable to his own.
Upon realizing that, goosebumps broke out all over his forearms.
Sam-sik swallowed hard and looked forward.
There, my blood-red sword floated in the air and began to slowly approach Sam-sik, dripping dark-red demonic energy.
Watching the sword that approached while floating in the air and emitting a strange sword cry, Sam-sik swallowed hard and lowered his hand axe.
“Ahem! U-ugh, Young Brother? L-let's talk for a moment. Where did you go? Let's talk while looking at each other's faces……”
Wiping the sweat from his forehead, Sam-sik quickly tucked his hand axe into his waist and raised his empty hands high in the air.
“Well…… I have already put away my weapon. Surely you won't do something so unscrupulous as to attack an unarmed martial artist? If you're a martial artist of the Murim Alliance, that is.”
“Keke.”
At the same time Pan Bing-yeong's laughter was heard, the darkness scattered without a trace. Once again, light filled the middle of the mountain, brightening the surroundings.
The bandits were all lying on the ground, shivering in a daze, and the only one standing was Sam-sik.
Sam-sik, who was standing with both hands raised toward the sky, quickly looked around and let out a sigh of relief after confirming that no one had seen him.
Sam-sik, who walked forward quickly, hugged me tightly.
“Uhuhuhu. Young Brother. Welcome to Yongho Fortress. I made a slight misunderstanding, didn't I? I pulled out my axe for a moment, but don't mind it……”
Sam-sik, sweating profusely, patted my back lightly and grabbed my wrist.
“First, let's go inside and talk. Let's discuss how much progress has been made on that grand plan we share.”
Having said that, Sam-sik took the lead and began walking toward Yongho Fortress.