The cheering of the sailors felt distinctly unfamiliar to me.
I didn’t know that the usage of this skill would be this limitless, especially to the extent that Iron Sword was helping me.
-Wonhwi, you alright?
‘I am fine.’
I survived, thanks to you.
I was unsure of what would happen if I had been swept away by the rapids.
-Look at those faces.
Short Sword giggled and spoke to me. Just as she said, the people on the ship were shocked at the sight of me flying over the river using my sword.
I would also be surprised if I saw something like this.
But that didn’t matter now.
‘Iron Sword. Let’s go to the ship.’
-Yes.
As soon as I said this, Iron Sword flew towards the ships flying the black sails. It was a completely different feeling compared to when I used footwork.
I didn’t touch anything with my feet but felt like someone who could cross the open air.
I was able to reach where the black-sailed ships were in no time.
Black figures were visible on top of their decks.
‘What is that?’
Something was strange.
I thought they were bandits, but they covered their faces with black masks.
It was a completely different look compared to normal pirates.
-What are you thinking?
Shall I say that only someone who wears a hood, was scarred, and looked rough were the real pirates?
They also seemed quite shocked that I was flying using a sword.
‘Uh?’
At that moment, those with bows among the masked people readied them.
There was no time to stop them.
Swishhh!!
-Hold tight. Wonhwi!
Iron Sword landed on top of the ship as we dodged the arrows and moved across the deck. As we landed on the ship, the masked men pulled out their weapons in unison.
Their eyes were alert and full of tension.
‘There’s fewer of them than I expected.’
I counted only around twenty masked people on board. The ship itself was too big for just them.
‘… what smell is this?’
It was something odd yet familiar.
Perhaps it would be accurate to say that it’s been slightly mixed?
But I knew one thing for sure.
-What?
‘It smells like blood.’
A disgusting smell of blood was wafting up from the ship. As I examined the floor, I saw that the wooden floor of the deck was red.
I pressed on it lightly, and sticky water seeped up from the wet wooden planks.
‘… is this blood?’
The entire ship was dark, and no lanterns were lit, so it was impossible to know what it was.
This nauseated me, but I still had to negotiate with these people. I had to show them I wouldn’t attack them, so I pointed my sword down and shouted.
“People of the Yangtze River!”
-Why are you calling them that?
It’s because I am trying to be polite.
The pirates knew who they were, but no one liked to be called in that manner. If anything, they might get angry if I called them pirates.
Anyway, I remembered hearing that when people from the escort services or warriors encountered them, they would call them people of the Yangtze River.
“….”
The masked people did not respond to my address.
Instead, they slowly narrowed the distance and encircled me.
They were ready to attack any moment.
“I am not here to fight….”
“You are much stronger than I’ve heard, So Wonhwi.”
‘…!?’
My name was uttered from the lips of one of the masked people. It seemed that he was their leader.
From what I could feel, he seemed to be someone at a master level. If he was a chief of pirates, then his skills would be about right. However, I still felt a sense of strangeness.
“You know me?”
Hearing this, the masked man smiled.
“I move a lot, so how could I not know? Rush him!”
The other masked people who had been narrowing the distance then rushed at me from the command of their leader. I evaded their attacks using my footwork.
I then shouted.
“Aren’t you all from the Yangtze River Families?”
“DIE!”
They didn’t even have the decency to respond to my question.
They definitely didn’t seem to be part of the Yangtze River pirates. One of the masked men then swung his blade.
And I kicked it lightly.
Puak!
“Kuak!”
The blade I kicked flew and pierced the stomach of another masked man. I grabbed the wrist of the one who had swung his blade and threw him to another of his comrades.
The masked people collided with each other and rolled away.
Since I was using my qi, their bones would have been smashed in addition to them receiving internal wounds.
Pat!
I rushed forward and cut down two masked men blocking my path to their leader. Then, with just two fingers, I caught their leader’s blade as it swung toward me.
“Huk!”
He was surprised but responded quickly with a kick. As a result, his feet flew off at the ankle as I cut it off with my sword qi.
Crack!
“Kuak!”
A scream escaped the masked leader’s mouth. He should have known I was stronger than he was when I blocked his blade, so why did he rush in?
I instantly grabbed him by the collar and pushed him roughly against the ship’s walls.
Thud!
“Kuak!”
“What are you people doing? Aren’t you river pirates??”
When he said nothing, I forcibly removed his mask.
The face of an ordinary middle-aged man in his forties appeared, with his mouth dripping blood.
“Die.”
His subordinates continued to rush at me.
Their leader was in my hands, yet they didn’t seem to care at all. I punched him in the stomach before I turned around and shouted at the masked men rushing in.
I grabbed the leader’s head and said.
“You want to die?”
He simply smiled at this.
“This was all planned to begin with.”
“What?”
“Revenge for our comrades.”
“Comrades? No way… you bastard!”
“You shouldn’t have come on this ship at all!”
I felt a horrible premonition as I heard his words. At that moment…
Kwanggg!
A red light shone atop the deck, followed by a loud roar and searing heat.
Chachachang!
The Wind Wave King, Hyuk Cheon-man, hung from a cliff as he batted away arrows with his sword.
These were not regular arrows, as each was laced with internal qi. If he didn’t block them, the damage would have been serious.
‘The numbers don’t match.’
Hyuk Cheon-man, who had been blocking the arrows, flew to the top of the cliff in the blink of an eye.
Chak!
The entire clifftop shuddered as his sharp qi passed the threshold.
“Avoid it!”
The arrows stopped with that cry. In response, Hyuk Cheon-man pulled out the sword he had driven into the cliff and used light footwork.
He was thinking of running up the cliff.
Pssss!
At that moment, powder began to fall off the cliff as he felt a presence.
“Die!’
Four masked men, each a skilled warrior, appeared from the top of the cliff.
Even so, they could not fight on a cliff like a flat surface. The Wind Wave King responded by piercing the sword into the cliff once more while bisecting a masked man in the same instance.
Chak!
As soon as he cut one person down, another rushed at him from the side, aiming to stab him with their sword.
Hyuk Cheon-man removed the now-limp hand from the sword and kicked it away with his foot while spinning the corpse.
At the same time, he cut open the eyes of another masked man.
Slash!
“Kuak!”
The blinded masked man grabbed at his eyes and then stumbled down the cliff.
At that moment, another masked man grabbed Hyuk Cheon-man’s leg.
And swung his sword at it.
‘Damn it.’
He clenched his sword sheath.
Shhhh!
The sword and sheath that were lodged through the cliff began sliding down. The masked man, who realized he was falling, released his arms as he could no longer swing properly.
Hyuk Cheon-man then kicked his opponent in the chin with his free foot.
Crack!
“Kuak!”
The masked man’s jaw was broken and ripped apart by the kick, and he soon fell down the cliff without even being able to scream.
Another masked man threw a dagger at him
Chang!
Hyuk Cheon-man simply cut it down.
In a mysterious series of events, the dagger ended up being lodged into the face of the masked man who had stumbled off the cliff.
He was about to climb further but then saw yet another masked man climbing down the cliff.
“Phew.”
There was no end to this. Suddenly, a roaring sound filled his ears.
Kwaaaang!
‘…?!’
He looked up and saw one of the black-sailed ships exploding.
‘What is this….’
He couldn’t understand it.
A ship was suddenly exploding.
An explosion of this magnitude would have required a large amount of gunpowder.
‘No!’
He could see the ropes leading from the river to the rough road further down the cliff.
The ship, which had barely managed to remove the ropes, was being fixed in place by the crossbows.
But there were more this time.
When the ropes became connected to the ship, many masked men used them to descend upon the ship.
Swish!
Even the large number of arrows flying their way did not hinder their movement.
‘This!’
Hyuk Cheon-man moved his sword without another thought. Ignoring the masked men attacking him from above, he ran to the cliffside.
All of this was to prevent those people from descending on the ship.
Papapapk!
As befitting his reputation, he swiftly ran to the cliffside. Quite a few masked men had landed on the ship, but it looked like he could stop them from going any further.
‘Jump and then cut the ropes!’
He had no other choice but to do that. Soon, he reached the point where the ropes were connected.
He rushed through the air over the river from the cliffside. The masked men were moving across the ropes like hawks gliding through the air.
And then…
“How annoying. Wind Wave King.”
‘…!?’
It was an overbearing amount of force.
It was to a degree that even Hyuk Cheon-man could not ignore it. The Wind Wave King then quickly raised his sword to block.
Chang!
‘This one?’
The sword and blade collided. Surprisingly, the result was almost equal, though Hyuk Cheon-man’s internal qi was a little stronger. His attacker was then pushed back.
Pung!
“Kuak!”
However, Hyuk Cheon-man also suffered some effects from the clash. Since he had to block the attack in midair, he was unable to reach the place he had intended to go to.
‘Damn it!’
Hyuk Cheon-man then noticed the masked man walking towards the cliff with a rope around his waist.
This was the man who had been tasked to lure him out. Hyuk Cheon-man then fell into the river.
Plop!
“Is this the weakest of the Eight Great Warriors?”
The masked man, who was hanging from the rope as he returned to the cliff, shook his head. It seemed that he was surprised by a strength that exceeded his imagination.
He then took off his mask and wiped away the blood that had formed around his mouth before issuing his orders.
“The most annoying one is down, so handle the rest.”
“Yes!!”
The sound of weapons clashing filled the ship’s deck. As soon as the rain of arrows had ended, the deck became a battleground as masked men arrived with ropes attached to their bodies.
Even though all of the sailors aboard the ship joined together to resist, they were being pushed back.
The escort services were also of little help because their martial arts were of lesser quality.
Chang!
Elder Do Wook, sect leader of the Southern Edge Sect, had barely escaped from the raging waters and was now dealing with a group of masked men with an arrow stuck in his back.
He was bleeding and suffering from being drowned but continued to fight like a warrior befitting his reputation.
But the expression on his face wasn’t good.
‘Are these people really bandits?’
He couldn’t help but think about this. While the martial arts of bandits tend to vary wildly, each masked man was an outstanding fighter.
Almost all of them were skilled.
“Kuak!”
“Kang Chung!”
A swordsman from the Southern Edge sect named Kang Chung fell into the river in pieces after he was beheaded by a masked man.
‘At this rate, the Yangtze River could become a tomb for us all.’
As his disciples fell one after another, he began to lose his fighting spirit.
And on the other side of the deck.
“Do not touch her!”
Puak!
“Ack!”
Song Jwa-baek had saved the escort service leader, Hwang Hye-joo, from immediate danger. The martial arts level of the escort services was weak enough that they could not fight against the masked men who were first-rate warriors.
“T-thank you.”
“Just trust me, miss.”
Even though Hwang Hye-joo didn’t trust him at first, she couldn’t help but rely on him in this crisis. Although this made him feel good, Song Jwa-baek also felt burdened.
‘Damn it! There are too many!’
Papapapak!
Song Woo-hyun, who had been head-butting and knocking the masked men down, was also now audibly raspy.
“Phew… phew…”
The number of masked people increased as time passed. Among them were also now master-level warriors.
Thanks to this, the number of wounds on their bodies gradually increased. Meanwhile, the situation for Sima Young and Cho Seong-won was also looking grim.
“Haa… haaa…. Are you alright?”
“I can still hold on!”
Despite their bravado, the two of them were beginning to tire. In particular, Cho Seong-won looked pale due to his existing injuries.
Thinking that he might die if he fell even once, Sima Young felt a heavy weight on her shoulders.
‘I need to endure this at any cost. Is the young lord safe?’
She had seen him safely climb up to the ship ahead of them. However, there was no way to check if he was still alive after that due to the rain of arrows.
What worried her the most was the explosion he might have caught up in.
She then heard something.
“Union leader, what are you doing!?”
When she looked over, several people were shouting at someone. The person being shouted at was Hong Gu-ga, the Beggars Union leader.
“If things continue like this, everyone will die. Jump into the river!”
Hong Gu-ga fiercely used his martial arts to defeat the masked men on the railing, then jumped into the river without hesitation.
Plop!
“Didn’t you hear! Jump in now!”
His grandson, Hong Geol-gae, also jumped in.
“Successor!”
Some of the sailors were still alive, but they were unaware that such an order would be made during the middle of a battle. The Beggars Union’s actions were absurd, as no one else knew about them!
“You bastard!”
Sima Young gritted her teeth at this. Who would even expect that they would be asked to jump off the ship in the middle of a fight?
Even if that wasn’t the case, being cornered with a crumbling escape path would lead to the worst-case scenario.
At that moment, Cho Seong-won stepped forward and shouted.
“Do not retreat like the Beggars Union and continue to fight! We need to secure the ship!”
Hearing his order, those of the Beggars Union were shocked. This was a scenario where he had no decision-making power.
One of the elders saw this and urged the rest.
“Did you not hear the successor? Hold the ship!”
The other elders followed suit and shouted.
“In the name of our successor! Fight!”
“Woahhh!!”
As a result, the confused members of the Beggar Union regained their senses and fought fiercely against the enemies. Some who were loyal to the union leader chose to jump into the water, but many remained.
Then came a loud roar.
Kwang!
The entire ship rocked as if a wave had hit them.
“T-the ship!”
As a result of this, everyone fighting frantically on the decks from both sides stopped their fighting.
At the center of the roar was a middle-aged man with a scar across his mouth who stood with his hands behind his back.
The deck collapsed around his feet.
‘A skilled warrior.’
Everyone could sense it.
This was a warrior with unimaginable skills.
Silence filled the air as all of them were suppressed by his force. The middle-aged man then opened his mouth.
“Who is So Wonhwi?”
Everyone was shocked as this man stood there openly, asking for a particular person.
At that moment, Elder Do Wook shouted.
“You people are not pirates. Reveal your ident…!”
Chak!
Before he could finish, a sharp sound pierced the air from the blade the man wielded.
Do Wook raised his sword and crossed the space between them.
Chang!
The wooden boards on the deck shattered. Along with them, Do Wook was also pushed back quite a distance.
His face did not look good after the blow as he began to pale.
“Kuak!”
At the sight of the red blood dripping from his mouth, everyone’s faces darkened. Elder Do Wook was the strongest person on this ship for their side, yet even he could not match this man.
“You could have just answered my questions, elder.”
The middle-aged shook his head and looked at everyone on board,
“Is the one called So Wonhwi not on this ship?”
While their silence was partially due to the man’s strong pressure, the real reason for the silence was because Wonwhi was not on the ship.
The middle-aged man laughed at this and said,
“You are all holding onto this useless loyalty. Kill them all.”
The masked men readied themselves to attack again as the order was made. As the situation on the ship was turning into one of despair, however…
One masked man on the side of the ship shouted.
“L-Look there!”
He was pointing to the middle of the river, and soon everyone turned their gaze there.
‘…!!’
Everyone’s eyes became wide as they saw something fly through the river.
“W-what is that?”
“Someone is riding on a sword!”
A sight appeared that made everyone doubt their eyes. Someone was riding a sword and flying towards the ship.
“Young lord!!”
It was Jin Wonhwi.
