Chapter 49 : Black Village (2)
Horses are strong and large, so they can knock people down just by pushing forward. They are even smart enough to understand how to fight. But they are naturally good-natured and timid, so they are not suited for fighting. That's why they need to be fitted with horse armor and have their vision obscured with a helmet. Training to build trust in the rider is also necessary.
'Unfortunately, Cheongwol hasn't been trained, so I can't ride him into battle.'
Yang Gwan loves and cherishes his horse so much that he spends all his leisure time on Yang Hwangbi-jeon's training and bonding. He was so surprised when he came out at night because it was raining heavily to cover the stable with a waterproof sheet, only to see the fellow sleeping side by side with his horse.
Anyway, it is because of such efforts that Yang Hwangbi-jeon can trust Yang Gwan and fight like that. If Jang So-gil were to imitate that, Cheongwol would be terrified, and in the first place, he didn't have the skill to fight like that. Mounted combat was something soldiers learned, not martial artists, and certainly not merchants. If he were to fight, it would be better to get off and fight.
"Stay outside the village and come back later."
Jang So-gil, who had jumped off his horse, slapped Cheongwol's rump. Then Cheongwol, as if he understood, neighed softly and ran out of the village. Seeing that, the giant man, Georyanggi's, eyes were colored with greed.
"A fine horse. It'll fetch a good price if I catch it and sell it."
"My, my, you fellow. You're getting ahead of yourself."
"You'd be quite expensive too. Your skin is smooth and your face is handsome, a look that the eunuchs would quite like. It's a bit of a shame your eyes are small."
"For a thief, you even know how to read faces."
"Kekeke. Your clothes look quite expensive too..."
"Of course, it's Shu brocade."
"Especially the sword looks expensive... No, no, what is that? Why does it smell so strongly of money?"
"Normally, they'd look at the sword first, but you're the first one to look at my face first."
As Jang So-gil grinned and drew the White Azure Divine Sword, Georyanggi was terrified.
"A-a divine weapon?! What are you!"
The kid in front of him was not just a kid. If he had been wearing somewhat expensive things, he would have been happy, thinking, 'What a windfall!' but there was a limit to that.
From head to toe, it was luxury item after luxury item. The one sword that fellow was wearing was probably more expensive than all the wealth of Huize County combined.
'Am I screwed?'
Georyanggi, contrary to his rugged appearance, was exceptionally smart among the people of this mountain fortress. It was he who had created this Black Village.
His brain was telling him. A fellow covered in gold from head to toe like So was one of two things.
'A royal, or the heir of a powerful martial arts sect.'
Both were seeds that would be impossible to handle the aftermath of if touched.
The right thing to do was to run away without looking back.
But one side of the escape route was blocked by Jang So-gil, and the other side was blocked by Yang Gwan. Georyanggi quickly did the math.
Breaking through the mounted spearman was impossible. Without a horse, he would be caught in an instant and his head would be smashed.
Then he had to break through Jang So-gil. The mounted spearman who was toying with and slaughtering a hundred of his allies as if he were the second coming of Zhao Zilong, and that kid who was wearing a single sword crookedly. In comparison, the kid looked relatively easy.
'I'll kill that guy and take his sword. Then I'll ride the guy's horse that will be waiting outside and escape. If I sell the sword as it is and leave Yunnan to go into hiding, what can he do, whether he's a royal or a martial artist.'
Having finished his thoughts, Georyanggi spun the great axe he was holding and shouted.
"My-!"
But Jang So-gil's movement was faster than his shout. Jang So-gil used the Divine Dragon Wags its Tail form of the Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon, a leg technique that used the legs as fiercely and quickly as a divine dragon's tail. A bursting sound was heard, and Georyanggi was sent flying.
"Kuaack-!"
Georyanggi didn't even realize he had been hit in the stomach and rolled on the ground, spitting blood from his mouth. He couldn't come to his senses at all.
Georyanggi's martial arts level was quite high, at the level of a second-rate warrior, but there were levels even among second-rate warriors. His martial arts level was at the lower end of second-rate warriors. Jang So-gil was at the upper end of second-rate warriors and was at a level where he could become a first-rate master right away if he filled in a few missing parts. Was there any way he could be a match?
Jang So-gil withdrew his extended foot, sheathed his sword, and scratched his cheek.
"To fall to a form I extended as a check, my goodness. I still can't gauge the enemy's level."
In his head, he had envisioned a combo that went from Divine Dragon Wags its Tail to Soul-Stealing Flash, and then to Heavenly Dragon's Fighting Scales, but it was just one shot of Divine Dragon Wags its Tail? At this rate, he couldn't tell if the enemy was weak or if Jang So-gil had gotten stronger.
Well, he was the boss of a small mountain fortress, so how strong could he be?
"Ugh, ugh, ugh!"
"You punk, your screams are funny. Stop being such a baby."
"Grrr..."
It wasn't an exaggeration. Georyanggi's intestines were currently ruptured. It was because he was hit while he was talking.
Jang So-gil passed by such a fellow nonchalantly and opened the door of the house he had come out of. And he frowned deeply.
"Damn it..."
A woman with not a single thread on was lying there. Judging by her copper-colored skin, she seemed to be a person from the Southern Man, not from here, and judging by her youthful face and small stature, she seemed to be even younger than Jin Sangran.
Was she about thirteen or fourteen? For her age, her development was truly remarkable, but she was still just a young girl rather than a woman.
"Hmm."
So had read hundreds of books so far to learn the ways of the martial world. Many books described situations like this, and most of the processes and conclusions were similar.
The moment he gets close, the woman miraculously wakes up from the sleeping drug, and when her eyes meet the martial artist who approached to cover her with clothes, she screams and slaps him across the face. And from there, love begins. The two who have cleared up the misunderstanding talk, travel together, and gradually become intimate.
It was a common occurrence for the woman to turn out to be a princess, and there were also cases where she was the daughter of the Martial Alliance Leader or the only daughter of a reclusive master.
Anyway, he had read hundreds of books, and the content was all the same. It also meant that everyone thought the same way. He had scoffed while reading the books, but to think he would actually encounter such a situation.
"Let's pretend I didn't see it."
Jang So-gil did not like such an outcome, so he quietly closed the door.
When she wakes up, she'll take care of herself. It's best not to get deeply involved.
"By the way, you bastard, I had a guess since you were half-naked in broad daylight. Were you trying to violate even such a young girl?"
"Guh, guh, guh..."
He had originally planned to treat him and listen to his story, but he changed his mind. Letting him die was the right thing to do for the world. If he was left like this, he would groan in pain for a day and then die.
Looking at Georyanggi, who was drooling bloody foam and reaching out his hand for help, with cold eyes, Jang So-gil sat down on the stairs.
"There are too many beasts in the world."
* * *
Yang Gwan finished the fight before an hour had passed, just as he had declared.
Half of the more than one hundred people were sent straight to the afterlife because they charged in with malice. The other half were neutralized and made unable to fight, either by breaking their limbs or by making them lose their will to fight and tie themselves up.
He had killed half and captured half, and in the process, he hadn't even gotten a scratch, so it was a great victory.
"Then what should we do now?"
"Fire the signal flare."
A signal flare was a tool that raised colored smoke into the sky, and it could be used to give orders to people at a distance.
"Young Master So's color was purple. What command should I use?"
"Green and blue."
"Green is for an emergency summons... Huh? Blue is for requesting the government office, why the government office?"
"Don't we need to normalize the village?"
They had to clean up the thieves' corpses, send the captured ones to the government office to be punished, and find the villagers.
"The villagers are ninety percent likely to be dead already, but then we should at least find them and bury them."
"You're right, but wouldn't it be troublesome if the government got involved?"
"To use this village as a proper bridgehead, we first need to tidy it up. It's a huge task, and if I do it myself, my feet will be tied up for a long time. In that case, it's more convenient for the future to involve the government office and give them a little more money. It's not my money anyway, so I'll just make a good impression and take the credit."
"Then I'll fire the signal flare."
Purple, green, and blue smoke rose. Now, those who saw it would send carrier pigeons or raise beacon fires to deliver it to the nearby government offices or the Martial Alliance's post stations. Jang So-gil stared blankly at the sky and then said to Yang Gwan casually.
"Be careful so the thieves don't escape."
"Yes. Ah, and Cheongwol has returned and is resting. He was dozing off, lying down as if nothing had happened."
"So smart, my baby."
"..."
Was there something he was dissatisfied with? Yang Gwan grumbled and left.
"If you have something to say, just say it. Tsk, tsk."
Now he had some leisure until the people from the government office arrived. In that case, he had to do something important.
'Review.'
After a fight, you have to review it. No matter how short the fight, no matter how insignificant the fight, reviewing is important. If you imagine and observe the fight from various angles, you can see things you couldn't see before. Sima Hui had emphasized hundreds of times that the development of martial arts was only possible by gathering such trivial enlightenments like stars.
Jang So-gil stretched and reviewed the fight from just before.
'I was sure the thief had let his guard down and extended my foot with Divine Dragon Wags its Tail, but if that had been a feint, my foot would have been caught. As soon as my foot is caught, I'll kick off with Divine Dragon Spirals in Mist and fly up... Ha, for goodness sake. All my attack methods are leg techniques. If the guy's strength is strong and I can't pull my foot out, there's nothing I can do.'
The Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon included leg techniques, but it did not include methods for using fists or a sword. Attacks using the feet were fast and good for seizing the initiative, but they had the disadvantage that the feet stopped at the moment of attack. If he was caught at that moment, he couldn't avoid it, so he needed another means of attack.
'In that case, I have to use the Soul-Stealing Ice Art, but this damn Soul-Stealing Ice Art is still at the level of one star, so the only thing I can use is the Soul-Stealing Flash.'
The Soul-Stealing Flash was powerful, but the number of uses was limited. Even if he saved and split the true qi of the White Azure Divine Sword, it was only ten times at most. If he used it at full power, it was once. The Soul-Stealing Flash using Jang So-gil's own internal energy was not only weak, but after using it, he would be so tired that he couldn't even use the Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon. He still couldn't use the other forms of the Soul-Stealing Ice Art. Leaving aside the difficulty of learning them, it was because Jang So-gil's internal energy was not yet at the level of forming a Yin Divine Body and creating an Ice Jade.
'Considering attack and defense, mobility and response ability, I need to learn a proper sword art now.'
He needed an efficient sword art like Yang Gwan's Yang Family Spear Art, which could deal with over a hundred enemies. In that respect, the Sun-Shooting Sword Art was the optimal choice. It could be combined with the Plucking String Body Step to instantly close the distance and pierce the enemy, and since it was a Daoist footwork, it would not harm the subtlety even if used together with the Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon. Gumen Long had said that if the Plucking String Body Step and the Eight Forms of the Cloud Dragon were used together, one could obtain both speed and illusion at the same time. It was truly the best bait worthy of the number one person in the world. The more he chewed on it, the more exquisitely the logic fit. Thinking about it that way, he could also understand Gumen Long's intention.
'This old man thinks he's gotten a good toy in his later years...'
Just as a self-made man projects the lingering regrets or sorrows he couldn't achieve in his youth onto his children, Gumen Long was also pursuing his other direction that he had missed while becoming an absolute being in Jang So-gil. Hadn't even Sima Hui recommended the Soul-Stealing Ice Art to So, recalling his regret of wanting to learn ice arts but being unable to? It was surely the same thought.
'Anyway, I want to finish this job quickly and learn the Sun-Shooting Sword Art and the Plucking String Body Step.'
It was when Jang So-gil, who was getting antsy, was twitching the corners of his mouth and holding back a smile. He felt a presence behind him. It was the girl who was about to be violated by the boss of the mountain fortress. She was wearing the leather clothes unique to the Southern Man and was huffing and puffing, looking quite angry.
"Where is that bastard?!"
That bastard must be referring to the boss of the mountain fortress. Jang So-gil pointed his finger at the fellow groaning on the ground. Then the Southern Man girl ran in one go and grabbed the boss's ankle. And then, she lifted the fellow up just like that.
"!"
(End of Chapter)