Ch. 33
I climbed up a tall tree and watched what Pae Maseong was doing meticulously.
I didn't know if Pae Maseong would be in danger in the middle of it, but for now, it seemed more helpful to watch what he was doing.
That became clearer as time went on, and this was an opportunity that couldn't be bought with money.
People ran out, screaming, towards the building that Pae Maseong had set on fire.
They were greatly surprised and tried to put out the fire, and just by looking at the atmosphere, I could tell that there was nothing ordinary inside the building.
Pae Maseong descended gracefully into the middle of the people who were running around in a panic.
Seeing Pae Maseong appear in front of the greatly flickering flames, the people could not hide their surprise.
While they were unable to even form a proper plan, Pae Maseong swung his sword, and dozens of people fell with a single sword strike.
Pae Maseong ran forward quickly, swinging his sword without rest, and after felling the people like that, he brought down the burning building as if he were cutting it down.
The roof was also burning fiercely and the flames were spreading, but when it collapsed, dozens of people inside couldn't get out and died like that.
Pae Maseong repeated the same action several times, and in an instant, hundreds of people died.
It wasn't just the weak people who were used as consumables who died in that way.
Even masters whose movements were extraordinary at a glance were caught up in it and died.
No matter how much internal energy and how excellent the techniques a master had, if a burning building collapsed on top of them and there was no time to escape, there was no way but to die.
I thought, 'That person is not someone who should die like that, but it must be an unavoidable fate,' and I clicked my tongue and enjoyed the spectacle.
Then, thinking that this was not the time for that, I began to watch to see if anyone was escaping from the mountain bandit stronghold.
There were many places to escape, but in the case where there was no one specifically guarding, it seemed there was only one place to use.
Numerous people were already running in that direction.
They were people who were running to save themselves, regardless of whether the mountain bandit stronghold was collapsing behind them or people were screaming for their lives.
Thinking that I had almost missed them, I landed on the ground, and the people who discovered me were startled as if they had seen a ghost.
"Who, who are you!"
I couldn't understand the people who asked such things the most.
But it was even more incomprehensible that I was answering them.
"Me? Ya Socheong."
Still, thinking that I had kept it short, I flew up and poured sword strikes on them.
I slit the throat of the guy in the front and then sent out a series of sword strikes.
I didn't know who among them was a master, but I didn't have any particular thought of avoiding them if I met a master.
I had seen Pae Maseong's training in the training ground and the sword strikes he had wielded in real battles many times, and my internal energy had also increased thanks to the elixir given by the family head of the Danli family.
Since I had seen it thinking that there would be a time to use it someday, I needed to try it once in a real battle, risking my life.
Once I did that, it seemed that it would definitely become my own.
The mountain bandits, realizing that I was not an easy opponent, took a step back and looked for an opportunity to escape, but such an attempt did not last long anyway.
They couldn't go a few steps before they could no longer move and fell as corpses.
The heat of the warm blood rushed up from the floor, and the surroundings were full of corpses.
Knowing that no one else was coming to where I was, I moved with my lightness technique and blocked the people who were escaping in that direction.
From then on, weapons clashed sharply in the air again.
There was someone who blocked my sword for a while, as if their skills were by no means low. That person pushed in with strong force and aimed for my waist, and in an instant, he cut my clothes with a sharp knife.
I quickly avoided it and managed to prevent my body from being cut, but the thought that I had almost been in big trouble made my hair stand on end.
But when I reached that situation, I felt more excited and alive.
If I weren't alive, I wouldn't be able to feel this way.
The thought that being able to feel the fear of possibly dying was proof that I was alive made me laugh.
My sword moved a little faster from then on. I moved quickly from then on with the simple thought that I had to move faster if I didn't want to die, and my body followed my will.
Before I came there, I was definitely not that sharp and accurate, but I was changing while fighting in the mountain bandit stronghold.
The clothes of the people around me were soaked in red, and then they could no longer hold on and collapsed.
I stepped on the people who were writhing in pain and aimed for another's neck.
I swung my sword without rest at the people who were rushing at me without giving me a moment to breathe.
The guys seemed to be angry that their weapons couldn't reach me.
But they couldn't be angry for long, and a moment later, they all became people who were lying on their backs, looking at the sky.
In less than a quarter of an hour, dozens of corpses were piled up around me.
As time went on, more and more people came to me.
It must have meant that more masters were abandoning the mountain bandit stronghold and escaping.
They were people who had endured the poisonous insects and fire and had escaped.
They were people who were moderately vile and had a moderately strong will to live, to the extent that they would run away without saving others.
I sent out sword strikes at them without rest and cut their sides, chests, and necks.
In the meantime, it seemed that a weapon had grazed my body a few times, but I didn't feel any pain.
Instead, my clothes were torn to shreds and were tattered.
I rotated my body and moved to another place, cutting down the people who were escaping there.
Only later did they seem to have clearly understood my intention.
I was not running away from them, but I was cutting them down while expanding the range so that not a single person could escape from here.
When they realized that the one who was chasing was me, not them, they were noticeably shaken.
They might not have understood who I was to be doing this to them.
My hands hurt because I had been swinging my sword for too long.
It seemed that the skin had been scraped off because of the sword hilt.
No one would be pleased with pain, and because of that continuous, trivial pain, I couldn't put strength into my sword strikes.
It was funny that I was complaining that my hands hurt while taking other people's lives.
I tore my clothes and tied my hand and the sword hilt together, and then ran towards the guys again.
It seemed that I was swinging my sword without much change from the beginning, but the corpses were piling up faster.
I had used less strength, but there were also people who fell.
So I even thought that they might be pretending to be dead to deceive my eyes.
I was so focused on the fight in front of me that I couldn't pay attention to what was happening around me for a long time.
Only later did I realize that that was my big problem.
It was okay now because Pae Maseong was here, but there would be cases where I would have to fight alone later, and at that time, I might miss the people who were aiming for me from other places while focusing only on the trivial problems.
When that thought occurred to me, I retreated from that place.
And as I looked around, thinking that I should grasp the situation, I saw that every building was burned down and collapsed, and there were almost no people coming and going.
In the distance, a shadow was slowly walking and checking the corpses.
It was Pae Maseong.
He seemed to be checking whether the people lying down were really corpses or if they were pretending to be corpses.
It ended sooner than I thought.
Only then did I also look around me and check the people I had dealt with, and it was hundreds even by a rough estimate.
It was a much larger number than I had thought.
It felt good to warm up after a long time. It was even better in that I had completely mastered what Pae Maseong had been training in the training ground, and I was so satisfied that I thought it would be good to create such opportunities often in the future.
Pae Maseong came over and said that it seemed to be all over, and I also nodded.
We ran to the place where the mountain bandits would have hidden their valuable things, and after searching for a long time, we found the boxes full of gold ingots and bills, including the cargo of the Silver Wind Force.
When I looked at Pae Maseong, his eyes also widened.
"We're rich now, Pae Maseong."
"Are you going to give me some too?"
Pae Maseong asked with a laugh.
"I have to pay you for your work."
At those words, he laughed even louder.
"Get stronger in the future, Pae Maseong. If you need an elixir, buy an elixir, and if you need a precious sword, buy a precious sword. With this much money, we don't have to work under others to get such things anymore."
"That's true, but for now, it's more convenient to be under someone to learn what I want to know."
Pae Maseong seemed to think that it was better to stay at the Cho family for now.
If he was there because he thought so, I also agreed.
It would be miserable if he were there because he had no choice, but if he were there because he had a goal, who would stop him?
"Should I hide it where people can't find it?"
At Pae Maseong's words, I nodded.
If it was revealed that we had such a thing, the people who found out might come to find us every night.
Pae Maseong might be able to kill assassins without any problem, but I wasn't that confident, and above all, it was annoying.
Why would I do such a troublesome thing when I could just hide it well?
Pae Maseong said that he had a place he had seen, and then he lightly lifted the heavy boxes and moved them.
There was a wide rock near the place where the mountain bandit chief had stayed, and Pae Maseong dug a deep hole under it, put the boxes in, and buried them.
He dug so deep that I wondered if it was too deep, and it seemed that it would also be a problem to take it out later.
Pae Maseong didn't bury everything and left some money for us to use.
It was twenty gold taels each, and he asked me if I needed more.
"I'm more comfortable with silver taels than gold taels."
"Then should I give you silver bills?"
"That would be good."
In the end, Pae Maseong took forty gold taels, and I received a hundred silver taels in bills.
Twenty of the forty gold taels that Pae Maseong had taken were mine, so I could get them anytime if I went to Pae Maseong.
"You can use all forty taels, Socheong. If I need it, I can just take it out from here again. Just tell me anytime."
It was convenient in many ways because of Pae Maseong.
We took the cargo of the Silver Wind Force and those things and leisurely left the mountain bandit stronghold.
The fact that the mountain bandit stronghold had been completely subjugated would spread on its own without us having to spread the rumor.
With the flames rising so high, there was no way they wouldn't know.
Since the fire could spread in the mountains, the government office would have no choice but to step in, whether they liked it or not.
Thinking that we didn't need to worry about the remaining work, I went straight to the Danli family, identified myself as Ya Socheong of the Silver Wind Force to the people guarding the main gate, and headed to the family head's residence.
(End of Chapter)