A Medieval Knight in a Martial Arts Novel – Chapter 42

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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Shrine
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“I’m not sure exactly what happened, but it seems someone died up there at the top of the waterfall.”

“What should we do?”

“For now, go find Elder Baek. I’ll… go take a look at the situation.”

“Don’t get hurt! I’ll be back quickly!”

William watched Hye-ryeong’s retreating figure as she used qinggong to disappear, then looked up at the waterfall.

He had said he’d take a look, but how was he supposed to climb up to the top of the waterfall? If he attempted to climb using the protruding rocks and ran into whoever caused this mess, he might fall to his death without even making a sound.

The waterfall looked to be at least 30 feet high. Rather than trying to climb it himself without anyone to watch his back, it seemed wiser to just wait and hope for the body to fall down. Putting himself in danger unnecessarily would be foolish.

Trying to climb up halfway could only make things worse.

“It might be better to search for more clues in the water…”

…But that turned out to be unnecessary.

William saw a man falling from the top of the waterfall and immediately sprang into action. He managed to catch the falling man just before he hit the water and carefully laid him down on dry land.

Judging by his well-developed muscles, he seemed to be a martial artist.

William checked the man’s pulse by grasping his wrist.

…It was faint, but his heart was still beating.

William tore off the man’s clothes. Rather than carefully undressing him, it was easier to rip the top to shreds. There was no time to undress him properly, and the fabric sticking to his wounds could worsen them.

With his upper body exposed, the man’s condition appeared to be very serious.

There was a long diagonal slash across his chest.

It was deep enough to expose his internal organs – at this rate, he would die from blood loss. William immediately took out bandages from his bag.

He wasn’t sure how much time the bandages would buy, but it was better than doing nothing.

…Even gaining 10 minutes for the dying man would be fortunate.

“I hope there’s a decent doctor in Tongcheng.”

Otherwise, this person would almost certainly die.

Even now, he was teetering on the brink of death.

William moved the collapsed man next to the fire and waited for the others to return. Fortunately, there was a noise from the bushes, and Elder Baek lightly landed in front of the man.

“My, his condition is critical. I’m not sure if we’ll make it in time.”

Elder Baek sat in front of the man and began rapidly striking acupoints on his body, leaving afterimages due to the speed. It almost looked like he was pushing the man towards death rather than treating him.

William belatedly realized this was acupressure.

Acupressure.

One of the signature techniques of the martial arts world that was absolutely essential in martial arts novels.

A technique used in various ways, such as in subduing opponents or slowing the worsening of injuries by pressing over 100 acupoints in the body.

That technique was unfolding before William’s eyes.

Seeing it in person, it seemed amazing that such a method could stop bleeding. He wondered how people had discovered and developed such techniques.

He considered learning it later if he had the chance.

Acupressure techniques were generally common knowledge among martial artists, so it should be possible to learn if he wanted to.

Of course, memorizing all the acupoints would be a real headache, but acupressure was meant to be versatile in martial arts novels. It could be used for attacking, healing, and even torture or stimulation.

With enough mastery, one could even use acupressure with something like an iron ball.

It was truly a versatile skill with many applications.

“I’ve stopped the bleeding for now, but we need to get him to a doctor quickly. Hagyeong, you’re the fastest, so run straight to the doctor in Tongcheng.”

“Yes!”

Hagyeong nodded with an unusually serious expression, then picked up the patient in front of him and kicked off the ground. His figure quickly disappeared into the distance. The rest of them looked at each other.

“Can you tell me exactly what happened?”

“A person fell from the waterfall. It seems there was a fight up there.”

“Hmm… We should go up and take a look.”

William had thought they might finally get some rest after walking all day, but now they were caught up in an incident. Still, there was nothing to be done once they were involved. They immediately moved to the front of the waterfall.

“…It seems more people were cut down in the meantime.”

“Elder, isn’t this the uniform worn by the Wulin Alliance patrol?”

The Wulin Alliance patrol?

The ones who kept getting slaughtered for every little thing in the original work?

William had only seen them mentioned in writing before his transmigration, so it was only after hearing Hajin’s words that he realized these were martial artists of the Wulin Alliance.

“Indeed. But why would the Wulin Alliance patrol be in a place like this… Could they have been tracking a demon cult leader and ended up being ambushed instead? We should go up and take a look.”

“I’ll stay here and keep watch.”

“Me too.”

…So should I wait then? William watched as Elder Baek and his disciples nimbly climbed up the cliff beside the waterfall, then turned to look at Hye-ryeong standing blankly beside him.

“Why aren’t you going?”

“What about you, Uncle?”

“…I don’t know how to use qinggong.”

“I sprained my ankle on the way here…”

But you were running just fine earlier.

When William stared at her face, Hye-ryeong laughed awkwardly with a “hehe” and averted her gaze.

“Stop making excuses and go up with them.”

“I want to stay with you, Uncle. I’m scared. And if the demon cult leader appears here, we need someone to relay the news to Elder Baek, right?”

Is this really something that the girl who was laughing while cutting off the heads of Japanese pirates should say?

Hye-ryeong, who had just made that ridiculous excuse, gently took William’s hand.

The touch of her small, slightly rough hand tickled William’s calloused hand.

Despite her appearance, Hye-ryeong must have trained hard with her sword to have such hands.

William let Hye-ryeong fiddle with his hand as he looked up at the top of the waterfall.

He hoped nothing bad had happened.

Though based on past experience, thinking that way meant there was a 100% chance something bad had indeed happened.

He wondered why he kept getting caught up in these situations when he wasn’t even the protagonist.

“Uncle, nothing bad will happen, right…?”

“I don’t know. By the way, about that demon cult leader you mentioned…”

“It seems the patrol accidentally discovered a demon cult leader and tried to capture him themselves, but ended up in trouble.”

“It’s fortunate we found them first. We don’t know how strong this demon cult leader is, but if he ambushes us, it could be very troublesome.”

Isn’t that what criminals like to do best? William gently placed his hand on the hilt of his sword and closed his eyes.

He could hear the sound of the flowing water eroding the rocks, the rustling of bushes in the wind, and birds chirping in the distance.

If any discordant sound were to intrude among those sounds…

“Not yet, it seems.”

“Pardon?”

“It’s nothing. Start keeping watch around us. We should assume we could be ambushed at any time since we don’t know the demon cult leader’s location.”

“Understood.”

Hye-ryeong finally let go of his hand and began surveying their surroundings.

But the valley remained quiet.

It was as if the flowing water in the valley was lulling them into thinking that nothing would happen.

However, they couldn’t let their guard down.

Carelessness was what most easily took people’s lives.

It was still quiet for now, but incidents tended to occur when least expected.

If an incident had already happened nearby, it was better to assume a similar incident could happen to them as well.

It was better to be tired from staying vigilant than to die shamefully due to carelessness.

“Do you think they’ll be alright?”

“They should be fine. Even a demon cult leader would find it difficult to face two peak experts at once. And there’s no reason for someone who committed murder to linger in that area.

Blood leaves the strongest traces, and since they’ve provoked the Wulin Alliance, they’ll surely send a pursuit team.”

William wasn’t sure how skilled the demon cult leader who caused this tragedy might be, but if the Wulin Alliance was determined to draw their swords, the culprit would have no choice but to flee.

No matter how incompetent they might seem in some ways, the Wulin Alliance was serious when it came to catching demon cult leaders.

How much longer would they have to remain like that, he wasn’t sure.

As the sunset faded and the moon clearly revealed itself in the sky, a faint familiar scent tickled William’s nose.

“…Hye-ryeong.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“Draw your sword.”

William felt a gaze full of hostility, no, murderous intent fall on them.

Whoever it was, they were certainly not friendly towards William and Hye-ryeong.

Instead of uttering the cliché line of demanding the person to reveal themselves, William drew his longsword for the first time in a while.

“Hye-ryeong.”

“Yes, Uncle.”

“When I start fighting with that person oozing killing intent, go find Elder Baek and bring him here.”

William didn’t know how strong the opponent was.

They could be second-rate, first-rate, or perhaps even at the peak realm or beyond.

But what did that matter?

It would be shameful for a knight to run away from an opponent he had to face.

William slowly took an ox guard stance and turned his body towards the direction where the killing intent was coming from.

His eyes met those of the enemy.

At that moment, a blood-colored sword energy, no, saber energy, flew towards William.

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The author did a decent job in setting up the atmosphere for the following chapters. I wonder how the demon cult members will be and what similarities they share with the pirates.