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Translated By Arcane Translations
Translator: Vine
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“Yeah, I didn’t like you either! You should be grateful that I gave you the vice leader position! I treat you nicely, and you’re trying to shit while sitting on my chamber pot!”
“Don’t talk nonsense! You speak such lies as if you’ve been treating me well! Weren’t you the cowardly one who was always on edge and checking my position because you were afraid that I would try to take your position? I didn’t like you from the start. Come out right now and offer your neck; I’ll give you a clean death!”
The leader lifted his *bō dāo* with a reddened face. And then, like a madman performing a sword dance, he held the handle tightly and charged forward like a beast.
“He’s fast. Can you handle him?”
Sanyeo asked me while watching him. I blinked and then, while recalling the leader’s movements, I swung my ax in the air.
Clang!
The vice leader and leader’s weapons collided with a fierce sound, and I shook my head and said,
“Yeah, I definitely can’t win in a head-on fight. No matter how I swing it, I feel like I’m slower than him.”
Sanyeo nodded and said,
“That’s your current situation. Even if you think you’ve gotten stronger, you still can’t beat the leader you were just playing around with in a head-on fight.”
I could understand what she meant. It meant that even if I was manipulating the leader and the vice leader, I shouldn’t think that I was strong.
“In the martial world, people who don’t know their own skills tend to die young. We’re on the same boat, so we should live as long as possible, right?”
Sanyeo sent me a look. After seeing her blinking her red eyes, I nodded and said,
“Yeah, I’ll try to live long.”
“Are you grateful?”
Sanyeo was blinking her eyes. I didn’t know what kind of response she wanted, so I just shook my head and turned my head away.
And in contrast to our peaceful mood, the vice leader swung his weapon widely and pushed the leader back. The air pressure created by his strength alone swept over the vice leader’s tent nearby, causing it to fall over, and the leader rolled back a full circle before barely regaining his balance.
After seeing the leader flustered, the vice leader let out a hearty laugh and readjusted his weapon.
“Hahahaha! A leader sure is a pathetic sight to see! Who would call you a leader seeing you rolling around like that!”
“Shut up! Uaaaaaah!”
The leader shook his head, gritted his teeth, and readjusted his *bō dāo* with both hands. As he put strength into his body with a forceful look in his eyes, I could feel the flow of his energy from far away. He had not yet reached the stage of manifesting a sword aura, but the inner energy that spread throughout his body was clearly strengthening it.
Sanyeo said while looking at his figure,
“He’s not as skilled in using inner energy as I thought. Is it because the martial arts he learned were so weak? Or is it because he was drunk and slacked off with his training? The sword techniques he uses with his *bō dāo* are also not that sharp.”
Sweat was dripping down the leader’s forehead. When he took a step forward while getting into his stance, the vice leader hesitated for a moment before raising his club and charging forward. It was as if he had decided to trust his strength more than the leader’s martial arts.
The leader kept talking even though he was sweating profusely.
“You haven’t seen the moves of the Crushing Mountain Sword Style (絶山刀法) in a long time, have you? Huh? Do you remember it? This is the martial art I used when I defeated the arrogant brat of the seventy-first stronghold in the Green Forest!”
“Th, the Crushing Mountain Sword Style…!”
“Is, is he using that technique after a long time!”
“Everyone, get back! You might die if you get caught in it!”
The subordinates were also acting as if lightning was about to strike. It seemed that the leader’s move, which he called the Crushing Mountain Sword Style, was quite sharp. Sanyeo said with an apathetic expression despite the subordinates’ fuss,
“Ah, I’ve seen that before, it’s nothing special. It’s just….”
“Ahem.”
I covered Sanyeo’s mouth because she seemed like she was about to say something more. Sanyeo stared blankly at my palm before moving her head back and said,
“What, there’s nothing to look forward to. It’s really nothing special.”
I looked at her again. Sanyeo tilted her head and said after seeing my expression,
“What’s wrong?”
“….Nothing.”
What was the point of saying anything? I watched the fight again with a deflated look. The vice leader, who had been facing off, tensed and shivered for a moment at the leader’s words but soon changed his expression and shouted,
“Your third-rate martial arts are no longer a threat! You’re drawing out your words, which means you’re scared of me! If you’re not going to come, I’ll go first! You coward!”
The word coward seemed to echo back especially loudly. It was because everyone, from the subordinates who were running away, Sanyeo, and the leader, had all shrugged or widened their eyes. Especially the leader’s reaction was as fierce as if I had scratched a painful wound.
He rolled his eyes back halfway, foamed at the mouth, swung his *dāo* forward, and charged forward.
“Co, coward? Y-you called me a coward again! Fine! I’ll chop you into pieces and kill you! Take this! The moves of the Crushing Mountain Sword Style!”
The vice leader, also feeling confident at his opponent’s reaction, swung his club with all his strength and charged toward the leader.
“Waaaaaaaaaa!”
“Uaaaaaaaaaa!”
The moves of the Crushing Mountain Sword Style flashed brilliantly. On the other hand, the vice leader’s club was being swung with only his strength and instinct, and was heading accurately for the other’s vitals.
The leader’s *bō dāo* seemed to be plunging down vertically, but then, he instantly shook the blade. An illusion was created as if the sword had split into three different directions, and the vice leader’s face was filled with confusion.
But the vice leader did not block any of them. He ignored all the *dāo* that were flying in three different directions, and instead, he was swinging his club widely towards the leader’s head.
Now it was the leader’s turn to be flustered. But even while watching the club’s trajectory, the leader gritted his teeth, and the afterimages that had been split into three combined into one again and flew towards the vice leader’s left shoulder.
Crack!
The leader’s *bō dāo* ripped through the vice leader’s stocky body and got stuck. It pierced through his shoulder and split half of his body in half, revealing his red flesh like meat that had been cut in a butcher’s shop.
Thud!
At the same time, the vice leader’s club hit the leader’s temple accurately. The leader had succeeded in almost splitting the vice leader’s body in half, but he dropped his *dāo* and was sent flying sideways with his head half-crushed.
“Uuh…!”
“Urrghh…!”
The leader, who had been sent flying, rolled on the floor with his head in his hands. The vice leader, who had the *bō dāo* stabbed into him, was shivering with a pale face while spitting out blood.
The subordinates and us were holding our breaths and showing our curiosity about the winner, and the vice leader’s wife, who had crawled out of her half-destroyed tent, had a clearly happy expression on her face after seeing that the vice leader was dead.
“Urrghhh…!”
The winner was revealed in a straightforward manner.
It was because the vice leader spewed out red blood from his mouth before falling to the ground. On the other hand, the leader was completely exhausted and was bleeding from his broken head, but he was still standing in his place.
His eyes weren’t focused, and his steps were staggering, but the winner of this fight was clearly the leader.
I made eye contact with Sanyeo. Sanyeo nodded, and I grabbed my ax and carefully walked out of the tent.
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The leader looked at his subordinates. His head was dizzy, and his vision was blurry, so he couldn’t see the expressions of his subordinates very well, but the important thing was that he had won now. Even if blood was dripping from his head, it seemed like it was something that he could heal if he stopped the bleeding.
The leader took a step forward.
The image of the troublesome vice leader was a little more clear now. The vice leader was lying there miserably as a hunk of meat that had been cut in half. The vice leader’s wife only looked like she was crouching, but she was probably grieving.
Things would get better now.
Anyway, a baseless positivity surged in the leader’s heart, telling him that things would get better.
With his body pale and weakened, the leader opened his mouth to reveal his ambitions.
“I…!”
Thud!
And then, the leader’s head was split into two pieces.
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I pulled the ax out of the leader’s head. It had been stabbed right into his head, so the leader’s head had been split into two, like firewood. Even if he was a zombie, he wouldn’t be able to live after his head was crushed like this. I pulled out my ax and walked forward with Sanyeo, stepping over the leader’s corpse.
The bandits were all before my eyes. They were looking at each other, and they seemed to not understand the situation where I had suddenly appeared and killed the leader.
I swept the floor.
The smoking pipe that the leader had used had fallen on the floor.
I picked up the pipe and held it out to Sanyeo. Sanyeo lifted her shackled hand and lightly flicked her finger to light it.
The bandits were only watching what we were doing, as if they were an audience watching a magic show. I took the pipe that Sanyeo had lit and slowly inhaled. There was almost nothing inside, so I couldn’t taste anything other than a faint burnt taste.
“Haa….”
I frowned, smacked my lips, and exhaled the smoke.
And then, I looked at the bandits who were still frozen and said,
“You know the rules of the camp, right? The strongest becomes the leader.”
Only then did the bandits release their tension one by one and start looking at each other or grabbing their weapons. Everyone was holding onto the arrogance of being able to become the owner of this sixty-something stronghold in their hearts.
Ironically, this dream, which would be seen as humble by some, was a dream that was far too arrogant for them.
I threw the pipe away and said,
“I’m not interested. You guys can fight each other and take everything.”
The pipe flew in the air.
I turned around and began walking away with Sanyeo, and then, the guys in the camp who had some power started swinging their weapons at each other, as if they had been waiting for the chance.
“I’m the leader!”
“No! I’ll be the leader!”
The bandits who had been standing in the watchtowers came down to join the fight, and the women who had been in the camp were screaming and running around in panic. The vice leader’s wife had already packed her luggage and was running away in the opposite direction of us.
That was a surprisingly quick-witted woman.
“Uaaaack!”
“Aaaack!”
The sound of swords and spears colliding and the gruesome sound of flesh being torn apart were mixed together.
The torches fell and slanted to the ground, causing the buildings to catch fire, and the corpses fell on top of the liquor and oil barrels and the fire spread.
Thud!
As if decorating our departure, a large flame rose up in the middle of the camp.
I smiled as I basked in the flames with my back, threw my ax in the air and caught it, and then looked at Sanyeo. Sanyeo tilted her head and said,
“Why did you smoke the pipe?”
“It’s cool.”
“Haha!”
Sanyeo laughed briefly and nodded. And then, while looking at the path we were headed towards, she said,
“Yeah. It’s cool.”
Boom!
Another explosion rang out. We turned our heads. The flames were rising endlessly. The sparks were spreading like beautiful pollen, and the shadows of people in the flames were crying out to escape the flames. But most of them were charred by the fire and lost their forms, becoming black corpses that withered to the ground.
Sanyeo looked straight at that scene and said,
“Do-cheol.”
“What’s wrong?”
“Call my name.”
“Sanyeo.”
Sanyeo said while still looking at the flames,
“Call it louder.”
“San-yeo?”
The corner of Sanyeo’s lips rose.
“Louder!”
“SANYEO!”
Sanyeo’s name echoed in the forest.
Sanyeo was closing her eyes and nodding as if she was enjoying the situation.
Only when the name of hers that I had shouted didn’t even leave an echo, did she turn her body and say,
“Let’s go. We should go down to the village now.”
She was a truly enigmatic woman.
