Episode 3
“Kill him!”
At one word shouted in anger, the mob came rushing in, wielding swords.
There were already six pirates on board, and behind them, there were probably at least a dozen more crossing on chains.
But Cheon Woo-jin felt puzzled.
‘Are they really trying to kill me?’
They said that they would kill me, but it felt like the momentum of Master Heukno was completely different from them when he killed people.
Of course, I was not talking about the obvious differences between them.
But whenever Master Heukno showed murderous intent towards someone, even Cheon Woo-jin, who was next to him, could clearly feel his determination to kill the other person no matter what.
‘Of course, the person who received that murderous intent would have been the most afraid….’
In any case, in that sense, the murderous intent displayed by the enemies was truly unsightly. It seemed like they had a mindset of, “If they kill, it’s fine, otherwise there’s nothing they can do.”
By the time he finished thinking, they were already near his nose.
Cheon Woo-jin hesitated as he tried to take out the Crescent Moon Stick hanging on his back. If he swung it wrong, it seemed like not only the pirates’ ships but also the boat he was on would all be destroyed.
Since he couldn’t turn the boatman who had done him a favor into a freeloader, Cheon Woo-jin took his hand off the pole and took out the crane fan.
Whooosh-!
The three white cranes drawn on the fan appeared.
A moment of doubt crossed the minds of the people.
‘A young man like this is in debt?’
Fans were usually weapons favored by martial arts masters and Taoist priests.
Soon, Cheon Woo-jin shook his Crane Fan gently, and a gentle breeze blew around him. He was planning to cut off the wrists of the excited thieves first before talking to them.
Of course, contrary to Cheon Woo-jin’s thoughts, it was questionable whether he would be able to communicate with the bandits whose wrists had been cut off.
At that moment, when Cheon Woo-jin’s was about to swing his weapon with such a noble thought.
“Okay, wait a minute!”
At the sudden shout of the boatman, everyone on the boat suddenly stopped moving.
The boatman, whose neck was still red from being caught by the pirates, approached urgently and continued speaking.
“I, I will give you more money. I will give you enough, very enough, to cover the medical expenses of the injured person, so let’s stop. Okay? We have only known each other for a day or two, so please, stop.”
The boatman bowed his head almost as if begging.
The men exchanged glances among themselves.
The boatman, who had been observing their reactions, continued speaking urgently.
“Great heroes, I have a duty to protect the people on my ship. I have lived with that mindset for thirty years, so how could I see this young man being stabbed to death on my ship?”
That was when.
“Oh really, I can’t stand it anymore.”
Among the reviewers, a man suddenly stood up.
Everyone’s eyes were focused on him. The handsome man, who looked like a green painting, pulled out the sword from his waistband and approached Cheon Woo-jin, speaking.
“This small group is an apostle of justice, and this person here is also a captain with rare convictions….”
Song Yi-yeon let out a deep sigh and aimed his sword at the pirates.
“I feel like trash just sitting there.”
Could those words have been the trigger?
“Ha, I really have to pass this test… Really….”
“Do you want to use up all your strength before you even get there?”
Once again, three of the reviewers stood up, muttering. In the midst of all this, one man pointed at Cheon Woo-Jin and grumbled.
“You are so reckless. How many numbers are there on this side for you to act so rashly?”
Cheon Woo-jin just shrugged his shoulders. In fact, whether they were there or not, the result wouldn’t have changed.
The pirates exchanged glances.
Their opponents were at best five guys who didn’t know anything about Baekdo.
But if the other watchers start to get swept up in the mood, it’s a different story.
Even though they were young, they had properly learned martial arts and there seemed to be at least thirty of them.
However, it was a situation where it would seem like they were running away in fear from only five people, making it difficult for them to back down.
When the pirates were contemplating..
“Are you going to fight or not?”
Everyone’s eyes became focused on the thin, cold face from which came the voice that was as cold as ice. The cold expression and the frown that was already there made it stand out even more.
She looked at the crowd with a pitiful expression and said.
“If you’re not going to fight, then run away right now.”
“……..”
Song Yi-yeon, who was looking at this, pointed at her and said.
“Are you Zhuge Liang by any chance?”
“……No.”
She hesitated and denied it slowly after half a beat.
Song Yi-yeon’s eyes narrowed.
“There’s a person named Zhuge Liang that I know well, and you really looks like them, though?”
“I said no?”
Song Yi-yeon didn’t really care whether she was Zhuge Liang or not. He just wanted to put the burden of facing the pirates on her.
“It seems like I am right, you are Zhuge Liang….”
“No!”
“Oh, no, of course not.”
Song Yi-yeon shrugged his shoulders.
She said while glaring at Song Yi-yeon.
“Whether I am Zhuge Liang or not, I have no intention of stepping up. I don’t want to fight with the enemy, and I don’t want to waste any more time. Is there anyone else who wants to step up besides those five?”
The woman who said that looked around.
But everyone just looked away.
If they were going to come forward in the first place, they would have done so a long time ago.
After confirming this, she spoke with a voice that seemed to be mixed with a sigh.
“None. Okay, then it’s your choice. Will you fight or run away?”
All of the pirates smiled, revealing their yellow teeth.
It was a smile that went very well with their characteristically disheveled hair.
“This pretty young lady has a refreshing personality. Good, I won’t waste any more time. Let’s kill these five guys and the boatman here, and we will lead the boat to its destination ourselves.”
Of course, they had the intention to plunder all the goods and the boat except for the luggage of the young warriors.
There was no reason to hesitate, since it was confirmed that no one else would come forward.
The pirates’ momentum changed in an instant.
Before they knew it, all the pirates on the other ships had come over, and there were close to twenty pirates on board.
The four warriors, excluding Cheon Woo-jin, swallowed their saliva. The thought that they might die unluckily in this fight entered their minds.
In an instant, the enemies who had been exchanging glances all jumped in at once. At the same time, Song Yi-yeon quickly ran forward and swung his long sword, followed by the three other warriors.
Clack clang clack-!
In an instant, the swords of the warriors and the pirates clashed together in the air.
“……..”
Surprisingly, Cheon Woo-jin just watched in the side.
“Che, Cheon?”
Song Yi-yeon desperately called out to Cheon Woo-jin while blocking the enemy’s advance. The boatmen and the other warriors watching from afar thought that Cheon Woo-jin had actually become scared.
Originally, it was like that in real life. No matter how hard you trained, when you first encountered a fight with sharp blades and blood flowing, your body would stiffen.
But that wasn’t the reason why Cheon Woo-jin was standing still. He looked back and forth between Song Yi-yeon, the woman with the cold expression, and the boatman, then tilted his head.
Everyone was behaving strangely.
First of all, Song Yi-yeon wasn’t using his abilities properly. If it weren’t for his inaction, he should have killed three or four enemies already, but no enemies had died yet.
Su-jeok 1That’s the leader of pirates, I think.shouted after discovering Cheon Woo-jin standing still.
“That ***** started the fight and is now hiding in the dark! Hit that guy first!”
A few of the men who discovered Cheon Woo-jin late rushed towards him with anxious expressions.
Seeing this, Song Yi-yeon’s movements became faster than before.
“Woojin!”
Song Yi-yeon stopped the men rushing towards Cheon Woo-jin.
It was absurd to take a step back when the fight actually broke out, but he couldn’t let him die anyway.
But the difference in numbers was overwhelming.
While three men blocked Song Yi-yeon, two other men ran towards Cheon Woo-jin.
“Young warrior Woojin! Get out of here!”
“Die!”
One after another, the cold, chilling swords fell on Cheon Woo-jin’s head.
“Move!!”
Despite Song Yi-yeon’s urgent cries, Cheon Woo-jin remained unmoved.
At this moment, he felt resentful of those guys who were just standing back and watching.
Of course, some of the warriors were in an uproar because they couldn’t bear to witness the death, but it was already too late.
Soon, blood spurted out like a fountain over Cheon Woo-jin’s head.
Even some of the warriors closed their eyes and turned their heads.
The scream that followed was not Cheon Woo-jin’s.
“Ugh, euaaaah!”
“Ugh!”
Two wrists fell to the floor, clutching their swords. The thugs grabbed their wrists with their other hands and sank to the ground.
He could have just cut off their necks, but it was a favor from Cheon Woo-jin that he cut off his wrist instead.
Cheon Woo-jin approached the people rolling on the floor in pain and spoke in a soft voice.
“Now that your wrists are like that, you can’t even hold a weapon. Why don’t you use this opportunity to live a good life?”
“…….”
At that moment, everyone on boarding the boat, including Song Yi-yeon, the crew, and the boatman, felt goosebumps run down their spines.
Cheon Woo-jin’s tone was not sarcastic. He simply wanted the pirates to live like that.
Song Yi-yeon felt a strange sense of alienation at his way of thinking that was different from that of ordinary people.
‘Are you really going to say something like that after personally cutting their wrists off?’
Song Yi-yeon couldn’t bring himself to say it out loud and just thought about it to himself.
Everyone on the boat stopped moving and looked solely at Cheon Woo-jin.
Only then did Cheon Woo-jin’s eyes widen as he looked around.
“Why are you all like that?”
“Hey, you…!”
Could it be that his innocent face inspired the other pirates to revenge their brothers whose wrists were cut off?
A few guys rushed towards Cheon Woo-jin.
Whoosh-!
At the same time, Cheon Woo-jin’s three cranes were revealed once again.
All of them instinctively stopped running.
Chun Woo-jin looked at them and thought for a moment.
‘What would the teachers have done?’
If it had been Master Heukno, he would have killed them all, but if it had been Master Baekno, he would have tried to persuade them with words first.
“Mmm….”
No matter how much he thought about it, Cheon Woo-jin couldn’t easily come to a conclusion, so he asked the woman with a cold expression.
“What should I do?”
Everyone’s eyes turned to her at that unexpected question.
She locked eyes with Cheon Woo-jin for a while, but then she let out a deep sigh and stood up from her seat.
“I am Zhuge Liang, the deputy leader of the Murim Alliance’s Hyunmu Unit.”
“Th, what is this….”
All of the people became frozen and blinked their eyes.
In the meantime, Song Yi-yeon let out an exclamation.
“Wow, I was just saying that.”
Zhuge Liang glared at Song Yi-yeon with an irritated expression, walked towards the place where the fight was in full swing and spoke.
“Thank you for your hard work, you can leave now. The number of people who passed the first test is now five people. I feel sorry for the rest of you, but the doors of the Martial Arts Alliance are not open to those who turn a blind eye to injustice.”
“……..”
Not only the enemies, but even the warriors were looking at Zhuge Liang with dumbfounded expressions.
“Hey, what are you staring at?”
Immediately, everyone’s heads turned towards the voice.
The boatman, who had been persecuted by the pirates just now, was swinging his fist. The problem was that his large fist was only visible in the shape of a fist, and it was moving at a speed that was difficult to follow with the eyes.
“Didn’t she tell you to get out of here?”
Bong-!
A fist the size of a pot lid hit one of them in the face.
The water droplets bounced off and hit the rock on the other side of the river with a thud, then fell into the water.
The boatman, who was looking at this with pleasure, shook his hands and said.
“He’s a decent guy, so he won’t drown.”
Gurgling-
The state of the fainted person was telling a different story.
“No, it doesn’t seem so.”
The boatman burst into laughter.
“……..”
An awkward silence fell again.
Whether it was the case or not, the boatman who was standing next to Zhuge Liang naturally declared to everyone.
“I am the leader of the Murim Alliance’s Hyunmu Unite, my name is Cheol Ji-ak. This ***ned job as a boatman ends here today. If you guys don’t go away by the time I count to three, I will consider you challenging the Murim Alliance and take legitimate but somewhat extreme steps. One….”
Before he could finish speaking, the pirates were already running away on their chains. Some of them were so impatient that they even threw themselves into the water.
Cheol Ji-ak, who had been looking at this with pleasure, approached Cheon Woo-jin with a very serious face and asked.
“You, since when did you know that we are from the Murim Alliance? You need to answer me straight.”
The entrance exam was prepared in complete secrecy.
It was to prevent people from taking positions through personal connections or money in the Murim Alliance, which pursues fairness.
That’s why Cheon Woo-jin’s answer was very important.
If the contents of this test were leaked to the outside in advance….
“I just found out.”
“Uh?”
Cheon Woo-jin said, pointing at Zhuge Liang.
“She was talking to herself.”
“…….”
Zhuge Liang’s jaw opened slightly.
