A moment later, a deafening bell began ringing through the air.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
That must mean pirates were attacking.
I asked the innkeeper.
“What do you do here when pirates attack?”
“All noncombatants evacuate to the shelters, while everyone capable of fighting immediately moves to engage the pirates.”
“And who counts as fighting personnel?”
“The Hainan Sect’s disciples, each village’s militia, and the soldiers stationed at the county and prefectural offices.”
I could see elderly people, women, and children hurriedly making their way somewhere.
They grabbed their belongings and moved in perfect order almost immediately, so they were clearly accustomed to evacuating like this.
In other words, they kept emergency bags packed and ready at all times.
“I heard Hainan Island suffers frequent pirate attacks.”
“That’s right. Things had been quiet for a while, but I suspect they heard the rumors that a large amount of food was distributed here recently.”
“So my donation ended up causing trouble.”
When I spoke bitterly, the innkeeper hurriedly waved his hands.
“Good heavens! You mustn’t say such a thing! Great Hero, do you have any idea how many people escaped starvation because of you?”
I appreciated him saying that.
“These pirates would’ve come sooner or later anyway. Please, go evacuate somewhere safe.”
“What? You want me to evacuate?”
“Of course, I know you’re a formidable martial artist, Great Hero. But how could we possibly ask the hero who saved us to risk his life fighting for us as well?”
“No. If I have the strength to help and choose not to use it, what would the Heavens think of me?”
I answered firmly before heading back inside the inn.
My companions had already gathered there and were waiting for me.
“I’m going to give you an order. No… I suppose I should call it a request instead.”
I looked at each Escort Guard in turn as I continued.
“I intend to fight the pirates attacking Hainan Island. But I don’t want to order any of you to risk your lives for my sake. Your lives are every bit as precious as mine. So if any of you are willing to fight beside me, I would be grateful to have you. If you refuse, that’s perfectly fine as well. I will never hold it against you.”
The Escort Guards sighed at my words, and Escort Guard Seo Wu stepped forward to speak for them.
“Master, the very reason we Escort Guards exist is to protect your safety. That is absolute.”
“Exactly.”
Escort Guard Yeo Eung-am continued.
“Please don’t shame us like this. Wherever our master goes, we Escort Guards follow.”
Escort Guard Myeong Jong gripped his sword hilt and spoke.
“Besides, even if I weren’t your Escort Guard, I would never want to become a warrior who brought shame upon himself as a member of the Orthodox Factions.”
I smiled and gave them a fist-and-palm salute.
“Thank you for saying that.”
Then I turned toward Lady Seohyang.
“Deputy Gwak… no, Madam. Please evacuate immediately. And Palgap.”
“Yes, Young Master.”
“Protect Madam.”
“I’ll protect her with my life.”
“Then let’s go.”
With that, I led my six Escort Guards toward the area where the fighting forces were gathering.
The pirates had landed along Hainan Island’s southeastern shore.
People from the Hainan Sect and what appeared to be Hainan Island’s soldiers were already erecting wooden barricades there.
As expected from people who had suffered pirate raids for so long, their response was calm and remarkably fast.
“Ah! Handsome Young Hero!”
The man who recognized me and came running over was Warrior Cheong-ryu.
“Why did you come all the way out here?”
“Why else? I obviously came to help you fight the pirates.”
“But, Great Hero, you…”
“Is this really the time to worry about that? Aren’t you in a situation where you should take every helping hand you can get?”
“You certainly have a point. Then I’ll shamelessly accept your help.”
The Hainan Sect Leader had gone through all that effort to build up their goodwill toward me. There was no reason for me to lose it by suddenly playing things safe.
And if I stood beside them and helped overcome this crisis, they might finally open their hearts to me for real.
Hainan Island was, after all, an island.
And people living on islands tended to form extremely tight-knit communities because of the harsh environment surrounding them.
My generous relief donation and the Hainan Sect Leader’s praise had led them to treat me like a hero, but that didn’t mean they had completely accepted me as one of their own.
In that respect, they were rather similar to Sichuan, which was practically an island unto itself despite being on the mainland.
That was part of my reason for helping, but I also genuinely wanted to aid people who had suffered so much at the pirates’ hands.
I looked toward the pirates advancing in the distance.
Archers stood at the front of their formation, while men carrying grappling hooks and ropes followed behind them.
Their plan seemed to be suppressing or pinning us down with volleys of arrows while the others tore down the barricades.
“Shields up!”
At the commander’s order, the soldiers raised their shields while the spearmen thrust their spears through the gaps.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
I heard arrows burying themselves in the shields.
For now, they were blocking the arrows well enough, but if those barricades came down, our side would suffer heavy casualties.
What should I do?
After thinking for a moment, I called out to Warrior Cheong-ryu.
“Warrior Cheong-ryu.”
“Yes!”
“I’m thinking of cutting into their ranks and wreaking havoc from inside. Can you handle that?”
“Of course.”
“Then let’s go!”
Together with several Escort Guards and Warrior Cheong-ryu, I struck the pirates from their flank.
Since the maneuver carried considerable risk, I only brought warriors at the Peak realm or higher with me.
Then we began cutting down everyone in our path.
“Aaagh! Wh-What the hell?”
“Where did these bastards come from?”
“Gugh!”
From the pirates’ perspective, the five of us suddenly tearing into their ranks must have seemed like a catastrophe.
Their formation began collapsing almost instantly.
No matter how thoroughly trained an elite force might be, the moment its formation collapsed, it could turn into a disorderly mob in the blink of an eye.
Conversely, even poorly trained soldiers could still perform reasonably well as long as they maintained formation.
The darkness made matters even worse for them.
As warriors at the Peak realm or above, we could both see and sense our enemies’ movements through the darkness, but they couldn’t do the same to us. They had no way to respond properly.
“Time to pull out.”
“Yes!”
Having thrown their formation into complete chaos, we quickly withdrew.
“They’re running!”
“Damn it! Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
I casually cut down the pirate who stepped into my path and sent his head flying.
Truthfully, with our level of martial prowess, we could probably kill most of them ourselves.
But even Peak warriors didn’t have limitless stamina.
And we had to prepare for the worst.
Because assuming the men in front of us were the pirates’ entire force would be foolish.
The real threats were the ones who had remained aboard the ships.
More importantly, the Unorthodox Qi I sensed from them was strangely similar to the Qi possessed by the warriors who had served under that man named Cheon Cheon-bok.
Not all Unorthodox Qi felt the same, after all.
Thanks to us disrupting the pirates’ front line, the battle had begun shifting decisively in our favor.
Just then, someone approached from behind and spoke to Warrior Cheong-ryu.
“We’ll leave this place to the soldiers and militia now. The rest of us will attack the ships.”
“I’ll help as well.”
At my words, the man turned toward me.
“We’ll have to board their ships. That means entering the sea and swimming out to them. Will you be all right with that?”
“Of course.”
“Then I’ll be counting on you. Ah, I nearly forgot to introduce myself. My name is Do Jin, and I serve as Commander of the Assault Division.”
Which meant the Hainan Sect maintained its own dedicated combat division.
They no longer needed us here.
So I followed him toward the ships.
A pirate’s ship was his lifeline.
Without a ship, he couldn’t raid anyone, and if things turned dangerous, he had no way to escape.
Destroying their ships was essentially the same as tying the pirates’ hands and feet.
Naturally, they defended their ships desperately.
That was also why their strongest fighters often remained aboard.
The force heading out to deal with the pirate ships consisted of Warrior Cheong-ryu, twenty-three Hainan Sect warriors, and the seven of us.
There were more Hainan Sect warriors available, but some had been left behind to fight the pirates who had already come ashore.
“Change into these night raiding clothes.”
Commander Do Jin and his agents handed us sets of dark clothing.
They weren’t completely black.
They were more of a faded black, as though the dye had washed out.
When I noticed the clothes worn by the others looked much the same, I realized they hadn’t deliberately given us their worst equipment.
I should send the Hainan Sect some new night raiding clothes later.
We moved quickly, but the pirates weren’t fools, so they had stationed guards along the routes leading toward their ships.
“We’ll handle them.”
“Make sure they don’t get a chance to fire their signal flares.”
“Then we’ll all go together.”
Escort Guard Seo Wu and Escort Guard Jin Yu darted forward first and cut the guards’ throats.
The men collapsed without even getting the chance to scream.
The rest of the guards were eliminated moments later, and Commander Do Jin retrieved the signal flares they had been carrying.
“If you strike one of these hard enough, it shoots out a blue flame. The pirates aboard the ships see it and immediately go on alert.”
“I see.”
We once again approached the ships in complete silence and eventually reached the wall of a building overlooking them.
“What’s the plan?”
Commander Do Jin answered my question.
“There are thirty of us in total, so we’ll divide into three groups. Each group will board its assigned ship before the designated time, then we’ll all begin the attack simultaneously once the signal is given.”
“That’s the entire plan?”
“Yes. The situation changes too quickly for us to rely on anything overly elaborate. Each group will simply have to respond according to whatever circumstances it encounters. And…”
And?
“Everyone comes back alive.”
“Understood.”
The reason for attacking simultaneously was obvious. If the other ships noticed what was happening too early, things would become much more difficult for us.
I continued.
“You said we’re splitting into three groups, correct? Then assign just one additional warrior to our group.”
“That would leave you with only eight people. Are you sure?”
“Of course. We’re fairly capable ourselves.”
And so, the eight of us took responsibility for the ship in the center and made our way toward it.
Everything was quiet, and I could see pirates patrolling the deck.
We had one hour until the designated time.
Meaning we had to get aboard that ship sometime within the next hour.
I examined the equipment Commander Do Jin had distributed.
They were climbing tools fitted with hooks, clearly designed to let us cling to the ship’s hull.
The Hainan Sect warrior who had joined our group briefly explained how to use them.
We equipped the tools and silently slipped into the water.
Then we slowly swam toward the ship until we were pressed tightly against its hull.
I glanced at the faded night raiding clothes I was wearing and gave a quiet chuckle.
I had assumed the Hainan Sect was so poor that they were forced to use worn-out clothes like these, but apparently I had been mistaken.
On a moonlit sea, completely black clothing would actually stand out more.
So much for my judgment.
I reflected on my mistake for a moment before sending everyone a Voice Transmission.
– All right. Let’s climb.
– Yes.
– We’ll circle around and board from the opposite side.
– We’ll take the bow.
– Then you two take the stern, and the other two take the starboard side.
The eight of us paired off, moved to our assigned positions, and began climbing the ship with the tools we had been given.
Thanks to Commander Do Jin’s equipment, climbing the hull wasn’t particularly difficult.
They had probably spent a great deal of time experimenting and refining these tools through trial and error.
Once we were just short of pulling ourselves fully aboard, we stopped and waited.
We couldn’t afford to be discovered before the signal came.
And then…
Fweeeeeet!
A whistle suddenly pierced the night.
The instant I heard the signal, I vaulted onto the deck and cut down the first man in front of me.
Slash!
“Ghk!”
I immediately spread my Qi throughout the ship, searching for the strongest presence aboard.
I had something I needed to ask him.
When several ships belonged to the same pirate fleet, each ship usually had its own vice-captain.
But there was only one captain.
And the captain’s ship was generally positioned in the center.
That was exactly why I had chosen to take the middle ship.
As I advanced toward the captain’s cabin, the others began converging on my position.
Then, just as we reached the cabin…
“Hahahaha! We already knew you bastards were going to sneak aboard.”
With that voice, pirates suddenly emerged from every direction and surrounded us.
I glanced to the side and saw that the teams on the other ships had fallen into the exact same situation.
In other words, the pirates had seen through our plan and prepared a counterattack in advance.
“H-How…?”
The Hainan Sect warrior assigned to our group looked completely bewildered.
“None of our operations have ever been leaked before.”
I quietly asked him a question.
“What have you done with the ships you captured using this method?”
“We either burned them or sold them as merchant vessels.”
“And what happened to the pirates you captured alive?”
“We killed them all.”
Then someone on Hainan Island had to be secretly cooperating with these pirates.
And there was only one answer that made sense.
Cheon Cheon-bok, Merchant Lord of the Chaehong Merchant Group.
The warriors he had hired to protect the pearls possessed Unorthodox Qi remarkably similar to these pirates’.
And once I considered his relationship with the Prefect as well…
Hah!
So they were all in this together after all.
I gave a faint chuckle.
That meant if I thoroughly squeezed that pirate captain for information, I might finally get exactly the answers I wanted.
The pirates had uncovered our plan, so they were probably expecting to counterattack, wipe us out, complete their raid, and then sail leisurely away with all their loot.
There was just one thing they had failed to account for.
Me.
That was when it happened.
Fwoooooosh!
Thud! Thud! Thud! Thud!
A barrage of arrows suddenly slammed into the ship.
Huh?
These arrows… why do they look so familiar?
–TL Notes–
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