I landed lightly on the sampan that had come alongside, and the river bandits’ eyes all turned to me.
Their faces said they were debating whether to keep climbing the hooked ropes onto the passenger boat’s deck, or come down and deal with me.
The one who had been spouting nonsense could not take his eyes off me. Drool dripped from his mouth as he laughed obscenely.
“Khahaha! Seeing how nimble you are only makes me look forward to it more. This old man will—!”
I frowned at the unpleasant voice and sent a poison needle flying.
“Aaagh!”
SPLASH!
With a single shot of paralysis poison, the babbling bastard lost all strength and fell into the river with an ugly scream.
“You cowardly little—! What trick did you use?”
An oarsman watching from the side shouted and charged at me.
I lightly avoided his oar and kicked his chin up. The oarsman lost his balance as well and pitched overboard.
SPLASH!
A sudden silence fell.
The eight river bandits hanging from the ropes exchanged glances, then began climbing back down with the veins in their necks bulging.
“Stop her! Surround her!”
From above my head came Yeon Ryang’s worried shout.
“Sohae! Watch out for blades!”
“Okay!”
“Kid, don’t go easy on them! Hit them as hard as you can!”
“I know!”
After answering, I put the wind at my back and released poison powder. As the sparkling powder scattered, the river bandit who seemed to be their leader shouted.
“It’s poison! Wash it off! Dive!”
At his order, the river bandits clamped their mouths and noses shut and jumped into the river. Their black silhouettes sank beneath the muddy yellow water.
I was flustered by the unexpected response for only a moment. Then I gripped a throwing knife and began cutting the ropes connecting the two boats.
While no one was there, I had to separate the boat that had come alongside from the passenger boat.
Once I quickly cut every rope, the sampan lost its mobility and drifted farther and farther from our boat.
On the passenger boat’s deck, there were only terrified civilians glancing at me. Yeon Ryang and Beopgong were nowhere to be seen.
It seemed they had already crossed over to the other boats.
“Kraaagh!”
“M-monster! It’s a monster!”
“Call me a rakshasa, at least. I may not look it, but I do belong to the Buddhist world.”
When I turned toward the sound, I saw Beopgong rampaging with great enthusiasm on the ambush boat across from us.
Each time he swung a fist loaded with internal energy, the boat split apart with sharp cracks and fell into the river with an eerie sound.
A chill ran over me at the sight of debris drifting thickly downstream with the current.
...Wow. Terrifying. I should never mess with a monk.
Rubbing the goose bumps on my arms, I looked around. The river bandits who had dived showed no sign of surfacing.
I stared at the bubbles rising on the water and fell into thought.
Dumping poison into the river felt unpleasant, like I was becoming the culprit behind environmental pollution. Using hidden weapons was also a problem because there would be no way to recover them once they fell into the river.
But going into the water to fight them was impossible. What should I do?
Just then, something slammed into the bottom of the boat.
THUD!
The impact made the boat rock violently.
The moment I grabbed the gunwale and hurried to catch my balance, the boat lurched again, and river water poured inside.
SPLAAASH!
Water rose in an instant to my ankles, and the boat tilted wildly from side to side. It looked as if they were trying to flip the boat over and drop me into the river.
I kicked off the floor and leaped up onto the passenger boat’s railing. One by one, the river bandits poked their heads above the surface.
They were clinging in clusters to the edges of the sampan like barnacles stuck to the bottom of a boat.
A river bandit with loach-like whiskers glared and panted.
“You used poison! You cowardly—!”
“You attacked us first, so why do you keep calling me cowardly?”
When I answered bluntly and pretended to throw a hidden weapon, Loach Whiskers’s head slipped right back underwater.
At the same time, Cane, who had been quietly sleeping inside my sleeve, poked its head out.
“Chirr.”
“Hm? Cane, what is it?”
“Chit!”
Cane scratched my arm with its front paws and pointed at one of the passengers. He was trembling while clutching a pouch full of copper coins.
“You want me to use those?”
“Grrk.”
“Good idea. Excuse me. I’m sorry, but could I borrow some copper coins?”
“What? Y-yes, yes! H-here they are, Great Hero. Please spare my life!”
The sight of the man bowing and offering me the pouch made me feel as if I had become a river bandit myself. I hurriedly added,
“...Please don’t misunderstand, mister. I’m only borrowing them for a moment. I’ll give them back later.”
Clicking my tongue, I put my hand into the pouch, and a familiar sensation clung to my fingertips.
I raised the corners of my mouth and pulled out a handful of copper coins, moving them into my sleeve.
Now I did not have to worry about recovering my hidden weapons.
*****
The Eighteen Stockades of the Yangtze Waterways.
Heroes of the water who ruled the Yangtze as it flowed ten thousand li through bend after bend.
Among them, Gisam, a member of Water Dragon Stockade, which dominated the eastern region, was satisfied with his life.
While the friends he had grown up with in his village mended nets and went hungry clinging to palm-sized patches of field, he could roam the Yangtze and fill his belly with rich meat and liquor.
And what about the Water Dragon King he followed?
The Water Dragon King, who had unusually risen to the position of chief of all the stockades at a young age, was said to be such a powerful martial artist that even the authorities gave him ground.
Considering the authorities did not send punitive forces despite his constant plundering, it was probably true.
It was only natural that the stronger the leader, the tighter the group’s unity became.
The Water Dragon King did not even know Gisam’s name, but Gisam was proud of the fact that he was one of the Water Dragon King’s men.
That day had been the same.
As the weather grew colder and fewer boats passed, the bored Water Dragon King had hidden four ambush boats and one sampan around the gorge.
Gisam, who had been aboard the flagship, volunteered to board the sampan. He intended to be the first to climb onto the merchant boat and win merit.
“Pockmarks, you going too?”
“Yeah. I’ll pick the prettiest woman on that boat and offer her to the Water Dragon King.”
“You want to catch the Stockade Lord’s eye that badly? Dreaming big, aren’t you?”
Booger and Bucktooth thumped Gisam on the shoulder and snickered.
Gisam laughed with them as he checked the rope fitted with a grapnel. If he caught the Stockade Lord’s eye, he might receive enough silver to roll around in a pleasure house at the next docking.
Until then, Gisam had been confident he would win merit.
I definitely was... So how did it end up like this?
Gisam blinked with a deathly pale face.
The four ambush boats of Water Dragon Stockade, which he had thought no one could rival in this Yangtze gorge, were half-wrecked and burning.
After staring at the fragments of boats covering the Yangtze, Gisam slowly looked up at the girl before him.
With the Yangtze turned into a sea of fire behind her and a snow-white veiled hat fluttering around her, the girl was strangely beautiful.
That made her even more terrifying.
As she elegantly fluttered her sleeves and destroyed the dantians of his unconscious brothers one by one, she looked like a death god risen from hell.
When the girl’s eyes met Gisam’s, her lips slowly parted.
“Oh, you were conscious? I don’t want to go this far either, but... someone taught me to finish things properly.”
Muttering with a frown, she reached a hand toward Gisam.
He wanted to run, but his poisoned body would not move so much as a finger.
Gisam’s teeth clacked together as tears streamed down his face.
A disaster.
The existence before his eyes could only be described as a disaster.
An impact like a lightning strike smashed into his lower abdomen, and Gisam vomited blood as he gagged.
Poison seeped into his cracked dantian, and the internal energy he had spent over a decade gathering scattered to pieces.
He wanted to scream at the sensation of his qi and blood twisting, but no voice came out.
SPLASH!
Water as cold as ice wrapped around Gisam, and his body sank heavily.
Soon, the world went dark.
*****
By the time I finished dealing with the last river bandit, well over fifteen minutes had passed.
Watching the sinking sampan, I wiped my sweat-soaked hands against my clothes.
I had expected it, but destroying someone else’s dantian was not exactly a pleasant sensation.
That said, I had no time to sink into sentiment.
RUMBLE!
I had no idea what those two men were doing, but pillars of fire wrapped around the ambush boats and pierced through the darkness all the way into the sky.
Beopgong was skilled in protective energy, so he would be fine, but Yeon Ryang was not.
My mouth dried from anxiety. The captain must have been afraid of being caught in the explosions too, because he hurriedly began moving the boat toward shore.
I bit my lip and asked the captain,
“Excuse me, could you wait just a little?”
“We cannot, Young Lady. If we stay nearby, the fire may spread to us.”
“Then please don’t go too far—”
Just as I tried to persuade him, drumbeats sounded from the darkness.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Then something came flying onto the deck in a rush.
CRASH! CLANG!
Ceramic vessels shattered, and a musty smell of oil spread on the wind.
Bright red fireballs rose into the air all at once.
They were flaming arrows.
Burning flames drew long arcs through the darkness as they flew toward the deck.
Damn it, there was another boat? Did reinforcements come?
I urgently leaped up and knocked aside the flaming arrows, but it was impossible for me alone to block dozens of them.
Stray arrows fell onto the oil and made flames flare up.
“Kyaaak!”
“Sand! Pour sand on it! Hurry!”
Several passengers stomped their feet in panic and tried to put out the spreading fire.
Acrid smoke rose from every direction.
“Aaaagh!”
“Please save me! Save m—aaagh!”
Taking advantage of the pandemonium, river bandits sprang out of the water and began slaughtering civilians.
My heart pounded at the completely unexpected situation. There was no way I could save this many passengers by myself in time.
The passengers and river bandits were mixed together, so using poison was difficult too.
What should I do? At this rate, more people will die than I can save.
Just as I gritted my teeth and poured out every hidden weapon my hands could grab, fingers curved like hooks reached toward my face.
The moment I hurriedly tried to load internal energy into my throwing knife and knock them away, a blade flashed and cut off the river bandit’s wrist.
“Are you all right, Young Lady Tang?”
At the familiar voice, I turned my head, eyes going round.
A man in pure white Taoist robes stood there with a bloodstained sword hanging from his hand.
“Taoist Jinseong?”
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