Chapter 206

Chapter 206

The raft was quickly completed.

“Is there anything I should be careful of?”

“Well.”

When I asked while trimming four logs to an appropriate size and firmly connecting them with rope, Yeongryeongdaeju, who had been answering indifferently with her head tilted, thought for a moment and then shook her head. The answer that followed.

“Giant squid. Sharks. Large sea serpents…… Well, there are things like that, but they don’t seem like they’d be a threat to you. Sharks and sea serpents won’t attack the raft, and even if a giant squid wraps the raft with its tentacles, you can quickly tear it off, right?”

“Well, that’s true.”

“If you enter certain quest areas, there will be water ghosts. Well, they’re just fakes created by formations so they don’t use real demonic power, but…… they’ll try to sink the boat, so just be careful of that.”

“Understood.”

Nodding at Yeongryeongdaeju’s words, I glanced at the treasure map I had put in my pocket. The appearance of the treasure map encoded in a complex manner.

“Mm.”

“Can you decode the treasure map?”

“To some extent. It’ll be difficult to do all of it.”

“What will you do if you can’t decode all of it?”

“I’ll have to find someone who can decode it.”

“……Find someone who can decode it? Here?”

“If I can’t decode it, is there any other answer? Well, I have some ideas.”

“Ideas?”

“The Jegal Family. Or Jeokrim.”

If the Orthodox Path has the Jegal Family, the Demonic Path has Jeokrim.

Jeokrim’s scholars are renowned for their learning to the degree that such a statement can be made. Although their learning is applied only to practical matters and profit-seeking, making their ethical consciousness weak, that doesn’t mean Jeokrim’s scholarship is inferior to the Jegal Family. In fact, when it comes to decoding treasure maps like this, Jeokrim might be even better than the Jegal Family.

“Jeokrim has large numbers.”

“Well, that’s true?”

“The number of Jeokrim members who participated this time is a full hundred. There are thirty zones. Then doesn’t that mean there could be about three Jeokrim members in this place?”

“It won’t divide quite that evenly.”

“It’s fine if there aren’t any. It’s no loss either way. Even if not Jeokrim, there will be someone who can decode it.”

What’s important is one thing. I need to decode the treasure map before others find it first.

“I’ll be going.”

As I spoke while floating the raft on the sea, Yeongryeongdaeju, who had been looking at me with a frowning face for a moment, let out a sigh.

“Let me give you a piece of advice. Go to an island far away, not a nearby island.”

“What kind of advice is that?”

“The nearby islands here are occupied by bands of water bandits. The Yangtze Waterway Eighteen Strongholds, you know them?”

“……Those bastards came here? The Sado Alliance allowed that?”

“This time they accepted participants without discriminating by origin.”

“Huh.”

No matter how much it’s the Demonic Path, they don’t accept everything. The same goes for the Green Forest, and especially the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds, which are greatly antagonizing the Imperial Palace by raiding grain transport ships.

If the Imperial Palace had been involved in this event, they wouldn’t have allowed the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds to participate. No matter how much he’s the Sado Alliance Leader, it would be difficult to completely disregard the Imperial Palace’s opinion.

And yet.

“The Imperial Palace…… turned a blind eye?”

I know that the Imperial Palace didn’t participate in the opening ceremony, but they’re lending a hand to this gathering. Did they allow the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds to participate?

Strange. A situation outside the norm.

There’s no such thing as coincidence in the world. There are only necessities that look like coincidences. Then surely the allowance of the Waterway Strongholds’ participation must also be an extension of such interests.

It’s not to show off the Sado Alliance’s full strength. Simply put, even the Waterway Strongholds had to participate. Something worthy enough for the Imperial Palace to suppress their own discomfort.

That might be what will be decided at this gathering.

“Thank you for the information. I should go back.”

“Daesageom didn’t try to go back, but you’re choosing to go back?”

“Other places maybe, but face the Waterway Strongholds underwater? Come on.”

I chuckled and shook my head. Facing the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds in water would be no different from suicide.

“If the Waterway Strongholds are guarding that island, conquering the island is close to impossible.”

“They didn’t seem that strong though?”

“They’re actually not that strong. If I could just land on the island, I could annihilate the Waterway Strongholds by myself.”

“Then…….”

“That’s only the story if I land on the island.”

Generally speaking, water techniques are martial arts that help one display their abilities even underwater.

They minimize water resistance and quickly cut through water to strike down opponents. The essence of water techniques is to ensure that even though both parties embrace the unfavorable environment of water, it gives me an advantage and disadvantages the opponent.

The water techniques of the Waterway Strongholds are a bit different.

“Yeongryeongdaeju hasn’t been on missions to the Waterway Strongholds, so you don’t know their terror, but those bastards are crazy.”

“……Is that so?”

“That’s right. There was once someone who thought like this. If the Waterway Stronghold bastards are that strong underwater, wouldn’t it be fine to just not go into the water?”

They sink boats if you approach by boat. But you can’t beat the Waterway Strongholds if you go into the water to prevent them from sinking the boat. So instead, ride the boat halfway, then abandon the boat and run across the water using Deungpyeongdosu to enter the main stronghold. Wouldn’t that be the end?

One famous martial artist with excellent skills actually put that plan into practice. And surprisingly, that plan ended in failure.

“Do you know why?”

“Because they threw nets and forcibly pulled him in. From underwater.”

The water bandits of the Waterway Strongholds handle water like their own bodies.

That’s not literally saying they use water like a yokai’s supernatural ability. Unless a martial artist uses some technique to manipulate matter through empty space, water can’t be moved at will, right?

Unless you’re a sorcerer, even if you can flow watery, clear internal energy, you can’t freely manipulate water. So the water bandits manipulating water is in a different realm from that feeling.

“If the opponent is on the water, they pull them underwater. Deep sea whirlpools. They ride the ocean currents, hide between waves, scatter bait to obscure vision with fish…….”

They don’t hesitate to cross into things beyond the realm of martial arts. If the opponent uses Deungpyeongdosu, they create an environment where Deungpyeongdosu can’t be used. I even heard that the main Yangtze Waterway Stronghold has countermeasures for flying sword techniques and Cheonsangje that come from the sky.

“To them, water isn’t something to overcome but a shield that protects them. Even in a situation where not all preparations are complete, to encounter them in a place like this……is……?”

Hm?

“What’s wrong?”

As I trailed off in thought, Yeongryeongdaeju looked at me with puzzled eyes. However, my head was spinning before I could answer.

‘Daesageom’s sect…… Blood Sword Gate is a long-time patron of the Five Dragon Escort Agency. Blood Sword Gate members often accompany the Five Dragon Escort Agency’s escort missions.’

‘The Five Dragon Escort Agency is based in Jiangsu Province. And if they want to transport escort goods from Jiangsu Province to western Central Plains, it can’t be done without following the Yangtze’s canals.’

I know. Daesageom isn’t a sect leader who just quietly watches over the sect’s operations from behind the scenes.

Daesageom is a sect master who requires his review and approval for everything, in other words, a hands-on type of leader. He would have taken interest in the Five Dragon Escort Agency’s affairs, which are deeply connected to Blood Sword Gate, as if they were his own.

Would such a person not know what methods the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds use? Facts that even I know?

“You said he didn’t go back?”

“Yes? What do you mean?”

“Daesageom, the Blood Sword Gate Master. He didn’t go back, right? He headed straight there instead, didn’t he?”

“Ah…….”

Yeongryeongdaeju, who had been thinking for a moment, frowned. A look of digging deep into her memories.

“Come to think of it, it does seem like he set his destination straight there. Maybe he went to get rid of the annoying Waterway Strongholds? Why, do you want to say that even the Blood Sword Gate Master can’t clear out the Waterway Strongholds?”

“It’s not impossible.”

“Is that so?”

“People at the level of the Ten Heavens are those for whom discussion is meaningless. It would be close to impossible at the Waterway Strongholds’ main stronghold, but attacking and destroying the Waterway Strongholds’ temporary base is certainly doable. That is, if he earned enough points to recover his internal energy.”

“I see. But why…….”

“Why did he go to the Waterway Strongholds?”

To earn the points the Waterway Strongholds have collected?

That doesn’t match the profit and loss. No matter how much it’s ‘possible,’ if I were in Daesageom’s position, I wouldn’t specifically bother with the Waterway Strongholds. Apart from whether it’s possible or not, it’s not efficient.

“Could Blood Sword Gate members be held captive?”

“For the Waterway Strongholds who are controlling this zone, there’s no reason to deliberately hold hostages, and even if they did, Blood Sword Gate members would avoid it. Unless they’re out of their minds, would they want to make an enemy of one of the Ten Heavens?”

“Ah…….”

“It’s not that hostages were taken, and it’s not to earn the points the Waterway Strongholds have accumulated. Daesageom would have no reason to take such a gamble…… Why then.”

Come to think of it, everything’s strange.

If they set up an environment favorable to water techniques, why put in something like an absolutely unsinkable boat?

I thought it was simply a welfare measure for those not skilled in water techniques, but isn’t it strange? The ones who actually use that boat would be those skilled in water techniques who earned points like crazy.

“Even those skilled in water techniques would inevitably need a boat……. It becomes that kind of environment?”

“There must be some mechanism.”

Daesageom knows about that mechanism. Because he knows, he came here to either cooperate with the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds or annihilate them—he’s trying to choose one of the two. Because he has to.

“I’ll have to scrap the plan to find Jeokrim and the Jegal Family.”

“Why? Did you decode the treasure map?”

“No, there’s no need to.”

“What do you mean there’s no need to…….”

As I spoke while putting my foot on the raft, Yeongryeongdaeju narrowed her eyes.

“It sounds like you’re saying you know where the boat is?”

“I’ll know where the person who decoded the treasure map before me is.”

“Are you certain Daesageom decoded the treasure map?”

“No. But I’ve read Daesageom’s thinking.”

“If the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds are here, nine times out of ten, the Waterway Strongholds have that boat.”

Finding Seomun Cheok.

That’s quite important, but actually, it’s not that urgent either. He’s moving little by little, but Seomun Cheok isn’t showing any major movements right now, so it’s hard to think he’s in danger, and even if he’s in danger, it’s not ‘real’ danger.

Compared to that, figuring out the still-ambiguous intent of this opening ceremony is important. I still haven’t properly guessed it, but if it’s Daesageom, who maintains close relations with the Sado Alliance Leader, he might have received some hints. That movement might also be an expression of such behavior.

“I’m going to the Waterway Strongholds. Farewell.”

“……Haa.”

At my words, Yeongryeongdaeju let out a deep sigh, shook her head, then folded her arms. The words that followed.

“You’re impressive though. Changcheon Corps Commander.”

“This is as far as I’ll pretend not to know. Look ahead.”

“Ahead?”

“It’s about time. We can’t keep doing this opening ceremony forever, right?”

Yeongryeongdaeju, who had swept back her hair, pointed to the sky in front of me.

“This should have filtered out the riffraff by now. Then what remains is one thing. Ending this drawn-out situation.”

“Just as you guessed. Daesageom prepared for that.”

“That is…….”

“The master of Zone Seventeen.”

Zone Master.

Yeongryeongdaeju whispered quietly while looking at the slowly gathering clouds.

“At this very moment, thirty Zone Masters are descending upon the thirty zones.”

“They’ll mercilessly tear apart the remaining survivors. To enter the central zone, a collision with the Zone Master will be inevitable.”

Capture the Zone Master. Only then can you advance to the central zone.

“Look.”

That’s the Zone Master of Zone Seventeen.

With a smirk, Yeongryeongdaeju casually brought up the topic, and I quietly raised my gaze upward.

At the end of my sight, it was descending from the clouds.

A massive form with blue scales—a Water Dragon.