Chapter 533
Chapter 533
Chapter 533. Carelessness Is Forbidden (4)
I asked my escort warriors.
“Is there anyone here who thinks we should not kill these pirates?” (Eun Seoho)
At my question, they answered.
“Surely not. I am not merciful enough to spare even villains.” (Escort Warrior)
“They are bastards who cut open pregnant women’s bellies and tell fortunes by the child’s sex. They must never be left alive.” (Escort Warrior)
“They are bastards who cut off children’s wrists and use them as talismans, so what more needs to be said?” (Escort Warrior)
I nodded.
“You are thinking the same as I am.” (Eun Seoho)
Then I charged at the pirates again, cutting them down and cutting them down again.
The escort warriors also swung their swords diligently, as if refusing to lose to me, and felled the pirates.
There were quite a lot of pirates, but from the start, this was not a fight we could lose.
Because we were three peak masters and one supreme peak master.
On top of that, many of them were drunk.
There were also those who hid after realizing they could not handle us.
But we paid them no mind.
What mattered was the captain.
He tried to use his subordinates as shields, but it did not go his way.
Because as I drew closer, the power of the Bewitching Soul Incense scattered, and his subordinates fled without obeying the captain’s orders.
Standing before him, I asked,
“How does it feel to be abandoned by your subordinates?” (Eun Seoho)
“D-damn it! Just what evil arts did you use?” (Jeonjung)
I snorted and asked back.
“Evil arts? The one who used evil arts was you. But now even that is over!” (Eun Seoho)
Slash!
One of his hands was cut off by my sword.
The reason this pirate crew was named the Blood Claw Gang was because the captain’s weapon was an iron claw.
And because that iron claw was always stained with blood.
However, with the attack just now, one of his iron claws had become unusable.
“Uwaaaak!” (Jeonjung)
He screamed in pain and fled. But even if he fled, he was still inside the ship.
I leisurely followed behind him, wounding him little by little.
If I set my mind to it, I could cut off his head in a single strike, but I deliberately did not.
He should at least feel a little of the pain felt by those he had tormented with the Bewitching Soul Incense.
Some might think this was cruel of me, but true cruelty was not this.
Making innocent people shed tears of blood was true cruelty.
Because that destroyed not only their lives, but the lives of the people around them as well.
And I am not such a kind and righteous person.
That is why I can do this kind of thing without hesitation.
After that deadly game of tag had gone on for about fifteen minutes.
Both of his arms were gone.
That meant he no longer had his weapon, the iron claws.
I had learned this while dealing with a fellow who used iron claws before.
That if you took away the iron claws first, they became helpless.
In the end, perhaps his stamina had run out, and he collapsed before long.
“Hah, hahah…… P-please stop!” (Jeonjung)
“When other people begged you like that, did you stop?” (Eun Seoho)
“…….” (Jeonjung)
“The phrase karmic retribution must be used for moments like this.” (Eun Seoho)
It was then.
“Take this! You bastard! Die!” (Jeonjung)
The captain tried to kick me.
A sharp blade was attached to the toe of his shoe.
“I thought you might.” (Eun Seoho)
As if it were nothing, I dodged the kick and swung my sword, and my blade cut off even his leg.
“Kkeuaaaak!” (Jeonjung)
I looked coldly at him as he howled in pain.
“D-damn it! Why are you going this far! What did we do wrong?” (Jeonjung)
“You did a lot wrong. So much that my mouth would hurt if I listed it all one by one.” (Eun Seoho)
I continued.
“And if I had to name your greatest mistake, it would be touching the small-bottle liquor our Eunhae Trading Company worked so hard to prepare. That was meant to be presented to the king of Dai Viet, you see.” (Eun Seoho)
“…….” (Jeonjung)
“Now it is about time to finish this.” (Eun Seoho)
Step!
I raised my sword and swung the Silver Mist Sword toward his neck.
Slice!
What the Silver Mist Sword aimed for was not his neck, but the necklace hanging around it, the Bewitching Soul Incense.
The Bewitching Soul Incense split in half,
Thud, thud.
and the red light of the Bewitching Soul Incense that fell to the floor disappeared.
Crumble!
Immediately after, the Bewitching Soul Incense turned into powder and scattered into the sea breeze, vanishing.
Seeing this, the captain screamed.
“N-no! My Bewitching Soul Incense! My treasure! Uwaaaak!” (Jeonjung)
It seems the loss of the Bewitching Soul Incense was more unfair to him than the loss of his own limbs.
With this, the wicked artifact that would later fall into the hands of a black blade, make countless people shed tears of blood, and drive them to death had disappeared.
The first goal was achieved.
Perhaps encountering the Bewitching Soul Incense earlier than I remembered was heaven’s will telling me to destroy it.
“Now it is about time to withdraw.” (Eun Seoho)
At my words, the escort warriors moved around me in perfect order.
“Do we just leave now?” (Escort Warrior)
“Yes.” (Eun Seoho)
There were still quite a few pirates who had not died, but it did not matter.
And Geumryeong had also entered my sleeve.
That must mean he had finished what he had to do.
I spoke to the collapsed captain.
“Then we will be going now.” (Eun Seoho)
And we jumped straight off the ship.
---
Four unidentified martial artists swept through the ship and disappeared.
They could not understand why they had suddenly disappeared, but it was fortunate for those who remained.
“Kkeuaak!” (Jeonjung)
Jeonjung, who was still alive, shouted to his subordinates.
“Liquor! Bring liquor! Kkeup!” (Jeonjung)
To forget the pain, he shouted for his subordinates to bring him liquor.
“Captain. Did that Bewitching Soul Incense disappear?” (Pirate)
“Yes! That damned bastard destroyed the Bewitching Soul Incense!” (Jeonjung)
“Then you cannot force us to serve you with the Bewitching Soul Incense anymore?” (Pirate)
“…….” (Jeonjung)
For some reason, the voice sounded chilling.
At this, Jeonjung thought, Oh no.
The reason he, despite not being very strong, had been able to overwhelm the sailors in this Blood Claw Gang and reign as their leader was largely thanks to the Bewitching Soul Incense.
But now that the Bewitching Soul Incense was gone, his position was obvious.
On top of that, was he not in a state where both arms and both legs had been cut off?
Thud!
At that moment, a fist slammed into his face.
Then a foot drove into his side.
“Keuk! You bastards! What do you think you are doing?” (Jeonjung)
“We suffered quite a lot all this time, didn’t we?” (Pirate)
“So shut up and take it.” (Pirate)
“Kkilkkilkkil.” (Pirate)
The pirates had no thought of collecting the corpses of their dead comrades.
They were too busy mocking the captain who had reigned above them all this time despite lacking the ability to do so.
Their suppressed emotions had exploded.
Naturally, their dispositions were absolutely not good either.
Under all kinds of mockery and violence, Jeonjung wanted to bite off his tongue, but even that was not possible as he pleased.
Because the pirates had punched him in the face and knocked out his teeth.
Amid that mockery, Jeonjung suddenly realized that all of this was what he had done to the sailors of the ships he had captured.
It was as if he could hear what Eun Seoho had said.
“When other people begged you like that, did you stop? The phrase karmic retribution must be used for moments like this.” (Eun Seoho)
In the end, he squeezed his eyes shut.
Papapapak!
At that instant, arrows struck the pirate ship.
“What? What is it?” (Pirate)
The subordinates who had been relieving their anger by mocking Jeonjung were startled by the arrows that suddenly flew in.
But their shock did not end there.
What struck after that were fire arrows.
Papapapapak!
Those fire arrows embedded themselves all over the ship, and flames began to spread across it.
“D-damn it!” (Pirate)
“Fire! It’s fire!” (Pirate)
“Put out the fire!” (Pirate)
They hurriedly tried to extinguish the fire, but that too did not go as they wished.
Papapapapak!
“Kraah!” (Pirate)
“D-dodge!” (Pirate)
Because the arrows that flew in afterward hindered them from moving to put out the fire.
In the end, the flames blazed up to the point that nothing more could be done and began swallowing the ship.
Moreover, because the liquor they had been drinking had spilled in various places, the fire burned even more fiercely through it.
The fact that all that liquor was high-proof fire liquor also played a part.
The pirates who realized the ship could not be saved thought of one thing before escaping.
“N-now that I think about it, there are gold liquor cups in the captain’s cabin!” (Pirate)
“Huk!” (Pirate)
“W-we have to at least take those!” (Pirate)
They hurried into the captain’s cabin.
But the door was narrow, and because people kept pushing in, the inside of the captain’s cabin became packed.
Those who had entered first confirmed that there was nothing left, but because of those continuing to come in, they could not get out.
If they had quickly jumped into the sea, there might have been even a slight chance they would survive, but greed hastened their end.
Whoosh!
Before they knew it, the flames had spread all the way to the captain’s cabin.
“Uwaaaak!” (Pirate)
“Hot! It’s hot!” (Pirate)
“Save me! Save me! Please!” (Pirate)
To Jeonjung, his subordinates’ desperate cries merely made him laugh.
He had wondered why the people who had attacked the ship earlier had disappeared, and this was the reason.
And the reason they had not ended his life and had simply left him there was……
“They wanted me to feel even greater pain.” (Jeonjung)
He wore a bitter expression.
Why had he touched the goods of the Eunhae Trading Company, of all things?
Had he not done that, he could have lived on swaggering around even in the future.
Whoosh!
The flames on the ship reached him as well, and because of the liquor they had poured on him while mocking him, fire spread across his body in an instant.
“Kkeuaaaaak!” (Jeonjung)
Unable even to take his own life, he burned alive and regretted his past.
But it was already too late.
---
I looked at the Blood Claw Gang’s ship blazing fiercely.
After jumping off that ship, we climbed onto the boat prepared below by the escort warriors who had been waiting in advance.
And as soon as we reached the shore, the squad leader of the archer unit that had been waiting approached me.
“We were waiting.” (Archer Squad Leader)
“The fact that you were waiting here means you can attack that ship from here as well?” (Eun Seoho)
“Of course.” (Archer Squad Leader)
“This is your first real battle. Are you nervous?” (Eun Seoho)
“I am not nervous.” (Archer Squad Leader)
“Then I entrust it to you.” (Eun Seoho)
He immediately gave orders to the archer unit, and they split into three squads and shot their arrows.
Arrows carrying oil jars.
Arrows lit with fire.
Arrows to hinder those trying to extinguish the fire.
The result was exactly that.
In this way, the Blood Claw Gang was annihilated.
So why did you touch our Eunhae Trading Company’s goods?
.
.
.
Only after confirming that the Blood Claw Gang’s ship had completely sunk and that there were no survivors did we return to the inn.
“Seoho!” (Jeongho)
Jeongho hyung came running out.
“Just what happened? The gold liquor cups inside the warehouse disappeared, and you took the Eunpung Palace Unit with you!” (Jeongho)
“Ah…… that?” (Eun Seoho)
I grinned.
“The ones who touched the small-bottle liquor were pirates called the Blood Claw Gang. So I sank them.” (Eun Seoho)
“What?” (Jeongho)
Strictly speaking, we killed most of them directly or burned them to death.
The reason I did not tell Jeongho hyung about this was not because I disregarded him, but because it was obvious he would worry.
“We recovered the goods they stole, so we can go to Nanjing’s Regional Military Commission together.” (Eun Seoho)
A short while later.
After putting my attire in order, I headed to Nanjing’s Regional Military Commission together with Jeongho hyung.
“I would like to see Lord Gaksawoerang.” (Eun Seoho)
At my request, Lord Gaksawoerang’s attendant briefly went inside and came back out, saying,
“He says to enter.” (Attendant)
I headed to Lord Gaksawoerang’s quarters together with my brother.
“Young Master Eun Jeongho and Young Master Eun Seoho have come.” (Attendant)
“Let them in.” (Gaksawoerang)
The door opened, and we went inside.
“We greet you, sir.” (Eun Seoho)
“It seems this will be a long story. Sit comfortably.” (Gaksawoerang)
“Thank you.” (Eun Seoho)
After showing our courtesy, we took our seats, and Lord Gaksawoerang also sat down and spoke to us.
“I heard. They say the gift to be presented to the king of Dai Viet was stolen this time.” (Gaksawoerang)
“Yes. That is correct.” (Eun Seoho)
“So are you thinking of substituting the gold liquor cups you purchased separately as the gift? Do you not know that, no matter what, its meaning would be diminished? This is something even the empire……” (Gaksawoerang)
He poured out his concerns with a thoroughly worried face.
“I am sorry to interrupt you, but that problem has already been resolved.” (Eun Seoho)
“What?” (Gaksawoerang)
“The story that we would prepare gold liquor cups in place of the stolen small-bottle liquor was a kind of smoke screen.” (Eun Seoho)
“A smoke screen?” (Gaksawoerang)
He tilted his head.
“We learned that pirates called the Blood Claw Gang, who operate around this area, had stolen it. So we personally went and recovered everything.” (Eun Seoho)
“W-wait!” (Gaksawoerang)
He held out his hand to stop me and asked,
“Did you say the Blood Claw Gang? Are they not an extremely infamous pirate crew around here?” (Gaksawoerang)
“So I heard.” (Eun Seoho)
“Just how did you recover it?” (Gaksawoerang)
I explained the full sequence of events to him.
“……And so, we sank them all.” (Eun Seoho)
When my words ended, Lord Gaksawoerang’s mouth fell open.
“I-is that true?” (Gaksawoerang)
“Yes.” (Eun Seoho)
I continued.
“They dared nearly ruin something our Eunhae Trading Company had poured its effort into. Moreover, they are people who gnaw away at this empire and could potentially ruin the trade. I judged that leaving them alone would be dangerous, so I took strong action.” (Eun Seoho)
“…….” (Gaksawoerang)
As if at a loss for words, he remained silent for a moment before clearing his throat.
“Ahem, in any case, that is fortunate. You worked hard.” (Gaksawoerang)
“Not at all. I merely did what naturally had to be done.” (Eun Seoho)
I showed my courtesy and continued speaking.
“There is one thing I would like to request.” (Eun Seoho)
“What is it?” (Gaksawoerang)
“I would like you to spread the news of this achievement with as much exaggeration as possible.” (Eun Seoho)
This will be a warning to the other pirates.
.
.
.
Jeongho hyung and I returned to the inn again.
And I had to listen to Jeongho hyung scold me for quite a while.
“What dangerous thing were you doing!” (Jeongho)
“But I had no choice.” (Eun Seoho)
“I know that, but…… Sigh.” (Jeongho)
Jeongho hyung let out a deep sigh, then smiled and said,
“Well done.” (Jeongho)
“Really?” (Eun Seoho)
“Yes. You would have been disappointed if I said you did poorly, wouldn’t you?” (Jeongho)
“Yes. I would have been incredibly disappointed.” (Eun Seoho)
At my words, Jeongho hyung gently stroked my head.
“Well, I will not scold you for running wild like that, but please do not get hurt.” (Jeongho)
“Do not worry.” (Eun Seoho)
“And thank you. Thanks to you, our Eunhae Trading Company will not have to be held responsible.” (Jeongho)
Responsibility.
That was right. That responsibility was also why I had personally stepped forward.
Then I should go into my guest room now.
I need to give Geumryeong the gold liquor cup I promised.
Since Geumryeong collected not only the small-bottle liquor and gold liquor cups, but also all the gold, silver, treasures, and expensive things that had originally been on the pirate ship, it is not a waste at all.
Geumryeong will be incredibly happy.