Chapter 143 : The Heirs in Peril (2)

Chapter 143: The Heirs in Peril (2)

In an instant, I leapt from the oar I had been using to support myself.

It was like a salmon soaring above the surface of the water.

However, Ihwa Palace, the Old Red-Faced Phantom, and Elder Yoro refused to let up, emitting throwing weapons and palm force to block my attempt to board the boat.

While I defended against their onslaught, I lost momentum and landed back on the oar.

‘It’s harder to get on the boat than I thought. Everyone else has already been subdued, and they’re only focused on me now. I have no other choice.’

I looked toward Pang Giyok, who had fallen to his knees, and shouted.

“Giyok, hang in there a little longer! I’m coming!”

But Pang Giyok couldn’t hold on any longer.

Sleep began to overwhelm him, and his head kept drooping downward.

Barely clinging to his fading consciousness, she shouted one last time.

“Hwarin! Take care of my little sister!”

I shouted back at Pang Giyok.

“Don’t worry! When you wake up, you’ll see both me and your sister again!”

Upon hearing that, Pang Giyok bit his lip to keep from collapsing, forcing a faint smile.

Even if he collapsed, he wanted to at least see me board the boat.

My heart grew more urgent as I saw the young lords and daughters of the great clans, as well as the post-generation disciples of Mount Hua and the Three Assassins and Three Heroes, all asleep from the poison on Ihwa Palace’s ship.

“Young Master Yong, I’ve watched your performance today with great admiration. Unfortunately, it’s time we part ways,” Ihwa Palace said.

I shouted in response, “You think I’ll let you go that easily?!”

I boarded a nearby small, empty boat.

Whatever it took, I was going to get onto Ihwa Palace’s ship.

“Hohoho! Young Master Yong, I’m more meticulous than I may appear,” she said, lifting her hand.

At that moment, dozens of warriors stationed on the shore drew their swords.

‘What’s this? Are they planning to attack me from land even though I’m on the lake?’

I waited, curious how they planned to reach me with swords, unless they had bows. I was ten sheets away from land.

“Don’t misunderstand. They won’t attack you,” she said.

For a moment, I was confused by Ihwa Palace’s words. But then a dreadful thought crossed my mind, and I glared at her.

“No way...”

“Hohoho, that 'no way' is probably right,” she said.

I shouted in fury.

“Even the demonic cult wouldn’t stoop that low!”

“Hohoho, sorry. We’re not the demonic path, we’re the heretical path,” she said.

I glared at Ihwa Palace and launched myself once again toward her ship.

But as before, I couldn’t get on board because of the storm of throwing weapons and the two old monsters’ attacks.

Having used up all of the Third Young Master’s internal energy just moments ago, I needed time to gather it again.

‘Just one more hour, just one more!’

Massive true qi flowed in through the Yongcheon Acupoint and the Old Palace Acupoint, gathering in the Tai Chi Dantian.

As I waited for the Third Young Master’s energy to recover, it happened.

“Begin!” Ihwa Palace commanded.

Her warriors, stationed on land, scattered and began to swing their swords at innocent people without mercy.

Screams erupted from the spectators who had gathered to watch the battle, and they scattered in all directions.

“Aaaaah!”

“Murder!”

“Help! Someone help!”

They were just ordinary folks watching a fight, not knowing anything—and now they were being butchered.

Seeing them fall one by one left me in shock.

“If you come after us, hundreds of lives will be lost. But if you let us go, you might be able to save those hundreds.”

I hadn’t expected Ihwa Palace, Man Inhwa, to use such methods to bind my feet.

My face twisted in anger.

Pang Giyok, drifting in and out of consciousness, shouted with his last strength.

“Hwarin! Save them! I’ll wait for you, I trust you! If you come for us first, I’ll resent you!”

With those words, he could endure no longer and his head dropped to the floor.

I clenched my teeth.

“Giyok! I’m sorry. Just wait a little!”

I launched my body toward the land and shouted.

“Heavenly Central Flying Dragon Squad, stop those murderers immediately!”

As the Third Young Master’s subordinates tried to flee, the Flying Dragon Squad, who had been chasing them, turned around and charged at the warriors of Ihwa Palace who were massacring the civilians.

Jegal Yohye, slashing through Ihwa Palace warriors without mercy, looked at me and shouted.

“Brother, help Young Master Yong. Monk Gak Un is here. This place will be fine.”

Jegal Yeongcheon, who had also been enraged by Ihwa Palace’s cruelty, heard her words and rushed toward the warriors.

Jegal Yohye ground her teeth as she glared at Ihwa Palace, Man Inhwa, who had rendered her powerless.

‘It’s the first time I’ve been defeated this helplessly. I couldn’t do anything.’

Everything had happened so fast, like lightning, and she hadn’t had the mental space to respond.

She had only become a burden to others.

Mu Iso looked at the unconscious Jegal Cheongyeong he had pulled from the lake and sighed deeply.

Though she had escaped Ihwa Palace’s grasp, her wounded pride might never recover.

‘If Young Master Yong hadn’t been here, we would’ve all been captured by that so-called Third Young Master and Ihwa Palace. It’s thanks to him we’re safe at all.’

Jegal Yohye’s heart felt heavy.

She had no idea what to say when they returned to the Namgung Clan.

Namgung Soomyung and Namgung Sohong had been captured, and all the other great clans’ young lords and daughters were in Ihwa Palace’s hands. Not even her clever mind could come up with an excuse.

Worse, the post-generation disciples of Mount Hua had also fallen into enemy hands—surely the entire sect would be shaken.

This incident might even cause a storm in the martial world.

With Pang Cheollyeon and Jegal Cheongyeong unconscious, only Jegal Yeongcheon and Monk Gak Un were left standing.

‘Still, at least we have Young Master Yong. That alone gives me some hope.’

Right now, no one was more trustworthy or reliable than Yong Hwarin.

The bloodstorm in the lakeside town didn’t calm easily.

It took half a si-jin for me and the Heavenly Central Flying Dragon Squad to hunt down the murderers slaying civilians.

In that time, dozens of innocent people had already been killed.

The Flying Dragon Squad only had ten members, while over thirty Ihwa Palace warriors were committing the slaughter.

But I was there among them.

He never forgave the warriors who massacred civilians.

Everyone he saw, he killed on the spot.

“All of you, gather around me!”

I shouted toward the tourists who had come to the lake.

They rushed to gather around me.

A few martial artists who were on the lake for leisure tried to block the Ihwa Palace warriors, but they were quickly overwhelmed.

The warriors of Ihwa Palace were all at the level of First-rate Martial Artists, and they couldn't be handled with average skill.

I looked at the Heavenly Central Flying Dragon Squad.

They were doing well fighting against such skilled enemies.

‘They’ve all grown stronger.’

Now that the Soaring Dragon Emperor Sword had a proper internal technique to accompany it, it was showing its true power.

These ten people were competent enough to be deployed anywhere.

More than that, they were operating in coordinated units, efficiently subduing the warriors of Ihwa Palace, showing the results of solid training.

I hunted down and killed those who evaded me and continued slaughtering civilians as they fled.

Ihwa Palace had orchestrated this heinous act to buy time for her escape.

Even though I understood that, there was nothing I could do to stop it.

They used light footwork techniques to flee while indiscriminately massacring civilians—there was no way to stop them in time.

“Capture all those who are slaughtering civilians!”

Fortunately, warriors from the Namgung Clan arrived and began chasing down the Ihwa Palace warriors.

Three Arhat Monks from Shaolin also joined the battle, swiftly taking down the enemies.

However, their arrival felt too late.

Had only the Namgung warriors and the three Arhat Monks been free earlier, the young lords would never have been taken.

But the Namgung warriors had been tied up in life-and-death struggles against the Third Young Master’s men, and the three monks were occupied with other elders of Ihwa Palace, unable to aid me.

Once the Ihwa Palace warriors at the lake were dealt with, Ihwa Palace’s ship was nowhere to be found.

“Layman Yong, this White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword was a fake.”

Monk Gak Un spoke weakly, and I let out a sigh.

“Then it must be in the hands of the one they call the Third Young Master.”

“We tried tracking him,” Monk Gak Yoo said in a grim tone.

“And what happened?” I asked.

These three alone were powerful enough to take on the Third Young Master and retrieve the White Tiger Demon-Subduing Sword.

Their leader, Monk Gak Woo, replied.

“But we monks believed saving lives took precedence over chasing evil, so we returned.”

I sighed.

They, too, had turned back, unable to stand by while civilians were being slaughtered.

From that point, the screams gradually began to fade.

But as the screams died down, the cries of grief from the bereaved began to echo through the lake area.

The entire lakeside fell into chaos.

Doctors treated the wounded, and those severely injured were hurriedly transported.

Jegal Yohye approached me and spoke.

“We need to lock this area down. Ihwa Palace will use this chaos to escape.”

But doing so would invite resentment from the terrified and injured people.

“How are we supposed to control over several hundred people?”

Because of this bloodshed, not only those nearby but even people from hundreds of yards away were now clamoring to escape the lake area.

“We don’t have the manpower to control this crowd.”

“Then are you saying we should just let Ihwa Palace go?”

“What are you talking about? Of course we should go after them.”

“And how do you propose we do that? We don’t even have a lead.”

“I have an idea. First, we should return to the Namgung Clan and report this incident. Then we move.”

At that moment, I regained my composure.

Seeing this, Jegal Yohye suddenly felt a sense of awe toward me.

Though I was more enraged and heartbroken than anyone, I could still maintain a cold head to deal with the situation. It reminded her of the time I had fought in the bamboo forest long ago.

“How could something like this happen?”

Namgung Seong’s expression darkened after hearing our report.

“The young lords and daughters of the clans were kidnapped—how am I supposed to explain that to the other clans?”

“First, you should urgently notify each clan of the situation, and ask them to dispatch elites in case a battle breaks out,” Jegal Yohye offered her opinion, which she had considered on the way here.

“Yes, you’re right.”

Namgung Seong knew there was no other choice.

This incident had occurred in his territory, and worse, during an excursion he had personally planned—he felt even more responsible.

“And we must form a pursuit unit.”

“Of course,” Namgung Seong replied, and I stepped forward.

“Clan Lord, I can pursue them. Please let me lead the pursuit team.”

“Do you have any leads?”

“Yes. During my escort mission with River Center Escort Agency, I acquired a special fragrance used to prevent cargo theft. The post-generation disciples of Mount Hua were all carrying that fragrance, so if we bring the dogs that came with the cargo, we can track them.”