SERIES: Unrivaled Spear Demon
CHAPTER: 35
35 Pasi (3)
A few drunken river pirates drew their blades.
“Who the hell is that bastard?”
“Who cares! Kill him!”
“How dare this son of a bitch!”
They hadn’t seen the bodies of their comrades who had died earlier.
It had all happened in the blink of an eye.
“……”
Chui raised his staff.
And thrust it into the belly of the first pirate to charge him.
Crack-!
The sound of a spine snapping.
His entrails, unable to bear the sudden surge of pressure in his gut, burst messily from his anus.
Chui immediately swung the staff sideways.
The second pirate, rushing in from the side, was tripped by the staff and fell.
“Guk!?”
As fate would have it, a single iron nail protruded from the plank where the pirate fell.
Puk-
The rusted head of the iron nail pierced the pirate's throat and jutted out from the back of his neck.
It happened despite it not being the sharp point of the nail.
“You son of a biiiiitch!”
The third pirate swung his sword at Chui.
Chui quietly took a step forward.
And pulled a hammer from his robes, smashing it sideways into the pirate's head.
Thwack!
The area around his temple caved in, and an eye, with nowhere left to go, popped into the air.
…Splash! …Splash! …Splash!
Three more corpses were now bobbing in the currents of the Yangtze.
“……”
“……”
“……”
Even the river pirates now understood.
The boy who had just come up to the Pasi was no ordinary being.
Gongson Hap’s brow furrowed.
“Who might you be, sir, to cause such a ruckus in another's place of business?”
It was a feigned, gentlemanly rebuke, but it was riddled with contradictions.
In the first place, this was not the Yangtze River Gang’s place of business.
As if it wasn’t even worth listening to, Chui flicked the brain matter from his hammer.
“First mountain bandits, now river pirates.”
The first blood he had shed since his return was that of mountain bandits.
Though, of course, they were merely grunts from the Black Way Guild disguised as the Green Forest.
This time, his opponents were river pirates.
Generally, they were a more difficult band of thieves to deal with than mountain bandits.
The laws and ethics of the land did not reach them.
To those who traveled the Yangtze or made their living on it, they were malevolent gods, more feared than any natural disaster.
But Chui actually found this type of enemy easier to handle.
There was no need to consider justifications or principles, nor any reason to weigh the severity of his actions.
“For all your posturing, your blood is still red.”
Hearing Chui’s words, Gongson Hap’s expression twisted.
Those were the very words he himself had spoken to the merchants of the Pasi just moments before.
Presently, at a nod from Gongson Hap, the river pirates moved as one.
“He doesn’t seem like an ordinary foe. Attack him all at once.”
Befitting the leader of a hundred men, Gongson Hap instantly blocked Chui’s escape routes.
The fifteen remaining river pirates, excluding the six already dead, raised their swords, spears, axes, and bows, aiming them at Chui.
“Archers, fire first!”
At Gongson Hap’s command, the river pirates moved swiftly.
Five archers stepped forward and loosed their arrows at Chui.
Sh-sh-sh-sh-sh-shik!
The arrows flew, aimed at Chui.
Flutter-
Chui took off his worn-out cloak and held it before him like a screen.
…Puk!
The moment the arrowheads pierced the fabric of the cloak.
Fwhipp-
Chui yanked the cloak, deflecting all the arrows in different directions.
Simultaneously.
Chururururuk!
As the cloak was pulled away, what came into view were caltrops scattered through the air.
The sharp pieces of metal embedded themselves in the faces of the river pirates.
“Kuaaaargh!”
The archers, who had relied on the distance and given no thought to defense, clutched their faces and retreated.
Chui immediately swung his staff.
“Don’t worry! He’s too far to reach—!”
The pirate at the very front stopped mid-shout.
Crack!
The tip of Chui’s staff had shattered his lower jaw as it passed.
Chui was wielding the staff by gripping it with the tips of two fingers.
This allowed him to attack from a much greater distance than the pirates had anticipated.
Riiip-
A pirate whose throat was torn open by the tip of the staff let out a scream.
As flesh and blood splattered wildly, even the hardened river pirates could not help but be terrified.
Panic spread.
“Hiiik!?”
“It’s a, a demon!”
“Aaaaargh— Save me!”
Chui descended upon the crucible of chaos.
Crunch! Crunch! Crack!
Chui swung his staff, beating the archers to death, then used their bodies as shields as he smashed the heads of the swordsmen who charged him with his hammer.
A few pirates with spears tried to stab Chui, but.
Thwack!
They were met by Chui’s staff, and their spears and spines were broken in two.
“……”
Gongson Hap did not intervene until every last one of his subordinates was dead.
Finally, after the last pirate’s head was smashed in, he spoke.
“Who are you, and from where did you come?”
“……”
Chui flicked the blood that dripped down his staff and looked at Gongson Hap.
Gongson Hap said,
“I see. I won’t ask who you are or where you are from. I, too, will let the matter of my subordinates’ deaths be buried here.”
“……”
“So let us go our separate ways. What do you say?”
Gongson Hap was a quick-witted man.
He had watched intently as Chui turned twenty-one men into bloody messes in less time than it takes to drink a cup of tea.
This wasn’t a fight.
It was slaughter.
And he knew it.
Gongson Hap continued cautiously.
“My men were not even third-rate. Though they claimed to have learned martial arts, they had barely scratched the surface. To be honest, if I put my mind to it, I too could slaughter them all in the time it takes to drink a cup of tea.”
What Chui had done, Gongson Hap could also do.
That is what Gongson Hap was implying.
“If we two were to fight, one would surely die, and the other would not escape unscathed. Would it not be better to avoid a battle of attrition? You were displeased that we attacked the Pasi, and I am displeased that you slaughtered my men. Let's call it even.”
Gongson Hap spoke in a soft, placating voice.
To this, Chui gave a short reply.
“Is it because you’re river pirates who live on the water?”
“……?”
“If you drowned, I bet your mouth would still float.”
Chui raised the tip of his staff.
Then he beckoned with it.
“The one who will surely die is you. As for whether I'll be unscathed or not… shall we make a wager?”
“A pup who doesn’t know to fear a tiger. You will regret this.”
Gongson Hap drew his broadsword.
Vwoooom-
The broadsword traced a crescent moon as it aimed for Chui’s neck.
However,
Cla-ang!
Chui swung his staff, striking the blade of the broadsword, and in that fleeting moment, he sent his internal energy through it.
“……! ……! ……!”
The force of the rebound that traveled up his hand made Gongson Hap lose his grip on the broadsword.
Splash!
The broadsword sank beneath the river.
Gongson Hap gritted his teeth and retreated.
He didn't need to look to know.
The wrist bones in his right hand had been shattered in that single exchange.
A supreme master!
How many could there be who could defeat him, a first-rate master, in a single blow?
Gongson Hap could only now sense Chui’s true power.
He clutched his trembling right wrist and backed away continuously.
And then his eyes met Chui’s, who was watching him placidly.
Shshshshshshsh……
The sound of the wind skimming across the river seemed unusually loud.
Red eyes, visible through the black hair that covered his face.
Seeing them, Gongson Hap unknowingly swallowed dryly.
Masters possessed a certain instinct.
Among the martial artists who lived by the sword, the length of one's life depended on how sharp this instinct was.
Gongson Hap knew his instincts were sharp, and he trusted them as such.
That was how he had been able to choose the path to survival at every crossroad of life and death until now.
And right now, the instinct he trusted so much was screaming desperately at him.
Run.
Run without looking back.
……But where could he run?
This was the Pasi.
A market formed on water, not land. There was nowhere to escape.
He doesn’t seem like the type to spare me if I beg……
In the end, Gongson Hap made his choice.
Fwip-
He quickly ran to his boat and pulled a rope on the deck.
In response, several fireworks shot up from the deck.
Pop-pop-pop-pow!
Gongson Hap looked back at Chui, who was walking toward him.
“Soon, all of my men will be here. And that's not all! The Thousand-Head is here as well. You'd be wise to run now.”
“I just have to kill you faster.”
“Hehehe. You think that will be easy?”
In that instant, Gongson Hap moved like lightning.
He snatched the nape of Byeok Ri-yeon, who was beside him, and pulling out a dagger he had tucked in his robes, he pressed it to her throat.
“There. One more step, and this little brat dies.”
“……”
Gongson Hap was threatening Chui with the blade at Byeok Ri-yeon’s throat.
But Chui’s expression remained unchanged.
“Little one. I’m sorry.”
Chui spoke to the terrified Byeok Ri-yeon in an indifferent tone.
“I cannot spare the river pirates just to save you.”
Then, Byeok Ri-yeon, held captive by Gongson Hap, spoke in a trembling voice.
“I know. Just please… make sure my mother can get to shore.”
“I promise.”
Chui nodded and took a step forward.
Gongson Hap, startled, shouted.
“Wh-what are you doing! I’ll really kill her!”
“Kill her.”
As Chui took another step, Gongson Hap took another step back.
“But know this.”
Chui’s crimson gaze locked onto Gongson Hap’s eyes.
“In exchange for killing that child, you will suffer the most gruesome fate in this world.”
“……”
“I will flay you, bit by bit, from the tips of your fingers and toes until only your torso remains. Then I will pluck out both your eyes and all your teeth, cut off your ears and nose, and sear your tongue with fire. And then I will throw you into the pigsty managed by the people of this Pasi, to live a life that is neither living nor dying.”
“……”
Chui’s voice, uncharacteristically verbose, still held no rise or fall.
But that's precisely why it felt all the more real.
And then there was the terrifying aura emanating from Chui.
It was an overwhelming sense of otherness, seeming to belong to neither the righteous, the unorthodox, nor the demonic arts, and it constricted Gongson Hap's very soul.
Gongson Hap cried out desperately.
“The… the Head… no, the Chief won't stand for this. No, the entire Unorthodox Faction won't stand for this!”
“Whether the entire Unorthodox Faction makes a move or not, you will end up in a pigsty. Without your arms, legs, eyes, nose, mouth, or ears. For the rest of your life.”
At Chui's indifferent voice, Gongson Hap's hands began to tremble violently.
Finally, his spirit completely broken, he asked.
“If I… if I let the child live and surrender… what will you do to me?”
To Gongson Hap's question, Chui shrugged.
“That doesn't seem to be for me to decide.”
“……?”
The moment the dazed Gongson Hap turned his head to follow Chui's gaze.
Smack!
A palm struck Gongson Hap across the cheek.
Where the bewildered Gongson Hap turned his head, Byeokri Yeon's mother stood.
She snatched Byeokri Yeon away from Gongson Hap and, with eyes brimming with tears, said.
“Kneel, you son of a bitch.”
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