Chapter 53 - Humanity

Even if the enemy had blockaded the entrance to the So River, there were dozens of boats here. Hundreds of people were spread among them, including no small number of martial experts. There were also many servants and hired servants of the Namgung Clan, along with their families, even if they contributed little beyond numbers. To take on all these people, support from the lakeshore would be essential. Yet the enemy had stopped pursuing them just before they reached the river.

'What does this mean?'

Did they mean that the forces ahead alone were enough to stop every boat here? Did that make any sense? After committing such a vast force to encircling the Namgung Clan, had they still brought enough demonic troops to seal off the river entrance completely?

As Tang Wu puzzled over this, a handful of boats at the very front picked up speed and surged ahead. Their passengers had taken the lights no longer following along the shore to mean that the enemy had abandoned the pursuit.

'No. This isn't right. Something is wrong.'

No matter how he considered it, Tang Wu could not understand the enemy's movements. At last, he infused his voice with internal energy and called out as loudly as he could across the flotilla, slowing the boats as much as possible. But the boats already out in front only sped up, apparently having no intention of stopping.

The escape flotilla soon split into two groups: the boats racing ahead and those hanging back with Tang Wu.

The distance between them had widened to roughly a hundred zhang when it happened.

"Woooo!"

"Reinforcements!"

"Reinforcements are here!"

Cheers rose from the boats ahead.

At the sound, Dong Bongsu realized that the inevitable had arrived, while Tang Wu and Tang Hwa could not hide their bewilderment. They had no idea why the people ahead were shouting with such delight at the sight of the enemy.

It did not take them long to learn why.

"It's the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds of the Yangtze River!"

"The Namgung Clan's Patriarch must have contacted them!"

"The Yangtze Waterway Strongholds have come to save the Namgung Clan!"

The shouts pouring from the leading boats identified the newly arrived 'reinforcements' as pirates of the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds of the Yangtze River. As if to prove it, boats soon began streaming from the entrance to the So River. Every one was a sleek, swift vessel with a large ivory ram mounted on its bow. Known as Yangtze Current Ships, vessels of this design formed the main fleet of the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds.

A flag flew at each bow, embroidered with eighteen great fish intertwined.

Kun.

That was the name of the mythical creature depicted on those flags. Said to measure several thousand li in length, to swim ninety thousand li with a single beat of its fins, and to churn up a tidal wave that overturned three thousand li of sea with one lash of its tail, the kun was the symbol of the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds of the Yangtze River.

The pirates called the kun the divine fish, and their flag the Divine Fish Banner.

"The Divine Fish Banner... Is it really the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds of the Yangtze River?"

The arriving vessels truly did belong to the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds. Naturally, those aboard would be pirates of the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds.

"The Eighteen Waterway Strongholds? Grandfather, why are they here? Uncle Namgung never mentioned anything about this. Could he have sent a messenger to the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds after we left the estate?"

Tang Hwa's excited tone suggested that she truly believed they were reinforcements.

But Tang Wu knew perfectly well that they were not. If Namgung Byeok could have secured aid from the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds, he would never have forced the wedding guests into such a dangerous escape in the first place.

Besides, had they not seen enough on their way here? Every route to the Yangtze had been sealed off. With even the skies blocked, what messenger could possibly have reached the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds faster than their boats?

Even if word of the Namgung Clan's encirclement had reached them, preparing to deploy and traveling here would have taken at least three or four days. Above all, there were far too many ships. More vessels than had left the Namgung estate already blocked the entire entrance to the So River, yet still more kept appearing. There seemed to be no end to them.

"... They're not reinforcements. They aren't reinforcements! We must turn the boats around!"

"What? What do you mean?"

"Don't you see? The Heavenly Demon Castle and the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds have joined forces! We must get out of here at once!"

Tang Wu was finally certain that the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds were enemies, not reinforcements. But in Dong Bongsu's eyes, that realization had come far too late. The enemy's swift ships could move vastly faster than their boats, which had already slowed and lost their momentum. Their sole saving grace was that most of the boats had stayed at the rear with Tang Wu.

Yet even with the crisis he had anticipated upon them, Dong Bongsu's gaze did not waver in the slightest.

What was it? What was he—Dong Bongsu—looking at?

A somber glint shone in his dark, sunken gaze. His calm eyes were fixed on the Divine Fish Banners of the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds, with their painstakingly embroidered kun.

'Found it. At last.'

By the time Dong Bongsu cried this inwardly, the leading boats were already quite close to the swift ships of the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds. The wedding guests aboard them were still cheering loudly enough to shake Soho Lake, oblivious to the fact that they were thrusting their heads into a tiger's jaws.

The foremost boat had drawn within a short distance of the line of enemy ships when it happened.

Suddenly, pirates poured out of the swift ships' cabins, every one of them carrying a bow. Their arrowheads gleamed sharply in the moonlight, revealing just how keenly they had been honed.

"Loose!"

Someone aboard a swift ship shouted the order.

FWOOSH! WHOOSH! WHOOSH!

A rain of arrows poured from the storm cloud that was the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds. That rain became a downpour, turning the decks of the boats that had recklessly raced ahead into bristling hedgehogs in an instant.

"Aaaaargh!"

It took only a moment for the cheers to turn into screams.

BOOM! BOOM!

Then the ships of the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds began their advance. They skimmed across the water at full speed and rammed the Namgung Clan's boats.

CRUNCH! RUMBLE!

Struck by the powerful rams, the boats soon sank beneath the water in clouds of foam. Many of those that had gone ahead were small, fast craft, making them all the more vulnerable to the rams.

The sounds echoed across the lake, reaching even the boats that had hung back.

Had the light of the full moon ever been so cruel?

The moonlight let them see as clearly as in broad daylight, making the wedding guests and their boats being brutally crushed all too vivid. It was more than enough to fill the survivors with terror.

"A-aaargh!"

"Run! Get away!"

With all order lost, the boats began rowing toward land at once. Even the boat carrying Tang Wu slipped beyond his control and headed for the nearest shore.

Most of the boats at the rear turned toward the closer shore on the right. Unable to see any better option, Tang Wu did not stop his boat from heading that way.

But that offered little hope either.

The torches of the Heavenly Demon Castle followers, whose pursuit had halted, began moving again. Before long, they had occupied the boats' landing sites in advance.

The land was soon covered in a sea of torchlight, while behind them the wakes of the swift ships surged closer. The Yangtze Waterway Strongholds behind, the Heavenly Demon Castle ahead. They faced the worst possible predicament.

"Grandfather! What do we do?! We can't reach the Yangtze, and we can't go ashore!"

Distraught, Tang Hwa fidgeted anxiously as she spoke to him. His face hardened as he answered.

"For now, we make for land."

"But over there...!"

Tang Hwa trailed off, indicating the shore with her eyes. They were close enough now to make out not just the torches but the vague shapes of their black-clad pursuers. The killing intent those men exuded made her skin prickle. Having never experienced anything like this in her life, she was already beginning to panic.

Looking at her, Tang Wu gritted his teeth and spoke again.

"Even so, we have no choice but to go that way, Hwa."

Tang Wu chose land. He had no other choice. As he saw it, there was simply no hope on the water. Even he could not contend with the Eighteen Waterway Strongholds, masters of fighting on and in the water.

Moreover, since his boat had been at the very rear of the escape flotilla, it could be the first to reach shore when they retreated toward land.

Thinking it over, Tang Hwa realized he was right. She merely grimaced in silence, saying nothing more. But the screams echoing all around were truly unbearable. They were so horrific that she could not help imagining the same thing would soon happen to her.

Then a thought flashed through her mind.

"Grandfather, shouldn't that man reveal himself by now? Why is he still hiding? No matter how powerful he is, if things get any worse, even he won't be able to turn this around..."

Tang Wu immediately understood whom she meant by 'that man.' The source of the Three Sacred Lights, the man presumed to possess unfathomable reserves of internal energy... that man.

He, too, had thought that if the man was aboard one of these boats, he would reveal himself now. Yet 'that man' still had not appeared before them. Or so they believed.

In truth, the very man they sought stood beside them, quietly waiting for the right moment. He was simply waiting in silence for the precise instant when he could escape this crisis, hemmed in by enemies on every side.

Dong Bongsu quietly turned his head and surveyed the unfolding situation once more.

Every boat that had recklessly charged toward the So River had already sunk. And the swift ships that had sunk them were now bearing down on this area. Having abruptly changed direction, the boats here had still made little progress toward land.