Chapter 777: Life Is Always Full of Suffering (Part 1)

 

“Thank you! Truly, thank you so much!”

“Oh my... Thank you, we owe our lives to you, Taoist masters!”

“How could we ever repay this grace…?”

Yoon Jong quickly shook his head.

“Grace? It’s nothing of the sort. We just did what we were supposed to do.”

“Still, we are so grateful. We must find a way to repay you somehow!”

“There’s really no need...”

“Ah, repayment? Repayment, you say? Who was talking about repayment?!”

Chung Myung shoved Yoon Jong aside and grabbed the old man’s hands with a broad smile.

“You said repayment, didn’t you?”

“Uh, well… yes…”

Yoon Jong’s face twisted in frustration.

“We already plundered the pirates, isn’t that enough? Why are you even asking people who’ve already suffered?”

“Well, when you get back, make sure to spread the word that the Mount Hua Sect defeated the pirates and saved all of you.”

“Huh?”

“Tell everyone! Spread the word! Let them know we destroyed two pirate ships! If you do that, it’ll be a great repayment!”

“Would that really be enough?”

“Oh, believe me, that’ll be a huge repayment. But you’ve got to be really enthusiastic about it. Got it?”

“If that’s really helpful, I’ll do my best to tell everyone.”

“Haha, see? You’re a good man who understands!”

Yoon Jong, who was about to scold Chung Myung, closed his mouth, speechless. It wasn’t really something that could be called repayment.

“What about us, then?”

“First, we need to check if anyone is too weak or exhausted. If not, we’ll send them to land right away.”

“Land...?”

“Oh, don’t worry. We’ll drop you off at the nearest port. Or if you prefer, we can take you to your original destination.”

“No, we couldn’t trouble you that much.”

“Ah, it’s no trouble. After all, I’m not the one steering the ship.”

“Pardon?”

“Hehe, just saying.”

Chung Myung chuckled as he spoke.

The old man, still holding Chung Myung’s hands, looked at him in bewilderment.

“All the civilians have been sent onto the ships,” Yoon Jong reported.

Jo Gul asked with a worried expression, “Are we sure it’s safe? These are pirate ships, after all.”

“They’ll be fine. The Green Forest bandits went with them.”

“So... pirates and bandits together... makes it fine?”

Something’s wrong.

It was hard to pinpoint exactly what, but something definitely felt wrong.

“We also found two members of Ghost Sect among the prisoners. Including the one we found earlier, it seems we’ve accounted for everyone except one.”

“And that one?”

Yoon Jong’s expression darkened as his words trailed off, prompting Baek Cheon to sigh.

Considering everything that had happened, it wasn’t easy to find and rescue everyone, but there was still a lingering heaviness in their hearts.

“Baek Sang.”

“Yes, senior brother.”

“What did you find out from interrogating them?”

“...There’s not much. Most of them were just people who fled from other pirate ships or random drifters, or hired mercenaries.”

“Mercenaries?”

“Yes. There seem to be quite a few of them around the Yangtze River. These people don’t belong to any specific group and are hired anonymously, so it’s hard to identify them in advance.”

“Hmm.”

Baek Cheon’s face stiffened as he pondered.

‘Mercenaries, huh?’

Hiring mercenaries to build a pirate base...

He eventually turned to look at Jo Seung.

“Is it common to hire mercenaries when constructing a pirate base?”

“This is the first I’m hearing of it. If they had that kind of money, why would they turn to piracy?”

“Well, that makes sense.”

Something didn’t quite add up.

‘But maybe it’s not that important.’

In any case, they had wiped them out, so whatever the pirates were planning was now meaningless. What mattered most was that they had thoroughly punished those who messed with Mount Hua, sending a clear message to the rest of the pirates along the Yangtze River.

“We just need to wrap things up and head back.”

Baek Cheon, feeling slightly more at ease, gazed out at the vast Yangtze River.

It had been a long journey full of both trouble and lessons learned.

“Senior brother, I don’t ever want to see water again,” Jo Gul muttered.

“When we return to Mount Hua, I’m not even going to wash my face for a while.”

“You don’t wash often anyway, Jo Gul.”

“What are you talking about?! I wash all the time!”

“Then why do you always smell like sweat?”

“That’s because I train right after washing! This is so unfair!”

The disciples of Mount Hua seemed to regain some of their energy. Though they had plenty to reflect on, they couldn’t stay down forever.

‘If you fall, you just get back up and keep running,’ Baek Cheon thought as he gathered himself.

“Well then, let’s wrap this up... but where’s Chung Myung?”

“Huh? Wasn’t he here?”

“...Where is that brat? It’s always worrying when he’s not around.”

The disciples of Mount Hua stretched their necks and began looking around quickly. Given that this was an open plain, there weren’t many places to hide. Soon enough, they spotted Chung Myung standing by the riverside, staring across the water.

“What are you doing over there?” Baek Cheon called out.

“Senior brother,” Chung Myung responded without turning around, still gazing across to the opposite bank.

“How far do you think it is from here to there?”

“Huh?”

Caught off guard by the sudden question, Baek Cheon answered instinctively.

“Uh... about a hundred jang? No, more like three hundred jang, I’d say?”

The sheer width of the Yangtze became even more apparent in that moment. Normally, a river only needs to be about three jang wide to be called a river, but here it was a full three hundred jang.

And that was just from the island they were standing on; the actual width of the river was likely twice that.

“Doesn’t it seem close?” Chung Myung asked.

“Close?”

“Why do you think the pirates left this place alone for so long? It’s too close to the mainland. They could cross three hundred jang and reach the shore. That’s nothing.”

“Your sense of distance is a bit off, don’t you think?”

Three hundred jang wasn’t exactly a short distance—especially not on a river.

“This place is too exposed. If anyone attacked from the mainland, they’d only need to cross three hundred jang. The only reason they managed to hold out was because of the rapids around here, but honestly, this place is far too vulnerable to attacks from the mainland.”

“You know, when you put it like that...”

Baek Cheon, now looking around, suddenly scowled.

“Wait a second. Are you saying that instead of taking ships, we could have traveled by land and then crossed the three hundred jang to attack? Do you know how much seasickness we endured for no reason...?!”

“That’s not important right now.”

Chung Myung grinned.

“What do you think?”

“Huh?”

“Isn’t it nice? Close to the mainland, hard to attack by ship.”

“What are you talking about?”

“We should take this place for ourselves.”

“...What?”

Baek Cheon blinked, completely bewildered.

“Chung Myung... what did you just say?”

“The more I look at it, the better it seems. The pirates were stupid to settle here, but from our perspective, it’s not a bad spot at all.”

“...What are you planning?”

“Let’s claim it!” Chung Myung declared.

Baek Cheon stood frozen, staring blankly at Chung Myung, then turned to look at the other disciples. They all had the same dumbfounded expression.

‘I’m not the crazy one here, right?’

Feeling validated by their identical reactions, Baek Cheon shouted, “Are you out of your mind?! Why would we claim this place? This is the Yangtze River, not some random island!”

“Who says we can’t claim it just because it’s the Yangtze? The pirates built a base here, didn’t they?”

“Well... no, there’s no rule against it.”

“Don’t agree with him, senior brother!” Yoon Jong interjected.

“You can’t get caught up in his nonsense!”

“Y-You’re right.”

Baek Cheon, momentarily nodding in agreement, quickly regained his senses and pressed further.

“And what are we supposed to do with it if we claim it? Start pirating ourselves?”

“Tsk tsk, you’re thinking too small.”

“Huh?”

Chung Myung frowned, clearly unimpressed.

“Why do you think we came here in the first place?”

“Well... because the special cargo of the Eunha Escort Agency was attacked.”

“And what guarantee do we have that this won’t happen again?”

“...”

Chung Myung gestured toward Jo Seung.

“The first time is hard, but the second time is easy. Just look—once word spread about the attack, all sorts of people rushed in. That’s why senior brother had such a hard time.”

“...The largest pirate base, Daegyeongchae, was bigger than this one. But still...”

“Pirates are pirates.”

“...”

Jo Seung, trying to defend himself, fell silent under the weight of Chung Myung’s reasoning.

“So what? If it happens again, are we just going to keep running to the Yangtze to fight pirates? We’ll be busy until we wipe out every pirate base along the river.”

“...You’ve got a point.”

As long as pirates exist and they have to cross the Yangtze, the danger will always be there. And with the expensive cargo they’re escorting, they’re always going to be a tempting target.

On land, at least, the escorts could outrun trouble, but on a ship, they’re practically defenseless.

“So, what? You want to claim the island?”

“If we’re going to keep coming here, it’d be better to take control ourselves. Look over there. It’s close enough to the mainland. If we just set up two boats to ferry people back and forth, we’re good to go.”

Baek Cheon looked at the other disciples for support, but instead saw them nodding along.

Jo Gul, with a serious expression, added, “Gu River's position isn’t bad either.”

“Hey! Don’t encourage him!”

“Well... he’s not entirely wrong, is he?”

“You’re talking about setting all this up just for one escort job?”

“We can also transport other merchants. Charge a ferry fee and toll. It’ll work.”

Why did Jo Gul, a merchant’s son, suddenly have such a sharp business sense?

“No! Absolutely not! Didn’t you say yourself it’s too easy to attack? What if the pirates come back?”

“What can they do from the water? They’d have to land first.”

“Uh...”

“If the pirates land, they’re nothing but third-rate scum. It’s only on water that they’re dangerous.”

Baek Cheon felt himself being slowly convinced.

“And there’s an even better part.”

“Better part?”

“The White Thunder Cannons.”

“...”

“Those pirates hauled them around to raid others, but we don’t need to go anywhere. If we set them up along the shore, we can blast any pirates that approach. They won’t be able to come near.”

“No...”

Baek Cheon closed his eyes tightly.

‘It’s over.’

Chung Myung’s outlandish plan was starting to sound disturbingly reasonable.

“No, but wait! We can’t just stay here forever, can we?”

“Are you stupid?”

“Huh?”

“Why would we do it? There are plenty of people here already. We can have the Green Forest bandits handle it. We split the ferry fees with them.”

“...”

At this point, Baek Cheon felt like this was all pre-planned.

Seeing no way to stop this absurd reasoning, Baek Cheon chewed his nails nervously.

“This feels wrong.”

“Huh?”

The voice of reason finally came from Yu Yiseol, who voiced her concern.

“The range of the White Thunder Cannons. The width of the river. If the ships block the middle, they’ll be cut off. It’s too far.”

“Exactly! Three hundred jang is too much! It’s impossible!” Baek Cheon echoed her.

“Then shorten it to two hundred jang.”

“W-What? How?”

“Build a bridge.”

“...Over the water?”

“Yep.”

“This distance?”

“Yep.”

Chung Myung smiled brightly as he nodded.

“Are you crazy? Even the government wouldn’t attempt that! No one’s ever built a bridge over the Yangtze!”

“We don’t need to build the whole thing. And it doesn’t even have to be permanent. There are tons of abandoned ships here, right? We’re not planning to sail anywhere, so just anchor the ships and lay a bridge over them.”

“...”

“Then we can fire arrows, cannons, and if any pirates try to land, we can fight them off from the bridge! Haha, it’s brilliant! This is a strategy that an ancient military tactician came up with. I’m sure it’ll work.”

...That tactic ended with everyone on the raft getting burned alive by flaming arrows! You maniac! And it wasn’t even far from here—on this very river!

“Hahaha! The more I think about it, the better it sounds! These pirates really left everything we need. We might as well put it all to good use!”

“Ch-Chung Myung?”

“Let’s start by tying the ships together! Haha! This is going to be fun, right?”

“Chung Myung...”

“Hey! Where’s that sickly guy? Get over here!”

Chung Myung, ignoring any further discussion, sprinted away, leaving Baek Cheon standing there with his hand outstretched in disbelief. Someone gently placed a hand on his shoulder.

“...Monk?”

Hye Yeon smiled softly.

“Amitabha. Baek Cheon, do you know something?”

“...What?”

“Life is inherently full of suffering.”

“...”

Thanks. So much.

Yes.