Fabre in Sacheon's Tang-Chapter 256: At the Princess’s Request (6)

Watching the pirates swarming toward us, I racked my brain like a madman.

Where the hell had I placed Hwayang?

But of course, there was no way I’d remember.

I never assigned Hwayang anywhere to begin with.

I called out to him in a panic.

‘Hwayang! Where are you!?’ freewebnøvel.coɱ

–Pii? 『Food?』

I called out urgently in my mind, but as always, he answered with just a single word.

I scanned in all directions, trying to spot him—

Then saw a soft, white mist rising behind me.

Yohwa’s fog was beginning to spread.

Soon, the whole area was cloaked in that white mist, and I couldn’t see anything around me—not even where Hwayang had gone.

‘Where the hell are you hiding?’

Then it hit me—I hadn’t given Cho any further orders after sinking the ships.

I called out immediately.

‘Oh, right! Cho! Cho!’

–Chorut?

I still had to find Hwayang, and now that the mist was spreading, I needed to get above it to manage the battlefield.

No doubt, if I stayed inside the fog, I wouldn’t be able to see the ones trying to slip through.

Running toward Cheongyu’s side behind the fog, I called out to Cho as he responded:

‘Daddy’s back here behind the mist—fly over here quick! Hwayang’s gone missing! Help me find him!’

–Chorurut!!

Cho swooped down next to Cheongyu, then wrapped around me, and with a flutter, we soared into the sky.

That very moment, the pirates started flooding in our direction like mad.

“R-Run!”

“It’s the Central Plains army!”

“Head for the mountains!”

‘Damn it! Hwayang, where are you!’

I just hoped he wasn’t off causing some crazy mess somewhere.

***

The southern harbor of Yizhou now belonged entirely to Baek Cheong-u.

With his rival Jin-gyu clearly gone, the name “Sea King” of the southern bay and coastal waters belonged solely to Baek Cheong-u now.

His plan was to unite the Yizhou pirates under the name of the Sixteen Camps and declare himself the Sea King.

The one person who could’ve stopped him—Jin-gyu—was gone, so no one remained to block Baek Cheong-u’s ambition.

“Sea King—uh, here. Please take it.”

“Sea King, huh? I like the sound of that. Kahahahaha! I’m in such a good mood, I won’t beat any of you for at least ten days.”

“Th-thank you, sir! Thank you!”

He’d been beating the women he captured every few days, sometimes to death, but now he decided not to hit them in the face—just because he was feeling good.

Lying lazily on a leopard pelt, Baek Cheong-u accepted the drink one of the captured women handed him.

And his mind drifted back to the good news he’d received just a few days earlier.

–Crash!

“Sea! Sea King!”

Just like now, he’d been drinking the wine poured by women when Jeok-sam burst in.

“You impudent bastard! What is it!?”

He shouted at the man who’d barged in without even announcing himself.

Jeok-sam had supposedly gone out to raid earlier that day. He’d even received reports that the ships were sailing smoothly—so why was the man here?

“You said you were out raiding—why the hell are you here!?”

Jeok-sam, panting heavily, replied,

“T-That’s not important! Two of the ships that went out with me... they sank!”

“What!? It hasn’t even been that long since you left... Don’t tell me you idiots got drunk and crashed the ships!?”

Baek Cheong-u began to fume, wondering if the idiots had gotten drunk and rammed into rocks or into each other.

Jeok-sam waved both hands urgently.

“N-No, that’s not it! S-Something—some kind of spirit beast—dropped from the sky and smashed them to pieces!”

“What? A spirit beast? An Imugi!?”

“Yeah! It wasn’t big enough to be a full dragon, but still—it was something like that! Two ships were wiped out!”

“Then that explains why the others that left haven’t returned to harbor!?”

“That’s what it looks like!”

Upon hearing that a spirit beast had appeared and was sinking ships, Baek Cheong-u gathered all the Yizhou pirates at the southern harbor.

This was clearly becoming a serious situation.

“How many are still here!?”

“There are a bunch of shipmen left. A few went west by sea too.”

“Send word immediately to the western sea! A spirit beast’s appeared—we don’t know when it’ll strike again, so everyone gather at the southern harbor to deal with it!”

“Y-Yes sir!”

They’d fought a spirit beast together two years ago, so the pirates had no problem rallying around the idea of fighting one again.

And Baek Cheong-u, of course, had no intention of letting this golden opportunity pass.

With Jin-gyu out of the way, the time had come to launch the plan he’d dreamed of.

Among the remaining pirate captains, few had strong martial arts.

It wouldn’t be hard to suppress them and bring them under his control.

Baek Cheong-u already had plenty of martial artists loyal to him, so it was easy to overpower the rest.

And after forcing loyalty pledges from them all, he became Sea King.

It had only been one day since that happened.

Baek Cheong-u smiled as he recalled that moment and lifted another drink poured by one of the captured women.

–Crash!

“Sea! Sea King!”

Suddenly, the doors to his chamber burst open and Jeok-sam ran inside again.

Now, Jeok-sam was the master of the Red Camp—one of the Sixteen Camps of Yizhou pirates.

“You rude bastard! What is it this time!?”

Baek Cheong-u growled in anger at the man who’d once again barged in without warning.

Jeok-sam stammered, clearly rattled.

This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.

“O-Outside! The watchmen say there’s the sound of drums—warships from Bukgeon and Zhejiang are charging into the harbor!”

“What!?”

–Clang!

Baek Cheong-u hurled his wine cup aside, grabbed his sword, and ran toward the harbor.

Once there, he saw flickering lights in the distance.

Under the moonlight, ships of the Central Plains military, lanterns blazing, were pushing into the southern harbor.

They’d failed so many times before—he thought they’d never come back. But now, the Central Plains navy had come.

“How many ships!?”

He shouted the question to the watchmen.

“N-Nine, sir!”

Someone shouted the count, and Baek Cheong-u yelled,

It had caught them off guard, but if they responded like they had before, they could still escape serious damage.

“Save as many ships as possible! Once the rowers are on board, launch each one toward the open sea as fast as you can!”

“Understood!”

They had already prepared for departure to hunt the spirit beast, so all that was left was to gather the rowers.

Thankfully, Baek Cheong-u had forbidden drinking this morning because of the hunt—

Normally, half the crew would’ve been too drunk to move.

He gave the order to launch every available ship as soon as rowers were ready.

That’s when it happened.

–Creak.

The ship docked furthest left in Baek Cheong-u’s view made a strange noise as it began to tilt.

Then, the stern began to sink into the sea.

“What the hell is this now!?”

Baek Cheong-u shouted in fury, but the strange events didn’t stop with just one.

Another ship began to sink.

–Screeeeech.

“Our Blue Camp {N•o•v•e•l•i•g•h•t} will go first!”

As the second ship sank, the pirates who had gathered at the harbor climbed aboard the three ships docked on the far right and set sail, but just like the previous ships, they barely made it out before the stern tilted and the vessels sank into the water.

–Dum dum dum dum.

And then, with the sound of war drums echoing, all the ships docked at the harbor settled lifelessly into the bottom.

“Damn it! What the hell were the sentries doing?! Abandon the ships and flee to the mountains! The Central Army must’ve pulled some trick! Head for the mountains!”

Baek Cheong-u was the first to move, running along the right side of the beach toward the mountains—that side was the closest to the hills.

It seemed martial artists from the Central Plains had sneaked in and punctured the ships from below, but once the army left, they could just build new ships or raise the sunken ones.

What mattered now was survival.

As he ran ahead, gathering the pirates and urging them forward, suddenly, several pirates ahead of him fell.

Baek Cheong-u stumbled, catching himself with his hands against the ground.

His palm pressed into something slick.

‘Oil?’

It definitely felt like oil, though he couldn’t imagine why it was there.

Still, now wasn’t the time to think about that—he had to run.

He got back up, followed by his men, and just as they reached the bushes at the edge of the beach—

A massive boulder appeared in front of them.

‘Was that rock always there?’

Wondering when that huge boulder had shown up, he took one more step into the brush.

Then the pirate running just ahead of Baek Cheong-u vanished with a heavy impact.

–Thud!

A colossal mass fell from above and crushed the pirate without a trace.

“Hiiiiiiek!”

As blood splattered onto his face, Baek Cheong-u stumbled back in horror—then he heard a monstrous cry.

And from above, more boulders fell—pirates were erased one after another.

–Krrrrrrrrr!

–Thud! Slam! Slam!

Some pirates passed by the enormous rocks unharmed, but the moment they did, they were knocked flying by something massive.

“Wh-What in the hell is this!?”

“A s-spirit beast!”

“A ghost!”

Panic exploded as someone screamed, and the pirates went wild, rushing in the opposite direction.

The central path was now cloaked in dense white fog—none of them had the courage to charge into it.

“Go—go around the other way!”

“To the other side!”

A few slipped and fell on oil patches again near the mist, but still, dozens of pirates reached the brush on the opposite shore.

Just then, a black figure emerged from the darkness, emitting a chilling hiss as it blocked their path.

–Chorororok!

–Shaaaaa!

–Thud!

Revealed in the moonlight—a massive blue snake and a black centipede.

Three or four pirates struck by the snake were flung backward all at once.

Others staggered, coughing in the acrid smoke released by the centipede, and some collapsed, vomiting blood after being bitten.

“Uwaaah!”

“S-Save me!”

“Help!”

Terrified out of their minds, the remaining pirates had only one place left to flee—the misty center.

Between the living boulders, the giant serpent, and the centipede, their only option was the ominous mist spreading through the center.

As they entered the fog, a dizzying sensation hit them.

They shook their heads, trying to hold onto their senses, and took a few more steps.

Then came the sounds of bodies being dragged away—and the presence of others around them began to vanish, one by one.

–Chyaaaak!

–Chyak!

“Be ca—GRAAAH!”

“S-Save me!”

–Shhhhhh!

–Shhk! Shhk!

“It’s—venomous snakes! Watch ou—ack...”

“Aaaargh!”

From deep inside the mist came the sounds of screams—and snakes shrieking.

Seeing this, Baek Cheong-u had only one thought:

They were all dead already.

This had to be the Buddhist hell of venomous snakes.

What else could explain something this horrifying?

There was no way forward.

So Baek Cheong-u turned and ran back the way he’d come, like a madman.

As he fled, the sounds of movement continued to vanish around him—but after a while, he finally broke through the edge of the fog.

Huff! Huff!

The brief time he spent inside the mist had felt like a nightmare.

“W-What’s going on, Sea King!?”

“We heard screaming—what’s happening in there!?”

Pirate leaders and those who hadn’t yet entered the mist stood at the edge, staring at Baek Cheong-u in disbelief.

He collapsed, his legs trembling.

Then, just ahead of him—

Something slithered from beneath the sand, between the pirates’ legs.

“Th-That... that there...”

Baek Cheong-u pointed at it with a shaking hand, and the other pirates turned to look.

They stepped back, avoiding the swelling patch of dirt—and then, bursting out from the sand was a round...

“A toad?”

“No, what kind of toad looks like that?”

The creature looked bizarre—and the pirates all froze in confusion.

–Whoooosh.

Suddenly, a blue flame burst from the creature’s back.

Then, the same flame appeared atop the pirates’ heads.

“W-What is this!?”

“F-Fire!?”

Blue flowers of flame bloomed on their heads, lighting up the area—even the surroundings around the collapsed Baek Cheong-u glowed.

“S-Sea King—y-your head’s on fire!”

“Wha!?”

He frantically patted his head, trying to extinguish the flame—and then, one of the pirates whose head had caught fire suddenly combusted violently, erupting in blue flames.

–Fwaaaaaah!

“AAAAAAGHHHHH!”

–FWOOOOOM!

–FWOOOOOSH!

One after another, blue flames exploded, like the bursting of some cursed furnace.

From the venomous snake hell to the blazing hell of heat.

Yes...

This had to be one of the Buddhist hells where sinners go after death.

There was no other explanation for something so nightmarish.

With his spirit broken, Baek Cheong-u collapsed, dazed—and soon, his own body was engulfed in blue fire.

–FWAAAAAAAH!

The Sea King.

It was a sweet dream that lasted just one night.