TSBIRBV Ch 48

Chapter 48 An Ill-fated Relationship (5)

“The path of the greatest trading guild beneath heaven is long and treacherous.”

Yegyeol muttered as he dangled at the Jiaolong King’s side. He wasn’t a small man, yet in her grip he felt light as a bundle of straw. He had known her strength was monstrous, from the way she wielded that chain as an extra limb—but to feel it so directly was unsettling.

At his grousing, Samrang, who had changed outfits and now stood just behind the Jiaolong King like one of her guards, snickered.

“Would you like to give up now?”

“What’s the point of escaping alone? Seoak’s dragged me into this mess already. I’ll at least wring something out of it before I go.”

“You’ll be on deck soon.”

The Jiaolong King cut them off. A martial artist’s ears were too sharp; it was time to be silent.

The deck was chaos. Fighters in the blue uniforms of the Azure Sky Flying Corps clashed with pirates everywhere.

Yet the Jiaolong King’s elites were holding them fast—pairs and trios binding the feet of each opponent with vicious efficiency. The wounded were carried below by comrades, keeping lines stable.

To the unknowing eye, it might have seemed a retreat. But Yegyeol felt it: those men were slipping away to sink the boats bridging over from shore.

“I am the water-chief Wang Hotak of the Jiaolong Crew!”

A burly giant swung his crescent axe, bellowing as he hurled himself at the Azure Corp’s defenders.

“Who else wants to feed the fish?!”

His blows sent pirates and Namgung warriors alike flying from the deck. For a mere riverman, his raw power was shocking.

The Jiaolong King clicked her tongue.

“That fool again, monopolizing the deck.”

Of course, the Corps would not stand idly. Some grabbed flung pirates to rebound back aboard. Others deliberately let themselves be cast, then flipped lightly onto vessels tethered beside the Jiaolong Ship. They climbed again, relentless.

And why not? The Namgung heir himself was hostage. Their iron will was to be expected.

The fight grew ever more entangled, as more hostages were smuggled away and chaos deepened.

“Hear me, dogs of Namgung Clan!”

Yeon Sosho’s voice boomed, charged with inner power, freezing the battle.

“Your young master, Namgung Un, is here aboard my ship! Withdraw now, and within two weeks I shall release him alive!”

“You base outlaw!” one Azure fighter snarled, eyes blazing with blue flame.

Yegyeol marvelled. So many would cast their lives willingly for Namgung Un… his reputation was immense.

“Azure Sky Corps, stand down!”

From beneath the deck, Namgung Un himself rose, bursting through the flooring in dramatic fashion. Yegyeol glimpsed, off to the side, the last of the hostages being carried away by Corps members—Un had deliberately chosen this moment to appear.

“…Namgung gongja?”

Yegyeol murmured. His lips trembled as the man’s gaze fixed—first on the Jiaolong King, but then upon him.

“Mun gongja…!”

“Hm. Seems you grew familiar, shut in one cell together?”

Yeon Sosho spoke with teasing tone, but Un’s face darkened, jaw clenched at what he took for menace.

“No wonder he was nowhere found… Jiaolong King, you held Mun gongja captive?!”

“He looked rich enough, so I brought him in. My men have many mouths—what harm to feed them on ransom?”

Just as rehearsed, she played her part. Her iron grip tightened on Yegyeol’s shoulder. He flinched, bowed his head—the very picture of cowed prisoner. Un’s eyes fell heavy with worry.

“For your clan-chief’s sake, I’ll free you, but this one”—she jerked Yegyeol closer—“I keep. We’ve yet much to discuss.”

“So what shall you do? Leave this boat with the hostages you’ve freed—or throw them all into the Yangtze’s depths to save a single man?”

Her prosthetic fingers clamped Yegyeol’s chin, cold metal forcing him to meet her gaze.

Un bit hard on his teeth.

The situation was dire. His inner energy nearly drained from the earlier battle, his body bruised and bloodied by captivity, wounded further by the Jiaolong King herself, he had no time even to treat his injuries.

Dozens of unarmed innocents yet needed protection. His Corps’ strength had to be preserved. And they floated in the Jiaolong King’s very domain—the river, where her countless fleets might come at any delay.

Even at his peak, to challenge her here was madness. Now? Impossible.

But what gripped his heart was the youth in her grasp. Weak-limbed from taking Un’s beating, pale from being dragged about like a doll, and still he had spoken:

“I, I am fine… Namgung gongja, please guard yourself—!”

Un ground his teeth.

Always, he had been the one to shield. People thanked him for defeating brigands, demons—they demanded it by right, for he was the Namgung heir, the brightest of the orthodox prodigies. Some cursed him for being too late, even—he had accepted their grief without anger. Upon him it all piled, guilt borne quietly. He even knew: his rescues were measured. A few lives sometimes sacrificed to preserve the many. Efficiency, necessary in a leader.

But this? This boy—who by all rights knew nothing of swords, who could not lift even a kitchen knife with skill—worried over his safety, bid him leave him behind. It was incomprehensible.

“What if Namgung agrees to ransom him?”

“Hah…”

Un’s eyes flashed so sharply that Yeon Sosho smirked.

“Whatever you offer, I’ll wring better from his true master. He’s not yours to bargain.”

Her Dragon Chain brushed Yegyeol’s nape, cold and heavy.

“You forget the mercy I’ve already shown, allowing you to trod my ship with foul shoes, to reclaim what captives I held. This man stays.”

She had made plain: abandon Yegyeol, and the rest walk free.

“Child dragon. If you hear me, go. Or I’ll show you that even dragons may drown.”

Un’s jaw hardened. With a wave to his men, he barked:

“All withdraw!”

“Well chosen. Even Yangtze pirates do not thirst for war with Namgung at full strength.”

Her smile glimmered—victory without lifting her chain.

The Azure fighters pulled back, grumbling.

“Shame. Would’ve pleased the river-gods to serve them sacrifices.”

“Shut it, Wang Hotak. You’d have broken our own deck before the enemy’s heads.”

Yeon Sosho sneered.

“Break another deck, and Wang Hotak will be the sole boatswain left for this ship!”

The giant whined, but her face stayed impassive; a leader must have patience for such things.

“Now—satisfied?”

“Yes.”

Yegyeol smiled sweetly.

He was not the only piece Tang Seoak had omitted from his board.

“Even Tang Seoak cannot easily silence Namgung Un. He will demand answers, pressing on Tang’s vanguard. The louder my name was cried here, the tighter Seoak’s chain becomes.”

A debtor’s weight lay on Un now, and his wrath would soon bear toward Tang. Tang Seoak’s trickery—removing only Tang men from the escort, the Jiaolong King screaming his name—all would return to choke him.

The Namgung heir himself would come to Jianghu’s river seeking truth. Unless he slew the Jiaolong King herself, or delivered Mun Yegyeol back, his future was ashes.

Long ago, he’d betrayed even a lover for ambition. When that crumbling tower of schemes now toppled, he too would crack.

“He knows he cannot fool her twice. This time he must come in person, summoning every ounce of Tang’s strength to slay her. Otherwise, he cannot stand against Namgung Un’s suspicion.”

Yegyeol’s lips curled, whispering softly as he smiled:

“And that’s when we take him.”

An affair begun to wound Yipseon and Okhyeong had now swelled far beyond.

“So it shall be…”

The Jiaolong King cut off. Outside, a desperate cry erupted:

“F-fire! Fire!”

Across the riverbank, blazing arrows arced through night. Each flare lit the shooters: men clad all in black.

“Sichuan Tang,” Yegyeol realized.

No one in Jianghu wielded bows so skillfully—not martial artists, but Tang’s trademark killers.

Not to cripple us. No…

“They mean to kill the hostages.”