Chapter 462

The old boatman could not believe what was happening before his eyes.

What in the world is going on?

He had worked as a boatman for nearly forty years, ever since he was around twenty, but in all that time, he had never experienced anything as bizarre as this.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

Two figures raced across the sheer cliff above him. It was not the first time he had seen them today, but the sight amazed him every time.

The boatman stared upward, his mouth hanging open.

Are those apes or people?

He had encountered countless martial artists during his years as a boatman, but this was the first time he had ever witnessed such astonishing martial arts firsthand.

Most of the martial artists who used his ferryboat were wandering martial artists with mediocre skills and shallow pockets, or disciples of small and middling sects.

I had my suspicions when the government troops suddenly showed up and ordered me to follow them…

He had seen it clearly: Officer Gwak, who was in charge of Dongting Lake, had been visibly flustered as he addressed these people with honorifics.

Considering how arrogant the man usually was, there was no doubt that today’s passengers were important figures who carried considerable weight even in the Murim.

If this goes well, I might make a tidy sum.

He had been considering retirement lately. Whenever he heard about the nonstop tragedies of the past month, unease had settled in one corner of his heart, and his old bones had begun aching more than usual.

He had nearly made up his mind after hearing that hundreds of people had been slaughtered en masse on Dongting Lake the previous night.

The spirit of Dongting Lake must have grown enraged. The heavenly patterns are ominous, so evil spirits like the Hidden Shadow Ghost are running wild.

Boatmen were famous for believing in all sorts of superstitions, and old men were prone to retelling legends as though they were facts.

It was only natural that a man who had spent his entire life as a boatman—and had grown old doing it—would decide to retire.

But if important people were calling for him, what choice did he have? When they had dragged him away like a criminal and ordered him to launch the ferryboat, he had been prepared to die.

Tap-tap-tap-tap!

But seeing those figures filled him with hope.

Hope that he could survive, of course, but also that he might make enough money to retire in comfort.

They must possess incredible martial arts!

They said martial masters of the highest realms could fold the earth beneath their feet and walk through the air.

What those people were doing was not much different from the rumors the old boatman had heard secondhand.

Even the young man who seemed to be their leader was cutting through the rough water as though he were a fish.

No, that’s not right. This is already the fourth location. He isn’t like a fish—he is a fish.

What kind of human being had webbed feet and gills? Whenever that young man entered the water, he stayed under for at least a full shichen.¹

He had already repeated that impossible feat three times. If anyone deserved to be called a martial master, it was him.

Masters like these could deal with some miscellaneous Fiend like the Hidden Shadow Ghost in an instant.

If he could only make it out alive, retiring with a fortune would be easy.

Just as the old boatman was brimming with hope, a shout rang out from the cliff above.

“Young Hero Cheongpung! Is there anything over there?”

“I’ll tell you when I see something!”

“If you find anything, tell us right away!”

“Yes, I certainly will… Ah!”

“Gasp! What is it? What happened?”

A heavy tension abruptly settled over the area.

Hyuk Mujin, who was scanning the surroundings from the slowly moving ferryboat, swallowed hard. So did Gung Gibang, whose eyes were gleaming sharply from the opposite cliff.

Then, under everyone’s gaze, Cheongpung shouted,

“Wow, it’s a swallow’s nest! I’ve never seen one this big before!”

“…”

“…”

“…”

The air froze solid.

The boatman suddenly thought,

…Spirit of Dongting Lake, please protect this old man.

At this rate, he was about to lose what little faith he had left in them.

While the old boatman prayed to the spirit without anyone knowing, it happened.

Splash! Tap!

A shadow shot out of the water amid a spray of droplets and landed lightly on the ferryboat.

The figure had a build large enough to be called massive, with flexible muscles that looked as hard as steel. A beautiful silver hairpin that suited him strangely well held his disheveled hair in place.

“Welcome back.”

At Hyuk Mujin’s greeting, Jin Taekyung silently nodded.

Seeing his furrowed brow, the old boatman cautiously asked,

“Nothing this time either?”

It was a pointless question. If he had found something, his expression would not have been so dark.

Jin Taekyung stood deep in thought, his brows drawn together, before finally speaking.

“This is the fourth location, right?”

“Yes, that it is.”

The old boatman answered while carefully watching Taekyung’s mood.

These incredible passengers had already come up empty-handed three times. Including this place, they had now failed to find anything at four locations.

Riding in the same boat as martial masters in a foul mood was hardly pleasant.

The one thing that was both fortunate and unfortunate was that one final location remained.

Fwoosh. Hissss!

Jin Taekyung lightly circulated his internal energy, evaporating the water clinging to him, and asked,

“How long will it take to reach the last location?”

“If we continue the way we have been, half an hour should be enough. But…”

The old boatman swallowed before continuing.

“The wind and current are growing stronger the farther we go. It’ll be getting dark by the time we arrive, so perhaps it would be better to try another day.”

“No. It has to be today.”

“But…”

“We have to go. Right now.”

His tone was as sharp and decisive as a knife stroke. The old boatman closed his mouth.

For some reason, the weather was ominously foul today. The sky, which should have been clear, was choked with dark clouds, while the fierce wind and current showed no sign of settling down.

I’ve got a bad feeling about this.

The foreboding he had felt only in the past, when floods or storms were bearing down on them, pricked at every inch of the veteran boatman’s body.

But he forced himself to ignore the unease seeping into his chest.

Have I grown timid with age? No, that can’t be it.

A sudden flood or storm? It made no sense.

Boatmen like him were more sensitive to changes in the river than anyone.

The current had certainly grown unusually rough over the past month, but it was not the rainy season. A disaster of that scale was impossible.

The boatman was still mulling it over when he realized that a large hand had settled on his shoulder.

“Boatman. Aren’t you going?”

“…I’m going.”

At Hyuk Mujin’s weighty voice, the boatman slowly began turning the ferryboat.

Of course, he did not forget to curse inwardly at the rude fellow who looked like the weakest of the group.

“Boatman. Were you cursing me just now?”

“…!”

The boatman’s oar slipped, and the ferryboat rocked.

The rapids had grown even rougher than when they first set out, dragging at the small hull. Jin Taekyung stepped forward and swept both palms outward.

Boom!

The ferryboat regained its balance and surged ahead.

As Taekyung gazed at the gradually darkening sky, his eyes grew somber.

Did we get it wrong?

The information Honglan had passed on from the Lower District Sect pointed to five locations in total.

But even after searching thoroughly above and below the water, they had found no trace of the Dongting Fisherman’s secret refuge.

After coming up empty-handed one place after another, it was only natural to wonder whether the information had been wrong from the beginning.

Taekyung thought for a moment, then shook his head.

No. It’s too early to decide that.

One final place remained. Of the five locations suspected of concealing the Dongting Fisherman’s secret refuge, it was the deepest and most treacherous.

It might even have been more important than the other four combined.

If it really was the Dongting Fisherman’s refuge—and if they encountered him there…

It’ll be a life-and-death duel. We’ll have to fight with our lives on the line.

Against a Supreme Peak master, giving everything they had was only natural. But if at all possible, they needed to capture him alive.

The true reason they were searching for the Dongting Fisherman was to reach the larger body behind him.

Dark Heaven was like a three-headed, six-armed monster. Killing the Dongting Fisherman would merely cut off one of its arms. Capturing him would give them a chance to strike at its body.

“The body. The body, huh…”

His quiet mutter scattered into the wind.

Without realizing it, Taekyung touched the silver hairpin holding back his hair and suddenly thought of one person.

He also remembered the hundreds of corpses that had filled the clear waters of Dongting Lake, and the wails of those left behind.

“I’m going to catch you, you bastards. No matter what.”

A faint fragrance drifted from the silver hairpin and lingered at the tip of his nose. The bow of the ferryboat cut forcefully through the river as its waters began turning black.

Donghu Stronghold.

The largest water stronghold in Hubei, which had once wielded tremendous influence under the command of the outstanding Supreme Peak master Hwang Chung, the Yangtze One Saber, had been crowded with unfamiliar visitors for the past two days.

“Pull when I count to three. One, two. Heave!”

Some were tying logs together to make a temporary path across the river. Elsewhere, middle-aged men dressed in neat scholar’s robes were writing on bamboo slips.

A young Daoist in a robe approached one of them and asked,

“Excuse me, sir. Has the search of the left cliff already been completed?”

“About half of it. I can stake our family name on the fact that we haven’t found any trace of a Formation so far. How is Wudang doing?”

“The search is progressing smoothly. We are also maintaining a strict watch in case anything unexpected happens, so you need not worry.”

They were disciples of the Zhuge Clan, known collectively as Divine Mechanism Zhuge, and Daoists from Wudang who had accompanied Perfected Being Hyeongong to Donghu Stronghold.

These unfamiliar visitors, who had been nowhere to be seen two days ago, had formed groups to search the cliffs and were devoting all their efforts to finding traces of Dark Heaven.

Yet even the countless eyes and ears spread throughout the area, aided by brightly burning torches, failed to notice one person.

Swish.

His movements made no sound and gave off no presence.

The small, lithe figure quietly and stealthily headed toward the cliff. He passed dozens of people at the very least, yet not one of them noticed who he was.

Nor did anyone detect the Ghost Illusory Slaughter Step, wielded by the greatest assassin in history.

What a nuisance.

Mungyeong muttered inwardly as he stepped forward.

Treading on empty air, he soared like a bird and swiftly crossed the cliff.

The stealthy search conducted by the young medical apprentice whom no one paid any attention to did not take long.

Nothing. I’m certain.

The area containing Donghu Stronghold’s headquarters was vast.

It was an island capable of comfortably housing more than a thousand people. High cliffs surrounded it on every side, with narrow, undeveloped paths running along their upper reaches.

But that was all.

Nowhere could he sense any trace of human presence or the remnants of a Formation known as a Moving Formation.

That was the conclusion reached after two days of searching by a Supreme Peak master who had surpassed Returning to Simplicity and reached the realm of Returned to Youth.

Mungyeong trusted his judgment. At the same time, he realized there was still one place they had not searched.

That’s right. One place remains.

The river visible from the cliff was unusually wide and deep.

Deep enough that even he had no desire to enter it.

…I suppose I have no choice.

It was a way to prevent an even greater sacrifice.

The face of the old disciple he had parted from on an unnamed hill overlooking the Sichuan Tang Clan flashed before his eyes.

All right, you rascal.

Mungyeong quietly threw himself into the air.

His figure slipped deep into the river as though melting into the water, then glided smoothly toward the depths.