"The village chief has been taken! Everyone, run!"
Seol Ri-hyang, who had been fuming at the bandits fleeing to the opposite side, quickly collected herself and gave chase.
Since her art worked through sound, she could spread the chill over a wide area in an instant.
No matter how fast they ran, several of them had their bodies frozen stiff by the cold and were captured on the spot.
After subduing three more Green Forest bandits whose feet were glued to the ground, unable to move an inch, she let the rest go.
They'd be caught again soon enough anyway.
Sure enough, while Seol Ri-hyang was attempting to seal the bandits' meridians with her still somewhat clumsy Acupoint Sealing technique—and failing, resorting to knocking them out with a blow to the head—
"Kyaaah!"
"The Tang Clan?! How did you get here…?!"
"Damn it! Scatter for now!"
Screams rang out from the distance. Well, even if they scattered, they'd only be caught by the others. By now, Seomun Hwa-rin was probably already running over there.
I began tying up the three Green Forest bandits lying at my feet with rope I'd prepared in advance, then let out a snicker toward Seol Ri-hyang.
"Your martial arts have improved, but your Acupoint Sealing hasn't kept up, has it?"
"…What can I do? There's so much to learn, but so little time."
"I'm not criticizing you. Acupoint Sealing is useful in many ways, but in the end, it's a technique that falls under capture. Prioritizing martial arts is the right call. I was just saying that if you ever need to seal acupoints, leave it to me."
Seol Ri-hyang's Acupoint Sealing hadn't been a complete failure. It would be more accurate to say the effect had turned out ambiguous.
She had clearly struck a vital point to paralyze the body, yet the result was only a stiffening of movement.
I hadn't expected her to go straight for a head strike when she felt something was off, though.
"In cases like this, you've pinpointed the acupoint itself correctly, but the amount of internal energy you inject is insufficient. Next time, try injecting a bit more generously."
"Hmm. But wouldn't that be dangerous?"
"If you only intended to subdue, then yes, it would be dangerous as you say. If you overdo it, the aftereffects could leave the person unable to move properly for a while even after the sealing is released. …But do we really need to show that much consideration toward a Green Forest opponent?"
"Ah?"
Only then did Seol Ri-hyang nod with a look of realization.
The reason we keep these men alive is in case we can pry any information out of them, and because handing them over alive to the authorities makes for a bigger spectacle.
Whether they die by our hands or on the execution grounds, they're dead men either way, and it's not as if we're obligated to keep them breathing.
After tying up the unconscious Green Forest bandits, I looked toward the innkeeper, who was still frozen stiff, and asked.
"If you were to withdraw the cold now…"
"You'd just get a water-soaked corpse."
"Then let's just move him as is."
After all, it wasn't us who would be carrying him—the captured Green Forest bandits would.
As we waited a little longer, Seomun Hwa-rin and the other martial artists returned, having caught the bandits who had fled.
Counting heads, it looked like they had caught every single one who had fled. Some had already died from hidden weapons and poison, and quite a few were dying, but… at least half were still alive.
That should be enough.
"Young one. We have caught them all. What do you plan to do now? Will you head down the mountain right away?"
"Just in case, shouldn't we interrogate them briefly? Senior Seomun Hwa-rin, could you call the others who are waiting in the other direction?"
"That is not difficult."
Seomun Hwa-rin concentrated her internal energy into her fist and thrust a Fist Strike toward the sky.
Pah-ahng!
A red surge of internal energy shot up into the sky, tracing a single line across the air.
A sight that any proper martial artist could not fail to notice. Seeing that, they would come looking on their own.
In the meantime, I asked the martial artists from the Poison Blood Corps to mix the poisons I needed and fed them to the relatively intact bandits.
A short interrogation that lasted no more than half an hour. I had held a faint hope, but… as expected, I could not glean any useful information.
All they knew was about the mountain stronghold they belonged to. Even the stronghold masters themselves would not have proper knowledge of the other strongholds.
Still, I could confirm that no one had slipped through my net, and that was enough.
"Then let's head down now."
***
After handing the Green Forest bandits over to the government office, I rested for the rest of the day and set out the next morning to find the next stronghold.
The hit rate wasn't all that high. Most of the time we came up empty, or only found traces of abandoned mountain strongholds.
Still, about one in four times we did locate Green Forest bandits, and whenever we did, we were able to clean them out completely.
As at the start, there were times when Seol Ri-hyang stepped forward first, but sometimes other martial artists took the lead in battle as well.
Of course, when things got dangerous, I or Seomun Hwa-rin would step in… but even so, they must have piled up more than enough experience fighting life-and-death duels against martial artists of similar standing, both one-on-one and many-on-many.
And so we traveled without rest, crossing Sichuan Province into Gansu, Shaanxi, and then Hubei Province, endlessly searching for the Green Forest.
We probably didn't manage to uproot every stronghold in those regions… but still, we succeeded in wiping out eight strongholds in total.
And separately from our own efforts, the Black Alliance also managed to wipe out one stronghold in Zhejiang Province, though their attack on a second one went wrong and most of the bandits slipped away.
In accordance with the agreement, that information was passed to the Namgung Clan, and the stronghold in Anhui Province was wiped out by their hands.
On the other hand, there were those who fled all the way from Anhui Province to Guangdong Province, but instead of taking bribes and hiding the information, Haomun handed it over intact to the Black Alliance and got themselves wiped out.
Perhaps it was because never before in the history of the martial world had so many Green Forest strongholds been smashed in such a short period of time.
Those who had initially reacted with indifference began to change their attitudes, and the reaction of the merchant caravans, who had suffered the greatest damage from the Green Forest, was almost explosive.
Whether it was the Tang Clan, the Namgung Clan, or the Black Alliance, they all rushed to send people to nearby locations, so the lines at their gates never seemed to shrink.
Especially since I, who had wiped out the most strongholds, belonged to the Tang Clan, rumors even spread that the Imperial Court had sent a separate envoy to the Tang Clan to offer congratulations — that said it all.
Of course, not everyone in the party came out unscathed during that process.
Because Seomun Hwa-rin and I were keeping a close watch, no one died, but there were occasionally those who suffered serious injuries.
Those people were sent to nearby physicians for treatment, then returned to the Tang Clan to rest comfortably.
Naturally, the number of people dwindled little by little, but just as we were getting dangerously close to not having enough to form an encirclement—
The rising talents of the Black Alliance, who had remembered my words, came to find us and joined our ranks, and more people than before began to move.
I left the management of the newcomers to Seol Ri-hyang and set out once more for the mountain strongholds. How many times did I repeat this?
After subjugating three more strongholds in addition, we finally arrived at Henan.
At some point, we began finding plenty of empty strongholds, yet no trace of the Green Forest bandits themselves.
"Is this the end of it?"
"What do you mean?"
Seomun Hwa-rin tilted her head in confusion. Glancing at her appearance, I noticed she had become quite disheveled from chasing the Green Forest bandits without rest.
It was only natural, since she had worked harder than anyone else in this affair besides me.
Yes. It was already remarkable that we had accomplished this much. It would have been impossible if two Harmony Realm martial artists hadn't personally run around chasing them.
"Why are you so covered in dirt?"
"…?"
Seomun Hwa-rin tilted her head the other way, as if she had no idea what I meant. I cupped one of her cheeks with my palm.
Then, using my thumb, I pressed and wiped around her mouth, under her eyes, and her plump cheeks.
"Ngeuk. Eung… Heup!"
Seomun Hwa-rin obediently offered her face to me. She responded in various ways—her face slackening helplessly with each movement of my fingers, then squeezing her eyes shut, then suddenly holding her breath.
I nodded at Seomun Hwa-rin's now somewhat tidier appearance and withdrew my hand.
"You look a bit better now."
"I did feel a little better as well…"
"Pardon?"
When I asked back, puzzled by the sudden remark, Seomun Hwa-rin cleared her throat and patted her own cheeks.
Perhaps that was why. Her cheeks flushed red, Seomun Hwa-rin shook her head.
"Ahem! It is nothing. More importantly, what did you mean by what you said earlier?"
"Ah, exactly what I said. Haven't I been taking advantage of them all this time? In the end, the Green Forest had to admit that the strategy they had maintained until now simply doesn't work against me."
"Then finding only empty mountain strongholds these past few days…"
"That means they've started to lie low, even willing to abandon everything they've built up. At this rate, we won't be able to find them as easily as we have until now."
The Green Forest operates as a thoroughly compartmentalized organization—even among themselves, they don't know the locations of other strongholds. I don't know what method they've used, but only the supreme chief can grasp the full picture from above.
That was why I'd held out hope that, if we wiped them out one by one, their response would lag at least a little… but.
Hadn't we been sending every captured Green Forest bandit to the authorities, making our suppression widely known?
Instead of figuring out how we located and annihilated their strongholds and adapting to it.
They abandoned, without hesitation, every stronghold they'd built up so far—even part of their wealth—and went into hiding.
The information I remembered was also gradually running out, and with them hiding like this, there was no longer any way to find them.
It would even be hard to find a single clue, since they'd stop their banditry for a while just to be careful.
Seomun Hwa-rin nodded after hearing my story.
"I understand. So what do you plan to do now?"
"There's nothing left to do out here. It's about time we headed back to the Tang Clan."
"…What about those children who follow Hyang-i?"
Seomun Hwa-rin asked, glancing at the rising talents from the Black Alliance who surrounded Seol Ri-hyang even today.
It was already surprising that they'd come all the way here from the Black Alliance, but it seemed to bother her more than I'd imagined that they followed Seol Ri-hyang so devotedly.
Of course, that matter was already settled.
"Don't worry. This was something I received permission for from the Lord of the Black Alliance earlier. Those with firm resolve will become retainers of the Tang Clan and return with us."
"It seems this young lady was worrying over nothing."
"Given that the Lord of the Black Alliance is famous for his hunger for talent, it was only natural to worry."
Why else would he pour out vast sums of Gold Coins to open the Black Heaven Tournament? It was to bring in and nurture talents who followed only him, rather than those from established martial sects.
They had no backing, but their skills weren't bad, so while their usefulness was uncertain, in terms of loyalty they were exactly the kind of talents the Lord of the Black Alliance preferred…
When I offered a few pieces of information about the Green Forest bandit strongholds in exchange, he readily nodded.
What was announced to the world was only that the Black Alliance had subjugated one stronghold, but in truth, they had probably taken down two or three more.
He simply hadn't revealed them because he'd conducted his own interrogations before handing them over to the authorities.
The Lord of the Black Alliance's grudge toward the Green Forest was no ordinary matter.
"Then let's head down the mountain. We'll find a good inn and rest well today… no, through tomorrow. Those who need to part ways will part ways, and the rest will return straight to the Tang Clan."
"I think that sounds good as well. I'll go inform the others."
Seomun Hwa-rin nodded and was about to turn toward the rest of the group.
Chin.
She stopped mid-step, her expression hardening.
"…You there."
"I didn't expect this, but… yes. I believe you're thinking exactly what I am."
I drew my sword and shouted at the top of my lungs.
"Everyone, gather behind me! It's the White Peak Mountain King! The Green Forest's supreme chief has appeared!"
Startled by my cry, my companions quickly moved behind me. Before long, bandits who appeared to be from the Green Forest began surrounding us.
And then, from the front. The most vicious bandit of them all, one who had never once intended to hide his Aura from the very beginning, revealed himself.
A hulking frame that made you wonder if he was even human—the mark of one who had reached his realm through External Arts.
Dressed head to toe in tiger hide, with an axe nearly as large as himself resting on his shoulder, the giant fixed us with a gaze seething with anger.
"So. You're that brat they call the White Moon Sword Lord, the one making all the noise these days."
"Tsk. Looks like you'll go down in Green Forest history as the first supreme chief to lose to a brat."
I parried on reflex, but my mind was churning.
There were two Harmony Realm martial artists on this side, after all. Why in the world had that bastard come looking for us here…?
It wasn't as if he'd come to die.