Ch. 35 Murim Psychopath Chapter 35

Chapter 35: Go San-gong

Go San-gong was the leader of the Third Squad of the Namgung Family's Heavenly Wind Division.

He had come from a rural martial background, and after earning his living by the sword within the Namgung Family, he had risen all the way to become a squad leader in the Heavenly Wind Division. By most standards, it was a fairly successful life.

There was only one problem.

“Yaaawn.”

He was always bored.

The yawn he had just let out was nothing more than the result of the tedium of everyday life.

As always, he had brought the ten members of the Third Squad here in the Third Watch to the front of the East Heavenly Guest Hall to relieve the Second Squad from duty. This monotonous routine had become unbearably dull.

More than ten years ago, he had entered the Namgung Family as an outer-surname disciple…

Back then, his heart had always raced with excitement, and he had looked forward to every tomorrow. It was because he felt the satisfaction of finally achieving the dream he had long admired.

Ever since learning martial arts from the first master he had served at a small countryside martial academy, he had always heard the same words.

Become a martial artist of the Jianghu.

Roam the world as you please.

When Go San-gong entered the Namgung Family, he believed he had fulfilled that dream.

Naturally, he began dreaming of something greater.

Since he had already stepped into the Jianghu, he would become a hero.

He would triumph in bloody battles against the Heavenly Demon Castle's demonic soldiers.

He would sever the heads of the Hall of Unorthodox's evil foot soldiers and conquer Jiangnan.

He would crush the conspiracies of mysterious forces lurking in the darkness and save the Murim.

Every day, he made those grand resolutions.

He. Did. Every. Day.

Back then, he truly believed he could accomplish such things at any moment.

But dreams were only dreams.

Reality was nothing like what he had imagined.

The Heavenly Wind Division's original duty was to pursue and annihilate enemies or scout and gather intelligence on enemy positions.

That was what it had originally been.

Its current primary duty…

…was nothing more than standing guard, exactly as Go San-gong was doing now.

Because of the long peace, there were few opportunities to fight. That was especially true for a great sect like the Namgung Family, which ruled over an entire region.

Furthermore, the Namgung Family was practically the only major martial force in all of Anhui Province.

If only someone would come picking a fight, then he could win victories, conquer enemies, and become a hero.

But in the past ten years, such a thing had happened only once.

And back then, he had merely been a low-ranking warrior, with no chance whatsoever to distinguish himself in battle.

Now things were different.

At least, that was what he believed.

“A real man should be cutting off enemy heads on the battlefield, filling their skulls with blood, drinking from them while singing. And what the hell am I doing here? Damn it.”

He was confident he could defeat anyone.

What frustrated him most was the reality that he was never even given the opportunity to become a hero.

“At the very least, I wish those bastards from the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds would invade again. Even those sons of bitches have been completely quiet lately. Damn… Is Go San-gong really going to rot away standing guard like this?”

The Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds.

Although the Central Plains was currently said to belong to the Three Dominators, they were hardly the only powers in the Jianghu.

Countless minor sects and factions existed throughout the martial world, and among them were organizations that, while inferior to the Three Dominators, were still considerably larger than ordinary minor sects.

These were the so-called Third Powers.

Among them, the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds and the Thirty-Two Green Forest Strongholds proudly referred to themselves as the Twin Heroes of Azure and Green.

They belonged neither to the Orthodox, Unorthodox, nor Demonic factions, yet upon rivers and in the mountains, no one dared ignore them. These were the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds and the Green Forest.

The common people, however, mockingly called them the Twin Bandits of Azure and Green, meaning river bandits and mountain bandits.

Even so, their influence was so immense that no one in the Jianghu could afford to disregard them.

Azure upon the waters, green within the mountains.

The people of the Jianghu used this short phrase to describe their dominance over rivers and mountains.

In just six characters, it expressed the overwhelming might of the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds, who controlled the Yangtze River, the lifeblood of the Central Plains and the Green Forest, who held sway over mountains where no great martial sects existed.

By nature, neither group was united into a single tightly bound organization, but much like the Murim Alliance, they were nominally connected through one great alliance.

Thus, although they were divided into the Eighteen Strongholds and the Thirty-Two Strongholds respectively, they were collectively referred to simply as the Yangtze Waterway Strongholds and the Green Forest.

The reason Go San-gong kept bringing up the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds was simple.

They had been the Namgung Family's most recent major military opponent.

The clash had even occurred in the very year he had entered the family as an outer-surname disciple.

The reason the Namgung Family was generally called the greatest power in Anhui was not because the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds were weaker.

Rather, only one of the eighteen strongholds was actually located within Anhui Province.

If all eighteen strongholds had gathered in Anhui, then even the Namgung Family would have struggled to maintain its dominance.

The strongholds were scattered along the entire Yangtze River.

Naturally, since the Yangtze cut straight through Anhui Province, they frequently appeared there along its waterways.

As true river bandits, the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds constantly sought to expand their influence throughout Anhui.

The Namgung Family, in turn, sought to stop them.

Conflict between the two had therefore been inevitable.

Ten years ago.

The chief of the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds, Yangtze Dragon Hero Sasa-ho, ignored Namgung Byeok's warning and attempted to expand his influence toward Lake Chaohu.

Seeing its dominance over Anhui threatened, Namgung Family Head Namgung Byeok immediately mobilized nearly all of the family's military forces and marched to Lake Chaohu.

The two sides confronted one another fiercely across the lake.

Eventually, battle erupted.

Although the fighting was intense, it did not last particularly long.

Both sides concluded that there was no need to overcommit.

Just as the battle was about to escalate into full-scale war, they withdrew their troops.

Both realized that fighting to the bitter end would only allow the other sects constantly eyeing their territories to reap the benefits.

In the end, the two forces continued skirmishing in minor engagements for about another year before finally agreeing to a truce.

Under the resulting agreement, every interest arising from Lake Chaohu belonged entirely to the Namgung Family.

In exchange for promising not to expand any farther into Anhui, the Eighteen Yangtze Waterway Strongholds received the Namgung Family's assurance that their businesses along the Yangtze River would not be interfered with.

Rather than continuing to bare their fangs at one another, both sides chose to concede what they could and secure what they wanted.

That incident had already occurred more than ten years ago.

It had also been the only real battle Go San-gong had ever experienced.

In truth, he had just joined the Namgung Family at the time, so he had scarcely participated in the actual fighting.

The only tasks assigned to him had been scouting missions and standing watch.

Even so, he had been milking that single deployment ever since, constantly boasting about it to his squad members.

His men, however, knew perfectly well that he was nothing special.

If he truly had been remarkable, then after more than ten years of service, he would not still be serving as the leader of nothing more than a rotating guard squad here.

The reality of Go San-gong's position was that he merely commanded the rotation responsible for guarding the Cloud Bridge near the East Heavenly Guest Hall from the Second Watch until the Third Watch.

Especially on days like today, when the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship had gone on an outing across Lake Chaohu, he even had to take on the menial task of searching the pleasure boat.

Since it almost always returned around this hour, the least capable rotation leaders were usually assigned to this shift.

“Here you go, Go San-gong. It's all yours now.”

The Second Squad's leader completed the handover, then returned to the barracks with his men.

Among them were those who had earlier washed the drunken guest from the Heavenly Guest Hall.

“Still… do we really have to be the ones searching that thing?”

Go San-gong frowned as he looked toward the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship moored in the deepest part of the small bay.

To be honest, there were guards stationed over by the West Heavenly Guest Hall as well.

The pleasure boat was anchored in the inlet between the island where the East Heavenly Guest Hall stood and the island where the West Heavenly Guest Hall stood, yet it was always the Heavenly Wind Division's rotation that had to inspect it.

Still, there was nothing to be done.

The Heavenly Thunder Unit, which handled the watch over the West Heavenly Guest Hall, was also responsible for guarding the Earth Guest Hall farther beyond.

Given that, it seemed rather ridiculous to complain over something as infrequent as inspecting a pleasure boat.

“Hey. Three of you stay here. Everyone else, board the ship.”

“Yes, Squad Leader.”

No matter how unreliable their leader might have been, he was still their leader.

Leaving behind the minimum three guards required, the Third Squad headed toward the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship.

As they walked around the edge of the inlet, the light from the fire strikers they carried reflected off the waters of Lake Chaohu.

For a brief moment, the surroundings of the small bay became brightly illuminated.

The wind was blowing fairly hard, so the water was not completely calm.

The rippling waves shimmered beneath the firelight.

It created a rather impressive night view.

But to members of the Heavenly Wind Division, it was a sight they saw all the time.

Paying it no attention, they simply continued toward the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship.

Plop.

At that moment, a faint sound, as though something had sunk into the water, echoed softly.

It was so quiet that not a single member of the Third Squad heard it.

Furthermore, the sound had come from behind the East Heavenly Guest Hall, toward the interior of the small bay facing Lake Chaohu.

The building itself blocked the view, making it a complete blind spot.

In truth, the place they were assigned to guard was not the island where the East Heavenly Guest Hall stood.

It was beyond the Cloud Bridge connecting the island to the mainland.

Their security duties operated under the assumption that every guest staying at the Heavenly Guest Hall had already had their identity verified.

The squad soon rounded the edge of the bay and reached the dock where the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship was moored.

Anchored in one corner of the dark inlet, the sailboat resembled a silent little fortress.

It was so quiet that, in a way, it almost seemed frightening.

Only because they had performed this task countless times did they remain completely unfazed.

Stepping onto the boarding stairs temporarily placed against the bow whenever passengers boarded or disembarked, they climbed aboard one by one.

A short while later, the flickering light of the fire strikers visible upon the deck disappeared completely.

They had likely finished searching the deck and gone down into the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship's lower cabin.

Seeing the distant firelight vanish, Go San-gong did what he always did.

He leaned his arms over the end of the Cloud Bridge…

…and promptly fell asleep standing up.

The three remaining squad members had long grown accustomed to this and paid it no attention, remaining focused on their own watch.

About half an hour passed.

But…

Not a single one of the squad members who had gone to search the Scarlet Trigram Sailing Ship returned.

No.

They could not return.

Drip.

Drip.

Drip…

As Go San-gong dozed off, drool trickling from his mouth…

…his seven squad members had already been reduced to little more than pools of blood, flowing down the tip of Dong Bong-su's sword.