Tales Of The Nine Dragons [EN]: Chapter 9

Nine Dragons Chronicle (9)

“You’ve been hit again?”

Dark Great Khan Yulappa, the leader of the Blood Wolf Grand Bandit Gang that dominated the Great Plains at night, was furious upon hearing the news that the Crimson Bandit Gang had been attacked.

Six of his subordinate bandit gangs had already been defeated by what appeared to be remnants of the Fierce Tiger Death Squad.

They had won the battle against the Fierce Tiger Death Squad, but a month later, he began to doubt whether they had truly won.

Recently, some of the subordinate bandit leaders, fearing the Fierce Tiger Death Squad, even tried to break away from his influence.

“Crimson Bandit Gang leader Taidan is dead, and the Crimson Bandit Gang’s bandits have scattered. Recently, the bandit leaders have been shaken.”

Yulappa frowned, displeased with the current situation, and was lost in thought for a moment.

Unless the remnants of the Fierce Tiger Death Squad came looking for him, he couldn’t personally eliminate them. He needed to divert the anxiety of the wavering subordinate bandit leaders elsewhere.

‘Should I lead the bandit gangs to attack the tribes? Or should I go to Gansu Province and plunder the trading city where the Fierce Tiger Death Squad is located?’

If he led the bandit gangs to Gansu Province, there was a high possibility that the Central Plains army would move.

‘If that happens, the great tribes of the Great Plains will also move actively.’

The tribesmen of the Great Plains, who did not want war with the Central Plains, would try to capture the bandits themselves and hand them over to the Central Plains army if the Central Plains army crossed over.

‘In the end, do I have to plunder the tribes?’

Perhaps it was an inevitable outcome.

“Paitan, when are the gang leaders coming?”

“They were ordered to gather, so they will be here by tomorrow at the latest.”

“Tomorrow….”

Yulappa turned and looked at the map behind him, which recorded the locations of each tribe on the Great Plains, and thought.

“Paitan.”

“Yes, Khan!”

“Among these many tribes, which one can we plunder to get some loot?”

“Yes? Surely not……”

Paitan looked at Yulappa with surprised eyes.

“We need to divert internal dissatisfaction and fear elsewhere. Otherwise, that dissatisfaction will be directed at me.”

Paitan lowered his head.

“And in this state, we could be defeated again if we encounter the remnants of the Fierce Tiger Death Squad. We also need to raise our broken morale.”

“That’s a wise idea.”

“What do you think? Is Hwahote [a major tribe] better? Or Geuksimdongteuk [a smaller, weaker tribe]?”

At Yulappa’s question, Paitan answered without hesitation.

“To plunder without casualties, Geuksimdongteuk is better, but to plunder a lot of wealth, Hwahote will allow everyone to obtain enough wealth, even if there are some casualties.”

“You have the same thought as me. Then let’s go with Hwahote. They won’t just stand by and let us plunder them, so tell the spies we’ve planted in advance to do some work.”

“Understood.”

* * *

Hwahoteuk was a tribal city where the largest tribe of the Great Plains lived, and it was a large and powerful tribe that led hundreds of tribes on the Great Plains.

That Hwahoteuk city was on fire.

“Kuaaaak!”

Yulappa, called the Dark Great Khan, led the bandit gangs to invade Hwahoteuk in order to plunder it.

They used spies they had planted in advance to set large fires throughout the city to divert the tribesmen’s attention, then launched a surprise attack, using poison on the warriors of Hwahoteuk to render them helpless.

The bandit gang carried out indiscriminate slaughter, instilling fear in the tribesmen living in Hwahoteuk, making them unable to think and judge for themselves.

This tactic was a great success, and the tribesmen could not dare to rush at the bandits, but only fled in all directions.

“Kill and plunder to your heart’s content!”

Yulappa shouted to the bandits of the bandit gang. He was currently waiting with the bandit gang leaders and experts to face the warriors of Hwahoteuk.

“Kuaaaak!”

The current Hwahoteuk, filled with pain and screams, was no different from the Avici Hell [the lowest level of hell in Buddhist cosmology] and the Howling Hell of the Eight Hells [various hells in Buddhist cosmology].

Sararak!

“Keoeok!”

A bandit with a sword fell, spraying blood. Someone was targeting the bandits who were committing murder, arson, and rape, and killing them.

The bandits fell, spraying blood, without even knowing how they had been attacked.

It was Hwarin. By chance, Hwarin was in the city of Hwahoteuk when the bandits attacked, and when the experts of the bandit gang moved elsewhere, he secretly killed the ordinary bandits, excluding them.

The bandits were also first-rate and top-notch experts, but they were no match for Hwarin.

Hwarin was secretly avoiding the eyes of the bandits and reducing their numbers, as if he were a seasoned assassin.

When he saw a bandit gang of four plundering, he approached them like a ghost and swung his sword at them. The afterimage of the sword qi [internal energy manifested as sword energy] headed for the necks of the four bandit gang members, and the bandits did not even feel the killing intent before their necks were separated from their shoulders and fell to the ground.

Hwarin was holding a crimson-colored danso [short spear], not his favorite sword, which was a spear with a blade protruding from the end of the danso.

After confirming that they were dead, Hwarin left the scene, and the people who were about to be killed by the bandits were just sitting there trembling in fear.

For Hwarin, it might be a good thing.

The experts of the bandit gang were separated, so there was no risk, and if he could reduce the number of bandits for sure this time, the other bandit gang leaders would not be able to trust Yulappa, so he thought he could lead to the division of the bandit gang.

“Keoeok!”

Hwarin moved without rest.

The Gongmu Dowon Gong [a powerful martial arts technique], which is the source of the mind method, the martial arts learned from the Imperial Palace Mugo [a martial arts school], and the experience gained while living in the Fierce Tiger Death Squad were a great help.

Every time Hwarin appeared, bandits died.

“Kuaaak!”

In the meantime, Hwarin discovered a woman fighting with the bandits. Hwarin could tell who she was at once.

It was the troublemaker of the Namgung family, the daughter of the Namgung family who had come and brandished a sword to kill the heretics.

“Was it Namgung Suyeon? She didn’t return to the family and was still on the Great Plains?”

Hwarin thought that most of the members of the Fierce Tiger Death Squad who had broken through the bandit’s siege would have returned to the unit.

New recruits like Namgung Suyeon would usually desert and return home in this case, but seeing her remaining and fighting with the bandits made him shake his head from side to side at her stupidity.

When Hwarin was about to look at Namgung Suyeon for a moment and move elsewhere, her figure was pushed back and rolled on the floor.

She was frowning and holding her abdomen with one hand, so she must have been injured.

When Hwarin saw the bandits slowly walking towards Namgung Suyeon, his figure disappeared like smoke.

“You crazy bitch, I’ll cut off your hands and feet to keep you from moving, then rape you.”

“Do whatever you want if you can win!”

Profanity flowed from Namgung Suyeon’s mouth. At that moment, a black figure intervened between them and swung a sword at the bandits.

One person’s blood soared into the air and fell backward without even realizing his death, and when his colleagues, surprised by the sight, realized the movement of the black figure, they felt a burning sensation in their chest as if it had been burned.

“Wh……en…….”

When the bandits fell, Hwarin looked at Namgung Suyeon.

“The operation failed. Why are you still here without returning to the unit?”

When Hwarin asked Namgung Suyeon, she realized that he was a member of the same Fierce Tiger Death Squad, and when she looked at his face, she recognized him as a senior who had been sitting face to face with the squad leader and talking about this and that in the past.

“I was seriously injured. I barely managed to save my life with the help of the tribesmen here, but the wound is still……”

Namgung Suyeon told Hwarin about her situation.

“It’s impossible to fight with that body. Dying like that is worse than a dog’s death. So go somewhere and hide, or return to the unit.”

“However……”

“This is an order as a senior.”

Namgung Suyeon bit her lip and looked at Hwarin and said.

“Then I will hide and save my body.”

Hwarin nodded.

“Return to the unit or go back to the family when the treatment is over.”

Hwarin left the injured Namgung Suyeon and moved to find the bandits.

Namgung Suyeon, who was watching Hwarin, clenched her fist. Some kind of emotion surged up, and it was the first time she had ever felt such an emotion in her life.

“Damn it……”

Namgung Suyeon got up from her seat while calming her emotions.

“As he said, I’m not helpful right now, so first……”

Namgung Suyeon took her sword and went into a nearby empty house.

Hwarin left Namgung Suyeon and went around looking for bandits and cutting them down, and the number was over a hundred.

Kwaaaang!

A loud fighting sound was heard from a little distance away.

“Did it start?”

A faint smile appeared on Hwarin’s lips as he sensed that it was the sound of the experts of Hwahoteuk and the experts of the bandit gang fighting.

“I wish they would fight for a long time.”

Hwarin wanted them to fight as long as possible because he could buy time to kill the bandits.

“Then I have to move diligently too.”

* * *

Dark Great Khan Yulappa was furious at the miserable situation unfolding before his eyes.

He felt good only when he defeated the experts of Hwahoteuk. He sensed their victory, and he thought that the morale of the bandit gang would rise because they could plunder everything in the city and rape the women.

And indeed, they won the war, and they raped the women of Hwahoteuk and drank alcohol to celebrate in order to obtain spoils, but now, a day later, the celebration had turned into anger.

When he and the top experts of the bandit gang were facing the experts of Hwahoteuk, someone massacred his subordinates, and as a result, over hundreds of his subordinates were killed.

They attacked and plundered the tribal city of Hwahoteuk to raise morale, but on the contrary, they lost hundreds of subordinates, so morale fell even further.

The gazes of the other bandit gang leaders were also not good. It was because they had lost dozens to as many as over a hundred of their subordinates.

―Dohyeong [term of respect, like ‘brother’], how many subordinates did you lose? I’m over seventy.

―Me too. About a hundred, if it gets out to the other tribes, we’ll have to become fugitives.

―I did it listening to the damn Khan, but what is this mess……, the Khan’s subordinates must have lost quite a bit too, right?

―Maybe so. But there are so many experts around the Khan, so even if he lost that many subordinates, it shouldn’t be a big loss.

―Then isn’t it the same as using us as sacrifices to attack the most difficult Hwahoteuk tribe?

It depends on how you think about it, but since their subordinates were attacked, it was not a situation where they could refute even if they thought this way.

Even if many bandit gang leaders thought this way, they could not express their thoughts or complaints.

―What are you going to do in the future? I wonder if I should save my body [abandon the alliance].

―If you go under the Khan, you can become a middle-level executive, right?

―Are you crazy? It’s better to be the head of a snake than the tail of a dragon. Still, I was the boss who moved over a hundred bandits. Even if my throat is a police station [even if I’m wanted], I can’t work under someone else.

―What about the remaining subordinates?

―I’m going to tell them to divide up what they got here and hide for a while, and I’m going to have to avoid it for a while too.

―I’ll have to do that too.

The bandit gang leaders decided their future with those who got along with each other through telepathy.