Chapter 152: Fire and Ice (3)
Translator: bjgoofy
Before my inner scream begging the heavens to stop persecuting me had even finished, the boat seemed to pitch up and down, and then came the sound of something slamming against the hull.
-Thud!
-Creeak....
The impact rushed in at the same moment.
-Splash!
"Kyaa...."
"Ngh.... Hwa-eun, careful!"
Water sloshed over the side of the barrel holding Moon Shadow, and Hwa-eun and Seol noona staggered before barely regaining their balance.
The impact itself wasn't that severe, but along with it, resentment toward the heavens came pouring out of my chest like a runaway storm.
'Why must the heavens begrudge even this small wish of Maewoon Fabre's!? Was I asking for so much!? Not ten thousand poisons, not a thousand, not even a hundred... just ten, or even five!'
But I couldn't even sustain my resentment for long; I had to channel my inner magnanimous sage and hypnotize myself into believing it was nothing.
Because a hot, prickling sensation had suddenly surged up inside my nose.
'R-right, well, things like this. Th-they can happen, can't they? Even the heavens slip up sometimes? Haha.... I mean, an impact like this is bearable. Just a little tree branch, no big deal....
They say trials sent from heaven only make a man stronger, right?'
One wrong move and I might spray another nosebleed, which was why I had to keep my mind under control,
It was a cheap shot from the heavens, robbing me of even the freedom to resent them properly while piling on the abuse, but the silver lining was that I was lying in a hammock woven from Yohwa's stretchy silk, and that hammock was anchored in several directions.
Yohwa's elastic silk was shielding me from the impacts like a car's suspension, so I decided to take comfort in the fact that I could withstand shocks of this level.
-Hiss!
What's more, Yohwa had hurried over with a startled face and was shooting webs in every direction to anchor me even more securely.
"Yohwa...."
-Hiss!
At my touched expression, Yohwa thumped her own chest.
A gesture that seemed to say: don't worry, just trust me.
At Yohwa's gesture, tears of emotion welled up in the eyes of Maewoon Fabre, a man among men.
How could I not be moved, watching Yohwa work so hard to save her big brother?
"That's right. Let those measly scraps of wood come all they want. As long as I've got my Yohwa...."
I was just about to say that with Yohwa here, we'd sail right past these pathetic wood scraps in no time.
-Creeeak.
The boat lurched again, veering sharply to the left.
From the passageway came the urgent shout of the Helmsman, the ship's captain.
"Hard to port! Boatmen, hold the ship steady! Uprooted trees are bearing down on us!"
'Gyaaaaah! Please, stop!'
As if to say that since I'd told the wood scraps to come all they wanted, the heavens would send something bigger, whole trees, roots and all, came surging toward us.
At the Helmsman's urgent voice ringing through the cabin, Seol noona rushed over and grabbed hold of my hammock.
Trying to soften the impact even a little, it seemed.
-Creeeak!
-Grrrind.
Soon after came the sound of timber twisting, followed by the sound of something scraping along the side of the ship as it passed.
Then came the crew's drained voices.
"W-we're alive! It passed us!"
"We're alive!"
Thankfully, the uprooted trees seemed to have passed us by.
'Wow, seriously, at this rate I couldn't survive even with multiple lives....'
My body went limp at the fact that my life had hung by a thread twice now.
Just as I slumped into the hammock, thinking surely it was over by now.
The Helmsman's shout rang out again.
"More uprooted trees incoming!"
At the Helmsman's shout, my resentment toward the heavens turned into outright wailing, and Seol noona's urgent voice came from beside me.
'If it's going to be like this, just kill me already!'
"Ryong, hurry! Just accept it! You have to live before you can learn martial arts!"
She meant I should just accept Moon Shadow's poison.
But even though I, too, wanted somehow to accept Moon Shadow's poison, how was I supposed to run my Internal Energy through the Mental Cultivation Method inside a rocking boat like this, in such a desperate moment?
My martial arts were so rudimentary that I could only manage Qi Circulation through the Oral Formula of my Mental Cultivation Method in safe conditions; there was no way I could circulate qi with the boat pitching like this.
Worse, in such a dire situation, not a single line of the Oral Formula came to mind.
My head had gone completely blank, after all.
"I want to, too.... But I can't think of anything.... Seol noona."
"What!?"
And so, just as I gazed blankly at her.
-Boom! Crack!
-Kaboom! Crack!
"Elder, it's dangerous out there! Hagh! The tree split apart!"
"The Elder is splitting the trees! Whoa!"
"Whoaaaa!"
My father-in-law must have dashed out to the bow and was firing off Palm Winds or something; strange sounds rang out, followed by the crew's astonished cries.
'Father-in-law, I knew I could count on you! Damn it!'
-Thunk! Thud!
Small impacts kept coming from the bow, but nothing too severe.
Before long, however, my father-in-law burst through the cabin doorway drenched in sweat and shouted urgently.
"Son-in-law! Just accept it! My Internal Strength is running low; even I can't keep this up much longer!"
'At this point, I don't even know anymore....'
It was true: a high-level technique like Palm Wind couldn't be used endlessly by anyone but Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons.
The heavens kept squeezing my lifeline and then letting go, over and over; just as I resigned myself to whatever would come.
Startled by the commotion, perhaps, Snow and Ice's baby popped right out from Hwa-eun's bosom.
The little thing, which had never once emerged from inside Hwa-eun's clothes, suddenly poked its head out, climbed onto her shoulder, glanced around, and then leapt straight toward me.
Then it scurried up, planted itself squarely on my forehead, and suddenly began to strain.
-Squeak! Squee.
'Wh-what is this?'
Don't tell me Maewoon Fabre's final moments would be the miserable sight of a baby lizard soiling his face?
Was I really to meet my end in such a wretched state? Just as that thought crossed my mind.
Something like vapor suddenly sprayed across my forehead, and with it came a wave of coolness.
My forehead, which had flared red-hot from Moon Shadow's poison, suddenly began to feel cool.
Then came my father-in-law's astonished voice.
"Th-this is! Fighting Poison with Poison!"
Fighting Poison with Poison meant neutralizing one poison with another.
Come to think of it, Moon Shadow's poison was a yang-natured poison tied to fire, while Snow and Ice's poison carried the energy of yin.
"Th-that's it! Moon Shadow's poison holds fierce yang energy! Snow and Ice's poison holds yin energy! You're saved, Son-in-law!"
When Snow and Ice, who had come out after their baby, joined in as well, my body temperature slowly began to return to normal.
'Am... am I saved?'
Not only had I survived, I'd even stumbled upon the antidote to Moon Shadow's handle-with-care poison.
While I was debating whether to laugh or cry at this, another urgent voice followed.
"Helmsman! We can't dodge them like this! There are too many trees bearing down on us!"
"Grgh! Everyone, brace for impact! Hold on to the ship so you don't get thrown off!"
I still needed time to fully shake off the poison, so taking an impact in this state might not kill me, but it could leave me badly hurt.
Just as Seol noona met my eyes with a stricken look at the Helmsman's cry that the trees couldn't be avoided.
Hwa-eun glanced at Snow and Ice, then quickly shouted toward Cho and Bin, who were clinging to the cabin floor.
"Cho! Bin! You must protect Papa! Go out and help the boatmen, please!"
With everything happening so fast, no one had even thought of getting help from the children, but seeing Snow, Ice, and the baby must have reminded her of Cho and Bin.
-Skitter!
-Skitter!
At that, Cho and Bin scuttled out of the cabin like lightning.
Not long after Cho and Bin crawled outside, instead of an impact, the crew's jubilant cries rang out from beyond.
"A c-centipede! The centipede is pushing back the incoming trees, sir!"
"Oho! Lord Soryong's Venomous Creature pushed the trees away!"
"The other centipede has wrapped itself around the bow!"
'Gyaaah! My daughters!'
Tears burst from my eyes in great gushes.
They streamed down without end, like Niagara Falls, like Iguazu.
Because not only had I kept my life, I had defended the dignity of Maewoon Fabre against the heavens' relentless persecution.
***
With the whole ordeal over, we arrived in Jingzhou and had to inspect the boat for a while.
We'd assumed there was no serious damage, but perhaps from the impact of the trees swept down from upstream, water had begun seeping into the boat.
It was only enough to leave a hand damp at a touch, but since problems could arise mid-voyage, we decided to give the boat a proper inspection.
And so, at the docks of Jingzhou, while the boatmen were looking over the ship, my father-in-law, who had briefly gone ashore for supplies, returned and spoke with a startled expression.
"It seems the princess rushed things along. They say the Murim Alliance in Yueyang marched out a few days ago. The government troops appear to be on the move as well."
"Is that true?"
"It is. I heard it directly from the Murim Alliance's Jingzhou branch. We had best hurry back."
"Indeed. I'll go check with the Helmsman first whether the boat can sail."
We hadn't even stopped at Wuhan in order to get back faster, and to think all this had happened in the meantime.
I hurried off to find the Helmsman and asked.
"Helmsman, could we depart this very day? Word has come that the Murim Alliance has marched out; it seems we must return as quickly as possible."
"Re-coating the hull with pine resin would take about three days...."
"Is there no other way?"
When I pleaded with the Helmsman, who'd said the boat needed about three days of work, asking if there wasn't some way, he reluctantly nodded.
"Hmm.... I'll do my best to hurry it along somehow, Young Master."
But by the time we reached Yichang, the problem finally blew up.
We should have dealt with the issue properly, but having set out with only a stopgap fix, the water that had once been seeping in was now pouring in steadily.
-Gush gush gush.
"My apologies, Young Master."
"Not at all. It should have been inspected properly; I'm the one who asked you to rush."
In the end, the boat was laid up at Yichang with the verdict that even makeshift repairs to get it sailing would take several days, and at that news, my father-in-law had to take half the Venomous Creature Squad, board another boat, and race ahead to the Tang Family.
The Murim Alliance had surely sent some kind of word to the Tang Family, and though Grandfather, the Man of Ten Thousand Poisons, was there, a situation like this called for the Family Head.
As for us, with the children along we had no choice but to use this boat, so we decided to wait until it was repaired.
And so, a few days later, with the boat fixed, we were passing through the Three Gorges of the Yangtze on our own.
The Three Gorges were where the Yangtze's currents ran strongest.
We were climbing slowly upstream so as not to strain the makeshift repairs when, suddenly, a voice rang out from beyond the gunwale.
"Halt your vessel! What ship dares pass without paying the toll to our Yangtze River Water Route Stronghold!"
Stepping out onto the deck and looking around, I saw small boats crowding in on every side.
At the sight, Hwa-eun turned to the Helmsman with a flustered face and asked.
"What is going on, Helmsman? The family banner should be flying... Huh? The b-banner!?"
The Helmsman, his face drained deathly pale, replied.
"I-I hadn't noticed, but it seems the family banner snapped off and was lost when the flood came the other day."
"Oh no...."
"What are those guys, Hwa-eun?"
"Well, you see......."
From what she explained, those guys were River Bandits(?), the freshwater version of pirates.
Normally they wouldn't dare come around acting up when the family banner was flying, but according to Hwa-eun, it seemed they had swarmed in because the banner had vanished in the recent commotion.
"Wait, so you're saying they're just thieves?"
"Yes, Soryong, that's true. Though they're not just common thieves; they are martial artists, you see...."
"Master of the vessel, come out at once! What are you doing, keeping us waiting for an answer!?"
At the River Bandits' renewed shouting, Hwa-eun's face flashed with dismay before she composed herself and offered a Cupped Fist Salute toward the small boats.
"Heroes of the Yangtze. I am Tang Hwa-eun of Sichuan's Tang Family. It seems our family banner was snapped off in the flood a few days ago, giving rise to a misunderstanding between us. Might we be permitted to simply pass?"
Then, from one of the small boats, a man who appeared to be the leader answered.
"Well, well. A young lady of the Tang Family, you say? Who in the world would believe that with no family banner flying? And even if you truly were a young lady of the Tang Family, paying the toll when you bear no family banner is the Unwritten Rule of these Three Gorges. You shall not pass until the toll is paid!"
"Tch...."
"Though, seeing as you're a fine-looking thing, if it's coin you lack, there's always the option of paying with your body.... Khehehe."
'What did you just say?'
I'd been holding my tongue, figuring they had their own rules out here, but now this bandit son of a bitch had crossed the line.
I turned my head toward Cho, who was pressed flat against the railing, peering outside, and said.
"Cho?"
-Tssrit?
"Flip 'em."
First, we flip every one of those shabby little rowboats. Then we talk.
*****
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