Chapter 18: Reversal

Wooaaaaah……!

The man who had raised the Fangtian Ji quickly moved his body at the murderous aura and shouts pouring down from above.

Bang……!

The spot where he had been standing was smashed by a broadsword.

“I’ve arrived, Unit Leader Yang! You guys too, gather your strength! The Four Divine Units have arrived!”

Baek Mu-ho’s earth-shattering cry instantly boosted the morale of the gloomy Black Tortoise Unit.

Waaaah……!

The Black Tortoise Unit roared, and in response, the Four Divine Units poured into the village.

I also entered the village with the Four Divine Units.

I was about to draw my sword as I ran out of arrows in my quiver, when I saw a quiver rolling on the ground.

And next to it, an enemy with a bow was sprawled on the ground, holding a single-edged sword in his hand.

I pulled arrows from the enemy’s quiver, nocked them onto my bowstring, and put the rest into my own quiver.

Thud! Thud! Thud……!

The arrows I shot in succession deeply embedded themselves into the enemies’ necks and heads.

Yeon Ja-ryong, who was cutting down enemies’ necks one after another with his sword and advancing forward, glanced back at me.

Then, as if nothing had happened, he continued to cut down enemies and quickly moved forward.

When I ran out of arrows in my quiver again, I looked around.

But there were no enemies with quivers nearby.

As I looked around for arrows, my uncle yelled at me.

“What are you doing now! You have to quickly draw your sword and k*ll the enemies to become a hero!”

“……Yes.”

I gave up on finding arrows and tried to draw my sword.

But at that moment, a chilling murderous aura flew in from behind.

Swish……

I stepped on the footwork, dodged the blade, and instantly approached the enemy who had approached from behind.

The moment the startled enemy’s eyes met mine, my hand was already gripping his throat.

Crack!

Grrr……

As his throat was ripped out by my hand, the enemy collapsed powerlessly onto the ground.

“Ah…… That worked out well.”

The enemy sprawled on the ground had a bow and quiver.

The bow the enemy was carrying looked much better than the one I had.

But the situation was urgent, so I only took the arrows from the quiver.

Thud! Thud thud……!

The arrows I shot in succession pierced the enemy’s forehead and neck without fail.

“Retreat!”

The Green Blade King swung his blood-stained sword and retreated.

As he shouted, the demoralized enemies began to flee the village in a hurry.

“Pursue them!”

As the enemies started to run away, Baek Mu-ho chased after them.

“Stop! Don’t chase them!”

However, at Yeon Ja-ryong’s shout, they stopped before they could go far.

I realized that the fight was finally over and took the enemy’s bow that I had been eyeing.

Hmm……

No matter how much I looked at it, the enemy’s bow seemed better than the one I had.

I quickly placed my bow on the dead enemy’s body.

“It’s a very good bow made of cow bone and mulberry wood.”

Hearing my uncle’s words, this bow seemed to be much better than I had imagined.

“Bring a physician!”

At Unit Leader Yang’s urgent command, the Black Tortoise Unit members moved.

Among those who had fallen to the ground, many were dead, and many were injured.

Unit Leader Yang pointed his sword at the neck of an injured enemy who had collapsed.

“What is the identity of the one who wielded the Fangtian Ji?”

The enemy, who couldn’t escape because he had lost his leg, looked up at him and answered.

“I don’t know either…… The Head of the Bandit Group knows their identities. However…… the Head of the Bandit Group called the one who wielded the Fangtian Ji ‘Southern Barbarian Lord’.”

Thwack!

After hearing the answer, Unit Leader Yang mercilessly struck the enemy’s neck.

He was also enraged because he had lost many of his unit members.

Yeon Ja-ryong and Baek Mu-ho, Ak Mun-yeong couldn’t stop him.

They would have done the same if they were in the same situation.

Phew……

Unit Leader Yang, letting out a long sigh, turned around and approached the other Unit Leaders.

“I’m glad you’re all safe.”

Yeon Ja-ryong shook his head.

“Don’t worry about us and quickly take care of the unit members.”

“Thank you. Oh, and there were five men leading the enemies. One was the Head of the Green Forest General Headquarters, the Green Blade King, and another was the man called Southern Barbarian Lord who used the Fangtian Ji. And the other three were dressed in black, and one of them had a bow and quiver at his waist.”

“Understood.”

As Unit Leader Yang stepped back to take care of his unit members, Yeon Ja-ryong started to examine the corpses.

“What are you trying to do?”

At Baek Mu-ho’s question, Yeon Ja-ryong replied.

“I was wondering if any of those five bastards might have collapsed from injuries.”

“Ah…… That’s true. I’ll look too.”

I quickly turned my head and checked the man who had been carrying the good bow.

The man carrying my bow was dressed in black.

‘Ah…… This is bad.’

I quickly hung the bow on my body.

I was a little afraid that the Unit Leaders might take this good bow away.

As I was feeling anxious, Baek Mu-ho eventually found the man.

“Isn’t this the guy here? Unfortunately, he’s dead.”

Hearing that, Yeon Ja-ryong quickly ran over.

“It’s the work of a master.”

He first examined the ripped-out neck.

Then he took the bow that was hanging on the corpse’s body.

A shiny bow.

Yeon Ja-ryong, who was examining the bow from all angles, turned his gaze towards me, who was standing far away.

I felt a pang of guilt and quickly averted my gaze.

Then he examined the bow once more and threw it onto the corpse’s body.

“It’s a shame. It would have been nice if he were alive.”

Yeon Ja-ryong looked around and came to my side.

Then he glanced at the bow I was carrying and my hand.

“That’s a good bow. Is it yours?”

“Yes.”

At my answer, he stared at the back of my head for a moment and then went somewhere else.

The Four Divine Units members roughly gathered the weapons of the dead and injured enemies and retreated.

As the Four Divine Units retreated, the martial artists who had been waiting rushed in.

The martial artists of the village searched the bodies of the dead and injured enemies and took their belongings.

They even swept away the broken weapons cleanly.

I wanted to search the enemies’ bodies too, but I couldn’t.

It was because none of the Four Divine Units members were searching the enemies’ bodies.

Tsk……

“It’s a shame.”

Sigh……

I looked up at the sky and let out a long sigh.

Why am I doing this when I’m a member of the Four Divine Units?

But Unit Leader Yang pleaded earnestly, so I couldn’t refuse.

I was stitching together the arms and legs that had been severed from the bodies.

They were all members of the Black Tortoise Unit and female martial artists of the Suzhou Jin family who had died in this incident.

“Tell them to give us a lot of silver.”

I felt even worse because my uncle was saying things like this beside me.

If I weren’t a member of the Four Divine Units and a crow, I would have earned at least a thousand silver taels from this incident.

Moreover, Yeon Ja-ryong was also next to me, watching me sew.

“Your sewing skills are truly outstanding. Even embroidery wouldn’t be this good.”

“……Yes.”

After stitching the flesh of the corpses and wiping away the blood, I changed the corpses into shrouds.

As soon as the corpses were dressed in shrouds, the Black Tortoise Unit members lifted them and laid them in coffins.

After doing this for almost a day, my hand holding the needle was trembling.

Still, the way the Black Tortoise Unit members looked at me had changed a lot.

“Have some water and continue.”

Some unit members even brought me water while I was stitching the corpses.

After stitching the corpses all night long with torches lit, my whole body was exhausted.

When I finished the work in the morning, Unit Leader Yang approached.

“You’ve worked hard. Go in and rest because you must be tired.”

He even prepared a room especially for me.

“Hurry up and tell them to give us the silver. Hurry up. Huh? Are you ignoring me now? I won’t find any corpses for you next time.”

I ignored my uncle’s chattering and went into the room.

Now that I’m a member of the Four Divine Units, what reason would I have to find corpses?

And I lay down as I was and fell asleep.

“If it weren’t for Kang Dong-jae, we would have been annihilated.”

No one objected to Yeon Ja-ryong’s words.

“How did Kang Dong-jae know there was an escape route there?”

At Unit Leader Yang’s question, Yeon Ja-ryong shook his head.

“He said his grandfather told him, but it was a hard-to-believe story.”

“Anyway, I like that guy. He saved me and my unit members.”

The Unit Leaders gave a wry smile at Baek Mu-ho’s simple words.

Yeon Ja-ryong, in particular, felt so frustrated that he wanted to vomit.

Unit Leader Yang was supposed to chase Kang Dong-jae away without recognizing his true worth, but now the possibility of that happening was slim.

Moreover, it seemed that the Black Tortoise Unit members had also accepted Kang Dong-jae, at least in their hearts, because of this incident.

And it wasn’t just the Black Tortoise Unit members, was it?

Since he had saved the entire Four Divine Units, no one in the Four Divine Units would be able to say anything to him now.

If they rejected him even after he had saved their lives, they wouldn’t be human.

But the Unit Leaders still didn’t know Kang Dong-jae’s true nature.

“I heard he’s very good at s*ooting arrows.”

At Ak Mun-yeong’s words, Yeon Ja-ryong’s heart sank.

‘Ah. This is a problem.’

“How do you know that? Older Sister. Did you only watch Kang Dong-jae by any chance?”

Baek Mu-ho had a puzzled expression.

“No. Before, when we were suppressing the water bandits, someone shot an arrow from over a hundred paces away, killed the Head of the Water Bandit Stronghold, and saved a unit member. I didn’t know who shot the arrow and saved the unit member at the time, but they said there were crows nearby.”

At Ak Mun-yeong’s story, Baek Mu-ho chuckled.

“No. How can you be sure that the one who shot the arrow and killed the Head of the Bandit Group was Kang Dong-jae? It’s not like Kang Dong-jae is the only one who’s good at archery.”

She didn’t deny his words.

But in her heart, she was certain.

After examining the corpses this time, she found that many enemies had arrows deeply embedded in their foreheads and necks.

There were no unit members who had the skill to accurately pierce the enemies’ foreheads and necks in that chaotic battle.

If there was one, it was Kang Dong-jae, who used to be a crow.

Moreover, she had happened to witness him s*ooting arrows and piercing the enemies’ foreheads and necks.

“Anyway, shouldn’t we quickly return to the Martial Alliance and report this?”

At Unit Leader Yang’s words, all the Unit Leaders nodded.

Certainly, this incident was not ordinary.

The carts carrying the coffins departed in a line, and the Four Divine Units members followed behind.

The streets were still not completely cleared of the corpses.

There were several martial arts families and sects in Suzhou, and they were also caught up in this incident, with quite a few casualties.

As I was leaving the streets with the Four Divine Units, the village uncles were stitching up the corpses.

Perhaps because they had a lot of work, the uncles’ expressions were bright.

One of the village uncles, while stitching up a corpse, looked back at the Four Divine Units walking down the street.

And he recognized me.

The uncle poked the side of another uncle who was working next to him.

“Look at that. It’s Dong-jae, Dong-jae.”

The uncle who was poked in the side also looked up from his sewing.

“Oh my. That guy has risen in the world.”

My face burned at the village uncles’ voices.

The Four Divine Units members also seemed to have heard the uncles’ words and glanced at me.

“Straighten your shoulders and walk with confidence. With confidence.”

Strangely, when I heard Martial Emperor uncle’s voice, my embarrassment disappeared.

I even waved to the village uncles.

Haha……

But I heard Yeon Ja-ryong laughing behind me.

“The hero of Crow Street. No, is it the hero of the Four Divine Units now? I look forward to working with you in the future, Kang Dong-jae.”

I didn’t know what to say.

So I just answered briefly.

“Yes.”