Chapter 34. Moonlight
[6, 5, 4 ....]
Dong Bong-su soon stepped into the lower chamber.
Just as the ship craftsman had said earlier, there was a scupper on each side inside the lower chamber. The empty space further inside seemed to be used as a storage area, with various tools for lake navigation scattered about, and, just as the ship craftsman had mentioned, there was also a fairly large chamber pot with a lid placed there.
Since he hadn't come to use something like a chamber pot in the first place, he pressed himself as close to the ship's wall as possible.
First, the left side.
The place with the scupper was at the very end of the ship. As he approached the scupper, just as the ship craftsman had said he relieved himself there instead of using a latrine, a foul stench stabbed his nose. Even so, Dong Bong-su paid it no mind and pressed his body as close as possible to the hole where the oar would have been placed.
Then, he checked his piercing vision.
[3.]
The parameter of piercing vision was now pointing to 3 meters. Beneath this scupper, on the lower hull 3 meters below, there was one person presumed to be an enemy clinging there.
'First, two.'
Including the one he had identified at the bow earlier, that made two.
And that still might not have been the end.
Dong Bong-su immediately moved toward the lower chamber on the opposite side. As expected, the distance increased and then began to decrease again.
On the scupper directly opposite the point that had just indicated 3 meters.
There was another enemy at an even closer distance of 2 meters.
'Three!'
After confirming three additional enemies, Dong Bong-su exited the lower chamber and walked toward the bow. There was a chance that there might be more enemies there besides the one he had already confirmed.
"Kuuh ...…"
The ship craftsman who had shown him the way earlier had already fallen back into sleep. The low sound of snoring was proof that he was sleeping deeply.
Dong Bong-su passed by him and approached the bow. Once again, the warning sound of piercing vision increased, then began to decrease after reaching 14 meters. And there, in addition to the enemy he had identified earlier, he confirmed that there was one more clinging to the opposite side of the third deck.
'Four.'
A total of four.
Beneath this ship right now, there were four enemies whose levels differed from his by at least 10 or more.
Including Do Heo-ok, that made five.
One was positioned on each side of the ship's underside, directly below both the front and rear of the vessel.
Through the sense of distance provided by piercing vision, he was able to pinpoint the exact positions of the four.
Then what was their purpose in sneaking onto this ship?
At this point, there was no need for further contemplation.
If their goal had been something like abducting Namgung Hye, they would have already done it. On this ship, the only person capable of stopping them was Do Heo-ok, and judging by the circumstances, he was the one who had lured these four here in the first place—why would he stop them?
Four peak experts doing nothing but clinging beneath the ship?
'They're waiting for the ship to return to Namgung Family.'
This ship would soon return to Namgung Family, and it was a vessel that drew no suspicion. Who would ever doubt a ship carrying Namgung Byeok's second son-in-law and second daughter?
Which meant that the peak experts clinging beneath the ship right now would be able to infiltrate Namgung Family without any interference.
These were people whose levels differed from Dong Bong-su's by at least 10. Whether that gap was 20 or even 30 was impossible to know.
And for four such people to secretly slip into Namgung Family...
'Overturning.'
The 'big trouble, big incident' that Do Heo-ok was plotting was exactly as Dong Bong-su's intuition had warned. The first, third, and fourth possibilities were all eliminated, leaving only the second.
Do Heo-ok and this faction intended to completely overturn Namgung Family. It wasn't about killing one or two people. Absolutely not.
'They intend to erase Namgung Family from the martial world.'
If that was the case, then D-Day was surely...
That very day.
Do Heo-ok's wedding day.
They would be preparing step by step to carry out their plan at that time, and this incident was also part of the preparatory phase for that grand undertaking.
There were no "what ifs." The possibility that Do Heo-ok and these people were on different sides was zero.
Namgung Family was, in name, the greatest family under heaven. When this pleasure boat returned to the family estate, they would certainly inspect the ship and check whether anyone had snuck aboard. Normally, the infiltrators would be caught there, and even if they were lucky enough to escape the ship and infiltrate the interior of Namgung Family, they would soon be discovered by the family's martial artists.
But.
If someone bought them time to hide within the family grounds, and even provided places for them to hide, the story changed completely.
Those preparations would have already been fully arranged by Do Heo-ok, and events would unfold accordingly.
There was no one left who could stop it.
Dong Bong-su couldn't stop it either.
Even if he returned to the family and claimed that there were intruders, who would believe him? And if he added that the person who had hidden—or would hide—them was Do Heo-ok?
It was obvious that it would only be a self-destructive move that put himself in danger.
That was not a choice Dong Bong-su could make.
Then.
'What should I do now?'
Do Heo-ok's plan was progressing step by step, and there was no way for Dong Bong-su to stop it.
A dilemma.
Tang Hua or Tang Wu were always by his side, so he couldn't leave Namgung Family. But if he stayed within Namgung Family, then when the time came, Do Heo-ok and the forces behind him would attack, and the outcome was easy to imagine.
In the worst case, everyone inside Namgung Family would be annihilated.
If he followed Tang Wu, he might survive if he were lucky—but that was only if he was truly lucky. If Dong Bong-su had relied on luck every time something like this happened, he wouldn't have survived this long without being caught.
Luck was nothing more than a foolish gamble believed in by idiots, and Dong Bong-su was no idiot.
'I need to find a certain method.'
As quickly as possible.
When faced with a dilemma, most people would easily give up. But Dong Bong-su did not give up. No matter the situation, he maintained cold rationality and pushed through crises.
If the front and back were blocked, he would slip out through the side. If both sides were blocked, he would leap upward or hide below.
And if even that was impossible.
He would resolve both sides at once.
That was Dong Bong-su's way. And Dong Bong-su was someone capable of doing exactly that.
The gaze in Dong Bong-su's eyes gradually shifted from Sosam's eyes back to Dong Bong-su's original, 'nothingness' gaze.
What was he thinking?
No one knew yet.
***
A short while later.
As if nothing had happened, Dong Bong-su came up onto the deck and drank with Do Heo-ok.
There, while drunk, he rattled off Sosam's life story at length. As for the matter involving Tang Wu, he brushed it off vaguely, saying he didn't really know why things had turned out that way.
Do Heo-ok couldn't find a single flaw in Dong Bong-su's story and ultimately had no choice but to accept it. That Dong Bong-su knew nothing.
Afterward, Dong Bong-su, drunk, went down to the lower chamber and fell asleep with his head buried in the scupper.
In the end, that night's boat excursion ended just like that.
Up until then, clouds still covered the moon in the sky. Even so, the moon was so large that its moonlight brightly illuminated the world.
The full moon was not far off.
Midway between the half moon and the full moon.
Clueless Tang Hua and Namgung Hye smiled as they gazed at the moon even as they returned to Namgung Family, and beside them, Do Heo-ok, wearing a satisfied smile, also looked up at the moon.
However, there was one thing they didn't know.
That there was someone else looking at the same moon as them.
Dong Bong-su, even with his head slammed against the scupper and his nose filled with the stench of excrement and urine, calmly watched the distorted reflection of the moon shimmering on Chaohu.
That moon was not as bright as the one seen directly in the sky, but it flowed across Chaohu's surface more secretly, more quietly, and more beautifully.
***
The time when Dong Bong-su, Do Heo-ok, Tang Hua, and Namgung Hye's boat excursion ended was just as it transitioned from the second watch (9–11 PM) to the third watch (11 PM–1 AM), which was when the family guards standing watch changed shifts for the first time.
The ship they rode soon docked at Chao Bay, and Do Heo-ok and the two women disembarked first. After that, Dong Bong-su was carried off the ship on the backs of the ship craftsmen.
Do Heo-ok ordered the family guards who were changing shifts to wash Dong Bong-su and put him to sleep in any empty room in the Guest Hall of Heaven, then returned to the Imperial King Hall together with Namgung Hye.
Along his route, a 'gap in the guard rotation' caused by the shift change occurred, and through that gap, four secretive shadows followed behind Do Heo-ok.
Forgetting Tang Wu's instruction not to leave Dong Bong-su alone, Tang Hua abandoned Dong Bong-su, who reeked of excrement and urine, and went alone into the Guest Hall of Heaven. It was nothing significant, but Tang Hua found Dong Bong-su even more repulsive.
She believed that a fiery martial artist should be able to handle a reasonable amount of alcohol. By her standards, Dong Bong-su collapsing after just a few cups of Tangerine Sprout Wine didn't even qualify as a man. Let alone a once-in-a-generation genius. She was certain that Tang Wu had clearly misjudged him.
To her, Dong Bong-su was nothing more than a pitiful bug who had gotten lucky enough to catch Tang Wu's favor.
After Tang Hua disappeared, the Namgung Family guards who had taken Dong Bong-su from the ship craftsmen carried him to the bathhouse inside the Guest Hall of Heaven and washed him carefully.
Cold water touched his body, but Dong Bong-su still hadn't come to his senses by then. No—he pretended not to.
As a result of those efforts, shortly afterward, he was left alone in an empty room at the very end of the Guest Hall of Heaven, specifically in the Guest Hall of Man. The guards who had washed him, following Do Heo-ok's orders, brought him there and then returned to their posts. From their perspective, they should have been able to rest immediately after changing shifts, but instead they had to wash a stinking Dong Bong-su, so it was only natural that they felt displeased. Even so, true to Namgung Family's guards, they carried out their duty properly to the end.
The Guest Hall of Man was a guest hall for men, located on the eastern island across Chao Bay. Conversely, the Guest Hall of Earth, built on the western island of Chao Bay, was for women. Tang Hua was probably sleeping soundly in the Guest Hall of Earth by now.
Even after the guards left, Dong Bong-su remained lying on the bed in the same position. There was still one more person who would come looking for him.
Creek—.
Just as expected, before long, the door opened and someone appeared. However, slightly beyond expectations, it wasn't one person, but two.
The people who appeared were Tang Wu, and Danri Ganghae.
Tang Wu entered the room, checked that Dong Bong-su was asleep, and clicked his tongue lightly.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. I told her over and over not to leave him alone."
After lightly reproaching Tang Hua, who wasn't there, Tang Wu took Danri Ganghae with him and left the room again.
Creek. Thud.
The door closed, and at last, Dong Bong-su's 'time' arrived.
Riiip—.
Dong Bong-su's eyes slowly, clearly opened.
***
(Revision) New Murim Online Rule 7: The passive skill piercing vision identifies dangerous factors that approach within a 20-meter radius of Dong Bong-su and informs him. The 기준 is a level difference of 10.
Addition: piercing vision only targets 'the single closest individual' whose level differs by 10 or more from Dong Bong-su. If one person is 10 meters away and another is 5 meters away, the only target piercing vision can sense is the one at 5 meters.
※ Still, all of these rules are not fixed or absolute.