Longevity - Chapter 25

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Episode 25: He Who Blocked the Narrow Gorge
“He deserves to meet with grave misfortune.”

Batu Ru’s anger had not cooled even after the relay station had fallen far behind and vanished from sight.

“If you want to fight, you strike a man. But to stab the belly of his horse and slash its legs? They’re nothing but cowards.”

Jang Saeng nodded silently in agreement.
When he had first heard the name Gae Bang, he’d thought it a gathering of pitiful beggars. But the men he’d seen at the North Gate were nothing like the starving. They had killed the horses first to block the road.
Now, to Jang Saeng, Gae Bang was no longer a band of the poor. They were enemies set on cutting off his path and his master’s.
At the relay station behind them, Yeok Seung had walked Jin Ip Chu to the gate and bowed formally in farewell. The moment the party vanished down the Official Road, he sent a relay soldier straight to the castle.
The message was simple.
Gae Bang had risen in rebellion.
The horses had just drunk their fill of salt water. Batu Ru checked their urge to bolt forward, keeping the reins loose instead.
During that respite, the party unpacked their rations. As hoofbeats drummed slowly against the Official Road, dried fish and jerky diminished one by one.
Jin Ip Chu spoke while gazing northward.

“If there’s war ahead, the road will grow even harsher.”

Yi Jung Yong shook his head.

“Even so, we must pass through Un Zhou. To turn back and go around toward Xing Zhou

would add at least seven more days to our journey.”
“Seven days and Master won’t be the only one who’s aged to death—we will too.”

Jin Ip Chu’s mouth twisted, but no laugh came.

“Then I suppose we’ll have to find a way as we go.”

Yi Jung Yong called out to Batu Ru in the lead.

“How much longer do you think the horses can hold out?”

Batu Ru checked the ears, neck, and withers of each of the four horses in turn.

“Three hundred li at most. After that, we’ll have to rest them or find fresh mounts.”
“We’ll find new horses by then.”

Yi Jung Yong urged his horse forward to take the lead. Jin Ip Chu and Jeon Jin Gung split to flank the cart.
Jang Saeng sat beside the right wheel. From beyond the cart’s rear panel came the occasional dull cough.
After each cough drifted a faint reek of spirits. Na Yang Ja was drowning his pain in drink.
Jang Saeng could only hope his master would not call him.
If Master spoke his name, it might be to leave his final words. He clung to the belief that silence now—at least—meant he could still endure.
The Official Road toward the front lines was strangely deserted. Even after the sun had set, almost no merchants or travelers appeared.
Around the hour of gathering dusk, crooked flames flickered into view in the darkness ahead.
The torches were not a single line. They wavered in layers, stretching several li into the distance.
Batu Ru rose in his saddle.

“Sir, is that an army?”

Yi Jung Yong, riding ahead, studied it briefly.

“It looks more like a military supply transport. There are many common laborers pushing hand-carts.”
“Are there horses with them?”
“Yes, some escort cavalry.”

Batu Ru’s face brightened.

“Good. Our horses won’t last much longer.”

As the distance closed, Jang Saeng could make out the supply transport at last. Hand-pushed carts dominated the convoy, interspersed with smaller ox-carts and mule-drawn wagons.
The road was choked with people and cargo.
Yi Jung Yong raised his voice.

“Urgent Military Business! Clear the way!”

The common people ahead scattered in alarm toward the right, carts and animals tangling as they scrambled. A single narrow passage opened along the center of the road.
Then a guard’s shout cut through the torchlight.

“Who goes there!”

Jin Ip Chu responded at once.

“And who are you!”
“A Military Supply Transport under General Yi of Ha Dong Jeol Do Sa!”

Having confirmed their allegiance, Jin Ip Chu straightened in the saddle.

“We’ve come from Xing Zhou! Our carriage carries a Secret Emissary of General Yi Cun Xiao.

We must reach Un Zhou to meet with the General-in-Chief at once—clear the way immediately!”

Yi Cun Xiao was the adopted son of Yi Ji Yong. When they invoked a commander from their own ranks, the convoy’s response changed. Gyo Wi, who commanded the Escort Cavalry, stepped forward into the torchlight.

He inspected the official carriage, the soldiers’ uniforms, and the exhausted military horses, then waved his hand to his men.

“Move the carts to the right! Clear the center!”

Orders relayed in succession. The long transport gradually shifted, opening a passage for the carriage. Jin Ip Chu seized the moment without hesitation.

“Gyo Wi, our mounts have reached their limit from hard riding. Could you spare some horses from your escort for fresh mounts?”

Gyo Wi examined the four animals briefly. After noting the foam at their mouths and the trembling in their front legs, he nodded.

“A Secret Emissary can’t afford delay. Take eight.”

The escort soldiers dismounted. Batu Ru immediately unharnessed the carriage and selected fresh mounts with care, examining their legs, teeth, and eyes before settling on four. The remaining three were swapped out for the horses of Yi Jung Yong, Jin Ip Chu, and Jeon Jin Gung.
Gyo Wi’s men reharnessed them properly. Batu Ru tested the traces with a tug and smiled with satisfaction.

As final preparations neared completion, Gyo Wi called to Jin Ip Chu.

“Brother, near the Front Line the verification of friend and foe grows strict. You have a Copper Tablet, don’t you?”

Jang Saeng caught the briefest stiffening of Jin Ip Chu’s shoulders. But Jin Ip Chu quickly reached into his robe as if nothing were amiss.

“No Copper Tablet, but I carry a Letter written in General Yi Cun Xiao’s own hand.”

He withdrew a folded letter and offered it to Gyo Wi. Gyo Wi waved it away.

“That’s enough. If it’s a sealed Letter, it’s not for me to read.”

Jin Ip Chu returned the letter smoothly to his robe, then turned back toward Jang Saeng.

“Youngest, bring out some of that smoked chicken from Xing Zhou. We can’t pass these sentries empty-handed.”

Jang Saeng ducked into the carriage at once. He pulled two smoked chickens from the basket and handed them to Gyo Wi.
Gyo Wi’s rigid expression softened slightly.
He accepted the birds and passed them to a subordinate, then unhooked a copper tablet from his belt and tossed it to Jin Ip Chu.

“Take it. Who has time to compare letters on a battlefield? This’ll be far quicker.”

Jin Ip Chu snatched the copper tablet from the air.

“We’re grateful for the help.”

Batu Ru cracked his whip. Four fresh war horses surged forward together, and the carriage slipped through the gaps in the supply column.
When they’d drawn perhaps twenty lengths ahead, Jin Ip Chu twisted in his seat.

“One more thing! The Gae Bang has submitted to He Lian Tuo and been absorbed into his forces. If you meet beggars on the road, be cautious!”

Gyo Wi raised a torch in acknowledgment.

“Much obliged for the warning!”

The lights of the supply column receded rapidly behind them.
After riding another dozen li, Jang Saeng released the breath he’d been holding.

“Third brother, that was truly dangerous back there. He asked to see the tablet, yet you came away with it anyway.”

Jin Ip Chu spun the tablet around his finger, grinning.

“When you lie, you must believe it yourself first. The moment your eyes waver and your voice drops, the other man grows suspicious.”

He gestured with his chin toward the empty basket inside the carriage.

“And few in this world receive another’s kindness without cost. A little generosity sows the seeds of goodwill.”

Batu Ru scowled.

“Don’t teach the youngest useless tricks.”
“Useless, is it? I just acquired your new horses with those ‘useless’ tricks.”

Jang Saeng studied Jin Ip Chu’s chest.

“Third brother, was that letter truly from General Yi Cun Xiao?”

Jin Ip Chu’s smile faltered. Instead of answering, he pointed at Jang Saeng with his finger, his face saying he asked foolish questions.
Yi Jung Yong snorted from ahead.

“Some woman he never managed to send it to, most likely.”
“Second brother, do you also have the knack of seeing into people’s hearts?”

Jin Ip Chu bristled, but no one pressed further.
The night road lay quiet. The fresh horses galloped steadily, and the official road stretched ahead in faint relief even without torches.
But as dawn crept near, it was the rider, not the beast, who reached exhaustion first.
Jang Saeng had not foreseen this. He’d calculated the horses’ fatigue but forgotten that a body, jolted through the night, wears down as surely as anything else.
When they dismounted briefly, Yi Jung Yong and Jin Ip Chu’s gaits turned stiff—the long hours pressed into their saddles had chafed the inside of their thighs and buttocks raw.
Jeon Jin Gung’s face betrayed nothing, yet when his feet touched ground, his jaw clenched for just a moment.
Na Yang Ja never emerged from the carriage.
He slept reeking of spirits, yet his chest heaved with strange urgency. His breathing was far too labored for simple slumber.
Jang Saeng lowered the curtain slightly and took his place in front of it.

Half an hour later, Yi Jung Yong woke them all.

“We must depart.”

The exhaustion hadn’t lifted in the slightest. Yet no one complained of needing more rest.
The closer they drew to Un Zhou, the emptier the relay stations became. War had drained the horses away, and the party could do little but snatch brief respites every few hundred li of hard riding.
They pressed on for another two days in this manner.
On the morning of the fourth day, Un Zhou Castle appeared in the distance.
Soldiers swarmed the massive walls on all sides. Siege towers were raised against the ramparts, and thick battering rams struck repeatedly at the gates.
Stones and arrows rained down from above like a storm. Each time burning oil cascaded down, black smoke billowed upward and screams followed.
While Jang Saeng studied the battle, Yi Jung Yong and Jin Ip Chu surveyed the terrain ahead.
Between two mountains lay a narrow, winding gorge. It stretched some three li, with steep hillsides densely covered in trees on either flank.
At its widest point, it spanned scarcely more than five zhang. Where it narrowed, two carriages could barely pass abreast.
Yi Jung Yong spoke.

“If I were Gae Bang, I would wait inside that gorge.”

The smile faded from Jin Ip Chu’s face.

“We have no time to find another route. We must pass through regardless.”
“Then I will scout it first.”

As Yi Jung Yong reached for his horse’s reins, Batu Ru raised a hand.

“Drive the carriage. I will go.”

He seized his Iron Staff and leaped from the carriage.
Yi Jung Yong extended the reins of his own horse.

“Ambassador, take the horse.”
“My weight alone exceeds three hundred jin, and this staff adds another three hundred. The horse would die beneath me.”

Batu Ru dragged the tip of his Iron Staff along the ground as he walked forward.
Yi Jung Yong had no choice but to tether his mount with the four carriage horses. Five beasts now pulled the wagon together.
Batu Ru lowered his body.

“Follow at my back. Burst through in one rush.”

He pushed off the earth and ran. His Iron Staff scraped the stone path, scattering sparks.
When Batu Ru had drawn roughly a hundred zhang ahead, Yi Jung Yong cracked his whip. The five horses hauled the carriage into the gorge.
The fear proved well-founded.
Halfway through the gorge, men from Gae Bang poured from the forest on both sides. Front and rear were sealed off simultaneously.
A roar erupted from the mountainside.
Jang Saeng looked up to see dozens of men straining to roll an enormous boulder. The rock appeared to span at least two zhang in diameter.

“Boulder coming down!”

As Jang Saeng’s cry rang out, the boulder broke free from the slope.
Rumble-rumble-rumble!
The rock shattered trees and tore through earth as it plummeted. Shattered stone and dust swallowed the gorge.
Yi Jung Yong wrenched hard on the reins.

“Ambassador, get clear!”

Batu Ru cut his pace and threw his body backward.
Crash!
The boulder struck the narrow passage directly ahead. The earth trembled and all five horses reared, forelegs high.
Only a man’s width of space remained on either side of the stone. Neither carriage nor horse could pass.

“Curse this!”

Batu Ru threw his shoulder against the boulder before the dust had even settled. His legs dug into the stone floor, but the rock merely trembled—it would not roll.
He drove the Iron Staff deep into the ground. With both hands now free, he wedged them beneath the boulder and heaved.

“Hrraaaagh!”

Muscles bulged; veins rose along his neck. The boulder tilted forward, inch by inch.
Thud.
Once moving, the rock did not slow. With each push from behind, it gathered speed.
The Gae Bang fighters blocking the northern exit shrieked and scattered left and right.
Jang Saeng drew back his crossbow. Yi Jung Yong leapt from the cart, seized the Iron Staff with both hands, and wrenched it free from the ground.
The staff was so heavy it scraped the earth. Yi Jung Yong barely managed to hoist it, shoving it onto the cart bed.
Jin Ip Chu watched Batu Ru’s back and cried out.

“Elder brother—even the greatest strongman under heaven would weep at this!”

The words had not even finished leaving his mouth.
A shadow dropped from the cliff above.
It was an old man, his spine curved, his frame skeletal. He descended directly onto the rolling boulder.
The moment his feet touched the stone, his body sank downward.

“Thousand Jin Drop

!”

Boom!
The boulder, hurtling forward, stopped dead. It drove three inches into the earth below.
Batu Ru’s arms shot forward. Teeth clenched, he strained again—but this time the rock would not budge an inch.
The old man, stooped with age, looked down at Batu Ru.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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