The World’s Greatest Junior Martial Brother - Chapter 4

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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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Cheonha Jeil Sajae (4)
Not that I’d ever have any luck, damn it.
‘Extortion!’
Who would dare threaten the Sibu, those wild dogs of the river?
Their brute strength is terrifying. Even the most notorious ruffians can’t so much as catch their breath around them.
‘Could it be…?’
The instant Jin Muok’s eyes narrowed—
Dong— Dudong—.
Chaengchaeng-jaejaejaeng—.
As the Sibu fled, drums and gongs erupted in their place, a deafening clamor rising across the water.
The roar was loud enough to split the eardrums. The passengers clapped their hands over their ears, but the crewmen’s faces had drained of all color.
Because that sound was the herald of their arrival.
“Yeehaw!”
“Long time no see, my sweethearts?”
Seven small boats appeared from nowhere, slicing toward the fire ship as swiftly as arrows of light.
“J-Jugá!”
The boats came like a thunderclap. They were not ordinary swift vessels but Jugá, built for nothing but speed.
There was only one group that rode Jugá and terrorized ships on the river. Only one group could drive off the Sibu, notorious for their ferocity.
‘Damn it.’
Jin Muok let his head drop.
So this was it.
The one thing he had feared more than the furious waves of the Yangtze Three Gorges. The raid of the pirates who ruled these waters.
Gu Pa-pa’s grumbling came back to him in that moment.
“We’re famous for our bad luck, and so is that disciple of mine.”
Yes, ma’am. I’m the unluckiest bastard alive.
Jin Muok bemoaned his lot, while the Jugá hugged the side of the ship and rained down iron anchors, heedless of him.
Originally, the cheolmyo was an iron anchor used to hold a ship in place, but pirates used them to snare and smash the vessels they targeted.
Kwajik— Kwadeuk—.
With the anchors tearing into the fire ship, it lost all ability to sail, and the pirates rushed across in a scramble.
“Hahahaha! Well, well, how are you all doing?”
The fat man who appeared to be the pirate leader slapped his bulging belly and burst into a raucous laugh.
“I am Geumsa Yongje, the fourth younger brother of the Dragon King who guards Geumsa.”
Oh, I see.
Pirates have always claimed kinship with the Dragon King, and that hasn’t changed one bit.
Reeling off a self-introduction so tiresome and shopworn it was tedious to hear, the Fat Dragon’s Younger Brother put on airs.
“Until now, the Yangtze and Geumsa have been peaceful and calm, but suddenly there’s been a sharp rise in the riffraff stirring up trouble here. That is why our Dragon King, who governs this region, has flown into a rage.”
Yongje, his chin tilted high, put on a show of benevolent sympathy.
“Our Dragon King, his anger boiling over, ordered that every boat be smashed right away. But this Yongje begged him earnestly to hold back, and so…”
What a yawn. The gist of this long-winded speech is just that he wants our money.
Jin Muok had no interest in the pig from the start. He only wanted to know which faction the pig belonged to.
Let’s see… Ah!
A small banner fluttering on the lead Jugá.
Changgang Sipalchae.
‘Well, that’s some relief.’
Jin Muok brightened. If he had to meet pirates, better the Changgang Sipalchae than some random riffraff.
‘Nameless pirates commit indiscriminate plunder and slaughter, but the Changgang Sipalchae only collect their toll and leave it at that.’
Not that I’m defending pirates. Crime is crime, after all. But unlike the stray pirates who can’t rein in their own men, the Changgang Sipalchae know at least where the line must not be crossed.
That is why, as long as they collect the toll, the Changgang Sipalchae leave everything else entirely alone.
‘Good. Good.’
Worry over. In a little while, the ship’s captain and that pig will start haggling over the toll.
Then I can catch up on all the naps I’ve missed…
Just as Jin Muok leaned back against the hull and was about to close his eyes, he was startled by a surge of energy from the other side.
A swell of qi born from fury mixed with sheer disbelief!
If that person steps forward, everything will fall apart!
Sarak—.
Dragging his backside across the deck, Jin Muok shifted over to Myeonsanyeo’s side and sent a low Voice Transmission.
―Hold it together.
―……!
She hadn’t expected a ten-year-old brat to send her a Voice Transmission, so Myeonsanyeo was taken aback for a moment.
And what’s with the casual speech, too?
“If you put your mind to it, you could turn those lowlifes into mincemeat. Maybe even wipe one of the Sipalchae off the Yangtze altogether.”
Kid’s got a good eye, I’ll give him that.
Myeonsanyeo let Jin Muok’s casual banter slide right off her. Even by ordinary standards, she wasn’t quite normal either.
“And stop it already.”
“…?”
“Those bastards are getting paid to leave anyway. So drop the idea of beating them black and blue just to vent your temper.”
And this kid is telling me this?
Myeonsanyeo let out a dry laugh, half-baffled.
Who did he think he was talking to? Just mention her sobriquet and the grizzled masters of the Martial World would fold themselves in half in deference.
And this brat was going to lecture her, telling her to do this and not to do that?
But Jin Muok pushed even further.
“If you go wild, I’m the one who ends up worn out, you know.”
Huh?
Without so much as a glance at Myeonsanyeo, who was gaping at him, Jin Muok whipped around.
“So just behave and let’s go.”
Fidgeting his backside, Jin Muok made his way back to his seat.
A bolt from the blue, as they say. Myeonsanyeo stared at him for a moment, then burst out laughing.
“Well, you got me good.”
She smiled wryly. She’d just been schooled by a ten-year-old brat.
“What sort of fellow is he, I wonder?”
Even Mi Buin, who attended to her, showed a flicker of clear emotion in her eyes.
Interest.
“No idea.”
Myeonsanyeo was still in good spirits.
Having calmed her fit for the moment, Jin Muok returned to his place.
Sichuan wasn’t far off now.
Please, let’s just get there in peace.
Settling himself as comfortably as he could, Jin Muok glanced back and forth between the Fat Dragon’s younger brother and the captain of the cargo ship.
There had to be some unspoken figure agreed upon between the Changgang Sipalchae and the cargo ship.
Pay that, and they could part ways peacefully!
‘Just hand it over already, hurry up.’
Jin Muok, going through the motions of a sacrifice in his mind. Perhaps reading his mood, the captain was haggling eagerly with the fat pirate.
But at some point Geumsa Yongje began ignoring the captain’s words, fixing his gaze on something else.
‘Wow, she’s a stunner?’
He stood there, utterly spellbound, staring at Myeonsanyeo.
To Jin Muok she was a martial woman bent on wrecking the whole deal, but in truth she was a beauty who could make an ordinary pretty face look like a slap in the face, a woman who could topple kingdoms.
Even someone with a pittance of Inner Power, if they raised their Eye Power, could sense the beauty hidden behind Myeonsanyeo’s veil, and Geumsa Yongje had at least that much.
‘Well, you’re a man too, so I understand.’
It’s only natural for bees to swarm a flower. And all the more so when the flower is a peerless beauty.
But he should keep it to looking. That is the Law of the Yangtze.
No pirate had ever crossed that line until now…
‘Oh, for crying out loud.’
Jin Muok covered his eyes with his hand. Geumsa Yongje, blinded by lust, had started ignoring the captain’s words.
‘Is he a rookie or something?’
No, even a small-time pirate band’s leader wouldn’t be a newcomer. It was simply that Myeonsanyeo’s beauty was overwhelming.
Enough to make a man forget the Law of the Yangtze.
Jin Muok instinctively checked on Myeonsanyeo’s movements.
Oh, now this is good.
Myeonsanyeo, for her part, was practically rubbing her hands with glee.
‘Oh, I’m going to lose it.’
Jin Muok had to grip his fading senses with everything he had.
They had agreed, he and Myeonsanyeo, that so long as the Yangtze pirates stayed within the line, she would refrain from using her power. Turn that around, and it meant she would act the moment they crossed it.
And that lust-crazed pig wasn’t just crossing the line, he was skipping rope over it. No wonder she was delighted.
And I’d just gotten that bastard under control!
A surge of anger welled up from somewhere deep in his chest.
‘Ugh! Ugh!’
His temper flared, and Jin Muok rose to his feet a split second before Myeonsanyeo, who was itching to vent her fury under the pretense of a tantrum.
“Hey.”
“…?”
The chattering pirates turned their heads in unison.
A little brat is calling out to someone… Could it be him?
“Me?”
Geumsa Yongje hooked his index finger backward, pointing at himself—or more precisely, at his belly, which bulged out shamelessly.
“Yeah, you.”
Jin Muok marched straight up to Geumsa Yongje and snapped at him.
“Why won’t you take the money?”
“What?”
“Just take the money you agreed on and get lost. Why are you clinging on?”
“This little brat is talking back?”
Finding the top of the kid’s head, barely reaching above his navel, laughable, one of the pirates beside Geumsa Yongje moved to grab Jin Muok.
Crack—!
Jin Muok twisted his body just enough to slip the pirate’s grasp, pulled a wooden club from his robe, and swung it into the man’s jaw.
“Gah… ugh.”
The man couldn’t even finish a death cry. The one who had charged in so boldly went down in a single blow, and the remaining pirates and Geumsa Yongje had no choice but to widen their eyes as far as they could.
Then came the rage. How dare a pint-sized brat provoke them, the masters of the Yangtze!
They couldn’t take it anymore!
“A puppy with no fear of tigers, huh!”
“We’ll teach you some manners!”
Looks like they’d picked up a proverb somewhere. The pirates spat out one insult after another as they lunged at Jin Muok.
Whirr—.
Jin Muok spun the wooden club once through the air, angled his body sideways, and began beating down the charging pirates—
“Me, huh?”
Thwack—!
“Over something incredibly important!”
Crack—!
“I’m on my way to Sichuan after spending a fortune!”
Crack-crack-crack—!
“And you lot have the nerve to get in my way?”
Thwack-thwack-thwack-thwack!
Once he’d dealt with the last one, Jin Muok rested the wooden club on his shoulder, irritated.
Thud—!
The deck was cleared in the blink of an eye. More than a dozen pirates now lay sprawled like seaweed washed up on the shore, courtesy of Jin Muok’s club.
Only one was left.
“You, come here.”
Jin Muok aimed the tip of his club at Geumsa Yongje.
“Uuuugh.”
This one’s the real deal. He’d scraped by on piracy with what little martial skill he had, but he’d seen his share of hardship, so he could tell that much by instinct.
Where on earth had a monstrous little boy like this come from?
“Damn, I really am cursed with rotten luck.”
Of all the times to be made leader, this was his first voyage, and he had to run into a little demon like this.
Geumsa Yongje sighed so heavily the deck seemed to groan, and Jin Muok’s mouth fell open.
Good heavens.
‘He was really a rookie?’
So that’s why he couldn’t tell shit from miso.
‘Honestly.’
Feeling an odd sense of kinship, Jin Muok walked briskly up to Geumsa Yongje.
“Eeeek!”
“I won’t hit you. I won’t hit you.”
Once he’d calmed the terrified Geumsa Yongje, Jin Muok leaned in and whispered to him.
—Forget everything else and take a good look around the ship. Drop your lewd delusions.
What on earth is this scary little brat talking about… Huh?!
Whoosh—!
Geumsa Yongje flinched back at the murderous aura pouring off Myeonsanyeo.
To think he hadn’t recognized a master like that. Just as the kid said, he’d been so drunk on lust that he’d lost all sense of right and wrong.
If the little boy hadn’t stepped in…
It wouldn’t have ended with a beating from a ten-year-old!
—Got it now, Fat Dragon?
—It’s Geumsa Yongje!
—Fine, Fat Dragon. Now do you understand?
Geumsa Yongje’s neck nodded mechanically.
―Then you’ll be vanishing at the speed of light, along with the toll and those toppled little goons, I suppose?
Would I ever refuse!
After that, the toll negotiations went as smoothly as flowing water.
Myeonsanyeo was disappointed that the brawl she had anticipated had come to nothing thanks to Jin Muok’s intervention, and Geumsa Yongje returned with a tangle of conflicted feelings.
As he was boarding the swift boat, Geumsa Yongje finally asked Jin Muok a question.
―Who the hell are you?
None of your business.
Jin Muok leaned against the hull with his fingers laced behind his head and closed his eyes.
―I’m asking what kind of monster crawled out of wherever it is you came from!
Under Geumsa Yongje’s relentless interrogation, Jin Muok finally opened his mouth.
―Hell.

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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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