Fabre in Sacheon’s Tang Novel - Chapter 256

Chapter 256
Observing the swarm of pirates charging in our direction, my mind raced frantically.
Where in the world had I sent Hwayang?
But of course, I had no chance of recalling.
I hadn’t given Hwayang any specific instructions to begin with.
I shouted for him in a surge of panic.
‘Hwayang! Where are you!?’
–Pii? 『Food?』
I called out again with desperate urgency, but as usual, his reply was just a single word.
I swept my gaze across every direction, attempting to locate him—
Then I noticed a gentle, pale mist beginning to form behind me.
Yohwa’s fog was starting to expand.
In moments, the entire surroundings were swallowed by that thick white haze, and I lost sight of everything—including where Hwayang might be.
‘Where are you hiding?’
A realization suddenly struck me—I’d given Cho no further commands after he sank the ships.
I called out right away.
‘That’s right! Cho! Cho!’
–Chorut?
I still needed to locate Hwayang, and with the mist thickening, I had to get above it to oversee the battle.
Without a doubt, remaining inside the fog would leave me blind to anyone trying to break through.
I sprinted toward Cheongyu’s position behind the mist, calling out to Cho as he replied:
‘I’m over here behind the fog—fly to me now! Hwayang is missing! Help me search for him!’
–Chorurut!!
Cho descended swiftly beside Cheongyu, coiled around me, and with a powerful beat of his wings, we lifted into the air.
At that exact instant, the pirates began surging toward us in a frenzied rush.
“R-Run for it!”
“It’s the army from the Central Plains!”
“Make for the hills!”
‘Damn it all! Hwayang, where are you!’
I could only hope he wasn’t somewhere else, creating unimaginable chaos.

***
The southern harbor of Yizhou was now completely under the control of Baek Cheong-u.
With his rival Jin-gyu unmistakably eliminated, the title of “Sea King” over the southern bay and coastal waters was his alone.
His strategy was to bring all the Yizhou pirates together under the banner of the Sixteen Camps and proclaim himself the Sea King.
The sole individual who could have opposed him—Jin-gyu—was no more, leaving no one to stand in the way of Baek Cheong-u’s aspirations.
“Sea King—erm, your drink. Please take it.”
“Sea King, eh? I quite like the ring of that. Kahahahaha! This puts me in such fine spirits that I won’t lay a hand on any of you for the next ten days.”
“Th-thank you, sir! Thank you!”
He had been regularly beating the women he captured, often to death, but in his current elation, he decided he would avoid striking their faces.
Sprawled comfortably on a leopard skin, Baek Cheong-u took the drink offered by one of the captive women.
His thoughts drifted to the favorable report he had received just a few days prior.
–Crash!
“Sea! Sea King!”
Much like this moment, he had been enjoying wine served by women when Jeok-sam suddenly stormed in.
“You insolent fool! What do you want!?”
He yelled at the man who had entered without any announcement.
Jeok-sam had supposedly set out on a raid earlier that day. Reports had even come in that the ships were proceeding smoothly—so why was he here?
“You were supposed to be raiding—why are you here!?”
Jeok-sam, breathing heavily, responded,
“T-That doesn’t matter right now! Two of the ships that sailed with me… they’ve been sunk!”
“What!? You hadn’t even been gone long… Don’t tell me you fools were drunk and wrecked the ships!?”
Baek Cheong-u began to seethe, suspecting his men had been intoxicated and crashed into rocks or each other.
Jeok-sam waved his hands in frantic denial.
“N-No, it wasn’t that! S-Something—a spirit beast of some kind—fell from the sky and shattered them completely!”
“What? A spirit beast? An Imugi!?”
“Yes! It wasn’t large enough to be a true dragon, but it was something similar! Two ships were destroyed!”
“Then that must be why the others that departed haven’t returned to port!?”
“It appears so!”
Upon learning that a spirit beast had emerged and was attacking ships, Baek Cheong-u assembled all the Yizhou pirates at the southern harbor.
The situation was evidently growing dire.
“How many remain here!?”
“There are still many crewmen here. Some also headed west by sea.”
“Send a message at once to the western sea! A spirit beast has appeared—we don’t know when it might attack again, so everyone must gather at the southern harbor to confront it!”
“Y-Yes, sir!”
Having battled a spirit beast collectively two years earlier, the pirates readily united around the idea of facing another.
And Baek Cheong-u, naturally, had no desire to let this perfect chance slip away.
With Jin-gyu removed, the moment had arrived to set in motion the plan he had long envisioned.
Among the remaining pirate captains, few possessed powerful martial skills.
It would not be difficult to subdue them and force them under his command.
Baek Cheong-u already commanded numerous loyal martial artists, making it straightforward to dominate the others.
After coercing oaths of allegiance from all of them, he was crowned Sea King.
Only a single day had passed since that event.
Baek Cheong-u smiled at the memory and accepted another drink from one of the captive women.
–Crash!
“Sea! Sea King!”
Abruptly, the doors to his quarters burst open and Jeok-sam rushed in once more.
Now, Jeok-sam was the leader of the Red Camp—one of the Sixteen Camps of the Yizhou pirates.
“You mannerless wretch! What is it now!?”
Baek Cheong-u snarled angrily at the man who had again entered without permission.
Jeok-sam stammered, visibly shaken.
This translation is the intellectual property of Novelight.
“O-Outside! The lookouts report hearing war drums—warships from Bukgeon and Zhejiang are storming the harbor!”
“What!?”
–Clang!
Baek Cheong-u threw his wine cup to the floor, seized his sword, and sprinted toward the harbor.
There, he saw glimmering lights in the distance.
Beneath the moonlight, vessels of the Central Plains military, their lanterns ablaze, were advancing into the southern harbor.
They had failed in numerous previous attempts—he believed they would never return. Yet now, the Central Plains navy had arrived.
“How many ships!?”
He yelled the question to the lookouts.
“N-Nine, sir!”
Someone called out the number, and Baek Cheong-u shouted,
They had been taken by surprise, but if they reacted as they had in the past, they could still avoid major losses.
“Save every ship you can! As soon as the rowers are aboard, get each vessel launched toward the open sea as quickly as possible!”
“Understood!”
They were already prepared to depart for the spirit beast hunt, so the only remaining task was to assemble the rowers.
Fortunately, Baek Cheong-u had banned alcohol that morning due to the hunt—
Under normal circumstances, half the crew would have been too drunk to function.
He ordered that every usable ship be launched the moment rowers were ready.
Then it occurred.
–Creak.
The ship moored farthest to the left in Baek Cheong-u’s sight emitted an odd noise as it started to lean.
Then, the stern began descending into the water.
“What in blazes is happening now!?”
Baek Cheong-u roared in rage, but the bizarre occurrences did not end with one.
A second ship started to sink.
–Screeeeech.
“Our Blue Camp will lead the way!”
As the second vessel foundered, the pirates assembled at the harbor boarded the three ships docked on the far right and set sail, but like the ones before, they had only just moved out when the stern dipped and the ships went under.
–Dum dum dum dum.
Then, accompanied by the reverberating sound of war drums, every ship anchored in the harbor settled silently onto the seabed.
“Curse it! What were the sentinels doing?! Leave the ships and retreat to the mountains! The Central Army must have used some scheme! Head for the mountains!”
Baek Cheong-u took the initiative, dashing along the right side of the beach toward the mountains—that side offered the shortest route to the hills.
It seemed martial artists from the Central Plains had infiltrated and damaged the ships from below, but once the military withdrew, they could always construct new vessels or salvage the sunken ones.
Survival was the immediate priority.
As he ran forward, rallying the pirates and driving them ahead, several pirates in front of him suddenly dropped.
Baek Cheong-u tripped, steadying himself with his hands on the ground.
His palm touched something slippery.
‘Oil?’
It felt unmistakably like oil, though he could not fathom its purpose there.
Nevertheless, this was not the time for contemplation—he needed to flee.
He regained his footing, his men following, and as they reached the bushes lining the beach’s edge—
An enormous rock loomed before them.
‘Was that boulder always there?’
Puzzled by the sudden appearance of the massive stone, he took another step into the undergrowth.
Then the pirate running immediately ahead of Baek Cheong-u disappeared with a crushing impact.
–Thud!
A gigantic weight dropped from above, obliterating the pirate utterly.
“Hiiiiiiek!”
As blood sprayed across his face, Baek Cheong-u recoiled in terror—then he heard a monstrous roar.
And from above, more rocks fell—pirates were wiped out one after another.
–Krrrrrrrrr!
–Thud! Slam! Slam!
A few pirates moved past the huge stones unscathed, but the instant they did, they were sent flying by something immense.
“Wh-What in heaven’s name is this!?”
“A s-spirit beast!”
“A phantom!”
Panic erupted as someone shrieked, and the pirates erupted into chaos, stampeding in the opposite direction.
The central route was now enveloped in heavy white fog—none dared to charge into it.
“Go—take the other path!”
“To the other side!”
Some slipped and fell on patches of oil again near the mist, yet dozens of pirates managed to reach the brush on the opposite shore.
Just then, a dark shape materialized from the shadows, issuing a bone-chilling hiss as it barred their way.
–Chorororok!
–Shaaaaa!
–Thud!
Revealed under the moonlight—a gigantic blue serpent and a black centipede.
Three or four pirates hit by the snake were thrown backward simultaneously.
Others faltered, choking on the bitter smoke emitted by the centipede, and some fell, vomiting blood after suffering bites.
“Uwaaah!”
“S-Save us!”
“Help!”
Scared out of their wits, the remaining pirates had only one escape route left—the mist-covered center.
Caught between the living rocks, the enormous snake, and the centipede, their sole choice was the sinister fog spreading through the middle.
Upon entering the mist, a disorienting feeling overwhelmed them.
They shook their heads, struggling to maintain awareness, and advanced a few more steps.
Then came noises of bodies being pulled away—and the sense of others nearby started disappearing, one by one.
–Chyaaaak!
–Chyak!
“Be care—GRAAAH!”
“S-Save me!”
–Shhhhhh!
–Shhk! Shhk!
“It’s—poisonous snakes! Look ou—ack…”
“Aaaargh!”
From deep within the mist arose the sounds of screams—and the shrieks of snakes.
Witnessing this, Baek Cheong-u could only think one thing:
They were all already dead.
This had to be the Buddhist snake hell.
What other explanation could there be for such horror?
There was no path ahead.
So Baek Cheong-u turned and fled back the way he had come, as if possessed.
As he ran, the noises of movement around him kept fading—but after some time, he finally emerged from the fog’s edge.
Huff! Huff!
The short duration inside the mist had felt like a terrifying dream.
“W-What’s happening, Sea King!?”
“We heard screams—what’s going on in there!?”
Pirate leaders and those who had not yet entered the mist stood at the perimeter, gazing at Baek Cheong-u in astonishment.
He collapsed, his legs shaking.
Then, right in front of him—
Something wriggled up from beneath the sand, moving between the pirates’ legs.
“Th-That… right there…”
Baek Cheong-u indicated it with a trembling finger, and the other pirates turned to see.
They retreated, evading the bulging patch of soil—and then, erupting from the sand was a °• N 𝑜 v 𝑒 l i g h t •° round…
“A toad?”
“No, what sort of toad looks like that?”
The creature appeared strange—and the pirates stood frozen in bewilderment.
–Whoooosh.
Abruptly, a blue fire ignited on the creature’s back.
Then, identical flames materialized on the pirates’ heads.
“W-What is this!?”
“F-Fire!?”
Blue blossoms of fire bloomed on their heads, illuminating the area—even the space around the fallen Baek Cheong-u was lit up.
“S-Sea King—y-your head is burning!”
“Wha!?”
He desperately slapped his head, attempting to put out the flames—and then, one of the pirates whose head was aflame suddenly burst into violent blue fire.
–Fwaaaaaah!
“AAAAAAGHHHHH!”
–FWOOOOOM!
–FWOOOOOSH!
One after another, blue flames detonated, like the explosion of some accursed kiln.
From the snake hell to the burning hell of intense heat.
Yes…
This had to be one of the Buddhist hells where the sinful are condemned after death.
There was no other possible explanation for such a nightmare.
With his will shattered, Baek Cheong-u fell, stupefied—and soon, his own body was consumed by blue fire.
–FWAAAAAAAH!
The Sea King.
It was a delightful dream that lasted merely a single night.