“Quick! Find Do-mun Hyang-joo!!!”
At the banks of the Yangtze River, near where the lord of Hao-mun was born.
The expression of the woman, who usually showed no sign of easily moving to demonstrate the lord’s majesty, was now filled with panic.
“No way! To think I would have to eat the Resurrection Pill… I need to find Brother Kang! Give me a torch!”
The Resurrection Pill was a potion that Dead Arm Ghost had consumed at the end to unleash his latent potential for a moment of great strength.
Though it was used by the martial artists of the faction for rescue, it was said that once taken, the internal injuries were so severe that it could save a life but leave one crippled.
“The Do-mun bastards who resisted have all been subdued!”
“Enough! Hurry, find Hyang-joo first!”
“Light up the surroundings!”
“Bring a ferry boat! Get the boat out quickly!”
The area around the Yangtze River lit up as bright as day.
There was little damage in dealing with the remnants of Do-mun who exploded their latent potential, but time was wasted.
The Hao-mun followers anxiously looked around the flickering torchlit Yangtze but could not see the silhouettes drifting on the water.
Could they have been swept away by the river’s current? Just then, a terrible thought slipped through someone’s mind.
“Kang!! Yoon!!! Ho!!! Khhh!”
“Ugh! Stop holding on! You idiot!”
“Over there! To the right! Right in the middle! They’re over there!!!”
Indeed, neither of them were the type to die easily. Though they were tangled in the middle of the Yangtze’s flow, they were definitely alive.
“Brother Kang!”
“You! Wait for me! I’m coming right now!”
“You fools!!! What are you doing!!! You can see Dead Arm Ghost and Hyang-joo!!! Hurry, send a boat! Huh?!”
“What’s that?”
Just as everyone hurried to rescue the two who had fallen into the water, a sleek black boat suddenly appeared in the middle of the river. The spot it halted was near the two entangled figures. Had they stopped, discovering distressed individuals?
“Indeed, it is Lord Do-mun Hyang-joo! Hurry, pull him up!”
Im Ha-yeon’s hopes were mercilessly shattered by the voice coming from the black boat.
“No way! Is that Do-mun Hyang-joo’s boat?”
“Quickly! Get the boat out!”
It was unimaginable that Do-mun Hyang-joo had prepared a boat. Im Ha-yeon shouted in a frantic voice.
“It’s too late. That’s a speedboat. There’s no boat that can catch up with that tonight.”
One of the defectors from Do-mun sighed deeply and addressed the people trying to board the boat in haste.
“What?!”
“Damn it! If you were going to escape, you should’ve run off together earlier! Gah! Why can’t you be decent for once and now you want to jump on alone!”
The Do-mun defector gritted his teeth, lamenting at the suddenly appearing black boat.
While the Hao-mun followers barely raised the anchor of their boat or paddled the ferry, a rope was thrown from the black boat.
Too far.
Even if they launched the boat now, it would be too late. Even if they chased after it, they couldn’t catch up.
“…Letting Dead Arm Ghost slip away like this?”
A resigned voice echoed from somewhere. An oppressive silence descended, as dark as the night.
To let the culprit of the internal strife, Do-mun Hyang-joo, escape. On top of that, the dark-haired Hyang-joo, who resolved the internal strife, was facing death.
Just then, deep feelings of defeat lingered among the Hao-mun followers.
“No way! It’s too early to give up!”
“Lord?!”
Everyone turned to the lord of Hao-mun, their faces filled with despair. There was no sign of defeat or despondency on Im Ha-yeon’s face.
She hadn’t given up yet.
‘I must find a way.’
Im Ha-yeon fixed her determined gaze on the black boat.
This was undoubtedly the worst situation. But when had they ever given up during the worst of times?
She learned from him never to give up in terrible situations. Instead of despairing, she had seen him pause to catch his breath countless times to find the best course of action.
She could do the same. She could look for her strengths and use every means possible to ultimately find a way out.
“There’s a way.”
Im Ha-yeon finally realized what she needed to do.
“What do you mean?”
“We just need to step on the boats floating on the water to cross.”
Countless boats floating on the river. To Im Ha-yeon, it appeared as though the boats created a pathway across the black Yangtze like stars forming constellations in the dark sky.
“What?”
“Indeed! Let’s go together.”
There was no time to waste. As the father and daughter nodded at each other, they moved.
“Wait, there’s no way that’s possible!”
“We can do it!”
Boats aren’t structures set on land. For an ordinary person, balancing on the boats was all they could manage.
Ah, there must have been a reason for the regular appearances of martial artists training in water skills—to withstand the strong current of the Yangtze!
What chance did a person have to leap from a swaying boat in the river? Even if there were boats floating, there was a massive distance between them!
The Hao-mun followers could only witness the amazing spectacle.
“My word! What is that?!”
A legendary thief of the Central Plains and a future legendary thief were performing an unbelievable feat.
The father and daughter leapt off the deck, used the ferry as a lever, and harnessed the tension of the mast to close the distance toward the black boat.
“Someone’s coming!”
“Something feels off! Hurry! Bring up Do-mun Hyang-joo quickly!”
Of course, the people on the black boat noticed them too.
“Do-mun Hyang-joo! Take my hand! Huh? My, my hand?”
“Don’t mind me! Pull that barbarian up quickly!”
I’ll survive and take revenge! Dead Arm Ghost finally made it to the deck, despite his severely injured body.
“Got it! Oh no! They’re getting closer!”
“Unfurl the sails!”
Just as the person aboard the black boat overpowered Kang Yoon-ho and was about to pull him up, the sail on the boat billowed open.
“No!!!”
Im Ha-yeon’s scream echoed over the Yangtze.
“Bring me a sword! Barbarian! I’ll cut off whatever I can grab at first!”
In the middle of the river, Im Ha-yeon gazed sorrowfully at the deck of the black boat from her small ferry.
As if to mock the desperate attempts of the two trailing behind, the boat effortlessly increased its distance. Meanwhile, Im Ha-yeon found she had no more boats to tread on.
At this rate, everything would be over. She could not give up like this.
Im Ha-yeon looked to the roaring waters of the Yangtze.
“Ha-yeon! Don’t do anything reckless…!”
King Wang tried to read his daughter’s heart to dissuade her, but looking into her eyes left him speechless. In that moment, all he could see in her eyes was thoughts of one man.
Im Ha-yeon opened her mouth to her father, whom she had met for the first time in ten years.
“It’s better than losing him.”
When had it started?
At first, she merely wanted to shed her identity as a fugitive courtesan. But at some point, the issue of her status as a fugitive had become second to her own desires.
She wanted to be by his side. She wanted to live with him. Her life’s goal had changed.
What would be the point of casting off her identity as a fugitive courtesan? What would it amount to if she became a righteous thief and made a name for herself? What would being a lord even mean?
A life without being with him would hold no meaning for her anymore.
Im Ha-yeon jumped into the water.
“Ha-yeon!!!”
She started from the board floating on the water.
She had already practiced. The martial arts of The Shadowless Thief from the stories were a fiction. He had expressed his displeasure with the readers enough, prompting her to practice thoroughly.
Now all that remained was to put it into practice.
Im Ha-yeon pushed off from the board and aimed for the next floating object.
“Ugh!”
Her ankle submerged in the water.
At this rate, she would drown. There were no more floating objects around. Should she turn back?
No.
When had he ever given up on her? Had he given up just because it was beyond what an ordinary person could bear?
‘He hasn’t taught me how to give up!’
She heightened all her senses.
Look for a way. Yes. The answer lay with him. If she moved, who knew what would happen? The energy of the elixir that he had gifted her was there, coiling locked inside her.
The energy that had rewritten the history of Do-mun contained in the body of a woman about to be lost was swirling within her.
Im Ha-yeon placed her foot upon the fierce current.
The ankle got soaked.
It didn’t matter.
Longing to approach her beloved was far more intense than the fear of drowning. She just had to take the next step.
One step. Two steps. Three steps. Before she knew it, a new chapter in the history of the Martial Arts World was being unfurled beneath a martial artist’s foot.
“The Floating on Water Technique…?”
A voice filled with amazement escaped the legendary thief who had once dominated an era in the Martial Arts World.
An untouched realm unfolded at the tips of one woman’s toes.
“M-M-Milord is walking on water!!!”
What mattered to Im Ha-yeon right now were not the astonished expressions of the Hao-mun followers lining the banks of the Yangtze or the miracles unfolding at her feet.
His figure drew closer.
“I’ll chop off your limbs today! I’ll make you fish food in the Yangtze!”
“Who’re you kidding? Come inside!”
“Oh right! Today, the fish in the Yangtze will feast! Cough!”
As if a meteor had fallen from the sky, a pink arrow struck the deck of Do-mun Hyang-joo’s boat.
“Do-mun Hyang-joo!!!”
“Im Ha-yeon?”
Im Ha-yeon landed on the deck and turned to the face she had missed so dearly.
Even a brief separation made her want to see him again. This time, it was her turn to say something for the sake of the beloved who had never given up on her.
“I’ve come to save you.”
