Chapter 39 - Fierce Battle Aboard Ship (4)

Horizontal Slash Range Bonus: 4%

Horizontal Slash Attack Power Bonus: 4%

Horizontal Slash Execution Speed Bonus: -3%

Like Direct Strike Yellow Dragon, Sweep Away a Thousand Armies had reached level 4. Judging purely by its execution, it looked very similar to Heavenly Wind Flowing Cloud, the form Gosangong had used earlier.

This time, Dong Bongsu was attacking and Gosangong had to defend—their positions had simply reversed. Gosangong held his sword vertically, point downward, and blocked Dong Bongsu's blade.

Or rather, he tried to.

Once again, Dong Bongsu's sword vanished an instant before their blades met!

Bewildered, Gosangong was just about to bring his sword up in front of him when it happened.

SWISH!

Dong Bongsu's sword reappeared. But it was in his left hand, not his right. His right hand had already swept through empty air past Gosangong's front, and the sword it had held was now in his left. The rotational momentum of his swing remained entirely intact, so his sword lost none of its force. Only the hand holding it had changed.

Once again, Gosangong had no time to wonder what had happened. He brought his sword upright at his side to block the Beginner's Sword.

It was a sudden defense rather than a prepared block, leaving him unable to fully channel his Internal Energy into his blade. Like Dong Bongsu earlier, he was sent flying sideways.

Unlike Dong Bongsu, Gosangong slammed hard into the side of the ship. He suffered no internal injury, but the psychological shock was considerable.

'What kind of sorcery is this?!'

He had never seen or heard of swordsmanship like this. No, could this even be called swordsmanship? He had no idea.

Another sound of cleaving air rang out as Dong Bongsu continued his assault. Though evading was still difficult, Gosangong had grasped the nature of these unconventional attacks and could now block or dodge them more easily than before. He had changed his approach, keeping as much distance as possible to guard against the unpredictable attacks.

For a time, Gosangong's Heavenly Wind Sword Art clashed with Dong Bongsu's Three Forces Sword Art, augmented by the Inventory Divine Art. At a glance, neither seemed to have the upper hand.

In truth, however, Dong Bongsu was cornered.

'One minute left.'

[Qi Circulation Lv.2 Proficiency: 38.9%]

True Qi Cost per Use: 200 JP

Current Skill Bonus: 60%

Qi Circulation lasted only five minutes, while its cooldown was ten minutes. Four minutes had already passed. In just one more minute, he would have to fight without Qi Circulation for the next five.

Death.

That was nothing short of a death sentence.

What could he do?

Dong Bongsu was already fighting with almost everything at his disposal, yet he still could not subdue Gosangong. He had one or two tricks left, but there was a good chance even those would fail. He had been holding them back, waiting for the best possible opportunity. But Gosangong had already identified the Inventory Divine Art's weakness. Rather than trying to block, he kept retreating and then counterattacking.

Was this how it would end?

Even as Dong Bongsu fought, his mind never stopped working. He studied his enemy's patterns, predicted the attacks to come, and above all, kept searching for a way to kill Gosangong. Yet no solution came readily to mind.

With his attention divided, an opening appeared. Gosangong seized it without hesitation, his sword lightly grazing Dong Bongsu's arm. Stinging pain traveled through his central nervous system, making his body tingle faintly. At the same time, his Vitality gauge dropped a tiny amount.

'... My Vitality gauge dropped? My Vitality gauge... my Vitality gauge...!'

Watching the gauge dip, Dong Bongsu was struck by a thought like a flash of lightning.

At last, he had found a way to eliminate Gosangong!

'There's no time. I have to do it now.'

Dong Bongsu had not a moment to hesitate.

Perhaps believing victory was within reach now that his blade had finally struck Dong Bongsu, Gosangong unleashed Heavenly Wind Opening Heaven, the final form of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art.

FWRRRSH!

As though the heavens were opening at the heavenly wind's call, dozens of sword strikes rained down on Dong Bongsu. Despite being a heavy-sword art, it was fast and full of variations. Even if he tried to dodge, he seemed certain to take a hit or two.

Indeed, the sword skimmed lightly across his legs, chest, and arms, spraying blood.

At the very moment he should have dodged, Dong Bongsu instead raised his sword and thrust at Gosangong's eye with Direct Strike Yellow Dragon. With all defense abandoned, his entire body was riddled with openings. Naturally, the wounds from Gosangong's sword multiplied exponentially.

THWACK-THWACK-THWACK!

Blood spattered and flesh tore, but Dong Bongsu's sword kept driving forward.

'Taking me down with him...?!'

That was what Gosangong thought as he watched Dong Bongsu charge without regard for his own body.

He scoffed at the attempt. To take an enemy down with you, you needed a form suited to the purpose.

Only something on the order of Cold Yin Annihilation from the Cold Yin Asura Palm Art, or the Merciless Sword Formula, which consisted entirely of mutually fatal techniques, could truly qualify.

Yet here he was, using a mere Direct Strike Yellow Dragon.

Gosangong withdrew Heavenly Wind Opening Heaven and unleashed the horizontal strike, Heavenly Wind Flowing Cloud. His blade swept in a long arc, severing Dong Bongsu's outstretched arm.

Still gripping its sword, Dong Bongsu's right arm flew high into the air before falling into Soho Lake.

PLOP.

'Not yet!'

Though his opponent was fighting with near-desperate abandon, Gosangong did not let down his guard. Their earlier exchanges had already taught him that Dong Bongsu used bizarre sorcery. This time, a sword would surely emerge from his left arm for another attack.

SWISH-SWISH!

Gosangong swung again, his sword hurtling toward Dong Bongsu's left arm. Just as he had predicted, a sword appeared there. Carrying over the momentum of the Direct Strike Yellow Dragon he had been executing with his right hand, Dong Bongsu tried to unleash it again with his left. But they were already too close for the form to work properly. And Gosangong had anticipated every bit of it.

To anyone watching, the outcome would have seemed decided.

CHOP!

THUNK!

Gosangong's sword severed Dong Bongsu's left arm as well. Dong Bongsu could no longer attack. Or so it should have been.

Had only his left arm been cut off, there should have been just one sound: the chop of the blade.

But there had been another. A thunk. A brief yet unmistakable sound of penetration.

What on earth had happened?

The Beginner's Sword was embedded in Gosangong's eye.

CREAK, CREAK.

Dong Bongsu's teeth were clamped tightly around the hilt as he drove onward with all the momentum of his charge.

Two-Object Insertion and Withdrawal.

The card Dong Bongsu had played at the last moment was a method of withdrawing two objects from his Inventory simultaneously. Focused solely on his opponent's hands, Gosangong had thought it was over the moment he severed both.

But it had not been over at all.

Dong Bongsu had produced swords in his left hand and his mouth at the same time. The real attack was the Beginner's Sword held in his mouth.

It worked beautifully, bringing Gosangong's life to an end.

Gosangong's wish—that a real man ought to cut off a man's head and sing while drinking his blood—came true at the very moment of his death. Except that the blood was his own, and his song consisted of a single strangled "Ghk"... it had gone exactly as he wished.

CRUNCH!

Such was the force of Dong Bongsu's death-defying charge that the Beginner's Sword pierced Gosangong's eye, punched through his skull, and protruded from the back of his head.

But the price of killing Gosangong had been far too high.

Dong Bongsu was crippled. Both arms had been severed, blood poured ceaselessly from the sword wounds covering his body, and he had suffered severe internal injuries as well.

In just a few more seconds, he would die.

Yet despite the tremendous pain assailing him—and even the fact that he was about to die—the smile on Dong Bongsu's lips only deepened.

The reason was...

Three brilliant flashes blazed in succession!

He knew he would soon recover.

The instant Gosangong's corpse fell onto the deck, three strange, mysterious flashes burst from Dong Bongsu's body in succession.

The moment of evolution had come once more. Three times in a row, no less.

By killing Gosangong, Dong Bongsu had reached level 10.

At the same time, his lost arms grew back, and all his wounds healed.

The holy light produced by Dong Bongsu's level-ups spread beyond the sailing ship's deck and throughout the Namgung Clan estate, illuminating it as brightly as day.

At the very moment the light from his body lit up the Namgung Clan, the Danri Family estate in Fengyang was also as bright as day.

There was just one difference: the Danri Family estate was not merely illuminated. The entire estate was ablaze.

"Aaaaaagh!"

Buildings collapsed amid flames throughout the estate, while black-clad figures in black masks slaughtered its people indiscriminately.

The family's sole fighting force, the Cross Heavenly Sword Corps, had deployed to stop them. But every movement of the black-clad attackers' swords merely sent more corps members' heads flying.

By the time the screams and clash of blades woke Danri Cheon-u, the name of the Cross Heavenly Sword Corps had already been erased from Murim.

The Danri Family, which meant everything to Danri Cheon-u, was burning. His household was dying horrific deaths. Yet he could neither speak nor act. No, he could not even think.

Why? Who on earth would do this?

Such questions might have occurred to him, but the overwhelming disparity in strength had drained all strength from his body.

Before long, he was the only one left alive in the estate. He had drawn his sword, but he had not cut down a single black-clad attacker. He could not even swing it. He could only stand there trembling.

CRACKLE, CRACKLE. TAP, TAP. CRACKLE, CRACKLE.

Through the crackling of the burning Danri Family estate came the sound of approaching footsteps.