Chapter 55 - Side Story 2: The End of a Righteous Hero

Their martial skill was considerable, making them all the faster. They moved swiftly, beginning to haul in the corpses floating on the water. Then they engaged the experts leaping toward them.

Unlike the first experts, who had landed without much interference, those obstructed by the skiffs found reaching shore far more difficult. Even so, the pirates did not resist them too fiercely. Whenever an opponent seemed too much for them, they readily abandoned their boats and jumped into the water. Rather than overextend themselves, they left the Heavenly Demon Castle fighters ashore to deal with those enemies.

Now battle raged everywhere Dong Bongsu looked, as fiercely as a desperate defense of a castle gate during a siege.

All around him was a veritable feast of death.

"Aaagh!"

"Help me!"

"Kill them! Kill every last one!"

"Die! Fuck! Die, you sons of bitches!"

SCREEEEEECH!

Screams, curses, the sounds of combat, and the ear-splitting cries of gyrfalcons. Everywhere, a scene from hell unfolded.

To Dong Bongsu, all those sounds resembled the songs of ancient Chu.

Chu songs on every side.

Xiang Yu, Hegemon-King of Western Chu, had suffered his final defeat here in Anhui, at Gaixia, surrounded by the army of Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han.

My strength uproots mountains; my spirit overshadows the world.

The times turn against me; my steed will not advance.

If my steed will not advance, what can I do?

Yu, oh Yu, what shall I do with you?

My strength could tear out mountains, my spirit could cover the world,

Yet fortune is against me, and even my horse Wuzhui will not advance.

What am I to do when Wuzhui will not advance?

Fair Lady Yu, Fair Lady Yu, what am I to do with you?

Abandoning hope in that predicament, Xiang Yu recited this poem. His beloved consort, Yu Ji, answered with the following song.

Han soldiers have taken the land;

Chu songs sound on every side.

My great king's spirit is spent;

How can this lowly consort wish to live?

The soldiers of Han have already taken all the land,

And nothing but the songs of Chu can be heard on every side.

Since my great king's resolve and spirit are exhausted,

How could one as lowly as I wish to go on living?

With that final song, Yu Ji took her own life. Xiang Yu broke through the enemy lines, only to follow her in death at the Wu River.

Dong Bongsu thought his present circumstances were just like theirs. Tang Wu was Xiang Yu, and he was Fair Lady Yu. Enemies swarmed on every side, and dreadful screams surrounded him like the songs of Chu.

One difference was that his Xiang Yu had abandoned him, his Fair Lady Yu. But the greatest difference of all was this:

Yu Ji and Xiang Yu had killed themselves. Dong Bongsu had absolutely no intention of doing so. Quite the contrary—he was chuckling softly even now.

CLANG! CLANG! THUNK! SLASH!

At some point, warriors wearing clothes marked with the words "Yangtze Waterway Strongholds" had boarded his boat and begun fighting the few wedding guests who remained. All the experts had already left. The guests still aboard lacked both the strength and the numbers to escape this crisis.

They fought back, unwilling simply to bare their necks and die, but their swords and sabers no longer held any spirit. Resignation and death—those two words occupied their minds.

With one exception.

'It's time.'

Dong Bongsu quietly drew his Beginner's Sword. He walked slowly toward the stern, opposite the direction the boat was moving.

"Die!"

Two pirates charged him.

SLASH.

Yesterday's enlightenment and Level Up had carried him another step forward. Low-ranking pirates stood no chance against him. With a single silent stroke, his sword booked both their tickets to the Yellow Springs.

Seeing this, the other pirates rushed him as one.

Powerful qi burst from Dong Bongsu's body.

He had activated the Skill Qi Circulation.

SWISH. SLASH! THUNK!

With his fighting power boosted by Qi Circulation, the Three Forces Sword Art, infused with the subtleties of Windless Swordsmanship, was terrifying indeed. Before Dong Bongsu had made more than a few movements, over ten pirate heads had flown.

SPURT. THUD. RUMBLE.

Blood spurted from necks, bodies collapsed, and heads rolled across the deck, the sounds spreading one after another.

At the same time, a chime rang inside Dong Bongsu's mind.

Current Quest Progress (Completed/Required): 1 / 100

Apparently, one of the pirates he had just killed had been level 10 or higher.

One out of a hundred.

That chime heralded the beginning of his class advancement Quest.

And it also heralded something else.

The beginning of the hunt.

SWISH. SPLAT.

Dong Bongsu swept the Beginner's Sword sharply downward, flicking off the blood. His eyes had already settled into utter indifference. Quietly, he surveyed his surroundings once more.

The pirates aboard and the surviving wedding guests were all staring at him. But he was not looking at them. He was checking how far away the next wave of pirates was.

In the distance, the swift ships that had been reluctant to approach while the experts remained were slowly drawing closer. Presumably, they had decided there was no longer any need to launch skiffs and attack the wedding guests piecemeal.

'I need to finish before they get here.'

Dong Bongsu turned his gaze back to the pirates aboard. Only a few were still fighting the remaining wedding guests; most had encircled him. They had realized he was the strongest fighter left on the boat.

He gave an indifferent smile at the sight, then began to dance.

With no need to worry about Tang Wu or anyone else's scrutiny, his sword was merciless indeed. Not a single stroke was wasted. Every movement cut or thrust ruthlessly at a pirate's neck or vital points. His unorthodox use of Inventory also proved highly effective. The pirates were weaker than him to begin with. When his sword suddenly appeared in his left hand, his right, or even his mouth, they had no way to withstand him.

Before long, the heads of every pirate in the first boarding party had been severed by his sword and lay rolling across the deck.

"Th-thank you."

To the wedding guests whose lives his efforts had saved for the moment, he looked like a savior. All the renowned experts had already abandoned the boat to save themselves, yet here was one who had stayed behind to fight alone. How could they not be grateful? Several guests approached to thank him.

"Elder Tang hasn't completely..."

They assumed Dong Bongsu was a Tang Family warrior. After all, he had stood beside Tang Wu right up until the old man's departure. They had despaired when Tang Wu left the boat, but now felt fortunate that he had left such an expert behind.

Dong Bongsu, however, no longer had anything to do with the Tang Family. The name Tang Sam had vanished from his mind the moment Tang Wu left.

The Beginner's Sword in his hand moved again, slowly and silently.

SWISH. THUD. RUMBLE.

Another headless corpse was created. The guest thanking Dong Bongsu crossed the river of death without even changing his stance. His head fell to the deck, its mouth still working its tongue, as though trying to finish what he had been saying.

"Why...?"

A brief silence followed Dong Bongsu's unexpected act. Then the guest standing directly behind the dead man instinctively asked him why.

His head went flying just like the first.

Only then did the others realize that Dong Bongsu had not killed the pirates for their sake. Terrified, they fled in all directions.

He did not bother pursuing them immediately. There was only so much space aboard, and the only place they could escape to was Soho Lake.

Quite leisurely, he watched the Yangtze Current Ships approaching.

'About a hundred meters.'

That was enough. Given their slow speed, the enemy ships would take twenty or thirty seconds to reach him. At that distance, even if they could not make out his face perfectly, they could at least clearly recognize that he was fighting the wedding guests.

Having confirmed that, Dong Bongsu pursued the fleeing guests, focusing on the quicker ones, and swung his sword. Unfortunately, most seemed to be level 10 or below, so they did little to advance his class advancement Quest. Nevertheless, he kept moving. Like the pirates, those he attacked could not hold out long against the combination of his Windless Swordsmanship and Inventory Divine Art. All of them died.

Those he had not attacked huddled at the edges of the boat in terror before jumping into the water. But they would not last very long either. A lake at midnight would be every bit as cold as the sea.

Alone now, Dong Bongsu flicked the blood off his sword with the same motion as before. Then he quietly entered the cabin. It was already empty, filled with nothing but silence. Only the soft moonlight streaming through the windows welcomed him.

At some point, his clothes had changed. Five characters embroidered across his chest stood out clearly in the moonlight.

They read "Yangtze Waterway Strongholds."

To escape his predicament, besieged on every side, he had chosen to put on the clothes of Han and sing along with the songs of Chu.

Then, to make absolutely certain, Dong Bongsu slashed his own face with his sword. Dozens of cuts soon covered it, obliterating his original features. They stung and burned viciously, but there was no surer method. Among the approaching pirates, there might be someone who knew the faces of those who had boarded first.

This was his precaution against that possibility. It was night, so no one would be able to identify him perfectly anyway, and they had already witnessed him fighting the wedding guests. They might not know who he was, but they would be certain of one thing: the last survivor aboard this boat was a pirate.

Finally, he took out the identity tag of the pirate whose build had most closely resembled his own among those he had killed, and checked the name. Written clearly upon it was Kang Dalhui.