Chapter 71 - Ghost of the North

After the experiment, Dong Bongsu had been able to entrust the Beginner's Sword to the Weapon Monster without worry. He was not certain he could defeat the man, but he was confident he could at least avoid dying. Above all, he trusted that the Weapon Monster would not attack him over the Beginner's Sword.

The Weapon Monster was a madman. A man mad about weapons. Dong Bongsu had seen pure madness in his eyes: the desire to melt down the Beginner's Sword and make something even better. Nothing could have inspired greater confidence in the man's reliability.

In any case, his chance encounter with the Weapon Monster had resolved two questions and would soon put something he had long needed into his hands. It was not finished yet, but judging by the pace of the man's work, he should be able to collect the finished product when he returned from this ear hunt.

As Dong Bongsu reached that point in his thoughts, a large clearing appeared before him. He had arrived at his training ground, an open space shaped like a circular track, fully fifty meters in diameter.

The moment he arrived, he drew his sword. Blood had caked onto it so thickly that the blade had turned black.

[Vagabond's Sword]

A longsword that has accompanied a Vagabond through countless battles. Just as a Vagabond grows stronger the more steeped in blood they become, this longsword, too, has grown by feeding on blood.

Required Class: Vagabond Type

Required Level: 10

Minimum Attack Power: 25

Maximum Attack Power: 66

Minimum Offensive Mugong: 41

Maximum Offensive Mugong: 97

Martial Arts Damage Bonus: ?

Additional Ability: On a successful attack, absorbs 1% of the damage dealt as the player's Vitality.

The sword was one of the Items the system had given Dong Bongsu when he advanced to Vagabond. Without it, he would never have used the Beginner's Sword for experiments so readily in the first place.

Nor was the [Vagabond's Sword] the only change. Not a single piece of the Beginner's set remained in his Equipment window. Pieces of the Vagabond set—the [Vagabond's Hard Armor], [Vagabond's Leather Shoes], and [Vagabond's Bamboo Hat]—had replaced the [Beginner's Clothes], [Beginner's Shoes], and [Beginner's Headscarf] that had occupied those slots a year ago.

The Vagabond set not only offered far greater stat bonuses than the Beginner's set, but every piece also had a special additional effect. Besides, Dong Bongsu already knew that stacking Equipment had no effect, so he no longer had any need for the Beginner's set.

[Vagabond's Hard Armor]

Additional Ability: Returns 1% of damage received from an enemy to that same enemy.

[Vagabond's Leather Shoes]

Additional Ability: Increases movement speed by 1% while worn.

[Vagabond's Bamboo Hat]

Additional Ability: Converts 1% of damage received from enemies into JP.

Life steal, retaliation, increased movement speed, and qi absorption.

Small as their effects were, having these additional abilities made a world of difference. They were exceptional powers that did not exist in this Murim. Naturally, Dong Bongsu, who could use every one of them to its full extent, was an exceptional and special existence himself.

Skills, Items and their additional abilities, and the martial arts he was learning on top of all that. Dong Bongsu had already grown strong enough to overcome a gap of ten levels or more.

'Was “broken character” the term?'

He seemed to remember hearing it somewhere back in that other world. Yes, what expression could possibly fit better?

Here in New Murim Online, Dong Bongsu was already a broken character—a man who defied the rules.

It still wasn't enough.

Dong Bongsu was still hungry for more.

SWISH, SWISH.

The Vagabond's Sword began to move.

His sword was so quiet that, without the faint friction of blade brushing air, it might have made no sound at all. Yet it was fast. Being fast without making a sound was an enormous advantage in itself. His Windless Swordsmanship had clearly progressed greatly over the past year.

His blade now followed the paths of not only the Three Forces Sword Art and the Heavenly Wind Sword Art, but various other sword arts as well. These were movements Dong Bongsu had distilled in his own way from the sword arts, saber techniques, and other martial arts he had obtained at Seonjung Mountain. All of them blended naturally into his Windless Swordsmanship, silently cleaving the air amid the Ghost-Wailing Grove.

It no longer seemed right to call his swordplay mere technique. It was free-flowing yet stealthy, systematic and disciplined. The combination might have seemed difficult to comprehend at first glance, but that was unmistakably how Dong Bongsu moved.

He had gone beyond technique to create a system of his own. There was no other way to see it. His stats and Skills were not the only things that had improved tremendously over the past year. His sword had, too.

From Windless Swordsmanship to the Windless Sword Art.

SWISH, SWISH, SSS...

Today, too, Dong Bongsu was growing stronger. He had grown stronger without rest throughout the past year, and even now, at this very moment, he was evolving.

And tomorrow, he would be a little more complete than he was today.

Ninth Law of New Murim Online: Items gifted by the system are not indestructible. They can melt, break, or wear down.

Addendum 1: No one other than the player, Dong Bongsu, can perceive or benefit from an Item's effects.

Addendum 2: Items cannot be equipped in overlapping layers.

Example: Even if the Vagabond's Leather Shoes are worn over the Beginner's Shoes, only the Beginner's Shoes will appear as equipped in the Equipment window.

※All these laws may still be neither fixed nor certain.

I think (I doubt), therefore I am.

- René Descartes, French philosopher

Every man is an imitator of others; life is a theater, and literature is quotation.

- Ralph Waldo Emerson, American philosopher

Guishui.

A natural fortress and the breathing passage of the steppes. To its north, the Yin Mountains and Daqing Mountains stretched a thousand li from east to west, while the great Gobi Desert blocked the west.

The fortified city stood within a narrow gorge formed by the Daqing and Yin Mountains. Passing through that gorge saved thousands of li compared with going around the Gobi or the mountain ranges to reach the vast plains to the north. Thus, by holding this place alone, the northern barbarians could easily take possession of the fertile Hetao Plain to the south.

Conversely, if a dynasty of the Central Plains held it, that dynasty could grip the northern barbarians by the throat with one hand—and gain the Hetao Plain into the bargain.

In short, possession of Guishui laid the foundation for dominion over the north. That was why the northern barbarians and the dynasties of the Central Plains had fought ceaselessly over this region since the dawn of recorded history. When the Central Plains dynasties held Guishui, peace and prosperity came to the Central Plains. When the northern barbarians occupied it, they used it as a base to command the entire north, and sometimes all under heaven.

The humiliating Bingyin Incident, only some forty years earlier, had likewise begun with the fall of Guishui. Descending through the gorges of the Yin Mountains in the depths of winter, the northern barbarians had seized Guishui in a surprise attack and subdued the surrounding grasslands. Then they had pushed past Datong and besieged Beiping, where the imperial palace stood. They had pillaged indiscriminately outside the outer city walls. Though they had finally withdrawn after several months, the material and psychological damage inflicted on the Central Plains had been beyond words.

Determined to avenge the humiliation, the emperor had eventually retaken Guishui after four expeditions. But when he died, the northern barbarians invaded again, and Guishui once more became their den.

Ten years had passed since then.

The fortified cities near the Great Wall had become severely impoverished, their populations had plummeted, and public unrest had spread. Unless Guishui was retaken soon, there was no guarantee that another disaster like the Bingyin Incident would not occur.

Victories over the past few years had restored parts of the northern plains, but the Hetao region, where Guishui lay, remained firmly in barbarian hands. Retaking Guishui was precisely why Lee Jasong had come to Datong as Northern Commander-in-Chief. He had not, however, come of his own accord.

Which mouse would bell the cat?

After dragging on for years, the matter had finally sparked a political struggle, and Lee Jasong had been singled out to carry it through. Not only his opponents but even his own patron had turned their backs on him.

Throughout history, pushing someone else forward to save one's own skin had been a virtue of the imperial court and a fundamental principle of politics. Unlikely as it was, it would be good if Lee Jasong succeeded. If he failed, he would be the one to fall from power, not them.

Utterly defeated in the palace's power struggles, Lee Jasong had ultimately been saddled with the mission of retaking Guishui Fortress. It was all but impossible, and he knew that perfectly well.

But like anyone else, he did not want to die. He had to make the Guishui expedition succeed by any means necessary. Yet while the court had thrust the daunting problem of retaking Guishui upon him, the only support it had provided was twenty thousand hastily conscripted peasant soldiers.

Without a few consolations, Lee Jasong would have fled hundreds of times over by now.

The troops stationed in Datong were the elite of the elite, veterans of countless battles. The mercenaries he had hired out of his own pocket were difficult to control, but their fighting prowess was considerable enough to surpass even the elite troops in certain respects.

Above all, there was the man called Ear Ghost, whom he had appointed mercenary captain.

Ear Ghost was a most unusual man. No, unusual hardly began to describe how outstanding—and... frightening—he was.

Once the Guishui expedition began, Lee Jasong had tasked him with serving as the vanguard and clearing the way.

Fengqian, Xin'an Village, Tiancheng Village... With only fifteen hundred mercenaries, he had brought down all those villages and fortified towns. Thanks to him, the fifty thousand elite troops had suffered no losses whatsoever.

It was evidence that the opening move of Lee Jasong's final gamble had gone exactly right.

"Your Excellency, Commander. The mercenaries have reportedly captured Heavenly Lake."

Adjutant Dang entered the command tent and delivered another report of Ear Ghost's victories, which no longer even came as a surprise.

"Just call me General. What's this 'Excellency' business? Anyway, did you say Ear Ghost has captured Heavenly Lake?"

Heavenly Lake lay on the route from Datong to Guishui and was rich in fish.

As the saying went, it was half water, half fish.