Chapter 72 - Mount Manhan

Not only was Heavenly Lake midway between Guishui and Datong, but it could also provide food directly if enemy raids on the rear cut off their supplies. It was therefore one of the places they had to capture before attacking Guishui. Precisely because of that, however, it was also a major stronghold of the northern barbarians.

Lee Jasong had entrusted the attack on this vital position to Ear Ghost and the mercenaries rather than the main army. He had expected them to succeed, but he had thought they would struggle a little this time...

Frankly, with only fifteen hundred men, merely diverting the enemy's attention would have been an admirable achievement... Yet they had reportedly captured Heavenly Lake just two days after launching their attack.

When he issued that order, Lee Jasong and the main army were bypassing Heavenly Lake to attack Liangcheng. The fact that fifteen hundred mercenaries had broken through the enemy position faster than the fifty-thousand-strong expeditionary main force had significant implications. Even allowing for the fact that Liangcheng was a walled city while Heavenly Lake was open ground dotted with villages, it was a remarkable accomplishment.

Heavenly Lake was so vast that it was also called Daihai. Even riding a horse at full gallop, circling it took half a day—and they had conquered it in just two days?

Ear Ghost was the real thing. There was no longer any room for doubt. A slight grin spread across Lee Jasong's face before he knew it.

Perhaps, perhaps...

After repeatedly murmuring under his breath, Lee Jasong looked at Adjutant Dang and spoke.

"Send five thousand men to Heavenly Lake to erect palisades, and tell Ear Ghost to head for Mount Manhan immediately."

Mount Manhan. The base of the northern barbarian horse bandits.

Taken literally, that designation meant a band of mounted brigands made up of northern barbarians. It was what the people of the Central Plains called them; they were not actually horse bandits. In truth, they were a martial sect beyond the frontier, with the respectable-sounding name Northern Ghost Corps. To expeditionary armies and merchant caravans from the Central Plains, however, they were no different from a pack of mounted brigands.

During several past expeditions, they had taken money from Northern Yuan forces and repeatedly attacked the expeditionary army's rear. On one occasion, their interference had even forced the army to return without mounting a proper offensive.

They were few in number, but as martial artists, they were no easy opponents. In particular, the longer an expedition continued, the more gaps inevitably appeared along its route. Stopping their hit-and-run attacks through those gaps was exceedingly difficult.

To stop them, he would have to overwhelm them completely by force or buy them off. The latter, however, was impossible. Lee Jasong simply did not have the money. He might only be able to cover the ear bounties owed to the mercenaries after the war if he captured Guishui. Under those circumstances, where would he find money to pay a bunch of bandits in advance?

He had only two choices: go himself or send Ear Ghost. And he had already made his decision.

"Yes, General. However, even the Eastern Depot had difficulty dealing with them. Whether the mercenaries alone can truly handle them..."

Lee Jasong gave a small chuckle at the adjutant's uncharacteristic hesitation.

"Didn't you just tell me, Adjutant Dang? That the mercenaries captured Heavenly Lake. Do you think even the main army could have taken it in two days?"

"Ah..."

"Go. Tell Ear Ghost to wipe out every last bandit on Mount Manhan within three days."

Adjutant Dang saluted and left the tent. He could offer no further objections. Hard as it was to believe, everything Lee Jasong had said was true.

"Ear Ghost against the Ghosts of the North... I wonder which ghost will win..."

Even as he murmured to himself, Lee Jasong did not forget to smack his lips now and then.

"Hahaha! Captain! Look at this! Ears—money lying around in heaps!"

"A-aaargh!"

"P-please spare me!"

"Who said we were going to kill you? Just hand over your right ear. You've got two of the damn things anyway, don't you? Huh?"

The victors plundered the defeated. Cruel though it was, the law of the strong devouring the weak held firm in the animal world.

He exhaled a long breath.

The white breath mingled with the scent of blood, losing its original flavor.

Dong Bongsu stood motionless at the village entrance.

The mercenaries were all engrossed in cutting off the villagers' ears, while the villagers frantically fled this way and that to escape them.

He alone stood idle at the entrance. There was no reason for him to do otherwise: killing them would earn him neither experience nor proficiency. Plundering a "low-level hunting ground" like this meant nothing to him.

He simply stood there, lost in thought.

Could Skills actually be canceled? What would happen if he killed himself just before leveling up? Would his own death be converted into experience too? Could he put a living creature into his Inventory if it were completely sealed inside something? Could he take a box larger than his body out of his Inventory so that it enclosed him? Exactly what did the system count as a living organism (germs and bacteria seemed to be excluded)? In that case, which insects counted as living organisms? Could he make an object emerge only partially when taking it out of his Inventory? And how firmly did things have to be bound together to count as one object? Would two objects loosely connected with something like a grain of cooked rice count as a single object? Was it really impossible to put a moving object into his Inventory the instant it touched his body? Was there truly no way to open a settings window or a system window? And so on...

Countless questions crowded his mind. He had resolved many of them over time, but innumerable uncertainties still lingered in his thoughts. Sometimes a newly occurring question would join that repertoire as well.

When would he finally find answers to all of them?

Even Dong Bongsu did not know. One thing, however, was certain: the better he understood the system, the stronger he had become. Naturally, that would continue to hold true.

If you cannot change it, make the most of it.

This, too, was one of Dong Bongsu's instincts. Whether it was a person, a system, or anything else, the principle was the same. If something could not be fixed, he had to understand it completely and exploit it for all it was worth.

Even now, he was practicing a technique born of his understanding of the system.

Five-Object Insertion and Withdrawal.

Where once he had managed only two objects at the same time, he could now freely put away and take out five at once. Using the spaces formed by the folds inside his clothing, he repeatedly took out and stored small objects. With long enough practice, he would eventually manage Six-Object Insertion and Withdrawal, Seven-Object Insertion and Withdrawal...

How much time had passed like that?

CRUNCH, CRUNCH!

A slightly uneven sound came from behind him: horse hooves treading on sand. Dong Bongsu broke off his thoughts and turned. In the distance, a horse bearing a yellow flag was approaching.

'A messenger?'

Most likely someone Lee Jasong had sent with his next assignment. Dong Bongsu stood still and waited for the messenger to approach.

The messenger rode right up to Dong Bongsu and reined in his horse. He could not help seeing the horrors unfolding in Daihai Village, which had been visible for some time, but he deliberately pretended not to notice. The villagers' fate had been sealed the moment Lee Jasong ordered the mercenaries to attack this place.

Looking down at Dong Bongsu, he asked, "Are you Kang Dalhui, the mercenary captain?"

Dong Bongsu answered.

His indifference sent a chill through the messenger. Somehow, standing at the village entrance and watching felt even more inhuman than what the mercenaries perpetrating the atrocities were doing.

The messenger shook his head once, then took a rolled dispatch from inside his clothing and held it out to Dong Bongsu.

"If you cannot read, I can..."

He added the offer while trying hard to appear composed.

Dong Bongsu answered with his actions instead. Ignoring the messenger's flinch, he read Lee Jasong's written orders. They were extremely brief.

[Within Three Days, Annihilate Mount Manhan]

Wipe out Mount Manhan within three days.

The meaning was as clear as the message was short. Dong Bongsu rolled the dispatch back up and returned it to the messenger.

"Tell him I understand."

With that, Dong Bongsu turned away from the messenger. Now that he had another task, he needed to leave this place as soon as possible.

"A-aah!"

"M-Mom!"

"Aaaagh! S-stop!"

The plundering was almost over. The villagers' nightmare, however, was not.

Playtime.

That was what the mercenaries called this interval, and some enjoyed it even more than the looting.

"Heh heh heh. Stay still. When else would you get a taste of what fine southern gentlemen like us have between our legs? Opportunities like this don't come often."

Naturally, the objects of their amusement were children and women. Some women were being raped with their ears cut off, while another bit her tongue to take her own life.

Amusement for some, a nightmare for others. Either way, it was chaos.

Dong Bongsu walked slowly toward the center of the village.

"Come on, bark! Bark, you bitch! Why are you keeping your mouth shut? Huh?" He was panting.

A shaggy-haired mercenary had his buttocks exposed and was vigorously thrusting his hips, unaware that the cold was turning his bare skin red and chapped. Held by the hair at the back of her head and swaying like duckweed was a village woman who looked about thirty.

They were blocking his path. Dong Bongsu stopped and spoke.

"We're leaving for Mount Manhan. Assemble every last one of the others outside the village immediately."

Dong Bongsu's voice was flat, but it was not quiet. The shaggy-haired man, however, was already close to climax and merely kept thrusting his hips roughly, paying him no heed.

"Hah! I-I'm com—!"

The shaggy-haired man's filthy buttocks quivered as he climaxed. At that same instant, his head fell and rolled away.

"Ah! Aaargh!"

The woman, who had remained silent even while being raped, screamed and collapsed facedown. A liquid far more revolting than the one shot inside her body had splashed across her back. Then something round fell. She knew what it was without looking.

Dong Bongsu stepped over the prostrate woman's back and continued on his way.