Chapter 39: Fierce Battle Aboard the Ship (4)
Dong Bong-su did not have even a moment to hesitate.
The instant his sword strike finally landed on Go San-gong's body, Go San-gong seemed to believe victory was within his grasp and unleashed Heavenly Wind Opens the Heavens, the final form of the Heavenly Wind Sword Art.
Pararararak.
As though the heavens themselves were opening at the summons of the wind, dozens of sword strikes rained down upon Dong Bong-su together with shrill whistles through the air. Despite wielding a heavy sword, the attacks were fast and filled with countless variations. Even if Dong Bong-su tried to evade them, it seemed impossible to avoid taking at least one or two hits.
Indeed, the sword lightly grazed his legs, chest, and arms, spraying blood.
However,
At the very moment he should have been dodging, Dong Bong-su instead raised his sword and thrust toward Go San-gong's eyes with the form Straight Thrusting Yellow Dragon. Having completely abandoned defense, his entire body was riddled with openings, and naturally, the wounds inflicted by Go San-gong's sword multiplied exponentially.
Pabababak!
Blood sprayed and flesh split apart, yet Dong Bong-su's sword continued moving forward.
'Mutual destruction?'
Watching Dong Bong-su charge ahead without any concern for his own body, Go San-gong came to that conclusion.
A faint sneer spread across his lips.
If one intended to perish together with the enemy, one should at least use a technique worthy of such a purpose.
Something like Cold Yin Shura Palm Art's Cold Yin Annihilation, or the Heartless Sword Formula, a sword art created solely for mutual destruction.
'And all he has is Straight Thrusting Yellow Dragon.'
Go San-gong withdrew Heavenly Wind Opens the Heavens midway and instead executed the sweeping strike Heavenly Wind Flowing Clouds. His sword carved a long horizontal arc, cleanly severing the arm Dong Bong-su had extended toward him.
Pat!
Dong Bong-su's right arm, still gripping the sword, flew high into the air before plunging into Lake Chaohu.
Plop.
'Not yet!'
Although his opponent had seemingly thrown caution to the wind and was now reduced to a one-armed man, Go San-gong did not lower his guard. Their previous clashes had already revealed that Dong Bong-su possessed bizarre sorcery.
This time, a sword would surely emerge from his left arm for another attack.
Pababak!
Go San-gong's sword swept out once more toward Dong Bong-su's left arm.
Just as expected, a sword sprang out from Dong Bong-su's left arm, and carrying the same momentum with which he had used Straight Thrusting Yellow Dragon in his right hand, he attempted to unleash it again with his left.
However, the two of them were already too close together for Straight Thrusting Yellow Dragon to display its full power.
Not only that.
Go San-gong had already anticipated all of it.
To anyone watching, the outcome had already been decided.
Pak!
Thud!
Go San-gong's sword severed Dong Bong-su's left arm as well.
Dong Bong-su was now in a state where he could no longer attack.
Or rather…
He should have been.
However,
If only Dong Bong-su's left arm had been cut off, there should have been only the sound of Pak.
A sound.
Yes, there had been another.
Thud.
A simple yet unmistakable sound of penetration.
“Ghk…”
What had happened?
A Beginner's Sword was embedded in Go San-gong's eye.
Creak. Creak.
Clamping the sword's hilt tightly between his teeth, Dong Bong-su continued driving forward with the momentum of his charge.
Two-Item In-and-Out.
The final card Dong Bong-su had revealed was a method of withdrawing two items from the Inventory simultaneously.
Go San-gong had focused solely on Dong Bong-su's two hands.
The instant he severed both arms, he had believed everything was over.
But it had not actually ended.
Dong Bong-su had simultaneously drawn swords with his left hand and his mouth.
The real attack had been the Beginner's Sword drawn from his mouth.
It had landed perfectly, bringing Go San-gong's life to an end.
Go San-gong's lifelong wish that a true man should sever another's neck, drink the blood, and sing was fulfilled at the very moment he died.
Only…
The blood happened to be his own, and the song he sang consisted of nothing more than a single verse,
"Ghk."
Other than that, it had come true exactly as he had wished.
Puhk!
Such was the force behind Dong Bong-su's death-defying charge that the Beginner's Sword pierced through Go San-gong's eye, bored through his skull, and protruded from the back of his head.
Huff… Huff…
Breathing heavily, Dong Bong-su finally collapsed onto the deck.
The price of killing Go San-gong had been far too great.
He had become crippled.
Both arms had been severed, blood poured endlessly from the countless cuts covering his body, and he had also suffered severe internal injuries.
At this rate, he would die within mere seconds.
Yet.
Putting aside the overwhelming agony assaulting him, despite standing on the brink of death, the smile on Dong Bong-su's lips only grew deeper.
Because…
Flash! Flash! Flash!
He knew he would recover again.
The moment Go San-gong's corpse collapsed onto the deck, three mysterious and miraculous flashes of light burst forth consecutively from Dong Bong-su's body.
The moment of evolution had arrived once more.
Not once,
but three times in succession.
By killing Go San-gong, Dong Bong-su reached Level 10.
At the same time, his lost arms regenerated, and every wound on his body healed.
The holy light generated by Dong Bong-su's level-up spread beyond the sailboat's deck and throughout every corner of the Namgung Family estate.
As though daylight itself had descended.
● ● ●
At the very moment the light radiating from Dong Bong-su illuminated the Namgung Family, the Danri Family in Bongyang had likewise become as bright as broad daylight.
The difference was that the Danri Family had not merely grown bright.
The entire estate was engulfed in flames.
“Gaaah!”
Buildings collapsed as they were consumed by fire from every direction, while black-clad figures wearing black masks butchered the family members without mercy.
To stop them, the Cross Heavenly Sword Division, the family's only martial force, had been dispatched.
But every time the black-clad figures swung their swords, another member of the Cross Heavenly Sword Division lost his head.
By the time Danri Cheon-u awoke to the sounds of screams and clashing blades…
…the name Cross Heavenly Sword Division had already been erased from the martial world.
“……”
The Danri Family, which meant everything to Danri Cheon-u, was burning before his eyes.
Its people were dying horrifying deaths.
Yet he could neither speak nor act.
No,
he could not even think.
'Why? Who in the world did this?'
Such thoughts should have arisen.
But the overwhelming disparity in power had drained every ounce of strength from his body.
Not long afterward, he alone remained within the family estate.
Although he held his sword in hand, he had not cut down a single black-clad figure.
No,
he could not even swing it.
His body merely trembled uncontrollably.
Crackle, crackle. Tap. Tap. Crackle, crackle.
Breaking through the sound of the burning Danri Family came measured footsteps.
They belonged to the black-clad figures responsible for this massacre.
Soon, they stopped three jang in front of Danri Cheon-u.
There were only five of them.
Although the Black Five Division had already withdrawn, for the Danri Family to be reduced to such helplessness by merely five people…
Danri Cheon-u could not believe it.
“……Who are you?”
Wearing a vacant expression, Danri Cheon-u stared blankly at the black-clad figure standing at the front.
The figure's ice-cold gaze quickly devoured the emptiness in Danri Cheon-u's unfocused eyes.
Just as the flames were erasing the Danri Family from the world.
Without a word, the black-clad figure stepped closer.
Thud.
He stopped again, one jang in front of Danri Cheon-u.
Danri Cheon-u's lips trembled before he repeated the same question.
“……Who are you?”
The black-clad figure slightly raised his head and spoke in an icy voice.
“Does that matter?”
Danri Cheon-u's lips trembled once more.
He seemed to want to say something, but the sheer futility of it robbed him of speech.
Only after lightly biting his tongue did he finally force out the question he truly wished to ask.
“…W-Why?”
Swish.
He asked.
There was no verbal answer.
Or rather, there was.
Only…
the answer was not given with words.
The black-clad figure's sword swept diagonally upward from below.
That was all.
Severed cleanly from below the right side of his waist to his left shoulder, Danri Cheon-u's upper body slowly slid off the neatly bisected lower half and onto the ground.
Thud.
Fragments of mangled internal organs spilled from the cleanly severed lower half of his torso.
Even then, his mouth remained frozen in the shape of the words,
"Why?"
Crunch!
The black-clad figure crushed that mouth beneath his foot.
Only then did Danri Cheon-u receive an answer of sorts.
“Stop asking pointless questions. It's none of your concern.”
Though he had been the head of Bongyang's greatest family…
…to the black-clad figure—
Mad Cloud,
he was nothing more than someone like you.
Thus, the Danri Family vanished from the world in utter futility.
The only small mercy for Danri Cheon-u was that Danri Kang Hae and Danri Hui had already left the Danri Family estate and escaped this calamity.
However…
The unfortunate truth…
…was that this calamity had not struck only this place.
If dense clouds hung over this place…
then an even darker shadow had fallen across southern Anhui.
And Danri Hui had already stepped into that shadow's domain.
● ● ●
Seungryong Mountain.
A small mountain rising at the northern edge of Hefei.
In truth, judging solely by its height and size, it was little more than a hill.
Even so, a mountain was still a mountain.
Standing atop its summit allowed one to overlook all of Hefei, and in the distance, even admire the mist rising from Lake Chaohu.
Naturally, from the peak of Seungryong Mountain, one could also observe the Namgung Family estate beside the lake at a single glance.
The reason this modest mountain bore the grand name Seungryong Mountain was because the rocks lining its ridge resembled a dragon ascending into the heavens.
“Ah! S-Stop! Ahh!”
Upon the rock at the summit that formed the dragon's head, a scorching heat raged fiercely enough to drive away the night's chill.
A man thrust violently from behind a woman lying face down.
The woman, forcibly violated from behind, kept her head lowered as she sobbed.
Strangely, the man's body shimmered silver beneath the moonlight.
This was the characteristic sign of one who had mastered the extraordinary art known as the Silver Yin Seduction Art.
There was only one person in the current martial world who had mastered this martial art.
The man wearing a sinister smile as he continued his assault was…
Thud. Thud.
“Aah!”
Pa Ga-hyeol, the Silver Naked Lust Demon, vice branch leader of the Heavenly Demon Castle's Anhui Branch.
Grabbing the woman by the back of her head, Pa Ga-hyeol yanked her backward while driving his hips forward even more violently.
Overwhelmed once again by maddening pleasure, the woman cried out.
Yet despite his vigorous movements, Pa Ga-hyeol's eyes were not on the woman.
The Namgung Family.
His gaze remained fixed solely upon the distant Namgung Family estate shimmering on the horizon.
