Ting.
Dong Bong-su's faint Rotation Sword met the end of Timur Khan's storm-like Rotation Sword.
This time too, the sound wasn't loud. As if when wind meets wind, nothing happens.
Dong Bong-su confirmed Timur Khan's rotation cycle with his eyes, then precisely timed his rotation so the end of that rotation would meet his sword tip. Thanks to that, this time too only the sword tips continued to meet, not the sword surfaces. As such an event repeated, this time too Timur Khan was pushed back continuously without substance.
In the end, Timur Khan had no choice but to stop rotating this time as well.
"Huu, huu...."
From extreme energy consumption, rough breaths flowed from Timur Khan's mouth.
Though he said nothing, his expression was frozen to the extreme. That expression said everything. Why on earth wasn't the Rotation Sword working?
But in truth, the Rotation Sword was dealing damage to Dong Bong-su. Though they only met at the sword tips, just that alone was continuously shaking Dong Bong-su's insides. However, it wasn't enough to kill him.
But Timur Khan couldn't know even that much. Dong Bong-su's face was simply 'nothing.'
Dong Bong-su's face had only become slightly paler than before. No other changes could be read.
When Timur Khan's attack stopped, Dong Bong-su turned his head to the side and looked down below the castle wall.
Already the battle line formed by the Northern Expeditionary Force and nomad soldiers had moved almost right in front of the castle gate. Before long, regardless of the castle walls or inner fortress, Li Zi-song's army would occupy Guisui.
Was he smiling? Dong Bong-su's mouth split wide as he watched that.
Then, without a moment's hesitation, he left Timur Khan behind and leaped down below the castle wall.
Krakaboom!
Dong Bong-su raised [Sword Energy] and crashed down into a place where allies and enemies were mixed together. With a tremendous explosion, five or six people were crushed.
He didn't stop there and began wildly swinging his sword. His Wanderer's Sword blindly cut without distinguishing friend from foe, as if it had no eyes.
"...."
Timur Khan was at a loss for words. This humiliation was a first. Both someone who blocked his Rotation Sword was a first, and someone who went elsewhere to do something else while crossing swords.
His Blue Eyes trembled with rage.
He too immediately leaped down below the castle wall following Dong Bong-su. Now victory, defeat, or death—none of it mattered.
'I'll definitely kill at least that bastard.'
1
By then Dong Bong-su had already recovered over 20% of his health. He slashed his own body once more. Sure enough, pus and blood splattered as his health dropped back below 20%.
[As the player's health drops below 20%, all abilities increase by 10%.]
Once again [Survival Instinct Lv.2] activated.
Wooooong.
Soon [Circulating Energy] and [Sword Energy] overlapped onto the Wanderer's Sword.
He immediately turned his body and swung his sword toward Timur Khan falling from the sky. That appearance was like a great dragon coiled then uncoiling as it swept its tail.
"Great Dragon Tail Sweep!?"
BA-BA-BANG!
Timur Khan flew back up into the sky in that same falling posture. But he was more shocked that Dong Bong-su used the Great Dragon Tail Sweep than his insides being shaken.
Of course, that wasn't Dong Bong-su's concern. Dong Bong-su immediately activated [Lightness Arts] and flew up toward Timur Khan.
Clang!
Dong Bong-su's sword and Timur Khan's sword clashed violently in midair again.
"Ghk!"
A thin groan flowed from Timur Khan's mouth as he flew rapidly backward. For the first time, Dong Bong-su had suppressed Timur Khan with strength. Timur Khan had lost almost all his strength from continued energy consumption, while Dong Bong-su was in his strongest state since the battle began. Moreover, though it was only an imitation, he was using swordwork enhanced with Mamorota's fierce techniques.
Dong Bong-su fell toward the ground and swung his sword once more at the soldiers around him.
Splatter-thud.
Blood and flesh splattered as Dong Bong-su's health recovered a bit more. Dong Bong-su pressed that momentum and charged at Timur Khan again, assaulting him like a storm. It wasn't the quiet sword from before.
Whoong whoong!Ba-buk!
Dong Bong-su's sword transformed completely. His sword was powerful as if combining Timur Khan's swordwork and Mamorota's club techniques. Fighting them, he had absorbed both their strong points. Though it wasn't perfectly the same martial arts as theirs, quite peculiarly those strong points had melded well into Dong Bong-su's sword. Dong Bong-su had evolved once more.
Clang, Clang clang!
Timur Khan, whose internal energy was already nearly depleted, couldn't withstand Dong Bong-su who had recovered much health. Timur Khan was continuously driven back and eventually pushed all the way inside the castle gate.
Following that, behind Dong Bong-su, Li Zi-song's Northern Expeditionary Force poured into Guisui like a tide.
Aaaaaahhhh!
At that moment when the soldiers' shouts that hadn't been heard for quite a while registered in Dong Bong-su's ears again.
Thud.
Dong Bong-su's sword finally drove straight into Timur Khan's heart.
Crack, rip.
The sound of ribs protecting the heart breaking and being cut away could be heard without filter.
Timur Khan, as if so aggrieved about something, opened his eyes wider than he had since he was born and glared at Dong Bong-su.
"You... You...."
But he couldn't finish his curse about Dong Bong-su.
Because Dong Bong-su pulled out a new sword with his other hand and shoved it into his mouth.
Fwoooosh.
Timur Khan laid his limbs on the ground while looking at the blue sky he loved, and above him the Holy Light bursting from Dong Bong-su's entire body swept past.
Soon that Holy Light was sprinkled here and there throughout Guisui, and it ignited the bloodlust of the Northern Expeditionary Force.
"The wrath of heaven has reached the barbarians! Slaughter them all!"
"Aaaaaaaahh!"
"Kill them! Wipe them all out!"
Many soldiers who saw the level-up light burst from Dong Bong-su's body looked up at him in reverence, raised their swords high, then immediately rushed at the enemies and swung their swords ceaselessly.
Li Zi-song and the adjutants followed in and saw that sight, but paid it no mind. Dong Bong-su had the right to receive such treatment from the soldiers. There wasn't even a need for jealousy.
Whether the soldiers did that or not, Dong Bong-su silently lowered his head and looked down at Timur Khan. Shadow fell and covered Timur Khan's eyes. With that, he could no longer see the sky he loved. Though it was after death, for Timur Khan it couldn't help but be regrettable.
"Was the reason the sky is blue because the sky is a river at the threshold to the afterlife?"
The dead do not speak. An obvious statement, but…
"The reason the sky is blue is, you see. It's not that sort of thing. Light from the sun collides with gas molecules composing Earth's atmosphere and scatters into various colored lights, and at that time blue or purple light with short wavelengths spreads much more. That's why the sky looks blue."
Dong Bong-su's words continued.
"When you die, you just die. There's no river or anything. If you expect something like that after death, give up even now."
"...."
"And did I ask what you see when you look at that?"
"...."
"That's not the sky. That's your delusion. That's just 'up.' The sky? That's just something weak humans conveniently divided up. Above that, there's just higher 'up.' There's no such thing as the sky you're hoping for."
Having finished speaking, Dong Bong-su raised the Wanderer's Sword high and drove it straight into Timur Khan's right ear.
Timur Khan's ear was severed, and the short but intense Harvest finally ended.
Aaaaaaaahh!
The soldiers' crazed cheers shook all of Guisui. Though clearly not only nomad soldiers but also several Northern Expeditionary Force soldiers had died by his sword, no one cared. The Dong Bong-su reflected in their eyes was an unparalleled hero who couldn't be offset by the deaths of a few comrades.
Whether the soldiers did that or not, Dong Bong-su walked to a corner.
There, Kaiji was by himself tearing off and eating plump mutton. This too was probably included in artificial intelligence—a method of recovering health on its own.
Since Kaiji's Status window was open, he could confirm in real time that the fellow's health was recovering. Though not a real item, either way this mutton was essentially a raw recovery item.
Larger livestock in better nutritional condition would provide more recovery. Of course, there was no experience poi...!
"...!"
The moment of realization—no one knows when or where it will arrive. As various saints like Socrates, Jesus, Buddha, and so on had experienced.
Though Dong Bong-su was a monster far removed from such saints, the moment of realization came to him as well.
'Plump, fattened livestock helps recover health.'
Livestock becomes plump and fat. Livestock is raised by people. Therefore, if raised well, it can become a good recovery item.
Dong Bong-su withdrew his gaze from Kaiji voraciously tearing into the mutton, then turned his gaze to the soldiers cheering for him.
Though exhausted from the widespread Black Epidemic and continued battles, they were all elite soldiers. Those soldiers weren't elite from birth either. They were made through training.
Therefore,
If trained well.
Good....
1
The corners of Dong Bong-su's mouth twisted up cruelly.
He raised his hand high. Then the soldiers shouted madly.
Kill many and receive hero treatment, and many follow. In this place, it's a natural law like a principle of nature.
This time even Dong Bong-su's opposite corner of his mouth rose. This was Dong Bong-su smiling a complete smile for the first time since coming to this place. Perhaps for the first time since being born....
Dong Bong-su mounted Kaiji, who had adequately recovered his health, and walked through the soldiers toward the castle gate.
Of course, Timur Khan's ear was left abandoned on the ground. Because to Dong Bong-su now, ears were as good as trash, something that didn't matter at all. Whether it belonged to the Northern Plains Emperor or not made no difference whatsoever.