Into the World
Tang Hua instinctively stepped back. She herself did not know why she had done so. No, she did not even realize that she had done it in the first place.
It was just ... scary. In her mind, the fact that Dong Bong-su was a worthless Horse Stable Hireling and the fact that the one who had just killed Tang Wu was him had already disappeared, and in their place only fear had settled.
The thought that Dong Bong-su's indifferent eyes were staring at her was unbearably frightening and hateful.
Tap, tap.
Dong Bong-su took two more steps forward.
And Tang Hua took two steps back again.
Kiiik.
Dong Bong-su pulled out the novice's sword that was stuck diagonally in the ground.
Something that seemed to be Tang Wu's head, which had been pierced through by it, came up together with it.
Dong Bong-su lifted the sword straight up over his head and then stabbed it diagonally down into the ground.
Tang Wu's head was split in half, and the novice's sword was completely separated from Tang Wu's corpse.
Drip.
Blood and brain matter flowed out of Tang Wu's head, which had been split in half, and dirtied the ground.
"It's fine."
"......."
What was fine ...?
At the short and incomprehensible words, Tang Hua's body trembled. No matter how dead he was, Tang Wu was her grandfather. This kind of atrocity should not have been forgiven, but she could not say a single word.
Dong Bong-su quietly wiped the blood off the novice's sword on the brown robe Tang Wu had been wearing. The clothes were so dirty that they did not help much in cleaning the sword.
Then, at some point, he raised his head and looked at Tang Hua.
"This won't do."
What ...?
Tang Hua felt doubt at Dong Bong-su's incomprehensible words once again. And that was her last.
Srrrk.
Dong Bong-su's body suddenly moved and brushed past Tang Hua. Then Tang Hua collapsed and was piled on top of Tang Wu's corpse.
At the same time.
Woooong!
A brilliant golden radiance poured out from Dong Bong-su's body. It was light clearly different from the light at the time of leveling up.
[Quest completed.]
[You have changed class to Wanderer.]
[Due to class change ....]
.....
...
….
…
At last, he had changed class. And in front of his eyes, several hologram message windows overlapped and floated up.
Dong Bong-su did not read the messages and immediately closed all the windows. That was because he thought the pursuit was not over yet. If it was Do Heo-ok, he thought that to ensure perfection, he might even send a pursuit team to this place.
However, that was purely a thought that came from Dong Bong-su not knowing the structure of this mountain well. In reality, the ground he was standing on was not simply the lower part of Seonjung Mountain.
Both sides of this cliff, true to being a gorge, were covered with extremely tall rocks and dense bushes, and for the past hundreds of years had not allowed human footsteps. In addition, the front and back were blocked by the real cliff that he had just jumped down, making it even more difficult to approach. Even if Do Heo-ok wanted to chase, it was impossible from the start.
However, recalling the fact that Tang Wu had used true origin energy to save Tang Hua at the last moment, Dong Bong-su began to move busily to eliminate even the slightest possibility.
First, he went around the area and organized the corpses. It was the work of matching the number of corpses that had fallen and the scattered corpses.
At the same time, he sorted through the items in their belongings and took everything usable. Among them were Tang Wu's Dragon-Phoenix Golden Needles, and several secret manuals of martial arts. Even so, he did not take everything. Leaving behind just enough to avoid suspicion was basic common sense.
He retrieved all the corpses and items he had used when he fell and put them back into the inventory.
Then he crushed the corpses of those whose heads had been pierced by his sword. Especially the parts that had sword wounds were crushed even more skillfully. They had to look as if they had burst from the impact of the fall.
Before long, all the work was finished.
Dong Bong-su, as a final check, drew all the fragments scattered on the ground in his mind. Then he assembled them one by one in his imagination. As a result, he was able to create exactly as many corpses as the number of those who had fallen. Among those corpses, of course, he himself was included.
Among the corpses, there was one wearing the uniform of a monk, and that corpse was his substitute. It was already completely destroyed, so no one would be able to tell what kind of person it originally was.
A perfect crime.
Convinced of that, Dong Bong-su quickly left the place. His movements were more than twice as nimble as when he had fallen. He had not yet checked his newly gained abilities, but just from the increase in stats, he could feel firsthand that there had been a tremendous rise.
Heh.
A thin smile spread on Dong Bong-su's lips. He was smiling.
Here was one murderer. He survived.
And ...…
At last, he had come out into the world.
---
The martial world began to shake. The origin of the waves was Anhui Province.
The annihilation of the Namgung Family, the greatest prestigious family under heaven in Anhui.
Who on earth was it that had brought down the Namgung Family, the foremost among the Five Great Families of the Central Plains, in a single day?
When this rumor first spread through the martial world, no one tried to believe it easily. The Namgung Family was a prestigious clan among prestigious clans, boasting hundreds of years of history, and it was the common evaluation that their martial arts were still enough to vie for the best under heaven. Moreover, Namgung Byeok, the head of the Namgung Family, was counted as one of the greatest masters of the age.
But before long, the martial artists came to know that this shocking incident was the truth.
The martial world bulletin that had not circulated for decades was delivered all across the Central Plains. On it was written that a Martial Assembly would be held due to the annihilation of the Namgung Family, and the seal of the Martial Alliance Leader was clearly stamped. The martial world bulletin embroidered with gold thread on red silk spoke for itself of the gravity of the matter.
It was hard to believe, but the great tree called the Namgung Family had fallen. It was certain that it was not a mere closure of the gates, but an annihilation.
The headquarters of the Martial Alliance in Zhengzhou received the representatives of each sect under stricter guard than usual. A murderous aura hung in the streets, and the expressions of the martial artists were all stiff.
Soon, the representatives of the Nine Sects and Beggars' Sect and the remaining four great families except the Namgung Family gathered in Zhengzhou. No, to be more precise, one could say that the representatives of all Five Great Families had gathered. Even the survivor of the annihilated Namgung Family attended the Martial Assembly.
The only person who had survived that terrible calamity.
Namgung Hye, the second daughter of Namgung Byeok, the head of the Namgung Family. Her face was pale, and wounds that had not yet healed remained all over her body, but her eyes alone were burning with the will for revenge.
She had broken through the blazing attacks of the culprits and finally arrived at Zhengzhou.
As the only survivor and witness, she testified at the Martial Assembly about the whole story of the annihilation of the Namgung Family.
The force that Namgung Hye pointed to as the culprit was.
Heavenly Demon Castle. And she said that the Yangtze Eighteen Water Fortresses had supported them from the side.
All the representatives of each sect who attended the Martial Assembly were shocked. To think that the identity of the culprit they had half suspected and half denied was really Heavenly Demon Castle. Everyone there sensed that, at last, the hundred years of peace had been broken.
After Namgung Hye's testimony, the Martial Assembly officially began.
Some said that they could not understand why Heavenly Demon Castle had suddenly done such a thing and advocated a cautious approach. Their logic was that it would not be too late to act after going through a thorough investigation of the truth. However, those who insisted on that were only a minority.
Although the people gathered here were figures of the orthodox path, that was only a mask of appearances. Basically, they were all martial artists. Fist for fist, blade for blade, and above all, blood for blood! They were lawless ones who moved under such an absolute rule.
In particular, the Tang Family, who had lost Tang Wu and Tang Hua, were seeing red. If the Martial Alliance did not move, it looked as if they would act on their own.
Also, apart from the aggressiveness of the Tang Family, Sichuan Province was adjacent to Tibet. In other words, Tibet was the front yard of Heavenly Demon Castle, and Sichuan was the front house of Tibet. If this incident was really the prelude to Heavenly Demon Castle's plan to advance into the Central Plains, then the first target would, without question, include Sichuan Province as well.
The Kunlun Sect and the Kongtong Sect were also feeling the same sense of crisis as the Tang Family. If Sichuan was the front house of Tibet, then Qinghai and Gansu could be said to be the side and back houses of Xinjiang, to the extent that they were that close to Heavenly Demon Castle.
The remaining sects did not speak up in particular, but most of them were agreeing with a hardline approach.
The destruction of the Namgung Family was an extremely big matter from the standpoint of the Martial Alliance. If the Martial Alliance did not step forward in such a major incident, it was obvious that the influence of the Martial Alliance over the entire martial world would decline.
If Heavenly Demon Castle was truly moving to plot the Central Plains, then the entire martial world had to unite with the Martial Alliance as the center. For that reason as well, the Martial Alliance had to take action actively.
In the end, the meeting did not last long.
The Martial Alliance Leader, True Immortal Hyeon-cheon, immediately deployed the full forces of the Anti-Demon Hall and the Conquering Evil Hall among the Three Halls into Anhui Province. As the two armed organizations were mobilized, their subordinate Four Direction Divine Units were naturally all dispatched to Anhui Province.
The Martial Alliance Leader did not stop there, and sent dispatches to all the affiliated sects in every province surrounding Anhui—Hubei, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Jiangsu, Shandong, and Henan—ordering them to support the Four Direction Divine Units.
Furthermore, Hyeon-cheon dispatched hundreds of masters to Gansu, Qinghai, and Sichuan as well. That was because he thought that while the Martial Alliance was focusing on Anhui Province, the main force of Heavenly Demon Castle might advance into the Central Plains.
However, until then, Heavenly Demon Castle remained quiet. Then, when the forces of the Martial Alliance advanced deep into the border regions of Gansu and Qinghai, they hurriedly sent hundreds of masters to Gansu and Qinghai to check them. But there was no actual clash between the two sides, and it was only mutual containment.
In the meantime, according to the decision made at the Martial Assembly, the bloody retribution began.
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