Chapter 56. A Clever Trick
***
The pursuit began.
Those being chased were the congratulatory guests including Tang Wu, and the ones chasing them were the pirates of the Yangtze Eighteen Water Fortresses and the demonic beings of Heavenly Demon Castle.
And one more person.
Dong Bong-su.
***
All of the Namgung Family's ships had already sunk.
The Namgung Family servants who had rowed the boats and served as footholds for the escapees were all killed. Among the congratulatory guests, those with relatively weaker martial arts were also massacred.
Only about a hundred people survived.
However, those who had survived until now were all people who could throw their weight around within their own spheres of influence, so they were not easily taken down. Still, that did not mean their future was bright.
The Yangtze pirates and the demonic beings of Heavenly Demon Castle were relentlessly pursuing them. No matter how many were killed, the pursuers kept coming endlessly. Worse still, among them were experts who were nothing short of disasters to the survivors.
The only saving grace was that there was one peak expert on their side.
Even while carrying Namgung Hye on his back, Tang Wu broke through the encirclement spread along the shores of Chaohu. The problem was that the direction he broke through led toward the mountains, but even so, climbing upward was the only path of survival at the moment.
Following their instincts, the survivors chased after the path Tang Wu had opened.
At the very least, this meant they would not run into enemies appearing from the front. Though the fact that they were being chased remained unchanged.
Pirates were steadily climbing up from the Chaohu direction, and from the north, demonic soldiers continued to appear and obstruct their advance.
"Die!"
Pirates they would never normally encounter on land. Their shouts sent chills down the survivors' spines.
Aaaagh.
One person who had been injured and lagging behind at the very rear became another victim.
And then the one in front of him, and the one ahead of that...…..
Despite desperately fleeing, the number of survivors continued to decrease.
Unfamiliar terrain slowed their steps, and the prolonged pursuit had exhausted their bodies to the limit.
In contrast, the pirates and demonic soldiers were brimming with vitality.
The reason was that they were exploiting their numerical superiority and the fact that they were two separate groups to conduct a rotation battle.
First the pirates would strike and withdraw, then the demonic soldiers would charge and pull back.
It might not seem like much, but it was creating a massive difference.
Just running away consumed enormous stamina, and now even their cultivation power was being drained.
If this continued, it would not be long before all survivors were annihilated.
Clang, clang! Aaaagh!
As time passed, the pursuit grew fiercer.
The survivors' movement speed had noticeably slowed.
At some point, the pirates and demonic soldiers stopped alternating their attacks.
They now followed directly behind the survivors, attacking them simultaneously.
Seeing victory at hand, they intended to put an end to the chase.
As a result, the relatively stronger survivors compared to those lagging behind ultimately abandoned the weaker ones and climbed straight up the mountain.
It was an unavoidable choice for them.
Staying behind to try to save the others would only lead to everyone dying.
If that was the case, at least those who could survive should do so.
That was how they thought, and how they rationalized their actions.
In doing so, they once again succeeded in preserving their own lives at the cost of others'.
And then.
Once again, the weak were abandoned.
Those left behind naturally became easy prey for the pursuers.
Kuaaagh, thud thud! Slash!
The pirates and demonic soldiers pounced on the abandoned survivors like evil spirits.
The already shattered congratulatory guests could not endure any longer and died one after another.
Among them, there was one pirate moving in a peculiar way.
His face was completely mangled, and he attacked the survivors while mixed in among the pirates and demonic beings.
The interesting part was that whenever his attack succeeded, he would immediately move on to attack another survivor without hesitation.
And his attacks were never fatal.
At most, he only inflicted light flesh wounds.
None of the pirates or demonic beings, already intoxicated by the frenzy of battle, noticed his behavior.
They merely thought someone was busily running around and fighting hard.
The broken mask man once again slipped into the crowd and attacked a survivor.
That survivor was already drenched in blood.
It was unclear whether it was his own blood or that of the pirates and demonic soldiers, but his entire body was stained crimson.
Perhaps because of that, the sword that once overflowed with power had clearly lost its initial sharpness.
Even so, it still carried enough sword energy to make it difficult for enemies to approach easily.
Nevertheless, his fate was all but sealed.
The pirates and the demonic beings of Heavenly Demon Castle had already blocked every possible escape route.
"Kuaaaah!"
Was it his final struggle?
Letting out an incomprehensible scream, he charged straight toward the pirates.
Thud thud thud thud!
In an instant, over ten swords pierced into the body of Gi Dae-hyo.
They guided his life straight to the threshold of hell.
One more step forward, and he would never return.
Among the swords embedded in his body was that of the broken mask man.
As always, the broken mask man's sword was far from a finishing blow, merely grazing Gi Dae-hyo's forehead.
Drip.
Blood slowly seeped from the torn wound on Gi Dae-hyo's forehead.
Enduring the stinging pain, Gi Dae-hyo raised his head.
"….."
And so, Gi Dae-hyo and the broken mask man faced each other.
In Gi Dae-hyo's eyes, he saw the opponent's face, so thoroughly mutilated it was almost unrecognizable.
Despite being unable to discern any facial features, Gi Dae-hyo felt that the broken mask man was strangely familiar.
Yet he could not clearly remember where he had seen him.
Because—
Slash.
A man whose neck is severed can no longer think of anything.
The pirates and the demonic beings of Heavenly Demon Castle who had utterly reduced Gi Dae-hyo to rags soon moved on toward their next target.
The broken mask man, Dong Bong-su, sheathed his extended sword and quietly muttered a single word.
"Fifty."
Fifty.
This number referred to the count of completed class change quest kills.
While being chased, Dong Bong-su had slain as many as fifty enemies of level 10 or higher.
Among those he killed were some who were exactly level 10, but most were higher, with some even exceeding level 15.
At that level, Dong Bong-su's level should have risen long ago.
So what was going on?
His face was still difficult to recognize due to the grotesque sword scars, and there was naturally no manifestation of holy light from leveling up.
In other words, his level was still 10.
Back when he was level 7, he had killed a level 16 enemy and jumped three levels at once...
So how was this possible?
The secret lay in group hunting.
While being chased, Dong Bong-su naturally coordinated attacks with other pirates to kill the congratulatory guests, just like how he had killed Gi Dae-hyo moments ago.
Originally, Dong Bong-su's plan was to follow along subtly, killing enemies while ensuring his identity was not exposed.
But—
During the pursuit, he discovered another new characteristic of the New Murim Online system.
When multiple people kill one enemy, experience is distributed according to the amount of damage dealt.
And regardless of how small that damage was, if the enemy died, the quest completion count increased by one.
This was an extremely important bonus.
Any wound would do.
Whether throwing a stone or leaving a fingernail-sized cut with a sword.
As long as the system did not register zero damage.
Anyone of level 10 or higher whose blood was "scratched" by Dong Bong-su became a valid target for quest completion.
From the moment he realized this, Dong Bong-su roamed the battlefield, striving to inflict minor wounds on as many survivors as possible.
In doing so, he could steadily carry out his class change quest while receiving almost no experience.
[1st Class Change Quest : Wanderer]
Tester-only class.
Quest completion condition : L1: Achieve 100 kills of enemies level 10 or higher.
Current quest progress (completed/required) : 50 / 100
Without emitting holy light—and without exposing his identity—he had taken down fifty people.
Only fifty more until class change.
And—
The pursuit was not over yet.
Stepping over the corpse of Gi Dae-hyo, whose head and body were separated, Dong Bong-su resumed the chase.
***
Just as frantic as the pursuit on the mountainside, the area below near Chaohu was also bustling with activity.
According to the original plan of the chief leader of the Yangtze Eighteen Water Fortresses, the congratulatory guests should have been wiped out here.
However, unexpectedly, quite a few had survived and were now fleeing.
Because of that, the Yangtze boats docked along the lakeshore of Chaohu instead of following the original plan.
Among them was a ship that looked twice the size of the others.
Aboard that ship was the chief leader of the Yangtze Eighteen Water Fortresses.
Standing rigidly at the bow while receiving reports from each fort leader was a burly, bearded man.
He was the chief leader, Sasa-ho, also known as Janggang Yongho.
Reports were delivered in the order Sasa-ho designated.
When only the last fort leader remained, Sasa-ho unexpectedly turned his body and headed toward the wall tower.
"Follow."
The final fort leader showed no particular reaction and followed him up the wall tower.
Rising high at the center of the ship, the wall tower served as the battlefield's command post.
Once there, Sasa-ho spoke while gazing down at Chaohu, his back turned to the fort leader.
"You're late."
"Did you know? Water Shadow?"
The fort leader—no, Shadow Shifter, Do Heo-ok—spoke.
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