Chapter 149
Chapter 149: Power Leveling (2)
The targets were the Martial Jiangshi blocking the path to the Deungseon Pavilion direction. In other words, the existences from which he could feel Death Energy were the top priority for elimination.
The reason was...
Simply the preservation of experience points he would consume.
Those creatures were natural predators of the humans who would become experience points.
There was no other reason.
"Grrrrr—."
He flew over the ruins, executing the Ultra Rotation Sword Wheel against the Jiangshi. Mere Martial Jiangshi couldn't possibly stop him.
Thud, crack-crack-crack, bang!
In just a few moves, hundreds of Martial Jiangshi turned into minced meat and scattered into the air.
At that moment, Yeon Yeong-ha, who had been knocked up into the sky for a brief time, flew toward this side again, chasing Dong Bong-soo.
Her claws, reaching over thirty meters in length, slashed down aiming for Dong Bong-soo's back. There was no technique or anything. Just scratching. That was all.
Slash-slash-slash-clang! Thud-thud.
Dong Bong-soo's body, which had quickly turned around to block her claws, was half-buried into the ground.
Squelch.
A stream of blood spurted from his mouth and flowed down his lips. Having recovered through leveling up, he had sustained significant internal injuries once again.
"What the hell are you doing? You can't possibly think you'll die from just one of my techniques and be playing around with these pieces of trash, right? Right?"
Yeon Yeong-ha's black eyes gleamed, engulfed in madness.
Though her pupils weren't visible, Dong Bong-soo could sufficiently tell she was quite angry. Though she was a similar existence to himself, Yeon Yeong-ha was an existence who got angry very easily. Distinctly different from himself.
"Or could it be that a human like you is moving to save other humans? Is that it?"
"Heh heh heh. As if that could be true."
For some reason, laughter came out.
Her misconception was amusing, the fact that humans far away watching their fight were looking at him with some unknown expectation was amusing, and the fact that Jiangshi were rushing at him with hostility as he carelessly swung his sword was amusing.
Dong Bong-soo realized for the first time that he had changed considerably.
Not a sneer, but genuine interest of some unknowable kind arose.
'What exactly do these things expect from me? When so many who had gathered to this place had already been slaughtered by him.'
'Were they hoping for a savior from hell?'
'Was that it? Was it really that?'
It didn't matter.
Right now, Dong Bong-soo somehow felt like doing so.
Huuuum—
The ownerless weapons and corpse fragment scraps scattered within a thirty meters radius around him swirled following the flow of the Super True Energy Field.
Grumble-grumble-grumble—
They all poured roughly toward Yeon Yeong-ha at once.
Yeon Yeong-ha's eyes flashed and the Heavenly Calamity Energy devoured them in an instant.
Crinkle-crunch.
Like caramel on a griddle, they melted away in the blink of an eye.
"You think this kind of thing will work? Huh? Really! I'm extremely pissed right now!"
The enraged Yeon Yeong-ha raised her claws to the fullest and pressed down on Dong Bong-soo.
Thwack, crack-crack-crack—
Squelch-squelch—
Dong Bong-soo's mouth tore violently and blood streamed down his chin in rivulets.
Nevertheless, the smile formed on his face didn't easily fade. However, no one could see it. Because his body, which had been half-buried in the ground, had now completely sunk below the ground and disappeared from view. Even his face.
"Heh heh heh heh—."
Fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip-fwip!
His body suddenly disappeared. As a result, Yeon Yeong-ha's crimson claws that had been pressing down on Dong Bong-soo only tore apart the innocent ground.
A deep cross-section formed in the ruined ground, revealing its solid interior.
Dong Bong-soo had used Footwork to escape from the ground.
Whoosh—
The disappeared Dong Bong-soo appeared in the air behind Yeon Yeong-ha.
He immediately summoned Kaiji.
Thud-thud-thud-thud!
Clang!
Kaiji, who had appeared in the world again, couldn't even roar properly once before its neck was cut.
It had been reduced to a potion substitute for health recovery. To Dong Bong-soo, a Spirit Creature wasn't a pet. It was merely an item.
Having fully recovered his health and JP that way, Sword Fragments protruded from various places on Dong Bong-soo's torn and exposed flesh.
Fwish-fwish-fwish-fwish, fwoo-fwoo-fwoo-fwoo—
He spun at tremendous speed in mid-air. Then the Sword Fragments protruding from his body flew toward Yeon Yeong-ha like bullets due to centrifugal force.
Ting-ting-ting.
Yeon Yeong-ha immediately pulled out the claws embedded in the ground and brushed aside the trivial Sword Fragments to the side in one move.
Meanwhile, Dong Bong-soo began running toward the western Deungseon Pavilion again, indiscriminately slashing Jiangshi as if that had been his intention all along.
When he added Super True Energy Lightness Arts—which shot Super True Energy Waves extremely backward—to [Lightness Arts] that had reached Level Max, speed like a jet plane taking off resulted. Instead, whatever was struck by the Super True Energy Waves bursting out behind him—whether it was Jiangshi or humans—became blood porridge.
GOOOOOOOONG—
Dong Bong-soo mercilessly destroyed everything that blocked his path. His movement was so fast that to other people, it looked as if he was using Earth Shrinking Arts.
Like a runaway train with broken brakes, he climbed the hill located at the entrance to Deungseon Pavilion.
Bang! Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud-thud!
His form pierced through the bodies of Jiangshi in succession. That's right. Just like that, wholly, perfectly pierced through. Holes the size of Dong Bong-soo's body were drilled in the Jiangshi's bodies. In cases where Dong Bong-soo's build was larger than the Jiangshi, he turned the Jiangshi completely into powder as he passed through.
Even if some chunks of flesh or body fragments remained, they were already not in a form that could move. They fluttered in the air before soon collapsing onto the hillside slope. Even those were soon trampled and disappeared under the feet of other Jiangshi and survivors.
And truly in an instant, Dong Bong-soo, who had flown up to the middle of the slope, spread [Mutual Destruction] and thrust it directly into the center of the hill.
KRAK-BOOM, rumble-rumble-rumble—
A crater with a radius of over thirty meters was carved in the middle of the hill, and a small landslide occurred for a moment. Simultaneously, a large explosion occurred, turning the Jiangshi and many people around them into bloody sand.
Dong Bong-soo leaped into that pandemonium.
However, strangely, as he entered inside, the corpse fragments disappeared. It was precisely due to Inventory Arts.
He had already reached a level where he could put in and take out dozens of objects simultaneously at once.
Dong Bong-soo absorbed the fragments of corpses and immediately pulled them out backward, loading them into the Super True Energy Field and sending them flying.
Splat-splat-splat—
Upon touching the black carpet laid down by Yeon Yeong-ha, they all became blood water. Nevertheless, Dong Bong-soo didn't stop that action. It was because he calculated it could slow down Yeon Yeong-ha's speed even a little.
Was it thanks to that effort?
In reality, Yeon Yeong-ha was following behind him very slowly.
Dong Bong-soo stopped in place for a moment and turned his head.
He saw Yeon Yeong-ha floating in the air, flying slowly toward this side.
'She's been completely devoured by the Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity.'
That's how it looked to him. Her reason had already disappeared. He couldn't feel even a bit of reason in her eyes.
Therefore...
She had become far more dangerous. She was merely moving slowly because she couldn't get a grip due to the collision between reason and instinct, and her control over her body was ambiguous.
Probably before long, her reason would be perfectly eroded by the destructive instinct of the Extreme Yin Star of Heavenly Calamity.
If she moved again after that...
'There might be no opportunity.'
Whoosh-whoosh-whoosh—
Dong Bong-soo began climbing to the summit again.
All obstacles in the middle were eliminated. Although most existences had already turned into dust particles due to the Ultra True Energy Sword Wheel loaded with [Mutual Destruction] unleashed from the middle of the slope, many Jiangshi were still clustered at the passage leading to Deungseon Pavilion.
"Grrrrr..."
"Gyaaaaaa—!"
"Kree-kree-kree-kree."
Martial Jiangshi, emitting various kinds of strange sounds rushed at Dong Bong-soo all at once.
It was then.
"Heh heh heh heh heh. Come to think of it, those things... they were corpses. Amusingly so."
An indescribable wicked smile formed on Dong Bong-soo's lips.
One never knows when a brilliant idea might occur at any moment. Whether that idea is demonic or anti-human or such things isn't important.
An idea is just an idea.
Dong Bong-soo leaped toward the Martial Jiangshi to meet them head-on.
The pitch-black dead eyes of the Jiangshi enchanted him, and that smell of death stimulated his appetite terribly.
Thud-thud-thud-thud.
Hundreds of Martial Jiangshi surrounded him all at once.
Writhing corpse piles, or human dumplings.
A grotesque hill that could only be described that way was quickly created.
Dong Bong-soo was buried in that mass and not even a single hair was visible.
"...Is he dead...?"
"No way?"
"...Why?"
"..."
The people inside Deungseon Pavilion stopped for a moment. Some were dazed and lost their wits. The demonic strength Dong Bong-soo had shown was what was needed right now. The fact that he was a demon wasn't very important right now.
That other demon slowly approaching from the sky... what could be done about her?
They needed her opponent.
Fight poison with poison, fight evil with evil.
Looking at the round hill made of Jiangshi, everyone thought so.
Humans are truly cunning. But that is precisely human nature.
Depending on necessity, desiring and craving demons, that very thing is...
Human nature.
Was it because those cunning wishes gathered?
Or was it just a feeling?
"Uh, huh?"
"Th-that..."
"It's getting smaller?"
"Really, really! It's really shrinking!"
The large pile of Jiangshi surrounding Dong Bong-soo was getting smaller. At first slowly, then gradually faster.
Then at some point, only Dong Bong-soo remained wholly alone. The Jiangshi disappeared without a trace as if they had never occupied this area.
As if Dong Bong-soo had been there alone from the beginning.
However, if there was a clear difference from his previous self, it was the fact that Death Energy from the Jiangshi was flowing densely from his body and the blood scent of the people the Jiangshi had killed was thickly soaked into him.