Chapter 59. The Cliff
"Hahahahaha!"
Had they been waiting for this moment?
At last, Water Shadow and Shadow Shifter arrived there together with loud laughter.
Contrary to what one would expect after a fierce battle, Shadow Shifter's appearance was immaculate, and that figure was none other than the Silver Naked Color Demon Pa Gahyeol—Ashen Shadow.
He laughed even louder and mocked Tang Wu.
"Hahaha. The Great Swordsman of Tang. I thought you ran off with your tail between your legs, but is this as far as you could go?"
"Who are you, you bastard?"
Tang Wu did not know that he was Do Heo-ok.
Even the Heavenly Demon Castle followers had failed to realize that he was not Pa Gahyeol, so it was impossible for Tang Wu alone to discern his disguise.
Shadow Shifter laughed once more and spoke.
"You're someone who's about to receive an audience with Yama anyway, so why would something like that matter? Hahahaha."
"You wretch!"
Tang Wu was enraged by Shadow Shifter's taunting, but he did not rashly make a move.
No matter how fiery his temperament was, he clearly understood the situation they were in.
Seeing that, Shadow Shifter stretched his lips thin and shouted again in a loud voice.
"Come out! Hurry and come out and show that rat-like face of yours! Let's see just how impressive a rat you are!"
Now, Shadow Shifter's gaze was no longer directed toward Tang Wu and the other survivors.
Instead, it was aimed at the bandits occupying a corner of the opposite cliff.
Only then did Dong Bong-su realize why they had resorted to such a reckless move—slaughtering their own allies.
'They were looking for me.'
Of course.
Even the Namgung Family had been thrown into chaos by the light from leveling up, so how could these people be any different?
They must have been paying attention as well, and since they couldn't identify him even after several encirclement attacks, they had resorted to this final method.
The corners of Dong Bong-su's eyes curved slightly.
It was amusing.
There had been several interesting moments since he came here, but none had been as entertaining as this one.
A hair's-breadth crisis, one after another.
Layer upon layer of danger—this alone endlessly stimulated Dong Bong-su's interest.
On top of that, such an extremely "human" tactic—stabbing someone in the back.
Indeed, this New Murim Online was clearly a game made just for him.
Without anyone noticing, Dong Bong-su drew the novice's sword and gripped it tightly.
"Don't want to come out? Then I'll personally smash that proud head of yours and check for myself."
When there was no response from the bandits' side, Shadow Shifter stepped forward.
Dong Bong-su had already figured out that he was Do Heo-ok.
Just like when he had transformed into Do Heo-ok before, a mistake that wasn't quite a mistake was visible to Dong Bong-su alone.
Do Heo-ok still did not realize that sometimes being too perfect meant not being perfect at all.
And.
That this mountain peak was also not a perfectly sealed cliff edge.
Sssshk.
Just as Shadow Shifter took one more step toward the bandits.
Dong Bong-su's sword moved without a sound.
At the same time, the bandits who had been guarding against Shadow Shifter in front of him all lost their heads at once.
Because Dong Bong-su was standing closest to the cliff, all the bandits had their backs turned to him.
There was absolutely no way for them to stop him.
Puberberbeok.
More than ten severed heads fell onto the summit of Seonjung Mountain.
At that very moment!
Flash—!
Once again, the Holy light that had once swept through the Namgung Family covered the summit of Seonjung Mountain.
Startled by the sudden flash, Shadow Shifter halted his advance and hurriedly retreated.
There was a chance that the light carried a powerful internal force like that of the Sun Divine Art.
He urgently spread even his protective energy, but all of that effort was in vain.
The flash passed by gently, like warm spring sunlight.
He may have thought it was a burst of energy, but in reality, it was nothing more than the light emitted when Dong Bong-su leveled up.
Even so, the light was strong enough to make it difficult to open one's eyes, so Shadow Shifter remained vigilant and stared intently at the source of the light.
At the moment the light burst forth, Tang Wu also tensed up and stood in front of Tang Hua to shield her.
To him as well, the radiance of leveling up seemed far from ordinary.
However, after realizing that no internal force was imbued within the light, he simply watched that direction in silence.
With his bodily senses heightened to the maximum, he carefully set Namgung Hye—who was tucked under his arm—down behind him.
A single misstep could have sent her falling down the cliff, but he judged that setting her down as safely as possible was better than continuing to hold her.
Meanwhile, Water Shadow was startled by the unexpected event and retreated back along the path he had come up.
The light Dong Bong-su emitted was that sudden and astonishing.
Even so, these three were the only ones who responded appropriately to the situation.
The rest had no idea what was happening in the arena or what they should do.
All the remaining bandits, the Heavenly Demon Castle followers, and the survivors knew was that one bandit had suddenly beheaded the others, and then an intense light inexplicably burst forth from his body.
That was all they had witnessed with their own eyes.
Hwirurururu—.
An untimely silence fell over the chaotic summit of Seonjung Mountain.
In its place, only the sound of the powerful wind at the peak lightly battered everyone's ears.
Though their mouths were shut, everyone's gaze was fixed on a single spot, as if by prior agreement.
The origin of the flash—Dong Bong-su.
Residual light was still spreading from where he had been standing, but it wasn't enough to completely obstruct vision.
Moreover, since it was daytime, the sunlight was slowly swallowing up the flash.
A brief moment later.
At last, even the remaining afterglow completely vanished.
But.
It wasn't only the light that disappeared.
"He's gone...."
Someone murmured.
Those words filled the gap in the silence and pierced people's ears in place of the wind.
Everyone who heard it agreed, and they had no choice but to do so.
Dong Bong-su, along with the bandits he had killed, had vanished together with the light.
Only the empty edge of the cliff remained, filling their vision completely.
There was nothing left there anymore.
Just as if it had always been that way—utterly empty.
However, among them, Shadow Shifter, Water Shadow, and Tang Wu had vaguely seen how Dong Bong-su disappeared.
Though the light was extremely intense, they had glimpsed a faint shadow moving rapidly within it.
The shadow they saw clearly leapt down the cliff.
What was strange, however, was that even the corpses of the other bandits had vanished without a trace.
Just like the earlier murmur, they simply... simply disappeared.
For a moment, the three had differing thoughts, but they ultimately reached the same conclusion.
They believed the bandits' corpses had been completely vaporized by a powerful yang-based technique, leaving no trace behind.
Even if the flash felt gentle where they stood, nearby it must have been as hot as volcanic lava—or perhaps like standing beside the sun hanging in the sky.
There was no other way to think about it.
The concept of a game simply did not exist within their common sense.
Even so, one major question remained.
Why did that man jump down the cliff?
With such tremendous cultivation power, why did he not even try to fight and instead give up so easily?
It was a question that arose simultaneously in all three of their minds.
Shadow Shifter felt regret because of it, Tang Wu felt emptiness because of it, and Water Shadow felt relief because of it.
Their emotions differed, but none of them doubted Dong Bong-su's death.
No expert could survive falling down a thousand-zhang cliff.
The moment one hit the bottom of that abyss, death was inevitable.
It had to be that way.
That, too, was part of their common sense.
Though they didn't say it out loud, once again they found themselves in agreement.
However, there are always exceptions in this world, and beings that shatter common sense.
Isn't that what makes the world interesting and worth living in?
***
Puk, puk, puk....
A strong updraft blowing along the cliff made the hem of his robe flutter, and cold mountain wind brushed against his face.
Dong Bong-su was clearly falling.
But he was falling in a completely different manner than Shadow Shifter and the others had expected.
He was definitely descending toward the ground, but not at a speed that suggested he was fully subjected to gravitational acceleration.
The reason was.
Puk, puk, puk....
This sound, echoing periodically through the air.
Puk.
Without fail, Dong Bong-su forcefully thrust one fist and both feet downward at the same time.
At that exact moment, a corpse popped out from his other hand, which had been doing nothing.
Of course, it was due to the Inventory Divine Art.
With a dull sound, the corpse was completely crushed.
Kwagwang—!
Along with the explosion, the corpse naturally fell downward even faster, and Dong Bong-su's accelerating speed was reduced by the amount of impact the corpse absorbed.
It was a simple law of physics calculable by mass and velocity.
The principles of action and reaction, and conservation of momentum, were being applied accurately even in the air of this cliff.
Puk, puberberbeok, kwang...….
Various dull impacts echoed regularly along the cliff face.
It was because Dong Bong-su was repeatedly performing the same action at fixed intervals.
If the intervals were too long, his body would accelerate excessively, making it difficult to control his limbs.
If he did it too frequently, the corpses and items in his inventory might be depleted before reaching the ground.
Dong Bong-su proceeded cautiously, exactly according to the "calculations" he had made earlier.
Even in midair, his composure remained intact.
'I've descended five hundred meters now. The remaining distance is about twelve hundred to fifteen hundred meters.'
Puk, puberberbeok, kwang.....
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