Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant-Chapter 385

“......!!”

“......!!”

“......!!”

When Su-ho became Kim Yu-sin, the Trident trio’s faces turned ashen.

No—one turned ashen, and another was struck dumb with shock.

Pop! Pop! Pop!

A horse whose neck is cut cannot be mounted again.

The only mercy was that they weren’t living creatures but summons, so they couldn’t withstand the excess damage and were forcibly unsummoned.

As the horses were unsummoned, the three fell from their mounts.

They couldn’t even think of running.

The mounts they’d brought out were, in every sense, their extreme technique, their ultimate, their final weapons.

Yet those “finals” hadn’t even functioned once as horses before being killed in a single blow.

All three at once, at that.

The Trident lost the will to fight.

At the same time, a wave of fear seized them so completely they couldn’t do a thing—like ordinary people freezing up before a beast of prey.

‘Hmph, for there to be this much of a gap.’

Su-ho felt a touch of hollowness.

They were the Trident in name and deed.

In the Three Kingdoms, when you say “spear,” these are the representative figures—and even without using the spear as the medium, if you named the strongest generals of the Three Kingdoms, these men would inevitably be mentioned. Even so, though they formed a team and launched a joint assault, they couldn’t even string together a few proper exchanges.

And Su-ho hadn’t used many skills against them.

In particular, he hadn’t used any self-buff skills like Blessing that could inflate his stats.

Even so, for there to be a gap like this meant Su-ho’s base stats were simply that high.

‘Well, I’m about to hit Purple stats, so I guess it’s natural.’

Enough musing.

Looking down at the frozen men, Su-ho said,

“Any last words?”

“Damn it...”

“Ha...”

“You’ve got to be kidding me...”

They didn’t even think of running.

Of course not.

He’d lopped off their final power in a single stroke—how could they possibly flee now?

The Trident were all but resigned.

‘Hmph.’

Su-ho had no intention of killing them.

So, after a brief consideration, he grabbed one of Lü Tian’s ears—the one nearest—and tore it off with all his strength.

“Gyaaaah!!”

He ripped it off with pure brute force.

Which made it hurt all the worse.

Su-ho hurled Lü Tian’s torn ear far away.

Then he grabbed the ear of Guan Long standing beside him.

“F**k!! Run!!”

At that moment, still screaming in pain, Lü Tian summoned the Fangtian Huaji and charged Su-ho.

Yeah, of course—this is how it should be.

It would’ve been a shame if you’d just stood there.

The instant Lü Tian lunged, Su-ho ripped off Guan Long’s ear as well, and Zhang Hui, a half-beat behind, raised the Zhangba Serpent Spear and rushed Su-ho.

But neither man’s spear ever touched him.

Because the moment he tore off Guan Long’s ear and threw it, Su-ho caught both spears in his hands.

He began to pour crushing strength into the two spears he held.

“Grrrrr!!”

“Guan Long! Run!!”

As Guan Long clutched his ear and screamed, the other two shouted for him to flee.

Their words snapped Guan Long to his senses.

“You son of a—!!”

Guan Long’s eyes went wild.

Tears ran from them; his last thread of reason snapped.

Like Lü Tian, blood pouring from one torn ear, Guan Long lifted the Green Dragon Crescent Blade and charged Su-ho.

‘Ho.’

Su-ho watched the Green Dragon Crescent Blade falling toward him with perfect clarity.

So, matching the timing, he snapped the Fangtian Huaji and the Zhangba Serpent Spear in his hands, then drove his fist toward the Green Dragon Crescent Blade.

No skill.

Just a simple straight punch.

But the overwhelming stat gap made it nothing at all to shatter the Green Dragon Crescent Blade—symbol of Guan Yu—head-on.

KRA-CRACK!

The Green Dragon Crescent Blade broke like a reed stalk.

Su-ho didn’t stop there; he grabbed Guan Long by the head and, with raw strength, hoisted him up.

Then he smiled like the vilest villain in the world.

“Still kicking till the very end, huh.”

“Ah...”

“Ah...”

Lü Tian and Zhang Hui lost their minds.

Their everything—their horses and weapons—had all been destroyed.

Two of the three had even had their ears torn off, and even their final, go-for-broke strike, a headlong rush to die together, had been blocked like a children’s game.

Su-ho hurled the hoisted Guan Long straight into Lü Tian.

Then he strode up to the still-dazed Zhang Hui, grabbed his ear, and said,

“Can’t have you being the only intact one.”

RIP!

“Gyaaaaaaaah!!”

Su-ho amicably collected Zhang Hui’s ear as well and chucked it far away.

Then he spoke to Zhang Hui, who was clutching his ear and trembling in pain.

“I don’t know what’s supposed to be ‘Trident’ or ‘men of valor.’ When I think about my subordinates you killed, I want to crack your skulls open right here—but I’ll spare you, specially. And as long as you breathe, remember the ears torn from your heads and spend your lives resenting your own incompetence.”

With that, Su-ho stretched out his hand and used a skill.

[ Heatstorm is activated. ]

FWOOOOOSH!!

A searing blast of hot wind.

It blasted not only ear-torn Zhang Hui but also the knocked-back Lü Tian and Guan Long far, far away.

The three were swept up and blown off in disgrace.

Still, thanks to it, they could come to their senses.

“Get up...! Get it together...!”

Lü Tian, first to recover, hoisted Guan Long and Zhang Hui and withdrew from the Yalu.

Even so, he bit his lip as if he would chew it to pieces.

Blood ran from his untended ear.

But worse than that, blood-tears streamed from his eyes.

‘I will never... never forget today’s humiliation...!’

Watching Lü Tian, Su-ho grinned.

Good.

Never forget the mindset you have right now.

Resent me, and resent me again. Use your anger and hatred as fuel to grow stronger.

Only then will you be able to protect what you love and hold dear with your own hands.

Presently, another battalion-commander Lizardman nearby came up and asked,

“Tsrat, is it alright to just let them go like this?”

“It’s fine. Letting them live and leave like this means they won’t think of coming here again. It’s both a warning to China and a gift from me.”

“As expected of the Great King.”

“Gather the wounded together—I’ll treat them myself.”

“Tsrat! Yes, understood.”

Given his orders, the battalion commander began to rally the other Lizardmen.

In the meantime, Su-ho flicked his eyes toward somewhere.

Then an ordinary Lizardman who had been waiting nearby came up and offered something to Su-ho.

What the Lizardman handed him was Su-ho’s phone.

Taking his phone, Su-ho operated it and played a video from the album.

It was footage of himself fighting the Trident trio.

Su-ho smiled as he watched.

“Man, great image quality.”

The Lizardman in charge of filming was Su-ho’s clone-soldier.

Its appearance was that of a Lizardman because Su-ho had cast a transformation skill on it.

They’d filmed from the start.

Naturally, he’d done it because there was a plan.

When he first heard the news of the Trident’s incursion and crossed to the Yalu, Su-ho had mulled over a lot while on the Iron Horse.

The Trident he knew weren’t just SNS clout-chasers out for themselves—they were true madmen who projected themselves onto the archetype of heroes of valor.

And that concept continued into the late phase of the Great Upheaval; in reality, the Trident accomplished much not only in China but overseas as well.

So Su-ho had once called them “dage.”

Chinese with no sense who caused only trouble were “zhanggae” or cockroaches; Chinese with something worthy of respect who acted with righteousness were “dage.”

In that sense, the Trident were indeed dage.

So he’d wrestled with it a bit.

A few “dage” Players, the Trident included, would be far more helpful than the greed-soaked government forces of China.

Thus, he wanted this opportunity to make them grow even faster.

However, of all places, they had attacked the Yalu—his own country, where his own subordinates were stationed—so for the morale of his men, the Trident had to bleed.

Hence, the ears.

They were talents too good to kill here, and a simple slash or stab wouldn’t leave a deep enough impression on them.

He’d even disguised a clone-soldier and filmed for precisely that reason.

Su-ho intended to strip the audio from the video and pass it to Jo Jin-hwi to upload across every social network.

There were a few reasons. First, to protect them from Chinese Public Security.

The Yalu is an area both the CMC and the Paranormal Elite Forces have washed their hands of.

Even if the Trident didn’t care about the Chinese government’s eyes, if they caused an incident like this in a dangerous place the government had abandoned—and the monsters ran amok?

If China took damage, the Chinese government would never leave the Trident alone.

But if people saw them fighting to the bitter end against him—if their already-high popularity climbed even more—then they would naturally be protected by the public. 𝒇𝒓𝙚𝒆𝔀𝓮𝓫𝒏𝓸𝙫𝓮𝓵.𝓬𝙤𝙢

‘If the Chinese government cracks down on dage who fight without asking for anything in return, then no Player in China will ever again try to act with righteousness.’

The next reason was to prevent them from possibly going to ground.

Lü Tian had, without a doubt, ground his teeth and vowed to sleep on brushwood and taste gall. But who can say what will happen in human affairs?

No matter how much the Trident were severe cases who self-inserted into heroes of valor, if the fear of overwhelming strength were imprinted by this battle and they dropped the hero play entirely, that would be a problem in its own way.

Su-ho liked the Trident.

If possible, he wanted them to grow as strong as they could and, like him, fight Gates and the evils of society for humanity’s sake.

And finally, it was to create a legitimate pretext for him to stir up China from the inside.

‘You threw the first punch—so now it won’t be strange if I, alone, ransack the whole of China.’

He could already roam at will in his Lizardman disguise, but if he did that, his actions would stray far from what a normal monster would do.

Now that the Trident had attacked the Yalu first, there was a pretext—no one would find it strange if the Red Dragon King suddenly appeared in Beijing.

‘I’d been wanting to put my hands on ◆ Nоvеlіgһt ◆ (Only on Nоvеlіgһt) China in various ways anyway. Perfect.’

And why stop at China?

By means of this video, Su-ho planned to move beyond the Yalu, occupy several major rivers worldwide, and trim a few of the world’s major countries to his taste.

Not for personal gain, of course, but for the end of the Gates and the peace of humanity.

“Tsrat, Great King. We’ve gathered all the soldiers and finished triaging the wounded.”

“Good. Let’s go.”

Once the battalion-commander Lizardman reported, Su-ho pocketed his phone and began looking after his Lizardmen subordinates.

There were many wounded.

Truly the Trident.

For such a short time to cause this much damage.

Even so, for having taken losses, the subordinates’ mood wasn’t bad.

After all, in full view of everyone, he had torn off the Trident’s ears, broken their weapons, and, after beheading their horses, humiliated them and chased them off.

“We’ll begin treatment now.”

Su-ho personally began tending to the Lizardmen.

This was extremely important.

There is no commander more trusted than one who looks after his men.

After personally treating all the Lizardmen, Su-ho finally climbed the familiar hillside where he gave his speeches and shouted,

“Everyone, you’ve done well!”

“Tsrat!”

“It’s sad to have lost comrades to a sudden raid, but even so, we must move forward!”

“Tsrat!”

“So from this moment, we’ll begin the wrap-up for the hierarchy war!”

“Tsraaat!”

“All three warriors who took the final victory in the hierarchy war—step forward!”

At Su-ho’s call, the three battalion-commander Lizardmen—the final trio—began to approach him.