Chapter 15: Ambition

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This was originally a method used by people in ancient times to capture wild beasts. Primitive though it was, it was highly effective.

Koster discovered that he had been bound with an iron chain. He immediately raised his sword and hacked at the chain around his hands. With a clang, sparks flew in every direction, yet the long sword in his hand could not sever it.

“Save your strength. If the Monster-Binding Chain I paid four thousand dragon coins for could be cut apart so easily, wouldn’t those four thousand dragon coins have gone to waste?”

Su Mu gave a mocking chuckle, raised his rusty woodcutting cleaver, and charged at Koster.

[Lord Su Mu dealt 3,000 damage to the Level 4 Platinum Vampire. Su Mu gained 3,000 experience.]

[Lord Su Mu dealt 5,000 damage to the Level 4 Platinum Vampire. Su Mu gained 5,000 experience.]

[Lord Su Mu dealt 8,000 damage to the Level 4 Platinum Vampire. Su Mu gained 8,000 experience.]

Having lost his advantage in speed, Koster was nothing more than meat on a chopping block before Su Mu.

After only a few exchanges, the long sword in his hand was sent flying by Su Mu’s cleaver. Now, all he could do was passively endure the beating.

He could not flee, either. The two of them were connected by the chain, and no matter how fast he moved, Su Mu could simply appear behind him and slash him.

“Shameless!”

“You’re the most shameless human I’ve ever met!”

Koster cursed furiously.

Su Mu paid him no heed and continued his pursuit.

[Lord Su Mu dealt 10,000 damage to the Level 4 Platinum Vampire. Su Mu gained 10,000 experience.]

[Lord Su Mu dealt 13,000 damage to the Level 4 Platinum Vampire. Su Mu gained 13,000 experience.]

To Su Mu, nothing mattered more than staying alive.

“The first law of the Dark World.”

“Mercy toward one’s enemies is cruelty toward oneself.”

Su Mu had etched those words into his heart.

“Though this vampire has gained sentience, he is still a vampire—and therefore Su Mu’s enemy.”

“So die!”

Su Mu swung with all his strength for the final strike. With a thunderous boom, his woodcutting cleaver slammed into the crown of Koster’s head, and a line of blood trickled down the blade.

Koster looked somewhat astonished, as though he could not believe that he had been killed so easily. But war was cruel by nature, and death was the punctuation mark that brought everything to an end.

With his final glance, Koster looked toward the battle raging in the sky. Of his four wives, two had already fallen in battle. Under his gaze, another wife was slain by that terrifying skeleton warrior.

Now, only Aisli remained, still fighting desperately amid the bloodshed.

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“Human, let us die together!”

Koster’s eyes were filled with madness. Without hesitation, he crushed the vampire core within his heart. The act would trigger an explosion with a radius of three thousand meters, killing every creature below the Diamond level.

Everything would end tonight—this detestable human, along with his two loathsome war pets.

“Absolute Defense!”

The moment Koster made his move, Su Mu realized that something was terribly wrong. He immediately activated the Absolute Defense function of the Sacred Shield.

Boom!

A sheet of white light engulfed the entire City Lord’s Estate. Every building was destroyed in an instant. The only two structures remaining in the estate, including the stretch of low city wall, were reduced to dust.

With the sole exception of the female vampire named Aisli, who transformed into a blood-red bat and fled at the very beginning of the explosion, every other vampire was killed in the blast, friend and foe alike.

Su Mu, Little Divine Dragon, and Blade Slash were also swallowed by the white light.

Fortunately, Su Mu had already activated Absolute Defense. A pale-blue barrier blossomed from the shield, protecting all three of them.

When the white light faded, Su Mu and his companions stood unharmed. Koster and his entire vampire clan, however, had vanished without a trace.

The night was as black as ink, the blood moon hung high overhead, and the wind was cold as a blade.

Su Mu had once again won the battle, but unlike the previous two times, he felt no wild exhilaration.

Weariness.

On his very first day in the Dark World, Su Mu had already become deeply weary.

He was weary of that boundless darkness, and weary of the ceaseless slaughter.

But there was nothing he could do. Humanity’s war against the Dark World had continued for centuries. As a human, so long as he still drew breath, he had to fight the Dark World to the very end.

That was the oath every human swore upon becoming a lord. It was also the conviction that had guided Su Mu when he became a lord.

“Eradicate all darkness and bring light back to the human world!”

Su Mu shouted the oath he had once made, strengthening his own resolve.

Su Mu had come to this Dark World not only for the great and noble ideal of liberating all humanity and bringing light to humankind.

He also had two primary objectives.

The first, of course, was to become the greatest lord in the world. That was the goal pursued by every lord.

The other, however, concerned a secret buried deep within Su Mu’s heart.

At the thought of it, Su Mu’s heart suddenly throbbed with pain.

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“Su Mu, son of a traitor! Your parents were traitors to humanity. Why are you still alive?”

“Your parents were once humanity’s greatest lords. They were on the verge of reaching Level Eleven, yet they betrayed humanity at the most critical moment. They are nothing less than a disgrace to the human race.”

“You useless wretch who will forever remain at Level One—why are you still alive? Why don’t you descend into the Dark Abyss together with your traitorous parents?”

…

It was as if he could hear those razor-sharp voices of ridicule once more. Su Mu’s head began to throb and buzz. Those voices had accompanied him for eighteen years.

From the age of three until this year, when he had turned twenty-one, they had filled every corner of his life without pause.

“My parents are not traitors!”

Su Mu roared those words into the boundless darkness.

The reason was that Raymond, the Saint Seat of Ten Thousand Tribulations of the Dragon Kingdom, had personally told him so.

“Your parents cannot be traitors. Anyone else might be, but not them.”

“Your parents fell into the abyss during the Battle of the Dark Abyss, causing an entire legion to be destroyed. But that alone does not mean they were traitors.”

“This incident was manipulated by people with ulterior motives… I will uncover the truth.”

It had been a night of pouring rain when Raymond had personally told Su Mu those words.

Su Mu would never forget that towering figure, nor the mottled white hair at the general’s temples.

Raymond, one of the four Saint Seats of the Military Command, was certainly not a man who spoke carelessly. If he said Su Mu’s parents were not traitors, then they were not traitors.

Besides, Su Mu himself had never believed that his parents could be traitors. From childhood, they had taught him to live uprightly, to become a powerful lord, and to spread light throughout the world.

How could people like that possibly be traitors?

“Which bastard has been slandering my parents? Just let me uncover the mastermind. I’ll cut off his head and kick it around like a ball!”

Su Mu roared those words into the darkness once more.

Only in the Dark World did he dare to voice his innermost thoughts so boldly. Had he said such things in the human world, all he would have received in return was endless ridicule.

“But I’m still too weak!”

After venting his emotions, Su Mu’s spirits sank again. Whoever had arranged for this matter to become known throughout the world had to be some major figure within the Military Command.

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