Return of the Sword God-Rank Civil Servant novel Chapter 388

His real name was Xiang Ji, but the more famous naming was Xiang Yu.

And, astonishingly, the man before his eyes was named Xiang Yu outright.

Su-ho opened his Player Board to check Xiang Yu’s China ranking.

But to his surprise, Xiang Yu wasn’t registered on the Player Board.

It made sense.

Xiang Yu had been born and raised in the boonies—backwoods among backwoods—and right after the Great Upheaval his village was razed, leaving him the sole survivor.

Naturally he received no government relief; like everyone else, he clawed and fought desperately to survive alone.

The current Xiang Yu had been forged that way.

‘Xiang Yu only really started making a name for himself around mid-Upheaval... pretty sure it was when he slaughtered all the Orcs in Xuzhou by himself and then walked to Beijing.’

His level was likely over 200 by now.

Otherwise, it made no sense for him to endure hellish Xuzhou alone.

Seated on the Cheolma, Su-ho watched Xiang Yu for a while.

“Kahahahahaha!!”

Kang! Kang! Kang!

Xiang Yu’s spear-work was vicious.

The spear in his hands was the “Chojin Spear,” a weapon as famous as the “Chojin Sword,” the blade he primarily used.

But the Xiang Yu before him was only using the Chojin Spear.

Because, against Xuzhou’s Orcs, he judged there was no need to draw the Chojin Sword.

Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang!

Truly, power to heave mountains and a spirit to overshadow the world.

He ◈ Nоvеlіgһт ◈ (Continue reading) was merely swinging and battering with a spear, yet the force felt like hammer blows.

The Orcs died helplessly; all they could do in the meantime was employ human-wave tactics backed by their boundless fecundity.

They weren’t entirely mindless, and sometimes launched long-range attacks, but each time Xiang Yu swept the Chojin Spear to block them all.

After watching for quite a while, Su-ho nodded in satisfaction.

‘That’s plenty.’

Judgment made, Su-ho leapt down from the Cheolma.

Then, drawing a Blood Sword from the Blood Armory, he landed softly.

“Grng?”

“Krrk?”

“Grrk?”

He touched down in the very center of the raging battlefield.

Naturally, Xiang Yu’s and countless Orcs’ attention snapped to him.

“Hello?”

“Krarrararara!!”

A polite greeting, but the Orcs didn’t welcome him.

Of course they didn’t.

Su-ho lightly shook his head, turned his body in an easy spin, and swung his blade.

[ Cloud Severance activates. ]

Seureuk!

One revolving cut.

Cloud Severance scattered forth, slicing everything in all directions.

Pukwaaak!

Blood geysered.

Everything within the reach of Cloud Severance was cleaved in two.

Ah—one survived.

Xiang Yu.

“W-what is this...?”

But Xiang Yu didn’t look good, either.

He had raised one of his prized weapons, the Chojin Spear, to block Su-ho’s Cloud Severance.

No—to try to block it.

But the overwhelming stat gap cut through the famed Chojin Spear and through Xiang Yu’s body as well.

Even so, thanks to the Chojin Spear, he narrowly avoided being bisected like the Orcs.

Resting his blade on his shoulder, Su-ho looked at Xiang Yu.

“You lived through that. Xiang Yu is Xiang Yu, after all.”

“Who... who are you...!”

“Ahn Su-ho.”

“What?”

“If you won’t know me even if I tell you, why ask?”

Answer given, Su-ho raised his blade again and swung.

Reflexively, Xiang Yu lifted the broken spear to parry, but it was meaningless resistance.

Seogeok!

This time, Xiang Yu’s body truly split in two, and death claimed him.

For someone hailed as the greatest, strongest Player in Chinese history, it was a remarkably empty end.

It couldn’t be helped.

Su-ho had come here to kill Xiang Yu in the first place.

More precisely, to use the Rune of Transmission.

Because the Rune of Transmission could steal one technique from a human Player—and one of its conditions was that the target had to die.

With that in mind, what Su-ho meant to take from Xiang Yu was none other than his “spearmanship.”

The reason was simple.

At present, the person across all of humanity’s Players with the highest-level spearmanship was China’s Xiang Yu.

‘There are other spear-fighters known for spearmanship...’

But right now, no one’s form was as good as Xiang Yu’s.

Granted, that was by current standards, and to Su-ho—who came from the future—many parts were lacking.

He’d watched those whose martial attainments had reached their zenith in the extreme late phase of the Upheaval.

‘Compared to then, everyone’s weapon arts now are cute.’

Even so, what to do?

Among spear skills collectible right now, the absolute top class stood before him.

He felt little guilt.

If Xiang Yu were a decent guy like the Trident Trio, maybe—but the man’s personality was trashier than expected... no, in his previous life Xiang Yu was so bad he’d have been better off dying early.

Its name: Hegemon Spear Art.

Named for the spearmanship Xiang Yu practiced.

With Hegemon Spear Art secured, Su-ho immediately used the Rune of Transmission.

[ You use the Rune of Transmission. ]

[ All Streams Return activates. ]

[ Congratulations! You have mastered Hegemon Spear Art (S). ]

[ You have mastered two or more S-rank weapon arts. ]

[ You have achieved a remarkable feat; the System gifts you 5 bonus stat points. ]

Su-ho smiled at the notifications.

Ordinarily, walking the path of the swordsman would make learning other martial skills impossible, but thanks to the secret art he’d obtained in the Library of Martiality, [All Streams Return], full mastery became possible.

The 5 bonus stat points were a freebie from the process.

‘Finally got the Hegemon Spear Art.’

In his past life, having walked only the path of the sword, Su-ho increasingly felt regret about the many skills he lacked as the Upheaval wore on.

The biggest category of regret was martial arts—more than once he’d thought that, with Xiang Yu’s Hegemon Spear Art, certain situations could have been handled more easily... no, trivially.

‘Not just Hegemon Spear Art—others too.’

That was why Su-ho envied the Martial King, Gu Taek-su.

If he’d only had [All Streams Return], he might even have subdued the comrades who stabbed him in the back.

He checked the hard-won details of Hegemon Spear Art.

[ Hegemon Spear Art ]

— Rank: S

# The spearmanship of Xiang Yu, the historical general called the Hegemon of Western Chu, one who stands alone among ten thousand, and one whose strength heaves mountains and whose spirit overshadows the world.

# Only those who possess the Xiang Yu trait can use it.

# Specializes in offense rather than defense, with a particular focus on destruction.

Reading the info, Su-ho grinned with a thrill.

The essence of swordsmanship is cuts and thrusts.

It’s the same for spearmanship.

The difference is that the sword is specialized for cutting rather than thrusting, while the spear is specialized for thrusting rather than cutting.

That’s unavoidable given the weapons’ structures.

‘Which is why all my sword skills are cut-centric.’

But now that he had a spear skill, he could shore up the relative lack he’d felt in thrusting.

More precisely, he could look forward to it.

When Su-ho’s Guardian Sword transcended the human realm, techniques became skill-ified; with Hegemon Spear Art in hand now, he could hope for his thrusts to be more than mere thrusts—to be skill-ified.

‘Of course, to reach that stage there’s still one more task left...’

Half of starting is done: he’d satisfied one of two conditions; now he just needed to fulfill the other.

And Su-ho already knew how to handle that remaining condition.

‘Good. With Hegemon Spear Art in hand, it’s about time to...’

With Hegemon Spear Art secured, it was time to step to the next stage.

Just then—

[ ■■ takes an interest in you. ]