CHAPTER 11: [The curse land] - [Smell lost] - [Traitors in the night patrol?]

Gu-shisan couldn't use all his strength, as he needed to use a sword to fight to his full potential. After all, he had trained as a sword man, his muscles were shaped to wield a sword and his musculature proportion was one of a sword user.

Nevertheless, he had basic proficiency in hand-to-hand combat, he would have been greatly endangered if that was the only thing he had, but it wasn't all he had. Even if he didn't have any sword he was still a 5-star aura user, by combining them he had the combat power of a 4-star hand-to-hand aura user.

From the mana he could feel in his new opponent body he estimated him to be stronger from a margin compared to a normal night patrol soldier, he planned to swiftly kill him so that he could not support his injured comrade using one powerful hit. Gu-shisan dashed to his opponent and aimed to punch him in the abdomen, he concentrated his aura around his right fist and launched a punch that looked like a falling comet.

Gu-shisan's fist made contact with the soldier's blade, the soldier had shielded himself with his sword to protect himself from Gu-shisan's heavy hit. He went flying and broke through a tree before being crushed against a second tree and falling head first flat on the ground. A beast like sound could be heard resonating on the thick vegetation.

He then turned to face his first enemy, he still hadn't moved from his tree, and simply looked at him from above and saw a grin appear on his face. Gu-shisan could instantly feel something wasn't right and extended his *aura sense* around the area. He detected a flying sword aimed at his liver, but couldn't react in time and was stabbed.

The general looked back and witnessed the enemy he had thought to have just killed was alive and barely standing up by holding on to a tree. After fatally enduring Gu-shisan he vomited blood and fell down for a second and final time. Gu-shisan felt his strength leave his body, as the liver can be said to be the body's stamina reserve.

Gu-shisan fell on one knee while struggling to stand, he had just lost his advantage by committing the foolish error of underestimating his enemy strength and resilience. He felt even weaker than he normally would due to just using a strong punch using aura. He didn't know how to properly manage his mana distribution and impute when using fist techniques, so he had lost a lot more mana than he normally should have if he was using a sword.

He didn't have any healing skill or regeneration ability or pill to close his wound, so he knew he had to finish the confrontation sooner than planned. He knew that if the fight didn't end quickly, he would die of blood lost before defeating the enemy.

As a last struggle, he used all his remaining mana and created an aura blade around his right hand. He used his last portion of stamina to jump in the air, he swung his right hand and thrust it into the ground, creating a crater and producing a shock wave. The soldier lost his footing as he was expecting him to try to land a hit on him.

Gu-shisan knew he couldn't hit him in his state and had decided to do an area attack, so he could place his final strike. He succeeded in surprising his enemy, using all the energy he had left in him, he punched the soldier with an uppercut and sent him in the air. The soldier had reacted to his punch and had deflected his attack, however this time only a small part of Gu-shisan's strength was absorbed, and the sword exploded with its user.

Thanks to the flow of events, Gu-shisan had survived, and he now felt the weight of the world on his shoulders and fell into a coma. He suffered from blood loss as well as mana and stamina exhaustion cumulatively.

He thought about his life and after struggling internally, he stopped resisting and his breath slowed down until It couldn't be heard.

——{one day later}——

"Wh…what happened! Is this heaven? It looks quite similar to the mortal realm through" Gu-shisan had just woken up as a ray of sun shone in his eyes and was startled as he fought off having died before completing his life's dream.

After hearing Gu-shisan's exclamation, a doctor that heard him rushed in the tent to check on his condition and discovered the fact that he had woken up.

"Greetings general, it seems like you just woke up, how are you feeling? Does it still hurt or do you feel tired?" The doctor asked professionally.

A few minutes afterwards Gu-shisan was seated on his bead and beside him was another general.

"The lord sent me to put you up to date on the latest events and ask you to share what you know, so we can hope to find the culprit of the attack."

"Do tell me what happened."

"You were found by a group of night patrol soldiers and quickly brought to the infirmary, the soldiers also alerted the camp before going to meet with the lord. The lord who was already awake directly decided to go to the scene of the battle when he learned someone of your level was injured to this degree. He discovered the bodies of five of your group members and of 3 three over soldiers that were from the same group as two individuals that attacked the lord in his sleep. He also discovered that two of the soldiers that were not from your group were attacked and partially eaten by a beast, as well as one from your group. The rest of them were confirmed to have been killed using swords." The general took a breath and then proceeded to ask him questions about what had happened.

"What exactly happened to the last soldier of the night patrol group that seemingly attacked yours?" He asked Gu-shisan.

"The sword they were using seemed to absorb my attack and empower them, but the sword of the last soldier exploded after he deflected one of my punches, and his body was most likely reduced to nothingness in the process."

"We didn't find any of the attackers' swords on the scene. It is if they have neither existed, it is the same for the daggers of the ones that tried to assassinate the lord. Do you have any idea on the reason why?."

"I don't have a single clue apart from what I told you earlier, their sword absorbed my hits and my opponent got stronger as the confrontation lasted."

"I see, I will be reporting all that to the lord."

How much time has passed since the attack?" Then asked Gu-shisan warily.

"It's been one day and night, it's now morning and the army is preparing to continue heading to the temple of Aankh, we should arrive by tomorrow afternoon. We plan to set up camp a few hours away, and we will attack it after a good night's rest."

"It's good that we didn't lose any time and were able to continue on schedule, but were we able to learn anything else from the soldiers that led the attack on the lord?" Gu-shisan hopefully asked.

"Unfortunately they had poisoned themselves before attempting on his life, they died before the lord could get any information from them. You shouldn't talk about this with the lord, he seemed quite furious at the situation."

"I suspect the incident might have some relation with the being I saw at camp before we departed. Did the lord or any general explore this supposition?"

"Yes, of course we did try to investigate while exploring this possibility, but the result remained unchanged, we didn't find any clue on the culprit. The group of soldiers is most likely mind controlled into seeing us as enemies, but we still can exclude a rebellion of the soldiers."

"If your solution is to conduct searches in the soldiers' tent, you should know that only bad things could happen. Inspections will make them uneasy and may create revolts as they are already forced into joining the war, and now they will lose the last thing they had, privacy." Gu-shian warily warned the other general.

.

"We took that in consideration and decided to conduct the investigations covertly, while the soldiers are on duties elsewhere. I know what you tell me, we could create an even bigger commotion if we are discovered while doing the search. But think about it, what is the best option, the only difficulty is to stay out of sight and everything will work as expected." The general quickly added before Gu-shisan could voice his worries.

"Everything could go wrong with what you said, but let's say it won't. You will still need someone capable of infiltration to the highest level, and there are no such people in our army. The only one that could do it would be me, and I am in no condition to do so."

"That would indeed be true if the lord had not instructed me to deliver those high recovery pills. With those and a few days of rest, you should be able to resume your duty and conduct the investigation as instructed." The general happily said, almost sounding evil.

Gu-shisan felt chills run down his spine, but as he turned to the general he was faced with a wide and warm smile that seemed too big for it not to be exaggerated. The general had been jealous of all the treatment Gu-shisan had received before and after the incident, so he was more than happy to see him taking on more work load as he just healed from his injuries.

He had even strongly recommended using the second method to search for the soldiers' tent for the same reason. YIng-ba had personally set up Gu-shisan's training schedule before the appearance of the mysterious being and treated him favorably. He even gave him several high recovery pills, the general had tried everything in order for the Ying-ba to reconsider with no result. All he wished was for Gu-shisan to drop dead from the workload he was going to give him in the future.

On this note the general got up and after warmly wishing Gu-shisan a fast recovery he left the tent while keeping the same smile on his face. As he exited the tent, his smile turned into an evil grin.

TO BE CONTINUED…