Kwoooong-.
Jin Hagyeong felt a vibration coming from under his feet.
A tremor that crawled up from the soles of his feet to his calves.
The ground was not sha
king.
Something rising from below the mountain was pounding the entire ridge.
And the dreadful sound of chanting, like clashing metal.
Fog still shrouded the mountainside, so he couldn't see below, but the sound alone allowed him to gauge the battlefield.
The Demonic Soldiers of the Dark Rakshasa Way must have swarmed in by the hundreds, perhaps even over a thousand.
And that wasn't all.
'The Twelve Rakshasas must have come as well...'
Jin Hagyeong's gaze turned toward the ridge below.
He did not turn his head, even as he felt his empty left sleeve flutter in the morning breeze.
The shoulder where his arm should have been felt cold.
It probably wasn't just because of the morning air.
Na―mu―a―mi―ta―bul―.
Na―mu―a―mi―ta―bul―.
The two-layered chanting relentlessly pounded his hearing and his Dantian.
When he first came up, it had definitely been a single layer.
That heavy resonance, where hundreds of voices overlapped as one, had been there for a while.
But now, another layer was laid on top of it.
If the first was hundreds of voices, the one added on top was a single voice.
Though it was just one, he could feel it overwhelming the hundreds, flowing clearly in one direction.
Kurururururu-.
For that reason, the entire mountain was trembling.
The wooden poles of the tent where the injured lay rattled, and the pebbles on the rocky ground shifted slightly.
"Great Hero."
Jeon Rahwa approached.
Her eyes were narrowed as if trying to pierce through the fog.
"We have to go down now."
Jin Hagyeong did not answer.
The one fighting below was the Sect Leader of the Hero's Sect, and beside him were two incredibly strong Formation Masters.
Nothing would change just because someone like him went down.
After all, there was nothing he, who had lost an arm, could do on that battlefield.
However, there was something he could do here.
Jin Hagyeong's gaze swept over the temporary camp in front of Colorful Lake.
Most of them were injured.
How many could even hold a sword?
Hoae stood blocking Seok Gyeong's path.
Seok Gyeong's hand trembled on his sword hilt, but he did not let go.
Kugugugu-.
The vibration grew even more intense.
One of the two layers of chanting suddenly stopped.
The sound of hundreds had vanished.
All that remained was a single one.
But still, that single chant was shaking the entire mountain.
A vibration that resonated not under his feet, but through his entire body.
A few of the injured raised their heads.
It was a tremor felt even by those who couldn't get up due to their injuries.
One of the defeated soldiers stood up, using a broken sword for support.
Another one next to him.
And one more.
Watching them silently, Jin Hagyeong clenched his jaw so hard it felt like his molars would break, and spat out his words.
"All who can hold a sword hilt, rise."
We must fight with these already broken bodies.
We must fight even if we turn to dust.
When heroes are fighting like that, shouldn't we at least add our dust to the cause?
Sreung-.
He drew his sword with his remaining hand.
● ● ●
Kwo-gwang!
The trident slammed down.
A boulder shattered, sending fragments flying in all directions.
Gakjin crushed the impact of his landing with both feet and lowered his gaze.
Crimson monk robes.
Amidst the crimson-robed corpses covering the mountainside, two decapitated bodies lay side by side.
Gakhae and Beopjong.
And.
Gakhae's Crescent Moon Saber, shattered into pieces not even half a handspan long, lay scattered beside him.
The broken hilt was still in his hand, not yet cold.
He hadn't let go even in death.
Beopjong's body bore an inexplicable wound.
A traceless slash, as if a sword had sprung from empty air.
A mark suggesting the blade's angle of entry was not from outside to inside, but seemed to have opened up from inside to outside.
'What kind of technique is this?'
The veins on the hand gripping the trident bulged.
They had walked together for twenty years.
He and Gakhae had entered the Rakshasa Monk Corps on the same day, and Beopjong was the youngest member whom Gakhae had cherished the most.
Moreover, wasn't he a child not yet fifteen?
The boiling rage soon subsided.
All that remained in its place was Killing Intent.
The chanting resounded from behind.
It was Beom-eum's.
That single person's chant was vibrating the entire mountain, clashing head-on with Dong Bongsu's invisible energy.
And along with the chant.
Tteng—.
A clear metallic sound echoed across the mountainside.
It was a bronze alms bowl.
The alms bowl that Beom-eum held on his left palm.
The fingertips of his right hand struck the rim of the bowl, and the lingering resonance from that single strike overlapped with the low tones of the chant, creating a harmony.
If the chant was the melody, the alms bowl was the beat.
When the melody and beat overlapped, a sea of sound spread around Beom-eum.
The Brahmā's Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds.
As the bowl's resonance rode the melody of the chant and spread out, everything within the sound's reach became Beom-eum's.
The vibration of the rocks, the trembling of the leaves, even the ripples of blood pooled on the corpses.
Ten thousand sounds were submerged in a single sea.
The Brahmā's Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds swallowed the mountainside.
Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field and Beom-eum's Brahmā's Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds were clashing head-on for control of this mountain.
In any case, because of that, the enemy, Dong Bongsu, had stopped in his tracks.
Good.
Since Beom-eum had spread his Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds, he just had to fight within it.
The synergy they had built over twenty years.
Gakjin's trident was pulled from the ground.
"Benefactor. How can you commit such a cruel act without hesitation? How could you use such a vicious killing move on a child so young?"
Dong Bongsu's white teeth were revealed.
"He had to die for blocking my path."
A vein like a caterpillar popped out on Gakjin's temple.
"Is that so? Then you, Benefactor, must also go to meet the Buddha. For you have blocked the path of us two."
A charge.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
With every step the eight-foot-tall figure took, the ground cracked open.
A strength and Internal Energy that wouldn't budge even if three Peak Masters pushed against it, carved a giant's footprint into the ground with every step.
Tteng—.
As if in support, Beom-eum's alms bowl rang a second time.
In tune with its resonance, the pressure of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds thickened by another layer.
The surface of the invisible barrier surrounding Dong Bongsu, the one that made the air as heavy as water, trembled minutely.
The waves of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds were interfering with the density of the Super True Qi Field.
'Now.'
Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Saber, Second Form.
Demon-Rending Slash.
Pwaat!
The trident thrust horizontally at waist level.
The moment Spear Aura was imbued into the three prongs, the air around the trident tore, and three streams of aura advanced, twisting around the three tips as if tying a knot.
With the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds laid out, the density of the Spear Aura was also doubled.
Beom-eum's chant was supporting it.
The three streams of Spear Aura from the trident fed on the melody of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds and grew thicker.
An aura that grew by feeding on sound as nourishment.
Chaeng!
Dong Bongsu's sword blocked it.
The Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
The pitch-black blade met the three prongs of the trident head-on.
Sparks flew.
The shock traveled up the trident's shaft in a straight line, from his wrist to his forearm, and all the way to his shoulder joint.
One clash.
With this single exchange, Gakjin could tell.
The power in Dong Bongsu's sword was not at a level to receive the three streams of Spear Aura head-on.
He had merely deflected it.
He had shifted the trident's trajectory by less than half an inch, diverting the direction of the force itself.
The vibration that traveled up the shaft was proof.
The fact that the shock returned in full meant the opponent hadn't taken the force.
'...To think he can deflect Aura.'
However.
It didn't matter whether he deflected the Aura or did whatever else.
The trident would return with every clash.
And the trident's Aura, struck within the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds, would grow heavier and more intense with each clash.
Gakjin spun the shaft, bringing the opposite blade to bear.
Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Saber, First Form.
Demon-Subduing Horizontal Slash.
Kaaang!
The centrifugal force from the trident's spin concentrated on the right prong, sweeping the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword upward.
The tip of the prong grazed Dong Bongsu's left shoulder.
Just from that graze, Dong Bongsu's body was pushed back half a handspan.
No. The expression 'pushed back' wasn't right.
The marks his two feet carved into the ground were not half a handspan, but two Zhang.
What the rock-like muscles bulging beneath the crimson robes had sent through the trident was not technique, but a pure mass of Aura.
Along the trajectory where Dong Bongsu was pushed back, grinding the ground with the soles of his feet, the rock split as if it had been plowed.
Tteng—.
Beom-eum's alms bowl rang once again.
The beat was quickening.
The tune of the chant leading the melody rose by a half-step, and the waves of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds grew sharper.
Chaeng!
This time, it wasn't a thrust, but a hook.
The two outer prongs of the trident caught the blade of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
The moment the blade was caught between the prongs, he twisted the shaft, forcibly bending the sword's trajectory.
Ujijik!
Not the ground under Dong Bongsu's feet, but the entire ground between them split for a length of ten-odd Zhang along the slope.
The force from the Spear Aura and the sword's aura, twisting together, had been discharged into the ground.
From both sides of the fissure, rocks surged up and then crumbled.
The fragments scattered in all directions like exploding fire bombs, tearing the robes of the surrounding corpses.
Whether one should call it natural or expected.
The enemy retreated abruptly.
'It's working.'
Tteng.
Tteng.
Tteng-tteng-tteng.
Beom-eum's alms bowl rang in a rapid succession.
From a slow three-beat to a fast five-beat.
The moment the beat changed, the density of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds fluctuated.
The waves interfered with Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field, and moments where the barrier's density thinned came and went repeatedly.
The ebb and flow of the tide.
If he thrust the trident into that thinning instant, the weight of each clash increased by more than ten thousand jin.
Beom-eum created the tide of the Super True Qi Field with his beat, and Gakjin pierced the gaps in the tide with his trident.
An ensemble built over twenty years.
Kakang!
The trident slid across the sword's blade, clashing three consecutive times.
On the third contact, the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword vibrated and trembled on its blade for the first time.
'It went through.'