He pushed harder.
Third Form of the Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Saber.
Bone-Shattering Heaven-Rushing Strike.
Kwwaaaaang—!
A move where the entire weight of the trident was brought down vertically in a single strike.
Ddaeng—!
Beom-eum's alms bowl rang out long and deep.
It was not a short chime, but a prolonged one.
The lingering resonance of the bowl traveled through the trident's metal, resonating with the Internal Energy and amplifying the shockwave.
Sound Art Resonance.
A strike combining the original power of Bone-Shattering Heaven-Rushing Strike with the resonance of the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds.
Dong Bongsu's Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword rose horizontally to block it.
Fwoooosh—!
The shockwave spread outward, sweeping away everything within a twenty-zhang radius.
Five or six trees on the mountainside were uprooted and flung into the air.
The reddish-brown monk robes covering the field of corpses curled up like leaves, torn to shreds in mid-air, and the four nearest corpses disintegrated, torn to pieces and reduced to dust.
Rumble… The mountainside collapsed.
The very ground where the two stood could not bear the weight and began to slide down the slope.
Rocks, soil, corpses, and broken trees tangled together, cascading down like a landslide.
Dong Bongsu's feet sank half a foot into the ground, and he did not slip even on the crumbling earth.
The rock beneath his feet cracked like a spiderweb, the fissures extending all the way down the slope.
The cracks ran across the field of corpses to the wooded area at the foot of the mountain.
And then.
A strand of Spear Aura finally tore the hem of Dong Bongsu's robes at his waist.
Not his flesh, but his clothes.
But it had touched him.
Dong Bongsu's gaze shifted slightly.
Toward the torn hem.
Gakjin did not miss that single shift of his eyes.
He pushed harder.
He raised the trident high.
This time, he aimed for the crown of Dong Bongsu's head.
Pssh-!
But Dong Bongsu moved first.
He twisted his body to the side and stepped on the shaft of the descending trident.
With one foot.
Kwajak!
The trident was pinned to the ground, following the exact trajectory of its downward strike.
Dong Bongsu's entire weight and the Powerful Force pressed down on the hands gripping the shaft, making Gakjin's shoulder joints creak.
Stepping on it, Dong Bongsu vaulted right over Gakjin's head.
And he first shot a Super Spinning Sword Aura toward Beom-eum.
A bundle of rapidly spinning Aura, revealing itself after a long time.
Kwarururururu—!
The Aura that tore and distorted space left the sword's tip, extending in a straight line and piercing through the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds.
The Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds.
The space dominated by the sea of soundwaves was instantly shattered, fragmented, and scattered in all directions.
As the sea of sound broke into pieces, the mountain fell silent all at once.
That was not all.
The Spinning Sword Aura flew past Beom-eum and reached the ridge of the mountainside.
Kuuuung—!
The ridge split apart.
The rocky ridge forming the mountain's spine cracked wide open down the middle.
A fissure dozens of zhang long pierced the center of the ridge, and the rocks on both sides of the crack tumbled down the slope.
At the same time, the balance was lost, triggering a landslide.
Kwarururururu… In the midst of it all, the trident slipped from Gakjin's hands.
The shock just inflicted upon his wrist and shoulder had completely destroyed his Bones and Sinews.
"Haa, haa..."
The Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds was gone.
The twenty-year duet they thought was invincible had been shattered in a single move.
Still.
Could he stop?
He abandoned the trident and threw his body forward with bare hands.
No. They were not bare hands.
He gathered all his remaining Internal Energy into both fists.
'All' was an understatement.
He pushed beyond the limits his Meridians could bear, feeling his blood vessels burst and blood stream down the back of his hands.
He scraped the very bottom of his Dantian, Heart Meridian, and Spiritual Root to unleash his innate qi.
It didn't matter.
If he could kill that monster with this one move, he would gladly leap into the Buddha's embrace.
Goooooooooooh—.
He gathered all his Internal Energy in the center of his forehead.
His skin split, revealing bone, and blood gushed out, dyeing his vision red.
Both fists and his forehead.
Three points.
The three prongs of a trident.
Body-Shattering Three-Pronged Fork.
It was a move not found in the Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Saber art.
It was not written in any of the cult's scriptures.
It was a martial art created by Gakjin, one he had hoped never to use in his life…
After living with a trident for twenty years, he realized he could thrust even without it, that his body remembered the trajectory of the three prongs even without a shaft, and that he could pour all his life force into it…
It was a technique of Mutual Destruction.
Wuuung—!
All his Internal Energy condensed with his blood into his fists and forehead.
His knuckles began to separate, unable to withstand the pressure of the Internal Energy.
The joints of his fingers swelled rapidly, and under the skin of his forehead, hundreds, thousands of veins bulged and squirmed like worms.
Beyond his red vision, he saw Dong Bongsu's back.
The momentary opening as he landed after sending the Spinning Sword Aura toward Beom-eum.
Thud—!
The force of his kick shattered the rock Gakjin had been standing on.
Using the recoil, his eight-foot-tall body shot forward like a cannonball.
Both fists forward.
His forehead between them.
The three points formed a triangle, plunging toward Dong Bongsu's back.
There was no Aura, no move.
It was the trident itself, forged from bone, flesh, and blood.
'Gakhae, Beopjong. Wait for me for a moment by the Buddha's side.'
A jet-black Killing Intent formed at the three points.
He could feel his body breaking apart.
And yet, he grew faster.
At that moment.
Dong Bongsu turned around.
His right hand, holding the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, did not move.
His left hand rose.
Click.
Light gathered at the tip of his left hand.
[Faith Arrow].
Pssh—!
The first arrow was fired toward Gakjin's forehead.
Light and Internal Energy collided head-on.
The Aura gathered on his forehead melted away like a candle flame.
The skin on his skull burned, and smoke rose.
But Gakjin's body did not stop.
Only one of the three points had been extinguished.
Both fists continued to plunge toward Dong Bongsu.
In a flash.
Pssh—!
The second arrow burned his left fist.
Another instant.
Pssh—!
The third arrow burned his right hand.
All three points were extinguished.
The smoke rising from his forehead and both fists enveloped Gakjin's body, streaming behind him.
Still, Gakjin's body flew forward on inertia.
His bare flesh, devoid of Aura, his scorched bones, reached right before Dong Bongsu's nose.
Wuuung.
The Super True Qi Field rippled.
Localized Concentration.
Thwump—!
The eight-foot-tall body stopped in mid-air.
An invisible sea had swallowed Gakjin's body.
His ribs were pushed inward, and the Internal Energy he tried to expel through his Meridians dissolved and scattered into the air.
Crunch.
He was being crushed to death in mid-air.
Still, Gakjin's eyes were on Dong Bongsu.
Dong Bongsu raised his sword.
There was no special starting stance.
Only, his left hand moved once more.
Click.
A fourth Faith Arrow bloomed and overlaid itself on the blade of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
The Sacred Light rested upon the jet-black blade, becoming a single line of a sword.
On top of that, the density of the Super True Qi Field converged around the blade.
The entire hundred-pace field had been compressed onto that single line of a sword.
Sword Aura.
Sacred Light.
Super True Qi Field.
Three powers overlapped on a single sword.
Windless Sword Art.
Ssssh—.
There was no sound.
No wind blew.
The sword was only drawn horizontally once.
But that single move sliced the world.
Kuwaaaaaang—!
Gakjin's body was split horizontally at the waist.
Before blood could even burst forth, the sword's trajectory passed through Gakjin and extended behind him.
It didn't just extend.
The mountain ridge was severed.
From where Dong Bongsu stood, in the direction the sword was pointed, the mountainside slope was horizontally pierced.
The sword's trajectory cut through the ground, through rocks, through trees, and through the mountain's ridge, extending to the other side.
The upper part of the mountain was separating from the lower part.
Rrrrrrrumble—!
The severed upper part of the mountain slid.
Tens of thousands of catties of rock, soil, and trees were pushed aside at once, changing the shape of the mountain.
That was not all.
The sword's trajectory did not stop with one mountain.
Kwaang—!
The first ridge behind it was severed.
Kwaang—!
The second.
Kwaang—!
The third.
Kwaaaang—!
All the way to the ridge of the fourth mountain, it was sliced in a straight line.
The waists of a mountain range spanning several li had been severed in order.
Kuuuuuuung—!
The earth cried out.
The vibrations created by a single sword traveled through the mountain range, and flocks of birds in the distance soared into the sky at once.
The fog was instantly pushed away by the shockwave, and the morning sunlight illuminated the cross-sections of the severed ridges.
Four scars.
The four scars carved in a straight line on the mountain range stretched far into the distance.
The cross-sections were smooth.
As if tofu had been cut with a knife.
The dust slowly settled.
Gakjin's upper body hit the ground first.
No blood flowed from the severed surface.
The heat of the sword must have cauterized the blood vessels.
His lower body had collapsed separately, three steps behind.
Gakjin's eyes were still open.
At the edge of his blurring vision, he could see the severed mountain ridges.
One line.
Two lines.
Three lines.
Four lines.
The smooth cross-sections illuminated by the morning sun shone brown and gray.
'...Not human.'
The feeling in the hand he had stretched toward Beom-eum was fading.
His vision narrowed.
The light vanished.
Thud.
The sound of Dong Bongsu's footsteps passed by him.
His gaze did not linger there.
Click.
[Sudden Quest — Rakshasa of Slaughter]
[Progress: 1/2]
"..."
Just then, Yan Bilyeong and Myo Jinheo, who had finished off the Rakshasa Monks in the area, flew over.
Neither of them could close their mouths.
Four severed mountain ridges.
The smooth cross-sections revealed where the fog had cleared.
The inner flesh of the mountains illuminated by the morning sun.
That was.
"...Sect Leader."
The only thought was that it was not something a human could do.
Yan Bilyeong spoke first, her voice trembling slightly.
"Did you have some kind of grudge against those mountains?"
"Haha... It does look that way."
Myo Jinheo raised an eyebrow.
His gaze as he looked at the cross-sections of the ridges was strange.
A look that was half awe and half disbelief.
"If you were angry with the Unorthodox, you should have taken it out on them. Why vent your anger on the mountain range?"
But Dong Bongsu neither looked back at them nor answered.
He just kept his gaze fixed elsewhere.
The spot where Beom-eum had fallen.
"..."
Something was changing within Beom-eum's body.
The Super True Qi Field sensed it.
The very quality of the Qi inside him was changing.
It was not the Internal Energy of a Rakshasa Monk, nor the lingering resonance of the sound art, but something entirely different.
'I can't read it.'
And then.
Beom-eum was slowly getting up.
Light seeped out from under his monk's robes.
A soft, even light.
A light different from the morning sun, neither cold nor hot, a light that should not exist on this mountain.
Yan Bilyeong's mouth fell open on its own.
"...Wasn't it over?"
Dong Bongsu gripped his sword again.
"Looks like it's not over yet."