Chapter 231
Chapter 231: Silence (2)
He presses forward harder.
Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Blade, Third Form.
Bone-Shattering Ascension.
Crash—!
A single-blade converging strike that loaded the full weight of the trident vertically.
Clang—!
Beom-eum's alms bowl rang out long. Not a single strike but a sustained note. The alms bowl's resonance traveled along the trident's metal, resonating with internal energy and amplifying the shockwave.
Sound Arts Resonance.
A strike combining the original power of Bone-Shattering Ascension with the resonance of the Ten Thousand Sound Sea.
Dong Bong-soo's Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword rose horizontally to block.
Boom—!
The shockwave spread outward and swept away everything within a twenty-jang radius. Five or six trees on the mountain slope were uprooted and flew into the air. The reddish-brown monk's robes blanketing the field of corpses curled up like leaves and were torn apart mid-air, scattering in all directions, and the four nearest corpses couldn't hold their forms, being shredded to pieces and pulverized.
Rumble……
The mountain slope collapsed.
The very ground on which the two stood could no longer bear the weight and began sliding down the slope. Rocks and earth and corpses and broken trees tangled together and poured down like a landslide.
Dong Bong-soo's two feet sank half a cheok into the ground, and he didn't slide even on the collapsing earth. The rock beneath his feet cracked like a spiderweb, the fractures extending all the way down the slope. Those fractures crossed the field of corpses and ran all the way to the tree line at the mountain's foot.
And then.
One strand of Spear Rigidity finally tore the hem of Dong Bong-soo's clothing at his waist.
Not flesh. Clothing.
But it had touched him.
Dong Bong-soo's gaze shifted ever so slightly. Toward the torn hem.
Gak-jin didn't miss that single line of shifting gaze.
He presses forward harder.
He raised the trident high. This time, the target was the crown of the head.
Whoosh—!
But Dong Bong-soo moved first. He twisted his body sideways and stepped down onto the shaft of the descending trident. With one foot.
Crack!
The trident was nailed into the ground along the very trajectory it had been driving downward. Dong Bong-soo's weight and force energy landed squarely onto the two hands gripping the shaft, and the shoulder joints let out a grinding crunch.
Stepping on it, Dong Bong-soo immediately vaulted over Gak-jin's head.
And he first fired the Ultra Rotation Sword Rigidity toward Beom-eum's side.
The bundle of rigid energy rotating at ultra-high speed, making its appearance for the first time in a while.
Shrieeeeeee—!
The rigid energy that shredded and warped space left the sword's tip and extended in a straight line, piercing through the Ten Thousand Sound Sea.
The Ten Thousand Sound Sea. The space that the sea of sound waves had dominated shattered all at once, fragmenting and scattering in all directions. The sea of sound broke apart and dispersed, and the mountain fell silent all at once.
That was not all.
The Rotation Sword Rigidity flew past Beom-eum and all the way to the ridge of the mountain slope.
Boom—!
The ridge split. The rocky ridge forming the mountain's spine cracked open right down the center. A hole tens of jang in length pierced straight through the middle of the mountain ridge, and the rocks on both sides of the fissure poured down the outer slope. At the same time, balance was lost and a landslide broke out as well.
Rumble……
In the midst of all that, the trident was released from Gak-jin's hands. The impact that had just been dealt to his wrist and shoulder had completely destroyed his muscles and bones.
"Hah, hah……"
The Ten Thousand Sound Sea was gone too. The twenty years of combined performance they had believed to be absolutely invincible had been shattered uselessly in a single move.
Even so.
Could he stop?
He abandoned the trident and launched himself barehanded.
No.
Not barehanded.
He gathered every last bit of remaining internal energy into both fists. The word "every last bit" wasn't enough. Beyond the limits his meridians could bear, he could feel blood vessels bursting, blood seeping out and spreading across the backs of his hands. He scraped the very bottom of his Dantian, Heart Meridian, and Spirit Roots, detonating his innate energy in an explosion.
It doesn't matter. If this one move is enough to kill that monster, I will gladly leap into the Buddha's embrace.
Hummmmmmm—
He concentrated all his internal energy into the single point at the center of his forehead. Skin split, bone was exposed, and blood welled up, staining his vision red.
Both fists and forehead.
Three points.
Three prongs of the trident.
Body-Shattering Triple Tines.
It was a technique not found in the Rakshasa Dharma-Protecting Blade. Something written in none of the cult's scriptures.
A technique Gak-jin had devised himself, one he had hoped he would never need to use in his lifetime……Twenty years of living together with the trident had led him to realize that he could thrust even without a trident, that the body remembered the trajectories of three prongs even without a shaft, and that he could pour all of his life force into them—a martial art born from that realization……It was a Mutual Destruction method.
Hmmm—!
All his internal energy condensed into both fists and his forehead along with his blood. The bone joints began to split, unable to bear the pressure of the internal energy. The finger joints swelled rapidly, and beneath the skin of his forehead, blood vessels surged like hundreds and thousands of earthworms writhing.
Beyond the red-stained vision, Dong Bong-soo's back came into view.
That fleeting gap—the instant of him firing the Rotation Sword Rigidity toward Beom-eum's side and landing.
Thud—!
The rock on which Gak-jin had been standing shattered to pieces from the force of his kick-off.
Using that recoil, the eight-cheok giant flew like a cannonball.
Both fists forward. Forehead between them. Three points forming a triangle, driving toward Dong Bong-soo's back.
There was no rigid energy, no technique. Forged from bone and flesh and blood—the trident itself.
'Gak-hae, Beop-jong. Wait just a moment at the Buddha's side.'
A jet-black killing intent gathered at the three points. He could feel his body breaking apart. Even as he felt it, he grew faster.
At that moment.
Dong Bong-soo looked back.
The right hand gripping the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword didn't move. The left hand rose.
Click.
Light gathered at the tip of his left hand.
[Faith Arrow].
Bang—!
The first arrow was fired toward Gak-jin's forehead.
Light and internal energy collided head-on. The rigid energy that had gathered at his forehead melted and vanished like a candle flame. The skin atop his skull burned and smoke rose.
But Gak-jin's body didn't stop. Only one of the three points had been extinguished. Both fists kept driving into Dong Bong-soo.
In the blink of an eye.
Bang—!
The second arrow burned the left fist.
Again, in an instant.
Bang—!
The third arrow burned the right hand.
All three points were extinguished. Smoke rising from his forehead and both fists trailed behind Gak-jin's body as it flowed backward.
But Gak-jin's body was still flying forward on momentum.
The bare flesh that had lost its rigid energy, the burned bone, reached right up to Dong Bong-soo's nose.
Hmmm.
The Super True Energy Field rippled.
Localized Maximization.
Thwump—!
The eight-cheok giant stopped mid-air. An invisible sea had swallowed Gak-jin's body. His ribcage was pushed inward, and the internal energy that had tried to surge outward through his meridians melted and dispersed into the air.
Crunch.
He was being crushed to death mid-air.
Even so, Gak-jin's eyes were still fixed on Dong Bong-soo.
Dong Bong-soo raised his sword.
There was no special ready stance. Only the left hand moved once more.
Click.
The fourth Faith Arrow bloomed and was layered over the blade of the Demon-Expelling Annihilation Wheel Sword. Holy Light was placed atop the jet-black blade, becoming a single line of sword.
Atop that, the density of the Super True Energy Field converged around the blade's edge. Every bit of the hundred-pace field was compressed onto that single line of blade.
Sword Rigidity.
Holy Light.
Super True Energy Field.
Three powers layered upon a single sword.
Windless Sword Technique.
Sss—
There was no sound.
No wind blew.
The sword was simply drawn once horizontally.
That single move cut the world.
Roaaaar—!
Gak-jin's body was split horizontally at waist height. Before the blood could even burst, the sword's trajectory passed through Gak-jin and extended out behind him.
Extended was an understatement.
The mountain ridge was cut.
From the point where Dong Bong-soo stood, in the direction the sword had faced, the slope at the mountain's midpoint was pierced through horizontally. The sword's trajectory cleaved the earth, cleaved the rocks, cleaved the trees, cleaved the mountain's ridge, and extended out behind.
The upper portion of the mountain separating from the lower.
Rumble—!
The severed upper portion of the mountain slid. Tens of thousands of geun of rock and earth and trees were pushed sideways all at once and the mountain's shape changed.
That was not all.
The sword's trajectory didn't stop at a single mountain.
Bang—!
The first ridge behind it was cut.
Bang—!
The second.
Bang—!
The third.
Crash—!
All the way to the ridge of the fourth mountain, a straight line split through. The waist of a mountain range spanning several li was severed in sequence.
Boooom—!
The earth cried out. The vibration created by a single sword traveled through the mountain range, and a distant flock of birds shot into the sky all at once. The mist was pushed away by the shockwave and cleared in an instant, and the morning sunlight lit up the cross-sections of the severed ridges.
Four lines of wounds.
Four lines of wounds carved in a straight line across the mountain range, stretching far into the distance. The cross-sections were smooth. As if tofu had been cut with a knife.
The dust slowly clearing.
Gak-jin's upper half touched the ground first.
No blood flowed from the severed cross-section. The heat of the sword must have seared the blood vessels shut. His lower half had fallen separately, three steps behind.
Gak-jin's eyes were still open.
At the edge of his fading vision, the severed ridges were visible. One line. Two lines. Three lines. Four lines. The smooth cross-sections lit by the morning sunlight shone in shades of brown and grey.
'……He is not human.'
The sensation in the hand that had reached toward Beom-eum was disappearing.
His vision narrowed.
The light vanished.
Crunch.
The sound of Dong Bong-soo's footsteps passed by his side.
His gaze did not linger there.
Click.
[Sudden Quest—Rakshasas of Slaughter]
[Progress: 1/2]
"……"
At that moment, Eom Bi-ryeong and Myo Jin-heo, who had finished off the Rakshasa monks in the area, came flying over.
Neither of them could close their mouths.
Four severed ridges. The smooth cross-sections revealed where the mist had cleared. The mountain's inner flesh lit by the morning sunlight.
That was……
"……Guild Master."
The only thought was that this was not something a human being could do.
Eom Bi-ryeong was the first to open her mouth. Her voice was trembling ever so slightly.
"What grudge did you have against those mountains?"
"Ha ha……Well, it does look that way."
Myo Jin-heo raised one eyebrow. The look in his eyes as he gazed at the mountain ridge's cross-sections was peculiar. Eyes half-filled with awe and half with disbelief.
"If you were angry at the evil practitioners, you could have taken it out on them—why did you take it out on the mountain range?"
But Dong Bong-soo didn't turn to look at them or reply.
He simply kept his gaze fixed on another place.
Where Beom-eum had fallen.
"……"
Something in Beom-eum's body was changing. The Super True Energy Field was sensing it. The very quality of the energy within was changing. Not the internal energy of a Rakshasa monk, not the lingering resonance of Sound Arts—something else entirely.
'It's unreadable.'
And then, before long.
Beom-eum was slowly rising.
Light seeped out from beneath the monk's robe. A soft, even light. Different from the morning sunlight—neither cold nor hot, a light that had no business being on this mountain.
Eom Bi-ryeong's mouth fell open on its own.
"……Wasn't it over?"
Dong Bong-soo gripped his sword again.