Chapter 249: The Alliance (5)
Kuuuuung-.
A formidable roar erupted from the middle of the slope.
It was the tremor that followed immediately after Dong Bongsu plunged from the edge of the ridge into the midslope.
Dongmun Mutoe, Yan Bilyeong, and then Yeop Bihwa's eyes all followed the vibration.
And then.
From there, it happened in an instant.
Blue Ice Aura, unleashed from Mandala Rakshasa's fingertips, shot up, raising a several-zhang-high Ice Wall across the slope.
At the same time, the massive form of Vajra Rakshasa, wielding two Vajras, shot towards Dong Bongsu's front.
Immediately after the two Upper Four Rakshasas' combined attack was launched.
The atmosphere around the slope distorted all at once towards the sword.
The entire Ice Wall twisted like a viscous liquid, then warped along Dong Bongsu's jet-black blade and vanished.
The momentum and Aura of the two Vajras also wavered towards the blade, were pulled in, and disappeared as if they had never existed.
Goooo-.
A pattern of blue light flickered on the sword's surface for a moment before vanishing, and a deeper darkness settled in its place.
"...What is that?"
Yan Bilyeong's mouth was the first to fall open.
"Ice Aura... A Sword Art that mercilessly sucks Aura into the blade. I've never even heard of such a thing..."
"...Is that man a real onion?"
The corners of Dongmun Mutoe's mouth, standing beside him, drooped crookedly.
"You peel and peel, but new things just keep coming out."
Yeop Bihwa remained silent.
The fingers gripping the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle twitched minutely on the hilt.
Outwardly, her Iron Face was as usual, but inside, a single word had surfaced, shaking her for a moment.
One Point Whittling Aura.
She had trained her entire life to finally succeed in converging it to a single point... but the scene unfolding on the midslope showed it operating across the entire blade.
As a Sword Master, her intuition told her that this was the apex of One Point Whittling Aura.
Perhaps even beyond the apex.
Either way, did this even make sense...?
In that very moment.
Swish-!
On the rear slope, seventy elite Rakshasa monks who had been halted before the blockade line suddenly charged towards the ridge's peak, their blood-red kasayas fluttering all at once.
"Ah, really! You said to treat it like an outing! Sect Leader Kim!"
Yan Bilyeong was the first to draw his sword and charge towards them.
At the same time, Dongmun Mutoe's right fingers traced a bizarre path in the air, one that was neither a picture nor a character.
A faint line of blue light trailed from his fingertips, and along the traced marks, an intangible Formation slowly unfolded across the area.
Barely visible blue lines rose one by one into the air, settling in all directions.
A Formation Style, borrowing neither soil nor Formation Eye Stones, enveloped the ridge in an instant with just a gesture from Dongmun Mutoe.
It lacked the heavy power of a formally laid-out Formation Dao, but it was more than enough to disrupt the every step of the seventy monks.
It was still in the experimental stage, but he judged it to be sufficiently practical for battle.
Confirming that the enemies had paused in confusion, Dongmun Mutoe lightly drummed his left fingers as if riding a horse, and his gaze shifted to the side.
'If this woman is really that Iron-Faced Lady...'
The corners of his mouth slowly curved up.
The Three Monsters.
With that title alone, the number of seventy Rakshasa monks would be no problem at all.
"You said your name is Yeop Bihwa? The Three Monsters' Iron-Faced Lady?"
Instead of answering, Yeop Bihwa gave a light nod and extended her Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle toward the seventy elite Rakshasa monks.
Spat-.
Her sharp aura materialized and pierced straight through the forehead of the one running at the very front.
"Haha. I don't know how you came to be with the Sect Leader-"
And then Dongmun Mutoe launched himself towards Yan Bilyeong.
"But that's the best answer."
Yeop Bihwa did not follow immediately.
Her gaze lingered for a moment on Dong Bongsu's back on the midslope, where the darkness was settling ever more heavily.
But before long, she tightened her grip on the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle and executed her Lightness Skill, flying after the two.
The three of them rushed down the rear slope simultaneously, leaping into the middle of the seventy monks.
Into the heart of the waving, blood-red kasayas where the three figures landed, seventy curved sabers, filled with Evil Qi, were swung all at once.
But even in the midst of it all, Dongmun Mutoe's blue Formation Style did not rest.
The swinging curved sabers were minutely thrown off their trajectories, and the elite Rakshasa monks' blood-red kasayas were slightly misaligned.
That was enough.
Spat-.
Spat-.
For the Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle to instantly pierce the foreheads of its targets.
One, two, three...
The elite Rakshasa monks collapsed one after another onto the slope.
Beside them, Yan Bilyeong, in a low stance, persistently slashed only at their knees.
Two Rakshasa monks lost their knees at the same time and collapsed on the spot.
Dongmun Mutoe's Blood Script Formation lightly added to the assault.
It was a type of simplified formation he had embedded along the veins on the side of his hand.
Each time the edge of his hand touched an enemy's shoulder or side, the inscribed Formation Style would briefly activate, twisting the enemy's Qi and Blood at the point of contact and stopping all their movements.
That opening was more than enough for the swords of the other two to take their heads.
Just like that, half of the seventy fell into the Avici Hell, a place teeming with the Buddhas the Rakshasa disciples so desired to meet.
In the meantime.
In the distance, in the middle of the field, hundreds of Rakshasa monks from the main force began to surge like a wave toward the midslope and the rear slope.
The blood-red kasayas billowed in one direction, and human bone prayer beads rolled between their fingers.
Simultaneously, a Buddhist chant emanated from nearly two thousand mouths at once, spreading low across the field.
Na-mu-a-mi-ta-bul-.
Yet, at their very center, an unimaginably vast energy remained, silently maintaining its stillness in motion.
Na-mu-a-mi-ta-bul-.
Yan Bilyeong, fighting in the distance, split a curved saber in half and glanced over, albeit briefly.
"In the middle of that main force, that bastard... that's the Left Guardian, right?"
Yan Bilyeong's voice was harsh, but deeper and more subdued than usual.
"Yeah, seems to be Blood Rakshasa himself. What could a guy who hasn't left Nirvanic Extinction Mountain in over a decade possibly have to gain by coming all the way to the River Capital? Dammit."
Dongmun Mutoe replied as his Blood Script Formation repeatedly struck the bald heads' sides, felling them.
"Haa... Anyway, the Hero's Sect Leader, that onion-like man. He's just sitting there summoning all the monsters of the world to this frontier. What in the world is going on? I already had a pile of questions, and now two more piles have appeared."
Yeop Bihwa never once glanced at their banter.
Her Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle simply faced forward, silently traveling the shortest distance to one man, and then the next.
Shluk-!
Finally, the last of the seventy collapsed onto the dirt.
Even then, the True Qi surging from within the Left Guardian's reddish-brown swelled larger by the moment. monk robes
"Vicious, so vicious."
Just as she said, the shadow of the Qi emanating from the Left Guardian spread over the plain, settling even more thickly over the two thousand of the main force, contaminating the surroundings.
With an intensely dense Evil Qi.
Yet, his feet remained rooted to the spot.
'Just what is he aiming for...
But the three had no time to think deeply.
A part of the main force was already surging towards them again like a high wave.
-x-X-x-
Back on the front midslope.
The Ice Wall that had covered the slope had vanished without a trace, and the two swords in Dong Bongsu's hands were already aimed in different directions.
Goooo-.
The right-hand Evil-Slaying Sword plunged straight in.
It struck a link of the human bone chain that was whipping with mad force from the giant's shoulder-the joint where two links connected, a gap in the knot uncoated by Aura.
Chang-!
The chain snapped precisely at that knot.
In the middle of its swing, the broken end fell heavily and embedded itself in the ground.
The blood-red Aura that had been directly channeling the giant's will into the chain was also severed at that knot.
Jjeoong-.
The left hand, a line that sucked in Aura whole.
The right hand, a blade's tip that precisely killed that evil energy.
"...!"
Seeing this, Mandala Rakshasa's mouth opened and closed briefly.
The tip of her index finger trembled involuntarily.
Vajra Rakshasa's massive form was also forced to retreat several steps from the previous exchange.
He, who had never once retreated before an enemy.
"...Could he truly be a Cultivator?"
A short utterance escaped Mandala Rakshasa's lips.
Within her dignified, nun-like speech, a tremor of fear could be heard for the first time in her life.
A moment of silence.
But in that silence, their gazes aligned in a straight line toward Dong Bongsu after a silent agreement.
If they couldn't avenge their Senior Brother, Scent Rakshasa, here and now, they wouldn't even have the face to return to Nirvanic Extinction Mountain... to the feet of The Honored One.
Fwurluck!
The Mandala Cloth once again spread out wide and fluttered.
Five colors emerged in succession on the cloth.
As blue, white, and green sank back into the cloth, the remaining two colors flowed down to the tip of her index finger.
Red and yellow.
Fwoosh-!
The two condensed lights merged at her fingertip, and from that spot, a red and yellow flame wind erupted, beginning to envelop Dong Bongsu.
The air on the slope instantly turned into a raging sea of fire.
The sparse blades of grass on the slope turned to black ash the moment they touched the outer edge of the flame wind, and the dirt ground was scorched blackish-red.
That sea of fire, carried by the yellow wind, swirled into a vortex, trying to suck Dong Bongsu's body inward.
Flame wind.
In the midst of that, right where the chain had snapped, Vajra Rakshasa's massive form kicked off the ground.
Kwajajak-!
The incomparably heavy giant, holding only the two Vajras in his hands, charged toward Dong Bongsu's front like an explosion.
The weight of his charge caused the slope to sink another three feet, and his very flesh, engulfed in the blood-red Aura erupting from his shoulders, transformed into a reddish-brown giant.
Indestructible Vajra Body.
The red-yellow sea of fire and the yellow vortex simply flowed over or died out on the giant's skin.
His flesh, wrapped in blood-red Aura, withstood two of his junior sister's five colors without a single tremor as the giant cut straight through the middle of the flame wind.
In that state where the giant's skin itself had become Aura, the two Vajras plunged down toward Dong Bongsu's front.
In the center of it all, no change appeared on Dong Bongsu's expression.
His overwhelmingly indifferent eyes finished their calculation in an instant.
The enemy's Aura was, in the end, just a number.
And addition and subtraction for it were simple arithmetic.
The condensed spot was an opening for the blade to absorb.
The empty spot was a vital point for the sword's tip to kill.
Absorb the condensed, pierce the empty.
It was enough for Dong Bongsu's two-handed Sword Path to accurately distinguish between just those two.
Kwang-!
The red-yellow flame wind was sucked into the blade all at once.
Even a strand of the blood-red Aura condensed on a corner of the reddish-brown giant's skin was severed.
Mandala Rakshasa's cloth wavered at her fingertip.
Her body was pushed back several zhang on the slope.
Vajra Rakshasa's massive form was also pushed back dozens of steps, one by one, as if forced to his knees on the slope, bracing himself with the two Vajras in his hands.
A thin crack appeared on his Aura-wrapped skin.
However...
***
In the middle of the field, in the heart of the deep shade cast by the red flags.
A single white bone prayer bead slowly rolled once more between the Left Guardian's fingers.
His reddish-brown monk robes swelled even larger from the True Qi surging within.
His feet, which had been pressing down on the flat ground, were finally lifted slowly.
Then, a strand of True Qi released from his palm shot across the field, instantly passing over the heads of the main force and stretching straight to the midslope.
And so, the backs of Mandala and Vajra were instantly submerged in that True Qi.
Puuuung-.
The three colors of blue, white, and green that had sunk into Mandala Rakshasa's cloth re-emerged on the spot.
All five colors came to life at once, flowing together toward the tip of her index finger.
The crack that had been drawn on Vajra Rakshasa's skin was also sealed on the spot.
The blood-red Aura surging from his shoulders condensed even more thickly and was spread all over the giant's body.
Then, both of them radiated a momentum in all directions that was incomparable to before.
"That one must be the queen bee."
Facing the two of them, Dong Bongsu stared intently at the middle of the distant field.
The moment his gaze formed a straight line between the slope and the field, meeting Blood Rakshasa's eyes for the first time.
As if in response to that naming.
Du-ung-.
A small notification popped up in a corner of Dong Bongsu's vision.
[Main Quest Occurs]
[Calamity] Punishment of the Evil Cult
Progress 7.8% / Reward: History +100, ???
On the other hand.
Calamity.
Those two words sank even deeper beneath the reddish-brown monk robes on the field.
-x-X-x-
[Main] Punishment of the Evil Cult [Calamity]:
[Those who wield unrighteous, discordant, and wicked violence in the name of mercy and compassion are threatening the world, and threatening it again.
The mercy they cry out for is not mercy, and the compassion they murmur cannot be compassion.
In the end, it seems only your sword can cut through that deep, deep darkness.
•Punish the group steeped in the Unorthodox Path.
Progress: 7.8%
Reward: History +100, ???]
A Main Quest.
The evil cult it mentioned must mean the Dark Rakshasa Way, nine times out of ten, no, ten times out of ten.
I had found it strange that, despite clashing with the Dark Rakshasa Way before and getting numerous miscellaneous quests, a major quest had not appeared.
But it had returned to me now as this enormous gift.
Perhaps it was a reward for the successive gifts I had so willingly bestowed upon them.
My thoughts on the quest ended there.
Whoosh.
The Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword in my left hand, having grown twice as strong, was swung diagonally toward the center of the approaching reddish-yellow flame wind.
With that simple horizontal strike, the fiery wind that had been coiling and boiling around the area was sucked back along the blade.
The roaring sea of fire was instantly devoured by the jet-black blade and vanished, and the condensed red and yellow energies being released from the tip of Mandala Rakshasa's finger were repeatedly cut and severed, scattering in all directions.
A deeper layer of darkness settled over the blade.
Right there.
The Evil-Slaying Sword in my right hand thrust straight toward the giant's front.
But the tip of the blade was not aimed at the point where the chains connected.
It was aimed at the spot between the brows of the Vajra Rakshasa, who had transformed into a blood-red giant.
Clang!
The moment the tip of the Evil-Slaying Sword touched the giant's brow, the full force of the sword was repelled.
The skin, cloaked in blood-red Aura, had instantly deflected the sword's tip.
It was neither cut nor split.
The tip struck the crystallization of Aura there, sending a vibration all the way up to my wrist.
As expected, his Indestructible Vajra Body had been made much tougher by that Blood Rakshasa.
But Dong Bongsu's eyes did not waver.
The calculation was simply made faster in that instant.
'Interesting.'
There was a specific place where this one's Aura condensed.
The two Vajras he wielded.
They were the mediums through which his true power was most densely focused.
Dong Bongsu's gaze shifted from the giant's brow to the black Vajras in its hands.
In the instant his gaze moved, his feet kicked off the ground.
Whoosh.
His body slid to the blood-red giant's side, and from that position, both his hands moved simultaneously.
The jet-black sword in his left hand swung diagonally from top-left to bottom-right toward the handle of the Vajra in the giant's right hand.
With that single move, the blood-red Aura thickly enveloping the handle was entirely sucked in along the blade.
The Aura on the handle vanished without a trace, and the handle held in the giant's right hand became nothing more than a heavy black staff, sinking powerlessly to the ground.
At the same time, the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand struck precisely into the center of the Vajra in the giant's left hand, at the very point where its Aura was most deeply condensed.
Clang!
As the tip of the Evil-Slaying Sword precisely pierced that point, the blood-red Aura condensed there instantly unraveled and scattered.
With that, the Vajra in the giant's left hand cracked and broke into two pieces right then and there.
Both of the Vajra Rakshasa's hands had been neutralized at once.
"Kugh!"
The giant's massive frame staggered once.
Having lost the two mediums his Core Meridian had been using, more than half of the blood-red Aura he was drawing from his shoulders lost its destination and reversed its course toward his Dantian.
Vooooo.
The giant's skin trembled violently.
The flesh, which had turned into Aura, was instantly thrown into Qi Deviation by the reverse flow of his Core Meridian.
"Senior... Brother!"
With that cry, the tip of Mandala Rakshasa's finger immediately extended toward her Senior Brother's massive body.
A single strand of blue light, one of the five colors, unspooled from her fingertip, attempting to wrap around her Senior Brother's Dantian and control the reverse flow of his energy.
But the condensed blue light scattered and vanished before it could reach her Senior Brother's Dantian.
More than half of her own energy reserves had already been depleted.
No matter how much support she received from the Blood Rakshasa... there were limits.
In a flash, the Senior Brother and Junior Sister simultaneously realized that they could no longer dare to face Dong Bongsu head-on.
At this rate, they would be nothing but a handful of sand.
The gap was so overwhelming... they might not even be able to leave that handful behind.
And that was not all.
Moreover.
The ridge line above them was not empty.
Shadows that had circled around from the opposite side of the mountain slope now filled the ridge.
On the spot where only Dong Bongsu's group had been standing moments before, Myo Jinheo of the Formation Tower and External Affairs Elder Baek Hando now stood, leading a dozen or so members of the Formation Tower, followed by the family members of the Hero's Sect, all lined up in a row.
Their swords and formations were taking an assault posture toward the slope.
And that wasn't all.
There were others who had circled around in the opposite direction.
Three figures had gone deep into the main force's flank, hugging the opposite side of the ridge, and were now rushing into the side of the two-thousand-strong main force.
There were only three of them, but their power was not that of just three.
Sshhhk!
The Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle pierced straight through the main force's flank.
Each time the line cut through space, blood-red kasayas were torn left and right, collapsing to the ground and splattering blood.
Beside her, Dongmun Mutoe's Blood Script Formation and Yan Bilyeong's offensive supported her perfectly, as if they had been fighting together for a long time.
The martial arts of a peerless sword master of the highest level from Vast Heaven and the attacks of two Trigram Masters from the Formation Tower were not something even high-ranking Rakshasa Monks could hope to block.
It was a complete rout.
On top of that.
From the northern slope, far beyond the ridge.
Dozens of small, dot-like shadows were approaching at high speed.
It was the forty-some members of the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect's expeditionary force who had rushed over upon seeing the Vast Heaven Sword Light.
Though their numbers were few, each and every one was an elite personally dispatched by the Vast Heaven main sect.
The sharp aura of their swords alone was enough to make the air of the eastern plains of the River Capital grow heavier.
Dong Bongsu was in front.
The Hero's Sect and the Formation Tower were above.
Yeop Bihwa, Dongmun Mutoe, and Yan Bilyeong were on the flank of the main force.
Vast Heaven was to the north.
At least the Left Guardian's main force was behind them, so they weren't completely surrounded, but...
They could not retreat without a different order.
"...Junior Sister."
At the short call that fell from the Vajra Rakshasa's lips, the tip of Mandala Rakshasa's finger hardened with a deeper condensed force, as if in reply.
The simultaneous activation of their nirvanic extinction moves... permitted only once in a lifetime.
Mandala Rakshasa's Mandala Cloth billowed enormously behind her, and the five colors began to gather at the tip of her finger all at once.
Green, red, blue, yellow, and white.
The five colors merged into one in an instant, and from that spot, a rainbow-like light covered the entire Mandala Cloth, which then billowed up gigantically over the slope.
Mandala Nirvanic Extinction Finger.
At the same time, the Vajra Rakshasa's massive body used Void Grasp Manipulation to scrape together the chains that had already been torn to shreds and began to wrap them messily around his own body.
From his shoulders to his chest, from his chest to his waist, from his waist to his hands.
The chains bound his massive body, tying knot after knot.
The blood-red Aura that had lost its way and was flowing backward into his main meridians began to condense into each and every one of those knots.
Vajra Chain-Crushing Annihilation.
A final phrase fell from both their lips at the same time.
"May this reach... the Honored One."
Kwwaaaaaaaaaaaaang!
The Mandala Nirvanic Extinction Finger was the first to run rampant.
The five colors at the fingertip instantly wove into a five-colored rainbow, and those five colors covered the entire slope in a single breath.
Red burned the flesh, blue froze the flesh, green melted the flesh, yellow entangled the flesh, and white erased the flesh.
The five aspects of slaughter were woven into a single stream, coiling like a tornado as it shot toward Dong Bongsu.
Booooom!
In the same instant, the Vajra Rakshasa also detonated all the True Qi that had already begun to flow in reverse due to Qi Deviation from the inside, that is, from his Dantian.
The earth on the slope was gouged out dozens of zhang deep in all directions, and the giant's flesh, the chains, and even the Vajras were ground to pieces, compressed into tens of thousands of bundles of blood-red Aura that rained down upon Dong Bongsu all at once.
Two Mutual Destruction techniques of the Dark Rakshasa Way, said to have no equal under the heavens.
That vast, explosive slaughter was poured out toward a single person.
Right then.
Dong Bongsu's left hand was brought up before his chest, holding the jet-black blade horizontally.
In the same breath, his right hand placed the blade of the Evil-Slaying Sword over the length of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, forming a cross shape.
The blade of the Evil-Slaying Sword was placed like an arrow on the straight, jet-black line that was spread open like a bow.
A black Aura spread wide over the blade, stretching long like a bowstring.
His right hand pulled that bowstring back to its limit.
The black Aura on the blade swelled and bent, stretching out long.
Whooooooo000000osh!
Then.
Looking straight at the center of the two Mutual Destruction techniques pouring down on him with such ferocity, he focused all of his available Super True Qi Field onto the pommel at the back of the Evil-Slaying Sword's hilt and shot it forward.
Goooooooooooooooooo!
With that, the straight blade of the Evil-Slaying Sword exploded forth like an arrow released from a bowstring.
A single line of black crystallization was carried on its tip, and the white light radiating from the Evil-Slaying Sword transparently enveloped the outside of this one line of darkness as it advanced.
A single line devours all creation.
The five-colored Qi of the Mandala Nirvanic Extinction Finger was sucked into the arrow's straight path.
Red, blue, green, yellow, and white, the five colors had their evil qi cleansed, one by one, by the white light of the Evil-Slaying Sword, vanishing as if offered up into the black line at the sword's tip.
On that same straight path, the blood-red explosion of the Vajra Chain-Crushing Annihilation was also drawn into the Evil-Slaying Sword's trajectory as if caught in a storm.
The Vajra Rakshasa's flesh, chains, and staff were all purified of their evil qi by the white light, disappearing into the darkness without leaving a single speck behind.
Rumble...
The entire slope was emptied in an instant.
The Evil-Slaying Sword pierced straight through that empty space.
And soon, it struck its target with the same momentum.
Clang!
First, Mandala Rakshasa's brow.
"...This is absurd..."
The last words she uttered were also sucked into the event horizon crafted from Qi, never to be finished.
Then, the blood-red Dantian that was the last thing remaining in the spot where the Vajra Rakshasa had exploded and disappeared.
Clang!
It was slain.
Thud.
Belatedly, Mandala Rakshasa's body collapsed on the spot.
In the final posture of one who had unleashed a Mutual Destruction technique, the five colors at her fingertip flickered for a moment and vanished.
The core of the Vajra Rakshasa's blood-red Dantian pulsed one last time, about to explode violently, but the tip of the Evil-Slaying Sword completely purified the final remnant of the Vajra Rakshasa that had been left floating alone in the air.
Whoosh.
Having precisely eliminated its target, the Evil-Slaying Sword slid along the flow of the Super True Qi Field and returned to Dong Bongsu's right hand.
Only then did Dong Bongsu's hands slowly lower.
In his left hand, the jet-black Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword; in his right, the straight and short Evil-Slaying Sword.
Neither blade was stained with a single drop of blood.
"..."
The middle of the slope returned to its original, perfect silence.
Indeed, the best hunt of all is hunting humans.
And among those, the absolute best is hunting a master.
And.
The best prey still remained.
"..."
Dong Bongsu's impassive eyes slid down the slope and fixed on the center of the enemy's main force.
Unlike before, he could now savor the view at a leisurely pace.
The Left Guardian of the Dark Rakshasa Way, the Blood Rakshasa.
'This is certainly... a calamity, Sect Leader.
The very calamity that Myo Jinheo had described.
[Main] Punishment of the Evil Cult [Calamity]
The very calamity that Lumina had also certified.
Hehehehe.
What delicious seasoning this was.
The appetizer was over.
Now, the time had come to gluttonously devour the main course.
-x-X-x-
Chapter 251: Blood Rakshasa
The harmony of black and white.
A pitch-black sword and a pure white sword crossed paths, cutting down the Rakshasa Monks.
Already, three of his disciples, three of the Upper Four Rakshasas, had lost their lives to them.
If only the youngest had been here, things might have been different...
I should have brought him along.
The man gripped his sword, raised a jet-black Sword Aura, and struck down with all his might.
Whoooosh-.
He had expected a rain of blood and slices of flesh.
But they were simply erased.
Only after the strange aura that distorted space dissipated did the dregs of human dust flutter in the wind.
Kra-ka-ka-ka-boom-!
Those who died by the white sword in his right hand could be considered blessed.
At least they could depart for the Buddha's side with their bodies intact.
Shwing-, Whoooosh-.
The formation that had triumphantly surrounded the man collapsed in an instant.
A sight so unbelievable, so futile, so utterly empty.
'Is that what they call 'Outstanding Fortune,' something granted only to the chosen... the extremely few Karma Root Tribe among the descended beings?'
He could be of the Immortal Clan, but the Blood Rakshasa had already made his judgment about the man.
Everyone who existed in the man's path was slaughtered in an instant.
Then, at some point.
He, Dong Bongsu, paused for a moment amidst the Rakshasa Monks who had been erased by the Super Black Hole Sword Aura.
Not even a cup of tea's time had passed since the deaths of Vajra Rakshasa and Mandala Rakshasa...
Already, more than two hundred Rakshasa Monks had become wandering souls by his sword.
If a battlefield had a soul, the part of the battlefield where Dong Bongsu was active paused as if its soul had left, and was shrouded in silence as if its spirit had evaporated.
Na-mu-A-mi-ta-bul.
The Blood Rakshasa simply chanted the Buddha's name quietly.
He lightly turned his head and looked around.
The miscellaneous soldiers of Vast Heaven had already begun to engage the Rakshasa Monks in the distance.
The scoundrels of the River Capital also appeared from beyond the ridge, pushing their way down towards this field.
Feeling the aura of Formation Dao and formations from all directions, it became clear that the misers of the Formation Tower had also sided with them.
If they remained idle, they would be surrounded and annihilated.
"Kkiak!"
"Uwaaaak!"
"Keuheuk.."
The screams never ceased.
"To think there were so many disciples lacking in cultivation."
For those who should be rejoicing at becoming closer to the Buddha to be wailing like this.
Truly a disgraceful sight.
However, contrary to his low voice, quite a number of Rakshasa Monks had gathered around the Blood Rakshasa one by one.
"Left... Guardian! F-forgive me, but, I... I believe any more than this is impossible."
A Rakshasa Monk, once thought to have been castrated of fear, was trembling in both mouth and hand.
It wasn't just the monk who had spoken.
Everyone standing next to him was in a similar state.
It was obvious who and what was the cause without needing to be said.
"Then what do you wish for this one to do?"
"..There seems to be no other answer but to retreat, Left Guardian."
"Retreat."
"Yes, Left Guardian. At this point, even the Great Venerate would underst.."
Chwadeok-.
The Blood Rakshasa's hand grabbed the speaking Rakshasa Monk's face.
Whooooooosh-.
Just as thin streams of blood-red True Qi seemed to be released from his palm, the Qi instead entered the skin of the monk's face, and soon began to flow backward through the Qi Veins on the back of the Blood Rakshasa's hand.
The Rakshasa Monk's breathing stopped in an instant.
Every last bit of True Qi he had cultivated his entire life was sucked away through the Left Guardian's palm.
Not even a scream could escape.
His eyeballs sank deep into their sockets, and the flesh on either side of his cheekbones shriveled inward.
Sssss.
What remained clinging to the Left Guardian's palm was not a piece of skin, not a shred of flesh, but a single, empty skull.
Torrereu.
The cracked skull slipped through his fingers and rolled onto the dirt, and as if in response, a single bead from the human bone prayer beads between his fingers rolled in the same direction.
"The Great Venerate does not know such an unrighteous word as 'understanding."
"The will of the Buddha knows only compassionate sacrifice, and to advance, and advance again."
As if in response, the other trembling Rakshasa Monks all took a step back.
Then, they finally turned their bodies back towards the enemy.
In that moment, everyone could see it.
The man who had paused was looking in their direction, smiling.
...
The Left Guardian of the Dark Rakshasa Way, the Blood Rakshasa.
Dong Bongsu's gaze was fixed on him.
The main body of Rakshasa Monks was spread around him like a dark shadow, but inside Dong Bongsu's eyes, only the middle-aged monk in their center was clearly imprinted.
Keukeukeu.
A low laugh trickled down over the two swords held in his hands.
The pitch-black sword in his left hand pointed down, while the tip of the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand faced the dirt.
Before the laughter even subsided, at the end of his gaze.
The middle-aged monk's blood-red kasaya swelled up thickly again.
Jeobeok.
The Left Guardian's feet finally moved towards him.
It was only a single step, but with it, the posture and morale of the entire main force changed in unison.
Chwareureuk-.
A thousand monks, excluding the five or six hundred currently in battle, surged in the same direction and lined up behind the Left Guardian at high speed, and the human bone prayer beads around all their necks rolled in the same direction.
With that, a clear path to where Dong Bongsu stood was naturally opened.
The Left Guardian did not step onto that path immediately.
Instead, he remained still and rolled another bead of his human bone prayer beads.
Torreureu.
The dry sound of bone hitting bone.
At that sound, a thick, dark-red True Qi shot up from the rear of the main force.
It cut through the reddish-brown monks' robes, spread out like a round, oval cloud above the main force, and its shadow stretched out long and wide, stopping above Dong Bongsu's head.
In the shadow cast beneath it, an unidentifiable Evil Qi undulated as if to suffocate him.
It was the Left Guardian's will, vowing not to forgive any living creature that entered it.
However, before that shadow, the corners of Dong Bongsu's mouth twisted up into a smirk.
"How kind."
Giving a signal in advance and everything.
The air between the fields on all sides and the center of the main force trembled finely, as if reacting to his words.
Immediately after.
-Let's get serious.
[Let's get serious.]
He conveyed his will to all his allies by using [Whisper] and Qi Sound Transmission simultaneously.
Dongmun Mutoe and Yan Bilyeong, who were cutting down one blood-robed monk after another on the flank of the main force, changed their stances more quickly and precisely, while Yeop Bihwa's Falling Flower Flying Leaf Needle, which had been continuously drawing straight lines beside them, accelerated even further.
On the ridge above, Myo Jinheo's fan unfolded another section.
Beside him, External Affairs Elder Baek Hando's white robe fluttered once more, and a dozen members of the Formation Tower and the Hero's Sect family members, taking the unfolding fan as a signal, repeatedly charged towards the front of the Rakshasa Monk main force using their swords and formation styles.
The sharp aura of the swords of the forty or so members of the Vast Heaven attack squad, who had slipped in from the northern field to the flank, also grew sharper.
The four axes of the surrounding blockade simultaneously became one step more intense in their current positions.
And then.
Hwirururururu-.
Dong Bongsu's figure flew straight towards the Left Guardian.
A line of fiercely kicked-up dust crossed the field, seemed to pause for a moment at the edge of the shadow laid down by the Left Guardian, and then plunged right into it.
Gwan-se-eum-bo-sal-.
The Left Guardian welcomed Dong Bongsu's visit by chanting the Buddha's name in a dignified voice.
"It matters not whether you are an Immortal or one of the Descended."
However.
"Go on, show me the vulgarity of a mongrel."
His tone was one of clear mockery.
As if responding to the mockery, the human bone prayer beads at the rear of the main force all rolled again, and the air across the entire field grew heavy and sank.
At the same time, from within the kasaya he wore, dozens of strands of blood-red True Qi, each as thick as a human wrist, were unleashed.
Chwareureureureuk-.
A bundle of Evil Qi, layered as if dozens of great serpents were coiled amongst themselves.
Transforming into a great pillar made of Qi, it charged violently towards Dong Bongsu.
Jjeok.
Dong Bongsu's left hand raised the body of his sword diagonally towards it.
Black lines rose above the sword, trying to erase the blood-red Evil Qi.
However, just before the bundles of Evil Qi touched the pitch-black sword, they scattered from their edges out in all directions beyond the blade and escaped.
They were neither sucked in nor erased.
Just as light bends its own path to escape just before being sucked into something too deep, the Left Guardian's bundles of Evil Qi changed their form and bypassed the pull of the Absorption Art.
And then.
Each of the scattered bundles raised its head on the spot, like a beast with a will of its own.
Dozens of them.
The bundles of Evil Qi, transformed into the shape of thin, blood-red snakes, all twisted their heads towards Dong Bongsu's left and right hands, his shoulders and sides, his feet and his back.
One strand aimed for the front of the pitch-black sword while another aimed for his back, another for his left, and yet another for below his feet.
They were living Qi Serpents, each attacking freely.
Chwareureuk-, chwareureuk-.
The bundles that lost their energy without ever reaching Dong Bongsu plunged into the field and exploded, carving thick grooves on the spot.
But the exploded spots were not left empty.
The released Evil Qi did not dissipate, but instead laid down a thick, dark curtain in its place.
Above that curtain, the other snakes became one step faster.
The Qi Serpents, now clad in thicker skins by feeding on the previously released Evil Qi, spread an inescapable net towards Dong Bongsu and closed in further.
"Interesting."
Dong Bongsu simply left a short remark as he flew to avoid the Qi Serpents.
Despite this, the Left Guardian did not even flinch.
He just rolled one bead of his human bone prayer beads, and then another, and as if in response, the number of snakes made of Evil Qi steadily increased.
By now, it had passed the center of the main force and was expanding its domain, the field densely filled with blood-red branches.
Encouraged by this, the Rakshasa Monks also grew stronger and spread out in all directions.
Spat-.
Dong Bongsu's left hand, holding the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, slashed and severed the head of a strand threatening his front.
In the same posture, the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand cut down one that had slipped behind him.
The severed heads dissolved into dense Evil Qi, laying down two more layers of curtain on the field.
Chwiik, chwiik-.
Above that curtain, the next Qi-serpent became faster.
With every slash, the curtain thickened, and above the thickened curtain, the next beast charged one step faster.
It was a situation where simply slashing could not break the Left Guardian's offensive.
Moreover, in this situation, it was impossible to even approach him.
Under the shadow of Evil Qi that the man had spread, even the Super True Qi Field could not be properly operated, and the curtain of Evil Qi was growing thicker by the moment.
Chwareureureuk-!
For the first time.
Dong Bongsu's shoulders were pushed back several steps across the field.
Through a gap in his posture as he held the pitch-black sword diagonally, a single strand of the blood-red snake squeezed in and lightly grazed the hem of his black robe at his side.
Ssss-.
A thin line of blood trickled out where it had grazed him.
But as he was pushed back, the corners of Dong Bongsu's mouth twisted up instead.
Keukeukeu.
"If it's the type that gets stronger the more you cut it,"
a low chuckle flowed down over the two swords in his hands again.
"Then all I have to do is get stronger the more I cut, right?"
Two systems that had been dormant deep in his thoughts silently appeared.
[Chain Slash (Conditional Passive) Lv.MAX Proficiency: 100%]
Humans have a tendency to become frenzied the more blood they see.
In particular, this tendency is more pronounced in Wandering Warriors due to their strong desire for survival.
Duration: 2 hours after the last Chain Slash
• On 5 successful Chain Slashes, all stats increase by 5%.
•On 10 successful Chain Slashes, all stats increase by 10%.
• On 100 successful Chain Slashes, all stats increase by 25%.
• On 300 successful Chain Slashes, all stats increase by 50%.
• On 1000 successful Chain Slashes, all stats increase by 100%.
* The Kill count is maintained only if the next enemy is slain before the effect of the Chain Slash ends.
[Chain Attack (Passive) Lv.MAX Proficiency: 100%]
The sword strikes of a Wandering Warrior who has learned the sword only through real combat, without any forms, are crude but fearsome for their unpredictability.
Above all, a Wandering Warrior never gives up and tenaciously clings to the enemy, even if their sword strikes don't land.
If they can't cut them down in one blow, they will swing twice, three times, even over a hundred times to ensure the enemy is slain.
Inflicts special status effects on enemies who receive consecutive attacks from the player.
• On 2 successful Chain Attacks, inflicts 'Bleeding' on the enemy.
On failure, pushes the enemy back.
• On 5 successful Chain Attacks, slows the enemy and enters a Frenzy state.
• On 10 successful Chain Attacks, briefly paralyzes the enemy's movements.
• On 50 successful Chain Attacks, temporarily disrupts the enemy's breathing and True Qi flow.
• On 100 successful Chain Attacks, momentarily neutralizes all of the enemy's defenses.
* For consecutive attacks to be recognized as a Chain Attack, the next attack must occur within 1 second.
"Can't be helped."
The black lines grew a step thicker.
The white light of the Evil-Slaying Sword also deepened a step further.
"To properly enjoy the main course, you have to finish the appetizers first, I guess."
Papapat-.
With dozens of Qi Serpents still latched onto his back, Dong Bongsu leaped straight into the crowd of Rakshasa Monks.
Seogeogeok-.
Dozens of Rakshasa Monks' heads adorned the air like the heads of snakes.
Tomak-tomak.
[295... 307]
[The player has succeeded in a 300-Chain Slash. All stats have increased by 50%.]
It wasn't difficult, thanks to the foundation of the 294 he had already killed earlier.
And.
There was still plenty of 'prey' left.
The dozens of Qi Serpents following him still charged, aiming for his back amidst the chaos.
Seogeok-, seogeok-.
The now-stronger pitch-black sword in his left hand and the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right split to the left and right.
The Qi Serpents charging towards him were cut to pieces and fell to his feet, dissipating.
Dong Bongsu's figure came to a halt right there.
"..."
He slowly raised his head.
His indifferent gaze swept across the entire enemy force once.
Even at a rough glance, more than a thousand blood-red kasayas entered his view.
This is when you say, 'the more, the better.'
Amidst the chaotic battle, his pearly white teeth flashed cruelly.
-x-X-x-
Red.
The fields beyond the eastern ridge of the River Capital stretched out, so wide that one could not see their ends to the left or right.
Now, that entire area was covered in the deepest red of kasayas.
In the very center of that field.
Black.
A jet-black robe fluttered, standing solitarily.
Two swords hung loosely from his hands.
But the moment to catch his breath was, quite literally, just that-a moment.
In an instant, Dong Bongsu accelerated, charging into the very heart of the main force.
BOOM!
Whoosh-, whoosh-, whoosh-.
Before he could even exhale, dozens of sword strikes burst forth, rushing relentlessly towards the throats of the Rakshasa Monks.
Throats, limbs, chests, groins-he cut and devoured them all without distinction.
"...Ugh, eugh."
One Rakshasa Monk, his lower body gone, stared up at Dong Bongsu with a dazed expression.
All around him, the flesh and blood of his comrades lay scattered on the ground in pieces.
Schlick-.
The two swords plunged straight into the man's eyes.
Before tears and brain matter could even dry, again, BOOM!
Whoosh, whoosh-, whoosh-.
[50-Chain Attack successful. The Player temporarily disrupts the enemy's respiration and True Qi flow.]
Limb by limb.
Wherever Dong Bongsu's rapidly accelerating figure went, the field became covered in corpses.
[100-Chain Attack successful. The Player momentarily neutralizes all of the enemy's defenses.]
And then, two more [Chain Attacks].
[2-Chain Attack successful. The Player's attack inflicts Bleeding on the enemy.]
After using the 100-Chain Attack effect, the system would reset and start again from the beginning.
Papat-.
The Qi Serpents clinging to his back couldn't keep up with his further accelerated speed, dripping blood-like evil Qi as they fell to the earth and dissipated.
The ever-thickening curtain of evil Qi settling over the field was of no use.
Dong Bongsu, too, was growing stronger, more agile, and was accumulating information about his opponents.
Swish-, swish-swish-swish-.
The streams of blood flowing down his blades were so chaotically mixed and smeared that it was impossible to tell whose they were, or how many they belonged to.
To cut down the ordinary Rakshasa Monks, he didn't even bother using secret arts like the Super Black Hole Sword Aura or the Transcendent Self-Spinning Sword Wheel.
He simply thrust and swung his twin swords in the right places at the right times.
None of his movements were lacking or excessive.
Within the variations of [Slash], [Thrust], [Throw], and [Block], if 10 was needed, he used 10; if 10.0001 was needed, he used 10.0001 of his Internal Energy and Strength.
It was an unconscious calculation, naturally unfolding from the harmony of his accumulated combat senses and the wild instincts of a predator that lived and breathed vividly within him.
"Kuaaaargh!"
"Gurgle!"
Over a thousand of the Dark Rakshasa Way's main force still remained.
[Chain Slash] count: 518. 482 to go to reach 1000.
A straight line to the Left Guardian was fifty zhang.
Within that, thirty zhang were inaccessible, covered by those bundles of evil Qi.
Most importantly, the bundles of evil Qi did not count for [Chain Slash].
Only humans did.
However, [Chain Attack) could still be triggered.
Mulling over the information he had already gathered, his feet kicked off the ground once more.
His figure plunged into a denser crowd of Rakshasa Monks, as if burying himself among them.
And.
The numbers began to accumulate once more.
[519, 520...]
...
Click, click.
The human bone prayer beads rolled and rolled between the Blood Rakshasa's fingers.
Click-clack, click-clack.
The rhythm of the rolling beads was the same as always.
At least, at his fingertips.
"Kuaaaargh!"
"Gurgle!"
"Aaargh-!"
But in his vision, the scene of slaughter, of dismemberment, continuously unfolded.
A death cry from the middle of the field would fall, only for the next to overlap it.
Before one scream could end, the next one would cut it off, and then another death cry would sever that scream.
Again and again, death cries and blood-red kasayas collapsed and piled upon the earth.
When the man's right hand fell once, several of the Dark Rakshasa's fellow practitioners spilled onto the dirt.
When the man's left hand fell once, a group of Rakshasa practitioners collapsed on top of them.
Proportional to the man's actions, the Blood Rakshasa's own count piled up neatly, without error.
However, all his calculations and predictions were wrong.
Even though it hadn't been long, the slaughter and the expenditure of Internal Energy had been so intense that the man's breathing should have long since become ragged.
The force emanating from his left hand, his right hand, or both, should have weakened somewhere.
After rampaging to such an extent, his Internal Energy should have hit rock bottom long ago...
The man's blades had not dulled in the slightest.
In fact, he was a level fiercer now than when he had first flown towards them.
Perhaps even several levels more...
He doesn't tire.
Rather, he is growing stronger.
-Something other than human.
That classification once again drilled itself into the Blood Rakshasa's mind.
At the forefront of the main force.
There, a group of the Dark Rakshasa's practitioners was desperately trying to break through.
Though all sides were blocked, their feet continuously ran forward.
'A frontal escape.'
It was a bizarre escape, heading straight forward, a direction utterly unbefitting of the word 'escape'.
Though their deaths were certain, they charged unrestrainedly towards the Vast Heaven, the Formation Tower, and the rabble from the River Capital.
It must be the delusion that if they could just break through there, they might live.
The practitioners of the Dark Rakshasa Way were beings from whom fear had been purged...
In this manner, more than half of the numerous Rakshasa Monks had already vanished.
And at a certain moment.
Between the Blood Rakshasa's fingers.
Click.
The human bone prayer bead stopped its spinning.
...
Swish-, swish-.
[Chain Slash] count: 631.
Swish, swish-, swish-.
[Chain Slash] count: 745.
The center of the field was rapidly covered in corpses, following the accelerating black lines and curves.
[Chain Slash] count: 856.
Swish-.
[Chain Slash] count: 945.
Swish-, swish-.
[Chain Slash] count: 999.
Swish-.
The last one he needed collapsed onto the earth.
[1000-Chain Slash successful. All of the Player's stats increase by 100%.]
Ssk.
Dong Bongsu's feet came to a light stop.
In his left hand, instead of a sword, was the head of the last man.
Whoooosh-.
His feet kicked off the earth again.
His figure cut through the debris of his enemies, their corpses and byproducts, and stopped before the Left Guardian.
A distance of some thirty zhang.
He was just outside the edge of the Left Guardian's domain of evil Qi serpents, by about ten zhang.
Dozens of strands of Qi Serpents twisted their heads, trying to extend toward Dong Bongsu, but they couldn't cross even an inch and dissipated.
If inside was the Left Guardian's domain, then the outside was already...
Dong Bongsu's domain.
At some point, Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field had encroached upon most of the field.
Just as it always had.
Dong Bongsu slowly raised the head in his left hand.
Blood dripped down his wrist and fell from the edge of his robe to the dirt.
Then.
He smiled as he tossed the head toward the Left Guardian, as if throwing away trash.
"One thousand."
Before the head could even roll to a stop at the Left Guardian's feet.
Shhhwaaa-.
Dozens of strands of evil Qi spread beneath the Left Guardian's feet, and all raised their heads at once.
Each strand was the head of a beast formed from Blood-Evil Aura.
Hundreds, thousands of strands stared at one place, coiling.
At a single man, whose identity, origin, and strength were all unknown.
Among them, the eight thickest strands twisted their heads out past the edge of the shadow, aiming for Dong Bongsu's shoulders, sides, feet, chest, and even curving around to his back, striking from all eight directions simultaneously.
Whoosh-.
The jet-black sword in his left hand sucked the two frontal strands into a single point.
A black line briefly surfaced on the blade before sinking, and the two strands vanished into the sword without a trace
Whoosh-.
The Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand severed the heads of the two strands from the side.
Wherever the white light passed through the evil Qi, the blood-red traces were purified, shriveling away.
The remaining four strands...
all stopped just short of Dong Bongsu's body.
No, they were stuck.
As if they were nails driven into rock, unable to move an inch.
It was because the density of his Super True Qi Field was controlling the surroundings with extreme intensity.
Dong Bongsu stored both swords in his [Inventory] and lightly stroked the four strands of evil Qi whose heads were fixed while their bodies writhed.
As if they were the heads of tamed beasts.
Then.
Thud.
He stepped inside the shrunken edge of the red shadow.
Thud, thud.
Into the Left Guardian's domain.
Jjeo-eong-!
The air at the border rang out briefly and shuddered, as if a giant stone had been thrown into a pond.
He wasn't stabbed by a sword or struck by an aura; it was merely the two domains meeting head-on.
But from that contact, the dirt, grass, rocks, air, clouds, and every tiny particle of the field trembled as ripples spread out.
"..."
The human bone prayer beads in the Left Guardian's hand began to roll madly.
Ttururururu, ddwareururururururu-!
The Left Guardian's feet kicked off the dirt path.
Kwa-dududuk-!
Hundreds of strands of evil Qi simultaneously raised their heads toward the edge of the blood-red shadow.
In response, the shadow repeatedly encroached upon Dong Bongsu's domain, as if to surround it.
Dong Bongsu's feet also kicked off the ground.
Whoooosh-.
The Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, now back in his left hand, sliced diagonally through the center of the shadow before him.
A black line rose high on the blade, sucking in the entire outer edge of the shadow.
Dozens of strands of evil Qi that had been raising their heads at the edge converged into a single point and vanished.
From the same stance.
The Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand wildly cut and tore horizontally through the upper part of the shadow that hung like a curtain.
Wherever the white light passed, the heads of the evil Qi strands and the thick curtain of evil Qi sublimated and vanished like smoke.
Jjeo-eo-eong-!
Perhaps because of this, the encroaching shadow of evil Qi was pushed back toward the Left Guardian.
Ttururuk.
The shuddering red atmosphere also retreated, becoming calm again.
As a result, a single boundary line where the Left Guardian's shadow of evil Qi and Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field met exactly was clearly revealed, cutting across the middle of the field.
Neither of the two energies could cross that line to push back the other.
Kwa-dudududududuk-.
The 'battle of Qi' between the two of them caused the center of the field to split, creating a deep, deep trench that expanded without limit.
Wherever it expanded, the grass, rocks, and remains of corpses were torn apart, disintegrated, and scattered, and eventually, the vibrations reached the remaining main force and the people of the River Capital, a hundred zhang away.
Na... Na-mu-a... mi-i... tabul-.
Like a distorted Buddhist chant, the Left Guardian's blood-red kasaya swelled to its limit before bursting from his shoulders.
The bundles of evil Qi under his feet did the same, swelling as if to explode, and upon reaching their limit, began to burst.
Kwaduk, kwa-dudeuk-.
But even in the midst of this, Dong Bongsu's expression did not change at all.
He simply stood right before the demarcation line of his Super True Qi Field and the Blood Rakshasa's domain.
Now, even if he extended the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword and the Evil-Slaying Sword, they would not move forward, as if an invisible wall had appeared.
"Not bad."
In the end, he returned both swords to his [Inventory].
Then, with both hands empty, he stood thirty zhang from the Left Guardian and faced him directly.
The Limitless Gaze and the distorted Buddha's light clashed ceaselessly.
In that static clash, the entire field came to a momentary halt.
As if time had stopped, the flow of all energy in the area ceased.
The vibration of all the human bone prayer beads, which had been spinning at high speed under the Blood Rakshasa's control, also stopped.
In the midst of that stillness in motion.
Dong Bongsu's hands came together before his chest.
Palm met palm.
Sacredly, as if in prayer.
"Hmm... What are you doing!?"
The moment the stalled human bone prayer beads between the Blood Rakshasa's fingers were about to hastily roll again.
Shwaaaaaaaaaa-.
Thousands of zhang above Dong Bongsu's head, at the very edge of the sky, a light formed.
『Faith Judgment』
A high-level, wide-area Holy-attribute art covered the plains at the most opportune moment.: Damage bonus based on Trust +10~50% (cumulative): Additional damage to foes of the Unorthodox Path and Demonic type × 200%: Casting interrupted upon taking damage
The Sacred Light descended upon the foes of the Unorthodox Path, who were already weakened and perfectly still.
The bonus also accumulated without limit.
The family members of the Hero's Sect, the three Trigram Masters of the Formation Tower, Yeop Bihwa, and, though somewhat weaker, the overwhelmingly numerous citizens and martial artists of the River Capital.
The River Capital was filled with those who held trust in Dong Bongsu.
Moreover, in this kind of static confrontation, there was no risk of being hit.
Shwaaaaaaaaaaaa°—
The light formed a circle over Dong Bongsu's shoulders.
A great halo, which looked like the sun, but also did not.
That light instantly crossed the virtual boundary that split the field, spreading into the Left Guardian's domain.
The bundles of evil Qi under the Left Guardian's feet, where the light touched them, were purified strand by strand, melting down and collapsing onto the earth.
Hundreds, thousands of strands of Blood-Evil Aura lost their heads at once.
The remaining practitioners of the main force, those who were attempting a frontal escape, and even those who were already dying, were swept up in the Sacred Light and crumbled.
Shwaaaaaaaaaaaa—
Finally.
The light reached the Left Guardian's feet.
Fortunately or unfortunately, the range of [Faith Judgment] ended precisely there.
And so, the Left Guardian stood alone in the middle of a domain that had shrunk to barely encompass his own body.
With a string of human bone prayer beads and the now-shabby banner he himself had planted, he just stood there, blankly.
Everything else in this field had been purified.
"...Ha. Ha."
A short, empty breath escaped the Left Guardian's lips.
The kind of halo one would only expect to see on a true Buddha still hovered there, above Dong Bongsu's shoulders.
-x-X-x-
"You... are not only strong."
The Blood Rakshasa gazed intently at Dong Bongsu, standing before him, and the lingering afterglow behind his shoulder.
"You are even sacred. Truly befitting of one of the descended beings."
"Descended beings?"
"Is this the first you've heard of it?"
"I've heard of the Karma Root Tribe. Is that something different?"
"They are the same. The Karma Root Tribe is but one of the clans among the descended beings."
"Ah, so that's how it is?"
Dong Bongsu's lips parted slightly, revealing his neat teeth.
"Kim Rae-won is great, after all."
"...?"
"I can ask and answer questions as I please. And I can cosplay as a normal human being to my heart's content."
"...As I thought, you are one of the descended beings. Seeing as you spout words and phrases this Honored One cannot comprehend."
"Yeah. It's not like I'm saying it for you to understand anyway."
As the Blood Rakshasa stared silently at Dong Bongsu, the human bone prayer bead between his fingers, which had stopped, rolled once more.
Click.
From within his kasaya, a stream of blood-red True Qi surged up and then subsided.
From the bundle of Evil Qi lying beneath his feet, a single strand slowly raised its head.
It was the starting stance unique to the Dark Rakshasa Way-light yet heavy, and containing a formidable power.
"Even if this Honored One were to die here, I must bring you to the Buddha."
"Hearing you still say such things, it seems you have a trump card left?"
"It is enough to take a filthy seed of the Karma Root with me."
"Ah, well, let's say so."
Dong Bongsu lightly swept his gaze across the entire field.
Many people were watching them from afar.
This is a good stage, indeed.
"Why?"
On a stage where one must sing, one sings.
On a set where one must act, one acts.
That is the standard.
And this was a place that required a great deal of acting skill.
"Let's hear why you're trying to take me to the Buddha."
"You..."
Na-mu-a-mi-ta-b-ha.
A Buddhist chant flowed quietly from within the Blood Rakshasa's lips.
The human bone prayer bead between his fingers rolled minutely along with the syllables.
"You... are an enemy of the Buddha."
"Enemy of the Buddha?"
"That is right. The Sacred and the Immortal are in themselves the enemies of our Dark Rakshasa, and you are the most sacred among them."
"Kh, khuhuhuhuhu."
Sacred.
This Dong Bongsu has become a 'sacred' being.
"Good, this is good."
The Blood Rakshasa watched Dong Bongsu laugh for a long while before opening his lips again.
"I do not know why you laugh so maniacally, but before I kill you... I will ask one thing."
"You're lucky. To have met me when I'm Kim Rae-won."
Though he did not know what that meant, the Blood Rakshasa soon continued speaking.
"Why have you interfered in this war? Did your kind, the descended beings, not hide thoroughly, moving like earthworms? But why... why are you so hostile to the Dark Rakshasa Way? Is it merely hypocrisy to embrace these Orthodox Faction curs who are worse than vermin?"
"You ask why I'm hostile to you?"
"That is right."
"And what, hypocrisy? I don't know anything like that."
Dong Bongsu wiggled his itching fingers, continuously gripping and releasing his twin swords as he spoke nonchalantly.
"Why does a baby drink its mother's milk?"
"...!"
"Why does a child eat food?"
A formidable killing intent, enough to tear the surrounding atmosphere, erupted from Dong Bongsu's body.
"These sacred beings you call the Karma Root Tribe."
A harmonious collaboration of the Super True Qi Field and killing intent.
"They are eternal babies and children."
Dong Bongsu might not know, but as Kim Rae-won, it was an energy he could release to his heart's content.
"A tribe that feeds on slaughter and battle to grow eternally stronger."
"...A tribe that grows eternally stronger?"
"Yes. In that sense, you, the Dark Rakshasa Way, have an original sin."
"Original sin? What are you talking about-?!"
[Footwork].
Whoosh-.
With all his stats increased by 100% from the successful 1000-Chain Attack, the collaboration of Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field and [Footwork] allowed Dong Bongsu to...
"...?!"
...split thirty zhang of space-time and appear right before the Blood Rakshasa's nose.
"Yes, original sin."
Slice-!
"The original sin of being strong."
Dong Bongsu's twin swords quartered the Blood Rakshasa in the shape of a cross.
The black sword in his left hand drew a horizontal line across the middle of the waist, and from the same stance, the Evil-Slaying Sword in his right hand drew a vertical line from the crown of the head to the groin.
One horizontal line.
One vertical line.
It was before the Left Guardian even realized his body was being split apart.
The blood-red kasaya split into four pieces and fell separately onto the dirt.
Through the split surfaces, the human bone prayer beads scattered.
They fell to the dirt one by one, disassembled.
Never to make that soft clicking sound again, just like that.
"If you didn't want to die, you shouldn't have been so delicious in the first place."
The Left Guardian of the Dark Rakshasa Way, the Blood Rakshasa, second only to one and above ten thousand.
He vanished without even getting to use his hidden move.
Like an earthworm.
Because he was good experience points.
Shwaaaaaaaaaah—
Faith Judgment.
An immense Sacred Light swept through the area once again.
The powerful Evil Qi still lingered faintly in the area, but it was meaningless.
Under the path of Sacred Light that purified flesh and bone, the Blood Rakshasa's body instantly turned to ash and dust, scattering away.
Everything dark red that had filled the field vanished completely.
The kasaya, the corpse, the remnants of Evil Qi, not even a single grain remained.
Just then.
Hwaaaak-!
Sacred Light surged from Dong Bongsu's body once more.
It merged with the halo lingering behind his shoulders and spread out over the entire field beyond.
The Auspicious Light spreading along the outline of Dong Bongsu... of Kim Rae-won, advanced like the coming dawn, as if embracing the entire area.
It was warm.
Unlike the previous light, this light was filled with warmth.
"Ah..."
It was a dazzling ray of light, yet like the cozy spring sun, it seemed to tempt one to keep looking, to look on.
And.
The light did not stop at once.
Hwaaaak-.
Twice.
Hwaaaak-.
Thrice.
The same light that had brightly illuminated the area near Colorful Lake before now covered the eastern sky of the River Capital three consecutive times.
[A Critical ERROR has... occurred in the Murim Online System. There will be no issue in proceeding with the game, but... ...is.]
Critical Error.
It was a mechanical sound that blared madly after a long time, but it was a good sign.
Dong Bongsu's mouth opened slightly, revealing his white teeth.
On Earth, he never had a reason to laugh, but here, things that made him laugh so often occurred.
He could even laugh to his heart's content.
Because it suited this stage, and it was also genuine.
Leveling up three times at a high level.
What in the world could make a veteran player happier than this?
-x-X-x-
In the same spot.
On the field, the man in the black robe stood still.
Silently, yet with a gentle smile, he stood.
He knew better than anyone that what he had to do now was to simply give the people a lingering feeling, like a blank space.
That is the nature of the beast called man.
When there is a special situation, a special person... or a situation that seems so, a person that seems so.
They will spread their own wings of imagination to fill in the blanks.
And they will expand the lingering feeling as they please.
Because humans are creatures of imagination.
"..."
The tip of Yeop Bihwa's sword, which had been moving fiercely, was now trembling minutely.
She just kept staring at Kim Rae-won, her gaze fixed.
On the ridge of the hill.
Myo Jinheo's fan was also unconsciously open and trembling finely.
The Formation Tower's External Affairs Elder, Baek Hando, was also just standing blankly, gazing at one man's back.
The gazes of a dozen Formation Tower members, Jeon Rahwa, Hoae, Seok Gyeong, and other members and family members of the Hero's Sect were all drawn to one place, their postures frozen as they were in battle.
On the side of the northern field.
It was the same for the sharp auras of the forty or so swords of the Vast Heaven attack squad.
Even though it was their first time seeing Kim Rae-won, they remained frozen on the spot.
That was not all.
Far beyond the field, on the streets inside the walls of the River Capital.
Where the light reached over the earthen walls, the clasped hands of those on their knees shot up in unison.
The name of the Hero's Sect Leader, Kim Rae-won, was being mentioned everywhere.
Praised.
Revered.
Before long, Kim Rae-won had perfectly established himself as an object of worship in this River Capital.
And so.
Where the Left Guardian Blood Rakshasa had stood, only a deep silence remained.
Not a single human bone prayer bead, not a piece of a banner, not a hem of a kasaya was left on the dirt.
He had concluded his life well, as good experience points and a good stage prop.
Jeobeok.
Jeobeok.
Dong Bongsu, who was trudging across the field toward the ridge, stopped in front of the severed head of a nameless Vast Heaven warrior lying on the ground.
For some reason, his eyes had not closed.
Thankfully.
Dong Bongsu slowly bent down and gently stroked the severed head with his hand, from the forehead to the chin.
Dong Bongsu indifferently straightened up and silently looked over the battlefield once more.
On the battlefield where blood, death, and all sorts of vulgarity had raged, a chillingly static sacredness was now spread wide.
At this moment, everyone on the battlefield was looking only at this one person, Kim Rae-won.
The Murim is truly a good place.
A place where perfect proselytizing is possible with just one's own sword.
"The battle is over."
A low but firm and unwavering voice flowed from Kim Rae-won's mouth.
"The small fry of the Dark Rakshasa Way are all dead."
Shwaaaaaaaaaah—
While the afterglow, like the lingering feeling of a level up, and a silence gently settled over the area, all sorts of system error messages from Murim Online still floated up like certificates of merit in Dong Bongsu's indifferent vision.
However, he lightly ignored them and moved on to the [What is Hero] system.
[Main Quest - Punishment of the Evil Cult
Progress: 7.8% → 277%]
'27.7%.
For having eliminated the Left Guardian, three of the Upper Four Rakshasas, and about two thousand Rakshasa Monks, the progress hadn't even reached 30%.
This meant that more than 70% remained at the Dark Rakshasa Way's main base.
'Was it called Nirvanic Extinction Mountain?'
The real feast is prepared elsewhere.
Dong Bongsu's indifferent gaze went beyond the eastern ridge, reaching toward the direction where the sun was high in the sky.
"There are still many who are unjust. I, the Hero's Sect, will sweep such things from this Jianghu."
There is no need for darkness anymore.
There is no reason to hide in the darkness.
I shall smile brightly like a child and shine eternally in the sun.
Keukeukeukeu, keuheuhuhuhuhahahahaha...
-x-X-x-
The dawn of Nirvanic Extinction Mountain was awakening in a bluish hue.
A thick fog lay on the mountainside, and through it, the sound of the Human Bone Wind Chime echoed from the temple eaves across the entire mountain.
The short, dull resonance, a sound that could only be made by bones striking each other, had a completely different color from the dawn of any ordinary temple.
In the front courtyard of the Main Hall, Fellow Practitioners clad in reddish-brown robes sat in rows and began to chant in unison.
Na-mu-A-mi-ta-bha-Bud-dha-.
The Buddhist chant continued for a long time, as usual, spreading across the mountainside, but there were empty spots here and there in the rows.
The Fellow Practitioners continued their chanting, leaving the empty spaces as they were.
No one came to fill the missing spots, nor did they move to close the gaps.
The combined chanting from all sides only grew deeper over them.
Inside the Main Hall, two rows of human fat candles burned with a fishy smell at the base of the pillars on either side.
The scent was several times stronger than it had been a few days ago.
To one side of the Main Hall, the spot where one person had long sat in meditation was empty.
No one placed a new cushion in that spot, and no one sat there.
Incense smoke merely settled quietly over the empty space.
Nirvanic Extinction Mountain was spending a dawn no different from yesterday, but its atmosphere had changed distinctly.
In the deepest part of the Main Hall.
As expected, the Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate was seated in the lotus position on the Dharma Seat.
"Have you confirmed it properly?"
Ssk.
Before him, as if he had sprung from the ground, a Wolf-human, indistinguishable as man or beast with his secretive Movement Art, appeared and was already prostrating himself.
It was the head of the Blood Scent Society, Scent Wolf.
"Yes, Great Venerate."
"How many have achieved Buddhahood?"
"All of them... I have confirmed that all who were dispatched, including the Left Guardian, achieved Buddhahood on the spot."
"Namu Amitabha Buddha."
The Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate, The Honored One, cupped his hands and earnestly recited the Buddhist chant for the peaceful journey across the Sanzu River for the disciples of the Dark Rakshasa who had achieved Buddhahood a few days ago.
Thus, the Honored One's Buddhist chant continued for over one meal's time before it finally ceased.
Beside him sat a middle-aged Buddhist nun in meditation.
Her shaved head and white monastic robes made her pale skin appear even darker.
She was the Right Guardian, White Bone Rakshasa.
The bone prayer beads between her fingers, which had been rolling in time with The Honored One's chanting, finally came to a stop.
"Senior Brother Blood... can now finally entrust himself completely to the Buddha."
The White Bone Rakshasa's voice flowed out, finely cutting through the silence in the Main Hall.
The Honored One did not answer for a moment.
Soon, a smile seeped out from behind his half-closed eyelids.
"I am joyful, and joyful again. Our Fellow Practitioners who were in a dark place are finally raising their lanterns high and advancing toward a bright place."
Behind The Honored One's Dharma Seat.
A figure sat in meditation in a spot untouched by sunlight or candlelight.
He was wrapped tightly in a kasaya from his neck to his toes, and he wore a dark hood on his head.
Not even the outline of his face was visible in the shadow of the hood.
He had an ordinary build but did not stir in the slightest from his meditative posture.
Annihilation Rakshasa.
Even at the news of the deaths of his Eldest Senior Brother, Blood Rakshasa, and his other senior brothers and sisters, his expression showed no trace of wavering.
It was not because his face was hidden.
It was simply that due to his extreme state of Stillness in Motion, there was no agitation whatsoever.
Neither the White Bone Rakshasa's words nor the sermon the Honored One had just delivered could shake his meditative posture in the slightest.
Only the moment the Honored One gave a command would move him.
The one who was, in fact, the strongest master of the Dark Rakshasa Way, aside from the Great Venerate.
Just then.
Dorrreuk-.
A bone prayer bead rolled once between the White Bone Rakshasa's fingers, and she opened her mouth to address Scent Wolf.
Scent Wolf bowed his head once more, as if striking the floor, and reported.
"There has been no change."
"..What?"
"I have not confirmed with Vast Heaven, the Formation Tower, or all the Murim sects in the River Capital... but based on the scent of the Martial Artists drifting from the vicinity of the River Capital, it is believed that they suffered no, or almost no, damage."
...Do you think that makes any sense right now?"
The White Bone Rakshasa's gentle and orderly tone came out slightly distorted.
"I also believe it to be nonsensical... but my sense of smell does not lie, Right Guardian."
"Then are you saying they were all defeated by that man, Kim Rae-won, a man whose identity as one of the Three Monsters is not even certain?"
"From the circumstances, that is the case, Right Guardian."
"From the circumstances?"
"Yes, it is said that in the field where the battle took place, immense rays of light poured out in all directions several times a few days ago. It is said that under that light, the flesh and bones of our brothers were purified down to the last speck, and among the common people of the Jianghu..."
Scent Wolf paused for a moment.
But it was not long before he struck his head on the floor again and continued his report.
"They are disrespectfully calling him 'the one closest to Buddha."
"..The one closest to Buddha, you say?"
"Yes, so to investigate the truth of this rumor in more detail, I have sent additional agents from the Blood Scent Society to the River Capital."
The White Bone Rakshasa relayed the report to The Honored One with cupped hands.
"Great Venerate. This is what Scent has conveyed. Hah, truly, the content is disrespectful beyond measure."
"The one closest to Buddha, you say."
The Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate mulled over that line internally.
"So it is a descent. Not an Immortal."
Silence fell again in the Main Hall.
"What other false rumors about that man have you caught wind of?"
"It is said that he became one of the Three Monsters during the Orthodox Assembly Gathering about twenty years ago, and he wished to be called a High School Student."
Scent Wolf's prostrate back slowly rose and fell again.
The White Bone Rakshasa once again relayed the message to The Honored One with cupped hands.
"Great Venerate. This is what Scent has conveyed."
"The Three Monsters, High School Student, Sect Leader of the Hero's Sect. Are you saying all of these converge on this man named Kim Rae-won?"
The Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate's voice once again spread long through the Main Hall.
"That is so, Great Venerate."
"The Three Monsters.."
The Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate's fingers paused for a moment.
"If it is the Three Monsters, then where are the other two?"
"One is a Sword Master of Vast Heaven, but as for the other, not even a rumor can be caught."
"..."
Silence fell once more in the Main Hall.
Presently, the Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate uttered a line as if asking himself.
"Have you all heard? Then decide. Will you too be present there?"
It was a polite question clearly directed at someone, though it seemed like he was talking to himself.
An answer came from an unknown place in the Main Hall.
The distance was unknown, but the voice sounded close.
"If it's a place decided by poison, wouldn't I have to go, Great Venerate?"
It was the voice of an old man, aged and somewhat gloomy.
Along with the voice, a faint scent of herbs gently spread through the Main Hall before disappearing.
Then, from about the opposite side.
Haaaah...
After a peculiar, lustful moan briefly flowed through the pavilion, another response quietly flowed from another spot.
"The Great Venerate is seeking me, so how could this heavenly maiden not even be able to untie a mere ribbon? I shall devote my heart and soul to offering this one body."
It was the voice of a young woman, overflowing with a powdery scent from her voice alone.
It was difficult to determine the source of either voice, as if they were coming from within the Main Hall, yet not.
"One of the Three Monsters has, after disappearing for over a decade, reappeared in the remote region of the River Capital."
The Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate's voice once again spread long through the Main Hall.
"Or, someone other than the Main Body has descended and arrived in that place called Kim Rae-won."
"... "
"Either way, the plan is complete."
A powerful light flashed once from behind the Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate's half-closed eyelids.
"That man will soon be silenced forever. Namu Amitabha Buddha, Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva."
A bone prayer bead rolled once more between The Honored One's fingers.
The silence in the Main Hall gradually deepened, and the dawn of Nirvanic Extinction Mountain sank into it.
...
The same dawn, deep within a mountain range in the southern Central Plains.
An old man was seated in a separate chamber neatly filled with the scent of mystical herbs.
His white beard flowed down to his chest, and a gray Daoist robe covered his knees.
A small pouch was slightly visible from inside his sleeve.
Ssshhh...
The scent of herbs released from the pouch was faintly yet strongly filling the chamber.
It was a potent Qi-scent, strong enough to be smelled from a thousand li away.
Sreuk.
"A loss."
His fingertips moved in an orderly fashion.
"A loss."
Not long ago, in the fields east of the River Capital, two thousand soldiers of the Dark Rakshasa Way's combat unit, three of the Upper Four Rakshasas, and even the Left Guardian were annihilated at once.
The main force of one of the Seven Great Demonic Sects had been completely erased from a remote field.
"A loss."
His fingers paused for a moment.
"It is indeed a loss. If the Dark Rakshasa Way were to disappear from the Central Plains like this."
Although he didn't like a fanatical group like the Dark Rakshasa Way, their annihilation would undoubtedly be a huge loss to the entire Seven Great Demonic Sects, and by extension, to him.
If the Vast Heaven Infinite Sword Sect won this war, it would mean the loss of control and commercial rights over all the poisons and medicines in the Central Plains.
Losing money was linked to a structure where one would lose poison.
The fall of Nirvanic Extinction Mountain would bring a serious distortion to the power structure of the Murim, which, despite creaking, had been rolling along reasonably well.
Furthermore, with the balance of the Demonic Path so severely damaged, if a new variable like the Hero's Sect joined the hypocrites of Vast Heaven...
"A grave deficit indeed."
The flow of the entire Jianghu would be tilted in a completely different direction.
At the end of that flow might even lie the extermination of our 'Ten Thousand Poison Sect.
Just then, the scent of the herb, the Thousand-Li Transmission Incense Grass, wavered, and the Dark Rakshasa Great Venerate's voice echoed in the chamber.
— Have you all heard? Then decide. Will you be present there too?
His fingertips, after stroking his white beard once, finished their calculation.
In a direction that would mend the distorted spot.
"If it's a place decided by poison, wouldn't I have to go, Great Venerate?"
Soon, the Sect Leader of the Ten Thousand Poison Sect, the Ten Directions Poison Venerate, extinguished the Thousand-Li Transmission Incense Grass and stepped out of the chamber.
Beyond the chamber door, the warriors of the Ten Thousand Poison Sect had already begun to assemble.
***
The same dawn.
It was a pavilion floating in the middle of a large lake somewhere in the east.
The inside of the pavilion was a space where time had unraveled, a place that could be called either night or dawn.
Silk curtains hung in layers from the ceiling to the floor, and between the curtains, the thick fragrance of incense burners floated heavily.
Passionate moans of women seeped out from all directions inside the curtains, and in another spot, a wine cup rolled onto the silk.
The sound of skin fiercely slapping against skin, the sound of ribbons being untied and torn, and a hot, sigh-like cry of passion were consuming the entire pavilion.
In the very center, a woman was reclining.
Her clothes were loosely disheveled on the silk bed, and a single piece of thin silk flowed down over her chest, half-covering and half-revealing her full breasts.
One leg stretched out from between the silk, past the alluring shadow between her thighs, and extended to the edge of the bed, where someone's lips were touching its tip.
A handful of disheveled black hair was spread long over her jade-like skin, and her lips were as red as freshly picked wild strawberries.
Her face was like a spring flower in bloom, her two mysterious eyes as deep as a pond whose bottom could not be fathomed, and a gentle smile graced her lips.
Anyone, man or woman, who saw that smile once would have had their soul sucked away on the spot.
In the fingers of this peerless beauty was a single plum blossom.
Its petals fell one by one onto the silk bed.
Haaaa
The passionate cries of the maids seeping from beyond the curtains, the hot sigh of the maid licking her toes, and the strange moan escaping her own lips all intertwined and flowed quietly somewhere outside the pavilion.
It was a Ten-Thousand Li Alluring Sound, capable of sharing the affair of clouds and rain with a man from ten thousand li away.
Not long after the fields east of the River Capital had been entirely purified, the rumor reached her pavilion in this manner.
Just then.
— Have you all heard? Then decide. Will you be present there too?
A transmitted voice, along with a devout Buddhist chant, faintly flowed into the pavilion.
"Hauk-!"
"Kyahak-!"
As several reached their climax, the Ten-Thousand Li Alluring Sound of the pavilion grew even richer, and its sound waves flowed swiftly to some distant place.
"The Great Venerate is seeking me, so how could this heavenly maiden not even be able to untie a mere ribbon? I shall devote my heart and soul to offering this one body."
A gentle voice flowed out from between the pavilion's fragrance and moans.
"The one closest to Buddha.."
The corners of her lips lifted into a peculiar slant.
A man she had never yet been able to host in her bed, a man who could steal the soul of anyone in the world who was embraced by her once, and a man who was close to Buddha at that.
An opportunity to receive his essence and fluids.
There was no reason for this Paradise Joy Sect not to be present at that place.
Following the plum blossom, another spring flower was finely crushed between her fingers.
The maid who had been kissing her feet trembled slightly in response.
Another maid gently pulled down her clothes, baring her shoulder.
Her white skin was revealed, stretching long into the shadow of the silk curtain.
From somewhere beyond the curtain, someone's cry of passion flowed a little higher.
With all that skin, fragrance, and moans beneath her feet.
The smile of the Sect Leader of the Paradise Joy Sect, the Joy Venerate, Ecstasy Lord, deepened.
***
Now, the flows of three factions from the Seven Great Demonic Sects began to converge on one place.
The River Capital.
A dawn seething with the Unorthodox and the Demonic quietly sank down upon it.