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.
Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—.
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.
Shwaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa—.
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.