Even after rolling all the way down the slope, the head continued to roll for quite a while longer.
Only after hitting a stone as large as itself did it finally come to a stop.
Unclotted blood slowly trickled down the severed surface, staining a handful of soil dark red.
In the process of rolling, both eyeballs had popped out and were dangling loosely.
The skull was also crushed, with brain matter leaking out.
"..."
"..."
The war cries of the army ceased.
The magnificent power and morale with which the great army had shaken the field with their fierce momentum suddenly died down.
In the middle of that silence, a single head stared up at them with empty eyes.
Although time had been short, they, who could not be stopped even by the Formation Dao of two Trigram Masters of the Formation Tower, were now blocked by the most basic 'Formation' set by a single dead man.
The formation known as the head of the Scent Rakshasa.
"Namo Amitabha Buddha."
The Blood Rakshasa's expression flickered once before settling.
Neither the indignation of a Senior Brother nor the lament of one who had lost his Junior Brother appeared anywhere on his blood-red kasaya or face.
Only the bone prayer beads between his fingers rolled at a faster pace.
Other than that, no crack appeared in his Stillness in Motion.
"Scent, you have achieved enlightenment in such a wretchedly sublime way. Truly, all that remains is your Rebirth in Paradise. Guan Yin Bodhisattva."
With the end of his Buddhist invocation, the Blood Rakshasa's gaze left his junior brother's face and turned toward the top of the ridge.
There, two people stood, blocking the dark red field.
The man in a black robe with the character 'Enemy' embroidered on his back, Dong Bongsu.
Two or three steps behind him, the peerless beauty in Vast Heaven martial robes, Yeop Bihwa, stood side by side, looking down at them aloofly.
Whoosh.
He slowly seared the two of them into his pupils.
Thud.
Thump.
He deeply planted the flag he was holding into the middle of the field and stood up.
Beneath the Blood Rakshasa's feet, the dark red soil was pushed back a zhang in all directions.
Fwoooooosh.
His blood-red kasaya swelled with the True Qi surging from within and spread wide in all directions.
Growing to two, three times its original size, it began to flutter over the field.
The shadows extending from between the folds of the giant kasaya cast a long shadow over the two thousand members of the main force.
Under that shadow, the dark red field sank into an even deeper shade of blood.
It was a mighty energy, so powerful that every blade of grass on the field, every pebble on the soil, was drawn toward the tips of the Blood Rakshasa's feet, pulled by that bloody light.
The flag he had just planted fluttered grandly dozens of times as if responding to its master's dignity.
With each flutter, the character for Blood in the center of the dark red cloth became a living, bloody color, growing even deeper.
Only at the tips of his fingers did the beads of the bone prayer beads change places at an ever-increasing speed.
In response, the members of the main force dropped to their knees one by one.
Thousands of kasayas fluttered in the same direction at once, thousands of heads bowed in the same posture toward the same person, and all these movements spread across the field simultaneously like an epidemic.
It was as if the entire Great Plains East of the River Capital had lowered its posture toward the Blood Rakshasa.
"I shall… receive the Left Guardian's command."
When the Vajra Rakshasa spoke in a low voice, the same words rose from the entire main force, following his voice.
"I shall… receive the Left Guardian's command."
On the black-red plain, the chorus of "As You Command" spread far and wide.
"Our junior brother was spreading the Buddha's will and was benevolently embraced by that will first. You all shall continue our junior brother's path and let the Honored One's mercy reach those heretics who have not yet been brought to heel."
"We shall continue our junior brother's path and spread the Honored One's mercy."
The voices of the Vajra Rakshasa and the Mandala Rakshasa rang out simultaneously.
The energy of an offensive was already embedded in their movements as they kicked off the dirt ground and rose together.
Two black Vajras were successively held in the Vajra Rakshasa's hands, and next to him, the Mandala cloth hidden inside the Mandala Rakshasa's kasaya flowed out from between her fingers and fluttered long over the field.
It was the signal for a coordinated attack, where two senior and junior brothers of the greatest sect of the Dark Rakshasa Way joined in the same movement.
Thus, the two figures took their first step toward the ridge top.
In one of the Vajra Rakshasa's hands, a chain of human bones was unfurled with his steps and dragged across the field.
● ● ●
Meanwhile.
"Whew… I almost died."
"I know, right…"
Dongmun Mutoe and Yan Bilyeong caught their breath two or three steps behind.
The fact that thirty curved sabers on the rear slope of the ridge were about to touch their backs, and the fact that those sabers ultimately split left and right without reaching them.
Only after these two facts were sorted out in their minds did their shoulders finally relax slightly.
"Well, anyway, whatever… thank you. Sect Leader."
Yan Bilyeong awkwardly glanced at Dong Bongsu's back.
Her tone was strained with prickliness, but at the end of it flowed a clear gratitude uncharacteristic of her.
"Haha. I knew it. Our master… Sect Leader. I'll make a special exception and skip today's questions."
Dongmun Mutoe chimed in from the side.
"But who was that 'present' from?"
Dong Bongsu, his gaze still fixed on the field below the ridge, replied.
His eyes were precisely locked on the spot where the Scent Rakshasa's head had stopped.
"I picked it up on the way."
"As expected… just like our Sect Leader. Picking up a head off the street and then bestowing it as a gift to the enemy."
"Want me to shut that mouth for you, again?"
"…No, did I say something wrong… No, I didn't. Yes, yes. All hail our Sect Leader!"
"You two, stick close to Yeop Bihwa here. Put aside all that talk of formations and Formation Dao for a moment."
Dong Bongsu's voice was directed toward the end of the ridge.
"What? No, so you're just telling us to stay still? Two Trigram Masters of the Formation Tower…"
"Just think of it as a day out. Consider it a bit of sightseeing before you leave. And aren't there still some guys left back there?"
"Ah, I gratefully understand, Sect Leader. But…"
Dongmun Mutoe glanced back and whispered softly.
"Did you just say Yeop Bihwa?"
No answer came, but he exchanged a look with Yan Bilyeong, and the two of them slowly turned their heads back at the same time.
Yeop Bihwa.
She held a spiritual pill in her mouth.
The secret art of Vast Heaven quickly dissolved under her tongue and began to seep into her Inner Core Root.
With that, the Internal Energy she had exhausted in the previous duel was being hastily restored.
Soon after, a unique Hand Seal of Vast Heaven formed in her hands.
Chaaang.
From her fingertips, a flash of light shot straight up into the sky beyond the ridge.
At the point where it reached its zenith, the streak of light split as if drawn by a sword.
The Vast Heaven Sword Light.
It was a signaling system that only a sword master of Vast Heaven could engrave in the sky.
Somewhere in the northern part of the River Capital, there would be people of Vast Heaven who could read this trajectory.
At that moment, Dong Bongsu lightly flexed his feet at the edge of the ridge.
Both his hands clenched and unclenched in mid-air, and in his opened palms, two swords had taken their place.
In his left hand, the jet-black Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, and in his right, the straighter, shorter Evil-Slaying Sword.
And then.
Hwaryururururururururu.
As the tremor of the Super True Qi Field and his Footwork played in concert, his form scattered as he kicked off the ground and cut through the air.
Spat.
Two lines of dust spread out in a long vortex along the ridge.
Thus, his figure shot down toward the middle of the slope, right in front of the two Upper Rakshasas who were rushing toward him like a storm.
Like an eagle snatching its prey.
The feet of the two Upper Rakshasas simultaneously kicked off the slope and retreated three zhang in an instant.
Their forms, which had been storming up the ridge, momentarily froze, and Dong Bongsu's figure plunged heavily into the dirt ground in the center.
Kooong.
The ground where his feet landed was deeply gouged in all directions, and the vibration of the impact flowed heavily down the entire slope.
The Mandala Rakshasa's pupils narrowed further, and a thick layer of blood-red True Qi rose over the Vajra Rakshasa's massive frame.
"…The Honored One's mercy."
The same sound flowed from both their mouths simultaneously.
It was the initiation of a true combined art, where the shared pulse of their sect gathered in the same pattern.
The bond that tied three senior and junior brothers of the Dark Rakshasa Way with the same will, known as the Rakshasa's United Heart Art.
Although there were only two of them now, it was a combined attack formation that few in the world could stand against.
Fwooooooooosh.
The Mandala Rakshasa's fingers moved first.
The Mandala cloth wrapped behind her back fluttered majestically, and among the five colors, a blue light flowed from the tip of her index finger like a beam.
Blue.
Tssssss.
The condensed blue light was released from her fingertip and poured down in a stream toward Dong Bongsu's feet.
The soil of the slope touched by the light instantly solidified into hard ice crystals, and more crystals shot up on top of them.
In an instant, the area of the slope transformed into a huge wall of ice, its height soaring well over five zhang, rising far above Dong Bongsu's head.
Ice Aura.
It was an aura of crystallization that sought to permanently fix everything it touched in place.
Kwajajak!
Simultaneously, the Vajra Rakshasa's massive body kicked off the slope's soil.
Kuuuuung.
The dirt ground sank a foot under the weight of his massive frame, and blood-red True Qi erupted from both his shoulders like an explosion.
That True Qi flowed into the two black Vajras in his hands and coated them thickly with a jet-black aura.
Another branch of the black-red aura shot out from his shoulder and wrapped around the entire length of the bone chain.
The chain was not wielded by hand.
The will of the massive man flowed directly from his shoulders into each link of the chain, causing the chain itself to come alive like a blood-red snake and whip toward Dong Bongsu's flank.
The extension of the body through aura.
The massive man's shoulders and hands, the two Vajras, and the chain released from his shoulder were all linked together, charging at Dong Bongsu.
Vajra Aura.
Chain Aura.
Kwadeudeudeudeuk!
The Ice Aura at his feet, the Chain Aura at his flank, the Vajra Aura at his front.
It was a combined attack meant to freeze, break, crush, and burst everything in the narrow space of the midslope, with only Dong Bongsu's form pinned in the center.
…In the very center of that combined attack.
Dong Bongsu's two hands moved simultaneously.
Hwaryururururu.
The jet-black sword in his left hand was drawn diagonally toward the Mandala Rakshasa's Ice Aura.
The surface of the blade, just that single line.
From the drawn mark, the entire colossal ice wall, a zhang high, began to bend toward that sharp line.
It wasn't cut.
The great ice wall, in the very posture it was rising, and the ice wall that was about to strike down, in that very momentum, were sucked toward the body of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
Even the grains of the crystals contracted toward that line and disappeared completely into the sword's body.
The soil of the slope, about to rise, lost the weight of the ice and staggered, collapsing on a large scale.
Kurururururu....
The stream of condensed blue light that was being released from the Mandala Rakshasa's fingertip was instantly cut off and scattered in all directions.
A deeper darkness settled over the jet-black sword.
So much so that not even light could escape from outside the sword.
It was as if the sword itself had become a sharp abyss embedded in the universe.
It was.
A manifestation that elevated the enlightenment Dong Bongsu had gained when he crushed and absorbed a single blade of grass into a point.
Super Black Hole Sword Aura.
— A single line devours all.
For the first time, the Mandala Rakshasa's pupils shook greatly.
For the first time in his life, the Vajra Rakshasa's massive body took a big step back.
In the spot that received that tremor and retreat head-on.
One corner of Dong Bongsu's mouth slanted slightly.
It was not the sly smile of Kim Rae-won, nor the dignity of the Sect Leader, but a smile that fell directly upon his true self.
His essence.
Predation.
Gluttony.
Dong Bongsu was more of a gourmet than anyone else.
Experiencing two Murims, he was satisfied for the first time.
A martial art that so perfectly matched his own nature.
"You… are good."
A low chuckle followed.
Keh, kehhehehehe.
That chilling laughter cut through the silence of the midslope and dug low and sharp into the ears of the two Upper Rakshasas.
There was no hero, no wandering hero there.
There was only a gourmet, starved for blood, slaughter, and strength.
And now, he held a sharp gift knife capable of slicing through everything.