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 monk robes swelled larger by the moment.
"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.
● ● ●
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.