The foot of Goeum touched the ground.
One step.
The sound died.
The sound of the
wind disappeared first.
The chirping of birds followed.
The rustling of grass, the rubbing of branches, all the sounds of the mountain went out in order.
Yan Bilyeong's sword began to tremble.
It was not his hand that was shaking.
The Internal Energy on the blade was trembling.
The Qi imbued in the sword was flowing down from the tip to the hilt.
"Hey, this… what is this?"
Myo Jinheo's fan was also rattling in his hand.
True Qi was leaking from between the ribs of the folded fan as if from a spring.
It was flowing out on its own.
A vein popped on Myo Jinheo's forehead.
"This… seems to be a kind of Star-Absorbing Art. Though it's probably different if you look closely."
Goeum's Spiritual Energy permeated the atmosphere, causing all surrounding Qi to resonate.
Because of that, even the Internal Energy inside others' bodies that fell out of resonance was being pushed out in all directions.
Shk, shwaaaak-.
Yan Bilyeong's feet stepped back.
One step.
Then three more steps.
It was a retreat where it was hard to tell if he moved on his own or was pushed by his Internal Energy.
His feet scraped the dirt as he began to descend the slope.
Myo Jinheo quickly folded his fan and turned towards the bottom of the slope.
"For now… let's go down."
Yan Bilyeong gritted his teeth.
"Sect Leader Kim—."
"As it is now, if we stay, we'll just be another thing for the Sect Leader to worry about. We may not have a way, but it seems he has a plan to deal with that person."
He could not refute it.
Indeed, even in this hellish environment, Dong Bongsu just stood tall, maintaining a blank expression.
The two descended the slope, leaving only their gazes behind on the mountainside.
Now, only two remained there: the being shrouded in a mysterious light, and the man holding a jet-black sword.
Fwoooooooosh, goooooooooh-.
The air between the two shimmered like a heat haze.
And at some point.
Goeum moved again.
There was no sound.
A wave of Spiritual Energy.
Wooooong—.
Dong Bongsu's Super True Qi Field reacted immediately.
The fabric of the air fluctuated as if an unseen sea was churning.
The field, spread over a hundred paces, tried to push back the penetration of the Spiritual Energy wave.
It was not perfect.
The chanting from the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds was a sound wave translated into Qi, so the Super True Qi Field could completely offset it, but the Spiritual Energy wave was different.
It was a vibration that bloomed directly from a Spiritual Root.
It was like oil on water, slipping through the fingers when the field tried to grasp it.
When the two forces collided, the air at the boundary distorted to a visible degree.
The debris from the battlefield all floated up at once before being pushed outward.
The corners of Goeum's mouth lifted.
A smile beneath closed eyes.
Immediately, the form of the attack changed.
Ppyuilk——!
Goeum opened his mouth.
It was not a sound.
He did not vibrate his vocal cords, but his entire body.
A single note created by the Rhythm Spiritual Root rode the air and shot out in a straight line.
An invisible Sound Spear.
Duuuung—!
The Sound Spear clashed with the Super True Qi Field.
The field's power concentrated and surrounded the Sound Spear, but sound has a way of piercing through barriers.
It penetrated, causing the net of the field to resonate, layer by layer.
Dong Bongsu tilted his head slightly and raised the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword horizontally.
Shhk—.
The Sword Aura split the Sound Spear.
The divided sound wave shot to the left and right, piercing the rock behind him.
The rock cracked from the inside and collapsed.
Goeum did not stop.
Waek—.
Heulk—.
Bwilk—.
He spat out notes in succession.
Three streams of sound waves at different frequencies poured down on Dong Bongsu.
A high note from above, a mid-range note from the side, and a low note from below his feet.
A structure where the other two would break through, while he split one with his sword.
Swish—.
Swish—.
Two swings of the sword split two shots.
The remaining stream hit his chest.
Thwack—!
Dong Bongsu's feet slipped on the dirt, and he was pushed back dozens of zhang.
Dong Bongsu tilted his head slightly.
He glanced down at the two furrows created as he slid back.
But that was all.
He lightly patted his chest a couple of times and then stared back at Goeum.
At that, Goeum's smile deepened.
Ggilkjjwab———!
He raised the pressure of the sound again.
This time, it was not a single note.
His entire body was an instrument, so his entire body resonated.
His bones became strings, shooting out low notes, his skin became a drumhead, emitting high notes, and the moment his foot touched the ground, the ground itself became a sounding board, and the vibrations ran through space like tens of thousands of earthworms.
Jjwa-jwa-jwa-jwak—!
The dirt behind Dong Bongsu's feet was pushed away, leaving much deeper footprints than before.
Jjeo-eong—!
Next, a sound wave with a changed frequency struck a different layer of the Super True Qi Field.
Dong Bongsu's feet, no, his entire body, now slid back on the dirt.
Woooong—!
Still, he did not rest.
Dong Bongsu split the sound wave aimed at his side with his sword, but the lingering resonance of the split wave struck the side of his field, causing cracks to form throughout the barely healing Super True Qi Field.
Kuuuuung—!
And the ground.
The low note that traveled through the earth exploded beneath Dong Bongsu's feet.
Dirt shot up, and a rock resonated from within before splitting in two.
The very structure of the Super True Qi Field wavered, and the air at the boundary distorted.
Kwadadadadadadeuk-!
Dong Bongsu, who was continuously pushed back despite constantly forming and blocking with the torn field and wrapping himself in a membrane of Super Spinning Sword Aura.
Still, Goeum did not stop.
Huoooooooooong-!
He drew up all the sound remaining in his body.
He scraped up the very bottom of the Rhythm he had kept locked inside the shell of a Rakshasa Monk for twenty years.
He pulled the strings he could create at a cellular level to their absolute limit.
His skin, the drumhead, became taut to the point of bursting.
Goeum's mouth opened.
Wooooooooooooooong—.
It was not sound, but Rhythm itself that poured out.
Kuuuuuuung——!
The mountain cried out.
The entire mountain became Goeum's sounding board.
Rocks vibrated from within before crumbling to dust, and the ground split, radial cracks spreading outward.
The trees were uprooted and sent flying not because of the wind, but because of the sound pressure.
"Now, I'll finish you."
Goeum's hands reached out towards Dong Bongsu's chest.
At that moment, Dong Bongsu moved.
Slowly, as if taking a stroll.
That one step pierced through the middle of the sound wave.
He broke through the wall of sound Goeum had created and stood before him in a single step.
Footwork.
"?!"
Goeum's hands naturally struck empty air.
But Dong Bongsu had already reached his side.
Hwiryurururururu-.
The field that had been spread over a hundred paces was gathered in an instant, contracting rapidly.
He had abandoned area defense and concentrated it on a single point.
Localized Concentration of the Super True Qi Field.
The power of the converged field pressed down on Goeum's Spiritual Energy barrier, focused on a single point in front.
There, the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword spun at super-high speed, with Sword Aura added on top.
Jjijijik—!
A crack appeared in the field of Spiritual Energy.
"Th-this!"
Towards Goeum, who was enduring with all his might, gritting his teeth, Dong Bongsu raised his other hand, the one not holding the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
His left hand.
But there was nothing in his left hand.
There was nothing.
A light formed at the tip of his left hand.
The light condensed, forming the shape of a sword.
Instead of firing it, he held it in his hand, condensed into a sword of light.
Super Spinning Sword Aura in his right hand.
A golden sword in his left hand.
Kwajak-!
The two swords became one right before Goeum's tightly shut eyes.
Jjeo-eong—!
The Super Spinning Sword Aura of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword finally split Goeum's Spiritual Energy barrier, and the sword of light pushed into the opened gap.
A structure where the sword of Qi made the path, and the sword that was not Qi entered through it.
Light exploded from Goeum's shoulder.
"Kekekeke! This is it, this is it!"
The corners of Goeum's mouth lifted.
Spiritual Energy billowed up from his pierced shoulder.
It was not blood, but light.
The Spiritual Energy pouring from the wound flowed in reverse, climbing up Dong Bongsu's sword of light.
Dong Bongsu's left hand trembled.
He let go of the sword of light.
The moment he let go, the sword vanished.
The vibration of the Spiritual Energy had shaken the crystal structure of the light from within and shattered it.
In that instant, Spiritual Energy exploded from Goeum's entire body.
Kuuuuung——!
The mountain split.
It was not a simple crack in the ground.
The very terrain of the mountainside centered on Goeum collapsed radially.
Trees were uprooted and sent flying, rocks turned to dust and scattered, and the spot where the two had stood sank into a crater dozens of zhang in radius.
From the impact.
Dong Bongsu's body was sent flying backward.
Drawing a vortex-like trajectory, Dong Bongsu's body pierced through the multi-layered mountain ridges.
Hundreds of trees and boulders in the places he passed were scattered like dust.
Goeum was also pushed toward the opposite slope by the recoil of the explosion.
His feet scraped the dirt, carving furrows into the ground.
From where Goeum stood to where Dong Bongsu stood.
Ruins equivalent to three or four mountain peaks were created.
Goeum did not miss the opportunity.
He charged towards the pushed-back Dong Bongsu.
Goeum, approaching Dong Bongsu in an instant at a speed several times faster than sound, thrust his hand towards the chest of Dong Bongsu, who was embedded in the rock wall.
Woooong—.
A bundle of Spiritual Energy in the form of a sound wave was condensed in his palm.
Not creating and shooting a Sound Spear, but thrusting it in with the entire palm.
A close-range Palm Art, reproducing the principles of the Sound Art he had accumulated for twenty years in the Sea of Ten Thousand Sounds with the output of the Spiritual Energy he had forgotten.
Ten Thousand Rhythms Return to One Palm.
"Kekekekekek! I finally caught you, you insignificant, lowly bastard!"
Just then.
Dong Bongsu's Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, his head hanging as if he had fainted, rose vertically.
It was slow, but so perfectly timed that before Goeum could even realize it, the flat of the sword blade nonchalantly touched his palm.
The moment it did.
Ggadeudeudeudeudeudeudeuk—!
"…This!"
Dong Bongsu's hand vibrated, and the surface of the sword cried out.
Ggwak-tteu-tteu-tteu-tteu-tteu-tteuk-!
Transmitting vibrations directly into the user's body through their weapon.
It was the principle of the Dog-Beating Staff Art, making its first appearance in this Jianghu.
A technique that perfectly reproduced it, not with a staff, but with a sword.
"…"
His wrist, as impassive as his pupils, trembled.
However, its speed had nothing to do with impassiveness.
The vibration was so fast it was fearsome, to the point that light seemed to leak out.
The vibration that traveled up the sword blade struck Goeum's palm, almost an infinite number of times in a single moment.
At that, the sound wave imbued in the Ten Thousand Rhythms Return to One Palm traveled back up Goeum's own arm.
Kwattttttttttt....
Goeum's left arm rippled as if riding a wave segmented into tens of thousands of pieces.
"Kuaaaaaaaak!"
He hurriedly exploded the Spiritual Energy in his shoulder to sever his own arm from his body.
If he had not, his entire body would have been swept up by that wave and blown to pieces.
Still, his right hand remained.
Goeum gathered the remaining Spiritual Energy in his right hand and shot a high-frequency wave toward Dong Bongsu's ear.
Dong Bongsu tilted his head.
The sound wave grazed past his ear.
Only his hair stirred.
Using that brief moment, Goeum's right hand, having raised his Rhythm Aura to its peak, shot out to shatter the blade of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
However, in that instant, the sword vanished.
Into his Inventory.
Kwagwagwang-!
Goeum's hand naturally struck the rock wall where Dong Bongsu had been embedded.
In the same instant, the sword reappeared in Dong Bongsu's right hand.
Horizontally, at the height of Goeum's waist.
Shhk—.
He slashed its side.
The creature's protective Spiritual Energy was torn like paper.
"You, you bassstaaard!"
Even as blood and Spiritual Energy poured out from his side like a flood, Goeum did not retreat.
He gathered all of his remaining Spiritual Energy into his one remaining hand and thrust it at Dong Bongsu.
Close-range Resonance.
It was a final gamble.
However.
Moving two objects in and out.
Two swords appeared simultaneously from Dong Bongsu's empty hand and his mouth.
In addition to the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword, there was the Wandering Warrior's Sword and the Evil-Slaying Sword, fully clad in the light of Faith.
Gooooooooooooh-!
The black, super-high-speed spinning Sword Aura indiscriminately split the Spiritual Energy, the sword clad in Sacred Light burned the opened gap, and the purely physical sword tore through the already ruined side.
"Khehehehehe…"
Goeum let out a beast-like cry and fell to his knees on the rock.
On his knees, he sent out one last sound wave.
It burst from his entire body.
His bones cried out like strings, and his heart beat once like a drum.
A final performance, converting his very life force into a sound wave.
However.
The Shield of Faith futilely deflected Goeum's attack.
Hwiryurururururururu-.
The Super Spinning Sword Aura bloomed once again upon the jet-black blade of the Nine Demon Annihilation Wheel Sword.
The entire Super True Qi Field in the area converged into the single point of the sword's tip.
The corners of Goeum's mouth lifted one last time.
Suk—.
There was no sound.
The wind did not blow.
The sword simply pierced straight through the creature's face.
The light that had enveloped Goeum's entire body was ground up by a single vortex and scattered in all directions.
In that moment, the sound in the area died.
The vibrations in the atmosphere went out one by one, starting from the farthest point.
Silence.
Silence.
Silence——.
Excluding the head, which had turned to dust and disappeared, Goeum's withered body slowly collapsed forward.
Thud.
Silence.
The end of one who wielded sound was, of course, silence.