The Demon Emperor had been secretly exterminating the demonic factions and hidden organizations, such as the demonic sects and shadow divisions, that had taken root covertly throughout the martial world.
Clear evidence of this was left behind in the letter Jin Seol had written.
However, even if he made such evidence public or presented the letter as proof… it would be meaningless.
The Demon Emperor could instantly refute or nullify any evidence left in the letter.
“That’s right. I am trying to erase the demonic path.”
Surprisingly, the Demon Emperor did not deny the fact.
“That’s why I cannot simply kill you.”
“I don’t understand what you mean.”
“If I did that, I wouldn’t be able to eliminate the Seven Great Demon Ancestors and the demonic path itself.”
He had to eliminate the Seven Great Demon Ancestors and the demonic path. No matter how much they were rooted in the demonic path, they would not acknowledge the Demon Emperor’s authority.
But why would he want to destroy the demonic path itself?
At that moment, the Demon Emperor uttered something even more shocking.
“The Absolute Demonic Blade Project.”
the Demon Emperor continued calmly.
“The Seven Demon Lords informed me of its contents.”
He paused for a moment and gave a faint smile.
“And I agreed to it.”
Thud.
Bu Eunseol felt as if the back of his head had been split open.
“What do you mean by that?”
“From a broader perspective, the Absolute Demonic Blade Project is ultimately no different from erasing the demonic path.”
The Demon Emperor showed a calm smile.
“That is why, despite fierce opposition from the senior members, I appointed Bu Zhanyang as Vice Lord.”
The position of Vice Lord was one that required decades of accumulated merit and absolute support from the demonic practitioners to even be considered. No matter how great Bu Zhanyang’s reputation was, he fell far short of those standards.
Yet he had still become Vice Lord.
All of these unprecedented personnel decisions that ignored long-standing customs had been made solely by the Demon Emperor’s will.
“My Lord.”
A fiery heat like burning charcoal rose in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“I will no longer play this twenty questions game.”
The Demon Emperor not only knew about his grandfather but could also know about the one that had killed him. There was also a high chance that he had either killed his grandfather himself or was connected to the one who did.
“That’s right. There is no need for twenty questions.”
The Demon Emperor spoke indifferently.
“What I permitted was for Bu Zhanyang to carry out the plan to sweep away the demonic path. And once everything was over, we agreed that the winner of our duel would take everything.”
He continued.
“But he suddenly went mad and retired. That is all.”
“Saha Manor.”
Bu Eunseol said sharply.
“Why did you create the fake Saha Manor in Hogachon?”
“Do you really think I would do something so boring?”
The Demon Emperor looked at the distant clouds in the sky and spoke indifferently.
“That place was built by the True Demon’s subordinates.”
“The True Demon?”
Flames ignited in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“Are you saying the True Demon killed my parents?”
“Would you believe me if I said yes?”
Seeing the contempt in the Demon Emperor’s eyes, Bu Eunseol finally calmed his agitation.
He realized one thing.
Even the claim that the True Demon had created it could be a lie.
“I have always said this.”
As if he had seen through the shaking of Bu Eunseol’s spirit, the Demon Emperor spoke coldly.
“The truth must be found by yourself.”
From the first day they met until now, the Demon Emperor had constantly emphasized that one must find the truth oneself.
And that was an irrefutable truth.
Because a moment ago, he had almost blindly believed the Demon Emperor’s words that the True Demon had created the fake Saha Manor in Hogachon.
“Very well.”
Bu Eunseol realized once again.
The truth about his grandfather’s death, his parents, and the blood eyes of Saha Manor—all of it was something he had to uncover himself.
“Let us only speak of what needs to be said.”
After all, Bu Eunseol had not come here to obtain information about his grandfather’s death or his parents.
Majeon.
This holy land of ten thousand demons had become a place that could no longer guarantee the safety of his subordinates. Since the Demon Emperor held the power of life and death over everyone, if he did not clearly understand his true intentions, his subordinates could be killed as futilely as Jin Seol at any moment.
“Have you reached the stage of affection?”
The Demon Emperor snorted.
“Or are you regretting it too late?”
Having understood the intent behind the Demon Emperor’s question, Bu Eunseol replied calmly.
“I am simply walking my own path.”
One did not need to be a lover to avenge someone.
Bu Eunseol had feelings for Jin Seol and considered her a good friend. Moreover, because of his actions, she had learned the truth and lost her life.
He had to take responsibility for that.
“So it is guilt.”
“Think whatever you want.”
“Aren’t you curious why I want to destroy the demonic path?”
“I was about to ask that.”
Bu Eunseol nodded as bloodlight exploded from his eyes.
“My Lord, what is your ultimate goal?”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, the Demon Emperor slowly turned his head.
And with an utterly indifferent gaze, he said:
“The unification of the martial world.”
Throughout the long history of the martial world, countless strong experts had shouted for unification.
However, it had always been an empty dream, like trying to pluck stars from the night sky—an unattainable delusion. As long as heroes carrying the heavens on their shoulders stood under their own banners, uniting the world under one rule was impossible from the start.
But…
When the Demon Emperor uttered the words “Unification of the martial world,” it no longer felt like an empty cry or hollow words.
It felt like a future that would inevitably arrive, like destiny.
“I see.”
Bu Eunseol nodded calmly.
“So it wasn’t just about eradicating the demonic path.”
That answer resolved all the thoughts he had held until now.
Righteous path or demonic path—it did not matter.
In the martial world, there was only the absolute being known as the Demon Emperor. He had always desired the unification of the martial world…
And the Seven Great Demon Ancestors would be the greatest obstacle to that unification.
He had been weakening the foundations of the demonic path all along and using Bu Eunseol—who was under house arrest in the greatest demonic sect—to erode the power of the Vajra Demon Sect.
‘A short blade carries a thousand cuts.’
The Demon Emperor did not ask many questions like ordinary people.
His words carried deep, implicit meaning.
Therefore, Bu Eunseol also responded in the same manner during their conversation.
“From beginning to end, I was merely a good blade.”
The Demon Emperor could not directly strike the Seven Great Demon Ancestors. If he killed them every time they appeared, his intentions would be discovered and an unbearable backlash would follow.
The Seven Great Demon Ancestors knew they were the true origin of the demonic path and would not easily reduce their real power and influence.
But if he used Bu Eunseol, who was growing rapidly by clashing with all the strong experts of the world and the beings of the abyss? It would be more than enough to naturally confuse the demonic path to the end and make them fight and destroy each other.
“The Seven Great Demon Ancestors cannot be the final goal of unification.”
Bu Eunseol’s sharp questions continued.
“What is the next condition?”
The Demon Emperor spoke at last.
“The Ten Great Immortals.”
“If the Seven Great Demon Ancestors are revealed, the Ten Great Immortals—who can be called the roots of the righteous path—must also appear so they can all be annihilated together.”
Ten Great Immortals.
They were the forefathers of the righteous path, contrasting with the Seven Great Demon Ancestors, and were also said to be the origin of the Nine Great Sects.
However, like the Seven Great Demon Ancestors, they had never revealed themselves in the martial world nor exerted any influence. They were only passed down in legends, and even their abilities were unknown.
‘But just like the Seven Great Demon Ancestors, they too exist in reality.’
In short, the Demon Emperor was using Bu Eunseol to uproot the powers embedded in both the righteous and demonic paths and annihilate them all.
“You will realize it soon enough.”
The Demon Emperor spoke with a meaningful expression.
“That the Ten Great Immortals are also beings who must die.”
The Demon Emperor had not only faced the Ten Great Immortals, who were called the foundation of the righteous path, but had also clearly seen through what they pursued.
And if Bu Eunseol learned the truth?
The Demon Emperor was certain that he would gladly join the plan to uproot the origins of both the righteous and demonic paths.
“Why did it have to be me?”
The question carried multiple meanings.
The Demon Emperor nodded as if the conversation had finally become interesting.
“Because you have accomplished far more than I expected.”
He added. “You handled far more tasks than if I had acted myself, uncovered far more things, and stirred up far more chaos.”
The Demon Emperor smiled with satisfaction.
“Until now, no one has ever met my expectations.”
Bu Eunseol could not help but ask.
“Even my grandfather?”
He thought it was a question that could not be answered. However, the Demon Emperor surprisingly answered readily.
“Bu Zhanyang eventually grew skeptical of everything. He was regretting having taken so many lives.”
Countless questions surged in Bu Eunseol’s mind, but he did not ask.
If the Demon Emperor intended to tell him, he would have done so already. The moment he asked, the Demon Emperor could give false information or even use the question to trap him.
“In the end, he may have been a noble person, but he was not someone capable of achieving a great cause.”
The Demon Emperor spoke of Bu Zhanyang as if he were a weak-hearted man who had abandoned his ambitions midway and thrown everything away—a loser.
Bu Eunseol did not press the point.
In terms of both seniority and relationship, the Demon Emperor stood shoulder to shoulder with his grandfather. He had no desire to nitpick his past sentiments.
“Does that plan also include the Baekri Family and the True Demon?”
Since ancient times, the Baekri Family and the True Demon had existed. Even if the Demon Emperor unified the martial world, he would ultimately become nothing more than their puppet.
The Demon Emperor laughed.
“There are no exceptions.”
In the end, the Demon Emperor was saying he would subjugate not only the righteous and demonic martial world but also the abyssal forces beneath it, including the True Demon and the Baekri Family.
“That is possible, I suppose.”
In the past, even the Four Divine Heaven Lords had thought there was no one in the current martial world who could oppose them.
But now his thoughts had changed.
As he grew stronger, his enemies were also becoming stronger. Just looking at the leaders of the minor factions and the Hwa Wu Sword Sect’s Weiji Mu-a, they had already far surpassed his level in certain areas.
Perhaps the Demon Emperor had accumulated enough power to rival even the True Demon and the Baekri Family, who possessed transcendental knowledge and strength through repeated reincarnations.
‘What is certain is that the Lord also knows the chain of reincarnation has been broken.’
As long as the eternally reincarnating the True Demon existed, unification of the martial world would remain an unattainable dream. But now that the chain of reincarnation had been severed, unification was finally within reach.
A faint smile crept across the Demon Emperor’s lips.
He was not one to show emotion on his face, yet the fact that he smiled while looking at him meant…
‘He is certain that I will give up my challenge and follow him.’
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
In the end, when he looked back, the Demon Emperor was pursuing goals extremely similar to his own.
Bu Eunseol also believed that the abyssal forces, including the Three Realms, were manipulating the righteous and demonic martial world, and that the confrontation between the Baekri Family and the True Demon was the root cause of the martial world’s destruction.
‘Our goals are not so different.’
The only reason he was sparing him instead of killing him now was because he would lose a useful blade.
That was what the Demon Emperor was saying.
“I acknowledge that our goals are similar.”
Bu Eunseol let out a deep, bitter sigh.
“If you had told me this earlier, I might have stayed with you for a while, even if I still challenged you in the end.”
In any case, their causes were aligned.
The Demon Emperor had not touched the surface, prioritizing justification and practical power. If he had known this earlier, he would not have challenged so impulsively, even if he still intended to face the Demon Emperor in the end.
“But you ruined Jin Seol’s entire life, manipulated her memories, and on top of that, you issued a kill order and had her brutally murdered.”
He spoke sternly.
“Do you think I could walk the same path as someone like you?”
Even if their goals were the same, it was ultimately meaningless.
At any moment, he might betray him.
How could he entrust his back to such a person?
In the end, Bu Eunseol could not let his guard down and turn his back. Otherwise the same disaster could befall his living subordinates at any time.
A person who could not be trusted, no matter how much they claimed to be heading in the same direction or helping each other, was someone he could never walk the same path with.
“That child liked you.”
Finally, as he reflected on Jin Seol’s death, a flicker of emotion appeared in the Demon Emperor’s eyes for the first time.
“Or has your heart grown numb?”
“Is that important right now?”
“A conversation is not one-sided.”
For the first time, the Demon Emperor had willingly acknowledged the conversation and spoken his thoughts honestly.
Bu Eunseol also had to speak his true feelings.
“Others may call her cold, but she was a woman with a lot of affection. She even paid attention to the livelihood of low-ranking martial artists.”
Jin Seol had always taken care of and shown consideration for the lives of ordinary martial artists who were in trouble. There was a reason she oversaw all events in the Demon Emperor as the Majeon Flower.
In reality, she had a very affectionate heart.
“Regardless of man or woman, she was a good person and a woman worthy of respect.”
Bu Eunseol suppressed his emotions.
“Yet she was killed for a pleasure not worth even a penny.”
He continued.
“That is what I mean by the pleasure you pretended to care for while actually discarding her, Lord.”
Bu Eunseol spoke through gritted teeth, suppressing his rage.
“I cannot possibly tolerate that.”
The Demon Emperor stood with his hands behind his back and nodded.
“If that child had not died… If I could guarantee the safety of the warriors in the Death Shadow Corps…”
His eyes emitted a mysterious glow.
“Since our goals are the same anyway, I suppose that you would have faithfully carried out my orders.”
Bu Eunseol gave a hollow smile.
“What use is such an assumption at this moment?”
With Jin Seol’s death, the Demon Emperor had revealed himself as an existence whose joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure could not be read. One could never know when, where, or for what reason his mood would change.
As long as the person who had killed his own beloved adopted daughter reigned as the master of the Demon Emperor, the safety of his subordinates could never be guaranteed.
So what meaning did this hypothesis have?
“It does have meaning.”
the Demon Emperor spoke something shocking with an indifferent expression.
“Jin Seol… that child is not dead.”
Bu Eunseol’s mind went blank for a moment.
Jin Seol had definitely died.
Even if she had entered a death-like state using the Return Breath Great Law, it could not fool his eyes.
So how could she possibly be alive?
“She is dead.”
“Why are you so certain she is dead?”
The Demon Emperor spoke with sharp eyes.
“My eyes cannot be fooled. You are not going to say such nonsense in front of me, are you?”
“If she did not draw her last breath…”
Bu Eunseol spoke with a sigh.
“Then all the warriors I have cut down until now should be alive and well, eating dinner right now…”
“Then let me ask you this.”
The Demon Emperor, hands still behind his back, looked down at Bu Eunseol.
Although he was clearly shorter than Bu Eunseol, it strangely felt as if he was looking down on him.
“Have you never seen someone you were certain had died return alive again?”
For a moment, Gongsun Dankyung’s death flashed through Bu Eunseol’s mind.
At the time, she had died. He had checked hundreds of times because he could not believe it. Her bodily functions had completely stopped and her life force had been severed.
But Gongsun Dankyung had eventually come back to life.
Because she was the Heavenly Hero Star, whose ability blossomed through death.
‘No, Jin Seol is not like that.’
Jin Seol had not been born with the Heavenly Hero Star. She could never return like Gongsun Dankyung.
“I suppose I have to explain the reason as well.”
The Demon Emperor spoke coldly.
“That child is of the bloodline of the Sacred Domain, from the Holy Constellation Immortal Family.”
“Sacred Domain…”
Jin Seol had been expected to carry the bloodline of the Sacred Domain.
The Sacred Domain was a place that could connect the Baekri Family and the True Demon, gather those with mysterious lineages, and where the dark arts capable of transcending human limits and transforming the human itself had been created.
Those bloodlines undoubtedly possessed mysterious powers.
“Why?”
Bu Eunseol asked.
“Why did you do that?”
Why had he done it if he was not going to kill her?
He was asking why she had fallen so deeply into despair and agony.
But that was an answer he could not give.
The Demon Emperor had only stopped the challenge and permitted the conversation. The answer that Jin Seol was alive was enough to halt the challenge.
Moreover, he could confuse him with misleading words.
In the end, the truths regarding his grandfather and parents were things he would have to uncover himself.
“I will say it is part of the liberation process.”
However, the Demon Emperor gave an answer regarding the situation.
“Because if she exerts the power of the Holy Constellation Immortal Family, my plan will be accelerated by more than ten years.”
There was context to those words, and Bu Eunseol could roughly understand their meaning.
The Demon Emperor had not killed Jin Seol but had released her. He was saying that he had intentionally driven her into despair to shatter her soul in order to use the power of the Holy Constellation Immortal Family she possessed.
“But your subordinates… this is ridiculous.”
The absolute power resembling a destruction god that the Demon Emperor had displayed vanished.
At that moment, Bu Eunseol frowned.
He had suffered another internal injury from the terrifying aura and waves the Demon Emperor had unleashed.
“It is not as if there is no replacement for you.”
The Demon Emperor looked down at him coldly and said.
“If I had not permitted this conversation today, I would have killed you immediately.”
“You are saying that to keep one useful blade, you threaten your subordinates by holding their lives in your hands?”
His eyes were filled with contempt.
The Demon Emperor.
He was an unparalleled demonic lord who had reigned over the martial world for a long time and built an unmatched reputation. Compared to him, Bu Eunseol was still a rising newcomer who had only recently made a name for himself.
A peerless expert who dominated others’ spirits through demonic arts and placed his own dignity above all else—was he really threatening his subordinates’ lives just to intimidate a mere youngster?
‘The fact that he said this means he will no longer touch my subordinates in the future.’
‘Am I shaking my subordinates’ lives just to restrain an insignificant person like you?’
In the end, the Demon Emperor’s words meant he had no intention of threatening his subordinates’ safety anymore.
In other words, he was guaranteeing their absolute safety.
‘Our final goals differ, but the path we walk is similar.’
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
Now that it was clear their paths were similar, there was no need to antagonize the Demon Emperor.
No—if he were to perish together with him right now, it would be the same as throwing his subordinates into the dangerous martial world teeming with abyssal forces.
Crack.
Suddenly, the ground where Bu Eunseol stood split open, creating a pool filled with bright red blood.
Shluk.
From within that pool of blood, a single ancient, crimson Command Token rose into the air.
Supreme Command Token.
The supreme tablet passed from the current Lord to the next Lord of the Demon Emperor had appeared.
The Demon Emperor suddenly showed a faint smile.
Was he really going to hand over the position of the next Lord to Bu Eunseol here?
Crack.
However, spiderweb-like cracks suddenly spread across the Supreme Command Token floating in the air.
BANG!
With a thunderous explosion that shook heaven and earth, the tablet turned to dust.
The supreme, peerless Command Token of the demonic martial world, passed down throughout its history… had vanished into nothingness.
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