'Something is wrong.'
It was true that Grandfather had cut down countless people until now. Nevertheless, the reason he had not become the public enemy of the martial world was partly because he possessed that much power and strength. Above all, it was because he had never massacred innocent civilians.
Yet he killed the people of this remote village, and of all people, only the women and children?
"Fortunately, thanks to the Benefactor leading that man here and defeating him, we avoided total annihilation... but our hearts have already been devastated."
"Are you saying my late father stopped him?"
"That is correct."
As the old man dropped his head with a pained expression, Bu Eunseol took a deep breath and asked again.
"Such a cruel and unjust thing occurred, so why did you not make this fact known?"
"What power would we have?"
The old man wore an expression of agony.
"That demon not only possessed immense authority, but he also left behind no evidence whatsoever. It was useless even if we informed the outside world."
And he spoke in a voice filled with rage.
"In fact, we even reported it to the government office, but they said the martial artist named Seven-Finger Demon Blade was at another location at that very hour."
The old man closed his eyes with a miserable expression.
"Since his innocence was proven with perfect evidence... there was nothing we could do."
Bu Eunseol inhaled deeply.
If Grandfather had intended to hide his own tracks? No one would have been able to find a loophole in it.
Furthermore, even if someone shouted that a master like Seven-Finger Demon Blade had come to this remote mountain village and massacred the children and women, no one would believe those words.
Moreover, there was no evidence.
From the villagers' perspective, though they shed tears of blood, they could neither prove their grievance nor refute it.
"Then this means this is the place where my late father fought the battle."
At Bu Eunseol's question, the old man let out a deep sigh and said.
"That is correct. After that demon carried out the slaughter, the Benefactor lured him to this place and then drove him away."
Thinking deeply, Bu Eunseol pointed at the pond.
"Was that pond originally there?"
"That is correct."
The old man stared at the pond with dim eyes.
"I think it used to be a bit larger in the past, but since it is such an old memory, it might just feel that way."
The battle between Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang and the Martial World's Number One Warrior, Baekri Muha, must have been clashes of a level that literally changed the color of the sky and altered the terrain.
Yet that small pond maintained its form perfectly.
"Afterward, the Benefactor rebuilt the village in an instant."
The old man sighed and slumped his shoulders.
"This is everything I know."
"I see."
Bu Eunseol politely expressed his etiquette.
"It must have been painful. Thank you for telling me everything."
When Bu Eunseol, who possessed an aura like a Daoist immortal, bowed his head and expressed his etiquette politely to him.
The old man shook his head with a faint smile.
"Not at all. The Benefactor risked his life to protect the village, so how could it be difficult to convey the situation of that time to his descendant?"
The old man was truly grateful to Baekri Muha. If it were not for him, all the villagers would have been annihilated.
"Then, please take your time looking around."
As if the old man had noticed Bu Eunseol's inner thoughts.
"I will head down first."
After giving a polite bow, he walked back down the mountain with a hunched gait.
Bu Eunseol stared at the pond for a long time.
The place where Grandfather and Father clashed.
For a beautiful pond to exist perfectly in such a place was not an ordinary thing, nor could it ever be a coincidence.
In an instant, Bu Eunseol unfolded the Void Heart Command.
Even though it was a secret art that could find traces left behind decades ago, not a single clue remained.
If so…
Suddenly, the living formation of the Valley of Immortals where the Blood God Heaven used to be came to mind.
Just in case, he placed his hand on the water and tried unfolding the Heavenly Mirror Heart Technique.
Even with the Heavenly Mirror Heart Technique, which could grasp the blood circulation and energy flow of not only martial artists but also living creatures at once, nothing particular was discovered.
'Surely, it was not made to hide something.'
If Grandfather and Father had clashed with all their might?
Not to mention this village, the entire surrounding area would have been completely destroyed.
Yet how could this vicinity be safe, and moreover, how could the pond maintain an intact state?
"I do not know."
He investigated until an hour passed, but he could find nothing.
Bu Eunseol, who had consumed all his mental strength, eventually collapsed and sat down in front of the lotus flower.
When he raised his head, the sky was clear and the area around the lotus flower was infinitely serene. The blowing wind brushed past the side of his hair, and a pleasant scent entered his nose.
If he had been in a leisurely mood, he would have rested his head on his arm, lain flat on his back, and enjoyed the midday leisure.
As he sensed the flow of the wind, Bu Eunseol felt a strange sensation.
The wind was clearly blowing from behind his back and brushing past his head. However, the ripples of the lotus flower did not follow the flow of the wind, but contained a completely different wave, did they not?
'This is...'
Bu Eunseol stood up from his spot and observed the pond once more.
'Was it the trace of the clashes itself?'
As he observed the water surface for a long time, his eyes widened.
When he looked closely at the pond, in some places, the water felt a bit more tense or heavy, giving a slightly different feeling from ordinary water.
This difference could not be explained in words; it was a subtle difference that could only be detected by Bu Eunseol, who not only possessed a super-sense that surpassed human limits, but had also continuously faced the Great Limitless Void, which shatters the internal and external parts of an enemy with specific waves.
"This flow..."
Splash, splash.
From the subtly shaking water surface, waves invisible to the naked eye continuously flowed out.
"It is not the wind..."
Only then did Bu Eunseol sense a terrifying fact.
"Due to the aftermath of the collision between the two, their intent is engraved upon this water surface."
A chill ran down his spine and goosebumps broke out.
Just what realm had the two of them reached, that even now, decades later, their intent was engraved upon a small pond.
—I think it used to be a bit larger in the past... since it is such an old memory, it might just feel that way.
Recalling the old man's words, Bu Eunseol nodded.
"The lotus pond was newly created by the power of the two."
The moment of the clash between the two absolute masters, the structure of the water was completely overturned, and it rearranged into a water surface containing martial arts and intent.
In other words, the battle between Grandfather and Father was imprinted on this water surface.
As if to prove it, if one closely observed the flow of the pond, it contained the positions and subtle movements of the muscles that change every time a martial art is activated.
'No one would have been able to solve this secret.'
Yi Neungso knew that this was the place where Grandfather and Father clashed.
In other words, the Three Attendants must have also taken charge of this place.
Nevertheless, the reason only Bu Eunseol could find the secret of this place was because he alone had learned Grandfather's saber technique and Father's footwork.
"But like this, I cannot see it clearly."
With just the pulsation on the water surface, the exact posture or movement could not be deduced.
'I will make it happen somehow.'
Bu Eunseol raised the Void Heart Command and the Heavenly Mirror Heart Technique simultaneously, but it was insufficient to read the movements contained within.
'I must read this wave somehow.'
He had come all the way here.
If he could not find the traces of Grandfather and Father, would not all of this be a vain effort?
At that moment, his right eye began to grow hot, and a blue flame began to form.
The power of the Ancient Sword Forest.
The mysterious ability that could grasp the attributes of all forces scattered across the world was activated.
'I can feel it.'
The waves, which had been thought of as merely a subtle sensation all along, gradually began to be felt in a distinct form.
Swish.
Bu Eunseol picked up a wooden stick and, matching that flow, began to draw pictures on the ground.
The shadows of two people were instantly engraved on the dirt.
One person was holding a great saber, and one person was unleashing an attack with his hands tucked behind his back.
'Grandfather's Seven Blood Tear Forms and Father's Emperor's Step clashed.'
In a state of self-effacement, Bu Eunseol continuously drew pictures according to the flow of the ripples.
Swish, swish, rustle.
As Bu Eunseol drew pictures mindlessly, the final scene was finally drawn.
"Into the saber force..."
Surprisingly, Father had unfolded the Emperor's Step, pierced through the Seven Blood Tear Forms, and entered within a three-foot distance of Grandfather.
"He cannot win just by dissolving all the saber energy."
The Seven Blood Tear Forms deals with absolute death.
Before delivering death to the enemy, the caster himself enters the realm of death. Because Grandfather had cultivated the Seven Blood Tear Forms to the Realm of Great Completion, his very existence was death.
Even if Father entered into the saber force and attacked, it would be useless.
"He stopped."
Whether he knew that, even though Father had entered into the saber force of the Seven Blood Tear Forms, he did not immediately deploy a killing strike.
But Grandfather also performed an incomprehensible action.
Even though he could deliver a perfect death, he did not attack Father, who had approached within close range, and stopped his movement.
"The fight ended with this."
According to the waves remaining in the pond, the fight had ended with this.
Bu Eunseol placed his hand on his forehead.
'I cannot understand.'
Grandfather came to Stone Gate Village and annihilated the women and children.
Father came looking for such a grandfather and wagered everything in a life-and-death struggle here.
Yet the two of them did not use their hands at the decisive moment, as if they had made a promise.
'Why on earth?'
What remained here was the martial arts of the two absolute grandmasters, not a conversation. Therefore, what happened between the two could not be known exactly.
Only one thing was certain.
At the decisive moment, as if they had made a promise, they stopped their decisive attacks and withdrew their hands.
"The footwork... the footwork..."
After agonizing for a long time, Bu Eunseol erased all the drawings.
"This might be a posture I imagined."
It was Bu Eunseol himself who deduced the movements of the two through the waves of the water surface.
"Then, what if I draw only the feet?"
Bu Eunseol, who was pondering deeply, began to accurately draw only the positions of the feet again to grasp the opening moves of the two.
"This is..."
Bu Eunseol, who had been drawing the path along which Father moved for a long time, could not help but widen his eyes.
"He did not just unfold the Emperor's Step with his hands tucked behind his back."
When a person moves with their hands tucked behind their back, as the movement of the arms is suppressed, unnecessary movement of the upper body decreases.
Because of that, along with a stable and regular stride, the pressure distribution when the feet touch the ground appears relatively even, and there is almost no asymmetry between successive footprints.
However, Father widened the width of his steps to balance himself even better.
To put it simply, he secured stability by spreading his feet wide, and the reason this phenomenon occurred was…
"Moving while holding something heavy like a burden."
Even if it were a heavy sword, if one moves while swinging it, the rotation of the upper body is bound to be restricted or force is bound to be applied in a specific direction.
To compensate for this, the leg muscles are used more strongly or the way the feet push off the ground changes.
"I would never have known if I had not done the work of a corpse examiner."
The knowledge he had learned from Grandfather while working as a corpse examiner was still guiding him on the right path.
"Father did not just unfold the Emperor's Step, but deployed an attack while unfolding the Emperor's Step."
Concentrating his mind again, Bu Eunseol began to draw only Father's footprints separately.
Footprints surprisingly contained a lot of information.
In the past, Bu Eunseol, together with Grandfather, through the position, direction, depth, pressure, dragging, or rotation of the tracks left behind by deceased martial artists, was able to grasp even the cause of death of the deceased and the technique used.
"At least it is fortunate..."
Behind this water surface, the movement information of the two masters was engraved, so in his own way, he could grasp the center of gravity, depth, pressure, dragging, or rotation.
"It is complicated."
Nevertheless, because they were all in the form of waves, they could not be grasped clearly.
"No, I can do it."
Since he had unconsciously mastered the essence of the martial arts of the two, reconstructing the information here by combining it with the principles of martial arts was not an entirely impossible task.
A day passed and morning came.
During that time, Bu Eunseol stared blankly at the sky as if he had become a stone statue.
Finally, on the third day, as the sun rose, a faint light was flowing from his eyes.
As he looked at the sunlight rising brilliantly over the ridge, he realized that the form of the trajectories that had not been solved until now was a single sword technique.
"The One-Second Sword Technique."
He had finally mastered, in his own way, the sword technique his father, Baekri Muha, left behind in this place.
Swish, swish, swish.
Bu Eunseol began to draw countless lines with a tree branch.
Even though it was a single opening move of a sword technique, it was so volatile and contained so many variations that it could not possibly be calculated with the mind.
Fortunately, thanks to possessing a genius intelligence, an outstanding talent for martial arts, and a tenacity that knew no giving up, he turned the traces of the waves left by Father and Grandfather back into movements, and from those movements, took apart only the footwork.
He was measuring the essence and opening moves of that sword technique.
Swish!
Before he knew it, Bu Eunseol swung the tree branch into the empty air.
Rumble!
What burst forth from the tip of the tree branch was a roar of power far too massive to be called sword energy. As if an invisible giant hammer had struck down the middle of the forest, over a dozen trees ahead exploded and scattered fragments in all directions before they even had time to scream.
The ground was deeply gouged, and scorched dust rose thickly under the moonlight.
"This is not it."
Bu Eunseol's face turned pale as he took a couple of steps back, pushed by the shockwave.
He had merely deployed the sword form for a single second, but his internal energy had completely run dry.
"I will try again."
After catching his breath for a moment, he adjusted his posture again.
This time, he completely excluded power and focused only on form and breathing.
There was no sound, nor any preparatory movement. His body began to dance a bizarre dance, twisting like a snake.
The tree branch surged as if it would slip out of his hand like a living spring.
That trajectory was neither a straight line nor a curve, but an irregular and twisted line that one would only see in a nightmare.
Rustle.
The space through which the tree branch brushed past seemed to have no change at all.
It was neither cut nor broken.
A moment later, a strange thing happened.
Crumble.
Along the trajectory of the tree branch, the green leaves lost their vitality in an instant, withered yellow.
Soon they turned ash-gray and crumbled and fell down as powder.
It was a trace as if he had deployed an orthodox art like a life-draining grand method, rather than a sword technique.
"This is not it either."
When he deployed the sword form again, this time the Extreme Yang True Qi within his body surged out.
The surrounding trees turned to piles of ash in an instant.
"It is a failure."
Thick drops of sweat formed on Bu Eunseol's forehead.
"This is not swordsmanship, but pure destruction."
Even after that, he continuously deployed the sword form.
Three days later.
"Haa."
Inhaling deeply, Bu Eunseol eventually sat down, leaning against a large rock.
He had merely trained hard for three days, but his physical strength and essence were completely exhausted, as if he had cultivated martial arts for decades.
"Is it a failure after all?"
The lines Bu Eunseol drew were incomparably complex, but they did not connect into a sword opening move in the end.
"Indeed, if one could steal another's sword technique in this manner, there would be no such thing as a distinct family martial art in the world."
If it were a wound left on a person's body, perhaps it would be different.
It was not actually engraved on the ground, so if one could master a sword technique by measuring the essence contained in the waves of a pond, there would be no such thing as a distinct family martial art in the world, and outstanding figures would all have been able to steal and learn the high-ranking sword studies of matchless grandmasters.
"My ambition was too excessive."
Before he knew it, even the weight of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword felt heavy.
In the end, as he placed it down on the ground.
At that moment, Bu Eunseol's eyes gradually widened as he looked at the lines drawn chaotically on the ground.
Was the Silent Tiger Soul Sword not glowing very faintly?
In fact, the light of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword was what it emitted when it was exposed to the sacred object in the Ratna Fortress.
But he had only discovered it just now.
"Could it be."
Realizing something, he placed the scabbard of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword down on the ground. And he began to draw up all his power with all his might.
Clang.
Then, a clear and bright sound echoed, and a mysterious brilliance began to spread from the blade of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
He injected all his power into the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Then, a low vibration echoed from the scabbard of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, and bizarre patterns began to spread out.
'As expected.'
Bu Eunseol, his eyes flashing, contrasted the patterns engraved on the scabbard of the Silent Tiger Soul Sword with the lines drawn on the ground.
Swish, swish.
And with an entranced expression in a state of self-effacement, he began to connect the lines drawn numerously one by one along the patterns of the scabbard. Finally, the chaotically drawn lines perfectly matched the patterns on the Silent Tiger Soul scabbard.
"It was not a simple pattern."
Bu Eunseol muttered in a trembling voice.
"This pattern was the illustration of the sword technique."
The pattern that was created whenever he injected power into the Silent Tiger Soul Sword all along.
That was the illustration of the sword opening move that Father had used.
"If it were not for the waves left behind in this place, I would never have known for the rest of my life."
Thanks to the waves of the water surface, he was able to measure Father's footwork and his sword opening move to some extent.
But to accurately grasp the sword opening move, one had to possess a perfect energy of nature.
Above all, the pattern left on the Silent Tiger Soul Case was necessary.
What if it were not so?
Even if his brain were hundreds of times more outstanding than now, he would not have been able to find the sword technique.
"The wind moves and the thunder emerges, the wind and thunder clash, the two damage each other, all things move blindly, the mountains are high and gathering brings life, water moistens and fire burns, waxing and waning transform..."
Looking at the illustration, Bu Eunseol began to turn the changes of the sword opening move into a sword secret.
High-ranking sword studies are inevitably accompanied by a general summary, and those changes were exceedingly complex. The hexagrams of the Book of Changes, the Five Elements, the Earthly Branches, and numerical principles were all contained within.
It was close to a holistic materialization of the sword theory.
However, because Bu Eunseol had steadily trained in and researched martial arts until now, he had already reached a level where he could turn the changes according to the movements into a verbal secret.
He was turning the secrets learned from this pattern into a standard text.
Bu Eunseol, who finally completed the verbal secret lowered his body, extended his left hand forward, and pulled the Silent Tiger Soul Sword in his right hand backward while holding it in a reverse grip.
"Movement and stillness correspond to each other to give birth to change, so one is not bound by a fixed form..."
Suddenly, the flowers nearby bloomed and the rocks were glittering like jewels.
"A victory without striving is the highest victory..."
As the wind blew, the mountains, rivers, trees, and grass emitted a brilliant light, and the sound of chirping birds echoed highly from somewhere.
"Just as success and failure, glory and disgrace in all worldly affairs circulate, the flow of the sword method shall also circulate."
Flash!
At that moment, a brilliant light blossomed from Bu Eunseol’s body.
The energy of life.
Unlike the Seven Blood Tear Forms, this sword technique dealt with the perfect energy of life.
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