"It is an order."
Princess Hwijeong cried out in annoyance.
"Mobilize all your strength! Eliminate all of the Empress's forces, including the Heaven-Killer Golden Cavalry, and return me to the Imperial Palace!"
"How appallingly selfish."
Bu Eunseol sighed.
"How can a princess of the nation order others to sacrifice themselves for her sake? Because of you, must all my subordinates march toward their doom?"
"Doom? How dare you!"
Princess Hwijeong spoke with great fury.
"His Majesty is the parent of all people, the sovereign! And I am a princess of the Imperial Family!"
She spoke with a solemn expression.
"He who points a sword at me points a sword at the Imperial Family! Do you truly not know that defying my order is no different from defying an imperial decree!"
"A long and boisterous speech. I've heard it well."
"What!"
Whether she was furious or not, Bu Eunseol looked at the distant sky and muttered in a low voice.
"What I promised the Grand Secretary was only the Princess's safety. I care nothing for the Imperial Family's schemes."
Srrng.
And he drew the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
"What are you doing..."
Shooooo!
At that moment, the sky above suddenly turned black.
Pyu-pyu-pyu-pyu!
Arrows began to pour down like rain.
The pursuing forces had already arrived.
Swaaak! Paaaaa!
Even though the power in his body was entirely blocked, Bu Eunseol deflected all the arrows pouring down like rain.
Currently, Bu Eunseol was at the level of a grandmaster capable of creating new martial arts methods.
Furthermore, as he continuously dealt with powerful enemies, rather than seeking a method to stop his internal energy from draining away, he had researched the profound principle of unleashing formidable martial arts even without any energy.
Just because his power was gone... he was not a martial artist of the martial world who could do nothing.
Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa!
As the pouring arrows multiplied.
Flap, flap!
The Silent Tiger Soul Sword flapped like a freshly caught carp, and the Phantom Sword Form was unfurled.
Vmmmm.
Thanks to his elevated swordsmanship, the Phantom Sword Form had also deepened further.
Now, instead of simply striking down hidden weapons, it was as if a round aura barrier had been created.
Water-tight sword techniques were pouring out on their own.
Rumble.
When the hidden weapons failed to work, the forces that had been hiding nearby began to rush in directly.
"Princess, follow me."
"What?"
Without waiting for an answer, Bu Eunseol broke into a run.
Even without a shred of internal energy, his figure was as fast as lightning, vanishing in an instant.
"Wait!"
Since Princess Hwijeong had hardly been exposed to the power of the Dark Death Destroying Soul, her internal energy was completely intact.
She could unfurl her qinggong without issue.
Flick, tap.
Bu Eunseol had already entered the deep mountains and was climbing a cliff.
With every leap, his figure sprang up almost ten feet high.
He was as nimble as a squirrel climbing a tree.
With an extremely forged body, he had learned the Beast Palace's Beast Martial Arts.
With Beast Power, he could replace internal energy to some extent.
"This is crazy. That your power disappeared, wasn't it a lie?"
Though bewildered, Princess Hwijeong forcefully unfurled her qinggong and followed Bu Eunseol.
When they finally reached the cliff, Bu Eunseol was already crouching, scattering stones in a dizzying array.
"What are you doing?"
"A formation."
Frowning momentarily, he shifted the stones and wood on the ground over and over again.
The arrangement and structure were so unique that just looking at it made one's eyes feel like they were spinning.
"What kind of formation is this complex?"
"It breaks my concentration, so be quiet."
"Wh-what?"
Whether the Princess's expression contorted or not.
Turning his gaze, Bu Eunseol concentrated and began to change the formation's arrangement.
'How dare he?'
She had lived her whole life being revered by others as the Emperor's precious jewel. When had she ever received such treatment?
Tremble.
After trembling for a long time, she soon calmed her mind.
'Endure it. I must endure.'
Given the situation, she had no choice but to suppress her anger and hold it in.
Splash.
After setting up the formation for a long while, Bu Eunseol suddenly looked down below the cliff and threw a handful of stones downwards.
Rumble.
He threw stones and wood into the raging torrent below the cliff for quite a while.
Crash.
As if displeased with something, he dismantled the formation he had painstakingly built.
Then he threw another handful of stones down the cliff.
Splash, splash.
When he finally stopped his movements after repeating that process.
Swaaaaa.
A pure white fog suddenly swirled over the stones arranged on the ground, and the scenery on the cliff completely changed.
Then he placed a small stone where Princess Hwijeong was standing.
"Stand here quietly."
After drawing a circle with small stones on the ground where she stood, Bu Eunseol created an identical circle at his own spot.
"You must absolutely not leave this circle."
"It's useless."
Princess Hwijeong shook her head.
"You know nothing about the Imperial Palace's martial arts."
She said.
"The Imperial Palace's trackers not only have a sense of smell superior to hounds, but they also possess secret methods to detect the formations of the martial world. Unfurling a formation like this is no different from begging the trackers to come..."
"I understand, so just step inside."
As Bu Eunseol cut her off once again, Princess Hwijeong was filled with enough fury to turn her face red.
However, seeing Bu Eunseol's solemn eyes, she stepped into the circle as if she had no choice.
"Right, experiencing it once is better than telling you a hundred times."
She stepped into the circle in a state of resignation.
And added.
"In the end, you will have to summon your subordinates scattered throughout the martial world."
Smirk.
Bu Eunseol gave a cold smile in response.
Princess Hwijeong felt somehow offended but had no choice but to step into the circle.
Rustle.
Meanwhile, about a hundred black-clad troops swarmed to the edge of the cliff.
All wearing masks, their pupils were greatly dilated, and a bizarre light poured from them.
It was clear they were using the Imperial Palace's unique tracking technique alongside a secret art to detect formations.
'It failed, as expected.'
Princess Hwijeong frowned.
Even if they were invisible to the eye thanks to the formation, as long as they were in the same space, they would inevitably sense something strange.
If sensitive experts like them brushed past Princess Hwijeong's body?
They would instinctively feel that something was amiss.
Rumble.
The hundred or so men soon filled the cliff's edge.
But it was strange.
Swish-swish.
They moved quickly and investigated the cliff side, yet none of them noticed the formation.
Were they not just brushing past the two of them?
'What happened?'
Even if the space was separated, in a space where life forces collided, they would definitely sense something strange.
Yet how were they managing to walk around, avoiding only the space where she stood?
―'How did you do it?'
The Princess sent a sound transmission, but Bu Eunseol remained motionless, standing silently in the circle.
―'Do you not hear me?'
At the Princess's urging, Bu Eunseol frowned with one finger raised to his lips.
'Ah, he said he had no internal energy.'
Sound transmission meant using internal energy to thinly twist sound waves for delivery.
Without a shred of internal energy, he could not even utilize a simple sound transmission.
'No, but this guy?'
Come to think of it, a deep anger surged from within her chest.
Not only had his expression been arrogant from earlier, but wasn't he also inexplicably insolent?
Rumble.
Meanwhile, the trackers found nothing and eventually went back down.
"You bastard!"
As they disappeared, Princess Hwijeong approached Bu Eunseol and shouted.
"Are you mocking me? That attitude from earlier, what on earth..."
But before she could finish her sentence.
Swoosh.
Black shadows descended once again.
The trackers had pretended to give up and leave, while secretly hiding themselves.
"There is definitely a presence here."
As if sensing her voice, one of the masked men's eyes flashed.
"Burn it all."
Then the masked men began to scatter some powder on the ground.
It was Fire Essence Stone.
Fwoosh.
As they set fire around the cliff, the inside of the formation began to grow hot as well.
What Bu Eunseol had unfurled was a Stealth Formation Art based on the Mind's Eye.
It possessed no function to block power pouring in from the outside.
Bu Eunseol stared intently at Princess Hwijeong with a pathetic look in his eyes.
'Are you saying you'll intentionally get caught by the enemies to draw my forces in now?'
His expression seemed to reprimand her just like that.
―'I am sorry.'
Princess Hwijeong honestly admitted her fault.
―'I could not endure the urgency and acted without dignity.'
In the martial world, a single trivial word or action is directly linked to one's life.
Princess Hwijeong was a bold and intelligent figure.
But having not yet fully tasted the bitter experiences of the martial world, she was careless and imprudent in her actions.
"There's no need to blame yourself."
At that moment, Bu Eunseol suddenly spoke aloud in his real voice.
"Because it was within the expected range."
"What?"
Princess Hwijeong was angry, but now was not the time to argue about it.
"You told me to be quiet, so why are you speaking aloud?"
"Because we were caught anyway."
Bu Eunseol pointed below the cliff and said.
"Jump down there."
The reason he had hidden on this cliff and unfurled a formation was that he had guessed Princess Hwijeong, with no experience in the martial world, would surely make some mistake.
"Like a fool."
Princess Hwijeong shook her head.
"When the trackers found traces on this cliff, did you think they wouldn't expect us to escape down there?"
She spoke calmly.
"They must have already stationed trackers downstream."
"I know."
Bu Eunseol said, approaching the bottom of the cliff.
"Jump. Unless you want to be caught by them, suffer all sorts of hardships, and be dragged before the Empress Dowager."
"I don't know how to swim underwater."
"It's fine."
"What?"
"Trust me."
And without waiting for an answer, he jumped down the cliff.
"What is with that guy."
She bit her lip.
Originally, the biggest objective of this plan had been to make the Martial Soul Command Lord's forces collide head-on with the Empress Dowager, drawing him to her side.
But this man was not thinking of summoning his subordinates, even if it meant dying.
And if she summoned the Imperial Palace's secret squad? It would expose her trump card against the Empress Dowager.
"It can't be helped."
If she were caught by the Empress Dowager's thugs now, not only would she suffer all sorts of hardships, but she would become a fatal weakness for the Emperor.
She would rather commit suicide, but for now, she had no choice but to follow Bu Eunseol's words.
"How did the plan go so wrong?"
Muttering softly, she threw her body down the cliff without a choice.
Flap.
Because her internal energy was intact, she slowed her descent in her own way and avoided the reefs jutting out like spikes everywhere.
However.
Splash!
Eventually, the loud sound of entering the water rang out.
'Ugh.'
As the cold river water covered her body, she frowned.
Moreover, because she did not know how to swim, she floundered for a long while.
"Relax your body and stay still."
At that moment, along with a low voice, her body slowly rose in the water.
Bu Eunseol had already grabbed her and pulled her above the water.
"What happened?"
Princess Hwijeong looked around in bewilderment.
In the frantically flowing torrent, how could she and Bu Eunseol not be swept away?
"We can talk later; relax your body."
Floating, Bu Eunseol held her hand and spoke in a low voice.
"Otherwise, you will sink down again."
"I asked what happened."
"What you see isn't everything."
Bu Eunseol said calmly.
"The formation unfurled above was bait. In reality, I intended to hold out down here."
When the trail ended at the top of the cliff, two possibilities remained: either hiding near the cliff, or risking their lives to jump down and escape pursuit.
However, Bu Eunseol had thrown stones below to unfurl a unique formation art.
"A formation?"
Only then did she realize that Bu Eunseol had kept throwing stones downwards while continuously setting up the formation.
"Nonsense."
Princess Hwijeong shook her head.
"Even if you could hide your presence using the profound principles of esoteric formations, how could a mere formation stop the flow of river water?"
"It didn't stop the flow of the river."
In reality, the river water was still flowing fiercely.
It was just that Bu Eunseol and Princess Hwijeong were floating without being swept away.
"The torrents flowing under cliffs like this have a specific flow."
Bu Eunseol pointed underwater.
"If you use a few bedrocks at the bottom of the river as a core, you can unfurl a formation centered around them. You can generate a massive vortex."
"Even so, why haven't we sunk?"
"I used Water Yin Stealth Form and Qi Water Flotation, which are among the Underwater Formation Arts, to create minute water pillars surging from the bottom up."
Thanks to the formation art Bu Eunseol had unfurled, they entrusted their bodies to the air currents of faint water pillars, holding an exquisite balance where they neither sank nor were swept away.
"Are you saying Majeon also has the formation arts of the Yangtze Waterways Alliance?"
Such high-level underwater formation arts were only possible for experts of the Eighteen Leagues of the Yangtze Waterways.
Bu Eunseol shook his head.
"I just obtained it by chance while traveling the martial world."
In fact, he was able to master such formation arts while carrying out various missions as the Eighteenth of the Nine Deaths Squad.
He had once assassinated Yang Samu, the Blue Wave Dragon, an elder of the Yangtze Waterways Alliance.
He had obtained a manual for such an underwater formation art from his residence.
"I see."
Thinking he had obtained the manual from Majeon's Ten Thousand Demon Repository, she nodded.
"I suppose there is no manual Majeon doesn't possess."
Bu Eunseol shook his head and changed the subject.
"If we hold out like this for about half a day, the forces besieging the area will withdraw. And they will think we escaped through another route."
Princess Hwijeong nodded with a look of admiration.
"Holding out in the center of the pursuit. It is truly a wondrous stealth method that strikes at their weak point."
Then, as if she finally remembered, she asked.
"Come to think of it, when you jumped into the water earlier, why didn't you make any sound?"
"I merely took the posture."
"Posture?"
Pondering, Princess Hwijeong soon found the answer.
She had trusted her internal energy and entered the water lightly, but Bu Eunseol had turned his entire body into a single arrowhead.
He stretched both arms straight forward, brought his hands together, and tucked his head between his arms.
"You must have a lot of experience falling from cliffs."
At Princess Hwijeong's joke, Bu Eunseol unexpectedly nodded.
"I do."
Princess Hwijeong thought Bu Eunseol was making a joke and replied coldly.
"A person who has learned martial arts at a level where they can soar freely through the sky like you had a reason to jump into a river below a cliff?"
"Did you think I was vigorously cultivating internal energy since I was a fetus?"
"Wh-what?"
"It hasn't been long since I could freely unfurl the sky-treading flight art."
Princess Hwijeong opened her mouth.
Looking at his expression, it didn't seem like he was joking.
"Bizarre."
Princess Hwijeong had bumped into and conversed heavily with people of all classes.
"You're like a precocious child who has lived for decades."
Never before, though, had she met anyone like the martial artist before her, with a tone and attitude she could not see through at all.
"Now, close your eyes and rest."
Bu Eunseol said.
"The underwater formation art will dissipate in three double hours at most. Get some rest in the meantime."
And he made an ominous prediction.
"This might be the day you can rest most comfortably on this journey."
Three double hours later, just as Bu Eunseol said, the function of the underwater formation slowly disappeared.
The two naturally arrived downstream as if swept away by the rapids, but no one was there.
The waiting trackers had already left.
"Have we perfectly shaken off the pursuit now?"
Sizzle.
Princess Hwijeong, who had dried her clothes in an instant with her internal energy, muttered.
"They must have clearly gone ahead of us."
"They will come back."
Bu Eunseol shook his head.
"If they expand the siege net quickly and can't find us, they'll eventually have to return to square one."
"I know you're quite young."
Princess Hwijeong sighed.
"Just how have you lived?"
Bu Eunseol gave no answer.
His journey in the martial world so far could truly be described as a continuation of stealth and pursuit.
During his time as a Ten Demon Warrior, he survived in that small hell through stealth and pursuit.
And ever since he began his journey in the martial world, it had been a ceaseless repetition of pursuing someone or hiding to obtain information.
Dealing with the Empress Dowager's trackers was nothing.
The night was growing late.
Bu Eunseol found a nearby private house, looked around, took a few hanging pieces of clothing, and left some silver in their place.
"Wear these."
Although cleanly washed, they were worn and frayed everyday clothes.
But the Princess surprisingly changed into those clothes without a fuss.
"Try changing your appearance as well."
"I have not learned disguise arts."
"Why is that?"
"The people of the Imperial Family must not learn disguise arts."
Princess Hwijeong shook her head.
"If traces of it are discovered, one is immediately beheaded."
Disguise arts were akin to a dark art that shook the very foundation of the Imperial Family's existence.
The uniqueness of their bloodline, the sanctity of their authority: for someone to use disguise arts was akin to the worst threat, one that could sow chaos.
The ban on disguise arts was not a simple rule, but a safety measure to maintain the Imperial Family's security.
"I see. I did not know."
"You seem well-versed in everything, yet you don't know much about the Imperial Family."
It was a scolding mixed with a bit of ridicule, but Bu Eunseol was calm.
"How would a mere martial artist of the martial world know the lofty circumstances of the Imperial Family?"
And he looked around, bringing a handful of mud from the ground.
"Come here. It is time to leave now."
"You don't intend to smear that on my face, do you?"
Grasping the situation, Princess Hwijeong glared.
"Don't even dream of it."
"I think it's better than being caught by the Empress Dowager and suffering humiliation."
"You."
She shouted with great anger.
"At every word, you bring up the Empress Dowager and threaten me!"
"It's not a threat, it's a fact."
"You are to the very end..."
Princess Hwijeong, who had trembled several times, bit her lip when she met Bu Eunseol's calm eyes.
"Fine."
Princess Hwijeong helplessly closed her eyes and said.
"If we are caught even after doing this, it is entirely your fault."
"As you say."
Originally, laying a hand on the Princess's precious body was a highly irreverent act.
But Bu Eunseol reached out.
And relentlessly began to plaster the dirty mud on Princess Hwijeong's face.
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