Bu Eunseol set the scroll down, and his eyes deepened without end.
"So, she trained those who practice martial arts that alter the earth veins in order to open the treasure vault once they found it through the Dragon Pulse Map."
According to legend, after Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he ordered the sorcerer Xu Fu to create the Dragon Pulse Map in his search for the secret of immortality.
The Dragon Pulse Map charted perfectly the flow of the dragon pulses, the paths along which the energy of the earth runs through the mountains and rivers of the world.
Following it, treasures capable of gathering or altering the energy of the earth flowing throughout the entire Central Plains had been hidden away.
Furthermore, a dragon dwelling existed there.
It was said that practicing martial arts there would bring rapid progress, and staying there for a long time could even extend one's lifespan.
"It was not complete."
What the scroll showed were only parts of Shanxi and Henan.
In other words, the Empress Dowager had clearly sought out Great Master Wooden Buddha and obtained some of his cooperation.
"If so."
Bu Eunseol's eyes sparkled.
"The Great Master might be here."
And he immediately searched around the altar in haste.
If Wooden Buddha was here?
Then they would have shut him away in some utterly hidden place, as good as imprisoned.
'He is not here.'
However, no matter how much he searched, neither secretive mechanical devices nor hidden locations could be seen.
"Is there a need to use mechanical devices?"
After pondering for a long time, Bu Eunseol struck his forehead.
This Jade Dragon Pool was a place where unique earth veins flowed, and they were manipulating them freely.
From the beginning, secretive mechanisms or special formations were completely unnecessary.
Booooom!
Along with an ear-splitting roar, the altar shook violently.
The Thunder Spirit Energy Bu Eunseol infused clashed fiercely with the energy of Jade Dragon Pool, scattering purple lightning in all directions.
Crackle, crackle!
Cobweb-like cracks spread across the floor surface, and a faint light seeped out.
The fierce power of thunder had dug deep underground and was twisting the flow of the earth veins.
Rumble, rumble.
Tremors that shook the earth's axis rocked the entire cave without pause.
Ziiiing.
The ancient patterns carved into the surface of the altar began to emit light one by one, then started to squirm like living snakes.
Craaack.
At the same time, a single thin crack formed right at the center.
With a clanking sound, the massive altar began to split left and right.
Rrrrumble.
Where it split, stone stairs leading into deep darkness could be seen.
Perhaps it had been sealed for long ages.
A musty smell of earth rose from the stairs along with a cold chill.
Without hesitating, he ran down the stairs in one breath.
A passageway with refined walls and faintly glowing luminous stones embedded at regular intervals appeared.
The ceiling was high enough for two grown men to stand on each other's shoulders, and the width was wide enough for five people to walk side by side.
After running about a hundred jang along the passageway, his vision opened up completely, and a massive underground cavity revealed its majesty.
The height of it had to be dozens of jang.
Massive stalactites hung there precariously, as if they would fall at any moment, reflecting the light.
"So this is..."
On one side of the cavity, there was a small cave that looked as if a person could reside in it.
Upon entering, an old and shabby bed was placed in the middle of a long connecting passageway.
Next to the bed was a simple wooden table, upon which sat a teacup heavily covered in dust and a bronze candlestick.
On one side of the wall, tablets of old wood inscribed with scriptures stood neatly in a row.
There was an old brazier, a few earthenware vessels, and a water jar that looked to have been used for fetching water, though it now stood dry to the bottom.
"Great Master."
A low sigh escaped Bu Eunseol's lips.
There was no need to ponder who the owner of this place was, nor was there any need to unfold the Void Heart Command.
Old prayer beads lay at the head of the bed, Buddhist scripture tablets on the table, and Sanskrit characters remained faintly on the walls.
Just looking at those, one could tell at a glance that this was Great Master Wooden Buddha's residence.
"It has been a long time since you left."
Even the air was heavy and frigid, as if it had been stagnant for a long time, and the traces of a person's presence had completely vanished.
Judging by the amount of accumulated dust, it seemed to have been empty for quite a long while.
Bu Eunseol slowly walked inward.
In the deepest part of the cave, a rock wall that easily appeared to be over ten jang tall could be seen.
The surface was smoothly polished, but no special patterns or carvings were visible.
It was just a massive, ordinary wall with nothing on it.
'There is something.'
Approaching the rock wall, Bu Eunseol closed his eyes, unfolded the Void Heart Command, and slowly, carefully examined the energy inside.
'Oh no.'
Traces of torture were found throughout this vicinity.
Great Master Wooden Buddha had not been resting comfortably here, but had been enduring all sorts of humiliation and brutal torture.
Ziiiing.
At that moment, a hot energy accompanied by a low vibration was felt from Bu Eunseol's wrist.
No, accurately speaking, the Nine Heavens Cloud Splendor Pearl inside the Dragon-Phoenix Ring worn on his wrist was vibrating fiercely and reacting.
Ziiiiiing!
Because of that, even the Dragon-Phoenix Ring began to heat up, emitting a burning, scorching sensation.
And that heat flowed outward, then began to seep into the rock wall.
Sizzle.
The sound was like a hot branding iron laid against cold ice.
The heat spewing from the Dragon-Phoenix Ring turned into streaks of light and began to sweep across the rock wall.
Vwoom, vwoom, vwoom.
Wherever the light brushed past, something that had been previously invisible began to slowly emerge onto the surface.
There were numerous letters, and several pictures.
As if drawing a picture by sprinkling gold dust on black rice paper, mysterious patterns splendidly embroidered the entire rock wall.
'The Great Master...'
Bu Eunseol watched the scene with bated breath.
'He even knew that I possessed the Nine Heavens Cloud Splendor Pearl and the Dragon-Phoenix Ring.'
Wooden Buddha was seeing through everything.
On this rock wall, only one who possessed the remains of the True Demon and resonated with them could read what was written.
A message had been left behind, readable only by the one holding the Nine Heavens Cloud Splendor Pearl and the Dragon-Phoenix Ring.
"Great Master, you knew that I would come here."
That he would end up fighting against the Empress Dowager.
And that after numerous hardships he would eventually discover the secret altar of this Jade Dragon Pool.
Perhaps he had intentionally allowed himself to be captured by the Empress Dowager.
And had given the location of the dragon pulse where the First Emperor's treasure vault lay dormant as bait.
It was all in order to deliver a story from this place.
And now, the story Wooden Buddha wanted to convey was grandly unfolding on the rock wall.
Bu Eunseol, with a reverent posture, began to take in the letters and pictures carved on the rock wall one by one.
And then came something he had never expected at all.
One of the Baekri Family's secrets, along with the birth of the True Demon, was peeling off its veil.
* * *
It is said that heaven and earth escaped from chaos.
Because a stone containing the principles of the world was erected between heaven and earth.
Thus a complete world was created, but suffering was rampant in the human world.
This was because the cycle of birth, aging, illness, and death, endless desire and hatred, and repeated death and birth continued.
Because of this, ascetics emerged trying to escape from suffering, and after a long time, they finally came up with an answer capable of severing the suffering.
―'Life itself is a sea of suffering.'
To never be born again, that alone is true salvation.
This was a principle similar to the Nirvana preached by Buddha in later days.
To escape from reincarnation and never be born again into this agonizing world.
That was the perfect salvation attainable as a human, and the ultimate state found by the ascetics.
―'To escape from reincarnation, one must find the stone that is said to have separated heaven and earth.'
The ascetics meant to sever reincarnation.
So they began to search for the massive stone passed down in legends... the one said to have separated heaven and earth.
It is said that the laws and providence of the world are condensed there, and the wisdom, will, and authority of the Creator who made the world are contained within.
What if a human accepted that?
They would encroach upon the realm of gods and completely perish within causality.
One seeker was also searching for that stone.
In his youth, he experienced a terrible war.
His family died miserably right before his eyes. His wife, young children, and old parents all became cold corpses in a sea of blood.
He swore revenge, and after a long time, he sought out and killed all his enemies.
However, even after the revenge was over, the emptiness in his heart was not filled.
Rather, an even deeper darkness swallowed him.
The people he killed also had families, and their children were once again dreaming of revenge.
Hatred gave birth to hatred, and death called forth another death.
―'Life is endless suffering.'
After that day, he abandoned his sword and became a seeker.
He continuously underwent asceticism in snowy mountains, deserts, and jungles.
Repeating fasting and seated meditation, contemplation and repentance, as the years passed... before he knew it, his flesh had grown gaunt and his hair had turned white.
However, the embers of suffering in his heart still did not extinguish.
―'One must not be born. One must never set foot in this world of suffering again.'
Life is the beginning of suffering, and even death is merely a shackle leading to the next life.
To sever this dreadful fetter, the Chains of Samsara.
Thus reaching complete annihilation, never to be born again.
That alone was the perfect liberation dreamed of by all life.
Did the seeker's earnestness reach the heavens?
It was at the end of the world, in a chaotic rift where the boundaries of causality grow faint.
There, at last, he became the first to discover the stone that had separated heaven and earth.
It stood unimaginably tall.
―'At that end, all knowledge and laws will be swirling, and the will of a god that a mortal dares not understand will be pulsating.'
No matter how much he looked up, the end could not be seen. Just standing before that overwhelming presence felt as if his soul was being torn apart.
Clamp.
The seeker began to climb the stone.
There were many hollows all over it, and spaces where he could sit and rest for a while.
So at first he could climb with ease, but as he went on the hollows disappeared and the spaces to rest grew fewer.
And every time he placed his hand on the stone, all the sufferings of human affairs began to be felt.
Sometimes wicked demons tempted him, and heavenly generals who had come down from the sky blustered at him to go back down.
However, he did not give up.
In the meantime, his physical body had aged to the point of death.
Yet as if time flowed slowly, his body moved constantly, and the hellish pain felt in his head continued.
Had dozens, no, hundreds of years passed?
Finally, he was able to reach the summit.
There, only a single sparkling small stone sat alone.
―'Can that truly sever reincarnation? Can I escape from this hellish suffering?'
What was certain was that he had finally reached the end of this long, long journey.
Without hesitation, the seeker reached out his hand toward the shining stone.
Halt.
But soon, he stopped his hand.
An immense realization had pierced through his physical body.
"..."
Turning his body, he looked down at the dizzying expanse below.
And without hesitation, he threw his body.
Thud!
With a dull sound, the seeker plummeted to the ground.
Though it had taken dozens, hundreds of years to climb up.
To think falling took merely a second?
When he opened his eyes again, the shape of the stone was clearly visible.
What he had climbed was not a massive stone that separated heaven and earth...
It was just a small rock wall on a back mountain that could be seen anywhere.
―'Hahahaha!'
He burst into maniacal laughter.
In the end, it is the human mind that perceives the world.
An objective world does not exist.
All principles are not facts, but interpretations.
My eyes seem to see an unchanging reality, seem to see something objective.
In the end, they were merely projections of one's own mind.
Hell and heaven were not places, but states.
There are those who live an abundant life and yet experience hell every day in anxiety and greed.
And there are those who live feeling happiness and gratitude even while drinking rotten water.
Then he realized that everything is karma, and that will creates the world.
In that moment, the wisdom, will, and authority he had never obtained until now seeped in.
The sensation of his very existence expanding infinitely struck his brain.
The memories of the universe, the image of the moment heaven and earth were created, the laws determining the movement of the stars...
A single fragment of the authority overseeing the life and death of all living things surged into his soul like a flood.
This divine realization was liberation itself for a mortal being.
He had reached a realm unattainable by a human soul.
And any existence that did so would perish within causality, vanishing without a single speck of dust remaining.
However, an unexpected situation occurred.
―'Why did you make humans beings who have no choice but to suffer, without bestowing teachings?'
Humans were inherently incomplete beings, beings created to feel suffering.
For what reason? Why?
In the process of realization, feelings of anger arose in the seeker's heart.
Boom!
Was there such a thing as the will of Heaven's Mandate?
Or was it the principle of nature that occurred because he had reached something he should not have reached?
Originally, he would have reached the state of liberation and become one body with the universe.
When the mortal who reached the realm of transcendence felt a massive anger, suddenly Thunder Fire fell from the sky.
Boom!
The seeker's physical body was torn to shreds and scattered across the world, and that great realization vanished, but...
His soul was not annihilated.
As if he had absorbed a piece of a god's authority, he had become an exceptional being... outside the principles of the world.
One who had fallen out of the mold.
A being beyond standards.
One who deviated from principles and order.
A being who crossed the taboo.
One who defies Heaven's Mandate.
A fallen... Buddha.
He was a fallen Demon Buddha who had reached the state of liberation even before Buddha was born.
The soul of the seeker, having lost his physical body, could no longer advance to the state of annihilation.
Rather, he was bound to the world of life with an even stronger gravitational pull.
His soul was reborn, borrowing the body of a newborn baby somewhere in the world again, and then met death once more.
And keeping the memories of his past life intact, he was born yet again.
Ultimately, he realized the principles and gained insight into the providence of the world by repeating life.
In one life, he became the greatest martial artist in the world, and in another life, he became a wise king ruling the world.
In yet another life, he also became a demonic master who destroyed everything.
Every moment of death, his soul was not annihilated but reincarnated by borrowing a physical body again.
If he were to constantly repeat reincarnation like this?
One who deviates from principles and order and defies Heaven's Mandate.
A fallen Buddha who could bring about the end of the universe might appear once again.
Fortunately, nature inherently possesses the property of trying to return to its original state.
And whenever a certain being appears, it always strikes a balance through an opposing being.
When a positive force appears, a countering force is naturally born.
Where there is strength, there is weakness, and where there is life, death naturally arises.
Because if it leans to one side, all systems will collapse.
It maintains equilibrium by creating an opposing weight.
A being had been born who could accumulate transcendental knowledge and realization the more he died.
And so the Primeval Dragon was born, capable of annihilating that infinite knowledge, and a bloodline was born capable of inheriting that power.
That was exactly the Baekri Family.
There was only a single destiny given to them.
The seeker repeats reincarnation to obtain realization and knowledge again.
They were to stop him from being born once again as a Demon Buddha capable of severing the providence and principles of the universe.
Therefore, the Baekri Family pursued the one who repeated reincarnation.
No matter what great achievements he accumulated, what abyss of despair he fell into, or what field he stood at the pinnacle of.
They found him without fail and pierced his heart.
They killed the one who reincarnated with the authority of the Primeval Dragon, every time.
And every time, the divine wisdom and worldly principles that he had built up over repeated lives were annihilated along with him.
At first, they considered it a natural course of logic.
However, as generations passed, the descendants of the Baekri Family who had cut the man down came to realize something.
―'This knowledge is far too precious.'
What they were annihilating was not simply the memories of one being.
The secrets of the world's creation, forgotten primeval techniques, medical arts capable of curing diseases, the wisdom piercing through the movement of the stars...
The act of punishing the one who tried to tear down nature was, paradoxically, the act of destroying the most precious treasures of the world.
―'Losing this great knowledge forever is another tragedy for humanity.'
After agonizing, the Baekri Family made a decision.
―'We shall kill the one who reincarnates, but preserve his knowledge.'
The Baekri Family had a change of heart.
They attempted to accomplish the contradictory task of destruction and preservation, and created two secret arts for that purpose.
Dragon Transformation Manifestation.
The ultimate secret technique that perfectly embodies the authority of the Primeval Dragon in the physical body.
Beyond simply cloaking oneself in power, it temporarily transforms the caster into a demigod that crosses the boundary between life and death.
The secret art of Soul Separation.
A skill that splits the mind in two and places it in one vessel.
There was the corrupted will carried by the man's knowledge, and the will of nature that demanded without fail that knowledge be annihilated.
It was a defensive measure to protect the caster's soul from both.
Based on these two secret techniques, the Baekri Family went against the will of nature, unfolded a massive barrier, and hid their presence.
And they left behind their own secret vault.
The secrets contained in that secret vault were shocking enough to astonish even heaven and earth.
―'When meeting death upon the cycle of reincarnation, the fleeting moment when his physical body collapses and his soul transfers to the vessel of the next life.'
There exists an extremely short gap where all the causality of the world stops.
The Baekri Family aimed for precisely that moment.
The one who became a demigod through Dragon Transformation Manifestation intervenes in that gap.
To forcibly peek at the fragment of knowledge and authority contained in the soul and steal a part of it.
However, this god-like knowledge is an unbearable deadly poison to a mortal.
This is when the secret art of Soul Separation demonstrates its true worth.
One personality fights against the man's divinity and endures that will.
Meanwhile, the other personality safely engraves and seals the stolen knowledge into its own soul.
This was exactly the darkness the Baekri Family ultimately hid.
―'Why monopolize this precious knowledge, capable of saving countless people?'
In the end, there was one within the Baekri Family.
One who learned the family's secret... that they were becoming beings like the man who goes against nature.
Through a new contract with the Primeval Dragon, he tried to prevent such a thing from happening.
His name was none other than Baekri Muha.
* * *
The letters and pictures on the stone wall slowly faded away.
A devastated expression brushed past Bu Eunseol's face as he watched it.
He had already guessed for a long time that the Baekri Family was not a place pursuing pure justice.
But to think that the holy family known to resist the True Demon was stealing his knowledge?
In the end, the power of Dragon Transformation Manifestation, and the birth of dual personalities, were merely tools to steal the True Demon's knowledge.
Thanks to the True Demon, the Baekri Family was able to develop infinitely... and had continuously monopolized that knowledge all along.
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