After leaving the Imperial Palace Secret Vault, Bu Eunseol distributed the Dragon Tablets.
He gave them to Bukgung Ryeong, Nae Bihon, and So Okrim, whose Infinite Enlightenment had already manifested.
He also gave them to Yoo Unryong, Myo Cheonwoo, Do Cheonlin, Seo Jinha, Tang Gon, Black Leopard, Namgung Un, and the others whose Infinite Enlightenment would soon manifest.
They were not mere treasures.
Each was a divine object containing Dragon Qi, a unique power that belonged to neither the Baekri Family nor the True Demon.
They were also ropes that bound their destinies to the destiny of one who had escaped the flow of heavenly secrets.
Simply put, the Dragon Tablets had connected them to Bu Eunseol.
They had become a community sharing one destiny with Bu Eunseol, a man unaffected by heavenly secrets.
Within the Absolute Domain of the Martial Soul Society, Bu Eunseol met the old man of the Sacred Domain once more.
He showed the old man the remaining Dragon Tablets and declared confidently.
"Their destinies are now one with mine."
Bu Eunseol continued in a low voice.
"Examine the heavenly secrets again. Like me, they should now exist without disrupting the flow or its ordained order even after their Covenants are broken."
"Hmm."
The old man of the Sacred Domain opened his mouth, unable to conceal his surprise.
"To think you would do something so absurd."
He spoke as if he could scarcely believe it.
"You actually brought back a Treasure of the Son of Heaven, something only the Emperor can use?"
Such a treasure could be possessed only by the Son of Heaven. Even if the Emperor wished to give it away, he could not.
How in the world had Bu Eunseol obtained it?
"Just how did you coax the Emperor into this?"
"We merely became acquainted."
"Hmm."
The old man swallowed another groan and shook his head.
Bu Eunseol would never explain the details anyway, so there was no point in asking.
"There were several people in the past who tried the same method as you."
The old man revealed something astonishing.
"But all of them failed. Dragon Qi can prevent interference with the flow of heavenly secrets, but it could not bind them beneath a single destiny."
Looking back through the martial world's long history, quite a few people had attempted such a method.
Every one of them had failed.
Even if they all possessed treasures containing Dragon Qi, they could not be bound within a single flow.
The result would have been the same even if they had used treasures containing far stronger Dragon Qi.
The flow of heavenly secrets was akin to destiny itself.
Binding multiple people beneath one destiny was impossible even for twins.
The old man released a deep sigh and stared at Bu Eunseol.
"Yet you accomplished it."
By merely distributing the Dragon Tablets, Bu Eunseol had bound the destinies of those around him together.
That was not because of the Dragon Tablets' power.
It was because of what those people were to him.
Every one of them was a friend who would cast aside his life without hesitation for Bu Eunseol.
In other words, they had already shared one destiny with him before they ever received the tablets.
"Very well."
The old man nodded with evident pride.
"I acknowledge it."
He then spoke decisively.
"I acknowledge that you released the Covenants binding those around you without defying the flow of heavenly secrets."
Bu Eunseol clasped his hands and bent deeply at the waist, offering the utmost courtesy.
"Thank you."
"Heh heh."
The old man's laughter sounded like a deep sigh.
"You did not bow to this old man even when I released the Covenant that would have severed your head."
"..."
"Nor did you bow when I told you the secret of your bloodline or warned you of the danger surrounding you."
The old man shook his head.
"Yet when I save those around you from danger, you bend your waist and lower your head to me."
His expression filled with sorrow.
"Must you, your father, and your grandfather all live without seeking happiness for yourselves?"
There was the Seven-Finger Demon Blade, Bu Zhanyang.
There was also the Greatest Enigma of the Martial World, Baekri Muha.
Both were godlike men who could have left immortal names in the martial world.
Yet one bore the infamy of a Great Murder Star driven mad by slaughter.
The other remained outside the public eye, living like a recluse.
Both had saved countless lives.
And now, there was Bu Eunseol.
He had abandoned his own happiness and moved solely for the greater good.
"Those words alone assure me that the path I have walked was not mistaken."
Bu Eunseol adopted a more respectful manner of speech and bowed once again.
"Elder."
The old man had always treated him with goodwill, trusting him and waiting patiently.
He had acknowledged that Bu Eunseol's father and grandfather had walked the right path, even while grieving over Bu Eunseol's own future.
Only now was Bu Eunseol certain that this was someone he could truly trust and respect.
"Enough."
The old man waved a hand with unexpected coldness.
"This old man merely wishes to use you as I please. If you trust others so easily, one day you will beat the ground in bitter regret."
"Would someone trying to use me truly say such a thing as you just did?"
"You still do not understand how treacherous the martial world can be."
The old man murmured with a pained expression.
"Countless people in the martial world pretend to be good for decades to achieve their aims, committing evil while wearing the mask of a righteous hero."
Bu Eunseol did not agree.
"It is true that most people are selfish and not particularly righteous."
He looked directly at the old man and continued calmly.
"But sometimes they show kindness from the heart, and sometimes they make the right choice by obeying a moment of conscience."
"What are you trying to say?"
"Humans are merely frail beings who live while wavering on the boundary between good and evil. That is precisely why the righteous are so much more noble."
Bu Eunseol's eyes held a light as hot as a furnace.
"I do not wish to condemn or distrust human nature itself."
The old man's gaze shook violently.
How many people at Bu Eunseol's age had ever contemplated human nature so deeply?
The old man gave a faint nod.
At last, he understood how Bu Eunseol had raised his true martial enlightenment so rapidly without being born with a special physique.
He also understood how Bu Eunseol had accomplished so much at such a young age.
"Still, I will offer you one piece of advice."
After maintaining his silence, the old man drew a deep breath and spoke.
"Avoid becoming close to the Emperor if you can."
Becoming close to the Emperor was nearly impossible in the first place.
Nevertheless, the old man spoke with absolute conviction.
"Your destiny overlaps with the Emperor's."
It was a warning that remaining near the Emperor would cause Bu Eunseol's destiny to fluctuate violently.
The Emperor stood at the center of immense power.
The moment Bu Eunseol remained at his side, he would become entangled in countless conspiracies and dangers.
Moreover, what the two pursued would eventually collide, turning them into fated enemies who could not coexist.
"I have no reason to oppose the Emperor."
"This is not merely a question of opposition."
The old man spoke firmly.
"If one of you prospers, the other will fall into danger. You will enter a relationship in which each determines the other's rise and fall."
Only then did Bu Eunseol grasp the meaning behind his words and release a sigh.
"That will never happen. Once I complete every grand design, I intend to return to life as an unaffiliated wanderer."
"That is only your hope."
The old man's expression remained certain.
"Once you accomplish your great undertaking, people will inevitably follow you and raise you to the summit."
His expression turned grave.
"When that time comes, even if you refuse, the wishes of the people will have no choice but to place you upon the imperial throne."
When Bu Eunseol's expression darkened, the old man waved his hand and changed the subject.
"In any case, this method will not last forever. If you changed the flow of heavenly secrets, someone else may eventually do the same."
"Of course."
Bu Eunseol answered evenly.
"But by then, everything will be over."
The old man studied Bu Eunseol for a long time.
He possessed none of the peculiar arrogance or confidence common to young and outstanding martial artists.
Instead, he was as cautious and circumspect as an old man reflecting upon his life. He seemed to possess no personal desires at all.
The old man found that deeply regrettable and unsettling.
The actions of young talents were not difficult to predict.
Their actions were always limited by their self-interest.
Bu Eunseol, however, was different.
Nothing was more frightening than someone who held no lingering attachment to the world.
"What do you intend to do next?"
Bu Eunseol gave a soft snort.
"If I ask you something, will you answer?"
There were far too many things he wanted to ask.
He wanted to know about the Baekri Family's true seat, the contract concerning the Primeval Dragon, and the True Demon and True Demon Palace.
He wanted to know the identities of the Realm Lords who remained hidden and the goals pursued by the Three Realms.
But he understood now.
The old man would never tell him.
"Had you been a slightly more ordinary person, I would gladly have answered every one of your questions from the beginning."
The old man finally voiced the honest thoughts he had long kept buried in his heart.
"But you are one who defies the flow of heavenly secrets and carves out your own destiny. I must not interfere with you."
Bu Eunseol belonged to no heavenly secrets and was forging his own destiny.
What if the old man carelessly revealed something and caused him to act unexpectedly?
Not only could the flow of heavenly secrets become twisted, but even the plan that had been unfolding for so long could be ruined.
"I merely hope the Sacred Domain and I never become enemies."
"Because you cannot oppose this Domain yet?"
"If I were to bring down the Sacred Domain..."
Bu Eunseol answered calmly.
"Would you not be left with nowhere to go?"
The old man stared blankly for a moment.
"Heh heh heh."
Eventually, he could no longer suppress the laughter forcing its way through his lips.
"Hahahaha!"
His hair might have been graying and his face filled with wrinkles.
Yet neither the Heavenly Demon Emperor, the greatest person of the current generation, nor the Realm Lords of the Three Realms, nor the bloodlines of the Baekri Family and True Demon regarded him as old, infirm, or worthy of protective respect.
No one else under heaven saw him that way.
Bu Eunseol, however, regarded him as nothing more than an ordinary old man.
"I will watch the path you take."
The old man stopped laughing and stared directly into Bu Eunseol's eyes before vanishing in an instant.
* * *
Bu Eunseol stepped upon the empty air and leaped, unleashing a sky-shaking blast as he broke through the wind.
He unfolded the sky-treading flight art.
He shot forward at a speed even the wind could not pursue.
'Every moment counts.'
A long silver-white afterimage remained across the night sky behind him like a scar that refused to fade.
As he accelerated further, the edges of his vision blurred until he resembled a keen sword flying through the sky.
Shwaaak!
By the time the flickering scenery below had shrunk to the size of fireflies, Bu Eunseol had already reached the vicinity of Gangnam.
Glint.
The mysterious orb A-Yeon had given him served as a signpost in the darkness.
He had dealt with the Covenant, the most urgent matter.
Now he was following A-Yeon's orb toward the secret vault his father had created, the one the Empress Dowager had discovered.
'Father's secret vault.'
The Baekri Family's secret vaults were scattered throughout the Central Plains, but he had never imagined that his father had created one of his own.
Even more surprisingly, there were several of them, and one had somehow been discovered by the Empress Dowager.
'Could it be...'
Several colors of light swept through Bu Eunseol's eyes as he contemplated something deeply.
'No. I can think later.'
Glint.
The orb that had been blinking to guide his direction began flashing faster.
He had almost reached his destination.
'There.'
Bu Eunseol descended without hesitation.
His destination was neither a deep mountain where one might expect to find a mysterious secret vault nor a secluded valley surrounded by strange rock formations like a folding screen.
It was the gloomy entrance to an underground sewer, where a nose-searing stench seeped deep into his lungs.
"So there is a secret vault in this place..."
Bu Eunseol looked down at the orb once more.
The light shooting from it still pointed toward the underground sewer.
"Martial artists certainly would not have found it in a place like this."
Unless they had committed a crime and were fleeing, ordinary martial artists had no reason to enter such a place.
Bu Eunseol, however, had practically lived in underground sewers during his days as a vagrant.
He had also entered them occasionally during his journeys through the martial world, so the surroundings were not particularly unfamiliar.
Step, step.
He entered the sewer.
No light penetrated the darkness, the stench of rot hung heavily in the air, and low, agonized moans intermittently echoed from the shadows.
They came from sick and destitute people considered lower even than beggars, people known as hungry ghosts.
Bu Eunseol released a deep sigh and drew upon his internal power. Golden light began blossoming from all ten of his fingers.
Twang, twang.
Glittering points of light cut through the darkness with every step he took.
With his immense internal energy, he was precisely opening the acupoints of the groaning vagrants.
Sizzle, sizzle.
A faint radiance shone from the bodies of the sick after their acupoints opened.
Their organs had already begun to rot, so they would not live much longer regardless.
'Had I not come, it would be another matter. But now that I am here, I cannot simply leave them like this.'
Bu Eunseol wanted to do what little he could.
He wanted to lessen their pain for however long they remained alive.
Even at the cost of his own internal energy, he continued opening their acupoints.
The moans echoing through the sewer gradually subsided.
After opening all the vagrants' acupoints, he eventually reached a place filled with nothing but damp moss and the stench of filth.
Pat!
The light of the orb that had guided him until now vanished as if it had never existed.
Pitch-black darkness swallowed him in an instant.
"Here?"
He furrowed his brow and examined the sewer.
All he could see were pools of stagnant, rotten water, sticky slime flowing down the walls, and the damp chill he felt with every breath.
There was no hidden chamber, nor had any formation art or barrier been installed.
"There is not even enough space here to call it a secret vault."
At the very least, a secret vault required enough room to exist.
Even when he unfolded the Void Heart Command or the Mind's Eye, he could detect no concealed space.
"Hmm."
Bu Eunseol swallowed a groan and sank into deep thought.
When no answer came, he took a square metal fragment from his robes.
It was the divine object and key made with the True Demon's knowledge that he had recovered from Baekri Jaha's prosthetic arm.
"This is a key capable of changing into any desired shape when placed against a metal surface."
Since he could not find the secret vault, he changed his approach.
He would instead find a place where the key could be used.
The result was the same.
No matter how carefully he looked, he saw only rotting wood, lumps of stone, and viscous sewage.
There was no metal anywhere.
"I need at least some metal to press this against."
Growing frustrated, Bu Eunseol ventured farther into the sewer, but he found nowhere to use the key.
"Did she give me the wrong location?"
After considering it carefully, he soon shook his head.
The glowing orb had always guided him to its designated location with absolute accuracy.
In other words, though he could not yet see it, a secret vault had definitely been installed here.
"Let me think calmly."
Bu Eunseol refused to give up. He carefully examined the sewer while considering how he might find the secret vault.
Slosh, slosh.
Black water splashed with every step.
How long had he walked?
At last, he sensed something strange.
'It is heavy.'
The ground near the place where the light had disappeared felt peculiar.
It gripped his feet far too heavily to be ordinary mud.
The sensation beneath his soles was also strangely gritty.
Bu Eunseol stopped, bent at the waist, and reached downward.
Without hesitation, he scooped up a handful of whatever lay at the bottom of the black, viscous sewage.
Sssslip.
What escaped between his fingers was not soil.
The grains were far heavier, sharper, and colder than dirt.
"This is..."
Bu Eunseol's eyes flashed in the darkness. He knew this sensation better than most.
"Iron Scales."
He had once learned metallurgy from the Iron Master and worked as a blacksmith at the Huang Family Forge.
When hundreds of blacksmiths spent their days and nights hammering iron and crafting objects, fragments shed by the screaming metal accumulated around them.
Those thousands upon thousands of metal flakes came from that process.
Blacksmiths called them the scales of iron, the Iron Scales.
Yet countless Iron Scales had accumulated in the mire of this underground sewer.
How could that be?
"Now I understand."
A faint smile spread across Bu Eunseol's lips as he finally grasped the secret of the vault.
He had been standing atop an immense swamp of metal all along.
"If the key can change shape, it should also be able to gather this scattered powder into a single form."
Without hesitation, Bu Eunseol threw the square metal fragment in his hand into the pitch-black mire beneath his feet.
Splash!
Small ripples spread for a moment.
Then silence settled over the sewer.
Vwoooom!
Suddenly, the entire sewer began vibrating and shaking as though struck by an earthquake.
Bubble, bubble.
Even the sewage covering the floor churned like boiling water as a bizarre phenomenon began.
Blub, blub.
Particles gleaming silver separated from the black muddy water and began rising into the air.
It looked as though tens of thousands of fireflies were soaring from within the pitch-black water.
Vwoom, vwoom, vwoom.
A powerful vortex gradually formed around the point where the metal fragment had fallen.
Cruuunch.
The iron powder tangled and fused together with a shriek of friction. In the same instant, the filthy, stinking sewage vanished.
All impurities disappeared, and only crystals of pure iron settled beneath the floor once more.
Clack, clack.
The sunken Iron Scales entwined around one another.
They began erecting pillars upon the now-transparent floor.
Walls and a ceiling gradually followed, forming the interior of a vast hall. At last, a single door appeared.
At the deepest point of the underground sewer trodden by the hungry ghosts, the entrance to a secret vault took shape.
It possessed a magnificent and overwhelming beauty.
"This is the door to the secret vault Father created."
Bu Eunseol let out an exclamation.
Unlike the Baekri Family's secret vaults, his father's vault had been hidden in a place where the refuse discarded by the world gathered.
"They said the stones floating within the Baekri Family's secret vaults were fragments of the True Demon's knowledge."
The Knowledge Stones in those vaults could transmit any knowledge, but that knowledge did not belong to the Baekri Family.
It had been left behind by the True Demon as he died, after accumulating knowledge beyond human limits through countless reincarnations.
No, to be precise, they were fragments of knowledge the Baekri Family had stolen.
Had his father also left behind the True Demon's knowledge?
"It would be best if he left me a way to enter the Baekri Family."
Murmuring softly, Bu Eunseol opened the door formed in the floor and entered.
An unexpected sight unfolded before him.
"A guest arrived before me."
The vault was empty.
He had expected a vault either intricately constructed or imbued with mysterious power.
Yet after overcoming countless hardships to reach it, he found nothing inside.
It was as though a giant had entered and swept everything clean from floor to ceiling.
The vault was perfectly empty.
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