As Bu Eunseol walked forward slowly, a hollow laugh escaped him for reasons he could not explain.
"Why does Heaven always send down a trial first, only to open a path for the one who endures it?"
Not once had he obtained or resolved anything with ease.
Of course, that was true not only for Bu Eunseol.
It was likely a trial Heaven imposed upon all humanity.
But Bu Eunseol did more than overcome trials.
Each time, he crossed the boundary between life and death.
It was only natural that the trials sometimes felt cruel.
Vwoom.
When he stepped inside, a resplendent river of stars flowed through the chamber instead of darkness, bright enough to sting his eyes.
The mysterious stones embedded across the ceiling reflected perfectly upon the black-jade floor, creating the illusion that he was walking through the heart of the cosmos.
"This is..."
A strange light entered Bu Eunseol's eyes.
"The secret vault Father created?"
It was certainly a mysterious space, but nothing more.
There were none of the mysterious stones he had seen floating in the air at the Baekri Family, nor any sense that time had stopped.
No unusual phenomenon occurred either.
Only the scent of ink brushed his nose, as though he had entered an ancient library.
The interior was completely empty.
"In that case..."
Bu Eunseol drew up the Emotion-Severing Secret and focused it into his left arm.
Chime.
The chains materialized once more.
Thooom!
A low vibration followed.
More than ten jang ahead, a space that had been invisible until now appeared.
When he summoned the chains, an opening like the mouth of a cave manifested before him.
"As I thought, the chains were the key."
Shrrrk.
He dragged the chains behind him and stepped inside.
His sense of gravity and time grew indistinct.
The ground beneath his feet felt solid, yet also carried the buoyancy of standing upon water.
It felt similar to entering the Baekri Family's secret vault in the past.
"Damn."
Bu Eunseol looked around and released a deep sigh.
Every cluster of stones that had been floating in the air was shattered.
"It was the Chains of Samsara."
The waves generated by the collision between the Chains of Samsara and Eternal Erasure Without a Trace had reached even this secret vault hidden away from the world.
"Was it unavoidable?"
The waves emanating from the Chains of Samsara pierced every object, regardless of its form.
Even if the secret vault had been concealed dozens of jang underground, there was no chance the stones could have remained unharmed.
Ssk.
When he withdrew the Emotion-Severing Secret, the chains in his hand vanished without a trace.
Float.
But at that moment, one of the fragments scattered across the floor took on a faint glow and slowly rose into the air.
Vwoom.
And that fragment was resonating with the piece of metal in Bu Eunseol's robes, the key to the secret vault.
Among the debris that had nearly lost all shape, the one relatively intact stone was reacting to the key.
"Is this all that remains...?"
Bu Eunseol slowly brought the key in his robes toward the light.
Jangle.
The energy circling his left hand like motes of light clung to the metal fragment.
Fwaaash.
The world suddenly turned pure white.
Unfamiliar memories began pouring into Bu Eunseol's consciousness like a waterfall.
* * *
Deep within the Baekri Family's main estate was a forbidden area that no one could enter without the Family Head's permission.
Beyond a door sealed by an absolute Golden Lock Secret Art that not even a god could undo was an archive that seemed to stretch on without end.
Beside a white-haired elder walked a boy carrying an oil lamp.
"Is this also one of the main family's secret vaults?"
"A secret vault..."
The elder's voice was heavy and subdued.
"You could call it a place even more secret than that."
Every shelf was packed with bamboo slips and parchment scrolls, yet not a speck of dust could be seen.
They looked brand new.
It was proof that the place was maintained regularly.
The boy following behind noticed a mysterious stone inside a transparent glass box.
The stone gave off an uncanny radiance that seemed capable of bewitching a person's soul.
As the boy unconsciously reached toward the transparent box, the elder spoke in a low voice.
"Touch it carelessly and your brain will burst, killing you."
"My brain will burst?"
"Each stone contains the lifetime of knowledge accumulated by a True Demon who once dominated an era."
The elder narrowed his eyes.
He stared at the stone for some time.
"Let me see. This one contains the Returning Gate Fate-Wresting Golden Needle Art, said to make even a dying man leap to his feet."
"The Returning Gate Fate-Wresting Golden Needle Art."
The boy's eyes widened.
It was a legendary acupuncture secret art created a thousand years ago by the Divine Physician.
He was known as the Medicine Saint.
And yet it had been created from the knowledge of a True Demon?
"Then why has no one learned this needle art? It could save countless lives by itself."
A bitter smile touched the elder's lips.
"Because no talent capable of mastering it perfectly has appeared yet."
Then he continued in a low voice.
"It forces knowledge that could not be mastered in an entire lifetime into the mind in a single instant."
The boy tilted his head.
"Then will it remain here forever?"
"Yes. Until a worthy talent is born... Whether that takes a hundred years or two hundred, we will continue to wait."
The boy tilted his head again.
"Is there any need to wait?"
He pointed to a secret manual on one of the shelves bearing the title Returning Gate Fate-Wresting Golden Needle Art.
"It seems someone from the main family who already mastered it recorded that knowledge in a book."
"Heh heh. You noticed."
The elder gestured toward the surrounding shelves.
"Indeed. This library contains the knowledge of True Demons organized into books."
He continued calmly.
"This secret vault is not merely an archive. It is where the knowledge our ancestors gathered since primordial times lies dormant."
The elder glanced at a bamboo slip beside him.
"Martial arts, astronomy, calendrical science, engineering... The lifelong achievements of the greatest minds in every field are here."
"Then..."
The boy spoke with a bright expression.
"Would revealing this knowledge to the entire world not make it a better place?"
"We cannot do that."
"Why not?"
"If this knowledge spread throughout the world, could you bear the chaos it caused?"
The elder continued solemnly.
"That knowledge could bring everything to ruin. The greater the power of the knowledge, once it falls into the hands of one unqualified to wield it..."
"Mankind would choose the path of self-destruction."
If people lacked the ability to control knowledge properly, it would inevitably be abused.
Greed, arrogance, and destruction awaited at the end.
"This is not oppression, but protection. It is no different from refusing to place a dangerous blade in the hands of a child who cannot yet tell right from wrong."
The elder's gaze turned cold.
"That is why the main family guards this knowledge instead of releasing it into the world..."
"Only when someone of our bloodline capable of bearing it appears do we pass it down."
The boy asked cautiously.
"Then the books in this library..."
"They are merely a means by which the main family protects the knowledge."
In other words, they existed solely for the Baekri Family, which guarded that knowledge.
The boy could not understand.
They feared the indiscriminate abuse of knowledge.
If so, they needed only select worthy people and teach them.
Besides, they had already recorded the knowledge in books.
Even if no one could master all of it, learning only part would surely make people's lives more peaceful.
Why did the Baekri Family monopolize that knowledge and use it only for itself?
"Would that not mean all this beneficial knowledge ultimately belongs to the main family alone?"
The boy continued carefully.
"Geniuses will always be born. The founder of Nangyang Pavilion perfectly systematized practical martial arts that had remained vague until then, something neither the main family nor the True Demon Palace managed to create. And the Martial Emperor as well..."
"You are right about that, but..."
The elder's eyes gleamed coldly.
"If this knowledge leaks out, the balance of the world will collapse. And amid that chaos, the first to fall will be the main family."
The elder paused, sighed, and began speaking again.
"Such knowledge once leaked out in the past."
"The main family... No, the entire world nearly met its destruction."
His expression grew increasingly grave as he continued.
"When greedy men obtain such knowledge, they ultimately invite ruin."
After another pause, the elder looked down at the boy.
"How would you solve this problem?"
The boy's eyes sparkled.
"Then why not destroy it?"
He continued without hesitation.
"Geniuses will continue to appear, and the world will continue to advance regardless."
The elder asked with interest.
"Then what of the main family?"
"Is the main family's preservation of the True Demon's knowledge not itself a violation of Heaven's Mandate?"
The oil lamp suddenly flickered, sending countless shadows rippling between the endless shelves.
It was as though the vengeful spirits of the knowledge imprisoned in those books were howling.
"The main family can detect when the endlessly reincarnating True Demon enters a period of decline, and it possesses the power to erase all the knowledge he accumulated during that life."
The boy spoke clearly.
"Whatever the True Demon may do, the main family need only fulfill its own duty."
A deathly silence descended for a moment.
"Heh heh heh... Hahahaha!"
The elder threw back his head in laughter and nodded.
"You are right. Quite right."
He slapped his knee repeatedly as he nodded.
"Showing you this place was worthwhile."
When his laughter subsided, the elder reached out and gently stroked the boy's head.
"You must become the Family Head in the future. Then... you must set right the main family, which is becoming a specter obsessed with knowledge. Do you understand?"
The boy bared his white teeth in a confident smile.
"Yes."
The boy possessed beautiful features like a celestial immortal child and deep, limpid eyes.
His name was Baekri Muha.
* * *
Crack.
With the sound of something breaking, Bu Eunseol returned to his senses.
"So that was it."
This had been his father's memory.
The Baekri Family had dealt with True Demons over successive generations.
Throughout that process, it had preserved the knowledge it accumulated.
That knowledge could have benefited the world, yet it had never been shared with or passed down to the people.
Only members of the Baekri Family monopolized it and inherited it through the generations.
"As I thought..."
Savoring the lingering memory, Bu Eunseol released a deep sigh.
"The Baekri Family was not righteous."
The Baekri Family had taken the knowledge extorted from True Demons and used it to rule over humanity, manipulate the world, and play at being gods.
"It would have been better if they had remained a righteous family, even if the True Demon destroyed them."
He could not hide his bitterness.
The Baekri Family had once been a righteous house that opposed the True Demon.
Consumed by greed for knowledge, it had changed into a collection of specters that sought to govern everything.
"Then did Father venture into the martial world and create this secret vault... to reveal the truth of the Baekri Family?"
Because nearly all the stones inside the vault had been destroyed, he had obtained only a fragment of the story his father left behind about the Baekri Family.
"It cannot be that simple."
Many shattered stones lay within the vault.
They must have contained various kinds of knowledge or other memories beyond this account.
The problem was that martial artists who knew nothing of the True Demon could receive those memories without ever understanding the truth behind them.
"In the end, Father wanted a particular person to see them."
Bu Eunseol's eyes trembled.
"Someone who possessed the Chains of Samsara."
A person who carried the Chains of Samsara and could enter a secret vault of the Baekri Family.
Was there not only one such being?
"Could he have meant to deliver his will to the True Demon of this generation?"
That made no sense.
His father wished to restore the Baekri Family to its proper path.
Why would he create a secret vault to convey that wish to a True Demon?
"Was it the false Baekri Geomha?"
Baekri Yeha's face suddenly entered his mind.
The woman who had once been his betrothed had returned to the Baekri Family and was likely engaged in a secret struggle for power with the false Baekri Geomha even now.
Could that man truly be a True Demon?
Had he heard Father's message and sought to become Family Head so he could destroy all the Baekri Family's knowledge?
"But the Chains of Samsara have already been passed down to those who were not True Demons."
The Seven-Finger Demon Blade, Bu Zhanyang.
His grandfather was said to have inherited the complete chains of a True Demon.
Perhaps his father had been asking for help from his grandfather, who had vanished without a trace.
If not that, why had he created a secret vault opened by the Chains of Samsara?
"I don't know."
Bu Eunseol placed a hand against his forehead.
Too few clues remained.
There was only one certainty.
In the end, the Baekri Family was also... nothing more than a place that had to disappear.
* * *
Late at night, within a hall at the westernmost edge of the Palace of Compassionate Tranquility, lay a secret room that not even palace maids, let alone outsiders, could enter freely.
The place was filled with a chill like a cave buried deep underground.
Several Night Pearls set into the ceiling emitted a bluish glow, dimly illuminating the room.
Inside that secret chamber, a woman wearing a magnificent phoenix robe embroidered with a golden phoenix sat upon a high chair.
The Empress Dowager.
Though this woman, the most powerful person on the continent, was already past sixty, she retained both her majesty and beauty.
Her eyes seemed untouched by the passage of time.
They overflowed with more vitality than those of a young person.
Their light seemed capable of seeing through a person's every organ.
A shadow dressed in night clothes lay prostrate at her feet.
He did not move.
He did not make the slightest sound as he breathed.
Had one not seen him with one's own eyes, it would have been difficult even to notice that another person was present.
"Martial Soul Command Lord Bu Eunseol did not die. He returned safely to Majeon."
The Empress Dowager's brow immediately furrowed. The shadow lowered his head again and continued.
"According to the message the Law Envoy sent at the moment of his death, Bu Eunseol was undoubtedly killed after his heart was pierced... I do not know how he managed to return to Majeon."
The Empress Dowager remained silent, and an icy current swept through the room.
As the freezing air spread, the shadow spoke with even greater deference.
"What is certain is that since becoming the Emperor's blade, he has interfered with our affairs at every turn."
He continued.
"It is clear that he was also responsible for raiding the secret vault at Jade Dragon Pool, and we have confirmed that he killed the Poison Hand Demonic Sword on the Emperor's orders."
"Hmm."
"It seems the Emperor did not appoint him Commander of the Dragon Scale Guard without reason. He survived the Law Envoy's attack inside the secret vault, after all."
Silence descended for a moment.
The light of the Night Pearls made the Empress Dowager's face appear even colder.
She slowly began tapping a finger against the chair.
Tap. Tap. Tap.
The rhythmic sound echoed through the room. The shadow bowed his head even lower.
It was a habit that emerged whenever the Empress Dowager was deep in thought, and those moments were when she was most dangerous.
"He will become a future threat."
She slowly rose.
The hem of her phoenix robe brushed the floor with a whisper.
The Empress Dowager approached the window and gazed out at the palace shrouded in darkness.
Far in the distance was the roof of the Palace of Heavenly Purity, where the Emperor resided.
"Bu Eunseol."
When she spoke the name aloud, an inscrutable light gathered around the Empress Dowager's eyes.
"He is not merely skilled in martial arts. His intellect is outstanding, and more importantly, he does not follow the flow of heavenly secrets."
The prostrate shadow trembled faintly.
A cold sneer had appeared at the corners of the Empress Dowager's mouth.
"Those who stray from the flow of heavenly secrets cannot be killed easily. Attempt to kill them in a single stroke, and you will instead invite their counterattack."
Muttering in a low voice, the Empress Dowager slowly turned around.
An insidious smile spread across her face in the glow of the Night Pearls.
"Shall I make use of the Princess this time?"
"Do you mean Princess Hwijeong?"
The Empress Dowager spoke quietly.
"A man like him is difficult to kill at once. But if we drive a wedge between him and the Princess and reclaim the Dragon-Phoenix Ring... even the Emperor will find it difficult to continue valuing him."
Bu Eunseol had become Commander of the Dragon Scale Guard only because he was a candidate for Imperial Son-in-law who possessed the Dragon-Phoenix Ring, and thus had the justification that he would one day become a member of the Imperial Family.
But what if Princess Hwijeong's feelings changed?
Even if the Emperor continued entrusting him with important missions, he could not keep Bu Eunseol embroiled in the Imperial Family's struggles forever.
"But the Princess possesses Dragon Qi no weaker than the Emperor's. More importantly, has she not always been entirely uninterested in men?"
"That was not because the child's Dragon Qi was so extraordinary, but because she was wholly indifferent to romantic affection."
The Empress Dowager's gaze deepened.
"But Bu Eunseol taught her the tender feelings shared between a man and a woman. In other words, the gates of her heart are no longer sealed as completely as they were before."
She smiled coldly.
"A child who has never tasted sweetness does not crave it. But once honey touches her tongue, she can think of nothing but the honey jar all day. That is precisely her present state."
Even a stream frozen solid throughout the winter could never return to the days when it did not flow once the spring breeze thawed it.
It was an afternoon bathed in warm spring sunlight.
In the gardens of the Palace of Great Brightness, peonies and tree peonies bloomed in profusion, flaunting their splendid beauty.
Butterflies danced between the flowers while birdsong sounded from somewhere nearby.
"Her Majesty the Empress Dowager has arrived."
At the eunuch's announcement, Princess Hwijeong closed her book and rose.
Though she had reached adulthood, some traces of girlishness still remained. She wore pale pink palace robes.
Her black hair was swept high and secured with a hairpin. The jade ornament hanging from its end swayed lightly with each step.
When the Empress Dowager entered, the Princess greeted her respectfully.
"Rise."
The Empress Dowager smiled gently and took the Princess's hand.
The smile bore no trace of the ruthlessness she had displayed in the secret chamber. She appeared every bit a loving grandmother.
"How have you been occupying yourself lately?"
"Nothing of note. I practice poetry, calligraphy, and painting, and occasionally walk through the gardens."
Though she knew perfectly well it was a lie, the Empress Dowager nodded with satisfaction.
"I see."
Then she guided the Princess to a seat.
After the palace maids served tea and withdrew, its delicate fragrance spread through the room.
"Is it not time you found a suitable match?"
The Princess's hand stopped midway through lifting her tea.
Why was the Empress Dowager saying such a thing when she had already met Bu Eunseol before?
"Do I not already have a beloved whom both Imperial Father and Your Majesty acknowledged?"
"You still think like a child."
The Empress Dowager smiled gently, but her eyes did not smile.
"How could some martial brute from the martial world become an imperial son-in-law?"
"What do you mean?"
"It was merely something the Emperor arranged to forge a useful blade for handling the affairs of the martial world."
Most marriages within the Imperial Family were political arrangements.
It was nearly impossible for someone of the Princess's standing to choose a spouse according to her own will.
"Then what am I supposed to do?"
The docile Princess's eyes flashed sharply, and the Empress Dowager smiled.
"I will introduce you to a fine young man."
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