Namgung Pung doubted his own eyes.
How could a human survive such an explosion unscathed?
“That guy…”
Bu Eunseol, who had created a black sphere resembling the Anti-Projectile Aura, had his disguise undone. To block the explosion of the Heaven-Collapsing Explosive Spheres, he had exerted his full inner energy, causing Face-Changing Bone-Shifting technique to unravel.
“It’s you!” Namgung Pung’s eyes widened as Bu Eunseol’s true face was revealed.
Long ago, during a mission to deal with Dan So-ok, a young member of the Nine Deaths Squad had stood in his way.
And over time, that squad member had become the successor to dominate Majeon.
The Martial Soul Command Lord, Bu Eunseol.
The new-generation master shaking the martial world—he was Seolso.
“You’ve been stirring up the martial world under the guise of a mercenary named Seolso!” Namgung Pung exclaimed.
Bu Eunseol nodded calmly.
There was no need to hide secrets from someone about to die.
“Tell the King of Hell that when you get to the underworld.”
Whoosh.
As Bu Eunseol’s eyes blazed red, Namgung Pung instinctively stepped back.
‘Ugh.’
The young Nine Deaths Squad member he could once overpower was gone.
The man before him was a young grandmaster, on par with himself.
“This is an unavoidable fight,” Namgung Pung said, still confident despite Bu Eunseol’s strength.
He had a trump card capable of defeating even masters above his level in an instant.
Pop.
He swallowed something from his pocket.
An invisible whirlwind of energy swirled around him, and his hair shot upward.
The Demon Seed. It not only amplified physical abilities and inner energy manifold but also created an artificial inner core within the body.
“You took the Demon Seed,” Bu Eunseol observed.
“Heh heh heh. You know a lot,” Namgung Pung said, closing his eyes briefly to savor the surge of exhilaration coursing through him.
The Demon Seed drastically enhanced physical abilities and inner energy in an instant. Having lingered at the peak of the Transcendent Realm for years, consuming the Demon Seed had propelled him to the Supreme Heaven Realm in one leap.
“It’s certainly a useful drug for someone who’s reached the Transcendent Realm,” Bu Eunseol remarked.
Namgung Pung smiled coldly. “Don’t get cocky!”
Boom!
He unleashed the Emperor’s Sword Style in one swift motion.
An invisible, overwhelming pressure poured forth like a waterfall, enveloping Bu Eunseol and the surrounding space.
Whoosh!
Bu Eunseol instantly dispelled the pressure, simultaneously unleashing the Dragon Fang Fist and the Thirteen Horns of the Tang Clan.
Without even drawing his sword, he executed the Thirteen Guiding Energies.
Swish, swish!
Five strands of sharp energy swirled around Bu Eunseol’s body, gradually neutralizing the pressure of the Emperor’s Sword Style.
Boom!
Namgung Pung shifted his sword path, directing the Emperor’s Sword Style not at Bu Eunseol but at the direction he was moving.
This was one of the most profound techniques of the Emperor’s Sword Style, predicting the enemy’s movements and unleashing heavy sword energy to inflict internal injuries.
“Well learned,” Bu Eunseol said, still not drawing his sword, continuing to wield the Thirteen Guiding Energies.
Swish, swish!
Each time the sharp energy swirled around him, the incoming pressure melted away like snow.
The Thirteen Guiding Energies, imbued with the profound principles of martial arts, continuously orbited Bu Eunseol, neutralizing the Emperor’s Sword Style’s pressure.
‘Is he using sorcery?’ Namgung Pung thought, startled.
How could the pressure of the Emperor’s Sword Style be nullified by such casually unleashed energy?
‘I see. He’s mimicking the Sword Venerable.’
Namgung Pung realized Bu Eunseol was altering the nature of the incoming force, much like the Sword Venerable’s All-Encompassing One Form.
‘This guy’s dangerous.’
Namgung Pung bit his lip.
He couldn’t afford to waste any more time. A strange light emanated from his broken Golden Needle Sword.
It wasn’t a Namgung family technique but the Severing Sword Flight, taught to him by Elder Pung.
‘No, that won’t do.’
His instincts screamed a warning.
The moment he unleashed the Severing Sword Flight, Bu Eunseol’s energy would likely sever his throat.
‘I have no choice.’
Namgung Pung bit his lip.
He unleashed a secret demonic sword art he had been told never to use until fully mastered.
Swish!
As he swung his Golden Needle Sword, it whistled through the air.
Hundreds of low, sharp sword energies sliced toward Bu Eunseol’s lower body. Bu Eunseol, startled, moved to block the myriad sword energies.
Whoosh!
But the hundreds of sword energies vanished, and two beams of living light shot up from the ground.
‘This is!’
Bu Eunseol’s mind screamed.
The sword technique Namgung Pung had just unleashed—wasn’t it similar to the eerie demonic sword art etched into his grandfather Bu Zhanyang’s body?
In a lightning-fast motion, Bu Eunseol drew his Black Blade and shielded his eyes.
Clang!
A clear metallic sound rang through the air.
Hum, hum, hum.
The two beams of sword energy were so powerful that they made the Black Blade vibrate for a long time.
“…”
Bu Eunseol looked down at his trembling Black Blade.
Had he not seen the traces of that sword technique on his grandfather’s body, he would have been blinded by this move in an instant.
Namgung Pung’s sword technique was so intricate and swift, approaching the Seven Blood Tear Forms in its unpredictability.
‘He blocked it!’ Namgung Pung was stunned.
Even without the Demon Seed, he was confident this technique could blind a Supreme Heaven Realm master. He had spent three years mastering this single move.
Elder Pung had claimed that even if not fully mastered, no Supreme Heaven Realm master could block it.
Yet Bu Eunseol had deflected it with ease?
‘I can’t win.’ Fear gripped Namgung Pung. ‘I need to escape and plan for the future.’
He hurled his Golden Needle Sword like a throwing dagger at Bu Eunseol’s throat.
It was a Namgung family life-saving technique, forcing any enemy within three yards to dodge or retreat.
Clang!
The moment Bu Eunseol deflected the Golden Needle Sword, Namgung Pung seized the opportunity and unleashed his movement technique at full speed.
Whoosh!
But Bu Eunseol’s movement technique far exceeded his expectations.
As Pung turned to flee, Bu Eunseol was already blocking the passage’s exit.
“Where did you learn that sword technique?” Bu Eunseol’s voice was cold, laced with urgency.
Namgung Pung, sensing his intent, smiled.
“Let me out, and I’ll tell you.”
Outside, the puppets awaited, offering a chance to escape.
He had to get out at all costs.
“What’s your choice? Decide now.”
Bu Eunseol turned and walked toward the passage’s end. Namgung Pung, elated, followed him into the passage.
As the exit came into view, Bu Eunseol turned back.
“Move.” Namgung Pung spoke, but Bu Eunseol only stared down at him silently.
His eyes glowed with a blood-red light, and Namgung Pung, unable to meet his gaze, said in a trembling voice, “If you kill me… you’ll never find out.”
Crack.
A bone-crunching sound echoed, and Namgung Pung felt his body grow heavy.
His vision blurred, and suddenly Bu Eunseol appeared much taller.
‘What… what’s happening?’
Namgung Pung realized he was on his knees, blood streaming from his eyes.
“Ugh.”
The blood flow increased, and excruciating pain wracked his body. The world turned red, as if he were already in the fires of hell.
Bu Eunseol was exerting immense inner energy, crushing him like an insect.
“Elder… Elder Pung… he taught me that sword technique.”
Crunch.
Namgung Pung’s vision now only reached Bu Eunseol’s knees.
“I swear… that’s all I know…”
His words were likely true.
The terror in Namgung Pung’s dying eyes showed not a trace of deceit.
“Elder Pung,” Bu Eunseol muttered briefly, unleashing his full inner energy.
Crack.
With the sound of bones shattering, Namgung Pung’s vision went completely black.
As death approached, his life flashed before him like a lantern show.
And though Namgung Jeong wasn’t his real father, he realized how much he had been loved and cherished.
“Please… tell the Palace Master… I’m sorry…”
Crush.
That was the end of Namgung Pung, who had betrayed Namgung Jeong and the Namgung family by colluding with external forces.
***
When Bu Eunseol emerged from the passage with Namgung Pung’s body, Namgung Jeong regained consciousness.
‘His martial prowess is truly remarkable.’
Namgung Pung, enhanced by the Demon Seed, had displayed the might of a martial world titan.
Yet Bu Eunseol had countered it with ease. The martial skills of Majeon’s successor, renowned across the martial world, were far greater than rumored.
“Palace Master,” Namgung Un called softly.
He was still in a protective stance, shielding Namgung Jeong.
“Ahem.” Namgung Jeong cleared his throat and relaxed his body.
He tried to stand but struggled due to the dagger still embedded in his Shenzhu acupoint.
“Just hold on a moment,” Namgung Un said, carefully pressing the acupoints on Jeong’s back.
He grasped the handle of the dagger.
‘It’s too deep.’
If he removed it carelessly, it could endanger Jeong’s life.
As Un hesitated, a low voice spoke.
“Pull it out. My barrier aura won’t falter from this.”
“Understood.” Un gripped the dagger again, but a sense of foreboding surged.
What if pulling it out killed Namgung Jeong?
“Palace Master.”
Fear sparked a thought in Un’s mind.
If he didn’t speak now, he might never get the chance to say what was in his heart.
“Speak,” Jeong said.
“You said you cherished me, so why… why were you so harsh?”
Namgung Jeong’s body flinched.
Normally, he would never have answered such a question. But now, facing possible death, he paused before speaking.
“You are the only gift left by my beloved wife. I couldn’t raise you ordinarily.”
“…”
“You inherited both my and your mother’s talents. Not only do you have a gift for martial arts, but you also have a rich emotional depth… You were more than qualified to be the next Palace Master.”
Jeong spoke in a low voice.
“But your personality is too free-spirited and unrestrained. That’s not the temperament of a Palace Master.”
“So… you were so harsh to shape me into a Palace Master?”
“Exactly.”
“You’re lying,” Un said, biting his lip. “You treated me coldly and harshly, and now you say it was to make me Palace Master?”
“…”
“You scolded me for three days for breaking a vase in your study. You even had the punishment hall lock me in the thunder cell. Don’t you remember?”
“I know. I know that’s when you began to resent me. That’s why you acted out even more,” Jeong said calmly. “But I believed one day, when you matured, you’d understand my heart.”
“How could a ten-year-old child understand a father who scolds them so harshly for breaking a vase?”
Namgung Jeong hesitated, his face pained and lonely.
“Those vases… they were all left by your mother.”
Un trembled slightly.
As a child, when he broke a vase after sneaking into the Palace Master’s quarters, he saw his father’s anger for the first time.
It was better than the cold, distant father he knew.
So, as a child, under the guise of pranks, he kept sneaking in and breaking vases.
To think they were his mother’s keepsakes…
“Why didn’t you tell me?” Un asked, swallowing tears and biting his lip. “I didn’t know, and I broke them to hurt you…”
“I know.”
“Why didn’t you tell me they were Mother’s?”
Jeong smiled faintly. “If you knew they were your mother’s, it would’ve hurt you even more.”
Tears Un had held back streamed down his face.
All the vases he broke were his late mother’s keepsakes.
Yet Namgung Jeong had scolded him harshly without ever revealing that fact.
Because he didn’t want his beloved son to suffer. He thought it better to be resented and hated.
“Your mother was playful and cheerful in her youth. You take after her a lot.”
“Then those vases…”
“Don’t worry. I pieced them back together one by one.”
Un covered his face.
Whenever he broke a vase, Jeong would lock himself in his study. He had been meticulously repairing the vases Un broke.
While reminiscing about his beloved wife.
“I swore when I lost your mother that I would make you a great man,” Namgung Jeong said.
“…”
“But to keep that promise, to make you Palace Master in my lifetime… I raised you more strictly and coldly. And now, I regret it.”
“Father.”
For the first time, Un called him Father, not Palace Master.
Tears of anguish fell.
“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry…”
Sobbing, Un’s eyes widened.
Jeong’s face had turned deathly pale. He had lost so much blood that he had fainted.
“Father! Father!” Un cried, channeling his inner energy.
But Jeong’s pulse was so weak it seemed he might stop breathing any moment.
“Father!” Tears streamed from Un’s eyes like a waterfall.
He couldn’t lose his father. There was still so much left unsaid… He couldn’t let him go like this.
“Brother Bu!”
Boom.
A thunderous sound accompanied a gray shadow tinged with blood.
It was Bu Eunseol.
Having learned the culprit’s name from Namgung Pung, he had rushed to the Namgung estate to find Elder Pung.
But then he heard Namgung Un’s wail.
“Father!”
It was the desperate cry of a child losing a parent.
Jeong’s life was clearly hanging by a thread.
Bu Eunseol bit his lip.
If he delayed to save Jeong, Elder Pung might vanish without a trace. Perhaps even now, realizing the plan had failed, Pung was fleeing in haste.
“Father… Father! Brother Bu!”
Un’s anguished cry rang out again.
In this life-or-death moment, Un was desperately calling for his help.
‘How could I let him lose his father?’
His grandfather was gone.
He couldn’t let Namgung Un inherit that same grief.
Boom!
There was no time to hesitate.
Abandoning his pursuit of Elder Pung, Bu Eunseol unleashed his movement technique and returned to Un.
“Brother Bu! Brother Bu!” Un wailed, spotting him. “Save my father! Please save him!”
Jeong’s face was as pale as a corpse.
The dagger in his Shenzhu acupoint—if not treated quickly, he would die.
Pop, pop, pop!
Bu Eunseol rapidly struck Jeong’s acupoints from the Yantian point to the Shuifen point above the navel.
He took a Purple Dawn Pill from his pocket and placed it in Jeong’s mouth.
Whoosh.
Extending both hands, Bu Eunseol pressed Jeong’s Dazhui and Mingmen acupoints, channeling his Ban-geuk Energy.
Was it Un’s desperate prayers?
Or Bu Eunseol’s resolve to save Jeong?
Whoosh.
A golden wave of energy emanated from Bu Eunseol’s body.
Along with the Ban-geuk Energy, blending yin and yang, the power of the Great Wisdom Ability naturally manifested.
Jeong’s fading life force began to revive.
“Ugh.” Color returned to Jeong’s face, and he let out a low groan.
“Father! Father!” Un wept with joy, grasping Jeong’s hand.
Namgung Jeong, faintly opening his eyes, said in a low voice, “Be quiet.”
“Yes, yes.”
“What happened… to that boy?”
As soon as he regained consciousness, Namgung Jeong asked Bu Eunseol about Namgung Pung.
“He paid the price for his sins.”
“I see.” Jeong closed his eyes.
Though Pung was his brother’s son, he had never once thought of him as anything less than his own. He had thought Pung grew up bright and cheerful… only to fall prey to wicked schemes and commit irredeemable acts.
“You were right,” Jeong said, filled with regret.
Raising children isn’t enough. He should have watched closely, talked with them, and expressed what was in their hearts.
If he had, Pung might not have met such an end.
“I truly regret…”
Jeong tried to continue, but the warm energy flowing from his back made his eyes heavy.
His body felt as if it were floating on clouds, and he drifted into sleep.
***
The hidden forces within the Namgung family were completely eradicated.
Their intentions and movements had been uncovered from the start. Upon learning of Pung’s death and the failure of their plot, they all severed their heart meridians and took their own lives. Despite the Namgung family mobilizing its entire intelligence network, they couldn’t uncover where these forces came from or their motives.
Elder Pung, who had orchestrated everything alongside Namgung Pung, had vanished without a trace.
The Namgung family was in shock.
That an elder, who had served loyally across generations, was a pawn of external forces. Namgung Jeong informed various intelligence organizations and the Martial Alliance, initiating a manhunt for Elder Pung.
Namgung Pung was said to have died heroically fighting the forces that attacked the Namgung family. This wasn’t for the family’s honor but out of Namgung Jeong’s consideration, who had always seen Pung as his son.
“Even the Namgung family doesn’t know their true identity,” Bu Eunseol sighed deeply after hearing the full story from Un.
Elder Pung, Pung’s mentor, had been a guest during the era of Namgung Seong, the previous Palace Master.
He had made significant contributions during the Namgung family’s battle with the Blood Heaven Demon Palace, eventually becoming an elder.
A master of swift swordsmanship, he had learned the Namgung family’s advanced sword arts, achieving remarkable prowess and becoming Pung’s mentor.
Whether Elder Pung was a demonic figure, a descendant of the Eight Emperors and Three Stars, or a spy planted to manipulate the Namgung family, like Nobong, remained unknown.
‘The sword technique Pung used at the end resembled the demonic sword art that killed my grandfather.’
This meant Elder Pung either killed his grandfather or was from the same school. Bu Eunseol had finally caught the trail of his grandfather’s killer… but couldn’t pursue it immediately to save Namgung Jeong.
‘Is this the will of the heavens?’
Had he gone to the Namgung estate after Pung’s confession, could he have caught Elder Pung?
Only the gods knew.
‘Don’t dwell on the past.’
Even if he had gone, Elder Pung might have already fled.
Bu Eunseol didn’t regret the past. He had saved Jeong and seen the Namgung family reconciled.
What more could he ask for?
“Take care.” Bu Eunseol bid a brief farewell to Un and quietly left.
Instead of replying, Un tightly embraced him.
‘I’ll become someone who can support Brother Bu,’ Un vowed silently.
If he couldn’t stand by that towering figure, he would become the Namgung Palace Master… and be someone who could aid Bu Eunseol’s path, even slightly.
“Stay safe,” Un said, bowing deeply.
His solemn and dignified demeanor was no longer that of the frivolous Un but that of a worthy heir to lead the next generation of the Namgung family.
Stepping out of the Namgung estate, Bu Eunseol walked slowly. For some reason, he neither took a carriage nor used qinggong.
After walking for a while and entering a small path, a refined middle-aged man appeared from behind a tree.
It was Namgung Jeong.
“The Namgung family has walked the path of righteousness since ancient times and does not associate with the demonic path,” he said.
“…”
“Though I cannot walk the same path as you, I will never turn away if you face hardship.”
He knew Un’s rapid growth was thanks to Bu Eunseol. And that he had selflessly thrown himself into preventing a tragic catastrophe for the Namgung family.
Bow.
Namgung Jeong bent deeply, offering Bu Eunseol a respectful salute.
“May fortune be with you.”
It was reverence and admiration for the demonic grandmaster forging his own path, transcending factions and status.
But Bu Eunseol walked on as if he saw nothing.
He moved quickly to avoid seeing Namgung Jeong bow. To avoid witnessing the Palace Master of the Namgung family, leader of the Eight Great Clans, lower himself.
It was a gesture of respect for Namgung Jeong, passing by swiftly.
‘The road ahead is long.’
Bu Eunseol gazed at the distant sky.
Having obtained the Boeun Coin, he needed to find the Divine Sage. And he had to root out the pawns of the shadowy forces within the righteous and demonic sects, crushing their schemes.
‘Then.’
He turned his head.
He had remembered the haven that gave him the greatest strength, which he had forgotten until now.
Nangyang.
Bu Eunseol was returning to Nangyang.
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