Demonic Sword, Thousand Souls Blood Blade.
A legendary demonic sword passed down through the martial world for generations, said to take the form of a rusted iron blade.
Yet when the blood of exactly one thousand martial artists who have cultivated inner energy is offered as sacrifice, it transforms into a demonic sword so powerful that no divine sword or treasured blade can withstand it, while also granting its wielder mysterious abilities.
Long ago, the Thousand-Blood Demon Emperor, former master of the Thousand Souls Blood, lured both righteous and evil martial artists to Mount Daegok in an attempt to slaughter them all at once and awaken the sword. But he failed to gather the blood of a full thousand, and in the end his scheme was discovered, causing him to be slain by the combined forces of the righteous and evil factions.
‘No, at this scale they could have awakened dozens of Thousand Souls Bloods.’
Considering how long the Sword Tomb has been known, the third-rate martial artists who have died here number at least several thousand—perhaps over ten thousand.
There is no way they would go to such lengths just to awaken a single Thousand Souls Blood.
‘Then the Heaven-Human Cult must possess a massive stockpile of demonic swords and opened the Sword Tomb to awaken them all.’
When you think about it, the Heaven-Human Cult devised an absurdly brilliant scheme.
If they had openly massacred countless martial artists like the Thousand-Blood Demon Emperor, they would have become public enemies of the entire martial world. Instead, they lured people in with the promise of swords from the Sword Tomb and created the Eight Sword Tomb Rules so that killing here carried no consequences.
‘I’ll destroy these pipes first.’
All the blood flowing through these pipes was surely meant to awaken demonic swords. If he did not destroy them quickly, something truly terrible would happen.
But at that moment—
Creaaak.
The sound of the iron door opening echoed once more.
Bu Eunseol instantly diminished his presence and hid behind a pillar.
Squelch, squelch.
Three shadows approached, stepping through the viscous blood.
Unlike the mask Bu Eunseol wore, theirs were pitch-black ghost masks.
‘They distinguish rank by mask color.’
The black-masked envoys radiated an aura incomparably stronger than Yeon Baek-ryang, the Benevolent Sword he had just killed.
‘A mere branch of a demonic sect has masters this powerful?’
They were not quite at the level of the Three Realms Emissaries, but still far beyond what a single branch sect along the Yellow River should possess.
“Come out.” The middle black-masked envoy scanned the area and spoke coldly. “We know you’re hiding somewhere in here. From the beginning, this chamber rings a bell the moment anyone enters.”
Bu Eunseol inwardly sighed.
‘I was too careless.’
To build a mechanism this massive, they would naturally install corresponding security measures. No matter how extraordinary Bu Eunseol’s abilities were, he could not instantly discern every single trap’s weakness.
An alarm mechanism somewhere had detected his intrusion.
‘This comes first.’ Since his presence was already known, every expert in this branch would soon swarm him—it was only a matter of time.
Therefore, dealing with these three was not his priority.
Buzzzz.
Raising his inner energy—
Slash!
He drew the demonic sword at his waist and unleashed a barrage of sword auras.
Shaaaaaaa!
The tangled pipes shattered, and thick blood gushed forth like waterfalls.
“That madman!”
The three black-masked envoys instantly rushed to surround Bu Eunseol as he continued firing sword auras.
Shaaaaaaa!
But the chamber was filled with massive support pillars, and blood poured from every direction.
Moreover, Bu Eunseol darted between the pillars at full-speed Swift Beyond Shadow, making it nearly impossible for them to track him.
Drip.
Suddenly, the blood pouring from the pipes stopped.
Through the falling curtain of blood, Bu Eunseol’s movements became clearly visible.
“There!”
Tap tap tap.
Having located him, the black-masked envoys instantly formed a triangular encirclement.
Swish swish swish!
In an instant, they unleashed hundreds of sword auras.
What they used was demonic swordsmanship—rare killing sword arts seldom seen in the martial world.
Bu Eunseol was instantly trapped by their sword shadows.
But then—
Whiiiing!
With a bizarre piercing sound, the incoming sword shadows spun fiercely and reversed direction.
Thirteen Iron Sword Forms.
The heavenly transcendent technique that instantly spun any form of energy and returned it with even greater force had been unleashed.
BOOM!
The returning sword strikes became gale-force sword winds that tore through everything in all directions.
“Dodge!” The black-masked envoys scattered in panic as their own sword strikes came back at once.
Swish!
In that gap, Bu Eunseol shot toward the exit.
Clang!
But even slashing the sealed door only left deep gashes—it did not split.
The door was far too thick and forged from no ordinary metal.
“Die!” The black-masked envoys charged again, unleashing sword techniques.
Fearing he would reflect their sword auras once more, they refrained from using energy and instead swung chaotically to cut his body directly. Moreover, each used a different sword art—yet they flowed together with perfect, intricate harmony, like a flawless joint-attack technique.
‘So the Heaven-Human Cult has a supreme sword master.’
The Heaven-Human Cult was known as a major demonic sect, famous only for bizarre and unique sorcery. They had never produced anyone who wielded swordsmanship of this caliber.
Even if they had obtained secret manuals from the true Sword Tomb, arbitrarily harmonizing three completely different sword arts was impossible.
That meant a sword master who had reached the pinnacle of enlightenment had fused three superior sword arts into one perfect joint-attack technique.
Clang clang clang clang!
Yet ever since killing Pang Yeok, Bu Eunseol’s swordsmanship had reached an immeasurably higher realm.
He effortlessly neutralized the black-masked envoys’ onslaught while calmly observing their techniques.
‘Their sword arts are impressive, but they haven’t trained long enough.’
The power was tremendous and the moves profound, yet regrettably riddled with openings due to insufficient training time.
Bu Eunseol instantly spotted the flaws and could have taken their heads at any moment.
‘Since things turned out this way, why not evolve the Thirteen Iron Sword Forms further?’
Through his battle with Pang Ryun, Bu Eunseol had once again advanced the Supreme Heavenly Flow. And now, disguised as Seon Woojin, he whimsically wondered whether he should evolve the Thirteen Iron Sword Forms to match.
“Urgh.” Groans finally escaped the stubbornly pressing black-masked envoys.
After forty exchanges, they hadn’t even touched the hem of Bu Eunseol’s robe—only their own wounds kept increasing.
‘This man is practicing his swordsmanship without even using his true art.’
Realizing the same thought simultaneously, the black-masked envoys retreated in great alarm and exchanged glances.
They understood that no matter how perfectly they encircled him, Bu Eunseol’s swordsmanship was simply too high to touch.
Nod.
They exchanged vicious looks as if plotting something, then nodded.
Approaching the massive central pillar—
Slash!
With a short shout, they simultaneously plunged their swords into it.
Ruuuumble.
The entire chamber began shaking as if an earthquake had struck.
BOOM.
Thunderous roars echoed, and the interior shook uncontrollably.
‘No way.’
Bu Eunseol had forgotten one fact.
The Heaven-Human Cult was no ordinary orthodox sect—it was a demonic cult.
And members of such cults would discard not only others’ lives but their own without hesitation to achieve their goals.
Crack. CRASH.
The tangled pipes on the ceiling crashed down, and then the ceiling itself began collapsing.
“So you destroyed the mechanism.”
To Bu Eunseol’s question, the black-masked envoys laughed sinisterly.
“Exactly. You will never leave this place alive!”
Realizing Bu Eunseol’s martial arts were too high to defeat, they had triggered the collapse for mutual destruction.
“Die!” They surrounded him again to prevent escape and unleashed sword strikes.
‘No time!’
Hummm!
Releasing his full power in an instant—
WHOOSH!
Bu Eunseol unleashed freezing energy cold enough to freeze the heavens.
Since they were attacking at point-blank range, he used the Heavenly Glacial Secret.
Crack.
Their attacks were so fierce that even after taking the full brunt of Heavenly Glacial Secret, they only froze for an instant before breaking free.
But that instant was enough for Bu Eunseol to execute five moves.
Swish! Swish-swish-swish!
Dazzling violet sword auras bright enough to illuminate the world unfolded before their eyes.
The ultimate killing sword that, at full mastery, allowed nine transformations—Nine Dragons Flashing Thunder was unleashed once more.
Thud thud thud.
The black-masked envoys’ heads instantly dropped onto the blood-soaked floor.
With a single strike, he had taken the lives of three sword masters.
CRASH! BOOM!
Meanwhile, massive boulders rained from above without cease.
Tsssss!
Bu Eunseol poured every ounce of his five-hundred-year cultivation into Swift Beyond Shadow and tried to shatter the iron door.
Ruuuumble!
But by then, tens of thousands of jin worth of gigantic rocks had already piled up where the door once stood.
Whoosh!
He swiftly dodged a falling boulder, but it was too late.
RUUUUMBLE!
As if the entire Mount Taepyeong had collapsed, countless tons of stone poured down onto Bu Eunseol’s head.
There was no longer any space to evade.
‘Harmony.’
Seeing the massive falling boulders, Bu Eunseol recalled the time he and Gongson Dana were trapped in the underground mechanism at Mount Gugok.
Back then, they had fallen into a trap as enormous rocks weighing tens of thousands of jin rained down.
With no way to escape, Bu Eunseol had aligned the four powers within his body and unleashed the power of Harmony to survive the crisis.
‘No, that method won’t work now.’
The power of Harmony could only be used once.
In a continuous collapse like this, even if he unleashed Harmony, it would only hold the falling rocks at bay for a moment.
There was another problem.
When Harmony was used, the conflicting energies inside the body clashed so violently that the body itself could explode.
Back then, after unleashing Harmony, Bu Eunseol had immediately lost consciousness and collapsed.
If Gongson Dana had not been there—if she had not injected Divine Energy—he would already be dead.
‘But I have already obtained two more powers, haven’t I?’
Thunder Spirit Energy and Crystal Divine Energy.
Unlike before, Bu Eunseol now possessed two of the divine powers.
There was a sliver of hope.
‘I must not unleash it all at once.’
To survive the collapse, he could not release Harmony in a single burst. He had to envelop himself in the power of Harmony until the collapse stopped.
If he released it immediately, he might block the first wave, but he would eventually be buried.
RUUUUMBLE.
Hundreds of boulders poured down at once.
As their overwhelming pressure bore down, the power of Prajna Great Power instantly erupted from Bu Eunseol’s body.
“Haaap!”
Using that power, he perfectly aligned every energy circulating within him and radiated it outward.
WHRRRRR!
His body became enveloped in five-colored radiance, and every massive boulder that touched the light melted away like snow.
“Urrghhh…” Groans escaped Bu Eunseol’s lips as he was swallowed by the brilliance.
Maintaining the power of Harmony around his body instead of releasing it all at once was never easy.
His entire body felt like it was being torn apart and his skin began to crack.
His flesh was crumbling under the strain of containing energies no human body could withstand simultaneously.
RUUUUMBLE!
Finally, as if the collapse had ceased, no more boulders fell.
Ruuuumble.
The entire mechanism had collapsed into a massive pile of rubble.
In the end, Bu Eunseol failed to escape the catastrophe and vanished without a trace beneath the stones.
Had he truly met such a futile end?
For a long while, only dust filled the underground chamber; silence so deep you could hear a needle drop.
Crackle. Crackle.
Suddenly, lightning-like light flashed from the mountain of boulders—
FWOOOOOSH!
A five-colored beam shot toward the ceiling.
The pile of stones on one side vanished completely, leaving a perfect spherical hollow.
In its center stood a man in utter disarray.
Bu Eunseol.
Even beneath the cascading rubble, he had maintained consciousness and kept the power of Harmony active.
The moment the collapse stopped, he unleashed it fully and escaped.
Drip drip drip.
His clothes were soaked in blood and his skin cracked like dried pastry.
The ghost mask he had worn was shattered beyond recognition.
By holding the power of Harmony within his body for over half a ke instead of releasing it instantly, his meridians and flesh had suffered catastrophic damage.
Thud.
He finally dropped to one knee and spat out a mouthful of blood.
Blood kept rising like internal injuries and his body felt as heavy as waterlogged cotton.
‘My inner energy…’
He tried circulating his energy once, but felt nothing—as if his cultivation had been completely sealed.
The power of Harmony, which even when used once twisted the meridians and caused loss of consciousness. He had kept it wrapped around his body for half a ke inside a collapsing chamber just to survive…
Of course his body could not remain intact.
Fortunately, thanks to the Crystal Divine Energy and Thunder Spirit Energy, he had neither lost consciousness nor had his body destroyed. But his cultivation, along with the powers of the Two Divine Energies and the Righteous-Demonic Indestructible Body, were all temporarily sealed.
Clench.
Bu Eunseol tightly gripped his fist.
He had believed himself to have reached a higher realm—yet a single use of power had sealed everything inside him?
“Am I still far from the peak?”
Though his face was filled with despair, the truth was entirely different.
Throughout martial world history, no one his age had ever reached the complete Supreme Heavenly Realm. Moreover, the Harmony he had just displayed was closer to the “phenomena” that only Supreme Extreme Realm masters could produce.
He had achieved something unprecedented—wielding transcendent power without reaching the Supreme Extreme Realm.
Yet unaware of this, he still lamented how far he had yet to go.
“First, I need to get out.” Bu Eunseol forced his weary legs forward and left the area.
Suddenly, amid the ruins, he spotted a black ghost mask.
One worn by the black-masked envoys earlier.
“…”
The chamber had collapsed, but he had no idea what awaited outside.
Just in case, Bu Eunseol picked up the black ghost mask and put it on.
Step. Step.
Climbing the stairs out of the ruined wreckage, he found the hellish door that had been sealed now standing wide open.
Bu Eunseol wiped the blood from his lips with unfocused eyes and slowly stepped inside.
“…!” His weary eyes widened slightly at the sight before him.
Across a barren landscape, countless swords stood thrust into the ground.
The Sword Tomb.
Shockingly, even after the collapse, the Sword Tomb itself had not completely fallen.
Throughout the vast open hill, swords of every shape and size were embedded. Some lay buried beneath collapsed or shattered sections.
‘As expected… the Heaven-Human Cult created the Sword Tomb to awaken demonic swords.’
Thick blood flowed like underground streams through the ruined tomb—the blood that had been pumped from the lower mechanism.
Forcing martial artists to kill each other across three trials and unleashing their killing intent…
It had all been to obtain the blood of martial artists consumed by madness.
‘Demonic swords, indeed.’
Bu Eunseol pulled out one of the swords still embedded in the tomb.
Every blade remaining in the ruined Sword Tomb was a demonic sword that thirsted for blood—and their number was beyond counting.
‘At this scale, there must have been hundreds of original demonic swords.’
From the traces scattered throughout, most had already been drawn.
Whether by past entrants or recovered by the Heaven-Human Cult after the collapse, he could not tell.
‘To awaken so many demonic swords, they needed that many sacrifices.’
Awakening demonic swords required various conditions—some demanded the blood of children, others the blood of pure maidens. But most required the blood of martial artists who possessed inner energy, especially those steeped in frenzy.
The reason they opened the Sword Tomb at all…
Was to lure in third-rate martial artists who lacked spiritual training, whose deaths no one would care about.
Step. Step.
The Sword Tomb was vast. After walking for a long while, he spotted a massive open gate far ahead.
Along the path to the gate lay mountains of corpses—slaughtered with extreme cruelty.
Not only martial artists, but also what appeared to be Heaven-Human Cult followers.
‘They haven’t been dead long. And…’
Warmth still lingered in the bodies, and their skin had turned an eerie gray.
‘No blood.’
Every corpse had been completely drained; not a single drop remained.
‘Could it be…’
As Bu Eunseol examined a body in puzzlement—
Step. Step.
A figure emerged from within the gate, entering the Sword Tomb.
Hair disheveled, body drenched in blood.
In his right hand, he clutched a sword that emitted black mist.
Cheon Hwain.
Shhhhlurp.
Then something strange happened.
On an ordinary sword, blood on the blade would drip to the ground.
Yet the blood coating Cheon Hwain’s sword was slowly being absorbed into the blade itself, vanishing completely.
‘It really was the Thousand Souls Blood.’
The demonic sword, Thousand Souls Blood.
The sword in Cheon Hwain’s hand was none other than the legendary demonic sword passed down through the martial world for generations—Thousand Souls Blood.
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