“It’s nothing.”
Dam Yuyeon forced down her emotions and spoke calmly.
“I was just lost in thought for a moment. Well then…”
“I have a younger sister,” Do Cheonlin suddenly said. “That’s why, more than most men, I learned to read a woman’s heart.”
“What a strange thing to say.”
“Don’t bottle up your pain all alone.” Do Cheonlin gazed straight into Dam Yuyeon’s eyes. “Sometimes, take the sorrow inside you and let it out—speak it aloud. Then… your heart will feel a little lighter.”
They were ordinary words, yet they carried an immeasurable warmth.
To Dam Yuyeon, who until now had swallowed her grief without a single soul ever noticing… those words struck even deeper.
Swish.
Without answering, she turned and left the room.
But the expression on her face as she stepped outside was far softer than when she had entered.
***
Do Cheonlin left the Red Sky Veil together with Bu Eunseol, who had returned for him.
His body was now completely healed, and his inner energy had grown even stronger.
That was because Dam Yuyeon had secretly mixed countless miraculous medicines into every meal he ate, and under the pretext of treatment had applied numerous acupuncture techniques meant to increase internal strength.
—Become stronger.
As he departed, Dam Yuyeon had spoken quietly while watching his back.
—So that you bring sorrow to no one.
“What are you thinking about?”
Inside the carriage, Bu Eunseol—who sat across from him—asked. Do Cheonlin shook his head.
“Nothing.”
Yet Bu Eunseol noticed the new warmth in Do Cheonlin’s eyes and understood the situation at once.
‘He has taken a liking to her.’
During the twenty-odd days he spent at the Red Sky Veil, Do Cheonlin had grown very fond of the woman named Dam Yuyeon.
She was not only beautiful but she also possessed a refined dignity rare among martial artists.
Do Cheonlin had long been surrounded by his fiery, strong-willed younger sister—the very picture of a typical female warrior. So it was only natural that he would be drawn to Dam Yuyeon, who was the complete opposite: calm, gentle, and graceful.
—Yuyeon… I raised that child myself from when she was very young.
Seeing the faint smile on Do Cheonlin’s lips, Bu Eunseol felt a strange sensation.
That refined yet somehow languid air was the spitting image of Jeong Cheon.
—Please take care of her.
Jeong Cheon’s dying request suddenly resurfaced in his mind. Even in his final moments, the only person he worried about was Dam Yuyeon.
And surely he had wished for her to live an ordinary life with an ordinary man—someone whose life was not constantly in danger in the martial world.
‘Should I stop this?’
Bu Eunseol immediately shook his head.
Dam Yuyeon probably harboured feelings for Do Cheonlin as well. Otherwise she would never have treated him every day and fed him precious medicines.
‘There is nothing one can do about matters between man and woman.’
Fate is like seeds scattered by the wind—something that takes root naturally.
No outsider can interfere, nor should they.
The carriage soon arrived at the secret safe house. The moment they entered, Bu Eunseol handed over the Illusory Demon Sword that had been kept there.
“Indeed.” Do Cheonlin let out a quiet gasp of admiration.
The Illusory Demon Sword now rested inside a new sheath crafted by the legendary Demonic Sword Master—no trace of demonic aura leaked from it. This alone eliminated the danger of surprise attacks from other Demon-Killer Sword wielders.
“You will hone your martial arts a little more here.”
Bu Eunseol once again imparted his personal insights to Do Cheonlin.
Do Cheonlin was fundamentally a master who had trained in saber arts for many years. Yet after obtaining the Illusory Demon Sword, he had sealed away the Blood Flame Blade Technique and primarily used the Dream Demon Illusory Sword Art.
Bu Eunseol did not simply combine the Blood Flame Blade Technique with the Illusory Demon Sword; he lectured so that Do Cheonlin could create an entirely original sword art of his own.
“It is good to transcend schools by increasing raw power, but one can also transcend the martial study itself.”
Bu Eunseol began explaining the transcendent form of the Supreme Heavenly Flow Style he had created.
Do Cheonlin’s eyes widened as he listened.
‘Was I no more than a frog in a well?’
He had thought himself quite experienced in the martial world, yet compared to Bu Eunseol he felt like a naïve child.
The concepts Bu Eunseol presented in his lecture were shockingly unique.
‘So martial arts can be developed in this way too…’
The more insights he received, the more Do Cheonlin’s expression resembled a country boy who had just arrived in the capital.
Every theory Bu Eunseol taught was utterly new, breathtakingly new, and above all, it completely shattered the existing framework of martial studies.
If Do Cheonlin could shed some of his old baggage and focus solely on the sword, a terrifying swordsman capable of sweeping a new wind through the martial world would be born.
“I am ashamed.” Do Cheonlin lowered his head. “Have I merely been a rice bucket that only knew how to stuff its face until now?”
“There is no need for self-reproach. As the successor of one of the Ten Great Demonic Sects, you have learned and inherited much, and you have already achieved considerable growth.” Bu Eunseol explained calmly. “Yet sometimes, to truly advance, one must step outside that very framework. Especially in the Demonic Path—where successors are treated with extreme favour compared to the righteous sects—growth can actually be slower because of it.”
He emphasised once more.
“If you wish to become stronger from now on, you must discard not only that framework but every outdated notion you have ever held.”
With that, the lecture on martial theory came to an end. Outside the window, dawn was already breaking. They had spoken without moving for an entire half-day.
“From now on I will attach to you the intelligence network and agents of the secret corps I command.”
Bu Eunseol taught Do Cheonlin how to use the intelligence web of the Death Spirit Corps.
“But why haven’t you told your subordinates about me?” Do Cheonlin had realised that Bu Eunseol was meeting him in complete secrecy, hiding his very existence from his own men.
“Because it would burden them.” Bu Eunseol answered serenely. “If those fellows learned of this… they would have that much more to handle, to worry about, to fear.”
Do Cheonlin took a deep breath and said, “They are more like family to you than subordinates.”
“They are men who would walk through fire and water at my single command… so I worry for them all the more.” Bu Eunseol answered as though it were nothing, then continued his explanation. “If you use this emergency contact system, experts who can aid you will arrive within one hour without fail. So from now on, if an enemy you cannot handle appears—run without hesitation.”
“You’re telling me to flee?”
“Did you not say you wished to become stronger?” Bu Eunseol’s expression turned solemn. “To become stronger you must first survive. Only by surviving can you grow and climb higher.”
In the past, Do Cheonlin would never have agreed with such thinking. But after hearing Bu Eunseol’s discourse on the martial path, his heart had changed.
He wanted—desperately—to survive and survive again, to become stronger.
An unshakable single goal.
At last, Do Cheonlin had found one of his own.
“Then from this moment on, you and I are one body striving to become the sword of the Three Realms.”
“That is one way to put it.” Bu Eunseol’s voice was ice-cold. “But remember this well. The moment you reach the deepest part of the Three Realms and become their puppet—I will cut you down without hesitation.”
“Heh heh. That will never happen. As you said, the only thing I desire is to become stronger.”
“That is precisely why I warn you.”
Jeong Cheon had blindly chased strength, thrown himself into the Three Realms, and met a tragic end. Bu Eunseol knew all too well how dangerous the blind pursuit of power could be.
“I already know. You are speaking of Jeong Cheon.” Do Cheonlin gave a bitter smile, having read Bu Eunseol’s worry. “Lady Dam told me. She begged me never to walk the same path he did.”
“…”
“The reason he met such a wretched end was not only because he chased strength blindly… but because he never thought of those who worried for him.”
Bu Eunseol gave a faint nod.
Do Cheonlin would never walk that path, if only so he would not make Dam Yuyeon cry.
“Then spend one month here polishing your swordsmanship and familiarising yourself with the Death Spirit Corps’s intelligence network and contact methods.” A sun-like brilliance dwelt in Bu Eunseol’s eyes. “So that we may reach the conclusion of whatever the Three Realms are plotting with these Demon-Killer Swords.”
“Good. But do not forget.” Do Cheonlin declared firmly.
“Once I become the Sword of the Three Realms, uncover their true nature, and obtain all the information you seek—”
A dazzling light flashed in his eyes.
“—the next one will be you.”
Do Cheonlin had made defeating Bu Eunseol the goal of his life.
And that had not changed.
He would merely use Bu Eunseol’s plan to become infinitely stronger—then one day bring him down.
“Of course.” Bu Eunseol smiled.
It was a smile brimming with childlike innocence, yet at the same time one that seemed to seize the soul.
Seeing that smile, Do Cheonlin drew a deep breath.
‘Perhaps… that day may never come.’
Because if, when that day arrived, they had become friends…
He would no longer be able to cut him down.
***
Majeon, Solitary Light Pavilion.
The office of the Chief Instructor, Yeop Hyocheon.
Mountains of documents were piled on the desk where he sat.
As the man who handled all of Majeon’s affairs in place of the Martial Soul Command Lord, he spent most of his time buried in work.
“I cannot understand it.” Deep into the third watch, Yeop Hyocheon’s profound eyes wavered as he read a coded letter under lamplight.
“Could I have misjudged?”
He scanned the complex cipher once more, his gaze narrowing.
Swish.
He rose and stared out the window.
The full moon of the third watch hung silently in the sky, as though it had swallowed a great secret, pouring down mysterious and secretive light.
[What will you do?] A voice, infinitely polite and low, flowed from the darkness staining one corner of the room. [If not now, we will never again have a chance to confirm whether that person is truly ‘it’.]
Yeop Hyocheon’s eyes narrowed to slits as he gazed at the moon.
“Is everything prepared?”
[Of course. Hyeok Ryeon-eung has hidden it so thoroughly and secretly—without the Three Realms knowing—that it is absolutely untraceable.]
“Hmm.” Yeop Hyocheon took a deep breath and nodded slowly. “Contact the Infinite Realm and inform them of his return route.”
His voice as he continued was solemn and grave.
“With Hyeok Ryeon-eung—who handled all major and minor affairs—gone… ‘he’ will definitely appear.”
[Understood.]
At the same moment, the darkness that had lingered in one corner of the room vanished.
Only now was it clear: though light reached that spot, some power had dyed it in pure darkness.
“It cannot be helped. Sometimes in life one must improvise.” As Yeop Hyocheon turned, black mist-like energy slowly rose in his eyes.
“If he dies, then he was not it. If he survives, his true nature will surely manifest.”
A deep, sinister smile lingered on his lips.
“Even the great Heavenly Deity must be salivating. But…”
Deeper than the darkness outside the window, a black greed exploded in his eyes.
“In the end, you are mine, Bu Eunseol.”
Clippity-clop, clippity-clop.
A pitch-black eight-horse carriage raced along the official road.
A black flag fluttered atop it, embroidered with two dragons fighting over a pearl—the insignia of the Martial Soul Command Lord of Majeon.
After parting with Do Cheonlin, Bu Eunseol was returning to Majeon in that very carriage.
The chance encounter with Do Cheonlin had given him a stable line of infiltration not only into the martial world, but also into the still-hidden Three Realms.
Like a cunning rabbit preparing three burrows, he had cast fishing lines into Majeon, the Martial Alliance, and the Three Realms who sought an heir through the Demon-Killer Swords.
The moment any of them took the bait…
He would uncover the culprit who killed his grandfather, and even the identity of the greatest enigma of the martial world—Baekri Muha, the man believed to be his father.
Thud thud thud.
The carriage had travelled far beyond the city walls when—
BOOM!
With a thunderous explosion, something burst up from beneath the road and smashed the carriage into splinters.
Whoosh—thud!
Bu Eunseol instantly shot into the air, flipped, and landed lightly on the ground.
Black shadows began rising one after another from the earth all around him.
“Puppets.”
They were none other than the puppets created by the Infinite Realm.
Because they emitted no life signs when motionless, even Bu Eunseol’s extraordinary senses had failed to detect them.
Tap.
Without sparing a glance at the puppets surrounding him, Bu Eunseol walked to the old coachman lying among the wreckage.
Gurgle…
The old man, who had collided head-on with a puppet as it erupted from the ground, was already dead—his body crushed.
Bu Eunseol’s face darkened. He gently closed the man’s still-wide eyes and bowed his head.
“I am sorry.”
To ordinary folk, martial artists were no different from evil spirits and slaughter. One never knew when or where a battle might erupt, and countless innocents died caught in the aftermath.
Having once worked as a mortician, Bu Eunseol understood this better than anyone.
That was why he avoided contact with commoners whenever possible and stayed away from populated areas when he anticipated fighting.
But there was one exception: the coachman.
He had believed that as long as the old man stayed within three zhang of him, no one could harm him. Yet they had buried puppets along his return route in advance and destroyed the carriage.
‘My arrogance has taken an innocent life.’
Rage flared.
Bu Eunseol turned.
Whoosh!
The heads of every puppet standing around the wreckage soared into the sky at once.
He had unleashed the Ban-Geuk Method at invisible speed, severing all their necks in a single instant.
Bzzzzzt.
At that moment white light poured from Bu Eunseol’s eyes, and his super-sensory perception spread over a hundred zhang. He sensed countless troops rushing toward him from every direction.
“They have sealed the entire area.” Bu Eunseol looked to the distant sky.
Because of Do Cheonlin, he had temporarily loosened the Death Spirit Corps’s intelligence net. He had assigned Soyo to Seo Jinha and Tak Ilhon to Do Cheonlin.
And the moment he did, they pierced through that loosened net and laid this encirclement?
“There must be a mole inside the Shadow Pavilion.”
His movements were concealed so perfectly that even the Three Realms could not track him.
With one exception: the moment the Martial Soul Command Lord returned to Majeon.
As one of Majeon’s highest leaders, the instant he returned to the Hunan region, the Shadow Pavilion—the supreme intelligence organisation—managed every possible route and stationed heavy forces along each.
In other words, to seal off an area in advance and launch a surprise attack like this meant there was a traitor inside the Shadow Pavilion.
“This is a trap of an entirely different magnitude.”
They knew his personality perfectly, yet still dared this—even knowing the leak would be traced back to the Shadow Pavilion.
That meant they were either absolutely certain they could kill him, or absolutely certain they could sever the tail even if discovered.
Boom boom boom boom.
At that moment, gigantic puppets nearly eight cheok tall came charging from the distance—roughly a hundred of them.
Their skin was grey like corpses, limbs crudely stitched on.
Rumble…
Suddenly the ground shook as though an earthquake had struck, and colossal pillars began rising from the earth in every direction, piercing the sky.
‘They intend to imprison this entire plain?’
Impossible.
Even mobilising tens of thousands of men, laying a formation over such a vast area was no easy feat—one had to account for every rock, tree, and contour of the land.
CRASH!
Hundreds of crimson beams shot from the fists of the charging puppets, soaring into the sky—then rained down upon Bu Eunseol like a storm.
‘Incredible power.’
Each fist carried force comparable to Bu Eunseol’s own Seven Fist Demon Forms, and the way they freely redirected that power was strikingly similar.
‘Not the Bound Asuras—these mere puppets can wield fist arts of this level.’
BOOM!
A massive crater formed where Bu Eunseol had stood, but he had already used Swift Beyond Shadow Form to escape the range.
Puppets feel neither pain nor fear; even with limbs severed they do not die.
They are living weapons that fight until their last breath.
There was no need to risk his life cutting down mere fodder.
‘No point wasting time on small fry.’ Bu Eunseol doubled his movement art to break out of the encirclement.
Flash!
He shot through the air like a streak of light—
THUD!
—only to slam into something invisible, fall to the ground with a dull impact.
“They overlapped multiple formations?”
The dozens of colossal pillars that had pierced the sky had vanished.
They must have been devices to overlay dozens of formations and cage him.
“An ancient supreme formation I cannot even identify.” Bu Eunseol instantly unleashed sword strikes, trying to pierce through the formation’s power.
Crackle!
The more force he poured in, the more the colour of the sky shifted, sending strange ripples in every direction.
‘This is…’
The stronger the power he exerted, the stronger the formation and its rebound became. It was eerily similar to the wall of concentrated thunder spirit energy that had fallen from the Pool of Demon Blades’ sky when he fought Nae Bihon.
‘Then…’
Back then he had broken through that wall by unleashing ‘Harmony’. If this formation was of the same calibre, he had two options: unleash Harmony to collapse it, or find and destroy the vanished pillars.
But neither was possible right now.
Over a hundred puppets had already closed in, pouring down their fist force.
“Annoying.” Bu Eunseol found even drawing his sword to cut them down tiresome.
Crack-crack-crackle.
In an instant his hair turned silver-white, and sapphire light poured from his eyes.
He had raised the Heavenly Glacial Secret fused with crystal spirit energy to its absolute limit.
WHOOSH!
When the five-hundred-year Heavenly Glacial Secret infused with crystal spirit energy erupted—
Crack-CRACK!
Every charging puppet instantly froze solid, then shattered into hundreds of fragments that rained onto the ground.
He had blended the freely shape-shifting crystal spirit energy with the Heavenly Glacial Secret, creating hundreds of sword-qi blades of extreme yin.
Thud!
Having felled every puppet, Bu Eunseol once more used his movement art to survey the surroundings. Yet the transparent walls still enclosed him on all sides, and the colossal pillars that powered the formation were nowhere to be seen.
“Good.” Bu Eunseol spread both arms wide.
A five-coloured radiance began rising from his body.
Crackle-crackle-crackle.
Veins bulged as the five-coloured light finally formed a perfect sphere.
It was ‘Harmony’—every ounce of power within him perfectly aligned.
WHOOSH!
He fired the condensed light high into the sky.
Millions upon millions of light particles scattered—
Crackle! BOOM-BOOM-CRACK!
—like countless stars lighting the night, yellow, blue, crimson, and finally golden motes burst outward in every direction.
CRASH!
When the light faded, one of the hidden colossal pillars fell to the ground, split cleanly in two.
“Only one?” Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened.
Even after unleashing ‘Harmony’—a power that transcended human limits—he had destroyed only one of the dozens of concealed pillars?
“This is…” Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened further.
The only factions capable of sealing an entire region and mobilising formations and forces of this scale were Majeon, the Martial Alliance, and the Three Realms.
In other words—one of those three absolutely wanted Bu Eunseol dead.
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