Rustle.
The earth that had just disgorged the first wave of puppets churned again. Another hundred emerged, their hair now pure white as snow.
HSSSSSSSS!
Then something astonishing happened.
Instead of attacking, these new puppets unleashed streams of white, freezing energy straight at Bu Eunseol—energy almost identical to the Heavenly Glacial Secret he had just released.
Tsssst.
Bu Eunseol instantly used Swift Beyond Shadow Form to evade. His expression turned grave.
‘So it really is the Infinite Realm.’
The Infinite Realm’s goal had always been to implant martial techniques into living bodies. Their improved puppets could indeed wield multiple transplanted martial arts.
Yet these puppets… were mimicking the very techniques Bu Eunseol had just used, as though absorbing them on the spot.
‘Then this is the Infinite Realm’s ultimate aim.’
If they possessed a method to instantly absorb martial techniques, they could harvest the arts of the greatest masters through these puppets alone.
‘No. That’s impossible.’ Bu Eunseol shook his head.
If such a thing were possible, the Infinite Realm would already rule the world.
Fwooooosh!
His hair shot upward, violet lightning crackling endlessly across his body.
This time he had drawn forth the Yeolha Great True Energy fused with thunder spirit energy.
WHOOM! WHOOM!
Scorching heat accompanied by thunder spirit energy swept away the hundred puppets in a single breath.
Thud thud thud.
The puppets that had been spewing freezing qi were reduced to bare skeletons in an instant. The sight of towering piles of ash-white bones was grotesque beyond words.
Bu Eunseol strode forward without even glancing at them.
“Is that all?” Once more he gathered every ounce of power within his body.
Crackle-crackle.
Veins bulged across his skin, but he paid them no mind—he perfectly aligned all his strength.
He unleashed Harmony a second time.
BOOM.
Five-coloured radiance burst outward. With a low tremor, another invisible colossal pillar crashed to the ground.
Drip. Drip.
Large beads of sweat rolled down Bu Eunseol’s forehead.
Using the explosive force of Harmony twice in succession had taken its toll. Unlike the first time, this second activation had required more than half a ke (about three minutes).
‘Still not yet.’
Though he had obtained the dual spirit energies and could now freely wield arts of extreme yin and extreme yang, instantly unleashing Harmony at will remained beyond him.
Rustle-rustle.
Far in the distance the earth churned again, and yet more puppets rose. Their eyes blazed like burning charcoal, and solar-like extreme yang energy poured from their bodies.
Exactly as Bu Eunseol had predicted—they were now copying the arts he had just displayed.
“So that’s how it is.”
Any ordinary martial artist would have been terrified or thrown into panic by this bizarre phenomenon.
But Bu Eunseol remained ice-cold, calmly analyzing.
Because he contained many different energies within himself and had studied the principles of countless martial arts, he possessed an unshakable conviction that such things were impossible.
“Infinite Realm.”
A formation so complex that not even Harmony could shatter it in one blow. Puppets that appeared bearing the exact power their enemy had just unleashed.
He had reached Spirit Regulation, so illusions and hallucinations were impossible.
Therefore, every formation and soldier in this entire area— this entire trap—was either some arcane sorcery designed to face a master of the Infinite Realm…
Or the whole thing was a “phenomenon” created by a master of the Infinite Realm himself.
Even the boldest warrior would despair in this situation.
Yet a fierce battle-lust ignited in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
A new enemy had appeared—or a new technique had been revealed.
Either way, it was an opportunity to advance his martial path yet again.
WHOOSH!
The puppets thrust out their hands in unison, unleashing torrents of searing heat—extreme yang energy almost identical to the Yeolha Great True Energy Bu Eunseol had just used.
“Then let us try it this way!”
Shiiing!
Without channeling any inner energy, Bu Eunseol simply drew his sword and slaughtered them with pure swordsmanship.
WHOOSH!
His swordsmanship was so profound that even casual swings became exquisite techniques.
Thud thud.
He beheaded every puppet spewing extreme yang in a single pass.
Clack.
Bu Eunseol sheathed the Silent Tiger Soul Sword and surveyed the surroundings with keen interest.
‘Now we’ll have the answer.’
Rustle-rustle.
The earth shook once more, and new puppets rose.
This time they brandished swords.
A faint smile touched Bu Eunseol’s lips.
In the end, they could not perfectly replicate his swordsmanship.
“They can imitate true-qi martial arts that require inner energy, but they cannot copy techniques I perform casually.”
True-qi martial arts backed by inner cultivation are several times harder to master than mere forms. Even though they had mimicked the Heavenly Glacial Secret and Yeolha Great True Energy—both pinnacle extreme yin and yang arts—they could not reproduce the casual sword strokes Bu Eunseol had just used.
That proved it: puppets that can truly absorb martial arts do not exist.
WHOOSH!
He unleashed his swordsmanship again, shattering the new wave, and murmured, “Then it must be sorcery.”
Power that exhibits overwhelming might yet lies outside the framework of martial arts—this could only be sorcery.
Moreover, its effects were viciously tenacious.
Did not Mount Gugok, once home to the Mosan Sect, still bear sorcery arrays that had not faded even after decades?
Yet the lineage of sorcerers had long been severed in the martial world.
Sorcery was so powerful that ordinary martial arts could not break it, and its might surpassed imagination.
Because of that danger, martial artists had once attacked indiscriminately anyone who even showed signs of using sorcery or arcane arts.
‘But if it is the Three Realms… it would be possible.’
Until now the Three Realms had secretly supported and revived numerous sects whose lineages were thought extinct. Restoring some schools of sorcerers would have been well within their ability.
“But why?”
Bu Eunseol frowned.
If this truly was sorcery, why go to the trouble of merely trapping him and producing puppets that only imitated his martial arts?
“Could they have believed I was a master of the Infinite Realm and hoped I would manifest a ‘phenomenon’?”
It is said that when one reaches the ultimate extreme through martial cultivation, the phenomenon of Infinite Enlightenment occurs— instantly comprehending the supreme intent of martial arts, gaining a body that transcends human limits and power that surpasses even the principles of martial learning.
That realm is called the Limitless Realm.
And these sorcery arrays might have been a trap designed to confirm whether Bu Eunseol had reached it.
‘No, that cannot be it.’
Bu Eunseol had clearly unleashed Harmony.
Though it was not yet the power of the Infinite Realm, it had allowed him to evade, to some degree, the faint “phenomenon” the Sword Venerable had once manifested with his Natural Sword Style. If this trap had truly been prepared assuming the Infinite Realm, the formation itself—not merely the pillars—would have shattered.
‘Time.’
A flash of insight struck him.
‘They were buying time.’
There was only one reason to deploy a formation of this scale: to delay him until a terrifying expert capable of facing Bu Eunseol arrived.
‘I must break out immediately.’
He did not fear strong opponents. But when the enemy had prepared a perfect trap, there was no need to dance to their tune and fight at a disadvantage.
‘There is only one way to break sorcery.’
A transparent aura flickered around Bu Eunseol’s body.
It is said even powerful martial arts struggle to shatter sorcery. Fortunately, he possessed the simplest possible means to destroy it.
Shaaaaaaa.
In an instant, millions of pure water droplets materialized around him—droplets formed from crystal spirit energy.
The easiest way to break sorcery, which is neither formation nor martial art, is to use the purifying power of the great natural forces: the four divine spirits.
WHOOSH!
Bu Eunseol spread both arms, and the giant droplets shot outward in every direction. The once-invisible walls began to crack, and gradually the clear sky became visible again.
‘As expected.’
In the past, Gongsun Dana had easily shattered the sorcery lingering on Mount Gugok using the power of the water divine spirit. And what Bu Eunseol now wielded was not merely water spirit energy, but the very essence of water force: crystal divine energy.
In a single breath, the sorcery encircling the entire plain began to collapse.
Shuuu.
As the scenery returned to normal, Bu Eunseol immediately withdrew the crystal divine energy.
Hiss…
The sorcery, now soaked through with crystal spirit energy, could no longer endure and naturally dissipated.
‘I must leave this place at once.’
Bu Eunseol prepared to unleash his movement art and flee—
BOOM.
—when suddenly his heart lurched violently.
BOOM.
With a low thud, his vision blurred.
An inexplicable dread washed over him.
Slowly, Bu Eunseol turned.
There, some ten zhang away, stood a black silhouette—as though dread itself had taken physical form.
Thump-thump-thump-thump.
The moment he looked at it, blood surged through his veins, his heart pounding as though it would burst.
Clack.
Without realising it, Bu Eunseol drew his sword and assumed a cautious stance.
The silhouette had shape but no face, no presence, no aura.
It was as commonplace as a roadside flower, as insignificant as a leaf dancing on the wind.
Nothingness. Emptiness.
All that could be felt from that black shadow was utter nihilism and void.
[Remarkable.]
A voice rang out.
The voice emanated simultaneously from the sky, the earth, the grass, the sand, the trees, the rocks— from everything in the world.
As the entire world became the shadow’s mouthpiece, Bu Eunseol felt such vertigo that his vision swam.
Hummm!
He circulated his inner energy to block the sound, but—
[The sorcery array left behind by the Red Pine Master to imprison wind and rain…]
—the voice, low as though echoing from the depths of a cavern, burrowed relentlessly into his ears.
[To think you shattered an ancient secret art and escaped…]
Whoooosh.
At that moment the Ban-Geuk Method circulating within Bu Eunseol flared outward.
“Heavenly Deity?”
Bu Eunseol’s voice cut through the shadow’s words.
“Or the Supreme Emperor?”
He knew instinctively.
That black shadow standing before him was one of the two—Heavenly Deity or someone higher—spoken of by Do Songbaek long ago, the beings who commanded the Special Divine Ranks.
[Ho.]
The shadow exclaimed in admiration.
A white space like a mouth appeared in the darkness.
[To recognise this noble one at a glance—most commendable.]
Heavenly Deity.
The shadow was none other than the Heavenly Deity of the Infinite Realm.
Grip.
Bu Eunseol’s grip tightened on the Silent Tiger Soul Sword until his knuckles whitened.
If he did not hold it this tightly, his body felt as though it would move on its own against his will.
‘Fortunately, he is off-guard.’
Against that transcendent being, no ordinary martial art would work.
But Bu Eunseol, however, possessed hidden trump cards: the dual spirit energies, Harmony, and the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Both energies transcended martial arts in power, and when the Silent Tiger Soul Sword drank dual spirit energy, it manifested mysterious might.
‘Simultaneous Harmony and Silent Tiger Soul Sword infused with dual spirit energy.’
With those, even the Heavenly Deity could be dealt a fatal blow.
[You are like a beast hiding sharp fangs.]
A smile formed again on the shadow.
[But you are far too tense.]
He was right.
Bu Eunseol had been facing the Heavenly Deity in a stance of utmost tension, while the shadow stood utterly relaxed.
That difference alone meant the outcome was already decided.
‘The outcome does not matter.’
Victory in a duel and killing are different things.
Bu Eunseol was not here for a fair match—he would sever the Heavenly Deity’s neck even if it cost him his life.
[You must know of our Realm’s Dharma Demon Reverend, Hyeok Ryeon-eung.]
The Heavenly Deity’s voice made the entire world tremble like rubber.
[Where is he?]
Hyeok Ryeon-eung had been completely obliterated by Bu Eunseol’s Harmony—his very existence erased.
A core figure of the Infinite Realm who handled countless affairs had vanished without a trace.
They could not possibly remain idle.
They had mobilised their full intelligence network and discovered that the last person he met was Bu Eunseol.
“If you defeat me, I will tell you.”
[How amusing. And unique.] Perhaps reading the intent to kill, the Heavenly Deity’s shadow formed clapping hands.
Shuk.
Suddenly three masked figures materialised around Bu Eunseol like ghosts.
They wore attire like black wraiths and radiated presence incomparably greater than any Infinite Realm envoy he had faced before.
‘Special Divine Ranks.’
These were surely the Special Divine Ranks of the Infinite Realm—possessing abilities similar to Hyeok Ryeon-eung.
[Do not compare them to Hyeok Ryeon-eung.] The Heavenly Deity spoke calmly, as though reading Bu Eunseol’s mind. [He merely possessed useful mind-seizing arts, so I raised him to Dharma Demon Reverend and had him handle matters in my stead.]
Hyeok Ryeon-eung—who had nearly killed Bu Eunseol with martial arts transplanted from the Eight Emperors and Three Stars, plus an external technique surpassing Diamond Indestructible Body—was dismissed as “merely useful at mind-seizing.”
“You do not deserve the title Heavenly Deity.” Bu Eunseol glared at the shadow and sneered coldly. “If you are so confident, stop running your mouth and fight me.”
Hummm.
The flickering candle-flame shadow suddenly froze.
[Heh heh heh.]
A low chuckle escaped—
[HA HA HA HA HA―!]
—then exploded into earth-shaking laughter.
Gales strong enough to sweep away the world roared outward; heaven and earth trembled.
[I cannot even remember the last time someone dared speak to me so rudely. HA HA HA!]
Each peal of laughter shook the world.
‘Now!’
The distance to the Heavenly Deity was about five zhang. Brilliant light burst from the Silent Tiger Soul Sword’s sheath.
He had seized the perfect instant while the Heavenly Deity laughed.
Seven Blood Tear Forms, Second Form: Half-Life, Half-Death.
The absolute sword art of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang—capable of shattering any defence and bringing death to all living things—was unleashed.
‘It does not matter if the Heavenly Deity’s shadow is mere illusion!’
The Blood Tears Seven Forms bring death to everything.
Even if that thing was a ghost, it would die.
Yet something impossible occurred.
SHHK!
Before the sword form could fully manifested, one of the Special Divine Ranks standing still suddenly leapt forward—straight into the path.
SHHK!
Even though the technique had not fully formed, the sheer momentum cleaved the guard cleanly in two.
Clack.
Bu Eunseol’s sword form halted instantly.
The Special Divine Rank had thrown himself into the middle of the unfolding technique.
The perfect instant collapsed.
The mysterious power of the Blood Tears Seven Forms that brings death to all things was lost.
‘How…’
It had been the flawless moment—the true timing—to sever the Heavenly Deity.
How had the guard predicted his exact movement?
[Impressive.]
For the first time, the Heavenly Deity’s voice carried genuine human emotion and sincerity.
[You nearly killed me once.]
The shadow stepped one pace closer.
[As a reward for my admiration, I shall dissect everything about you—your martial arts, your skin, your hair, your bones, your tendons.]
The black shadow spoke directly into Bu Eunseol’s mind.
[But before that… I will grant you the chance to ask one question.]
Bu Eunseol’s eyes turned colder.
This was no kindness to satisfy curiosity.
It was a psychological ploy to probe what was buried in his mind, what he most desired, what he most wished to know.
“Very well.”
Bu Eunseol asked expressionlessly, “What is your true purpose?”
[Purpose.]
The shadow’s voice rang out once more.
[Before I answer, allow me one question.]
“…”
[When a human dies, do you believe body and mind simply vanish?]
White teeth now gleamed in the shadow.
[Or do you believe the body dies temporarily, only to be reborn… maintaining its current state forever?]
A strange light flickered in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
What the Heavenly Deity spoke of was the Buddhist dual view of impermanence and annihilation.
Was everything impermanent and unreal?
Or was everything eternal and unchanging, preserving its current state forever?
That was the question.
[If you cannot answer, that is fine as well.]
“Far from it.” Bu Eunseol could answer without hesitation.
Because long ago, his grandfather Bu Zhanyang had already given him the answer.
“Both are not different—they are one.”
Brilliant light poured from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“The ultimate purpose is always the same: to transcend birth and death and Return to Oneness.”
Hummm.
At that moment the Heavenly Deity’s shadow turned pitch black—darker than the night sky.
[As expected, you share the will of the Realm of Returning to One.]
“Realm of Returning to One?”
Finally Bu Eunseol understood.
The third realm that had never revealed themselves—
Their true name was the Realm of Returning to One.
[Even if the world itself perishes… those who share the will of the Realm of Returning to One cannot be allowed to live.]
White teeth formed again on the endlessly rippling shadow, smiling playfully.
[Now die.]
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