Paa!
Pushed back in the clash of forces, Bu Eunseol was struck squarely by Seo Muk’s sword force and hurled thirty zhang away in an instant.
But that was, paradoxically, his opportunity.
He had deliberately taken the sword force with his bare body behind the Wishful True Binding, using the recoil to escape the domain of Baekri Mujo’s power.
Tsuuuuuu!
Spinning mid-flight dozens of zhang away, Bu Eunseol instantly unleashed Swift Beyond Shadow.
Now that Seo Muk had arrived, the elite of the Star Guard Division could not be far behind.
A direct confrontation with Baekri Mujo would have to wait for another day.
“Hmph!”
A disdainful snort from Baekri Mujo rang out, and pure white qi poured down in front of Bu Eunseol as he executed his movement art.
Sacred Sword.
At last, Baekri Mujo had unleashed his ultimate technique upon the fleeing Bu Eunseol.
It was a white hue of inescapable, unblockable death.
Kwa-ruuung!
Purple thunder qi exploded from Bu Eunseol’s body, propelling him hundreds of zhang forward in a single flash.
The moment that despair-like Sacred Sword enveloped him, his instincts had sensed mortal danger and triggered Thunder Spirit Energy on their own.
KWAAAA!
Becoming a literal bolt of lightning, Bu Eunseol escaped the area in the blink of an eye.
“We will pursue at once.”
“No need.”
Clack.
Sheathing his thin sword, Baekri Mujo shook his head.
“He is no longer someone we can simply chase down and finish.”
Seo Muk nodded.
Though little known in the martial world, Baekri Mujo was a terrifying master with an absurd record of feats. To exchange blows with that Commander intense enough to overturn heaven and earth, and then take a sword force bare-handed…
He was far beyond the level the Star Guard Division could handle.
‘How curious.’
Staring at the spot where Bu Eunseol had vanished, Baekri Mujo furrowed his brow.
The power Bu Eunseol had displayed moments ago…
It bore striking similarity to the principles of the secret martial doctrine he himself had created.
‘He aligned multiple powers within his body.’
Creating a technique that aligned internal energies to unleash power was nothing new. Yet the texture of the force Bu Eunseol had shown was almost identical to his own creation.
‘And somehow… familiar.’
It was clearly their first meeting, yet something about the man’s eyes and aura felt known.
“Commander.”
Seo Muk cautiously asked the silent Baekri Mujo.
“Was that man from the Yangseol Clan?”
Seo Muk was certain: only someone from the Yangseol Clan the Commander had been pursuing could clash head-on with Baekri Mujo at such a young age.
“No.”
Baekri Mujo answered calmly.
“That was the heir of Majeon, the Martial Soul Command Lord.”
Seo Muk’s eyes widened.
“Him?”
“Yes. And he did not even reveal his full strength.”
A faint smile touched Baekri Mujo’s lips.
“Thanks to him, this has been the most enjoyable excursion in a long while.”
Seo Muk’s mouth fell open.
The skill shown just now had already surpassed the younger generation.
And that was not even his full power?
“A pity, but I will have to hear his answer another time.”
As Seo Muk stood gaping, Baekri Mujo calmly turned away.
“Return.”
His eyes narrowed as he gazed at the distant sky.
There was nothing to regret.
Once he became Alliance Leader, every truth would be his.
Every force gathered in the Martial Alliance would fall into his hands.
***
Yangseol Rin, racing at full speed with her movement art, bit her lip.
‘From now on, I will never come out alone again.’
Setting aside clan rules, she had believed that with her abilities, no matter whom she faced, she could always escape unscathed. But the current level of martial arts in the martial world far exceeded her imagination.
‘Martial Soul Command Lord.’
She had thought him merely the successor produced by Majeon.
Yet his true prowess was terrifying enough to make even the experts of the previous generation throw up their hands.
‘And Baekri Mujo…’
If Bu Eunseol was a hidden dragon, Baekri Mujo was already a heavenly dragon clutching the wish-fulfilling pearl.
She could not even gauge the realm his martial arts had reached.
That meant he had already forged his own unique school of martial learning.
Beings who bypassed ordinary martial stages were the absolute natural enemies of the Yangseol Clan’s power.
‘I must re-evaluate the current martial world and every notable figure.’
Yangseol Rin’s heart pounded.
‘At this rate, even the main house is in danger.’
The Yangseol Clan prided itself on being able to destroy any power, yet if the martial world’s martial level was this high, the rule of sending only one person into the world at a time must be abolished.
The state of the martial world and its personages must be investigated anew, thoroughly.
Yet this was, in truth, her misconception.
Bu Eunseol and Baekri Mujo were two who walked their own singular paths, far removed from ordinary martial realms.
They had always kept a low profile, so their true prowess had never been fully revealed.
Unaware of that fact, Yangseol Rin simply assumed that if Majeon’s heir and a unit captain were this strong, everyone of similar standing must be equally monstrous.
Taat.
She halted her movement art near a riverbank.
Having opened this much distance, even if Baekri Mujo could fly, he would never find her.
“Phew.”
Taking a deep breath, she stared for a long while in the direction Bu Eunseol had gone.
“He’ll be fine.”
A distant look entered Yangseol Rin’s eyes.
Originally, she had not the slightest interest in the opposite sex. Her only thoughts had been to hunt down the One Hundred and Eight Stars that harmed the world and prevent the Heavenly Dark Star from rising.
‘He tried to protect me.’
Yet even the coldest woman would be deeply moved to see a man risk his life to shield her.
Especially since Yangseol Rin was a maiden in the flower of her youth…
She could not help but have her heart stolen by Bu Eunseol standing unshaken before a mighty foe, blocking the way in front of her.
‘If anything happens to him…’
Pure white qi began to spill from Yangseol Rin’s eyes.
‘Not just Baekri Mujo—I’ll wipe out the entire Martial Alliance.’
Muttering under her breath, she was about to turn away when—
Chwaaaak!
The ground suddenly split as though torn asunder, and faint light leaked from the fissure.
“A formation?”
Yangseol Rin instantly circulated her energy to escape the formation’s range.
But light poured from the cracks and instantly became towering stone steles that reached toward the heavens.
“They overlapped them. Ancient formations.”
Watching faint mist spread between the maze-like steles, Yangseol Rin’s eyes gleamed.
“The Myriad Reincarnation Formation and the Ghost Spirit Eight Divine Gates.”
Having seen through the layered formations, fierce winds erupted from her body.
Saaaaaa!
The winds instantly became a gale, toppling the steles one after another.
Kwaaang! Kwaaang!
With each massive stele that fell, the mist dispersed, gradually revealing clear sky.
Kuuung.
Finally toppling the last stele and breaking free, Yangseol Rin raised one eyebrow.
Over a hundred martial artists now surrounded her in a perfect circle, gleaming swords drawn.
Their presence was formidable—comparable to the pressure Baekri Mujo had just exuded.
‘As expected… the main house has misjudged.’
In truth, the warriors before her were also hidden experts secretly trained, never revealed to the martial world.
Yet once again she had misunderstood the martial prowess of the orthodox sects.
“So you are the emissary descended from the Yangseol Clan?”
The encirclement suddenly parted, and a breathtakingly beautiful woman stepped forth.
Her features were angelic, yet her eyes were sharply narrowed, and an aura of majestic authority flowed from her entire being.
It was none other than the Chief Inspector, Gongsun Dankyung.
“I have no particular grudge with the Martial Alliance.”
Recognizing Gongsun Dankyung, Yangseol Rin wore a look of utter incomprehension.
“Why are you attacking me?”
“I have questions.”
“How strange.”
Yangseol Rin glanced around and joked.
“Why is it that every martial world person who sees me only wants to ask questions?”
“From your expression, it seems someone has already received satisfactory answers from you.”
“Who knows.”
Yangseol Rin narrowed her eyes.
“Looking at this, it seems you deliberately sent Baekri Mujo after me and waited along my escape route.”
“Correct.”
Gongsun Dankyung nodded.
“How else could we capture a person of the Yangseol Clan?”
“Big dreams. I’m not captured yet.”
“Do not worry. If you answer properly, I will never bind you.”
Taking a deep breath, Gongsun Dankyung spoke.
“The Jungson Clan. Where is their main stronghold?”
“The Jungson Clan?”
“Yes. The Jungson Clan that is always mentioned alongside your Yangseol Clan.”
“Why ask me?”
“Because you would know their location.”
“I don’t.”
Gongsun Dankyung stared straight into Yangseol Rin’s eyes, trying to discern truth from lie.
Then, as if sensing something, she shook her head.
“You would refuse the offered wine and choose the punishment cup.”
“When did you ever offer wine?”
“Do I look like I am joking?”
Frost seemed to fall from Gongsun Dankyung’s voice.
“Or do you think ordinary commoners can be toyed with at will?”
“Ordinary commoner? Who? You?”
“Silence.”
Killing intent surged in Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes.
“Because of the evil deeds of the Jungson Clan and the Infinite Realm, countless lives have been ruined and sacrificed.”
“Hey, I really don’t know. Suddenly bringing up the Jungson Clan…”
“You had best think carefully before answering.”
Sharp divine light shot from Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes.
“If you do not answer truthfully, I will judge the Yangseol Clan to be demons no different from them.”
Yangseol Rin looked to the distant sky and let out a hollow laugh.
“Our main house has read the heavens’ will and guarded the martial world until now. Yet we have always refrained from stepping forth, wary of being consumed by power…”
Her laughter abruptly ceased, and cold light poured from her eyes.
“But you treat a person of our house like a scarecrow.”
“Further conversation is pointless.”
Gongsun Dankyung flicked an eyebrow.
“Bind her.”
At the command, the hundred-plus encircled warriors began moving in chaotic patterns.
Fierce winds erupted from Yangseol Rin’s body.
Warriors exposed to the gale collapsed like felled logs.
It was the unique ability of the Yangseol Clan—using the enemy’s own true qi to attack them.
“She manipulates root qi without lifting a hand, disrupting the flow of true qi.”
Unfortunately, her opponent was Gongsun Dankyung, hailed as the greatest genius in the martial world.
“Center on the Ten Pillars and deploy Stillness Within Movement.”
Gongsun Dankyung’s mastery of formations was the highest in the martial world.
Using the mysterious arts she had learned as a child in the Jungson Clan, she had created a new school of formation theory that transcended the limits of martial learning.
Moreover, these hundred-plus warriors were masters she had secretly trained herself, each worth a thousand men.
“Hmph!” Yangseol Rin snorted and faced them.
She possessed enough power to collapse the Hyeoncheon Sword Sect without lifting a finger.
Yet Gongsun Dankyung, who had devoted her life to destroying the Infinite Realm and Jungson Clan, had already devised mysterious formations capable of countering not only martial arts but all manner of arcane techniques and great spells.
“Urgh.”
In the end, Yangseol Rin was gradually pushed back by the formation’s effects.
Peng!
Unable to block the palm forces pouring from the warriors within the formation, she took a blow to the back.
“You bastards!”
Yangseol Rin struggled desperately, but what they deployed was the Annihilation Formation created by Gongsun Dankyung—known as the Wisdom Star—for the sole purpose of vengeance accumulated since childhood.
A formation that could extinguish any enemy, any power.
All her mysterious abilities were sealed, and wounds began accumulating on her body.
Papapak!
Spotting an opening, a warrior fired finger wind that struck the acupoints on her legs.
Kung.
As she fell to her knees, another struck her shoulder acupoints, paralyzing both arms.
Step, step.
Gongsun Dankyung walked straight toward her and spoke solemnly.
“Where is the Jungson Clan?”
“I don’t understand. What crime did the Jungson Clan commit against the Martial Alliance?”
“What crime?”
Black flames of resentment blazed in Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes.
“To obtain the One Hundred and Eight Stars they desired, they abducted and brutally murdered innocent people. If that is not a crime, what is?”
“You must have heard bad rumors. That the Jungson Clan kidnaps and kills commoners?” Yangseol Rin gave a hollow laugh. “Even the Earth-Killer Star who became a murderous demon said our house captures and kills the One Hundred and Eight Stars. You people have only heard baseless rumors.”
“Rumors?”
Flames that could melt steel roared in Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes.
“You call what I personally experienced a rumor?”
Yangseol Rin’s eyes widened in shock.
Then the Chief Inspector of the Martial Alliance had been abducted by the main house?
“You were kidnapped?”
“No more words are needed.”
Gongsun Dankyung ordered her subordinates.
“Escort her to the Avici Pit.”
“Avici (Lowest Realm in Hell) Pit?”
Yangseol Rin blinked.
Did the Martial Alliance have a place with such a ghastly name?
“It is the prison I created.”
Gongsun Dankyung curled her lips.
“As long as you still breathe, you will taste every hell there is. Look forward to it.”
“You’ll torture me?”
“Until you reveal the Jungson Clan’s location…”
Piiiiii—
Suddenly a sharp whistle rang out from somewhere.
It sounded both like a forceful flute and the cry of a hawk.
Saaaa.
Sand suddenly whipped up around Yangseol Rin and Gongsun Dankyung, and crimson shadows began forming one by one.
They wore crimson robes, crimson shoes, and crimson masks.
They were the experts of the Yangseol Clan.
“Young Lady.”
The young woman at the front of the masked figures bowed to Yangseol Rin.
She wore no mask, and from her left eye to her chin was covered in crimson dots.
Upon closer inspection, the dots formed the character for ‘seize’, giving an eerie impression.
It was Yangseol Ok, captain of the Yangseol Clan’s Blood Forest Corps.
Pat.
Yangseol Ok extended her hand, and the sealed acupoints on Yangseol Rin’s body instantly unlocked.
“Phew.”
Taking a deep breath, Yangseol Rin glared at Gongsun Dankyung.
“Now the situation has changed, hasn’t it?”
Gongsun Dankyung said nothing.
The hundred warriors she had brought were extraordinary masters, but the masked figures who had just appeared radiated presence no less formidable.
“First we will slaughter them all, then escort you home.”
“No need to kill them.”
Yangseol Rin spoke coldly to Gongsun Dankyung.
“If we do, rumors will spread again that our house is doing strange things.”
“…”
“We of the main house—and I—are not the villains you think. But if you keep provoking us without reason… then we truly will sweep you all away.”
She turned to Yangseol Ok.
“No need to mind them. I am returning now.”
Her voice carried a trace of weariness.
This excursion into the martial world had been far more perilous and exhausting than anticipated.
Pat!
Yangseol Rin unfolded her movement art and vanished into the distant sky in a single leap.
Step, step.
Yangseol Ok approached Gongsun Dankyung and spoke icily.
“If you touch a person of our house again, I will wipe out not only you but the entire Martial Alliance.”
“Yeon Hwa.”
At that moment, Gongsun Dankyung’s voice trembled as she called out to Yangseol Ok.
Only now, up close, had she seen the pattern of crimson dots.
“Why… have you become a person of the Yangseol Clan?”
“…”
“You clearly died after failing the fourth trial… I even counted every grave.”
Yangseol Ok—once named Yeon Hwa—was one of the children abducted with Gongsun Dankyung to the Jungson Clan.
Before she became close with Chu So, they had been best friends.
Gongsun Dankyung had only seen her at age seven, yet she knew.
The character formed by those crimson dots on her face had been inscribed by Gongsun Dankyung herself during the Bone-Striking Acupoint Trial in the Jungson Clan.
It was in her own childhood handwriting.
“You speak nonsense.”
“You have a burn scar beneath your right collarbone.”
At those words, something strange flickered in Yangseol Ok’s eyes.
There truly was a burn scar there.
“How do you know that?”
“Because you are Yeon Hwa.”
“Ridiculous.”
“Then how did the burn happen?”
Yangseol Ok frowned.
“I do not know.”
“What?”
“I have no memories of my childhood.”
“Think carefully.” Gongsun Dankyung spoke calmly. “In the Jungson Clan, they forced us to fight. The penalty for losing was to have boiling water poured in order: shoulder, arm, leg, then head.”
Yangseol Ok only looked blank.
Seeing that something was off about her eyes, Gongsun Dankyung nodded.
“They must have altered or erased your memories with the Spirit-Controlling Heart Seal Grand Method. They were capable of it.”
“I do not understand what you are saying.”
“Captain. She is the Martial Alliance’s Chief Inspector. She is probably trying some strange trick.”
At a subordinate’s words, Yangseol Ok nodded.
She had listened this long only because Gongsun Dankyung’s expression looked desperate and urgent, and those eyes filled with obsession felt strangely familiar.
But she had no intention of listening further.
“Gongsun Dankyung. You attacked our house’s successor without cause.” Yangseol Ok’s eyes grew stern. “By rights we should slaughter you all, but the Young Lady stopped us, so we leave.”
“Yeon Hwa.”
“I am not Yeon Hwa.”
Turning away, Yangseol Ok spoke.
“Remember this. If something like this happens again, something you cannot bear will follow.”
Saaaa.
In an instant she whipped up a gust and vanished.
Her subordinates disappeared just as quickly.
“They only pretended to kill her?”
Staring at the spot where Yangseol Ok had vanished, Gongsun Dankyung blinked.
“Did they fake her death and turn her into a puppet of the Three Houses?”
In truth, Yeon Hwa’s talent had not been particularly outstanding among the children.
She had simply been close before the trials and died during the test against Gongsun Dankyung herself, so the memory had remained vivid and painful—even more than Chu So.
Yet now she had become a warrior of the Yangseol Clan?
Had the Jungson Clan faked the deaths of all the children and given them new identities?
After a long moment of thought, she shook her head.
That probability did not exist.
Only she, Gongsun Dankyung, had been revived with Chu So’s help.
She had personally checked several graves; real children were buried there.
They had even used oil-soaked linen for burial.
If they were only faking death, there would have been no need for such measures.
‘Unless…’
Gongsun Dankyung recalled what Chu So had once told her.
―There are One Hundred and Eight Stars that only reveal themselves when one is on the verge of death.
‘Heavenly Void Star.’
If Yeon Hwa had been born under the Heavenly Void Star? If the moment her breath ceased, that power had awakened?
Perhaps the revived Yeon Hwa wandered until the Yangseol Clan saved her?
“I don’t know.”
Focus vanished from Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes.
One thing was certain: Yeon Hwa, who had died in the Jungson Clan, had become a person of the Yangseol Clan.
That meant, as she had suspected, the Yangseol Clan and Jungson Clan might be closely connected.
‘In the end, all Three Houses may be linked.’
Gongsun Dankyung’s eyes darkened.
She had thought everything would end once the Infinite Realm and Jungson Clan were destroyed.
But now the Yangseol Clan was involved as well…
‘First, I will dig up everything. All of it. And then…’
After pondering for a long while, Gongsun Dankyung drew a deep breath.
The face of a man whose intellect rivaled hers and whose martial skill was formidable rose in her mind.
Seon Woojin.
No matter how long it took…
She resolved to make that hidden dragon truly hers.
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