Dae Bo—now the towering Form-Condensing Demon Venerable—tilted his head and laughed.
“No matter what tricks you try, it’s useless. This body can never be destroyed.”
He spread his arms wide, as though inviting Bu Eunseol to carve him apart, and advanced with slow, deliberate steps.
Shhk! Shhk!
The blades of Wishful True Binding slashed across his torso again and again, yet he did not even flinch.
Thanks to the power of Form-Condensing Demon Blood Qi, even fatal wounds healed instantly.
Flash!
Bu Eunseol drew the Moon Shadow Demonic Sword and unleashed Waning Moon, Dawn Star, the most destructive form of the Supreme Heavenly Flow.
Shhk!
His body was split in a cross shape, blood spraying everywhere—yet still he stood, undying.
Flash! Flash!
No matter what sword art Bu Eunseol used, no matter how many vital points he pierced, the Demon Venerable endured and counterattacked without breaking stride.
Immortal and Invincible.
That was the second epithet of the Form-Condensing Demon Venerable—and it was no empty title.
BOOM!
In the end, Bu Eunseol, pouring out sword strikes, was hurled by a single fist into one of the hall’s walls.
Craaash!
Dust and stone rained down as Bu Eunseol slowly rose.
The Demon Venerable sneered.
“Don’t put on that calm face. Your death is already decided.”
“Is that so?” Bu Eunseol wiped the blood from his lips and crooked a finger.
“Come.”
“Hahaha!” The Demon Venerable roared with laughter at Bu Eunseol’s apparent composure. “You’re too suspicious to waste the great art on. I’ll turn you into meat instead.”
He licked his lips as he stared at Bu Eunseol.
“The discarded corpses and the occasional fishermen who wander here aren’t enough.”
“So there never were never any plague victims to begin with.”
“Meat only needs flavour and texture.” He flicked his tongue again. “First I’ll capture you, find out who you really are, and then carve you up for food!”
His eyes flashed once more as he charged with earth-shaking steps.
He looked exactly like the old Hyeok Ryeon-eung, against whom no attack had ever worked.
And his movements were so fast that even “Harmony” could not be employed.
With supreme confidence he lashed out, hands dancing chaotically—Form-Condensing Hundred-Bone Claws, a strike that could rip flesh from bone with mere wind pressure.
Hummm.
At that instant a dark-crimson aura poured from Bu Eunseol’s body.
Hundreds of sword rings rose like droplets of water all around him.
Shaaaa—! Shhk! Shhk!
The hundreds of rings fell like an endless rain of blades, then transformed into razor-sharp sword qi that began tearing into the Demon Venerable’s flesh.
“Kuhuhu.”
The giant crouched, arms crossed to shield himself, a confident smile still on his lips.
“No matter what you do, it’s useless.”
As long as the heart was protected, no wound could kill him.
“If you’re finished with your little tricks, I’ll kill you now.”
He rose again, baring his teeth—then froze.
“Mm?”
He looked down at his own body.
Form-Condensing Demon Blood Qi should have healed him instantly and stopped the bleeding, yet blood still poured from every wound.
“Why…”
Drip, drip, drip.
He desperately circulated the art again, but the bleeding only grew worse.
Alarmed, he examined the cuts.
The sword qi had not merely sliced flesh—it had blackened the skin, turning it dark and necrotic.
Death.
He finally understood: Bu Eunseol’s strikes were not cutting flesh and bone.
They were slicing the very life force sleeping within his body—pure, absolute death, black and endless.
“Seven Blood Tear Forms…”
The Demon Venerable’s eyes widened in horror.
“How do you know that…?”
The Seven Blood Tear Forms of Bu Zhanyang, the greatest demonic swordsman of his age.
Even the Three Realms had obtained only fragments and could never fully wield its power.
Yet this man was reproducing it perfectly.
“You…”
Dark blood trickled from the corner of the Demon Venerable’s mouth.
“So it was you all along.”
Clack.
Bu Eunseol sheathed the demonic sword and spoke coldly.
“Savor death slowly. Remember every life you took while you do.”
The Demon Venerable’s eyes turned pitch black.
Only at the moment of death did he realize the place he was headed was hell.
Shhk! Shhk! Shhk!
Hundreds of gashes burst open across the giant’s body, blood gushing like fountains.
With the Form-Condensing Demon Blood Art shattered, every wound Bu Eunseol had inflicted reopened at once.
Thud.
The colossal corpse collapsed, spilling crimson blood and entrails.
There was not a single intact spot—old injuries as well as new had all reappeared.
“Something’s wrong.”
Bu Eunseol muttered as he surveyed the vast hall.
“They built a facility this size yet installed no defences against outsiders?”
He pondered, then shook his head.
“Or they simply believed none were needed.”
The entire population of Cold Moon Island consisted of Returning to One experts.
They had investigated every demonic sword wielder’s background in perfect detail.
They even ranked them with titles like “Heaven-Rank.”
They were certain no one who entered could ever leave alive.
“I’ll kill every last one of you.”
Thoom.
He lightly stomped the ground and the Void Heart Command spread outward, mapping the structure.
Step, step.
Bu Eunseol opened the gigantic door on the left side of the hall and stepped into a dark corridor.
The passage stretched perfectly flat—yet his superhuman sense of balance told him it sloped almost imperceptibly downward.
Creaaak.
He opened another door at the far end.
A vast, shadowy space appeared.
“Hm.”
As he descended, a thick stench of blood and freezing cold washed over him.
‘Blood and ice.’
He followed the source of the chill.
He found an old iron door, opened it, and a blast of white frost billowed out.
The entire chamber was plated in steel and frozen solid.
Countless slabs of meat hung from massive hooks on the ceiling.
‘Corpses.’
The ‘meat’ was human.
Guts cleanly removed, they dangled like slaughtered pigs.
This was clearly a storage vault for the corpses of martial artists and common folk they had killed over the years.
“So from the very beginning they prepared a larder for human flesh.”
Cold Moon Island housed the bodies of supreme experts for research.
In the early days, to preserve secrecy, they would have forbidden all contact with the outside world and enforced ironclad security.
Food supplies would have been limited.
Thus they had built this freezer—to butcher and store the bodies of commoners who wandered in, and those who failed the great art, and eat them.
“They do not deserve to live.”
Black true qi rippled from Bu Eunseol’s body.
He had decided to exterminate every soul on the island.
Step, step.
He moved to leave—then paused as a strange thought struck him.
“The Moon Shadow Demon Venerable’s corpse.”
The glass cylinder containing it had risen from below.
That meant the real storage area for those cylinders was somewhere deeper.
Why could he not sense it?
Thoom.
He stomped again, spreading Void Heart Command once more.
Still nothing.
“A hidden space.”
It had felt odd from the moment he entered.
A subterranean complex this enormous, yet not a single soul.
He had fought the Form-Condensing Demon Venerable to the death and walked freely, yet not even an ant had appeared.
That meant the people who researched and performed the great art on the corpses were inside some concealed area.
Bzzz.
He activated Void Heart Command again and swept the entire place.
Still nothing.
Shockingly, not a single trace could be found.
Despite countless people surely having come to this freezer to fetch human meat, no footprints, scents—everything had been erased.
‘So what is visible is not everything.’
Returning to One wielded a profound arcane art capable of completely remaking a human body.
Creating an invisible space would be child’s play for them.
‘Hm.’
Bu Eunseol let out a low growl.
Breaking a visible formation or curse is simple.
But there is no way to detect an invisible one.
“Then…”
A flash passed through his eyes.
“I’ll just destroy everything.”
The Four Divine Energies were the polar opposite of arcane arts, born from the power of nature itself.
If he flooded this entire underground citadel with Divine Energy…?
Every artificial, malevolent spell or formation hidden here would be obliterated.
Crackle.
Bu Eunseol drew upon his Thunder Spirit Energy.
Purple lightning coiled around his body, and even his eyes turned violet.
Crackle-crackle.
Soon violet bolts cloaked him so thickly he was barely visible only as a silhouette of lightning.
KRA-KOOOOM!
He released the gathered thunder spirit energy in all directions.
The surroundings rippled like water.
Everything looked the same, yet something felt off.
‘It’s slightly… different.’
The entire landscape seemed subtly altered.
After scanning for a long while, Bu Eunseol finally understood the secret of this place.
‘They hid the doors that divide the spaces.’
Even the most powerful arcane art cannot perfectly split a space this large.
Returning to One had simply concealed doors that only they could use.
The reason the underground citadel felt so enormous was that it had been divided into two overlapping spaces from top to bottom.
Clank.
The iron door—three chi thick and impossibly heavy—rattled but would not open even with inner force.
‘It isn’t meant to be opened by strength.’
KRA-CRACKLE!
Bu Eunseol poured thunder spirit energy once more and with a metallic clank the door swung open of its own accord.
Beyond it lay a scenery that had been invisible until now, and countless people moved about.
The hidden space was several times larger than the underground citadel he had seen in Sichuan.
Windowless buildings of dark stone stretched endlessly, and throngs of people walked the streets.
Every single person here bore the same skin deformities as the villagers above, yet none were missing limbs.
“They do not deserve to live.”
If even one escaped the island, a flesh-eating ghoul would be loosed upon the martial world.
Fwooooosh!
Bu Eunseol ignited Yeolha Great True Energy and began melting the massive iron door.
Hiss…
The thick steel glowed red, then sagged like taffy—no one would ever pass through again.
Shaaaak! Shaaaaak!
At the same instant he unleashed Wishful True Binding.
Dozens of zhang-long blades of qi formed and began slicing throats at blinding speed as people walked.
It was a one-sided slaughter, yet no emotion showed on Bu Eunseol’s face.
These were demons who repeatedly performed cruel experiments and feasted on human flesh.
He was simply crushing vermin.
Blood flowed in rivers and the ground became a carpet of corpses with no place to step.
Some fled, some unleashed bizarre martial arts, but to Bu Eunseol they were nothing more than annoying insects.
Step, step.
Having killed every soul in the hidden space, he entered the largest building from which the most people had poured.
Clank.
Inside stretched a long, dark corridor.
He sped through it until he reached the deepest chamber, where he found a familiar iron door.
The same distinctive pattern he had seen beneath the Sword Tomb of Mount Taihe.
‘So that place was also built by Returning to One.’
Like the door in the Sword Tomb, the top five keyholes showed signs of frequent use, while the bottommost hole was almost untouched.
Clank.
He formed a key of ice with Heavenly Glacial Secret infused with Crystal Spirit Energy and opened the door in one motion.
Unlike the Sword Tomb, the iron door itself did not swing; instead a secret passage appeared on the opposite side.
‘Why go to such lengths?’
Bu Eunseol cautiously examined the newly revealed passage and stepped inside without hesitation.
The chamber was roughly a thousand pyeong and lined with glass cylinders draped in black cloth.
Black tubing like spiderwebs ran through deep grooves beneath them.
He pulled back one cloth.
A cylinder filled with clear liquid, a half-dissected corpse floating within.
It was the Moon Shadow Demon Venerable’s body he had seen earlier.
“Wait.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
On the pedestal beneath the cylinder were carved characters:
Earth-Demon Star — Moon Shadow Demon Venerable.
“Earth-Demon Star?”
Realization struck like lightning.
Why would the Hundred and Eight Stars be engraved here?
“No way…”
He tore the cloth from the next cylinder.
A shaven-headed monk floated inside.
Earth-Flying Star — Jade Flying Vajra.
He had been a genius of Shaolin in the same generation as Buddha Venerable, but to save Yang Rim, a disciple of Hundred Flowers Sect poisoned by aphrodisiac, he had been forced to sleep with her.
For breaking monastic vows he returned to laity, became a wandering hero, and did much good in the martial world.
He was eventually killed by the Purple-Faced Tyrant, his lifelong rival, and Yang Rim was said to have buried him near Hundred Flowers Sect.
Yet here his corpse rested on Cold Moon Island.
“The Hundred and Eight Stars…”
Everything finally made sense.
Most of the supreme experts who had once dominated the martial world had probably been among the Hundred and Eight Stars.
Returning to One had scattered demonic swords to find those born under those same stars among the Void Spirit Physique bearers.
“They created demonic swords that only Spirit Spirit Bodies can awaken… to find the Hundred and Eight Stars for their great art.”
Among Void Spirit Physique wielders of demonic swords, those born under the Hundred and Eight Stars would inevitably kill their way to the top.
They lured them with promises of becoming “Supreme Martial Warrior” and experimented here.
Because the ancient supreme experts had been Hundred and Eight Stars, they sought matching stars once more.
“So this is what the Earth-Killer Star meant by the Yangseol Clan’s experiments.”
But it was not the Yangseol Clan—it was Returning to One doing it now.
Could Returning to One be the true headquarters of the Yangseol Clan?
‘No, impossible.’
Yangseol Rin’s eyes when she left him had been filled only with worry.
She did not seem capable of such atrocities.
‘But now… I’m not sure of anything anymore.’
Even Baekri Mujo, who had always appeared gentle and upright, was in truth an unfathomable and ruthless man.
Were all martial artists two-faced?
Was Yangseol Rin merely pretending goodness while plotting evil?
“They cannot even rest in death, used by the Three Realms…”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes grew dim as he gazed at Jade Flying Vajra’s corpse.
Grandfather’s body was surely somewhere in a hidden Returning to One vault, mutilated just as badly.
Rage boiled beyond endurance.
Crack.
He channelled inner force and cracks spider-webbed across the cylinder and the liquid gushed out.
Clang-clang-clang-clang!
Alarms suddenly rang throughout the chamber.
Touching the cylinders apparently triggered them.
But everyone inside was already dead so the alarm was meaningless now.
Fwoooosh!
Bu Eunseol extended his right hand and poured Yeolha Great True Energy into the cylinders one by one.
The corpses of the four warriors ignited.
The Extreme Yang Flame infused with thunder spirit energy burned ten times hotter than cremation stones.
Their remaining skin charred away, leaving only blackened bones—perhaps from lingering resentment, or from whatever chemicals had been used to preserve them.
“No…”
Bu Eunseol lifted the cloth from the fifth cylinder, and his brows shot up.
Scarlet Blood Demon Emperor — Earth-Strong Star.
The cylinder was empty.
“So that’s it.”
The wild-haired drunkard endlessly drinking in the inn—he too had been a demonic sword wielder from outside, still agonizing over whether to accept the great art.
“He had no real choice.”
He must have known the success rate was abysmal, and even success would not free him from their grasp.
Yet in the end, craving to become an absolute supreme expert, he had chosen the procedure.
“How exactly do they remake the body?”
They preserved corpses to recreate the exact physical conditions of past masters. But even with mystic arts, how could they perfectly reproduce those legendary physiques?
‘I need to see what happens when the great art succeeds—what powers they gain.’
Bu Eunseol pulled back the final shrouded cloth.
His eyes widened until they seemed ready to split.
Earth-Hero Star — Bullet King.
The pedestal beneath the empty cylinder bore those words.
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