So Jeon waved his hand dismissively as he spoke.
“That guy Baek Yeon is at the Heaven and Earth Severing Sect for the Peongan Corps’ training. Go straight to the Vice-Pavilion Master.”
“Understood.” Bu Eunseol bowed in courtesy and quickly headed toward the Clear Breeze Pavilion where Dan Cheong was staying.
Guided by an attendant, he entered the office and saw Dan Cheong leisurely sitting and sipping tea.
With the scale of the General Affairs Bureau having grown so large that disciples flocked to assist him, Dan Cheong was enjoying a life of idle pleasure no less than Wang Geol.
“What brings you here?”
Upon spotting Bu Eunseol’s face, Dan Cheong’s expression turned grave.
Dan Cheong had personally led Bu Eunseol—a survivor of Hell Island—to Nangyang Pavilion. Having watched over Bu Eunseol for years now, he immediately sensed the faint shadow lingering beneath the young man’s eyes.
“I wish to meet the Pavilion Master.”
“The Pavilion Master?” Dan Cheong frowned.
Pavilion Master Ak Muryeong had long ago delegated all duties to him and entered secluded training.
He would not emerge unless something extraordinary occurred.
“What is this about?”
“I have uncovered the objective of the final of the Three Realms—the Returning to One Realm.”
Bu Eunseol explained in detail everything he had experienced up to that point.
“I believe I must inform the Pavilion Master of this and discuss it with him.”
The Infinite Realm was disrupting the martial world by researching bizarre entities like puppets or the Bound Asuras.
Though those things were formidable and terrifying, they were not impossible to oppose.
But what the Returning to One Realm was doing was different.
If they used their monstrous great methods to create avatars of supreme experts?
Would they not be able to kill even the current Three Demons or the Four Gods and Seven Kings and turn them into puppets once more?
Moreover, if they had acquired a demonic artifact like the Black Divine Artifact? The situation would become one where even decent martial arts could not contend.
What was even more frightening was that the Returning to One Realm had already gathered the One Hundred and Eight Stars that the Yangseol Family had been watching.
If their plan succeeded?
They would essentially hold the entire martial world in the palm of their hand.
“Hmm.”
Dan Cheong stroked his chin.
In truth, Nangyang Pavilion pursued only the ultimate in martial arts and exacted bloody vengeance solely on those who provoked them.
It was one of the sects that never intervened in the affairs of the martial world, no matter what happened.
The reason it was included among the Ten Great Demonic Sects was purely because of its terrifying martial learning.
Having always restrained its sphere of influence and lived self-sufficiently in Iron Staff Mountain, it showed no particular interest even if there were not three realms but a hundred or a thousand.
But after Bu Eunseol’s arrival, it had become a core sect leading the demonic path.
Of course, Dan Cheong did not think that was a bad thing.
Yet Pavilion Master Ak Muryeong was different.
The more the sect prospered, the more he felt burdened by the complications and disliked the situation.
“To be honest with you,”
Dan Cheong said in a low voice.
“If it is to help you, I can mobilize all of Nangyang Pavilion’s forces. That has always been the case.”
“……”
“But the Pavilion Master is different. He will not listen to anything about the Three Realms.”
“I know.” Bu Eunseol replied softly. “To be perfectly frank, I too have no interest in the Three Realms or anything of the sort.”
“What do you mean?”
“It was never for the sake of Majeon’s hegemony or the demonic path’s situation that I clashed with them as Majeon’s successor.”
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
“It was solely for revenge.”
His eyes flashed as he continued.
“Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang. That man is my grandfather.”
“Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang…”
“Yes.”
Bu Eunseol, having taken another deep breath, stared straight at Dan Cheong.
“I wanted to tell you from the beginning… but all of this stems from my personal desire for vengeance. I did not wish to cause harm to the pavilion, so I kept silent.”
He calmly recounted his story from childhood up to the present.
“Perhaps the Demon Emperor, the Chief Instructor, the Shadow Pavilion, or the other masters of the Ten Great Demonic Sects already know my circumstances.”
“Hmm.”
“And the Pavilion Master may know as well.”
“Though our pavilion is one of the Ten Great Demonic Sects, we have always been indifferent to the affairs of Majeon and the demonic path. The Pavilion Master was the same.”
Dan Cheong shook his head after taking a deep breath.
Even he could not be certain whether Ak Muryeong knew those facts.
“Very well.” Dan Cheong nodded, exhaling heavily. “The Pavilion Master is currently at Iron Staff Peak. You should be able to meet him there. However… you will have to bear the consequences yourself.”
In the past, when calling upon Ak Muryeong, Dan Cheong and Baek Yeon had staked their lives in earnest pleading.
But now, he was telling Bu Eunseol to do it himself.
“And the Vice-Pavilion Master is currently…”
Sensing Bu Eunseol’s thoughts, Dan Cheong waved his hand.
“No, I am busy.”
On the table where he sat were various teacups and piles of tea leaves.
“Selecting fine tea leaves is also this Vice-Pavilion Master’s duty.”
Unable to withstand Bu Eunseol’s burning gaze, Dan Cheong cleared his throat and added, “We must serve good tea to guests who visit our pavilion. Otherwise, those fellows will all claim to brew only wild tea.”
The only guests who ever came to Nangyang Pavilion were the occasional messengers from Majeon.
And Dan Cheong had never once served them tea.
Recalling that fact, Bu Eunseol made a wry face, prompting Dan Cheong to quickly change the subject.
“Are you not the successor of our pavilion? It is time you grew closer to the Pavilion Master.”
“Understood.”
As Bu Eunseol reluctantly agreed, Dan Cheong nodded in relief.
“Come back safely.”
“Yes.” Bu Eunseol clasped his hands together.
Watching him leave, Dan Cheong’s expression darkened endlessly.
It was a deep, somber look in his eyes that had never been seen before.
Iron Staff Peak, the main peak of Iron Staff Mountain, towered so high it seemed to touch the heavens.
When Bu Eunseol reached the summit, mist like clouds rose in all directions.
Below the sheer cliff stood a muscular man over seven feet tall.
“Pavilion Master.”
Bu Eunseol bowed his head in respect.
“I apologize for disturbing your training.”
The man, who had been gazing at the boundless, endless landscape, slowly turned.
His long hair was carelessly tied up, his slightly dark skin and bulging muscles full of vitality, making his age impossible to guess.
An unending gleam flowed in his eyes, devoid of joy, anger, sorrow, or pleasure.
It was as though he had captured the vast, limitless vista of Iron Staff Peak within his pupils.
This was the great demonic being who shook the world—the Pavilion Master of Nangyang Pavilion, Human Demon Ak Muryeong.
[So you boldly climbed here knowing you were disturbing this Pavilion Master’s seclusion.]
As Ak Muryeong looked down at Bu Eunseol, a yellowish light poured from his eyes.
Even the boldest man would have wet himself facing that yellowish glare. But Bu Eunseol was not particularly surprised. He knew it was the light emitted when Nangyang Heart Eye reached its extreme.
After all, he himself could now activate Nangyang Heart Eye, albeit at a faint level.
“The time has come for the Pavilion Master to know as well…”
Bu Eunseol calmly clasped his hands.
“I have come despite knowing it would be a disturbance.”
[The time to know?]
“Yes.”
Ak Muryeong gave a contemptuous snort.
[That you are the orphan raised by Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang?]
Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened.
“You knew?”
[Sado Muryeong came here not long ago.]
Bu Eunseol could not hide his shock.
The Demon Emperor, who had never revealed his whereabouts and continued seclusion, had visited Ak Muryeong?
That meant the Demon Emperor had known since the Ten Demon Warriors Plan that he was Bu Zhanyang’s grandson.
‘Is that why he designated me as Majeon’s successor?’
Boom!
In that instant, Bu Eunseol felt as though an enormous iron weight had struck the back of his head.
Stagger.
His skull felt as if it were splitting; he stumbled back one step.
[For someone who guarded his spirit so firmly to become defenseless the moment he heard his background?]
The thunderous rebuke snapped Bu Eunseol awake.
The moment Bu Eunseol’s mental defenses cracked, Ak Muryeong had instantly unleashed Illusion Upon Illusion, striking his spirit directly.
[Or has the martial world begun to look easy now that you have made a measly bit of progress?]
Shamed by the rebuke, Bu Eunseol thought, ‘I was too arrogant.’
Progress in martial arts was not his alone.
In that short time, Ak Muryeong too had leaped forward once more, reaching an unfathomable realm.
“This disciple realizes his mistake.” Bu Eunseol bowed his head in shame.
In the martial world, life and death could be decided in an instant. One must never let one’s guard down, not even for a moment.
“But today, I must hear everything from the Pavilion Master.”
Boom.
Suddenly, the space around Bu Eunseol turned pitch black.
Ak Muryeong had become a towering mountain, casting an enormous shadow.
[Very well.]
When Ak Muryeong opened his mouth and spoke, Bu Eunseol felt pressure as though the sky were falling upon his head.
[Ask.]
Crack.
The ground around Bu Eunseol began to split the moment Ak Muryeong spoke.
Each time he uttered a sound, terrifying pressure poured onto Bu Eunseol’s body.
The problem was that this was neither inner energy nor any force that could be endured through spiritual transmission.
[I will answer only until you can still hear.]
‘The Pavilion Master planted the seed of Illusion Upon Illusion the instant I revealed a single crack in my spirit.’
Bu Eunseol instantly grasped the situation.
The moment his grandfather was mentioned and his spiritual barrier briefly broke, Ak Muryeong had swiftly scattered the seed of Illusion Upon Illusion into his spirit.
“Does the Pavilion Master perhaps know the identities of those who killed my grandfather?”
Focusing his mind, Bu Eunseol resisted the power of Illusion Upon Illusion with all his might.
Even if his body burst apart, there were answers he absolutely had to hear from Ak Muryeong.
[I do not know.]
“Then why does the Demon Emperor know I am his grandson?”
[He had been searching for the Seven-Finger Demon Blade for a long time.]
Each word Ak Muryeong spoke felt as though heaven and earth were collapsing and his skull was splitting in two.
[But because Seven-Finger Demon Blade had left countless avatars in the martial world, finding the real one was difficult.]
Ak Muryeong continued, looking into Bu Eunseol’s bloodshot eyes.
[And when he finally found him, he was performing a cremation with some child, or so he said.]
Thick, worm-like veins bulged across Bu Eunseol’s body, his eyes bloodshot.
“Then…”
[Yes. The child he saw then stood before him as one of the Ten Demon Warriors, he said.]
Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened.
That meant the Demon Emperor had found his grandfather before the Three Realms did?
‘Then why has the Demon Emperor pretended not to know me?’
But that was a question Ak Muryeong could not answer.
Concentrating, Bu Eunseol spoke again.
“In truth, I entered the martial world to avenge my grandfather.”
Drip.
As he opened his mouth, the blood he had been forcibly swallowing leaked from the corners.
“And I learned that the one who killed him was an expert belonging to the Three Realms.”
Fortunately, speaking did not intensify the pressure of Illusion Upon Illusion.
“And his remains were stolen by the Returning to One Realm.”
Bu Eunseol recounted everything he had experienced.
He omitted only the possibility that Baekri Muha might be his father.
It was not yet certain, and Baekri Muha was known to walk the righteous path; Bu Eunseol did not know what grudges might exist with Ak Muryeong.
“Moreover, unlike the other realms, the Returning to One Realm’s objective cannot be left unchecked.”
He explained that the Returning to One Realm sought to recreate the abilities of absolute beings from ancient times.
[Obtaining the corpses of past experts to create supreme warriors…]
Splash.
As Ak Muryeong spoke slowly, Bu Eunseol vomited blood, his vision turning red.
Each word felt as though his body were being torn in two.
[Then would that not make things rather interesting?]
Ak Muryeong even bared his fangs in a pleased grin.
‘The Pavilion Master would think so.’
Ak Muryeong advanced his martial prowess through combat, having fought the supreme experts of the martial world all his life.
If supreme warriors perfectly inheriting the martial arts of past masters appeared?
From Ak Muryeong’s perspective, it would be like finally tasting new dishes he had never eaten before.
[Hahaha!]
Thud.
As Ak Muryeong burst into laughter, Bu Eunseol finally dropped to one knee.
Kneeling before the sect’s highest elder was not humiliating.
He was merely ashamed that his martial prowess was so pitiful.
‘I must concentrate harder.’
Little time remained for Bu Eunseol to endure.
Gritting his teeth, he asked again,
“Does the Pavilion Master have no intention of crushing the Three Realms?”
That was why Bu Eunseol had come—to learn how much Ak Muryeong knew about the Three Realms and what he thought of them.
[The Three Realms have existed since the beginning of time.]
Each time Ak Muryeong spoke, overwhelming pressure poured down, making it hard for Bu Eunseol to breathe.
His vision was already burning red.
Ak Muryeong’s Illusion Upon Illusion did not strike only the spirit.
When the spirit collapsed, the body followed.
Bu Eunseol felt as though he had sunk deep into the ocean, his body about to burst from the pressure.
Yet Ak Muryeong paid no heed to Bu Eunseol’s pained expression and continued slowly, leisurely.
[Some know of their existence, some do not. Regardless, the Three Realms have always existed and reigned.]
Bu Eunseol could not even reply.
His body felt shriveled, as though trapped in a tiny jar.
[Because only with forces like the Three Realms can the martial world endure.]
Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
Those words echoed what Blood Flame Blade Sect Leader Do Mu-cheok had said—that the existence of the Three Realms was inevitable and could not be eradicated.
“Then the Pavilion Master knew not only of the Three Realms but also of the forces in the abyss?”
[The martial world is a place where countless sects and powers rise and fall. Even if a lineage continues for generations, people change.] Ak Muryeong spoke as though it were laughable. [Why should this Pavilion Master know or care about such things?]
Ak Muryeong had long sensed not only the Three Realms but the forces in the abyss.
He simply had no interest in what they were doing or scheming.
Because they had not touched Nangyang Pavilion.
Because they had not touched him.
He was focused solely on the goal he sought to reach.
[Destroy them if you wish to destroy them.]
Overwhelming energy capable of overturning the world poured from Ak Muryeong’s body.
[Join them if you wish to join them. That is this Pavilion Master’s answer.]
“This disciple…”
Swallowing the surging blood, Bu Eunseol declared boldly.
“Intends to crush all the forces of the Three Realms that touched my grandfather.”
His bones felt as though they were crumbling, and it seemed all the blood in his body would pour from his mouth.
Yet amid that excruciating pain, Bu Eunseol looked straight at Ak Muryeong.
Watching him silently endure the agony, Ak Muryeong’s eyes changed.
For the first time, he showed a gaze not of a demon but of a human.
[Take no one’s hand. They are everywhere.]
There seemed to be a humanity in that voice he had never felt before.
Suddenly, Bu Eunseol had a strange thought.
‘Is the Pavilion Master not ignoring them but deliberately cutting off interest?’
There was nowhere in the current martial world beyond the reach of the Three Realms’ influence.
Perhaps Ak Muryeong was repeatedly entering seclusion to single-handedly crush the Three Realms without sacrificing Nangyang Pavilion’s disciples?
Ak Muryeong was Ak Muryeong. He would never forgive anyone who tried to reign above him.
“Could the reason the Demon Emperor and the Heavenly Emperor repeatedly enter seclusion also be because of the Three Realms…?”
This was not a question meant for Ak Muryeong.
It was a thought he had been mulling over in his mind that slipped out unknowingly.
[Hmph. That fellow?]
Yet unexpectedly, Ak Muryeong answered—with a shocking reply.
[Though I do not know about the Heavenly Emperor, the Demon Emperor has already escaped the bounds of the Limitless Realm.]
Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened in an instant.
This shock was greater than the first time he had been struck by Ak Muryeong’s Illusion Upon Illusion.
The Demon Emperor had escaped the bounds of the Infinite Realm? Did that mean he had reached the Heaven’s Will Realm?
[The Heaven’s Will Realm is merely a theoretical stage. No one can judge whether someone has reached it. However…]
Catastrophic flames that seemed capable of destroying the world rose in Ak Muryeong’s eyes.
[It was a realm beyond words. If that was not power beyond the bounds of the Infinite Realm…]
He paused, then shook his head.
[Then he must have created and used a new martial art that even this Pavilion Master does not know.]
“Pfft.”
In the end, Bu Eunseol spat out an arrow of blood.
Unable to withstand the pressure pouring forth with each of Ak Muryeong’s answers, he had suffered severe internal injuries.
Drip, drip, drip.
Even as blood flowed from Bu Eunseol’s mouth, Ak Muryeong merely looked down coldly.
‘The person most knowledgeable about martial arts in the world is the Pavilion Master.’
Though his head spun as if he might die and his meridians felt torn, Bu Eunseol ignored the pain and fell into deep thought.
Even Ak Muryeong could not gauge the Demon Emperor’s martial prowess.
That alone made it highly likely he had reached a new realm.
‘Or is it the Black Divine Artifact?’
According to the Demonic Sword Master, Baekri Muha had displayed power like a Martial God, changing the flow of a river with the Black Divine Artifact’s strength.
‘But that is only speculation.’
Shaking his head, Bu Eunseol looked up at Ak Muryeong once more.
His endless secluded training was likely driven by rivalry with the unfathomable superhumans known as the Righteous and Demonic Twin Heaven Emperors.
Perhaps it held the same meaning as the revenge Bu Eunseol pursued.
After all, each person’s goal differs.
“I apologize for disturbing the Pavilion Master’s secluded training.”
Though his body was in ruins, a satisfied smile played on Bu Eunseol’s lips.
He had not lost consciousness under the pressure of Illusion Upon Illusion and had heard Ak Muryeong’s answers.
[Hmph.]
Ak Muryeong snorted, looking down at Bu Eunseol.
In his eyes burned the absolute pride of a supreme being who cared nothing for the world’s laws.
‘The Pavilion Master is the same as me.’
Both were running endlessly toward their goals and loved Nangyang Pavilion unwaveringly.
That was why they sought to achieve their aims through their own strength alone, without anyone’s help.
“I will protect Nangyang Pavilion.”
At Bu Eunseol’s vow, a human warmth appeared once more in Ak Muryeong’s eyes.
But soon he snorted coldly.
[This pavilion is not something to be protected.]
Nangyang Pavilion was a gathering place for those who pursued martial arts.
Even if Nangyang Pavilion vanished, another with a different name would rise in the martial world.
“I see.”
Bu Eunseol smiled.
Nangyang Pavilion was Nangyang Pavilion.
Ak Muryeong was Ak Muryeong.
Bu Eunseol was Bu Eunseol.
They simply had to do what needed to be done.
“Then.”
Bu Eunseol bowed with a lighthearted smile.
Was it an illusion?
The moment he turned away, it felt as though a faint smile had appeared on Ak Muryeong’s lips as well.
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