Bu Eunseol finished preparing to leave the Martial Alliance.
Since the first test had ended, there would be no further trials to select the Commander for a while.
He intended to return to Majeon and handle the various matters he had postponed.
Upon arriving in Seongdo by carriage, Bu Eunseol met Seo Jinha and switched identities.
Originally, now that he had become a candidate for Commander, and with the status of a hall leader, it was difficult to continue wandering the martial world for intelligence gathering. Yet Seon Woojin still had to constantly carry out the secret missions assigned by Gongsun Dankyung and the Martial Venerable.
Gongsun Dankyung had elevated Seon Woojin’s position along with the entire Supreme Branch, officially recognizing it as an independent intelligence unit under the Chief Inspector, so he could now leave the Martial Alliance at any time without worrying about anyone’s scrutiny.
However, since no hall leader positions were truly vacant, his official rank remained Captain of the Supreme Branch.
His office also stayed the same, being the Supreme Pavilion in the northern bamboo grove.
Creak.
As the gates of the Martial Alliance opened, a carriage bearing flags embroidered with flying phoenixes began to speed away.
Bu Eunseol, riding the eight-horse carriage reserved only for figures of Hall-Leader rank in the Martial Alliance, was heading out into the martial world.
‘This is why they desperately strive to raise their status.’
Bu Eunseol smirked as he gazed at the gleaming interior of the carriage.
The Martial Alliance’s stipend was somewhat meager compared to Majeon’s, and its protocol was lacking but it was different starting from the Hall-Leader rank.
To maintain their dignity, the stipend doubled, and a dedicated carriage along with attendants were assigned. Moreover, simply bearing the title of Hall Leader ensured respectable treatment wherever one visited in the orthodox sects.
‘Not that it means anything to me.’
Having long ago ascended to the position of Majeon’s successor, Bu Eunseol had enjoyed its highest honors for years.
Thus, the protocol afforded to Martial Alliance Command Lords evoked no particular excitement in him.
‘She really went through a lot this time.’
Suddenly, Gongsun Dankyung’s face came to mind.
‘She certainly keeps her promises well.’
Looking back, she was someone who meticulously honored every word she spoke.
—No matter what suspicions arise, I will not show them. I will fully support Captain Seon.
She had promised this in the past and from then until now, she had kept that promise without a single waver. Even when the Martial Venerable acted in ways that broke trust, she had done her utmost to support him.
Though she lacked a beard, Gongsun Dankyung possessed far greater loyalty than most men.
‘Then my feelings won’t change either.’
Clack, clack.
Having arrived in Seongdo, Bu Eunseol sent the Martial Alliance carriage back.
He stopped at an inn and switched once more to an ordinary carriage which was driven by a member of the Death Spirit Corps disguised as a coachman.
Ever since the innocent coachman had been killed during the Heavenly Deity’s attack, Bu Eunseol refused to ride any carriage driven by a normal person.
It was to ensure that, should a sudden battle erupt, no innocent civilians would die.
“……!”
Then, as the carriage rolled along, a subtle sensation stirred within Bu Eunseol’s body.
It was an ominous foreboding that defied description.
In that instant, Bu Eunseol immediately sent a thousand-li sound transmission.
[Emergency situation. Soyo. Leave this area at once with the operatives. Now.]
The moment his words ended, the operative disguised as the coachman—and Soyo, who had been secretly following—vanished instantly.
The highest priority Bu Eunseol demanded of his operatives was survival in any circumstance, and when a danger signal came, they were ordered never to hesitate in retreating.
Moreover, Bu Eunseol held the firm belief that he could survive any crisis.
Thus, Soyo and the Death Spirit Corps operatives left without the slightest hesitation.
Clack.
Bu Eunseol calmly stepped down from the carriage and looked straight ahead.
Suddenly, black mist rose over the vast plain.
After a brief moment, something enormous began rolling toward him from afar.
‘Impossible.’
Bu Eunseol frowned.
‘There’s another spy?’
Even for the Three Realms, it should be impossible to pinpoint his movements so quickly and launch an ambush. Yet blocking the entire area in advance and setting a trap meant they had foreseen his route.
‘That can’t be.’
After the previous attack by the Heavenly Deity, Bu Eunseol had eliminated every spy within Majeon who cooperated with the Three Realms.
Aside from the Shadow Pavilion Lord, there was no one left who could leak his whereabouts.
‘No… perhaps there is.’
In the entire martial world, aside from the Death Spirit Corps, only two people could track his movements.
The Demon Emperor and the Chief Instructor.
‘The Demon Emperor wouldn’t deliberately expose my whereabouts to the Three Realms.’
The supreme figure of the demonic path—who effectively held Bu Eunseol’s life in his hands—would never leak his location just to set a shoddy trap.
Then the culprit must be the Chief Instructor.
‘Chief Instructor.’
A flash sparked in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
‘Don’t think you can brush this off lightly.’
Rumble.
By then, the enormous object had rolled to within thirty zhang of Bu Eunseol.
Astonishingly, it was a massive opera stage.
Bu Eunseol let out a sigh of disbelief.
In the past, the Heavenly Deity had created a vast domain resembling a mystical formation spanning a hundred zhang and now, the space where Bu Eunseol stood also felt mysteriously severed from the world.
Before his eyes, an impossible, bizarre phenomenon was unfolding.
Only the highest leaders of the Three Realms possessed the ability to produce such a spectacle.
Boom.
The wheeled giant stage approached Bu Eunseol.
‘It’s not an illusion.’
The massive wheels and the stage veiled by curtains were astonishingly real—not mere phantoms.
Rumble.
Finally halting before him, the opera stage slowly raised its curtain.
Step, step.
On the stage stood a small house and courtyard, with several coffins placed in front.
An actor wearing an old man’s mask in tattered clothes, and another in a boy’s mask, were meticulously wiping the corpses.
Then, amid a gust of wind, a black-clad shadow appeared before the old man.
It wore a pitch-black mask with eyes dyed crimson.
Clad entirely in black from clothes to shoes, it resembled a dark demon from afar.
At the shadow’s appearance, the actor in the old man’s mask trembled violently in fear.
He hurriedly pushed the boy into the house and barred the door.
It was as if he greatly feared the black-clad figure entering the house.
Swish, swish.
The scene shifted again.
The old man and the black-clad figure were now dueling.
The black-clad one relentlessly attacked with a sharp sword, but the old man, hands clasped behind his back, blocked the blade with mere fingers.
Clang!
Unable to defeat the old man, the shadow retreated and gestured as if speaking at length.
The conversation continued, then suddenly the old man extended both arms. The shadow narrowed its eyes into crescents and, without hesitation, severed the outstretched arms and blinded the old man’s eyes.
Not satisfied with merely blinding eyes to prevent further resistance, it embedded over a hundred hidden weapons into the fallen old man’s back.
Tremble, tremble.
Veins bulged thickly on Bu Eunseol’s face.
This single play depicted exactly how his grandfather, Bu Zhanyang, had died.
And such details could only be known…
By the murderer who killed his grandfather or someone who had personally examined the corpse.
Boom!
As Bu Eunseol unleashed his inner energy, the stage before him shattered.
The masked actors on stage panicked and fled in disarray.
Ignoring them, Bu Eunseol walked toward the wreckage.
Thud.
There, surrounded by light, stood a shadow.
Whereas the Heavenly Deity’s had been pitch-black, this shadow was dyed pure white.
Bu Eunseol sensed it instantly.
This was the Supreme Emperor—the one who, alongside the Heavenly Deity, ruled the Infinite Realm.
[It seems you recognize this emperor.]
The shadow playfully tilted its head.
“You bastard…”
Red veins stood out in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“Did you kill my grandfather?”
On the shadow’s face, crescent shapes appeared where eyes should be.
[Indeed.]
The shadow—Supreme Emperor—formed white teeth and smiled brightly.
[This emperor slew the Seven-Finger Demon Blade.]
At that moment, focus vanished from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
At last, he had found the murderer who killed his grandfather.
Boom!
With a roar that tore the heavens, Bu Eunseol’s body shot forward like lightning toward the Supreme Emperor.
Shiiing—BOOOOM!
Simultaneously, the Silent Tiger Soul Sword began tracing thousands, tens of thousands of lines through the air.
It was no martial art, no sword technique.
It was simply the will to erase the murderer before him—the totality of every martial art Bu Eunseol could unleash.
Rumble! Craaash!
In an instant, the area within a hundred zhang was reduced to scorched earth.
Purple radiance lingered and vanished from the Silent Tiger Soul Sword cleaving the air as transparent energy flickered.
At times black haze rose, at others crimson light surged.
It was the culmination of every power dwelling within Bu Eunseol’s body, stronger than any martial art he had ever displayed.
Boom! Shatter!
Wherever the sword qi grazed, the ground cratered causing trees and rocks to flatten into plains.
The Supreme Emperor evaded the onslaught like a mirage, yet the thousands of sword qi Bu Eunseol created completely enveloped the thirty zhang around the Supreme Emperor.
Slash! Riiip!
Finally struck by thousands of sword qi, the Supreme Emperor vanished skyward as if dissolving.
Bzzz.
But as if nothing had happened, he reappeared before Bu Eunseol.
Hummm.
Black haze rose from Bu Eunseol’s entire body.
Having realized that, like the Heavenly Deity, the Supreme Emperor’s shadow was merely a projection with a separate true body, he prepared to unleash the Seven Blood Tear Forms—the Absolute Extinction Demonic Art that annihilated all life.
Hiss!
As the Life Lodges, Death Returns form unfolded, not sword rings but black sword qi vast enough to blanket the world poured toward the Supreme Emperor.
Everything touched by the Seven Blood Tear Forms lost its vitality.
Even a mere shadow could bring calamity to the true body.
Swish! Hiiiiss!
Yet even when struck by the Seven Blood Tear Forms, the Supreme Emperor did not vanish.
Heh.
A smiling mouth formed on the shadow.
[The Heavenly Deity embodied his own despair and suffering to inflict death upon others. That is why he died to you.]
“…”
[But this emperor is different. From the beginning, I possessed neither form nor substance capable of imposing death.]
The Supreme Emperor formed a white mouth and gazed at Bu Eunseol.
[Bu Zhanyang must be weeping underground.]
The shadow’s voice was endlessly light and playful.
[The child he staked his life to save possesses such pitiful skill that it can’t even reach his toes.]
Whooosh.
In an instant, every radiance and energy flowing from Bu Eunseol vanished.
Silence fell.
No sound could be heard for hundreds of zhang around.
It was as if the movement of the cosmos had halted and time itself had stopped.
Crack.
Suddenly, black mist began rising around Bu Eunseol’s body.
Death, death, death.
The only word repeating in his mind was death.
Ordinary Seven Blood Tear Forms would not suffice to erase that shadow.
To become a true Reaper imposing perfect death… he himself had to become the embodiment of death.
In that moment, Bu Eunseol began creating a flawless death—one he could produce yet had never personally experienced.
Gurgle, gurgle.
Infinite killing intent poured from Bu Eunseol’s body, now shrouded in black shadow.
It was the revenge for his grandfather he had awaited in a dreamlike haze.
Even if he died…
Even if he killed every human in the world…
He would not stop this vengeance.
Sizzle.
As Bu Eunseol entered the realm of perfect death,
Roooar.
His body began turning pitch black, and his boundless killing intent formed a black mist that billowed outward.
“I cannot forgive you.”
Crack.
Fissures appeared on the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
The death Bu Eunseol created was impartial to all and affected not only living beings but inanimate objects like the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Grip.
In that instant, immense death swallowed the Supreme Emperor’s body.
At the same time, Bu Eunseol too was being sucked into an endlessly dark and deep death.
Yet the white light streaming from the Supreme Emperor’s body began shining even brighter amid the darkness.
He was enduring the death Bu Eunseol poured forth.
“Hahaha.”
A low, eerie laugh escaped Bu Eunseol’s lips.
He had wondered how great the power of the Infinite Realm’s Supreme Emperor truly was.
He had wondered what strength he would display before death.
Yet there he was—curled like an insect, emitting light from his body in a desperate effort merely to avoid dying while resisting the darkness.
“You prattled on like a god ruling the world…”
Contempt gleamed in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“Yet you too struggle with all your might like any ordinary human, merely to escape death.”
The Supreme Emperor shone brighter, but it was futile.
Ruuuumble.
The Supreme Emperor’s form was sinking into an infinitely deep darkness.
No matter what power he exerted, the death Bu Eunseol created was absolute—there was no path to life.
Because Bu Eunseol himself harbored no will to continue living.
If he could avenge his grandfather, he could discard this trifling life without regret.
Gurgle.
Bu Eunseol slowly sank into black darkness alongside the Supreme Emperor and at the same time, even the sky turned black, shaking as if an earthquake struck.
The world trembled as though the end had come and a black darkness dyed everything.
Yet just as endless black energy poured from Bu Eunseol’s body,
Bzzz.
All of a sudden, a warm energy surged from near his Daechu acupoint.
It was the spot his grandfather always stroked when he was ill.
Humm!
As mysterious power flowed from the Daechu acupoint, the Prajna Great Power within his body activated in response.
Light.
Then a warm, radiant light appeared before Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
The moment he saw it, his grandfather’s gentle smile came to mind.
‘I see.’
As Bu Eunseol, engulfed by death and sinking into darkness, momentarily regained clarity, he realized.
‘Grandfather did not die to the Supreme Emperor.’
The play.
On stage, it depicted his grandfather hurriedly pushing the boy into the house.
But reality was different.
Bu Eunseol had not entered the house.
Following his grandfather’s words, he had hidden inside an iron coffin. His grandfather likely feared that staying in the house would bring harm from the murderer.
The iron coffin appeared no different from an ordinary wooden one, but when playing dead inside, it suppressed all of Bu Eunseol’s vital signs.
‘Above all, he could not deceive Grandfather’s senses.’
Bu Eunseol’s current ultra-sensory range was about a hundred zhang.
His grandfather, who dominated the martial world, would have had at least three or four times that.
Even the Demon Emperor could not have deceived his grandfather’s senses and secretly infiltrated the funeral hall.
‘This one did not witness it.’
The Supreme Emperor had not seen the events firsthand…
He had simply inferred the situation from the wounds remaining on the corpse.
After all, his grandfather’s body had been stolen by the Three Realms.
Whooo.
Upon realizing everything, Bu Eunseol’s body—which had been sinking into endless darkness—began rising again, enveloped in light.
The surrounding scenery came into new focus.
‘Grandfather was stronger than anyone.’
Bu Eunseol could swear to it.
His grandfather was no mere subordinate of the Demon Emperor yet he never succumbed to power and lived an ordinary life.
He sacrificed himself to protect Bu Eunseol’s life.
‘I cannot waste the life Grandfather protected.’
To be consumed by death merely for failing to contain rage…
To perish together with the Infinite Realm’s Supreme Emperor—who hadn’t even truly killed his grandfather…
That could never happen.
Whooosh!
Light soaring from Bu Eunseol’s body pierced the ends of the sky and the space dyed in darkness gradually regained its original appearance.
Then, from the white-tinted shadow—the spiritual projection the Supreme Emperor had created—his true appearance became clearly visible.
Contrary to expectations of another aged elder like the Heavenly Deity, the Supreme Emperor’s true face…
Was astonishingly that of a young man bearing a pure smile.
[Impressive.] The Supreme Emperor spoke in a human voice and grinned. [To escape on your own from overlapping mental worlds.]
Bu Eunseol frowned.
He had created death itself, then through the energy his grandfather had instilled and fusion with his inner Prajna Great Power, regained composure via that light and avoided succumbing to power.
Yet what was this sudden talk of overlapping mental worlds?
[Now I understand everything.]
The Supreme Emperor gazed at Bu Eunseol and smiled faintly.
[In the end, our realm was mistaken.]
Bu Eunseol had no intention of quietly listening to the Supreme Emperor’s vague ramblings.
“Who exactly killed my grandfather?”
Blood-red light surged from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“Tell me!”
[I do not know. However…] The Supreme Emperor said, [As you suspect, I did not witness it directly—I only examined the wounds on the corpse.]
“Did the Infinite Realm take Grandfather’s body?”
[Hardly.]
The Supreme Emperor within the shadow smiled calmly.
[If we had, we would have used it to negotiate many things with you.]
“Then how did you examine Grandfather’s corpse?”
[The Returning to One Realm.]
The Supreme Emperor replied flatly.
[Bu Zhanyang’s corpse is kept in the Returning to One Realm.]
Sparks flew from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
The Returning to One Realm, which sought out and recreated figures identical to past experts.
As Bu Eunseol had suspected, they had taken his grandfather’s body.
“Where is the Returning to One Realm?”
[Rather than that question…]
The Supreme Emperor spoke in a low voice.
[Would it not be better to ask why this emperor came to find you in person?]
“Not interested.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes looked ready to drip blood.
“Who killed Grandfather, and where is the Returning to One Realm’s stronghold?”
Clank.
Gripping the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, Bu Eunseol spoke in an extremely low voice.
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll kill you too.”
BOOM! Sizzle!
With an explosive roar, purple lightning and transparent energy soared from Bu Eunseol’s body..
He had unleashed the power of the Divine Energies he had kept hidden.
[You have obtained Divine Energy.]
The Supreme Emperor sounded surprised yet shook his head.
[But that level is not enough to topple our realm.]
“Then I’ll start by killing you.”
Regaining full composure, Bu Eunseol’s eyes burned like blood suns.
“If I kill you, every bastard in the Three Realms will crawl out.”
Bu Eunseol had decided.
After killing the Supreme Emperor, he would crush head-on every force of the Three Realms that came charging.
[If you wish revenge, you must first listen to this emperor.]
The Supreme Emperor spoke with utmost seriousness.
[For you must survive to achieve it.]
Whoosh!
As the Supreme Emperor extended his hand, the raging Divine Energies around Bu Eunseol vanished.
No—it had not vanished, merely been temporarily suppressed.
“To listen to you—the one who mockingly depicted my grandfather’s death?”
Crunch. Grind.
Eerie sounds echoed as the Divine Energies began leaking out bit by bit.
Bu Eunseol was breaking through the Supreme Emperor’s incomprehensible power.
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