Bu Eunseol did not hesitate and immediately headed to the abandoned courtyard where Yeon Wol was.
The interior of the abandoned courtyard was still bustling with patients.
Even though night had fallen deeply, lights remained on here and there.
As night deepened, Yeon Wol was no longer treating the flood of arriving patients.
Instead, it seemed he was personally checking on the seriously ill patients who were staying and receiving treatment within this abandoned courtyard.
Bu Eunseol employed a stealthy movement technique and infiltrated the abandoned courtyard.
Finally, he located Yeon Wol moving alongside a middle-aged man.
Thud, thud.
With the middle-aged man’s assistance, he entered a dilapidated building where patients were staying.
However, the middle-aged man only escorted him to the entrance and then left, allowing Yeon Wol to go inside alone.
“Ugh…”
Yeon Wol approached an elderly man lying on a bed, groaning in pain.
“How is your body feeling?”
The old man struggled to open his eyes and looked at Yeon Wol before speaking.
“It hurts… so much.”
The old man’s face was gaunt and emaciated, with a tumor the size of a child’s face protruding from his side.
“Now… I really want to give up.”
The old man was completely unable to move his body, and bedsores on his back and buttocks were oozing pus.
“It’s… so agonizing.”
Every time the old man spoke, his breathing sounded as though it might stop at any moment.
“No, you mustn’t. You absolutely cannot give up.”
Yeon Wol took a single pill from his robes and held it close to the old man’s face.
The motion was so natural that no one would suspect he was blind.
“Please… don’t waste any more precious medicine on me.”
The old man mustered all his strength to refuse the pill.
“I… will give up.”
“No, that won’t do. You can’t.”
Yeon Wol placed the medicinal pill into the old man’s mouth. As soon as it entered, it melted like water and was absorbed in an instant.
“I will definitely cure you completely. Just endure a little longer.”
“…”
“I’m compounding new herbs right now to create another medicine.”
Tears mixed with blood dripped steadily from the old man’s eyes as he gazed at Yeon Wol.
After taking the medicine, his fading pulse surged back with vigor.
But that was all.
His body remained immobile, and with the strengthened pulse, the pain throughout his entire body grew even more vivid and unbearable.
He should have already breathed his last long ago yet the old man, unable to twitch even a single finger, continued to endure a pain akin to death without end.
“Ughhh…”
A groan escaped the old man’s lips.
An incomparable agony was now spreading through his entire body.
“Just hold on a little longer. I’ll return soon with the new medicine.”
Yeon Wol moved again and approached a young man lying nearby.
He too was paralyzed in all four limbs and unable to move, but his complexion looked remarkably healthy, showing no visible signs of illness.
“How is your body feeling?”
“Ever since you treated me, Doctor, the pain has completely vanished.” The young man spoke with a deeply moved expression. “I used to spend every day feeling pain, just waiting for death. Thanks to you, Doctor, it feels like I’ve found a new life.”
“Humans possess a natural healing ability. Simply purifying the blood and promoting circulation can cure many illnesses.”
Yeon Wol let out a sigh.
“But I worry. Once the human body is exposed to illness, the chance of it recurring is high.”
“Is… that so?”
“Over there, that old man suffering the agony of death was born blind into someone else’s household. He toiled his entire life to the point of breaking his body.”
Yeon Wol spoke with pity.
“But when he grew old and frail, he was eventually cast out. He worked himself to ruin his whole life, yet all that remained was pain and sickness.”
The young man’s expression grew subtle.
He too had lived as a blind beggar, fallen ill, and been driven out when the mounting medical costs became unbearable.
“Life is suffering and hardship from the very beginning. A human lifetime is ultimately nothing more than the process of aging while enduring physical and mental torment.” Yeon Wol sighed and opened his acupuncture kit. “I spoke useless words. Let’s begin the treatment first.”
He carefully and attentively inserted needles into the young man’s body.
The young man’s complexion improved further, and vitality surged through his entire frame.
Yet at the same time, anxiety crept into his heart.
What if it comes back?
Right now I’m receiving this excellent treatment, but what if I fall ill again later?
Will I ever meet another physician this remarkable…? If I get sick then, who will treat me?
All sorts of worries and anguish swirled through the young man’s mind.
“I truly wish never to feel this pain again. That would be my only desire.”
Hearing the young man’s words filled with unease, Yeon Wol closed his eyes and gave a faint smile.
“Life is suffering. Perhaps being born itself is suffering.” Yeon Wol spoke calmly. “Doesn’t Buddhism say that liberation is ultimately about breaking the endless chain of reincarnation?”
“Is… that true?”
“Yes. The greatest good would be never to be born again into this wretched world.”
Yeon Wol said as he put away his acupuncture tools.
“I spoke useless words again.”
“…”
“With a bit more treatment from now on, you’ll improve further.”
As Yeon Wol stood up, the young man, still lying down, expressed his gratitude.
“Thank you.”
He gave thanks, yet his expression remained clouded.
Is it really right to keep living like this? How long will I have to live this way?
Endless questions clung to his heart, churning through his mind.
When Yeon Wol stepped outside, the middle-aged man was waiting politely.
“Now that I’ve seen all the patients, you should go rest as well.”
“You should rest comfortably too, Doctor. Haven’t you gone without proper sleep for days?” The middle-aged man spoke earnestly.
His name was Jang Sam.
Originally, he had been a lame beggar who lived by begging near these ruins but after Yeon Wol arrived here, he healed Jang Sam’s leg first.
Then he asked Jang Sam to spread word around the village that he would treat sick patients for free.
No longer lame, Jang Sam excitedly roamed the village spreading the rumor.
As patients flooded in like clouds, the abandoned courtyard became a makeshift clinic, and Jang Sam naturally began serving Yeon Wol like an attendant. He managed the crowds and patients to ensure no discomfort, directed people to repair the broken buildings, and this life brought him a sense of fulfillment and happiness he had never felt before.
“I’m going to take a short walk.”
“At this pitch-black early dawn hour?”
“What does time matter?” Yeon Wol smiled indifferently. “Anyway, my eyes are always in the night.”
He took up his staff and walked out of the courtyard.
Jang Sam hurriedly followed at his side.
“Doctor, let me escort you.”
“You keep making me repeat myself.”
When Yeon Wol spoke in an unusually cold tone, Jang Sam quickly bowed his head.
“I’m sorry.”
To Jang Sam, Yeon Wol was like a god, a treasure who would take responsibility for the rest of his life.
Thanks to him treating patients for free, Jang Sam—a former beggar—could now command and direct people as if he were the head steward of the place.
He could no longer imagine living apart from Yeon Wol’s side.
Tap, tap.
Staff in hand, Yeon Wol soon reached a bamboo grove a short distance from the village.
His gait was swift and steady—impossible to believe he was blind.
Upon arriving in the bamboo grove, he smiled and muttered, “If you called someone, shouldn’t you have come out in advance?”
Yeon Wol spoke in a low voice.
“I felt your inner energy fluctuations leaking out while I was examining the patients earlier.”
Swoosh.
From the opposite side of the bamboo grove, a black-clothed man appeared.
It was Bu Eunseol.
“If you had pretended not to notice my presence, you might have lasted longer.”
“Well, maybe ten days at most.” Yeon Wol laughed. “But you already have certainty and are frantically searching for evidence with bloodshot eyes… You would have found it somehow, wouldn’t you?”
“So you deliberately showed me the sight of you killing a patient?”
He had continued treating patients even while knowing Bu Eunseol was watching.
“Killing patients? Surely you don’t think the medicine I gave was poison?” Yeon Wol put on an aggrieved expression. “To erase the pain of someone already near death and eliminate tumors inside the body, the only way is to extend life using the principle of fighting poison with poison.”
Then he declared boldly, “When I first met that old man, he had only days left. But thanks to this physician, he has already lived more than three months.”
“Ridiculous.”
A sharp light flared in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“You keep them neither dead nor alive, inflicting excruciating pain—and you call that extending life?”
Bu Eunseol had already grasped the full situation.
The old man was little more than a corpse, yet due to the extreme poison Yeon Wol administered, he lingered on, unable to die or live, trapped in a hellish existence.
“Especially by mixing in a poison that forces them to feel agony.”
Bu Eunseol took out a pill—the same one Yeon Wol had given the old man—and tossed it to the ground.
“You seem quite knowledgeable about medicine.”
When Yeon Wol closed his eyes and smirked, Bu Eunseol spoke gravely.
“Why did you use the Hidden Blood Great Salvation Technique on that young man who still had hope of recovery?”
His eyes burned with anger.
“That triggers the congenital true energy, causing him to slowly die.”
“You knew that much?” Yeon Wol shrugged as if surprised. “Yes, that’s right. In truth, that young man could have recovered quickly with proper treatment.”
Yeon Wol sighed as he spoke.
“As you said, triggering his congenital true energy makes his body feel invigorated for now, but eventually his vital life force will be exhausted… At best, he’ll live another three months.”
Then he gave a faint smile.
“By then, I’ll already be treating other patients somewhere else.”
“Why?”
Bu Eunseol stared at Yeon Wol’s wicked smile and asked,
“Why do you torment the sick and drive curable patients toward death?”
“You know nothing.”
Yeon Wol said, “Those afflicted with grave illness suffer such diseases because of karma from their past lives.”
“What?”
“But if, upon falling ill, they endure prolonged pain and suffering…”
He continued with supreme confidence.
“…then they wash away that sin in this life and can be reborn in a better form.”
It was an utterly grotesque logic.
An unpleasant premonition flashed through Bu Eunseol’s mind, but he forced it down.
“And the young man? He wasn’t gravely ill and could have lived. Why drain his life force and kill him?”
“Call it a form of charity, if you will.”
Yeon Wol smiled faintly.
“The weak should die quickly so they can be reborn as stronger people. Through my medical skills, I am bestowing good karma.”
In the end, the unpleasant premonition became reality.
Only those who carried on the lineage of the Demon Cult could justify taking lives with such bizarre reasoning.
“Inbiin.”
Inbiin.
A grotesque doctrine held by descendants of the Demon Cult: kill the weak swiftly to allow them to reincarnate as better people, thereby accumulating good karma.
Yeon Wol belonged to that group.
“Impressive.”
Yeon Wol smiled with eyes closed.
“Is it because you’re a top-grade mercenary? Or because you’re the disciple of the Bullet King? How does someone so young know so precisely about our Heaven that even most mid-tier martial artists don’t?”
In that instant, a chill ran down Bu Eunseol’s spine.
Not because Yeon Wol had accurately seen through his identity as Seolso.
Until now, he had thought Inbiin was merely a new faction created by Demon Cult remnants.
But Yeon Wol had just said “our Heaven.”
That meant Inbiin was only a part—perhaps a small branch—of some larger organization.
“So Inbiin isn’t the name of the Demon Cult's remnant faction?”
At Bu Eunseol’s words, Yeon Wol let out an “Ah.”
“Hahaha. You really surprised me. I genuinely thought you knew us.”
“Us? You mean the faction you belong to?”
Yeon Wol laughed playfully.
“Who knows? Feel free to guess.”
“What is your purpose?” Bu Eunseol asked, “Is it simply to kill the weak in various ways? Or do you have some other goal?”
“I told you—accumulating good karma.”
“Good karma?”
Bu Eunseol’s gaze turned icy.
“Turning those with no hope of survival into half-corpses and subjecting them to death-like agony…”
“…”
“…and slowly killing those who could fully recover without them even understanding why—that’s your so-called good karma?”
The old man, kept alive by poison, could not move a single finger or toe. He was experiencing every conceivable human suffering.
Meanwhile, the young man who believed he had recovered from serious illness now felt inexplicable dread because of Yeon Wol’s words, and was slowly withering away without knowing why.
Bu Eunseol had seen countless villains and killers in his life, but never anyone who murdered with such vicious, twisted methods as Yeon Wol.
“I told you. Those gravely ill can wash away their sins by feeling the maximum pain a human can endure.”
Yeon Wol’s face shone with the pride of someone performing a sacred duty.
“Meeting me is good fortune for them. They gain the chance to cleanse their sins without great effort and be reborn excellently.”
Bu Eunseol had nothing more to say.
Yeon Wol was simply a madman lost in a perverse doctrine. He inflicted hellish torment on the dying by claiming their illness was punishment for past sins, and robbed the merely weak of hope and life force, driving them to death…
He was no different from a demon.
“One last question.”
Bu Eunseol asked with a grim expression.
“What is the organizational structure of Inbiin? What does ‘Heaven’ mean?”
“…”
“Why create those kids called ‘Ghost Children’ and send them into the martial world?”
“Hmm.”
Yeon Wol shook his head as if recalling something.
“You truly seem to know nothing, so I’ll tell you just one thing.”
Yeon Wol smiled faintly.
“The Ghost Children are merely a small experiment.”
Flames sparked in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
That meant there were other things besides the Ghost Children?
Did that imply more chaos created by Inbiin would descend upon the martial world in the future?
‘I must steel myself.’
If destroying the Infinite Realm resulted in Inbiin, and destroying the Clear River Realm would unleash the forces they controlled, then destroying the Returning to One Realm might provoke yet another backlash—something new could emerge.
‘It doesn’t matter.’
The Three Realms themselves arbitrarily used, killed, and experimented on the innocent.
In the end, the Three Realms were merely the lesser evil—little different from Inbiin.
Swoosh.
Bu Eunseol extended his index finger, and the surrounding air began slowly converging toward it.
Known as the disciple of the Bullet King, he intended to imitate the Bullet Inner Qi.
“In place of the heavens, I will punish you for arbitrarily taking and toying with the lives of innocent commoners.”
Even though Bu Eunseol was about to unleash Bullet Inner Qi, Yeon Wol kept his eyes closed and smiled, as if daring him to attack.
If Bu Eunseol had truly been the Bullet King’s disciple, he might not have launched the first strike against Yeon Wol, who stood defenseless with eyes closed—after all, his master had once been a renowned righteous hero whose name was etched on the Hero's Stele.
BOOM!
But Bu Eunseol fired the Bullet Inner Qi without hesitation.
Of course, it wasn’t the genuine Bullet King technique; he simply compressed air using roughly five hundred years of internal energy to unleash a terrifying finger wind.
Crack!
Yet something astonishing happened.
The Bullet King Energy vanished like mist before it could even touch Yeon Wol’s body.
Hum.
It turned out a mysterious energy already enveloped his body.
Woooong.
Undeterred, Bu Eunseol extended his finger again.
Dozens of stones rose into the air before him.
Perfectly imitating the Bullet King’s method, he unleashed Bullet Inner Qi once more.
BANG! BANG!
Each time a stone struck Yeon Wol’s body, it exploded with a blast, scattering dust in all directions.
Yet even so, he could not break through the mysterious energy surrounding Yeon Wol.
Swish!
In that moment, Bu Eunseol closed the distance and drew the iron sword at his waist, thrusting it toward Yeon Wol’s throat.
But the sword, imbued with his formidable internal energy, failed to pierce the body.
Bu Eunseol did not press the attack consecutively; instead, he leaped back.
“Black Divine Energy?”
“Oh, you really know so many terms.”
A delighted gleam appeared on Yeon Wol’s closed-eyed face.
“Knowing about us, and knowing Black Divine Energy… You must have clashed with quite a few of us already? Yet strangely, I never sensed you.”
After a brief pause, a sinister tone flowed from Yeon Wol’s lips.
“Or perhaps the identity called Seolso is itself someone’s shadow.”
Bu Eunseol fell silent.
Yeon Wol had inferred far too much from a single sentence.
“Shall I go now?”
As Bu Eunseol remained quiet, Yeon Wol suddenly closed the distance in an instant—
Swoosh!
—and thrust his staff forward.
The motion was so natural that Bu Eunseol nearly had his brow pierced before he understood what was happening.
Swish.
Bu Eunseol quickly twisted his neck to evade, and the staff arced in a half-moon in midair before aiming for the great acupoint on his chest.
It looked like an ordinary staff strike with no force behind it, yet the power contained within was tremendous.
Every time the staff sliced through the air, bamboo leaves scattered in all directions.
‘No openings.’
BOOM!
Unable to find any weakness in Yeon Wol’s staff technique, Bu Eunseol unleashed Bullet Inner Qi once more but Yeon Wol evaded them with perfect naturalness, as though he already knew exactly where they would land.
Swish. Swish.
The staff techniques deployed by the mere blind man Yeon Wol were more flawless than any sword art Bu Eunseol had ever faced from high-level masters.
Not the slightest flaw could be found, and each swing of the staff subtly pressed against his chest.
‘I’ll clash with internal energy.’
Bu Eunseol precisely struck the tip of the incoming staff—aimed at his vital acupoint—with his iron sword.
Hum.
A circular wave formed between the staff and sword, unleashing a storm outward in all directions.
The moment their weapons met, they poured internal energy into a pure contest of power.
Swoooosh.
Leaves poured down like raindrops.
Astonishingly, Yeon Wol was effortlessly blocking Bu Eunseol’s roughly four-hundred-year level of internal energy. His expression remained utterly serene, yet between the two of them raged a storm of internal energy approaching eight hundred years in total.
If he lost this clash of internal power, eight hundred years’ worth of force would tear through his body—no luck could save him.
‘So that’s it.’
Even though Yeon Wol’s internal energy overwhelmed him, a flame of fighting spirit blazed in Bu Eunseol’s eyes instead. By drawing him into this internal energy contest, he finally understood why Yeon Wol was so overwhelmingly strong and what absurd technique he was employing.
He had grasped the secret.
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