“Your spirit is impressive.”
Baek Jeoncheon gazed at Bu Eunseol with eyes that carried a trace of longing.
In truth, this very attitude was what defined a true demonic cultivator.
Demonic Path Supremacy.
Cast aside benevolence and righteousness.
Move solely by the logic of power, and one must defeat anyone stronger standing above.
“Good.” Baek Jeoncheon nodded. “It may sound strange to call it ‘joining hands,’ but out of respect for your spirit, Martial Soul Command Lord, I will remove the obstacles in your way.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
At last, the man’s heart had moved.
“Will it really be possible?”
Now that Baek Jeoncheon had given his consent, worry surged forward. He had spoken of “obstacles,” but in reality that meant blocking the Demon Emperor’s interference.
“Of course.”
The reply came crisp and clear.
In other words, Baek Jeoncheon was boldly promising to diminish—or outright eliminate—the Demon Emperor’s ability to interfere with Bu Eunseol.
“Even laws and ordinances are made by people. When examined closely, they are full of loopholes. Of course, patching those loopholes is also part of our Manbak Hall’s duty.” Baek Jeoncheon spoke in a low voice. “No matter how exalted a position the Lord of Majeon reaches, when operating a coalition formed by the mixing of countless factions, one has no choice but to maintain authority through laws and ordinances rather than raw military might. Just like the Martial Alliance.”
“But doesn’t the Demon Emperor’s word stand above those very laws?”
No matter how much Majeon’s power stemmed from the absolute support of the Ten Demonic Sects and demonic cultivators, there existed an unshakable foundation: the Demon Emperor’s own authority.
His authority as the supreme figure of the Demonic Path and the very sky of all demonic cultivators far surpassed his formal authority as Lord of Majeon.
Therefore, a single word from him outweighed every ordinance in Majeon.
“Correct. That is precisely why Yu Baek, who had been carrying out assassinations in Hainan, could become a candidate for Blood Secret Command Lord.”
Baek Jeoncheon’s pupils sharpened.
“Officially, it was the Chief Instructor who summoned her… but there is no one in Majeon who does not know it was the Demon Emperor who called her.”
He continued his explanation.
“But in the end she lost her life to a high-ranking figure of the Martial Alliance and failed her mission. If her true identity had been exposed?”
“…”
“It would naturally have placed this hall in an extremely difficult position, and we would have been forced to pay enormous reparations to the Martial Alliance.”
Only then did Bu Eunseol fully grasp the meaning behind Baek Jeoncheon’s words.
“I understand what you mean, but…” He soon shook his head. “Even if the Demon Emperor made such a mistake, who would dare hold him accountable?”
“No one will hold him accountable. We are merely requesting that the rules be revised so such an incident never happens again.” Baek Jeoncheon continued. “In truth, matters like this are the kind the heads of the Ten Demonic Sects delight in bringing before the Demonic Council. It is a golden opportunity to reduce the Demon Emperor’s unilateral power.”
Bu Eunseol showed a slightly puzzled expression.
In the end, they would use the Demon Emperor’s mistake as a pretext to convene another Demonic Council aimed at further curtailing his authority?
“Of course, the main agenda of this upcoming Demonic Council will not center on such content.” Baek Jeoncheon continued with a relaxed expression. “Previously, the Elder Hall Lord proposed that missions assigned to Command Lord-level personnel must go through the Demonic Council for approval—and it passed. Do you remember?”
Bu Eunseol nodded.
That measure had been the result of a deal with Elder Hall Lord Jeok Bung, precisely to prevent the Demon Emperor from issuing absurd missions to the Death Shadow Corps’ subordinates and causing damage.
“According to the rules of this coalition, the Martial Soul Command Lord may, when necessary, refuse even the Majeon Lord’s commands and carry out independent missions.”
A profound light flowed from Baek Jeoncheon’s eyes.
“And the Elder Hall Lord very wisely passed that clause by arguing that—under the fundamental laws of the Demonic Path—such a provision could potentially deny the Majeon Lord’s authority.”
Bu Eunseol, who had been listening silently, stroked his chin and nodded.
“In short, you intend to block both direct and indirect commands coming to me, using the justification of strengthening the Demon Emperor’s authority.”
Baek Jeoncheon smiled as Bu Eunseol immediately grasped the core point.
“Exactly. Thanks to the previous announcement, it has become difficult for the Lord to issue direct commands to a Command Lord. That is why this time he used the Chief Instructor to convey indirect orders.”
He went on.
“Therefore, to pass an agenda that blocks the Lord’s roundabout commands… paradoxically, one must use the method of strengthening the Lord’s authority.”
“By reinforcing the Demon Emperor’s authority, you make it impossible for anyone to act as his proxy and issue orders in his name.”
“Correct. Appointing the Blood Secret Command Lord this time through the Chief Instructor was, in fact, beyond his authority. From now on, no one—not even the Chief Instructor—must dare to exercise the exclusive prerogatives of the Majeon Lord.”
Baek Jeoncheon gave a faint smile.
“At that time, I will have the original authority of the Martial Soul Command Lord reaffirmed—namely, that you receive commands from no one except the Majeon Lord himself.” Pausing briefly, he spoke again in a low but firm voice. “When ordinances and the results of the Demonic Council conflict, the Majeon Lord has no choice but to step forward. Moreover, since he personally appointed this Command Lord…”
“He will have no choice but to acknowledge this Martial Soul Command Lord’s authority on paper.”
“Precisely.”
Baek Jeoncheon smiled and continued.
“If a decision is made that denies the Martial Soul Command Lord’s authority, it would inevitably lead to a situation where even the Majeon Lord’s own authority is denied.”
As the Majeon Lord, the Demon Emperor held all personnel authority over the Command Lords who enjoyed special power and status.
Accordingly, when the independence of the Martial Soul Command Lord—codified in the rules—was demanded to be reconfirmed, denying it would naturally mean denying the authority he held as Lord of Majeon.
“In that case, the Majeon Lord will no longer be able to manipulate a Command Lord through the Chief Instructor. He would not lower his own dignity by personally issuing commands just to torment one Command Lord.”
‘Indeed.’
Bu Eunseol could not help but admire him.
Baek Jeoncheon was the Lord of Manbak Hall and a genius worthy of being called the brain of Majeon, so much so that people said, “If he doesn’t know it, even the heavens don’t know it.”
He was exploiting the loopholes in Majeon’s laws and regulations, and turning the Demon Emperor’s emphasis on authority and prestige against him, in order to bind and control the very man who sought to manipulate and dominate the situation.
“Thank you.”
Bu Eunseol clasped both hands together.
“Then I will leave that matter entirely in your hands.”
Now that he had boarded the same boat as the strategist Baek Jeoncheon, he could rest easy in Majeon for the time being.
No matter what trap the Demon Emperor set, this man would help him escape safely.
***
In the desolate reed field, only a bleak wind blew relentlessly.
This was once the place where a young grandmaster of the Martial Alliance and an exceptional assassin had staked their lives in mortal combat.
Rumble.
Suddenly, the sound of thunder rolled through the dry sky.
Rumble—BOOM!
The distant thunder grew deafening, and soon pure white lightning began to strike, connecting sky and earth.
Flash!
A bolt that seemed to cleave the entire world in two gathered into a single mass of round light on the ground.
Crackle crackle.
Blue flames erupted, and from within them a large shadow began to form.
Swoosh.
Finally taking the shape of a seven-foot-tall figure, the shadow scanned the reed field.
Spotting a particular spot, it reached out.
Rumble rumble.
The earth began to sink.
For a long while the shadow ceaselessly moved its hand across the reed field.
***
Martial Soul Society, Martial Soul Hall, conference room.
In the empty meeting room, Bu Eunseol sat facing Nae Bihon.
“What happened to her?”
At Bu Eunseol’s question, Nae Bihon crossed his arms and shook his head.
“Just as you said, brother, the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words had been cast on her. If I had ignorantly applied the Life-Seeking Healing Technique…” His eyes narrowed as he continued. “Without a doubt, your secret identity would have been completely exposed.”
Nae Bihon shrugged and shook his head again.
“She comes from that vicious Heartless Blood, after all.”
Bu Eunseol gave a faint smile.
In truth, he had not killed Yu Baek.
No—he had never intended to kill her from the beginning.
Because her death would have caused a minute fracture in his own mind.
Yet deceiving the eyes of the Demon Emperor or any related forces or factions within Majeon was no easy task.
‘If it were Grandfather, he could have fooled them completely.’
His grandfather Bu Zhanyang had been the greatest swordsman and the greatest disguise master under heaven.
And was he not the sole inheritor of all his grandfather’s profound insights and techniques?
He had repeatedly realigned protruding bones that pierced through flesh, returned dislocated joints to their proper places, and made torn skin look as vibrant and alive as that of a living person. With only the sensation at his fingertips, by following the grain of the wounds alone, he could deduce the level and style of an opponent’s martial arts. Merely by observing developed muscles and calluses, he could discern what kind of martial art had been trained.
By tracing the scars left on a body… he could reconstruct an entire life and its journey.
‘Then I can do it too.’
Regaining his confidence, Bu Eunseol mobilized every ounce of his skill and wisdom to devise a plan.
First, he obtained a corpse whose physique matched hers perfectly, then altered its features so it could not be recognized.
He replicated the exact traces that the Thirteen Guiding Energies would leave on Yu Baek.
Then he secretly buried it in the reed field where the battle would take place.
The truly critical part came next.
While engaging in fierce combat across the vast reed field, he had to—in the precise location he had designated—crush Yu Baek’s body with the Thirteen Guiding Energies, leaving not a single discrepancy from the marks he had left on the decoy corpse.
Moreover, he had to covertly infuse the energy of the Ice Essence Snow Blossom Qi so the wounds would appear devastatingly deep.
Yet succeeding in all of this while fighting at full power against Yu Baek, who had mastered the Emotion-Severing Secret, was practically impossible.
Still, Bu Eunseol did not give up.
He trained relentlessly until he could stably distribute his power and release the Thirteen Guiding Energies with zero deviation from the marks left on the corpse.
And finally, with superhuman effort, in the midst of furious combat, he succeeded in engraving the exact same Thirteen Guiding Energies patterns onto Yu Baek’s body as he had on the decoy.
The greatest reason this entire plan succeeded was because, at the final moment, Yu Baek had voluntarily given up her life for Bu Eunseol’s sake.
Thanks to that, the battle could end cleanly with the engraving of the Thirteen Guiding Energies, and he was able to bring her down at the exact spot where the prepared corpse lay buried.
There could not be even the slightest margin of error.
Undoubtedly, agents from the Heartless Blood or Majeon’s secret organizations would be watching the fight and would confirm her death without fail.
The fact that ten Supreme Corps members rushed to the reed field and the order to bury her had all been to secretly swap her with the prepared corpse.
“Now that I think about it, it’s rather astonishing.” Nae Bihon asked with arms still crossed. “No matter how perfectly you controlled your power… to make someone look that intact after taking a direct hit from the supreme art of the Martial Emperor at such close range… How?”
Bu Eunseol answered Nae Bihon’s question.
“Because I deliberately infused the Ice Essence Snow Blossom Qi into the Thirteen Guiding Energies, the bones and flesh appeared severely damaged. In reality only the skin was torn and split.”
He continued. “However, the fake corpse I prepared in advance is horrifically mangled. Even if an Emissary from the Returning to One Realm came to inspect it, they would never be able to discern the truth.”
“I see.” Nae Bihon wore an expression of incomprehension. “But how did you know the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words had been used? After all, she came from the Heartless Blood—a direct lineage of Majeon.”
The reason Bu Eunseol had asked Nae Bihon in advance to prepare the Life-Seeking Healing Technique was precisely because he had suspected a cruel prohibition like the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words had been placed inside Yu Baek.
Although Bu Eunseol also possessed Thunder Spirit Energy, because it had fused with other energies within his body, he released not pure thunder spirit energy but a violet variant.
And while that variant was more powerful than Nae Bihon’s pure Thunder Spirit Energy, its impurity meant it could not break an extremely vicious forbidden art like the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words.
Thus, he had asked Nae Bihon beforehand to stand ready with the Life-Seeking Healing Technique.
“The Demon Emperor is likely connected to forces that have yet to reveal themselves in the martial world. As the one who divides the world as the supreme of the Demonic Path… it may even be expected.”
A flash passed through Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“In the past, Hyeok Ryeon-eung was an Emissary of the Three Realms and a master of mind-manipulating secret arts capable of freely using the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words.”
He took a deep breath.
“And the Demon Emperor possesses an ability to manipulate and dominate the human mind that is incomparably superior to Hyeok Ryeon-eung’s. There is no way he would not know such secret arts.”
“Then it is highly probable that the secret assassin organization operated by the supreme of the Demonic Path also employs mind-manipulating techniques that have reached the pinnacle like the Soul-Seizing Spirit Words.”
“Correct.”
“Somewhat unexpected… that even the Demon Emperor is connected to other forces.” Nae Bihon swallowed a groan. “In the end, even the supreme of the Demonic Path cannot stand peerless beneath the heavens.”
“It could also mean that the present martial world’s situation is that chaotic.”
After a brief silence, Nae Bihon spoke apologetically.
“Anyway, because of me that pretty girl ended up losing all her memories. I feel ashamed.”
“No. On the contrary, it’s for the best.”
Unlike himself, who had been raised by Grandfather, Yu Baek—who had lived as an assassin—likely had almost no happy childhood memories.
It was better to have no memory of such a miserable past.
“What about her vocal cords?”
“They’ve recovered to some extent. But because the damage was too old, it doesn’t seem possible to restore them perfectly.”
“Can she speak?”
“Of course. She just has difficulty raising her voice loudly.”
Bu Eunseol smiled and nodded.
“Being able to speak at all is enough. At that level, no one will be able to recognize her.”
In the present martial world, the only person who possessed the Jade Phoenix Honey capable of restoring damaged vocal cords was Bu Eunseol himself, who had opened the Martial Emperor’s Hidden Vault.
If someone saw Yu Baek—who had once been unable to speak due to damaged vocal cords—speaking normally, no one would easily realize her true identity.
“I put you through a lot of trouble because of me.”
“Trouble? Hardly.”
Nae Bihon grinned at Bu Eunseol’s words.
“Well, it’s good that the Red Sky Veil now has an excellent assistant.”
Martial Soul Society, Crystal Hall.
That was the place where mercenaries directly received jobs and rewards and where mercenaries constantly gathered. Because of that, the interior of Crystal Hall was extremely spacious, and six counters had been set up to handle the flood of mercenaries.
Buzz buzz.
Today, too, the inside of Crystal Hall was packed so tightly with mercenaries that there was hardly room to step.
Yet something was strange.
Why was there a long line only at one counter?
Even though the other counters were completely empty, all the mercenaries were lining up at the very rightmost corner counter.
Click. Clack clack.
And at that counter, a somewhat awkward but pure-looking beautiful woman was diligently working the abacus.
She was a newly arrived assistant at Crystal Hall.
However, her voice was soft and she was very clumsy at counting money.
—Ahh.
Nevertheless, the mercenaries wiped sweat from their brows and watched the struggling assistant with contented expressions.
Utter purity.
Her cheeks were plump like a child’s, and she seemed untouched by even a speck of the world’s dust and grime.
—Doesn’t it feel like your heart is being purified just looking at her?
—I feel as refreshed as if I took a bath for an entire hour.
—My eyesight seems to have improved.
Just to see her, the mercenaries ignored the empty counters and deliberately lined up at that one.
“What in the world is this?”
Dam Yuyeon, who had just entered the Crystal Hall, stared with wide eyes.
Plenty of empty counters were available, yet a long line stretched only at the very end?
With a dumbfounded expression, she shouted to the mercenaries.
“There are empty counters right here! Come this way!”
A mercenary who met her eyes lowered his head and mumbled.
“Nah… I’m not in a hurry.”
She looked at the mercenary beside him.
When their eyes met, that mercenary cleared his throat awkwardly and said, “Ahem. Why is the braised pork I ate at lunch not digesting properly? I think standing and waiting a bit would be better.”
Dam Yuyeon gaped at the mercenaries spouting nonsense.
Yet, despite her stare, the mercenaries stubbornly remained in line.
No matter what anyone said, they wanted to receive the money counted—however clumsily—by the girl in the corner.
No—by the new Crystal Hall assistant, Yu Seol.
‘This turned out well.’
Watching from afar, Bu Eunseol wore a faint smile.
Originally, Yu Baek’s death should have left him dejected or caused a change in his mind. But because he had foreseen the Demon Emperor’s intentions in advance and saved Yu Baek, he had protected his own mind and maintained an even more perfect Middle Path.
And somehow, it felt as though he had taken one step closer to Grandfather Bu Zhanyang.
Because Grandfather, too… must have saved countless people while wandering the martial world.
‘I hope,’ Bu Eunseol quietly repeated to himself. ‘that she forgets her painful past.’
‘And that she finds happiness.’
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