Yoo Unryong gave a lonely smile.
Creating a Mind Realm without reaching the Limitless Realm was, in truth, an act that transcended the principles of martial studies. Yet it was possible precisely because Record of Inherited Essentials was a secret tome that comprehensively encompassed the ancient mysterious mechanical arrays, formations, qimen dunjia*, sorcery, and great dharma methods, and because Yoo Unryong—with his genius-level intellect—had combined them with the profound subtleties of present-day martial arts and the arcane mysteries of formations.
*Qimen dunjia is a type of Chinese divination
Still, it remained incomplete and full of flaws.
After much agonizing, Yoo Unryong had finally modified it so that it could be unfolded using his very life force as the foundation.
Only in that way could he deploy the Heart Mirror Technique alone.
Therefore—even if he succeeded—the moment he released the Heart Mirror Technique, the caster’s mind and body would inevitably shatter into pieces.
“My only task is to endure long enough to force that killer to use Infinite Reversal Power.”
No matter how formidable a master he might be, he could never predict that his killing blow would instantly rebound upon his own body.
Even if he somehow anticipated it, blocking it would be impossible.
The moment the enemy unleashed his ultimate strike, the Heart Mirror Technique would activate its function of mutual destruction.
The real question was whether he could instill a true sense of crisis in a master who had reached the Limitless Realm.
If—no matter how desperately Yoo Unryong struggled—he posed no real threat, then the enemy would have no reason to expend Infinite Reversal Power.
“Because this is the only method I have to oppose a Limitless Realm master.”
The bodies of those who had entered the Limitless Realm were fundamentally different from ordinary martial artists, so conventional martial techniques or strikes could never bring them down.
The only ways to instantly kill them were Infinite Reversal Power—or a force equivalent to it.
If the killer refused to deploy Infinite Reversal Power, there would be no way to defeat him.
“Huu.”
Having finished all the calculations in his mind, Yoo Unryong wiped the sweat trickling down his forehead.
The Heart Mirror Technique—a mysterious domain created by layering countless ghostly mechanisms and formations.
Merely counting and calculating them consumed an enormous amount of mental energy.
“It doesn’t matter what happens.”
His life no longer held any importance to him.
“Only…”
Yoo Unryong gazed at the distant sky.
“I feel sorry for those guys.”
In that sky, it seemed as though he could see Bu Eunseol, Myo Cheonwoo… and the captains and comrades of the Death Shadow Corps looking back at him.
If they learned the truth, they would rage furiously and resent him deeply.
But this was the best option.
Bu Eunseol was a new star rewriting the history of the martial world, but he was not a hero who would sacrifice everything for the greater cause.
Even as he raced toward revenge, his affections ran endlessly deep.
Without his comrades and subordinates, he could never endure alone… he was like a lonely child.
For the sake of his personal matters, Yoo Unryong could not allow harm to come to the very comrades who supported him.
“There isn’t much time left.”
Gazing at the distant sky, Yoo Unryong murmured.
Soon his father, Yoo Jeongpung, would arrive and that upright man would likely welcome the assassin’s attack with open arms.
Because it would be a death for the Emperor.
Even if such a thing happened hundreds of times, he would offer his life without hesitation.
“A country’s official harboring loyalty and concern for the nation is no fault. However…”
Recalling the past, he shook his head.
The lingering resentment and unresolved feelings toward Yoo Jeongpung still remained in his heart.
“Why can’t humans completely forget the things of the past?”
Biting his lip, the image of his mother dying in agony rose in Yoo Unryong’s mind.
Even as she suffered such terrible pain… the only one his mother had worried about was his father, Yoo Jeongpung.
Though he still could not forgive him, the father whom his mother had loved so deeply, the father she had worried for so much, could not be allowed to die at the hands of some worthless martial rogue clinging to the Eastern Division in pursuit of wealth and honor.
“Having fun?”
At that moment, a figure approached from far away.
Short hair, hawk-like sharp and elongated eyes, and the broad back of a bear paired with the waist of a tiger—a valiant man.
It was Myo Cheonwoo.
“How did you—”
Yoo Unryong’s face hardened; Myo Cheonwoo gave a wry chuckle.
“Did you forget? The moment you—who holds all the information—let go of control, you yourself become a surveillance target?”
“That’s impossible. I made sure to cover my tracks perfectly.”
Just in case something like this happened, Yoo Unryong had not only erased his movements completely, but had also taken measures to ensure that not even the Death Spirit Corps or any other intelligence organization could detect him.
Yet Myo Cheonwoo had seen through it in an instant and come straight to him?
“I’m joking. If you were seriously trying to hide, who could possibly find you?”
Myo Cheonwoo spoke bitterly.
“Mu Gwang told me. Everything.”
Mu Gwang had been haunted by the sight of Yoo Unryong leaving with a smile.
In the end, after much agonizing, he had gone to Myo Cheonwoo and told him the whole story.
Because they were best friends.
Because he knew Myo Cheonwoo would never abandon Yoo Unryong alone.
“I heard someone from your family came. So I looked into it.”
In the end, Myo Cheonwoo had met Jang Kang again.
And from him, he had learned everything.
“So?” Yoo Unryong spoke coldly. “What changes if you show up?”
“Yoo Unryong.”
“Don’t misunderstand. Are you planning to ruin everything with this pointless display of friendship now that we’ve come this far?”
Yoo Unryong wore an utterly frigid expression.
“Unlike you, I’ve prepared countless times for a day like this. Even without me, the void must never be felt.”
Taking a deep breath, he spoke clearly and deliberately.
“And this is my family matter. It must be me who handles it, and only by doing so will it end. Do you understand what I’m saying?”
Myo Cheonwoo sighed and replied, “Yoo Unryong. Do I look like I came here to help you?”
“What?”
“I came here as a captain of the Death Shadow Corps.”
Myo Cheonwoo wore an utterly serious expression.
“In the future, the person Bu Eunseol and the Death Shadow Corps need is not me—it’s you, Yoo Unryong.”
“What are you saying?”
“Everything I do is just cleaning up after you anyway, isn’t it?”
A smile tugged at his lips as he continued.
“But you’re different. You have to guide those idiot members of the Death Shadow Corps in the right direction. You have to manage and sustain the Death Shadow Corps.”
“…”
“Besides, there’s also the Martial Soul Society. The more they grow, the more they will need your strength going forward.”
Yoo Unryong grew angry.
So angry that he could no longer bear to listen to Myo Cheonwoo’s words.
“Myo Cheonwoo!”
“It’s the truth.”
Myo Cheonwoo gave a calm smile.
“Even when I was away for a long time recovering my destroyed dantian, the Death Shadow Corps ran smoothly, didn’t it? Because you handled everything so well. Right?”
“So what—you’re saying you’ll die in my place?”
“I already told you it’s not for you.”
Myo Cheonwoo’s expression grew solemn once more.
“It’s for Bu Eunseol. And for the remaining members of the Death Shadow Corps.”
“I refuse.”
“Yoo Unryong. Aren’t you the one getting caught up in meaningless friendship games?”
Myo Cheonwoo wore an utterly cold expression.
“The strategist of the Death Shadow Corps—would he really charge ahead recklessly without any calculation?”
“This is my matter.”
“Don’t make me laugh. After coming this far, do you really think there’s such a thing as ‘your matter’ anymore?”
He spoke with firm resolve.
“From the moment we entered Majeon. No—from the moment we swore to follow that person for life… personal matters ceased to exist for us.”
Then he gazed at the distant sky.
“Think carefully. Why did we join Majeon in the first place? What are we ultimately hoping for?”
There was no need to think about it.
What Myo Cheonwoo was thinking, Yoo Unryong had already considered many times himself.
Yet even so, there was only one reason he had no choice but to do this.
Because Myo Cheonwoo, just like Bu Eunseol… was a friend more precious than life itself.
“Enough. That’s far enough.”
Myo Cheonwoo, reading Yoo Unryong’s thoughts, waved his hand dismissively.
Then, looking at Yoo Unryong with his head bowed, he spoke calmly.
“Come on, tell me. How can I take your place?”
“…”
“Hurry up. There’s no time.”
Instead of answering, Yoo Unryong handed him a booklet.
It was a detailed manual explaining how the Heart Mirror Technique was constructed and how it could be used.
“‘The formations and dharma tools inside can be controlled with a single foot…’”
Flip, flip.
Standing right there, Myo Cheonwoo rapidly skimmed through the booklet.
“Impressive. With this method, no matter how great the master, mutual destruction should proceed without issue.”
“…”
“The problem is enduring—until Infinite Reversal Power is forced out.”
Though often overshadowed by Bu Eunseol, Myo Cheonwoo was also a genius of martial arts. In an instant, he grasped the core of the Heart Mirror Technique that Yoo Unryong had created.
“I like it very much. Whether it succeeds or fails, the fact that one can leave this world without leaving a single trace behind.”
Because it was incomplete, success or failure alike would end with the caster’s death.
Snap.
Closing the book, Myo Cheonwoo spoke coldly.
“Your part is done. Now go. Don’t linger here and ruin everything.”
“Myo Cheonwoo.”
“If you’re the strategist of the Death Shadow Corps, shouldn’t you show the most rational and cold-headed side at a time like this?” Myo Cheonwoo waved his hand again. “I’m tired of explaining. Just go already.”
Yoo Unryong bit his lip.
Having shared meals and days together until now, he knew Myo Cheonwoo’s personality better than anyone.
That unnecessary meddling.
Because of that hot friendship, Bu Eunseol had changed, and in the end, deep bonds had formed with the captains as well.
‘But he’s right.’
To speak coldly, Myo Cheonwoo was not an indispensable figure in the Death Shadow Corps.
Won Semun and Jo Namcheon were true demonic cultivators responsible for training and uniting the Death Shadow Corps’s warriors, and they were the representative martial powerhouses of the group. Wi Cheongyeong was a strategist on par with—if not surpassing—Yoo Unryong in analyzing and refining information.
Myo Cheonwoo himself knew this, which was why he was willingly offering to sacrifice himself in Yoo Unryong’s stead.
“…Fine. I understand.”
A chilling coldness flowed from Yoo Unryong’s eyes.
Myo Cheonwoo was right.
He was the strategist of the Death Shadow Corps.
He had to judge the situation coldly and pursue practical benefit.
Games of friendship ended here.
“I’ll go.”
“Good choice. I’ll handle it perfectly, so don’t worry.”
Myo Cheonwoo spoke indifferently.
“Return quickly. With you gone, the Death Shadow Corps will fall into chaos.”
“I will.”
Yoo Unryong immediately turned away.
Myo Cheonwoo was rough and stubborn; he was actually better suited for this than Yoo Unryong himself.
There was nothing more for him to do here.
At last, Yoo Jeongpung arrived at the villa by the West Lake.
Though the Eighteen Golden Shadows—a force comparable to an entire sect—were guarding him, there was no room for error.
This place would become his grave.
Yet Yoo Jeongpung remained calm, as though he had come for a leisurely outing; he secluded himself in the villa and read books.
For the Emperor, for the Crown Prince.
Having already resolved himself to death, nothing frightened him anymore.
As the sun began to set, black clouds suddenly gathered around the villa by the West Lake.
Kiiiii.
At the same time, mist rose, and a massive shadow slowly began to walk forward.
It carried two red spear shafts crossed on its back.
Wearing a bamboo hat and a dark face cloth, its features could not be clearly seen.
Its skin gleamed as though forged from molten metal; standing a full seven feet tall, it looked like a long spear that had taken human form.
Paat!
The moment the bamboo-hat figure appeared, fourteen shadows rose from the ground and surrounded him.
They were fourteen of the Eighteen Golden Shadows guarding Yoo Jeongpung, who had sensed the intruder’s aura and rushed over.
“An assassin sent by the Eastern Division?”
The fifth of the Eighteen Golden Shadows, Je Myeongil, glared at the bamboo-hat figure with flashing eyes.
“From this moment, do not take a single step forward. Turn back immediately.”
An aura capable of splitting the earth rose from Je Myeongil’s body.
“Otherwise, I will cut you down without hesitation.”
Yet the bamboo-hat figure seemed deaf to everything and continued walking slowly forward.
“So you won’t shed tears until you see a coffin?”
Je Myeongil lightly extended his hand.
Ziiing.
A faint radiance flowed around the bamboo-hat figure, forming a circular barrier of light.
It was an overwhelming pressure no human flesh could withstand.
Thud, thud.
Even as the ground was crushed to powder, the bamboo-hat figure’s steps did not falter.
In fact, the greater the pressure, the lighter and more effortless his stride became—and not even the bamboo hat on his head suffered the slightest damage.
Despite Je Myeongil pouring out immense power, he could not even break the hat.
“A formidable master indeed.”
Je Myeongil narrowed his eyes.
So that was why the Eastern Division had sent an assassin so boldly and confidently.
They had dispatched such an overwhelmingly powerful expert alone.
“I’ll handle this.”
At that moment, the eighth, Mo Yeonghwa, stepped forward.
Every member of the Eighteen Golden Shadows had mastered one of the mysterious martial arts from the imperial secret vault, arts whose power and functions were incomparable to anything in the martial world.
When Je Myeongil nodded, Mo Yeonghwa stepped forward with a smile.
He had mastered the imperial art Shadow Severance, which could completely sever the flow of power within an enemy’s body.
No matter how great a martial art the bamboo-hat figure had learned, the moment Shadow Severance was activated, he would become an ordinary person incapable of exerting any power.
Ziiing.
As Mo Yeonghwa unleashed his power, a blue mist rose around the walking bamboo-hat figure.
Shadow Severance had scattered every ounce of strength within the intruder’s body like mist.
“Heh heh heh. Now what will you do?”
As Mo Yeonghwa tilted his head and laughed, the bamboo-hat figure slowly reached behind his back.
Click.
He combined the two spear shafts into a single long spear.
The shaft was stained red, as though soaked in blood.
“What can you do with one spear?”
Just as Mo Yeonghwa sneered,
Thud.
With a strange sound, a mass of clotted blood suddenly surged up from beneath his feet.
“Hm?”
Sensing something wrong, Mo Yeonghwa looked down at his chest.
“When did…”
He stared in disbelief, eyes bulging.
At some point, a hole had been pierced through his heart—and blood was gushing from it.
Thump.
In the end, without leaving a single word, he died on the spot.
The eyes of the lifeless Mo Yeonghwa remained wide open.
He had not even seen what technique the bamboo-hat figure had used.
“A truly great master.”
Only then did Je Myeongil realize that this was an opponent the Eighteen Golden Shadows could not handle alone; he nodded.
“Attack together!”
At his shout, the remaining Eighteen Golden Shadows unleashed their power in unison.
The imperial arts they had mastered were mysterious secret techniques that even the strongest martial artists could not easily counter.
But… it was useless.
No matter what attacks they launched, no matter what power they displayed, none of it could block the strikes of the long spear in the bamboo-hat figure’s hands.
Pshk, pshk.
With horrifying cutting sounds, small holes were pierced through the throats and chests of the Eighteen Golden Shadows, who had boasted invincibility until now.
—How?
In their dying eyes, frozen in cold corpses, the same single question burned.
How.
How could this be possible?
How was this happening? What technique had he used?
Boom. Boom.
In less than half an incense stick of time, fourteen experts—self-proclaimed the greatest in the palace—had all become cold corpses.
Thud, thud.
The bamboo-hat figure walked onward as though nothing had happened, trampling over the chilled bodies of the Eighteen Golden Shadows as he advanced toward the villa by the West Lake.
And finally, in the distance, a picturesque villa came into view.
It was the very villa where Yoo Jeongpung was staying.
Shuuk.
At that moment, a figure clad in ash-gray martial robes descended from the air.
A valiant man with short hair—it was Myo Cheonwoo.
“Hello there?”
He greeted the bamboo-hat figure with easy confidence.
But the moment their eyes met, cold sweat ran down his back.
Though the Eighteen Golden Shadows were palace warriors, they were masters whose martial prowess rivaled any in the martial world, and they wielded mysterious imperial arts.
Yet the bamboo-hat figure had killed them—how, and with what technique, he could not even determine.
‘I expected it, but it really is true.’
Myo Cheonwoo barely suppressed his trembling body.
Beyond the Three Demons and Three Venerables, there truly existed a master who had reached the Limitless Realm.
‘So this is the Limitless Realm.’
Merely meeting his gaze, the entire world turned to darkness, and it felt as though a colossal shadow was swallowing him whole.
‘I have to pull myself together.’
Since he had come here to die anyway, fear itself was absent.
Yet even so, simply locking eyes with the bamboo-hat figure’s terrifying martial might filled him with an unknown dread.
“Let’s begin.”
Myo Cheonwoo immediately rolled across the ground.
The spear art of that bamboo-hat figure was so fast it was invisible to the eye.
If he let his guard down even slightly, his head would roll in an instant.
Boom.
As he rolled, the ground beneath his feet rippled outward in concentric waves, slowly beginning to change the color of the earth.
After nine full days of preparation by Yoo Unryong, the Heart Mirror Technique was finally activated.
Sssss.
The spaces that the bamboo-hat figure and Myo Cheonwoo were looking at began to turn pitch black.
Thud, thud.
Regardless, the bamboo-hat figure continued walking slowly toward Myo Cheonwoo.
Then a swarm of hidden weapons poured toward him like angry bees.
Not a single one was the same; each came from different angles and with different force, all at once.
But the bamboo-hat figure did not dodge—he simply kept walking forward.
Shuuk.
The hidden weapons passed straight through his body in an instant.
They had all been illusions.
Kuuuuu.
In the meantime, a massive wall rose in front of the bamboo-hat figure, and a labyrinth began to form.
And Myo Cheonwoo had already vanished inside it.
Thinking the labyrinth walls were also illusions, the bamboo-hat figure strode forward without hesitation.
Thud.
But suddenly a giant wall blocked his path.
Some of the labyrinth walls were genuine, constructed structures.
“…”
The bamboo-hat figure had no intention of leisurely solving the maze.
With the look of someone annoyed by a persistent fly, he raised his power and simply continued walking.
Crunch. Rumble rumble rumble.
With every step he took, the labyrinth walls crumbled like cookies.
It was monstrous power.
Rumble. Rumble rumble rumble.
As the surrounding landscape—previously dyed black—gradually regained its original colors, the bamboo-hat figure had come to believe that not everything here was illusion; some things actually existed.
At that moment, the true function of the Heart Mirror Technique—which incorporated the subtleties of qimen dunjia—finally began to manifest.
Kurrrrrr.
As the surroundings recovered their proper hues, giant walls began to pour down like rain.
Watching the massive boulders fall, the bamboo-hat figure’s eyes changed.
He realized that the space he now stood in had become a Mind Realm where the boundary between reality and illusion had vanished.
Clack.
The bamboo-hat figure slowly raised his one-zhang-two-chi-long red spear shaft.
Ziiing.
The falling boulders gradually came to a halt.
Masters who had reached the Limitless Realm could not only wield Infinite Reversal Power, but could also exert that same overwhelming strength within a Mind Realm.
‘Got him.’
Watching from hiding, Myo Cheonwoo let out a cheer in his heart.
‘Yoo Unryong, that bastard really is a genius.’
The moment the bamboo-hat figure recognized this place as a mixture of illusion and reality and exerted his power, the somewhat imperfect Heart Mirror Technique was finally perfected into a complete Mind Realm.
“Hahaha.”
Myo Cheonwoo boldly stepped out in front of the bamboo-hat figure.
Now this was a perfect Mind Realm, and its master was himself.
That terrifying bamboo-hat figure no longer frightened him.
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