“What did you say?”
The blue-robed elder had been utterly confident from the beginning that Bu Eunseol could not possibly refuse the covenant.
This young man already had a sense of his own martial level. Having grasped that unfathomable realm, he would surely know that resistance was impossible.
“Are you truly saying you wish to die?”
“That is not it.”
Bu Eunseol changed the subject.
“You called yourself a messenger, so I assume you are speaking on behalf of someone else’s interests.”
“That is correct.”
“Thank you. Yet you have continued to answer me honestly all this time.”
When the blue-robed elder readily acknowledged it, Bu Eunseol offered a courteous salute and spoke.
Even though the blue-robed elder had no obligation to do so, Bu Eunseol knew that he had nonetheless answered sincerely throughout.
“To be honest, I still do not wish to be bound by anyone.”
If he accepted the covenant?
It was obvious that his future actions would be severely restricted.
Bu Eunseol’s sole purpose was to find and punish his grandfather’s killer.
But if he were forced to obey someone’s orders unconditionally… there might come a day when he would be prevented from avenging his grandfather.
Moreover, the blue-robed elder had said he was merely a messenger conveying someone else’s will.
In that case, he himself held no real decision-making authority. There was no point in negotiating with him.
“Hahaha.”
Despite the firm refusal, the blue-robed elder actually smiled.
“Yes, only with that much spirit and audacity would someone of your age qualify to even be offered the covenant.”
The elder, now wearing an expression of genuine delight, nodded.
“Of course, if you continue to build your power and raise your strength, you might manage to fend it off a few times.”
“…”
“But before long you will wail and come to understand. Those strong ones who do not enter the covenant can only meet the most wretched of ends.”
A wild, manic light burst from the blue-robed elder’s eyes—something never seen before.
“Of course, there is another way. If you become a great demon devoid of emotion… perhaps you could escape that suffering.”
For an instant Bu Eunseol’s expression hardened.
He realized the blue-robed elder was not threatening him.
Rather, he was sincerely informing him because he truly believed it could be one possible path.
“Why are you helping me?”
“It must have been quite obvious.” The blue-robed elder frankly admitted it. “This old man likes clever, spirited young men like you. And I hope you live as long as possible.”
Bu Eunseol let out a sigh.
Even knowing the blue-robed elder was merely a messenger, he could not help but say these words.
“Convey this to the one who is urging me to join the covenant. The condition is simple.”
Bu Eunseol spoke decisively.
“Bring me the person who killed my grandfather—the Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang—and the one who desecrated his remains. If you do that, I will offer not just the covenant, but my very life.”
“Have you still not realized?” The blue-robed elder shook his head as though pitying him. “You can develop infinitely. There is no need to cling so stubbornly to such things.”
He spoke persuasively.
“Those things will only destroy your life.”
“My life was destroyed long ago.”
Bu Eunseol spoke in an extremely low voice.
“The sole purpose of my existence is one thing only: to deal with the killer who murdered my grandfather and those who violated his corpse.”
“Do you believe Bu Zhanyang did only righteous things?”
The blue-robed elder spoke with a sorrowful expression.
“At that time, no one in the martial world killed more people than Bu Zhanyang.”
“My grandfather surely made mistakes as well. Perhaps he committed acts he regretted for the rest of his life.”
“You know well.”
“So what of it?”
A bloody gleam flowed from Bu Eunseol’s pupils.
“My grandfather was my everything. My only world, my only hope, the sole reason for my life.”
“Bu Eunseol.”
“I do not know how great you people are, nor how much power you hold to manipulate the martial world.”
A destructive radiance that seemed capable of shattering the entire world poured from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“If the killer is the heavens, I will cut down the heavens. If it is the earth, I will erase the earth.”
The words made no logical sense yet at last the blue-robed elder understood.
Just how deep Bu Eunseol’s grudge ran and with what mindset he had lived until now.
“How regrettable.”
The blue-robed elder shook his head.
“I held no particular emotion toward you. No—if anything, I hoped you would survive to the end and become an outstanding figure who shoulders one pillar of the martial world.”
Then he slowly extended his right hand.
“But in the end, this is the conclusion we have reached.”
Grrrr.
Suddenly the entire world turned pitch black and Bu Eunseol began to sink into a sticky liquid.
“Receive this old man’s power.”
Black mist rose from the blue-robed elder’s pupils.
“And regret it in hell.”
At the same moment, Bu Eunseol was falling endlessly into a pitch-dark space.
The mindscape world had unfolded.
‘How tiresome.’
Even boredom could be seen in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
To most martial artists, the mindscape world was an utterly unfamiliar and unstoppable form of attack. But he had already experienced mindscape worlds to the point of nausea, and now ordinary power could no longer affect him at all.
Sssss.
As he continued sinking endlessly into the abyss, Bu Eunseol began escaping the darkness under his own power.
Drip. Drip-drip.
Yet suddenly black liquids clung to his body like leeches and refused to let go.
Whoosh.
In that instant a fierce wind erupted from Bu Eunseol’s body and slowly began peeling away the clinging liquids.
Wind-Cloud Divine Qi.
This mystical force of nature activated instinctively the moment it sensed foreign energy, even without conscious effort.
‘I must not reveal this.’
Boom!
To conceal the nature of Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, Bu Eunseol deliberately unfolded the Wishful True Binding at the same time, unleashing powerful waves of true energy.
Thud.
The instant Bu Eunseol escaped the darkness, the blue-robed elder instead nodded.
“Yes, of course you would not fall so easily.”
By now a gigantic silver sphere floated in the sky, gleaming.
Inside the moon-like massive orb, a galaxy of tiny twinkling stars swirled.
Having predicted that Bu Eunseol would escape the abyss, the blue-robed elder had deployed the Infinite Reversal Power.
Paaah!
Without time to think, the enormous sphere poured down toward Bu Eunseol.
At that moment vibrations spread through heaven and earth, and the surrounding scenery warped.
Just as the light-wreathed sphere was about to swallow Bu Eunseol,
“Haaah!”
Bu Eunseol extended both arms and five-colored radiance burst forth as all the power within his body surged outward.
He had unfolded Harmony.
Boom!
Yet Harmony failed to erase the sphere and vanished in an instant.
Paaaa!
Bu Eunseol unfolded Harmony again in succession.
Ever since obtaining Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, he had become capable of unleashing Harmony up to three times consecutively if he willed it.
Grrrrrr.
Exposed once more to successive Harmonies, the spherical form distorted and light scattered in all directions.
Flash!
In an instant the light that had dyed the entire world white—and the gigantic sphere that had tried to devour Bu Eunseol—both vanished completely.
“…”
The blue-robed elder’s eyes widened in disbelief.
The face that had maintained a relaxed expression throughout now stiffened rigidly.
The smile that had lingered at the corners of his mouth was gone entirely.
Part of it was shock at Bu Eunseol’s unexpected martial prowess, but an even more shocking realization flashed through his mind.
“Sado Muryeong. He played me for a fool.”
Previously the blue-robed elder had unfolded his Phase and fought the Demon Emperor to a draw yet Bu Eunseol had escaped the Phase he himself had deployed with ease.
If Bu Eunseol could so easily break free from a Third Realm Phase, there was no way the Demon Emperor would have struggled against a mere Fourth Realm Phase.
“Yes… that’s it. He deliberately fought to a draw.”
Having understood everything, the blue-robed elder gave a powerless laugh.
“The martial world’s martial arts have advanced once again in the meantime.”
But he had no time to murmur leisurely.
Flash!
In that interval Bu Eunseol had seized the opening and unfolded the Meteor Chasing the Moon Form.
Since the blue-robed elder had attacked first, Bu Eunseol could now unhesitatingly cut his throat.
Schlick.
The blue-robed elder’s neck was severed in a single stroke by the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Yet he did not die.
This place was still his mindscape world. Because his power had not been completely shattered, the Meteor Chasing the Moon Form could not inflict death upon his flesh.
“There is no need for us to fight a life-and-death duel.”
Looking at Bu Eunseol who was radiating killing intent, the blue-robed elder shook his head.
“Let us stop here.”
“You’re giving up?”
“Indeed.”
The blue-robed elder looked at Bu Eunseol with a bitter expression.
“But do not forget. The fact that you refused the covenant.”
Paaaa!
At the same moment the blue-robed elder scattered into millions of points of light in every direction.
Bu Eunseol spread his super-senses to pursue him, but he had vanished completely, as though evaporated.
“So they are finally starting to show themselves.”
Gazing at the place where the blue-robed elder had disappeared, Bu Eunseol let out a deep sigh.
Ever since the Eight Human Heavens appeared, the forces and figures hidden in the abyss of the martial world had begun to reveal themselves one by one.
“In the end, a clash is inevitable.”
He had no intention of complying with the system they had built.
Rather, to achieve his revenge, he would have to shatter it.
“I will never avoid them.”
It was something he had resolved ever since defeating the Fist Man.
No matter what force appeared, no matter what expert emerged, Bu Eunseol would not evade; he would quietly do what had to be done.
***
Unlike the demonic martial world, the righteous martial world even before producing great masters of righteousness and justice, had unsparingly shared the secret arts of each sect and selected outstanding talents under the name of “joint transmission” to impart martial knowledge.
Thanks to this, the Martial Alliance was able to possess a grandeur that surpassed Majeon, and the layer of high-level masters possessing advanced martial arts was far thicker than among the demonic practitioners.
Moreover, because righteous practitioners were accustomed to not concealing their martial arts and instead complementing one another, the Martial Alliance’s Solitary Enlightenment Hall stored, without reservation, the comprehensive essence of martial arts from every major righteous sect.
The first floor contained not only martial arts texts but various books; from the second floor upward were stored the advanced martial arts that allowed one to survive in the martial world. On the third floor were displayed secret manuals containing the supreme ultimate arts capable of placing the entire martial world beneath one’s feet.
Although not visible from the outside, Solitary Enlightenment Hall actually had a fourth floor, where, it was said, secret manuals containing the profound insights of previous Alliance Leaders were kept.
For this reason, access here was strictly restricted; except for the Alliance Leader and Vice-Leader, no high-ranking member whatsoever could enter Solitary Enlightenment Hall without the permission of Mok Do-in, who managed it.
At the hour when the hot sun stood at its highest,
thud, thud.
A figure dressed in white was walking toward Solitary Enlightenment Hall.
He had a gentle appearance and an utterly unremarkable face yet on his sleeve was embroidered the phoenix pattern symbolizing the highest echelons of the Martial Alliance.
It was none other than Bu Eunseol, disguised as the Intelligence and Secret Affairs Division Lord Seon Woojin.
Creak.
The moment he arrived in front of Solitary Enlightenment Hall, the door opened by itself, and from inside a young martial artist dressed as a scholar bowed his head.
“Welcome, Investigations Chief.”
As a high-ranking member of the Martial Alliance, Seon Woojin could freely enter up to the second floor of Solitary Enlightenment Hall simply by giving prior notice, and once a year he was permitted to allow subordinates who had rendered great service to enter as well.
“We have been awaiting you. Please come inside.”
Following the young martial artist’s guidance, Bu Eunseol entered Solitary Enlightenment Hall.
He had given advance notice of his visit.
—I was far too ignorant of the history of the martial world.
Bu Eunseol was the head of the single greatest intelligence organization in the martial world.
Yet even he had not known much about martial world history, nor had he considered it particularly important.
The past was merely the past.
The present mattered more.
But only now did he realize.
The martial world was a place where history repeated itself. A place from which one could never truly escape the influence of the past.
“You may come and go freely up to this floor.”
At the guiding martial artist’s words, Bu Eunseol gave a light nod.
Then he headed toward a bookshelf in the corner of the first floor.
There, countless books concerning the history of the martial world were lined up.
But perhaps because few people came here specifically to study martial world history, most of the books showed little sign of handling and remained in extremely clean condition.
Rustle.
Bu Eunseol located and began reading the book that recorded history from the very dawn of the martial world.
Although there were no mentions of the Baekri Family or the True Demon, various unexpected incidents were described in great detail.
Bu Eunseol began reading the books with an interested expression.
Thud, thud.
At that moment, a completely unfamiliar set of footsteps echoed inside.
When he turned his head, an old man with long hair neatly tied up was walking toward him.
It was Mok Do-in, the Hidden Forest Pavilion Lord in charge of the Solitary Enlightenment Hall.
“Pavilion Lord.”
When Bu Eunseol gave a light salute, Mok Do-in nodded pleasantly in return.
“Lord Seon.”
“What brings you here?”
Mok Do-in smiled faintly and spoke frankly.
“I heard that Lord Seon had come, so I thought I would stop by to see your face for a moment.”
Until now, Mok Do-in had shown great interest in Seon Woojin.
Of course, it could be interest in him as a high-ranking member of the Martial Alliance, but Bu Eunseol instinctively sensed that Mok Do-in had some other ulterior motive.
‘What exactly does he want from me?’
If he wanted something, he could have said it outright or conveyed his intention discreetly yet until now Mok Do-in had never once revealed his true thoughts.
While Bu Eunseol was lost in thought, Mok Do-in spoke.
“Hmm.”
And before Bu Eunseol could reply, Mok Do-in looked around at the bookshelves and chuckled.
“This is the first time I have seen a high-ranking member of our Alliance reading the books displayed here.”
Every book on these shelves dealt with the history of the martial world.
Bu Eunseol answered honestly.
“While wandering the martial world, I realized how ignorant I was of martial world history.”
“Why do you wish to look into history?”
“Because the history of the martial world repeats itself. If one knows the past, perhaps one can predict the future to some extent.”
“Indeed.”
Mok Do-in nodded, smiling with satisfaction.
“To realize that so early is impressive.”
Then he gently patted Bu Eunseol’s shoulder.
“I will not disturb you. Continue reading. You’ve worked hard.”
“Thank you.”
As Mok Do-in turned with a smile,
Bu Eunseol wore a faint smile as well and turned back toward the bookshelf to resume reading.
Yet the moment his body turned while still smiling, his expression froze as hard as ice in an instant.
‘The Martial Alliance is not merely a den of the Three Realms.’
A sharp, piercing light exploded from his pupils.
‘Mok Do-in… you were the messenger?’
It was astonishing.
The blue-robed elder who had come to him before, the one who conveyed the will of certain forces—was none other than Hidden Forest Pavilion Lord Mok Do-in?
‘Touching my shoulder was a grave mistake.’
Even now he could feel the sensation of Mok Do-in’s fingertips on his shoulder.
In the past, Bukgung Ryeong had seen through his disguise merely by touching his shoulder.
Because he had reached the pinnacle in finger-based martial arts and could extract vast amounts of information through the sensation of his fingertips alone.
Ever since learning that fact, whenever Bu Eunseol used a disguise, he changed not only his face but also the overall lines and shape of his muscles. Because if someone touched his body, they might notice something strange through physical contact.
But Mok Do-in had not altered the muscle structure, and Bu Eunseol—who had obtained Wind-Cloud Divine Qi—possessed super-senses that transcended human limits.
Therefore he had instantly realized that the sensation of the fingers that had touched his shoulder perfectly matched those of the blue-robed elder who had touched him not long ago.
‘No more.’
Bu Eunseol intuited it.
The time he could remain in the Martial Alliance was now extremely short.
‘I must leave this place quickly.’
At last he resolved to discard the identity of Seon Woojin and leave the Martial Alliance.
***
A dark grand hall.
Far above on the lofty ceiling were engraved in relief the agonized faces of suffering people. Blue torches burned on the sconces of the enormous pillars erected throughout.
At the center of the hall stood a tall altar, upon which rested a solitary metal coffin.
Bubble, bubble. Drip, drip.
Astonishingly, from the seams of the coffin white foam bubbled together with red blood that flowed out.
How much time had passed?
Clank.
With a heavy metallic sound, the lid of the metal coffin—seemingly three feet thick—opened.
Bright red blood overflowed and began pouring onto the floor.
Splash.
At the same moment a pure white hand thrust out abruptly.
The fingernails were stained black, and dark crimson veins bulged like spiderwebs across the back of the hand.
Swoosh.
Soon the blood cascaded in all directions, and the upper body of a man with statue-like muscles emerged from within the coffin.
Because the blue light from the torches barely reached this place, his features could not be clearly seen, yet his red pupils gleamed sharply in the deep darkness.
“It seems your recovery speed has become even faster.”
At the words of the shadow prostrated below the hall,
[Ugh.]
The man who had raised his upper body from the coffin let out a short groan.
Merely uttering that single sound caused the grand hall to tremble, as though the air inside had evaporated.
“And we have located one more.”
Flash.
In an instant flames began to blaze from the red pupils that had been gleaming in the darkness.
Splash.
As he rose from the coffin, the outline of a tall figure exceeding six cheok, with sharp, defined lines, was revealed.
Fwoosh.
Flames that seemed to embody killing intent burned at his pupils and at his fingertips.
Boom.
An overwhelming pressure capable of cleaving mountains emanated from the shadow staring into empty space.
Even though his body had not yet fully recovered, he was about to step back into the martial world.
Comments