Having finished all his duties at Majeon, Bu Eunseol headed toward the Azure Sky Alliance for the first time in a while.
Azure Sky Alliance, Supreme Pavilion conference room.
Bu Eunseol summoned all the Supreme Corps members and opened a meeting.
Generally speaking, all important information began at the Death Shadow Corps meetings and was then passed down to each intelligence organization but what he had experienced this time and the information he had acquired were exceptionally critical.
Moreover, to Bu Eunseol the Supreme Corps members were precious subordinates no different from the warriors of Death Shadow Corps.
That was why, from time to time, he did it this way first: holding a meeting with the Supreme Corps and personally conveying the major information.
Especially since recently the Death Shadow Corps warriors had been somewhat dazed due to his own affectionate behavior toward them.
Even if he wanted to speak to them first, he couldn’t.
“…That’s how it all happened.”
Bu Eunseol explained in thorough detail everything that had occurred up to now to the members.
After hearing the entire account, the members could only sit with blank expressions for a long while.
If everything he said was true, then the martial world was merely an arena where the Baekri family and the True Demon fought for supremacy, and the entire history of the martial world had ultimately been controlled and directed by them, hadn’t it?
“It feels like we’ve heard an extremely unpleasant story,” Tae Muryong sighed after a long silence.
“Yet I’m afraid it’s all true.”
Tae Muryong let out a deep breath.
“Now I finally understand the behavior of a supreme master of our generation like the Demon Emperor.”
In reality, the Demon Emperor had already reached the absolute limit of martial achievement—there was no higher realm left to pursue. The prevailing opinion among the masters of the current era was that no one could possibly defeat him. Nevertheless, he continued to enter secluded training repeatedly, steadily accumulating more power.
The same applied to the Three Demons and Three Venerables.
They weren’t striving to surpass the Demon Emperor; rather, it seemed they were preparing for something else.
They refrained from appearing in the martial world and endlessly strengthened their martial power. Yet neither in the demonic path nor in the righteous faction was there anyone who dared to target the man acknowledged as the greatest of the age—the Demon Emperor.
The Supreme Under Heaven.
The long history of the martial world could be encapsulated in those three words.
To become the Supreme Under Heaven.
To stand at the pinnacle and place the entire world beneath one’s feet—people had ceaselessly fought, trained, and struggled for that goal.
But in today’s martial world… as though by some unspoken agreement, no one was pouring their all into becoming the Supreme Under Heaven anymore.
“The martial world has always produced a Supreme Under Heaven and fought fiercely over that position—it would not be an exaggeration to say so,” Jeong Jongdo nodded in agreement. “Yet at some point the supreme masters of each generation stopped caring about ascending to the seat of Supreme Under Heaven. As if such a position held no meaning at all.”
All the members nodded at those words.
Anyone who had peered into the true depths of the current martial world—anyone who knew about the Baekri family and the True Demon—would inevitably feel that “the seat beside the Supreme Under Heaven” was an unbearably hollow and meaningless honor.
“It seems we too must now seek a new path in order to assist the Command Lord,” Tae Muryong said, taking a deep breath.
They still could not follow directly in Bu Eunseol’s footsteps, and aside from providing information they were offering little help.
Yet suddenly increasing their martial power was impossible.
Therefore, they needed to complete as quickly as possible secret arts similar to the Heart Mirror Technique developed within the Death Shadow Corps.
“There is no need to rush like that,” Bu Eunseol said calmly instead. “After all, the number of people capable of facing such beings is extremely limited.”
He took a deep breath.
“This concludes the meeting. Share this information through the Martial Soul Society intelligence network—but make absolutely sure it is never leaked. I will personally deliver it to the Death Shadow Corps again.”
At that moment Tae Muryong spoke in a low voice, as though something had just occurred to him.
“The Command Lord… is now trying to protect the entire martial world, isn’t he?”
If the true nature of organizations that had never revealed themselves to the world became known, it would make things far easier for Bu Eunseol to handle his affairs.
But doing so would put countless people in danger.
For the sake of the many innocent martial artists, Bu Eunseol was willingly bearing the disadvantage and blocking this information to protect them.
“I simply believe there is no need to spread unnecessary information.”
At Bu Eunseol’s seemingly casual words, Tae Muryong and the other members all showed faint, thread-like smiles.
Before they realized it, Bu Eunseol had become not only the one who influenced the state of the martial world, but also a leader responsible for the safety of countless lives.
And they found that fact profoundly prideworthy.
***
Han Sangja was returning to Sage Forest in high spirits.
The questions that had persisted across generations:
What kind of people were those humans who protected the laws of the martial world like executioners?
Why did they do such things?
At last he had obtained the answer to that question.
‘My senior brothers will be utterly shocked.’
Exhilarated, Han Sangja swiftly dashed up Diecai Mountain.
But soon he was confronted with an unbelievable sight.
“This can’t be…”
Arriving at the entrance, Han Sangja sank to his knees.
The sole sanctuary of the sages in the entire martial world—the home where his senior brothers had studied, researched, and passed down knowledge—had vanished without a trace.
“How…”
With trembling hands, Han Sangja gazed at the corpses scattered across the ground.
The bodies were mutilated beyond recognition; some had been shattered into fragments.
Whoever did this had deliberately and cruelly disfigured the corpses so that no funeral rites could be performed, so that no one could even identify who was who.
“Why on earth…”
Slumped on the ground, he trembled uncontrollably.
The pain was so intense that tears would not even come.
His senior brothers had always scolded him, yet whenever there was something delicious they made sure to give him the first portion. They punished him harshly whenever he broke the rules, whipping him sternly—yet at night they would check repeatedly to make sure his wounds weren’t festering.
Those pure, kind people… why? Why kill them so brutally, and then mutilate their corpses so hideously?
“Why?!”
Han Sangja clutched the earth and shouted.
“Who did this?! Why?!”
No matter how madly he screamed, no answer came. Only then did the blocked tears finally spill out.
“Who?!”
While pounding the ground through his tears,
“…?”
Suddenly something was grasped in both his hands amid the pile of dirt.
When he lifted it, he saw it was a chunk of beast flesh.
“No way…”
Wiping away his tears, he carefully scanned the surroundings.
Stones, wooden fragments, beast flesh, strange bone pieces… countless remnants were scattered throughout Sage Forest.
“The Yin-Soul Killing Men.”
Someone had created combat dolls known as the Yin-Soul Killing Men using inanimate objects as the foundation and with them they had turned Sage Forest into utter ruins.
“The completed form…”
Even in Sage Forest a secret method for creating the Yin-Soul Killing Men had been passed down but it existed only in the form of a possession technique that enhanced the power and abilities of a living human body.
There had never been a method to turn inanimate objects and beast corpses into combat weapons like this. Yet someone had created perfect Yin-Soul Killing Men from completely lifeless materials? Who in the world had perfectly restored a technique that had existed only in legend?
“The King of Sages?”
Han Sangja’s eyes widened.
The only person capable of perfectly restoring the secret of the Yin-Soul Killing Men—a secret even Sage Forest itself could not fully recreate—was someone who displayed genius-level talent in every field and could reinterpret existing knowledge to create entirely new things…
Only the King of Sages, the Heavenly Mechanism Star, could do such a thing.
“Ughhh…”
Blood tears flowed from Han Sangja’s eyes.
He had been brought to Sage Forest wrapped in swaddling clothes; this place was his birthplace, his home, his entire world.
The sages had been his parents; his senior brothers had been his real siblings.
Yet someone had slaughtered them so cruelly for no reason? That was something he could never forgive.
“I will definitely find you.”
A liquid redder than blood flowed from Han Sangja’s eyes.
“I will find you and take my revenge!”
***
Majeon, Suppressed Demon Pavilion, Bu Eunseol’s office.
After finishing his business at the Azure Sky Alliance, he returned to Majeon.
Suddenly he realized he had overlooked one thing.
‘Grandfather tried to prevent the birth of the Heavenly Mechanism Star.’
Sage Forest had attempted to artificially create the Heavenly Mechanism Star, and Grandfather had tried to stop it. He eradicated all the spiritual herbs, elixirs, and lingzhi in the martial world and even attempted to destroy Sage Forest itself.
‘Grandfather was involved in the affairs of the martial world right up until the moment he left it.’
Even before becoming the Vice Lord of the demonic path, the actions of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade—who roamed alone slaughtering righteous and demonic martial artists alike—had already become legend in the martial world.
But the destruction of Sage Forest occurred around the time Grandfather left the martial world.
‘There’s no way he would have suddenly decided to leave the martial world.’
Bu Zhanyang left the martial world through meticulous planning and evaded pursuit with the help of the shadows. Moreover, for the Seven-Finger Demon Blade—who even beggars scorned—to have become an incense burner who cleaned the corpses of the dead was something no one could have imagined.
At the very moment he was preparing to vanish so completely, why did he carry out an action that would have a massive impact on the state of the martial world right up until the instant he left the martial world?
‘Did he consider stopping Sage Forest part of his own mission?’
While carrying out the plan to encounter Han Sangja and the executioners this time, he had come to truly realize just how extraordinary the abilities of the sages were. Moreover, at that time Sage Forest would have been at the height of its power—far stronger than it is now.
Even if he had led a great army, it would have been impossible to destroy that place… so perhaps Grandfather had taken action personally.
“There must be hidden circumstances that others do not know.”
Bu Eunseol felt a sense of urgency.
“Grandfather devoted his entire life to me and hasn’t even been able to rest in peace…”
Up until now he had rushed forward for nothing but revenge, yet he had learned almost nothing about the culprit.
There was a time when he firmly believed the words of the Divine Mountain Sage, who had once held the dual identity of Martial Venerable, but from the moment he learned that the Divine Mountain Sage had fallen, and especially after realizing that the Divine Mountain Sage had brought him into the Martial Alliance to manipulate him as a pawn, he stopped believing the Martial Venerable’s claim that the culprit was one of the Seven Great Commanders.
“Moreover, even if he had lost all his power, Grandfather was not someone ordinary martial artists could defeat.”
Grandfather was the Supreme Under Heaven who could defeat even Human Demon Ak Muryeong in three moves.
Even if he had been in a state where he could not raise even a single strand of internal energy… not to mention one of the Seven Great Commanders—even if the entire righteous and demonic alliance ambushed him, they could not have killed him.
Yet one of the Seven Great Commanders is the culprit?
Even the Star Guard Division Commander Baekri Mujo, said to be the strongest among the leaders, would not have dared draw his sword in front of Grandfather.
“The movements of the Seven Great Commanders are something no one can track—that must be why he said it.”
Even the Death Spirit Corps intelligence network, which had grown more than three times larger than before, still could not grasp the past movements of the Martial Alliance’s Seven Great Commanders.
Most likely the Martial Venerable already knew this and deliberately mentioned the Seven Great Commanders.
“The culprit not only murdered Grandfather in a brutal manner but also severely mutilated his corpse. Why on earth…?”
When the old man of the sacred grounds explained the situation, he had been so filled with grief and sorrow that Bu Eunseol thought Grandfather had poured all his remaining power into him and died at the hands of the culprit because of it.
But when he calmly reconsidered the matter in a clear state of mind, he realized he had overlooked two crucial facts.
‘Grandfather did not resist.’
First, Grandfather had not died because he lost his power—he had not resisted from the beginning.
Of course, it was possible he asked the culprit not to harm him in exchange for giving up his life willingly but that didn’t make sense either.
‘Even if he had lost all his power, Grandfather still had enough strength left to protect me.’
No matter how great a master the culprit was, even if hundreds of thousands of troops surrounded Pyeongan Funeral Home, Grandfather could have easily escaped with him.
As long as Grandfather was determined, no one in the world could have harmed him.
In other words, Grandfather had voluntarily given up his life.
Why would he do such a thing?
And why did the culprit kill Grandfather so cruelly?
Only after reaching this point did Bu Eunseol realize that he had completely excluded one possibility until now.
‘Grudge.’
The culprit had not simply come to kill Grandfather—he had come with an extreme, burning grudge.
That was why he killed him in such a planned, painful, and miserable way.
And for that plan, he must have brought the poison incense needles in advance.
Otherwise?
After all the time the Death Spirit Corps had spent investigating, there was no way they would have failed to find even one master who frequently used poison incense needles.
“Grandfather…”
Only now was he painfully realizing just how little he truly knew about his grandfather.
Even the reason why he had not been able to find the culprit until now.
‘Only by learning about Grandfather’s past actions… will I be able to find the culprit.’
What kind of person Grandfather really was.
What his past actions had been.
With whom he had formed deep grudges.
Only by understanding these things could he track down the culprit.
‘He must be someone who knew Grandfather very well.’
That demonic culprit must have been acquainted with Grandfather.
He must have harbored a profound grudge.
―Re-investigate the past actions of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang once more.
Bu Eunseol ordered the Death Spirit Corps to thoroughly re-examine Grandfather’s past once again.
Contrary to what was commonly known, Grandfather was not originally a figure of the demonic path—he was a master created through the plan of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade.
That explained why he killed masters indiscriminately from both righteous and demonic sides.
However, unlike the beginning, toward the end he walked a path completely different from the plan of the Absolute Demonic Blade Project.
That meant there was a high probability that Grandfather had realized—albeit belatedly—that the Absolute Demonic Blade Project plan was wrong.
‘Why did he stop carrying out the Absolute Demonic Blade Project plan?’
Why did he quietly live his life performing the incense-burner duty that others avoided?
Grandfather, who had looked upon the world so beautifully… why did he continue slaughtering so many righteous and demonic masters right up until his retirement?
‘I will keep investigating.’
This was not something that could be resolved in a short time.
Bu Eunseol intended to slowly and surely uncover the truth about Grandfather’s past actions.
A few days later.
With a knock at the door, Yoo Unryong entered carrying a large book.
It was a chronological compilation of all the information gathered so far regarding the past actions of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang.
“You’ve worked hard.”
To have organized the traces Grandfather had left almost none of in the martial world to this extent was due not only to the Death Spirit Corps’s relentless efforts but also to Yoo Unryong painstakingly refining and arranging that vast amount of information.
“However, there is one part I still don’t understand.”
Yoo Unryong spoke to Bu Eunseol, who was rapidly reading through the book.
“It concerns the actions involving Heavenly Moon Palm Sect.”
Heavenly Moon Palm Sect.
It was a female sect that had once been considered one of the sacred grounds of the martial world, a place that managed treasures of historical value passed down through generations.
Yet the Seven-Finger Demon Blade Bu Zhanyang suddenly attacked it alone and completely annihilated Heavenly Moon Palm Sect.
“I see.”
Looking over the records in the book, Bu Eunseol swallowed a groan.
To think that Grandfather had wiped out a female sect—and not just any sect, but one called a sacred ground that never revealed itself to the world?
Moreover, the fact that Heavenly Moon Palm Sect had been destroyed by Grandfather had never been properly known throughout the martial world?
‘Just like with Sage Forest, there must have been a compelling reason.’
“What was the reason?”
“We haven’t uncovered it yet.” Yoo Unryong shook his head. “This incident is far too bizarre. Attacking a place considered a sacred ground of the martial world… naturally it should have provoked attacks from both righteous and demonic sides, yet nothing of the sort happened.”
Destroying a sect regarded as a sacred ground was more than enough reason to become a public enemy of the martial world a hundred times over. Yet strangely, no consequences followed, and the incident never became known to the world.
“According to records, there were rumors that around that time, the Righteous and Demonic Twin Heavenly Emperors met unofficially… but whether they truly met and what happened has not been confirmed.”
Yoo Unryong continued with a frown.
“So we kept investigating, and it turns out that the descendants of Heavenly Moon Palm Sect at that time rebuilt a new sect.”
“Where is that place?”
“It’s called Jade Qilin Sect. It’s located in a remote valley and takes in women with nowhere else to go, so it’s also known as the Holy Maidens’ Sect.”
“Holy Maidens’ Sect.”
“Yes. In fact, people tend to call it the Holy Maidens’ Sect more often than Jade Qilin Sect.”
Bu Eunseol furrowed his brow.
Even he—who knew most martial world sects—had never heard of this place before.
“It’s a small sect located deep in the mountains of the Southern Wind region, established less than ten years ago. It’s so small that calling it a mountain temple wouldn’t be an exaggeration.”
Yoo Unryong explained with a serious expression.
“What’s even stranger is that they currently possess no treasures at all… yet they stubbornly continue their lineage in such a remote location.”
“Hm.”
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
“I understand. I will investigate this matter personally.”
If the name Holy Maidens’ Sect was not one they chose themselves but one given to them by others, then they were surely a sect doing good deeds.
Yet Grandfather had annihilated their predecessor, Heavenly Moon Palm Sect?
The two facts didn’t fit together at all.
Therefore, he had to clearly uncover the reason.
***
In a mountain forest surrounded by dense trees and sheer cliffs, a black shadow swiftly crossed through the faint mist rising among the woods. His face was hidden by a face cloth, and his movements were so elusive that from a distance he looked like a ghost flickering in and out of sight.
It was Bu Eunseol.
‘So this is the Jade Qilin Sect, known as the Holy Maidens’ Sect.’
After passing through a forest so deep that even the sunlight barely filtered through the trees in thin rays, he arrived beneath a night sky pouring with stars and saw the entrance to Jade Qilin Sect, built like a mountain villa.
The place was concealed by huge rocks and thick vines.
Unless one knew the exact location or possessed exceptional eyesight, it would be impossible to even find the entrance.
Swoosh.
Slipping silently over the wall, he entered and found—to his surprise—an interior that looked quite orderly and well-kept, like a proper manor.
‘They definitely said it was a small mountain temple.’
It had been less than three days since he obtained information about the Holy Maidens’ Sect.
Yet in that short time, had they built new buildings?
‘It really does look newly constructed.’
The buildings were spotlessly clean as though freshly built, and here and there women dressed in neat, modest clothing walked about. Their attire was extremely simple, and like female monks in training, they showed almost no emotion on their faces.
‘Strange.’
He covertly observed the interior but found nothing particularly suspicious.
Moreover, unlike the usual glamorous atmosphere of most female sects in the martial world, the place had a solemn and quiet air, more like the residence of high monks of the profound path.
‘It could just be a facade they put up in a short period.’
Feeling something off, Bu Eunseol hid within the Jade Qilin Sect and observed the women’s daily routine for a full day.
‘Did I misjudge?’
No matter how much he watched, the Jade Qilin Sect maintained a strict schedule that would make one believe it was a profound Buddhist sect.
Except during meals, the disciples spent their time reciting scriptures such as the ‘Mirror of the Pure Heart’ to purify and calm the mind.
A sect that had once been called a sacred ground now appeared to live quietly, showing no interest whatsoever in the secular world.
‘If that’s truly the case, then merely infiltrating this place secretly is already a grave sin on my part.’
Even if it was necessary, simply sneaking into a female sect made Bu Eunseol feel tremendous guilt.
‘I’ll have to start investigating Grandfather’s matter somewhere else.’
Just as he was about to use his movement technique to slip away,
“Ah…”
A faint moan came from somewhere.
It was so weak that it sounded almost as if it were rising from underground.
Even with Bu Eunseol’s hearing—which could catch the sound of falling leaves a hundred paces away—he almost wondered if he had misheard.
“Ah…”
Once he locked onto the sound, his superhuman senses adjusted and caught the moan once more.
‘What on earth is this bizarre sound?’
The moan he had just heard was extremely strange.
It sounded as though someone were desperately suppressing pain… yet at the same time it resembled the coquettish cry of a woman lost in ecstasy.
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