Bu Eunseol, now wearing Jo Jagi’s mask and armor, ascended the mountain path once more.
Unlike before, he passed through the previously transparent barrier blocking the way to Ghost King Valley without the slightest hindrance.
‘Truly an ingenious method.’
Ghost King Valley had devised a clever way to block outsiders while allowing only its own people to come and go freely.
‘A special mechanism in the mask instantly reveals the path of the formation.’
Upon closer inspection, a unique device was embedded in the eye area of the iron mask. When worn, it made the routes of any formation visible in an instant. With such a mechanism, there was no need to manually disarm traps or post guards; it perfectly blocked outsiders while permitting unrestricted internal movement.
Moreover, since the use of blood as a medium was unknown… unless the villagers willingly cooperated, even seizing a mask would render it useless.
Had the young man not helped him?
Bu Eunseol would have struggled considerably to infiltrate Ghost King Valley.
Thud, thud.
After walking the endless path, the mountain trail finally came into view.
Climbing steadily for some time, he spotted a massive crimson-stained fortress far in the distance.
‘No guards at all.’
Surprisingly, not even a single sentry was stationed near the enormous fortress gates. They must have been utterly confident that no outsider could possibly reach this place.
‘They believe no one can enter regardless.’
Even when the signal flare had been fired, only Jo Jagi had come to the village. They were so certain they could instantly kill any intruder that they had not bothered with guards—nor even sealed the entrance properly.
Ziiing.
Yet the moment he passed through the fortress gate, another mysterious wall formed.
Because he wore the ghost mask, however, Bu Eunseol entered effortlessly.
“Why did that old man fire the signal flare?”
At that moment, a man dressed in identical attire approached him head-on.
Judging by his tone, he appeared to be one of Jo Jagi’s trusted subordinates.
“An outsider entered and destroyed the talismans.”
Using the Voice Mimicry Technique of the Rooster Cry Sect, Bu Eunseol perfectly imitated Jo Jagi’s voice in reply.
The masked man nodded.
“Looks like another group trying to steal the Boundary Prosperity Jade.”
In that instant, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
If they were after the Boundary Prosperity Jade…
Could it be that Ghost King Valley was storing massive quantities of it?
Thud, thud.
As Bu Eunseol silently walked toward the center of the fortress, the man asked again.
“Where are you going?”
He halted abruptly.
Since he could not circulate internal energy, he was unable to use Mind's Eye to scan the interior with true qi waves. He had no choice but to physically search and locate the residence of the Ghost King Valley Lord.
Yet this seemingly subordinate kept persistently questioning him.
“Does this hall lord need to report every move to you?”
When he spoke in an ice-cold voice, the man quickly clasped his hands respectfully.
“My apologies. Since an outsider reached the village, I naturally assumed you were heading straight to report to the Valley Lord first.”
‘So this is not the right direction.’
But changing course now would only arouse more suspicion.
Bu Eunseol replied coldly.
“I will handle it myself.”
He continued walking straight toward the fortress center.
As he advanced deeper, the space gradually widened until countless branching paths appeared.
It was not a defensive maze designed to confuse outsiders.
Rather, the fortress had simply been constructed in such an intricately complex layout that branching corridors naturally formed.
‘No one around at all?’
Even as he walked, Bu Eunseol felt something strange.
No matter how powerless one became inside Ghost King Valley, to leave the interior of such a massive fortress completely unguarded?
‘Hmm.’
Pausing for a moment, Bu Eunseol surveyed his surroundings.
Among the paths, an ominous energy seemed to emanate from the far end of the corridor directly ahead. Approaching slowly, he found a massive iron door.
Stepping inside revealed a stone chamber lined with countless jars.
‘This is…’
Opening one, he found it filled with thick, viscous blood.
‘This is far more blood than the village alone could possibly provide.’
Did that mean Ghost King Valley had established numerous other villages beyond Ghost King Village to harvest essence?
‘It is not entirely impossible.’
The Central Plains were home to countless heretical sects, most of which—like blood cults—worshipped or utilized blood in their sorcery. Thus, it was not inconceivable that Ghost King Valley had created various heretical groups across the martial world to gather blood.
Yet the blood here… was extraordinarily fresh, as though freshly drawn.
If it had been transported from outside, it could never have remained this clear and pure.
‘How exactly did they acquire so much blood?’
Swallowing his curiosity, Bu Eunseol moved to another branching path.
There, transparent tubes were connected, filled with bubbling dark-red liquid. Entering yet another room at the end of a corridor, he found crystalline fragments resembling transparent ice displayed in rows.
‘They must be using extreme yin energy to keep the blood fresh during transport.’
Stroking his chin, Bu Eunseol searched another chamber. Inside were various metals and a workbench that appeared designed to fuse them together.
‘So that was it.’
Though he could not use Void Heart Command to gain instant insight, his observational and deductive abilities were unmatched in the martial world. After thoroughly investigating the stone chambers along the branching paths for some time, he finally grasped the secret of this fortress.
‘This enormous fortress is a divided workspace for numerous manufacturing processes.’
The many stone chambers inside the fortress were production facilities created for the complex procedures of extracting and refining essence from harvested essence.
‘What exactly is their purpose?’
From the beginning, Ghost King Valley had never involved itself in martial world affairs.
So why go to such lengths to harvest human essence and process it?
Could they be using it to enhance their martial arts?
If so, why build such a vast fortress filled with countless workrooms?
‘Once I capture the Ghost King, everything will become clear.’
Leaving the stone chamber, Bu Eunseol ventured deeper.
Given the scale of operations within a fortress this size, the Ghost King’s personal residence must be hidden in an extremely secretive location. He intended to comb every inch of the labyrinthine interior until he found the Ghost King.
‘Something is off.’
Yet no matter how much he searched, no such place appeared.
After much deliberation, he returned toward the fortress entrance—only to find that the Ghost King Valley warriors who had been visible everywhere earlier had vanished.
‘What is happening now?’
Ghost King Valley was large enough to house thousands of disciples, and this fortress alone was spacious enough for hundreds to move about freely.
So how could not a single warrior be in sight?
‘This makes no sense.’
If he could raise the Void Heart Command, the reason would become obvious immediately but now he had to rely solely on his intellect and insight.
After careful thought, Bu Eunseol soon realized the truth.
‘Separation.’
Thinking back, wasn’t it strange for a sect that used mysterious sorcery to consist of a single fortress, with most of its space dedicated to laboratory-like facilities?
The structure was extremely unnatural.
‘Moreover, they are all using essence to create something.’
Any manufacturing process must have stages. If one followed a specific direction, there had to be a final stage.
‘The final production facility is not here.’
All the spaces he had seen so far were separate facilities dedicated to specific steps.
There was no visible storage area for the finished products.
That meant what he could see was not everything—there must be a separate, final space connected to it all.
‘But why can’t I see it?’
Could they have applied mysterious sorcery even inside the fortress?
After pondering for a long while, Bu Eunseol finally found the answer.
“The mask.”
This mask had been installed by Ghost King Valley to allow easy passage through spaces blocked to outsiders.
Conversely… it could also prevent one from seeing what was plainly visible.
‘They created spaces that warriors operating outside the fortress cannot enter.’
Just as with many of the great orthodox sects of the martial world, it was common within a sect to restrict access to certain areas based on rank or role.
Click.
The moment he removed the iron mask from his face, the world rippled like water, and a new scene began to unfold.
And there—previously invisible—was an entrance.
Thud, thud.
Stepping inside, instead of the endless branching corridors, he saw a passage naturally leading outward from the fortress.
‘This method might have been devised by the Heavenly Mechanism Star.’
With a single mask, Ghost King Valley not only blocked outsiders but also restricted subordinates’ access, granting differential entry privileges based on rank. Such a sophisticated yet ingenious system could only have been designed by a brilliant strategist like the Heavenly Mechanism Star.
“This is the way.”
Exiting the passage, a scene typical of any sect appeared.
Warriors of Ghost King Valley—or perhaps those in charge of experiments—hurried back and forth.
As expected, no one wore masks; all were in ordinary attire.
Quickly stowing the mask in his robes and discarding the red outer garments, he stealthily moved toward what seemed likely to be the Valley Lord’s hall.
‘This place is…’
Bu Eunseol halted mid-step as he ventured deeper.
He had discovered a storage room filled with miscellaneous furniture and seemingly useless books.
At first glance it appeared utterly ordinary yet Bu Eunseol—who had uncovered countless hidden passages during his journeys through the martial world—saw clearly with his sharp eyes that a mechanism was secretly concealed here.
‘It is similar to the mechanism installed in the secret vault of the Martial Venerable.’
Staring at the storage room, Bu Eunseol approached the bookshelf without hesitation and began arranging the initial characters of the books in sequential order.
Rumble.
One section of the bookshelf slid aside, revealing a pitch-black door.
Venturing deeper inside, he entered a vast grand hall whose ceiling rose at least ten zhang high.
Thick pillars supported the interior, and multiple entrances were visible.
Opening one door and stepping inside, Bu Eunseol let out an exclamation.
“So that was it.”
At last, Bu Eunseol understood why a figure like the Ghost King could become a subordinate of the Heavenly Mechanism Star, and why the Heavenly Mechanism Star needed the Ghost King.
“Boundary Prosperity Jade.”
All this time, Ghost King Valley had harvested essence from young people, built facilities for countless processing stages, in order to artificially create the mysterious orb capable of containing all the power in the world—the Boundary Prosperity Jade.
—Looks like another group trying to steal the Boundary Prosperity Jade.
“They were not storing the Boundary Prosperity Jade—they were manufacturing it.”
As proof, transparent orbs rested inside gold-plated vessels.
Some shone brightly as though nearly complete, while others remained unfinished, submerged in blood and tangled with various materials.
“So Ghost King Valley was a facility for producing Boundary Prosperity Jade.”
According to Yangseol Rin, natural Boundary Prosperity Jade was less valuable than the artificial kind.
Because the artificial version could contain and then re-inject various powers.
If there existed someone capable of producing such rare Boundary Prosperity Jade in the world… it could only be the Heavenly Mechanism Star.
“What exactly is he plotting?”
The Boundary Prosperity Jade could contain not only human qi but even the energy of the One Hundred and Eight Stars. To mass-produce such a precious item… he was undoubtedly scheming something that could overturn the entire world.
Rumble. Click.
But then an unexpected event occurred.
Suddenly, strange metallic scraping sounds echoed from all directions, and the entire stone chamber began descending.
Swish!
Yet from the moment the friction sounded, Bu Eunseol had instinctively sensed something was wrong and immediately leaped out through the open door.
Rumble rumble.
The chamber nurturing the Boundary Prosperity Jade vanished in an instant, sinking into the ground.
Had he been even slightly slower, he would have been crushed to death within the shifting mechanism or trapped with no escape.
“What a strange one.”
At that moment, a gloomy, low voice sounded from behind Bu Eunseol.
“To enter our valley alone is surprising enough, yet you even discovered the Soul-Seizing Treasure Hall.”
Turning around, he saw a towering giant clad in a pitch-black ghost mask, blood-red mist billowing from his entire body.
He stood over eight feet tall, his armored forearms thicker than logs.
The yellowish light pouring from within the ghost mask seemed to paralyze anyone who met it.
“Are you the Ghost King himself?”
No answer came, yet Bu Eunseol could tell the giant before him was the Ghost King.
An overwhelming ghostly energy—something he had never felt before—rippled across the man’s entire form.
Rumble rumble rumble.
Suddenly the grand hall’s doors burst open in every direction, and an enormous number of troops poured in, enough to fill the vast space.
They had sharp blades attached to their elbows and wore bronze masks on their faces.
Their feet floated eerily about an inch above the ground, like ghosts.
They were the secret combat elite of Ghost King Valley, created through forbidden arts—the Phantom Men.
“He does not seem ordinary. Capture him alive.”
At the Ghost King’s command, the hundred or so Phantom Men began encircling Bu Eunseol.
Then they moved with blinding speed.
Whoooosh!
The Phantom Men did not maintain formations or standard attack patterns like ordinary martial artists.
They moved chaotically, each attacking at will in a disorganized frenzy.
Yet despite the disorder, the countless Phantom Men never collided with one another and relentlessly targeted only Bu Eunseol.
It was as though they were perfectly using the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi—they passed straight through each other’s bodies.
Swish swish!
No matter how fiercely Bu Eunseol swung his sword, it never touched their bodies.
Sometimes attacks passed right through them, and they used the opening to counterattack.
‘This is ridiculous.’
Seeing the Phantom Men’s tactics, Bu Eunseol actually laughed.
An ordinary martial master would have panicked or been helplessly overwhelmed by such methods but Bu Eunseol surpassed even the Wind God Palace Lord Hae Yeon—he was the Wind God incarnate.
Though the energy of Ghost King Valley blocked his Three Divine Energies, when it came to utilizing the principles of Floating Through the Void and Wind-Riding Wall Penetration, no one in the world could match him.
Clang! Sizzle!
Bu Eunseol’s swordsmanship changed.
Suddenly he stabbed wildly in all directions like a madman, then spun his body in circles.
Yet each time he did, the necks of the swarming Phantom Men fell in an instant.
No matter how mysteriously the Phantom Men made their bodies intangible, they were merely employing bizarre sorcery or secret arts—they were not truly passing through matter.
But Bu Eunseol—the true Wind God incarnate—used the profound martial principles of the Wind God Palace to unravel their technique… leaving the Phantom Men with no defense.
Flash! Thud thud thud.
Each time the Silent Tiger Soul Sword drew an arc through the air, the Phantom Men fell like toys, collapsing in heaps.
In the end, it took less than a quarter-hour for all hundred or so Phantom Men to be defeated.
“What an interesting fellow.”
Even after Bu Eunseol dispatched the Phantom Men in a single breath, the Ghost King showed no surprise—only tilted his head curiously.
“A man with neither internal energy nor divine power in his body sliced through our valley’s Phantom Men like tofu?”
He possessed boundless malevolent energy.
If he wished, he could create a thousand—no, ten thousand—Phantom Men at any time.
“And using only the principles of martial arts, no less…”
“…”
“Judging by the human-skin mask you prepared and wore, you must have investigated our valley in advance.”
Not only was his martial prowess exceptional—his eyesight was extraordinary as well.
He had instantly seen through the finely crafted human-skin mask made by Han Sangja.
“A young man with swordsmanship of this caliber…”
Moreover, the fact that he immediately recalled certain figures upon seeing Bu Eunseol’s swordsmanship meant that—contrary to rumors of non-involvement in the martial world—he was constantly monitoring and interfering in the affairs of the martial world.
Ziiing.
The Ghost King raised one of his abilities—the Three Spirit Ghost Eyes.
It was a mystical eye technique capable of perceiving various information invisible to ordinary sight.
“An infinite void.”
What the Ghost King now saw was a vast space in human form, like an endlessly empty universe capable of accepting everything.
Such a form was something no ordinary martial artist could possess.
“Hmm.”
Thud.
The Ghost King extended his right hand and abruptly opened his palm.
Flash!
From the moment the Ghost King’s shoulder twitched faintly, Bu Eunseol had anticipated the attack and thrust the Silent Tiger Soul Sword straight into his palm.
Pfft.
Though no sword qi had been released, using only martial principles, Bu Eunseol had pierced the Ghost King’s palm from three zhang away in a single strike.
“Something is different.”
Ignoring the hole in his palm, the Ghost King stared intently into Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
In those eyes, he discovered something profoundly alien.
“I see.”
Suddenly the Ghost King’s eyes widened behind the mask, and he burst into hearty laughter.
“Hahaha… Excellent.”
With a satisfied grin, the Ghost King clenched his pierced palm.
Sizzle—
With a sharp sound, Bu Eunseol—who had thrust out the Silent Tiger Soul Sword—was forcibly pushed back three zhang.
“You must have cut down quite a few lately. It doesn’t show on the surface.”
“What do you mean?”
“No need to play innocent.”
The Ghost King uttered shocking words.
“Let us brothers have a proper fight.”
The moment yellowish madness flashed in his eyes,
Rumble rumble.
A mechanism activated, and a black door formed on one side.
Clang.
With a heavy sound, the mechanism door opened, and white vapor billowed outward in all directions.
Thud. Thud.
From within the white mist, a figure slowly emerged.
It wore pitch-black armor all over its body, with transparent Boundary Prosperity Jade embedded at each joint. Its face was covered by an iron mask shaped like black flames, giving the impression of a human made entirely of metal.
If one were to name such a figure, “Armored Monster” would be fitting.
“Brothers? What do you mean?”
At Bu Eunseol’s question, the Ghost King gave a sinister smile.
“You’ll know when you die.”
Clang!
In that instant, a pitch-black greatsword embedded itself in the spot where Bu Eunseol had stood.
The Armored Monster, standing motionless, extended its arm.
Unbelievably… a greatsword materialized from the empty air nearby and struck down at the place where Bu Eunseol had just been in an instant.
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