In an unfathomable depth of darkness, a single faint lantern flickered weakly.
Its soft light spread gently, barely allowing one to make out the pitch-black space—yet it only served to stretch the shadows even longer.
Within a silence so profound it seemed to swallow even the sound of breathing, those kneeling stared solemnly at the floor.
A chilling aura hung over the blackstone table placed in the center of the room. Opposite it sat a man dressed entirely in jet-black robes.
His face was half-buried in shadow, yet an intense, never-wavering presence relentlessly pressed down on the secret chamber.
It was none other than Baek Museong.
‘That guy.’
He was recalling the face of the Martial Soul Command Lord, Bu Eunseol, whom he had encountered once before in the Saha Manor.
A beauty so striking that even moonlight would feel ashamed, yet carrying the overwhelming momentum of the supreme Demonic Sect that could overturn the world.
For some reason, in Baek Museong’s eyes, that figure appeared like a boy—soft and gentle as moonlight, yet somehow suppressing an indefinable sorrow and pain.
‘What exactly are you thinking!’
Crack.
Baek Museong clenched his fist tightly.
Before long he would become the leader of the Martial Alliance and govern the world.
He had to find and slaughter the Three Realms bastards who had turned him into a puppet, and the demon-like being who tormented him within vanished memories.
So why was he suddenly overcome by such strange sentiment?
‘Anything that gets in the way must be eliminated!’
Having made up his mind, Baek Museong spoke in a low voice.
“Ha Baek.”
Sssss.
From the darkness, a black liquid rippled across the floor before a figure in black martial robes prostrated itself.
Black light shimmered across his entire body, making him look less like a human and more like a ghost.
It was Ha Baek—the deputy commander of the secret organization Baek Museong had quietly nurtured.
“Prepare the Black Night Corps.”
Baek Museong commanded in an utterly frigid tone.
“Assassinate the Martial Soul Command Lord.”
“With all due respect, his movements are still-”
“He will soon return to Majeon.”
When they met in the Saha Manor, Bu Eunseol’s face had looked greatly exhausted. He clearly would not have returned to Majeon immediately.
By now the timing should align with his return journey—thus the plan to deploy the assassination unit along his predicted route.
“If we kill him, it will cause major setbacks to our grand undertaking ahead. Moreover, we received an order to exercise restraint—yet if we dispatch the Black Night Corps that was prepared for Baekri Mujo-”
“Carry it out.”
At Baek Museong’s resolute words, Ha Baek bowed his head.
“As you command.”
Once Ha Baek withdrew, Baek Museong turned his gaze to the greatsword embedded in the wall of the secret chamber.
“The Black Night Corps will fail.”
He had already roughly grasped how high a realm Bu Eunseol had reached.
If not, he could never have blocked Baek Museong’s Thousand Hand Tathagata Palm with a single strike.
Even so, the reason for sending the Black Night Corps was…
“Anyway, it was just a cumbersome organization handed over by the Three Realms.”
Baek Museong lifted the corner of his mouth.
“Besides, no trace can be found—so this incident is perfect.”
Click.
Baek Museong slung the greatsword from the wall onto his back.
In time with the annihilation of the Black Night Corps, he intended to personally cut down Bu Eunseol in a single stroke.
***
Sss-sss-sss.
Bu Eunseol was swiftly returning to Majeon.
‘It feels empty.’
Normally he would have sensed Soyo following him from a distance but Soyo would now spend a considerable time learning the Snowflower Enchanting Swallow's movement techniques and martial arts.
And that period would be quite long as Soyo would be the one to embrace and heal the exhausted, wounded spirit of the Snowflower Enchanting Swallow’s young lady.
While learning martial arts, she would also try to heal her heart.
‘Soyo does not belong in the martial world.’
Born an orphan and raised by the Hundred-Split Assassin Sect, she had no choice but to live the life of an assassin.
Having practiced the Cold Heart Technique from far too young an age, ice shards seemed to fall from her expressions and speech, yet in truth she possessed an endlessly pure and innocent heart.
She had a rich sensitivity that allowed her to empathize deeply with others’ pain and suffering.
‘She should have become a female physician, caring for the sick and suffering.’
Bu Eunseol let out a soft sigh.
Rather than drifting through the martial world as a member of an intelligence unit like now, she belonged in some clean-aired medical forest, tending to patients whose bodies and minds were weary and broken.
‘When she returns, I should try persuading her again.’
The past cannot be undone.
The world may be cold and harsh, but there are still many beautiful things.
And Soyo fully deserved to enjoy them.
‘Then I need to resolve everything quickly.’
To grant peace to everyone around him, he ultimately had to achieve every goal he had set.
After that… they would no longer have to divide him alone.
‘I wonder whether Lady Jin Seol will even agree to meet.’
Recalling Jin Seol’s endlessly cold and icy gaze, Bu Eunseol gave a wry smile.
She was not only immensely proud, but also carried deep self-reproach for the events of that day. Seeing him would surely bring those memories flooding back endlessly, so she would not easily agree to meet.
But at that moment—
BOOM!
A sudden explosion rang out as Bu Eunseol, who had been traversing through midair, plummeted straight to the ground.
An indescribably enormous force had completely blocked the very space through which he was flying.
Swish—thud.
Landing gracefully with exquisite footwork, Bu Eunseol looked up at the distant sky, eyes flashing.
‘This is…’
The once-clear sky had become hazy, and from somewhere the wail of ghosts echoed.
Rumble rumble.
At the same time, thick pillars began shooting up from the earth toward the heavens.
‘The Three Realms?’
Those colossal pillars.
Weren’t they the same kind created when the Heavenly Deity once unfolded that bizarre formation?
‘Have my movements been exposed?’
Bu Eunseol could not comprehend it.
Even the Demon Emperor could no longer easily track his movements or location.
So how could the Three Realms suddenly pinpoint his path?
‘…So that’s it.’
After pondering quietly, Bu Eunseol soon realized the reason.
Baek Museong.
He had long ago thrown himself into the Three Realms, and they had met recently amid the ruins of the Saha Manor. That alone would have been enough for him to deduce that Bu Eunseol would soon return to Majeon.
With the Three Realms’ intelligence network and military strength, predicting the return route and launching an ambush would be entirely possible.
Shuuuuuu.
Meanwhile, black mist began rising from the ground all around him.
It was a movement technique that combined not only profound footwork but also mysterious sorcery.
Sssss.
Finally the mist transformed into liquid form, coalescing into the shapes of black-robed assassins.
Their number reached fully a thousand.
A force capable of instantly annihilating most sects.
“The Three Realms, is it.”
At Bu Eunseol’s question, the lead assassin drew a black sword from his back.
It was coated in such vicious poison that even from over thirty feet away its foul stench could be smelled.
“Martial Soul Command Lord, Bu Eunseol.”
The assassin lowered his stance and spoke coldly.
“You die here today.”
Since they showed no intention of even revealing their affiliation, further conversation was meaningless.
Sssss.
The assassins once again melted into liquid and flowed downward.
At the same time, black curtains rose from above, below, left, right—every direction.
‘An unusual martial art.’
Bu Eunseol instinctively realized this was not sorcery, but pure martial learning.
Though they appeared as liquid and a black sky, in reality they were an assassination art created through extremely high-level martial principles.
Srrrr.
Before long, sharp formless swords and transparent assassination fists poured toward Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
Their ultimate technique drew the opponent into darkness, blending illusion and reality within it, concealing every form and principle of movement—an advanced killing method of the highest order.
Flash.
Moreover, they continuously created illusions using phosphorus powder, blatantly disrupting Bu Eunseol’s senses.
The formless assault unleashed by a thousand terrifying killers.
It resembled the fury of mother nature itself—something no martial art should be able to block.
Yet Bu Eunseol felt only absurdity.
‘Knowing who I am, and still using these kinds of techniques.’
As the successor of Nangyang Pavilion, he was renowned as a grand master of martial learning who specialized in dismantling the weaknesses of sects across the world.
Moreover, since it became known among the abyss forces that he had defeated Spear-Wielder, even if he had not yet broken through the Supreme Heavenly Realm, they should have guessed he had mastered techniques to counter Infinite Reversal Power.
Yet they dared to attack him so blatantly with profound martial techniques?
‘There’s something more.’
Originally Bu Eunseol had planned to instantly spread poison and reduce them all to a handful of bloody water.
He found even dealing with them annoying.
But seeing them employ such intricate killing arts, he changed his mind.
The martial learning of Nangyang Pavilion represented the pinnacle of the world’s assassination sects.
For them to use such authentic killing methods against him so brazenly was an intolerable provocation.
“You dare employ orthodox killing arts against this Command Lord?”
In truth, if he used Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, he could counter these attacks with his eyes closed.
The all-embracing Wind-Cloud Divine Qi could capture even the faintest breath of wind, and could even detect forces as mysterious as an Absolute Boundary. Catching formless swords and assassination fists that concealed their moves through martial principles would be child’s play.
Yet instead of Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, Bu Eunseol raised the Beast Way.
BANG!
The moment he explosively drew up the inner energy circulating within his body, a powerful wave of true qi burst outward from him.
Rumble rumble rumble.
The ground vibrated deeply as razor-sharp waves spread outward in concentric circles, whipping up a gale.
Within that gale and wave was embedded the super-sensory Beast Way that Bu Eunseol had honed countless times.
Clang! Clang clang clang!
Having captured every invisible killing move with the Beast Way, he unraveled them one by one in the style of “no form surpasses having form.”
This was possible because his swordsmanship had reached such an exalted level, but above all, it was to show just how insignificant and pathetic their clumsy provocation truly was.
Drip. Drip drip drip.
Sure enough, when he blocked their Black Night Phantom Lantern Killing Method—an assassination art comparable to the Dark Spring Ghost Gate’s techniques of extreme killing secrecy—with an expression of boredom, they halted the dark killing technique and reappeared.
“Truly impressive.”
The lead assassin nodded.
“It may indeed be possible that you have entered the Limitless Realm.”
The reason they had unfolded such a killing art was not to kill Bu Eunseol instantly, but to gauge the level of martial prowess he had achieved.
“But now you die.”
And yet they still boldly declared that they could kill him.
Sssss.
They melted into black liquid once more. And then completely vanished.
At the same time—
Sssssssshhh.
The blackened sky slowly began to pour downward.
It was not poison or qigong—it was the fused, melted flesh of a thousand martial artists turned into a living weapon.
Drip drip drip drip.
Countless strands of life-force-laden liquid, linked like a neural network with shared consciousness, enveloped Bu Eunseol.
Slash! Shwa-la-la-la!
Bu Eunseol immediately unfolded the Supreme Heavenly Flow in a single mass, cutting through the pouring liquid.
But it was futile.
It was akin to being devoured by nothingness—formless yet slowly swallowing both his mind and body.
‘Sacrificing the life-force of a thousand killers to turn martial learning into non-learning.’
They had offered up a thousand assassins to reduce Bu Eunseol’s martial arts to zero.
‘I was too complacent.’
If the Three Realms were truly serious, he should have prepared countermeasures.
He had become so proud of and immersed in his martial learning that he failed to properly utilize the power he actually possessed.
Flash!
In a single breath Bu Eunseol attempted to harmonize his forces.
But because the alignment was imperfect, that power vanished helplessly into the black liquid.
Sssss.
In the end, the black liquid pouring from the sky swallowed Bu Eunseol whole.
Breathing stopped, internal qi and blood disappeared, even gravity vanished.
Float… float…
Bu Eunseol drifted inside the black liquid as though submerged in water.
Such a situation was despair itself—the ultimate nothingness that forced one to give up everything.
Swish! Shu-shu-shuk!
Whenever Bu Eunseol attempted any counterattack, thousands of hands rising from the liquid tore at his meridians.
From the torn places, instead of blood, darkness flowed out, blooming into pitch-black flower buds.
Perfect death.
Bu Eunseol had fallen into perfect death.
—Grandfather, aren’t you afraid of death?
In his childhood, Bu Eunseol had asked his grandfather—who silently cleaned corpses in the darkness.
To a child, darkness and death were the greatest terrors imaginable.
He had simply been curious how his grandfather could endure them so quietly.
—Of course Grandfather is afraid too. But fortunately, I was able to overcome it.
—How?
Bu Zhanyang looked at Bu Eunseol and said,
—This old man has faced countless deaths and wiped away their traces. In doing so, I came to realize one hidden truth.
—What is it?
—It is the ‘boundary.’
Bu Zhanyang gazed at Bu Eunseol with a faint smile.
—I realized that the ‘boundary’ separating life and death is ultimately nothing more than a concept created by humans. And from the moment I understood that… nothing frightened me anymore.
—The boundary?
Bu Zhanyang quietly nodded.
—Life and death complete each other.
—Because there is death, life gains meaning.
—Because there was life, death too can have meaning.
When Bu Eunseol scratched his head and blinked, Bu Zhanyang gave a calm laugh.
—When your hair turns as white as this old man’s, Seol-ah, you will understand. That life and death are not opposites… but one complete cycle.
At the time, Bu Eunseol found those words far too difficult and could not understand them.
But now, melting into death through the grotesque killing art of the assassins, he faintly began to grasp their meaning.
And as that realization pierced his mind, one technique mnemonic rose up.
—Seven Blood Tear Forms, Sixth Form: Death Without Regret. Even in death, no grudge remains…
But had his grandfather truly been without regret? Was that why he created such a form?
No, that couldn’t be.
‘Rather, he was left with deep, lingering attachments to life.’
By overcoming death again and again, one inevitably grows attached to life and by directly touching and severing death… he must have finally realized.
Life and death are not in opposition—they are one cycle.
Life and death are merely perfect pieces that complete each other across the boundary.
Crackle crackle crackle.
From within the endless death into which he had sunk, black sword-light began rising from Bu Eunseol’s body.
The defensive form of the Seven Blood Tear Forms—Strong Energy Infinite—had manifested spontaneously.
At the same time, the sword-light enveloping his body was no longer the Silent Tiger Soul Sword… it coalesced in both his hands.
The Seven Blood Tear Forms, Sixth Form: Death Without Regret… was not a blade technique, but a hand-blade dao art.
Sssssssshhh.
The dao-light in both his hands gradually grew enormous—large enough to cleave the very sky.
Shrrrrrr.
Yet before he could even unfold the dao technique, the liquid that had wrapped his body suddenly began forcing its way into his mouth, ears, and nose.
‘So they were waiting for this.’
From the very beginning the assassins had anticipated that—even while losing all strength inside this mysterious liquid, even while dying in despair… he would never lose consciousness completely, and would instead unleash Infinite Reversal Power or equivalent force to annihilate them.
And the moment he exerted that power, they would invade his internal body and detonate from within.
It was a perfect death trap that no master could possibly predict.
Ziiing. Ziiing.
Once every drop of liquid had penetrated Bu Eunseol’s body, all the power within him vanished, and his flesh began flickering like a dying star.
Now only the explosion of his body remained.
Twitch.
But at that moment, from deep within his dantian, a strange power stirred.
‘This is…’
It was the Sealed Demon Fragment he had once absorbed from the Ghost King.
At that time, because he had not processed it with the Seven Blood Tear Forms, the Sealed Demon Fragment had been absorbed into his body without causing any effect. But now, as the liquid invaded his body, the Sealed Demon Fragment began reacting as though it were true qi.
‘In that case.’
From Bu Eunseol’s liquid-corroded body, a ferocious current of energy began surging upward.
Though all other power had vanished, the Sealed Demon Fragment remained like true qi.
And with this power… he was about to unleash a terrifying form of the Seven Blood Tear Forms—one capable of even severing the power of the Baekri family.
***
‘In the end he fell for the Invasive Body Grinding Annihilation technique.’
Baek Museong, who had been secretly hiding within the Dead Soul Strangulation Array created by the Black Night Corps, wore a smile.
This Black Night Corps was a unit the Three Realms had cultivated specifically to kill absolute masters of the martial world, created on the very condition of sacrificing the lives of a thousand assassins.
All to make Baek Museong the Alliance Leader.
To eliminate Baekri Mujo, who could become an obstacle.
Yet Baek Museong had instead activated the Black Night Command against a completely different person.
As a result, the Martial Soul Command Lord—who was said to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the current supreme experts of martial world—had finally been brought to death.
‘Surely he was worth at least that much.’
Baekri Mujo was someone he could kill with his own power anytime.
But this Martial Soul Command Lord—who for some unknown reason touched his soul without cause—instinctively gave him the feeling that he could not be killed personally, and so he had unhesitatingly activated the Black Night Command.
Since merging his personalities, his intuition had never once been wrong.
‘He was someone who needed to be dealt with anyway.’
Not only was he opposing the Three Realms, he was also the next master of Majeon.
In the future he would become a major obstacle to both the Martial Alliance and Baek Museong’s own plans.
Thus, even using the Black Night Corps on him would not invite too much questioning.
‘After killing that bastard, next I must reclaim her.’
He could no longer trust the Three Realms.
Starting with activating this Black Night Corps, he would now begin carrying out every plan he had prepared, one by one.
Shuk!
At that moment, Bu Eunseol’s body—caught in the Invasive Body Grinding Annihilation—began swelling like a giant balloon.
And just as his body was about to burst,
—KIIIIIIIEEEE!
A world-rending ghostly wail echoed outward.
Suddenly, a single streak of black radiance shot up from Bu Eunseol’s Baihui acupoint.
FLASH! Sssssss!
The radiance soared all the way to the edge of the sky, and instantly evaporated every drop of black liquid that had been absorbed into his body.
The power—which even Infinite Reversal Power could never erase—had vanished in an instant.
Crackle crackle crackle.
At the same time, the shadow emitting the black radiance revealed itself.
Black energy surged from his entire body, and both eyes glowed a fierce, tiger-like yellow.
“Grrrrrrrr.”
Bu Eunseol was roaring.
Baring his fangs, his body trembling as though he would destroy the entire world, he unleashed a savage laugh.
‘T-That appearance, that Seven Blood Tear Forms is…’
Clack clack clack.
Baek Museong’s teeth chattered uncontrollably at the sight.
An absolute existence that must never be revealed to the world had reappeared.
‘Bu Eunseol… that man was him all along.’
Whoosh!
Baek Museong began fleeing with every ounce of strength he possessed.
Too terrified even to use movement techniques, he simply ran.
If he faced that being now, everything would turn to bubbles.
‘I must never meet him.’
He had not yet become the Martial Alliance Leader.
He had not yet obtained Gongsun Dankyung.
He had not yet completed his grand undertaking and fully seized their power.
Until then, the Martial Soul Command Lord—
No… the being wearing the shell of the Martial Soul Command Lord…
He must never, ever encounter that Realm Lord.
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