Suddenly, a single black rat darted forward swiftly and leaped onto her lap.
Zzzzt.
But as Jin Seol shrieked and thrashed in panic, it jumped back down to the floor, its reddish-brown eyes flashing as it scanned the surroundings.
Its sharp front teeth twitched, its nose quivering nonstop, and a foul, rotten stench emanated from its matted fur.
Moreover, as if it had taken a liking to Jin Seol, instead of fleeing, it began circling around her feet.
“Kyaaah!”
As the rat scurried near her legs, Jin Seol let out a piercing scream unlike any she had ever made before.
Considering her usual composure in any situation, this reaction was one of sheer terror, on the verge of fainting.
“Why would you pull such a prank?”
Jin Seol exploded at Bu Eunseol in fury.
Having learned martial arts herself, even if she had not noticed the rat in advance, she should at least have sensed it approaching her feet.
Yet she had detected no presence whatsoever.
Only then did she realize that Bu Eunseol had spread a wave of true qi to mask its approach.
To be precise, Bu Eunseol had used his internal energy to place the rat there.
“Are you trying to mock me?”
“I am not mocking you.”
“What?”
“Do you truly believe you lived the life of a vagrant?”
Bu Eunseol spoke with utmost seriousness.
“If you had really lived as a beggar, how could you possibly be so terrified of a rat?”
The life of a wandering beggar is not merely begging for food.
It would not be an exaggeration to say it is a life of seeing unwanted things every day and eating unwanted things every day.
Especially in vagrant slums, rats were one of the most common animals one could encounter even while sleeping. So how could she scream in such utter horror?
“Command Lord.”
Jin Seol displayed anger she had never shown before.
“Are you testing me right now?”
“Did you not say you lived in a farming household until the age of seven?”
Rats are the most common sight in the storehouses of farming families.
For the child of farmers?
It would be impossible for someone like Jin Seol to shriek in terror at the sight of a rat.
“Surely you do not think that from the moment I was born, my fate was written as a vagrant?”
“Was it not like that back then?”
“Of course not!”
Jin Seol protested with an incredulous expression.
“After entering Majeon, I grew up in a clean environment and was taught how to behave with grace and dignity. Naturally I would come to fear rats, would I not?”
“That is not so.”
Bu Eunseol shook his head.
“Human fears are largely formed by experiences in childhood. Fears learned during that time do not easily change even after one becomes an adult.”
Then, with a resolute expression, he continued.
“It would not be an overstatement to say that Lady Jin’s childhood was spent living alongside rats. So how could a fear of rats possibly develop?”
“Such things are not determined solely by childhood environment. There are variables like later experiences, education, and changes in surroundings.”
“That is also true.”
Bu Eunseol shook his head again.
“But I am convinced that the fear Lady Jin displayed just now is not merely the result of acquired learning or environmental influence.”
And he declared once more.
“The gestures and reactions Lady Jin showed were utterly instinctive.”
The first reason Bu Eunseol could be so certain was his grandfather’s teachings.
For the young Bu Eunseol, who feared the dark and suffered nightmares every night, Bu Zhanyang had taught him breathing techniques through corpse-playing games and even secret methods to suppress reflexive physiological responses.
—I don’t want to learn.
—Why not?
—Because when I grow up, it will all be fixed.
At the resentful young Bu Eunseol’s question, Bu Zhanyang stroked his head with a dry hand and said,
—Childhood experiences leave deep traces in the mind. Even as one grows older, changes environment, and becomes an adult… those traces do not easily disappear.
There was a faint loneliness in Bu Zhanyang’s eyes as he continued.
—If they are not corrected right now… those traces will never vanish, even when you become an adult.
‘Moreover, her stimulated response was…’
The second reason was her biological reaction.
From some point onward, Bu Eunseol had become capable of reading others’ physiological responses as keenly as the Demon Emperor himself.
The reaction Jin Seol had shown just now was the bodily response of someone who, like royalty, had never encountered a single rat in her entire life.
“What the Command Lord is trying to say is…”
As Bu Eunseol emerged from his recollection, Jin Seol spoke.
“…that in the end, my memories have been tampered with?”
“I cannot be certain of that. However.”
Bu Eunseol spoke firmly.
“The reaction Lady Jin displayed just now is absolutely not that of someone who lived as a vagrant in childhood.”
In other words, the probability that her memories had been distorted was extremely high.
The third reason he could be so certain was that he himself had had his memories sealed by his father.
Thus, when trying to recall inaccurate memories, one could only speak in extremely fragmented stories, just like Jin Seol.
“I believe that instinctive reactions are more truthful than memories.”
Jin Seol fell silent.
Because she had begun to think that perhaps Bu Eunseol’s words might be true.
“If I was born into nobility and my memories were tampered with…”
Jin Seol spoke with a face full of stillness.
“…then there is a chance I could be that martial artist’s child?”
“That I cannot know. She was separated at far too young an age, so physical traits cannot be confirmed, and moreover her mind is no longer sound. However…”
Bu Eunseol cleared his throat.
“If they truly are parent and child, I thought perhaps something would connect even at first meeting.”
“…”
“If you ever wish to meet her, please tell me.”
Bu Eunseol spoke with utmost care.
“Whenever Lady Jin feels comfortable. At any time.”
Jin Seol wore a dazed expression.
If her memories had truly been tampered with, then the only person capable of such a thing was the Demon Emperor.
If that were the case… her entire life of revering and following him like a father would collapse into bubbles.
Knowing this well, Bu Eunseol had placed Jin Seol’s feelings and choice first, carefully asking for her wishes.
“Thank you.”
Feeling his considerate care, Jin Seol gave a polite bow.
“For considering my feelings.”
“It is nothing special. It is only natural.”
The Snowflower Enchanting Swallow had her own life, and Jin Seol had hers.
Even if they truly are parent and child, if even one of them does not wish to meet… no one can force the encounter.
“I will think it over for a few days and let the Command Lord know.”
“Do so.”
With a weak bow, Jin Seol left the teahouse with clouded eyes.
Her deliberation did not last as long as expected.
A few days later, Bu Eunseol received a single letter from Jin Seol.
“Even if she is my birth mother, I do not wish to see her now.”
When he unfolded the letter, he saw neatly written words.
It was a personal missive from Jin Seol.
“Until now, I have lived believing that everything I knew was the truth.”
Bu Eunseol could fully empathize with her heart.
Because even if he might be Baekri Geomha, he still refused to acknowledge that period.
That time had been far too brief.
He was still Bu Eunseol.
Even if one day he came to be called Baekri Geomha.
“You probably thought that the reason the Demon Emperor took me as his adopted daughter must be closely tied to that faction that upholds the laws.”
Jin Seol had correctly guessed Bu Eunseol’s intentions.
“But there was nothing of the sort.
The Demon Emperor never once demanded anything of me, nor expected anything.
He merely said he would pair me with the foremost man in the demonic path. However…”
There was hesitation in the handwriting Jin Seol had penned.
“I realized there is a possibility my memories were tampered with, just as the Command Lord said.”
Unlike merely recalling memories, speaking them aloud made it truly feel as though she were recounting someone else’s experiences.
After hearing Bu Eunseol’s words, Jin Seol had carefully reconsidered the memories of her childhood, and in the process of voicing them, she seemed to have sensed that a considerable portion might have been fabricated.
While memories can be altered, bodily reactions engraved into the flesh cannot.
“But if that was… something the Demon Emperor intended, then I believe there must have been sufficient reason.”
Jin Seol felt immense gratitude toward the Demon Emperor who had raised her.
Because he had embraced her without any conditions.
Even if her memories had been tampered with, rather than resenting him, she believed there must surely have been a reason.
“I plan to leave Majeon for a while to rest. Please take care of yourself in the meantime.”
Even so, confusion was inevitable.
In the end, she had decided to temporarily leave Majeon.
“And if I go to this place, perhaps I might find some clue.”
Since it was the place where the Demon Emperor had brought her, it might hold some meaning.
At the end of the letter was written the location of a remote mountain village called Hogachon, situated on the border between Jiangsu and Zhejiang.
‘She has already left Majeon.’
Bu Eunseol felt a heavy heart.
Jin Seol, who had been quietly recovering in Majeon, seemed to have left because of him unnecessarily.
“No. She too is trying to face the truth.”
Jin Seol would have needed time to sort out her confusion.
Facing the truth requires great courage.
Someday she would return.
“I will go to Hogachon.”
For now, Bu Eunseol decided to visit the Hogachon that Jin Seol had mentioned.
***
Hogachon had once been quite a prosperous village.
But more than twenty years ago a great plague swept through, and from then on it became an uninhabited ghost village.
“As expected, the timing does not match.”
As Bu Eunseol surveyed Hogachon, he shook his head.
From the time Jin Seol met the Demon Emperor here, Hogachon had already been a ghost village.
In other words, the claim that vagrant Jin Seol had lived alone in an empty ghost village before meeting the Demon Emperor was something that could never have happened.
“Could she simply be misremembering?”
There was a high probability that Jin Seol’s memories had been tampered with or sealed by the Demon Emperor.
Thus it was also possible she was misremembering the place where she met him.
‘No, that cannot be.’
It would be better if it were merely her memory.
The one who had told Jin Seol about this Hogachon was none other than the Demon Emperor himself.
She had mentioned it at the end of her letter.
‘Why would the Demon Emperor deliberately point out a place he kept secret? Why direct her to such a ghost village?’
Silently examining the village, Bu Eunseol noticed one strange thing.
An uninhabited ghost village typically becomes a stronghold for animals.
Even if not, there should at least be traces of birds’ nests, beehives, or rats scurrying about.
Yet there was absolutely no trace whatsoever.
In the end, someone had deliberately created this ghost village.
Even though it had already become a ghost village twenty years ago, why had no animals invaded?
“Fragrant poison.”
After investigating for a while, Bu Eunseol belatedly noticed the fishy scent entering his nose.
It was a smell as though the excrement of tens of thousands of rats had been left to ferment for ten years and then gathered in one place.
By the time he realized it was poison, an insidious, vicious fragrant poison had already been secretly installed everywhere—enough to kill through gradual poisoning.
“In this state, not even an ant could survive.”
To go so far as to scatter such extreme fragrant poison in an already uninhabited ghost village, ensuring even beasts would not approach?
What exactly had been done here?
Ziiiing.
Bu Eunseol raised the Void Heart Command to examine the traces of this place.
Yet still, not even the trace of a single ant passing by could be found.
Even though Void Heart Command could detect traces from decades ago.
“In that case.”
A strange thought flashed through his mind.
Could it be that a space completely severed from the world existed here?
Something like the Absolute Boundary that the Three Realms frequently used.
Whoooosh.
As Bu Eunseol raised the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, a gale raged in all directions.
‘There is something.’
From the center of this ghost village, he faintly sensed something.
It felt like… an entrance to a space blocked off by an Absolute Boundary.
‘Then there is no choice but to use the Three Divine Energies.’
To break something like an Absolute Boundary, the only way is to unify the three divine energies and then shatter it.
But this method was akin to gambling.
Until now, perfect unification of the Three Divine Energies had been impossible.
In moments of crisis he had forcibly drawn them out, and each time he had survived thanks to the fortunate fact that the energy had stagnated in his Outer Pass acupoint.
If he relied merely on vague luck, he could suffer severe damage to his spirit or internal injuries.
“I will pierce through.”
Bu Eunseol tried to raise the Three Divine Energies.
Yet he felt a strange sensation.
“The Demon Emperor is not merely strong in martial arts…”
And he realized one terrifying fact.
“He is a person who can pierce through others’ minds and even predict their actions.”
If he had hidden something here?
If one tried to detect it, pierce it, or break it, he would never create an entrance mechanism that could be entered through such a simple process.
He was the type who pierced the weaknesses of the mind or manipulated the grand scheme through unforeseen situations.
“Let me examine it once more, carefully.”
Closing his eyes, Bu Eunseol calmly raised the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi.
At the same time, he spread his super-senses and Void Heart Command.
Then he could faintly sense the structure of what had been blocked.
“If I pierce it, the whole thing will collapse instead.”
Finally grasping the Demon Emperor’s trap, Bu Eunseol felt a chill in his chest.
If he were to break through what he thought was the entrance?
It had been deliberately set up so that doing so would cause perfect collapse, making entry impossible.
“Amazing.”
It was a trap that left one speechless in admiration.
If one opened the only door that allowed entry?
The entry path itself would collapse, preventing anyone from ever going inside.
—A door that closes completely the moment someone tries to open it.
Even if the Demon Emperor were the wisest sage with the greatest intellect, he had created a trap that struck at the unguarded flank in a way no one could predict.
“A door that closes the moment it is opened.”
Even knowing the trap, solving this paradox was not easy.
Bu Eunseol pondered for a long time, racking his brain to resolve the contradiction.
“The Demon Emperor…”
He recalled the Demon Emperor’s ordinary old man’s face.
That ordinary face concealed an utterly grotesque and malevolent underside, along with the wisdom of a sage who saw through everything.
“He would possess the power to enter even knowing such conditions.”
Because he was the foremost figure of the demonic path.
And with such conditions alone, he would have been confident of blocking any outsider’s intrusion.
“But I too can do it.”
In terms of pure martial arts, he was of course no match for the Demon Emperor.
However, in terms of mixing various powers, even the Demon Emperor could not surpass Bu Eunseol.
“Because I possess the power of the Wind God.”
Sssssshhh.
As he unleashed the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi to its fullest, his body gradually became transparent.
When the most profound among the Four Divine Energies—the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi—was raised to its limit, for an instant one perfectly merged with nature.
And in that moment, one’s body became capable of passing through even the tiniest gap in a single breath.
Shuk.
Finally, Bu Eunseol’s body form turned completely transparent.
The ordinary flesh-and-blood body had become the Wind God itself.
Sssss.
Transformed into the form of the Wind God, Bu Eunseol passed through what was presumed to be the door.
And as expected, the entrance did not collapse.
Carefully stepping inside, he soon discovered an exit leading outward.
Yet even with the exit right before him, he could not take more than a few steps before stopping.
Because an utterly unexpected sight had appeared.
“Saha Manor.”
Incredibly, this place was a manor built in perfect replica of the Saha Manor he had seen in his dreams?
“Impossible.”
The real Saha Manor was thousands of li away from here.
As proof of the bloodbath that had occurred, it had been reduced to complete ruins.
Yet this place was maintained in an almost brand-new state, as though freshly constructed.
“The timing is different.”
Raising Void Heart Command and carefully observing the interior of the manor, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
If the real Saha Manor had been built about thirty years ago, then this place had likely been constructed about twenty-five years ago.
That meant someone knew the internal and external structure of Saha Manor perfectly and had later recreated it exactly.
“Impossible.”
As though entranced, Bu Eunseol examined the interior of the manor.
He saw an enormous library stacked with bookshelves, and he also found what appeared to be his own quarters from the dreams.
“How…”
He clutched his hair.
Replicating the exterior of such a large manor might perhaps be possible but to perfectly recreate the internal structure and furnishings was close to impossible.
In a manor of this size, each servant had designated spaces.
To recreate everything—from the interior of personal quarters to the warehouse and kitchen—perfectly, the master of the manor would have had to personally verify and build it, or else suborn every single servant within the manor.
“Could the Demon Emperor have secretly infiltrated the manor to spy?”
Soon Bu Eunseol shook his head.
If this were an ordinary manor?
With the Demon Emperor’s abilities, he could dominate all the servants’ minds or slip inside like a ghost to observe.
But the abilities of Baekri Muha, descendant of the Baekri family, were perhaps equal to—or even greater than—the current Demon Emperor.
There was absolutely no way he would allow the Demon Emperor to dominate the servants’ minds or roam the manor at will.
If not that, then?
“…he was permitted by my father and allowed to freely wander the interior of the manor.”
Bu Eunseol felt dizzy.
If that were true?
Then the Demon Emperor and Baekri Muha would have to have known each other.
But Baekri Muha was known only as a righteous faction figure, with no known connection to the Demon Emperor.
“Could there have been some secret friendship?”
That too was impossible.
The Demon Emperor was a great demon whose joys, sorrows, anger, and pleasure could not be fathomed.
If Baekri Muha and the Demon Emperor had built a deep bond transcending righteous and demonic paths?
Then either Baekri Muha was secretly an evil figure contrary to what was known, or the Demon Emperor was not truly of the demonic path but a gentle person—something utterly absurd would have to have occurred.
“In the end, one thing is certain.”
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
“The Demon Emperor thoroughly understood the interior of Saha Manor and replicated it.”
Then he shot fierce light from both eyes.
“Perhaps this was a virtual training ground or simulated scenario prepared for attacking the manor.”
Bu Eunseol clenched his fist tightly.
“In the end, even Pavilion Lord Ak Muryeong was mistaken.”
Human Demon Ak Muryeong had claimed that the Demon Emperor had learned of the blood calamity in Saha Manor belatedly and pursued a surviving child from there.
But the existence of this manor provided clear evidence that the Demon Emperor had been deeply involved in the Saha Manor blood calamity from the very beginning.
“Moreover, this entrance…”
The Absolute Boundary the Demon Emperor had created to conceal this manor was a completely new technique unlike any Absolute Boundary he had encountered before.
It was structured so that only someone who had mastered the pinnacle of natural dao—or someone like Bu Eunseol who possessed the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi—could enter by perfectly merging with nature.
‘This is impossible.’
Bu Eunseol’s eyes widened.
No matter how supreme the Demon Emperor’s martial arts were, he was unmistakably a grand master of the demonic path.
He would have no reason to pursue natural dao, nor could he create such a trap.
Even if he tried… creating it in the first place would be impossible.
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