Bu Eunseol wore a triumphant smile.
"I’ve faced the Hundred and Eight Stars countless times before."
"Hundred and Eight Stars?"
Hwa Mugi frowned.
"What nonsense are you spouting?"
He was about to continue speaking when he suddenly froze.
Only then did he sense that the forces swirling inside his body were not a single power, but a collection of many different forces mixed together.
"Is this the power of the Limitless Heaven and the Absolute Cloud Blade… the power of the Heavenly-Mandate Star?"
It was confusing.
In truth, he had only encountered the concept of a power that defies fate through ancient texts. Since he had never possessed it himself, he could not clearly define what the Heavenly-Mandate Star's power truly was.
Swish!
At that moment, a flash of light erupted.
Bu Eunseol, who had widened the distance, shot out a sharp sword qi.
"Hmph."
Hwa Mugi flashed his eyes as if it were laughable.
But the power that had once allowed him to create anything just by thinking about it had already shrunk to a mere fraction. Now, to exert that power, he had to stretch out his hand or perform leg movements. Otherwise, he had to consciously recognize in his mind how to unfold the power before it would be released.
It was as if the ability to deploy power with mere thought had vanished.
Boom!
At that moment, Bu Eunseol leaped all the way to the ceiling of the grand hall in an instant and fired off massive cross-shaped sword qi in succession.
He had infused the principles of countless martial arts into the Waning Moon, Daw Star Form.
Chiiik!
Hwa Mugi instantly created a blue wall and extinguished the sword qi midway.
Yet the very ability that had allowed him to create that blue wall was slowly disappearing.
"How is this possible?"
Hwa Mugi had no time to be shocked.
Shaaak! Papapapapa!
In the meantime, Bu Eunseol unleashed the Thirteen Iron Sword Forms once again.
Some strikes were fast, some were fierce.
Some carried profound, mysterious principles, while others were endlessly slow.
Whoooosh.
The moment the thirteen sword forms were about to reach Hwa Mugi's body, they merged into one massive, unified force.
Bu Eunseol had already analyzed the origin of Hwa Mugi's power.
"It is the one-time-use power of the Hundred and Eight Stars."
The power Yeop Hyocheon used was none other than the Hundred and Eight Stars power injected from an external source.
And every time that power was used, it was gradually disappearing.
Having realized this, Bu Eunseol was deliberately pouring out fierce sword strikes to exhaust all of that power.
Boom! Boooom!
As Hwa Mugi continued to block the endlessly pouring sword energy,
"This…"
Hwa Mugi's complexion turned extremely pale.
Every time he countered Bu Eunseol's sword strikes, the forces swirling inside his body were constantly leaking out as if through a hole.
Hwa Mugi, who had briefly paused his attack, gritted his teeth.
"Even so, I cannot use my true vacuum arts."
That demonic bastard was extremely knowledgeable in the principles of martial arts.
If he used his genuine martial arts even once, the man would instantly see through not only his martial origin but also his true identity.
Swish swish swish swish!
Before long, Bu Eunseol's sword technique grew even faster, now covering the entire grand hall.
Knowing that Hwa Mugi possessed the Hundred and Eight Stars’ power but could not unleash them all at once, he deliberately poured out sword energy without pause so that Hwa Mugi could not counterattack.
Crack.
Hwa Mugi clenched his fist tightly.
If he stayed still like this, his head would soon be severed.
"Fine."
Even if he unleashed the Black Shadow Dark Emperor's martial arts to their limit, he could not defeat that brat.
In that case, he would use the power he had hidden until now to suppress him by force, then absorb the Heavenly-Mandate Star's power once more.
"In this place, the pursuers won"t be able to follow immediately."
In truth, no matter what martial arts one had learned or what level of prowess one had reached, he possessed a mysterious power that could subdue anyone in a single breath.
It was the secret art of the Sacred Domain.
A power that not only read the changes of heaven and earth and nature, but could directly intervene in another person's body and soul.
He had mastered an ancient secret technique.
The reason he had refrained from using this power was that the experts of the Sacred Domain would sense it and immediately send pursuers after him.
However, this location was deep inside the secret mechanisms of a hidden canyon outside the Central Plains, so he should be able to buy some time.
"The flow of energy between heaven, earth, and nature is connected to the flow of energy within the human body."
Ziiiing.
A transparent energy spread throughout Hwa Mugi's entire body.
And that energy soon connected secretly to Bu Eunseol's body.
It was the Sacred Domain's secret art, Sealing Final Veins, which allowed him to perfectly predict the enemy's movements and launch preemptive attacks with near-prophetic power.
Flash!
In the meantime, Bu Eunseol poured out sharp sword forms.
Thud!
Hwa Mugi, as if he had been waiting, instead leaped into the range of the sword stance.
Ziiiing.
At the same time, using the power of Sealing Final Veins, he manipulated the energy inside Bu Eunseol's body and immediately redirected the pouring sword qi back at him.
It was an unavoidable counterattack.
Fwoosh fwoosh fwoosh!
However, something unexpected happened.
The sword qi seemed to fly back, but suddenly it became as thin and sharp as needles and poured down toward his own body instead.
Whirrr!
Hwa Mugi spun his body with all his might to evade the sword qi.
But because he had confidently counterattacked at such close range, he could not avoid it completely.
The sharp sword qi scraped across his entire body.
‘How?’ Hwa Mugi's eyes widened. ‘Is his internal energy too high, so his body cannot be properly controlled?’
Thud.
He widened the distance once more and drew upon a new secret art.
Transparent energy rose from the ground and once again enveloped Bu Eunseol's body.
"Then I shall destroy your soul."
A pure white light flowed from Hwa Mugi's pupils.
He had unleashed the soul-manipulating sorcery, Soul and Spirit Imprint, which shook the mind and emotions to control the soul.
Ziiiing.
Instantly, Bu Eunseol's eyes, which had been pouring out terrifyingly powerful sword forms, suddenly turned pure white.
Once the power of the Soul and Spirit Imprint penetrated, no matter how thick the soul's defenses were—even if one had reached the realm of spiritual enlightenment—one's heart and soul could be dominated immediately.
Because all martial artists had learned heart methods to cultivate internal energy.
"If you have learned an internal energy heart method, you cannot avoid it." Hwa Mugi inwardly let out a sinister laugh.
Simply put, internal energy heart methods were ways to control the mind, nurture and circulate true qi, and harmonize the body and mind into one. And this training process inevitably created gaps in the soul. The Soul and Spirit Imprint was a secret art that specifically targeted those gaps.
In other words, no martial artist who had learned internal energy could possibly block it.
“From now on, I will dismantle your body piece by piece and take that power back…”
Hwa Mugi was muttering leisurely when—
Fwaaaaaah!
A wave of blue cross-shaped sword qi surged right before his eyes.
Bu Eunseol, who had seemed to stop moving for a moment under the power of the Soul and Spirit Imprint, began unleashing his sword technique again as if nothing had happened.
"I can 't dodge this."
Hwa Mugi had been completely relaxed, confident that he had suppressed Bu Eunseol's soul.
Therefore, he had no time at all to block the sword qi pouring toward him.
Boom boom boom!
Suddenly, the sound of leather bursting rang out repeatedly, and Hwa Mugi's body was sent flying dozens of jang away, slamming into the stone wall.
Unable to block the sword qi, he had unleashed the ultimate move of the Unique Cloud Palm—Life Snake Emerging from the Forest—and struck Bu Eunseol's cross sword qi with his bare hands.
However, because of the massive gap in internal energy and the fact that he had used the palm technique in haste, he suffered great damage and was ultimately sent flying into the wall of the grand hall.
“Ptui.”
Hwa Mugi, who had fallen back to the floor, knelt on one knee and spat out a blood clot the size of a pebble.
The external wounds to his flesh were nothing serious.
But Bu Eunseol's terrifying internal energy had destroyed his protective true qi and shaken his meridians violently.
“How strange.”
Bu Eunseol, who had been looking down at him, tilted his head.
“The Black Shadow Dark Emperor Hwa Mugi is using the Unique Cloud Palm of the Iron Tyrant King Sa Gunak, who suddenly disappeared twenty years ago?”
“Why the hell are you-!”
Hwa Mugi started to shout but shut his mouth.
Why on earth were the secret arts of the Sacred Domain not working?
These secret arts had been created to control martial artists. No one should be able to block them…
Was that bastard a ghost?
"Even those who have made the covenant cannot resist them."
Even subordinates who had entered the covenant and were bound to the True Demon could not resist the Sacred Domain's secret arts.
So why did none of them work on that bastard?
“Looking at you, it seems certain that you're wearing someone else's shell.” At that moment, Bu Eunseol let out a chuckle and said, “Reveal your identity. Then I'll spare your life.”
Hwa Mugi's body trembled violently.
The mocking words "wearing someone else's shell" were a jab at his disguise, but from his perspective, they were not something he could simply laugh off.
Moreover, he had rampaged across the martial world, defeating countless strong experts and absorbing their power to dominate the world. He could not possibly endure such humiliation from a mere youngster.
“Fine.”
Hwa Mugi lowered his stance and drew up all the power in his body with everything he had.
Rumble.
The ground shook, and a power capable of splitting heaven and earth spread outward.
Boom!
At that instant, he struck the floor with a full-powered punch.
A strange radiance spread across the floor, and then—
Crack. Rumble rumble rumble.
Instead of the floor, cracks suddenly began to form on the ceiling of the grand hall, and massive boulders started falling.
Swish.
Bu Eunseol evaded the falling boulders with swift movement techniques and closed the distance once more, launching sword energy at Hwa Mugi.
However, at that moment, Hwa Mugi turned into tens of thousands of light particles and vanished in an instant.
Discarding all pride and self-respect, he chose to flee immediately instead of continuing to face Bu Eunseol.
Boom. Rumble rumble.
In the meantime, the underground grand hall was collapsing.
Thud. Swish. Thud.
Bu Eunseol used the falling giant boulders as stepping stones, leaping upward through the air.
The moment the open sky came into view,
Shuuk! Boooom!
He unleashed the Qi Riding Chongxiao technique with full force and shot out of the underground space in a single breath, landing on the surface.
Rumble rumble.
Meanwhile, the entire Hongsa Gorge began to collapse.
Ziiiing. Ziiiing.
Light began flowing from his body once again.
The moment he emerged from the canyon, a hot current of energy spread through his body…
The light pouring from the treasure that had held the orb had struck him, and all the power—including the Three Divine Energies that had been suppressed until now—was slowly returning.
Boom!
Feeling all his power returning, Bu Eunseol leaped into the sky once more.
"I must uncover his true identity."
Bu Eunseol, who had risen hundreds of jang high, began spreading the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi without limit.
He intended to pursue the fleeing Hwa Mugi.
The man knew not only about the Absolute Demonic Blade Project but also about his grandfather. He absolutely could not be allowed to escape.
Whoooosh.
The Wind-Cloud Divine Qi spread hundreds of jang outward, but he could not find any trace of Hwa Mugi.
It seemed that when he escaped the canyon, he had not used qinggong but rather some unique sorcery or supernatural power.
“Huu…”
Bu Eunseol landed back on the ground and examined his body once more.
The Three Divine Energies had returned to his body in an instant, and his internal energy had also returned to its normal level.
There was not a single bit of lost power.
Yet Hwa Mugi had clearly said he had stolen the power in his body through the orb.
And that power was something Bu Eunseol could not use in the first place.
Because…
“That was the power of the countless Boundary Prosperity Jades I absorbed in the Martial Venerable's secret vault back then.”
In the past, Bu Eunseol had suffered a fatal injury and learned, with the help of the Wood Buddha, that he could recover his body in the secret vault created by the Martial Venerable.
After countless hardships, he reached the mysterious stone chamber that seemed to contain the shape of the universe.
There, he finally recovered his lost power, but the light from the countless orbs embedded in that place had entered his body.
At the time, he had not known what the light from those orbs meant, but now he understood perfectly.
They were none other than the Boundary Prosperity Jades containing the power of the Hundred and Eight Stars.
“I am not one of the Hundred and Eight Stars, so I could not accept that power, and it remained latent inside my body.”
Bu Eunseol let out a hollow laugh.
Hwa Mugi had probably planned an elaborate scheme over a long period to absorb his power and had finally seized the opportunity to execute it.
However, what he had absorbed was merely the power of the Hundred and Eight Stars contained within the Boundary Prosperity Jades that Bu Eunseol had never fully accepted.
Unaware of this fact, Hwa Mugi had mistakenly believed he had absorbed every powerful force in the world, and every time he used one of the many Hundred and Eight Stars’ powers within the Boundary Prosperity Jades, he had fallen into ecstasy as if he had become a god.
But he soon realized the power was one-time-use and would be consumed with each use, so he immediately attempted to flee.
“If he is merely someone who tries to borrow another person's power, he must be a nobody even within Majeon.”
Yet questions remained.
Whether he was the real Hwa Mugi or someone else in disguise, he was definitely a person Bu Eunseol had never encountered even once in his life. His aura, presence, gaze, and body lines were all completely new.
Nevertheless, he knew a great deal about Bu Eunseol and possessed enough power and influence within Majeon to leave a short letter in the office of the Suppressed Demon Pavilion and disappear in a brief time.
'So he wasn’t the Chief Instructor after all.’
From the beginning, he had thought only the Chief Instructor Yeop Hyocheon could orchestrate something like this.
Of course, it was possible that Hwa Mugi had come on the orders of the Chief Instructor or the Demon Emperor.
"But Hwa Mugi tried to steal some kind of power from me."
If he had come on their orders, he would never have tried to take that power for himself.
Above all, the words he had shouted—”So this is his power”—kept bothering him.
If it had been Bu Eunseol's own power, he would never have used the expression "his power."
A demonic figure who had experienced the Absolute Demonic Blade Project together with his grandfather and knew him well had said such a thing?
In the end, what that man had been aiming for was not his power, but his grandfather's power.
"But what Grandfather passed down to me was not any kind of power."
What Grandfather had passed down were supreme martial arts such as the Muscle-Changing Sutra and the Heavenly Mirror Heart Sutra, which stood at the pinnacle of the martial world.
And the great wisdom and knowledge he had shared since Bu Eunseol was a child.
Yet Hwa Mugi had planned all of this as if there were some tremendous power inside his body.
“Or perhaps it was the work of the abyss forces lurking within Majeon.”
Ever since he had organized the Blood Heaven Order, Bu Eunseol had sensed that terrifying forces were hiding within Majeon.
It was possible this incident was related to them as well.
“It will be revealed soon enough.”
If he was a member of Majeon, he would eventually find out who he was, whether he wanted to or not.
“Still, my body feels strangely lighter.”
The power of the Boundary Prosperity Jades he had absorbed in the Martial Venerable's secret vault had actually been of no help to him at all. Now that it had completely disappeared, his body felt lighter, as if he had shed cumbersome clothing.
“Moreover…”
Bu Eunseol looked down at his palm.
A strange scar had formed in the center of his palm, probably from holding the half-sphere orb that had caused burning pain.
But the strange thing was that it felt as if some mysterious power was embedded in his palm.
"Could it be a remnant of the power absorbed by the Jades?"
Hwa Mugi had absorbed the power of the Hundred and Eight Stars that had remained latent in Bu Eunseol's body—something even Bu Eunseol himself had not been aware of.
Then perhaps this power in his palm was…
Maybe, during the process of absorbing them, a portion of the Hundred and Eight Stars’ power had remained with him.
“Hmm.”
Staring intently at his palm, Bu Eunseol closed his eyes for a moment and unfolded the Heavenly Mirror Heart Sutra.
Even so, he could not sense the origin of the power embedded in his palm.
“Then in the end, either the power of the Boundary Prosperity Jade that he absorbed has returned to my body with its attribute changed…”
His eyes sparkled as he muttered in a low voice.
“Or conversely, I absorbed something from his body.”
It was clearly one of the two.
During the process in which the orb absorbed the power, one of the latent Boundary Prosperity Jade powers inside his body had its attribute changed and remained in his body. Or, when Hwa Mugi absorbed the Hundred and Eight Stars' power flowing through his body, the Ban-Geuk Method—thanks to the fact that he had not lost his internal energy—had naturally exerted a powerful suction force to resist it, causing something to enter his body.
“It seems to be gradually being absorbed back into my body.”
That alien energy was slowly merging with his main true qi, starting from his palm.
“I do not want external power.”
Bu Eunseol raised his gong power to expel the energy seeping in from his palm back out of his body, but the more he tried to push it out, the faster it was absorbed into his body instead.
"Was this another trap set by Hwa Mugi?"
For a moment, Bu Eunseol recalled Hwa Mugi's sinister face beneath the mask, with its dark circles and cunning expression.
Slither.
Then a strange sensation arose.
A burning heat spread around his eyes, and suddenly a black wave radiated outward, tickling his temples and the space between his brows.
“What is this?”
Feeling the strangeness, Bu Eunseol drew the Silent Tiger Soul Sword and looked at his reflection on the blade.
“No way.”
Although he was the type who would not bat an eye at most things, this time he was so shocked that he nearly jumped.
He had not even used the Face and Bone Shifting Art.
He had simply felt the alien power inside his body and recalled Hwa Mugi's face.
Yet his face had changed to look exactly like Hwa Mugi's.
“How is this possible?”
Bu Eunseol touched his own face.
For a moment, he could only make an expression of disbelief.
“This is not a disguise—it has completely changed.”
The Face and Bone Shifting Art was a combination of internal energy and body control techniques. It involved adjusting fine facial muscles, stretching or wrinkling the skin, and controlling blood circulation to brighten or darken the complexion. But to change one's appearance so instantly without even using internal energy was utterly impossible.
“Then…”
This time, Bu Eunseol recalled the face of Won Semun.
A black wave spread out, and in an instant, his face changed into that of a rugged, fierce man.
Won Semun had a very angular jaw, a broad face, and thick bones, so it had always been extremely difficult for Bu Eunseol to perfectly imitate his appearance with his own facial structure.
Yet without using internal energy or causing any skeletal changes, his appearance had changed in an instant as if clay had been molded.
“And it is not even one-time-use.”
In short, this power was not the Boundary Prosperity Jade power that had been latent in his body being reabsorbed.
Rather, a portion of the power that Hwa Mugi had possessed had entered him.
“Then he… is not the real Hwa Mugi, but someone possessing an unrecognizable disguise technique.”
To perform the Face and Bone Shifting Art, one must use internal energy and move muscles and bones.
But if one could change appearance instantly using the energy embedded in the body like this?
It was no longer altering one's original face, but completely changing it into another person's face… No one would be able to detect anything strange.
In other words, unless one revealed their identity themselves, even one's own birth parents would never be able to recognize them.
Who on earth could he be?
If there was someone in Majeon possessing such a terrifying disguise technique, the probability was high that it was the Demon Emperor or the Chief Instructor.
However, the masked man's tone, gaze, behavior, and aura…
He could say with certainty that they belonged to someone he had never encountered even once in his life—a completely new person.
Slither.
Bu Eunseol instantly returned to his original appearance once more and took a deep breath.
“Anyway, this is a fortunate encounter.”
Through this incident, he had obtained a mysterious power that had never existed in the martial world before—the ability to perfectly change his outer appearance with mere thought, without the help of internal energy or body control techniques.
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