“Shatter!”
Once again, the Inbiin Lord’s sword poured a storm of sword energy like a violent gale and torrential rain toward Bu Eunseol.
Papapap!
As the exchange continued, both Bu Eunseol and the Inbiin Lord were gradually turning into blood-soaked figures.
The two men closed their distance without the slightest hesitation and unleashed attacks at each other.
While Bu Eunseol maintained a strict defense, the Inbiin Lord acted as if defense was a luxury, wielding only sword techniques meant to cut and tear the enemy apart.
Every time their swords flashed in the air, a mist of blood scattered like fog, and chunks of flesh were ripped away.
Clang!
Once again, the iron-ring sword and the divine sword clashed and intertwined in mid-air.
The Inbiin Lord kept his eyes closed, yet madness spread from around them.
His swordsmanship was extremely brutal.
He persistently swung his blade at any spot on Bu Eunseol’s body—nape, shoulders, abdomen—wherever flesh could be torn.
‘From the beginning it wasn’t perfect… but it keeps getting closer to perfection…’
Before long, the Inbiin Lord’s sword forms had become so intricate that their paths were impossible to read, and so fast that evasion was nearly impossible.
It was truly a perfect offense.
Bu Eunseol could not even find a chance to counterattack; he was barely managing to move his iron rings to avoid fatal wounds.
‘That means…’
A faint light flickered in Bu Eunseol’s eyes as he realized something.
Drip, drip.
Meanwhile, the blood flowing from his body had formed a small puddle.
Thud.
The Inbiin Lord paused his attack for a moment and stared intently at Bu Eunseol, who was disguised as Seolso. Even after switching to a perfect offensive, he still hadn’t been able to bring him down in a single breath. That was quite unexpected.
“A blue that surpasses the indigo[i].”
The Inbiin Lord tilted his head slightly.
“I’ll have to revise my evaluation of the Bullet King. If he could produce such a disciple… then his own level must be far greater than what is publicly known.”
Swish.
The Inbiin Lord flicked the blood off his sword and nodded.
“Your body is also definitely worth researching.”
“Then say that after you cut off my head.”
“You believe that’s possible?”
The Inbiin Lord said something unexpected.
“A power wave capable of instantly annihilating or neutralizing any kind of force.”
Bu Eunseol maintained a calm expression on the surface, but inside he was greatly shocked.
Harmony.
His secret technique, which could be called his trump card—Harmony—had never once been exposed to the outside world.
So how did the Inbiin Lord know about it?
“When you dealt with the Ink-Black Troops, you left traces behind. Underground, to be precise.” The Inbiin Lord continued. “It was a mysterious combination of forces crafted through the principles of martial arts, completely different from fake manifestation techniques.”
Until now, Harmony had annihilated everything, including enemies, without leaving any trace behind. However, the Inbiin Lord had meticulously observed the condition of the ground and soil at the time Bu Eunseol dealt with the Ink-Black Troops and discovered the faint traces of Harmony.
“So the mysterious mercenary known only as the Bullet King’s disciple was actually a master capable of unleashing Infinite Reversal Power…”
The fortunate part was that the Inbiin Lord had judged the Harmony Bu Eunseol displayed to be nothing more than Infinite Reversal Power that simply transcended the limits of martial arts, rather than a technique that instantly aligned and released all the mixed energies within the body.
It was perhaps inevitable.
There was simply no other concept that could explain such power.
“What does that matter?”
When Bu Eunseol feigned ignorance, the Inbiin Lord shrugged.
“You are the first mercenary to reach the Limitless Realm at around thirty years of age. That alone makes you more than worthy of research.”
Just as Bu Eunseol had expected.
The Inbiin Lord was not simply following the Dark God Heavenly Lord’s orders to kill Seolso; he had research motives as well.
“I deliberately used only martial arts until now to test my own capabilites…”
“Hahaha. Seeing how confident you are that I have other powers, you really do know a lot about this heavenly one.”
“I also know that you are skilled in sorcery.”
“Sorcery?”
The Inbiin Lord laughed softly.
“Martial artists always think of this heavenly one as some kind of monster who performs magic tricks. They don’t even know the roots of the auxiliary martial studies.”
Fist users have fist studies, spear users have spear techniques.
Necromancers use burial and funeral secret arts, wind users employ wind secrets that surpass even the Wind God.
In other words, the Lords of the Eight Human Heavens could be said to have reached the pinnacle of their respective martial fields.
The Inbiin Lord was implicitly saying that the martial arts of the martial world had flourished brilliantly thanks to the Eight Human Heavens.
“Only the Three Demons and Three Venerables and the Righteous and Demonic Twin Heavenly Emperors reached the Limitless Realm in their thirties. But researching their bodies ended in failure…”
Step. Step.
With his eyes still closed, the Inbiin Lord walked straight toward Bu Eunseol again.
“What is truly regrettable is that I could not study the Seven-Finger Demon Blade. I couldn’t approach him while he was alive… and after his death, the Returning to One Society Lord got there first.”
At the sarcastic remark, Bu Eunseol clenched his fists tightly.
He had suppressed his bodily reactions to the extreme, yet his heart felt as if it were being torn apart.
‘It’s because of my foolishness.’
His grandfather must have looked deep into the abyss of the martial world long ago. He would have known that his corpse must never remain intact.
‘That’s why he specifically instructed me to use Hwagolsan.’
Yet Bu Eunseol had ignored that will. He had carefully prepared the body for burial and laid it to rest in a sunny spot.
Because of that, his grandfather still could not find peace… and was suffering in the hands of these vicious people.
“Now I can capture you and uncover the secret behind that brilliant development.”
The reason the Inbiin Lord had come for the mercenary Seolso in place of the Dark God Heavenly Lord was because he realized this person could serve as a substitute for the body research on the Righteous and Demonic Twin Heavenly Emperors and the Three Demons and Three Venerables that he had never been able to complete.
And the fact that he had attacked only with pure martial principles until now was to determine whether the mercenary called Seolso had reached a realm comparable to the great masters of heavenly martial arts using only pure martial arts, without relying on supernatural abilities or the power of the One Hundred and Eight Stars.
Grind.
Bu Eunseol clenched his teeth hard.
‘If the Returning to One Society hadn’t taken Grandfather’s body, this man would have.’
―You lose your mind every time the Seven-Finger Demon Blade is mentioned!
At that moment, the Human Demon’s sharp rebuke rang inside his head.
Longing for his grandfather, guilt, and a thirst for revenge against the culprit… such emotions must never be shown in front of an enemy.
‘I must not reveal my emotions.’
Seeing the Inbiin Lord treat his grandfather’s remains like an object and express regret over it, uncontrollable rage surged within Bu Eunseol.
But he could no longer afford to show emotion.
After taking a deep breath, he transformed that rage into killing intent as cold as ice and sharper than a blade.
Clang!
As he raised his internal energy, the iron rings reconnected into the form of a sword.
Shashashasha!
At the same time, he began pouring attacks toward the Inbiin Lord.
It was not swordsmanship, but closer to the instinctive assault of a starving beast’s fangs and claws tearing its prey to shreds.
“What a strange thing you’re doing.”
As the Inbiin Lord retreated slightly,
Thud.
Like a starving wolf, Bu Eunseol, who had lowered his body, exploded forward once more.
His speed was like light. In an instant he split the air, and with a sharp metallic screech, the iron-ring sword dug into the Inbiin Lord’s nape.
Yet even though he had targeted the soft flesh where the tendons and blood vessels were shallowest, instead of cutting deeply, he violently spun the iron-ring sword to rip the flesh apart.
Whoosh!
With a gruesome tearing sound, bright red blood gushed out like a fountain, creating a bloody mist.
Not satisfied, Bu Eunseol twisted the iron-ring sword that had grazed the nape like a living snake and continued the fierce assault toward the shoulder and abdomen.
Like a beast refusing to let go of its prey’s neck, the iron-ring sword never stopped for even a moment, relentlessly gouging at torn flesh and vulnerable joints.
Crack.
With a dull sound of bone and tendon colliding, the Inbiin Lord’s shoulder twisted at a grotesque angle, and white bone fragments could be seen through the tattered flesh.
Tap.
Finally, the Inbiin Lord used footwork for the first time and retreated backward.
“Your swordsmanship suddenly became much stronger?”
Even though his body was torn to rags, he showed no expression of pain.
Instead, he nodded as if pleased.
“It seems this body is indeed worth me stepping forward personally.”
The Inbiin Lord licked his lips and once again slowly walked toward Bu Eunseol.
His gait and posture were perfect; merely approaching slowly released a majestic aura that overwhelmed like a great mountain.
He had sustained many wounds across his body and exhausted a great deal of stamina. Any ordinary martial artist would no longer be able to endure, yet the Inbiin Lord was approaching with an even more intense momentum than before?
Swish!
The attack began once again.
His sword forms were incomparably faster than before, delivering fatal strikes along mysterious trajectories.
But at that moment,
Clang!
The Inbiin Lord’s sword forms, which should have spread out like a storm, were instantly halted.
Hum.
At the tip of the extended divine sword clung a dark iron ring.
“How…?”
The Inbiin Lord stopped moving, too shocked to even retrieve his sword.
How could the opponent not only perfectly read sword forms executed with perfect principles, but also deploy internal energy bullets in a formless and silent manner… sticking the iron ring to the blade and interrupting the technique?
Whoosh.
Bu Eunseol retrieved the iron ring that had stuck firmly to the blade and spoke with a calm expression.
“Because there is no such thing as perfection, I was able to block it.”
“What did you say?”
“If absolute perfection existed, why didn’t you cut my throat with the first move?”
Bu Eunseol stared directly at the Inbiin Lord’s closed eyes and continued.
“Why did you divide them into ‘perfect defense’ and ‘perfect offense’ and use them separately?”
The Inbiin Lord laughed as if it were absurd.
“You’re saying this heavenly one’s martial principles are not perfect?”
“Then let me ask you this.”
“……”
“What exactly is perfection?”
When the Inbiin Lord could not answer, the corners of Bu Eunseol’s mouth rose.
“If it were truly perfect, there would be no need to attach the word ‘perfect.’ It would be able to do everything as it wished by its very nature.”
“……”
“But the fact that you deliberately gave it such a name means it is not perfect. From the beginning, ‘perfection’ is nothing more than a means to express the ultimate limit of martial arts—an ideal, nothing else.”
No matter how outstanding a great master of martial arts might be, true perfection cannot exist.
Because one would have to predict and control an infinite number of situations.
The Inbiin Lord had merely appeared to achieve it through his terrifyingly sensitive physical senses and by creating new martial principles.
From the start, it was a contradiction.
If he could truly predict and control every situation, he would not be human—he would be a god.
‘The Heavenly Mechanism Star was the same.’
The Heavenly Mechanism Star too was said to possess the ability to predict all current flows and even foresee future events, but, in reality, he could not predict everything.
Perfectly predicting everything was, after all, the domain of the divine.
In the end, the Inbiin Lord had intentionally used the word ‘perfection’ many times to confuse his opponent and induce overestimation of his ability.
And the reason Bu Eunseol could realize this was because he had transformed his boiling rage toward his grandfather into ice-cold, utterly calm killing intent.
“So ‘the Inbiin Lord’…”
Bu Eunseol sneered.
“…was a term for those who refine the technique of binding enemies with wordplay.”
The Inbiin Lord did not respond to the provocation and remained silent.
He had researched countless human bodies and possessed mastery over all scattered knowledge and studies in the world.
In essence, he was a genius comparable to the Heavenly Mechanism Star.
He had also reached the highest realm, proficient in combat and deeply versed in the principles of martial arts after personally defeating and experimenting on numerous powerful experts.
Yet now a mercenary who had barely passed thirty possessed power beyond predictable ranges and even the ability to analyze and see through the martial arts he himself had created?
“I don’t know whether to be happy that I’ve obtained such an excellent test subject or to say I can’t handle it.”
Having calmed his mind, the Inbiin Lord regained his relaxed smile.
“Besides, this heavenly one even predicted a situation like this… so perfection has not yet been broken, has it?”
“What?”
Hum.
At that moment, the Inbiin Lord slowly began to open his previously closed eyes.
An Inbiin known as Yeon Wol, who had once posed as a wandering physician while brutally murdering people, was not truly blind. He had simply been hiding the power of the Mind World called “Phase” by keeping his eyes closed.
And the Inbiin Lord had been concealing his power in the same way.
“I did anticipate the possibility that someone might break the principles of perfection.”
Spark.
As the Inbiin Lord opened his closed eyes, thick black mist began to rise heavily from them.
“That’s why I went to find the Dark God Heavenly Lord.”
Gurgle. Gurgle.
Suddenly, the Inbiin Lord’s body began to twist grotesquely, emitting even more mist.
Boom!
Bu Eunseol immediately unleashed an internal energy bullet.
However, the Inbiin Lord’s body passed through the energy bullet as if it had turned into black mist.
Cawwww!
At the same time, a deafening tearing sound rang out as countless flocks of crows began to swarm in.
The Dark God Heavenly Lord.
Not only had he unfolded his Mind World—he was also commanding the Dark God Heavenly Lord’s Black Gods.
Gurgle.
The Inbiin Lord’s black pupils had changed to look very similar to those of the Dark God Heavenly Lord.
Hum. Hum.
Fortunately, because of the formation Bu Eunseol had set up in advance, the crows could not enter inside.
Flap. Flap.
The flock of crows beat their wings powerfully, pouring out strong pressure to pierce through the formation.
Hum. Hum.
The Life-and-Death Battle Array, which combined and improved the Gongsun family’s formation principles, was so solid that even the Black Gods could not break through it.
The crows, as if furious, continuously cawed and vibrated the interior.
“So it was the Gongsun family’s formation.”
The Inbiin Lord marveled after seeing through the fact that the formation around them was mixed with the Gongsun family’s formation studies.
“A formation that even the power of the Black Gods cannot pierce. This is unexpected.”
“It looks like begging the Dark God Heavenly Lord for power didn’t work out properly.”
When Bu Eunseol, having grasped the situation, raised the corner of his mouth, the Inbiin Lord snorted.
“Not at all. I predicted this situation from the moment you deployed the formation.”
Hum.
Black radiance began to emanate from the Inbiin Lord’s body.
“The Black Gods are merely accessories that appear when the Dark God Heavenly Lord uses his soul-severing energy.”
The Inbiin Lord looked around at the formations spread in all directions with his black eyes and said, “If you hadn’t deployed it, this heavenly one would have done so instead.”
Rumble.
As the conversation dragged on, Bu Eunseol hurled the iron rings containing internal energy bullets with full power.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
The Inbiin Lord’s body instantly turned into pieces of flesh and scattered in all directions.
Squirm. Squirm.
Yet from between the exploded bones and flesh, leech-like worms began to emerge.
Drip.
In an instant, they started returning to his original body.
“I am the heavenly one who has researched the human body for generations. I succeeded in bodily restoration techniques long ago.”
The sight of the Inbiin Lord speaking while restoring his shattered jaw and teeth was nothing short of a nightmare made flesh.
Crack. Crunch.
Even the shattered divine sword was regaining its shape.
It had not been a real sword, but one made from the Inbiin Lord’s own body.
Rumble!
Sensing the situation turning urgent, Bu Eunseol hurled three iron rings toward the Inbiin Lord’s head, abdomen, and lower body.
He intended to completely pulverize the body so it could not regenerate again.
Suddenly, three black holes opened in the Inbiin Lord’s body.
Swoosh.
They instantly swallowed the iron rings—energy bullets so powerful they could collapse mountains with a mere graze.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
At that moment, Bu Eunseol’s body turned into a bloody mess.
The iron rings he had shot out had transcended time and space and returned to his own body.
Drip.
Blood flowed from his body once again.
If his internal energy had not been so deep and he had not been wrapped in thick protective profound energy, his entire body would have been shattered by that single move.
“Your internal energy is truly impressive. It’s impossible to obtain such depth at your age… Now I really want to dissect that body quickly.”
Floating.
The Inbiin Lord rose like a ghost and charged toward Bu Eunseol in an instant.
A body that could withstand any attack.
As long as there existed this rebound martial art that absorbed and returned any attack… no matter how powerful the martial arts used, it was useless.
Boom!
Bu Eunseol used his remaining iron rings one by one to unleash internal energy bullets at the Inbiin Lord, but in the end, all of them were swallowed by the black holes.
‘So that’s how it is.’
A flash of insight crossed Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
He had deliberately not unleashed all the iron rings at once, but used them one by one to understand the Inbiin Lord’s unique technique.
‘It’s not absorbing and returning everything. It’s changing the point of impact before the attack arrives and sending it back.’
Bu Eunseol’s exceptional super senses had seen through it.
Those black holes were not supernatural abilities that transcended the laws of nature.
They were a martial technique that maximized the principles of rebound the moment an attack reached the body, making it appear as if absorbing for a moment before returning it.
‘I’ll destroy those black holes first.’
Boom!
Meanwhile, the iron rings that had been swallowed by the holes returned once again and struck Bu Eunseol.
Anticipating this, Bu Eunseol used swift footwork to leap into the air.
Crackle.
At the same time, orange flames began to spark from his body.
When he raised the Thunder Spirit Energy within Seolso’s body, it was not violet thunder energy but the power of the Crimson Radiance Flash Lightning that poured out.
‘In one breath.’
At the same time, the iron rings floating around his hands began to spin fiercely.
He was about to unleash the Bullet King, Bukgung Ryeong’s Heaven-Breaking Ultimate—the most powerful single technique among the internal energy bullet styles—the Scorching Yellow Heaven Strike.
[i] A blue that surpasses the indigo: A student that surpasses the teacher
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