“Haap!”
With a spirited shout, Bu Eunseol extended both hands while floating in the air.
The three fiercely spinning iron rings shot toward the Inbiin Lord, then merged into one midway.
Kwaaaaang!
The combined iron ring transformed into a massive orange sphere resembling a blazing sun.
Scorching Yellow Heaven Strike.
It was a technique that concentrated the essence of hidden weapon methods and energy bullet techniques passed down through generations in the martial world, releasing them in a single devastating blow. Because the technique struck instantly upon deployment, evasion was completely impossible—it was a Heaven-Breaking Emperor’s art.
However, its power was so overwhelming that not even a corpse could be found at the moment of impact. That was why even the ruthless Bullet King had never once used this technique.
Screeeeech!
With a sound like the sky itself screaming and tearing apart, the orange sphere instantly swallowed the Inbiin Lord.
The explosive flames and shockwave shredded his skin to pieces, the ensuing blast exposed his bones, and soon bright red fragments splattered in all directions.
Rumble…
The air evaporated in an instant.
In the space where the Inbiin Lord had stood, an overwhelming heat capable of burning everything and a destructive force spread outward.
The ground boiled like lava and cracked open, while distant mountain peaks trembled as if they would collapse.
If judged purely by raw power, it was on par with Infinite Reversal Power.
Squirm… Squirm…
Yet something began wriggling inside the blood-colored ashes.
The shattered flesh moved little by little like tiny worms.
Nerves formed, torn muscles reconnected, the twisted spine slowly straightened, and new limbs began to weave themselves together.
Thud.
Finally, the Inbiin Lord, having reformed his body, slowly rose to his feet.
His skin had not fully recovered; through the hideous torn gaps, black worm-like creatures crawled about.
“Huu…”
As he let out a sigh, his skin instantly returned to its clean state, and even his clothing was perfectly restored.
Seeing this, Bu Eunseol wore a disappointed expression.
“So it was a Mind World.”
The Inbiin Lord’s Mind World was incomparably stronger than what Yeon Wol had used in the past. The moment Bu Eunseol met his gaze to unleash the Scorching Yellow Heaven Strike, the Inbiin Lord had instantly deployed his Mind World and diverted the strike to a different location, creating this illusion.
“What you people call a Mind World is nothing more than the second tier of a Phase.”
The corners of the Inbiin Lord’s mouth curled up.
“This heavenly one can even create up to the fifth tier of Phase.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes narrowed.
It was not particularly surprising that the leader of those who had always used the Mind World as their trump card could deploy such a powerful version.
‘He has completely systematized it, just like martial arts…’
The fact that the concepts and stages were perfectly established meant that…
For the subordinates of the True Demon, the Mind World was no longer a vague power.
It had become a fully controlled, complete law—a systematic form of martial arts.
‘In that case.’
A flash of insight crossed his eyes.
In truth, the reason he had created this wooden hut was not simply to train in martial arts.
“Now, shall I start using real martial arts?”
At that moment, the Inbiin Lord’s body turned transparent.
Shuuuk!
He instantly passed straight through Bu Eunseol’s floating body.
Kwaaang!
Bu Eunseol fell like a bird with broken wings and dropped to one knee.
Tremble…
His body shook violently as if he had been drugged with opium. His lips turned deathly pale, and with every breath, white vapor flowed out.
The Inbiin Lord had truly passed through his body like a ghost, inflicting a fatal internal injury.
“Can’t you figure out this technique?”
The Inbiin Lord looked down at the trembling Bu Eunseol, who was suffering from severe wounds, and sneered.
“How I can pass through your body?”
As the Inbiin Lord smiled and prepared to attack once more,
Kwaaang!
Bu Eunseol immediately fired an internal energy bullet.
But the energy bullet passed harmlessly through the Inbiin Lord’s body.
He tried to fire another in succession, but suddenly stopped moving.
He had forgotten how to launch internal energy bullets.
‘What just happened?’
Meanwhile, the Inbiin Lord’s body turned transparent again.
Every time the crows outside the formation cawed, a strange resonance rang in his ears.
Caw. Caw.
The flock of crows continued crying out as if mocking him.
Swish!
The Inbiin Lord charged forward like a ghost once more, attempting to pass through Bu Eunseol’s body.
Shatter! Whiriririk.
Bu Eunseol immediately tried to use the principles of the Harmony to block the approach and counterattack.
But it was useless.
Chiii.
The Inbiin Lord passed through Bu Eunseol’s body like an illusion in an instant.
Hum.
At that moment, not only Bu Eunseol’s lips but even the color of his pupils turned pure white.
The vapor flowing out with every breath grew even thicker.
“It looks like two more hits and you’ll die.”
As the Inbiin Lord charged again,
Kwaaang!
Bu Eunseol, who had forgotten how to fire internal energy bullets, desperately unleashed in that split second the extreme yin energy of the Snow Blossom Sect—the Ice Essence Snow Blossom Qi loaded into the iron rings.
Crack.
The frozen the Inbiin Lord paused for a moment, before he immediately shattered the ice and once again passed through Bu Eunseol’s body.
Chiiiiii.
Now pure white vapor flowed from his entire body, and cold sweat poured down his forehead.
“So a mercenary has mastered the extreme yin energy of the Snow Blossom Sect…”
“Snow Blossom Sect.”
Bu Eunseol wore a dazed expression.
He had forgotten once again how he had just fired the Ice Essence Snow Blossom Qi—he had forgotten the martial art.
The Inbiin Lord watched this and wore a cold smile.
He had researched the bodies and souls of martial artists for a very long time.
In the instant he passed through the body, he disturbed the consciousness and made the opponent instantly forget the principles of the martial arts they had just used.
“You could call this the principle of Oblivion.”
Thinking he had the fish already caught, the Inbiin Lord approached Bu Eunseol with a completely relaxed expression.
“There’s no need to look so flustered. Every expert who has stood in this heavenly one’s way has done the same.”
With his black eyes gleaming, the Inbiin Lord said calmly, “They resisted and resisted, only to end up as fools who could do nothing and be captured by me.”
“……”
“Whenever there was someone I wanted to experiment on, I always went to capture them personally.”
Stagger.
Meanwhile, Bu Eunseol stood up and threw the iron rings once more.
This time it was not an internal energy bullet, but the hidden weapon technique called Ten Finger Heaven Shatter.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
However, the Inbiin Lord’s body, which the iron rings had passed through, immediately began to regenerate.
Standing before Bu Eunseol, he laughed hoarsely and said, “Research on those below the Righteous and Demonic Twin Emperors or the Three Demons and Three Venerables has progressed far enough that I no longer need to kidnap them.”
The Inbiin Lord spread both arms and approached leisurely.
“Now, shall we begin some new research?”
Any attack could be absorbed and returned.
Fatal wounds recovered in an instant, and he could even make an opponent forget the martial arts they used for a moment.
Having researched the body to such an extent, even extreme poisons would probably have no effect.
Caw! Uuuuung.
The mocking cries of the crows and faint vibrations continued to spread endlessly.
They were dragging Bu Eunseol’s mind into an abyssal depth.
The Inbiin Lord.
The de facto leader of the Eight Human Heavens and the being who had dissected and researched the bodies of countless martial world experts across generations for the resurrection of the True Demon.
He possessed grotesque and terrifying abilities on a completely different level from any powerful expert Bu Eunseol had encountered so far.
“Have you given up?”
The Inbiin Lord raised the corners of his mouth when he saw Bu Eunseol no longer resisting and simply standing there blankly.
“There’s no need to feel humiliated. The majority of martial artists end up lamenting their helplessness and eventually give up everything.”
He began walking toward him without hesitation.
Hum.
The Inbiin Lord suddenly stopped in his tracks.
The formation that had been blocking all directions had suddenly been dispelled.
“Trying to run? That’s fine too.”
The Inbiin Lord smiled.
“If you can escape from my hands, I won’t chase you anymore.”
It was tremendous confidence.
Yet upon hearing those words, Bu Eunseol asked,
“Why would I run?”
Siiik.
As if the dazed expression had never existed, he wore a cold smile.
Kwaaaaang!
At that moment, with a roar like a dragon’s cry, all the crows waiting outside the formation began to explode.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
He had regained the internal energy bullets he had forgotten and killed every last crow.
“Hoo, so you broke through the power of oblivion.”
The Inbiin Lord did not seem particularly surprised and simply tilted his head.
“But what will change by killing them?”
“It will change.”
Bu Eunseol raised the corners of his mouth.
“There is no technique that makes one forget martial arts… Instead, you are spreading sound and waves that momentarily interfere with the nervous system over a wide area through the crows.”
The low vibration that had been annoying him since earlier.
It could not be clearly detected by hearing, but it generated unique wave pulses that directly affected the brain.
It was a sound art.
“You figured it out well…”
Even though Bu Eunseol had seen through everything, the Inbiin Lord still spoke with a relaxed expression.
“So, what exactly changes?”
If he had truly seen through the technique, he should have dealt with it quickly.
As long as the Dark God Heavenly Lord was alive, the Black Gods would be endlessly replenished.
And the Nine Soul Suppressing Art, which continuously spread low-frequency waves to shake the brain and cause oblivion of martial arts, could also be emitted endlessly through the mouth without using the Black Gods.
Above all… since he possessed an immortal body, he had nothing to fear no matter what attacks Bu Eunseol used.
“I will never die.”
The Inbiin Lord spread both arms with a confident expression and approached.
“Attack as much as you like.”
“I won’t refuse.”
Hum.
Bu Eunseol floated the roughly ten remaining iron rings into the air and made them rotate around the Inbiin Lord’s body.
Kwaaaaaaaa!
Then something bizarre happened.
The Inbiin Lord’s body, which could instantly restore any attack, began to slowly melt like candle wax.
“What?”
The Inbiin Lord sensed something was wrong and immediately tried to deploy his sword technique.
Drip…
But his arms had already begun to melt.
“How is this possible?”
The Inbiin Lord was greatly shocked and could not even attack as he stared at Bu Eunseol.
“How did you break the Phase?”
In truth, from the moment the Inbiin Lord had opened his eyes, he had been continuously deploying the Phase to trap Bu Eunseol inside the Mind World.
Therefore, whether Bu Eunseol broke the Nine Soul Suppressing Art or attacked him, he could never actually inflict any damage.
So how was this happening?
“Simply by meeting your gaze, you can continuously maintain the Mind World.”
When the former Inbiin, Yeon Wol, opened his eyes, he had immediately deployed the Mind World.
There was no way the leader of the Inbiin would not deploy it.
From the beginning, Bu Eunseol had realized that everything was inside the Mind World the moment the Inbiin Lord opened his eyes.
He had also seen through the fact that the mysterious martial arts and techniques the Inbiin Lord displayed were being newly created and layered upon the Mind World every time their gazes met.
―But the way he restores his body feels different.
He had also instinctively sensed it.
The fact that the Inbiin Lord could show the restoration of his body meant it was not simply a fictional Mind World created from nothing.
And to understand the principle behind it, he had deliberately continued pretending to be helpless inside the Mind World.
“Because it was a fake body from the start.” Having finally unraveled all the secrets, Bu Eunseol snorted and said, “That made it possible.”
At that moment, the Inbiin Lord’s expression hardened.
The reason he could mix the appearance of an immortal body that restored wounds with the Phase was because that body had been artificially created.
“How on earth did you know?”
The Inbiin Lord looked down at his melted arms in astonishment.
“This secret is something no one in the martial world could possibly know.”
“There was one in the Three Realms.”
Bu Eunseol snorted.
“Someone who could create such a body and move about freely as if it were a real one.”
The boy from the Returning to One Society whom he had met on Youngpa Island in the past.
Even when his arm was cut off, it could be reattached, and his body did not bleed a single drop.
Later, while rescuing the children from Xiaohua Pavilion and the orphanage with So Okrim, he had encountered the boy again.
The third time, they had fought one-on-one.
At that time, he had seen through the fact that it was not the boy’s real body but a fake one—his true body existed separately.
The boy had used that fake body to create a bizarre poison and launched a trump-card strike that covered Bu Eunseol’s body, but because he did not know Bu Eunseol had reached the Poison Body realm, he was instead subdued.
“Impressive. So you’ve even clashed with the Three Realms.”
“Ever since that day, I had questions.”
Instead of answering, Bu Eunseol changed the subject.
“Even though you can create fake bodies, why don’t you conquer the martial world?”
At the time, Bu Eunseol had found it strange.
Even though there existed a technique to control fake bodies and perform martial arts through them, why did they operate alone?
Why didn’t the Three Realms use those fake bodies to conquer the martial world?
If one could freely create and control fake bodies, and perform martial arts comparable to one’s true body through them, then without any complicated processes, without lifting a finger or taking any risk… it would be possible to rule the martial world—no, the entire world.
“Why don’t you lead a large army made up of those with fake bodies?”
Bu Eunseol muttered lowly and looked down at the Inbiin Lord with ice-cold eyes.
“Isn’t that truly strange?”
At Bu Eunseol’s monologue, the Inbiin Lord raised the corners of his mouth.
“Have you never thought that creating this body costs an enormous fortune or is extremely difficult to make?”
“That’s right. I did consider that. But if the body is so precious and so difficult to create…”
Bu Eunseol looked around and scoffed.
“Wouldn’t you need to always bring along martial artists or troops to protect it so that the body isn’t destroyed?”
At that moment, the Inbiin Lord’s eyes slightly hardened.
He had sensed that Bu Eunseol had unraveled all the secrets.
“And the places where people with fake bodies always appeared… were empty plains or locations with no people.”
“……”
“As if a specific location or something that needed to be set up was required to move them.”
The first time he met the boy with the fake body was on Youngpa Island, one of the Returning to One Society’s bases.
The second time was at the orphanage where they were brutally modifying children who were test subjects of the Infinite Realm.
And the last time was on an empty plain where the boy had come to assassinate him.
Ever since then, Bu Eunseol had continued to question it.
Perhaps moving and controlling such bodies required certain specific conditions.
“So? Did you reach a conclusion?”
At the Inbiin Lord’s question, Bu Eunseol nodded.
“While working as a mercenary, I once saw an ancient formation that existed in the past.”
“……”
“That ancient formation could transmit energy within the formation no matter the distance, or even combine the energies flowing inside it.”
In truth, the ancient formation he spoke of was the formation Han Sangja from the Sage Forest had once used to draw out the Executioner—one that could influence each other’s formations even across a distance of six hundred and thirty li.
“Only then did I realize it.”
Bu Eunseol spoke with confidence.
“If there exists a formation capable of transmitting energy across such vast distances… then of course it could also transmit the energy needed to move a fake body.”
When he had seen the Han Sangja’s formation at the time, it reminded him of the Lightning God Spirit Vein Art, a legendary technique said to be used by immortals of old, which could send energy far away by utilizing the flow of heaven and earth energy and feng shui.
And with such a formation, it would be possible to transmit power to a fake body at a great distance—the very thing he had always wondered about—and move it.
“Looking at your expression, it seems I’m right.”
Bu Eunseol nodded.
“It was always like that. They seemed like something tremendous… but once I examined them closely, they were all powers that could be explained.”
The high-ranking members of the Three Realms or the subordinates of the True Demon appeared to possess transcendent powers when first encountered.
But when calmly analyzed, their principles could be understood.
They were simply using ancient secret arts or great laws that had disappeared from the current martial world.
“Still, destroying this body isn’t easy.”
The Inbiin Lord sighed as he looked at his melting body.
“At this level, you must have used the Obsidian Single-Horn Flood Dragon or the Ten-Thousand-Year Red Crown Crane… or if not, does that mean you have reached the Poison Body realm?”
“Who knows.”
In truth, Bu Eunseol had already completed the Poison Body and, when he killed the sect leader of the Jade Qilin Sect, he had even absorbed the extreme poison back into his internal energy, reaching the Poison Saint realm.
He recalled the person from the Hwa Wu Sword Sect.
That person had not known he had reached the Poison Body and had used an extremely vicious poison to melt both the fake body and Bu Eunseol at once.
Bu Eunseol had imitated that method.
Using the poison within his own body, he had melted the Inbiin Lord’s body that was pretending to be immortal.
Chiiiiii.
Meanwhile, the Inbiin Lord’s body continued to break down rapidly.
“What a shame.”
The Inbiin Lord sighed as he looked at his body, which could no longer be restored by the poison.
“I rather liked this body.”
He had not used his real body.
That was why, even in defeat, he remained dignified and was instead making his enemy feel defeated.
But this time, he had chosen the wrong opponent.
“Would it have been different if you had come in person?”
“……”
“Even then, the result would not change.”
Dignity filled Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“After all, you are the kind who fears risking your life in battle, so you couldn’t have exerted power beyond that of a fake body.”
His downward gaze toward the Inbiin Lord was filled with contempt.
“You think you made every preparation… but you are nothing more than a rat trembling in fear.”
When the Inbiin Lord did not answer, Bu Eunseol said coldly, “If you think otherwise, I’ll give you a chance. Bring your real body even now. I’ll wait here for you.”
Silence continued.
Having seen that even his two legs had melted away, the Inbiin Lord finally nodded and opened his mouth.
“Yes… that’s right. So this is a fight where one risks their life.”
Only then did he seem to realize something. He let out a sigh of admiration and nodded.
“That’s why those cockroach-like martial world people gradually grew stronger.”
In the eyes of the Eight Human Heavens, the martial artists of the beginning were nothing more than insignificant insects.
But they constantly trained, realized, and fought while risking their lives.
As time passed, the martial artists had eventually risen to their level.
“Well, even so.”
Even as his continuously melting body sank into the ground, the Inbiin Lord wore a sneer.
“From this heavenly one’s perspective, you lot are merely beasts that have grown a little stronger. It’s just that a situation has arrived where I must use tools instead of catching you with bare hands.”
And he declared proudly, “In truth, this heavenly one never needed to risk his life against you people. I could simply dissect the test subjects brought by the other Heavenly Lords.”
Chiiii.
By now, the Inbiin Lord’s entire body had begun to melt slowly and steadily.
“Don’t think you’ve won. After all, this body feels no pain whatsoever.”
“Is that so?”
A faint light rose in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
At that moment, the smile that had lingered on the Inbiin Lord’s face froze.
Simultaneously, a pain as if he had been thrown into the fires of hell spread through him.
Tremble…
The Inbiin Lord’s body shook.
It was clearly just a puppet body.
So why was the pain being transmitted?
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