Even as Ahwan watched in astonishment, Bu Eunseol was fighting a desperate battle.
As his inner energy ran low, he immediately stopped unfolding his protective strong energy and instead used what little true energy he had left to create a barrier of qi above his head.
Drip, drip, drip.
The water pillar, which had been as sharp as a spear, seemed to change form once more. In an instant, it altered its direction and lunged toward Ahwan’s throat.
“Ah!”
The moment the greatly startled Ahwan opened her mouth,
Shunk.
The sharp wave that Bu Eunseol had blocked pierced deep into his shoulder instead.
All the strength in his body had been drained, and he could no longer manifest any inner energy. He had thrown himself forward to stop it.
“Young Master!”
“Run away first, Ahwan.”
“I’m sorry… My body… won’t move.”
Bu Eunseol noticed the faint light flowing from Ahwan’s body.
‘The sealed energy inside her has surged up, rendering her unable to move.’
It was the same principle as paralyzing drugs—it caused yin energy to surge so violently that the limbs became immobile.
When inner energy suddenly rose intensely within the body, the arms and legs could no longer move.
Whirl!
In the meantime, the wave split into another sharp form and once again aimed for Ahwan’s throat.
Clang.
Bu Eunseol swiftly extended his left hand and caught the transparent wave with his palm.
Shraaaak!
The materialized wave began to spin fiercely, as if demanding to be released.
Sizzle.
Flesh tore instantly and his palm turned into a bloody mess, yet Bu Eunseol refused to let go.
“Young Master, cut my throat!”
Ahwan shouted, realizing that the waves were only targeting her.
“It’s because I, a cursed descendant, have stepped into this sacred land. The deity is angry with me.”
She pleaded earnestly.
“If I die, you will probably be able to pass through this trial without any trouble.”
This was a sacred land, and she was a descendant of the Yona tribe—the tribe that had hidden the sacred objects of the other clans and been cursed. She believed that her presence here was the reason the strange power was persistently targeting her.
“There is no such thing.”
“Please believe me.”
Ahwan spoke with deep sincerity.
“If you offer me as a sacrifice, the deity will forgive you and allow you to pass through this trial.”
“If you cannot move your body, stop talking nonsense and stay quiet.”
“Young Master.”
“From now on, I need to concentrate, so don’t say any—”
Shunk!
Before he could finish, the sharp wave that had been embedded in his shoulder pierced through his back once again.
Although his protective body qi was still active and prevented it from penetrating completely, the pain was so intense that Bu Eunseol involuntarily straightened his waist.
“Young Master.”
Ahwan bit her lip and forced her powerless arm to move, fumbling to draw a dagger.
She intended to stab her own throat to save him.
“Don’t do anything foolish.”
Shuk!
Bu Eunseol used what strength he had left to pull out the materialized sharp wave embedded in his back and shouted at Ahwan.
“If a deity demands a child as a sacrifice simply because another tribe cursed her…”
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
By now, Bu Eunseol’s eyes had turned red, and an intense light capable of melting iron shot forth from them.
“Then I will destroy that deity myself!”
Crackle!
He mobilized every last ounce of power remaining in his body.
Purple lightning spread out, completely erasing the embedded wave.
Bubble, bubble, bubble.
The moment he used Thunder Spirit Energy, the surface of the Illusion Pond suddenly began to boil like molten lava.
Splash!
Now, instead of two, hundreds of sharp spear-like waves rose into the air.
―Will you still not step aside?
It felt as if the Illusion Pond itself was speaking to him.
Because of the powerful suction force emanating from the pond, all his strength was sealed.
Having just expended the last of his power to erase the two previous forms, he no longer had any strength left to block hundreds of sharp waves.
“Young Master. The deity is giving you one last chance. Please run away.”
When Ahwan pleaded, Bu Eunseol instead lifted the corners of his mouth.
Shing.
He drew the Demon-Killer Sword and looked at the pond with cold eyes.
“Try it, then.”
The suction force flowing from the Illusion Pond was not only draining the Three Divine Energies and his inner energy, but even stripping away the muscular strength in his body so thoroughly that he could not even unfold the Beast Way’s power.
Moreover, a powerful suction force rose from the ground itself, preventing him from moving quickly.
But it did not matter.
Even if he had no strength left at all, no matter what power the pond possessed, if an evil deity dwelled within it that demanded a young girl as a sacrifice, he was confident he could cut it down.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
The moment Bu Eunseol drew his sword, the Illusion Pond let out a mocking vibration and sent thousands of wave-like forms shooting into the sky.
Splash!
It looked like an ancient monster beyond human power had appeared.
Shuuu! Paaa!
The waves that had soared into the sky now rained down toward Bu Eunseol like a storm.
‘If it has form, that’s even better.’
As long as the power emitted by the Illusion Pond had a tangible form, he could cut anything.
Slash, slash, slash, slash!
Bu Eunseol created a round sword screen to protect Ahwan and advanced step by step.
Papapa!
The waves attacked relentlessly, as if they could pass through a mere sword in an instant.
However, the Demon-Killer Sword contained the principles of Half Above, Half Below, and Shifting Heaven’s Force.
It altered the nature of the raging waves.
He no longer had the strength to even lift the sword, but by employing the principles of Turning Wind into Merit, Wind Transformed into Qi, he used the very force of the stabbing waves to swing his blade.
Pshuu, pshuuu.
The waves could not penetrate the sword screen Bu Eunseol had created and were continuously shattered.
Having faced and overcome countless sorceries and supernatural powers, he could see through their nature and counter them with the mysteries of martial learning.
‘Kuh.’
But he could not unfold these principles indefinitely.
Eventually, as his strength began to fail, Bu Eunseol unfolded the Scattered Sword technique, creating a transparent sword membrane to protect Ahwan.
Saaa, saaa.
‘I need to get closer to that Illusion Pond.’
He immediately grabbed the hand of the fallen Ahwan and slowly advanced one step at a time.
In any case, the suction force from the ground made agile movement impossible.
Instead, he chose to move forward and cut down whatever was hidden inside the Illusion Pond—the source of that strange power—in a single strike.
Saaa, saaa!
Creating the sword membrane, Bu Eunseol walked forward with great difficulty.
To form a sword membrane so dense that not a single drop of water could enter, he had to unleash eighty-one sword strikes in one breath.
Even with his inner energy and physical strength completely drained, he repeatedly unfolded the Scattered Sword by reversing the incoming force, but eventually his stamina and mental power reached their limit.
Drip.
Clear blood flowed from the corner of his mouth.
Not because of internal injuries, but because he had bitten his lips hard enough to tear them in order to endure the pain that felt as if his arms would shatter.
“Even now, please cut my throat, Young Master.”
Despite Ahwan’s desperate plea, Bu Eunseol continued to advance silently.
His body was like steel.
He was continuously creating a sword membrane that even inner-energy-using martial artists of the Central Plains could not maintain for more than half a shichen, using only his bare body.
“Young Master.”
“If we die, we die together.”
Bu Eunseol spoke in a low voice.
“You must not speak to me anymore. It scatters my concentration.”
At those words, Ahwan covered her mouth and swallowed her tears.
Judging by his martial arts that allowed him to fly through the sky and his mysterious appearance, he was clearly someone of very noble status in the Central Plains.
Yet such a person was risking his life to save her—a tribeswoman from the lowest class in Cheonchuk, someone who lived as a mere guide.
‘It is not because of a sense of justice.’
Ahwan could feel it.
Bu Eunseol was not trying to save her out of a sense of justice.
It was simply his conviction.
‘He has lived his entire life without ever bending or compromising that conviction even once.’
Perhaps because they were risking their lives together heading toward the Illusion Pond, in this short moment Ahwan naturally came to understand what kind of person Bu Eunseol was.
Stagger, stagger.
In the meantime, Bu Eunseol had advanced nearly ten zhang.
Just a few more steps and he would be able to look directly into the Illusion Pond that was spewing out the waves.
Crack. Thud.
By now, the sword membrane was finally breaking.
He had poured everything into it, but there was a limit to creating a sword membrane with only physical strength.
The moment hundreds of sharp forms were about to pierce his body,
“Young Master!”
Just as Ahwan cried out,
Thud.
Bu Eunseol, who had finally reached the Illusion Pond, stared at its surface.
The sharp wave-like energy that had been about to pierce his skin suddenly stopped.
The instant he gazed at the surface of the Illusion Pond, he saw through the source of the power creating the waves and instantly neutralized the attack.
“So this was it.”
What the Illusion Pond reflected was Bu Eunseol himself.
However, unlike his real appearance, the reflection in the water was trembling with fear and anxiety.
“It showed me the worst situation and ordeal I could possibly face right now.”
The power of the Illusion Pond was ultimately to materialize the worst fear that the person who entered could imagine. What Bu Eunseol feared most deep inside was being unable to use the Three Divine Energies, his inner energy, or the Beast Way’s power, while the people around him were threatened with death in a desperate situation.
And the Illusion Pond had precisely recreated that nightmare.
“Without realizing it, I too had become obsessed with power.”
Looking at his own reflection in the Illusion Pond, Bu Eunseol felt a sense of emptiness.
The realm he wanted to reach was one that would make even the strongest experts of the martial world ordinary.
Yet paradoxically, his body contained the most powerful energies in the world mixed together.
Because those mixed powers had been the very source of his victories in battle until now, he had unknowingly become attached to that strength.
“The fact that Ahwan’s body could not move was also my fear.”
From the moment he stepped into the martial world, the path he had walked was shadowed by the grudges of fallen enemies and the bloody karma he had accumulated himself.
Even so, he had always wanted to protect the people around him.
In this hopeless situation where he had no power at all, the fact that even Ahwan’s body could not move was the worst fear paradoxically created by his intense desire to protect.
In other words, the terror of ‘I might not be able to protect her’ had manifested in reality.
‘I cannot protect everyone.’
He had known this for a long time.
If he continued cutting down enemies one by one, he might eventually lose those dear to him as well.
Yet he could not stop his journey through the martial world, nor his path of revenge.
From the Gong Twin Demons to the Nine Deaths Squad Leader, countless people had willingly given their lives in his place.
They had faced death calmly, without regret.
How could he stop now, after turning his back on their sacrifices?
‘I can only do my best. Just like now.’
After briefly reflecting, Bu Eunseol looked into the Illusion Pond once more.
There, instead of the version of himself trembling in fear of being unable to protect others, he saw his true self—who had overcome even that fear.
Shunk!
Then an unexpected situation occurred.
Even though he had broken all the power within the Illusion Pond, the wave-like force that had stopped suddenly pierced into his body.
“Ugh.”
Bu Eunseol let out an involuntary groan.
Fortunately, some protective body qi remained, so it did not penetrate completely, but the sharp wave dug in quite deeply.
Slash!
He swung the Demon-Killer Sword and cut away all the waves embedded in his body. Finally,
“Haa… haa…”
He planted his sword in the ground and breathed heavily.
In a state where all his power had been sealed by the Illusion Pond, he had maintained the sword membrane for nearly one gak using only the mysteries of martial learning.
It was equivalent to sprinting at full speed for three days without eating anything—an act that had pushed his body to its absolute limit.
On top of that, he had ultimately suffered wounds as if pierced by hundreds of sharp spears… He could endure no longer.
‘I must regain my senses.’
As his vision blurred, Bu Eunseol instinctively tried to circulate his energy.
But the power the Illusion Pond had absorbed still had not returned, and the flowing blood was pushing his consciousness into an endless abyss.
“Young Master.”
At that moment, Ahwan, who had barely managed to stand, slowly approached to support him.
Tap.
But once again, her strength gave out. She leaned against Bu Eunseol’s back and lost consciousness.
Jiiing.
Then, accompanied by a low vibrating sound, a blue light began to flow from the Illusion Pond.
The blood pouring out suddenly began to slow, and a warm sensation spread across his back.
‘Ahwan?’
When he turned his head, he saw blue light spreading from Ahwan’s body as she leaned against his back.
Uuuung.
The light soon enveloped his entire body and continuously poured warm energy into him.
“Ahwan.”
Bu Eunseol called her name, but she had fallen into a deep sleep, unconscious, with light rippling around her.
Nevertheless, the energy rising from her body continued to flow endlessly into every part of Bu Eunseol.
‘This is…’
His torn muscles and lost blood caused his entire body to burn as if on fire, but the energy injected through her arm made the pain disappear and vitality began to return to his body.
‘The Illusion Pond and Ahwan’s body are reacting to each other.’
The Illusion Pond and Ahwan were glowing with the exact same light, as if in resonance.
Moreover, the energy injected through her body was extremely similar to Crystal Divine Energy, yet even purer.
It was like the power possessed by the spirit of water itself.
Shuuuu.
The power that flowed into his body circulated endlessly through the Ren and Du meridians before slowly exiting.
It was as if transparent water was cleanly purifying the inside of his body and then flowing back out.
Tap.
Once his body was completely purified, Ahwan, who had been stuck to his back like a magnet, slowly slid off.
Creak.
In the meantime, it felt as if his bones were being newly reconstructed and his skin was being regenerated.
It was not the typical shedding of the mortal body and exchanging of bones.
Rather, because the mixed energies inside his body had been completely removed by the Illusion Pond’s suction force, his body had turned into a pure one. Feeling a comfort as if floating on clouds, Bu Eunseol unconsciously closed his eyes and began to circulate his energy.
Uuuung.
Then, tens of thousands of light particles gathered into a single current and wrapped around his body.
Although the Illusion Pond had drained all his power, a new energy began to rise once again.
The Crystal Divine Energy was regenerating in a completely different way from before.
‘This is the true Crystal Divine Energy.’
The Crystal Divine Energy he had absorbed from Sa Cheongha had been somewhat altered,
so he had only used it to break sorcery or recover his body.
Unlike the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi or Thunder Spirit Energy, he had unconsciously restrained its use.
But what was now filling his body was pure Crystal Divine Energy containing natural qi.
‘The new Crystal Divine Energy is embracing the other two divine energies.’
The Three Divine Energies originally belonged to nature. Therefore, they were not stored inside the body but ‘borrowed’ from the vast natural world at any time.
Thanks to the Illusion Pond’s suction force completely emptying the energy inside his body, the Crystal Divine Energy was now generously accepting the other two divine energies.
Only now could he operate the Three Divine Energies by directly drawing power from nature.
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Vibrations and energy that shook heaven and earth spread from Bu Eunseol’s body.
Pure Void Union with the Dao, Abandoning All Without Flaw.
Natural qi originally achieved unity through emptiness and reached completion through complete abandonment. Thanks to the Illusion Pond’s suction force and the power of the Yona tribe that Ahwan possessed, Bu Eunseol had finally regained the Three Divine Energies in their perfect form.
―All things find their original form in stillness, and achieve harmony through emptiness.
Suddenly, the words his grandfather had spoken while gazing at nature came to mind.
‘Through stillness and emptiness, one attains completeness.’
In a state of no-self, Bu Eunseol naturally created a new teaching for uniting the Three Divine Energies from his grandfather’s words.
‘Because it is empty, it can be achieved.’
Float.
Having finally realized the Unified Divine Art of the Three Divine Energies, Bu Eunseol’s body slowly rose into the air.
A divine, immortal-like radiance emanated from his ascending body.
Flash!
When he opened his eyes, five-colored light flashed.
Shuuuu.
The Illusion Pond, which had been greedily absorbing the power of the Three Divine Energies within his body, gradually began to withdraw its force.
“Do you think I will forgive you just because you withdraw your power now?”
When Bu Eunseol extended his left hand,
Rumble, rumble, rumble.
Light, as if all the power in the world had gathered, converged, and in an instant, that power began to shine upon the pond.
Flash!
Then the water inside the pond began to evaporate completely.
In truth, the vast pond of the Illusion Pond contained almost no real water. It had been filled only with the supernatural power capable of extending transparent waves.
But when Bu Eunseol annihilated all of that power, it appeared as if the pond’s water was evaporating.
‘There’s an entrance inside the pond?’
Surprisingly, once all the water and power of the Illusion Pond had evaporated, a smooth, gleaming metal door installed inside it came into view.
Inside the Illusion Pond, a secret passage leading to another space had been hidden.
“Hmm.”
Bu Eunseol recalled the cluster of light he had held in his left hand.
It was the condensed form of the Three Divine Energies.
Because he had completed a teaching that allowed him to use the Three Divine Energies like a divine art, he could now freely wield the unified Three Divine Energies as if they were inner energy true qi.
Moreover, he could use that power to break sorcery and supernatural abilities.
“…Void Stillness Nature.”
After completing the final teaching, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
The Four Divine Energies were originally a power that could only obtain truth by abandoning everything and the essence of this divine art that allowed free control of the Three Divine Energies was to awaken the principles of nature through endless stillness and emptiness.
“This divine art is… the Endless Heavenly Light Art.”
Bu Eunseol named this new divine art that allowed free control of the Three Divine Energies the Endless Heavenly Light Art.
Thud.
Then the sound of Ahwan collapsing came from below.
“Ahwan.”
He had fallen into a state of no-self while creating the new teaching and had even forgotten that Ahwan was there.
When Bu Eunseol descended again, he held his breath.
Ahwan had completely disappeared.
Instead, in her place… lay an absolute beauty who looked as if a celestial maiden had descended, fallen into a deep sleep.
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