“Wow, that’s scary.”
The boy forcibly blinked his eyes, trying to hide his surprise.
“I expected your martial prowess to have risen dramatically… but I never imagined it would reach this level.”
As if trying to regain his confidence, the boy flashed his white teeth in a smile.
“That’s why I’m saying this—surely you didn’t think I came here alone, did you?”
Croak. Croooak.
Suddenly, a frog-like croaking sound began to echo from somewhere.
Croak. Croooaaak.
The sound grew louder and louder.
Eventually it rang madly from every direction, as though it would tear the ears apart.
Shuuuk.
At the same time, around the abandoned courtyard, glittering shadows rose from the ground like sprouting plants, one after another revealing themselves.
They wore no clothing; their bare skin was exposed like shaved beasts. No hair was on their heads, and even the genitals that should be there were absent.
They were grotesque lumps of flesh that merely took human shape.
“Shall we see just how high a realm you’ve reached?”
As soon as the boy finished speaking,
Crooooorrrk.
The human-shaped meat-lump warriors let out that bizarre frog croak and—
Swish!
Leaped dozens of meters into the sky, only to suddenly plummet straight toward Bu Eunseol.
Flash!
Bu Eunseol unleashed a terrifying cross-shaped sword energy dozens of meters wide toward them.
It was the Waning Moon, Dawn Star.
Yet through the gaps in the cross-shaped sword energy, the warriors kept charging endlessly at Bu Eunseol.
Papapapa!
As the Silent Tiger Soul Sword whipped around at ultra-high speed, hundreds of sword energies poured down like rain, slicing the warriors’ bodies into hundreds of pieces.
Crunch, crunch, crunch.
However, the flesh sliced apart by the sword energy was hollow like mud—not a single drop of blood emerged.
Because of this, chunks of meat-like flesh began to pile up thickly around Bu Eunseol.
‘This is…’
Looking at the accumulating bodies around him, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed.
‘the Inbiin.’
The thought crossed his mind that the boy in front of him might not be a member of the Returning to One Realm at all, but rather the leader of one of the Eight Human Heavens, the one who commands the Inbiin.
‘There’s a chance.’
The Returning to One Realm only strived to recreate past masters; they have never produced these kinds of meat-lump monstrosities.
‘Of course, it could be something recently created.’
Yet to Bu Eunseol, the boy’s technique felt far closer to the bizarre the Inbiin he had encountered countless times before than to anything belonging to the Three Realms.
‘Whether the Inbiin or the Three Realms, he must hold power comparable to a Sect Leader.’
Otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to command so many meat-lump monstrosities at once.
Slashslashslash!
Every time the Silent Tiger Soul Sword moved at extreme speed, the charging the Inbiin were not merely sliced apart—they were pulverized into powder and fell to the ground. Even if thousands more of these monstrosities swarmed in, they couldn’t touch a single hair on Bu Eunseol’s body.
“Huhuhu. Impressive swordsmanship.”
Yet the boy watching from afar wore a sweet smile.
“But you should have realized they aren’t human.”
Splatter.
Meanwhile, the meat fragments piled around Bu Eunseol began melting like water.
Crack.
They transformed into a colossal curtain that blotted out the sky and swallowed Bu Eunseol whole.
Shaaaah!
Bu Eunseol once again unleashed sword energy to cut the curtain apart—but it was a feint.
The meat pieces that had fallen to the ground, now in liquid form, climbed up his ankles and had already risen to his chest.
“Kh.”
As the liquid spread through his limbs, Bu Eunseol found himself completely unable to move no matter how hard he tried.
Glug. Splatter.
In the blink of an eye the liquids had reached his neck.
In that instant he felt a sensation that was both scorching hot and freezing cold. At the same time, waves of sadness and joy crashed into him endlessly.
Once covered by the melted liquid of the monstrosities’ bodies, every possible sensation and emotion the flesh and mind could feel repeated without end.
Croooak.
Before long Bu Eunseol was trapped inside the sticky liquid.
“Haa.”
The boy let out a strange exclamation as he gazed at Bu Eunseol swallowed by the fluid.
“To reach such a realm with merely ordinary bones and not even one of the Hundred and Eight Stars…”
He apparently possessed the ability to examine the bones and physique of anyone submerged in the liquid.
“I can’t believe it.” The boy muttered in a low voice, as though he couldn’t comprehend it. “I thought you must have been born with extraordinary bones and constitution.”
To surpass the martial realm achievable by the younger generation and reach the level of those who gaze upon the martial world itself, surely he must have been born with outstanding innate talent.
Even if not, there had to be something exceptional.
Yet the sensations transmitted through the liquid told a different story.
A body and mind trained to the absolute limit but in truth, an utterly ordinary physique.
Shuuuuuk.
The spot where Bu Eunseol had stood was now a gigantic mountain of piled flesh.
“What a waste of time.”
A yellowish gleam flowed from the sighing boy’s eyes.
“No matter how high your martial realm is, if the bones are mediocre you’re useless.”
Shuuuuu.
White smoke began rising from the mountain of flesh.
Formless Poison.
What the boy had unleashed was the profound poison art that only a master who reached the pinnacle of the Poison Path could perform.
The meat-lumps that attacked Bu Eunseol were not real humans but illusory warriors created from poison which was why he could freely change them between liquid and solid states.
“You’ve survived battles against so many masters, so the mind-image world probably doesn’t work on you.” The boy gave a faint smile. “But Formless Poison is something you can never avoid. Even a lifelong poison cultivator couldn’t block it.”
Using a poison technique that transcended the limits of ordinary poison masters, he created a brand-new, unprecedented method, melting Bu Eunseol away in one stroke.
Splatterrrr.
The enormous tower-like mountain of flesh was melting down like water.
No matter how great one’s martial arts, no matter how formidable one’s cultivation… once trapped inside a mountain of poison capable of melting even iron like water, there was no hoping for a miracle.
Slurp.
Yet something astonishing happened.
From the steadily melting flesh, a human silhouette began to emerge.
“Huh?”
The boy was greatly shocked.
“Even if you used protective qi it shouldn’t make any difference.”
The poison he created had already adhered to the flesh of Bu Eunseol’s arms and legs. Even if protective qi was generated in that state, it couldn’t stop the melting.
So how could there still be a biological response?
“No way—” The boy let out a cry of astonishment.
As the melted flesh completely flowed to the ground like liquid, he saw Bu Eunseol standing there perfectly unharmed.
“How…”
While the boy muttered,
Shhh.
Bu Eunseol, having evaporated the poison clinging to his body, wore a faint smile.
“Quite a usable poison art. Thanks to you, I learned something.”
“Huh.”
Only then did the boy realize that the liquid clinging to Bu Eunseol’s body had turned into pure, completely detoxified water.
This meant he had either absorbed the poison into his body or perfectly neutralized it through the mystery of using poison to counter poison.
“Poison Body Constitution.”
The boy shook his head in disbelief.
“How did you reach such a realm without anyone detecting it?”
It was well known that Bu Eunseol had reached a terrifying level of martial prowess but the fact that he had mastered such fearsome poison arts was completely unknown.
“No, that can’t be right.”
When one cultivates poison arts, a distinctive poisonous aura emanates.
Even upon reaching the peak of poison mastery, it should be impossible to completely conceal a completed Poison Body Constitution.
Yet there was not the slightest trace of poison cultivation on Bu Eunseol.
“Could it be… you learned the martial arts of the Poison Emperor among the Eight Desolate Three Stars?”
“Poison Emperor, my ass.” Bu Eunseol gave a snort of laughter. “You’re awfully proud of some mediocre poison.”
He meant it sincerely.
No matter how impressive the boy’s poison was, it wasn’t as potent as the Seven-Step Soul-Severing Snakes’ venom.
Thus, when the boy’s poison qi entered his body, Bu Eunseol naturally accepted it, and just as he had done countless times before, converted it back into true qi and stored it.
Moreover, since the venom of Seven-Step Soul-Severing Snakes and the poison of the Wind God Palace were already stored as inner cores inside Bu Eunseol’s body, no poison could ever harm him, and he could detoxify any toxin whatsoever.
“Well well, I made a mistake today.”
The boy gave a wry smile and shook his head.
“I shouldn’t have relied solely on poison… See you next time.”
His body began slowly turning transparent and vanishing.
He was openly fleeing.
No matter how much Bu Eunseol’s power had increased, the boy was confident he couldn’t stop his escape.
But he didn’t know.
Not only had Bu Eunseol’s martial prowess advanced dazzlingly—he had also obtained the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi.
Whoooosh.
A sudden gust of wind blew, causing the blurring boy’s form to regain its color.
The moment Bu Eunseol focused his will to not let him get away, the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi naturally merged with the Crystal Divine Energy, instantly burrowing into the boy’s body and sealing his internal energy.
“This is—”
The boy looked in shock at the transparent energy penetrating him.
“You can use sorcery too?”
If he had used only Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, the boy would have noticed the power immediately.
But the Crystal Divine Energy was the most natural among the Four Divine Energies.
When combined with Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, it unfolded like an undetectable, mystical sorcery even to the boy.
“This is truly astonishing. For the Nangyang Pavilion Master to teach you even this…”
At those words, Bu Eunseol’s eyebrow shot up.
‘The Pavilion Lord is proficient in sorcery?’
Ak Muryeong was known as someone who researched only martial arts; there was no record of him using sorcery. Yet the boy spoke as though Ak Muryeong was an expert in sorcery.
“I surrender. I can’t break this.” The boy shrugged while looking down at his body. “It contains the power of breaking illusions—I can’t shake it off no matter what.”
Flash.
In that instant a glint passed through Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
Just moments ago the boy had unleashed a terrifying poison art capable of poisoning the entire world in one go. Yet now he couldn’t move a finger because of this energy.
‘So that’s how it is.’
Only then did Bu Eunseol realize the boy hadn’t properly cultivated poison arts at all. He merely stored poison inside his body to execute the Formless Poison technique.
He also understood the secret behind the unique body that refused to be cut.
“Where is Grandfather’s corpse?”
“You’ve misunderstood something. Unfortunately I’m not actually a member of the Returning to One Realm…”
But the words were cut short.
The Silent Tiger Soul Sword flashed, instantly severing half of his neck.
“No pain, no blood either, right?”
Looking at the boy’s dangling head, bloody light spread through Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“It’s not like the Supreme Deity, with a completely separate perfect body. You probably connected this toy-like shell to a part of your real body.”
The boy had unfolded a poison art that transcended imagination—an absolute power that even a master of the Limitless Realm couldn’t block. Yet he couldn’t resist the power of the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi at all?
That meant this toy-like body was itself the very poison medium used to execute Formless Poison, directly linked to his true self.
But when the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi penetrated and severed that connection, despite possessing terrifying abilities and an extremely poison-soaked body, he couldn’t even flee and was caught.
“You really are a formidable enemy. A truly great adversary.”
The boy clapped as though amazed that Bu Eunseol had seen through his secret.
“So it really is true that you killed the Spear-Wielder.”
Then he continued, “Is the only information you want about Grandfather’s remains?”
“…”
“Honestly, I don’t know. Even if you kill me, I can’t tell you.”
His expression remained relaxed.
“You know torturing me is pointless. In that case, wouldn’t it be better to let me go and get the information you want?”
Even if the shell was part of his true body, his life wouldn’t be in danger.
No matter how much he was tortured, no information would be extracted.
“How about it? Interested?”
The boy was proposing to trade information in exchange for being let go.
“Where is Grandfather’s body?”
“I told you—I’m not part of the Returning to One Realm.”
The boy said confidently, “Ask about something else instead.”
“You’ll tell me everything you know?”
“Of course not. In that case it would be better to just lose a small part of my body, right?”
The boy’s eyes curved into crescents.
“Information about the Inbiin.”
He stated firmly.
“I’ll tell you about them.”
Surprisingly, the boy was admitting that his affiliation was not the Returning to One Realm, but the Eight Human Heavens.
“How do I know whether those words are true or false?”
“You can verify through insight.”
When someone creates a mind-image world, they become an invincible existence inside it—or can even defy the laws of nature.
In exchange, anyone trapped in that mind-image world can peer into things like the caster’s memories.
The boy was saying he would prove his words were true through that method.
“But I cannot give information that would destroy the Inbiin’s power base. For example, the main headquarters, or the identity of the Heavenly Lord.”
In the end, he refused to reveal anything that could collapse the organization called the Inbiin.
Bu Eunseol gazed at the boy for a moment.
The carefree smiling face looked as though he regarded this entire situation as a game.
‘Fine.’
Having devised some plan, Bu Eunseol nodded.
“Your affiliation?”
“This shell belongs to the Inbiin. Naturally I’m affiliated with the Inbiin.”
This implied that while the shell was the Inbiin, the true entity might not be. But since the boy had promised to speak only about the Inbiin, Bu Eunseol didn’t press the point.
“What is the Inbiin’s goal?”
“Good question.”
The boy smiled brightly.
“To provide a body for him to temporarily reside in.”
Then, in a clear voice, he continued. “Because he reincarnates endlessly, if he stays in a child’s body for too long he’ll quickly be murdered.”
“Reincarnation, you say…”
“Correct. The martial world calls him the True Demon.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes rippled like water.
So the idea that the True Demon reincarnated while retaining his memories wasn’t nonsense after all.
“Then he isn’t actually sealed?”
“He is sealed. His soul is scattered in all directions and he cannot find his original body.”
“Then why create temporary ones?”
The boy smiled innocently.
“There is a separate method to create his complete body. So the Inbiin is merely making temporary vessels in the meantime.”
In short, the Inbiin’s goal was to prepare temporary bodies for the True Demon until he could obtain his real one.
“That’s why they sent Ghost Children and Ghosts into the martial world? To research bodies?”
“Exactly. Even temporary ones require a special constitution for the great method to work.” The boy shook his head. “Of course it doesn’t always succeed… so they endlessly study the bodies of powerful martial artists to create similar vessels.”
A strange feeling arose in Bu Eunseol.
Everything just explained sounded almost identical to what the Returning to One Realm was doing.
“Are the Returning to One Realm and the Inbiin the same organization?”
“Of course not.” The boy shook his head. “But they are cooperating. The Returning to One Realm inherited the Baekri Family’s great method… and the Inbiin can be called the cradle of the Demon Cult’s great methods, so their compatibility is excellent.”
“The two factions joined forces for research.”
“Something like that.”
Bu Eunseol made an expression of incomprehension.
“How can opposing factions join hands?”
“The Returning to One Realm calls itself the Three Realms, but those people are completely insane.”
The boy laughed.
“They desire utter annihilation.”
“Is that the same goal as the True Demon?”
The boy shook his head.
“Not at all. He is said to have existed since the beginning and possesses eternal life. What meaning would destroying the martial world have for him?”
“the Inbiin has completely different, insane doctrines compared to the other Incheons. Why use that as an excuse to kill innocent people?”
“They aren’t exactly innocent. It’s giving them a chance to be reborn stronger, isn’t it?”
The boy grinned broadly.
A flash passed through the eyes of Bu Eunseol, who had been listening silently.
‘This guy is an outsider.’
From the boy’s answers so far, he could infer two things.
First, this boy was not a legitimate heir of the Inbiin.
the Inbiin regarded the absurd doctrine of killing weak humans to let them be reborn stronger—burning away the karma of the flesh through suffering—as extremely sacred and believed in it fanatically.
Yet the boy didn’t treat the doctrine with reverence or deep inner faith.
Second, he casually referred to the True Demon as “he.”
When someone like the Fist Man referred to him deferentially as “that person,” even if the boy were the Heavenly Lord of the Inbiin, he wouldn’t call the True Demon simply “he,” meaning this boy was likely not a true the Inbiin, but someone from another faction cooperating with them.
Bu Eunseol threw out a question that could instantly clarify this.
“Are you also part of the Covenant?”
“Oh, you received the offer?”
The boy let out an admiring exclamation.
“Congratulations. You’re probably the first person to receive a Covenant invitation at your age.”
‘So that’s it.’
The person controlling the boy’s true body was quite old and a martial artist who had joined the Covenant. After all, the Blue-Clothed Elder had said there was no one his age who received a Covenant invitation.
And the Covenant was only transmitted to martial artists who had become truly strong. In other words, this boy wasn’t a genuine the Inbiin—he was a martial artist who, for some reason, was imitating the Inbiin or clearly a martial artist cooperating with the Inbiin.
‘I’ll uncover it.’
Even though the boy hadn’t spoken completely honestly, Bu Eunseol didn’t press him on it. On the contrary, he deliberately accepted the proposal in order to reveal the boy’s true identity.
“Understood.”
Ziiing.
Nodding, Bu Eunseol immediately released the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi he had poured into the boy’s body.
“Go.”
The boy tilted his head with a puzzled expression.
“Is that all the questions?”
Honestly, almost none of the boy’s answers contained core information.
He had thought the real questioning would begin now but it was already over?
“As long as you don’t give information that would destroy the organization, there’s nothing more to ask.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes turned utterly cold.
“You’d just keep giving vague answers to increase confusion anyway.”
The longer the conversation continued, the more the boy muddled even the facts Bu Eunseol already knew.
If the full truth couldn’t be uncovered, further conversation was meaningless.
“You already know that much? I have nothing to say.”
In truth, the boy never intended to give Bu Eunseol real information. He had already drawn the line at not revealing the main base or the leader’s identity.
He planned to cleverly tell partial truths while sowing maximum confusion.
“There are many ways to create confusion even while speaking only the truth.”
The boy used answering questions as bait to instead increase turmoil in Bu Eunseol’s mind.
“The Demon Emperor often uses that method, doesn’t he?”
Realizing something, Bu Eunseol narrowed his eyes.
“In fact, you didn’t really care whether your body was destroyed or not. You just pretended to be afraid and agreed to answer my questions.”
“Exactly.”
The boy shrugged.
“But even now that you know, you won’t go back on your word, right?”
Bu Eunseol glared at the boy, then nodded as though he had no choice.
“As promised, I’ll let you go. Now leave.”
“Great. As expected, Martial Soul Command Lord is a man of his word.”
The boy gave a thumbs-up.
“Then see you next time.”
Shuk.
He unfolded a mystical movement technique like sorcery and vanished in an instant.
“…”
For a long while Bu Eunseol stared indifferently at the spot where the boy disappeared, then let out a cold smile.
“I said I’d let you go—I never said I wouldn’t follow immediately.”
The grand masters of the martial world valued their words like a thousand pieces of gold and considered breaking them a disgrace. Especially Bu Eunseol, whose actions always matched his words, so the boy would believe him absolutely.
But he never said he wouldn’t pursue—so he could openly chase after him.
“Of course he probably thought even if I tracked him, I’d never catch his trail, which is why he accepted such terms.”
The boy was confident.
If Bu Eunseol merely released the seal on his internal energy, even if pursued closely, he could shake off any tail in an instant.
Even at Cold Moon Island, he had vanished so quickly that Bu Eunseol couldn’t even attempt to follow.
“In the past, I might have lost him.”
But there was one fact the boy could never have dreamed of.
Bu Eunseol possessed three of the Four Divine Energies and among them was the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, capable of sensing air currents infinitely.
“But now I will absolutely not lose him.”
Whoooosh.
As he spread the Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, a faint breeze blew and Bu Eunseol’s body turned completely transparent.
Because Wind-Cloud Divine Qi was a power infinitely close to nature, merely raising it made him blend perfectly with the surroundings as though performing supreme concealment.
Swish!
Unfolding his movement technique, Bu Eunseol rapidly headed in the direction the boy had vanished.
Sorcery, divine movement, transformation art—it didn’t matter what it was.
Whether he turned into a wooden stick or a fly, the boy had moved by cutting through the air.
Since he had only just left, the flow could still be sensed and followed immediately.
Tsutsutsutsu.
In his transparent form, Bu Eunseol swiftly tracked the boy’s path.
Swift Beyond Shadow was originally a near-invisibility divine movement art; ordinary senses couldn’t even detect the traces of its execution. Yet when combined with Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, not only did his form become completely transparent, while moving he erased even his presence as perfectly as though using the Ghost Concealment Great Method.
Tsutsutsutsu.
How long had he been pursuing?
Before long the sun was setting.
The boy’s movement was truly like light and Bu Eunseol could barely keep up.
‘Very cautious.’
In case there was even the slightest chance of being tracked, he had prepared people with excellent movement skills and similar body sizes to confuse his trail.
It was a simple, old-fashioned method that information organizations with spider-web-like networks wouldn’t use, but in the current situation it was extremely effective.
If he hadn’t tracked with Wind-Cloud Divine Qi, no matter how outstanding his pursuit skills or how powerful an information network he commanded, he wouldn’t have been able to accurately grasp the boy’s movements.
‘No matter who he is, one thing is certain—he is not someone of the younger generation.’
Just looking at the boy’s escape technique, it was clearly not something modern young masters would use. His true body must surely be an old veteran with considerable years and battle experience.
Rustle.
Bu Eunseol precisely identified the traces the boy left and continued the relentless pursuit.
Finally, on the third day, Bu Eunseol located the real headquarters the boy belonged to.
Because the trail ended there and he traveled no further.
‘This place is…’
Gazing at the grand, ornate entrance, Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
The greatest demonic sword sect.
The place the boy had slipped into was none other than the Hwa Wu Sword Sect.
