“This isn’t a dream.”
Bu Eunseol rubbed his eyes.
His mind was perfectly clear; he had not fallen under any bewitching arts or great dharma illusions.
He had not been dreaming either—he had most certainly been fighting Hyeok Ryeon-eung.
Yet everything had vanished.
The traces of their fierce battle, even the very existence of Hyeok Ryeon-eung himself.
‘Could it be…?’
Suddenly, Bu Eunseol recalled the time he and Gongsun Dana had fallen into a trap on Nine Curves Mountain.
—“I don’t know… When I looked up… the boulder was gone.”
Even then, Bu Eunseol had gathered all his power and unleashed harmony.
But Gongsun Dana had said it was not that he shattered the boulder—he had made the boulder cease to exist.
“Then even back then, he didn’t break it… he simply erased it.”
In that instant, a strange thought flashed through Bu Eunseol’s mind.
It was not that Hyeok Ryeon-eung’s body had been destroyed by the power of harmony.
What if the very existence of Hyeok Ryeon-eung, who had come to Hell Island, had been made to vanish from the beginning?
A bizarre, terrifying conjecture.
“No… could I have altered the phenomenon itself…?”
He wanted to deny it, yet everything that had happened could only be described as a “phenomenon.”
‘Then is this the true function of harmony?’
He had never before unleashed harmony upon a human opponent and struck true.
If so, just as the boulder had vanished that day…
Had he aligned every power within his body, poured forth harmony, and made Hyeok Ryeon-eung disappear?
Then did that mean he had finally reached the Limitless Realm?
‘No.’
If such a phenomenon had arisen from the augmentation of nothingness, he would never have witnessed illusions like these.
Power that manifests unintentionally cannot be called the augmentation of nothingness.
“Ughhh…”
Suddenly, Bu Eunseol let out a pained groan.
Stars flickered before his eyes, and a tearing agony erupted around the Jade Pillow acupoint at the back of his skull.
“Guh…!” With a loud cry he staggered and fell to one knee.
Heaven and earth spun madly. The whole world seemed dyed in black light—an illusion that swallowed everything.
—A fitting end for a fool who doesn’t even know who he is… or what power he truly possesses.
Inside his head echoed endlessly the voice of another self he had glimpsed in the illusion.
“That…”
The other self wore the form of an endlessly dark shadow.
“…is not me!”
Booom!
A torrent of qi burst from Bu Eunseol’s body and pierced the sky.
His head felt about to split and instinctively, he unleashed every ounce of power at full force.
Wuuuung!
The moment the disparate energies within his body were released simultaneously, they began clashing violently.
Tssss…
Yet strangely, the pain that had spread from the Jade Pillow acupoint vanished instead.
Even though the Great Prajna Power had not been deployed, the energies inside him settled of their own accord.
“I do not understand.”
Once his mind cleared, Bu Eunseol examined his body once more.
The power currently contained within his flesh overturned every principle of martial learning.
He possessed all at once the energies of orthodox, evil, demonic, and Buddhist paths—powers he should neither possess nor be able to contain.
Moreover, he wielded two of the Four Divine powers that only heaven-blessed physiques were said to command.
—Can one who has not reached the Limitless Realm still cause phenomena?
No one in the martial world could answer that question.
Even looking back through the long history of the martial world, no one had ever carried so many conflicting powers in one body.
Not even the grandmasters of any martial school had ever attempted it.
“So that is why the Pavilion Lord said what he did.”
The man who mastered every martial art scattered throughout the current martial world and could instantly grasp the principles of any technique—Nangyang Pavilion Lord, the demon-like Ak Muryeong—had been unable to cure Bu Eunseol’s body and instead recommended entering the Supreme Demonic Path.
Partly because he could not fully diagnose Bu Eunseol’s condition, but mostly because he could not predict what realm of martial learning Bu Eunseol would ultimately reach.
A path no one had ever walked.
Bu Eunseol was walking it alone.
And no one knew what outcome this chaotic convergence of powers would bring, or what ending awaited him.
“Hyeok Ryeon-eung… If he had used that technique from the very beginning, I would have died without being able to do anything.”
Bu Eunseol gazed at the spot where Hyeok Ryeon-eung had vanished and let out a deep sigh.
Hyeok Ryeon-eung had trained external arts to the point of indestructibility as one of the Three Realms’ special divine guards, and had even received two of the Eight Emperors Three Stars techniques.
The final suicidal strike he had unleashed, Powerful Dragon Subduing Soul, had displayed power beyond imagination.
Had he pretended to fight normally from the start and attempted such a technique?
Bu Eunseol would never have anticipated it and would have lost his life or suffered grievous injury.
“I was truly lucky.”
Hyeok Ryeon-eung had revealed his emotions in an attempt to win Bu Eunseol over.
When he deployed the divine great dharma, he had already expressed joy, anger, sorrow, and pleasure like any ordinary martial world person.
That was why Bu Eunseol had been able to predict his actions to some degree and hear at least one final reply.
“Baekri Muha.”
Remembering Hyeok Ryeon-eung’s last words, Bu Eunseol’s eyes grew clear.
“The mysterious man once called the greatest beauty under heaven… was my father.”
He had always thought it strange.
When he first heard that name from the former Hyeok Leader, his heart had raced.
He had dismissed it as a curious phenomenon, yet… that man was his father. The root he had wandered so desperately searching for.
“Father…”
Bu Eunseol murmured softly.
Just uttering that single word made tears threaten to burst forth.
It was a word he had never once spoken aloud until now.
Yet before he lost his memories, he must surely have called it countless times…
To him, the word “father” brought a joy and pain different from when he thought of his grandfather, Bu Zhanyang.
Those days drifting rootless like duckweed, blown wherever the wind took him.
It must have been because of the memories of that heartbreaking, wretched vagrant life.
“I had always wished the lost memories would return, that the sealed memories would be released.”
In the end, thanks to Hyeok Ryeon-eung, he had found a clue to recover his true lineage.
“Of course, it could be a lie. But…”
Hyeok Ryeon-eung was a man who lied as easily as he breathed.
The chance he had spouted nonsense even at the moment of death was high.
Whether it was truth would require further investigation… yet Bu Eunseol felt the words rung true.
“Since he was the mysterious figure called the greatest beauty under heaven, tracing him will not be easy.”
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
Then he must begin the search as soon as possible.
Tap!
Unfurling his movement art, Bu Eunseol sped toward the ship anchored at the shore.
Now, beyond hunting the culprits,
he had gained one more goal.
***
Seomanbu, secret chamber of a Majeon safe house.
Having returned from Hell Island, Bu Eunseol secretly summoned the leader of the Death Spirit Corps, Mu Heon, through Soyo.
‘No one must learn that Baekri Muha may be my father.’
Waiting for Mu Heon in the chamber, his eyes darkened.
‘Not even Mu Heon or Soyo.’
Baekri Muha was called a mysterious person, yet known to walk a clearly orthodox lineage.
Already, after sweeping away the Blood Sea Demon Palace and the lost soul renegades hidden there once more, he had made it abundantly clear to the demonic faction that he had no intention of establishing demonic hegemony.
If word spread through the demonic intelligence network that he was searching for Baekri Muha?
Not only would it invite gossip, in the worst case it could become the spark that rallied those who opposed Bu Eunseol.
‘There is one more problem.’
Even uncovering the whereabouts of the Seven-Finger Demon Blade that once shook the martial world had taken ages.
How much harder, then, to trace Baekri Muha—a man whose true lineage and martial origins were completely unknown, who had been dubbed the greatest beauty under heaven.
It would be many times more difficult than tracing his grandfather, one of the former Seven-Finger Demon Blade.
The very reason he had earned the title “greatest beauty under heaven”
was because his origins were utterly unknown, as though he had fallen from the sky.
Thus Bu Eunseol chose a slightly easier method.
“Lord, you summoned me?”
The leader of the Death Spirit Corps, Mu Heon, entered the chamber and respectfully clasped his hands.
Bu Eunseol gave him this order.
“Activate the entire intelligence network and find the disciple of the Divine Mountain Sage.”
“The Divine Mountain Sage’s disciple?” Mu Heon blinked.
“Does he have a disciple?”
That the Divine Mountain Sage—called the greatest diviner and sage under heaven—had a disciple was news to the entire martial world; Mu Heon had never heard of it before.
“The Divine Mountain Sage hides his tracks perfectly using enormous influence and intelligence networks.” Bu Eunseol continued calmly. “And the reason that was possible is because an outstanding disciple acts as a fake Divine Mountain Sage in his stead.”
“Is that so?”
“Yes. Yet he would not have poured the same effort into erasing his disciple’s tracks.” Bu Eunseol spoke with certainty. “No one knows that he even has a disciple, after all.”
The true identity of the Divine Mountain Sage was still not properly known to the martial world.
Yet Bu Eunseol not only guessed it, he had personally met the disciple.
The true identity of the Divine Mountain Sage was none other than the Martial Alliance Leader, the Heavenly Emperor.
Thus, whenever he used the identity of the Divine Mountain Sage, he would be extremely cautious and keep his movements perfectly hidden.
Perhaps most of what had been done until now under that name had been handled by the disciple who stood in as the fake Divine Mountain Sage.
Mu Heon tilted his head.
“Are you certain it is a disciple? Could it not simply be another close aide?”
“It must be the disciple. If it were a confidant or subordinate, there would be no need to disguise a young man as an old one.”
“A young man, you say?”
When Mu Heon looked puzzled, Bu Eunseol had no choice but to recount the time he met the old man who had played the fake Divine Mountain Sage.
At that time, the fake Elder had claimed he was paid by some old man to do this, but Bu Eunseol had instantly seen through that the “old man” was a young person in disguise and that he was someone intimately connected to the real Divine Mountain Sage.
Because the man had switched the Boeun Coins with hand speed Bu Eunseol himself could not even detect.
To find the Divine Mountain Sage, Bu Eunseol intended to locate that fake once more.
“Indeed, the probability is higher that it is his disciple.”
Having heard the full story, Mu Heon nodded.
“There would be no reason to dress a young person as an aged elder just for that.”
After a moment of thought, he added, “Even if we cannot find the Divine Mountain Sage himself, locating his disciple should not be impossible.”
If the intelligence networks of Majeon’s Death Spirit Corps and the Martial Alliance’s Supreme Corps were combined, they could find the disciple even if the master remained hidden.
“But why seek the disciple of the Divine Mountain Sage?”
“There are things I must confirm.”
Until now, whenever Bu Eunseol gave an order, he usually explained the reasons in detail.
Yet this time only a short answer came.
Mu Heon sensed that something lay behind it.
“Understood. I will immediately begin searching for the disciple’s whereabouts.”
He bowed without pressing for details.
Because he trusted Bu Eunseol without limit.
Reasons were unnecessary.
***
Hoigyeongbu, Mihyeon Village.
The marketplace bustled with people, and bundle peddlers lined every corner.
In such a thriving street, one type of person always claimed a spot.
Fortune-tellers.
A fair distance from the market, beneath a great tree, stood a banner reading “Knower of All Things Under Heaven.”
Beneath that tree sat an old fortune-teller.
With no customers and the warm weather, the old man dozed, nodding off while crouched.
Step, step.
Then footsteps approached, and a young man stopped before him.
“Would you read my fortune?”
The young man was slender, his features exceedingly delicate and refined. The old fortune-teller, roused from sleep, pointed lazily at the banner despite the rare customer.
“Payment first.”
The young man drew something silver from his robes.
It was a silver token engraved with the characters 絶頂—Pinnacle.
“What is this?”
When the old man blinked, the youth smiled and answered, “Your fee.”
And he added, “The fee for finding the Divine Mountain Sage.”
At the mention of the Divine Mountain Sage, the old man’s eyes flashed—then widened in fear.
“How did you find me…?”
The young man was Bu Eunseol disguised as Seon Woojin.
The old fortune-teller was none other than the disciple who had once played the fake Divine Mountain Sage.
“Drop the act.”
Bu Eunseol, in Seon Woojin’s form, spoke coldly.
“I knew from the very first time we met that you were the Divine Mountain Sage’s disciple.”
The old man stared into Bu Eunseol’s frozen eyes, then let out a deep sigh.
“It could not be helped.” The aged voice shifted, becoming the clear, resonant voice of a man in his prime. “My master suddenly changed the plan and ordered me to engrave the mechanism-disabling method of the Scripture Pavilion onto the Boeun Coin.”
Even when he carved the numbers onto the token, the disciple had known Bu Eunseol would see through him.
“Yet to approach me like this…” A sharp glint passed through the old man’s eyes. “Your position as a Martial Alliance Captain could fly away because of it.”
“It was never truly mine to begin with, so I have nothing to regret.” Bu Eunseol snorted and declared firmly.
“Where is the Divine Mountain Sage?”
Instead of answering, the old man said something else.
“Master told me you would come looking for me before long.”
He continued with a laughing voice, “He said even if you could not find him, you would surely find me.”
Bu Eunseol’s face twisted in disgust.
He could tolerate the arrogance of a man called the greatest sage under heaven who claimed to know everything.
But he could not stand the attitude that seemed to toy with another’s fate.
“I asked where the Divine Mountain Sage is.” When Bu Eunseol dropped formal speech, the old man’s brow twitched.
“Why don’t you find him yourself?”
“Do you think I am making a request right now?”
Crimson light flared in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
Finding Baekri Muha was something he would stake his life on.
Even if this man were the real Divine Mountain Sage rather than the disciple, Bu Eunseol had no intention of letting refusal slide.
“You’ve lost your mind. You would use martial arts here?”
“I was never sane to begin with.” Hazy heat rose from Bu Eunseol’s body like a mirage. “Not since the day I stepped into the martial world.”
He was not merely saying it.
Bu Eunseol had once wished for nothing, like a monk who turned his back on the world. He had wanted only to remain in Pyeongan, tending to his grandfather’s business.
All he desired was for time to flow on like this.
To the young Bu Eunseol, the entire world had been his grandfather. But when his grandfather vanished, everything vanished with him.
All that remained was raw fury and the desire for vengeance.
“Your killing intent is impressive.”
Sensing it, the old man smiled.
In truth, he had been born with boundless killing intent. Had he not met the many close friends he did while wandering the martial world?
He would have become the great demon who destroyed the martial world, just as Hyeok Ryeon-eung had predicted.
“I will not say it twice.”
Immense inner power poured from Bu Eunseol, pressing down on the old man’s body.
“Where is the Divine Mountain Sage?”
The old man wore an incredulous expression.
Countless people and even martial artists passed by around them.
If Bu Eunseol unleashed force here, it would be the same as throwing the identity of Seon Woojin—built with such painstaking effort—into the trash.
“So you are prepared.” When the old man spoke yet again without answering,
Crack, crack.
His neck and spine began bending toward the ground.
True to his word, without a second warning, Bu Eunseol poured overwhelming inner power and crushed the man’s body.
“As expected of the demonic path.”
Whish!
The old man circulated his energy, raising a mysterious wind. The pressure of Bu Eunseol’s power melted away like snow.
“Twenty li west past the west gate, there is the Temple of Guan. Go there…”
The old man stared straight into Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“…and we can have a proper fight.”
His lips smiled, yet icy killing light flashed in his eyes.
The Divine Mountain Sage was the Martial Alliance Leader.
In other words, this disciple was the direct successor of the greatest orthodox master.
When threatened with martial force, he responded not with fear but with a challenge.
“Good.” The bloody light in Bu Eunseol’s eyes deepened. “But do not expect to walk away unscathed.”
“Any time.”
Fwoosh!
The old man vanished from Bu Eunseol’s sight in an instant. It was a movement art that surpassed common sense.
Bu Eunseol also unfolded his own movement technique and arrived near the Temple of Guan.
There stood a young man wearing a face veil, with the disguise gone.
It was the former fortune-teller.
“My name is Mu Gyeol.”
The man, Mu Gyeol, gave Bu Eunseol a faint smile.
“As you guessed, I am indeed the disciple of the Divine Mountain Sage.”
The eyes behind the veil were as clear and transparent as a lake reflecting the autumn sky.
He showed not the slightest intimidation before the Martial Soul Command Lord who shook the world.
Shiiing.
Without hesitation, Bu Eunseol drew the Demon-Killer Sword.
Even when inner power was poured in, the sword emitted neither demonic qi nor any mysterious force.
Wuuuu…
Yet as Bu Eunseol continuously injected tremendous true qi, it began emitting an eerie sword cry.
He had no intention of prolonging the fight.
Bzzzz!
The Demon-Killer Sword trembled violently at the tip and stabbed toward Mu Gyeol’s vital points.
If he did not completely subdue him now, the man would surely crawl back later.
Bu Eunseol intended to crush him in one decisive clash and break his spirit once and for all.
