Bu Eunseol’s eyes narrowed.
‘To escape, one must destroy every single silver shield. That is the extremity of this supreme formation.’
Once the Silver Shield Tower Formation was fully deployed, escape was impossible. The only known way to break it was to shatter every last silver shield.
The problem was that the shields were forged from an alloy of black iron and dark gold, harder than any weapon known to man. Moreover, the formation itself carried a suppressive function: no matter what martial art one performed or what divine weapon one swung, its power would be drastically reduced.
Thus, even the greatest masters, once trapped inside the Silver Shield Tower Formation, would eventually exhaust their inner energy and be subdued.
Shhhhk.
The moment the formation activated, the entire surroundings—including the sky that had been dyed blue—began to shift into a silvery white that bordered on pure white.
‘So this is the greatest formation of the Martial Heaven Corps.’
Originally, Bu Eunseol had intended to shatter the shields with overwhelming force before the formation could fully unfold. Yet now that he faced this exquisite array in person, his warrior’s blood and competitive spirit ignited.
‘I will break it.’
Shrring.
He lightly swung his sword, but no sound emerged. It seemed the formation even blocked sound itself.
‘It feels as though I am submerged in thick liquid. Is that why my martial power has diminished?’
A viscous energy permeated the interior, greatly slowing movements and weakening techniques.
Suddenly.
A bluish sword blade thrust out of nowhere toward the nape of Bu Eunseol’s neck.
Because the formation sealed not only sound but every trace of presence, even his beast-like intuition did not trigger.
Yet with a body that had approached an upper realm, and having survived countless life-and-death battles, Bu Eunseol evaded the blade through pure instinct.
Papapak!
Immediately after, six more blades shot out from both sides near his ribs.
Clang-clang-clang!
Bu Eunseol instantly swung his sword to parry and counter-cut the attackers, but the blade only sliced empty air filled with white light. The warriors of the Martial Heaven Corps were nowhere to be seen.
‘In the end, I must destroy the shields.’
Bu Eunseol clicked his tongue.
The Silver Shield Tower Formation, hailed as the supreme array of the Martial Heaven Corps—one of the Seven Great Divisions—perfectly suppressed even beast-like intuition and completely concealed the location and presence of the warriors hiding within.
If Bu Eunseol ever rose to the Martial Heaven Corps, these silver shields would be passed down to new soldiers.
But if they were destroyed?
The shields had been crafted by the divine artisan Gye Muk, who was called a god of craftsmanship. Since he was no longer in this world, the Silver Shield Formation could never be deployed again.
The martial might of the Martial Heaven Corps would plummet overnight.
‘I never wanted to destroy the shields even if the men could be replaced.’
Shwick!
At that moment, Bu Eunseol sensed a keen sword aiming to pierce the back of his head.
Flash!
His own sword erupted in pure white radiance.
Thud.
A wrist still clutching its sword fell to the ground along with a spray of blood.
Matching the exact timing of the Martial Heaven Corps warrior extending his blade from within the formation, Bu Eunseol had used the Caged Bird Yearning for Clouds to sever the wrist.
Flash!
Brilliant light blossomed once more from his sword.
Crack!
With a splitting sound, the body of a warrior hiding behind a shield was cleaved in half.
Having detected another presence, Bu Eunseol poured immense inner energy into his blade and split both shield and warrior together.
Sssss!
When the shield was cut, white smoke rose from Bu Eunseol’s sword and the blade glowed red-hot.
The silver shields of the Martial Heaven Corps possessed properties almost identical to the ultimate treasures of divine swords and demonic blades. Forcing them apart like this placed tremendous strain on any weapon.
‘So this is one of the Seven Great Divisions.’
Bu Eunseol once again felt the true caliber of the corps leaders.
Back then, Jo Cheonwang’s swordsmanship had been one step above Bu Eunseol’s. Yet Jo Cheonwang had actually been far more accomplished in formations than in swordplay. It was that talent which had allowed him to become corps leader of the Martial Heaven Corps.
Boom! Boom!
Bu Eunseol poured energy into his sword and cleaved three more shields.
Slash!
The red-hot blade radiated heat as though it might melt, and in one stroke it cut down three warriors at once.
Even so, the Silver Shield Tower Formation did not collapse.
Pat-pat!
The remaining warriors did not simply stand idle.
Using the power of the formation, they ceaselessly unleashed sword strikes, carving thin lines of blood across Bu Eunseol’s body. This was not because their personal martial realm was high, but because they had drilled countless times to exploit openings in perfect coordination with the formation’s abilities.
‘They say that unless every shield is destroyed, no divine technique in the world can overcome it.’
Having reached that conclusion, Bu Eunseol paused, took a deep breath, and gathered his energy.
He had realized that the profoundness of martial arts alone could not break the formation; he would have to rely on raw inner power.
Vrrr. Vrrr.
At that moment, a low vibration rang from his waist.
The hilt of his sword grew burning hot and began to emit a strange sword cry.
‘Thunder Spirit Energy?’
It was astonishing.
The sword cry flowing from the Demon-Killer Sword seemed to be stimulating Bu Eunseol’s Thunder Spirit Energy, begging him to release it.
‘Of course—if it is Thunder Spirit Energy, I can subdue the shields without destroying them.’
But in that instant a chill ran down his spine.
Until now, the Demon-Killer Sword had only revealed its true nature and demanded his energy when facing powerful demons or mighty enemies. At all other times it had remained silent, showing no will of its own.
Yet now, in this situation, it was crying out and urging him to pour in Thunder Spirit Energy?
‘Does this Demon-Killer Sword possess its own will?’
Demonic swords and divine swords possess spirituality.
But for one to actively choose and urge its master’s energy like a thinking being—that was unheard of.
‘No time to think.’
Without hesitation, Bu Eunseol poured Thunder Spirit Energy into the Demon-Killer Sword.
Zzzzt!
Purple light surged from the blade, and an inexplicable current began swirling around it like a tornado.
The Demon-Killer Sword infused with Thunder Spirit Energy looked exactly like a bolt of violet lightning forged into steel.
Crackle! Zzzzt!
The moment he began striking the silver shields with the thunder-charged sword,
“Argh!”
“Urgh!”
The warriors maintaining the Silver Shield Tower Formation began screaming.
As the Thunder Spirit Energy penetrated through the shields, it felt as though red-hot iron was stabbing into their channels—nerves paralyzed, muscles convulsed.
Clang. Clang.
Unable to endure the agony, the warriors dropped their shields one after another amid groans of pain.
The formation began to crumble little by little, and the landscape that had been dyed white slowly regained its original colors.
“Urrgh…” Around the broken formation, the Martial Heaven Corps warriors who had dropped their shields wore faces twisted in suffering.
—What in the world…
Gwa Guek-cheon, who had been commanding the array, stared in disbelief as his men collapsed in an instant.
Inside the formation, presence was perfectly concealed.
Moreover, the shields were forged from a special alloy; even the famed “Strike the Ox Beyond the Mountain” technique could not transmit force through them.
Just what kind of art had he used to instantly incapacitate warriors holding shields that not even treasured swords could break?
“Since there is no personal enmity between us,”
Clang.
Bu Eunseol lowered the Demon-Killer Sword to the ground and spoke to the fallen warriors.
“Let us end this here.”
Shiver.
Every Martial Heaven Corps warrior trembled.
They were men who originally knew no fear.
Yet after their channels nearly burned from that terrifying, inhuman Thunder Spirit Energy, they had completely lost the will to fight and hung their heads.
“What do you think you are doing!”
Boom!
At that moment, Gwa Guek-cheon, who had been directing the formation, slammed his sword into the ground.
“If you turn your backs on a leader of the demonic path and flee, how can you still call yourselves warriors of this corps!”
The warriors flinched at Gwa Guek-cheon’s shout.
Becoming a warrior of the Martial Alliance brought neither great wealth nor vast authority.
They possessed only the pride and honor of protecting the orthodox martial world.
If that disappeared, they could no longer be called warriors of the Alliance—nor of the Martial Heaven Corps.
Clench.
As though steeling their resolve, the warriors once more lifted their silver shields, eyes blazing again.
“Is honor and pride truly more important than life?” Bu Eunseol spoke with contempt in his voice. “Or is driving your subordinates to death the duty of a commander?”
When facing an enemy one absolutely cannot defeat, fleeing and seeking any way to survive is the natural choice.
Yet the orthodox warriors regarded that natural reaction as nothing but shameful disgrace.
“Cease your nonsense!” Gwa Guek-cheon approached with bloodshot eyes. “You may kill us, but you can never break the pride of warriors belonging to the Martial Heaven Corps.”
“Pride, you say.” A desolate stillness filled Bu Eunseol’s eyes. “You would gladly sacrifice the lives of your precious subordinates just to protect a worthless emotion?”
“What would a demonic cur like you know about a warrior’s honor?” Gwa Guek-cheon ground his teeth and roared. “The moment you forced Corps Leader Jo into retirement, you and this corps could no longer share the same sky!”
“I see.”
In the martial world, grudges can only be washed away with death.
Recalling the merciless law of the martial world, Bu Eunseol gripped the Demon-Killer Sword tighter and nodded.
“Come.”
“Attack!”
Thud!
At Gwa Guek-cheon’s command, the Martial Heaven Corps warriors leaped into the air all at once and unleashed a storm of sword qi.
It was a suicidal strike of mutual annihilation, staking their lives to kill the enemy without regard for their own.
Whoooosh.
The simultaneous downpour of sword qi was impossible to dodge or block—like a torrential rainstorm.
Originally, Bu Eunseol had intended to use the Seven Blood Tear Forms and grant them all a painless death at once. But as he watched the rain of sword qi, the countless variations he had seen in the Heon Won Bright Sword at Solitary Enlightenment Hall suddenly flashed through his mind.
In that instant, time froze.
Thoughts faster than light raced through Bu Eunseol’s head.
Could a single stroke possibly contain more than three hundred variations?
If all those terrifying killing variations were gathered into one… would that cruel swordsmanship not instead condense into millions of beautiful starlights, sparkling like morning dew under sunlight?
Or perhaps, like a rainbow drawn across a clear sky, it could emit every color at once?
‘No—impossible.’
The secret manual of the Heon Won Bright Sword lacked its final synthesis chapter. Even if the chapter existed, without stopping time itself, no one could pour such variations into a single stroke.
That sword move belonged only to immortals like the Radiant Saint.
‘Then I need only use the variations I already know and execute a human sword technique.’
Time began flowing again… and hundreds of sword qi rained down before Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
A faint light flickered across the Demon-Killer Sword in his hand.
That light gathered at the tip, condensed into transparent sword qi, then spread throughout the entire blade.
The most variable swordsmanship Bu Eunseol had ever witnessed was Dan Cheong’s art, which produced one hundred and eight changes in a single stroke.
Applying Dan Cheong’s principles, the vast variations of the Heon Won Bright Sword inside Bu Eunseol’s mind transformed into one hundred and eight geometric patterns that began embroidering the sky.
Paaat!
Those patterns instantly erased the sword qi unleashed by the Martial Heaven Corps, then soared upward… and burst like magnificent fireworks, making the whole world sparkle.
Paaaaaaah!
The light then became millions of falling starlights raining back toward the earth.
That moment felt eternal, and the entire world seemed dyed in pure white radiance.
Shhk.
Before anyone noticed, the light vanished, and Bu Eunseol lowered his sword to the ground.
Thud, thud, thud.
Deathly silence flowed through Yeonwol Valley.
Blood from the bodies of the Martial Heaven Corps warriors streamed like a creek.
Simply by applying the variations of the Heon Won Bright Sword through Dan Cheong’s swordsmanship, with a single stroke he had cut down every last member of the Martial Heaven Corps.
Drip, drip, drip.
Blood red as sin flowed all the way to Bu Eunseol’s feet.
In that instant, his eyes darkened extremely.
It was blood shed by warriors who had thrown away their lives to protect their honor.
Yet to him it looked like the tears of fools who had pointlessly extinguished the candle of life.
Swish.
When he raised his head, he saw Gwa Guek-cheon trembling, drenched in blood.
“Are you satisfied?” Bu Eunseol looked down at him with pitch-black eyes.
“Did death protect your honor?”
“…”
“Are you proud that you drove precious subordinates to their deaths for the sake of petty pride?” Gwa Guek-cheon had intended to shout proudly.
—You are the one who killed my men!
—All of this is your fault!
But facing Bu Eunseol’s coldly frozen gaze, he trembled like an aspen leaf.
In truth, he had known this outcome would come.
Since Bu Eunseol was a master capable of defeating Jo Cheonwang, they should have fled. If he truly wanted revenge, he should have challenged him alone instead of sacrificing innocent subordinates.
“You… are a devil.”
Facing Bu Eunseol’s eyes—clear as a lake yet sunken in gloom—
Gwa Guek-cheon could no longer bear the guilt welling up inside him.
“I will curse you even in death.” He gripped his sword in reverse and thrust it fiercely into his own abdomen.
Clang!
But the sword was flung high into the sky.
Bu Eunseol had flicked it away with a finger wind.
“Live.” Bu Eunseol spoke in an icy voice. “Live, remembering the faces of the subordinates who died because of your choice, remembering the blood they shed.”
Thud.
Gwa Guek-cheon fell to his knees, eyes unfocused.
In that moment his hair had turned pure white, and his face aged as though decades had passed.
Finally he realized he did not even deserve death.
He would have to live the rest of his life in regret and pain over this decision.
Totter, totter.
Gwa Guek-cheon staggered away from Yeonwol Valley.
“Ptoo.”
Once he was gone, Bu Eunseol spat out the blood he had been holding back.
A clot the size of a pebble shot from his mouth.
The Heon Won Bright Sword.
Merely recalling the variations of that incomplete sword art and executing a stroke had completely overturned his energy and blood. To think that the backlash could wound a body that had reached the sixth level of the Ban-Geuk Method…
The true power of the complete Heon Won Bright Sword was unimaginable.
“Were you not an Emissary of the Three Realms?” At that moment, the Demonic Sword Master approached the solitary figure of Bu Eunseol.
“What do you mean?”
“I thought you were a person of the Three Realms.” At the elder’s words, Bu Eunseol wiped the blood from his lips with his sleeve and frowned.
“Does the title Martial Soul Command Lord qualify one as an Emissary of the Three Realms?”
“Of course.” The Demonic Sword Master spoke with eyes full of despair. “To the people of the Three Realms, status and position mean nothing. No matter how exalted the title, they can discard it without hesitation and obtain another whenever they wish.”
Bu Eunseol gave a faint nod.
Hyeok Ryeon-eung, a former executive of Majeon, had been the royal advisor and instructor at the Wei Royal Palace.
When his identity was exposed, he abandoned those titles without a second thought.
That meant he was confident he could create such identities again at any time.
“Then why do you suddenly judge that I am not one of them?”
“The sword.” The Demonic Sword Master exhaled a turbid breath. “You carry a demonic sword yet do not let its energy enter your body.”
‘If even a man like him is certain this is a demonic sword… there must be something I do not know.’
“Does it look like a demonic sword to you?”
“Hmph. You might fool ghosts, but you cannot fool this old man’s eyes.” The elder gave a faint smile and pointed at the Demon-Killer Sword. “This old man who has handled divine and demonic blades his whole life—did you think I would fail to notice that pitch-black sheen and the faint trace of demonic qi?”
‘So that was it.’
Having lived his entire life crafting weapons and possessing unparalleled skill in metallurgy, he had sensed an infinitesimal amount of demonic qi that even Bu Eunseol himself could not detect.
‘Well, if it demands something of its master, it can certainly be called a demonic sword.’
‘In the end, with the identity of Seon Woojin, I cannot wield this sword.’
Until now no one had noticed, but one day another master like the Demonic Sword Master might sense that faint demonic qi.
In the end, as the Great Alliance Leader’s proxy, he could not continue wearing the Demon-Killer Sword.
“Then are you saying people of the Three Realms cannot possess demonic swords?”
“People of the Three Realms are all consumed by greed. If such men carried a demonic sword, they would naturally absorb its demonic qi into their flesh.” The Demonic Sword Master spoke with absolute certainty. “Yet you carry a demonic sword and remain completely unaffected… which means you have no greed or desire. At the very least, you are not one of them.”
“No person is without greed.”
“True, but yours is small enough to resist the temptation of a demonic sword’s offers.”
“Very well, let us leave that aside.” Having vaguely guessed the elder’s circumstances, Bu Eunseol asked, “Seeing that you know of the Three Realms, it was indeed because of them that you left Majeon for the Martial Alliance.”
“Yes.”
Pain filled the Demonic Sword Master’s face.
“They demanded of this old man things that were utterly impossible.”
“What did they demand?”
“That I recreate the weapons once used by the Forgotten Ones.”
“The Forgotten Ones? You mean the ancient masters who have been erased from history?”
“Something like that.”
In that moment, an ominous premonition gripped Bu Eunseol.
To the Demonic Sword Master, a man specialized in crafting demonic armaments, why would they specifically order him to reproduce the weapons used by ancient masters of the distant past?
