Seo Jinha emerged from the Majeon with a lightened expression.
Gazing up at the majestic grandeur of the Majeon overlooking the world for a long moment, he deployed his qinggong with a sharp pat sound.
Kwa-wu-wu.
Because he had to perfectly fulfill the roles of both the Supreme Corps Leader Seon Woojin and the Martial Soul Command Lord Bu Eunseol, he had mastered most of Bu Eunseol’s core martial arts, including the Supreme Heavenly Flow, the Wishful True Binding, and the Swift Beyond Shadow.
Although there was a gap in martial power due to differences in natural talent and comprehension, it was an undeniable fact that he had reached the level of a young grandmaster.
Kwa-ong!
Swiftly leaving the provincial capital, he headed tirelessly north until the road eventually led deep into the mountains. He ascended a towering cliff, where a sturdy hermitage stood. Inside, there were enough food and water to last a month, various daily necessities, and a large wooden box that looked like a treasure chest.
“Now for the final journey.”
Seo Jinha’s eyes narrowed.
“The time has come to complete the secret technique that will kill that man.”
From his narrowed eyes, a desperate and razor-sharp killing intent—the likes of which had never been seen before—erupted.
In truth, he held a secret.
Just as Bu Eunseol had entered the martial world for revenge, he, too, had stepped into this world to settle a deep-seated grudge.
***
His father, Seo Muwung, was a second-rate swordsman who had never made a name for himself in the martial world; he operated a small martial arts hall in Jeongju.
However, Seo Jinha possessed extraordinary talent, and with his father’s help, he systematically learned swordsmanship and refined his martial arts. Seo Muwung tried to send his brilliant son to become a disciple of a prestigious sect, but Seo Jinha refused.
—Rather than learning the swordsmanship of a prestigious sect, I want to further develop the swordsmanship my father taught me.
With his innate talent, any sect would have welcomed him with open arms, but he could not leave his father’s side. Seo Muwung had fallen ill with a lung disease long ago, and for the past three years, he had been unable to run the hall at all. Seo Jinha took responsibility for their livelihood by chopping wood during the day and nursing his father at night, all while steadily practicing the second-rate martial art his father had passed down: the Cloud-Gathering Swordsmanship.
Then, a rumor that shook the martial world began to spread.
—The Asura Sword has appeared!
One of the treasures martial artists sought even in their dreams, the Asura Sword, had surfaced.
Hidden within its scabbard was the Manual of Hidden Grudges (藏恨劍譜), which rivaled the Hwa Wu Sword; if one obtained it, they could instantly become a swordsman who looked down upon the world.
—Pursue Yeop Jeok-hwa!
The one who had obtained the Asura Sword was none other than the master of movement and the man known as the Myriad Phenomenon Thief, Yeop Jeok-hwa.
Upon hearing the rumor, Seo Muwung seemed to make a resolution. While Seo Jinha was asleep, he dragged his exhausted body out of the house.
Seo Jinha was flustered to find his father gone, but the old man had left a letter saying he would return in a month. Believing his sickly father couldn’t have gone far, Seo Jinha waited patiently. A month later, his father returned as promised—carrying a single sword.
“Jinha, this is the Asura Sword.”
“How did you get this?”
“I received it from Yeop Jeok-hwa.”
Seo Muwung smiled brightly and told a story from the past.
During his travels in his youth, he had encountered an injured Yeop Jeok-hwa in a small Tartar village and saved his life. At that time, Yeop Jeok-hwa gave him his token, the Myriad Phenomenon Plaque, promising to grant any favor. Upon hearing the rumors of the Asura Sword, Seo Muwung tracked him down, presented the plaque, and received the sword.
“If you master this, you can become a powerhouse who looks down upon the martial world. There is no need to seek another master.”
Seo Jinha was happy but worried.
The Asura Sword was a world-class treasure.
Martial artists were the type to never hand over such a divine blade even at the cost of their lives. Would a master thief like Yeop Jeok-hwa truly give up such a treasure just to keep a twenty-year-old promise? Even if he did, there was no guarantee that other pursuers wouldn’t follow.
“Don’t worry. No one knows I received the sword, and Yeop Jeok-hwa said he would continue to draw their pursuit.”
“Is that so?”
“Now, take this and go buy some wine.”
Seo Muwung gave Seo Jinha a large silver piece from an unknown source and asked him to fetch some liquor.
“I want to drink some good wine for once. Go to the Taehwa Pavilion and get three geun of yellow wine.”
Seo Jinha wore a worried expression. His father’s lung disease was so severe that he was strictly forbidden from drinking. However, seeing his father’s face, which had aged significantly in just a month, he nodded as if he had no choice.
Seo Jinha turned and headed toward the Taehwa Pavilion.
Less than fifteen minutes after he left, the Three Ghosts of the Raging Tiger—renowned for the most vicious tracking and torture techniques in the martial world—arrived at Seo Muwung’s house.
“Hand over the Asura Sword!”
“Don’t talk nonsense!”
Seo Muwung drew the sword and resisted fiercely. But crippled by disease and possessing only second-rate skills, he was no match for the infamous brothers. Ultimately, he was left with horrific wounds, and the sword was taken.
“I knew it. There’s no way the Asura Sword would fall to an eighth-rate swordsman like this.”
Wang Ho, the eldest of the Three Ghosts, checked the scabbard and let out a sneer.
“Yeop Jeok-hwa, he used his head brilliantly, like the world-class thief he is.”
“What do you mean?”
As Seo Muwung’s eyes widened, Wang Ho tossed a piece of old paper from the hilt and snorted.
“Because you acted as the bait, Yeop Jeok-hwa was able to slip out of Jeongju with ease.”
The Manual of Hidden Grudges within the sword was an exquisite fake filled with nonsense.
Seureung.
Wang Ho drew his blade and gouged the old man’s abdomen.
“This is punishment for making me go through so much trouble.”
The Three Ghosts of the Raging Tiger departed after brutally torturing Seo Muwung, simply because he had inconvenienced them by being the thief’s decoy.
Wajang-chang!
Returning with the wine, Seo Jinha found his father dying in a gruesome state.
“Father!”
“Jinha…”
The dying Seo Muwung managed a sorrowful smile. “I’m sorry.”
“What on earth happened!”
Seo Muwung briefly explained the situation. Yeop Jeok-hwa, who had promised to repay the debt of saving his life, had instead used him to distract his pursuers and escape.
“You… knew, didn’t you?”
Looking into his father’s hollow eyes, which had resigned to everything, Seo Jinha realized the truth instantly.
Though his martial arts were lacking, his father was wiser, more prudent, and more insightful than anyone he knew. There was no way he hadn’t suspected Yeop Jeok-hwa’s treacherous nature. Ultimately, his father had returned home with that sword knowing full well that Yeop Jeok-hwa might betray him.
“Why… why would you do that?”
“If Yeop Jeok-hwa had been a man of honor, you would have obtained the manual and become a master.”
Seo Muwung avoided his son’s gaze. “But if he was a man with the heart of a jackal…” He whispered in a low voice, “Then my son would finally be able to fly freely through the martial world.”
Seo Muwung knew that if he continued to cling to his miserable, sickly life, he would eventually ruin his son’s future.
If Seo Jinha did not receive proper martial training before he grew older, he would never be able to learn high-level internal energy or martial arts, and his brilliant talent would be buried forever.
He couldn’t bring himself to commit suicide, so he took a gamble on Yeop Jeok-hwa. If he truly obtained the sword, it was for the best; and even if he was killed as a decoy, the son who couldn’t leave because of his sickly father would finally be free to soar.
“Father…”
Seo Jinha wept tears of blood and shook his head. “Please, don’t leave me.”
“I only had a few years left anyway,” Seo Muwung said firmly. “But if those years were spent in vain, your body would never be able to learn high-level martial arts.”
He straightened his crying son’s disheveled hair and stroked his cheek lovingly. “Your father was always a burden to you. I leave you now, causing you pain until the very end.”
“Father.”
“Bury the sorrow for your father deep in your heart.” A bright smile hung on Seo Muwung’s lips as he caressed his son’s cheek. “Become a bird that flies freely across the vast Great Sky.”
With those final words, he quietly passed away. Seo Jinha clung to his father’s blood-soaked body. Though the breath had stopped, his father’s embrace was still warm. From that day on, Seo Jinha’s life changed.
‘I will do everything else after my revenge.’
To deal with the treacherous Yeop Jeok-hwa and the Three Ghosts of the Raging Tiger who had brutally killed his father, he did not enter a prestigious orthodox sect as his father had wished. Instead, he joined the Black Blood Gang, a vicious assassination sect of the Unorthodox Faction. It was a place that not only trained brutal assassins but also operated an intelligence network rivaling any alliance due to the sheer volume of contracts they handled.
“You have no killing intent and your personality is too stiff. You’re not cut out to be an assassin,” the First Instructor said, looking at Seo Jinha who had walked in on his own.
“If I lack it, I can create it. If I’m stiff, can’t I be polished into something soft?” Seo Jinha replied, looking him straight in the eye.
Recognizing his talent and the fact that he sought to become an assassin for revenge, the instructors of the Black Blood Gang accepted him and trained him mercilessly.
“The basic of an assassin is smiling. If you carry such a cold and frigid aura, everyone will suspect you.”
From that day on, Seo Jinha relearned how to smile. He had to smile while eating and smile while being tortured. He had to maintain an optimistic atmosphere and keep his tone and gaze somewhat languid.
Only then could he become an assassin who could infiltrate anywhere without suspicion.
Eventually, the instructors shook their heads, realizing Seo Jinha was someone they couldn’t keep. Having been systematically trained by his father since childhood and possessing extraordinary talent, he was a genius too precious to remain just an assassin. If he learned proper martial arts, he would become one of the supreme powers looking down upon the world.
Then, a shocking rumor reached the martial world.
—We’re selecting the Ten Demon Warriors.
Majeon was selecting the Ten Demon Warriors to counter the elite experts of the Martial Alliance.
“You must enter the Ten Demon Successor tournament.”
If he survived the tournament, he could become a powerful expert within three years and ascend to the high ranks of the Majeon, gaining access to its superior information network. Surprisingly, the Black Blood Gang let him go without resistance.
In truth, the assassins gathered there were all people with bitter pasts.
Realizing that the young Seo Jinha had come there for revenge and that they couldn’t contain his great potential, they arranged for him to enter the tournament.
“The condition is that you must never speak of your time in this gang.”
Seo Jinha bowed politely. “I will seek the instructors out after my revenge.”
“Don’t bother. You will be a man who looks down upon the martial world in the future. If your connection to this gang becomes known, it will only be a stain on you.”
Leaving the Black Blood Gang quietly, Seo Jinha applied for the Ten Demon Warriors under his real name. With his superior physical constitution, he passed the first trial instantly and went to the Hell Island.
He was the first to realize that the reason the Majeon had called the trainees to Hell Island was for a test of mutual slaughter.
“Then the simplest way is to kill everyone beforehand.”
He secretly infiltrated the Hell Island to root out and kill orthodox spies acting as moles, and he used Eun Seolryeong—who had gone to the Hell’s Blood Fortress training center—to obtain poison from her, intending to kill all the trainees there.
“Before the third trial even began, you planned to use a girl in this fortress’s martial hall to kill all the other trainees, didn’t you?”
Those were the words the Vice Fortress Lord of the Hell’s Blood Fortress, Jeok Yahon, had said to Seo Jinha when selecting the Ten Demon Warriors.
“The most terrifying poison in the world is a venomous heart… You are the most suitable talent to become a poison master of Hell’s Blood Fortress.”
Thus, Seo Jinha became the Ten Demon Successor of the Hell’s Blood Fortress. He possessed great talent, and Jeok Yahon cherished him.
“Since you cannot become the successor of this fortress anyway, go to the Majeon.”
Knowing that Seo Jinha could not lead the Hell’s Blood Fortress due to Gongya Geuk’s opposition despite his talent, Jeok Yahon pulled strings so he could become a member of the Majeon’s elite squad, the Cheonsal.
‘Now I can find my enemies.’
Seo Jinha was overjoyed.
With the information network of the elite Cheonsal, he believed he could find all the assassins who killed his father, including Yeop Jeok-hwa.
But there was something he hadn’t considered.
Just because he was a member of the Cheonsal did not mean he could freely access the information of the Majeon’s top intelligence organization, the Secret Flame Pavilion.
In fact, after becoming a member, he faced more restrictions. To prevent leaks, members performing special clandestine missions were given only extremely limited information.
However, the opportunity came. Bu Eunseol, a fellow Ten Demon Successor, was also wandering the martial world for revenge. As he moved between the Martial Alliance and the Majeon, a need arose for a shadow to make his tracks perfect.
‘If I help him, I can obtain information from the Death Spirit Corps.’
Bu Eunseol was planning to turn the Death Spirit Corps into the greatest intelligence organization of the Demonic Path to find the culprit who killed the Seven-Finger Demon Blade, Bu Zhanyang. By helping him, Seo Jinha would naturally be able to use that network.
“I’ve found them.”
Through the Death Spirit Corps’s network, he located the brothers of the Three Ghosts of the Raging Tiger.
“We were just deceived by Yeop Jeok-hwa!” they cried out in misery as they died. “We only found out later that we were tricked! The person who leaked the location of the fake Asura Sword in the first place was Yeop Jeok-hwa himself! We suffered to death just because we obtained a fake!”
It is the nature of martial artists to seize treasures.
Yeop Jeok-hwa had used not only Seo Jinha’s father but even the Three Ghosts to safely swallow the real Asura Sword. Furthermore, Seo Jinha realized that Bu Eunseol, despite his cold exterior, was a soft-hearted person who struggled to protect everyone around him.
“Ah, is that so?” Seo Jinha was filled with rage, but he nodded with a smile. “Don’t worry, Yeop Jeok-hwa will follow you soon.”
After beheading the Three Ghosts and placing them before his father’s tombstone, Seo Jinha tracked Yeop Jeok-hwa again. But no matter how he moved the information organizations, his tracks could not be found.
In the midst of that, he continued his life as a shadow, traveling the martial world in Bu Eunseol’s stead.
He realized then that Bu Eunseol was also a vengeful ghost.
‘No, this guy is even worse than me.’
If Bu Eunseol had been someone blinded only by revenge, Seo Jinha wouldn’t have cared. But Bu Eunseol prioritized the people around him over his own vengeance. Even if he himself was hurt or his heart was broken, he continued his path while trying to protect others.
‘A tender-hearted vengeful ghost…’
Before he knew it, Seo Jinha felt a deep, genuine friendship for Bu Eunseol. He felt a desire to protect him, even if it meant he couldn’t complete his own father’s revenge.
Then, in a fleeting moment, the Death Spirit Corps’s network finally found the whereabouts of Yeop Jeok-hwa.
“The Sect Leader of the Hundred Swords, to think he was Yeop Jeok-hwa.”
After obtaining the sword, Yeop Jeok-hwa had slipped out of Jeongju and vanished completely. Some said he fell off a cliff while fleeing, while others said he went into hiding deep in the mountains to live a new life under a hidden identity. In reality, after obtaining the sword, Yeop Jeok-hwa had raised a secret force—a group of mercenary swordsmen who would do anything for money. He had become the Sect Leader of the Hundred Swords Sect.
As it turned out, Yeop Jeok-hwa was a dual identity created by the Sect Leader of the Hundred Swords.
“I cannot strike him now.” Seo Jinha gritted his teeth.
It was the revenge he had waited for, but Bu Eunseol was busy risking his life moving between the Martial Alliance and the Majeon. Furthermore, the skill of Yeop Jeok-hwa, who had mastered the Asura Sword, was estimated to have reached the Supreme Heavenly Realm.
He couldn’t seek revenge immediately.
But now, Bu Eunseol had stopped his spy activities, and Seo Jinha’s own martial arts were approaching the threshold of the Supreme Heavenly Realm. He had to leave the Majeon now before it was too late to destroy the Hundred Swords Sect and execute his long-awaited revenge.
***
Finishing his recollection, Seo Jinha took a deep breath.
Yeop Jeok-hwa was not only stronger than him but also possessed a divine sword of old. Therefore, the probability of victory was not high, and as time passed, the gap was likely to widen.
“I’ve given up on the idea of winning entirely.”
He had built this hut and prepared food and water to master a certain-kill martial art to face Yeop Jeok-hwa.
“Unfortunately, time is not on my side either.”
Seo Jinha looked at the distant sky.
His martial arts had not yet reached the Supreme Heavenly Realm. Although his skills had increased significantly because he was acting as Bu Eunseol’s shadow, it had also caused a stagnation in his own martial development.
To enter a supreme state like the Supreme Heavenly Realm, one must refine their own path while constantly observing and examining themselves. Because he had been mimicking Bu Eunseol’s actions and footwork, he might have become a ‘Second Bu Eunseol,’ but he couldn’t achieve a breakthrough in his own original martial arts.
“There is only one way.”
Fortunately, with Bu Eunseol’s help, he had mastered the highest secret arts of both the Orthodox and Unorthodox paths, including the Wishful True Binding and the Thirteen Guiding Lights.
The role of Seon Woojin was no longer important, and the Death Spirit Corps would perfectly erase his tracks.
Now, all that remained was to raise his power here or create a method to deal with Yeop Jeok-hwa. But Yeop Jeok-hwa had the Asura Sword and was the Sect Leader of the Hundred Swords Sect; his power likely far surpassed his own.
Seo Jinha was not a god-like talent like Bu Eunseol, and he had no means to rapidly increase his power in a short time.
There was only one way left.
Mutual destruction.
He would have to die with his enemy, even at the cost of his own life.
***
Majeon.
In a secret room within the Suppressed Demon Pavilion of the Majeon, Bu Eunseol nodded after receiving a long report from a secret shadow.
His bad premonitions were never wrong.
The only saving grace was that Seo Jinha cared for and looked after the people around him more than himself. Otherwise, he would have long ago left the Majeon to shed all his burdens. Standing up with an extremely solemn movement, Bu Eunseol spoke in a heavy voice.
“Call Yoo Unryong.”
