“You can’t go in there.”
“Why not?”
“It is too dangerous. Something is wrong.”
Yoo Unryong spoke calmly.
“Let us investigate first. We must not impulsively enter such a dangerous place.”
Bu Eunseol furrowed his brow.
Yoo Unryong was someone who, like himself, possessed keen intuition.
Yet, he never prioritized intuition; instead, he always verified everything rationally and with cold logic.
“Is it because of your gut feeling?”
“It is the intuition of everyone in the Death Shadow Corps.”
Following behind, another shadow rushed toward them.
It was Myo Cheonwoo.
“This place is off-limits,” Myo Cheonwoo said, his face also drenched in sweat. “Go back. It’s not too late even now.”
“Why?”
“It feels ominous.”
“Is that the only reason?”
“Do you not think of the captains waiting for you? It is better to avoid a place this dangerous.”
Myo Cheonwoo pointed toward the entrance.
“All the captains have rushed here to stop you.”
“My Lord! Take us with you instead!”
“This place is far too dangerous.”
“My Lord, this is surely a ploy by the Returning to One Realm Lord.”
Won Semun, Jo Namcheon, and Wi Cheongyeong.
They, too, had set everything aside and rushed to this spot.
Seeing them all plead so desperately, Bu Eunseol felt a lingering sense of unease.
Freeze.
He paused for a moment and turned his head. Behind him, the path back was visible. If he followed that path, he could continue to lead his current life. Together with his friends and subordinates, just as he had until now.
‘Since when did I seek a comfortable life?’
It was true that his friends and subordinates always worried for him. However, Bu Eunseol had never once thought of avoiding a path simply because it was dangerous or because trials were expected.
“I must go.”
“Why?”
At Yoo Unryong’s question, Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
“Because it is the path I must walk.”
“Bu Eunseol!”
Yoo Unryong called out desperately, but Bu Eunseol ignored the voices and began to walk again.
“And besides… you all aren’t real.”
He might not know about Yoo Unryong, but Myo Cheonwoo was absolutely not someone who would try to persuade him with words alone. If he truly intended to stop him, he would have at least grabbed his arm or shoulder. But they stood a step away like ghosts, engaging only in conversation.
—You are deceiving yourself.
When even the persuasion of the captains failed, his own voice began to echo from within.
—In the first place, you should never have involved your friends and subordinates in your quest for revenge.
The words struck a painfully accurate chord. The inner voice was sharply pointing out the contradictions between Bu Eunseol’s thoughts and his actions.
If he truly cherished his friends and subordinates, he never should have involved them in this path of vengeance. While claiming to protect them and valuing them like his own life, he was ultimately continuing a perilous journey that put them in mortal danger.
—Answer me. Why do you continue to walk the path of revenge with them despite that?’
Bu Eunseol could not answer.
—Answer! Why do you undertake this deadly revenge accompanied by the friends and subordinates you value more than your own life?
The inner voice questioned him sternly once more.
—Why are you forcing your new family to seek revenge for your past family—your grandfather?
The inner voice grew more solemn, piercing through Bu Eunseol’s contradictions.
—If you truly consider them family… you shouldn’t put your current family in danger because of your past family, right?
It was true.
He should not drive his friends and subordinates, who still had long lives ahead of them, into a crisis because of his late grandfather. If he truly cherished them? If he really considered them family? He should forget the past, let it go, and move forward with them.
Freeze.
Finally, Bu Eunseol stopped walking.
He realized that if he could not answer this question, he could no longer move forward.
‘Why did I make this choice?’
Looking back, even Bu Eunseol himself found it difficult to justify. Just as his past family was important, so was the family he had newly welcomed. Nangyang Pavilion was now his home, and everyone who cared for him was his new family. Then why? Why must he gamble with their safety for his grandfather’s revenge?
‘My answer is…
To find the reason, Bu Eunseol recalled each person he held dear.
Starting with the Black Leopard, then Tang Gon, Namgung Un, Hyeok Sojin… and the friends and colleagues of the Death Shadow Corps, the Martial Soul Society, and the Supreme Corps, the people he had formed bonds with throughout the Central Plains, and the women.
Only after recalling every face and name… did he finally find the answer.
“I am not obsessed with the past.”
Bu Eunseol straightened his body once more.
“Rather, I am doing what must be done for the future of my current comrades and friends.”
—What do you mean by that?
“The existence that killed my grandfather is a demon that will shake the martial world.”
Bu Eunseol continued confidently.
“If I do not solve the secret of my grandfather’s death, my friends and comrades will eventually fall into danger as well.”
—Hahaha!
The inner Bu Eunseol let out a sneer.
—What sophistry. You haven’t even identified him yet, but you claim he’s a danger to your comrades because he’s a demon that will shake the martial world?
“Grandfather forgot the grudges of the martial world, guided the dead to their final rest, and walked a path of atonement,” Bu Eunseol said calmly. “Do you think the one who killed such a man will simply crouch quietly in the martial world and live a peaceful life?”
A sharp light emanated from his eyes.
“Eventually, that person will reappear in the martial world. And he will harm the people I hold dear once again.”
The people Bu Eunseol cherished were not divided by the Orthodox or Demonic paths.
There were Demonic sects like Nangyang Pavilion, the Heaven and Earth Severing Sect, and the Affectionate Blossom Sect.
On the other side, there were Orthodox powers like the Namgung Family, the Tang Family, the Azure Heaven Alliance, and the Divine Palaces.
Furthermore, there were those in outer regions like the North Sea Ice Palace, the Yeolha Holy Palace, and the Divine Beast Palace, as well as the Martial Soul Society that walked the line between both paths.
In short, to protect those he loved, Bu Eunseol had to protect the entire martial world.
—It’s just a series of sophistries.
“Not at all.”
Bu Eunseol actually smirked.
“If you don’t understand that the one who killed a past family can also be a danger to the friends and comrades who are a new family…”
An inexplicable light shimmered in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“You are not my voice.”
—What?
“My revenge began as a simple personal grudge. But it is not so now.”
Bu Eunseol squared his shoulders.
“I am trying to prevent such things so that I never lose a precious family again, so that the same tragedy does not repeat itself.”
—So that the same tragedy does not repeat…
The inner voice grew thin.
It could not provide a rebuttal.
The grudges of the martial world repeat themselves.
If someone killed a past family, the probability of them killing a new family is naturally extremely high. Moreover, aren’t Bu Eunseol’s family members spread all across the martial world?
Ching.
Suddenly, with a clear metallic sound, the inner voice vanished. Simultaneously, Bu Eunseol’s mind became infinitely clear.
‘Was it a Trial Gate?’
Ultimately, what was spread across this passage was a single gateway. It was a gate that could not be entered if one had even a hair’s breadth of doubt regarding their own choices.
‘Chilling.’
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath.
He took pride in having experienced every trap and mechanism the martial world had to offer. However, the traps here were entirely different from any mechanism or gateway scattered throughout the martial world—they were filled with bizarre and inexplicable things.
The Trial Gate continued.
As he walked again, a mist of oblivion rose, causing him to forget who he was and erasing the memories of his past. If he did not constantly think of and focus on who he was, he would lose all his memories in the mist.
But Bu Eunseol had already accepted everything about himself in the previous gate. That his weakness, fear, and incompleteness were all a part of him. He could be certain: only those who acknowledge and accept their own choices can pass through this passage.
At the end of the passage, there was a door made of light.
Step.
As he entered, the sensation beneath his feet vanished instantly.
Was there ground?
Suddenly, he wasn’t even sure if he was standing on a surface. It was an ambiguous sensation, as if gravity both existed and did not. He was simply ‘remaining’ within the space.
Taking another step, a landscape full of dark red rocks under a blackened sky appeared. The sky was like a primordial night that existed in the middle of the universe even before stars were born. Myriad fragments of light floated in an unfathomable black abyss. The air was thin, making it difficult to breathe, and a strange pressure poured from the sky, making his body dozens of times heavier. Furthermore, the wailing of ghosts echoed from somewhere, spreading constant agony and stray thoughts through his spirit.
‘It is painful.’
Just standing there felt like his physical shell was being peeled away, as if he were floating in a space that destroyed the mind.
“Blood Tears?”
Struggling to look around the unfamiliar landscape, Bu Eunseol’s eyes flashed as he discovered traces left on the rocks.
Seven Blood Tear Forms.
The traces of the Seven Blood Tear Forms were densely engraved on the rocks here.
“The Returning to One Realm Lord must have performed this.”
Unlike the ones Bu Eunseol performed, the Seven Blood Tear Forms engraved on the dark red rocks were filled only with endless despair, darkness, and desperate regret and grudges.
“He has mastered a Seven Blood Tear Forms that is completely different from mine.”
This was not the technique his grandfather had perfected.
“This person truly is a complete madman.”
Bu Eunseol let out a deep sigh as he examined the traces. The blade art left here was like madness itself. It did not just deliver death; it sought mutual destruction.
“Whether it delivers death or mutual destruction, the Seven Blood Tear Forms is still the Seven Blood Tear Forms.”
Bu Eunseol’s eyes narrowed.
The problem was that the formulas for the Seven Blood Tear Forms could not be easily changed. This was because they were originally designed to align with his grandfather’s spirit.
“How on earth was he able to transform it?”
Did he receive a completely different version of the technique from his grandfather while he was alive? Or did he use the power or traces engraved on his grandfather’s body to create a completely different version? If not that… did he obtain the initial General Summary created during the Absolute Demonic Blade project, which Hwa Mugi had shown before, and transform it?
“What is certain is that he has practiced the Seven Blood Tear Forms in his own way to the realm of Great Completion.”
Although it was a blade art far removed from what his grandfather had left, it clearly contained the subtle principles of the Seven Forms. Furthermore, seeing as no flaws or minute failures could be found in the traces on the rocks, it was clear he had refined it to the stage of Great Completion.
Rumble.
At that moment, a low vibration came from the entrance where he had come in. Approaching it, he saw the width of the light entrance, which was about the size of a wooden gate, had changed slightly.
“The passage is closing.”
Bu Eunseol stood still and watched the passage. After detecting it with his transcendental senses for a long time, he found that the width of the passage was slowly and minutely narrowing over a set period.
“Six days.”
Calculating the narrowing speed and the remaining space, the door to this passage was set to close in six days.
“I cannot stop it from closing.”
Bu Eunseol tried injecting various powers and using different methods. However, the force closing the passage was like a law of nature, unaffected by any power.
“That means I can only be here for six days.”
Recalling something, Bu Eunseol looked around.
‘Why did the Realm Lord bother to perform the Seven Blood Tear Forms here?’
The air was thin, making breathing difficult, and the faint sounds from all directions shook his spirit as if to split it. Moreover, the strange pressure made it hard to move a finger, let alone perform a blade technique. Just tracing the marks on the rocks with his finger brought sweat to his forehead.
“Could it be…”
He formed a finger-sword and began to mimic the traces of the Seven Blood Tear Forms engraved here.
“Whew, whew.”
Even though he was only mimicking them with his finger, his stamina was drained as if he had performed qinggong at full power for three days straight, and a sweet, metallic taste filled his mouth.
“He practiced his blade art here.”
He finally realized.
This was a hellish place to perform martial arts.
The air was too thin to breathe, his body was dozens of times heavier than usual, and an unknown energy was creeping into his body while disturbing his spirit.
But thinking differently… this was the ultimate place to train martial arts.
“It is the best place to increase one’s martial prowess in a short period.”
Shing.
Drawing the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, Bu Eunseol slowly performed the Meteor Chasing the Moon Form without internal energy.
“…”
He had performed only a single move, but Bu Eunseol knelt on one knee and covered his mouth. Even though he had only practiced the “Form” of a single sword move without internal energy, his stamina was so depleted he could barely move, and nausea welled up within him.
“If I train here for one day…”
Bu Eunseol clenched his fist.
If he practiced martial arts here with all his might for a single day? It would yield the same effect as practicing with all his might for fifteen days in an ordinary place. He hadn’t had the time to calmly refine the martial arts he had learned until now.
‘First, I will recover my stamina.’
Cultivating internal energy involves circulating the intangible, invisible ‘Qi’ within the body according to formulas through intent. However, the moment he began cultivation here, the worst possible events he could imagine and the worst possible emotions he could feel began to swirl and mix in his mind.
When cultivating, one must not have any stray thoughts and must maintain a peaceful mind. Otherwise, the flow of the circulating qi becomes stagnant or reversed. If qi stagnates in a specific area, it puts great strain on the blood vessels in the brain. If it’s mild, one suffers internal injury; if it’s severe, one fails to manage the qi properly, the flow becomes twisted, mental balance collapses, and one falls into qi deviation—where disaster is brought upon the body.
—Therefore, cultivating here was a gamble with his life.
Drip.
After finishing his cultivation, Bu Eunseol’s face was covered in a waterfall of cold sweat. Even when he first learned internal cultivation and circulated his True Qi, it hadn’t been this painful or difficult.
“To have this many stray thoughts even after finishing cultivation.”
Despite finishing, all sorts of stray thoughts bloomed in his head, requiring him to sit in meditation for a long time to organize his disturbed spirit.
“Shall I try the Supreme Heavenly Flow again?”
Taking a deep breath, Bu Eunseol looked down at the Silent Tiger Soul Sword. Previously, when he performed the Supreme Heavenly Flow once, his stamina was instantly depleted, and he had to collapse on the spot. But now, having replenished both stamina and vitality through cultivation, that wouldn’t happen.
Finally, as Bu Eunseol straightened his body after organizing the energy within him, his body shook violently. The air was thin, and a terrifying pressure was constantly pouring from the sky, making it feel burdensome even to move his eyelids.
Shing.
As he drew his sword, a groan escaped his lips. Simply drawing the sword from the scabbard required him to use all the power circulating within his body.
Meteor Chasing the Moon Form…
He tried to perform the Meteor Chasing the Moon Form, the fastest killing sword style he could execute.
Flash!
A brilliant light flashed in the air along with the trajectory extending from the scabbard. However, due to the massive pouring pressure and uncomfortable internal breathing, his body and mind could not become one.
Srrr.
Ultimately, he was forced to perform the Meteor Chasing the Moon Form as if time were moving slowly. But even that had to be stopped midway.
If he continued the sword move like this? Because the sword intent and the movement did not align properly, the fast-sword technique would be forced to transition into the subtle principles of the Ten Thousand Swords, and changing the principles mid-way would put a massive burden on his body.
“To think I cannot even perform a single sword move properly.”
No matter how much pressure poured down, it was unthinkable that he—who had attained a level of martial prowess and sword dao capable of fighting equally with masters of the Limitless Realm—would fail to perform just one sword move.
If so…
Thinking deeply, Bu Eunseol raised his power once more.
“Perhaps this place is a location specifically for training the Seven Blood Tear Forms.”
Kiii!
At that moment, a ghostly wail piercing the heavens echoed from the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
Just as the Returning to One Realm Lord had done, he too intended to display the Seven Blood Tear Forms. There were only traces of the Seven Forms on the rocks, after all.
“Li—”
However, a groan unlike any before erupted from his mouth as he tried to execute the Life Lodges, Death Returns. The Seven Blood Tear Forms is a blade art far heavier and more solemn than the Supreme Heavenly Flow. Therefore, let alone executing the move, he could not perform the blade art properly due to the pressure pouring from the sky; instead, that power backflowed, causing him internal injury.
Thud.
Ultimately, Bu Eunseol had no choice but to roll forward ungracefully while trying to execute the technique.
‘The Realm Lord performed the Seven Blood Tears Forms in a place like this?’
He was at a level where he couldn’t even perform a single move properly, yet how on earth did the Realm Lord perform the Seven Blood Tear Forms here?
Thump.
Bu Eunseol crouched down with the Silent Tiger Soul Sword stabbed into the ground. Rather than the internal injury from the backflow, his spirit had taken a great blow from the desperate gap in martial prowess and the agony piercing his head.
“I will try again!”
Shing!
This time, he performed the Half-Life, Half-Death Form with all his heart and strength.
“…”
Fortunately, the blade move was not interrupted this time. However, because he performed the massively powerful move so slowly, his shoulders and forearms throbbed as if they were tearing, and his leg muscles felt twisted.
Unable to endure the twisting pain, Bu Eunseol had to hop on one leg, like a mortician balancing a leg on a coffin lid.
Tremble.
Crouching on the rock with his teeth clenched, clear beads of moisture were on the verge of forming in the corners of his eyes.
‘To this extent…’
Click.
As he sheathed the sword, thick veins were visible on his skin, and his muscles were shaking violently as if having spasms. Even though he had used all his strength, to feel enough pain for his body to twist and thud after performing a single blade move… it was the first time since he began learning martial arts.
A normal warrior would have fallen into a state of hollow despair or suffered a decline in power, unable to overcome that despair and frustration.
‘If so…’
However, a look of joy actually crossed the sweat-drenched face of Bu Eunseol.
‘I can definitely become stronger.’
Because his current martial prowess was so high, he needed an extreme situation and environment to refine his martial arts. In other words, this place was itself the best environment for refining martial arts.
‘For six days.’
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath. Now, he had to refine his martial arts for six days until the door to this place closed.
Bu Eunseol reviewed and refined all the martial arts he had learned up to now and sat in meditation when he was tired. Since stray thoughts constantly rose just by staying still, he had to risk his life even for cultivation.
Ultimately, Bu Eunseol had to start by practicing how to adapt to this place. The agony and stray thoughts that constantly pierced him, the thin air, and the pressure that made it hard to move a finger. Every moment, he had to raise his power to oppose the pressure and make his spirit as firm as his breath.
After a full day had passed…
Srrr.
Finally, both his body and spirit could adapt to this place. After much deliberation, he began to refine a single sword art he knew.
Six days passed in the blink of an eye.
Bu Eunseol drew the Silent Tiger Soul Sword. Holding the sword at the middle level, he focused his spirit as if facing a life-and-death enemy.
Swish!
And finally, he began to execute the sword art. Surprisingly, what he was performing was not the Supreme Heavenly Flow or the Seven Blood Tear Forms.
It was the Thirteen Hwa Wu Forms from the Hwa Wu Sword Sect—a series of sword moves for mastering the basics of the Hwa Wu Sword, containing all the fundamental techniques of swordsmanship.
But it was strange.
Bu Eunseol was moving extremely slowly, at a level even a neighborhood child could avoid.
However, as he slowly executed the sword moves, a surprising thing happened.
The traces of the Seven Blood Tear Forms left by the Realm Lord on the dark red rocks—the sharp blade-qi marks filled with endless despair, darkness, and desperate regret and grudges—were being cleanly erased.
