Chapter 1040
Shiiiik!
A black storm formed from the rusted, blood-and-flesh-entangled pieces of the Wrist Bone Sword. It slashed wildly like a vengeful evil spirit, tearing apart the very space where Bu Eunseol stood.
Even in the center of this storm of destruction, Bu Eunseol’s movements remained infinitely slow and serene.
As he swung the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, his eyes seemed to pierce through countless sword truths, the blurred boundary between life and death, and the very principles of the world—his insight elevated to an almost divine level.
In the past, within the Mind Realm in Cheonchuk, he had once created a sword barrier and advanced more than forty zhang even in a far more desperate situation.
Yet creating swords using the Phantom Sword Form in this current state, where his body was frozen stiff, was as easy as breathing.
Shuuuuuu.
Eventually, the black storm vanished, leaving only Bu Eunseol standing alone.
Thud. Thud.
The floor of the grand hall was soaked with blood. Every step he took produced a sickening, wet squelch.
However, the defense of the Sacred Demon Hall was not to be underestimated.
The forty existing Revered Divine Guards were literally gatekeepers meant to block the entrance. New Revered Divine Guards appeared once again before his eyes.
“Kill him!”
The Revered Divine Guards no longer left any bizarre openings. They drew only their Wrist Bone Swords and transformed into black mist as they attacked Bu Eunseol.
Crack! Crunch!
Each time, a heavy sword force erupted from within the round sword barrier, and the fists of the charging Revered Divine Guards began to shatter.
The Revered Divine Guards let out low groans.
The Wrist Bone Sword was completely fused with the nerves, meridians, and blood vessels of the human body, yet Bu Eunseol used blunt sword energy to crush their embedded fists entirely.
An unimaginable pain overwhelmed them.
Crack. Crunch.
Regardless, Bu Eunseol slowly walked down the dark path, shattering the fists of every Revered Divine Guard that lunged at him.
‘To emit sword force of this power without any inner energy in his body…?’
Thick beads of sweat formed on the foreheads of the Revered Divine Guards hidden in the darkness.
Sword force was the general term for the power released when swinging a sword—usually referring to concentrated inner power. But Bu Eunseol was pouring out sword force as naturally as a general born with divine strength, even releasing sword winds.
“I’ve been using techniques that extinguish the power of force for a long time.”
Bu Eunseol, still concealed in the darkness, muttered to himself as if he could clearly see the spiritual energy of the frozen Revered Divine Guards.
“That’s why I even tried to create a method to preserve power.”
Crack!
Another heavy sword force erupted from the sword barrier, mercilessly crushing another fist.
“But in the end, I stopped. After all, what I wanted wasn’t that.”
Bu Eunseol did not desire power stronger than his opponent’s. He had always wished to fight his enemies under equal conditions. That was why he had researched martial arts that allowed him to fight without inner energy, and why he had always fought even after his strength had vanished. All these battles would one day become the foundation for his victory.
The Revered Divine Guards could no longer attack.
They curled up in the darkness. Whenever they attacked, a heavy sword force would coil around them like a whip, pierce them like a spear, or strike them after bending like a broken rope. With just a single sword, he could freely utilize the transformations and profound principles of countless weapons.
Was swordsmanship truly at such a height?
For masters who had trained with the sword for decades, imbuing a single sword with the advantages of other weapons was not particularly difficult. However, reaching the realm of Sword Follows the Heart and freely adopting the advantages and transformations of other weapons according to one’s will was something even the greatest swordsmen known as peerless sword immortals in the martial world would not dare attempt.
In the end, the majority of the Revered Divine Guards’ fists were destroyed.
The fortunate part was that although the pain was enough to kill, their lives were not in danger.
The unfortunate part was that a weapon carried an unspoken pride.
With their weapons shattered, their pride and honor were utterly crushed.
“This is your final warning.”
Bu Eunseol stopped walking, withdrew his sword barrier, and spoke in a low, cold voice.
“From now on, if you attack me, I will take your lives. Leave.”
The Revered Divine Guards trembled faintly.
They were warriors who had personally received instruction from the Demon Emperor. They had secretly cut down countless powerful experts who had made their names resound throughout the martial world. They had once believed that when the Revered Divine Guard Division gathered, no one could stand against them.
But now, the Martial Soul Command Lord was about to slaughter them mercilessly?
“We would rather die than—”
At that moment, the Revered Divine Guard Division Leader, Cho Jin, spoke in a low, hoarse voice.
“We cannot crawl away like dogs!”
Whoosh! Papat!
Even with both hands shattered, sharp blades flew from his sleeves as he charged once more, transforming into black mist.
Swish!
Bu Eunseol remained in place. He swung the Silent Tiger Soul Sword like a long spear, striking the vital points of the Revered Divine Guards hidden within the black mist.
Spurt! Thud!
They vomited blood and crashed brutally onto the floor.
The remaining guards ignored their injuries and charged head-on.
Slash!
The Revered Divine Guards surrounding him from all directions scattered like the wind. Bu Eunseol created another long blade-like sword energy and poured it toward them.
They bravely met it with the blades drawn from their sleeves, but upon colliding with the sword energy released by the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, they were flung backward like broken dolls, their faces turning bright red. They could not withstand the tyrannical power contained within the sword and suffered deep internal injuries.
“Now!”
The moment Bu Eunseol paused, Cho Jin shouted.
“Unfold the Abyssal Devouring Trap!”
In an instant, the Revered Divine Guards vanished, and at the end of the corridor, a massive red tongue and mouth formed. They had desperately charged forward to unfold the deadly formation only the Revered Divine Guard Division could deploy—the Abyssal Devouring Trap.
[Swallowed by an ancient formation that cannot be cut by swords nor blocked by supernatural powers.]
Cho Jin’s voice echoed through the blue-tinted space like the wail of a ghost.
[Regret your arrogance bitterly in hell.]
The giant mouth swallowed Bu Eunseol in a single instant.
The interior fell silent, and the bizarre scenery slowly returned to normal.
Shuk.
Before long, the Revered Divine Guards reappeared inside the grand hall.
They had barely survived, but their bodies were covered in fatal wounds that made them look like masses of blood.
“What a heavy loss…”
Cho Jin shook his head as he looked at the spot where Bu Eunseol had been swallowed by the Abyssal Devouring Trap.
“It took three years to create this formation. When will we be able to set it up again—”
Stab!
A pitch-black sword blade suddenly burst out from Cho Jin’s chest.
Bu Eunseol, who should have been trapped inside the Abyssal Devouring Trap, had appeared behind him and thrust his sword.
“How…?”
Cho Jin widened his eyes as he stared at the sword piercing his chest.
The moment one entered the Abyssal Devouring Trap, no martial arts or supernatural powers could be used. No matter how great a master, escaping from that ancient formation was impossible.
So how had he come out?
“Because I never entered.”
A chilling coldness spread through Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
When he had previously visited the Demon Emperor, the man had created a table and teacups out of thin air as if molding them from nothing. That was possible because he had reached a realm where he could understand and interfere with space itself.
Although Bu Eunseol had not yet reached that level, when the entire space tried to swallow him like a giant mouth, he had detected the distorted gap—the blind spot where the destructive power of the formation could not reach—and had thrown himself into that fleeting opening without hesitation.
“Further conversation is meaningless.”
Swish! Paat!
Without hesitation, Bu Eunseol swung the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
He had given the Revered Divine Guards one last chance.
Since they had ignored it and continued to attack, he would show no more mercy.
“Scatter!”
The terrified Revered Divine Guards cried out and vanished like dispersing mist.
But it was a meaningless struggle.
The stealth techniques used by the Revered Divine Guards were merely a type of movement art that shifted their bodies into blind spots beyond the enemy’s sight and senses. Since Bu Eunseol surpassed them in the ability to understand and interfere with space itself, no matter how they struggled, they were nothing more than rats in a jar.
Slash!
Blood endlessly gushed from the necks of the Revered Divine Guards.
This grand hall had been designed as a deadly trap to confine intruders and eliminate them instantly with powerful sorcery. Yet before Bu Eunseol, who had seen through the principles of space, it had become a prison with no escape—one that bound the casters themselves.
Thud.
In the end, all the Revered Divine Guards hiding in the grand hall became headless corpses.
Bu Eunseol sheathed the Silent Tiger Soul Sword and slowly opened the door leading out of the hall.
Along with brilliant sunlight, a small vegetable garden at the western gate of the Sacred Demon Hall came into view. Originally, multiple branching corridors should have appeared beyond the grand hall’s door. Yet it had directly become a door leading to the western gate?
Bu Eunseol, as if he had expected it, walked toward the garden with an indifferent expression.
Not long after, a small pavilion installed in the middle of the garden appeared.
There, an ordinary-looking old man stood with his hands behind his back.
The Demon Emperor.
The man who was supposed to be in secluded cultivation was casually enjoying the scenery here.
“You’re faster than expected.”
The Demon Emperor looked at Bu Eunseol, who was drenched in blood and covered in wounds, and spoke in a low voice.
“I thought it would take at least one incense stick’s worth of time.”
‘The Demon Emperor.’
A blazing light like the sun burned in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
That tone that seemed to know everything.
That attitude that treated everyone around him as if they were in the palm of his hand—they disgusted him.
He had long been waiting for the right moment to challenge the Demon Emperor, but the difference in their martial prowess was still too vast.
Because he did not wish to involve the Martial Soul Society or his subordinates, he had kept delaying that moment. Yet everything had now been revealed as meaningless.
The difference in martial arts? Perfect timing?
What use did any of that have?
“My Lord.”
Bu Eunseol abandoned the polite tone he had used until now and spoke in a low, solemn voice.
“Nangyang Pavilion’s disciple, Bu Eunseol, hereby challenges you.”
For a moment, a profound light flashed in the Demon Emperor’s eyes.
The Righteous and Demonic Twin Emperors.
The Three Demons, and Three Venerable
There were two heavens in the righteous and demonic martial world.
Six absolute experts were closely chasing after them.
They had secretly clashed with each other, but those were not challenges against the Twin Emperors—they were collapses.
No grandmaster had ever dared approach the domain of the heavens to challenge the Twin Emperors.
The difference in power was simply too vast.
Therefore, only the Three Demons and Three Venerables were permitted to challenge the Twin Emperors, and this had become an unwritten rule of the martial world.
But Bu Eunseol was the first to break this implicit rule.
“A challenge, you say.”
“Do you think I am unqualified?”
“Not at all.”
Even though Bu Eunseol was using an insolent tone, the Demon Emperor remained calm and indifferent.
“I am one who has clashed with the Heavenly Emperor and all of the Three Demons and Three Venerables.”
The Heavenly Emperor and the Three Demons and Three Venerables.
There were differences in their martial ranks.
They were all grandmasters who had reached the peak in their respective fields.
They simply pursued different paths.
In the entire martial world, only Bu Eunseol had directly and indirectly clashed with all of them. That experience gave him immeasurable advantages and had been the driving force behind his survival until now.
“However, it is a shame.”
The Demon Emperor looked up at the sky and spoke calmly.
“If you had said such words after winning a life-or-death battle against one of the Three Demons, I would have sincerely accepted them.”
Whoosh!
At that moment, a brilliant light burst from Bu Eunseol’s body.
The light condensed into a single point and transformed into the most perfect and pure form of a sword.
Hwa Wu Sword.
The blade, made of pure fire and raindrops, was wrapped in a spiral of brilliant light. It was the crystallization of the essence and pinnacle of martial arts he had refined through endless training and bloody battles, along with his desperate desire for revenge.
He shot it toward the Demon Emperor.
“The real Hwa Wu Sword.”
With a low exclamation, a dark wave resembling red light and a black dragon’s scales entangled with the Hwa Wu Sword like iron filings clinging to a magnet.
The boundary between heaven and earth shook violently.
At the point where the two forces collided, rainbow-colored light like polar radiance swirled.
Every time the blade of fire and raindrops drew a brilliant trajectory in a spiral, fragments of darkness clinging to the sword scattered across heaven and earth, accompanied by a roar like a dragon’s cry that shook the world. After an absolute silence as if everything had evaporated in an instant, the world-shattering collision canceled out each other’s power. The polar light storm mixed with sword and demonic energy slowly faded.
The two men stood facing each other calmly, as if nothing had happened.
At that moment, a red line of blood flowed from the corner of Bu Eunseol’s mouth.
Even though he had launched the first attack with the Hwa Wu Sword containing the essence of all his martial arts, he had failed to completely block the Demon Emperor’s jet-black wave and suffered deep internal injuries.
Although Bu Eunseol had fought on equal footing with the strongest experts who looked down upon the world, he had still not reached the level of this unparalleled great demon who had dominated the martial world since his appearance.
‘It is only natural.’
There was not the slightest wavering in Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
From the beginning, he had never thought he could win against the Demon Emperor. He had simply come here with the resolve that if a fight broke out, not a single living being around the Sacred Demon Hall would survive.
‘This is only the beginning.’
Bloodlust spread through Bu Eunseol’s eyes as he prepared to explode all the energy within his body.
Suddenly, thin cracks began to appear in the clear blue sky, like ice breaking. The beautiful garden—filled with warm sunlight, gentle breeze, chirping birds, and blooming wildflowers—began to shatter like a spiderweb.
Claaaang!
With a sharp, ear-piercing sound like thousands upon thousands of glass cups shattering at once, the illusion covering the beautiful scenery slowly collapsed.
Bu Eunseol’s eyebrows shot up.
As the entire landscape shattered like glass, the true scenery of the western gate’s rear garden was revealed.
It was a horrific garden of hell.
What was planted in the ground were not plants, but white bones.
Some still had faces distorted in agony, not yet fully skeletal. Others revealed bloodshot eyes in silent screams, while skeletal rib cages rose like fences. The stench of blood and rotting souls permeated the air, and the ground was drenched in death.
This garden was where the Demon Emperor had buried those who had opposed or challenged him.
“Hmm.”
The Demon Emperor looked around the garden indifferently and nodded.
“It seems you have earned the right to converse with me. Whether you walk out of here or are buried in this place, I do not know.”
‘You turned your Phase into reality.’
If the shockwaves from clashing with the Demon Emperor had not spread, Bu Eunseol would never have seen through the true form of the western gate’s rear garden in his lifetime.
The Demon Emperor’s realm had far surpassed simply overlaying reality with a Mind World like Weiji Hun had done.
He had manifested his ‘Phase’ as reality itself.
“I have no need for conversation.”
Blood-red light exploded from Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
“The time for polite conversation has long passed!”
BOOOOM!
With a sound like heaven and earth colliding, the ground beneath his feet split apart.
The Demon Emperor placed his hand forward.
He was clashing against the Infinite Reversal Power within Bu Eunseol.
The power of the righteous path exploded with extreme yin.
The secrets of the demonic path collided with the mental techniques of the righteous path.
The power of thunder crashed against the power of frost.
The power of wind clashed with the power of thunder.
Their spirits, intertwined with darkness and light, sought to annihilate each other’s consciousness.
Crack.
At that moment, a strange power erupted from Bu Eunseol’s brain, and his eyes glowed with a red hue.
His left eye contained the starlight of a flowing galaxy.
His right eye flowed with the abyss that swallowed everything.
His skin burned so hot that lava-like heat flowed out.
The Demon Emperor clasped his hands.
An extremely clear energy spread out like ripples, turning Bu Eunseol’s body and courage into emptiness.
The power circulating within his body was neutralized, and like a monk in meditation, he became cold and composed.
“Converse.”
The Demon Emperor spoke calmly.
To stop your pathetic self-destruction, I will limit it to answering your questions.
Pathetic self-destruction.
The answer contained implicit meaning.
First, it acknowledged Bu Eunseol’s challenge.
Second, it meant he would answer all questions within the scope possible before the self-destruction.
“Conversation, you say.”
If he were an ordinary martial artist, the moment the Demon Emperor turned his spirit and body into emptiness, he would have lost all will to fight and never rebel again.
But Bu Eunseol’s spirit did not break at all.
If he wished, he could exert his power again at any time.
‘Whether you accept the challenge or not, I will simply attack.’
Very few people in the world could have a conversation with the Demon Emperor. Bu Eunseol knew better than anyone how powerful information could be.
“Very well.”
A conversation with the Demon Emperor was an opportunity to obtain truths that could not be bought with ten thousand gold.
He accepted the offer.
“Speak.”
“The reason you declared a challenge is nothing more than your determination to uncover my true intentions.”
A mysterious gleam flashed in the Demon Emperor’s eyes.
“In that case, that child, Jin Seol, must have handed over information about me or some kind of evidence.”
“Is that why you killed Lady Jin?”
“Hahaha…”
The Demon Emperor actually laughed.
“Do you think I am a person without blood or tears, who would treat even my own child so cruelly?”
“I already know that well.”
Bu Eunseol spoke in a bitter voice.
“After all, you are not a demonic practitioner. You could do such a thing.”
He had already confirmed the letter left behind by Jin Seol.
And in it was written shocking content.
Demonic Path Extermination Plan.
Even though the Demon Emperor was the greatest expert of the demonic path and the Lord of the Demon Emperor, which governed the demonic path, he had been planning to completely wipe out the demonic path.
