The woman bound in chains and the girl resembled each other with their straight noses and mysterious eyes. Anyone could tell at a glance that they were mother and daughter.
“Aaaah…”
The girl, who had been hugging her mother for a long time, saw the iron chains piercing the woman’s collarbones and grew furious. She suddenly stood up and tried to break them. However, the chains were made by mixing mysterious metals such as Kunlun Jade and Supreme Dark Iron. No matter how great her strength was, she could not snap them with her bare hands.
“Uuuu…”
In the end, the girl’s eyes flashed as she tried to exert her mysterious power to destroy the chains and the wall together.
But some kind of sorcery or shamanistic spell must have been cast on them. Even with the power that could cause an earthquake across dozens of li, the chains did not budge.
“Aaah!”
Enraged, the girl grabbed the chains and tried to yank them out by force.
“You must not pull them out forcibly.”
At that moment, Bu Eunseol stepped forward and stopped the girl.
“If you pull those chains out, she will die immediately.”
Bu Eunseol had seen through the fact that the chains were not simply piercing her body, but had been driven through using vicious techniques such as the Blood Chain Imprisonment or Purgatory Binding Lock.
Such methods cleverly pierced the body while avoiding the heart, aorta, liver, lungs, and spine. The moment the chains were forcibly pulled out or removed, the blood vessels would tear apart, the clotted wounds would burst, and she would die.
Swish.
First, Bu Eunseol took off his outer robe and approached the woman. Her clothes were filthy with grime and torn in many places.
Shiver.
When Bu Eunseol approached, the woman trembled with a fearful expression.
“Be at ease. I will not harm you.”
Bu Eunseol spoke with a kind expression that held no malice.
The woman lifted her head and looked into Bu Eunseol’s eyes.
After gazing at his extremely serious and coldly still eyes, she carefully opened her mouth.
“Who are you? You seem to be someone from the Central Plains.”
“I am a wanderer from the Central Plains called Seolso.”
“Seolso…”
However, she did not let down her guard.
“I happened to encounter a man called the Holy One who was harming the common people of the Central Plains.”
After pondering for a moment, Bu Eunseol spoke honestly.
“And before he died, he said that if I went to the hidden location of the Napsageukseong, I could learn the secret of the True Demon.”
Her appearance was wretched, yet like a jewel hidden within ashes, her eyes carried a dignity and innate nobility that even pain could not conceal.
“The secret of the True Demon…”
“Yes. Do you happen to know anything about it?”
The woman avoided his gaze and shook her head with a somewhat uneasy expression.
“I do not know.”
Then, while holding the girl in her arms, she asked in a low voice,
“What exactly happened to Seong-ah…?”
“You call her Seong-ah? You mean this girl?”
Bu Eunseol pointed at the girl.
The woman nodded. Bu Eunseol then calmly explained.
“As I said earlier, I entered this underground holy city by chance while searching for the secret of the True Demon. I discovered a crystal tube…”
He sighed and continued calmly.
“Out of curiosity, I touched the surface of the tube. Suddenly, a sharp tongue shot out from the snake pattern and stabbed my hand.”
“……”
“After that, white smoke suddenly poured out, the door inside the tube opened, and she began to move.”
Shudder.
Upon hearing those words, the woman was greatly shocked. She prostrated herself before Bu Eunseol and clasped her hands together.
“O Great One, please have mercy.”
Bu Eunseol opened his mouth in considerable shock.
The ‘Great One’ she had just mentioned while begging him with fearful eyes—that was precisely the term the people of Cheonchuk used to refer to the True Demon.
“I am truly just a wanderer from the Central Plains. I am not the person you think I am.”
He spoke with a serious expression several times, but the woman only lowered her head and kept her hands clasped.
“Please have mercy. I have said nothing.”
No matter how much he explained, she clearly would not believe him.
The woman was showing extreme fear. Even if he tried to persuade her calmly, she would not be able to accept it.
‘Moreover…’
Her eyes were hazy, and her life force was fading.
If left as she was, she would not last long before drawing her final breath.
“Ah, ah.”
The girl, Seong-ah, smiled brightly as if overjoyed to be reunited with her mother, completely unconcerned by her mother’s miserable state. Then, perhaps sensing her mother’s fearful gaze toward Bu Eunseol, she approached her mother, waved her hands, and said something.
It seemed she was trying to tell her that Bu Eunseol was a good person and that it was all right.
But the woman only shook her head, as if she could not believe her daughter’s words.
‘In any case, restoring her body comes first.’
Bu Eunseol had far too many questions for the woman.
What this underground holy city was, why a temple had been built here, what the true identities of the mother and daughter were, and what exactly was happening in this place.
However, since the woman looked as though she might stop breathing at any moment, he decided to restore her body first.
“Excuse me.”
After bowing politely to the woman, he raised the Crystal Divine Energy.
Uuuung.
He began to carefully infuse it into her body as if spreading it gently.
Because the Crystal Divine Energy was in a natural form and capable of restoring the body, even an ordinary human could accept it without issue.
Ziiing.
At that moment, the woman opened her eyes wide in great surprise.
As soon as Bu Eunseol infused the Crystal True Energy, her suspicion seemed to melt away instantly, and the wary look in her eyes disappeared.
‘Crystal Divine Energy alone is not enough.’
The woman’s wounds were far too severe to be healed by the Crystal Divine Energy.
But when their eyes met at that moment—
Clink.
The startled woman moved her body slightly, causing the iron chains embedded in her collarbones to shift greatly.
Shudder.
An immense pain must have surged through her. The woman bit her lip hard and trembled.
“Ah, ah.”
Seong-ah made a sad expression.
The woman deliberately put on a bright face and shook her head.
“It was embedded a long time ago, so it doesn’t hurt at all.”
It was a lie.
Chains driven in by such a method caused greater and greater pain as time passed.
“Hurry and leave this place. You must not stay here.”
“Aaah.”
Seong-ah shook her head.
She then hugged her mother once more.
Watching the scene, Bu Eunseol’s expression darkened.
Even while dying in pain, she was showing a loving smile—just like his grandfather had done.
Step, step.
Bu Eunseol approached the woman again and took out two medicine bottles from his bosom.
They were the life-saving divine pills he always carried to save lives at any moment: the Soul-Returning Divine Pellet and the Blue Spirit Stone Elixir.
Click.
When he opened the bottles, a fragrant scent filled the entire water prison.
“Take this. Your body will feel much better.”
The woman looked at them and shook her head.
“Such precious medicine… please do not waste it on me.”
She spoke calmly.
“In any case, I do not have long to live.”
“Aaah.”
When Seong-ah began to sob, the woman smiled gently.
“It’s all right. Just being able to see you again before I die is enough for me to thank the gods.”
Even while enduring pain severe enough to kill her, the woman moved her arm and held her daughter tightly.
Trickle.
Blood flowed as the chains moved, but she paid it no mind.
‘Her life force is fading.’
Just how severe the torture she had endured must have been.
There was not a single spot on the woman’s body that was unharmed, and her eyes shook ceaselessly like a candle flame about to go out.
Even a great immortal from the heavens could not bring her back to life.
‘I cannot leave her like this.’
“Madam.”
Bu Eunseol looked at the woman and spoke carefully.
“Would it be all right if I examine your condition and attempt treatment?”
The woman saw that Bu Eunseol’s eyes and voice were not only extremely serious but also filled with sincere earnestness. She looked puzzled.
“I also lost my family at a young age.”
Recalling his grandfather, he spoke with an endlessly lonely expression.
“At the very least, shouldn’t one live until their child becomes an adult?”
No one who has a beloved child would wish to die and leave them behind.
But she knew her own physical condition too well, so she simply did not harbor vain hopes.
“Please.”
When Bu Eunseol pleaded once more, she nodded reluctantly.
Ziiing.
When he examined the woman’s condition thoroughly with the Heavenly Mirror Heart Sutra, Bu Eunseol’s eyes grew even darker.
If she was not treated quickly, she would last at best two hours. In the worst case, she would die within fifteen minutes.
‘Although complete recovery will be impossible…’
Bu Eunseol took a deep breath and raised his inner energy.
Papapapak.
He then shot out finger wind and precisely struck thirty-six major acupoints on the woman’s body.
Gush.
When the woman vomited a mouthful of black blood, he immediately infused the Ban-Geuk Method energy into her.
Uuuung.
As pure true energy penetrated her acupoints, her complexion gradually began to return.
After stopping the infusion of inner energy, he first offered her the Soul-Returning Divine Pellet.
“Swallow this in one go.”
The woman no longer refused and swallowed the Soul-Returning Divine Pellet.
Shuuuuuu.
As the medicinal effect slowly spread through her body, her previously dark skin turned white, and her emaciated, unsightly body returned to normal in an instant.
Shing.
At that moment, Bu Eunseol drew the Silent Tiger Soul Sword.
‘I must cut without the slightest tremor.’
Clang.
With a sound like crystal shattering into pieces, brilliant light burst from the Silent Tiger Soul Sword, and mysterious patterns began to be engraved on the blade.
He had wrapped the blade with the harmony of all the energies in his body merged together.
Slice.
The mysterious alloy chains, which had not been cut even by the girl’s earthquake-inducing power, snapped cleanly in two at once.
“Bear with the pain for just a moment.”
Whoosh!
When he pulled out the iron chains embedded in her collarbones, the blood vessels burst and blood gushed out.
“From now on, you must absolutely not move.”
Having lost a large amount of blood, the woman’s consciousness was fading. She could not even answer and only blinked.
Slither.
At that moment, Bu Eunseol used his inner energy to unravel fabric into threads.
Slash!
Combining the Wishful True Binding and the Crystal Divine Energy, he created various forms—delicate hands, blades, and more.
He then began to swiftly sew up the woman’s burst blood vessels.
Even the greatest physician in the world could not possibly intervene when blood was gushing out in such large quantities.
Yet Bu Eunseol, using the Crystal Divine Energy and the Wishful True Binding, was sealing the blood vessels at a speed impossible for human hands.
Once the blood vessels were perfectly sealed, Bu Eunseol offered the bottle containing the heavenly supreme elixir, the Blue Spirit Stone Elixir.
“Drink every last drop.”
The woman obediently drank the Blue Spirit Stone Elixir in one gulp.
Uuuung.
A mysterious light shimmered across her entire body. The lost blood was replenished in an instant, the darkness before her eyes vanished, her consciousness returned, and her gaze became clear once more.
“Ahh!”
The girl, who had been watching from a distance, saw her mother regain her complexion and appearance in the blink of an eye. Overjoyed, she rushed into her mother’s arms.
The woman warmly embraced her daughter, then bowed deeply to Bu Eunseol.
“Thank you for your great kindness, benefactor.”
“It was nothing. However…”
Bu Eunseol spoke respectfully.
“If it is all right with you, could you explain about this place and about Seong-ah?”
“……”
“I have no ill intentions whatsoever. I simply need to know what this place is and what it does… so that I can decide my future course of action.”
“I understand. I know you are not the Great One.”
The woman hesitated for a moment, then carefully opened her mouth.
“Considering the grace you have shown us, it would be right for me to tell you everything in detail.”
She prostrated herself before Bu Eunseol and spoke earnestly.
“Could you please not ask anything and simply let us mother and daughter go?”
“Madam.”
“For the sake of this child, at least.”
The woman looked at Seong-ah.
“I wish to forget the memories of this place and live the rest of my life quietly in a place where I know nothing.”
Bu Eunseol could understand her heart.
Having been imprisoned in the water prison for so long, the suffering she had endured must have been indescribable. If she were to tell him various stories, she would have to dig up all those painful past memories again.
“I only want to ask a few things. Is that not possible?”
“I am sorry, benefactor.”
The woman lowered her head.
Her expression looked utterly exhausted.
She had barely extended her life from the brink of death, but the remaining time would be short…
It seemed she simply wanted to leave this place quickly and live quietly without revisiting those painful and agonizing memories.
“I understand. I am sorry.”
After enduring countless hardships to reach Cheonchuk, he had finally found this isolated realm connected to the True Demon.
He had even defied the Demon Emperor’s command to come here, so he absolutely had to uncover the secret of the True Demon.
Moreover, he had used priceless heavenly treasures to extend her life…
Yet for the happiness of the mother and daughter, he chose without hesitation to forgo hearing the story.
“Thank you.”
The woman, who had no way of knowing what Bu Eunseol had given up, simply expressed her sincere gratitude.
“There may be subordinates of the Poison King outside.”
He added this for the sake of the mother and daughter.
“I will escort you to a safe place.”
“No, it is all right.”
The woman pointed outside the water prison and said,
“Inside here, there is a secret passage that only I know about… one that leads outside. If we exit through there, we will be safe.”
Bu Eunseol was worried, but realizing that the woman absolutely did not want him to accompany them, he nodded.
“Very well, then.”
When he bowed, the woman bowed in return and made Seong-ah bow her head as well.
They then exited the water prison. The woman continuously touched the patterns on the wall or wrote something on the floor.
Rumble.
A solid wall split apart, revealing a wide secret passage inside.
She hurriedly took Seong-ah and disappeared into the secret passage.
“Is this also fate?”
Bu Eunseol let out a sigh.
Trying to uncover the secret of the True Demon was ultimately for the sake of doing what was right.
If he were to torment a woman who had already suffered through torture and interrogate her…
It would be better not to do such a thing at all.
“Now all that remains is to receive one move from the Demon Emperor.”
He had learned that the Poison King was plotting something here, but he could not simply go find him and interrogate him.
Even if he stayed in Cheonchuk to investigate, he had no idea how long it would take.
Moreover, since he had already missed the promised date… the Demon Emperor would show no mercy.
Even if he returned to the Central Plains, he would inevitably have to face the Life-and-Death Single Palm Decree.
“Will I really die?”
Bu Eunseol shook his head and turned around.
But at this moment, he did not yet know.
That he would hear all the answers he had not received from the woman—
The secrets of the True Demon in this place—
From her, in less than half a shichen.
Step, step.
Bu Eunseol exited the water prison and headed not toward the secret passage the woman had taken, but back the way he had come.
‘Still, perhaps I can find other clues?’
The structure of the temple was extremely complex, and at a glance, it seemed to contain many secret passages undetectable by the eye.
Thud.
Bu Eunseol stamped his foot and spread the Void Heart Command.
A low vibration spread out with waves, gently shaking the entire temple.
‘It doesn’t work?’
Even though the vibration spread, he could not grasp the temple’s structure at all.
It seemed the interior of the temple was protected by a mysterious power.
‘That makes sense.’
Someone had used the Ajanta Caves as an entrance, created an isolated realm cut off from the world, and built a massive holy city large enough for tens of thousands of people to live in. It was not surprising that such a large-scale temple would have something installed to block super-sensory perception.
‘Then I have no choice but to examine it directly.’
After looking around, Bu Eunseol had no choice but to begin investigating the interior personally, looking with his eyes and touching with his hands.
‘It is a complex yet simple method.’
On the ordinary-looking walls throughout the temple were strange patterns or carvings.
Touching them in a certain way would open secret doors.
Fortunately, Bu Eunseol had seen the woman earlier touching the walls and floor or sweeping them, so he was able to find clues without much difficulty by doing the same.
‘In the end, this place is also a laboratory.’
Most of the secret passages and hidden spaces inside the mechanisms within the temple were stone chambers that showed traces of cruel experiments, or places where tools and medicines needed for experiments were stored.
That meant this place, too, was clearly an experimental facility created for a specific purpose, just like the underground holy city of the Three Realms.
‘Yet the exterior was made to look as if people could live here.’
Only this temple had secret spaces and specific experimental facilities installed.
The numerous buildings outside had been constructed so that people could actually live in them as soon as furniture was provided.
Why exactly?
Had they predicted that many people would live here in the future?
As Bu Eunseol pondered deeply, he unconsciously opened a secret passage hidden in one of the walls.
After observing the temple for so long, he could now easily see through where and what kind of secret mechanisms were installed.
‘Wait.’
Because of this, he belatedly realized one fact he had not noticed before.
‘There is no secret passage here that only she knows about.’
Building such a mysterious and enormous temple would have required an immense amount of manpower and resources.
Moreover, this was a place managed by the Poison King.
Even if the woman had managed the entire temple or helped design it, and even if she had secretly created a passage that only she knew about…
There was no way someone of the Poison King’s level would fail to detect such a secret passage.
‘She’s in danger!’
He immediately turned around and ran toward the secret passage that the woman and Seong-ah had taken.
He found the secret passage near the water prison.
Because he had been constantly touching the secret passages inside the temple, he could now tell at a glance how to open them.
Clack.
After touching the patterns and jewels on the surface, Bu Eunseol immediately entered the secret passage and dashed inside.
As he ran down the endlessly long passage, the sound of weapons clashing and low vibrations seemed to echo from somewhere.
Boom!
Raising the Endless Heavenly Light Art and deploying Swift Beyond Shadow, he crossed the secret passage in an instant.
Unexpectedly, the passage was endlessly long. Even with his movement technique, the end was not in sight.
Finally, a thick iron door appeared far ahead in front of him, but he could tell it was not an exit but a barrier meant to block intruders.
‘There is no time.’
Raising his full strength, he crashed straight into the iron door.
BANG!
The three-chi-thick iron door was torn apart like a sheet of paper.
When Bu Eunseol deliberately converted all the power in his body into protective strong energy, its hardness surpassed imagination.
He could instantly shatter even a door made of diamond, let alone an iron one.
BANG! BANG!
After smashing through five doors in succession, a massive iron door that appeared to be the exit finally came into view.
Bu Eunseol smashed through it as well and exited.
BOOM!
With a loud explosion, Bu Eunseol emerged from the exit and immediately deployed the Eagle Soaring Leap, shooting high into the distant sky.
Looking around, he saw that this place was deep inside Nagara City, far past the area of the Napgi Lake where the Ajanta Caves were located. It was a vast plain.
‘There.’
Hundreds of people were gathered dozens of li away.
Even with an eagle’s eyes, they would appear as black dots, but in Bu Eunseol’s vision, he could even see the poisonous insects embroidered on the martial artists’ clothes.
They were unmistakably the warriors under the Poison King.
Buuu!
Suddenly, the sound of wind instruments rang out from somewhere, followed by strange mantras chanted in all directions.
The sound was thickly entangled, with multiple voices mixed together, evoking a spine-chilling sense of fear and eeriness.
Moreover, the sound was gradually growing louder. Eventually, the chanting echoed so loudly it seemed as if it would tear eardrums apart.
Rumble.
Far away, separated by a large force and several li, a massive palanquin slowly came into view, carrying a gigantic figure.
His size was so enormous that he could hardly be considered human; he appeared to be over ten chi tall. Moreover, his attire was a unique kasaya-like robe, making him look like the Maitreya Bodhisattva had manifested in the world.
But when Bu Eunseol saw the overwhelming energy emanating from his entire body and his blade-like, sharply slit eyes, he immediately recognized the man’s identity.
“Poison King.”
Poison King, Garama.
One of the Eight Tyrants of Cheonchuk and the Poison Saint of Cheonchuk who ruled Nagara City.
He had finally appeared.
