Chapter 300
Chapter 300
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 300
Chapter Title: The Star
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*Shiiiiik!*
The fluttering black qi shot forth with ferocious intensity.
And it began to grind the assassins to dust.
“Scatter!”
The assassins dispersed in all directions, but the black qi pursued them like a living creature.
*Swaaaaaek!*
As the black qi enveloped the area, the assassins had no choice but to draw their swords and resist.
But it was useless.
This pitch-black qi looked like living, moving tendrils, but in truth, it was a substance closer to sword aura.
The moment it touched anything, it pulverized and destroyed it.
“Gah!”
“Kuhk!”
The assassins’ screams echoed one after another. Those who could scream were the lucky ones.
Those whose heads were crushed first by the Yeoui Jin-gyeol could only tremble as they died, unable to even utter a sound.
Having entered the Demonic Path once more, Bu Eun-seol’s Yeoui Jin-gyeol displayed a power as if it had reached the realm of the Great Origin.
It was a phenomenon that completely defied the principles of martial arts.
Unless one had fully entered the Demonic Path, no matter how great one’s power was…
it was impossible to display such an ability.
But Sahyang was connected to the ones who had killed his grandfather, Bu Jan-yang.
Bu Eun-seol’s sky-rending fury, his immense killing intent, and his spirit, having entered the Demonic Path, combined with the Sakjeong Secret Art.
In an instant, his Yeoui Jin-gyeol displayed a power as if it had reached the realm of the Great Origin…
allowing him to freely create tens of thousands of weapons.
The Demonic Celestial Emperor.
The grandmaster of the Demonic Path, said to have reached the very edge of the State of Infinity,
had created an otherworldly peerless art that could manifest qi into any form through the mere fusion of spirit and a secret art, unleashing the force of a thunderbolt.
—*Guaaaah!*
The screams echoed endlessly.
Bu Eun-seol had entered Sahyang alone only to have a private meeting with Elder Mun. He had no plan to annihilate this place.
But as his spirit entered the Demonic Path, and his extreme rage and boundless killing intent merged with the Sakjeong Secret Art,
Bu Eun-seol displayed a terrifying martial prowess worthy of being called the second Demonic Celestial Emperor.
*Drip. Drip.*
As the blood bursting forth from all directions rained down, Bu Eun-seol closed his eyes.
“Hah.”
He took a deep breath of the bloody scent spreading through the air.
Was blood always this fragrant and sweet? Was it always this calming to the soul…?
He felt he could now understand why the great demons who repeated the cycle of slaughter would drink blood so voraciously.
‘…!’
In that moment, Bu Eun-seol felt his spirit had reached a very dangerous place.
What if he continued to endlessly fuse his killing intent and rage with the Sakjeong Secret Art?
He had a premonition that he would fall into a place from which there was no return, even after ten thousand kalpas.
*Crack.*
As he suppressed his killing intent and rage, the sound of bones cracking echoed from his entire body.
At the same time, the light in his eyes gradually began to clear.
Sensing the mortal danger, his spirit had instinctively returned from the Demonic Path to the Middle Path.
“…”
Only silence and terror flowed within Sahyang.
Sahyang had never revealed itself to the martial world for generations and was filled with elite assassins as numerous as clouds.
To think a single person could annihilate a place that could easily fend off any other faction?
*Step, step.*
Bu Eun-seol opened his eyes and walked toward the lone remaining figure, Elder Mun.
“You… you are a demon.”
Elder Mun gritted his teeth.
Bu Eun-seol had ground hundreds of elite assassins to dust without lifting a finger.
And as if that wasn’t enough, his eyes had glittered as he gazed at the spreading blood?
‘He didn’t just enter the Demonic Path. He *is* a demon.’
In his eyes, Bu Eun-seol was not a human, but closer to a black demon.
“A demon?”
Bu Eun-seol looked down at Elder Mun with his blackened eyes.
“You took an innocent young boy hostage, then severed the tendons and pulled out the sinews of a man who did not resist.”
“…”
“Then you cut off both his arms, blinded him, and made his entire body rot away with poison.”
A streak of red light shot through Bu Eun-seol’s blackened pupils.
“And you made sure he couldn’t die right away… wouldn’t that be what it takes to be called a demon?”
Finishing his words, he moved closer to Elder Mun.
“Stay back.”
His body trembled violently.
He wasn’t afraid of death.
He was an assassin who had controlled the life and death of countless people.
He knew full well that a day would come when he, too, would die a miserable death.
But Bu Eun-seol wasn’t trying to grant him death.
It was something worse than death, a profound agony. He was trying to bestow upon him the extreme pain and terror a human could feel…
He could sense it.
“I said, don’t come any closer!”
Elder Mun let out a scream.
“I am not Elder Mun! The truth is…!”
*Tremble.*
Suddenly, Elder Mun’s body froze as if turned to ice.
Simultaneously, his head tilted to the side, and he collapsed, his head hitting the ground.
It was as if an invisible hand had snapped his neck, killing him instantly.
“Strange.”
Watching the scene, Bu Eun-seol stared ahead with empty eyes.
“There is only one martial art in the world that uses qi with such intense power.”
As Bu Eun-seol raised his head, a faint shadow appeared in front of the village.
It was the very same Elder Mun who had just collapsed before him.
Shockingly, the Elder Mun that Bu Eun-seol had been facing until now was a fake.
“Shaolin.”
Bu Eun-seol shook his head.
On the surface, it was cleverly concealed with other techniques,
but what the newly appeared Elder Mun had just unleashed was none other than Shaolin’s Great Prajna Power.
Having entered the Martial Emperor's Archives, Bu Eun-seol could clearly identify the martial arts of the Orthodox Faction.
Not only that, hadn’t he personally experienced the Great Prajna Power of the Buddha Hong Hyeon at the Murim Alliance?
He was able to see at a glance that the technique the new Elder Mun had used was a variation of the Great Prajna Power.
“How curious.”
Elder Mun tilted his head.
“How can the successor of the Demonic Cult recognize our temple’s secret art at a single glance?”
Amazingly, he readily admitted to being a disciple of Shaolin.
Sahyang.
To think a disciple of Shaolin was leading that ancient clan of assassins?
Wasn’t this even more shocking than a high-ranking Shaolin monk turning out to be a common robber?
“I didn’t expect you to admit it so easily.”
“It matters not,”
Elder Mun said nonchalantly to Bu Eun-seol’s words.
“For the dead cannot speak.”
*Ziiiing!*
In that instant, an unseen, sharp power shot toward Bu Eun-seol’s neck.
*Thud.*
Bu Eun-seol quickly retreated three zhang.
“…”
Bu Eun-seol stared at Elder Mun with a slightly surprised expression.
Having entered the Demonic Path, Bu Eun-seol’s internal energy and martial skill had been explosively augmented beyond their original levels.
To think he was forced to retreat in a single move?
“Your martial arts are magnificent!”
Elder Mun exclaimed in admiration, nodding his head.
“With this level of skill, no one would have objected if you had risen to the rank of the Four Gods and Seven Kings. I don’t understand why strange rumors like the ‘Mad Sword’ spread about you.”
*Ziiiing!*
Finishing his words, Elder Mun once again unleashed the Great Prajna Power.
But this time, Bu Eun-seol stood his ground. He intended to face the Great Prajna Power where he stood.
‘Overconfident.’
A smile crept onto Elder Mun’s lips as he watched.
The Great Prajna Power was an intangible force that could neither be grasped nor blocked. To stand still while knowing full well it was being unleashed?
*Woooong!*
Just then, black qi erupted from Bu Eun-seol’s body, spreading in all directions to form a great wall.
When the Great Prajna Power reached the wall, it could no longer exert its force.
He had repelled the Great Prajna Power with his Yeoui Jin-gyeol.
“This is truly… incredible.”
Elder Mun let out a gasp of admiration.
“To block an intangible force with manifested qi.”
To spread manifested qi in all directions and forcibly give form to the formless Great Prajna Power?
Wasn’t that proof that Bu Eun-seol’s martial techniques had reached the level of a grandmaster?
“Heh.”
Elder Mun let out a deep sigh.
“For such an outstanding, peerless talent to have fallen to the Demonic Path.”
His attitude seemed to suggest he was confident he could take Bu Eun-seol’s life at any moment.
“My apologies.”
He reached out his hand with a regretful expression.
At that, the black qi wall Bu Eun-seol had created with his Yeoui Jin-gyeol began to dissipate.
Shockingly, he too, like the Buddha Hong Hyeon, possessed the ability to alter the nature of martial arts.
*Flash.*
Greatly surprised, Bu Eun-seol amplified his qi even further.
But there was a fact he had yet to realize…
The Yeoui Jin-gyeol that Bu Eun-seol used was a supreme martial art of the Demonic Path that manifested qi through the secret art known as the Sakjeong Secret Art.
Conversely, the Great Prajna Power was a maximization of the unique spiritual power of Buddhism.
In other words, it possessed a power that was the natural opposite of the Sakjeong Secret Art, which led the spirit to the Demonic Path.
*Zzzzzing.*
As the qi manifested by the Yeoui Jin-gyeol completely vanished, Bu Eun-seol felt as if all the strength was draining from his body.
*Thud.*
Staggering, Bu Eun-seol finally fell to one knee.
*Step, step.*
Elder Mun slowly approached and looked down at Bu Eun-seol’s head.
“Farewell.”
Elder Mun slowly raised his sharpened hand above his head. And just as he was about to sever Bu Eun-seol’s neck,
*Swish!*
A sharp energy suddenly burst from Bu Eun-seol’s right hand.
As Elder Mun drew near, he had drawn the Muk-geom and unleashed the Meteor-Chasing Moon Style with all his might.
*Ziiiing!*
But the Muk-geom stopped just before Elder Mun’s neck, unmoving.
The viscous and powerful force of the Great Prajna Power had blocked the sword.
“Did you think such a trick would work?”
But then, Elder Mun’s expression hardened.
From the blocked Muk-geom, a blade-like internal energy was extending and beginning to penetrate his meridians.
‘Just as I expected.’
Bu Eun-seol had already tasted the power of the Great Prajna Power from Hong Hyeon.
Therefore, he knew very well that he could not perfectly block the technique, which transcended martial forms, with his own strength.
So he had deliberately shown an opening, kneeling on one knee with a look of defeat.
Just as expected, when Elder Mun moved in close to strike his neck, he had immediately unleashed a fast sword style with the Muk-geom.
He had to make Elder Mun manifest the Great Prajna Power to block his sword style.
Only then could he seize the moment and force a confrontation of internal energy.
‘What is happening?’
Thick beads of sweat dripped from Elder Mun’s forehead.
Bu Eun-seol’s internal energy was so powerful it was suffocating, but that wasn’t all.
Wasn’t the continuously flowing power of his Great Prajna Power gradually being absorbed into his opponent's meridians?
‘Energy Absorption Grand Art? No.’
If it were an energy-absorbing art, he would have instantly fallen into a state of depletion.
But right now, wasn't the energy flowing naturally along its source, like a stream flowing into a river?
‘It’s happening again.’
As the Great Prajna Power entered his meridians, Bu Eun-seol also frowned.
In the past, while enduring the technique of the Eighteen Arhats, he had already experienced the phenomenon of Shaolin’s internal energy naturally merging with his own meridians.
‘It must be because the source of our internal energy is the same.’
Bu Eun-seol thought this phenomenon was also simply happening because the source of their internal energy was the same.
*Wooooong.*
However, the Great Prajna Power flowing into Bu Eun-seol’s body was not merely circulating through his meridians as it had in the past.
The pure and profound power was absorbed into his Sea of Qi like a river, then transformed into a surging tide,
shooting up along his Governing Vessel.
*Boom!*
The Great Prajna Power, which had surged up his Governing Vessel to the back of his head, then penetrated the center of his skull,
and began to descend along the Conception Vessel in the front.
*Rumble!*
After violently piercing through the Conception and Governing Vessels, the Great Prajna Power finally returned to Bu Eun-seol’s dantian…
then dispersed back into his meridians to be stored, vanishing without a trace.
“Ughhh.”
Conversely, Elder Mun’s skin turned dark, and his hair began to turn white.
As a lifetime’s cultivation of the Great Prajna Power was dispersed and stored in Bu Eun-seol’s meridians, he was aging as if all his life force had been drained away.
‘I can’t die like this!’
With his Great Prajna Power gone, Elder Mun summoned his last ounce of strength and grabbed the blade of the Muk-geom with his bare hands.
Blood flowed as he gripped the divine sword’s edge, but his fingers were not severed.
He had unleashed Shaolin’s ultimate art, the Dragon Claw Hand.
*Swish!*
The Dragon Claw Hand instantly lunged forward, as if to tear out Bu Eun-seol’s heart.
*Thwack.*
But only a dull thud was heard. It couldn’t even pierce Bu Eun-seol’s clothes.
He had tried to pierce his chest, but all the internal energy in his body had already vanished without a trace.
In the end, the Dragon Claw Hand had become nothing more than a visually pleasing posture.
“Ughhh.”
The aged Elder Mun, lacking even the strength to open his eyes, collapsed while still clutching Bu Eun-seol’s collar.
“Hmm.”
Bu Eun-seol, too, looked around with hazy eyes, as if just waking from a deep sleep.
His spirit, which had been ready to erupt with killing intent and rage at any moment, had suddenly calmed, and his gaze had become serene and detached.
Was this, too, the will of the heavens?
As the pure Great Prajna Power was absorbed into his body… his spirit, which had been straddling the Middle Path, had faintly entered the Righteous Path.
In other words, he had returned to his original spiritual state from before Seo Jin-ha was injured.
Because of this, he could no longer unleash the powerful Yeoui Jin-gyeol that was on a level worthy of being called the second Demonic Celestial Emperor.
But this was, in fact, a great stroke of luck… a fact he would only realize much later.
‘Why is this happening?’
Currently, the Great Prajna Power that Elder Mun had poured out was dispersed and contained within his meridians.
Therefore, although there was no change in his overall power, an immense force was stirring within his meridians.
“Ugh.”
As Elder Mun groaned as if his breath would stop at any moment, Bu Eun-seol looked down at him.
Then, he spoke in a calm voice.
“Answer me.”
Forcibly pulling up the groaning, collapsed man, Bu Eun-seol spoke in a solemn voice.
“Who was it that used Sahyang’s hidden weapons, laced with the Flesh-Rotting Blood Poison?”
“This temple… protects the martial world…”
Was it because he had lost his internal energy?
Elder Mun began to mutter nonsense with vacant eyes.
“I, too, abandoned my status and returned to the secular world… to save the countless masses…”
Bu Eun-seol had no choice but to inject his internal energy into the man’s Gate of Life acupoint.
“Speak.”
“…”
“He has mastered the Heavenly Pillar Flexible Arts, favors the Flesh-Rotting Blood Poison, and is proficient in demonic sword arts. Who is he?”
“Heavenly Pillar Flexible Arts… Flesh-Rotting Blood Poison.”
A strange light appeared in the eyes of the dying Elder Mun.
“You are looking for him… the one who took the Blood Essence Poison Needle.”
“Who is he?”
As Bu Eun-seol asked urgently, a single word flowed from Elder Mun’s dying lips.
“Seong…”
And with that, his body went cold and stiff.
“Seong? What does that mean!”
Bu Eun-seol shouted, but,
*Thump.*
Elder Mun, as if all life force had left him, died with his eyes wide open.
Bu Eun-seol’s vision went dark.
Seong (星, Star)?
Was the man who killed his grandfather a star? Or was he a diviner who read the stars?
*KABOOM!*
Enraged, Bu Eun-seol slammed his fist into the ground.
He had finally found Sahyang. He had thought he had caught the mastermind by the tail…
But Sahyang, too, was not the main body, merely a subordinate.
“Ugh.”
Bu Eun-seol, his head bowed, bit his lip.
“To have come this far and still not found the culprit!”
He had been certain that coming to Sahyang would at least yield a clue about the culprit.
Since the man had used Sahyang’s hidden weapons, the leader of Sahyang must have known who he was.
But Elder Mun had died futilely during their internal energy confrontation.
In the end, he couldn’t find the one who killed his grandfather.
“Elder Mun.”
Bu Eun-seol bit his lip.
A certain fact suddenly came to mind.
“Shaolin.”