Chapter 385
Chapter 385
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Translator: Vine
Chapter: 385
Chapter Title: The Three Realms
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“You!”
Sim-wol’s eyes widened.
How could Bu Eun-seol have possibly arrived here?
“Sim-wol.”
Bu Eun-seol’s low voice cut through the air as he surveyed the surroundings.
“It's all over. Give up.”
After a moment’s hesitation, a low laugh escaped Sim-wol’s lips.
“Hahaha. So you lie, too.”
He pointed at Bu Eun-seol’s torn robes, the corners of his mouth lifting into a smirk.
“To have pushed your movement arts so hard that your clothes are ripped to shreds… it means you must have rushed here like a madman the moment you heard the news.”
Like the strategist from Manbak Hall that he was, Sim-wol grasped Bu Eun-seol’s situation in an instant.
“There should be a gap of at least a couple of hours before your men can arrive.”
“You’re mistaken.”
Bu Eun-seol looked down on Sim-wol with cold eyes.
“Do you think I need my men to kill you?”
A crimson glint flickered in his pupils.
It was a clear sign of his intent to kill Sim-wol on the spot should he resist.
“That would be fine, too.”
But Sim-wol was undeterred. He lifted Jin-seol, whose vital points had been sealed.
“But if you do, your beloved Miss Jin will be torn to pieces.”
“……”
“Don’t follow me. If you do, I’ll kill her immediately.”
Seeing Bu Eun-seol remain still, Sim-wol smiled in satisfaction and prepared to use his movement technique.
*Shuk.*
At that moment, a crescent-shaped blade suddenly shot up before Sim-wol’s eyes.
“Hah.”
Startled, Sim-wol threw his body back.
Just then, a black shadow appeared, striking repeatedly at his vital points.
It was Mu-heun, Lord of the Death Souls, who had guided Bu Eun-seol here.
He had mastered a movement art so profound that he could keep pace with Bu Eun-seol.
The moment Bu Eun-seol had landed with a tremendous shockwave and a deafening roar, Mu-heun had used that instant to conceal himself near Sim-wol.
*Swish!*
As Mu-heun unleashed a flurry of attacks, Sim-wol, who was dodging while holding Jin-seol, scoffed.
“Hmph!”
He immediately unleashed the power of the Heaven-Shattering Wheel upon him.
*쾅!*
Mu-heun, who had been attacking like a bolt of lightning, was thrown back as if he had slammed into a massive wall.
“……!”
Suddenly, Sim-wol’s eyes widened.
A black-tinged true energy had coiled around his left arm, the one holding Jin-seol, like a snake.
The moment an opening was exposed, Bu Eun-seol had instantly unleashed his As-You-Will True Art, wrapping it around the arm holding Jin-seol.
*Jiiing.*
As the true energy, coiled like a snake, began to glow and rotate at high speed, Sim-wol had no choice but to throw Jin-seol aside.
If he hadn’t, his left arm would have been instantly shredded into dozens of pieces.
*Thud.*
After dropping Jin-seol, Sim-wol clicked his tongue and shouted.
“Bu Eun-seol, this isn’t the end!”
*Kwaoong!*
He shot into the air, attempting to escape.
*Chwaak!*
But at that moment, dozens of silver daggers rained down from the sky.
“What?”
Sim-wol was greatly surprised.
Even within the Demonic Cult, few could match Bu Eun-seol’s transcendent movement arts.
Yet, not even a quarter of an hour had passed, and another person had arrived at a similar speed?
*Ujijik.*
Sim-wol once again deployed the Heaven-Shattering Wheel, shattering the downpour of daggers.
There stood a man dressed in martial robes that blended black and red.
It was Wi Cheon-gyeong, the master of the Hall of the Four Shadows.
“My lord, are you alright?”
Yu Un-ryong knew full well that no matter how quickly he dispatched the experts from the Hall of the Four Shadows, they could never match Bu Eun-seol’s speed.
So he had ordered Wi Cheon-gyeong, the fastest in the Hall, to follow Bu Eun-seol.
“You said you didn’t tell anyone.”
Sim-wol glared down at Jin-seol with eyes full of fury.
He assumed she had already conspired with Bu Eun-seol to hunt him down together.
“If you’re going to run, you’d better do it now.”
Bu Eun-seol looked down at Sim-wol with a cold smile.
“You’ve learned a rather useful martial art, so you might manage to escape for a while.”
Then, his expression turned resolute.
“But you won’t be able to evade the pursuit of this lord and the Martial Alliance forever. You’ll live as a fugitive, trembling in fear and agony, until you die a lonely death in some gutter.”
“You think so?”
“Ah, are you counting on that shadowy faction that gave you the elixir?”
The corner of Bu Eun-seol’s mouth lifted.
“They’re trying their best not to expose their identity. Do you really think they’d take someone like you under their wing?”
*Tremble.*
Sim-wol’s body shook with rage.
In the end, just as Bu Eun-seol said, no matter what he did, he could not escape the life of a fugitive.
“Hehehe! Hahahaha!”
Suddenly, Sim-wol burst into manic laughter. Then he spoke to Bu Eun-seol.
“You always think you’ve predicted everything.”
He strode toward Bu Eun-seol.
“But your calculations are wrong.”
*Paang!*
A tremendous wave of true energy erupted from Sim-wol’s body.
Simultaneously, an immense, invisible force spread out in all directions, reaching the disciples of the Clear Scent Sect, Jin-seol, Wi Cheon-gyeong, and Mu-heun.
*Shwoook!*
Bu Eun-seol immediately grabbed Jin-seol and leaped onto the roof of a pavilion.
Wi Cheon-gyeong and Mu-heun also dodged the attack, but the Clear Scent Sect disciples were not so fortunate.
*Paaaaa!*
A rain of blood erupted as six disciples were blown to pieces, their remains scattering in every direction.
The martial arts of the Blood Demon, Jeok-bung.
It possessed a speed and tyrannical power that were impossible to follow with the naked eye.
“I have the power to kill every last one of you!”
A red mist spewed from Sim-wol’s mouth.
‘He’s completely fused with the Artificial Inner Core.’
Bu Eun-seol could tell at a glance that Sim-wol, unlike the others before him, had fully assimilated the Artificial Inner Core.
“Evacuate everyone.”
At Bu Eun-seol’s command, Mu-heun and Wi Cheon-gyeong began to move Jin-seol and the subdued Clear Scent Sect disciples outside.
“No one is leaving!”
*Woosh.*
As he channeled his power, a dozen fleeing disciples were instantly lifted into the air.
*Flash!*
In that instant, Bu Eun-seol closed the distance to Sim-wol and unleashed his sword technique.
*Woooong!*
But before the tip of the Ink Sword could touch him, it was repelled into the air.
It felt as if a giant magnet had naturally pushed the Ink Sword away.
“The Heaven-Shattering Wheel can repel all forms of power.”
*Hwiik!*
At that moment, an invisible, sharp force descended as if to split Bu Eun-seol’s head open.
*Chwaak!*
He quickly twisted his body, and the force that grazed him tore through the ground.
A gash about a foot wide and several feet deep was carved into the earth.
‘So this is the martial art of the Blood Demon, Jeok-bung.’
The Heaven-Shattering Wheel.
The transcendent art that Jeok-bung was said to have used constantly until he reached the Pinnacle Realm.
It was invisible and could freely unleash a power that could destroy anything.
“Die!”
A round, transparent current of energy poured out from Sim-wol’s body.
Anything that came into contact with this current—be it rock or earth—began to shatter into pieces.
—Aaargh!
The Clear Scent Sect disciples who failed to avoid the current created by the charging Sim-wol became bloody messes in an instant, their screams cut short.
*Swish!*
Bu Eun-seol immediately deployed the Peerless Heavenly Flow, unleashing a continuous barrage of the Waning Moon, Morning Star and Chasing the Meteor Moon.
But no matter how powerful the sword forms he unleashed, he couldn't block the transparent current pouring from Sim-wol.
‘Even the Principle of Reversing Force isn’t working?’
No matter how formless a power was, by using the half-up, half-down Principle of Reversing Force, he could give its properties a tangible form.
But the current that Sim-wol was madly unleashing was like a transparent fog.
It was nullifying even the sword energy from the Ink Sword and the Principle of Reversing Force.
“Stop running like a rat and fight me!”
Sim-wol, emitting a spherical current of energy, charged toward Bu Eun-seol like a wild boar.
The spherical current forming around him destroyed everything it touched.
‘I need to figure out what that power is.’
That invisible current that could not be blocked by any means.
If he couldn’t uncover its true nature, then just as Sim-wol had said, not only he but all the disciples here could be annihilated.
‘Fine!’
*Paang!*
An intense pulse of true energy erupted from Bu Eun-seol’s body.
Simultaneously,
*Jjeojeojeok.*
His hair turned white, and a pale blue aura swirled around his body.
He had drawn upon the ultimate art of the Northern Sea Ice Palace, the Glacial Heavenly Flow Art of the Glacial Grand Emperor.
“You can’t block this with some mere ice art!”
Sim-wol scoffed and charged at Bu Eun-seol.
But this time, Bu Eun-seol did not evade his attack.
“Die!”
Seeing that Bu Eun-seol was not dodging, Sim-wol rushed in and unleashed the transparent current.
*Jjeok!*
In that instant, a massive wall of pale blue ice materialized between Bu Eun-seol and Sim-wol.
Bu Eun-seol had converted all four hundred years of his internal energy into frigid true energy, instantly creating a block of ice to defend against the attack.
*Kwaang! Kwaang!*
But the moment the ice made contact with the current, it shattered instantly.
*Jjeo-eok!*
With all his might, Bu Eun-seol created one final block of pristine, crystal-like ice.
*Jjeong!*
But with a deafening crack, that ice also shattered, and then,
*Pat!*
Blood spurted from the shoulder of the still-standing Bu Eun-seol.
“Hehehe. To think you learned some bizarre ice art from who-knows-where…”
Sim-wol’s mocking expression froze.
Bu Eun-seol was looking at him with a calm smile.
“So, it was hands.”
*Woosh.*
Bu Eun-seol lifted the transparent fragments of the ice that had just shattered into the air.
Imprinted upon them was the clear shape of a human palm.
The reason Bu Eun-seol had continuously created walls of solid ice.
It wasn’t to defeat Sim-wol, but to perfectly grasp the nature of the formless power he was unleashing—what the Heaven-Shattering Wheel truly was, and what method it used to attack.
“Invisible… but incredibly fast-vibrating hands, extending over forty feet long.”
Having seen through it all, Bu Eun-seol muttered under his breath.
Jeok-bung’s Heaven-Shattering Wheel.
In a way, it could be called a martial art similar to the As-You-Will True Art.
By concentrating immense power, he created two hands capable of ultra-high speed and ultra-vibration that could slice through anything.
He was using them to crush or cut any object he desired.
“So.”
Sim-wol’s eyes, already turned blood-red, radiated a killing intent that seemed capable of cleaving the very sky.
“What changes now that you know?”
*Shyuuk!*
A transparent hand formed behind Sim-wol’s back and shot toward Bu Eun-seol’s body like lightning.
*Papat!*
But Bu Eun-seol, as if predicting the trajectory of the two invisible hands, lightly evaded the attack.
“You… sensed the hands of the Heaven-Shattering Wheel?”
Sim-wol’s eyes widened in disbelief.
According to his master, Jeok-bung, the hands created by the Heaven-Shattering Wheel could never be felt or sensed.
Even if Bu Eun-seol possessed extraordinary senses, how could he have dodged them so clearly?
“You have far too little practical experience.”
Bu Eun-seol lowered his Ink Sword, his eyes narrowing.
“No matter how invisible or powerful a weapon is… if a third-rate martial artist wields it, predicting its trajectory is not difficult.”
“……”
“All I have to do is imagine you’re holding two whips, each forty feet long.”
For a moment, Sim-wol’s eyes widened.
Once he fused with the Artificial Inner Core, his internal energy had increased in an instant.
And he had become able to freely use Jeok-bung’s Heaven-Shattering Wheel, an art that should only be accessible upon reaching the Pinnacle Realm.
But that was all.
Sim-wol had always handled the affairs of Manbak Hall with his outstanding intellect and perception.
He had little to no experience in the martial world or in life-and-death battles.
In contrast, Bu Eun-seol was a seasoned veteran who had fought countless battles on the brink of life and death.
He had developed his martial arts in the crucible of combat and had studied various techniques to counter the tactics of his enemies.
The Heaven-Shattering Wheel, Jeok-bung’s personal masterpiece, which was said to be undetectable even by the senses.
But when wielded by Sim-wol, it was like a sword in the hands of a child to Bu Eun-seol’s eyes; he could easily predict its trajectory.
He could even see through how and in what manner Sim-wol was using the Heaven-Shattering Wheel.
Experience.
That was the decisive difference that determined life and death between two foes of similar power.
“Don’t make me laugh!”
Sim-wol roared like thunder and drew upon his internal energy.
*Kwaaaaang!*
Simultaneously, not two long hands, but dozens of hands erupted from around his body.
And they were so dense that they became tangible, visible to the naked eye.
The sight resembled the form of a thousand-armed Avalokiteshvara.
“No matter how great you are, you won’t be able to block this Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm!”
Sim-wol showed a cruel smile.
If he charged forward, creating dozens of hands, each over forty feet long and capable of slicing through anything?
He was confident that not just Bu Eun-seol, but no expert in the world could block it.
“Die!”
*Swaeeek!*
With a battle cry, Sim-wol swung the dozens of hands in a circle and rushed toward Bu Eun-seol.
*Hwaaaaaak!*
In response, Bu Eun-seol unleashed an immense wave of frigid true energy at Sim-wol.
But the hands created by the Heaven-Shattering Wheel, much like the martial arts of the Flame Emperor of the past, possessed a similar ability to annihilate all things, like the Flame Emperor's Ki.
*Kwajijijik!*
It annihilated even the chilling energy born from four hundred years of cultivation and charged forward in an instant.
“Hahaha! It’s useless!”
With a crazed laugh, Sim-wol annihilated the immense cold energy and finally closed the distance to within three zhang of Bu Eun-seol.
“Die!”
Just as the dozens of transparent hands were about to envelop Bu Eun-seol’s body,
“……?”
Sim-wol finally felt that something was wrong.
Although he had easily annihilated the pouring cold energy, he realized his own movements had become incredibly slow during that time.
‘I see. The cold energy…’
The cold energy Bu Eun-seol had unleashed was no ‘mere ice art.’
It was the essence of the ultimate yin arts, capable of turning a person into a block of ice with a mere touch, and of freezing the very heavens if unleashed into the sky.
It was the Glacial Heavenly Flow Art of the Glacial Grand Emperor.
*Flash!*
In that interval, Bu Eun-seol’s Ink Sword had shifted to a slanted angle.
At the same time, hundreds of sword phantoms began to bloom from his own body and from Sim-wol’s.
*Flash!*
At that moment, a brilliant light appeared above Bu Eun-seol’s head.
Simultaneously, from an angle invisible to Sim-wol’s eyes, a sharp point of light pierced into his neck.
The First Style of the Seven Styles of Blood and Tears: Life Arises, Death Returns.
It created sword phantoms on both the enemy and oneself in close quarters, delivering a fatal attack in a desperate situation.
The peerless sword art of the Seven-Branched Demonic Sword was unleashed once more.
“Not a chance!”
*Tututung!*
Amazingly, Sim-wol used the dozens of invisible hands of the Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm to swallow the sword phantoms floating all around him, one by one.
The hands of the Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm, which caused ultra-high speed and ultra-vibration, were annihilating the sword phantoms in an instant.
“Hahaha!”
Incredibly, Sim-wol was already familiar with the method to break Life Arises, Death Returns, a technique Bu Eun-seol had never publicly displayed.
“Die!”
Having annihilated the sword phantoms in an instant, Sim-wol rode the momentum and enveloped Bu Eun-seol’s body with his dozens of hands.
He closed the dozens of hands like a flower bud, making evasion impossible, and swallowed Bu Eun-seol’s body in a single motion.
“……”
But something was strange.
The hands of the Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm, which should have crushed Bu Eun-seol in an instant, began to slowly fade.
*Shhhk.*
With a sound like leaking air, the power of the Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm that Sim-wol had extended began to slowly disappear.
“How.”
Sim-wol stared down at his lower abdomen with wide eyes.
A perfectly round hole had been pierced through his dantian.
*Ssssk.*
With his sea of energy destroyed, his true energy scattered in an instant, and the transparent hands of the Heaven-Shattering Thunderstorm, formed like a flower bud, vanished completely.
*Tuk, tuk.*
Staring at the blood dripping from his dantian, Sim-wol wore an expression of disbelief.
“This can’t be.”
He was certain he had annihilated all the hundreds of sword phantoms rising from the ground, and had not even allowed Bu Eun-seol to approach him.
So how could his dantian have been pierced without him even realizing it?
“I destroyed all the sword phantoms, so how could you have attacked my dantian!”
Indeed, Sim-wol had already known the counter to Life Arises, Death Returns.
‘The Sword Pavilion, was it?’
Bu Eun-seol’s eyes narrowed.
The only time he had used the Seven Styles of Blood and Tears when other people were present, not in a one-on-one duel, was at the Sword Pavilion.
That meant a spy within the Sword Pavilion must have passed on the initial transformations of the Seven Styles of Blood and Tears to the shadowy faction.
‘They are far too powerful.’
“How!”
Bu Eun-seol extended his Ink Sword toward the screaming Sim-wol.
“The sword phantoms you struck down were not all there was.”
Sim-wol rubbed his eyes.
There, condensed sword energy was gathered like a single drop of dew.
“Using the Nine Dragons' Flashing Thunder, I held one of the sword phantoms on the tip of my sword from the moment I created them. And while you were madly destroying the others, I fired it at your dantian.”
“Wh-what did you say?”
Sim-wol was the disciple of Jeok-bung, one of the Three Demons.
Though his martial skill fell short of Bu Eun-seol's, his insight was second to none among the younger generation.
But to generate sword phantoms, hold one of them on the tip of a sword, and then launch it at an enemy?
What kind of absurd sword technique was this?
“Don’t be ridiculous. How is such a thing even possible?”
“Martial arts are constantly evolving. A technique like this isn’t exactly a new creation.”
While unleashing the Seven Styles of Blood and Tears, Bu Eun-seol had used the Principle of Reversing Force he learned from the Heavenly Sword to give one of the sword phantoms a tangible form, like a drop of dew.
Then, using Cheon Un-gwang's Nine Dragons' Flashing Thunder, he had timed it with Sim-wol’s movements and fired that phantom with the speed of an ultimate killing sword.
In short, Bu Eun-seol had reached a level where he could freely… and without restriction, blend any sword art or technique from both the Orthodox and Demonic factions.
“You thought you had dealt with the sword phantoms in an instant and were attacking me.”
Bu Eun-seol looked at the dumbfounded Sim-wol and spoke calmly.
“In the time it took you to execute one move, I could execute five.”
A battle between experts who had reached the Pinnacle Realm depended on who could better divide time and seize that decisive moment.
Sim-wol’s martial prowess had instantly reached the Pinnacle Realm, but his method of combat was still stuck at the Transcendent Realm.
There was a time difference of fivefold between him and Bu Eun-seol.
“Was I… a frog in a well?”
*Pshhh.*
A wound opened on Sim-wol’s chest, and a torrent of blood gushed out instantly.
*Chiiiii.*
Having lost to Bu Eun-seol, all that remained for him was either execution by beheading or having his limbs and meridians severed and being locked in a prison for the rest of his life.
“Thank you.”
A faint smile touched Sim-wol’s lips.
He realized that Bu Eun-seol had shown him the mercy of allowing him to take his own life.
“No, it can’t be mercy.”
Sim-wol soon shook his head.
Bu Eun-seol was not a compassionate man who would leniently forgive someone like him who had harmed innocent people.
If he didn't reveal the identity of the spy who gave him the inner core... he wouldn't even be allowed to die.
“If that was your intention, you should have been a bit gentler.”
*Gulp.*
Sim-wol coughed up black blood and looked down at his lower abdomen.
Bu Eun-seol’s sword phantom did not just carry sharpness. The moment it struck, an immense amount of internal energy had shattered his meridians.
“A formidable sword art, but I suppose you haven’t mastered it completely.”
As Sim-wol said, Bu Eun-seol could barely execute the Seven Styles of Blood and Tears. He could not yet freely wield the profundities contained within the art or control its power at will.
“Are you saying you won’t talk?”
“Who knows.”
Wiping the blood from his lips, Sim-wol let out a low laugh.
“Even if I told you who gave me the inner core, you would gain nothing. He would simply disappear.”
Bu Eun-seol nodded.
The shadowy faction was thoroughly concealing itself.
Even those who gave and received orders were unaware of the organization's structure and composition.
“They are divided into three different factions, each moving independently with different objectives.”
But then, Sim-wol uttered something astonishing.
“That is why they are called the Three Realms.”
“The Three Realms.”
Bu Eun-seol’s eyes became as sharp as a blade.
The Three Realms, in Buddhist terms, referred to the Heavenly Realm, the Human Realm, and the Earthly Realm. In other words, the past, the present, and the future.
—You know nothing.
Suddenly, the voice of the Blood Emperor’s descendant, No-bong, echoed in his ears.
—Arguing about right and wrong is only possible for small matters.
At the time, No-bong, at the Heavenly Fire Mountain Manor, had said strange things to Namgung Un, who was trying to persuade him.
—Great matters cannot be judged by right and wrong. You, too, will understand one day when you become the head of the Namgung Clan.
‘Their goal is not something like hegemony over the martial world.’
Bu Eun-seol could feel it intuitively.
What these Three Realms wanted was not the domination or destruction of the martial world. If it were, the world of martial arts would have already fallen into great chaos.
“Are you saying the ones who gave you the Artificial Inner Core belong to this faction called the Three Realms?”
“That’s right.”
Like a true disciple of Manbak Hall, Sim-wol had done his own research on the backer who gave him the Artificial Inner Core and had grasped a certain degree of their true nature.
“And they are one of the Three Realms, the Infinite Realm…”
*Shudder.*
Sim-wol’s body trembled slightly.
With one more breath.
He realized that the entity known as death would soon take his soul somewhere.
With all his remaining strength, Sim-wol spat out one last sentence.
“Hyeokryeon Eung, Lord Hyeokryeon… he gave me…”
His words were not finished.
Fear. His vision went black, and the breath he exhaled condensed like ice.
When he was intoxicated with the power of the inner core, he felt like a god who ruled the world and held sway over human lives.
But now, as he himself was dying… the fear of death and the terror of falling into hell gripped his body and mind.
*Thud.*
In the end, he collapsed, his eyes wide open.