Chapter 1001
"Hahahaha! Truly delicious, utterly delicious!"
As Bu Eun-seol mimicked his footwork technique to evade the attacks, Myeong-myeol instead burst into bright laughter and halted his assault.
"In all my years since emerging into the Martial World, this is the most delectable counter I've encountered!"
Tap.
Despite his words, he stopped employing his footwork technique.
Bu Eun-seol had already reached the pinnacle of Langya Pavilion Martial Arts.
He had mastered the essence of "Stealing Essence to Transform Origin" and "Returning the Enemy's Techniques to Myself" to a degree rivaling even Ak Mu-ryeong.
Myeong-myeol instinctively knew that continuing to display his footwork would leave him completely exposed in an instant.
"If you're from Blood God Heaven, shouldn't you be demonstrating Soul-Demon Magic Energy as befits your faction?"
"Kehkehkeh, if you could make me unleash Soul-Demon Magic Energy, this old man would be beside himself with joy."
Myeong-myeol spoke with a regretful expression.
"But alas, it's nearly impossible to find anyone in the Martial World capable of breaking my martial arts."
He ceased his attacks and clicked his tongue.
"After all, I've spent years absorbing the subtle principles and Limitless Power of countless masters."
An astonishing claim.
If true, this meant Myeong-myeol could theoretically forge an invincible martial art.
"Rather than Blood God Heaven, you should call yourselves Deception Heaven."
Bu Eun-seol's gaze carried undisguised contempt.
"Do you dream that such words might make me tremble in fear or fall for your lies?"
"Kehkehkeh. You truly have a knack for seeing through people's hearts."
Myeong-myeol cackled.
"Correct. My Soul-Demon Magic Energy feeds precisely on that fear and despair."
Then his face twisted in disappointment.
"But you—you see through even my deceptions without showing a hint of despair or fear."
"......"
"Had I met you a year later, perhaps the outcome might have been different."
Myeong-myeol bared his teeth in a ghastly grin.
"Yet 'what ifs' have no place in this world. That's why I'll win, and you'll lose."
All things hinge on the tides of fortune.
Some martial artists grow stronger by only facing opponents they can handle or evade.
But when encountering someone utterly beyond their capacity... that becomes their end.
No further growth, no tomorrow—just a merciless termination of life.
Unaware of the caliber of opponents Bu Eun-seol had previously faced... Myeong-myeol mistakenly believed fortune favored him.
"That was entertaining."
Myeong-myeol extended his hand.
A single step from him could unleash pressure capable of hurling Mount Tai.
KWAANG!
Yet when his hand thrust forward, it released destructive waves surpassing anything before.
"Farewell!"
'Now.'
At that moment, a faint light rose from Bu Eun-seol's body.
Ever since the master of Immortal Valley appeared.
He had sensed the probability of encountering an overwhelming powerhouse like the Blood God Heaven Lord.
And so, he had suppressed his decisive strike until this moment.
Specifically, the Bloody Tears Seven Forms shrouded in 'Emotion'—perfected during his confrontation with Ga Gyeong.
'This is the only way.'
The Bloody Tears Seven Forms could assimilate any power or martial principle depending on the wielder's capability.
Until now, Bu Eun-seol had combined various forces with the technique to unleash miraculous might.
But this time, he intended to execute the Bloody Tears Seven Forms in its purest Blade Essence.
Infused with the abstract emotion of Death itself.
'What kind of death did Grandfather carry within him?'
Oooong...
The pupils of Bu Eun-seol gripping Ink Soul Sword turned transparent, his body gradually fading into translucence.
Silence.
Contemplating death, everything vanished, leaving only endless desolation and void.
Sorrow.
Then came the profound, icy sorrow wrought by death's crushing weight.
Pain.
As death's slow approach became palpable, excruciating agony radiated through his entire being.
Resonance.
Finally realizing his life's journey had reached its terminus... a deep, echoing tremor spread outward.
Crack. Crack. Crack.
Upon reaching the death he himself had conjured.
Bu Eun-seol's skin split apart, multicolored radiance spilling through the fissures.
Shiiiiing!
Simultaneously.
Colossal Sword Qi capable of cleaving heaven and earth in one stroke began endlessly erupting from his entire body.
'Is this death?'
Suddenly, doubt surfaced in his heart.
Was this truly the death his grandfather had carried within?
Could the death felt after felling countless enemies truly resemble this?
'No.'
Bu Eun-seol could answer that question himself.
'I still haven't reached his level.'
BOOM!
Suddenly, with a deafening explosion, the sword qi erupting from Bu Eun-seol's body detonated—
And his body was flung into the air.
Before Myeong-myeol could fully unleash his crushing pressure, Bu Eun-seol had already self-destructed under the force of his own sword qi.
CRASH.
Bu Eun-seol, suspended midair, crashed violently back to the ground.
"As expected, the ending is always like this."
Myeong-myeol clicked his tongue in disappointment.
It was always the same.
Those who recklessly overexerted themselves to oppose his overwhelming power, only to self-destruct in the process.
"When will I ever get to enjoy such a fine banquet again?"
He grinned sinisterly, his mouth stretching unnaturally wide—
As if he truly intended to devour Bu Eun-seol alive.
'Now.'
In that instant, a flash of light flickered in Bu Eun-seol's eyes, though he still lay motionless.
KABOOM!
Another explosion erupted from his body—
Far more devastating than before.
'This was the only way.'
Just moments ago, Bu Eun-seol had realized—
He still hadn't reached the Realm of Death that his grandfather had achieved.
At the same time, he sensed the sword qi surging through his body was about to explode uncontrollably.
So he deliberately triggered a smaller explosion first, feigning collapse—
And waited for Myeong-myeol to let his guard down.
Only then did he unleash the full force of his detonation.
SSSSSS—
Myeong-myeol's body was scorched black.
Even if it wasn't perfect—
The Aura of Death, infused with the essence of the Greatest Saber Master of All Time—
Was something no one, not even one who had attained the Heavenly Dipper Body, could withstand after taking it head-on.
"You bastard."
Indeed, his usual relaxed expression had vanished—
His eyes now bulged wide, as if they might tear from their sockets.
"How does it taste—the flavor of a failed technique?"
Bu Eun-seol staggered to his feet.
There had been many times before when his own power rebounded, ravaging his body.
But this was different.
His martial arts had grown significantly since then—
And above all, he had achieved the Unity of the Three Divine Powers.
Unlike before, his internal energy was no longer blocked—
Nor had he been reduced to a Crippled Person.
THUD.
Then, one of Myeong-myeol's forearms fell to the ground.
Unable to withstand the force of the explosion, his left arm had melted away from the elbow down.
"I'll devour your heart right now."
KABOOM!
A blinding radiance erupted from Myeong-myeol's body, surging high into the night sky.
He was unleashing the Soul-Demon Magic Energy within him—
To sever Bu Eun-seol's breath in an instant.
ZZZZZIIING—
But then, an unsettling vibration and eerie noise echoed from somewhere.
It sounded like an unknown lifeform, drifting aimlessly through the cosmos—
Had descended upon the earth.
OOOOOM—
At the same time, a massive sphere formed at the heart of Immortal Valley—
And from it emerged a pitch-black shadow.
Clad in obsidian, heavy armor—
A crimson Wind-breaking Robe billowed behind him with every step.
Behind the iron mask covering his face—
Golden flames flickered within his pupils, radiating a terrifying glow.
A merciless aura and razor-sharp light emanated from him—
As if he could pierce through and slaughter every weak existence in this world.
At his waist hung a Great Blade, its width exceeding three feet—
Gleaming with a sinister black sheen.
BOOM.
As the Iron-Masked Monster revealed himself—
The world itself seemed to tremble, as if shaken by an unseen force.
A living calamity—
A conquering king in the flesh.
That was what he embodied.
—SCREEEEEECH!
A harrowing Demon Cry reverberated through Immortal Valley.
The Iron-Masked Monster had drawn his Great Blade.
"You—!"
Myeong-myeol's eyes bulged at the sight—
And he immediately poured all his Combat Power into his footwork.
BOOM. BOOM.
With every step he took, space itself screamed in agony.
It wasn't just life being extinguished—
It was as if existence itself was being erased.
WHOOSH.
Yet—
With a single swing of his Great Blade—
A pressure that shook heaven and earth spread outward—
And a force capable of annihilating all living things surged toward Myeong-myeol once more.
BOOM.
In that instant, Myeong-myeol's body convulsed violently—
And the Soul-Demon Magic Energy he had unleashed vanished in an instant.
—KYYYYAAAAAAH!
The Demon Cry had transformed—
Into the wailing shriek of a Witch, shaking the heavens.
The Iron-Masked Monster had merely extended his blade once—
Yet the space where Myeong-myeol stood split open—
And from the rift poured forth a despair-inducing, abyssal sword qi.
Every time the saber qi grazed him, Myeong-myeol wasn't merely facing death—
His very existence flickered in and out as if the trajectory of his being were being erased.
"Ugh... Strike!"
Unable to endure the agony, Myeong-myeol roared.
In response, hundreds of martial artists abruptly materialized behind him.
It was as though his back concealed a mystical box, instantly deploying an entire army.
Kwoong. Kwoong.
Yet, in the blink of an eye—
Hundreds of corpses lay strewn before the Iron-Masked Monster.
"......"
For a moment, deathly silence engulfed Immortal Valley.
The earth fell mute, and even time itself ceased to flow.
The Iron-Masked Monster was no martial artist—he was an envoy of death, crawling forth from the abyss.
No, he was the Grim Reaper of terror, annihilating all existence.
"You—"
When Myeong-myeol glimpsed the eyes hidden behind the Iron-Masked Monster's visor, his own widened in shock.
And that became his final word in Immortal Valley.
Rattle.
With a sound like something scattering in the wind—
Myeong-myeol's body convulsed several times before crumbling into millions of particles of dust.
The armored monster had obliterated in a single stroke what even Bu Eun-seol's ultimate Bloody Tears Seven Forms could not destroy.
Clank.
Sheathing his saber, the Iron-Masked Monster—
Fixed his gaze upon Bu Eun-seol, who staggered to his feet.
Behind that iron mask, his pupils burned with black flames,
And his stare alone carried an absolute power that threatened to melt flesh.
Yet Bu Eun-seol glared back at his savior with fury.
Because the saber technique he had used—
Was the perfected form of his grandfather's supreme saber art, the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
"Return-to-One Realm Lord..."
Then Bu Eun-seol shouted at the Iron-Masked Monster.
"YOU—!"
He was already mortally wounded by the deathly saber qi he himself had created.
Paaang!
Yet radiant five-colored light erupted once more from his entire body.
Driven by uncontrollable rage—
All the internal energy stored in his Internal Core and the latent power within his body surged forth.
[……]
As the Iron-Masked Monster observed Bu Eun-seol's overwhelming momentum, death itself—
No, an aura of destruction beyond madness seeped from his pupils.
Were any master of Murim to witness such energy and gaze,
They would forget even how to scream, overwhelmed by terror.
Yet Bu Eun-seol met those eyes and howled in anguish:
"WHERE IS MY GRANDFATHER'S REMAINS—?!"
His cry echoed through Immortal Valley like a desperate wail.
There was no doubt—this man was the leader of the Return-to-One Realm, the Return-to-One Realm Lord.
Because he had executed his grandfather's saber art more flawlessly than even he could.
Only the one who had stolen his grandfather's corpse—could have achieved such a thing.
[You.]
The Return-to-One Realm Lord, whose pupils flickered with an eerie light,
Spoke in a voice so low it seemed to scrape the earth.
[Are unworthy.]
"What... did you say?"
Crimson killing intent, sharp as a blade of light, erupted from Bu Eun-seol's eyes.
Everything he had lived for—
Was to find the murderer who had slain his grandfather.
Every breath, every meal, every night's rest, every martial technique mastered—
Had been for the sole purpose of vengeance.
And now, standing before the very thief who had desecrated his grandfather's remains—
His rage could no longer be contained.
Zzzt—zzzt!
The energy surging from Bu Eun-seol's body ignited into flames of True Qi, spreading violently in all directions.
"You disturbed my grandfather's eternal rest...!"
Crack—duk!
Not only that—his muscles swelled to twice their size, radiating a bizarre, diamond-like sheen.
Despite injuries that should have rendered him immobile, he unleashed power capable of splitting the heavens.
"You stole and learned his saber techniques...!"
Bu Eun-seol leveled the Ink Soul Sword at the Return-to-One Realm Lord and screamed:
"AND YOU DARE UTTER THOSE WORDS?!"
Kiiii—!
His fury erupted as a blade of pitch-black saber qi, aimed straight for the Return-to-One Realm Lord's throat.
—You've reached the brink where life and death blur.
Even in his critically wounded state, facing a supreme adversary—
Bu Eun-seol unleashed the Bloody Tears Seven Forms, Third Move: Half-Alive, Half-Dead, pouring every last ounce of his energy into it.
KWAAAA—!
Unlike before, the saber qi he unleashed shot forth in a single, devastating line.
This was no ordinary saber strike—
An absolute death that devoured even pitch-black darkness.
A yawning maw of the Bottomless Abyss, endlessly sucking all vitality into its boundless void.
KAAAH—!
And then, from the great saber's blade, the Witch's agonized wail reverberated.
Bu Eun-seol had unleashed the Half-Alive, Half-Dead form of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms—precisely as the Return-to-One Realm Lord countered with the same technique.
SHUUU—!
The two techniques collided.
The space where they met became a vacuum, air itself vanishing—leaving behind only nothingness.
A sphere of complete death and annihilation, erasing even traces of existence, expanded outward.
But Bu Eun-seol's true attack was not the Half-Alive, Half-Dead form.
It was the secret technique of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms, executed barehanded—a blade of death that shattered the boundary between existence and nonexistence.
The sixth form: Death Without Remaining Regret.
SHWIIIK—!
In that instant, the heavens split, space distorted, and a massive vortex of sword energy tore open a gate of obliteration.
CHIII—
Where the blade touched, rocks and grass alike turned ashen gray.
A domain of nothingness, where even time and space had died under the sword's death-bestowing edge.
The Bloody Tears Seven Forms—
When unleashed at full power, a single strike could overturn the very laws of nature.
Yet the Return-to-One Realm Lord evaded it with nothing more than a tilt of his head.
No—
It was not mere evasion.
The moment the blade reached him, he disrupted his own existence, reversing space and time itself.
In other words, he had employed Limitless Power in what appeared to be a simple dodge.
FLASH—!
Dark radiance surged through Bu Eun-seol's pupils.
The true terror of Death Without Remaining Regret lay in this:
By channeling sword energy barehanded, he could use the counterforce surging back into his body to unleash yet another perfect strike.
FLASH—!
A storm of chaos and destruction, fueled by his full power, crashed down upon the Return-to-One Realm Lord.
KWAOOONG—!
At that moment, a colossal blade—one that seemed capable of rending the heavens—erupted from the Return-to-One Realm Lord's fingertip.
He, too, had unleashed Death Without Remaining Regret.
SHWIK—!
But his version held no form.
Moreover, it was not destruction—but harmonization.
KWAOOONG—!
In an instant, it erased Bu Eun-seol's blade, redirecting its force elsewhere.
BOOM—!
Simultaneously, Bu Eun-seol was flung back over a hundred feet.
The Return-to-One Realm Lord had merely altered the direction of the sword's power—yet the recoil alone sent him flying.
THUD—!
From the dust, Bu Eun-seol lunged again, his body a crimson streak.
With speed beyond extrasensory perception, he tore through space and hurled himself at the Return-to-One Realm Lord once more.
"How dare you wield Grandfather's sword technique?!"
WHOOSH—!
The Ink Soul Sword blazed with hellfire, as if erupting from the depths of the underworld.
His fury warped the air, kicking up whirlwinds across the ground.
In his eyes burned the madness of a beast—no hesitation, only an all-consuming hunger for destruction.
THUD-THUD-THUD—!
Yet the Return-to-One Realm Lord blocked Bu Eun-seol's full-powered Bloody Tears Seven Forms—
Not with a saber, but with a finger-sword.
Bu Eun-seol had already exhausted himself fighting Myeong-myeol, sustaining severe injuries in the process.
And now, consumed by rage and frenzy, he could not manifest the true might of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
"UURRGH—!"
Bu Eun-seol let out a guttural roar.
He knew—but there was no other choice.
For years, he had wandered the Martial World, seeking vengeance.
And the Return-to-One Realm Lord, who had taken his grandfather's remains, was no less a target of his hatred than the murderer himself.
With fatal injuries and his stamina drained—
Only the power of rage could let him face such an enemy.
[.......]
The Return-to-One Realm Lord's gaze, fixed on Bu Eun-seol's frenzied assault, flickered with countless emotions.
But only for a moment.
SHWIK—!
Finally, as if dismissing him as worthless, he flicked his finger—sending Bu Eun-seol's own sword energy hurtling back.
BOOM—!
Struck by the rebounding force, Bu Eun-seol was blasted away around thirty meters away again.
By all rights, his body should have been torn apart.
But his overflowing rage—
Had instinctively cloaked him in the Limitless Astral Energy, shielding him like armor.
DRIP-DRIP—
Still, it could not fully negate the impact.
His organs were displaced, his left shoulder dislocated, and countless gashes crisscrossed his body.
"Ghhh... HAAAP—!"
Yet he ignored it all, pressing forward with relentless assault.
The more he fought, the stronger he became.
And his explosive will and fury granted him the strength to move despite his fatal wounds.
KIIIII—!
With another howl, he unleashed wave after wave of black sword energy—and at last, the Return-to-One Realm Lord's eyes changed.
CLICK.
Finally, he drew his Great Saber once more.
[.......]
He had realized—
Even if limbs were severed, as long as breath remained—
Bu Eun-seol would never stop attacking.
And so, with cold resolve—
He prepared to behead him.