Chapter 1004
"Un-ryong."
"This place is off-limits."
"Why?"
"It's too dangerous. Something's wrong here."
Yu Un-ryong spoke calmly.
"We should take our time and investigate first. A place this dangerous shouldn't be entered on impulse."
Bu Eun-seol furrowed his brow.
Like himself, Yu Un-ryong was someone with sharp instincts.
Yet, he never prioritized intuition—always rational, always coldly analytical, verifying everything first.
"Is this just because of a gut feeling?"
"It's the gut feeling of everyone in the Death Shadow War Unit."
Another shadow came rushing up behind them.
It was Myo Cheon-u.
"This place is a no-go."
Myo Cheon-u, his face drenched in sweat, spoke urgently.
"Turn back. It's not too late even now."
"Why?"
"It reeks of ill omen."
"Is that the only reason?"
"Have you forgotten the Chiefs waiting for you? It's best to avoid a place this dangerous."
Myo Cheon-u pointed toward the entrance.
"Every Chief rushed here to stop you."
"Lord! At least take us with you!"
"This place is far too perilous!"
"Lord. This feels like falling right into the Return-to-One Realm Lord's trap."
Won Se-mun, Jo Nam-cheon, Wi Cheon-gyeong.
They, too, had abandoned all else to rush here.
Seeing them all pleading so desperately at once, even Bu Eun-seol felt an inexplicable unease.
He stopped abruptly.
Turning his head, he saw the path back.
Taking that path would mean continuing the life he had now.
With his friends and subordinates, just as before.
'Since when have I ever sought a comfortable life?'
It was true that his friends and subordinates always worried for him.
But never once had Bu Eun-seol avoided something simply because it was dangerous—or because trials lay ahead.
"I must go."
"Why?"
At Yu Un-ryong's question, Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
"Because it's the path I must take."
"Bu Eun-seol!"
Yu Un-ryong called out desperately, but—
Bu Eun-seol ignored the voices and stepped forward again.
"And because none of you are real."
Yu Un-ryong might not know, but Myo Cheon-u would never try to persuade him with words alone.
If they truly meant to stop him, they would have at least grabbed his arm or shoulder.
Yet they stood like ghosts, just out of reach, speaking as if from a distance.
—You're deceiving yourself.
When even the unit chiefs' pleas failed, the voice now came from within.
—You never should have dragged your friends and subordinates into your revenge in the first place.
The words struck with terrifying precision.
The inner voice mercilessly pointed out the contradictions in Bu Eun-seol's thoughts and actions.
If he truly cherished his friends and subordinates—
He should never have involved them in his vengeance.
Claiming to protect them, claiming to value them as dearly as his own life—
Yet all the while, he was leading them into perilous danger.
—Answer me. Then why do you walk this path of revenge with them?
Bu Eun-seol had no answer.
—Answer. Why do you insist on dragging those you claim to cherish more than your own life into this reckless vengeance?
The inner voice pressed relentlessly.
—Why are you forcing your new family to avenge your past family—your grandfather?
The voice grew graver, cutting deeper into Bu Eun-seol's contradictions.
—If you truly consider them family... shouldn't you protect them, not endanger them for the sake of the past?
It was right.
For the sake of his late grandfather—
He shouldn't push his friends and subordinates, who still had bright futures ahead, into danger.
If he truly cared for them—
If he truly saw them as family—
He should let go of the past, move forward, and walk beside them.
He stopped.
He realized that unless he answered this question, he could go no further.
'Why did I make this choice?'
Looking back, even Bu Eun-seol couldn't justify it.
His past family mattered—
But so did his new one.
Langya Pavilion was now his home, and those who cherished him were his new family.
So why?
Why did he have to risk their lives to avenge his grandfather?
'My answer is—'
To find the reason, he recalled—
Every person he held dear.
Starting with Heuk-pyo, then Tang Gon, Namgung Un, Hyeok So-jin.
The Death Shadow War Unit, the Martial Soul Society, his friends and comrades from the Supreme Summit, his subordinates. The bonds he'd forged across the Central Plains, the women he'd met.
Only after recalling each of their faces and names—did he finally find his answer.
"I'm not clinging to the past."
Bu Eun-seol straightened.
"I'm doing what must be done—for the future of my comrades and friends."
—What does that mean?
"The killer who murdered my grandfather is a demon who will shake the martial world."
Bu Eun-seol spoke firmly.
"If I don't uncover the truth behind his death, my friends and comrades will eventually face the same danger."
—Hahaha!
The inner Bu Eun-seol laughed mockingly.
—What sophistry. You haven't even identified his true nature yet. Just because the murderer is a demon who could shake the martial world... you claim he poses a threat to your comrades?
"Grandfather walked the path of repentance, guiding the departed to their final rest while letting go of the martial world's grudges."
Bu Eun-seol spoke calmly.
"Do you truly believe the one who killed such a man would quietly cower in the martial world and live in obscurity?"
A glacial light radiated from his pupils.
"Sooner or later, he will reappear in the martial world. And he will harm the people I hold dear once more."
Those Bu Eun-seol cherished knew no distinction between orthodox and unorthodox paths.
They included demonic factions like Langya Pavilion, Heaven-Severing Earth-Destroying, and Fleeting Moment Boat.
But also righteous forces like the Namgung Family, Tang Clan, Azure Heaven Alliance, and Divine Maiden Palace.
Not to mention those beyond the frontier—North Sea Ice Palace, Blazing Flame Sacred Palace, and Beast Palace.
And even the Martial Soul Society, which walked between orthodoxy and unorthodoxy.
In short, to protect those he cherished, Bu Eun-seol would have to safeguard the entire martial world.
—This is nothing but a chain of sophistry.
"Far from it."
Bu Eun-seol's lips curled into a sneer instead.
"If you fail to understand that the one who slaughtered my family in the past could just as easily threaten my new family—my friends and comrades—"
An indescribable light flickered in his eyes.
"Then you are not my voice."
—What did you say?
"My vengeance began as mere personal hatred. But no longer."
Bu Eun-seol squared his shoulders.
"Now, it is to ensure I never lose precious family again... to prevent such tragedies from repeating."
—Prevent the tragedy from repeating.
The inner voice grew faint.
It had no rebuttal.
Grudges in the martial world always repeated.
If someone slaughtered his family once,
the likelihood they would slaughter his new family was exceedingly high.
And Bu Eun-seol's loved ones... were they not scattered across every corner of the martial world?
Chaaang.
Suddenly, with a clear metallic resonance, the inner voice vanished.
Simultaneously, Bu Eun-seol's mind became utterly lucid.
'So it was a trial gate.'
In the end, this passage had been a trial gate.
A gate that would not open if even a hair's breadth of doubt lingered in his choices.
'Chilling.'
Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
He had prided himself on experiencing every trap and mechanism the martial world could throw at him during his travels.
But the trials here...
were unlike any trap or gate scattered across the martial world—filled with bizarre, unfathomable horrors.
The gates continued.
As he walked onward, a mist of oblivion rose, made him forget who he was as his past memories began to disappear.
If he failed to constantly focus on who he was?
He would lose everything in that fog.
But Bu Eun-seol had already embraced all of himself at the previous gate.
His weaknesses, fears, and imperfections—all were part of him.
And he could declare with certainty:
Only those who accepted and affirmed their own choices could pass through this corridor.
At the corridor's end stood a gate of light.
Thud.
The moment he stepped through, all sensation beneath his feet vanished.
Had there ever been ground?
He could no longer be certain he stood on any surface.
A vague sensation, as if gravity both existed and didn't.
He simply... dwelt within the space.
Taking another step, a landscape of crimson-black rocks sprawled beneath a darkened sky.
The heavens resembled the primordial night at the universe's core—before stars were born.
In the endless black abyss, countless fragments of light drifted.
The air was so thin breathing grew difficult. A strange pressure poured from above, making his body dozens of times heavier.
From somewhere, ghostly wails echoed, sowing endless distress and delusions into his spirit and mind.
'Agony.'
Merely standing here felt like floating in a space where flesh would flay and minds shatter.
"Bloody Tears Seven Forms?"
Struggling to survey the alien scenery, Bu Eun-seol's eyes sharpened at the traces carved into the rocks.
Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
The boulders here were densely etched with its marks.
"Undoubtedly left by the Return-to-One Realm Lord."
Unlike Bu Eun-seol's own executions, the Bloody Tears Seven Forms carved into the crimson-black stone
were saturated with boundless despair, darkness, and anguished regret.
"He's mastered a Bloody Tears Seven Forms utterly unlike mine."
This was not the technique Grandfather had perfected.
"Truly, this man is a complete madman."
Bu Eun-seol exhaled deeply as he examined the engraved remnants.
The blade principles left here were akin to madness itself. Not delivering death—but craving mutual annihilation.
"Whether it delivers death or mutual annihilation, the Bloody Tears Seven Forms remain the Bloody Tears Seven Forms."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes narrowed.
The problem was—the blade essence couldn't be altered recklessly.
Because it had been forged from the very beginning to align with Grandfather's spirit and mind.
"Just how was such a transformation possible?"
Had he, during his lifetime, been taught an entirely different Bloody Tears Seven Forms by Grandfather?
Or had he used the power and traces engraved in Grandfather's body to create a completely new Bloody Tears Seven Forms?
If not that, then... perhaps like what the Black Shadow Dark Emperor, Hwa Mu-gi, had once shown—
Had he obtained the early foundational principles of the Absolute Demon Saber Project and modified them anew?
"One thing is certain—he refined the Bloody Tears Seven Forms to the Great Origin Realm in his own way."
Though it was a far cry from the martial principles Grandfather had left behind, it undeniably contained the essence of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
Moreover, judging by the traces carved into the rock—flawless, without even the slightest fracture—
It was clear he had cultivated it to the Great Origin realm.
Rumble.
Just then, a faint vibration echoed from the entrance.
Approaching, Bu Eun-seol noticed that the width of the luminous passage—originally about three zhang wide—had slightly changed.
"The passage is closing."
He stood still, observing it.
After a long while of probing with his Extrasensory Perception, he confirmed that the passage was gradually narrowing at a fixed rate over time.
"Six days."
Calculating the rate of closure and the remaining space, the passage would seal shut in six days.
"There's no stopping it."
Bu Eun-seol tried injecting various forces and testing different methods.
But the force closing the passage was akin to a Law of Nature—utterly unaffected by any external power.
"Which means I only have six days here."
A thought struck him, and he surveyed his surroundings.
"Why would the Return-to-One Realm Lord have deliberately unleashed the Bloody Tears Seven Forms in a place like this?"
The air here was so thin that breathing was difficult. Faint, distant sounds reverberated, threatening to shatter one's Spirit and Mind.
On top of that, the bizarre pressure made it nearly impossible to even move a finger, let alone execute martial techniques.
Just tracing the Bloody Tears Seven Forms' engravings on the rock with his fingertips—
Was enough to make sweat pour down his forehead.
"Don't tell me..."
He formed a finger sword and began mimicking the movements of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms carved into the stone.
"Haa... Haa..."
Even though he was only mimicking the motions with his fingers, his stamina drained as if he had been using Lightness Art at full power for three days straight.
A metallic taste rose in his mouth.
"He trained his martial techniques here."
Finally, he understood.
This place was hellish for practicing martial arts.
The air was so thin that breathing was a struggle, his body felt dozens of times heavier than usual, and an unfathomable energy seeped into his flesh, further disorienting his Spirit and Mind.
But if he thought about it differently—
This was the perfect place to refine martial arts.
"For rapidly strengthening martial prowess, there's no better place."
Srrring.
Drawing Ink Soul Sword, Bu Eun-seol slowly executed the Transcendent Meteor Chasing Moon Form—without circulating Internal Energy.
"Kgh—!"
After performing just one stance, he dropped to one knee, covering his mouth.
Even though he had only practiced the form of a single sword technique without internal energy, his stamina was so depleted he could barely move.
Nausea surged up his throat.
"If I train here for a day..."
He clenched his fist.
If he pushed himself to the limit here for a single day—
The effect would be equivalent to half a month of full-force training in an ordinary place.
He had never had the time to calmly refine the martial arts he had learned so far.
"First, I need to recover my stamina."
Qi Circulation was the process of guiding the unseen, intangible qi within the body along specific pathways through sheer will.
But the moment he began circulating qi here—
His mind was flooded with the worst imaginable events and the most unbearable emotions, all swirling into chaos.
During Qi Circulation, not a single stray thought could be allowed—absolute mental tranquility was necessary.
Otherwise, the flow of qi would stagnate or even reverse.
If qi stagnated in certain areas, it would place immense strain on the brain's blood vessels.
At best, internal injuries.
At worst, losing control of qi, its flow becoming tangled, disrupting mental equilibrium—
Leading to the calamity of Qi Deviation, where the disaster would manifest physically.
Thus, performing Qi Circulation here was a gamble with his life.
Drip... drip...
By the time he finished, cold sweat cascaded down Bu Eun-seol's face like a waterfall.
Even when he first learned the Internal Energy Method and circulated True Qi, it hadn't been this agonizing or difficult.
"To still have this many stray thoughts even after finishing Qi Circulation..."
Despite completing the process, his mind was so cluttered with distractions that he had to sit in meditation for a long while to restore order to his turbulent Spirit and Mind.
"Should I attempt the Formless Heavenly Flow again?"
Taking a deep breath, Bu Eun-seol looked down at Ink Soul Sword.
The last time he had tried executing the Formless Heavenly Flow, his stamina had been instantly drained, forcing him to collapse on the spot.
But now, having replenished both stamina and qi through Qi Circulation, that wouldn't happen again.
"Ngh—!"
Finally steadying the energy within him, Bu Eun-seol stood—only for his body to sway violently.
The air was thin, and even moving his eyelids felt like an exhausting effort.
A terrifying pressure poured ceaselessly from the sky.
Swish.
'Ugh...'
A groan escaped Bu Eun-seol's lips the moment he drew his sword.
Just the act of unsheathing the blade from Ink Soul Sword demanded every ounce of energy circulating within his body.
'Transcendent Meteor Chasing Moon Form.'
He intended to unleash the swiftest killing technique he could muster—the Transcendent Meteor Chasing Moon Form.
Flash!
A brilliant light erupted in the air, trailing the trajectory of the blade as it left the scabbard.
But the overwhelming pressure descending from above and the discomfort in his internal energy prevented his body and spirit from becoming one.
Zzziiing—
In the end, he had no choice but to execute the Transcendent Meteor Chasing Moon Form as if time itself had slowed to a crawl.
Yet even that had to be halted midway.
If he continued the sword strokes like this?
The sword's intent and his movements would no longer align, forcing the swift-killing technique to transform into the profound principles of Myriad Swords.
And if he altered the essence of his swordplay mid-execution while in the Middle Path, it would place an unbearable strain on his body.
"I can't even properly execute a single sword stroke."
No matter how immense the pressure bearing down on him—
He, who had attained martial prowess and a Sword Path capable of standing equal to masters of the Martial Extreme Realm—
To fail in executing even a single foundational sword stroke was unthinkable.
'Then...'
After a moment of deep contemplation, Bu Eun-seol gathered his internal power once more.
'Perhaps this place is specifically designed to temper the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.'
Screeeech—!
At the same time, an ear-splitting shriek tore through the sky from Ink Soul Sword.
Just as the Return-to-One Realm Lord had done, he, too, sought to demonstrate the Bloody Tears Seven Forms.
After all, the only traces engraved upon these rocks were remnants of that very technique.
"Kh—!"
But as he attempted to unfold the Life Is Temporary Death Is Return form, an involuntary groan burst from his lips—one he had never uttered before.
The Bloody Tears Seven Forms were incomparably heavier and more solemn than the Formless Heavenly Flow.
So much so that he couldn't even begin the first stance—
The pressure from above made it impossible to properly execute the technique, and instead, the force rebounded inward, inflicting internal injuries.
Thud—!
In the end, Bu Eun-seol had no choice but to tumble forward gracelessly as he attempted to initiate the Life-Return Death-Return form.
'The Return-to-One Realm Lord unleashed the Bloody Tears Seven Forms in a place like this?'
He couldn't even execute a single stance properly—
Just how had the Return-to-One Realm Lord managed to wield such techniques in this hellish environment?
Huff...
Bu Eun-seol crouched low, still gripping Ink Soul Sword planted in the ground.
More than the internal injuries from the counterforce, it was the despairing gap in martial prowess and the torment gnawing at his mind—
That dealt a devastating blow to his spirit and mind.
"I'll try again!"
Swish—!
This time, he poured every ounce of his being into executing the Half-Alive, Half-Dead form.
'Ugh...'
Fortunately, this time, the sword stroke wasn't interrupted—
But he had to execute the overwhelmingly powerful technique so slowly that—
His shoulders and arms burned as if tearing apart, and his leg muscles twisted in agony.
Thump-thump!
Unable to endure the contorting pain, Bu Eun-seol—
Like in his days as an undertaker, when he had bruised his legs against coffins—had to hop on one foot, pounding the ground.
Shudder...
Crouched against the rock, teeth clenched so hard his jaw ached, the corners of his eyes brimmed with crystalline droplets.
'To this extent...'
Click.
As he sheathed his sword, thick veins bulged across his skin, and his muscles trembled violently as if convulsing.
Even after giving it his all—
To feel such excruciating pain from executing a single sword stroke, to the point his body twisted and he had to hop in agony—
This was the first time since he had begun studying martial arts.
An ordinary martial artist would have succumbed to despair and frustration, collapsing into the Collapse State or suffering a decline in internal power.
'Then...'
But instead, a flicker of exhilaration passed over Bu Eun-seol's sweat-drenched face.
'I can definitely grow stronger.'
His current martial prowess was so high that he needed an extreme environment like this to temper it further.
In other words, this place itself was the ultimate training ground for martial cultivation.
'Six days...'
Bu Eun-seol took a deep breath.
Before the gate of this place closed—
He had six days to refine his martial arts.
Bu Eun-seol reviewed and honed every martial technique he had ever learned, meditating whenever exhaustion overtook him.
Merely standing still in this place caused endless distracting thoughts to surge, making even Qi Circulation a life-or-death struggle.
In the end, he had to start from the basics—adapting.
The ceaseless invasion of torment and distractions. The thin air. The pressure so immense that moving even a single finger was a trial.
Every moment demanded he circulate his internal power to resist the pressure, hardening his spirit and mind as naturally as breathing.
Only after a full day passed—
Did his body and mind finally adapt to this place.
After that grueling ordeal, he began tempering a single sword technique he knew.
And just like that, six days flashed by in the blink of an eye.
Swish.
Bu Eun-seol drew Ink Soul Sword.
Raising the blade to mid-stance, he focused his spirit as if facing a life-or-death enemy.
Swish—!
And at last, he began executing his sword technique.
Surprisingly, what he unleashed was neither the Formless Heavenly Flow nor the Bloody Tears Seven Forms—
But the foundational sword forms of the Fire Rain Sword Sect, the Fire Rain Thirteen Forms—
A basic sword set containing all the essential techniques of swordsmanship, meant to lay the groundwork for mastering the Fire Rain Sword.
Yet something was strange.
Bu Eun-seol moved at an excruciatingly slow pace—so sluggish that even a child could have dodged.
But as he gradually unfolded each sword stroke, something astonishing happened.
The traces of the Bloody Tears Seven Forms left behind by the Return-to-One Realm Lord—
The marks filled with boundless despair, darkness, bitter regret, and sorrow—
Those razor-sharp remnants of sword intent—
Were being cleanly erased.