Chapter 1019
Bu Eun-seol couldn't hide his bewilderment.
"You're saying such a thing is possible?"
Jong Baek, still catching his breath, nodded.
"Because it's the Heavenly Mechanism Star."
The Heavenly Mechanism Star was known not merely for extraordinary intelligence but for analyzing the currents of the present to predict future events.
Hadn't he, like someone who could see the future, already orchestrated Gongson Dan-gyeong's escape from the Jungson Clan?
Moreover, he had restored ancient forbidden arts and even created the flawless Yin-Killing Soul-Transferring Man...... None of these attempts felt like mere delusions.
'So then......'
Heavenly Secret Star Chu-so.
Not only had he maintained cooperative ties or exerted influence over the Demonic Path Ten Gates like the Fire Rain Sword Sect and the Extinction Palace—but also over the Jungson Clan and even the Servants of the True Demon.
No matter how formidable his abilities, how could such a thing be possible?
It had never made sense to him.
But what if he had joined hands with Pa-myeong, the "Fate-Shatterer"—one of the True Demon's attendants?
Then, at least some of his actions would begin to make sense.
"However, even if the Chain of Reincarnation could be forged, not just anyone could obtain it."
Jong Baek's shocking revelations weren't over yet.
"That's why, in places where the boundaries of time and space collapse—like the Land of the Ultimate Void—they endlessly transcend human limits, again and again."
It was a despairing statement.
Bu Eun-seol had achieved a meteoric breakthrough after just five days of training in the Land of the Ultimate Void.
Yet the Three Attendants, whose power rivaled the True Demon's, were said to be wandering in search of such places, honing themselves ceaselessly?
'So that's how it was.'
Bu Eun-seol had grown stronger—faster than anyone, surpassing generations.
Yet he had always felt lacking, insufficient.
And only now did he realize why.
Because not only the True Demon but beings with power rivaling his—the Three Attendants—had been secretly roaming the Martial World all along.
No matter how many walls he broke through, their presence made his progress feel inadequate.
"Then, if they've accumulated transcendent knowledge through endless cycles of reincarnation while retaining their memories......"
Bu Eun-seol asked,
"The True Demon, having amassed knowledge and power over those vast eons, must have effectively transcended everything by now."
"I don't know about that. However—"
Jong Baek shook his head.
"They say the True Demon is still human."
"Human."
"Losing his memories...... was also his own choice."
It was a staggering claim.
The True Demon had willingly chosen to discard his memories and wander?
Even with the Chain of Reincarnation—effectively granting him immortality—why would he do something so reckless?
"Moreover, the ambition to kill the weak and create a new humanity, carried out by the likes of Neither-Human-Nor-Beast......"
Jong Baek took a deep breath and gazed at the distant sky.
"That wasn't the True Demon's will—just the counsel of another one of the Three Attendants."
Bu Eun-seol's eyes widened.
"You mean not Pa-myeong, but another attendant?"
"Yes."
As Jong Baek continued, his pupils gradually lost focus.
His body had collapsed the moment he was enveloped in Soul-Demon Magic Energy.
Only through the mysterious power Bu Eun-seol had infused into him had he clung to life long enough to fight fiercely......
But as that power faded, so too did his vitality.
"He wanted a world filled with people who had transcended life and death—bodies as strong as gods, free from pain, disease, or aging......"
Bu Eun-seol swallowed his shock.
All this time, he had assumed those words reflected the True Demon's goal—yet they had come from one of the Three Attendants?
"But when the True Demon heard this, he reportedly said: 'To achieve that, we'd have to slaughter everyone alive in this world.'"
'Pure evil.'
According to the writings left behind by the Founder of the Seolhwa Sect and the Divine Maiden Palace, they had unanimously described the True Demon as pure evil.
At the time, he hadn't understood why they would use the word pure for such a being.
But now, it finally made sense.
The idea of making humanity stronger by utterly destroying the world and exterminating all existing humans—it was the logic of a child.
Drip.
A trickle of blood spilled from Jong Baek's lips, his skin cracking like spiderwebs.
His life force had finally run dry.
"Where are the Three Attendants?"
"They exist everywhere."
Jong Baek's eyes were now completely unfocused as he spoke.
"Sometimes as family, sometimes as closest comrades."
It was an incomprehensible statement.
Did that mean the Three Attendants could execute flawless impersonation techniques?
This riddle would only be solved much later, when the hidden patterns within the Ink Soul Sword were deciphered and a figure from the Langya Pavilion, corrupted by its influence, was saved......
But that was a story for another time.
"One last piece of advice."
Jong Baek's glassy eyes stared into the distant sky as he spoke.
"Neither the Demonic Path nor the Righteous Faction is all that meets the eye. And now, they've finished preparing to reveal themselves openly."
"......"
"Even the Secret Vault—stocked with martial artists' signature weapons and Command Plaques—was just part of his plan."
"Some of the Demonic Path Ten Gates will crumble...... and the ones lurking beneath will crawl out one by one, ready to emerge."
"You already knew."
"I did."
Long ago, Jeok Bung had given Bu Eun-seol a meaningful warning.
Sensing something amiss, he had since viewed the entire Martial World as a single board.
He meticulously studied how the grand game moved—and what lay beneath.
Thanks to that, he had finally grasped, to some extent, the hidden origins beneath the divide between the Demonic Path and the Righteous Faction......
"The peaceful Martial World is coming to an end."
Jong Baek's voice was thick with regret.
"What a shame. Just when things were about to get truly interesting......"
Then, gazing at Bu Eun-seol, he murmured,
"Had I stayed in the Langya Pavilion a little longer...... maybe even I could have changed."
"If only I hadn't betrayed the sect and had diligently trained in martial arts instead."
"If only, even after glimpsing the abyss of the martial world, I hadn't despaired—but instead cultivated the strength to oppose them."
"Could I have stood at the heart of the martial world like Ak Mu-ryeong, like Bu Eun-seol? Could I have fought against them?"
"Surely..."
Bu Eun-seol opened his mouth to respond.
Thud.
But with that single word, Jong Baek drew his last breath.
A man who had once peered into the abyss of the martial world, who had stood beside a powerful figure and sought to shape the world—yet in the end, he had been merely used by them before meeting his death.
Even in his final moments, he must have been consumed by regret and sorrow too deep to wash away.
"...You would have."
Bu Eun-seol nodded slowly at Jong Baek's lifeless body.
"That is the teaching of our pavilion, after all."
Langya Pavilion's teachings appeared stubborn and slow, yet they always pointed toward the right path.
But to disciples of exceptional intellect or grand ambition, those very teachings would seem dubious—perhaps even antiquated.
—Is this truly the correct path?
—Isn't there a faster, better way?
—Wouldn't this method make me stronger?
Of course, such doubts were not wrong.
All progress begins with questioning.
But there was a vast difference between loving Langya Pavilion itself—
And loving only its strength.
Bu Eun-seol had never once doubted the pavilion's teachings.
Not because he believed them to be the most rational or the swiftest path.
But simply because he chose to trust and follow them.
The world was full of countless diverging roads.
No matter which path one chose, regret could linger—so he had resolved to never look back and instead pour his all into the road ahead.
On Hell Island, when Sa-u imparted the Beast Path to him, he embraced both the man's methods and Langya Pavilion's system.
After arriving at the pavilion with Dan Cheong, he naturally assimilated into its way of life.
He simply persevered, giving his utmost effort.
Because he had chosen, of his own will, to follow Langya Pavilion's path.
Jong Baek, however, had doubted the teachings despite being a disciple—and ultimately chose a different road.
And now, he had paid the price for that choice.
"So it begins now, does it?"
Bu Eun-seol lifted his gaze to the distant sky.
Jong Baek had carried out countless tasks in the martial world under the orders of the True Demon's servants.
For him to declare that the martial world's peace had been shattered meant the True Demon's followers had long sensed the shifting tides.
Now, they were ready to reveal themselves—
The old order would crumble, and the forces lurking in the shadows would emerge.
Bu Eun-seol looked down at Jong Baek's corpse.
Though his body, tainted by Soul-Demon Magic Energy, had collapsed wretchedly, it had not been destroyed.
Perhaps that had been his final act of defiance—a refusal to surrender completely to the True Demon's power.
Originally, Bu Eun-seol had intended to give him a proper burial.
No matter what, he had once been a figure of Langya Pavilion—and in his last moments, he had reclaimed his pride as a martial artist.
"......."
But sensing a faint presence, Bu Eun-seol bowed solemnly to Jong Baek's remains.
Then, activating his movement technique, he immediately departed Ghost Island.
'I would have liked to speak further with the Pavilion Lord...'
As he soared away from Hell Island using the Land-Flying Technique, his expression darkened with regret.
'But he would be displeased.'
Only belatedly had he realized—
Ak Mu-ryeong had not left.
He must have been certain of Bu Eun-seol's victory, waiting so that he could personally send off Jong Baek—once his senior martial uncle—on his final journey.
—The former Pavilion Lord suffered from a grave illness.
Long ago, Master Blacksmith Wang Geol had briefly recounted Langya Pavilion's history to Bu Eun-seol when he sought to join the Kill-Seeking Unit.
'And given that he was especially close to the former Pavilion Lord...'
After hearing both Ak Mu-ryeong's and Jong Baek's sides, the truth became clear.
The former Pavilion Lord had not been struck down by Jong Baek's hand—
But with his life already waning, he had willingly given what little remained to the martial brother who had cherished him since childhood.
'That is why the current Pavilion Lord could not bring himself to act.'
Ak Mu-ryeong, too, had understood his master's heart—and thus could not bear to strike Jong Baek down himself.
In the end, he had watched from afar as Bu Eun-seol fought.
Just as expected, Bu Eun-seol had grasped both the meaning of the teachings passed down to him and his own shortcomings.
And when he allowed Jong Baek to die not as a pawn of darkness, but as a martial artist—as a disciple of Langya Pavilion—
Ak Mu-ryeong now sought to send him off with the rites befitting a senior martial uncle.
A disciple of Langya Pavilion would always remain a disciple of Langya Pavilion.
Even if they had strayed into delusion and wandered the wrong path for years—
That truth would never change.
Upon returning to the Demon Hall, Bu Eun-seol reactivated the Death Soul Squad's intelligence network.
He meticulously reviewed every piece of overlooked information—
And once more confirmed the hidden movements beneath the surface of the Demonic Path.
'The Pavilion Lord went out of his way to consider me.'
In truth, Ak Mu-ryeong cared not a whit for the affairs of the martial world—whether it involved the Baekri Clan or the True Demon. He had never mobilized intelligence networks to monitor its movements.
Yet, to enlighten Bu Eun-seol—
He had entrusted him with Jong Baek's fate, ensuring he could extract the necessary information.
Since Jong Baek had willingly pledged himself to the True Demon, he would have held at least some knowledge of its servants' movements.
'Now, they'll begin crawling out one by one.'
He had long suspected it.
Within both the Demonic and Orthodox Paths—
Countless forces lurked in unfathomable depths.
At first, Bu Eun-seol had intended to suppress their emergence, to prevent them from revealing themselves openly.
But now, his resolve had shifted.
'No—I must draw them out completely.'
To uproot them entirely, their true forms must first be exposed.
'I'll tear every last one of them out.'
A flash of light spread through Bu Eun-seol's eyes as he solidified his new resolve.
'And I'll make you tear each other apart like starving beasts.'
If he couldn't prevent the Abyssal Forces from emerging into the light one by one—
Then he would seize control of the conflict itself.
He vowed not to let innocent civilians be caught in the crossfire. Instead, he would ensure these forces destroyed each other.
Like venomous creatures trapped in a jar, they would have no choice but to devour one another.
Knock, knock.
At that moment, Yu Un-ryong's voice came from beyond the door, accompanied by sharp raps.
"It's Yu Un-ryong."
"Enter."
The door opened, revealing Yu Un-ryong with an unusually grave expression.
"What is it?"
Bu Eun-seol furrowed his brow.
By now, Yu Un-ryong had adopted much of his temperament—rarely reacting to trivial matters.
So why did he look so tense?
"The unit chiefs have gathered in the conference hall."
Bu Eun-seol's frown deepened.
If the unit chiefs had assembled on their own, without his summons—
It could only mean they had received critical intelligence or an emergency had arisen.
"Understood."
Without another word, Bu Eun-seol headed to the conference hall.
There, every unit chief except Wi Cheon-gyeong sat in attendance. On the table lay two large bundles.
The cloth wrappings were stained with long-dried blood.
He didn't need to open them to know what was inside.
"Severed heads."
Severed heads—trophies taken from the fallen.
Specifically, the decapitated heads of enemies in war or executed criminals.
In ancient warfare, warriors would bring back the heads of slain foes as proof of their kills.
The number of heads collected determined their merits and rewards.
Hence, severed heads—a term whose final character also became a counter for them.
"Who sent these?"
At Bu Eun-seol's question, Yu Un-ryong lowered his head.
"The Fire Rain Sword Sect."
Bu Eun-seol's teeth clenched.
Only then did he realize whose heads lay inside those bundles.
"It's better not to open them."
Ignoring Yu Un-ryong's warning, Bu Eun-seol slowly unwrapped the bundles.
Two heads with tightly shut eyes were revealed.
Cheon Un-gwang—the man who had taught him the Peerless Thunderbolt, a sword art unmatched in its lethality.
And Dan Cheon-yang—who had instructed him in the interpretation of Advanced Sword Studies and its foundational principles.
Inside the bundle, a small letter rested beside the heads.
The handwriting alone identified the sender: Wi Ji-hye-sang.
—I ordered you killed, but since it wasn't carried out for so long, I killed them instead.
At the end, an additional note:
—These two are no longer disciples of our sect. Bury them in a sunny place, if you will.
Even if he wanted to perform proper rites and lay them to rest in sunlight—
Their bodies were missing.
Given Wi Ji-hye-sang's cruel nature, the remains had likely been fed to wild dogs.
He had ensured Bu Eun-seol could never give them a proper burial—sending only the heads to torment him with guilt.
'Good.'
A bloody light flickered in Bu Eun-seol's pupils.
'No more delays.'
He had endured it all this time.
Because the foundation of his swordsmanship came from the Fire Rain Sword Sect.
Because the masters who laid the groundwork for his Advanced Martial Arts were from that very sect.
Out of gratitude—and because of Jin Gak's plea to spare the Fire Rain Sword Sect's lineage—
He had kept postponing their reckoning.
But now, there was no reason left to hold back.
Clatter—
Just then, hurried footsteps echoed outside before the conference hall door burst open.
Wi Cheon-gyeong stood there, breathless.
"Lord. We have a problem."
He rushed forward and handed Bu Eun-seol a letter.
"The Extinction Palace has just announced its withdrawal from the Demon Hall."
The abrupt declaration froze the room in shock.
"Why would the Extinction Palace withdraw now?"
Myo Cheon-u was the first to regain his composure. Wi Cheon-gyeong steadied his breathing before answering.
"They claim it's because the Heir of the Demon Hall has been crushing the morale of the Demonic Path Ten Gates."
By then, Bu Eun-seol had finished reading the letter and passed it to the unit chiefs.
It was a transcribed copy of the Extinction Palace's official missive to the Demon Hall.
—...(omitted).
The so-called Heir of the Demon Hall has consistently weakened the influence of the Demonic Path Ten Gates and broken the spirits of our elites.
We see no alternative.
As of today, our palace formally severs ties with the Demon Hall.
Henceforth, we shall walk the true path of the Demonic Path and strive to reclaim supremacy.
...(omitted).
The unit chiefs' eyes widened as they read.
Though this was only a copy—lacking the Extinction Palace Lord's seal—such words could never be sent in jest.
The Extinction Palace had officially, in earnest withdrawn.
"Because of this, all high-ranking officials of the Hall have convened an emergency meeting."
Wi Cheon-gyeong's expression darkened further.
"Without summoning the Lord."
The unit chiefs' faces hardened instantly.
The Demonic Path Ten Gates were the Demon Hall.
If even one withdrew, it would become a laughingstock of the martial world.
And the fact that Bu Eun-seol had been excluded from such a critical discussion—?
"The Extinction Palace explicitly blamed the Lord for their withdrawal."
At Yu Un-ryong's words, Wi Cheon-gyeong nodded grimly.
"Correct."
The Extinction Palace had used the precise title—Martial Soul Lord—to assign responsibility.
That was why the officials had convened without Bu Eun-seol.
The intent to pin the blame on him was unmistakable.
"......"
But Bu Eun-seol only fell deep into thought before nodding slowly.
This was not just about what lay on the surface. Something deeper lurked beneath.
And he was already piecing it together.
"Let's observe the situation for now."
"Huh?"
As Wi Cheon-gyeong reflexively questioned with a startled expression,
"This concludes the meeting."
Bu Eun-seol rose indifferently and immediately turned to leave the conference room.
His demeanor was so unnervingly calm and composed that the sect leaders could only stare blankly, unable to react.
At that moment, they had no idea.
That soon, two of the Demonic Path Ten Gates would crumble beneath Bu Eun-seol's hand.